#he is very clearly queercoded

[hoperays-song]

[puphoods]

isaac thebindingof is the gayest little baby ever made

[lgbtlunaverse]

This page from the adventurer's bible makes me want to cry

Like basically any neurodivergent dungeon meshi fan, I see a lot of myself in the Touden siblings. But I was blindsided by just how much I suddenly related to Falin in this little comic from the adventure bible's complete version.

It's about the Touden siblings' differing relationships with their parents, and why Laios still holds their treatment of Falin against them, while Falin herself doesn't.

We know that Falin was isolated and ostraziced by their village after she saved Laios from a ghost, displaying her uncanny affinity for magic. Her parents, instead of defending her, sent her away, which angered Laios so much he ran way himself before Falin even left for magic school, hoping to make a living so he and Falin could live together alone.

He tells Marcile this, but when she goes to Falin, she says she sees things differently. Her father sent her to magic school to protect her form the rest of the village without having to cause a conflict. He didn't explain that, and we actually see her burst into tears when he says it.

But, well... Laios was gone for a year before Falin went to magic school, and everyone else in the village avoided her. The understanding Falin has with her parents to me looks like one borne out of necessity, she literally didn't have anyone else to talk to.

And this is where we get to the page that made me want to cry

Like I said, I relate to the Toudens because I'm neurodivergent myself. that feeling of suddenly realizing you're disliked, but not knowing what you did wrong or what you should have done instead? Yeah... that's one I recognize.

When I was around 9 years old, the same age Falin is in this comic, a bunch of kids in my class decided to make a "game" where you lost if you touched me. It was basically the 'cheese-touch' from diary of a wimpy kid, except I always had it and couldn't pass it along. They'd pretend I was poisonous or disgusting and run away from me screaming or gagging. The point was to make fun of me. But my autistic little 9 year old ass thought "Oh I get it! It's tag but I'm always it!" So I... played along. Running at a boy and having him fall on the ground screaming in fake pain because you tapped him is, in isolation, pretty funny.

It wasn't until months into the "game" that I realized it was meant to be meanspirited. That the reason I was the one who was always 'it' wasn't an arbritrary rule but the whole point. Because I was weird and gross. I wasn't in on the joke, I was the punchline.

Falin may have come to understand her parents' intentions, but she didn't always. The adventure bible actually tells us that she at first didn't even notice that the rest of their village disliked her. She clearly knows now, but she had to be told. So when her mom tried to exorcise her, she just saw it as an activity she got to do with a mother she usually didn't get to spend much time with because of her poor health. It's only Laios who notices something is wrong.

(Sidenote, Laios being hyper-aware of people's poor attitudes towards Falin but completely blindsided when he's in the same spot, like with Toshiro, is also very relatable as an eldest sibling)

It probably also took Falin months, until after her brother had left and she had no one but her parents, to realize why her mother had been doing all those things.

And I know they're not the same. Even misguidedly, Falin's mom was trying to help her, not make fun of her like those boys in my class. (Though, as a queer person who also cares a lot about the queercoding in Falin's storyline, a parent trying to 'exorcise' their child of a fundamental part of them the parent thinks is evil or corruptive? yeah... that's not perfectly wholesome)

But do you know what I did, when I finally figured out the game was always meant to make fun of me?

To me, it looked like I had a choice.

See, those boys eventually figured out I didn't understand that they were being mean to me. I'd laugh every time I managed to catch one of them, I was visibly having fun. And while it no doubt only made me more of a weirdo in their eyes, they never informed me that I shouldn't be enjoying myself. That the point was for me to feel hurt.

So now that I did know, I had a choice. I could either get upset, and let the insult land as it was supposed to. That wouldn't stop them, because making fun of me was the original goal. Or I could ignore it and go on as usual. They had already accepted that I didn't get it, and they weren't gona stop me from having fun, so why should I?

And the thing is that I had... one friend, in that whole class. One person who actually liked talking to me and hanging out with me. I was lonely. And the 'game' provided me with another social interaction, mean-spirited as it was, that I desperately needed. And it was so delightfully simple. Navigating actual friendships as a kid with autism and adhd was so fucking complicated, and I'd never know when I might break an inivisble rule. But I knew the rules to the game perfectly!

Sometimes, if I was chasing one of them, the others would trap him and hold him down so I could tap him. In those moments it actually did kind of feel like I was playing with them, rather than against them. And it didn't change much, they didnt start actually liking me. But they were willing to roll with the fact that I wasn't upset, and I took advantage of that because I needed to.

So you can look at Falin seeing the best in her parents as her being naïve, but I look at this page and I see myself, at first unable to differentiate between playing and being made fun of. And then later, when I did see the difference, deciding not to get mad about it because that'd mean losing that social interaction, and I couldn't afford to.

Like I said, Falin probably first realized this in the year she spent with her brother gone, and everyone else avoiding her like the plague. If she refused to talk to her parents, like Laios did, she'd have no one left.

I see a lot of people relating to the fight between Laios and Toshiro. that frustration when you realize someone you thougth was your friend actually hates you, and they never said anything, never gave you a chance to fix it because you had no idea that you were even doing something wrong! And I can see that, too. But sometimes, when people don't fully hate you, it feels better to go along with the pretending. Because adressing it won't fix it. Because the problem isn't a specific behaviour, it's you. And if they're willing to tolerate you, despite the fact that it's you, then you'll take it. Because other people do hate you, so this is the best you'll get.

[ven0moir]

Mike is deliberately queercoded

So was nobody going to tell me that there is a Freddy Krueger movie filled with gay subtext that the Duffers very clearly and obviously referenced to queercode both Mike and Will since S1?

The main character is Jessie, a suburban teenager that finds himself haunted by Freddy Krueger, who wishes to possess him and go on a killing spree. Now this reminds me of Will initially, but Jessie has way more similarities with Mike than Will.

For example, Jessie's father 100% inspired Ted Wheeler, in fact he's a straight up rip off.

And this is Holly.

Look at how the screenwriters discuss this, including Robert freaking Englund himself (who plays Freddy Krueger and Victor Creel)

The screenwriters specifically talk about how one of the things the production designer (who was gay) did to add gay subtext was a sign on Jessie's bedroom door that said 'NO out of town CHICKS ALLOWED'

The Duffers know this, I'm sure.

