miasdawn

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ok girl kisser

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what a MAN

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ok girl kisser

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opening tumblr for the first time in months and IMMEDIATELY falling back in love. hello i am for sure back this time

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yeah joe mama is fun and all, but have y’all ever heard about a henway?

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oogh. augh

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Gravity Falls Themed Campaign?

Uh hello!

I don't use tumblr often enough, but I had an idea for a DND campaign that I need ideas for and am looking for suggestions! I want to create a Gravity Falls themed campaign. One where players can explore a gravity falls like area and solve the overarching mystery of who is messing up this little bubble of the world.

I want to also be able to share it with the world and let people use this for their own worlds! So please tell me if you guys have any sort of interest and feel free to leave suggestions as well :) thank you all!

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And Again and Again

This is the bridge comic I've wanted to draw forever between the Hyrule Historia manga (that introduced Hylia and First Link) and the start of Skyward Sword. My hands finally caught up to my brain.

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in love

✂💇‍♀️ver.

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for a final in my anthropology course, we could write a publishable piece and can post it anywhere! i thought this would fit my tumblr pretty well!

QUEER COMFORT AND DISCOMFORT IN RICK RIORDAN’S WRITING UNIVERSE

Rick Riordan’s writing universe is gigantic and diverse in a multitude of ways. In total, there are just around 30 books that he has written for this universe. He has been anointed as the writer of gods by many people. Riordan’s main theme that he writes around is using the idea that all these ‘dead’ religions may have just evolved and that every single one may exist in our world at once. He writes about children of the gods, called many different names, and their adventures to save the world and to save themselves. His most famous series is the Percy Jackson series, using the Greek Mythology religion to write around. Percy is a child of Posidon who meets Annabeth, child of Athena, and a satyr named Grover. These three go on many different adventures to save the world and eventually end up saving the entire country with a war against the old Titans to replace the Gods. While this series is action filled and based around a couple kids, we get to see the incredible diversity that Riordan has written for us. Within this diversity is my main topic of this paper. One demographic that he has included are queer people. Within this universe, there are a large handful of main characters that do end up in this demographic. While it is a cheery thought, Riordan keeps it real by including the modern comfort and discomfort in his universe.

QUEERNESS IN THE UNIVERSE AS A WHOLE

As a whole, queer people in this universe are in the open. Riordan runs with the ideas that some of these different gods may be queer in some capacity, either in myths or in modern retellings. A prime example of this is the god of music and medicine, Apollo. In original Greek myths, he is known to have both female and male lovers. This is true in the books as well. His sister, Artemis, and Athena are known as ‘virgin goddesses’. In more modern terms, a lot of people recognize that they are closer to asexual, not being interested in sex. All of these are included in the books as one off mentions or as common knowledge that most of the people know.

COMFORT: A HOME FOR ALL IDENTITIES

Writing about queer relationships can be really difficult when you are not queer yourself, such as Riordan. For quite some time, he had little to no help in writing these relationships since they didn’t center around them. He knew the books surrounded different characters and them having relationships, queer or not, were not the main focal point for most of the books. One that he had written more solo is Alex Fierro. They are one of the main characters in the Magnus Chase series, following the children of norse gods and using norse mythology. Alex is the child of Loki, who is known for their shapeshifting and trickery features. Alex is genderfluid and transgender, and makes this very clear when people are questioning them. In The Hammer of Thor, Alex is a determined character that explains their gender identity in many forms including saying, “Call me she- unless and until I call you otherwise.” (Riordan 2016: 64). Later she says that “I’m gender fluid and transgender, idiot. Look it up if you need to, but it’s not my job to educate-“ (Riordan 2016: 70). Their pronouns will shift along days or hours. Many genderfluid readers have come forward to say that this character is a positive portrayal of their gender identity. Is it perfect? Of course not. Rick Riordan is a white, straight man in his mid thirties. Yet, readers do appreciate the accuracy and seemingly well done research into this queer identity when it was written to allow such a positive and welcoming portrayal.

This sense of comfort and belonging that Alex had brought for readers didn’t stop at just their gender and how they talked about it. In Ship of the Dead, Alex is currently identifying as a male. When going to Magnus’s, the main character's, apartment, they share one of their first kisses together. Magnus started to question his sexual identity, confused on what this makes him. He realizes that Alex is a bit more important than that and drops it. This gave a huge sense of love in the community. Not only was this a great portrayal of not knowing what you identify as and how that doesn’t really matter in the end, this was the first queer kiss that we read about in this universe. Readers loved this moment and still cherish it amongst the sweetest moments of the universe.

