#i love the trope of bisexuals not realizing that not everyone has gay thoughts

[number1abbasupporter]

Sirius: i’m gay

James: that’s cool mate

James: everyone has gay thoughts though

Remus:

Peter:

Sirius:

Remus: boy do i have news for you

[tiniestjellifish]

Crush (2022) | hulu

so,,, i lied. but I just watched this movie and I wanna give it the review it deserved while it’s fresh in my mind and not the half baked one i gave on my spam.

going into the movie, i had bias against the leading actress, rowan blanchard, because of her infamous biphobia streak around 2017-2018. I remember being heartbroken as a little bi girl who had a crush on her, and honestly thought maybe she was just being complicit with other peoples opinions rather than actually say any of these things herself. because the receipts had been likes of biphobic tweets and her bf at the time making very outwardly rude comments about bisexuality being an invalid sexual orientation.

why does this affect the review? because one of her co-leading ladies, auli’i cravalho, is 1) bisexual herself, and 2) plays a bisexual teenage girl. And I couldn’t for the life of me stop thinking about how contradictory it was for her to take this role if she looks down upon bisexual people. and auli’i also said she was biphobic when working with her. so great. there’s just something disingenuous about having a biphobic lead for a queer love film, with a bi love interest.

but the film itself: eh? like it had its moments. and in all said moments, i take into account all the queer media i’ve consumed up until this point. and how only a decade ago they wouldn’t have made this movie. and i try to be grateful. but i also think about the fact that you should do your best if you know this is something not to be taken lightly, this is a feat not many get to experience.

this in mind, the film felt a little squished. they had a lot of current jokes and references they wanted to make to what it’s like being a young queer person, or more specifically wlw/nblw today and it was bad. like the jokes were hit or miss, but the ones that were good were pretty darn good. but they tried to bite off more than they could chew with it. I will also say, for a movie that at least I keep seeing marketed as a “not just about coming out” movie, they fell a little flat. yes, paige (the protagonist), had long since come out before the timeline presented to us in the movie but then what? they kept having flashbacks to her as a baby gay and it almost didn’t matter because they just wouldn’t let you breathe from acknowledging she knew she was gay at like 8/9. like thanks, cool, keep going. but keep going they did not. they also don’t really let paige go a sentence without saying she’s gay. which i wish would’ve been more normalized, like the main girl paige has a crush on, gabriela. she’s wildly popular, objectively pretty, and openly gay. everyone knows she’s a lesbian, it’s a fact, and the world keeps spinning without her stating it every 2 seconds. love it, she doesn’t hide being into girls but it’s not like it’s her entire personality as if she’s only just come out. and neither has paige, but they sure write her like she did.

the love triangle was beautifully executed, as well as the slow build up to realizing AJ’s crush on Paige. they didn’t just throw it on you all at once. you felt like you watched her crush grow or saw it in the little things she did, thinking about the way you might act when you yourself have a crush. very sweet and just the right amount of slowburn.

the sister dynamic of Gabriela and AJ, also exceptional. they didn’t have to terrorize us with exposition to have an idea of their relationship, it was there. maybe it was good chemistry that carried the subtle screenwriting, regardless I commend it. they cared for eachother without saying ily all the time and had notable differences in popularity that could clearly divide the two. everything made sense.

kingpun arc was a little predictable because it’s a trope, but they followed the trope just as they should’ve.

the movie hit all the points when i consider that it is just a teen romcom. the grand romantic gesture, sacrifices for eachother. the crush being revealed before they protagonist intended. and bonus points in my book for creating the new trope of straight best friend, who has a stable, excessive PDA but endearing relationship. steady comic relief that I didn’t mind whatsoever. I think i could hate watch this movie 3 more times into being a dirty pleasure movie like Tall Girl, it’s bad but like it’s a comfort film. still bad though.

in numerical value I think it’s a 5.5/10, and a 6.5/10 in the moments where I pretend down blanchard isn’t biphobic :). but that’s not reality, so that’s why it’s not my actual rating.

whew, it feels kinda nice to write a full unfiltered hottake, i will become addicted to this page.

[souvenirsofsurgery]

Fiction Podcast Recommendations

Because this is the only media I consume anymore. Let’s get the big ones out of the way first!

1. Welcome to Night Vale

The OG. This was the first podcast I really got into and I am very sentimental about it. It’s the funniest and most uplifting piece of horror media I’ve ever found, and I love it for that. And I’m obsessed with the weird worldbuilding, the atmosphere is absolutely perfect. Also, gay main character, which I pretty much require at this point. 

It can take a minute to get into if you really want some plot, but I promise some plot is coming.

2. The Magnus Archives

This is a great horror anthology that also ends up having a really interesting overarching plot. I’m warning you right off that bat that it is a tragedy, though, and we’re all anticipating being absolutely crushed when it ends. But! Canonically biromantic asexual main character, which we love.

Similar to Welcome to Night Vale, you’re going to have to be a little patient if you really wanna get to that plot, but it’ll get there. 

3. The Adventure Zone

One of my absolute favorites. It’s a D&D podcast, but no D&D knowledge is required to enjoy it (I didn’t play D&D when I first started listening). It’s funny and endearing, and also has made me sob so hard that my family thought something was wrong with me. I still think about the ending of the Balance arc, because I’ve never found an ending in any other piece of media that is so emotional and satisfying. 

And as far as representation goes, the first arc has a gay main character, second arc has a bi woman main character, and third arc has a main character who is technically asexual, although that hasn’t been confirmed in canon at this point. Also plenty of LGBTQ+ side characters, including a trans woman (Lup I have a crush on you <3) in the first arc and a nonbinary person in the second. 

4. The Penumbra Podcast

Welcome to the queerest thing I have ever seen in my life. Just straight up no cishets around, it’s beautiful. 

This one actually has two separate storylines. The Juno Steel one is about a private eye on Mars, and the Second Citadel is sort of an ensemble story in a fantasy setting, and I would highly recommend both of them. Like would you like to hear a noir inspired story set in space with a nonbinary bisexual detective protagonist and a homme fatale criminal love interest? You absolutely would. Or would you like to hear about a knight who is sworn to hunt monsters having an existential crisis because he’s having some feelings about a monster he just had a homoerotic sword fight with? Obviously you would. Listen to this podcast.

Anyway! Let’s get into some of the smaller podcasts! 

5. Death by Dying

This one is so much fun. Love the weird vibes of this creepy little town. We’ve got an obituary writer who just doesn’t even seem to realize how bizarre all the deaths he’s writing about are, I’m obsessed with it. As soon as he started reading out the condolences and they were just in-universe ads I lost it, that’s so funny to me and I immediately knew I was going to love this podcast. 

6. Kaleidotrope 

Fanfiction gays, this one is for you. Here is a college that is said to be magic, where everyone will find their romantic trope and fall in love. The main characters are running a college radio show together, with one of them believing in this magic absolutely and the other being very skeptical. Will they fall in love? :)))))))

This one is so cheesy, and it’s very small so the audio is pretty scuffed, but it’s so sweet and I love it. Both of the main characters are queer and one of them is nonbinary.

7. Brimstone Valley Mall

I’m obsessed with this podcast! Nobody is talking about it and I’m obsessed with it! It’s demons working in a mall in the 90s, who also have a band together. Wtf I love that. One of the main characters is gay, and another one is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. Please listen to this podcast, I want it to get more popular so badly. 

8. The Strange Case of Starship Iris

This one is so sweet and I love it so much. Gay space criminals? That’s everything I love. It also just has so much heart, I want to cry. There’s a bisexual woman main character, another WLW main character, a trans man main character, and a nonbinary main character (who, yes, is an alien, but I will let it slide because there is also a nonbinary human side character). 

9. Alice Isn’t Dead

The vibes are impeccable. I listened to a lot of this one while I was on a road trip by myself in rural America, and that is the ideal experience. This is about a woman trucking across America looking for her missing wife. It’s so quietly creepy, and I’ve got a thing for weird Americana. And there are lesbians too, so. 

Also, the main character dealing with her anxiety was something that was actually really important to me. I really liked hearing about someone who didn’t “cure” her mental health problems, but grew and learned to manage them better. It was just a very important story to me, and I still think about her all the time.

10. CARAVAN

Every single person involved with making this needs to go to horny jail. I am so serious. You will hear an extended conversation about how, like all of these characters are monster fuckers, and also very audibly hear two characters have sex. So, you know, you’ve been warned.

But, all that aside, this one is about a man who accidentally ends up in this weird hell world, and has to try to figure out how to get back home. It’s really fun, but also gets pretty heavy towards the end. Definitely read the content warnings ahead of time. 

This one’s also queer, obviously, with a bisexual man as the main character and some queer side characters (Including Virgil who I do have a crush on. The morally dubious enbies just get me.)

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL

March 2021 Part 4

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. 

This is a LONG ONE, it’s been A WEEK everyone. 

Ongoing Series - Thai

Lovely Writer Ep 5 - a little slow this week, but at least Gene finally flirted back, and very cute flirting it was, too. Also we got Aey’s motivation, background, and love interest. Thank goodness for that. 

Brothers Ep 8 - still pants, what can I say? Clearly I am a BL masochist. Very embarrassing for everyone concerned. 

1000 Stars Ep 9 - the conflict over Tian’s father was REALLY well done. The plot of this drama is excellent, the leads are great together, and yes I totally cried. What, you didn’t? 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Word of Honor (China) Ep 16-18 - big battle fighty fighty stabby stabby. Ep 17 switches to “this drama isn’t big enough for two chaotic-neutral godlings!” So what do they do? Drink together and bicker... A LOT. Then in Ep 18 we all get the dubious joy of really freaky puppets. (I HATE puppets.) Also how is China letting this be so SO VERY VERY GAY?  Also, I wanna walk through the forest wearing a smanshy purple robe and waving a big fuck-off white fan around simply because I’m a pretentious fuss monger. And frankly, I feel like this is an achievable life goal for me. 

We Best Love 2 (Taiwan) Ep 4 - not gonna lie, this is looking to be one of my top 3 BLs of 2021. It’s SO GOOD. Big bonus to this ep for treating stalker behavior like the mental illness it is and not as some dumb representation of enduring love. 

The Most Peaceful Place is My Place (Vietnam) Ep 1 - finally dropped (find it under NƠI BÌNH YÊN NHẤT LÀ VỀ BÊN EM on O2′s channel). It’s got actors already comfortable with BL and looks pretty good so far. An angry tsundere uke reunited with his ex, a stoic chef, giving us lots of snap, crackle, and pop out the gate. 

Dear Uranus (Taiwan GL) Ep 2 - I want to love it, but it is just moving too fast. There’s not enough character dev and then they’re throwing flashbacks in? It feels like a treatment rather than a show, and a rushed treatment at that. Bummer. 

HIStory 4: Close To You (Taiwan) Ep 2 (AKA Ep 3-4) - let the cheesy popcorn continue! Idiot remains an idiot; ingenue remains an ice queen; nice gay guy remains nice and gay; obsessive stalker brother is getting ever more whackadoddle. Of course these last two have the best chemistry. (It’s caregiver codependency and the salvation trope. We got us a Leo/Fiat situation going on.​) Plus lots of classic BL tropes because OF COURSE there are lots of tropes. 

Occasionally, I am tempted to argue that shows like H4 or Cherry Magic or Ossan’s Love aren’t technically BL because of the office setting and age of the protags - but then they all behave like high school students anyway, so *shrug* 

Stand Alones

Cute little Taiwanese micro BL Friend or Lover dropped, about bisexual realization within a friendship group. Normally these are too short for me, but this one did pretty good with its 15 minutes of charm, plus it’s abad boy + shy softy pairing. 

Breaking News - Thai BL

Fish Upon the Sky released its actual trailer. The upside-down kiss is gone, which makes everyone sad, and it seems far less rivals to lovers than the first iteration, which makes ME sad. But it still looks good and a more classic BL than GMMTV has given us in a while. New trailer focused more on the makeover trope and they’ve upped Mix’s role (the object of everyone’s affection) now that he’s proved himself. (Or they are using him more to carry the trailer since he has a fan base form 1k*). Starts April 9 on GMMTV in 1K*’s time slot, probably with a 10 ep run. 

2gether the movie is apparently coming April 22 to Thai theaters. F4 Thailand must be having issues or GMMTV just wants to milk the BrightWin cash cow. It’s rumored to be a combination of 2gehter + Still 2gether with some extra scenes and ending. Also, one assumes a lot will be cut out, if it’s movie length.

Call It What You Want released its updated trailer. If anything, it looks more scary than before. What are we in for? April 9th. 

Nitiman got a release date, May 7 on One31. 

I Told Sunset About You 2 got an updated release date of May 27 on LineTV. 

Second Chance the series is coming to LineTV on March 29. I don’t know much about this one. Tons of familiar faces (mostly TharnType side dishes) and some nice looking new talent but a dearth of eng subs. I think it may take on Brothers’ time slot. Line did eng subs for Brothers so maybe they will do 2nd Chance too? 

Close Friend the series is coming April 22. This is a combination of 6 couples with 6 story arcs as music videos (maybe)? It’s an epic fan service with familiar faces like OhmFluke (UWMA), MaxNat (LBC also in Y-Destiny), YoonLay (YYY also in Y-Destiny), KimCop (GenY), and JaFirst (TT2).

Y-Destiny starts March 30, and has starting dropping couple’s trailers. I’m still suspicious given the director but it seems like there is plot (or plots) and a theme. Looks to be a series of 7 single ep vignettes (amended, see comments, might be 2 eps each for 14 eps total), different couple each time, some with supernatural elements, all with decent chemistry and acting chops. 

Sun MaxNat’s tutor/student arc

Mon jaded rich kid meets poor innocent  

Tues sports romance enemies to lovers 

Weds the messy realistic actual dating one 

Thurs hot ghost boyfriend (sad) 

Fri YoonLayPerth coping with loss and finding new love (sad). This one will all rest on Lay's acting so we know it’s in safe hands. Our boy is going to KILL it. 

Sat time-slip memory loss reunion romance 

I’m thinking we can’t expect any of these to end happy or be classic BL. They’re gonna be more slice of life-ish. 

Gossip - BL Outside of Thailand 

Scholar Ryu’s Wedding Ceremony AKA Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding (Korean historical BL) got a legit teaser (eng sub here). @curriculumvtae​ reports that it’s releasing April 15th on WeTV (Philippines & Thailand) and Idol Romance (South Korea), while Will of Thai Bl says it’ll be on Viki too. It’s a short run of 8 ep built on a fake relationship trope (arranged marriage variant):

Ryu Ho Seon’s (Kang In Soo from You Wish) arranged marriage turns out to be with his expected bride’s brother, Choi Ki Wan (Lee Se Jin from Mr Heart). Ryu tries to undo the marriage, but his ill mother opposes this saying the scandal would be too much. Meanwhile, Kim Tae Hyeong (Jang Eui Soo from Where Your Eyes Linger), a senior at Ryu’s school, comes to congratulate him and falls in love with Choi. Then one day, the original bride disappears.

Okay it seems a bit twisty turny for ONLY 8 EPS, but oh my goodness how excited are we? Our first intentional historical BL out of Korea!

We already knew Hong Kong was doing a remake of Japan’s Ossan’s Love under the same name (not my favorite Japanese BL but so very popular) but it’s now reported to be coming to Viu in June. Who knows how the CFA will take it. Depends on whether Hong Kong bows before the NO GAY KISSES regs or if they are going to use this as a political nose thumb... things could get cray with this puppy (the original has several kisses and s shower scene). Are we back in Addicted territory only with added comedy and civil unrest?

Speaking of Japan, Absolute BL (AKA Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai vs Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko) dropped sooner than anyone thought, March 27. But being Japanese who knows how/when/if we get subs. Protag finds himself trapped in a world of BL, but being straight he fights against any hot guy that draws near, but the whole world (literally) is conspiring against him. It’s a parody adapted from a yoai.

