#Trans character exists and their story still has to focus on them being gay or else it's not queer or interesting enough

[redysetdare]

"This fandom is so queer friendly!" This fandom literally hates, bisexual, trans, nonbinary, and aspec people but ok.

[spookyc]

Having watched Nimona recently, I feel it's important for me, as a trans person, to discuss a certain criticism I've seen regarding the movie. A criticism I take great issue with, and one that I think needs to be addressed. And that is the supposed issue of Nimona being "too blatant" about its queerness, that its message is "ham-fisted" in nature. And that bothers me. It bothers me that people think that something that is blatant is inherently bad. It bothers me that people think its message is ham-fisted simply because you don't have to go searching for it. Something being obvious isn't inherently negative and I'm tired of that sentiment being thrown around like it's fact. Because subtlety isn't an inherent good either, neither are good or bad entirely. And frankly, when it comes to queerness in media, the only way it will have an impact is if it's blatant. Especially regarding transness.

Because, if you'll allow me to be completely blunt and candid, we don't live in a society where subtle queerness can be appreciated. We live in a society that wants people like me eradicated for simply existing. Laws are being passed continously that discriminate against us and prevent us from living comfortably. We live in a world rn where we either have to suffer in silence or fucking die. That is the reality trans people live in. So if those that hate us are given any indication that they can disregard us, ignore us, pretend we don't exist, they will take that opportunity everytime. We've seen this with Across the Spiderverse, where even trans flags and trans colors splashed across Gwen will still lead to people denying her transness.

Because at the end of the day, Spiderverse is still about Miles Morales, and it's still about Spiderman, and Spiderman's story isn't inherently queer. So they'll make every excuse to ignore Gwen's transness, or they'll simply ignore her story to focus on the rest of what ATSV has to offer. Ultimately, it can still be overlooked and enjoyed without acknowledging that aspect. But that isn't the case for Nimona. Nimona is a queer story with queer themes and queer characters, queerness is baked into the very core of what Nimona is. To not acknowledge those aspects is to blatantly misinterpret the movie, you cannot divorce Nimona from being gay, and trans, and nonbinary, and genderfluid and everything that falls in between. It is blatant, and really, I think that's what we need rn. We need something so unapolegetically queer that people can't ignore it, they can't disregard it, and they can't look away from it. Because then that means they have to acknowledge us, that they can't wipe us out, that we are here and we are loud and we WILL make our voices known. Being quiet helps no one, but being loud is what inspires change, it's what makes people uncomfortable, and I say we make them as uncomfortable as possible.

For every bigot that wants us dead, that thinks we're monsters and unfit for society, you will have the bigots who understand that they're wrong. You will have the bigots who change the way they see us, and might even recognize how harmful they were being. You don't get that by keeping your head down and hinting towards a vague metaphor that a character might be trans, because with how things are right now, it won't be enough to make an impact. You do that by making a metaphor so obvious it bypasses subtext and becomes the text, you do that by having characters like Nimona, who simply wish to exist without everyone pestering her about who she is, she's Nimona, and that's the only answer she or anyone should have to give. You do that by intiating a rallying cry, to inspire trans people, kids or otherwise, and to state plain and clearly that we see you, and that you aren't alone.

So yeah Nimona is very blatant in its queerness, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

[weirdcat1213]

So I started to think about queer media (as you do) and the question hit me like a truck

What is better, a subtle queer story or a explicit queer story? Why the difference?

This is gonna be long so get a snack, sit down and let's go

First off I wanna say this is not talking about queerbaiting. I'm not interested in that atm. When I say explicit vs subtle I mean the topic of queerness beyond romance, I mean stories that go further than "I can't like this person we're from the same sex oh no"

To explain myself better I'm going to touch on different pieces of media that show queerness subtly and explicitly, but those will also be divided between Japanese media and western media (oh God if you have recs on more queer media that isn't from the west nor Japan pls give it to me give it now-)

This post will have as representatives of queer Japanese media: "Our dreams at dusk", "Villain", "Requiem of the Rose King" and "Stars Align" (if applicable the manga spoilers will be kept to a minimum)

And the representatives of western media will be "Felix Ever After", "Heartstopper" and "Our Flag Means Death"

I bet now you can see how some of the media in the western group is similar to the Japanese media. All of the works mentioned are undoubtedly queer, but there's a key difference: a few of them talk about queerness with explicit terms (gay, trans, queer, etc) while others go more on vibes (the queerness is right there but its not named with labels or common terms)

Now I'm not saying the ones that are explicit are better or vice versa, but it made me think about the difference and why a method works for certain stories and not for others.

Let's go to the beginning: I was reading a recent manga called "Villain" by teniwoha and other collaborators. The manga is based in the vocaloid song of the same name. The story and themes within the song are pretty much gender-non conforming and trans people being vilified by society because they are different. But so far I can see the manga is trying to add more layers to the concept of queer people being vilified (I'll make another post about that I promise). The point is that the story explored a trans-masc nb teenager and a gay teenager who has a crush on the other person. The thing with this manga and these characters is that sometimes they're too...on the nose. Not only tries to sneak references to the song evert time it can, but some of the moments seem too classic, like if they googled "how do nb feel about being nb" and they got some testimonials from teenagers.

But that's the thing. those feelings are still valid because they belong/ed to someone. If you personally have not experience something, amplifying voices of people who have is the thing you should be doing.

All of that to say that "Villain" feels pretty explicit in my eyes and they are only in chapter 6. I strongly feel like the manga will get even more explicit because reasons (i will explain in another post i promise).

This moment reminded me to other Japanese media that are pretty explicit with queer terms, moments, etc. "Stars Align" and "Our Dreams at Dusk" present terms, reflections, etc that make queerness explicit. Characters in "Stars Align" reflect on gender identity and the future, while characters in "Our Dreams at Dusk" show the reader all the kinds of genders and sexual orientations that exist. They even touch on how they are perceived in their society.

"This is all fine" I hear you cry "but we already got stuff like that. Media that explicitly shows queerness as a way to teach the audience about it" and you're right! we have media like "Felix Ever After" and "Heartstopper". They both talk about terms, gender identity, labels, etc. Media that talks about queerness in a way that makes it the focus to teach the audience about queerness is not new.

But you need to consider the oh so precious cultural/political context. You see, I'm going to assume, my western reader, you are used to this because western media has dipped its toes on it already. After years of making queer subtext, we have seen explicit queer media in the last 10-5 years? so we are used to it. Hell, some people even prefer media like "Our Flag Means Death" because queerness is alive and present, but it's not as explicit as it could. The words "gay, polycule, lesbians, nb" etc are never said but the characters are loud in their queerness. A lot of people prefer that approach because it voices their feelings without getting...lets call it technical: in both "Our Dreams at Dusk" and "Our Flag Means Death" there are characters with no defined gender identity. they are themselves without any labels.

Japanese media is not new to the subtleness at all. Works like "Requiem of the Rose King" have already proof they have and can do queer media, but for years it has been subtle. No one says "gay, intersex, trans" etc in the manga mentioned and yet readers knew the queer themes explored in the manga. It is just recently that japanese people are being more vocal and have the chance to show queerness in media (I'm aware they have been protesting for years I only mean in media). Media like "Villain", "Our Dreams at Dusk" and "Stars Align" are not explicit because japanese people just got the great idea to talk about it after the west did, it's because being explicit about queerness works in their political and cultural context. From what I've been told, currently most japanese people are accepting but they will ask you to "keep it at home." In a situation like that, no wonder why they are going for more explicit media recently. They don't care western media has been doing so for years now, it is their culture and their fight. There is still subtle japanese queer media (monster 2023 ily) but their creation process does not follow the creative process queer media in the west does.

So back to my questions: What is better, a subtle queer story or a explicit queer story? Why the difference?

The answers are short: both and because they belong to different political and cultural environments. Representation is important, but we need to consider the place it comes from before criticizing it.

What should you choose if you create a queer story? idk, whatever fits you. whatever fits the story you want to tell.

[cometcon]

There's a story I've been working on for a while now that has been morphing and changing the whole time into something better the more I work at it and challenge my brain to put more effort in and think outside the box. The result has been both a realization that I am in fact nonbinary myself, followed by a genuinely accidental trans allegory in how the already pansexual nonbinary main character has started experiencing the plot and the world around them the more I write this thing that was originally not about that at all it just lined up perfectly for it (not revealing too much right now because I want to finish it before I talk about it in detail so I don't tangle myself up in people's opinions when I'm just trying to get my perfectionist brain to get something on the page). It just happened as a side effect of the actual focus of the story and I am experiencing some catharsis from the writing of it so that's been really helpful.

I'm doing my best not to think I'm incapable of internalizing stereotypes of the trans experience in fiction so I've been doing check ins with what people have advised when writing non-binary characters and trying to avoid pitfalls and I'm doing ok so far I think (possibly due to wishing people wouldn't assume things of me/would treat me so casually instead of me having to correct them all of the time). Pretty much everyone in their current life that we see the most of is supportive or at the very least puts the effort in to support on the outside while working to match that on the inside. They're not in the middle of transitioning they've already been living as their authentic self for years by the time we meet them, they're happy with themself and them being nonbinary isn't really much of a big deal until the plot kicks in and it becomes a natural side effect of the situation (again, accident, but I'm running with it now and only bringing it up wherever this character naturally would feel the effects of the situation clashing with their own identity around gender specifically).

Part of the story involves occasional flashbacks into their past though, and while their present life involves happiness and acceptance, they come from a poorer background with a queerphobic biological father.

I was adopted by what would probably have been called a lower middle class family back in the 90s before capitalism really started kicking more and more peoples' arses, and I'm from Australia, while my character is American. I also haven't experienced really shitty queerphobic parents as a kid because I didn't know there were anything other than the binary genders as a kid and by the time I came out, my only-subtly queerphobic parents had already started on the journey of being immersed in more public societal changes around queer visibility and acceptance. They kind of sucked when I first told them, but more in the "this is a weird phase and we don't want to just immediately play along/my Dad made 'it' jokes for a year or so before eventually improving and my Mum still misgenders me during in-person social situations even when I'm literally correcting her during the conversation and she seems to be deliberately ignoring me because she can't handle doing both things or feels weird gendering me correctly in public or something" kind of way, not the "you're homeless now because we loathe your existence and control your living space, and you're also lucky we didn't beat you half to death first on your way out because we're that insecure about our own place in the world and you bringing this up shakes every rule we've ever believed in to the point of enraged intolerant lashing out in response" kind of way. I also grew up an only child.

