#I felt kind of bad for the cis guys that left those comments because all the (cis) men in my family were hairy bastards well into old age

[solradguy]

This isn’t Johnny discourse but it is kind of discourse about the discourse about him balding (which he isn’t).

What would it matter if he took off his hat and he was a shining beacon?? The dude canonically fucks (well not canon-canon but I feel like there’s implications of fucks-ing)!! At the most, he would be a Pitbull reference and that would be cool because good for Daisuke. Listen to Timber by Ke$ha (feat. Pitbull).

It kind of felt like they were making jokes at the expense of people loosing hair. It’s like that thing where you shouldn’t make fun of people for ‘X’ because then your friends who ‘X’ will know you think that about them.

John E is cool. I think he’s lame but he’s cool.

-A concerned Jellyfish Pirate

Idk anything about Pitbull, to be honest, but my GOD does he look like he's having the time of his life in the Timber video hahah Been a while since I heard that song...

Anyway, Johnny totally fucks. There's no way a man that toned, running around shirtless all of the time, with that slight yeehaw accent, couldn't find someone DTF with the tiniest bit of effort. He's absolutely gettin it rofl He could still get it if he was bald too, or receding.

I've complained about it on here a bit already, but yeah I don't think people making fun of Johnny because they think he's losing hair realize that a lot of people in real life are going to lose their hair as they age, and their jokes at Johnny are also jokes at these people. It's not even just an issue cis men can have either, everyone's hair thins with age, some just more (and sooner) than others. To make fun of someone, fictional or otherwise, for losing their hair is digging a trench to fill with future self loathing at one's own hair loss. And hair loss in >2023 isn't even that bad anymore!! There are so many ways to manage and style it now.

Johnny's a babe. Big fan of his "dad trying too hard to be cool but is actually somehow still really cool despite that" energy

#asks #Among the death threats I got on Twitter for the Brisket <3 meme 1 year anniversary post were a bunch of transphobic insults towards me too #And at least two of them were insults about how I was gonna go bald because I'm a trans man lol #I felt kind of bad for the cis guys that left those comments because all the (cis) men in my family were hairy bastards well into old age #T on its own doesn't just make all your hair fall out. It follows genetics just like naturally produced T does #Some trans men will lose their hair and some won't. I probably won't until I am VERY old #So them making fun of me for that told me that: 1. They're very afraid of losing their own hair #2. They think everyone else is afraid of losing their hair too (or that everyone thinks it looks ugly. Which is untrue) #3. They think that trans men are especially susceptible to hair loss #I've had a mohawk for about 7 years now. I am very familiar with the shape of my skull and wouldn't mind just going full bald #When it gets that thin and I decide to buzz it off I'll be sad about it for sure. But it absolutely will not be the end of the world #I'll go full Rob Halford haha Going bald is a non-issue #Unrelated but I love Johnny's EN dub accent in Strive so much because 'watered down yeehaw accent' is the only accent I can do well lmfao

[nerdygaymormon]

Sorry, this is a super long ask, but I had some thoughts I wanted to articulate at a person, not just in a post 😅 I had this thought about the article from Elder & Sister Renlund. It was then reinforced when my mom (who I'm not out to) sent me some quotes about God loving his children after she had talked to a family friend who's teen daughter is bi and very angry at the church (And I will admit, the quotes my mom sent we're a lot more loving than anything from the Renlunds). 1

I'm tired of the only reference queer members get about God loving them is that he loves them inspite of their queerness. It's not presented that straight forward always. It's usually presented as "God loves all his children, whether they're following his commandments or not" which isn't a bad sentiment within itself (And maybe that's helpful for some queer people sometimes, idk). 2

I also understand how it can seem a helpful message to share with queer members as a cis straight member. But one of the biggest things that has held me back from exploring my sexuality and gender identity is this idea. By identifying and living openly queer, sentiments like these tell me I am actively rebelling against God. 3

And if I'm actively rebelling just simply by being myself, then why should I keep any other commandments? Sure, maybe if it's just that one commandment I don't follow and I follow everything else perfectly I can still be saved, but I'm still human! The rest of those commandments are still often hard to follow! And if I spend all this time figuring out my queer identity, only to reach heaven and have that taken away... then I don't wanna go to heaven anyway. 4

So maybe our fellow members, when talking to queer members, can stop with the "God still loves you, despite your queerness!" & can instead say "God loves you, queerness very much included!" (Any higher up leadership doesn't get to say this until they get their lives in order & stop being homophobic/transphobic. You can't tell me God loves me if you're out here telling me he doesn't through your policies.) Anyway, this has been bubbling for a little bit and I wanted to get it out of my head 5

————————————————————

My sense of it is that our top church leaders talk to the members about us. For many years there’s been at least one, often more than one, talk at General Conference that mentions queer people, with gay people getting the most attention. 

The leaders tell the members what they believe the Lord thinks and lament that the world is becoming more welcoming. It can sound harsh. They soften it by saying that God still loves us, we’re still God’s children, but it does feel like an after thought. 

————————— 

It’s very rare to hear a message directly aimed at LGBTQIA+ people. Because of my calling, I’ve gotten to meet several General Authorities, which means I’ve had the unique opportunity to hear how they speak directly to a queer person. 

The first one I met is Elder Joaquin Costa, I told him that I’m gay and he was extra caring and kind to me. He hugged me and told me he loves me. It surprised me. 

The blog post I wrote went viral and someone asked he and his wife about it, and they wept and he said everyone is deserving of Jesus’ love.  

I met Elder Costa again last summer and brought a friend with me. He stayed after hours at the office in order to see us. He hugged me and he’s smiling so big and he keeps mentioning one thing or another from when we met, and my friend leans over and says, “he likes you, like for real, he likes you.” The conversation didn’t go as I’d hoped, but I give Elder Costa credit for listening to us, and it seemed he learned and adjusted. And he kept reaching over and patting my arm, and we’d lean towards each other and bump shoulders, you know, like friends do when you’re telling a joke or something to show you feel friendly towards each other. 

—————————

The second General Authority, we got off to a rough start as he spoke for two hours about the importance of marriage between a man and woman and how necessary that is. The next day he went out of his way to befriend me, even asking that we drop titles and just call each other by our first names. He calls me David and I call him Claudio. By the time he left, it felt like we were friends, although I didn’t know if that’s just how he makes everyone feel.

I took him up on his offer for lunch when I visited Utah in 2018. When we got to his office, he was so excited to tell me that he and my dad have the same birthday, but 2 year apart. Had he been snooping on me, how did he know that? Well, he wondered how many people in the Church had his birthday and he did a search on the churchwide membership list. None had the exact birthday, so he dropped the year, and there was my dad’s name. He knew my last name, so he clicked on my dad to see if we’re related. He had waited eagerly several days for me to arrive so he could tell me. Anyway, he and I had a very real conversation, you know, we got beyond just the niceties. He never contradicted the Church teachings, but did admit there’s a lot we don’t know, there’s many questions for people like me for which we have no answers. He listened and understood where I was coming from and that we have significant gaps in our teachings and our church needs to do better in showing love to LGBTQ people. We ended with a lot of laughs and hugs and I left with a good feeling. 

I met Claudio again last year and brought a friend with me. I didn’t share this in the blog post I wrote, but Claudio was so eager to see me because he wanted to share how knowing me had helped him respond to a father who was worried his daughter had come out as a lesbian. He shared the advice he gave the father and wanted my reaction. It was very good and focused on accepting the situation, loving his daughter as he always had, and she’s got to make some big decisions but to stand by her and always include her no matter what path she chooses. Those are her decisions, his responsibility is to be her loving dad that she can count on. I was stunned that he shared knowing me had caused him to think about the situation of queer members and the choices we face. My friend that I brought is also gay and Claudio pronounced a beautiful blessing on him. And he invited me to his home next time I come to Utah (which due to the pandemic, has been postponed). As we drove away, my friend remarked, “you don’t just invite acquaintances to your home, you guys are officially friends.”

—————————

I also met an apostle. Upon telling him I’m gay his very first comment was that same sex attraction isn’t a sin but bullying people over it is. We were sitting at a table of 8, so our conversation on this subject was brief. My feeling is he tried to give me a sense of hope, although it was all about what wonderful things await me when I’m dead. I wanted to reply that I needed hope in this life, but the whole table had started listening in on our conversation at that point and we moved on and discovered that his wife and I are related. 

—————————

I wish every queer member had these sorts of opportunities to feel love and concern from church leadership. I also wish the Seventy & apostles had more encounters with queer members, I think it’s good for them to process we’re real people with concerns & feelings that aren’t being satisfied and we need to feel the Savior’s love as much as anyone else. 

