#him being a closeted homosexual is so canon to me

[ricky-mortis]

This man has been plaguing my mind for an entire week

#he’s such a loser #like actually just an older generation of nerdy prude #I’ve been going insane about him though #there’s a note on my phone filled with my Mark Chasity HCs #it’s about the implications #him being a closeted homosexual is so canon to me #and curt is just fueling my fire #RBing my holy bastard drawing #the man is crazy for that #I’ll never stop freaking out abt it btw #i adore him #Curt mega #is an icon #hehehehe #mark chasity #hatchetfield #starkid #nerdy prudes must die #ish #holy bastard #if you squint #my art

[professorcalculusstanaccount]

"when strangers mistake me for his father i don't correct them" just break my goddamn heart why don't you. i love this and the rest of your art so so SO much and i'm dying to hear more of your thoughts on tintin and haddock's father-son/chaotic uncle-nephew dynamic, because it's one thing i wish had been developed further in canon, especially with tintin's move to marlinspike hall

Haddock and Tintin invented the found family trope! Their dynamic means so much to me, while my post canon series seems to be about Tintin and Chang's relationship it's actually more about Tintin and Haddock's found family bond and how it changes as Tintin grows older.

My thoughts on their dynamic are under the cut. It's Fathers' Day in the UK this Sunday, so happy Fathers' Day!

Haddock had a terrible childhood and has low self esteem, but values his ability as a sailor. Even that is shaken when his crew mutinies and kidnaps a teenager. As a result Haddock feels an enormous sense of guilt and responsibility for Tintin

He looks up to Tintin a lot, he inspires Haddock to always strive to be better!

He doesn't understand what Tintin sees in him but Tintin's positivity easily outshines any doubts about their friendship. Tintin brings that childlike wonder Haddock missed out on in his own childhood. Haddock goes out of his way to do stuff with Tintin he never got to do with his father, like going to the theatre or trips to the seaside.

Initially Tintin tolerates Haddock, but he proves himself with his sailing prowess in The Shooting Star. While Tintin is brave and proactive he's very introverted and closed off from people, having gained dangerous enemies at such a young age.

At first he's not used to having someone look out for him but grows to deeply appreciate Haddock. A colleague at work said Haddock is like that one middle aged guy you befriend at a job you got as a teenager and you become ride or die with through trauma bonding and I think he's exactly right!

Even though he's his best friend Tintin still keeps him at a distance. Haddock doesn't know his legal name or anything about his past. Tintin rarely opens up about personal problems out of fear of worrying him.

As Haddock has pinned so much of his self worth on Tintin, in my post canon series Haddock is forced to re-examine his friendship with him.

Haddock gets into a secret romantic relationship with Ramo Nash and gets some well earned down time from adventures, taking up painting as a hobby. It's the first time he's had time to find himself outside of being Tintin's adventuring companion, and realises he may have to make the painful decision between his best friend or staying true to himself. It's a decision he knew he had to make for a long time.

Haddock invites Chang to live in Marlinspike during his year as an exchange student in hopes he'll keep Tintin out of trouble. When Chang ends up joining in on the adventures instead Haddock is taken aback by how competent he is, and how seemingly effortlessly he is able to keep up with Tintin. Watching a younger fitter person does bring up some insecurities in him, but he later appreciates that this means he could sometimes take a break and let Chang go get shot at instead!

Tintin's tendency to keep his personal problems to himself drives a rift between them as he desperately tries to navigate coming to terms with being gay. Even though homosexuality was legal in Belgium at the time there's still a stigma, and Haddock and Tintin are terrified of losing each other's respect.

When Haddock finds out Tintin is also gay he is overjoyed, he vows to look out and to always be a safe haven for him. He grew up in fear and in the closet, so is determined to be the father figure he never had himself.

Haddock is very supportive of Tintin and Chang, but as Tintin grows closer to Chang and spends more time with him Haddock can't help but feel a little insecure. It's normal for parental figures to feel that way.

As Haddock grows older and less physically able to travel, Tintin worries if his deteriorating health is his fault. Haddock makes sure to nip this fear in the bud, and lets him know how proud he is of what they were able to do. As Haddock settles into retirement with Ramo, Tintin and Chang visit frequently to help take care of them.

Haddock never officially adopts Tintin despite everything, just in case the Haddock family curse still persists. Also "Tintin Haddock" is an absolutely awful sounding name.

Neither Haddock or Tintin can stand spiders. They get Nestor or Calculus to deal with that

imagine All of Tintin's Father Figures in a group chat in a modern AU, Haddock, Calculus, Skut, Mr Wang, Ramo Nash... The Council of Dads (Castafiore is in it too, she counts)

#tintin #captain haddock #archibald haddock #asks #animation #2d animation #gifset #adventures of tintin #every time i try to keep things short i cant lol #please do not tag this as the ship #people have made weird comments on older posts where i explicitly portray them as a father son sort of thing #normally i dont go out of my way to do much because hey its just silly fanart #but please dont do that on this post #man i have so many Ideas and asks but will i find time to do anything with them #reverse artists block #i have too much in my head rn

[yonemurishiroku]

Okay here we go.

I have just found out recently that it’s canon that Cupid has been watching Nico since he was young. And as usual, it sends many thoughts spiraling.

Assuming Nicole was Christian when he was young, when he saw this winged man, bathed in white and holy divine light, he might as well think he was an angel. He probably would have told Maria or Hades that. “There's an Angel”, to which Hades would have dismissed upon realizing it was actually Cupid.

I don't know about you but it sounds magical in a way that Nico, who is an Angel in name and in a prophecy, is looked after by somewhat a resemblance of said deity. His connection to Cupid started so soon. I would like to think about it as it is a reference to Nico being the same kind of Angel as Cupid is, in the sense that Eros, or Cupid, is God of homosexuality in the Greek myth. It’s confirmed in TSATS that Nico had had a sense of his difference since the early days and felt a little bit left out, which, imo, is as best as any to be a reason for Cupid to put a tab on him. Obviously, I don't know much about Greek mythology so this is probably only me.

Also, Favonius also mentioned that he had always known Nico would return to them. So I take this as that, Nico, for how much he tries to repress or run away from himself, there will surely come a time when he has to be true to what he is. To accept himself for all it has become and to realize that it doesn't make him any less of a human. It goes without saying that Cupid’s intervention was unnecessarily brutal, probably because the Greeks love tragedies, but the purpose remains true, which was to propel an essential step in Nico’s path to self-peace.

(Aphrodite liked Percabeth as the next person and she chose to make their love story ‘more interesting’ with challenges. Love gods are just unhinged, unfathomable like that)

Another thing. I have always found it fascinating how Cupid has taken an unusual interest in Nico, in particular. Nico couldn't be the only closeted person who had come to visit his place in the 30s? I like to think it has something to do with the fact that he was a son of Hades, who loved his wife enough to take up… controversial measures. Love and Death are similar, Cupid has said. Nico loves so much. His love has always run so deep – as reflected in what he did for Percy, the grief he held for Bianca, his affectionate side reserved for Hazel (bc familial love counts too) – that it impressed Cupid on a personal level so he just followed him since.

#can u tell i dont know much about sexualities #nico di angelo #pjo #hoo #toa #yone rambling #percy jackson and the olympians #heroes of olympus #trials of apollo #cupid (pjo) #house of hades #favonius (pjo) #nico and cupid #over analyzing

[sketchedspiders]

Cotag actually breaks my fucking heart knowing the reality of their relationship and the fact that they could never be able to truly love each other.

1. Their workplace literally steals their mind, body, and soul so they can just become machines that don’t think of or take interest in anything else.

2. It’s the 1970s and they’re both guys; being gay wasn’t allowed anywhere back then.

[Full analysis under the cut + Spoilers]

[Keep in mind some of this is my own interpretations, but it still goes off canon)

Normal Guy literally tells Protag this when he tells him that Coworker was a great help and they got along well.

He gets frustrated by this fact and worries that Coworker is a distraction for Protag. He doesn’t want them to form a relationship of any kind because it would distract them from their work. Immediately after Normal Guy tells him that, he goes on to ask this:

Maybe I’m reaching right now because this question comes up no matter what, but for this it’s important. There’s multiple reasons and aspects as to why he asked this question, but one of them could be the fact that if Protag did feel anything around Coworker, then Normal Guy would know. It’s hard to explain, but think about a racing heart for example. People’s heart rate increases when they’ve infatuated by somebody, and when they see that person do even the tiniest things it makes them flustered. If they become nervous around that person, their breathing may become weird; which is why it brings us to this question. If Normal Guy finds an abnormality in Protag’s body that would prevent him from working, he would wanna know the reason, and if that reason is Coworker, then it pushes him to think their relationship is even more of a distraction to the both of them.

Normal Guy wants all his employees to dedicate their entire lives to the company. He doesn’t want them forming any sort of relationship that’s not entirely business related. If Protag’s heart is in something else, then that would create a multitude of problems. Not even his organs belong to him anymore, so neither of them even get the option to be together fully.

I think it’s also important to note that if you do choose the option to tell Normal Guy that Protag and Coworker did get along, this can lead you to get the bad ending where he literally erases Protag’s entire identity and makes him a different person. It’s wrong for them to be together no matter the circumstance, and their entire lives would be erased, along with their original relationship.

However, if the company did allow them to have a full on relationship, it wouldn’t have worked anyways. They’d be a gay couple in the 1970s, and homophobia was not only rampant back then but it was illegal. People would get arrested, sent to conversion therapy, or even lobotomized for being homosexual.

I’ve been wanting to talk about this for a LONG time, and this is also what pushed me to write “I wish you were born a girl” (yes hi I’m destroymeiloveyou on ao3 I’m exposing my identity for a moment here and if you don’t know wtf I’m talking about then ignore this).

They could be together in private theoretically, but with them being gay and also working at a company that doesn’t even want their employees to have a life outside of work, it’d be near impossible. Both of them would be at a constant risk of losing everything. Although, they already have given up so much for their work, would it even be worth it?

Coworker is already a closeted person with his feelings and such. He puts up a narcissistic front because of how insecure he is. His title means everything to him because he doesn’t have much else. It gives him a sense of security, and he wants somebody else to recognize that because he wants to feel loved. That’s a whole other analysis for later, but taking this into account with everything else, would he be willing to give up the little that he has to give him security for a relationship that was doomed from the beginning?

With how desperate he tries to impress others (especially Protag), and how attached he is to his title as well as his nepotism, his life being turned upside down just like that would be a nightmare. Everybody would turn against him, and no longer would he be the star employee at the company. In reality, he would be just as in denial about his feelings as Protag would be.

Also. ALSO!!! Speaking of Protag, it is heavily implied and agreed upon that Protag has religious trauma because of floor 4. If he did grow up in a strict, christian household, he would definitely have internalized homophobia.

The sight of a cross makes him nervous, meaning he’s probably no longer christian, but it has left a longterm effect on him.

This means that despite how he left his christian past behind, the things he was taught as a kid has never left him.

If his parents wanted him to be a “good kid” and follow God, I think they would’ve taught him that homosexuality is a sin. That’s one of the lessons that have also never left him, and he still stands by it even if hiding his identity makes him miserable.

Although, no matter how hard he tries, it’ll be obvious his heart will never be in the company or christian values. He’s gonna end up hurt and hurting whether he hides his feelings or not, which is just as tragic. He’d feel terrible once he recognizes how he feels about Coworker and I don’t think he’d ever confess. Protag would just suppress his feelings and they would both suffer silently.

If either of them did end up confessing, they still wouldn’t ever be able to truly get together anyways.

So, cotag could be in love, but they would never actually be able to be romantically together or express their feelings at all. They can do the littlest acts, like spending time with each other on breaks, but it’ll never be enough.

It’s not even right person, wrong time; it’s wrong person, wrong time.

I would write WAY more and I’ll probably yap about this later too because I’ve been keeping this to myself for so long, but I have to cut this short for now.

