#its always the queer coded characters. for what reason??? why

[snowyvoid]

sorry but so many fandoms are so so obsessed with making masc presenting fictional characters twinks. and it makes me so upset because. ok. you have this wonderful character with amazing depth and etc etc and you just make them into a stupid little silly dumb dumb? the fuck. and why are you making them skinny and white ontop of that (when they arent already). my thoughts are very scattered about this i need some time to properly word it

#this is about benry and/or will from nbc hannibal. and various other characters too #but they are the ones that bother me the most #its always the queer coded characters. for what reason??? why #twinkification of queer characters makes me want to strangle people #why do evil gays need to be good gays. i do not understand #especially when the whole point of the source media is to question the ideas of good/evil #why do people make benry human. why do people make will graham a easily manipulated person. i hate this #top ten reasons why people need to listen in their english classes: number one. media literacy #not main tagging lol #this ESPESCIALLY for will graham. i cannot look at the nbc hannibal tag on tumblr. #im much more lenient for benry since he is a very malleable character and can totally have development. HOWEVER.

[therainscene]

It’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, but the Alan Turing poster really tells us so much about Will that I consider it to be a significant piece of foreshadowing for S5.

First, let’s dissuade ourselves of the notion that Will chose Turing for his hero project for nerd reasons -- Will’s preferred flavour of nerdery is escapist fantasy, not computer science. He doesn’t know what an IP address is and the first thing he thinks of when he hears modem noises is a movie he likes.

No, he chose Turing because he admires him for being a gay man who accomplished so much in his short life.

On one hand, that’s pretty heart-warming -- the fact he’s willing to identify with other gay men and look up to them as role models shows us he’s making good progress in accepting his identity. On the other hand, it’s heart-breaking, because Turing’s story is not a happy one -- he was caught having a sexual relationship with a man and forced to choose between jail or chemical castration. He chose castration.

I remind you: Will identifies with this guy.

Will is growing up under the twin specters of AIDS and homophobia and likely assumes he’s destined to die young too. He’s been abused and bullied so much, I imagine he’s heard and internalized it all: that he deserves to die, that he’s disgusting, that he’ll never be fulfilled in life.

So when puberty begins crawling its way inside him and implants those shameful desires that make gay men so worthy of abuse... he chooses castration.

For all the sad pining he does in S4, we never really see Will express desire for Mike -- he never checks him out or shows signs of nervousness when they touch. He behaves with perfect platonic decorum at all times...

...unless we consider That One Scene With The Hose.

Sexual interpretations of this scene are controversial, and I can understand why; we’re so used to seeing Will as this innocent, immature little boy that it's shocking to catch him fantasizing so lustfully, even though these sorts of thoughts are pretty normal for a 15 year-old. But I think that’s the point. We’re supposed to feel uncomfortable about this, because Will feels uncomfortable about it too.

He’s done well in accepting his identity, but he’s an absolute repressed mess when it comes to accepting his sexuality.

So, that’s what the Turing poster tells us about Will. Here’s where the foreshadowing comes in: Will is not the only queer-coded character to have been metaphorically castrated.

Henry’s experience bears striking similarities to Turing’s: he too was caught engaging in a natural but forbidden behaviour and forced by his government to undergo a medical procedure to suppress that behaviour.

His villain speech to El in 4x07, which is ostensibly about his powers, also reads very strongly as a scathing criticism of heteronormativity, and it’s covered in rainbow motifs.

The metaphor here is obvious: Henry’s powers are a manifestation of his homosexuality.

Which implies that Will’s homosexuality can also manifest as powers. They’re repressed because he’s repressed.

It’s not a coincidence that the sexual tension was through the fucking roof in the infamous sauna scene. Every time Will’s supernatural ability to sense the Mind Flayer triggers in S3, Mike is also nearby.

What’s interesting about Mike is that his queer acceptance issues mirror Will’s: Mike has a healthy relationship with his sexuality (he casually checks guys out and plasters his bedroom walls with posters of buff dudes) but he just can’t bring himself to accept what this implies about his identity.

Always with the symmetry, these two. They complement each other perfectly; one’s hang-up is the other’s strength. They have a lot to teach each other about being queer.

And as repressed as they are, I think they want to learn from each other -- Will lets himself get flustered when Mike flirts with him in his bedroom, and Mike hangs on to every word of wisdom Will shares with him in their heart-to-hearts.

Internalized homophobia is a powerful force, but their bond is so strong that it empowers them to fight back.

Henry’s powers symbolize his anger at being mistreated and his desire to take that anger out on the world... but Will’s powers symbolize self-acceptance and love.

So he isn’t just going to defeat Vecna with his powers, and he isn’t just going to get the boy: these two things are one and the same.

#stranger things #will has powers #byler #will byers #mike wheeler #henry creel #my analysis

[thenightling]

Demisexual and Queer language

There's been some heated "debate" about the word demisexual and if it is necessary.

I admit there are certain words I don't really think are necessary but I sort of like the sound of, like Pansexual.

First, to be clear, Bisexual didn't originally mean "excluding nonbinary and trans." It wasn't a strict attraction to the binary. It wasn't transphobic or nonbinary-phobic. And most self-identified bisexuals, even now, do NOT heed these newly added restrictions.

Bisexual was a third option when, once upon a time, there were only two options.

Late into the 90s (and even now) there are still some gay folk who think bisexuality is a myth and you have to be attracted to one or the other, men or women, but cannot be potentially attracted to all genders / either gender.

For a lot of bisexuals the term means attraction to your own gender and all other genders. And that's what the "bi" actually means. I only like the term pansexual because of its connection to the Greek Pan.

There was even the weird stigma and notion that bisexual meant you were horny for everyone. Into the 2000s you saw this in pop culture even with beloved characters like Jack Harkness in Doctor Who and as recently as the AMC Interview with The Vampire TV show version of Lestat, where bisexual felt like code for "Horny for everything" and even physically abusive and dominating. Odd that the 90s movie depiction of Lestat felt less... negative-stereotype-y.

Anyway, for a lot of older Queer folk "bisexual" was still a new term as recently as the 90s. When David Bowie came out as bisexual in 1972 a reporter mistakenly took that to mean he had the sex organs of a man and a woman. (Source: the 1993 book "Bowie: In his own words.")

Bowie was so stigmatized by America's obsession with him being bisexual that he walked back into the closet until the mid-2000s when he came back out and admitted he had only gone back into the closet because he was sick of American reporters asking him about it. And he admitted it felt like no other country did that, just America.

And when Vincent Price's daughter found out that her father had been bisexual she ran to Roddy McDowall and confronted him by asking "Why didn't you tell me my father was bisexual?" and Roddy responded with "We didn't know the word. How can you deny something when you don't know the word?"

Based on Roddy McDowall's response about Vincent Price, there are probably a lot of older and historic Queer folk who were actually bisexual but the moment they had any same-sex attraction the title of "homosexual" was pinned to them.

Language evolves for a reason. The acceptance of the idea that someone could be attracted to more than one gender is why we have the word bisexual. Demisexual has always existed, we just didn't have a term for it. Yes, there are a lot of new terms in the LGBTQAI+ spectrum. And change can be scary. This is why a lot of folk have started to positively use the term Queer, to keep things simple while also taking back a word some used to slur-like capacity. The 1963 novel The Man who fell to Earth by Walter Tevis had a line "He walked like a queer." and in the 1970s that line was changed to "He walked like a homosexual." I half-imagine that if Walter Tevis was still alive he would acknowledge the character Nathan Bryce's internalized homophobia (the character whose internal monologue uses the description) or drop the description entirely but it is interesting to note that the original wording would be more accepted today than back in 1963 when it was first published.