In the meantime, I will be meeting another general authority at the end of the month and will share how it goes.

#David gets personal

[holyfuckthisfishcandrive]

Rent and Grafitti

First, Previous (Chap 19), Ao3

Word count: 1553

Warnings: semi-grafic description of a gory picture

Mum closed the door behind her staring at the ground in front of her.

"Our rent was paid," she said numbly.

"What?" Luan asked surprised.

Janus forced himself to act surprised as well.

"Yes, Mx Johnas said it was paid a few days ago. He was confused when I tried to ask him for a little more time to get the money together."

Janus managed not to smile proudly. He had faked Mum's handwriting for the letter, even if he hadn't actually signed it. Their landlord knew Mum's handwriting. He had learned to fake both handwritings and signatures in English five years ago.

It was a far more useful skill than most people thought.

While he and Luan prepared dinner Mum and Luan continued talking about the mysterious bill payer until a phone beeped in their bedroom and Mum left to check whose it was.

"I'm not sure why," Luan spoke quietly, clearly not meaning for Mum to hear him, "but I have the feeling you have something to do with this."

Janus froze for a split second.

"What makes you think that?" he asked. "Where would I even get that kind of money from? I don't even have a job."

Luan shrugged.

"I don't know. I don't know how you spend your free time. Maybe you picked it up after that heist? Maybe you found a different way to earn money. You're a clever kid. I wouldn't put it past you."

"I didn't do anything though," Janus lied.

"Alright, I didn't mean to accuse you of anything."

"Babe?" Mum called from the bedroom. "Your boss is calling."

Luan dropped his head with a sigh before pushing off the counter to leave the room.

Janus took over the pan and mum came back into the kitchen.

"How was your day, anyway?" she asked. "Did you meet up with any friends?"

For a moment he contemplated lying but he decided to be honest with her for once. She deserved to know at least something about his life.

"No, I had detention."

"What? Why? What happened?"

"Mr Heller called this trans guy in my Latin class a girl and a fake boy so I called him out on it."

"And he gave you detention?"

Janus nodded not looking at her.

Mum put a hand on his shoulder.

"You know you were in the right anyway, don't you?" she asked, pride in her voice.

Janus smiled up at her. "Yeah, of course, I do."

Mum pulled him close in a one-armed embrace. "How did I end up with the best son in the world, huh? I'm sorry I've been so busy lately."

"It's fine," Janus said. "I'm old enough to take care of myself."

She was quiet for a moment.

"That's what I'm afraid off," he caught her whispering before she went to set the table.

Luan came back in a little later saying that his boss had ordered him to come immediately and that they shouldn't wait for him to eat. He looked as done as possible with the world as he put his coat back on but Janus knew that his boss wouldn't ever get to see that glare.

Mum turned on the TV saying that maybe 'those thieves' had struck again and they could pick up a bit of cash if it was nearby. Janus chuckled knowing full well that this wouldn't be the case.

It had almost been a month since their bank robbery and he and Virgil had more plans already but it'd take time. They couldn't risk getting arrested, running into some supervillain, accidentally making the mafia their enemy or running intro Heartrate and his sidekicks. Neither of them were fighters after all.

At least as far as Janus was aware. At this point, he doubted anything about Virgil could surprise him anymore.

Mum switched through the channels until she finally found the news.

Some guy Janus didn't recognize had died at the age of 78 and Mum told him that he had been hot when she had been young.

"And- this just in - Professor Logic is on his second heist this month!"

That caught Janus' attention. Prof Logic wasn't the type to conduct heists often.

Security footage of the inside of the Central Bank showed Logic shoving a man towards a vault with a gun to his back. The man shook as he began opening the vault. The Professor looked up as if something had caught his attention before turning towards the camera. It looked like someone had brought it to his attention even though there was no one there with him. He aimed and the footage cut off.

After dinner, Janus helped Mum clean up the kitchen and she went to bed.

Janus let his pet snakes, Deklan and Desmund out of their cage and let them drape over him as he sat down on his bed and picked up his phone.

Four unread messages.

Two from the girl he was assigned to do a presentation with asking when and where they should meet up to work on it which he didn't even open so she wouldn't know he had read them - he didn't feel like texting her back - and two from Virgil he opened without hesitation.

The first was a badly lit picture of a graffiti of head, detached from the neck, with what looked like blood dripping down and something he couldn't really make out in the left eye. The second was a single question mark.

Janus didn't need more to understand what Virgil wanted to know.

 Looks cool

 What's with the eye?

He waited if Virgil would respond for a few minutes and left the messenger app to go to his browser - oh.

He had forgotten what he had looked u earlier.

The colours of the nonbinary pride flag illuminated his face - or was it their face?

"They," Janus whispered, trying to picture someone using the pronoun. "Their name is Janus."

They sat up and pet Desmund, letting their fingers slide over her smooth scales.

'They' sounded nice.

It made Janus smile.

But did that really mean that Janus was nonbinary?

'He' didn't exactly feel bad after all. Just not as good as 'they'.

With a sigh Janus began to scroll through different posts made by nonbinary people, scanning most of them only briefly and dropping a like here and there on the ones that came so close to home it was almost weird and a few nice artworks.

 It's okay if it's just a phase.

The phrase was in the same font, in the same colour as everything around it but it made Janus freeze, thumb on the screen, ready to scroll on.

Instead, Janus read the post.

The message was simple.

That is was fine to experiment with pronouns, labels and names, even if you came to the conclusion that you were cis the entire time. At the end was a smiley face and the words that had stopped Janus.

 It's okay if it's just a phase.

"They," Janus whispered again and clicked on the comment button.

 Thank you

Then they switched back to their messenger app.

Virgil was online and had read the texts but not replied yet. Not that it mattered.

 Can you meet me at Winblae by the park in 15?

Janus hesitated before sending, watching the 'Typing...' blink in and out of existence next to Virgil's contact name before finally tapping the small blue button.

The two arrows turned blue right away.

The 'Typing...' disappeared again.

 sure

 emergency?

Janus couldn't help a small smile.

 no, just need to talk to you irl

They brought their snakes back to their cages and noticed that their fingers were shaking slightly.

Virgil wouldn't mind, right? He wasn't transphobic. Or enbyphobic... right?

They took a deep breath, grabbed their jacket and climbed out of the window.

They would be fine.

It was just a coming out.

To their best friend.

It would be fine.

Virgil was already at the park when Janus got there.

He sat on a swing and stared into the cloudy sky.

Janus took a seat on the one next to him.

"So, what's up?" Virgil asked, looking at them. "Did something happen?"

Janus took a breath and let it out watching it turn into fog in the cold air.

"Kind of," they began. "Nothing bad though, don't worry. At least I don't think it's bad. I just... I've been thinking lately..."

"A dangerous past time," Virgil commented and it startled a chuckle out of them.

"I think... I think I might not be a boy," Janus finally managed to say.

Virgil was quiet for a moment.

"Are you... something else?" he then asked.

"I'm not sure but I think I might be nonbinary."

The statement hung in the air between them and Janus wished they could take it back and stuff it down, deep down so it'd never reach the outside world.

"Do you want me to call you by different pronouns then?" Virgil asked.

"Maybe they/them?"

"Okay," Virgil nodded to himself. "A different name?"

Janus felt a weight fall of their chest.

"No, I think Janus is fine."

Virgil smiled at them.

"Okay," he said.

Yeah, this was fine.

"So, where did you spray that head?" Janus asked. "Because the pic was shit."

