#literally no one is saying it's good rep. you all just want to fight gay people about movies we like

[ssaalexblake]

on behalf of all the people who didn't realise they weren't straight until their early 20's (even despite how obvious it may be in hindsight) i wish a very happy Fuck You to all the self absorbed assholes saying Yaz's arc is bad or lacks agency or sucks as gay rep Because she didn't know this till she was 20ish and didn't admit it to herself until EOTD, like honestly, at this point go take a long walk off a short pier.

The people who didn't ~see~ thasmin before it was verbally recognised are merely irritating and exhibiting heterosexual blindness, You lot are out there insulting the experiences of many very Real people because it's not good enough for you.

Literally. What you're peddling is SO awful and said with the assumed moral high ground, and all i have to offer you is one huge 'ew' at that terrible behaviour.

Look, this is not actually about Yaz, but lol, Yaz was a bullied teenager on the verge of or actively suicidal, she is not shown to have One friend and her family are actively shocked she's taken friends home in arachnids because Yaz doesn't Have friends. That Yaz did not immediately clock she was into Thirteen and thought they were just good mates actually makes perfect sense bc she doesn't know what #besties feels like to differentiate the two things. Is that depressing? yeah, but the point is yaz built herself up into the person she is in tpotd in a coming of age type story, she Does have support and friends at the end, she Does know her sexuality better by the end, she Has achieved what she wanted in being able to help people. She grew and learnt! Good for her.

It's also like, personally think that it's a more valid interpretation of the show to say that Yaz was troubled and didn't want to admit this to herself before eotd because of 13's avoidance and behaviour, rather than anything else going on. Yaz is never shown to be repressing this because of the gayness, she's worried because 13 is squirrely and they fight so much and 13 Still doesn't open up to her.

Mostly, in the end, idgaf what you think of Yaz's arc but if it's related to one type of person's discovery of their sexuality being Better than another then honestly, you need to not subject other people to your 'takes', because all you're being is cruel and you don't even have the self awareness to realise.

Watch your damn words. I don't care if somebody realised they're not straight/not cis/not whatever when they're 99 years old. To use an internet cliche, that is Perfectly Valid and a story worth telling in any kind of media out there. If you want to watch the story of a queer character in dw very secure abt their sexuality and Not on a voyage of self discovery/coming of age narrative that happens to include that Discovery, go and watch Bill's episodes and stop saying shitty things about real people not being good enough for you.

#dw shit #suicidal ideation cw #once again the dw fandom is Terrible

[stem-sister-scuffle]

STEM SISTER SCUFFLE: ROUND 1 MASHUP 8

Pamela Isley/Poison Ivy (DC/Batman) vs Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum (Adventure Time)

Pamela Isley/Poison Ivy is a Botanist!

Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum is a Bioenginner, Chemist and Roboticist!

Why you should vote for each contestant:

Pamela Isley/Poison Ivy:

"She wants to destroy humanity to save the planet and she looks good doing it."

"SHENSHDMD8SJS She's so strong and pretty and cool. Whadda woman..."

"stem icon. uses her knowledge to be fucked up and evil with a possible interest in plants. more #MadScience rep"

"Sometimes ya gotta go a little ecoterrorist to get your point across and that scares people. However she did it and continues to do it despite persecution from the DC heroes. as a legal disclaimer the statement about ecoterrorism above is a Joke"

"Takes no shit canonically sapphic ecoterrorist emotionally repressed queen what more could you want."

"Gay"

Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum:

"She’s a freak about it! she is committing horrors in there but just lowkey, and she’s having fun doing it which is what matters"

"She cares about her people to an absolute fault and all her evil science is for them (when it’s not simply for sciences sake) and that’s why she’s a girlboss <3"

"She’s unethical. She’s a mother. She’s a monster. She lives in a world of magic but only believes in science. She was even a lesbian. PB for the win!"

"she is a pink lesbian!! she has committed war crimes!! she is much more complex than the audience's (and the main character's) initial impression of her!! she created an entire kingdom that she rules and when she gets voted out she loses her sense of identity!! and loves her subjects and also spies on them!! she is trying not to be so mean!! she is passionate about her science work and she loves her girlfriend!!! SHE IS SO GREAT. her gf Marcy is actually my favorite but bonnibel's relationship with family and home is super compelling, everything from her abusive/controlling uncle who tried to force her into a het relationship to her (metaphorically) intellectually disabled younger brother who she loves so much because people get built different! we don't need to know why we just need to respect them! thank you. I love her"

"Organizes conferences for people to present their scientific findings, created life forms when she was lonely, has committed so many war crimes (including intergalatically) using tech she invented, lost an election because she assumed people would care more about facts than charisma (they did not), is gay. Spent a thousand years pining for her rockstar vampire ex-girlfriend. 💕💞💕"

"She has a RAT named SCIENCE. One time in the comics she also did a flip and kicked a door down while saying ""physics I swear to gob if you don't work now I swear physics I SWEAR"" she was literally threatening physics. Anyways physics worked good for her! She has built an entire kingdom from the ground up INCLUDING its life forms. She HATES wizards with a passion. Magic to her is just science with silly presentation. It's implied she's been to wizard prison a lot of times before. HOWEVER she also has a vampire half-demon girlfriend so yeah. Oh yeah she's gay too. "I have a disease that makes me like vampires and titties its called being a fucking genius""

"She is the best woman in STEM because she LITERALLY created and genetically engineered the people of her kingdom, built incredible robot guardians to fight off intruders, and continues to experiment (including an experiment gone wrong where she was trying to resurrect dead citizens) in spite of being a busy princess (and lowkey dictator) ruling her kingdom solo. She created/built her own family (aside from her brother), and eliminated them when they tried to rule over her and stop her from being an independent scientist. She is multitalented, hardworking, and just unethical enough to keep things fun and entertaining! She has no ethics board, so the experiments get wild! She is so Blorbo, you know? Also people don't acknowledge her science stuff enough, I want her to get more recognition as the insane, wonderful mad scientist she is."

"She’s an unethical mad scientist who experiments on her subjects. What’s not to love"

"Invents gadgets/devices and even created her own citizens"

"For the realness of working in the lab endlessly without sleep (Ignore that she set up a police state I guess)"

"Literally built an entire kingdom citizen by citizen"

"She bioengineered an entire country . Kinda fucked up, but that's okay"

#stem sister scuffle #round 1 #poison ivy #pamela isley #dc #dc comics #dc universe #dcu #batman comics #gotham city sirens #princess bubblegum #princess bonnibel #princess bonnibel bubblegum #bonnibel bubblegum #adventure time

[jakowskis]

💖💙💜 owen harper bisexuality masterpost 💖💙💜

i've had this in my drafts for a minute but i figured i'd finish it up and post it today for bisexual visibility day :D

it hasn't cropped up recently, but i've seen a lot of people who've questioned owen's bisexuality over the years and i thought i'd compile all the 'evidence' (although it completely baffles me that we got a show with five canonical bisexual characters and people want to write two of them off as straight / "heterflexible" ?? there shouldn't have to be 'proof' of owen being bi, RTD said torchwood is about five bisexuals fighting aliens in cardiff which means they're all bi, full stop. also, bisexuals should never have to 'prove' they're bi, and in regards to fictional characters, i'm sick of people nit-picking who 'deserves' to be counted as rep and refusing to 'claim' certain characters if they're morally grey or if the fandom simply doesn't Like them as much-)

but i digress.

so without further ado, here's everything i've found that supports owen's status as a bicon :-)

explicit canon instances

➤➤ obviously, we have to start with his gay kiss in the first episode of the show. there's a lot to be said about that kiss, i'm not gonna get into all that here, but i've seen a lot of people say it's not proof of owen being attracted to men, and i wholeheartedly disagree. you can literally catch him smiling very happily after the kiss (and one of owen's few genuine smiles of the series, too). i don't think a straight man (or even a "heteroflexible" man) would beam at another guy who's just informed him that he wants to fuck him. a fair amount of people have also said they interpreted owen calling the taxi as him intending to get away from the couple, but i don't understand how they're getting that impression, because that smile makes it seem very much apparent to me that running away is the last thing he wants to do.

it's also, notably, the first time we see bisexuality IN the bisexual show, which i don't think should be discounted. like, we see owen do something gay before jack does, for fuck's sake. is it a good first impression of how torchwood portrays bisexuality? no. is setting owen up as a more sex-driven, opportunistic bisexual nicely contrasted against ianto & tosh's more romance-oriented brand of demisexual bi/pansexuality? in my opinion, yes. i love that the torchwood bisexuals all practice their bisexuality in different ways. that's very special to me. 'cause it's realistic! real bisexuals all experience bisexuality differently! obviously it'd be a different story if he was the only bi rep, because lord knows we've seen enough of that already, but torchwood makes an effort to show us five different brands of bisexuality, and five different bi stories that largely only exist in the subtext, that aren't the focus of the show, and it's fantastic. it's all i could ever want out of bi rep, honestly, even if it is a bit dated now.

