What the Dungarde told you has been on your mind all night, despite your efforts to distract yourself on the internet. Eventually, you settle down and fall into a fitful sleep, full of nightmares and unhappy endings. When you wake, you don’t feel very hungry, but you force down some breakfast before heading to Skelly Manor.
I keep coming back to sift through the comments like
plot twist. ian died from whatever that wound he got a few days ago was and he just hasn't realized it yet and he and jaxon get to be dead together forever. happy ending or something!
i love me some murder so ¯(ツ)/¯
ON THE LIST OF THINGS THAT AREN'T OKAY, THAT'S PRETTY UP THERE. D:
You're tearing me apart, Staff! TT n TT
Emma and Esther got married last year and seem to be doing great, how is that not a happily ever after story?
Anyway, the plot isn't even finished yet so how can you know for sure how it will end...
O NO I'M CRYING
All the feels. :(
We can't all have happy endings, but it is definitely felt more when things go sour in LGBT relationships because they're so uncommon, and because when they do exist, more often than not they DO end badly because historically, the only way to get gay characters into your media and through the censors was if they had a bad ending. It had to be seen like they were being punished for being gay. so if anyone is angry that people are upset... Have a little perspective. It just means people cared more really.
My poor heart.
That slider puzzle. 😡 I tried the first day and got a big fat headache so I clicked in closed! So I came back and finished it today. I liked that it just went on in the plot. Thanks, writers. I can't wait for what lays ahead.
Dang....this site likes to punch you right in the feels, huh?
The discussion has been a tame presentation of opposing opinions and people expressing their emotional investment in the plot. The way I feel about "media representation" seems to be the opposite of yours-- I wait for those four or five people to show up late to the party and say "woah, drama!" ;)
Something tells me things won't be as straightforward as it seems here. That said, I really hope Jaxon doesn't get killed off if only because hes been part of the site for so long. He's definitely one of my faves.
OKAY WELP TIME TO MURDER IAN SO HE CAN BE A GHOST WITH JAXON FOREVER. OvO... . . .
I agree fully with MagnificentToaster! Even if this story is sad (at least at its current stage), it’s not “these characters get to suffer because they’re gay”. If this same plot was about a straight couple, there would be a lot less controversy. And I do understand where the controversy comes from- I am also getting kind of sick of “Oh, you thought this gay couple would be happy? TOO BAD LOL” in media.
But I also don’t feel like we should prevent sad things from ever happening to gay couples. I love, love, love happy endings, I 110% prefer happy ends to sad ones, but I think tragedy with LGBT+ characters is fine when it’s handled carefully, as this plot seems to be.
At the same time, though, I can’t imagine the writers killing Jaxon (or Ian) off. Jaxon has been here forever! He’s always around at Morostide! I could be wrong, but I honestly can’t see a beloved, long-term NPC getting axed for the purpose of “sad gay story”, especially not on a site that has a good amount of positive LGBT+ rep and a lot of openly LGBT+ users (and probably LGBT+ staff?). Like I said, I’m going to withhold judgement until I see the resolution. A lot can change in a single plot step— a lot changed in this one.
I've been fully prepared for the worst outcome ever since this plot got started.
"We're going to try and bring Jaxon back to life."
Yeah I bet.
Anyways, this is the first plot on subeta that I've participated in, and it's been pretty interesting. I like it.
Please, please, please never have a slider puzzle ever again.
Hoping we aren't responsible for making a decision that changes the ending one way or another, and therefore changes what prizes we get. If there's a challenger involved with these prizes in any way, I'm hoping to get it and I'd be mad at myself for choosing the wrong option if that were to happen and keep me from receiving that vs. a different prize. Something tells me there might be two different endings based on a choice or series of choices we face in another plot step.
the drama in this tread is a solid argument for never making "media representation" characters unless you want people to nitpick and get annoying about every choice you make as an author lmao
I dunno, I've read about a thousand stories where the queers get to live happily ever after. We have one on this very site. This site full of queer people, run by queer people, with stories written by queer people. As a queer person myself, I do want to see stories with happy endings; I don't want to read story after story of "and then the gays died, the end." I agree with that sentiment! But I'm also sick of stories where the gay characters are ooshy-gooshy snoogle-woogle constantly demonstrating how gay and smushy they are.
