Responses
This is so well put. Those types of readers have what I call internet morality. The act like Jo was a child whose candy was snatched away. The real bird of the story was Jo who stayed where he knew the whole thing was going nowhere. They pretend him tripping over a situationship is normal over a man he barely knew. All the characters have their flaws but they love to insist that Jo was a saint when he sa'd Ian is beyond me.
It's so annoying to see a character that is well written and emotionally complex be reduced to a bird when he did what was best for the people he cared for. To be seen so fucking black and white to bitches while they praise someone who sexually assaulted him when he was unconscious because he is objectively "the better choice". Ian admit he was wrong, saw how he was dragging Jo to self destruct and put a stop to it and gave him closure that what they had wasn't fake and that the biggest crime y'all throw derogatory term, slurs, slutshame him for. Not even because he is used to be criminal but just because he " lead someone on" without ever fucking acknowledging that even Jo knew he was never in it with him but still wanted to pursue Ian because he loves him. When you realize how this story really showed how people choose the person they love despite knowing what might happen they still do it anyway because that's just how fucking human emotion work and characters like Ian showed how emotionally complex people can be. Emotion that people will never admit to themselves because readers see his situation and have the privilege to think easily about it. Calling him bozo wanting him to be miserable because of a 27 year old guy cried over his 3 month situations with TJ helping bro to not become an acomplish in a murder and Ian walking out of that hospital after he got shot just to give him closure because he knew Jo deserve at least that. For him to have someone who is willing to love him with everything and not to ever have any possibility to be drag down because of the world that Ian had experience and live in.