But my main character had a shitty dad in their past who did the latter queerphobic response, as well as a supportive cis gay brother who stands up for them and gets thrown out too and then raises them for a few years before joining the army in the hope of funding a better life for both of them and putting MC through college. This background is important for later in the story where their personal experiences inform how they interact with and understand the longterm main topic I was intentionally tackling with this fic in the broad scheme of the overarching full story.

My question to American nonbinary or even any kind of trans American person in general is this:

If you have experienced the full raging violent immediately disowned and thrown into the street kind of response from shitty parents discovering who you truly are, how would you want to see that handled? I don't want to shy away from realities and I want a balance between a harder background vs a supportive older brother plus genuinely great present day found family to explore a spectrum of experiences*, but I do not want to end up writing trauma porn either. I also don't want to fall into any writing-American-poverty-as-a-still-somewhat-privileged-Australian pitfalls so if you can voice any opinions about how you feel all of these things I'm asking about tend to be handled in fiction and what kinds of things you'd prefer to see instead, I'd appreciate it.

*(It'll also help move the character away from me so I'm not accidentally writing a self-insert because I really like writing original characters as their own people and while I am using this to explore my own gender identity now, I want them to stay their own person and challenge myself to be able to drive a character around without leaving behind too much Me Residue lol. That said I have thrown myself so many curveballs with this fic becaus I keep asking questions and the answers get more complicated but then the story gets richer and more interesting to me so I keep digging and fleshing out the characters further and further trying to make them actual people)

[thisismisogynoir]

(TW genocide, racism) This may be a bit of an unpopular opinion, but please hear me out. I don't think that the issue is that racist white people cannot sympathize with POC experiences that are shown on screen but that they REFUSE to do so.

They liked the Hobbit, which talked about genocide, being forced out of your home and made to work in a place that's not your land. They liked the little mermaid, which talked about generational trauma and even sympathized with Triton's pain and experiences and wariness of humans and desire to keep Ariel away from them. They loved Harry Potter, which talked about prejudice. They loved all the stories that talked about POC issues, as long as the characters are white.

But you bring all those issues into a movie like Encanto...the talk about prejudice, about generational trauma and not dealing with it in the greatest way, about being forced out of your land and being in a place that is not truly your home, etc...and all that sympathy goes out of the window. If Encanto had a white cast, there wouldn't be all these issues and demonizing and being unable to understand.

Omg yesss thank you. Something I’ve noticed is that white people love to write and flock to stories that take troubles that poc experienced and project it onto white people instead, because they want to be oppressed so bad. It’s why I don’t like The Handmaid’s Tale, it takes the real rape and commodification of women of color, particularly Black and indeginous women who were literally bought and sold as sex slaves, and projects that issue onto white women instead. It’s sickening and it happens both because white people want to be oppressed so bad and also because only white women deserve sympathy. The rest of us are just evil sluts who deserve it. Also because nobody will care about those issues unless white people are put at the center.

But then you have movies like Encanto that discuss issues that poc go through and use actual poc, use actual real-life historical issues and not just fantastical equivalents in a made up fantasy society, even though the characters in encanto do have magic, and all of a sudden white people refuse to relate to it and they make it all about themselves and their headcanons. Nobody cares about the generational trauma anymore. All they care about is “Isabela is a lesbian because she rejected Mariano!” “Mirabel is bi because of the pin on her dress!” “Camilo is gender-fluid because he shapeshifts!” “Luisa is trans because she’s muscular!” “Dolores has Tourette’s! Bruno had OCD! Camilo had DID!” etc. etc. etc. And while I do have my queer headcanons(such as Isabela being a lesbian, my all-time favorite one), and I know many Latine queers exist and saw themselves in the movie and also have headcanons of their own, and I know Bruno canonically DOES have OCD and the voice actress for Isabela also believes that she is gay(even though nothing’s been set in stone yet ofc) that doesn’t make it okay for white people to erase the meaning of the movie using their queer and neurodivergent headcanons, so as to distance the movie from the message it’s REALLY trying to send, not one of queer acceptance and the redeeming of a homophobic grandma who estranges her queer niece and granddaughter and forces her lesbian granddaughter to marry a man, but of Colombian war and civil strife, of displacement, of family trauma and dysfunctional(which isn’t even exclusive to poc but because they’re poc white people STILL refuse to relate), of generational trauma and how it gets passed down. I would love for Isabela to be a confirmed lesbian, but I also respect that the movie is not about that, and so should white queer people.

The same goes for Turning Red, which also deals with Chinese culture, immigration, and generational trauma as well as culture shock, and all anybody can focus on is shipping Mei and Miriam and Tyler being gay. And on some level I think they would be cute together, and Priya is canonically bisexual, so that is proof that queer representation can exist alongside other things such as these, but white peolle use the queer headcanons to divert the movie from its main original message, you get what I’m saying?

Basically white people need to learn to have actual EMPATHY for poc and our stories and stop making everything about themselves. I would love for Disney to make another Black Disney Princess movie and I know it will be awesome. But I also know white people are going to ruin it again. As they always do.

[audiovisualrecall]

I will never ever reblog anything telling anyone that a thing they like 'was totally stupid all along' or to 'read/watch another book/show/movie'. Because besides being a nasty attitude, like. That's not what any of this is about! You can't hear 'oh the author is a bigot now and it's horrible' and go 'oh yeah, their stuff was Obviously bigoted and horrible all along, I could Tell, and if you even liked it at all ever ur an idiot and a bigot'

Like. If you're not giving money to the author and ur trying to educate other ppl WHY DOES IT MATTER if you still like the thing????? Stop moralizing ur hate on for something, stop trying to Win at morals. I'm Queer, Nonbinary/Trans, and Jewish and disabled, I hate who jk Rowling has become and I hate her for Ruining what the books meant to me and so many others. I read tons of books where the author includes some shitty stuff or biases I don't agree with and I go yeah I don't like that.

The issue is NOT the book series. I don't care if the books contain bigoted shit, bc fictional content doesn't even compare to how a real person is hurting people. Plus so do like 90% of books, like, somehow I still enjoy the dragonriders of pern books despite some iffy stuff abt gay men and abt consent, bc the core of the story is what it meant to me.

The house elves and handling therof specifically is racist, how she handled characters from other cultures is iffy, and goblins I suppose could be seen as antisemitic trope but that level of antisemitism is kinda everywhere so I'm used to ignoring it in books and movies. But anyway. The issue is NOT the books, beyond 'don't buy them (firsthand at least) bc it gives her money'. The discussion of 'jk is a terfy piece of shit who is hurting ppl' should not become about some ppl feeling morally superior for not liking a book series (or pretending they never liked it) or insisting the series was never even good anyway so its not a loss. It's good to suggest alternatives to read for people who feel like they can't read hp anymore but love some of the messages or some setting or plot elements, as long as it's not phrased like you Have to discard hp like it's trash.

Lets actually be honest here: The books are good, not amazing, not some height of literature, but they were good books for kids. They were good for a kid who wanted to be braver, who wanted to have powers, who wanted to escape - into a magical world, into a book.

Look: The books said people who value others on some idea of purity are bad people, unequivocally. The books said fascism is bad. They said kids can't always trust adults to do right by them, which mostly kids know and it feels good to have a book acknowledge that yeah, adults are mean or wrong sometimes.

The books said love and caring and friendship and loyalty and helping others and standing up for others and being open to new ideas are good and important and what life is about. The books said love and family and friendship are stronger than hate and greed and prejudice. Those are important messages! And that is exactly why jk's move to terfyness (and everything else she's up to) is such a betrayal. Because she's become her villain, she has become the thing she wrote as a horrible thing to be, and she's so convinced she's Not and that us queer and trans ppl (and now just. Scottish ppl who want to be independent???) are the Real villains for uhhh wanting to exist and do our own thing???

Anyway the pt is she betrayed us and she won't ever get money from me willingly again and I'll try to spread the word and convince others not to feed the beast, but anyone going on abt the books is just trying to feel morally superior and is self righteous and trying to get an A+ in social justice which is literally always the problem.

Let's like. Please for the future focus on the actual issues and Not on debating the quality of the book series??? Otherwise it's also obvious u just don't like the books and are just using this as a justification for that, which isn't necessary. We don't have to justify not liking shit, we don't have to sit on that and wait until the author reveals themself to be an asshole to go 'ooh yes!!'.

[topazadine]

I know I just reblogged something about this (and I am Book Talking again) but as a lesbian, something I really wanted to represent in my trilogy that people can be neutral toward LGBT people, or even uncomfortable with them, and still be allies.

The setting in my world is viciously, horrendously homophobic. They literally send gay people to an island full of people-eating dogs. MC comes from another country that does not have such people-eating dog islands and thus is baffled by their homophobia, though she quickly gets the hint that she cannot openly hit on other women.

One of the characters is a straight woman who, upon finding out that the MC has a gay brother and brother-in-law, goes "yeah, there was a couple like that in my hometown. They were good people. Anytime someone tried to have them sent to the island, my dad would take care of it. I've got enough of my own stuff going on to worry about stuff like that."

Is she the perfect ally? No, of course not. She doesn't really advocate for the lesbian MC in any real capacity, nor does she go out of her way to encourage MC to get with her love interest. She's got her own stuff going on. It's none of her business. But when push comes to shove, and MC is in danger, she'll throw down because this is her friend being hurt - and that matters more than sexuality.

People can be also uncomfortable with LGBT people in a "I don't really want to see that" way and not be bad people. They don't know any better. They may have never interacted with a real life queer person before and have been programmed their whole life to hate us.

