#They're gay in the live action change my mind

[gildedmuse]

Who knew all I wanted from life was Nami and Zoro being sassy gay besties?

[welcometothejianghu]

Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: きのう何食べた? / Kinou Nani Tabeta? / What Did You Eat Yesterday?

Kinou Nani Tabeta? (which I'm going to abbreviate here to NaniTabe) is a live-action adaptation of a manga with the same name, which tells the story of two middle-aged Japanese gay men as they navigate their relationship, their families, and their professional lives, all while having some good meals.

Do you want something nice? Do you want a show that's just ... nice? Not saccharine, not cloying, not reductive, but just cozy and kind? This! This is what you want. Every episode deals with some events in their lives, and then the action will pause once or twice while someone demonstrates how to make a meal. There's no real overarching plot. You just get to peek in on them every so often and see how they're doing.

...Shit, I'm just going to steal the GagaOOLala second-season synopsis, it's perfect:

Shiro Kakei and his partner, Kenji Yabuki, live a life full of some hardship but mostly happiness together, with Shiro's speciality cooking affordable and delicious dishes. As they turn 50, they begin to experience different changes, but Shiro and Kenji are still gentle with each other as they move on to a new stage in their lives.

So here I am, a middle-aged gay who cooks affordable and (mostly) delicious dishes and treats my partner gently, serving you a five-course meal of reasons that you should watch this show -- especially if you too are a middle-aged gay, in which case I'd say this goes straight from "should watch" to "unmissable."

1. Help, my face hurts from smiling too much

Prepare to get your heart warmed whether you like it or not.

Kakei Shiro, the main character, is a closeted gay attorney in his forties whose main likes are cooking and saving money. He lives with his slightly younger boyfriend, Yabuki Kenji, who is a very openly gay hairstylist. They're an incredibly unlikely couple who somehow manage to make a relationship work, kind of to their mutual surprise.

I called bullshit on the show early on: This relationship is cute, I said, but this is not the behavior of guys who have been together a decade. But as the show unfolded, it became clear that I was so wrong -- their behavior is perfect, because these middle-aged boys actually haven't been together nearly that long. In fact, once you finally get the story of how their relationship started, yeah, it explains a lot of their insecurities and awkwardnesses about one another. Combine that with how Shiro's a neurotic mess who absolutely does not want anyone to know that he's gay, while Kenji lives on eggshells for fear of rejection, and it all starts to make sense.

It helps that the two leads have incredible chemistry. Not in a horny way, mind you (the show is incredibly, and intentionally, nonsexual, but more on that later), but where they genuinely make one another smile and laugh. Nishijima Hidetoshi plays Shiro as an anxious mess who slowly learns to become at least a little more comfortable in his own queer skin. I have a t-shirt that says Oh, Honey and I want to put it on every time he does something.

Meanwhile, it would have been so easy to make Kenji a caricature, but Uchino Seiyou skips right past the stereotype and plays the behavior that the stereotype comes from. He minces his way along as Kenji so perfectly, I was surprised to find out he's married to a lady in real life. He's got to be doing an impression of someone he actually knows, because his faggotry is just too accurate.

Their relationship is far from perfect. They're capable of annoying the tar out of one another, sometimes on purpose. They keep secrets and avoid talking about feelings. They get jealous over completely irrational things. They want things the other person isn't comfortable giving. They get into petty little arguments over petty little shit.

And because of all that, it feels real.

Also, if you're one of those Jane Austen bitches who swoons every time lovers scandalously brush knuckles, well, here you go.

2. Surprisingly educational about the state of gay life in modern Japan!

This is not incidental: Like the manga, the show uses this cute food-based story to present a fairly realistic snapshot of what it's like to be a middle-aged gay couple in Japan right now.

Like the manga it's based on, the show goes out of its way to be incredibly nonsexual, to the point where Kenji and Shiro barely touch, much less kiss or even hint at getting naked together. It is very consciously and deliberately attempting to counteract the stereotype of the hypersexualized, salacious homosexual by presenting two gay men who are delightfully mundane.

It is not, however, homonormalization. There's no attempt here to make an argument that gay people are just like straight people, only with incidentally matching genitals. Every time someone falls prey to the pressure to conform to cishet gender norms, it ends badly for them. While the first-episode conflict establishes that Kenji tops, he's also the fruity hairstylist who does the housekeeping. Shiro's the straight-passing suit-and-tie guy, yet he's the one who cooks and goes grocery-shopping. They have a division of labor based on personality traits, not gender roles. In fact, their relationship as presented challenges a lot of those norms by decoupling gendered expectations from the necessities of everyday living.

(This isn't even just me getting my queer studies goo all over everything! Allow me to be a good academic and send you to two people who've done even more thinking about this than I have: the unfortunately paywalled "Queer Cooking And Dining: Expanding Queerness In Fumi Yoshinaga's What Did You Eat Yesterday?" by Katsuhiko Suganuma, and the more freely available "Queering the Palate: The Erotics and Politics of Food in Japanese Gourmet Manga" by Keiko Miyajima.)

Every so often, one of the episodes' conflicts will have to do with how gay people in Japan do not have equal rights and protections under the law. This doesn't just mean they can't get married -- not having a spouse and children actually messes with a lot of legal stuff, including inheritance and government assistance. Sometimes the show will even take a beat to have one of the characters explain to another what a certain statute says. Changing laws about same-sex partnerships even get factored into the story!

And sure, I don't know these things, but I bet a lot of straight people in Japan don't know these things either. Well, if you watch the show, now you do!

It's important that no one is ever outright shitty to Shiro or Kenji. No one calls them slurs or hate-crimes them or refuses to serve them at a business or anything like that. In fact, the majority of people they encounter are perfectly chill and even outright supportive. The most serious challenges they face are bigger than individual people being dicks. They're about systemic barriers to equality.

That said, there are still plenty of instances of individual people being dicks -- just not maliciously. In fact, most of the homophobic sentiments in the show come from the mouths of people who are otherwise supportive of Shiro and/or Kenji! These nice people seem like they're way okay with the gay ... and then they let slip that, no, they're actually not as okay with it as they think they are.

And I love that the show includes that, because I know that feeling way too well. When these things happen, our boys don't throw a righteous fit or cut the offender off completely. They just ... absorb the blow, sigh quietly, and keep going with the belief that the person in question means well. It just sucks, you know? It sucks to have to know now that your straight lady friend who thinks it's great that you're gay would be uncomfortable if her daughter were a lesbian. You're not going to stop being friends with her, and you're not even going to hold it against her, but it lives in your mind now, and you're going to add it to the I Am A Disappointment To My Parents rotation of intrusive thoughts.

Speaking of parents, Shiro's incredibly fraught relationship with his aging parents is hands-down one of the best parts of the show. They love him, he loves them, but they don't always know how to love one another. As their childless only child, Shiro finds himself having to support them in spite of a lot of hurt they've caused him because of his sexuality. He would in many ways be justified in cutting them off -- after all, many other gay people in the show no longer speak to one or both of their parents! Shiro wants to keep them in his life, though. He'll just have to learn how, for his sake and for Kenji's, to lovingly set boundaries.

This, to me, is the most important lesson a show about boring gays can teach a straight audience: There's always a background level of suck. You can be as chaste and normie and regular as you want, but you'll never be normal, because there's literally nothing you can do to erase the background level of suck.

It's easy to reduce someone else's oppression to Big Bad Events, and then to assume that the absence of these Big Bad Events means that oppression has ceased. That's like thinking there's nothing left that needs to be done about racism because the US had a Black president and you've never personally seen a cross burned on somebody's lawn. Once other people's oppression stops being Big Bad Events, it becomes Everyday Stuff You Can Ignore. And that's worse.

NaniTabe pushes back against this in two directions. The first is to show gays who are not miserable, but are instead living happy, fulfilling, and exceedingly regular lives on their own terms. The second is to give reminders that what gay-related misery they do experience largely comes not from their being gay, but from society's giving them shit for being gay. This misery doesn't destroy the happiness, but neither does the happiness make the misery go away.

By the way, this is true of any non-normative identity! The gays do not have a monopoly here. There's always going to be a level of suck when you don't inhabit an area of privilege, and it's very easy to be unaware of someone else's background level of suck when you yourself do have that privileged status! One of the best ways to become aware is to listen to stories about people unlike yourself! Hooray for empathy and learning!

3. tfw your bffs are straight-up freaks

If you're queer, and especially if you're queer and the vast majority of the people around you aren't, you know all too well that sometimes you wind up being friends with people you'd never associate with otherwise, except that you're queer and they're queer, and buddy, if you thought the queer dating pool was shallow, the queer friendship pool can sometimes be even worse.

That's how you get Kohinata and Wataru.

When I said earlier everything about how nonsexual and normie the show is, I was intentionally glossing over whatever the hell is going on with Kohinata and Wataru, the bizarre boyfriends who become Shiro and Kenji's gay besties. You know that couple where you think, I cannot imagine how this relationship works because if you were my partner I would want you stab you every minute of our lives, but it clearly does, so I'm happy for you both? Yeah, that's these two.