➤➤ the other explicit moment in the show: asking tosh and ianto for an end-of-the-world threesome in sleeper (s2ep2). i've actually never seen owen bi-deniers (fhdskjf it's a conspiracy) even mention this scene. owen literally asks ianto if they can have sex with each other to his face, and he's dead serious when he asks it. that's... i mean you can't mistake that as anything else. like fhdsjkf??

➤➤ next we jump to some of the, i suppose, extended universe content. whether the books are canon or not is debated, but the novel 'another life' features owen playing an online simulation game, and it makes a point to depict owen flirting with someone with a male avatar + wondering to himself if the guy would be down for cyber-sex. [someone posted part of that scene here. for context, owen's also got a VR headset on during that bit.]

➤➤ another instance is on the website, which some also don't regard as canon, but, i mean, i don't know who worked on the things we see on that site, but obviously they got their information from somewhere. they probably consulted with the writers on the show, or at the very least got notes on what things to touch on. anyway, there's a portion of the site where you can find a 'background check' on owen, and it's just a collection of messages from some ex-lovers of his. one of them is a man.

again, some people disregard the canon validity of the website, but the way i see it, the information on this site was released while the show was airing for fans to look at and to gain further insight on the characters. one of the things they felt a need to tell us about owen, important enough to be featured in his background (wayyy before the katie plot was developed), was that he wasn't just interested in women. personally, i regard that as canon. you can find this here. and even if you wanna say fragments jossed this background, it doesn't joss his, like... identity.

next we have things said by russell t. davies himself + by burn gorman (owen's actor)

➤➤ again, RTD (who's torchwood's creator, but i'm assuming everyone reading this knows that) explicitly described torchwood as "a bunch of bisexuals living under cardiff and fighting aliens". that's not ambiguous. [i don't have a direct source for this quote, it was apparently said on the dvd extras.]

burn's comments on owen's sexuality include...

➤➤ (when asked who owen fancies) "Owen's pretty cocky, he'll try it on with whoever comes along." [x] and yes, this is vague, but vagueness is often interpreted as proof of bisexuality. (for example, in the pacific rim dvd features, newt's bio stating he was interested in "whoever will take him" was widely interpreted by the fandom as him being bi.)

➤➤ (in regards to owen's "let's all have sex" line) "I don't think he [...] thinks about the implications, or whether it's with a man or a woman." [x]

(ok i have to admit, although i absolutely adore burn, i'm not super fond of the way his 2006-08 self would talk about how torchwood handled sexuality*. however! he kind of hit the nail on the head in saying that, even if it's in the context of owen wanting end-of-the-world sex, because my take on how owen sees his own sexuality has always essentially boiled down to thinking he'd be like, "well, why wouldn't men also be an option?" (well, with sexual attraction anyway; i think owen's relationship with romantic attraction is far more complex.) i think he resembles jack in that way; anyone's a prospective sexual partner, if they're attractive and interesting and he decides he wants them, and he's also impulsive as hell, so he doesn't think too hard about gender in the moment if he decides he's into someone. there's not really any hang-ups.)

➤➤ and ofc...

(out of context this could look like he's just jokingly calling owen an alien-fucker, although owen makes his thoughts on alien-fucking pretty clear in countrycide lol, but it was said in the context of owen/andy as a ship [x].)

*if you're wondering what i'm referring to, it's a comment here [x] about how the torchwood team's bisexuality is a result of being in a pressure cooker environment and having a 'wartime mentality', and they just kind of 'take what they can get'. the implication that bisexuality is out of desperation/accessibility rather than attraction is pretty damn icky, BUT i love him lots and he generally seems to be pretty woke these days (+ otherwise has always seemed to grasp why torchwood's rep was so unique and groundbreaking and important) so i'll go ahead and hope that was just, y'know, simple 'being a straight guy in 2008' ignorance. fifteen years is a long time and i have faith his opinions have evolved by now, esp considering he used the word 'pansexual' at a 2016 con [x]. (actually, ok, you caught me, that last bit wasn't super relevant and i didn't need to bring it up, but i just wanted to gush about him doing it because how often do you hear that word out of celebs, especially older and presumably straight ones. and in 2016, too. kinda slay of him, ngl)

aaand finally, some random, non-explicit little things that i think support him being a bisexy king (several of these are goofy and half-serious)

➤➤ in episode 2, they make a point to cut to owen smiling after jack's line about "you people and your quaint little labels". one might argue he's smiling at gwen & carys on the screen, but cutting to him immediately after jack says it very much implies he's reacting to jack's words, and i think it's particularly poignant after, again, we saw him kiss a man the episode prior. (which, another thing - owen's literal introduction features him kissing a man, like that's gotta count for something. if the literal third thing i ever see a male character do ever is kiss a guy, that means something.)

➤➤ and of course, in the same episode, we get "period military is not the dress code of a straight man" .... owen's the only one of them with working gaydar. also what a fruity thing to say

➤➤ speaking of fruity things to say, in s2e10 when they're all watching the old film, owen goes "look at the state of them 💅" and he says it SO cunty for no reason it always kills me fhsdkjfd

➤➤ combat.

➤➤ no, really.

➤➤ bonus: in the combat commentary, it's mentioned that when RTD saw the above scene between mark & owen, he said it was "the gayest thing he'd ever seen".

➤➤ in the three monkeys, a big finish audio featuring owen & andy, owen flirts with andy repeatedly. even if he just does it to be annoying, it's still pretty damn gay. also the pet names... (he calls him sweetheart, sunshine, and tiger. it's half-mocking, sure, especially because it's owen, but there's also a domesticity to it.)

➤➤ and then there's the hope's "you're alive again and you want crisps?!" "be glad that's all i'm asking for" (owen was like 'i will not use this as an excuse to try to sleep w andy i will not use this as an excuse to try to sleep w andy i will not use th') these are the only two audios i've heard with this duo, i'm sure there's more examples in the other two. i know gooseberry literally has owen sabotaging andy's relationship with his gf and that is... woohoohoo.... i'll update this once i get through those.

➤➤ …. this is my personal opinion but i lowkey think he kinda wants john hart a bit when they all first meet him in kkbb hdskjfds. gwen & tosh both seem very charmed by him and they're meant to, it's supposed to be like 'oh, look at jack's ex waltzing in and charming the pants off everyone (ha), and only ianto and jack see through him' - owen isn't given a flirty line of dialogue or even a close-up shot of him eyeing john like the girls get, but if you watch him closely he certainly looks… intrigued by him. i think owen's more of a bi disaster than he lets on.

➤➤ in episode 10, diane notes that owen has "beauty products" in his bathroom. obviously this shouldn't be indicative of sexuality, but how many Straight Men in 2006 were moisturizing lmao. hell, how many do nowadays 😭

➤➤ gwen & owen's dynamic settles into a lovely little friendship in s2 and owen lowkey gives gbf vibes <3 them making fun of the movie in s2e10 together + the cheek-kissing at the end of s2e9… bi besties!!

➤➤ the peace sign he throws up in meat when he meets rhys fdsjk i don't even believe in some of the silly internet jokes abt bi culture but c'mon

➤➤ have you seen his taste in women. diane is soo butch and gwen's a total tomboy in s1. that's bi culture babey!!!! i too like girls when they're boys

➤➤ i already talked about it but the aforementioned scene where he asks tosh and ianto for a threesome... he asks them, like, immediately after they team up and bully him for not comprehending that there's "no phones. phones all broken. anyone there? no, 'cause the phones aren't working." that was suuuch a disaster bi owen moment for me. i too would get a little revved up if tosh and ianto both bullied me at once <3

aaand finally... the biggest Evidence of all....

➤➤ he's a leather jacket bisexual. need i say more

and that's all! thanks for reading!

[credit for the dividers used in this. didn't tumblr used to have built-in dividers? i miss that.]