So this ....

This freaking ONE WAY sign pointing into Mike's closet? Deliberate, legitimate gay subtext.

[junibgoode]

Bowie and Noah are both gay stereotypes, just of different times

Ok hear me out. I very much agree that Noah was written as "the gay kid" archetype bc that was the gimmick for gen 1. this is ESPECIALLY apperant in s1. like 90% of his line delivery had some amount of sass to it, as apposed to a straight up a deadpan(obviously that's present but rewatch it and tell me there's not an amount of flare to the delivery). some rapid fire queercoding. 1. the way he runs and his high pitched scream 2. his aversion to physical activity to a degree that distinguishes him from the rest of the cast 3. the ear kiss/cuddle. obviously a gay joke. that only scrapes the surface too(not even getting into s2/3 where the queercoding was him just having chemistry with various male characters). so obvious stereotype that was covered up by fresh TV with emma(JUSTICE FOR EMMA TOO I LOVE HER). personally I think he's gay but I can see him as bi too. just compare him to other 2000s gay characters. very clear similarity.

bowie IS canonically gay. and while I don't think he's the "this is my only personality trait" level of gay stereotype, I think it's clear there's aspects of his writing that are that. I'd complain more but Raj kind of displays existing as a gay character without stereotypes and most TD info we talk about is fanon anyway bc ultimately this is us giving way to much depth to a fake reality TV show(/pos). anyway he is but in a very different way. the way he dresses is the modern stereotype just like how noahs(button ups and sweater vests) is for his time. his attitude has a lighter air. more fun. he's built less skinny and more lean with sports abilities.

they're both very clearly gay characters but it's so interesting how they're very clear examples of the era. which ngl all of TD is. it's like watching the passage of time at certain points.

[pinkeoni]

Oh. “Zombie Boy” is a homophobic nickname

I guess this should’ve been pretty obvious. I mean, Will is a confirmed gay character, who is walking around town and having a mean nickname constantly hurled at him. Clearly there is some queercoding in that.

But does that mean that the nickname is homophobic in universe? If that were the case, why not just call him homophobic slurs in the first place?

The nickname Zombie Boy always was kind of strange to me as well. Why make fun of a kid for coming back to life? Wouldn’t that be a cool thing? Maybe it’s a little odd, but why be so mean about it?

Unless it’s not the only thing they’re making fun of him for

TW for discussion of rape below cut

To understand the intent behind the Zombie Boy nickname, we need to go back to Will’s dissapearance in season one. Our boy Troy lays it out pretty plainly what everyone in town thinks happened to Will.

Not just that Will was killed, but clarified as “killed by some other queer.” The emphasis on sexuality adding an implication to his statement. What Troy is really trying to say is that Will was raped and then killed by a gay man, otherwise why bring up sexuality at all?

And to be fair to Troy, that is kind of what happened.

But of course the town doesn’t know this. The story that was told is that Will only got lost in the woods. That was the story published in the Hawkins Post, so that’s what everyone believes, right?

This is the version of events that Lucas tells Max, and he is immediately met with skepticism from her. Lucas then tells Max not to ask Will about it because he’s very sensitive about it.

I’m not saying that the town believes that there is something supernatural going on, but rather I’m thinking that the people of Hawkins at least suspect that there is something about Will’s disappearance that is not being talked about openly. Let’s not forget that the “Zombie Boy” note that Will receives in his locker is a desecration of the news article sharing his story.

So here’s what the town initially believed happened: Will was kidnapped and raped by a gay man before being thrown into the quarry.

And here’s what the town knows: Will went missing and was found in the woods before being hospitalized. He is very sensitive about the topic and doesn’t like to talk about it. After being released from the hospital, he is now occasionally pulled out of school early for doctor’s appointments—

Oh.

I mean, it is any coincidence that all of this is happening while Reagan’s name is plastered all over town? Is it just a coincidence that the anniversary of Will’s disappearance falls right on Reagan’s reelection day?

And just to cut through all the shit and stop being vague, I’m talking about the AIDS epidemic of the 80’s, and yes I think that part of the town believes that Will has it.

I recently read a post from @emblazons that struck me with just how laden the AIDS metaphor is in season. To quote the post as best I can, there is something described like a disease attacking Will’s body and slowly killing him, and the Reagan administration government scientists are trying their best to prevent the truth from spreading and view the possible death of a queer person as a non-issue.

Starting to think about it through this lens, a “zombie” is the perfect metaphor for how Hawkins now views Will. He isn’t technically dead, but they suspect he has a disease with an incredibly low life-expectancy at the time, so he’s essentially a walking corpse.

The nickname doesn’t start and end at simply making fun of Will for having a disease. What do zombies do? They try to bite and turn other people into zombies.

The town doesn’t just see Will as someone who has been infected by someone else with an illness, but as someone who has been infected and is going to spread his illness around.

The rhetoric regarding queers as people who spread disease and kill continues in season 4, when we see Eddie reading the article that links sodomy with satanic practices, violence and murder. We then go on to see the entire town blame Eddie and his group of “satanic” outcasts for spreading death in the town. This attitude is certainly not lost on Hawkins, and the show doesn’t shy away from showing it.

The way that characters in the show use and react to Zombie Boy match this as well. There is a certain level of vitriol that comes with Zombie Boy, and the nickname is what leads Jonathan and Will into their extremely coded conversation about being a freak.

If Zombie Boy is an intentionally homophobic nickname, then does that mean that in this scene she's actually saying...?

So I actually don’t think that Snowball Girl is being intentionally homophobic here (although, saying what is essentially “Hey f*****, wanna dance?” is still CRAZY)

I think it’s less realistic if the entire town is in on this conspiracy and more believable if say, the nickname was started intentionally as a homophobic jab by some of the townsfolk, but is ambiguous enough to be picked up by more naïve kids like Snowball Girl who may not realize the actual meaning behind it. It may seem like it’s only about his ressurection on the surface, but when you peel back the layers you see just how offensive it really is.

Using a vague nickname is also very intentional by the Duffers as well. If they wanted to be subtle about Will’s sexuality before later confirming it, then having a more ambiguous moniker rather than just having the entire town call him an evil queer.

