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Costume appreciation series: Sinners (2025) dir Ryan Coogler

Costume Design by Ruth E. Carter

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thinking about the character a lot today. call it pondering my blorb

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*in the middle of a breakdown* Omg wait. this is just like the character

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Tumblr 2021: he is SO soppinf wet, my scrimpy little fiction boy

Tumblr 2025: sodomizing and spanking that man #TheCharacter

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There's a person I follow on Twitter (also one of the reasons I can't leave the platform cuz of how iconic they are) that fuckin loves Kiryu from the Yakuza, to the point they have a Kiryu anniversary to celebrate when they were introduced to the games and also physically celebrate his birthday like getting a birthday cake.

I wish I could be on that level with Lincoln Clay, but he's only in 1 game, the game is considered the worst in the series and a lot of folks either don't care about him or outright hate him, oh and also he has no canonical birthday. Just sometime in January in 1945.

Like there's no merch of him either, I can't just buy a fuckin life sized cardboard cutout of him.

Also cause I can't get into selfship/yumeshipping, I will never fully be on that level. Yeah I like Lincoln a lot, I got a weird crush on him, but I'm way too brainrotted by the donolinc ship to the point I wanna get one of those heart lockets and put little pics of them in there so when I close the locket I can go "heehee they're kissing".

Lincoln's very attractive to me, he's huge, built like a freight train, his features are pretty, i love the fact he has acne scars, his voice is really nice too, can go from stern and demanding to soothing and sweet. He's a very human character to me.

Anyways, how do people get into making merch for personal reasons? I already got that plushie order from Etsy I'm still waiting on. And I got these cute Lincoln and Donovan + DonoLinc keychains from @/weetlebeetle (they got charms for the other Mafia trilogy characters too plz check them out)

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Lincoln the type to, in modern days, send someone a jumpscare in the middle of the night just cause he's feeling a little silly

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i love the theory that fallout didn't just stagnate in the 1950s, it returned to it. not just out of nostalgia, but desperation.

as the world fell apart, oil drying up, war time anxiety piling on and trust eroding, the government needed something familiar to sell.

and what better tool for control than the most sanitized, era of “american values” they could find?

aesthetics of nationalism, conformity, mccarthyist paranoia, all dressed up in chrome and smiles. it wasn't a freeze in culture, it was a calculated reversion.

the mythologization of a golden past becomes the scaffolding for fascist ideology. not because that past was ever real, but because it can be weaponized

myth, dressed up as memory.

in fallout's case, that myth is the 1950s. not the messy, violent, contradictory 50s that actually existed, but a state-manufactured fantasy of chrome smiles, and "american values." a world where conformity is virtue, fear is patriotism, and war is just another product.

because when people are scared, you don't give them answers:

you give them slogans. mascots. marching tunes.

you roll out project brainstorm, an actual pre-war initiative, and start pushing "covert and overt messages of extreme patriotism" into every corner of pop culture. comics. toys. music. sports.

whatever it takes to wrap the war machine in a smile.

prewar's retrofuturism isn't just for the vibes. it's state-sanctioned denial. it was a tight wrap around a dying empire, and the more things fell apart, the more they clung to that futile image.

like if they smiled big enough and said “apple pie” enough times, the oil crisis and global collapse would just blink away while the world burns behind it.

it's the same old rot, lacquered in vintage.

a country that chose the past over the future, and got exactly what it asked for.

not progress. not reform. just reruns of a dream that never existed.

and then it ended, the only way it could end:

with a country so in love with its own mythos it pressed the button waving a flag in one hand and a nuka-cola in the other.

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True love

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I gotta tweak a lot of things about my Mafia 3 Cringe AU....and do a lot of research cause I looooove punishing myself for fun.

Don't get mad if I make Lincoln and Donovan get married cause I looked and there might have been a weird loophole for trans folks to get married legally to cis folks. Also by 1967, interracial marriage was legalized.

Also cause I made Donovan trans, now I'm digging around for info about that sexuality and gender clinic that was in the Weimar Republic and the doctors affiliated with it that as well as notable trans men from that era.

So far, I made Donovan an FTM trans man born in 1935 and didn't start medically transitioning until around the time he got into Princeton. So like, early 1950s? (One of them smart kids that got accepted in early.) Also took the college acceptance as a way to basically run away from home.

I have some old notes for Donovan having a doctor friend that fled Germany in the 1950s. I'm still wondering if he should be a doctor in general for the CIA (cuz I'm sure they have those right?) Or just be a trusted doctor that Donovan found on his own. Sorta leaning to the second option because of that whole....operation Paperclip thing. Don't wanna make a guy who fled that have to work around those people.