Next

Taglist:

@patton-cake , @isabelle-stars

#sanders sides #janus sanders #ts janus #virgil sanders #ts virgil #platonic anxceit #coming out fic #janus is nonbinary #my writing #au #woethough au

[izzyliker]

i think like.... some of this ‘fanfic isnt above criticism’ discourse fundamentally is built on some weird ideas and understandings of criticism, creative freedom, and variance in ppl reading the exact same thing. 

like: just because you dont like a specific thing about someones writing doesnt mean its objectively, concretely wrong, bad, or inappropriate. nobodys going to kill you or jail you or whatever for leaving a mean or unnecessarily blunt comment on someones fic, but it is kind of sad/funny to see people talk shit about writers for ‘not taking criticism’ as if their opinion is objective truth and not just.....their opinion.

like: i have had people tell me my writing is too abstract, or it doesnt make any sense, or that i use too many metaphors or whatever. thats their opinion! i have also had people say that me writing the way i do is dreamy/mesmerizing/whatever nice, sweet things they had to say about it. as a hobbyist writer and someone who ENJOYS writing that way i am not going to change it because someone didnt like it, and people being mad about that is... kind of funny to me? just dont read my fic then! i write six line long sentences and use five em dashes in a single paragraph because i like doing it. if you dont like reading that you dont have to read it!

there’s... of course room for gently calling people out for writing in -phobic and -ist stuff while obviously having no idea that it was -ist or -phobic (eg. having characters misgender a trans character and not warning in the tags, or referring to a trans character as their deadname and using the wrong pronouns until they transition [’x was a girl blah blah she liked blah blah then she suddenly realized shes a boy wow anyway now im getting to the actual story after misgendering my character for no reason. them being trans never comes up again’], or writing deeply bigoted stuff or otherwise inserting unfortunate tropes in writing) and im not going to say that it’s ~bullying~ someone to let someone know that it seems like their writing reflects their own, genuine bigoted beliefs or misconceptions, and a lot of time people will be mortified and thankful to hear that (and when they aren’t theyre usually either openly bigoted, or theyve had other people tell them otherwise and chosen to believe those people instead, which you can feel however you want about).

like: ive left a strongly worded comment on a fic before because it turned out to be completely untagged for the rape depicted in it (as in: no archive warnings apply - not even chose not to warn), and featured a twoc ‘’’’’’having sex with’’’’’’’ a trans guy, where the author was a white cis person who did not see anything wrong with the lack of tagging OR the damaging tropes used with zero self awareness. i dont think you can NEVER say ‘im trans/gay/bi/ace/a person of color/a person of this ethnicity and you don’t seem to be - did anyone beta read this, because you have depicted the character with my marginalized trait in a very stereotypical way, and idk if thats on purpose or not’ or anything similar. sometimes people who are racist or homophobic or biphobic or transphobic also write fic. sometimes a fic makes your spider senses tingle because of the way something bad is depicted in it. 

but like and especially re darkfic - 

when people say ‘you need to take criticism when people say your fic glorifies bad relationships’ i think... what people fail to take into account is that although sometimes people do in fact write narratives where they do not even realize theyre writing a shitty relationship (this is often made obvious by a complete lack of tagging or a flippant attitude about the actions of the characters rather than anything that happens in the work itself) sometimes when you read a fic and think ‘this obviously says that this relationship is good! and that you should read this and think the relationship is good!’ it’s not actually an objective, true criticism that the author needs to... idk...rectify? reflection is always good for yknow becoming a better writer and looking at possible issues re: how you see relationships or certain people or whatever (this isnt just writers or artists btw, this is also you as the reader or the consumer or the person, existing in the world), but sometimes it’s just a fic that either was triggering for you, or that didn’t fill the specific narrative need you had.

again: i have written unhealthy relationships. i like writing codependence, and relationships with bad boundaries, and relationships where people are in denial about how their relationship makes them feel. i have, ON THE SAME FICS, had people say they thought it was validating; or cathartic; or respectful; or realistic and kind and compassionate portrayal of those relationship AND other people say they were uncomfortable; that they thought the narrative not using the word abuse meant it wasnt meant to be abuse (despite the ‘unhealthy relationships’ tag); that they thought it was disrespectful to write two characters they liked in an unhealthy relationship. and theyre all allowed to have those opinions! sometimes someone’s writing just doesn’t spark joy. but just because you didn’t like a fic doesn’t mean the writer has failed. when a fic writer has multiple people say ‘i liked this; this felt real; it felt compassionate and respectful and i will come back and read it again’ and one person say ‘i think this is bad’ i don’t think its... evil of the writer to say ‘yknow, im sorry you didn’t like this fic, you might want to read x fic where the story has a happier ending instead,’ and not change or delete or otherwise do anything to that fic.

i dont know guys like... again, just because you didn't like something doesnt mean theres something intrinsically wrong with it. and a loooooot of posts here conflate ‘this person wrote a fic that uncritically used a bunch of tropes the author did not tag for and thus was not even aware of having used and i have left a comment saying that the implications of that are kinda fucked’ with ‘this person wrote a fic about an abusive relationship/sexual assault/whatever and it wasn’t written the way i want those topics to be written about, and i have left them a comment saying that they need to kill themselves for it.’ 

#man....like......i have seen the fucked up shit on ao3. i truly have witnessed Some Shit. ive opened a fic and immediately backclicked #bc the way it depicted sensitive topics was just very callous and had an air of complete lack of research having gone into it #i have also read fic that i recognized was useful for other people probably but that was intensively triggering to me for no specific reason #sometimes things are handled in ways that arent necessarily...objectively bad. they just dont work for everyone #i rarely want to read any kind of 'this person is in a bad relationship and someone talks them out of it and then theyre happy' kinda stuff #my catharsis comes from the uncertainty of the ending and the emotional parts of the active relationship #theres like.....irl reasons for that. but people also dont need to have any specific tragic backstory to enjoy certain narratives more than #others. idk yall. whatever #long post #disk horse #rape ment

[kuuderekun]

Magical Girl Site, Transgender Representation and The Batman Question.

Magical Girl Site, Transgender Representation and The Batman Question. 

