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mariacallous · 4 months

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It’s telling that both Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais decided to end 2023 by releasing specials in which their comedy pivots to poking fun at the disabled. Could they be more obvious about finding new ways to punch down than targeting people physically unable to fight back?

In a false promise near the opening of his brand-new special and seventh for Netflix, The Dreamer, Chappelle boasts: “Tonight, I’m doing all handicapped jokes,” because “well, they’re not as organized as the gays, and I love punching down.”

Similarly, Gervais decides to have a bit of fun at how we’ve decided as a society to say “disabled” instead of “handicapped” and what that says about us, and suggests further in his special Armageddon, released on Christmas Day, that he’d mock Make-A-Wish kids if given the chance to make videos for them.

And, of course, both men take yet more cracks at the trans community.

Early in The Dreamer, Chappelle tells the audience trans people make him feel like he has to go along with them pretending, as if they’re method acting like Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman: “If you came here to this show tonight thinking that I’m gonna make fun of those people again, you’ve come to the wrong show,” only to keep going back on his word.

He says he hoped to “repair” his relationship with the LGTBQ+ community – by writing a play for them in which a black trans woman only identifies as the N-word to trip up liberals. He also jokes that if he went to jail in California, he’d identify as a woman so he could tell the other inmates to “suck my lady dick.”

But it’s all just jokes, right? Can’t we just take a joke? Have we lost our sense of humor? Or have they?

Earlier this month, we lost two pillars not just of the comedy community but of our American community writ, as Norman Lear and Tommy Smothers stood taller than most anyone and everyone else in television, standing up to the establishment and protesting the powers that be for the sake of civil rights and humanity.

Now we’re left with Chappelle and Gervais—two titans in terms of Netflix ratings and paychecks—who are fighting for… the right to utter slurs onstage and tell already marginalized people that their existence is a joke for reasons that are nearly impossible to divine. Especially when there’s so much in the world to talk about right now, that they’ve chosen anti-trans rights as their comedy cause célèbre is dispiriting. As Mae Martin said in their 2023 Netflix special, Sap: “Big multimillionaire comedians in their stand-up specials are, like, taking shots and punching down at a time when trans rights are so tenuous and slipping backwards.”

Lear and Smothers used their clout on TV to speak truth to power about America’s involvement in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, the hypocrisy of religion, racism, abortion, homosexuality and civil rights. While great trans comedians such as River Butcher and Jaye McBride resorted to releasing their stand-up specials straight to YouTube this year, which famous straight comedians can you recall sticking up for the rights of trans people in America?

It feels so frustrating to sit and watch comedians with the stature of Chappelle and Gervais devote so much of their time and energy to bullying the LGBTQ+ community when they could be doing anything else on stage. And then they have the temerity to question us, the audience, for not laughing with them.

For his part, Gervais willingly misdefines and misuses “woke” by suggesting, “if woke now means being a puritanical, authoritarian bully who gets people fired for an honest opinion or even a fact, then no, I’m not woke. Fuck that.” Is Nazism or transphobia an honest opinion that shouldn’t get you fired? He then claims in his closing bit that “all laughter’s good,” a concept that would be news to 2005-era Chappelle when he cut ties with Comedy Central precisely because he could hear racism in the laughs during a taping of Chappelle’s Show.

In his Grammy-nominated lecture to students at his alma mater, Duke Ellington School of the Arts, What’s In A Name?, Chappelle claimed: “The more you say I can’t say something, the more urgent it is for me to say it. It has nothing to do with what you’re saying I can’t say. It has everything to do with my right and my freedom of artistic expression.”

But that’s not comedy, either—much like Gervais’ admission in his special that as a university student, his idea of a joke was calling his mother and pranking her by saying he was hospitalized and potentially blind. Gervais said her mom could’ve had a heart attack, but in his mind, he remembers it now as “they could take a fucking joke, right?”

At least Sam Jay, in her 2023 HBO special Salute Me Or Shoot Me, wrestles with her conscience and moral compass over the use of certain words in her act and concludes that having empathy for others is key. “How do the rest of us get here? I don’t know… I’m not going to pretend that I have the answers,” Jay says, adding: “So we’re doing things like we’re policing words, but we’re not policing behavior.”

Anthony Jeselnik, who has built his comedy career on brandishing himself as an offensive caricature of a comedian, told fellow comedian and podcaster Theo Von earlier this year that too many stand-ups would rather get into trouble by saying the wrong thing instead of focusing on their job and saying funny things.

“People think — oh, as a comic your job is to get in trouble. But they don’t want to get yelled at. It’s like, it’s OK to make people mad, but they don’t want any push back. And I think that’s wrong,” Jeselnik said. “As a comedian, you want to make people laugh. This is a quote attributed to Andy Warhol that I love: ‘Art is getting away with it.’ You know, if you put out a special and everyone’s pissed, like, you didn’t get away with it. You know. You need to make everyone laugh that they’re like, ‘Yeah, he talked about some fucked up stuff, but we’re all happy.’ That’s art. Otherwise, you’re just a troll.”

Kliph Nesteroff, a comedy historian whose newest book is Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars, similarly told me last month that some while comedians see themselves sometimes as “philosophers” he believes they are “betraying their job description because you’re supposed to make people laugh, and philosophers are supposed to philosophize.”

Comedians may claim they can’t joke about anything anymore, but they joke about more now than ever before. The real problem with stand-up today is that too many comedians would rather kick people when they’re down, then lecture us on how we’re too sensitive for not laughing about it.

When Chappelle, Gervais or their acolytes have to incessantly explain that their jokes are just jokes, then they cease to be great comedians—or even comedians at all.

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thefirstlioveyou · 3 months

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isn’t it interesting that for a good majority of audience, all a straight relationship has to do to be considered peak fiction or writing is to make out and have an unhealthy dynamic that loser cishet men can self insert themselves in? for general audiences, these ships don’t need to prove themselves why they’re good - they just have to be a boy and a girl.

but then you got a fully fleshed out dynamic between two characters of the same sex, where their endgame fulfills their personal arcs and are meant to be; they just work, all while still reaching their full potential as characters. but instead of support and, y’know, basic media literacy, it’s always, “why is everything gay now? why can’t they just be friends?” well, because they only ever are! that’s why!

maybe it’s because i’m queer and will naturally be drawn to media i can resonate with, but it’s incredibly rare for me to believe there’s romance in a fictional het ship. it’s almost always souless, always the same formula. there’s no effort to make the audience fall in love along with them. don’t get me wrong, there are queer relationships that also feel poorly written and i cannot seem to be drawn to, but i’ve never experienced this the same amount of times i have with a het ship; not even close.

however, i never felt this way watching stranger things. lumax, jopper, jancy - they are absolutely believable romances. there’s conflict, there’s reason why they love each other. but most of all, the relationship takes its time to grow. the writers understand pacing is an important factor for writing romance.

this is why mileven always seemed so different from the rest, and why it was always destined to fail because of it. it was forced. literally in the narrative, it is pushed upon mike by his friends. el is kissed and because she sees mike in this pedastal from her trauma regarding male caregivers, she follows through and grows an unhealthy dynamic from the understanding of love she’s only ever been familar with. i genuinely believe she never would have seen him in a romantic light if he hadn’t kissed her. and finally, their character arcs just cannot be fulfilled if they continue to stay together - they just can’t. they just go back to square one with zero growth.

there is no actual appeal to the ship. it was cute the first season! but… that’s it? they kept getting pulled away from each other by the story itself, so they get like no time together. and the time they do, they’re busy breaking up. they have no common interests, they can’t give each other what they want/need, they unintentionally trigger each other’s traumas, still have yet to connect on a personal level.

but, i guess that’s what you call beautifully written television romance.. i guess that’s where we are.

#writing this in one go with no revision #byler #mike wheeler #will byers #anti mlvn #anti mileven #stranger things #rambling

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wearevillaneve · 5 months

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"We had a diverse set and a very queer set as well which was just like...it was like for me this is just like a dream."

It seems as though Sandra Oh and her gay little heart really enjoyed being on the set of Quiz Lady. But why?