The elder of the pair, Kohinata, is a butch, severe man -- except when it comes to his boyfriend, the much younger and worse-behaved Wataru. Then he's reduced to a complete simp, catering to Wataru's every whim. Wataru knows that throwing a tantrum and being bratty is the way to get anything he wants from Kohinata, so he's just a little shit recreationally. He loves saying bitchy things and pointing out people's flaws, while Kohinata chides him ineffectually.

And I love how much this is totally a sex thing for them, except that when you put it in the context of an otherwise extremely PG-rated show, the kink of it flies completely under the hetero radar. Ha ha, look how generally funny these two weirdos are! While Shiro and Kenji are over here doing the thing where somebody calls their partner "master" in front of you, and you're like, I wish you wouldn't.

Their presence is great for the acknowledgment that gay people can be maladjusted freaks in a whole spectrum of ways! They also make the point that a great deal of your ability to openly be a maladjusted freak is related to your job and your level of wealth. Wataru works from home and Kohinata works with celebrities, both of which bring in high incomes and allow for way more deviance from social norms. They're in positions of privilege that allow them to be themselves, but the price of being themselves is that they're always going to stick out in a society that values harmony in sameness.

By contrast, Shiro's good-but-not-great-paying suit-and-tie job means he has to behave. Because of this, he has plenty of angst about being Not Gay Enough, through which the show reinforces time and again that not all gay existence is about barfing rainbows. You're still a valid homosexual even when you're a dull one.

So just remember: When you feel like you're not queer enough, remember that there are always worse queers out there in the world. Oh, they're not worse at being queer. They're just worse in general.

4. Itadakimasu!

This show, like the Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty and Otoko Meshi, is a food-centered show that is very dangerous to watch if you're hungry, so be prepared! Snack first!

It's also got actually followable recipes! Unlike those other food-centric shows I've done recs for, this show actually gives pretty precise measurements, lists all the ingredients, and walks you through basically the whole process. Aside from a few "add the incredibly Japanese thing I bought premade at the store" steps, Shiro's cooking methods are replicable at home.

...It is here that I should probably put up a warning for the occasional bout of very Japanese-typical and gay-man-typical fatphobia, which can be a heck of a combination. I don't think it's a dealbreaker, but you should be aware of it going in. However, I will say that the show almost always comes down on the side of positive moderation: Sometimes you need to eat like you're an aging homosexual watching your cholesterol, and sometimes it's a special occasion so you should enjoy yourself without guilt. It also never once conflates "eating healthy" with eating disappointing meals. If anything, it's mostly just being honest about what happens to your body's relationship to fried food when you hit your forties.

The other nice thing is that Shiro's not some trained chef. He makes good food, but he's a dedicated amateur at best. There's not a single super-fancy technique in anything he does. Much of the time, he's just winging it, combining techniques he knows with what he's already got in the fridge. Sometimes he uses recipes he found on the internet. Occasionally he cooks alongside other, more experienced people and learns techniques from them. Once in a blue moon he just tries a thing to see how it works. (Of course, he does have the unfair advantage of being fictional to cover for how none of his meals ever turn out bad, which, you know, must be nice.)

Sometimes you even get to see other people cook when Shiro's nowhere around! Some of them follow instructions to the letter, while others just sort of wing it with whatever's on hand. And that's okay! For a show so much about cooking, it is very unpretentious about food. The manga drives home even more strongly the point that you don't need fancy meals and a million perfect side dishes to be content. It's great if you're perfectly happy microwaving a pork bun! What matters is that it works for you and your family.

...Now can we please convince subbers everywhere to translate "Itadakimasu!" as "Itadakimasu!"? Please? I think my favorite bad choice is "Bon appetit!", which, okay, good job, you took an opportunity to teach English-speakers a non-English phrase that has no good English translation, and instead you chose to bank on their extant familiarity with a different non-English phrase that has no good English translation. Just keep it what it is. It's just something you say before you eat. It's obvious from context clues. I promise.

5. Makes you, an aging queer, feel real weird about some stuff!

Over the course of the show, Kenji and Shiro go from their early/mid 40s to pushing/over 50. Their parents age, have health scares, and even sometimes die. They deal with losing eyesight and hair alike. They get promoted. They make household budgets and purchases. They worry about saving enough for the future. They work late. They go on vacation sometimes. They wear the same clothes they wore a couple episodes ago.

However, they do all this while also wrestling with their unequal status as gay men in Japan. All their discussions about retirement are colored both by Kenji's tendency to impulse-buy ice cream and by the fact that they can't get married. The choices Shiro makes about his job rest both on his desire for a good work-life balace and a fear that his profession would react badly to his coming out. They have to make all the normal decisions expected of men their age, and then they have to make all the extra decisions to compensate for how "normal" doesn't account for gay.

To pick one issue running throughout the story: Shiro is an only child who is himself childless. This comes up fairly often, in fact, as various circumstances make him aware time and again that he's not making his parents into grandparents, and he won't someday have someone to take care of him like he does for them.

The first time the show brought this up, I thought it would be a one-and-done thing, where the conclusion of the episode got to be that Shiro learns to be happy without being a parent, the end. Nope! It isn't a constant stressor, but it never goes entirely away. Shiro is happy with his life, but he's also reminded that he's failing to live up to social standards. He doesn't want to be a dad. Or does he? No, he actually doesn't. But he also doesn't want not to be a dad, if that makes sense. He doesn't want to disappoint everyone by not having a wife and children, but at the same time, that disappointment isn't enough to force him back into the closet. But it's always going to be seen as a failure on his part.

As a middle-aged queer with no kids, yeah, I feel that hard. I don't want kids! But I also don't want to not have kids. I know I'm always going to be a little bit of a misfit in my family compared to my siblings, who are all parents now. Besides, I think about all the things I do for my parents, and all the things they did for theirs, and yeah, it kind of scares me to know I won't have that when I get older. And we're just basic-ass white people! Japan takes filial responsibility to a whole 'nother level!

So I really, really like that this show doesn't resolve that tension. Shiro has chosen what's right for him. It just also sucks sometimes. The honesty of that narrative is refreshing. Sometimes your best choice still kinda sucks. Sometimes the only way to get closure is to say, you failed me and I failed you, so we're even.

It's a frequent thing for the show to present the realities of people's lives and choices, and to say, maybe this isn't everyone's perfect solution, but it's the right decision given what the circumstances will allow, and you are still allowed to be happy despite the imperfections. It's not that you need to settle for less than perfection because you're gay -- everybody settles! Everybody makes choices and then has to live with the consequences of those choices. You'll never know if things could have been better if you'd done something different, but that doesn't stop what you have right now from being able to be pretty damn good.

I'm not going to say you must be a middle-aged queer to watch this show, because did you read the whole part earlier where I talked about how you should consume stories from experiences that are not your own? Right? Right.

I will, however, say that if you are a middle-aged queer, a lot of it's likely going to hit real close to home, and often in uncomfortable ways. I've seen a couple people say they had to take breathers after some episodes. I know I've been left chewing over a few things in the days and weeks since watching. There are definitely parts where you're laughing because you know exactly what that feels like, and if you don't laugh, you'll do something else.

But you know what? I like that. It can be nice to see people go through situations similar to yours and emerge realistically happy. It's nice to be able to laugh about things, or to know that you will laugh about them someday. The world is fundamentally hostile, but there are people who love us and watermelons are on sale this week, so instead of despair, let's have lunch together.

bonus: porn!!

I want to make it clear that the mangaka isn't some erotophobic dishrag who fetishizes gay men so long as they don't have any of that icky nasty smex. Oh no. The proof that NaniTabe's sexlessness is intentional is how Yoshinaga Fumi made six fairly explicit pornographic side stories that fill in some of the sexy gaps in the larger narrative. You can read all six volumes scanlated right here! ...though if you want to avoid spoilers, I'm going to recommend you wait to dig in until after you watch the show and/or read the actual manga to the appropriate points.

Enjoy the confirmation that Shiro is a freaky size queen (at least in theory, as is the case with maybe most freaky size queens).

Are you hungry for this show yet?

Tragically, this one's a little hard to watch. If you're in Japan (or you have a VPN that can fake it), you can see the first season on Netflix. Otherwise, the preposterously named GagaOOLala is probably your best bet. The watch order goes like this:

Season 1

the New Year's Special

the Movie

Season 2

While the two movies and the second season require a subscription, the first season is available for free. So if you want to give it a try, you've got a whole twelve episodes to see if you like it!

Maybe it'll get a third season someday? We can hope! After all, there's still much more manga left to adapt! All I know is that I'm very sad that I've run out of new installments of it to watch, and I look forward to going back and starting again from the beginning soon.

...Boy, it's funny to see behind-the-scenes shots and think, wow, they're so much snugglier in real life! That's how not-snuggly the show itself is! You think I'm joking but I'm not!

[self-indulgent-paw-patrol]

Ask game for Skye?

Aw yes our beloved tiny Cockapoo XD

My first impression - Why is there only one female pup and why is she so much smaller than the boys-- Is she a Cocker Spaniel?? Could've been a bit bigger...