I probably sound like matpat right now with how im reaching with some of this stuff but I don’t care I need everybody to suffer along with me LMFAOO

I hope you enjoyed this and expect way more soon once I have the time because I also wanna write a notag analysis (although it will be just as tragic) and also write analyses on the songs in my cotag playlist

I would add a funny image here but I’ve reached the limit. Anyways if you have any questions PLEASE let me know I love yapping about my cotag interpretations and theories

#cotag #coworker elevator hitch #protag elevator hitch #elevator hitch #neptune yaps #people reading this being like did we play the same hour long game where two dudes are trapped in an elevator #yes. i’m just insane #i love tragic doomed elevator yaoi

[jacksprostate]

With every passing day I'm less convinced of the narrator's feelings about Marla being in any way romantic lol. Obvious disclaimer this is one of many interpretations that can be done of the book, if you like to interpret it that way good for you, I support all interpretations with textual evidence and there's obviously some that way — but anyway, like.

He has no joy about it lmao there is no happy delight.... You expect me to believe you are in love with her when your thought process is essentially "Tyler loves Marla which. I guess means I do? And well, I guess I don't want her to die in my bullshit. I like you enough to not want you to die because when Tyler abandoned both of us I stopped viewing you as as much of a threat to my rabid bond with Tyler"

Like. I do think he cares for Marla. Likes her. But I do not think he Likes her.

And to me it is interesting and depressing. Tyler is his power fantasy. This fantasy where he can access the power of being a man attracted to women — well, if his brain can manage to fuck women while deeply delusional, maybe he can manage it! It legitimately reads kind of like he thinks he's been cured of something. And there's so much reason for him to feel that way — most especially, we're treated to an in depth look at how deeply shameful he feels about things that in any way tie him to homosexuality. He has such a complex about AIDS, he covers a birthmark on his foot just in case seeing it would mean someone thinks he's gay and dying. Maybe it's my own experiences letting me read more into it but he is so deeply repressed it's sad man. Even your power fantasy can't escape it. But also, that in itself makes sense, too. Being attracted to women puts him on top of the hierarchy, frees him from subjugation and the deep literal closet he's in as a gay man. It's not exactly the same as being attracted to men as a woman, which, while resulting in avoiding homophobia, puts you at direct risk for misogynistic intrapersonal violence lol. So. Tyler is free, and he is not. Tyler does not have to worry about dying in people's eyes.

Anyway you have all that, you have the intense homoeroticism of fight club in general (elaborate rituals, etc), literally everything about how he talks about Tyler, and you have the fact that just like. Honestly!!!! Where is the joy!!! Obviously it is extenuating circumstances because of the whole deal but his narration distinctly sounds like someone who just like. Oh yeah that's my good friend... Marla... yeah I guess I like her. We hang out and she helped me shoot myself

I do think post canon they end up having some sort of weird sad sex thing but that shit is not working longterm. Plenty of people have said it before and better but both of them want Tyler instead. Which in itself is an interesting dynamic.

Depending on how much autonomy and personhood you allot Tyler, too, it's interesting. In the narrator's eyes, everything for Tyler ties back to Marla. The one thing he has that the narrator simply can't. In the narrator's eyes, he outright states Tyler formed to do what he couldn't (engage with her romantically). Of course you can interpret that as him being inhibited in some other way, but... idk man.

#fight club

[runninguplenorahills]

The roller skate size theory doesn’t make sense!

Sorry guys but this has been bothering me forever and I finally just had to say it.

In the Hellfire game in s4,ep1 Dustin rolls an 11 which isn’t enough to defeat Vecna which is very obvious foreshadowing that El (Eleven) loses the battle against Vecna at the end of the season. Now, the roll that does defeat Vecna is the 20 and people have come up with the theory that Will’s and Mike’s roller skate sizes (both 10) foreshadow that, *tries to read scribbles on hand*, gay love will defeat Vecna… right.

Love of course plays a huge role in this show and yes s5 is Will centric, yes Will has powers, yes he’s the cure, yes he’ll get the boy, yes him and Mike will be a team next season, yes they’ll have their happy ending, and so on. But there’s actual much better foreshadowing for this than those gymnastics of a theory.

I mean, look at this:

I do agree that the numbers are of importance! They simply wouldn’t have made them carry the skates with the sizes facing towards the camera like this if those numbers didn’t mean anything because the shoe sizes on their own are obviously very irrelevant. But I do not believe that these numbers are supposed to correlate in any way with the Hellfire game/foreshadow Will defeating Vecna. Simply because…

…all three of them are carrying their skates with the size facing towards the audience. If they actually intended to draw a connection to that victory roll in the Hellfire game they probably would’ve been more direct and have them all carry their skates differently so that only Will’s skates are turned with the size facing towards us, displaying the double 10 aka 20.

…Mike and Will have the same shoe size. And thus this scene actually doesn’t give us a 20 at all, but a 40. Which makes absolutely no sense if this was supposed to be connected to the 20 from the Hellfire game. If they wanted to make that connection it would’ve been so easy to just give Mike a different shoe size so that there’s actually only one double 10 aka only one 20 in this scene to foreshadow Will being the one to defeat Vecna.

…20 is the maximum. You cannot roll a higher number than that, plus if you roll one 20 you do not need another, so if this was supposed to foreshadow the defeat of Vecna Mike and Will would have a 20 each which would actually prohibit them to work as a team and therefore contradict with the actual direct and undeniable foreshadowing that Mike and Will will be a team next season.

You could of course argue that the actual shoe size is a size 10, meaning that Mike and Will have a size 10 each so together they add up to 20 but this is visual story telling and visually, that’s a 40. And that really can’t be ignored. You can’t just bend canon to fit your own theories about what will happen in canon! The roller skate size theory would be very weird and just bad foreshadowing for just Will defeating Vecna, and also for Mike and Will defeating Vecna together which simply leads me to believe that those two things aren’t connected at all.

Instead, I personally think this shot of them carrying the skates is supposed to show that Mike and Will are in the same shoes which is an expression referring to being in the same bad/difficult situation as another person (mostly used like “I wouldn’t want to be in xyz’s shoes right now”). And well, if they both need size 10 roller skates that means their regular shoes are a size 10 as well which just underlines that not only does this apply to just rink-o-mania with Mike and Will both pushing each other away though still paying the most attention to each other, but also their struggles with sexuality.

“In the closet (at rink-o-mania)”? Make way for “In the same shoes (at rink-o-mania)”!

And let’s also not forget that Mike has another shoe-twin this season:

Yes, none other than Robin “gay gay homosexual gay” Buckley. Whose shoes in s3 actually foreshadowed that she’s gay gay homosexual gay:

So…. gayshoegate? Anyone?

#edited nov2023 #byler #gay mike wheeler #mike wheeler #will byers #gayshoegate #idk why i’m always so worried that stuff i say has been pointed out before #idc #this is my blog #i will post this and pretend like i’m a genius becaus i’ve never seen it pointed out before #🕺🌈

[sneezemonster15]

🥴 in the fic naruto says sakura and ino were the prettiest girls in their class and somehow sasuke has the balls to ignore them following him around like puppies. he says hinata is really pretty lol. itachi is apparently the second prettiest after sasuke and he thinks it might be a tie between him and kakashi. gaara, neji, tsunade, tenten, kiba and lee are all apparently pretty to him too. there's this scene where he gets drunk and kisses ino, kiba, sai and lee, no internalised homophobia in sight. sasuke goes on and on about sakura and how he has a deep love for her, longs for her and feels affection for her, though he admits it's not in the way she wants. he even thinks she sees through him lol. but the really weird thing is how sasuke doesn't understand how he feels about naruto in the fic. he can admit he loves sakura in the start of the fic (and he can tell that it's not romantic on his end), but he has to have this big epiphany about loving naruto only at the end lol. and sakura obviously becomes so much more understanding lol. I think they're talented and i did enjoy reading the story, but they said they were writing everyone in character so this stuff bothered me 😞

What has always bothered me about fanfics is how they simply do not get how closetedness functions in a homophobic and heteronormative society. I don't know if the writer is American or from some other western country. But as long as you are claiming to be canon compliant, maybe actually research how homosexuality or coming out of the closet would look in societies where it is not acceptable. Konoha/shinobi world is not only heteronormative, but downright homophobic. I mean, Sakura thinks they are brothers because she doesn't know what else to call it, she is homophobic herself, and she knows Sasuke and Naruto are just way too close for being just friends, she could have told Sai they were very good friends, but one of the problems in this world is also a lack of terminology, resulting from a lack of familiarity and comfort with the topic of homosexuality but which is essentially required in order to assign names to certain feelings and relationships and dynamics that are seen as unconventional or different from the norm. Developing a certain terminology is important in order to understand interpersonal issues that are deeply embedded in the socio political fabric. You need a certain level of comfort with the idea of it to introduce and develop this terminology. I have a few gay friends in my circles and one of them has been in a long term partnership with a much younger man. The younger man is closeted and they live together, but he hasn't come out to his family or close friends. Although his family does stay over and they think their son lives with his Teacher. And they are fine with it. They are deeply conservative people and staunchly heteronormative, which is why he hasn't come out and I am pretty sure they have an idea about his sexuality, even if it is unsaid and full of obfuscation. But they don't wanna take action because being with the Teacher has been good for his career and he is able to send money to them to contribute to their household. There isn't just one reason of course, but invariably, whenever his friends or family come over, they never acknowledge their relationship even though it is so obvious. They call it a teacher student relationship who incidentally also cohabit. There's a lot of denial going in there, but it's understandable in their circumstances.

I get the feeling that they aren't totally comfortable with the idea but they are also under certain obligations themselves and they are grateful to the Teacher. But you see, the terminology is missing. There's also a major class difference.

Often in homophobic societies, and I live in one, there is so much taboo, prejudice, obfuscation and lack of information/comfort/familiarity around the idea of same sex relationships, that it's difficult to carry on a dialectic with the proper assignment of terms. Gay or homosexual is not a word anyone will use here. They will use a slang word, which denotes something derogatory. Or if they wanna deny it altogether, they will use some other word for it. Like brother or sister. Or best friend, or room mate, or Teacher. It's such a common phenomenon to reduce, invisibilise and trivialize homosexuality by giving it names that are incongruent with the actual nature of the relationship. It's almost criminal how much this invisibilisation is normalised.

I remember when I was very young, like 12 years old, I was in the car with my mother and her friend. And her friend was crying because her sister was not agreeing to marry. Marrying here invariably means heterosexual, heh, it's just a social reality. Because she had shacked up with her 'best friend', another girl, her college friend. They lived together and she would keep rejecting offers that the parents suggested to her. She was of the perfect age to marry and they were worried her golden age would pass her by and she would become a spinster, of course they blamed her best friend for it. Lol.

Now the thing is, there was a strange tonal quality to the term 'best friend' in her voice. She was weeping and I just couldn't understand why it would be a problem if her sister wanted to stay with her best friend. Lol. I thought it would be so much fun. Hahaha. I was very young. I remember asking my mother about it later and she shushed me telling me it was none of my business and not to talk to anyone about it. And it puzzled me even more.

Make no mistake, language is an inherently important and indispensable part of postulating and hence comprehending socio-politico-cultural issues and concepts, and as a result, navigating interpersonal dynamics and understanding. It's not a coincidence that this manga stresses so much on the importance of 'communication', and Naruto's character is point blank shown to stress on it, it's one of the most important lessons he learns in the course of the manga. You can't understand emotions without verbalising them in your head. Linguistics is an inseparable part of comprehension, whether it's about computing internal or external data, or both in conjunction. And when it comes to storytelling, it becomes one of the most important building blocks of expression and getting the story across to the readers or viewers. Naruto is shown to stress on communication in Boruto as well. And we see throughout the course of the Naruto and Shippuden manga, how Naruto comes to learn about and understand different characters' and especially anti heroes' feelings and resentments directed towards their dystopian world. In the kage arc, he says to Sasuke on the bridge - Sasuke, we will never be able to understand each other by words alone, we can only communicate properly by using our fists. Maybe if we can understand each other, I can change all that hate, like Iruka sensei did for me.

