#the next disney's first gay character that comes around | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lovecanbesostrange · 7 months

Text

ouattober2023 Day 6: Fav Rarepair

Red Warrior (aka Mulan Rouge, fandom, it was right there, come on)

The gif speaks for itself already, Do I need to say more? No. Will I? Absolutely.

Back in S2 I was very happy. I had Sleeping Warrior to ship and also Red Beauty. Two good ships. But over the years there was the question "what if Mulan and Ruby ever met?". It seemed like a fun constellation. The honorable warrior, serious, focused, happily doing her duty. And the werewolf waitress who effortlessly talks to people, who can be mean if need be (and the full moon is out). Imagine Ruby showing Mulan around Storybrooke. She'd have her start her own gym so fast. (After being teased for so long, somebody should have taken Mulan to Storybrooke and let her watch a film already.)

I watched S5 spoiler free. No promos. It's fun. But there is always the guest cast list and seeing the names Jamie Chung and Meghan Ory when The Bear King started? EXCITEMENT! I was then mesmerized by the Mulan&Merida scenes, I almost forgot I was waiting to see Ruby again. And oh boy, THE WOLF! Once again foiled with magic, but that was okay. When Mulan arrives at the Witch's Hut next? A different kind of magic happening indeed...

Meet Cute noun; (in a film or television programme) an amusing or charming first encounter between two characters that leads to the development of a romantic relationship between them.

Yep, I'd say Mulan almost getting attacked saying "you're not a wolf" with a big smile "you just need a little help remembering who you are", then splashing that potion to reveal Ruby, now sorta sitting above her? Perfect meet cute you can talk about for ages. It calls back a pivotal point from Mulan's past and we get to see a mostly decent CGI wolf (in broad daylight). Especially because we know that Red has killed people before and it's so unclear how much control she has, what exactly the Witch has done to her, ending it with her all smiling as well, is great. Of course I have to cry about "My name's Ruby. My friends call me Red." (Sorry, Mulan should have called her Red later on, to hammer that home.)

Mulan has hearteyes from the get-go, Ruby sits there panting. Frame this and put it in a museum. A clashing meeting that is definitely cute. I mean, there's a sword and fur involved.

It's funny how Mulan forgets to even introduce herself and Ruby has to ask her name later on (because suddenly it's night, how long did they sit like that?). And for somebody who likes to overanalyze it's hilarious how they do manage that Mulan mentions Aurora - with the sad music swelling in the background, to remind us all how their last meeting went - and then we cut to Ruby saying goodbye to Snow. In my mind a good reason this pairing works is, that they can get drunk together and lament how terribly in love they both once were with a princess. It's a fun thing to bond over.

Mulan is clearly the rare holder of the braincell, she also brings in a lot of training, so a good fighting form. Ruby is the muscle, but especially for the EF she has a special kind of wit thanks to the curse!persona. The Bear King allowed us to see a darker side of Mulan, hitting rock bottom, being selfish and looking for a fight.So Ruby is a great person to have her enjoy life and find a balance between duty and fun. This is kinda the promise at the end of the ep, finding a path for Mulan, while Ruby searches werewolves.

Obligatory Doylian rant: Red Warrior was the plan. Whatever you wanna say about the writers, they knew this episode was a romantic set-up. There was a cryptic tweet, some drama and so it's all speculative, but I have made my peace that this came down to studio interference. The live action Mulan film was in the works already, it was coming, Mulan is an official big Disney princess and even though everybody with a bit of media literacy understood that Mulan was very much in love with Aurora, there was this plausible deniability and she wasn't like... that gay. Oh no. And this is why Dorothy got squeezed in, Mulan left with nothing. Clearly not what was promised to Jamie Chung. I have no proof, but it is the best explanation how we went from The Bear King to Ruby Slippers (zero hate for that episode or the Red Kansas ship!!).

I want to know what kind of adventures they had together. How did they go about this search? Any rumors about wolves? The maddening thing is how they managed to end up in Oz at all. I know there's a mysterious BTS pic for the ep. But nevermind, what we do get in the beginning is a duo with a routine, complete with a badass back-to-back protective stance. I always pictured them together in Storybrooke, Ruby showing Mulan around. But I guess what I needed was them out in the woods alone, traveling realms and kicking ass (I'm a simple girl, with simple needs).

Two wonderful interactions at the end of TBK are when the Witch arrives at the coronation. Ruby is ready to go on the offense, but Mulan holds her back. Just a few frames, but it's perfect. And then there's their little banter Ruby: "I might not be the best person to ask for dating advice. I kind of ate the only boyfriend I've ever had." Mulan: "Yes, that disqualifies you." [...] Ruby: "It's better than wallowing in self-pity." Mulan: "I don't wallow!"

THEY ARE ALREADY PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER! Endless teasing and running head first into enemies (don't worry, Mulan has a plan; Ruby dramatically takes off her cloak... sometimes even when there is no wolf moon, just to distract enemies).

#ouattober2023 #Red Warrior #Mulan Rouge #Ruby Lucas #OUaT Mulan #I shipped them before they even met - I flew too close to the sun with this

55 notes · View notes

aheavenlycreature · 6 months

Text

Okay, so this is kinda (alot) stupid because why am I thinking about a ship from a Disney show that ended 4(almost 5?) years ago? Whatever I guess but that’s not important. Point is I started thinking about when TJ fell for Cyrus and I guess I’m gonna give my little headcanon about it? Or at least part of it so: Ta-daaaaaaaa

We know Cyrus and T.J officially met when Buffy made him get Cyrus the chocolate chip muffin. Although, right off the bat it’s apparent T.J is not interacting with Cyrus like how you’d expect based on how we’d seen him interact with other characters (up until this point).

You’d think he’d give Cyrus a harder time about not being able to get his own muffin, potentially even poking fun at him in a mean-spirited way. But instead he offers to teach Cyrus how to do it himself so that he can do it in the future without relying on T.J. Even Buffy gives a surprised look when T.J tells her not to tell Cyrus what he can and can’t do, clearly not expecting this attitude coming from him.

So that’s the first time they meet officially, but then we really get the interaction which really launches their relationship: The Swingset Scene.

Anyone who watched this knows the scene: Cyrus was sitting alone on the swingset at a playground after having a bad day and went there to feel better. Then T.J came along and they began talking and the rest is gay history.

But again T.J approaching Cyrus is… odd. From the viewer’s standpoint it could even be seen as out-of-character for him. He really has no reason to talk to Cyrus. Sure, they’d interacted once because of the muffin but other than that the only thing that they have in common is Buffy.

At this point in the storyline, you’d think T.J would rather go out of his way to avoid one of Buffy’s close friends but he doesn’t. Instead, he opts to talk to Cyrus and actually opens up to him slightly about how he’s ‘got stuff’ and plays with him, doing the underdog move.

So my little headcanon is this: I think T.J noticed Cyrus from BEFORE the chocolate chip muffin introduction.

We know T.J was always giving Buffy a hard time. His entire storyline was basically “Bully” until the Swing Episode (with Buffy discovering his Dyscalculia).

He had it out for Buffy and it’d be believable for him to notice her whenever they’re in the same room together or if she was close by– like the cafeteria or hallways. T.J was actively antagonistic, so he probably kept his eyes out for her.

So in him noticing Buffy he likely saw Andi and, more importantly, Cyrus around her.

Like, I can’t imagine Cyrus never once came by practice or something involving basketball for Buffy and I imagine T.J noticed Cyrus from afar and started developing a crush (albeit a superficial one) on him without directly realizing it was a crush forming. Let’s say T.J chalked it up to: Curiosity. He didn’t know Cyrus and for ‘some reason’ he wanted to get to know him better.

With him now having his eyes on Cyrus, he knew he couldn’t just say hi because of well… Buffy. This is one of her best friends, he can’t simply approach him casually– especially because Cyrus is not like someone T.J usually hangs out with. (We know T.J’s friend group wasn’t exactly full of the best people and I think even T.J figured he’d need an excuse to say hi to Cyrus, even if he didn’t realize he had a crush on the guy.)

So– maybe there’s a reason T.J approached Buffy that morning in the cafeteria when Cyrus was next to her. Maybe he couldn’t help himself but talk to her when Cyrus was there and when he finally actually has an excuse (given to him by Buffy) to directly talk to the guy he’s been staring at from afar, maybe he decides not to do his ‘bully’ shtick with him : )

#tyrus #andi mack #Disney andi mack #tj kippen #cyrus goodman #I don’t know why I’m thinking about this in the year of our lord 2023 #but sue me I guess #hcs #hc tyrus #headcanon #headcanon tyrus #my hcs

42 notes · View notes

freakyshibs · 2 months

Text

Shows that were canned too early that deserved better (imo)

We all hate it when we get wayy too invested into a show with good characters, an interesting plot, and a solid setup right? Well it seems that the networks for these shows didn’t really see it that way sadly, some of these shows are known, others aren’t, but this is just gonna be me rambling about how we didn’t get more of these said shows 😭

The Owl House

Now this one I wont dig deep into too long? We did get a solid ending in the end, but we were definitely robbed of a full season 3

The fact that this was Disneys next big thing, (like Gravity Falls) and still got axed kinda baffles me a bit because executives love big ratings

I heard they cancelled it because of it ‘not fitting the disney brand’ (mostly because there were two main gay characters in it) which I thought was super unfair, because they really were that homophobic 💀

All in all, I enjoyed this show and wanted a full season 3

Close Enough

From Regular Show creator J.G Quintel, this show was definitely more for an older audience, and let me say they did amazing at it.

The shows humor didn’t revolve around cussing or sex jokes, (which is what I see all the time now in modern adult animation) and the show was definitely funny!

Unfortunately though, Max cancelled it after 3 seasons due to the merge of Discovery + and HBO Max, with Max canning alot of shows during that time, this being one of them

We kinda sorta got left on a cliffhanger of sorts?? At least imo. Liked the show and wish we had more

Wander Over Yonder

For a show made by Craig McCracken (Powerpuff Girls, Fosters Home) you’d think it would be popular and have a bunch of seasons right?

Well no, with this show only having two seasons after Disney cancelled it because ‘80 episodes were enough for this show’ which is kinda dumb?? I dunno I just don’t like executives and rules and stuff

I remember this show from my childhood, it was really good in my opinion, I feel like we could’ve had more if Disney didn’t cancel it as early as it did

Love you WOY 🫡

Inside Job

The fact that this show left on a cliffhanger too made me even more upset that Netflix cancelled it as early as they did

Not only was this another adult animated show that didn’t rely on cussing or sex jokes, the story was actually really interesting too and if the show did continue, we would’ve had a happy ending

Screw Netflix actually I will never forgive them for this one

Grojband

I CANNOT stress enough about how this show deserved so much more than what it got, I actually would’ve put it at number one, but the next one is kinda justifiable so ._.

