#or because there's a central non-binary character...

[scientificcc]

@woebegonepod can I just say how much I love s10. There's so much it just does right. The change in format is really fun, and it wouldn't have worked without it. Also, the humor, dialogue, and voice acting are just peak in this season. I'm the #1 s10 fan

[elexuscal]

I watchrd the murder bot show. I heard some book fans think it’s nonbinary and some argue it likes it pronouns. Why? Isn’t it dehumanizing? And is the guy who forced it to Murderbot to make eye contact, via orders ableist? I can see why book readers think it is autistic coded. I feel weird calling a nonbinary-coded, autistic-coded lifeform it. Does it really prefer those pronouns? I read on tumblr thay apparently it does. I personally don’t prefer it/it’s pronouns, but not all enbies are the same.

Hiya!

I suppose it's not surprising that an ask like this would show up, if not in my inbox, than somebody's! Murderbot's pronouns are something I've consistently seen lots of questions about over the years, and with an influx of new folks being introduced due to the show, there's going to be more than ever.

First of all: thanks for asking these questions. I think when first being introduced to a new idea, such as a set of pronouns you're unfamiliar with, asking open and honest questions shows great intellectual curiosity and interest in understanding others.

There's a few different questions in this ask, so I'm going to try and break this down into sections, and to tackle them one by one. (And for the record, most of my answers here will be in reference to the books, not the TV show, because a) I haven't seen the show [yet] and b) there's only 2 episodes of it out right now anyway. I have no idea how closely the two texts are going to align, but I certainly hope it doesn't take away the book series' queer themes and representation.)

1. What's Murderbot's gender, and what pronouns does it use?

Murderbot is agender/non-gendered, and uses it/its pronouns.

For the record, I don't think this is just a reading or an interpretation. Rather, this is canonical, and on the same level as saying, "Bruce Wayne is a man who uses he/him pronouns."

Admittedly, there's never a place where the character says "My name is Murderbot, I'm non-binary, and I use it/its pronouns." In my opinion, one of the the strengths of the books is that it has much more subtle worldbuilding than that, both in general and in regards to casual queerness. However, throughout its first-person narration, Murderbot consistently uses "it" to refer to itself, and shows a general alienation and distaste for gender stuff in general. Its friends/allies, even after long acquaintance, continue using it/its.

Textual examples include:

Book 1: Yes, talk to Murderbot about its feelings. The idea was so painful I dropped to 97 percent efficiency. Book 2: To initiate the meeting, I’d had to make an entry on the social feed, too. The system was extremely vulnerable to hacking, so I had backdated my entry to look like I had come in on an earlier passenger transport, listed my job as “security consultant,” and my gender as indeterminate. Book 5: "No, it says it's fine," I heard her relaying to others on the comm. "Well, yes, it's furious." Book 6: I posted a feed ID with the name SecUnit, gender = not applicable, and no other information. Book 7: I was as indifferent to human gender as it was possible to be without being unconscious.

And while I think it's unnecessary, given the textual evidence, we can bring in Word of God too, courtesy of the book's author Martha Wells:

So, okay, Murderbot uses it/its pronouns! Which leads into the next question...

Why does Murderbot use 'It/Its' pronouns? Isn't that dehumanizing?

Yes, and that's just the way Murderbot likes it!

I think the reason this is often a stumbling block for folks is that a main focus of the early series-- especially book 1, or as the case may be, first episodes of the new adaptation-- is establishing that Murderbot Is A Person. From there, it's an easy leap to go: Therefore, Murderbot Is Human. After all, it has a human face.

But the second part of the central theme is: Murderbot is a person, but not a human person.

It is half-bot, half-human, all SecUnit. It has things in common with both of those halves, and emergent properties unique to itself. More than that, Murderbot is deeply alienated from the human experience. It spent the majority of its life being treated like an object, and appliance, and a weapon.

Murderbot chooses to embrace those aspects of its identity by continuing to use it/its pronouns. And yeah, it's clear that this often makes other folks feel uncomfortable. But that's a big part of it too. Murderbot's arc is about learning how to exist, as itself, unapologetically. It doesn't need to sand off those uncomfortable parts of its existence that make the humans around it uncomfortable. They just have to deal.

Okay, but that's Murderbot, a fictional character. What about actual real people?

That's a great point! And indeed, I don't care so much about Murderbot's pronouns for its own sake. It's a fictional character, it can't and doesn't care what real world people call it. But I think respecting its pronouns is an extension of respecting real living folks who DO use it/its pronouns, so let's talk about it!

(And for the record, I am not nonbinary. I'm also not not nonbinary? But I'm a sapphic butch with an often masc gender presentation, so it's like, an Overlap. My point being I'll do my best to speak to this perspective, but really, you're best seeking out the perspectives of actual it/its users and nonbinary folks.)

Various non-binary, agender, and other gender queer folks use it/its pronouns. The reasons vary hugely. Explanations I've seen are:

Generally feeling alienated from the human experience

Feeling a greater connection to non-human identities, like animals or robots

Connection to the many beautiful things exist in the world which (in English) have it/its pronouns applied to them-- think the ocean, or food, or celestial bodies.

A gender neutral pronoun that doesn't introduce the plural ambiguity of 'they/them' and isn't a neopronoun set folks need to learn.

Reclamation of insults they've received

and idk, they just sort of like it? Sometimes things aren't that deep.

And probably a whole bunch more reasons!

And really, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what I think of it. While we can get deep into the theory of pronouns, at the end of the day, using the pronouns people prefer is just common courtesy. You can personally find it weird and uncomfortable, and you can work through it in your own time... But if someone asks, just use the pronouns they want!

Was the guy who forced it to Murderbot to make eye contact via orders ableist?

Okay, again, I haven't seen the show yet, so I don't have full context. But was the guy Gurathin? I bet it was Gurathin. While he didn't do that specifically in the book, he did pull some similar stunts.

In short, yeah, probably. It's a dick move regardless.

In long, I don't think he was being deliberately ableist. The guy is viewing the situation through a very different framework, namely, 'this SecUnit is a threat and a danger, and I am trying to control the situation'. Very likely, if he met a human colleague or acquaintance who asked not to make eye-contact, or just very clearly didn't like it, he probably would be chill and accommodating.

But the thing is, plenty of folks are ableist in day-to-day life without meaning to be ableist! You'll see folks be like "this person is so annoying because they do 'X thing', and it's not like they have an autism diagnosis or anything", as if the formal diagnosis is a magic wand to make certain behaviours okay. In general, things would be better if we just got better at accommodating benign behaviours that exist outside the norm without explanation.

[And frankly, my bigger concern here is less "ableism", and more "using his social power to force somebody who is a slave to follow his orders", but that's neither here nor there.]

Is it ableist to call a non-binary coded, autistic coded lifeform it/its?

Well, I mean, context matters?

A lot of shitty people will use it/its in a cruel way to various neurodivergent and queer people. They are deliberately intending to demean and dehumanize. That's shitty. Whether that's ableist or queerphobic would depend on the context, but it would be deliberately shitty.

And indeed, if you were to take another similar character... say Data from Star Trek, or Peridot from Steven Universe, and call either of them 'it', then again, depending on the context, I might call that shitty too! Their canonical pronouns are he/him and she/her respectively, and refusing to use those pronouns because "they're not really people" or "it's not a man/woman" would be a deliberately provoking move.

But if someone-- be it a fictional character, and even more so, a real person-- asks to be called "it"? That's their choice. The context has changed. It's not ableist, it's not queerphobic. That's just respecting them.

[ladyloveandjustice]

Summer 2024 Anime Overview: Senpai is an Otokonoko

Aoi falls for an older girl, Makoto, and one day she confesses love to her senpai. But then Makoto reveals that he is an otokonoko- a crossdressing boy. Much to Makoto’s surprise, this only increases Aoi’s attraction, as she’s 100 percent supportive of crossdressing and ecstatic about getting to enjoy both the “boy” and “girl” versions of her senpai. Complicating things is Makoto’s best friend Ryuji, who has a huge crush on Makoto even though he won’t admit it to himself.

Meanwhile, Makoto is dealing with an incredibly transphobic mother, so he hides himself at home and lives in fear she’ll find out that he’s crossdressing at school.

This is a sweet, heartfelt, queer show with some very good kids and a lot of sad and happy feels. Prepare for heartstrings to be tugged. I grew very attached to the main trio in various ways,as they all have their own individual struggles related to gender, sexuality and heteronormative society. They're going through it, but they always work to understand and accept each other.

Makoto is obviously the central focus with the Gender of it All, and you see him struggle to navigate a world that sees gender in strict binary terms and tries to limit the ways he can live. The show strikes a good balance in showing the heartbreaking obstacles Makoto deals with but also showing the joy he finds in unexpected acceptance, affirmation, and connection. It’s sad when he tries to force himself to be ‘normal’ but it’s all the more heartwarming when his loved ones support him being who he truly is. A big focus of the show is Makoto trying to figure out if he wants to “live as a girl” as the show puts it, or if his relationship with his gender is something else.

