#and then put that character in THE most homoerotic friendship of all time

[nataliescatorccioapologist]

What I think each Yellowjackets character’s Letterboxd top 4 would be

*I’m including movies past the 90s even though some of these characters didn’t live long enough to see them*

Natalie

I think Nat is a huge horror movie fan (specifically 80s slasher and demonic possession) and loves edgy gothic vibes. I also think she would love some artsy indie movies about sex and challenging gender roles (and just some cool action movies with hot badass women).

Honorable mentions go to The Craft and Kill Bill

Misty

We all know Misty is a theater kid. She loves musicals and I think girlie is definitely singing Sweeney Todd and Phantom of the Opera songs to herself 24/7. And I feel like I don’t even need to explain the Steel Magnolias inclusion, she had that monologue memorized like it was imprinted on her soul.

Honorable mentions go to Hairspray and Hamilton

Jackie

I know Jackie loves a good chick flick, particularly those with homoerotic subtexts. I think, if she had gotten to live long enough to start coming to terms with her sexuality, But I’m a Cheerleader would definitely be her gay awakening. And then Bottoms once she’s tip-toed out of the closet a little bit more (RIP Jackie Taylor you would have LOVED Bottoms). And of course, I had to add Beaches because of the “Are you quoting Beaches at me right now?” line, and also because I think Jackie would watch it and shed a secret tear because it makes her think of her and Shauna.

Honorable mentions go to Uptown Girls and Heathers

Van

Van would definitely refuse to watch anything past the 90s. She loves comedy classics and queer staples. I know Van quotes The Godfather in the full Italian accent constantly (especially around Nat to piss her off) and she’s watched The Princess Bride an ungodly amount of times and knows pretty much every line (Buttercup was her queer awakening).

Shauna

Like Jackie, Shauna love movies about intense (homoerotic) friendships. I know she relates to Needy in Jennifer’s Body living in Jennifer’s (Jackie’s) shadow and resenting her for it but also being so obsessed and intertwined with her; and she also just loves the visuals and its satire on female exploitation. Shauna maybe relates to and roots for Pearl a little too much, she loves a movie about a woman desperate for recognition and teetering on the edge of insanity while maintaining a sweet and innocent facade. Also I can see adult Shauna in particular just being charmed by Little Women (partly because of the love triangle but mostly because of the womanhood and female friendship themes).

Honorable mentions go to Juno and Scream

Also side note: I feel like Shauna would love Daria, but it’s a TV show so I didn’t include it.

Laura Lee

Laura Lee loves uplifting and wholesome movies. I can see her shamelessly liking kid’s movies well into adulthood. She likes movies centered around helping people in need like The Rescuers or going through hardship and discovering faith like Soul Surfer. Girl is religious-religious so her favorites are definitely going to be centered around faith and Christianity. But she also just likes a simple feel-good film; the cheesiest, sappiest movies you can imagine.

Lottie

Okay Lottie was hard to pinpoint but I’m pretty sure she would like angsty, artsy shit. Like, in high school, she would pretend to love chick flicks like the rest of her classmates but when she gets home she’s putting on the darkest and most depressing weird girl movie you’ve ever seen. I think she likes Suspiria for the occult themes, the otherworldly feeling of it, and eccentricities of the main character who never knows what’s real and what’s not, which she relates to. I think she likes some mental illness movies like Donnie Darko because of her diagnosis and upbringing and The Virgin Suicides because she’s lonely and feels overly-controlled by her parents. And Amelie because she once again relates to the loneliness and likes that the main character discovers her gift for helping people. I think Lottie would prioritize good cinematography and visuals in movies, too.

I don’t think Lottie would really watch movies as an adult because she would be too busy running a cult and disconnecting from society, which is why these picks are centered around Teen Lottie.

-

I couldn’t think of what Tai would like! She is a mystery to me. I can see her maybe liking something like Whiplash because she is super driven and ambitious and kind of tortures herself for success? But idk. Please comment or repost with what you think her’s would be!

[poshmygosh]

Sooo I just watched Challengers and I have so many thoughts!!! Warning: this is a long one..

Honestly, I have seen so many interesting takes on this movie (though I'll mainly be discussing one I've seen a lot that I don't agree with at all) and I figured I'd throw my two cents in there lol.

So first and foremost: Tashi is a vital character to this film, as well as Patrick and Art's relationship as we see it int he future.

I"ve seen so many posts saying that "Patrick and Art should just get together, they're the one's that are really in love" or just overall downplaying the role that Tashi has in the film, I don't know if this is just that thing that some mlm shippers do where they erase the woman in the situation so that can just ship the two men, misogynoir, or something else entirely, but this takes generally doesn't make any sense to me. Obviously Patrick and Art loved each other, even before they met Tashi. They had been best friends for years and their friendship was definitely homoerotic at the LEAST, but the idea that they would have been romantic without her is not true. They had never had any sort of romantic interaction, besides jerking off in a room together in separate beds when they were twelve, until Tashi prompted them too in the hotel. I don't think that would have happened otherwise. Beside the fact I do believe that there was some romantic yearning from both of them at times, they were not in the place to actually explore what that means. Patrick had a girlfriend, Art was clearly not in a place to confront the possibility of a sexual situation between them, and they were headed in two completely different directions in life. Tashi being there with them in that moment in the hotel, with them hanging on to her every word, every command allowed for them to feel comfortable being sexual with each other in that moment. Even if she had left that hotel room and the three of them had never interacted again, the night would have been brushed off as just something they did when they were drunk to hook up with a girl, it wouldn't have amounted to relationship, and even if it had she was still an integral part. She is the catalyst to so much of the tension between them, the sex that they might've shared in that hotel room that night if things had continued, and the sex they share on the tennis court 13 years later.

Another hot take: I do think that Tashi loved both of them at different points of the movie, though she loved tennis most of all.

I've seen some people say that the only real love that exists within the triangle is between Patrick and Art, and that Tashi only loved tennis. While I absolutely agree that tennis was the love of her life, I don't at all think that she never had love for Patrick or Art. One of the reasons why she was so bothered by Art saying that Patrick didn't love her when they were eating together at Stanford, was because she DID love him. She puts up a front, she acts like things don't bother her even when they do (is it clear that this trio need to work on their communication lol?) but she does like to show it. I think that this is also evident when her and Patrick are making out in her dorm later. I think some people think that her trying to giver him pointers on how to play better are her trying to be mean or vindictive but I also think this is a sign of how much she cares bout him. Her dad was her tennis coach, so you can imagine that she grew up in a household where oftentimes the love that was expressed was in conversations about how she played and how she could play better. And she's passionate about the sport and she has so much love for the game. For her, love and tennis are tethered in a way. The fact that she watched his games and was so eager to give him tips and pointers was evidence that she cared imo. And how that quickly turned into a fight between them is her putting up her walls, becoming defensive, most likely because she still has Art's words in the back of her head, and it bothers her.

As for Art, I feel like this could go without saying, but she married him. She married him and had a kid with him, and she didn't have to do that lol. She could've just coached him, we know that she's coached players without having a romantic relationship with them, and she did a pretty damn good job to, so she could've done the same with him. We actually get a really nice scene between them at the diner and we get a small glimpse of them beyond tennis, and you realize what it is that sees in him and why she would be interested in him romantically and not just as a coach to player.

I feel like people misconstrue her disdain and loathing that she has for them as her not loving them. She loves them and at times hates them. She tells Art in the beginning that she would do anything to be able to play again, and yet, here these two are, one who has lost his confidence and motivation for the game, and another whose laziness and carelessness prevent him from reaching his highest potential. Two people who are wasting their greatest privilege and she despises them for it.

Annnnnnd last take (I didn't expect this to be so long): Art is a snake.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love Art. I love all of these characters, and in my head they all quarantined together during covid, found a therapist, learned how to communicate and work through their issues, and are now living happily ever after with Lily, but Art is a snake as are all of them. I've seen some people excuse him trying to break Patrick and Tashi up back at Stanford, for one reason or another, and I'm not really sure why. You can love a character and/or feel sympathetic for them without erasing their wrong doings. You can admit that Art was slimy and manipulative at times and still love him, I promise. None of these characters are real and canonically all of them do pretty awful things in the movie, but you can acknowledge that and love them anyway. I think that if you look at this movie as there being a "bad guy" or a "good guy" you may have missed some things. The movie is messy, and toxic, and petty, and intoxicating, and thrilling because of the characters wrongdoings not in spite of them. And I think that's part of what makes it so fun!

