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can-i-see-your-passport-please · 5 months

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Okay so here's everything I know about TF2. Please no one elaborate on anything I know about, because I think it's so much funnier if I have no context to anything. I have absorbed all of this through Tumblr osmosis

Emesis Blue is an excellent film

Soldier apparently was never an actual soldier, he just loves America and really wanted to kill Nazis (the second one i respect greatly)

Medic would probably give you a lobotomy for fun (i don't think this guy's even a doctor)

Two really old guys are fighting bloody wars over gravel I think and their father is named Grey Mann which was most definitely meant to make Gman enjoyers lose it but to be fair his name could also be Gary Man.

What am I on

Heavy and Medic are apparently gay but idk if this is a fandom seeing two men next to each other and going "gay" thing or a "all but confirmed gay" thing but TVTropes referred to them as "Heterosexual Life Partners" which is very funny

emesis blue is so fucking good oh my godddddd the respawn machine is horrifying just from the concept it turned scout into soup

Scout is half French and loves his mother (who is not french) and does not love his father (spy i think)

Medic presumably died went to hell and told the devil "oh I'm like a cat I have nine souls actually. So I should get to go back to being alive" and it fucking worked??????

THE FUCKING SCENE IN?? IN EMESIS BLUE??? WHERE. WHERE SOLDIER TELLS MEDIC "YOU'RE GONNA MAKE IT OUT" AND MEDIC SAYS "i KNOW" BEFORE HE JUST FUCKING DIES AND HE'S THE PROTAGONIST SO YOU'D EXPECT HIM TO LIVE RIGHT??? AND THEN HE JUST DIES AND DOESN'T APPEAR AGAIN FOR SO SO LONG

Pyro is an any pronouns warrior and it commits great atrocities while also having so much sillyness in his heart. I love her

I think Engineer blowed up his arm. I think

Spy is a cunt and also French. I do not think this I know this. I look at him and I sense his cuntery. It radiates off him. I can feel it.

SOMETHING ABOUT THE LETTER M BEING BRANDED ONTO MEDIC'S FACE BEING A REFERENCE TO THE MOVIE SCOUT WAS WATCHING WHERE THE LETTER M IS USED TO MARK A MURDERER. HE'S LITERALLY MARKED AS A MURDERER BY PYRO. SOMETHING ABOUT THE SCENE WITH DEMOMAN AND DELL'S BAR BEING A REFERENCE TO A SCENE IN THE SHINING WHERE THE MAIN CHARACTER IS LITERALLY TALKING TO A GHOST. SOMETHING ABOUT SCOUT'S MOTHER'S HEAD BEING HELD AROUND A CORNER AND DROPPED PARALLELING PYRO'S HEAD BEING HELD AROUND A CORNER AND DROPPED. SOMETHING ABOUT SCOUT'S "IF THEY EVER HIT YOU WITH SOMETHING, YOU HIT BACK TWICE AS HARD" WITH MEDIC SHOOTING SPY TWICE IN THE HEAD AFTER BEING SHOT ONCE IN THE GAME OF RUSSIAN ROULETTE WHY IS EMESIS BLUE SO GOOD

TF2 is in an eternal war with Overwatch for some reason

I was doing a poll a few days ago and the tags psychic blasted me with the information of "by the way people pay like fifty dollars to see medic's tiddies in game." I have gotten varying answers between ninety dollars to three hundred fucking dollars but the constant remains that people will pay Valve comically high amounts of money to see Medic's boobs. What

Scout almost got Earth exploded because he died a virgin???? But then God was like "Okay go back down to earth I'm giving them one last chance to all have sex with you" I'm so confused what does any of this mean none of this makes any sense but it's hilarious

Scout might be legitimately named after Jerma and bears a frightening resemblance to him (though to be fair scout is every white boy in one)

You should watch Emesis Blue it's free on youtube

Demoman's eye is sentient even though he doesn't have it????

I can't decide who's my favorite the white boy the unethical scientist or the silly nonbiney war criminal

Conclusion: What the fuck is team fortress the second one about

#cassie rambles #please don't tell me what it's about it's so much funnier if i am confused forever #tf2 #emesis blue

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idoodlestuffsometimes · 3 months

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Story Post 14 (Part 3)

AU MASTER POST

BEGINNING | PREVIOUS | NEXT (tbd)

[Image ID under the cut]

[IMAGE ID: Two pages of a black and white comic. PAGE ONE PANEL ONE: On Dell as Gwen, from off panel, offers him the crow phone. "Well, your father wanted to call for good reason," she says. "Here, I'll put him on the phone!" PANEL TWO: "You should really talk to--" Eda stares down at the crow phone, horrified. PANEL THREE: "CLICK" The phone hangs up. A large panel of Gwen and Dell at their dining room table, stopped in the middle of Gwen giving and Dell taking the phone. "...him," Gwen finishes. PANEL FOUR: The same angle as before, but the the panel is mostly blank, empty except for Gwen and Dell. The two of them hold hands, their heads bowed in sadness.