I was surprised at how much I liked Ryuji, he might be my favorite. His struggle with his internalized homophobia and his yearning for Makoto literally made me cry at one point, which is rare for me with media. Plus, he’s just a sweet kid and good friend who puts up a laughably paper-thin "tough" front and you want good things for him. And that’s true for all the characters.

Aoi is a character who starts off as a comedic genki girl, (and to some she even initially came off as a chaser, but as her layers peeled back it becomes clear that’s not the case).  I liked her from the beginning despite her being A Lot but I was concerned she might boil down to the unfailingly Cheerful Girl Who Supports Makoto—but she gains a tremendous amount of depth once her backstory and personal struggles start to unfold.

Honestly, she really resonates with me as an ace person and her storyline seems primed to head in that direction, but I’m not naïve enough to think I’m going to get an actual asexual storyline where we examine how some people simply don’t feel romantic and/or sexual attraction and can still be fulfilled…and yeah, judging from the few spoilers I’ve seen, it’s not about that. It’s a bit disappointing, since it would really fit in with a show so focused on non-heteronormative sexuality, but y’know. We’re used to it. I never expect much. I will be interested in how it unfolds in the movie and hope whatever story they choose will at least be well told.

So basically, the show not only presents a love triangle where not only do you want all of them to be happy (sadly poly will not be the answer) BUT also a love triangle where each person thinks it would be better for their so-called "rival" to end up with their crush because they all love each other and want each other to be happy, but they all think very little of themselves. Amazing. A love triangle that’s truly all love but in the most hurtful way possible.

Aoi, Makoto, and Ryuji’s bond is really the star of the show for me more than any independent relationship and (though if I had to choose the friendship between Aoi and Ryuji is low-key the cutest to me).

There’s not many caveats to this show, obviously it examines transphobia in sometimes heartbreaking ways, and Ryuji’s internalized homophobia can be rough (I wish someone would directly tell him he’s not gross). I did find the pacing to be way too rushed in early episodes, but it evened out as it went on.

For something that’s neither good or bad: one thing that was noticeable about the show is it really avoided any queer terminology, in a way a lot of modern queer manga doesn’t. Again, this isn’t a bad things, and I honestly wouldn’t have noticed if one of the characters hadn’t met an older queer person (which is great! Love it when older queer people help the younger generation and show them they’re not alone)—yet this person doesn’t share any kind of specifics and how they identify is kept ambiguous, though they clearly have been to drag clubs/communities at the very least (as a blink and you miss it thing). In some ways, this might be purposeful, it felt like the story wanted the characters to be applicable to a lot of queer experiences, and one of the main points of the show is Makoto’s uncertainty about his own identity and not feeling comfortable in certain categories. Labels don’t work for everyone.

However, a few more specifics felt like it would help with adding context to some of the characters. Does Ryuji know other gay men exist? Does he think he’s the only one? I honestly have no idea. There is a possibility of these kids getting to know a wider community that seems tantalizing but unlikely to be capitalized on and sometimes the show’s desire to be nebulous about all this can feel like a missed opportunity.

Overall, I think this is a touching, worthwhile show about affirmation and love and the complexities of being queer in a limiting society. And of course that means a bunch of homophobes review bombed it because they apparently just now realized queer stories have always been a big part of anime. Knowing this makes it even clearer that shows like this make an impact and deserve support, and I’m really glad a movie to wrap things up has already been announced.

Give this show a watch, and maybe bring some tissues.

[stepswowdsen]

【KHR AU】 Nguyễn Selena 💜🌙🪷

KHR AU: Xanxus and Nguyễn Selena (Nguyễn Nguyệt Vân Liên) by Sen (@/stepswordsen) ❤️💜🔥🪷

Xanxus and Selena Chibi Icon Commission by Hika (@/onigiwi2namayo)

Selena Bust-up Commission by Ham (@/exoticham_)

Intro

I wanted to update Selena's Character Profile and Relationships Chart 💜🪷

Decided to remake an old post of mine to include Selena centric rambles and update her usage of pronouns.

Figured it's been a long time since I posted about my nyanbinary wife, Selena~ 🐈‍⬛🪷

Nguyễn Selena is my KHR OC who is a Vietnamese non-binary assassin. Her Vietnamese name is Nguyễn Nguyệt Vân Liên.

Her name, Selena, means "moon" 🌙

Her Vietnamese name, Liên, means "lotus flower" in Sino Viet 🪷

In my KHR AU, she joins the Varia as one of their members and lives at their headquarters with the rest of the core Varia members. My wife has NB flag colours~ 💜🖤🤍💛

I mainly ship Selena with Xanxus.

In KHR, Xanxus is the leader of the Varia, an independent assassination squad under the Vongola mafia family. He was initially one of KHR's major antagonists.

You can read more under the cut! 💫

Nguyễn Selena: Relationship Chart 💜

Context

I added context below for my mutuals who don’t know much about KHR, but would still like to tune into my KHR AUs and KHR OC stuff. Feel free to read, only if you want ^^

Vongola Family = The KHR protagonist, Tsuna, is currently training to become the 10th generation boss of the Vongola family. Tsuna and co. are the Vongola family’s 10th generation guardians.

Varia = The Vongola family’s elite independent assassination squad. Their leader is Xanxus.

Source: (X)

Nguyen Selena 💜🪷

About 💐

Selena was born in and grew up in Huế, a major city in Central Vietnam, which was once Vietnam's capital.

Huế (in Central Vietnam) is Selena's birth city. It's a famous tourist spot for its historical monuments like the Purple Forbidden City (紫禁城, Tử cấm thành)

The city served as the Imperial Citadel for the Nguyễn dynasty in the past. The Forbidden Purple City was closed off and reserved only for the nobility.

See the bottom of this post if you wantt to learn more about the Purple Forbidden City 👍

Purple was considered the colour of the nobility. The colour purple was historically seen as the colour of royalty in EA and SEA cultures because it was considered expensive and difficult to make.

“Purple stands for auspice, honor and highest status.”

T: Purple used to be considered a high class color due to the fact that it used to be quite expensive to produce.

(From my friend Tomato)

Selena Chibi Icon Commission by Hika (@/onigiwi2namayo)

Personality (Part 1)

Selena is a Vietnamese non-binary assassin with a soft and earnest personality. She is the protagonist of my KHR AU, which focuses on her daily life after she joined the Varia as one of their members and started living with them. XanLena (Xanxus/Selena) is the main ship.

As a child, she was often seen as unapproachable and emotionally distant and cold, so she "mended" her outer image to appear more approachable to others.

Her personality is gentle and warm, soft and aloof, reserved, calm and collected, sweet, open and thoughtful. Usually seen smiling, friendly. She's the type to get excited around people she's comfortable with, and when talking about her interests.

I associate her with a black cat aesthetic and with plants/flowers: Lotus (her namesake), Wisteria, Hydrangea (beautiful but poisonous purple flowers) 🐈‍⬛🪷💜✨

She likes "strong people and those who are intelligent at their field of expertise." She has an interest in fashion (cute fashion, lolita, traditional clothes), and is a florist and gardener, and plant/flower enthusiast. Very hardworking and passionate about her interests.

She has semi conscious man-eating plants and poisonous plants that respond to her emotions. They can grow larger in size depending on what they take in. She dips her blades’ tips with poison from poisonous plants. Generally knowledgeable about plants.

She has her own garden and likes taking care of many varieties of flowers, plants. She also likes learning about herbs, medicinal remedies, and poisons. Originally very aloof, shy, and reserved. Secludes herself and becomes more withdrawn if left alone.

Selena Bust-up Commission by Ham (@/exoticham_)

Personality (Part 2)

She's not one to get involved too much in things that don't concern her, and because of that, she mainly keeps to herself, but can get along with others when necessary. Usually calm demeanour.

She's more aloof and wary at first around people she doesn't know/isn't too familiar with, but she slowly gets more comfortable and casual with the Varia members as she gets to know them, and eventually opens up more.

Really likes cute things, so she likes collecting fluffy, frilly clothes, historical fashion (traditional clothes), lolita and cute/girly fashion, and plushies. She gets her clothes personally tailored for her (she has some made by her family members).

A soft and gentle person with a rather modest personality. She gets rambly when talking about her flowers and plants. Interested in her gardening and fashion hobbies.

She tries to keep her emotions in check and keep up a level of pragmatism. And is very deliberate in fights with her fighting style... I feel like everything she does about her work is carefully curated. She's interested in fighting and takes pride in her work ethic.

Selena is friendly, so she tries to befriend the other Varia members, whom she considers her co-workers. A calm/level-headed person who’s hardworking and dedicated to her work.