My impression now - "Thank you Mighty Movie for giving her some lore and anything at all other than what little the show gives us"

Favorite thing about that character - She's one of the only three characters who are girls in PINK that I think the color actually fits them really well, instead of just color coding girls with pink just because. She DOES look good in it, it fits with her actions and general behavior, just as well as all pink/violet shades she wears with other colors for highlights. It may sound of not much importance, but pink is a strong color, not a "feminine" color. It shouldn't ever be "lowly/lazily coded" for girls just because girls, it can and should be used by anyone, as long as they get it. Don't see pink as "feminine/gay" color, see it as "lighter red, passion, fire, love, care, nurturing, protecting". Someone who takes others under their wings and care for them, protect them, fight for them. Skye is persistent, she cares, she's passionate, she's always giving it her all and some more. She deserves the pink color.

Least favorite thing - Being the only girl in the main team when there's a demand for female rep makes it so she's exhaustively OVERUSED to the extent of shading out other pups who would be more suited for certain kinds of rescues, kicking them out of the scene only for being males and their need for showing more girl power. I've been missing Everest showing up more times, heck she lives just close to them, it's closer than Liberty, at least they wouldn't need to overuse Skye so ridiculously much...

Favorite line/scene - This scene lives rent free in my mind

Favorite interaction that character has with another - That moment in the first movie when she went to pick Chase from the rooftop and bring him back down to ground level. I think she could understand he was panicking and made sure he would hear her voice, state her intention and next moves "I'm coming to get you" so he wouldn't be caught by surprise, she asked what happened, made sure he would know people were safe now and he could let go and go with her, she was a total darling there. 10/10 emotional support pup.

A character that I wish that character would interact with more - Chase and Liberty. First I miss Skye and Chase being absolute dorks together, second I loved Skye's dynamic with Liberty in the Mighty Movie, with the two often talking and throwing shade at others or being generally sarcastic to make each other laugh

Another character from another fandom that reminds me of that character - Uran, from Tetsuwan Atom, specifically the 2003 anime version - you might know her as Zoran, Astro Boy. But the American dub for that anime literally changed EVERYTHING to the point if you watch the anime dubbed and subbed, you feel it's two entirely different stories. "Zoran" was nothing like "Uran", they managed to change and reshape her personality in such a way they're literally two completely different characters, so I'll be precise and say I'm talking specifically about the Japanese Uran character, not the dubbed Zoran character.

A headcanon about that character - The show gave me nothing to develop ideas about her, sadly. So I don't have any interesting headcanons to go about- just that I believe she loves strawberry bubblegum scented shampoo lol

A song that reminds of that character - "Defying Gravity"

An unpopular opinion about that character - I prefer her movie verse over the show verse. I can't feel a "personality" in the show... She's cool, but if it wasn't for the movie, I feel like we wouldn't ever have anything to work about her at all?? She's just-- always happy, likes to play Pup Pup Boogie, flies her 'copter, is afraid of eagles. Isn't it weird that I just listed four things about her and still feel like I don't have much to work with her at all??? The only friend I know who has her as his favorite pup told me it's because she's the flight rescue pup - he's hyperfixated on aircrafts. It's not for who she is, only for her being the one to fly 'copters/jets. It could be ANY pup instead of her. That's just freaking SAD. The Mighty Movie wasn't perfect but at least it gave her SOMETHING ELSE if you get what I mean now.

Favorite picture - I didn't get there in the show yet but this is my favorite outfit of hers already, hands down. She looks hella cool.

[tmnt-tychou]

Hello again!!

I have another character for you!! How about Splinter?? 😄

Thanks as always!! 😊

Sorry this took me a while to get to, it's been a busy week. But I am LOVING these and thank you to everyone who submitted asks. This is the most asks I've ever received and I have greatly enjoyed this. A Tier: 90's movie Splinter: This is a rat Splinter. He is a good dad and tries his best. This man loves his sons. Also, easily the most frail of all the Splinters, but still manages to toss Shredder off a building.

2003: Another rat Splinter. This man loves his sons and also loves his father, Hamato Yoshi. He is wise, caring, and very invested in in his sons' lives.

2012: A Hamato Yoshi Splinter. I love this Splinter so much. I think he is my favorite thing to come out of 2012. This man is Dad Vibes so much! He loves his kids and he wants them to have the best lives he can provide. I also love that we got this massive more human-sized Splinter. Just love him all around.

B Tier: 80's cartoon Splinter: A Hamato Yoshi Splinter, he has a great design and amazing voice actor. He is calm, he is zen and fatherly. He looses points because he never calls the turtles his sons. They are always "My turtles/pupils/students." The very first time I heard Splinter call the boys his sons was in the 90's movie and it blew my little mind. (Note, I'm not sure if maybe they changed it in the last seasons where they were trying to be more like the live action movies. It's been so long, I don't remember.)

2007 Splinter: I THINK this is a Hamato Yoshi Splinter? This is a hard one for me because everything in the movie is good. I love his design, I love his VA, I love his lines and how he interacts with the turtles. But there was just something OFF about the whole of the 2007 movie and I figured it out by reading the comics that take place before the movie. In which Splinter picks Leonardo ONLY to go on this world tour for vague reasons while the others are stuck at home. Raphael is immediately hurt and angry at the blatant favoritism. Don and Mikey look like they are so used to it, they don't even argue anymore. Leo is so much the golden child in this movie it hurts me in my soul. Splinter is a terrible father, but he was fine on screen if you take the movie at face value.

C Tier: Next Mutation Splinter: I don't recall if it was ever clear if he was a ran or Hamato Yoshi. He knew Venus' dad, so maybe Hamato Yoshi? He gives off these prancy, gay dad vibes which are kind of fun and fresh for a Splinter. (He plays chess out in the park late at night with his blind boyfriend.) He doesn't do too much to parent his extremely dumbass kids. Maybe since they're 18 he's decided they are their own problem now. And while the turtle suits are pretty nice for a TV production, the rat suit is BAAAAD.

Bayverse Splinter: This one makes no sense. Any Splinter that takes out Hamato Yoshi completely really throws off the universe. Why is he so Asian coded when he has no Asian influence in his life aside from finding a book on martial arts? It's weird. Other than that, he's fine in the movies.

Rise Splinter: A Hamato Yoshi Splinter. I like that we got a Splinter where you can really see the depression from being turned into a rat. And you can see how the turtles turned out to be different people: Leo and Raph especially, without Splinter there to be an influence on the group dynamic. But the characterization doesn't make sense. He says he loves his boys, but he doesn't always know their names? I know this was played for laughs, but the characterization wasn't there. Also minus points for the god-awful character design. Again, I know dad-bod Splinter was played for laughs, but...we had to look at it.

Mutant Mayhem Splinter: Again, another Splinter without Hamato Yoshi that makes no sense. However, he is a GOOD dad who loves his sons and does his best to keep his family together. I love this idea that he is a shut in because he is actually scared of the surface. I do have a hard time buying he is a martial arts master from merely watching kung fu movies. And also minus points for the god-awful character design.

[sharpth1ng]

What do you think is mentally wrong with billy and stu other then being “insane”

I don't actually think they're insane, tbh. I'm going to give a long explanation of this but I just want to say I'm not judging you or the question. Terms like this get miss-used a lot in pop media (including in Scream) so it's easy to get the wrong idea.

"Insane" is a legal category, not a medical diagnosis. Legally, insanity refers to someone being in a state where they are so out of touch with reality that they can't be considered responsible for their actions. The way this works is complicated, but simply put if the crime was violent then it needs to be proven that the accused person didn't actually know what they were doing.

Successful insanity pleas are very very rare, both because the burden of proof is super high and because people with disorders that involve a break from reality don't commit violent crime that often at all. It's actually pretty rare.

So yeah, by that definition these two are not insane at all. They know exactly what they are doing and they intend to do it. They call themselves "psychotic" but that's also a miss-use of the term. They very clearly don't have psychosis, and aside from that people with psychosis are less likely to act violently than people who don't have it (this is a statistical fact).

On that note I just want to point out that the way media connects violence with psychotic disorders is a real problem. It stigmatizes and isolates the real people who struggle with this stuff. It causes others to judge and fear them, it makes them fear themselves, and it makes it harder for them to access treatment and care. So yeah the psychotic line in Scream is a real pet-peeve of mine, that's why I changed it in my writing.

Getting back to Billy and Stu I really don't think their issues and behaviours can be boiled down to any mental health issues. To be clear I don't think anyones bad behaviour can be boiled down to mental health issues. In some cases mental health issues can help us understand where behaviour is coming from, but they're never the only cause. So I'll talk about the way I write them in terms of the issues they deal with, but just keep in mind that these things not the cause of their actions.

I write Billy autistic partly because I am (but also because of the canonical horror movie special interest and third act meltdown) and I'd say my portrayal of Stu also indicates some type of neurodivergence- probably something like ADHD but I don't have any specific diagnosis in mind. Billy also has some attachment and trust issues- these aren't diagnosis or disorders but they are definitely things he struggles with. For his part Stu is dealing with parental neglect and struggles with loneliness as well as under-stimulation.

All of this stuff informs the way they behave with each other, the walls they put up, and the types of relationships they have with other people. For example Billy isn't emotionally open to Sidney at any point. Even if he wasn't gay there was never a possibility for their relationship to work out because he's completely closed off to her. He doesn't trust her.

In terms of what I think is truly wrong with these two it's the misogyny, the slut shaming and the self-centeredness. That's the kind of stuff that I think explains their behaviour for real, and none of it is related to their mental health issues or insecurities.