For the second week in a row Magical Girl Site is the only show I really want to comment on.  But I'm still enjoying all the shows I'm currently watching. I mentioned in my Astolfo post how I don't use the term "Trap" to describe characters who are actually Trasngender.  The only problem with making that hard distinction is Japanese media doesn't always use the same terminology we use in the west, so it's not always clear what the writers are going for.  For example I'm still not sure what we're supposed to think of Ruka in Steins;Gate, I like that in the new series they seem more comfortable with their gender identity, but I'm still unsure what it's supposed to be. Episode 7 of Magical Girl Site introduced the character of Kiyoharu Suirenji.  Going off what we see in this episode alone I would have to conclude she is a Transwoman and not merely a Crossdresser because of her using the girl's bathroom and that being an issue.  I don't think a CisMale Crossdresser would use the girl's bathroom.  However her seemingly not objecting to others calling her a boy complicates the matter, but it could be she's just someone who doesn't want to get confrontational about it.  But I also could have missed something there since I'm watching it Subbed because there is no Dub. In the episode's MAL forum one user who's read the Manga says the character is definitely a Transwoman.  That user is defending using the proper terminology to refer to her.  However there is at least one user there being very blatantly Transphobic. Most of what we see of the character in the episode I like.  However we are given a glimpse of the character having a dark side, with her saying she'll get revenge in the distant future.  Now this is a Dark Magical girl show where most characters have something dark about them.  But I'm still recovering from the disappointment of my favorite Western TV show of all time, Pretty Little Liars blowing it with it's handling of this issue. People sometimes ask whether bad representation is better then no representation.  It is interesting that if this show had never brought the issue up I would probably have never singled it out to criticize for lack of Trans representation.  But as soon as they provide some representation it doesn't take long for me to start being on edge about her being mishandled.  I'd been praising the show for it's unsanitized depiction of Bullying, I should then be thrilled to see that theme expand to showing the bullying Trans Women endure.  But instead I'm worried about the implications of this character either turning evil or dying. But I now realize that, yeah, I should be criticizing Magical Girl shows for failing to include trans representation (and even Sailor Moon fails to include any true Trans representation, the Starlights were simply a gender bending gimmick).  They frequently try to have very diverse casts allowing many different kinds of girls to be magical girls, representing many different forms of the adolescent female experience in Japan.  I think we're long overdue for a Trans Magical Girl and it's unfortunate that the Dark Magical Girl Genre people are back lashing against now was the first to do it. This subject happened to be on my mind already before I saw episode 7.   You may have noticed I posted about a Batman movie that features The Riddler yesterday.  Well Batman and The Riddler being on my mind reminded me that back when I spent a lot of time trying to imagine what kinds of Batman films I'd make I had came up with a concept that re-imagined The Riddler as a Trans Woman.  But then decided that I wasn't comfortable casting a Trans character as a villain in our current climate. Homosexual representation in media has reached the point where you can have Gay villains without it automatically reinforcing the same harmful stereotypes that used to keep Gays only as villains or victims in American fiction.  But Trans representation, especially for Trans Women, has not, as clearly shown by what happened with Pretty Little Liars.  I absolutely believe the writers of that show had the best of intentions, they wanted to say Transphobia is the ultimate cause of the tragedy, but regardless Charlotte being the only Trans representation the show had left the LGBT community who at one point loved the show deeply offended. Ironically this Trans Woman Riddler idea had developed in my mind before season 6 of PLL happened.  And yet my vision for The Riddler was influenced by PLL before the Trans Woman aspect was a part of it.  PLL started airing back when Batfans were still hoping The Riddler would be in the third Nolan Batfilm.  And I from day one immediately felt how -A operated on PLL was a good reference point for how to "Nolanize" The Riddler. So in hindsight Charlotte DiLaurentis kind of resembles the Trans Woman Riddler concept I'd been thinking of.  And how that whole controversy helped shape how I think about this issue is probably a factor in why I dropped the idea.  Still my envisioned backstory for her (which I don't entirely remember) was far from identical.  And of course I also regardless of the character's gender or ethnic identity prefer The Riddler to not be a murderer.  It would be admittedly hard to keep that in tact when making The Riddler the main antagonist of a big budget Hollywood blockbuster, but I do think it's workable. So in that sense my Riddler was closer to Mona then Charlotte. But now I can't help but wonder if outright abandoning it was simply the Cowards way out (Realistically I'll probably never get to make a Batman film anyway, but this is hypothetical).  For example if I have good guys in the movie who are also Trans that could certainly help make it salvageable. Part of what was so harmful about the Charlotte story-line was caused by the need for it to be a twist, that the character who turned out to be "Charles" had been posing as a Cis Woman.  And that's the main problem with my initial concept here.  The starting premise before any Gender issues factored into it was allowing a Batman movie that's actually a Mystery/Detective story by having us not know who The Riddler is.  But I now realize that the concept can be reworked so that whatever name She is using before the reveal she can still be openly Trans.  The thing is I'm kind of killing that mystery aspect for future use by giving it all away publicly now.  Only way it could work for someone who'd read this post is if multiple Trans Women are in it.  Oh wait, that happens to also help fix keep her from being the only representation. The YouTube Channel FilmJoy did a video last year called The Batman Question which I watched today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwzE2J7bo0c&t It was about the idea of allowing more then just CisHet White Men to play Batman and other major Batman characters.  Janelle Monae was a choice brought up a lot, and she responded that she'd rather play The Joker. And that reminded me how members of Batman's Rouges Gallery are Pop Culture Icons and that almost every Actor wants an opportunity to play one.  And I personally would cast an actual Trans Woman to play the role (The Pedantic Romantic could make a good Riddler).  So perhaps we shouldn't exclude the Trans Community from being able to play those roles out of fear of how it can go wrong. The Riddler is often viewed as Batman's smarted nemesis, his greatest intellectual threat. After all Eartha Kitt wasn't counterproductive for Black Women.   KyleKallgrenBHH in his recent video on The Watermelon Woman talks about how for a long time Black Women weren't allowed to be Sex Symbols in America.  So in that context one getting to play the greatest Sex Symbol of American Pop Culture was downright revolutionary.  And so in today's climate maybe Catwoman should be the first Bat Rouge to consider allowing to be a Transwoman? You may ask, why was it that my mind went there for The Riddler first? Another question you may ask is, how would I handle naming this Transwoman reinterpretation of Edward Nygma? Well the answers to those questions are kind of the same. When I starting of thinking about what I'd do for a Nolanesque Riddler story.  I first decided "The Riddler" should be a name given to them.   They would identify themselves in their messages as simply -?  Again influenced by -A on PLL. Then I first started thinking about the character's Gender as I was playing around with the inherent pun of E. Nygma, and the idea entered my head to use the name..... ....... Annie Nygma...................... And from there I thought first just of making The Riddler a woman, an idea which technically had done before at least by Cosplayers.  But I also thought about having her use multiple names and for the sake of Nolan style realism not having any Nygma name be her birth name.  Then I heard of this Edward Nashton name that had emerged as an alternate name for The Riddler, I don't know who used it first but I heard of it via The Riddler Blogs, a fan film project derivative of The Joker Blogs. And then I thought about how Transmen and Transwomen naturally tend to change their names from what they were given at birth.  And so the idea popped in there to have Edward Nashton be the name assigned at birth, and Annie Nygma the name she chose when she accepted her Gender Identity, because she was into Riddles and Puzzles. I'm not Trans, I can't actually relate to these issues.  So I simply don't know what the right answer is.  Perhaps it's a good idea for me to put this experience out there and let someone who is Trans use it for their own Fanwork if they see value in it. Part of the reason I was ashamed of this for awhile is it didn't originate much from a place of caring about representation.  I've always been a believer in Trans rights, but it was in recent years I've become much more sensitive to this and other Social Justice issues. The more recent ideas I've come up with for characters who are Trans have been making them heroes.  Like the idea of the Vordenberg who Carmilla had a romance with being a Transwoman.  Or my desire to tell a story about Lancelot as a Transwoman (using the name Lanzelet), as well as Perceval as a Transman.  And my idea for a fictionalized French Revolution shared cinematic universe innovated using Chevalier d'Éon in the Captain America/Wonder Woman/King Kong role as the one who's origin story film is set in a previous era.  And interpreting d'Eon as a Noble Honorable and Heroic Transwoman, not doing weirder ideas like the Anime about her and Fate Grand Order do.  The only Fantastical aspect will be keeping the character young in the 1790s.

#Magical GIrl Site #Mahou Shoujo Site #Magical Girls #Dark Magical Girl #Transwomen #Transgender #Representation #SJW #Social Justice #Batman #THe Riddler #PLL #Pretty Little Liars #-A #Boo Radley Van Cullen #-? #Edward Nygma #Edward Nashton #Annie Nygma #LGBT #LGBTQ #LGBT+ #lgbt+ representation #Lanzelet #Sailor Moon #Starlights #MAL #My Anime List #THe Pedantic Romantic #kiyoharu suirenji

[letitrainletitsnowbutdontletmego]

Finally - Chapter 3: The Halsteads

aka: 9 times Jay tries to win Voight over (intentionally and not so intentionally) and the 1 time he doesn’t need to.

Also on ff.net and AO3.

Many, many thanks to @justkillingtimewhileiwait for all of her help, listening to me bounce ideas off her, ramble on about what I wanted to write and mostly, the beta-ing. You are awesome! :) Plus, it’s because of her I’ve fallen in love with Halsteadx2 + Erin as a trope!

Jay hung up the phone as soon as he stepped into Molly’s and spotted Erin on one of the high tables to the side of the room. The reason why she hadn’t picked up was evident not a second later when he caught sight of his brother sitting opposite her, back towards the door, with her phone in his hand. There was no doubt he was teasing her about the contact picture she had for him, which he had to admit was a pretty great selfie of the two of them from years back. Almost around the time they had first gotten together, when she had left Intelligence for the special task force.

“Don’t make me hurt you, Halstead,” Erin warned Will, who was holding the phone away from her and slightly up higher than was probably necessary, especially in a busy bar.

Jay laughed to himself when he saw Will falter slightly at her narrowed eyes, pointing a finger towards him even though the smile she was trying to bite back failed to stay hidden. Approaching them, he snatched the phone out of his grip and punched his brother lightly in the shoulder.

“Gotta love it when those words are aimed at someone else,” he commented, smiling contently when he saw Erin light up at his appearance and somewhat forgot what his brother was teasing her about.

“My hero,” she drawled as he placed her phone in front of her. “Feels like I haven’t seen you all day,” she commented when he came to stand next to her, laying an arm around the back of her stool and pressing his lips quickly to the top of her head.

“That’s because you haven’t,” he replied, recalling how they had been split up for the day to chase down different leads because of the CIs they each had. It hadn’t been too intense, but days where they weren’t paired up together definitely felt bizarre.

Erin leaned back to glance up at him, furrowing her brow playfully. “Oh? Awkward. Who was I making out with in the car this afternoon then?”

“Um, weren’t you with Voight all day?” he remarked with a smirk, chuckling when he saw her grimace at the meaning behind that.

“Ew. Okay, I know I started it but I’m ending it now,” she told him pointedly, shuddering for effect and taking a sip of her beer as if the alcohol would help her forget what she had unintentionally implied.

“Please do. You guys are sickening,” Will added, having watched them banter for a moment before deciding to make his presence known once again.

“I’m going to get a drink. You want anything?” Jay asked, squeezing she shoulder and looking down at her to see her simply tap the beer bottle in a clear indication that she just wanted the same again.

“What about me?” Will asked, offended, when Jay started to leave.

Shrugging, he conceded. “Yeah, well, it’s going on your tab, so I suppose so.”

“Joke’s on you because Erin’s the one who got this round,” Will retorted, clinking his bottle with Erin’s, who shot Jay a sheepish look when she realised he wasn’t impressed by their camaraderie.

He wished he could say it was newfound, but WIll and Erin had gotten along far too well for longer than he now realised he liked. There had been the initial hesitant friendship, made only because of the break him and Erin had been on when Will had first rolled into town. But slowly, as Will settled in Chicago, and Jay and Erin rekindled their relationship, the three spent more time hanging out together, and Erin had fit into their small easygoing family well.