Anyway, this was sooo much longer than I intended it to be lol, but I had so many thoughts I needed to get them out. I don't even know if this makes any sense but it's late and I'm going to post it anyway. If anyone has their own thoughts please please share! I'm literally obsessed with this movie, so reading people's ideas and opinions about it has been really fun

[gay-disabled-characters-showdown]

LGBTQ+ Disabled Characters Showdown Round 1, Wave 2, Poll 5

A character being totally canon LGBTQ+ and disabled was not required to be in this competition. Please check qualifications and propaganda before asking why a character is included.

Check out the other polls in this wave and prior here.

Riku-Kingdom Hearts

Qualifications/Propaganda:

So Riku is neither canonically LGBTQ+ nor canonically disabled but there's quite a slew of subtextual evidence. And this subtext is considered basically canon due to the creator's (Tetsuya Nomura) stance on media, which is that he enjoys leaving clues for players to figure out. So while Riku is never explicitly said to be queer or disabled, there's clear evidence on both accounts.

So first: Riku is gay. There's no doubt about it (despite what the dudebros insist...) Riku is gay for Sora, his childhood best friend/former rival. Long story short, Riku was afraid of Sora's friendship with this girl Kairi, didn't realize those feelings were gay jealousy, and he got gaslighted by the Mistress of All Evil, MALEFICENT HERSELF, into believing that Sora didn't care for him anymore. He went Dark Mode, destroyed their home, and antagonized Sora for most of the first game. But then he gets trapped in the Realm of Darkness after Sora kicked his ass for the millionth time and he realized how *sora voice* stUpid he was being and helps Sora stop the apocalypse (saved the world counter: 1) Then Riku goes through a whole arc of "wow i was an idiot. sora will never forgive me and i have Darkness in my heart and i need to protect sora while he's in a year-long medically-induced coma to undo his amnesia" and. idk. theres a Lot of stuff. So much so that someone made a 6-HOUR video essay about it! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll17V9DJr7g)

Riku is also likely suffering from chronic pain. Throughout the year that Sora is in a coma, he fights Sora's Nobody, Roxas, to get Sora's memories back. During the fight, Roxas breaks Riku's wrist, and it never heals correctly. Throughout the finale of Kingdom Hearts 2, the next game chronologically, Riku wears a wrist brace that goes largely unexplained. During the final boss fight, Riku throws himself in the way of Xemnas (the Big Bad) to protect Sora, getting hurt twice in the process; being struck so hard in the shoulder that he's flung halfway across the battlefield, and then hit in the side so badly that it causes him to collapse as soon as the adrenaline from the fight fades. It's likely that none of these injuries healed properly, as even in Kingdom Hearts 3 (which is like 5 games later. dont ask) he has some interesting tells; his walk is incredibly stiff and his battle stance changes, likely because of the strain put on his wrist for the old stance. (https://www.tumblr.com/nobodyriku/706960754548604929 shows this pretty well, though i can't find the other post i had in mind but whatever)

Anything Else?:

soriku endgame actually <3

Darth Maul-Star Wars

Qualifications:

Maul is canonically disabled; he was bisected at the waist by one Obi-Wan Kenobi, but SOMEHOW did not die, and was in fact teleported into a garbage dump, where he proceeded to live as a spider cyborg for the next 12 years, when he was found and rescued by his long-lost brother. He has used prosthetic legs of one kind or another ever since, and in Rebels, he uses a cane. He is also definitely gay. In The Clone Wars cartoon, he is OBSESSED with Obi-Wan, to the point that Obi-Wan is his entire personality and the entirety of his life goals. All he wants is to kill him and cause him suffering in revenge for being cut in half and subsequently abandoned by his master. However, this obsession is. Definitely homoerotic. Dude fights Obi-Wan naked at one point (the animators forgot that people with prosthetic legs still have to wear pants). He literally builds a hate shrine to Obi-Wan's dead ex-girlfriend, who he killed, AFTER he kills her. In Rebels, once he is able to merge the two holocrons and ask any question he wants, he asks where Obi-Wan is. The answer is Tatooine, of course. He goes there, has one final fight with Obi-Wan, and is fatally wounded. HOWEVER. He dies in Obi-Wan's arms. He dies being HELD GENTLY by Obi-Wan. I cannot adequately explain how insane that is. Makes me froth at the mouth. Anyway.

Propaganda:

I love this severely fucked-up dude so much. He dedicated almost 20 years of his life to a single-minded obsession with Obi-Wan Kenobi, an obsession which literally kept him alive when he was chopped in half in a garbage pit, stuck in a hole on Planet Sith, and just generally attempting to live after being raised for nothing but violence as a child. He is missing half his bones, many vital organs, and got his two biggest blood vessels sliced right open, and yet REFUSED to die. He then became a spider cyborg. The first thing he did when coming onboard the Ghost was critique the interior design. He took over an entire planet just to get a guy to notice him. He was kidnapped as a child and tortured nonstop for the first 20 years of his life, resulting in an attachment style where he can only conceptualize relationships as a hierarchy (master/apprentice), so he searches constantly for an apprentice, and even treats his brother as one; despite how he very clearly just wanted a brother, he didn't know how to be in an equal relationship. He does absolutely nothing but cause problems for people-- be they Jedi or Sith. Ahsoka once released him from a magic strait-jacket as a "distraction" and he immediately began tearing panels off of the walls and decapitating people with them. He has a death grip on my brain.

Submitted by @convenient-plot-device

[amorisastrum]

Queer subtext in dead poets society

Formality sucks I'm never writing anything this formal for you lot again /nm. I had more points and then I got stressed out and upset and I didn't want this to become worse than I already think it is. There is no conclusion! Sorry! I will bring up my future points in future posts with a more rambly style because I am clearly not made to write stuff like this. I have tried my very best to do this as well as I can considering my current circumstances so I hope you all enjoy it!

The 1989 film “Dead Poets Society,” directed by Peter Weir and written by Tom Schulman, is a coming-of-age film that follows the stories of a group of boys at an American all-boys school in 1959. It explores themes of individualism, conformity, the pursuit of passion, and living a good life. Many fans believe “Dead Poets Society” has strong queer undertones and queer subtext, particularly following the two main characters (Todd Anderson and Neil Perry). I believe that the thought of queer subtext adds to the depth of the narrative and adds to the beauty of the story it is telling. In this essay I aim to dissect the queer undertones present throughout the story.

Narrative themes:

As previously stated, the themes explored within the film are individuality, conformity, the pursuit of passion and living a good life - Or rather “seizing the day” - but how do these themes link in with the idea of being queer?

The themes of individuality and conformity pose a significant contrast to one another. We see this juxtaposition several times throughout the film. Individuality is shown through the rebellion of the boys and Mr. Keating’s unorthodox ways of teaching, while the theme of conformity is shown through the presentation of the school and how the other teachers, as well as the parents, act. At the beginning of the film, we see the school’s four values, one of these being tradition. Some may argue that tradition is a confining value, preventing these boys from expressing themselves authentically. Mr Keating, on the other hand, is pushing them to have some degree of freedom and to accept who they really are. This could symbolise the conflict between heteronormativity and homosexuality.

Mr Keating is a key part in the breakdown of traditional values for his students. He is encouraging them to pursue their own interests. In Neil’s case, this is theatre. Mr Keating wants these boys to be individuals and to explore their own identity, ignoring the rules that are put in place for them. This is what queer people have been doing through history.

Filming and writing decisions:

We know that in this film everything is of importance. This is shown through the consistent foreshadowing (such as the shot of Neil as Mr Keating is explaining that everyone will die). So, if everything is of importance, why would a shot of Neil Perry staring at Todd in such awe be included? This film constantly shows through foreshadowing that everything is important, so to include such a shot for no reason would seem unusual. With the closeness and the longing looks shown between both Todd and Neil, it would seem there is something more than just a friendship between the two of them.

As well as this, the extremity of Todd’s reaction after Neil’s death is quite peculiar. Todd had the most intense reaction out of all the poets towards Neil’s death, despite having only known him for a couple months. This suggests that there was something much deeper in the boy's relationship than just friendship.

Cultural references:

Throughout this story, Walt Whitman is mentioned consistently, posing a significant purpose towards the story. Out of all the poets mentioned and referred to, he is the most often brought up. Whitman himself is notoriously known for writing homoerotic poetry. This could symbolise the queerness of characters within the film with lines such as “I’m being chased by Walt Whitman!” spoken by Neil, in direct reference to Todd.