Even if the town really is just making fun of him for coming back to life and nothing else, and there isn’t actually this rampant rumor spreading across Hawkins about Will spreading disease, the heavy coding and intention from the writers is still be there.

[bookshelfdreams]

do it. gimme the Izzy straight-coded meta 👀

I feel like I need to preface this by saying that Actually, Izzy Is Straightcoded would be the inflammatory clickbait title I'd give this if it were written to draw traffic & ad revenue to my shitty website. So don't take that term too seriously.

There has been a lot of ink spilled about Izzy thinking he's in a story where one can only be subtextually queer. Some even by yours truly, but the more I think about it, the less sense it makes. What would be the purpose of queercoding Izzy?

In general, villains* aren't queercoded to show that men being attracted to other men is bad. It's often the outcome; but it's not why the trope exists. It exists because cishet people tend to be (and are encouraged to be) profoundly uncomfortable with gender nonconformity, and so, making a character gnc becomes a quick and easy way to make him appear twisted and untrustworthy. If he** can't even obey the fundamental rules of his own gender (rules that are inherent and unchangeable!) what other rules does he disobey?

Or: If a man is insufficiently masculine, he can't be trusted to have morals. The villain isn't gnc because that's an evil trait to have; rather, the gender nonconformity is a symptom of his evilness. Being evil is what enables him to embrace his feminine side, and embracing his feminine side is what others him and marks him as a villain.

This only really works when he's contrasted with a hero (or heroine) who is Doing Gender Correctly. The villain is foul to highlight how good the hero is. The Hero will be honest and straightforward, brave, physically powerful; the Queercoded Villain treacherous, cowardly, and physically weak. The hero is a Proper Man, a Good Person. The villain an Improper Man, and therefore, a Bad Person.

Of course ofmd fundamentally rejects this. The shorthand wouldn't work, because ofmd simply doesn't think effeminacy is creepy. It's uninterested in moralizing self-expression; it just lets people be how they are. There's a wide range of expressions of masculinity on this show, and none of it is inherently bad. People are allowed to be hypermasculine, flamboyant, and anything inbetween, can express their gender in whatever manner they want, and it's all fine - as long as they are authentic about it. Be however you are, but be yourself, and this is what Izzy fails at. The repression marks him as a villain. The strict adherence to what he thinks a Real Man Pirate ought to be like. He's very preoccupied with enforcing a traditional (and toxic) masculinity on himself and others. It's no coincidence the characters he antagonizes the most - Stede and Lucius - are also the most effeminate ones. And I know, I know anglophones have a much more casual relationship to twat and cunt, those don't nearly feel as uncomfortable for y'all as they do for me, so I don't want to assign too much significance here, but he is the only character who constantly uses this kind of language, and also the one who uses the most gender&sexuality based slurs (as far as I remember).

All of this while being clearly, obviously queer himself! I do not feel like I need to explain this; his flustered reaction when Lucius asks him if he's ever been sketched speaks for itself. The fact that he meets Stede and immediately slices his shirt off of him, speaks for itself. And so on.

Izzy isn't straightcoded in the sense that the story wants us to believe he's exclusively attracted to women. Much like a queercoded villain doesn't need to be shown to be attracted to men (and can even be shown to be attracted exclusively to women!) to still be queercoded. He's straightcoded in the sense that he's a stand-in for restrictive and toxic gender roles that society enforces on people. He buys into the idea that there's a way of Doing Gender Wrong, and this is presented as a tragic character flaw. Something he has to overcome to be able to do the thing that actually marks a hero in this show: express himself authentically.

Part of why I found his death so moving is because it enables him to set right the toxicity he spread. His rehabilitation arc was about himself; about finally allowing himself to be, accepting love, accepting community. His death was about taking responsibility. About fully recognizing the hurt he caused. Looking death in the face enables him to finally abandon the last shreds of that toxicity, to apologize and be granted forgiveness. In the end, he was not beyond saving, and the harm he has done will be healed.

*Izzy is introduced as an antagonist to both Stede and the central romance of this romcom. I'm not gonna debate this; if you disagree, fine, but you clearly have such a fundamentally wrong different view of the show that it's pointless for us to try and convince each other.

**of course Queercoded Female Villains exist s well, but they are a whole different can of worms and less relevant to this discussion

[imrightwereyouleftme]

yk I don't fully understand why people always say "listen to real queer artists instead of acting like Taylor is one" which is all in all just a not so good take bc you are instantly diminishing all the work Taylor has done to queercode her music, to add tiny bits of queer history into her lyrics and visuals to show us that she is queer. completely diminishing the fact that I, and most likely many others, learned about things that have no real place in todays modern world because of its "openness". (I can't be the only one who had no clue what a hairpin drop is before she sang about it)

but that's not the point I'm trying to make right now. the point I'm trying to illustrate is that most queer artists, are still small artists. they are individuals that rarely ever get played on the radio, and when they do it's one song that went viral on tiktok or whatever so it had gained enough streams online or enough sales ig so that the radio stations decided they'll play it.

I'm not saying don't support small queer artists, artists that (looking at our world right now) will never become mainstream because they are queer and they are writing explicitly queer songs.

and this goes past small artists. if we look at artists that came out after they had already been established, you can see a clear dent in their popularity.

Sam Smith was a big deal, even when they identified as a gay man, they were socially accepted. Their songs were played up and down, they were in the charts with every new album they dropped. but then they came out as non-binary and made an even more explicitly queer album and suddenly people acted like it was the devil's work.

Lil'nas'x had a break through with old town road, at that point most people didn't know he was gay. Then he dropped Montero as an explicitly queer man, stating his sexuality with an admirable amount of pride. But the only people that celebrated him, were queer people, and not even all of them.

Then we look at artists that have been in the game for longer. Look at Miley Cyrus, or Demi Lovato or hell, even Jojo Siva. All of them are constantly mislabeled by people or just straight up get their queerness ignored (especially Miley). They are also constantly being ridiculed, no matter if what they did was a bad thing or not. People always find things to hate.

So, my question is, why? Why do I have to want to need Taylor to come out just so you understand that her music is just as queer as her? Because we see very clearly what homophobia and worse so the blatant transphobia does to people in the industry.

