#That also means the end of lesbianism so we have to make a trade

[frobby]

If blue exorcist was dungeon meshi Yukio would be marcille

[theweirderstuffblogdontlook]

Got two fanfics below the readmore, and a closing comic strip at the end of the fanfic showing what happens afterwards. So make sure to at least scroll to the bottom!

Sitting at the bar, a gay bar mostly frequented by lesbians which they had visited without incident a few times prior, Caprica alternated between sipping a drink, looking at her phone, and keeping an eye on Bob. Bob being currently disguised as Barbra, her "girlfriend" and former truck driver from out of town who’s been recovering from a car accident at her house.

It seemed everything was going pretty well. Bob's done a good job not being too suspicious and not breaking character, so she's been exploiting the bar over the past couple of days to keep Bob busy, and give herself a break from having the undivided attention of her obsessive stalker.

Though the unfortunate (in her opinion) trade off of being in a public location, is that sometimes people other than Bob will also take the initiative to bother her.

Case in point, as a lady sat in a barstool beside her, gesturing to get her attention and get Caprica to lean in a bit closer.

Saying in a bit of a hushed tone

"Hey, sorry to bother ya honey, but I figured I'd ask you instead. But Barbara's a Trans woman right?"

Oh… guess they clocked Bob. Still, that's a lot better than assuming he's a notorious criminal hiding out in disguise. 

She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.

"Uhhhhh…. Yeah. She… uhhh, she'd rather not talk about it."

"Yeah I understand. Just figured I'd ask since we've got a support group coming up, in case she wants to participate. You can let her know just in case I don't get the chance to talk with her privately for a minute."

"No, it's probably best if I let her know myself, so she won't… uhhh… I'll let her know."

"Alright, just get back to me if Barb is interested or not. No pressure though if she isn comfortable bringing it up."

"Yeah, we'll let you know."

And she got up and left to go mingle, leaving Caprica alone with her thoughts.

Damn, she should probably get ahead of this before Bob does anything too suspicious.

Sometime later, she and Bob sat in the big truck that used to belong to her grandfather, getting ready to go home, though she got Bob to pause for a bit for a chat. 

"So there might be something we should go over in regards to your Barbra disguise. So just in case someone asks, let's go over what transgender means, and a few other relevant terms you should know."

"Well alright. If ya think it'll help."

(One explanation later…..)

"Alright, now say it back to me. Someone asks if you're a Trans woman, what do you think that means?"

Bob, with a bit of excitement in his tone, replies

"It means I'm a lady who hasn't chopped off her dick yet!"

"...."

"...."

"You know what, we'll work on that."

And they head home.

Another day, another time, but the same place, Caprica and Bob (disguised as Barbra) are sitting together at a table at the lesbian bar, sharing a plate of nachos. 

Though Caprica was more eating a small bowl of jalapeño rings that came with the nachos than the nachos themselves.

And Bob was more enjoying teasing and flirting with his grumpy unsociable girlfriend than snacking.

Until they are rudely interrupted.

Two men, acting tipsy either from alcohol or their own egotistical self satisfaction, sleased over, one of them leaning against the table beside Caprica while the other stood behind her.

"Hey cutie, how'd you like to get with a real man?"

"Yeah, we’d be happy to show what you’re missing, hanging out with a bunch of slutty rug munchers like these."

Without skipping a beat though, and more of reflex than anything, Caprica deadpanned,

"Dude, this is a gay bar…. For gays. Quit flirting with people like me and go suck each other's faces instead."

And reached to take a sip of her drink.

Before her eyes glance over, and notice Bob's hand balled into a tight fist, which shook slightly with rage.

Caprica choked on her drink

OH SHIT RIGHT BOB!!!!!

These guys just… Oh shit. Right in front of Bob.

Trying not to let the nerves show in her voice, she says

"Okay, you…. You guys need to leave…" 

Obviously not successful in putting up a brave front.

And the guys just leaned in a bit closer. Pitching their voices a bit lower to make it harder for any lookie-loos to hear them over the background music.

"Awwww, but we just got here! And somebody's gotta set these dykes straight, might as well be a couple of good Samaritans like us."

"Yeah, we'd be happy to show you chick's what dick tastes like."

SHIT what can she do!! These guys are literally digging their own graves! Eyes widening further in fear she glances between the guys and the barely disguised ball of murderous rage that was Bob. 

Probably the only things keeping these two guys alive right now, was one… Bob being a bit of a slow thinker, taking a minute to figure out how exactly he was gonna murder these two. And two, that she makes him leave his knives at home when they go out in disguise so he couldn’t impulse stab as easily.

She makes a snap decision. 

Maybe if she can make a scene first, Bob won't get the opportunity to do something drastic and reveal his identity in public.

She turns to glare at the two men, raising her voice to draw more attention and maybe get someone else to intervene first before any blood gets spilled.

"I am literally here with my fucking girlfriend!"

She says gesturing at Bob.

"Now unless you two assholes want the only thing you're ever known for around town, is that you two are the kind of guys to hit on other people's girlfriends, you'd better walk out those doors and never let anyone here see your faces ever again!"

And good lord, the condescending smugness of these dudes was palpable.

"Hey now, no need to get all hysterical on us."

"Yeah, how are we supposed to know if it's your time of the month or not?"

And the two snicker dumbly, while Capricas eyes dart around. 

Two of the women from the dance floor, who were regulars at the bar, seem to have gotten the hint that something was up and were heading this way.

Though the two guys then continued, clearly trying to cover their ass now that there was a risk of witnesses.

"Hey, if you… two aren't in an uhhhh… open relationship you coulda just let us know and not get all upset over nothing.

"Besides, with how gross, fat, and hairy your girlfriend is, maybe you don't need a guy after all!"

Their condescending laughter peters out with a squeak of Bob's chair as he stands. The two men's courage faltering for a moment as they see his stature dwarfing the both of theirs.

The two women who had been making their way over also pausing at the sight, the anger in Bob's posture being clear even from across the room.

Though he keeps his tone even, and thankfully doesn't drop the feminine affect in his voice (and thus his disguise). And with a slow, controlled movement, he takes off his sunglasses, folds them, and hangs them on the collar of his funny 'my other ride is your mom' novelty shirt.

He then leans over, resting one hand on the table, and staring down the men with his big crazy eyes and deranged grin.

"You boys know what happens when you try hitting on another man's girlfriend right in front of them?"

One of the men puts up his hands in a timid ‘alright, calm down’ sort of gesture. Trying to be sassy as he says, "Hey, no need to HURK!!"

Bob snatched the man by the throat, cutting him off and startling his friend, along with Caprica 

"HEY HEY HEY!!!"

"BARB DON'T!!"

Caprica shot up from her seat, as Bob calmly made his way around the table, gaze hungrily fixed on the choking man clawing at Bob's hand, trying to break the grip around his neck.

Though he's knocked out of his focus as the assholes friend winds up a punch, and clocks Bob in the face with an accompanying shout of,

"LET GO OF HIM YOU BITCH!!!"

Bob staggers at the hit, then stills, and turns his attention to the other man. Who's angry expression falters with fear as Bob meets his gaze.

Caprica scrambles over, trying to get between Bob and the man, but he is able to move past her easily to punch the guy in the gut, and he crumples, wind knocked out of him. 

As Caprica, in a hushed worried tone, pleaded,

"Barb, we're in public Barb, people are watching, Barb. You know the rules, don’t break character."

And Bob, appearing not to listen, grabbed the other man by the collar of his shirt as he wheezed and tried not to fall over. Bob not obliging this man's attempt to stay upright, kicking out one of his legs so he tumbled, and the only thing keeping his head from smacking on the ground, being the shirt collar Bob held. Letting the second man be pulled along like a struggling sack of flour, all while still pulling the first man along by the neck, and starting to walk. Caprica still panicking in a hushed tone as by now the attention of the whole bar was on them, and a number of bystanders got closer to get a better view of the action.

"Come on Barrrb, think about you're doing, if you hurt them we can't come back…."

Bob started dragging the two men towards the front door of the bar, wide manic grin still on his face with each heavy step, and Caprica following along beside him, frantically whispering.

"They'll come and find us at the house, they might figure things out before we even get a real chance to run. Don't do this."

Bob kicks the door open, dragging the two struggling men out with him, letting one of the guys get smacked on the doorframe on the way out, and letting the door swing shut behind him.

Leaving Caprica looking nervously across the audience of mostly lesbians, many of whom were now chatting amongst themselves conspiratorially.

Caprica being too stressed to get a read on how the audience might be feeling about the whole affair and if they’ve turned against her and Bob or not.

But she does take a moment to consider since there weren't any windows to look out of, either on the door or the adjacent wall, maybe if she just stood here she could keep people from going out and witnessing Bob ripping them apart and calling the cops and escalating the whole thing and everyone finding out about Bob and Bob grabbing her before she can run and him getting taken to prison while she’s still stuck inside him and…

There's entirely too many people looking at her, so she goes out the door in a hurry.

She finds Bob standing there calmly, hands in his pockets, looking out across the street. His eyes glance down at her when she asks

"Where are the!!!!"

But she's interrupted as Bob gestures slightly with his head in the direction he'd been looking before, and Caprica can see the two men shambling off, one supporting the other with their arm across his shoulders to keep them steady.

Caprica lets out a huge wheezy breath, bracing against Bob with one hand as she doubles over and says,

"Oh thank fuck."

And Bob looks at her with a sly cheeky grin. 

She takes a few more deep breaths to try and steady herself, Bob saying a teasing

"Y'all right there sweetiepie?"

"I'm just…. Wheeze, shit Bob…. Just…"

"Spooked ya good didn't I?"

She glares at him.

"Don't you go acting like some bastion of self control now you fucking asshole. I know you were barely an inch from ruining everything."

"Yeah, but it's still fun to watch you get mad about it."

Caprica presses her face into her hands and lets out a long annoyed tone to try and get the stress out,

"HHHHHRRRRRrrrrgggggg…. Come on…. We still gotta go back in there and sort this out. You're stable enough right?"

Bob chuckles in response.

And Caprica stands up straight with a clap of her hands and says

"WHELP! Alright it's settled! Let's just leave and never come back, and never speak of this again!"

Bob leans in, wrapping an arm around Caprica's shoulders tenderly and nuzzling against the top of her head while saying apologetically.

"Awww darlin, come on, you'll be okay, they ain't gonna…"

Bob's interrupted as the door beside them opens, it's the bouncer, who was looking thoroughly apologetic, along with someone who normally is working the bar, but from the more authoritative tone, they were probably a more managerial type on top of pouring drinks.

"Are you two alright? From the sound of it, one of them tried to grab Caprica and the other ended up punching you when you tried to stop them."

It not being lost on Bob that the events were already getting spun to make him and Caprica look more innocent and non-confrontational than they had been. Clearly, the community was gonna be much more invested in looking after their own than being sympathetic to a couple of assholes. And Bob was happy to lean into that impulse of theirs. After all, he quite liked it here too, even if it meant agreeing to expand his ‘dont eat the neighbors, that’s too suspicious’ compromise with Caprica to include ‘don’t eat anyone who’s clearly a lesbian. It is not a large community and word travels fast and it’ll be too suspicious’. Taking on a warm tone and shifting back into his feminine Barbra affect, he stands back to his full height, though keeping an arm around Caprica, and responds,

"Yeah, we're alright. Don't-chu worry."

"How about the two men?"

"I gave 'em an earful and let 'em limp off with their tail between their legs. Hopefully we won't be dealin with those two again any time soon."