And yet, in the climax of Shippuden, at Sasuke's insistence, it was Naruto's words that finally resulted in Sasuke's resolution, which finally broke through to Sasuke. Because those words showed his understanding. His feelings. His love. For Sasuke.

Kishi is a well read, well informed author. It shows in his work, even the different sources he takes inspiration from, such as Monzaemon Chikamatsu and acclaimed seinen mangas. Stories and characters don't come out of oblivion.

Homosexuality having the status of taboo itself means that there will be a dearth of conversations around it, there will be a lack of normalisation around it. It will carry a weight of malignance around it, something unnatural, something dirty, shameful. There is a lot of shame attached to this topic, which explains the lack of terminology around it, or appropriate wordage around it. Calling them boyfriend or girlfriend is not so acceptable in conservative societies. Or lovers, same sex partners. 'Partners' is something that I have noticed to be more prevalent in current times around me. But it's also evident that it is vague. Purposely so. It's to minimise judgment.

And this is something I see consistently in this manga. There is so much going on throughout, as to what term to assign to this relationship between Naruto and Sasuke. Sakura calls them brothers but she knows they aren't. She is suspicious of Naruto when he says Sasuke is much better looking than Sai and then backpedaling about it. She fake smiles. Also, if she thought they were brotherly, she wouldn't have felt so threatened by Naruto. She tries to create distance between them, all to no avail sure, but she is obviously insecure about her own position in their equation. She doesn't stand anywhere in it, but she does think Naruto comes between her and Sasuke, and their special relationship threatens her intentions towards Sasuke. Similarly, Kakashi thinks it's because they are 'rivals' and tells the same thing to Jiraiya, who compares Naruto and Sasuke with himself and Oro, when Naruto and Sasuke's relationship is not really like theirs in essence. We also know that Kakashi is not the most reliable person when it comes to understanding emotional and interpersonal nuances. Just like Sai isn't, who thinks Naruto loves Sakura. Similarly, Minato tells Naruto that his 'best friend' is about to arrive on the battlefield. People in Konoha give so many names to their relationship and yet, Sasuke insists Naruto define it for him in chapter 698, because he wants to hear it from Naruto.

Naruto himself struggles so much in this regard. It always bothered me why Sasuke was not affected positively when Naruto wondered if Sasuke was like his brother. Sasuke had a brother and then, he almost as good as lost him in a way. He was certainly very fond of Naruto, if he thought of Naruto as brotherly, he should have been pleased, no? Narratively, even if he tried to deny feelings that might potentially weaken him, he is pensive or annoyed or even displeased when Naruto says they are friends or brothers. Never pleased, not even a smile. And he is capable of smiling when it comes to Naruto.

But he never does. He keeps asking Naruto to define the relationship, he isn't happy even when Naruto says they are friends. Which is why Sasuke is PUSHED, albeit with reticence, to ask - You have said that before but what does it exactly mean to you?

This is so nuanced and so understandable. He wants Naruto to assign a term to it. It's significant, it's important. A term that explains their feelings accurately so they both know. They live in a world that doesn't have the terminology to support same sex relationships, they have no frame of reference as to how to talk about it. They struggle with talking about their feelings in the first place. Their communication game is lacking. Their world only taught them how to exchange blows, not words. So a perceptive Sasuke demands a term that rightly defines it. Because 'brotherhood' or 'friendship' is not cutting it. Obviously. Naruto had been calling him a friend all this time.

Even here, the dissonance. The words Naruto uses feel incommensurate with the term 'friend' no? Like seriously what other friends in this manga act or talk like this for the other? Sasuke is his 'friend' and a bond like that can Never be broken. But we as readers, know from context that bonds of friendship were broken in this manga, what with Oro and Jiraiya or Sakura and Ino (for very frivolous reasons too), and later, with Kakashi and Obito. If there were no nuances to their relationship, I would have gladly ignored it. But then Naruto goes on to say what he would do to Oro (shivers, lol) to protect Sasuke. Like just the lengths he is ready to go to. And it fits with the idea that Naruto's feelings for Sasuke are way more intense than just friends, consistent with how they seem with each other in part one, especially vote one. Naruto dilly dallies between so many terms for Sasuke. A friend. A rival. A comrade. A brother. On the one hand, Sasuke consistently uses very emphatic terms for his feelings for Naruto when he says Naruto is his closest friend or his one and only friend, Naruto's terms for Sasuke are always a lot incommensurate with his actions towards Sasuke. And it invariably creates a dissonance in the reader's mind. Kishi manipulates the reader very successfully. Also, we all know that Kishi uses his kanji for these two characters very carefully, as he has said in his interviews as well. Apart from visuals, this is also written media, language and wordage is indispensable to storytelling.

But AT THE END, Sasuke gets mad, and asks him point blank, as to what exactly it means to him and right on cue, given this is a conclusive chapter and Naruto can't say the same shit he has been saying before this (which DID NOT satisfy Sasuke), that even if Sasuke were ask him to explain it, he doesn't know either.

He doesn't know. He has been going through the motions for such a long time. We have seen him getting insecure about his sexuality many times. Like Kishi made so many of his scenes layered, just to point it out to the reader. That he is a closeted homosexual, he suffers from comphet and internalised homophobia as a result. This panel, which is towards the very end, explains so much.

Kishi is not a fool. He is a very clever author. This depicts Naruto's struggle about his sexuality so much. He obviously wants to make sure that his LAST conversation with his father is meaningful and that everything his parents wanted Naruto to be and achieve, Naruto will satisfy. Naruto wants to assure Minato, and he doesn't wanna lie. But he also cannot make himself say it. This boy who always wanted family, finally met them through a stroke of luck (or fate) but his was still a special case. He goes into such detail about everything, everything Kushina asked him to do, all the ninja taboos, but he broke down at that moment, about women. That it should be a woman he must marry is pretty much implied no? More than implied, it's a heteronormative society after all. Kishi is NOT stupid, this was a very smart way of layering his internal turmoil, his struggle with his sexuality because he loves a BOY. Not a woman.

And thing is, all this is very realistic. Very. It has been a persistent element/trope in most coming of age films that I have seen about homosexuality. Except for films like Love, Simon (very surface level and simplistic) or 'Call me by your name' because Elio has very forward thinking parents and he lives in a very affluent and liberal society. He doesn't have the same kind of hangups about his sexuality. But films like Esteros (Brazil), Eternal Summer (China), Beach Rats (America), Giant little ones (Canada), Posledice (Polish), And then we danced (Georgia), The Blonde one (Argentina), Brokeback Mountain (America), Free Fall (German) and more, all of these films are about sexual coming of age drama or sexual awakening and have the same tropes. Comphet. Denial. Internalised homophobia. Emotional turmoil. Dilemma. Burden of societal expectations. Pain. Misery. Confusion. Even rage.

And these are really good films too. Very thoughtfully made.

There are so many complex facets to homosexuality and coming to terms with or even acknowledging it is such a complex and difficult process for young, naturally insecure, and dilemma ridden (moral dilemma included) individuals in a conservative society. Naruto always wanted to be acknowledged and not shunned from society, he didn't want to be ostracized, not after everything he went through, and certainly not to disappoint his parents. In fact, kage arc was very definitive for Naruto. But throughout Shippuden, he has been going through the motions. When Sai seems like he has defected to Oro, Team Kakashi, Yamato specifically, confronts him, and Naruto is like - Who cares what he has to say, Sai is a traitor.

He has strong feelings about Konoha.

But when he hears about Sasuke joining Akatsuki, he is worried. Puzzled, in a quandary. So many people, people he likes and respects, tell him to make the right decision, it being to capture or kill Sasuke. But he cannot do it. He goes through a very terrible time, he is wracked with worry and conflicting emotions and internal struggle. He takes his time to come to terms with all his emotions. And then finally, when he hears that Sakura is out to kill Sasuke (lolol, sorry couldn't help it), something snaps in place inside him and he makes his decision. No matter what, no matter what, Sasuke will not be hurt. Naruto will take care of it. The idea of Sasuke being hurt imminently makes the decision for him and it just clicks to him where his priority lies. He will not kill Sasuke. And if it comes to that, that it's between killing him and protecting Konoha, he will protect Konoha but also, die with him. He is not your typical hero in that sense. He takes the middle path. A hero would typically let go of his personal wishes for the greater good. But Naruto's personal wishes are for Sasuke to live and be happy, no matter what happens. He told Itachi that when the time comes, and if Sasuke attacks Konoha, he will make the right decision. This is his decision. The point is, he will simply not live in a world without Sasuke. He refuses. He will remain a fool and die but not live without Sasuke. He doesn't care about any fucking thing if Sasuke isn't in his life.

Kage arc made him realize that his feelings for Sasuke were bigger than being hokage and Konoha. And so he chose a path where he didn't compromise with the safety of Konoha's people and yet, didn't let Sasuke down. Sasuke must live or he will die.

So by now, Naruto certainly knows that his feelings for Sasuke are not 'normal', even if he didn't say it, but that's the feeling the reader gets. And because we know the context of shinjuu, we know it's supposed to be romantic. The idea of double suicide carries a lot of heft in South East and East Asian literature, classic and popular, whether it be Chikamatsu, the greatest Japanese dramatist who wrote almost exclusively on the subject, and South East Asian stories such as Heer Ranjha, Mirza Sahiba, Sohni Mahiwal, Sassi Punnun, etc. And these stories are part of the popular romance lore, they are extremely popular.

So when Sasuke asks him angrily and insistently (the kanji that Kishi uses here depicts Sasuke to be emphatically triggered), Naruto knows what Sasuke is referring to and he knows he cannot lie about it. But he also cannot say it. He has a lot of responsibilities on his shoulders. But he also cannot lie to Sasuke. Of course, this being shounen, Kishi also had to navigate carefully. But the BIG difference is that Naruto stops lying. Lying probably is not the right term. Misstating. He owes it to Sasuke to tell him the truth. And he tells him, that he doesn't know what to call it, but he knows how it feels. So what he essentially does is that he explains the underlying sentiment to Sasuke by telling him that he hurts when Sasuke does, but that he won't name (explain it) it because he doesn't know it himself. It's such a feeling that Naruto cannot name it. Now, we as readers ALREADY know that he has already used terms like brother, rival and friend. But he deliberately moves away from all of those. Let's not forget that Naruto's most important strength was his talk no jutsu, his ability to connect and put it in words that finally affected the antagonist or anti hero archetypical characters in such a way, that would lead to their resolution. Naruto is different from others in this very sense, to be able to communicate in the right way. But Sasuke was his greatest test in this manga. And he couldn't convince him, he kept misstating the nature of their relationship, but towards the climax of the story, it was important for him to say the right words to Sasuke, especially after Sasuke asked so insistently, so passionately. Because he owes it to Sasuke to tell him the truth. He cannot deny it anymore. Not after all that has happened. So we know from context that it isn't any of those terms or feelings that he used before. But it's something else altogether. What else could it be? Sasuke obviously suspected it. Or else he wouldn't have gotten triggered like this. And with exactly these heavily heartfelt words of Naruto's, when he tells Sasuke that he hurts when he sees Sasuke carry his burden, so much that he just can't leave it alone, and that he would keep fighting for Sasuke, no matter what it takes, Sasuke is finally, finally also led to his resolution, no? He says with such a peaceful expression on his visage - I have lost.

He finally accepts Naruto's love, he finally lets the love in.

Dialogue is very intricately linked to narrative and visual language, but it's so evident, it doesn't need to be said.

We also cannot ignore the way they speak to each other. Kinda like, in codewords.

When two world class shinobis trade blows, they can read each other's thoughts. So tell me, did you see what's in my heart Sasuke? How I really feel? We are not the same kids who fought here once, you know my heart, and I yours, right Naruto? If you know, then why are you doing it? That's exactly why i am doing it. Don't make me repeat it Sasuke, you already know, don't you? Now that I think about it, you were always stupid. Those feelings, those things you once talked about, now I understand what you meant by them, Naruto.

