#however did you guess that

[daisyishedwig]

Noone tagged me today but I'm just so excited to be writing again! Here's a snippet from a currently unnamed fic that I hope to have up by tomorrow *fingers crossed*

But on opening night pink carnations are delivered to Blaine’s dressing room with a simple note attached. “Break a leg, Killer.” Blaine nearly drops the whole bouquet and the only reason he doesn’t is because Tina snags it out of his hands first.  “You know what pink carnations mean, right?” Tina asks as she plops on the couch beside his vanity, the note still pinched between her fingers. “You know flower language was always Kurt’s thing,” Blaine says trying to ignore the fluttering of his heart. “Sebastian certainly doesn’t care, he probably just grabbed the first flowers he found.” She purses her lips and shrugs, noncommittal. “I think someone with money like Sebastian’s would probably buy something fancier than carnations if all they wanted to do was impress.” “Or he simply wants to acknowledge me because we once knew each other, and carnations are the bare minimum.” “Roses would be the bare minimum,” Tina corrects. “But roses have an inherent romantic connotation,” Blaine argues. Tina raises an eyebrow and glances meaningfully at the large bouquet of red roses Mr. Schuester sent. “Mr. Schue is an idiot, what he does will never follow logic.” “So Sebastian cares enough about flower language to not send roses because they’re too romantic, but the exact color of carnations he sent have no meaning whatsoever,” Tina says, “I see. That all makes perfect sense.” Blaine rolls his eyes at her. “You’re supposed to be here for moral support, Tina,” Blaine whines, “not whatever conspiracy theory you’re cooking up.” “Doesn’t it feel kismet, though? You get divorced and your Broadway comeback takes place across the street from where your lost high school romance–” Blaine starts to object but she simply talks over him “–is starring in a show where he falls in love with a woman he isn’t allowed to want?” “There’s a limited number of Broadway theaters, Tina. Forty-one, to be precise, and eleven of them are on 45th. It’s not kismet, it’s mundane.” “But only two are directly across the street from the Imperial." Blaine snatches Sebastian’s note from her hand.

I will tag @calsvoid (I know you /just/ posted a fic, but you also have a million WIPs, just like me), @lusthurts, @andyandersmythe, @leydhawk, @kurtsascot,

@cryscendo, @wowbright, @annepi-blog, @backslashdelta, and @bitbybitwrites and anyone else who wants to participate.

[ecoterrorist-katara]

Why I feel like Ka/taang is one-sided, despite textual evidence 

ATLA does try to convince us that Katara has romantic feelings for Aang. For example: she seems thoughtful when she realizes that Aang is a powerful bender; she’s offended that he didn’t want to kiss her in the Cave of Two Lovers; she gets jealous when Sokka says On Ji and Aang look good together.

So…what’s wrong with anti-Kataangers? Do we just lack media comprehension? 

To be clear, on their own, these gestures can indicate romantic interest. But at the same time, we have stuff like “Aang is a sweet little guy, like Momo.” We have her ambivalent facial expression after he kisses her before the eclipse, and her hedging during Ember Island Players, and her anger when he kisses her anyway. In the context of these conflicting cues, Katara’s possibly romantic reactions can absolutely be interpreted in a different way, because: 

Acknowledging a friend as a potential romantic interest is not the same as actually being romantically interested in them. (Imo this is something young women struggle with, due to a combination of romance-centrism and heteronormativity that make women feel like they should be in romantic relationships, and that boys and girls who share intimate and deep feelings for one another must be romantically into each other) 

Wanting someone to find you desirable is not the same as desiring that person. (Which is something a lot of women, especially young women, struggle with. Remember all the discourse around Cat Person back in 2017?) 

Being jealous when someone flirts with your friend is not the same as wanting to be with your friend. (Especially when you see your friends as family, or if you’re accustomed to a specific type of devotion from that friend. It is jealousy, and it is possessiveness, but it doesn’t always arise from romantic feelings) 

Growing up in a patriarchal society means that your desires are always filtered through what men want from you, sometimes in an abstract male gaze-y way, and sometimes in a very visceral and interpersonal way when a boy wants you specifically. And Katara’s reactions are just that — reactions. Reactions to what other people — including Aunt Wu, Sokka, Aang himself — have insinuated about her and Aang. She’s not really proactive in her interest in Aang: we don’t really see Aang, romantically, from Katara’s POV. Under the framework of “Katara is reacting to a romantic prospect she’s kind of uncertain about,” it is completely plausible — and indeed likely — that she would sometimes act in ways that indicate romantic interest, in addition to moments where she indicates the opposite. 

Ka/taang shippers often bring up other evidence, like Katara’s despair when Azula hits Aang with lightning, or how protective she is of him when Zuko joins the Gaang. The thing is, these pieces of evidence aren’t necessarily indicative of romantic love. The fact that Katara genuinely loves Aang makes the whole thing more complicated, not less, because — especially at that age, especially when Aang is twelve years old and grew up in a sex-segregated society of monks — it is really difficult to tell the difference between platonic love and romantic love. Their mutual devotion is layered and complex yet straightforward in its sincerity. What was not straightforward, until the last five minutes of the show, is whether this devotion on Katara’s end is romantic. The romantic arc for Katara and Aang is not really an arc, as Sneezy discusses in this classic ZK video. Katara actually becomes more conflicted over time and we never see an event that clarifies her feelings. She seems more interested in him in The Headband than on the Day of the Black Sun, and she has never been more hostile to his romantic overtures than in the penultimate episode. 

