When you write that, I thought of John Abruzzi from Prison Break. Same father and leader of the mafia but still adamant of his own goals etc etc which ultimately lead to his fate.
I don’t know the series, but yeah that’s what I meant. Obviously I’m not saying that all members of the mafia are brutal towards their wives and children (and actually I know that the idea of a united family plays an important role in the Italian mafia) but it just makes no sense if an author claims their MC is a mafia leader just for the sake of saying it.
Okay, the MC cares for his family and is a mafia leader… I can see the family part but where’s the mafia part? Oh wait right, not every mafioso is bad. This one is actually an angel, he wouldn’t hurt a fly 
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I’m not talking about say a story where a Nazi sees the suffering of Jewish people and tries to save or at least quit, that would be acceptable. But the mafia stories they show don’t show this, so why should they.
Let’s just say someone showed a story of a Nazi guard, that was just a regular guy, would talk to other Nazis while innocent Jews are being killed and tortured all the while doing nothing about it and they showed him as a “cool” guy. That story would be removed and rightfully so.
By why are mafia guys who are part of an organisation that also kills and tortures innocent people allowed to be glamorised? Are those innocent people’s lives less than the Jews that suffered? Again even if this mafia boss doesn’t participate in the killings, he’s no better than the Nazi guard I mentioned who was part of it and did nothing to save them. We’re not talking about Oskar Schindler or someone like that who saw something wrong and tried to stop it, nor the many innocent Germans who were horrified, but powerless to stop it. We’re talking about someone who knows what’s happening and seemingly has no qualms about it happening.
I fail to see the glamorisation between Nazis and the mafia. I think many writers call it “mafia” but in reality they seem to have no real idea about what the mafia really in in real life,
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Yup i agree understand totally.
I was mentioning along the lines of why are people so invested in writing Mafia stories and in the way that shouldn’t be glamourised even more but not portray other stuff ( OK of course they shouldn’t glamorous anything that shouldnt be glamorised but simply I am just wondering why the theme mafia is so commonly used).
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I’m actually wondering why it’s allowed
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The earliest story I read about mafia here on episode was Juvie now changed to Dangerous Love which is an Episode original if I remember correctly? I’m thinking perhaps the theme got the ball started rolling from there 
For ages it was the bad boy stories dominating. Now it’s starting that mafia is the “in” thing. Which is worse because I can’t see how it doesn’t go against guidelines. I was disgusted about “Chain Reaction” and still can’t phantom why that has so many fans. Glamourising or lessening people that kill is sick. It just annoyed me the big backlash about “In My Bed” when they seem to do nothing about mafia stories, which in my opinion are far worse.
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I think everyone in this thread is asking themselves the same question. Well, save for those who joined to say “if you don’t like don’t read”
Seriously though, isn’t Episode a 13+ app? Why are they not only allowing but promoting this?
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lmao, ofc he wouldn’t hurt anyone at all!
this! just because you might not participate in performing unjust things doesn’t mean you’re not to blame. for as long as you’re just standing there and watching, you are equally as bad as whoever is performing such actions. you’re indirectly encouraging it, all by doing nothing to prevent it.
petition to ban glamorized mafia stories altogether pls.
exactly. i don’t think the mafia theme fits this app at all. ivy, i’d understand, but again, for as long as it’s not fucking glamorized and/or romanticized.
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Is this literally every mafia story/ gang leader story ever? Like I’m so tired of this shit. I don’t care how hot a guy is. In the real world, you do NOT want to associate yourself with a gang member or mafia member. Personally, I’ve dated someone who was in a gang before, and it was a nightmare. To see this get glorified pisses me off. Little girls are gonna read these stories and think that good old happy fairytale ending in a luxurious penthouse is realistic. It isn’t. It’s not a joke, and these kind of guys will not love any woman just because she “heals” him. Hell, I tried to heal that guy I mentioned, and he put me through the worst. This is why I cannot stand bad boy stories, gang/mafia love stories, etc. It’s just ridiculous to me. You can tell someone with no experience wrote them.
Pardon my mini rant, it’s just something I can’t stand in this community lol.
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more or less yes… unfortunately.
bUt It’S jUsT a StOrY !1!!1!1!!1! nOt ThE rEaL wOrLd !1!!1!
right-
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Exactly if it was 12 year old me I would want a Mafia leader to kidnap me. So younger readers will think it’s ok and thats how it is
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Let’s not forget the penthouse was paid for by stealing money from other people.
There was a story where the LI in his first scene beats some poor business owner to get his extortion money. This was a featured story btw. This was just shown as a normal scene and then it moves on. Like the LI did nothing wrong, the poor guy just wants to run his business, gets savagely beaten just because this criminal organisation thinks they have a “right” to his money. Never once later is the LI shown with guilt for what he done or reconsidering his actions. And this is the love interest. Who would want to get involved with someone with absolutely no empathy for human life like that?
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Wait a minute, this was in a featured story? 
That’s so ridiculous.
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Well they got that part of the mafia right: no empathy
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true… but to romanticize that shit is just sick.
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This is just sick, especially considering Episode sees nothing wrong with these kinds of stories. Not only do they put up with them, they literally promote them. The “toxic and abusive relationships = good” message they put out there for their young readers is disgusting. I’m so tired of all the authors who use the bad boy’s “dark past” and shit to justify how horribly he treats the MC. There’s a story where the LI literally pushes the MC onto the ground and steps on her arm to make her feel “nervous”. And yes, he’s a potential love interest. He obviously gets away with it because he has an 8-pack. And not only that, the MC thinks it was hot and drools all over him because he’s “dominant”. It’s romanticizing abuse. I can’t imagine what these authors are putting into their young readers’ heads. They’ll probably get into several toxic relationships because of these stupid stories.
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“if a boy teases you and makes fun of you, he likes you.”
“if your boyfriend hits you, he does it out of love.”
stop. teaching. kids. those. things. wanna know why a guy does that? because he’s fucked, not because he “likes” or “loves” you.
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“she was raised to be a strong wife”??? What the fuck???
I don’t know if this is sad or funny. It’s funny that you are saying such a saddening statement as a justification. She should have been raised to be whoever the fuck she wants to be. To be a free woman and decide what to to with her life. Not a “strong wife”. Strong wife my tits.
This is wrong in every possible way. Is this really what you want a 12 year old kid to see? That you have to be raised to become a “strong wife” so that you can marry an older mafia leader (who also happens to be a criminal, a murderer, and basically a monster)?
I think the fuck not. Sorry, not sorry at all.
Lol, that’s how things are (normally). It’s not something to justify the rest of the story. This doesn’t make her a “strong wife”. This makes her a woman. A person. Ant that’s not a reason why the mafia story you are writing is something you should put on an app for 12 years old. Just because you don’t portray the woman as weak doesn’t mean it’s good. Because also, I am not sure if in your story, but in MANY stories the characters in the story are like “oh wow she’s such a strong woman” and “oh did she really just sass him?!!”, and that means the author is putting her as strong because she wasn’t expected to be strong. So, if you make her a “strong” woman/wife/person, remember that it’s normal.
And besides this you still want to portray him as “romantic”???
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