#Demisexual #Bisexual #Pansexual #Queer #LGBTQAI+ #LGBTQ #LGBT

[luffy-is-aroace]

Do you have the source in which Luffy was confirmed aroace? I’m making a project on the ace and aro communities that includes a list of aro, ace, and aroace rep in media and I can’t find where it was confirmed, but I hear everyone say he is. Thank you.

luffy is very very much aroace coded but neither he nor the author have ever directly said the words "luffy is asexual" - one piece's canonical queer rep is limited to transgender characters

that being said, here's the relevant passages, and some context if its needed:

in chapter 516/episode 411, luffy stumbles across boa hancock, the worlds most beautiful woman, in the bath. she has an ability to turn people to stone when they feel some amount of "love, lust, or adoration" to her; ie. when they are attracted to her. heres how it goes:

this is the first time hancock meets a man who isnt affected by her power. it basically suggests that, by not turning to stone, hes not attracted to her at all.

eventually, she develops a crush on him, and she wants to marry him, which he outright rejects (chapter 598)

in regard to the "mero mero" moment, a fan noticed a discrepancy, and asked the author about it in the SBS corner from volume 54. luffy had previously responded to the naked body of a woman the way all the other guys did. oda decided to blame it on luffy imitating his friend

"That's not the Luffy we know." "When Luffy is alone, his reaction is what it was with Hancock. He's interested, but he's not entranced by her." Luffy acting in a certain way because Usopp does - going along with the mood of the moment, or performing, or however you want to say it - feels awfully aspec to me. It's definitely a common aspec experience to try and force yourself into amatonormative - or, in this case, I guess allonormative? - behavior.

In the SBS for volume 88, oda was asked about why luffy called a woman a "beauty" at one point. The response:

Luffy understanding physical attractiveness as a classification, understanding it but not caring about it - that suggests he probably doesn't experience aesthetic attraction (appreciating someones appearance, disconnected from sexual/romantic attraction). this definitely speaks to my experience as an aroace individual.

also, this isnt necessarily evidence for luffy specifically, but moreso a general answer - in the SBS for volume 34, oda was asked if there would be romance between the main characters, and he brushed it off:

my impression, personally, is that Oda is generally fairly uninterested in pursuing any romantic relationships between his main characters.

in conclusion, I personally feel like the evidence here suggests that luffy is aroace, or at least aspec, given some of Oda's wording (which is probably a little up to interpretation, given it's been translated from japanese). His answer in volume 54 has always felt like a retcon to me, like Oda only came to a conclusion of sorts on this when Luffy met Hancock, and had to go back and find some reasoning for why Luffy would have responded that way. Luffy, more than anything, wants to have an adventure, and romance and sex aren't part of that for him.

I'm not gonna try to police how people view Luffy. it's not healthy for me to do that - luffy and his aroaceness is something that's very very personal to me and itd be way too messy. In addition, in the past I've had people point out that this evidence would only necessarily suggest luffy isnt attracted to women, and he could be gay; I personally don't see him that way, and I seriously doubt Oda would make that choice in canon, but people can do what they want. I think, however, it's pretty telling that a lot of aroace and aspec people see themselves in him.

This morphed into something of a modern take on my thesis here instead of just answering your question; sorry about that. I'd be interested to see your project when you're done, if you're able and willing to share!

#asks

[tiger-moran]

So Sherlock is Garbage, and Here's Why (I will refer to that from here on as SIGAHW) does talk about Moriarty but not Moran but watching that has made me think about what that show did (or didn't do) with my two favourite characters. Let's get this out the way first, sorry but I'm never going to like 'Jim' no matter what, even if they'd characterised him better and not done... everything they did with him, but that's really not the point here.

What is the point is they screwed Moriarty and Moran over in that show bigtime, and Moriarty/Moran for that matter, which whatever some people try to claim is a pairing that has a very strong basis in the canon, they are one of the most obvious potentially queer pairings of the canon even. There are details in there that are very suggestive even that Conan Doyle could have deliberately coded them as queer, probably for homophobic reasons, yes, but more in a way that tied to the homophobia of the day, so it was a coded way of saying these are characters who break the law and exist outside the laws and the norms of society because in that time and society male homosexual behaviour was literally illegal as well as widely being deemed 'sinful' and a 'sickness', i.e. it could well have been something that emphasised that these are characters who just do not give a shit about the norms and rules of society, something which is not in itself intrinsically queerphobic.

But there is nothing intrinsically wrong with coding villains as queer anyway (and I will fight people over this), and often a lot of queer people do latch on extremely hard to the queer (confirmed or coded) villains because we see ourselves in them. There's also nothing inherently wrong with having queer male characters be 'camp' or 'flamboyant' or whatever. But SIGAHW does address the queer-coding of Moriarty in Sherlock and it's summing up pretty well why that always rubbed me the wrong way, because it linked queerness directly with villainy. But also it didn't even show him as queer by bringing in the guy who would very obviously be a candidate for his boyfriend, i.e. Moran, it did it by making him obsessed with Sherlock and everything he does has to be because of and revolve around Sherlock because Sherlock is the Bestest Bestest Bestest Ever and So Smart and So Amazing (probably because, let's be honest here, Moffat seems to think he is as brilliant and smart as Sherlock Holmes and sees himself as Sherlock). It basically has it that Moriarty is bad and wrong and evil and all of this is because he's essentially in love with Sherlock, his 'badness' all stems from his queerness, which is fucked up and also, none of that is canonical, it's just an interpretation and a very loose one at that, yet it's taken over and they act like it is literally canonical fact and it's got to the point where even the fucking Conan Doyle Estate Ltd are spouting this shit as if it's canonical fact - they still have that Moriarty is "Sherlock’s number one nemesis and obsessive fan. Moriarty is the criminal mastermind who haunts Sherlock Holmes as the great detective hunts him during many of his investigative endeavours. Moriarty’s impeccable intelligence and wit make him a perfect mirror of Holmes, often in an eerily romantic way" crap on their website. They are literally describing Sherlock while claiming to be the 'experts' on the canon and ~guardians~ of the canon and its characters. Which is pretty fucked up, and OK that's probably not inherently the fault of that show or its creators but it does go to show how their nonsense managed to take over in people's minds while shitting on the canon.

Meanwhile the creators of Sherlock actually did go out of their way to insult Moriarty in the canon and in other versions - that "Moriarty is usually a rather dull, rather posh villain" nonsense from Moffat for instance which having seen that referenced in that video now I do remember and it pissed me off back when I did read that originally too even though way back then I didn't even love Moriarty the way I do now. It always, always felt like they had such contempt for the canon and their treatment of Moriarty was yet another example of that - it felt like this wasn't something they were adapting with genuine love and changing details to create their own interpretation sure but in some carefully crafted still very loving way as some kind of homage to the canon and those that had gone before. It didn't even feel like... they were mocking the plot holes and everything in the canon but in an affectionate way. Loads of us do that, I spend a lot of my time infuriated with Conan Doyle and his lack of fucks about making things make sense or making them not contradict each other, but I absolutely mean that in an affectionate way, whereas they seemed to genuinely think everything that had gone before was terrible, including the original stories, and everything about it needed to be 'fixed' and that they had made the stories 'theirs' now and all the other versions including the original stories could get fucked.

Also there's their habit of just tossing around words like "psycho" and "nutcase" for Moriarty (as well as the "sociopath" stuff for Sherlock) which seems... dangerous territory to be veering into? Not only for linking being a "psycho"' or a "nutcase" with queerness (as SIGAHW rightfully points out that is screwed up, in the way they did it) but also making it (again as that video points out) so you don't have to actually bother to give the character of Moriarty any real depth or consistency or, you know, actual decent characterisation because he's so ~zany~ and ~crazy~ because he's just a "psycho" which yes is piss poor, lazy characterisation, but also... you're basically 'villainising' or demonising actual real mental illnesses, or symptoms of them? And saying he's dangerous and bad because he's "crazy"... I don't know, I don't feel like I'm best placed to comment on that but that always rubbed me the wrong way too even if I maybe can't fully articulate why.