What with Absolute BL from Japan plus Lovely Writer and Call it What You Want from Thailand, is 2021 the year of BL being ultra self referential? Sure feels like it.

In Case You Missed It

Faded a gay micro film from Taiwan from 2017 deals with parental acceptance and serves up a ton of BL tropes (piggyback, forehead kiss, etc). I’m pretty sure this was a propaganda piece for legalization of gay marriage, and it’s an interesting nugget of BL history as a result. Yes, it ends happy. It’s cute. 

Next Week Looks Like This:

Some shows may be listed a day later than actual air date for accessibility reasons.

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.

Man there’s a lot going on right now! Spring has sprung... I suppose. 

P.S. I cannot believe I missed Absolute BL as a blog name. Numbnuts = me. 

[mychemicalrachel]

So I finished season 2 of Love Victor a few days ago but I needed time to process because that was a lot and part of processing is reviewing/reflecting, which I’m gonna post here. Everything under the cut because I ramble.

(also, it’s anti Victor/Rahim. Venji is endgame and you can pry that from my cold dead hands. Skip this if that’s not for you. I’m not posting this to start drama. Just my opinions.)

To start off, I liked this season. I’m gonna trash it a little, but it’s done with love. There were a lot of things I wanted to see after season 1 and, surprisingly, I got a lot of those things! Such as…

I wanted more Felix and Pilar. Which we got. I did not want it like this. I’m not opposed to them together, I like them, but I wanted Felix and Lake to stay together. HOWEVER, I’m kinda glad they broke up because y’all it’s paving the way for bi Lake (another thing I really wanted) and I cannot wait to see her and Lucy together.

Kind of following along with that, I really wanted them to give Pilar more friends this season. And they did that with Rahim. And then they took Rahim away and gave him to Victor instead. Guys, this is killing me. I want to see Pilar with actual friends, give her more of a social life I am begging you.

JACK. I knew, I just KNEW, that we were going to get a Spier cameo this season and I honestly kind of expected it to be Emily, maybe Nora, but I am so happy it was Jack. He’s grown so much since Love Simon.

I wanted to see Mia portrayed as her own person and not a villain. She was justified in her anger and betrayal because Victor hurt her. They handled it really well I think. She’s such a good friend. I’m also glad we got more of her and Veronica bonding. I can’t wait to see Mia with the baby, that’s gonna be so cute.

I wanted more Andrew and this season did not disappoint. He was like the cool uncle that everyone went to for advice. 

Now, with all of that said, I did get a lot of things I wanted from this season. I also got things I did not want. I was actually really excited when they introduced Rahim and kind of went full circle by having him go to Victor for advice. I was like, hell yeah! Gays who can be friends without being all over each other! And then they started this love triangle thing and I kind of hated it. I liked Victor and Rahim as friends, I want more of that because I think Victor (and Rahim, too, to be honest) could use more queer friends. Just friends. They built up this entire relationship between Benji and Victor in season 1 and spent a lot of this season confirming that yeah Benji and Victor are in love even though they have some tough times, and now I’m just supposed to accept that Victor has started having feelings for someone else? No thank you, please stop.

And that leads me to things I want to see in season 3!

Victor chose Benji obviously. You cannot convince me otherwise. Someone he started having feelings for when he was going through a mentally distressing time in his life fails in comparison to the guy he spent an entire season falling in love with.

Now I’m not discounting Victor’s feelings. I’m sure he felt something for Rahim, but we need to acknowledge that Victor was in the middle of a stressful time. He had only recently come out, he was dealing with his mom not accepting him or his boyfriend, he quit the basketball team, he was struggling with his place in his and Benji’s relationship and then Benji wanted to “take a break”. He can’t be blamed for latching onto someone who wholly accepted him and made him feel normal.

Also, it’s fairly common to play into the trope of “this character is new to being gay, he can’t just be with one person so we have to add another love interest and make sure what he’s feeling for person A is real.”

That said! Benji will probably feel insecure now! And that’s okay! Let’s explore that! Let’s allow Benji to be the one who's insecure in this relationship for once instead of always having Victor be the one to doubt everything! They don’t have to break up to take a step back and slow things down!

As such, I really want to go back to the Victor/Benji roots. Make them friends again. I want stupid cute moments like them dancing to Call Me Maybe and trying on thrift store clothes. We spent so much of this season making Victor and Benji boyfriends that we kind of skipped over the whole friends aspect. There’s a reason they fell in love in the first place and we need to revisit that. A relationship is not just sex and miscommunication. It’s laughing together, it’s enjoying each other's company, and I didn’t see nearly enough of that between Victor and Benji this season.

They were not at all subtle with the parallels between Felix and Victor this season; Felix having to choose between Lake and Pilar while Victor has to choose between Rahim and Benji. I mean, I don’t think it was supposed to be subtle. It couldn’t have been more obvious. And at first I was worried that Felix chose Pilar because of the parallels and that must mean Victor was going to choose Rahim. But the longer I look at it, the more differences I notice in their parallels and I don’t have the eloquence to unpack it all right now, but it all just made me more assured that Victor is going to choose Benji.

Moving away from Victor/Benji, there’s something that keeps bothering me; it’s when Felix and Lake had sex at the lake. Cute romantic moment, yeah sure, I probably wouldn’t have thought much of it, except it made a deal out of Felix buying condoms beforehand. He was prepared. That’s good. Only, when they went out to jump into the lake, they only had towels. Which means that there is a very good chance they didn’t use protection. That, coupled with Georgina’s comment about watching Teen Mom...I foresee a pregnancy scare in the coming season. Whether it’s an actual pregnancy and we get a whole pregnancy storyline (possibly an abortion, maybe a miscarriage. I don’t really see it going full term for whatever reason) or if it’s just an episode where Lake thinks she might be pregnant.

I’m pretty excited to see how they handle this newfound romance between Lucy and Lake. Does Lake already know she’s bi? Does Lucy? Lake made a comment at the beginning of this season about making sure everyone knew Mia didn’t turn Victor gay, which makes me wonder how Lake will react to discovering she also likes girls. No, I’m not saying she’ll think Felix turned her into a lesbian. But I think she’ll doubt her feelings for Lucy. She’ll think (however briefly) that maybe she was just hurt and maybe she doesn’t actually like Lucy, she’s just coping with having her heart broken by a boy.

But I want all of her doubt to end when she accepts that she’s totally bisexual.

Now that we got our bi character, I’m gonna start demanding an ace character, too.

I want Mia’s mom to be awesome. Her dad kind of sucks and she deserves at least one good parent.

HOWEVER, if her mom also sucks, I think it could bring her and Veronica closer.

Speaking of parents, I want to explore Lake’s relationship with her mom more. She always tells Felix about how she was pressured to be skinny, and that right there is a terrible basis for a mother/daughter relationship. But she also felt comfortable enough to tell her about Felix’s mom and ask for help. So yeah, I definitely want more of them. I need Lake to stand up to her mom, though. I need her to be like, “you made me insecure in my body and I have self esteem issues because you made me think I wasn’t good enough” and I want to expand on that. Maybe Georgina had a good reason (in her mind, anyway) to treat Lake like that, and while it may have been a horrible thing to do, I don’t think she saw it that way. I’m not saying she should win a mother of the year award, but what she did to Lake needs to be acknowledged and talked about.

And then there’s Felix’s mom. I want to see her recovery. It’s a process and I don’t want her to magically be okay now. I also want her to meet Pilar (and Victor. Has Victor ever met her?) but also she really liked Lake and I want them to keep in touch, even though Lake and Felix aren’t together anymore. I still want them to be friends. 

AND I HAVEN’T EVEN STARTED TALKING ABOUT ISABEL AND ARMANDO. I’m glad they found their way back to each other, but again; it’s a process. I think they should stay apart for a little bit and not just jump back in where they left off. They still have problems to sort through, but this is a start. They’ve realized they want to be together.

[1990jeevas]

Plesse tell me about queerness in the get down!!

okay okay queerness in the get down let's fuckn goooo

disclaimer: I havent watched this show in full for like 5 months at least, probably gonna get something wrong and/or forget some more important bits. also this wasnt proof read I just word vomited

tws: period typical homophobia, abuse mention, f slur use, bury your gays trope, overdose mention, mention of a creepy possible age gap (the age gap hasnt been confirmed so that's why its possible), cops

going from least to most prominent queer characters, let's start with mylene cruz!

so, from the beginning of this show she has an established romantic relationship with ezekiel (although the status of their actual relationship changes frequently throughout the show) and though this was a relationship she was hesitant to pursue, it is clear that she does have romantic feelings for him and if not for them both having growing careers in very different music genres (zeke specifically working in a genre that she repeatedly labels as bad because she thinks they're ruining records + that it isnt real music because they're using someone elses piece and rapping over it, that's not really important here tho lol) they probably wouldve had a much healthier, smooth sailing romance. that being said theres a few things that happen in the show that, while not explicitly clear, or even really good coding at that—to the point where you wont catch if you really arent looking for it (and trust me, I always look for coding, hers was just so little that it flew over my head until I saw someone else mention it)—are still cool to think about!

so, for starters, I wanna mention the toy box performance, which was performed by mylene and regina, who are best friends. that's all cool and shit, and you dont really think much about it...until you hear about the fact that the show runners purposely colored a lot of the scenes in that performance with the bi colors. like. the writers after the show ended basically said "oh yeah there was plans to make her coding more explicit, but our shit got cancelled soooo" and then dropped the fact that she was gonna be bi (or at least implies bi) in the series, which puts a new twist on a few things.

now, besides the bi coloring in the background of the toy box performance (which was mostly on scenes with her and regina, which involved a lot of uh,, lowkey lewd dancing. with each other. in very revealing outfits. wooooo), there's her music! I dont tend to read too much into this one bc, like I said before, her coding is fucking light and the writers themselves said they didnt really get to do much with it, but I think some stuff with her music is interesting. specifically how her, yolanda and regina's song set me free blew up because dizzee, resident (lowkey enby coded) bicon, got their song played in a queer club. also that the song was majorly important to dizzee and started playing literally right as he kissed a boy for the first time and realized "oh shit I like boys that's bonkers". also that the song can be taken in a gay way since literally the entire thing is about becoming your true self, fully and unapologetically, which is what both dizzee and mylene's entire character arcs are about. dizzee (and a lot of other queer people, apparently), heard this song about being set free and it resonated with them so much that they got that shit most of its popularity.

speaking of dizzee and mylene, they parallel each other a lot in the way that their arcs are about them realizing who they are, coming into themselves and no longer just letting people treat them like shit in a sense (dizzee starting to tell people essentially that they can call him weird all they want, they can make fun of how he acts, what he likes, how he dresses, etc. but he likes how he is and quite literally saying "it's okay to be an alien" as he has consistently compared himself to one throughout the show vs mylene learning that if she wants to be a disco singer she needs to put her foot down, not let anyone, not even the love of her life, not even her abusive father, stop her from achieving her dreams, etc. and continuing to pursue her career with or without their support). one more little parallel that I think is interesting is during I think s2 towards the end of the show is when dizzee and thor are shown together having fun with each other, painting all over the building and each other and are basically just being happy and in love together and then they have these clips of them being interspersed with clips of mylene at a party where she is starting to realize that if she wants to get anywhere she needs to be her own main priority and that she needs to put her career and her dream, which is what makes her the happiest, above all else if she wants to succeed. idk I just think how the show made these two into a weird parallel, accidental or not, is neat. maybe not an explicitly queer parallel, but I think at least how her music and whatnot helped dizzee, the main queer character in this show, blossom, is important.

moving on we got shaolin fantastic also known as "oh no your internalized homophobia is showing-"

so, heres a quick list of...interesting shao facts:

Consistently referred to as fag/faggot (shaolin fanfaggot is my personal favorite); he gets really defensive about this despite nobody actually thinking he's queer, it's just people being assholes to be assholes, and he is the only character consistently referred to using a slur, especially a homophobic one, especially for a "straight" character. dizzee, a canonically queer character, is called a fag less than shaolin is even though dizzee actively goes to gay clubs, has a not so secret dude he "hangs out with" and wont let anyone properly meet, paints his nails, wears less than straight clothes even by the 70s standards and is just all around the definition of fucking queer (and I mean like in the weird way, not the gay way). in fact theres only like once I can remember him being called a fag and it had nothing to do with him actually being gay it was literally just like thrown out there the same way you would call someone a bitch.

Has only shown sexual interest in women, yet refuses to have deeper relationships with women in general (possibly because of trauma but who knows) but takes his relationships with his "brothers", specifically zeke, very seriously

Tells zeke and zeke ONLY his real name when zeke was planning to stop being his friend bc shao more or less got boo boo, a like 14 year old black kid, arrested for selling hard drugs; he was clearly scared and trying to do anything to keep zeke around, literally chasing him down the street and hounding him until he got zeke to stop and argue with him

Kept threatening to beat up zeke in the end but couldn't actually bring himself to do so, instead saying that zeke is "fucking lucky" before walking away

Let's zeke get away with things that nobody else can, in general just has a weird soft spot for ezekiel that he shows with nobody else

when shao found dizzee with thor in a vaguely compromising situation (like they were just shirtless covered in paint sleeping next to each other but shao had also seen everything they painted on the walls ((which some of it was sus)), it was clear they had painted on each others bodies and dizzee had been routinely disappearing with this guy for weeks now yet not producing nearly as much art, at least, as far as we audience members know) he didnt judge him but instead, waited for him to get cleaned up and then told him something along the lines of "theres a reason why im so secretive blah blah blah [not everyone needs to know everything about me]", which, in context, kinda implies that he might be a lil. a lil homiesexual. jus a lil.

whenever even the possibility of zeke leaving him comes up he absolutely loses it. he has literally cost ezekiel life changing opportunities because he thought zeke would just up and leave him for them. this could be abandonment issues bc he's a severely traumatized character, and that probably does contribute to it, but it also is just not a reaction he has to any of their other friends just randomly dipping in and out of his life soooooo

generally speaking, this mfer has got either bisexual with a big hard on for zeke coding or homosexual with terrible internalized homophobia and still a hard on for zeke coding. either fucking way, that nigga gay. he gay as hell. gay as fuck man. there wasn't really much to analyze here tbh bc the coding is just so fucking obvious if you look for it or you are/have been a gay person who's dealt with at least a little bit of internalized homophobia.

also, just a sidenote, idk how fucking old shao, but I'm praying hes like at max 19 bc I'm pretty sure zeke is a minor in this show and shao definetly is not so the whole him being heavily implied to have a crush on ezekiel thing is kinda. oof. not oof if zeke is like 17 but any younger than that? OOF.

edit: apparently the characters are only supposed to be a year apart in age but i had no clue about that before writing this post and since shaos age was never actually stated in the show i naturally assumed he was an adult since his actor Looks Like An Adult. this is definetly on me to a certain extent, but i also never saw anything about this when trying to find our their ages so 🤷‍♀️ maybe i just didnt look deep enough, sorry!

now moving on to the main event...marcus dizzee kipling :]

so, first things first, let's talk enby coding bc him being bisexual was already confirmed!

um, to start off, I just wanna say I dont think this enby coding was intentional or even really coding, it's just moreso me being a dizzee kin on main and knowing as a transmasc enby he has very transmasc enby vibes. for example:

cool, gender neutral nickname that everyone calls him

paints nails various different colors

the whole wardrobe is just a transmasc enby heaven...fishnet shirts, jean overalls, jackets and cuffed pants galore, the big colorful pins, etc

gender neutral hairstyle (when I had my fro it was very sexy and made it easy to transition between hyper masc and vaguely fem, which is pog)

comparing himself to/representing himself consistently with an alien character (though this is meant to represent his sexuality, it could also double as a gender thing too, not neccesarily bc of the whole nonbinary alien trope but bc an enby who likes aliens might heavily identify or compare themselves to whatever their idea of an alien is, whether that just be a genderless entity or a motherfucker with fly style and no need to be perceived as anything other Wacky As Hell)

moving on from there, let's talk about how his queerness is presented to us and how, while it may be a really good piece of representation, especially coming from netflix, it still lacks in A Lot of places.