The point is, by the end of chapter 698, Sasuke knows Naruto loves him. Naruto also knows Sasuke loves him, he had known to a large extent since vote one, but his feelings got solidified as he went along his life journey. This is the resolution of this story, this is also a story about their coming of age. It wouldn't make sense for both of them to be oblivious of each other's feelings at the end of it, it will be a failure of both their painfully developed character arcs and the narrative itself. And 698 highlights how they both come to know about their feelings for each other, after so much that they both went through. Properly this time. Explained in more words that they were ever able to use before. This isn't a topic that they can talk about so freely. They don't have a terminology for it, but they somehow managed. This is what all this narrative development led to. This is how storytelling works.

Chapter 699 gives the reader a hint of what's to come after this resolution. The nightmare. Everything that went wrong. Everything that left the resolution of their character arcs awry. Not meaningless but certainly disparate. Naruto and Sasuke talk to each other like they have talked more about what transpired with them in 698. And both have come to a position where they are going to capitulate to the circumstances.

Because at the end of the day, they are shinobis. The motto of a shinobi is to endure. Shinobi is a well established phenomenon, it's not just meant for shounen or otaku. They are real. Not like Naruto world ninjas, but Naruto obviously takes its inspiration from this phenomenon. The implications of being a shinobi is very well established in the story itself. Kishi made Naruto to deviate from its conventional meaning from the start so he was written as very unlike a ninja, loud, visible and non conformist, at least initially and for the most part, except towards the end. Shinobis/ninjas are supposed to endure. Following are screenshots from an acclaimed Japanese ninja series of films called Shinobi no mono.

Happiness and pride are not for the ninja. He doesn't live for himself. He lives for others. A collective is more important than the individual. He is born in darkness and he will die in darkness. He is literally a tool. That's what a shinobi is, from a modern ethical understanding, which is valid.

But Kishi couldn't have shown a happy ending for the boys, not with the sequel that essentially required their capitulation to this world to be able to make the new gen happen. The ending has shades of existentialist themes, which are pretty much present throughout what with the cycle of hate and revenge and infinite tsukuyomi, but that the manga ended it on the same note doesn't come as surprising does it?

Kakashi, a loyal, unawakened and complacent slave of the system climbs the rungs of power and becomes the hokage. Suck up to the right people and you will get places. Top administrative power. And he never really changed, he tells Sasuke at the end that it was because of his and Naruto's efforts that he didnt end up in jail and then proceeds to tell him to be good and careful not to regress, but still never acknowledged his mistreatment and insensitivity to Sasuke's feelings and motivations and very valid reasons. Sakura expected Sasuke to apologise and repent when it was she who was clearly in the wrong, who never understood him. She keeps pulling the same shit she always does, neither her nor Kakashi are made to pay consequences for their actions, instead, they get rewarded. Itachi is venerated, his truth is still hidden and Uchiha clan never got justice or even vindication, given they never summoned the kyuubi, its secret still being kept under the shadows.

( *Note - Nobody start with me as to how it was the right thing to do, you do NOT want to get me started there because you don't know what you are talking about. )

And how will any vindication happen when the world they live in doesn't really celebrate individuality? In fact, supresses it. It was funny to me when Bee reprimanded his brother telling him he was not his tool, that he was an individual who couldn't be suppressed but then Darui tried to convince himself that he was Raikage's left hand (or right) and that he wasn't a tool. Heh. Sarutobi is still revered as the ideal leader, when he himself admitted his complicity in Uchiha massacre, Tobirama was glad Uchihas were shown their place, and Oro, the outlier, the one who is objective because his reasons are revolutionary in his own desensitized way, a result of this heartless corrupt system that gives birth to undesirables like him, who collects other undesirables, the wretched, outliers and rejects, and makes his own village, is shown to be under surveillance, but he supported the war effort crucially, deviating from his objectives (even if only because of his interest in Sasuke and not because of the village), so he gets his redemption. So does Kabuto. Neji dies as a slave, something he was determined to fight against, and Hinata got her win, she got rewarded when she didn't work for it even a little bit. But she is rich, from a major clan, an heiress. A princess. The daimyos were shown as entirely privileged, uncaring and blasé about the war, carefree, playing cards or whatever, while the shinobis that were guarding them grumbled but then just accepted their fate, to the way of this world. Because that's what happens, doesn't it? It's very realistic.

Kishi didn't write his world as an ideal world. He essentially wrote it as a dystopian world. And his influences are pretty much based on dystopian ideas themselves, featuring major existentialist themes. Ghost in the shell, Jin-Roh, The Matrix, Berserk. Including introspective films about xenophobia and socio political inequality such as District 9 and Elysium. Same director. The part where seeing Itachi's predicament that greatly affected his own and his entire clan's, Sasuke is moved to think of fundamental questions such as - What is village, what is shinobi, what is the purpose of it all? underlines his existentialist despair. His answer to it did not come out of the blue. Like many fans think. But he was written to give up his goals entirely.

And Naruto. Well Naruto said goodbye to Sasuke. He gave Sasuke his hiatiate back. And this boy, who moved the sky and earth to bring Sasuke back, bid him goodbye with a certain meditative, contemplative stance. But not unhappy. Not his usual chirpy self. Not his usual spirited, chatty and loose tongued self. But introspective, pensive. Like they had reached a decision together. Later on, he married someone like Hinata and took a job that killed his spirit. Don't even think he isn't paying for his loyalty for Konoha, where he had to kill all his individuality and murder his zest for life and adventure, and become another cog of this unforgiving, relentlessly cruel world. Lifeless and eternally tired. A colourless husk of his older self. He couldn't even bother to attend his own hokage ceremony.

Kishi is not an ultra leftist, even though I can see he understands left ideologies, appreciates it quite well, and no wonder, Sasuke was partially inspired by Sanpei Shirato's Sasuke. He wrote Sasuke's character with such nuance and veritable shades, the claim that he is some ultra nationalist is empty. He is also not a fascist. Because if he were, the end of it all would have been shown as a reward. A prosperous haven. The best outcome of all possibilities. Your reward for loyalty. That is always the conclusion of the right wing narrative. Kishi is a realist. He appreciates existentialist themes, Japan can be credited with coming up with a whole library full of existentialist literature, as a result of the aftermath of war and the generational trauma can be seen and felt viscerally in the themes of their stories. Stories about meditation on war and the nature of war, the after effects of war, the human ethos behind them. Existentialism as a theory and way of life itself became quite a thing post war even if the theory itself was introduced before it, because it reflected what the war did to people, how it affected them, what it did to their psyches and thought processes. How certain things/ideas/thoughts/beliefs that carried social and moral value for them were rendered immaterial.

Anyway. Sasuke says - I didn't think you would come to see me off.

Naruto says nothing. This hyperactive goofball of ready words and catchphrases and nicknames just haltingly handed him back his slashed hitaiate.

The ending is - Perhaps this is what makes us ninjas.

Yes it does. Ceaselessly enduring pain and grief while giving up personal and individual wishes and desires and need for justice and their individuality does make them ninjas.

Continuing the status quo does make them ninjas. Nothing really changed, nothing really mattered. There's a certain melancholic quality to this scene. Which feels different in terms of tone and pacing, doesn't it?

Regardless, it's tragic.

Naruto is different in this scene in chapter 699. I think they have already discussed it by this point. And I think they have already come to some conclusions. What exactly did they talk about, we will never know. And I would give Kishi a lot of my money and a big part of my prized possessions, including my time, to know.

But well.

Now to come to what this ask was about, lol, I have yet to come across a fanfic that does justice to them, their story and narrative. Of course, it would be unrealistic to expect that everyone would get it, but is it unrealistic that at least someone should get it?? If I can see it and others can too, can't writers do something with this? This is such rich material, with so freaking much potential. There are so many possibilities, writers can use these themes creatively. And these are mostly my condensed thoughts, I will probably go in more detail some other day. And honestly, it takes some research, sure. But don't writers put some research in it anyway?

But they go for the easy route. It's okay, that they write what they like, but at least don't call it canon compliant. Most fans don't even understand canon. Give yourself some more credit, there's so much to discover.

At the end of the day, whenever I read some fic, unless it is supposed to be light hearted, it mostly just ends up disappointing me. Especially the ones that are based in canon universe.

This fic shows Naruto as an oblivious idiot when he is more perceptive than most fans think. He understands a lot of things, he is not a doofus, he is much more experienced at the end of the manga, he is aware of some realities and he is only going to learn more. And more. He understands his own emotions. Towards Sasuke as well. Sasuke is also shown as someone who doesn't even understand that he is attracted to Naruto when he has almost always known he was. Why else would he give up his life the way he did in land of waves? Gaara, btw, is perhaps one of the very few people who understand loneliness and being ostracized. Just him, Sasuke and Naruto, more prominently in this manga. He didn't attack Sasuke in kage arc, he could have. He is also perceptive enough to know that Naruto loves Sasuke, he also understands it better than Lee, who is a simplistic character, who thinks bad people's deeds are bad. Gaara understands that loneliness and hatred can drive people to do things they otherwise wouldn't. He resonated with Sasuke. He understood his predicament. and Naruto's. Which is why he said what he said to Naruto in kage arc. I love his character and I wish more people understood him. I swear if I could have broken the screen and picked small Gaara up when his salve got rejected by that child, I would have and I would have run....far.

Ino is portrayed as carefree and confident, sure. But I dont think she would be so fine with Sasuke being gay. She, till the end, was a Sasuke fangirl. There's absolutely no indication that she would have been fine with homosexuality. Nor would have others. Konoha presents a very bleak prospect for Sasuke and Naruto's relationship to be accepted.

I know this is a lot to take. And I know not everyone cares so much. But calling it canon compliant or 'in character' when it certainly is NOT, is taking it too far. Let's try a bit more. No?

Oh and I also didn't care about their intimate scenes. Because Naruto and Sasuke, once they get going, I think it would be like a bloody dam breaking off. It would start slowly, tentatively but then, it would burst out. And it would be unstoppable. I am talking years of repression here. Emotional and sexual. And more importantly, they trust each other all the way. I don't think tsunami would be able to stop them. It would be instinctive and natural, like everything else with them is. They might fumble and break stuff but more than anything else, it would be a desperate need to join together, to meld together, to finally be with each other as they were meant to be. They, who couldn't even touch without the pretext of a spar or a battle, if they finally allowed themselves to touch each other, it will be like a torrential force of emotions that would leave them scorched and they won't be satiated until their need to touch and reassure themselves, that it was finally happening, that they can finally touch each other, that they can HOLD each other, without feeling guilty or tabooed, that they can fuse their bodies with each other, to find not just emotional but physical reassurance, would come alive and transformed. They would run ragged. It would be passionate and tender and emotionally overwhelming, it would break barriers and boundaries, it would be a Godly experience for both. Like finally feeling at home. To be finally able to find that refuge in each other that only they could provide each other, in a world where no one else could even understand. It would be magnificent and insane and gentle and teasing and loving and sweet and painful and violent. All the damn shades. They aren't like you or me. They are different, because they are them. And no one can compare. But I can imagine.

#okay this went on as well #yall make me write too much lol #sns #ask #anon #sasunaru #narusasu #sasuke #naruto #uchiha sasuke #uzumaki naruto

[charmixpower]

Other queer headcanons:

Icy -> Asexual Lesbian

She just has ace vibes to me. Darcy's whole manipulation thing by attraction is so useful but also she does not understand how it works even a little bit

Darcy -> Bisexual

She has a preference for men but it's not super strong. Shes always knew she was bisexual, baby Darcy was always aware. Smart girl hours

Stormy -> Aromatic Het

Stormy is so aromantic to me!!!! She has that aroallo energy of being hot, idk what to tell you. I literally could never see Stormy in a romantic relationship, like she'd have a platonic life partner but dating isn't real.