She doesn't get angry often but if she does, she’d definitely be biting peoples’ heads off for it after (verbally first, but he resorts to violence if she's really mad). She has some degree of control and detachment from her work. She has a tinge of insanity, but she’s in control of herself.

She doesn't really think of things like romance so she's a bit dense. So she won't realize if someone's flirting with her unless they're really pushy and assertive. Generally oblivious to flirting cues unless they’re really obvious. She gets flustered easily when her S/O flirts with her.

She likes "strong, intelligent people, someone skilled in their field of expertise." She considers Xanxus a "splendid, wonderful person." To her, a wonderful person is "someone who is strong, someone who has many strengths, is outstanding in terms of their abilities, charismatic, powerful."

Selena's hostile towards Tsuna, the KHR protag, due to Xanxus' context and the Varia's opinions of him. She doesn't like how irresponsible Tsuna is, and his lack of ambition. She hates his ignorance, and his whole goody goody shtick.

As Cinna said, personality wise, Selena and Tsuna would be ok with each other, but morals wise, they're just way too different so they wouldn't get along. Selena is very capable of desensitizing herself from murder and accepting crime, while Tsuna is very hesitant to do that and holds onto the idea of murder being immoral

I think she's aware of how intimidating Xanxus' personality is, especially at the start, (and with how cold and standoffish and emotionally distant Xanxus is, in general), but since she is a nice and sweet, empathetic person, she'd like to bridge the gap with him, but she's also mindful and worried of how to approach him, so she gives him his personal space and respects his boundaries.

Name Etymology

Nguyễn Selena (グエン・セリナ)

Nguyễn Nguyệt Vân Liên (���月雲蓮)

Gen Suzuha (阮月雲蓮)

Nguyễn Nguyệt Vân Liên (阮月雲蓮) = "Moon cloud flower [of Nguyễn clan]"

Rambles (Notion Docs)

Rambles (Text Version)

Copy pasted my rambles if it makes things easier to read.

Selena's Name (Part 1) 🖤💜🤍💛🌙☁️☂

I wanted to add to Selena’s info sheets. Since I’m still working on my personal arts for Selena, I used a Neka (CN avatar maker) maker for this along with the arts I commissioned of her. I just edited the colours on the Neka one to be more saturated for personal use.

I’ll just post the name etymologies post I have for Selena.

Her name is Nguyễn Selena, but her alternate Vietnamese name is Nguyễn Nguyệt Vân Liên. This name describes the lotus flowers under the clouds and moonlight.

The moonlight reflected on the lotus flowers and clouds above. Selena's flame attributes are Cloud and Rain. Purple and blue flames :)

Selena's Vietnamese name, Liên, means “lotus” in Viet. The lotus flower is Vietnam's national flower. It's often called “the flower of the dawn,” and it represents purity and innocence. Lotuses bloom on the surface of water, and shine brightly in light. The lotus flower is Selena's flower, since the symbolism of the lotus flower fits her perfectly.

The lotus flower is a very important sacred flower in Eastern cultures and in Buddhism.

“The lotus grows in muddy water, and yet the dirt and muddy water fall off its leaves and petals, keeping it clean and pure.”

I'm really happy I managed to come up with such a pretty name meaning for Selena~ It fits her perfectly. If you ever want to know how to pronounce my Viet KHR OCs' names, you can ask me! I could probably make a video clip or something.

I’m Viet diaspora, so I’ve been wanting to reconnect with my culture in recent years. Viet names can be really poetic and pretty, so they’re fun to come up with!

Selena’s Name (Part 2) 🖤💜🤍💛🌙☁️☂

Her full name is Nguyễn Selena, but I also wanted to give her a pretty sounding Vietnamese name. I first came up with it around December 2021. Her full Viet name is Nguyễn Nguyệt Vân Liên.

Thankfully it was easy for me to come up with Selena’s name, and Linh’s name, (my other KHR OC).

If I remember correctly, most Viet names and words are pronounced as a single syllable. Some peoples' full Viet names are 2 syllables/words, most tend to be 3 or 4. There's not really any limit in Viet names tbh. I don’t think it’s common, but there are people who have more than 4 syllable names, like 5 or 6.

I think a lot about meanings when I come up with EA/SEA-Asian names for OCs... Selena's name definitely sounds “out there” and unique and irregular.

Selena’s name doesn’t really seem far-fetched to me, since Viet names can be 3 ~ 4 syllables or longer. There's no limit, but it's usually 3, sometimes 4 ~ 5. I think it's fine if her name stands out, given the tradition of Viet names.

From what I understand, Viet names can be almost anything. They’re either super poetic or genuinely funny, like some people have names that are common words. The duality of Viet names LMAO. So it definitely sounds like Selena’s name is plausible and reasonable.

Selena's Abilities 💜💙

Selena is my KHR OC. KHR stands for Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

It’s a shounen that was really popular in EA spaces from the mid to late 2000s.

In KHR, there's the concept of a flame called a “Dying Will Flame” and it literally represents... how strong your dying will, or resolution, is. And in later arcs, it introduces worldbuilding/lore concepts that people have different flame types that each have unique attributes, based on elements found in weather.

I actually love KHR's power system setup, it's very unique. The flame power system is based on elements in weather, which is really neat. And this is exactly why Selena’s stayed as a KHR OC. You can create really interesting powers with this setup. 🥰💞

The power system needs to be fleshed out more tbh (though that’s what I’m here for). KHR's setup gives one of the best environments to make OCs. The different flame types of KHR have a certain “attribute” or “characteristic,” unique to each type. 🔥

Selena is themed with the moon, clouds, and lotuses. This shows in her name. She's also themed with rain and water. Lotuses are aquatic/water flowers, so it makes her having a nice pond to relax by, even more fitting :) 💜🪷🌙☁️

Selena has two different flame attributes. She has Cloud (purple) and Rain (blue) flames. Her main flame attribute is Cloud. 💜☁️

Her secondary flame attribute is Rain. Selena is able to limitedly make rain clouds with her Rain flames. 💙🌧️

Selena could then use her Cloud flames to make her plants grow exponentially out of control. I imagine that when Selena gets mad, her plant weapons just grow giant and grow across the walls and go after people and drain their life force and everything <3

KHR characters use either specialized weapons, or cute Digimons powered by flames.

I still wanna flesh out her powers more since you can come up with all sorts of fun ideas with plant based powers. Anyways, I love my wife. Selena is so wifey wife wife 💜💗💘

(Snippets from the KHR fan-wiki that I figured were relevant)

Source: (X)

Imperial City of Huế, or the Purple Forbidden City, in Vietnam

Source: (X)

Source: (X)

Rambles ✍️

I was debating whether to even tag this at first cuz I haven't finished updating Selena's relationship with the other Varia members on her info sheet... But I figured I should.

I was gonna add more rambles but I'll just put that in a different post.

I love my wifey and my fave KHR meow meow mf sooo much ❤️💜

It's XanLena's 8th year anniversary this year! 🎉 I first made the ship in 2017 💞💘

I originally wrote this all in my Notion docs but I used a combo of screenshots and copy pasting the text.

It feels more fitting to use screenshots for more formatted posts like the info sheets.

Misc Rambles

Sorry but I don't want to retype all this again so I'm just copy pasting these from my Notion doc

Selena's info sheet and character relationship chart was inspired by FGO Materials' character profile formats where it lists a chara's general info, usage of pronouns, quotes, relationships with other charas, etc.

I still need to revamp the quotes with Selena's relationships with the other Varia members so I just posted Xanxus' part for now

I also included my rambles with friends! ⭐

Selena is the type who's calm and gentle but likes to keep to herself regarding matters that don't concern her. She's more aloof when she doesn't know the person well, but eventually opens up to the other Varia members.

I imagine Selena speaks in a really polite and formal way to Xanxus out of respect for him.

Xanxus and Hibari are my no. 1 fave KHR characters (tied) 🥰

Also used textures on my art.

Also I'm just thinking of the recent FGO: Summer 7 event with Douman growing cursed morning glories (vampiric shikigami), flowers that suck blood.

I NEED THIS FOR SELENA

DOUMAN BASED

Selena's man eating plants 🥰💞

Selena is very soft and gentle, but she can be a little unhinged, as a treat!

Selena is a gardener and florist (flower enjoyer and enthusiast)

[blrecs]

02/50: remains of the old bl days (shoko hidaka, “blue morning”)

Long-time readers (i.e. old friends of mine who been subjected to my rants and raves for years) will know that one of my frequently-repeated opinions is that "butlers were the original omegaverse," at least when it comes to original bl works.

I think this opinion is noncontroversial, just non-obvious, and that you'd come to the same conclusion if you thought about it. Omegaverse from its inception has always been deeply entrenched, if not interested, in questions of power as it is expressed through gender essentialism/discrimination, and to what extent love-as-sex/sex-as-love overcomes, or submits, or complicates those questions. Butler/master stories (when written well, at least) are fundamentally omegaverse, but with class and social status instead of gender.

