#but I feel like the protag was an INCREDIBLE representation of DID

[lylahammar]

lays down on the floor

holy fuck slay the princess is so good

[fereldanwench]

apropos of nothing and certainly not my tag rant from a few posts back

did you know that out of 150 popular video games released between 1985 and 2022, only 6% of them feature sole female protagonists?

did you know that prior to mass effect 3, female shepard was never used in any promotional material for the series?

(and there's no hard data available on this, but i very distinctly recall a lot of gamerbro outrage when me3 had an optional reversible cover so you could pick between male and fem shep on your personal game)

did you know that only 18% of players chose femshep in any shape or form (default or customized) during the original release?

(anecdotally, i know a few people who didn't even realize you could play a female at all in me1 bc of how the cc is setup)

did you know with the release of the legendary edition in 2021 the percentage of femshep players didn't even double (despite jennifer hale's seemingly enormous popularity amongst the broader playerbase over the past decade) and is reported at 32%?

did you know that dragon age inquisition has the same breakdown between male and female inquisitors (68% to 32% respectively)?

did you know during the playtests for assassin's creed odyssey, it was a 50/50 split between kassandra and alexios, and ubisoft suits actually thought when the game was released, kassandra would be more popular? and yet once again, about 70% of players chose the male protag

did you know evie and aya were both supposed to have a much larger roles in assassin's creed syndicate and origins but were forced into a smaller role bc the ubisoft marketing team didn't think the games would sell well with a female lead?

cdpr hasn't released data on male vs female v, probably because the game handles gender a little differently than just two strict options like many other rpgs, but it was revealed that panam was the most popular romance, sitting at about 68%, which means at least 68% of players chose the male v body. I'm sure some players did not make that choice as a cis male v, but i would also guess that those who didn't are a small minority of this demographic, and if you factor in kerry romancers, this split is probably very similar to other games in the genre

now i realize that a lot of the male v players who are in more transformative fandom spaces (like tumblr) are not the str8 gamer dudebros of reddit angry about pores on a female character's face and whatnot. i realize that a lot of you are also on the outskirts of the perceived norm and also feel under-represented by mainstream male protags and that's incredibly frustrating and alienating and i genuinely feel for you

but female protagonists and female gamers who want to play as female protagonists and who have a few niche spaces to celebrate female protags are not the reason for your lack of representation

and frankly you don't sound a whole lot different from the angry incel gamer boys when you say shit like "fem v gets too much attention"

so maybe try advocating for male protags who don't fit the generic boring gruff white guy mold without throwing women under the bus. we're should be allies in this fight, not rivals

[theresa-of-liechtenstein]

3, 7, 19, 20 for the writer ask thing!

sure!! here you go <3

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

The incredibly cheesy ending scene to the epistolary novel I’ll never write (which I described here), which is the only scene that will be written in anything other than a text message, a handwritten note, or otherwise. i will not provide any context x but yes this is a coming-of-age story. it’s supposed to be a subversion of the usual archetypal american high school story tho

Seeing that her parents and Lucas’ were most likely gearing up to converse for the rest of Time itself, Lou decided to traipse around the field for the last time.

Excusing herself, she stepped away from the group. For a fleeting second, she watched Lucas in animated conversation with Martin. [nothing to do with cabin pressure martin, may i remark; it was just a conveniently two-syllable name] There would be time, at least in the next few months or so, for them to talk about what came next.

Tonight would not be that time.

Adjusting her mortarboard cap, she walked away, heading for the bleachers. She hadn’t spent time here for the last four years. As she climbed the metal steps and chose a seat high above the field, she realized just how far she’d come since then.

The thin yellow robe was no shield for the chill setting in. Gathering it about her as she sat, she sighed and propped her feet up on the metal seat in front of her.

Her thoughts flew over the past four years. Much had remained the same. She still saw herself in the mirror every day. Her integrity had never been compromised; for the most part, she was fundamentally the same.

But in others, she was not and never would be—and those changes would be difficult to quantify.

She sighed again.

“Thinking deep thoughts, Lou?”

Lou whipped her head up and gasped. “Otto Rhee!”

He stood next to her, silhouetted against the setting sun. He looked supremely awkward in an ill-fitting shirt and tie. Lou hadn’t seen him in about a year. To her great relief, her friend, had managed to stay just the same as before, as always. At least in appearance.

“Congratulations, Lou,” he said. “You’ve made it.” As he usually did, he sat next to her without asking. Lou made room for him on the bleacher, adjusting her voluminous outfit as she did so.

They looked out over the field in companionable silence, and somehow Lou knew that Otto—Otto who could have been a brother to her, Otto who was a brother to her in all the ways that mattered—was seeing the same things on that field. Four years of elongated snapshots, a moment stretched almost too long. UN conferences and dinners in fast-food joints, honors history class. Standing in the deserted road, where the weeds grew between the cracks, and screaming at the sky. And in every microcosm [it was literally midnight, i couldn’t be bothered to use that word properly] there they were. Always the three of them. Otto and Martin and Lou, racing down empty hallways, biking to Cassidy’s around the corner, scaring each other when they stayed too late at school, the lights gone out and everyone else gone. Significant looks, texts sent across the room.

The way all three of them—Otto to Lou to Martin and back around—when they had asked what they shared in common.

Lou looked sidelong and Otto, and Otto at her.

The spell broke, and they were sitting together again—just Lou and Otto, Otto and Lou.

They stared at each other once more before simultaneously saying, “Martin!”

And indeed, Martin was running up the bleachers towards them, his black robe billowing in the breeze. Lucas pounded up the steps, not far behind.

Lou and Otto rose to meet them, and they all smiled.

