#this isn't me saying all queer stories or romances have to pure

[problemswithbooks]

With the tentative and rough translations out, i have to say, yeah, Hori really doesn't get what he's actually writing and if he was trying to make Toga's entire deal a metaphor for queerness, he's ended up being quite offensive.

Like first off it seems he has Toga say she falls in love easily with boy and girls and...animals. Which, I always felt the bird thing as a kid could have negative connotations, but wrote it off as 'she was a little kid and this was before her desire for blood was wrapped up in her romantic feelings' type things. So having Hori reinstate that yes, she does still love animals to the point of blood drinking desire--a desire Hori coded as sexual/romantic is not a good look.

It also just makes me question if she could ever own a pet or if she'd end up killing it because she loved it to much and she needed to drink it's blood.

Also getting her perspective on the boy she attacked isn't great either. The translation is rough and basic so it could change, but I don't think there's any translation that could make the situation not read poorly.

In the rough translations she says something along the lines of "I didn't ask to drink his blood because I was afraid he'd hate me and think I was a decent monster."

I could see an alternative translation being "I asked for his blood and he called me a deviant monster, and I sucked his blood."

Again if Hori is trying to make a queer metaphor with Toga, this is a huge issue. Her attacking the boy was always a big problem, but if he didn't bring it up again I think a lot of casual readers would have forgotten it. But now it's front and center again and brings back bad connotations for Toga and a queer reading of her character.

Because again if we read her blood drinking as queerness, and Hori has already coded it in the past as lust while just last chapter confirming that Toga sees it as kissing in the very least we get two equally bad reads.

A) Due to fear of rejection Toga did not ask for consent and decided she'd just make sexual advances toward someone she had a crush regardless.

or B) She got rejected and told no, and then made the sexual advance anyway.

With a queer reading this only becomes worse because it pays into the really negative and even dangerous idea that same sex attracted people will go after anyone regardless of consent or the other persons orientation. It continues to perpetuate the idea that queer people are sexual predators, who target straight people or in the very least do not care about consent, or are unable to control themselves long enough to get it.

But even without a queer reading what Toga did is wrong. It sucks that people don't get her way of showing love, but consent is still needed regardless. You can't just do what you want to someone because you were to afraid to ask them out. You can't just do what you want with someone after they tell you no. Even if the boy had called her a monster that would not make it ok for Toga to, essentially sexually assault him (yes, kissing someone against their will is sexual assault, which is what Toga sees her blood drinking as).

And I think that's why Toga's character is really hard to get behind for some people--because at the end of the day she's literally just saying "I can't help but sexually assault people (and animals apparently)', and the solution to this is to give her exactly what she wants and apologize for not seeing how much pain she was in when she was actively trying to sexually assault people.

#bnha critical #anti toga #anti himiko #bnha spoilers #bnha 394 #this isn't me saying all queer stories or romances have to pure #but it's not framed as toxic or negative and Toga is the only openly queer character we have that's still alive #(Tiger was confirmed trans in a character blurb not in the text. Any one who only reads the magazine wouldn't know he's trans) #it's also just hard to get behind because the way Hori draws and frames them it feels more that he does it because he thinks it's hot #like the way naked toga is hugging ochako with her legs spread is bad #I mean he could have drawn it with ochako in front to hide toga's body or have toga with her legs closed #or he could have not had Toga's power remove her clothes to begin with #it also doesn't help that we don't get much build up for these characters #like i don't believe either of these girls actually understand or genuinely care about each other #like there was an opening with Twices death for Ochako to start to care about Toga and feel genuinely bad for her #but instead she just kind of decided to care for toga and her smile because Hori said so #like she thinks of her during the speech #but wouldn't it have been better and made more sense if she saw dabi's vlog and heard Twice died and then she understands why Toga was sad #not just randomly think 'man i want that girl who tried to murder me with a smile to smile again' #it also would have helped wrap up the twices death better too

[washeduphazbin]

Lady Hell

(Lucifer x Fem!Reader x Lilith) NSFW THEMES AHEAD

Hi! Omg, I just saw/read the lucixreaderxlili story and wondered if you could write a story about Charlie and some others catching them "in the act" and just Charlie dying. Of course, Lucifer would accidentally permanently scar his daughter (and Alastor the ace) by turning around to go comfort his child, forgetting the situation for a "brief" (get it lol 😆) moment, and then trying to hide the three of them. Could you do the reactions of the others, either by hearing about it or walking in on it?

@legendarylearner18 I hope you enjoy it. I hope this is what you were looking for. I wanted to try to keep it somewhat canon, lol. So unfortunately we only get a little bit of Lilith.

For being cast to an eternity in hell, as a Sinner, you couldn't exactly complain about your current situation. You were found by Lilith, The Queen of Succubi and the subsequent Queen of Hell. While the Sinners around you looked like different creatures, you looked more human than a demon. Most likely due to the way you died, it wasn’t traumatic or horrific, so you kept most of your human features. The only difference was a pair of horns growing out of your head, and a devil-like tail.

Lilith was enthralled by your pure innocence; she picked you up from the street (literally) and brought you home. She allowed you into her palace and introduced you to her husband, her hands trailing and resting tenderly on your back. "What's your name, darling?" She hummed softly, brushing your hair from your face; you flushed, staring at the man before you, feeling the pressure of the much taller woman pressed against you. Your throat felt dry as you introduced yourself with a little bow; the man hummed,

"Is this a new Sinner, Lili?"

"Indeed. Lucifer, and I'd like to keep her." Your face burned hot as you whipped your head to the woman,

"Excuse me-" You sputtered,

"Oh, sorry. Are you queer?" She hummed, her nails brushing against your cheek, and you could only sputter out a yes of confirmation. She cooed sweetly, pressing your face directly into her tits; you squeaked, "Luci isn't she just the cutest Sinner you've just ever seen!"

"I think you're suffocating her," Lucifer mused, removing his hat and resting it against one of the many hat hooks. "Let me get a good look at her," Lilith released you, gently nudging you towards who you could only assume to be the King of Hell. You made a soft sound as he grabbed your waist; the way he analyzed you made you squirm nervously. "How would you like to stay with us? You have a choice of course.”

"Like here?"

Lilith laughed, grabbing your face and tilting your head to look her in the eyes; Lucifer took your hands and brushed his thumbs across your knuckles. "Yes, like here," she mused. You can say no. We aren't forcing you into a relationship if it makes you uncomfortable."

"You're new to Hell. We can keep you safe, but as soon as you want to leave, we won't stop you." Lucifer reassured, "But we'd like the chance to romance you if you'd let us."

You let out a little laugh, "Romance me?" Lilith giggled behind you as you watched the King Of Hell turn red and fluster. Sputtering out what exactly he meant trying to salvage the situation.

"Oh, you're going to be fun."

"And dangerous," Lucifer added, trying to recover from his embarrassment.

Your life since then has been pretty good. You fell hard and fast for Lilith and Lucifer and quickly became a part of their couple. They never made you feel less than for joining their marriage; you were equally as important as them in the relationship, and most importantly you were happy. When Lilith and Lucifer had Charlie, you were there beside them; helping Lilith through every moment especially when Lucifer was busy. Charolette, the little bundle of joy, only improved all three of your lives. You swore to yourself you would never force Charlie to see you as another parent if she didn't want to, but much to your surprise she did. You were a constant in her life, acting like a third parent to the girl most or the time, one who was constantly there and she loved every bit of you.

--

Charlie hummed, tapping her fingers together, "So that's why asking my other mom to convince my dad is probably our best shot at getting a meeting with Heaven!" Vaggie and Angel Dust glanced at one another,

"Hold on, you're telling me that the king of hell is getting double the pussy, and we're out here struggling ta get any?"

"You don't even like pussy Angel," Husk grunted,

"Not true. I like a certain pussy." He batted his eyelashes at Husk, who grunted, rolling his eyes while dramatically taking a swig from his whiskey bottle.

“I’m a feline or cat. Call me a pussy again, and I’ll shove this bottle up your ass.”

“Kinky I like it daddy.”

Husk promptly flipped him off.

"Not the point!" Charlie huffed cheeks, flushing. She didn’t even like thinking about her parents like that. "I've been scared enough with them to last me a lifetime!"

"Ohhoho?" Angel Dust leaned forward on his knees, "Sounds like you have stories."

"What? Stories? No way, not me." Charlie shook her head rather dramatically, yelping as Niffty ran up her leg, grabbing the collar of her shirt,

"You have stories! Dirty, nasty stories! I can smell them on you! TELL US!"

"You all realize you're asking her to talk about her parents having sex right." Vaggie grunted, "That's fucking weird."

"Don't care what's the most embarrassing thing you've ever walked in on!" Angel shouted, slamming his hands on the table, "I need to know!” Charlie chewed on her bottom lip, "You always say sharing is caring, Princess. Now that it's your turn. Are you gonna share your trauma? I've shared mine." He definitely hadn't but Charlie wondered if this was his first step into Angel actually caring about the group redemption activities.

"I...suppose you're right." She cringed outwardly as Angel grinned delightedly and turned to look at Husk. He rolled his eyes at Angel,

"I'll make you drinks; I have a feeling we'll be here for a while."

"After this story we're talking to your mom are you sure you wanna tell them then go see her directly? You don't have too." Vaggie placed her hands on Charlie's shoulders giving them a squeeze,

"It's okay Vaggie, I can do this! For the Hotel!"

—

Lilith hummed quietly, running a brush tenderly through your hair and detangling the locks. You stared at her gentle movements in the mirror, feeling her slender fingers pet your scalp. "You're staring, my beautiful lamb," You felt your cheeks burn as you looked down into your lap. You heard her soft laugh, pressing herself against your back, feeling her chest push against you.

Jesus, you were better than no man.

"Don't get all shy on me." Her fingers lifted your chin so you could turn to look at her. "There's my pretty girl." She purred, and you could melt. She leaned forward to press a tender kiss to your lips. Her other hand cupped the back of your neck possessively. "Do you wanna know something?" She murmured against your lips; she pulled away to look into your eyes as you nodded. "You're my personal Eden." She trailed the back of her hand down your cheek before pressing her thumb against your bottom lip, pulling it down. "I want to devour you; you'll let me, won't you?"