Another character is a straight man who just really, really doesn't like the idea of girls kissing. It makes him itchy, and he basically flees any time MC and her love interest show any sort of affection for one another. He hates the concept. But he, too, is willing to help and protect the MC because, beyond her sexuality, she is his friend.

Over time, as they get closer and start to understand one another better, he revises his concept of sexuality and slowly gets over his homophobia, to the point where he's willing to say that gay people can be heroic and admirable. He's not going to be wearing an ally pin, but he's also not going to call for all lesbians to be eaten by dogs.

These characters are not written as villains, because they're not. They're people who are shaped by their background and societal interpretations of issues, and they have the potential to improve. There's a good heart down there, even if it's cluttered by discrimination and homophobia.

If we lived in a better world, such passive homophobia would be our biggest issue, and we could work on boosting education in schools or, I don't know, starting a Tolerance Points system where you get free things if you give a thumbs up to two women kissing on the train. (That's a bad idea, don't listen to me.) But we, like the setting of my book, do not have a perfect world, and we need to focus on potential and "good enough" rather than "perfect angel ally."

This is what younger queers need to understand. Constant policing of language, demanding better than what people can give, just makes them hate you all the more.

You coming in guns blazing, screaming that they're a bigot, is not going to change their mind, it is just going to reinforce what they were taught. That we are all scary bad people who want to ruin their culture and pull a Reverse Uno to oppress them instead.

Of course, there are some people who are, quite simply, terrible. They will burn your house down for being gay. They'll beat you to death. They'll pass laws so you can't find a bathroom within five miles because you're trans. They'll show up at drag story hour in hopes of shooting the drag queens reading to children.

Those are the people who deserve our ire, our venom, because there is no way to fix that level of hatred, and their existence is a threat to us far more than our existence is to them. Not the person who uses outdated language with a good heart, or who freezes up when two men hold hands, or who says they really just don't care what trans people do as long as they wash their hands.

And honestly, isn't that we what really want in the end? To be seen as fine, normal, and unextraordinary. To be just another segment of society. The goal is to not even need advocacy anymore because we're no different than someone with brown eyes and blonde hair.

But if we want to get there, we cannot get in everyone's face and demand they march at Pride or they're a bigot. That is counterproductive.

If someone isn't calling for our execution, then we need to meet people where they are at and accept them as who they are, just as we want to be accepted as who we are. Sometimes we need to hold our tongue and not blow up at a microaggression because, frankly, it doesn't really matter. People can grow and change, but you need to give them the space to do so.

I know that's a lesson a lot of people don't want to learn, but you need to if you're going to survive in this tough old world.

[pippenpaddlopsicopolisthethird]

That person might not have said top ten but I would like to see the other five underrated animes 👀

(First post) I’LL KEEP ‘EM COMING, I LIVE FOR RECOMMENDING ANIME. I keep changing my mind on which ones to include because there’s so much good shit out there.

By the way, all of the recommendations in this list AND the last one are 26 episodes or less and tell a complete story. No cliffhangers, no “finish the manga to see the finale”, no “where’s the rest of it???” endings. That’s why, for now, Stars Align and Princess Jellyfish still get stuck with the honorable mentions even though what’s been made for both of them is incredible.

1. The Tatami Galaxy (Drama, Introspective)

The director behind Ping Pong the Animation and the original author behind Eccentric Family join forces to make Tatami Galaxy, which capitalizes on the best strengths of both shows. The protagonist is a lonely college student facing the prospect of graduating after having thoroughly wasted his college years. He bemoans how circumstances outside of his control, from conniving fake-friends to selfish and shallow extras, have conspired to ruin what should have been a “rose-colored campus life”, and wishes he could do it over again so he can get it right.

So he does, with the show using avant-garde animation and abstract storytelling to explore all of his threads of what-ifs. The plotlines seem separate but weave together and subtly build on each other, culminating to a finale that explores the meaning of relationships and who you are in the absence of outside forces that can define you. It’s heartfelt, funny, raunchy, and deep, and perfectly encapsulates the existential dread of being in college. I watched it for the first time when I was about to finish undergrad and it hit like an emotional freight train, then I rewatched it during quarantine and it hit like a truck. This is one of my top favorite anime of all time.

2. Re:Creators (Fantasy, action)

Most of the anime I’ve put on these lists get their spots for being deep, nuanced, and delicately crafted. This is not one of them. But, by god, is it one of the most over-the-top fun shows I’ve ever seen. Re:Creators is a rare reverse-isekai. Fictional characters from popular anime, games, and manga suddenly start turning up in the real world, instructed to “find your Creator and reshape the world you came from”. The soundtrack by Hiroyuki Sawano is bar-none one of the hypest things out there; seriously, just listen to Layers, the song for a character from a grimdark everyone-dies series begging her author to tell her why.

The characters in this show are so fun to watch bounce off each other, even if they’re not as “three dimensional” as others. Magical girls fight Stand users, mechs face down scifi-noir detectives, Lawful Good Paladins go toe-to-toe with Chaotic Evil light novel villains.  But by including the artists who imagined these characters as characters themselves, it also has a lot to say about the creative process, the reasons people create, and the relationship between an artist and their work. Between the high-octane fight scenes, there’s a surprisingly human and genuine throughline.

3. Sora no Woto (Slice of life, music, post-apocalyptic)

This show is another of my favorite examples of worldbuilding done right. A young girl joins the army as a bugler because it’s one of the only ways she can learn to play music. The episode plots focus on how she and her tiny regiment of young women stationed at a small town in the middle of nowhere deal with day-to-day troubles, while the details of the world around them slowly fill and round out the picture of a broken society where people still just... live. They still create myths, they still have festivals, they still blow glass and tell ghost stories and make art. The plots seem inconsequential, until the world built into the background becomes too prominent to ignore. The background art and music is some of the most gorgeous I’ve seen. It’s part of a genre I’ve been calling “soft apocalypse” and it’s been one of my favorites for years.

BONUS MENTION: Girl’s Last Tour (Slice of life, post-apocalyptic)

Yes, I’m cheating, but listen. Girl’s Last Tour fits perfectly into the canon narrative provided by Sora no Woto, just set in the far future, a few apocalypses later. It’s got less of a main plot, because there’s almost nothing of society left, just two girls wandering together through an abandoned world. It’s soft, introspective, and bittersweet, showing how humanity is still humanity no matter how few people are left. Despite having nothing about their productions in common, it’s the perfect spiritual successor to Sora no Woto and they deserve to be recommended in the same spot.

4. Tamako Market (+ the movie) (Romance, slice-of-life)

This show is the platonic ideal of a soft, heartwarming, sweet-as-sugar, slice-of-life romance. It follows the daily life of Tamako, a high school girl who lives above a family-owned mochi shop in a shopping center, who is followed around by a talking bird trying to find a bride for his prince in a far-off land. But really the show isn’t about the bird. The show is about love in all its forms. The love that the other families in the shopping center have for Tamako, the love that she and her friends have for each other, the love they have for the activities they’re passionate about, the love you feel when someone makes you a cup of coffee, fated love, childhood crushes, family love.

Something about this show that also stands out is how gently and naturally it incorporates some of the best queer representation I’ve ever seen in anime. One of the shop owners is a kind and soft-spoken trans woman, who is never the butt of a joke, never questioned, never treated as different, loved all the same. One of Tamako’s friends is gay, and her crush on Tamako is treated with as much respect and care as every other moment in the show. This series never makes you flinch for fear of “representation” that turns sour. It’s the epitome of a feel-good show.

5. ACCA 13-Territory Inspection Department (Political, mystery, drama)

Yes, I keep saving my favorites for last on these lists. I can’t describe this show as anything but the perfectly written plot. As a rule, I don’t like political dramas, and this is one of my favorite anime of all time. It’s set in a fictional country, where 13 regions all exist relatively independently under one collective monarchical ruler, and follows Jean, an agent of the independent Inspection Department, which acts as a check and balance to each power. The series begins with Jean being assigned a full review of each territory while the powers-that-be field whispers of a coup. This show masters foreshadowing, intrigue, escalation, and mystery. The stakes build and overlap on scales from intensely personal to national. The pacing is amazing, keeping tension balanced with plot twists that answer more questions than they ask.

Plus, it’s got one of the most visually appealing and stylized openings out there. I realize that political drama isn’t exactly escapism right now, but believe me, this series is worth it.

[imnotgrimimjustagrumpyreaper]

Everything you never thought to ask and never wanted to know about my Josépan playlist/history with and opinions of the ship.

Intro:

The journey of this playlist has been a long one, starting on Amazon Music and my old, janky and now defunct Ipad.

STRAP IN, CHILDREN AS I TAKE YOU BACK TO A MAGICAL TIME WHEN NEITHER LEGENDS OF THE THREE CABALLEROS; NOR THEIR CAMEO IN DUCKTALES HAD BEEN ANNOUNCED YET, MY BLOG ON TUMBLR DIDN’T EXIST (THOUGH I WAS LURKING) AND PANCHITO WAS STILL THE LEAST POPULAR CABALLERO, otherwise known as around late 2017.

A word on the origins of the playlist:

The playlist was not initially Ducktales focused because the two didn’t exist in Ducktales yet. I was rather unenthusiastic back in the day about this ship (oh how the times change) but I had stumbled across a song that didn’t fit them and Donald but fit just them very well and wanted to make an animatic of it. So, I cobbled together some songs I thought fit the vibe and made a playlist.