Sky -> Questioning (Bi pref women)

Brandon has once 100% offered to kiss Sky to see if he's bi, bc he had a crush on him and Sky still didn't realize he was bi. Like Eraklyon palace is not the place to try and question your sexuality and being attracted to people who could turn out to be spy's or he had a fuck ton of explicit power over was scary so he never figured out his sexuality until like s2~3

Brandon -> Gender Neutral, Pan, Poly

Brandon doesn't have a gender. He's completely gender neutral. Like he doesn't experience gender. He doesn't get gender euphoria or dysphoria. If he suddenly turned into a girl literally nothing would happen. He just doesn't experience gender, no gender here, godbless. He'd probably say Gender Neutral but there's other words for that

He's pan bc when he goes into the smooch competition with Stella, no one is off limits. Like I said with Stella, if they met someone they both wanted to date asking them out is a done deal

Timmy -> Gay Ace

This is just 100% vibes. Tecna is busy not dating him and Timmy needs something nice for himself. He just has the ace "I'm tired of you allos acting stupid as shit" energy in my thing, and he's gay bc he deserves nice things

Riven -> Bisexual

He's bi with a preference for women, and he would of known sooner but he was so far into the fucking closet that he had become one with the clothes. Musa helps him come out of the closet and they talk about hot people together I love them

Helia -> Alterous Transman

Alterous attraction is basically just attraction that isn't platonic or romantic vs aesthetic or sexual. It can be between them or be a secret third thing (like it is for me). Helia's alterous attraction is between platonic and romantic, and between aesthetic and sexual, everything is really fuzzy for him. He doesn't get strong anything but he still gets the feelings and impulse, it's just weak and most of the time he can't tell if it's actually platonic or aesthetic

He's also trans, this is just true. As soon as he learned what a boy and girl was he was telling his parents he was a boy. Like he knew very very early on, and he socially transitioned at a young age. Gender win for Helia

Nabu -> Gay

THIS MAN IS A HOMOSEXUAL!!!!! He and Sky make up the "raised rich and wears shiny ass earrings once they realized being GNC is an option" club, and good for him

Daphne -> Queer (Lesbian)

Daphne was WAY too busy fighting the ancestral witches to ever figure out her sexuality but she was aware of the fact that she wasn't cishet, so she just grabbed a macro label and kept it moving

Mirta -> GenderFluid Lesbian

It came to me in a dream. If she can use fairy and witch magic fluidly in canon what if her gender was fluid in my thing??? I am a fucking genius. Her hair is so non-binary. Haven't decided on pronouns yet, and Mirta just is a lesbian.

Diaspro -> Questioning (Pan)

Diaspro absolutely didn't have a single crush growing up in Eraklyon bc everyone there was a asshole and hatred her and she hated them back more. She was kinda punched in the face by her attraction to Bloom. She figures it out as soon as she leaves and talks to some normal people for like a month or something in s2 or s3

Roxy -> Agender AroAce

Roxy reminds me of my bestie who is agender, so they're agender, and I think it's funny if Roxy was watching the Winx do their relationship nonsense abt to throw up bc ew allo people. They are very repulsed, and I love them. They are literally a teenager trying to be cool and not understanding why everyone is dating or doing this gender shit. Triple A battery

Selina -> Trans Lesbian

Look at Selina's fucking ugly green hair and outfit, that is a trans lesbian if I've ever seen one

Krystal -> Bisexual

She just is, I can't explain. It's the Flora

#winx club #winx #winx headcanons #winx club headcanons #winx icy #winx darcy #winx stormy #winx trix #winx sky #winx brandon #winx timmy #winx riven #winx helia #winx nabu #winx daphne #winx mirta #winx diaspro #winx roxy #winx selina #winx krystal

[dontbotherwiththepronunciation]

Hey! If you don't mind sharing, can I ask what surprised you most in the responses you got to the Theon survey? Any trends in fandom opinions that you hadn't expected?

Sorry this took so long! I originally wasn't intending on giving my own opinions on this but I will take this chance so I can rant! Thanks a lot. : )

1. Do you think Theon was sexually repressed before his torture by Ramsay?

This one showed some of the dangers of phrasing and how depending on the words we choose people will have very different reactions. Overall it was one of the most fascinating ones for me to read. One of my favourite things to come out of this simply because of how hilarious the dissonance was.

There is this very common take that has been spread by very popular Theonblogs about pre-torture Theon being sexually repressed (and often in modern aus or more lighthearted takes) a homophobic homosexual and it has always bothered me tremendously. I fully disagree.

Theon comes from the Iron Islands, a place that is more open to less defined gender and sexual roles (Asha and Qarl have their entire gnc-cnc thing going on, Hagen's daughter openly asks Tris and then another Ironborn for sex and there is no social stigma around this, and Victarion (sadly) doesn't really show a lot of concern or disgust at his ironborn raping a young maester), the text implies he has been involved in a threesome with Patrek Mallister (another man), and he doesn't seem to mind taking a more sexually submissive role when having sex with women (Esgred, being Kyra's little spoon). He might even find it more enjoyable if we think of his enthusiasm when interacting with Esgred as opposed to the captain's daughter.

More often than not it seemed to me this entire concept of him being sexually repressed/homophobic homosexual was based more on flanderization than actual text.

So, when I asked "Do you think Theon was sexually repressed before his torture by Ramsay?" (meaning: Do you think ACOK/AGOT/Pre-ASOIAF/Modern AU Theon is sexually repressed?) I expected an abundance of "Yes" and hopefully some argumentation. Instead, what I got was a misunderstanding. Many people, especially throbb shippers, who had previously, when speaking about what they enjoy in their respective ships, talked about some form of sexually repressed/closeted in denial Theon, took the words "Do you think Theon was sexually repressed before his torture by Ramsay?" as "Do you think Ramsay was Theon's sexual awakening?" and holly hell I did not mean that but I love it that their brains went in there! There is some subconscious acknowledgement in there.

The numbers between "Yes" vs "No" almost ended in a tie but it was only because a majority of those who said "no" interpreted the question very differently. I know for a fact a few of them have liked/reblogged sexually repressed Theon takes but then were almost outrageous about what they thought I implied and fully defended a sexually comfortable non-repressed pre-torture Theon. One of them even cursed me for what they thought I was hinting at. Very fun. Not quite a piss on the poor situation but still very enjoyable.

2. Ships

One of the dangers of doing these type of projects and allowing people anonymity is that many of them will forsake decency in order to spill out things without any real nuisance or consideration for others.

I encountered three types of reactions when it came to thoughts on the ship you like engaging with the least.

a) A short and brief "It makes me uncomfortable/It's uninteresting to me/It just irks me the wrong way, no hate to the shippers" or something among those lines

b) A relatively long analysis explaining to me in detail why, often with well-founded criticism that doesn't feel malicious or born out of petty competition: "Most of the fanwork focusing on it is very pro-Stark and I dislike how Robb is whitewashed / The way Ramsay's abuse is framed by the fans feels very divergent from the canon dynamic once they allow Theon enough agency to give consent / Book Theonsa barely exists, it's just show Theonsa and thus it often implies things about Theon's redemption arc that I don't agree with / I think adding romantic undertones to his relationship with Jeyne diminishes the selflessness of him rescuing her / Jon and him can mainly bond over things that are holding them back in their development and identity arcs, the wish to be a Stark, so I wouldn't want their relationship to become very intimate."

c) The dreaded and hateful "People who like [insert ship] are [insert insult] and I wish they would [insert harmful action]" often based on very hypocritical and not well thought argumentation. "How dare you ship him with a child?!" said by person who also ships him with a child. "That relationship could never be consensual because of the power imbalance" said by person who also ship him with someone who clearly holds power over him. "TaKe OfF tHe StArK GoGgLeS!" said by person who is wearing them too. Or the less hypocritical but equally disrespectful in the sense that it tries to limit interpretations and engagement with more niche parts of the fandom "Why'd you ship him with [insert ship] when [insert more popular ship] is right there?!"

And to be honest, I loved getting the b) variation! It was the rarest one, with sadly the c) variation being the most common but there was still a lot more of it than I expected there would be and it was so fun! Even when I didn't agree with an argument, or when it went against one of my ships (Out of the 5 options I listed in the survey the only ones I actively search for are Greysnow and Theyne, I occasionally go to thramsay but rarely to "shippy" works because I am only interested in it as pure horror, and usually I feel uncomfortable by the Stark involving ones so I avoid them) getting to interact with friendly criticism instead of straight up hate was so refreshing and oddly exciting. Like, yes! Give me your insight!

The examples I listed on the b) option are all paraphrased opinions that were submitted and the only one I disagree on is the Greysnow one, but even so it was explained so respectfully and without this sense of superiority and self-righteousness of "I understand the character and story better than those shippers!" so it still felt like something worth reading.

Happily surprised to see how some saw the window for complaints and took the opportunity to give actual complaints.

I block people for the mildest annoying thing they do and part of me regrets it because of the echo chamber I'm building around myself, but I think we should also be able to differentiate between "Hate" and criticism. Every now and then I remember that post on "I like being a hater" and no! I don't think most people like being haters, but when fair and valid concerns get dismissed as "hate" it becomes frustrating. Option c) is hate. Option b) is interesting and often constructive!

And the opposite also holds!

Throbb specifically is a ship I never understood the appeal of and disliked engaging with but a few of the responses explaining why people enjoy it opened my eyes about it. They offered perspectives I hadn't considered in the past and to some extent they made me more tolerant.

Some examples (including things I don't really agree with but still found insightful and interesting):

I only mildly dabble in shipping in asoiaf at all, however Throbb Is nice as when its done well It tends to have a lot of what I like (kidfic, canon divergences with some political element and happening around the early ACOK node, very specific hurt comfort dynamics, role reversals (enjoy Robb Is the one who had to experience Ramsay AUs even) exploration of the cultural/identity issues through conflicing loyalty etc . It rigorously has to be by people who love Theon better than Robb though

I'm someone where I will take whatever I can get tbh. All of the above. I do really enjoy stories where Robb is a darker character though, and relishes in the power he holds over Theon. Also just like playing with the theme of the Starks being wolves? And how the Ironborn were called like sea wolves by those in the riverlands and westerlands. It's very fun. I also do indulge in modern AUs where Theon is an unofficial member of the Starks. It's just very comfy. I like it less-so in canon fics because I think it very much writes off Ironborn culture in place of Northern culture. I am picky with them though because some of them are very much in the lane of "the Starks can do no wrong" and nope, the Starks can and have.

I am truly here for literally any Theon ship and they all appeal to me in different ways for different reasons. Robb and Theon - Personally I think it's really interesting how Robb is upheld as this very honourable gentleman-type but he never calls out Theon on his horrible treatment of women or other uncouth behaviour and it's suggested he actually kind of admires him for it? It gives me the impression that Robb lives vicariously through Theon a little bit and I'm fascinated by the idea of them being devoted to each other but also jealous of each other? We never see Robb's POV in the books but I think he's interesting to view through a lens of a young guy with an immense amount of pressure and responsibility on his shoulders (even before Ned dies he has the responsibility of being heir and the pressure to live up to the Stark name). I imagine that Theon is one of the few people Robb felt he could be himself around without any pressure to be respectable or honourable. He probably craves the relative freedom Theon has whole Theon longs for the status and respect that Robb has. It's an interesting dynamic! Also there's the fact that Robb is literally the only person who likes Theon and trusts him when no one else does which makes it even more heartbreaking when he betrays him. 

This last sentence I marked on blue was so captivating because it opened a can of worms regarding ACOK-ASOS Robb and how much he seems to be imitating Theon's own (failed) leadership, which, yes, we have tons of meta exploring their similitudes but combined with the "Theon treats women horribly" take (in my opinion, yes but not much worse that the rest of men in the story) makes me think of Robb's dubiously consensual relationship with Jeyne W after he and his army take over her castle and Theon having Kyra be brought to him after he takes Winterfell (and a few weeks later raping her). Interesting things to dwell on.