You let out a loud whine, nodding furiously at her, "Anything for you Lili." She raised a perfectly styled brow, "Mistress."

"That's my girl." She pet the top of your head, "I'm sad to mess up your hair after I just worked so hard on it. But, I think it's worth it, don't you?" Lilith's lashes fluttered, and you nodded like the lovesick puppy you were for her. The dynamic you had with the Morningstar's would be peculiar to anyone outside the bedroom; Lilith enjoyed taking the dominant role, Lucifer was a switch, and while you preferred to be more submissive, sometimes it was fun to be more dominant when messing with the devil himself. You shivered in delight at the thought of taking both of them as Lilith's mouth placed kisses against your neck. "Oh, little lamb, did you think you could hide your desire from the queen of succubi herself? You want me to gather Luci for us?"

"Would you be mad if I say yes?" You spoke softly, and she smiled sweetly, pressing a kiss to your forehead.

"Not at all, my sweet thing. Why don't you get yourself ready for our return," She vanished, seeping elegantly into her shadow. You grinned, jumping on the abnormally sizeable plush bed you shared with the couple. Usually, Lucifer enjoyed undressing you, but what Lilith said goes, so you unbuttoned your shirt and slid off your skirt, leaving you just in your underthings. "Your gift is in here, Lucifer," you heard Lilith on the otherside of the door. The man let out a small laugh.

"Whenever you get me a gift, it always puts me on edge." He said lightheartedly, opening the bedroom door. His gaze landed on you immediately, and his cheeks burned scarlet.

"Do you like your gift?" She purred, leaning down to peck his cheek in a sultry manner.

"I mean, who wouldn't? Hi, Ducking!" He stammered, waving goofily. You giggled, waving back cheekily,

"Hi Luci, Mistress." You bowed your head, sprawling out on the bed seductively, your eyes trained on the growing tent in the king of hell's pants. "What role would you like me to take?" Your eyes trailed over to Lilith, who was slowly sliding down her dress.

She hummed thoughtfully, "What do you feel? Also, do you remember the safe word?" You nodded,

"Dominate with you and dominate with Lucifer. Is that alright?"

"M-more than," Lucifer stammered as Lilith reached around to place her hands on his shoulders, nipping at his neck. He let out a shaky groan at the sensation and you hopped off the bed kneeling before the King and Queen of Hell.

“Good girl.~” Lilith praised continuing to nip and suck on Lucifer’s neck her fingers moving to unbutton his top. Meanwhile he whimpered looking down at you as you undid his belt with ease fluttering your lashes innocently. You looked as beautiful as the day you arrived in Hell and he still couldn’t fathom what you’d done to end up in a place like this.

“Your Majesty may I?” You motioned to his hard cock straining against the confines of his briefs. He ran his fingers through your hair and you leaned into the touch,

“You may.” He watched you lick your lips hungrily as you pulled down his underwear, cock springing free bouncing against his stomach. He let out a shaky breath, as your hands groped his aching dick, “Ducking come on.” He whined as you slowly pumped him with a sadistic grin adorning your lips. He felt Lilith laugh against his neck and he huffed, she clicked her tongue grabbing his chin and tilting it up so she could press a kiss to his lips, it was heated as their tongues clashed in a fiery dance. He groaned into it giving Lilith control as he felt your hot mouth wrap around his cock. You bobbed your head skillfully taking him fully, your nose brushed against his pubic hair. You were always proud you could fit him in your mouth entirely, his hands dug into your hair pulling you somehow closer. You gagged but never thought about pulling away, you hollowed your cheeks making sure to use your tongue to trace the prominent veins underneath his shaft. His hips bucked into your mouth, he fucked your mouth with fervor groaning and whining the entire time. “That’s it, so close baby gonna cum-“

You pulled off with a significant pop, drool and pre-cum glistening on your lips and dripping from your chin. He made a heartbroken face in your direction as you licked your lips seductively, “oh my good girl, come to mommy.” Lilith purred as you rose to your feet, her hands wrapped around your waist as she pulled you onto the bed. Her dress had long since been discarded and her perfect breasts hung freely over you. “I’m gonna ride your face like the throne I deserve and Lucifer’s going to fuck that tight little pussy of yours.” It wasn’t a question but a command, “I’m sure you’re wet enough. I know how much you love sucking my husband’s cock.” You could only nod eagerly,

“Can I touch you?”

“You may.”

Your hands immediately shot forward, cupping her breasts between your fingers. She let out a sigh, beautiful and airy as your fingers brushed over her nipples. "That's a good girl," She purred as you began to massage her chest eagerly. Your tail swished wrapping around her waist urging her forward towards your mouth, "How impatient. Lucifer darling?"

"Y-yeah!" He sputtered removing his hand from his cock as Lilith turned to look at him. His shirt was hanging off his shoulders, unbuttoned and his pants were still down around his ankles. Face flushed red standing awkwardly, watching his two loves make out. She tutted and he flushed harder, "Sorry..."

"You're luckily out little lamb here has me in a good mood." She groaned a little as you leaned up as far as you could to nip at her breast. "Oh darling...Lucifer get over here and fuck her."

"Yes ma'am!" Lucifer grinned wiggling his leg and kicking his pants into the corner of the room...well tried to he ended up falling directly onto his face. Lilith sighed rubbing the bridge of her nose while you burst into a fit of giggles. You tried to cover you mouth with your hands as you tilted your head backwards, he raised his head with a nervous smile. "My bad," His voice cracked a little as he fumbled his way over to the both of you.

"You're such a goofball," Lilith sighed now trying to hide her smile from her husband. "You still alright to continue?" She was looking at Lucifer but you knew the question was for the both of you. Embarrassed Lucifer nodded as you responded with a resounding

"Yes!"

"Good then let us continue." She mused clapping her hands together as the lights in the room dimmed and the candles flickered to life. She leaned forward connecting your lips together you moaned quietly against her, her hand coming up under your bra to squeeze your chest gently. "Ready?"

You felt Lucifer's nails trail your thighs and his lips pressing gentle kisses to the skin there. You shivered at the touch and felt him smile against your flesh, "Yes Mistress." You saw her smile, beautiful like the sky back on Earth. She moved with the grace of a queen as she moved to sit on your face, squeezing her thighs against your head. Lilith let out a loud intake of breath as your tongue prodded at her entrance. Your hands moved to dig your nails into her thighs as you ate her out like a woman starved. Meanwhile you felt Lucifer bite at your inner thighs causing you to moan against Lilith, she let out an elegant groan as her hips began to roll into against your mouth. You heard the devil snap his fingers as your bottom half got much breezier, he had snapped your underwear away, thank god they weren't your favorite pair.

He was making sure to mark you up before licking a stripe up your pussy his snake like tongue moving circles on your clit. Your thighs unconsciously clamped around your head and you felt him tut against you yanking your thighs away from his skull. You wined as Lilith ground down on her, filling your mouth with her wetness, nose brushing against her clit. You felt the dynamic switch as Lucifer leaned back thumb massaging your bud and fingers teasing your entrance mercilessly. You tried to get out a mumble out a please, but Lilith's body made your plea sound like nothing but a mumble, "You trying to beg Duckling? It's a shame you can't."

"Aw Luci don't be mean to the poor girl, she's working hard to please me-" She was cut off with a moan eyes fluttering, "I'm close. Don't be mean to her when she's doing such a good job. Unless she's somehow not wet enough but I doubt that."

"Oh she's dripping." Lucifer mused, "But if you allow it I'll fuck her immediately. After all, it's her turn to be throughly bred." You moaned hotly into her and her sweet sounds tangled with your own, her entire body pressed hard into you as she climaxed into your mouth. Her chest heaved as she slid off you, your mouth wet with her juices, as your tongue came to swipe at your lips.

"Lili!~" You moaned your hand reaching out towards her, she hushed you softly intertwining her hand within your own, she looked over at Lucifer, "Please."

She hummed turning to face Lucifer giving a nod, his entire face lit up like the stars, he leaned foward to kiss you tenderly. "I love you,"

"I love you too," You purred cupping his cheeks sweetly. "Don't make me beg,"

"I won't you've been plenty good." He pressed a kiss to your nose causing you to giggle. He gave himself a few pumps before sliding into you with relatively ease. Your eyes rolled back in your head fluttered with a sharp intake of breath. "Fuck...baby-" He moaned, "You're alway so tight around me." You didn't get a chance to respond before Lilith placed her lips onto yours and her hands under your bra; palming at your chest. Lucifer sucked in a needy breath at the sight and your hips began to buck up against him continuing to flutter around him. He took your hint and began to pump in and out of you, you broke away from Lilith spit still connecting the two of you as you let out a loud moan. "That's it...my good girl."

He always felt so big inside you, you swore he'd break you in half, as your toes curled once he hit the spongey spot inside of you. "More." You demanded as Lilith giggled, "Fill me up."

"As you wish, you wanna make me another Daddy-"

"Dad?"

"FUCK ME!" Lucifer yelped his wings suddenly sprouting out of his back in a panic, pulling out of you in a hurry. Your eyes widened into saucers clamping down on him in surprise which caused him to cum prematurely over your stomach. Lilith cursed under her breath, frantically looking around for a blanket.

"Lucifer!" He was snapped back to life by the sound of Lilith's voice his wings quickly shifted covering the both of you.

"Oh God!" Charlie shrieked once she fully processed what was going on, she covered her eyes. The teenager's cheeks were flushed, "What the fuck!"

"We're so sorry!" Lucifer sputtered, moving to get up to explain himself.

"DAD DON'T GET UP!"

"Lucifer!" Lilith hissed,

"SORRY!"

"I'm leaving!" Charlie squeaked out, "Sorry! Sorry! Oh god my eyes!" The door slammed shut with a bang as Lucifer's wings disappeared and buried his face in his hands.

—

It wasn't a surprise that she first came to you with her hotel idea to rehabilitate sinners instead of her father. You shuffled uncomfortably as she held out her drawing cards; she was pointing eagerly to her plans. By her side was her girlfriend Vaggie, the girlfriend Lucifer didn't know about.

She had you wrapped around her finger, and she knew it.