Both take something that actually exists in our real world (gender/sex, butlering) and twists it to suit alternate universe needs. BL butler/master stories essentialize the profession/status of being a butler or servant, just as gender is essentialized in omegaverse. They are binaries that are imposed upon characters; one is born a master and often is born into a family status or lineage or situation that results in one being a servant or butlering, just as one is born into a secondary gender. Being a butler (or a master) maps on to certain qualities that allow us to categorize the character similar to other binaries: male/female, top/bottom. A character need not stay within the characteristic confines of their role, and deviations are exciting: the master might submit to the butler in some way or serve him sexually, the butler might be a disgraced rich man, just as a character from an alpha family may be born an omega, or the omega be the head of some powerful organization and refuse to submit to an alpha. However, just as in omegaverse, rarely does a character fully become another role/gender, even if they routinely perform another role/gender (so, a butler who is able to command the master is still just a butler who defies the conventions of his role). Just as one character may bite another to form a bond, a master may take on a butler involuntarily (indentured servitude for familial debts) or voluntarily (butlers refusing opportunities to work elsewhere to remain with their master, swearing loyalty to each other). That bond, or lack thereof, and the circumstances of its imposition are the axis around which the central love story rotates. And of course, a butler only serves one master, and a master only has one butler.

So what is my point? Really, nothing. It's an observation I've been sitting on for years, and I like thinking about where tropes come from and where they go. Many bl manga tropes are about creating a dyad with Type A and Type B that are codependent somehow, where the roles require some sort of performance or action that lie outside of the character's personalities: sentinel/guide, dom/sub, alpha/omega, master/butler. In butler/master stories, you see the influence and seeds of other genres where the dimorphism is less rigid, but includes similar themes of loyalty, protection, care-taking: bodyguard/heir, managers/idol, editor/writer (but not like tattooist/florist, or bartender/customer, or policeman/criminal! An essay for another time!). And in these tropes, there is an element of predestination, or the body knowing something before your heart does, love manifesting in a tangible way before your heart becomes aware of it. Your body was born the way it was because we were meant to be, or you discover that all the choices you made in your life were so you could go down this path of meeting this one person you were meant for.

Which is all to say, Sachimo understood the assignment when she wrote butlers in an omegaverse world with "Kashikomarimashita, Destiny," and Hidaka Shoko was lightyears ahead of her time when she wrote "Blue Morning."1

In 2025, there is no way to read Akihito as anything but an alpha from a storied alpha family that comes to look upon his alpha-dominated society with suspicion. After all, is his omega butler Katsuragi not a better man than all of them? It takes no stretch of the imagination to see Katsuragi as a potential alpha heir cast aside by Akinao when he manifests as an omega. Now Akihito's guardian and the interim head of the Kuze family, Katsuragi knows he controls the floor by spreading his pheromones among the other alpha heads of houses and resents himself for it. He wants to lead like an alpha, with power and not with sex, and it disgusts him to see Akihito throwing his birthright away. Finally, Ishizaki is a beta: the son of a nouveau rich merchant family, he alone lives like the rest of us normies, in a world where money (and not nobility dimorphism) is king. (As is Amamiya—his arc is very much Akihito saying, "why do you, a beta, submit yourself to these terrible sexual politics when it is none of your business and you are free to walk away?" But Amamiya is at heart a poet and cannot give up the chance to see a fated mate bond with his own eyes.)

Through this lens, "Blue Morning" becomes predictable, almost pedestrian, a victim to tropes that hadn't yet been invented when it first began serializing in 2009. Of course Akihito cannot install his uncle (born a Kuze, even if banished, and thus an alpha) as the head of house—it would violate his desire to end discrimination by secondary gender. Of course Katsuragi becomes a coward, silent and almost submissive to Akihito in the later arcs, when he allows himself to recognize their bond for what it is; his omega nature must reveal itself, and he cannot disobey the call of their fated bond. Of course Katsuragi could not become the head of the Kuze family. An uppity omega is, in the end, still an omega. But of course Katsuragi cannot marry Akihito as his mate (remain Akihito's butler) either—that would mean Katsuragi has lost to his fate as an omega. And so the happiest end available to him is to be bonded to his alpha lover but remain "free-range," as it were, unbeholden to his position and his secondary gender.

Which is not to say that "Blue Morning" feels pedestrian when you read it. In fact, far from it. It is a bl manga like none other to me. The closest analogue for me is not anything else in its genre (like "Kashikomarimashita Destiny" or Fumi Yoshinaga's French Revolution period stories "Lovers in the Night" / "Gerard and Jacques") but rather the megahit political c-drama "Nirvana in Fire," a story that also centers two very stubborn leads who care so much about each other that they end up tying themselves and everyone around them into catastrophically huge knots trying to do what's best for each other. Though the stakes at play are not as high, Katsuragi gives Mei Changsu a run for his money in the "strategist with a revenge plot years in the making" department, and Akihito is straight-up Prince Jing, yearning for a man he can't have, hesitant to put himself in the hands of the man he does have, stupid and brilliant in turns.

I was struck by this similarity most especially in Volume 5, where Akihito's rash plans for retirement lead to Katsuragi making an equally rash plan to bring Akihito's uncle Naotsugu out of obscurity and into the play for succession. To get Akihito to play along, Katsuragi does something heretofore inconceivable: he confesses to Akihito. Though he does eventually say the words I love you, his monologue leading up to that is the true pièce de résistance: "For the rest of my life, I must answer to you. Perhaps there is some other more understandable way of saying this. But I can find nothing other than these words."

A genre-perfect, character-perfect confession—and one that temporarily disarms both Akihito and the reader. For a moment we dare to believe that Akihito and Katsuragi are on the same page for once, that love has brought them together. Akihito knows there is a plot afoot, but he puts himself wholly in Katsuragi's hands. "I don't know what you're trying to do here, but I've given up on doubting you anymore. I trust you." It feels like a climax of some sort, an explosive movement towards love and a happy ending. But it is not. If it were that easy, Hidaka-sensei could not work her magic.

If Katsuragi was forced out of his dream of revenge in Volume 4, it is Akihito that shakes himself awake from a dream in Volume 5. "What am I doing?" he asks himself when he is finally faced with Naotsugu. "I was carried away by joy, simply delighted that Katsuragi's mood was different from before." He realizes that he trusts Katsuragi, but trust is not the same as blind obedience. Love, Hidaka argues, is not acquiescence, it is not surrendering yourself to someone, it is not allowing yourself to be wholly subsumed in the life or ambitions of another. (This, too, would fit very neatly into an omegaverse story.) Because Katsuragi never knew love himself, he thinks that love is working tirelessly for Akihito's future, to remain a servant and shadow to Akihito. But because Akihito loves Katsuragi, truly loves him as a person, he cannot just let Katsuragi get his way, because to do so would be to allow Katsuragi to neglect himself. Akihito must think many steps ahead, to build a future not just for himself but for the man Katsuragi won't allow himself to be.

This was also Nirvana in Fire at its best, scheming in the dark to give the man you love a future, even if it means scheming against him. At the core of both of these stories is the idea that love, alone, is not enough. It does not matter that Mei Changsu is Xiao Jingyan's beloved friend Lin Chen, if the crimes of the past are not reinvestigated and Prince Jing is not on the throne. It does not matter if Katsuragi returns Akihito's affections if he still cannot walk side-by-side with Akihito as his equal. It does not matter how many times your feelings may get hurt or hurt you in turn. You must get up every morning and work through those feelings, work hard for a better future, for the one you love if not for yourself. In the words of MJ Lenderman, we all got work to do.

Well, just like NIF, if there's a criticism I can lodge against "Blue Morning," it's that the tension completely falls apart by the last volume. But of course it would. Once you have dealt all your hands, there is nothing to do but to watch the chips fall. In volume 8, we finally get to see Akihito and Katsuragi be lovey-dovey, and there's a weak feint where, for two hot seconds, Katsuragi considers going with Akihito to England, which is I think only there to show you that yes, he really is head over heels for Akihito, even if he acts like a stone-cold bitch (positive). There is a very brief time skip into a reunion (I've written about my annoyances with that trick here), and then finally the other shoe from Volume 5's meeting with Naotsugu drops. And of course (spoiler!) it is Naotsugu's child, whom Akihito and Katsuragi will raise together.

Because that is the biological imperative of the omegaverse, to bring forth children through the bonded alpha/omega pair, even if the child is not biologically theirs.

Hidaka-sensei has truly thought of, and predicted, everything.

You can buy "Blue Morning" anywhere SuBLime sells their manga. Happy reading.

A while back I had a very infrequent newsletter, and one of the entries was about "Kashikomarimashita, Destiny" and the idea of the beta couple in long-running bl manga (not in the omegaverse sense but in the first vs second couple sense). If you're interested in reading it, I've reposted that entry here. ↩︎

[thydungeongal]

What would you say are some good examples of knowledge checks in games being good gameplay?