The history behind the story that inspired it:

I’ll spare you from starting at the very beginning. But, when “The Town Where Everyone was Nice” premiered I was already thoroughly and utterly obsessed with the cabs; I remember how beyond ecstatic I was for the episode. My hype for the Ducktales versions of José and Panchito continued far beyond what seems to have been normal for the average cabs fan. I found myself drawn to the ideas put forth by those versions of them. I don’t really remember what the tipping point was for me to break down and make my own college AU but eventually I did. It was affectionately dubbed “The TV Show That Will Never Happen AU.” José and Panchito were enemies to lovers or at least to friends. And it was around that time I began to go CRAZY with the headcanons as I got more active in the fandom. While my ideas for the Ducktales versions of them grew and grew, so too did the time between them appearing in “The Town Where Everyone was Nice” and their alleged next appearance in the show. When fans noticed the distinct lack of José and Panchito in the season two finale of Ducktales, Francisco Angones, @//suspenderofdisbelief on Tumblr answered these two separate asks that I might have engraved on tombstone one day:

I was GONE for the ship after that. I developed another AU for them based around their time in Baia trying to get people to fund their attempts to become famous musicians. Also, slowly falling in love... It was affectionately titled “The Fan-Comic that Will Never Happen” but not yet connected to my college AU. I don’t have much of a timeline for it after this point, but with that AU I really hit my stride for interpretations of the two characters and their dynamic. The version of them I hold dear in my heart and headcanons came to be. Then “Louie’s Eleven” came out and absolutely destroyed a lot of my headcanons (just kidding, just kidding). Since the new canon material didn’t really jive with a lot of the wholesomeness I had built up I was left with a lot of something else: angst. I LOVE angst, but the two’s bitterness and arguing...It was hard to accept at the time. Me and @cartoon-lizard on Tumblr, my IRL best friend, wound up writing a Josépan fic fueled on a bit of that angst and by her grace, a lot of my headcanons. I titled it “My Reverie is Being Haunted by That Ass.” In it Panchito makes an ass (rimshot noises) of himself by running off with a producer he met by chance during a visit in Duckburg to try to become famous. And doing so without so much as a second thought to the person he’s been living with/sort of dating for over a year. It took me a while but eventually I figured it out. These weren’t three separate AUs, these were three separate pieces of the same AU. And so my masterpiece never meant to be made came to be: “The Trilogy: College/Baia/Reverie.”

“The Trilogy” Itself:

The story will never be written for a variety of reasons, personal and practical. But if it ever were to be written it would be three separate fics, aka: College, Baia and Reverie.

College encapsulates their college years (duh).

To set the stage:

Panchito: A friendly, arrogant and easily excitable musician with big dreams, good grades and a whole lot of anxiety and insecurity. He has complicated feelings towards his identity as both trans and pan and how that might affect his dreams of becoming famous, but is overall bright eyed and innocent enough.

José: A lazy (depressed), charming, pessimistic, tbh kind of a douche and deep in the closet gay man. He tends to push forward a very “Manly man” persona to make up for his own deep seated internalized homophobia brought on by a shitty upbringing. He just got away from said shitty upbringing and doesn’t really have any hopes for his future...Maybe to travel a bit?

José and Panchito start as enemies, both fearing losing their one real friend, Donald, to the other. Despite this the three start a band and the two’s rivalry becomes far more friendly. They get particularly close during the trip down to Acapulco for spring break where the general feeling of being disconnected from life and reality leads to several rather romantic moments between the two...They almost become a thing several times but never quite do. However, they are very good friends by the end of college. The three stay in contact for a while after college but eventually lose touch…

Baia timeskips forward 13 years later (I know it's only 10 canonically, I always say 13 for reasons) to a conversation between Panchito and José on the Sunchaser at the end of “The Town Where Everyone Was Nice.”

Panchito: Life hasn’t been kind to Panchito...His need to be famous, to be something in order to be someone has led him to push a lot of people out of his life so he can better focus on “Work.” Or drive them out by constantly asking for their support, financial or otherwise. He has no friends and even his relationships with his loving and supportive family are strained. Currently, he’s working freelance as a performer at childrens’ birthday parties (in his eyes: a clown) and goes home to a sad, empty apartment every night to stare at a notebook full of half written songs and muster enough energy to eat cereal for dinner for the third time in a row. Needless to say, his optimism is wearing thin.

José: A lot of hard work on his part, some good therapy and mmm; drugs have put him in a pretty good place. He’s more or less got his life together now, is way less of a douche and is more of a realist than a pessimist. He’s also pretty much completely comfortable in his identity as a gay man. He’s been trying to explore romantic relationships, but unfortunately (likely due to the loveless marriage between his parents making him strive so hard to believe that love is real that he puts the unrealistic goal of true love above all else) feels incomplete without one and double unfortunately has a tendency to be drawn to toxicity and abusive situations. So other than a string of (short lived) bad relationships, he’s actually doing great!

Panchito has already asked Donald to drop everything and stay with him down in Baia to try to get funding for the band. Donald said no. José has a steady job, a decent apartment and a supportive friend group back home. He's also long since lost interest and hope in their college dreams of being famous...José says yes. The two have a bunch of wild and wacky shenanigans trying to get funding and both dance around their growing feelings for each other until it explodes and overwhelms them. They rush into a romantic relationship head first with no real ground for it to be built on and unrealistic expectations of what the other can give them. Despite all this, things seem quite happy...for a while…

If you've made it this far, <3, CONT. in pt 2.

[freddiekluger]

Why Cap Being Internally Closeted Is Not Only Possible, But Valid Representation 

i wrote this to a lot of mitski and onsind, so you can’t blame me for any feelings that bleed through

now i don’t know if it actually exists, but i’ve heard of there being a lot of discourse surrounding the captains story arc regarding his sexuality- i believe the general gist is that having a queer character that remains closeted to themselves is either unrealistic or ‘bad’ representation, and as someone who really treasures the captain and relates to his story so far a lot, i thought i might break this down a bit. 

i’ve divded up every complaint i’ve heard about this into four main questions which i’ll be covering below the ‘keep reading’, because this is gonna be pretty comprehensive. full disclaimer i reference my experiences as an ex-evangelical non binary butch lesbian a couple times, and i spent a year studying repression and the psychological impacts of high demand sexual ethics for my graduating sociology paper, so this is coming with some background to it i swear

the big questions:

can you EVEN be gay and not know it????

but isn't this just ANOTHER coming out arc, and aren't we supposed to be moving beyond those?

but if cap can't have a relationship with a man because he's a ghost, what's the point?

since cap's dead, isn't this technically bury your gays, and isn't that bad? 

1. "but is it really possible to not know? Isn't that bad representation?"

short answer: no and no.

before i get into the validity of the captain's ignorance about his own orientation as 21st century rep, let's break down how the hell the captain can be so clearly attracted to men and still not even consider the possibility that he might be gay, as brought to you by someone who literally experienced this shit.

the captain's particular situation is both a direct result of the lack of information around human sexuality he would have had (aka clear messaging that it's actually possible for him to be attracted to men. i don't mean acceptable or allowed, i mean physically capable of happening- the idea that orientations other than heterosexual exist and are available to him, a man), and a subconscious survival mechanism. the environment in which he lives is outright hostile to gay people, while the military man identity he has constructed for himself doesn't allow for any form of deviation from societal norms, let alone one so base level and major. as a result of this killer combo of information and environment, instincts take over and the mind does it's best to repress the ‘deviant’ feelings until a. one of these two things changes, or b. the act of repression becomes so destructive and/or exhuasting that it becomes impossible to maintain. the key to maintaining a long-term state of repression of desire is diverting that energy elsewhere, and a high-demand group such as the military is the perfect place for the captain to do this (this technqiue is frequented by religions and extremist ideologies worldwide, but that’s not really what we’re here to focus on). 

while the brain is actively repressing ‘deviant’ feelings (aka gay shit), this doesn't mean you don't experience the feelings at all. when performed as a subconscious act of survival, the aim of repression is to minimise/transform the feelings into a state where they can no longer cause immediate danger, and something as big as sexual/romantic orientation is going to keep popping up, but as long as the individual in question never understands what they’re feeling, they’ll be able to continue relatively undisturbed. you know how in heist movies, the leader of the group will only tell each team member part of the plan so they can’t screw things up for everyone else if they get caught? it’s kind of like that.

this is how the captain appears to have operated in life AND in death, and it’s a relatively common experience for lgbtq people who’ve grown up in similar circumstances (aka with a lack of information and in an unfriendly-to-hostile environment), and accounts for how some people can even go on to get married and have children before realising that they’re gay and/or trans. 

personally, while i can now identify what were strong homo crushes all the way back to childhood, at the time i genuinely had no idea. there was the underlying sense that i probably shouldn't tell people how attached i was to these girls because i would seem weird, and that my feelings were stronger than the ones other people used to describe friendships, but like-like them in the way that other girls like-liked boys? no way! actually scratch that, it wasn't even a no way, because i had no idea that i even could. i even had my own havers, at least in terms of the emotional hold and devotion she got from me, except she treated me way less well than cap’s beau. snatches of the existence of lgbt people made it through the cone of silence, i definitely heard the words gay and lesbian, but my levels of informations mirrored those that the captain would have had: virtually none, beyond the idea that these words exist, some people are them, and that's not something that we support or think is okay, so let's just not speak about it. despite only attending religious schools for the first couple years of primary, until i got my own technology and social media accounts to explore lgbtq content on my own- option a out of the two catalysts for change- the possibility of me being gay was not at all on my radar. don’t even get me started on how long it took me to explore butchness and my overall gender, two things which now feel glaringly obvious. 

when shit starts to break down, you can also make the conscious choice to repress which can delay the eventual smashing down of the mental closet door for a time (essentially when the closet door starts to open, you just say ‘no thanks’ and shut it again by pointedly Not Thinking About It). in the abscence of identifying yourself by your attractions, it becomes quite common to identify with a lack- in my case, this meant becoming proud of how sensible and not boy crazy i was, and in the captain’s case, this means becoming proud of how sensible and not sensuous/wild (aka woman crazy) he was, identifying with his LACK of desire for women and partying (which, even in the 40s, involved the expectation of opposite sex romances and hook ups). i’m not saying that’s the only reason he’s a rule follower, but i think the contrast between About Last Night and Perfect Day pretty much support this. (the captain getting on his high horse about general party antics that he inherently felt excluded from because of underlying awareness of his difference & his tendency to project his regimented expectations of himself onto others, vs. joining in the reception party, awareness of how the environment supports difference in the form of clare and sam, and relaxing his own rules by dancing with men- the captain doesn’t mind a party when feels like he has a place there.)

so the captain was operating in a high demand, highly regulated environment (primarily the military, but also early 20th century England itself), with regimented roles, rules, and expectations. working on the assumption that he wouldn't have had out/disclosing lgbt friends, he would have had little to no exposure to lgbt identities, and what information he did receive would have been hushed and negatively geared. while my world started to open up when i started high school was allowed to have my own phone + instagram account, resulting in me realising something wasn't quite 'right' within a few years (making me a relatively early realiser compared to those who don't come out to themselves until adulthood), in life the captain never had that experience. he didn't receive the information he needed, his environment didn't grow less hostile. with the near-exception of havers related heartbreak, his well disciplined and lifelong method of repression never became destructive/exhaustive enough to permanently override the danger signals in his mind and allow him to put his feelings into words. neither of the most common catalysts for change happened for him, so he continued as usual, even after his death.

