#also I don’t make the rules but Kid is absolutely non binary and uses they/he pronouns | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

aikoiya · 2 years

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In the same vein as my 'Proper Characterization in Ships' post, as far as LGBT is concerned, I feel like I treat it similarly to my other preferences.

For instance, I'm not a fan of the color gray & don't think it's a good color, especially for things like walls or hair dye or such. Even still, just because I don't like it, it doesn't mean that when I walk into a room & see grey walls that I'm gonna pretend that those walls AREN'T grey because that'd be delusional.

Similarly, I might not agree with the LGBT lifestyle IRL, but I still acknowledge that they exist & refuse to try & take away their ability to choose what they want to do with their lives. I don't support anyone trying to push their views onto others. It's one thing to recommend things to someone & have a civilized debate about the merits of it, it's another thing entirely to harass & pressure them.

So, when I view a character, I will try to get a vibe off them & be like, "oh, I can see how people could think this chick is a lesbian" or "nah, dude, this guy has shown zero interest in other guys beyond friendship level; he's not gay as far as I can see."

Like, there has to be evidence for me to think a character is gay or trans or whatever, but if there is enough, then sure, I'm not gonna deny it!

However, because of this, I don't like it when other fans don't do the same because it feels like they just wanna be woke or are projecting their views or personal life experiences onto the characters & I think that's kinda dangerous.

Like, sure, in cases with the silent protagonist where there's not much characterization, then that's the perfect medium & you can go hog wild! That's what the silent protagonist is for: self insertion.

At the same time, in regards to the whole silent protagonist/self-insertion thing; don't tell other fans that they can't hc that a self-insert character can't be something.

Like with Frisk/Chara from Undertale. So many fans say that Frisk/Chara are non-binary & can only be non-binary because they use they/them pronouns, but didn't Toby specifically say that those pronouns were used so that the player can decide what they want them to be? I've seen a lot of fans absolutely ride a person's ass if they so much as insinuate that they consider them male or female. Stop that!! Frisk/Chara are self-insert characters, so if I think Frisk is female & that Chara is male, then that's what I think & there's nothing wrong with that because the creator said so!

Not only that, they will argue forever that Frisk can only be a child because of what Monster Kid said about stripes & the fact that Frisk is wearing stripes. But the thing is, that's a monster custom! In human customs, stripes mean nothing! Not to mention that it's such an arbitrary standard for gauging age! I get it for monsters because they are so ridiculously varied in shape & size & appearance. So, it makes somewhat sense for them, but humans don't have that problem! We can generally tell a person's age just by looking at them, no matter what they're wearing. Of course, there are some exceptions, but they are exceptions. You shouldn't treat everyone based on the exceptions to the rule!

At the same time, you should also take into account the environment, time period, technological advancements, creator's intent, & standard levels of bigotry within the world the character lives in.

For instance, before, I brought up how I don't believe Danny Phantom is trans, specifically, I don't think he's transmasc, & how Hartmen's words only cemented my beliefs.

Another example is Harry Potter. I honestly do not think that Harry is trans &, in fact, I think there's even more evidence of him not being trans than there is for Danny.

Let me explain. In the very first scene of the first movie, Mcgonagall says "And the boy?" regarding Harry. He was 1 year old! This makes it nearly impossible for him to be transmasc. The only way that he could possibly be transmasc would be if his parents had wanted a boy & instead of accepting that they had a daughter, decided to tell everyone that she was a boy, which is an utterly horrifying thing for parents to do to their child & should be illegal! I can only see him being transfem & even that I don’t see as being very likely!

Not to mention that, while the first instance of a binder was is 1920 & it's therefore possible to a certain degree; the Dursley's attitudes towards Harry & general bigotry, would make that practically impossible. Do you really think that they would support his transition, let alone spend actual money on a binder just so Harry could feel more comfortable in his own body?! They'd had him since he was 1 & even if they didn't change his diapers themselves, I imagine that anyone they hired to do so would've mentioned something. The Dursleys would know what his biological sex was & would've treated him as such. I doubt that he'd even have a concept of what trans is or even consider the idea that he may be something other than what he's always been treated as! It didn't even click inside his head that all the weird things that happened around him could've been magic until Hagrid told him directly that he was a wizard, where would he even get the idea that he could have gender dysphoria in that day & age?? It was the sort of thing you researched not heard of other than in the derogatory!

If Harry was trans, he'd HAVE to be transfem because it's, if not impossible, then at least very highly improbable for him to be transmasc given the evidence & the environment that he grew up in.

Then, even in fanfiction where he was trans, he'd have, logically, been famous in the wizarding world for an entire decade as being the gender he abandoned & considering the wizarding world's own unique brand of bigotry, do you really think that they'd embrace his decision?

So, no. I don't think J.K. Rowling was being a bigot when she said that Harry wasn't trans, because in the setting that she created for him, being transmasc was all but impossible. So, get off her ass & your head out of yours!

I'm just saying, if you're going to just arbitrarily make a character trans, even if it's a character that you created yourself, try to make it make sense as far as their environment is concerned!

Sure, in a modern American setting where everything has to be woke or it's broke, you could get away with it, but if not there, then depending on the place & time you DO decide to choose, the character could literally be slighted for execution!

#proper characterization #realism #lgbt #harry potter #trans harry potter theory

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kelpermoosee · 3 years

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STREAM KID COSMIC ON NETFLIX!! IT’S GOOD

#krillerfiller #netflix kid cosmic #kid cosmic kid #kid cosmic and the local heroes #kid cosmic art #kid cosmic fanart #kid cosmic #kid cosmic jo #Netflix #netflix cartoons #netflix orignal series #kid cosmic tuna sandwich #tuna sandwich #portal girl #kid cosmic and the intergalactic truck stop #also I don’t make the rules but Kid is absolutely non binary and uses they/he pronouns

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justmenoworries · 3 years

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Not Up For Interpretation - An Essay On Nonbinary - Erasure

(Trigger Warning: Misgendering, Transphobia, Nonbinary-phobia)

If you’ve been following me for a while, you probably know this was a long time coming. I’ve made several posts about my frustrations concerning this topic and how much it hurt me just how socially accepted erasing an entire identity still is. While representation marches on and things have become better for nonbinary people as a whole, we still battle with a lot of prejudice - both intentional and unintentional.

In this essay, I want to discuss just how our identities are being erased almost daily, why that is harmful and hurtful and what we all can do to change that.

Chapters:

What does Non-binary mean?

Nonbinary- representation in media

So what’s the problem?

How do we fix it?

1. What Does Non-binary Mean?

Non-binary is actually an umbrella term. It includes pretty much every gender-identity that’s neither one or the other so to speak, for example, agender.

Agender means feeling detachment from the gender spectrum in general. If you’re agender, you most likely feel a distance to the concept of gender as a whole, that it doesn’t define you as a person.

There are many identities that classify under non-binary: There’s gender-fluid (you feel you have a gender, but it’s not one gender specifically and can change), demi-gender (identifying as a gender partially, but not completely) and many others.

Sometimes, multiple non-binary identities can mix and match.

Most non-binary people use they/them pronouns, but like with so many things, it varies.

Some nonbinary-people (like me) go by two pairs of pronouns. I go by both she/her and they/them, because it’s what feels most comfortable at the moment. But who knows, maybe in the future I’ll switch to they/them exclusively or expand to he/him.

There is no one defining non-binary experience. Nb-people are just as varied and different as binary people, who go by one specific gender.

There are non-binary people who choose to go solely by she/her or he/him and that’s okay too. It doesn’t make them any more or less non-binary and their identity is still valid.

If your head’s buzzing a bit by now: That’s okay. It’s a complicated topic and no one expects you to understand all of it in one chapter of one essay.

Just know this: If a person identifies as non-binary, you should respect their decision and use the pronouns they go with.

It’s extremely hurtful to refer to someone who already told you that they use they/them pronouns with she/her or he/him, or use they/them to refer to a person who uses she/her.

Think about it like using a trans-person’s deadname: It’s rude, it’s harmful and it shows complete disrespect for the person.

Non-binary people have existed for a very long time. The concept isn’t new. The idea that there are only two genders, with every other identity being an aberration to the norm, is largely a western idea, spread through colonialism.

The Native American people use “Two-Spirit” to describe someone who identifies neither as a man nor a woman. The term itself is relatively new, but the concept of a third gender is deeply rooted in many Native American cultures.

(Author’s Note: If you are not Native American, please do not use it. That’s cultural appropriation.)

In India, the existence of a third gender has always been acknowledged and there are many terms specifically for people who don’t identify with the gender that was assigned to them at birth.

If you’re interested in learning more about non-binary history and non-binary identities around the world, I’d recommend visiting these websites:

https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/History_of_nonbinary_gender

https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/Gender-variant_identities_worldwide

https://thetempest.co/2020/02/01/history/the-history-of-nonbinary-genders-is-longer-than-you-think/

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/gender-variance-around-the-world

Also, maybe consider giving this book a try:

Nonbinary Gender Identities: History, Culture, Resources by Charlie Mcnabb

2. Non-binary Representation In Media

The representation of non-binary people in mainstream media hasn’t been... great, to put it mildly.

Representation, as we all know, is important.

Not only does it give minorities a chance to see themselves in media and feel heard and acknowledged. It also normalizes them.

For example, seeing a black Disney-princess was a huge deal for many black little girls, because they could finally say there was someone there who looked like them. They could see that being white wasn’t a necessity to be a Disney princess.

Seeing a canonically LGBT+ character in a children’s show teaches kids that love is love, no matter what gender you’re attracted to. At the same time, older LGBT+ viewers will see themselves validated and heard in a movie that features on-screen LGBT+ heroes.

There’s been some huge steps in the right direction in the last few years representation-wise.

Not only do we have more LGBT+ protagonists and characters in general, we’ve also begun to question and call out harmful or bigoted portrayals of the community in media, such as “Bury Your Gays” or the “Depraved Homosexual”.

With that being said: Let’s take a look at how Non-binary representation holds up in comparison, shall we?

This is Double Trouble, from the children’s show “She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power”.

They identify as non-binary and use they/them pronouns. They’re also a slimy, duplicitous lizard-person who can change their shape at will.

Um, yeah.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Did I mention they’re also the only non-binary character in the entire show? And that they’re working with a genocidal dictator in most of the episodes they’re in?

Yikes.

Let’s look at another example.

These three (in order of appearance) are Stevonnie, Smoky Quartz and Shep. Three characters appearing in the kid’s show “Steven Universe” and it’s epilogue series “Steven Universe: Future”.

All of them identify as non-binary and use they/them as pronouns.

Stevonnie and Smoky Quartz are the result of a boy and a girl being fused together through weird alien magic.

Shep is a regular human, but they only appeared in one episode. In an epilogue series that only hardcore fans actually watched.

Well, I mean...

One out of three isn’t that bad, right?

Maybe we should pick an example from a series for older viewers.

Say hello to Doppelganger, a non-binary superhuman who goes by they/them, from the Amazon-series “The Boys”.

They’re working for a corrupt superhero-agency and use their power of shape-shifting to trick people who pose a threat to said agency into having sex with them. And then blackmail those people with footage of said sex.

....

Do I even need to say it?

If you’ve paid attention during the listing of these examples, you might have noticed a theme.

Namely that characters canonically identifying as non-binary are either

supernatural in some way, shape or form,

barely have a presence in the piece of media they’re in,

both.

Blink-and-you-miss-it-manner of representation aside, the majority of these characters fall squarely under what we call “Othering”.

“Othering” describes the practice of portraying minorities as supernatural creatures or otherwise inhuman. Or to say it bluntly: As “The Other”.

“Othering” is a pretty heinous method. Not only does it portray minorities as inherently abnormal and “different in a bad way”. It also goes directly against what representation is actually for: Normalizing.

As a general rule of thumb: If your piece of media has humans in it, but the only representation of non-white, non-straight people are explicitly inhuman... yeah, that’s bad.

So is there absolutely no positive representation for us out there?

Not quite.

As rare as human non-binary characters in media are to find, they do exist.

Here we have Bloodhound! A non-binary human hunter who uses they/them pronouns, from the game “Apex Legends”.

It’s been confirmed by the devs and the voice actress that they’re non-binary.

Nice!

These are Frisk (bottom) and Chara (top) from the game “Undertale”. While their exact gender identity hasn’t been disclosed, they both canonically use they/them pronouns, so it’s somewhere on the non-binary spectrum.

Two human children who act as the protagonist (Frisk) and antagonist (Chara), depending on how you play the game. (Interpretations vary on the antagonist/protagonist-thing, to say the least.)

Cool!

......

And, yep, that’s it.

As my little demonstration here showed, non-binary representation in media is rare. Good non-binary representation is even rarer.

Which is why those small examples of genuinely good representation are so important to the Non-binary community!

It’s hard enough to have to prove you exist. It’s even harder to prove your existence is not abnormal or unnatural.

If you’d like to further educate yourself on representation, it’s impact on society and why it matters, perhaps take a second to read through these articles:

https://www.criticalhit.net/opinion/representation-media-matters/

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/why-on-screen-representation-matters-according-to-these-teens

https://jperkel.github.io/sciwridiversity2020/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2019/05/22/why-is-equal-representation-in-media-important/?sh=25f2ccc92a84

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/why-representation-the-media-matters

3. So What’s The Problem?

The problem, as is the case with so many things in the world, is prejudice.

Actually, that’s not true.

There’s not a problem, there are multiple problems. And their names are prejudice, ignorance and bigotry.

Remember how I said human non-binary representation is rare?

Yeah, very often media-fans don’t help.

Let’s take for example, the aforementioned Frisk and Chara from “Undertale”.