Stu is a rich white boy living in suburban California and the way I write him, so is Billy. They have shitty values and the kind of privileged upbringing that teaches men to see themselves as the main character. Billy literally has one of those scary tiktok boy moms, like when we see Nancy in Scream 2 she fully excuses all of his behaviour. He's been brought up not having to take accountability or consider the real effects of his actions. Neither of them have.

So yeah tldr: They aren't insane, they do have some legit mental health issues the way I write them, but none of that stuff causes their actions in the movie. Their actions are caused by a toxic combination of sexism and main character syndrome, which are not mental health issues.

I hope all that makes sense!

[olderthannetfic]

I’m kind of surprised that the whole heteronormativity BL discourse turned into me hating femme men and wanting every man to be masc. It’s doubly nuts because the story I described that got the brunt of this was one I made because of a certain masculine gay character trope that I really hated, to the point where my idea of fixing it was to basically make him sensitive and soft and a yuri on ice fan, and bullied for his lack of masculinity. If I find myself hating or feeling negatively about any part of a BL story it’s usually because of the actions of the top/seme character.

If a BL is bad, or I don’t know if it’s good or not, or I think there’s any bad writing moments at all, the top is usually the problem. This rule applies even if I think the top is a great character. This applies even if the bottom is a fucking terrorist who crippled an innocent young woman and tortured her for hours and never once grows as a person the whole story. (to be clear I really like the story i’m talking about and would recommend it, halfway across by dracze, but it’s still insane how the top basically NEEDS to be at the more toxic one in the relationship if the story has any flavor whatsoever). I know there are obviously exceptions, I can’t name a single one at the moment.

None of what i’m saying is a criticism of BL or of masc gay characters, i’m just saying that way too many people jumped to one specific conclusion about me based on my words. I really hope this doesn’t turn into discourse about me hating masc gay men and wanting everyone to be femme or some shit. I’d probably rage quit the internet for a week if that happened.

--

You are the only one who can't let this go. Everyone else forgot about it five minutes after it happened... or would have if your ongoing behavior didn't remind them.

--

As I've explained numerous times, people respond to the subtext and vibe of what a person writes as much as to their literal words. You said a bunch of shit that was laden with buzzwords and dogwhistles from communities with bad attitudes. People picked up on that.

You send lots of lengthy posts that are hard to parse and that come out of nowhere. And no, "you don't have to answer this but..." is not the ass-covering you think it is. I have to at least look at the posts in my inbox to evaluate them before they go in the queue. Normally, I don't mind if the same person sends me lots, and I don't care if they're all super interesting, but yours are particularly self-absorbed, boring, and horribly-written.

They're always phrased like "I think X about media Y". They don't invite discussion. They aren't tied to past conversations on here. They don't show the slightest spark of interest in what others think.

You apparently want eyeballs on your writing, both creative and nonfiction asks, but you're incapable of showing genuine interest in others. If these posts are an attempt to interact rather than to just say words in front of an audience, it sure doesn't show in the final product.

The posts people respond better to are just written better, but they are also more obviously part of a dialogue that treats other readers of my blog as peers, not a spigot dispensing free attention.

--

Why should anyone care why you dislike one BL or another? I get that you're trying to prove something about yourself, but why should anyone care about that either?

You are not the main character in other people's lives.

You're treating this like some need to clear your name, but fundamentally, that's assuming any of this matters to other people. It doesn't outside of refuting a given comment on a given post and then, like I said, forgetting about it five minutes later.

--

Every time you ask a new question, it just demonstrates the same lack of clue as before. For example, you recently asked (in part):

"What would changing my behavior look like? I have full plans to write […]"

It does not matter what comes in place of that ellipsis because no one cares what you do in your own art.

No one ever had an issue with your art because nobody has consumed it. And, to be honest, plenty of people have perfectly fine values for things they do. The fact that you do or don't include problematic thing X or proship stance Y in your own art is not proof of anything.

The issue is in how people talk to others about other people's art.

Endlessly trying to bring up your own work just looks like pointless grandstanding. Meanwhile, the vibe when you chat with others here has not really changed. There's still a strong subtext of unexamined assumptions and desire to make everything about yourself.

It's not about swapping out word X or Y. It's about your overall writing ability and command of subtext, which is poor. Really, really poor.

It's also about moronic statements like:

Like would it have made you mad that I said what I said if I removed those words? Because I didn't even mean them I just didn't think long enough to cut them from the post.

"Ooh, I didn't think".

Then don't fucking speak.

Or, if you do run your mouth without thinking, like most of us do sometimes, expect to suffer the consequences and don't cry like a cowardly little weasel when you do.

--

To be perfectly frank, I spend less time trying to promote my own work on here than you do. On my blog.

And I can actually write.

This constant me, me, me, me bullshit is what makes you seem selfish, self-absorbed, and like you're wasting everyone's time on purpose.

[lemonhemlock]

I enjoyed your post about Rhaenyra taking action in regard to her marriage. What was your opinion on her plan surrounding her second marriage and Laenor's "death"? Smart move? Bad move? I always thought it was very risky as she risks losing the Velaryons.

Thank you for your kind message! I suppose I understand why they did it this way. They wanted to avoid killing off a gay character, when the show already included enough women dying in childbirth (or via divorce rock). I accept the urge to cater to modern-day sensibilities and have to admit that my own first-reaction was that it was a welcome change from the books. The idea of Laenor living a nice life in Essos with Qarl sounds good on paper, but does kind of fall apart when you start to analyse it.

Laenor's POV

The main problem is that this fix requires us to believe that Laenor is both willing to abandon his entire family at a moment's notice just day(s) after the funeral of his only sibling AND not return to Westeros ever again. Even though they will end up fighting for their literal lives in a very violent war, EVEN THOUGH he is a dragon-rider and could actually, notably help with the war effort. I think Laenor's character does support a rather negative reading in this light. I'm not particularly invested in Laenor being "good" or "bad", but it does say a lot about show!Laenor - mainly that he really is a selfish dick.

Even if the Dance never happened and his family would have been indefinitely safe in his absence, he still knows that his parents think him dead and have lost both of their children in a very short period of time. I can't image how gut-wrenching that would be! I sympathize that he is unable to live his life openly, but it just seems like a needless act of cruelty. Laenor's life was certainly never ideal, but he still benefited from a lot of privilege and could pursue his romantic exploits without anyone chastising him. That's still a lot more freedom than the majority of the Westerosi gay community would ever get to experience.

The further problem is that, while he admits to loving Jace/Luke/Joffrey even though they're not his biological children, he is still essentially abandoning them to a society that will never accept Rhaenyra's lies. They are very likely to be in danger at some point and he won't be able to help them.

Rhaenyra's POV

Something that didn't sit well with me was that Laenor specifically told Rhaenyra he was ready to recommit himself to her and their children, then she replied "thanks, but no thanks" and forced this decision on him.

Like many other times in Rhaenyra's life, she thinks she is making a generous offer, but the terms could actually be perceived as batty by the other side. What would she have done if Laenor refused? Killed him? She is basically asking him to abandon his entire family and never return. Just because Daemon is finally available for her to marry? My gosh. That's a crazy level of entitlement and norm-breaking.

What guarantee does she have that Laenor won't return? Will she have to kill him if he returns? Maybe he is racked with guilt and changes his mind!

Marrying Daemon is also a really bad idea. She was only named heir in the first place to avoid putting Daemon in proximity to the throne. 🤦‍♀️ Because Daemon was not well-liked in Westeros, to say the least. She is alienating a lot of potential allies with this moves. Instead of being a conciliator, she is being divisive.

In addition, the show-runners will have to solve the Seasmoke conundrum somehow.

Considerations on framing

Another thing that bugs me about this is that is basically turns Daemyra into woke LGBTQ allies, which is a plot twist that provides them with WAY too much grace in the eyes of the audience in relation to their awfulness as people and as political actors. The viewers are basically being manipulated to the Blacks' side with this unexpected brownie point that came out of nowhere. Of course they all watched the show and turned into black stans. Who are they gonna side with? Promoter-of-minority-rights Rhaenyra or rapist!Aegon? 🤷‍♀️

If your intention is to tell a balanced story, this is not the way to go. If the show-runners really wanted to furnish Daemyra with this VERY indulgent and overly-positive interpretation, they should balance it out with a concession for the Green side. At the very least drop the child-fighting-pit detail for Aegon, because this is just ridiculous bias.

[firendgold]

Ok so bc anything i do in this fandon is specifically to piss that woman off, i gotta ask:

Do you have any ideas for fic scenarios for trans!albus and/or trans!Harry? (time travel harrydore or not, you pick)

so funny story anon, my instinctual answer for this question was "no, I've never thought about it, sorry"—but as I was writing that reply a while back, I actually started getting ideas. It was wild. (That's also why this took so long to get out, sorry!)

trans!Albus is easier for me to imagine for some reason. I had this idea where his entire early life could be rewritten just to do a deep dive into the Dumbledore family dynamics when the firstborn prodigy half-blood son is AFAB instead. How that might change Percival's actions on Ariana's behalf (or not), if he doesn't have any thoughts in the back of his mind about leaving his family in his "eldest son's" hands. How that could change the rivalry between Albus and Aberforth, who might not be super tolerant of an uppity older sister who's also queer. We still don't know much about Kendra somehow, after 1 billion years of Pottermore, but whether or not she's accepting of Albus' gender identity and sexuality could be their own spin-off fanfics, they're that fascinating. Her own Native history could then be touched on as well.

