#I can only imagine what kind of outcry that the fan base will have once the recast are finalized

[s10127470]

The Rick and Morty Voice Acting Situation

As most of you probably know by now, the co-creator of the long-running Adult Swim series “Rick and Morty”, Justin Roiland, was faced with various charges and allegations for crimes such as domestic abuse and grooming earlier this year.

And although the court cases have been dropped, Roiland was still fired from not only Rick and Morty, but also every other project he was working on at the time.

This made of lot of people wonder what would happen to said projects, specifically Rick and Morty.

But those wonders would fade quickly as it was announced that Rick and Morty and Roiland's other projects like the Hulu original animated series "Solar Opposites", would still being continuing....but just without the involvement of Roiland.

Or....lack there of.

Oh yeah. Shortly after that announcement, a lot of people who worked on Rick and Morty came out about their experiences working with Roiland.

And apart from revealing how much of a shitty person he truly is, they also revealed that beside voice acting, Roiland hasn't really contributed to much to the show (like directing and writing) since Season 1.

So yeah, Rick and Morty was more or less going along perfectly fine without much of Roiland's involvement, and will pretty much continue to do so.

And after everything we found out about him, let's be real, the crew are really better off without him.

If only we could have it both ways.....

Anyway, although the series is going to continue on just fine without Roiland's involvement, there is one notable area where his removal has put the crew in a bit of a tight spot....

Voice acting.

Roiland was not only the co-creator of Rick and Morty, but also the voice of the titular duo.

And since Roiland's gone, the crew are currently looking for new voices for the duo.

A lot of people have been speculating and suggesting that the crew would look for imitators (particularly fans of Rick and Morty) who can should just like the duo.

But after a recent announcement given by Adult Swim, it seems that's not gonna be the case.

When Adult Swim president Michael Ouweleen was asked about the current casting process, he said that the crew wasn't really looking for imitators.

In his own words....

"No, not imitators... In any case the idea is that we feel that they are the same characters.....I'll take an example: there have been several great Bugs Bunny voice actors, and I love what Jeff Bennett has done with them. But it's not Mel Blanc! And yet we recognize the character. I even think that for Rick and Morty we will do even better... It will be fine. It'll be great."

This was a pretty insightful quote into their casting process.

And although many are hoping that one of many imitators, specifically Sean Kelly, to get the thumbs-up, the quote seems to indicates that the show isn't really looking for fan imitators, but instead professional voice actors.

I know that a lot of people (knowing how Rick and Morty fans are like) would be against this, I feel like this route has a bit more integrity.

It seems like they want to get actors who can actually deliver the best lines and performances, rather than just getting actors who could so 1-to-1 with Roiland.

And while I'm not against them casting imitators, I think they're better off casting professional voice actors since they tend to have much more range and more importantly, much more experience.

Plus, the comparison to Bugs Bunny also does bring up a good point.

Bugs has had many voice actors over the years.

Such as Jeff Bergman, Billy West, the late Joe Alaskay, and his current voice actor, Eric Bauza.

And although none of them sound like Bugs' original voice, the late Mel Blanc, or each other, their performances still fit the character perfectly.

Hell, just about every cartoon/fictional character that has existed for many, many decades have gone through this.

Having more recent voice performances that while fitting the character, don't sound quite like their original voice performance.

So if they can do it, Rick and Morty can do this as well.

And in all honesty, I find pretty admirable that the crew want to cast voice actors based on their merits rather than being able to sound just like Roiland.

Also, I hope they get separate actors for Rick and Morty.

I feel like that having the titular duo being voiced by separate actors would allow for better chemistry since they're not being voiced by the same actor, and don't have to rely on the honestly over-done improving that Roiland was know for.

But in that regard, I want to leave you off with this.

Out of all the professional voice actors you know, would do you think be the best choice?

Although they wouldn't be able to sound just like Roiland, who do you think would be able to capture the spirit of Rick and Morty the best?

[arts-butthound]

Sense and Salarian Ability Chpt. 2

(Also read on  AO3 if you prefer, leave me a kind kudos if you like my work: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22537765/chapters/57317959#workskin )

After filing the paperwork for theft with C-sec, a week passed with no discernible action. Walking through the ward, to and from work, Lau would scan the mob of people for familiar faces. At times, he’d imagine he’d seen her, weaving through a crowd of much taller adults or disappearing into a vent. But when he’d turn to confirm the vision, she was gone with the steam and smoke of the vendors. A wisp of air passing through nothingness.  

             Lau shouldn’t have cared enough to still hunt for her. Despite the vulnerable feeling of being robbed, had he actually lost anything of value? It was a hunk of dried dirt that had escaped his grasp to make into anything. Yet he dreamed of it, vividly; the mediocre and stale curves that had taken him too long to piece together into a feeble attempt of replicating waves on the sea.  Lau had hated even looking at it. He asked himself why he still looked for its shards. He should be over this by now. A better salarian would have put the ordeal behind him. A better salarian would have given up on ineptitude and worked toward something more attainable. A respectable salarian would have…should have…

Lau’s fingers tightened around the handle of his mug.  He only half listened as his sister nattered on over the vid-com about one thing or another, adding only small confirmatory remarks if she asked for his input.  In front of him, on the table, several holo pads held shipping manifestos, bills, and requests from eager artists wishing to be displayed and sold in his gallery. None of it caught his interest, but he flipped through the paperwork to appear busy while in front of Nalano. She continued her tirade of a chore list to him and Lau turned his head toward the window, watching the blurred, colored lights of traffic whizz pass. “You’re going to be here, right Lau? Appearance is everything at events like this.”

“Yes, Ano. I’ve already made the arrangements.”  Lau took a drink of his tea, overlooking an artist’s plea for validation.  Being a turian upstart didn’t hurt, with the scarcity of the species style outside of turian space. Lau made a note to email the artist about further examples of his work.

             “Good. Zejaa will have you entertain some of our business partners. I expect you to be busy currying favors.” Since their mother had died a few years back, Lau’s boss of a sister had taken charge of their branch of the family. Wielding her feminine power with an iron will and steel forged words, she had further built their branch’s influence in clan politics. Now that their cousin was formally becoming the clan’s Dalatrass, Nalano’s power would grow tenfold. The two had been as thick as the dense jungle trees that wove around one another since childhood.

