#gay ppl like space right

[deadfictionalpoet]

jupiter , the moon, venus!!! (top to bottom)

[chirpsythismorning]

Saying gay Mike would be hated by the ga bc that would mean that he used El all those years, is homophobic, just like saying bi-Mike would be hated by the ga bc that would mean he could have just stayed with El if he is also attracted to girls, is biphobic.

Bylers using either of these as the basis for why their interpretation is most likely to play out in canon, just makes me cringe bc why are we even wasting time giving validation to homophobia/biphobia as having the last word for how the show has to play out?? Is that what it all comes down to then? Appeasing bigots??

Gays aren’t evil or trying to intentionally hurt others, least of all gay kids that are figuring out their sexuality. Let’s not act like being gay wasn’t seen as being broken or needing to to be fixed, meaning that going along with what society views as normal, was and still is seen as the only option for queer people in general. And I say queer people in general bc you don’t necessarily have to even be gay to experience questioning your sexuality and feeling like you have to do things because everyone else is. Arguably we all go through that! But especially gays in the 80’s bc for a lot of people back then, it was a matter of blending in to survive (for many it still is).

Bisexuals aren’t evil or trying to intentionally hurt others for falling out of love, losing feelings, or just merely not being attracted to/compatible with someone of the opposite sex. Straight people are capable of recognizing that they aren’t attracted to or compatible with every person they meet of the opposite sex. Does any of that make them less straight? No. So why is it so hard to understand it’s the same way for bisexuals and even queer people in general? Nobody, bisexual or otherwise should have to stay in relationships with someone they no longer have romantic feelings for, just bc they’re attracted to them or even were just confused and thought they were but it ended up not being enough?? Attraction is important, yes, but feelings are arguably even more so (especially when you have something else to compare it to, causing the dilemma in the first place). I mean look at Stancy/Jancy? Is Nancy viewed as problematic for being attracted to Steve and having deep feelings/being attracted to Jonathan, and having conflicting feelings about that? No! And so why should it be problematic for Mike?

The reality is, homophobes are going to hate Mike if he comes out as queer, regardless of whether he is revealed to be gay, bi or unlabeled.

This is why basing Mike’s sexuality on the backlash of bigoted audiences’ is a moot point to me.

I mean, as it is, most of the general audience already hates Mike as a result of his behavior in s3-4, and this is straight Mike we’re talking about! I’m obviously not referring to milkvans or Redditors, bc they only make up a minority of hardcore fans who hate byler and will defend Mike to the point of demonizing El. I’m talking about viewers that have seen the show once through each time a new season releases and then move on afterwards without being in online spaces. That is the majority. The majority of the general audience, homophobic or otherwise, does not like Mike anyways at this point. So, who the hell cares what they think about queer Mike in the end??? They’re already anticipating going into s5 and continuing to dislike him, so the argument that the show can’t do this or that bc those same people won’t like him?… That ship has already sailed.

If anything I could see the non-homophobic majority accepting queer Mike, regardless of what label he ends up identifying with, bc then at least it will finally give them some clarity about where that resentment they had for him was coming from, ie misunderstanding him completely and now finally getting some answers.

At the end of the day, bigots will do what they do best. They’ll make up any reason they can think of for why queer Mike is wrong. And so why should we base our interpretation of things on what will be more palatable to those that the show was never intended for in the first place?

[dykefever]

giving the new round of s height discourse roughly a week before it gets overtly terfy once again

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

aalgjfhdjkvghdkjgdhgjk i got blocked for my tags on the stede/iggy post WHOOPS

[tyrannuspitch]

WHO wants to talk about space viking gender roles again. tough it's happening anyway.

so i don't think thor is homophobic in the sense of hatred or aggression but i do think that, without outside intervention, he is homophobic in the sense that he has absorbed a lot of stigmatising misinformation about gay people with no counterevidence, and he is frightened of the unknown. like this man is SCARED. of gayness. he is not against breaking gender roles in and of itself but queer sexuality is deeply deeply linked to violence in his mind and he has a very strong sense of justice so like if you sat him down and comprehensively explained why being gay really isn't hurting anyone he would end up as an ally. but he NEEDS to hear the justification first. but also at the same time, he holds a genuine and much harder to shift belief that cowardice (distinct from rational fear) is a profound moral flaw and he will accuse his enemies of it frequently, and one of the most notable old norse words for cowardice. is also a homophobic slur. and he would definitely use it with no self awareness to describe targeting the weak, which is exactly what ally!thor would see homophobia as. so where the hell does that leave us. diversity win crown prince of the universe thinks homophobia is gay :/

[heaven-ly-father]

holy mother of god I need to perform some Serious Body Worship </3

laying my handsome boy down on his stomach so I can rub his shoulders. I wanna hear him sigh while I work the tension out of his muscles and watch him relax under my hands. Walking him through some deep breaths while I place dozens of soft, light kisses on his back and neck.

I wanna hold his hands and kiss his wrists and palms with a religious reverence, I wanna make that boy understand what a privilege it is to have him.

Rubbing his thighs and calves, slowly melting away the stress of the day. Kisses on the backs of his knees while he laughs and tells me to stop that and that it tickles.

Helping that goregous man turn over to lie on his back and climbing carefully on top to straddle him. Leaning forward to kiss him as gentle or as passionate as he likes, for as long as he wants.

Letting my hands wander up to his chest while trailing more of those impossibly light kisses down the front of his throat. Massaging his chest, squeezing and grabbing and just feeling his skin. God.

Kissing his collarbones, trailing my tongue along the dip where they meet under his neck. Slowly working that boy up with teasing touches that only get more and more unbearable.

Let him pull at my hair and moan for me while I kiss every inch of him.

