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thesoftboiledegg · 4 months

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"Fear No Mort" was constant whiplash. In fact, I struggled to evaluate this episode at first because it was one twist after another. Throughout the episode, I had flashbacks to "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!" (the rap scene might've been a direct reference) and the Rickbot reveal in "Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation."

For better or worse, season seven's had a lot of callbacks and episodes that mirrored previous ones: "That's Amorte" played out like "Mortynight Run"; "Air Force Wong" brought together Dr. Wong, the president and Unity; "Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie" was a "Get Schwifty" sequel.

Seasons six and seven have also piled on the fanservice. The first four seasons stubbornly refused to give us what we want, dangling fan theories or a gentler Rick in our faces before yanking it away. Rick started to change in season five, but it's another ten episodes before you get Rick in a suit and tie, Rick announcing that Rickcest is canon, Rick regularly going to therapy, Space Beth joining the family and other content that's floated around the fandom since 2017.

And let's not forget the big one: C-137 Rick and Morty, Prime Rick and Evil Morty in one episode, fighting and teaming up after we saw Evil Morty's once-forbidden backstory.

Some call it cheap thrills, but I call it a gift to the fandom that's patiently waited for the fakeouts to end. And now that I've said that: "Fear No Mort" was one giant fakeout.

But was it, though?

This is the most unpopular opinion in the world, but I'm not invested in Rick and Diane's relationship. As a gay woman, I just don't connect with opposite-gender couples. Also, I dislike the trope of the idolized dead wife that the audience only learns about through her widower. She's not her own character, just an extension of the male protagonist.

When the fake Rick and Diane reconnected, I thought "Oh boy, this is getting cheesy." They're falling for each other again: check. Rick feels guilty about her death: check. We see how similar they are: check. Rick doesn't want to leave: aaaand, check.

I'm also a little lost after the ending. Morty was the only one in the hole, so why did we see all these scenes from fake Rick's perspective? Was an NPC really that busy?

How much we learned about Diane is debatable, too, since Morty never met her. I guess his ideas came from whatever Rick's told him and maybe the ship's voice since she's based on Diane.

I did like how the episode kept reminding us that Morty's still in the Fear Hole. I mean, we didn't know that, but we knew that. No "Are they in the Fear Hole or not??" until all the twists in the third act.

Aside from that, I don't want the show to revisit the past too much because Rick needs to let go. If you're a Marvel fan, you saw the backlash to Steve Rogers traveling back in time to spend a lifetime with Peggy in "Endgame." He had a life in the present, but he refused to move on.

Nostalgia makes us yearn for earlier years, but if Rick abandoned his family to live with Diane in another reality, I wouldn't call that a sweet ending. I'd call that a disappointment and a waste of his character.

Turns out, Rick never had that option at all.

Well...in a way, he did. And when Morty told him what he saw in the Fear Hole, Rick ran back to the restroom. He looked into the hole. He thought about it. And then he did what I wanted him to do, which was walk away. In this moment, he chose the present.

Admittedly, Morty's fear came true: Rick didn't jump in the hole after him, he did just sit there and watch, and he didn't want to say that Morty's irreplaceable out loud. Plus, Rick was bewildered when Morty hugged him. But for the first time, instead of standing stiffly or gently pushing him away, Rick started to hug him back.

We also saw what Morty didn't: Rick smiling to himself after hanging up the picture of Morty that he kept in his wallet. He had the chance to wallow in shadows of the past, but he didn't take it. Rick chose him.

"Fear No Mort" could've ended with Rick just saying "Let's go" and leaving, but it didn't. Seasons one and two Rick would've bitched and moaned about Morty taking so long. Season three Rick would've left him there for a while to torment him. Season four Rick would've found a way to take advantage of this.

But seasons five, six, seven? That's real character development. That's what all the Twitter users saying "Wow, Rick and Morty is actually good" have been missing out on.

And for the first time in the series, a season didn't end with Rick relapsing or getting a (well-deserved) ass kicking. Is Morty going to get the grandfather that he deserves? Or will he move on, too, now that Rick's releasing his iron grip? Speculating is fun, but for now, let's focus on today.

#rick and morty #rick sanchez #morty smith #diane sanchez #fear no mort #season seven #review

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ffverr · 4 days

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On the discourse (that somehow still exists) of why the X-Men are feared and hated but other genetically modified heroes like the Fantastic Four or some of the Avengers aren't :

I still see this argument online that some people, usually not X-Men fans, pull out in a sort of gotcha moment. To kind of stick it to Marvel for being unrealistic or to vouch for the fearing of other heroes in the marvel universe to tip the scales.

There are two points for the "why is *random x-men* oppressed and not *random marvel hero*" discourse that people are always intentionally missing.

One- A base of mutant fear and repression is the argument that "it could happen to your children too". It could happen to ANYONE, from birth, and there is nothing you can do about it. No being careful of scientific experiences can stop your close ones from becoming a mutant. (Kind of like people are okay with gay celebrities as long as they're doing their thing from afar but it's a threat when it comes to their children/Friends/family being gay)

They layed it on thick with this amazing advertisment back in the day: "do you know what your children are"??? I mean come on it's not rocket science

Fun fact, the kid labeled "mutie" here is actually Franklin Richards, son of Mister Fantastic and Invisible woman. He used to be a mutant and this goes to show how somehow johnny storm can be beloved but his super powered nephew doesn't get the same treatment.

Two- Spider-Man, the F4, the Avengers etc... All these heros who get some powers by some incident. They're supposed to be rare and few in between. The fear of mutants mainly comes from the fact that they started popping up in the MILLIONS. A mutant isn't necessarly seen as an honorable individual that acquires powers and realises they have the responsibility to use it for good. To humans, they're millions of people (or at least hundreds of thousands) that are, just by existing, threatening the status quo of humanity. They are changing the natural dominance of humans for good.

So of course humans love the F4 (usually). Because they're not scared to be replaced by them in their day to day life, however they are scared to be rendered obsolete by mutants. When humans look at the F4 they see brave selfless HUMAN heroes. They relate to them, they identify with them. They're a sweet family dedicated to the world's safety. In contrast, the mutants represent a world changing threat that truly shifts the balance. And that's not comfy at all no matter how cute or harmless the power is.

This difference can even cause very understandable tension in between the X-men and other super powered groups:

In short, the mutant moral panic comes from the fact that for exemple:

-humans are afraid to loose their jobs to super powered level talents.

-humans are scared from groups of super powered people that could threaten their safety.

-Governments are scared of these groups being the equivalent of entire armies concentrated in a single individual.

- They're scared that their children could turn into something unimaginable once they hit puberty

-And some just hate the idea of being manipulated by a random telepath on the street without ever knowing.

In contrast of Spider-Man, humans feel like nature is done with homo sapiens and THAT'S what brings hate and fear.

That's why everytime a mutant hate crime happens in the comics, it's always accompanied by some human saying "y'think you're better than us weirdo".

+ Contrary to the avengers, mutants also claim a culture, a shared history and common experiences between thousands. This binds them together in a way they doesn't necessarly make them identify with humans. And this is overall irritating and scary to humans.

Also, religious fear-mongering of mutants is rampant!!! It does a ton to set appart the mutants from the scientifically modified heros of the marvel universe.

In the end, one of the best comic to portray this whole thing is still God loves man Kills.

It depicts a villain, Striker, that gains popularity by spreading religious propaganda to justify mutant hate. In an emotional and shocking twist, we come to find that Striker has had a mutant son, that he killed with his own hand because he was a "monster".

You can understand how Captain America, with his super body, doesn't really evoke the same existential dread. Bigotry isn't rational, but also, a shit ton of things complicate the mutant's inclusion into society that doesn't necessarly parallel perfectly with real world struggles so that's also to take into consideration.