From Todd Kauffman and Mark Thornton (Total Drama Island) this show featured a kid and his friends that were in a band, and used lead singers sisters diary as lyric ideas, bc they suck at writing them

And I loved it

I swear I don’t think I’ve ever been heavily interested in and emotionally attached to the characters in a show before, it was so good

The songs in this show were also heavenly, I suggest you give them a listen, theyre really good!

Also another reason I really liked the show was because it was a Canadian toon that didn’t revolve around gross out humor (I applaud them for that)

Unfortunately this was a show Cartoon Network screwed over BIG time, with when it came out during the summer it was airing, kids were mostly outside playing, never really gaining an audience, and then after the first half of the season aired, it was on a 2 YEAR hiatus. With fans questioning if the show would ever come back

Fortunately it did! Except Cartoon Network shoved it on their app, and a year later shoved it onto their sister channel, Boomerang. Then, after the show FINALLY ended their first season, the show was immediately cancelled, with Cartoon Network never really giving it a chance

The whole way Cartoon Network handled this show frustrated me immensely, with it having a decent fanbase, and people wanted more (me being one of them:()

The creators even had alot of plans for next said season, but I guess we will never get to see them (unless a Clone High situation happens but that’s doubtful)

Show was very underrated and deserved SO much more, Cartoon Network fumbled this one and the last show Im about to mention

Sym Bionic Titan

This sci fi animated series by Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Dexters Lab) only lasted one season with 20 episodes

With Cartoon Network cancelling it because of the failure to produce a TOY LINE

The fact this show got axed because of toys just makes me so upset

This was one of those shows that also left on a cliffhanger sadly, so we never really got to see how this show properly ended

With Genndy even saying that he wrote 10 more episodes, but now we will never get to see them

ALSO THE SHOWS SOUNDTRACK WAS SO GOOD?! Love when shows put banger songs in the bg, reminded me so much of Clone High

Anyways thats pretty much it? These are just my opinion tho, everyone is entirely different

#the owl house #inside job #close enough #wander over yonder #grojband #sym bionic titan #these shows deserved better

15 notes · View notes

chaoticpoetic · 1 year

Text

Spoiler Free version of my next post: Strange World is fantastic, amazing, and has both my approval and my son’s approval of their inclusion of Ethan, Disney’s first gay lead character.

No coming out drama, no conflict around his sexuality, and seeing him fully accepted by his family and friends for his sexuality - and gently teased over his crush - was so affirming.

#strange world #disney #gay #gay character #lgbtq #lgbtq characters

77 notes · View notes

braveblackbutterfly · 1 year

Text

Farewell to The Owl House: a personal essay (warning: this a long post)

When Steven Universe ended in 2020, I didn’t think I would ever find another animated show that I would grow to love dearly.

And then I found The Owl House a couple of months later.

I started seeing gifs (like this one) and posts about this cartoon on my dashboard, similarly to how I discovered Steven Universe. Eventually, I decided to check it out on Disney Now. I watched the first episode and immediately liked it. So I watched the next episode and the next til I caught up a week before the episode that rocked the world (or at least the fandom’s world).

Enchanting Grom Fright.

I have seen a few epic moments/episodes in children’s animated shows like Steven Universe and She-Ra. But there was just something about the lumity dance scene and the episode as a whole that just warmed my heart. And when Dana Terrace confirmed that Luz is bi (and later that Amity’s a lesbian), I was over the freaking moon.

Growing up, I never saw much if any (good) representation of bisexual characters in the media. I just assumed people were either gay or straight. I recognized my attraction to boys when I was a kid and immediately assumed I was straight, ignoring any signs that I liked girls too because I liked guys, so I can’t be gay, right?

Right?

It wasn’t until college and meeting one of my roommates who was bi and being introduced to her queer group of friends that I began to realize “yes, people can like men and women, or any genders for that matter.” And I finally allowed myself to ask the question: “do I like women too?” The answer was yes and I began identifying as bisexual (or queer when people act like they can’t understand bisexuality *eye roll*).

So finally seeing a show with a bi protagonist whose also a girl of color and neurodivergent just made me felt seen all these many years later. To know that kids and teens (and yes, adults too) can see a character like themselves or realized that bi people actually exist and are actually you know...people who deserves love and respect.

Luz is one of my favorite characters in the series, and I relate to her a good amount. But I relate to a few other characters too, particularly Amity.

I talked about this in another post I made last year (or was it 2021?) but going to talk about it on here too.

Lost in Language is one of my favorite season 1A episodes, for many different reasons. But mainly because of the progression of Luz and Amity’s relationship (from Amity wanting nothing to do with Luz to admitting she was harsh with her and them hitting the reset button).

I have been an Amity in the past. Not the mean/bitchy attitude Amity back then, coming from a rich or esteemed family. But I was the top student of my class too.

I had to be.

Not because of my parents like in Amity’s case. But because I had no other social standing in middle and high school. Students knew my name because of my high grades, my awards and eventually graduating as salutatorian. Yes, I’m still a tiny bit disappointed about the salutatorian thing. It was a battle between me and another girl throughout our 4 years in school, but she ended up becoming valedictorian.

In middle school, I had a Luz at my school. She kept trying to be my friend, but I wanted nothing to do with her. It always felt like whenever I was around her, something bad would happen. Especially this one incident. I was at my locker, ready to go home when she came by. She was twirling her baton, and it smacked me on my head. I got pissed and told her off. She profusely apologized, but I was too mad to accept her apology, and I left.

Looking back, I know I was too harsh with her. It was just an accident. She didn’t mean for the baton to hit my head. But at the time, I didn’t want her around. So unlike Luz and Amity, we never became friends.

I have slowly but surely grown to not care about being the best student, the best employee, the best child, the best this and that. I am an awesome person because of the person I have grown into, making changes and opening my mind and falling in and out of like/love with my friends (and more than friends). And no one can dictate the path I choose for myself.

I typed all of this to simply say: I love The Owl House.

I sometimes hate admitting it because Steven Universe still means a lot to me, but The Owl House has become my ultimate favorite cartoon of the newer generation (I’m a 90s baby and 90s/early 2000s cartoons still have my heart).

Besides relating to the characters and enjoying both the lighthearted and heartbreaking moments, this show has awakened the creativity in me.

I am a writer...or at least I love writing. But I haven’t done or shared that many projects of mine online. But in 2021, I gave drawing another chance, specifically redrawing screenshots. I liked my work and had the bravery to share my artwork on here, which I still do. I have to admit that my drawing skills have improved throughout the years. I still don’t feel ready to make art inspired by my own ideas. If I did, I would make and post a hundred black racebent Amity/canon Luz fanart.

And this year, I posted my very first fanfic. I have written fanfics before, but never ever shared them with anybody, especially not for the whole world to read. But again, this show inspired me so much that I just had to start sharing it.

Plus, my creative projects has helped me make some of the best friends I have ever made on here. And I love having their support and supporting them when they share their projects.

I’m not ready to see this amazing show come to end tonight. But I don’t think I will ever truly be ready to say goodbye. I’m going to miss this show. All the laughs, all the cries, all the shipping moments.

Thank you to the creator, the cast, the crew, and everybody who helped make this cartoon come into existence.

Us weirdos will always stick together.

#bbb butterfly #the owl house #toh #luz noceda #amity blight #lumity #bi representation #leeann art #i do not own these gifs

27 notes · View notes

recurring-polynya · 1 year

Text

Despite absolutely despising the Disney Pinocchio film as a child (stories where characters were naughty caused me a great deal of anxiety), I watched Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio last night.

1) It also caused me a great deal of anxiety 2) I read that Guillermo del Toro made it because the Disney version also freaked him out as a child

That’s not the important part, the important part is that I am now obsessed with the four rabbit grim reapers who are voiced by Tim Blake Nelson:

At first, I was convinced that they must be a reference to the Black Rabbit of Inlé from Watership Down. I have never read or watched Watership Down. My relationship with Watership Down is that everyone I know irl who has read it was traumatized by it, and a lot of horror writers I like were inspired by it. I refuse to read it, thought, because Ursula K. LeGuin says it’s a shitty male power fantasy, and I always listen to Ursula.

I looked it up though and it turns out those rabbits are canonical to the book. What the fuck?? To be fair, I read the wikipedia synapsis of Pinocchio and Carlo Collodi was wilding. Wikipedia makes no mention of the rabbits, though, but I was able to find the part where they appear:

"Aren't you afraid of death?"

"Not a bit. I'd rather die than drink that awful medicine."

At that moment, the door of the room flew open and in came four Rabbits as black as ink, carrying a small black coffin on their shoulders.

"What do you want from me?" asked Pinocchio.

"We have come for you," said the largest Rabbit.

"For me? But I'm not dead yet!"

"No, not dead yet; but you will be in a few moments since you have refused to take the medicine which would have made you well."

"Oh, Fairy, my Fairy," the Marionette cried out, "give me that glass! Quick, please! I don't want to die! No, no, not yet--not yet!"

And holding the glass with his two hands, he swallowed the medicine at one gulp.

"Well," said the four Rabbits, "this time we have made the trip for nothing."

And turning on their heels, they marched solemnly out of the room, carrying their little black coffin and muttering and grumbling between their teeth.

In a twinkling, Pinocchio felt fine. With one leap he was out of bed and into his clothes.

The Fairy, seeing him run and jump around the room gay as a bird on wing, said to him:

"My medicine was good for you, after all, wasn't it?"

"Good indeed! It has given me new life."

"Why, then, did I have to beg you so hard to make you drink it?"

"I'm a boy, you see, and all boys hate medicine more than they do sickness."

"What a shame! Boys ought to know, after all, that medicine, taken in time, can save them from much pain and even from death."

"Next time I won't have to be begged so hard. I'll remember those black Rabbits with the black coffin on their shoulders and I'll take the glass and pouf!--down it will go!"

I found an illustration, too!!

Never in my life have I considered having some grim reaper rabbits stroll into my house in order to threaten my children into taking their medicine.

Anyway, thank you Guillermo del Toro, for never shying away from taking something weird as Hell and completely leaning into it. (I’m still incredibly pissed at Encanto for trying to turn 100 Years of Solitude into a feel-good family film)

#pinocchio #guillermo del toro's pinocchio #i am unwilling to say that i enjoyed watching pinocchio because i absolutely did not #i was in a state of absolutely horror and anxiety the entire time i was watching it #but more love and care went into every shot of that film than anything i have ever seen #it was a marvel of art and technology and heart #also vera brosgol worked on it and i love vera brosgol #yes i have read the entire story about cate blanchett voicing the monkey and i still can't get over cate blanchett voicing the monkey #also at one point i exclaimed 'who is this film FOR?' and my husband looked me dead in the eye and said 'YOU'#speaking of which i am not sure who THIS POST is for but it is a Peak Polynya post for sure

44 notes · View notes

mischief-lies-and-stories · 9 months

Text

Loki Ships

All right, I think it’s time to jump into the inevitable, since ships can make or break whether or not some people care what I have to say, and I get it. I considered including them in my pinned post, but that was already way too long.