There is no mistake that Taylor will have a dent in her popularity when it comes to most of her fanbase if she ever comes out, simply because these people are homophobic as hell. And we all know it, we see it every day in our inboxes, in comment sections, in posts that get mistagged on purpose. And you'd be a fool to think she doesn't see it. Because if she didn't, she'd just fool herself.

In conclusion, do listen to queer artists, elevate their voices, but don't forget about how many people are still residing in the closet because they fear it's gonna be the end of their career. closeted queers are still queer!

[exploring-the-spiderverse]

Expanding on that post I made of Noir adopting Hobie but I love the idea of that making Peni and Hobie adopted siblings. Soooo general headcanons and thoughts time! (Inspired by @ryderdire and @queercoded-disney-villain and the comments they left!)

This got a lot longer than expected so there is a lot more stuff under the read more!

I like to think that Peni and Hobie already knew each other beforehand but in passing. Hobie knew of her and occasionally they talked but he never really got to know her

Of course that all changed when Gwen gathered her small team of Spider Folks to save Miles

After everything goes down and they have time to actually hangout, Hobie tries to get to know her at first. He thought her mech was pretty sick. She mostly avoided him though. He didn’t exactly know why but didn’t care. He assumed it was cause her and Miles weren’t on the best of terms anymore. And while her, Noir, and Ham were still close, there was some tension between them. Especially since she sided with Miguel (at first).

When Noir adopted him (that’s an entirely different story to tell later), he was sorta shocked that Peni was Noir’s adopted daughter. He thought the two weren’t on great terms. Noir explained that despite what she did he still loved her. Fathers are supposed to love their children no matter what right?

Of course since Peni was Noir’s daughter, that meant they had to be around each other more often than not. It was…very tense at first to say the least. Noir usually hung out with Ham (he wasn’t allowed to stay with Peter B after Mayday was born) so it was an awkward experience having serious conversations in a cartoony world.

Eventually, Hobie cracked what was eating at Peni. Despite her being more closed off (which everyone who knew her said was odd) Hobie somehow managed to break through her walls. Jokes and his general demeanor slowly eased her.

In general, Hobie and Peni are a force to be reckoned with. With him being more reckless in his fighting style and Peni being more coordinated, enemies are afraid of even getting near them. Especially cause of SP//dr.

If anyone dare lay a hand on Peni, Hobie would be sending an electric guitar through their head with no hesitation. That’s his sister goddamn it.

Hobie does like to paint his nails and allows Peni to do his sometimes. He’ll do Peni’s for her too but they end up more messy than what she can do. They’re still passable though as he’s done Gwen’s before a few times.

As they get more comfortable around each other, Hobie absolutely will tease the hell out of Peni. She isn’t good at teasing him as he just doesn’t give a shit but does eventually finds some fuel.

Like Noir, Hobie will carry around Peni on his back if asked.

Secretly, he taught Peni some curse words so when she said fuck around Ham, he was immediately on his tail. Hobie doesn’t regret it though. He thought it was hilarious.

Hobie will carry Peni under his arm like a sack of potatoes when she’s not in her mech occasionally. He’ll be just hanging out with someone and have her under his arm.

Peni will fall asleep if held for too long. She just finds it relaxing. Hobie finds it amusing.

Hobie has taken Peni to his world and has let her join in on his rioting. She actually ended up being more of an anarchist than Hobie. He was THRILLED about it.

She was even given yellow shoelaces by Hobie and goddamn Noir was proud as hell

Speaking of Noir, he does also have blue shoelaces but keeps them around his belt. He doesn’t want to make them dirty or destroy them by accident. Hobie is secretly very happy Noir accepted them and wears them.

The two siblings will argue about their world’s food. Hobie says that his cuisine is unique and good but Peni just tells him that he’s clearly never had Japanese cuisine. They will always argue about this.

Occasionally they’ll go to Noir and ask him. He’s literally only had 1930s food so he thinks everything is amazing. Everything except beans on toast. Telling Hobie he’s had this in his world before as a cheap meal.

Hobie will play his guitar for Peni and has learned songs that she likes. Even if they aren’t from his era. It gives him a chance to learn more stuff and make Peni happy.

He refuses to play anything that he considers too slow though. He’d rather rock out than play a slow waltz.

Peni will sneak into Hobie’s world and replace his alarm clocks with indestructible ones. He HATES when she does this.

Once when Hobie got burnt slightly by a rouge molotov, Peni ended up making him a sorta protective bandage that was fire proof to wear under his suit. He ends up using it both for him and anyone who is with him. Peni was extremely happy to help.

Speaking of riots, Peni once got pushed over and nearly shot by a cop but Hobie DID NOT let anything else happen to her. Let’s say his guitar needed an extremely good wash afterwards. Brains aren’t easy to get out of guitars. Ham was horrified but Peni kept telling him she’s seen worse. That didn’t help.

Peni and Gwen do have girl days which means Hobie isn’t allowed. Despite trusting Gwen with his life, he will tell her to bring back Peni unharmed or something will happen. Gwen knows he’s serious about that.

Peni loves to tease Hobie about his romantic relationship with Miles and Pavitr which surprisingly makes him flustered. No one knows how she does it but she does.

(I’ll explain their romantic relationship in more detail later but Hobie is dating Miles and Pavitr while Gwen is dating just Miles. Pavitr is still dating his girlfriend while dating both Hobie and Miles. Gwen was never romantically attracted to the others except Miles.)

Hobie will get dragged along to the mall by Peni. It’s a hilarious sight. Just this punk dude with his younger, more preppy sister.

Since Hobie can purr like most Spider Folks (silly headcanon of mine), he does it a lot around Peni. She can’t purr but enjoys hearing Hobie purr. It’s comforting.

Hobie will hold Peni’s hand if she asks and isn’t ashamed of it. He’s a big brother goddamn it, he will act like one.

He did teach her a bit of guitar too. He even gifted her one. It was a not so great one but Peni treasures it. It has a bunch of stickers on it.

When Peni cries over her past, Hobie is very commonly the one that is immediately there to comfort her. Purring nonstop and giving her words of comfort. He knows what it’s like to have no one to cry to and no comfort.

Hobie doesn’t cry much but when he does, which is rare, Peni is always nearby. She doesn’t even hesitate. Hugging him as hard and close as she can. He appreciates it.