BUT, and here’s where we come to why this is actually great representation, arrival of mike and Alison represents the opening up of new world. for the first time, the captain is actively made aware of the fact that his environment is no longer hostile, and better than that, it’s affirming. he’s also getting access to positively geared information about lgbtq people and identities, so option a of the two catalysts for change is absolutely present, and resoundingly positive. 

the captain’s arc is also relatively unique as it acknowledges the oppressive nature of his environment, but actually focuses on the internal consequences, and the way that systems like those that the captain lived in succeed because they turn us into our own oppressors. for whatever reason, we repress ourseslves, and often can’t help it, and i find that the significance of the journey to overcome that is often overlooked in more mainstream queer media. perhaps it’s just not very cinematic, or it remains too confronting for cishet audiences, but ghosts manages to touch on it with a lovely amount of humour and hope. Jamie Babbit’s But I’m A Cheerleader is another favourite piece of queer media for the same reasons.

not only does it show this, but as the captain continues to get gayer and lean into some of his less conventional traits (like an interest in fashion and the wedding planning), it shows lgbt people who have been or are going through this that there CAN be a positive outcome. it takes a lot to unlearn all the things that have painted you as wrong, especially when a massive institution is desperate to continue doing so, but you can do it, you can be happy, and it's never too late. (i've been meaning to say that last point for ages for ages, but a mutual beat me to it here)

2. not just another coming out arc

i absolutely support the demand for queer stories that don’t center around coming out (it’s like shrodinger’s queer: if you’re not coming out on screen, do you really even exist?), but i don’t align with the criticisms that the captain should already be out. for the reasons mentioned above, the captain’s particular story is fairly different to the ‘young white teenager who mostly knows gay is fine, it’s just everyone else that’s got the problem, but have a unremarkably straight sounding soundtrack, a trauma porn romance, and a cishet saviour’ that we keep seeing. the captain’s ongoing journey with his sexuality emphasises the overaching theme of the show: recovering from trauma and humanity’s endless capacity for growth, and i think that’s worth showing over and over again until it stops being true.

additionally, while the captain’s journey regarding his gayness is a big part of his character and story, ghosts makes it clear that it’s not the ONLY part, and being gay is far from his ONLY characteristic or dramatic/comedic engine. the fact that i’m even having to congratulate ghosts for doing that really shows how much film and television is struggling huh.

while all queer media is, and should be, subject to criticism, i think if it helps even one person then it absolutely deserves to exist, and i can say i’ve found the captain’s journey to be the lgbt story i’ve found that’s closest to my own, which says a lot considering he’s a dead world war 2 soldier who hangs out with other ghosts including a slutty Tory, a georgian noblewoman, and a literal caveman. 

3. if captain gay, why he no have boyfriend???? 

another complaint that’s been circulating is that since the captain doesn’t, and likely won’t, have a boyfriend, that makes him Bad Representation because it follows the sad single gay trope. i kind of get the logic from this one, and a lot of it is up to personal interpretation, but part of me really enjoys the fact that the captain’s journey towards accepting himself is separated from having a relationship.

coming out is often paired with having romantic/sexual relationships (either as the reason or reward for doing so). my own struggle with repression didn't end the second that came out, and i still struggle with letting myself develop & acknowledge romantic feelings as a result of actively shutting them (and most other feelings in general) down for years, and statistics show that lgbtq youth in particular tend not to live out their 'teen years' until their twenties. by not giving cap a relationship straight away, ghosts separates the act of claiming identity and sexual orientation from finding a partner (two things which are, more often than not, separate), and also provides some very nice validation to folks who have yet to have the relationship they want, especially when lots of mainstream queer media is now jumping on the cishet media bandwagon of acting as if every person loses their virginity and has a life defining relationship at sixteen. it’s essentially a continuation of the earlier theme of “it’s never too late”, and who’s to say the captain won’t get a gay bear ghost boyfriend to go haunt nazis with??? people die all the time, it could happen.

(also, i think him and julian will have definitely shagged at least once. it was a low moment for both of them and they refuse to speak of it.)

lots of asexual/ace spectrum fans have come out to say how much they’ve loved being able to headcanon cap as ace, and while that’s not a headcanon i personally have, i think it’s brilliant that ace fans feel seen by his character- we’re all in this soup together babey (and sorry for cursing everyone still reading this with that cap/julian headcanon. i’m just a vessel)

4. “okay, but cap’s a GHOST- doesn’t that make this Bury Your Gays?”

this is a bit of a complex one, but i’m going to say no as a result of the following break down.

Bury Your Gays (BYG), aka the trope where lgbtq characters are consistently killed off (and often with a heavy dose of trauma, while cishet characters survive) is probably one of my least favourite lgbt media tropes. BYG has two main points:

1. the lgbt character is killed, thus removing them from story entirely- hence the use of the phrase ‘killed OFF’ (killed off of the show/film)

2. the character’s death reinforces the perception that lgbtq people’s lives must end in tragedy, instead of being long and fulfilling, or are inherently less valuable. bonus points if the character is killed in a hate crime or confesses same-gender love right before they die (that one implies that queer love genuinely has no future!)

not every death of an lgbtq character is bury your gays, and i personally feel that the captain is an example of an lgbt death that isn’t. 

first of all, while the captain is dead, so are the vast majority of characters in ghosts. the premise of the show means that death is not the end of the line for its characters- for most of them, it’s the only reason we get to see them on screen at all. as such, the captain being dead doesn’t remove him from the story, so point one is irrelevant.

at the time of posting, we don’t know how or why the captain died, but we've had nothing to suggest his death was in any way related to his latent sexuality, so his mysterious death doesn’t actively play into the supposedly inherent tragedy of queer lives, nor the supposedly lesser value. that’s as of right now- since we don’t know the circumstances of his death it’s a little tough to analyse properly. while the captain’s life absolutely features missed opportunities and it’s fair share of tragedy, hope and growth (which seems to be the theme of this post) abounds in equal measure. the captain may not be alive, but we DO get to see him growing and having a relatively happy existence, that for the most part seems to be getting even better as he learns to open up and be himself unapologetically- that doesn’t feel like BYG to me.

while writng this, it’s just occured to me that death really is a second chance for most of the ghosts, especially with the introduction of alison. from mary learning to read, to thomas finding modern music, they’ve all been given the chance explore things they never could have while they were alive, and hopefully grow enough to one day be sucked off move on.

in conclusion,

i love the captain very much and i hope his arc lives up to the standards it’s set so far. i don’t know where to put this in this post, but i’d alo like to say i LOVE how in Perfect Day, the captain wasn’t used as an educational experienced for fanny at all. i am very tired of people expecting me to be the walking talking homophobe educator and rehabilitator, so the fact that it’s alison and the other ghosts that call fanny out while the captain just gets to have fun with the wedding organisation made me very happy.

here’s a few other cap posts that i’ve done:

the captain’s arc if adam and the film crew stayed

a possible cap coming out 

the captain backstory headcanon

if you’ve read this far,

thank you!

also check out @alex-ghosts-corner , this post inspired me very much to write this

[lilyfreshwater]

the lead character in heartstopper is literally bullied constantly at his school for being gay like i don’t think that’s very straight passing... plus the rest of the main cast is very diverse, you’ve got a black trans girl and an asian guy who are love interests, you’ve got a mixed-race lesbian couple, the other main lead is bisexual and like, goes through the whole process of finding that out about himself etc etc... like i’ve seen a lot of mediocre gay media that’s just two white dudes and while i think this show might look like that on the surface it has a lot more depth to it!

that's great but my problem is the whole show revolves around the same stereotypical kind of gay coming of age movie protagonist. yes those diverse characters may exist but they still aren't the focus of the story. ultimately everything is going to tie back into the white cis gay boys and revolve around them. i'm not saying we can't have stories about those kinds of people cause obviously they exist, im just annoyed that these are the only stories about queer people that ever seem to get popular. where's a mainstream lesbian romance when you need one?

[flying-elliska]

Just binge read the Bone Season series by Samantha Shannon and !!!!!! amazing. Now I want to yell about it for a bit, bear with me (essay incoming sorry)

- the concept already, urban fantasy dystopia, just feels both so fresh and so obvious it's surprising it's not more of a Thing, and the world building is next level. the modern technology + Victorian aesthetics is not just cool (although it is) it evokes the fact that Victorian England was a brutal, very unequal and fucked up society, so it really fits a dystopia. Plus Scion is also an evil empire that invades other countries, which is also thematically relevant, as is the fact that the MC is Irish.

- I'm obsessed with the concept of a magical mob and Underworld (unsurprisingly) and people who are pushed to the margins of society because their very existence has been outlawed and bond together to find freedom but are also forced to exist in a state of constant brutality and the damage it all does

- the first book throws a lot of plot and world building at you in ways that can be a bit overwhelming and confusing, and doesn't give you a lot of time to connect emotionally to the characters, so that took me a while, but it's really worth pushing through for, i love them all now.