“-as is custom, I know.”  Lau droned. “Relax  Ano, things will go off without a hitch on my end.”

Nalano smiled and Lau got the feeling that if she could pet his cheek, as their mother had done when she was pleased, Nalano would have done so. “Dependable Lau. You never make trouble for me. Azik may not be able to come at all because of his partner and I still need to find a back up babyitter.” She paused for a moment with a cleansing breath. “ I’ll speak further with you another time.” Nalano hung up, leaving Lau in the abrupt silence of his dark apartment. He closed the holo-pads and stowed them in his work satchel. Standing up, he moved into the kitchen to replenish his tea, robotically.

Dependable Lau.

He decided against more tea.

Looking at the clock, Lau grabbed his satchel and gazed into the hall mirror. Clean faced, suit nearly without flaw, Lau flattened his collar with a flare of gravitas and feigned importance. He stared into his own eyes, avoiding the dark uniformity in his peripheral vision. Today was a new circle. Lau locked the front door behind him. It was a brisk, cool, walk to the Nasurn Gallery, consisting of fifteen, maybe thirty minutes on a bad day.  Lau’s focus remained on the crowds and the pavement, intent on not looking for the ghost of the duct rat that he’d never see again. It felt good to stretch his shoulders and his legs this morning.

When he walked through the back door, Lau was greeted by a hellish heat and the rhythmic and scattered ringing sound of a hammer meeting steel. Behind the wall ahead, Eramanthe cursed loudly as the ringing ceased once again. The salarian rolled his eyes as he flipped on the ceiling venting system. She always forgot about the fans on her work days.  Lau wondered if she’d been born on an arid world far off in Asari Space. Walking up behind her, he could almost see it. As a young girl, she would be a sun burnt baby-building sand castles in a desert long after she should have gone inside to her mother. She could have been a chubby little thing, running with wild abandon just to feel the sand rush in between her toes. Maybe her family went on beach trips to escape the heat by way of a breeze coming off the water. The intense temperatures hardly seemed to bother the woman.

The work shop was empty today, with the other sculptures pushed far into the walls in order to give the asari room to work. The forge burned with a blinding yellow, illuminating the massive metal behemoth beside it that had stolen Eramanthe’s sleep for weeks now. She twisted the arms of the galactic community together and in the center of their outreaching palms, Eramanthe planned to plant a miniature of the Citadel. The theme was a little predictable for Lau’s taste, but her results were worth a bit of cliché. With metal and her biotics, Eramanthe’s figures felt like they could move and breathe on their own. They had the soft bend of skin and muscle that caressed the viewer’s attention.  Of life’s soft and tender emotions, Eramanthe caste them in metal and polished them to a mirror shine.

Her sculpture still lacked a hand or two, missing the drell, turians, and vorcha. Why Eramanthe insisted on putting the vorcha in there was beyond Lau. It wasn’t as if they added anything to galactic culture. On the work bench laid the disembodied hand of the turians. “I like what you’re doing with the seams there, Era. But this looks a little aggressive compared to the others.” Lau quipped, looking at the hand from over her shoulder. She nursed a small burn on the outside of her thumb and groaned in miserable agreement.

“I think some of real life is bleeding into the piece.” Eramanthe collapsed into a nearby chair with her eyes closed and head tilted back. “Maybe I just need to…step back for a while.”

Lau moved closer to the metal hand. The iconic turian talons were uncut and vicious looking, unlike most of Eramanthe’s works in which they were trimmed with a rounded edge. The hand was flexed as if it were a predator that was about to strike. “Fighting with Cassias?” Lau mused, watching as Eramanthe ground her palms into her temples.

“I think we’re going to break up, Lau. He’s just…so….so-” Her hands flexed and clawed at the air, veins popping from the skin.

Lau inched away from Eramanthe’s rage. “Uncompromising?”

The asari sunk lower into the chair, crossing her arms and legs with sharp angry movements.  “He’s too conforming. Too restrictive! Imagine what he’d do to our girls with that kind of attitude! He’d ruin them!”

“If he lived long enough, that is.” Lau said to himself. Eramanthe shot daggers at him from her seat; her entire face looking like she’d tasted something sour. “Hey-look at me.” the curator defended, jabbing a finger into his abdominal hood. “I get to make that joke! Besides, Cassias isn’t a young man anyway. You can do better, age wise.” Lau retracted said finger as Eramanthe transferred her glare from him to the ceiling. He scratched the back of his neck, averting his eyes back to the metal hand on the table. Quietly, he said “The hand should be salvageable. You only need to loosen the fingers and cut down on the talons. It should be fine.”

Eramanthe stretched out of the seat, pushing it to its two back legs. “I want babies, Lau. I want them real bad.” She rocked back and forth on the chairs legs.  

Lau briefly ran his hand across the metal arm on the table, feeling its heat slowly ebbing out into his palm. He turned to face her, “I mean, you can get kids without keeping the father around. Isn’t that what you asari do?” Lau snickered as Eramanthe threw her balled up sweat rag at his head. It was a bull’s-eye mark, hitting Lau square in between his horns.

“Been digging up cultural weaknesses to report back to your Union, salarian?” Eramanthe grinned toothily; brows narrowed. “Or is it just for a busy-body Dalatrass?” The two smiled at one another from their opposing sides of the room, Eramanthe’s eyes a bit brighter than they were a minute ago. She was prettier when she smiled.  Lau found that glowering only made Eramanthe’s particularly round face look like a withering gourd, melting and squashing into unintelligible shapes. Yet, the way she held herself was still slumped over. She hugged herself, hands wrapped around her elbows and a clouded faraway look in her eye.

Lau placed a hand on her shoulder and returned the sweat rag to her expecting hand. “Personally, I don’t see the draw.” He said, “But you’re determined enough, Era. You’ll be putting aside all your passions and career to raise a brood of crass girls in no time.” Era shook her head, ignoring the salarian’s distaste of the idea.