Oh yeah. That's why. Sorry if this is new to any Killing Eve fan who came in after this all shit went down in 2020. Here's some context for any latecomers.

Sandra Oh has said she believes the UK is “behind” when it comes to diversity in TV and film.

The Killing Eve star pointed out that she has been the only Asian person on set for many of her projects and said she believes the UK is further behind than the US.

“Being the sole Asian person is a very familiar place for me,” the Canadian-American told Kerry Washington as part of Variety magazine’s Actors on Actors series. “The UK, I’m not afraid to say, is behind. I’m not only the only Asian person on set – sometimes it changes, [it’s] very exciting when someone comes on set.” She continued: “The development of people behind the camera is very slow in the UK. I don’t know about the rest of Europe. Sometimes it would be me and 75 white people and I have not come from that.

“I have not come from that in my film career, which has been much more independent, mostly working with women and women of colour. And my relationship with television – and in the United States – hasn’t necessarily been all white.”

After four seasons of shooting in England with all-White, predominantly male, and definitely straight crews, I bet Sandra appreciates being back in the U.S.A. where diversity (and queerness) is a feature on Quiz Lady, not a bug like Killing Eve.

#killing eve #sandra oh #eve polastri #british #no diversity #big problem #welcome home #quiz lady #everybody deserves to be seen #lgbtq inclusive #sandra oh is the coolest person on the planet #and she gay #i will not elaborate

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warningsine · 13 days

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The funniest show on television is Girls5Eva, which transplanted from the backwoods of Peacock to the mires of Netflix for its third season. While a lot of shows have taken off after landing on Netflix — You, for instance — Girls5Eva, from the data available publicly, didn’t get many viewers on the platform. I’m no expert on the mechanics of streaming, but I have one radical explanation for why this is happening: There are simply not enough episodes of Girls5Eva available to watch. On Peacock, the show had two eight-episode seasons. Netflix has given it an additional six. That means that Girls5Eva has aired, in total, only 22 episodes, about the same number as a full-season order of an old-fashioned network sitcom like 30 Rock, to which Meredith Scardino’s series is deeply indebted (Scardino wrote on 30 Rock; Tina Fey is a Girls5Eva executive producer). Over a three-year period? This is simply not enough!

Sitcoms are built for mass production and consumption, with dynamics between characters designed to generate an endless stream of story lines, and it can take a season or two to fully gel. Girls5Eva is lucky enough to have a distinct sensibility and a strong cast from the start, but it hasn’t had the space to work through all the possible material. There’s so much to mine in flashbacks to the girl group’s checkered early-aughts past, in Wickie’s failed solo career, in Summer’s wackadoo Christian upbringing, in Gloria’s fraught lesbian drama, and in Dawn’s attempts to find her own way as a songwriter (plus the larger meta arc of Sara Bareilles coming into her own as a comedic actor). Season three, in which the crew goes on tour around the country, tries to cover so much ground it’s like a distance runner sprinting at her vO2 max. The overarching plot — they want to perform at Radio City Music Hall — encroaches on all the fun along the way, rushing past a guest appearance from Cat Cohen, the reveal of Wickie’s real backstory, and an intricate Harry Styles parody. Sitcoms should be about all the fun everyone is having along the way, and we’ve lost that.

But there is another and perhaps more important reason that we need longer seasons of Girls5Eva: holidays. Network sitcoms, airing on a traditional schedule, have the opportunity to set episodes around the holidays near which they would air; think of the Thanksgiving episodes of Friends, The Office’s Christmas episodes, 30 Rock’s impeccable use of Leap Day. In my ideal universe where Girls5Eva has 22-episode seasons, Netflix would also abandon the binge strategy and air those episodes weekly, but that’s not a necessity. You could still drop them all at once, which gives me the opportunity to revisit the holiday episodes as those holidays occur throughout the year. If you need convincing, here are my suggestions for some holidays the Girls5Eva might celebrate:

Christmas (duh): Dawn tries to write a Christmas song; Wickie reveals a longstanding feud with Mariah Carey (she claims one of the items from her riff rolodex appears in “All I Want for Christmas Is You”; Mariah does not know her).

Thanksgiving: The girls try to book a gig at the Macy’s Parade (as Peacock actually had the stars do, to the confusion of my parents watching at home) while also atoning for their past sins at the event (revealed in flashback).

Valentine’s Day: Gloria revisits a past relationship with Taylor Lautner (she was his dentist).

Tax season: Summer reveals she hasn’t been paying taxes for years (thought you were covered if you already paid your church).

Presidents’ Day: Dawn tries to write a song about Lincoln being sexy, inadvertently offends a gay activist group.

Pride month: Return of Bowen Yang’s lip-sync influencer.

Cuffing season: Big for Gloria.

The Feast of San Gennaro: Big for Dawn (why is the show so all-in on Sara Bareilles being Italian??).

V-E Day: Wickie and Dawn’s husband, Scott, discover their mutual fascination with the Eastern Front: “I spent a lot of time touring post-Soviet states, okay!”

Casimir Pulaski Day: Gloria has beef with Sufjan Stevens.

#girls5eva

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aba-daba-dooo · 15 days

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I’m sure my friends on tumblr are like “why did you get so into psych? That seems uncharacteristic of you.” So allow me to explain.

I 👏 am 👏 unsatisfied 👏 with 👏 it 👏

I love things that leave me screaming that there was so much more left to explore. I hate that psych left Shawn and Henry’s relationship unresolved. I hate that there are so many little details that are just skipped over or forgotten. I hate that Shawn’s backstory is just a series of jokes and jabs. I hate how clearly gay it is! (I hate how Shawn is very clearly an actual psychic and this could have been the premise of the greatest paranormal show ever— just some idiot who doesn’t know he’s psychic!)

But I love that. I love it so much because there’s stuff to talk about. I love that I can sink my teeth into the flesh of this show and tear it apart. I love that it makes me think about copaganda and how television reflects our standards but also the veil of fiction and how we insist media be righteous. I am creatively inspired by things that are imperfect. It’s been years since I’ve really enjoyed writing. Years since I’ve enjoyed making an outfit (like what I’m wearing to psych con).

This thing is flawed and I have so much room to play with it. It’s things like this that remind me why I got into fan studies and why I’m a teacher, and it’s because I love looking at all the possibilities.

#psych #psych tv

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tortellini-bandit · 1 month

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- Oh My God They Were Roommates: Chapter 2

Word count: ~4.2k

Description: Henry tells Pez what’s going on. Alex and Henry have sex for the first time

Edited by: @morbific-or-felicific

Chapter 2

“Kill him, kill him, kill him!”

“I’m not going to kill him, you soulless demon. What if he has a wife and kids?”

“Oh, so it has to be a wife, huh? Why can’t he have a husband?” Alex scoffs. “Homophobic much?”

“Alex,” Henry says slowly, like he’s explaining basic math to a small child. “I’m gay.”

“Sounds like an excuse to me.” Alex turns back to the screen, the fluorescent light from the TV glinting off his glasses, and distracting Henry for perhaps a moment too long. “Come on, look what you’ve done, he’s getting away!”

Henry sighs, also turning back to face their television.

Recently, Alex has taken to attempting to get Henry to play some sort of video game called “Skyrim”. Which, from what Henry’s gathered so far, involves running around mindlessly and attempting to find civilians to kill with a very large axe.

For the next hour and a half, Alex continues to get him to commit several war crimes. Henry continues to refuse to hurt any innocent people. Alex is getting progressively more frustrated with Henry about this. And every once in a while, Henry will find out a useful bit of information.

“Why didn’t you tell me you can wield magic in this bloody game? You should have led with that!”

“Because magic is lame compared to that two-handed battle axe you’ve got in your hands right now.”

“Magic is not lame-”

That argument goes on for a while. It ends in Henry’s triumph when he threatens to stop playing altogether if Alex doesn’t let him wield magic instead. He feels rather smug about it.

Henry’s relationship with Alex hasn’t changed since they fucked in their kitchen two weeks ago.