- I love the main character, Paige, so much. she's a survivor ; clever, witty, action oriented and very down to earth ; she's also very competent in ways that feel earned, and interestingly flawed, not some gratuitous emotionless Strong Female Character with plot armor or a 'not like other girls' complex. She's proud and she has a mean, ruthless streak. She's brave, too loyal for her own good, and impulsive to the point of recklessness, and sometimes her gambles pay off and sometimes she has to pay a very heavy price for them (it made me yell at the page several times). It's really cool to see a female MC that is so invested in the politics of her world. I hate that so many female mains in fantasy or dystopia are these isolated loners who hate politics, only really care about a handful of people and want to retire to their husband/2.5 kids happy ending as fast as possible, with a plot-line that focuses over personal development rather than political goals, because it sends this weird message that women are not meant to be in the public space. (Not making this into a rant about the Shadow and Bone books but lol I could)

Paige has to shoulder massive burdens that nobody in their right mind should want and that's understandable, but you do get the sense that she enjoys being a criminal, running free and scheming and climbing over roofs and outwitting her enemies and sticking it to the government. She doubts herself sometimes, worries about people only valuing her for her powers, but she doesn't have a lot of time to waste on self-consciousness, angsting or moping about her feelings. It's very empowering to read. And she's fiercely compassionate in moments where it's actually very dangerous for her to be. She has this constant struggle between the part of her that finds injustice intolerable and the part of her that is grimly pragmatic. This is exactly what women in fiction have been excluded from for too long, complex dilemmas about action and morality taken seriously, not just love triangle shit. It's great. Although wow does she deserve a break. Ouch. Baby </3

- the world is incredibly fucked up but there seems to be no sexism/homophobia/racism, which is refreshing to read. the main romance is m/f but there's a lot of ambient queerness, just because and not to 'make a point' ; the author has confirmed that the MC is demisexual, her bff is gay, the love interest is pan, there's a badass trans commander/mob boss, you get randomly informed that this henchwoman has a wife or that this mobster is trying to save his boyfriend, it's great (and it's not a word-of-god after the fact thing like jkr it's actually shown on the page, they just don't use any labels)

- the main romance is a slow build that is very low-key at first, enemies to reluctant allies to friends to lovers, but becomes really powerful over time. the fact that the MC is demi means it can't rely on 'omg so hot i can't stop thinking about him!' clichés - nothing wrong with attraction at first sight but it often leads to lazy storytelling and irritating instalove, tell over show romances. the characters are drawn to each other but it's more of a meeting of minds and souls at first, admiration and common goals, and their actions are still first and foremost guided by strategy, not sentiment. (sidenote I've often wondered if i wasn't at least a little demi myself. that would explain why i have such high standards for credible romance lmao.) also there's a significant power imbalance at the start but it gets very much deconstructed before anything can happen and it's an interesting negotiation. Warden could easily have fit in the 'brooding immortal douchebags' category but there's an alienness and gentleness to him that lifts him above that, along with the respect and space he gives to Paige and their shared experience of trauma and hopes for a better world. Her hot-headedness and his calm, deadpan sort-of-humor play off each other really well. Also I love the idea that develops over the series that their connection isn't a distraction from their fight but that it makes them stronger and allows them to resist and find solace from the deluge of constant horror that is their world. their whole dynamic in s4...no words. also the second time i read a scene where one character is bandaging the other's wounds and there's touch aversion involved and like, I LOVE that.

- lots of complex different bad guys. some are just brutes, some are sadistic masterminds with superiority complexes, some are deceptive and manipulative and morally ambiguous. love that the Big Bad Guy is a woman - female characters being fully realized means that sometimes, they're just incredibly evil (as long as it's not tied to their gender, i love that). Paige and Jaxon's relationship is fascinating - he's a terrible, manipulative person but i do feel in his own way, he cares about her and wants to see her thrive ; but that's not necessarily a good thing as he sees it as a justification to make her go through awful things. She knows he's awful but she can't get over the fact that he took her in, taught her, believed in her and gave her a sense of belonging and freedom when nobody else did ; she was super proud of being his mollisher and it makes sense it would take time for her to rebuild her sense of self without that, on her own. I like that the ambiguity isn't resolved (it's also a very good illustration of how emotionally abusive parental dynamics can get their hooks in you). The fact that he's aroace really works there too, could have been a lot creepier otherwise and i feel that's really not the point.

- also it's really cool how each book really feels like its own thing, it never feels repetitive, there are huge twists and a shift of focus each time - the penal colony in Oxford in the first, the London Underworld in the second, traveling through England in the third, Paris in the fourth, etc. The pace is pretty breakneck and i wasn't bored for one moment - actually at times i would have liked more quiet moments w the characters. There are two novellas that focus more on that and the second one is an exploration of trauma and recovery that's particularly hard hitting and beautiful. The first book does feel like a beginner novel, it's a bit clunky in terms of exposition, pacing and character development etc ; and there are moments where all the violence and brutality feel a bit repetitive ; but overall the story builds up so beautifully and in so many complex ways it's just really worth it and it's not for nothing i read the four books and two novellas in five days. just have to wait for the next one now though argh

- anyway more people should read it

[mcrmadness]

I understand the need to relate and find relatable characters/people from e.g. medias - I do that all the time too! But I just realized something that I'm not sure if it's related to my aroaceness, or if it's just me being a tad older (but still not one of the oldest either) than the majority on this website.

So I realized that I'm often getting annoyed by posts where everyone headcanons either characters, people or idk, groups of something as a certain orientation or gender or trans or whatever. And I realized that it annoys me so much because: what does it matter what they are or aren't?

This is where I don't know if I it's just my age or aroaceness or both, but I simply don't CARE what they are or hypothetically are. I like canon if it's well written. Het couples in medias annoy me if it's clear they exist only because of heteronormativity. I like it when characters are and are let to be cis, I like it when people "respect" canon genders and orientations. Here it's probably a bit of that identity thing for me too because I'm not trans, but also not cis (I like the word "cisn't" actually), so I always feel a bit left out when everything has to be trans this or that. So when everyone talks about hormones or surgeries on people or characters who show no signs of that, I just feel left out (also because you can still bw comfortable in your birth body and not be cis, e.g. I'm agender.)

So in my case it's more that I just don't care about those things on characters much because they don't affect it how I will see them, "lgbt+" or not. I don't seek for aro/ace/agender characters because I don't find that as the most important thing ever. It's only a nice bonus if a characters turns out to not be a stereotypical cis/het but something else. I don't start reading a book, watching a movie or series only because I've heard it has lgbt+ characters. It's super cool when lgbt+ are included as it tells something about the people whined the media, but there are so many things that have nothing to do with how someone identifies with and that are more important to me than their identity. E.g. I don't need to make a straight character aro and/or ace, I just prefer that they leave the romance at home and the main story would just focus on other things. Like, the adventure for example, or friendships pr whatever. It doesn't wipe out their identity, it's just not pushed into anyone's face.

It's very likely that my age affects this also because when I was a teenager/adolescent and then a young adult, I simply HAD no characters to relate to. We barely got even gay characters during the mid and late 2000s, let alone other orientations. Can you imagine the only characters I could relate to with my asexuality and aromanticism, long before even hearing those terms, were mainly fictional serial killers? And can you imagine how worried it made me. I related to Dexter Morgan because he wasn't interested in sex, had a romantic relationship only to appear normal (since he was a serial killer) but did care about his girlfriend, just differently than "normal people". Like, I'm not mad about this because at least somewhere someone understood something about me, but I was often worried if I'd be a psychopath too. I started watching Dexter when I was 15, I think I learnt about asexuality when I was 17 and about romantic orientations and aromanticism when I was already over 20.

I've always been completely fine with whatever I identify with. After finding those terms, I've never felt like I was broken or faulty. I have never really needed reassurance nor support regarding my identity. I don't understand when people pretend e.g. not liking something or not being interested in something only because of peer pressure. So, idk, I don't know what I'm saying here anymore. I guess the point was just that such posts annoy the heck out of me sometimes because I don't understand why those things are important in a character, and what makes an lgbt+ character more likeable and interesting than a character who is cis and/or het.

[definitely-not-karen]

My unnecessary and irrelevant reviews about the transformers media I have consumed.

Please let me have this. I was doom scrolling and transformers is my comfort fandom.

G1: I have not watched all of it, I do plan on doing so but I did watch it when I was younger and does invoke nostolgia. I watched it on Teletoon Retro (does that even exist anymore?) ((just googled it, rip teletoon retro)). For some reason I really like the episode The Ultimate Weapon. I am a huge fan of First Aid and it was because of this episode and I have no idea why. Rodimus is the main character of that episode with First Aid just having a very prominent role in the side story of that episode. I really liked the Aerialbots and their storyline with the time traveling and the not knowing if they’re on the right side was really cool. Honestly the animation errors and weird inconsistent story are part of the charm I guess.

RID 2001: another show I’ve only seen tidbits of. I watched this one via random episodes illegally uploaded to YouTube in the early to mid 2010s and now all those videos are taken down. As a lover of camp, this is camp. I love it. Transformers as a concept is pretty camp (which is why I adore it) and I definitely will watch all of this one day. Though Sideburn is cool and all, I do wish he didn’t chase a red sports car every episode. Otherwise he’s one of my favourites cause himbo rights I guess.

Transformers IDW 2005: So... I read the entirety of the idw comics purely because I found out Thundercracker was a screenplay writer and I wanted to read the entire story so I got the complete context of his development from scary fighter jet to an Oscar winner. I was not disappointed, I was met with queer and trans representation of all sorts, a diverse storyline with action filled parts, comedy elements, slice of life, political drama, adventure, horror, and the best road trip through space. Honestly I was not expecting transformers of all things to have queerness represented so casually and quite well in my opinion (though technically they are guilty of bury your gays, I don’t count it cause there was a clear reason for that death) Thundercracker was marked as one of my favourites cause of this series. I did experience a wonderful story because I wanted to see how he got his happy ending. My biggest criticism of idw transformers is that I love their interpretations of characters and sadly I know I’ll probably never get to seen them like that again. But if I want to experience those characters like that, I’ll just re read it I guess.

Transformers Animated: I have watched the entirety of this great show twice and it still love it. Funny characters, a human character that has a purpose, and a fun change to the formula, Transformers Animated has one of my favourite Optimus and made a Bumblebee so lovably loud they had to take away his voice so he wouldn’t become too powerful. Loved all of the characters except the human villains, Headmaster did not age well and I wasn’t in love with Ratchet’s design but his personality more than made up for it. If you want more animated, I love Transformers ReAnimated the void is filled by that series and channel. While I wish it got another season, it’s ending was satisfying enough I guess.

