Hey, just wanted to offer this for consideration: Jon returning home after a hard day and just diving face first into martins thighs and almost immediately falling asleep, face cradled in the warm, soft yet strong embrace of his big beautiful thighs. (Lil bonus for you to ponder: Martin combing his fingers through his hair with all the love in the world).
Here’s the thing I keep trying to articulate and possibly failing: I don’t actually mind characters who are terrible people. I have enjoyed many. What I mind is characters who are terrible people while the narrative keeps trying to say that they are wonderful, often contradicting what the narrative shows us, with no self awareness
I’m aware that I’m definitely Jon Sims biased when I listen to TMA, he’s my favourite, so naturally it’s much easier for me to empathise with him. But every time I re-listen (I’ve lost count now but I think I’ve done 6?), I always legitimately try to let go of my bias and really consider the perspective of characters I instinctively disagree with. Something I’ve noticed is that, the one moment that always gets me, that I can never look past or empathise with, is Basira and Georgie’s response to Jon waking up in MAG 122.
It’s funny because I don’t think it is supposed to be some character defining moment for either of them and (maybe I’ve just missed it because I’m not super fandom active) I’ve never really heard anybody else talk about this. But the way they respond to him has always REALLY rubbed me wrong. Because I get it, they’re concerned about how much ‘Jon’ is really left inside the person sat in bed, but Jesus fuck. This guy wakes up after, as far as you know at the time, sacrificing himself to successfully save billions of people and the first thing you say is ‘no it’s not good you woke up actually’ - like damn he’s been conscious for 10 SECONDS could this not wait until later? Could you first idk, thank him? Say your glad to see your friend is still alive and save the ‘are you human?’ conversation for after he’s had a cuppa maybe?
The first thing you say to someone who’s woken up from a coma being ‘it’s not good you woke up’ just seems needlessly fucking cruel, regardless of how I attempt to spin it in my mind. And unless you’re literally talking to Satan the correct response to “Disappointed to see me alive?” is unequivocally NO not “We can deal with it later”.
Overall, there’s a difference between caution and callousness, and while I understand the desire to be cautious with Jon as how much of his humanity remains is unclear, this moment always tipped into callousness for me in a way I struggle to empathise with even when I really try.
One thing I love about being in the Midnight Burger community right now is that it’s small enough to where nobody’s designs are based on a preset, there’s no collective agreed canon yet, I love all the interpretations I’ve seen.
tbh my brain is bazzing with ideas and with me not being ether draw Or choose(nhenlo leif kinnies/j) I’m just collecting so much data for every one of them
Dr. Ava Maddox is autistic and you Cannot Tell Me Otherwise-
oh and you know how autistic/ND people learn to mask? She learned the opposite and she’s amazing at it as much as at everything else(maybe with exception of surviving outdoors)