All these things together could be a point of personal conflict for Albus, who's already a living embodiment of a taboo Native/European union and might have to wrestle with what's accepted from him as a Good and Proper Woman of English society re: marriage and carrying on some (other) pureblood's line, along with protecting Ariana's secret and "making up" for his father's crimes.

I don't know if Albus' sexuality changes. If it doesn't, I can see him being briefly confused about What Elphias Is To Him when he gets older, and Elphias is getting his own messages from home about How Much Time He's Spending With That Dumbledore Girl. I imagine there would be a lot of conversations between Albus and Kendra, and Albus and other peers, about who he was going to marry and what his "prospects" were since his father's a known criminal. And Albus, beyond not identifying as a girl at all, would find all this discussion about such trivial sexist matters frustrating as hell.

Unfortunately, I see everyone at Hogwarts misgendering Albus while he's a student, or pretty much everyone. Like, he eventually tells Elphias who accepts right away (and is confused about What That Means for Him in private), and maybe a few other students, but none of his professors are Getting It. His stellar academic record probably keeps him from being bullied as much, but doesn't entirely protect him from rampant transmisogyny and slurs when he outperforms people.

But regardless, assuming the "major beats" of history play out the same way, I can see Albus being a lot more proactive re: marginalized rights than he already was in canon, and perhaps moving the overall British Society Needle way further to the left, because it's one thing to talk shit about the powerful, progressive, weird old man that no one really knows is gay but can kick your arse without breathing hard, but another thing entirely to talk shit about your trans, out and proud, progressive Supreme Mugwump who has already freed all the elves, speaks all the magical creature/Being languages, is raising your kids at school better than you are at home, AND is still gay and can still kick your arse without breathing hard.

This is all, of course, imagining that Albus is AFAB and identifies as male. If it's the other way around and Albus is AMAB and identifies as female... I can't even imagine. I'm not cool enough ig

As for Harry, it's weird but I don't have any trans headcanons for him during his Hogwarts years. It's kind of similar to how I don't read many genderbent!Harry fics unless I adore the author, because even though I'm a girl I can't imagine Harry IDing as one for some reason. (I'm very limited, I know.) BUT. For some reason this changes when you bring in time travel harrydore.

With the ship as the parameter, I can imagine an AFAB Harry who's spent his whole life chafing at the clothes Aunt Petunia gets him—because 'unfortunately' (for her), even pre-puberty, she can't just give Harry Dudley's cast-offs unless she wants The Neighbors to start lifting eyebrows and asking questions—because they're girl clothes and along with just not fitting in to the Pristine Pretentious Family with her messy hair and tight clothes and taped-up glasses, Harry has never felt like a girl. He insisted on having people call him 'Harry' as soon as he could talk and get away with it, and only has to hear his deadname from his teachers and with the Dursleys.

This all of course changes once McGonagall is reading names on the Sorting List in 1991 and just barely doesn't stumble over Harry's preferred name being on the list instead. (She is surprised only because Harry is famous. By the time Harry goes to school, there have been many other out trans students in this headcanon. But probably very few under her eye have been quite this famous.)

I've always personally headcanoned Harry as bisexual, but I don't know if that would be the case in this particular headcanon. I can still see him going after Cho, and perhaps even Ginny. I can see him having the same confusion about What Are Ron and I To Each Other that a trans!Albus had about Elphias a century ago, without ever living his Hogwarts life as a girl to anyone but his enemies (and having a lot of friction with canon!Hermione and/or Lavender as a result). I can see Draco hating Harry even more, because he always kept "her" in the back of his mind as a Dark Lady he could serve under in all ways, only to have this... boy being his rival and Quidditch better and wanting absolutely nothing to do with the Malfoys or purebloods or knowing her place.

A thought that sticks in the back of my mind is that JKR (otherwise known by me as That Woman (derogatory)) specifically wrote Harry as a boy for a lot of reasons, and the main one being that she always planned for him to live and pass on his line in the "traditional" way, and having her titular character be a girlboss would've derailed that status quo. In a universe where Harry is AFAB, I can imagine a lot of related conversations with and around Harry about this. How "she" is "the last Potter" that there will ever be, because naturally she'll marry into one of the families and the name will be lost forever. I can see this being a real bone of contention with Harry and radicalizing him, along with Voldemort and the discrimination against werewolves and house-elves and centaurs and veela (which I doubt even one dedicated Dumbledore would be able to get rid of), making him take his place as the next generation leftist magical powerhouse.

And so how does all that change his relationship with Dumbledore? I... don't really see it changing much. If both characters are trans, that's another point of connection for them that bonds them through all the mess the government and society puts them through. It makes Albus a figure for Harry to admire as a young boy ("look, the most powerful wizard in the world is just like me!") and to still anguish about as a young man ("all the choices he made that I don't agree with, all the secrets he kept from me, how do I know I won't make the same mistakes or make no better progress than he did?"). Their relationship could be all the more painful or distant if one of them is out and one is in the closet, like an Albus who never came out or transitioned and is seeing in Harry the upright boy he could have been, or if Harry is resentful of Albus living his truth because he, a knobbly-kneed adolescent girl, doesn't have the power, freedom, or influence to be who he truly wants to be.

But focus! I'm focusing! Time travel Harrydore. The specific scenario I was imagining was one where AFAB Harry never comes out to the general public. His loved ones who are his peers know, but all the adults in his life (yes, including Remus and Sirius) never get to meet him properly. They die thinking of him as "James' daughter". And after defeating Voldemort, Harry just can't take the idea of spending any more time not being the person he wants to be. He's done being the Girl-Who-Lived so he writes goodbye letters to Ron and Hermione and does some ancient ritual without anyone knowing, and instead of changing him at the molecular level it flings him back to the past.

And so unlike a lot of time travel fics (including mine lol) where Harry is grieving his true time and desperate to get back home, this Harry misses his friends terribly, but it doesn't take long for him to see being an unknown in a different time as a golden opportunity. Sure, it would have been better if he'd been flung into the future instead and maybe had more tolerant people instead of less, but no one knows who he's "supposed" to be here. So he can grow into the man he truly is!

And so while Harry is setting up his new life for himself (maybe as some personal tutor, or a backup Quidditch player, or something that keeps him out of the limelight for once?), he runs into trans!Albus who doesn't have many friends and not much else going on for him (depending on who or where Grindelwald is right then), and Harry's nervous but they hit it off and become close friends, and one thing leads to another, and...

*cackles*

Also also, and sorry for sticking this all the way at the end lol, but MUCH RESPECT for hanging around in HPF just to stick in the craw of That Woman. I think I'm adopting your philosophy for the future. ^^

[cursedvibes]

I had a bit of realization that in Stiches Across the Eye, Jin's only interactions with sorcerers are Kenjaku and Uraume and that as far as he knows all sorcerers are queer or exist and present outside the gender binary. Since Yuuji was born in like early 2000's with the world becoming more accepting to gay rights, adoption, marriage and the internet was more accessible I can't help to think of Jin wanting Yuuji who he already knows is different to feel happy and not ashamed of either his parents or their relationship or himself so he researches a lot of things on queer parenting, letting kids express themselves on clothing and hobbies regardless of gender, probably ask Kenjaku on advice and some textbooks but milage goes on helpful * that* would go depending although I feel Jin would probably learn a few things about himself along the way.

You really could get the impression that being gnc gives you superpowers lol so far he doesn't even know what sorcerers or curses are, he just knows that Kenjaku has some supernatural abilities and Uraume is also older than they look but their version of "immortality" is different from Kenjaku's. Also, he sometimes has scary dreams. And eating meat of suspicious origins is good for your health. He's gonna find out more soon though...

Japan's improvement on LGBT rights goes at a snail pace (there's no clear anti-discrimination law for queer people and same-sex marriage is also a grey zone), but they did have some reforms in the 2000s like recognising same-sex marriages from other countries and trans people are allowed to legally change their gender since 2003 (Yuuji's birth year yay), provided they're over 22, unmarried, in the process of or post-SRS, sterile and without children under 20. At least they lowered the age to 18 recently, but you still have to be sterile (tbf where I live trans people technically have to be sterile too to change their gender and have undergone some form of medical transition, marriage status and children are unimportant tho). In everyday action things look better and there's room for exceptions, but the legal and medical situation still has room for improvement. Recently, there have been a lot of positive changes. First case of same-sex adoption happened in 2017 and they introduced a partnership family system a few months ago which could potentially work in a similar way. Among other things it will allow you to pick up your kid from school even if you aren't the biological parent and make medical decisions for the child. Japan also allows mlm to donate blood, which makes them a lot better than my home country.

I definitely think that Jin would raise Yuuji with as open a mind to these things as possible. Both because of Kenjaku, but also because it's just not in his nature to think restrictive like that due to not being straight and adhering to strict gender-roles either. He's not that well-versed and up-to-date on the lingo or has a very close connection to the local queer community (Kenjaku and Uraume don't count), but for example Kenjaku made him realise that he doesn't actually care about his partner's gender. He learned about people changing their pronouns and names too and implemented it without much trouble. Same with Kenjaku's developing dysphoria. So, I think that he knows a lot of things instinctually, but just hasn't been confronted with them before and doesn't always put it into words. Like in the recent chapter for example, where he also kinda expressed that he doesn't see an issue with two men raising a child.

