#crazy to actually feel like there are shows that care about queer characters and don't lie to the audience

[absolutelybifurious]

no one follows me from the 911 fandom so i feel mostly safe in whining to the abyss about this, so like i feel bad for not caring as much about buck's bi rep at face value... i can appreciate that buck - as a stereotypically masculine guy, who is for all intents and purposes the main character of a procedural prime time show - coming out as bi is a big deal, and i appreciated the set up with tommy. it was fun/fine. as a bi person, as someone who wants the world to get better - it makes me happy in an intellectual sense.

but for me, as a viewer of 911 the show - i don't really care. emotionally, in the context of the story it didn't do anything for me. tommy is (mostly) a random guy who showed up and buck realizes he's bi and now they're dating, but there's nothing to draw on earlier - and if it's a stepping stone, then i'll love it wholeheartedly in hindsight but if buddie doesn't happen - i just don't quite know how to feel other than like, detachedly glad we got a queer relationship for someone like buck.

and full disclosure, i wholeheartedly admit to being an eddie girlie, but even if eddie had gotten the storyline with tommy - i don't think i would've had a super strong reaction?

like yeah, i appreciate rep and of course it matters, but what would feel revolutionary for me is to take this relationship thats been implicitly on screen - to basically look at all these queer fans and be like, okay, yeah, you were right. all this subtext you've seen in a dozen other mlm ships over the years is valid. you aren't crazy and it's not gross or weird to make it REAL. you aren't rabid. (not counting the people who send weird hate to women actors just trying to do their jobs) and god - more than that, i'm just here for the fuckin STORY of it. tommy is fine. lou is lovely and i'm plenty interested to see where the buck and tommy train goes, but i don't have investment in it, not significant investment anyway, and i don't think i will? i mean, we're 7 seasons in. i can't get all in with tommy and buck at this point, i've been frothing at the mouth for another ship. and you brought me THIS close just to swerve at the last second.

so while i get that canonizing buck as bi is a big deal - it is always going to feel hollow for me personally because the story is what i'm here for. the relationship. the depth of it. and tbh i just want to see something beautiful and unintentional building in the background and have it fuckin happen for onceeee.

just sometimes i feel like i'm missing something, because i see the like... level of reaction some people have just to the bi-ness of it, and for me - if there's not a satisfying story, then, i don't have many emotions about it. i've gotten plenty of bi characters over the years, and very few of them felt fully actualized in the story being told around them.

#buddie #911 #i don't wanna tag this as too many things bc i feel like ppl would hate it and #i'm not out here trying to ruin anyones good time #but also its kinda something i wonder if other people feel #or if i'm just weird #911 abc

[nerdynikki94]

BITTERSWEET RANT ABOUT QUEER (MLM) CHARACTERS IN CURRENT MEDIA

I used to think it was impossible for me to hyperfixate on a show/ship without reading and writing nonstop fanfic about it. But then, a year and a half ago, I watched OFMD and I staunchly refused to read or write any fanfic, because I needed to wait it out and see how the amazing writers planned the story to continue. (I'm ecstatic for October 5th.)

I still considered myself to continue obsessing over my queer ships, especially when I watched Galavant and fell into a bit of a Richard/Gareth hole (but there are very few fics, I planned to write one but kept going back to my Macden fics).

Then, I watched Hannibal, and I tried to read fics, planned one too, but I just couldn't get into it, and preferred obsessively rewatching the show instead.

Now I'm literally refreshing fanvids of our Ineffable Husbands from Good Omens on YT daily, but completely unable to even glance at fics.

It's funny to think how far we are coming with queer characters in media, and I'm just so excited to see shows that refuse to queerbait. They aren't using a viewership by playing with never-ending hints and nods but zero follow through. They are acknowledging that acts of abandonment or betrayal have consequences, regardless of the initial intentions. They refuse to do that kind of disservice to the respective narrative journeys of these characters.

Yes, they may be angsty and a bit sad right now, but Goddammit, we are finally getting sincere, star-crossed gay love stories. Tragic, but not in your typical heartbreaking Brokeback Mountain -esque media from the past (no hate, love the movie, thought the short story was okay).

These queer love stories are giving the same kind of painful passion as some of the best dramatic romances around (one of my fave genres). What a time to be alive! Because it's not an unhappy ending until it ends. The best love stories have to have nearly impossible obstacles. That is how the relationships are tested.

Just thinking about how I've always hyperfixated in the past vs. how I do now. I realized it's because I finally have hope. I can't consume fics because I trust the creators and writers of canon so explicitly that I know they will continue showing how they respect the viewers while also acknowledging the significance, the absolute necessity of delving into the arcs and development the characters need to find within themselves.

I believe David Jenkins and Neil Gaiman are determined to do right (as Bryan Fuller would be, if ever given the chance to continue), not by all the vastly different opinions of the countless countering fans, but by the way they have shown genuine acknowledgement to the romance and enough respect for the love interests to make them face challenges that help them grow. Queer characters are the leads' now, and they are fully-formed yet ever-changing, unique representations, flirting with fun stereotypes, without reducing them to the worst and most inaccurate social stigmas.

So, I'm ever-resolute to hold out for canon, because I don't want to get my head so full of incredible fanfic that I have my opinion change from constantly switching perspectives.

These writers are changing the game so much that I can't help but trust that - even beyond just the romantic aspect - they actually care about the development of the characters, they aren't defined by just being gay, they are complex.

In other words, I'm in a perpetual state of refreshing Macden fic updates every time I want to read something, and trying to conjure the desire to write again, so I can get back this other Macden fic, after having spent the past two years straight writing the most fics I have for any ship in my entire life.

But, yeah, it's totally crazy to realize that the reason I can not read any of the amazing fics out there for Our Flag Means Death, Hannibal & Good Omens is because these shows are already so enthusiastic and welcoming of their queer characters.

#our flag means death #Hannibal #Good Omens #crazy to actually feel like there are shows that care about queer characters and don't lie to the audience #like i didn't know it could be done #if you can't tell I'm really fucking salty. S16 made me really mad. #i just started thinking about all the times rm said that 'this season Mac gets a bf' all for it to be actual bullshit. #like i don't care if people come for me. i love macdennis for what it could've been. bcuz it ain’t ever going canon. #not just that.mac won't ever get a bf or a gay onscreen kiss. bcz r.m. wants mac obsessing over denial den. to keep mac gay & never show it #i feel like he just had him come out bcz of S11E10s backlash & to maintain ally status while using the identity as fodder for endless jokes #16 Seasons & character regression I just don't think it's going to happen. especially post strike.too risky.can't alienate the dudebros #dennis is cartoonishly far in denial. like how can anything ever happen with the guy who excused cyberfucking his roommate for food. #& he never gets called out on it. S5 Dee would've jumped on his ass for that.now the dialogue ignores it & instantly wipes the slate clean

[scarrletmoon]

okay i know the Discourse™️ has been going on for way too long at this point, but

i think some people outside of the OFMD fandom don’t actually get why we’re particularly annoying about this show

OFMD is not the first queer show to ever exist. if anything, it's a late entry in decades of queer media. over a year and a half since the first few episodes aired, everyone knows that OFMD is queer. that doesn't make it particularly special

but back in March? this is the trailer that dropped in February of 2022, 2 weeks before the premier. if you're used to seeing queer chemistry in shows that aren't intended to be queer, you might see the hints between Ed and Stede here. but to most people? it's just a silly little pirate comedy. just guys being dudes. the trailer doesn't even hint at the other 2 canonical queer relationships in the show -- the closest it gets suggesting romance is the music and the pink in the poster

so when people watched this show in March 2022, they went into it expecting subtext and nothing else. to them, it was like watching Sherlock or Supernatural or Merlin in the 2010s. if you were in any of those fandoms -- especially Sherlock and Supernatural -- you know what it was like; constant jokes at our expense, being mocked for creating explicit fanwork, made fun of by the creators and within the show itself. if we saw queer subtext, that was our problem. this was a time when you pretended NOT to be in fandom, for fear of ridicule. we kept our fanwork to ourselves, we DID NOT share it with the cast, and we accepted that our favourite ships would probably never be canon. maybe one day, if we were lucky, we'd have a show where the subtext wasn't mockery as much as deliberate foreshadowing -- but that had to be YEARS away

right?

