#queer coding included lol

[fanby-fckry]

Now it's happened once or twice

Someone couldn't pay the price

And I'm afraid I had to rake 'em 'cross the coals

Yes I've had the odd complaint

But on the whole I've been a saint

I could honestly match a good deal of the song line for line, but that’s the part that stands out to me most.

Charlie and Alastor’s dynamic is extremely similar to Ariel and Ursula’s.

Using flashy musical numbers to enthrall/manipulate them.

Dubious, technically-the-truth claims of wanting to help them achieve their impossible dreams.

Supporting Ariel/Charlie where their fathers failed to do so.

Comparing themselves to religious figures to gain trust (even though, culturally, neither Ariel nor Charlie really have a connection to nuns/saints?).

Taking on a sort of twisted mentor role, offering questionable advice that they likely believe, themselves on some level.

Ursula: The men up there don't like a lot of blabber / They think a girl who gossips is a bore! / Yet on land it's much prefered for ladies not to say a word / And after all dear, what is idle babble for?

Alastor: A smile is a valuable tool, my dear. It inspires your friends, keeps your enemies guessing, and ensures that no matter what comes your way, you're the one in control.

The constant use of pet names/endearments and physical touch is another similarity.

I mean…

Both Ursula and Alastor target down on their luck individuals, and have a particular taste for targeting people who hold a position of power. Princesses with lofty dreams (Charlie, Ariel), and Overlords/Kings who are desperate and about to lose it all with or without the Deal (Husk, Triton).

Deapite their claims of wanting to help, they’re both fairly transparent (although Alastor more-so than Ursula) about viewing the poor unfortunate souls as being beneath them.

Ursula: I use it on behalf / Of the miserable, the lonely, and depressed (pathetic)

Alastor: No, no, no. I don’t think there’s anything left that could save such loathsome sinners.

Alastor: I want to watch the scum of the world struggle to climb up the hill of betterment, only to repeatedly trip and tumble into the fire pit of failure.

@moonrose91 pointed out in the replies that Niffty and Husk are Flotsam and Jetsam.

I also think that there’s something to be said for Ursula’s queercoding and her cynicism regarding romance vs Alastor’s canon aroaceness and his attitudes towards romance, both in regards to himself or others (e.g. his face when Charlie’s venting to him about her relationship with Vaggie in Hello Rosie! Man looks like he’s at the end of his rope with this alloromantic nonsense).

Yeah, just… Alastor-Ursula parallels.

Alastor-Dr. Facilier comparisons this, Friends on the Other Side that. *slamming fists down on table* Where are the Ursula comparisons? Poor Unfortunate Souls is incredibly Alastor-coded!

[starcurtain]

Comparing Phaidei and Other Hoyo MLM Ships (Part 1)

I barely know how to begin, honestly, because I'm still so taken aback by the absolute Phaidei feast that was 3.1. But perhaps because we were so overfed by the patch, I was actually jarred a little out of the story itself--too busy turning over the broader ramifications of such blatant queer-coding of two male characters in a modern Hoyoverse game.

Of course, Hoyo isn't remotely new to queer-coding their characters (or to queer-baiting, either, gacha games gotta hustle at all times). They absolutely have a history of hinting at both WLW and MLM ships and of including fanservice between the player's MC and other playable characters regardless of gender. Strangely enough, due to the unique confluence of their target audiences' tastes, the Hoyoverse team has an active profit motive to create gay characters:

WLW ships are appealing to heterosexual male players.

MLM ships are appealing to heterosexual female players.

Simultaneously, WLW and MLM ships are appealing to queer players.

Heterosexual ships with characters other than the MC are unappealing to a large percentage of the game's playerbase, particularly to heterosexual male players who want to keep their waifus to themselves but also to female yumeshippers.

Hoyo's market is literally telling them that 1) male characters sell better when they're ship-baited with other male characters, and 2) players don't actually want heterosexual ships between playable characters if the MC isn't involved. (Hell, look at Firefly--players hate romances with the MC too lol!)

But at the same time as the market is telling the devs to keep making queer characters, Hoyoverse also faces immense social pressure to avoid including actual queer content.

Let me hold off on the political and legal consequences of including gay characters in Chinese media for just a second, and look at the situation from the perspective of Hoyo's target audiences first:

Take this data with a grain of salt though; I'm not sure where they got their numbers.

First, Hoyoverse games are increasingly global and surprisingly popular in conservative/religious countries such as Russia, Malaysia, and the UAE. The western world as a whole is shifting increasingly right on LGBT+ issues. For the games to be marketed well across the globe, they've got to avoid challenging the morals of these highly varied audiences. (Perhaps this is why past Hoyoverse titles seemed more open to LGBT+ content than present Hoyoverse games do; a broader audience actually means more restrictions on content.)

Second, even though conservative heterosexual male players are actually surprisingly fine with MLM ship tease, that only applies so long as it stays at the level of "I can pretend I don't see it." As long as anti-LGBT+ players can write off any MLM content as "just close friends," the dev team can get away with frankly shocking amounts of queer interaction between male characters. (I'm sorry to any straight male fans reading this [could there possibly be any?], but half of y'all could win gold medals if mental gymnastics were a sport. The lengths I have seen some male Genshin players go to try to explain away Haikaveh are honestly awe-inspiring. 😂) However, the boundary must be respected. The moment a male character's queerness exceeds subtext and becomes text, when even mental gymnastics cannot come up with a heterosexual explanation, and the plausible deniability goes out the window, it is no longer acceptable to anti-LGBT+ players, and they will be "turned off" from pulling that male character en masse. In essence, the market is telling the devs: 1) Huge amounts of queer-coding = a-okay, but 2) Actual canon queer content = that's gayyyy, no wayyyy.

And third, the obvious: China's stance on LGBT+ people is weirdly stricter in media than it is in "real" life. It is not illegal to be gay in China but it is illegal to be gay in a video game in China. Restrictions on media portrayals of gayness are significantly more strict than restrictions on actually being gay (which is interesting cognitive dissonance for those from outside the country, but that's an essay for another day). Hoyoverse legally cannot show characters engaged in any explicitly queer behaviors--at least that can't be explained away.

Furthermore, the rules apply very differently for male and female characters. WLW content gets way more of a pass from the censors. Bronya and Seele can blush at each other, but Alhaitham and Kaveh cannot. You would never see "Rondo Across Countless Kalpas" happening with male Hoyoverse characters. The censors literally would not allow it, strictly because Chinese standards for portrayals of men are different--and more strict!--than standards for portraying women. Legally, there are strong and serious limitations on what Hoyo can do with their male characters.

Summing all of this up, in trying to create their male characters and content, Hoyoverse is actually fighting a battle of conflicting pressures: Male characters sell better when they are queer-coded, but their interactions can never rise to the level of being canonically gay.

Everything must exist in the realm of implication.

(Yes, I can hear you: "Can you please get to Phaidei already?" 😂)

All of this foreword was to lay a foundation for the actual point I want to make about Phaidei: Because Hoyoverse can only queer-code and not actually queer their male characters, they have (in their modern games), fallen into a sort of pattern with their MLM ship bait. Certain plots and personalities keeps reappearing again and again. They've developed a sort of short-hand set of traits to give to their male characters--the Hoyoverse "queer-coded MLM starter pack" if you will lol.

While not every popular MLM ship in Hoyo's games has the same traits (obviously not), certain elements seem central to creating the delicate necessary gray area between "They're just baiting fangirls" and "The devs intended these two characters to be canonically gay but just couldn't state that textually."

And yet... And yet...

You're not imagining things: Phaidei is actually different.

To demonstrate just how different though, I wanted to take the time to compare Phaidei with other popular Hoyoverse MLM ships, looking at both the similarities (the patterns that Hoyo relies on to reliably queer-code their characters) and the noticeable differences (where Hoyo pushed their own boundaries in surprising ways).

Unfortunately, in the interest of full transparency, my own Hoyoverse experience is limited, so I can only use examples from Star Rail and Genshin Impact. I just haven't played HI3 or ZZZ, so I don't feel comfortable trying to use examples from those games, although I think there may be many ships that fall into similar patterns in those games as well. (Maybe some people can share in the comments?)

Anyway, let's start with similarities:

1. A Pair of Equals

The number one "rule" for popular Hoyoverse queer-coded MLM ships is that the two characters must be evenly matched. This isn't to say they have to have identical levels of physical strength (although that is also often the case); instead, the audience needs to perceive them as being on equal footing in some way. They must either be intellectual equals (Alhaitham and Kaveh), political equals (Ratio and Aventurine; Neuvillette and Wriothesley), equal in social standing (Tighnari and Cyno), or, yes, actually physically equal their capability for going toe-to-toe against each other (Blade and Dan Heng; possibly Zhongli and Childe; for those who ship it, Diluc and Kaeya).

For modern Hoyo games, queer-coded MLM ships with noticeable discrepancies in power dynamics are particularly rare; possibly the only one that comes to mind is Ayato/Thoma (though this is mitigated by the game deliberately telling us that Ayato treats Thoma like family, rather than like a servant). And I think this actually says a lot about the devs' thought process: They are deliberately avoiding scenarios in which one male character seems capable of "preying" on another, where the queer-coding could accidentally be perceived as sexual perversion due to a discrepancy in power dynamics.

They're intentionally averting the "depraved homosexual" trope by--sometimes literally--spelling out for the players that both male characters in their queer-coded MLM ships perceive each other as, and are interested in each other as, equals.

We see this explicitly with Ratio and Aventurine in Star Rail:

And Alhaitham and Kaveh in Genshin:

Even Blade and Dan Heng are likened to "a pair" of identical objects:

So of course, Phainon and Mydei push this to an extreme. Phainon describes himself and Mydei as "friends and foes," and the game goes out of it way to reiterate over and over that they are perfect equals. Although they compete in everything they do, there is never a clear victor; their score card is constantly balancing out because they match each other's skill and power perfectly.

But there are even hints in the game that this isn't just happening naturally, but also by choice: Even when one of them triumphs over the other, they both backtrack and insist on getting on equal standing again. Whether you win or lose the "competition" in Kremnos in 3.0, the outcome is the same:

Phainon and Mydei perceive each other as perfectly matched (in strength, right, right...) and are actively working to keep it that way.

The game also goes out of its way to insist that Mydei and Phainon aren't just equals in terms of strength but also in social standing. It theoretically should be impossible to match Mydei's place on the social ladder--he's the literal crown prince of an entire nation of world-renowned conquerors. Even Aglaea is not a queen; we see her on screen being forced to contend with Okhema's Council who are fighting her for power. There technically isn't anyone in Amphoreus (at least that we've met so far) who should be able to stand on equal political or administrative footing to Mydei.

Except, of course, for Phainon, who supersedes all others by virtue of being the literal prodigal son, the "Chosen One."

The game insists on putting this in our faces over and over again: Mydei may be a king in the making, but Phainon is the "Deliverer." They are equally matched in terms of authority.

The game even goes out of its way to tell us they're perfect mirrors in personality too:

Hoyo, in the kitchen cooking up another gay ship: LISTEN GUYS, they're equals, do you understand me? A MATCHING SET.

But also...

2. Diametrically Opposed

It isn't enough for the queer-coded men to be each other's perfect equals. They also have to be opposites, typically in terms of their personalities. This is the pattern that repeats itself most consistently across Hoyoverse MLM ships with strong textual support: the two men may be equal, but they're also nothing alike. (At least on the surface.)

