@PoptartProdigy, this is really creepy. It's one thing for him to ask for something romantic as a reward, it's another thing for you to make it sound like it's anything approaching ok.
Okay.
General announcement, folks.
You all are taking
entirely the wrong context from this.
This is not an Entitled Agent of the Patriarchy
TM demanding the Lord's daughter as a reward for his performance. This is a fourteen-year-old boy meeting the public figure on whom he has a celebrity crush in person, hearing said figure's father tell him, "Ask for something," and blurting out the literal first thing that comes to mind. In this case, asking for the cultural equivalent of a dance.
PROBLEM THE FIRST: While Berra is the one who offered the favor, one would be gravely mistaken to assume that Tabe would
in any way characterize what he said as a request
of Berra. If Tabe had had the time to think -- and he didn't, this is a fourteen-year-old boy blurting out something in the spur of the moment -- he would have said that he wanted to ask Kakara, and messed up because he was blurting and not thinking. Furthermore: ask. The favor he is requesting is, "If it's acceptable," to have a fight. He is not saying, "Get in the ring, woman. I've earned it." In fact, he would be horrified by the implication. If you re-read the update, you'll see he's horrified already, even by what he said. Which leads me to:
PROBLEM THE SECOND: The public context. Tabe is aware that this is an issue. If you would like to return to the update, you will see him immediately regretting his decision, backpedaling, and apologizing for the context.
He realizes that he made a mistake in doing this so publicly, and is apologizing and attempting to reinforce that Kakara should feel no pressure to accept. He did something dumb, and is quite busy regretting it.
PROBLEM THE THIRD: People are under the impression that this is inherently contextually inappropriate. The context is that this is the end of a tournament. In Exile culture, this is broadly equivalent, in the metaphor I shall employ, to a dance. Not necessarily a romantic dance, but not out of the question. The context is that a boy at a dance asked a girl to dance with him, in a romantic context. Now, the public setting is an issue, yes. I addressed that above. Typically, yes, tournaments have brackets and structures, but side fights between private individuals happen all the time, either off the ring, or in the ring when no matches are scheduled. For him to ask for a fight -- and even to do so in a romantic context -- is not inherently inappropriate. Berra opined that it was. You would be well-advised to avoid taking Kakara's overprotective father's opinion of what constitutes an inappropriate advance on his daughter at face value. Particularly when he phrased it as a matter of Tabe reaching above his station (also not a thing. Scions have to marry somebody).
You all are looking at this and saying, "This is rape culture! How
dare this boy try to deliberately pressure Kakara into romance against her will!" That is very much not the case. Tabe is fourteen years old, standing in the presence of his celebrity crush, and heard, "Ask for something." He's fourteen, and thus very dumb. He thought of something and blurted it out. He did not think it through. That happened later, as teens tend to do. Credit to him, he realized that he was putting Kakara on the spot and gave his apologies. Did he do the proper and correct thing to completely remove all pressure from Kakara? No. He's panicking. He'll beat himself up over failing to do it once he thinks it over again later.
You all are confidently asserting that this is fundamentally an inappropriate request from start to finish. In this cultural context, the only inappropriate thing is that he did this in front of everybody, and that he addressed the wrong person. He's sorry. He regretted it as soon as he said it. He's not trying to use the crowd to pressure the Scion. Her father is right there.
Nobody is that stupid.
You all are assuming
malice, when
regrettable teenage decisions is the proper interpretation. Hanlon's Razor, everybody. Never assume malice when simple stupidity will do. I wanted to write a scene about a teenage boy making a fool out of himself and immediately regretting just about every decision leading up to that moment, not engage in a pages-long debate on rape culture.
NOW CAN WE PLEASE STOP WITH THE BACK-AND-FORTH INSULTS? We are getting drastically off-topic and heated. We have mods in here debating
what the proper behavior for mods is when off the job. This is not the thread. Manus, Stormwhite, I'm happy to see you in here, but I respectfully request that we all keep it on-topic.
[x] Yes.
On an amusing tangent, weren't we considering offering this very thing (fighting at full power) as a prize a couple updates ago? With this context, that suddenly turns incredibly hilarious.
Indeed you were. In that context it would not have had romantic connotations, mind.
