there is, Obviously, fundamentally a difference between headcanon and an analytical reading of text, and treating the two as exactly the same is not only wrong but devalues both, but funnily, i've found people tend to forget that both of these things are the product of referencing our real life experiences and applying them where we see fit to make a more interesting way to interact with media. and you can't just like, forget that it's not JUST about headcanons and meta analysis and whatever, because people in real life also still matter. and in real life, there are different stakes and EXPERIENCES, and those experiences lead to thinking the way we do because that's how you Be a goddamn person, which is why it's ironic is all 😭
like, saying zuko atla has to be cis in order to be "properly" gay in order to be Truly Compelling narratively is fucking ridiculous. textually, zuko is not actually gay. he never was intended to be, he never will be intended to be, he was never even subtextually. the assumption otherwise is already rooted in fantasy, and the tongue in cheek assertion that it isn't, which means it has more credence, is ... dumb? childish? admitting to at least yourself that the things you talk about wrt character analysis aren't the intention of the creator is literally half the point of doing said analysis – you're MEANT to throw away the intended interpretation in order to give it a new life through different keyholes without entirely divorcing itself from the text. (in the same breath, insisting the creator truly meant One Thing when they absolutely would not have/don't care at all, and ignoring that the people who made the piece are going to put their own biases and experiences and background into the media itself and actually MUST be taken into account for things like this is just ... well. Stop That.)
i've personally never been someone to ever claim that The Writers All Along INTENDED to do something that they obviously didn't, like make a character from a 2005 cartoon lgbt+. this doesn't mean that reading doesn't have any substance or cannot possibly hold any meaning, or that it's wrong. if you can't be objective about your own readings what's the damn point... leaning into it being fiction, which changes just by being observed by a different person, is why it's fun or interesting to do in the first place. and yeah there are some basic cookie cutter headcanons people like to fling around, and there can be criticism for that otherwise, but claiming headcanons themselves AREN'T an offshoot of this way of thinking is fucking stupid. like it's plain wrong.
our own thoughts on why a character acts, what they do, what their presentation is, why their personality is what it is up to and including their sexuality, gender identity, religion, JOB, whatever, are made to fill the gaps the text can't or won't provide, and in the case of lgbt ones as long as it's not actively harmful (as in like insisting a lesbian character is bi or something) it is literally harmless seeing as it is fairly solidly a "won't", along with a whole bunch of other hc material that usually don't see the light of day on-screen nonstereotypically. people seeing themselves in characters isn't new but more than that, saying that you know this but then pushing it aside because The Analysis Means More when it's Realistic And Plausible is fucking dumb. and rude. bc the entire point of drawing the line of connections this way is how WE see them. being all like "oh well, your own personal identity is still valid otherwise, don't get your feelings hurt bc it doesn't matter," is moot if you've already asserted there's only One real way to be... plausible 🤨. which is to be NORMAL ! duh.
like, the read that zuko IS gay (and cis) relies on extracting parts through the lens of our own gay perceptions and is why cishet fans don't pick up on it, but you can ask pretty much any other lgbt fan and they'll agree. zuko's narrative arc IS compelling with the read that he is gay, from the way he is ostracised by his family, neglected and abused, the "punishment" he receives and then continues to become his own warden of, the order of his death and the banishment itself, sozin criminalising homosexuality, his inability to connect with others especially his own age, his inability to seamlessly interact with girls, his literal externalised viewing of seeing himself as someone with Two Sides, them being good vs evil, realising he can change the damn world through love and acceptance, striving for peace, being the face of change for his nation, relearning what it means to be who he is once he is free from his past, the shame and humiliation rituals, the claim of his father that he is worthless as a prince and person, AND MORE... and i cannot express enough here how fucking little it matters if he's specifically gay or WHAT THE HELL EVER 😭.
to claim in no small way that it's impossible for a trans person, or a bisexual person, or anyone else lgbt, could ever line up his narrative with their own personal one is so beyond ridiculous it gives me a headache. no, "plausibly", i don't think zuko is like, transmasc. yes, plausibly, he could be gay. plausibly, he could be amab nonbinary but no one seems to actually give a fuck about that for some reason (i wonder!). nothing would change in both cases, because he's not actually either, so i really don't see the point in making fun of or being frustrated by one to lift up the other because you want cisgender boot soles to brush the back of your throat THAT badly. the implausibility of thinking any way about a fictional character should be taken into account to an extent, sure, but at the end of the day neither of us are doing anything truly worthwhile, and no one is claiming that it's the intent from the beginning to say otherwise, so what's the point here. why are we doing this. let's go skip in a meadow together before i kill someone with this rock.