I think for a lot of people knowledge checks seem like the obvious benefit of having a character with high Intelligence (or the system equivalent), that the character would be well-read and might have lots of knowledge about the game world that the player might not. As an alternative to the GM deciding arbitrarily whether the character knows a given specific fact.

Or alternatively, good ways of addressing the above issues without knowledge checks.

I also hear comments like "GMs don't gate your lore behind a roll" but the alternatives to that seem like either offering exposition outright, or having that lore be discoverable in game (in which case it might have even less chance of being found)

So, while I agree that Knowledge skills do provide, on the surface, a benefit for playing a high Intelligence character, the actual emergent gameplay resulting from Knowledge checks the way they are often handled does not generate interesting gameplay within the context of a game like D&D.

If it's a piece of lore that is not critical to overcoming a challenge but that could provide further context to a situation I personally find it preferable to show, not tell. Provide the players with all the clues they need to put together the bigger picture, but leave the actual sussing out to them. A knowledge check to hand out such lore is basically a binary dice roll to grant the players access to a lore dump.

As part of a challenge knowledge checks are also a bit irksome. To make a knowledge check an integral part of a challenge you basically have to gate access to some knowledge, either behind gameplay (exploring to find that knowledge) or a check. You could do both, and in many ways that can be rewarding, basically allowing characters with the requisite knowledge skill to skip the exploring to find that knowledge part of the gameplay. But at the same time, it can very much feel like robbing the group of gameplay because of a dice roll. A single dice roll used to resolve a question of "do your characters know a thing" will almost without fail be less interesting than a series of hurdles that characters overcome to answer the question of "how will your characters find out the thing."

As for good ways to handle knowledge and reward high character Intelligence in gameplay, I think there are ways to do it that can be tied to the process of finding a piece of knowledge: I am quite fond of @cavegirlpoems's application of it in The Stygian Library, where character Intelligence plays a part in the central point of the module, which is looking for a specific piece of information within the library. Character Intelligence does not act as a way to automatically solve the puzzle, but as one component of the greater library crawl that determines how long characters will have to spend in the fucked up library.

But yeah, knowledge-based gates are already kinda naff and having the key be a binary dice roll is effectively non-gameplay. I understand how knowledge skills made their way into D&D, as a way to make the process of figuring out what a character knows less arbitrary, but after almost thirty years of playing D&D and other games I kind of feel that especially in the context of fantasy adventure games knowledge skills are kind of a solution looking for a problem.

A few ways I have seen "knowledge" type skills handled in interesting ways in games:

A knowledge check basically lets the character bank a number of questions relevant to the check result that the GM has to answer truthfully when the player wants more knowledge about a situation relevant to the situation.

Fantasy Craft has Knowledge checks, but no single Knowledge skill. Instead, characters have Studies which translate to bonuses on Knowledge checks but can also grant bonuses to other checks given they relayed to the study. (This is one of my favorite ways of handling Knowledge within the context of d20 based fantasy adventure games.)

I can't actually think of a third example right now

[mielwriting]

Would I enjoy Honkai: Starrail?

So I was just thinking how between Genshin and HSR, it's a shame that I don't see of the dragons being women (Genshin has Apep, but she's not playable and we don't even know what she looks like when she's not covered by a sandstorm so I'm not sure she counts) and then I find out Hsr is getting a new character, Lingsha, and she's a dragon!

Maybe this is what finally convinces me to sign up. But as interesting as the lore is, I'm not convinced. Below are some things I'm concerned about, and would like answers to before I get sucked into another gacha game:

I didn't play Honkai Impact or any of the previous games. I'm vaguely aware of some white-haired (robot? I think?) lady named Kiana who vaguely resembles Genshin's Unkown God and ascends to be some sort of cosmic deity herself. I'm also aware of some red-haired lady who died in some sort of tragic sacrifice, and I think there's an item of hers on display somewhere in hsr as an easter egg. And the Herscherr of the Wind (whatever that is) Wendy, Venti's counterpart, died too. But besides that, I have no context. Without having played previous Honkai games, would I be incredibly lost, even if I got caught up on the limited-time events that I missed?

I've heard Hoyo favors Hsr, and it's better in storytelling: for example, the Trailblazer is more plot-relevant than the Traveler, and unlike Genshin, hsr playable characters are actually standing around the map as npcs, and the player can interact with them, even when there's not some quest that just finished. And that the map feels more alive because of that. Is that true?

I love open-world games. Never before have I played something like Genshin. In a lot of games I'm used to playing, you have to stay on the specific path that's relevant to the main story. You cannot climb on top of that house. You cannot even walk into the forest off the path. Genshin, however, lets you go everywhere. Who cares if it's relevant to the plot? You can climb on top of that house, you can go to the top of that mountain. Most of the time, there's a chest up there or an achievement for making it that high up. I'm told hsr is not like that at all. The Trailblazer can't even jump. Would I still enjoy it? How limited is the exploration exactly?

I also love Genshin's representation of queer and disabled people, both in npcs and in playable characters (admittedly some of it is subtext). There's Arlecchino and Zhongli with their gender fluidity, there's Wanderer with his trans allegory, there's Venti who was described as non binary to the voice actor, there's Lyney and Gorou and Furina and many others who wear a bit of the opposite gender's clothes, there's eimiko and kavetham and beiguang with all of their subtext. There's Dunyarazard and Collei and Baizhu who are chronically ill, there's Chiori and Albedo and Alhaitham who are probably autistic. Etc. I've heard Firefly is disabled (chronically ill with a curse or something?) and I know Ratiorine is a popular ship (I'm attached already). But how close to canon is all that? Are there lots of queer and disabled characters?

I also love secret identities as a trope. My favorite archons are the ones who spend their time pretending to not be archons. I love Kaeya's angst about secretly having been sent as a spy, and Albedo secretly being not-human who may be forced to kill everyone he loves, and how both of them may or may not be scared of the Archon, and yet the archon in question seems to like them. Love that drama. Are there characters with similar Secret Identity drama in hsr?

I love the religious themes and how one theme central to Genshin's story is how gods (and god-adjacent non-human characters) are still people, with flaws and fears and basic social needs. It's sweet. Does hsr have similar themes of divine beings being human at heart?

I also love the escapism of Genshin -it's bright and colorful, both in marketing and in the open-world itself. Also, there's no internet or cell phones or anything. I know that if you pause hsr, whatever character you're currently playing as pulls out their phone. I've heard Penacony compared to the tourist areas of Las Vegas (derogatory). It looks so grey. Is hsr truly so much more grey and modern compared to Genshin? Is it just as escapist?

I feel a similar amount of freedom in Genshin's combat system. I'm told Hsr's system is turn-based, and you the player barely have to press any buttons during those moments. Would I find that fun?

I don't need another gacha game, and I definitely don't have the same amount of time to devote to hsr and I already do genshin. But still, I'm hoping for people to prove my misconceptions wrong.

[imagitory]

Hi all! So even if I wasn't thrilled with Wish as a final product, I was really inspired by Brittney Lee's wonderful concept art for a more human-esque "Star"...so I decided to take that idea and put my own twist on it! Because as much as I like Brittney Lee's concept, I had two main thoughts in the back of my head while drawing this --

I actually liked that Star in the film wasn't explicitly male or female, and Disney hasn't ever done a non-binary main character in one of their animated films before, so I thought a more androgynous look could be interesting.

The original concept's hair makes him look A LOT like Jack Frost from Dreamwork's Rise of the Guardians, in my opinion -- and yes, although I like Jack, I don't see Star being much like him.

So -- thinking to salute the original idea of the filmmakers to take inspiration from past Disney projects -- I took visual inspiration from several characters, most from the Golden and Silver Age of Disney Animation (except for Puck from Disney's Gargoyles TV series, but come on, he's just fun), so as to play up the mute, but still very extroverted, sweet, playful personality this character would have. Much like mute side characters from some of Disney's previous works like Dopey, Dumbo, and the Spring Sprite, you would never be in doubt about what Star is feeling (if nothing else than because like Tinker Bell, they're prone to change color like a mood ring 😂) -- but as a central character of a full feature film with a very close (possibly even romantic) bond with our heroine Asha, they would have the chance to express a wider range of feelings than their predecessors...not just through their animation, but also (I would add!) a score that captures their mercurial air and feelings as well as Fantasia blended its art seamlessly with famous classical pieces.

To close us out -- some of the instrumental pieces from previous Disney projects that served as a playlist for my image of Star while working on this! Because for me, music and Disney have always gone hand-in-hand, and honestly, a cohesive and powerful score outside of just the lyrical music numbers always makes a Disney film 150% better...and I think in Wish's case, it would've also been elevated, if its music had come together in conjunction with the instrumentals meant for each scene to create a more cohesive score.