I ship Loki with a lot of people. The first time I heard the term fandom bicycle, a friend was using it to refer to Loki, and I took it to heart (and probably also a challenge). As I said in my pinned post, though, I mostly ship Loki with guys, since his canon women love interests are often kind of shitty to him. This doesn’t deter me from the potential of shipping him with women (I acknowledge and celebrate that he’s bi/pan, after all) but the women that he’s around tend to be assholes to him, so the men kind of have to pick up the slack. (Is the assholery deserved? Yeah, sometimes. But I also like the idea of people being soft with him. And I think he deserves that sometimes, too.)

So I’m going to explain a little bit about the ship in general, why I ship it personally, and the canon likelihood of it, whether or not it’s likely to become canon in comics or the MCU or both or neither. Also spoilers for Where Mischief Lies, The Defenders (1983), The Defenders (2021), and Defenders: Beyond.

Thorki: Might as well start with my most divisive ship, though if you read my Loki playlist post, you’ll already know I ship this. I believe this is the first person I came to ship with Loki. This is obviously Thor and Loki, and I get it. I do. I am not here to defend my questionable taste at all. I am not here to make the flimsy arguments people sometimes make for this ship, like that he’s adopted so “they aren’t really siblings, so it’s not really incest.” I think that’s damn rude to people who are adopted and have adoptive siblings. Frankly, these are fictional characters who are fictionally siblings and I know the difference between fiction and reality. Am I supportive of IRL incest? Not particularly, no. But Loki and Thor are not real (and thank God for that; Loki would annoy the hell out of me). So I’m not here to defend it. I just think that they have a lot of chemistry, and a lot of romantic and sexual tension. Especially in Thor: Ragnarok. Like towards the end, they have this whole conversation about how Loki belongs on Sakaar, how he can flourish there and rule over Sakaar and it would be the ideal place for him. And both of them (at least verbally) agree that this is the case. And then Thor leaves him basically seizing from electric shock on the floor of a hangar. And then the next time we see Loki, he has come back to Asgard anyway, to help Thor save the people. And if that’s not love (familial, romantic, whatever), I don’t know what is.

Canon Likelihood…….Unlikely.

Not even possible, it’s never going to happen. In the comics, not a chance. In the MCU, not a chance. Marvel’s never going to make incest happen, especially not with Disney as their parent company. And frankly, I don’t want them to. I don’t trust them to do this right or be sensitive about it. They will never not be able to spin it as some shocking joke no matter how serious they pretend to be about it, if they ever were to do it. And with the level of backlash that would happen because of it, it wouldn’t be worth it. So I’m just content to read and write fanfic and look at fanart. I don’t need it to be canon and it’s never going to be canon and that’s okay. Sometimes that’s okay.

Theoki: Theo Bell (from Loki: Where Mischief Lies) and Loki. Theo Bell (as I’ve said previously) is gay, very snarky and is a good match personality-wise for Loki in the novel, he walks with a cane as a result of becoming disabled due to a homophobic attack, and he works essentially for Odin on Midgard (but Odin really only calls on him and his coworkers when he really needs something, like when he needs something for his younger son to do when he exiles him to Earth). This is speed-run Enemies-to-Lovers. They don’t like each other at first, mostly because Loki does not want to be there. And Theo’s basically like ‘You don’t want to be here, got it. You’re here, though, so let’s deal with this.’ And then pretty quickly Loki’s like, ‘Oh shit. He’s hot…Oh shit. He’s smart… Oh shit. Do I like him?….Oh shit. His freckles are like stars.’ (He thinks the last sentence almost exactly, it’s wild.) So I think it’s very cute and I don’t think they got enough time together.

Canon likelihood…….Depends on your definition of canon.

Did they kiss? Spoiler alert: Yes. Are they together? Well, uh, about that… So this book is supposed to serve as a prequel to the events in the MCU. Do you see Theo anywhere in the MCU? There’s your answer. (Which sounds like I’m implying something different, so you should still read this book, because you don’t know what’s going to happen.) So at this point, at this time, is it likely that this relationship is going to come back and be 100% canon? No. Not likely. But in my opinion, how I define canon, has this ship been canonized? I generally define canon as requited affection that’s acted upon, so Yes, this was a canon ship to me. (Still hoping my unlikely Loki theories are true, though, so this ship can come back and be present tense canon.) I wish this could be an established relationship right now, but given the circumstances of the events of the story and the purpose the story is supposed to serve in the MCU, it’s not possible.

Lokius: Loki and Mobius, from the tv series. I was resistant to this for a little while. Mostly I was finding Owen Wilson in the MCU in general and interacting with Loki hard to believe. It was weird to me and I could not unsee Owen Wilson for a chunk of the show, and that’s partially what was preventing me from shipping it. But the tie fixing scene, while it wasn’t what got me to ship it, it did make me go Oh, fuck. This is going to end with me shipping this. And then I continued to resist it for a few episodes, and then it hit me, and now I’ve been bitten by the Lokius bug. I don’t remember precisely what was the turning point for me, but it was late. I think it was probably “You could be whoever, whatever you want to be. Even someone good.” I think they’re perfect together. I think it’s an interesting dynamic, because Mobius knows him so well. But at the beginning, he knows Loki from this clinical standpoint. He knows how Loki’s story is supposed to go and his personality, from studying versions of him, but he doesn’t know him. And then spending the show getting to know Loki himself. I think they neglected somewhat to show this on a nuanced level in the show itself, but the working relationship and budding friendship between Loki and Mobius is what ultimately gets Mobius to realize that the TVA is kind of crap and needs to be shut down because the TVA doesn’t know everything. Because he gets to know Loki as a person, that he’s not just a story or the predetermined events that have been laid out in the timeline by some higher power, just because that’s how Kang has decided that’s how he wants Loki’s life to go (or something to that effect). I think there’s something inherently interesting about taking how you understand someone from a general, macro level and thinking you know everything about that person, and then getting to know someone on a more personal and intimate basis. At the risk of perpetuating a sort of racist rewrite of historical events, it’s kind of reminiscent of Disney’s Pocahontas in a way. Where you have these assumptions about a person or group of people based on what you’ve been told by your superiors, but by getting to know a particular individual in that group, you change your preconceived notions about that person. And then taking it a step further into a romantic level.

Canon likelihood…….Likely

I think they fucked up in season one. And I think they know they fucked up. I’m sorry if people ship the other thing (I’m trying not to type the ship name so it doesn’t come up in searches and people think I tagged my hate.), this is not the place for you. I think they fucked up where they were like “Look, we’re so progressive! Here’s two bisexual characters.” And then they were like “No homo. Here’s some selfcest instead.” And obviously Loki can have a girlfriend and I’d be fine with that, but making that woman love interest a variant, essentially just an alternate version of him? That feels like they only let Loki say “A bit of both,” so they could pat themselves on the back. They didn’t want to act on that. But the only woman who makes any sense to pair him with, with whom he has the most interaction with in the series…is himself. But they went with that anyway.

So the level of likelihood is either one, they realized they fucked up and now they’re going to fix it. Or two, (and I don’t think they have enough foresight for this) they knew they fucked up before they even aired it, and are like “This is the journey that Loki is on. He will eventually break away from himself, and fall in love with somebody who is not himself.” Or three, not understand what bisexuality is and be like “We need equal! He kissed a girl and now he’s gotta kiss a guy!” [Which implies there are only two genders, but they don’t even know what genderfluidity is, so I’m not confident they have any understanding of the diversity of gender identity either.] So I think it’s likely (especially the last option, unfortunately, given their track record with representation). I’m not sure they’re going to do it well, but I think it’s possible. I think they’ve set it up well for this to be canon. I think there’s some romcom story beats that are already present in season one, despite their decision to go with a different ship. It’s just a matter of how much they’re willing to break out of this mold of heteronormativity.

Frostiron: Tony Stark and Loki. I like this because I am partial to Enemies to Lovers tropes. I think the fandom has done a really good job of taking like two minutes of onscreen interaction and making an entire ship out of it. I think they have a lot of things in common, which can help them bond. They both have daddy issues, they’re both kind of spoiled, and a little self-centered, which can cause some conflict that will eventually be resolved. And they both have quite a bit of trauma that’s ultimately caused by the same big purple asshole, so that can also bring them closer together. I have a lot of feelings about them, which has caused me to write a six-part series about them and their relationship and how they can relate to each other. (I’ve attempted a few times to write a seventh part, so we’ll see if that ever sees the light of day, but they have certainly not relinquished their hold on me.)

Canon Likelihood…….Not likely.

Absolutely not likely, not a chance. Comics, no. MCU, no. In the MCU they had like a two-minute interaction and that was it. It was cute, they were snarking at each other, Tony offered him a drink, but that was about it. In the comics, they have a little bit more interactions but it’s still very limited. The most I know about their interactions in the comics that are not antagonistic comes from (I believe) The God Who Fell to Earth, and there’s still not a whole lot. There is some explicit dialogue of Tony respecting Loki’s pronouns, so that’s chill. Tony knows that Loki’s genderfluid, so I like that. But again, that’s about it. Ultimately, the places were Tony and Loki have the most interaction are in Avengers Academy, the mobile game, and I don’t believe there are romance options for anybody in that game (I didn’t play that game for very long, so I don’t remember much; there was too much multitasking and it was stressing me out). And in the animated tv show Avengers Assemble, and even there it was only like an episode or two. (And in later seasons, Tony isn’t even in much of the show, let alone Loki.) So I don’t think it’s likely we’ll ever see a canon frostiron, unless we get like an episode (or issue) of What If that’s like, “What If…Tony Stark was gay” or something, but that’s both unlikely and I can think of several characters more likely to be Tony’s What If boyfriend before Loki.

Cloudki: This is a ship name I made up on the spot, because no one else knows who this character is. (And that hurts me, deeply.) Cloud has a fraught history in the comics, and ultimately, it’s not much of a history at all, they’re in maybe three stories since their debut in 1983. Cloud is basically the personification of a cloud nebula (hence why they’re called Cloud), and they’re genderfluid! Primarily because, when they made their debut in the eighties, they crash landed to earth and then their essence combined with the dying souls of this straight couple whose car they crashed into. And the essence of the star lost their memory and decided to take on the couple’s likeness and sort of absorb their souls so they could survive on earth. And the comic, while weirdly progressive for the time, was still published in the eighties. So you have to get past the Comics Code Authority or whatever it’s called (which is basically censoring anything it considers remotely queer), and also it’s the eighties and the author was cis and (I’m pretty sure) straight. And I’ve read articles that said he had a friend who was a transwoman, so he was able to get some help maybe (if he asked her). But at the same time, if she’s a transwoman she’s not genderfluid, so it’s not exactly the same thing. So while it’s done surprisingly more sensitively than expected, there is still a lot of transphobia directed at this sweet summer child. And they don’t know any better so they kind of adjust to this shit, so it’s rough.