"Charlie, you know I love you and admire your ambition; I always have, but..." You trailed off as she frowned, lowering her papers. Your heart ached, "Shouldn't you be talking to your father about this- and don't say I'm your mother, you know what I mean." You held your finger up to stop her, “it's just. I don’t know how I can help you sweetheart.”

“Well I was…ya know thinking. That you could maybe possibly I don’t know, convince dad it’s a good plan. And well I don't know get me a meeting with Heaven.”

You winced, “Charlie…” she pouted giving you her saddest puppy dog face, “I only have so much power when he comes to controlling your father.”

“But we’re making SUCH good progress. Angel Dust is on the road to redemption as we speak!” She exclaimed, “right Vaggie?”

“Right.” She smiled reassuringly up at her girlfriend before turning to you, “just…try please. If it doesn’t work Charlie will call him and figure something else out. We aren’t asking for him to help,” Charlie opened her mouth to protest, “without seeing it himself first.” She corrected and her girlfriend nodded in approval.

“You two I swear.” You stood on your toes grabbing Charlie’s red cheeks kissing both as she flushed. “If your father kills me it’s your fault,”

“He’d never!” Charlie looked aghast, “he loves you like he loved Mom!”

“I know, Hon. Don’t worry, figure of speech.”

“Oh,” she frowned. “Well, try not to talk like that. Think positive!” Charlie grabbed your hands and opened her mouth,

"I love you, but please don't sing right now." You kissed her knuckles softly, "I need all my brainpower to talk to your dad."

"Understood!" She squealed, "I love you!"

"I love you too. Now shoo, your dad will call you later." She wrapped you in another hug, and Vaggie nodded her head in your direction with a little smile. Charlie pulled away and interlocked her hand with her girlfriend before scampering off. You rubbed your face tiredly; Lucifer and your relationship had been strained since Lilith left. You still loved one another dearly, but her leaving had taken a toll on both of you. While he retreated to isolate himself in his room, you coped in other ways, namely, running his kingdom for him to the best of your ability. The only things you didn't do were meetings and phone calls with the Seraphim or the Angels.

So, things between the both of you have been a little more than awkward and tense. Not knowing how Charlie would react, you both decided it was better to try to deal with your emotions privately instead of telling her outright that you were having relationship issues. You still slept in the same bed, but most of the time, it felt like he was barely there...reminding you that you were just a lover and not a wife.

Cursing inwardly at the thought, you loved Lilith; you missed her smile, her voice, and her kindness. But it was hard not to feel bitter at times; she left you and Lucifer...alone...for going on seven years.

It had not only devastated him, but Charlie, and you as well. Despite your wishes those bitter thoughts, were getting more and more common.

You let out a shaky sigh before you smoothed out any wrinkles in your dress as you approached his workshop. You knocked softly on the door. You heard frantic rustling and fumbling of what you could only assume was another rubber duck project before the door was hurriedly thrown open. His eyes squinted like he was trying to gather what you were doing here before he let out a panicked, nervous laugh.

"Duckling!" you could hear the nervous tremor in his voice, "What-ugh- what are you doing here?"

"I live here? We sleep in the same bed." You deadpanned,

"No, I mean! Er, my workshop,"

"Charlie stopped by-"

"She did?!" The panic in his voice was even more evident now that you mentioned the possibility that his daughter was here you watched as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Is she still here? You got her to leave right? Did she ask about me? I'm not prepared and-"

"Luci," Your tone softened, cupping his cheeks and running his thumb across the apples of them, "She's not here. She had a message she wanted me to relay to you."

"She...asked you and not me?" He murmured, and you chewed the inside of his cheek,

"It wasn't a long visit; you were very busy."

"Yes...I was busy."

You both stared at one another, tension seeping into your bones. Your tail flicked restlessly, and Lucifer's claws drummed nervously on the wood of the doorframe. "Welp!" He clapped his hands together, "If that's all." He moved to spin around back into his duck-filled workshop,

"I didn't even tell you what she wanted..." You spoke quietly, reaching out to touch his shoulder but he flinched away before you could make contact again.

"Fuck, I didn't mean to flinch. It's just Lilith and...and I know we haven't been intimate- It's just-" He rambled,

"No, please don't apologize." Your smile was strained, and your hands clutched the top of your dress. "I understand completely, Your Majesty."

He said your name, pained, "Don't do this-"

You held up your hand, silencing him, "It's fine." You doubled down on the earlier statement before sighing, shoulders slumping, your entire body felt heavy. "I love you but I don't know if I can keep doing this..."

"Please stop." He reached forward to grab your shoulders, in a frantic way to prove he wasn't afraid to touch you.

"Lucifer, I'm tired." You looked up at him and already felt the stinging behind your eyes, "I miss her so much it hurts...I miss you. I'm so lonely I feel like I could die again."

"Don't say that." He said seriously, hands moving from shoulders to your cheeks, "Never say that. If you died, I couldn't bear it."

"The great Lucifer Morningstar would live, I'm sure. Although he'd have to rule his own kingdom again." Your lips twitched in a sad smile,

"I don't think I would." He chose to ignore the second part of the statement, "I know." You watched his throat bob, "I haven't been fair to you. I've shut you out, and I shouldn't have, and it breaks my heart that I made you doubt my love for you." His fingers brushed against your cheek, wiping away tears that began to roll.

"Lilith is your wife, and I can't imagine what you're going through-"

"Out of everyone, I think you're the only one who can relate to what I'm going through." He laughed airily, "I'm a mess. I'm depressed, and what kind of man am I? My wife left, our daughter hates me, and you can't stand to be in the same room as me."

"But that's all I've wanted!" You shouted, not unkindly, "I want to be with you, I'm meant to be your rock, your support how can I do that if you shut me out."

"I never meant to!" He exclaimed, "I just- I hate myself all the time-"

"Join the club!"

"Fuck. We're both messes, aren't we?"

"More than," You laughed, rubbing your eyes. "Look, Luci..." He blushed a bit at the nickname, and it made you smile. "Can you promise me we'll work on it, work on everything, together? No more shutting one another out."

"Promise." He stood on his tip toes and leaned forward, hesitating slightly, "I don't want to pressure-" You grabbed his lapels and pulled him close, pressing a hot kiss to his lips. He groaned a bit into it, his arms wrapping around your waist, pulling you close. "I missed this, I missed you," He mumbled against your lips. "I'll be better. To both of you-"

"Oh." You snapped your fingers, pulling away from him, and he made an 'eh' like sound. "Speaking of Charlie wants you to get her a meeting with Heaven."

"WHAT!"

#hazbin hotel x reader #hazbin hotel x y/n #hazbin hotel x you #x reader #writing requests #lucifer x reader hazbin #hazbin hotel lucifer x reader #lucifer morningstar x y/n #lucifer x reader #lucifer x y/n #lucifer x you #hazbin hotel smut #reader insert smut #hazbin smut #lilith x lucifer #lilith x reader #Lucifer x reader x Lilith

[not-poignant]

@morbidlizard replied to your post “Can I ask, why do you love BL romance better than...”:

I mean it's unfortunate but asian BL is just hands down better than western for so many reasons <: / I've been reading asian BL for literal decades now (AHHH) and I can maybe count on one hand the western series I've enjoyed that had some sort of queer romance that had all I wanted or at least a part of the tropes I like...And even then, it's usually F/F relationships 9_9 (and when I say asian, I mean japanese, korean, chinese, some indonesian too! etc etc...)

​Actually yeah this is also really where it's at

I think a lot about how we're still getting extremely like... milquetoast wholesome queer narratives (most of the time) in western m/m romance media (I have nothing against Heartstopper, but it's extremely 'all queer people are pure wholesome need-to-be-protected jellybeans' and like, cool, but I want more than that as well - like give me 20 shows that are 'all queer people' in 20 different genres, thanks. BL will give me that - BL will pay people to give me that.

The only way I can get that from western media is fanfiction, and sometimes - kind of - from published m/m, when it's not paint-by-numbers rapid release that isn't about telling stories from the heart and it's about telling stories from the bank account instead (which is a valid reason to write, it's just not what I'm looking for as a reader - most readers who end up loving and writing fanfiction aren't looking for this imho)).

Thomas Baudinette is actually doing incredible work in this area of Media Studies, where it's literally a known thing that BL - particularly in countries like Korea, Thailand and Taiwan - is actually taking huge strides ahead in the genre, comparatively, especially when up against western BL.

It almost feels like we're on a giant lag, buffering behind them, and about the only place we aren't is in fanfiction, which makes sense, because the cross-pollination between fandom and south-east Asian BL is incredible (literally, they got omegaverse and guide-verse from western fanfiction and western fandom, and imho are doing a lot more with it for money than we are, see: Pit Babe).

I've been reading up pretty heavily into Baudinette's work, and also a lot of the recent and up-to-date work in BL Studies (a thing), and like, it's just kind of fascinating the different interrogations of BL we have going on in different cultures and subcultures, and how different senses of place and culture and ethnicity and minority and belonging can influence our tales, along with many different manifestations of capitalisation, economy, influence etc.

And that isn't to say there aren't huge problematic areas for BL in all countries, not just western, I can critique western BL so easily because I am western, and it's been really interesting reading critiques of BL from academics who live within other countries from their perspectives too. But I do think if I want really great BL romances, turning to fanfiction and then turning to other cultures and what they're doing is often the first thing I do. I just don't have to search as hard to find what I'm looking for. And like, I'm lazy, lol, I don't want to search through 100 published works to find like 1-5 stories I might reread but not over my favourite manhwa or like fanfiction or whatever.

This has been my area of like... personal study for a few months now (literally reading Regimes of Desire: Young Gay Men, Media and Masculinity in Tokyo by Baudinette atm) and I have a lot of thoughts of which this is just a very generalised ramble and not actually anything of great meaning but like sadkljfas TL;DR yeah

#morbidlizard #idk how to categorise this but #pia on media studies #i do think it's really incredible that we get Pit Babe in part because #western fanfiction exists #what korea and thailand and other countries are doing with omegaverse #i just think hollywood and indie movie studios in the west are fucking cowards #run largely by puritanical evangelistic supremacists #and that other countries are seeing that actually omegaverse could spin them a LOT of money #in the mass media #already #absolutely wild

[genericpuff]

Idk if my addition will matter.

