#i got hate comments on my nive fics for years because NINE'S NOT GAAAAAAAY HOW DARE YOU

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

man i really need to like... write up a post about the undercurrents of queerphobia going on with how five is written, mostly aro/homophobia and transphobia. tbh i think i'm going to make separate posts for the two, for a few reasons; one of them is that the transphobia part delves a lot into the reading of the mogadorians' narrative as a metaphor for radfem BS, and that one's gonna take some deep dives into several other characters as well as straight up the series as a whole. it also runs through Major Central Themes for five himself, so there's that.

the aro/homophobia, though... i'm not really sure what to make of the fact that it's there, given that he otherwise doesn't seem like they're trying to portray him as a gay stereotype. and who knows how intentional it is; i get the feeling they didn't exactly sit down and rub their hands together about Time to Write a Malicious Depiction of a Gay/Aro Kid--especially since i doubt they knew what aro even was--but conscious or not i feel like both of those things were a factor in the resulting background radiation. but there are a lot of things, most of them small ones, that start to form a picture when you put them together, and some of them stick out more than others in ways that feel weirdly pointed.

anyway that's going to be interesting to go into, but for starters his backstory involves scaring off a guy harassing him on the street who was about to beat him up after calling him a homophobic slur, so lmao