Alhaitham and Kaveh's entire plot hinges on their directly opposing personalities and morals, representing the clash between rationality and sensibility. Dan Feng was reserved and cool-tempered, while Yingxing was "arrogant" and brash. Hell, Xingqiu and Chongyun are "refined and clever" versus "forthright and trusting." I actually think Zhongli and Childe, despite being the most popular Hoyoverse ship in the western fandom, have very little canonical support, yet they still fit this pattern, with Zhongli as the refined gentleman to Tartaglia's blood knight tendencies.

We know how Ratio sees himself and Aventurine:

Hoyo really said "Opposites attract" and ran with it for every single MLM ship they ever teased.

And there's a logical reason for this. Making the two male characters dead opposites actually slightly decreases people's ability to argue that they're "just friends"--if they have next to nothing in common, they're not usually bonding over mutual hobbies or basing their connection on shared similarities. It becomes harder to portray two male characters as "bros who just get along great" when they're deliberately written with opposing tastes and personalities. (Real friends can sometimes be dead opposites, obviously, but most friendships are built on mutual interests rather than opposing ones, while romantic relationships hilariously have the "opposites attract" stereotype.)

There's no reason to shove polar opposites together again and again except to watch the sparks fly.

Even Hoyo's male characters' color schemes are often perfectly opposite. Plenty of people have figured out if you palette swap Alhaitham and Kaveh, Dan Heng and Blade, and Ratio and Aventurine, you end up with the same colors. Ayato and Thoma match the pattern here too ("red and blue gays" is a well-known trope).

But once again, the devs pulled out ALL the stops for Phaidei:

They're red versus blue. They're sun and moon. They're outgoing versus introverted. They're a king and a peasant (if we believe what Phainon's telling us about Aedes Elysiae). They're the "outsider" and the "golden boy." One fights with strength and the other with technique, brains versus brawn (actually they're both kind of idiots though, so take this one lightly lol).

However, what I think is most interesting about Hoyo's pairs of MLM opposites that is that the devs deliberately subvert expectations by assigning the opposing traits to the "unexpected" character. In both Haikaveh and Ratiorine, it's the rational scholar who is more overtly caring and attuned to their partner's feelings. In Renheng, it's the kind-hearted Yingxing who is consumed by anger, while the aloof, expressionless Dan Heng's voice trembles in wonder at the mere mention of Yingxing's name.

For Phainon and Mydei, this inversion of opposite traits occurs with their personalities specifically. People expected Mydei to be a gruff, hot-headed, battle-hungry berserker with a sarcastic or arrogant personality at best.

Instead, Mydei is an extremely thoughtful person, who struggles with his fate not because of what will happen to himself but because of a desire to bring the greatest good to the greatest number of his people. He's a respectful, gentle (when he needs to be), and even sentimental young man who continues to hold on to love for those who have long passed away. He's reserved around strangers but generous and warm to his companions, and struggles to express himself but has a clear desire to be considerate of others.

We also know he's deeply aware of and emotionally affected by the racism his people are experiencing in Okhema; one NPC in Okhema reports how Mydei, despite being new to Okhema himself, stood up to the very council still plaguing Aglaea in order to protect his people:

Despite having difficulties expressing his own thoughts, he even scolds Phainon for approaching their farewell with a nonchalant expression--Mydei doesn't reject emotions or shy away from becoming close with people he cares for.

Instead, it's Phainon who actually struggles to be honest. While he might connect easily with others on the surface, seeming outgoing and kind-hearted, he is actually a much more private person, one who is reluctant to show his true feelings and dismissive of questions about his past and identity. As opposed to Mydei's desire to avoid Nikador's power, Phainon is (despite his doubts) eager to prove himself, spurned on by the pressure of the prophecy telling him he needs to achieve greatness. We're told that he craved the power of strife specifically, while Mydei summarily wishes to reject it.

It's Phainon who frequently has to be reined in by others--he was ready to kill Oronyx for delaying his rescue of Mydei--and Phainon who fails to let go of his hatred and desire for revenge, causing him to fail Nikador's trial, which Mydei easily clears.

By inverting the traits of the characters, creating designs which visually oppose each other while assigning the actual opposing personality traits to the "mismatched" character, the devs hammer home an implicit message: These two characters complete each other. They fill in each other's gaps. What you expected to find in one of these men, you will instead find in the other. What they wish to be, they will be drawn to in each other.

(Frequently bought together, do not separate!)

3. The Distance is Artificial

Okay, so if they're so obviously written as a "pair," being perfect equals and perfect opposites, how are they just "queer-coded" and not explicitly queer? How is Hoyo keeping up the illusion of the characters not being an obvious couple when they're literally written to complete each other?

Hoyo has one major tool in their arsenal to do this: Prickly personalities.

With the exception of Renheng, which I'll get to in a second, Hoyo has a favorite method for enforcing the rule of plausible deniability, the idea that "Nooo, we promise, they're not in love; they don't even like each other, see??"--and that's giving one of the characters an intractable personality.

This can manifest, like Alhaitham and Kaveh, as constant bickering, where the pair's main method of communication is to devolve into petty arguments or sarcastic quips.

Fans who support the ship can view this as an "old married couple" dynamic; but for those who do not support the ship and choose to insist that Hoyo isn't actually queer-coding their male characters, they can lean on these arguments as "proof" that the characters don't actually love each other.

A similar pattern was recently repeated with Sethos/Wanderer, with Wanderer's prickly personality being used to keep Sethos at bay.

By placing the characters at odds with each other through bickering, Hoyo introduces just enough doubt to make the "They're only friends/roommates, we promise" argument hold some water. This allows them to get--quite honestly--a lot of queer content past the censors and past homophobic audiences too.

We see them repeat this trope with Aventurine and Ratio in Star Rail, introducing the two characters as initially "at odds" with each other and trying to pass it off as Ratio despising Aventurine.

Even after revealing that they were plotting together, the game insists on introducing some lingering doubts, suggesting that Aventurine fears Ratio would actually betray him.

This creates the necessary "gray area," the gap that Hoyo can use to hide in--no, Aventurine doesn't trust Ratio at all, see? Maybe they don't even like each other? Who knows! The doubt doesn't exist because the story particularly needs it, but simply so that Hoyo has a shield to hide behind if people begin to question how close the two male characters are.

Even in comedic material, Hoyo intentionally keeps this "necessary distance" in order to allow themselves wiggle room. Is Ratio an enamored tsundere who can't spit his real feelings out, or does he actually think Aventurine is illogical, mediocre, and ridiculous? Was the "Keeping Up With Star Rail" video an example of Hoyo deliberately baiting by making Ratio flustered over Aventurine "on air," or is he being Aventurine's biggest hater in this clip?

It's just questionable enough that those players who hate MLM to interpret it as the latter, and provides just enough doubt to help Hoyo slip queer-coding under the radar. Those who want to see it will see, while it's written just vaguely enough that those who don't want to see it will not see it.

(That's the point Owlbert, that's the point.)

When in doubt, and when stuck with a pair of characters who aren't likely to bicker with words, Hoyo sometimes has to progress to the next level: making them actual enemies.

What's better for creating plausible deniability than one of them trying to kill the other? (They definitely were not fooling around in a past life. We promise.) In an ironic twist with Renheng in particular, the fandom seems to have somehow come to the (mistaken) consensus that Dan Feng and Yingxing were "confirmed canon" (truly, I see this stated everywhere; we love when reading comprehension fails in the right direction for once lol), leaving only Dan Heng/Blade as being of questionable "canonicity." However, this still works as far as Hoyo is concerned, because only Dan Heng and Blade are left on screen.

By insisting on their present inability to reconcile, Blade and Dan Heng are able to introduce just enough doubt into the equation to offset even significant ship tease for Dan Feng/Yingxing.

Enemies to lovers 150k+ slow burn, please look forward to it.

Okay, but back to Phaidei. At first, it seems like Phaidei is going to follow this pattern to a T: When Phainon first introduces Trailblazer to Mydei, the two seem to be at odds, bickering over how Mydei is choosing to confront the enemy. Mydei even calls Phainon out for an unintentionally insensitive statement (when Phainon demands to know why Mydei isn't "protecting the citizens," Mydei asks "Who are you implying is not a citizen here?" i.e., "Are you saying because I'm Kremnoan I don't count as a citizen?" You can see Phainon practically bite his tongue to take back his words.)

Also known as: Mydei experiences a microaggression.

Mydei's very first line directly to the Trailblazer is to insult Phainon's hospitality, and we know they definitely have plenty of silly insults to lob at each other while competing.

But this is actually where we see the first deviation from the pattern for Phaidei. Although there's a few cursory lines throughout their early dialogue, that's all there ever is--just cursory attempts at suggesting the two bicker and don't get along.

Within one scene, the "tension" present in their first meeting entirely devolves into purely playful banter, and it is clear by the time we finish 3.0 that Phainon and Mydei are actually very close and get along well, with virtually none of Haikaveh's biting comments, Blade and Dan Heng's violence, or Aventurine and Ratio's questions of loyalty. Phainon and Mydei took one look at the rest of Hoyoverse's MLM ships and said "How about we skip that will they-won't they?" lol.

But I'm not quite ready to talk about the places where Phaidei departs from the normal pattern yet, so I'll leave this point by just saying that Hoyo did start Phaidei on the same path as a majority of their other MLM ships, making a vague attempt at using their rivalry to suggest they wouldn't get along--thereby allowing for the alternative interpretation to quiet the haters (and the censors).

4. The (Physical) Distance is Non-Existent

Okay, but if Hoyo uses personalities to inject just enough distance into their queer-coded pairings to avoid crossing any boundaries, then what do they do to tantalize the audience, to make it seem like the characters might actually like each other?

They use body language!

First, just to reiterate a basic video game design principle: All animations and character placements have to be programmed by someone, and that means that all animations and the physical locations of characters in scenes are intentional. Nothing happens in cutscenes by accident.

Designers are constantly making a series of choices any time they have to put together a cutscene, and one of the key choices they have to make is how to express each character through their movements and their positions relative to other characters. (I've talked before, for example, about how Aventurine frequently turns his back on people, forcing their eyes to follow him throughout his cutscenes, taking physical control of the reactions of people around him.)

Hoyoverse games have somewhat standardized scene layouts for conversation cutscenes, with characters typically being placed at different distances from each other depending on their relationships. A majority of conversations happen from a generally cordial conversational distance, which means that any time characters cross this gap and close the distance, the dev team is intentionally sending the players a message.

Like, no one mistook what this was about, right?

Heterosexual jumpscare in my queer post; I'm sorry, I was just too tired to find a video with Lumine lol.

Repeating for good measure: Unless it is with a male playable main character (where the presence of the female main character is what lends the deniability), Hoyo legally cannot show their male characters engaging in physical contact that could be construed as romantic. Male characters can't hold hands; they can't even really hug unless it's "caught you as you fell after battle" (props to Dan Heng for being the only male character in Star Rail to get a "hug" with Jing Yuan lol.) There's a boundary that Hoyo male characters do not cross, and that's almost universally the realm of physical touch.

But Hoyo can place their queer-coded male characters into scenarios of physical closeness that they don't typically show among other characters.

Alhaitham and Kaveh's table says hello.

So does Tighnari and Cyno's single tent from this same quest; Cyno's Story 2, truly the quest that kept on giving.

Aventurine, a character who traditionally keeps half a room's distance between himself and the people he's talking to, suddenly doesn't seem to mind closing the distance with Ratio:

And even Renheng, the eternal enemies, are depicted as crossing physical boundaries, explicitly "getting in each other's faces." Yes it's a battle, but also, I've seen yaoi with less domineering poses lol.