The manager seems relieved, taking up a bit more confident, even somewhat protective tone as she responds,

"Alright, if they show up again and start getting butthurt about things and trying to twist everything around, we've got a bar full of witnesses to let the authorities know how big of a creep those guys were. And of course, it should go without saying that those guys are banned for life."

The bouncer holds open the door for them, the manager trying to usher them both inside.

"Come on, I'll give you both a free drink, or maybe something to eat to help ya calm down, or heck, both if you want. And let's get you an ice pack for that bruise Barbra."

Though with Caprica being obviously the more nervous of the two, the bulk of the fretting quickly turned to her, giving Bob a moment to fidget with what he had in his pocket.

The source of why Bob was able to do an emotional 180 so quickly, and turn so calm and confident after the insults and the jealous, possessive rage.

Taking them out covertly for a moment to examine.

Two leather wallets. And flipping open the top one, a drivers license can be clearly seen in the transparent pouch, belonging to the man he had threatened to strangle to death.

A drivers license and thus, a name, and an address.

Bob's grin widened with sinister glee, before he stowed the mens wallets away, and followed the group inside.

Then, the following night...

[bobbybutterfly]

I have a post lined up about my latest finished SaH doll. But it’s taking just far too long to finish. So I thought I would make a different post in the meantime. Getting ya’ll up to speed with some of my SaH digital art. Starting with a piece I finished just now VISUAL KEI MULORI for @32girassoisdevangogh !

Hope she looks alright. I should have done more research before jumping straight into it. Ever since I discovered pen stabilisation inking became way more enjoyable. I just have to have a sketch I made on paper underneath because unless it’s something simple like the things in the panels and the petals then it’s not going to end well. Let’s just say that.

I first learned (maybe somewhere else before that but this is what I remember) of Visual Kei I would say was in a Rainbow High Review of sorts by Negative Legend on Youtube. She mentioned it would be neat if more dolls would represent this subculture. I looked it up and personally didn’t like it.

Well. Things are different now. I heard the calling of the darkness. I’m a fan of the trad goth style and Visual Kei looks awesome. Thanks for reminding me of this subculture with this art trade.

Now for something more cheerful. It’s the return of my OC Shiho Tenshi. I don’t know why I started thinking about them again. But here we go.

They’re wearing an outfit inspired by Princess Knight, a revolutionary shoujo manga. I started watching the anime when I was in England and it’s so fun! Also the main character is what we would call now nonbinary. Although you could make an argument that Prince Sapphire is trans masc. It’s thought to say.

Yeah. I don’t have much to add to this. Just happy to draw them again.

What’s this? A new OC alert?!

It’s a white rabbit everyone! We always need more of those. Inspired by 1920’s I Shanghai Art Nouveau posters it’s Ai Yuen. She’s a silent film actress and a spy. Originally I wanted her to be a spy for the Weasel Empire but now I think she should be a spy for Flower Hill. She seduces the animals she spies on. Tricking them into thinking that she’s just some bimbo you can spill all your secrets to.

She’s a mean girl only out for herself. She knows she’s talented and looks good. She knows her worth. Not going to lie, major lesbian vibes. I don’t know why. She grew up relatively poor and climbed that ladder. Getting rid of everyone who stood in her way. Deep down she’s really lonely. But she hates the idea of being vulnerable and needing others so she pushes it down with opium and other drugs.

Then she meets Shiho Tenshi. Someone with a similar background to her. But instead of being all alone they have their big acting troupe that’s like a found family. Ai slowly starts to open up. Thinking to herself that she’s only getting closer to Shiho because of her mission. A mission that would lead to her getting killed by Flower Hill if her true feelings were to get out.

She’s one of the OCs I made just because why not. I don’t have any ideas what to do with her. Well. Maybe I could make a doll of her later down the line? Let me know what you think.

[blackbird-brewster]

hiiii!! i'm sorry to hear you're not doing well right now, but you're definitely an appreciated face on my home page

1) i haven't watched much of the criminal minds reboot. i think i watched the first two episodes? but i don't like it. i think the reboot lays into the things i don't like about the show (gory deaths, really unhinged murderers, poor representations of people with mental health issues) while ignoring things i do like about the show (steady character development and family time, morgan, hotch, and reid being there >:( and an interesting analysis into what makes normal people do bad things, not what makes people run multi-level marketing murder schemes[???]). but i also have not seen enough of it to justify any stronger opinion than "i don't like reboots and this will not be an exception"

2) not really a headcanon, as much as an analysis of the show that my friend and i were talking about. but we both genuinely think that garcia and morgan would have ended up together if garcia was skinny...which is garbage because i absolutely LOVE their relationship, and i feel like it did not get any solidity or closure. also reid is bisexual and prentiss is a lesbian and jj is "good luck, babe" chappell roan-coded

3) a femme penelope garcia icon would be...kinda awesome 👉👈🥺

4) again, prentiss + jj = good luck, babe. idk what else to tell you

5) reid x morgan college au rivals to lovers shenanigans would make a great fic

6) comet and koshi (two of my five cats)

7) read any good books recently? i'm reading who's afriad of gender? by judith butler right now, and i'm really enjoying it

hope all of this keeps you busy and makes you happy! feel better soon <3

Let me start by saying this was such a great message to read when I was very sick and very sad. THANK YOU!!! I finally have recovered enough to have half a brain cell so I can reply. <3

1) Tell me what you think of the reboot

I am RIGHT THERE with you friend. I think the reboot has really destroyed a lot of the characters (namely Garcia who is unrecognizable in terms of characterisation in CME) and especially in regards to this season, they made an unsub a main cast member?! So we have SOOOOO much of Elias Voit and so LITTLE of the characters we're here to see. I would trade all of his screentime for one look into what Luke and Emily do outside of the office tbrh (yes, the promo for this week has Emily at home for the first time in the whole reboot, but that's beside the point). I'm def not a fan of CME and I wish the show would have just ended in 2020 and that was that. But since it didn't and because my soul is eternally bound to this fandom, here we are. Thank god for fanfic.

2) Tell me your CM headcanons

"we both genuinely think that garcia and morgan would have ended up together if garcia was skinny…which is garbage because i absolutely LOVE their relationship"

YOU ARE SO RIGHT! They had so much potential and I'll forever ship Morcia and I agree the fact they would be an interracial couple with a fat babe involved was probably part of the reason they never dated. -- That being said, I DO appreciate that they never dated. Because I think it's quite rare to see loving, supportive, flirty, PLATONIC friendships between men and women on TV. Not every m/f duo needs to end up together, I think we definitely need more representation of m/f best friends.

"also reid is bisexual and prentiss is a lesbian and jj is "good luck, babe" chappell roan-coded"

100% correct on all accounts. The way I HOWLED with laughter at "JJ is good luck babe coded" lmaaaaaaaaaooooooooo

3) Request pride icons

When you say 'femme Garcia' which flag are you meaning? Happy to make the icon just wanna get the pride flag right (bc I know there's tons of different flags!).

4) Tell me songs that remind you of your ships

"again, prentiss + jj = good luck, babe. idk what else to tell you"

They are so many songs on that album. Jemily is also very 'Casual' and 'Coffee' too.

5) Give me fic prompts

"reid x morgan college au rivals to lovers shenanigans would make a great fic"

Fun fact, while Fooled Around (and Fell in Love) focuses mainly on JJ/Tara/Emily -- Derek and Reid are important side characters. And they were college acquaintances (established in Part 2)! And they both have dated the same guy (Luke) anddddd they are navigating polyamory together in Part 3. So you may enjoy that series.

6) Tell me about your pets

I love your cats!! I had 5 cats at one point. That's the dream! Tell them all they're so good and fluffy and I love them.

7) Ask personal questions

"read any good books recently? i'm reading who's afriad of gender? by judith butler right now, and i'm really enjoying it"

I've been reading my book copies of Fooled Around! I'm on the final book (I split the series into 4 books) and I'm trying to make it last as long as possible. I only have a couple of chapters left but having physical copies of something I wrote is SO cool. It's brought me a lot of joy and has helped me take pride in what I write!

[meat4meat]

Whose the Ghoul

and why is it totally not Grimal?

I know this is a lesbian necromancers side blog so I'm gonna tag this accordingly so my followers can filter

Now everyone and their mother has a theory about who the ghoul is and has given their two cents- but I 100% think it's Giles at this point based on the info we have- BUT I don't think he's the one who attacked Occam. I think that was Grimal for her own personal reasons, and Spit is a red herring.

I'll admit my speculations about why she would attack Occam are a bit hand wavy, but I think paired with her means of accessing the archives while he was performing the ritual makes a case worthy of consideration.

For the how- because of the scene where everyone presents their licence we also know the exact level of access everyone has to which areas of the chapter house. As a neophyte Grimal does not have access to the archive or the security room, so how does she end up there on the map? There are several different ways she could have ended up in there.

So, almost immediately after Occam is sealed in the archive Elise cops Giles' shit. Wallet, keys and smokes all in one go. Queen. As a gard, he would have had acess to the security room, and now Elise does since she jacked his whole deal, coldly. So, either grimal got the keys from Elise, sneakily or not, that's one way should could have gotten in. Or Elise did her girl a solid and just let her in.

However, she could have gotten in without Elise's pilfered keys at all. When Kitten talks to Matilda and Amanda, Matilda offers to let him into the security room, and we immediately see that she's smoking the cigs Elise stole from Giles. Grimal could have gotten the smokes from Elise and then traded them for security room acess, just like Matilda offered to Kitten.

And once in the security room.....what? We know from Matilda it's one of the most ventilated rooms, and we know there's a vent in the archive thanks to a bg shot when they go in to draw blood. Given Grimal is one of two people conceivably small enough to pull of snaking through the ducts (the other is Spit, but I'll come back to the later.) It's not that far of a stretch to say she could reach the archives through the ducts.

OK, but fucking why would she do that, especially if she isn't the ghoul?

When she and Kitten argued on the stairs she said she was envious of how Kitten and the others operated without oversight. How stiffled she felt in her research. Neophites have even less acess to parts of the chapter house than maintenance, which for Grimal has got to sting while watching the chucklefucks make big moves on their own. It could be speculated that after seeing something relevant to her research in the archives, something she knows she'd never get permission to interact with, she decided to break into the archive, deal Occam an incapacitating blow from behind while he was performing the ritual to make sure she wasn't identified, and split. The non-lethal blow is also another reason I don't think it was the ghoul that broke in and attacked Occam. Given the level of violence done to Lord Fatigue later on, a much less intimidating target than Occam, I don't think a ghoul would have passed up the chance to take him out.

Speaking of Fatigue, why kill him at all? The only motive I can think of is to steal his archive key. And if the ghoul had attacked Occam, why would they need archive acess a second time? The could have gotten it off Occam's unconscious body, and why go for Fatigue is particular? Of the 4 people with archive acess. He's the least intimidating target, especially to a doped up ghoul. I might be over speculating on this but that point in particular leads me to believe that this ghoul is someone deeply insecure in their abilities as a combatant, which for me rules out all of the competent fighters, including Grimal.

Wow, a whole mountain of speculation on who I think it isnt- so why do I believe it's Giles?

My theory hinges on a peice of information casually dropped by Kevin during his interrogation about his sire. The way he describes the dynamic between his sire and her own sire is very similar to the one displayed by the 99p store manager and the woman she speaks to on the phone. Not to mention when she mentions that D called himself Kevin she calls it a coincidence. It's super strongly implied that She's Kevin's sire and the woman she's speaking with is the high-ranking Tremere in Yarmoth that Kevin described.