3. (Anti) Sansa-Dany (Stan)

Something that surprised me positively was that the division between Anti-Sansa/Anti-Dany was a lot less present than I usually perceived it to be. The majority was sympathetic to both without seeing one as a villain and the other as a hero. There were still more Sansa stans than Dany stans but it was much less extreme than I thought. I wonder if this is tied to the show fandom dying and people being more aware about thematic and textual similitudes between Dany & Theon and Sansa & Dany now that the show-made dynamics have been fading. People have been slowly realising that Theon being devoted to a Stark might not be the hill we want him to die on and that Daenerys' ambition for the throne is similarly to Theon also motivated by a deep longing for home.

There is still a preference for Sansa but the animosity for Dany was much less than I expected and that made me very happy. Very proud of the Theon fandom for this!

Thanks for asking again. It's very nice of you to show interest and I hope this hasn't ben very disappointing.

#speaking #bisexualbonnet #thanks again for giving me a chance to rant a little. This was fun. #asoiaf #theon greyjoy #theon survey

[ancientpersacom]

Expending on the head canons I keep drawing:

L (gender queer)

Would rather die than pick a set of pronouns, so use any interchangeably

Always kinda knew, but didn’t have the words for it as a kid. Just gradually got more and more androgynous over time.

Grew out hair to around the shoulders, it’s super thick and fluffy

Wears literally any clothes as long as it’s comfortable. Skirts, dresses, ‘feminine’ necklines and colours? All game. Just be comfortable

Lives to confuse people, gets a kick out of the taskforce having no idea what their AGAB is (AMAB but no one can tell)

Actively makes an effort to achieve androgynous features. Occasionally thinks ‘hm maybe boobs would be nice’ but the flatness helps with the androgyny in their particular case.

Will make comments like “get off my dick” and “don’t stare at my tits” just to confuse people even more. What does L have? Who knows.

Matsuda (trans masc)

Realised in teen years, started transitioning at 18 once he’d graduated school and had a fresh start

Couldn’t decide on a name so just let his parents re-name him

Been on T for years, passes well

On a waiting list for top surgery. Still suck binding for a little while longer

Barely anyone knows, he’s anxious about telling people. L figured it out, couldn’t care less what he is. Soichiro also found out because as Cheif he has to know all his team members medial details, saw all the transition stuff and just keeps quiet about it out of respect for Matuda’s privacy.

Gets told off by L for binding too long regularly

Light (homophobic homosexual)

So deep in the closet he’s homophobic toward himself

Several people can tell but never say anything, they don’t know why he’s so worried it’s not like his family would really care

Thinks L’s weird for the gander ambiguity, is unaware that’s just his own internalised problems that make him think that. Has absolutely no clue about Matsuda, convinced he’s cis.

Gets SO offended when someone calls him gay, only makes him look more gay

Misa is literally throwing herself at him and he just doesn’t care. He thinks it’s because she’s ‘not his type’ but it’s really because she’s a girl not a boy. L thinks he’s insane for not being all over a hot goth girl that’s smiping for him, and that’s what really convinced him Lights hella gay.

Everyone is sick of his shit. Like just suck a dick and move on Light

“You’re one of them queers? Well as long as you don’t have a crush on me haha”

#this on only half a joke #L and Matsuda are absolutely not cis #that part is serious #no ships #death note #death note headcanons #l lawiet #matsuda touta #yagami light #l death note #matsuda death note #light death note #death note matsuda #death note l #death note lawliet #light yamagi

[ufonaut]

look im not gonna proclaim to be very knowledgeable on alan scott but and feel free to correct me, but. the preview has him like nurturing this pride in himself in the face of homophobia - which seems entirely contradictory to alan “most repressed man in comics” scott. alan “took eighty years to come out of the closet” scott. Sheridan seems completely unwilling to explore the repressed side of alan, and turned alan’s doublethink and unwillingness to admit his homosexuality to himself as all externally motivated. All the conflict about Alan’s sexuality is externally driven, not internally. Maybe I was expecting too much, but I honestly thought this run was gonna be a hell of a lot more introspective than we’ve seen.

i don't necessarily disagree but i'm having the opposite issue? i think tim sheridan's take is too internally motivated because alan's own feelings on his sexuality seem to hinge entirely on christian guilt, which is not a trait that has ever existed in the past eighty years of publication. alan is not and has never been religious in any way. regardless of external factors like the army and the asylum, the foundation of alan's concerns and pride is still religion ("it's a sin"/"the way god made me"). that is entirely nonsensical to me.

the way i've always seen alan's approach to his own sexuality is based entirely around societal pressure, primarily because he's already historically & canonically hiding parts of himself seen as undesirable by society at large -- his much more pronounced gotham accent for one (as per the vast majority of his 1940s stories), his social class and the way he worked his way up to his present day status (a la 'scenes from the class struggle at jsa mansion' from golden age secret files among many other examples), and the fact that he's quite clearly not neurotypical. so much of the man alan grows up to be is just facades on top of facades, hiding his sexuality is just another part of it.

see, when i call alan repressed i mean emotionally repressed -- i think he closed himself off from the world after doiby left, i think he was significantly more honest with himself in the 1940s when he was very young. with doiby gone, with the HUAC after the jsa, alan's career became the most important thing in his life. he has to be the big shot ceo, with all that implies in 1955. hence: the lies. i don't think admitting his homosexuality to himself plays any part in it, not when we've got stories like comic cavalcade 1942 #23 or frankly alan's whole entire life in those golden age stories where he proudly rejected women and lived with his male best friend. i think he stayed a confirmed bachelor until it was no longer acceptable, i think he became whatever he needed to become to stay on top because he's always been so insanely driven & ambitious and a sincere workaholic.

point being i don't think alan was necessarily sexually repressed, he was certainly a 'man about town' like paul levitz puts it but it just seems unlikely to me that he would've ever formed long term relationships along the line of what we see with johnny ladd in the new book. he's not the marrying kind, in every sense of the phrase.

there's a lot of internalized homophobia at play, of course, because alan's a product of his time through and through but we must also consider the fact that he's not emotionally open & vulnerable with anybody about anything and the crowd he frequents is as much a product of their time as he is: his sexuality would not have been accepted so it became none of their business. i think the fact that todd had an easier time with it in terms of society at large made alan dislike him but it also proved to him that times had changed indeed, and he's not lying in dc pride 2021 when he says todd's the reason he came out. alan now had evidence that it was safe to do so.

i don't know, man, i guess more than anything my thing has always been that alan hiding his homosexuality isn't something that happens in a vacuum. he's hiding all of himself, the soft underbelly of his real self and that's not just being gay. i wish we got some of that! something that acknowledges alan's astounding complexity from all angles!

#well this got away from me. enjoy #alan scott #asks #anon

[meirimerens]

do you have any headcanons for pathologic characters having mental disorders and/or neurodivergency? from what i can tell from your ATA fanfic, Burakh probably has posttraumatic stress disorder. (as well as, well, Mishka being canonically stated to be autistic.) so what are your thoughts?

boy do i. throwing in other stuff that's not necessarily a mental health condition or neurodivergency but that i think affects them like brain-wise + for me to rember lol.

In general basically Most people in this town from an atmosphere of social misery have a little Something Something. most are grieving and some are Poorly Coping with a shit past, whether it is because of abandonment, loss, grief, so on and so forth. the plague adds More Grief and hands out PTSD like corn to the hens. some who have like. Syndromes that could be brought to a psychiatrist i can think of

Burakh: PTSD (war medic lore + The Plague Bro) + might lend him some Prolonged Grief Disorder if i feel like it

Dankovsky: i don't think how he is pre-Events comes from pathologies i think he's just a closeted gay male in academia, that plays a number with your mind (the self-aggrandizing and prideful behavior of being a know-it-all man in academia + the fear, restlessness and paranoia that comes with having to keep your homosexuality secret -> combo of evil). develops PTSD thorough the game, mostly becomes Twitchy, reckless behaviors, intrusive thoughts, and then it settles in post-events like nightmares flashbacks the usual

Rubin: PTSD (soldier/mercenary p1 lore) like shell-shock PTSD which in my mind's eye translates into obsessions/intrusive thoughts. he also has a lil Something Something from having had Not The Best parental figure and having to fight for recognition until he burned himself but i'm not sure what Diagnosis that is. it's just Shit's Fucked Diagnosis. self-esteem in the dumps.

Petr: i go back and forth between bipolar, bipolar schizophrenic, schizoaffective, like i haven't settled on something yet, but bipolar (or bipolar-like, like the "mood disorder" of schizoaffective) is a given (mixed episode in P1 and depressive episode in P2 if you care). obviously addiction. i go back and forth if i see the hallucinations/delusions he has as something from the bipolar disorder, from the addiction, from something else entirely... very hefty and powerful game so all if fair. + The Guilt. (might become paranoid from that)

Andrey: i don't know if i want him to Just Be Like This or for whatever his problem is to be pathological. someone infused in me an ADHD diagnosis for him and while i go back and forth he strikes me as the kind of guy who behaves better on Ritalin. but is it because of a neurodivergency or because he just loves drugs. much to think about. + The Guilt (might become paranoid from that too but ykno. "motor activity eliminates mental activity"...)

Anna: Girl's Scared Disorder. i'd say paranoia but is it paranoia if they're really after you... ykwim. Obdurate/insular paranoid, but is it truly pathological if walls having eyes is like not out of the reach of possibilities... etc

Katerina: canon addiction and what that brings. i think hers pushes her mostly to depressive episodes instead of aggressive/exteriorizing ones.

all of the orphans, by virtue of being orphans, have some kind of Issue, because not being socialized properly/cared for/living in social and psychological neglect like Does A Number on your brain regardless. most of them kids got that SLS (Shit Life Syndrome)

Mishka: her canon autism + methinks an attachment disorder because it fits with the timeline of her losing her parents around 3 of age. Prolonged Grief Disorder too perhaps? much to think about

Notkin: Tourette's, mostly motor tics. + a dys, i was shared the hc of dyslexia and i think i'll espouse it. i also think his family life was kinda shit + living in the streets is Actively Dangerous so like. (C)PTSD? i think it's The Least Of His Problems but it mostly makes him twitchy, doesn't dare get much sleep, needs to never have anyone or anything behind his back, stuff like that

Grace: some kind of FASD (fetal alcohol syndrome disorder) since her mother canonically drank while pregnant with her, i think hers mostly manifests as memory problems and learning/speech disabilities (also doesn't help that. orphan), poor reasoning and judgment skills & vision problems. all of those are also wrapped in the package of like. not having been properly socialized as a child

^ shit life syndromes

#ring ring (answers) #anonymous #ask to tag whatnots #the lores

[hoperays-song]

All LGBTQIA+ Sing Characters Headcanons

Out of all 63 canon characters that we actually get to know a bit about, I headcanon 55 of them are LGBTQIA+. Why? One, why not, two, they told me themselves, and three... this is legitimately a franchise about theatre kids, of course majority are gonna be fruity. 

Anyways, here we go!