7. What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?

Detail-oriented. I have to describe everything or it just doesn’t work. “Show not tell” was always my least favorite rule (though I have always tried my best to follow it!) because I’m telling you a story, not making a movie! Oral storytelling made up a lot of my childhood, and I should hope it shows in my style.

also my dialogue feels kind of punchy sometimes, I rarely have people talk in drawn out sentences bc im the only person i know who talks that way unless it’s important they do so.

i’m not making it up, people have told me these things in some form or another (mostly in the form of getting penalized for telling rather than showing)

19. Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favourite verb, something you describe ‘too often’, trope you can’t get enough of?)

I have a habit of using fragments far too often. And em dashes. i also can never leave out the wind. if i don’t talk about the wind at some point, consider it a forgery /s

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

i wrote a novel about power as a little project earlier this year to distract myself >.< and it was a lot of practice at negative character development; I mean where the character ends up becoming worse at the end of the narrative instead of better, but I don’t know if there’s an actual word for that haha. it didn’t cross my mind until after I’d written it, though!

that novel was about the price of selling off your soul in order to obtain power. it was set in a political setting to push that point. the protag started off with a humble beginning. but spoiler alert, the protag gets the power she desires at the end of the novel. the clincher is that she does so at a steep cost. nobody respects her anymore; they only fear her. her best friend, sister, and younger brother distance themselves from her and she’s basically alone at the end of the novel, except for the people who have the same thirst for power as she does. the methods that she’s used to gain that power are also INCREDIBLY ethically questionable, and the only way she managed to wiggle free of those was her privilege (as my favorite character pointed out while submitting a resignation letter, which is one of the more satisfying scenes I’ve ever written)

it’s also a cautionary tale because the protag and her closest cronies check all the boxes for what people of a certain ideological bent would consider an “inclusivity win.” sure, she ends up in a really high position of power, but it’s not really a win after all because of all the heads she had to step on to get there. again, i really didn’t think hard about it until i had finished and started re-reading (and even now it sounds like the novel is much cooler than it really is: it was written over the course of three months and it shows!) and once i sent it off to some of the people who asked me to read it, it was immensely obvious how echo-chamber-y the discussion of representation and power can get. for example, one person immediately assumed i was holding the protag up as the very inclusivity win she is not (this person literally asked me, “Did you base Aileen’s leadership off of yours?” HELL to the NO! i was literally bout to SCREAM. as a person aileen is pretty decent and i could vibe with her, but as a politican aileen is morally bereft!!) but that could just be the weakness of my writing in retrospect

but i want to close with two extracts from robert bolt’s A Man for All Seasons, which I couldn’t put in the epigraph because it isn’t in the public domain and it also might be too long.

MORE: In matters of conscience, the loyal subject is more bounden to be loyal to his conscience than to any other thing.

CROMWELL: And so provide a noble motive for his frivolous self-conceit!

MORE: It is not so, Master Cromwell—very and pure necessity for respect of my own soul.

CROMWELL: Your own self, you mean!

MORE: Yes, a man’s soul is his self! ...

MORE (Looking into Rich’s face, with pain and amusement): [...] Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... but for Wales!

[tumblunni]

Ok so.. I feel really ungrateful as fuck saying this.. but it kinda bugs me how much perrin being nonbinary just.. isn’t really shown at all.

At least, in what i’ve seen so far, yknow? I watched the first ep of someone else’s let’s play to see if i was gonna like this game, and i like this game SO MUCH that I stopped right there and am downloading it at the speed of light yo!!! My hype is maximum and I really don’t want this to be seen as a hate message or anything, it's just a mild opinion piece about something that bummed me out a little, as a nonbinary person.

Ok so.. again, this makes me sound like an ASSHOLE but I have to say it.. Perrin looks like a boy. 100% of all LPers I have seen have assumed they were a boy. I, a nonbinary person, assumed they were a boy. (And felt like absolute shit afterwards, man I still have to work on my internalized gender stereotypes!)

Now in real life I absolutely wouldn’t go around being some douchebag who tells other NB folk they aren’t dressing ‘right’, or whatever. In real life people can feel very different ways about being outside of conventional gender norms. Some people feel like “both at once” or “neither” or “something else entirely that doesn’t touch either side of our society’s current binary stereotypes”. And regardless of whether you’re agender/bigender/genderfluid or any other type of genderqueer person, your fashion sense doesn’t have to fit any strict rule to “prove” it to people. Some people try and dress in androgenous stuff, some people try to mix parts of both gendered fashion worlds, some people like to wear very neutral baggy stuff as a different way of being androgenous, some people like to wear wild and fun stuff that never had any gender stereotype in the first place/because it helps them feel confident in themself if they have a big brave kind of fashion, yknow? (that’s why I dyed my hair at least, and why I think a lot of lGBT people do) And of course, some people just prefer ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ clothes regardless of not being that gender, and if we can accept that cis women can enjoy ‘tomboy’ fashion then we should accept that trans people don’t have to fit into even more rigid fashion rules in order to ‘earn’ their gender.

BUT this isn’t real life, it’s a videogame

We have a lot more context here, with the context that this is a character designed within a fandom whose previous attempts at NB representation have kinda started setting up a trend. In that context, this is a bit worrying that it’s happened again, and maybe future fangame creators are feeling like they have to do it, or something?

Like the NB protagonist Pluto in Pokemon Uranium.

They’re still someone I deeply love, but their design looks incredibly masculine aside from a side ponytail. If anything their design communicates more that they’re a younger option compared to the other two, or something?

And the two NB protagonist options Ari and Decibel in Pokemon Reborn

Their designs look like more traditionally masculine and feminine-leaning ways of being nonbinary, ykno? And that wouldn’t be bad on it’s own, but let me try and explain what I mean...

A similar issue occurs in the unrelated dating sim Hustle Cat:

Which is generally incredibly progressive and actually the first dating sim I’ve ever seen that lets you play a nonbinary protag! But you still get only two character models to choose from.