And She's managing a 99p store! That Giles works at!

If that's the case it's a direct connection between Giles and the Tremere, and it would explain how Kevin knew of the mole in the chapter house.

If it is him it would make sense why he wouldn't have been able to attack Occam, and why he would have needed to go after Fatigue for his archive key. If Occam's attacker had gone through the vents then it just couldn't have been him. He's not only too big to get through them, but he'd lost his keys to the security room with vent access before the attack. He'd need to go after another one of the elders to get it.

OK yeah Spit is also a security guard who is skinny enough to get in the vents and has been tweaking out basically the whole ep and he was the one in the room when Fatigue was murdered (unless his body just did that, but what are the odds?) , but I don't think it's him just because the evidence for others is so much stronger. Giles has the direct connection to the clan that placed the mole, and Grimal was placed at the security room. I personally buy more into the werewolf theory for Spit that I've seen others toss around.

Anyways it's 100% Giles.

[sshireens]

7 & 12 for asoiaf (books or got, I don't care which I just want to see the hot takes)

THANK YOU MISA!! 💓💓💓

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

oddly enough i typically always end up liking characters the more i see content of them.. actually thats not odd i think that’s science. BUT! robb stark……… its not that i Hate Robb Stark um but i think fandom perception of him is very bad and people want him to live too much. Love that boy, but i love him dead! 🫶 much love! like the more i see people talk about him im just like god can we move on already who cares. he fulfilled the narrative purpose and that was what he was meant to do. yes i cry thinking about the red wedding but thats besides the point. robb stark gets a 2/10 on the Sshireens Rating Scale because some people ruined it for everyone else

i answered #12 here but i’ll copy and paste it!

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

what qualifies as unpopular. also what do we consider like. because i consider like as in ‘this is a fun character to see interact with the world’ and NOT!!!!!!!!! ‘i support this guy’. just to clarify for any other viewers at home. a character ive seen a lot of people Dislike but i think deserves to be heard out is criston because he’s funny and thats it thats why everyone should like him. but i dont consider him unpopular? hmm tough tough …… will i get flayed if i say larys like i mean he’s just sick i love wondering what is going on in that head. in regards to characters i think are not given enough attention: jaehaera targaryen. ‘she’s a little girl shes a non-character’ SHUT UP. she’s a little girl exactly. she didn’t get the chance to be her own person she is alicent’s pain helaena’s pain and her own. GOD MY BABY GIRL….. she names her dragon death…… AUGH DONT EVEN TALK TO ME DOONNTTT EVEN. um also rhaella, daughter of rhaena the lesbian AND! mother of daenerys. bc first of all rhaella and aerea switches thats true. so like. rhaella septa rhaella wondering if that was meant to be her. wondering if maybe it would have never happened if she hadn’t traded places. is it kinder to force her twin into the faith or to let her die? Augh. also daenerys’ mommy just… why dont we know about her i need more people on here like me willing to band together to make up canon. i guess thats not really a reason why people should like them. ALSO SHIREEN BARATHEON I DONT KNOW IF YOU CAN TELL BUT IM THE BIGGEST SHOOTER FOR SHIREEN THATS BABY THATS MOTHER THATS THE PRINCESS THATS MY DAUGHTER THATS ME I LOVE HER SO BAD OH NY GOD SHIREEN PEASE COME HOME THE PEOPLE MISS YOU. and i know everyone dgaf about baby boy bowl cut brown boba eyed broken bran. but i gave birth to him. and thats why you should like him.

[jennyboom21]

👀

*forwards to Yinzer dad in the family group chat*

The topic is bridges: those that criss-cross Pittsburgh's rivers, and those that serve as a passageway between parts of a song. Taylor Swift, the unofficial queen of bangin' bridges, is set to hit the City of Bridges on June 16 and 17 when her Eras Tour stops in Pittsburgh. At every show, Swift performs two surprise songs, some of which are catered in some way to the setting. It would make sense, then, if she sets aside a few selections from her discography with especially celebrated bridges for her Pittsburgh shows.

"Ooo, maybe we'll get 'Hits Different,'" MP tells Pittsburgh City Paper, her eyes suddenly lighting up, a sly smile crossing her face.

We probably won't, since, after this conversation, Swift scratched that one off the list in Chicago, and she doesn't do repeats. (Unless she messes up on the first try, which she did! So who knows?)

It would be fitting in so many ways, specifically for MP, 22, who's attending night one in Pittsburgh. "Hits Different" is a buried B-side from Swift's latest album, Midnights, that contains a pretty much irrefutable queer lyric, with Swift addressing her muse as an "argumentative, antithetical dream girl" at the end of the bridge. MP used this part of the song underneath a TikTok video in which she tries on a haul of Midnights merch. It received a highly-coveted "Taylor like," meaning that Taylor Swift herself (or at least Taylor Swift's account) gave it a "heart."

"Cool, Taylor Swift saw me in my boxers," MP quipped in a response video. "Definitely wasn't on my 2023 bingo card but, can't say that I'm complaining."

MP is a gaylor, so that "Taylor like" was kind of a big deal. Some see it as one of many signals Swift has sent out that she's aware of the gaylor subculture, and doesn't mind it.

Gaylor refers both to a theory and an online community of people who believe Taylor Swift is queer in some form, and that she's been intentionally — and increasingly loudly

—

flagging that in her lyrics, music videos, and performances. The gaylor community is made up of predominantly queer folks, and within that, it's majority sapphic people. Viewing Swift's art through a queer lens, gaylors have identified queer themes as well as queer references in her work. And via TikTok, Twitter, and various other online forums, they have traded ideas, decoded messages, and shared interpretations. In doing so, this group has gone far beyond simple analysis of Swift's artistry; they've taught each other the history of queer coding and lesbian culture, and fostered a sense of queer, feminist pride.

MP is one of a handful of leaders in this sphere, frequently hosting Twitter Spaces for the gaylor community, and increasingly meeting up with other gaylors in real life. She's attending six Eras Tour performances this year (maybe more), frequently bringing gaylors together along the way.

That connection is, in MP's words, the most important part.

"People think that gaylorism is about us proving that Taylor Swift is queer — that's actually the last thing on our agenda," she tells City Paper. Instead, she says, Swift is merely a vehicle to a greater understanding of queer culture, and potentially a stepping stone to changing how the concept of "coming out" is viewed.

"We're not trying to get Taylor Swift to come out, or out her, or anything," MP says. "It's saying, 'We have a person who hasn't verbally said that they're queer, but they've done all this [flagging], and why can't we accept this as a statement of queerness?' Why does it always have to be 'I'm gay' or 'I'm queer' or 'I'm lesbian' to be able to recognize queerness?"

So, what are some of these queer flags gaylors observe Swift waving? The list is extensive, fascinating, sometimes a little unhinged, but largely compelling.

Gaylors have documented countless moments in which Swift has insinuated her queerness, from screenshots of Swift's mid-aughts Myspace page, to the infamous "eye theory," to the predominance of lesbian and bi Pride colors seen throughout her Eras Tour performance.

Probably the most frequently cited piece of standalone gaylor evidence is Swift's manipulating turns of phrase to include the word "hairpin" where it otherwise wouldn't appear. Evermore's bonus track "Right Where You Left Me" includes the line, "I swear, you could hear a hairpin drop," instead of "pin drop," which is significant because the phrase "hairpin drop" historically means to drop hints that you're gay. Swift doubled down on this in a Midnights bonus track, "The Great War," in which she sings, "Your finger on my hairpin triggers," instead of "hair triggers." It's hard to see this word play as accidental, especially when "Mastermind" Swift has told us explicitly that none of it is accidental.

The popularity of gaylorism has risen sharply in recent months, when the rollout of the Midnights album began late last summer. But it's been a theory since almost the beginning of her career, picking up significant steam during her 1989 era. Shortly after that album's release in 2014, Swift was allegedly caught kissing her then-best friend Karlie Kloss during a performance by The 1975 in New York City. The incident became known as "Kissgate," and fueled rumors that the two were dating.

It's a pivotal piece of gaylor lore that led to an unexpected encounter for MP.

At an Eras Tour show she attended last month in Philadelphia, "two very brave girls," she says, threw caution to the wind.

"Behind me, I hear someone go, 'Kissgate? Kissgate?'" MP tells City Paper. She wanted to respond, "but part of me hesitated," she says. "This sounds so dramatic, but I thought, 'What if I'm being baited?'"

Some gaylors have been covert at Swift's concerts for fear of homophobia and harassment.

MP took a chance, though, turned around, and said "Yeah, Kissgate!" back, and one of the girls responded, "Oh my God, want to trade bracelets?"

Trading friendship bracelets is a big thing at the Eras Tour, and it's yet another way gaylors find each other, albeit carefully.

One of the "Kissgate" girls pulled out a stashed-away bag of bracelets and said, "Here are all my gay ones."

MP has traded plenty of gay ones, too, including one that says, "Me Out Now," a reference to the way Swift announced her lead single from the Lover album via Instagram in 2019 with a caption stating, "Me! Out now!" It just so happened to be posted on Lesbian Visibility Day.

"ME!" is MP's favorite Taylor Swift song — one of her six Taylor Swift tattoos is an ode to it — which is odd only because it's pretty much no one else's. It's a universally panned single, but "I love bubble gum pop that sounds like it's written for 5-year-olds," she says.

MP channeled her dedication to "ME!" into a one-woman campaign for Swift to play it as a surprise song at the Pittsburgh show.

"I had this genius parasocial idea to convince Taylor Swift to play 'ME!' on June 16th, and it's so perfect: It's Pride month, no one else is asking for this song ... This has been my number one surprise song since I found out she was doing surprise songs. I'm 100 percent serious about it."

When "ME!" premiered, MP hadn't fully come out yet. As time went on and she listened to it more, "I feel like the song has been there for me in my journey of queerness," she says, "and so every time I listen to it at a different time in my life, I have a new understanding of that song ... When I found queer community and found my identity, I was like, 'I am the only one of me! This song is so good!' And the music video is obviously rainbows and sunshine, so it is really just a queer bop, whether she intended it to be or not."

Ultimately, MP reiterates, gaylorism isn't actually about whether or not Taylor Swift is gay, at least anymore. "It started that way," she says, "but it's grown to so much past that." She's been told by people she's met, both online and in person, some of whom aren't out in their personal lives, that the gaylor circle is one of the few places in which they can express themselves freely.

"Gaylor gives them this opportunity to exist in a space where they can be themselves — that's what it's really about," MP says. "It's about showing the world that we can come out however we please."

[1-up-chump]

Ok there's not much lore on kytinn so my takes should be fine but i may take some "creative liberties" with it (its my city bc nrs already does whatever with the lore tiTaNsraidenisaDeMiGOdkUnGLaOLaMeMOnKLiUkaNGgoKu) plus a d'vorah hc so to speak.

Males (drones) and females (workers) and chimeras: worker kytinn are your typical big scary bugs, but d'vorah isn't the average kytinn worker. Worker kytinn are much bigger, stronger, and scary/uglier. Drones are usually very pretty (for a bug) and are much more colorful. However while prettier and usually smaller, they are more aggressive and defend the queen kytinn directly. Most if not all drones never leave the hive.