#mine #torchwood #torchwood posting #owen harper #tell me why im nervous to post this fhdskfds #my anxiety is like someone's gonna get mad at me for this somehow #shhhhh #beating it with a broom #look at my post boy

[turtletoria]

not to clog up your askbox with south park bs but as someone with an sp friend the show itself is kinda insane like there's episodes with antisemitism and all kinds of shit ass takes but at the same time there's disabled characters which are treated well and gay couples who are really good rep and generally sensible takes about racism? mixed in with fatphobia and plenty of other bullshit no less, ig the few good bits is what makes ppl keep watching it

no worries i love complaining ^_^ also apologies for the length, but this is a very fascinating phenomenon because of how notorious sp is ?? yet it is being fandomized like literally any other blorbo show... it's like if people started legitimately blorbo posting about family guy or american dad or something of the same vein

anyways i got super interested in this topic and read a couple articles, but i like this one the most:

essentially, yeah, i can see what youre saying about the "good bits" but the biggest problem, as referenced in the above article, with this show is that 1) it's a super long-running old and influential show, and 2) satirizing or making fun of "all sides" or equating opposing political stances as if they're on the same playing field is disingenuous and dangerous to marginalized communities.

despite positive portrayals, this show is so blatantly an "equal-opportunity offender" that i honestly dont see that as a saving grace for this show, but more so why it's so problematic - this show is not focused on creating faithful or just representations of disabled people, LGBT+ people, or people of color. it feels more like these representations are there as a way to maintain the centrist ethos of the show, a no-sides taken approach. But this inclusion of marginalized people can only be shallow and disingenuous at best if the same show normalizes bigotry against those same groups.

I especially wanted to highlight this bit in the article:

"The truth is that no one seems to have really made much effort to censor South Park in quite some time. They are no longer the outsiders fighting back against the establishment: They are the establishment, two of the world's richest comedians whose signature show cost Comedy Central $192 million to renew back in 2015. But so long as they position themselves as underdogs, they risk empowering those who seek to use their invented victimhood as a smokescreen for bigotry. This is Fox News' gambit when they talk about the war on Christmas, Trump's angle when he attacks the "fake news" for criticizing him—bullies acting like victims to spark that particular, put-upon sort of outrage that ignites their base. When South Park acts like it's still the rebel throwing rocks at the establishment, rather than a platform for the grievances of two insanely rich straight white men, it's playing the same game."

and before someone goes "blah blah its just jokes why so serious (haha joker reference)" have you considered that sometimes jokes are unfunny? sometimes satire doesn't land, and for good reason. i just hope that people (especially younger people) eventually realize that.

#ask #anon #i tried to make this as accessible to read as possible since its so long. sorry #also if you do a “im not reading all that. im happy for u or im sorry that happened” thats fair i would too tbh #anyways. this is just White Liberals the show i think #the white liberals that are not as extreme as far right people but u sure as hell still dont feel safe next to them #they say theyre ur ally and whatever and then they say smth stupidly racist that even they didnt know was racist

[chirpsythismorning]

I feel like a big part of the reason Anti Bylers are so aggressive is because this is the first time in mainstream media where there's a chance that the main couple of the show may end up being mlm.

Not only is there a likelihood that the main couple will be gay, it will come after years of these fans assuming that the cliche, safe straight ship was going to sail from start to finish.

If you look at the "predictions" these individuals have for season 5, which honestly have less to do with narrative direction and more to do with what they want, you'll always catch a certain undertone to what they're saying:

"The heterosexual, white male audience is the default for media. We will allow the wlw ship, so long as it has limited screen time. We will accept Will surviving, and even allow him to have an acceptance arc. But you will not receive queer rep at the expense of a ship that we are nostalgic for. The straight male audience is the one that matters, and we will be represented by the main couple in the show."

My favorite is when they’re asked what they hope for Mike and El in s5, only to list off qualities of Mike and Will’s dynamic. I legit saw someone say that they hoped they finally took the time to talk through their problems (oh so you’re admitting they never do..) and that we’ll actually get to see them be a team…

Like, do you hear yourselves?

I would actually like to read off their play by play of how they imagine s5 going down. Not just their wishes but like what they literally imagine happening over the course of the season, episode by episode.

And I’m talking the confident milkvans ones that are like super hostile about it. I wanna see what they hypothesize will happen in early s5 related to Mike and El… I don’t think I could keep it together if it is anything along the lines of them instantly making up and being happy for the rest of the season… 😳🤣

They just don’t realize how dumb that sounds.

S4 created conflict and hasn’t settled it. It was considered the beginning of the end, meaning those parts are going to fit perfectly together. If Mike and El were lacking romantically more than ever before in s4, don’t expect that to change much…

And gentle reminder that rewatch value is everything. If milkvans have to skip 3 eps in s1 bc they’re not together or fighting, skip all of s2 bc they’re separated, skip most of s3 bc they broke up in the second episode, skip most of s4 bc they separated in the third episode…. What does that fucking tell you?? They are not being prioritized for rewatch value, that’s what. Whereas byler is. (Bylers also are capable of watching milkvan scenes religiously… I can’t say the same about milkvans being capable of handling more than one second of rewatching a byler scene. And it’s bc they know if they watch it the mental gymnastics they gotta go through to convince themselves nothing romantic is going on is near impossible…)

Byler endgame is going to make the rewatch for the entire series hit, while milkvans, even with a hypothetical endgame would probably watch s1 and s5 and say the rest doesn’t matter. Do they think that’s how the show is supposed to be watched?

With one season left, they should have been hoping that monologue wasn’t in s4, but instead s5. Bc now how can those two one up that? They simply can’t. It was put there to show that they’ll never progress beyond this point. Nothing will ever top it. This is as good as it gets and yet, they still lost. What should that tell you?

What are they gonna just repeat that monologue in s5, but have mike say it 20x and THIS TIME it works?? Yay? Like there’s literally nothing satisfying about that in the least.

Can’t say I wish bad for ppl that simply like Mike and El and are bummed that they’re starting to lose hope. That as a basic idea is like whatever. I don’t like seeing ppl sad. Even if I told off a milkvan directly, seeing them like feeling depressed afterwards, does make me feel bad.

But when it comes to the hostile ones, people literally resorting to harassing directly with complete strangers unprompted and threatening to dox, over people merely theorizing? Like?? Was it ever that serious?

If we’re so delusional and we’re just setting ourselves up for disappointment, why not wait to say I told you so when it’s all said and done, if you’re so sure? Why dedicate so much of your time trying to discourage people on the other side? Unless it somehow qualms doubts you have?…

What makes this whole situation such bullshit, is that if this were a queerbait situation, you still shouldn’t be out here being hurtful like literally spouting off how you can’t wait for people to experience getting queerbaited? Like it’s fucking weird? The prominence of queerbaiting is literally referring to show runners taking advantage of fans, making them think it’ll happen, even encouraging it, and then ripping it away, usually ending in a bury your gays situation. That is the norm in the industry and it’s only now within the last few years starting to change in mainstream.

The hypocrisy of it all, is that they think we should just accept what they believe is the only possibility, queer-bait. But you know if the roles were reversed, which they inevitably will be when s5 drops, they’re going to be playing the victim, saying nonsense like if queerbaiting is bad then so is straightbating!! and it’s just going to be so out of touch and pathetic.

It’s not the same. Whatsoever. And the fact that they can’t see that, that one result is lazy writing and one is epic subversion, and are literally making a mockery out of the situation, convinced they’re right bc they have history on their side and gays should just be used to never getting their way and THATS okay to them?

Like it’s almost painful to watch. Especially knowing the 180 they’re gonna pull when they end up in the situation they convinced themselves we were gonna be in.

#byler #ask #anti milkvan #reddit rambles

[hubristicassholefight]

Swordswoman Showdown Round 2 Part 2

Lightning Farron (Final Fantasy XIII) vs Fa Mulan (Mulan)

Better here in a "preferred character" sense, not "who would win in a fight")

Propaganda below cut

Lightning

She uses a Gunblade. A sword thats also a gun. Said to be very rare because it takes so much skill to use. Does lots of slashing and backflips. Later becomes Champion of A God and sword fights a guy for eternity. Later becomes champion of a Different god and uses lots of different swords; She is dramatic and has lots of character growth and is awesome.