#the only part of truth i'll concede to this discourse is that yeah it's blurry how humans wouldn't assume #that any super powered person is a mutant #but this is i think a useless gripe that would just make mutants too present in other marvel books #xmen #marvel #comics #x men comics #scott summers #comic panels #jean grey #xmen 97 #the x allegory #mutant 101 #magneto #professor x #charles xavier #storm #kitty pryde

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sciderman · 14 days

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Sci ngl i assumed you were a cis gay dude back when i was obsessively reading your spiderpool stuff as a teenager. I’m a gay trans man and your comics always felt like a warm hug, truly my comfort doom scrolling — so it’s kinda nice to find out we’re more similar than id thought

bless you anon!! it's a pleasure having you, and i'm so, so glad my comics can be a cozy comfort for you!! kissing you so sweetly

you know, it's kind of funny, i've had an overwhelming response of people who've said they've just assumed i was male by the vibes i radiate and i'm not entirely sure what it means. i'm know you all mean it very reaffirmingly but it leaves me with a lot of questions. like, questions that i want to do further research into.

is there a masculine dialect? like how there are regional dialects? is that a thing? i kind of want to study this now. can you tell someone's gender by the way they talk like you can tell where they're from? that is so cool if it's true. how do you type like a man. what should i look for? i don't know if i've ever assumed someone's gender by the way they type. i just look at their bio and it usually says. and i kind of don't think about it when i type. i type like me. but – i think maybe i pick up the way that i talk from the media i consume (comic books) which is kind of overpoweringly male. overpoweringly populated by male characters, and written by men, y'know.

i think the way i type here on @sciderman is probably softer and more femme than the way i write on the ask-blog. on the blog when i'm answering things as Mod i kind of intentionally mimic the tone-of-voice that marvel editors use. that's an intentional choice. so - when you read what i write here it's closer to my real voice, but over on ask-spiderpool i'm putting on an act. i try to sound like a marvel editor. i call you all True Believers! it's all a persona. i think one of the things that's my strength in writing is falling into voices - i think i could be an excellent ghostwriter, if i needed to be. so very crafty at mimicry.

as a kid i always, always always would mimic the characters i liked from the movies we watched whenever i came out of the cinema. i remember doing that all the time. and it was always boys. (except frenchie from grease. she was my one female gender icon. god everyone hated me for that one. i loved doing the voice. wanted to be her so bad. wanted the pink hair. everything.)

you know,, even now The Very First thing anyone asks me when they meet me is where my accent is from, because nobody believes i'm native to london. it happened today (twice). the way i talk is a little weird. my response,, off the bat,, it's because i watched too many cartoons growing up. so,, i guess maybe i idolised too many masculine role models, and probably didn't have enough female role models. i liked the boy movies better than the girl ones. i spent more time with my dad than i did with my mom. my mom wasn't a good role model. dad says that's probably why i didn't want to be a woman. i didn't have a good role model. (sorry mom). (he's right). all kinds of variables here. i kind of want to do research into it. also i should talk to a therapist.

#sci speaks #i remember talking to someone about wade's gender feelings and how they're a result of trauma with his mother's death etc etc and.#they said it was bad of me to write that. like it's a cliché and he doesn't need trauma to feel that way. and i think that's true. but.#trauma does impact things like this.#it's just a sad truth. some quirky little bits of your identity probably do come out of some freudian thing. some childhood trauma.#some detail about your relationship with your parents.#shut UP freud stop being right about things. you suck!!!!

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justthoughts1310 · 3 months

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Boruto x Mitsuki are not brothers. They are a homoerotic trope. Please just admit that.

I think it's really interesting how people are quick to ship or create a romantic attraction between a man and a woman in media. It literally doesn't matter how forced or nonsensical it is. There almost always has to be some sexual element or tension as if a woman (any woman) is simply a prize to be won.

I mean I remember witnessing this phenomenon when watching one or the Marvel Thor movies. He kissed his female companion. Only for them to both admit that it was weird and superfluous. Then I say the same thing with the Captain America character. When Agent Carter died, he bedded her granddaughter. However, he went back in time to marry Agent Carter, so he technically laid with his granddaughter. I hope this was retconned.

Anyway my point is this. People are quick to imply romantic intentions where there is none between men and women, but are super quick to dismiss romantic intentions in the face of over homoeroticism.

Listen! Whether or not Mitsuki and Boruto ever become cannon, they are classifiably a homoerotic pairing. I would agree that they are easily far more homoerotic than Sasuke x Naruto and Gai x Kakashi.

That's why it's sooo annoying when people are like Boruto and Mitsuki are brothers. Mitsuki loves and protects Boruto like a little brother.

No. Make it make sense. Mitsuki violates the dynamics of being an older brother to Boruto. He protects Boruto but simultaneously looks up to and admires Boruto. Those last two aren't consistent with an older brother trope. He uses Boruto as his light and guidance, not the other way around.

Also, the Naruto series has used the following words to describe non-familial intimate male relationships in the series:

Brothers: Naruto x Sasuke, Boruto x Kawaki

Rivals: Kakashi x Gai, Kakashi x Obito

Best Friends: Shikamaru x Choji.

You know what relationship is an intimate male pairing that has not been described with the following words in 86 chapters and 7 years: Boruto x Mitsuki.

At best, Boruro x Mitsuki could be classified under best friend. However, I would argue that the two of them have the most intimate relationship on this list emotionally and it has yet to be given a platonic explanation.

The anime has even hinted multiple times that Boruto is aware of Mitsuki's homoeroticism. It makes Boruto feel weird at times, but he has never once used it to create space between him and Mitsuki. He even declared that Mitsuki and he share a special relationship, and he was deeply hurt when Mitsuki deserted the leaf.

#boruto #boruto x mitsuki #two blue vortex #boruto uzumaki #naruto #mitsuki #borumitsu

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sassy-bi-latina · 24 days

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I have a new ramble incoming that might get me in deep waters with some bl stans. I'm sorry, I TRULY mean this with no hate.

First and foremost, I want to say I in NO WAY, SHAPE OR FORM mean hate towards Fourth nor Gemini

Context:

If you know me, you know I'm a ff reader, if you don't know me, well now you do. I mainly use AO3.

I'm currently watching 23.5 degrees, I love it so I went to read some fics.

There are 115 fics under the show's tag. I got excited thinking people work fast, absolutely not realizing the pilot trailer was out in 2022. I knew I've been waiting. I just didn't realize how long.

Previously to 2024, there were only 3 Ongsa fics.

Okay I'm rambling here and I'm not gonna edit the post. I write as I think.

So this is the context. Which brings me to my point.

I'm actually happy Fourth and Gemini are not part of the project anymore. I don't know them as actors. But I'm sure they would have done great. But I'm glad they aren't here.

As I said, there's 115 fics in total as of right now, Sunday 31st of March, but once you filter out Night/North you are left with 37, and that still leaves you with some other mlm tags. If you filter those out, you're left with 22. TWENTY. TWO. fics in TOTAL. And excuse me but I find that sad. And you might think, oh maybe you filter out some Ongsa/Sun fics when filtering everyone else. Yeah, I did, like 3 where they weren't main. And not even the ones left are only theirs but they're sapphic ships of the show. It's 25% of the totality of the fics made, in a show THEY ARE STARING.

Look, I'm the first to say, ship whoever you want, don't let canon cut your wings. I'm okay with people shipping, I'm happy people love something so much they decide to make art about it.

And this post isn't about going against these two actors or their fan base. It's mostly a I'm tired post.

I'm tired that sapphics in media always come second or third or whatever place but never first. Not even in their own shows. It's discouraging.

I'm tired of popular sapphic shows in western media getting cancelled left and right. I'm tired of barely there rep in the asian countries' media I watch. I'm tired of being shadowed by the latest pretty mlm couple.

So yeah, I'm happy they're not here. I know their fans could have brought more views which is a bonus. But I feel we would have media flowing with people talking about them and we want companies that GLs can have the same pull.

I'm happy that we still have gay men rep because I don't want that being pushed aside. But I prefer this approach where the focus are not one but two sapphic couples.

I also like that the boys aren't models and that they look nerdy. And soft and just, I just like this approach better.

If you read all this, thanks!! If you read all this and you're a fic writer. Continue that fic you left forgotten or are unsure to finish. You're marvelous and I love you. Y'all kept me sane during hard times.