On the Rooftop / What's a Kiss / Perturbed Pixie - Peter Pan Bundle of Joy - Inside Out The Nutcracker Suite - Fantasia To Be Free - Aladdin Magical House Cleaning / Blue or Pink - Sleeping Beauty Under the Stars - The Lion King The Crystal Chamber - Atlantis: The Lost Empire Main Title - Return to Neverland

Have a magical night, everyone! xoxo

[jeswii]

I'm actually not done with the Doctor Who analysis because I'm scrolling through the tag and I think we're missing something:

A decent central theme and messaging does not making the writing of the episode inherently good.

Sci-Fi is political, it has always been political, and it's rarely as subtle as people claim it to be. This has also always been true with Doctor Who. And it's bringing up points that are important to the world we live in at the moment. But a story having central themes and political statements does not make the narrative inherently good or impactful.

Commentary on the political climate of the world doesn't make an episode inherently enjoyable, the writing is so lackluster. Few of these episodes end with me feeling emotionally moved by the statements they're making, most of the time it ends and I can say "yeah I get it" and that's about it. (Boom and 73 Yards are the exceptions so far)

I get that Space Babies is an anti-abortion metaphor.

I understand the importance of having non-binary characters on screen like Maestro, especially for a British audience.

And the importance of trans characters on screen like Rose Noble

I get that Boom is the way capitalisms fuels the war-industrial complex

And that 'thoughts and prayers' doesn't solve a problem that's killing people

I get that the internet can create echo chambers for racists

I get that these people would rather die on the 'frontiers' than seeing a black man as an equal and letting him help them because of their biases

It's not hard to understand each episode and the themes of them, what's hard is to enjoy the writing of those themes, the characters, and the plot. (The actors are doing well with the scripts they're given. Ncuti is an amazing actor)

So let's say it again:

A decent central theme and messaging does not making the writing of the episode inherently good.

[chekovbeforeyouwrekovyourself]

So I’m like 3 episodes into fhjy and can I just talk about Kristen? I gotta talk about Kristen.

I think that Ally Beardsley is just one of the fucking greats, man. Not like in a technical proficiency kind of way, but in playing a character so true. I grew up going to Catholic school and then was a little atheist sapphicly inclined teen dipshit, and I just feel such a connection to Kristen Applebees. The sort of teenage invincibility of disconnecting from a toxic family and a religious view that’s been pushed on you since before you could string together a cogent sentence. The way she is with Cassandra and how that reflects in her relationship with Tracker, is a sublime amount of what feels like a fumbling intentionality.

Ally plays Kristen with such nuanced and multifaceted conviction. When you have that type of devotion and it’s running parallel to this sort of self interested (almost selfish) need to figure yourself out and to not be wrong, to not FEEL wrong.

It’s saying sorry (to your god and your girlfriend) when you don’t have any real remorse because you’re not feeling anything. You’re disowned by your parents, you are deeply traumatized by the universe, you just want to understand something for fucking once, without it becoming another wrong choice, another mistake. That conviction that runs as deep as your fear, it’s so wild to feel, so you’re just trying to get through it.

I just see a lot of my teenage self in Kristen. Now I’m a 26 year old non binary dipshit who feels a deep spirituality with no real central focus or authored tenets, I’m estranged from my family in multiple senses, and somewhere, deep inside there’s still that scared teen who just wants to feel like I’m doing the right thing, the good thing for me. I think it’s hard to align the good thing and the things in your best interests sometimes. Especially when you’re so divorced from yourself as a person, y’know?

Anyway, I just think the world of Ally Beardsley and how they play Kristen, and I’m sure as I watch more of Junior Year I’ll have more to say about it all.

[tobiasdrake]

With your tonal language I can’t tell if you are exaggerating or genuinely hating Yakou.

My relationship with Yakou is complicated, in large part because his creator and I have very different sets of values. Yakou is a character designed to be complicated, but to leave you with an ultimately positive feeling towards him. He's a man haunted by his past, but also one with strong enough values and convictions that he can serve as something of a role model nonetheless.

My issue with Yakou is that a lot of the things that are designated as his flaws - his heavy drinking and willingness to murder - are things I don't have a problem with. Meanwhile, the things that are designated as his virtues? Well....

Kazutaka Kodaka is a man with profoundly heteronormative views on gender that come out in his work. He has strong opinions about binary masculinity and femininity, which get expressed in his writing - and his record with trans and non-binary characters is spotty.

With Yakou, this comes out as a sort of inadvertent foot-in-mouth syndrome, where he can become incredibly obnoxious in the moments where he's meant to be likable simply as a consequence of what Kodaka thinks are good values.

Yakou and Desuhiko are the two characters through which Kodaka explores masculinity. Fubuki, Yuma, Kurumi, and Vivia all have genders, but their stories aren't about gender. Halara, meanwhile, has neither a binary gender nor a story about gender. But Yakou and Desuhiko have masculinity itself as a major topic of conversation.

Which. Means. Kodaka, a guy with spotty views on gender, uses these characters to talk about gender. That's. Okay.

Desuhiko is used as a negative portrayal of masculinity. His worst traits are derived from trying too hard to express his masculinity. He's a kid with low self-esteem chafing under the yoke of trying to live up to a cultural standard, to earn respect by Doing The Thing whether he even understands why he's doing it or not.

This leaves him drifting through life constantly exclaiming "HAVE I MENTIONED HOW STRAIGHT AND NORMAL I AM!? OH BOY I SURE DO LOVE WOMEN!" to everyone he meets. He's identified The Womenz as the cure for his insecurity, even though he doesn't actually seem that invested and is honestly surprisingly chaste. He's just performing masculinity, hoping he'll get an A+ grade in Manliness and that maybe that will finally give him value as a person.

For as much as I dunk on Desuhiko, this is a fairly good commentary on what a patriarchal and heteronormative society does to insecure boys.

But then we have Yakou. He offers the counterpoint, as a more positive portrayal of masculinity. But. Like. His central thesis isn't that different from Desuhiko's. He's a romantic at heart who's central thesis is that the true measure of a man is defined by his relationship to a woman.

He's the heteronormative ideal: A man who controls his emotions, loves with all his heart, objectifies women to demonstrate a healthy sexuality but is committed in his heart of hearts to this one woman, who he would give his life for without question. He would be happily married with a white picket fence and 2.5 kids if not for this one asshole who stole his woman from him.

The moments where you're meant to roll your eyes and chuckle at Desuhiko are when he's trying to express masculinity. And the moments where you're meant to like Yakou are, similarly, moments when he's successfully expressing masculinity.

But the values he expresses in those moments? The things that come out of his mouth that are meant to make you appreciate him more? They're things like "Men exist just for women" and "You'd be prettier if you smiled more", confidently asserted in what's supposed to be a touching moment of emotionally connecting with the player character and, by extension, the player.

Most of the time when I'm dunking on Yakou, it's just for fun. He's far from my favorite character but he's harmless, and there are things I do enjoy about him. But the moments Kodaka writes when he's trying to make Yakou look good are the times when I can't fucking stand him at all.

[alpaca-clouds]

Angel Sanctuary Was Sure Wild (and trans af)

Two days ago I finally got my fingers onto some translation of the Angel Sanctuary sequel. And I realized... I have not rambled on my tumblr about that manga before.

I was in 5th grade, when Angel Sanctuary released in Germany. And I got the first few volumes. (Hell, technically my mother got them for me because it was about Christianity. She had a hand for getting me stuff that was about killing God when she only did superficial research and got me "fantasy with religious themes".) But I did not have enough manga to keep collecting, so I never read the full thing.

Until a few years ago, when a friend sold me his collection of the full series. Imagine my surprise when I started reading it and realized the thing that 11yo me could not realize (because they had no idea what a trans person was): The first person you see in this manga is a trans woman. In fact, a good chunk of the characters in this manga fall under the trans umbrella, are gender non-conforming or at the very least struggle with their gender identity.

Because, well... Let's put it this way. The series does bring quite a few reasons for why God has to die. But a big part of it is: God in this manga is a fucking transphobe. A central theme in this manga really has to do with gender.

Some of the characters have gender issues, because they are trans. Some have gender issues, because they were reborn and had a different gender in their past-life. And some have gender issues, because of being non-conforming and society is shitty about it.

In this manga there is also a non-binary character, who actually medically transitions by taking hormones. And this manga was released during the 1990s!

And, yeah. Shit man. I love this stuff.

It should be noted though: If you want to have a look at it, be warned. The manga is Yosei and does contain tons and tons of body horror. Some of it being gender-related body horror as well. And, which might be even more important to some: The main romance in this manga is between the main character Setsuna and his younger sister. So yes, this one contains a consensual incestual romance.

[milk-545]

Here is the art! One more character Under tower: T.O.O.R

Peppi Fakey!

Facts about him:

He was the first character created by Under Tower, who was drawn by someone else( @bvadmin ). This was a long time ago, when S.O.T.T was still being produced.