I've been following Hanza since back when they were making my deepest secret, so I've seen the development of the guy upstairs first hand and how hanza writes it. Even back in the concept stages, it was so blatantly clear that it was supposed to be a thriller/cat mouse vibe where Adam (killer) was horrible and not to be rooted for. They've compared him to irl serial killers and how those guys will often use women as shields to hide their true selves from the public and how that's messed up and bad to do.

They've shown Adam as a horrible irredeemable person and honestly there's little to no nuance with how they handle it, but that makes sense because how else can you handle an audience like what they've gotten without beating them over the head with the facts. How many ways can you outright show your main character despising and wanting to yank their best friend out of the jaws of a murderer before the audience realizes its not foreplay.

I think them going from an actual romance to a fully thriller non romantic story meant that the residual audience expected some kind of messy toxic romance, but Rozy to me has always explicitly read as Queer so idk why people aren't getting the hint.

I get their frustration and it seems like they might be shifting into a potiential issekai romance about a grandad and a middle aged woman who got reincarnated as his grandson's fiance (hard to explain but its hilarious if you want to check it out) without any thriller elements from their recent non comic posts. Whatever they do I hope they can find something to be passionate about again.

your addition VERY MUCH MATTERS actually because I don't read TGU and have very little context to the situation as a whole aside from what I've seen people talking about, which makes me reluctant to speak on it because I don't wanna go spreading misinformation in any regard. So I appreciate you taking the time to lay it all out for me, thank you!!! <3

And yeah, I've seen posts shared in the /r/webtoons sub from other blogs claiming that Hanza was being an awful person for "taking people's money" and "baiting them" into reading a dark romance story when that's very obviously not what it is? Even one excerpt that was literally like-

And I just... since when is any romance plotline that ISN'T abusive and problematic at its core (such as between a serial killer and a victim) considered "super conservative" and "pure"? It's really baffling to me how people have gone so far in the opposite direction of "purity culture" that they've started arguing on behalf of legitimately harmful and toxic relationships. It's extremely concerning especially when you know the majority of people saying this shit are between the ages of 16-21. IDK what the fuck we're doing anymore when it comes to the romance genre (and TGU isn't even a romance ffs).

Aaaand yeah in relation to where the Hanza topic came up, that's really why I'm moving away from WT as an audience and why I don't consider it a "loss" to not use WT anymore. Once upon a time I wished for Time Gate to be a contracted series, for it to have thousands of readers and be my job. But seeing what's going on with Hanza's work just informs me that I'd be dealing with a lot of the same shit - people expecting Uzuki and Mitsuhiro to be the endgame of the romance when they're literally NOT good for each other, which is the POINT. Like sure, unlike the main duo in TGU, they actually are a couple with a 'relationship' but it's not meant to be healthy and the last thing I need are 15 year olds thinking they're "couple goals". If you ship them in fanfic or w/e the fuck that's fine but please don't get mad at me when they don't wind up being the endgame couple, they're both terrible people and make each other worse when they're around each other (・_・;)

Either way yeah, I don't blame Hanza in the slightest for getting so frustrated with it all that they'd rather just be done with it. It sucks for the more loyal and sane part of their audience that the series is gonna be ripped out from under them like that, but at the end of the day if the creator is being harassed and decide they're done as a result of it... why should they have to keep putting up with bullshit just for a comic? I don't even blame Rachel if she was ending LO by choice due to the noise of the fandom, and unlike Rachel, I don't have anything in the slightest against Hanza or their work LOL But I also don't have the full picture on it all so maybe my opinion will change if I find out more about it. I just don't think any of this shit is worth directly harassing a human being over.

That said, can't get any better than someone who's read their work since before TGU, so again, thank you !

#ask me anything #ama #anon ama #anon ask me anything #webtoon critical

[thrilling-oneway]

I'd give you 5$ if you post that draft

you didn't even need to bribe. it's not actually in the drafts of this blog so i'll write a better version

i've said it a billion times before: tsukasa is the comedic relief weirdguy, the devs basically will do anything with him so long as it's funny.

so starting with that valentine's day vlive in 2021. during the MC part of that he gets jealous that rui has been getting chocolates and tries to brag that he got lots of chocolates too but then immediately reveals that he got friendzoned by multiple girls. his voiceline that year is something about how he catches everyone's attention on vday and year round bc he's a star or something like that but anyway that whole interaction there seems to suggest he's straight lol.

however.

he's REALLY oblivious. played for comedy ofc but i see a lot of people interpret this as him being somewhere on the aro spectrum (probably not what the writers intended but fair instance of accidentally coding a character as smth). examples include: not understanding why Akito doesn't want to be seen at PXL alone with Toya in an Akito's initial 3* (second story), literally says "thank you" when Asahi basically confesses to him and completely misses the point (he actually did seem to nearly get this one for a second), and he doesn't understand why Rui's friends are impressed that he's friends the incredibly attractive Shizuku (Tsukasa is the only not-gay-coded male character who isn't attracted to Shizuku, probably because they're childhood friends. or if you want to view him as being aspec, then that works too). also when he mentions that he's friends with guys in his class who are cool and popular and good with women, Hibiki says that he was in a class with one of those guys in 1st year and is amazed that tsukasa is in that crowd now, emphasis on the "tsukasa's friends are good with women part". tsukasa's just confused about that because of course they talk to girls a lot they're in the same class.

also he usually rewrites a lot of romance plays to remove the romance. he rewrote R&J to just make it focused on the action (which is probably because he likes playing action heroes more than anything else), and he got rid of the romance plot in little mermaid because he didn't felt it was needed (this one is justified in-universe as they do fun shows for small children and don't really need the tragic romance, and also from production standpoint like you don't do that because fandom). so yeah that could again be read as him being aspec if you want but i don't think the writers intended it to be read that way, especially the R&J one that was purely for comedy.

all that said, this is an idol game, which generally run on the rule of thumb that every character is some flavour of queer, even if it's just for fanservice (i don't play enstars but from what i do know of it it falls a bit on that last point). anyway you can probably tell where this is going but he gets ship tease with rui sometimes. vast majority of this is from Rui's side but there are things like Oki ni Mesu mama

Tsukasa: Waiting for the "1, 2…" signal, holding hands with you is an act of courage for me

or that one part in pandemonium where he drops his persona for a brief second when he's impressed by rui's plan that was very much put there on purpose, or that Tsukasa and Airi's cheerful carnival team name from that event is "swayed by their partners (相方, aikata)" and when you consider that Shizuku and Airi are heavily implied to like each other, and have canonically been on a "date", that was also a Choice.

idk whether to count KING because justified by them being actors and the fang motif in the song... vampires kinda homoerotic it makes sense that the dance routine was that. also i'm not sure if the connect lives are even canon, especially the wxs one since tokishun broke character and the 4th wall.

yeah i dunno. the writers kinda just do whatever they want with him. interpret any of this how you will i'm just recounting shit from the game.

oh hey it's longer than 300 words now

#i like talking about queercoding haha sorry this is so long. it's something i probably read into a bit too much lol but idk it's fun i guess #asks #rambles #i treasure my media gcse with my life it's not like it really does anything aside from get me into college but it does mean that i have a #(very low level) qualification in media analysis. and then i waste it on this but whatever #this post is just like some fucked up version of “gay or european”

[alittlebirb]

Hhhhhhh thinking about dialtown too long causes me to start bouncing off the walls-

It's about the self-actualization and the player's purpose in the story being to nudge every character along the path to personal fulfillment, from the dateables to Ticket Jerry to Gingi themselves. There is only one universe with Gingi in it, and it's the one where everyone becomes their best selves. It's about the fact that the canon timeline, where Norm takes center stage, purposefully includes the happy endings from each dateable in the same timeline, which doesn't make chronological sense but satisfies the need for each person living in this up and down world to find their joy and keep it.

It's about the fact that, despite Dialtown ostensibly being a dating simulator, Gingi's relationships with each character aren't shoehorned into the simplified box of romance, but occupy the messy and complex and REAL space between where their lives intersect. The character dynamics have CHARACTER, and the overarching purpose of each route isn't to date them, but to make them happy. Your stories don't end with true love's kiss. It ends when Karen says she has to leave to pursue her dream, but you're one thing in this town that she'll miss. It ends when Oliver is able to have a heart to heart with Mr. Dickens, understanding that all the sacrifices he made were so Oliver could fulfill his potential as a person and as a creator, and taking that knowledge to build something new. It ends when Norm lowers his gun and stops chasing revenge, choosing to instead find the kindness which exists in this world and make his own joy, in spite of all the pain it's put him through. It ends, and then it begins again.

It's about the burning dumpster fire of humanity that every person is a part of, and how they each are valued as people in their own right. They all have their own personal histories and stories outside of Gingi; Oliver values Mr. Dickens above everyone else in his life, Jerry has a herd of sick dogs to tend to, Karen knows Bigfoot and has a vault full of his bananas she delivers to him every Sunday, I could go on! I have never played a dating sim where every character is so full of life and interest and value, to the point where the player character themselves, Gingi, has their own distinct personality which could not be substituted with any other person without having the entire story collapse.

It's about the flawed but beautiful nature of their existences, filled with struggle and division but throughout it all they reach out to each other. Gingi helps Karen quit her job and profit as an artist. Oliver doesn't hesitate to shelter Gingi and Norm when they return from exile. Gabby indulges the kids who come into her shop and encourages them to experiment and find themselves. Dialtown itself might be shit, run by a corrupt system that leeches the soul out of its inhabitants, but the people care. The people matter, and they always have.

It's about the inherent queerness which runs through the very fabric of the game, inextricably shaping the story and the world it takes place in. It's about ostracization from a world which cannot understand and thus fears you. It's about finding family in the downtrodden and unwanted, building something pure and good in the midst of all this chaos. It's about not fitting in a box and fighting against the forces which try to force you to.

It's about how this story was made and filled to the fucking brim with love, and it's received with a heartfelt, wild kind of joy from the people it's touched. In a world which aims to commodify every morsel of humanity that's left, Dialtown is the farthest thing from that. It's weird, creepy, absurd and incredibly cursed, but there's something to connect to. And that's all that matters.

It's about Joy. It's about Kindness. It's about Living. And that makes me go fucking wild.