Final note, I want to remind, once again, no hate to the actors nor their fanbase.

I also don't know how much sense this all made. Sorry for that.

#23.5 the series #23.5 degrees #23.5

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rrcenic · 8 months

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in the honor of my marvel obsession creeping back to me + my family being in disneyland and exploring avengers campus, have some ✨avengers incorrect quotes✨ as things my friends and family have said

a shit ton of these were conversations between @cissyenthusiast010155 and i lmao

peter: indulge in my child-like whimsy. buy me a web slinger

steve: is that an igloo over there??

peter: …it’s a hippie house?

tony: did you hear about the hippie states wife?

steve: why on earth is there a hippie house in the cars theme park?!

tony: babe. did you hear about the hippie states wi-

peter: what’s the hippie state?

tony: the hippie states wife is mississippi!

steve: what on earth are you talking abou-

tony: like,,, mrs. hippie?? mississippi?

steve: …

peter: …

tony: …

tony: i thought it was funny

tony: “i can do this all day”? that’s what she said

steve: SHHHHHH!!!

natasha: ooh, you’ve finally been shushed

loki: a kid ran in front of me and my reaction was “broken child!”

steve: wHAT?!

loki: i didn’t say it out loud!!!

scott: please sir, you don’t understand, if i don’t get my 20 dollar sunglasses back, my children will die

peggy: i support neil patrick harris being gay

natasha: peg, you’re a lesbian

peggy: yes, but i am an ally to his gayness

natasha: you are gay

peter: they should let me stay up late. because. if they don’t it would be…

ned: transphobic?

peter: YES

bucky: i smelled grass! and now i want some!

steve: you want to eat grass?!

bucky: absolutely

peter: and they were LAB PARTNERS

harley: oh my gawd they were lab partners

tony: i want shawarma

steve: i want to go to sleep

tony: it’s only 4 pm

steve: and?

steve: oh, this boba pearl is stuck in the ice…

bucky: just like captain america!

tony: aaaah, good one

mj: “what kind of girl do you want” a red one

peter: …

peter: are we talking about cars????

thor: i don’t understand the scientific physics

bruce: the what

peter: please bring back the cheese man

tony: that could really mean any of us

*at their first meet up in a while*

natasha: yknow, i’m just now being reminded of the fact that i hate half the people here

bucky: i hate will ferrell

sam: how can anyone hate will ferrell?!

bucky: well, i liked him in barbie

sam: and he was funny in the lego movie!

bucky: true, he was awesome in that

sam: oh, he was also megamind!

bucky: yes! i loved him with that

sam: you don’t actually hate will ferrell, do you?

bucky: …

sam: you just hate elf

bucky: …i just hate elf

steve: “rogers: the musical” can only be described as feeling like bad fanfiction

tony: isn’t it amazing

*playing heads up, prompt “avengers: civil war”*

peter: when! when the divorce!

scott: ant man’s first fight!

natasha: when everyone decided they didn’t like each other anymore!

harley: oh, c3p0 and r2d2 are a gay couple!

peter: duh??? did you just realize that???

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buckttommy · 2 months

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Do you think there's a disconnect between older and newer members of the fandom? I'm a newer fan and most of my mutuals are also new fans and sometimes it feels like fans that have been around for a while don't really want to interact with new blogs.

You know what? I love this question. I'm glad you asked. Yeah, there is a disconnect and I can tell you why it exists (at least from my perspective).

So, before Eddie got shot, this fandom was relatively small. I joined this fandom in January 2021 and... okay, so, one of my litmus tests to determine the size of a fandom is seeing how easy it is to secure a canon or "elite" url. If it's a big fandom, say, DC or Marvel, you'd have to practically kill a man to save a steverogers or brucewayne url, or even a variation of that (i.e stcverogers / brvcewayne). But if it's a medium-sized fandom, for example, you might get away with being able to save an "off-brand" canon url (i.e. canonstucky / batfam). So when I joined up, the fact that I was able to save the canonbuddie url the same day I joined was, like, "whoa. Holy shit. Not a lot going on around here!" Especially since, by this time, Buddie had already been a "ship" for a year or so.

And you know what? It was perfect!

Honestly, in those pre-shooting days, this fandom was very chill. Sure, there was the Ryan/Chrysti n-word drama, and sure, I got absolutely slaughtered every time I so much as mentioned his name in a positive way, and sure, there was your casual in-fighting here and there among some people, but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Everything was pretty alright.

But then Eddie got shot... and this fandom blew. the fuck. up.

Gay firefighter trended on twitter and suddenly, this fandom wasn't just a medium-sized hang out anymore. People joined in droves. People started paying attention to us, which was weird. And as with most things in these dark, long-forgotten corners of the internet, with the growth of the fandom inevitably came the Supernatural fans.

As you (probably? possibly?) know, Supernatural ended (Nov. 2020) only a couple months before Eddie got shot (May 2021). When Eddie got shot and Buddie shippers were so absolutely very convinced that this was The Moment and Season 5 was going to be their season, jilted ex-Destiel stans came sniffing around to see what we were up to. This would have been fine, but unfortunately, most of them were horribly unkind (calling us stupid and dumb and mocking us "to our faces" for believing Buddie would ever go canon) or just annoying as fuck (calling Buddie "D/estiel 2.0" and stuff like that).

It got... bad. Seriously. Me and some of the other "big" bloggers around here were constantly inundated with hatemail and mean comments attached to our posts to the point where I know a lot of us just started blocking D/estiel shippers on sight.

Most people in the fandom "closed ranks" after that, so to speak. If you weren't a trusted mutual, or a mutual-in-law, you basically had a 0% chance of punching your way through the fold. Which was ultimately to our detriment. In closing the ranks, more cliques formed, which of course, naturally, created a whole new set of problems to contend with, and all of these events eventually led us to where we are now.

It's not perfect, but it is what it is.

It should be noted that I'm not a fandom expert, and I don't claim to speak on everyone's behalf, but I remember this time, and my conversations with people during this time, with crystal-clear clarity and the D/estiel takeover seems to be the inciting event.

So. Yeah. It's not pleasant news, but I hope this helps?

#I really loved that you asked this question #I know I already said it but I can't imagine joining the fandom right now and I've never really thought about what it must be like #so. that's a dose of perspective huh?#Good luck! Have fun! Hope you find your tribe :)#jack answers mail

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ihavenoideamanokay · 8 months

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okay I've given up I'm gonna rant about the blue beetle movie because OH MY GOD

I wanna watch it again but I don't wanna go back to the theater I just wanna buy it already so I can watch it over and over and over

IT WAS SO GOOD

spoilers ofc so be prepared (also this is gonna be really long)

my one complaint. is khaji having a feminine robot voice. because I'm used to young justice where they were just a slightly more murderous sounding jaime which I think is perfect. idk it just feels too much like a marvel movie with the female robot suit. IT WAS BETTER THAN A MARVEL MOVIE THOUGH HAHAHAHA-

(for the record I usually say they/them for khaji bc they are a bug robot thing I don't think they understand or care about human gender but I'm stuck between that and that one venom post where they say venom uses he/him sometimes to match eddie's gender BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE KHAJI WOULD DO THAT 💀💀)

anyway I loved the movie soooooooo much and I love boostle being gay (and wasn't prepared for ted having a wife) so I was worried that ted had a daughter but she was AWESOME I LOVE HER SO MUCH

I especially love how nice she was???? her only surviving family member is a complete jerk and it never rubbed off on her, no matter how done with it she was and all that

I have a family member who, like vIcKy, is just mean to everyone for no reason (okay victoria kinda had a reason I'll get to all that later) and if I'm around her for too long I start wanting to match her energy. like yell back. I'M A HORRIBLE PERSON? LOOK WHO'S TALKING! that kinda stuff. but JENNY DOESN'T DO THAT I mean she still stands her ground and all that BUT she never sinks to victoria's level and that's amazing.

anyway on victoria's reasoning yeah I get it, it totally sucks that you helped create the company and it never got passed down to you, and I'm not trying to invalidate that in any way, I'm just saying, think about it from a different perspective. she could've been a psycho from the beginning. creating weapons will probably make you feel horrible and depressed because you're killing people! I just think we don't know if she cracked because of that and that's when she started seeing people as expendable, or if she was born like that, or if she became like that because of the sexism! I was just thinking about it and I feel like there's a possibility that their grandpa thought she was being a little too aggressive or something and that's why he gave the company to ted. of course, I'm not saying that's what happened, just that that's an interesting thought I had.