#She fights sephiroth#she has a fire sword for Drama#She gets armor too#how can you say no to that face#you want it she can do it

#there’s 10 hours left Lightning did not suffer to lose#ALL SHES BEEN THROUGH AND FOR WHAT#HER CHARACTER GROWTH IN THE GAME IS SO GOOD#SHES BEEN THRU SO MUCH#I JUST WANT WHATS BEST FIR HER#FOR HER#SHE DESERVES IT APL#ALL#RISE LIGHTNING STANS RISE#WHERES UR ANGER#WHERES UR RAGE

#back to rep my girl because I am NOT done talking about her#like she deserves everything okay#having to grow up quick and throw away her childhood to become her sisters new guardian after losing their mom#having to continuously grow stronger not for herself#but to keep Serah safe#and then eventually the need to want to protect others#her new found family#the fact that she would do so much for them by the time we get the third game#how kuch she had to fight all she had to do for the#the sake of humanity#the things she’s been through#it makes you want all the best for her

#i love them both but come on I gotta rep Lightning 😭😭😭#come on she uses her gunblade like a pro#but I love how she’s not afraid to throw hands either or how agile she is#so she doesn’t have to rely on her weapons at all times#she’s strong too like even before becoming a l’cie she can knock down men -snow- twice her size#she has the skills to back herself up#lets not forget she stabbed a god in the face with a survival knife#she’s just constantly getting stronger and she’s pretty#did I mention she’s pretty because#she’s very pretty

#she comes with 2x Big Sister baggage!#you know how much you love Grizzled Cynical Old Man Acquires Child?#get ready for Grizzled But On The Inside Woman Acquires Child Who Is Somehow Even More Cynical and Grizzled than Her#Idolizes Her and Becomes a Mirror Turned Back Upon Her So She Has To Examine Her Shit#also she’s just so cool#unpopular opinion but I love the feel of combat in XIII#I’m not a fan of super granular systems I love the vibes-based play#watching her flip and slash her way around the field kicks ass#like yes bitch u barely need me here#SHE HAS A GAY LITTLE CAPE HOW CAN YOU SAY NO TO A GAY LITTLE CAPR#they couldve made her a little grizzled tho. for Me.

#Did I mention she can grill up a good steak#but that's all she can cook#She stabs a god in the face with a pocketknife#she punches dudes in the face#she meets a hot australian chick and slaps her and then shows her her tits#She has a suit of armor and a horse cause she a knight#yes i'll propagandize for her in her every poll cause she's perf

#Ok but you forgot to mention how Lightning is literally one woman army#She freaking uses magic and summons her stead guardian and even users those giant ass double edge blades and they fight in unison#She is also very acrobatic and elegant with her moves#Even more so in XIII-2 where she is literally fighting a war on her own and now has access to divine abilities making her more of a Paladin

Fa Mulan

stole her father's sword to take his place in the imperial army. defeated the invading leader and stole HIS sword too.

Soldier who saved all of china; She’s one of the ogs, man, her movie is a banger

i know she's a problematic fave but i still love her :(

#lightning farron #final fantasy #final fantasy xiii #fa mulan #disney mulan #poll #official #round 2 #swordswoman showdown

[uncaught-coolfish]

ok ok imo there was defo some planning to the bees becoming canon and to deny that is kinda silly to me. that doesn’t mean that planning and eventual execution was good.

•Yang losing her arm is apparently a “sign of her love for Blake” because of that line Adam had in V3? …I thought y’all despised his ass, when did we start believing a word that came out of his mouth??

•On that note, paralleling the two, when the latter was literally the abuser of the former’s current gf, is…..😬

•Also on that note, the objective infantilizing of Blake. All she really does now is whimper and be meek around Yang until another “bee moment” or until the plot remembers to use her for something. Yes, because turning this once feisty character into this shy nervous little meow meow who can’t even fight on her own anymore after she’s revealed to have been an abuse victim is totally not gross.

•Yang prioritizes her new GF over her little sister who is clearly in a horrible headspace, and when she finally breaks down, instead of attempting to calm her down or console her she steps in front of a COWERING BLAKE and just says “Hey!”. YOU TWO ARE BOTH OLDER THAN HER WHY ARE YOU ACTING LIKE THIS

•The scene in which they finally confess was literally forced out of them by a storm. I…I thought we learned to not do this? Guys? Um…

•The 10 year queerbaiting smugly disguised as “planned from the start uwu” that Voltron Legendary Fucking Defender wishes it could have achieved. Does that mean it was always planned that you’d write your hatesink character to have been a branded child slave? Does that mean it was always planned that you’d write the confession of these two’s love for each other to have been forced out of them? Does that mean it was always planned that you’d confirm your main queer couple two episodes before said couple did nothing to save their 17 year old leader from taking her own life on screen?

•Saying the quiet part out loud when an employee tweeted that “The bee kiss alone hopefully green lights V10.”

•Also, the immediate merchandising of it. Ugh.

Before I go on, no I do not believe the bees were “forced diversity”. No I do not believe Adam was killed to push it (he was killed because the writers wanted a quick way for people to forget how abhorrently racist this show fucking got anyways). No I do not believe this is a bad pairing, and if you accuse me of being an [insert hetero Blake/Yang ship here], I ship fucking Monochrome and Thundercats, dude. But what about the rest of this show’s LGBT representation? Is it any b

No.

•Our first on screen rep is in the form of Ilia. I really like Ilia, genuinely, she’s honestly one of my favorite characters. But why did they write their first lesbian character in the “psycho lesbian” trope? Also, why did their first indigenous character start out as a villain who had to be redeemed by learning violent protest bad all lives matter and ANYWAYS—

•Coco leers at women and her allusion is a fucking Nazi. She sucks. •The wives from V6 (Terracotta-Arcs??) are fine. Probably the most decent rep we’ve got, even if they were just a one off thing. They’re cute and I’m happy for em. Slay.

•We’ve got a single gay man in the entire cast (Scarlet) and he’s confirmed in a book. A single gay dude in a show infamous for its character bloat. Obviously we know why but man.

•3 non-binary characters. 1 is in a spin-off, 2 are animals. In this latest volume in which the last two are present, one is revealed to be a villain, and the other goes out Green Mile style. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay….

•And lastly, May. I also do like May! However, her character is not the problem.

What is the problem with all of this, no mater what, is the people, company, making this show.

Rooster Teeth is not your friend. Rooster Teeth does not care about you, or putting that loving care into representation.

Why are half of the villains disabled? Why are half of the villains in universe minorities? Why are half of the villains POC? Why are half of the villains a combination of two or all three of those traits?

Why is the only freedom fighting, minority rights organization terrorists? Why does their WOC leader die the scene we meet her? And why is her killer revealed to have been in fucking slavery the same episode he dies on screen in? And why is this organization taken as a serious threat, while two openly racist antagonists are portrayed as goofy and comical?

Why are any and all plus-sized characters portrayed as jokes? Why does the disabled-coded girl get her disability ripped away from her so she can “truly be human”? Why does another disabled character have him losing an arm to mean he’s lost his humanity? Why does this show portray so many misandristic tropes? Why does this show portray so many misogynistic tropes?

Why was this show’s first LGBT character a villain? Why was the next based off a Nazi? Why are two out of their three non-binary characters animals, and why have those two either been “killed” or turned into villains? Why is there only one gay man in this huge cast?

And why is it so many just let it slide that, while before and during the production of the volumes featuring the show’s first transgender character, Rooster Teeth treated and abused that character’s VA like absolute garbage?

Are the lives of those real people less important than those sweet, sweet “bee moments”?

In conclusion, the bees were not forced. I am glad they are canon. But I am not glad that it has nearly managed to conceal all the deplorable shit the racist, homophobic and awful company behind it has done.

#rwde #this one is seriously unarticulated but that’s like. ok #just thoughts that have been on my mind for a whiiile

[a-thirst-for-dunmer]

My favorite things about all my Skyrim followers:

KAIDAN

-wicked ass armor and weapon with fucking tigers on it

-realistic cursing in life or death situations

-literally the most realistic male dialogue ever with his corny ass innuendos. ‘This monument, does it remind you of me, love? Just kidding.’

-so goated in battle. Mans can kill a dragon so easy and i don’t need to do anything but look pretty

-ACCENT.

CARYALIND

-his hair is so fluffy. I bet it smells like roses and vanilla bean, what’s your secret bb

-such a sweetheart all the time. No wonder he can’t be Thalmor, he has too much heart for it

-fucking backstory. It’s very Zuko without villain redemption arc, and the fact that he still worries about the LDB thinking worse of him for being Thalmor royalty is just *chef’s kiss*

-ACE REP. I really fucking love how he can dress like a hoe, flirt like a hoe, and look so hot but have no interest in sex. Mmm that’s my jam that’s what I like.

-boob window

-Kaidan interactions! Proving that Altmer can be kind and sweet and not lighting-shooting British assholes

INIGO

-the backstories for everyone are so damn tearjerking but this guy?? Don’t even get me started on this mans scars I will cry

-literally autism. Says everything on his mind. Sir you are me

-blue. And a cat. What else??