             The tinkling of the bell above the door in the parlor rang and the two shared a glance. The sound of the bell was more of a whisper; like a shameful, slow outcry that begged not to be heard and hoped to go unnoticed.  Though not unheard of, it was rare for patrons or guests to come to the gallery before noon. When Lau didn’t hear the sound of the door closing behind the bell, the pores of his skin tightened around the base of his bulbous skull. His feet led him cautiously to the front room, with a straight back and stern countenance. There he saw, mirrored in the glassy flooring, two very unwelcome duct rats. They stared wide eyed at him, crouching over some foreign object on the floor. One held the door slightly ajar, just enough to slip back through without sounding the bell once again. Letting out a small growl, Lau lurched toward the girls. He wrenched the door from the asari’s hand and slammed it shut before the two could escape his grasp once again. A sickly, burning anger broiled in his belly.

“You two” Lau spat “are in very big trouble!” The human girl with the pale eyes started fidgeting spasmastically, her hands flying around her face and chest while her mouth opened and closed like a fish left out in the sun. She constantly looked back at her companion, who quaked in fear as she tried to pry the door open. The human’s hands clawed toward Lau in a beseeching manner. Her mind was slower than an elcor’s walk in the garden, it would seem, as her mouth had nothing to say but the smacking of a dry tongue. Lau watched her in disgust. The little pest who had been a blight upon him for too long did not measure up to the scheming, malicious whelp that he had pictured; but rather was a simpleton with less to offer of herself than a vorcha mercenary.

“N-no.” the human sputtered out, finally clutching and pulling at her shirt as if something were missing in her pockets. “No. I’m sorry…uh-uh-uh. Vey…” the sounds were strangled in her throat before she could get them out.

Eramanthe came into the room, looking at the two children and then meeting the fire in Lau’s eyes with the surprise inside her own. “Lock these two down, Era. I’m getting C-sec down here.” Lau ordered. He leaned his weight against the door to keep the two in and pulled up his omni-tool. The human child looked as if she were about to cry, her breathing shallow and fast.

“Wait, old man!” begged the young asari, beginning to wrestle Lau’s arm away from the fingers that threatened her freedom. “She just came to say sorry. That’s all! Don’t call the blues!”

“Lau” Era interjected slowly, gliding across the floor.

“What are you waiting for, Era? Use your biotics on these degenerates already!” the salarian ordered.

While Lau fought against the younger asari, Eramanthe’s attention was trained on the human. The girl bit at her lip and looked as if she were chastising herself, her gaze intent on trying to tell the salarian anything. When the human grasped at the small object on the floor, Eramanthe’s mouth slid up into a small smile, “Lau, hang on a sec.” With quiet panic, the human girl carefully shoved a piece of board into Lau’s chest. The girls stumbled back as he let go of the asari child, steadying each other.

It was his worthless piece Lau realized, looking at the clay turning and swirling upward from the board. It had been patched back together with cheap craft clay, nary a crack showing…despite the differing shade of color of the clay he’d used and what she’d used. There were juvenile fixes to curves and shapes that…actually worked. The edges had been softened where he had made sharp turns, not to a fantastic degree, but enough to make a difference. There were unfortunate blobs of dried glue in places-but there had been an attempt to hide them with similar clay blobs in varying places. They almost looked like bubbles-in an amateur sort of way. Lau stared at it in silence. He refused to believe that a duct rat, with no form of education outside of anything but ducking the law, could have put together the pieces so intuitively. Despite himself, the salarian found himself impressed.

“Sorry I broke it.” The little human said, drawing the attention of the two adults once more. “I tried to fix it.” She toyed with one of her fingers, not making eye contact with anyone in the room.

             Eramanthe pawed at the sculpture from around Lau’s arm. “You did a good job blurring the lines where the old material and new meet.” She drew her hand away, rubbing her fingers together. The brownish coloring had stained her skin-a sign of cheap mock clay. It smelled mostly of salt.

“You did this?” Lau sounded more like he was accusing her than asking. The girl nodded slowly, nervously. The asari child had started inching toward the now unattended door.

“What’s your name, sweetie?” Eramanthe squatted down to meet the duct rat’s eye level. She held out her hand warmly toward the girl. Lau looked at his friend as if she were crazy.

“Um…uh-Tegan” the human looked at Eramanthe’s offered hand as if she were offered credits and tentatively reached out-

Her hand was snatched out of the air by her companion, who whispered a firm “Come on.” before turning towards the adults with a tight, polite grimace. “Sorry, we gotta go now. We won’t bother you again.” She pulled the human girl with her, the two scurrying out the door before another word could be spoken. The human’s eyes caught in the glass window.

Lau passed the rest of the day in uneasy silence.  The duct rat’s appearance rattled his core, as did the sudden appearance of his failed bobble-fixed and childishly improved.  In a corner of his office, sitting on an aged couch, Eramanthe had resumed toying with the small sculpture after having called it a day on her own piece.  He only found irritation in watching her curious twists and turns and Lau’s jaw tightened until it threatened to never move again.  Lau found himself actively looking at his hand to avert his gaze from her-watching the tendons and muscles flow underneath his copper-toned skin as hands flew across his keyboard in feeble attempt of distraction. Answering these emails was always how he ended the day. But today, the hollow weight of routine threatened to crush Lau beneath it.

“You know what, Lau?” Eramanthe purred, finally setting the sculpture down in her lap. To Lau’s chagrin, she continued to pet at it absently. His head turned toward her like rusted machinery. “This is actually pretty promising now! It reminds me of some of some of your old college work that you’ve showed me-”

Lau pressed the palms of his hands to the desk, in a knee jerk reaction. “WHAT?” he hissed, “It looks absolutely nothing like my old works!”

“I mean energy wise, you angry little squit.” Eramanthe waved off his reaction. “Look at this, really I mean!” Reluctantly, Lau watched it from the corner of his eye. The form was a confusion of will and intention. It drew upon a ghost of a memory before Lau shoved it back down into the dark recesses of his mind. “There’s so much enthusiasm!” Eramanthe continued to cheer.

“It looks like its being pulled apart by different ideas of what it’s supposed to be.” Lau muttered darkly.

“Sure. But that shouldn’t bother you of all people. I mean, that kind of look helped you graduate, right?” Eramanthe’s shrug caused boulders to fall upon Lau’s spine. He stared intently at wood grain of his desk. She continued to speak but he chose to tune her out.