I apologise greatly for not being able to do an amazing essay. There's lots going on for me at the minute so the stress and upset that it started to put me through was simply not worth it. I will continue to share my thoughts and ideas but good lord they will not be formal. This took a lot of my energy and I'd rather write in a more talkative tone, as I would normally! I hope you guys understand.

[growling]

due to being both aromantic and aplatonic i feel pretty "eh" to both concepts of friendships and relationships/couples in media (and in real life too but i'm more. discreet about it) which makes interacting with fandom works and such.. pretty frustrating at times

im more averse to romance in real life than in fiction ill have to admit, like, most ships i don't mind. im still more able to engage in shipping in my free time, but that might be because, like, when i ship characters i don't really... do it in a romantic sense i just mash them together, i like deeper bonds/relations/connections like that, and "ship" is a pretty easy term to apply to it as and kinda accurate, i don't know, hard to explain. but when theyre depicted to do traditionally romantic things together or just put emphasis on looooove and go all dovey-eyes in fanart then i must leave. i had enough i have assessed the situation and im leaving

but. i also don't like friendships in fanworks. which sucks so much because this is what, like, most other people that don't like romance gravitate to too!! and they put.. so much, like, moral stuff into liking it too like, saying that if you dont appreciate platonic relationships enough then that means allonormativity rotted your brain or something. many other aro & non-aplatonic people just go "romantic ships are so overdone so heres more art and works where characters are just allowed to stay friends, maybe even friendships are just superior anyway" and like i am happy for you don't get me wrong go enjoy what you like but.... friendships just always make me go "ewww". and unfortunately i cannot just choose not to see it either, platonic relationships are never tagged or anything except on ao3 or something. a lot of media/content (god i hate that term for fanworks..) by aros for aros just focuses on platonic love & relationships instead and sorry i cannot relate and the growler feels a bit alienated. not many people even know that aplatonic people exist anyway and if they do then they dont have the best opinion of us.

so like, god i hate clarifying this i feel like it goes without saying but whatever i don't want to get accused of hurting peoples feelings by saying this: i am not saying to stop making fanfics of platonic relationships or that if you like friends in fiction then i think ur lame or something. im just saying that this is one part of fandom i just, cannot really like. not just fandom either. friendships are everywhere i swear and there is no way for me to avoid those either, and if i ever voice that it repulses me, i get treated like a freak even by spaces that are supposedly aroace & sex/romance-repulsed friendly and yeah it kinda sucks .

anyway friendships are overrated i don't want friends i want evil advisors, loyal goons and homoerotic rivals and fucked up hero-villain and whumper-whumpee pairs and even more fucked up guys with their fates forever entwined and bonded for life close in the way rats tied at their tails are even as they desperately pull and scratch and bite to get away is that too much to ask

[sn33z3s]

in defense of “if you weren’t a fucking asshole”

(what better time to write “meta” than hours before a season premiere. after all, style is dead. or was it that it’s just boring? no, wait, it’s toxic??)

this doesn’t have a thesis, it’s just some leftover thoughts from last year - mostly pertaining The Church Scene, because of course - and featuring some hot stan marsh characterization takes i guess

let’s start with the gay glancing at your ex-childhood best friend

so, this framing is loaded because it's the narrative of their whole thing: kyle chasing stan. stan usually comes to kyle's rescue in absurd (but solvable) situations, whereas kyle often has to fight stan to provide emotional respite. they're thinking of each other here; it's distinct how stan looks back, rather than this shot cutting at kyle. stan's explosive reaction is still pretty presumptuous, but kyle was, even if unintentionally, asking for stan's attention - which is typical

in a sense, this scene is their wordless language; the kind you share with said ex-best friend but it’s gotten worn from overuse, and as a result, you’re both communicatively stunted, so now that you’ve reached out again after 40 years, the first step to any comfort or solace is [the scene above] and a homoerotic spectacle:

well, i don’t need to tell you what that public spectacle is; you already know

stan leads his paranoid outburst in the church by accusing kyle of knowing something which would be impossible for kyle to know; in You’re Getting Old/Assburgers kyle also reaches out to stan, who turns him down, yet still asks that kyle basically read his mind and comfort him

kyle is not a stranger to demanding unrealistic things from stan as well, but kyle calling stan “asshole” packs that punch since contemporarily the fandom usually assumes stan as more emotionally forward or in-touch with himself. however, in the church, kyle is pointing out that stan is clearly repressing his feelings, desires, traumas, etc. and kyle has used a similar approach before:

in my last meta, i wrote about how stan is pretty firm in not instantly accepting kyle's olive branches. of course, the thing is, kyle's olive branches are bent sometimes, let alone how he approaches asking for stan's forgiveness before the broship splits. kyle doesn't apologize: he just expects stan to move on

(also, i love the "divorced couple" coding before we even reach Post-COVID.) anyway, the show clearly acknowledges stan as "agreeing with kyle no matter what," and the first time stan and kyle fight in canon, it’s a big deal

i always return to how i don't see kyle or stan as at fault in most of, if not all, of their fights. this especially applies to YGO & Assburgers since it's one of their most significant “break-up” arcs. still... kyle's "if you weren't a fucking asshole" in the church scene is so satisfying. (and 100% excellent voice acting on matt stone's part; the punchy delivery at the end of that line is what makes me revisit it often.) when i put my tin foil hat on, it does sound like decades of resentment built up. if this post had to have a thesis, it’d be, “here’s why kyle had every right to call stan an asshole in that moment,” but the Stan Can Be an Asshole, Too meta is for another day. after all, my last meta also revolved around the trouble i have with framing stan as an exclusively passive character (rather than predominantly passive) 

by “decades of resentment,” i mean simmering for kyle since, you guessed it, episodes such as You're Getting Old and Assburgers. i talk about YGO & Assburgers a lot, i'm sorry. but i was thinking about the church scene as i browsed the south park wiki on the official site: "Kyle can only deal with so much of Stan's negativity." (obviously, matt and trey themselves do not write or even moderate the Comedy Central studios wiki, so take all of it with a grain of salt.) i like that wording, though, and this other part of the blurb too: "Stan's ego can get in the way of their friendship [referencing Guitar Queer-o]" 

kyle not being able to handle stan’s negativity these days is more often harshly critiqued than anything about stan’s ego. that detail does, in many forms, relate to the stan jock characterization discourse, but that’ll also have to wait for another meta. i can say a couple of things about it to tie up this post, though 

yes, kyle fails to comfort stan in the YGO arc. at the same time, i don't think his positivity is always maligned. after all, the YGO arc isn't stan vs kyle, it's stan and kyle vs. growing up; this is their contemporary theme. and yes, for a kid, kyle can have that emotional maturity

Tegridy Farms and Post-COVID have cemented stan as south park’s protagonist – though, in my opinion, he always has been it, especially since Bigger, Longer, & Uncut – and protagonists are like, the character archetype that receives the most self-projection. yet this emotional angle is comparatively still a fairly new framing of stan’s character. now that this show is narrated in such a way that we see even more of the world of south park through stan’s eyes, fans watching may feel extra inclined to think of him as only ever depressed. but being sad is not all stan does and never has been

not only is this frequency fairly new to his character, i would go so far as to say that there’s a difference between the contemporary stan angst arcs and older episodes like Raisins, YGO, and Assburgers. being sad is not “natural” to stan (whatever that means), it is thrust upon him. most recently, this is randy’s fault. yes, we are meant to - and i hope that most do - sympathize or empathize with stan, but my point here is that he’s a little bit more belligerent and bullish than the fandom currently gives him credit for

[lexygabe]

nandi mokena headcanons/rewriting/etc.

(june/11/1999)

gemini sun | taurus moon | scorpio rising

ENFP (Ne-Fi-Te-Si) - 6w5 - so/sp - 793 - Sanguine [Dominant]

general headcanons:

• either ace-het or ace-bi, cis, she/her,

• i think this is canon, but she is a gifted child in the family. she was in top 5 of the class and popular as hell,

• she is that mf of friend group that will always bring up snacks and drinks with yourself,

• her love language is making edits of funny/embarrassing photos of others with music that totally don't match vibe with anything included in edit,

• her tiktok and instagram likes are full of some people talking gibberish and cringe compilations, so if u want to get her joke you at least need to know lore of all of this people and incidents that happened x years ago,

• when we talking about memes, she loves absurdism humor, so when shakes send something to her that he thinks is funny, her face is like: 😐 how are we even related?,

• i also think she is reading the most surreal literature (franz kafka is her beloved),

• skarra pierced her ears for the first time,

• she is very loyal,

• her notes are full of stickers, adhesive gems and drawings. some of things are even written in glitter gel pen,

• her channel is pretty much all things mixed up. there is commentary, there is gaming, there is some art projects and video blogs, everybody can find something for themselfves,

• she goes to film school.

through the series (og tv show, rewriting)

SEASON 1:

• for me, season 1 starts at the time when shakes is 20 years old, so by this logic nandi is 17,

• there is no physical apperance of her, she is just mentioned by (mainly) shakes.