Like it’s great that they had two options to aknowledge how not all trans people are the same, but it starts to look a bit.. odd, when those two options are ‘feminine and masculine’ and no form of androgenous is ever an option. or even like.. someone with a ‘masculine’ body build but a ‘feminine’ fashion sense. That would be kind of a stereotypical way to depict a trans character but it wouldn’t just be making a random design that could fit amoungst the already existing gendered protags and then just saying they’re trans. And a lot of people found it weird how these ones seem to be drawn as like.. both on the far masculine end, just a cis man and a trans man.

Like.. even as a nonbinary person myself, I wouldn’t have known these characters were nonbinary if you hadn’t told me. And that leaves me feeling horrible about myself that I judged them on first sight, but I mean this is within a genre of entertainment that’s literally never had any Me in it and i’ve got used to being all ‘no you’re just reading too much into it’ whenever i headcanon anyone as genderqueer...

And just.. I feel like if you’re gonna just draw another two masculine and feminine looking characters, or just a second masculine one (or a weird two masculine ones that’re labelled male and female with no option for in-between...) then couldn’t you have saved time by just letting us choose our pronouns for the two you already had? like I already play a lot of games headcanoning the protag as just a masc-fashion version of my enby self, I feel like kinda the point of adding a third design would be to make it something the others aren’t already delivering. Look at it this way, you already HAVE two nonbinary characters who look masculine and feminine, just like the player could also play them as a trans boy and trans girl. Pronoun selector box is the greatest invention of our time! So what I’m really saying is not “don’t have super masc NB protags” but just “can we have another option too?”

Oh, but then that’s also been done not-so-well by certain games too.. Awesome amazing multiplayer party game dating sim Monster Prom let’s you choose your pronouns!

...except these are your only character options! All of these are very clearly intended to be read as masc or femme, you’re probably gonna feel dysphoric as heck if you play them as trans, and none of them work super well as nonbinary either. I think pretty much every NB player has always gone for Oz (yellow one), cos he’s the one that’s most capable of fitting that headcanon just by virtue of being perpetually shadowed. Tho still his default is “he” pronouns, his fashion sense is masc and his voice is masc. Still I’m really fuckin proud of the fandom for collectively latching onto NB Oz and using “they” all the time in fanworks, and then the developers being okay with it, like holy shit man you healed my goddamn heart... <3

Still, it makes me feel a lil like this would have been easy to fix? like I’m not saying redraw everything to have them all change bodies/fashion style depending on your pronoun choice, but like.. maybe just not draw them with such super disparate body styles in the first place? like in this style every girl is hourglass and has weird legs out arms out pose, and every dude is a chunkfest with twice as big hands and feet. Like you could have maybe just made two of the characters be a very curvy girl and a very buff boy, and then the other two be more neutral in appearance but still retaining the same designs. Like I think if you just gave the blue girl a baggier shirt that doesn’t highlight her boobs and hips so much, she could easily be my favourite ‘most NB-able’ design! maybe also tone down the eyelash and lipstick effects?

I think probably a similar thing could have been done with the Reborn protagonists? like there’s nothing inherantly feminine about wearing a tanktop and having a fancy undercut hairstyle and such, its just the way they drew Ari that makes them look feminine. I guess maybe that’s a necessary evil of fangames, since they usually use edits of already existing characters from the games? Then again the games have plenty of androgenous characters already, even if nobody is canonically confirmed as LGBT. *shrug*

Anyway

I absolutely am not trying to nitpick and attack the game for not being perfect in this one aspect. i’m still super excited to even see someone like me in a videogame at all, and I’m definately not one of those people who’s like ‘I’d rather have nothing than have something flawed’. I already admire you greatly for what you’ve done for the inclusivity of this fandom, and I hope that my discussion of this stuff doesn’t discourage you from continuing.

And I guess my point is, in summary

What I mean is not “there are no nonbinary people who prefer to dress masculine instead of androgenous”, but instead that when you’re designing a nonbinary person as the only option a nonbinary player gets or the only nonbinary person in the game, with no playable option, it would probably be a little better to draw them androgenous.

Like, you’ve put that NB character into the role of representing all nonbinary people ever, to the hypothetical audience of people who’ve never heard of the concept before and aren’t super educated about the intricacies of gender presentation. And then also rather than using traditionally gendered outfits to aknowledge that NB people have many ways to present themselves... you’ve given us less ways to present ourselves.

Also it’s a little bit odd that you have an NB rival but said “we’re not ever considering an NB player option in the future”. Sorry but I cannot understand the logic? Like.. you know NB people play your game if you wanted to put NB representation in it, but you didn’t put it as playable because... reasons?? I hope maybe that interview was just taken out of context and you meant something more like “it’s not planned for now because it’s a lot of work and the game is still in its demo stage”, which is absolutely an understandable reason and how Uranium and Reborn did it. But Uranium and Reborn were kinda odd for being a world where literally nobody else aside from you could ever be NB, so I am really grateful that your game did add an NB character. And one in a big role!! This is what i mean about how grateful I am and how I feel awful that my bad internet typing skills are making this post come off as more aggressive than intended.. *sigh*

OH and also maybe a tip for Periin? just.. like.. mention their pronouns. It’s really frustrating to watch everyone doing let’s plays of this thing and constantly assuming Perrin is male because their design is very masculine. Even me! Even me was assume! :( So like... maybe just have Perrin actually tell the audience that they are nonbinary at some point, during this introduction? or have the protagonist’s inner monologue mention it, or another character mention it on the way towards meeting Perrin? like I dunno, maybe a Perrin fan npc?cos it would seem a bit more natural to talk about gender if it’s someone saying “wow I admire Perrin’s androgenous fashion sense” rather than like.. a stranger saying “i can’t tell if you’re a boy or a girl from your face”.