NEXT this is dumb but I'm too bi for that movie I saw the main couple and went IVHVAJBKSBEJV THEY'RE BOTH SO PRETTY WHAT 😭😭😭 (well it was more like I went yeah the guy who plays jaime (I'm sorry idk any actors) is pretty and then jenny came on and I just. oh no. then they flirted and I was like NO WHAT-

okay I love the family relationships in this movie because they're all so different. I mean you have jenny and her mom who she didn't really know (because she died), then her dad being distant, then her and her aunt constantly hating each other but being too scared to do anything about it. of course they didn't wanna kill each other because ✨lawsuits✨ but they wanted to get rid of each other because victoria was doing horrible things and jenny was getting in her way. then you have jaime's family which is a disaster in the best way possible. I love how we didn't see them that much but could still tell exactly what was going on there. you get that they're all super close (you even get that there's no privacy💀) and they're all like best friends. I feel like his mom should've gotten a bit more characterization, but whatever. I mean her husband died?? and we barely see her???? idk. I just like how drastically different it is from the kords like I think it's cool.

I realized after the movie that. his grandma never saw him transform the first time. and she probably saw the hole in the roof and, knowing her, did not care. then when he comes back they saw khaji attached to him and she was probably filled in, but. we never saw her reaction. I think it was a good decision not to show it, because she'd probably react in some way that mentioned her fighting people in the past and all that.

okay this is another cursed thought but what happened to jenny's motorcycle at the end? she drove it over but then jaime flew her away. did she leave it there and just make him pick her up later to get it? did he go back and fly it to her?? motorcycles are heavy man I don't think that would be fun. did he drive it to her???? did he just leave it there??????? did he fly her everywhere after that??????????? people will guess your secret identity man. also did milagro steal it because that is totally a milagro thing to do-

OH YEAH let's talk about how they all hated jenny when jaime transformed because as funny as that was. guys. she literally told him not to open it. (honestly I feel like it's an insult to khaji's intelligence that they thought they couldn't get out of a fast food box but that's just me.) and I totally get that they hated her because she was a kord and victoria was being horrible but like THEY JUSTIFIED IT AS "YOU DID THIS TO HIM" AND I FEEL LIKE OUT OF EVERY COMPLAINT THEY HAVE WITH HER THAT'S THE WORST ONE TO USE. SHE KINDA GOT JAIME AND MILAGRO FIRED AS WELL although that's also because milagro was breaking rules and jaime's just too good of a person to not yell at victoria. WAIT WHAT ABOUT THE FACT THAT SHE SAID "PROTECT IT WITH YOUR LIFE" KNOWING FULL WELL HE COULD ACTUALLY DIE THAT'S A GOOD COMPLAINT but like we can excuse that bc we love her here

okay so yes the scene where he talked to his dead dad was fine and all like I like it but. PLEASE. THE CGI WAS SO BAD IN THAT ONE PART. like the rest of the movie was fine BUT SERIOUSLY COME ON GUYS but in other news I love that scene because anything that has khaji just. vibing. is the best. and then having jaime accept them and stuff.

I just realized this movie could totally be a queer metaphor because of the whole acceptance theme?? I mean it's not like THE QUEER METAPHOR MOVIE EVER it's more like hey self acceptance. I mean you have to come out to yourself before you come out to others so idk that's just random

anything that has khaji da and jaime being best friends is automatically amazing. so my favorite arc in young justice is the reach arc (because I'm a sucker for possession and it was just totally well done) and my absolute favorite part of the arc + favorite blue beetle moment + possibly favorite part of the whole show??? is when khaji says the "then you haven't learned anything from our time together" line (that jaime says like an episode or so before I think) and every time I rewatch that I'm just like 😭😭😭😭😭 because they're besties your honor (or in love idk that ship isn't my first choice but I don't have a problem with it) and it's so so so good

I was so worried the movie was gonna be bad because I've only seen one recent dc movie (okay it was half of one) and I'm going to be honest I was not engaged at all I was kinda bored (I don't wanna say what movie it was because it's a very very hot take) and I was like oh no what if this movie does it too. nope. I also was really really hoping that they'd actually be like yeah the scarab's name is khaji da AND THEY DID I WAS SO HAPPY

oh my god I was looking at the cast and they listed victoria's assistant scientist guy as dr. sanchez. NOW I'M NOT THE SMARTEST BUT I'M PRETTY SURE THAT'S NOT HIS NAME- WASN'T THAT A WHOLE PLOT POINT 😭😭😭

that's all I have to say for now, there will probably be more later

#spoilers for the blue beetle movie #blue beetle #the movie this time not just the character(s)#blue beetle movie #blue beetle 2023 #jaime reyes #khaji da #jenny kord #ted kord #michael jon carter #booster gold #milagro reyes #rudy reyes #victoria kord #this post is so long watch out

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uselessheretic · 2 years

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There's valid critiques of Taika and his work and I'm not talking about that right now, but the intense recent focus on him, his sexuality, and the accusation of "appropriating" queer culture is so fucking ridiculous, self-obsessed, and racist it blows my mind.

Like, why be mad he called himself a gay icon? He's been called that for years, and him acknowledging that just isn't an issue. Straight white women have been called gay icons for close to a century without any issue? And if a straight man were to call himself a gay icon as well I don't see a problem with straight men choosing to align themselves with the queer community.

But also... I don't think people would take so much issue with him if he openly identified as straight tbh. All the accusations of queerbaiting are ridiculous, but nothing he's done is even close to homophobic where if an openly straight man said something like he was a gay icon I don't think people would be as up in arms. It really comes off like a discomfort at someone being undefined and the demand for complete open access to celebrities' lives as if anyone is owed an explanation for how they identify their sexuality.

But goddddd people straight up lying about Thor and making up rumors that are not true is wild. People said he was queerbaiting when he said the movie was "so gay" (he was asked if it was gay!!) and when it was proven he was not then people want to try and figure out a way to dissect two words to prove that "so gay" is overselling the gay content (multiple openly queer characters who discuss being queer) and therefore problematic. saying he misgendered a trans character (this did not happen) or saying there were "man in a skirt" jokes (literally not true?? the best I got as what this could be referring to is Zeus lifting his toga in a kinda silly way as he walked down the steps)

All of this is literally just so fuuucking insane because it hinges on the idea that "Taika is exploiting the queer community" which makes no sense because he doesn't actually?? Profit by allying himself with the queer community? Like... his bag is in Thor and Marvel. Choosing to ally himself with the queer community is a risk he's taking when the biggest money maker he has is a fanbase of straight white men. (Who, for the record, are not happy about Thor having such a focus on women and queer people?)

Like! I just wish people would unpack what it means to view a moc as inherently an outsider and an antagonist to the queer community. Especially focused on that he's "stealing" or exploiting them (whatever the fuck that means) by virtue of just... incorporating queer stories into his work or supporting queer communities. Or, why people view him as egotistical and that he's trying to force himself into the spotlight from him just? Joking around? Because I stg other than him making jokes he is soooo incredibly humble and quick to give praise and credit to people. Along with him absolutely using his position of entering Hollywood to uplift marginalized communities. Like! Every project he runs he makes an effort to be as diverse as possible. I just hate also that he's really the guy doing the most at the moment for uplifting Indigenous communities in media, including queer Indigenous people too, but (mostly) white gays wanna be so fucking irritating for no reason omfg.

All this over a guy who hasn't even said that he's straight! Where the more vague he is about his sexuality the more people double down on calling him a homophobic cishet!

#like i haaaaaate yall

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pridepages · 3 months

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Give and Take: A Power Unbound

I finished A Power Unbound by Freya Marske. I have thoughts...

Here there be spoilers

What do we know about love?