PAGE TWO PANEL ONE: Whip! Eda hurls Lilith over her shoulder. PANEL TWO: Crack! Lilith slams against the ground. PANEL THREE: An overhead view of Eda standing over a defeated Lilith, crumpled on the ground. Instead of looking at Lilith, she glares up at the crow phone flying overhead in the foreground. "I told you to stop coming," she growls. PANEL FOUR: In the foreground, Eda's fist clenches around her lowered staff. Beyond it, Lilith stares up at her, hair in disarray, furious. PANEL FIVE: A distant view of the cliff-side path leading away from the Owl House. Eda stands near the house, glaring down at the ground while Lilith flies away on her palisman, glowering over her shoulder. Her scouts, groaning and decidedly worse for wear, trudge after her. PANEL SIX: Close on Eda's face, turned away, scowling. The panel is very wide, but the rest of it is empty. /End ID]

#The Owl House #TOH #doodle art #eda clawthorne #lilith clawthorne #gwendolyn clawthorne #dell clawthorne #Brother's Keeper AU #presenting to you another installment of Clawthorne angst #today in: Eda should maybe not drive her family away quite so much...literally in lilith's case #finally! the final pages for this part

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goblin-enjoyer · 5 months

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Normalize the tf2 mercs as being absolute genetic freaks of nature under the hood. Medic is crazy and we know he gets paid good so he’s probably got lots of bits in his bin if you know what I mean.

Pyro is straight up nonhuman. Pyro is a fire elemental that the Mann brothers have bound to a hazmat suit and medic made a real boy by giving them meat. Not making her a human body mind you, but rather every time he gets damaged, instead of bursting into flames meat forms around the wound and it bleeds instead of letting the inner crea tur out.how? Wizard. Moving on.

Soldier has massive lungs that make him 20% more louder. If he was smarter he could probably echolocate his way around. That or sound attacks idk he eats wizard pills he could have hollow bones for all I know. Sure he has hallow bones now for rocket jumping. Im the one typing I get to make nonsense on the fly.

Medic put pigeon dna in scout and that’s how he makes his trademark milk-like substance. How this happens you may ask? Scout saw medics doves have sex while getting his second Uber heart surgery and said “man I wish I could pick up chicks that well” and medic said “good idea I will help you with this” and then looked at the camera and smirked. The administrator does not spectate medics lab/operation room/dove breeding center anymore. Also scouts immune to radiation due to all the bonk he ingests, though sometimes he does become radioactive sometimes.

We already know that demoman’s body creates alcohol and that he has a ghost eye, but did you know that if you shoot him with some sort of piercing explosive round he will combust into flames. I… I couldn’t really think of anything for demoman I don’t play him as much.

Engineer always wishes he could have kids, but doesn’t want to have sex. That and he removed most of his reproductive/unnecessary/extra/mid organs with machine parts like 30 years ago. So after the events of the games and comics where everyone is happy and junk, he teams up with medic to make himself some half robot half human half whatever dell conagher is at that point at time children. He asks if medic ever want kids he can do the same for him but he declines as at this point in time he has perfected the art of male impregnation.(on various ape parts) dell is a great father and yes I added this part because the whole humanized sentry thing that went around a while ago touched my heart because despite the words of almost every engineer main everywhere I get so attached to the sentries I build that I die a little bit inside every time I die and my buildings get sapped and I have to just watch as my babies get destroyed. I get too attached to my buildings to play engineer

Heavy doesn’t stop growing, similar to that of a reptile. His skin is as thick as a rhinos. He hibernates for a month in summer because I said so. He has accidentally killed/crushed medic before and is now eternally cautious when in bed with him. Medic doesn’t mind, he knows what he’s gotten himself into. Heavy can also talk to birds like a Disney princess. Medic didn’t add any bird parts for this to happen he just was always like this.

Sniper can dislocate every bone in his body and go through cracks that are at least the size of his head. He will use this to show up in the most unexpected places imaginable. Is legally classified as an tardigrade in some places due to his ability to be fine in almost any place (volcano,Arctic,sewer system, a walk in closet so large it took him 5 weeks to get out, space that one time). Can go up to a year without eating (the team found this out at the same time they figured out the space thing). Swallows things whole.

Spy can shift his flesh around to disguise as almost anything, keeps the mass and weight though. Breaths mostly through his skin so he doesn’t cough due to his decrepit lungs. Was hit by a car once. Doesn’t have anything to do with the subject matter of the tf2 mercs being freakish beings with human skin but I just wanted to include it here.

Medic. What isn’t medic? The only thing consistent with his biology is that he can regenerate somehow. He alters his body so much that it is roughly equivalent to 1 tyranid hive fleet and 2,million ork painboys.(the tf2 mercs would be more likely to work for the orks than to ever work for one of the human factions in 40k and I just needed to get that off my chest) This is how he manages to get away with all the things he’s done. Banned from this continent? Just become a new person who’s not banned from that continent and presto you’re good! The laws don’t account for the ship of Theseus!