so, let's start with good things!

i personally really like the get down's queer rep with dizzee bc it's (for the most part) nonsexualized and very very soft, about dizzee figuring himself out and realizing there is a place where he fits in, and about two teenagers in the 70s falling in love over their shared passion for street art. it also features an interracial couple where both boys challenge stereotypes both about queer men and men of color, which is epic poggers and very sexy. this piece of rep specifically is very important to me bc I am a queer black person and even tho interracial relationships are mostly normalized now, I've still had people give me shit for primarily dating white people in a town that is...primarily white lol

mm anyways, I can also appreciate how in the get down, dizzee being represented by rumi the alien is not a thing specifically related to gender (as it often is) and instead is about his sexuality and just in general weirdness and how it has led to him being alienated amongst his peers, poc or otherwise. him seeing himself as an alien is not about just his queerness, which is important, it is about him being a queer black man who talks different, acts different, dresses different and is "soft"—he isnt a walking black male stereotype and he wouldnt have been seen as masculine back in the 70s by any stretch of the imagination. this can be relatable to a wide spectrum of queer poc, from queer black men currently who still have to deal with this shit or to people like myself who are afab neurodivergent mixed race enbies that have always been signaled out as weird and alienated for it. dizzee is god rep bc while he has a small part in this show, his parts are very impactful, hard hitting and show queer poc of all ages that they arent alone and that it's okay to "weird", you just need to embrace it because somebody will love you for you, as thor did for dizzee.

that being said theres um. some minor problemas here,,,

namely:

dizzee and thors first kiss

the lack of development this pairing got

the way dizzee was confirmed bisexual off screen, he never said the words himself, just showed interest in both genders

the way dizzee and thor were never even confirmed boyfriends or just fwb so most of the fandom just calls them boyfriends bc Why Not

dizzee was implied fucking DEAD??? AT THE END OF THE SERIES?????? AND THOR WAS IMPLIED ARRESTED?????????????

now, these might have been things that wouldve been fine had the show been given it's full run but it wasnt which is why we are now left with probelms.

so, from the top, let's go over these: dizzee and thor's first (and only "on screen") kiss was one that was shown in a montage of other queer people making over and doing other vaguely romantic/sexual things, one of those things being a whole ass naked titty being mouthed at, but the actual kiss...was just not shown? like they really did just say "yes they kissed <3 you know this from the context clues of it being in a montage with kissing, hickey giving and titty sucking <3 but no we will not show it <3" LIKE HELLO? I SAW A NAKED BOOBIE BUT NOT TWO MEN KISS??? HUH????????

also, dizzee and thor were both fucking high as hell during this bit like this isnt a terrible thing but it's also like sometimes you do shit when you're high that you wouldnt do sober and they just never kissed again on screen so like?? like idk that's not that bad but it does kinda irk me since they deadass got no other on screen intimacy after that unless you including painting on eacher other or sleeping next to each other on a shitty mattress but not touching at all during it bc they were both at opposite ends of the mattress like half way off it

so yeah, that was trash. then we got lack of development, which kinda goes with the "dizzee being a bisexual but he never says it in canon" thing cause like...okay dizzee was already sort of a side character from the get go like he wasnt the mc by any means, but he became way more of a background character as things continued until we basically only saw him for performances or when he was with thor, yet they got no fucking development as a pairing other than "dizzee realize he gay, he like thor, he and thor spend time together and ig probably do some gay stuff but we dont really know bc we only ever see them do graffiti together now" like?? tf am I supposed to do with that shit. answer. quickly. and then theres dizzee not being confirmed bisexual, which is just a running problem with shows literally doing everything to say a character is bi except for having the character just...say they're bi? which would be so easy? like a good way dizzee and thor couldve had some development is by thor teaching dizzee things about the queer community that he didnt even know existed, thor couldve helped him understand what being bi meant and helped him label himself and whatnot but instead we got an off screen confirmation that the writers had bisexual in mind when writing him. which is garbagé.

the whole thor and dizzee never having a confirmed relationship status is also a development problem cause like literally nobody knows if they were just friends who made out, maybe fucked, who knows, or if they were dating bc dizzee does give a love confession but a love confession doesn't mean there is a relationship, especially since thor didn't say he was in love either (as far as I remember, I could be wrong, plus whether or not that really happened or was apart of dizzee literally overdosing during a performance is unclear so 🤪)

and now for the biggest issue...bury your gays trope.

during the season 2 finale, dizzee and thor are chased by cops after they are found doing graffiti, one of the cops is able to catch thor while the other chases dizzee into a train tunnel and there is a train seen headed straight for him before the show cuts to black on a train horn. the show writers claim that if they had gotten another season, dizzee wouldve been alive but since they didnt and since that's essentially super fan trivia knowledge, most people dont fucking know that and instead had to watch a black queer teenager chose death over being fucking arrested by a white cop. on top of that, thor didnt see any of that shit because he was caught and the cop started hauling him off while dizzee was still being chased so thor literally has no clue where his friend/possible boyfriend fucking is or that he's likely dead in a goddamn tunnel all alone, unless you count the fucking pig that chased him in there who wouldve died too. this shows rep was so fucking good as far as most shows go on not having major fucking problems, on not being toxic and over sexualized, etc, etc. and then they just. killed a black queer teenager for no fucking reason. like it was literally the last episode ever, it would add nothing to the plot, it would just devastate fans and devastate it fucking did. I dont cry easy but seeing a character I identified with, who I had hyperfixated on, die because he'd rather that than be arrested is terrible. it fucking sucked.

so yeah. that's my all too extensive thoughts/analysis on the get down's queerness. theres definitely stuff I missed, or misinterpreted, or looked too much into, etc, etc., but this was a fun thing to spend time writing sooo yeah!! thanks for the ask anon, sorry this was just a big rambley info dump, but hopefully you get some enjoyment out of it since it took like 3 hours at least 😭😭 feel free to ask clarifying questions lol

[juneviews]

my thoughts on gmmtv 2021

I am an emotional wreck... I genuinely feel like I have aged 10 years in two hours lmao. so to try & make some sense of it all I thought I’d sort my thoughts with y’all:

not me: do I need to say anything to y’all?? like I’m not gonna go into a rant bc I think y’all already know how I’m feeling. a gang series??? with offgun still being a ship??? with off & mond aka my two favorite men on earth??? with first kanaphan whom I adore? with gawin caskey whom I love??? THAT FUCKING ICONIC KISS PUT IN THE FUCKING TRAILER????? I legit hyperventilated for ten minutes after the trailer, cried twice rewatching it... how am I supposed to live, guys? like please tell me I’d love to know. this series could be mediocre as hell (it won’t) & I’ll still love it. I have ascended to heaven & it’s gonna take me a while to realize that this is happening

bad buddy: at first I thought this would be a bromance that looked super gay, but.................... nah it’s actually a romcom :’( this looks ADORABLE & it’s ticking ALL of my boxes. ohm pawat bl icon as always & nanon acting icon?? like those two are some of the best thai actors & they’re friends irl... I believe this is gonna be magnificent & I’m a mess!!!

fish upon the sky: this looks so fucking cute. I’ve actually always wanted to see a bl where two guys fight over someone only to fall in love themselves... that’s a really cute concept & even though I only know one of the main leads it’s by the writer of theory of love & 2gether (btw I didn’t know those two were written by the same person omg) so it cannot NOT be good.

enchanté: hum... they really decided to make a bl around the french language.................... and I’m supposed not to feel attacked? this is the gay secret seven except he’s actually gonna end up with the guy I want him to, aka his best friend (it’s really obvious.) I can’t wait to cringe at their bad french pronounciation but swoon at the friends to lovers trope :)))

the player: this looks like the continuation of friend zone in terms of messiness & I am HERE for it. the cast is lovely as hell, everyone is gonna hook up with everyone (fulfilling my dream of a gmmtv orgy ;)) & there’s gonna be an out bisexual character. how could I not stan? also foei & mek are the most unexpected ship ever lol, and namtan & chimon looked so good it shook me to my core. also kudos for tay & joss being reunited in a series!

never too late: this looks very good & I like the whole cast! I think it’s gonna be just the type of stories I love so I’m really excited about it!

mama gogo: this looks really fucking dumb but it has so many actors I love including my sweethearts drake, earth & gunsmile. I genuinely have love for everyone in this cast & this looks like a fun comedy with some romantic elements & I’m here for it. though they could’ve added my man mond to the cast he’s used to playing strippers lmao

baker boys: this looks really cute??? apparently it’s a remake of antique bakery which I didn’t like as a movie (bc I expected a bl & that’s actually not the center of the story) but again I like the whole cast & it looks good so I’m gonna watch it!

46 days: this looks dumb & basic af but you already know I’m gonna be watching this. the cast is amazing (I didn’t know mike & ciize were there too!) & of course I will watch my man off in every role he has, especially when his pairing is mild <3

drag I love you: this looks a mess but I’m in love with joss wayar & also the rest of the cast is great. I actually got really excited at first bc I thought it would be a trans love story but now I’m not sure bc there is the trope of the cis sister who takes the place of her transgender one. I don’t have huge expectations but I’ll give it a try.

boys over flowers: the trailer looks good but it doesn’t seem like my cup of tea. I probably won’t watch it live as it airs but if it gets a lot positive reception I might binge it a few months later

an eye for an eye: not watching this. it has lakorn vibes & krist so nope

mr. lipstick: too basic & boring, sorry :’)

step darling: again lakorns vibes & I’m already gonna be staring at joss wayar’s beauty in other series so I think I can pass this one

the war of flowers: what kind of joy would I get from women fighting for dumbass reasons? not watching

irresistable: didn’t even watch the trailer lol, not watching

conclusion: it’s kinda sad that there is not a straight romance that really excites me for 2021, I feel like gmmtv really put all of their efforts in the bls which I can understand but also I would’ve liked an iconic straight romcom as well. as for the a tale of thousand stars & girl 2k trailers that weren’t released during this event like I thought they would, I was pretty disappointed. then I realized that it must mean they’re gonna star airing VERY soon as gmmtv releases trailers one or two weeks before a show starts airing so they probably didn’t want to release them too early when they’re gonna be released so soon anyway. so my theory is that they’re gonna be the first shows of 2021 to start airing & the trailers will be released in early january :) these were my thoughts, tell me yours down below!

[im-like-if-a-girl]

*THE* mean-girl-dean-girl's Supernatural reboot MEGAPOST!

I'm gonna stick a little "keeping reading" here because hoooooo boy, this is a very long post.

Let's start with

Plot

Season 1

Dean kills John while they are out on a hunt in a crime of passion, but Dean doesn't remember because he blacked out. Cue Dean going to Stanford to get Sam and tell him "Dad's on a hunting trip... and he hasn't been home in a couple days."

The audience doesn't know what happened to John, but slowly figures it out with Dean and Sam as Dean slowly remembers what happened that night.

The entire first season, the boys are following the trail John left and fighting monsters as well. They find out Dean was with John, Sam realizes Dean has an unreliable memory, they have heart to hearts about their childhood and the fire, they find John's body, "how could you kill Dad?" but maybe Dean didn't kill dad, whooaaaaaa, misdirection.

It was actually good ole yeller eyes (Azazel) and he made it look like Dean killed John.

Okay, now let's move on to the first episode

Not sure how the opening would work, I would like the story of the fire to be revealed over the course of the first season, but maybe the opening scene could be a little bit of an establishing character relationships and backstory, idk, I haven't thought that far yet.

I'm thinking maybe it's like, Dean gets back to a motel room covered in blood and he listens to a voicemail on his phone from John saying he was on a hunt or something, I don't really know lol.

HOWEVER

I do know that after the intro rolls, we get a scene of Sam waking up to his alarm and "Nine to Five" by Dolly Parton starts playing.

Y'all know where this is going.

Cue a montage of Sam's normal Stanford college life (him sitting through lectures, walking through the campus with friends) spliced with scenes of Dean absolutely slaughtering a nest of vampires (or some other monsters, whatever works best.)

But

Now onto

Characters!!! (And descriptions)

Dean Winchester

Some lovely person on this site made edits of Dean with platinum blond hair and it made me feel some kind of way so we're doing that, homie's gonna have platinum blond hair

Side note about the hair, later when the brothers are running from the FBI he dyes it a dirty blond/light brown (insert jackles hair color controversy here) as a disguise.

He also gets tattoos because we were robbed.

Speaking of tattoos, concept: when Dean comes back from Hell, all of his tattoos are gone. His body is a clean slate, devoid of tattoos, scars, etc. So he gets his tattoos done all over again, which he doesn't mind because he made some bad, drunk tattoo decisions in his youth.

(And before you ask, yes, he does get one for Cas, either a bee or Cas's name in enochian, something cute.)

Dean goes to therapy after Sam gets sent to the Cage.

It's actually court mandated because he got in trouble, lol, he would never go to therapy on his own.

Along with the hair, Dean gets to be the grade A twunk we all know he is.

Sam Winchester

His hair gets longer in every scene he's in

No jk, but imagine

King of Microaggressions

Sam starts off like the sweetheart he is in season 1 but in later seasons he starts enjoying killing a little too much...

It's that demon blood, ba-by!!!

He brings up issues of morality to Dean, i.e. killing monsters who aren't hurting anyone. (Yes I know this is contradictory to my previous statement, but these two facets of Sam can and will coexist.)

Sam and Jess's relationship is explored further, meaning we'll need to start with a different inciting incident, but that's fine, I think everyone can agree fridgings are *(thumbs down)*

Sam doesn't truly know what happened the night of the fire until later, and then he understands why Dean is so protective of him.

Jess

She gets to live beyond the first episode

She is also trans

No, I don't feel like I have to explain myself and I won't 💜

She urges Sam to join Dean in a search for their brother, kind of gets pulled into the hunter lifestyle by association lol.

She dies on a rusty nail after fighting vampires on a routine hunt with Sam

No jk!!!

But imagine....

She's amazing and I love her and Lucifer also uses her as leverage against Sam and possesses her because I think that'd be cool.

She supports Sam 100% and also she and Dean are buddies, pals if you will.

She meets Cas Thee El and immediately she Knows, that is a homosexual.

She dies still so that we can have a Saileen Endgame but she's not dying the first episode or in a fridging. Not on my watch.

Castiel

He gets to keep his raw, light-fixture-exploding power.

I want more of that "I pulled you out of hell, I can throw you back in" energy except over dumb shit like Dean not cleaning up after himself.

He looks like a Dilf in every scene he's in, yeah, that's right, dilf with a capital D for *(GUNSHOTS)* *(gets sent to horny jail)*

Claire

She gets pink hair

And more time with Cas

And maybe a nose piercing

Feel like she should be able to kill a couple angels onscreen, punch a couple homophobes

She gets to meet Jack and teaches him swears and fun slang words.

She deserves it.

Jack

I says "that's my baby and I'm proud."

Jack starts off as a baby, but like Amara he grows up super quickly.

Like, baby to 11 year old in a couple days or less.

This is because Jack's emotional age on the show is on par with that of a 5th grader.

It's at this point when he's a young kid that he runs away from the Bunker and shenanigans ensue.

It's also at this point that Dean threatens to k*ll him.

(Still not sure if I want that in my Supernatural (threatened infanticide? In my Supernatural? It's more likely than you think) but we'll see. We'll see.)

Throughout a majority of season 13, Jack is like an 11 y.o. kid

Season 14 he's like a 16 y.o. teenager

Season 15 he's 21, you get the picture.