Despite the game explicitly using they/them to refer to both characters multiple times, the majority of players somehow got it into their heads that Frisk’s and Chara’s gender was “up for interpretation”.

There is a huge amount of fan art straight-up misgendering both characters and portraying them as binary and using only he/him or she/her pronouns.

The most egregious examples are two massively popular fan-animated web shows: “Glitchtale”, by Camila Cuevas and “Underverse” by Jael Peñaloza.

Both series are very beloved by the Undertale-fanbase and even outside of it. Meaning for many people, those two shows might be their first introduction to “Undertale” and it’s two non-binary human characters.

Take a wild guess what both Camila and Jael did with Frisk and Chara.

Underverse, X-Tale IV:

(Transcript: “Frisk lied to me in the worst possible way... I... I will never forgive him.”)

Underverse, X-Tale V:

(Transcript: “I-It’s Chara... and it’s a BOY.”)

Glitchtale, My Promise:

(Transcript: (Referring to Frisk) “I’m not scared of an angry boy anymore.”)

Glitchtale, Game Over Part 1:

(Transcript: (Referring to Chara) “It’s ok little boy.”)

This... this isn’t okay.

Not only do both of these pieces of fan-art misgender two non-binary characters, the creators knew beforehand that Frisk and Chara use they/them-pronouns, but made the conscious choice to ignore that.

To be fair, in a video discussing “Underverse”, Jael said that only X-Tale Frisk and Chara, the characters you see in the Underverse-examples above, are male, while the characters Frisk and Chara from the main game remained non-binary and used they/them (time-stamp 10:34).

Still, that doesn’t erase the fact that Jael made up alternate versions of two non-binary characters specifically to turn them male. Or that, while addressing the issue, Jael was incredibly dismissive and even mocked the people who felt hurt by her turning two non-binary characters male. Jael also went on to make a fairly non-binary-phobic joke in the video, in which she equated gender identities beyond male and female to identifying as an object.

Jael (translated): “I don’t care if people say the original Frisk and Chara are male, female, helicopters, chairs, dogs or cats, buildings, clouds...”

That’s actually a very common joke among transphobes, if not to say the transphobe-joke:

“Oh, you identify as X? Well then I identify as an attack helicopter!”

If you’re trans, chances are you’ve heard this one, or a variation of it, a million times before.

I certainly have.

I didn’t laugh then and I’m not laughing now.

(Author’s note: I might be angry at both of them for what they did, but I do not, under any circumstances, support the harassment of creators. If you’re thinking about sending either Jael or Camila hate-mail - don’t. It won’t help.)

Jael’s reaction is sadly common in the Undertale fandom. Anyone speaking up against Chara’s and Frisk’s identity being erased is immediately bludgeoned with the “up for interpretation”-argument, despite that not once being the case in the game.

And even with people who do it right and portray Frisk and Chara as they/them, you’ll have dozens of commenters swarming the work with sentences among the lines of “Oh but I think Frisk is a boy/girl! And Chara is a girl/boy!”

By the way, this kind of thing only happens to Frisk and Chara.

Every other character in “Undertale” is referred to and portrayed with their proper pronouns of she/her or he/him.

But not the characters who go by they/them.

Their gender is “up for interpretation”.

Because obviously, their identity couldn’t possibly be canonically non-binary.

Sadly, Frisk and Chara are not alone in this.

Remember Bloodhound?

And how I said they’d been confirmed as non-binary and using they/them pronouns by both the creators and the voice actress?

It seems for many players, that too translated to “up for interpretation”.

(Transcript: “does it matter what they call him? He, her, it, they toaster oven, it doesn’t matter”)

(Transcript: “I’m like 90 % sure Bloodhound is a dude because he could just sound like a girl and by their age that I’m assuming looks around 10-12 because I’ve known many males who have sounded like a female when they were younger”)

(Transcript: “I don’t care it will always be a He. F*ck that non-binary bullsh*t.”)

(Transcript: “Bloodhound is clearly female.”)

(Transcript: “I’m not calling a video game character they/them”)

(Transcript: “exactly. The face was never fully shown neither was the gender so I’d say it means that the player is Bloodhound. So it’s your gender and you refer to “him” as yourself. It’s like a self insertion in my eyes.”)

So, let me get this straight:

If a character, even a player character, uses she/her or he/him, you can accept it, no questions asked.

But when a character uses they/them, suddenly their identity and gender are “up for interpretation”?

This attitude is also widely prevalent in real life.

Many languages only include pronouns for men and women, with no third option available. Non-binary people are often forced to make up their own terms, because their language doesn’t provide one.

Non-binary people often don’t fit within other people’s ideas of gender, so they get excluded altogether. Worse, non-binary people are often the victims of misgendering, denial of their identity or even straight-up violence when coming out.

People will often tell us that we look like a certain gender, so we should only use one set of gendered pronouns. Never mind that that’s not what we want. Never mind that that’s not who we are.

Non-binary people are also largely omitted from legal documentation and studies. We cannot identify as non-binary at our workplace, because using they/them pronouns is considered “unprofessional”. We don’t have our own bathrooms like men and women do. Our gender is seen as less valid than male and female, so even that basic thing is denied to us. I’ve had to use the women’s restroom my entire life, because if I go into a male restroom, I’ll be yelled at or made fun off or simply get told I took the wrong door. It’s extremely uncomfortable for me and I wish I didn’t have to do it.

And since non-binary people aren’t seen as “real transgender-people”, we often don’t receive the medical care we need. This often renders us unable to feel good within our bodies, because the treatment and help we get is wildly inadequate.

It’s especially horrible for intersex people (people who are born with sex characteristics that don’t fit solely into the male/female category) who are often forced to change their bodies to fit within the male/female gender binary.

And you better believe each of those problems is increased ten-fold for non-binary people of color.

We are ignored and dismissed as “confused”, because of who we are.

Representation is a way for Non-binary people to show the world they exist, that they’re here and that they too have stories to tell.

But how can we, when every character that represents us is either othered, barely there or gets taken away from us?

We are not “up for interpretation”.

Neither are the characters in media who share our identity.

And it’s time to stop pretending we ever were.

For more information about Non-Binary Erasure and how harmful it is, you can check out these articles:

https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/08/common-non-binary-erasure/

https://www.dailydot.com/irl/nonbinary-people-racism/

https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/Nonbinary_erasure

https://traj.openlibhums.org/articles/10.16995/traj.422/

https://medium.com/an-injustice/everyday-acts-of-non-binary-erasure-49ee970654fb

https://medium.com/national-center-for-institutional-diversity/the-invisible-labor-of-liberating-non-binary-identities-in-higher-education-3f75315870ec

https://musingsofanacademicasexual.wordpress.com/2015/05/11/dear-sirmadam-a-commentary-on-non-binary-erasure/

4. How Do We Fix It?

Well, first things first: Stop acting like we don’t exist.

And kindly stop other people from doing it too.

We are a part of the LGBT+ community and we deserve to be acknowledged, no matter what our pronouns are.

Address non-binary people with the right pronouns. Don’t argue with them about their identity, don’t comment on how much you think they look like a boy or a girl. Just accept them and be respectful.

If a non-binary person tells you they have two sets of pronouns, for example he/him and they/them, don’t just use one set of pronouns. That can come off as disingenuous. Alternate between the pronouns, don’t leave one or the other out. It’ll probably be hard at first, but if you keep it up, you’ll get used to it pretty quickly.

If you’re witnessing someone harass a non-binary person over their identity, step in and help them.

And please, don’t partake in non-binary erasure in media fandoms.

Don’t misgender non-binary characters, don’t “speculate” on what you think their gender might be. You already know their gender and it’s non-binary. It costs exactly 0 $ to be a decent human being and accept that.

Support Non-Binary people by educating yourself about them and helping to normalize and integrate their identity.

In fact, here’s a list of petitions, organizations and articles who will help you do just that:

https://www.change.org/p/collegeboard-let-students-use-their-preferred-name-on-collegeboard-9abad81a-0fdf-435c-8fca-fe24a5df6cc7?source_location=topic_page

6 Ways to Support Your Non-Binary Child

7 Non-Negotiables for Supporting Trans & Non-Binary Students in Your Classroom

If Your Partner Just Came Out As Non-Binary, Here’s How To Support Them

How to Support Your Non-Binary Employees, Colleagues and Friends

Ko-fi page for the Nonbinary Wiki

The Sylvia Rivera Project, an organization who aims to give low-income and non-white transgender, intersex and non-binary people a voice

The Anti Violence Project “empowers lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and HIV-affected communities and allies to end all forms of violence through organizing and education, and supports survivors through counseling and advocacy."

The Trans Lifeline, a hotline for transgender people by transgender people

Tl:DR: Non-Binary representation is important. Non-Binary people still suffer from society at large not acknowledging our existence and forcing us to conform. Don’t be part of that problem by taking away what little representation we have. Educate yourself and do better instead. We deserve to be seen and heard.

#non-binary #agender #demigender #gender identity #essay #erasure #lgbt representation #misgendering #undertale #she ra spop #apex bloodhound #doppelganger #steven universe

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yanderecandystore · 4 years

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Rip Tumblr D-do you have any dragon ocs that might kidnap their s/o? Also I know that this is a stupid question but can I call myself Cold anon? ;-;

Hello 🍨 Cold ❄️!! I'm really glad you sent me this request!

The current app that I use for writing is bugging out a lot, so I'm sorry if there are many grammar errors and mistakes here and there.

And uh... Cold? I think I fucked up your ask? I think I got a little too excited and went in a different direction?? If you don't like it I understand, I could always do another one 😳😋

TW/Tags: Guess who is being an emotional ball once again?? Me! Yey! Send help! // look, I'm sorry but, low-key? This is edginess overload lol (medieval bitch times, which by that I mean: dark times with terrible people in it) // deaths // abuse of power // Reader said: eat the rich // non-binary reader just because // cursing // slight plot twist? But, like, bad plot twist // soft dragon boi

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

You curious little thing - [Yandere!Dragon x Reader - Short Fanfiction]:

" Deep in the forest, up in the mountains, legend says that a dragon sleeps deep within the caves. And as the old story goes, gold awaits inside his domain, but only those courageous enough to enter the deep cave and defeat the dragon, would be able to take the creature's treasure.

Many have persuaded the quest of defeating said dragon, yet no one ever came back to tell the story.

And while you sit at the comfort of your small cottage reading about the old tales of the dragon's cave, you can't help but consider the story to be just that, a story. A piece of fiction made to scare the local children away from the mountains, or to enchant those that were easily invested into these types of stories.

It seems like you're one of those that were fascinated by the old tales. Regardless of if you find it true or not. The old tales still hold a mysterious charm that manages to keep you intrigued no matter what age you re-read them.

Tales of the forest spirits protecting their land with mischievous wit, tales of monsters that crawled out of your bed to cause nightmares on the simple minded, tales of mighty dragons who could easily rule the world if they so pleased to.

Yet they didn't. Either because they didn't want to, or maybe they really didn't exist. Who knows, right [Y/N]? Not that you, a simple commoner, would know any better.

Although, from the tales you read, isn't always the common folk the ones to first encounter these things?

It always ends bad, but still.

A commoner would be the first one to be affected by the wrath of such supernatural creatures.

However, as stated before, there is no way of knowing if such a thing is real or not, right? It's been eons since the last time someone even mentioned a dragon's presence in your kingdom, and it's been centuries that the concepts of dragons had fallen into the mythological category.

There hasn't been a single person to mention the beast's names in years. There was no visible way of them being remotely real, right? That sounded absurd.

But of course, like all tales are written, your's seem to have reached the beginning of your own personal adventure when the king mentioned the need of soldiers willing to face the beast inside the cave, who was presumably hibernating throughout this whole time.

And of course, the public had only laughed at this sort of news. You see, your king's authority over the entire land has been dangling by a thin thread. The taxes, the frauds, the imminent wars threatening to occur at any second now, has helped a small portion of people to start questioning if not downright rebelling against him and his reign of terror.

The revolution was rising slowly, yet something needed to push it forward, the straw that broke the camel's back.

"What could it be?" You might be wondering.

How about kidnapping and force recruitment with the help of blackmailing? Specifically targeting the poorest people in the kingdom and taking their family members hostage if they don't comply?

Sounds so evil that you may think it's bullshit right? So inhumane, that the villain of this story might as well be your crazy king, right?

Oh, [Y/N]. You're absolutely right, yet a little bit wrong considering that even if such an evil act sounds absurd, it's absolutely real. It's part of your reality now.

And even if your king is a vile creature of pure hatred and deserves to be fed to the rats, by being a terrible ruler, husband, and father- You were soon about to learn that there are worse, more powerful forces that can easily overpower the insanity of that sad, pathetic evil man.

To your dismay, your family was one of the chosen ones to suffer from this. Because of poverty, you and your father lived in the outskirts of the kingdom. It was perfect for the king and his soldiers, as you and your father lived distant from the main town, if any of you two ever die on the process of going into the beast's cave, or disobey the king's orders, no one would notice if you two were suddenly wiped from the face of the Earth.

And of course, holding hostage just one person was easier than multiple family members. Although your king was absolutely insane if not completely psychotic, you could at least understand how he moved his pieces in this massive game of chess.

I mean, yes, you understand his reasoning. Still doesn't mean he is right.

Soldiers didn't wait too long to show up and try to force your father to go with them. But you didn't take none of that, you wouldn't let your dying father be taken by them.

You screamed, you shout, you let venom spill out of your mouth by each profanity you threw at the soldiers and the king they claimed to serve. It didn't take long before the general noticed that you were one of the rascals forming a rebellion. Well, you didn't really need to be officially part of the revolution, just disagreeing was enough to make the general decide to take you instead of your old father.