No, seriously, I'm asking. The more stories I hear--both real and fictional--the less sure I am that we have any idea what it is we're talking about.

Because love may be patient and kind...

But it also might be dirty degrading sex and someone to argue you into submission.

Meet Jack Alston and Alan Ross: the last couple in the found family of disaster gays trying to save the magical world in Freya Marske's The Last Binding trilogy. The third volume, A Power Unbound, centers the love story of Jack and Alan amidst the final confrontation that will decide the fate of the magical world.

(I actually find the magic and politics the least interesting thing about these books, so let's stick to kinky sex and power dynamics.)

At a surface level reading, Jack and Alan are an opposites-attract trope. Jack was born to power and privilege in every sense, titled and magical, while Alan scrambles to survive in a world where he literally repels power (both figurative and literal). Rather than fall into the temptation of a beauty-and-the-beast narrative or a cinderella story, Marske has the two of them lean into their inequality.

They get off on power struggle.

These two have the kinkiest role-play I've seen in traditional publishing. Full credit to Marske for writing a romance that says: "You can have all the deviant sex you want between safe, sane, consenting adults." (A radical notion when we're reluctant to increase the perception of gay sex as 'deviant,' but seriously, fuck respectability politics!)

But the mastery of character development here is how the push-pull of their chemistry translates outside of the bedroom.

When we first meet Jack Alston in book one, he's cast in a more villainous light. He's nasty and hurtful to his ex, Edwin Courcey. It would be easy to write Jack off as simply cruel, but from his perspective, the whole dynamic translates differently.

Jack is a "mean friend." His love language is to tease, to bait, to skirmish. He grew up jabbing his way through life, all knees and elbows. But every time he tried to draw Edwin out...he only ended up pushing him away.

It couldn't be more different with fiesty Alan. "They fit in ways they shouldn’t ever have fit. Even when they fought, they fit–there was no mockery falling on soft, malleable ground…Only the knowledge that any volley would be met and thrown back, brighter and better."

Jack and Edwin were fundamentally wrong for each other, their chemistry toxic. By contrast, Alan understands the love language of insults and banter. He's strong enough to take it.

But strength and weakness are their own sort of power, and both Jack and Alan are keenly aware of it. During one of their intimate scenes, Jack cuts the moment short because he realizes they are not in a moment of mutual pleasure. "When I fuck, it's because it's what I want. Not because I'm punishing someone, or too angry to be safe." Nor will he let Alan turn their intimacy into self-harm, refusing to be "used...as a rod to make stripes on your own back."

It's a critical piece of self-awareness. Jack knows he has a responsibility to use his power with the utmost control to create mutual pleasure and do no harm.

If Jack's journey is one of learning how to share power, then Alan's arc is about learning how to accept it. "Size and strength, station and wealth. All the advantages possible," Alan marvels as he looks at Jack. "Do you know how hard it is to believe someone won’t use it against you? To put your heart into someone’s hands knowing that?"

Alan may like to play at being overpowered, but that play is a consensual illusion: he knows that at any time he can voice the safeword and end the game. When it comes to sex, he can maintain control. But you can't safeword out of falling in love with someone. "Alan had never needed to lean on anyone. It was intolerable that he now kept turning out the pockets of his soul and finding caught in their seams the desire to let someone take his weight. The desire to be held, even kissed."

It's safer to lock yourself up: to stay in control by keeping the rest of the world out. But you can't have love without putting your innermost self on the line, making yourself as vulnerable as possible.

To take of someone else, you have to give everything of yourself.

I don't think it's a binary switch. The ways and means of how we create a give-and-take change depending on the people involved. Some people need soft and gentle love. Some need bright and sunny love. And some people need to be "kissed like an argument. Alan slid his hand to the nape of Jack’s neck and argued fiercely back."

All of them are good. Because all of them have the power to give and take what we need...and what we want.

Jack can be "masterful in the bedroom" and "take your heart between my ribs and guard it like my own." Alan can be a fighter and submissive, can hold his own and still want Jack to "kiss me until you know me, and unmake me, and love me anyway."

I don't know anything about love. But I think these guys just might.

When it comes to love, you'd better give as good as you get.

#a power unbound #the last binding #freya marske #mlm #gay #lgbt reads #queer lit

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norefs · 3 months

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Gen fic recs

Ooooh @genuaryficrecs is asking for gen fics recs! rolls up sleeves, hits up bookmarks I am so ready.

If I Knew You Were Coming I'd've Baked a Cake, by OddityBoddity ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/2227905 ) 19/19 chapters, 27,271 words T, Chose not to use archive warnings (I can't see anything other than canon-typical violence than would need to be warned for, but take care of yourselves and read the tags, I guess?)

Fandom: Marvel, Avengers, Hawkeye comic

Main Characters: Bucky Barnes, Clint Barton

Type of gen relationship: Two unrelated human beings forced to cooperate.

Official summary: They’re the broken ones. That’s what Clint figures the rest think about him and Barnes. Clint with his eardrums trashed, Barnes with a regiment’s worth of trauma and a psychotic cybernetic arm, put in the same room and told to make nice while the others get to go on missions and do important things and save the world. Well they're not broken. So of course they got bored and tired of being sidelined and decided to entertain themselves. And of course they ended up wanted, running through the streets of Paris with bananas down their pants and gendarmes in pursuit. Of course they did.

Why I love it: It's just… well-written and with very good relationship development. Objectively hilarious. Contains way over-the-top competitiveness, which is the best kind of competitiveness. Sometimes rips your heart out for balance. (technically canon-compliant if you choose the right bit of canon, don't listen to what the tags say they're just cowards) Also (gen rant on): Okay, so I think this is my fave gen fic. As a gen fic. Because, look: there is no reason for this fic to not be romantic. It is heavily focused on two specific characters and their interaction and how it develops and changes, those characters' sexual orientation are compatible (they're both gay men), there's no widely-spread squick associated with their relationship if it were a romantic one (not the same family, no unbalanced power dynamics, etc.) and still! I get 30k words of relationship development that don't end in a kiss, and you have no idea how much that means to me and how rare it is (I mean… if you follow @genuaryficrecs you might know). Because relationships don't need to turn romantic to be important! Because any relationship that could turn romantic doesn't have to. Also: they're both in a relationship with someone else. It 1) means you know from the start they won't end up together so you can relax in how you read their interactions and 2) is mentioned and treated as unimportant. In the space/time/context of this fic, their romantic relationships with their respective boyfriends are less important than the gen relationship between them. (okay, rant over)

Excerpt: So he’s lying on his belly. Lying on his belly in an air duct that, let’s face it, was too small for him when he wasn’t in the radiation suit. And he’s lying on his belly in the air duct in a radiation suit and there’s a weight on his back, and there’s a metal arm around his neck and Clint Barton knows that there are times there’s just nothing you can do about the way things go, that there are, well, there are just some times you lose. There are those times when you find yourself with a super-soldier sitting on your back with his arm around your neck and your favourite paring knife poised to cut open your radiation suit and you know you’ve been had and you, well you find yourself thinking, Okay but seriously, seriously this was not how it was supposed to go.

#genuaryficrecs #genuary fic rec fest #fic recs #bucky barnes #clint barton #marvel #avengers #oddityboddity

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discluded · 8 months

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The latest standard pop article refers to Chat and Khem's relationship as a bromance at this rate by the end of this leg of the press tour they will be referred to as brothers 😂

Hey, I'll coalesce these together then, if that's OK. For folks who want to, feel free to use this as a discussion post.

I've had a really long week, I've taken two different cats to the vet since Sunday so I'm not really in the mood to stir up more drama-- but... *makes grand gestures*

I think the initial reaction to Pond's comment might have been overblown in the sense that it should have been something, given Pond's history of saying shit, that could be ignored. I'm perplexed by Man Suang comms account's decision to double down on this by posting the image with "Man Suang is not a bad movie; Man Suang is not a BL". Since most of the account's followers are already MileApo/Man Suang fans, I'm not sure what they were hoping to accomplish with that statement that could easily be taken the wrong way. Pond needs to say less. But I've also given up on analyzing the state of their PR/comms.