Peter B likes to call them Peni and Hobs (like Calvin and Hobbes)

Hobie wears some pins on his jacket that Peni gave him. They’re mostly just similar to the normal ones he already wears but some are cutesy. He will not take them off even if he’s made fun of.

They rarely stay over at Noir’s place (he lives with Ham) but when they do, they’ll share the guest room. It’s always chaos.

Ham has gotten more than one noise complaint from his neighbors about loud guitars playing at night. He loves them both but god they give him a headache.

If Hobie wasn’t held back by anyone when he met Miguel again after becoming Peni’s brother, he would have already bashed Miguel into oblivion. He was NOT pleased about him manipulating Peni.

[hoperays-song]

The Papers

Ummm... did anyone else notice that there’s a letter on the table in front of Johnny in Sing 2′s promotional photo? And that we can make out a bit of it? Because I just noticed.

The Paper (What’s Legiable):

---t the keys/heys    city

--d they’re        white

---t- join ab       traffic

--d party of

--t my órror/árnor (this is the only bit i’m not certain of)

--d my lyrics

-ull up in you

Meet me on t

Crack another

We will never

Everybody 

shout

We

------------------

Is it just me or do these seem like song lyrics? Did Johnny write a song? And what’s more, it seems like a love song. Maybe he was supposed to sing an original love song in his scene, or was planning to, or he just wrote it for someone. Whoever it was clearly didn’t get to hear it. Those words were never said during the movie, much less sung.

It might just have not been ready judging by how it seems to be handwritten on pinter paper, so it could be a rough draft. Does that mean we could see an original love song if/when Sing 3 comes out? And there’s a second page! The song is much longer than the bit we see. 

------------------

Now, this is my theory. Who, in the context of the movie, would Johnny be singing this to in his scene? Who does Johnny actually sing a love song to in the context of his scene? Ryan. He sings it to Ryan. A song about falling in love despite the risks, of star-crossed lovers. Yeah... this song was for his scene, a confession love song to the boy he was falling in love with despite everything. 

[goodomensbringsmetolife]

The scene with Mike and Eddie totally proves that Mike likes boys. I’m making this to prove that I’m not just creating some false idea that Mike is gay so that he could be with Will. Even when he isn’t with Will he is very queercoded. Of course I believe he and Will are endgame, but there is other proof in season 4 that Mike is attracted to men.

In the cafeteria when he is talking to Eddie, Mike is leaning into Eddie and keeping eye contact, whereas Dustin is clearly uncomfortable and trying to get out of the situation. Now I do not ship Mike and Eddie or anything weird like that, but this interaction is a clear contrast between Dustin and Mike + how they interract with other men. Not to dismiss any headcanons people may have of Dustin, but the way Dustin reacted to Eddie putting his arm around him was much more hetero than whatever Mike was doing.

Some people think Mike just admires Eddie and wants to be like him, which is certainly a valid perception of their relationship, but we also know that Dustin admires Eddie too. The difference is that when Dustin had the chance to be close to Eddie in this scene he didn’t because why would he, right? Now I don’t know about you but if someone I thought was attractive (not necessarily a crush) put their arm around me I would want to lean in closer. If my feelings were platonic I would feel awkward.

I don’t think Mike has a crush on Eddie but he definitely sees him as being attractive. Photos are for reference if you don’t remember the scene. Notice how Mike is clearly leaning in and Dustin isn’t, I think the Duffers and Finn Wolfhard did this on purpose.

[mitochondriaandbunnies]

Miami Vice S1E21: No One Lives Forever

Sonny's new girlfriend distracts him from his work; Rico hates her.

Where do I fucking start with this one

Okay. Crime. Let's start there.

The actual crime in this episode is so inconsequential that the criminals literally have no motive but "do crime," because that's not what the episode is about. The crime is mere set-dressing for the actual thematic core of the episode, which is "Sonny's Relationships." There will be a number of Sonny's Girlfriends episodes, especially in S3 when they were trying to Heterosexual It Up, but that's not what this one is (and Brenda gets to leave the storyline relatively unharmed, too, whereas the girlfriends in the Sonny's Girlfriends episodes... uhh... don't)

I'm really serious about how stupid the crime part of it is though

Death - the ULtiMat HiGH!

These dudes just drive around Miami jacking cars and shooting up hotdog stands, there is no nuance to it at all. I think this is the least nuanced portrayal of criminals in the entire series.

That's because the nuance is all stored in Tubbs' Roiling Jealousy Over Sonny's New Girlfriend. After we watch the crime idiots jack some cars, we cut to Sonny and Rico talking, and Rico spends about ten sentences complaining about how Sonny has been unavailable recently because of ~Brenda.~ He is so obviously uncool with Brenda that Sonny calls him out on it, asking if he's jealous (the implication being Sonny has misinterpreted the obvious jealousy as Tubbs wanting a Brenda of his own), and Rico, with absolutely not an ounce of sincerity in his voice, backtracks and is like PFFT. No. Falling in love is GREAT

Which like. Is not actually a response to Sonny's question

We meet Brenda canoodling with Sonny, and she asks him why his marriage ended. He dances around the question and asks her in return "who the ugliest guy she ever dated" was. They are very much not on the same page in terms of the seriousness of their relationship. Brenda is asking hard-hitting, "I'm thinking about our future together" questions, and Sonny is asking like... two girls giggling at a sleepover questions.

(I find this super interesting also from a "Sonny is heavily queercoded throughout the series" standpoint-- the "morning after" scene also has Sonny framed very much like women often are in media, waking up in someone else's bed and finding them already up and working out downstairs. Brenda is also significantly wealthier and more successful than he is, and a lot of their love scenes are filmed in a very soft, delicate way that positions them very equally. There's something especially about the scene where they're kissing in the pool, and we see both of their bare backs floating in the sun, that feels almost like we're watching two women. Considering Sonny has another dalliance with a short-haired blonde woman where he's very feminized at the beginning of S2, this feels very purposeful?)

Brenda is played by Kim Griest, who I know best as Kay Gallagher from Wiseguy. This is not what anyone else knows her best as.

Brenda is working out in Sonny's shirt, which she gives back to him all sweaty and gross, and that is the worst crime she commits (but let's be clear: it is a crime. Why would you put on someone else's clothes to work out??)