SEASON 2:

• at the beginning of the season her and shakes are talking about the fact that nandi moved to college (they have their little family bonding time),

• in s2e5 (el sound of silencio) spenz calls her to help him and fran, but she just listened to all of this shit and was like: ok bro 🧍🏾‍♀️*disconnects*,

• in s2e13 she tracked down skarra before this big "all stars vs supa strikas match" and interviewed him about this fucked up rivarly that him and shakes have (she saw both of them in tv last night), and why they even decided to have a bet of the pitch where they had great time together in past (like hell, nandi knew that this friendship was homoerotic, holy shit). ofc nandi "as annoying as the little shit she was" (skarra's words, not mine), she didn't take any type of crap from him about this whole situation. after this, she called shakes out on his stupid ass actions, in his apartament, and just left him with: you both are total blockheads. and shakes was like: both? who is both? wtf.

SEASON 3

• in season 3 nandi and shakes have this conversation about what nandi meant, when she literally lit into him in his own apartament before super league final. to which nandi,, replied with: ahh yeah. but this doesn't matter. at least this debt of yours and skarra's was dissolved :D. after, they had honest conversation and disscus about childhood and how this can't be put before good of the team (nandi wanted to argue with this, but then she quickly give up. all the stress that the shakes' finale cost her was enough for her),

• at this season we see more of nandi as a future filmmaker, because she trolls everyone on twitter with uploading this type of videos like fake interviews with celebrities (and with some footballers ;)),

• in college, she met woman from completely other school (remember this. i probably make headcanons for this semi canon character so wink wink) and became friends with her,

SEASONS 4-7:

• all of her story arcs focus on her career and school and on a few other events that will be described by me as i write about other women from strikas universe.

relationships with (disclaimer: i do not include her relarionship with shakes and their mom, bc it was pretty well managed in rookie season. i will probably make another post but about whole mokena's family dynamic):

• skarra: writers rotally fucked up. WASTED POTENTIAL.

their relationship definitely started as: you are my brother's (boy)friend/you are shakes' sister. and then, they became partners in crimes. when shakes, skarra and nandi went to school nandi always pulled out a card titled: don't talk to me like that, or i'm gonna call my brother and my brother's best friend. in othet occasions, skarra went to nandi and asked some stupid questions like: ey, nandi you have ruler to lend 🧍‍♂️?? (,,yo, nandi you want some hotdogs?", ,,nandi, we are going to shopping mall", ,,hey, nandi you have some time to hide a body----?"). why writers of rookie season acted like nandi wouldn't care that much about skarra, like he literally used to call nandi's mom 'auntie' wtf wtf wtf.

• klaus: YOU CAN'T TELL ME HE WOULDN'T BE HER FAV OUT OF SHAKES' TEAMMATES. nandi and klaus definitely have long conversations about shows that they watched, about ships, about premieres. they are just two little nerds with heads full of ideas <33333

• mara: me and @strudelbbg once talked about mara and nandi's possible relation and we decided that mara, when nandi was younger, probably carried her on her back and stuff. tldr mara sees nandi as "little sis 💞💞💞💞",

• others: ?

fashion headcanons

• i think she would wear these "crazy" make-ups like:

(i also think that people, who would be her fans and shakes' fans would create threads on twitter titled: nandi's makeups as team colors of supa strikas rivals')

(and nandi would reblog these posts🥰)

• has 3 pairs of dungarees,

• a lot of fandom t-shirts but not ones designed in "tomboy" way but in "girly" way, shirts with strawberry shortcake, winx club, princess peach from mario, destiny's child members etc.,

• HANDMADE RINGS, BRACELETS, NECKLACES, EARRINGS EVERYTHING,

• she is fan of crocheted clothes (especially sweaters, tank tops, knee socks),

• even tho she is popular, she wears second hand clothing and buys from smaller companies (rich people clothing ugly and she don't want to be one of them),

• wears bralettes as form of a lingerie,

• when she wears dress she NEEDS to have tights under,

• when it comes to shoes she likes: new balance, converses, CROCKS and mary janes but on a small heel.

music headcanons

• definitely had nightcore phase when she was younger,

• hates slow music,

• like i said destiny's child fan, probably likes also avril lavigne and mariah carey, and maybe blackpink.

[hopefull-mindset]

Hello. I had another question. Would you say the way the relationships/interactions are written between the characters in BSD would be considered queerbaiting?

Technically by definition I would personally say yes, however there's usually a negative connotation that comes with queerbaiting that's related to harming the queer community so I was wondering if you had a more nuanced approach to the topic.

Queerbait… ah my worst enemy of a term has struck again. Mind if I add the Queer Coding discussion into this as well? Because when I see one person denounce the idea of Queer Coding in BSD, another person goes “oh yeah, it’s actually Queerbait”. No offense, but nobody knows what they’re talking about with either term and I understand why. I have my hangups about how they've been used and the blur between them causing this confusion.

I didn’t even realize this was something people argued about because I didn’t think there was enough to argue queer intent anywhere. I’m generally used to vague queer representation getting these types of arguments, so I blanked out with confusion.

For those who don’t know, Queerbait is a term coined to refer to marketing strategies that use the “implied” queerness to market their content to an audience who are interested in that to view their content. Of course, they don’t actually follow through on that “promise” for the sake of their viewership not being disturbed. Maybe they'll put some hints in their little show, and then kill them off when the time is ripe.

That’s where most of its negative connotations come from: Taking advantage of a marginalized group’s need for representation to improve their ratings. People use this… very incorrectly, usually when someone is clearly using Queer Coding in their work and get accused of Queerbait when they don’t follow through with an explicit romantic relationship.

Queer Coding is when a creator writes subtextual hints into their writing that a character or relationship is meant to be read as gay to bypass censorship or stigma within the media they’re writing in. Usually with signals that a gay audience can catch onto or romantic references in plain sight. While technically not the greatest example since MDZS is a danmei, the Donghua wasn't exactly allowed to fully present their relationship for what it was. Surprisingly, they added a scene where a move of Wei Wuxian’s colored both his and Lan Wangji’s robes red to resemble Chinese wedding garments.

I only chose that example because I think it's a great representation of details in plain sight. But then there's the other way I've seen Queer Coding get used and that's in queer analysis where we read a narrative or character as gay because of their distinct traits or plotline that resonates with LGBTQ+ audiences. It gets confusing when people use it both ways, but fandom usually uses it the first way.

I'm a bit bitter when I talk about these two terms because of how often the overlap confuses audiences, and god knows how loosely Queer Coding gets used to describe some vague, homoerotic friendship while the other side starts accusing the author of Queerbait. Then you start questioning if the author was really trying to take advantage of the community, wanted to explore sexuality without commitment, or literally didn't realize what they wrote could be interpreted like that because of how it chooses to write intimacy. It gets messy FAST.

Ah, how do I say this… I get the outrage of not having explicit representation more often, but when Queerbait starts getting used to describing the writing itself rather than just the promotional marketing, it starts losing all meaning to me and becomes a scab on my back. It generalizes the intent of the writer and assumes them in this box of malicious motivations. Then there's the whole argument of whether or not real people can “queerbait”, which is also stupid to me.

The examples people bring up don't even hold up (starts using t.A.T.u in your examples for once because… wow) and a majority only apply this to fictional content because of the super-secret rule to Queerbait. Usually, it can't work because then that assumes the sexuality of the person in question and they fully well could just be non-disclosed queer who's exploring their sexuality, but then what makes the writer a problem? What's stopping you from confusing Queer Coding with Queerbait?? It's different when it's obvious that they're using the queer identity for a quick browny point, but Jesus.

The way fandom uses it is not in these really obvious moments, but in ambiguous writing. I don't understand any of this when we start straying into this territory and I'm trying not to get mad when I'm currently talking about this right now. I am already mad, I failed. Maybe it's just a personal feeling, but I really don't like this term for these reasons. It's useful, but kind sucks. I can go on forever about Queerbait and the misusage of it, and even the way I think its used currently is bullshit anyway, but I digress.