You might think these lightcone examples are a stretch, but seriously: Go look at all the lightcones in the game. Does a single heterosexual couple have a lightcone where they are in each other's space in this manner? No, because physical closeness is actually a tool Hoyo is consistently using to queer-code. (Well, there would probably be more heterosexual closeness too if the incels weren't so weird...)

Anyway, when I saw the devs might be heading the direction of baiting Phaidei, I fully expected that we would see them side-by-side more consistently and with less of a gap between them than between other characters. But I wasn't remotely ready for the degree to which Hoyo would take that.

Here is an example of Phaidei exhibiting the "normal" Star Rail conversational distance:

Andddd... here's where they spend the other 90% of their scenes together:

The unnecessarily large distance between them and the Trailblazer gets me every time. Like they are not leaving room for Jesus Kephale.

Even when they aren't standing practically on top of each other, the devs deliberately choose camera angles that frame them both in the cutscene at the same time, which is relatively rare for Star Rail (not unheard of, but usually the camera will just go for the "first person POV" when two people are speaking, allowing for a close up of the speaking character). Instead of back-and-forth close ups, many of Mydei and Phainon's conversations are framed from a "behind-the-shoulder" angle, to catch them both in the frame. This creates the illusion that they're standing closer together than they are, and also reinforces a sense of intimacy in their conversations--the camera (and thus the player) becomes an "outsider" while their bodies turn toward each other.

Again, Hoyoverse is under pressure to avoid showing physical contact between male characters that could be construed romantically. They can't show Mydei and Phainon tangoing like Black Swan and Acheron. When it comes to queer-coding male characters, they have to use the tools available to them, and their primary tool for visually signifying the possibility of romantic closeness is physical closeness.

The camera is telling you that Mydei and Phainon are close.

Anyway, just one more point I wanted to make before moving on to discussing how Phaidei completely crushed the mold for Hoyoverse queer-coding, but...

5. Oh God, We're Turning Into Your Parents

Listen, I'm a reasonable person. I can fully accept that I play games with LGBT+ goggles on at all times. Despite being fantastically aroace myself, I love yaoi. I love yuri. I even like plenty of straight ships. I'm a fangirl first, academic second, so believe me when I say that I understand how skeptics might view some of the points above. "You're just fangirling. Being equals and opposites doesn't automatically imply romance. The devs might have intended close friendship, not a relationship." This counter-argument is valid!

So I want to end with one more point which I think is actually the lynch pin to proving that Hoyoverse isn't "accidentally" making their male characters come across as queer. Hoyo's queer-coding for certain ships is very intentional and even sometimes very overt. In a few cases prior to Phaidei, they were already skirting the upper limits of plausible deniability, and I think the modern ship that previously pushed the boundary the most is Haikaveh.

You can say what you want about other Hoyo MLM ships and their lack of canon textual support (I love you ZhongChi, even if the devs actually hate you lol), but I believe people who unironically say "The devs are not baiting Alhaitham and Kaveh as a ship" are so media illiterate that it's actually embarrassing to share air with them. Whether you think the devs are just doing it to cash in on yaoi fangirls or because they actually want to depict gay characters, it is indisputable at this point that Alhaitham and Kaveh have in-game ship tease. They just do, and one of the most obvious and unmistakable instances of this is when Kaveh's hangout paralleled Kaveh's relationship with Alhaitham to the heterosexual marriage between Kaveh's mother and father.

To draw a direct connection between Kaveh's father and Alhaitham, who is repeatedly described as not being able to understand Kaveh's artistic sensibilities and idealistic world view but nevertheless chooses to stay by Kaveh's side through his many troubles, while simultaneously reinforcing the idea that Kaveh is his mother's spitting image, both physically and emotionally, can really not be interpreted in any other way.

Hoyoverse took a queer relationship and made a one-for-one analogy to a heterosexual relationship--Alhaitham and Kaveh are a direct reflection of Kaveh's very married parents.

This isn't something that can happen on accident. This is deliberate and unmistakable queer-coding.

Which makes it absolutely wild that it happened twice.

I've posted already about the obvious parallels between Mydei's parents and Phaidei, and I'm actually almost out of room for new images here, so I can't post the images again, but I hardly need to at this point: Mydei's parents met when Gorgo challenged Eurypon at the Kremnos Festival. They fought for ten rounds, determined that they were (what do you know) perfect equals, and Eurypon proposed on the spot. Eurypon is explicitly described as a swordmaster, while Gorgo used a spear.

Later, the game repeatedly (and in various separate instances), emphasizes that Mydei and Phainon's first meeting consisted of a duel lasting ten days and ten nights, where neither of them could secure the victory, proving them to also be each other's perfect equals. Phainon's role as Okhema's swordmaster is emphasized, while Mydei wields a spear just like his mother when killing his father and after taking on Nikador's divinity.

Then there's... everything that came after. Eurypon betrayed Gorgo, effectively stabbing her in the back, and took her life. The foreshadowing that Phainon will do this exact same thing to Mydei is unmissable.

Phainon has even expressed an explicit desire to take part in the same competition where Mydei's father crowned the winner his wife:

In the (very limited) Kremnoan dictionary, I'm pretty sure this is how you say "I'm down to fuck."

Just as in the case with Haikaveh, there is no way that this parallel could have occurred by accident. The devs did not go out of their way to give us entire flashbacks of Gorgo and Eurypon's meeting and downfall for no reason. You're supposed to see the one-for-one connection between Mydei's very heterosexual, married parents and Phainon and Mydei's relationship.

Simultaneously, the devs also parallel their MLM ships to heterosexual relations by incorporating shades of domesticity normally reserved for "traditional" male-female relationships into their MLM ships--including levels of domesticity that heterosexual ships in Genshin and Star Rail usually don't rise to. One of Genshin's most popular MLM ships shares a single-family home and has a chore chart. Thoma is Ayato's housekeeper. Tighnari and Cyno are just flat-out joint raising a child. Jiaoqiu cooks and Moze cleans. Yingxing and Dan Feng accidentally(?) made a baby.

And Phainon and Mydei aren't any exception. They live an apocalyptic world that is constantly calling them away to battle, but the devs went out of their way to tell us Mydei is an extremely good cook who prepares everyone's food and deliberately ruins Phainon's when he's annoying, which is definitely old married couple behavior lol. Mydei is framed repeatedly as being good with children, not just in the distant fatherly way but in the "plays house" and follows-along-after-unaccompanied-kids-like-a-mother-hen way. Yet when Mydei has to leave, taking the classic "I'm going off to war" ancient Greek exit, he doesn't depart without leaving Phainon his people--with the camera panning specifically to the little Kremnoans. Phainon got the kids in the divorce. D; The tragic domesticity is already off the charts, and then they hit you the second punch when Mydei's last question (just one or two lines later) confirms that it was Phainon who got the ring for him. Hoyo couldn't actually have given us a more heavy-handed "parting husband and wife" parallel if someone held them at gunpoint. That whole thing was some Odyssey level bullshit. I see you devs, I see you.

You might be tempted to say that is just heteronormativity, which it could be, but I actually think it serves a very specific place in Hoyo's queer-coding repertoire. In comparing gay relationships to heterosexual marriages, the devs effectively "legitimize" their queer characters, suggesting that the relationships between gay male characters are no less real or valid than those between men and women. In demonstrating that male characters can achieve stable and healthy domestic lives with each other, the devs reiterate that players are not supposed to notice a difference between gay and heterosexual relationships.

There isn't any clearer way for Hoyoverse to legally say "We want you to think of these two men as romantic partners" than to say "Wow, isn't it interesting that their relationship is identical to a married couple's." It's on purpose; at this point, you really can't say the queer-coding isn't deliberate without looking like you can't read, and if it was intentional when Haikaveh paralleled Kaveh's parents, then it was doubly so the second time Hoyoverse pulled this trick to parallel Phaidei to Mydei's parents.

PHEW! Okay, I finally made it through the foundational traits for Hoyoverse MLM ship-bait and where Phaidei fits in with those. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk! 😂

But... the whole reason I started this post was actually because I wanted to talk about differences between Phaidei and other Hoyoverse MLM ships, and particularly how bold Hoyo actually was in 3.1, pushing the envelop to an extreme degree to ship-tease Phainon and Mydei.

So, since the post was way, way too long, I've spit the rest of my point off into a second post.

Check out Part 2 over here. ->

[2025-buriedgays-tournament]

Have YOU ever been a victim/enjoyer of the BURY YOUR GAYS trope? 

Have YOU ever been excited for the next installment of your favorite series, only to find that the token gay has been KILLED OFF?

Have YOU lost sleep FANTASIZING over that hot, queer-coded, vampire/zombie/undead/came-back-wrong creature from the movie you just watched?

Have YOU ever spent too long in the "EVERYBODY LIVES/NOBODY DIES" tag for your favorite queer ship? 

Have YOU ever deeply analyzed a piece of media on your own FREE TIME to find the meaning in your favorite characters’ death?

Have YOU ever brought up The Hays Code on a first date or job interview UNPROMPTED? 

Well, then it is time for you to seek JUSTICE!!!! Let’s celebrate all of our favorite queer characters who have passed on, & ultimately decide who rules this hellsite. Link to submissions & guidelines below! 

Submission guidelines: 

Nominations must be for a character who is dead, queer, AND fictional.

Please do not submit real people. If you'd like to submit a character that is based on/inspired by a real person, please mention that in the propaganda section.

We will be defining “gay” as anyone under the queer/LGBTQIA+ umbrella, regardless of specific identity.

The character you are nominating DOES NOT need to be canonically queer, nor do they have to be confirmed queer by their creator(s).

You can only submit one character at a time. To submit multiple characters, you can fill out this form multiple times. There is no limit to how many submissions you can make, but please, do not submit the same character more than once, nor include more than one character in one submission. 

Couples/ships can be submitted together if both/everyone involved meets the above criteria. 

Submissions will be open until July 2nd!

SUBMISSIONS FORM IS HERE! MAY THE ODDS BE IN YOUR FAVOR!!! And don't forget to toss in some propaganda, too!

tagging for visibility lol! do tournaments still do that @hellaversepolls  @fuck-you-upmusicbracket @bestqprshipbracket @tournament-announcer @worst-father-tournament @thecrackshipawards @lesbian-terror-tournament @gimmick-blog-bracket @thebabycup @flagwars

[dungeon-master-mike]

disclaimer: this is a really wack theory, i'm aware. but bare w me, or don't lol.

All of Mike's closet is blue. All his blankets are blue. His basement carpet is blue. His bedroom walls are blue. Almost all his outfits the whole show contain blue including his shoes from S3.

He even wraps himself up with a blue blanket at the Byers. (mike is gonna fucking love the song i'm blue)

I would think this was typical color coding... If this show wasn't about a group of people exploring a dimension that's you know, entirely fucking blue. This is what initially caught my attention. It's just.. Too much to not mean something.

Mike's nickname is 'Frogface,' which is strange. The rest of the kids' nicknames are all discriminatory, but frogface? What makes this more interesting is the fact within the life cycle of the Demogorgons, the first two stages are frog-like. They're even given names based on that. This is from the Upside Down section of the S1/S2 BTS book. Dustin and the group have a discussion on this in show. This nickname may serve as foreshadowing.

and then.. there's this on the same page... alright.

(i am just now realizing how much this picture reminds me of The Thing, in a way lol)

Mike in season 5 is wearing a sweater with literal democreature heads on it. It's not subtle at all.