At the precinct, Gina asks Rico if he thinks the relationship "must be real." She is also clearly jealous, but sad instead of angry, and definitely not remotely aware that Tubbs is jealous. He is uncomfortable talking with her on the subject, makes a somewhat unkind joke at Sonny's expense ("Whatever that means"), and slithers out and away so he doesn't have to keep having this conversation.

"Eye contact is for losers"

Also, Rico and Gina have the theoretical potential to be really wonderful friends and allies as the senior members of the "Sonny uses me as an emotional crutch" club, but the writers never decide to go for that, and instead you get the sense that they just can't ever really be honest with each other and that's a bummer

Sonny and Rico go to make a bust and Sonny calls Brenda mid-mission, which is foolish and supposed to demonstrate how his mind isn't on his work. However, what I'm more interested in is how this phone call with Brenda mirrors two other Important Phone Calls With Women: when Sonny calls Brenda, he's not saying anything of consequence. He's cute and flirty, but that's about it. Then, when he realizes a shooting is going down, he doesn't hang up-- he runs out of the phone booth and quite literally leaves Brenda hanging. She hears gunshots and gets no explanation or closure on what is happening until much later. This is in direct contrast to the pilot, where Sonny's call to Caroline in the middle of the mission is completely vital. utterly heartfelt, and provides extremely needed closure. It is also in contrast to the last phone call he has with Caitlin in Deliver Us From Evil near the end of season four, where Caitlin calls him, tries to tell him something important, and he brushes her off and tells her he'll talk to her later. In all three cases, there's an intersection (and conflict) between his love life and work life: with Caroline he's confirming that even though ultimately he chose work over love, that their love was always real; with Brenda he's briefly choosing her over work and then realizing that's a mistake and ignoring her feelings completely; with Caitlin he seems to have given up on the idea of romance ever being successful and chooses work over her because that's just what he does. Vice states time and time again that there's no fixing the broken justice system from the inside, and that any so-called "good cop" will eventually destroy himself and/or all those around him; Sonny's inability to balance the case and Brenda foreshadows all his other relationships failing as well. Caroline only gets out unscathed because she chooses to divest herself completely from Sonny's world, and Sonny won't find peace until he does the same.

Gina shoots one last shot and Sonny turns her down pretty definitively, and the scene feels frankly like character assassination for Gina. The last time we saw them be at all "couple-y" was way back in episode 8, and even that was already after they'd had more than one "this is a bad idea and we shouldn't be doing it" conversation. Gina asks Sonny if he's "just keeping her around for a pitstop," but the show has not indicated they've been dating for what likely accounts for at least six months (and possibly up to a year) of in-universe time. As a result, her jealousy seems not like it's based in the solid and thoughtful characterization of Gina Calabrese, Vice Detective, but rather in hoary old gender stereotypes: she's a hysterical woman who somehow hasn't realized her relationship (if it ever even was a relationship) has been over for half a year. So when Sonny quietly and sadly responds with "that's not fair" (because if they haven't been dating for 12+ episodes, it's really not fair for her to say that-- she has no control or ownership over his love life at this point), he seems like he's in the right. I am certain this conversation was written by a heterosexual man, and I hate how much Gina's characterization gets worse every time the show decides to create romantic tension between her and Sonny. Gina deserves better, in-universe and out.

Then we cut immediately to Brenda asking Sonny if he and Tubbs have "been partners long." This scene alone deserves an essay; the long story short version is that Brenda asks Sonny if being cop partners is like a marriage, whether your partner always comes first (off the job and on), and whether or not he'd ever think of her as "his partner in crime." Sonny, notably, does not answer a single one of these questions directly. He deflects and jokes, hearkening back to her serious question about the dissolution of his marriage and his jokey response about "ugly guys."

This is his face before she asks if "his partner always comes first:"

Aaand this is his face after he processes what she's just asked him:

When he responds to that question with the ambiguous "Well, on the job...," Brenda looks like this:

And then Sonny follows up with saying he doesn't remember the last time he wasn't on the job, which is to say that he implies that yes, Rico does always come first. Like. Damn, Sonny. Maybe... try lying a little?

Izzy claims to be selling "Richard Gere's shoes" and wooden clogs, because why not

Tubbs tells Crockett his mind is elsewhere, and that he should "take a few days" to "get over whatever it is you need to get over," which is among the bitchiest things he says in the entire course of the show. Rico is usually very patient, cool-headed, and compassionate, but every once and a while he says something downright cruel, and when he does it's often with a smile. He strikes me as the sort of person who has learned and chosen to be good to people rather than someone who's nature is to be kind by default. When Sonny, who is a curmudgeon on the surface but fairly soft and naive on the inside, gets mad, he lashes out; when Rico, who is thoughtful and easy-going on the surface but surprisingly unsentimental inside, gets mad, he gets mean.

On the Dance, Brenda tells Sonny she thinks being there with him is paradise; he deflects and talks about smoking. Brenda asks about Sonny's "closeness" with his coworkers again, and he's weird about it; when she clarifies she's talking about "the woman cop" (Gina), Sonny ceases entirely to mince words like he had with Tubbs. The difference is stark; he's willing to explain to Brenda that yes, at once point he and Gina had sex. He's not willing to explain anything about his partnership with Tubbs-- and yet, Brenda talks like she knows Tubbs, and isn't entirely sure who Gina is, so we know he's talked lot more about Rico than Gina.

When Rico and Brenda do meet, Rico immediately tries to tank their relationship by throwing Sonny under the bus. He implies Sonny is an idiot and bad at his job, and basically tells Brenda she'll eventually leave him.

Okay. Brenda committed one more crime. It's this table:

Izzy continues wearing clogs

Tubbs continues being an enormous bitch, telling Sonny Brenda's not his type, and that his type is "the bearded lady at the circus." Jealousy looks really bad on you, Rico my broski. You are being so so mean to the guy you have a super obvious crush on.

He then asks Sonny to go to dinner with him; Sonny says no because he's got a date with Brenda, but they agree to meet at 6am for a stakeout. On their date, Brenda asks Sonny about marriage and he gets extremely uncomfortable and goes to bed alone when she asks about who their friends would be.

Either because a) he did not set an alarm and was relying on Brenda to wake him up on time, in which case he's a fucking idiot, or b) because he did set an alarm and Brenda turned it off, in which case she has no respect for Sonny at all, Sonny misses his 6am meeting with Rico and Rico gets the shit beat out of him.

