#also queer disabled characters

[thethiefandtheairbender]

once again i am asking everyone who was disappointed with natla and wants more good original animated storytelling to watch The Dragon Prince on netflix, particularly if you want complex, flawed, and fleshed out female characters and worldbuilding! Also for consistent motifs/symbols, foreshadowing, and a truly stunning amount of lore.

Unreliable narrators! Tragic siblings! Characters who are allowed to be hypocritical and sympathetic! Neutral and malevolent magic systems! Exploring not only how to break cycles of harm, abuse, and violence, but also why they're perpetuated! Dragons with personalities! Varied queer (lesbian, gay, transgender) and disabled rep (deaf, blind, amputees)! Majority of cast and key players are also all characters of colour, particularly in s4 onwards

It's been 5 out of 7 seasons and we're still unravelling things from the first 4 episodes alone, never mind the foreshadowing.

Tropes:

If you didn't want to be assimilated into my found family, you should've killed me when you had the chance

Someone who believes they are hard to love and someone who loves them like it's breathing

The needs of the many (interrogated) x Deal with the devil

Just... constant recontextualization, god bless

Child kings and queens

A metaphorically cannibalistic magic system that might not be so metaphorical after all

and so much more! I think about "You let him live, but you killed us all" every damn day, and that's just from ep1. Some of the ATLA voice actors (Sokka and Koh the Face Stealer) feature here as well as some of the creative team (most notably Aaron Ehasz, ATLA's head writer)

[pinkeoni]

So I’m gonna say something crazy… but have you ever considered that maybe, just maybe… and hear me out… the core four group in the show about “outcasts and wierdos” ISN’T supposed to have a straight-white-able-bodied-all-american male that people from that group can easily project on to? That maybe the straight-white-male audience might have to contend with the fact that they find relatability in characters who are black, disabled, or gay? That MAYBE there isn’t supposed to be this pov character that easily fits into these conventions that they’ve been so used to seeing in popular media but that’s also kind of the point?

[do-you-know-this-queer-character]

Do you know this queer character?

Li Yu is MLM and uses he/him pronouns!

[the-mountain-flower]

Spoilers for the webcomic Aurora

THEM

[1000dactyls]

I wanna know if you have any thoughts on Valka and Sroicks parenting and how that affects hiccup? Because I'm loving so much of your content rn, especially your drawings!! But when I see stuff like Tgirl Hiccup while I think they would be supportive, I don't think they would be ... the best because their not really the best. Like ofc they tried even Val when she came back, but it doesn't and won't ever make up for everything else it's so complicated, and nuisanced would love to hear your thoughts!!

Im going to break this post into addressing stoick and valka separately because valka is such a non-entity in hiccup and stoick’s familial life. valka’s section will be underneath the ‘read more’

But I definitely agree! Unfortunately for Hiccup (and also not to project ijbol), it’s so hard because stoick’s best isn’t enough. Oh, stoick tries! He tries so hard — between the movies and the shows, he so clearly cares for his son. But he can never be just Hiccup’s dad; Stoick is the Chief of Berk before he’s Hiccup’s father, and both he and Hiccup know that. Hiccup grows up self sufficient and is used to a lonely home. The kind of free reign that he gets (and the resulting knee-jerk reaction he has to any kind of responsibility after 15 years of said free reign) doesn’t make for great conditions to cultivate a healthy, loving, traditional parental relationship

Still — i think stoick is more supportive than we give him credit for, at least going off the RoB/DoB characterizations. (Again, I haven’t finished watching RTTE, so Im not gonna speak for anything there.) When Hiccup makes moves for more freedom and responsibility, even as early as s01e01 “How to Start a Dragon Academy”, Stoick works with Hiccup to grant him that freedom. He makes attempts to connect to his son, albeit misguided and inevitably circling back to his own interests/role as the chief of Berk and not just Hiccup’s dad. For example, s01e07 “How to Pick your Dragon” shows Stoick ending up listening to Hiccup about getting a dragon, even though he mostly gets a dragon because it further suits his interests as a chief, which he realizes on the flight Toothless and Hiccup take him on. Which also leads to the core conflict of the episode! Because Stoick’s attempts to understand Hiccup are ultimately rooted in his own narrow perception of the world, that there is a Right way and Wrong way to do things, and Hiccup’s way is most definitely not the right way.

But Stoick listens. Over time, he picks up the signs when his child is frustrated and genuinely asks how he can help (s02e15 “A Tale of Two Dragons” 3 options talk). And after the events of the first movie, Stoick makes more attempts to involve Hiccup in his going-ons, such as the portrait of the chief’s family or contacting Johann to find a beloved childhood plushie. So i think stoick tries, and his best isn’t enough, so thank god hiccup isn’t dependent on only stoick and the both of them know this. And just because the both of them know this doesn’t mean that stoick doesn’t try to improve their relationship at all. In the end, he’s just really set in his own ways and his own traditions.