(I'm not really getting into the fact that they ultimately did just waste Moriarty too, like they didn't actually know what to do with him beyond make him infatuated with Sherlock, because I think SIGAHW did cover that much better than I ever could. But I mean, it does seem like they couldn't even commit to anything with their own take on the character, they didn't even ultimately have any respect for him never mind for any other version including the canonical character.

I'm also not really getting into how they basically set up this 'Jim loves Sherlock' thing and then proceeded to belittle fans who shipped them together, but that was very screwed up too that they did that.)

And then there's Moran. My beloved Moran. I do not know which is worse, erasing a character entirely, or effectively breaking him up into various parts, showing some of those parts but then removing the main pieces of him that make him who he is. Because in Sherlock they had a character named Sebastian (who as far as I can remember was a total douchebag), they had a character named Moran who was some sort of criminal, they had snipers, they had other people working for Moriarty. But never a Sebastian Moran, never Moriarty's right hand man, never Moriarty's friend (when he is literally called Moriarty's friend and bosom friend in the canon). Moran canonically mattered to Moriarty and he was way more than just some fucking 'henchman' - I have written many tens of thousands of words about this already including multiple essays. Moran mattered. But he didn't matter at all to 'Jim', or Sherlock's creators. And not only that they also did what they did elsewhere and not only showed utter contempt towards the canonical character, they also showed contempt for the people who love him and for the shippers of the pairing. They knew full well there were people who were desperate to see a Sebastian Moran in that show, they knew there were people who shipped Moran with Moriarty, and yet when they were asked about this they just insulted him and dismissed him as totally unimportant (that "he’s just Moriarty’s henchman. There is not much more to it" shit from Gatiss, though I'm almost certain Moffat said something else demeaning about Moran too but this was too long ago now and so much stuff has vanished without trace so that I can't find any of those quotes any more), and they made it sound like the fans desperate to see him in the show were absurd for seeing anything in him or in Moriarty/Moran or wanting that to happen, because of course 'their' Moriarty only has eyes for Sherlock. Of course (because Sherlock is a fucking Moffat stand in so of course everyone from Watson to the original character mortician to the supposed lesbian to the recurring major villain has to be infatuated with him one way or another because he's just that awesome. Even though in actuality they made him into an insufferable prick).

They did screw over Moriarty/Moran and just erase that pairing from existence in that universe, essentially, to the point where anybody who does ship the pairing in it had to create 'Seb' themselves, to fill this void that the creators deliberately put in because they thought their version of these beloved stories and characters was so much better and smarter and more wonderful than anything else, when in reality it's like that video says, it's garbage, and it's insulting to the fans who care about the stories and the characters and the pairing both in itself and in the way the creators treated those fans. No they are not the only people to do this and smugly act like they're better and cleverer than Conan Doyle and of other fans of the stories and the characters while they were merrily wrecking the characterisation and butchering the stories, I can certainly think of one rather famous author in particular who I think did something similar too, but I think they did take it to a whole other level.

#James Moriarty #Sebastian Moran #Sherlock Holmes #anti BBC Sherlock #anti Moffat #anti Gatiss #Sherlock is Garbage

[disasterbijamietartt]

I’ll need a few days to really process the last episode, so don’t expect any meta until the weekend.

But I wanted to write a post about why I believe in the writers and why I think that … this sounds so arrogant and delusional, but that my predictions here* are roughly what will happen and queer folks can stay hopeful.

(*tl;dr: Essentially that Colin will be the inspiration for main characters to address their queerness, Ted Lasso spent two seasons straightbaiting its entire audience and this season will end queer as fuck)

When I started watching Ted Lasso I thought it would be a fun, but silly little sports comedy, but very soon it got obvious how the show featured heavier themes and that they didn’t follow the expected script. Like, when Rebecca tells Ted the truth, you’d normally get some drama and rising conflict – but we got instant forgiveness.

And it got soon obvious we’d get a love triangle with Jamie, Keeley and Roy and – as someone who knows how the script goes – my first assumption was, that Roy x Keeley will be endgame (which was sad, since I adored Jamie x Keeley from the beginning, but I digress).

But some of the things that usually put me off love triangles were missing: there was no prolonged unnecessary drama after Roy learned that Keeley hooked up with Jamie the night before, Jamie and Roy didn’t fight over who would “get” Keeley (even though Roy’s jealousy sure was one reason for the tension between him and Jamie, but it wasn’t the only one), Jamie didn’t try to actively win Keeley back throughout the second season, he didn’t try to sabotage their relationship, even though he still loved her. The rocky parts in Roy’s and Keeley’s relationship weren’t related to Jamie at all, on the contrary, Jamie kind of unintentionally fixed their problems.

So, when they diverge so much from the expected, should I really still assume they’ll end the show with the thing everyone expects to happen? (like, in classic romance structure, Roy and Keeley now had their third act break-up, that always happens before the happily ever after … but as Phil said in an interview, they’re situation is a lot more complex than you’ll usually get.)

So, anyway, Ted Lasso was playing with expectations from the beginning. You’d expect Ted x Rebecca and Roy x Keeley endgame cause that is how the classic narrative works but the show subverted classic structure in the first season. So why should we assume that they just stick to the classic script now?

Also the theme song:

“Yeah, might be all that you get,

Yeah, I guess this might well be it“

I always thought, for an optimistic show like Ted Lasso this was a kinda sober beginning. But if you look at this with a queer eye … Cishet people are so used to seeing their happy endings playing out, so that is what they’ll expect to get. Until the last couple years, queer people barely got any stories with happy endings, so you didn’t exactly grow up with the expectation you’ll get a happy ending.

So you just had to take what you got.

But on the other hand the song has this hopeful bit about trying and not giving up. And … okay, I’m not sure where I’m going with this, but, idk, it just feels like it would fit as the theme song for an ultimately hella queer show?

And there are a lot of allusions to “The Wizard of Oz”, starting with the title of the first episode, Ted being the “Man from Kansas” aka Dorothy – googling I found this post pointing out a lot parallels in the second season, so it is not just me being delusional again.

For context: The movie was released 1939. Between 1934 and 1968 due to the Hays Code people couldn’t be shown as being explicitly queer in movies in the US, so writers started to queercode characters to still indicate queerness. And there is of course queercoding in “The Wizard of Oz” just like Ted Lasso and the movie as a whole resonated a lot with queer audiences, making Judy Garland a Gay Icon (see here). 

Both the movie and L. Frank Baumans novels have a lot of queer subtext (like, there is even kind of a trans character in the novels?). "Friend of Dorothy” was a way gay men referred to each other at a time, where they couldn’t just openly ask about someone’s orientation.

Fun Fact: The movies title song “Over the Rainbow” soon became a queer anthem and people wondered whether it inspired the rainbow flag. But the creator, Gilbert Baker, said he was inspired by,

wait for it,

“She’s a Rainbow” by the Rolling Stones (see here).

Rings a bell?

The episode “Rainbow”?

Roy returning as a coach to Richmond?

Also: Jamie comparing the team to the Rolling Stones? Himself to Mick Jagger and Roy to Keith Richards, who both wrote the song?

And, looking at episode titles some more: The color "Lavender" is so queer it has it's own LGTBQ-section on Wikipedia. Also the bisexual pride flag, where the colours overlap to form lavender? There was probably some other reason I forgot that the episode where Jamie returned was called like the queerest color ever, but still …

WHAT A BUNCH OF CURIOUS COINCIDENCES!

Oh God, the more I look, the queerer everything gets! I think I could go on some more, but I need to get breakfast and then some work done.