He can no longer melt, change the shape of his body and slide because he has bones and real organs with blood inserted inside him

He has a higher medical education. He also works as a chief physician at a central hospital. He can easily give you an injection or a drip at home.

He is sweet and polite by nature, calm and sociable human (almost human). He doesn't like to talk about the past, and fakes from other AUs... Scares him.

He has a wife, even though he is genderless(Non-binary). He still communicates with friends and gets along with children!

That's all! Good luck and have a nice day, some person!

[h-ironosarchive]

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀𝐀𝐑𝐄  𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒  𝐎𝐔𝐓  𝐓𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓  ?  𝐈  𝐃𝐎𝐍’𝐓  𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖  𝐈𝐅  𝐈𝐓’𝐒  𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐃𝐘  𝐎𝐑  𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓  …  𝐈  𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘  𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄  𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒  𝐅𝐎𝐑  𝐘𝐎𝐔,  𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐑. 

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐌𝐎𝐎𝐍  𝐂𝐀𝐍  𝐁𝐄  𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐇,  𝐁𝐔𝐓  𝐈  𝐂𝐀𝐍’𝐓  𝐒𝐄𝐄  𝐀  𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆  𝐈𝐍  𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐒𝐊𝐘.  𝐈  𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘  𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄  𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒  𝐅𝐎𝐑  𝐘𝐎𝐔,  𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐑.

𝕾𝖎𝖗  𝐋𝐈𝐋𝐀  𝐌𝐎𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐍𝐄�� of  𝐀𝐔𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐀,  a  physical  description.

ꫂ ၴႅၴ  𓂃  a  𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆  rose  .  .  .

♯┆  face  claim  :  for  all  intents  and  purposes  of  having  a  picture  in  mind,  lila’s  face  claim  is  argenti  of  honkai  star  rail.  there  is  no  affiliation  to  the  character  in-game  or  in-game  canon.

♯┆species  &&  attributes  :  lila  is  a  vinge,  which  is  the  native  species  of  aurevia.  because  of  this,  she  has  large  wings  on  her  back,  which  has  a  wingspan  of  42ft.  her  back  wings  are  larger  than  normal,  and  drag  on  the  floor  when  she  walks.  because  of  her  vinge  ancestry  and  her  family,  moonstone  vinges  are  born  with  2  extra  pairs  of  wings,  one  pair  right  under  her  ears  (  imagine  sunday  of  hsr  ),  and  one  pair  on  her  ankles.  both  pairs  are  useless  in  flight  and  are  much  smaller  than  her  back  wings.

♯┆gender  &&  pronouns  :  vinges  are  a  non-binary  species,  with  no  emphasis  on  gender  and  a  shared  biology.  because  of  this,  vinges  have  both  sexual  reproductive  parts  (  imagine  ryo  asuka’s  demon  form  in  devilman  crybaby  ).  vinges  typically  do  not  assign  themselves  to  any  set  pronouns,  however,  lila  associates  herself  with  she/her  or  they/them  pronouns.  she  does  not  like  he/him  pronouns.

♯┆build  :  due  to  the  fact  that  lila  is  a  knight,  she  is  rather  fit  with  a  bigger  build.  although  they  are  on  a  bit  on  the  leaner  side,  she  is  still  incredibly  toned  with  a  nice  amount  of  muscle.  their  back  is  probably  the  most  muscular  due  to  the  fact  that  their  wings  are  so  heavy.  she  has  a  rather  flat  chest,  which  she  is  thankful  for  due  to  not  having  to  modify  her  armour  too  much.

♯┆height  :  vinges  are  a  naturally  tall  species,  with  their  standard  height  being  7 ft,  5in  or  above.  lila  stands  at  a  typically  normal  height  of  7 ft,  8in.

♯┆hair  &&  eye  colour  :  lila’s  hair  is  a  bright,  almost  cherry  red.  it  is  long  and  wavy  and  rests  at  the  very  bottom  of  her  lower  back.  she  has  only  cut  it  once,  and  despite  how  long  it  is,  lila  has  mastered  doing  her  hair  in  under  10  minutes.  their  eye  colour  is  an  emerald  green.  however,  she  has  a  central  heterochromia  in  her  eyes  which  is  a  gold  colour  and  does  not  affect  her  vision.

♯┆notable  features  :  despite  her  fiery  long  hair  which  constantly  gets  her  unwanted  attention,  lila  also  has  very  long  and  thick  eyelashes,  as  well  as  multiple  moles  on  her  face.  she  has  one  under  their  left  eye,  one  above  her  lip,  one  on  her  nose,  and  one  on  her  jaw.  she  has  a  few  scars  along  her  arms  and  legs  due  to  knight  training  as  well.

♯┆outfits  :  in  the  majority  of  cases,  lila  is  wearing  her  standard  knight’s  uniform,  which  is  armoured  in  a  form  of  protection.  on  days  where  she  is  not  on  duty,  she  is  not  someone  who  enjoys  dresses  or  dressing  incredibly  formal.  she  enjoys  a  relaxed  style  of  clothing  (  imagine  prince  eric  from  the  little  mermaid  ).

[ariainstars]

"The Acolyte" is Cancelled

or

Why the Woke Controversy is Getting Ridiculous

In all honesty, I didn’t go crazy for The Acolyte. I found it rather mediocre. But I had already read and heard so much discussion and criticism about it, both from people who hate it and from the ones who liked it, before and after the second season was cancelled, that I watched it just in order to form my own opinion.

What’s Positive

The Acolyte is a series that doesn’t thrive on fanservice. Finally new characters, new perspective, no reference to characters or events from the classic movies. It’s not a great series, but at least it's something new and fresh.

It’s not a story of Good vs. Bad. Everybody is human and fallible. And people get to step into other people’s shoes instead of simply judging them - Mae putting on Osha’s clothes, Osha putting on Qimir’s helmet etc.

“The Force does not belong to the Jedi.” (Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi)

Yes, some in the galaxy far, far away call it The Thread. And use it their own way. Both ways might be wrong. That’s what The Acolyte is about: Osha is raised by two very different mentalities and finds both don’t suit her, so she joins Qimir who is also looking to find his own path.

The Controversy

No, the show is not perfect by a long shot, but everything I read and hear about how bad it is, how lesbians and diversity and wokeness are at the root of the problem is stupid.

1. The Acolyte is not about lesbians. The central relationships are a) between two sisters, b) a Jedi and his apprentice (father-daughter relationship) and c) a male and female former Jedi (erotic relationship? maybe? wasn’t made clear enough).

2. No one was gendered by Disney in Star Wars. Characters are heterosexual or you don’t find out if they have a sexuality at all because it doesn’t matter for the story. If Aniseya (the twin’s mother figure) and Mother Koril (the woman who bore them) are a couple, I noticed no love, partnership or erotic spark between them.

3. The two main characters of The Acolyte grow up in an all-female society, but that has nothing to do with the glorification of lesbians or hatred against men. The women distrust the Jedi because they want to take their daughters; they never say or show that they hate men. Also, the Jedi who want to take the girls include two female ones.

4. The Dathomir witches Asajj Ventres belonged to were an all-female coven, too. Nothing new here. (In Dune we have the Bene Gesserit, also all female). No one called them a bunch of lesbians, to my knowledge.

5. The most impressive fighter and Force user in the entire show is Qimir aka the Stranger. A guy. We even got to see him naked. Yup, definitively a guy. Not a woman or anything in between.

6. I noticed nothing erotic (lesbian or otherwise) in the entire show. The only time we feel a little erotic spark is when Qimir openly flirts with Osha, i.e. a guy with a girl, and that isn’t even requited by her. Amandla Stenberg, the actress who portrays Osha and Mae, came out as non-binary, but that doesn’t mean anything in this connection because the two characters she plays aren’t (or if they are, it’s never said).

What Is Actually Behind It? The Usual Thing...

Jedi Stans

Many die-hard Star Wars fans are upset because the Jedi Knights have always been some sort of infallible superheroes to them. More recent productions show that the Jedi are actually the problem. George Lucas himself had already done that with the prequels; they weren’t as well received, but he was still the creator of the classic films, and at the time there was no social media, so the backlash wasn't as vicious as today.

Sol: “She was just a child.” The Stranger: “You brought her here.”

„The majority of my colleagues can’t imagine a galaxy without the Jedi. And I can understand why. When you’re looking up to heroes, you don’t have to face what’s right in front of you.“

„I think the Jedi are a massive system of unchecked power posing as a religion. A delusional cult that claims to control the uncontrollable. You project an image of goodness and restraint. But it’s only a matter of time before one of you snaps. And when, not if that happens, who will be strong enough to stop him?” (Senator Rayencourt to Master Vernestra)

It’s words like these, and the actions that prove them, that makes die-hard fans get out of their minds with rage. Because it’s the truth, a truth they have spent decades ignoring. Still in the classics, Obi-Wan and Yoda tried to manipulate Luke to push him to commit patricide. Ben Solo is what Luke would have become: a self-loathing patricide burning in an inner hell. And we see over and over how a Jedi is the first to draw a weapon although they are allegedly trained to fight only in defense. The Jedi have made so many mistakes and committed so many sins that I could spend hours writing about nothing else. But woe if you dare to attack the alleged heroes who can make things float and have shiny sabers and a detached, uncaring attitude (or at least, pretend to have it).