Castillo puts Sonny on desk duty because Sonny is a fuck-up. He goes on a sad boat ride over which Red 7's Heartbeat plays to a montage of Brenda, beat up Rico, and disapproving Castillo.

On stakeout, Tubbs plays the saxophone (do we ever see him do that again?) and Gina is reading A Man for All Seasons, which I suppose is doing something as a parallel with regards to the moral repercussions of the dissolution of a relationship but I don't frankly feel enlightened enough on the Tudors to expound on that

Sonny breaks up with Brenda; his line is "you're a very special person and you mean a great deal to me," which is about as unromantic as you can get. Brenda calls what they had a "wonderful fantasy;" Sonny says he can't afford fantasies. They leave it vaguely open but absolutely do not continue dating-- we don't ever see Brenda again. (Good for her.)

Returning to the actual crime, the three Death is the Ultimat High idiots roll around in bed with their guns smashing radios, declare themselves out of money, and go off for another hot dog stand murder. They come upon the stakeout with Tubbs and Gina, and Tubbs is chased down and about to be killed when Sonny swoops in heroically at the last minute and saves him. They end the episode walking away with their arms around each other. Because, you know. Partnership marriage something something something.

Hear me out: I am not convinced Sonny is talking about Brenda when he says "he can't afford a fantasy." The one romantic relationship Sonny has in the series that involves grounded, real-life issues, and actually talking through things like an adult is his relationship with Caroline, which he chooses to have healthy closure regarding. Every other romantic relationship Sonny has is, to some extent a fantasy-- he dates a pop star, a surgeon, a madame-- even Gina is a kind of fantasy to Sonny, as a sweet and understanding always-available fallback. He actually can only afford a fantasy-- he's aware, to some extent, that a normal relationship with a normal woman is likely to end the same way it did with Caroline. Considering all of the very pointed parallels between Rico and Brenda, between "partnership" and "relationship," and knowing that we'll learn in the next episode that Sonny watched one of his best friends die because of his sexuality, I don't think it's wildly out there to think that maybe the fantasy Sonny truly can't afford is one where he can make his partner his number one priority, on and off the job, and be happy about it and accept himself for it. He knows he can't afford that particular fantasy because he's literally seen someone pay for it with his life.

Oh god this was so long

And I didn't even talk about the "department softball games" scene or the lyrics to Heartbeat

Help me

[apatheticlexicographer]

not to be unoriginal but seriously i'm never not thinking about the one way sign and just how gay/byler coded mike's room is in general.

like??? we only get one angle on his room, but all of the decorations except that sign are clearly tied to either his character (past or present) or the plot.

the two black and white art prints are from the basement in a previous season i believe. i haven't watched conan but from what i've heard the plot is some kind of foreshadowing for the russia plotline. pinboards are usually places to display mementos that mean a lot to you, so the couple of wills drawings that can be seen there make sense. the big tiddy dragon man is obviously a d&d thing. even the barely-visible guitar is another nod to how much mike is trying to copy eddie in this season!!!

but the one way sign??? the fuck does that represent??? it's big as hell, directly above the part of the shot you're led to focus on while watching (mike) making it easy to pick up on peripherally on a single watch, and points straight at the closet. with how deliberate literally everything else in his room is, one of the most prominent pieces of decoration being filler makes no sense.

meanwhile he has two images of very muscular male figures on his walls, one of which is dead centre of the shot and has a tiny wizard casting a fireball on it (big tiddy dragon man ilysm) AND has will's art on his corkboard despite being in a rough patch with him and just tossing el's letters away.

(side note: something about his drawings being directly next to the lamp and the recurring association of will and lamps/lights throughout the whole show, and the way the blocking places him under the light sources so frequently when he's with mike. something about his drawings being representative of mike feeling like he's lost him due to the s1 scene with the binder. something about him being mike's light even when they're so physically and emotionally distant from each other. yeah.)

and let it be said, the stranger things set designers DO NOT FUCK AROUND. there are countless instances of people noticing little pieces of set decoration that follow characters throughout the entire show, or innocuous graffiti and posters that foreshadow major story beats. one of my own personal observations from an analysis i never finished is a perfect demonstration:

a trophy in will's room in s2, and a matching one in mike's room in s1. a matching set from one of the party's science fairs, presumably.

another lamp-shaped trophy in will's s4 room...

and an exactly matching trophy from a photo shared on finn wolfhard's instagram IN DECEMBER OF 2017!!! those trophies are such a minor piece of set decoration that i couldn't even find a screencap of mike's that was clear enough to use, but it's still custom embossed. that's how hard the stranger things set design goes.

so the wealth of queercoded and will-centric imagery in mike's room??? the seemingly "random" road sign??? that's not coincidence or laziness, no matter how hard some people will argue that it's not that deep. on the contrary, it's probably substantially deeper than we'll ever know T_T

[willthewise7]

Are you concerned that Henry doesn’t seem to be gay after all, even though he was so heavily queercoded in the show? I mean he could be bi, but that’s not expressed in the show, right? I’m worried about what that means for mike. If the same writers accidentally queercoded Henry, couldn’t they have accidentally queercoded Mike? A lot of the ones most confident about gay Mike were also the ones most confident about gay Henry. What are your thoughts?

Potential spoilers ahead:

I mean, I have to admit, I did originally theorise that Henry could be gay. However, the show clearly makes this not apparent. It’s not expressed in the play that he’s bi, but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t in the show. I don’t see that happening though as they have other things to wrap up.

As for Mike and Byler, I really don’t think we need to worry. Yes they could’ve accidentally queer-coded Henry, which makes that possible for Mike, but it’s also possible that we misread the Henry situation. Mike has way more queer-coding than Henry did. I did think Henry could be gay or bi from how they paralleled him to Will so much. But the comparing of Henry and Will seemed to be just in the case of them being vulnerable and sensitive children.

Before the play, I thought they were compared because Will chose to be good in bad situations and Henry chose to be bad. But now the play demonstrates that the mindflayer was causing him to be bad without much of a choice. Henry’s story is very unfortunate. Will on the other hand has his friends and family to support him, something Henry didn’t have. I think the story is telling us how having support is vital in being loved and loving yourself. Because at the end of the day, nothing is stronger than platonic and unconditional love. Also though, that you can change and rise up against things that are bad and to rewrite your mistakes.