During their tunnel mission in s2, Steve says this. Very weird wording. I go into that a little here.

Every film/story hung up or mentioned by Mike are all about an alien or someone from another planet (except Conan). In superman, the dark crystal, star wars and conan the barbarian, the main characters are all orphans. Even in Lord of the rings, another story brought up by Mike, the main character is an orphan. Really would be a big coincidence if this wasn't intentional.

I've made a separate post discussing it, but The Thing being in Mike's basement and staying for the entire show really intrigues me. I do think, in some way, Mike is the show's Thing.

Star Wars is a new poster for Mike in S5 as well 👀 (assuming at least)

Now, I'm not saying that Mike isn't human and is from the Upside Down. Except, that's exactly what I'm saying. I hate saying it because it sounds so fucking bizarre LMFAO. but that's kinda what i'm getting from all this? Like, once you connect all the weird things about Mike and his place in his family, it begins to make sense. It explains almost everything I've seen people mention about Mike in regards to the supernatural.

(get ready for a bunch of whys and hows cause it's a fuck ton, i apologize)

It's why/how:

- He literally drowns himself in blue. Maybe on some sort of subconscious level, it reminds him of the UD. Or perhaps it's just foreshadowing.

-Smalltown Boy is in his playlist. It serves as double meaning. The show would essentially be tying his queerness with the sci-fi/supernatural side of the story. Mike realizing why he's felt different his whole life - He's gay, but also an alien. Because he's a humanoid alien, no one suspects a thing - not even him. Because he's not visibly queer, no one suspects a thing.

- Karen treats him differently compared to Nancy. (Do Karen and Ted know where he's from? That's another discussion. But I think they're hiding the fact he's adopted). It's there if you choose to acknowledge it. This feels like one of the biggest pieces of evidences because of the way the show avoids addressing the reason why.

- Mike is there in the demogorgon life cycle for some reason. If it were for scale comparison, a height would've been provided. Height isn't mentioned anywhere in the book. The section is called "monster morphology"

- Mike was so sure Karen would take El in.

- Mike's wearing that fuckass sweater next season (foreshadowing)

- Vecna calls Mike "his friend" and knows who he is.

- Mike is suspiciously in frame when the others talk about people being flayed and who is the actual source of everything. Will mentions trapping something up there with them when El closed the gate. Hm. "If the brain dies the body dies." Well, a heart's also important. And who is that again?

- all these shots exist (+ fuck ton more). Mike is consistently framed as being part of the UD or "a monster" all along that nobody is seeing, fitting in with his whole invisibility

- He somehow reaches into the UD on Halloween

- He manages to pull Will out of his visions so easily

- Mike is always there when Will senses something connected to the UD approaching or nearby.

- He saw El in the void (the same way that Demogorgon did),

- He intuitively knows so much more than he should about the UD despite not even having gone there, and when he eventually does, it's only briefly. And he just so happens to get grabbed by the vine while he's escaping.. Just to be okay? Change nothing narratively? Okay.

- All the stalker shots

- Mike looks nothing like his family

- He's visually set apart from his family consistently. Giving very much an orphan not fitting in.

-Why they posted this picture of Mike during s5 filming. The same photo that's meant to be with the rest of the family photos but is for some reason singled out... and sat over a children's version of a story that is about a family.

- There's two episodes that feature the name "Monster." "The Monster" 1x06. Mike makes El feel like a monster. "The Monster and the Superhero" 4x03. Mike and El fight in this episode. El is the superhero... So who is the monster?

- My mutual @bobokahn also brought up that Mike may be hearing things others aren't in these scenes. Mike already has his ears covered before Lucas and Dustin..

- The demogorgon imagery in his basement and his weird looking lamp that suspiciously looks like a demogorgon egg or something alike (not saying it actually is though lol. imagine that tho).

-He also has a board game that remains in the same spot the entire show called "Upwords." "Family Fued" is taken away after s1 while the stack remains the same..

Upwords....

- Mike seems like he's missing something. My mutual @brionysea explains perfectly here what I mean.

The list goes on and on but you get the idea.

@madwheelerz also made a post about this a while back. it's actually what first made me look into this more.

(referring to a kid literally named Mikhail. fucking MIKHAIL!!!)

essentially mike next season:

[dyingdevotion]

Larry Timeline + Are H & L signaling again?

Hey, divas. It's me again. As we all know, A LOT has been happening this year and many of us have found the current situation laughable (& sad).

Four days ago, one of @watermelonlicker 's asks sent tweets pointing out Harry wearing a watch publicly for the 1st time since mid 2015. (A Cartier Tank Louis Cartier watch). @voxina corrected the original tweets stating that he has worn it prior in March (March 8th). I made a response pointing out that March 8th was when Harry went to Sabrina Carpenter's concert, where coincidentally, Zara was also attending. I used @delicateperspective 's timeline to see if the watch maybe meant something and I quickly noticed that he wore it right before shit hit the fan. You can see the post here.

In that post, I stated that if my theory was right, then more shit was gonna happen soon. And four days later, we get our first pap pics of Louis and Zara...(Surprisingly, we didn't see Louis and Zara together at Coachella, like so many of us thought was gonna happen.)

Here is a short timeline of things in April (I am using @fookinhellcurlyyy 's timeline):

April 1st: Louis likes Zara's pic on instagram. He posts a screenshot of ‘Favourite’ by Fontaines D.C. on his story. He then posts a pic of his guitar with doodles on it. He proceeds to delete the image from his story.

April 2nd: The Sun publishes “LOTTA HISTORY Inside Louis Tomlinson’s unbreakable bond with woman who has supported him through unthinkable tragedy – & it’s not Zara." (What a headline lmao.) Briana unfollowed L on Instagram. (She unfollowed Louis 2 days after the article about her and Freddie released with pap pics of them both.)

April 3rd: Louis is active on twitter and responds to several fans. We noticed him tweeting "Always" and "You" in his replies to fans. We also found his comment about soccer aid odd. (“Need alllllll the support I can get though.”) His “English fry up — extra hash browns” tweet reminding Larries of Keep Driving (song by our beloved Harry). He also responds to a fan with “keep driving” in their username.

April 7th: Article written about Harry “feeling the sting” since Taylor Russell is with Michael B. Jordan. (Once again reminding us of his past stunts. In March, we had articles about Olivia and Taylor Swift. There was also that one article reminding us of 1D’s past relationships).

April 9th: Louis goes to Stereophonic’s show in LA. The song in the video is called “Maybe Tomorrow.” It includes the lyrics “Think I’ll walk me outside and buy a rainbow smile. But be free. They’re all free. So maybe tomorrow I’ll find my way home.” (Okay, rainbow boy.) Zara also posts about the show. No actual pics of them together pop up.

April 10th: Zara posts the breakfast pic with Louis’ arm (how subtle). This picture is posted one month after Louis and Sam were announced to be participants of Soccer Aid this year. Kanye tweets about Taylor, Harry, & Justin.

April 11th: Zara with a friend at Sunglasses Hut. Coachella Week 1, Day 1. Louis looking cute. Article written about Louis’ dating history (lol). Harry wears the Cartier Tank Louis Cartier watch again.

April 12th: Coachella Week 1, Day 2. Louis looking cute again. He is seen wearing an Amiri Resort Club shirt. Amiri is part of the international and luxury fashion group OTB - Only The Brave. As we all know, Only The Brave is a very queer-coded song from Walls.

There is also an article written about Louis at Coachella and Zara being ‘miles away.’ We see the pap pics of Harry wearing the Cartier Tank Louis Cartier watch again.

April 13th: Coachella Week 1, Day 3. Louis looking cute in his multicolored outfit (I see you, rainbow boy). Zara follows a Louie on tiktok and then unfollows. (Literally why). Article about Zara looking pretty in a pink dress after “confirming romance” with Louis. (These articles are so weird lmao). Another article comes out about Louis maybe being on the phone with Zara at Coachella. Article written about Louis “ditching” Zara to party at Coachella. (That headline is hilarious to me). Another article is written about Harry experiencing “heartache” over Taylor Russell moving on. (Again, why is there so much talk about Harry and Louis’ past ‘relationships’?)

April 14th: We get a beautiful article about Louis being the "Festival Hero" at Coachella. Sam (Zara's ex) is starting a live radio breakfast show on Saturdays. More articles about Louis and Zara's "relationship."

April 15th: SCMP publishes “Who is Roxie Nafousi, the influencer who ‘manifested’ the father of her child? She was born into wealth and used to date Harry Styles, and her book has sold more than 1 million copies.” (More reminders of Harry's past "lovers." Okay.) Harry is spotted in Berlin riding a lime bike. And, of course, he's wearing blue again. We also get these leaks of Harry’s music from 2014 & 2017. (Here and here). The first one is called "If You Want To Love (2014)." I think the lyrics are: "Cause I can't contain, I can't contain your faith. If you want to love, you want to love, baby. If you want to love." The second one is called "Her (2017)" and the lyrics from the video (from what I can tell) are: "I cried cause I love you. And I, I'd do it all over. We drank too much. You started talking about her." (Ouch.)

April 16th: We get the 1st pap pics of Louis and Zara in California. (Getting these pap pics the day after those Harry leaks is crazy af.) According to the Sun, "Zara today launched her new swim and gym-wear range, Rise by Zara McDermott, for New Look." Also, LTHQ posts about a draw to win a signed 'LIVE' vinyl for War Child UK (The timing is so funny). We also get a photo dump from Louis via instagram with no caption that contains two photos with a rainbow in the back. It probably means nothing at all but I thought it was funny since we got those pap pics of Zara today.

So to put it simply: Harry wears the Cartier Tank Louis Cartier watch for the 1st time on March 8th (day he attended Sabrina's show which Zara also attended) -> The Louis and Zara stunt truly begins & articles begin to pop up reminding us of Harry and Louis' past "relationships." We get the announcement of soccer aid on the 10th of March. On the 17th of March the Louis/Zara "relationship" is confirmed with the infamous restaurant photos. -> Harry wears the watch on April 11th and we see the pap pics of him wearing it on April 12th. -> April 11th to April 13th is Coachella. We get more articles of Louis and Zara and we are again reminded of Harry and Louis' past "romances." -> Sam is announced to be hosting a live radio morning show on Saturdays. -> We are reminded of another past "relationship" of Harry's. -> We get the Harry leaks. -> Louis and Zara pap pics. Zara launching her new swim and gym-wear range. LTHQ posting about a draw to win a signed 'LIVE' vinyl for War Child UK. Louis photo dump with a rainbow in the back of 2 pictures.

(I also couldn't help but notice that we got the pap pics of Louis and Zara almost a month exactly from the pics of them at the restaurant. The restaurant pics were released March 17 and we got the pap pics today on April 16. Louis also started following Zara on February 19 (I think it was still the 18th for me when he followed her cause hldailyupdates’ post about the follow says the 18th but they captioned it "19 February 2025"). Should we expect them being pictured together once every month around the same time? I also noticed Louis liked Zara's pictures on March 1st and April 1st. Let's see if he likes another pic of hers on May 1st. If Harry wears the watch again, let's pay close attention to the things that happen right after. The watch might be a signal of big things about to come in regards to the stunt.)

That's all for now!

Here are some posts that I think are worth reading:

@twopoppies 's reply to an ask about Harry's two blue jackets potentially being "chore jackets." I think the information shared is worth a read.