Listen, I love Alex Calvert a lot. He's great.

But Jack is a child and should be a child.

Kelly Kline

Kelly, baby, stay right where you are, you're perfect.

Eileen

SHE DOESN'T DIE

SHE GETS TO BE IN THE FINALE BECAUSE SHE'S AMAZING AND I LOVE HER.

BLURRY WIFE WHO? I ONLY KNOW SAILEEN ENDGAME!

She teaches Claire and Jack swears in sign-language. Castiel is not impressed.

John

J*hn W*nchester stans, DNI.

He's dead.

We only see him in flashbacks and only sometimes hear his voice in voice overs.

He's not "down the road" from Dean in Heaven, in fact he instead gets to wander around in some Purgatory like Hell for the rest of his time :)

People who get to say "fuck" on the show:

Cas (but only Once)

Jody

Bobby

Now onto other things

I want more of

Ghostfacers

(they need more screentime because I love them)

Dean/Benny

We know they had a thing.

They definitely had a thing.

Demon Dean

Again, I feel like more should've been done with this. All that build up for what, 2 episodes? was not utilized well at all.

Dean's Bisexuality

Straight Dean truthers DNI, my Supernatural is a show about love and being true to yourself

You think Supernatural is a show about 2 straight brothers fighting monsters?

Naw bitch, this is a show about the Gay Experience

He will get to have relations with men on this show.

Of course, only after John dies does he, y'know, display it. Maybe he kisses Cas on his dad's grave just to fuck John over, make him roll in grave.

We all agree John would be/is a homophobe piece of shit, right?

Okay, glad we're on the same page.

Dads

3 men and a baby with Jack is what I'm saying.

I love it when the Trio are father-figures to younger troubled characters they see themselves in, even better if it's like reluctant-but-loving father figure, oh, that trope gets me every time :'^)

Dadstiel and DadDean are my favorites, but I like it when Sam plays "Uncle Sam" to kids too lol.

"Fellas, is it gay to want a tight knit family with your husband, his son, his vessel's daughter, your brother, his wife, your cop mother figure and her wife and their adopted daughters? Asking for a friend."

Garth

Biggest flaw of Supernatural was underutilizing Garth.

I will never not be bitter that Garth was only in like, 7 episodes out of the whole 15 season series.

Every episode with Garth gets immediately 5 times better.

I love Garth.

Follow ups on characters who had entire episodes featured around them and then just... vanished???

This is mostly about Jesse, the magic kid whose imagination ruled an entire town like, his daddy was a demon and nothing came of that kid??? Only one episode about him?? No follow up???

KID CAN MANIPULATE REALITY AND WE'RE NOT GONNA GET A FOLLOW UP ON THAT?????

Uh, there was that one episode with Ennis the guy whose girlfriend was killed by a monster? I think?? Who we never see again, that was weird.

Tamara from season 3, episode 1.

And of course-

Cassie

She was so cool, and then we never saw her again :////

She gets to be a badass.

Religious imagery

As a former Catholic school student who has become for the most part, disillusioned with religion, religious imagery in TV shows like Supernatural make my brain go "brrrrrr."

Fun episodes!!!

Like, after season 6 or so, there's a drop in funny episodes

I'm talking Changing Channels, The French Mistake type stuff. (Scoobynatural is an outlier and should not be counted.)

So anyway

In my version we would have more fun episodes

I'm thinking

GENDER-SWAP EPISODE, BABY!!

(why they didn't do that in the original, we'll never know.)

An episode where Dean gets to wear eyeliner

That's it, end of post.

I want less

Racism

Yeah I feel like this is self explanatory, nearly every reoccurring character in SPN is white, and black side characters normally die in the episode they first appear in, or they'll be featured as a villain (Uriel, Raphael, Billie, etc)

Also there's a lot of... uh... asian fetishism featured in the show (what with "Busty Asian Beauties) that's really gross, also Kevin was a bit of a stereotype...

Also also it's super yucky how they kill the gods from other religions like???? Uh??? That's super disrespectful, let's not do that????

I know Supernatural is like, inherently racist because monsters are a separate race that are seen as some dangerous "other" that must be eradicated by hunters in a form of genocide-

Okay we won't get into that but

Still

Stop killing all your POC

Fridgings/Unecessary murders of female characters

I know Supernatural starts with a fridging, so this will be a hard thing to remedy, but

One death that really pissed me off was the death of Charlie

Yeah, that was pointless and we're not doing that. Charlie gets to live and be an awesome aunt to Jack.

And also Claire

Charlie Bradbury Superiority

Charlie and Garth get to meet because they're nerd/geek solidarity.

British Men of Letters

I fucking hate these guys

They're "litcherally" the worst.

The worst part is that the actors they have playing the British AREN'T. EVEN. BRITISH.

And you can tell

Uh, and that's all for now, I'll add more later.

tag list for people who liked my "if this post gets one like I'll post my SPN reboot masterpost" post.

@darianyunidi @sarasidlesaid @crazybananaalpaca @playfulpanthress @ultfreakme @fififeelsmellow @heller-char @luna8eaton @princessmeganfire @insanebot109 @queenofnightsnow @mongoose-underthehouse

Thank you for the support, hope the wait was worth it.

[gameofdrarry]

Wizards Hearts Recs: Kid!Fic

Wizards Hearts was a four-month-long Drarry reading fest. Players were given a playing deck of 52 tropes, and were asked to find 52 different fics to read and comment on to fill their decks. To prevent the same few fics from being read, fics were restricted to only being used for the game three times before being considered ineligible for further points. The tropes and submissions list can be found here.

Check out the masterlist of fics for this trope below the cut!

📜 On Your Shore by xanthippe74 Rated:  Mature Words:  35113 Tags: Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Post-Hogwarts, Mystery, Scotland, Dark Magic, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Pining, Sharing a Bed, First Time, Non-Explicit Sex, Demisexual Harry Potter, Bisexual Harry Potter, Gay Draco Malfoy, Closeted Draco Malfoy, Curse Breaker Harry Potter, Antiques Appraiser Draco Malfoy, Redeemed Draco Malfoy, Good Parent Draco Malfoy, Past Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Married Astoria Greengrass/Draco Malfoy, H/D Sex Fair 2020 Summary:  Clearing out a remote house full of cursed collectibles in the Outer Hebrides? Not a problem for an experienced curse breaker like Harry Potter. Spending a week with the straight, happily-married man that he’s starting to have feelings for? And sharing a bed with him at night? Surely Harry can handle that, too. But both the house and Draco Malfoy have secrets to uncover, and Harry might be in deeper water than he thought. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Every Breath You Take by hephaestiions Rated:  Mature Words:  19252 Tags: Major Character Death, Death (Harry Potter), Suicide, Child Death, Miscommunication, Angst, Angst and Tragedy Summary:  It starts and ends with Death. Scorpius was just caught in between. Like always. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Misunderstandings are as easy as A-B-C by VeelaWings Rated:  Teen and Up Words:  3418 Tags: First Day of School, Kindergarten Teacher Harry Potter, Professor Harry Potter, Single Parent Draco Malfoy, Parenting Woes, mild anxiety, Miscommunication, HP Fluff Fest 2020 Summary:  A slow blink and Potter seemed to catch himself, clearing his throat and nodding, his smile friendly and bright when directed at Scorpius and Draco. “Hey Mal—” “Mr Potter,” Draco spoke up rudely, but necessary. “This is my son, Scorpius Black. He’ll be one of your students this year.” Potter looked completely wrongfooted for a few seconds before his mind appeared to latch onto the most likely conclusion. His expression cleared up as Scorpius took a step forward and offered a tiny hand. “Hello, Mr Potter. It’s nice to meet you,” Scorpius said, enunciation steady and practiced. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Teddy's Favourite by iRavenish Rated:  Teen and Up Words:  2032 Tags: Fluff, Secret Relationship, Relationship Reveal, Day At The Beach, Jealous Harry Potter Summary:  It didn't come as a surprise when Teddy demanded to finally go to the beach. In fact, he was asking for a trip to the seaside for a while now and even though Harry wasn't really keen on going, he was powerless when it came to his godson, and just couldn't say no when confronted with the pleading eyes of a sad five-year-old. There was only one little problem with the whole trip. Teddy insisted on inviting his favourite cousin, the one he reconnected with in the last year and the same one that quickly earned Teddy's trust and love, becoming his favourite person. Said cousin was of course none other than Draco Malfoy. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 The Way Home by Boshfaker Rated:  Teen and Up Words:  15729 Tags: EWE, Mpreg Summary:  Draco wakes up one morning to realize he is a father of 4 and is expecting. After an accident/spell gone wrong from his Auror days, he developed retrograde amnesia. The very last thing Draco remembers is falling down after the hit. That was close to 8 years ago. Healers can't explain what suddenly sparked him to recall his past either. Harry needs to start trying to make Draco remember that the 8 years he can't remember were good times with him and their 4 sons and his expected daughter. This is not at all the sort of life plan Draco had for himself. ❤️ Read on Dreamwidth

📜 Stain of Silence by brummell Rated:  Explicit Words:  28356 Tags: Minor Character Death, Crossdressing, Babies, HP: EWE Summary:  After the war, Draco serves out his sentence in Harry Potter's house ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 DIY Messiah by scoradh Rated:  Mature Words:  26687 Tags: N/A Summary:  Harry stopped hating Draco Malfoy on Bring Your Kids to Work Day. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Catch Me If I Fall by keeli_marie Rated:  Explicit Words:  38281 Tags: Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Post-Hogwarts, POV Alternating, Kid Fic, Divorced Harry Potter & Ginny Weasley, Mutual Pining, so much pining, Slow Burnish, Light Angst, Open Marriage, Happy Ending, Explicit Sexual Content, Hugs, Cuddling & Snuggling, Boys Kissing, Cooking, Potions Master Draco Malfoy, First Dates, Astoria is a good bro, Fluff, Smut, Switching, Fluff and Smut, First Time, Masturbation, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Rimming, First Time Bottoming, Hand Jobs, Blow Jobs, Romantic Gestures, Birthday Presents, Birthday Sex Summary:  When Draco Malfoy collides with Harry Potter one morning while dropping the kids off at school, things don’t go quite the way either of them would have expected. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 The Strongest Affinity by eidheann Rated:  Teen and Up Words:  17694 Tags: Family, Romance, preslash, wandmaker!Harry, Single Father!Draco Summary:  Trouble finding a wand for Scorpius leads Harry and Draco to something they never imagined. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Out of the Woods by Janieohio Rated:  Teen and Up Words:  34987 Tags: Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Post-Hogwarts, POV Alternating, Eventual Romance, Fluff and Humor, Humor, Background Relationships, supportive friends, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Redeemed Draco Malfoy, Mind Healer Harry Potter, Shop Owner Draco Malfoy, Draco Malfoy in the Muggle World, Harry Potter Raises Teddy Lupin, Sassy Harry Potter, Sarcastic Draco Malfoy, Minor Violence, Minor Injuries, Mystery, Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Cute Teddy Lupin, Misunderstandings, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Explicit Language, Yoga, Into the Woods References, Therapy, Custody Issues, Minor Character Death, Minor Character Engagement, Dismissive Attitudes about Mental Illness, Childhood Trauma, Fae & Fairies, Brothers Grimm, Fairy Tale Elements - see notes for more details, H/D Erised 2020, Harry Potter Has Long Hair, Kid Fic, Minor Ginny Weasley/Blaise Zabini, Minor Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Minor Neville Longbottom/Hannah Abbott/Luna Lovegood, Background Polyamory, Past Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Past Draco Malfoy/Original Male Characters Summary:  Teddy closes his eyes, wishing beyond wishes that the two men in his life whom he loves more than anyone would just learn to get along. A light flares. Teddy cries out, and the room falls silent. Harry and Draco struggle to find a way to escape a world of dark fairy tales and get back to Teddy, but the challenges they face are not all hidden in the woods. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 For The Want Of Five Minutes (And a Locked Door) by postjentacular Rated:  Mature Words:  4333 Tags: Kid Fic, Past Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter Epilogue Compliant, Domestic Bliss, Parent Harry Potter, Parent Draco Malfoy, Coitus Interruptus, Humor, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, H/D Sex Fair 2020 Summary:  It’s hard enough to get five minutes to yourself in a house of five kids, nevermind getting five minutes with your boyfriend for anything else. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 A Big Black Sky by AlexMeg Rated:  Mature Words:  90343 Tags: Parent Draco Malfoy, Parent Harry Potter, Abusive Relationships, Domestic Violence, Child Abuse, Homelessness, Angst with a Happy Ending, Eventual Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, dark themes, The Ministry of Magic (Harry Potter) is Terrible, Happy Ending, Harry Potter Needs a Hug, Draco Malfoy Needs a Hug, Harry Potter Raises Teddy Lupin, Everyone Needs A Hug, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Slow Burn, Pining Draco Malfoy, But it's very very subtle and repressed, Panic Attacks, Protective Harry Potter, Falling In Love, Smitten Harry Potter, Mutual Pining, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Down and Out Draco Malfoy, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Romance, Kid Fic, Post Mpreg, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con Summary:  Draco shifts his head as he turns to look at Scorpius, his cheek touching the pillow. "Did you know that…" He pauses, his throat convulsing, and it sounds audible in the silence, besides Michael's steady, even breathing from the other bedroom. Scorpius is staring back at him, in wait of something new to learn, a beautiful and intelligent child. He has Draco's mind. He has Draco's eyes and nose and mouth and hair. He is his. All his. All he has of Michael are his wild curls and the green of his eyes, and sometimes he looks into them and imagines that they aren't Michael's, but someone else's. Draco leans his head closer, biting the quiver out of his lips before he breathes a laden and shuddering exhale, and he whispers, "You are my star in a big black sky." ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 The Guest by BummedOutWriter Rated:  Mature Words:  59826 Tags: Kid Fic, Mpreg, Time Travel, Boggarts, Hogwarts Sixth Year, Auror Harry Potter, Quidditch Player Draco Malfoy, Seer Draco Malfoy, Grimmauld Place, Chudley Cannons, Slytherins Being Slytherins, Visions, Potions Accident, Prophecy, Truth Serum, Humor, Animagus, Family, Bottom Draco Malfoy Summary:  In consequence of an accidental spell, Harry and Draco's five-year-old daughter is sent ten years into the past, where she meets her teenaged parents. Awkwardness ensues ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Rock-a-bye Sweet Baby James by Femme (femmequixotic), noeon (noe) Rated:  Explicit Words:  28402 Tags: Post Mpreg, Kid Fic, Postpartum blues, Secret pregnancy, Pregnant Harry Potter, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Post-Hogwarts, Switching Summary:  Harry Potter knew that having a baby by himself would be difficult, but when his son's other father arrives on his doorstep, furious and upset at not being told about Harry's pregnancy, Harry's already messy life becomes a thousand times more complicated. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 No Place Like Home by dracogotgame Rated:  General Words:  4005 Tags: Teddy Lupin/Victoire Weasley (mentioned) - Freeform, Family, Fluff, Next Gen, Kid Fic, Established Relationship, Domestic Fluff Summary:  James Sirius has been at Hogwarts for exactly one day, and he knows he doesn't belong. All he wants is to go home. A late night Floo call fixes everything ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Mine by xxdrarryrebellexx Rated:  Mature Words:  45877 Tags: Domestic Fluff, Family Fluff, Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, I LOVE DRARRY OKAY, Domestic, Single Parent Draco Malfoy, Andromeda is kind of a bitch, Little Scorpius is cute AF, Lil Scorp, Ravenclaw Scorpius Malfoy, Professor Harry Potter, Good Draco Malfoy, How Do I Tag, Self-Indulgent, Made For Each Other, Their Family - Freeform Summary:  Harry Potter works as Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, but while picking Teddy up from the Primary Wizard Academy he notices a young crying child and decides to help. Draco Malfoy has had a pretty hard time trying to raise his son since his wife's death. While signing his son up for classes at the Primary Wizard Academy the young boy happens to wander away, luckily the Golden Boy is always there to help. Can they let the past be in the past to forge a better future? "Whose kid is this?" "He's mine, Potter." "No, seriously..." ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 the trembling of the moment by porcelainsalt (bluedreaming) Rated:  General Words:  5325 Tags: Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Post-Second War with Voldemort, Non-United Kingdom Setting, Single Parent Draco Malfoy, Asexual Draco Malfoy, Asexual Character, Child Scorpius Malfoy, Inspired by Poetry, H/D Erised 2020, Present Tense, Luna Lovegood & Draco Malfoy Friendship, unusual careers, Quidditch Player Harry Potter Summary:  “You’re the last person I’d have expected to stumble across on the other side of the world.” In which Draco's quiet single-parent life is not so much interrupted as unexpectedly harmonised. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 These Tender Moments by theartfulldodger Rated:  General Words:  1380 Tags: Christmas Fluff, Fluff, SERIOUSLY ALL THE FLUFF, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, Kid Fic, Sickly sweet medicine for all your despair, A warm hug, Domestic Fluff, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE Summary:  A Christmas Eve filled with overindulgence, a sleeping toddler, creatively altered expressions and slow dancing in the kitchen. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Made with Love by MysticKitten42 Rated:  Teen and Up Words:  1143 Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Death - Narcissa, Grief/Mourning, Friends With Benefits, Getting Together, Single Parent Draco Malfoy, Tenderness, Christmas, Christmas Cookies, Hopeful Ending, POV Second Person, POV Draco Malfoy, Early Bird 25 Days of Harry and Draco 2020 Summary:  After tragedy strikes, Draco finds support where he least expects it. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Scary Snowman by dracogotgame Rated:  General Words:  1030 Tags: Humour, Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Family, Oneshot, Old Fic, reposted, Harry Potter Next Generation Summary:  Draco steps up. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Cassiopeia Lily Malfoy by GallaPlacidia Rated:  Not Rated Words:  37312 Tags: Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Angst with a Happy Ending, Angst, Letters, Post Mpreg, Kid Fic, Hurt/Comfort, harry is a dick at the beginning Summary:  In eighth year, Harry had a toxic fling with Draco Malfoy. Ten years later, a little girl shows up, begging for Harry's help. Could the two be connected? And did Harry misunderstand what Draco was trying to tell him, the last time they spoke? Feat. angry 8th year Harry being truly horrible to Draco, Draco writing a lot of letters he never sends Harry, and the most Gryffindor-Slytherin hybrid ten-year-old you've ever seen. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 To Love and To Cherish by jamesilver Rated:  Mature Words:  1091 Tags: Married Couple, Married Life, Quidditch, Fatherhood, Parenthood, Domestic Fluff, Domestic, domestic married couple, Children, Cute Kids, Kid Fic, Flirting Summary:  Or, Harry and Draco are married with children and a lot of heavy, married flirting ❤️ Read on AO3