Pushing the chair back, Lau walked to Eramanthe and took up the sculpture, his fingers threatening to crack the wooden board. “It’s hardly even my work anymore. So it has nothing in common with what I used to do.” He opened up a cabinet, shoved the thing deep onto a shelf, and closed the door. The offensive object finally out of sight, Lau felt he could breathe again.

“Oh, squirt lube up your cloacae and loosen up, man.” Eramanthe crossed her arms and scowled. “The kid did good work.”

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” Lau returned to his desk, resuming his evening work.

“I think she has potential worth nourishing!”

“She’s not an orphaned varren whelp, Era. Leave it be.”

“When she comes back, we should see what else she can do!”

“ERA! STOP!” Lau shouted. Her enthusiasm was too much for Lau. He collapsed back onto his chair, resting his head on the cool wood of his desk. Eramanthe was on her feet, glaring daggers at him. “Just…please.” the salarian took a deep breath, trying to clear the tight muscles in his head. “Yes. Admirable though it is that she came back, it doesn’t change what happened. Now I’d appreciate it if you let this finally drop. Period!”

             The quiet between the two hung stagnant in the air. Suffocating. Claustrophobic. The unrelenting automated clicking sounds of Lau’s haptic keypad signaled that the salarian was done talking. Eramanthe scowled as she stood, readjusting her clothes. “Okay, Lau.” She padded towards the door, her boots hanging from her shoulder on laces tied together. “I’m going home. You should too. Sleep off that attitude, maybe.”

Alone again. Lau hung his head in his hands, clicking off from his emails. What a disaster.

[dumbledore-and-grindelwald]

Row only declared Albus gay after the HP series was over. In the books it was ambiguous at best . I also believe that she was forced to make it more explicit in the movies due to all the outcry . Now that it is all about marginalized groups we get Grindeldore to finally happen huh . Same for that other mess Bellamort who only became canon once CC was released cause before that Rowling was apparently unsure what to do with it as with Grindeldore . She decided to cash in and made them happen duh

Anon, your post seems to be all over the place. For starters, HP is from Harry’s perspective. We get Romione’s first kiss because Harry is there; we get to know about Snape x Lily because Snape shares his memories in order to give Harry the understanding he needs. We (those of us who had picked up on it before Rowling stated it) picked up on Dumbledore being in love with Grindelwald because of the wording of many passages and because of the fact that Harry himself felt it. If you imagine us knowing by Dumbledore stating that he’s gay or by fully opening up about his feelings, you probably have not paid attention to who Dumbledore is as a person or to the repercussions that being betrayed by Gellert had for him.

And maybe you have to keep in mind that 10 years ago not only was it more challenging to address homosexuality in novels that were marketed as MG, but it was also not as acceptable.

There were fans who supported Rowling’s choice but there were also many negative reactions and a lot of backlash from what I recall. People tend to forget that LGBTQ representation, even non-explicit, did not always win brownie-points for an author as it does now.

Also, Rowling had said that Grindeldore would be explored slowly down the road before the fans had even started harassing her like they did because of the Depp-situation or because of Yates’ statement. She also CHOSE this story. Do you think that the majority of the fandom’s idea of a spin-off was the World Wizarding War? Because I can assure you that it was and still is the Marauders’ era. Rowling chose the story that seems meaningful to her instead. And, I’m sorry but Rowling had been saying since the moment the outcry started, when she had ALREADY written the script and the filming had finished that the fans who are enraged are judging her script without reading it. She was already hinting that they were jumping into conclusions -as much as she could without giving away spoilers. Your post does not make clear to me whether your problem is Rowling NOT having rep, Rowling HAVING rep when you thought she wouldn’t. or if you’re just seeking to trash anything she writes.

As for Bellamort: 1)if you think that they could have been explicit from Harry’s PoV I think that you have misunderstood how Rowling’s use of perspective worked; and it’s kind of hard to miss throughout 7 books. 2)She decided to cash in? Ok… if we apply that in Grindeldore’s case you’re claiming that she’s queer-baiting her fans and I disagree but I get it. But when it comes to Bellamort? Are you aware of how few actual bellamort supporters are out there and of how many fans headcanoned Voldemort as asexual (which is an assumption that is not based on anything in the actual text and has quite the aphobic undertones IMO)? Who was she baiting in this case? 

Finally anon, I would like to point out that one of the joys of reading a good book or consuming a good piece of fiction in general is that SHOWING is better than telling. Having a character’s emotion just named or having his identity labeled is not only bad writing, but it’s actually not innovative or actual rep. THIS focus on a word rather than experiencing the characters’ feelings is much closer to what my idea of baiting and cashing in is. But it seems that these days more and more readers and movie-goers want the writers to throw information at them like a brick. 

[aion-rsa]

Supergirl Finale: Supercorp Are Just Gals Being Pals

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains major spoilers for the Supergirl series finale.

Supergirl Season 6 Episodes 19 and 20

After five long seasons, Supergirl has ended and Supercorp, the romantic pairing of Kara Danvers and Lena Luthor, is not, in fact, endgame – at least not canonically. In some ways it feels like this was always how it would go, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating and even hurtful. For many viewers, especially the young LGBTQ viewership of Supergirl, this show and its fandom are their lifeline to the LGBTQ community. That’s become even more true during the pandemic years, when making community in-person has been a challenge. For those viewers especially, I hope you seek solace in fic and fandom, and do your best not to let what can be business-driven choices diminish your enjoyment.

To their credit, the Supergirl writers didn’t choose the nuclear option – and many viewers’ worst fears – and pair Kara off with her ex-boyfriend Mon-El, sending her to the future or to Argo City to be with a man she hasn’t spent any real time with in years. But not making the worst choice doesn’t exactly absolve them of the choices they did make.

J’onn J’onzz will apparently have a son with M’gann at some point, as we learned from Mon-El. While I don’t begrudge him that – M’gann is a great character and the two had chemistry – she disappeared earlier this season and she wasn’t much of a presence before that. With only sixteen episodes across five seasons, she didn’t have many opportunities. It’s not a knock on her, but rather another reminder that when it comes to straight people (and of course, everyone is assumed to be cis and straight, even on a show like Supergirl) all you need are a couple of single people with halfway-decent chemistry and you have yourself a couple. To get anything LGBTQ off the ground it takes far more than that.