#midnight brainrot #man I love posting nonsense late at night #tf2 #team fortress 2 #tf2 heavy #sniper tf2 #scout tf2 #spy tf2 #tf2 engineer #tf2 medic #tf2 spy #tf2 scout #tf2 pyro #tf2 sniper #tf2 soldier #tf2 demoman #did I tag this right? I’m not good at tagging things

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web-spinning · 2 years

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merc reactions to getting a new recruit but finding out they’re only in their mid-teens ? gender neutral please-

A / N - Ay, it's here. Somehow I managed to finish this faster than I expected. Hope you like it, dear anon!

Also, half of the photos are kind of meme-y, but you know what? It works...Please tell me if it works, I am losing my mind trying to find a good quality comic cut out, but only find those.

Mercs with a recruit in their mid-teens

TW. Ask to tag.

Scout

- he's not much excited, in fact he's a bit scared you might take his place,

- but after he finds out you're younger than him...he's so happy!

- he will teach you so many things,

- how to play basketball, how to get along with the older men, even how to deal with your first crush,

- since he is barely a few years older than you, he feels like as an young adult it's his priority to make sure you know all this stuff,

- he's got seven older brothers, all the lessons are probably from them,

- he really feels like you're just his younger sibling,

Soldier

- Jane thinks it's his duty to make sure you know the rules of war,

- he will show you how to use weapons, maybe even let you touch his own weapons,

- " But only for a few seconds, I don't want your young, inexperienced civil hands to spoil them! ",

- he will sit you down in the meeting room of the base, and tell you stories,

- half of those stories aren't real, but you don't want to make him sad, so you just listen,

- on the battlefield, he will follow you around to make sure you don't hurt yourself...or use your weapons incorrectly,

- also..." You do know basic history of your beloved country, don't you, hippie? ",

Pyro

- this Phoenix adores you,

- will invite you to tea parties,

- you will also get a plushie or two from their collection,

- you're the only person other than Engineer who takes them seriously, that's why they like you so much,

- their childish personality helps you cope with the fact you've been sorted out as a mercenary at such a young age,

- always there when you're feeling down,

Demoman

- in all honesty, he has mixed feelings about you,

- he can't invite you to the drinking nights with the other guys, you're just always left behind,

- in recompense, he tries to teach you how to use the sword in the meantime,

- you might never use that skill in the battlefield, but at least you have a thing that takes your mind off of the gravel wars,

- when you're down, you both watch soap operas together, because he's the only one in the whole team who likes them,

Heavy

- Misha just avoids you,

- at first, you think he's just a big, tough guy who dislikes teenagers to look more " deranged ",

- but finally, one of the men, possibly Medic, explains to you why he dislikes being around you so much,

- you remind him of his younger self and his sisters. The way he had to fight to protect them, the awful place they lived in for a while...everything comes back to him when he sees young face,

- you try approaching him about it, but he still remains silent,

- deep inside, on every mission he keeps a close eye on you, making sure you're safe,

Engineer

- Dell is now your step-dad, that's how it works,

- he needs a few energetic bones to help him with his projects, so you will often stand around and hand him tools when he asks for them,

- while he's working, he will tell you different stories about the other mercenaries,

- you ask him to adjust your weapon's, because they're a bit too big for you to handle freely,

- on warm days, he will take you out for a short walk to make sure you won't go insane,

- he assures you that you can tell him about anything, and he will help,

- he does in fact help, especially when it goes with your emotions,

- he's always there to cheer you up when you're sad, or share a smile with you when you're happy,

Medic

- he's so happy with you! I mean, such a fresh canvas to test on,

- every week he asks you to replace your heart with an Uber-handling one, and every week you refuse,

- but when he's not in his mad scientist mood, he's always ready to help you with some of the downsides of growing up,

- he's also very helpful when you're feeling insecure about your body ( all teenagers do that, right? Not only me, right? ),

- " Oh, don't vorry, zhis vill go away. Zhe average of healthy patients your age look zhe same as you ",

Sniper

- you never knew his first reaction, because he's rather quiet about it,

- but after a bit, you learn that he's actually very trustworthy, and big hearted,

- when you're down or one of the other mercenaries, you go to his camper,

- you both play board games there,

- he will most likely take you out fishing or camping during long weekends,

- you like listening to him talk about his adventures from the bush, but he will leave out the gorey details out,

- at some point, he just feels like an older, wiser, quiet brother to you,

Spy

- he's mad. Not at you, at the Administrator for even thinking about hiring you at this age,

- he doesn't see the reason why there must be a new mercenary, so he mostly avoids you,

- until during one of the missions, you save him for getting headshoot point blank,

- he does acknowledge you a bit more after that,

- you're not allowed in his room though, it smells too much like cigarettes in there,

- maybe he seems cold on the outside, but when he sees you struggling with your work, he will always help,

- helping you however makes him remember he couldn’t see this stage of his son’s life…that makes him feel miserable.