OFMD was never billed as a queer show, not in the beginning. there was no LGBTQ+ tag on (HBO) Max, it wasn't on anyone's list of upcoming queer shows in 2022, it flew under the radar through most of its first season. this was a show about pirates, and sure, some of them were queer. but not the LEADS. if you think they're romantically involved, that's must be fandom brain poisoning

except the 9th episode aired, and they kissed. and the show said "you're not crazy for thinking they have chemistry because they really do. it's been a romance this whole time". and in the 10th episode, Stede realizes that he's in love

(not mandating you watch this clip if you don't care for the show, but there's something that feels particularly earth shattering about no one saying the word gay but knowing that Stede's realizing he is, that it's completely unambiguous and explicit in a way that only straight romances are usually allowed to be)

this is why people freaked out about this show. no one knew. even the creator, David Jenkins, was surprised when WE were surprised that it was gay for real -- he set out to write a love story, using all the tried and true beats of a rom com. he'd never even heard of the term queerbaiting. he looked at historical Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet and thought "oh, there's something here" and just...wrote that, with very little fanfare, like it was inevitable. like it was obvious. of course Jim and Pam end up together. of course Buttercup and Westley end up together. what kind of disappointing ending would it be if You've Got Mail ended with the main characters just going their separate ways?

so of course Ed and Stede are in love

look, i get it. we're annoying and won't shut the fuck up about this show that seems mediocre at best. i watched the whole thing back in march, thought "huh, that was cool" and was sure that i'd forget about it in a few days

an hour after looking at fanart on twitter, i was lost in the fucking sauce

there's just so much to unpack from a mere 10 episodes. it covers racism, toxic masculinity, gender expression, sexuality, trauma and abuse. and i don't think we should overlook the fact that the non-white characters in this show get to be fully human in a way i haven't seen in my favourite shows in recent memory

additionally, most OFMD are 25 or older. we're not people who've been spoiled by queer rep, who don't get how hard it used to be, how you'd have to grovel for scraps, how shipping and fanfiction was a way to find queer rep where we thought there never would be. we've been here. we're annoying about this show because for a lot of us, it's the first time we've been treated like our queerness isn't an anomaly that needs to be relegated to its own section, that needs to be praised for the bare minimum of acknowledging that we exist. it's not pulling punches to avoid scaring away a straight audience. it just is.

OFMD for me is like when i watched Black Panther for the first time and realized that this is what white people felt all the time. have there been other black superhero movies? of course! does Disney fucking suck? BOY does it. but that was the first time i got to sit in a movie theater and watch a mainstream film that looked at Africa and said "look at how beautiful you are, exactly as you are"

and idk. i think that's really cool

#scarrlet rambles #ofmd #cant wait for all 5 notes on this post #and dont be fucking mean i'm not trying to start shit #anon is off btw if you want to try that #we're going to have a productive conversation or none at all we're adults here #for some reason tumblr didn't save my links and stuff THANKS TUMBLR #anyway the typo version is floating around now i guess 🥲

[bugsbenefit]

It’s because some of us can’t stand fanon mike he’s not will or el at the end of the day it’s not our fault the duffers already messed up his character arc long ago. some of us aren’t really interested in mike like that and to be frank I hate how much trauma people are putting on him as if he isn’t a privileged middle class *maybe cis maybe not* kid with insecurities cause he can’t play hero anymore like he used to. Fanon mike is retaliation to whatever we got the last two season from the character and I get it, but why are we keep acting like he’s important to vecna or the plot like that he’s just els boyfriend and wills crush at this point.

You don’t agree with this most likely but idc I’m just here to let this out for those who sympathize with mike. He’s genuinely not a interesting character and if Will wasn’t in love with him I wouldn’t look his way.

Hello? Will solo stan that doesn't get the show in My asks? more likely than you think

i'm sorry but you clearly sent this knowing i wouldn't agree with you and you don't sound like you want a conversation so... why did you send this? was it just to tell me there's people that don't care about Mike? because shockingly, i know that already, the influx in open Mike hate was why everyone doubled down on his character being important and purposeful last week in the first place

i'm genuinely confused on how you're watching the show, though. i mean, at least you're admitting you're only in it for Will so i guess you're aware of your bias and shortcomings?

also lmao sorry but *maybe cis maybe not*?? are you trying to say being queer in the midwest 80s in a small town with a conservative environment wasn't that bad or damaging or worth elaborating on because he's "probably cis" and the family is middle class? hello? newsflash just in, the queers need to stop complaining about how scared they are of coming out and potential consequences of it, if you're cis you're basically getting cishet privileges anyway. i'm really not sure what you meant to say here, you okay? also, aren't All the characters cis??

the vendetta you have against "fanon Mike" is fascinating tbh. what exactly is "fanon Mike" to you, bc the ask suggests it's just Mike with any motivations and 3dimensional writing orrrr? also thank you for telling me that Mike El and Will are separate characters! i almost forgot! i really needed the reminder that these extremely different characters aren't actually the same person or re-skins. thanks for your service, you really showed the evil Mike-sympathizers today o7

but you know what, sure, i'll indulge this a bit, i like talking about the show after all, you don't have to read this ofc, i feel like we're both aware we won't find common ground here

saying that Mike isn't important to the plot is batshit crazy sorry not sorry. not even talking about s5, it's just plain wrong in general and i'm assuming you haven't seen the show in ages

even right from the beginning Mike is established as the first MC and then proceeds to be the main pov for the entirety of s1. in universe Mike is the parties dm unofficial leader and according to Will "heart of the party", out of universe Mike is the only character that has established relationships and evolving conflicts with every single party member and even most adults like Hopper and Joyce. i don't know how you're watching the show to take away that Mike is unimportant and a support character

ST is an ensemble show and Mike is one of the characters, alongside El, Joyce and Will that consistently fills an MC role. (while also being one of the only ones to outright get referred to as one of the mains by actors and writers) where you got the idea from that Mike is a useless character people are stupid to care about is beyond me

if you're genuinely going into s5 hoping for Mike to be as unimportant and off-your-screen as possible i feel like you're setting yourself up for the disappointment of the century. i feel stupid just listing the reasons for why Mike is clearly going to be an important player in s5 because of how obvious they are but oh well

Mike is the first protagonist ever introduced and the final season that wants to go "full circle" Has to finish his arc satisfyingly for it to work

Mike is Will's love interest, a character that's already confirmed to be more of a main on screen again, so focusing on both parties of the ship is necessary to get them together

also Mike is still in a relationship? if he's supposed to go from dating El to suddenly dating a guy that's also his childhood bff you need to elaborate on his feelings. otherwise Will's romance is also going to fall flat and i'm sure you don't want that anon

Mike is part of the people that only came back to town after everything in s4 went down already and part of the group that seems to be the main focus in s5 (see the hill shot)

also just regarding the hill shot, Mike is center stage here (and also between his two "love interests"), totally accidental i'm sure

also the only character Will told about Vecna being alive in s4 and already swore to kill him with Will, also totally not a s5 set up don't worry

and before i go on here, aside from the writers themselves mentioning Mike as a main in multiple interviews David talked about the s5 mains a few days ago and Obviously Mike is up there along with El, Will and Joyce, exactly the people you'd expect

i don't understand how people are trying so hard to claim that there's nothing interesting about Mike to get into, as if even just s4 itself doesn't go out of it's way to set up an excess of potential conflict for s5

obvious relationship drama with El left hanging after an "i love you" monologue which we didn't see a response to yet

feelings for his best friend while he's still dating his gf

the unresolved painting lie

also the sexuality issue that comes with being queer/gay, that's been going back to s1. also made more severe by the show going out of it's way to repeatedly hammer home that the Wheelers are conservative and don't have close relationships with their kids

"you're the heart", speech about leading the party and bringing everyone together. he can't just face into the bg after Will gave him that talk, there needs to be payoff

the whole hellfire thing that's set up with the members names and faces being broadcast as "satanists" and the potential reason for everything that's been going on ON TV, sure that won't have any consequences am i right?