If Yuuji wanted to play with dolls or wear a dress, he wouldn't think about prohibiting that because Yuuji's wishes and wellbeing come first. He might not think of challenging Yuuji to try it out, like deliberately going to the girls section in a store, but if Yuuji ran over there on his own, he wouldn't think that's weird. Since he sees his relationship with Kenjaku as relatively normal, he'd explain it that way to him too. The whole "your mother used to be a woman, currently doesn't strongly identify with any gender but that might change in the future" is really the easiest part about their family relations...

He'd definitely get more educated through Kenjaku though and be very open to learning. It would also be a good opportunity for him to find out more about them by having them tell him about their experiences with the gay community in Chengdu or hearing about the new innovative surgeries they do in Thailand for example. There's gonna be a bit more exploration of Jin's attraction & sexuality in the final chapter, particularly in regards to how he feels about Kenjaku's current vessel, which isn't a woman (spoiler but not really). Lots of new experiences waiting for him.

Not sure how helpful Kenjaku's input on the matter would be for Yuuji... just being his mother regardless of gender identity already tells him enough as is and I don't think Yuuji needs much explanation from them anyway (I think most children are pretty quick on understanding these things unless they had a very conservative upbringing). I'm sure Kenjaku would still gladly give him a rundown of Japan's entire LGBT+ history. Now that will confuse him 😅

Btw, I think Wasuke has a similar attitude towards queer people & topics as Jin, he's just a little more steeped in tradition. So for example, his default thinking is that Jin will obviously seek out a relationship with a woman because the existence of gay people isn't really at the forefront of his mind, Jin already had a longterm relationship with a woman and even though Jin had some tentative gay feelings as a teenager, he never explored them due to already being in love with Kaori and definitely never told his father about it (as you can tell emotional talks aren't really their strong-suit). But if Jin had gotten into a relationship with some nice guy after Kaori's death, Wasuke wouldn't have had much of a problem with it. He'd be worried because of the risk of HIV and all the horror stories you'd hear about it on the news around that time, but he'd have no problem with the relationship itself. Maybe he'd be a bit surprised, but that's all. The problem he has with Kenjaku is more their abuse of his family members, not their gender. If Kenjaku had turned out to be a sweet, innocent little brain, he'd still be freaked out by the whole possession thing, but have less of a problem with their relationship with Jin.

[ufonaut]

Will you please share your black adam thoughts?? I was also very nervous about it and how it would handle the JSA but i actually really liked it! I actually work at a movie theater so i saw it twice already 😂

i'm putting these together because they're all related to my thoughts on black adam 2022 and i thought it'd be more convenient for everybody (even if they're wildly antithetic povs)! i absolutely loved black adam and i think i'm gonna see it again quite literally as soon as i can. given that i only got back approx ten minutes ago, here's some jumbled thoughts right off the bat:

i think what makes or breaks a superhero movie is whether the people involved think comic books are beneath them or not (as the folks over at the mcu often seem to do) and black adam certainly loves comic books with its entire heart and soul and you can tell. from various black reign panel recreations to carter's picture perfect thanagarian ship from hawkman 2002, this is a very sincere and earnest movie with none of the parodic tone i so often despise in superhero media.

VISUALLY GORGEOUS. SIMPLY GORGEOUS. the fact that 99.9% of the film takes place in daylight immediately resolves the lighting issue of all modern cinema but lawrence sher (of joker 2019 fame) as cinematographer simply changes the game with this one. in fact, i can say the same thing about the magnificent use of cgi -- cyclone's powers, in particular, are one of the most beautiful things i've ever had the pleasure of seeing in action.

while there are certainly a few things i disagree with, such as carter's estate and kent seemingly having a chauffeur/butler, i think most of the major changes were unavoidable either in a lost in translation sort of way or simply in order to make this movie palpable to average audiences used to marvel. over all, i felt the jsa's dynamic was captured perfectly and what drew me to the team in the first place is very much still there in a way that's definitely absent from stargirl, for example. they're still a horrible little family made up almost exclusively of weird uncles.

SPEAKING OF. AL PRATT? I SCREAMED.

i thought it was made clear that this isn't the entire team but rather just the members carter chose for this particular mission, which i also enjoyed. and while we're here, to touch on some of the points from the anon, i don't think any marvel-style humour was actually present? or at least, it didn't come across that way to me. i mean, it's a very funny film, i was laughing nearly the whole time (or tearing up! or simply absolutely on the edge of my seat!) but it all felt perfectly natural to me, especially in al's case where it's a clear consequence of powers he's obviously still unused to. the relationship between him & carter is actually exactly the element that made me feel a first spark of recognition like.... man i'm seeing my favourite lil comic book guys up there on the big screen.

ALSO THE LEGEND OF CARTER - KENT GAY HOMOSEXUALITY LIVES ON. OLD FRIEND? CARTER CRYING? YES OKAY OKAY I'M ON BOARD. IT'S NOT CARTER IF HE DOESN'T HAVE A BIZARRE WARRIOR BOND WITH SOMEBODY.

considering i was all set on hating this portrayal of kent, i also can't believe how much i ended up completely utterly loving him. the movie definitely has a knack for making you fall in love with its characters nearly instantly (maxine!!!!!!!!! oh maxine!!!!!!!) because it's so well written but kent's random outfit changes for no reason whatsoever, the bit where he's parading around in a dressing gown on carter's ship, "i'm not that kind of doctor", the entire scene in adrianna's apartment... yeah babey. actually i was losing my entire mind at "i remember the day i saw my first aeroplane...", the way pierce plays him might not have been intended to be hilarious but by god, giffen himself couldn't have done a better job. you can tell he's not all there (and i did also enjoy maxine calling him possessed by fate) and it's precisely how kent should be even in the absence of unnatural youth.

the narrative actually allowing carter to be his usual arrogant asshole self-appointed leader with a heart of gold self was also a welcome bonus, i loved seeing him the way he's always been written at his best and i loved that his sharp edges haven't been dulled any by a script that could've easily gone the sanitized route. his black and white thinking is also something that's always been a part of him and i don't think it's necessarily odd to have him say superheroes don't kill -- superheroes certainly don't kill as easily and indiscriminately as black adam does, not even the jsa.

on that point, the jsa's actions are clearly framed to be in the wrong? i loved black adam's arc, i thought mr the rock was acting his little heart out and succeeding like never before but we're also definitely pushed to be on his side to begin with. adrianna and amon are the moral centre of the movie and they certainly stand with black adam! the movie doesn't simply co-opt anti imperialist languages for the hell of it, the jsa is plainly told they're coming here with a us-centric pov and helping nothing & nobody in the name of some nebulous form of justice. i thought it was definitely abundantly clear that the conversation opened around a colonized kahndaq does not condemn adam's actions against intergang etc.

FINALLY, MY THOUGHTS ON THE FATE HELMET AT THE END? HERE'S HOW JARED STEVENS CAN STILL WIN.

this got long enough but god, i really did love it. i loved black adam. i loved the jsa. a respectful, loving, beautiful cinematic adaptation like i never thought we'd ever get.

[monkey-network]

Good Stuff: Nimona

or How to Not Worry & Channel Your Inner Limp Bizkit

In the year before 2020, it was announced that Blue Sky Studios was adapting ND Stevenson's hit graphic novel. Everything changed though when Disney was on that bullshit post-Fox buyout, where to our surprise Blue Sky and Nimona would be shut down. The latter's cancellation hit especially hard understanding it was almost finished anyways, but that's Disney for you. Long as you don't say gay and give 'em your money, they'll stay out of the way. Leave it to Netflix to let the film rebound from Super Hell and finally make it to both the big and small screen; makes you forget they're garbage at anything else. All in all, Blue Sky had the last laugh one more time but was Nimona able to bring the flavorful fireworks or did we get a weak flare that fumbled before the 4th of July?

Well, I will declare now that the film... is fun. If it wasn't fun, that means Disney made it and would remake it live-action around 2040. This film is a ride-or-die by its titular protagonist and lads, I can't lie...

PROTECT. THIS. GODDAMN. SMILE.

Nimona is both a bundle of chaotic joy and an entity that deserved far better. She's like the manifestation of Limp Bizkit, 2000s punk, and B-tier shitposting rolled into an unapologetic but deeply frustrated rebel. I've seen naysayers before release going, "She's another attitude girl archetype" and like no. She has that raw gremlin bastard energy, but she's never an annoying bitch and that's big difference. The best thing is that you're with Ballister in getting to know her; it surprisingly hard for folk to be accepting of somebody harmless who's more comfortable with themselves than anyone lets on. She's not a character I felt forced to sympathize with nor was intrusive on Ballister's story. She's not exactly the focus, but she earned being the star of this movie.

I got major Haruhi and Kyon vibes from their dynamic and it's great

Plotwise, there's a good flow to it all that makes this rewatchable thrill. If there's one major gripe I have is that while Nimona and Ballister have a great dynamic, there's a part in the 2nd act involving them and the villain that was a bit rushed. I will admit to not have read the book, but while I do know the tone is different given they were probably going for an all age rating, I say things didn't feel too compromised. My mind is blown enough that we got an animated kids movie with two, COUNT 'EM TWO, openly queer protagonists. No winks and nudges towards Ballister being gay, no scatterbrained subtlety on Nimona's genderfluid existence, and thank balls their story exists as more than being a preachy memoir. These two get to just BE and live to go on a crime spree justice adventure. That is what I've wanted for longer than any of you think and this delivered. Any criticisms I could have I felt was diluted by the actual fun this was.