[thecaffeinebookwarrior]

The Many Faces of the Strong Female Character

The much-requested, positive counterpart to my classic “Female Characters to Avoid in Your Writing” and it’s much-later sequel.  

Here, I will discuss some of my favorite fictional ladies and what makes them work so well;  given my rapturous love of women, there will probably be a sequel!  In the meantime, I talk more about portraying female characters here.

Happy writing, everybody!  <3

1.)  The Warrior

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When most people hear “strong female character,” they picture the most popular definition of the term:  a stony-faced, emotionally shallow, conventionally attractive broad who punches and kicks stuff.  She may occasionally shout things like, “I DON’T NEED NO MAN,” while perhaps punching a small baby. 

I decided to start with my wife Diana, because she is the perfect antithesis of this trope.  She isn’t stony, she’s courageous.  She’s unabashed about showing her doubts, hopes, affections, and optimism.  Her love interest never steals her spotlight, but she feels no need to shun romance to appear “strong.”  She’s beautiful, but not sexualized or objectified.

And while most Strong Female Characters™ are ironically reduced to damsels in distress at some point in their own narratives, Diana consistently takes the lead, totally autonomous over her own story.

You can kick ass AND love babies, people.  Joss Whedon, please take notes.

(Gif credit)

Other examples:  Okoye from Black Panther, Furiosa from Mad Max: Fury Road, Rey from Star Wars, and Ser Brienne of Tarth from Game of Thrones.

2.)  The Comedian

(Gif source)

If you haven’t watched Chewing Gum on Netflix, stop whatever you’re doing and watch it right now.  Its relatively simple premise – a twenty-four-year-old from a fundamentalist Christian household struggles to lose her virginity – is a segway into a hilarious, genuine exploration of human sexuality, relationships, and how we forge our identities.

Brilliantly portrayed by the series’ creator, Michaela Coel, Tracy is essentially that one friend who knows exactly what you’ve been thinking and isn’t afraid to say so.  She is never relegated to a single trope or stereotype.  She’s stumbling, clumsily but enthusiastically, through the life experiences that shape us.  Most importantly, she is allowed to be sexually curious, awkward, aggressive, insecure, and – I can’t stress this enough – hilarious.  The dialogue is infinitely quotable, and endlessly relatable. 

(Image source)

Watching shows like Chewing Gum makes me realize how few female characters – and even fe wer Black female characters – are portrayed as truly human.  Typically, they’re allowed to be sexy, but not sexual.  They’re allowed to be awkward, but only if it’s cute.  They can be insecure, but only if that insecurity can easily be solved by the affirmations of a male love interest.  And they’re rarely allowed to be the main source of a series’ comedy.  

So remember:  let your female characters be human.  Let them be awkward, funny, sexual philosophers.  It’s easier than you think.  

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Other examples:  Abbi and Ilan from Broad City, Leslie from Parks and Rec, Tina from Bob’s Burgers.

3.)  The Drama Queen

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Watching Riverdale is like hurtling along on a structurally unstable rollercoaster.  It’s utterly insane, a lot of fun, and once you’re on, you can’t stop.

But amidst the explosions of batshit crazy plot points, killer cults, and the existential perplexity of finding yourself attracted to emo Jughead, there are some real gems.  One of these is Cheryl Blossom, and pretty much every plot line surrounding her.

Cheryl is introduced as a fairly one-dimensional, catty mean girl, though the Regina George-esque charisma with which she’s portrayed makes her instantly likable.  Initially, we expect her to be a character we’ll love to hate.

(Gif source)

And yet, within the first few episodes, I was impressed by how layered and complex her motivations were.  Much of contempt towards others was misdirected rage from an upbringing of extreme emotional abuse, and grief over her dead brother -- all portrayed without a Snape-style condonation of said behavior.  By the end of season one, my thoughts were generally, “Oh, crap, I don’t think I can claim to be watching this ‘ironically’ anymore,” and “MORE CHERYL.”

(Gif source)

Season two answered my wish, and then some.  Cheryl was saved from an (impressively conscientiously portrayed) attempt at sexual assault by a pack of her female friends, and her attacker got the shit beat out of him in one of the most cathartic moments of modern television.

To the exaltation of my queer heart, she also came out as a lesbian, in a deeply moving story arc that I never would have expected from this show.  Without spoiling too much, she and her new love interest kissing in front of anti-gay propaganda footage was legitimately one of the most powerful moments I have ever witnessed.

(Gif source)

Before the season was over, she viciously threatened her abusive, homophobic mother while covered in blood, shot a serial killer with a bow and arrow, and joined a gang.  If that’s not gay culture, I don’t know what is.

Oh, how I wish this show was just about her.

Other examples:  Alexis from Schitt’s Creek.

4.)  The Lovable Bastard

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Ah, The Good Place.  I have never experienced such a breath of comedic fresh air.  A new philosophical principle each episode, examined and applied in hilarious and thought-provoking ways.  A complete absence of harmful stereotypes.  Incredibly lovable, three-dimensional, and ever-evolving characters. 

I was considering using my queen Tahani for this list, who externally larger-than-life and internally vulnerable after emotional abuse by her parents.  Also, she’s hilarious.  Everyone and everything in The Good Place is hilarious.  And I also thought about talking about Janet, who is the best character in anything ever, but of course:

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Instead, I’ll be talking about bisexual icon Eleanor, who is something very few female characters get to be:  the lovable bastard.

(Gif source)

Eleanor, when we first meet her, is not traditionally good in any sense of the word.  She turned down a high-paying job because she was expected to be nice to people.  She sold placebos to the elderly, and was great at it.  She was drunken, slovenly, hedonistic, and selfish.  And she’s instantly incredibly likable.

Why and how Eleanor is so enjoyable, even at her very worst, merits an essay all its own.  But in a nutshell:

We empathize with her.  We are introduced to “The Good Place” completely through her eyes.  We are in her shoes.  

The stakes are high.  When we discover that her entry into the good place was a mistake, we want her to be okay.

We come to understand her, and how her terrible childhood shaped her destructive behavior.  

She wants to be a better person, and with time, effort, and character development, we watch her become one. 

Not only is this an amazing lesson in how to endear audiences to your character, it is also infinitely refreshing.  The most famous lovable bastards are all men --  Han Solo, Dr. House, Captain Jack Sparrow, the Man With No Name, et cetera -- but women are rarely afforded the same moral complexity.  If a woman in fiction has done bad things, she’s not usually a lovable bastard.  She’s usually a bitch. 

Eleanor isn’t just a great character.  She conveys an important lesson:  women are people.  People with the same capacity for mistakes, growth, redemption, and love as anyone else.

(Image source)

Other examples: Chloe from Don’t Trust the B*tch in Apartment 23

5.)  The Cinderella

(Gif source)

Yep.  I said it.  Cinderella is a strong female character.

My girl not only survived in an abusive household, she persistently stayed positive.  She worked each day to make the best of an impossible situation, from which she had no means of escape.  That takes an insane amount of courage and tenacity. 

But Caff, I hear you scream, she needed help to escape!!  Well, my imaginary counterargument, so the fuck what?  MOST people need help to escape their abusive situations, and there’s no shame in that.  Accepting help from someone you trust is the best thing you can do in a situation such as that, and implying otherwise is horribly damaging to victims of abuse.  

But she married the prince, you more feebly protest.  Yes!  She did!  She found love and happiness and a great life in a socially influential position!  And that’s an amazing message!

So in the flurry of female warriors, let’s not forget Cinderella, who tells people that their terrible circumstances won’t last forever, to stay hopeful and kind, and that accepting help from a trusted friend can lead to a happy life.  

Cinderella is a bad bitch, and she deserves her happily ever after.

(Gif source)

Other examples:  For some reason, I’m thinking of Sansa from Game of Thrones.  When people try to discredit her as a strong character, they often make similar complaints.  But both, quite fittingly, end up as queens.

[flying-elliska]

I caught up with Star Trek Discovery and I am SO HYPE for season 3 like !!!

Thoughts on s2 :

- I just love the crew as a whole so much, they might be my favorite crew or maybe I’m just being biased because this is the first time I’m watching a Star Trek show live and so it feels like ‘my’ Star Trek. And they’re diverse in a way other crews have rarely been, and I just love almost all of them individually, the actors are all great. I just wish we got to know more of them a bit better and I really hope s3 gives us more team bonding.

- s2 as a whole was...i don’t know. They had some truly amazing episodes (the one with Airiam, on Saru’s planet). I wasn’t fond of the Red Angel plotline for a long while, especially in the beginning where they tried to make it about religion which it really wasn’t. Or it being All About Michael, who already has a tendency to shoulder too many burdens already - and even though I adore her, I am tired of storylines that revolve around one character as savior figure. But I really got into it towards the end - Control was a terrifying villain and a real menace, and I loved everyone rallying around Michael, it really being about teamwork and them inspiring each other and deciding to follow her to the future because they love her so much, they’re her FAMILY and I think I just spent a big part of the last episodes crying. I mean, Star Trek makes me cry in general, I don’t know why exactly, maybe it’s the idea of a decent future, but those in particular wow

- The inclusion of Spock and Captain Pike often felt like fanservice, especially since their characters were given a lot of space at the expense of other regulars, which annoyed me at times, but overall it was pretty compelling. Pike is just very classic Star Trek, principled and handsome and genuinely kind - and that scene where we realize he actually knows his future now, ooof. And emo!Spock was very funny, his relationship with Michael was pretty compelling and wow, as a long time Spirk shipper, Michael telling him he needs to find somebody who understands him and tethers him (that’s obviously Kirk) gave me Feelings even tho can you imagine having a Forbidden Sister you can’t ever tell anybody about...

- Section 31 being presented as this necessary evil....noooooo

- Star Trek continues to be absolutely crap at writing romance on purpose. The Ash/Michael is just so...ugh. I loved Ash in the beginning but the whole Klingon storyline was just so deeply garbage in s1 that it tainted his whole character for me and their thing was just rushed and they tried to sell it as this super tragic romance but i never really got into it in the first place ? like why did they even like each other anyway ? And then Stamets and Culber...I like them in theory, I’m over the moon we are finally getting lgbt rep, it’s about DAMN TIME, but it’s so frustrating that all the plot they get is basically one of them suffering some awful physical predicament and then the other angsts about it it got old really fast. Culber’s trauma made sense but they never really explored it properly, him breaking up with Paul for no clear reason and then being oh no never mind was very ???? undercooked. They can do a lot better. I know that in shows like these any characters in romantic relationships are bound to suffer because their love ups the stakes, but I wish they’d add more depth to the whole thing.

- So I know that in theory Georgiou is a terrible person, and a very bad trope, as the evil promiscuous bisexual, and as is this idea that in the evil mirror universe everyone is bisexual and promiscuous, as if those two things make you Morally Corrupt but also like....she’s so much fun to watch. It’s like that tumblr post about the problem with gay villains, in that it’s bad to associate gayness and villainy but also nghhhhh evil lady hot. And she in general has this chaotic force of nature vibe that is incredibly rare to see in female characters, like she absolutely commands the space she’s in, but she can also dial it back and you never really know what she’s going to do next. And her whole ‘I don’t care about you MIchael but I’m still going to follow you to the future’ thing is very funny.

- I think some of the criticisms of the show are valid. It’s leaning a bit too much on twists and turns at times, a bit too focused on characters over worldbuilding, and they make some really stupid decisions but I still love this show so much and I just really believe it can grow into something extraordinary if given the time.

- Also, is Sonequa Martin Green the most beautiful woman in the universe ? Like this show is filled with beautiful people but damn

[sirloozelite]

Galaxy-8: Tales of ‘Conquest’

(Galaxy-8 is crazy and bonkers and every possible variation of the word. Nothing makes any real sense, and everyone behaves completely OOC... minus Hardcase. Do not take any of this seriously. It is all done for humor reasons. Enjoy! XD)

Scene: Clone Bar 79′s. Captain Cody and ARC Trooper Hardcase have invited their Jedi General, Ahsoka Tano out for drinks. The Clones each have a beer, whilst Tano drinks a fine wine. Much to Cody’s annoyance, the discussion had taken a rather... private... turn.

Hardcase: So come on then General... who was your first?

Cody: 0_0

Ahsoka: Ha! It was a fellow Knight actually. We had both recently graduated from Padawan rank and we went out to celebrate. One thing led to another and well... you can fill in the blanks.

Hardcase: Oohh. You bad Jedi!

Ahsoka: I know right! XD

Cody: -_-

Ahsoka: What about you Hardcase? You’ve been around a bit from what I hear.

Cody: Unfortunately.

Hardcase: You’re just jealous Cody. Anyways, my first was with a lovely Twi’lek girl that actually works here. I had just got promoted to ARC Trooper, and felt like celebrating, like you. She offered and I thought... why the hell not. I still chat to her over instant messaging too. She’s a good friend.