#dialtown #my love letter to this game which has made a place in my heart and my friends all fear deeply #it's the understanding that there is no choice but to do our best to live and be happy as the world rages and falls silent for me #and that's something worth protecting #hand outstretched for your thoughts?

[fioras-resolve]

So like, representation in games is weird. It's critically important, but uniquely challenging due to the nature of interactivity. And a big part of this is that there's, by my estimate, two separate tracks for how representation works in video games. I'm going to be talking primarily about queer rep here, because I am a white, American, and (mostly) able-bodied transbian. If anyone wants to add on to this conversation, I absolutely encourage it, so long as you don't fling shit at people. So!

The first track of representation is one that's mostly unique to games. Representation as player empowerment. This manifests as giving players the freedom to be and express themselves in the game world.

So like, character creators are the most obvious example. What gender can you be? What race? What body type? A thing I've seen a few games do that I love is letting you pick any voice set regardless of the rest of your character, so like in Baldur's Gate III, you can pick a masculine voice but a feminine body, and that's just really cool.

Another way it's important is with romance options when applicable. Like, it was a problem with the early Mass Effect games that you couldn't enter a gay male relationship. It was a problem with Fire Emblem Awakening that for all of its marriage options across characters, apparently none of your 30+ units were interested in a same-gender marriage. Functionally, you aren't allowed to be gay in these games. So Mass Effect 3 letting you date Steve Cortez, and Fire Emblem Three Houses giving several options for queer S-Supports (although I haven't played the Mass Effect games and some of FE3H's romances are controversial) were welcome changes.

But the other track is representation as storytelling, and this is pretty broad. Basically every topic in the representation discourse surrounding other forms of media also applies here. I'm not gonna go into this too much because you've heard a lot about this already, but in my opinion it's important to have positive representation that mainstreams us to society, but also diverse representation because the human experience is vast. We need the joy, the sorrow, the rage, all of it, and games offer a unique artistic space to convey all of this.

...But sometimes, these two tracks rub up against each other. Because storytelling sometimes means disempowerment, but a disempowered player can often be viewed as "bad game design" by people who aren't thinking of video games as stories or art, but as entertainment or toys.

For example, remember when I mentioned Three Houses? That game was a massive stride in queer rep for Fire Emblem. But I had an annoyance as I looked through these romantic options. While yes, some characters can married as the same gender, all of them can also be married as the opposite gender. In fact, there is nobody in this game that a straight person can't date. Opposite-gender attraction is a given and the default. Everybody is either straight or bisexual.

To be clear here, because I know people are going to get at me for this, no I'm not against bisexual representation in Fire Emblem. I'm not even criticizing any individual example, Dorothea is one of my favorite characters. But what I am saying is that, in real life, some people are exclusively gay. There are a lot of men who a woman would never be able to date, and vice versa. I don't think that's a bad thing to want to express.

But from a pure empowerment angle, having a woman that a straight man can't marry is incomprehensible. Isn't having more choices better, rather than blocking someone off for "choosing the wrong gender?" I've actually heard this point from someone, phrased in this exact way, and I can't really sugarcoat this: I find it repugnant.

It's a stance that views these characters as entitlements and not as people worthy of respect. And I know that these are fictional characters and not real people, but a good character isn't just a proxy for audience expression. Also, if we take "romance as player expression" to its natural conclusion, then having a character who is asexual becomes bad game design. A character romantically inaccessible to me, the protagonist of the world? Blasphemy.

I think the real important thing about games is that, even outside of representation, "the player should be empowered" is a view that's often unspoken but unquestioned. A game can be moving, tragic, heartfelt, but it must also be an experience where you, the audience, are fucking cool. Every obstacle exists for you to rise above, every entity in the world that isn't you is either a tool or an adversary. Meg Jayanth calls this "White Protagonism" in her excellent piece that I couldn't do justice here. Keep in mind as always that it's both possible and necessary to enjoy media while also being critical of its more problematic aspects.

Empowerment is a valuable tool in game design like any other, but the issue is that it's also extremely popular, to the point where it's just become what games are. And it's worth pushing back against that, so games can grow as a medium. So that we can tell stories, and have characters, and convey themes, that aren't tied up in a game designer's quest to make the protagonist the coolest guy.

But despite how critical I've been, these two tracks aren't mutually exclusive. They do clash with each other sometimes, but ultimately there's room for both. I look forward to the day I can play a bog-standard RPG that lets me change gender mid-game. I look forward to playing a polyamorous character, in a game that recognizes that as valid. But I also look forward to more characters like Guilty Gear's Bridget, an actual character who goes through a genuine journey of discovery, in a way that's warmed the hearts of so many trans women, including me. Ultimately, we just need queer rep in games, more of it, and it's never been a better time to make some. Just remember, there's a difference between letting the player be queer, and having a queer character.

#game design #fire emblem #queer representation

[ginnymoonbeam]

Was chatting with friends about The Eighth Sense and what we expect from the ending, which got me onto a broader ramble about genre and expectations. For me, a key defining feature of BL is that whether the ending is "good" or "bad" depends on whether a couple is happily together at the end of the story. (Going forward, I'm going to use up/down instead of good/bad or happy/sad to describe endings: in brief, an up ending fulfills hopes while a down ending realizes fears. I like these terms better because they don't imply value or a specific emotional state in the audience - they go purely to story structure.)

For a BL, an up ending requires that the characters be together at the end. Other queer stories don't, necessarily - a queer coming-of-age story might have a romance that changes the protagonist but ultimately ends, and the story may still have an up ending. A BL can also have a down ending (which makes it different from genre romance, where it has to have an up ending or it isn't a romance.) 180 Degrees Longitude Passes Through Us is a queer story that isn't a BL, because from pretty early in the story it was clear that an up or down ending was not going to hinge on whether In and Wang got together. (Whether the ending of 180 Degrees is up or down or neither is a question for another day.)

Back to The Eighth Sense. Here are some examples of primary genres The Eighth Sense isn't, although it takes elements from them and they could have been the primary genre with some shifts in narrative emphasis. It isn't a coming-of-age story centering Jihyun. If it were, we would know more by now about where he comes from, what has held him back thus far from expressing himself/living boldly/being the adult he's becoming. We would have had more intense ups and downs around those questions, and we would be set up with some key symbolic trials for him to pass at the climax of the story.

It isn't a trauma recovery story centering Jaewon - although that's a very strong secondary genre. If it were the primary genre, we would be leaning much more heavily on Jaewon's POV, or that of other characters witnessing him. As it is, Jihyun and Jaewon are given about equal POV time, and I can't recall a single other character whose perspective we enter at all. (That right there is a big clue that we're in a romance.)

The relationship between them affects Jaewon's mental health, and Jaewon's mental health affects the relationship, but you can tell which one is primary by which came first. We got signs of Jaewon's struggles very early, but we weren't grounded in them - they were hints and mysteries, not a starting point. We were grounded, from the first meeting, in the mutual attraction between Jaewon and Jihyun. We knew exactly what that was about, and we started assessing other pieces of the story in light of how they might impact the growth of the relationship, rather than assessing the budding relationship in light of how it might hurt or help either character.

All of which is to say: The Eighth Sense is structurally a BL, and I don't see any way to an up ending that doesn't include Jaewon and Jihyun at least beginning to come together (again.) And I do think we're set up for an up ending, because the story is at a down point now at the 3/4 mark. So I for one am going into tomorrow's episodes fully optimistic.

#the eighth sense #bl drama #ginny nerds out on narrative

[lloydfrontera]

obsessed with this (and many others) story being so dead-set on two main guys and their just absurdly close relationship and then having the balls so say NO HOMO and being so scared of having an open end so it just had to follow the heteronormativity norms. im so sick and tired of it. it just cheapens the whole things. it cheapens whatever respect there was for female characters involved, which was already not a lot because well. lets be honest yeah. i just wish these stories were self-aware enough to leave the characters alone. no relationship is better than what usually happens in these stories :( that's why im so hesitant to read the novel because im not always able to ignore such stupid literary device. im ranting to your inbox because i think you'll get it and my god i was so bitter when i was spoiled about the story's ending and the violent need to have everyone married it's hhghgghhhnng

i get it yeah. i've been deep in fandom spaces for about ten years now, this is not my first rodeo, won't be my last and i'm already used to it. doesn't mean i'm not tired of it too tho kjasdasd

and yeah i agree, at this point i'm not even really asking for a ship to be canon, i truly do believe sometimes the better option is to just have an open ending and leaving things to the imagination, but the amount of times authors feel the need to shove a last minute het romance just so they can beat the queer allegations,,, is too many to count

i think what gets me with tged is that,,, you can really take away the canon romance and nothing changes. it adds nothing to the plot, it really was something bk moon added in the last chapters purely to make it canon at the end. you could erase those bits and the general plot and characterization remains the same. it is... bad writing to be honest. like. from a purely technical standpoint that's a bad relationship, that's not how you add a romance to your plot!

but! on the other hand! the fact that it can be erased that easily does make it very easy to ignore it and focus on the good parts of the plot which are truly worth everything else aksdhskaj

it's like,, the gay equivalent of that thing marvel does where it includes their 'diversity' moments in such a way that you can cut them off and the film is still perfectly watchable. here you can cut the straight bits and you still get an awesome novel with great characters and deeply moving relationships lmao

it cheapens whatever respect there was for female characters involved, which was already not a lot because well. lets be honest yeah.

and this. yeah. Yeah. i did my fair bit of ranting when the webcomic decided to make silurian javier's love interest, retroactively fridging her for his manpain and also straight up ignoring and erasing her arc in the novel about her not needing to marry to be made heir for the city. like. they just didn't mention it. at all. what the fuck.

and then there's alicia who. the more i think about her and the way her relationship with lloyd is handled the more upset i get. she was such a cool character, with her own thing going on, her own motivations, her own worries, her own deal. and then she becomes lloyd's love interest because. well, she's literally the only important enough female character who isn't related to lloyd or already married who can do it. like. that's it.

silurian gets an entire arc about why she doesn't need to marry lloyd, sherazade marries lloyd's brother, marbella is his mom, moira basically disappears after her introduction... and that's... it, i think?? who else?? emily? the mermaid queen? i for the longest time thought raphael was a girl and was sorely disappointed to find out he was not so. yeah.

then there's the "magentano carry" title effect thing going on and,,, that's a whole mess on its own. i hate it. there's literally an otherwordly power making alicia trust lloyd. let me rephrase that. they had to force the canon love interest into giving her full trust to the main character. the very foundation of their relationship is built on her being literally unable to mistrust him because there's an external force forcing down her suspicions and doubts about him.

and we have canon confirmation that if lloyd pushes hard enough when she's already paranoid because of other factors, that effect can break and all her mistrust and wariness about the potential danger he is to the crown come back with full force and she'll declare him a traitor and go to war against him. like. that's the state of their trust and relationship when the novel is 89% done. i'm not even slightly exaggerating i literally did the math.

it's. it's just bad. it's so bad. i'm. i don't know what else to say. she didn't deserve that. lloyd didn't deserve that. we certainly didn't deserve that either.

so like. after all of this it'll sound really hypocrite of me to tell you to read the novel but. i do think it's still worth it. everything i'm talking about is. such a small part of the entire novel. which is kind of the problem but also the very reason i still think it's worth reading it.

everything else makes up for it i promise akjshdjka

#hey i got an ask #Anonymous #tged #the greatest estate developer #tged spoilers

[egregiousmelange]

Honestly surprised the queer community hasn't brought up more about Anne and Diana:

"Diana and I are thinking seriously of promising each other that we will never marry but be nice old maids and live together for ever."