Alex still makes Henry a cup of Orange Pekoe with a splash of cream when he makes his coffee in the morning. He still falls asleep halfway through truly horrible comedy movies he spent half an hour convincing Henry to watch with him. He still sends Henry Instagram reels at all ungodly hours of the night and day, even when Henry is sitting in the same room as him. He still leaves lists, most of them completely unintelligible, scattered about their flat for Henry to collect and place in a neat pile on Alex’s desk. Still places a pillow under his head and a blanket over him when Henry falls asleep on the couch, reading, at 3:00am because he couldn’t fall asleep in his cold, lonely room. He still plucks the book carefully from Henry’s slack grip, marking his page, and setting it on the coffee table.

Well, nothing’s changed except now sometimes Alex will slide off the sofa during their movie nights, unbuckling Henry’s belt, and taking half of him in his mouth at once. He’ll bring Henry right to the edge over and over for what feels like hours, not letting him fall over it until he’s writhing on the sofa, crying and begging, movie long forgotten. Only then will Alex finally let Henry spill down his throat. He’ll open his mouth, showing Henry his cum on his tongue. And then he’ll make Henry thank him.

Nothing’s changed except now sometimes when Henry comes home, stressed and tense after a long day, Alex will put him on his knees. Will fuck his face, will pull his hair a little too roughly and squeeze the sides of his throat until he’s choking and gasping for air. He’ll call him a whore for enjoying it. And Henry’s mind will go blissfully blank for the first time all day.

Nothing’s changed except now Henry has gotten a taste of what it would be like to have Alex. Have all of him the way he wants him.

Nothing’s changed except now Henry can no longer shove down his emotions as easily as he could before. He finds himself staring at Alex more and more often. Expression open and raw, before he catches himself, schooling his features and forcing his gaze back to what he’s supposed to be focused on. His book. His essay. The breakfast he’s making.

“Hey, dude, I don’t mean to complain when you’re cooking for me and everything. But those eggs are looking a little… black.”

Henry startles, looking back down at the pan on the stove and realizing that Alex is right. What he’s been pushing mindlessly around in the pan now resembles a charred mess more than it resembles scrambled eggs.

“Damn,” Henry swears, turning the stove off and removing the skillet from the burner. He stares ruefully at the blackened eggs, unable to meet Alex’s eyes. He didn’t miss the way Alex called him “dude” before. Like they’re just friends. Like they’re “bros”. Like Henry doesn’t know how Alex tastes. Like Henry doesn’t know the exact cadence of Alex’s breaths right before he comes. Like Henry can’t still feel the bruises on his inner thighs that Alex hasn’t let heal since he gave them to him.

Like Henry hasn’t been in love with him since he was nineteen.

“You seem distracted lately, sweetheart.” Alex’s lean body presses against Henry’s from behind, his arms wrapping around his waist. He can feel the small rise and fall of Alex’s chest with his breaths. Can feel his warmth through the fabric of their shirts. Henry shifts, leaning his body back against Alex’s, closing his eyes, relishing the small comfort.

In these moments, Henry can almost pretend that Alex actually wants him too. Can almost pretend they live together because they want to, not because rent is cheaper this way. That Alex wants him, and only him. That Alex isn’t just using him as a body to warm his bed because it’s convenient. At least until he finds someone he actually wants to spend his life with.

“Just tired. You know how I get when finals are coming up.”

Alex hums, pressing his lips into the spot in between Henry’s shoulder blades.

He suppresses a shiver.

After a long moment, Alex pulls away. “Come on, we can still get breakfast on the way if we leave now.” Alex looks mournfully at what was supposed to be their breakfast. “And perhaps pick up a new skillet.”

“Sod off.” Henry shoves at him playfully. “I absolutely did not ruin our frying pan. It just needs to be washed.”

“If by ‘washed’, you mean ‘thrown out entirely’, then yes, I completely agree.”

Henry rolls his eyes, but he knows the gesture comes across more fond than anything.

***

“My darling Hazza.”

Henry sighs.

“Do you mean to tell me that you’ve been letting our dear Alexander bend you over every possible surface of that sad excuse for a flat for two weeks, and you’re just telling me now?” Pez screeches.

Henry winces. “Technically speaking, he hasn’t bent me over any surfaces. We haven’t done anything past blowjobs.”

“You know better than to think I’ll let you off the hook on a technicality.” Pez’s voice comes out so high pitched that Henry is impressed it didn’t crack.

“See,” Henry exhales, suddenly very tired, “this is why I didn’t want to tell you. Because I knew you’d overreact.”

“Overreact?” Pez looks like he’s fighting the urge to strangle Henry. Henry can’t really blame him. He’s also had the urge to strangle himself quite frequently these past few weeks.

“Mate, you’re having ‘casual, no strings’ sex with the man you’ve been in love with since the moment you laid eyes on. And that’s not even mentioning the fact that you bloody live with him! What are you going to do when all of this inevitably goes down in flames?” Pez throws up his hands in frustration.

“I don’t know, okay?” he snaps. He pushes himself angrily to his feet, going to stand by the window, watching the snow flutter gently to the ground, illuminated by the halos of light cast from the streetlamps.

“I don’t know,” he says quieter.

“Haz.” Pez comes to stand beside him, voice softer this time. It’s lost its sharp edge of frustration, replaced by something else.

Pity maybe. 

“I think you should break it off now, before this has a chance to hurt you any more than it already has.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Why not? Can’t you see what this is doing to you?” Pez implores.

“I can’t, alright?” Henry’s almost yelling now. “I can’t because this is as close as I’m going to get to having him.” He draws in a shaky breath. “He’s going to move on, he’s going to find somebody else, and this will all just be an amusing memory he looks back on sometimes, but for me.” He pauses for a moment, collecting himself, fighting the sting in his eyes. “But for me, this is everything. I would never forgive myself if I gave this up just to save myself a little pain.” Henry can feel Pez’s eyes on him, but he stares resolutely out the window.

The snow has picked up little, falling in delicate bunches rather than individual snowflakes. “Because right now I can pretend that this is more than it is. And that’s worth more to me than trying to protect myself from any future heartbreak.”

Pez stares at him for a long moment before finally speaking. “Then I think you should tell him how you feel.”

Henry whips his head around at that, staring incredulously at his best friend.

“I think he might surprise you,” Pez says gently.

“No. No, he won’t surprise me. He’ll stop whatever this is immediately. He’ll conveniently never have time for our movie nights anymore. He’ll start to look at me with pity in his eyes. ‘Poor Henry fell in love with his best friend who will never feel the same.’ And what if he moves out to try to make it less awkward between us? I’ll never see him again. I’ll lose any part of him I ever had.” Henry hangs his head.

“Oh, Henry.”

In the hollow silence that follows, Henry knows he’s right.

***

When Henry walks through the door of their flat, shoulders curled inward on himself, eyes downcast, melted snow dripping from his hair, Alex is by his side in an instant. “Baby. What’s wrong?”

Henry’s heart soars in its metal cage at the nickname.

“Nothing. It’s just– it’s nothing.”

Alex’s hand starts rubbing soothing circles over Henry’s shoulder. “Do you want me to make you some tea? Or we can get wine drunk and blast music; fuck the neighbours.” Alex tilts Henry’s chin up with gentle fingers, forcing him to look into his kind eyes. “Tell me what I can do.”

Henry juts his chin out, meeting Alex’s steady gaze, and says what he’s wanted to say for years.

“Fuck me.”

Alex’s eyes dart back and forth between Henry’s, searching for any sign of doubt. “Are you sure?”

Henry almost laughs. There’s very little else he’s more sure of than this. “Yes. Please, Alex. I– I need this.”

“Fuck, okay, yes. Yes, of course I’ll fuck you, baby.” Alex gently cradles the side of his face with his warm hand.

“I– I need you to be rough,” Henry tells him. “I need you to use me. So I don’t have to think.” He pauses. “Please, Alex.”

Alex’s pupils dilate, expression changing. Shifting into something less kind. Something crueler. “Yeah? You want me to put you on your back and give you a good fucking, princess? Split you open on my cock until you forget every word that’s not my name?”

“Yes,” Henry breathes.