I can understand how it can be tricky to figure out how to introduce a LGBT character’s LGBT-ness without having them go around saying it to every new person they meet, it’s something I’ve had to fix in the editing process even as a trans person writing trans characters. But just having their gender only be mentioned on missable promotional material outside the game means that a lot of players won’t ever hear about it, and it like.. has zero impact of actual inclusivity on the game. It’s why people were angry about DUmbledore only getting revealed as gay after the series already ended. Him being gay missed all of its chances to make gay readers of the series feel welcome, or have any part of his character be informed by his sexuality. like the plot between him and grindlewold could have been way more effective if it was him losing a boyfriend to the dark arts, just sayin...

anyway whatever, bunni is bad at writing coherant posts in summary thanks for perrin and sorry for whining about perrin, aaaaa

[scriptlgbt]

(nb 1/3) Hey there family! I have a char in this story who’s assigned male at birth, identifies as NB, but prefers to present their own self in a feminine way/feels more comfortable being perceived as a woman. They don’t experience dysmorphia with regards to their genital, but they end up in a lot of bad places mentally for never fitting as woman or man in people’s expectations and not being understood as neither. In terms of body dysphoria, their height is a touchy matter (very tall).

(nb 2/3) They’re feminine, but choose against HRT/surgeries (maybe later?) bc they’re on PREP and the combination might lead to lower bone density (they’re a MedSchool stdt, they’d know). And they’re on Prep bc their boyfriend, the protag, is Poz, but their relationship isn’t healthy (constant arguing and protag trying to decide NB-char’s career for them). But NB-char puts up with it for years. Partly for love, partly bc protag accepts their gender, and they think they won’t ever have that again

(nb 3/3) Eventually they dump him, get back on track on the career path they wanted, and find love elsewhere (these aftermaths will be in the bg of protag’s story). Bc they’re protag’s ex, I considered having their sex life come into view. But I’ve to make some delicate decisions on that representation and… Reading some things lately, I’ve begun to question whether this character should exist at all. Not being a male-assigned NB person myself, would I be doing more harm than good w/ this char?

Disclaimer: I am transmisogyny exempt and this post involves consultation with someone who is transmisogny affected.

First of all, I’m not sure if you’re going off your own independent research on PreP, experiences, or you are a med school student, but I do not think the information you have about it is correct. All research I have done on the matter reports that there is no drug interaction. 

In 2011 the Center of Excellence for Transgender Health at the Universityof California, San Francisco reviewed the possible impact of antiretroviralmedications on cross-sex hormone therapy and determined that there wasno scientific reason why the drugs would interact: 

There is no evidence or clinical studies of potential drug interactionsbetween different classes and combinations of antiretroviralmedications (ARV) and cross-sex hormone therapy (csHT) used bytransgender women for gender transition and feminization.

(PDF, p 14)

Lower bone density is really not a big concern with nearly any medications (at least that are taken regularly on such a big scale) and the idea that it “might” cause that seems like a pretty weird reason for not going on it. Even with lower bone density if it were a guaranteed thing, I really can’t see that holding someone back. Maybe if they were constantly at risk for broken bones and were very reliant on their current bone density.

It would be much, much more realistic to have a number of reasons that are more complicated and feeling-based. For example, maybe it just didn’t occur to them as something they wanted right now. Or they wanted to still be seen as not-straight when being around their partner (this was one of my reasons back in my pre-HRT days). (Which I feel kind of silly about now, considering being on hormones makes me feel more confident in clothing gendered similarly to my AGAB, and it’s pretty hard to mistake me for a straight person.) Or they’re not ready, or they’re waiting for something, or there’s some social factor that was holding them back before. I’ve had all of these reasons and I’m sure you could come up with something.

If you go through with writing them, I would try and keep the difficult stuff in their life to a minimum unless you have been in that position, if only because it can come across as entertainment based around a TMA* person struggling. Toxic relationships are a pretty overwhelming majority with representation of LGBT+ relationships in general and it’s kind of a tired trope, so you’d want to bring something refreshing to the table with it.

Since your protagonist is their ex, you are at a serious danger of perpetrating some really toxic ideas about transmisogyny affected folks and what a relationship with them looks like. This is the biggest issue I see with this, personally.

With regards to having their sex life come into view, I think that it’s okay to represent your character as having a sex life. (I’m a little unclear what you mean by having it “come into view” - but if you’re featuring it more specifically than “they do have sex sometimes and it’s usually with this person or that person” I would maybe not write that unless you potentially have a co-author who has firsthand experience from the relevant perspective.)

* Transmisogyny affected

- mod nat

Speaking as a transmisogyny-affected person as well as a former pre-med student, I don’t really buy the whole “avoiding HRT to preserve bone density” thing. Trans women frequently take micronized progesterone alongside estrogen—something with no scientifically guaranteed benefits whatsoever, and something that has been correlated to slightly higher risks of breast cancer—because it’s believed to (among other things) enhance breast growth during transition. (I myself did this for years, and I have no proof it did anything at all, and y’know what? No regrets.) Trans feminine people do hardcore shit on a regular basis.

The idea that this character would forego the opportunity to hormonally transition—and thereby potentially forego an opportunity to be more readily accepted in cis spaces, forego any hopes of feeling less dysphoric about her own body—seems like a scenario tailor-made to shoehorn her into an inherently tragic situation, something I think addles trans feminine representation enough already.

I think also, when people write stories of trans women staying in toxic relationships and being incredibly self-sacrificing (e.g., skipping on HRT so that they can be physically available for their lover), it feeds into crypto-transmisogynistic stereotypes of trans women in relationships having abysmally low standards and being enormously forgiving because of an idea that trans women are inherently undesirable, and toxic relationships are the best that they can get. I don’t really trust transmisogyny-exempt people to write these kinds of stories.

Even if your trans feminine NB character gets a better shake in the end, the fact that she stayed in the crummy toxic relationship for years is enough to make it problematic.

Thank you so much for your consideration! 

—Mod Pepper

[autisticmob]

tagged by uhh nobody but allie @pundeserving kinda left it open and im swoocing in because its fun. you cant fuckng stop me.

