I watched Wendell and Wild and couldn't resist making fanart. The storyline, the characters, and the nostalgia I felt with its connection to other stop-motion films like Coraline, ParaNorman and Corpse Bride❤️ also Raúl reminds me of Yadriel, and I choose to believe they're the same person in different universes🥴
WAUUUHHG YOU UNDERSTAND. DEATH GLARE MAKES ME ILL IN THE WORST WAYS AND I LOVE IT GERAAWUU IT'S SO ONE SIDED 2 ME BUT PEEPERS BEING STUPID ABOUT HIS CRUSY ON HIS IDIOT BOSS IS AUUHUJUJAIAKUH
I'm normal probably
And you know what ! I’m not even sure if he even acknowledges his crush as a crush? Perhaps he mistakes it as an undying loyalty to hater. but man. he’s soooo in love with hater
I’m going to… gently pick you up and put you in my shirt pocket and keep warm from the cold and occasionally feed you a pepperoni or a cookie when you’re hungry I CANNOT HELP IT
* Should add that this is not me policing what you should feel uncomfortable or not of the way a trans representation is portrayed, just a sentiment I feel for the specific way the movie portrayed these things and how that can help trans kids/teens, which is important to also have in mind that the main public thought of while creating the movie was kids and teens.
I know a lot of trans guys felt uncomfortable with the scenes showing Raúl being trans by accidently deadnaming(which was apologised at the same moment) and showing a pre-transition photo, though personally, coming from a trans guy myself, I felt like it was quite nice to see, feels like they're trying to show how normal it is to be trans, and I don't mean this as normalizing to cis people the trans identity just that being trans is normal, I think kids who are watching Wendell & Wild today can see in Raúl experiences of how once he "presented" himself as a "poodle" and understand conflicting feelings about the way they view and portray themselves, or maybe the deadnaming scene might click something in them about not feeling comfortable at their given name by their family.
I dunno, if I had watched Wendell & Wild when I was young, when I felt so conflicted about my identity, who constantly thought about being born in "the wrong body" but still slightly portrayed myself my assigned gender of birth for the sake of trying to fit in(had a kind of "poodle" phase although I hated everything surrounding that as it didn't feel like being me), maybe I would have not beaten myself up so much about it or tried to fit where I did not belong and would never force myself into years of shame because I didn't feel like I fitted anywhere in this world, that I was some kind of abomination for wanting to be a boy when I "wasn't supposed to be one", that actually "I wanted to be a boy because being a 'man' was easier"(a terf rethoric that went a lot online at the time whenever I tried to search if anybody felt like they aren't supposed to be "this way").
Watching Wendell & Wild would be a forever changing experience as a kid for those dark depressive years, I could have understood myself better, be more open minded about the possibility of being trans sooner, accept that I was trans instead of feeling guilty of possibly being one, that being trans is a normal experience.
Raúl Fernández Calleja, "Vendran por Swinemünde" ('They Will Come for Swinemünde'), from his and Felipe Hernández Cava's masterful 1991 graphic novel Berlin 1931.