-Lucien and him have a bromance that hits so good

-suplexes Nazeem with only his vibes

-sings original songs, where’s his soundcloud

KHASH

-okay first off i was writing a character just like her for the daughter of my LDB and Revyn. Never knew about her but this is Leeta come to life and i crave it

-pottymouth

-Kaidan Big Bro protection dialogue

-so happy when she kills things

-literally exactly what I expected a baby Argonian to sound like. So cute. So grumpy

-her outfit is just on point. If i hadn’t transitioned i would be cottagecore peasant dress woman with cats

LUCIEN

-like Cary, he is just sweet himbo no brain

-kid in a candy shop vibes. He is amazed by the wonders of this world

-the nerdiest mans you know, would probably never shut up about shit with Auryen but i haven’t gotten that far yet

-bottom energy

-AUTISM once again

-also sings!! Can sing ‘Toss a Coin to Your Witcher’ parody!!

AURI

-she is the Moment

-eats people and only meat. Wanna see someone react to ThatVeganTeacher with her as a vtuber model oml

-bullies Lucien (affectionately)

-cool pod

-looks like she could kill you and could actually kill you

-slams ALL haters and unworthy into the ground with her dialogue. Faendal ily but you don’t deserve her

RUMARIN

-a sweetheart himbo

-very Skilled with magic, specifically bound weapons. As someone who uses conjuration as their main line of magic, because dremora and bound bow go brr, I LOVE THAT

-not really good at speaking poorly of anyone tbh

-like lucien, he’s optimistic and fun to be around

-very…earthy. Jank. Grungy. Not what you’d expect from an Altmer, to be living as an adventurer mercenary, and i like that for him

-eats in bed, brain too empty to clean for long periods of time

-polyamorous pansexual King

-says Z like zed, which makes linguistics in Skyrim lore interesting

NEBARRA

-literally me

-sarcasm to the max

-name means ‘foreigner’ or ‘scorned’ or something transgender. anyway, king nihilist shit

-only wants the good wines

-also, the Accent, very good very sass

-Shakespearean insults for days

-also regular insults

-just…insults

-mystery and striking fear into the hearts of all

TALIESIN

-i thought no one could top Revyn in vibes of what Elder Scrolls character i would kin but then ✨he✨ came along

-no idea why Altmer are Brits but with him, i can vibe with it he sounds so good

-giggles evilly in fights

-s a s s

-pansexual!! We are putting queer in the game! (Even tho all vanilla spouses are, in the most Basic sense, bisexuals)

-the spice he can add with Cary as a protector/snarky best friend. I Need their backstory

-afraid of dogs, cat person

-just an absolute bitch to the Dragonborn but like in a way my gay friends are to me

-eyeliner on fleek

HONORABLE MENTIONS FOR SKEEVER AND CROC

-silly voice go brrr

#tes #skyrim #skyrim custom followers

[yourtoradorasextendedwarranty]

So shit like this, shows me how inept people that vote blue are. You all think, "Well this thing is called "x" so it must be so". It's literally this meme in a nutshell:

Then there was the, "Inflation Reduction Act" which itself did almost nothing to reduce inflation and the only projected loss of inflation would be by a % and only by 2027. Trump was a New York Democrat. And he explained why he didn't run as one several times. And the reasoning was because the Dems would not have let him win. The same way they didn't let Bernie win. And policy wise, Trump and Bernie were not super far off. It's why when Bernie got gutted during the primaries, a lot of Bernie voters went Trump.

And just because Trump doesn't align with the new socialists doesn't mean he's not still a Dem at heart. Just means the modern Dem party keeps moving further and further left. Which if you want tyranny then keep voting for them. You'll get it soon enough. Oh and the prospect that I am "Only critical of Dems" and I "Promote Reps" is fucking stupid. I'm far less critical of Reps because I KNOW they are mostly stupid. But I will let the right criticize their own, and when Reps do something I'm very much slighted by I talk about it. Like when I complain about Abbott. And the only Reps that I promote are more libertarian party members while only being republican in name. And that's both Rand Paul and Ron Paul. Also Tulsi is a Dem I like. But I guess she's not Commie enough for your tastes. Because she's anti war and the modern dem party is extremely pro war.

Fact is. I only like Trump in so far as he protected our borders, pushed the Abraham Accords, and did his best with LYING generals at his side to pull us out of wars and bring our troops home. Of which I am ALL for because I'm a prior. Get my brothers and sisters out of these pointless wars. And out of these dangerous war torn countries that never stop fighting. Trump is a crass man who's self important to a fault. I'd never deny that. He has done some not great things in his past. But did he fly to Epstein's island dozens of times? Not according to flight logs. Bill Clinton on the other hand took several trips to said island. Bill Gates took several trips to his properties and I believe the island once or twice.

If you are going to come at me saying, "TRUMP'S RUNNING AS A REPUBLICAN SO HE"S NEVER BEEN A DEMOCRAT!", Well sorry just proves you can't parse words. Just because you don't see him as one doesn't mean he isn't one. He's not currently threatening to ban abortion. Most Reps would be. He's not threatening to ban Gay Marriage. Some Reps would be. Hence you miss the point. IE: You miss the forest for the trees. Reps are voting for Trump because the economy was good under him and he didn't want communism or socialism. And if you believe that there was no election meddling going on, you clearly didn't read Time Magazines, "The shadow campaign to save the election". In which they outline a number of things they did behind the scenes to make sure Trump could not win.

Many of which would be LEGALLY considered election meddling. Like IDK. Hiding the Biden laptop under "Misinformation". Which is funny because most modern "Misinformation" as reported by Dems and Mainstream Media just means, "4-6 months until proven true". Like the machines that DID flip votes. But the "Fact check" websites will tell you, "Well yes it did happen but we caught it and fixed it". Ok.......so it happened, meaning it could have happened to other machines, and no investigation was allowed to happen on those machines beyond, "Here you can look at it physically sitting on a pallet in shrink wrap and that's it". Yeah that's "Investigating" surely.

Yeah, if that had happened to Dems you'd still be shrieking to this day about a stolen election. But because you won, any and all funny business is reasonable and fine and shouldn't be investigated. Which tells me you don't care about fair elections you care about power. Because if you did care about fair elections, you'd have voted against policy changes that were against constitutional law. But unlike me (not a rep) you don't have morals. So long as you win and wield power like a weapon you don't care how you get there. And if that's the Democrat party I want nothing to do with it ever. Real things happened in 2020 that never got investigated. You don't give a fuck. Trumps voted blue most of his life. But in no true scotsman fashion, he's "Not a Democrat because he's not aligned with my idea of modern Dems". Spare me.

All communists should be purged. You aren't people so much as I'm concerned. You're a cancer on this earth. And modern Dems are basically Communists. Certainly not all. But far too many.

Oh and "Our enemies are trying to get Reps elected. Oh so Reps like Bernie Sander and Jill Stein?

And this is only one report. Several others actually claim that Hillary was in fact aided by Russia herself. Sadly the MSM doesn't care about it and buries it because it's damaging to their narrative of "Trump is Super Hitler". Get over yourselves. Your party is currently flooding the US with illegals and putting US citizens on the back burner.

#discourse #discussion

[softpine]

i wasn't on tumblr when tlou part 2 dropped but i would love to know your thoughts on the game especially if/how they've changed with time if you're up to writing a paragraph lol

also i've seen a lot of ppl (i've never had a playstation so i have to go off of other ppl's opinions) say that while the story is about how the cycle of revenge is bad that the gameplay still rewards it and how that sort of defeats the purpose of the game for them and wanted to know your thoughts on that

happy tlou season 2 renewal <3

YES YES YES you know i’m always up for writing a paragraph (or ten)

first, let me just clarify one thing: the main message of the game is not “revenge is bad”. i hear people say this constantly and it’s just not true. the real message is all about forgiveness. if i had to boil it down to its essentials, i’d say the message is “love is a stronger force than hate.” but that’s just one interpretation!

i don’t feel that the gameplay rewards the cycle of revenge at all. abby kills joel and in return, she systematically loses everyone she cares about – leah, nick, jordan, nora, manny, yara, mel, and owen... plus she will never be allowed to go home to the WLF again. lev loses his entire family and community too. and they’ve both experienced unspeakable horrors while they were held captive by the rattlers. abby was punished for her decision at literally every turn. but she keeps fighting to survive because she has found a much stronger reason than hate to stay alive: love. protection. family. the first time she ever has a happy dream of her father, after years of nightmares, is when she saves yara and lev. killing joel didn’t give abby closure, but finding something to fight for did. it’s the exact same thing joel found with ellie.

ellie is not rewarded for her actions either. she’s the one picking off the salt lake crew members one by one, but we see her lose a piece of herself each time. she’s not experiencing catharsis, she’s only spiraling deeper into obsession and grief. she can’t appreciate anything good in her life, because she’s still consumed by everything she’s lost. she walks out on her partner, their baby, and their dream home to chase after this elusive “closure”, knowing that she may die trying. i think ellie herself knows that killing abby won’t make her feel better, but the only alternative is forgiving joel and moving on without him, which she doesn’t feel is possible yet. she has to lose everything before she’s able to accept joel for who he is and what he’s done.