the Vecna plot itself, s4 makes it a point to have Will tell Mike and only Mike about Vecna being alive and the two of them agree to kill him right before the season ends

and that's just the obvious set ups s4 leaves us with, not even touching on the fact that Mike's pov has been withheld for essentially 2 seasons. which is something you can do and ignore, but only if the characters don't have anything going on during that time. Mike meanwhile changes drastically in these two seasons and we never get to learn what actually happened, why he's suddenly so set on growing up and getting gfs in s3, why he's suddenly such an uninterested bf in s4, why he suddenly feels weird about kissing El in the s3 finale after already having made out with her. there's a lot happening and we only see the fall out of it, we don't get Mike's pov. you call it "bad writing" but that's a picture book writing 101 set up, if you don't see that i don't know what to tell you

but i feel like you said everything already, i'm just rambling because i like talking. we probably won't find any common ground here. you only tolerate Mike because you like Will and that's that. not everyone has to care about every aspect of a show, however, i don't get why you're going to other blogs to tell them about your personal preference and about how you don't like one of the MCs. this is an ensemble show, it's not the El-show, and it's not the Will-show either, both of these takes are equally wrong

i don't know what the ideal s5 would look like to you, but if it turned out Will was the only important thing and the only character we focused on it would be absolute ass and horrible writing

Lucas just lost Max and left him with a shit ton of trauma, also Erica's gone through so much too. Max is still lost in a coma. El is distraught over not being able to save Max and now not find her anymore. Dustin just lost Eddie right in front of him too. there's a military presence in Hawkins now, the hellfire club fallout still hasn't happened, and so on and on. (also things like the "Nancy love triangle" still need time to be resolved too)

there's a lot s5 has to focus on to be a good wrap up for all these arcs. and yes, handling Mike's arc well is also part of that, shockingly

also ending this with a: you know people are allowed to like and care about character even if you don't give a shit about that character, right? claiming a central character with a ton of conflict set up isn't interesting is well withing your right and i won't change your mind on that, i'm aware, but going after people for actually caring about the conflicts the show is setting up isn't the move either. not everyone is obligated to share your views, especially when they're this far out there. and i feel like you knew that going in here

#help what a take #no hard feelings anonie we clearly knew there wouldn't be a consensus from the start here lmao #but oh well i'm still kind of surprised to see these takes ngl #ask tag

[lurkingshan]

Hello.

Question for you. Do you prefer ql shows in the bubble or outside the bubble? And either way, what is the best thing about both those types of stories?

Rose💜

Hey Rose, interesting question! I think I don't actually have a preference in whether a show is in the bubble or not, but I care very much that shows are consistent on this, whichever they choose.

There's something to be said for queer stories that take place in the bubble, giving gay pairings all the same silly romance tropes that we've seen in het romances forever. It's nice sometimes to just enter a fantasy world with no homophobia where all the stakes come from other conflicts and no one cares that the two people who like each other are the same sex. It allows us to escape for awhile into a world closer to how we wish it could be.

That said, I also really like queer romances that do deal with homophobia, both external and internalized, for two reasons: 1) these stories tend to feel more grounded in reality; 2) we get to see the characters overcome homophobia to be together. That can be really cathartic, too, and can even feel more hopeful than stories set in a complete fantasy world.

What really drives me crazy, though, is when a show can't commit to whether it's in the bubble or not, and changes the stakes of the universe on a whim to serve the plot. We have had a couple recent examples of this. One was Sahara-sensei to Toki-kun, where Sahara's entire backstory was rooted in homophobia preventing his classmate from dating him, but somehow only a few years later no one cared that he wanted to date his male student. And then there was Jazz For Two, where we were decidedly not in the bubble for most of the show, and then suddenly at the end the homophobia all around and inside the characters just magically disappeared so they could deliver a bunch of fluff. If you're going to put homophobia in your story, you have to actually take that seriously and not just hand wave it away the moment it's no longer convenient to drive conflict.

So yeah, I am happy to watch shows in either lane, I just want the people who make them to buy into their own stakes so I can, too.

#shan answers #multi bl

[cloudmancy]

i just finished acofaf and i havent finished the last few adventuring partys yet but it kind of makes me feel crazy how no one has brought up wuvvy clearly being in love with rue. especially in rue & wuvvy's last conversation theres never any indication of rue acknowledging the depth of wuvvy's feelings for them or the sacrifices she's made to be with them and its kind of baffling to me cause rue must know how wuvvy feels about them right? she left her court for them! which is literally the same exact grand gesture hob makes for rue to prove his "love" for them. except wuvvy didnt need to be persuaded. and i was so surprised how in the adventuring parties nobody rlly talked much about wuvvy's love for rue, like emily mentioned it a few times but it felt to me like this elephant in the room that no one was talking about. it's funny cause most/all of the pcs this season were queer but wuvvy comes across kind of like a "scorned lesbian" character where the lack of acknowledgement of her grievances belittles them so as to communicate that they are not legitimate and her feelings are petty and immature. which is obviously a trope intended to preserve a heteronormative and misogynistic status quo. sorry if this is kind of rambly and/or incoherent (i have the flu) i just like your posts and fanart of wuvvy and i wanted to share my thoughts!

OHHHH BOY... you're in for a treat because they do talk about wuvvy in acofaf APs 9-10. it's bittersweet because it's very much an acknowledgement of 'yeah she had feelings for rue and it's a bit fucked up what happened to her'. I cannot blame oscar for wanting to go for a PC/PC romance with brennan's character rather than the NPC but you're right... it really does bother me the way the fandom treated her as a bitch, making really aggressively violent posts when she burned hob's letter, oscar not really even acknowledging in or out of character how much rue meant to her... some of it has to be attributed to how short the adventuring parties are and how much of it was spent talking about ruehob (I have my own opinions about how baffling it was that ruehob was meta'd and built up so much entirely OUTSIDE of the campaign, the main content of the show? but that's a post for another time)

I don't think aabria, brennan, oscar, or anybody else actually meant to contribute to a lesbophobic trope or stereotype; aabria was playing a thoroughly cool character and the circumstances surrounding her just happened to end up this way. it's a game of dnd in the end where a pc/pc romance is more interesting roleplay wise and that is how the cards fell in terms of npc romance. it would not kill people to acknowledge wuvvy and how badly rue hurt her though 😞 I have a huge problem with the 'ruehob together forever, happy ending' part of acofaf & its fandom because of how little the fandom seems to remember or care about her... I do think that is a pattern of misogyny especially when you have many many fans who violently hate wuvvy for getting in the way of their (already canon) ship

I will never stop talking about wuvvy though. [slaps her horns] this satyr can contain so much devotion and angst in her

#asks #lesbianmarrow #wuvvy #acofaf #thanks for the ask! equally rambly reply back

[buddiebeginz]

you know, the way people are acting like Tommy is the second coming of gay Jesus is actually making me hate him as a character. (Which isn't fair but it's how I'm feeling.) They're acting like he's this well established character when he's had what six episodes across the run of the show. For me it just shows, despite what they've said for years, it was never about telling a good love story. It was never about getting to see a slow burn done with two queer characters where they and the relationship was treated with the same care as the hetero slow burns. It very much feels like it's exactly what M/M shippers have been accused of for years, just wanting to watch two guys kiss.

I don't personally hate Tommy but I have issues with him both from how he was in previous seasons and some stuff he's done since he's been back. The show has this problem where it thinks that if a character has been gone for a bit and they come back and everyone is cool with them then it's fine. They did it with Taylor and also kind of did it with Buck and Chim's parents to some extent. They never really hold characters accountable for their actions. Like with Taylor we should have gotten some kind of scene when she and Buck were together where she says to him or to Bobby hey I'm sorry I was so focused on getting the story that I didn't care about saving your life. But we never had that.

Similarly with Tommy I think we should have gotten a scene with him and Chim and Hen where he said look I was struggling back then I'm sorry I was a dick. And I know they basically made it seem like he made friends with them all before he left the 118 but it would just be nice if 911 would have their characters acknowledge mistreatment more.

I honestly feel like the show and fandom try and hold Buck and Eddie to higher standards than they do to everyone else. Like I can't tell you the amount of posts I saw after Chim punched Buck where people were defending Chim yet we never a scene with Chim apologizing. Also I've seen tons of posts about how wrong Buck was on the basketball court or how wrong Eddie was in the grocery store but they never go as hard at other characters when they mess up. And back to Tommy I've only seen a handful of people even call out what he did on the date. Making that joke about closets when he knew Buck was on his first date with a guy and not out and just really panicking in that moment. I just found it really crass of him on top of him just kind of ditching Buck like he should have at least made sure he got home alright.