Cody: Uh huh?

Ahsoka: That’s sweet Hardcase. Good for you.

Hardcase: Thanks General.

Cody: ...

Hardcase: What about you Cody? Who was your first time?

Cody: NOPE! Not going there!!! (takes a big gulp of his beer)

Hardcase: Hmph... fine. So... General... I heard rumours about you and Senator Chuchi. Any truth to them?

Ahsoka: Huh? Oh! Yeah... I turned her gay!

Cody: (chokes on his drink)

Hardcase: Whoa! How’d you managed that?!

Ahsoka: Long story short, the two of us went out on the town for a night out with the intention of getting laid, but none of the men she was interested in looked at her twice. I simply suggested that maybe she should ‘expand her horizons’, if you catch my drift?

Hardcase: I do I do. So.. what happened next?!

Cody: ... please don’t answer tha...

Ahsoka: She hadn’t ever considered it before, so I volunteered to ‘teach’ her about it. Next thing I know she’s dragging me back to her apartment for her first ‘lesson’. She said afterwards I’d turned her gay for me. It was pretty flattering!

Hardcase: NICE! (offers a high five)

Ahsoka: (high fives Hardcase before sipping her wine)

Cody: Sigh.... why did I get agree to this night out?

Ahsoka: Because you love us really Cody.

Hardcase: Yeah!

Cody: ... kinda wish I didn’t.

The trio take sips/gulps of their drinks before continuing.

Hardcase: So General... since you like the ladies too, I’ve got a question for you.

Cody: Oh no.

Ahsoka: Fire away.

Cody: ...

Hardcase: Ass or (gestures to Ahsoka’s chest)?

Cody: For kriffs sake!

Ahsoka: Pfftt... ass of course!

Hardcase: Hey! Me too! (offers another high five that Ahsoka accepts)

Cody: (facepalms)

Ahsoka: You got anymore stories Hardcase?

Hardcase: Yeah actually... there was this one women... human... she was pretty cute... but I found out she was married, so I didn’t go for her. Not in the business of partaking in helping a spouse commit adultery, whether they are willing to or not.

Cody: ... that’s... surprisingly honorable of you Hardcase.

Hardcase: Heh! Thanks. I later found out that she and her husband were actually in an open marriage. I could of had her... in theory.

Ahsoka: Just her? No interest in trying out...

Hardcase: Ha! No. Not for me.

Ahsoka: Senator Chuchi said the same once.

Hardcase: Ha ha ha! Unlike you Tano I’m not into threesomes! Didn’t you sleep with a King of Ryloth and his mistress or something?

Ahsoka: To be honest I spent most of my time with his mistress. Three rounds with her compared to one with him, not that I was complaining.

Hardcase: Nor was he I bet, with a view like that!

Cody: HARDCASE!!!!

Ahsoka: No no... he’s right Cody. A view like that... mmmmmm!

Cody: Oh my god someone kill me now!

Ahsoka: Awww... what’s wrong Cody? Does talk about sex make you feel ill or something?

Hardcase: You need to get laid Captain!

Cody: No! No I do not. Not everyone is like the two of you!

Ahsoka: I dunno... a fair few people seem to be like me. Riyo... the Queen of Shili... Cal... Merrin... Saw...

Hardcase: That farmer girl from Raada?

Ahsoka: Oh yeah... Kaeden... she is something special. God that week was so much fun! I could barely keep up with her... and that’s not something I say very often! I’m totally gonna go back there next time I get some time off!

Hardcase: Sounds like you are building your own personal multi-gender harem there General! I’m jealous!

Cody:  😒

Ahsoka: Oohhh!! Now that sounds like a dream come true! All those men and women... all for me! God I’d be in heaven!!! 😎

Cody: PLEASE STOP! WE GET IT GENERAL!!! YOU ARE LITERALLY THE POSTER GIRL FOR THE ‘BADASS BISEXUAL’ TV TROPE!!!! WE DON’T NEED TO BE REMINDED EVERY FIVE SECONDS!!!

Ahsoka: 0_0

Hardcase: 0_0

All of the customers in 79′s: 0_0

Cody: (realizing what he just yelled) ... oh.. kriff... I... I gotta go!

Cody finishes his beer and runs, leaving Ahsoka and Hardcase behind, who both burst out laughing as Cody vanishes and the rest of the club returns to normal.

Hardcase: Poor dude. He needs to learn how to relax. Does he not realize we are just messing with him?

Ahsoka: ... maybe we should hire a lapdancer for him for his life day! That’s soon right?

Hardcase: Ooohhh.. good idea! Male or female lapdancer?

Ahsoka: I dunno actually. He’s not stated a preference to me before. Has he to you?

Hardcase: Nope. Guess we will just have to get one of each.

Ahsoka: Nice! I can have the one he doesn’t want then!

Hardcase: And if he doesn’t want either of them?

Ahsoka: Then you can have the other one for the night!

Hardcase: ...

Ahsoka: ...

Hardcase: ...

Ahsoka: ... oh... and dibs on the female dancer if Cody doesn’t want either of them.

Hardcase: Blast!

Ahsoka: XD

Hardcase: Damn you General. You always steal the best things.

Ahsoka: Yep! I’m a lucky woman!

Hardcase: (spotting two woman coming toward them from a distance) Hey! Heads up General. Looks like some ‘company’ is coming our way!

Ahsoka: Yes! (turns to greet them) Why hello there!

Hardcase: What she said!

[boxoftheskyking]

This is why you should watch the Untamed

TO BEGIN WITH:

“In this time of uncertainty” (to quote a Bud Light commercial), what you want is something with enough episodes to get invested in, enough characters to occupy your thoughts and feelings, things to cry about but also plenty of sweetness and goofiness. So here is my list:

(I’m only on Episode 40 and I didn’t think very much before making this list)

(I did not expect to really like this show as much as I do and I look forward to rewatching it as soon as I am finished which I actually rarely do)

-50 episodes, 40 min each, so it’s enough to take up a good chunk of time, but it’s done so you don’t have to wait for another season.

-Equal parts wacky supernatural shit, Mysteries, and devastating Medieval tragedy (I could go on and on with Arthurian Parallels bc that’s a thing I sometimes study but I won’t right now)

-Tendernessss so much tenderness

-Everybody gets an arc! It’s well done.

-Xiao zhan’s face (Look, it was a gifset of WWX smiling that made me watch the show in the first place and I am not ashamed. that’s just good marketing.) (Also, as we say the biz, the guy’s got Genuine Chops.)

-So many stairs

-I don’t know if that’s a selling point for you but there are just so many stairs

-Listen you hear a lot about how they had to deal with censorship so they adapated a Very Explicitly Queer novel into something No Explicitly Queer. Which is true. But speaking as an American, this is more Queer Romance than I’ve seen on TV in a while (Also you can find translations of the novel online and they Bang A Lot)

-You will learn interesting linguistic things. And that helps stave off dementia

-Every family is a found family

-Everyone pretends to be stoic but no one actually is

-Does not pull punches when it comes to dark and upsetting plotlines. I used to compare it to Merlin bc of delightful magical intrigue but it is Not for Children

-Every 10 episodes the tone changes entirely but then as soon as you're lulled back into This is Fun it gives you something tremendously distressing

-Sets up an interesting political and magical structure so your hero can challenge it

-An actual villain’s-not-such-a-villain story (K*lo Ren wishes he were WWX)

All my fave fanfic tropes including: -very sober character gets very drunk and shows emotion. Also a  Chicken heist. -accidental baby acquisition -build your home out of Nothing -everyone is Devoted to someone and it's so painful

-Weird magic involving nails to the brain

-So much self sacrifice!

-Complicated feelings about Nemeses

-You can carry a ghost in a bag

-Everyone can fly

-Everyone is Beautiful

-That one time the kid’s jaw drops and a piece of chicken splats down into his bowl and the other kids picks it up and shoves it back in his mouth that shit was hilarious

-Supervillain whose main motivation is candy?

-Lotsa zombies

-A+ production design, everything is beautiful

-Great fake blood work

-Terrible cgi

-Wei wuxian’s little paper doll talismans!!!

-Immensely romantic. I cannot express the levels of romance

Things to know (thank you to everyone who explained to this foolish American blogger):

-there are time jumps. Kind of like the Witcher, you have to stick with it to put it all together. But it does tell you when it's jumping

-Wei Wuxian = wwx = Wei Ying = Yiling Patriarch = ends up in Mo Xuanyu's body A creature of chaos and sunshine. To quote that line from the Mummy script, You are Going to Fall in Love with Him. He's not really evil he's doing his best. Mad bisexual icon which means I identify too much (as a mad bisexual myself)

-Lan Wangji = lwj = Lan Zhan = Hanguan Jun Has a lot of feelings once you know how to look for them. You know those old folk tales where the hero's love dies and they sit by the grave and turn into a tree? That's him. Likes rabbits. Extremely wistful.

-Jiang Wanyin = Jiang Cheng Full of rage. I yell at him a lot

-Jiang Yanli = Shijie To pure for any world. Belongs in the bon appetit test kitchen, not on a battlefield

-Wen Ning = the ghost general A baby who is also a demon. Deserves better. Runs on devotion

-Wen Qing She’ll fuck you up but you'll deserve it. The bro to end all bros

-A-Yuan = I'm not telling A baby/a turnip

-Lan Sizhui A good boy

-Jing Ling = Jin Rulan A little shit. Could use one (1) good ass kicking for character development reasons

-Nie Huaisang Not Cut Out For This, but a bro who will lend you his good porn. So.

-Mianmian Underappreciated in her Time

-Song Zichen = Song Lan & Xiao Xingchen

Don't talk to me, I hurt. The original Danger Gays

-Xue Yang A Problem

-A-Jing A little shit. Deserves better

-i can't remember all of Yao's names but he’s a shifty lil fuck I don't trust for one minute

That’s all I can think of right now but give it a try. You’ll have fun and then around ep 16 you’ll realize how invested you’ve become

Also the fic is bomb as hell

[arlakos]

What your Favorite Miraculous Ladybug Ship says about you

Title is simple, im just gonna get started. No ships shall be spared and my mouth shall not be stopped, so yeah warning for those who are under 18 or otherwise don’t want their innocent minds peirced.

Also, considering there are many different reasons for shipping, im just gonna put them all in dot points as subtypes

Adrinette (Adrien X Marinette)

You are a Miraculous Ladybug fan 

You like keeping things canon and/or endgame

You are a Marinette stan

You hate the season 3 finale.

LadyNoir (Ladybug X Chat Noir)

Your ideal love dynamic is bantering with occasional puns. 

You probably think that Ladybug should treat Chat Noir better than she did in Reflekdoll.

You liked Oblivio.

You are an Adrien stan.

You hate the season 3 finale

MariChat (Marinette X Chat Noir)

You are a fan of the ‘Friends to Lovers’ trope

You want to be wooed by Cat Noir and his many puns.

Evilustrator is your favorite season 1 episode

You have an addiction for the dramatic irony of two people talking about the people they love, not realising that their love is right in front of them.

You hate the season 3 finale.

Ladrien (Ladybug X Adrien)

You have an addiction for two lovestruck dorks not being able to talk with eachother or make any proper sentences.

On the other end of the spectrum, you think Ladybug would be the domme in the relationship once they are older, and probably have discovered a fantasy of being tied up by Ladybugs yoyo.

You hate the season 3 finale

The Lovesquare(tm) (You know which one im talking about)

You like getting teased nonstop for 3 seasons straight by a garden gnome who can’t write relationships, so he hides behind 5 seasons worth of akumas so he doesn’t have to.

Any time that either of the ships are in the same frame doing something cute, your brain is screaming at the screen for the two of them to kiss.

You are a fan of Oblivio

You are also a fan of that sleeping pic in Startrain.

Oh yeah, you also hate the season 3 finale.

DJWifi (Alya x Nino)

You like the idea of two nerds hanging out together.

Your favorite season 1 episode is Animan.

If you like them more as heroes, you probably like the idea of the two fawning over eachother like they did in that Heroes Day special.

Even if you don’t particularly ship them, you ship them anyways because it makes for great fanfic ideas about post-reveal double dates with Adrinette.

AdriNino (Adrien X Nino)

You probably saw those memes about the two bros being all homoerotic with eachother and thought it would make a good writing prompt. For those who don’t know what I mean, here it is:

Alyanette (Alya X Marinette)

Your a fan of two girlfriends hanging out together.

You may or may not ship Adrinino.

Based on the above point, you also think that an older Alya would make sexual innuendos when discussions ever turn to relationships, and Marinette would the innocent one who tells Alya to stop in embarrasment.

Ninette (Nino x Marinette)

On the light side of the salt spectrum (aka nonexistent) You think Nino’s crush on Marinette was cute AF in animan.

On the other side of the salt spectrum, you probably dislike Alya, or at least how much Alya has made Nino her side-dude and took away his main character rights (but i don’t blame you)

Alyadrien (Alya X Adrien)

You love Adrien, but  Marinette’s inability to speak to him drive’s you so frustrated that you pair Adrien with Alya because you think Adrien should have a relationship with someone he can Actually talk to. 

If its Rena Rouge and Chat Noir, you could also be interested in Chat Noir finding a new incredibly amazing person to crush on. Or just a superhero rebound. Who knows?

If you age up the characters, There’s a good chance you are incredibly horny. No seriously. I searched up the ship on AO3 and found that most to all of the fics I found on Alyadrien led to some smut story. If you like this ship and go on AO3, you can only be horny. Only exception applies to the next ship

If you ship the two of them as civilians, you have either have an interest in Cheating, or the idea of Alya stealing Adrien from Marinette ‘just because’. If you ship the two of them as heroes, you like the idea of them have a ‘friends with benefits’ style relationship where after a night of partrol they sneak off to romp.

Alya X Marinette X Adrien X Nino

You are bisexual

You love the Entire Miraculous Nerd gang.

You have a love for non canon gay ships, but also a strong love for canon straight ships, and it tears your heart to have to choose, so you just decided to ship them all together, so everyone is happy.

You could also be horny for this ship as well if you age them up, but you could also have a desire for fluff between four people

Lukanette (Luka X Marinette)

You have an intrest for men who play guitars.

You are a fan of Luka

You are a fan of people with blue hair.

You think Marinette should move on from Adrien if she can’t even talk to him.

Inversely, you ship Adrien with someone else and just decided to ship Mari with Luka as to not be called a Marinette hater.

If you are one of the people who are still salty over Chameleon, theres a good to honest chance you ship these two because you think Luka is the ‘better Adrien’. Also you probably think Adrien is an asshole for Loving Ladybug but not loving Marinette.

Lukadrien (Luka x Adrien)

TWO OPTIONS. Either A, you have a crippling addiction to Yaoi and like the ending of Captain Hardrock, or B, you are someone like me who has a liking for the Idea of Luka swooning Adrien right in front of Marinette while she stands there gobsmacked.

If your B, this can be either for humorous reasons, romanctic reasons, or both.

Also this commercial (Watch the end and you’ll know what I mean)

Adrigami (Adrien X Kagami)

You cannot stand Marinette’s inability to talk to Adrien, or her stalkerish tendencies. PERIOD.

You think Adrien should move on from Ladybug and be happy, but you definetely think it should NOT be Marinette for reasons above.

You have an addiction for two people that fight eachother in combat, but also love eachother. (And also want to screw each other)

You like bluenettes, but you also like Dommes.

You are a fan of the season 3 finale

Kagaminette (Kagami X Marinette)

You REALLY love bluenettes, so you say to yourself ‘I want more!’

There’s a good to honest Chance that you also ship Lukadrien, regardless of whether its romantic or not.

If its not for romantic reasons, you probably like the same idea as Lukadrien, but from the other side of the gender spectrum.