#team fortress 2 #tf2 #tf2 headcanons #tf2 mercs #tf2 x reader #tf2 x reader platonic #tf2 scout x reader #tf2 soldier x reader #tf2 pyro x reader #tf2 demoman x reader #tf2 heavy x reader #tf2 engineer x reader #tf2 engineer is dad #tf2 medic x reader #tf2 sniper x reader #tf2 spy x reader

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zfiledh · 1 year

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Headcanons: The Owl House

In no particular order:

Luz and Camila took Amity, Hunter, Gus and Willow to Comic Con dressed like characters from Cosmic Frontier. They actually got to meet the creator(s) of Cosmic Frontier, who were very bemused by Gus and Hunter asking a multitude of questions and Gus’ warning about the giraffes. Luz and Amity got to hang out with fans of The Good Witch Azura.

After the Collector installed the new portal door, Jacob Hopkins managed to get out of jail and attempted to sneak into the house. The last anyone heard from Jacob, he was trying to set up an online fundraiser to get home from Mars (when he really was sent to a place called Quinhagak, Alaska.)

Months after Belos fell, Alador and Odalia divorced. Odalia tried to revive their original arms business, but it fell flat. Amity, Edric and Emira never spoke to her again.

Masha learned the truth about Vee and the Demon Realm. In fact, they’re one of the first humans to attend Gus’ Human Student Exchange Program.

Some sketchy ex-Coven Heads (the Potions Head, Terra, & Adrian) and Kikimora attempted to take over the Boiling Isles and replace the vacancy left by Belos. This was quickly thwarted by the B.A.T.T.s C.A.T.T.s and the Hexside squad and a thorough investigation and trial took place. Unsurprisingly, Odalia was also implicated in the plot because of the subpar Abomotons that were used. The plotters and Odalia were banished from the Boiling Isles and sent to Titan Trapper Island to live out their sentence. Kikimora worked out a plea deal and that’s how she was found working with Matt Tholomule to rebuild Bonesborough.

Eda and her dad have a better relationship these days, to Gwendolyn’s delight. Dell and Gwendolyn have also doted on King and Hunter. In fact, Eda was the one who introduced Hunter to Dell after Luz mentioned that Hunter wanted to learn how to carve Palismen.

A delegation was sent to Titan Trapper Island, and Bill is no longer the leader there. Tarak was appointed as the new leader and he promised that he and his people will not to go after the last Titan (King). It also helped that The Collector was included in that delegation to seal the deal and promised to build a portal between the two islands if the Titan Trappers behaved...and changed their way of dressing and the name of their island.

Lilith unlocked her harpy form the same way Eda did: with cookies made by Hooty. However, it wasn’t as “smooth” as Eda’s transformation, but with the help from Eda, Gwendolyn, and Camila, she was able to take control of her transformations. Hooty was also temporarily banned from the kitchen. Right after she managed this, Lilith showed off her transformation in front of Flora.

Luz told Eda what Papa Titan told her, and Eda felt honored. Though Eda was a bit offended about the Titan questioning her homemade apple blood recipe.

The Therapy Coven had never been busy after the fall of Belos. Hunter and Raine in particular spent some time with them because of the shared trauma of possession by Belos.

Hunter elected to stay with Darius, though he's always welcome with the Nocedas back in the Human Realm, with the Parks, the Blights (minus Odalia), Eda, and the senior Clawthornes.

Willow introduced Hunter to her dads after Hunter finished gushing about sewing and wolves with Darius and Eberwolf.

Boscha peaked in high school.

The Bat Queen sensed that there was something about Hunter, and Hunter told her about Flapjack’s sacrifice. After that talk, Hunter also became welcome in The Bat Queen’s forest.

Luz and Amity got more “mundane, slice-of-life dates”, both in the human realm and the demon realm.

The Collector visits King from time to time, and the Hexside squad learned to relax around them and teach them about how to approach people and play other games.

There was an attempt to introduce Camila to the food in the Boiling Isles. Suffice to say, she was only able to eat griffin eggs like Luz, though she found the animals there quite fascinating.

Viney and Jerbo eventually became friends again, to Barkus’ relief. (Barkus knew they would become friends, it was a matter of when.)

Principal Bump officially retired as Principal the following year. That was not the end of his love of education because he spent the next year to reach out to Glandus and St. Epiderm about revising their curriculum and offering multiple magic tracks.

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dellcomics · 9 months

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Norman Nodel from Barbie and Ken no.1

Dell Comics, 1962

#barbie #barbie and ken #norman nodel #15¢#1962 #dell comics are good comics

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explosionshark · 10 months

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my favorite Miorine thing is that she's so laser focused on suletta to an almost comical degree. prospera reveals that she wants to ruin delling's life (like, her dad, who is dying at the hospital) and miorine goes "ok but leave suletta out of this!". near the end prospera goes on a tirade about eri and miorine, pissed out of her mind, says "you have another daugher! suletta, remember??". i love her.