“Yes, what?” Alex snaps.

A bolt of lightning shoots up the length of Henry’s spine. “Yes, sir.”

Alex smirks. “Such a good little slut.”

Henry shatters.

Alex lets his hand fall, taking a step back. His eyes languidly travel the length of Henry’s body, deliberating. “I want you on your bed,” Alex says. “Waiting for me come fuck you.”

Henry’s breath hitches. He nods.

“And if you touch yourself before I get there.” Alex’s eyes narrow. “Then you don’t get to come. I’ll fuck you open, and then leave you desperate and alone. Begging for more. Understood?” 

Henry nods again.

“Good.” He jerks his head in the direction of Henry’s bedroom.

Henry steps out of his shoes, shrugging off his jacket and hanging it on the hook. Alex lazily tracks his movements. Then Henry walks off down the hall without a backwards glance. Leaving Alex to stare after him.

One he’s in his room, he strips down to his boxers, folding his clothes and placing them neatly on his desk chair. Impossibly, he’s already half hard. From the way Alex had looked at him. From the anticipation of what’s to come. He lays on the bed, propped against his pillows, watching the door. He aches to wrap a hand around himself, to take the edge off, but Alex’s warning rings in his ears, stopping him.

He isn’t kept waiting long. When Alex walks through the door, forgoing knocking, he’s holding a condom, a bottle of lube, and– a length of rope. Alex’s eyes glint with something bright and dangerous when he sees Henry’s gaze linger on the rope.

Henry’s no stranger to being tied up, but this rope is rather thin. The kind that will dig painfully into his wrists if he pulls too hard. The kind that will leave marks tomorrow. If he’s lucky.

“Having second thoughts, princess?” Alex taunts. His tone is mocking, but Henry can hear the genuine question underneath. He’s giving Henry an out. Even though he’s the one who asked Alex to fuck him. To use him. Like he’s nothing more than Alex’s personal plaything.

Henry shakes his head. “No.”

“Good.” Alex’s smirk returns. It’s a little crooked and positively lethal. Henry wants to sear the image into his mind.

Alex approaches the bed, setting the condom and the lube on the night stand, but keeping the rope. Henry lifts his arms above his head, bracing them near the headboard, staring up at Alex expectantly.

“Fuck, you’re perfect,” Alex breathes.

Henry’s heart stutters in his chest.

The bed dips when Alex braces his knee against the edge, leaning over Henry to tie his wrists. The rope is surprisingly smooth against his skin as Alex ties practiced loops, pulling them taut. The knots is just this side of too tight, so Henry knows there will likely be bruises tomorrow. He’ll probably have to wear a long sleeve shirt to cover them.

He doesn’t want to. He wants to show them off. He wants the world to see. Wants everyone to know that Henry was tied to headboard and used. Wants them to know it was Alex who gave him these bruises.

Alex, who has the body of an Olympic swimmer. Alex, with his infectious laugh. Alex, with his perfect curls he spends half an hour styling every morning. Alex, with his adorable glasses he refuses to wear to class, but insists on wearing when he’s playing video games because it ‘enhances the experience.’ Alex, who could have anyone, but who chose Henry.

For now.

Alex climbs onto the bed, hovering over Henry, arms braced on either side of him. He leans down, and for one utterly insane moment, Henry thinks Alex is about to kiss him. He doesn’t, of course. They don’t do that. Instead, he moves higher, and Henry gasps when he feels Alex’s warm tongue tracing patterns just below the delicate skin of his wrists. It takes him a moment to realize that Alex is tracking the path of his veins with his tongue.

“Alex, please.”

“Did I say you could talk?” Teeth dig painfully into his forearm. “Do you need me to gag you just to make you behave?” Alex soothes over his mark with his tongue. An apology.

A shiver runs the length of Henry’s spine, and he shakes his head, not making the mistake of speaking out of turn again.

He wonders if Alex would actually gag him. He wonders what else Alex might do if he talked back. If he was a brat. But that’s something to test another time.

***

“Fuck, Henry. You’re so tight.”

Henry gasps at the stretch, suddenly overwhelmed when he feels Alex push into him in one long, slow movement. So much bigger than his fingers. He writhes on the bed, instinctually pulling at his restraints, but they don’t so much as budge. The thin rope digs into his skin, and he almost moans at the dull sting.

Alex stops when he bottoms out, giving him a moment to adjust. His curls are falling into his eyes, and Henry aches to push them out of his face, but he can’t. So, instead, he settles for watching the pleasure painting Alex’s beautiful features, and the strain of his arm muscles from where he’s hovering over Henry, keeping most of his weight off. Henry almost wishes he wouldn’t.

He wants him closer, though he knows that’s physically impossible right now. But it doesn’t stop him from wanting Alex to break open his chest and make a home for himself, curled around Henry’s pathetic little heart.

He gives Alex a small nod, almost imperceptible if you weren’t looking for it, but Alex sees and understands.

He pulls almost all the way out before slamming back in.

Henry almost blacks out from the intense combination of pleasure and pain, hands scrabbling for purchase against the headboard.

Alex starts to build a brutal, punishing rhythm, the bed banging unceremoniously against the wall. And for one, hysterical moment, he worries about the neighbours. Within the next moment, he isn’t thinking much about anything.

“Ngh–” A strangled moan is torn from his lips.

“God, Henry, you’re so, ah, desperate for it, aren’t you? Desperate for me to fuck your slutty little hole, aren’t you?” Alex rakes his blunt nails down Henry’s side, and he cries out. “Use your words, princess.”

“Yes, yes! I need you. Need your cock. Harder, please,” he begs.

“Fuck, you’re such a perfect little cockslut. Just for me, isn’t that, ah, right, princess?”

Henry’s back arches off the bed, very nearly coming from those words alone.

Yes! Yes, yours. Only ever yours.

“I’m going to wreck you for anyone else. No one’s ever gonna be able to fuck you like I can.” As if proving his point, he changes his angle, hitting that spot he was purposefully avoiding before.

“God, yes.” Henry’s tongue lolls out of his mouth, and stars explode behind his eyes. He’s pretty sure he’s drooling onto his pillows. His cock is red and angry and weeping where it’s trapped between their bodies, and the small friction in the drag of Alex’s body against his is everything.

His body feels like a livewire. Every sensation, every filthy word coming out of Alex’s perfect mouth feels magnified, somehow. But he also feels like if he moves the wrong way, he might shatter.

“Look at you, princess.” Alex’s thumb catches on the tip of Henry’s cock, smearing precum. “You’re so wet.” Alex *fists his cock, too hard, and Henry cries out, thrashing. His body trying to get away from the overwhelming stimulation, but his restraints, and Alex’s strong, warm hands keep him firmly in place.

“Please, Alex,” Henry whines.

“Please what, sweetheart?” Alex flicks his wrist, and Henry arches into his touch. “Please fuck you so hard you’re limping for a week?” A particularly hard thrust sends Henry’s thoughts scattering from his mind, and he’s too slow to catch them. “Answer me.”

“I–I don’t, ngh–”

“Please give you a collar of pretty bruises so everyone knows that you’re mine?” Alex grabs a fistful of Henry’s hair, yanking his head back, forcing him to meet Alex’s dark gaze. Mine to fuck.” Another hard thrust. “Mine to use.” Another. “Mine.”

Yes, yes, yes!

“Christ, I’m gonna– Alex, I’m gonna–”

Alex squeezes the base of his cock, effectively stopping his building orgasm. Henry cries at the loss.

Alex draws his mouth up right next to Henry’s ear. “You don’t get to come until I say you can.” Alex’s voice is quiet, dangerous. It makes Henry want to record it so he can listen to it again and again, long after their little arrangement has ended. “Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, sir.” Henry voice sounds pitiful, even to his own ears.

Alex smirks. “Good.” He changes his angle again, somehow managing to get deeper than before. “Good bitch.”

“God, Alex, you’re, ngh, so big.” Henry can barely string two thoughts together anymore. Too lost in the feeling of being fucked open like this, of being forced to just take it. He can practically feel Alex in his throat.