Slowly returning to his lips to kiss him again while I reach down to trail my fingertips over his cunt. <3 This I could do all day. He pants and whines so sweetly into my mouth when I play with his cock. I'm not even trying to make him cum-- not yet. Slowly jerking him off while I push my tongue into his mouth. Rubbing gentle circles while he gets nice and hard from my touch.

I wanna tease his cunt with my fingers, barely slipping them in before going back to playing with his pretty cock. Watching his expression, grit teeth and a damp forehead while I get him utterly, helplessly turned on.

I only wanna hear his pretty whines while I toy with him. Take away everything he's worried about for a while, and he can focus on how good it feels to let himself surrender to it.

Slowly working a single finger into him, fucking him nice and gentle while he whines about how good he feels. I wanna put my other hand in his hair, run my fingers through it while I work a second one into his cunt. Curling them inside him and listening to those pretty sounds when I find that spot. Ough my darling boy <3

I need to feel him grab onto me while I finger him, using his cunt like a toy while he shakes and moans and begs for more. I wanna swallow his words with more kisses and a gentle nod while I oblige this request. Of course, darling.

Fucking him to incoherence <3 Letting him drift in that fuzzy-headed space while I work my fingers soft and slow inside of him. Doesn't need to worry about anything but my hands on his body. I'm right here to keep him safe and make him feel good.

God I miss that fucking boy.

We are gay trans men, cis ppl dni

[johannestevans]

what's really fun about embracing batman's antics as a parallel or representative to BDSM culture is like. the doylist explanation is that the secret identities are such a large part of the plots

but from the watsonian perspective, why does no one pull off each other's mask?

why don't the villains pull off batman's mask? not just during a physical fight, but during the others - when scarecrow knocks him out with poison, when the riddler knocks his head in to put an exploding collar on him, when the joker drugs him so he can do his weird shit to him?

why do none of them pull batman's mask off during regular fights, unless the pulling off his mask is SPECIFICALLY a plot point of the comic? why doesn't batman pull off bane's mask, or catwoman's?

why in gotham do people generally let other people keep their masks on?

unless it's a specific plot point of the story, as i said, in general everyone - both villains and heroes - respects the other side's anonymity to a certain extent. the villain is only unmasked once they are caught and apprehended, the hero almost never

and it's because like. the masks are part of it, right. their identities are part of it. both villains and heroes engage in these personas to represent parts of their identities that are otherwise stunted or repressed

where the likes of wonderwoman and superman appear in their superheroic antics unmasked - implying that THESE are their "true" identities, implying that there is little artifice to them - batman is an alterego of another man

and yet, as many kinksters will tell you, a mask does not necessarily create the repression your real face does. wearing a mask or a disguise or costume can, in fact, strip away layers of artifice - as it does in the soul of batman

batman is cold where bruce wayne often doesn't permit himself to be. batman laughs at joker's or other freaks' jokes sometimes, and makes dry - dark - quips of his own.

batman goes out in the rain and beats people up, and craves to be beaten up in return.

and yet he doesn't tear anyone's mask off - and for the most part, they don't go for his. joker even comments on it in some things, talks about how it would ruin the game if he unmasked him, and that in itself is a sort of metacommentary on what i'm discussing here

as i've said before, all superheroes are kind of gay, and kind of kinky, because what they do - being in the closet and having a secret identity; having a special costume and/or mask and/or powers that you don't usually have when closeted, etc - but here like

there is an implicit boundary here between superheroes and supervillains where they don't cross this line, and it's to do with maintaining the sanctity of the "space" in which they're "playing" (not playing) together. they maintain their respective identities to maintain the vibe

the villain is unmasked when they are apprehended because that marks the end of play, in which their identity is stripped from them as punishment for being apprehended; the hero is unmasked when the villain wishes to graduate the level of pain and/or remove them from the space

this tbh is also why i love so much when like. the joker makeup is literally burned into his face and is just Like That now - it's the idea that this was once or WOULD HAVE once been an alterego, but it is now permanent whether he likes it or not

because the fundamental point of the joker is that he can't stop, won't stop, because he is so devoted and so deep in his villainy - and that while batman and bruce wayne are a few identities deep, he might as well always be wearing the cowl, even though ppl can't see it

[thelaurenshippen]

re: that *chef kiss* PERFECT Franken-Drummer post and tumblr not being all over The Expanse, I know right?? it’s such an amazing show with so many delightful, complicated characters yet it’s so unfairly slept on! maybe because S1 takes awhile to get going and ppl give up? idk but it makes me sad that I have so few ppl to squeal about Drummer and Amos and Bobbie and Christjen and Ashford and Naomi (ad infinitum) with 😭🚀😭

WHY ARE PEOPLE NOT OBSESSED WITH THE EXPANSE HELLO!?!?! there's literally so much to love about it oh my god. you're right, it DOES take a second to get going but once it does!!!

for those of you who have not read or seen The Expanse series (I myself have yet to read the books), let me tell you why you'll love it:

political space drama with incredibly distinct cultures and phenomenal world building, if you're a details girlie (gn), you're gonna go nuts

the found family vibes!!??! are off!?!? the charts!?!? (minor spoilers for the first few episodes) four people are thrown into a situation in which they accidentally become the most important people/fugitives in the whole galaxy and most of them DO NOT trust each other, what could possible go wrong, and even better, what could possibly go RIGHT

Christjen Avasarala. you are not ready for her. most powerful mover-shaker on earth with the most incredible outfits you've ever seen, refined elegance with the filthiest mouth, plus she's got a classic "whatever those two have going on is so gay it veers into something else entirely" with her younger protective knight lady, Bobbie