#my meta #ted lasso speculations #jamie x roy #roy x jamie #ted x trent #tedtrent #tedependent #colin hughes #jamie x keeley x roy #this doesn't reference any ship but might be relevant soo #if I'm wrong I delete my tumblr #and burn something down #kidding I'll just never trust a tv show ever again #ted lasso meta #queer coding #ted lasso

[neversetyoufree]

Shipping is fun and all but why do the whole fandom makes it like VNC was about rotting for Vanitas to be with either Jeanne or Noe and sexuality ? It's not what the story is about, it's about Noe and Vanitas's story together and how Noé will end up killing Vanitas. Is it because it's also treating of their relationship that the fandom focuses so much on romance which is a very sub themed (after all in shounen romance is always a subplot, more or less underdevelopped)

I mean, when it comes to Vnc, I'm not so sure that the romance is underdeveloped, anon. I 100% get not caring about romantic shipping, and that's fair, but sex and romance are big parts of this story. I don't think it's unreasonable to be invested in them when they're very present in the manga itself.

You're right that shonen series in general tend to be very light on romance. However, a majority of shonen also don't have their characters very regularly engaging in a metaphor for sex.

It's pretty undeniable that the blood drinking in VnC is meant as a sexual metaphor. Sometimes this is played for horror (like Astolpho's backstory), and sometimes this is played for horny (like the VaniJeanne scenes), but it's almost always there. It doesn't mean that every instance of blood drinking is meant to symbolize literal sex, but both in-universe and in terms of symbolism, drinking someone's blood in VnC is an erotic act. And there's a lot of blood drinking.

With that said, given that these characters are constantly running around drinking and/or craving each other's blood, of course people are going to talk about romance a lot. "Which character wants which other character's blood?" is a huge driving factor for the character dynamics in this story. And there's a lot of straight-up discussion of romance as well!

You cannot talk about or analyze Noé and Dominique's relationship without talking about her massive crush on him. You cannot analyze Vanitas and Jeanne's relationship without talking about their mutual attraction and all the blood drinking scenes. You cannot fully analyze Noé and Vanitas's relationship without talking about how much Noé wants Vanitas's blood.

It may not be the norm for shonen, but Vnc is, objectively speaking, a series that puts a fair amount of emphasis on romance. It's not the main plot, but neither is it a clumsily handled background element like in Naruto or something. This is a series driven by the relationships between its characters first and foremost, and several of those relationships are canonically romantic and/or horny.

(Also, as a bonus fun fact, there's an interview with Mochizuki where she directly talks about how she wanted Vnc to focus more on both action and romance than her previous works).

And as for the Vanoé angle specifically, you're right. Vnc is the story of Noé and Vanitas's relationship. It's the story of how they meet, what they do together, and how/why Noé will eventually kill Vanitas with his own hands. And the thing about that relationship is that it is frankly fucking FULL of queer subtext. Like half the writing on this blog, for example, is about Noé and Vanitas's relationship, and not all of it is gay. Sometimes I talk about the death and tragedy angle, sometimes I speculate about the concrete plot details of what's to come, and sometimes I talk about how absurdly queer-coded Noé's whole "your blood smells amazing" routine is. It's not the only thing going on between them, not by a long shot, but it's there! And I think it's quite reasonable to discuss it.

So like, everyone engages in fandom differently, anon. It's fine to not give a damn about the romantic angle. I personally am almost incapable of caring about ships that aren't heavily implied in their canon sources, which makes me a bit of the odd one out in some fandom spaces.

However, speaking for myself again, this is a meta blog. More often than not, when I talk about romance on here, it's through the angle of examining what's there in canon. I find the relationships between the characters to be the most compelling part of Vnc, so that's what I write about. Sometimes that means writing about how Noé's constantly trying and failing to save his loved ones generally, sometimes that means writing about the history between Vanitas and Misha, and sometimes that means writing about how fucking in love with Vanitas I think Noé is.

I can't speak for others, but I personally don't think I'm reading anything into this series that isn't there. It's fine if it's not an angle you care about personally! I fully support you in blacklisting ship tags if the discussion of romance gets on your nerves. I cannot fucking stand "ship wars," so like. I get it. But "shonen usually doesn't care about romance" does not mean "all the people talking about romance in Vnc are doing it for no good reason."

#it's genuinely a major part of the series friend #it's like. the entire point of chapter 12. #put the story on pause for a minute to establish all of these bonkers romantic dynamics. and then the plot can continue #I get being tired of shipping. but I don't think I've made any claims about romance in vnc that aren't supported by the text #no hate toward you anon. but we've been reading things very differently if you don't think the romance in vnc is important #ask #anon #meta #the vanoé agenda #vnc #vanitas no carte

[in-deep]

Mike is straight. Byler endgame would come out of nowhere for his character.

I'm getting really frustrated with some reasons people use to rebut byler proof... The main one being this one.

I could argue extensively that Mike is queer. It is written subtextually all over the show - Mike is not like other straight characters in the show, and there are multiple parallels to queer-coded characters. If you took off your heteronormative rose-tinted glasses, you might be able to pick up on some of what the show is showing you, rather than explicitly telling you.

But even if he was explicitly shown to be straight! Why is it that in media queer characters always need to be explicitly queer from the beginning? Otherwise it's bait or fan service or bad writing? Queer people are allowed to discover themselves and figure themselves out! In fact that in and of itself is great representation! Mike's queer story would probably be really relatable to many!

PLUS! Do NOT try and tell me that Mileven were built up romantically in a natural way. First time I watched the show (January! I was very late to it ahah) Mileven actually shocked me a little - I knew they were going to date later, but it felt so random and almost a little like they didn't know what they were doing. I personally felt like they only kissed because Mike felt like that's what he was meant to do.

Lucas teasing him about only talking about El (when really Mike only talked about El as a means to get to Will, his main priority). Nancy telling Mike she thought he liked her (and Mike immediately denies it). El asking if he'll be like her brother (no. it's different... i mean, i guess its not). And then he kisses her after that?

Quite frankly, if Mike and Eleven are endgame they wrote them so weirdly. Like made some really weird writing choices (bad ones) that are too many to even get to in this post, but I am working on a really lengthy analysis on the bad writing of Mike/El (and why that's so brilliant).

AND!!!! Mike and Will are the classic example of the childhood friends to lovers trope. One common example of this trope is shown in character A being in love with character B (and has been for a while). Character B usually has another love interest, character C who is either mysterious or popular. Usually a scene where character B says "oh. A and I are just friends." while we see character A looking sad. Character B & C have some sort of relationship, but eventually it fails and in the midst of that relationship falling a part, character B realises that character A has been there all along.

Now, I personally believe Mike has feelings for Will and has had them for a while. But, even if he didn't. Don't try and tell me this wouldn't be completely fine for a straight couple. But suddenly, when they're queer, it's poor writing and fan service. Yet again, queer media is held to much higher standards that heteronormative straight media.

Anyway. In short. Byler endgame. Byler supremacy. Byler is love, Byler is life. Amen.

#byler endgame #byler #stranger things #stranger things 5 #the duffers are good writers #which is why i think the bad writing of mileven is on purpose #byler peak writing frfr #mike wheeler #will byers #st s5

[gotylocks]

Why Willow is my favorite show of all time (and why I'll miss it)

When I was a kid, I watched a lot of Disney princess movies. As a deeply closeted trans girl, it was one of the few things I could reliably watch that could technically be considered "girl stuff", but didn't carry the same bullying as other "girl stuff". Those movies made me fall in love with fairy tales, but they weren't really what I wanted from those stories.

It frustrated me to see the damsel, always waiting for a man to come save her. It frustrated me that they couldn't be the hero of their own story, sidelined and uninvolved, rarely the focus of any character development. This was worsened by the fact that I was also a closeted lesbian, as the overwhelming straightness of the romances on display never connected with me.

When I was a kid, I loved fantasy stories. Swords and sorcery and dragons and elves, it was all so exciting to me. But it fell into a similar trap as the fairy tales. It was rare to have a girl in the lead who I connected to. I read the Lord of the Rings books, but I didn't have the same connection to them as most people.