It is somewhat telling to me that many people who are upset about Pond's comment and the account's statement and general straight washing of the movie are queer, though specific reactions range from actively angry on social media, quietly angry in closed fannish settings (chat, circle, servers, etc), attempt to placate other fans with empathy, or just apathetic towards the point of disengaging [read: me, due to other stress in my life]

Meanwhile, I haven't seen a single queer person go THEY NEVER PROMISED YOU A BL NEVER SAID THEY'D BE A COUPLE OR QUEER YOU'RE THE ONES WHO MADE THAT ASSUMPTION 🤪 So.

First to that--

Strawberry had shared this translation.

I realized, watching it back, this is what the autocaptioning(?)/Mint translator subbed it with:

I'm not sure if it's the lack of clarity in Thai that can be translated either way or the Mint team's translation is less specific while , but Apo also explicitly discussed that he played Khem as closeted, and it does a disservice to Apo's intentionality for the character to straight-wash the movie.

I think ultimately it depends on how one defines BL. From the classicist (ha!) perspective of the origination, BL has specific target demographic audience and definition.

Let's take these specific notes, with citations in the wikipedia entry itself:

Yaoi also known as boys' love and its abbreviation BL, is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that features homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created by women for women and is thus distinct from bara (gay manga), a genre of homoerotic media marketed to gay men. "BL" is the common term used to describe male-male romance media marketed to women in Japan and much of Asia, though its usage in the West is inconsistent.

Given these specific definitions, I would actually agree without criticism that Pond is correct that Man Suang is not a BL in the same way it takes me out when people call CMBYN a BL because that is not its genre/target demographic. I would agree Man Suang is more arthouse film like CMBYN or Carol or Moonlight, or if we're going back farther, more popluarist like LOTR or Memoirs of a Geisha or Crouching Tiger. Of course these might be different genres, but idea of a popularist film is mean to be watched by everyone, not pushed to a specific demographic (vs. for example, Marvel which is marketed towards boys and young men, but is watched by the general public.)

Similarly, back to the origins of the BL genre, queer romances and queer main characters are not solely limited by the genre of BL. Even aside from Bara, there is Josei as a genre where notable works include Sakura Gari by Yu Watase (author of Fushigi Yugi and Ceres Celestial Legend) and The Carp on the Chopping Block Jumps Twice / The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese. In Seinen, there is My Brother's Husband (the mangaka is a very famous Bara author). If you haven't heard of these, that's fine, but I'm serious about how much extensive understanding I have about the delineation about the nuances of what is "technically" BL and what isn't.

There is a disconnect in the audience's definition and what BOC is trying to communicate, and that's why friction is occurring.

That being SAID, AND VERY IMPORTANTLY, let's again recognize that the definition is about the target audience being young women, and the insistence and tone of which the marketing is pushing how it's NOT for the BL audience (young women) but to everyone is quite boldly misogynist for a company that built its foundation on female consumers. Its tone is overtly that something which is made for young women is somehow inherently "not good", the same way that romcoms are somehow less valuable as art, or boy bands or handsome young singers like Justin Bieber are less talented musicians because of its target audience.

So yes, I do have a problem with the tone they're taking and I think the biting the hand that feeds it comment is spot on.

Finally, about Apo tweeting and deleting. I think he held and articulated himself well in interviews, and he's been insanely patient and tolerant these past few weeks (see: laris). I actually really relate to him in that sense because I can be calm and rational but sometimes I can't help but run my mouth. I held off on answering these because I've been so stressed and just couldn't handle whatever anger it might rile up.

Expecting someone to hold their temper 100% of the time is impossible even if they manage it 99% of the time. I've also tweeted angry things I've deleted in minutes later too. And I understand his perspective in not wanting to be limited to the genre or audience of the art he creates. So Apo's (valid and expected) reaction is understandable.

If it's okay, I'll probably not answer any more asks about this topic for probably a while. I have some other family stuff going on (not-cat family) and I just can't deal with people who don't have to be in my life causing this nonsense while I also have to deal with people (and cats) I can't get rid of attachments to also having stuff going on.

#man suang #kinnporsche #misogyny #pink capitalism #pond krisda #be on cloud #man suang promo #meta #bl meta

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update-blog-bp9 · 1 month

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How would this sound to you ? (ONE DAY GUYS ! YOU DECIDE !!)

I was sitting here and thinking...I never did a 1k Follower special, I just never had the time for it and now I am almost to 1k and 150 Followers. Only 20 missing at this point and I never even thought I would get this many.

What if I remedy that whole 1k special, i missed to make ?

Now WHAT would that include ? MINORS DO NOT INTERACT FROM HERE !!!

Easy...

I will open requests and you can request what you want. Smut chapters will take me legit forever, but I am not going to say that I won't do any. Just...go easy on me. I am mentally not all that great to do the whole brutal, very perverted stuff at the moment.

I gladly do BDSM, Roleplay kinda smut chapters, some kinky stuff and soft smut though !

You can ask for (Fandoms):

MARVEL HAZBIN HOTEL (I mostly do Alastor there, but you can also request other Characters there !) FNAF (Game and Movie Universe) SCREAM (I only watched 1, 5 and 6, so please have mercy on me) SP AND DR is also allowed.

And anything else that I ever wrote about, all masterlists are on the main one and it is pinned at the top of my blog and linked in my BIO, so take your pick ! You can also ask if I know any other Fandom and if yes, if I could write for them. I don't bite.

What I will write:

ANGST FLUFF WHOLESOMENESS SMUT HURT/COMFORT

What I allow to write as Relationship stuff:

PLATONIC RELATIONSHIPS (Friends, friends turning to Family, like Siblings and stuff...Surrogate Brother/Sister if I am not mistaken we call such, tight ?) ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS (Nothing perverted ! Just you know Father - Son ralationship, Brother x Brother Relationship and all that stuff, Family relationships are NOT allowed to be SMUT !!!)

What I will NOT write:

INCEST STEPCEST PEDOPHILIA EXTREME, DARK SMUT (Light dark is okay, but not extreme. I'm just not ready to step back into it yet.)

What I MIGHT not write:

There are some kinks that I am not familiar or comfortable with, but I will let you know when I have a problem with them. I just know that I won't write a feet fetish as an example. I don't feel comfortable to write that.

What you CAN request (Gender like):

HETERO (Man x Woman) GAY (Man x Man) OR (Woman x Woman) INTERSEXUAL (People with BOTH genders) GENDERFLUID (Might be horribly explained, I ain't Genderfluid, but practically that is when you feel like a man one day and in five weeks you feel like a woman and dress and behave as such how you feel) TRANSGENDER (Man in a Woman's body or the other way around, Don't hate me I try to keep this short and simple here !!) ASEXUAL (Repulsed by the bare mention of the S word OR isn't repulsed by it, but isn't really intesrested in it (I think it is called Gray Ace...?) GENDERNEUTRAL (Which mostly means no Gender so They/Them I CAN'T USE THAT IN SMUT THOUGH IF YOU DON'T GIVE ME A SEX ON THE BODY !!! So tell me which they have !)

Character ships I will write for:

Any Character x Reader (Name a Gender though !) Also write Character x Character ( Like...Alastor x Rosie where they just gossip or Charlie and Vaggie with romance or smut)

(I also don't mind to Genderswap. So instead of Charlie being a Female, she is a Male or a different gender. You give me your thoughts and I will try to turn it into a Oneshot !)

Characters I will NOT write for:

The Vees (Hazbin Hotel) Adam (Hazbin Hotel) Lute (Hazbin Hotel) Sera (Hazbin Hotel) They can be mentioned or play a role but I don't do ANY ships with them and the Reader. They can be shipped with each other though, I suppose. And Vox can be friends with Reader, but no romantic shtick.

I am not up to date with Marvel, so I might have to reject some requests, if I get a Character I don't know, so please forgive me, but doing hours of research on any Character just to get a bare grasp on them, could take forever. TvT

The whole Request thing would be OPEN for TWO WEEKS !!! You can ask as ANON too then.