If a Star Wars show had Jedi for protagonists and these would be the infallible, all-wise superheroes hardcore fans take them for, these fans wouldn't mind one bit if these Jedi were black, Asian, female, lesbians, non-binary or anything else. They would swallow it all, hook, line and sinker.

Some YouTubers Apparently Don't Have a Life

Now Star Wars is owned by Disney, and the antis see the studios as an enemy they need to fight tooth and nails because apparently, there is no life without a fight. These fans are a much bigger problem than the studios. Thanks to social media, any idiot can easily post their unthinking, hateful opinion online and gain a following of fans who are of the exact same opinion but would never listen to another perspective, or watch the tv show in question in the first place.

This whole discourse just shows what a polarized world we live in. You don’t like something, so you „fight” against the supposed bad guys who are responsible (in this case the Disney studios).

The Acolyte had few viewers because apparently many fans watched and listened to haters online instead of watching the actual show and forming an opinion of their own. Also, it is well known that the author is a lesbian and the protagonist identifies as non-binary, so that’s enough of a reason to reject it.

How progressive. I remember learning how in feudalist Europe the nobility refused to listen to Händel or Rossini because not being of noble birth, they allegedly couldn’t be good composers.

My point is that Star Wars stans should at least give a film or a tv show a chance instead of bowing down to preconceived notions, expectations, entitlement and influencers who they probably don’t even know personally.

After The Last Jedi, there was bullying and even death threats en masse; it already started with the prequels, Ahmed Best became depressed and Jake Lloyd schizophrenic. Kelly Marie Tran and Daisy Ridley had to cancel all of their online accounts. And these are just a few examples. I wouldn’t want to produce or work on Star Wars.

I don’t like the „woke” agenda either, the victimization of minorities is ridiculous and counterproductive.

But please, who hates The Acolyte should at least a) watch the series and stick to the facts and b) look at themselves first. Female heroes, black / Asian actors, queer characters are not the problem here. It’s their hero worship of the Jedi and their misguided idea of what a „true hero“ ought to be like that’s at the bottom of all of their hatred. Die-hard fans still feel personally offended because Luke Skywalker had actually taken responsibility for his faults and drank green milk; they can record hours of YT videos where they keep ranting about every single shot of The Last Jedi, never admitting that they hate it because they feel like their personal pride got a blow on purpose. They would never listen to fans who actually liked that film, and why.

Some problems, really. These alleged fans ought to get a life instead of spending years and years hating on Disney, Kathleen Kennedy etc. because Their Heroes were (shocking) taken off their pedestal and humanized.

What also gets me is how utterly entitled and ungrateful these fans are. Ever since 2015 Disney has produced plenty of good Star Wars content until now: Rogue One, Andor, The Mandalorian, The Bad Batch, the 7th season of The Clone Wars, Ahsoka, The Force Awakens, just to name a few. Most fans agree that these are good or at least solid work. But as soon as something comes out that they don’t like, they forget all about that and rave that Disney should sell the franchise to more competent authors, or that at least the current board of directors should be fired and replaced.

Really? Listen to Rachel Zegler telling everybody what she thinks of 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the film that actually laid the ground for the studio’s success and wealth, and that she’s supposed to be starring in the remake. There’s a person who ought to be sacked right away for her disrespect of the original and overall entitlement.

Star Wars Is Not Owned by the Haters

In the end, a good story is a good story because it’s well told, not because of the ideals it (apparently) wants to convey.

Star Wars, ever from the start, was not about Good vs. Evil but about the power of love. The fact that the Jedi are not the good guys but fallible though well-meaning people is what makes them interesting. It’s not the author’s fault if so many fans believe that a good story must be Good vs. Evil and that there is no alternative to that. Star Wars started out as a fairy tale, it’s not your average action movie franchise.

I would like many of the antis have to do the actual work, i.e. write and produce a Star Wars show or movie, and do better. Most of them wouldn’t get two sentences together because all they know how to do is to hate on people who actually are creative, even if the result of that creativity isn’t perfect.

So, I suggest we, the more moderate fans, take a stand. Why have we allowed the antis to hate on Disney and on Star Wars in general since The Last Jedi came out? Why are our voices not louder? Why do we always hope for something better to happen?

The studios are drowning in hatred, for all the wrong reasons. It’s a pity that the more aggressive and stupid voices are also the loudest.

I would have liked to see a second season of The Acolyte, just to see where the characters would go. So would many other fans.

Let’s speak up. As for me personally, I’m sick of getting invested in stories and then let down.

Have a nice day.

[duckprintspress]

Meet Aether Beyond the Binary Contributors Em Rowntree and Kelas Lloyd

Today, we spotlight two more of the creators contributing to our current crowdfunding project Aether Beyond the Binary(a collection of 17 aetherpunk settings starring characters outside the gender binary): Em Rowntree and Kelas Lloyd!

Cadillac’s Bus by Em Rowntree

About Em: Em Rowntree’s first foray into the world of writing was with a story called The Magic Land that featured a unicorn and a flying carpet the size of a country, and they’ve been chasing that high ever since. They’ve been sharing their writing online for almost nine years, and have had poems and short stories published in anthologies. They live in the UK.

Links: Twitter

This is Em’s second contribution to a Duck Prints Press anthology; they also wrote a story for Add Magic to Taste.

Title: Cadillac’s Bus

Tags: pending

Excerpt: 

From their vantage point, the kid couldn’t see the rally racer inside. Couldn’t see the black gloves with one white star of pure aetherlight painted on each fingertip. Couldn’t see the curled mess of long grey hair. Couldn’t see the steely, hungry, fiercely joyful look on their face as their vehicle plunged on through the moorland. But the kid could picture it all, down to the last detail.

They put their hands in the air.

“CADILLAC JONES!” they yelled, loud enough for the cow to hear them a few hundred yards away and lift its head – but nowhere near loud enough for Cadillac Jones themself to know their name was being screamed as they disappeared out of sight, away down the track. “CADILLAC JONES FOREVER! YES! THE BEST –” The kid turned to left and right as though looking for someone to tell, but there was no one beside them. “THE BEST! CADILLAC JONES FOREVER! YES!”

They stood, overwhelmed, keeping the moment alive as long as they could. A few minutes after the rally racer had turned the next corner and gone out of sight, another vehicle came hurtling round the bend after them. The kid lifted their arms again – and this time turned their open hands into raised middle fingers.

“YOU SUCK!” they screamed in delight, a smile of joy splitting their face.

True by Kelas Lloyd

About Kelas: Kelas is a disabled, trans, bi author and artist currently (unfortunately) living in Texas. They graduated from the University of Central Florida with an English degree and love cats, tea, and all things speculative fiction. A lot of their writing features magic or disability or both, and they’re often found in Star Trek, Mass Effect, Babylon 5, and Untamed spaces. You can also find them in a lot of bead and resin spaces, because they love making sparkly jewelry of all sorts. 

Previously published pieces include an article on disability in The Last Of Us, short stories in two publications by Shacklebound Books, a pair of poems about being trans, an essay on disabled life, and a whole bunch of pieces about San Diego Comic-con. They’re single, an Ernie looking for their Bert, but they have a found family that stretches around the globe and some of their birth family accepts them for who they are. 

You can find out more about them at kelaslloyd.com

Links: Personal Website | Archive of Our Own | Twitter

This is Kelas’s first time writing with Duck Prints Press.

Title: True

Tags: character study, foster family, found family, friends, genderfluid, magic use, non-binary, present tense, self-esteem issues, teenager, third person limited pov, transphobia (mentions of)

Excerpt: 

“Oh,” Eva says, trying to recover. “Yeah, okay. So what’s the procedure? Are you gathering up all the ducklings and then herding us over?”

Paul looks at them as if they can see through the joking tone Eva’s adopted. “You’ve got a map in your booklet. I’m here, so I introduced myself, but there’s a schedule in there too. Everyone here is old enough to herd themselves; I’m here for support.”

“So you catch us in the trust-fall exercises,” Eva says, opening up the booklet to find the map and schedule.

“No, I make sure to drop everyone during those.”

Eva’s gaze snaps up to catch Paul’s grin just before it turns into a faint smile.

“You’re here because you’re struggling with aether,” Paul continues. “Most of the time a teen is struggling, it’s because they don’t know themselves well enough yet to let it flow through them the way as it’s supposed to. That’s what I help with.”

Make sure you visit our Kickstarter campaign page to learn about the collection, take a peek at the merchandise, read more excerpts, and more!