It appears that the price Lex paid for saving Nyxly is that he won’t get to have a relationship with her, but that couple remains as a far more egregious example of this. Lex and Nyxly had spent no time together on screen and everyone who heard they were in love – including Lex’s own mother! – was aghast at the possibility. And yet, his love for her was so strong it radically changed him as a character. Narratively, it was interested. But once again looking at a straight couple being thrown together based on essentially nothing versus a queer couple that has everything going for them and still can’t be allowed together romantically, it feels absurd at best.

The CW’s history with LGBTQ characters

None of this happens in a vacuum. In the run-up to the two-episode finale, many fans invoked Destiel and the Supernatural series finale, wherein a longtime fan-favorite LGBTQ ship on another CW show was confirmed, albeit one-sidedly, and then the character was immediately killed. Destiel and the Supernatural series finale trended on Twitter and sent such shockwaves through the fandom that people in other fandoms who had never watched the show started following what happened and consoling Destiel fans online. Whatever positive strides the Supernatural writers may have thought they were achieving, they apparently forgot about the “Bury Your Gays” trope, wherein an overwhelming number of LGBTQ characters are killed, especially after declaring or consummating their love.

It’s hard to imagine a world in which writers working on CW shows wouldn’t know about Bury Your Gays, given their network was part of 2015-2016’s surge in the trope, killing off eight across six shows, most notoriously Lexa from The 100. (Sara Lance was later resurrected thanks to outcry from fans.) Some fans who hoped for some kind of reunion or confirmation of Clarke and Lexa’s status as soulmates in spite of Lexa’s death during The 100’s 2020 finale were disappointed, not entirely unlike many Supergirl fans are with this series finale. While Alycia Debnam-Carey who played Lexa appeared in the finale, she was there not as herself but as an otherworldly being testing Clarke.

In the case of Supernatural and The 100, these violent and unsatisfactory ends hit even harder because the shows built queer-baiting into the show itself, promotion of the show, or both. When creators actively court LGBTQ audiences and the network positions itself as an equality-minded space that’s open to all as part of its ad campaigns, it can make queer viewers feel used. Some shows, like Batwoman, have clearly taken a sky’s-the-limit approach on how many LGBTQ people they can add to the cast, and it has only added to the storytelling possibilities. But other shows seem all too willing to accept rainbow dollars in the form of viewership, trending topics, and con attendance, but don’t understand how to thoughtfully write queer storylines that are genuinely inclusive, rather than gimmicky.

Queerbaiting on Supergirl

It can seem strange to accuse a show like Supergirl of queerbaiting when its series finale featured two women getting married in the presence of their adopted daughter, surrounded by their loving family. However, it’s important to realize that in the world of superheroes and comic books, there’s an enormous difference between Supergirl’s sister being gay and Supergirl herself being gay. Superman’s son recently came out in the comics, and because he currently holds the mantle of Superman, people lost their minds. Wonder Woman is canonically bisexual in the comics but the most we can get out of her on the big screen is a sly illusion to understanding what sex is on an island without men. For as many times as DC and Marvel declare that they’ve made some major strides, LGBTQ superheroes are still a sticking point, and there’s a hierarchy of who is and isn’t allowed to be gay. It’s harder on film than on television, and the bigger the hero, the less likely it is to happen.

In Supergirl’s case, over the course of five season’s we’ve watched Lena become the most important relationship in Kara’s life, other than the one she has with her sister. She was the last person she told her secret to and then Lena learned on her own, causing a rift in their trust, a plot device normally reserved for the masked hero’s love interest. In this finale season, if the folks behind Supergirl wanted her to fly off into the sunset alone, they could have cut down on the number of wistful monologues Kara made about looking for her person. Or the number of times Kara and Lena saved each other, finished each other’s sentences, showed off for each other, and made major life choices together. Perhaps don’t have their reunion be set up as the most highly anticipated one. It’s frustrating to watch writers use narrative conventions that convey romantic partnership and then be told that is imaginary.

The two-episode series finale felt overstuffed and the ending abrupt, so some may say that there wasn’t time to fit in a confession of orientation-shifting love. But there’s more than one way to skin a cat. If Mon-El can casually drop the info that Grampa J’onn ends up with M’Gann and has a son, couldn’t we see Kara make up her mind and then Dreamer show a future with Kara and Lena together? Or during her talk with Cat about figuring out who she really is, Kara could have made an additional revelation about herself, one more closely related to her sister’s vows. And after all, if Cat can casually reveal she knew Kara was Supergirl all along, why couldn’t Lena reassure a nervous Kara that she knew and was waiting for her to figure it out and feel comfortable enough to tell her?

In the series finale, having Kara and Lena have yet another serious, life-altering conversation while possibly holding hands, then stare deep into each other’s eyes and…declare friendship? Feels like the writers batting the fandom on the nose with a newspaper. To make matters worse, it happens after a conversation between Kara and her mentor about the importance of living life as her whole, true self, which she and the writers co-opted from her sister’s queer experience. And frankly there’s just no way that Lena wore that purple plunge fit with a smokey eye and a bold lip to not get kissed in the series finale.

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In the end, no one can control what fans get out of a show, and no one can stop all the fantastic edits, fan vids, artwork, and fanfiction that has come out of Supergirl and Supercorp. It’s incredibly frustrating to watch companies pat themselves on the back for ~diversity~ while still pulling moves like this, but unfortunately it probably won’t stop anytime soon, at least not when it comes to big names like Supergirl.

The post Supergirl Finale: Supercorp Are Just Gals Being Pals appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[tigerlover16-uk]

As someone who likes hearing your thoughts on DBSuper and anything DB related in general, how do you think Toyotaro's influence in the DB world will be remembered? Honestly the man has done nothing but disappoint by writing poor plot points while dissing many characters and putting Vegeta up on a pedestal. Granted, he's not the first writer to commit these mistakes, but if he keeps this up he'll never make it big in the manga world. Think he can make a comeback with the DBSuper manga?

It’s still strange to hear people actually have interest in what I have to say, but gratifying nonetheless. Thanks for that.

And honestly, God only knows on both accounts. Public opinion on things can radically alter within weeks, and greater time and reflection can give fans a lot of time to look deeper and re-evaluate their opinions on certain works, for better or worse.