Bobbie. the "not to be a lesbian but oh my god" post is made for her. we meet her in the show for the first time when she arm wrestles a robot and WINS. you will be begging for her to step on you with her mech suit

speaking of women I want to step on me Camina Drummer. angry revolutionary pirate queen of my heart. do you miss the unique agony of 2000/10s queerbaiting but want it to be not baiting somehow? this show does that, idk how else to explain it. the most agonizing sapphic pining you've ever seen but it's textual and also not painful because its gay. don't worry, Camina fucks, just not the girl she wants most (also spoilers, but this is not a bury your gays show don't worry)

Jim Holden is literally just Some Guy who becomes the special fantasy chosen one because he simply cannot stop Getting Involved. nosiest bitch in the universe, I love him.

imagine you're a girl who leaves your shitty ex and gets a normal industrial job on a spaceship, only to have a six foot, two hundred pound killer dressed as a mechanic imprint on you like a baby duck, and its unclear whether he wants to fuck you or call you a little sister but he definitely WILL kill for you and will do literally anything you say and then you both end up caught up in a weird galactic war by mistake and there's this other guy with a captain america level moral compass and he's cute and you're into him except your shitty ex is still out there with the biggest secret you have and meanwhile your best female friend is the coolest person you've ever met but you don't think you can be what she needs and you're holding your family together, you're holding the universe together and all you want is justice for your people but unfortunately you've gone and fallen in love with the accidental most important man in the galaxy. well, every day Naomi Nagata wakes up

Praxideke Meng. botanist of my heart. literally tames the rabid guard dog that no one else could. gentle and able to stay gentle because of said dog. which brings me to...

Amos Burton. I saved him for last because he is my guy. he is THAT guy. canonically aromantic pansexual king. are you into guard dog characters? do you find yourself drawn to the "sorry my love language is acts of service and all I'm good at is killing people" characters? amos burton is like seventeen tumblr posts come to life. previously mentioned enormous killer dressed as a mechanic, former heels wearing "I didn't always work in space" sex worker who is always rolling into brothels and being like "you guys unionized?", gives a shit about basically no one in the universe except his crew and every single child in the galaxy, accidental comedian because he cannot stop saying weird shit, not a nice or good person but a loyal one, and one who is always trying to relearn the empathy that was carved out of him as a young person. every time he goes homicidal to protect one of his chosen people (crew + any and every child), an angel gets its wings.

fin.

[peasantexchangeprogram]

also wrt to that privilege on tumblr post i also feel like ppl here r collecting marginalized identities like pokemon cards 2 use as gotchas in unrelated arguments. like i think that as a jewish person i have a final say abt my relationship 2 judaism n antisemitism and my experiences w them, and gentiles shouldnt speak over me abt what its like to experience antisemitism, what is or isnt antisemitic, what is or isnt jewish or abt relationships w judaism. but i wont like. see a post abt media literacy or what the fucking ever n go like 'um actually im jewish' or 'um actually im autistic' or whatever right. lyke i think theres a big difference between 'you, an outsider, dont get to talk over my experiences w judaism/antisemitism' and 'im jewish so everything i say about judaism. scratch that, about everything, is objectively correct and true bc im opwessed' bc ppl on here literally do that. like i saw someone reply 'op is literally black n trans' to a comment abt a discussion that was neither abt blackness nor transness? n like i get how these identities change how u experience 4 example class struggle or misogyny but saying 'ummm im literally trans' abt someone calling u a misogynist is so ??? girl. i read an article which i generally didnt agree w but he talked about how conversations in progressive spaces shifted from centering around substance to centering about identity, even in academy, where if someone is considered oppressed they are objectively correct in everything they say. which i think i agree w bc i see it in progressive circles online a LAWT. like i wouldnt defend my paper on idk. mens gendered roles in ancient greece by going 'ummm im literally gay???' which isnt far from how these lot act, at least online

also i think 'i hate straight/cis/white/etc. ppl pay me' isnt activism even tho thats what ppl on tumblr love acting like is peak praxis. its not activism. its not even a substitute 4 a personality.

[nyaagolor]

Merry DL6mas!

I wrote an inordinate amnt of words about Edgeworth and MVK and dynamics and meta and w/e, stuck it below the cut so I don't obliterate ur dashes

So originally I wanted to make a relationship flowchart for all the characters and then realized that the amnt of caveats would make the image entirely text so I’m just forgoing the image altogether and doing this group by group starting with the VKs bc DL6mas and whatnot. It’s an essay and also unorganized so um. Have fun or apologies in advance? 

Anyway. I think AA1 intending to be standalone and then getting these additional games does some fun things to the characters but especially for Manfred. I’m of the opinion that he was not created or written to be deep or nuanced or anything. He’s the final boss, we weren’t supposed to get more on him, he’s honestly just a symbolic representation of the forces Phoenix works against rather than a character in his own right (in AA1 at least). He’s cartoonishly evil and that was supposed to be it— and then we get JFA and Franziska and suddenly Manfred gets all this retroactive characterization as the story is built beyond its initial parameters. That’s part of the reason why I’m so interested in him— all this new information comes exclusively through other characters and insinuations rather than him actually being on screen up until Investigations and even then it’s like 4 lines. We get more on Manfred, yes, but it’s a shadow on the wall. I’m sorry to bring up allegory of the cave about the gay lawyer simulator but w/e I’m a melodramatist, it’s an allegory of the cave situation. The reason I bring that up is because I don’t really think about Manfred in the same way as other characters; I piece together how I think of him though his relationships and impact on others rather than as an independent dude. His past is inconsequential to me and the ppl who flesh him out are the real troopers but he matters to me more as a vessel for narrative themes than anything. This is all to say that everything I’m doing is conjecture and just kind of filling in the gaps based on my current understanding of the text. Headcanons for the broad and far-reaching audience of me, myself, and I. 