Armed with three beers, Jay rejoined the table, sliding into the stool next to Erin and groaning immediately when he caught exactly what they were discussing.

“-at the hospital for hours. I reckon Mom only took him in to embarrass him because it wasn’t even that bad of a burn. But he was in his Spiderman PJs and he’d gone against her,” Will told her, laughing at the memories as Erin laughed along at the images they conjured up.

“That’s so cute. You wore Spiderman PJs until you were 14?” she asked through her giggles, incredulity lining her words and betraying her attempt in trying to not sound like she was mocking him.

“15,” Will corrected her before Jay could get a word in edgeways to try and salvage his reputation. “He also had this Wonder Wom-”

“Alright, alright, you can stop now, Will,” Jay interrupted loudly, prepared to dive across the table and slap a hand over his brother’s mouth if he dared to carry on.

There was only so much damage he could fix, but he had a feeling that this story would be the one that he would never be able to live down and they were far too early in their relationship for Erin to have that kind of knowledge on him. Perhaps when they were about 80 or something he’d be happier with her knowing the whole truth.

Will paused for a moment to take a swig of his beer, eyes twinkling between them both. “No, please don’t! C'mon, I’ll buy you another drink, as many as you want, if you’d just finish that sentence,” Erin bargained desperately, curling a hand as if to stop herself from physically dragging the story out of him.

“Don’t fall for it. You’re stronger than this,” Jay countered with a shake of the head.

“I’m really not. And I don’t want to be,” Will shrugged with a laugh, turning to Erin and about to complete what he had been saying before he had been rudely interrupted when Jay foiled his attempts once again.

“You know, payback’s a bitch, and I swear I will remember this for when you finally get it sorted with Natalie,” he practically threatened, though he had the decency to lower his voice so it wouldn’t carry out, possibly to other Med workers who were at the bar right then.

“You mean Nina?” Erin asked, breaking the beat of silence they had fallen into. Glancing between the two brothers, she slowly started to realise that Jay hadn’t mixed up the two names, and there was definitely more going on there than she was aware of. “Wait, Dr Manning, Natalie?”

“There’s nothing going on there,” Will quickly dismissed, staring daggers at his brother who purposely failed to acknowledge it.

“Not from a lack of trying, though,” Jay added before rolling his eyes when Will simply kept staring at him, silently. “What? Don’t look at me like that. At least I got it sorted with my girl.”

Erin slapped him gently with the back of her hand to his chest, telling him without words to lay off his brother. Jay fought the urge to roll his eyes once again, wanting to explain the many drunken times he had had to listen to Will go on and on about his colleague, and not the one he was currently living with. Wanting for Erin to tell Will exactly what he had told him; that he needed to sort his head and heart out, and stop settling for someone who he’s going to ultimately hurt. Because he had a feeling that Will would listen if there were two of them telling him the same thing.

“It's… complicated. And I’d rather not talk about it right now,” Will said with a hint of finality.

“You never do. That’s your problem,” Jay sighed before holding up his hands when Will shot him a disparaging look. “Fine. Whatever you want.”

Will’s eyes slid over to Erin, who shook her head at him. “I’m not getting involved until I know the full story, alright?” she told him pointedly, clearly expecting to hear the full story sometime soon. He didn’t reply but Molly’s entrance door swinging open caught the corner of her eye over Will’s shoulder and she smiled warmly as she saw who entered. Having felt her gaze on him, he made his way over. “Hey, Hank! Come join us,” she greeted as Voight stopped at the end of their table.

“Thanks, kid, but I’m meeting a friend for a drink,” he turned her down gently, nodding his head over towards the bar.

“We’re sharing great stories about Jay here,” Will piped up in a light tone that obviously suggested that the stories were anything but ‘great’ to the central subject of them all.

“We aren’t doing anything. You are, and you’re stopping now for the sake of my relationship and my dignity,” Jay rectified him, pinning him with a glare that would have stopped anyone other than his older brother.

“Surprising you have much left,” Will retorted, making Erin laugh, though she tried to cover it up soon after with a drink. Jay could have sworn he even saw Voight smirk at the remark, but it was gone sooner than he could register it. “Come have a drink with us and I’ll tell you all about the time Jay got lost in the zoo; blindfolded, in the dark and half naked.”

“I wonder who left me there, huh?” Jay muttered dejectedly, settling in for Will to fill Voight in with some more stories of his childhood.

“You didn’t!” Erin gasped, though it was lined with clear humour.

“He deserved it, annoying little brat he was.” Will practically waved them off, turning all his attention to Voight instead. “You would definitely not have him on your team if you knew him back then, Sarge. Seriously, even at 12 he thought he knew it all, trying to win over my friends ‘cause he thought he was too cool for those his own age. Not that it worked, because, well, you know; it’s me,” he laughed haughtily, a winning handsome grin on his face which Jay could only ever recall their father not falling victim to.

“If only your brother was half as charming as you think you are, doc,” Voight remarked with a shake of the head, eyeing Jay for a second longer than the other two before tapping the table and walking away.

“Huh, I thought he liked you,” Will mused at his brother before turning to Erin. “You should watch his back out there a bit more carefully.”

“Thanks, Will,” Jay said dryly, finishing off his drink just as a hostess passed by so he could order another.

“What are you talking about? Hank likes Jay just fine. He’s just being his usual self,” Erin laughed off, doing the same with her drink but not missing the looks the brothers quickly shared. “Stop it. You barely even know him, Will.”

“I feel like I know enough,” he replied vaguely, to which Erin frowned in confusion.

Silently cursing his brother, Jay quickly made an effort to change the subject before they possibly got onto how he might have also spent a few drunken evenings with Will, worrying about Voight not liking him nor accepting his presence in Erin’s personal life, despite what the two of them might say otherwise.

“Hey, did I ever tell you about the time Will streaked across our high school football pitch during Homecoming warm-up?” Jay stated, wording it as a question though all three knew he hadn’t.

“I’m sorry, what?” Erin exclaimed, sitting upright and ready for all the details.

“That never happened,” Will refuted adamantly.

“I have pictures,” Jay countered with a smile, glad to be on the storyteller side of the situation that night.

Will shook his head and pursed his lips as he tried to get a read on his little brother. “You don’t. You do not have pictures. I swear to God, Jay, you do not,” he insisted forcefully.

“I do. They’re mainly Polaroids so not the best quality, but there are tens of them. I gathered them from whoever I saw had a camera so one day, I could use it against you,” Jay informed him, tilting his head slightly and accepting the drinks that appeared on their table at the perfect moment.

“And today is totally that day,” Erin added, excitement lacing her words.

Will quickly finished his drink, and having not ordered a new one, rapidly got to his feet. “I’m leaving now.”

“Aw, c'mon, Will. Don’t be a spoilsport,” Erin all but pouted, a smile ruining the effect.

“Nope. I have a shift first thing tomorrow. Besides, I don’t need to hear this,” Will told them honestly, although 'first thing’ for him was still later than most people started on a normal workday.

Erin turned to look at Jay as Will pulled on his jacket. “You’ll still show me, right?”

“Oh yeah,” he assured her, though if he was being honest with himself, he wasn’t quite sure where the photos had gotten to since he had moved into her place.

“I hate you,” WIll grumbled whilst departing, leaving the two of them laughing in his wake.

“Love you too, bro,” Jay called after him, not in the slightest bit put off when he flipped him off over his shoulder before walking out of the bar. Turning to Erin, he leaned in a bit and murmured in her ear, “So, wanna get out of here?”

“Are you going to show me those pictures?” she asked him just as quietly.

“I can do you one better,” he replied, arching a brow and softly brushing his knuckles over her bare arm to show her what he meant.

Grinning slowly, she bit her bottom lip and asked, “Are you going to tell me about the Wond-?”

“No,” Jay sighed as leaned back out of her personal space and dropping his hand, the moment effectively killed, even as she laughed quietly at him. At least one of them was enjoying themselves.