So in a world where Hiccup is trans, I do think Stoick is supportive no matter what direction Hiccup ends up going. Is he confused? Yes, always, because there isn’t a very established tradition even if Berk does have a history of trans folk. I think stoick has to try really really hard, and he messes up a lot in the beginning. Like, you know when your parents are trans affirming in a really weird and even insulting way? That happens a lot for Hiccup and Stoick. But they work together and Stoick works to try and get on Hiccup’s level, whether that means sending terror-mail to Johann to inquire about trans literature or gender-affirming clothes or dialing Gothi to move Hiccup’s t/e prescription to the front of the line.

……..argh, Valka.

Of course Valka tried when she came back, but the conscious decision to stay away for twenty years and miss some of the most important milestones in your child’s life says a lot, and I think Hiccup also knows that. Especially because of how similar they are, even though Valka would immediately accept and adore and absolutely love Hiccup and all his Hiccup-ness right off the bat… I think he’s aware of how different and better his life could’ve been with Valka’s understanding presence. In the end, one parent stayed and tried their best. And one didn’t really try at all, not until they reconnected again.

And like! I dont think Valka and Hiccup would ever be as close as Stoick and Hiccup were. Like it is one thing to idolize your parent in absentia and build up this idealistic wholesome perfect image of who they are, getting your characterization from their partner who never got over them even after 20 years. And it is another thing to meet that parent and realize… wow! They also don’t measure up to what I needed them to be as a child.

And so for all of Valka’s understanding, for all of the easiness it is for Valka to understand Hiccup, especially in a world where Hiccup is trans — it’s not Valka who had to deal with the bureaucracy of Hiccup’s gender change, nor aided in the social transition for people Hiccup has spent his entire life with. It’s not Valka who asked uncertain, blunt and somewhat invasive questions about Hiccup’s new identity, or found weird and strange ways to support it. It’s not Valka who would’ve gotten an entirely new wardrobe commissioned or talked to Gothi about medical transition.

Like, I think Valka tries, and it’s easy for her to understand the idea and support Hiccup. But i dont think she’d ever be Hiccup’s first choice when it comes to questions about who s/he is, not when there are people who stayed and tried much harder than her, and know far more about Hiccup than she ever did and maybe will.

[varian-ross-horror-author]

Everything The Darkness Eats, A Blind Perspective

I keep thinking about Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca.

Specifically, how the GoodReads reviews screamed about how Problematic one of the side characters--a blind child--was.

I'm stumped as to how a character haveing cataracts makes them Bad Representation. I can *kind of* understand a kneejerk response to a character always covering their eyes, but y'all.

There's a big difference between "character covers their eyes because their eyes are scary looking" and "character covers their eyes because light is painful."

I'm blind myself, and have extreme levels of light sensitivity. What little vision I have is like looking at the world through a thick pane of frosted glass. Wearing some level of tinted lenses is the only way I can tolerate light these days. My family knows how my vision is day to day by how dark my glasses are.

The instant I met Piper in Everything the Darkness Eats, I braced myself. Blind characters in horror usually don't fare well, wether at the hands of the monster or the author.

While we never get anything from Piper's point of view, she instantly reminded me of myself at that age. I was both surprised and delighted for her that she had a white cane--I didn't get my first cane until I was a senior in high school.

We *do* get a perspective from Piper's mother. At which point I paused the audiobook to cry at just how accurate it was to growing up as blind with family who desperately want you to be "normal."

I found myself looking from the reviews to my book and back, wondering if we were reading the same thing. While the reviews were shrieking about Problematic characters and tropes, I was listening to one of the best horror novels I'd heard in ages.

Not only a novel with fantastic characters and premise, but with an actual happy ending. In a splatterpunk novel.

The reviews had me braced for awfulness, instead I was in tears at finding a story that resonated so deeply with my own vision loss.

Taking a single aspect of a disabled character--like a blind character covering their eyes--and using that one thing to judge an entire book as Problematic says more about the reviewer than the book itself.

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Màgòdiz

post-apocalyptic dystopia set in a dying future world where people are subjugated and controlled by a spiritual power

a group of 6 Indigenous two spirit & queer people traveling across the land to save one of their own who’s been kidnapped & attempting to free their people from subjugation

the last storyteller who keeps stories on her skin on the run with her lover, a healer and their firekeeper partner, a rebel who takes care of orphan children in the city and the brainwashed enforcer xe captures & eventually deprograms

navigating relationships and family & cultural history

[agnesandhilda]

not sure where this is going in the future but so far jujutsu kaisen's alignment of disability (which imo is an unconscious extension of its use of the "beauty equals goodness" trope. jujutsu tech-aligned characters don't have visible deformities or supernatural traits and villains do) with villainy is. unfortunate

[leebrontide]

Hello Tumblr people.