You can still remember how he was trying to scream his lungs out, to stop the soldiers somehow.

This was it, right? The day, for you and possibly all these other commoners to die in the name of an asshole. How honoring.

Among you and other miserably unlucky individuals, there were all kinds of different people. From innocent, to criminals. From young to old, from poor to… Well, mildly not as poor. Nobles would never be subjected to this, you know that. All of these individuals were carried away by a carriage. All crammed into one little vehicle, away from the public sight.

After being far enough from the town and now deep within the forest, the soldiers commanded all of you to get out of the carriage as now you'll begin to walk straight to the mountain while carrying… Gold?

"- It's a gift from the king. Survive long enough, and you'll be able to take it with you." The general said, his tone being condescending as ever.

You could…. Technically run away, right now. They haven't really put any restrains in any of you-

"- Over there!" A soldier alerted the general, who looked little surprised by seeing two of your group running away with the gold in hands.

Without hesitation, or even a slight hint of empathy, the general shot both with his crossbow. Their bodies fall flat in the forest ground, with all that gold and jewelry accompanying them. All that gold being wasted and left behind, just like the bodies of the people carrying them.

You felt sick, the need to vomit was surfacing through your stomach. This- This is terrible!? This is so cruel! How can they continue to walk like nothing happened??

God, how did a once prospering kingdom has now fallen in such a low pit?

As you can imagine, the walk was torturous and it felt like it was going forever. Of course, a lot of questions were emerging about the strange situation.

One: how did the king know and was certain that the myth of the dragon was real and that the dragon was awake?

Two: why didn't he call his own army to attend to such issues instead of the common folk being forced to go with his wishes?

Actually, now that you think about it, why are there so few skilled, trained soldiers taking a bunch of people to a cave unprepared?

Carrying a bunch of gold for fucks sake, this stuff is heavy!

If it was truly a gift from the king to your group, then why were you obligated to carry it all the way to the cave? Sounds unreasonable and if anything, absolutely ridiculous. It would only slow your group down, and for what?!

Sounds like a trap to be…. Honest. Wait a minute-

"- Shit!" You whisper to yourself at the sudden realization that you're fucked, which unfortunately, caused a soldier that was near you to hear it.

"- Nothing sir, I just stabbed my foot in a rock." You weren't lying though. This whole walk bullshit your doing has destroyed your low quality sandals, and now you could basically feel the ground stabbing you every time you stept.

The soldier just grunted at you, and as much as you wished to take his sword and shove it up his bum, you couldn't help but go back to your original train of thought before you got interrupted.

You were going straight to death right? You're not supposed to fight a dragon, but rather serve as an offering?? What?!

You can't even speak or alert your fellow companions in any way. The last three people that have spoken without being directed to, were shot in the head.

The realization has sadly come in too late for you to make any plans now, as you forward as your group walk upwards, following the mountain's trail, you find yourself facing not only the entrance to a presumably dangerous cave infested with predators, but also the gates to your inevitable death.

You would now have to think of how to escape the soldiers and their arrows, or how to possibly make your death less painful. Being eaten by a dragon doesn't sound really fun.

When entering the cave you're met with more-

"- Are you fucking kidding me?!" Someone screamed, while easily accepting their death.

You couldn't help but agree with the person. While entering the cave, you're met with a great ravine, going in a spiral fashion deeper into the cave.

In other words, you have not only walked all the way up to a fucking mountain, but you would now need to get down into a creepy cave.

You almost considered asking for some eternal peace before remembering that your father's life was still in line. You just… Don't want to go away like this, you don't want your father to go like this.

And once again your group, that was now a lot shorter due to the amount of deaths along the way, was now following the general once again. Only this time, the soldiers were behind all of you, probably to guarantee no one ran away. Too late for that now anyway, so why even bother?

You didn't realize how you were on the very front of everyone, side by side with the man that was leading you to your doom.

You felt his eyes fall into your form a couple of times, but he never really turned his face to look at you. After a long silence of just a bunch of miserable people stepping closer to a terrible plan that was not well thought-out, he said:

"- You know it already. Right?" His voice was rough and still held the nonchalant tone that was written all over his face. You doubt this man could have ever smiled once in his life.

You almost choked with your own breathing, the nerve of this man! You couldn't help but let out the only thing you have wanted to say this whole time:

"- I hate you." You say as your eyes start to become a little watery. The feeling of desperation was eating you up ever since you entered the carriage, but only now you felt how bad the teeth of despair hurt.

"- I know kid. Me too." He responded, his tone never changed, even while saying that.

You guess he didn't really appreciate his job as much as you thought he did. Yet, you couldn't find in your heart to pity the man, as he was complicit in all of this mess. But I guess, you do hope for this man to find some sort of redemption, either presently or in his after life.

You still think he did a lot of bad things of course, his crimes are probably never gonna be forgiven. But just because of that, it didn't mean he couldn't start to do some good actions now, not for the sake of finding inner forgiveness, but for the sake of others. For the sake of the innocent people being not only met with unfair treatment, but also being ruled by a psychotic tyrant who is a complete imbecile. No wonder the queen and his son were missing for so long, you would probably have run away if you were them too.

When finally coming down, with your feet now hurting like a bitch, you can find some time for yourself to appreciate the beauty of this place.

You know, before you lose your head? To a freaking dragon??

Honestly, you at least hope that the stories you read were true, because holy fuck- Imagine how exhausted your body is from walking for what it feels like an eternity, holding jewelry made with gold, only to find an empty cave?

Then you would be able to go feral kill one or two soldiers before getting your ass beaten. As you don't have enough reason to just do that right now, right?

You expected to be met with disappointment, but what you truly saw while finally getting into the dragon's territory, you were able to not only feel enchanted by the magnitude of these treasure places, but also forget the danger of the situation, as you look around and remember the tales you read.

This is so much better than what you have imagined it to be like. It's… Mesmerising! It 's beautiful! The underground pond, the glowing crystals, the pile of gold, the stolen statues of the great warriors of your kingdom, golden weapons all scattered across the floor, the white feathered looking dragon staring down at you from his nest, that little tea set that is really cute and fragile yet it probably cost way more than your house, your clothes, and all of your furniture all together.

Oh no wait-

"- We came with what you asked for, Artemio." Said the general fast walking his way to be in between you and the beast.

To say you were freaking out would be an understatement. You knew dragons were huge, but you didn't expect it to be so… Huge! You know??

Oh my God, you're dead-

You looked around to see only you, your group of commoners ready to be probably eaten, and the general. And while looking for the soldiers, you noticed them trying to close the opening with a man built gate, created to keep the beast.

But obviously, that gate looks absolutely ridiculous, there is no way this guy couldn't destroy it by simply slapping it. It's quite laughable, yet…

You feel this is not just a coincidence or a bad made joke. You have a feeling they know the gate is essentially useless. It was really old, so, clearly this has been going on from quite some time.

Has… Has your kingdom been doing this for centuries?? Bringing offerings to please the dragon and beg it to sleep for more centuries to come?

"- This is absolute bullshit!" You screamed, not noticing how your heart was racing and your breathing had started to become frantic. You were panicking while coming to terms with the fact that your whole world was collapsing in front of your eyes. Your scream clearly surprised your fellow companions, yet it didn't surprise the dragon or the general.

The dragon had, well, a dragon face, so you have no idea what it was thinking, and the general was still with the same non-expressive face since the beginning of this stupid trip!

"- What?! You have nothing to say?? You brought us here to die, at least say something, you coward!" You were fuming with rage. How can a person like this be so annoying even when he is not saying anything.

He looks at you with an understanding expression, yet you don't think about what it could mean as you reach to one of the many golden weapons spread around across the floor. They were heavy and quite frankly completely useless, yet you still hold into that golden sword like your life depended on it.

And it did, actually.

Have you gone insane or just completely blind with rage and the instinct of survival? You're not sure just yet, but you'll lose your last bit of sanity to stand your ground.

You aren't going down without a fight.

"- Come at me, you big bird!" You yelled, looking kinda epic and kinda goofy at the same time. You probably shouldn't insult a dragon who hasn't decided who he'll first, it may change his appetite.

Before the general could interfere with your foolish behavior, the one and only had spoken:

"- Where exactly is what we had agreed on?" Like in true entitled brat fashion, Artemio asked the general while putting his head in his pawn.

"- We had to eliminate a couple of the troublemakers. In the end some of the gold was left behind in the progress-"

"- No, I mean, where truly is what I asked for? The jewelry is quite frankly ugly, the gold coins don't matter as I already have plenty, and none of these humans look really edible. Or well… Appetising." You could swear a pouty face was appearing in Artemio's face, yet only one thing had taken your attention. That's the reason why they needed so many disposable people? Oh… Wait a minute, did the dragon just call everyone here too ugly to eat?

"- If you can't compromise with your promises, then I think we'll have to change the deal-" Artemio started getting up from his nest, stretching out like a cat.

"- Oh, please no, can't you just-" The general panicked, thinking that the dragon would destroy the village.

"- I want that one." Artemio said. Pointing at you.

"- What?" You looked behind you just in case you were in the way of someone else. No, you weren't.

"- Uhn… What?" Oh look, even the general was confused as you, and well, the entire cast of people that were thrown in this hell hole.

"- Yes, that one holding the spear."

"- Just… That one, or-"

"- Just that one. And I won't get out of the cave for at least a century, I promise!" He sounds and acts like both a child and a cat, preparing himself to pounce on its prey any moment now.

"- ….. Okay then, fair enough. It's your problem now kid." He said, making a motion for all the other captives to follow him. Which they gladly did, because, you know, they aren't the protagonist of the story.

"- What?! You can't leave me here, you bastard!!" You screamed, although subconsciously you already knew his answer.

"- I think I'm just doing that!" He screamed from the other side of the cave, fuckz they really didn't waste no time at all, did they?

Sigh, who are you kidding? If you were one of them, you would have ran away as fast as you could. At least some gave you sympathetic looks before going back to their "freedom".

You heard the heavy gate closing. Well, shit. It's you and him now.

You tried going back into your original threatening stance, but before you could, you saw a glimpse of Artemio coming in at full speed, taking no time to jump at you. This is it [Y/N], send your last prayers to your father and your old life before-

Before he starts licking you... like a dog? What?

He pauses and you tense up, looking up and seeing a dragon powerful enough to destroy villages, looking at you like a precious little gift.

Artemio picks you up and hugs you in an almost bone breaking hug. Confused and frustrated with how the situation was going, you asked:

"- A-Aren't you going to kill me?" Yes, it was a pathetic question, if a dragon isn't killing you, then why ask it to do it??

"- I have been so lonely since the last human that I chose! I usually prefer to have many friends around but all of the other options seemed so boring, you know?" His voice is oddly cheerful and sweet to someone that sees humans as pets, or "friends". So… What is really going on here?

"- I thought you ate people." You said, still frustrated that you were betrayed and lied to through this entire day.

"- Well, I guess I can eat humans-" Says the giant bird-lizard acting like a child trying to lie about doing something wrong- "- But I really don't like doing it, I promise!"

"- I just wanted someone to play with, you know? All the dragons that I know are just so boring and take everything seriously." He huffed in annoyance.

"- Well… Do you-" You started questioning if you really want to to know the answer, but curiosity sure is killing this cat!- "- What happened to the other humans that were here?"

"- Oh, they… Uhn, they died, because of your shirt lifespan and all ya know." He responded.

"- Oh… Then why did the soldiers bring us here saying you were going to eat us?" Why not go full balls in and ask everything, right?

"- It's- Sigh, it's really embarrassing, but I didn't know any other way of how to ask for company down here." He said shyly, which only confirmed your suspicion of this being complete bullshit.

"- And you threaten to burn a whole kingdom just because of that?" You asked.

"- Yes!" He answered with no shame whatsoever. This guy was a dog wearing a dragon costume, you couldn't believe what you were hearing.

"- Sigh, oh my God…"

"- Hey, uhn, what's your name?" Artemio spoke, he thought that he should also ask questions as he wants to be able to enjoy every second with his new pet.

"- It is [Y/N]. And you're Artemio, right?" You can't believe any of this, really. You went from an absolutely terrible life or death situation, to a… Well, you can't even tell what the hell is going on anymore!

"- [Y/N].... [Y/N]! [Y/N], that's such a good name!" The excited dragon repeated your name multiple times before interrupting your peace once again. You can't be mad at him, but-

Come on, you needed some time to accept everything that just went down. You didn't even notice you were on the floor until Artemio was in front of your view again.

"- [Y/N]!" He was so easy to please, that just saying your name was fun to him.

"- Sigh… Hey Artemio." You sighed as there was no way in hell this dragon would leave you to deal with this weird feeling of emptiness arising in your chest.

"- What do you want to do now?" He asked cheerfully, but not completely oblivious to your feelings of being abandoned underground with him by force.

You stayed silent for a second, again, trying to come with terms with this new lifestyle that you were subjected to. You technically could ask Artemio to open the gate, he doesn't seem to have any intention of hurting you. But who knows? He has a different point of view in this whole thing than you do.

Silence was taking over the cave, but not exactly an awkward silence, just… A comforting one.

The water dripped from the ceiling. You felt the ground underneath you shake a little as Artemio followed your "guidance". He decided to lay on his back near you.

He wasn't really doing any self reflection at all, he just wanted to join in with you, yet all he could think is how happy he is to have someone else to spend time with.

You may only see him slightly from the corner of your eyes, yet you still feel a little, strange, by seeing a dragon mimic your ways.

You don't feel nessecerally homesick, but you do miss your father. You absolutely hate the idea of coming back to the kingdom, but… If you could see your father one last time, and probably help him with the gold that is in this place….