Rules: Choose any three fandoms (in any order), answer the questions and tag 10 people you want to get to know better

I choose…

1. homed Stuck

2. mob psycho

3. fma

The first character you loved!

1. ARADIA like ok first panel she was in i saw her and i was like “telekinesis? kinda spooky?? oh shit my TYPE” and that was it. it helps that she turned out to be objectively the best homestuck character as well.

2. MOB HES SUCH A GOOD BOY!! like, he’s the first character you’re exposed to and he’s so good, I don’t think you can avoid loving him first.

3. i mean. it’s gotta be alphonse. like... what a sweet boy? all the bad shit happened to him and he deserved NONE of it, my poor fucking SON.

The character you never expected to love so much!

1. ok in all honesty, sollux. sollux is tied with aradia for my all time favorite homestuck character, but the only reason i ever paid any attention to him was because i happened to have some weird 3D sunglasses, and that meant he was the first character I was able to cosplay easily. but obviously if you pay enough attention to him you realize hes a fantastic boy. like hes a fatalistic douche and a massive weenie but he cares about his friends so much?? like to the point of repeated, kinda horrifying self-sacrifice? and he was 13!!! its so fucked up but he just is love his friends THAT MUCH and now I’m sobbing.

2. shou. it’s 100% because i watched the anime first, and he’s barely in it at all, so it’s hard to get a read on him from that. but obviously after reading the manga im like oh hes just a young chaos gay. a sweet baby boy who doesnt know shit except how to exploit psychic powers for fun and profit (and also revolution against his shitty dad.)

3. ed tbh? hes such a shit boy. like tbh i found him kind of annoying and unlikable at first? but he’s the protag, so you KNOW he’s gotta get that good good character development throughout the series, and he does! hes a lot more complex than he seems at first and even if he’s largely STUPID about his interpersonal relationships, that’s just because he’s, y’know, a literal child, and doesn’t mean he doesn’t care a whole fucking lot about his family/friends.

The character you relate to most!

1. dave. there is an ever-expanding running tally of outside sources which have pointed him out as my government-assigned homestuck kin and at this point it would be foolish to argue. rose is a CLOSE second.

2. mob. i have a whole post about why he’s so relatable to me but tl;dr he’s got mad issues with expressing emotions outwardly, but that doesnt mean he doesnt love his friends more than fucking ANYTHING and thats a mood

3. winry. special interest hell, no time for bullshit.

The character you’d slap!

1. andrew hussie the man himself... (among a number of other characters. it would take a lot to list all of them but just know orangeman is at the top of that list)

2. touchy hoe is the obvious answer, I think.

3. envy. the nonbinary representation i deserve and you’re coming in here with that hair?? that fucking crop top monstrosity?? get the fuck out.

Three favourite characters (in order of preference)!

1. aradia, sollux, dave

2. mob, shou, serizawa

3. alphonse, riza hawkeye, olivier armstrong. im gay, what do u want from me.

A character you liked at first but don’t anymore!

1. i had a phase toward the beginning of my time in the fandom where i really really liked eridan. i don’t like... DISLIKE him now or anything, but i just... don’t really care about him all that much anymore?

2. this is hard because my love for most mp100 characters has only grown over time. i guess mezato? again i dont DISLIKE her, i kinda thought she’d have more to her character than just manipulating mob for her own interests, but then she just... didn’t, really? which was disappointing, i thought there was more potential there.

3. most of the homunculi? tbh? they all seemed really interesting and honestly opening with greed’s arc the way they did I thought they’d all get more development than they did. like... envy got some, sort of, and pride/wrath kinda did too, but like. not enough to be satisfying. and then lust gluttony and sloth were just kinda... there? idk i understand WHY they didn’t all get individual arcs because like thatd be a mess but the fact that they didnt is why my interest in them kind of dwindled off over time. (aside from greed who was Very good the whole time.)

A character you did not like at first but do now!

1. She Who Must Not Be Discoursed. like at first i was like aight shes bitchy and terrible whatever im not interested but then as time went on i was like oh shes bitchy and terrible AND interesting. idk. still have mixed feelings about vriska and i absolutely will Not get into discourse about her but yeah shes Neat if nothing else.

2. teru... honey im sorry but before i watched mp100 everyone was like “wow i love teru!” and when i first saw him i was like “... okay why tho...” but I KNOW NOW. teru did a lot of things wrong, in his life, i know this and i love him.

3. roy mustang. literally didn’t give a shit about him for like... a lot of the time? toward the end i started warming up to him tho.

Three OTPs!

1. aradia<3sollux, sollux<>terezi, dave<3karkat. like... these are just some kids who genuinely care a lot about each other, and i like to cry about that sometimes.

2. teru/mob/takenaka is a good one. teru and takenaka both like mob because he likes them regardless of the fact that they are passive aggressive dicks. they continue to be passive aggressive dicks to Each Other for a while until they like, idk, actually talk to each other like real people and realize that they have shit in common and are actually capable of being decent. After this point they Will kill or die for each other (and mob still.)  serirei is of course a classic tale of two disaster gays. and then ritshou is VERY good. like. its SO fucked up how quickly they go from like one-sided crush, one-sided Mortal Enemy Status to just. Real Chill Bros in canon it makes no sense and my only explanation is that they were both so goddamn desperate for a meaningful connection with somebody their own age that they just. Settled for each other?? at which point they got VERY lucky because they both turned out to be genuinely good and sweet boys underneath all the trauma and questionable life choices.