Ok, firstly WE ARE FINE. WE ARE GOING TO BE 100% OK.

But also, my wife had a minor stroke, completely out of the blue, a few weeks ago. Again- We're ok! She was back to work within like 4 days and half of that was weekend. Our 5 year old didn't even have time to worry about it.

And while I do NOT need donations because I have like a nice little middle class career and everything...the hospital bills are rolling in and we owe like $600 for the ambulance because it was "out of network" and we live in a garbage country. I mean. Could be worse. I've had worse ambulance bills. But we are gonna be running full force into our in and out of network deductibles in the second month of the year once the overnight hospital stay bills and imaging bills roll in.

So, if you were ever inclined to download Secondhand Origin Stories, which is FREE and YOU CAN STILL DOWNLOAD FOR FREE WITH A COMPLETELY FREE CONSCIENCE (I can set it to any payment I want. I have chosen not to), well, then people kicking me $2 for a whole novel has helped me before. As does recommending my book to other people. Even if they don't pay me, every download makes me happy because ultimately I write in order to be read.

So, here it is

You can get it in ebook form right this moment right here.

As an added bonus you will recognize these goobers when I talk about them when I do WIP ask games and stuff while editing book 2 in the series.

Please enjoy and tell other people if you liked it!

[stellerssong]

ok sorry the OTHER thing about lucienne is like. as previously stated she is dream's handpicked emissary from the waking world to the dreaming she's the diplomat in chief she's the translator she's the bridge. because the dreaming is, in a very real way, dream's own psyche, this is tantamount to giving lucienne a tremendous degree of access to his interiority and by transitive property also tantamount to entering into a deeply emotionally intimate relationship with her (unimportant for the purposes of this post whether that relationship is platonic or romantic).

now, in general, looking at the pattern of dream's close emotional relationships—dream doesn't share himself with people as a rule (beyond the access that all things that live have to the dreaming; but i'm talking about his self here, the one he doesn't like to acknowledge he even has), but when he does share with people, it's with people who have some shadow on the soul, so to speak. just looking at attested relationships in show canon, his deepest emotional connection seems to be with death, who embodies the duality of light and dark even better than he does himself. calliope is the muse of epic poetry—heroism and tragedy—and also bears the sort of divine pride that led her to cut dream off for hundreds or thousands of years when he wronged her. the less said about that other guy, the better, but he's no sunshine-rainbows-unicorns type—he's a soldier of fortune, a bandit and a killer, a man who profits from the sale of human life. even best bird matthew, in comix canon, had a sordid past that will maybe be partially retconned for the show but has still been gestured at.

dream likes the complicated ones. he's drawn to them. they speak to something in him that he won't acknowledge in himself (he has to be Whole, fully integrated, without reservation, because he is the king and he is the dreaming and if the dreaming ain't whole then the universe is in trouble—but he feels that ache nonetheless).

all that is to say: when people try to portray lucienne as dream's Designated Well-Adjusted Neurotypical Friend, i begin to harm and maim.

[bugbrews-creations]

I drew this a while back, but here's Varna in a different timeline known as the Gold Ruin! Which is basically a hero/villain swap AU of her universe, Realmoct LMAO

In that world, Varna's a big bad sorceress who dabbles in some necromancy! Doesn't have great effects on her body, but she's already immortal, so it couldn't hurt right? (It can indeed hurt)

[the-annoying-mom-friend]

to begin this I'm not trying to be a hater and I'm especially not trying to be a hater of the queer media that we have been getting this summer/will be getting this fall because it is really important BUT it'd be great if the queer media we always talk about would more often be about sapphics

[butnobodycame627]

why didn't peridot stay disabled… it would've added to their whole message of being different being okay and diversity and…. sigh….

[vanadiumheart]

This is a microscopic pet peeve but like I swear to god the "I'm Not like Other Girls" thing began as a thing ppl were criticizing male characters saying to female characters, not as it is perceived now, an identity women take on for themselves.

I've seen it linked 2 the "Cool Girl" archetype and like yeah, in the sense that. "Cool Girl" is Also a misogynistic character trope that women are compelled to try and conform to. Like the whole point of the Gone Girl monologue that iirc coined the phrase is that it's an idea men have amd expect of women, or otherwise reward women for trying to achieve. Not something women take on willingly and whole heartedly.

It feels crazy to see these things turned back on real human women when I'm pretty sure they were originally critiquing characters and tropes. Is anyone out there?

[glitchdoesart]

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

(I know it's November first but shush)

Here's the main eight dressed up for Halloween!

[ejunkiet]

my goodreads reflects the fact that all I've been reading/listening to this last year is either horror or paranormal romances omg