LIKE. YEAH.

I think the show does a really good job acknowledging that 1) Suletta and Miorine both have REALLY different methods of parsing their emotions and expressing themselves and 2) holy shit they're fucking IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER FOR REAL

You really cannot meaningfully analyze these characters and the decisions they make and the way they relate to each other without keeping their toxic relationships with their parents in mind. There's SO much projection going on - Miorine project herself onto Suletta and Suletta projects her mother onto Miorine.

When we meet Miorine she's isolated and miserable and her only concern is to spite her father and secure her own future. She feels at once dismissed by Delling and also oppressed and controlled by him. Suletta and, subsequently, Earth House are the only real connections she's made with other people. It doesn't take very long for her priorities to shift from getting herself away from her father to providing for her groom and gund-arm.

By late S1 she's undergone this massive shift - she's in charge of a project she chose, working with people she cares about. She's got two things she never had before: autonomy and support.

When Miorine hurts Suletta's feelings by trying to take greenhouse duties away from her, by endorsing her spending time with Elan, she is trying to give Suletta the most important thing she can think to give: autonomy. Freedom to choose how she spends her time and with who. It's a great conflict because it's such a revealing miscommunication. By projecting her own feelings and trauma onto Suletta, Miorine misses what Suletta actually needs. And it beautifully foreshadows the conflict in s2.

Bc the turn in s2 is that Miorine needs to reconcile the version of Suletta that she has come to know and care so much about with the Suletta she was confronted with at plant Quetta. Correctly, Miorine identifies that Suletta is being manipulated and controlled by Prospera. But she takes it further - she overlays her own parental trauma onto Suletta. Miorine sees herself and her father in Prospera's control over Suletta. Worse even: to her father, Miorine was a chess piece in reserve. But Prospera isn't holding Suletta back from anything to preserve her though: she's putting her on the front lines. She's using her as a weapon. And Suletta lacks the perspective to see it.

Suletta is, it seems, incapable of conflict. She can't stick up for herself. We see this all the time but especially in the whole lunch fiasco when she decides everyone hates her because she's too sad to ask for food. Miorine, on the other hand, actually has an easier time expressing conflict and disapproval than she does vulnerability. Calling out Prospera for the way she dominates Suletta makes perfect sense because Miorine has been calling her own dad out for the same things pretty much her whole life.

So, ultimately, Miorine deciding that she has the moral right and authority to make decisions on Suletta's behalf is a great piece of character work. The thing she spent her whole life resenting her father for becomes exactly what she does to Suletta.

Suletta projecting her mother onto Miorine is definitely another part of the dynamic. Again, it's something we see most in s2. Right before the sabotaged duel, we see this moment of total cognitive dissonance in Suletta's thinking. Miorine and Prospera come to hold fully oppositional places of importance in Suletta's world. She ascribes basically an equal level of authority to them.

She loves her mom > her mom loves her > her mom would never make choices against Suletta's best interests > whatever her mom says must be right > if it hurts or if it feels wrong, it's because Suletta has to be more mature. And at the same time she loves Miorine > Miorine is smart and capable > Miorine wouldn't make a wrong decision > if she hurts Suletta, it's Suletta's own fault.

After she loses to Guel, Suletta copes by blaming me herself. She doesn't know how to be angry at someone she loves, but she does know how to feel shame for not being good enough. She wasn't the victim of a cruel betrayal, because her love for Miorine means she CANNOT be capable of doing something that bad. It becomes instead a failure of Suletta's - if she has been better, Miorine wouldn't have abandoned her. It's her own fault for losing and for wanting more than she should have in the first place.

It's the exact kind of broken, warped thinking she applies to Prospera. And it's why Prospera is exactly right when she tells Miorine that she too could get anything she wants from Suletta.

This is why I love the reunion so much. It's so explicitly about owning your own actions and allowing the person you love the space and freedom to decide how to respond. Suletta extends her hand. Miorine decides to meet her there.

Suletta chooses to risk herself in the Calibarn. Miorine alone respects her choice enough to raise the permet score, even if she breaks down immediately after.

Anyway wow I'm fully brainsick about these two. Sorry for that long ass rambling reply but oh my god I'm in a chokehold atm

#the witch from mercury #the witch from mercury spoilers #WOOOOOOO

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mdhwrites · 5 months

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Five Reasons Why The Owl House Isn't Inclusive

Someone on Twitter asked me to elaborate on the concept of TOH not being inclusive beyond LGBTQIA+ labels, which I'm still happy it has, and I accidentally just made a five part list of them that helped bring together a lot of the points I've tackled not only recently but also in the past so... Why not? Let's actually make a kind of master post for this. These are five reasons why The Owl House isn't inclusive.