3. ok ed and winry are okay and all, i get the appeal and stuff but like. WHY DO PEOPLE FORGET ABOUT ALL OF WINRY’S EXCELLENT GIRLFRIENDS? paninya?? an incredible option, 10/10 cyborg gf. sciezka? cryptid live-in gal pal. LET WINRY HAVE A TON OF GIRLFRIENDS, ITS WHAT SHE DESERVES!!

gonna tag...... uh. @whentvsfly @imhereformysciencefriends @margoslxix and i think most of the other people i wouldve tagged have already BEEN tagged so uhhh mutuals all of u DO it

[nacht-koenigin]

Rules: “List ten of your favorite female characters in different fandoms and then tag ten people.”

thanks @bunniesandbeheadings for the tag :D

1. Elizabeth Bennet - Pride and Prejudice. I have to go with her! She’s really relateable, obviously--I think any human capable of empathy can relate to her--but on top of that she’s an example of an intelligent and independent woman living in a time when that was not particularly valued. That really resonated with me. Representation matters, after all, and seeing that women could be witty and fierce and clever really meant a lot to me. Plus the relationship she has with her father reminds me of my own relationship. P&P is one of the books that made me realize that old timey people were really just like us, and Elizabeth was a huge part of that.

2. Lady Sybil Branson - Downton Abbey. Yes, I watched Downton Abbey. I stopped after season 3 for obvious reasons. Sybil is another one of those intelligent, independent women who fights against what society expects of her and goes off and helps people! I just love how compassionate she is and how she tries to keep her privileged upbringing from affecting her empathy and understanding of the suffering of others.  3. Charlotte Wells - Harlots. Another JBF character! Charlotte is a fascinating character to me because she is so intense and so driven. Despite this, she hasn’t let her ambition get in the way of doing what she thinks is right. I really hope there will be a season two of Harlots so I can see where they take her vengeance plot.

4. Tess Martin - Into My Life. This one is obscure as fuck but she’s one of my favourite characters of all time so I couldn’t leave her out. I first read Into My Life when I was like, 12 or 13, and it absolutely influenced my expectations of a healthy relationship. The way Tess stands up for herself showed me how my rights and feelings as a woman matter too, and I shouldn’t brush them aside because it might make other people uncomfortable. She showed me that I should NEVER put up with bullshit, even if that bullshit is coming from the most eligible bachelor in the world. 5. Eliza Hamilton - Hamilton Musical. Listen, I know she was a real person but her musical version isn’t really the real Eliza. My favourite part about Eliza is her role at the very end, as the person who “tells our story.” As a historian, I really connected with that need for everyone’s story to be told, to be remembered for their contributions through all time. I know it’s Fashionable for historians to be dispassionate but I don’t want that! I care a lot about the people I study and I want other people to know about them!

6. The Queen of the Night - Die Zauberflöte. I just love scary queens, all right? She has some of the most incredible, technically-challenging parts of the opera, and I love her cunning. Also? In 99% of productions her aesthetic is the best. 7. Margaery Tyrell - Game of Thrones. Also, Olenna. The Tyrell women were politically savvy, and yet still more-or-less kind people. Olenna had some of the best lines in the series, and I love how unafraid she was of calling people out on their bullshit. I really dislike what the show did with Margaery but I will keep her original form in my heart forever. 8. Elizabeth Butler - Rebellion. A woman serving as a medic during the 1916 Rising, helping her nation move one step closer to independence? Sign me the FUCK up. Also Rebellion is a fantastic show, go watch it! It’s on Netflix and it’s a 5-part miniseries. Go educate yourselves!!! 9. Merrill - Dragon Age II. It’s hard picking just one woman from the Dragon Age series. I mean, if it really came down to it I might have to choose my Warden, but since no protag has a canon gender it’s hard to justify that choice. I love Merrill though, and I think her struggle with how she wants to life her life and the culture of the clan is really compelling. Add in the contrast between her general innocence and her use of blood magic and you’ve got one fascinating character!

10. Eponine - Les Miserables. If you hadn’t noticed, I love me some revolutionary women. I love how Eponine rises above her childhood and dies as somebody who fought for something important. In the musical, On My Own is one of my favourite songs because it’s beautiful and because I think we’ve all had a time where we sing that song and think of someone in particular. 

Tagging...

@suchajerk @stanzi-manzi @jagdein @mammal-that-cares @spanishsilver @harukastailfin @kroganmama   @thisispandas @oscarwetnwilde @beau--brummell

And whoever else wants to!

[avpdnoisearchive]

this is from the game Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and in case you can’t read it, it says:

“WARNING

This game contains representations of psychosis. People with experience of psychosis as well as professionals in psychiatry have assisted in these depictions.

Some may find these depictions disturbing, including those who, themselves, may have had similar experiences.

If you would like to find out more about psychosis and mental health difficulties visit: www.hellbladehelp.info.

This game also includes violent scenes that some may find distressing.”

it is so incredibly refreshing that a video game studio is taking a sensitive, researched, and accurate approach to mental illness in a medium where we are often the monsters to be killed

i’ve been following this game’s development for well over a year and they did have discussions with mental health professionals, as well as people who experience psychosis. they actually ended up adding and changing parts of the game based on what the people with psychosis told them (according to one development diary which can be found on their youtube channel). the website above includes links to mental health resources for 35 different countries. and their acknowledgment of people with psychotic symptoms playing the game is really important and genuinely helpful

it’s definitely not perfect and i’ve seen it criticized for making psychosis a plot device which is completely valid (some good articles (with spoilers!) on that here and here). and i definitely recognize that the bar is so low in respect to mental illness in video games that i’m pretty much just thrilled that the protag is the one with mental illness and she’s not the bad guy. but with that in mind, i’m still really enjoying this game and i’m just impressed with ninja theory. this is the first game i’ve played where i really feel represented and respected as a mentally ill person.