it’s a fucking masterpiece the way that the game makes you think joel and ellie’s last conversation was a fight, until they reveal that actually, their last conversation was ellie offering him an olive branch. “i don’t think i can ever forgive you for that. but... i would like to try.” is so impactful because ellie never got the chance to forgive joel while he was alive. even while she was trying to avenge his death, she couldn’t forgive him. it’s only when she has lost herself that she can finally forgive him, and perhaps she can even understand him. that forgiveness has nothing to do with abby or anyone else – it’s all about ellie. it’s about love.

as for my personal opinions about tlou2, they haven’t changed much. i loved it when i played it the first time and i love it even more now!! i greatly appreciate the sheer balls they had, and the fact that they never changed their creative vision to make the game more palatable / marketable. i’ve never seen a game make such an unpopular choice and i respect the fuck out of them for doing it no matter what anyone said. i love joel but i’m glad he died because it gave rise to one of the most impactful stories i’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing 💖

(special mention to the fact that the main character is a lesbian, which is something i would never even think to wish for because it’s so uncommon in games of this genre. ellie is everything i’ve ever wanted from gay rep, meaning that she’s literally just existing as a gay person and her sexuality has hardly anything to do with the plot. i fucking love how she has a detailed story, a rich personality, and complicated relationships while she just happens to be a lesbian. it’s literally perfect, no notes!)

#i'd be curious to know what you meant by the gameplay rewarding the cycle of violence #because i never got that vibe #at the end of the day it's a video game which involves violence so obviously they need to make the gameplay entertaining #but they did everything in their power to make you feel conflicted about it #giving the NPCs names - making their cries of pain / begging for their lives truly hard to listen to - making you kill dogs - etc. #asks #anonymous #nonsims #brandi answers #the last of us 2 #the last of us spoilers #tlou spoilers

[previouslyafangirl]

Brave

So this is my first time watching this movie, adn I have some thoughts on it :)

I adore every member of this family, especially the Dad's puns. "I'll take you with my bare hands!" as hes fighting a bear! It's such a better movie that they made the mom irritating, but they didn't make a villian out of her. Everyone in the family has quirks and frustrations but none are "evil". What I love most of all is that they so clearly love eachother. No matter what the problems are, they love each other and want to be a family.

The dynamic between the mom and the dad was awesome. It's so amazing see such tiny seeming moments on screen, demonstrating a healthy couple supporting each other no matter how minimal it sounds. I am still learning how to have a healthy relationship and also with neurodivergence, I at least learn a lot by watching movies/tv with that healthy dynamic just to see it demonstrated (a tool I'm sure a lot of kids who grow up in houses that don't have that healthy dynamic demonstrated could benefit from).

There is so much therapy aspects in the movie. For one the mom and dad role playing a conversation with Merida so the Queen could practice what she needed to say, and the dad could give some advice if needed (and just his support). Similarly, Merida practicing conversations on her horse. But what stuck out the strongest to me was the forced role reversal between Merida and her mom. I've heard therapists discuss this technique in a more controlled setting, but it seemed to work exceptionally for Merida and her mom. Of course they are fictional characters, but it was a well thought out character growth moment.

I remember when this came out some people were mad about Merida being gay. For real guys, she's a literal child. That's why she didn't want to get married. I love gay rep, I just don't see it in this one.

With the point that she's a child, I'm so glad they didn't make her be a grown up to save the world. She saved her mom by crying in her mom's arms, allowing Merida to maintain that sense of her parents will be there for her when she needs them. Also I don't want to see anyone calling her spoiled or selfish because she's a literal child behaving like a child. Plus yes it's set in history, but there's magic that turns the queen into a bear, it doesn't need to be entirely accurate.

The siblings seemed such an accurate dynamic. Yeah they'll help, but it will cost, unless they also have frustrations with that person.

My favorite thing about the movie was the emphasis on communication, and how excellent of an example it was on how to have that communication.

We know that afab children tend to be given more lenience for gender nonconformity ata young age than amab people do (this sometimes changes closer to adolescence), I wonder if the boys were to act in a more stereotypically feminine way if the dad would support them. I like to think he would. I do wish he would be a little more of a disciplinarian to his children at times as it's not fair to leave that all on the mom. Kids need to good parents, not a fun parent and the disciplinarian. That might have eased the tension between Merida and the Queen a little as well since she clearly views her father as an ally against mom.

Overall I really loved this movie and did add it to my Christmas list. I might add more latter, idk we'll find out.

#disney #pixar #disney pixar #merida #brave #princesses #disney princess #family dynamics #psychology

[kitkatcadillac]

i have not gotten all the way through the hbomberguy video yet or anything im just a little more than halfway through but since i dont know how to talk about anything else ill say this is only a microdetail brought to mind by his mentioning of some of somertons plagiarism and using being gay(as a marginalized group) as a selling point and defense

but that it is so fucking twisted to claim to be a queer rights activist and supporter and then steal a trans asians article, written from and about the pov of a trans asian person, to remove so much of the personal trans experience and input so often "lgbtq"

like not to tinfoil hat on you but i think theres this thing thats been going on for years thats had its ups! and its had its downs. but that is ultimately, that "lgbtq" has been pushed into being marketable but in this really fucked up way wherein its like... if its gay, great! if its lgbtq, fantastic! but you get into LITERALLY!!!! any other labels that are considered "othering" (see: less marketable) it gets dicey.

like. look me in the eyes. i know, and you know, that he did that in part because he was trying to hide, well, plagiarism. but he isnt the only one that sees unique queer identities and their experiences and knows if he just packages it up pretty... if he makes himself sound smart, and if he blankets it over to "lgbtq" its more marketable.

listen. im not saying you should not ever love lgbtq or queer as blanket terms. but by referring to every singularly, uniquely queer experience as lgbtq, as queer, when it defines itself as something more specific, it ends up having a smear effect of erasure.

i think unfortunately the nature of marketability is competition, and it just sucks that that makes stupid football teams out of everything. if theres a market for it theyre gonna start a fight about it. dems vs reps, queers vs straights, gays vs trans. its very easy to want to turn everything into a fight, into support this and ditch this, instead of actually taking the time to create like... learning opportunities. a big point in all of this shouldnt be like oh well fuck these people in particular, it should be to be careful about the information youre consuming and to do some research yourself too.

theres also a good point that im seeing so many people that are surprised and shocked about people they respected and trusted turning out to be this way and never realizing so many messed up things about the sort of messages those people have been putting out. i mean like, okay, weve all seen the you are not immune to propaganda garfield, but seriously. the transphobic rhetoric was right there. the misogyny was right there. the BLATANT misinformation about gay history and its relationship with corporate was RIGHT THERE, in a nicely packaged form with clear and agreeable speaking, nice video and audio editing, and (obviously) quotable, sharable information.

👏 be! 👏 fucking! 👏 careful! 👏 about letting someones grab on marketability trick you into making an already bleak situation worse. it is so fucking easy to get caught up in us-and-them rhetoric when that is so much the worst thing to do im begging you. do not discover your mistakes and respond to them by doubling down when you recognize that it is a mistake.

#skelly speaks #i might delete this later but fjdj #queer and community i mean #theres soooo much to talk about here about this video #but all i know is be queer and eat hot chip. thats all that gets my brain cells to rub together okay #i have a lot of feelings about how serious it is to acknowledge that a community is a sum of individual and unique parts #we are one group of many people! we are together and share something but simultaneously experiencing it uniquely. #and i dont know that im very smart or speak very well #but i can see how culture and capitalism DO have profound effects on one another #and in my short time here on earth so far its been a spectacularly profound experience watching gay rights evolve... #and how suddenly being gay makes money and changes the game on both ends of things. its crazy #like a LOT of feelings fjdjf im so sorry #this is the most political i get but i care much

[valkyriesexual]

i got tagged in that thing about ‘post 8 shows to get to know me better’ which like... i feel like none of this makes any sense and i am dating myself here. but nevertheless.

1. buffy the vampire slayer (1997 - 2003). listen. it’s iconic. i have complicated feelings about it now, given everything we know about what the actresses went through on set with joss whedon, but at the time, it was formative. faith in the leather pants eating twizzlers in that apartment that the mayor put her up in is one of my earliest “oh i’m kinda gay” moments. belonging pt 2 still makes me cry. willow and tara. i’ll never be over it.