(Pg. 239; The Queen's Class is Organized; Anne of Green Gables)

For a book written in 1908, two "Bosom Friends" (refer to each other as this in the book multiple times) who promise to never marry and live together for the rest of their lives is like as gay as gay could be, and this was said right after Anne was saying how much she hates how Ruby is constantly talking about boys all the time and then this was followed by saying that Diana is having second thoughts because she believes it would be "nobler" to "reform" a wild man for a husband, a.k.a. the only reason she isn't doing it is because society finds it better she marry a man to fix him than marry her best friend because at the time it was a woman's job to fix a man.

Time for AWaE comparison and rant (lots of salt) so if you don't wanna read this long rant, now's the time to move on to a new post

Anne with An E wanted to touch on a lot of modern day issues but they had a queer relationship right there and instead they decided stubborn Anne won't spend a long time hating Gilbert and Diana is gonna get in some weird relationship with Jerry the hated help that doesn't even play a role in the book, like as much as I enjoyed the TV show as a stand alone, when tied with the books, I was kinda expecting... More. Or at least different things when they said queer relationships and feminism. I thought they would mean more important characters rather than Aunt Josephine who they saw once or twice (and who I'm still angry about because I headcannoned as Aroace and now if I try to do that, people say I'm homophobic because the TV show made her a lesbian when in the book she was so clearly aroace) and Cole the made-up character they abandon at Aunt Josephine's place so they didn't have to deal with continuing his gay arc they formed. Like I get why they wanted to make Gilbert and Anne endgame, as many people grew to love that ship over the books, but I definitely woulda enjoyed to see a poly Anne Diana and Gilbert, with Diana and Gilbert talking about how much they both love their neurodivergent girlfriend Anne (she clearly has ADHD and we love her for it) and they all live happily ever after in a poly relationship envied by all, and definitely not turning into a Cordelia Geraldine and Bertram situation (Although that woulda been a tragical romance if Anne turned out like Bertram, Diana turning into Geraldine and Gilbert turning into the jealous Cordelia [if confused, see chapter 26: The Story Club is Formed). Poly Anne Diana Gilbert woulda been a much more interesting dynamic than the Shirbert and Derry relationships we saw in AWaE (I mean enemies to lovers AND friends to lovers, like how could you not want both in the same relationship). Like AWaE prided (no pun intended) itself on having queer relationships. I get why Montgomery, a woman living in the 1900s before women even had the right to vote and people would kill homosexuals purely for their sexuality, would abandon the concept of a main gay couple, but the TV show very well could have done something more with this and it just makes me upset that with all of this right here, they are still getting brownie points for queer rep when they literally made up a side character they said moved in with Aunt Josephine so they never had to deal with his gayness again (ALSO REALLY SALTY THEY TOOK MY AROACE REP CAUSE AUNT JOESPHINE WAS SO AROACE AND TO TAKE THAT AWAY SO YOU DONT HAVE TO MAKE MAIN CHARACTERS GAY WAS REALLY MEAN) and idk disagree with me if you want, but I was just kinda hoping for more from them than what we got, the TV show just felt very heteronormative, monogamous, and amatonormative (not just Josephine, they shoved Mariella and Matthew into romances as well) for a show that was getting so much praise for queer relationships and rep, even the book written in 1908 showed less of these things than the show (except the book was still pretty monogamous). Well anyways, I've rambled enough, so I guess that's it for my controversial queer take for the end of June, LGBT+ month is almost over and I'm sad to see it go.

#anne of green gables #aogg #anne with an e #awae #awae spoilers #queer representation #literary analysis #gay #lesbian #aroace #polygamy #lgbt+ #lgbtqia #rant #long post

[zmeydeva-arch]

hello! i hope you don’t mind me asking who your favorite writers are, or writers you get most inspiration from? your writing is breathtaking and i’d love to take some notes x

hello anon ! definitely don't mind this question at all and thank you for the compliment i'm just glad anyone is reading my writing and enjoying the experience while they are it. as for inspiration and the like, i feel like i should preface this response by saying that all the writing i consume, while serving as inspiration, it is never my intention to replicate or directly emulate any of the writers/books i list below. even so i do think trying to mimic the writing style of other writers can serve as a good exercise for pushing oneself or exploring different methods of the craft but it shouldn't be the only kind of writing you do.  ultimately, you do yourself a disservice as a writer by not trying to find and refine your own narrative voice. 

that being said, when it comes to books and authors i turn to for inspiration and aspiration… there are a few and they range in genre and don't all fall into the fantasy realm squarely

this is how you lose the time war by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone is a book i CONSTANTLY find myself reaching for whenever i am in a slump. it is lyrical! it is weird! and it is a book that rather show than tell to a degree of utter obstruction. unfortunately, i haven't read much of these authors' other works so i cannot speak to them as a whole. but this novel in particular is such a short and gripping read i cannot recommend it enough 

tamsyn muir is another author who constantly floors me with her command over plot. this woman is a mastermind and she includes NOTHING in her stories that is unnecessary or does not serve the larger arc of the story. the way she writes is gross, funny, and visceral. truly it could not be further than the kind of writing i do on this blog but she is an author that constantly shows me the sky's the limit when it comes to what you can get away with writing wise, if you are bold enough to try! also that comedy writing is such a skill and the smarter it is the funnier it can get. 

recently i have been tasking myself with reading more poetry and not just novels. in my search i have come across the works of franny choi. she is subversive; she tackles heavy topics like race, gender, and mental illness in a way that cannot be described as anything less than pure emotion. she is also isn't too afraid to run with an animal motif either. "watch me kick / back to life. tentacles / & teeth. resurrected electric. revenge ━ squirming alive / in your mouth / strangling you quiet / from the inside out… "  these lines rewired my brain chemistry and i ordered her collection 'soft science' weeks ago and it has yet to arrived off the backorder list 💔

maggie nelson is another queer poet and author that writes in a way that holds nothing back. her poetry is not meant to be pretty; it minces no words. she gets straight to the point no fluff necessary. the argonauts and bluets are both books i read in college and have not left my brain since. both books focus on romantic relationships either in fruition or decline by employing vignettes and insight into specific moments to get a glimpse at the whole of romance, or a romance gone sour.

now i feel like my whole blog is an homage to angela carter and this is absolutely a basic choice but if you have never read the bloody chamber and other stories you are missing out on the gold standard of fantasy retellings. i am pretty sure this is the book that inspired leigh bardugo to write the language of thorns and i will die on this hill. anyway Highly recommend and again another short read that is pure atmosphere and rich in fable. 

i am sure there are a few other authors i missed on this list but this is what is coming to mind right now. thank you for question! it is always fun to talk about what i enjoy reading and hopefully you find something here that you might love and inspire you as well 💗

#i hope this was helpful! #i went a little off the rails with my response njrbtrn #i forgot to list donika kelly for poets but please check her out as well! #𝖛𝖎. *ੈ ˖ ° ⥽ i move towards myself & towards ruins / the hush of catastrophe overtakes me ⥼ ⅋. asks

[straightfromthetorturedpoetsdept]

the idea of joe and taylor both being bi is so comforting for some reason

Honestly right!!!!!!!

Idk, I like to think that Joe is like very comfortable in his sexuality and so if he helped her process her queer trauma in the industry, especially since he is in the industry too, it makes me feel so soft inside for some reason.

Like, there's no confirmation for this headcanon but I just like to think about her music about their relationship in this way. I feel like Joe is like such a contrast to Karlie in just his personality and demeanor and probably his desire to be private with their romance is just idk.

I love how she writes music about their relationship, it's so soft and vulnerable and happy. Like, there really isn't any drama in their relationship probably because of the really hard lessons she had to learn with her previous relationships, but especially Karlie + the squad in general.

Like, as a swiftie I viewed 1989 differently than the general public but to the public, it felt very like "mean" girl esque which led Taylor to kind of be friendlier to more people and just be like no everyone is in the squad !!!!!! And then like once 2016 happened, they were all Fairweather friends because it was about the clout for them more than anything as well.

But like then she goes out meets Joe and he doesn't care about the rumors and like it was such a contrast for her. And like what she has let us know about folklore, and August in particular, I feel like meeting Joe and dating him was so easy compared to Karlie. I feel like true, he's a man but also the unwillingness to be queer and/or being forced into the closet definitely played a role in it.

You have to keep in mind, Taylor came up before gays were acceptable in society. Like, the hiv crisis happened in the 80s and it was a fucking genocide. Do you think the 90s were progressive? Fuck no they weren't. Idk, yall, it's like I feel like she had to learn to be okay with her queerness in a way that many of us can't really understand or grasp, and it really shines through in her songs about closeting like dear reader or I know places or wonderland or false god especially.

So idk, if Joe is bisexual and he's a couple years younger than her so like idk I feel like he reads as a very confident in himself man and that might have given her the strength to come to terms with her queer related trauma especially.