Ken Penders was once a beloved writer for the Archie Sonic comics, with many of his stories being longstanding classics. Then his stupid lawsuit happened that resulted in all the characters he created being ripped out of the comic haphazardly, forced a reboot that nobody wanted, and was probably a factor in the recent unceremonious cancellation of the comic right before a 3-part story could be concluded and any kind of closure could be had on anything. So as soon as all that nonsense turned him into the anti-Christ for the Sonic fandom, people began re-reading his work now as more critical adults compared to as impressionable children and realizing that a lot of what he wrote, while there were definitely some merits (There’s a reason people were angry so many of his characters and ideas weren’t allowed to be used anymore), his writing actually had a ton of problems and some of his stories were outright stupid. Endgame gets the worst of it, going from a well regarded would-have-been ending for the comic that changed the series forever, to a subject of mockery for it’s numerous plot holes, weird character decisions and just overall messy story.

On the other hand, we have the Star Wars Prequels. People HATED those movies with a burning passion for years since The Phantom Menace proved a let down for many, and I mean they violently HATED everything about the movies and insisted they killed Star Wars as a whole.

Yet nowadays with the Force Awakens re-invigorating the franchise as a pop cultural juggernaut and yet splintering fan opinions further, many now admit that the outcry to the prequels was WAY overblown. While a lot of old school fans still hate them, many are now willing to admit they did have good ideas and moments and were more mediocre than bad, and there’s a generation of people who grew up on and love the movies more than the original trilogy (Myself included) that can more comfortably admit to liking them and discuss why out in the open without being attacked and ridiculed (Mostly).

The movies are still huge base breakers and will always have the reputation of being disappointing follow ups to the legendary original trilogy, but after Clone Wars proved to everyone that great things did and still are coming out of that era in the timeline, most are willing to admit that the movies weren’t as damaging as they once thought.

Both examples go to show that anything can happen with time. We can make predictions, but we don’t know for sure how something is going to be regarded five or ten or twenty years from now. Doctor Who was a complete joke after it’s initial cancellation and before the revival came around, now it’s a beloved mainstay of pop culture in and outside of my home country again. Even Dragon Ball GT, while not well regarded, is generally seen in a more forgiving light by more people now than it was for years after it’s initial airing here in the west.

Truth is for most of the time he’s been writing the manga, Toyotaro has actually been popular and liked by the fandom. Right up through the end of the Future Trunks saga portion of the manga, the man has had a swarm of Dragon Ball fans passionately insisting that his is the “True” canon of Super and superior to the anime in every way. There are still people that think that way.

It was only about the time he got to Goku Black’s first confrontation with Vegeta that a lot of people really started doubting him, thanks to how ill regarded manga Black is by most in the fandom, especially compared to how beloved he was in the anime even by people who don’t like the saga. And then came the revelation that Toyotaro re-used panels from his Dragon Ball AF fan manga for the series, and apparently incorporated some ideas from it, basically literally trying to canonize his fanfictions and apparently basing Goku Black’s personality on his OC Xicor (And as we’ve established, that worked out SO WELL for him), and suddenly a lot of people realized something was up.

Which paved the way for a lot of people that had been critical of the manga up to that point, such as @dragon-ball-meta here on tumblr, to shed some light on a lot of his questionable writing practises. His treatment of Goku in several instances that made him out to be more dismissive and in several cases annoyed with his children in particular starting to gain notoriety, which hit a breaking point when chapter 27 came out last month and caused an uproar over the “Goku didn’t know when Gohan was born and Vegeta called him a terrible father” nonsense that basically looked like it was canonizing the “lol, Goku’s a bad father” meme (The most disturbing part… Toyotaro has apparently said that Goku is his FAVOURITE character… yeah… let that sink in).

I think that was the final straw for many that basically turned the man into a joke for a huge portion of the fandom. It was one of the worst controversies I’ve seen in this fandom for quite some time, so naturally just about everyone was talking about it. The Japanese fandom I’ve heard was really ticked off about it especially, given Goku is still the most beloved character in the franchise over there, even being recently voted the most beloved anime hero by most age demographics in the country.

So, his reputation has already undergone a major shift since he started writing the manga. He still has his fans who will stick by him through thick and thin, but many people meet him and his work with a lot more scrutiny than they did before, and many people consider him a joke (Gochi fans especially).

If things continue the way they have been, I feel he’s likely to be regarded as “That fan artist that draws good stuff, but shouldn’t have been hired to write an official manga because while he had a few good ideas, he REALLY wasn’t up to the job” that’s what it’s looking like anyway.

Could he make a comeback? Who knows, despite my own outrage with the Goku moment last chapter and my issues with how the Zen Exhibition match is apparently being handled so far in the current chapter, the guy did have a good idea in giving us a more fleshed out introduction to the Gods of Destruction at the start of the Universe Survival saga. For all we know despite these issues, his handling of the rest of the story could actually turn out to be really great and people might prefer it over the anime. Anything’s possible, really. How many people thought My Little Pony’s latest iteration would become one of the most popular and talked about cartoons of the decade?

I kind of doubt that will happen. My problems I’ve already brought up aside, the manga cut out Krillin’s character arc, all of Gohan’s scenes, didn’t adapt the Resurrection F arc (Meaning it didn’t properly build up Frieza for his comeback here, so the manga can’t function as a self contained story with only the original Dragon Ball manga being necessary to understand things that happen in it), cut out the Hit two parter further building on his character and abilities, and further ironing out his rivalry and odd friendship with Goku, completely botched Frost’s character compared to the anime, while also screwing Piccolo over badly in their fight, as well as removing most moments featuring the supporting cast and even reducing Future Trunks to a foot note in a saga that was literally designed as an excuse to bring him back, and is known for rushing through the story compared to the anime in a bid to catch up considering how ridiculously behind Toyotaro has gotten thanks to the monthly schedule.

Which is an especially bad thing if he does that here, considering this saga has to accommodate the majority of the Z fighters getting character moments and good fights, including re-introducing Android 17 after a long absence, as well as introducing and fleshing out slews of new characters. And given his alterations to the Zen Exhibition match which really look like they’ll hamper Gohan’s role and screw Buu over completely, and his poor handling of the Super original characters that aren’t Beerus, Whis, Gowasu and Botamo in the last two sagas, I find it likely he’s not going to do a great job with most of them. Heck, I fully expect Krillin to get knocked out instantly as a joke rather than helping to knock out two opponents with Roshi and 18 and holding his own against Majora.