The demons

I don't entirely have an order for this, this isn't a top five thing, but we'll start with probably the thing that's the easiest to never even think about: It's treatment of the demons of the Isles of the DEMON REALM.

Every demon in the show is either a gag, a villain... Or the ones who get to have nuance or be good are the ones who pass the most for being 'human', much like how the witches are just humans with pointy ears. The first point is pretty obvious. A lot of random demons show up just to be made fun of for looking strange and then move on.

The villain accusation though is because like 90% of one off villains in this show, with no nuance or real personality and are obviously evil just because they're evil are demons. They also aren't allowed to be amongst the good guys for the most part. In the main cast, the only demon is Hooty who... Boy his treatment is AWFUL. It actually says TERRIBLE things about Luz that she treats him just as poorly as everyone else, especially when someone else manages to befriend him... Which the show uses as signaling to treat Lilith as lesser than the rest because now she's comic relief.

Finally the passing part. This is actually big for the fact that it's actually kind of racist in general. The only demons who are allowed actual nuance are the ones who look the most like witches or humans. Boscha and Steve are both theoretically demons as far as we know and they get kind of redemption arcs but much lesser ones than any more human character and both start as villains. Then there's Vee who is the only unequivocally 'good' demon and her whole thing is that she can pass for a witch or human. In fact, she's better at being human than LUZ is.

So point one and we've already got a weird undercurrent of an entire race being lesser than the conventional ones or... that'd be it if not for

1.5: Take a lot of what I said about demons and apply it to the guys of TOH because they're also treated like shit by the writers. They are either villains or jokes when they first appear and the only exceptions are either still pretty questionable for fitting one those roles... Or dead. You know, like Manny. I think Dell is literally the only ALIVE male character who isn't a joke or villain at one point.

2. Everyone's really fucking pretty. Like... period. Every character in the main cast is ready for the runway. The only main character who really comes close to being transgressive in their looks is Willow and like... Overwatch came out 7 years ago with Mei and that she wasn't a daring design choice then and Willow wasn't four years later. They're the definition of 'more to love'.

Admittedly, I'm normally fine with things just having pretty people. Yokotaro is based for giving an android a big ass because he likes pretty women. I don't think people should feel ashamed for that. It's just a problem when a lot of your contemporary competitors, or even old school competitors like Recess back in the NINETIES, who aren't even trying to preach inclusivity, have better body representation than the show that does.

And yes, that does tie back into the demon thing too as you might notice that all the demons who are accepted by the main cast or given more nuance are the ones who look the most conventionally attractive. Good job show.

3. Nothing here is actually transgressive.

So now we're getting away from looks and the like and actually getting into how well the show sells its theming and representation of those society rejects. The embodiment of this should be Luz if the show wishes to say that it accepts those with weird interests or behave oddly. The only problem is that Luz doesn't. At all. When she is, the things she's transgressive about are things like the safety of others and common human decency.

Luz never really defines herself by her interests after all. Azura exists sure but it gets like... A handful of forced references in S1 and then maybe a couple in S2, often not even by Luz eventually but Amity, which is literally what happens in S3 as she abandons the series effectively. This isn't technically bad. She has a healthy relationship to it for the most part. She doesn't hyperfixate or try to interject it into every part of her life. She's just a nerd... Which wasn't even a brave thing back when I was in High School a decade ago.

Straight up: I was a part of JROTC, the American school fast track into the military and people the first guy I ever heard squeal about how the Avengers were gonna happen, he swears, was a really dude in that ecosystem. He was more of a nerd than any of the drama kids I eventually hung out with and no one cared.

And Luz is less extreme than THAT. The only time she actually is is during her character introduction where she, you know, releases spiders on a classroom and also snakes that attack people. Or how about those fireworks? What was her plan with those? Set them off inside and kill burn down the whole building in the BEST CASE scenario? Because if she's been bullied so much, why would she expect her class to come outside for that? Regardless of the fact that you'd get expelled just for bringing that much gunpowder into school, let alone the other reasons she should have been expelled.

The worst part of all of this though is Lilith. Lilith actually hyperfixates. She cares a LOT about her interests and gets giddy about them... And it's almost always framed as mocking. Everything to do with her interest in history is almost always setup for a joke of some sort or to make her look smaller. She is also more genuinely interested in learning and excited about the Isles and its potential than Luz commonly but when she becomes that character, she isn't taken seriously anymore. She's a joke, just like her best friend Hooty.

So now we've rejected nerds. Can we really go deeper? Well, how about the oppressed themselves?

4: The oppressed are inconvenient to the show so they don't show up.

Because the Isles is meant to be bigotry free except for Belos (an ENTIRELY different topic that has bunches of problems of it own) the only people actually oppressed in the show, who are ever actually forced to conform and mind that conforming, are wild witches. But not only is their plight poorly shown but it's also inconsistent.