[icespyders]

Favorite Godzillas, in order?

hmm! i’m only semi-qualified to answer this since i haven’t seen most of the classic godzilla movies, bc there’s a billion of them; i cobbled together a watchlist from a couple best-of lists i found online and i started slowly going through that. but i’ve really liked them so far! also i’m bad at ranking things in lists. so i guess i’ll just ramble about some Godzilla Feelings instead

all together i’ve seen the original, mothra vs godzilla, and ghidorah the three-headed monster, as well as the two recent american ones and shin godzilla. the original is a classic, obv, and imo shin godzilla managed to capture the social/political commentary of the original and translate it to a current-day setting. i really enjoyed the constant evolutions of the godzilla in shin godzilla, and how freaky he looked and how oddly he moved.

as mentioned i really liked mothra vs godzilla and ghidorah the three-headed monster, they’re both really engaging and funny as hell. in mothra vs godzilla, godzilla basically wakes up from a nap and gets hangry and wreaks havoc all over until mothra comes to beat him up (at one point she drags him around by his tail and it’s...it’s just so fucking funny), and then her kids silly-string him half to death. and he falls down all the time and rolls down hills and shit, and his body language is constantly like...oh for fucks sake. jesus. falling down a mountain again, fucking hell. also the closest thing to a moral of the story is Godzilla Says Eat The Rich, and i’m very in favor of that. ghidorah has some awesome sound design (ghidorah’s roar!!! he sounds like a spaceship, which works great since he’s...actually from space lol) and updates to the monster costumes (like how godzilla’s and rodan’s eyes move around!!), and the big Final Showdown is incredibly awesome, and also ghidorah has one of the funniest scenes i’ve ever seen on film, namely mothra begging godzilla & rodan to stop beating each other up for 1 second so they can all go fight king ghidorah before he destroys the earth and godzilla and rodan literally go like “that’s none of our business” and refuse to help until mothra goes by herself and starts getting wrecked. i fucking lost my mind. also the B-plot about the humans involves, for some reason, with little explanation, a space princess from venus or something, and it works somehow, also the main human villain just gets crushed by a rock in the middle of a gunfight with the protag which should be anti-climatic but actually it rules

i have more diverging feelings about the two recent american godzillas; there were parts of the 2014 one i liked, vaguely, a couple cool setpieces and moments etc, and the last fight is fun and almost makes it worth it, i like godzilla’s design, but overall it wasn’t as narratively coherent as it should have been, the human characters weren’t interesting and took up too much time, the MUTOs were like...boring lmao, and NOT ENOUGH GODZILLA, also everything was so bland and gray and boring in terms of color. i mean. godzilla did behead one of those MUTO freaks with atomic breath...but it was too little too late. i got really hyped on my first watch of it bc i was blinded by the adrenaline rush of Big Monster Punch Stuff, but was let down on my second watch when i realized the plot wasn’t that good, actually. but i super enjoyed king of the monsters, i thought it improved infinitely on the current american franchise. cooler fights, more interesting human characters/moments, a great monster line-up, really fun cool monster design choices, really cool music (i love the soundtrack for this movie, holy shit, can’t recommend “old rivals” or “mothra’s song” enough), more dynamic cinematography and colors. and lots of godzilla!!! honestly i love so many of the individual design choices for the monsters; i got such a kick out of ghidorah’s heads each having their own personalities, and i loved how graceful and regal mothra was, and how rodan’s got all those embers and fire accents on him. i thought they were really thoughtful about how to revamp the designs while still staying true to the representations i’ve seen in the classic films; i specifically made sure i watched ghidorah the three-headed monster before i saw king of the monsters bc it’s got the same monster lineup and i wanted to have a sense of the original itinerations of ghidorah and rodan before i saw these new ones. 

(speaking of american godzillas: i’ve never seen the 1998 abomination and i don’t plan on it bc idk what that monster is but it’s not my friend godzilla. that shit’s just a big ugly dinosaur. no thank you)

so i guess if i were to try and rank the ones i’ve watched in order...hmm. i definitely recommend the original, you really can’t go wrong, and the final fight in ghidorah the three-headed monster is incredibly worthwhile. watching the original back-to-back with shin godzilla as a double feature would be really interesting too. i really liked mothra vs godzilla and it’s a direct sequel to the original. maybe avoid the 2014 godzilla but definitely check out king of the monsters if you prefer modern sleeker monster flicks, i know some people can’t get into rubber suit monster movies and find them too cheesy (even tho the cheesy fun is...kind of the point for the vast majority of the franchise...i think godzilla films broadly have real morals about caring for the environment and the consequences of not doing so at their foundations, but also the core conceit is Wouldn’t It Be Sick If These Big Monsters Were Punching Each Other)

i have like a dozen more classic godzilla movies on my watchlist and i’m really excited to see them! next on my agenda is destroy all monsters. thank you for asking and god bless you if you actually read all this!

[exploringfiction]

Yuri On Ice - Groundbreaking representation or cheap fanservice?

DISCLAIMER! This is all my own opinion. If you disagree with what i say, ignore the post, or better, start a debate with what you think, and I’ll be happy to discuss our points of view.

If you’ve had any sort of internet connection in recent months, you’ve heard of Yuri On Ice, the ice-skating anime that’s taken the internet by storm. The hype grew out of nowhere - Yuri On Ice (YOI) has no manga or light novel source material. The show grew so massive for one reason; at face value, YOI is centred around two male ice skaters who fall in love. Yes, I said at face value, because on further inspection into the anime, the two ‘romantic leads’ never actually confirm their relationship. So why all the fuss?

The premise

Yuri on Ice starts out as the story of Yuri Katsuki (YK), a figure skater with anxiety who majorly messes up his skate in the Grand Prix Final (a skating competition), thus coming last place and losing his self-confidence. So far, so basic shounen sports anime. He goes back to Japan, where *plot twist* his childhood idol Viktor Nikiforov (VN) is chilling in the bath, and says he will be YK’s personal skating instructor. This causes some beef between YK and Yuri Plisetsky (YP), who VN had earlier promised to train. The rest of the story is YK overcoming his anxiety and performing in competitions, and the season ends with him placing second after YP in the Grand Prix. With fanservice.

Why does everyone think it’s gay?