PLEASE GUYS !: Don't just send me smut, because I allowed it. I also wanna see some fluff and other requests. I will let ya'll know how many I would get from each category too, so you can be prepared.

With all of that out of the way....

Be honest with this, because I will only offer it ONCE. ....At least until I have like...2k Followers or something, so...Be bloody honest guys.

(I might repost this list and make it a seperate thing, so innocent eyes can ask for innocent stuff and look everything up, while the dirty dogs *Jokes* get the dirty rules page.)

I'm rambling again !! AAAAGGGHHH !!! Sorry !!!

@innerpiratefun @gayhopefullove @natashaxmarvelmen @buffymore @lovefanfiction01

I thought you might wanna know this and spread the word. ^^

#READ THE WHOLE THING BEFORE YOU JUMP IN JOY !!!#minors do not interact #minors dni #not safe for minors #mdni #update #male!reader #fem!reader #hazbin hotel #alastor the radio demon #alastor x reader #Marvel #FNaF Movie #FNaF #Five Nights at Freddy's #FNaF x Reader #Hazbin Hotel x Reader #Scream #Scream x Reader

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theadoptedfandom · 8 months

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Thoughts I’m having as I/We prepare for OFMD S2 inspired by Con’s quote in Vanity Fair saying ‘it “doesn’t follow the expected route”

What is the expected route?! (/gen and /j)

As someone whose watched WWDITS from Season 1 and decided to come back to tumblr after the S3 finale (a time when the first in-show hints of Nandermo happened in what I consider the shows best 2 ep season-opener outside I think this S5 2 ep opener), I have personally learned it’s best to expect nothing from these shows.

And I don’t mean that negatively, I mean as much as I love fanart, fanfiction, meta and fan theories, when I get too into or invested in the plot lines created in our online space I tend to find the actual show a bit duller(?) less concerned with consistent plot lines and character arcs. (Or maybe just less obsessed than we are as the audience vs them as the creator). [[An example for myself was being upset at a lack of any development in S4 from choosing to ship Guillermo and Nadjia of to London at the end of S3, & reading some really fabulous theories of what that would have looked like from other viewers/fans in the year between.]]

I think the main reason for that - to me - is because these shows - OFMD, Good Omens, WWDITS, even Ted Lasso - at the end of the day are comedies. And the meta and ways we analyze and breakdown and hope for what the next season(s) will be are written with so much more drama and seriousness (which I love) than the show actually ever presented itself to have. (Or may have the budget and time for tbh)

[again this is mostly my reading of WWDITS over the years to help me prepare for whatever happens with OFMD this Fall]

Granted I was not into ‘online fandom world’ when SPN or Sherlock were airing (I was a Marvel&Steven Universe teenager) so idk what experiencing SUPERWHOLOCK was like ‘live’/in real time w/ years between seasons. But those were also dramas doing different things (and being less gay) than OURFLAGMEANSGOODOMENSINTHESHADOWS (what a mouth full) so *shrug*

Idk that this ramble has a point, I just had thoughts about making sure to temper my expectations both for myself and for the sake of not “chastising the creators” ala Good Omens* when OFMD S2 starts airing.

I know most of us are just EXTREMELY grateful that another season of this show is real & probably will be happy with ~almost~ anything they decided to do.

*im very aware the folks who didn’t like GOS2 (the ending in particular) & are actively rude about it are a minority btw I’m just using it as an example of expectation vs reality

#ofmd #ofmd s2 #y’all I’m not a tumblr hustler and nothing about this is ever that serious #so if this happens to pop off any hostility will be blocked #kisses #I’m just sharing thoughts cause I have no one else to talk to about my silly shows #our flag means death #wwdits #what we do in the shadows

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lais-a-ramos · 2 years

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on the first kill cancellation and what it tells us about representation in media

the most heartbreaking part about the first kill cancellation is that it’s an evidence of this trend in audiovisual media big corporations to profit over claims about representation, all while delivering the most sanitized and harmless to the consumption by the cis het , white, able-bodied etc people form of representation they could possibly offer.

because, that’s the thing, back in 2016, when lexa from the 100 and plenty other lesbian and queer characters in general were killed off of shows and it sparked a whole conversation over the "bury your gays" trope, our biggest hope was that having more people from marginalized groups making the decisions in the writers’ room and as showrunners would result in better representation for us.

and, the thing is that, while lots of people were concearned about shaming the show for having CGI problems – problems that are perfectly explained by the very low-budget the show got from netflix --, the truth is that first kill actually achieved a lot in the “representation on behind-the-scenes” front.

the author of the short story it’s based on, victoria “v.e.” schwab, is queer, identifying as gay and using she/they pronouns, and also signed as showrunner, inspite having an adviser role. Not only that, but victoria declared in interviews and even penned an article talking about how they wrote the short story and the pilot for the show in an attempt of giving to the new generations the representation she needed as a teen and longed for when she watched sci-fi/fantasy shows like buffy the vampire slayer.

the “the facto” shworunner, felicia d. henderson, is not queer, she is a cis het woman, but, she is still a dark-skinned black woman with a long and successful resumé in the show biz, with classic shows hailed by the african american community like fresh prince of bel-air and moesha under her belt, and who also worked for DC in their comics’ division (yeah, THE DC Comics) and worked on marvel’s the punisher, in other words, one of the best people you could possibly ask for to work on a sci-fi/fantasy show in which a huge part of the main cast is comprised by black people – actually, to work on sci-fi/fantasy shows in general.

both felicia and victoria have mentioned plenty of times on social media, interviews and so on about how diverse the writer’s room was.

not only that, but they also talked about how there was representation on the production crew as well . people on the camera crew, make-up crew, wardrobe crew, the cinematography crew etc, were all comprised by black people and queer people , an information that was also shared with pride and enthusiams by the leading actresses sarah catherine hook and imani lewis on their interviews.

so, the representation on FK wasn’t just on the characters on screen, it was on the entire production chain.

and, yet, it wasn’t enough for preventing us from losing the representation, because the show got cancelled.

this is not to say that we should give up on trying to get more people from marginalized groups working on behind-the-scenes or anything like that, especially because, I things are hard enough when we try to occupy these spaces, if we stop fighting for space, then that’s when things will not getter better AT. ALL.

but we should definetely stop to think about what do we mean when we say we want more representation and what kind of content we praise or not.

back in 2018, under the release of love simon on movie theatres, buzzfeed news published an article written by contributor john sherman titled “Popular Gay Media Is Still Focusing On Straight Acceptance, Rather Than Celebrating Queer Difference”, inspired mostly by the new york times article by queer and non-binary activist, writer, producer, television host and actor jacob tobia, “Does Gay Hollywood Have Room for Queer Kids?”, and both articles pointed out how the movie’s entire narrative was structured around the Idea that simon was just like another guy, except that he was gay and reinforces the discourse that it’s ok to be gay, as long as you’re “not TOO gay”, especially considering the way the narrative uses feminine, gender non-conforming, flamboyant and campy gay ethan as a prop for masculine, straight-passing gay simon’s story, using the bullying ethan goes thru the entirety of the movie as an excuse for simon to not come out all while never really having simon acknowledging how he was embarassed by ethan because he was struggling with his own internalized homophobia.

four years later, and these articles are actually more relevant than ever.

because here is the thing: the discourse revolving around the need for more “wholesome” queer representation, while completely valid when it comes to defend the production of more LGBT+ content aimed at children and pre-teens, oftenly gets mixed up on the internet with very conservative opinions about LGBT+ sexuality, gender expression and lifestyle choices.

that is what is problematic about the heartstopper vs first kill debate, that started really as soon as the first teaser trailers for FK were released and people begin to make assumptions about how FK was gonna sexualize women and cater to the male gaze, and now took another turn after the cancellation news when FK fans, lesbians in general, BIPOC in general and so on started to point out Netflix’s and the entertaiment industry’s double standards when it comes to the representation of the LGBT+ community, favoring cis White queer, able-bodied, slim, masculine men over all the other groups in the community .