Maybe you could even-!.....

"- Artemio."

"- Yes, [Y/N]!*

"- AAH!" He turned himself to meet your face so fast that you whimpered because of his sudden motion.

He was going to check if you were okay, but you stopped him showing that you were fine, just a little spooked.

"- Hey, Artemio-" You said again, as you were still reformulating your question in your head-

"- Do you know how to burn an entire castle?"

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

#yandere #sheep stuff #yandere oc #sheep's stuff #yandere x reader #yandere oc fanfiction #yandere oc x reader #yandere dragon #yandere dragon x reader #yandere dragon fanfiction #yandere fanfiction #yandere fanfic #yandere monster #yandere monster fanfiction #special delivery request #special delivery fanfictions

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welcome-to-green-hills · 3 years

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I am a 12 year old boy, and christian. But lately I've been pretending that i'm a girl, and whenever my parents leave, i put a blanket around my legs and pretend it's like a princess dress. Are these habits normal? I personally don't believe that boys wearing dresses is a sin or anything, but I don't even know if I'm right about that

Hello, buddy!

I’m very sorry that this took so long. Please know that I was not trying to ignore you at all. I have been thinking of the best mature answer to give you. I wanted to take the time to carefully evaluate my words and string them together comfortably. This post was revised a few times due to my opinion being expressed rather than the opposite. What was asked of me was if this was a normal behavior, not my opinion. For this post, I strive to only share logical evaluations and concepts before arriving to a conclusion.

(There will be articles and research data referenced as well, but I’ll put a hyperlink in it as a source and reference it at the end).

I think that what should matter is that what feels the best to you. What matters is how you feel in your heart and mind. If that is what feels comfortable to you, then that is what works best for you. Viewing this as an anthropologist, clothes are not defined with a binary—humans define it by a binary. Meaning that when clothes are made, there isn’t a strict rule as to who and what should wear it. A dress doesn’t come with instructions saying, “dresses are for girls/women only.” Humans, the cultural and social norms that they were raised in, advertise articles of clothing as a norm. In short: yes! It’s becoming normal, especially now (Ipsos 2019, #3-6). Even back when Christianity was just beginning, many wore animal skins, tunics, wool, and a special unisex skirt called a “stola” or similar to. (Wikipedia 2020).

I’ve shared a long time ago that there are at least 52--and counting--genders in the world and 6 different types of biological sex that a person can have (Joshua Kennon 2018). There is no reason, or excuse, to have clothes catered to only two options. We, as a society, hear more about people of multiple genders use clothing as a form of expression. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It seems weird now because we’re becoming, what you youngings say, “woke.” There is nothing wrong with a person who identifies as a male and wears a skirt. Nor is there anything wrong with a person who identifies as a female and wears bow ties. (Weak example, I know, but it’s the most “male” item I can think of for Western Culture). Normalizing a binary as a “non binary” is a bit odd for a hardcore culture to understand, but overtime it can be taught and woven into cultural morals later on.

Here’s an example:

One thing that came to mind while writing this was Schitt’s Creek star, Daniel Levy. In the show, he played a role (David Rose) where his character wore skirts and skorts as a norm. The character also wore a skirt equivalent to his wedding when he wedded his husband.

Recently, the show’s actor and creator wore a skirt while receiving his nineth Emmy award in 2020 (Fernandez, 2020).

I’ve been trying to find my notes and PDF files shared through previous anthropological courses through each semester to share. I don’t want to make any claims without sharing proof... plus it gives you something to read if you’re interested in it. However, in ever class I’ve attended and talked with professionals of specific archaeological and cultural fields, the use of gendered clothing appears to be traced back to when humans began agricultural societies. Agricultural (also referred to as “agrarian” society anthropologically) societies were really the start of just about everything, like governmenting officials, farming, the concepts of relatives and families, gender specific roles (like taking care of kids and gender specific jobs) in a defined group, and religion.

Anthropologist Joanne Eicher studies humans in the now, the contemporary. What she loves to view is cultural standards art, humanities, and the way that people dress as well. She brushes up on this in her published work called “The Anthropology of Dress” from the late 2000s. Give it a read if you’re interested, we can talk further about it if you have questions.

In short, if you really were asking for my opinion about it it’s okay for males to wear skirts, then my answer will be “yes.” I think that it’s perfectly okay and cool beans for males to wear a skirt. I also think that it’s perfectly okay for females to wear male clothing, like suits/tuxedos that give off an alpha vibe and sports gear.

Onto the second portion of your question:

Tackling the first section, “I am a 12 year old boy, and christian. But lately I've been pretending that i'm a girl...” Are you asking me if it’s normal for someone your age to pretend to be a girl?

If you’re asking me if it’s normal for kids in your age group to portray themselves as a different gender, then yes in some cases. It is normal, it’s just deemed as a surreal topic to hear it in public. It is perfectly normal to question the portrayal of yourself, and it’s perfectly okay to explore other possibilities (Mascareille, 2015).

As stated before, what should matter here is what you think and feel is right in your heart/mind. No one can tell you what you can and can’t be. I can’t tell you who and what you should be in life, that’s all up to you. I can’t force you to become something that you’re nots only You know what’s best for you in your heart and mind. What helps is to have that conversation with yourself. Ask yourself who you are and what you strive to be. This is an important part of life—you get to invent the person that you want to be. And the glorious thing about this development is that this is the perfect time where you’re open to all possibilities and emerging into a culture/society where we ask questions. It’s okay to ask questions and try new things (Early Childhood National Centers, n.d).

I’m going to leave two links down below to a couple website that you can read more about. I do not mean to leave you on a short note here and shrug you off. What I’m leaving you with are some other source materials that you are welcomed to brush up on as well. I am very honored that you trust me enough to have this conversation, but I can only provide so much. This means that I can provide you with much information as I can on this topic, but I don’t know what it means to you in your heart and soul. You know better than I do.

KidsHealth.org by Nemours

Human Rights Campaign—Tools for Equality and Inclusion

There is nothing wrong with you at all. None whatsoever. And if you have any questions, or just need someone to talk to about it, you’re always welcomed here. I’ll provide you with the recourses that you need in order to be successful. Stay safe and remember that you’re worthy and matter. I hope that this answers your question, buddy!✨

#mystery anon #off topic #I am an anthropologist

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airingxofxgrievances · 4 years

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Post 1: Intro to the Players

Buckle up, stap in, and strap on, folks, because this is a hell of a ride. I'm here to record the incredible collapse in flames of one particular nuclear family, or, in other words, exactly how my parents are total scumbags. I'd originally wanted to post this in Reddit's AITA board, but, as the exigence is COVID-related, that's a no-go there.

Let me tell you about myself. I'm a 36-year-old female (I mean, I guess. I've always felt fairly non-binary, but not enough to make a "thing" out of it, you know?). I'm married to an incredible man who is absolutely a Hufflepuff. He's sweet, kind, loyal, and incredibly devoted to friends and family. I myself am a Ravenclaw. I'm pretty cerebral about interpersonal situations, Entrapta is my favorite Princess from She-Ra, I identify with Jim Carrey's Doctor Robotnik in the new Sonic movie WAY more than I should, and if you cross me I'll either try to destroy you in a debate or just run the math and decide it's just easier to cut you out of my life entirely. And yes, I know how Millennial that entire paragraph was.

My husband and I have two kids: A 6-year-old boy who is absolutely the sweetest and most creative kid you'll ever meet, and a 4-month-old little girl who is already an absolute ray of sunshine. You'll notice that, given the date of posting, my daughter was born during the COVID Pandemic. We got pregnant with her in October 2019, before any of this happened. But her birth was the spark that ignited the tire fire.

You see, my mother was supposed to come up and stay with us so that she could watch our son while I was in the hospital for the birth. I live in Western NY, but my parents live in Florida. Now, over the years there have been plenty of signs of the "Fox News Effect," or, in other words, reasonable people falling down a conservative rabbit hole and turning into completely insane bubble-people. When I was a kid my sister and I weren't allowed to play with squirt guns because they were too similar to real guns, and today my parents have concealed carry permits and go to the gun range all the time. They were always Republicans, but now they've gone off the deep end. My father rails incessantly on Facebook about "libtards" and mother literally hung up on me earlier in the summer when I said there was a difference in how Red States and Blue States were handling the Pandemic. But I digress.

I had a feeling she wasn't going to come when she asked if it was safe because of possible blockades on the highway. There weren't any, by the way. That's just a line of Fox News scaremongering. She also said she might need to keep an eye on the news in case she needed to return to her house and use her guns to guard her property. Let's note that they live so far out in the suburbs that there aren't sidewalks, she lives on a dead-end street, and regardless, no, you don't need to get your guns out to defend yourself from invading hordes of minorities. We're white, by the way, in case you couldn't already tell (and for the record, before I go any farther, BLACK LIVES MATTER). I knew we should have made alternate arrangements then and there, but my husband had faith in her, so we didn't.

Shortly before she was due to drive up, she sent us an announcement via text. She said she had never worn a mask, and would never wear one. My god, I knew she was a Trumper, but she always believed in science before, and she was even a 5th-grade science teacher, but now I'm discovering that she's an Anti-Masker? And she had been willing to put the health and safety of my family at risk? HELL NO. So now we had to scramble to schedule alternate childcare, which we would have to pay for.

For reasons that will be illuminated in subsequent posts, our relationship had always been strained, but this was a breaking point for me. If she was this far gone from reality then she was a danger to my family and I would no longer want her around my kids. I wanted to cut her off entirely, but my husband, the sweet, trusting man that he is, felt very strongly that kids need to know their grandparents. So we set the rule that if she would just quarantine properly, and follow all of the NY state requirements for out of state travelers, she could come visit. I had no problem making that agreement with him because I knew it would never happen. Boy, how right I was. But regardless, I was personally through with her, and if she wanted to visit then my husband would have to bring the kids to see her. She was no longer welcome at my house.

And so our story begins.

#AITA #nonfiction #parenting #bad parenting #families #family drama #COVID-related #covid masks #spilling the tea #Ravenclaw #hufflepuff

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cherry-valentine · 4 years

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Fall 2019 Anime Season

Here’s what I’m watching:

Stand: My Heroes is an otome series that’s pretty and refreshing in that it stars an adult lady protagonist who has a career - she works as a “scout” for a new program that works to gather talented individuals (all handsome single men, of course) from various fields to solve drug-related cases. The art is nice and the music is above average, with really cool opening and ending themes. My biggest issue with the show is that it has way too many characters, many of whom look very similar. Honestly, for the first few episodes I could only tell some of them apart by their voice actors. Luckily the show has some very well known voice talent. It gets a bit easier as the show becomes a little more episodic, dealing with small groups of the men at a time. But still. If all of these guys were in the game, it must have been hell trying to get all the endings! The overall plot is a little vague but I do like that the heroine is independent and respected by the men on her team. There are a couple of the usual tsundere guys but they mellow out pretty quickly. The show is interesting and attractive to look at, but it would have benefited a lot from narrowing its focus and cutting down on the number of hot guys (now that’s something I never thought I’d type).

Ahiru no Sora is a new sports anime about basketball. It actually follows a similar plot setup to Hinomaru Sumo - a talented player starts at a new school and goes to join the club of his favored sport, only to find it overrun by violent delinquents whom he’ll have to defeat (via his sports skills) in order to officially join the club and start a team. The protagonists even share the same problem of being considered way too short to participate in the sport they love and also the fact that their ill mothers gave them encouragement. The biggest difference, however, is that Hinomaru was already a very accomplished and even somewhat famous sumo wrestler when the series begins, whereas Sora is talented but has never even played in a real basketball game, making him very much an underdog. He’s a likable character, as are the delinquents that gradually come around to playing basketball with him and cleaning up their acts. I was a little annoyed by the fact that there is a peephole the guys use to watch the girls changing into their uniforms. Not by the fact that it existed, because it’s actually kinda realistic that delinquent teenage boys would do something like that, but by the fact that Sora is shown this peephole in the first episode and is never seen doing anything to close it up despite becoming friends with one of the girls and him being presented as a moral, upstanding guy. I hope they address it in the future because it kinda bugs me. On the plus side, the main female character (there’s always one in any sports anime) is a very talented player on the girls’ basketball team, rather than the team manager or whatever. I like that she’s a player of the sport rather than just a fan or support character. Also, the fact that Sora’s main source of inspiration is his mom, who was a famous basketball player herself in her youth, is pretty cool. Overall, the show is enjoyable even if it feels a little overly familiar.