You really like those anime stories where one person is up against the wall and their prime rival/future significant other just aims their sword at their neck and using the flat end of the blade to lift the others head up.

You are probably a fan of the Ikari Gozen episode.

You probably thought that Kagami should have gotten the icecream with Marinette in heart Hunter

Lukagami (Luka x Kagami)

You gotten attached to both Luka and Kagami, but you are REALLY attached to the Adrienette ship, so you pair these two together so that they don’t feel lonely.

Actually, you dont really have to care about them personally, but you still ship them because you hate the idea of someone losing in a relationship triangle.

Adrigaminette (Adrien X Kagami X Marinette)

The reason for shipping this three is the same as Alya x Nino X Adrien X Marinette, but you either thing Nino and Alya are fine on their own, and think that all three of the aformentioned characters are too sweet to think that any of them deserved to lose in the relationship. And that is perfectly fine :)

Alternatively, you could be a Chameleon salter who is still mad at the class, but considering you ship these 3, you probably aren’t as salty as other people in the fandom, and just want some actually fluffy romance.

AdriLukaMari (Adrien X Luka X Marinette)

Love triangles. Just love triangles. And one that actually has more than 2 people so its actually more angsty.

Alternatively, if you ship all 3 of them aged up, you probably think Adrien is a bottom in the bed  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).

Also alternatively, your fantasy is probably being swooned by two boys after your heart, but you are also a part BL fangirl.

Lukagaminette (Luka X Kagami X Marinette)

You are a Chameleon Salter, but you also probably hate Adrien, and by extension Chat Noir, and are probably one of the biggest salters that give the fandom its salty rep.

You absolutely go one AO3 to ONLY read salt fics where Lila gets exposed and defeated.

You probably read fics about Chat Noir being a stalker because you think flirting = SEXUAL HARRASMENT! You give Kudos for fics that either ‘make Chat Noir pay’ or take Adriens ring from him.

On that last note, guess who becomes the better Chat Noir?! (I am being sarcastic as hell, and of course its probably Luka)

You also hate the class and want them to either suffer, or apologise for hurting the ‘amazing, wonderful godess that is Marinette’ and kiss her feet like the dogs they are.

You probably have tunnel vision on Chameleon, and have failed to notice that aside from a that one episode, Lila hasnt impacted the show as much as you think she has in your fanfic.

You probably dont even ship Lukagaminette, because to be fair nobody ship this particular 3-pair, unless its one of the subships

You may also realized I tricked you, but I couldn’t exactly create a Salter X Salt ship, OC ships don’t count.

...Actually, there is one actual reason for liking this ship...BLUENETTES GALORE!!!

Lukadrigaminette (Luka X Adrien x Kagami X Marinette)

This is one of two things, either its the same reason as Alya X Marinette X Adrien X Nino where you just want all of them to be happy, or you are an ABSOLUTE SALTER who hates pretty much everything in the show (except Adrien) and so resorts to MAXIMUM FLUFF. You are tired of the Chameleon episode and Marinette not being treated right, tired of Adrien being treated wrong by his Father and possibly the show writers, tired of people fighting over the lovesquare (tm) and the alternate Kagmi/Luka ships, so you just ship these 4 lovable bastards and keep everyone else away from them. Fuck the class, Fuck Gabriel, Fuck Lila, fuck everyone else in the show, you want some damn happy fluff so you take these 4 and put them in the happy bubble away from the troubles of the fandom. You are the biggest salter out there, but are also the best kind of salter who wants fluff and does not give a damn.

Chloedrien (Chloe x Adrien)

Lol no XD. Nobody ships this.

But if you do like the characters, you probably think they are close as siblings.

Chloenette (Chloe X Marinette)

You used to be a Drarry fanboy/fangirl if you were a book lover, or a Sasunaru fanboy/fangirl if you are a weeb.

You are a fan of the enemies to Lovers trope

You probably want Chloe to have a proper character development.

This clip:

Nathanette (Nathaniel x Marinette)

You believe the show has gone down since season 1.

Evilustrator is your special ep.

You keep away from the fandom because you do not want to be involved with the war between the Chloethaniel shippers and the Marcaniel shippers.

Chloethaniel (Chloe X Nathaniel)

You also think Chloe should have a proper character development, but you are also heterosexual.

You think the show has been going down since season 1.

You are probably in a secret guerrilla war with the perople who ship Marc X Nathaniel.

Chloebrina (Chloe X Sabrina)

You have an addiction for alpha bitch girls.

If you age them up, you have a secret interest in BDSM that you haven’t told anyone about.

You think that whoever is the domme is depending on how drunk an aged up Chloe is before the start of your fic.

There is a good to honest chance that you probably ship them with actual fluff and that Sabrina has a secret crush on Chloe, which is the reason you believe that Sabrina sticks by her side.

But in most fanfics where there are multiple pairings, chances are you don’t pay all that much attention to it unless its the main focus of the story.

Sabrina X anyone else

You think Sabrina deserves better.

You also hate Chloe, or you don’t, but think that Chloe and Sabrina’s relationship is unhealthy and that they should see other people.

Lukloe (Luka x Chloe)

That one comment from Chloe in Miracle Queen has been the basis of your entire ship, actual character interactions be damned.

Also, you probably think Chloe needs calming guitar guy to counteract her alpha-bitch attitude.

Your name is DEFINETELY NOT @zoe-oneesama​, if your tumblr posts are anything to go by.

Julerose (Juleka X Rose)

You like keeping things canon - but not really because nothing has ACTUALLY been declared yet, just teases. But still.

You hate Princess Fragrance because of Prince Ali, and your favorite episode is likely Zombizou because kissou~

If you are part of the salt-dom. you regularly go and find people who dont ship Juleka and Rose together and send them rude messages because apparently ‘their sexist’.

AliRose (Prince Ali x Rose)

You haven’t watched Miraculous past season 1, or believe the show has been going down since then. Though really I don’t blame you.

There’s a good to honest chance that you don’t REALLY ship the two, and moreso just have them be the biggest BFF’s who are inspired by eachothers kindness and are probably pen pals with one another, because shipping people as best friends has been a thing. Good luck explaining that to the Julerose fans who keep sending death threats when they are not reblogging Julerose fanart!

Kimix (Kim x Alix)

You are a sucker for atheletes.

You are a fan of the Rivals to Lovers trope.

You believe in the inherent eroticism of daredevils who dont back down from dares.

Kimmax (Kim x Max)

You believe the school tropes about jocks bullying nerds is highly overrated, and seeing these two for the first time made you smile and ship them immediately.

You believe in the inherent eroticsm of opposites attract

Alix x Kim x Max

You like both ships a lot, and considering they don’t cause fandom wars like other CERTAIN ships in the fanom, you just quietly 3 pair this trio while other shippers throw salt and insults at eachother.

Ivan x Mylene

Everyone ships these two, but if you are one of the people who consideres them the OTP, you are probably just here for somewholesome side characters.

Marcaniel (Nathaniel x Marc)

You believe that Season 2 was the greatest thing to happen to the show in terms of the new characters it introduced.

Reverser is your favorite episode.

You are probably in a secret guerrilla war with the perople who ship Chloe X Nathaniel.

You believe in the inherent eroticism of two boys in love, and both of them are bottoms.

Kimette (Kim x Marinette)

Your name is @lunian​, your ship came out of nowhere, I am confused on what reason you shipped the two together, but I love it anyways. Keep up the good work.

GabeNath (Gabriel x Nathalie)

Either you think Nathalie’s love for Gabriel is beautiful in a tragic sort of way, or you think most of the show’s problems could have been avoided if Gabriel moved on.

Like Nathalie, you are probably attracted of Gabriels best quality... his extensive prebattle and post battle monologues.

Chlogami (Chloe X Kagami)

You believe in the inherent eroticism of deep hatred.

You ship Chlonette, but you want people who are actually at eachothers throats instead of snarky banter.

You believe the minute Kagami told Chloe to essentially piss off, Chloe should have kissed her right then and there.

Also the same video from Chlonette could be applied here.

Marinette x Entire Class

You are a diehard Marinette stan, and you have an addiction for harem fics.

Lilanette

There’s a good to honest chance you ship this because your one of those rare few people who try to ship every possible ship (without delving into the WTF-ships). 

Alternatively, you have a thing for psychopathic lesbians.

Liladrien (Lila x Adrien)

You may be one of those people who ship Volpina X Chat Noir back in season 1. I mean, its nearly nonexistent, but I’ve seen some comics.

However, you are most likely someone like me, waiting for the day that a bunch of us are able to find eachother and group up together to form the ulimate group of evil, and when the time is right, we post so much Lila x Adrien stuff on the Miraculous Ladybug tag that it will cause the fandom to burst into flames as all the Marinette stans foam at the mouth and collapse in sheer anger, shock and fear of our combined terrifying might.

If you don’t know what I mean yet...er...I mean if you ship Lila x Adrien, you are a massive troll. Or you really hate Marinette’s stalker behaviour and want to see her suffer. Probably both.

Adrichat (Adrien X Chat Noir)

Your name is @buggachat​, and you are the Destroyer of Logic and Bringer of Fandom Chaos.

EDIT: Forgot a ship

Kimdine (Kim x Ondine)

You just wanted good things for Ondine.

You also wanted good things for Kim, and probably hated the way Chloe treated him in Dark Cupid.

Syren is YOUR episode.

You’re probably waiting for someone to create a fanfic of Roi Singe saving Ondine from an akuma.

[thegrimzuera]

Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down into a real-life, real BAD fanfic.

So for the sake of privacy, we’ll say that my name is Zoe. I was raised in heteronormative, Midwestern suburbia. Now for the most part I adore my family and I loved my childhood, but in this case it did not work to my advantage. You see, nobody ever told me I could be gay. Just slipped their minds, I guess. Oops? So for most of my adolescence I walked around like a chump, thinking I was straight. I mean, straight people, you do you! It just didn’t work for me. That in and of itself is Bad Fanfic Trope #1.

I dated this guy on and off throughout high school. We’ll call him Chad. I liked Chad quite a bit. He was nerdy and we had nice conversations. For some reason we just couldn’t click well enough to maintain our relationship long enough that it became permanent (hint: because I was GAY...!). Honestly, we don’t even need to dwell on Chad that much. He’d be the least important part of this story if it weren’t for the fact that during one of our “off again” phases, he met and fell right in love with a person who we’ll dub Sarah.

Here’s where it gets juicy.

Now I’d never met her, but everyone said that Sarah was just like me—but cooler. We were both cute little emo girls, we both liked anime and weird music, and we both for some unknown reason liked Chad. Sarah also had this really amazing accent because she had moved to the states from Wales. All of Chad’s friends called her “British Zoe.” Come to think of it, that title made me a little bitter towards Sarah, and if Sarah ever heard about it, it may have contributed to her feeling bitter towards me too. Of course, being directed to compete over Chad didn’t help.

So Chad dated Sarah for a while, but it was fine, because Chad and I were going to stay friends like the mature 18-year-olds we were. Even though I was still insanely jealous of this mysterious and unattainably cool Sarah person. It was during this time that I figured I liked girls (and boys, I still thought) and as I was toying with the idea of telling Chad about my newly discovered bisexuality, he informed me that Sarah had also come out as bi. Interesting, isn’t it? 👀

I had the opportunity to meet Sarah once. We all went to an anime convention together, and I distinctly remember taking a deep breath beforehand and deciding that this was the day Sarah and I would become friends. There was no need for me to be jealous! If she was as cool as everyone said, then imagine how great a friendship would be. But I was shy. And she was shy. And we had all that baggage between us. I went home that day feeling alienated and disappointed.

Now things began to get messy, because conflicting feelings often do that. I’ll spare you the ugly details, but tell you that my friendship with Chad ended quite abruptly when I discovered that he’d been juggling both Sarah and I romantically at the same time. So I split, made a life for myself 50 miles away, and that was that.

Except it wasn’t. Fast forward about six years—one marriage, one child, one mental breakdown and revelation, and a divorce later. I moved back to my hometown, and one night I walked down the winter streets on the East side with a good friend of mine. I didn’t often come to these parts because I was raised on the opposite side of the city and it was unfamiliar to me. This was actually the first time I’d been here in about...hmm, six years? But one coincidence is all it takes I suppose.

As we walked along, I happened to glance into the front window of a restaurant just off the sidewalk. I had to do a double take, because there was no way that after six years and only one meeting I would immediately recognize...Sarah? Also Chad 😒 I did not say hello. I didn’t know what to do at all! After a mini meltdown, I decided that the best thing I could do was to reach out to Chad on social media.

In truth, I’d wished over the years that I could repair my friendship with Chad—wished that things had played out differently. If we all hadn’t been so dumb, maybe I wouldn’t have lost that friendship. To my great surprise, Chad was very friendly when I reached out. We arranged a time to meet up for coffee, and for several hours we talked and reconciled everything that had happened. We caught up on life, and Chad said that I should hang out with him and his friends—and Sarah—sometime.

I remember the first time I got to spend time with Sarah. It was shortly after that first coffee that Chad, Sarah, and I went to a local pinball bar to play and have drinks. We got together to play board games and have dinner around that time as well. In both instances, I was floored by Sarah’s kindness to me. Despite both of us being rather quiet by nature, we had easy conversation. I also remember feeling like such a dork in comparison. Me and my carefully curated outfits and sculpted hair were overdone and pretentious when compared to Sarah’s shaved head and relaxed wardrobe of black tank tops and some of the coolest pants I’ve ever seen. It was all so effortless for her.

Damn, I wanted so badly to be her friend! Chad kept encouraging me that Sarah thought I was really cool too, but I just didn’t believe it. When I learned that Chad would be moving out of state, I realized I had to stake my claim on Sarah’s friendship fast.

We all got together at Sarah’s new apartment for potentially one last time. Merely stepping foot into this place had my desire to be a part of Sarah’s world skyrocketing. The apartment sat on the East side of town, less than a hundred feet from the very restaurant window where I’d first saw her. It was on the upper level of an old, hipster coffee shop for goodness sake. If I didn’t want to be friends with Sarah just to be friends with her, I certainly wanted to For The Aesthetic.

That night I also met the person we’ll call Katie. This was Sarah’s new roommate. I could just tell as we interacted that evening that something good would come of this. At least, I hoped so. I largely contribute my lasting friendship with Sarah to Katie’s presence, because Katie has such a way about them. They can take even the most shy and awkward folks like me and get them laughing like fools. A little alcohol may have helped as well.

I lamented that night about how lonely I had been, and I did so out loud. That really should be embarrassing, but I’m nothing but grateful for my clumsy and pathetic tongue, because it allowed Sarah to open her mouth and invite me into her life.

“You can be my friend,” she offered earnestly. “Once Chad leaves I won’t really know what to do with myself, so you’re welcome here any time. I mean it!”

And hot damn, was I going to take her up on that. I came home that night absolutely elated. I had found a place to belong. I wrote songs and poetry about how happy I was. I told my parents how happy I was. I had never felt so hopeful, right down to the tips of my fingers. Flowers could have grown straight from my chest that night.

A week or so later, I had plans to have dinner with Sarah, Katie, and another friend of theirs, Rose. I was growing connections. That was also the week that I discovered Sarah and Chad had broke up because of some deeply rooted trash-bag tendencies he’d been revealed to have. We won’t go into that, but Chad was out of the picture, and somehow that raised the stakes. I had no training wheels now, not even in the form of an out-of-state buddy who could encourage me that Sarah truly did want my friendship.

Fortunately, what came to be on that evening with the three almost-strangers was the beginnings of the most instantaneous, wild, and addictive friendship of my life. We talked about everything. We discussed heartbreak, joy, pain, existence as a whole. We sat on a rooftop deck and gazed at the stars, and we immediately planned a get together for the following night where we would meet Lena and Emma, and our core group of instant best friends would be complete.