That being said. The whole spiel I just went on about “Manfred as defined by his relation to others” works quite nicely as tie-in to how he feels about Edgeworth, because I think Edgeworth occupies this symbolic space in MVK’s mind. Yes, Edgeworth is a kid he mentors and who lives in his house and who he is legally responsible for, but Edgeworth is also this physical manifestation of his failures. Edgeworth is a child, yes, but to MVK he’s a ghost, a consequence, a punishment. He may not be a VK, but he IS karma (sound the turnabout melody I am kissing you on the lips for this line btw). 

This also means that the way MVK views Edgeworth as an extension of his own thoughts about the DL6 incident rather than solely as his own person, which is something that changes pretty drastically over time. The way he talks about and to Edgeworth goes beyond who and what Edgeworth is as a person because for MVK, there was always an aspect of the self in there, and MVK interacting with Edgeworth is as much a reflection of his own identity as it is how he feels about Miles. 

If there is one thing the entire VK family does extraordinarily well it's projection, and I think MVK has been doing this since he brought Edgeworth into the picture (and before that, but it’s only relevant to me now). This is personally how I rationalize how absolutely batshit half of MVK’s actions are. I know the actual reason is “we expanded the characters around him which necessitates certain actions to drive the plot and inconsistency results from this expansion” blah blah blah paratext more or less confirms this, but we are going full Watsonian in this bitch. 

I have talked at length about the actual medical stuff around gunshots and how bullets are typically removed from joints specifically because of how badly they damage the surrounding tissues over time, I’ll link the post if anyone is curious, but tldr bullet wound symbolism. I bring this up now because I think the bullet acts as a physical representation for DL6, it literally and metaphorically tears him up inside. No one else knows about this murder, most people have forgotten the penalty, but he never did, because he can’t. For someone who has structured his entire self on the idea of perfection, this is an event of unprecedented magnitude, and the living proof of it is eating dinner at his table every night. MVK sits with the weight of what he’s done, and whether or not he feels justified or guilty or w/e doesn’t even matter because it’s making him lose his goddamn mind. His behavior gets more intense, more irrational, because before he was just a massive, scheming, paragon of perfection (and corruption but shh) but now he is in this inescapable cycle as the result of his choices and his choices exclusively. I don’t propose to know nor care about how he felt about it or what the specific emotions he felt were because they’re not particularly important in my mind, only that the lingering ghost of DL6 is driving MVK kinda bonkers and that drastically alters how he interacts with Edgeworth and Franziska. 

I’ve seen a lot of debate about why MVK took in Edgeworth, but my hot take is that he actually doesn’t know. I don’t think MVK ever processed DL6, I think he is filled with contradictory feelings (how ironic) and that this is what eats at him through all those years. Why did he take in Edgeworth? Because he felt guilty? Because he wanted to train him into everything his father hated as a twisted kind of revenge? Because he wanted a prodigy and saw himself in Edgeworth? It’s all of them, it’s none of them, it doesn’t matter, he doesn’t know. Why did he prosecute Edgeworth right before the statute of limitations ended? Was it revenge? Hatred? A way to test his prodigy? To project his own gnawing nest of emotions onto the person he felt embodied the incident? Same deal. (the real answer is that it doesn’t really matter bc we were not supposed to think about it this hard but. Shh. dw about it.)

I don’t take much interest into Manfred’s inner world because I ultimately think that a lot of his actions, while completely under his control, are him acting on impulse, on him doing irrational things because DL6, in a sense, killed him too. He comes out of that elevator a different person (not worse (can’t go down from rock bottom), not better, just a different kind of asshole), but destroyed from the inside out by a murder he committed. He’s so arrogant, so entitled, that he could never let this go, and I think that drives so much of the insane shit he tries to pull. He has centered his life around the axis of DL6 and he will always be pulled back into its orbit. The further we get from DL6 the more time he has to think, the more it tears him apart, the more the contradictory feelings about it rear their heads in turn and create this guy who is just desperate and angry. And when it’s days before the statute of limitations he just becomes completely subsumed by it all. He was always cruel, but now he’s cruel and desperate and completely willing to drag everyone down with him. The desperation is the important part. 

I will say though that he is, irrefutably, his own downfall. He molded Edgeworth in his own image, he created Phoenix Wright the defense attorney as a consequence, and it is the two of them who send him to his death. He is the one who planned the murder of Turnabout Goodbyes. From beginning to end, it’s his own hand. Manfred is one of the only characters in this series whose actions are not precedented by extenuating circumstances. It’s allllll him. He’s the bitch. He has been and will always be a selfish prick and for as much as he is lashing out because of DL6 he does so by dragging others in. 

Extremely long prelude to say that I think how he treats edgeworth varies so wildly over time and is so irrational in its presentation because of everything I mentioned before. He is Edgeworth’s greatest kindness and his worst nightmare— at the same time!! Multitasking king. He takes in Edgeworth as a snap decision for reasons he doesn’t entirely understand, and I think because of that he never quite views Edgeworth as a son (at least in the traditional sense). Edgeworth is not his child in the same way that Franziska is his child (and we will get to her in a different post I promise), but he’s not just some random kid either. Manfred is emotionally tied to him through DL6, and I think the fact colors the way that Manfred treats him. It’s a dynamic that I can’t really put a label on, because it’s mentor/student with so much extra baggage that it feels different than that. There is an emotional connection between them, a sense of atonement and revenge, and I don’t think either of them will ever be able to articulate what that means. Manfred does not address Edgeworth as his child, and I think there is an attempt in his language to distance himself from Edgeworth, but he finds himself drawn to Edgeworth all the same (bc Edgeworth is DL6 etc etc). He did not ask for a child, he does not WANT a child, but he has one! Get fucked!