So that’s Cloud’s debut. It sucks, and we don’t talk about it. But Cloud comes back a few decades later in The Defenders (this is a new run; they also debuted in The Defenders). When last we left them, Cloud had figured out they were a nebula, and people were being kinda shitty to them on earth, so they were like Fuck this, I’m supposed to be a star, good-bye. And so for the last few decades they’ve been in space as their true self. So they get summoned by Dr. Strange to help the Defenders solve a mystery through the cosmos. (Cosmos as in I don’t get this part. So in the comics, the cosmos are like eras of existence in the universe. I think most events take place in like the twelfth or thirteenth cosmos. The Defenders travel backwards through the cosmos through this story.) In the middle of one of the battles, they’re like “Hey, by the way, I would like to go by they/them pronouns.” (Because up until this point they’ve been going by she/her pronouns.) And everyone else is like “Yeah, sure.” And then no one messes up for the rest of the book. Because Al Ewing is the best. And then like halfway through the book, they get to one of the cosmos where the emphasis is like beauty and imagination and color or something. And Cloud is like “I’m going to stay here. This is a good place for me.” And they transform their body into one that they choose, one that is no longer resembling the guy or the girl whose souls they absorbed. And Cloud’s living their best life in this cosmos. And that’s the last we see of Cloud in this book. (And I almost stopped reading the book at this point, because I read Defenders: Beyond first because Loki’s in it, met Cloud, and then read The Defenders, which comes first, just for Cloud because Loki isn’t in this one.)

Then in Defenders: Beyond, Dr. Strange has to call the Defenders together again. But he only calls a few of the original Defenders and the rest are new people. And one of the people he calls is Loki. And this is right where Loki: Agent of Asgard ended. (And thank God for that, because whoever took over for Loki between AoA and DB fucked him up. I don’t know who that was or what that run was or if it was just Thor, because I never read it, but I’m upset by that author and the new Loki that trashed all of his character development. Because Al Ewing did some great things. Okay moving on.) Frankly, I don’t know what the fuck is going on in this book. We’re still traveling through the cosmos, but I’m very confused. I only read this for Loki and then I met Cloud and read Defenders. So they’re going through the cosmos and they get rescued (Loki especially) by the members of the imagination cosmos, and one of the members of the imagination cosmos is still Cloud. This is similar to MCU Frostiron, because Cloud and Loki have a very important conversation towards the end, but that’s about the extent of their interaction.

My reason for shipping these two (since this post is long as fuck, as usual), because I know nothing about Cloud and Cloud is known by nobody but I would die for Cloud I love them so much, is that they’re both genderfluid. And I think gf4gf is a great pairing honestly (I’m not super interested in a relationship myself anymore, but I think the only partner I’d want at this point would also be genderfluid, so I’m projecting a tad). And I think they would be great for each other and I love it. I think Cloud could really help the present Loki come back to himself and deal with these memories that AoA Loki wiped from him so that he could be this stupid Loki that doesn’t have any of the character development, that at the eleventh hour of this book (I think) regained all his memories and now has to deal with it all and defend the cosmos. And also, where the hell is Verity? Ya know? Like, does he remember Verity? How much did he forget? So I think Cloud would be a good help to rehabilitate him and then they fall in love.

Canon likelihood…….Not completely unlikely, things have to happen.

I’m not gonna straight up say unlikely, because things happen in comics all the time. And comics go back and fold in on themselves and change things all the time. So I’m gonna say probably not likely, but maybe. Here are the things that are gonna have to happen in order for this to take place: One, Cloud needs to come back. I think the last time they showed up was in Defenders: Beyond, and that came out last year. Preferably, Al Ewing needs to write Cloud, because Al Ewing is the best and I love him. Two, Loki from Agent of Asgard needs to come back. Loki as it is needs to regain his memories and become the perfect version of himself again. Preferably written by Al Ewing, because Al Ewing is the best and I love him. Three, Cloud and Loki need to be in the same comic at some point. They’re two completely different characters, drawn together by the ties of fate and tarot cards that, for some reason, Dr. Strange has. And also the cosmos (because he didn’t draw Cloud’s tarot in Defenders: Beyond). Therefore, it’s difficult to get them back together, because Cloud isn’t even in this cosmos right now, let alone on the planet, and Loki doesn’t even remember meeting them. Four, Cloud has to have some romantic capabilities. I don’t know what their romantic capabilities are. In their original run, they tried to fall in love with Moondragon, and then also with some other guy (I don’t remember his name). That dude was transphobic as fuck. Moondragon, the second she found out Cloud was genderfluid, became transphobic as fuck, because it was the eighties, and neither of these characters were gay yet. So did that turn Cloud off to romance forever? That was also before Cloud realized they were a cloud nebula; did Cloud realizing that they are technically supposed to be an insentient celestial being turn Cloud off to romance forever? I don’t know. Five, even if Cloud has some capacity of romantic inclination, Cloud and Loki have to be attracted to each other. They have the tiniest of interactions ever, so who’s to say? Certainly not me, except in my fanfictions, which I haven’t written yet, because I don’t know enough about Cloud. So possibly, but unlikely. And that makes me sad.

This is the only ship, besides Lokius, where if it doesn’t become canon, I’m going to be a Victorian heroine wasting away on my fainting couch, because I’m very disappointed.

#loki #loki where mischief lies spoilers #the defenders spoilers #defenders: beyond spoilers #al ewing #thorki #lokius #theoki #theo/loki #thor/loki #cloud/loki #mobius/loki #frostiron #tony/loki

13 notes · View notes

itsclydebitches · 2 years

Note

So The Owl House just had their main pairing kiss on screen in the latest episode. How is it a show under Disney can have their queer couple kiss but RT can't even confirm if Yang and Blake are actually together, much less kiss.

Was that in the final episode (minus some additional content I've been hearing about)? Because that seems to be the go-to trend nowadays: build up a relationship, but wait until the final hour to confirm it. Which, to be very clear, I don't mean as a criticism of TOH. Beyond the fact that I haven't watched it for myself yet (I know, I know), everyone working at Disney is fighting tooth-and-nail for any scrap of representation, often taking such compromises — they can't kiss, but they can hold hands; there will be a wedding, but it won't air in this country; we'll confirm it, but only when the show is cancelled/ending, etc. — over getting nothing at all. Plus, from what I've heard second-hand, TOH apparently does a fantastic job with their relationship, even with such obvious, external difficulties. The point being that, as you say, anon, if creators can manage this under the thumb of such homophobic corporations... the originally independent webseries who, it seems, only entertained the idea of a queer couple because the fans wanted it should absolutely be doing better. Like, way better.

Not to continually gush about OFMD in my RWBY asks, but even more than getting one queer kiss from a Disney cartoon, shows like OFMD emphasize, for me, how much better RWBY could be doing. Here's a nonbinary character! Here's a gay character! Here's another gay character! They're having unambiguous sex in this episode! They might be poly based on how they respond to a particular conversation! Even if they're not they're super chill about expressing their sexuality in various ways! Here's a repressed queer chihuahua man who will theoretically work through the homophobia he's internalized due to toxic masculinity! Here's another gay man who didn't realize he was gay until the end of the season! Here's a fourth gay man! They kiss!! Even though we only get ten episodes at 20-30 minutes each!

Meanwhile, RWBY is like... what if we wrote eight years of content... and the first kinda queer character is a background dude who's maybe gay... and the next was going to be an actual gay guy except we decided not to do that because he dies as soon as he's introduced... and then the lesbian is an obsessive radical out to murder her crush's parents and then disappears from the story after a two-second redemption... and there's a very cute queer couple who hold hands, but they're minor characters who are only around for half a season... and there's a bunch of intense queer coding for these two dudes (one of whom is a fan fave), but it's totally not our fault because the animators made them wink and flirt without our consent... and then one dies in a horrific fashion, but you can't call it bury your gays because they were never gay haha gotcha... and the main ship that's helping to keep this webseries afloat gets to—wait for it—blush and sometimes, SOMETIMES, touch their foreheads together, but they're not together-together yet, just wait for it! Hm? What do you mean we confirmed two main straight couples already? 😗

Meanwhile me, having just watched a ship full of queer pirates live their best lives while the story still makes time for numerous unrelated plots:

I know I often give RWBY the benefit of the doubt because I do believe strongly that almost any story can turn itself around — not fix what came before, but still improve going forward — but I do really believe that the beginning of Volume Nine will have a huge impact on how Blake/Yang is received by the fanbase for the rest of the story's run. If we get a kiss (or some other kind of confirmation), then I believe that the majority of viewers will be lenient in regards to the arc overall. People will forget how long these Volumes felt in real-time, more and more fans who come into the community will get to binge RWBY and never having to wait on that confirmation, plenty of posts will pop up reassuring others that it had to happen this way because this was the right time for them to get together, it's more proof of RT's amazing storytelling... and basically most non-RWDE folks will be pleased. Which is good!

However, if we miss out on a confirmation the concept of, "It just needs to be the right time" looses its persuasive power and we'll be left asking when the hell we can expect to see them get together if it's not after a post-assumed death reunion. The very end of the story, perhaps? Honestly, I can easily see RT crafting a scenario in which the emotional punch of the void is lost before Blake and Yang ever find each other again. Blake could wake up and immediately go, "Oh, well I haven't died. Therefore Yang shouldn't be dead either. I'm no longer freaking out about this!" and Yang might be worried about her teammates, but she never saw them "die" like they did with her, likewise creating a, "I'm sure everything will be fine," reaction. Toss in the amount of time it might take for them to reach one another on the island (time to cool down, not do anything impulsive based on high emotions) and the fact that RWBY is really bad at emotional followups to begin with (Weiss and Winter don't need to resolve their differences, Jacques is killed off by Ironwood, Qrow doesn't care about killing him anymore, Ruby barely reacts to Yang falling, etc.) and I can EASILY picture a reunion where it's just another forehead touch like after the whale separation. You know, despite the fact that the fandom will be screaming about you thought Yang was dead, Blake, how is this not the perfect time to admit your feelings?