---------------------------------

Meena Amari - Bisexual Trans Woman (She/Her)

- publicly came out two years before Sing 1 and her family was extremely supportive

- was a member of a LGBTQ+ support club when she was in school

Darius Andeno - Unlabled (He/Him)

- honestly just never has tried to labeled his sexuality and is too lazy to start now

- dating Harry for around a year and a half at the time of Sing 2

Hobbs Atene - Omnisexual (He/Him)

- happily married to his spouse with three kids

- was the first person Eddie ever came out to as a kid

Ash Batalla - Bisexual Demi-Girl (She/They)

- came out to her bio family as a teenager which went horribly

- has coached several others in the troupe through identity crises

Mike Bianchi - Biromantic (He/Him)

- so deep in the closet that he’s in Narnia at this point

- legit thinks everyone is like this she is wrong)

Nancy Bianchi - Graysexual (She/Her)

- didn’t really understand her own identity until she started doing research in case her future kid/s came out

- also legit thought everyone is like this (she was also wrong)

Clay Calloway - Bisexual Trans Masc (He/They)

- one of the first public LGBTQ+ rockstars

- has gotten into fights protecting queer fans from protestors

Ruby Calloway - Pansexual Trans Woman (She/Her)

- she and Clay are the og T4T couple in this series

- worked as a marketing agent almost exclusively with young queer artists

Jimmy Crystal - Bisexual (He/Him)

- tied with Mike for the character with the most internalized homophobia

- was the only one at Crystal Entertainment to not know about Jerry’s crush

Porsha Crystal - Gender Questioning Pansexual (She/Her)

- came out as a younger teenager to her dad’s bodyguards first as “practice”

- started questioning her gender during the Majestic run of Out of This World

Barry Frost - Bisexual (He/Him)

- was outed as a young teenager and was bullied a lot

- he was the first of the gang to realize that Johnny was queer

Norman Harrison - Biromantic (He/Him)

- he and Rosita both came out in college and to each other first

- pan4bi Rosita and Norman is so important to me idk

Gunter Järvinen - Aromantic Homosexual Trans Man (He/Him)

- came out as a kid and transitioned before moving to the US

- genuinely gets confused and slightly worried when someone tries to describe romantic attraction to him

Klaus Kickenclobber - Gay (He/Him)

- been out for years

- that’s all you’re getting because that’s all I thought of

Suki Lane - AroAce (She/Her)

- realized she was AroAce as a teen but just didn’t come out for a few years due to her family not being accepting

- when she did come out, her honorary cousins pointed out that she dressed like the AroAce flag, which they found way funnier than she did

Buster Moon - Gay Trans Man (He/Him)

- he came out as a young kid and his dad was super supportive

- has been dating Eddie since university

Charley Moon (Buster’s Dad) - Greyromantic (He/Him)

- did not realize he was greyromantic til he was in his 50s

- another prime example of “but everyone’s like this”

Eddie Noodleman - Bisexual (He/Him)

- came out to his family as a university student after coming out to Hobbs as a teen

- legit flipped a coin with Buster to see who would propose

Nana Noodleman - Asexual Lesbian (She/Her)

- she was pretty open with her identity her entire career and was well known for not taking any kind of harassment at her shows

- adopted her daughter on her own in her 40s

Harry Ocheing - Intersex Gay (They/He)

- came out as a kid to their siblings

- super supportive of other performers when they come out

Nooshy Peart - Genderfluid Lesbian (They/She)

- came out as a teenager and left home right after, bit is still in contact with her siblings who are supportive

- Marcus was the first supportive parent they ever had

Rosita Pèrez-Harrison - Pansexual (She/Her)

- came out to her college friends before anyone else

- buys all the troupe pride gear if they want or need any

Stan Phillips - Unlabled (He/Him)

- decidedly unlabeled and happy about it

- he protected Barry from bullies when they were kids, which is how they met

Alfonso Romano-Hassan - Biromantic (He/Him)

- did not realize he was biromantic until talking to Meena about her being bi a few months into dating

- the creator of bi wife energy lets be honest

Mizuki Satō - Nonbinary Lesbian (They/She)

- moved states away from their family after coming out in their twenties

- she has a long term girlfriend of three years

Jerry Swell - Gay (He/Him)

- came out in his late 20s

- had a crush on his boss since he started working for him

Johnny Taylor - Gay Demi-Boy (He/They)

- came out to his family a few months before Sing 2 despite the closet being made of glass with no doors for years

- found out that he was legit the last person to know he was gay out of his entire family

Marcus Taylor - Demisexual (He/Him)

- figured out that he was demisexual after researching how to be more supportive of Johnny

- married an omnisexual woman and was a very vocal ally since he was a teen

Ryan Willis - Gay (He/Him)

- came out to his moms as a really young kid and legit forgot about it until he tried to come out years later and they just said that they knew already

- had a crush on Johnny since meeting him but actually hid it for several months pretty well

Garry Wishmann - Asexual Trans Man (He/Him)

- came out in his late teens

- owns a ton of pun centered asexual shirts 

#sing #sing 2 #sing 2016 #sing 2021 #sing 2022 #im not tagging everyone #it is legit every single character #sing rynny #rynny #sing noodlemoon #noodlemoon #this is a long list #sing headcanons #we love supportive dad and uncles here #and supportive moms #backstory hints are here!!! #as well as the mysterious last names that im gonna keep using #because i actually did research and i'm proud of them #sing darry #darry #pride month #pride month posts #also ryan has two moms #and i will die on that hill #two amazing and loving moms

[cool-island-songs]

Craig for ask gamee :3

Sorry this took so long but tumblr kept chewing it up in my drafts

Sexuality Headcanon:

Gay gay homosexual gay. Fem Craig? Staunch lesbian.

Those are my preferences in writing Craig, though I do also enjoy shoving him back in the closet because without yaoi magic, abrupt PCness, and the comfort of meth bf's twitchy hand in his, I can really see that being a longer struggle for Craig

Not-totally-gay slut Craig has a fairly long legacy some younger fans may not be aware of. This fandom is old and Creek only became canon in 2015 so it's like a form of culture shock for me to see artists getting yelled at for drawing Craig with girls. It's not like he was usually with girls, but there's this thing in the old yaoi tropes where the one who is presumed to top is less flamingly homosexual and more interested in sex generally. He was also frequently a menacing gay villain back in the day though lol

"I'm not just gay, I'm a catamite." - Craig Tucker, 2003

I do personally love reading his earlier aggression and posturing on the show as internalized homophobia. He's NOT gay! Don't say he's gay or he'll beat you up, completely un-homoerotically!!! This is a fun retconning thing though. The intentions of the showrunners earlier on likely were not that he is posturing extra hard due to being closeted. But authorial intent is not relevant to how I might want to thread the needle between older Craig characterizations on the show and more current ones

I'm a bit more fixed with Craig than others due to the presentation of his autism and generally see him demisexual, monogamous, traditional in a learned, rote sort of way. He's very favorite person-y with Tweek to me

Gender Headcanon:

I've only ever written him cis but I have enjoyed trans Craigs of all stripes (get it????), and I actually do have some t4t Creek planned!

Very into fem Craig. Excited to write her being so regular about Tweek's twiddies <3 In short, give me all the Craig genders

A ship I have with said character:

Well... I guess I like Creek a little bit 👉👈

I like exploring other dynamics but I'm always going to conceive of Creek as a unique bond. They get something from one another they can't get anywhere else, even when I'm putting them in horrible circumstances. That's what I'm here for, babeyyy

A BROTP I have with said character:

Honestly love thinking about Craig/Tolkien, Craig/Jimmy, Craig/Clyde (though I think I see that last one quite differently from most, or at least I'm most interested in the SoT vibe with dumdum traitor Clyde and amoral opportunist Craig). Really love writing platonic Crenny but I generally see Kenny as gravitating to other people so when I write these two as closer friends, it's usually based on particular circumstances. Craig/Bebe reluctant gossip hoes is also very funny to me

A NOTP I have with said character:

Yeah, I don't really NOTP anymore. There is a version out there of any ship I might find compelling. Being so Creek brainrotted, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about other Craig ships in any endgame capacity but I'm always curious to see the different ways people view Craig. I've noticed his characterization tends to vary depending on who he's with. One example is his socioeconomic status. I've noticed his family potentially being worse off than most others is stressed in Crenny fics, socioeconomic status tends not to play a huge role in Cryde or Creek fics, and he is often more ambitious and upwardly mobile in Cryle fics. As my friend @phantomchill put it: "he's absorbing their financial status. autism masking has gone too far!" This is not a negative or positive thing, there isn't one correct way, but he feels very malleable as the love interest guy

I'm very much a Tweek-relater first and foremost and early on in my time in fandom came up with the very novel theory (lol) that people tend to project onto one guy in their OTP more and thus multiship that guy, while the other guy isn't allowed to have other boyfriends. I have since moved beyond this theory for myself at least, because I relate to Craig quite a bit too and I think sometimes people have other boyfriends and that's pretty normal and okay. Striving for realism in my homosexual erotic cartoon porn writings

A random headcanon:

Honestly don't even consider autistic Craig to be a headcanon at this point. I think they're doing it on purpose now. His special interests are ancient animes and space. His favorite person is Tweek. He is also canonically very hairy

This is very specific but I like headcanoning Craig as Mediterranean. Peruvian Craig is cute of course and honestly I don't care where he's from as long as he's hairy, tan, and big nosed. Big nose/big eyebrows Craig 🛐 Are these just my aesthetic preferences? No. I have Matt Stone tied up under my bed and he says it's canon uwu

General Opinion over said character:

I want to beat him up

Also a bit bored by Craig discourses (bad boy VS. dork??? Leather jacket and cigarettes as a personality IS a dork I'm so sorry to burst your bubble) so some new proposals:

Craig actually doesn't like TOS. He doesn't really get it (too campy). TNG is his favorite. I'm talking about Space Trek u fake ass nerds

Craig weeb loser dub v sub opinions???

Red Racer is just Speed Racer. Sorry it's not a great discourse it's just how i feel

Craig STEM smart vs. Craig not naturally proficient in any subject

This is crazy but what if his penis was just regular. No okay that one is too far. I- *is shot dead*

#south park #ask game #craig tucker #just5am #headcanons #sean wanted me to change this to craig small benis #thank you for the ask sam :3

[dr-wormman]

Hello and welcome to my very cool Fernando essay. Rant. Thing. Might make sense and might not. I don't know

For those unaware (I can't imagine anyone who follows me for my Paladins art doesn't, but if you don't I still love you dearly), the Fernando that we know and love isn't actually *Fernando*-- he's a guy pretending to be his late mentor (AKA the REAL Fernando. Fernando no.1). This means that anything that Fernando no.2 says or does may or may not be indicative of how he actually feels or thinks, which makes it kind of difficult to get a feel for how he actually is under the armor. but I think I might Get It.

I don't know if I'm going to phrase this how I am thinking it but I will try: Fernando reminds me a bit of Don Quixote… Unlike Don Quixote, Fernando is quite literally a knight who does real knight things, but he’s similar in the way he acts like how he Thinks a knight acts. To the point where it's so exaggerated and comical that it feels like a caricature. He is genuinely courageous and confident (how much of that confidence is genuine I don't know) but that confidence is (translated?) into narcissism and that courage into recklessness. He's definitely reckless, but I think most of that narcissism is an act– a way for him to not only convince others, but also himself that he IS Fernando and he's proud of it. He's likely self-aware that he acts like a jackass (or maybe he isn't and he has more in common with Don Quixote than I think) but he can't really tone it down at this point because he's established That That Is How Fernando Acts. Speaking of jackassery… His flirting with women.

I think two things are happening here; 1) he's leaning way too far into the ‘chivalrous lady’s man knight’ persona he thinks All Knights Have, and 2) he's trying REALLY hard to make sure no one finds out he's gay. (and also the devs did not plan to make him gay. Lol). Based on one of the lines from… I think Cassie? He's been persistent in his flirting with her even though she's said that she doesn't like it…So not cool… I think he does this partly because he IS kind of a jackass at heart but also because he's thinking “if I show that I'm REALLY into women then no one will suspect that I'm Not”. May also be because he thinks all knights do this. Quick detour for a second; I'm pretty sure he's basing what he knows about knights on what he's seen from his mentor, so he's actually doing a pretty good job impersonating him, but he also doesn't realize that he's not obligated to act this way. People can change, even your dead mentor that you're impersonating. He doesn't know this, because he might actually be as silly as he acts (I haven't decided yet). Anyway, back to The Closet of His Own Making… I don't think homophobia exists in the Paladins universe (there are magic crystals and rabbit people and the giant worm who wants to eat the universe. Gay people are the least of their concern) so there wouldn't be any backlash if he were to come out (or even engage in homosexual activity on the DL). So he's not concerned with it having any repercussions on his career as a knight, or public opinion, or whatever, just with it potentially giving away that he isn't who he says he is (which I guess would end up impacting those things anyway. Huh). A lot of people point to Fernando flirting with women as ‘evidence’ of him being straight (I mean, you can HC whatever you want, I don't care, but if the devs say it's canon, it's canon, no matter how… Not Thought Out it Was) but I'm actually really happy about those lines because I feel it adds to the Fucked-upness of his character.