@zourrystylinson 's post sharing a GQ article written about Harry's Tank Louis Cartier watch. They add a screenshot that states a watch is the modern 15th anniversary gift. Here is the post.

@fookinhellcurlyyy 's post sharing the fact that Zara is friends with someone who knows Tom Skoglund. Tom is a manager at Full Stop Management and he was present throughout HSLOT. Here is the post.

@twopoppies receiving asks that showcase Zara's pinterest boards titled "TRIP❤️" and "Glasto."

Share your thoughts in the comments or in your tags if you reblog! I'd like to hear what you guys think. <3

[dotthings]

Playing the telephone game here since there's no video, but looking at various tweets summarizing what Misha said, my takeaway is the writers were aware, and leaned into it purposefully, Misha was concerned that if it wasn't openly confirmed, that opened it up to queerbaiting accusations, that people could construe it that way [note that Misha, like the writers, ran with it, because how else are you going to do the thing despite not being permitted to do the thing, you put an exhaust port in the Death Star] and so he was relieved and pleased when the writers told him they could do Cas's confession.

From past comments we also know he was shocked the network even allowed the confession. "We can do that???" Which again...shows you the state of affairs. Multiple creatives who were for it. And felt the ceiling imposed from on high.

Therefore, Misha Collins pretty much said Destiel isn't queerbaiting.

Yes, Cas's confession counts. Yes it's canonical and openly confirmed as far as Cas being in love with Dean. PR still buried it, but I'm talking about the text, and the meaning of what Misha said.

Why is anyone still mucking around about whether it's canon or not? Does PR make something canon? Is PR (big interviews, magazine covers, DVD extras commentary) the only way Destiel is canon?

Do writers' work count for nothing? Writer intent?

How about Misha, who inhabited Cas for 12 seasons?

Does the actual content of what aired and we saw on screen count for anything???? (including implications on Dean's feelings, which is queer coding, not openly confirmed the way Cas's were, but also not "fanon" either)

Misha might as well have stood on that con stage and shouted DESTIEL IS CANON.

Yeah lol no I'm not going to stop saying Destiel is canon any time soon.

[hiskillingjar]

Since you were asking for questions to distract you:

What is one thing you have been DYING to share about Echo, Lawrence, Ren and/or Strade? Literally just use this ask to go on a rant about whatever/whoever you want 💛

*fiona apple voice* what the hell, sure.

long post so under the cut. general headcanon dump for ren/fox, law and strade be upon ye. echo is included.

ren + fox 🦊

can't speak japanese (think this is canon) and feels weird and traumatised about it. makes an effort to learn after strade's death, and by fox age, he's fluent.

(also) after strade's death, he attends community college (by fudging a high school degree and upping the sob story of an abusive boyfriend) and gets a degree in coding :)

really struggles to eat vegetables and dairy. would only eat meat and carbs if he was left to his own devices

both of these make his not entirely subtle ED habits flare up, though, so he's kind of a bad eater. don't take him out for dinner, he'll overthink it for days

has a pintrest where he collects outfit inspiration ^_^

sort of self-conscious about his height but knows it's an asset in his younger years. starts wearing heeled boots as he gets older.

lawrence 🥀

can't watch movies or tv shows without disassociating. it makes existing as a human being sort of exhausting

had a crush on their guidance counsellor at school and fantasised about her raping them. felt immediately bad about it and had an OCD doom spiral that made them stop going to see her

generally sex and romance repulsed, to the degree that they questioned if they even had the capacity to feel those emotions at all

turns out, just super depressed

when they do feel romantic or sexual, it can be very overwhelming and intense. which is why they prefer to just. not feel it lol

struggles gaining weight but develops a bit of a gut as they get older. they're a little self-conscious about it.

has a few hang-ups about masculinity, queerness, gender nonconformity. their dad put some fucked up ideas into their head as a kid (which also explains their OCD)

has two broken molars and crooked teeth from not looking after them when they were younger

strade 🔨

coffee drinker. likes it strong but with two sugars. won't drink tea, thinks it's a bad use of caffeine

not a picky eater but won't eat vegetarian "fake" meat. he has like a visceral reaction to it. real dad core energy in that respect.

on the subject of dad core, totally does that thing where he'll walk into a room and just stand there watching tv for twenty minutes. has done that when ren watches anime. no sitting, just...standing.

yellow teeth <3 from smoking when he was younger (with the occasional cigar in his older age) and coffee drinking.

never broken a bone, but has a fuck ton of scars and scrapes. his back especially (from fucking ren <3)

has a few masochistic inclinations. likes a punch to the face, likes to get scratched up and beat up. it gets his blood pumping

very comfortable being a verse, but wouldn't sub for love nor money. ultimate power bottom when he's doing it

acab. really doesn't like police. like he knows how to chat to them and put on the charm and all that, but he doesn't trust them. acab.

echo 🪒 (that's her emoji) (also just facts I feel like sharing)

echo was named and based after echo and query, the riddler's lesbian sidekicks in the batman comics. i developed the two of them into a genderfluid domsub lesbian couple for a batman 2022 fanfic, and got so attached to echo that she became her own character <3

echo's design was partially inspired by trianon serious weakness, but more so that I miss having black and green hair lol. she also has all of my piercings :)

characters who also inspired echo are vikki from what happens next and beth from manhunt by gretchen felker-martin

echo works at fictional cafe that's a stand-in for st*rbucks because of their gender affirming care benefits.

when she and law first met at therapy, she thought they were a clocky trans girl. had absolutely no idea they were basically cis until they told her

her favourite video games are metal gear solid (of course), silent hill and yume nikki

she'd never ever tell anyone she likes anime (because it's cringe apparently), but her favourites are neon genesis evangelion and berserk. has a secret fondness for madoka magica too

echo has one (1) other friend who's a detransitioned butch nb called matt (they/she). echo bullied matt in high school, and they eventually dated but broke it off amicably. they play call of duty together on thursdays.

echo has fucked every woman in law and her's group therapy, and she hates it.

[haedalkoo]

Hi! I hope you’re doing well<3

I’m not too sure if you’re involved with the Korean part of the fandom but, I was wondering if you had any insight into who the biggest bts ship is on the Korean side.

I saw a post saying that according to data from the Korean website postype (which is like ao3?) that jikook were the most popular ship on there. It’s interesting because people are always quick to debunk Jikook by arguing that their closeness and questionable intimacy is the norm in Korean culture and that Korean men are naturally just more affectionate. But, if Jikook are the most popular romantic bts ship on the Korean side….clearly their behaviour is recognised as distinctly abnormal for two ‘Korean bros’.

Also, I was reading a 2021 blog post from a Jikook blog where they explained that jikook’s popularity amongst the Korean side could be from them ‘fitting’ that very heteronormative idea of what a queer couple should look like. Jm is often perceived as more feminine and jk more masculine and so that ‘visual chemistry’ (again a very heteronormative take) could be part of what makes them as a duo so attractive.

Anyway, just wanted to see what your take on this is and whether you would know more about the k-side of things!

Hi!! this is such an interesting question <3

unfortunately i'm not very involved in the general k-army side. i follow a bunch of k-jikookers to read some content in korean but that's as far as i've gotten. I always tell myself i should engage in fandom in korean to practice but then i get lazy lol

i've also heard that they're the most popular ship tho! i used to read kookmin ff in postype a while ago when i was actively learning korean and i remember seeing them at the top of the list, but i can't swear on it. what i can say from the accounts i follow is that, most definitely, these two don't act like bros in the eyes of koreans. just recently, they went crazy over the joint flower arrangement because it was not normal for friends to do that.

i find that they often do things like this, slightly blurring the lines of what's traditional or a cultural standard. even when you operate through the basis of them just being friends, jikook (and bts in general) don't tend to comfort to traditional gender or age expectations, and i love that about them. the thing is, jikook sometimes present themselves through a code associated with couples only. ie, writing their names together in the same flower arrangement. whether that's intentional (i think so) or a sign that they simply are beyond those social rules, well, we can't know.

This brings me to what you mentioned: "jm is often perceived as more feminine and jk more masculine and so that ‘visual chemistry’ (again a very heteronormative take) could be part of what makes them as a duo so attractive."

you're so right, it is an extremely heteronormative understanding of queer couples. i think lots of people struggle to think jk could be queer as well because of stereotypes like these, as if he were 'too masculine' to be gay. clearly, some people need to interact with queer people irl LOL but just because there are certain 'types' of queer men or sexual dynamics associated to body/personality types (in the same way that there are plenty of butch/femme lesbian couples and expectations of what they should look like), it doesn't mean that every couple must fall under this stereotype or that they're any more or less gay because they check the boxes.

on the other hand, some people tend to enjoy stereotypical content and then struggle to understand that queer people exist outside of them (they might love a fictional gay ship but then be blind to obvious queer signaling from men that don't fit their idea of being gay, if that makes sense?). many shippers, including jikookers, tend to have a more conservative/stereotypical view of their dynamic when jikook as individuals and a couple constantly defy these rules and boxes shoved onto them.

i'm ranting about nothing and anything at this point 😭 this is all to say that if jikook are famous within the k-side, it's not for how they 'look' as that post implied, but for the reasons everyone, korean or not, can see. their chemistry, their love, and their commitment and devotion to each other. imo they spend more time breaking cultural expectations for men/couples than adjusting to stereotypes fabricated by people outside of the queer community 🤷🏼‍♀️

thank you for your question!

[just-antithings]

anti thing: turning very real, mostly queer & homeless support system of the found family into a heteronormative 1950's white picket fence nuclear family unit with moms/dads/siblings. My found family is in a constant flux state of everyone's fucking everyone or has fucked everyone, I promise you're not incestuous for kissing the friend you call when you need support that you won't get from your parents, I promise so hard. Stop pushing this prudish agenda for conservatives, you're not even being paid lol. (This includes "sibling coded" bs. As an adoptee this idea just trivializes the connection we have with our families. No, two pals that tease each other aren't basically siblings, you simply can't find a good enough reason to hate a ship.)

👆👆👆👆

[writing2changetheworld]

This is random sorry, and is probably gonna be pretty long, but I saw a couple of your posts about ableism/accessibility in Smosh videos, and I would like to recommend an improv comedy group that, in my opinion, treats disabilities extremely well. Shoot From The Hip is a London-based comedy group made up of four men in their 30s- Sam, Tom, Luke and AJ. I would like to clarify that while none of them have any physical disabilities, both Tom and Luke are diagnosed with ADHD (and I think one of the others might be too but idk), and Sam has said before that he has "a form of dyslexia", I don't know if he would consider himself disabled though (bc I've heard before that he doesnt identify as neurodivergent).

The first thing I want to mention is their subtitles. I think it was some time last year when a group of fans started transcribing the longform plays, and soon after they got in touch with SFTH and a subtitle team was created- fully made up of fans. Nowadays, every new video that comes out has subtitles available, and some are even colour coded to show who is saying what. Becuase it's fans who make the subtitles, there are often little references to other SFTH content sprinkled here and there and stuff, which not only is a delight to see (many people who don't need subtitles still turn them on just for that), it also makes SFTH more accessible for newer fans imo, as they get to know the inside jokes a lot quicker- a win-win! Most, if not all of the backlog of content has subtitles by now, and plenty have other languages available too.