Hoshiai no Sora is a revelation. It feels like a very important moment for anime that will no doubt be talked about for years into the future. Be warned that I venture into possible spoilers territory here, though I don’t share any plot details. I started the series because I saw boys holding tennis rackets in the artwork, fully expecting “just another sports anime” (which is fine, because I love sports anime). What I got was a very big, very nice surprise. Hoshiai no Sora is a sports anime, in that it follows a sports team and spends some time showing training routines and matches with rival schools. But it’s also a realistic, nuanced, heartwarming, and often painfully traumatic coming of age story about the boys on the tennis team, most of whom have compelling back stories or home lives. Almost every parent in the show is an absolute nightmare, to the point that when a non-terrible parent shows up, every commenter on the episode was immediately suspicious of them. It should be clear by now that there are some massive trigger warnings to apply to this show. There are rather graphic depictions of child abuse, from physical to verbal to emotional, and all of it is horrifying (and kudos to the show for recognizing that there are so many different forms of abuse and all of them are traumatic). Thankfully, the show is not all doom and gloom. In fact, the show is one of the sweetest, most uplifting, most touching series I’ve seen in years, mostly due to the fact that these traumatized kids are all so supportive of each other. They’re kind to each other, even if they bicker here and there about silly stuff. They defend each other from bullies. One character in particular goes to some rather extreme lengths to look out for his friend. It’s also very important to note that the show tackles issues I’ve legitimately never seen addressed in anime, at least not in such a respectful and tasteful way. One character in particular is first presented as gay (and it seems all the other characters are aware that this person is gay, and the tennis team will NOT be having your homophobic bullshit, thank you very much) but then is revealed to be non-binary/questioning their gender, and the show seriously spends almost an entire episode talking about this, about gender identity, with one character relating the story of the transgender man who practically raised him. An anime series actually, seriously, discussed these issues. As a straight, cisgender person, I can’t speak for how accurate all of this was, but judging by the reaction to the episode by folks in the LGBTQ+ community, I’m willing to assume the show did a great job. I’m also willing to bet that somewhere in Japan, there are young people watching this that desperately need to see it, that desperately need to hear the positive messages presented (protagonist Maki kindly gives encouragement and support to his non-binary friend, and at times it feels like he’s speaking to the audience). I know some of this stuff would be considered spoilers, but honestly, I feel like more people would give this anime a shot if they knew it featured all this awesomeness. The art is lovely. The music is great. This is a series that needs to be watched by as many people as possible. Don’t sleep on this one, please.

Boku no Hero Academia Season 4 is more of the same. I’ve already talked several times now about my issues with the series (how female characters are handled in general pretty much sums most of it up) and I’ve already talked about how much I enjoy the show despite those issues. This season introduces an interesting and imposing new villain in Chiaki, who has a cool design and power. I’m also pleased that the show seems to be making an attempt to actually let the female characters DO STUFF, as well as introducing some cool new lady heroes who actually have interesting powers. So... yeah. A good show got better. Special mention goes to new character Sir Nighteye, who is a perfect example of how voice casting can really make or break a character. I would have found him pretty boring if he wasn’t voiced by the supremely talented Shinichirou Miki, who brings all his various characters to life in such a vivid way, I’ve never come across one I didn’t like.

Special 7 falls into the “urban fantasy” genre, the kind we see a lot of in anime lately, with supernatural elements mixed in with modern life. In this case, we have races like elves and vampires living peacefully alongside humans in the modern world. The story follows a certain police unit made up of various fantasy races and humans formed to deal with a terrorist group called Nine who aim to bring back dragons (something about dragons used to rule the world or maybe terrorized the world, I don’t remember). There’s a nice mix of characters in the core team, many of whom will feel familiar. They’re still fun though, and their chemistry as a team and as friends is one of the main reasons to watch. I’m particularly fond of the vampire lady named Shikisai who uses a samurai sword and is, from what I can tell, the most physically badass member of the team. She also appears to have an adorably sweet home life with her husband (or boyfriend?) and is just generally a cool chick. The animation is okay and the music is above average. The plot has several mysteries that are slowly being revealed, but has enough humor to keep from getting too serious. Fairly low on my watch list, but still has a solid spot.

Psycho-Pass Season 3 is a show I was looking forward to. I still think season one was one of the best anime seasons in the past ten years. Season two was good but couldn’t really contend with season one. The movie was great. The OVA’s were great. I was pretty hyped for season three, and so far... eh. It’s okay. Honestly if it were a new show I’d probably rate it much higher, but as a continuation of a story like this, I’m finding it a bit lacking. At times it actually does feel like a new show. There are two entirely new protagonists, who are both interesting and likable, but neither immediately gripped me the way Akane and Kogami did in previous seasons. Some elements of the show seem to contradict, or at least stretch, the world-building that had already been established. New protagonist Arata has an ability that verges on supernatural (in a show that has never had supernatural elements at all). They try to explain it away as something “anyone can do” with enough practice, but that sounds ridiculous when you see his ability in use. We also see “abandoned” areas where there are apparently criminal groups just... living there. Doing whatever. I guess they’re supposed to be like Yakuza, which makes zero sense in this series. If you can escape the oppression of the Sibyl System by just walking across town to an abandoned area, why did a character in season one have to flee the country? It just seems to fly in the face of all the setup that came before. Overall, this season has a general feel that doesn’t gel well with the rest of the series. That being said, taken on its own, it’s still entertaining, with high production values that afford it smooth animation and excellent music. The stories so far have been fairly engaging, but they give off a vibe of “really well done fanfiction”. But whatever, I’d watch paint dry to get an occasional glimpse of Kogami.

Carry Over Shows From Previous Seasons: Black Clover Diamond no Ace Dr. Stone

Best of Season: Best New Show: Hoshiai no Sora Best Opening Theme: Black Clover Best Ending Theme: Diamond no Ace Best New Male Character: Toma (Hoshiai no Sora) Best New Female Character: Shikisai (Special 7)

#Anime #Seasonal Anime #Fall 2019 Anime #Anime Reviews #Anime Recommendations #Text #Hoshiai no Sora

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normal-thoughts-official · 5 years

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I love your Magnus responses! Some have brought me to tears :') hopwfully you haven't answered this yet. I always see fics/ metas on how Alec came to terms about his sexuality, but never on Magnus (or just a selecative few). In your opinion how did he come to terms with his bisexuality? - luxxmagnus

okay first of all I LOVE UR BLOG im so glad u like my shit omg fajsfoamsa and second of all BOY DO I HAVE THOUGHTS ABOUT HOW MAGNUS CAME TO TERMS WITH HIS SEXUALI-

okay SO. your relationship with sexuality is deeply influenced by your early years, as is, well, most aspects of your personality lol. so i think it’s fascinating to think about magnus’ relationship with his gender identity and sexuality considering he was born in early-1600s indonesia, aka right when the colonization started. meaning, a lot of their customs and views on gender and sexuality couldn’t have possibly been erased yet, but they were being very violently and aggressively repressed. and then he finished his growing-up years with asmodeus, a demon, who can’t really give much of a fuck about gender identity and sexuality. so this means a very complicated relationship is bound to develop, and i love it.

unfortunately, magnus’ exact ethnic background isn’t specified in SH (nor tsc, i believe) which makes the whole discussion a lot harder because there are hundreds of native peoples in indonesia. however, they were very much in contact with each other both before and after the dutch invasion and subsequent colonisation, so what i’m gonna do here is talk a little bit about the views on the subject magnus was definitely aware of, and go from there

i know this specifically asked about his bisexuality so i will refrain from shitting my trans magnus headcanon all over the place but i will say that the Bugis people recognised five genders, including one for AFAB people who identified as neither male nor female, and one that embodied both female and male identities

anyway, queerphobia is, in fact, a very recent and very european thing, and most indonesian people, like most asian people and most non-modern-western peoples, were actually A-okay with what we view today as homosexuality. there were even many rituals centered around men-on-men and women-on-women practices. they were also pretty open with sexuality as a whole; there’s even a mountain with a shrine where people have sex with strangers as part of their religious worship.

but, as we know, the european colonizers were very intent on killing off and erasing all records of their dominated cultures, particularly the aspects that directly challenged the european model of gender, sexuality and relationships, to the point where we, ppl born in previously colonised countries, don’t even know about our culture’s views on gender and sexuality. in indonesia, the dutch criminalised homosexuality and we can’t forget that magnus’ stepfather was dutch, and that magnus was born after the colonisation.

so here’s the context: since it was very early in the colonisation days, there is no way that magnus didn’t know about the very rich and diverse gender and sexuality practices in his own country. there’s just no way. it takes decades to completely erase that shit. and we can’t forget that all indonesian peoples resisted colonisation, a lot. we don’t know the exact nature of magnus’ mother’s relationship with his stepfather, but it is very likely that he either enslaved or forced her to be in a relationship with him, because - well, because that’s colonisation, folks. it’s what these guys do. this is also supported by the way his stepfather treated magnus, because i mean, what the fuck. it was extremely rare that native colonised ppls would willingly be with their coloniser, particularly considering how the dutch were just, like, casually deporting and starving indonesian native ppls and ppl in java had been at war with the portuguese would-be settlers (would-be because they lost amazingly lmao get rekt) since the beginning of the 1500s. so im gonna go out on a limb here and say that magnus’ “stepfather” was, in fact, an abusive piece of shit coloniser who probably mistreated magnus’ mother and was probably a huge reason why she killed herself - i mean, your people are dying, and you’re bound to this guy who abuses and rapes you and keeps telling you everything about you and the way you live and was raised is demonic, that’s just bound to mess with you. actually, the religious aspect of colonisation that taught ppl that their cultures and religious were demonic and immoral and that they either had to repent for that and submit to the colonisers or be killed slash go to hell, hmmm…… well, is probably related to the fact that the idea that magnus was demon-related was repulsive enough to her that she killed herself? and that’s if we go with the interpretation that magnus was the main reason, which isn’t really reliable because 1- magnus clearly thinks he needs to Save Everyone and is bound to think that if anyone gets hurt it’s his fault; 2- canonically, it was magnus’ stepfather who told magnus that the reason she killed herself was magnus’ heritage. i mean i find it hard to believe personally that magnus’ mom didn’t know she was fucking a demon or at least a supernatural entity of some sort, and the whole angel-demon division is a christianity thing anyway, so what the fuck does this mean to magnus’ mom, really? especially considering that, unlike magnus, she probably was alive before the settlers arrived, so it’s even harder to believe that she would just uncritically believe everything about good and evil she was being taught by the guys that were, you know, committing mass genocide. i personally think that if magnus’ eyes were related to her killing herself at all (which makes less and less sense the more i think about it. i mean, what, was he born glamoured? surely she knew about this before he was like 11 or something) it would be because, in a way, this proved that everything she was being told about herself was true. she was demonic, her culture was demonic, and they deserved the absolutely horrific and traumatic things that were happening to them, and her son’s eyes proved it. so it’s not really about magnus as it is about, like, the entire continent of Europe’s bullshit. and anyway, again, everything she was going through was extremely traumatic - i think magnus’ eyes would be almost an afterthought, if considered at all.

anyway, sorry, went on a huge tangent here, i have no self control whatsoever. what i’m trying to say is that magnus grew up in an environment where expressions of different gender and sexuality were very repressed, but he was born in the heart of the very resistance. he was a native man (or, well, boy) and he knew for a fact that most people lived outside of the constricting western gender and sexuality binary, and he lived in a time where the europeans hadn’t really managed to dominate and erase their culture - of course, they never truly did, but the differences were way more latent. so magnus’ views on the whole thing were probably among the lines of “the asshole white people think the way we live is bad and are trying to kill us and that’s why they’re assholes and we’re trying to kick them out, but currently me and my mom are on their hands so i’m gonna have to behave like they expect me to”. so, lots of abuse, a very complicated relationship, but i do believe that magnus wouldn’t have internalised the european bullshit because, well, he was seeing the counterpoint and the resistance and he certainly knew which side was “his”. also in his flashbacks he’s wearing traditional indonesian clothing so there’s that - proof that he wasn’t completely assimilated to european views and culture.

and then he killed the stepfather (good riddance, rot in hell) and went to live his final teenage years with asmodeus. i mean, more like was found by asmodeus and forced to be with him by both the circumstances and asmodeus himself, but you get what i’m saying.

here’s the thing: asmodeus is definitely an asshole and an abuser, but i can’t bring myself to believe he gave a good fuck about modern-western gender roles and sexuality. he is older than them. by a lot. and he doesn’t even care about the earth realm that much, his whole thing is that he wants to rule edom, so i’m not even sure if he knows about them beyond the, like, very very basics. maybe not even that. so during the rest of magnus’ formative years, and probably the time he figured out what exactly his sexuality was anyway, he was in a pretty open environment when it came to that.

so with that we’ve reached the first conclusion of this huge-ass essay that you probably didn’t sign up for: up until he went to England, Magnus was probably pretty comfortable when it came to his sexuality. like, shit, he was fucked up about everything else, but this one thing i can’t see him internalising a lot of.

i’m gonna fast forward the asmodeus years because i don’t have a lot to say beyond that and also i have no fucking clue what the fuck was going on during that time????????? like it ended when magnus banished him to edom, so i can only assume they were on the earth realm the whole time, but what exactly were they doing???? no clue. i am gonna say, tho, that i think one of the reasons why magnus managed to break out of asmodeus’ shitty “be evil” conditioning is precisely because he had been on the other side before?? like obviously magnus must have been an extremely compassionate kid (which again makes absolute sense in the context of him being part of an oppressed people that were trying their hardest to fight together. you learn a few things about community-building and taking care of others in that context, lemme tell you) since he was out there blaming himself for his mom’s death and also for killing his literal piece of shit stepfather who also tried to kill him as well, but i think it’s just that much harder to help your dad commit mass murder when you’ve been on the receiving end of it. obviously he was probably around asmodeus for a while (i’m thinking until he was like, 18? you know, enough to be an adult), especially considering how he needed the help to learn how to master his magic and also he had nowhere else to go, and also asmodeus was all over the place with “they will always think you’re an abomination, i’m the only one who understands you” and he had eyes like him and all. but still. he knew that he didn’t want that, he knew that he liked earth and didn’t like edom at all and he knew that in order to be himself he’d need to get rid of asmodeus. so he did.

anyway, after the First Great Yeeting Of Asmodeus (second yeeting was when he sent him to limbo so he would never be able to come back. ugh we stan) Magnus went to England. I’m guessing that somehow he met other warlocks during his time with asmodeus (which actually makes sense, i mean, asmodeus must have been wanting ppl to join forces with so he could defeat lilith? or something like that idk they never said anything about what they were doing with their time magnus’ backstory’s got more holes than a swiss cheese) and there seems to be a pretty tight warlock community, so maybe he went to wherever it is that the warlocks meet to gossip and shit? trying to find somewhere else where he belonged. and there he met Ragnor, who helped him break out of his shell and find who he was beyond the constant abuse and the deeply ingrained idea that he was Born To Be Evil.