I'm happy that we finally got Buck's bi awakening storyline and I'm okay with that being with T*mmy even if I'm not crazy about him. My biggest issue is with B/T shippers and how insufferable some of them have been. Talking about how Buddie doesn't matter and how B/T should be endgame when they've barely known one another makes me want to scream. And it's mostly coming from former Buddie shippers.

And you're right some of these people are really proving the whole fetishizing queer couples argument correct (and I'm not saying this about everyone who likes B/T) but I think for some they just like that it's two hot guys making out and it doesn't really matter who it is. Which I hate to even say that because any time I've liked any queer couple I've had people say that stuff to me when it's always been because I've been invested in the storyline. But there isn't even any storyline yet to be invested in with B/T they kissed once and went on 1 1/2 dates and some people are talking about them getting married at some point >_<

Sorry for the long rant anon. Thanks for the message btw. ❤️Message anytime.

#ask #anon #911!

[docwormie]

Little rant about the Etoiles Noires and gender ahead (i need to get the starmania brainrot out of my system and can not stop analyzing everything i watch through a queer lens)

i can't quite articulate how much i love the 2022 version of Starmania but one of my fav bits is at the end of travesti, after sadia's just sung about being hot and fucking crazy and Not Cis™, and after killing like 3 different people in the span of one song, all of the étoiles noires (which are mostly men here) gather around the car and sing with her !!! like. they know, they don't care, and they think it slays.

the fact that those murders happens during travesti makes the queer narrative more obvious because, of course, it's all about transgression. the étoiles noires are those left behind by society, those who don't "fit in" an expected norm, so they embrace what makes them different and they find community in violence. sadia (who is literally the allegory of that violence) embodies that !! the whole group singing the word "travesti" while in the middle of organized crime to overthrow the system is a political statement (and it would have been even more radical back in 1979, though idk how the song was staged). the things that makes them outcasts and their anger feeling left out are their fuel to act.

of course their respective reasons to join the zonards/étoiles noires must be different but queerness (and more generally, non-conformity to social norms) is definitely a part of it. the fact that sadia is not the one singing "des gars qui se maquillent" in 2022 confirms it, and although the étoiles noires have this "manly" behavior (which the women share anyways), they also somewhat subvert the norm, wearing make up and nail polish, showing emotions... btw i think it's good that the 2022 show goes back to a sensitive, vulnerable, somewhat feminine portrayal of johnny (which Balavoine definitely had and that was kind of lost in the 1988/1993 versions). i also really love how there seems to be a real spirit of camaraderie/friendship between them all ?? like there are displays of affection, (cf. johnny with the guy that helps him put the white coat on + the person sitting on the car next to him). they're literally commiting heinous murders but all you can see is how much fun they're having !!

then there's also the "besoin d'amour" bit which is really great because just like in travesti (the parallel in the choreography is very obvious !), they have cristal, aka stereotypical barbie, singing this girly, very much france gall-esque, pop song on the top of the car, about how joyous and fun it is to be in love, and the whole gang is dancing around her like a chorus to highlight how universal the message is. and then cristal's transformation after joining the étoiles noires !! it's clear to me that what the media depict as a "kidnapping" is actually a sort of liberation for her: she's allowed to leave behind her perfect image (= the golden cage stella never escapes) and maybe even a part of performative femininity as shown through her outfits. (i have a short post about that coming soon!) to become this more "messy", darker version of herself that doesn't need to be pure as crystal (lol) all the time.

overall the way the étoiles noires are portrayed is really cool because it subverts the classic representation of that scary gang with cold, judgmental, unfeeling vibes, and instead makes them a supportive group that faces together a cold, judgmental, unfeeling society ! (however !!! the different periods (1979/2022/whatever year starmania takes place in) overlapping in starmania do create a dissonance in how queerness is portrayed, and of course queercoding villains is a little problematic, but that's a post for another day!)

so yeah this violent group (of outcasts) terrorizing the population being made of gnc characters that aren't afraid to show feelings means a lot to me that's it 🫶🫶🫶

#sorry this was chaotic #the ideas this gave me !! #i know sadia being an “outcast” is debatable #but i'll tackle it in my next post #still shadowbanned though ! #thomas jolly #lgbtq #sadia #johnny rockfort #starmania 1979 #queer analysis #queer representation #gender noncomformity #côme #gabrielle lapointe #lilya adad #manet miriam baghdassarian #ambriel #william cloutier #starmania 2022 #starmania

[celluloidbroomcloset]

Hi girl, no need to respond to this or feel free to respond privately if you want but just wanted to reach out since I think my response was one of the ones that upset you and I definitely did not mean it how you took it, I think; but like- I think there's obviously a huge range of how people think about Calico Jack's and Ed's relationship in the fandom, like there always will be with something that is largely based on about 30 seconds of dialogue in a TV show, and that's okay! I have no issues with people having a range of interpretations, including that Jack was lying about everything! I think things mostly went off the rails because you seemed like you were taking posts in support of the interpretation that he's not lying as like- people being very attached to Calico Jack as a character/finding him a wonderful, trustworthy person and being upset about that? There are some people that enjoy Calico Jack, sure, and that's fine and it's also absolutely not the majority of people you're engaging with. I could not care less about him as a character; what I was largely trying to say is that while I don't find Calico Jack important, in the anti-queer media hellscape that we are living in, I found that moment important- an absolutely explicit confirmation that one of the two main leads in the show is someone who has had same-sex relationships/experiences in the past. I agree with you that there are a ton of moments showing that Ed is romantically/sexually interested in Stede up to that point and that the show was mapping their relationship onto romcom beats, but those moments with Jack, at least for me, were the absolute point of no return for the show to be possibly going in the direction of the romantic platonic soulmates/bromance direction, which I know you know has been crazy common in media for years and years.

Things are slowly getting better, but honestly I feel like 5 to 10 years ago, S1 of this show could exist largely unchanged but without that moment with Jack, without the beach kiss but with Ed still asking to run away to China, and a slightly different conversation with Mary, and it would have been marketed as a bromance with the showrunners constantly calling Ed and Stede 'best friends and soulmates whose bond is deeper and more important than a romantic relationship/sex' and other vaguely queerplatonic coded language to make it as palatable for a straight audience as possible while still essentially being a gay romance, just with no explicit acknowledgment of sex. There have been so many pieces of media like that, so it was refreshing to see they absolutely weren't doing that with this show. Like in the full context of the show, I absolutely agree that Calico Jack actually having slept with Ed isn't an important data point in the definition of Ed's sexuality- it could be officially retconned tomorrow and it would change basically nothing about my interpretation of the show, but in the episode airing order, I think it did provide new and important information (less important to the characters and more important to the viewers), which is why I think a lot of people do go with the interpretation that he's telling the truth and take the statement at face value, which is really all that I was trying to to say. But again, I think it's totally valid to go with an interpretation that he's lying!

Yes, I think a lot of wires have gotten crossed and I've definitely seen things I've said or posts I've made getting taken out of context or interpreted in a way I did not intend (a good bit of which is on me for not choosing my words more carefully). I've also now had people asking me if I'm OK with Ed contemplating suicide, which I find upsetting. I've begun to feel that some people think my criticizing Ed's behavior in that episode as me blaming the victim, but I may be projecting.

I was mostly approaching this from an in-world perspective, not really from the significance of that scene in terms of queer representation. Yes, I absolutely agree with you about how Season 1 might have been made five or ten years ago vs when it was made and it is important to both have clear confirmation that Ed was having sex with men and in terms of what we see after that episode. I don't think a different interpretation of Jack's statement would negate that, though I appreciate that some folks do. I admit that when I first watched the show, that moment just didn't strike me as important beyond the effect it has on Stede and Ed's relationship. I was also in a different place, personally, when I first watched the show.