Something like Xena, which was very interesting to me, was tough to get into because being in the closet made me feel like I wasn't allowed to watch it, which is something I still regret. But I always wanted a fantasy story about a princess I connected to, that was more interested in swords and adventure than boys and ballgowns.

When I was a kid, I loved Star Wars. I was enraptured by this combination of fantasy and Sci-fi, filled to the brim with mythology and lore, with relatable characters at the heart of it. A story that showed love and compassion was just as, if not more, powerful than brute force violence. But it was also a story largely centered around men, as Leia (strong as she was) often sidelined from the action.

When the sequel trilogy started, I saw Rey as a chance to get the Star Wars story I had always wanted. But it soon became apparent that was not the case, as everything was made to be about the men of the story, be it Kylo Ren, Luke Skywalker, or Emperor Palpatine. She was never allowed to be the driving force, to become her own character, and by the time the trilogy ends, she is right back to square one on her journey.

You might be thinking, what is the point of all this preamble? What are you going on about? This is about Willow. Specifically, the Willow show. I bring up all of that background to impress upon you why Willow means so much to me and why I am so heartbroken its story has been cut short.

From the opening scene after the prologue that explains the events of the 1988 movie, we are introduced to Kit Tanthalos, a brash and cocky princess, and her long suffering best friend/sparring partner, Jade Claymore. From the moment they remove their masks at the end of their sparring session, you can see the romantic tension between them, barely contained. At this point, I knew better than to get my hopes up about anything happening with that, but it was still nice to think about.

Then we learn more about Kit and Jade. Kit is being forced into a loveless marriage with a prince from a neighboring area, purely for political reasons. She isn't happy about this, but is willing to do it for the good of the people, as long as Jade is there with her. But then, it's revealed Jade will be leaving to train with the Shining Legion (a prestigious group of Knights) the day after Kit's wedding. While Kit's outburst at this reveal is described as childish, it's also completely understandable, as she is having her world ripped from under her while she's attempting to do the selfless thing by going through with the wedding.

So she gets selfish, she lashes out, she makes a big scene about it. It's the classic "queer coded princess rejects the marriage" story, but that is only where we start things. After things cool down, Kit realizes she can't go through with it, because now she would be losing everything she cares about, with nothing to gain for herself. Again, she makes a selfish decision to run away, but before she does, there's one thing she has to do before it's too late.

She sneaks into Jade's room in the cover of night, straddles her in her bed, and gives her goodbye speech. Jade knows she can't talk Kit out of running, but still makes a half hearted attempt at it. Before she leaves, Kit does the one thing she knows she wants to do while she can, and kisses Jade. You can tell this is done with years of stifled love bursting through at last. More than that, it is a mission statement from the show in episode 1, that Kit and Jade are in love and it will not be something that is cut around.

But as Kit is making her escape, the castle is attacked and her brother is kidnapped, thus setting into motion the quest. Face untold danger, go beyond the known world, rescue the prince. At last, a story where the princess is the one that has to save the prince.

This would be fine as is. A totally acceptable fantasy story with these character archetypes in place. But it doesn't stop there, as it adds in the rest of the quest party, all with their own baggage and background. But nobody stays the same as they are in the first episode. Everyone has their own growth through this quest.

Kit learns that Jade has been letting her win in their sparring sessions, so her confidence in her talent is misplaced and she needs to learn both humility and how to fight if she's going to save her brother. And humility comes at Kit at a constant clip, starting with the reveal that the ditzy lovesick kitchen maid that insists on going on the quest is actually Elora Danan, the fabled chosen one, and this makes Kit jealous as hell.

Kit is brought down from her overinflated sense of self from the first episode over and over until she hits rock bottom and has to rebuild herself into the hero she's intended to be. She has to work for it! This makes her both flawed and layered, and she's a much more interesting character because of it.

But it's not just about Kit. Jade learns the truth of her family and that everything she's been training for is a lie. Elora learns the truth about who she is and has to grapple with the weight of the world and a destiny she might not live to see the end of. Boorman has to contend with his selfish nature and atone for his past mistakes. Graydon has to overcome childhood trauma to become the sorcerer he dreamed of being. And the title character Willow, as well, is not the one note mentor he could have been, instead fulfilling his own arc as he grows into the great sorcerer nobody thought he could be (while also overcoming his guilt for past mistakes).

That is a cast of six who are all incredibly important to the overarching story at hand, but also experience incredible personal growth across all 8 episodes. Nobody is sidelined. This is especially important when you look at the diversity of the cast, predominantly filled with people who have not been given the opportunity to be the heroes of their own story.

That's why Willow is important to me. It's a fantasy fairy tale with tinges of Star Wars sprinkled throughout, with a grumpy, cocky, gay, tomboy of a Princess at its core. It's a beautiful lesbian romance that isn't always cheery, but feels honest. It's a show with a gay romance in which the fact that they're gay is never a source of drama, is fully accepted by the rest of the questing party (before Kit and Jade, in true lesbian fashion), and is treated the same as any straight romance would be in its place.

It's a story that loves love and loves women. It's a story that tells you it believes that "Love is the most powerful force in the world" and actually shows that's true. It's a story about compassion and care instead of brute force violence and hatred. It's a story about actual found families, and not what the internet has told you found families are over recent years. It's a story about how fun it is to go on a quest.

While I know I could go on and on about this forever, I will have years ahead of me to pontificate about this show. But for now, I hope you understand just why I say Willow is my favorite show of all time, the show I have dreamt of since I was little, and why I'm heartbroken to see it end so abruptly.

#willow 2022 #willow appreciation #willow thoughts #tanthamore #kit tanthalos #jade claymore #kit x jade #elora danan #graydon hastur #thraxus boorman #willow ufgood #my writing #I'm sorry this is so long i just have a lot of feelings

[sister-lucifer]

hey its me lons again. give me your most autistic take. what's the opinion you've had (any fandom) for so long as the result of your deep, soul-crushing obsession of canon. the comsic truth of the universe

oh boy i’ve. i’ve got quite a few. let’s get these over with

(multiple fandoms ahead)

Bubba Sawyer AKA Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre is NOT a villain. He grew up away from civilization and only ever interacted with his family, and therefore only knows what they taught him. he is also clearly disabled to some capacity and literally does not grasp the weight of his actions because he’s only ever done what his family has told him to. He has had no other significant human interaction besides his family. he is an antagonist, an opposing force, yes— but NOT a villain

The Batman fandom gets really pissy when characters are confirmed as canonically queer in any iteration, usually the Riddler and/or The Joker. This makes me angry for a few reasons. One, literally who gives a fuck, just because you don’t like a single interpretation of a character doesn’t mean all other media of them doesn’t exist, just go watch that. Two, it’s literally denying the entire history of these villains. “But isn’t making a flamboyant man gay a stereotype?” Yes. Exactly. Because they did that on purpose. Whether conscious or not, DC has been queer coding their villains since the beginning. They were literally made to be theatrical, flamboyant gay stereotypes to demonize gay people. There’s a reason all the male rogues are so out there and colorful and batman is stoic and dark. we deserve to reclaim them. Three, it’s been confirmed like a million times that the Joker is in love with Batman in his own special messed up why, and if you deny it you’re literally just lying go read a comic (this can also be applied to Venom + Eddie…Venom literally sucks eddie’s dick, gets him pregnant, tongue kisses him, and eddie refers to their relationship as a love story. they’re dating get over it).

The reason people hate 2022/Dano Riddler is because fandoms hate any significant change and because they can’t read between the likes enough to actually see the nuance and understand the character. Superhero fans need every aspect of a character fucking spoon fed to them and it’s so frustrating.