#linstead #erin lindsay #jay halstead #cpd #my fic #9+1 #linstead fanfiction

[sparto-i]

Soul character analysis?

hoooo BOY you better buckle in because he is my favorite gotdam character and i have a lot of things to say about this boy

first off, let’s start out with a summary so ppl who don’t wanna read 4,000 words can still get something outta this: 

soul is a bit of an anomaly with his characterization in the beginning being VASTLY different from his characterization in the end: overall, he’s gone through the most change out of any character in the series. starting off, he was highly insecure and defensive, which likely could be the result of growing up under scrutiny: i have every reason to believe soul’s upbringing was not colorful or happy, but rather harsh and rigid. this is reflected in his desperation to scramble for an identity in the beginning (i have some theories about that). his turning point is when he’s infected with the black blood and begins to have more and more conversations with the Little Ogre- which made a few observations about him: he’s insecure. unsure. nothing like his partner. as the series progresses, he begins to gain confidence and lose that desperation to fit into a certain box and really starts to come into his own. he gains confidence in his abilities to think and analyze, as well as his abilities to support others. this shows his truly kind-hearted nature: a cool dude wouldn’t be a total jackass, right?

now for the REAL party (after the readmore)

just a warning, there will be a lot of mentions of mental illness (especially when it comes to his self-image) and unhealthy family relationships. if i need to add anything else to the warnings, please let me know!

let’s start off with soul’s past:

it’s a well-known fact that he comes from a rich, successful family of musicians- which is something he seems to be trying to forget. soul drops all of the aspects of his past life: he hides his skill and love for the piano, as well as redacting his last name entirely. again, this is common knowledge in the fandom by now. when he discovered he was a weapon, he took the chance to drop the Evans’s family tradition of producing musicians and started a new life.

but why? it’s never explicitly said that his home was a bad environment for him, only that he felt pressure to continue to uphold the esteemed family’s reputation. growing up under such a big shadow would produce that reaction in just about anyone. perhaps it’s soul’s running away that’s the most telling aspect of his life pre-DWMA. not only does he book it out of his home and into Nevada, but he completely tries to erase everything he was- the Wiki page on him states, “Memories of his past still affect him emotionally, so much so that he prefers to forget them entirely.” Pressure to be successful, while extremely stress-inducing, wouldn’t likely make him like this, unless his family was actively exerting this pressure on him. If his parents had reassured him that he didn’t have to fill in their shoes, he probably wouldn’t have run away, but would have rather gotten permission to enter the DWMA as per his request. But, that’s not what happened. 

parents who live vicariously through their children put them through a lot of stress and oftentimes, that results in the child feeling unable to live up to their expectations, which turns into a low self-esteem complex. the child will either try hard to live up to those expectations, or give up entirely: soul chose the latter. as for his self-esteem, you can see this just about anywhere: he often compares himself to other people. he compares himself to his brother when it comes to his music skill, and he compares his abilities as a weapon to that of Giriko and Justin, both of whom can fight proficiently without a meister.

so, soul evans left his home and his name behind, ready to re-invent himself into the total antithesis of what he was going to be raised to be. which leads us into…

the image of ‘coolness’

soul’s beginning personality and appearance is the most well-known- a laid back, chill dude that worshiped the idea of “coolness”. during this stage, he was impulsive like Maka was, but for entirely different reasons: where maka would often act on emotion, soul would try to take shortcuts to get things done a lot quicker- this is shown in the first chapter when he tries to full-on charge through blair’s window instead of coming up with some sort of battle tactic. this is also in-line with the typical cool guy archetype- the guy that doesn’t take any shit from anyone, and who doesn’t think before he acts because only un-cool nerdasses do that. when an event occurs that makes Soul seem anything other than detached and in-charge, he clearly notes how “uncool” the situation is in an attempt to save face. noting soul’s typical personality during combat situations (i.e. advising maka to keep her guard up, seeing situations about five steps ahead, stressing the importance of plans), the moments of impulsive behavior he does have seems rather forced.

his past easily explains why he does this: he doesn’t want to be like his family. he isn’t soul evans, he’s soul eater. his insecurity caused by a rigid upbringing turns him to over-compensate by building this “cool guy” image, which is also the epitome of ‘Western Masculinity’. 

here comes the speculation piece: while i don’t believe you need to justify trans headcanons with explanations to make them valid, soul’s narrative illustrates a very familiar one: a lot of trans kids who are first starting out often over-compensate to try to mold themselves into the cis-normative perceptions of gender in society. i definitely remember my first year of my transition, trying every which way to look and talk different, walk different, like different things, even changing the way i sat down: since i was trans, i felt that i had to over-compensate and make up for my transness. soul’s over-compensation when trying to be and act “cool” definitely parallels that.

as time goes on, Soul begins to come into his own, after the first Crona encounter gave him yet another pair of eyes to criticize him:

The Little Ogre

the circumstances in which he earned this pest serve as the catalyst for his change in personality. trying to protect Maka from Ragnarok after she’d refused to use soul to block the hits from the sword, he became gravely injured and infected with the Black Blood. it’s after this that his maturity begins to show, but isn’t quite as apparent until the Kishin Revival arc, and the Little Ogre is introduced. 

through the series, the Little Ogre serves as an internal conflict for Soul, harping on him through all of his decisions: he’s too patient, he plans too often, he’s too scared, he’s too anxious, he holds back too much. all of this are feelings that soul knew he had, but never had them pointed out (likely because he never confided in anyone about these issues). this causes Soul to try to prove the Little Ogre wrong by either doing the opposite of what he’s being criticized for, or carry on what he’s doing and try to be successful while doing it. considering soul’s past and his lack of motivation due to being pushed too hard, it’s strange to see the Ogre’s insults actually motivate him: but, perhaps since this conflict is internal, and the Ogre is a facet of his mind, he sees the end goal as less of an unattainable one and more of something to work towards. one of the criticisms that really got to him, though, was that he was lacking in something really big:

the courage his meister had

(yikes that was a really bad segue)

it’s easy to see that maka and soul were created to be two sides of the same coin- opposite. soul’s eyes are red, while maka’s are green- they’re contrasting colors. soul’s soul (i never wanna use that phrase again) is blue, while maka’s is orange, which are, again, contrasting colors. their approaches to battle are vastly different, as well. maka acts on emotion, on what seems like the best option at that very second, rather than detailed observation. soul, being the weapon, observes the situation from every angle, keeping calm in most situations so that he can think a way out of any predicament: a great way to balance out his impulsive technician.

however, it’s his tendency to overthink that holds him back. the Ogre had commented that he makes decisions by way of elimination, not daring to act until the only logical path is an option. there aren’t many examples in which this messes up maka’s or his ability to fight: after all, maka is a very smart girl. but, soul’s inability to act affects him personally. he’s shown to have no direction in his life or conviction of his own, which is probably left-over effects from his life as an Evans. after all, if every moment of his life was planned, how was he ever to learn that he had a will of his own?

it was the courage maka had that motivated Soul to take some direction in his life. in fact, she’s the reason he does a lot of things. albeit indirectly and in no way to blame, maka was the reason he was infected with the Black Blood- he’d acted impulsively and out of emotion in order to fulfill his duty as a weapon: to protect. soul was a source of sage advice for maka, someone who would see the plan out to ensure their safety at all times. maka, in turn, was a source of courage and motivation for soul.

it’s this dynamic that pushes both of them forward, up until they finally achieve the goal of creating a death scythe:

while i could go on and talk about all of the facets of his character, from his strong friendship with blackstar, to his struggles in the book of eibon , this analysis is already mcfucking essay length lmao

if anyone requests a part two tho, i’ll most definitely do it

#long post #character analysis #soul eater #soul #headcanons #trans headcanons #this took me over an hour to write go me

[notori]

RWBY Volume 4 Thoughts

I watched it all in one shot today and, well, spoiler-y comments below the cut!

So straight up I just want to say, in my opinion, this was the weakest volume. Go ahead and disagree, I’m not here to start fights - I just found it lackluster across the board. It left me wanting RT to pick themselves up and get back to volume 3 level next time. It wasn’t supremely awful and I’ll go over the good along with the bad, but I guess my overall sentiment was “Okay, better luck next time. Waiting on volume 5!”

So the good: Ren. Just... Ren. The only time I felt something deep in this volume was Ren’s backstory and his interactions with Nora. Not only super cute between them, but he’s always been a mystery and it was cool to see where those two came from and so on.

The bad: That was really the only moment I felt something! At least on the same level as how I felt throughout volume 3 (or even say, the Project Freelancer arc of RvB - point being, I know RT can do better). I mean, I was kinda concerned about Qrow. I like him - even if he is the archetypcal silent mentor guy who we now know literally has magical levels of angst to keep himself away from people. But I wouldn’t have been too heartbroken if he died either.

I did like Blake and her family. That was sweet - especially with her father and comparing it to Weiss’ family. However, it compounded too much with the other characters having split up and Qrow being himself that they repeated the (been there done that) conflict of “It’s not good for me to be around you! You’re better off! -OVERDRAMATIC EXIT-”

Back to the good: Still on Ren but, that grimm! Such a cool design! Major props to whoever came up with that. Creepy, powerful, all around the haunting image I expect when something terrible from someone’s past comes back.