Additionally, SFTH are very inclusive in the characters they play, whether that's including queer characters, neurodivergent characters, physically disabled characters, etc- they've said before (and I'm paraphrasing here) that all these types of people exist, so why shouldn't they be included in the stories they tell? And the best thing is, it doesn't feel forced at all- it's not like they sat down and decided that they would be inclusive, it just happens naturally. And specifically for disabilities- they don't treat them as a huge plot point, as if they come with special "superpowers", nor do they treat them like things that should be hushed and not spoken about, and shamed. They're never the butt of a joke, that's just the way the characters are. A good example I could give for this is from a recent play they put out on their patreon (so unfortunately it's behind a paywall), where a character has a stutter. If any jokes were made about it at all, they were light teasing from this character's brothers- and even then, he was able to stand up for himself and tell his brothers to stop (something I feel is pretty rare for disabled representation!). It was never even a big plot point, it was just another character trait. Another example is that several characters canonically have ADHD (it's probably most common bc their actors have it too lol), but every single time it's always just a quick mention, it doesn't become part of the plot and it's never made out that these characters are rejected, undesirable or anything- it's literally just a character trait, full stop. And lastly, there's a character who lost both his legs in a war (against alien-like Cubes)- but he's not treated with pity or anything, and later when he gets new Cube-forged prosthetics, he just wants to show them off to his husband- it isn't some kind of revelation that closes the gaps between humans and Cubes, it doesn't make the Cubes listen to him and stop the war- no, they make peace through the power of love instead xD.

Anyway, sorry for the long paragraphs, feel free to ignore this reccomendation if you want. Have a good day! ^-^

I may check them out.

One thing in particular you said that caught my eye though is none of them are physically disabled but play physically disabled characters. Some physically disabled people don't agree but I'm voicing my opinion: that's not okay. They agree we're human beings and we exist but they don't actually include us?

[yourfaveisintersex]

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS!

This post is long. Just so you know. Prepare to do a lot of scrolling and reading.

"Who are you?"

My name's Judas! I'm also called the Choir System, since I have polyfragmented DID. We use he/him pronouns collectively, but you can use plural they/them if you're referring to multiple parts in our system.

I'm an intersex adult who semi-randomly decided to make this blog after getting out of the shower one day, and now make low-effort edits of people's headcanons and of canon or coded intersex characters as a hobby when I have downtime instead of bedrotting on YouTube or Reddit or something. I'm more than happy to talk about my personal intersex experiences on this blog, but if you demand my diagnosis you owe me $20 USD and I'm not kidding I will genuinely respond to you with my PayPal link. Fund my testing because I don't know for certain either lol.

Some of my interests include art— both traditional and digital, roleplay (and writing as a result), cooking & baking, sewing, music, and photography. I tend to get interested in more niche stuff as well, but that's the main gang of hobbies. I'm familiar with and invested in media such as Persona, Yakuza, Homestuck, ENA, Fear & Hunger, The SCP Foundation, Disco Elysium, Darkest Dungeon, FNAF, Danganronpa, and Invader Zim. Just to name a handful of IPs I like in a decent capacity. I have a special interest in adult cartoons as well, but this paragraph would get stupid long if I talked about all the ones I like.

I'm both physically and mentally disabled, and I'm currently a cane user. I won't go too in-depth on my disabilities, but TL;DR chronic pain and balance issues, hard of hearing due to auditory processing disorder, proudly & obnoxiously autistic, a colorful assortment of mental illness, and dogshit memory because dissociative amnesia. Be patient with me and please be as specific as you can and need for your requests, because I really dislike any vagueness. I'm a genderfluid cistrans man (cis nonbinary, trans boyflux[man–neutrois]+ agender. Sometimes butch lesbian on top of that but it's all rlly complex this is just an abridged version), and you can check out my full queer hoard here on pronouns.page (link)

Now let's actually get to the frequently asked questions below the cut. I've droned on long enough making this half a proper introductory post.

"What is intersex?"

Intersex describes the natural state of an individual's physical body. Congenital sexual characteristics (or lack thereof) that are either seen at birth, spontaneously develop ("spontaneously" meaning your body just Does that, such as during natural puberty), or wouldn't otherwise be discovered without testing (such as atypical sexual chromosomes, or internal imaging discovering genitourinary structures/organs that aren't to be expected), and don't fit neatly within the binary expectations of "male" or "female".

Obviously this is surface-level, and just how I would explain it in the most concise way possible. However I feel it is important to add as well, what intersex is NOT; it is physically impossible for humans to be born with both a fully formed & functioning penis and vagina. This is known as "bigenitalia" or "dualsex". While there ARE intersex people who you can say have both a penis and vagina, one or both structures are either underdeveloped and/or not typically functioning. In that same vain, it is not possible for a human to simultaneously be able to impregnate and become impregnated, because both states require two completely different hormonal profiles to function properly.

Species' who have or are capable of the above are also NOT INTERSEX by default. While these individuals CAN be intersex, as described above naturally developing sexual characteristics that are "out of the norm" for one's species, there can not be an "all-intersex species". This has multiple names (no, the H-word is not acceptable even in a scientific context, stop using it), but it can be called cosexual, monoecious, or gonosimulistic. "Dichogamous" also exists for species' who produce one gamete, and then produce another later in life (like clownfish!).

For more information, and variations/traits you could headcanon characters with, check out the below hyperlinks!

Intersex FAQ by InterACT (link)

Intersex Table of Contents by The Transgender Dictionary (link)

Intersex Variations Glossary by InterACT (link)

intersex.wiki Main Page (link)

"Intersex" from the lgbtqia.miraheze.wiki (link)

Wikipedia's Intersex Variation List (link)

"Am I intersex?"

I can't tell you if you are or not for sure. No one can, really. You might think doctors could, but they can only really give you a diagnosis that may or may not be correct. Hell, you might not even be able to tell because not all variations are symptomatic and you only find out later in life by accident during some imaging or testing.

"Intersex" is more of a sociopolitical identity (in my opinion) than a strictly biological one, and you aren't obligated to openly call YOURSELF intersex even if you undoubtedly would fit under the label. I do encourage people who are questioning if they're intersex or if they should use the label, to at least toy with it or related ones such as extersex (link), quoisex (link), or mesosex (link); but you aren't obligated to share your intersex status if you don't want to.

"No but really, how can I tell if I'm intersex?"

Again, I can't tell you. Both because it's a personal thing, but moreso because I'm not a medical professional. You're more than welcome to toss questions about yourself in my askbox (I'd prefer if you headed to my main account just to keep this blog clean, but it's not a huge deal) for me to speculate on because I HAVE hoarded a good amount of information in my head, but I cannot diagnose you.

I humbly direct you to the below hyperlinks for more information on your questioning intersexuality.

InterACT's official Discord server "InterSpace" (link) [Only for intersex + interquestioning people who are 13–29 years old!]

I Think I May Be Intersex by TIGERRS (link)

ARE YOU INTERSEX? A zine by versegm (link)

"Does [X] condition count as intersex, and could I submit a headcanon with it?"

Simple answer? Maybe, and go ahead anyway!

Complicated answer? What counts/doesn't count as an intersex variation, given if it isn't widely accepted by the intersex community as one already, can vary from person to person. Generally, if it's in the Intersex Variations Glossary by InterACT as linked above under the "what is intersex" question, I'll happily post it without question. There's a handful of variations not listed there as well that I'll post similarly without argument.

Conditions requested that aren't widely accepted as variations themselves by the community will be tagged under "#intersex adjacent variations". This does not mean "this is not intersex", it means "this may or may not be considered intersex depending on who you talk to". Generally, if it can cause intersex traits, and could mean the character headcanoned would fall under the spectrum of natural sex variance somehow, I'll likely accept it under that tag.

"[X] isn't an intersex condition!"

Be constructive with your comment or shut your mouth. There are real people who have the variation you claim isn't intersex, and find support in the community regardless because their experiences fall under, or are adjacent to, other intersex people. Yes, even ones I MIGHT NOT PERSONALLY consider intersex variations. Even if you disagree, be tolerant. What may not be considered an intersex variation today by the community's standards might be tomorrow, or vice versa. Malicious exclusionism is a death sentence to liberation.

"Can intersex people identify as [gender]?"

Yes. Intersex ≠ gender identity. The only reason they might not be able to identify as a certain gender is because it's culturally-exclusive, i.e. two-spirit.

While some intersex people feel their intersexuality and its traits influence how they see their gender (intergender identities), or even seeing just "intersex" as their gender identity, not all of them do— a lot don't, even! Intersex people can be cis, trans, non-binary, cistrans, neither cis nor trans, or multiple of these catagories. Same way perisex people might identify.

"Are perisex/endosex/dyadic/non-intersex people allowed to send in requests?"

Of course? Same way a cishet person could headcanon a character as queer. Do whatever you want forever. Bare minimum don't be stupid about it, but that applies to everyone and everything.

"How do I send in a request?"

Bare minimum just drop the character's canonical name in my inbox— either in full or a nickname that's commonly used for them and will show results. Ideally with the source name as well, especially if your blorbo is more niche and doesn't show up easily with a Google search (or DuckDuckGo, since that's what I primarily use. But I'll pop on Google if I'm struggling to find your fave). It's kind of a challenge to do this wrong somehow.

"I don't like/agree with this post!"

Okay? Make your own post. Or send in your own request.

"Can I request a headcanon of a character if you've already posted them?"

Yes, absolutely! Multiple interpretations are cool as hell. And it's bound to happen anyway— we aren't a roleplay space where characters get "claimed".

Do note that duplicate requests might not "fit" with the previous posts, be it different imagery edited with the flags, the cropping/sizing is wrong, or other errors that make it visually different. I delete the images from my camera roll after I'm done with the initial request since I have a life of my own and I have too many images as-is lmfao.

"Are original characters allowed to be submitted?"

Unless you've managed to publicize them out in the world and they could reasonably be called a canon character somewhere? No, sorry. If you send me stuff about your intersex OCs though (be it a post you made that I reblog, or you're just infodumping in my inbox), I'll add it to my page.

"Can you edit this flag(s) in my request, please?"

Sure! Just be mindful though if you're asking for about four (4) or more flags/identities, since it could start to look cluttered on the right side. I always keep one half of the image for the intersex flag because... well intersex-centered blog, and Morgan Carpenter's flag only really looks good if at least half of it is visible somehow. If you ever want Natalie Phox's intersex flag (link) or otherwise just want your images to look different, just ask. I just serve the people here with my shitfucked Medibang edits.

Also if your label is like, REALLY niche, and either you don't provide context (like a link to the coining post, or dropping the flag and explaining what it means in your own words, etc. whatever just giving people the means to see and learn about it), or I can't find the context behind it with a search either on Google or Tumblr, I'll probably end up denying your request.

"If I add an image(s) of my requested character in my ask, could you use them in your post?"

God please yes I'll kiss you on the mouth if you made my life easier (Exaggerating)

You can also ask I use images from specific iterations of the source, such as an older movie or newer game or something, for example. I'll try my best to accommodate. Of course if you added them yourself I'll be jumping for joy about being able to be lazy lmfao. Please don't ask for fanart edits unless I can give credit to the artist somehow.

"May I use your edits as a profile picture? Do we need to give credit?"

Yeah, go right ahead! Use my edits for whatever you want. Giving credit to me is welcome (either to this blog or my main @ridibulous), but you aren't obligated to do it. I like seeing what people do with them, at least!

"Could you add a queue and/or inbox counter in your bio?"

I've thought about it pretty hard, but no. Pain in my ass to manually update, and I think it kinda defeats some spirit if you know where you are "in line" so to speak. You're more than welcome to ask the amount of posts in my queue directly from my inbox, though.

"Is it alright if I spam like/reblog your posts?"