Not to reduce a show to its shipping, but Blake/Yang is such a huge part of the RWBY community that if RT fucks that up even more, it may well tank the show's popularity in a way the bad writing hasn't managed to. We might get a kiss in Volume 9. More likely we might get it at the very end of the run. Worst case scenario is if something happens and RWBY doesn't finish, or — heaven forbid — they bow out of making the relationship canonical at all, and we're left with, at best, some panel announcement where they reassure everyone that of course they're in love... we just didn't get the chance to show you that for whatever nonsense reason PR has helped us come up with. Not having gotten anything by now isn't good, but not getting anything by mid Volume 9 will be even worse imo. It's a now or never kind of deal.

#rwde #rwby #mymetas

41 notes · View notes

klaineownsmysoul · 2 years

Note

I havent seen S6 again since i saw it when it aired... It is just too painful and horrible.. you can bet your top dollar it was directed at the k/aine fandom and the actors.. San/tana's speech? I don't even read it if i come across .. it just shows you how pathetically immature the producers ans writers were that they would write and air something like that... Even the thay season gave us married k/laine it still isn't close to what they deserved

Other than our comewatchklaine rewatches - and those only included a combo video of the short worthwhile moments from the first 7 episodes, the wedding one, and the finale - I have not had any interest in seeing season 6 again since the show ended. And I honestly don't see that ever changing. I have the DVDs of the first 5 seasons but can't bring myself to spend actual dollars on those final 13 episodes. I don't even have any morbid curiosity about it - like what if its not as bad as I remember - because I know that it is and I don't need to relive that aggravation. And now this dumb show is going to be staring at me every time I open Disney+. Ugh.

What irked me then and still pisses me off now is that we all knew this was it. It wasn't like season 4 where we had the time to correct this, even if it was inherently painful getting to the other side. The show hadn't completely collapsed in on itself at that point so we still had some hope that they would put things right again and we'd get our Klaine back. THIS WAS IT. There was going to be no more and these 13 shows were all that we had. 13 weeks to wrap up 5 seasons of story for an already bloated cast. So instead of spending any time on that, they practically rebooted the show by going back to Ohio and giving us the bullshit nonsense of a new glee club and new Warblers, thereby negating all of the progress they'd made in the last half of season 5 by finally dumping the dead weight of Lima that was holding it back. We got new characters I was never going to care about or invest in because they weren't going to be around long enough to matter. Time spent on them was time away from the original cast that I was invested in and would have at least had a fleeting interest in seeing where they landed. More woe is me Rachel bullshit where she played the victim even though all of her problems were of her own making - and we all know that means we're getting riveting scenes where Kurt steps into help her even though she's never deserved him or his friendship. So his story was basically stalled and went nowhere, as did Blaine's. Instead of watching them begin to build their life together in NYC, we saw them broken and apart and miserable and stuck in yet another hellish limbo. They danced around each other over and over again and made no progress whatsoever week after week while we watched the episodes tick away, knowing we only had a finite number to work with. It was awkward and painful to watch and I can't imagine it could have been much better for the actors to perform. I will always believe that they only threw that big double gay wedding so they could be all "look at us look at how cool and progressive we are" and also to shut us up. Because those of us who were here then - we were effing pissed off. And not quiet about it at all. So they put them back together in the most unsatisfying 2 minute scene you'll ever see and then married them off just as quickly like they wanted to get it over and done with. This was, of course, followed by Klaine completely disappearing from the show in the next ep, Dalton burning down in the one after that, and the boys having fuck all to do for the rest of the series. Is it any wonder I’d like to wipe these eps from my memory and forget they ever existed?

Santana’s speech? The people who wrote that and anyone who thought and still thinks it was funny and edgy and deserved can fuck all the way off. All the way and keep fucking off until the end of time. It was cruel and vile and what made it truly despicable was that it was intentionally aimed at C. Not Kurt. C. They used the guise of the show to insult C by taking all of the things that he was vocally self conscious about and turning them into cannon fodder. I was disgusted by it and the people behind it. The fact that Naya had said that she hated having to say all that tells me all I need to know. Keep in mind: this was an actor who they at one point liked so much that RM created a character for him to play who was not part of the original group they were casting for. Kurt was created specifically for C to play. You don’t do that for an unknown 18 year old actor if you don’t see something special in them and believe in their ability to bring it to life. That rant was just the culmination of a long downward spiral in Kurt’s profile on the show. As the show moved through its later seasons, he had less to do and his story became more and more back burnered. Unless you count cleaning up after Rachel a vital and important storyline? I sure as hell don’t.

Its pretty well known - especially now - that this show had one of the more dysfunctional behind the scenes that you’ll ever find. The insane rehearsal schedule, a showrunner with an oversized ego that didn’t actually care about any of his actors, and a “star” character played by an actress with a jealous toxic streak a mile long - you combine all of that and it couldn’t have been a very happy working environment. Naya’s book aside, there was just too much that spilled from that set to make me believe otherwise. And that’s something that all of those little tiktok and twitter teens will never understand and one of the many reasons I find them all utterly ridiculous and impossible to take seriously. They don’t know any of this because they weren’t here for it. They are going by what they are spoon fed and what they seem hell bent on believing no matter how eye rollingly dumb it makes them look. You can catch up on the show itself via streaming but it’ll never be the same experience that those of who watched it live had. In addition to punishing us, I am sure that the attempted assassination of Klaine and Blaine’s character and the sidelining of Kurt was aimed at the actors who played them. Instead of leaning into the show’s best advertisement, they ignored them, pushed them aide and actively seemed to do everything they could to keep them apart. There was no good storyline reason for Klaine to have spent the majority of the last 3 seasons of the show away from each other, both physically and emotionally. The old adage of “happy couples don’t sell” works the other way too: miserable couples don’t bring in the viewers either. All it does is alienate the existing ones who eventually move from annoyed to pissed off to eff this show I am done. I’ve dropped many a show in the past for reasons like that and its part of why I refuse to get involved in any other RM shows. I know the TV landscape has changed from what it was 10, 11 years ago, but it still hurts to watch actors who play LGBT couples now be allowed to interact on SM and do interviews and bts stuff together and promote the couple they play like its no big deal. Like any other couple you’d see and that’s all I ever wanted for my boys. We had it for a little while in season 2 and the beginning of season 3 and then it slowly disappeared and that’s not suspicious to anyone? If anything, they should have been more prominent now that they were together at McKinley but instead they spent far too much time as background pieces in the choir room with maybe an “ooh lucky us” fleeting smile or “heaven help us” getting to sit next to each other. And forget about touching or showing any kind of physical affection unless it was a designated very special episode.

We deserved so much better. Klaine deserved so much better. C and D deserved a helluva lot better. That whole last season has tainted this show for me; I can’t think of it overall without remembering how much time was wasted. Time we would never get back. Time spent on a gross there just to fuck with all of us rebound from a break up that never needed to happen instead of discussions about flowers and seating charts and who’s going to get the unlucky job of keeping Rachel from hogging the mic all night. A wedding - a real wedding, not that thrown together half assed embarrassment we got - would have gone a long way to at least tempering my seething hatred of season 6. Suits Kurt designed, rings they picked out themselves, vows they wrote that weren’t laughable, a first dance, a duet reprise of Come Way May, lots of them smiling goofily at each other, and perhaps a shot of one of them pulling the other into the honeymoon suite by his tie and throwing the do not disturb sign on the handle as he shuts the door. I’m reeling just thinking about it, imagine actually getting to have seen it?

But alas no because - all together now - this fucking show.

Sorry to whoever sent this in that it took me a couple of days to respond. I am apparently incapable of just typing out a response of “LOL me too.”

#klaine #fuck you rib #fuck season 6 #anonymous

17 notes · View notes

popculturebuffet · 2 years

Text

Pirate Month Patreon: Our Flag Means Death: "Pilot" Review (Patreon Review for Emma Fici)

Yo ho all you happy people! Pirate Month continues.. somehow. With some. The last few weeks have been rough seas, but pirate month sails on. And ironically, into the waters of HBO Max

Yeah after my shockingly popular rant last week, seriously any of you following or coming in from that or just in general

It's great to have you. But yes we're back to the dumpster fire that was once one of the proudest and best streaming services around but is now a self canablizing nightmare that won't go away. I've went from hoping any adaptation went here to hoping many flee in terror and praying some still actually get made. You used to hear me constantly singling disney out for their idiocy

But this somehow tops most of what they've ever done. These shows MIGHT return or someone else might be able to save the company, but for now we're just stuck praying anything we care about dosen't get cannonballed into oblivion and left where it's avaliablity is tenious at best. So why am I reviewing something from the network at the worst possible moment? Simple.. this was planned before. Emma has a busy schedule, so she tends to pick her patreons late unless I ask early, and being a forgetful sort, I can tend to. She's GOOD at it, with her picks having had me review incest civil war laser tag, badly animated sci fi nonsense and this glory

So it was only pure Parker Luck that HBO Max decided to canablize their animation for profit the same week I was set to cover this. But I realized something important: With access uncertain, with HBO max striking randomly and insanely, and with no safe harbor... I have to get off my ass and watch stuff that may be destroyed as soon as the next season is out, and as we've seen with Summer Camp Island it can happen BEFORE too, instead of waiting. Sure this project having a high profile creator attached, being a very high profile queer work , and having a huge fanbase MIGHT be a enough.. but given Logic and tact haven't really entered into this current dumbfuckery, it's best to see the series and review an episode NOW rather than wait and loose it in a tax writeoff next year after season 2.

So several paragraphs and f-you's later, we arrive at our real destination: Our Flag Means Death. And this really has been one i've been meaning to check out for some time: It's produced by Taika Watiti, whose lately become one of my faviorite creators: He's director of the all time cinematic classics What We Do In The Shadows and JoJo rabbit and the fun as hell Thor films Ragnarok and Love and Thunder, and created the excellent What We Do In The Shadows tv show, which is also on the pile. Feel free to boo I know I am, i'm missing peak Matt Berry by being behind on it, as well as producing another show i've heard nothing but good things about, Reservation Dogs. The guy is a genius so while he isn't writer or director here, and his character Blackbeard isn't in this pilot, he clearly picks projects he puts his name on very carefully and if he's remotely involved with something, it's usually a good sign it's awesome. Add in Rhys Dharby who I first fell in love with on flight of the conchords as Murray...

youtube

And while he could've easily stopped with this cult classic I also need to watch (I mostly followe dit via music videos when it was airing and haven't watched it despite having easy access since max launched because i'm stupid and forget it's there), he has since made a sizeable name for him as a voice actor. Seriously while he mostly plays smaller parts he's popped up in TONS of shows since the late 2010's, from Milo Murphy's Law, RIP, to Rise of the TMNT , also RIP, to shows that aren't dead probably. He's played warthogs, snowflakes, gay hypo's, evil pistachios and more but really hasn't as far as I can tell been a leading man in anything. He was important to FOTC, but this seems like the first time the guy has REALLY been let loose and thus that was a huge draw for me.