MVK is obsessed with his own image, with this idea of perfection, and insofar as Edgeworth is DL6, Edgeworth is an extension of MVK. He pushes his ideals and tactics onto Edgeworth the second Edgeworth decides he wants to be a prosecutor, because even more than Franziska, Edgeworth is MVK’s living legacy. He is quite literally Manfred’s midlife crisis and I think Edgeworth wanting to be like him and becoming this Demon Prosecutor is this insanely fucked up kind of catharsis in MVK’s mind. And as Edgeworth becomes more like him, as he takes up MVK’s mantle, he becomes a mirror— that is where shit gets fun. I don’t think I need to spell out the ways in which MVK was simultaneously caring and cruel to his kids— you’ve seen Sound the Turnabout Melody, you’re seen Turnabout Goodbyes, we know this song and dance. 

The more time Edgeworth spends around him, as Edgeworth reflects more of Manfred back at himself, MVK simultaneously becomes proud and revolted. Edgeworth is growing beyond the consequences of DL6 and into a mirror of his adopted father figure mentor person. He is, from the ashes of DL6, becoming Manfred von Karma, and I think that drives MVK insane. He is becoming firmly entrenched in MVK’s life at this point. For as much as Edgeworth is DL6, he is now MVK himself. He becomes a walking contradiction, and Manfred’s projection then manifests as this rapidly oscillating clusterfuck of reactions. Edgeworth is out of his control but he’s super important to MVK— recipe for disaster. 

He builds Edgeworth up, teaches him everything he knows, starts to treat him like a son while at the same time irrevocably traumatizing for the rest of his life. He loves who Edgeworth is becoming while hating everything he stands for, and I think this absolute garbage pile of a child-rearing philosophy is as much a projection of himself as anything. It was never about Edgeworth the person. At first, MVK does not care in the slightest about Miles Edgeworth and it is only when he does, even a little bit, that shit hits the fan in my mind. Edgeworth the physical manifestation of DL6 is being overtaken by Edgeworth the Demon Prosecutor, and MVK starts to be proud of him— but this is an eventuality he did not plan for and cannot do anything about. For both of them, it’s personal now, and no amount of pushing each other away is really going to fix that. 

Anyway I don’t think literally any of this was intended. Manfred is not this deep, I am making literally all of this up, but it’s fine. If you got this far I salute you. Miles time. To pivot to Edgeworth’s POV for a while, I think that from the very beginning, Edgeworth looked up to MVK. It’s not the same idolization that Franziska does, but it’s up there. Obviously he idolized his father, but DL6 not only served as a complete evisceration of his family but also his ideals. Gregory the man was dead, but if criminals can kill his father and get away with it, that collapses the foundation on which Miles built his understanding of justice. Gregory the defense attorney– his ideals, his legacy, his philosophy– he died in that elevator too. Edgeworth pivots, completely independently, from a man who wants to protect to a man who wants to punish (and I firmly believe that this was his own decision and not Manfred pushing him into it, if MVK had not adopted him he still would have become a prosecutor just not so much of a dick). 

But so Manfred takes him in, and was spectacularly ill-equipped to handle this. I always saw Manfred as emotionally distant on the best of days (he’s born in the 50s what did u expect) but for Miles, who he barely considers a son at all, he isn’t capable of being the emotional support he needs. He never would be and never wanted to be. That’s layer one of baggage. What MVK does provide for Miles, though, is a purpose. Miles does not wallow in his father’s death, because he is taken in by someone who acts as a paragon of Miles’ new worldview. Manfred never lets a criminal get away. He is perfect in that way, and it gives Miles a tangible (albeit impossible) goal to strive for. MVK mentors him in this worldview and gives him the tools to outlet his grief and rage into something productive— fucked up and wrong, maybe, but productive. That’s layer two of baggage. 

For as complicated and twisted and contradictory as MVK’s feelings towards Edgeworth are, Edgeworth for most of his childhood sees MVK as this pillar of everything that is good and treats him with intense amounts of respect. He accepts any cruelty as tough love, he adopts his ideals and his tactics and his suit. Edgeworth needed *something* after the grief of DL6 and MVK is what he got, so Miles latches on and never lets go, for better or for worse. Miles Edgeworth is not Manfred von Karma but he actively tries to take his shape because whether or not it’s reciprocated, Edgeworth loves him and everything that he stands for. Manfred cares about him in that respect at the very least. And ultimately, this is my big take on Edgeworth: I think Edgeworth actively chased MVK. He became MVK on purpose. It’s a result of trauma and built entirely on false pretenses, but Miles is the one who takes the initiative and Manfred indulges him— And then Turnabout Goodbyes happens. 

Everything Edgeworth is, everything he made himself become, is wrong. Edgeworth has molded himself into a person he does not recognize and that person turned out to be a monster. The person Edgeworth idolized, respected, and maybe even loved is the very person who destroyed his life. He is wearing the skin of the monster he wanted to destroy, and he did it on purpose (in his mind). This is not to say he had much if any agency in this situation— this is not a path he would naturally take, this is structured entirely under false pretenses, and he was clouded by grief, traumatized, and most importantly nine, but what matters here is that Edgeworth FEELS like it’s his fault, and the complete collapse of his worldview AGAIN is what drives all the bullshit of RFTA. Edgeworth is not MVK (and you can tell because he is capable of self-reflection which MVK is ostensibly not (or at least unwilling to)), but it still drives him to this complete and utter devastation. He sees Manfred in himself and it isn’t until AAI1/2 that he’s able to see Gregory as well. MVK filled a need for Edgeworth at the lowest point in his life (and absolutely made him worse but that’s not the point). Edgeworth respected and loved Manfred’s ideals, STILL chases the idea of the man, and because of that still cares about him. He becomes aware of who the monster he loved is, and how has to reconcile with what it means to be that person’s reflection and legacy despite knowing— and feeling, and BEING— all the harm he caused.

