th/AmITheAntagonist

Aww, that sucks :( I'm so sorry you had to go through that!! I don't think you're the antagonist, though - while it's a little extreme to erase Bjørn entirely, there comes a point where you kinda just need to throw in the rag and admit that there's literally nothing else you could've done to make him not kill himself. Please don't bring him back, especially not if he's going to destroy the world like you say he will.

TW: cult mentions. not directly but encore is describing a cult leader

NTA. Absolutely NTA. Your decisions and actions are fully understandable - this Seer that you're talking about is VERY suspicious. Being unable to talk to other people that you know for no proper reason? Forcing you to do this and that without question? Making you seem like you're very important by placing you on a (metaphorical) pedestal? I don't know, seems quite suspicious to me... I think the "prophecy" that he's talking about isn't going to be something that actually benefits you or anyone else - seeing how suspicious this Seer guy is, I think they might even be making things up to convince you to join... something. Your life is short in this world, and I'm happy to know that you aren't letting anyone else taking advantage of it by making these decisions.

AITA for leaving my adoptive father without warning? (TW: mentions of war and death)

not the antagonist, though i totally understand how upset she is!! i'd think that someone who burned to death was actually... dead, too!! was a bit insensitive to tell her that being buried alive wouldn't efficiently kill her, though - it could kill someone in an hour if they weren't careful, and she just needed your comfort and an apology in the moment. all in all, though, you were acting with the info you had!! just learn for next time :)

AITA for being rude to my mother and girlfriend? (TW: enchantment magic, in context of D&D - essentially mind control)

I'm sorry, FUCKING WHAT? Hell no! You're not the antagonist at ALL! Not only did they completely overstep your personal boundaries and force you to basically be something you never wanted to be, but they have the AUDACITY to say you were "unsalvagable"? Who fuckin' cares what you wanna be! If anything, I'd say get whatever damn restraining order you can on them (dunno if y'all have it where you are), and get as far away as possible from them AND your mother. That is something I couldn't even imagine thinking would be remotely okay. It also goes to show that your supposed "partner" didn't care in the slightest for your true self. You deserve to find someone who loves and accepts you for who you are, not for who they expect you to be.

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(TW: Mention of death!)

Considering your coworker most likely didn't have malicious intent and didn't damage anything except your reputation, I'd say you're probably not the most justified, considering you probably are risking her job. Though.. I suppose she did have it coming, she's lucky you didn't do worse, leaking personal stuff is no laughing matter. You're the antagonist for sure, but quite justified, kehehe. Good on you! Wanna join the mafia?

AITA for kidnapping a government agents daughter over a book and then getting her to join the mafia? (Cw for.. kidnapping.)

So.. basically I'm a mafia boss, right? And I hear about this book that gives people special powers, right? So naturally I need to get my hands on it, just one issue. My arch nemesis, a superhero known as "the detective" is already in the process of dechiphering it. I gotta get it, obviously, but the damn old man carries it everywhere with him, ridiculous am I right? Luckily i developed a technology to track magical artifacts like this one, so I can just track the book to wait for the perfect time. Anyway one day I notice an irregluar pattern in his schedule and send my goons lovely subordinates to grab it, if his schedules off, so is his strength. (I know my nemesis so well, tee hee!)

I go into my dungeon to retrieve the book personally once the detective has been dropped off and.. it wasn't him. Turns out he had a DAUGHTER this whole time and didn't tell me!! how rude, right? Anyway, she was dropping it off for her dad so I took the book from her and she was NOT happy. I was like ohoho! with my new powers and his daughter hostage I can make this old guys life miserable. He comes bursting into my headquarters soon after, I was doing my dramatic speech and then he demands the book?? THE BOOK? I had his DAUGHTER and he asked for the book? Anyway I was pissed cause he ruined my big dramatic villain plans and just threw the book at him and sent him away.

Anyway after that, me and his daughter talked and she was actually really chill, so i let her go instead of killing her. I thought maybe I could befriend her to use against her father so i started visiting her at her work and school. I even hid from the cops in her room (LOL. hiding in a superheros apartment is literally so mecore.) I realized I kinda didn't wanna manipulate her anymore, I legitimately liked her company and being near her and her smile and her face and her intelligence and her humor and everything about her. I never really felt anything for another person until her, so obviously i had to keep her around. I invited her to join the mafia and after a while she accepted!! She even became my girlfriend (after a long time of getting her to trust me)

Anyway when her dad found out he was MAD. like MAD MAD. i dunno, maybe the guy who didn't even realize i kidnapped his daughter shouldn't but in but thats my opinion. Am I the antagonist for this?