And i'm happy to say that even before it hits it's peak and becomes a gay love story involving blackbeard, something I didn't know I needed and can't wait to hit as I watch more episodes, Our Flag Means death is an instant classic from the pirate and has finally given Rhys the meaty starring role he's always been capable of. The show is everything I hoped for.

While most of you reading this are likely fans of the show already, a quick refresher for those who aren't as familiar, i.e. Emma most likely: Our Flag Means Death follows Stede Bonnet, based on the real life pirate I know nothing about of the same name, a posh aristocrat who fled his old life to become a pirate, and is trying to clean up piracy a bit: He pays his men wether their succesful or not, and built his ship, the awesomely named The Revenge, with a sauna, rec area, and a personal library he'd be glad to lend out to the crew if any of them besides his assitant, the equally posh Lucius, played by Nathan Foad. Like a large chunk of the cast, i've never heard of him but like said chunk, he's excellent so it really dosen't matter. Steed does compensate by reading the pirates a story every night, as of the pilot Pinnochio. He's essentially trying to run this pirate ship like a modern work place, basically if Micheal Scott and Leslie Knope got combined in some horrible teleporter accident and became a pirate, having the bad need to be loved and have a family and be liked as the other, but like the latter having some compietence, optiism and good intentions, just being too naive to realize how hard ti's going to be to get these through.

Unlike other work coms though, the crew can actually kill their boss if he annoys them too much and the pilot centers around that, with the crew preparing a mutiny, with the only ones not being on board as much being Oluwande, played by Samson Kayo, a kind sort whose fond of the captain even if he's not the best and Jim, a seeming mute great with knives played by Vico Ortiz.. who turns out to be nonbinary. Which is good for me I got spoiled on that as it means I won't get any prounounds long. Though none of the crew is bad, it's just how change is: the rest simply can't accept that stede's way of doing things is PROBABLY better and he just needs to grow into the position, with Oluwande being the only one aware that not only is this much better.. but that it's so rare it' sbest to enjoy it while he lasts. Hey I said he appriacates the captain, I didn't say he was in denial about Stede's odds of survivial. Leading the mutiny is the lisping Black Pete (Matthew Maher) , a wannabe tough guy who claims to have been on blackbeards boat and won't shut up about it and the Jerry from Parks and Rec looking Kristian Nairin as Wee John, a giant who wants to burn things. Naturally I love him.

So to offset the mutiny after several small insignifigant raids, Stede targets the biggest/only ship they can see and with Buttons conformation the crew gets ready to have a bloody good time gettin good and bloody.. but Stede has a full on Panic Attack as we flash back to his past. And this is where the show really got me. See I throughly enjoyed it and was on board to this point, the jokes were that kind of goofy creative type of humor I enjoy from Stede telling everyone to "look scary' to the crew only not killing him at the moment because he's one of the only two people who can read, the only one who can do the voices and they want to know how Pinocchio ends, and Stede deciding the best way to help with disatsifaction at first is a flag design contest. It's truly my kind of show.

But what takes it from really good to great is making stede far more complex than he appears. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a work just being a goofy comedy. That's fine by me and Producer Watiti did wonders with that with What We Do In The Shadows, which had moments of pathos but was mostly just the story of a bunch of goofy vampires in new zeland and their dark bidding on the interent.

So series creator and showrunner David Jenkins could've kept at that and i'd of been fine.. but he took it one step further without undercutting the wacky tone entirely, which can be tricky but he pulls off well. From here we start seeing pieces of Stede's old life.. and it was miserable. The first flashback here has a butcher working for the family slaughter an animal in front of the kid, tell him not to look away then mock him for being soft.

Which is thinly coded as people bullying him for coming off gay. Spoilers, Stede turns out to be VERY gay., but it's always a dickish thing to do to bully someone for being diffrent and to be a homophobic twitsandwitch.

But we see through later flashbacks in teh ep Stede never fit in: He was bullied at school, chased, called slurs and then had his hands tied to oars and forced to row and at home there was literal distance between him and his family... no seriously he sat at one end while his family sat at the other

Stede was an outsider in his own home, his own LIFE, never accepted by anyone it seemed (other episodes may prove this wrong) and even now trying to find a new family, he's not really accepted. While the metaphor there given Stede is also a gay man and a not tradtionally masculine man, is subtle a knife to the eye, it still works because it dosen't overshadow the story but plays into it. Stede is not conventional.. yet he's a good man and while he may not be a good pirate YET his ideas aren't bad and he has his heart in the right place. I mean until someone cuts it out and holds it up as a trophy but for now he's trying to do the right thing he's just out of his depth. BUt he had no real other options: He coudln't get a divorce, given the century, his family , both immedite and other clearly never got him.. leaving to be a pirate, to try ANYTHING else is better than dying on the inside. He also uses the money he came from well: He gives his men a good wage, a tidy ship, and plenty of supplies. Odds are it'll run out.. but he's trying to do something better and more rich people coudl take a note from this fictional gay pirate and try and be better instead of hoarding wealth or cutting people's lifes works from a platform for 2.50 and an expired free pizza cupon.

Turns out though the ship.. is a HEAVILY armed royal naval warship and our heroes only don't die horribly because the Captain, Nigel Badmitton, a gloriously pompus name, is one of Stede's old bullies and thus dosen't buy the rumors that Stede is a pirate and Stede is able to quickly hide the crew as fellow aristocrats and servants.

The meal though is .. uncomfortable. Not only are the pirates naturally not really happy in the roll of high society snobs, but Badmittons crew are a bunch of racist twits who are unplesant to be around, and Badmittion himself a snobby bully who fondly recalls that incident with the oars I mentioned while the rest of the crew slowly get that "Okay this guy is a dumbass but he's OUR dumbass. " Things naturally break down once Stede is forced to humor badmittion and after one joke too many and Badmittion LAUGHIGN at the idea he could be a pirate, Stede tries braining him with a move Oluwande taught him.. and accidently makes the guy fall on his saber and into his eye

While the rest of the crew has a nice bloody massacre of most of Badmittions men after one's a racist to Oluwande starting with jim throwing a knife through a hand. While we don't see it, by the time Stede gets back to them only two are left alive and he's panicking over the corpse, not ready to have really killed someone, and only accepting it because Oluwande helps him, knowing that admitting to killing the guy will help the crew respect Stede.. which it does. Stede cements he can be badass for more than just accidedental murders by giving the one person they send back the same punishment his now dead captain gave Stede, showing that while Stede is out of his element, has clear trauma and may not be happy killin, which is a fair choice.. he's still got what it takes and thus his crew decides he can live for now. Also Jim's not a man OOOOO ALREADY SPOILED IT, and we end on a really nice bit: it being clear no matter how bad it was stede misses his family and treis to convince himself he's got a new one.. and him reading the crew pinoccio. Never has Rhys Darby reading a bunch of grown men to sleep been so touching.

So yeah Our Flag Means Death, at least the pilot is fucking fantastic. I don't know why the creators previous show failed: this one has style, humor and suprising tragedy, and excells at what it's producer does well: taking a mildly goofy but cool genre and poking fun at it while taking it JUST seriously enough to ground it. Our Flag Means Death is everything I hoped for and more and I highlyr ecommend watching it before it possibly burns. These are uncertain times.. but with Rhys Darby as a gay pirate... they might have some good times hidden in them too.

#hbo max #warner bros discovery #rhys darby #our flag means death #david jenkins #stede bonnet #Youtube

9 notes · View notes

worlds-smartest-idiot · 2 years

Text

so...about the amphibia finale

it's really a mixed bag when it comes to the fandom's opinion. some people really love it, some people really hate it, some people think it's just mid. if i had to rate it, i would give it around a 6.5/10.

spoilers below

let's start with some things i really liked. the animation in this episode was absolutely stellar! the animation crew really did a great job with this one. there was plenty of smooth and complex motions and they were executed very, very well. so glad they got disney to let them have a canon wlw couple AND make sasha canonically bisexual. we are all well aware of how disney feels about lgbtq+ characters and themes in their media so im glad they let the gay stay in the show, however small of an appearance they are.

the first act was, to put it bluntly, super fucking rushed. there was almost no build up to the moon, figuring out a solution, the girls getting their powers... it really felt like they had to rush it all so they could get to the action scene. i'm going to be honest, the episode would have benefited from an extra 10 minutes in the first act to really build up the excitement.

speaking of the action, what we got was really really fun! the girls's powers being so visually imbued with their individual personality was great! i was laughing and cheering the whole fight. i really do think there could've been a little more back and forth with the fight. i know there's time constraints and all that but still.

anne and the cosmic domino god bit was...weird. i can't be the only one to think that plot point was so out of left field, right? the entire time that part was happening, i felt so confused. it would've worked if there were some background elements or small little foreshadowing earlier in the show. even if some drawings of this entity just showed up in a couple background details and someone mentioned it offhandedly once, then it would've worked soooo much better. i think the idea of anne being the next cosmic ruler is a really good one! i really do. i just think it could have been executed a little bit better.

the goodbyes really got me. i was sobbing. we all knew we would.

i loved how they stuck to the girls never coming back to amphibia again. i was so worried they would do some cop out shit like letting them keep the powers or music box so they could go back whenever they wanted. they could've but they didn't and i deeply respect the crew for that.

the flash forward was something i didn't expect to happen but i am so glad it did. i think knowing what everyone is up to ten years in the future gave a sense of closure that everything really did turn out okay after all. there was fun bits but also some really heartwarming parts. a feast of emotion, if you will. the girls's lives ten years later is what i expected too.

i knew they wouldn't be as close as they were in the show. some people are upset because after they said their friendship was stronger than ever they should've stayed close. i don't think that was really the best move though. i have friends i used to be so close with back in the day and we grew apart on good terms though! we still watch each other's lives from a distance while still appreciating what they meant to us and what we went through together. it's a natural thing that happens. i’m so glad this show about friendships and change really nailed that in that it's something that happens to even the strongest friendships.

really the main issues with this finale was the pacing and a couple of plot points that could've been touched on previously. the crew did a pretty decent job with what they had and i give them all the kudos!

#amphibia #amphibia spoilers #amphibia s3 #in my opinion it was mid #we got what we wanted but it just didnt land for me

7 notes · View notes

purplesurveys · 2 years

Text

1465

survey by reflectedbeauty

Personal

Your first and middle name? Robyn and that’s all I feel like sharing rn.

Your next birthday is on? 11 months from now, in April.

Your current age? I just turned 24.

Whats your sign? Taurus.

Where were you born? Manila.

Where do you currently live? Not in Manila anymore; somewhere to the east of it.

How long have you lived in the area you currently reside? I’ve lived in the area since I was 2...so all my life, essentially. We didn’t stay too long Manila because my mom didn’t feel like it was conducive for a baby. And she’s right, because that place is gross.