“Fuck, princess, I’m, ah, close.” Alex attaches his lips to Henry’s collarbone, sucking at Henry’s skin like his goal is to leave a bruise so dark, Henry couldn’t possibly hide it. His hands are leaving bruises in the shapes of his fingerprints, and he’s making good on his promise to give Henry a necklace of bruises.

Alex wraps his hand around Henry’s cock again, strokes fast and rough, and electricity sparks at the contact.

“Yes, god, yes! Please. Let me come, I need, ngh, to come.”

“God, you’re so pretty when you’re begging for it.”

“Alex–”

“Open your mouth for me, baby.”

Henry blinks, uncomprehending, and Alex wrenches his head back with his tight grip curled around Henry’s hair. “I said open your mouth.”

Henry complies, and Alex flashes his teeth in a cruel grin before spitting in his mouth. Henry gasps, eyes rolling back in his head. His whole body shudders, and he wants. Wants to taste Alex’s lips against his. Wants to feel his tongue in his mouth. Wants Alex to bite at his lips until he tastes copper. Wants Alex to want him.

“Swallow.”

Henry shudders, swallowing Alex’s spit in his mouth.

Removes his hand from Henry’s hair, wrapping it around Henry’s dick, now slick with Henry’s precum, and his cock is nailing his sweet spot with almost every thrust. Henry knows he’s letting out little whimpers and moans, but he’s so close to the edge, if Alex doesn’t let him come, he’ll shatter underneath him.

“Fuck, fuck, Henry, I’m gonna come.” Alex’s breaths are coming in a staccato. He scratches his blunt nails roughly across Henry’s scalp, fucks into him once, twice, three times, and comes. Henry doesn’t think he’s wanted anything more than he wants there not to be a condom separating them; he wants to feel Alex, hot inside him.

Alex fucks Henry slowly through the aftershocks, still stroking him lazily, and Henry sobs at still being denied his release, unsure how much more he can take.

Then. “Come for me, princess.”

Henry cries as he comes, vision going white, streaking his cum across his stomach and Alex’s abdomen. He thinks he even feels some up by his chest.

Alex continues to stroke him until he’s whining and trembling and fighting to get away from the overstimulation.

When Henry comes back to himself, he notices Alex is staring down at him and stroking his hair softly. The expression on Alex’s face makes him look away. He looks– he looks like he’s never seen anything as beautiful as what he’s looking at right now. Henry can’t bear to look at him, not knowing it doesn’t mean anything. Knowing it’s just the post-orgasm haze.

Alex doesn’t say anything, just stares at Henry for a moment longer, and then starts to move. He pulls out slowly, placing a gentle kiss to his temple when he notices Henry’s grimace of discomfort. He ties the condom off and tosses it in the bin and shuffles up the bed, leaning over Henry to untie him.

When he’s free, Henry sits up, bringing his wrists to his face, examining the damage. There’s definitely a little bruising, though it’s not nearly as bad as it could have been, and there’s no rope burn. He’s rubbing his wrists, trying to soothe the tender ache when Alex gets up and leaves.

Henry’s not really sure why he’s surprised. They’re not dating. Alex doesn’t owe him anything. He asked Alex to fuck him, and he did. He shouldn’t have expected anything more.

A minute later, Alex returns, a warm, wet cloth in his hand, and a soft smile on his face. Shame floods Henry’s body. Of course Alex wouldn’t just leave someone after something like this. That’s not who Alex is.

Henry offers him his own shaky smile in return.

“You made quite the mess here, Your Highness.” Alex gestures to Henry’s cum that’s cooling on his stomach.

“All for you, dear.”

Alex tips his head back and laughs. A real laugh. Not the one he uses when he’s trying to charm someone, or flirt his way into getting what he wants. Henry watches the elegant column of his throat, his Adams apple bobbing.

Alex uses the cloth to gently wipe away Henry’s cum, and Henry hisses when he reaches his sensitive cock. Alex kisses over his hip bones in apology.

When he’s done, he stretches out on Henry’s bed like he owns it, smiling sleepily at him.

“Are you coming to bed, Your Highness?”

“It’s my bed, you insolent arse.”

“Exactly.” Alex grins

Henry exhales a long breath, gets up to flick off the light, pulls on a pair of boxers, then lays down, somewhat stiffly, next to Alex. He’s not entirely sure why Alex isn’t leaving to go back to his own room. But then Alex sighs contentedly and slings an arm across Henry’s waist before promptly falling asleep, snoring in his ear. Leaving Henry to stare at the ceiling, and wonder if he’ll still be here in the morning.

Eventually, some hours later, he falls asleep too.

#alex claremont diaz #henry fox mountchristen windsor #firstprince #firstprince fic #henry x alex #red white and royal blue #red white and royal blue fanfiction #rwrb fic #rwrb #full fic

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wen-kexing-apologist · 6 months

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Bengiyo Queer Cinema Syllabus

For those who are not aware, I have decided to run the gauntlet of @bengiyo’s Queer Cinema Syllabus and have officially started Unit 3: Faith and Religion. The films in Unit 3 are: But I’m a Cheerleader (2000), Prayers for Bobby (2009), Latter Days (2003), Blackbird (2014), The Wise Kids (2011), Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party (2015)

Today I will be writing about

Latter Days (2003) dir. C. Jay Cox

[Run Time: 1:48 , Available: tubi, youtube premium, amazon but you have to get a free trial to something else…I tried watching it…somewhere else but they were updating the movie so I caved and went to tubi, Lang: English]

Summary: Latter Days is a 2003 American romantic comedy-drama film about a gay relationship between a closeted Mormon missionary and his openly gay neighbor. (from wiki)

Cast: * Wes Ramsey as Christian Markelli * Steve Sandvoss as Elder Aaron Davis

___

Content Warnings because I don't really write about those parts of the movie here: this film gets to a dark place, it includes self harm/a suicide attempt, homophobia, medical torture, and a story about being left to die by a parent. Alright, so after sufficiently crying my eyes out binging Eternal Yesterday, I decided there was enough time in the evening to knock out another film from the syllabus. Today’s film was (partially) about Mormons and Mormonism. My own personal understanding of Mormonism does not extend too far beyond The Book of Mormon: The Musical. Which gave me some impression that homosexuality is a sin, but only if acted upon.

Which, is gonna suck for our poor dear Elder Davis, when he and three other Elders roll in to Los Angeles and in to a house across from our beloved booty shorts wearing waiter. The movie seems pretty low budget, and it’s from 2003 so there are some, what I would call cheesy camera effects happening at the beginning, but I still enjoyed the way the world seemed sped up and disorienting when Mr. Mormon lands in Los Angeles from his home in Idaho.

I love our introduction to Christian as an unapologetically queer, slutty man and not only that, but Christian has his sex life together. He remembers who he has slept with, and when, and takes fucking notes and everything. Like, he’s truly impressive.

gif from @bl-bam-beyond

Aaron and Christian make eye contact as every love at first sight story is wont to do, and then realize later they are neighbors. At which point a lot of decently subtle things start to happen. Aaron starts sitting outside to study his scripture in hopes of running in to Christian, Aaron and Christian talk about his mission trip, we get to see the four Elders interact, etc. and these subtler moments were aspects of this film that I deeply appreciated.

Do not get me wrong, this film is absolutely critical of the Mormon church, (there is a scene near the end of the film where Elder Davis is getting excommunicated from the church for being a homosexual), but there are a lot of quite parts they do not say out loud around the intentional isolation that The Church of Latter Day Saints creates by sending their boys on missions trips in the first place.

This film does not, in my opinion, explicitly discuss or state that mission trips really seem to be less to recruit new members and more to make sure their younger members don’t go running off to join the rest of society. The Elders are not allowed to see their family for two years, their families are not allowed to see them, they are not allowed to listen to music, to watch television, all the Elders in that location live together in one house, they share a room so there is no privacy, they go knocking door to door to try to spread the word only to have the doors slammed repeatedly in their face. These tactics exist to make these boys homesick, to make the outer world seem hostile, to bring the Mormon roommates closer together when the outsiders push them away. But the implication is there.