Transformers Prime: Smokescreen is great and was underutilizes -100/10. Just kidding, kind of I really enjoyed Prime. I’ve only watched through it completely once cause when I was a child I did not like the designs since apparently as a child I was a G1 loyalist I guess. Though now Prime has one of my favourite styles that still holds up today. Dramatic story with actual character development, I can over look that the plots a tad slow. I wish Breakdown was utilized more and it also could have benefited from an extra season but the movie wrapped it up much better than animated’s ending. Knockout is an amazing character and I was spoiled while I was watching it that he turns Autobot though I didn’t realize that wasn’t until the literal end of the series. Would’ve like a completely fleshed out Breakdown and Knockout or at least Knockout redemption arc but there’s always fanfiction I guess.

Robots in Disguise 2015: I didn’t hate it? It definitely helped that I watched this before Prime for some reason. I liked the designs, Sideswipe... himbo rights. Biggest flaw is the lack of character growth. I just want nice things for Sideswipe, Strongarm and Fixit. Grimlock was fun, I like Bumblebee trying to be a good leader and Optimus should have stayed dead. The crossover and referenced to Rescue Bots was fun and Blurr and Sideswipe was the rivalry I didn’t know I needed. But the one I really needed was Smokescreen in there too. The ending arc was interesting though not executed the best and Steeljaw did a lot of the heavy lifting for the villain side to a point where they over utilized him and his character suffered as a result. Windblade was not as bad as people online said she was, splitting the group up into two was stupid cause I’m bitter and still don’t want Optimus there. Also long list of underutilization: Denny and Russel Clay, Jazz, all the characters from prime except Optimus and Bee, Jetfire and Jetstorm, More Rescue bots, and many more! Like that girl that’s Russel’s friend that I literally don’t remember because I’m pretty sure the writers forgot about her! Anyways, in retrospect the show probably wasn’t great but I liked it I guess.

Rescue Bots: This show is way better than it needed to be. I actually love the no Decelticons and war. I’m a sucker for slice of life and especially slice of life with a twist. Human villains that were actually interesting, actual character development, continuity (somewhat), great human characters all while being target for children. I’m so happy I watched this show while I was kind of the target age and rewatching it for the third time was great cause some of the science jargon actually made sense to me. Satisfying ending too and honestly it can just appeal to everyone. Love all four of the main rescue bots and constantly wish they made evergreen designs and toys for them so they could at least make cameos in other transformers media. Sometimes it’s nice to have transformers being wholesome I guess.

Rescue Bots Academy: ... I was not the age democratic for this show and I somehow still liked it? Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve been gravitating to more wholesome content due to current events but it was actually good? Love all the students, I do miss the old crew and characters like Doc Green and Frankie are under utilized and the Burns family is almost nowhere to be found :(. Once again there’s some actual character development and Hot Shot’s mentor relationship with Heatwave is super sweet. Also actually having positive post war Decepticon and Autobot relationships in this children’s show? Woah. Biggest issue is like RID 2015; the lack of continuity and characters completely disappearing. Perceptor was fun and I was not expecting him to appear. And I love me some microscope dude. It was a good send off for the aligned continuity I guess.

Cyberverse: ending too soon. I was about to be upset that bumblebee didn’t have his voice but he had his voice in his head which was great. Episodes like the velocitron one was really good and it definitely got better with each season and peaked in the Quintesson arc and then rolled to the cancellation date. Thundercracker shouldn’t have been killed off but I’m very biased. Seeing the rebuilding of Cybertron was cool. Windblade and Bumblebee had a fun relationship. I really liked this iteration of Grimlock. Perceptor was super interesting but then they did nothing with him after the Quintesson arc which was a shame and I would have liked to see better relationships between the Autobots and Decepticons after the team up. Also wholesome Whirl was fun. Honestly this needed one more season so bad. I just think it could have been great if it got one. But it’s still good I guess.

War for Cybertron: ...let’s see how I feel after Kingdom comes out but right now, meh. For me my favourite transformers characters usually end up being side characters due to me wishing they had more screen time so in this case, Red Alert is great please show me more of Red Alert. I get what all the people are saying about the voice acting and whatever but I can look past it (though please give us Peter Cullen or let the current VC make his own Optimus voice). But one thing is that all the YouTube reviewers be saying that I completely agree with is that it’s dark. Like lighting wise. I occasionally had trouble making out what was happening because it was dark. Honestly my biggest issue isn’t a fault of the show. I like development of multiple characters to be shown so I can fall in love with a multitude of characters but due to short seasons, it makes sense to focus in completely on one character at a time. Siege in my opinion at least let me see more of the background characters rather than Earthrise but I’d probably like Earthwise more if I was a bigger fan of Optimus. I’m going to watch Kingdom but I’m not expecting to be wowed I guess.

In conclusion, I should watch Beast Wars, I’m going to re read the ending of Lost Light again and revel in the melancholic ending I adore and I really like Thundercracker and First Aid. One great thing about transformers and other franchises that have been around for awhile, if you don’t like the current thing, there’s plenty of last media and you probably won’t need to wait too long for the next piece of media you’ll hopefully like.

Please be good idw 2019, I’ve read a bit of you and I have a scrap of hope. Oh please please please be good. Give some characters the Thundercracker treatment.

[leonawriter]

On Writing Fankids

Writing this because I now have two different fankids for the same pairing, in vastly different ways, and they’re very different people. So.

I don’t know how many points I’m going to make, and I don’t know how useful this is going to be, since Disclaimer: I’m not an expert on real children or medical practices, but I am trying to put effort in.

Most of this is composed of questions, because I don’t know who your fankid (or, OC-fankid) is, and the point is to make you think rather than just put ideas into your head by telling you what’s right and what’s wrong.

1 - How did they come to exist?

This is the FIRST question you should be asking when coming up with a fankid. What they look like and how cute they are is all well and good, but when you’re thinking of actually writing a story, that won’t help you.

If the parents are a cis male and cis female couple, then it’s easy to assume how they had a kid. That said, that’s not always necessarily the case, as some people may be infertile, or may simply choose to adopt. However, the answer to this becomes more complicated when fans get to wanting to give a gay couple children, as this usually means they want to give them biological children.

In the event of pairings where the parents are canonically not reproductively compatible (which includes gay, lesbian, nonbinary, and so on) there are still options, which include: a trans parent, which involves being able to write a trans person and not just overlooking how this would change their story; surrogacy, in which someone else carries the child to term for those who can’t, and the related idea of a sperm donor. 

In going into other biological options, there’s also the question of “how believable and realistic do you want this to be? how scientific? how much fantasy or sci-fi do you want here?” and if the answer is “I have fantasy and/or sci-fi in my setting” then you can use that.

That said, please don’t rule out the possibility of adoption. Adoption is the most common way for queer parents in the real world to get kids, and just because a kid isn’t biological doesn’t make them any less their parent’s child. Even/especially in a fantasy setting! And knowing if a kid was adopted, that’ll extend into how they see themself, as well as who the parent is and why they chose to adopt.

Related to that, if a kid is adopted, how aware of that are they? How were they adopted? Are they a canon character that was adopted, or an entirely new character? If they were too young to remember the adoption, how do their parents (or parent, if there was only one person adopting them) explain? If they were old enough, how do they see the person who took them in? How do they see their adopted siblings, if any exist, or any future siblings? What about any prospective additional parents, if they originally only had one, or if their parent/s is/are polyamorous? 

2 - How good are their parents at parenting?

Yes, you want your favourite pairing to be great parents, but no matter what people are going to have their own idiosyncrasies. How do the parents deal when the kid throws a tantrum? 

What if the child shows signs of being neurodivergent, are the parents any good at spotting those signs, and whether they are or not, how do they handle the difference from what they might have been expecting?

My advice here is to pay attention to the pairing in their normal canon and how they deal with situations and also how they handle children in canon, as well as then going to further sources that show what parenting is really like. Your fankid is going to be a baby, they’re going to be a screaming toddler, they’re going to have a personality and wants and they’re going to frustrate their parents a lot. If you want to put the effort in to write the family well, ask someone you know who has kids, even.

3 - What are their circumstances during their childhood?

The fun one about this is that depending on the context the child was created in, the answer can be different for children of the same pairing! 

In my case, I have Satoko and Fumiya. Satoko’s childhood (outside of her parents’ control) was traumatising, and left her as a quiet kid, despite how much she’s shown love later on. Fumiya, on the other hand, grows up in a loving environment from the start, and because of that he’s much more comfortable and confident, despite everything else that happens and so on.

This is where the child starts to develop their own personality. Think about how in the real world, children are shaped by their surroundings and the way that they grow up. Does your fankid learn that they can trust the people around them? How much attention are they given? Is that attention positive, negative, stifling? Do they feel neglected, or coddled? How easy is it for them to find food, or their favourite food? Are they surrounded by children of their own age, or mostly living around adults? Is their living situation, no matter whether their parents love them and take care of them or not, a dangerous one, and how aware of that are they?

Also important is the question of whether they even have both of their parents, or either of them. Maybe the situation here is complicated. Maybe they’re an orphan (sorry, parent pairing). Maybe they’re separated from their family, and they have to fend for themself. Maybe their parents are separated for any given reason. 

Any one of these things is also going to affect their mindset while growing up from being a baby through being a toddler, a pre-teen, and a teenager. If you want them to feel like a fully rounded out person, you have to think of them as such.

4 - What do they look like?

I’m well aware that this is the first thing that most people go with when creating fankids. I’m just saying that it’s not the most important thing you should be thinking of. 

Making a fankid shouldn’t be a mix-and-match game when you’re making biological kids. When you’re coming up with an adopted kid even less so. They aren’t a paper doll. Some children may look like a mix between their parents, while others will take on attributes from previous generations... although when looking at fictional characters you don’t own the IP of, assuming what genes a fankid’s grandparent might have passed on gets tricky. For this I’m focusing mostly on biological kids, but it should help for adopted as well in some parts.

One good rule of thumb here is to look at how genes actually work.