2. queer as folk (1999 - 2005) obviously, in the late 90s / early 2000s i was searching for queer rep anywhere i could find it.  we had just gotten direct tv, i think so my dad could watch the sopranos. little did he know, i was watching 30 year old brian fucking 18 year old justin taylor on the lowest tv volume possible after sneaking into the living room at 2 in the morning after everyone else had gone to bed. is it good representation? is it fucked up that the relationship that anchored the show was between a grown man and a teenager? i wasn’t thinking about it like that when i watched it.  i was just absolutely in awe. 

3. the l word (2004 - 2009) listen. if you watched the l word and wanted to bang shane, you were probably straight.  if you watched the l word and wanted to get railed by jennifer beals, you were just a mortal. if you watched the l word and wanted to be jenny schecter before she got that little dog... you were me. i may have been the only one in the world? i don’t know what that says about me.

4. charmed (og) (1998 - 2006) i watched charmed reruns literally every single day after school.  i adored charmed.  beautiful powerful women living in san francisco with the most bonkers late-90s / early 2000s fashion fighting demons? i was all in.  i remember my dad telling me that he thought holly marie combs was “plain looking” and i’m still offended.  Its been 25 years.

5. south of nowhere (2005 - 2008) i feel like i was the only person in the world who watched this show. it was on nickelodeon (???). it had 3 seasons. gabrielle christian moves from ohio to los angeles and falls in love with mandy musgrave. it disappeared and tbqh i can barely believe it aired when and where it did.

6. crazy ex girlfriend (2015 - 2019) a show about older ppl for an older me. i obviously relate a lot to a california attorney with a complicated relationship with her body and mental health struggles.  so. i stopped watching before the last season so i could continue to live in my fantasy world where rebecca was with nathaniel.  i know i’m in the minority, but i thought they were perfect together. the chemistry was off the charts. he matched her intellect. i loved it.

7. orange is the new black (2013 - 2020). i mean, it basically started off the rise of netflix’s original content, right? i mean, now, looking at how netflix treats their original content creators, it’s bad. but still.  and i think about danielle brooks saying "so I'm sitting there, bbq sauce on my tiddies" all the time. and i’ll never be over what they did to poussey. and how they handled it the next season by painting the killer corrections official as sympathetic. i didn’t watch anything after that season.

8. skins uk (2007-2013). this is another one that i have complicated feelings about, given what the now-adult actors have said about their experience filming the show as teens. the star power this show brought us though. dev patel. daniel kaluuya. jack o’connell. kaya scodelario. it was really something. i remember downloading it and watching it on my first laptop sitting on my fire escape and smoking as a college student and thinking that i was just so deep and grown up. how embarassing lmfao fml

#pers

[midnightcowboy1969]

Midnight cowboy changed my life the first time I watched it. I can’t watch it again. Normally I love tragic endings but in my mind I just keep putting Rizzo and Joe safe in Florida. Idk it’s so much more than a movie to me. Even though its what the average tumblr user would call “problematic” at best, it means so much more to me than shows with “actual/proper” gay rep. I love Rizzo and Joe. I miss them. Anyway. What are YOUR thoughts on it

I see, I see. It changed my life as well. It rewired my brain. I’ve seen it like 12 times. I am no longer normal if I ever was.

And I assume you must be a little new here because over the past years I’ve talked about it a lot … it truly is the movie of all time!!

In addition, it’s the book of all time. If you’re interested it’s free to read on archive.org!

Also, I’d argue it’s proper gay representation. Just because it’s not said out loud doesn’t mean it’s not there.

For one, Joe Buck is bisexual. He's not "gay for pay", even if the movie seems to imply that with the Towny scene by the end and by framing the scene at the theatre as his first experience with a man (space movie). In the book he has a sexual encounter with a man who wanted the Annie "treatment" or whatever pre-NYC. For free. Joe just likes giving because he's good at loving. Also, there is this guy in the book who keeps asking Joe what he wants to do with his life, and it seems pretty horny to me sdfghj So in my opinion, book Joe is 100% bisexual.

He is bi in the movie too but its more subtle. Its in the way he grows to care for Rico, you've seen the movie.

Rico the little rat is gay however. We have his Florida Fantasy. Like, c'mon. Half naked. Women throwing money at them to fuck Joe. Like come on little rat man. This is your fantasy. But also, when Joe first stays over and he wakes up from a nightmare, he calls Rico the f-slur, because hey he just remembered the assault, and now he's trying to establish control and dominance but more importantly, he says Rico doesn't look gay and Rico shrugs it of like "what's that supposed to mean?" there is no answer there because its between the lines.

Also - like the party???? Outside the doors??? Joe wiping Rico's sweat and Rico kind of embracing Joe??? And when Joe goes with Shirley "don't tell me you two are a couple" Garnder to fuck and he can't get it up because he's worried about Rico. I mean the drugs were probably to blame a little too but he was worried about his friend who just fell down the stairs, and then Shirley emasculates him because his dick doesn't work, and she also asks him if he's gay, and then they have like a weird kind of animalistic sex scene where Joe fights for his life to dominate her??? On one level he is here wrestling with his sexuality and by comming out on top he proves that he likes women, but Rico is literally the reason for this, Shirley knows Rico who fell down the goddamn stairs and Joe is worried about him, so he's there haunting it all it's like a confirmation of bisexuality scene right there - is my take.

Also, like outside of the story itself we have Hellman the producer in 1994 or something saying they all were aware they were making a love story when they made midnight cowboy.

And, you have Hoffman (who is not trusthworthy) talking about it in a Vanity article, where the gay thing was a big elephant in the room.

Anyways. Some thoughts.

I loved when Rico peed his pants.

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

4 and 19 for the salty ask game

you didn't specify a fandom but im pretty sure you followed me for owl house stuff so i will assume you meant the owl house fandom.

4. Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?*

lmao if youve followed me for any time at all you would know i fucking hate the huntlow ship. huntlow ship my beloathed <3< <3< <3< :333 at least how 90% of the fandom portrays them. ppl will see a white angsty boy and immediately find the one shippable girl and file down all her character and make her his emotional support decoration.

to be clear, huntlow in the actual show is fine. i don't think them getting together would add anything to their character arcs, and since the show is running on a tight schedule i think they should have just cut that subplot out. i think there are ways to make them interesting but the show doesn't have any time to do that. there's barely anything substantial about the ship in canon anyway so i think it's fine. it's ignorable if you dislike it and its enough to extrapolate into a funny post canon ship if you do. my opinion on huntlow in the show is like my opinion on gustholomule. it's fun to consider but it's obviously not important to the story i actually care about.

but the shippers??? hoooo the shippers. first of all while i don't like to think about most fandom stuff from the stance of representation it's really important that owl house is like. THE gay cartoon rn. the creator had to fight tooth and nail and write around a bunch of stuff to get queer couples on air and make the fandom more receptive to it outside of a fetishistic thing or a "cute background couple that everyone acknowledges is canon but no one actually explores" thing. and then the moment a blond boy looks at a girl everyone explodes. im not calling ppl bigoted for shipping it bc i dont know the exact reasons every single huntlow shipper likes the ship but the fact that they also try to use rep to justify it? even though 90% of them didn't give a shit about the non white boy half of the ship before the ship became a thing? not a great look for the average huntlow fan lmao.

also the mischaracterization of both characters, especially willow, is super annoying. it shouldn't be a hot take but characterizing willow to be a brute that tries to beat up everyone who looks at her wrong? and indicating that hunter, a survivor of child abuse, is attracted to her because of this? uhhhhh don't like that! its one thing to portray this and explore why its bad but that sure isn't what 90% of the shippers do! youre allowed to depict any dynamic you want but im allowed to say that depiction sucks shit! same with making willow to be either a 50s housewife or a manic pixie dream girl she isn't any of that? literally just make a self insert to ship hunter with if you want his ya love interest ass so bad.

anyway ive complained more about the huntlow ship and its place in fandom here, here, here, here, here, and here, among others. a lot of my points are in the tags lmao. that isn't to say all huntlow shippers are annoying some of them make genuinely good content thats in character for both of them! but the shipping community is. bad. and i already didn't care for the ship anyway so they haven't made my opinion better. it was a mistake for the show to put hunter's conventionally attractive angsty ass into a shippable position lmao.