I can only describe this friendship as a whirlwind romance. These were the true loves of my life, and it had all started with laying eyes on Sarah by means of coincidence or fate that night in the winter—after years of tension and competition! Talk about an Enemies to Friends arc.

But I’m not even done yet.

As I mentioned, our little group became inseparable. We spent all of our time together and poured more energy into our friendship than I had ever given or been given by another adult person. I learned that these people were the coolest to ever exist, and that they thought I was cool too. I finally l believed it, because they wouldn’t allow me to doubt. This was a fierce love.

For some reason, with all this fierce love, I always found myself dying to get closer to Sarah. Closer and closer yet. I also felt particularly protective of my friendship with her. I think this had everything to do with the fact that our friendship was so ill-fated and had been thwarted many times before. I promised myself that I would never let anything or anyone come between us. Sarah was my number one concern.

You can see where this was going.

Bad Fanfic Trope #2: Enemies to Friends [to Lovers]

Now let me just take a pause in our literary journey to tell you some of the reasons I fell for Sarah. Consider this a montage of sorts:

For being a very shy, very introverted person, Sarah lives loudly. She’s the one to show up in the most fabulous, effortlessly cool outfit you’ve ever seen. We once went on a walk to the park with mine and Emma’s kids—Sarah wore black leather hammer pants. She has about ten thousand pairs of black boots, each one unique and quietly elaborate. She just exists this way, never looking like she tries too hard or had to even put thought into her appearance. She just is.

Sarah also loves to dance. And she’s good at it. This was another thing that surprised me, I suppose because I figured that as a self-proclaimed awkward person like myself, she would be too timid to dance. But Sarah can and will dance to anything. Sarah will dance in silence. Sarah also knows and loves every song known to humankind. I’m talking tens of thousands of songs—she knows the lyrics, the albums, the artists, and probably the life stories of said artists.

Sarah is an artist herself. She draws, paints, and does pottery. For my birthday, she threw me the first party I’d had since my absolute failure of a sweet sixteen (in and around eight years prior), baked me the most delicious lavender cupcakes I’ve ever tasted (oh yes! Sarah also is a master in the kitchen!), and gave me the coolest, trippiest, handmade cup. It is my favorite cup. I would probably murder if this cup asked me to.

Most importantly, Sarah is the most kind, gracious, emotionally intelligent person I know. I’ve always been astounded by her ability to forget our past and extend such grace to me. Despite the way we met, she welcomed me into her life. She’s always the first one to check in not just on me, but on all of our friends and even people who have wronged her to be sure that we are all okay. Sarah understands people. She understands feelings and can express them so beautifully when she’s actually given the chance.

We’ve done the whole nine yards over the last year since we met (er, met again). I’m talking midnight kisses, bed sharing, romantic dinners, slow dancing, regular dancing. The problem was in figuring out if it meant anything, because when all your friends are gay, this sort of thing can be confusing.

Nobody told me to feel this way. A smart person would have told me not to. A smart me would have listened. But I love the feeling of falling, so I allowed it. I allowed it and clung to it. It actually happened quite fast. Sarah and I have always been honest with each other; it was something I prioritized due to our rocky beginning. So, when I realized my feelings for her, I wasted no time in asking her on a date.

Sarah said yes, but she also told me she wasn’t sure where she wanted this to go or if she was ready for anything serious. Her relationship with the trash bag had left her pretty severely wounded, and she was understandably still healing from that. And so together we agreed that this would be a date without expectation.

Sarah also told me that she’d never been on a proper date before. Trash bag had never bothered to do that. This was just more motivation to make this a good date. Not to pat myself on the back too hard, but I did a great job. I am good at treating people right. We went axe throwing (yes, very gay, I know), and then had dinner and drinks.

All seemed well, I was happy, she was happy. But, since we agreed that it was a casual date, I didn’t want to apply any pressure by asking her out again too quickly. So I waited and tried to play my hand wisely.

Now during this time, COVID cases were on the rise in my area and in the rest of the country. Hangouts in our tiny group had been easy and safe up until this point because of the nice summer weather and Sarah’s outdoor, rooftop deck where we usually would gather. Winter in the Midwest, however, made that impossible.

Now I thought I might lose my mind if I couldn’t see my people for the entire winter. Fortunately, Sarah asked me to be her “plus one” of sorts—each of the roommates in her apartment got to choose one. Katie chose their partner, and the third roommate in the apartment chose his partner. Sarah chose me.

I say again, you can see where this is going.

Sarah confessed to me that she felt lonely and jealous of her roommates romantic lives. They had partners, she didn’t. They were in love, she wasn’t. But here I was.

Bad Fanfic Trope #3: Fake Dating AU

Now I know what you’re thinking. Why would I do this? Why would Sarah do this? Why, Zoe? Why?

Emotions are a very persuasive bastard, I’ll tell you that. Besides, it made Sarah happy, and I got to go over to my favorite apartment with my favorite person. We actually spent quite a lot of time together in this days.

One particularly magical night for me was the walk we took around a local college campus. This was near Christmastime, so the surrounding houses were all lit up with colored lights and the atmosphere just hit different. Even being out in the open, it felt intimate. We came across the most oddly placed bus stop in the parking lot. Truly it was an island out at sea—it just looked like it didn’t belong there, a little glass building with citrus light leaking out of it.

“That’s a portal,” Sarah joked, spotting it at the same time as me.

I laughed, but I was actually serious when I asked her, “Should we go through?”

So we did. We ventured to the middle of the lot and entered in the left-side door. The inside felt even more otherworldly, and I’m still not convinced that something supernatural wasn’t going on there. But we giggled like kids and imitated the sounds of machine and tearing space-time, and then we stepped out the right-side door.

I’m pretty sure that was the night I knew I was totally fucked. Up until then things had been pretty manageable, feelingswise. But everything about that evening just pumped me up with hope and adrenaline, and whether things went up or downhill from there is kind of hard to tell.

Things really were good! I got to dress up for mini, COVID safe parties and dance in the living room. I got to sleep over on movie nights. I had already been living out my fanfiction dreams to the tune of Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift for the last several months, so what was a few more?

Actually, it was quite painful. I say this was a fake dating AU, but I think I was the only one being fooled—and maybe Sarah too on some level. We didn’t really mean for it to happen this way. I didn’t mean to be the person who couldn’t control her feelings, and Sarah didn’t mean to be the one who led me on. We were supposed to be having fun—and it was fun. Until it wasn’t.

See, holding back your own feelings can be miserable. It’s fun in the moment until you come home to an empty bed and know that nobody will be joining you. It’s fun until you’re reading into every text message and searching for a hidden meaning. Everything somehow felt perfectly aligned and all out of sorts at once.

When I decided I couldn’t take the wondering anymore, I asked Sarah for the chance to talk. She of course said yes, and so we agreed that we’d find some alone time at our next get-together. This happened to be our jazz night party, and Damn, did Sarah look good on jazz night.

We’d had themed parties before, but Sarah really outdid herself this time. She’d taken the lead on this party, and when I walked in I found the entire apartment transformed. The living room furniture had been pushed back to make room for dancing, and the kitchen cart was rolled in as a makeshift bar. The plush bench from the entryway sat in front of a strung-up tapestry as a photo station, and the flat screen was adorned with some sort of “jazz club ambience” from YouTube.

Sarah herself looked like something straight out of the Great Gatsby. I’ll spare you the details because I’m trying not to be too cringe-inducing here, but she was striking and perfectly on theme. I’m pretty sure I looked like a grunge gremlin in comparison, but that’s neither here nor there.

I told her how lovely she looked when I arrived, and truthfully I couldn’t tell if she was the one being awkward or I was. It could have been both, in hindsight, but considering how things went it doesn’t really matter.

It was difficult to focus on the absolute beauty of the party when my hands were trembling and all I could think of was the upcoming talk of be having with Sarah. I didn’t want to look at her too long in case everything went wrong and she didn’t want my eyes on her, but she also looked gorgeous and cool, and she was making us drinks like a real bartender. This was the time of her life, I could tell.

Everyone else was having a good time too. Katie and their partner were two peas in a pod. And Adam (third roommate, thus far unnamed) and his partner seemed pretty much in sappy, romance heaven. It hadn’t been a problem before, but suddenly I wasn’t sure where I fit into this unique equation.

When slow songs came on through the playlist, the couples wrapped their arms around each other and looked fondly into each other’s eyes. Sarah and I danced, but not too close, and I definitely couldn’t meet her eyes right now. It just didn’t feel the same.

We finally managed to get some privacy when the others went on a Taco Bell run. I mentally went over my talking points and tried to prepare myself for what seemed like the most predictable outcome. I would make sure that Sarah felt no pressure with me, because that truly was the last thing I wanted. I would also make my intentions clear—I’d love to go out on more dates with you and just see if there could ever be something between us. Easy as that. I didn’t expect that she would confess her true and undying love for me (I tried not to expect anything really), but a large part of me figured she would at the very least agree to a date or two for the sake of discovery, and maybe she’d even be excited about it. It just made sense to me.

But, even as I was beginning to express my feelings, I could tell the direction this was going. Sarah smiled and said she also felt like we probably needed to talk, and that I was really brave for bringing this up—braver than her, she said. What followed was the kindest, most gentle letting down of my life. Really, she couldn’t have handled that conversation any better.

There were a number of reasons for her decision to turn me down. For one thing, she didn’t want to risk our friendship. We were already so close, and as she’d expressed before, she didn’t want to rush into any serious relationships right now. 100% reasonable. And, it kind of did make sense. It would have been difficult not to become serious very quickly considering how close we were. On top of not wanting to risk our friendship and not wanting anything serious, I suspected that she simply didn’t feel the same way.

At the end of it all, Sarah asked me if I needed some space to process, or if I wanted her to step out of the apartment for a while. That’s right, Sarah literally volunteered to leave her own home during her own party to make me comfortable. I of course told her that was ridiculous and did my best to carry on normally. I wanted to be cool about it for both of our sake. Alas, I ended up making multiple trips to the bathroom for secret crying sessions, and eventually I ducked out early so that I could cry peacefully in my car—and my bed, and my shower, and everywhere else for the next few days.

Yikes. Funny how it hadn’t even hit me until that moment that I’d been making the very same dumb mistakes I read about all the time on AO3. I filled myself up with hope that wasn’t there and nearly ruined everything because of it.

I tried moving on without much luck. I tried remaining friends with moderate success. Perhaps that’s being too pessimistic. Honestly, my friendship with Sarah is stronger than ever. It’s just that almost two months after Jazz Night I finally had to have another talk with Sarah—one where I confessed how hurt I’d been over the whole ordeal. I apologized for my mishandling of the situation, and she apologized for hers. Honestly, we both had a good idea of what we’d been getting ourselves into at the start of it, but we did it anyway.

Am I over Sarah? Not if I’m being honest. But my priority has been and will always be protecting our friendship, and I think she’s on the same page as me there. I hang out with both her and Katie routinely, and I’m doing everything in my power to fix this. I don’t think it’s as big a deal for Sarah as it is me in that she doesn’t have to alter her feelings. I don’t want her to change her behavior either—because our amazing friendship is why I fell for her, she didn’t do anything to make me uncomfortable.

So we’re carrying on. I guess this is an ongoing story, but the fake-dating part is over as are the fanfiction tropes that seem to have overtaken my life for a hot minute. I just thought it was so interesting—interesting enough to share I suppose.

(Honestly part of me things this would make a good story if I went back and documented these events in more detail—like, I dunno, multiple chapters or something idk. If anyone got this far and would be interested in that lemme know. It’s my real life but for once that’s actually quite interesting.)

[thotfuss]

this isn’t to start Discourse, I’m just genuinely curious- do you think benji’s (implied) death is bury your gays or was it narratively justified?

if you care about spoilers for the hockey book don’t...read this lmao

ok first off, I was SO excited to get home from work to answer this thank you so much for giving me an excuse to talk about this book and also light of my life benji ovich.

This is. Kinda hard to answer because I’m not all that certain that Benji is actually dead/going to die? I will say that I bawled my fucking eyes out when I read the second part of this parallel and realized what it was implying (i’m including it because it makes me insane)

(Page 414 of Beartown)

(Page 420 of Us Against You)

But one of the things about Backman’s writing that is so effective is that he is SO good at misleading the reader. The amount of times that I read a plot point and was convinced beyond a doubt that there was no other way to read it, only to later go back after something else had been revealed and gone crazy over the fact that there WAS actually another way to read it? I literally went back to find some examples that I highlighted, so here’s this unnecessary breakdown because i literally just want to talk about it:

So there’s a section where there’s about to be a fight in the forest, Benji is involved, etc.And he leads off with this passage:

(Page 292 of Us Against You)

And my response was, naturally, to lose my mind. Because I...don’t know how else you can read that. So he follows that with this (unimportant side note but the first line of this is one of my most favorite Beartown quotes and is one of the ones in the running for my eventual Beartown tattoo.) So for context because it isn’t really included in this, it references Benji’s sister finding their dad after he commits suicide, and is definitely implying that someone finds Benji after he’s presumably shot in the fight. 

And then a few pages later, it comes back to the child who’s found “the body,” which at this point the reader is still assuming is Benji’s. 

(Page 295 of Us Against You)

And at this point, you start to question it, and you start to remember that Bobo’s mom has been sick the entire book, that it has hinted at her eventual death, etc. And then it gets to THIS part, 

and the other shoe drops and you end up putting it together. (I didn’t include the rest of the explanation, which is that a) the gunshot was Benji shooting a bear and b) he wasn’t breathing because at one point he was holding his breath, this is explained over like. a few pages but!) 

So, all things considered, and after having put a LOT of thought into it I have convinced myself that maybe, perhaps, Benji...might not die? My sister’s primary argument is “Someone can be a gamer, or a father, etc, and still be dead” so I am. leaving it open for interpretation at this point. 

BUT for the sake of this argument, let’s say Benji does ***. As genuinely devastated as I would be, I don’t think this is something I would count as “bury your gays?” I think narratively Benji’s storyline is one of the most well fleshed out, especially in Us Against You. His sexuality is a defining part of his arc, obviously, but I do think that the way it’s portrayed is SO well done, I hardly ever say that about straight people’s interpretations of gay characters but I think Backman’s exploration of this facet of his character was done very sensitively? There isn’t any mention of Benji being gay until well after his character has been established, and while there is a significant amount of his story that involves being outed and the small-town reaction to their star athlete being gay, it fits with the rest of the book.

My issue with a lot of other media that I do consider to fall into that trope is the fact that the gay character(s) ending is so tonally dissonant from the rest of the story? Like in the Magicians, which was generally a fun, enjoyable show that DID take on sensitive topics but still managed to maintain a generally positive, uplifting tone, killing their bisexual main character for no reason was SO not what the rest of the show was leading to. like, at all! especially because there was a built in way that had been utilized A LOT before to bring characters back to life. It was just SO glaringly not “right” in the context of the show. Beartown is not a positive, uplifting book. To me, it is at its core still a story about love and hope and friendship, but not everyone GETS a happy ending. And Benji has ALWAYS been a wild card, he’s been in danger more times than any of the other characters, and he’s always been shown to be impulsive and to have a lack of self-preservation. So I guess what it boils down to is that Benji’s death wouldn’t be in any way surprising to me. I don’t think it’s the inevitable end to his arc, per say, but I do think it’s an option that would make sense with the rest of his narrative. I can’t 100% say either way, because I don’t know what Backman’s going to do in the next book, where he’s going to go with this character, or if Benji does die how he’s going to do it. Obviously if Benji gets hatecrimed to death or something, or if he finally gets some semblance of a happy ending only to have it ripped away at the last minute, or something like that, I could see it going the other way. But as of now, I’m hoping that this isn’t what will happen. Either way, we’ll see, I guess? This is so much longer than I meant it to be and probably more than you wanted, but thanks for sending this in!