If nothing else, a simple starting idea would be to look at the general population and say “what is the most common eye colour here” and “what is the most common hair colour” and if your fankid is from that area, that’s probably the most dominant gene, over others.

When creating my own fankids mentioned above, my idea went that blue is an eye colour that tends to be dominant, and red hair tends to come through even just by making dark hair lighter. 

That said, hair and eye colour aren’t all you should be thinking about!

Other things that should be thinking about are: how tall are they? what shape are their eyes? Does the structure of their face take more after one parent than the other, no matter their eye/hair colour? Do they have any markings on their body (moles, birthmarks, etc), and if so are they shared with other family members? Are their features they share with family members who aren’t their parents (i.e, a sister, an uncle, a great-grandparent)? 

As they grow up, do they get taller or stay shorter than their parents? In terms of their body, do they become muscular, or not, and if so, why? Do they become fat, or thin? 

Does their health impact on the way that their body looks? This can mean both disability in terms of walking around with a cane, using a wheelchair, or any number of other things.

Do they change their body in any way? Do they choose to add tattoos, or is something done to them in some other way? Do they have any scars? Would they want to share those scars with other people, or would they choose to hide them away?

5 - How canon affects them, and how they affect canon.

Whether or not your fankid grows up before, during, or after canon events makes a difference. If it’s “before/during” then you’re going to have to think of the consequences of that on both them and their parents, but also everyone else. This isn’t just “add in a kid, aren’t they cute” this is an entire new character, with the capability to become a loose cannon and change canon events.

Things can change. That’s something you’ve got to think about, and accept, the moment you want to add this new character into things. Are you willing to change things, and if so, how far?

The kinds of changes can generally be divided into two categories: internal, and external.

Internal changes are the ways that the characters change mentally and emotionally in response to a child (their child, even) being present. In one of my stories, I change very little on an external level, but the focus is on the internal side of things, as the father of this child faces the idea that he might have lost his son, and how that makes him feel when going into a dangerous situation he may not come back from. Other characters might not see any difference, but the internal conflict is there.

External changes are the big ones, where the child being present - and, by extension, the child’s backstory and its knock-on effects - affect the present, and cause things to change in visible ways. This can mean anything from “the pairing’s child has wandered into a dangerous area filled with plot, and needs to be rescued” to “the plot has found the child” or even just “the parents have relationship issues to sort out, and that changes the plot.”

Things to think of here are - aside from “how old is this kid” as you might have come up with a kid that by this point is an adult as far as I know - how active is this kid? Are they happy to stay put and not affect things, or dot hey have insatiable curiosity and the need to do something? Do they stumble into the plot without being aware of it, do they go seek it out, or does it find them? How much danger does this put them in? If it does put them in danger, how do they deal with that, and how do their parents (or single parent) deal with that? If no danger at all, do they have fun, or are they stressed?

6 - Interactions with the rest of the cast.

Honestly, my main point here is, not everyone is going to react to a kid the same way. Just because they’re cute doesn’t mean everyone’s going to like them! And no, that doesn’t mean they’re evil. And sometimes, even the “evil” characters might handle kids better than some “good” characters. In fact, some “good” characters might do so badly with kids that they make them cry, and that doesn’t make them any less “good.” It just makes them bad at handling kids.

Otherwise, how does the kid fare with the other members of the cast, in general and specifically?

Is there anyone that they like in particular? If so, why? Did that person look nice, did they give them their favourite food? Did they do something special? What did they do to become friends?

Likewise, is there anyone they dislike in particular? What did they do to deserve that? Were they mean on purpose, or did they become disliked by means of an accident or miscommunication? Is it that this person raises their voice and the kid doesn’t like raised voices, or they don’t talk loudly enough?

Depending on the situation with the child’s parents, they might prefer people who are positive toward their parents, or who are negative toward their parents. Because let’s not forget those who don’t like being compared, and those who have parents who aren’t any good. For instance, is the child’s parent a villain in their setting? Are they thought of as a villain? Are they a criminal, or on the side of the law, and regardless of which that is, does the child agree with them, and how does that affect their relationships with others who agree or disagree with that parent?

If your fankid, for example, was mistreated by a certain set of people when they were younger, then how does that relate to later on in life, or the canon cast? My Satoko’s backstory involves medical abuse, which makes her wary of doctors scientists, and things that would remind her (even subconsciously) of that setting. Two of the characters in the cast are medically trained. Her interactions with them are going to be affected by that, even if she grows to like and trust them.

In conclusion: a fan kid can be a fun five minute thing, but if you only put five minutes’ thought into their design, their backstory, and their personality, then you’re only going to get the same view of them as a sketch compared to the time it takes to fully line and colour a work of art. 

If you want to write them, or create a full comic with them, you have to ask yourself questions about who they are, and also who you want them to be. If you want them to be a fully rounded person, then you have to put the time into it. And, really, that if this kid starts acting in ways you don’t expect, but that work, just... listen to that.

[chivesyo]

What I hope to see from Avatar Studios

So the last couple days have been fun - I started rewatching ATLA (for like the third time in the last six months), got a new Avatar graphic novel omnibus in the mail, and learned about Nickelodeon's plan to launch ‘Avatar Studios’ to produce EVEN MORE Avatar content in the future! Since all this is so fresh in my mind I wanted to just talk about some of the things I hope to see from the franchise going forward.

Things I hope stay the same:

Attention to world-building and continuity: Obviously this tends to be one of fans’ favorite parts of this franchise. I hope that whatever comes out in the future will maintain and build on what’s been so painstakingly built up by entries up to now.

Encouraging the audience’s imagination: On the other hand, I’m not looking for them to address every little detail that has been left unexplained. In my opinion one of the best parts of the original series is how well it was able to set up its world and characters to inspire audiences’ imaginations and then provide opportunities to apply that imagination.

Introducing its audience to diverse ideas/themes: The original ATLA series came out around 15 years ago, and even though obviously people who see it for the first time in recent years still enjoy it, I think that maybe they miss some of what attracted so many people to the series when it first came out. For me and many people my age, ATLA served as an introduction to a lot of ideas/themes from Asian cultures that seem much more widely-known in the U.S. today, including anime, meditation, martial arts, philosophy, etc. I hope that they will take this opportunity to continue to innovate in this area.

Complex characters and moral themes: In the original series Zuko is the character that to most people stands out as having the most compelling character arc, and that’s largely due to his moral complexity. I hope that they will continue to pursue this idea, without feeling the need to try and “recreate” another Zuko.

Things I hope change:

Representation: When ATLA came out it was praised for its representation of women, elderly people, and people with disabilities, which I think is well-deserved. As additional entries have been released we’ve also been getting more and better representation of gay/lesbian/bisexual people, and I hope that trend continues. However, there has been scrutiny over the show’s representation of people of color - there’s technically a lot of it but it isn’t always “good” or well thought-out. Additionally, at this point the lack of gender identity diversity is frankly unacceptable (we deserve a trans Avatar).

Cultural appropriation: My biggest criticism of the Avatar franchise up to this point is its tendency to liberally borrow from Asian, Native American, and other cultures without committing to telling stories or creating media that empower people from those cultures. This has to do with on-screen representation as well as “representation” in the people who are making the show. From what I’ve read there has always been some diversity in the team behind the show, and I get the impression that it’s moving in the right direction, but I hope they will take this opportunity to fully and explicitly commit.

Specific topics/ideas I’d like to see:

More intimate look at Air Nomad society: Most existing stories in the Avatar universe take place after the Air Nomads were wiped out. In the Kyoshi novels the little time spent at the Air Temples is from the POV of an outsider. Most of what we hear about Air Nomad society and culture comes from a) a literal 12 year old child or b) outsiders. This and the fact that Air Nomad society is characterized by “purity” makes me think there’s got to be a “dark side” to it. For example: it’s known that “all Air Nomads are airbenders” but I have to wonder if that’s because every child that’s born to Air Nomad parents has airbending abilities or if its because only people who happen to have airbending abilities are able/allowed to be considered “Air Nomads”. In the real world “purity” often comes at the price of exclusion. I’d like to understand why Kyoshi’s mother was so willing to leave a so seemingly-perfect society, beyond the fact that she fell in love with some dude.

Water Tribe development: With the above, it seems like the Water Tribe serves (or could serve) as an interesting foil to the Air Nomads - both societies rely heavily on bending for their everyday way of life, but while 100% of Air Nomads are airbenders, presumably the Water Tribe follows the given “standard” of only 10% of the population being waterbenders. That dynamic in and of itself is fascinating to me - in ATLA in fact we see that the top leaders of the Water Tribe are non-benders (an interesting contrast to the politics we see later in Republic City in LOK). I haven’t read the graphic novels that deal with the Water Tribe, so maybe it comes up there. Something else that I might just not be familiar with there is the long-term history of the society: How did they end up moving from their original Lion Turtle to the North Pole? Where did the Swampbenders come from? One aspect of the original series that receives a lot of (well-deserved in my opinion) criticism is the fact that the (Northern) Water Tribe is shown to be significantly more misogynist than the other nations. This was re-confirmed in the Kyoshi novels. I hope that they either abandon this idea, or if they’re bound to it for some reason, maybe use it to illustrate how these ideas develop and how they can be dismantled (usually it isn’t enough for one girl to beat one guy in hand-to-hand combat). If we look at the “ancient” Water Tribe society, maybe misogyny is absent. Maybe the same circumstances related to them ending up at the North Pole are related to the introduction of these oppressive ideas. Also, there have presumably been female Avatars from all nations who have mastered all four elements - where did they learn waterbending?

Focus on non-Avatar characters: The Avatar sort of functions as a walking deus ex machina due to the Avatar State pretty much always being available if it’s really, truly needed. Even just being the Avatar provides the character with material and social benefits with both humans and spirits. Part of what makes the series great is that it is able to maintain stakes by developing really strong relationships between characters: Aang has the Avatar State to rely on, but not Katara, Sokka, Toph, or Appa. In the Kyoshi novels this idea is even more explicit with Kyoshi and Rangi. I love this dynamic and I hope and expect it to continue, but I think there are other options worth exploring as well. For example, what if the Avatar was an obstacle to the protagonist?