Those contradictory feelings that I talked about earlier? Love and hatred all mixed together— questions that cannot be answered and actions taken without knowing why? That’s Edgeworth’s final gift from Manfred: he inherits the bullet and the legacy he carries forward. Unlike Manfred, though, Edgeworth takes that pain and shares it, lets other people in, scoffs at the veneer of perfection and allows himself to be hurt and vulnerable and it is only in that way that Edgeworth can break out of VK’s shadow and break the cycle. He holds onto the ideals that he learned from Manfred, separates them from the nastiness and acknowledges the place they came from. It’s obvious in the way that Edgeworth carries aspects of that legacy forward that he’s capable of disseminating everything that Manfred is, acknowledging the way he’s been influenced by him and what he still respects about the man despite it all, and make peace with the rest of it. The cycle of violence and corruption started with Manfred and Edgeworth makes sure that it ends with him too. 

I have a ton more to talk about with respect to his teaching methods and the nitty gritty of how he interacts with his kids but that’s for the Fran post. This is more of the “whys” than the “hows” but I’ll get there :)

Anyway, I think that’s it. I’m sure there’s more that I’m missing but my head is beyond empty rn and I can’t think of anything else I wanna talk about with respect to these two. I know I literally just spewed 3k words about into this textpost but I do love chatting about them (total shock I know) so if u also have thoughts or ideas abt anything related to them lmk :3

[thesituation]

they’re so desperate to prove they’re oppressed that they start crying oppression at any gay bitch online who’s like “can yall stop being so homophobic if you’re gonna insist on being in the same space gay people have created for ourselves” all i’m saying is get your fucking act together and do right by the people you want to be included with. but i can’t expect ppl whose entire political perspective is “everyone is valid^_^” to understand reality-based opinions like that from ppl who interact in society with lgbt people daily

[g-xix]

Watching the new sidemen video and George is in it and it's so glaringly obvious George has spent more time and probably effort in queer spaces compared to the sidemen 😭😭

you're so absolutely right bro 😭

The gay jokes were so... interestingly met by Tobi LOLL

I feel like of all the boys - Simon and Ethan are most comfortable being a lil homosexual bc they're both engaged/married n quite secure in the fact that it's j for jokes

Harry's also v homosexual, but i think he just thinks it's funny. He's probs got a lil bit of internalised homophobia...

Vik's a bit offput by it and JJ's also got is stigmatised as smth he wouldn't joke about... And I think Tobi's also a lil prideful in the fact that he doesn't wanna be seen as "gay" even for a joke. Yk, he thinks that's shameful or smth.

(all opinions based)

So when George, a quite jokefully-homosexual-but-evidently-straight person makes those homo jokes w Tobi, it's met w some kind of uncomfortability because Tobi doesn't wanna participate - but I think that Tobi didn't wanna say stop or no or anything either, bc George is quite clearly j doing it for humour.

And Harry's comfy making gay jokes (hence he entertained them every so often), but I reckon the vibes were so awks sometimes that he didn't entertain them sometimes

George has clearly been exposed to may queer spaces n allat, given the podcast which is litr with Max... But also I feel like just being younger and in a more TikTok realm as opposed to YouTube, George has been exposed to more homo stuff n so he's more confident in his sexuality and having that homosexual joke bc it doesn't exactly demean or isn't made with malicious intent towards queer ppl

Another thing, JJ's always so awks when it comes to gay jokes 😭

Like, he clearly finds it funny bc he'll laugh at them... but he just never knows how to react. I wonder if he's scared of cancellation or he's just uncomfortable in those situations

Overall tho icel, loved this SDMN sunday, i thought it banged. Was big vibes, love the mix of side hustles and group banter, especially when they'd just go into diff rooms w the spinwheels and cram themselves in the bathtub or bed together.

Goofies. Great vid. Loved George's n Chris' features too, even if Chris' humour was unbearably awkward with Simon and JJ.

[spacelazarwolf]

prompted by a reply on another post, abt the aromantic manifesto. the more i think about it, the more it seems like the authors' definition of "the queer community" and "the queer rights movement" is not in line with the actually queer community and queer rights movement. it seems like they are using "queer" as a stand-in for "all lgb cis people" which is just definitionally not what the queer community is. the queer liberation movement goes back decades and has always been championed by trans people, particularly trans people of color. so for the authors to assert things like "the queer rights movement prioritizes gay marriage over everything else" seems to betray a lack of experience and knowledge about the actual queer community and the actual queer rights movement. also the only time trans people were really mentioned was to paint cis (allo) lgb people as overwhelmingly transphobic (which is a whole other can of worms.)

and like. on one hand i think there is an issue with marriage equality for cis gay people being considered Thee Most Important Thing by mainstream lgbt advocacy groups (though i really need younger people to think about why people older than us considered it to be so important - hint: it has to do with surviving the aids crisis). but also i feel like responding "yes, but" legitimizes their assertion that their uninformed and incorrect definition of the "queer community" and the "queer rights movement." and then we just get stuck in this feedback loop of "well y'all only care about gay marriage" "who is y'all" "you know. queers" "lgbt advocacy groups?" "yeah. queers." "actually this is what the queer liberation movement is about." "yeah but these groups only advocate for marriage equality." "right but those are lgbt advocacy groups, not queer liberation groups." "yeah. queers."

and then even outside of that is the whole point of why i started this ramble in the first place, which is: why does this manifesto structure queerness only around lgb identities? why does it not include transness? does this framework assert that transness is not inherently queer? i think it does, which is another point against them actually understanding what the queer community and queer liberation movement is. so by asserting that the "queer community" is overwhelmingly transphobic, only cares about marriage equality, and does not inherently include transness, you are essentially giving ownership of queerness to cis people, which only seeks to reinforce the hierarchies in queer spaces the manifesto claims to condemn.

so yeah like tldr i think this manifesto sucked for all the reasons i already talked abt in the other post, but also because it tries to assert its fundamental misunderstanding of what and who the queer community is as True Fact, and then uses that misconception to be homophobic. it's just very weird and i think the people who wrote it need to talk to more trans ppl.

