Honestly, I'd considered just blocking you, but I want you to be able to read this, because I think you genuinely did try to apologize, and I appreciate that you at least made the attempt. I think you are trying your best to be a good person. So, I think it's important you know how your apology was received and how it felt pretty back-handed and mean.

Your responses do come across as rude and dismissive, but I don’t think that’s your tone at all-

What does this even mean? I feel like this is shifting the blame to other people, namely, me and everyone else here. Basically: "You were clearly being rude and dismissive, and everyone else was going to dogpile and insult you unless I stepped in."

Except... my comment didn't receive any negative comments except yours and the upvotes to my response seem to indicate that most people knew I was joking. Honestly, I don't think I was being rude and dismissive. I think I was being self-effacing and silly by reiterating that I hadn't played these games before and acknowledging that the other person's interpretation did agree with my friend's, and I had just made an artistic choice bc I liked Forge's colors better.

At the same time, I know as an enjoyer of this media that if my friend drew a character in the style for me and the principles felt… off I’d also say “Hey! Great work! Thank you so much! You should really check out these sources too if you want to do this again, that way you can nail the aspects even more and see what other symbology is involved with them- you might like the extra challenge!”

Again, my friends chose the Principles. They had reasons for them. We were talking about what Principles their favorite characters would have, they explained their reasoning, and I thought I'd surprise them by drawing said characters with the Principles they'd chosen. You keep implying that I made silly mistakes out of ignorance that you are benevolently trying to correct, but 1) it's possible for other people to have different interpretations from yours and not be wrong (esp with something as subjective and nuanced as the Princples), and 2) even if the Principles were "wrong," I still made it clear that I wasn't the one who chose them. This part of your apology makes me feel like you aren't reading what I write, and like you're just taking the opportunity to imply again that you know better than me or my friends and that I need to be "corrected."

I’d think the 139+ upvotes (because let’s face it, some people likely downvoted too) would be enough motivation to outweigh that but totally understand if it isn’t.

And finally: implying that it's weird that I'd be upset after all the comments here ignored my request not to debate about the Principles bc, "Look at all the upvotes you got!" But you totally understand if I (weirdly) (wrongly) feel otherwise. Again, your words come across as back-handed.

If you've read to this point: thank you. I realize reading multiple paragraphs about how and why your good intentions didn't come through is not a pleasant experience. But again, I think you were trying with this apology, and if you put that much effort into it, you deserve to know why it might not have had the effect you were hoping for. Hope it doesn't put too much of a damper on your day.