I have to share the quote that comes with this gif: "You're gonna come in to my house and tell me God hates homosexuals?" || "And the French!"

And actually, the thing I appreciate the most about this commentary is the fact that the Elders are aware of this, and that they are allowed to be young men. I loved that one Elder was talking to Aaron about how mission trips were designed to be difficult, and that you can tell he is generally disinterested in spreading The Word. This Elder views his mission trip as the last major hoop he has to jump through before he can marry his girlfriend and “finally nail her”. Horniness fuels his motivation to get through this mission.

These “Elders” (and I put quotes here not to strip them of their titles but to point out the irony) are nineteen or twenty years old. They are fucking gross. Their apartment is decorated like boys live there, with bean bag chairs and all, and they fart on each other, and wrestle, and bite their bedframes to try to stop themselves from jerking off. Hell, when they first move in, Christian mistakes them for a frat house. They are homophobic, and throw slurs around, but they look incredulous at the mere thought of consuming alcohol.

The first time Aaron is faced with the potential to give in to his gay thoughts, he tells Christian he hasn’t done anything. When Christian says it doesn’t have to mean anything and Aaron says “yes it does”, he asks “my first time can just be a little fun for you?” like Aaron was fully planning on having sex with Christian. I like that Aaron, as a young man is going 0 to 100 with the physical intimacy.

I often have difficulty with romance stories in movie formats because I have to push past how quickly two characters fall in love. Which is the case here that Christian is confessing his love for Aaron after they have interacted like…five times total. But, I appreciate the ways they show us that Christian and Aarong would be good for each other. We see them being absolute nerds, saying movie quotes to each other. I love that we know Aaron is going to break the rules and eventually give in to Christian, just based on the fact that he gives Christian his first name. Which he is not supposed to use when he’s on his mission trip.

gif from @bl-bam-beyond

I am not a religious person, so I don’t usually pay attention to whether or not a film that critics religion is going to take a hard atheistic turn or not. But I actually thought it was compassionate, kind, and in keeping with the nature of like, religion as spirituality, versus religion as control and fear tactic. I like that all these little coincidences happened, that Christian saw Aaron through his taxi cab window, that Aaron talked to and comforted Lila (Christians’ boss) when she was having a bad day and she gave him her card and told him to come to her restaurant for a free meal, that when Christian is looking for Aaron his random doodles end up being the phone number he needs to call, that Julie in stealing entries from Christian’s diary for her song allowed Aaron to hear it in the facility his parents put him in and return to LA, and that Aaron and Christian were reunited because Aaron cashed in on that free meal from Lila.

And so too with the man Christian meets who is dying of AIDS, how he touches him and only sees snow. How he chalks that up to Christian being a blank person, shallow. The same way that Aaron has described Christian “there is nothing, nothing about you, Christian that isn’t skin deep”. And how we see Christian recoil from the touch, from the words ‘snow’ (and we will come to find out later, why that is the case).

Like these can all be coincidences, or they could be chalked up to fate, or a higher power, or whatever you want. Latter Days does not reject the idea of religion, it leaves room for a religious, higher power explanation to exist. Aaron and Aaron’s faith, the way he views the world, the importance that his values hold to him do still impact Christian. I don’t know how much he believes in God, but when Aaron calls him shallow, he takes that to heart, he really thinks about it, he realizes that what has been drawing him to Aaron is the depth, the conversations, they aren’t just gonna fuck.

Not that I think monogamy needs to happen, or that Christian needs to have calmed down the sluttiness. Just, that in a film about religion and its intersections with sexuality, when you are going to be critical of a Church that has done very very real harm. That there is a mutual exchange here. Christian gets more depth as a result of meeting Aaron and Aaron (eventually) gets freedom as a result of meeting Christian.

BL Side Note

I also need to say, since this syllabus is technically supposed to act as a lead up to BLs, that Latter Days has the sponge bath trope! Aaron wipes down Christian’s body with a washcloth after he faints from seeing blood. The sexual tension rises between Aaron and Christian, until they are about a fraction of a second away from kissing, and Aaron bails.

For/By/About

Gay Trifecta.

The director of Latter Days, C. Jay Cox is a gay man and a (former) fifth generation Mormon.

This film did not hit me in the emotional place where I would normally say the films I rate as For The Queers go. But, this is a deeply personal film for the screen writer and Director who is gay and therefore it feels like it should be for gays. And, in addition I feel like they were enough casual references to things that don’t get full explanations that would read and be understood by a queer audience but maybe not by a straight audience. I think there are dimensional portrayals of the queer characters and they don’t succumb to stereotypes, and for those reasons I would categorize it as being for us.

Favorite Moment

The post-sex conversation that Aaron and Christian have, where Aaron asks if Christian has ever had the experience of being cut off from everything, and we finally get some more of Christian’s backstory. Now, like I said above, there are some understated aspects of this film that I do think are really smart. Aaron calls Christian shallow at one point, and my first thought was “oh honey, you are wrong” because of how Christian spoke to Aaron earlier on in the movie about being desperate to get away from home. Sure, Christian is generally now, emotionally reserved and has some growing to do. But, Aaron vastly underestimates the weight behind a gay man saying that he left home and never looked back. Because Aaron had a good relationship to his family (before he came out).

If the monologue wasn’t multiple paragraphs I would probably put the whole speech as my favorite quote. But, fundamentally what makes this scene for me is that Christian is telling Aaron this, while they are both naked in bed. Aaron has just had sex for the first time, and there is just this level of casual inclusion of nudity. I am generally an advocate for increasing the inclusion of non-sexual nudity on screen. I feel like people tend to spend a lot more causal time naked than they do sexual time naked, and I think Latter Days did a really phenomenal job of shifting between sexual nudity and casual nudity in the same setting, with the same characters, at the same time.

When Aaron and Christian first enter the airport hotel, they are shedding their clothing with the intention of having sex. The scene is charged with sexual tension, shirts and pants are coming off as fast as they can, every movement brings them closer to the bed. But after they are done, Aaron, still naked, slides across Christian’s naked body to grab a watch off the floor, and Christian holds his leg so he won’t slide off the bed. It’s just comfortable. When Christian is talking to Aaron about his experience of being left in a snowstorm by his father, they are nude because they are being laid bare. I don’t know if I can describe it properly, but I just love that this really important conversation, where Aaron is learning that Christian understands far far better than Aaron ever could have thought about what you risk losing when you are queer, happens with literally everything out in the open.

Favorite Quote

“It’s early November, the same as now, and there's this storm rolling in. My dad was so determined that sissy boy was going to kill something. Snow came at us from all sides. The air, the sky, the ground they all became the same and horrible screaming white and I thought ‘we’re gonna be OK, right?” And then I saw my father’s eyes and they were that same white…and that’s when he did it.” “He did what?” “Ran.”

This quote comes from part of the monologue I mentioned in my Favorite Scene.

Score

8/10

Latter Days is an 8/10 for me for a few reasons, the acting was not always the best, it was clear they did not have either the time or the budget for perfection. There were stutters that read far more like actors forgetting their lines than they did like natural pauses. I also was not thrilled with the death fake out. Like, I am very much glad we did not see Aaron self-harm, and that some of the other torture he went through gets dampened a bit by dream sequence shenanigans. I figured that they were not actually going to kill Aaron off, but they do spend quite a lot of time letting the audience think he is dead, and I am not super appreciative of that.