I know it's unrealistic and historically anachronistic for a young teen girl (at the time) to be accepted to an Ivy League college and still be allowed to study and graduate while transitioning AND have the CIA recruit him right around graduation despite being AFAB and trans and still in that weird stage of taking HRT where you don't totally pass but obviously the stuff is working.

Idk maybe he lived with the doctor when he was still pretty young while also getting treated. I'm still cooking, and sometimes research when you're dumb can make you wanna shove your head straight into drywall.

I'm trying to not get so hung up of historical anachronisms because Mafia 3 already has anachronisms within the game itself.

Anyways, I'm still working on it.

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very much a fan of this post so i felt compelled to make my own. print it out and give it to your coworkers or hang it in your cubicle and go "don't make me tap the sign"

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Got to the "Darlene" conversation in the part of the Righteously Fucked missions with Nicki.

Once again I still don't understand how people can interpret what Lincoln says to Nicki as NOT his own subtle way of coming out.

Yeah they're not explicitly using labels like lesbian, gay, bi, etc. They don't gotta especially considering the time period and where they are located.

Lincoln don't care about gender expression or bio sex, he just wants someone to connect with him!!! AND HE DOESN'T CARE WHO!!!!! A STRAIGHT MAN WOULD SAY SOMETHING ABOUT FINDING THE RIGHT WOMAN!!!!

Also historically I believe "bisexual" wasn't really commonly used as an identity label until the 90s, I'm not sure about "pansexual" but I wouldn't be surprised if it was around the same time or maybe a bit after but still.

Let's see....

Canon queer Mafia 3 characters:

Nicki Burke (lesbian)

Darlene (Nicki's unseen gf...I wish we could see her 😔)

Oscar (gay side character in the SOTT DLC also a Vietnam vet too)

Heavily Implied queer Mafia 3 characters:

Lincoln Clay (Bi or Pan. His convo with Nicki as evidence but only interacts canonically with 2 women, Raejeanne and Roxy)

Fandom and personal headcanons (i.e: my gaydar is going off and being really loud about it)

Donovan (the closet is made of glass and also look at him...also personally I think he's a FTM trans man too)

Vito Scaletta (possibly gay? He never mentions anything about wanting to be with women besides some promo art for Mafia 2 i guess.)

Danny Burke (probably just funny thinking about how none of Burke's kids are straight. He definitely likes women though and he's obviously an ally since he would defend Nicki)

Cassandra (no mention of ever being with a man or wanting to. I know it adds to her mystery. Also she's really interested in meeting Nicki. I think she's a girls girl but she might also be sapphic)

Roxy Laveau (my personal opinion because she seems somewhat inspired by Angela Davis, who is sapphic. I'm not calling her a "gold star lesbian" I'm not saying she hated her time with Lincoln, but idk man. Maybe Lincoln smiled at the note cause he's realizing how many queer friends and allies he has. Shoot me.)

Giorgi Marcano (once again....look at him. Also when Sal told him to settle down marry a nice woman and give him some grandkids, he was not thrilled with the idea. Outright called it boring. Getting gay vibes but like...violent party gay vibes since he thinks the crime life is fun.)

Aldridge (not saying he's fully gay but he sure ain't straight with all the shit that fucked up Donovan. Might be nothing, might be everything, either way. Do not accept his messages in Grindr if u don't wanna get traumatized.)

Father James (at first when I saw this headcanon I wasn't sure how to feel about it. But the the case of a gay man fucked up from trauma and lost the battle to Catholic guilt is a pretty compelling argument)

Alma Diaz (she mentions hooking up with men but I get bi vibes from her too)

Other

Alvarez (dont...ask me to elaborate but I'm going off of vibes)

Uncle Lou (NOT ETHICALLY AT ALL CAUSE OF THE HUMAN TRAFFICKING but I wouldn't be surprised if men also get uhh...swept up in that)

Connie DeMarco (also vibes. Not really his fault for his accent but it doesn't help. Also he REALLY likes Donovan's suit)

Dats all I got. I enjoy the rep we do have but with the headcanons from myself and what I see popular in the fandom, this game is chock-full of gays. Good and bad.

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i love when people draw 2 characters cuddling and it looks like this

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tim blake nelson is an attractive man and i will stand by that but dear god is he good at looking unpleasant 

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Sinners and O Brother, Where Art Thou? are set only 5 years apart in Mississippi. Meaning hypothetically, Sammie and Tommy could have crossed paths.

They both have the Robert Leroy Johnson aesthetic, although Tommy Johnson was the original Faustian Bargain legend

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If I gave Cassandra a made up last name (for tagging purposes and headcanons) would anyone have an issue with it??