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FUCK VIVIANS ANONS(the bad ones) I KNOW ITS BAD TO SEND INDIRECT DEATH THREATS TO THEM SO I WONT DO THAT BUT TRUST ME IF I SEE ANOTHER ANON SAYING THEY WILL HURT NOT ONLY HER BUT HER CHILD I WILL BE SAYING THINGS AND IT WONT BE PRETTY. I HAVE NO FUCKS TO GIVE IF TUMBLR COMES AT ME. THOSE ANONS HAVE NO FUCKING RIGHT TO SAY SHIT LIKE THAT BECAUSE SOMEONE FOUGHT BACK. BECAUSE SHE DIDNT LET THEM FUCKING HARASS HER SAYING SHE IS BAD FOR HAVING A KID. ANONS (vivians bad ones) HOW ABOUT YOU SHOVE A STICK UP UR ASS AND SEE HOW FAR UP IT GOES IF YOU WANT ATTENTION. I AM AT MY BREAKING POINT IVE SEEN YALL LITTLE SHITS AND I BEEN NICE BUT YOU EVEN THREATEN TO KILL A UNBORN CHILD, LITTLE WORD FOR ADVICE DEAR YOU COME INTO VIVIANS INBOX SAYING SHIT LIKE THAT EVEN AGAIN THERE WILL BE THREATS MADE. AND I COULDN'T CARE LESS IF TUMBLR DELETES MY ACCOUNT FOR IT. YOU MOM HAD YOU ANONYMOUS SO IS YOUR MOM A WHORE. DONT TAKE THE FACT THAT YOU HAVE NOTHING ELSE TO DO IN YOUR SAD PATHETIC LIFE ON VIVIAN OKAY<3
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[Pt2ish]
— Yan!Artist who purposely only asks you in his college to be his nude model for his art assignments (which may or may not have been faked, but that's beside the point).
And you didn't want to turn down the offer because he was paying $500 per hour, which for a college student like you whose living dime to dime whilst paying for loans that were dumped onto by your sperm doner and that leech of a woman who you have to put down as your mother on documents, was a sweet deal.
In those sessions, they would get lewder over time, such as him from asking you to spread your legs some more to asking you to put whipped cream on your nipples with cherries on top for an extra $1000.
You never really questioned it. I mean, rich artist kid who may or may not like to see others (its only you) with whipped cream on their chest and their lower half with cherries on top, who are you to judge. Never question the rich unless it's with kids and Dubai.
Along with his lewd requests, he'd asked about little tidbits of your life, rather than stalking, he'd rather hear it from you so you both can develop a happy little relationship which turns into dating then marriage then have 15 billion kids <3 who would refuse this lifestyle???
After staying in one pose for more than an hour, it was draining on you, so you asked for a break. You decided to use the restroom, but the penthouse layout was a little too confusing and ended up opening the wrong door.
Your mouth was slightly open from the shock. The portraits of you over the last couple of months all had some dried up crust that looked like it was splattered all over the paintings. The floor wasn't better, either with tissues haphazardly strewn across the floor scrunched up and it smelt bad.
Too bad you couldn't open your mouth to complain because you got knocked out by an easel stand.
Fuck the rich.
Also, I've hit 60 followers! yayyyyy!!! I'm not sure if i should do a special or not cus I might make a special with bunny yan y omega yan with a male reader becos omega yan likes males more than females sooo why not and bunny yan doesn't care. Not proofread.
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“One weird, silver lining positive from the WGA's strike has been a sense of calm over a reality that has plagued me with anxiety for years — the fact that despite having a great agent, manager, and lawyer, despite having been in hundreds of rooms with top execs and producers, despite having pitched countless networks, and despite having sold multiple pilots and pitches, I still work in food and bev. For so long, it felt like such an embarrassment in so many ways because it felt like I was the only one who was biding time in between sales with a side hustle. When I would tell people at work that I wrote television, they'd look at me like I had ten heads, or like I was delusional. They couldn't IMAGINE someone who *actually* wrote television would also be asking them what temp they wanted their salmon.
But the reality is, TV money goes fast, especially when it's just a pilot sale. And if shit doesn't get picked up to series, that money only lasts for so long. Being responsible meant swallowing my pride and keeping a job that was more consistent and steady but also gave me the ability to take pitch meetings, to write on my down time, do rewrites, answer e-mails, and take notes calls.
And for so long I thought I was a minority in that regard. Like I had done something wrong to not be successful enough to rely solely on my career as a writer.
Yet the strike has pushed SO many stories to the forefront of writers doing the exact same thing I've done, GOOD writers, great writers, writers who shit I watch all the time, whose names I instantly recognize, whose reputations in this industry precede them. So when the studios leaked that the goal was to bleed writers dry, to make it so we lost our homes, I had to laugh. Writers like me will literally do anything to keep the dream of writing alive. It's in us. It never goes away, no matter how many steaks you server, how many martinis you mix, how many cold calls you make, how many Uber passengers you pick up, how many pizzas you have to deliver. We always always always find a way to make it to that next great hope of a pitch, a sale, a green light.
And that's how you know that the CEOs are so fucking out of touch with reality. With the industry. With the POINT of the industry the point for most (not all, but most) has never been to be filthy rich, or own a yacht, or even have a membership to SoHo house. It's been to make something we love. To see it come to life, and make other people happy, or sad, or angry, or scared. To take this story you have kicking around your head and turn it into some epic journey. To be part of the process of making worlds and characters come to life. To tell stories.
The CEO's point has been to make as much money as humanly possible. And so they think that's all there is motivating writers. it's not. It never has been. Just because those CEO's wouldn't wait tables or mix drinks or drive a Lyft in order to keep a dream going, doesn't mean the rest of us wouldn't. The CEO's don't have a dream, they have a lifestyle. And I promise you a dream is a much better motivator than a yacht or a Porsche.
Try to bleed us dry, guys. Just because you'd let your own dream bleed to death, doesn't mean we would. We will always find a way to keep it alive.”
—Stefanie Williams, a tv writer on strike
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