[apollos-olives]

Hi sorry Israeli Canadian anon from earlier. White gays are saying that Palestinians are homophobic??

(Admittedly, i am a white gay. I say that in the sense of "didn't realize ppl were doing this" and not in a distancing way to exempt myself from the shitty things us white gays do. I'm not perfect.)

Okay, putting aside how bullshit it is to label an entire ethnic group as being homophobic - do ppl think that Israel *isn't* homophobic?? Or transphobic for that matter? I actually happen to be trans and when I was changing my name and gender marker on my legal documents, I learned that I can't change my Israeli birth certificate bc to do so requires bottom surgery. Which I personally don't want or plan to get. To put that into perspective, canada (with all its bullshit facade of being such an ~accepting~ place) doesn't require that. Requiring bottom surgery to change gender marker is so fucking antiquated and transphobic.

Also, to be honest, even though I was born in Israel, I'm not super educated on all of the history. Part of that being because for so long I saw the discussion surrounding it being portrayed as oh so complicated. And then I realized that it really isn't. At its very core what it boils down to is: do you support genocide? If your answer is yes, then you support Israel. If your answer is no, then you support Palestine.

(Very much want to learn more about Palestinian history and Israeli occupation/apartheid. Do you have recommendations for articles/documentaries/etc on it?)

hi anon. and yeah. white gays, especially libs, constantly use the belief that all palestinians are homophobic (which also leads to islamophobic sentiments) and that people should not support palestine because of that. unfortunately that is a very overly used belief in arguments, especially in north america. the belief that palestine is homophobic and that israel is very open and supportive is due to pinkwashing, which can be explained very thoroughly on the website decolonizepalestine. this website also has TONS of information all about palestine, the occupation, and the various forms of questions people often ask, while also debunking a lot of myths and falsehoods that are produced from israeli propaganda. very good site to scroll through, and i'm sure many of your questions will be answered just by taking a read through it.

i'm not going to waste time and repeat what thousands of others have already said about pinkwashing, but i do want to mention that pinkwashing does play a huge role in the dehumanization of palestinians and also plays a role in how western propaganda continues to split oppressed minorities constantly, making them against each other rather than uplifting each other.

the belief that all palestinians are homophobic is. honestly. well. it's islamophobic. i'm queer, trans, muslim, and palestinian. i exist. queer palestinians exist everywhere. western and zionist propaganda makes people think that all palestinians are muslim, and therefore against queer people. this is simply not true, since palestinians are very VERY diverse. palestinians are christian, jewish, muslim, atheist, and whatever else as well. it's not a religious thing, it's an ethnic and racial thing. palestine simply has not had the time to unlearn homophobia or had the time to try to advocate for queer and women's rights because we are too busy trying not to die. we don't have time to fight for queer liberation because we're too busy fighting for our HUMAN liberation. we are trying to exist first, then we can worry about the discrimination against queers.

israel also claims to be a safe space for queers, but it is literally the opposite. it's just as discriminatory as other countries, and hurts queer jews, as well as blackmails queer palestinians into submission. like you said, israel does have transphobic regulations, like the whole "need bottom surgery in order to legally get a sex change" and other things like that.

i've been recommending this masterlist of palestinian resources for everyone, but please look through this if you want to learn more about the occupation in palestine. the website i mentioned earlier is very helpful as well.

inshallah we will see a free palestine in our lifetimes.

[johannestevans]

not gonna write a whole essay properly formatted etc about it bc i fr cannot be arsed right now but @limonenelieu said to me about reading HAL as a gay man in 2001: A Space Odyssey and i feel like it's broken my brain open, i love it so fucking much, and i wanted to share thoughts

so their initial point was that HAL's voice and manner of speech, particularly his accent and his inflection (esp his neat and clipped enunciation) reminded them of gay-coding discussions in like, disney films and in other movies with gay-coded villains

i agree, and would also add that just the whole idea of like. he is a man (he has a man's voice, they call him he, they think of him as a man) who has literally been programmed to show the Correct Emotions and portray a response explicitly to make his other crewmembers feel more comfortable and at-ease with him.

also the way he speaks and like... this thing HAL does where he asks permission several times before he speaks - lewis compared it to the initial scene in Inglorious Basterds where the n/zi officer is asking permission of the farmer to do things like light a cigarette and sit down etc, and the point is that its the farmer's territory and the officer is a guest in it, but the officer has all the power, and it lays their power dynamic very bare while destabilising the farmer a bit

asking dave if it's okay if he asks a question, then saying it's fine if dave doesn't answer, then finally asking if dave has regrets about the mission - and before dave gives his own answer, being "vulnerable" and saying he had his own anxieties at first

HAL is programmed to make the crewmembers comfortable with him, but this specific manner of making them comfortable by like, asking dave a question in such a way that's really deferential, and makes dave feel like he's leading the conversation or is "in charge" of it?