D'vorah is a "chimera" which means she's not only made up of both sexes, but also of different subspecies of kytinn. She is a rare special case of her kind in which she was born to be a queen kytinn. however somewhere in the mess that is biology, she was mixed with a bunch of dna in the (cocoon aka a corpse) she ended up being a chimera. So shes a special cool lil buggy :3 the mindset of a worker, the aggression and beauty of a drone, the lowkey potential for leadership and a "nurturing" nature. To her kind its the equivalent of "androgynous intersex butch lesbian" and we love her for it. The only representation of her kind and shes the rare one of her own kind, casuing confusion and mystery to others

There are so many different subspecies of kytinn as there are bugs on earth(realm) so listing all of them would be a nightmare so lets narrow it down to a few.

Hymenoptera: bees, vespa(wasps), ants

These kytinn are the most social and therefore the most loyal to their hive. However these types also tend to be the most aggressive AND parasitic. And because of this, have major dominance over other subspecies of kytinn.

The parasitic type is of the vespa kind (what d'vorah and the previous kytinn queen was) and they are the most dangerous type of kytinn to even their own kind. The vespa type have warred mostly against the arachnid kytinn types far more than any Hymenoptera kytinn. Vespa are aggressive, parasitic, and most dangerous of all... highly intelligent. But are the most loyal to their hive, second only to the bee kind.

The bee kind of kytinn are social, loyal, and passive. Of all kytinn, they are second most friendly with outsiders, the first being the Lepidoptera types. Most bee kind are unfortunately slaves to vespa, having been assimilated into a vespa rule hive. All except the honeybee type, which was thought to have been extinct.

Honeybee kytinn are the most hardworking type of kytinn, willing to sacrifice themselves for the hive. They have a natural defense mechanism against vespa, by heating up their entire bodies and potentially exploding in a firey display of gore and burning, boiling blood. Because of this feature in honeybee kytinn, vespa take caution with honeybees as they are prone to becoming more aggressive than their kind when a honeybee hive is threatened. Therefore not wanting to risk mutually self assured destruction. Because of this, honeybee kytinn's strategy is to neighbor close to other kytinn Hives. So if their hive falls, they'll just take the other hive out, so they ensure that hive gives protection or else fiery inferno.

The ant kytinn are like the honeybee kind in being highly sociable and loyal. However what separates them is their level of aggression is just higher, as they hate outsiders even to their own species. Ant kytinn hives only ever have ant kytinn, and its always outside the hive they are willing to trade and be friendly with other kytinn and beings from other realms. They are excellent architects and have great craftsmanship. Ant kytinn are always making sculptures to appease their queen. Their hives represent more of a bustling city than any other type of kytinn hive.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lepidoptera: butterflies, moths

The Lepidoptera type of kytinn are the most passive of the entire kytinn species, because of this they are often prey for other kytinn. It is said the vespa killed the entire subspecies off, although there are still eggs dotted across the realms that contain their subspecies, yet to hatch.

Butterfly kytinn are beautiful and elegant, they are quite different from other kytinn. Not only are they the most passive, but their hive is literally on their queen. Butterfly kytinn "hives" migrate to whatever climate is warmer they live mostly on fruit but are able to eat other creatures by sucking their blood out. So while the most passive, they are no less dangerous.

Moth kytinn are similar to butterfly kytinn, the only difference is they are less social and more solitary (but still always follow their queen and defend their hive) and quite mysterious. These kytinn are more in tune with magic and have some of the most powerful sorcerers of kytinn kind. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to repeal the vespa from wiping out their hives and killing their queen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arachnid: spiders, scorpions, ticks

Arachnid kytinn are the only other kytinn that can adequately defend against vespa kytinn. These kytinn have hives more likely to contain a majority of their own subspecies, but do not turn down to occasional offering of drones or workers from other hives.

Spider kytinn hives consist of labyrinthine tunnels only their kind can navigate. Spider queens know exactly what travels through their hive by sensing the vibrations of the webbing, and can distinguish from familiar to foriegn. Spider kytinn value loyalty and respect above all else, especially to the queen. Spider drones are the most sought out drone due to their ability to preform elegant dances and displays of loyalty. It is rare for a spider drone to displease a queen while mating with them, but in such an event they let themselves be eaten to "redeem" themselves.

Of all the kytinn, spider queens and honeybee queens are the most generous to their workers, provided of course they prove themselves. Spider queens have higher standards, so any kytinn of any type allied with a spider hive that please the queen is rewarded greatly.

Scorpion kytinn are rare, but highly valued for their fighting capabilities. They are extremely temperamental and only are outclassed by vespa kytinn in this aspect. Scorpion queens attach all of their young onto their back and therefore are heavily guarded by the drones and even a few workers. Their hive is small but well defended, the vespa only managed to conquer the scorpion hive by causing the honeybee hive next to them to explode in flames. Unfortunately both hives were rendered uninhabitable by anything. It is said the scorpion kind might be extinct, save for a few drones who could mate with another kytinn queen and bring back some of their subspecies

Tick kytinn are parasitic but their young are not born inside of bodies like vespa young are. Rather they are born outside the body and feast on it when hatched. The eggs are sticky and cumbersome so many eggs are attached to the same body. Tick kytinn are unfortunately the only subspecies to be actually extinct, as they were the first to go during the vespas age of conquest.

Most kytinn lived normally until the vespa queen laid claim to kill and consume every other kytinn queen until their was only "one hive" and then poetically was killed by shao Kahn, another "conqueror"

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

(belated) reading update: may 2023

upon realizing I was over a week late on my book report for May I considered just waiting until the end of June and rolling the two together, but thing is that I have a Theme for June (spoilers: it's the very predictable theme of only reading books by and/or about queer people) and lumping them together will really throw that off, so! onwards we go.

I should also say that this will be a real shorty, tied with March for the LEAST amount of books I've managed to finish in a month so far this year. in March that was because the month mostly revolved around a weeklong vacation to crash at my mom's place on the beach with a gaggle of friends, which was very fun but seriously cramped my time to read for pleasure. May ALSO saw a very exciting weeklong trip to a brand new city (WHAT'S UP NEW ORLEANS) as well as genuinely some of the shittiest and most harrowing events of my adult life so far so. can't blame a bitch a bitch for slipping!

ANYWAY.

what have I been reading?

People From Bloomington (Budi Darma, 1980; trans. Tiffany Tsao, 2022) - a strange short story collection set in the Bloomington, Indiana, where the Indonesian Darma studied during the 1970s. these stories take the mundane drama of Americana and turn it on its head, crawling deep into themes of alienation and ostracization and the ways they turn people against themselves. over and over again Darma tells tales of lonely boarders driven to obsessive and antisocial behavior by the loneliness that eats them alive amid pleasant-looking suburbs. the prose is overall a little on the dry end for me to really love it, but I do think about how fucked up these protagonists are, like, constantly.

High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America (Jessica B. Harris, 2011) - a delight! an absolute gosh dang delight! Harris is a PUN FULL INTENDED delectable writer who takes you on the most unexpected tour of how African foodways have shaped the culture of US cuisine. beginning with the obvious roots of the transatlantic slave trade and journeying on to America's first Black restaurateurs and sit-ins at diner counters, there's no facet of culinary life too small to be interwoven with Black American history, and Harris eagerly explores them all while painting a vivid picture for her readers. this book will absofuckinglutely make you hungry, so it's a good thing that recipes are included in the back.

Gay Bar: Why We Went Out (Jeremy Atherton Lin, 2021) - a heady powerhouse of a read, seamlessly blending the historical with the editorial with the personal. Lin's on a journey to resurrect the history of the gay bars that shaped he and his husband's intertwined lives - from their roots before his time, the state he found them in as a young man searching for a place in the queer scene, and their apparently dwindling status in the 2020s. Lin's writing is dreamy and grimy, unflinching and romantic, horny and bored all at once. this isn't an uncritical glorification of the gay bar but an interrogation, the pressing question of what community even means and where on earth it's going.

D'Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding (Chencia C. Higgins, 2022) - that's right, still on that kick of reading one romance novel a month. if you spend any amount of time perusing lists of LBGT book recs, particularly LBGT romances, it's inevitable that you'll run into D'Vaughn and Kris. this book has so much #representation that it's pretty much catnip for list compilers: both leads are Black lesbians, D'Vaughn is fat and not yet out to her very Christian mother, and Kris is a butch Afro-Latina (and also part of the most marginalized community of all: influencers). but what about the story, is that actually good? straight up no, not at all; I feel pretty comfortable saying this is maybe my least favorite of the romance novels I've read so far. totally aside from lackluster writing, clunky exposition, and slapdash plotting, this book is uninterested in engaging with its central premise - Kris and D'Vaughn meet on a reality show where they are paired up to plan a wedding in 6 weeks without letting their families figure out that their relationship is a sham - to such an absurd and infuriating degree that I have to wonder why Higgins even bothered.

that's all for now, June will hopefully be MUCH more full considering I've already finished three books and still have nearly three weeks to go + a whole heap of queer books checked out from the library! xoxo

[blackestnight]

Asking you to go off about one of your table top characters of choice. Tell us about them and their adventures!!

hello, you get to hear about my Terrible Horrible No-Good Very Bad Starship Captain

i played her in a horror starfinder campaign (the official Signal of Screams AP, for those who care), which—you know hellraiser? imagine that, but in space. which is why i'm taking a moment to send thanks into the ether for our GM, who was so good to us, because you cannot run a campaign like that without a GM who is invested in taking care of the players. not only did we get general warnings for the campaign, but we'd also get session-specific warnings, and he'd actually pull some people into a different room for certain scenes or to pass on specific information based on the comfort levels we'd already established, and he made certain we all knew that any of us could ask for a pause or get up and walk away at any time, no questions asked. there were some game nights where we'd have to goof off and decompress after but no one at that table ever felt like we were getting into anything we couldn't handle, which is amazing when you consider some of the content warnings that come with that particular campaign.

anyway: her name was yashtavi (tavi for short, but that's "captain" to you); the campaign she was in lasted multiple years so i can't recount all the adventures but highlights include:

first meeting the party while she was stuck in prison (i joined in the middle of another campaign); they broke her out of her cell and she introduced herself with a "oh, you have a starship? i'm your captain now. get in." and just Did Not wait for dissent

you need to understand, tavi is a five-zip space valley girl with bright pink hair. she would blow away in a strong breeze. naturally her highest skill was intimidation

which is how she sent a void troll running for its mother by smiling at it a little creepily

also, bargaining with space pirates. by "bargaining" i mean she said "we're either doing this the easy way, where you do exactly what i say when i say it, or we do it the fun way, where i turn your internal organs upside down and then you do what i say"

and then she turned their internal organs upside down. we love consistency.

the time she walked into a mirror trap that was supposed to suck her soul out while she stood enthralled by an enchantment that would cause her to wither away before the hapless eyes of her party. however she was so full of herself that she just shot fingerguns at her reflection and walked back out with 20k of treasure in her pocket (thanks, nat 20 will save)

also the time she literally dodged a death trap because she was so obsessive over her hair that she chose to sleep in an office chair rather than in a sleep pod with a built-in beautician routine. (the gm was SO MAD because he couldn't force me to climb in without making it clear he wanted me to climb in.)

despite all of this, and despite the fact that she traded away her humanity to the forces of darkness for shits and giggles, somehow she was deemed the most responsible party member, which is how she somehow??? wound up settled down with a wife and daughter at the end??? straight up u-haul space lesbians (adopting the teenage clone of the BBEG). it was wild.

anyway i love her endlessly, thank you

[ewh111]

2022 Annual List of Favorite Film & TV Experiences

Happy new year! ��

2022 brought back some semblance of normalcy. Highlights include: virtual Sundance Film Festival seeing 16 films in 4 days in January, my first in-person Super Bowl and seeing the LA Rams win in February, return after three year absence of my special fundraiser dinners that I cook (back-to-back nights of a 16 course dinner focused on Shanghai & Sichuan cuisine) in April, attending my 35th college reunion in May, helping to celebrate the life of dear friend and colleague Ted Walch at the end of summer, and in November, going on my first global travel since the pandemic on a work trip (postponed from March 2020) that took me to Sydney, Singapore, Jakarta, Tokyo, and Kyoto. And on the family front, we continued our weekly Sunday family Zooms which began at the outset of the pandemic, still going strong at 146 weeks and counting.