And in light of this, it’s pretty easy for fans to fill in the blanks with a different interpretation: maybe Katara’s weird expression after their kiss at the invasion means she didn’t enjoy it; maybe the kiss made her realize that she doesn’t actually feel that way about Aang; maybe against her will and her better judgement, she’s developing feelings for another person, a person who hurt her and whom she fervently tried to hate until he pulled off what is in my opinion the greatest grovel of all time in the form of a life-changing field trip. Maybe. Am I saying that Zutara has more romantic interactions than Ka/taang? Of course not. But ironically, the lack of romantic interactions means that it’s not inherently one-sided, the way Ka/taang became in the latter half of season 3.

I’m not arguing that Katara’s unequivocally not into Aang. Obviously the text declares that she is, because they get married and have kids. But I am saying that there’s a very good reason that so many people, especially women, see Katara’s interest in Aang as ambiguous. It’s not because we can’t pick up “subtle” hints of growing affection. It’s because we know not all affection is romantic, and it’s really easy for someone else’s insistent romantic intentions to muddle what you want.

P.S. I first started thinking about these topics (platonic vs romantic love, desiring someone vs wanting to be desired, etc) in the context of compulsory heterosexuality, a term describing how queer women contort themselves into relationships with men even if they’re not really into men. I saw a post a few days ago joking about why so many queer women seem to be into Zutara. I wonder if part of the reason is because as queer women, we are very sensitive to the ways in which we can talk ourselves into wanting things we don’t actually want, and Katara’s romantic interest in Aang can be easily seen that way. 

[aquanutart]

[detectivehole]

[lilacthebooklover]

me, looking at the most toxic, awful, horrendously unhealthy fictional relationship in the world: why can't i have what they have? :(

[airborneice]

“What’s this one supposed to mean?”

“Hmm..beauty or strength, sometimes.”

“Perfect.”

@sketchbookweek Day 2 - Wilderness / Witchcraft

going back to my roots of drawing sketchbook being gay in a field

[skeletalheartattack]

Trick or Treat!

(taping a cd of lego island onto you window)

please please please take him off my hands. i can't sleep at night without him going off about lego island or what kind of pizza i should eat. i can't eat plastic. i keep telling him this. please take him i beg of you.

[doodleodds]

Happy Valentines, Akira. Happy Valentines, Asshole.

If you can’t read what Akechi’s secondary inner-dialogue says cause I obscured it too much behind his regular dialogue, here’s a transcription in panel order: Hello, you fucking- Ah- Hello, Akira! Fuck off, why should I tell you- Just a soda- there’s a new flavor.

I don’t want your shitty gift. Oh- haha! You’re so sweet.

I hope I choke. They’re lovely, thank you.

Like hell. Likewise. There’s no way it’s just a coincidence. Still though, it’s a funny coincidence.

[xxplastic-cubexx]

sequel to my other post about erik's plastic cube jail you can tell days of future past is The Divorce Movie because for eriks concrete prison that shit is absolutely NOT wheelchair accessible like charles is NOT visiting this man !!!!!!!

[lovewanxian]

Wwx: the way to a man's heart is through his stomach

Lwj: Mn, cook for him

Jc, at the same time: yes, you have to stab him through the stomach to reach the heart

[torithehoshi]

Did a warmup doodle earlier based off of this post since the screenshot made me think ". Yeah Heart would say this."

[ecoterrorist-katara]

I’m so tired of wlw background ships in mlm fandoms.

mlm shippers almost never develop wlw ships to the degree that the audience feels invested in them. The conflict and character development and love story rely on tropes rather than actual narratives, yet fandoms act like they’re doing wlws a favour by shoehorning in this shitty “representation” when it’s just golden retriever x black cat over and over and over again in different fonts.

To be clear I don’t blame anyone for not having big wlw ships, because most major media out there do not have two fully fledged female characters you can ship together. If you want to write mlm ships, good for you! If you want a lazy wlw ship in the background, that’s fine! But don’t act as if the fandom actually cares about them, or that anyone did the legwork to make them characters that you can care about. Most of these female characters are never properly developed in the canon source material, and they’re almost never properly developed in the fanon material either. You can always tell by how these women are like, one archetype + gay (sporty gay, feisty gay, slutty gay etc, like some kind of gay Spice Girls). Yet fandoms just love to act like these background wlws mean so much & have the best love stories & everyone just should ship them. It’s all so performative.

wlws are not an aesthetic. wlws are not 2D happy couples to round out your queer utopia, a queer utopia that somehow still manages to foreground men. Women are always treated as 2D characters in narratives, except now there’s a subgenre where these 2D women are gay. Groundbreaking.

[frank-pricely-in-toyzone]

So 'Just For Once' is supposed to be a metaphor for Ruth's motivations and personality, right? Like, the lyrics generally being about wanting attention and love from other people when she normally gets ignored or passed over, and how her anxiety prevented her from doing things she wants to do (like theatre)? I haven't seen this interpretation talked about anywhere but I thought that made Just For Once really work tbh

[newbabyfly]

I'd make a deal with god and get him to swap our places.

(My twins, Sly and Sam done.)

[winter-came]

“The gods envy us. They envy us because we’re mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.”

[crossbackpoke-check]

the pics of morgan and joel are from travis sanheim's wedding this weekend!

^^^me experiencing the one-two knockout punch of “oh they WERE each other’s wedding date” followed by the realization that sanny finally got married 🥹😭 cheers indeed!!!