And if you've seen Iron Giant, you probably will love this movie

To conclude, I am wondering of a timeline where this wasn't originally cancelled and Blue Sky didn't get axed. This was as much their movie as it is Annapurna and DNEG who helped finish it. People said it looked "unfinished" but then again, given the situation I can cut it some slack because it still plays out gorgeously. Like you know Blue Sky got most of it done, but you think about the changes in direction and ponder if this was the best outcome for the film. It is poetic though, a phoenix forced to burn out but gets to revive as a stronger, if not more so, being that people finally get to see. For Nate, this is undoubtedly a dream come true. As for me, not since Puss in Boots The Last Wish have I been delighted to call this a...

9/10 ABSOLUTE BANGER

[davekat-sucks]

Remember that ask you got ages about Scooby Doo? That was me im the Scooby Doo anon, everyone who says Velma is a lesbian makes me wonder how much Scooby Doo content they consumed. Like did you watch that Johnny Bravo cross over? Any of the live action movies? Mystery incorporated? HC a character as whatever but these people are fake fans, they'll argue to the ends of the earth over the sexuality of a character from a series they aren't even into. Scooby Doo was supposed to be MY autistic scene, not all these controversy seeking people The Velma show shit proving my point.

But anyway i was thinking today about how people genderbend/trans, pair characters in a close "platonic" way, or give a zillion gender identities to a character as a round about way to conserve keeping it gay because they're too scared to admit they like a straight pairing. Like you can do all of those things but its so obvious they're compensating. "It's ok to ship grimdorks now! Rose is a lesbian and June is a trans woman!!" I've even seen it with portalship going both ways, like do what you want these characters aren't real but like maybe loosen up a little too? It's not serious, they always act so weirdly defensive over it and only want you shipping characters in one way

I doubt most who claim Velma is a lesbian had seen a lot of Scooby Doo media. They may have nostalgia from the original Hana-Barbera ones when it ran on Cartoon Network/Boomerang, same for the Pup Named Scooby Doo, the Johnny Bravo one is another popular crossover, movies like Zombie Island, Witch's Ghost, Ghoul School, Alien Invaders, maybe the first live-action but never the sequel, What's New Scooby Doo and Mystery Incorporated, but I doubt they have seen all the ones that include all ones that have Scrappy as the main cast, New Scooby Doo Movies (ones featuring guest stars), the Direct-to-Video specials, movies like Boo Brothers or Reluctant Werewolf, Get a Clue, and Be Cool. And that's me being nice not to include comics or series that copies the format when it was popular under the same Hana-Barbera (things like Josie and the Pussycats, Speed Buggy, Jabberjaw, etc). I always find it strange they change their mind about certain ships if one character is genderbend to make it gay/lesbian. Like it is about the sex change that defines whether they get to be together with someone. Not like chemistry or how could they get along to help one another. Doesn't help that most genderbends barely change said personalities as most fanon just keeps the same. Not really changing it up to be separate from their original counterpart. It's insane.

[azems-familiar]

I am This Close to watching the untamed

So if you want to perhaps yell about it or something (since you’ve gotten me into stuff that way before) that could be cool idk

OH MY GOD PLEASE WATCH IT

okay to start with. the live action show is very good and a great place to start but it has some important differences from the novel and the donghua (animated show). i personally prefer a combination of cql (the untamed/the live action, that's the acronym i'll be using for it from now on) and the donghua; the novel suffers a lot of lost in translation effect and whatnot and i personally dislike the way the relationship is built in several places in it as opposed to how the adaptations do it, but it's definitely still worth reading. (dm me on discord if you want a copy of a pretty good fan translation of the novel and also like, a link to a place you can watch the donghua, btw.) other problems with cql: censorship hits the live action the hardest and their budget was i'm pretty sure basically nonexistent (they very clearly spent most of it on the costumes and the props, which you know what, the costumes are fucking stunning so great choice). so they changed the worldbuilding some and like.... the fight scenes? are really not good. they're really not good. also the special effects are universally pretty bad. it can make watching some parts of it difficult to get through, and there are some plot elements that are changed as well that i dislike, and a lot of the moral greyness of the original story had to get removed because again, censorship issues (if you want the most accurate, non-morally-whitewashed take first, you'll want to start with the novel, which is also what has the explicitly gay stuff). it's also not explicitly gay - but the actors played it as gay and there are multiple marriage metaphors and holy fuck like. honestly. there doesn't need to be a kiss or a confession or anything it's REALLY FUCKING GAY.

what cql excels in is its character interactions. the acting is absolutely stunning, the soundtrack is beautiful, and every single scene is just done with so much heart and emotion in it. so definitely keep that in mind going into it. i've watched it all the way through i think 3 or 4 times and i still keep seeing new fun details in the background that i hadn't noticed before.

the donghua, on the other hand, has an absolutely stunning art style, very very good voice acting, the worldbuilding and plot are more accurate to the book, and the magic and combat scenes are much more realistic for a fantasy and the powers they have. however, it, especially specifically the third and final season, is very rushed (and it has its own plot changes to fit how much they had to condense things, mostly just in the second half of season 3) and excludes some details, so it can be confusing if you don't know what you're seeing first. i recommend either watching cql or reading the novel first, then watching the donghua!

in terms of like, actual fandom stuff! so the main character of mdzs is, obviously, Wei Wuxian. i'm not sure how much you know but he's like. an incredibly ADHD man with horrible self-worth issues (despite being arrogant as hell) and a very strong sense of justice who is extremely brilliant and goes through a shitton of tragedy. he is known for inventing a viable form of necromancy, which is considered incredibly heretical and, among other things, gets him killed, and then gets him resurrected, so you know. pros and cons. he does magic by playing the flute. he is a disaster bisexual and also a bit of an alcoholic (okay a lot of an alcoholic) and i love him. his love interest is stoic and serious and incredibly autistic-coded and has been in love with him since they were teenagers and literally wrote him a love song. the two of them get trapped in a cave together and have to kill an ancient corrupted divine monster without weapons. it's very romantic. wei wuxian as a younger teenager is basically the epitome of a child pulling a girl's pigtails because he has a crush and is desperate for attention.

anyway, i'm not sure how much you know about the plot, but there's two timelines going on - the present and the past. the present is after wei wuxian is resurrected, and he and lan wangji (the love interest, in case you haven't picked up on the names yet - everyone has like two or three names and it can be hard to tell them apart at first) are basically going on a fun little murder mystery quest while also babysitting a bunch of teenagers which then abruptly devolves into politics, murder, more politics, and more murder. the past on the other hand goes from a high school definitely-not-a-romance to a goddamn war drama to politics and back to. hm. not exactly a war drama anymore but i'm really not sure how to describe everything that happens after a certain event. it's all very much a tragedy and the real "villain" of the story (which is less obvious in cql, again because of moral whitewashing due to censorship, though honestly i feel like they did a pretty good job of staying as true to the source material as they could all things considered, a whole lot of the scenes were word for word from the novel just slightly edited to fit the adjusted worldbuilding or plot changes) is the mob mentality, rumors and gossip and hearsay, and society itself!

lastly, because i am trying not to overwhelm you here, i am going to link you a couple great amvs i've found on youtube that will probably not make a lot of sense without context but will at least hopefully intrigue you?

and

and

the other one i really want to link i cannot because it definitely will make absolutely no sense without having watched the show and so you have to come talk to me when you've finished it so i can give it to you. also hey please feel free to come dm me on discord i Will ramble at length about this. especially about wwx he is my BLORBO and currently taking up residence in my brain. and also i need your live reactions if/when you start watching things oh my god

be glad it's almost 2 am and i'm still recovering from my covid booster or this would be even longer

[harbeecomb]

Hello friends and gays its time for LORE NO ONE ASKED FOR :D

today in LNOAF i'll introduce my lineup for gods and different races!

Plus a "read more' for those who hate long posts. Enjoy!

Its not necessarily seen as morally incorrect (in a social sense) to follow a particular god and do things based in your faith, but it depends on what the actions are. Teachings can be heavily misinterpreted and are meant to be taken with a grain of salt.

Serene "Seen" (Life/Change)

        Seen teaches about growth, and how to cherish the life around you while treating others with grace and kindness.

Balgaroth "Bags" (Corruption/Temptation)

    Bags teaches about giving into your cravings, because you may need them, while not being tempted to fall completely into greed and consumption.

Setuna "Sets" (Control/Sanity)

       Sets teaches about how controlling yourself or others can ruin one's mind and turn your life into agony, but also that a stable balance is part of the natural world.    

Phyite "Phi" (Chaos/Creativity)

    Phi teaches about how giving into complacency can ruin you, and how letting loose is healthy for the mind and soul. 

Ethias "Eons" (Order/Sacrifice)

​​​​​​​        Eons teaches about how organization can benefit those who give in completely to ideals of selflessness, while also recognizing that the most selfless people are those who listen to the world around them.