Do you have a religious background? I was born, raised, and legally Catholic. I have not identified as such since I was 10.

Are you currently seeing anyone? I’m not.

Are you Gay, Straight, or Bi Sexual? Ace.

Do you currently have any children? Nopes.

What do you do for a living? I work in public relations and I’m currently a manager so I handle clients and help in running campaigns, making sure they go smoothly and stuff.

Do you have any pets? Yeah, we have three dogs.

Do you currently live with your parents? Yes.

Firsts

How old where you when you had your first kiss? I was 16.

Who was your first kiss? Some girl I dated in the past.

First time you flew on plane where did you go? I went to Boracay with my family. And I was such a character back then...I literally clung on to my dad for the entire 1-hour flight because I was convinced we were going to crash, and the moment we landed I distinctly remember checking my phone if the time automatically changed. Because the Philippines SURE has more than one timezone 😭😭😭

Who was your First grade teacher? Her name was Merce and she also doubled as my English teacher.

First time you skipped school what did you do? Oh, I don’t remember. I didn’t have much of a social life though so the few times I skipped school as a child it was because I just wanted to stay at home.

First person you go to when you are in trouble? Like, in need of advice? Angela or Andi, depending on the problem.

Who was your first crush? Andi – not the same one. This one is a girl and she moved out of the country many years ago, though we rode the same bus at one point so we became friends.

How old were you when you had sex the first time? 18.

When did you first realize you were interested in the same/opposite sex? I realized I *didn’t* have an interest in either sex when I was around 18, or maybe even a little younger than that. I definitely remember looking up demisexuality and asexuality in my teens and being able to relate strongly.

Who was your first serious relationship? See first kiss question.

What was your first ever pet? It was most likely a goldfish.

What’s your first choice for a college? UPD.

What the first CD you ever owned? Not counting Disney soundtracks (lol), Beyoncé’s I Am...Sasha Fierce aka the album that gave the world If I Were A Boy and Single Ladies.

What was the first concert you went to? Paramore back in 2013.

If... (you must make a choice or anwser)

If you got the chance to talk to one president which one would you pick? Ramon Magsaysay.

If you had to wear one color forever what color would you choose? Black.

If you had to pick one song to describe your whole life what would it be? I don’t know if there’s a song that can do that. A whole life can be complex.

If you had to live the rest of your life without one person who would it be? A few relatives who count as Marcos supporters very glaringly come to mind.

If you could go back to any one day in life what would it be? Hm. Maybe the one day I was in Korea during my cruise so I can redo that time and maximize my time there better. I wasn’t a fan of K-anything at that point so I was really nothing more than just a very very casual tourist.

If you had to cut a parent out of your life who would you cut out? Teenager me wouldn’t have held back saying my mom, but our relationship has changed since then. I wouldn’t cut either of them out.

If you had to be stuck in a house with 1 person forever who would you pick? Min Yoongi.

If you could go out and buy anything right now what would you get? A loft bed for my room.

If you had to shave your head or never shave again whats worse? Never shaving again. Hair grows back, so I have no issue with shaving all the hair on my head off.

If you had to get a piercing right now what would you get done? Lip ring, probably.

If you had to change one thing in the past what would it be? I’d make my grandpa live longer so that I can experience having a few drinks with him, and get closer to him as well. I was 17 when he passed so I wasn’t at that age where I could have deep life conversations with him over drinks.

If you had to marry your spouse today or never see them again would you? I don’t have a partner.

If you could change one law what would it be? Not necessarily a law but if I had it my way, Marcos Jr. would never be president and I’d banish his entire clan from the country.

If you had to erase one memory what would you pick? Erm probably just all my embarrassing moments.

Numbers

Name your 5 favorite colors? Black, white, pink, purple, olive green.

Who are/were your favorite 3 friends of all time? Angela, Andi, and Blanch.

Who is the #1 person in your life? Uh, myself? Hahaha.

What are 2 things you wish you never did? Make a relationship run longer than it should have and...idk the other thing. I don’t have many big regrets.

What are 3 things you want to accomplish in the next 5 years? Transfer to a new job, work or volunteer in any capacity at a museum, travel to a different country.

Where were you on New Years 2000? I was two and was probably at home, sleeping.

Name 3 people who have really influenced your life? CM Punk was the biggest influence I had growing up and no one else. So many parts of who I am today is all thanks to him.

What are the last 2 books you read? They were probably wrestling memoirs but I no longer remember what they most likely could’ve been.

What are 3 movies you could watch over and over again? Two for the Road, Toy Story, and Titanic.

5 cities in the US you want to see before you die? CHICAGO, New York City, New Orleans, Boston, and Memphis.

Do/Did you have 1 parent or 2? I mean, doesn’t everyone technically have two parents lol but if you mean in terms of who’s still present/alive, then I have both of them.

1 to 100 what is your favorite number? I don’t do favorite numbers.

What 3 Countries would you love to see? India, Thailand, and Malta.

What are 4 things you cannot live without? Apart from the obvious food and water – the internet, my phone, coffee, and my hairties.

This Or That?

Gay for a day or never able to orgasm again? Personally, never getting to orgasm would suck lmao. I’ve been with a girl before so I’m fine with going that route again.

1 year of love and that’s it or a lifetime of loneliness? LOL not beingin a relationship doesn’t necessarily mean you’re lonely. The pain I got from my last relationship ending isn’t something I want to go through again and I’m perfectly fine being on my own.

Would you rather have TV or Radio for the rest of your life? TV. I like being able to watch things.

Having a baby now or never being able to have one? I’d love to have a child.

Would you rather go blind or deaf? I hate questions like this.

Would you rather be a manual labor slave or a sex slave? And this.

Would you rather die by drowning or burning alive? I feel like death by burning alive would happen quicker, so as much as this questions sucks, I’d go with it. Drowning sounds like a slow and agonizing way to go out.

Do you want a son or daughter? Daughter.

A relationship with someone with good looks or good personality? Whatever.

Who do you like better Adam Levine or Avril Lavigne? I don’t really care for having celebrity preferences anymore lol but I guess Avril???

Would you rather drive a Ford or Chevy? Ford, I’m not very familiar with Chevy since those are a rare sight here.

What’s worse physical abuse or verbal abuse? Both and any kind of abuse is terrible, what the hell.

What scares you more a Hurricane or a Tornado? Tornado because I’ve never experienced one before. Hurricanes are known as typhoons here and are common visitors in this part of the world, so.

Would you rather have 3 personal wishes or world peace? World peace.

Colors

What where/is your High school colors? Gold, white, blue.

Last thing that you held in your hand that was Green? My vape pen.

What is the nearest object that you can find that is Yellow? A McDonald’s paper bag that has yellow and white stripes.

What color are your toe nails? They are not painted.

What were your favorite colors when you were a kid? Purple as it had been my great-grandma’s favorite color. She had it everywhere in her home, which was part of our duplex.

What was the color of the last car you were in? White.

Is the grass in your yard green or brown? Green.

What’s something that you own that is purple? My photocard binder, hehe.

Did you eat the diffrent colored ketchups when they came out? No, I wasn’t old enough yet when those came out. And I’m fairly certain that was mostly a Western/first-world thing anyway because I’ve heard no ‘90s Filipino kid talk about those ketchups.

Do you prefer brown eggs or white? White...I don’t think I’ve had brown eggs before, come to think of it.

What color do you consider the sun to be really? White? Hahaha idk.

What color are the moons in lucky charms? I don’t know what you’re talking about.

What do you like better black leather or white lace? White lace. I feel like sweating every time I see black leather.

Last thing you touched that was silver? Part of my car keys is silver, so that.

Finishing up...

What’s the last song you listened to? Idol by BTS.

What question did you put the most thought into? In this survey? Probably those questions that made me go back to the past and think of times I want to redo/live again. I never think hard about the past so I struggle being in that mindset and imagining reliving a day or completely wiping one out.

How many questions did you lie or bend the truth on? Just the yard question since ours is mostly paved, but we do have *some* grass here and there. I generally don’t lie in surveys; this is my journal pretty much, so I don’t see the point in doing such.

What are you hungry for right now? I just finished a roll of gimbap but I still want another one haha.

Last person to speak to you? My mom.

What’s the last text you recieved in your phone say? My mom giving some advice and telling me to start looking for other vet clinics to bring the dogs, since our current one has had sucky service lately.

Last time the phone rang who was it? It was the vet. For context, Aki and I had been waiting two hours in line when they advised me to go back to my car first since it was still going to take a while and it’d be best for Aki not to stay outdoors, i.e. in the heat, for too long. They said they were just gonna call me once it’s his turn, and they did around 30 minutes later.

What are you doing when you finish this? Probably look for another survey to take OR actually a nap sounds good. The weather isn’t so bad so I’d at least feel comfy sleeping.

Would you ever see the Bloodhound Gang in concert? I’ve never heard of them.

Would you ever consider joining the Military? No.

Would you consider dating someone you met online? Probably not.

What are your final words? Thanks! Bye!

#survey #surveys

3 notes · View notes

nsomniacsdream · 2 years

Text

They need to bring nic cage back and do a national treasure 4:2national 2treasure.

Wide opening shot of Washington D.C.: panning down and zooming into the Lincoln Memorial.

NIC: Look Tommy, right here on Lincoln's luscious tush! It's the code, just like it said in Benjamin Franklin's sex worker registry!

Other guy: this is why it's all about the Benjamin's baby! *they fist pound*

Cut to a week later in England, "Hail to the queen" is playing and we focus on Big Ben, so the Americans know it's england:

Girl Character: Nic, how are we supposed to figure out this code? It's a bunch of numbers and then the letter H!

Nic: Using the lace garter we stole out of Franklin's sex dungeon, laying it across the code like so... the next clue is on the queen of England's Gooch!

Girl character and Other guy stare at each other in silence for a second..

GC: what.

Outside of buckingham palace, or some other castle, who's gonna know:

Nic: I'm gonna dress up as a member of the guard and sneak up to her room, she takes her sleeping pills at 8, so I'll have time to really study the "area".

GC: Other guy and I will be disguised as the security change over, so we will be watching you from the cameras.

*Note* If you zoom and enhance during this scene, you can briefly see two men barely touch hands in the background, Disney fans have already flooded the internet with glee over Disney's first gay couple.

Interior: Queens bedroom, four poster bed with curtains around it.

We see Nic thru the security camera: Bangkok Dangerous, baby.

GC: What was that?

Nic: nothing. Now to get this done.

NIC CAGE gets down between the queens (played by Sacha baron Cohen, but not acknowledged by anyone) legs. His head dips, and comes up with a peach pit in his teeth. His eyebrows waggle as he spits it off camera.

Sacha, groggily, high pitched: oh no ones been twixt my nethers but my cousins, oh ho ho.