And it's just really nice to think about their relationship in terms of that dynamic. And like, it adds depth to the songs, too, like sweet nothing or even the songs I mentioned earlier but long story short, labyrinth, etc etc.

When she speaks about Joe, she really lets it be known that his unwavering support of her has given her the ability to work through trauma. She says it in like "I'm just really happy now and so I write music" and the music is very sad because it's about her past trauma but like all the songs about him are like I understand why 12 is white on the midnight clock.

It's pure, their relationship. It's nice to have a friend as well. Anyways.

Like, she's happy and so like she wants to keep it that way and honestly I think she might be autistic as well so in that way, I totally get wanting to not share their more personal or unhappy moments. Like, it's different with a true love, you don't want to share your problems with other people because like they're not problems that make you unhappy you know? And she seems to be very number based as a human, to an insane level, and so like I feel like it's an easy experiment for her to draw a conclusion from. All her public relationships failed, her private one is lasting. So must make it last by being private.

When you find the person you're going to be with forever, fighting with them is different because there is a mutual understanding between the two of you that problems arise because of miscommunication. It's like your demons fighting each other when that happens and recognizing that, and having someone see the worst parts of you (not abuse, I am not talking about abuse here, I'm talking character flaws) and love you anyways that is so fucking life changing for someone who has never experienced that before.

That's really what she communicates to me about her relationship with Joe, that he loves her no matter what happens between the two of them and that's just so pure. Finding that type of friendship, of loyalty, that's so pure. That willingness to help each other be better, that is why I love lover so much because it was such a HAPPY album and it's clear that being with Joe has changed her for the better and it's made her be so fulfilled in life because she puts boundaries up now.

It makes me so soft, I love toe 🤧

#i think its so funny that they have such a fantastic relationship with a name like toe #anon love #ask and you shall receive #gaylor #taylor swift

[quantumspacetime]

thoughts on Heartstopper (both the comics and the tv series)

I'd like to preface this by saying I absolutely loved reading and watching Heartstopper! It was very beautifully written and the characters were portrayed in a very tangible way that speaks volumes about the authenticity of the author and the casts of the show.

Heartstopper is about a budding romance between two school friends. Heartstopper’s 15-year-olds don’t take drugs, don't drink alcohol, don't have sex, don't swear or even argue with their parents! Instead, they go out for milkshakes, perform dutifully in school music concerts, and have chaste movie nights. They are sweet, chronically polite and partial to an early night. It is quietly radical. It is a gay love story aimed at young viewers. Sensitive, incessantly apologetic, sweet Charlie meets charming rugby star Nick in class, and the spark between them slowly blossoms into love. It’s a flirtation punctuated by much classically British romcom awkwardness, reams of Instagram messages, and plenty of panicked Googling. It's a good book and television series!

However, I do feel sort of bad for the younger queer generations discovering the series because they're going through this right now.

It's every queer person's dream but realistically, in this society, it's not a lot of people's kind of reality, and this is not to invalidate the experiences of the lucky few who got to go through what is being portrayed in the series.

It's just depressing because I know a lot of young people will be reading and watching the books and the TV series and they would be wondering why it isn't happening to them. I know I would have.

It is such a cute story and it makes me so happy to see queer representations on TV with an actual happy ending, but I'd be lying if I said that it didn't fill me with pure jealousy and I bet it did a lot to others, too, and I think that that's completely normal.

I know it's wrong to be jealous of other people's successful relationships, but I don't want other people to think that it's a problem innate to only them.

That kind of love isn't necessarily real to all people, and I know that it's comforting to cling to the idea that that kind of love might happen to you, but most times, it will just tear you apart as you go on living and continuously putting yourself out there only to be judged and hurt and disappointed because of your expectations, which were never high, to begin with, but are just too unrealistic, and will only end up with you feeling lonelier.

To be honest, I keep on rereading and rewatching the whole series because I know that that's the only way I'll be able to experience anything like it.

#thoughtson

[walkuntilthedaylight]

The people have spoken! How can I not give them what they want?

I'm gonna put this all under a cut, since it's a bit long, and also because it's highly interpretative/speculative and not everyone likes those kinds of posts as they can be rather subjective and, I suppose, invasive. I want to give two major caveats to my thoughts below: first is that I tend not to buy the idea that Paul was the "stable/normal" Beatle, mostly b/c I view marijuana dependency and workaholism as addictions and I take them pretty seriously. Second is that I really do love this kind of tabloid/gossip/personal account shit; I think it should be taken with a handful of salt, but I don't think it should be entirely dismissed out of hand either. I read this stuff like I'm piling up sheets of stained glass: I'm intrigued by the places where the colours blend and overlap, and ignore things that fall outside the prism. Anyway, let's dig in:

Okay, so what I found fascinating about 'Body Count' is that it's one of the only sources which observes Paul McCartney's mental health during the period between the India trip and when the band breakup really got rolling. I think it's overall a fairly self-absorbed text that definitely has some lies and exaggerations peppered in there to make things spicier and more dramatic, but its broad characterization - as I mentioned in my first post - isn't exactly libelous or out of left field. Some elements that make me think it's generally if not wholly authentic are: Paul's simultaneously forceful and dorky seduction style, his terrible Liverpool diet and poor housekeeping, the bouts of thrill-seeking recklessness, avoidant adventure crafting, dark moods when drinking non-socially, the occasional hot and cold bouts with the Apple Scuffs camped out at his gate, and the way in which he underplays his drug habit, which is SO "in truthfulness we spent most of the filming of Help! slightly stoned":

These details are so bizarrely specific and have significant overlap with both sympathetic and spurned personal accounts of Paul I've read in the past, so I believe Francie is just telling "Her Version Of The Truth" here rather than crafting a piece of pure fiction. The most important and revealing anecdote in the book is this one.

There's no reason not to believe this is a fairly accurate representation of something that actually happened, imo, since we know that anxious purse strings were an ongoing issue in the unusual turnover rate within the band Wings, and there are plenty of confirmed and rumoured cases alike of extended family members feeling entitled to a "piece of the pie"; this is just like, the kind of thing that happens to working class people who get catapulted into fame and fortune. And Paul in particular already had deep-seated financial anxiety for whatever reasons he'll never fully admit (as is his right, but I think his offhand claim that he "once heard some adults arguing about money and that's why" might actually be alluding to having heard some adults - y'know, like his parents - arguing over money fairly frequently). What esp interests me about the anecdote is the way Paul seems to connect the conflict b/t his dual "identities" with these financial expectations. Perhaps the CAPSLOCK emotional hysteria related in the book is puffed up for drama, but it does bring to mind one of the most revealing comments Linda ever made about their relationship, which is that Paul needed to be told he would still be loved when the cameras weren't rolling. And that's the thing: Francie caught Paul at the exact moment that the pillars of his Smile-For-The-Camera "Beatle" identity were collapsing; the dissolution of his relationships with John and Jane.

Whatever all this could possibly mean re: the breakup of the Lennon-McCartney partnership is a post for another time. What I wanna do instead is apply the level of speculation we usually reserve for that relationship to the endpoint of Paul and Jane's courtship.

So like, Paul and Jane: I know people are resistant to this specific POV, but I honestly just don't... think it was that deep? "Not deep", mind you, doesn't mean "not significant". Paul was obviously Jane's first love (u never forget), but the feeling I get from Paul's side (as a subconscious process I mean) is that Jane's importance was primarily as a lynchpin in his London Socialite persona. He loved her family, he loved the friend group, the artistic scene dating her gave him access to, as well as the leg up he got in the class system, etc. He liked to be the kind of guy who was dating Jane Asher. But I don't know that he was the guy who was dating Jane Asher, you get me? When people describe their "great love" they accidentally tell on them (Cynthia innocently describing Paul as being pleased to have her on his arm like a trophy; John: "it was an ordinary love scene"; Alistair Taylor noting that Paul was humiliated by the breakup). Paul's a serial monogamist who U-Hauls like a lesbian, of course, so he definitely took the relationship VERY seriously, but it's telling that all of his love songs to her were either about hitting a brick wall in arguments (certainly not dreamy, fond, yearning of "sunday morning fights about saturday night"; and occasionally expressing hints of class tension too), or completely non-descript Guy With A Guitar Trying To Get Laid shit. I could extrapolate a lot about Linda just from listening to McCartney I/RAM and the Wings discography, but 'And I Love Her' doesn't tell me a single thing about Jane besides that she's pretty. It could be about literally anyone the same way 'My Love' or 'Maybe I'm Amazed' could only be about his dynamic with Linda. Some of this is obviously the natural result of getting older and gaining emotional maturity; what I'm saying is that Paul's behaviour and self-expression in this relationship does not suggest to me that it was one in which his emotional maturity was able to develop or flourish.

I want to stress again that I don't think this belittles the significance of the relationship or makes it "bad" or "fake". Like, sometimes hot people just date for a while in their teens and twenties and love each other without necessarily unlocking their inner emotional cores, usually because they don't know how to. It's, like, fine. You need to experience relationships like that as stepping stones. I simply believe that this sort of front-facing social importance being prime in the romance is a major factor in why it ultimately didn't work (and probably in Linda's reported lingering jealousy of Jane, who wasn't just an ex, but also a symbol of the life Paul ditched to build a new identity w/ her, and sometimes still pined for). With Jane, Paul was dating the "right" kind of girl (didn't put out on the first date, erudite and middle class, as serious about her career as he was, a good "celebrity" match), but the relationship often wasn't doing what he wanted it to do. Francie's observation is that by 1968 it also wasn't doing what he needed it to do either. This is the overwhelming "mood" in her affair with Paul McCartney: that he needed something very badly from a romantic partner that he just was NOT getting, and Francie couldn't figure out what it was either:

(note that she means "queer" as in "mad", not "gay")

This was an EXTREMELY roundabout way of asking: well, what WAS it that Paul needed a relationship to do for him? And I think this is Francie's big, accidental insight. The most scandalous claim in 'Body Count' is that Paul told Francie that he hit Jane and it "turned her on".

I personally think this is p. absurd absent any real proof to back it up, but like, what is Francie actually saying HE'S saying here? If she's exaggerating or lying, she's trying to make it believable within the psychological parameters laid out, right? It's not an expression of some secret desire to dominate women she's accusing him of, but emotional disturbance and confusion at the idea that the woman he was with might like that sort of forceful, masculine violence more than his softer, feminine side, which he was - yeah, we all know it - deeply insecure about.