Nina The Killer’s rewrite was a downgrade, sorry. she’s just a copy of Jane now. which i was confused as to why she was rewritten anyways was because i always thought that the point of her story was to be satirical? Like…the whole joke was that she wasn’t actually talking to Jeff, just an impersonator messing with her not realizing the damage they were doing, and the moral was about the dangers of extreme idolization. but idk maybe that’s just me

Tim punching Jay in the parking lot in MH was totally justified. Deserved, even. Imagine if someone recorded you and posted it on the internet without your consent, and on top of that had been basically stalking you and totally lying to you. Jay was basically on a mission to uproot Tim’s entire life whether he knew it or not. I know Jay didn’t totally realize what was going on, but he needed the wake up call. He was doing some fucked up shit

No, [WOMAN CHARACTER] does not deserve to be hated on, you’re just misogynistic. hope this helps!

oh boy that was a lot. I have many more of these but this is all i can make myself type out rn. hope this is satisfactory!

#hot takes #fandom opinions #marble hornets #tim wright #jay merrick #creepypasta #nina the killer #batman #dc #the joker #the riddler #edward nygma #texas chainsaw massacre #bubba sawyer #leatherface #the batman 2022 #dano riddler

[neonscandal]

Just see this in twitter by someone : "I'm starting to think maybe people should read actual BL manga. perhaps considering manga written with actual gay characters in it in addition to shipping m x m from whatever battle shounen you're into."

Like because of those subtext, there can be fanfics and fanarts, right? And then I decided to come here, your blog is really one of my comfort place....

Comfort place!? This makes me want to carve out time to post infinitely more. 🥹 Even though it feels a bit aimless, I’m glad I could cultivate that for you and hope I can continue to do so.

RE: twitter, without context, it's hard to tell whether this person is earnestly recommending people to expand their interests into BL or if they're dumping on people who tend to support and identify queer shipping across other genres.

On the one hand, heavy agree that if you appreciate queer pairings of any kind to absolutely find media and stories that shows healthy (and authentic, if possible!) representation of whatever you're into. I feel like sometimes in BL, specifically, there’s a lot of toxicity or violence passed off as romance which is why I recommend being discerning. Here are some green flag recommendations and I kind of touch on the importance of identity through engaging with queer content by way of BL's featuring fudanshi's there. Isn't always the case, but it's a storyline I appreciate.

If the poster was side eyeing queer ships in "mainstream" or shonen stories... they should grow up. I've been in and out of fandom for like.. 20 years. There have always been people who recognize and popularize queer ships. Back in the day? Characters didn't even have to share the same show, universe or genre to end up in a crossover slash fic on Fanfiction.Net.

Don't get me wrong, I've definitely needlessly explored several crack theories or made off-base assumptions about a story for the sake of trying to guess at where it’s going. But I sometimes question people's competency for reading/watching comprehension when a particularly shitty hottake is making its rounds on social media. Like are we not watching the same thing?

Subtext does exist. I don't know that all authors are as elegant or intentional in its execution but if you're not bothering to consider the possibility, you're potentially missing out on critical pieces of a story you're choosing to invest hours/years of your life into! This isn't simply as it pertains to shipping but also picking up on critical exposition (Attack. On. Titan.) or even questioning whether the information we're getting as the reader or viewer is conveyed with any sort of narrator bias. Yes, this is absolutely a My Hero Academia call out. ✨

Queer coding does exist. Tons of reasons why queer characters aren't always explicitly identified as such. More often than not, there's some form of censorship. Whether at the editing level during manga production or when it comes time for manga/shows to be approved for international distribution (re: information that's lost in translation vs outright decisions to alter the flow of the story). Most glaring example of this that comes to mind is Haruka Tenou or "Sailor Uranus"/Michiru Kaiou or "Sailor Neptune. In addition to gratuitous name changes when Sailor Moon was pushed abroad, several countries would rather portray the two as unusually close relatives despite the clear romantic undertones exhibited whenever they were on screen together. Also, IDK why, but pretty sure I'd seen somewhere that, initially the creator of Naruto did want to canonize Sasuke/Naruto but, truth be told, I've never watched the series and that could have been a fanon theory I'd seen.

Overarching messages exist. Similar to the first point, a story is seldom just a story. More often than not, you're looking at some sort of social critique or opinion that's being expressed or explored through the story. To not bother thinking critically about what you choose to spend time in enjoying is a pretty bland way to miss the point of it.

When all else fails, it's not our fault that the only relationships most shonen mangaka focus on developing is the one between "rivals". That's it. If there were more dynamic characters or literally any consideration toward the depth of intimacy between the main character and whatever tritagonist female lead the male lead inexplicably ends up with (aside from the simple rationale that "she is the girl 🎀"), then maybe fans won't have to hone in on how the only agency, equality and intimacy is between the only two characters of substance. That was a mouthful but so are the overly poetic soliloquies shonen rivals inevitably share about one another.. ✨

I'm guessing this question might be related to the last anon ask about fanfics? I agree regarding the fact that subtext allows for a richer selection of fan art and fics. I think, depending on content, the motivation for reading fics will subsequently differ. For instance, I'm less likely to read fanfics for a romance series even if I sometimes write for them because the source material generally satisfies what I wanted from them. But fix it fics, angst and romance fics for shonen/seinen series'?? I'll definitely pick them up because, 1) there are usually unexplored relationship dynamics in the source material, 2) there are alternative domestic/fluff storylines you'd never see because the genre doesn't allow for it, 3) the canon plot is usually so devastating *cough, JJK, cough* that I need a respite, and/or, 4) the developing plot tends to have a lot of holes that writers can explore to craft uniquely compelling AU's and alternative plotlines that I wouldn't imagine.

Man, it's been a while since I nerded out and really took the time to bang out a rant. I've had so many thoughts bouncing around but just zero time. Thank you for your ask and the reminder that there's someone else out there in the shipping trenches. Stay safe out there, anon!

#neon asks #anon asks #ship sails itself #meta #fandom #shipping dynamics #anime #manga #AOT #snk #mha #bnha #sailor moon #jjk

[maria-de-salinas]

Hello! I'm SO overdue to give you a big ol' rave review on the Vulnera Sanentur series, but I've been working my way through it this winter and spring, and I absolutely love it!! I admire your writing skills so much, and I'd love to pick your brain about writing inspo/strategy/etc.

So for the Fanfic Writer questions: ✍️🚀👓🦋🦈💭🚦💛

I know that's a lot, so feel free to skip Q's if its too much! :)

Ahhh, thank you my dear mutual who never fails to make my dash a more fascinating place <3

(And if you're interested the Snape/Lily ballet!au is wonderful!)

Answers below the cut:

✍️ What’s your ideal writing setup?

I'm not at all particular about where I write as long as it's reasonably quiet and comfy, but I love to write outside in the summer and as soon as I get a new laptop battery I intend to one of those coffee shop writers sipping gravely on a latte while I think about whether my characters should get it on in a library or the kitchen

🚀 Do you like to outline your fic first or create as you go?

Definitely outline, but creating as I go within that outline. Some of the best moments of writing are when the characters come to life and insist on wrecking all your plans for them. Which means the outlines keep evolving.

👓 What helps you focus when you write?

Definitely music! I nearly always listen when I write. It also helps set the emotional tone (sometimes too much and then I have to go back and tone it down)

🦋 Which character is your favorite to write?

Snape. Always Snape. Grey, ambiguous, complex, lonely, loyal, brave. Queer-coded, autistic-coded, masks in public, doesn't fit into anyone's box. And most importantly, someone who pickles slimy things in a laboratory and lines up the jars on his shelves.

Sometimes I wish I could get deep into some other fandom and character but he keeps calling me back.

🦈 Which character is the toughest to write?

Definitely Remus. Because at heart he is a genuinely kind and gentl person, but it's hard to disentangle from his passive-aggressive self-loathing and anxious avoidance. Which is so human and relateable but also really hard to pin down.

💭 What inspires you and your writing?