#queer cinema syllabus #bengiyo queer cinema syllabus #latter days #latter days (2003)#unit 3 #unit 3: faith and religion

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tiktaalic · 7 months

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klance vs gallavich is driving me balls to the walls insane . as somebody who “liked” both . liked in quotes bc i was 14 when i discovered klance and it was . fun . ooh red and blue ooh teamwork and friendship blossoming into something more WHATEVER . gallavich. oh gallavich i discovered when i was 16 and depressed and it permanently altered my brain chemistry . people say that all the time but everything is DUST compared to what shameless will do to the budding brain. ian what you and i have makes me free guess what we’ve been doing daddy we’ve been fucking sorry i’m late yeah mick i’ll wait i wanna be where you are mickey you’re under my skin man the fuck can i do . SET THE BAR FOR REPRESSED GAY LOVE . i cannot stress this enough . mickey was born in a wet cardboard box all alone and went through allllll the horrors that people love to pretend their vanilla fave went through and got GAY MARRIED . ian gallagher suffered more than jesus and went on to get married to the rough kid he met when he was FIFTEEN . every single complexity people on here love to pretend their gayboring faves have is IN THE TEXT for them . this got long sorry . this is what they do to a person and i could go on . i had a shameless blog for multiple years and didn’t even scratch the surface of what makes them possibly the most compelling gay couple on modern television. klance is for when you’re a bit bored

KLANCE IS LITERALLY A SUMMER FLING! I know because I summer flinged with them! I was there! I watched the last season when it dropped at 3 am! But they are the definition of I made you up in my head. Gallavich is. Ohhhhh my god. People will literally make shit up and pretend it happened to their fav in an au or whatever but it happened to Mickey for REAL! his father for REAL shotgun married him to a woman because he found him in bed with a man! His father for real got in his face and told him he would kill him if he married a man and Mickey said Alright thanks dad. And then MARRIED IAN! Mickey better than any fake little guy with daddy issues because he. He’s the only one to ever do it. He’s the onlyyyyy one to ever do it. Everyone else makes up their little characters with their little daddy issues but mickey is mickey forever. Gallavich have so many. Lines. But the one that gets me every time is. when mickey’s trying to visit ian (in jail? hospital? I don’t remember). Your relationship to mr. Gallagher? Partner lover family y’know. He just rattled them off one after the other. He fucking LOVES ian. And ian loves him. And they got married. Im sure this is the most mainstream take in the world but it’s so good it’s soooo good when they’re living at mickey’s house with mickey’s wife and raising mickey’s toddler. And it’s so good when Ian spins out hard and Mickey is so staunchly There. Does not waver for a fucking second. What’s going on with Ian. Ask Mickey. Gallavich sweep

#anonymous #ask

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the-likeable-wizard-mack · 2 years

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Modern Fantasy Monsters: PRIDE ADDITION

Happy Pride Month to you all!!!

Asexual Succubus and Incubus. Demons that usually associated with lust and fiery passion who don’t have a sex drive at all. Some of them aren’t even into relationships at all. They just want to binge watch a series of television shows and eat popcorn with friends.

Orc circles which are usually very masculine and tough are actually very inclusive. Every orc no matter the gender or sexuality is welcomed in their circle. They support their orc friends that come out to them like “Oh, Gor’k is gay? That’s cool! He should invite is partner to the barbecue next week so we can meet him!”

Shapeshifters who help their non-binary friends to find their sense of style by transforming their hair into different styles to help their friend find a perfect style that suits them.

Elves who finally come out to their friends after so many years of being pressured by their family. Even after 100 years with how long they live they can finally find love with the gender that they are attracted to.

ON THE OTHER SIDE...Gay elves who have been lovers since they were young and after 100 years they still are going strong.

Sirens who sing to their girlfriends and mermen who bring beautifully crafted shell necklaces to their boyfriends

Pride parades that include different magicfolk with all sorts of amazing magic that shares a welcoming feeling to all who attended.

Most elves preferred pronouns are they/them. It’s deeply rooted in elven culture that most are referred to as such and humans were the ones who tried to put gendered labels on them. Most elves still go by they/them and introduce them selves accordingly. In conclusion, elves are nonbinary allies.

I’m tired of seeing fantasy stories where most of the LGBTQ+ characters are portrayed as big orc man and tiny elf. Give me two large hulking orcs who are gay and proud to be gay. They are an amazing power couple with Garman going to his construction job and his hot husband Frug looking after the kids at home. They are friends with the gay elven couple across the street.

ACE ANGELS. Angels who are not sexually attracted to people and would rather have an aesthetic attraction to them.

Witch and Wizard covens that re LGBTQ+ safe spaces. Also witches and wizards that don’t fit within the the labels of witch or wizards.

TRANS-WITCHES

TRANS-WIZARDS ALL MAGIC FOLKS SUPPORT LGBTQ+ MOVEMENT

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macdenlover · 1 year

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the parasocial relationship ive fallen into with these 3 middle aged men combined with my autism super powers of pattern recognition has given me profound (and maybe delusional, who knows) insight into their minds and realistically here’s where i think they all land on macdennis.

i think charlie is the most on board with it but in a casual wouldnt-that-be-pretty-funny way and i think his biggest gripe with it would be them eventually running out of ways to make it fit the comedy of the show once the initial chaos of it dies down. rob is probably the most into taking on the sheer newness of exploring a relationship dynamic like that but he’s also very analytical and his gripe would be whether or not it would stray too far from the premise of the show and he’d possibly be worried about it turning into a “gay show” because of the ratio. and now for my most controversial take yet i think glenn is the least on board with macdennis especially when it comes to making dennis canonically queer. i get the vibes that he would think making dennis bisexual or whatever would send the wrong message because having a character as despicable and as “sexually deviant” as dennis be ACTUALLY gay would come across as them vilifying queer people. which rob would then push back against saying there’s bad people out there who just Happen to be gay there’s nothing wrong with putting that on television. (i’m starting to suspect glenn not being there is the reason they were able to push the envelope so much with them in s13-14.) I think they’ve had serious in depth conversations about their relationship and their plan has been to just keep postponing it until they figure out if they want to proceed with it later or just let it fizzle out into nothing. it’s definitely not at the forefront of their minds when they make the show but it’s back there somewhere for sure. the biggest hurdle i think they’re getting to especially this far into the show is deciding how heavily they want to lean into the commentary/satire aspect and how much they want to lean into the characters and their personal motivations— because a lot of the time the two blend together really well but with something like macdennis, as funny as it may be, it would require them to either lose the satire, have the relationship be unintentionally read as satire in a way that comes across as homophobic, or they’d have to find some way to incorporate satire into that storyline in way that’s successful AND true to their sense of humor AND would deflect from them being gay (like making fun of traditional couple tropes? idk). i think at some point they’re gonna hit “fuck it” and finally pull the trigger but that’s gonna be when the show has nothing left to lose. as for s16 im predicting there’s gonna be some significant macden moments but i don’t think it’s actually going canon yet.

again these are just my thoughts if you think im totally off i’d love to know

#iasip #macdennis #source: i made it up #cant tell if i’m being weird or if this makes sense to anyone besides me

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curiositycryptid · 2 months

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Why I Think These Characters Are AroAce

Ok, I might include other characters in this one that I didn’t in my last posts since idk who should be in the friend group of aroaces cause it can’t have too many peeps.

Heather - When I saw how she clearly didn’t like anyone in s1-2 my first thought was aroace. She played with many peoples romantic feeling so obviously she didn’t care that much for relationships, I still think her and Alejandro can date but I still stand by my thought of her being aroace too.

Dj - well uhhhh, this one is mostly vibes, he didn’t really have a love interest either and seems to be one to care more for friendships than romantic relationships. Either way, he’s definitely ace.

Trent - Someone said on another post their reasons for thinking Trent was either aro or gay and I completely agree, I don’t know what post it was so if anyone knows please say so I can credit them! They said his love for Gwen seemed the cliche kinda thing like he thought that’s how he should feel. Also I don’t believe in love at first sight so it’s kinda odd to me how fast their relationship went.

Justin - The only person this man loves is himself. Prove me wrong /j (ok in all seriousness he just kinda has those vibes)

Courtney - She seems the type who cares more about her work than love. Yes, she did date Duncan, but perhaps that was because she thought she could ‘fix him’ like in the movies? Rather similar to Trent’s situation of following what he sees on television.

Cody - His crush on Gwen looked more like an obsession to me, it kinda looked like he cared more about ‘having a hot goth gf’ so he could boast or sum instead of him actually liking her that way. Yes ik this is a stretch but I’m just saying some small ideas.

Bridgette - uhhhhhh idk. I just think she seems kinda aroace? I don’t think I need a proper reason anyway so.

Noah - once again, no love interest until ridonculous race which I still haven’t watched yet so he still doesn’t seem the live guy to me since I haven’t seen him behave that way yet.