Again, I could be completely wrong and he could do a good job, and I’m just being judgemental and jumping to conclusions. But I’m finding it hard to be confident that he can make up for his set backs, even if he does end up doing some things better. Which isn’t saying much, his last two sagas he wrote did a few things better than the anime, and they were still worse stories overall.

If he does turn things around and actually writes a really good or even great saga and generally cleans up his act going forward, I could see Toyotaro making a comeback in the eyes of the fandom and being remembered in at least a more fond light than he is now. But if he screws up as badly as I fear he might and like he’s been doing lately, I can only imagine his standing in the fandom getting worse, and at best he’ll largely just be forgotten and ignored by most fans when Super finally concludes, or he’ll be a laughing stock. How that’ll effect his career in professional manga writing, I don’t know, but it likely won’t do him much good.

I guess this whole thing is a learning experience for fans wanting to start working on the actual properties they follow. Even if they’re extremely talented in one aspect (Toyotaro with his drawings) and have passion for what they’re doing, that doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed to do a good job if they’re on writing duties, and they better put their absolute best efforts into things and think things through clearly, because their contributions WILL be scrutinized and they will have a significant impact on the franchise in general.

A lot of fan artists and fanfiction writers do great stuff and deserve to be respected, I know people who have written stuff that’s better than professionally published stories and in some cases are better than parts of the series the fans were adapting from. But there’s a REASON why fanfiction writers aren’t usually hired to write for the works they follow, and why it’s often considered a bad idea. And Toyotaro in many cases has done a good job of proving that point.

I really don’t hate the guy, whatever you may get from how I talk about him. I just want to make that clear for everyone, especially anyone who likes his work reading this. I kind of envy him as a fellow fan for getting to work on writing an official Dragon Ball story, I’d die for that opportunity, and I will still give him credit wherever it’s rightfully due, especially with his art. I just wish he thought things through better and didn’t make as many questionable choices despite having so much more time and being in a better position to plan things out than the anime writers had.

Will Toyotaro make a comeback? Good question, probably not, but we’ll see. I’ll say this though, for all his problems his adaption and the things going on in and around it is at least interesting to talk about, and at least we’ll have some nice artwork and drawings of all our favourite characters to look at however things turn out.

[heatherannehogan]

the lesbophobia thing

Lesbophobia is real. It's the prejudice, bigotry, and oppression that exists at the intersection of homophobia and misogyny. Let me say it again: Lesbophobia is real. Hate for lesbians is real.

However, it is essential to acknowledge and understand that the term lesbophobia has been co-opted by a loud and growing contingent of LGBTQ women in communities that share troubling ties and ideology with factions that exist inside the alt-right movement — worse, the dangerous dogma that's attaching itself to word the lesbophobia has found a new home at AfterEllen.

I first encountered the word lesbophobia in response to the post I wrote called Queer Women Take Over The 2016 Emmys. Her Story got a revolutionary nod for Outstanding Short Form. Kate McKinnon took home a trophy for Saturday Night Live. Sarah Paulson won for The People vs. O.J. Simpson. And Jill Soloway scored another victory for Transparent. On social media there was a small outcry that I hadn't chosen the headline "Lesbians Take Over the 2016 Emmys," despite the fact that Kate McKinnon was the only winner who explicitly identifies as a lesbian. (In fact, Sarah Paulson is on record saying, "I refuse to give any kind of label just to satisfy what people need.") The reasons the handful of dissenters gave for my decision to call the Emmys queer was that I am a lesbophobe, an espouser and executor of lesbophobia.

To be very honest with you, I shrugged it off. The most unwinnable battle we have at Autostraddle is labeling LGBTQ people in a way that satisfies everyone. It's such a constant struggle, we laid out an explanation about labels in our official comment policy. Recently on a Pop Culture Fix, I wrote about the new queer characters coming to The Good Wife spin-off. One of them will be a lesbian, according to the show's writers; the other's sexuality has not been labeled. So, I said, "The Good Wife spin-off will prominently feature two lesbian, bisexual, gay, homosexual, or otherwise queer-identified women." Just to cover all my bases because it was almost Christmas and I was tired and I didn't want to have to argue about labels. And yet, the cries of lesbophobia came in again. I got a couple of emails, a dozen or so tweets. Essentially: "Lesbian is not a dirty word! Saying queer is lesbophobic!"

So, on December 26, I tweeted something I think is a true, fair, and accurate analogy:

Yelling "lesbophobia!" when someone says "queer" is like yelling "war on Christmas!" when someone says "happy holidays." Come on, y'all.

A couple of days later, AfterEllen's official Twitter tweeted at me and said: "@theheatherhogan oh, agreed. It's like yelling "biphobia!" and "transphobia!" when someone says lesbian."

To which beloved Autostraddle cartoonist Dickens replied:

"AfterEllen is three weeks shy of transforming their website into an online support group for victims of wyt lesbian genocide. This is honestly the most ridiculously entitled white lesbian coated petrified bullshit I have seen in a long time. And if you don't think white supremacy has reached out its dirty little fingers and touched a few groups of marginalized white folks, well. Keep an eye on their feed here and there. Keep an eye on their former writers. They aren't just trying to Make Lesbianism Great Again… They are asserting their strength. They are erasing the visibility of the defectors. They are sliding their salty little asses into spaces and feeds where they must know they are clearly not wanted or cared for. I was never a fan of AE but this new image they're building for themselves is a little too Nazi-adjacent for my galaxy Blaaaack aaaass."

Dickens was, of course, correct. And her point was proven once again the very next day when an article blasted out to the 125,000 followers of AfterEllen's official, verified Twitter account cried: “Lesbian Spaces Are Still Needed, No Matter What the Queer Movement Says". It suggests that trans women and bisexual women's desire to be included in queer women's spaces is to blame for the decline of lesbian-specific spaces, which lesbians need to stay safe from trans and bisexual women.