Hope you have had a safe and healthy holiday season and all the best for a fabulous 2023!

Cheers, Ed

And greetings from my girls Freddy and Maxie, aged 10 and 9 respectively.

Now on to this year's compilation of my favorite film and other streaming experiences. I’m still limiting my visits to the movie theater with off-peak visits, so my most of my film intake is still via streaming. Please let me know your thoughts!

Best of the Year

Everything Everywhere All At Once

One of the trippiest film experiences ever! My first question after my initial viewing was "What drugs were the Daniels (as the directors are collectively known) on when they wrote this film? And what kind of pitch did they make to get it made? One of the most original, absurdly outlandish, and description-defying films in recent memory. What seemingly starts as a Chinese immigrant family drama centered around harried traditional mother (Michelle Yeoh), rebellious lesbian daughter, and sweet, endearing father (Ke Huy Quan of Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) quickly turns into a bonkers, multiverse journey to save the world. Along the way, laundromat owner Yeoh’s embattled audit brings her face-to-face with a delightfully droll Jamie Lee Curtis as meticulous IRS bureaucrat with hilarious interludes involving googly eyes, hot dog fingers, dildoes, butt plugs, and everything bagels. For those of you thoroughly confused, EEAAO does boil down to a story of redemption and reconciliation between mother and daughter and finding joy and meaning in the things that matter in our hectic, fractured daily lives…told in an absurdly funny and crazy way and gets even better after multiple viewings. Trailer: https://youtu.be/wxN1T1uxQ2g

Black Comedies Set on Islands…With Donkeys

Triangle of Sadness

This Cannes Palm d’Or winner intrigued me with its trailer which evoked a luxury yacht-based White Lotus-esque send up of the wealthy, but this dark dramedy threw a completely unexpected curveball, desert-island third-act that stuck with me long after I left the theater. There’s very sharp writing and performances—the verbal jousting over a dinner check, Woody Harrelson’s hilarious Marxist captain trading drunken barbs with a manure-selling Russian capitalist guest, and the ship’s Filipina toilet manager portrayed by a commanding Dolly De Leon who is largely responsible for the memorable third act. The film continues to grow on me with repeated viewing. FYI, this film is not safe for the emetophobic, as there is an overlong scene with projectile vomiting, the likes of which have not been seen since Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. Oh, and be warned that there is also a donkey-beating. Trailer: https://youtu.be/VDvfFIZQIuQ

The Banshees of Inisherin

Great to see the In Bruges duo of Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson back together, this time as best friends whose friendship is abruptly cut short by one party which results in ever-increasing, devastating consequences in this bleak but humorous and deeply affecting black comedy from writer-director Martin McDonough. Oh, and Jenny the donkey deserved better. Trailer: https://youtu.be/uRu3zLOJN2c

N.B. It seems to be quite the year for donkeys. I am excited but have yet to see EO, Poland’s Academy Award entry, about the adventures of a donkey named EO.

Pretentious Rich People Getting Their Comeuppance…On An Island

The Menu

As a fan of food, I really enjoyed this comically dark film with Ralph Fiennes playing to perfection the mad genius chef of the Hawthorn, a fictional restaurant on a remote Pacific Northwest island. With a fine ensemble cast directed by Mark Mylod (Succession) and with helping hands from the creator of Chef’s Table as well as the Michelin-starred chef Dominque Crenn, an exclusive $1,250 a head night at the Hawthorn turns into a twisted horror/satire of elevated food experiences and those who partake. Trailer: https://youtu.be/C_uTkUGcHv4

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

If you liked Knives Out, you'll thoroughly enjoy Glass Onion, which gleefully brings back Daniel Craig as dandy Southern super-sleuth Benoit Blanc, this time for a murder mystery party on an island presided over by tech billionaire played by Edward Norton with his friendly band of disruptors including Janelle Monae, Leslie Odom Jr, Dave Bautista, Kathryn Hahn, and Kate Hudson. Trailer: https://youtu.be/gj5ibYSz8C0

Films About Musical Royalty

Tár

While I thought this might go down the road of a #metoo or #cancelculture themed movie, this is actually a towering, slow-burn character study with an intense and sensational Cate Blanchett as the fictional Lydia Tár, the EGOT-winning, brilliant and demanding world-class conductor of the Berlin Symphony whose trail of manipulation, abusive behavior, and hubris eventually catches up with her and the resulting finale is…well, I’ll just leave that for you to watch and react. All the accolades for her tremendous performance are well deserved. Trailer: https://youtu.be/Na6gA1RehsU

Elvis

A sensational Austin Butler brings the King back to life on the big screen. Butler truly embodies Elvis in his heartfelt performance. Baz Luhrmann’s film is not so much traditional biopic as it is a musical that captures the spectacle and cultural phenomenon of Elvis, bringing America out of the innocence of the 1950s, as seen through the eyes of Elvis’s notorious manager Col. Tom Parker (Tom Hanks)—and Luhrmann does it in the grand, dazzling style that only he can do. Perhaps a bit garish and bombastic for some, as an unabashed Luhrmann fan, I loved it. Trailer: https://youtu.be/wBDLRvjHVOY

Action Epics Based on Real Life Rebels

RRR

Wow. I was not expecting to be totally enthralled by S.S. Rajamouli’s Tollywood (Telugu language) film. Hands down, RRR (which stands for Rise Roar Revolt) will be the most glorious, hyperbolic, action-bromance-musical political epic spectacle you'll see all year. The laws of physics-defying action scenes are reminiscent of the operatic violence and stylized fight scenes of 300 and John Woo films. Taking place in 1920s British colonial India, the story centers on two men (loosely based on real life rebels), one a tribal warrior and the other an Indian policeman working for the British forces, who become friends, then enemies, and then eventually friends again and team up as Indian revolutionaries against the British Empire in action sequences that are just bonkers. And to top it all off, there are the exuberant Indians vs. Brits dance-off scene and the joyful credits dance number celebrating Indian freedom fighters (check out the extra links below). Don't miss it. Trailer: https://youtu.be/NgBoMJy386M

Naatu Naatu Dance Sequence: https://youtu.be/OsU0CGZoV8E

Solay Credits Sequence: https://youtu.be/2cyzCReoNgU

The Woman King

Based on the true story of a fierce all-woman warrior unit in the West African kingdom of Dahomey in the 19th century, Viola Davis’s powerful performance and Gina Prince-Bythewood’s confident directing elevates this to a full-blown epic with warmth and inspiration. Trailer: https://youtu.be/3RDaPV_rJ1Y

Nope, Not Your Typical Horror Films

Nope

Yup. Jordan Peele has done it again, this time with a UFO pic that raises questions about our society’s fascination with spectacle, as well as obsession in the pursuit of the perfect shot. With stunning visuals (much of the film was shot on IMAX to create a totally immersive feel) and tingly suspense, Peele has created a film whose meaning you can debate all day—Erasure of Black and marginalized people from history? Dangers of taming nature or exploiting trauma for profit? But at the end of the day, Peele has created yet another impressive and indelible piece of work. Trailer: https://youtu.be/In8fuzj3gck

Bones and All

A film about cannibalism? Yup. I was intrigued with where the appeal in this would be. But seen as a metaphor for queerness and addiction, Luca Guadagnino has actually created a tasteful (pun intended) and surprisingly tender romantic cannibal road pic—a flesh-eating Bonnie and Clyde-like trek across Reagan-era middle America. Guadagnino superbly depicts outcasts living on the edge of society, searching for identity and place. Not for the faint of heart, as it does not shy from the gruesomeness of their addiction. Strong performances from Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, and Mark Rylance with memorable cameos by Chloë Sevigny and an almost unrecognizable Michael Stuhlbarg. Trailer: https://youtu.be/0Nu7Z9AxGNg

More Global Cinema

Decision To Leave

An engrossing, enigmatic slow-burn noir detective mystery with heavy dose of seductive romance and obsessive longing and tinges of Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Winner of the 2022 Cannes Best Director award, Park Chan-wook steps aside from the violence and sex of his earlier films and masterfully pulls you into this intricate web of intrigue, and just when you think you've figured out the tricky complications between the obsessive married insomniac detective and the wife of an apparent suicide victim he’s investigating, Park takes you in a different direction and ultimately to its devastating end. Trailer: https://youtu.be/9aMHyTqvIvU

All Quiet on the Western Front

An impressive and truly stunning German adaptation of the famous German novel about the horrors of war as idealistic and naive boys get swept up in nationalistic fervor only to find the stark realities of being on the front lines of the Great War. A memorable performance by Felix Kammerer in his screen debut as lead character Paul Bäumer, as he experiences the unending hells of war in intimate and personal ways. WWI’s trench warfare with flamethrowers, hand-to-hand combat, and surging tanks is terrifyingly and vividly experienced by Bäumer and indelibly depicted. This epic rivals Sam Mendes's 1917 in its beautifully shot, immersive portrayal of the bleak and brutal wretchedness of pointless war and perhaps the best war film since Saving Private Ryan. Trailer: https://youtu.be/hf8EYbVxtCY

Bullet Train

Ok, this is not an international film, but it does takes place on a Japanese bullet train. High-octane, fun thrill ride of a comedic crime film with code-named hired guns like Ladybug, Tangerine, and Lemon, each with quirky traits, all crossing paths on a Shinkansen in pursuit of a silver briefcase. The smart-alecky, joyful, and fun cast is led by Brad Pitt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Bad Bunny, and Sandra Bullock. Enjoy the ride. Trailer: https://youtu.be/0IOsk2Vlc4o

AND OTHER ENJOYABLE EXPERIENCES

Top Gun: Maverick, The Fabelmans, Cha Cha Real Smooth; Good Luck to You, Leo Grande; The Batman, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, The Exiles, Downfall: the Case Against Boeing, Wildcat, My Policeman, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (Nicolas Cage playing himself), Navalny, Turning Red, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

IN THE QUEUE

Empire of Light, Women Talking, Till, The Whale, Avatar: The Way of Water. Bardo, She Said, Emancipation

FAVORITE STREAMING EXPERIENCES

Heartstopper—LOVE LOVE LOVE this sweet, charming, and adorable story of first love between two British school boys based on the bestselling YA graphic novels. For those who need a total antidote to Euphoria, this is it. Trailer: https://youtu.be/FrK4xPy4ahg

Young Royals—Take Heartstopper, add a large dose of The Crown, and plunk it down in an elite Swedish boarding school and you get this gripping drama involving a teen prince and his love interest from the other side of the tracks. Teen drama that feels real and natural. Trailer: https://youtu.be/rHmw87EpGIM

The Bear—Superbly intense and stress-inducing drama that I couldn’t stop watching, revolving around a young fine dining chef (Jeremy Allen White) who returns home to run his late brother’s Chicago hot beef sandwich eatery and oversee its colorful cast of employees that comprise a dysfunctional “family.” And if, like me, you’ve worked in a restaurant, The Bear is fully capable of giving you PTSD, especially the one-take episode 7. Trailer: https://youtu.be/y-cqqAJIXhs