As someone who loves people and is fascinated by people but is socially quite anxious, writing is a lifeline. I *have* to write. It's all about the vulnerability and intimacy. I'm an absolute fiend for these scared, lonely, closed-up characters learning to let their guard down and be vulnerable with someone, whether a friend or a lover or something in between. And letting themselves love in the midst of their grief, knowing that they could lose again, knowing that grief is, as told by WandaVision, love persevering.

(And on the smuttier side of things, I've come to realize that I have something of a thing for extremely repressed characters having an awakening. Which is why you tend to see a lot of Virgin!Snape tags in my fics. I also love exploring all the awkwardness that comes with being physical and how that ties in to being vulnerable.)

🚦What sort of endings do you prefer to write: ambiguous, bad, happily ever after, etc.?

Happily ever after but with a touch of something to make them feel real, maybe? Everything is okay but the characters have scars or regrets or losses, or they love each other but still have conflict.

Bittersweet endings are so powerful and memorable and beautiful and I love them and hate them and they make me want to chew my arm off. I've only written one, a conclusion to one of the storylines in Vulnera Sanentur and The Bollan Cross. I think about it all the time.

💛 What is the most impactful lesson you’ve learned about writing?

Write what you love. Always. Because there's at least one person out there who will love it too, and it's a story you'll always be able to keep and take with you. And if you're not enjoying it, you don't have to do it! Take a break, switch to a new project, write that self-indulgent thing you've always wanted to.

The asks can be found here, so feel free to reblog or let me know in the comments if you want to be asked something! I love hearing about people's creative process.

#ask games #writing #thank you this was so fun to do!

[muzzleroars]

Opinions on ULTRAKILL ships?! ( If you are comfortable with it at least-!! )

in general, i'm all for them lol personally, i'm obviously hugely biased to v1/gabriel because i just think there's so much to chew on with them, to the point where i've got no clue where to even start on why i enjoy them. and this. turned into me trying to do just that!!!! sorry!!!!

v1/gabriel – my main ship and honestly it’s so difficult to condense down all the reasons why i love them. like aesthetically and thematically everything hits just right – they are the mechanical and the divine pitted against one another by programming and orders now obsolete. they are so alien to one another, they were created on different planes and never should have known the other existed, yet they fit painfully together, they understand what it means to be a tool only made for the singular purpose of violence. their identities are obscure things, v1 denoting a prototype without a proper model name and gabriel reflecting only his use to god, growing into their sense of self in part from meeting the other. and they are irrevocably star-crossed, their very love corrupting one another to their deaths – gabriel has lost his light and is burning out for his choice, while to me, v1 gaining a sense of love and sentimentality is so antithetical to its purpose that its code is becoming increasingly unstable. they are dying like the world all around them, yet they somehow found love, found someone that can understand them through their violence. but everything beyond those fundamentals, beyond the deep ways they are tethered, is brand new to one another in a world that seemed to have nothing new to offer.

i so enjoy how their story is told too – we watch it happen through the eyes (eye???) of an auxiliary antagonist, how the world of the protagonist is destroyed and his identity rebuilt through who he believed to be the villain. gabriel as a queer character who’s been so hurt by dogmatic faith twisted by authority and how he followed it for so long because he had no choice, how he loves someone they believe shouldn’t even exist. it’s tragic but there is an ecstatic joy in it, in gabriel finding himself and being freed of his own choice to follow his own beliefs as well as love who he wants to. a machine and an angel, made only to follow orders finding a brief happiness in each other and the agency borne of their love. it just. really resonates, you know?

there’s MORE too, but i’ll lightning round them – we’ve discussed it before, but tiny mechanical beast with giant dignified angel is SO cute ok!!! i also see them as having a massive mutual respect for each other as combatants, that they are equally matched in skill and their sparring regularly ends in equal wins and losses on either side. and just the personality dynamics. i think of gabriel as very kind, refined in the way he speaks and interacts with a lot of sweetness and gentleness cultivated from knowing just how strong he is (ALWAYS thinking about him described as “radiant”). v1, meanwhile, is a little barely contained storm, it’s impulsive, chaotic, and far too curious without any pleasantries – it doesn’t mind itself whatsoever and is often carelessly rude, thinking so many thoughts a second that it’s always unpredictable. HOWEVER they’re both ridiculously arrogant and deeply proud in their own ways, so as a couple they’re just insufferable. awful. they can’t understand why the other acts like that and they’re madly in love with their mind because of it.

SORRY I TALKED ABOUT ONE PAIRING…but quick opinions on some others!!! gabriel/minos i do think had a relationship and it’s incredibly messy, for so many reasons even outside the obvious. minos/sisyphus 100% and they’re very tragic, wish these old men could have gotten a break. gabriel/ferryman is one-sided to me, but i think the ship is super cute if not also just. sad. but who isn’t here (i also think gabriel may have shown them some affection knowing their feelings, he just didn’t know what to do because he feels bad about it hhhh). v1 & v2 i can only see as evil siblings, so there’s no ship there for me personally, just them spiritually chasing each other through the house with improvised weapons. I think that covers it hhhhhh

#i would apologize for the length but. we're aware by now what i'm like with my opinions #i will say sorry for it being not super well-worded tho #i have too many feelings and thoughts about them it gets scrambled #if anyone actually read all this i love you #cake answers

[ariesbilly]

The Duffers trying to peddle the whole found family, outcasts band together arc is so fucking funny to me because:

Nancy was never an outcast, they just gave her that shitty 'preppy popular girl gets moral angst so becomes a badass gun wielding apocalyptic grunge princess overnight' arc and then literally never showed her at school again so even if she did become an outcast, you actually never see it. In fact, we see multiple times beyond that that she's still very much considered the polite, proper, middle-upper class small town girl by any of her peers who aren't The Gang.

Barb. Chubby shy girl always in the preppy princess' shadow as the holy voice of reason, invited along as nothing but the moral support so Nancy can get laid. Dead. Dead and forgotten by literally everyone except her parents and used as a character device for Nancy (and by extension her romance with Steve.)

Steve is only technically an outcast by association. Sure, he has that fight with Tommy, but Tommy and the dude always kissing ass in Tommy's shadow are the only ones we ever see actually like. Treating Steve any differently, arcade manager dude aside (who just does not give a shit about anyone else anyway.) If the Duffers had actually properly shown Steve at school like Nancy we would've seen that while he might not have been as popular, he definitely wouldn't be sat alone in the corner. I mean come on he was in Scoops Ahoy and still getting flirted with. If you actually peeled him away from The Gang for like five minutes he'd be top of the food chain again.

The actual outcasts themselves pick and choose who is and isn't allowed in The Gang and will immediately turn on each other the moment one of them doesn't meet the standard, as we clearly saw with Lucas, who literally just got into sport and made a few friends on the team. They turn on each other constantly, weaponize their knowledge of each other as and when it suits them, and clearly have a classification of what is and isn't the 'right' kind of outcast. (coughBillyHargrovecough.) Which is exactly the behavior they resent the 'normies' for.

Apropos Billy. The Duffers literally said "its about outcasts and found family and coming together against monsters both human and not" and then also said "except for the traumatised queer-coded abuse victim. We very very clearly want you to know he is the most evil of evil out there and his sole purpose is to get beaten up and die." They decided Steve Harrington couldn't die so they made his evil gay clone. The literal only way they could think of to make Billy "bad" was to have him shout at Lucas and beat up Steve. They said "his ass is too big for him to live but we're gonna ride it for the entire PR train."

Speaking of queer-coded outcasts and dying. I know you hate Eddie Munsen, but he was basically the Queer Canary 2.0. The Duffers really said "anyone who would not be on a Home and Garden magazine cover must be shot on sight." Joe and Joseph started getting a lil too homerotic and the Duffers started loading up the gun.

And controversial but Robin. I love love love Robin but its really like the Duffers said "we have to keep one queer alive to avoid the homophobia allegations" and then after months at the drawing board they just shrugged and said "why don't we just copy-paste Steve but change the formatting to lesbian?"