Gwen - I didn’t include her in my last post but still. Once again, like Trent, it was love at first sight. Which doesn’t make sense to me, it may just be that I’m aroace but I still know how love works and it’s not like that.

Also (IMPORTANT) I’m not saying you can’t enjoy any of these peeps having relationships because aroace people can still date, I’m just stating possible reasons they may be aroace, I’m not saying that Gwen and Trent didn’t actually love eachother or anything like that (for any of them) , I’m just saying maybe at first they viewed it that way because of amatonormativity but eventually really did fall in love? Anyway I’m finally done jeez I don’t think anyone is even gonna be bothered to read all this lol.

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lathalea · 1 year

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It sadly seems many in this fandom don't even know Thorin at all. He's a traditional man who would never agree to any of the modern quips of today. He would be in a committing relationship with one woman, if he were to ever have one, and there's no way that him or any of the dwarves would agree to strange gender ideologies and gay pride. This group of beings from middle Earth would know nothing about this stuff and if they found out about it, I'm sure they wouldn't agree to it. The issue is, too many people are flooding your ask with these strange questions, being completely alright with retconning their favorite Tolkien characters with modern day tactics. It just doesn't make sense. Do you ever wonder how weird this stuff can be?

Dear Anon,

Thank you so much for your ask!

There is a lot of information to unpack here and quite a few questions to reply to, so bear with me while I do it. In the meantime, have a nice and hot Thorin pic:

(If you hear a sigh, it's Lathalea swooning.)

“It sadly seems many in this fandom don't even know Thorin at all.”

The Tolkien fandom is a huge group of people from all over the world united by the love of JRR’s works. There are hardcore fans and casual fans. Some of them only read the books, some saw only the Rankin/Bass animated version of Hobbit or the 1985 Soviet television play, and others fell in love with Peter Jackson’s movies. I’m sure you know that in all these adaptations, Thorin’s character is portrayed differently from the book. You can argue whether these adaptations were close to the source or whether they served the purpose, but that’s not the point here.

It works similarly when it comes to Thorin fans. Some of us prefer one version over the others, and others create a completely new interpretation of this character in their minds. And some of them put their ideas on paper (umm… computer screen). Even if this or that specific version of Thorin is not 100% the Thorin you or I like, it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t exist.

Various versions of this really inspiring character fulfil each person’s specific needs. Personally, I don’t think there is anything sad about making people happy this way. When I read a fic or an imagine where Thorin does not act in the way I prefer, I simply stop reading and move on. Someone wrote a story that made them happy, someone else liked it, and that’s fine. Not every work of fiction has to cater to everyone's needs.

The same goes for writing asks or requests about Thorin – if someone feels the need to be comforted or supported by a specific version of their favourite character, I’ll be happy to create a story about it if I can. We are living in crazy times, some of us are directly influenced by war, health issues, abuse and so on — and that is the least I can do to help.

(Here Lathalea makes simping sounds.)

“He's a traditional man who would never agree to any of the modern quips of today. He would be in a committing relationship with one woman, if he were to ever have one…”

If we are talking about the canon version of Thorin, I agree with you here. If he was to survive BOTFA, he would most probably marry a Dwarf-woman of childbearing age, mostly to strengthen the line of Durin and provide the heirs to the throne of Erebor, plus to secure some alliances with another large Dwarf house by the way of marriage.

Of course we can also say that he would not marry anyone because he is a Dwarf focused on his craft — and that would also be valid, especially since he has Fili and Kili as heirs (if we’re assuming they survived BOTFA as well). If you read my stories, you have most probably noticed that the first version is the one I choose most often – because I like my fics to stay as close to canon as possible, and I imagine that the Dwarven culture draws from the early mediaeval traditions (plus the Scandinavian culture because we know that Tolkien was partially inspired by it when creating Aule’s children). But that’s my own private headcanon and it’s okay if you see it differently.

(Here Lathalea dreams of combing his hair.)

“...and there's no way that him or any of the dwarves would agree to strange gender ideologies and gay pride. This group of beings from middle Earth would know nothing about this stuff and if they found out about it, I'm sure they wouldn't agree to it.”

What if I were to tell you that for Tolkien’s people of Men in Middle Earth, Dwarves most probably had “strange gender ideologies” too? Some examples:

— People of Men thought that there are only male Dwarves in existence and that their children were “born” out of stone. — Dwarves respected their women greatly and considered them extremely precious (while people of Men often treated women as subservient to men).

— Both Dwarven men and women had beards and wore similar clothes in the outside world, so they all looked like men to the outsiders. Among the people of Men, it was the opposite — and women often had a limited amount of roles to fulfil in their lives.

Having said that, if we were to follow Tolkien’s canon, we have no way of knowing exactly how the gender dynamics or ideas look among the Dwarves. This was the race not created by Eru, but by Aule, in secret, and therefore they are different from the Children of Illúvatar. We only know the Dwarves are very secretive and there are many misconceptions about them. We don’t know what they would think about any concepts we take for granted in our modern societies :)

The same would happen if we invert the situation: for someone raised in, say, the USA, in modern times, the various concepts of gender that have existed in our world throughout history (for example in the North American indigenious cultures, in the ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, India, and so on) will probably feel strange, too. And it is totally understandable, mostly because we weren’t raised in those cultures. The same goes for the world of Tolkien. You probably know of his times, his background and worldview that influenced his writing, so I’ll skip it and go straight to fanfiction.

When it comes to fanfiction that is less focused on staying in line with canon, anything can happen there. It is every writer’s creative playground. Some even say that it is both its greatest blessing and a curse ;) But, as such, this playground gives every fan an opportunity to experience certain concepts and ideas in a safe, controlled environment. To experiment. To think out of the box. There is nothing wrong with playing around with different ideas if one feels inclined to do so. That’s how great stories and classic pieces of literature came to be. And there are many great fics that deviate from Tolkien’s writings at the same time being inspired by them.

But of course if those kinds of stories are not your cup of tea, that’s totally fine, too. One of the basic rules of fanfiction says “don’t like it, don’t read it”, after all, and I follow it every time I read anything new.

(This is the scene where Thorin kills Azog and survives and lives happily ever after and Lathalea will die on that Ravenhill. See what I did there? ;) )

“The issue is, too many people are flooding your ask with these strange questions, being completely alright with retconning their favorite Tolkien characters with modern day tactics. It just doesn't make sense. Do you ever wonder how weird this stuff can be?”

I hope that what I wrote above explained my point of view. And if you read Thorin's my replies to these asks, you have most probably noticed that I imagine Thorin as a person firmly set in his times and having completely different concepts and worldview than the one many modern people have.

I completely understand that the ideas offered by many Thorin simps that stray from canon don’t have to make sense to you, and that’s okay. My headcanon of Thorin is also close to Tolkien’s canon and being a writer, it makes me happy to explore this character within those bounds. Each of my “iterations” of Thorin in every of my fics is slightly different from the others and yet I try to follow the path staked out by Tolkien to the best of my ability.

There are, however, many writers or artists who choose different paths and interpret our beloved Thorin in other ways — and that's okay, too! They are very much free to do so as long as they are having fun! The possibilities are endless and so is our imagination.

We all have different definitions of “weird stuff”. There are probably many people saying that my fics are weird because, for example, I don’t write Bilbo x Thorin romance. It is all relative. I don’t feel qualified enough to judge others. I just believe in unrestricted creativity and say ‘no’ to gatekeeping.

Thank you for coming to my Thorin TED Talk ;)

(Thorin's brooding skills are legendary. But it's not surprising. He's a very skilled dwarf, is he not? 😈)

Tagging all the Thorin simps, including @fizzyxcustard @linasofia @xxbyimm @legolasbadass @middleearthpixie @i-did-not-mean-to @shiinata-library @frosticenow @sweetestgbye @onlywifetothorin555 and everyone else who adores our majestic dwarf :)

#thorin oakenshield #lathalea speaks #ask box #thorin #character headcanons #headcanon #fanfiction #lotr #tolkien #Marxist anon

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