I want more stories in my media where the queer characters can be in love without demonstrating their queer sweetness constantly for the entertainment of an audience. Where queer people can just have lives and relationships that don't center on being gay. And I want stories where the queer characters have the same struggles straight characters do, where their failures and hurts can be compelling without being because they are queer. The cause of Ian and Jaxon's suffering, in this story, is not that they're gay. They're not being punished for being gay; this could just as easily be a story about a straight couple having the exact same struggle. And I love that.
If they don't live happily ever after, that will absolutely be sad, and I won't argue with anyone who wants to complain that staff has built up this romance just to crush everyone. But I'm happy to see a story subverting BOTH tropes: 1) that gays always have to live snuggily ever after, or 2) that gays have to die tragically because of their gayness. This story is sad, but it's a breath of fresh air, and I'm eager to see the ending.
Exactly! Jaxon's heart is more powerful, my foot. We've got a whole crypt full of Skelly hearts. I will stay here til Luminare digging them up until they equal Jaxon's, and if that still isn't enough, I'm going and raiding the Rainsongs.
(Personally I'm rooting for Galaxia's theory)
Okay but I actually teared up??? But I feel like it has to play out better. Killing(?) Jaxon would incite RIOTS
"Bury your gays" is still bury your gays, no matter how you slice it. Even within 98% of queer media, where most of the stories are tragic, it is Bury Your Gays. Which is one big ass reason why the trope is so infuriating. Bury Your Gays was started because it was the only way queer characters could be in stories. We had to suffer. He had to be the villain that met a brutal ending. Even within our own genre, that we had to fight for, the only way to get our works out there was to make our queerness be a plague. To die. To suffer. To not have a happy ending. No love in the end. Sorrow, suffering, depression, and death. Only. Bury Your Gays is always the name of that trope. You know what hasn't been done for queer stories ? All of those super cheesy romance ones. Happily Ever After stories. Riding off into the sunset after a great battle, where audiences are left feeling the protagonists will be happy and live 5eva together. Fulfillment. Love. Corny-ass-Holiday movies. All of the stories that, when done with pretty straight white actors, get stamped with "overdone, boring, and unrealistic" are the stories we're still not given. Bury Your Gays started by queer people trying to at least be seen, in hopes of getting to a point where we were allowed to live. And it's the grave we can't escape from because love stories and happily ever afters are seen as boring and childish, despite us never getting them.
Stories that break that shitty ass trope and turn it on its head are far more interesting than ones that feed right into it.
Exactly what MasterSir said. That trope is about tokenism- when the sole LGBT members of a work meet noticeably bad ends compared to the straight ones (or, in the case of a work focused on a single queer couple, at least one of them meets a tragic end to keep the couple from having a happy ending.) Subeta has loads of queer characters- heck, two of 'em got married- and a history of being very pro-diversity (especially in recent years.)
Also, as I think other people have pointed out:
SPOILER (click to toggle)
I got the impression that if Dungarde gets the heart, all that will happen is they won't be able to bind Jaxon's ghost to his body like they meant to. Which seems like it was always part of the plan for Jaxon and Ian, and the inability to do it will mean them saying goodbye because watching Ian grow old and die and move on while Jaxon can't would be too painful. Which is sad as heck and I cried like a baby, but it isn't about "killing" Jaxon off.
That said? please have a twist please have a twist please have a twist please have a twist! (one that lets all three of our friends be happy)
I mean the Dungarde can have my heart. I'm apparently NOT USING IT ANYMORE.
I AM UPSET
I mean.... they can't make one die and have the other one live... right, RIGHT??!
Also, I thought it had been no more than two years since these two got together...has subeta really kept us waiting four years for this plot to continue??? Time really does fly the older you get.