The White Lotus—Season 2 in Sicily surpasses the first and brings back Jennifer Coolidge!! Trailer: https://youtu.be/Baflc_0XVfY

1899—From the folks who brought you Dark—this time trippy things happen on a cruise ship at the end of the 19th century.  Trailer: https://youtu.be/ulOOON_KYHs

Slow Horses—If you like Gary Oldman, you’ll love this spy drama where he runs an outfit of MI5 castoffs. Trailer: https://youtu.be/O9ZJChzPn0U

The Old Man—Another spy vs. spy drama, this time it’s in America with the CIA, pitting Jeff Bridges vs. John Lithgow. Trailer: https://youtu.be/xDu1Q9r6HDo

The Righteous Gemstones—I’m not sure how I missed this when it first came out, but this hysterical series is the mega-church version of Succession led by patriarch Eli Gemstone played by John Goodman and two sons played by Danny McBride and Adam Devine. It’s an absurd hoot. Trailer: https://youtu.be/t383UpoLV5k

Abbott Elementary—Top notch mockumentary style workplace sitcom that gets teachers and schools with a great cast. Trailer: https://youtu.be/cO-_7oi-61Y

Euphoria—Not for faint of heart. I thought season one was fine, but season two went to a whole different level. Zendaya is amazing. Some of the most realistic and gritty portrayal of addiction and its ripple effects. Trailer: https://youtu.be/0BG3c1ika48

House of the Dragon—For the GOT crowd. Love the dragons! Trailer: https://youtu.be/DotnJ7tTA34

[bisluthq]

Got any advice on talking to men? I'm so shy and want to get better

so this is gonna be kind of weird advice but I’ll explain why I’m giving it at the end. My advice is, if you’re talking to a romantic prospect, try not think of them as a romantic prospect (I know that’s often easier said than done BUT ALSO if you want to DATE this person then they’re gonna have to be your friend too so there’s no point putting on a bunch of airs and graces and vibes that aren’t you - or the other way round and pretending to be mad chill when you’re not - because eventually they’ll find out lol). I say this because I actually have never struggled to talk to men because I’m bi but tend to, overall, be more attracted to women and I get a lot shyer around women (even when I’m like just trying to make a new friend tbh and I’m partnered and the girl is or she’s straight I get a lot shyer like I get worried she won’t like me 😂 whereas with guys I’m usually like “so he thinks I’m weird fuck him he’s prob weird too” 😂). The one time I can think that I really fancied a guy I didn’t know well was that Gatsby looking mf who had a gf and I wasn’t per se shy but I was just very aggressive in pursuing him and it didn’t go well (I mean we had sec but like the sex was bad and idk why I went to all that trouble).

All of my relationships tbh came out of friendship. All of them like… there was sexual tension and some flirty banter and I thought they were hot but also I just dug them as a person. That one time I tried dating the girl who told me she wanted to get married very soon and stuff and I was like sorta in a complicated breakup process with my ex, the whole problem was she wasn’t that cool like as a person (to me) and I didn’t have tons to say to her and I really couldn’t imagine like what we’d spend the rest of our lives discussing lmao not because she’s stupid or anything but because her interests are competitive outdoor sports like trail running and mountain biking (which I can tolerate like maybe once or twice a year if that), beach holidays (which are really not my fave type of holidays) and like non fiction. The only stuff we connected on was talking about historical lesbians because she loves history and reading about lesbians and so do I and we both like to laugh so we sent each other jokes but otherwise we didn’t really have much to talk about so no amount of me trying to feel less shy around her (and I did feel quite shy) would’ve fixed that. And that WAS a girl I was pursuing specifically to date/marry not just to see how it goes lol which again I think is why I got shy and listened to a lot of stuff about mountain biking and nodded and seemed interested.

so basically my advice is be yourself and don’t treat it as a job interview. Maybe they’re a cool person and you could be friends. Maybe you’ll be more than friends. Maybe y’all don’t click and it’s nobody’s fault. Idk. Talk to them, see what y’all have in common or what differences make them interesting to you, and go from there.

Also tbh boys are so stupid overall lol like obviously not every guy wants to fuck you and definitely not every guy wants a relationship with you but I’m gonna be dead honest, presuming a guy is single and he’s flirting with you like… fucking him is not gonna be difficult for you to achieve. Whether that becomes a relationship or not is obviously a whole other kettle of fish but yeah idk talk to men… normally lol. Ask them what they like, what they dislike, send memes, what their hobbies are, trade recommendations. Treat them as any other friend?? Don’t be scared to initiate hangs? (A lot of girls don’t want to “ask boys out” but idk boys actually appreciate that often and also why wouldn’t u lol like if you want to do something and you want to do it with this person, go for it). I mean, obviously some activities that we do early on with girl pals we can’t do with boys (idk like talking about clothes or shopping together or discussing makeup/nails because most boys - but also tbf most butches - just dgaf) but it’s unlikely those will be your only set of interests.

Be yourself idk and if they like you, cool and if they don’t then you guys just weren’t a good fit.

I hope that helped and I’m sorry it wasn’t like “say X to make him fall in love with you” but there isn’t a magic incantation that’ll do that lol. You’ve just got to… be yourself and find someone whose freak matches your freak.

[qqueenofhades]

Okay, I’ve read Joe Biden’s plans.

I’ve just sat down and spent several hours actually reading all the damn plans on his website, the whole thing, so you don’t have to. And here’s the conclusion:

They’re pretty good.

Are they absolutely everything we want immediately? Maybe not. Are they a solid Democratic agenda anyway? Yes they are. Are they better than Trump?

Light years!

His Violence Against Women plan is lengthy, detailed, and pays specific attention to violence against Native, lesbian and bisexual, low-income, disabled, rural, transgender (especially trans women of color) immigrant, domestic abuse victims, and other vulnerable women. He calls for replacing and expanding Obama-era policies and funding for campus sexual assault programs that DeVos trashed, and for providing money for culturally specific services that are sensitive to the diverse backgrounds of survivors. He also notes that sexual assault, while it predominantly affects women and girls, needs to be taken seriously and addressed for people of all gender identities.

His gun safety plan is forceful and lays out several steps for banning assault weapons, taking existing weapons from offenders, closing gun purchase background check and other legal loopholes, addressing the intersection between domestic violence and weapons ownership, and reducing or eliminating weapons and ammunition stockpiling.

His plan for tackling climate change and creating green jobs is also lengthy. He makes the connection between economic, environmental, and racial justice. He pledges to immediately rejoin the Paris Agreement and restore American leadership on the issue in pushing for even stronger climate standards, make climate change a central part of our trade, international, and justice goals, demand a worldwide ban on fossil fuel subsidies and tax breaks (!!!) and if the Green New Deal is passed, to sign it, as well as for the U.S. to achieve 100% clean energy and zero percent net emissions by 2050.

His healthcare plan is decent. It offers an immediate public option for all Americans regardless of private, employer, or no coverage, and generous new tax credits to put toward the cost of coverage. It strongly protects abortion rights and federal funding for Planned Parenthood, as well as rescinding the “gag rule” that prevents U.S. federal aid money from being used to provide or even talk about abortions in NGOs abroad. It attacks generic and drug price gouging. It calls for doubling the capital gains tax on the super-wealthy (from 20% to 39.5% paid on capital gains by anyone making over $1 million) to help fund healthcare reform. He also has a separate plan on the opioid crisis in America, and on older Americans and retirement, including the protection and re-funding of Medicare and Social Security.

His immigration plan is lengthy and detailed. He apologizes for and acknowledges the excessive deportation that occured during the Obama-Biden administrations, pledges to do better, and attacks Trump’s current inhumane acitivities on every front. The policy of children in cages, indefinite detention, the metered asylum system, and the Muslim Ban are gone on day one. In this and his LGBTQ plan, he notes the vulnerability of LGBTQ refugees, incuding LGBTQ refugees of color. He proposes streamlining of visa applications and prioritizing the immediate reunification of families. It also specifically states that ICE and CBP agents will be held directly accountable for inhumane treatment.

Speaking of which, his LGBTQ plan is comprehensive. It pays attention to multiple intersectional issues, down to the high rates of incarceration among trans people of color. (He also notes the rates of violence against trans women of color particularly.) He calls for a complete ban on conversion therapy and the discrimination against HIV-status individuals, as well as removing the ban on blood donation from gay and bisexual men. He will remove the transgender military ban immediately. He calls for funding for mental health and suicide prevention among LGBTQ populations.

His plan to empower workers calls for raising the federal minimum wage to $15, as well as indexing this to median hourly wages to ensure that working-class and middle-class wages grow closer to parity, and implementing strong legal protections for unions. He expresses support for striking workers and to empower the National Labor Relations Board in workplace advocacy. Farmworkers, domestic workers, gig economy workers, and other non-traditional labor groups are included in this. He will restore all Obama-Biden policies related to workplace safety and regulation.

His plan to restore American dignity and leadership in the world calls for immediately investing in election security and reform, restoration of the Voting Rights Act, immediately restoring White House press briefings and other Trump refusals of information, tackling criminal justice reform and systematic racial discrimination, calling for campaign finance reform, and basically blowing up all the stupid things the Trump administration does on a daily basis. It also calls for an end to all ongoing wars in the Middle East, restoring the Iran nuclear deal, and new arms control treaties with Russia, among general repairing of international alliances.

His plans for K-12 education and post-high school education call for greatly expanded funding across all levels of 2-year, 4-year, and other educational options. There will be no student loan payments for anyone making under $25,000 a year; everyone else will pay a capped amount and be completely forgiven after a certain period. Public servants qualify for up to $50,000 in loan forgiveness. This is not total loan forgiveness for everyone, which is obviously important for me and many of us, but it’s acceptable to start with. Additionally, his wife is a teacher and has a proven track record of calling for education investment and supporting public school funding.

His plan for housing addresses the needs of formerly incarcerated, LGBTQ, veteran, low-income, sexual assault survivor, black and Hispanic, and other vulnerable populations at risk of losing housing. It calls for a tax on companies and corporations with in excess of $50 billion in assets to fund comprehensive new housing initiatives, including $100 billion in accessible and low-income housing development. It includes extensive investment in public transportation and a high-speed rail system. This ties into his plan to repair infrastructure and invest in new technologies across the country.

His plan for criminal justice reform calls for the end of mass incarceration, the decriminalization of marijuana, the automatic expunging of all cannabis convictions, and an end on jail sentences for drug use. It highlights systematic institutional racism and the impact on black and brown people particularly. It calls for an end on all profiteering and private prisons. It focuses on reintegrating offenders into society and funding the needs of people released from prison. It proposes to “expand and use the power of the U.S. Justice Department to address systemic misconduct in police departments and prosecutors’ offices.” It broadens funding for social services and other programs for people who are otherwise placed into the prison pipeline.

There are more plans, which you can find here. These are the ones I read top to bottom. I am not by any means a Joe Biden fangirl; he was not my first choice, my second choice, or really anywhere on my list. However, having carefully read through his policy documents, I can say that:

He has at the least a good team of advisors who are keenly aware of the political climate, and is willing to both restore Obama-era standards and to improve on them where necessary. Obviously, all politicians’ promises are politicians’ promises, but this is a solid Democratic platform with obvious awareness of the progressive wing of the party.

If progressive legislation is passed in the House and Senate, he will sign it, including the Green New Deal.