And like. Its been shown that the moment all these so-called outcasts are separated, suddenly, they're not really that outcast anymore! They're all growing up, getting hobbies, making new friends, realizing that they don't have quite as much in common as they thought they did. Will and Dustin are the only two who kind of stay on the hem of that original format.

I'm not even going to talk about whatever the fuck that was with Eleven running away to some fever dream Murder Goths™ secret club. Not even the Duffers want to talk about it. It genuinely makes me think of the Twilight baseball scene. Its like you know the vision they had in mind when they thought it up but then its like they asked AI to create it.

Stranger Things is just the Duffers' Wattpad Mary Sue Y/N fanfiction.

Don’t you DARE disrespect the twilight baseball scene like this

No one in this life could ever convince me Eddie is queer like god himself could stand before me and I will tell him he is wrong

Billy being Steve’s evil gay clone is so real tho I’ll give you that

Um it’s 2024 are we all ready to admit the party is just the nerd boy version of the plastics? Are we ready to have that conversation? I’m ready to have that conversation

#briana answers things

[curiouschaosstarlight]

I think, for me, the most offensive time someone tried to claim a character is "x-coded" is when someone who claimed to be my friend kept claiming the main character in my last fandom was "aroace-coded", "SO aroace", "HYPER aroace", and insisted that it was 100% intentional and if the creators knew what being aroace was back in the 80's-90's, they would have declared her aroace outright.

...Ignoring the fact that I identified as aroace. (That person was asexual, but in a "ew sexuality is so gross u-u" kind of way, which also leads me to not trusting them on ANYTHING regarding sexuality. They also couldn't interpret anything for shit either, despite claiming that "writing is objective" and to have perfect objectivity on everything, no matter what.)

Ignoring the fact that the series's entire plot hinged on this character being constantly flirted with and proposed to. So, if the character DID finally agree, the series would end.

Ignoring the fact that every single side material in existence during that portion of the series would pair that character up with people, or confirm a multitude of crushes they had on members of the opposite sex.

Ignoring that the only LGBTIA+/queer rep in the games were the ever-popular mixing up of gay/trans people and thoroughly mocking them, making them into really offensive stereotypes, and so on. So, if the character WAS intended to be aroace, there'd probably be lots of jokes about "fixing her", or otherwise it would be used to further the fact that her main love interest was truly "the one" for her (it was reaaaallly heavily shipped, to the series's detriment at some points).

Also that overall feels way less real when someone else is able to talk about how much they view that character as a lesbian and how much they ship her with other girl characters, and THAT gets encouraged, and "oh I love your writing so much!!!"'s, but when I talked about my ship (the canonically teased one that was m/f) it's "I just think she's aroace u-u" "She's aroace-coded though u-u"

(Fun fact! Same person that insisted the 1 canonically bi character later on is actually gay because it's "uncomfortable" for him to show attraction to a female character!)

Also, I think the most damning, is that Coding is really specific to America and things that were showed in America during a specific time period. It's based on the Hay's Code, where, if you wanted your movie on the big screen, being queer was seen as something that either needed "fixed" by the end of the movie, or the character in question had to be killed if not fixed. That's why so many villains are queer-coded; villains weren't allowed to live either, and so, you might as well just make your villains queer if you wanted to have a queer character at all. Then you wouldn't have to get emotionally attached to a whole 'nother character just to kill them. (There wound up being something similar for comics, too.)

The Hay's Code ONLY affected things that were shown in America.

It WOULD NOT affect a Japan-only video game that was never localized into America, and was never planned to be. Plus, Japan just...doesn't really "code" characters? In my experience, Japanese media's pretty fucking free when they want to add gay characters or characters whose "only love" is [not a person]. They're not always the greatest at representation (perfectly capable of being as vile as depictions in other places...obviously), but I can only think of a few sparse examples of them just...hiding a character's orientation behind vague hints.

The person who insisted that Coding is an actual thing that can be applied to any piece of media for any reason (their reason in this case being that they just FELT it, they felt it VERY STRONGLY, so clearly it must be true and intended!!!) was not American, had not ever experienced anything to do with the Hay's Code, and only had their own word to go on.

Anyways, this is a really long-winded way of saying I hate "coding", I hate that fandom as a whole got its grubby little mitts on the fucking term, I hate the fact that people can't just admit they have a headcanon anymore, and they can't allow anyone else to have differing headcanons. (Not that THAT part is anything new. God forbid.)

Also sick to death of the double-standard. This is not the first time I've shipped something that's genuinely canonically teased or outright canonical (I'm a bit of a basic bitch when it comes to my starting ships) and someone INSISTED the character couldn't POSSIBLY like the other character, but a different ship was completely and totally fine. (Also insisting that this character's aroace, that character's gay, and that character's also gay, but I say my favorite character is pan and I don't think there's any real contradiction to that? "They can't be pan! That's weird. That's weird of you to say that :(")

#chaotic rants #not important #sorry i just...thought about All That again and im mad about it #also i hate 'minor-coding' #'minor-coded' and 'family-coded' arent a fucking thing #stop trying to make it a thing #just say you don't like the ship in question and fuck right off #im going to chew through drywall if i keep seeing people say #that certain characters in my current fandom are 'minor-coded' #i s2g

[doriandrifting]

Stranger Things x A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 Parallels = Byler

This is going to be a long one, but I promise it’s worth it!

So if you’ve watched Nightmare on Elm, you’ll know that Vecna was heavily inspired by Freddy Krueger. Freddy attacking children through dreams and using their trauma against them vs Vecna entering their minds and using their trauma against them. Vecna’s long hand is very reminiscent of Krueger’s knife glove. There’s also the fact that 001’s father is played by the same actor who originally played Krueger, Robert Barton Englund. There’s also like a million other reasons why this is connected but that’s just some background to make a bigger connection.

What some people may not know is the the second elm street movie is basically known as the gayest horror movie of its time. The entire movie was queer coded, but just barely tbh. And it actually created a lot of problems for the main actor who was closeted at the time.

^ Jesse is the main character in the movie and he is coded as a bisexual, or gay person depending on your interpretation, struggling to come out. Freddy exploits these struggles throughout the movie.

So the movie opens up with The Walshes (…The Wheelers… lmao) living in the house of the previous main protagonist of the first Elm Street movie. Her name was Nancy (!!!)

Now Jesse has a love interest, Lisa (…El…) but every time he tries to pursue her, his nightmares keep getting in the way. (The equivalent being Mike trying to be with El, but him being unable to say he loves her, hindering their relationship. Also, there always being a convenient plot every season that keeps Mike/El apart).

During the movie, Freddy keeps possessing Jesse in very queer ways, sending him to a gay bar, materializing when Jesse is trying to physically engage with Lisa, and eventually Jesse shows up in the middle of the night in his male friend/crush’s bed and asks him to watch and see if he gets possessed. Basically the whole damn thing is one big metaphor about his running from his queerness.

At the end of the movie, Lisa begs Jesse to fight Freddy. And she gives him this big declaration of love that allows him to break free and become his hetero self again. (I mean…this is just the inverse of the piggyback scene.)

Here’s Jesse btw:

Here’s Mike this season:

Basically there’s the scene that’s supposed to lend itself to Jesse being a bit eccentric, and queer, and he puts on the above ridiculous outfit to dance (…roller skate…). Cue everyone giving Mike a funny look and Argyle making note of his outfit.

Since we know the Duffers were referencing Elm Street this season, isn’t it strange that Mike is the one being paralleled and dressed like Jesse, not Will, the main character who’s arc this season is about being queer?

Definitely will not be surprised if Mike is Vecna’d next season and his queerness is subtextually or explicitly used while he is taunted by Vecna. But unlike in Elm Street 2 , I think this will lead to Mike coming to terms with himself once he is saved.

#stranger things #byler #mike wheeler #will byers #fan theory #season 5 #nightmare on elm street #queer coding