I agree with those saying it doesn't fall in with the bury your gays trope since the majority (I think; I've never sat down and calculated) of subeta characters who have a canon aren't cishet, but I'm still anxious about where this is going because I DON'T WANT ANYTHING BAD TO HAPPEN TO THOSE ADORABLE BOYS. Though I'm pretty fond of the Dungarde too at this point.
Tbqh I'm almost sure there will be a positive twist. I really don't think subeta would make us wait for YEARS to not being able to bring back Jaxon to life in the end @
Also, the throne. Maybe there will be something to do with it? I think it is rather suspicious.
For those worrying about the "bury the gays" trope - That trope would not be applicable here, seeing as how Subeta has LOTS of excellent queer characters. Powerful stories put characters at risk. When all of your characters are queer, you have to put a queer character at risk. Finally, we're getting some VERY powerful stories for queers which have been historically reserved for straights only. That's good LGBTQ+ representation.
Any chance we're gonna get the puzzles as games in the future btw 👀? Bc the spider slider puzzle was more enjoyable than the saheric slide, which is pretty and all but the pieces are so vague and similar it's mostly just annoying. And the peg solitaire was difficult but i have an urge to play it more today....
Nooooo you can't do this to me Subeta.... I am bawling my eyes out here..... please don't make this a tragedy.. please my heart can't take it! ;_____;
“Finally!” He winks, then gestures to the radio at his side, “No luck with the radio last night, though… full-disclosure, I kind of ended up watching Great Veta Bake-Off instead,”
When you claim you really want to save your boyfriend... but you also gotta binge some Subflix. :d
I finally managed to make it on this morning and completed the plot/puzzles up to this point. Glad that I left the stupid jump puzzle for last. It was the WORST. Anyway, it's fun to see what theories the rest of you have been coming up with and I really want to see how this will play out~
Concept: resurrect Jaxon, and then when he dies again in 50 years, the Dungarde can have his heart. Everyone wins. It's not like his heart is going to disappear when they resurrect him. He does actually need it in his body to be alive.
I mean, Jaxon has been dead a LOOOOOONG time, SOMEONE has to bury him.
Seriously though, they didn't even fall in love until one of them was dead, you'd have to break the box of the trope to fit them in it no matter what happens. Also, Ian is a liar. Trusting that he went to the doctor is like ignoring that they've repeatedly tried to use your body as a possession vessel. He was gone for an entire day and deliberately avoided trying to contact Jaxon for another day after that. I'm surprised so many people think he's going to be okay. I don't believe him at all.
That's the impression I got too!
you need to have three stars in each row and column [diagonals don't matter]. you don't need one of each type or all the same type, just three stars. i'd recommend starting with trying to get 3 in each column.
Maybe there will be a plan B and next year we'll help Ian become a spooky ghost too
I dunno about yall but I'm having the worst time trying to solve ambrose's star puzzle.
for anyone still having trouble with peg solitaire, since it's presumably the last day to do it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2IRzxY12u4
Akfhy!!!
The puzzle kept freezing skips :c
I'm kind of slow on the uptake but I don't see how helping the Dungarde is going to kill Jaxon at all
Is he not just going to continue being a ghost that only appears during Morostide?
As in, breaking those crystal seals could let them return more often.
Mostly I'm trying to say that there are a lot of different ways this could go that end up with the two of them together and still around Subeta. ^_^;;
please say sike...
Which isn't ideal, as it's a form of burying, but part of it (especially with those crystals being similar to the seals that kept Merana trapped) could be Jaxon (and Ian, in this case), free to return to Subeta more often.
And here is the most helpful peg solitaire guide that I was able to find.
That is an idea.
Something that could also be happening is that Ian's wound is worse than it looks, and he'll be the one to have to transition between life and death with the Dungarde's help. That way he still gets to be with Jaxon on the other side.
I LOVE THE DUNGARDE AND I JUST WANT HIM TO READ MAGAZINES AND GET TO SEE THE WORLD. gross ugly sobbing