so for a while, magnus was learning who he was, and again the Warlock Community should be pretty open with gender and sexuality considering most of them are also older than western binary bullshit and also come from different, non-european backgrounds. it was probably at this point that he started going around, having relationships, looking for someone who loves him and somewhere to belong in, you know. haha im fine and soon he figured out that he wanted to find out more about the world. magnus is a curious and creative guy, he’s going around inventing portals and shit, he wants to see the world. so magnus goes to the mundane world. it makes sense, considering in most of his pics he seems to be in mundane settings, and there were no accords at that time. also i mean even post-accords magnus is still going around owning clubs where mundanes can get in so i think he’s quite fond of mundanes.

and that’s when shit comes crashing down, because “sodomy” was punishable by death in England until the 1960s and like boy these guys were not into the whole free sexuality thing. at all. i tend to think magnus would go looking for sex and stuff in downworlder and warlock spaces, where there was a lot more freedom and nobody gave a shit, but he was going around meeting people, and he’s vulnerable and he wants to be loved and he’s definitely been in relationships with mundanes. he knows he needs to hide it, but it doesn’t mean he’s uncomfortable with it. so he might get the occasional insult and he knows he needs to be careful, but this is one aspect of himself he’s actually okay with

but like, he’s spent centuries doing that, eventually shit would go down. and it does. i firmly believe that one of his lovers got caught and got the death penalty. magnus managed to escape but couldn’t save him, and i mean, that’s at least the third time he’s blaming himself for someone’s death. immortality is tiring, and he doesn’t feel like he belongs anywhere. there’s the shadow world, but even there he’s being looked down on because the shadowhunters are racist assholes. he’s got his friends, sure, but he’s never really felt worthy of any love, or like he belonged anywhere, and he’s been through so much abuse and being used and everything he touches seems to go to shit and he’s tired. and he’s killed someone he loved. again. so he goes to the bridge. and camille finds him, and stops him.

now, i don’t know if that’s how they’ve met of if it’s happened before, something like, seeing each other in parties and in downworlder spaces or something. but either way, he’s at a really low point, and that’s the first meaningful interaction they have - camille saves his life. he feels like she cares.

she’s not the only one who cares, obviously. so does ragnor, so does cat, so does dot and lots of other of his friends. but at this point, he’s feeling so empty it’s hard to believe that they care, and camille is all too quick to figure out his exact weaknesses - she’s there to listen to him when he wants to kill himself, i can only imagine the infodump that went on that night. he gives her all she needs to know - his fear of abandonment, his desire to be loved, his belief that he will never be accepted no matter what, his fear that he really is evil inside after all despite everything proving that he isn’t - to use against him perfectly. camille is smart. she’s also manipulative. and she also seems like a ticket into a somewhat normal world - she’s a woman, she’s immortal, she’s acting all sweet around him and telling him that she understands, that this is why she doesn’t mingle with mundanes, that it’s better if they’re just amongst themselves, that people like them can’t trust too much and need to stick together. slowly, she plants into him the idea that he’s gullible, has a weak judgement, and is just weak in general for going around thinking he could ever have a thing with mortals or could ever find a space to belong. she uses that to drive him away from his friends and make sure he does as she says. also, magnus owes her, doesn’t he? she saved his life. how can he fight her, when she saved his life? how can he say no to her? how can he disagree? he’s gullible, he’s weak, and she’s the only one who has enough patience for him. everyone else leaves. she’s all he has.

in conclusion: his sexuality is a huge factor in camille’s abuse, it’s what makes him vulnerable to her and gives her every tool she needs to manipulate him. it’s not direct, she’s not about to make fun or dismiss his bisexuality because she knows this is not something he’s internalised, but she can weaponize the trauma that queerphobia brings to his life, and so she does.

she wrecks him. like really really wrecks him, everything he’s built for himself, his identity, whatever he had of his confidence. like he was still trying to build all of that, but he was getting there, and she gets him back to ground 0 just like that. i think he only broke up with her because she started doing her more Clearly Immoral shit and magnus can’t do that. say what you want, but magnus’ actual nature has always been to care and to give all that he can for others. and camille is just evil mcbad. and her abuse goes a long way, but i don’t think anything could actually break magnus enough to be okay with hurting others. especially considering how most of his trauma seems to revolve around the fact that he believes he is constantly hurting others, and it seems to me - considering how he’s going all around the place helping everyone and sacrificing himself without a second thought - that helping others is even a way to cope somewhat, he doesn’t focus on himself, he does his job and helps others and doesn’t think about himself and so he copes, he can do what he’s good at and also believe he’s somehow “repenting” for “killing” his mother and stepfather (it was SELF FUCKING DEFENSE he didn’t murder him, but he does seem to believe he did). so that’s probably when they break up, when he realises that camille is just. keen on hurting others and she’s bored with him and his morals anyway. i know that in book canon apparently the reason they broke up was that she cheated on him, but again i don’t consider book canon and show canon to be the same canon, specially considering how magnus is a wildly different character in those. so i don’t think that would somehow be the last straw for him. camille probably was cheating on him left and right but he probably just believed that it was his fault, or just kept forgiving her anyway because he had nowhere to go and it should be enough that she loves him and saved him, right?

he doesn’t really get around to realising that camille is a straight-up abuser and awful person (as shown by the fact that he seems to still internalise the whole “camille saved my life” bullshit when she was really just manipulating him and using his vulnerability against him) but he does realise that he can’t keep looking for a partner as a solution to his issues. he also doesn’t really want to be in a relationship after her, not when he’s broken in more pieces than he was when he left asmodeus, and that was a lot of pieces as well. so he sleeps around and all, crafts this whole playboy persona of his, and locks his heart away. dedicates himself to the downworlder children he keeps adopting and trying to help, reconnects with ragnor and the other warlocks - who kind of knew what was going on and never blamed him for it or for growing distant with them because they’re amazing and probably have seen this happen many times before.

he also carefully avoids mundane men. he’s not risking getting anyone else hurt.

but then there’s the 60s and 70s, and he’s in bloody new york, and the queer community is shaping itself, and goddamn, after all the hurt and pain he’s seen due to sexuality, he’s not gonna ignore this. also, his Adopting Instincts are way too strong anyway, he can’t really see people struggling and not do anything. so he supports queer spaces, probably made pandemonium one, too - a particularly safe queer space, since she could use his wards to keep police out of his business and ensure everyone’s safety. he definitely was there at stonewall and subsequent protests and parades, keeping people safe, weakening gas bombs and the like with magic, making sure they managed to escape jail.

magnus’ relationship with the mundane queer community is kind of weird, then - he’s not an actual part of it, not really, and he’s particularly scared of getting attached then, so he guards his heart with even more determination than everywhere else. but he still wants to help, so he brings in his money, tries to keep them safe, participates in some community activities and volunteers, and occasionally talks to some kids who were just kicked out of home or something, who are dealing with self-loathing and fear, and even though he hasn’t gone through the whole “my sexuality is unnatural” thing or particularly hated that aspect of himself, he does know what it’s like to be cast away and seen as a monster, and to see himself as uncapable of being loved. so he listens and he talks about his experiences and tries to help as much as he can, and for the most part, he’s successful and he feels kind of accomplished in that sense. he might never have hated himself for his sexuality, but this is the first time he is fully able to bring it into his mundane life. and it also helps him deal with and talk about his other issues, even if he can’t be 100% frank about being an immortal being who does magic and shit, he can connect to these people in a lot of ways, and he also has his own scars brought in by homophobia even if they weren’t internalised in the same way. also, there are names popping up for what people are, homosexuality is being decriminalised all over the world (even in england, he’s heard), things are starting to look up.

as the 80s come up, he knows that a lot of things are changing - that white gay guys are getting more and more space, that the word “bisexual” is being popularised, but also that the reason for that is that a lot of gays and lesbians are trying to get bi ppl out of some spaces, that there’s a division going on between people who want to be seen as palatable and are willing to step over others to get it, and people who refuse to blend into an oppressive society, or just can’t, because they’re trans, they’re people of color, they’re sex workers and homeless and they can never be really assimilated when, even if they’re not getting the death penalty, they’re still getting killed and framed as criminals for existing.

magnus is a person of color as well, he’s bisexual (meaning one of the groups that were being cast away and despised by the white, “clean” gay movement) and he’s been there since the beginning, where these exact people that are being driven away were the only ones building the queer movement, so i think it’s pretty obvious who he “sided” with. not much changed in that aspect, then, since the spaces of queer resistance he was used to were the ones created by the “outcasts”. it was disappointing to see a movement that seemed so amazing at first get slowly gentrified and push the most vulnerable people away again, but at this point, he was used to seeing the divide, to drawing the short end, and at least he could continue as he was and try and help people, right? so life was good as a whole.

then the AIDS crisis happened, and shit that was SO rough. people were dying left and right, they had nowhere to go and there was so little he could do. of course he tried his best - pandemonium, like many other similar clubs, was definitely raising money to help the victims, and he was definitely volunteering to help them, along with catarina (who’s better at healing than he is, anyway), but even healing magic isn’t as simple as “begone, disease” and this was a completely new thing, anyway. there was little they could do beyond try and lessen the pain and symptoms and spend countless nights awake doing research and trying to figure out what exactly was causing this and what they could do to help and try to cure it. it’s endlessly frustrating and he gets to see a lot of people he knew, and talked to, and helped, die slowly while he was unable to do much, and shit is that a theme on his life. he also blames himself for not being able to work out a cure - what good is fucking magic if he can’t do this? - even if he and cat do figure out ways to help, at least. but they’re just two people and creating spells isn’t easy and it’s not like their patients have a lot of time, and also he needs to sleep, as cat and dot keep reminding him. the mundanes beat him to it, and for a while he can breathe again. but then there has been so much loss and death the community is in shambles and they’ve been set back one hell of a lot, and magnus is so tired. his friends help him, reassure him that it’s not his fault, and he’s okay, because he’s stronger now, he’s been getting better during all these years and a part of him is used to it - it never hurts less, but it does get easier to push through.

and then, well, there’s the whole war against valentine thing, and then the accords, so i think for a while magnus was kind of not very involved with the mundane world, and also this is already WAY to long to get into the 2000s and shit, but i will finish by saying that maybe after a few years magnus might get somewhat involved with the community again, because i just. really like the idea of magnus joining some kind of group of bisexual men and learning that SO MANY of them have gone through abusive experiences with straight girls that are scarily similar to his experience with camille, considering, you know, all the other layers involved and the fact that it happened centuries ago. and it kind of works as group therapy, and magnus finally realises that what he went through with camille was abuse, and that he’s not alone, and that queerphobia made him vulnerable, and that the fact that he is part of so many minorities can mean that, rather than not belonging anywhere, he belongs in many places and many different spaces, and he’s helped so many people in so many different ways. and then he finds out that there are other warlocks who are working as therapists and in there he can talk about his immortality issues and, well, other issues and he starts healing faster than before - he’s been healing ever since the breakup with camille, of course, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to open up to alec. like, of course, alec and him are soulmates and shit, but if he wasn’t in a better place he wouldn’t have allowed himself to fall for him like he did. and. yeah. magnus doing therapy and getting better and finding groups where he feels like he belongs, and realising camille was an abuser, please.

#ask #cosmicnovia #luxxmagnus #sh #shadowhunters #meta #magnus bane #magnus bane meta #history tag #queer history #sh meta #overflowing trashcan

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takaraphoenix · 5 years

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Now that you watched the 4th season of She-Ra, what is the thing you liked the most? And what is the thing you don't care about at all? ^^

OH THERE WERE LOTS OF THINGS I LIKED.

1. SCORPIA JUST LITERALLY EVERYTHING ABOUT HER. We saw a picture of her two moms which makes me need excessive flashbacks, she finally stood up to Catra, called her out on her bullshit and joined the rebellion - that is LITERALLY the thing I have been waiting for since Scorpia was first introduced to be honest. And then she got to connect with her stone - sure, sure, near destruction of the world because of that but finally she embraced being a princess and she was accepted by the other princesses? HER AND FROSTA? HER AND PERFUMA? HER AND GLIMMER? I ABSOLUTELY LIVED FOR THAT. Scorpia’s story-arch this season was so satisfying, urgh.

2. Netossa and Spinerella being back and actually helping during missions instead of just showing up briefly in the background! Being adorable wives. Yes. I loved that, it delighted me.

3. Glimmer’s design as queen? The new outfit, the new hair? I hated her plotline, absolutely loathed it, but the design was flawless.

4. The fact that they introduced a non-binary character and made them actually important to the story, like not just a minor or background character and also that they put emphasis on their pronouns. In a kids show. That’s amazing.

5. Perfuma, Frosta and Mermista being around more!! I love the princesses and I honestly just want them all to be a team like all the time. The focus on Mermista’s loss and how she… well… dealt with that.

6. Meeting Mara more. That episode about her and Razz was… really sad. But in a very good way, you know.

7. KYLE, LONNIE AND ROGELIO SAYING EF THIS AND DESERTING TOO!! YAY!

Now the things I didn’t care about at all/didn’t like:

1. Glimmer’s plotline. I get it, she lost her mother and is grieving and she never liked being sidelined, but her behavior was way out of line and her personal suffering isn’t an excuse for the way she treated Adora.