A little bad: The team being split up didn’t work for me. I know a lot of people probably liked it and obviously the production team did but me? Nah. Didn’t care for it. Take Weiss for example - a titular character - what did we learn about her? Her dad’s a douche, her brother’s a douche, she’s pissed off with the rich people and makes an escape. So... wait... we didn’t actually learn anything about Weiss. We already knew she was headstrong. We already knew she would defy her upbringing for the greater good as we saw at the end of volume 1 when Blake was revealed to be a faunus. Sure, it takes a lot to stand up to family, but given who we knew Weiss to be... didn’t seem like it’d take this long or be this hard. It felt like she got set back when the entirety of her action taken this volume was to leave her home... which was done rather quickly (from a screen time POV) with seemingly minimal consequences. Of course there could be more to it that we’ll see in vol. 5, but as for right now? Again, lacking.

A bit of good though: The scene where she summoned the knight was cool! Also, and maybe this is just because I was watching with headphones, but the sound effects have improved over the years. So good job on that. Not just this moment but the grimm cries, ships, everything ambient really resonated and was pretty cool!

On that note however: Not my favourite volume for music. Which kinda sucks because I’ve always loooovved the RWBY soundtracks! The end credits song of the final episode was the only one I’d want to have of my phone. Same deal, I know RT can do better so I’m hoping they pick it up back up in vol. 5.

Where it really fell apart for me though was the characters, and again this comes back to the team being split up. Weiss got the least progression, but even the others... I guess I felt like no one grew this volume (except Ren, which is cool, but he’s a side character).

Ruby was backseat to Jaune. I didn’t want to say it. I’ve been defending Jaune for a while all through vol. 3 but this one was just... bothersome. Let me clarify: I like Jaune. But I feel he’s a good guy trapped in a bad narrative. All of team JNPR are side characters! And sure we can love our side characters, but do not try to give them this much of a spotlight. In fact this is my only criticism with Ren’s arc: I loved it, but it was Ren’s arc - not anyone from team RWBY - and it was the most interesting part of the volume. Look at what Ruby actually accomplished this volume or how she grew. Did we learn more about her? We saw... Ruby worries about people - which we knew. Ruby is a badass with her scythe - which we knew, but also saw better of before. I know the fights won’t be as good without Monty but did anything Ruby do in vol. 4 even come close to her decapitating that bird way back at the start of the series? Even from an info dump standpoint we learned nothing about the silver eyed people that we didn’t already know. They’re special and they’re being hunted. Yeah... most special people are in a world of magical strife.

Yang’s arc I liked, although it was kinda weirdly done. It’s like they couldn’t decide if they wanted to go dark and give her the grit of PTSD or keep her screen time more upbeat compared to the others. I kinda wish they had stuck with keeping her traumatized though, without it being her wallowing. Because that’s not actually how trauma works 100% of the time. It happens, yes, but it’s more than just feeling listless or being easily startled. We see her go from freaking out over the sound of a broken glass and having nightmares, to being fully okay when her father jokes about the attack. It’s all well and good if she’s over it - and I get that RT has VERY limited time to work on RWBY - but it came on sudden to see her be okay with it. Especially because it was implied through the joke that she and her father had been okay with it for some time.

Blake’s story was... kind of marred by Sun. I get the same feeling about him as I do about Jaune - except Jaune has (for all narrative purposes) been paired with Pyrrha. Sun is still after Blake and is just so stereotypical about it that I can’t not be rubbed the wrong way. Ships aside, I just wish that they could be friends. And unfortunately, they can’t be just friends if Sun is clearly into Blake. Now it’s just going down an all too familiar - and ugly - road of the poor guy who likes a tsundere who doesn’t want to be his friend! They can’t be friends unless they both want to be friends - and it’s clear from not only Sun’s actions, but the way RT is framing it with the comments from her mother and father, that Sun is not in the story to be Blake’s friend. He’s there to be a potential love interest.

Which brings me to my next point: Don’t. You. Dare. Bait. Us. Again.

Arguably my biggest point, and the thing I most want Rooster Teeth to know: We know when we’re being baited. We all do. It’s just a matter of some being willing (or naive) enough to put up with it, or those who have been through the cycle too many times to fall for it. These are my stern words of warning: We know you’re doing it. Don’t do it again. Representation only counts if it is within the story, not said by creators.

My kinder words of advice: At this time, you cannot run a male-female platonic relationship side by side with a budding male-male or female-female one. I can see how in the well-meaning creator’s mind it can seem almost obvious to treat two potential love interest as equal regardless of gender - on paper that sounds great! But in practice, in a world where LGBT+ people are constantly being told that their love, their friends and family, their very lives are second best to cis-straight people... It’s too threatening.

I did notice how Blake was adamant about denying Sun’s advances. And sure, her mother could just be being the playful motherly type and this is all a ruse for the big surprise that is Bumbleby. Yes, Blake and Sun could be just friends and their banter nothing more - hell I know I’d change my tune right quick if everything they did was literally being good friends and nothing more. It’d go from stereotypical boring guy-likes-girl-he-can’t-have BS to subverting the trope in favour of a healthy, fun, platonic relationship.

But you know that’s not how it’s coming across. And that’s where it sucks. Even if you didn’t know how Yang and Blake looked or acted at the start was reminiscent of a potential relationship, you know by now. You also know - given the blatant jokes throughout - that you were writing Sun and Blake’s interactions to at least look like the start of something romantic. Even if the end goal is to trick us.

What I’m saying is, we’re tired of being tricked. Mainly because tricks never work out in our favour. The few times they do, it’s short lived, usually ending in murder or suicide or something else terrible. This is why - at least right now was media is only just getting a handle on representation - if you are going to have LGBT+ rep you have to do it by denying any other possibility. You need to outright say “THIS CHARACTER IS NOT STRAIGHT LOOK HOW FUCKING NOT STRAIGHT THEY ARE!!! SEE THAT OPPOSITE*(For lack of a better word)-SEX CHARACTER BESIDE THEM??? BEST BUDS! THAT’S IT BEST BUDS DON’T WORRY ITS COOL BECAUSE THEY ARE SOOOO NOT STRAIGHT.”

If you don’t, especially if you tease a straight ship alongside it, we are so vastly outnumbered (by our oppressors no less - and yes, people who send ship hate specifically to LGBT ships because it’d interfere with their straight one IS oppressive - trying to silence us seeing ourselves in characters). Teasing LGBT+ fans by saying “yes, you’re here in this story... somewhere... we just haven’t shown yet...” and then writing a possible straight romance that would torpedo your leading LGBT+ one is downright a slap in the face. And don’t act like you don’t know it. And if Bumbleby IS where Blake’s romantic life is heading, don’t make tried fans who are used to getting hurt jump through the emotional hoops, or dragged through the emotional mud, of a straight ship alongside it. You don’t have to hand it to us on a silver platter, but make it clear that others are not happening.

(*Side note: I have zero qualms with bisexual Blake. More power to her. But the fact is her relationship with Yang is far more suited for a better romantic plotline than her relationship with Sun. It’s not because he’s a guy. It’s because he is nothing more than the average down-on-his-luck well-meaning goofball who’s primary character attribute is “I LIKE BLAKE”. And if they did anything to change that now it would only feel forced for the sake of trying to justify the ship.)

We are on volume 4 and you’ve said since the beginning that there are LGBT+ characters, even who we have already met, but just don’t know it yet. You have one last chance, volume 5, to remedy that - and make it count. The excuse of “we don’t know how to write romance” falls flat when you have Jaune and Pyrrha, and Ren and Nora.

Overall thoughts: It was alright. But if volume 5 could be my last unless they pick it up. Ways to do that include: Make Jaune and Sun better characters. Make the titular team the main characters again - together. Up to par music and fights. And - deal breaker - reveal some of these LGBT+ characters.

#rwby spoilers #rwby volume 4 #rwby4 #review #bumbleby rwby #lgbt+ representation #spoilers

[rockin-llama]

92 (I think it was 92???)

tagged by @fxvixen​ ayyyyye pretty ladayyy

rules: fuck the rules (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

LAST…

[1] drink: water

[2] phone call: this solicitor that won’t leave me alone. Really, I need to get on a do-not-call list

[3] text message: “xo”from my Mom

[4] song you listened to: “Waving Through a Window”

[5] time you cried: ummm, maybe a few nights ago while reading? I don’t really keep track, I get emotional over books.

HAVE YOU EVER…

[6] dated someone twice: as in, date the same person twice (no) or date two or more people (yes)?