Right right, this is about Bungou Stray Dogs. As you could guess from my rant, I don't think Asagiri is queerbaiting us if you mean it in the “queerbait writing” crowd. So what about Studio Bones?

Bones, well… I mean it's really common for animation studios to draw official art like this and since Queerbait is more of a Western concept, this is understood as just fanservice I think. You can technically count this as Queerbait if you'd like, but you should always consider the fact of a different community always having a different relationship with queer concepts.

Studio Bones's official art of Soukoku is hilarious to me. There’s another one promoting some brand and they're at a fountain dating spot. At least these are not as bad as the official art for Mecha animes in the 2000s lololol.

Moving on, the argument for Queer Coding when it comes to Soukoku tends to rely on these arts. I don't recommend doing that because relying on side content that holds no purpose other than to rile up fans doesn't make a strong enough case. Subtext is the most important part to making a point, so if you can't even point in the direction of the main text, then…

Dazai and Chuuya is a bit bottom barrel of what can be considered Queer Coding. I like Soukoku as much as the next guy (maybe not in the same way) and think their relationship is incredibly fun, but one vaguely homoerotic scene in Dead Apple does not convince me anything of the idea they should be seen in a romantic context. Trust me, I've spent a long time back proofing my arguments as to why my long-term OTP should be understood as gay. Soukoku doesn't impress me in these lines of understanding.

I personally think the way some SKK fans approach their relationship from a purely romantic view and are entirely insistent on this one-note understanding of Dazai’s feelings for him ruins most conversation on the topic of Dazai, Chuuya, Age 15, and his inclusion in Stormbringer. They're very important to each other, but some need to step back to appreciate what they have in canon and then apply romance?

I have no idea why people talk as if Dazai joking around and saying “That's what makes me like you” really meant anything. Makes me doubt half the time if it's just people seeing the panel out of content and have never read the actual novel.

Fyodor and Nikolai shippers are like this too. They take the importance they have to one another (at least for Nikolai, idk what Fyodor thinks of him) and then inflate that into just romance. What they have isn't really Queer Coding, it's just fixation that is seen as romantic. They have their official art, but that doesn't mean much since it's anthology art.

Rimbaud and Verlaine hm… sometimes when an author depicts real people who were in a relationship, they avoid that detail by calling them “brotherly”. The relationship of the real authors shouldn't be pointed at as proof at all because the characters are not the people. I would not recommend romanticizing their relationship either since it was um, I don't think chaotic cuts it. The age gap was disastrous, Rimbaud moved in with him and his wife at some point (obviously making the marriage worse), one of them got slapped with a fish, Verlaine tried shooting Rimbaud, etc.

So me saying that there was no Queer Coding shouldn't mean you can't see them as queer, I just mean there's no proof of Asagiri having that intention. That is all. I think Verlaine and Rimbaud had something going on, but that's purely from my own amusement and appeal.

That's my take on that I guess? I don't see it either way. It takes a lot for me to believe there was an intention to write them a certain way. Even if you asked me, “Do you think Akechi and the protagonist from Persona 5 are meant to be gay?” I'd giggle and consider it from what the p5 royal content was like, but I'd tell you no, unfortunately.

[bestbehaviorofficial]

welcome to my official blog for best behavior— i actually wrote a really real full-length play! i have wanted to make an oc blog for SO long now and i finally just succumbed.

some things to know:

this wip has been in existence since june of 2023, and although it's an extremely slow process i got very attached to the characters.

it's a play. or at least it would be, if it existed. *as of august 22nd, it exists!

it's a dramedy. there are definitely comedy elements and definitely drama elements. it's all about the balance.

more information under the cut!

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: a guy named mack decides to start an entire community in which there are no insecurities. the idea is that there will be hundreds of rules keeping everyone so similar that no problems would even have the opportunity to start. he recruits two others to help him out: michael, his very charismatic bestie, and marissa, who is a really talented receptionist. turns out, they can bend this new community to their will very easily, and with the power of friendship, they make each other worse. i mean better.

CHARACTERS: mack (short for "machiavelli"— he chose that name himself and he's very proud of it): the president of the Fellowship and Brotherhood. he's skittish and anxious, and when he isn't, he's faking it. think of the day where you felt the most insecure. that's every day for this guy. he hates himself to such an extent that it's comedic. literally all he wants is to be normal, and he's not too far off. he worked a basic office job so basic that he wasn't even entirely sure what he did there. then he quit to start this whole Fellowship thing. it's a community free of insecurity, basically. he says it's to help people, to protect people, and such. however, the HUNDREDS of rules he comes up with as the days go by are all just his personal insecurities. so he can get rid of them. and there are a LOT of them. he rewrites his own reality with these rules. things like his height and fashion sense annoy him. things like his sexuality rip him apart.

michael: mack's ride-or-die sidekick & vice president. he's smart and sarcastic and Will be the center of attention if he enters a room, just because that's how he is. he's the best public speaker of the team. he and mack were roommates in college, at Some Prestigious University. since then, michael has been, for lack of better words, obsessed. michael would literally follow mack to the ends of the earth. he himself is not a bad person— he's charismatic and fun to be around, and generally very likable— but he's mack's sidekick first and foremost. even though being gay for the Fellowship's president is VERY MUCH AGAINST THE RULES, michael cannot seem to follow that rule correctly.

marissa: the Fellowship's official secretary. to be blunt: she's a workaholic with no real friends. she worked at the same office job as mack, so she knows how boring life can get. when mack and michael asked her to join their project, she was skeptical, but the prospect of a place where she would be appreciated, plus the bonus of Actual Friends, was too much for her to resist. she's put in charge of running confessional, which is where people go when they break rules. although she's thrilled to have a position of importance, and really wants to make mack & michael happy, hearing about people's problems 24 hours a day weighs on her.

SOME OTHER NOTES

i have a playlist for them so if you want song recs i have quite a few.

it's tempting to say that mack gets no bitches. this isn't exactly accurate. he gets One bitch and ignores it. michael can get bitches but is too hung up on an anxious train wreck. marissa doesn't have time for bitches anyway.

it is absolutely imperative to me that every scene just drips with homoerotic tension

i'm writing when i am physically capable of writing. this is not often. the stars have to align. they're not aligning, but i'm trying my very best. (edit: the stars aligned and now i have a play)

if you've made it this far: thanks :)

[rollforjackass]

some of my favorite underrated fictional friendships/potential/unexplored friendships, in no particular order

joss carter & anthony marconi - person of interest

the man HATES reese and tolerates finch but anthony genuinely likes carter and probably at least suspects what it takes for her to bend her principles and help elias

meanwhile carter doesn't trust him but she gets where he's coming from, understands the kind of loyalty that binds him and the love that fuels that fire

they come from the same school of 'put your money where your mouth is' and take no shit from blowhards, but at the same time they both have a habit of being blowhards themselves when they feel the need to state their authority. i'm sad we didn't get to see them interact more, i would have loved for them to butt heads over who's the toughest tough guy

benji dunn & ilsa faust - mission impossible

going from the banter in the car > "i misjudged you" > her betrayal > them working together seamlessly in fallout > her SLAMMING her spine against a table to get free & save his life is such an up-and-down progression of events, i just think their dynamic is neat

i feel like they both have a certain element of displacement and frustration in common: benji as a fiercely loyal not-particularly-violent friend in a field where betrayal and violence are like water and bread; ilsa as someone good at what she does who's forced to do it for all the wrong reasons. both british ex-pats, both a bit awkward in non-emergent social situations, both a bit like the side of ethan hunt that the other is most impressed by/worried will get him killed one day

also benji is entirely too forgiving even while he's verbally bitching up a storm, he jumped to "ilsa? OUR ilsa?" with a quickness in fallout given that the last time they saw each other she'd had orders to kill him. i think that would fucking gut her given that she's so used to being tossed out on her own for things that aren't even her fault

danny williams & kono kalakaua - hawaii five-0

they got along like a house on fire in s1, she gave him surfing lessons, their matching tempers & equally matching loyalty, plus his blatant concern for her during her whole s2 arc and their mutual protectiveness of each other

they both have such a big 'family' chip on their shoulder, what with danny being raised in a big loving family only to become a divorced single dad struggling to make ends meet for his daughter, and kono likewise being raised in a big tight-knit family that's all about duty and honor, only to watch them turn their backs on chin without a second glance when he's accused by IA without even wondering why someone also raised on duty and honor would forsake either