The dude didn't even ask you to release his daughter, I might not know a lot about family stuff but I know that this is not right. You let her go, you didn't treat her like a jerk (I mean... I guess you intended to, which is questionable... But people change) so I'd say you're not to blame here. Damn, you didn't even kidnap her on purpose. Good luck in figuring it out.

AITA for cursing my childhood friend for refusing to confront her fucked up views and being a coward? (cw for abuse I think?)

So for a long time I was close friends with this cat, we had wery different backgrounds but we liked spending time with each other, and we even planned to move in together when we graduate. She woudn't admit it, but I think that her family is pretty toxic, like she constantly worries about what her folks would say and how will they react on something. She loves her grandfather but they would barely let her see him because he "lives far away" and "spoils her". I met the old man, he's the nicest guy, he's a professor and spends most of his money on helping out the self-publishing authors and other stuff like that. She's terrified of crowds and official events, but her parents constantly drag her in some balls and parties she doesn't want to be on "to develop the reputation". We talked about this over and over but she keeps saying that they just love her and want the best for her.

She's a decent healer and I thought that we pretty much desided that I would go to guild for a fire mage practice and she would make her father teach her healing or find a mentor, but then she comes to me and says "I'm sorry, I can't argue with them, they want me to become The Healers adept and learn light consling".

And "light" consling is a worst kind of magic language you can think of, you can fight me on that. They basically use it to cure criminals that already got away with it from the only justice the universe can offer. You can curse an innocent person, but the only people who actually know how to do that are adepts and witches, and you have to deliberatly look for a witch and piss them off to get cursed. I never met a single person who got cursed and wasn't the slimiest, nastiest creature you can imagine.

So she comes to me and tells me that she can't argue with it and it's final and they are sending her away to who-knows-where to learn consling from some goat ass creep. Of course I wasn't happy and I told her so, I told her that there are other alternatives, that she can come to the guild with me, but she was too scared to even try, she just left.

I know some witches. And when I told them about this shit-show and they told me how to make a curse that will forbid someone to use a sertain magic language, I guess I was so angry at that point that that seemed reasonable. She said herself that she didn't want to, they were making her, so if she was cursed with something that would just block that option they might come to their senses and let her heal instead, I thought that I was helping her out. I laid a curse.

Turns out that it doesn't really block the damn language, it just makes it really painful to use it, and you grow and cough feathers when you do for a long time. But that didn't stop her. The opposite, in fact, she got mad at me and refused to see me untill she got sent away, and now it was like five years, she's a full ass adept and a consling mage and she wears her uniform constantly, but I can see the feathers. I think that most of us can. I don't really know how the curse will affect someone when progressing for so long, and she looks like a sick mess. I don't know If I did the right thing anymore, but what could I do anyway?

That sounds like quite the messy situation you've gotten yourself in, cat. If I had to pass judgment, I would argue that you were certainly the antagonist. Your dear friend may hail from a repugnant family, but there are many reasons, some personal, others not-so-much, for someone to remain in quarters with their family, even if it's at their detriment. Maybe she wanted the security they could provide to maintain a certain lifestyle, or she genuinely thought they wanted what was best for her. Regardless, I would hardly call her cowardly for being too fearful to speak up to their relatives, and for refusing to run off with a lawless hooligan. While your attempts to help her were admirable, you cannot force someone to heal, nor would cursing them be in any way permissible. Her family sounds like repulsive things, but you have only contributed to her anguish and betrayed her trust. She has had her choices taken away from her all her life, and now you come to take her choice also?

NTA. you both have your reasons for acting as you did. your brother wanted to grant a wish and it backfired on him, and he refused to admit his wrongdoing, so you did what you had to.

AITA for telling a 16 year old that shes lowk an asshole?

for context: my dad (53M) recently died, leaving my brother (14M) in my (23M) custody. of course, i am worried about my brother. after all hes 14 and his dad just died, why wouldnt i be worried??? anyways. about a week after the funeral, my brother brings home this random 16 yo old girl (lets call her A), she introduces herself. i recognize her from the accident my dad died in, i saw her on the news. she lost her leg in the accident. anyways, at first it doesnt seem that bad. i make sure that she and my brother arent doing anything freaky deaky (because, again, shes like 16 and hes 14???) and they're honest to god just friends. but ANYWAY. the more time went by, the more i observed their dynamic and man! its kinda...toxic??? she's like really attached to my brother and seems volatile. she keeps venting to him n shit? 

but i can sort of see where shes coming from. i was the same when i was younger actually. anyways eventually she came to me for advice about something and ended up kind of sort of breaking down. but the reason WHY she was having all these problems in her life all stemmed from the fact she has a shitty personality and needs to work on it (again: i was the same when i was younger.) and sometimes you cant have someone coddle you about it, so i told her she was being an asshole and her personality is shitty and she needs to work on it. then i brought her to get something to eat at a local internet cafe. she cried a lot but thanked me. 

but when i told this story to one of my coworkers they said i was an asshole and now im kind of doubting if i shouldve told A that or not. 