[7] been cheated on: yes

[8] kissed someone and regretted it: not really. There was this really drunk kiss with my half-aunts husbands nephew. Which even though that’s far enough away from being incest it still weirded me out when I sobered up. Plus I can’t remember his name for the life of me.

[9] lost someone special: yeee

[10] been depressed: ah, haha, hahaha

[11] gotten drunk and thrown up: gotten drunk, yes. Never to the point of throwing up though. I’ve felt pretty sick the next day though.

LIST 3 FAVOURITE COLOURS:

[12] Blue. Like, a deep blue. Not so dark that it looks black, but, like, deeeep.

[13] I’ve always liked dark greens, but they don’t really look too good on me.

[14] Rolanberry Red

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU…

[15] made new friends: yep

[16] fallen out of love: not really

[17] laughed until you cried: oh yeah

[18] found out someone was talking about you? Bitch, who wouldn’t talk about me.

[19] met someone who changed you: maybe??

[20] found out who your true friends are: What constitutes as a “true friend”? I’ve always been perplexed by that notion. A friend is a friend. I just talk about different things with different people.

[21] kissed someone on your facebook list: Bet y’all’d like to know who ;) (that was me channeling inner middle-school Marina)

GENERAL…

[22] how many of your facebook friends do you know in real life: Now, this is something that I have to pick over. “in real life”. Like, if I have you on facebook I’m considering you as a part of my life (does that make sense??) And a lot of my facebook friends I have met through playing online games. So, no, I haven’t met them in real life (yet, someday I will take a massive road trip) but I consider us friends outside of playing games. So my answer is yes, all of my facebook friends I know in real life.

[23] do you have any pets: Jellicle (Jelli for short) is my kitty cat at my parents house. Unfortunately I can’t have free-roaming pets in the house I’m renting so I only have a beta fish, Hemingay, a bonsai tree (Groot 2.0, the first one was stolen off my porch), and a philodendron named Phil.

[24] do you want to change your name: Nada

[25] what did you do for your last birthday: uh, pretty sure I was playing video-games

[26] what time did you wake up: 10ish

[27] what were you doing at midnight last night: reading

[28] name something you cannot wait for: to move to the mountains and have a horde of huskies

[29] when was the last time you saw your mother: about 4 days ago

[30] what is one thing you wish you could change about your life: I wish i had a little more motivation??

[31] what are you listening to right now: my fan running in the background

[32] have you ever talked to a person named tom: yes, I know a lot of toms. What the fuck is up with this question?

[33] something that is getting on your nerves: people who don’t hit “reply all” in a group email. For real peeps, we’re all seniors in college. You should know this by now.

[34] most visited website: uhhhh, I’m honestly not sure. Tumblr is definitely up there, but even though I hardly ever post stuff I open facebook out of habit.

[35] elementary: what about elementary? Are you asking what school I attended? Who my teachers were? If I ever pulled the fire alarm? WEll, I didn’t pull the fire alarm, but I did like to flood the bathroom sinks and report to the teacher that “someone clogged the sinks again”. I was a weird child.

[37] college: comme ci, comme ca. I’m pretty much only taking online classes this semester.

[38] hair colour:  so up until I was around 12 my hair was white blonde. When i hit puberty though it slowly started changing color. I now have light brown hair, but in the summer it has blonde highlights.

[39] long or short hair: shoooooooort. I have an undercut that leads to one side being shaved.

[40] do you have a crush on someone: ehh. I’m attracted to a lot of people but i’m not interested in starting a relationship at this point in my life.

[41] what do you like about yourself? So it’s very cliche, but I fucking love my eyes. They range from green to gray to blue. And I have abnormally large pupils so they really accent them. People in high school just assumed I was high all the time.

[42] piercings: dude, guys, peeps, I love piercings. And I am majorly attracted to people with piercings. I have my double lobes done and an industrial bar on my left ear. If I didn’t bite my lips so much I would consider getting a lip ring because I fucking love them.

[43] blood type: AB- , yeah, I’m one of those people

[44] nickname: Mina/ Mina Bina, Rina, MooMoo (thanks Final Fantasy)

[45] relationship status: pining for dogs

[46] zodiac sign: virgo

[47] pronouns: she/her

[48] fav tv show: hmmmm, D. Gray-Man (does that count as a tv show? I don’t watch tv)

[49] tattoos: I have so many tattoo plans. I want the fuckign white tree of Gondor on my back.

[50] right or left handed: right, but I eat properly with my fork in my left hand.

FIRST…

[51] surgery: I had seven stitches in my chin when I was seven years old. Buuuuuut, I’m having major surgery this summer to reduce the size of my boobs. It’s gonna be a grand ol’ time. (hellooooo pretty bras)

[52] piercing: first lobes when I was 7

[53] best friend: I mean, I always call Staci my best friend. And we’ve known each other for our entire lives.

[54] sport: Technically I played soccer in kindergarten, but I wasn’t good at it.

[55] vacation: there’s pictures of toddler-me running naked towards the ocean in Florida with my mom chasing after me with my swimsuit.

[56] pair of trainers: oh fuck if i know, they were most likely blue and from JCpenney’s

RIGHT NOW…

[57] eating: cough drops

[58] drinking: coffee (I know, it’s a disgusting mix with cough drops)

[59] i’m about to: pretend the college didn’t just call me to pay my bill, lol too bad my voicemail inbox is full  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[60] listening to: “Wildfire” - Keston Cobblers Club (it’s incredibly catchy, I strongly recommend)

[61] waiting for: the day I live in the mountains with dogs.

[62] want: for me to decide what I want for dinner

[63] get married: I guess I’d like to be married someday. But I often like to disappear and just be by myself, so, someone very understanding and able to give space would be needed.

[64] career: right now I work full-time as a Kitchen and Transportation Manager at a daycare. It’s amazing. So, I’m basically a fancy lunch-lady. But i’m also a full-time student. One day I will be a famous author and able to support myself through writing (hah_)

WHICH IS BETTER…

[65] hugs or kisses: So I really love hugs. Probably because you don’t get judged by hugging people platonically. And i’m always cold, so body contact is a major thumbsup imo. Buuuuut, I do also like kissing. But kissing kind of involves a hug (at least, most of the time?) In short, hugs are better just because they’re involved in both.

[66] lips or eyes: eyes

[67] shorter or taller: I like my fruity drinks tall, but since I am also a fan of a Manhattan I’m used to short cups as well.

[68] older or younger: I like how many of these questions aren’t even questions, they’re just assuming you know what they’re asking. And I’m a little peeved that I know exactly what the assumption is. idc

[70] nice arms or nice stomach: I like necks. Like, damn, especially since chokers are back in fashion now allllll of my attention is drawn to the neck.

[71] sensitive or loud: are you insinuating that loud people can’t be sensitive?

[72] hook up or relationship: neither here nor there

[73] troublemaker or hesitant: ???

HAVE YOU EVER…

[74] kissed a stranger? kinda

[75] drank hard liquor? yeeeeees (see earlier comment about Manhattans)

[76] lost glasses/contact lenses? kinda? I misplace my glasses all the time when I’m cooking

[77] turned someone down: yes

[78] sex on first date? ehh, there’s a lot of “depends” that can go into this

[79] broken someone’s heart? *shrugs*

[80] had your own heart broken? *shrugs* you’re assuming I have a heart to begin with

[81] been arrested? ;) ... no

[82] cried when someone died? yes

[83] fallen for a friend: muahahaha

DO YOU BELIEVE IN…

[84] yourself? yeah, most of the time

[85] miracles? I’m not a firm believer in praying your worries away, so if that’s the type of miracle you’re asking my answer is “no”. However there have been some major moments of coincidence. I’m putting my money on aliens getting bored.

[86] love at first sight? Does my cat count? I saw her and knew immediately that I wanted to adopt her.

[87] santa claus? only if I can live in the North Pole

[88] kiss on the first date? yeeeee, most likely

[89] angels? Coming from a scientific point of view, I know for certain that the probability of humans being the only advanced race out there is practically nil. Therefore, I have no right to say whether or not angels exist somewhere. I know my late-grandma always did, she prayed to them every morning.

OTHER…

[90] current best friend’s name: Staci! I said it earlier, probably, but I’ve been working on this for a few days and don’t feel like scrolling all the way up.

[91] eye color: I thiiiink I also said this. But blue, gray, greenish

[92] favorite movie: Princess Mononoke

i’m tagging No one! Ha!

#i've literally had this open for most of this week #woops #enjoy my intentionally sarcastic and ambiguous comments #shutupmumu