and as a result, they're both so defensive of who and what they care about, both quick and sharp with their words but also both careful to check in and make sure they're not doing real damage when they don't mean to

i can easily see them completing each other's sentences trying to get out of trouble for something they absolutely did and that's an A+ in my book

they're such sweet friends and they get so overshadowed by whatever homoerotic shit danny & steve have going on

alana bloom & will graham - nbc's hannibal

yes they were attracted to each other, yes it went sour when they expressed those feelings, but my GOD she is not the villainous seductress i keep seeing people characterize her as in their will/hannibal fics. it is possible for an mlm relationship to form in coexistence with a perceivably heteronormative relationship/overture without needing to be repulsed by the latter's presence, especially when the m/f characters both go on to be in explicitly and implicitly queer relationships. some people heard 'kissing alana bloom was a clutch for balance' and went 'she's a predator seeking to lure will away from hannibal' in what frankly feels like an EXTREMELY lesbophobic and biphobic manner

anyway as someone who is autistic, the presence of a character who was always willing to dictate what would usually be between-the-lines, openly telegraphed when she was considering dancing around a subject so that will could choose if he wanted to hear socially acceptable vaguery or direct communication at risk of offending, and refused to let a miscommunication sit any longer than she needed to be able to address it, was a breath of fresh fucking air and i loved that she was willing to adapt to will's preferred methods of communication instead of expecting him to adapt to hers

even in season 3, after everything has changed between them, after pushing each other away continuously, they're still able to sit on a couch and just chat about each other's families like nothing ever went wrong. by the end of the show, alana is still the only person who never tried to manipulate will into changing who he was, and she is still the only person will is ever completely honest with about how he's feeling (even in s2 when he's plotting murder in prison/honeytrapping hannibal & faking freddie's death, when it comes to how he's feeling, he never lies to her)

there's a definite power in a relationship founded on clarity in a show defined by the lies we tell, to ourselves and to others, in order to keep our person suits well-tailored

dr. mccoy & literally everybody in star trek tos

WE GET IT HE AND SPOCK ARGUE ALL THE TIME!!!! it's a wonderfully complex dynamic but there's so much else going on with him!!!!! he's always boiled down to the grumpy guy who has beef with spock (SIDE-EYE JJ ABRAMS SIDE FUCKING EYE) but his number 1 character trait is that he cares so goddamn much about everyone and everything that he can't dial it down At All, it's both his strength and his achilles heel

he and christine chapel are so precious to me, he's so kind and supportive of her crush on spock while also warning her to be realistic, they tease each other mercilessly, and there are no two people you want Less to be caught in a game of chicken with than them. there's an episode where they literally get into a screaming match bc mccoy is refusing to tell anybody that he's gravely ill & chapel refuses to leave him alone until kirk arrives & he can't back out any longer, and even then their fight ends with mccoy very softly reassuring her that he will do the right thing

mccoy and uhura have this playful chivalry routine going on where one of them turns on the charm and the other ups the ante and it is endlessly entertaining to me. also in the tholian web when they think kirk's dead & uhura freaks out after seeing his 'spirit' in her quarters and runs right into mccoy in the hallway, he catches her so carefully, tries to reassure her, and keeps her from running off in a panic, and then later in sickbay he helps her out of the bed and is so kind to her

mccoy and scotty being drinking buddies!!! the two most loud-mouthed combinations of curmudgeonly and boisterous alive just reveling in each other's casual company!!! and the way mccoy starts yelling at a literal killing machine after it hurts scotty & dismisses the fact, how rattled he looks when he thinks scotty is dead, ugh dude

we don't see a Whole lot of him with sulu and chekov, but the parts we do are darling. he and sulu are so tongue-in-cheek with each other, sulu demonstrates a complete trust in mccoy any time he's in sickbay, and i can't remember if we actually hear mccoy tease sulu about his plants, but i feel it in my bones that it happened and we run on vibes in this house. then there's him bantering with chekov about his 'russia invented everything' stories & teasing him when he clearly has a crush on an ensign in the apple, everything about spectre of the gun, mccoy adopted that boy the second he opened his mouth

all i'm saying is the Entire Crew banded together to save him and get him help in search for spock, sacrificing their jobs and cushy lives in the process, and they had good goddamn reasons for it!!! he's friends with literally everyone i need to see more of those dynamics at all times

[delistravaganza]

btw- I have discovered on ao3 a serie of genderswapp (it’s that the term?) fanfiction in which all the characters are women (I mean, female vampire) and lesbians, and it’s very good? Like the author play a lot with what would have changed in the iwtv character’s lives if they would had been women and what would have remained the same. There are some characters I was skeptic they could have been genderswapped with the story still making sense but all the characters are fleshed out and complex, with both differences and similarities to their canon counterpart. there are messy relationship there is lesbian sex there are lots of love-hate relationship. sorry for the random ask I just remembered our talk about lesbian media some weeks ago and wanted to share with someone my enthusiasm for having discovered this fanfiction ahahaha.

I'm not reading much fanfiction right now but your series sounds very interesting 😄

I did go through my vampire phase very early though. One of the very first things I tried to write, at 13, was some IWTV-esque piece of shit (of about 70,000 words, mind you). The main romance was of course between the teenage girl and the broody male vampire, but it was full of homoerotic undertones. The girl (supposedly the vampire's girlfriend) was bitten by the vampire's sister, who had a complicated love-hate relationship with her, and then she was also put under a spell by the vampire's (female) ex-lover in what I believe were the most erotic scenes of the "novel". I remember that for some reason the girl HAD TO be half naked when she was uhhh possessed by a demonic entity who took control of her body. Yeah, right.

The funny thing is that this all still sounds great to my older self 🤣 It would've probably been better if it hadn't been written by a 13 year old girl.

I also remember I had a friend who was very excited about the idea of my "vampire novel", which in turn gave me a lot of energy to write it. Then I read one of these scenes to her and she became dead silent. She muttered "I don't like it very much", and I was very hurt, because I didn't understand what was wrong - didn't she love what I had told her about the novel so far? How come she didn't she like my writing?

Of course, what had happened was that the "novel" was exuding big lesbian energy despite the supposedly straight romance, and for the very first time she saw that I liked stuff that she wasn't into, and of course none of us had a clue what it meant, and we were uncomfortable and our friendship suffered because of this.

Then I met this other girl who liked my vampire stories and wanted me to read them to her and wanted to be as close as possible to me when I did that, and I felt uncomfortable with this closeness, and then I slowly started to realize that she might be more interested in me than in my storytelling, and I didn't know how to tell her that I only wanted to share the stories.

And I left my pre-teens with even more stories of pre-lesbian drama.

This may be all part of the reason why I still love novels and fanfiction where these things happen but the people involved have no clue - they just experience feelings that aren't put in a box, and they don't even know what's what yet. I love the out and proud characters, but this-is-gay-but-I-wouldn't-even-consider-it was my experience.

[kinetic-elaboration]

October 1: Yellowjackets 2x01

Impulsively decided to start watching Yellowjackets Season 2, under the assumption that even if it does totally consume me, I can’t be spending my time any WORSE and at least this show only has so many episodes.

A few random thoughts on 2x01:

I’ve seen so many spoilers for S2 that it’s hard to remember what is a memory of S1 and what is a spoiler for S2.

Shauna talking about being turned on by the thought of Jeff with someone else… why don’t people talk about that more aaaaaaaah?!?! Like first of all, clear manipulation tactic to get him to stop thinking about her with someone else in a bad way and start thinking about her with someone else in a turned on way but more importantly, she definitely, definitely is thinking about him with Jackie in particular, since Jackie is the one known and possibly, as far as we know, only ever ‘other one.’ And I’m just always here for more homoerotic girl friendship. Like gskfdf the layers of this match the ear eating imo.

How does Tawny Cyprus walk in those heels?

It’s sad to have to wait 40 minutes for Juliette Lewis to show up but at least she did. I was excited to see Lauren Ambrose’s name in the credits, bummed if not surprised not to see her in the episode.

"Something happens to all of us." / "True. And some of those things can be worse than others, depending on our choices." Choices have consequences.

I thought Misty’s “Don’t cry about this. Babies cry,” moment in Natalie’s motel room was really interesting. Just this idea that she’s someone who’s trained herself, or been trained, not to be emotional, to see emotions as immaturity or weakness. I definitely see that in the character now that it’s been pointed out.