He represents a clear and definite improvement over Donald Trump.

Is he everything we want? No. Are his policies better than I was expecting? Yes. I advise you to read through them for yourself. It has made me at least feel better about the likelihood of voting for him.

I realize it’s an unsexy position, especially on tumblr, to advocate for an old centrist white man. I’m not thrilled about having to do it. However, speaking as someone who was very resistant to Biden and still doesn’t agree with all of his previous legislative track record, that’s my consensus. He is a candidate who broadly aligns with values that I care about. His policies represent a concrete end to the damage of the Trump administration and gets us on the right track again.

Joe Biden, if he is the Democratic nominee, will receive my vote on November 3, 2020. I urge you to consider what I’ve laid out above and join me.

[lorenfangor]

I heard that #40 was super homophobic :/ so I skipped it. But now your fic is making me want to give it a try. How problematic is it? Are the characters worth it?

Okay.

Okay.

Let’s talk about #40.

The plot of The Other (a Marco POV) is that Marco sees an Andalite on a video tape sent in to some Unsolved Mysteries-esque TV show, and he assumes it’s Ax and hauls ass to save him from being captured. Ax, being Ax, has videotaped the show, and they pull it up and Tobias uses his hawk eyes to figure out that it’s not Ax, it’s another Andalite - one without a tailblade. Ax is appalled at the presence of this vecol (an Andalite word for a disabled person) and we find out that he and others of his species have deep ingrained prejudices against at least some kinds of disabled people.

Despite this, Marco and Ax go looking for the Andalite in question because he’s been spotted by national TV, and they meet a second one, named Gafinilan-Estrif-Valad. The vecol is Mertil-Iscar-Elmand, a former fighter pilot with a reputation and Gafinilan’s coded-gay life partner. The two of them have been on Earth since book 1; they crashed their fighters on the planet and have been trapped there thanks to the GalaxyTree going down. Gafinilan has adopted a human cover, a physics professor, and they’ve been living in secret ever since.

Thanks to that tape, Mertil has been captured by Visser Three, and he’s not morph-capable so he can’t escape. Gafinilan wants to trade the leader of the “Andalite Bandits” to the Yeerks to get his boyfriend back; he can’t fight to free Mertil because he’s terminally ill with a genetic disorder that will eventually kill him, and (it’s implied that) the Yeerks aren’t interested in disabled hosts, even disabled Andalite ones. Despite Ax’s ableism, the Animorphs agree to work with Gafinilan and free Mertil, and they’re successful. Marco ends the book talking about how there are all kinds of prejudices you’ll have to face and boxes that people will put you in, and you can’t necessarily escape them even if they’re reductive and inaccurate, but you can still live your life with pride.

So now that I’ve explained the plot, I’m gonna come out the gate saying that I love this book. I love it wholeheartedly, I love Marco’s narration, I love Ax having to deal with Andalite society’s ableism, I love these characters, and as a disabled lesbian I don’t find these disabled gays to be inherently Bad Rep.

that’s of course just my opinion and it doesn’t overshadow other issues that people might have? but at the same time, I don’t like the seemingly-common narrative that this book is all bad all the time, and I want to offer up a different read.To that end, I’m going to go point by point through some of the criticisms and common complaints that I’ve seen across the fandom over the years.

“Mertil and Gafinilan were put on a bus after one appearance because they were gay!”

this is one I’m going to have to disagree with hardcore. I talked about this yesterday, but in Animorphs there are a lot of characters or ideas that only get introduced once or twice and then get written off or dropped - in order off the top of my head, #11 (the Amazon trip), #16 (Fenestre and his cannibalism), #17 (the oatmeal), #18 (the hint of Yeerks doing genetic experiments in the hospital basement), #24/#39/#42 (the Helmacrons’ ability to detect morphing tech), #25 (the Venber), #28 (experiments with limiting brain function through drugs), #34 (the Hork-Bajir homeworld being retaken, the Ixcila procedure), #36 (the Nartec), #41 (Jake’s Bad Future Dream), and #44 (the Aboriginal people Cassie meets in Australia) all feature things that either seem to exist just for the sake of having a particular trope explored Animorphs-style or to feature an idea for One Single Book.

This is a series that’s episodic and has a very limited overall story arc because of how children’s literature in the 90s was structured - these books are closer to The Saddle Club, Sweet Valley High, Animal Ark, or The Baby-Sitters’ Club than they are to Harry Potter or A Series of Unfortunate Events. Mertil and Gafinilan don’t get to be in more than one book because they’re not established in the main cast or the supporting cast, I don’t think that it’s solely got anything to do with their being gay.

“Gafinilan has AIDS, this is a book about AIDS, and that’s homophobic!”

Okay, this is… hard. First, yes, Gafinilan does have a terminal illness. Yes, Gafinilan is gay. No, Soola’s Disease is not AIDS.

I have two responses to this, and I’ll attack them in order of their occurrence in my thought. First, there’s coded AIDS diseases all over genre fiction, especially genre fiction from that era, because the AIDS epidemic made a massive impact on public life and fundamentally changed both how the public perceived illness and queerness and how queer people themselves experienced it. I was too young to live through it, but my dad’s college roommate was out, and my dad himself has a lot of friends who he just ceases to talk about if the conversation gets past 1986 or so - this was devastating and it got examined in art for more reasons than “gay people all have AIDS”, and I dislike the implication that the only reason it could ever appear was as a tired stereotype or a message that Being Queer Means Death. Gafinilan is kind, fond of flowers, and fond of children - he’s multifaceted, and he’s got a terminal illness. Those kinds of people really exist, and they aren’t Bad Rep.

Second off, Soola’s Disease? Really isn’t AIDS. It’s a congenital genetic illness that develops over time, cannot be transmitted, and does not carry a serious stigma the way AIDS did. Gafinilan also has access to a cure - he could become a nothlit and no longer be afflicted by it, even if it’s considered somewhat dishonorable to go nothlit to escape that way. That’s not AIDS, and in fact at no point in my read and rereads did I assume that his having a terminal illness was supposed to be a commentary on homosexuality until I found out that other people were assuming it.

“Mertil losing his tail means he’s lost his masculinity, and that’s bad because he’s gay! That’s homophobic!”

so this is another one I’ve gotta hardcore disagree with, because while Mertil is one of two Very Obviously Queer Characters, he’s not the only character who loses something fundamental about himself, or even loses access to sexual and/or romantic capability in ways he was familiar with.

Tobias and Arbron both get ripped out of their ordinary normal lives by going nothlit in bad situations, and while they both wind up finding fulfillment and freedom despite that, it’s still traumatic, even more for Arbron I’d say than for Tobias. And on a psychological level, none of the main cast is left unmarked or free of trauma or free of deep change thanks to the bad things that have happened to them - they’re no less fundamentally altered than Mertil, even if it’s mental rather than physical. And yes, tail loss is equated with castration or emasculation, but that doesn’t automatically mean Mertil suffering it is tied to his homosexuality and therefore the takeaway we’re intended to have is “Being gay is tragic and makes you less of a man”. This is a series where bad shit happens to everyone, and enduring losses that take away things central to one’s self-conception or identity or body is just part of the story.

Also, frankly? Plenty of IRL disabled people have to grapple with a loss of sexual function, and again, they’re not Bad Rep just because they’re messy.

“Andalite society is confusingly written in this book, and the disability aspects are clearly just a coverup for the gay stuff!”

Andalite society is canonically sexist, a bit exceptionalist and prejudiced in their own favor, and pretty contradictory and often challenged internally on its own norms. In essence, it’s a pretty ordinary society, and they’re really realistic as sci-fi races go. It makes sense from that perspective that Andalites would tolerate scarring or a lost stalk eye or a lost skull eye, but not tolerate serious injuries that significantly impact your perceived quality of life. Ableism is like that - it’s not one-size-fits-all. I look at Ax’s reactions and I see a lot of my own family and friends’ behaviors - this vibes with my understanding of prejudice, you know?

“Mertil and Gafinilan have a tragic ending, which means the story is saying that being gay dooms you to tragedy!”

Mertil and Gafinilan have the best possible ending that they could ask for? They are victims of the war, they are suffering because of the war, they get the same cocktail of trauma and damage that every other soldier gets. But unlike Jake and Tobias and Marco, unlike Elfangor, unlike Aximili? Their ending comes in peace, in their own home. Gafinilan isn’t dying alone, he’s got the love of his life with him. Mertil isn’t going to be as isolated anymore, he’s got Marco for a friend. Animorphs is a tragedy, it’s not a happy story, it’s not something that guarantees a beautiful sunshine-and-roses ending for everyone, and I love tragedy, and so I will fight for this story. Yes, it hurts. Yes, it deserved better. But it’s not less meaningful just because it’s sad. Nobody is entitled to anything in this book, and it’s just as true for these two as it is for anyone else.

“It’s not cool that the only canonically gay characters in this series don’t get to be happy and trauma-free and unblemished Good Rep!”

This is one I can kind of understand, and I’ll give some ground to it, because it is sucky. The only thing I’ll say is that I stand by my argument that nothing that happens to Mertil and Gafinilan is unusual compared to what happens to the rest of the cast, and that their ending is way happier than Rachel and Tobias’s, or Jake and Cassie’s. But it’s a legitimate point of frustration, and the one argument I’ll say I agree has validity.

(Though, I also want to point out that I think there are plenty of equally queercoded characters in the story who aren’t Mertil and Gafinilan - Tobias, Rachel, Cassie, and Marco all get at least one or two moments that signal to me that they’re potentially LGBT+, not to mention Mr. Tidwell and Illim in #29 and their long-term domestic partnership. There’s no reason to assume that the only queer people here are those two aliens when Marco’s descriptions of Jake exist.)

“Marco uses slurs and reduces Gafinilan’s whole identity to his illness!”

Technically, yes, this is true, except putting it that way strips the whole passage of its context. Marco is discussing the boxes society puts you into, the ones you don’t have a choice about facing or escaping. He’s talking about negative stereotypes and reductive generalizations, he’s referring to them as bad things that you get inflicted upon you by an outside world or by friends who don’t know the whole story or the real you. The slurs he uses are real slurs that get thrown at people still, and they’re not okay, and the point is that they’re not okay but assholes are going to call you by them anyway. He ends by saying “you just have to learn to live with it”, and since this is coming from a fifteen-year-old Latino kid who we know is picked on by bullies for all sorts of reasons and who faces racism and homophobia? He knows what he’s talking about. He’s bitter about what’s been said and done, he’s not stating it like it’s a good thing.

Yes, absolutely, this speech is a product of its time, but it’s a product of its time that speaks of defiance and says “We aren’t what we’re said to be,” and in the year this was published? That’s a good message.

tl;dr The Other is good, actually, and Mertil and Gafinilan are incredible characters who deserve all the love they could possibly get.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

Can we take a moment to talk about what a tragic character Minerva is? Y’all know that for the longest time I haven’t been the biggest fan of her, and honestly I’m still not? but I think I might’ve had a breakthrough on why that is. 

Whenever I’ve asked around to see why people find her so appealing or why they consider her their favorite, I’ll get answers like, “she’s such a complex character and she deserved a redemption arc!” or “she should’ve come back to the school with us! Let Minnie be happy, you cowards! Telltale did her dirty! I could write paragraph after paragraph about her!” all sorts of things along those lines… but like, no one seems to want to actually talk about her. I find that interesting? Since when I do follow up with a “care to explain further?” I get nothing. Radio static. Like…. no, talk to me please, I just wanna understand-

Minerva within the context of TFS is such a tragedy. She grew up in a school for troubled youth where all the adults left them for death at the start of the breakout, they had walkers trying to eat the living all around them, and I’m sure she saw her fair share of traumatic violence and despair… but on the bright side, she always had her twin sister, Sophie, and little brother, Tenn. She had her friend and eventual girlfriend, Violet. She had music, and a dorm full of pretty paintings done by Sophie. She and Louis composed a song together to make everyone feel better. There are worse places to live than the school. 