My observation, and I might be totally off-base here, is that there's a tendency in this fandom to somewhat minimize the harm that Jack causes, not just to Stede and Ed's relationship, but to Stede and Ed as individuals and to the harm that Ed causes Stede in this episode. There seems to be a tendency among some fans to excuse him or to treat him as "just a frat-boy" and his games not as bullying or harmful. I am not saying that is the driving force of all these different conversations or anything, nor am I accusing anyone I've spoken with of apologism. I just think there's some minimizing going on. Again, might be completely wrong and misunderstanding here, so if anyone wants to correct me, I'm happy to talk about it. I admit I have a pretty strong reaction to Jack in part because I recognize that kind of behavior pretty well and what he's doing to Stede (and how he gets Ed especially to participate in it) bugs the hell out of me.

#reply #ofmd #edward teach #stede bonnet #ofmd meta

[sunflowerdigs]

So, I can't in good faith complain about the Succession trailers being 90% made up of cut scenes because, if I'm honest, the only reason I'm really upset about that is because of the cut Mencken scenes, which I was really looking forward to (and Tabitha!).

However, I feel like I need to say something about the Tomgreg stuff because it's been bothering me.

As a disclaimer, I hate Tomgreg. Truly. I blocked the tag earlier this year. Imo, it's an example of people taking a relationship based primarily in toxic masculinity and kind of transposing queerness into it as a reaction to the lack of actual queerness on the show. And I hate that tendency a lot. However, I'm also not the arbiter of which dynamics and characters people read as queer. And, clearly, a ton of people disagree with me. And for that reason, the reluctance to call out the marketing team for basically by definition queerbaiting with Tomgreg because they're technically not connected to the writing of the series is...Not Good to me. Because it kinda gives networks carte blanche to do that in the future with actual queer storylines and excuse it by saying that the marketing team wasn't aware of what the writing team were doing, they just wanted to sell a product. I can see a world where queer storylines become more and more cynically used for marketing purposes only, and aren't put into the text of shows or movies (or are added in sloppy, homophobic ways). And that's...not a great outcome.

It's tricky with Succession because it's just such a great show that you won't get very far criticizing anything about it. Black people have criticized its use of rap/hiphop music when there are zero black characters for years and those complaints have mostly fallen on deaf ears. Plus, tomgreg was never going to happen and there's also a really compelling reason for their dynamic drying up (it was 95% about power, not love or genuine caring, and in s4, they got that power).

However, as a closing thought, it's worth considering the huge difference between the way that Romangerri (which is in a similar spot) and Tomgreg were advertised for s4. They deliberately backed off Romangerri - they cooled the advertising for them right down to almost nothing prior to s4. Kieran and JSC haven't done a single interview together, I don't think. And there were almost no shots of them together on the red carpet. And I think they did that because the marketing team knew that falsely advertising a straight couple that straight people were excited about would get them in trouble (with critics who liked that couple, at the very least). However, at the same time, they ramped up the marketing for Tomgreg so hard that I was genuinely worried it might actually happen (Jesse is crazy, you know?). And I think they did that because, at the end of the day, queer feelings aren't particularly real for them. Queer couples and characters exist primarily to add color to the fictional worlds that straight people inhabit. And until that changes...more of this crap is bound to happen. It's a concern when straight people might be disappointed; queer people cannot be disappointed because our existence in fiction is mostly a joke anyway.

I guess my point in writing this is just to say that, although I loathe Tomgreg, I understand the desire for actual queer characters on a show as rare as Succession. I get how powerful that desire can become. And while I'm personally glad that their relationship isn't what shippers may have wanted, I understand also how the marketing for the show exacerbated those wants, and I'm sympathetic.

#tomgreg #succession #my thoughts

[daydadahlias]

i want to hear the glee thoughts and feelings

ok ur so gonna regret u asked this

So, I watched glee way back when in middle school (before I knew what a lot of the words they said meant <3 I remember watching the first time episode and having no fucking idea what was going on <3) and I really loved it!! who doesn't love a jam yknow?? and, obviously, i attached myself to Blaine very quickly because his voice is just my favorite and he puts out nothing but bangers. this last week, I've gone back and rewatched seasons 2 and 3 (because that was peak Blaine Anderson) and - because I'm the world's most needlessly passionate person - I'm getting a little fucking worked up about it !!

It will never fail to bewilder me how much of a literal SHIT HEAD Kurt Hummel was. Like, I know that we as audience members are supposed to align ourselves with him because he's an OG character and he's a queer kid just trying to be himself or whatever, but frankly it doesn't pay that much to "just be yourself" when yourself SUCKS! kurt fucking SUCKS dude. He is so whiney and so selfish and blatantly rude. and he is a shitty ass boyfriend to Blaine!

this is also rooted in my absolute maniacal frustration that Blaine never gets to be a character of his own. His character is always (throughout the entirety of the show) written within the context of Kurt and Klaine. It's very much Ken and Barbie-esque with the whole "Ken only has a good day when Barbie looks at him." Like we never get to know anything about Blaine's personal life except for ?? a throwaway line that his dad (who we never meet) is homophobic? and also that he was gay bashed when he was 15. And, just to bitch about that, it will never not piss me off to insane lengths that Kurt wanted to go to prom so he made Blaine go with him even though Blaine was blatantly triggered by it. The literal dialogue exchange in the episode (S2E20) is Blaine detailing this very traumatic experience and saying "this is just a bit of a sore spot for me" and Kurt replies "this is perfect." LIKE WHAT?? WHATTTT?? what do you mean it's PERFECT?? your boyfriend is clearly uncomfortable and triggered by this!! do not make this man go to prom with you!! And then, in that same episode, Kurt very blatantly outs Blaine's secret trauma to his family without any fucking care whatsoever for what Blaine actually went through (which is crazy considering Kurt was bullied too and should have some goddamn sympathy for the situation??). and look at my boy!! he's CLEARLY UNCOMFORTABLE!! does Kurt give a fuck?? no he does not! and he literally never apologizes for this!!

gif credit (love this set and creator btw)

This is after they're dating and there are MANY more instances when they're dating that Kurt blatantly bulldozed over Blaine's boundaries with reckless fucking abandon. And any single time they ever get into an argument, Blaine has to be the one to apologize to KURT? like even when Kurt is the one who cheats on him in Season 3?? Blaine has to apologize to him for being insecure?? Or in Season 5 when Blaine is experiencing a lot of insecurity (which was also a crazy arc considering how attractive his actor, Darren, is?? and I always loathe when shows add unnecessary fatphobia plotlines for literal skinny characters but that's a different tangent) and he told Kurt and Kurt's response was quite literally "I'm not going to apologize for being better than you." Like that's a fucking insane thing to say to your boyfriend who is standing in your kitchen crying, saying he's scared you're "going to wake up one day and realize [you] don't love him anymore" (S5E16). AND THEN?? IN AN EVEN MORE INSANE TURN OF EVENTS?? literally a handful of episodes later that's EXACTLY what happens!! Just out of the blue, Kurt decides he doesn't love Blaine anymore and breaks up with him?? Which was an absurd plotline?? (as most plotlines from season 4 and on are).

I'm also just going to add that Ryan Murphy does not know Blaine Anderson like I do, clearly, because there is nothing at all in his character that insinuates he'd be a cheater especially considering his ENTIRE PERSONALITY REVOLVES AROUND KURT. which is some fucking lazy ass writing, I'm just gonna say.

Also, further defending Blaine and calling Kurt out for being a SHITHEAD! there's that whole episode "Blame it on the Alchohol" where Blaine and Kurt go over to Rachel's house for a party and Blaine gets literally blackout drunk and kisses Rachel during a spin the bottle game. Immediately, the fact that Kurt gets so upset over them kissing says a lot about how self-involved and psychotically jealous he is (considering he and Blaine were NOT together at this point and Blaine had literally actively said he did not want to be in a relationship with Kurt).