Eda is our ONLY representation of it and the show ever struggles to decide how genuinely illegal her presence is. She's allowed to just stroll into an Emperor's Coven funded school and enroll her student there. All it takes for her to be free for a day is burning some posters. But also on the other side, she is literally threatened with death ONLY for the crime of being a wild witch and not the rest of her rap sheet.

And why shouldn't it be? Systemic oppression isn't actually that bad by what the show depicts. Dana herself wrote Reaching Out where the coven system is treated like not going to college instead of a crime so severe as to have the death penalty. She also was one of two writers for The First Day where they treat the coven system as just tradition and not like multi-tracking is going to get these kids literally killed, if Bump himself isn't removed by Belos for enabling people to break the law in an episode where he SPECIFICALLY NEEDS GOVERNMENT FUNDING.

And as the coven system is the only form of oppression, no one has to actually deal with the social and sometimes legal pressures that makes one hide who they are. It can't say anything about those actually struggling because it's inconvenient. You can't just have Luz be accepted by all if her dream makes her illegal to most. You can't have her easily fall in love because that relationship is illegal. You can't have members of the government who have done literal witch hunts just turn around and be good guys because they are active participants in bigotry.

So the oppressed, the people actually other'd by the story that's being told, are pushed out of frame for the sake of the escapist fantasy of Luz getting to runaway to a magical world and save it. They exist solely to claim there IS a reason to fight but actually showing their struggle is one step too far apparently.

5. It leans into extremely harmful stereotypes of people with mental disorders and disabilities. Content warning for those topics until the BUT at the end.

This is the last one because not only do I think it's actually the most dangerous but it's also the most personal as someone who is literally disabled due to their depression. Who had to be really careful when writing about characters in crises not to peddle the same narratives most stories do. Extremely hazardous, painful narratives.

Hunter and Eda are both disabled by the logic of the world they live in. Both are incapable of magic in a world that expects it from them and it causes real difficulty in their lives, forcing them to require equipment and/or meds to aid them in dealing with the struggles these cause, doubly so for Eda because of the curse. It actually is good representation... Until you start thinking about and people start getting 'cured'.

Eda's is definitely more of a mental health disability with how much it's connected to emotions, stress, etc. like that than her physically being incapable of doing more. She suffers from not having enough spoons on any given day to do things with some being worse than others. Again, face value, this looks kind of nice.

Here's the insidious part: When she isn't medicated, when she isn't able to hold back her symptoms... she's literally a monster. Anytime she shows her pain, she is actively dangerous to those around her. Full stop. And there is no way to stop this except her murder. She will ALWAYS be a threat for the rest of her life, even after making peace with her diagnosis. After all, in the final episode she literally has to warn someone to get away because she's going to lose control. Worse yet, part of her getting a reprieve from it is to ruin another life. Lilith is made disabled because Eda's illness is so out of control that only through other people's sacrifices can she find help.

If none of this raises red flags, GOOD FOR YOU! You haven't ever had to be told you might lose your apartment just because they don't want to one day find you having done something terrible because they assume that will eventually happen, SOMETHING THAT HAS ACTUALLY HAPPENED TO ME. You've never been told to hide and lie about your condition, to pass as just a normal person, so you could get a job or just so you didn't appear wrong to others. So you don't seem like a ticking time bomb that will explode.

Hunter is a mixed bag comparatively. He's better because his disability, not having magic, isn't inherently dangerous. He's not going to kill anyone someday because of it. The problem is that he is still mostly framed as lesser because of his lack of magic and that he is helpless due to it minus one time he gets to show off his skills while without his staff... To no avail. Otherwise, everytime he doesn't have a staff, he is completely at the mercy of anyone around him. His heart to hear with Willow is even about feeling like less of a person due to it and how they've both struggled with the problem, which, you know, feels disingenuous when at the end the plant goddess forces him through the ground against his will because she has her own magic and is one of the strongest witches on the Isles. It's like telling someone missing an arm that yeah, when you were young you broke your arm too but you got better while the other person is still MISSING AN ARM.

And then he is cured... By the death of his best friend. At which point, he is whole, a complete person with his own magic... at the cost of a life. You know, just like how Eda only got the curse to back off by hurting someone she cared about too.

What the fuck?

And finally, for a bit more mental health rep: Luz. People like to claim that Luz is suffering from trauma, depression, anxiety, etc. in the second half of show and especially S3. The problem with this is that after S2A, Luz is just categorically is a worse person. This culminates in what most consider to be her lowest point, Thanks to Them when she has a speech in class that potentially hints at suicidal ideation. However, in the episode she decides that instead of taking responsibility and trying to fix her mistakes like she used to, she is going to just stay home and let an entire world die. Yes, she frames it as self sacrifice and having learned from her mistakes... but it's not. It's self preservation if anything.

Anyone on the Isles should be presumed dead or something akin to it with what she experienced during King's Tide. Anyone who goes back is going to fight a GOD to try to reclaim it. To have to beat someone who is leagues more powerful than any entity they've even fathomed before. Her friends have been trying to get home and planning for this all with the expectation that Luz would be by their side. But despite the fact that she explicitly blames herself for the situation, she's staying. There's no talk about how this means dooming her found family, how it means breaking up with Amity or anything like that. Her focus is entirely on herself and the mistake she made. They can all go rot while she gets to stay home with her mom.