“The only thing you should be saying to the police is I want a lawyer. That’s why I put it on the cookie.”

I’m not going to give Jeff credit for anything and I do not want him encroaching at all as a main character, but I did like “Maybe old-fashioned dad shit is my love language” and that strange little scene of him headbanging to Papa Roach. Similarly, Callie is annoying but she is right that her parents are basically the worst: a toxic combination of murderers AND cringe.

Sophie Thatcher does such a great job of matching that Juliette Lewis energy. I was going to say they match each other really well but honestly Juliette Lewis just has this, like… aura, or mood that is all her and is so compelling to watch and I think her younger self here has to imitate that rather than any kind of meeting in the middle thing.

The decision to show a tiny little bit of the rescue in 1998 was interesting. I’d always assumed/gotten the impression that there was no third timeline at all. I would probably characterize those scenes as a whole as more of a 96-perspective flash forward or like a bridge sequence somewhat more akin to the flashbacks-from-96 but still, even just the flashes of the girls at the airport were really jarring and unexpected.

“This isn’t you. This is just something that’s happening to you.”

I get that we never knew the names etc. of all the Yellowjackets in S1 but it is still SUPER disorienting to me to see new characters being introduced in the 96 timeline, given that it really is, like, a closed box. Like I'm just supposed to accept that they were there in the background the whole time although they definitely weren't. Also, I don't really know how many people are on a soccer team so if you told me that the girls we saw in S1 were the whole team, I'd be like, yeah, sure. The whole concept of the wilderness era is that it's small and claustrophobic (while surrounded by vastness and mystery of course) so it's hard for me to accept these other people in any sort of organic or realistic way.

This episode felt a little slow, a little… disjointed in that most of the characters were off in their own places, doing their own things. Even the team in the cabin, weirdly. The Shauna and Jackie’s ghost scenes obviously stood out. I also really liked Shauna and Misty in the opening.

Also EVERYTHING about Nat and Lottie’s reunion. The animal masks, the ritual, the revelation of an ongoing cult, everything about Nat’s face, Nat randomly hitting that guy with a stick as the chanting suddenly stopped, reminding you how dumb and arbitrary all this, and also did I mention Nat’s face. I watched it twice.

[dontgofarfromme]

Omfg Fitz responding to the Fool's buckwild but clearly absolutely true claim that Bee is also his daughter by going"of all the people I could lie to, I'd always been best at lying to myself" as if to acknowledge what he's about to do and then immediately in the same paragraph lying so hard to himself that I'm pretty sure he's about to get a hernia from it A++++ I love him king of denial

[twigstarpikachutroll22]

I haven’t watched Stranger Things and I’m not going to, but from the clips and gifs I’ve seen of Will, he absolutely SCREAMS aromantic to me and I can’t find anycreature else saying that anywhere

[pluckyredhead]

if i can ask for 2, ted kord and booster gold?

Ted:

First impression

Like Guy, love at first sight. I fell for the whole JLI crew immediately, and Ted and Booster most of all.

Impression now

Ted is still one of my all-time favorite characters, but I'm so frustrated with what DC is doing with him (and Booster). They haven't done anything interesting with him whatsoever since they brought him back. Why are they writing this character like it's 1987? Why aren't they letting him grow? Adding some queerbaiting here and there in various AUs isn't it, folks.

Favorite moment

Ted beats death itself (and the Overmaster) and celebrates by climbing on top of his best friend and running his fingers through his hair. While calling him "Johnny-Boy" for some reason. The later years of the JLI weren't good but they sure delivered on the over-the-top homoerotic subtext!

Runner up: the first of his many comas, when Amanda Waller goes into his mind and finds him standing there in Dan's uniform, contemplating death. OOF.

Idea for a story

Literally fucking anything that allows him to grow. I don't really have ideas for fic about him at the moment, but there's so much I want DC to do, starting with having him actually be a mentor to Jaime in a decent Jaime book rather than hogging half of the spotlight. Also, see the Booster answers below.

Unpopular opinion

Idk if this is an unpopular opinion but I don't think he should be the lead in a book anymore. That includes Blue and Gold. If there's a Blue Beetle on the stands, it should be Jaime. I want to see Ted as weird comic relief Q to the superheroes, not headlining.

Favorite relationship

Okay OBVIOUSLY Booster, but I also love him with Bea and Scott. I also recently reread his interactions with Tim and they're DELIGHTFUL.

Favorite headcanon

You will pry Ted Kord's Jewishness out of my cold, dead hands.

Booster:

First impression

"I love this shiny gold idiot."

Impression now

"I am this shiny gold idiot." There are a lot of DC characters I relate to but if I had to pick one, it would be Booster "I've mistaken attention of any kind for love and I'm pathetically desperate for it" Gold. Also see above re: being frustrated that DC hasn't done anything interesting with him, which goes double for Booster since he actually did have a lot of growth after Ted's death and that's just...gone, without DC giving us the satisfaction of having the boys a) reunite, b) meet again for the first time and form a new friendship, or c) kiss.

Favorite moment

"Ted is spending WAY too much time with this male underwear model. I'm going to sell my soul to the devil to get out of my life support armor, and then I'm not going to put on clothing for two whole issues until he has paid sufficient attention to me."

Runner up: When he breaks all of time and space in his second series to rescue Ted and there's that glorious splash page where he sees him again and he's trying so hard to make a joke, "but all I can say...is his name." 😭

Idea for a story

All I want is for DC to let me write fifty issues of a Booster Gold comic with all the unhinged glee of the best Legends of Tomorrow episodes, where he's careening around history wearing ludicrous historical versions of his costume and having zany adventures, and in between he goes back to the 21st century and whines at Ted to fix his gear and pines obviously in his direction until Ted finally catches a clue. This would also incorporate that whole thing from Convergence where he gets Time Cancer and eventually turns into Waverider like Ponyta evolving into Rapidash, because Booster Gold, Peak Himbo becoming a time elemental is a galaxy brain take that DC never did anything with at all. LET ME DO SOMETHING WITH IT, DC!!!

Unpopular opinion

STOP CALLING HIM MICHAEL, HE WANTS TO BE CALLED BOOSTER, HE HAS MADE THAT VERY CLEAR

Favorite relationship

Again, very obvious, but I also love his relationships with Rip and Bea and Guy. Also his mutual dislike with Clark is endlessly hilarious.

Favorite headcanon

Booster has an extremely sensitive stomach and has a lot of trouble digesting food in our century. He also gets motion sick when he's not flying under his own power. He's a delicate boy! (This is actually canon - he throws up consistently when he first starts using League teleporters, and by the days of Extreme Justice, Ted is keeping barf bags in the passenger seat of their various vehicles for Booster.)

[eri-cheri]

Now that we have reached the last chapter of the year. It is time to do a 2020 roll call of what I like to call, “State of the Shippers”:

1. IzuOcha. Status: Placated.

-IzuOcha’s could celebrate several cute tidbits throughout the year. Mini moments as they say.

Anime Highlights: The OVA’s came in clutch with moments for shippers all around and IzuOcha is no exception. We got a cute tidbit where Izuku and Ochako bumped into each other and were flustered.

Manga Highlights: Christmas kept on giving to this fandom as the AM doll Izuku gave Ochako made many appearances. A cute fist bump between the two was also exchanged and Mina was right there bouncing with y’all.

Heroes Rising: Izuku super man carried Ochako to safety. And was Angy she was injured. Fans could enjoy the small Lois Lane moment.

Troubling Signs?: Ochako said “I would like to be excluded from this narrative” when it comes to her feelings for Deku. She’s a hero damnit! So if they are in for something, probably won’t be while they are still in school.

II. DabiHawks. Status: Yikes.

- Dabi and Hawk’s very public breakup set this fandom in disarray but also kind of disayay?

Anime Highlights: None yet. This fandom was cruelly cock blocked by Bones. Sorry DabiHawks stans.

Manga Highlights: Where to begin, my goodness. With these fans, I guess the good and the bad is a plus in this homoerotic double agent relationship. We have the notion that Dabi may have known Hawks when they were kids, which may be a positive? Hori sure loves his childhood friends. Other than that. The GIRLS WERE FIGHTIN’. Hawks is now permanently scarred by Dabi and I don’t think it was kinky folks. Tokoyami inserted himself in the middle to White Knight Hawks, Dabi broke up with him via YT expose and overall, shippers could anguish in the absolute MESS that this ship endured this year. But I’m sure that’s part of the appeal. So...yay?