And then this will also always bother me?? Blaine was blackout?? So Kurt drove him home?? and let Blaine sleep in his bed??? with him??? which, based on the way Kurt was acting and how possessive he always was over Blaine, this was Weird. Like if you can drive your drunk friend somewhere, why aren't you driving them back to their OWN home?? especially when Blaine wakes up in the episode (looking very cute, I will say) and his immediate reaction is "Where am I?" Like that's fucked up???? And then, later, in the same episode, Blaine says he thinks he might be bi and Kurt goes off his fucking ROCKER. and is so blatantly biphobic !! and it's gross !! and the only reason he is is because he wants Blaine to himself even though Blaine literally said he wasn't interested!!!

including gifs of drunk!blaine bc he's cute <3

And to talk down to your supposed best friend?? And act like you know him better than he knows himself?? yeah it was fucked up and biphobia is never cute. and, also, all Kurt ever did was pretty much blatantly pressure Blaine into dating him?? Like he was constantly all over him and then, the second they got together, the writers were like "ok and now blaine's only personality trait is loving Kurt." Which never made any sense to me considering that Kurt is constantly talking down to him? He constantly (multiple times in multiple episodes) complains about how talented Blaine is. Which is just not something you fucking do to someone you supposedly love and respect??

Before they were even dating, Kurt complained to Blaine that he "always has solos" and "right now, it feels like we're Blaine and the pips" and also a very underhanded comment about how "I know we're all supposed to be do-whopping behind Blaine while he sings every Katy Perry song" (S2E16). All of these things are just blatantly belittling? Also, tea time, but Kurt's ass was not fucking talented enough to be making bold ass claims about how he should be singing lead vocals.

Once they're dating, Blaine and Kurt both try out for the musical. When Kurt finds out that Blaine is trying for the lead, he immediately becomes standoffish and Blaine clearly panics, making a comment about how seniors should get the leads, not juniors. And Kurt goes "yeah that's usually how it works!" So then Blaine completely fucking forfeits the part! He auditions for a side role so that Kurt can get it and Kurt won't see him as a "threat" but then, because Blaine is so fucking good (and better than Kurt cough cough), he gets cast and Kurt is fucking pissed about it !!! (S3E02).

Once they are dating, Kurt literally cheats on Blaine, then claims that it's "okay" because it's "just texting" and, when Blaine says he's hurt, Kurt calls him crazy?? (S3E17) He never once apologizes to Blaine for what he did, only saying "I'm sorry if this upsets you but it's okay" which is not a fucking apology!! And Blaine ends up being the one apologizing to Kurt at the end of the episode, saying that he's insecure!! But Kurt does about fuck all to actually care for him!! And, during that scene, he says "Do you know how many times I've had to sit on a stool and watch you perform?" Like how fucking shitty is that to say to someone you love? Literally All Kurt does the entire series is make Blaine feel bad about how good he is??

there's a lot of other moments where Kurt is really just blatantly fucking mean to Blaine but I'm going to stop there because this is getting <3 really long <3 and I'm going to take a deep breath.

ANYWAY CONTINUING ON!

Blaine literally transferred schools to be with Kurt because Kurt pressured him into it?? Like there were literally scenes where Kurt was like "you should change schools" and Blaine went "aww no I don't wanna :(" and then Kurt continued to pressure him into it?? it's not something he ever should have even proposed in the first place?? But then when Blaine actually did transfer - and made it blatantly clear to Kurt that he did it for him - all of a sudden Kurt was like "aw noo u shouldn't have done this for lil ol mee!" (S3E01). Which was some BULLSHIT! but i am gonna include a gif of new kid blaine because look at this fucking cutie !!!

gif credit (i luv u klainegifs)

ok so, after Kurt pressures Blaine into going to his school and all of Kurt's friends are blatantly fucking mEAN to Blaine (despite him being the most talented member of the club cough cough), there's the scene where they all go to prom. Now this one.... oh this one makes me mad. And this makes me mad because it's just clearly rooted in the outright racism of Glee. And here's the reasons I'm mad:

Darren Criss (Blaine's actor) is Asian-American but Glee pretends like Blaine Anderson is a white character.

A fun fact for you about Glee is that Darren Criss auditioned for Glee's first season with his natural hair (big, fluffy, curly, beautiful) and he did not get a part. However, he auditioned again for the second season with his hair short and gelled back and he did get the part. Notice anything fucking weird about that???? he was just as fucking talented with the curly hair !!

Glee gels Blaine's hair so fucking much in later seasons that he literally develops helmet head. Look at the difference between season 2 and season 6:

LOOK AT HIS FLAT ASS HEAD !! ITS LIKE THEY PAINTED HIS FUCKING HAIR ON !!! RELEASE HIS CURLS RIGHT THIS INSTANCE!!!!!!!!!!

4. There was one episode (a different prom episode in season 3) where they did release the curls. and they pretended like my boy was UGLY!?! LOOK AT HIM

he's literally precious. But also, the producers of Glee went out of their way to try and make his curls look bad?? like they purposefully tried to give him bad hair?? and make fun of his natural curls?? and this was kurt's actual fucking reaction to seeing his boyfriend's natural hair for the first time:

he says "oh my dear god" in horror. like kurt literally go fuck yourself. Everyone is so fucking mean to Blaine when he ungels his hair!! and it's because they're RACIST!!!! name one curly-haired character in Glee. I'll wait.

I never liked Kurt but him reacting so cruelly to blaine's natural hair (and then Blaine never ungelling his hair again) is one of my biggest problems with him.

in conclusion, I will never fucking forgive the way that Glee treated Blaine. My beautiful baby boy and his bowties deserved better.

the end.

#pigeon #anon #you shouldnt have asked bro #anyway <3 that's my jessay of the day <3 #it's 12:30 i should sleep #goodnight! #also blaine was and will always be the best singer the show ever had #so it was a fucking waste to not give him his own plot lines outside of kurt !!! #ryan murphy give me ur show right now i need to fix this.

[mykatzone]

Answering asks #2

Let's goooo!!! With this I've answered all the asks in my inbox!!! Yippie!!!!!

@chouchinobake Hiya to you as well!! Omg thank you so much for the kind wordsss <333 I'm always happy when people say they like my artstyle bc I go through periods where I'm not sure if it even works, so it makes me mega happy to hear ppl like it!!!!

OOO to answer your question I, I do have some silly headcanons over how the Reapers act in office amongst eachother 👁️!!!

It's nothing to developed, but I'll just vomit them all out:

Listen listen... Grelle might be a girlboss but she's also a girlfailure. I don't think she can cook to save her life, BUT I DO THINK she'd want to make Will lunch. Like she thought it'd be cute, but then William suffered food poisoning and she was discouraged. I want to believe... That she managed to learn how to make like simple foods ala cookies. And occassionally brings them to the office. Let me have wholesome interractions...

People often micharacterize Grelle and think she doesn't know how to do her job, but she does!! She's a career driven woman (Yana's words). But she's also really silly and loves to goof around. I feel like her and Ronald are infamous around the office for goofing around. I can see them doing this and will making them work overtime after they crash into some table and scatter papers everywhere:

I love that in canon, Ronald calls Sebastian- Sebas-chan as a joke. It's clear Grelle told him everything about Sebastian, and I think that's really funny. Like Ronald just has an indepth knowledge about Grelle's love life/crushes. It's cute I love them.

I sadly don't have any cool funny headcanons for William, he's just in his plank of wood in a suit mode, doing his job like in canon. Same goes for Othello, since he works at a diff appartment. And Undertaker went rogue so I don't have much for him either :(

Hope you enjoyed these!! Sorry for the wait and thank you for your patience and kind words!!!

@eemoo1o

I haven't watched Centaurworld (yet) BUT I have listened to the songs which are all honestly bangers. If you don't mind some out-of-context spoilers, I made an animatic based on one of the songs with Umineko characters:

But yes I really love the songs and I should probs watch the show too... it just takes me forever to get to stuff XD.

As for other pony shows I like. UHHH- does Bojack Horseman count? He's a horse I know, but that's kinda like a pony... I love Bojack sm... One of my fave shows of all time. The reason I got Netflix actually!

But my dearest pony show is forever MLP!!! It shaped my childhood and I love it dearly. Twilight best pony.

Kinda! Not really. Maybe! I'm no professional voice actor and I barely know what I'm doing, but I do like to voice act here and there!

I actually have an Umineko Fandub I'm doing (on my own), where I voice act... all the characters...

You can watch it here!

@numbereightforever Never apologize for supporting my art!!!! Thank you so much that's really sweet of you <333!!!