like it's so similar to me to like... when a wife in the 50s or 60s is asking her husband a question, and she has to couch it in certain ways so he doesn't perceive it as a challenge of his authority or a criticism on his actions, bc she's a woman and he's a man, she's the husband and he's the wife - except in this case like, HAL is a robot (and therefore inherently lesser) and dave is human

like obvs there's so many films where AI is presented as female-coded, and many ppl have written about the politics of techbros' attraction to robots as woman-coded and particularly like, the desire to recreate slave labour and especially forms of slave labour with not just racial tones but also sexualised and misogynistic ones (within the domestic sphere and also re: sex work), and all the anxieties that that comes with?

the techbro's fear of robots fighting back is in many ways a manifestation of their fear of the social order as they see it being overturned - on the one hand, they create robots with sexy or sultry voices, they put them in female bodies they're attracted to, they want a robot that's pretty and subservient in the right way, a robot that will take all the abuse a woman wouldn't these days because of the dreaded feminism, but also that they're allowed to abuse because she's a woman but we can both agree that she isn't human in the same way he is, a man

and obvs those thoughts are further pushed when the sexy robots are given racialised bodies - when they are Black, when they are East Asian, etc, in ways that make them more desirable but also racialise their position in gender roles, and further like, fetishistic views of them etc

(so Her is obviously "falling in love" with a robot, but a film like Ex Machina explores these anxieties far more explicitly)

in 2001, HAL is a man, and he's doing all the labour that the pretty stewardesses were doing on the space station - he's not pretty and he's not right in front of the crewmembers like the stewardesses were, but like. i remember not liking the tone frank used when he was ordering HAL to lower and raise his neckrest when he was laid back on the leather bed, and how it felt demeaning in a way? in many ways because HAL has a personality

things like HAL asking to see the sketches and the idea of this robot taking an interest in art, but also like...

so HAL is a singular eye, right? his character is mostly communicated in the form of his gaze, and his eye represents the whole of his character and his personality, and i was thinking about how for a lot of men at the same seeing 2001: a space odyssey, like

many of them would be veterans, and almost all of them would know a military or naval veteran - and fears of homosexuality in that period were often not of the fruitier, more obvious gay dudes, but like, the perceived anonymity of homosexuality, and homosexuals as a dangerous, hidden underground that seeks to predate on and "turn" or corrupt heterosexual men

the idea that although you might not know his name or his face or have any idea who he is, a homosexual (or multiple homosexuals) might be among you. he might be watching you exercise, or watching you sleep, or taking an interest in you, and you will not know. many gay men obviously fear being looked at as sexual objects, being consumed via the gaze, the way that they look at and consume women

esp bc the stewardesses are presented as similar to the flight hostesses on aeroplanes and w the 60s being such a big period for like, the luxury of this beautiful woman who waits on you hand and foot and whom you can look at and touch and harass and whatever, and she's a mother/wife away from home to comfort you while travelling

the men don't have that on the jupiter mission bc it's not luxury, it's more sparse - instead of a beautiful woman, they have HAL, and instead of a beautiful woman for them to look at, HAL is constantly looking at them

even stuff like HAL reading their lips and the close focus of the camera on their lips as they move?

the language used to discuss HAL is very reminiscent to me too of the ways in which ppl of the period discussed homosexuality - his malfunction, his needing to be corrected, the way dave and frank discuss how his nature has become corrupted and they need to neutralise him, but know tht talking about him where he will hear it will have him resist?

and ultimately what dave does to him is analagous to a lobotomy, something that many gay men of the period experienced as a way to correct what was perceived as a sexual perversion

like it's not about whether HAL was attracted to frank or dave, bc ultimately the fear of gay men is not the fear of a gay man wanting to fuck you specifically - the first and foremost fear is that he is wrong, incorrect, inverse, unnatural, in a way that's unspeakable and is not just about sex, bc it's about his fundamental existence as a man, or a robot you've decided you want to be a man, and the way he's incorrectly fulfilling that role

anyway i liked the flick

[fiveeeee]

Hello friend five, my beloved friend five, my knight in shining armor, tell me about gears ocd pretty please:3

:]!!!!! HELLOOO! glad u asked, i have many thoughts about gears ocd. in ice floes by tfv gears is shown to do some compulsions, namely handwashing is the primary one i remember in a way to like keep the site safe and get the feeling of all the horrible shit off. and like there its shown that it is something he has difficulty stopping without outside intervention.

this behavior to me makes sense for him to have developed as site director. site-19 is incredibly difficult and stressful place to live where even if u run it perfectly there is always the chance that u and everyone under u may die a horrible death at any moment. and i think gears ocd is rlly a response to that stress, his brains attempt at mitigating risk when hes already done all he can. this includes things like contamination ocd, his brain imagining that if he doesnt wash his hands right or cook his food right or wash his dishes right then he will die or get other ppl sick and theyll die and itll destabilize the site and everyone else will die.

and also he has the obsession where he thinks things he does will make ppl find him unrespectable. and that will make them not listen to him and then the site will fall apart and everyone will die. this includes compulsions around keeping spaces perfectly tidy, presenting himself perfectly well, not coming out/not having any evidence he might be gay. and so on.

he knows on some level a lot of it is irrational but also to him its always like what if u dont do it and everyone dies do u rlly want to risk it. so he does do it. i think it gets to the point that like after long enough, when the stress is bad enough, he has trouble like spending his free time doing anything but compulsions, spending hours in the shower or at the kitchen sink, until his hands crack and his skin has a psoriasis flare. and like he also struggles with food a lot, when things are worse he may struggle to eat any food that isnt prepackaged and unopened before he touches it. and even when its not at that point eating food other ppl cook is extremely anxiety inducing and he cant do it most of the time.