I don't care, go ahead! I watch my notes like a hawk so I'll definitely notice you, but consider that I good thing, I like our fans.

"What do you consider as canon, canon-coding, and intersex coding?"

Canon: The most reasonable conclusion is that they are intersex or have an intersex variation. This can include the source material or a creator of the source material going "X is intersex" OR "X has [condition accepted as intersex]". Either or can also heavily allude to a condition as wording doesn't have to be perfect and specific to understand "yeah the creators were intending this character to be intersex".

Canon intersex coding: Nothing is said outright nor were the creators potentially intending the character to be intersex, however based on experiences the character goes through, someone could reasonably interpret "hey this character could be intersex!". Kind of vague, if you could imagine them being canonically intersex it probably goes here.

Intersex coding: May or may not have outright references to potential intersexuality, or just has experiences that, while not explicitly apart of, do ring true for many intersex people. Such as not fitting in gender wise and having struggles related to your percieved gender and/or gender identity, physical issues, being othered, experiencing medical abuse, etcetera. Very vague catagory also, so don't be shocked if this + above flip-flop a bit.

"Are characters from NSFW/18+ sources allowed?"

Generally, yes? I've already posted many headcanons from sources that are gorey or violent since I'm more receptive to them, but I'll squint and treat the more sexual medias on a case-by-case basis. If they're not reprehensible (no positive representation of pedophilia, rape, beastiality, etc.) and I can find an image(s) of your requested character that is SFW, I think we'll be fine. All sexual or particularly NSFL sources will be tagged as "#18+ source".

This blog is at least PG-13, basically. I make jokes in the tags about being physically attracted to some requested characters sometimes. I swear, a lot. And well, intersexuality will make you think of sexual characteristics because... duh. Penises and vulvas will be talked about here in an informational context. Tread with caution and look away if you don't like it.

"Are transintersex(*) headcanons allowed?"

No. This blog is anti-radqueer if we're gonna have any niche tumblr discourse opinions here. Fuck off.

(*I'm not describing nor excluding the reclaimed label (link), just the bullshit one by perisex radqueers)

"Do you know you're marked red by Shinigami Eyes?"

Well aware. The application, and the single person behind it who keeps people marked as red or green with zero oversight, is intersexist towards intersex people and their experiences should they not align with perisex ideals or comfort. Among a laundry list of other issues such as anti-transmasculinity, exorsexism, and racism (and marking people, who are affected by these or speak about them in the trans community, as red), just to name some I know off the top of my head.

"Why do you use the four-stripe transfem & transmasc flags?"

The creator of the popular transfem & transmasc flags explicitly excluded many intersex experiences in the posts for said flags. Naturally, because this page is centered around intersex existence and hell I'm someone who doesn't align perfectly with perisex expectations of transition, I don't fuck with that, and the four-stripe flags seemed like the best option. I'll always add alternate variants with the popular flags in the posts however, because some intersex people use those flags anyway and who am I to deny that.

"Why do you not add image IDs in your posts?"

I'm trying to keep this blog low-energy for myself and treat it as a hobby in editing images and throwing them someplace for people to enjoy, especially since when I DO write image IDs I tend to be detailed (because well... that's kinda obvious why right?), thus the energy thing. Plus I'm just a stickler for keeping my posts looking "clean, neat, and short". I know, it sucks, I'm sorry, I really don't have much good of an excuse in my opinion and I'm wholly aware of that. To bridge this gap, I reblog any IDs I see folk add to my posts under the tag "#image id included". I do try to be vision-accessible in other ways as well, such as adding "link" in parentheses after hyperlinks.

"Why do you put an asterisk after pronouns sometimes in your posts?"

If a character's headcanoned identity & appearance don't match, basically. Such as a character who's a presumed cis woman in source and the request says they're transmasculine, or vice versa. It's proactive to try and prevent any smartasses who insist I'm not using the right pronouns, or something. I just make the funny image edits, I go with whatever pronouns the requester uses in their ask and I'll default to they/them (or the canon character's assumed pronouns) otherwise.

"Why aren't religious characters from the source not allowed? What does that mean, what counts as parody?"

I made a Jesus from The Bible post and I got some folk up in arms about it. I'd rather not deal with the shitstorm again, moreso because it took a mental toll on me. And something could be said about disrespecting people who believe X individual is real even when you don't believe the same (which is my case, I do not hold Christian beliefs current or past).

Parodies mean giving the character a degree of seperation. So Jesus (and the various other religious figures.) from South Park is fair game.

"What if I have other questions?"

Toss them in my inbox, my notes, or message me directly, either on this blog or my main, I don't really care right now. If I get questioned on the same thing often enough—or I feel it's important information to be answered— I'll add it to this behemoth of a post.

[kimyoonmiauthor]

Better Novel Scrivener Template

BTW, If you liked the Settings Template, this has that plus more...

The Current Novel Template is out of date, the templates aren't really doing much for you. And the variety of icons is rather thin. I set out to fix this.

The template as a whole is PG-13 as the Character Template mentions "dangerous" things like "Kinks" and "Safe Words" OMG. I know. So terrible. So if you don't want to explain those things to anyone underage, don't download it.

As I am NB, and generally queer otherwise, I have included things like Sexual Orientation, Romantic Orientation and a whole load of things to think about when building CHARACTER, SETTING, WORLDBUILDING. I included things that people often forget by using my Uni and College knowledge.

Please, please read the "Read Me First" file if you want to avoid having to load missing icons. I give instructions.

In case you still opened it despite my warnings or it doesn't work, you'll have to load in the icons manually. In which case this is a reference:

The New Icons are: Domestic Products, Imported Goods, Exported Goods, Laws, and Social Stratification. I added extra icons for Weapons and Warfare in case you're not writing Fantasy. Laser Guns and a Historical Pistol.

I did my best to make it CULTURALLY NEUTRAL. If you want them specific, you're on your own.

I also added if you'd like to load them

All these Icons to the folder so You can finally color code your manuscripts to your heart's content. (My unending frustration with Scrivener).

I added an SVG file so if there is an exact shade I missed on the Spiral Notebook Colors or the Hardcover Books, you can add it.

The Composition Notebook file isn't included as it contains a pattern. However, I made pains to make sure it matches real life colors that exist in Composition Notebooks. You wanted the Settings Template? There are 2. One for City/Towns. One general one.

Zero Organization or Clue on Querying or Self pubbing?

I put up Organization Folders for you.

Here are the Templates you get. Everything is beefed up for you. I spent forever on these Templates and testing them. I also cued Styles to them so it's easy to change the colors. If you want to change something, as the About document says, turn on invisibles.

The Default Styles aren't useless anymore.

If you need a more Definitive Guide, I also made one in the file:

Download the Scrivener Template. It is a ZIP FILE Win Zip or other Zip app should be able to handle it.

Warning: Direct Download https://www.kimyoonmi.com/BetterNovelScrivenerTemplate.zip If you want to Skip the Template completely, but are wishing to add the Icons to your Scrivener:

https://www.kimyoonmi.com/ScrivenerIcons.zip

This template itself is not for sale or profit nor are the icons. Also don’t be the person that lies that says you made it. It’s a Creative Commons License Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivatives by Yoonmi Kim 2024. You may change it for personal use only. Any problems can be addressed directly to me at https://www.kimyoonmiauthor.com. If you would like to translate this into other languages, let me know.

Don't be the ass that tries to sell my hard work, 'cause really, it's free. And I spent a lot of pains and time to make sure it's free and easy to use with a lot of subtle UX. Edit: I added even more stuff to the newest version.

Yes, a Pets Sketch, a Fauna Species Sketch a Flora Species Sketch, there is Literature added to the list of Art (I forgot it. lol I thought the mistake was silly, but yeah.)

And I added a Medicine Section with an icon to the technology section. There are two native icons already for Medicine--syringe and pill, but I kind of felt it didn't always give the feel of fantasy, so I made a Mortar and Pestle from scratch to add, but if you're doing sci-fi or contemporary, etc you can change to the syringe or pill.

I added explainers as well for the items to the guide.

Why?

'Cause. I would love to be able to see people put more thought into their worlds/worldbuilding, even if it doesn't show up. Maybe it won't be only horses for animals as pets. Or an occasional dog. Haha. Having a gay dog like Robin Williams would be great.

[lover-of-mine]

Hello and welcome to me being crazy about colors in media. Again. I feel like during season 7 there was the whole blue and yellow thing going around Buck and Eddie and I offered the theory that it could be like the blue and green thing, but for queer couples, since the show tends to use that color combo with Hen and Karen (here's that post if you want to see it), until @stagefoureddiediaz told me about a trend in media as a whole to use those two colors for queer coding, she mentioned red, white and royal blue and heartstopper as more recent examples but that this has been going on for a while. I'm gonna be honest, I don't watch a lot of movies, but the other day tiktok started to show me clips of Crush, it's a queer high school romcom, I had it on streaming, I was bored, I sat down to watch it, the movie is ridiculously blue and yellow, like, it's almost funny, I'm not gonna write a meta on that, if you get curious and watch the movie, there are blue and yellow elements to pretty much every scene, just pay attention lol. But that got stuck in my head and I was thinking about Love, Simon, and well, that movie also uses blue and yellow elements, in a more subtle manner, but it's there, rwrb also has details, like the lighting or color of ties, the same way they hide pride flags with elements of the scene. I never watched heartstopper, so I can't comment on that one.

Why am I telling you this? Well, if this is a pattern in media in general, then we have ourselves a solid theory. Crush and rwrb are more recent movies, crush is from 2022, rwrb is from 2023, but Love, Simon came out at the beginning of 2018. This makes the choice of making henren scenes blue and yellow very interesting.

You know me, I'm the blue and green person (extremely detailed meta on the blue and green), but I turned off the blue and green switch in my head and was going around wondering what counts as yellow. Because if we count warn lighting in general, the way it reflects in the background, Buck and Eddie are constantly surrounded by blue and yellow elements. There's a lot during under pressure, including the way the dialogue during the ambulance is "Practice rounds have blue caps, gold caps are live." while we have blue and yellow lights in the ambulance ceiling.

The blue and yellow elements are real, but while making my buddie in every episode series, I was watching season 3 with the blue and yellow goggles on, and I realized the lights behind Eddie during the tsunami are very much yellow, along with the blue tents and Eddie's uniform.

And once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it.

They even have blue and yellow beers.

So the blue and yellow during season 7, has to mean something. For both of them.

And with the way that Buck, Bothered and Bewildered is a blue and yellow episode, I kinda wanna say that the blue and yellow IS about queer themes.

But the reason I'm making this post is actually more insane than just making this point again. Buck and Eddie have 2 undeniably blue and yellow scenes before season 7. Scenes where they are dressed in blue and yellow. And those are very important scenes in my humble opinion. Because the first one is the will reveal.

This scene is one of the most important buddie scenes. And that makes the colors here very interesting if we add things like the way they wanted to make Buck bi in season 4 but fox didn't let them, and this scene reads as a love confession anyway. Having Eddie in blue and Buck in yellow could very much have been the way they found to add more significance to the scene.

But there's also the way that Eddie's shirt is to yellow the same way Buck's is to blue during the presentation of the couch theory (rip you will always be famous), which is, again, a choice, we also have the notepads Eddie and Chris are playing with are yellow and the beers are also yellow, and the way Chris is a blue element.

Everything here keeps getting me more and more convinced that they will go canon while in blue and yellow, not blue and green like other couples, because green is both their breakup colors, if we count the conversation with Kim as a breakup.