19. What is the one thing you hate most about your fandom?

I think part of this phenomenon is because the fandom skews younger since at the end of the day toh is a disney show rated for kids. but there's a phenomenon ive seen with a lot of young skewing fandoms where fans assume just because the thing they like is diverse, that automatically exempts them from being bigoted or even having implicite biases. like "i cant be racist my friend is black!" but it's with fandoms so they have even less of a leg to stand on. ive been guilty of that too in the past and im trying to examine my biases both in fandom and more importantly in real life.

the fandom has a serious favouritism towards the white and/or male characters. just look at the disparity of opinions on the blight parents, even before clouds on the horizon. or even better, before s2 when all we had on them was just a background shot in lilith's flashback. people were already portraying odalia as a catty evil woman and alador as his uwu tortured husband whos scared of her, before we even knew their names.

same goes for other female villains compared to the male ones. all the villains are different so there isn't a one to one comparison but generally, the reactions to villains like darius (right after his first appearance in edas requiem) and graye were a lot more nuanced. most people who talked about them were trying to write meta about them or finding them sexy or thinking about a redemption arc.

and compared to female villains like terra or kikimora? i am serious about this they were objectively more compelling villains than darius or graye in their debut, if you discount kiki's minor appearances in s1 and just look at hunting palismen, her first episode as a major villain. and yet most people talking about terra and kiki after the fact were just calling them bitches or other more sexist stuff i won't say. and being mad at them for...doing bad things to the protagonists? bc they're villains? i get the lack of thirsting but no serious meta? ive grumped about it here. also i wasn't in the fandom during the week between agony of a witch and young blood old souls where everyone wanted lilith's head on a stick but from what ive heard? yyyyeah i don't think they were just mad at her for being a villain.

same thing with the white characters people always give so much more focus on the white characters compared to the poc. luz had a bunch of angst like amity in season 1 but 99% of lumity content focused entirely on amity angst. the hyperfocus on hunter is something to note too. i get that fans love angsty characters. i do too. but him being a white boy definitely didn't hurt his popularity lmao.

its a problem in the show too so not all the blame falls on fans. the show focuses on majority white characters as well. even though the show is very racially diverse, luz's most important relationships except her mom are eda, amity, and hunter, and gus and willow are pushed to the side. same thing with their portrayal of some female characters i love what they did with terra and kiki but their portrayal of odalia...oof. i've grumped about that here.

but yeah if you point this out a lot of fans get uncomfortable or even angry at you for accusing them of, in their eyes, being a Bad Person who likes Bad Things and have Bad Thoughts. so they argue back that there's no definitive proof that any biases are happening on a personal basis. and yeah i can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law that you're actually secretly racist or sexist but if you just look at general trends in the fandom? the bias is there. it's not a problem of individual people it's a problem of fandom culture.

anyway i don't want to say fans who do this are bad people because judging by the ages of some fans toh might be baby's first fandom for some of these kids. they haven't had enough life experience to really examine their biases or even determine their principles. it would be mean to condemn kids for having biases, especially since i also did that at their age and i'm still trying to deconstruct my biases now. these kids need to learn about nuance in media and also that fandom is not activism, but it's not my job to teach them this. this is annoying but it's a reasonable price for being in fandom. especially a fandom for a show targeted at kids.

#ask pandora #shut up pandora #toh #the owl house #triple--a-threat #tackling all the hard questions today are we #thanks for the ask!

[soliyra-the-sunbringer]

Soli’s wishlist for Our Flag Means Death Season 2

Hey, so why not: I'll try typing up my ofmd s2 wishlist. Some of these are improbable and/or unpopular.  You don’t have to agree with everything, but I’ve been encouraged to share my thoughts.  OFMD Season 2 wishlist, in the order in which I thought of them just now: 1. THAT THERE BE ONE.  Things are looking very good as of May 2022 but cruel and senseless things happen all the time and nothing is assured.   2.  Re: the reunion: THAT THERE BE ONE.  Some of you have never had your onscreen kiss and love confession take an immediate hard right into bury-your-gays and it fking shows.  Furthermore the writers and actors on this show are amazing and I want to see how they do it.   3. Abshir returns!  That dude is an absolute legend.  I need to know what he and his friends got up to after 1x05  and I am dying to see Oluwande's 'investment' pay off, hopefully at a point when the crew are at their lowest.   4.  Hornberry joins the Revenge crew.  He obviously likes them (he and Stede have a 'rapport') and there is no way that man is straight.  I want to see the Brittish officer -> pirate pipeline happen in real time.  And I want to see him involved in Stede et all getting off their feet/getting a ship.   LET HIM KISS BOYS.  (Is he sleeping with Wellington?  Maybe we’ll find out!)

5. Ghosthoney joins either the Revenge crew or Blackbeard crew.  I could honestly see it working either way and either way is pure gold.  6. "You're STEDE'S Ed???"  The many people on Tumblr calling for this are right and should say so.  Every drop of Ed & Mary content gives me life, particularly the moment she finds out he and the 'Dread Pyrate Blackbeard' are the same person, regardless of how exactly that goes down.   7. Lines for Ivan (in this economy) Ok, so it looks like this one isn’t going to happen, which is tragic but it does seem to mean that there is going to be a Season 2 for Ivan to not be in, so...great??  Anyway, so the way I would deal with this is for Ivan do die in an absurdly dramatic way off-screen.  It is somehow both heroic and cool and also stupid and hilarious.  The actors can probably improv this one, idk.  But no body, no crime, and leave it just open ended enough that he can just show up down the line (in an equally absurd and ridiculous way) if something changes wrt Guz’s schedule or w/e

8.  Jemain Clement as Benjamin Hornigold.  This has been hc’d so hard by so many fans...are we sure it’s not already canon?  Pirate-hunter arc would be epic.  9.  Captain Thomas EDWARD’S.  What can I say except that historical stuff is only cool if it’s funny and/or romantic and this sh is both. 

10. Doug comes out as trans, giving us bisexual (or otherwise wlw) Mary and transfeminine rep in one fell swoop.  

11. Speaking of which: Izzy Hands tries on a dress and experiences gender euphoria for the first time, which serves as a major turning point for the character.  (Ed and Izzy are lesbians together; I don’t make the rules).  

12.  Ed kisses a girl (and likes it, a la Katie Perry).  Please I am dying for explicit bi rep in OFMD. 

13, and this is an important one: STEDE KILLS SOMEONE ON PURPOSE.   --13a. that person is a dick. --13b. and preferably a racist.  This is an important point on Stede’s white-guy journey to active anti-racism.

13.  Anne Bonny and Mary Read, obviously.  Mary is Tig Notaro but I can think of literally dozens of actors I’d like to see as Anne and they’d all be great for different reasons.  MOAR WLW

14.  My favorite actors from the last major fandom I was involved in, because why the h not, is this a wishlist or what? 

15.  Harvey Guillen as someone extremely flamboyant and completely unhinged.  He’s been the uptight, contained one on wwdits for so long.  Let that beautiful little man be ‘round, brown, and proud’ and completely bonkers.  Let him get in a knife fight with Jim.  Maybe he’s part of the Siete Gallos, maybe he’s Jim’s long lost brother, maybe he’s just some pirate, idc.  This may or may not be a Harvey Guillen stan account. 

16.  A new wig for Jim.  Or maybe just Vico’s hair?  I do not like the current wig. 

17.  CREW.  FLASHBACKS.  The people (including Samba) on multiple platforms who are calling for this are right and should say so. 

18.  Geraldo appears in flashbacks.  He is an underrated character and Fred Armisen is delightful.  I said what I said. 

18.  STEARD NATION.  Murray Hewitt was a LOOK and I would like to see more, ty. 

19.  We all know that Lucius is alive, but have you consider that his life was somehow saved by the wooden finger, AKA the power of ~love~? 

20.  The people calling for Rory Kinnear to return as increasingly distant members of the Badminton family who all, improbably, look exactly like Rory Kinnear are right and should say so.  But male family members only; we will not be doing the ‘man in a dress’ trope on OFMD. 

21.  SHOW US THE TALENT SHOW YOU COWARDS.  The people calling for this ar-- you get the idea.  

22.  (can’t believe I almost forgot this one) Gnossienne 5 played on an unlikely instrument like electric guitar or something. 

23.  GIVE FANG A DOG.  Another popular one that is also empirically correct. 

24.  Explicit ace rep.  I don’t really care who but bonus if it’s someone we already know. 

25.  One time I read a post somewhere that said s2 should start with Stede standing in his dinghy with his hand upraised and he sees the crew and they see him and he is immediately hit in the face by the red silk and.  Yes.  That.  I agree.  that’s all I can think of for now, except for the general idea of ‘boys kissing,’ which really should be a given but, again, the world is cruel and senseless and we can take nothing for granted. 

#ofmd #our flag means death #our flag means gay #ofmd season 2 wishlist #soliyra #wall of text #actually I think I'm just so so but I've decided to carry myself like I'm funny #spoilers #ofmd spoilers