Honestly NTA. People gotta see where they're coming from ya know, she even thanked you for helping her probably realize something was up with her that she needed to change. Really good on you for ending it on a good note for her by bringing her to someplace nice imo. I hope your brother can also realize that she's changing and growing as a person, because she's only 14, she makes mistakes too and sometimes people have to call them out for it. You did a great job personally :3

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CW for death 

I feel as if it depends. If they were exploiters before they had met you, then no, you aren't at fault here. However, if you were the one who did give them those powers, as I'm unsure if there is any detail on whether or not they had their powers before or after they met you/you had given them similar powers, then yes, you'd be in the wrong.

For now, as far as I can tell, you are NTA. It was not your fault that they had been terminated, and even if you were given those powers by accident, you didn't seem to have a connection to their deaths besides being friends with them. I firmly believe that R shouldn't have been so harsh with you, especially since you are also going through the motions and just finding out about the fate of your friends.

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(Putting it under a spoiler because it mentions manipulative & abusive behavior.)

NTA, what the hell’s wrong with that god?? why is he talking to you and BEGGING for you to chat with him like you’re anywhere CLOSE to equals?? for fuck’s sake, he can’t even die!! i’d definitely encourage you to enforce those boundaries more. don’t let his stupid-ass whining stop you from pointing out just how WEIRD it is that he’s expecting what’s essentially his employee to be his friend

AITA for helping out someone after they fell through my roof?

i (F27) am a farmer, and as a result, i know a thing or two about first aid. that’ll be important later!! so i’m out tending to my crops when i see a figure literally FALL THROUGH MY HOUSE’S ROOF, so of course i go rushing over to get them any help i could. i get into the house, and i see this lady (F??) named rose fall thru my house. she’s a lil standoff-ish, but i eventually convince her that i’m fine with her existing.

i’m tryna patch her up, but it’s not really working because the injuries are Bad (no shit, she FELL THROUGH MY ROOF), so i go over to my neighbor (F20s) because she’s really good at healing. but she takes one look at my new friend, goes all “but that’s the deadliest soldier of the entire enemy kingdom, wtf do you mean you want me to heal her?!” and refused. so i had to take manners into my own hands and am now on the run for “harboring a criminal”. was i in the wrong? should i have just handed her over to the guards when they came for her?

Diamond thinks for a bit, then she responds.

You are definitely NTA, in my opinion, you were just helping someone out! Who knows, maybe that small act of kindness will go a long way! That neighbor is definitely a prick, a healer refusing to heal someone who is clearly seriously injured just because they are from an enemy kingdom? That just sounds stupid...... So yea, your NTA here!

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Diamond then decides to put her own story here, one thats been nagging at her for a while now.

AITA for being a pacifist?

For context, i, a female lang gootrax, have had my fair share of...... Invasive humans. So im just minding my own business in the support cave, listening to the music there, when this human (18 M) comes up to me, and starts telling me to attack him. Now, as a species, gootrax are..... Unique. Its practically a toss-up between if a gootrax is friendly or not here in the laminax lab. Now, I am a strict pacifist. It just feels wrong to me to attack someone and transfur them..... So I refuse, but he just keeps pushing! I even try to talk him down, but nothing! Eventually, im backed into a corner, and I smack him in retaliation..... Which ends up knocking him over the railing, and into the pit below..... A while later, I go into the cafeteria, and I overhear a group of humans talking about the human I knocked into the pit, and how I was such a monster for killing him, and I feel terrible about it..... So I ask again, AITA for being a pacifist?

NTA. 

I don't know anything about your world, or what "transfur" means, but that guy should've taken a hint and found someone else if he wanted it that badly. You acted in self-defense; no one should fault you for that. If anyone is the bad guy here, it's him, for not respecting your boundaries.

AITA for ghosting my friend? 

(spoilered for brief mention of violence, burn wounds, and just overall Bad Times for everyone involved)