Heroes Rising: They were both in it.

Troubling Signs?: The entire relationship is a troubling sign which again, is part of the appeal. Maybe Hawks will cuddle up with Dabi’s father after the war. That’s troubling! Speaking of...

III. EndHawks. Status: Yearning and Burning.

-If there’s one thing Endeavor couldn’t stop worrying about, it was his hot (in more ways than one) new side piece who probably should have looked at the fine print when signing a contract to be a recurring guest star on “Keeping up with the Todoroki’s”.

Anime Highlights: A fateful meeting finally in high definition for all our eyes to see! Hawks’s unwavering support of his biggest hero was endearing to watch and their shenanigans together spurred the anime onlies to finally jump on the biggest May-December ship in the series.

Manga Highlights: Endeavor’s admiration and concern for Hawks seeped through the pages as we entered our most exciting arc in the manga yet. Fate split these two up yet entwined their downfall together. And that Fate’s name was Dabi...or should I say ⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️ or should I just say Touya!

Heroes Rising: “Don’t bite my head off, Endeavor.” Geez, can you flirt a little less loud Hawks?

Troubling Signs?: They say never meet your heroes and Hawks is in for a rude awakening. We shall see just how deep his admiration runs or if Endeavor’s past will split our dynamic duo up for good.

IV: TodoDeku. Status: “Precious”

-Shoto’s “Midoriya is in Danger” radar was highlighted in both manga and anime. 4th User’s quirk, who?

Anime Highlights: “Midoriya hasn’t returned yet.” “Where’s Midoriya?” “Midoriya! Grab my hand!” “Have some of my Soba Midoriya.” Shoto gets it. His emotional support friend is a danger magnet. TodoDeku’s also enjoyed tiny tidbits in the OVA such as a hand grabbing scene. Gotta hold tight to those crumbs.

Manga Highlights: Two Words. “Precious Friend.” Deku comes in w/o arms or legs fighting for Shoto and Shoto’s honor. These two spent the entire year worried sick about each other, and going against all odds to save each other. Precious Friends indeed. TDDK fans ate.

Heroes Rising: Shoto kicks some dog ass and then faints thinking of Deku (and Bakugo but shh. Let the shippers rejoice.) On the bright side, we have a 3rd movie coming featuring “The Three Musketeers” so shippers of TdDk can HOLD TIGHT to what’s to come.

Troubling Signs?: Shoto still doesn’t know about OFA and he’s gonna have LOTS of questions after this arc. Will Deku finally tell him? If not, it could make or break the ship.

V. TodoBaku. Status: “Shining through the city with a little funk and soul.”

-Who knew the greatest comedy duo we needed was Shoto and his hot headed “friend” or not friend? It still remains unclear to Shoto. Regardless, these two had a fun year.

Anime Highlights: “I wanna see your cute face”, disco dancing, and more fun in the provisional license training. Plus the OVA added some cute moments between the two such as Bakugo staying behind to save Todoroki during a dangerous excercise and his adorable plan neatly animated for us. I’d say TodoBaku’s really were resurgent and energized this year!

Manga Highlights: Shoto, that is not how you properly Catch a Kacchan, I’m sorry. But at least you did it you mad lad. As with Deku, Shoto spent the year worried sick about Bakugo. While the anime let us have our fun, these two were suffering in the manga.

Heroes Rising: Again, Shoto put a dog down and then fainted with Bakugo on his mind (and Deku but we ignore that. Shush.) TodoBaku’s have the 3rd movie to look forward to which is bound to have some amazing content!

Troubling Signs?: They have a lot of trauma to deal with. And a lot of Deku to worry about. I also imagine Shoto will be hurt about being left out of the OFA secret. We shall see what 2021 has to offer.

VI. KiriMina. Status: Unbreakable.

-Changing your hairstyle to match the gal who inspired you in middle school? Sorry y’all but if Mina were a guy, I’d say that’s gay af.

Anime Highlights: We got that backstory Bois. Red Riot’s origin might as well make him be called Pink Riot. Again with Hori and the childhood friends though I wouldn’t exactly call them friends. They just went to the same middle school but Kirishima was highly influenced by Mina’s Chivalrous spirit! A ship is born!

Manga Highlights: The influence is mutual! Mina creates a move based on Kirishima’s unbreakable and we all let out a collective “awwww”. Also in the war arc, we got Kirishima making sure Mina’s chivalrous spirit shines through right into Gigantomachia’s mouth! KiriMina may just be the unsung MVP’s of this arc.

Heroes Rising: They were in it.

Troubling Signs?: I can’t think of a single one. KiriMina’s can enjoy a peaceful sailing.

VII: KiriBaku. Status: Crumb Collectors.

-2020 was an uneventful year for KiriBaku but Bones made sure there were crumbs aplenty! Thank God for OVA’s!

Anime Highlights: KiriBaku’s did thrive in one episode! Kirishima reflects on the sludge incident and evolves his quirk based on inspiring words from Bakugo! Hooray! KiriBaku’s can thrive in their blossoming friendship. The OVA also has Kirishima (and Kaminari but shh) once again following Bakugo’s lead when it comes to the training excercise. How can you not? He’s so manly!

Manga Highlights: Not gonna lie. There is nothing much here this year. I did find a teeny tiny flake in Aizawa’s flashback. Kirishima and Bakugo are sitting next to each other. Oh! And at the hot pot gathering, Bakugo sits next to Kirishima! Eat your crumbs KiriBaku’s! There’s always next year!

Heroes Rising: Kirishima hangs with a lazy Bakugo and delivers the most hilarious line in the whole movie. “Silly Bakugo, there won’t be villains here!” Hahah... Silly Bakugo. Oh you~ KiriBaku’s can inhale the fact that those two sure love to hover around each other!

Troubling Signs?: With great crumbs come little responsiblity. No trouble if there’s no content! 🤔

VIII: KamiJirou. Status: Singing their hearts out 🎶

-If there’s any ship that’s coming close to canonization, I think this is it, folks! “Think of the person most important to you!” Can’t argue with Midnight!

Anime Highlights: Kaminari does non stop encouraging of Jirou and her hobbies! He works super hard to learn guitar for her sake! We love a king who can encourage his queen!

Manga Highlights: Kaminari thinks of the most important person to him and surprise! It’s Jirou! All of the feels can commence.

Heroes Rising: They were in it!

Troubling Signs?: Kaminari does love his women. And men. Kaminari overall is a huge flirt. But Jirou appears to have his heart strings. ❤️

IX: BakuDeku. Status: Rising. 👑

-Alternative Statuses include Winning, Thriving, Soaring. It’s just been non stop content this year. 2020 is truly the year for BakuDeku. The shippers can rejoice.

Anime Highlights: Three words. Be. My. Cane. The OVA’s helped fan the flames of the BkDk hearts with a surprise! Deku tops! Not only that, we got a lovely shoulder tap of encouragement in the canon material. While in season 4, Deku’s primary focus was Eri. Bakugo and Deku still had their moments to be hella gay.

Manga Highlights: Where do I even begin? I guess we’ll just cut to the chase with Bakugo Katsuki: Rising. We finally saw Bakugo’s true feelings manifest for Deku and if getting stabbed for him isn’t the ultimate showing of love, then idk what is. BakuDeku’s rounded out the year with the Volume 29 cover AND the volume 29 cover drafts to eat at our heart strings. Overall, their relationship got the spotlight in the manga this year. And we’re bound to start 2021 with a dramatic confrontation. Hand holding seems to be the key with these two and it didn’t stop with Heroes Rising...speaking of.

Heroes Rising: The entire movie. Like....yeah. That’s it. [OP, your bias is showing. You have to be SPECIFIC.] {But random criticizer in my head, if I lay out the entire plot of the movie, my post will be too long} [OP....] UGHHHH Okay okay. The POPSICLE MELTING. THE HAND HOLDING. THE CHARACTER DESIGNS OF WHAT MIGHT AS WELL BE THEIR LOVE CHILDREN. Did I mention? “It’s fine if it’s you?” CAUSE YEAH. Oh and All Might randomly officiating their wedding in their heads like idk. Isn’t it just simpler if I say the whole movie??!

Troubling Signs?: Well these two’s relationship is extremely delicate and while it has non stop soared this year, Deku might not take too kindly to Bakugo almost dying for him. Will they stop pushing each other away? Time will tell.

That’s all for this year folks! Happy Shipping and good luck to everyone next year!