And personally, I think we can, because by my own standards, their first conversation is blue and green.

So buddie going canon in a blue and yellow scene makes more sense because it would be unique to them.

This is a very long way to say, let's be on the lookout for both of them wearing blue and yellow lol.

That's all for today, if you reached this, I love you 💜

[akirayuri]

Himeno and himeaki: a rant

I've noticed a lot of people don't really like Himeno and one of the reasons being her apparent romantic attraction to Aki ( and also other than the fact that she almost slept with Denji ) and lmao I do get the hate to some degree but sometimes it feels lowkey forced. And that's why the relationship she shares with Aki kinda gets misinterpreted or it get's watered down to a 'oh he is hot I want to fuck him'

So I just kinda wanna yap my interpretation of their relationship cuz it's not just a typical one sided hetero relationship, it has a lot of layers to it.

For one, I do think what Himeno feels for Aki is more of a personification of her idea of being remembered and mourned. Until Aki came Himeno had a number of partners and subordinates simply dying on her, and it's a very prominent part of her character; watching the people she worked with die. As Kishibe says, Public safety devil hunters have to have a few screws loose and as I say it, you got to have thick skin. The idea of having a 'few screws loose ' including lacking empathy over time which means you don't mourn the death of your comrades.

But Himeno is normal. A country mouse sticking to the city mouse ( Aki ) for his company when she would rather live in the quiet countryside instead. Here there is a lot of parallel between Angel devil and Himeno as they both longed to stay by Aki's side which inevitably brought their doom.

And back to the topic of mourning, I think the idea of being forgotten, so replaceable and discarded into the past had scared Himeno. Deep down she was scared of being consumed by the oblivion that is the apathetic and replaceable management system of public safety. No one would remember her, no one would cry for her. When she probably cried over her drink late at night.

But then Aki happened.

What she loved was his empathy and the ability to feel so profoundly for other people. She wanted that. She carved that. He wore his heart on his sleeves and she was Hungry to take a bite of it. It is selfish, kind of twisted and so uncharacteristically none sexual of Himeno.

She loves Aki but I think it's more of a, "cry me a river and I will gladly hang myself for you" kind. Her tendency to have sex with anything that moves has no effect on her relationship with Aki nor the feelings she feels for him. It's beyond that.

Though I do think her habit of having sex with almost everyone is more of a bad coping mechanism than anything. Just like Aki, she didn't get to process her grief correctly. And unlike Aki, she can't cry.

Here is a bit of parallel she has with Denji of all people with their hypersexuality and the questionable methods of having and viewing sex. Also in that scene when she makes a deal with Denji with the, "you take Makima and I take Aki". For both of them, their person of affection was someone untenable and unreachable, someone who probably didn't return their feelings.

But what Himeno was wrong about Aki not Loving her back.

Yeah maybe he doesn't love her like the way she wanted him to love. He never viewed her as a lover or someone he can have sex with ( I do have a doubt they must've hooked up at some point or Himeno at least tried something very dubious consent with Aki at some point. ). But Aki cared. And He cared deeply. So much so Himeno basically starts to haunt the narrative from this point on lol.

I don't really hate Himeno, far from it. She's so interesting I would love to put her under a microscope and analysis from where that wrecky thought process of her comes from. She's my yaoi girl. What a little freak.

Their relationship is so Yuri coded I don't even count them as a straight ship lmao

But besides anything, my favourite genre of himeaki is bisexual disaster Himeno × gay/asexual Aki queer platonic partners from hell.

[dyingdevotion]

Interesting Turn of Events

Okay so on this post (thank you guys for liking the post! I’m going to continue making more!), I mention that we might see Louis & Zara pictured together once a month since the restaurant pics came out March 17 and the 1st pap pics are from April 16. However, we got pics of them having a “steamy smooch” (lol) today.

Quick timeline for you:

April 9th: Louis goes to Stereophonic’s show in LA. The song in the video is called “Maybe Tomorrow.” It includes the lyrics “Think I’ll walk me outside and buy a rainbow smile. But be free. They’re all free. So maybe tomorrow I’ll find my way home.” Zara also posts about the show. April 9th was exactly 1 week before April 16th, which is when we got the 1st pap pics of Louis and Zara.

April 11th: Zara with a friend at Sunglasses Hut. Coachella Week 1, Day 1. Article written about Louis’ dating history. Harry wears the Cartier Tank Louis Cartier watch again. He wore it exactly 1 week before the pap pics of Louis and Zara kissing were released.

April 12th: We see the pap pics of Harry wearing the Cartier Tank Louis Cartier watch again. Coachella Week 1, Day 2. Louis is seen wearing an Amiri Resort Club shirt. Amiri is part of the international and luxury fashion group OTB - Only The Brave. As we all know, Only The Brave is a very queer-coded song from Walls. Article written about Louis at Coachella and Zara being ‘miles away’ from him.

April 13th: Coachella Week 1, Day 3. Louis looking cute in his multicolored outfit. Zara follows a Louie on tiktok and then unfollows. More articles about Zara and Louis are released. Article is written about Harry experiencing “heartache” over Taylor Russell moving on.

April 14th: We get a beautiful article about Louis being the "Festival Hero" at Coachella. Sam (Zara's ex) announced he will be hosting a live radio breakfast show on Saturdays. More articles about Louis and Zara's "relationship."

April 15th: SCMP publishes “Who is Roxie Nafousi, the influencer who ‘manifested’ the father of her child? She was born into wealth and used to date Harry Styles, and her book has sold more than 1 million copies.”Harry is spotted in Berlin riding a lime bike. He’s wearing blue again. (Okay, bluegreener). We get the Harry leaks. Harry is spotted wearing blue on a lime bike and snippets of old songs of his are leaked a day before we get our 1st pap pics of Louis and Zara.

April 16th: We get the 1st pap pics of Louis and Zara in California. He’s wearing a blue outfit. Zara launched her new swim and gym-wear range. LTHQ posts about a draw to win a signed 'LIVE' vinyl for War Child UK. We also get a photo dump from Louis via instagram with no caption that contains two photos with a rainbow in the back. Again, it probably means nothing at all but I thought it was funny since he posted the photo dump the same day we got the pap pics.

April 17th: More articles about Louis and Zara come out. Here are some interesting screenshots from said articles:

(Thanks to @watermelonlicker for this screenshot.)

(Thanks to @zourrystylinson for this screenshot. They really are trying to convince us they’re in love.)

Sam’s friend, Pete, shades Louis and Zara & hints that he has “good gossip.”

April 18th: We get more pap pics. This time they’re sharing a “steamy smooch” (more like an uncomfortable one). He’s wearing the same blue outfit as the pap pics from April 16. Some of us speculate the pics are from the same day & Louis just didn’t bother to change.

I really like @tbslhabit ‘s theory that they released the kiss photos cuz of our reaction to the pap pics released on April 16th.

That’s all for today! <3 Take care !!!

[reel-fear]

Genuinely so curious who Mike thinks is gonna be buying The Cage or the new DCTL GN bc with the way he tweets as far as he's concerned, it's not gonna be:

The queer people he has actively admitted he will never show any representation of in the games.

2. The POC he has actively fought against representing in his franchise. [Who he also mocked for thinking they would be represented in his franchise]

3. The Bendy fandom which has always been concerned with topics of diversity esp in the sense of queer people since its creation. Who he has responded to really poorly esp in regards to the GN.

4. The fans who critique him. [He blocked me for doing so lol]

5. His fans in general who he tweets about like this currently. [He's being vague about why people were mad at him or sent him 'nasty messages' because if you actually looked into why you'd see he was in the wrong. Either way, a very hateful way to speak abt ur own fanbase.]

Reminder while Mike is trash talking his fans he has always treated them rather poorly. The fans who won the fanart contest for Chapter 5 never got their posters actually in game due to it being rushed. Not only was chapter 5 a big slap to the face story wise, but it was literally so rushed he couldn't be bothered to add in the art his fans gave him for his game FOR FREE. [Meatly blames this on a crazy timeline, reminder him and Mike are the literal ceos of this company. The proposal of future updates here is also pretty cruel considering Mike nowadays happily admits he corrupted Chapter 5's source code and therefore literally can't update it At All currently. Because he is a moron]

At least they got to be in Boris and the dark survival, and by that I mean that was the Only game they got to be in so far, isn't that just treating your fans like you love them? Shoving their hard work into a spin off game almost nobody has played or addresses much. [Hell, who knows if with the Lone Wolf rebrand they'll even stay there. In which case they'll be in None of the games, only in the credits of BATIM]

6. The Bendy fans who just generally disagree with him on stuff. Like the new ink demon design where there is literally a public poll showing people generally prefer the old one.

7. The Bendy fans who can see he is actively lying to them. To their fucking faces.

He says this has always been the case, but screenshots and links to tweets regarding the books being canon prove it was not. Does he really think bendy fans are stupid or something? [Unless he's admitting here he lied to Kress when he told her the books were canon which sounds worse!]

8. Anyone who doesn't like the idea of giving money to a guy who laid off tons of employees then afterwards thought it was a great idea to express his anti-union views! Also brag about how good of an employer he was, according to his employees, he was not!

So in summary; Mike is an awful person who has not learned anything from the awful things he did. I will not be purchasing The Cage because, combined with this and his absolute refusal to take any kind of critique or see any differing interpretation of his franchise, I have no reason to think my problems with the franchise will ever be addressed or fixed. I probably will pirate The Cage along with any future Bendy Products [Including the movie] and will do my best to avoid giving it any kind of monetary support. Unless this changes any time soon, I can't see myself making anymore positive Bendy posts soon.

Mike has just managed to make it so hard to speak positively or optimistically of this franchise when he's so willing to broadcast how little he cares about it or its fans. I'm at the point where I refuse to pull any of my punches with my problems with it. What's the point of trying to play nice with my critique when either way the people creating it don't care?

So with this post, I want to invite anyone who feels similarly about the franchise to tell me, make a post or send an ask talking about how all of this makes you feel. It may not change how things are, but genuinely seeing other people share my feelings of anger makes me feel better. It feels nice to see when other people share our same concerns and worries. I'd also love to know if anyone else thinks they'll be avoiding purchasing Bendy products over this.

I'm not forcing anyone to participate in it nor trying to say anyone who doesn't supports mike but genuinely maybe if we can collectively decide to boycott things like the movie, graphic novel and The Cage... It might at least make the bendy devs acknowledge how much they have destroyed their own fandom's faith and trust in them.

The way Mike tweets about his actions like he had no control over why people were mad at him at least proves to me he takes NONE of it back nor regrets it. If you didn't know about his actions and only went off his tweets, you would be led to believe Mike has been needlessly picked apart by fans over things he couldn't control [or in his own words, had his words twisted and taken out of context]. That is not how you speak about your actions if you have actually learned better from them.

anyway, that has been my bendy dev callout post. This is an open invitation to anyone feeling similarly upset about the way the franchise is going to talk about it. It's genuinely nice to see how people feel about this and the more we talk about the more it's likely the bendy devs are forced to address our concerns. I don't think they will but hey, that's why I'm not gonna support them with my money anymore nor am I gonna be nice to them in any content I make critiquing Bendy. I mean I'm also basically making this post just in case anyone asks me Why I feel this way towards to bendy devs/as a way to respond to anyone who thinks I am too harsh in my critique in the future.

As always, it seems the best part of Bendy isn't actually anything about canon but about what the fan's are creating with the ideas Bendy failed to do anything interesting with.

Also the books, the books slap.