First of all, you may be the queen but Adora is She-Ra and as such, yeah you should kinda keep her in the loop about the status of the prisoners since she’s your biggest asset, but this went beyond that. Yes, you should tell your best friend that her manipulative, abusive foster mother now gets to roam freely throughout the palace. That one… really hurt me and Glimmer’s dismissal like she doesn’t owe Adora anything, like Adora isn’t fit to judge Shadow Weaver, like Shadow Weaver “hasn’t done anything wrong” which was just gross and distressing to hear her say to Adora’s face after Glimmer and Bow had seen from season 1 that Adora had been abused, had suffered in her childhood, they knew, that was shown and addressed in canon before and right up to this season Glimmer had been shown as protective over Adora, particularly when it came to Shadow Weaver, but suddenly she decides to make her basically the royal adviser and… not even… give Adora a head’s up…?

I really didn’t care for that at all, especially since the show really drove home how much Glimmer’s words had hurt Adora - Adora kept coming back to the hurtful things Glimmer had said and showed how much self-doubt Glimmer’s doubt in her had caused…

No, losing your mom and being under a lot of pressure as queen does not excuse that kind of behavior toward your best friend, it really doesn’t, and as a giant Glimmadora shipper, that shit hurt me even more, because what I had always loved about the two was the way they relied on each other and trusted each other.

And while Adora may not have made all the right or perfect decisions herself either, Glimmer… really hit her exactly where it hurt, excluded her from decision making that they used to do together and blamed her for things that… weren’t Adora’s fault? Glimmer is the queen now, she just… can’t go on every highly dangerous mission herself anymore, that’s what it means to be the acting ruler instead of a princess and that’s hardly Adora’s fault and I genuinely wished there would have been like… an adult around to back her up on that. Like, Castaspella returning and setting her head straight. Seriously, someone should have called Castaspella when Glimmer started relying on Shadow Weaver to teach her magic and to advise her, because her magic aunt most definitely would be more qualified for both positions.

I mean, I low-key get it, Shadow Weaver is an excellent manipulator and she managed to take advantage of a guidance-less, impressionable young girl to make her rely on Shadow Weaver and trust her, but honestly just for fuck’s sake you know she’s a master manipulator and, again, other adult should have stepped in there and helped too and the council of princesses should have also been a bit more vocal and active about that, seriously how did no one see all the gigantic red flags about giving Shadow Weaver that much room to roam free, figuratively and literally…?

It was also way too much fo a mirror to the Catra-Adora dynamic. Shadow Weaver with her claws in the other person, turning her against Adora, making her doubt their friendship, making her make irrational, dumb decisions that drive them apart. That... wasn’t fun to watch the first time around - and y’all still haven’t bothered fixing that mess - so it wasn’t really necessary to do the whole thing over again...

2. Micah’s return. I don’t fully not care about it, but… I don’t know, decades of watching cartoons has me really very tired of “character only has father to rely on after loss of mother”, because killing off moms is such a trope and I kinda liked that Angella was around. Then they kill her off… and then they bring Micah back?? That even defeats the purpose of killing Angella off to have Glimmer rule and be burdened by it alone. Like, yeah I get it, it still fulfilled the purpose of giving us this season of Glimmer as acting queen and this mess that this caused. But I genuinely would have preferred if by some magical release, Angella had been returned instead of “lol he wasn’t dead All along” dad now… It’s kind of an overused trope, or rather, this is actualy three overused tropes on top of each other in a trenchcoat and honestly, overall this show’s writing is much, much better than that? So I don’t quite care for this.

3. Catra. Just… I’m done. Season 1 had me wildly invested in her getting a redemption arc, because poor abused, confused child who still seeks validation from her abuser holy shit get her out of there. Season 2 still had me hopeful for it. Season 3 had lose interest in it, because not only had she moved on from her abuser, she basically took over the organization and has become the… primary villain while Hordak was off hanging out with Entrapta. And then they tag another season of her essentially just… treating the only friends she has left like absolute shit, abusing them - mentally and physically.

fter four whole seasons, she now finally hit rock-bottom which implies that a redemption arc may finally kick in, this has been stretched out too long for me to still be invested in it. It comes the point where writers have pushed my personal good will too much and drawn a thing out for too long for me to still be invested in it. And we’re past that point now.

That doesn’t mean I want bad things to happen to her or that I don’t want her to have a redemption arc at all anymore - better late than never, I suppose - it just means… that I stopped caring.

#She-Ra and the Princesses of Power #SPoP #She-Ra Spoilers #sunnnnyy

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ofstvtches · 5 years

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ROCKY LYNCH, MASCULINE NB, HE/HIM & THEY/THEM. — looks like SAMHAIN SKELLINGTON is attending AURORIA UNIVERSITY in auradon. they're the TWENTY year old child of JACK & SALLY SKELLINGTON, which means they're from THE ISLE. heard they're NURTURING & GENTLEMANLY, but can also be INFLEXIBLE & SELF-PITYING ; we all have our bad days. people normally associate them with SEWING NEEDLES REPAIRING A BROKEN DOLL , A BAG FULL OF BANDAGES, TRYING SO HARD TO BE TOUGH WHEN YOU’RE SOFT , SOFT HAIR HELD BACK WITH A BAT-SHAPED PIN.

❛ when you saw that little girl , and she was in the sandbox and she was crying , and you gave her your toy truck and I told you we couldn’t afford to get another one. you said , ‘ she should have it because she’s sad. she’s sad , mommy. ’ ❜ playlist. pinterest. to listen as you read.

lol u guessed it it’s me , again , by unpopular demand - i am so sorry. third muse already bc i can’t keep myself away from playing absolute CINNAMON ROLLS so that’s what u can expect from sam w/ a pumpkin spice twist. bc nightmare is my absolute favorite movie and ... halloween, motherfuckers. so as usual this will PROBABLY end up long bc i love writing sam so much so yeah , more below !

HISTORY

So as we know , Jack & Sally were sent to the Isle w/ the rest of Halloweentown for trying to steal Christmas ! And unlike Christmas , Samhain was not born in Halloweentown. In fact , he wasn’t even born - he was made.

Magic wasn’t a huge thing on the Isle - but a resource of science was Dr. Finkelstein , and despite the limited resources and technology on the Isle , the couple begged the mad scientist to create another child for them. And from Sally , it took a lot of convincing , but Jack was able to talk him into it.

It took even more of an effort to pull off , again considering the state of the Isle. But a good few months into the project and Jack & Sally were greeted with the cries of a tiny ragdoll baby boy. Keeping up with the holiday themed names , he was named Samhain - Sam for short.

He grew with multiple touch-ups from the doctor to simulate an actual boy growing up - every year , a check-up making him taller , stronger , etc. And in that process he started to look more and more like his mother , with her big eyes and stitched smile and patchwork clothes. But he grew up loved by his brother & parents - though it never quelled the fact he always wanted... more.

He was loved , he was coddled , and as sheltered as a child could be on the Isle. So , much like his mother , he took a habit of sneaking out frequently and trying to fit in with the other Isle kids , even though he knew he didn’t.

He just wanted to fit in. That was it. And it started off with him wearing large hoods and heavy clothes to hide the stitches on his body as well as masks to cover facial stitches. And while some other Isle kids found him odd and sticking out like a sore thumb , some found him cool. Some found him interesting. But nobody really knew what he was hiding - and it added mystery to someone so NICE , because Sam’s overall sweetness could rival that if sugar’s.

Curiosity only reached dangerous points though when Sam snuck out on night to camp out with friends - and when everyone else was asleep , one removed his mask , and of COURSE did Samhain immediately wake up. He didn’t stay to see the reaction of the other when revealing his stitches , too afraid that he’d be seen as scary or repulsive for what he was. And he ran. He ran back home , locking himself in his room , and those friends he routinely hung out with . . . well , he didn’t talk to them much after that. Because what if they knew , now ?? What would they think ??

Villain & Auradon kids coming together was a new chance for Sam to try and fit in - be more in his element. He was immediately acquainted with a magic-practicing individual ( could be an AK or a VK - this’ll be a wc ) who struck a deal with him to offer him glamours so he could look less scary. Of course , these glamours would have to be applied and would wear off until the next application , but it’d make him feel more comfortable - even though he WOULD technically be hiding who he is.

While Christmas , the elder sibling , would be sticking around in Auradon Prep , Samhain would prefer to move immediately to Auroria University to try and figure out who exactly he wanted to be , and how he could do that. Currently he’s majoring in Nursing , given he’s always had a rather NURTURING and charitable nature - never turning down someone else’s request to help.

CHARACTER & FACTS

So lemme get this one thing out of the way bc if I don’t I’ll be itching about it - but all my resources for ( the love of my life ) Rocky were made by me , and while they’re all from multiple eras from both R5 & TDE , I imagine Sam to resemble how Rocky looks around the post-Louder , Heart Made Up On You & Sometime Last Night eras ( basically from like 2013-2015 ). Here , here , & here for some references. I’m nOT DONE GIFFING THOUGH bc frankly I find giffing him therapeutic.

Now I don’t have a drawn reference or anything for this next part so we’re gonna have to use our imagination here but unglamoured , Sam basically looks like his mom in terms of the fact he’s a little ragdoll baby. Putting on a glamour doesn’t change his appearance much save for the fact the stitches disappear and he looks more human.

The glamour is an enchanted bat charm he wears around his neck that can also be used as a hairtie. And it has to be refreshed every so often , so he has to keep going back to whoever provided him with it so it doesn’t lose its effect.

He still has a backup mask just in case , and he’s been practicing with makeup if need be.

Personality-wise , the best one can describe Sam as is sweet and polite. I included tht Stranger Things quote at the beginning 4 a rEASON bc he’s honestly such a sweet kid and will give anything to anyone.

And also bc I imagine Sally as Joyce mom-wise so yEAH bt I digress.

He knows his manners and treats everyone with the UTMOST amount of respect , which makes it extremely easy to get along with him . He’s also maybe a tad bit too giving for his own good , since it’s incredibly easy to use that to one’s advantage and he’s so inclined to believe people have the best intentions. An optimist , even if it’s to a fault. And then when he gets hurt he just sits to the side feeling sorry for himself like “ :’’’(. ”

Now when I say he’s inflexible , I mean that Sam is a very ORGANIZED person who likes things to be done a certain way - like , he can never do anything without a plan , and if even something slightly goes out of what the plan pertains of , he panics. He’s a goody-goody and he’s afraid to break the rules , which is why he’s still hesitant to even do things with the friends who are more “ bad ” than he is.

Everything has to be done BY THE BOOK and if it isn’t then something is bound to go wrong and Sam’s too worried about that happening.

He’s also incredibly insecure about his appearance but I think I’ve hammered in that fact enOUGH ALREADY

But if he takes his glamour off in front u that’s like. A Major sign of trust. So beware.

Again as I mentioned he tries to hang out with kids with the lesser reputations because :

1.) He wants to give them a chance

2.) He wants to make sure they have a friend to look after them

and 3.) He’s so used to trying to fit in with the other Isle kids that he’s trying to be ‘bad’ himself but it never works out bc he’s so sweet and he can dress in skinny jeans and leather and shit as much as he wants but at the end of the day he’s still Sweet Lil’ Samhain.

One thing he’s always had a fascination with would be angels - he’s always believed in them , always though he’s had his own guardian angel watching over him somewhere , he’s always loved the idea of them. He has lots of angel decorations around his dorm as well as ornaments and stuff for the holidays. It’s also pure irony that he just so happens to be just as angelic in nature.

He’s also a big holiday person like the rest of his family and loves helping to decorate for events and stuff !!

One of his greatest talents is his ability to play both the piano & violin , and he’ll often do that if there’s a piano in common areas or so on. He’s also a talented singer , but he’s so used to putting that to the side , making him lack confidence in his voice.

i v much encourage u to listen to the song i linked i find his voice so....soothing.

Like his mom he’s also very good at cooking , sewing , etc. !! Often has to stitch himself back together if he gets hurt - you know , Sally style.

More basic facts are that his final height clocks in at 6′4 , he’s homoromantic homosexual , and identifies as masculine non-binary who doesn’t really care how you address him. He’s very chill. And sometimes he has to walk with a cane of sorts if his stitches are loose or if his legs are feeling especially weak.

but yeah that’s it on that end !!!

WANTED CONNECTIONS

So obviously - the person who provided him with the glamour. Only requirement is that ur character’s good at magic or something of that sort.

AND ALSO - I’d love the person who initially removed his mask !! Sam didn’t stick around to see them react to how he truly looked , so it’s all up to you on how this character feels. But he’s avoided them since that scenario.

Also , his group of friends around the time that scenario happened on the Isle. Maybe they’re a little more rough around the edges than him , but this group was always tight-knit. And then Sam lightning mcghosted bc he wasn’t sure if now they knew what he really was.

Ppl who think his whole sweet thing is fAKE bc we know it isn’t but it’s so easy to THINK it is.

Also would love some folks he routinely cares for maybe in the aspect of like. Bein their shoulder to cry on. Patching up a wound. Just being There for them.

Folks who in general just wanna know more abt him bc he is kind of a mystery !!

Would lOVE sb who his glamour wears off in front of and he begs them to keep his secret but instead they want him to try n be more comfortable w/ himself and who he is. Bc he’s a cute ragdoll let’s b honest he just. Doesn’t see himself that way.

Ppl who Sam crushed on at the Isle and deffo broke his heart bc life just b like that sometimes

Also present day folks who r just ready to break his heart bc again thats so easy to do

also once more i’m open 2 ANYTHINNNNNNG sam is my Baby(tm) and i’d lov any plots thrown his way !! will probs make another wc page for him like i’ve done w/ luke and am in the process of doing w/ trixie !!

#usoa:intro #abt tag tbd #and nOW i hop 2 do replies !#i hope u guys like this tho sam is like. one of my fav muses to write ever.#he's the perfect man bt also not a man.