Regardless of whether specific details are true or false (and I think there's both in this story, all hyper-magnified to make it, y'know, a ~STORY~), I think what might be true is the emotional undertow of the retelling, that this all taken together is actually representative of the side of Paul McCartney she was exposed to, at a time when his public and private facades had both become unbearable to the point of cracking and the drug-fueled optimism of the Summer of Love was getting scrubbed off of everyone and everything. It's the Paul McCartney who eviscerated frogs because he was worried he was too "soft" for compulsory military service. The Paul who modelled his masculine teen behaviour off John Lennon's fake "Marlon Brando" swagger, but was actually more fond of the velvet "Oscar Wilde" interior.

What's SO FASCINATING about all this to me, is I deeply believe that one of the key factors in what makes The Beatles music so unique and compelling is that both the songwriters experienced psychological strain from the tension b/t their parochial socially-defensive "masculine" pride, and their sensitive "feminine" core, the latter of which they were able to express in the unburdened emotionality of their music. The reason I care about doing these totally unhinged psych analyses is because I do think it reveals something about the underpinnings of the music, as well as the reasons why the band was such a hysteria-inducing phenomenon (the rise of psychology, imo, is almost as important as the rise of industrialization as a defining factor of the modern and postmodern eras; mass psychology can be understood and wielded in precise ways, and The Beatles were one of the first empires built on that). The subconscious drives caused by this tension have been ENDLESSLY picked apart re: John's psyche, but Paul's "mirrored" issues are very under-discussed (mostly b/c he's still alive so people are a little more leery about putting him on the "couch" as a historical figure). 'Body Count', intentionally or not, painted a portrait to me of someone who was drowning in their own ill-fitting celebrity "suit", collapsing under the weight of "Being" "Paul McCartney". A guy who desperately needed some sort of space to be vulnerable without feeling emasculated for doing it. By 1968, there was no one in his life anymore - and maybe there hadn't been for a while, or ever - who was giving him this space.

In other words: the thing he needed to avoid going "stark raving queer and killing himself" was simply someone who would love him 'after the ball'.

EDIT: read the comments for further clarification and discussion! ;)

#/ #// #/// #//// #///// #the beatles #mccharmley #analysis #long post #Talking About Paul The Way I Talk About John lmfao #Taking Tabloid Bullshit Seriously #(if not literally) #*gets out my fake spectacles and jumps into the psychiatry armchair* #idk if i laid out my thoughts v well here but i hope it satisfied all the people who asked #i also tried to warn what genre of post it was for those who hate this kinda thing lol #i feel like i have more to say re: how toxic 'The Beatle' facade got for all of them by this point #and paul and john's mirrored post-india breakdowns #but francie's perspective is specifically on how it felt to be the girl he used to divebomb his relationship with jane asher SO

[absolutebl]

Hey!

All thanks to you I watched just friends-

And it was actually satisfying watch. pushed all the right buttons for me! So thank you!

Also I have one request

Can you talk me into watching 7 days ?

I actually trust your taste in Bl’s and you and I dislike the same bl’s too

Sooo …. I just cannot get myself to watch 7 days but I want to watch it …..

Hum, well for me literally the only hang up was the awful hair and if you can just convince yourself to watch their faces...

It's such a sweet soft story. It starts out with Yuzuru who is so pretty and popular but also super blunt and outrageous and just always says what's on his mind and he just doesn't fit into the Japanese world view because of it. He keeps getting dumped because girls want him to be as sweet and as gentlemanly as his pretty face but he just isn't like that.

So he really just wants to be liked for who he really is. But mostly people just mock him for his outrageous personality.

While Seryou, on the other hand, is the mot popular boy in school. He's so nice (too nice and too much of a gentleman) and he wants to be in a relationship so badly that he'll date anyone who asks him for a week. He's not biased about appearances, or (as it turns out) gender. He's just really lonely and wants to be loved. But he also has a hard time trusting because his heart has been broken badly in the past.

So what we end up with in this show is two lost souls who blunder into each other.

Yuzuru thinks Seryou is only dating him because Seryou is kind and will always give anyone at least a week. But Seryou's kind open acceptance is what Yuzuru comes to love about him.

Seryou thinks Yuzuru is only dating him because Yuzuru is bold and cheeky, and playful. But that's also what he really likes and comes to love about Yuzuru - how open and honest and bright he is. And protective. Since Yuzuru is older, he comes to Seryou's defense socially a few times, because his honest nature won't allow Seryou to be bullied.

Seryou is so quiet and gentle, but he's wildly attracted by this crazy bold colorful boy. And he likes being ordered about. He likes knowing someone cares about him enough to push him for his own good. Also he's fragile, but really good at flirting.

They're both such complex charming characters.

It's a pitch perfect opposites attract, and there's no real angst over being queer at all, just first love and crushes and this kind of pure joy in finding a person who really fits you. You get to watch them fall in love with each other because they balance each other, and they like the parts of each other that others don't/won't understand. It's pretty rare in BL to find a narrative where it's the outward flaws that are inward strengths for the relationship.

It's one of the few where we really know and see the reason they like each other, it's not instalove, or some magic attraction. It's wholesome.

The kisses are sweet too, and really emotion packed.

Seven Days is not just a romance it's loving. Kindly even. It's the BL equivalent of lying with your head in someone's lap while they gently pet your hair.

#seven days #honestly just watch it #get yourself all the way through the pizza incident and you'll be hooked #japanese bl #adapted from a manga #live action yaoi

[talkingbl]

My Thoughts on BL from every country...almost

China. Most of my Chinese BL consumption has come in the form of MXTX's novels. Having read Mo Dao Zu Shi (The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation/The Founder of Diabolism), watched the donghua and the chibi donghua, as well as having watched season 1 of the Heaven's Official Blessing/TGCF donghua, I can confidently say that MXTX is a genius that deserves to have her work circulated worldwide in all world languages. She knows how to balance romance with an interesting (high historical fantasy) story in a way I have yet to see elsewhere at such a high level. Her work hard carries the Chinese BL "industry". That said my main gripe with Chinese BL is that outside of MXTX's novels, there's not much of an active industry at all..

Europe. Because I don't have much to say about each country, I'm grouping all European countries together. The best thing about BLs out of Europe is their realism and "LGBT media" slant. Shows like Young Royals give very real looks into the lives of gay teens and help spread a more forward-thinking and less fetishy view of gay couples. One thing to note about these BLs is that due to their arguable classification into another category altogether (one that is not BL), they are less plot-based and more character arc-based and it is something I greatly appreciate.

Korea. Some of the most interesting manhwas and manhwa concepts come out of South Korea. Whether you're a Cherry Blossoms After Winter type of person or a Painter of the Night (PoTN) person, there's something for everyone. My main issue with Korean BL (especially live-action Korean BL) is that the plots trend toward scant, regardless of the intrigue of the premise. The live-action works suffer most from this issue (actors with 0 chemistry and no plot to cover up that fact), and in my experience, Korean BLs are generally all ideas and little substance.

Japan. Japan gives a little bit of everything. However, of all the major live-action BL markets, Japan feels like the largest one I have yet to explore in-depth due to the lack of connection I feel with a lot of the (truthfully interesting) work. Mangas tend to be well crafted story-wise but I prefer Korean artwork. Now, of all the animated BL out there, Japan does it best. Between the fact that there's actually an animated BL industry that isn't just glorified bromance, and the fact that Japanese anime is just some of the best animation in the world story-wise, you get some rare gems out of Japan. Some of my favorite Japanese BLs include Junjou Romantica and Junjou Egoist.

Philippines. I felt like I had to include this one because it is one of the Big 4 in Asia. However, I've never actually seen a Filipino BL smh

United States. The US doesn't produce BLs per se--at least not like how we're used to seeing it in Asia. It's a lot like Europe in that regard. However, I must note that the US has some of the best boy love representation of all the major industries. Not only are characters raw and gritty (much like European BLs), but their romantic relationships are huge parts of their respective stories and those relationships tend to be interesting, loving, warm, and all the fun stuff you expect from, say, Thai BLs. On top of that they're usually well-acted, non-tropey, diverse, and have very large budgets. My favorite pure BL from the US is Queer as Folk (yes, it's better than the UK version, and no, I'm not separating it out into an LGBT category). For novels, I highly recommend Madeleine Miller's The Song of Achilles.

Taiwan. It seems that Taiwan is widely recognized as the best BL industry in the world. When it comes to production quality, variety, story premises, acting, actor chemistry, etc., Taiwan is consistently ranked above all other industries in the BL department. Well, I kind of agree but also disagree slightly? Don't get me wrong, I love some Taiwanese BLs and generally think they're all a cut above say, Korea in the story department and China in the actually having an active industry department, but I can't rank it above my top industry. Taiwan has a lot to offer for sure but there's something about the cinematography I really dislike in Taiwanese live-action BLs. Like, the actual cameras used in filming give off this uncanny, hyperrealistic yet daytime sopey feel that I'm not into at all. That said, go watch HIStory3 MODC and HIStory4. MODC is one of the best BLs put to film and HIStory4 stars Anson Chen lol.

Thailand. The moment we've all been waiting for lmao. Thailand has by far one of the most prolific BL industries of all the countries mentioned. It is like the anti-China in that regard. And I have to say, despite how problematic it can be, how ridiculous and over-the-top tropey it can be, how plot-thin and pretty face-thick ONLY it can be, Thailand is home to my favorite BL of all time and some straight up classics, and is, in fact, my favorite BL industry of all. The fact that Thailand has both a focus on casting charismatic and/or naturally beautiful actors, and one of the most aggressive fanservice cultures,\ that basically turns BL actors into overnight celebrities, means that its fanbase can grow and mutate into very interesting (and sometimes dangerous) places. The interesting mutations inject another layer of fun into watching these shows/movies. If you are new to BL and are looking for a watchlist, go watch Theory of Love and Manner of Death. They're worth whatever tropes you'll inevitably have to sit through in either.

#mdzs young royals #junjoub romantica queer as folk history 3 modc #history 4 close to you manner of death #bl boys love yaoi #theory of love the song of achilles