This doesn't even go into Luz's lower empathy or her CONSTANT LYING that was more prevalent in the second half of the show. It all says one clear thing though in this context: Because she is damaged due to trauma and depression, she is a generally worse person. She cares less about others than a functional person would, as she was a better person before all of this, and loses her morality as she is willing to let people die instead of fix her mistakes.

All of this just makes it bluntly better if Luz isn't actually depressed during this time period and more is just being a bad person because things have gotten tough. Otherwise this feeds into a LOT of bad stereotypes for those who are mentally ill.

BUT.

I do not think any of this is done with malice. Any of the five points. It's just careless. I pointed out the narrative problems for properly including a couple of them and I could easily tell you why others regurgitate issues without blinking for many of the others. It's easy to make these sorts of mistakes if you're not thinking about it. If you're just taking tropes you like instead of trying to craft towards a genuinely coherent theme. It's made worse when you know you're in a landscape that is hungry for representation so being praised for it won't be hard so you don't need to fully commit.

As I said earlier though, this is kind of a problem for a show that wants to be about inclusivity. Who's main themes, at best, are about self actualization and self acceptance. About being who you are and finding the spaces that allow you to do that. And yet... So many are left to the wayside. Abandoned because the show has a very narrow definition of a 'correct' identity and if you don't fill those definitions, it will leave you behind.

If you want a show that actually accepts everyone, that allows for all parts of identity, I've seen only one season of Craig of the Creek and it is EXCEPTIONAL at it. All are welcome in the creek. No exceptions. If someone is alone, it's because of circumstance or self selection and even they are given chances to be a part of the community.

I wish TOH had believed in something even close to similar.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#the owl house criticism #toh critical #toh #the owl house

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local-arsonists · 5 months

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OH BOY HERE WE GO- a lineup of the TF2 OC team that's been living in my head for some while. no it's not all of them and it's likely that these designs are going to change, except for maybe the medic, engineer, spy and sniper designs. I'm putting my infodumping about them under the cut because why not. I'm going left to right in explaining them :)

So, starting off with Heavy. His real name is Alejandro, and he's the oldest of the mercenaries as he's 48. Before joining this merc crew, he was a part of the Italian Mafia. It took quite a bit of bribing for him to properly accept being hired by Grey Mann. (Yes I know that Grey already hired the classic mercs in the comics but like shhhh this is before all that)

Next is Medic. His name is Josef and he's 39 years old. He was in his teen years through WWII in Germany. With his family being Jewish, he and his family had to hide out. Eventually, Josef found himself as the sole survivor of his family. Now, he is determined to be able to help people all he can, because as a kid he felt like he could do nothing to help his family's situation.

Then there is Engineer. His name is Leo and he's about 30-32 years old. He's the younger brother of Dell Conagher. He took after his brother in a way, especially in his interest in all things mechanical. However, he didn't pursue that path at first, rather preferring to work on his farm. However, he was drawn away from that life into mercenary work by Grey Mann, who promised high pay for him.

The Scout. His name is Elijah and he's about 23-27. He realized just before being hired by Grey Mann that he was a trans man. Of course, his mother wasn't too happy about not being able to have a daughter (Elijah is an only child) to teach her ways. But, she was still mostly accepting. Elijah was easily hired because of two things: one, the high pay, and two, he just needed to get away from his home town.

There is the Spy. Their name is Aleksei, and they're 43. They have no relation to Scout whatsoever. They reign from Russia. They are quite the mysterious person, never telling anyone of their past. All that is know about them is that they accepted the job offer as quickly as they could have.

Next is the demolition expert, Demolass! Her name is Bonnie and she's about 38 years old. She wasn't fully aware of which Scottish clan she came from, but no worries! She was completely content living up in the Scottish Highlands and blowing stuff up with her dad. Before she had even realized she transfem, Bonnie had already learned how to use a sword. The one that she carries is the one her mother forged her, and she takes good care of it.

Last, but certainly not least, is the Sniper. His name is Mitchell and he's almost 30 years old. He's a reclusive man, preferring to hide out in tall places and forests. It took Grey Mann a long time to be able to find Mitchell. However, when he was found, he was in the Redwood forests of California. Obviously, he wasn't too happy about his peace and quiet being disrupted. However, he was consoled by the promise of money. It did still take him a while to be convinced.

Obviously, this isn't the entire team (still missing Pyro and Soldier) but I'm still working on finalizing them. That's all for my insane ramblings about these blorbos that live rent free in my head thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

#team fortress two #tf2 #tf2 scout #tf2 sniper #tf2 engineer #tf2 medic #tf2 demoman #tf2 spy #tf2 heavy #ocs #oc art #tf2 ocs

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