It’s not that heartstopper is bad or awful or that it should have been cancelled like first kill was, that’s definetely not the point.

heartstopper as a franchise is actually far bolder than love simon ever could, with the comics talking about topics like bullying and mental illness, shining a light in some topics not so talked about in media like anorexia and body dysmorphia in young boys, storylines that the fans hope to see in the new seasons of the show .

on top of that, it did a great job at portraying Nick’s realisation about his bisexuality and ditching the “bisexuals are traitors and manipulative” trope by contrasting nick’s honesty about his sexual confusion and his loyalty to charlie to the toxic and abusive way Ben treated charlie during their secret relationship.

still, it is a show that is centered around two cis White boys and that has lesbians, trans people and people of color as side characters at most, being in the background of the cis white boys’s love story, like a book footnote.

and the thing is, most people don't care about the book footnotes.

tao and elle, the straight couple formed by a cis chinese british boy and a trans black girl of egyptian descent, is still on the background, not the fore front.

and while tao defying gender norms about cis het boys is a very welcome change, nick and charlie, the main characters, are still pretty much very masculine, straight-passing boys. also, the fact that, from all the boys, it is the asian guy who is the less traditionally masculine when we consider the way western culture desexualizes and mock asian men

yes, charlie is bullied by the school’s rugby athletes for not being masculine enough, but, in spite of being gay, he is not much different from the same old cis het nerdy white guy in coming of age movies and indie movies, who is sensitive and listens to indie bands and is some sort of “cool loser”.

and nick nelson is still the very stereotype of the masculine jock, except that he is the “gentle brute" type.

it’s important to note that not only non-binary bisexuals do exist, but also that gender non-conforming cis bisexuals exist as well. there are bi guys with a gender expression that is affeminated, and also there are bi girls with a gender expression that is masculine.

when it comes to the lesbian interracial couple, formed by masculine white girl darcy and more feminine, dark-skinned black girl tara, they are side characters in nick and charlie’s story like tao and elle, having a smaller role than taoelle.

i actually remember reading somewhere that one of the changes the show made from the comics was to actually give a bigger role to tara and darcy, with the storyline about how their school reacted when tara came out actually being exclusive to the show, which means that their roles were even smaller.

and while it’s true that these side characters are still more rounded than your typical side characters, they’re still, guess what? Side characters.

people like tara and darcy, tao and elle deserve to be the main characters in their own fictional stories too, much like they are the main characters in their stories in real life.

people like calliope and juliette deserve to be the main characters in their own fictional stories too.

especially in a genre like the sci-fi/fantasy one, that is beloved by queer people and people of color for its fantastical elements and adventures and themes that flirt with the weird, unusual and that these and marginalized groups in general find comfort in because the social outcasts relate to the weirdness of it all.

so, it’s very important that we have shows like first kill and main characters like juliette fairmont and calliope burns, out and proud lesbians who are comfortable in their sexuality and whose biggest conflict with their families is not about their queerness, but because one is a monster hunter and the other is a vampire; who never get to face homophobia; and get to be the main characters and kick butts on screen and be the heroes just like cis het white abled-bodied people, mostly cis het white abled-bodied guys, get to do.

all this talk is because we have to question what has been sold to us as diversity and inclusion.

because diversity and inclusion don’t involve people from marginalized groups forcing themselves to fit into the standards of the dominant groups just to be accepted and be treated with basic human decency.

Queer people shouldn’t have to repress their sexuality and gender expression to be accepted, much like autistic and neurodivergent people shouldn’t have to supress their quirks like stimming or the way they react to sensory overload to be accepted, or like fat people shouldn’t have to lose weight, or indigenous people shouldn’t have to abandon their cultures to fit in, or like people with disabilities shouldn’t have to display some form of productivity to be accepted and so on.

We shouldn’t have to water ourselves down, it’s society that should create a safe space so we can live on it according to our experiences.

and that’s why the discourses revolving around normalcy are so tricky and can get problematic very easily, because while it was useful in the past, as the buzzfeed article points out, it also reinforces the Idea that there’s something naturally wrong with being different from what society says it’s the norm.

and we can see the wa ythis mindset is spreading around the internet, even amongst teens and twenty-somethings, as we can see by the whole discourse against the use of the word “queer”, even if it was historically reclaimed by the LGBT+ community.

or the way we can see people on tumblr spreading the "the kinky community shouldn't be at pride" discourse.

“queer” is precisely about celebrating the differences as they are what makes the experience of being yourself so unique, and it’s also precisely a reaction about the way the narrative about LGBT+ activism was historically centered around the experiences of cis het gay men and cis achilleans in general.

so, when we see society being more receptive towards the boys from heartstopper and not towards the girls from first kill, it doesn’t happen by accident, it's a part of an entire social structure.

the same goes for the topic about femininity and sexuality. traditional social conventions about sexuality basically censor and shame woman and transfeminine people for having any interest in sex and , something that, combined with the conventions about queer desire and attraction being wrong or predatory, creates a scenario of intense sexual repression in ways that it doesn’t happen with cis white men -- except for, maybe, the disabled ones.

the way people reacted so negatively against the calliette make out scenes wasn’t an accident, it was part of this structure that shames female pleasure, interracial sex, lesbian sex and acts like girls and women are uncapable of enjoying sex, having sexual desire and having any interest in the matter.

that’s the kind of nuance that usually escapes from conversations about fetishization of women: it’s not that we are uncapable of sexual desire, it’s just that most of the narratives put us in a position of objetcs instead of agents. that’s what the male gaze is about, taking our agency and input on the matter from us to cater to cis het men’s fantasies of power.

and male gaze is not what happened in first kill, a show in which felicia, the showrunner, made sure to ask for the lesbians and sapphics on set for their advice and input over the calliette scenes to make sure the final product were true to the lesbian and sapphic experience rather than the assumptions of a cis het woman about the lesbian and sapphic experience. not only that, the show hired an intimacy coordinator, named dr. tiff, that, if I’m not wrong, is a queer woman as well, to help the actresses feel comfortable even with the smallest of touches, like a hand on a shoulder or a hug, and it was discussed amongst said intimacy coordinator, the directors, the showrunner and the actresses how to portray the scenes between calliope and juliette without sexualizing the teenagers too much, how to find a balance between showing the interest of non-asexual 16 year-old girls on sex and not oversexualising them . one can’t be further from the male gaze and fetishization as that.

still on the topic of sex, it’s not a coincidence that the general audiences were so receptive of heartstopper, because the show is almost devoid of sexual scenes.

of course, this isn’t a problem on itself, especially because it seems like the show is aiming not only at teenagers, but at children as well.

but it gets problematic when people begin to defend that all types of LGBT+ media representation should adhere to these standards even if they’re not aiming at children and pre-teens as their target audiences.

especially because it’s not just lesbians and sapphics, or just trans people in general, who are shamed and have their sexuality treated as inherently wrong and predatory, it happens with cis gays and achilleans as well.

again, and I can’t emphasize this enough, there is nothing wrong with heartstopper.

there’s nothing wrong with LGBT+ media that is fluffy, family-friendly and PG-rated.

the problem is that LGBT+ fiction, and fiction about marginalized groups in general, shouldn’t have to be forced to adhere to the fluffy, family-friendly, PG standards to have a space in media and not get cancelled by networks and streaming services; and that media companies are imposing these conditions for LGBT+ content because they know these standards are seen as harmless by the cis het white audiences, and, therefore, these media companies are profiting over a serious cause like that of diversity and representation all while continuing to treat the cis het, white, abled-bodied, skinny etc audience as the only valuable one.

this is not about fandom wars, and some people are right when they say that there is space for all types of queer shows, for shows like heartstopper and for shows like first kill alike.

the important question here is why is it that we from marginalized groups are forced to adhere to all these respectability politics to be accepted when cis het, white, abled-bodied, skinny etc people aren’t.

don’t know whether first kill can be saved by another network like it happened with one day at a time, or what the future holds, but, that is the important question that we all should take from this mess.

and, most of all, we got to remember that we can and deserve to have so much better than what companies are delivering to us, and we don’t have to settle for less, in pop culture and in any other area of society.

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