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hachibe · 5 years

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11 questions asked and answered (SKAM edition)

Rules:

1. Always repost the rules!

2. Answer the questions given to you by the one who tagged you!

3. Give 11 questions!

4. Tag 11 people!

tagged by @illgiveyouahint , thanks!!!

1) Favourite remake version of each of the seasons? s1 - none, idk i don’t think any remake has made me like their s1 as much as i like original s1. s2 - DRUCK, I have my problems with it but it's the only remake that took it upon themselves to make that season better not being afraid to change things. s3 - DRUCK as well. the changes in the characters made everything exciting to see. every time they did something different we went

and every time it was the same we went

s4 - since so far france has been the only one who went as far as s4 i have to say none, because i didn't like what they did with it.

2)Which characters do you think would absolutely not get along?

I have no idea, really. Maybe all the Noora’s wouldn’t like each other. The p-Chrises as well. In the other hand I think all the Sana’s would love to hang out together. The Chrises as well, they would totally love each other.

3)Favourite non-canon mlm ship? Eskild x Mahdi. SRLY, that pic of them hugging in the kosegruppa christmas party had me sending.

And then we saw them hugging again in the eid party. And some one wrote a beautiful fic of Mahdi realizing he might not be that straight and deciding to try something with Eskild and Isak being pissed at it that I completely love.

4)Favourite non-canon wlw ship? All the wlw ships are non-canon! (sure i’m not considering spain and austin) idk I've been robbed of my Evilde. And I would love for any remake to take notice of this and make it right. Besides that, any wlw ship is welcome.

5)Which character would you like to 👀 guest ⭐ in which remake (other than Eskild in SkamNL)? Anybody in any remake. Wouldn't it be cool if we get random characters in random remakes for no reason whatsoever than our delight? I would love for character to meet. Like maybe take the fact that Matteo is half italian and send him to meet some characters from skam italia. But not Martino, somebody else. Maybe his gradma lives near Silvia's parents or something. With all the Nooras going to Madrid they could meet the spanish people altough i don't care for the spanish people. Maybe someone in skam france is related to someone from SKAM. Oh!!! Make Arthur be related to Stefan!!!!! And since Matteo and David are currently in/on their way to Amsterdam maybe make them meet some of the dutch kids.

6)What would a remake in your country (assuming it would somehow be possible to make it) look like? I guess it depends on which tv company it gets made. But in my dream world it would not be made by any TV channel we have here, but by some production company that keeps it online but invests heavily in advertising (i think here in Brasil the ads would be super important for spreading it), with the enough amount of money to make it justice.

I would love for it to take place in some capital but like in one of the interior states or in the northeast region. Anything out of São Paulo/Rio de Janeiro/South. Something in nordeste would be so cool! Heavy slang/accent not even the rest of the country understands; beautiful beaches; people taking overcrowded buses, people skipping classes, people drinking way too young, carnaval in nordeste ♥, idek what kind of parties teenagers in nordeste have, but i would like to see. Catholic holidays. Afro-brazilian religions, brown people everywhere! one token white guy, Wilhelm probably. Football!, lots of memes! Trying to incorporate twitter in the narrative. Lot's of dissatisfaction with the current government, especially if it takes place in nordeste. give me money i would do it. and i'll even make sure to put some 'ele não' stickers in every single clip.

7)What would a season based on your life look like? What would it concentrate on? Boring probably. Maybe deal with mental health, growing up in religious household, coming to terms with my sexuality. And how everything intersects.

8)Do you have a character you headcanon as aro,ace or nb? I must confess I'm terrible at headcanoning. I usually go with mostly established fancanons. Like, I like non binary Mikael, and aro/ace Lin and theirs remakes counterparts (mostly druck because italia doesn't have one and I fucking hate the french one. is Esra Lin? was there one in skam austin? i dropped s2)

9)Assuming you have 👀 original Skam, would you like the cast & crew to come back and do any future seasons/films to update us on the characters? Yes. Years in the future I wouldn't mind to see a special or a film about them and where they are in life. Skins did it and it was amazing. I'm sure if Julie wants it can be done. (i just hope she doesn't half ass some of the characters like she did in those books like 'you, you and you very detailed future and you, you and you *looks smudge in hand* idk kindergarten teacher'.)

10) What was the order you 👀 the versions in and do you think it influenced you which versions are your favourite? No, I don't think the order in which i watched the remakes has any bearing in my favouritism. But the order I watched it was as they came out. Skam france first, then Druck and Skam Italia. Later then, Skam Austin and Skam nl. It took me a while to watch Skam Spain and I still haven't seen Wtfook. I just got to a point I was so dead tired of seeing the same thing again and again with no significant changes whatsoever.

11) Do you think the fandom is just too negative or do you 👀 it as a valid criticism? I don't like to think about the fandom so generalized like this. I think there can be a lot of negativism but it also there's a lot of valid criticism. And I think both are valid. I mean, and especially with a show with a format such as skam and it's remakes, it calls a lot to instant reactions. A clip drops and we might get mad and pissed by the direction of the plot or characters or whatever, and it's okay. Might we be wrong by tomorrow? Yes. So? ... Like, let people be mad, let people be wrong, let people be happy. You might not agree and that's okay, but let people be. All your sentiments are valid, even if they diverge from other people's. One thing I hate is posts that start like "people need to stop thinking...." or "people need to see....". We need to accept that people are different, people have different opinions, and just because they are different they don’t have a different place in fandom than you. This also leads to people ignoring criticism because if you like something that something must be perfect. And I read a lot of posts with the tone of 'if you don't like it, drop it, stop watching, etc' and I don't think that's the road to go either. So let's be more accepting of each other, i guess.

So, my questions: *i’ll be copying some questions because they are good*

1. What skam and each remake you watched taught you?

2. What would you tell someone to convince them to watch skam and every remake? At least one thing for each one that you’ve watched.

3. Was there any moments that shocked you?

4. Set you would like to visit?

5. What character would you go for advice?

6. Favourite scene in a remake that wasn’t on the original?

7. If you could go on a date with any character, who would it be?

8. If you could make a season for one character, who would it be?

9. Is there a character you didn’t like in original that you ended up liking in the remakes?

10. If you could watch only one episode for the rest of your life which one would it be? (one for skam and one for each of the remakes, it doesn’t have to be the same)

11. If there was a skam remake but that took place in university with one would you like to see?

I don’t know if I know 11 people! aoidoaijdaosidj So i’m tagging these people but feel free to completely ignore me if you don’t want to do this. @fille-lioncelle @hjertetssunnegalskap1 @smores100 @viro-major @tulaqis @procrastinatingbisexual @ilovenyclife @harryxtimmy ANd hey, if you happen to see this post and wants to do it, just go and do it!!!

#mine #skam #skam remakes #tagging game

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dionysus-is-my-dude · 6 years

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My thoughts on a view gender and sexuality-related things. (Includes my gender identity, my sexuality, and my opinions and feelings towards transgender people.)

Warning! Super long post! If you’re gonna leave mean comments, you better read the whole post and not twist my words around!

I love women. I just do. I’ve never been uncomfortable around a woman before. I grew up with men who came and went and little boys that sexualized me, but the women in my life -my mother, my many grandmothers, my aunts- were all constants. They weren’t the best at “family bonding” and sometimes they said hurtful things, but they were comfortable constants. I knew that they expected me to end up with a husband and kids because that’s what I seemed to be all about as a child (I was REALLY into that whole Disney princess thing). However, they also raised me to know that I didn’t HAVE to be with a man to be successful and live happily.

Now, my closest aunt is a lesbian. No one ever explicitly told me she was into girls growing up, It was just normal for me to see her with short hair and wearing men’s clothes and using men’s hygiene products. Even when her girlfriend moved in with us at one point, it was just seen as “yeah, that’s Aunt Jojo’s girlfriend, Rosa”. I just knew that Rosa was nice and gave me candy and she and I really got along. I was raised in a household where men were always coming and going, and the women always supported me. The one constant man in my life is my (step) Dad who has been there for me basically my whole life. He’s also not very good at bonding with an odd child as I am, but he loves the hell out’ve me. He supports me, he also raised me to know that I didn’t need a man in my life to make me happy -though he encouraged me when I talked about guys I liked back in school.

My mother let me pick out my own clothes when we went shopping. I always chose cute feminine clothes because I liked them. When I was around ten or so, I asked to look in the boys’ section, and she didn’t bat an eye and let me pick out an Avatar: the Last Airbender shirt that wasn’t in the girls’ section. I liked princesses, glitter, pastel colours, flowers, all that feminine stuff. Not because it was forced upon me. The women in my family are hardly ever feminine. I liked feminine things just because I liked them. To this day, even though I identify as non-binary, I mostly enjoy feminine clothes and items. I like flower crowns, pastels, puffy princess dresses, and being soft and sweet. I’m not submissive to men at all, though. To women, though, depends on the girl.

Now, I first realized I was attracted to girls during the summer before my freshmen year of high school. I’d realized I’d fallen in love with my best friend who had just moved away. I’d never felt love like that. All-consuming, dizzying, so sure, so pure. I wanted to make her so happy, and I wanted to hold her and kiss her and touch her and sing together and live in a big house together. I wanted it so badly that I confessed to her, and when she rejected me, I felt like I’d had my heart ripped out of my chest. I swore I’d never love again. (And it kinda feels like I cursed myself or something. I haven’t loved anyone like that since.)

By the time I was in high school, I’d started really understanding that I was extremely uncomfortable around boys, that their constant sexualization and taunting of me made me wish they would all just disappear. Being groped and catcalled and asked stupid questions just so they’d get a rise out of me...Granted, I went to one of the most idiotic, backwater schools ever, but those years spent there -and the incidents from childhood- made me see men in a horribly negative light. To me, they were nothing more than impatient predators who would rape and kill me as soon as they got the chance. My family started getting extremely protective of me. They didn’t trust men around me at all. They didn’t like any of the few guys that I’d dated. When i came out to my mother about liking women, she told me it isn’t the path she would chosen for me, but she’d support me.I plan to tell her that, no matter my romantic and somewhat physical attraction to men, there is just absolutely no way I’d ever be comfortable even being alone with a man. I would be in constant fear of being hurt in some way. Whether it be sexual assault or domestic abuse, I’d live in constant anxiety about watching what I say, do, and wear. (Pretty sure my only exception to my anti-male rule would be if Steve Rogers actually existed because he is the perfect man.)

I have extremely little experience being with women. I had a temporary girlfriend who was really just my friend in middle school. It was nice. I never felt like she’d hurt me or make me into a sexual object for her own pleasure. Her kisses were soft and made me feel good. We broke up when the guy she was interested in was available and we remained good friends until she moved away. I had my second, more official girlfriend my junior year. I was practically obsessed with this girl. I wanted so badly to kiss her and be with her all the time. I felt so good with her. But she didn’t really care about me. I was just a rebound from her last relationship and she never really cared about my feelings. And we all know about my last girlfriend. I felt incredibly comfortable with her. I honestly saw our future together. I was willing to put away my desire to have kids just to be with her. I was ready to move wherever she wanted, so long as I got to stay with her. I even felt completely ready to have sex with her! And that’s a huge deal for me! But, no, she had too many issues and fell out of love with me. Currently talking to a new girl. We’re pretty casual right now, but we’re hopefully going on a date this coming Sunday!

Anyway, my thoughts of transmen and women: You do you. If you feel like a woman, you’re a woman. If you feel like a man, you’re a man. Dress how you want. Clothes aren’t gendered unless you claim they are. If you wanna grow or cut your hair, do it. You wanna wear make-up, do it. Wear whatever the fuck you want and claim to be whatever gender you feel you are. I don’t care. HOWEVER, I do have feelings about genitals and female/male organs. I believe you are female if you have female organs. You are male if you have male organs. Genitals, well, I don’t think they make or break what you identify as. But reproductive organs are sex-based, not gender based. “Female” does not mean “woman”. “Male” does not mean “man”. “Female” and “male” simply identify what sex you are, not what your gender is. (It honestly pisses me off that so many forms ask for your “Gender” and offer “male” and “female”. Sociology 101 told me this difference on the FIRST DAY.

I identify as pansexual because I’m attracted to people no matter what their gender identity is. You’re a man? Hot. You’re a woman? Hot. You’re agender/nonbinary/gender fluid/whatever? Yep, you’re hot to me, too. However, I am extremely uncomfortable with penises. No matter who it’s attached to, unless it’s in art or porn that takes place far away from me, I’m repulsed by penises. I could never be intimate with a man or a transwoman who hasn’t had bottom surgery, not because I’m not attracted to the rest of them, but simply because I do not want to touch a penis nor have a penis touch me. This is due to my past trauma, not because I hate people with penises. It’s triggering. I would date the everloving hell out of a transman who hasn’t had bottom surgery and those with female genitals. I wouldn’t feel triggered or scared of being penetrated without consent -(though, yes, I do understand that rape can happen no matter who your attacker is or has).

I do not hate transgender people. I do not think they’re confused or strange or scary or predators. I just am very, very turned off by penises and cis men. I would very much date a transman who showed respect for me and my boundaries. I would not feel comfortable with anyone with an actual penis, though. That’s just how trauma has warped me.

Ok, I’m expecting all the backlash and people calling me a terf. I’d like to see how you’re going to argue with me and make me feel like shit because I won’t date transwomen with male genitals. I’d like to point out now that it’s not her fault that I don’t wanna have sex with her. It’s the men who terrified me with their male genitals and therefore completely turned me off from them. All right, come at me, haters.

#what do i tag this as #transgender #nonbinary #gender identity #sex vs gender

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