DISCOMFORT: THE MODERN ISSUES THAT WE CAN RELATE TO

Many readers will argue that the most popular queer couple that we have in this universe is Nico Di Angelo and Will Solace. This is due to the fact that Nico was a main character for a while and was well loved and we get a lot of content from their relationship. They are announced to be dating in Blood of Olympus, the last book of the Heroes of Olympus series. At the end of the book, they are all back at their summer camp. Nico realizes that this is a perfect time to ‘clear the air’ since they would be around each other much more often at this point. Nico finally speaks up to say, “For a long time,’ Nico said, ‘I had a crush on you. I just wanted you to know.’ Percy looked at Nico. Then at Annabeth, as if to check that he’d heard correctly. Then back at Nico. …‘But it’s cool. We’re cool. I mean, I see now … you’re cute, but you’re not my type.’...See you around, Percy,’ Nico said…Then he walked back across the green, where Will Solace was waiting.” (Riordan 2014: 488). This very heavily implied that Will and Nico were an official couple.

Nico hasn’t had the best run in this series. He has been through a lot; losing his sister, being a child of one of the most powerful gods in their myths, coming to terms of himself and who he is, and so much more. Riordan uses Nico as a storytelling device to talk about modern issues and pressures of being a young gay man. In House of Hades, Nico and Jason are attempting to reason with Cupid to get a scepter to help their friends. Cupid doesn’t give it up until Nico finally admits that he had a crush on Percy. Nico had been trapped in a time stopping place called the Lotus Hotel and, to make things simple and not have this take a page to write, he had been there since the 1940s. He has been out of there for some time and now is steadily aging as if nothing happened. However, he grew up with horrible ideas about being gay and felt as if he really had to hide it. When Cupid finally gives them the scepter, Jason explains that no one would judge him if he came out to the rest of the group but it was ultimately up to him. This is a huge heartwarming moment. With an incredibly dark moment of real modern issues of being gay and the stigma, we find comfort from Jason. Riordan may not have meant it to mean as big as we think, but Nico is a portrayal of how hard it can be to be queer in this world and how we even struggle to accept ourselves.

This isn’t the last we see of Nico and his boyfriend though. Riordan knew that readers loved this couple and wanted to see more of them. However, he doesn’t have the experience that he wanted to write this couple organically and accurately. And so, he had found a coauthor to help him with this journey. Mark Oshiro (they/them) has written books such as Anger is a Gift and Each of Us A Desert. They do a lot of book reviews as well on their blogs and social media. Oshiro is a queer and latinex author who gave Riordan a new experience to write with and another point of view to help him write this young queer couple. To write about this book would take me ages, especially with every idea that is explored and how much they both cover. Throughout this book, Nico finds himself frustrated with his boyfriend. Nico finds the underworld delightful, familiar, and comfortable. But his boyfriend, a son of Apollo, finds it frightening and disheartening. This theme is touched on throughout the entire book and gives them both many reasons to feel disheartened by the quest. They have arguments about small things, Nico feeling like he doesn’t have the ability to be happy and Will feeling like he has to walk on eggshells. While this theme isn’t inherently just a queer problem, showing that they also have the same issues as many other teenage relationships helps people from thinking of queer couples as the ‘other’ and not like themselves.

While there aren't a lot of main queer characters talked about Rick Riordan’s writing universe, the ones that are there, are quite well written. Riordan has written using tropes but then flipping them right on their head. While they aren't perfect, like anything ever could be, they are well written. He talks about modern issues, allowing the reader to feel the discomfort and then showing comfort for them. He gives them a place to exist in his universe yet doesn’t make it their whole personality. Alex is much bigger than being genderfluid. Nico is much bigger than just being gay. Will is much bigger than being bisexual. They have character arcs and other personality traits that make them more 3-D. People matter more than their sexuality.

Works Cited

Riordan, R., 2016. Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Hammer of Thor. New York: Disney Hyperion.

Riordan, R., 2012. Heroes Of Olympus: House of Hades. New York: Disney Hyperion.

Riordan, R., 2023. The Sun and the Star. New York: Disney Hyperion.

Riordan, Rick, Author. The blood of Olympus. [Los Angeles ; New York: Disney-Hyperion, 2014]

“The Sun and the Star: Rick Riordan.” Rick Riordan | Welcome to the Online World of Rick Riordan, 28 Sept. 2022, rickriordan.com/book/the-sun-and-the-star/.

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this is the only thought in my brain thank you

Here's a cute thought: Zelda definitely only knows how to cook her meat and rice bowl because she kept asking Link what his favorite meal was and he insisted he likes anything but one day just goes "meat and rice i guess" and she spent weeks trying to get at least one good attempt at the dish as thanks

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ohhh i can be normal about parallels between games

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god i love this little arg

ヾ(◍°∇°◍)ﾉﾞ♪

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Babydoll sheep ♡

via applefoxfarm

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