Firstly, YOI started out strong with astronomically high levels of homoerotic fanservice. Like, higher than Free! levels of fanservice. In the first episode alone, VN turns up naked in YK’s home, and makes sexually charged statements, such as asking to ‘sleep’ with YK. The turning point however, from Free! knockoff to ‘hey this might actually be LGBT rep’ was the infamous ‘kiss’ in episode 7. Of course, there is a slight issue with this scene.

We don’t actually see the kiss.

This was chalked up by the fandom to gay censorship by Japanese television, however this is not actually true. M/M kisses have been shown on television multiple times, the most notable examples in recent years being NO.6, Mirai Nikki and Shinsekai Yori. This is when the first alarm bells go off, because this is blatant queerbaiting. The promise of a kiss that is never seen and could be easily put down as a hug is Grade A, perfect queerbaiting. This is furthered in episode 10, where YK and VN exchange rings in a romantic style, yet YK insists that they are good luck charms, and VN jokes that he will only marry YK if he wins the Grand Prix. The relationship remains unconfirmed, although there is a pair skate after the credits on the final episode, although this is also not confirmed as a ‘couple skate’.

But what’s the issue, you ask? The relationship is never explicitly stated, yet you can quite easily infer that it is canon, as most of the fandom has. Well, ask yourself - if the couple in question was straight, would this even be a question? The answer is no. Straight couples in romances almost always make the relationship explicit, whether that be through a direct confession or a kiss on the lips. As YOI stands, it is similar to Free! in that the romance can only be inferred, although it certainly has a lot more ‘proof’ (and less actual plot, if we’re being honest here).

Many members of the fandom would disagree, but I firmly believe that YOI is a queerbait anime, and that YK/VN is not canon.

The pros

As much as YOI may be queerbaiting, it did manage to do some good things.

The soundtrack. The opening was an instant hit among fans, and I personally loved the ending theme.

The scenery shots. Although the skating animation left much to be desired, the slower and more scenery-based shots were beautifully drawn.

The diversity. The other skaters were from a range of countries, including Thailand, Kazakstan, China, and Canada, and the USA was represented by a Latino, which was lovely as we do not usually see these nationalities represented.

The side characters. Not going to lie, I thought some of the side characters were better developed than the two mains, especially JJ, Phichit, Otabek, and YP (does he count as a side character?).

YK didn’t win! Now there’s a deviation from a popular trope.

Georgi Popovich. That is all.

The cons (don’t hate me i beg)

The characterisation of YK and VN. I felt like YK was a bland character, with only the anxiety as a real character quirk. TBH, he felt like a self-insert character for the watcher to project their own personality onto. VN didn’t have much of a personality and seemed to be put there as a saviour character/love interest for YK.

YK’s character design. Just my opinion, but I felt like his design was bland and standard anime protag-ish.

The skating animation. Kind of beating a dead horse here but yeah, it’s iffy. They also reused a lot of sequences and spent waaaay too much time on the competition skates, which got kind of boring after a while.

The plot. It was very stereotypical - protag meets saviour who teaches them shizz and they go on to do GREAT THINGS.

The fanservice. I’m not judging anyone who likes a bit of fanservice (I’m not impartial myself), but to me the fanservice in YOI was creepy and left a bad taste in my mouth. However that’s just how I felt, so don’t feel bad if you enjoyed it. Better in anime than real life eh?

So why is it so popular?

If you’ve come this far, and have never seen YOI, you may be wondering, ‘but how did this mediocre show come so far?’ YOI has enjoyed insane popularity - it crashed Crunchyroll and Tumblr when the final episode aired, and it took the Crunchyroll awards by storm, taking home first place in every category it was nominated in (it was decided by popular vote). Some people (me) would even call it the biggest anime since Attack on Titan, due to the amount of non-’otaku’ viewers - that is, people who do not usually watch anime.

My theory is this. Despite YOI being a pretty mediocre show, the creators know their target audience incredibly well. The teenage girl. What do teenage girls, especially those who like anime, tend to be into? Gay boys.

Usually shows aimed at this demographic go one of two ways. The way of Free!  where there is plenty of fanservice, and lots of homoerotic tension, but nothing is ever canon, or goes as far as creating a believable but not canon romance. Or the way of Diabolik lovers, where there is a reverse harem situation, with the girl’s personality so bland that the audience can project their own personality onto her and ‘live’ the romance through a proxy. Maybe with some sexual tension between the boys for laughs (and shippers)

So what did YOI do? It combined the two. It took a bland protagonist, and mixed it with a very heavily implied gay romance, and stuffed it into a plot about ice skating. It then added moderate fanservice, but nothing too strong that would force it into a sort of reverse-ecchi genre. Combine this with a couple of moments that will convince the fans that the relationship is real (and to add interest to the show), and you have the perfect anime for teenage girls.

And it paid off. Sales of YOI Blu-rays and merch are extremely high, and the fanbase is massive enough to call it a total success. I admire YOI to be honest for knowing their target demographic so darn well. To be honest, I think the reason they didn’t make YK/VN canon was to avoid any potential homophobic backlash, but if they had made it explicit I think the show would be just as, if not more popular. And despite not being a canon romance, YOI has indeed sparked a larger discussion about LGBT representation in media, and the fandom has certainly shown showrunners that gay couples = big money. Hopefully, more anime, and indeed Western, directors, will notice the success of YOI and use it to create shows with legitimate LGBT leads and romances. And if you are a fan of YOI, don’t worry! Just because I dislike the show does not mean you are wrong or bad for loving it, canon couple or not. That’s the great thing about opinion!

Who knows, maybe after all the positive feedback, VN/YK will become canon in season 2?

TL;DR: Yuri On Ice is certainly a queerbait in my opinion, due to Viktor and Yuri not being a canon couple. However, the show has still opened up a valuable dialogue about LGBT rep in media, and has shown that a show with a leading gay ‘romance’ can be just as successful as one with a straight couple.

Thank you for reading!

- H