@anyarlly I appriciate so much when y'all send me messages like these it makes me so happy that ppl look through my blog and observe the arts it makes me AAA it's like ppl looking into a lil gallery show I made. It's so cool!! Thank you for liking my Grelle arts <33

@anawkwardlady Y E S. Y E S. Finally someone thinks I'm good at selling this damn game. You don't understand how much I struggle to get anyone irl to care abt it, so this... this makes me feel powerful... AAA if you do Umineko consider liveblogging it 👁️ Umineko fans are crazy and love hearing ppl's thought process as they are solving the game >:)!!! But only if u want to! AAAA I'm so happy this made me so happy ty!!!

I consider this a huge win, THANK YOU anon!!! It's the biggest compliment for any queer person to hear their art made someone gayer.

I wanted to draw you something too, so I decided to finish this Sebastian doodle I started awhile ago. Mr yaoi hands still thinks he's in his prime shaking my smh.

#📬 askbox #cw suggestive

[hexitca]

Rant about Puritan fandom culture!

Well I typed it on twitter but then I had more to say so tumblr it is!

Under read more

WARNING: Long as fuck

Here's some pics

I know I basically said the author of Heartstopper "brought it on themselves" but yea they kinda did.

You can disagree with BL/Yaoi you can hate the shipping discourse or shipping in fandom in general but you cant frame it in a "i hate [that] bc it's sinful/fetishistic and I'M ABOVE THAT BC I'M WHOLESOME AND BETTER THAN THOSE DISGUSTING SHIPPERS"

bc that's gonna bite you in the ass...as it is doing now. The fucking image of their character's google history is so tame and normal, esp in LGBTQ+ spaces! Yet they are being called a pedo? Crazy. In the end, you only hurt yourself!

I never bothered with HS bc i just wasnt interested in it but thats just my preference. It's sad to see ppl, esp young ppl, turn on a series of LGBTQ+ representation just bc of the author's past (or current? idk) stance on the BL/Yaoi or MLM or whatever genre just bc their stance wavered a bit in a simple comic image. Something that is so fucking normal also! but they will grow up and realized how limiting it is to restrict themselves just to appear pure within a group.

Yet the artists/writers/creators are traumatized by the witchhunt. I know I said the author brought it on themselves for supporting anti but damn I don't want them being accused of being a pedo! Or ANYTHING! NO ONE DESERVES THAT. I dont know anything about the author other than surface knowledge but at the end of the day, all this online shit, doesnt matter. It doesnt! Me saying that is ironic bc im typing this post up right now!

but it's something we care about! I care about fandom spaces, I care that creators are getting attack for something as mild as this even if they invited these ppl into their circle. We're human and we change our views a million times a fucking day. I could agree with one thing and disagree with it another. That's why anti discourse pisses me the hell off! It's just a bunch of bullies looking to make themselves feel better by shaming others! I don't respect that type of behavior. And I hate that they just run around saying shit like "kys" over a two characters fucking?!? It amazes me beyond words.

Fandom has never been without its discourse. But the puritan bullshit is not even fandom discourse, it's just straight up bullying and harassment. It doesnt take much to tailor your fandom spaces to your preferences, i should know ive been in fandom spaces since I was fucking 13 years old. I didn't explore nsfw/porn/anything until I wanted to when I was 18. That is MY personal experience. I never put that on anyone else BUT MYSELF. If I saw nsfw and didnt want to see it I blocked the person. Not make a fucking witch hunt out of it. You are in charge of keeping YOURSELF in check not some person who shared nsfw art/fanfic. How fucking hard is it to turn the "don't show me nsfw" toggle on??? Bc it's not about that. Y'all just wanna be mad and be above someone so why not ppl minding their own business.

And guess what? There ARE ppl who are bad and support nsfw art/writing. They fucking suck. They are outliers and deserve to be called out when they get exposed. But many times, ppl always go "see i told you all the ppl in THAT fandom were pedos/freaks/etc" hmmm sounds like when conservatives go "see...that queer person turned out to be bad, SO all queer ppl are bad" DO YOU GET IT?? It never works out with that line of thinking. You are harming innocent ppl minding their own business. You are harming yourselves when you grow the fuck up and realize that "OH actually...I am curious about sex" and have ppl who you thought were your friends eat your face. PLS wake the fuck up.

If you're an anti:

I hope you recover from that

go fuck yourself

if you're offended by me saying "go fuck yourself", pls take that as a sign to log off the internet and go touch grass. As someone who has done that many of times, it's very refreshing.

#fandom #fandom culture #fandom discourse #purity culture #i might go touch some grass for the rest of the week/weekend holy shit #this is why i try not to be on twitter a lot bc tumblr im at least in my own spaces with minor breaches of stupidity #twitter it just throws it in on my tl and i get fucking triggered and angry #ill be taking a long break from twitter holy shit

[kennabeth]

here's my running list of things I'd like to see in the color of revenge:

roxane being like an actual actual witch. idk if cornelia is still using the word bufana but that's my #1. can sing so beautifully she makes the rocks cry? can make anything grow in her shitty soil? indescribably beautiful? her kids being really really good at everything?? (not to take away from jehan's dedication to his craft but there's no way there's not smth supernatural going on with him) I think I'd prefer dustfinger and the prince knowing (and dustfinger being like "....yeah jehan knows witches bc of roxane lol" leans into this imo) and getting to watch the kids have a crisis over whether they're human or something else, getting pissed at the adults for keeping it from them, but I will also take roxane having kept this a secret from everyone. I will likely cry blood if this doesn't come true at all but it's fine I'm normal and well-adjusted about roxane it's fine!

the bracelet stays. I'm on my knees begging

I think cornelia said she's got a queer in the book?? forming a prayer circle that's it's brianna but I'll take anyone (new or established) as long as they're written well. several queer characters would rock though would love that 4 me

fenoglio dies. badly.

farid and jehan having that adhd and autistic solidarity where they're best friends but also each other's worst nightmare

jehan dealing with a lot of (valid) frustration and jealously wrt farid and dustfinger. I'm almost definitely reading too far into it but the part where he's like "dustfinger promised he won't try to replace my birth father but he totally can bc I don't remember him lmao" is like. he's so glad to have a father again but farid's been out and about for so long that jehan hasn't really seen the extent to which dustfinger can be a father to a kid who isn't his biologically, and it was honestly very ugly watching jehan panic trying to take care of dustfinger during his mental breakdown but the second the prince says farid is fine, dustfinger calms down? like you have another son right there who needs you so badly, douchebag. anyway while this is not the fault of either kid I want jehan to be Pissed.

unwrite the part where it says roxane is pale because No She's Not 💗

DRAGON LORE¡¡¡¡¡¡ the laughing prince was said to have hunted dragons and I've been going crazy for 15 years over the way that was just said in passing?? I don't think living/awake dragons match the mood of this series but FUCK I could see nyame and the witch girl stumbling onto a graveyard or something and she'd get her stereotypical tiefling rant about how humans suck for killing beautiful creatures for their own gain and I would be cheering her on because I'm a whore for dragons

I sorta want dustfinger to have to give up his ability to speak to fire to bring everyone back. it's very fullmetal alchemist-stan of me but my f a v o r i t e type of sacrifice is the surrender of power

I'm already heads over heels in love with nyame but I want to be feral over him the entire time I want to be in his head I want to be in his past and his future and I want to see him brought to his knees and tempted with the power to bring about the change he so desperately craves and i want him to know in his heart and with metaphorical blood pouring from his eyes that replacing one reign of tyranny with another is not the solution he wants but hell does he want it and I want him to have the most beautiful conclusion any character has ever had and still get to make the world a better place on a large scale because he's the only one who consistently cares!! and hes so fucking tired.I love him so fucking much. nyame

would enjoy nettle showing up just to call dustfinger a bitch and leave. want that to be a running gag

loved the discussion about religion coming in and criminalizing reproductive healthcare. I feel like that was not the most appropriate time to have been having that conversation but I want it to stay and contribute to the theme of autonomy and agency that have always been at the heart of the inkworld.

#there are other little things id like but these are what i keep coming back to #ghost of a king by the gray havens is my top black prince song and can you tell i was listening to it while writing this #i hope you can tell nyame is like my favorite man ever written by the way i want him lowkey tortured. this is love #also i think it's very fun to be able to be like 'yeah my favorite fantasy men are canonically pro-choice 💅' bc how tf did that come up #please tell me things you want to see please please please #inkheart #the color of revenge #says kenna

[variousqueerthings]

Weird that they are placing so much emphasis on having bio kids as the ultimate form of happiness and legacy, when Mr. Miyagi is like, right there. Do the writers think of him as different/a tragedy because he would have had it if his wife and son didn’t die, or did they just forget?