I did kind of go off on a tangent but what I’m trying to say is, I believe that Mike is a different situation. Henry’s story was just misunderstood because we didn’t know enough about it. We have had more seasons and content to analyse the queer coding of Mike. Whereas we haven’t had enough to properly gauge at the same for Henry.

Therefore, and to answer your question, I don’t believe that this has any weighting on Byler apart from being positive. The story seems to be lining up to show you how being loved and having that love can create good. It can not only fight evil and negative emotions, it can make someone complete. Whole. Will having his love returned could have massive implications on the supernatural storyline. Especially if Will had powers. Remember, both the show and the play constantly keep reminding us of the reoccurring theme of love beating evil, in relation to activating and making powers stronger.

[ar0acejay]

hiya, here's the link to alastor not being explicitly aromantic being discussed on another blog: https://onesidedradiostatic.tumblr.com/post/743154763842093056/apparently-alastor-is-not-canonically-aromantic

tbh, I agree very much with what that blog said -- amir talai said "him being aroace is not explicitly known" which is true. the word "aro" hasn't been said explicitly in the way "ace" has. it's been stated as word of god and discussed and hinted, but it's not been said BY any character/s (yet 👀👀👀)

I think a VA of the character saying "my way of reading things is if it's in the script it's explicit, and if it's not, it's not" makes a lot of sense. that being said, it's not to say it won't be made explicit down the line, in the way "ace in the hole" was a way of making the aceness a Statement That This Is The Character

amir talai strikes me as the kind of guy who's been consistently very deliberate in only discussing what's on the page about his character, so not wanting to discuss his being aroace until/if it's on the page is very fair -- with "ace in the hole" he did also speak about how that was a way of making something explicit, while still being true to the character not knowing the terminology or the identity. until that moment, "ace" was not explicit either

(I don't btw personally totally agree on reading characters this way, considering the long history of queercoding being that one Couldn't make something explicit + that's still a very deliberate method of writing show-don't-tell today, But that's coming from my side as someone who's well-versed in that history, rather than a "I am the random person voicing a character and I do what's on the page in front of me, because that is my job and I talk about what is on the page in front of me" -- but he's clearly also trying to learn, which is awesome)

also he DID do some learning/hyping on aro-identity during this week of aro awareness, so it's also nice that he definitely understands that ace and aro aren't interchangeable and is putting in that work to open his horizons on that front

Thank you for linking the post!!

I totally agree with what the post said. Alastor got 1000% confirmed as ace by that joke and personally I also think that it included him being aromantic. A lot of people still think that ace and aro go hand in hand the same way that they assume that (for example) bisexual and biromantic go hand in hand (which they don't but a lot of people think that) so maybe the writers are part of that group. Also, like the other blog said, Rosie said the "ace in the hole" joke in relation to him dating Charlie and it basically went "she's too young for you lololol jkjk ik you're ace" (which doesn't stop people from being in an alloromantic relationship, people just think aro and ace means the same thing) so I do think they included aro into that scene. However aro actually being in the script is only my own interpretation so I get it if people think otherwise.

I completely support your point about stating things explicitly and queer coding. I think Alastor is extremely aro-coded apart from the fact that his VA didn't actually un-confirm it - he just said that it's not explicitly in the script. Personally, it's super duper implied that Alastor is aromantic but again, I get it if people don't see it. So yeah, despite what anybody says, as long as Alastor isn't confirmed to be not-aromantic I'll headcanon him on the arospec

Also, even if Alastor turned out to be not-aro, I don't think anything would change because about 95% of this fandom doesn't give a shit about aros or aces and just continued erasing Alastors aroace identity that we thought he had at that point so yeah.

(also amir talai doing research and posting about ASAW is so important to me AHSHSAHAHAJJWJFJS) (I never thought I'd be hyping up a man for doing the bare minimum but here we are)

[findafight]

Currently consumed by the thought of a stobin Hollywood studio era lavender marriage au. They elope from Hawkins and Steve takes Robin's last name (a scandal when the paps find out!) And work shit jobs until they hit it big. (Robin is a trailblazer director who verbally eviscerates people who abused their actresses to get a ""more authentic performance"". Steve is a leading man who shifts into Dad Roles in his fifties. They adopt a gaggle of children so his career isn't as full as Rob's and he is so happy about it.)

They are a power couple for over half a century and eventually come out (Robin as a lesbian who's had a partner since the fifties and Steve as 'just very queer. I didn't have the words back then and now I don't feel like labeling it' and their marriage as one filled with love and respect and caring without romance or sex. Calling it "every bit as real as any other marriage, except we never had the complications of fucking. We loved together and fought together and cried together and lived together. The only thing more important to us than each other are our children and grandchildren, and isn't that what every other marriage is?") to the confusion of nearly everyone because they clearly adore each other and constantly hold hands or sit on laps and call each other soulmates and gaze adoringly across rooms and once said about meeting that they knew, after that first month of teasing and jeering and growing pains, that they'd found the person they were meant to be with. That they'd be together for as long as they were given because to know someone so thoroughly that they know you better than yourself and you know them the same that you barely need to speak but you do for the joy of the other's company is a rare gift to be given, especially so young.

Because they never lied! It's just, people assume romantic intent or attraction when Robin and Steve don't! They're the loves of each other's lives but they are not romantically in love and that's hard for people to understand. Especially a high profile couple who was the Romantic Ideal for three generations. And so when they say they were never involved like that, it's hard for some to believe because those two love each other so openly and intensely and for that love to be something other than romantic doesn't compute.

But on the other hand, they had already been queer icons. Steve 100% played in a heavily queercoded war film in the fifties and Robin had a Way of shooting women and they'd been vocal "allies" since the sixties. They'd nearly come out in the eighties but by then it wasn't just a decision they could make. It involved their partners and their children and grandchildren, so they waited to do so. But they were activists early for queer folk and did their best to fight the good fight (and also 1000% cussed Regan out. As he so deserved)

Idk I've rewritten this post like five times as I was helping my brother move and I'm just. Very emotional thinking of a grand, seven decade spanning, queerplatonic love story in the studio era of Hollywood.