Then one day she got traded away to a bunch of raiders against her will, having no idea what the hell these people were gonna do to her and Sophie. They were made to be soldiers to fight in a war that had nothing to do with them. The delta fucking broke her. If we’re to believe Lilly’s story about the twins, they started their brainwashing process early on when Sophie was still alive, and it seems like Minerva was easier to control as Sophie was still planning a way out and causing trouble. Then, when Sophie convinced her to steal a boat and get the hell out, they got caught and the delta forced her to murder her own twin sister. 

Like…. I’m sorry, not only did Minerva kill her own sister, but she was made to believe that was the right thing to do? That line she says about how she had to prove her loyalty to the place she calls home? That shit’s ingrained in her brain, you can tell that isn’t the first time she’s heard or said that very thing. That is what made her family to the delta. Delta is her home now, her family. Sophie was just a thing that needed to be dealt with. You keep your head down, do as you’re told, and you survive.  You survive and you get to go home, eat a hot meal, take a shower, and be with your delta family.  If not, you end up like Sophie.

What’s also fucked is that Minerva actually cares about these people now. Think about that. After everything they did to her and made her do, she’s been trained to see them as her family and obey. When you save Louis and he kills Dorian, Minerva actually cries out and is visibly hurt by her death. When she’s with the other raiders on land, she's screaming at walkers to get away from them. She cares about the people who made her kill Sophie… and no one ever talks about that??

She fucking hates Clementine. Clementine is just another thing in Minnie’s way. I know the part of the fandom likes to ship these two together and they think it’s hot when they fight and shit, but within the canon text, Minerva wants Clementine gone. Dead. She is the thing stopping her from having her old family merge with her new family. If Clementine hadn’t made them fight, they all would’ve been captured and they’d all be a delta family now. She would’ve had Tenn back. 

Clementine is the problem, she made everyone fight back and that’s why people are dead. Minerva hates her for it… it’s not a “I hate you but like the sexual tension, y’know?” that I see people pretend it is, it’s “you are ruining everything and if I have to, I will kill you myself and I won’t give a second thought about it when they toss your body overboard.”

Like….. seriously, think about how fucked up all of this is. Minerva is a husk of who she was before she was taken away. Sure, you do have to keep in mind that when Tenn and Violet are describing her, their sights are a bit clouded, y’know? But I do believe that she was someone who was kind and cared about people, she wanted to make people feel safe and comforted. 

Now she’s a brainwashed soldier who won’t help the people she used to call friends when they’re about to get limbs cut off. She won’t hesitate to knock someone unconscious or threaten a child.  She’s willing to trick them into being captured with no regard for what’s going to happen to them. … all she knows is this was the mission, and now they all get to be together again back at the delta. 

Then when she finds out there’s a bomb on the boat, she ditches Violet to blow up with it in order to make it to land herself. She loses her shit seeing everyone die and gets her face chewed off by a walker… and then she tries to blow Clementine and AJ up with a grenade. 

Oh, and who can forget the fact that she tracks the group down with plans of murdering Tenn so that they can go to a better place together? And she’ll take down anyone who gets in her way?

Like….. jesus christ, Minerva’s waaaaay too far gone. It’s awful. 

I think that’s what stumps me about why she’s so loved in the way that she is. It’s not that I don’t understand why she’s complex and well-written, I get that perfectly fine. She’s a compelling character study when you comb over all her scenes and take different factors into account.

What I don’t understand is why we tend to just throw everything interesting about her away? For what? 

These days, I never see anyone talking about any of this unless they’re insisting she deserved a redemption arc which…. Eh, I’ll touch on this later. What I mostly see here and mostly other platforms is how great it would be if she and Clementine made out, or hey what if she and Violet got back together if she did come back to the school? Or they just….the best term I have for this is “uwu-ify.” As in she’s reduced to a caricature of a tall, pretty, mean, white lesbian who has “good damage.” 

People insist that Telltale are cowards or bastards because their predictions of her turning on the delta to save Clem and crew didn’t happen. Instead, Minerva ends up being the final baddie you gotta get away from, and she ends up taking someone down with her. But did you really expect to just do a 180 and suddenly decide being brainwashed for over a year was lame and Clementine and friends are cool? Gonna help them out and be with Tenn again? Sure, there’s some left over trauma but love conquers and fixes everything, right?

Uh…. no? That’s not how people work? Honestly, if we entertain the idea that Minerva wasn’t bit and somehow didn’t murder Clementine when they all got back to the school…. romance is the last thing she is ever gonna think of??

I think that’s what bothers me most when reading these au’s and rants about redemption and the entire idea of clemerva as a whole. It’s the same thing that I see happen with Violet- Minerva only has value to fans if she’s in a wlw relationship. By herself, she doesn’t matter. They don’t care about her canon story, they don’t care about Sophie, they don’t care about discussing what could’ve happened if she and Tenn reunited under better circumstances or had a healing recovery together. But why?

Throwing a girlfriend at her isn’t some band aid that’s gonna cover up all the bad she went through?? Having an enemies to lovers romance with Clementine isn’t going to fix a years worth of brainwashing, trauma or the fact that she murdered her own sister and the delta told her she's proved her worth to them?? 

Having the support of those around her is a good thing, don’t get me wrong. The idea of the Ericson crew as a whole trying to help her out and do the best they can to accommodate her is bittersweet since there’s only so much they can do. They’re not trained therapists, which is what Minerva would need and plenty of years ahead of her to work through and come to terms with everything that happened as well as taking steps forward. I’m not saying that she shouldn’t have friends or that she couldn’t have a healthy romantic relationship someday... but that isn’t the solution, y’know? 

I don’t know how else to explain this, but it makes me feel weird that all of this stuff is flat out overlooked or doesn’t appear to matter to fans of her. 

Look, I get it. We all want these characters to be happy. AU’s are a thing, after all. Sometimes we want to forget about the bad things and focus on the good that bring us comfort. You wanna gush about the idea of an AU where the twins never got traded, the raiders didn’t exist, and Clementine got to meet them the way they were before? I feel that, AU’s are super comforting and fun to explore, and my point isn’t to try and shame anyone who has an AU you like this. 

Hell, you think I don’t have days where I pretend mute Louis isn’t a thing because the whole concept of Louis having his tongue cut out of his mouth breaks my fucking heart? No, lot’s of days I just want to forget everything about that route, I want to set aside all the bad and just intake as much clouis fluff as I can get…. But that doesn’t mean I always ignore or refuse to acknowledge the bad just because I don’t like it. I fucking hate the fact that Louis loses his tongue when you don’t save him, but guess what? That’s a canon route you can play, just like any other route, and the possibilities that come with a mute Louis are vast and compelling. 

This is how it is for me… my favorite characters are my favorite for a reason, and I take all the bad with the good. Louis isn’t perfect, and I don’t want him to be. I was to dive into his backstory about why did that to his parents, I like to talk about what he went through with Marlon’s murder and his feelings about AJ and Clementine at the point, I like to view his love of music as bittersweet. He can stand on his own, and while he is a love interest for Clementine, that isn’t his only purpose. 

I know everyone’s different, they express their love for characters in their own ways, but I do have a genuine question: do you guys actually like Minerva?

Believe it or not, I’m not trying to step on toes or make everyone feel defensive which I know is how people will react to this. “You’re just saying all of this to make us feel bad for shipping clemerva! You don’t even like Minnie so you don’t get to say shit!” yeah yeah, I hear you and look, it’s true that she’s not my favorite character. I know I’ve said I hate her in the past but upon reflection and throwing out fandom interpretations.... I don’t hate her. I get it now. She’s a great character study to dissect and analyze and I think she deserves more than what the writers and the fandom have given her. 

And yeah, what I do hate is clemerva, and I’ve explained why. It’s not for me, it makes me uncomfortable, but at the end of the day, who cares? Me not liking it doesn’t mean anything to those who create AU’s for them. They have their reasons, they can do as they please as long as they’re not hurting anyone. I’m just here pointing out things I see and things that bother me in hopes of starting a discussion.

There’s my ramble about Minerva. I’m gonna go make some tea now. 

[maxz-spiderz]

FUTURE ARCHON HEADCANONS

ive been. a bit busy but here we gooo! !! p.s please dont shit on me or say that x character wont look like that etc, this is a headcanon, i think itd be really cool

SUMERU

sumeru has been made out to be this super knowledgable place and theres universitys there and etc. so im kinda going off that. im also imaginging them as a guy so ill use he/him/they pronouns throughout this ^^

itd be really cool if the god of knowledge or whatever he is to be super nerdy, kinda like sucrose? really clumsy and socially awkward yk. constantly trips, stutters over his words, isnt good with interactions, etc

id image sumeru as a place to be lush and overgrown with lots of ruins and buildings if ykwim. maybe a big trading area or marketplace in the middle of everything

i think the archon for this region should be tan? or like darker skinned. theres barely any poc in genshin currently let alone an archon thats dark skinned

id like to see him go from being really nerdy and nervous to really serious quickly, thatd be cool. like one moment hes like "sorry! i didnt mean to bump into you" to talking about an indepth plan

going off the idea that every archon currently has glowing hair i think hed have long dark green hair put into a low pony tail with braids going into it

i feel like hed have similae pants to chongyun, very flowy very loose but also be good for being in the hot/humid weather

woo sumeru archon done!

FOUNTAINE

so fountaine is based off of france and stuff so very elegant. plus this is the hydro archon so :D im also gonna be using she/they pronouns throughout

white. very pale, idk how to explain it just very very white

short verrry short, not like. sayu short but maybe a bit taller than venti

easy going but stern, id imagine her to be very intense while also seeming layed back.

would break the rules to do good but she would break the rules and bend them anyways.

short xingqiu kinda hair, maybe in a little ponytail in the back idk. defidently a dark blue or something.

shed be a healer...idk mihoyo loves making hydro healers for some reason

she'd be able to walk on water for long amounts of time like kokomi but i think it would drain your stamina really quick. youre like. walking on water but its like running.

shed be very good with planning and elgant with it too.

woo fountaine

NATLAN!!

im using she/her pronouns for this archon but i feel like they wouldnt really care tbh

DARK SKINNED. 100%

very brutish and buff. buffy lesbian archon :))

shes really big and intense but also layed back

she'd have hair down to her midback but she keeps it in a ponytail constantly, it also has a lot of red and orange streaks in it and they glow when she uses her ult

i think she'd have a claymore, big sword lady

shed be tall and would wear boots and stuff. shed have an outfit with alot of chains and ornamental patterns on her outfit

shed be a god of war but not too good at the war planning aspect. shed go straight into things with brute force

she has an accent maybe like southern or scottish?

her skill should shake the ground a bit and make the enimies shake

woo

SHNEZNYA

pretty woman...

russian accent, veerrryyy heavy russian accent

shed be really pale, snow white pale because...ice.

she has an iron grip on her country and is very stern and cold.

she has a facade that can be broken down to reveal herself

she has straight platinum blonde hair with blue curls on the end that glow

she wears a sparkly flowy dress that trails behind her

pretty.....