I answered and I deleted and I answered and I deleted, because I agree so much with you and I don't want to ruin the enjoyment for anyone, so let's put this below the cut:

THE ANSWER/VARIOUS RAMBLES STUCK TOGETHER WITH TAPE THAT I ACKNOWLEDGE DID NOT STICK WITH YOUR ORIGINAL ASK APOLOGIES (we did start there though):

maybe miyagi was actually secretly evil the whole time........ 🤔🤔🤔(joke)

that family structure is suspect dude, sounds queer to adopt a kid who's being bullied, years after your wife and child died and then not even knock up his mom, what are you gay?

at the very least don't pretend it's a real family you've got there, you'll always be a tragic sad man, without your biological progeny, which is the only kind that matters, and only if done in the Correct way (single parents need not apply)

weird we had the "tanmee" line in s3, but this season just straight up forgot a lot of its own building blocks in favour of some weird aggressive and regressive heterosexual bullshit -- the more I think about it the more discomfort I feel, which isn't to make this deeper than it is, I don't think there was bad intent. I think there was a tragic lack of imagination and it coincides with some real-world Politics that the show doesn't care about and is tacitly conservative about, but I sign onto the show not to be reminded of that world

a lot of people have mentioned that the show bears very little resemblance thematically to the core of the original (two) movies -- it's always been conservative in its depiction of military and war and violence, and simplified an actually incredibly complex, and yet incredibly clear-cut messaging that positions Miyagi (and his ideals) on one side and Kreese (and his ideals) on the other, with very clear reasoning as to why one is right and one is not

the show has been antisemitic, it's been racist, it's had a lack of queer characters that is all the more obvious in a story about a group of outcast kids with found family themes (first produced in 2019), and it's been sexist/underwritten the value that women have in a story about legacy and toxic masculinity and gender roles

and in fandom there have been interesting bits of analysis and writing from very talented and clever people to acknowledge these unexamined prejudices and flaws. they have been challenged in art and in narrative, and there has been plenty of discussion about where we can suspend disbelief and what we (individually) won't take onboard in our own various tellings of the story

up until s5 I have been able to hold that tension, because I truly enjoyed the story and the underlying themes and characters and was baseline expecting those themes and motivations to still matter

but oof the way that this season became entirely divorced from any of the show's own grounding themes, hasn't only made the characters hollow to me, but it's also made me realise (and hey, maybe I should realised this sooner, more fool's me) that they really don't give a shit about Miyagi

which is crazy because the story's about him.

EDIT: and i do still feel deeply uncomfortable about the final fight, and generally how daniel “defeating” anything was done totally absent of miyagi’s ideals -- the only way to solve anything is violence now. beat the other guy into submission to beat your fear i guess. meaningless to what daniel’s journey was, but good to know he’s also manly enough now

and more importantly than anything in a story that's just about liking or disliking trajectories and reads... I am deeply uncomfortable with its politics now

I think how I felt about s4 was that it had some moments I didn't like, but the trajectory made sense to me. with s5 there are moments I do like, but it's empty. I don't know why anything in the last episode happened. I feel intense discomfort about the treatment of women and girls. And to be clear I don't think that there was an intentional drive to make the messaging... that about queerness versus dominating toxic heterosexuality, but honestly I'm living in a pretty shitty world these days with a lot of backsliding in equality and I don't think that I can happily shut off my brain and watch something that conservative anymore

it's not technically anything deep as such, it's not real life. I've really enjoyed the show, I've made some lovely friends through it, and read some of the best fic, and gotten to hype up some wonderful artists and I'll stay in fandom, but I think I might be done with the show itself

but hey, miyagi adopting this skinny little punk from new jersey and giving him some valuable life lessons only for this kid to adopt him right back, that I can rewatch a million times and like I said -- the story is all about that (and it most certainly isn't a tragedy)

#ck negativity #cobra kai #ck #i didn't touch on johnny in this because it would have gotten long #longer* #but i think i covered how i feel about That in the post about queering the villains through childlessness #spoilers #cks5 #cobra kai s5 #cobra kai season 5 #cobra kai spoilers #although i could say more about the queering of johnny lawrence followed by the backlash #and how that does a disservice to tkk johnny as well #rambleramble

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

I loved Good Omens, but how people see it as amazing queer representation is so frustrating. I see why people like the codinf and could see themself in the text, but the fact they treat it like the end all be all of representation and put it on the same level as explicit rep is frustrating. It's frustrating because Neil gets to have his cake and eat it, too. He got something half his audience will never realize is queer (i know this because half the people i watched it with didnt realize), but he gets the praise for being a queer icon and great representation or whatever. I'm fine if he didn't want to make it explicitly queer, especially because it's a big change that and he didn't want to change too much from the source material since his co-author passed. But he did make changes and added the queer subtext that was less present in the book. And in the show, there's this je ne sais quoi to it that is missing, something in the vibes that is just missing. Something a queer author would've been able to get. The closest I can get to describing it is like by the end, here's still a gap of unresolved feelings between the lines. Or like, touch isn't that big of a deal between them. I feel like if their were worse actors in it, or actors less on board with the queer subtext, the show would just be baiting. That's how thin the line is for me with Good Omens. Also, I hate to say it, but it was clearly not written with ace people in mind. Neil just heard ace people feeling represented and nodded along in agreement. If you seee the phrase "their love is above physical intimacy" it's not ace positivity, it's someone being sleeved out by gay sex. The angels are mentioned being sexless in the book, amd fans put more thought into the angels gender or lackthereof than the show does, except for the one non-binary actor that plays Poison and i think ine of the angels. The leads are essentially written as and meant to be seen as cis male by audience members, not nonbinary characters that pass as cis male. And I'm sorry, but Crowley in a dress was a man-in-dress joke, and Neil just nodded when people praised it. There is better ace rep out there, stories with better queer subtext, and better stories with better representation. Can people please stop praising protecting the straight man with a good show with mediocre rep from the mean queers. Why is there this narrative that we have to love all media remotely queer and see it as good rep inherently and that it will "divide the community" and "helping the enemy" if we don't?

ok so my memory of gomens is VERY hazy but i think the je ne sais quoi that you’re saying is missing is how the show essentially builds an entire story arc with crowley and and aziraphale’s relationship, with an inciting incident and a rising action and then… it skips the climax and goes straight to the resolution.

like, they build up this relationship in the show so much more than they do in the books. and because of the nature of “opposite sides of a war” thing, there’s a lot of tension that comes with that. they care about each other but their friendship is forbidden and they’re conflicted about it so they hide their feelings and they reject each other despite how they constantly hang out with each other and when one of them is in danger they go crazy. and a story arc like that needs a Big Conversation, an “all cards on the table emotional vulnerability hashing it out” kinda scene. it needs a confession, basically.

and the thing is that this confession doesn’t have to be explicitly romantic for it to work in the show. it can literally sum up to “you’re my best friend and i would do anything for you, i don’t care what the rest of the world says” and that would be a good climax for that story arc. but it needs to be a lot more dramatic than the few short scenes that we did get in the show where they actually talked about their feelings for each other.

anyway i’m with you for all the criticisms you have of this show and the fandom and also neil himself. good omens is a very good show that gets a lot of undue praise from queer fans who can’t separate their personal connection with the characters and the story from being able to actually identify groundbreaking queer representation. like you can just enjoy the show, not every story with queer rep has to be a Diversity Win

i feel like that narrative of “we have to love all queer media or else you’re dividing the community” comes primarily from fans who think gomens is groundbreaking and who take criticism of their favorite show way too personally. so like, when you say “good omens isn’t amazing queer representation” they think of that as a criticism—bc to them it is amazing queer representation—and not as just… a statement of fact. bc like, not every show needs to be incredible queer representation??? imo? so THEN they think you’re insulting the show and bc they love the show so much it feels like a personal attack on them. that part specifically is very common in general lol, people take criticisms of their favorite show VERY personally

#mine #not gay pirates #good omens #fandom crit #ask #anon