I wrote something a little while ago that I'm basically going to summarize now; I feel like… Fernando is VERY insecure. That's probably obvious, Considering, you know, He's impersonating another dude. It's like he has imposter syndrome… but he kind of IS an imposter– he would be, 100%, if it weren't for the fact that he has actually done things, and accomplished things, he's not just taking credit for things he hasn't done while he sits back and does nothing – all of Fernando no.1’s accomplishments prior to his death do not belong to Fernando no.2, but everything after that Does, and I would say that Fernando no.2 has accomplished more than Fernando no.1 if you look at where he’s at now. He's constantly worried about slipping up, saying more than he should, saying the Wrong thing, etc. He’s like “I could expose myself as a fraud at any moment” but he's NOT a fraud at this point. Would there still be disastrous consequences if he revealed himself? Yeah, probably. It's weird, because he's not Fernando but he also IS… He's fought in battles and won, just not as himself. Do you get what I'm saying. He's done the thing he says he does, just not ALL the things. Fernando doesn't realize this, of course, because he's just as silly as he acts (I've decided) and so his internal monologue is a nonstop stream of “I'll never be him, I'll never be as great as him, my life is a lie, I'm not actually as brave/confident/handsome/chivalrous as he was, Etc.”

This has got to be stressful as hell, so why does he keep doing it? I don't know. Lol. But I have a theory (this entire thing has been a theory. Headcanon. Whatever). Fernando genuinely enjoys the attention, the fame, and the money that he gets as Fernando, that's obvious, because why else would he put himself through all this? We know he doesn't come from a noble or rich family (and also received no formal training!!), so I'm thinking he wouldn't have gotten all this popularity if he had just been himself, and he knew this. I'm torn between the idea that he always wanted to fight and be a knight, or him just wanting notoriety and so he decided knighthood would do that for him (horrible sentence structure, couldn't figure out how to write it). It could also be a situation similar to Kinessa’s and why she left the military– because while she Does like sniping, she wasn't getting the money and fame she wanted while she was working for the Magistrate. If Fernando genuinely wanted to fight, he could have enlisted in the Magistrate’s army (or joined the resistance. maybe? Unsure of how old he was when the crystal war shit all started or if he would actually agree with them) or if he was just obsessed with the idea of being a knight, he could do that. The issue for him would be that he doesn't get any fame doing that as Himself. He is a nobody, and while a nobody could become a somebody, it's difficult, and I imagine it would be especially difficult in this sort of pseudo-medieval setting we’ve got going on where 5/10 people are either skilled warriors, literal gods/demons, magical, or have some sort of high status (leader of a kingdom, military, criminal organization, Whatever). Fernando is obviously skilled at combat so I don't think the knight thing was just for funsies. Uhhhhh I had something else to say but I forgot. Will add it here if I remember. It's like “I have to keep doing this because without it I am Nothing.”

Anyhow, I think while we’re probably never going to see this happen officially, Fernando is going to have a breakdown where he sort of implodes from all of the stress that comes with Pretending to be Another Dude for YEARS. Maybe he's just like “shit I can't do this no more” or… Considering he's with the New Magistrate (Aico) now, and working alongside Rei, Khan, and Lian (at least… We see him next to those three in one of the cinematics so I'm assuming that's the case), maybe someone decides to do some digging. A background check. That would be interesting I think.

#text post #paladins #paladins champions of the realm #fernando paladins #love this guy if you couldn't tell #there are so many more things I would like to say but I couldn't fit them in here cause they're would ruin the cohesiveness

[ddyfckr]

at  the  moment,  i  am  undecided  on  several  things  regarding  Striker’s  characterization,  so  forgive  me  if  certain  aspects  are  not  made  clear  in  my  portrayal,  as  i’m  currently  waiting  for  such  information  to  be  revealed  by  the  actual  show.     these  include…

sexuality :     by  default,  it  seems  everyone  in  hell     (   not  necessarily  sinners,  mind  you   )     seems  to  have  a  very  wide  spectrum.     but  it  gets  a  bit  confusing  because,  clearly,  there  are  feelings  of  homophobia  within  hell-borns.     also,  of  course,  they  have  to  reproduce  somehow.  so  there’s  heterosexuality,  somewhere.  on  one  hand,  i  like  the  idea  of  Striker  being  heterosexual;  it’s  the  sexuality  i’ve  identified  for  a  majority  of  my  life     &.     i’d  feel  like  he’d  almost  be  the  odd  one  out,  so  to  speak,  compared  to  the  rest  of  the  cast.     it  goes  well  with  his  intended  portrayal  of  being  toxic  masculinity  bigot,  but  i  don’t  want  to  necessarily  promote  the  idea  that  heterosexuality  equals  inherently  bad / automatically  means  one  is  a  bigot.     heterosexuality  is  a  sexuality  like  any  other.

but  the  thought  of  him  being  closeted homosexual,  or  at  the  very  least,  bisexual  male  leaning,  makes  me  👀👀  because  that’s  always  a  fun  topic  to  explore     (   something  i  also  am  familiar  with,  as  well   ).     it’s  interesting  to  think  that  perhaps  he  was  raised  a  certain  way,  forced  to  conceal  certain  parts  of  himself     &.     to  conform  to  societal  standards…     but  that’s  the  part  i  get  tripped  up  because,  again,  the  default  in  hell  seems  to  be  10x  more  open  to  sexuality  than  Earth / the  human  world.     so  unless  he  was  raised  in  a  cult / small  town  of  sorts  where  that’s  all  he  knew,  i’m  not  sure  how  well  him  being  closeted  would  even  work.

or,  alternatively,  him  being  asexual  is  an  idea  that  tickles  my  fancy  but  that’s  more  or  less  debunked  already.     on  a  different  note,  the  thought  of  him  being an inexperienced  virgin  dude  who  pretends  to  be  a  Chad  is  actually  pretty  hilarious  though.  would  have  loved  to  have  seen  NR  portraying  that.

backstory :     yeah,  there’s…     way  way  way  too  many  ideas  swirling  in  my  head  regarding  his  possible  background.     what’s  worse  is  that,  depending  on  what  Viv  is  trying  to  go  for,  most  theories  would  be  able  to  work.     but  i  don’t  want  to  solidify  ANY  OF  THEM  lest  it  gets  debunked  extremely  hard  in  canon.     i  do  hope  we  get  mention,  at  the  very  least,  of  what  he  went  through  that  led  him  down  this  path.

for  one,  he  could  have  lived  in  a  small  town  somewhere  in  Wrath,  his  family  having  been  massacred  in  front  of  him  by  royals  or  even  exorcists.     perhaps  if  it  was  exorcists,  royals  refused  to  assist,  seeing  as  it  was  a  small  town  of  imps.     they  didn’t  fund  to  rebuild  shit.     of  course  with  his  luck,  he  was  the  only  remaining  survivor.     think  Sasuke  from  Naruto.  it’d  be  interesting  to  see  given  that  the  opposite  holds  true  for  the  main  cast :  Moxxie     &.     Blitzo  had  shit  fathers,  but  good  mothers     &.     they  turned  out  to  be  ‘ good  guys ’.     Striker  would  have  good  parents / a  good  father,  but  turned  out  to  be  a  ‘ bad  guy ’.

second  general  theory  that  i  personally  like  is  that  Striker  isn’t  actually  a  ‘ real ’  cowboy  at  all.  by  which  i  mean,  given  his  confirmed  hybrid  status,  he  was  raised  by  a  couple  native  to  the  sloth  ring     (   the  ‘ normals ’  of  the  hell  world,  from  what  i’ve  seen   ).     perhaps  his  mother  was  a  young  sex  worker  native  to  Envy / part  shark  or  snake  who  was  taken  advantage  of  by  an  older  Wrath  imp     (   or  switch  the  species  around   ).     he  never  met  his  biological  parents,  but  naturally,  he  wanted  to  learn  more  of  his  biological  roots,  so  like  any  child,  he  really  honed  in  on  the  whole  cowboy  motif.     to  the  point  where  he  probably  went  to  Wrath  once     &.     faked  an  accent,  stuck  with  it.     he  wanted  to  be  a  big  bad,  just  like  in  the  old  cowboy  movies.     he  wanted  to  be  famous.     he  learned  whatever  he  could  from  his  ethnicity     &.     quickly  learned  of  the  severe  power  imbalance  regarding  imps  versus  royals.     maybe  his  bastard  of  a  father  was  part  royal,  having  used  that  to  take  advantage  of  his  mother.     perhaps  he  was  raised  by  an  abusive  father. maybe he had to protect younger siblings : maybe royals killed his older siblings.

another  theory  i’ve  seen  is  that  Striker  was  raised  normally  in  Wrath,  not  unlike  Millie.  had  a  relatively  normal  life,  whatever.     but  perhaps  he  fell  in  love  with  a  royal,  maybe  even  had  a  family  with  her  or  was  going  to,  but  the  woman’s  father  wouldn’t  let  it  happen.     or  perhaps  he  had  a  family     &.     royals  killed  them  off,  for  whatever  reason.     very  Rick  Sanchez,  almost.     though,  this  appeals  to  me  the  least,  to  be  honest.

there’s  a  lot  more  possibilities  beyond  these  of  course,  but  i  don’t  want  to  go  along  with  any  of  them  until  i  get  confirmation.

motivation :     from  what  i’ve  seen,  a  lot  of  people,  naturally,  like  the  idea  that  Striker  is  justifiably  angry  in  his  pursuits  for  equality     &.     that  he’s  secretly  a  sweetheart  who  has  a  soft  spot  for  kids,  or  something.     while  i  understand  this  theory  to  a  point,  given  that  Viv  indirectly  confirmed  that  well…     she  doesn’t  like  him     &.     he’s  supposed  to  represent  the  ‘ toxic  masculinity ’  ideal     (   in  addition  to  my  personal  preferences   )     i  don’t  think  that’s  the  case.     from  what  i’m  seeing,  Striker  is  a  shitty  son  of  a  bitch  who  probably  let  his  own  ideals  warp  into  something  extreme.     i  don’t  know  why  people  don’t  like  to  say  it,  because  it  does  happen  IRL.  being  a  minority  does  not  automatically  make  you  unable  to  be  a  bad  person.

initially,  based  on  the  HMF  episode  alone,  i  liked  to  think  he  was  actually  self-serving  using  the  guise  of  pursuing  equality.  i  liked  to  think,  although  he  himself  has  experienced  several  injustices,  at  the  end  of  it  all…     he  only  cares  about  himself.  he  clearly  doesn’t  much  care  for  others  of  his  kind,  to  the  point  where  he’ll  kill  them  for  a  job.  he  has  no  problems  using  royals     &.     imps  alike,  so  long  as  he  rises  to  the  top.     fuck  everyone  else,  he’s  the  only  one  that  matters.     i’m  hoping  that  doesn’t  change  in  canon.     i  really  hope  they  don’t  pull  a  Blitzo  thing,  making  him  ‘ secretly  misunderstood     &.     he’s  been  trying  all  this  time  to  be  a  good  guy ’.

i  do  want  to  add  though,  that  him  working  for  royals  isn’t  exactly  a  ‘ gotcha ! ’  moment  in  the  slightest.     of  course  he  has  to  work  for / with  royals  to  get  to  the  top.     Striker  knows  how  to  play  the  system     &.     he’ll  do  whatever  it  takes  to  win.

ALL  THIS  TO  SAY,  if  you  ask  me  how  i’m  portraying  Striker,  i’m  just  gonna  be  like  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#❮ * 𝗔𝗥𝗖 𝒊 [ . . . ] ooc : 𖤐 ── mun . ❯ #❮ * 𝗔𝗥𝗖 𝒊𝒊 [ . . . ] ic : 𖤐 ── meta . ❯