Eygrit "Egg" (Luck/Trial)

    Egg teaches that luck is deserved, and karma is real to those who choose to believe in it. Egg also teaches that helping others will boost said karma.

Katathias "Kias" (War/Destruction)

        Kias teaches the story of a phoenix. In order for new life to grow, what once was broken must burn to ash.

Agine "Again" (Worth/Love)

    Again teaches about how unconditional love says nothing about your worth, but about who you are as a person and the actions that got you there.

--

RACES​​​​​​

Hybrids

    Half animal, half person. Often can shift into their chosen animal, but never into something without their chosen animal's features. 

Shards

    Rock people. Primarily live underground, and are made of many types of rocks and gems.

Sharks

    Semi-aquatic amphibians. Typically, they don't like technology or magic. Their skin has anti-magic properties. They divide and conquer. Ears optional.

Demons

    The Demonic Kingdom is the biggest monarchy in the plane. Horns, tails, fun skin colors, and wings. And don't forget the dark magic! 

Angels

    Snooty winged things. Love gold jewelry and showing off. Reserved from the rest of the world, and claim to be the origins of light magic. They attempt to study the teachings of Crai.

Sourcerers

    Innate or attained magic users. They have two classes, soulborn and scholars. A sourcerer can use one or more magic classes, but typically only one.

The Lost

    Originating on the Island of the Lost, these corrupted plantpeople try their best to be peaceful. Unfortunately, they're also carnivores. They follow the teachings of their god, Balgs.

Spirits

    Dead people. Typically need a host to speak through or possess, but this varies on the level of power and strength they held when they were alive.

Parasites

    A man-made monster of a race, doomed to one day conquer and destroy the universe as we know it. They populate incredibly quickly, and can populate asexually if given the right enviroment and nurturing. If they consume or kill any creature, they can take bits and pieces of the creature's soul to pick and choose to add to themselves. They are incredibly dangerous. Coined by Stapleton&Smith.

Mechanisms

    Man-made race of mechanically powered sentients. This includes, but is not limited to, Androids, Cyborgs, and AI. Most Androids are of the JA model. Coined by Stapleton-Mecha.

Goldbringers

    An extinct race of holy beings, founding the teachings of Crai. Their dusty history books tell the story of how the universe and all planes came to be. Unfortunately, the books are in a dead, near-undecipherable language.

Dragons

    A rare, near-extinct race of lizard like magic users. Incredibly powerful, reserved, and wise. Most that you'll meet on the street are only quarter, or maybe half-dragon.

Humans

     Rare, mythical creatures. Only the elderly and prophets hold their secrets....

[daydreaming-memories]

[from biscord, probably will do the sin stuff l8r]

[Patch: 5 times about crow]

doing like 5 important things in my mind, this is for Crow

1. Eldritch being who can flip his shit on a dime, was created from a mad science experiment

2. He has a dead brother ghost (clark) who is practially older than him but often mistaken as his younger brother.

3. He is mainly MLM/Masc attracted, and often calls himself gay though he has had some feelings for those who weren't masc.

4. Can and will flip his switch at any time at the smallest thing, so he bfs usually hang with him to calm him down.

5. This man has like 15 boyfriends and his polycule just keeps growing.

6. Extra fact, he's one of the many ocs that have a bunch of spinoff ocs off of. and ngl I think he was originally inspired off Castiel.

[Justin: stuff about cell]

Cell was an experiment by godly beings to create the perfect ruler for his species, but was deemed faulty after various inhumane tests.

Luvin, X, Nyanxie and Gorgus were also apart of these tests though only Nyanxie and Gorgus really remember the times and also Cell.

He loves barbie movies and is shit at makeup, he taught himself. also painted his abuser's vechile BRIGHT SPARKLY barbie pink after stealing it.

if i were to give him 2 kins, Count Bleck from super paper mario and Megamind from megamind

[Justin: Limboheart info n grover insp]

FOR like absolutely no reason I got the grover inspiration, think I had recently heard more news about the new live action series based on percy jackson.

And I think it was also as a counter of his counterpart being a lion who was actually really tame/docile and limboheart was very aggressive and just violent.

but both are fucking insane ngl. Lionheart (counterpart) literally took a gunshot to the ankle and kept moving, and then basically seduced all the major crime bosses.

While limboheart is just a salty man because he hasn't confessed to his crushes.

[Patch 5 things baout clark]

1. Clark died from a deadly allergic reaction to cats, he still loves cats as a ghost and does not care

2. He looks like 10 usually, but he's actually an adult. It just feels weird to him generally to shapeshift into an adult, and when he does it's usually like his idol who has a ton of cats.

3. Clark will scare the living daylights out of anyone who hurts his family or those he considers family, but is also a prankster.

4. He loves being a trickster, and candy, even though he can't really eat he can and will steal candy.

5. He refuses to go into anyone's body, even if it's a robot or his own corpse. He doesn't like the feeling

6. If he didn't die, he would embarrass the hell out of his brother Crow around the other's crushes and probably would get oftenly in fights but in like a sibling way.

additions, Crow has a fondness for birds and is known for his pet Lucky the yellow and peach lovebird

And crow and clark 100% would adopt like any abandoned pet they find.

[Patch 5 for franmy]

1. He's gone through many changes, but he's half corruptin ; type of vaguely object species that can shapeshift into liquid and disappear in the shadows, and half ashen ; the object species of ashopia, in the original concept he was a petty man who didn't care about like anyone and was a spy, but now he blorbo

2. He has some ninetails/Kumiho inspiration, just like generally trickster fox spirit, also he has tattoos.

3. ITS not shown in the art with philip n pico but he actually has splatters/veritgo on his legs and arms plus body/face, two on his legs when looked straight on look like a heart together.

4. He has like 2 exes who are poptarts/strudels, which weren't the best. The one was with a woman who was honestly really toxic and borderline abusive to him, and the other was another poptart who had a chunk missing from her head. The two were engaged but things were broken up due to Razzy (poptart) originally using him for information on the corruptins, though they're slowly mending things.

5. He loves the shadows and collecting shells, and used to live in a cave though has upgraded to a house with the poly gang.

6. The ice powers were inspired by ninjago, and there's even an art piece inspired by the old ninjago intro, though there was no one inplace for Wu or Lloyd. But Franny was Zane which inspired his ice powers.

7. franny really hasn't had any major spinoff ocs, him and pico generally being tied in the main 5 poly gang members for having the least amount of characters that were spinoffs of these two. Also franny was the (unofficial) ashopia rep for poly gang, and Pico was the shape people rep, Retired was the l0s rep, Allie W was the Mlp ng rep (an old group).

[augment-techs]

Character ask: Tyler Navarro, Dustin Brooks, Karone, and Merrick.

favorite thing about them: She makes it very clearly known to Andros in the comics that she is her own person and her screw-ups are her own to clean up and he is NOT going to infantilize her just because of his own trauma. least favorite thing about them: I'm sorry, I know people loved her and still love her for her being the go-to goddess of evil, but to this day I HATE her fucking wigs. Even as a child, the ONLY wig I liked was the blood red Dorothy Parker version. favorite line: "It's not a dishonor that we don't have our powers anymore. We've saved lives without them." brOTP: I am very much inclined towards her being the big sister to the Psycho Rangers in the Psycho Path, but especially Nokrea, because she is a little baby doll and it works. OTP: ....No? nOTP: *holds up a flamethrower* Incest shippers DNI. Zhane is...nice...but they're both gay, your honor. And they were as each others beard. random headcanon: When she was on Promethea with the others straggler Rangers without powers in Beyond the Grid, she and the others made a very special effort to hide how disgusting Mia's cooking was, while also trying to pave the way into her cooking a little better. Also she hangs out with TJ more than anyone, because familiarity is very nice. unpopular opinion: Her live action version in Lost Galaxy is a little boring. song i associate with them: Turn it Down favorite picture of them

favorite thing about them: He is a dopey, lovely little ball of sunshine that deserves all the love in the world for being my first male Yellow Ranger of memory that does his job excellently. least favorite thing about them: Nothing leaps to mind. favorite line: "Tori, promise me you'll never wear that bikini again." brOTP: For some reason, when Marah and Kapri join the Wind Ninjas, I have a very nice image of them being like puppies that help each other up more often than flirting? OTP: Dustin/Shane/Tori/Cam. If it works, it works; why change it? nOTP: I do not like him with Cyber Cam or either of the Thunder Brothers. Sorry, they're aesthetically pleasing but it doesn't sell romantically. random headcanon: For some reason the idea of him in a sari pops into my mind constantly. That and him doing yoga? unpopular opinion: Why would I say anything against him? song i associate with them: Miracle favorite picture of them

favorite thing about them: He tries his best even though he comes off as kind of baby. least favorite thing about them: His utter belief in his father kind of comes off as...pathetic. favorite line: none comes to mind. brOTP: Him and Koda come off very nicely as brotherly. OTP: Shelby/Tyler--with Shelby as top~ nOTP: *lifts the flamethrower again* random headcanon: He actually did rather well in Beyond the Grid. Riley is there too, and he's occupied with other things. unpopular opinion: Not sure how unpopular this is, but Tyler would have been much better off if someone had flat told him his dad is a fucking deadbeat. song i associate with them: Good For You favorite picture of them