Nic freezes, then grins. He looks to the camera: At least it's not bees.

Exterior: Congress.

GC: This clue I'm just not getting. "Lich *smudges* baby phylactery"?

Nic: it's Mitch McConnell. His dong looks like the eraserhead baby.

GC: wtf are you talking about?

OG: yeah, this is like common knowledge. There's a schoolhouse rock about it, you would know if you weren't British.

Nic and OG, in tune: Oh I am a bill, I'm just a bill, and I'm terrified of McConnells eraserhead dill!

GC: you yanks are fucking crazy.

Nic: what was that?

GC: I said I'm constantly impressed by you.

Interior, Speakers Podium. Mitchs phylactery has been found and the souls of the innocent he harvested by exacerbating poverty are pouring out of his mouth. Our heroes has done it: they saved America.

Nic: I'm never going to unsee that.

GC: somehow, im attracted to you.

They embrace, it is reminiscent of a really big jerky smashed up against a barbie doll.

OG: ah hell no, nic! The secret service is saying we can't take any credit for this because something something national security!

Nic: that's OK T-dog. (The actor playing Other Guy was switched with a black guy for this scene, scheduling conflicts). I dont do this for fame. Because the real national treasure was the friends we found along the way.

OG: your breath smells like 1000 year old liniment and what I have to imagine was the first fish to crawl out of the primordial seas.

They all laugh, high five freeze frame.

The end.....?

0 notes

good-and-bad-queer-rep · 2 years

Photo

|| Spoiler Warning : Nico di Angelo ||

This is my actual childhood and I am so happy to see it finally getting the adaptation it deserves!

Rick Riordan is a best-selling author who is most famous for his series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. He has written multiple other series within the same universe (Heroes of Olympus & Trials of Apollo), not to mention his other similar series The Kane Chronicles and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard.

As of January 2022, Riordan made the official announcement that Percy Jackson and the Olympians was coming to Disney Plus and they have already casted the three main characters from the first book: Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell), Annabeth Chase (Leah Sava Jeffries), and Grover Underwood (Aryan Simhadri) //see photo above//.

Unfortunately, we’re not gonna spend too much time talking about the amazing casting since none of the three characters are openly queer in the book series and that kinda defeats the purpose of this blog. Just know that I love them and would die for them.

Okay, moving on. What I specifically want to reference is the most popular openly queer character within the Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus series which is Nico di Angelo, a child of Hades.

Nico enters the series when he’s about 10 years old and at around 14 years old, he comes out as gay, revealing to have had a long term crush on the main character, Percy Jackson, since he was 10. In the beginning of Trials of Apollo, the next series in the trilogy, it is revealed that Nico is in a relationship with a child of Apollo, Will Solace.

He is the first character in the series to come out as queer and it was a ground-breaking moment for Percy Jackson fans everywhere.

However, as with every LGBTQ+ representation out there, there is going to be homophobia and bigotry involved. Within the Heroes of Olympus series, in the book House of Hades, Nico is forced to come out as gay and the Amazon comments under this specific book is appalling.

“My son has loved this series, but when Mr. Riordon decided to introduce openly gay characters, we decided we were done with it.”

“...enjoyed the first 200 pages until I found out that Nico was gay...Please take the gay crap out of your books.”

“WHY does homosexuality have to be EVERYWHERE. Give it a break!”

...Yeah. Disgusting. And this is all just about one character coming out as gay. There have been so many characters since who have come out as transgender and queer and the reactions some people have are just awful.

Examples of queer characters within Rick Riordan’s books: Nico di Angelo, Will Solace, Piper McLean, Magnus Chase, Alex Fierro, Lavinia, Hemithea and Josephine (lesbian couple)

Rick Riordan does an incredible job including so much queer representation, especially for a cis straight man. Are there things he gets wrong sometimes? Sure. Does he sometimes result to stereotyping? Absolutely, but he’s trying and putting in that effort and that’s all the LGBTQ+ community really wants at the end of the day.

#rick riordan #percy jackson #nico di angelo #heroes of olympus #percy jackson and the olympians #lgbtq+#lgbtq representation #book series #lgbtq books

1 note · View note

georgie-the-mate · 2 years

Text

Turning Red and coming to terms with my sexual identity

Recently, I watched the movie Turning Red with my boyfriend. In case you have not seen it yet. It's a cute story from Disney Pixar that tells the story of a 14 year-old Asian-Canadian girl and the awakening of her "red panda" which serves as an allegory for puberty, menstruation, etc (there are many interpretations out there). For me , however, it was awfully similar to how I figured out my sexual identity as a gay man, my father's reaction when he found out and finally coming to terms and accepting that as a part of me and not something I could take out through a "magical ritual." Keep in mind that, unlike the movie, this happened to me over the course of at least 10 years.

Potential SPOILERS ahead.

The Awakening of the "red panda

In the film, Mei awakens her Panda after a series of events triggered by her emerging interest in boys, namely her drawing fanart of her crush in her notebook. In my case, it all started back when I was around 15. I enjoyed coming back from school and tuning into whatever Disney Channel sitcom was airing at the time. Eventually I found myself more attracted to the male characters, particularly David Henrie's Justin Russo from the Wizards of Waverly Place. This peaked to the point of spending hours online looking for shirtless pictures of the actors and getting highly excited whenever they happened to appear that way on screen. AWOOOGA! I was raised in a very Christian and traditional Latin American family, so at the time I couldn't quite understand it and feared that I could be having sinful thoughts. I dismissed it as a role model desire. After some years I happened to discover gay porn and dating apps like Grindr and this is where my next parallel comes in.

The Parent Shaming.

First to the movie. After her night drawing, Mei's mother comes into her room to find her masterpieces and quickly confronts her. However, instead of talking calmly about it, she rushes to the store where the “model” was working and accuses him of “corrupting”her child.

Alright so this happened to me at least twice or thrice in a couple of different ways. First I was looking for videos of naked men, without really knowing what porn was at the time, and ended up watching porn on the family computer and somehow forgot to delete the browser’s history and close the tabs; HUGE mistake. The next day both of my parents confronted me about it and dismissed it as one of those growing pains never to be talked about again.

Then the second instant I remember of a similar situation was when I was 17. One day my father randomly retrieved my cell phone and went through my messages. At the time I changed schools so I had a conversation with a friend from my previous school in which we were kinda having a bromance moment. My dad took this as him “inciting” into liking men and the worst part is something I discovered many years later. My dad confronted HIM through my phone and apparently even talked to his parents. Naturally we distanced, but when I tried to reconnect he didn’t respond which at the time I couldn’t understand why. If you read this, I am truly sorry for that happening; I had no idea until recently.

Now the most painful and recent instance of the parent shaming. I was 19 years old, already in college and ventured into my first relationship with another man with my first sexual experience; it ended after a few months. Due to that, my hormones were all over the place so I wanted to experiment more and know more people and have more interactions, and so I opened a Grindr account. This time is quite shameful to remember but here it goes. I spoke to literally anyone I could find and sent private pictures to whomever requested them in an attempt to get more action with guys. One day, one of these convos leaked to my dad. I still don’t know who did it but I do hope karma or the universe gets back at him. You might imagine everything that happened after. My dad confronted me and called me lots of different hurtful slurs, told my siblings, my church, ultimately saying I was a disgrace to my family and that I would be kicked out unless I could change my “sinful” ways. I remember he even tried to guard me from the world, not allowing me to go out and over controlling my activities. Which takes us to the next section.

Denial of the true self

After Mei was publicly shamed by her mother for her teenage desires and fantasies she self-criticises and goes hard on herself in an attempt to please her mother and not disappoint her which causes her red panda to appear the next day and she tries to hide it. When her mother finds out about it, she tells her that the Panda is dangerous and she would never have a normal life with it but that there was a cure through a magical ritual to seal the panda forever. Mei then goes on with her life, hating her panda and trying to hide it from the world.

After my father basically disowned me he tried to make a deal with me. I would go to therapy with the pastor from our church and try to change into a “normal person” in order to keep living with him. I didn’t know better at the time so I did the same as Mei and tried to repress my own panda, my homosexuality. During at least three years I hated myself for being gay and the “therapy”only made it worse. I tried to distract from it by joining different clubs in college which ultimately made me sick and worsened my emotional situation. Through the whole therapy sessions I was told that I was living in sin, I had to change and all the usual stuff you are told in conservative churches. In the last session, I had my magic ritual. The pastor would pray and make me verbally renounce to my sinful ways, kick out the “homosexual demon” and try to live in accordance to God’s ancient law. I walked out sad,confused and still hating myself. The following 7 years I entered a deep depression involving self-harm and kinda never looked for professional help or discontinued it due to my awful experience in the “therapy”.

Accepting and embracing the Red Panda

Over the course of the film, Mei discovers that her Panda is well received among her peers. They basically love her panda form so she takes full advantage of it and learns to accept it as a part of herself. However, the day of her ritual comes and in the process she confirms it, she doesn’t want to renounce it, instead she will embrace it as a part of her. Then the whole climax of the movie goes on until the final battle.

For a time I repressed myself and whenever I felt attraction to another man; I resorted to self hate and many times to self harms, many scars still visible to this day. Eventually in 2016 I decided to try another relationship with a man this time taking some precautions and being more weary about it. We lasted for a year and a half in which I cannot deny I was very happy. During that time, my panda became more visible to others: my friends, my sister and new people I met. They love it! Here the whole process of accepting my panda as a part of myself started. I met new people who were also part of the LGBT community and they gave me so much acceptance and love and most importantly made me feel safe. They taught me about embracing and accepting this part of myself. Eventually we broke up with this guy. I was so dependent on him so it led to many toxic interactions, clinginess, refusing to move on and deep depression once again.

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic came, and finally I was able to give myself some time to heal and move on with my life. During this year I fully grasped the concept of accepting my panda as a part of me and to live with it to the fullest being true to myself. I was finally able to heal from all this trauma and bad experiences with my panda.

Unlike Mei, whose problems were solved overnight, I am still working on it, looking to be better every day. My relationship with my father has never fully recovered from that and he kinda wants to think I was “cured” even if the evidence shows otherwise. I am happier with myself and learned to embrace that part of me. I even gave myself the chance to love again and have been dating a guy for over one and a half years now. We have grown together, each of us contributing to the healing of each other, creating safe spaces and it’s wonderful.

As I said before, I’m still a work in progress but definitely better, and I love how this movie Turning Red resonated with me on this level. Thank you Domee Shi and her team at Pixar for this amazing story and for making these characters' growing pains so relatable in different ways.

If you haven’t seen this movie yet, I highly recommend it.

#Turning red #domee shi #coming of age #acceptance #self love #self healing #lgbtq #pride #lgbtq community #red panda #growing up #mindfulness

49 notes · View notes