That kind of rallying cry feels very much like the "Save Our White Neighborhoods" rallying cry of the alt-right, so I went on a deeper dive to try to find the origins of what I called "the lesbophobia movement" on Twitter. And what I found was more horrifying than I ever imagined.

A few weeks ago AfterEllen — which everyone presumed dead after the company that owns it effectively fired everyone, including longtime editor in chief Trish Bendix — announced it had acquired a new editor named Memoree Joelle. In October, Joelle, tweeted a Change.org petition that she'd signed called Take the L Out of LGBT. The petition is a direct response to a previously failed petition that called for GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign, HuffPo Voices, The Advocate, etc. to Drop The T from LGBT. The most popular supporter of the petition is a guy you might know called Milo Yiannopoulos. He signed it, tweeted about it, and dedicated 3,000 words to it in a post on Breitbart. Thanks to Milo's urging, Matthew Hopkins, one of the main perpetrators of Gamergate, wrote a post called "Why #GamerGate Should Help the ‘Drop the T’ Campaign" on his personal blog. Hopkins called it "one of the most politically important campaigns of our generation."

In addition to signing and tweeting about the petition, Joelle commented her approval. When former AfterEllen writer Elaine Atwell brought Joelle's support of the petition to light, Joelle's comments disappeared from the petition, and so did Elaine's byline from the hundreds of articles she wrote over the last five years at AfterEllen.

The comments on the Change.org petition mention lesbophobia multiple times and equate it with trans activism, as do the subreddits that discussed Joelle's contribution to the petition. "Part of lesbophobia is hating us for our same-sex attraction, but another very big part of it is hating us for our rejection of men," one user wrote on /r/GenderCritical/. (Trans women are almost always referred to as men on this particular subreddit.) Another Redditor on /r/actuallesbians decried the "male entitlement and lesbophobia" of protesting the petition. "The moment we talk about your rape culture or your male violence we're 'transphobic' or 'biphobic.'" (The men in this comment are actually trans women and "rape culture" refers to the constantly espoused idea in TERF communities that trans women are male predators.) The lesbophobia tag on the blog GenderTrender is a deeply disturbing trip down an anti-trans rabbit hole. The lesbophobia tag on the website 4th Wave Now is horrifying; it equates allowing trans kids/teens to come out and live openly as their true gender with child abuse, ideas that are — again — shared with Breitbart and Milo Yiannopoulos. Reddit and Tumblr are absolutely flush with lesbians using the word "lesbophobia" to back up the ideas presented in these "Drop the T"/"The L Is Leaving" petitions.

These spaces that use the word "lesbophobia" to attack trans and bi women or people who use the word queer share more than than an ideology with Breitbart. You'll find them saying things like "trans women want to colonize the lesbian community." You'll find them using the phrase "SJW" (meaning Social Justice Warrior), a pejorative term coined by the Men's Rights Activist movement. And you'll find a lot of talk about how the correct "biology" is the thing that allows people access to the protections of the majority. And lots and lots and lots and lots of just truly sickening propaganda leveled at trans and bi women. It's very much about creating an in-group and scapegoating an out-group through tried and true tactics that have been — I'm sorry — utilized by Fox News and the alt-right for years.

I wrote about these things on Twitter, and you can read Dickens further unpacking them here and here. (You should read that last thread before you jump in here and call her "my black friend.")

Look, we didn't just wake up one day with an openly racist, openly sexist, openly xenophobic, openly ableist, openly anti-semitic president in the White House, appointing the leader of the most dangerous white supremacist website in history to his top advisor position. We watched blatant and unabashed white supremacist language and ideas slowly take over the movement from the inside. We watched the most powerful scapegoat the most vulnerable. We watched Fox News make heroes out of the white men who murdered unarmed black children and terrify people with their whole War on Christmas bullshit and equate all Muslims with terrorists. A Nazi didn't walk into the West Wing and have a seat; the slow creep of white supremacy laid the path for him.

Vox did a fascinating interview with former conservative talk show host Charlie Sykes earlier this year. He quit over Trump. But the whole interview is him agonizing about how, to him, the GOP had always been about fiscal conservatism and states rights and he believed in that ideological purity so deeply that he fooled himself into believing that's what the GOP was about to everybody, despite the fact that he saw the white supremacy and fascism slowly gaining power and momentum until it took over.

To realize, first of all, that you’re part of a movement that was not the movement you thought it was, that you’re aligned with people that you didn’t really understand you’re aligned with, and to realize that everything that you thought about the conservative intellectual infrastructure was really piecrust thin. You thought you had this big principled movement and then suddenly along comes Donald Trump and you realize that it was just was just the pastry on top. So I think disorienting is a great term. Disillusioning is not too strong either.

To me, what we're talking about with lesbophobia is a similar thing. Is lesbophobia a term some lesbians have rallied around to protest the prejudice and bigotry that exist at the intersection of homophobia and misogyny? Yes, of course. Absolutely. HOWEVER. I had to go searching for people using the word lesbophobia like that because my entire experience with the way the word kept popping up in my timeline and in my comments and in the comments sections of other websites was to decry the use of the word queer and to espouse anti-trans and anti-bi ideology. And that includes every single person who landed in my mentions on Twitter when I started talking about this. I did not click on a single profile without finding anti-trans, anti-bi language; or ask a single person if they believe trans women are women and have them say yes.

If you are a woman who is using the word lesbophobia to NOT do those things, and you're more angry at me for pointing out that it's happening than you are at anti-trans/anti-bi people who have hijacked its meaning, I ... I truly don't understand. What's happening at AfterEllen is terrifying me. Maybe the website is technically dead, but it still has clout and power and it's using it to push some really dangerous ideas about lesbian exclusivity, and those ideas are shared by a very loud group of people who use the word "lesbophobia" on their blogs, social media, Reddit, etc. to vilify the people (like me) who stand against them.

I don't want to cause anyone pain. I don't want to make anyone feel unsafe or unloved or unaccepted. I DO NOT BELIEVE LESBIANS ARE NAZIS. I AM A LESBIAN. If you truly think that's what I was saying when I unpacked these ideas on Twitter, I'm sorry. It was not my intention.

I do think, however, that it's imperative for you to open your eyes to how the word lesbophobia is being used to persecute and oppress trans and bi women in very vocal and influential spaces that have direct ties in ideology and language with the alt-right.