#i love this episode for the trans implications

[kasmirkozel]

Estrogen.

[txttletale]

(Other than the really weird bit about "Male presenting Doctor") what were your thoughts about the specials?

pretty mixed bag, pretty messy, but good overall. i think they were very obviously a nostalgia trip for people around my age lol and it worked! i loved seeing tennant and tate back onscreen together, their chemistry hasn't aged a bit, and honestly just watching doctor who that wasn't written by chris chibnall was a breath of fresh air. they weren't boring, like seasons 11 and 12 were, and they didn't go too far off the other end into nonsense like flux did. characters want things again! the show can let itself just be silly! i was literally cheering out loud when donna and the doctor were just saying random scifi gobbledegook at each other for like a solid several minutes during the star beast.

the structure of the specials kind of baffles me. i love wild blue yonder--i think it's definitively the best of the specials as a standalone, it's absolutely fantastic, creepy and atmospheric and bringing things around to RTD's strength, which is well-written characters interacting with each other and letting good actors just act. but at the same time i dont understand why it exists? it feels like...idk. imagine if you watched the star wars original trilogy but instead of the empire strikes back the middle film was just a feature length film about luke and han surviving on an ice planet with no reference to anything that happens in the last film except the two characters' relationship. and then the next film was still return of the jedi, unchanged. it felt like that

i liked all the weird campy silliness of the star beast and the giggle, and they were both very fun! neil patrick harris gave a fantastic performance, there are a lot of very memorable sequences from the giggle, but it's very very all over the place. so many threads get kind of picked up and go nowhere. the toymaker's haunted house dimension goes nowhere. RTD's eyerolling social media commetnary goes nowhere (thank god tbh but yknow im illustrating something here). even the toymaker kind of goes nowhere, after ncuti gatwa shows up he's bascially an afterthought who loses by dropping a ball. obvious parallels to david tennant's first episode with that ball scene could be made, but just... aren't. it feels like load-bearing sectikons of the plot and themes were cut out to make room for a backdoor pilot for the stupid fucking UNIT spinoff

oh and it goes without saying i fucking hate all the UNIT wank in the star beast and the giggle. i hope space nine eleven 2 happens to their stupid fucking avengers tower i cannot stand kate stewart who is constantly a murderous bonehead (in the giggle alone she gets two pepole killed by not listening to the doctor and assuming that this teleporting godlike entity could be restrainted by Two Guys) who is both in and out of universe just a boring nepo baby with no merit of her own

um. i still dont know what happened with the regeneration. i think the implication is that when david tennant dies hell time travel back to become ncuti gatwa inside himself--at least the rehab dialogue seems to make that implication. but it's not really explained or explored? baffling. i do think that fourteen getting to settle down and live a peaceful life with his friends is cute.

oh yeah and the ask said other than that but goddd there was some good stuff in the star beast and honestly with the state of the UK media i will take any perspective on trans people that includes baseline human erespect but some of those lines made me cringe so bad. anyway overall i am cautiously optimistic for the future of the show--oh ncuti was fucking great did i mention that i instantly bnought him as the doctor he owned the scene, the moment he was there it was clear he was the protagonist, and i liked the church on ruby road well enough too--i am cautiously optimistic but i worry that a big UNIT-shaped tumor will devour huge chunks of it and it'll be annoying. also russel t davies is like 60 and i just dont want to hear what he has to say about twitter so im not looking forward to dot and bubble

[osakanone]

I just special-interest ranted at a friend. I decided to share it with you instead.

Isabelle Fall knew exactly what she was writing.

The ability to use fetishistic and role drive and identity driven fixations to motivate

Over shame, and duty and histories To render the external the introspective.

Extrospective, I guess. Its funny too because, Yukikaze is about a very similar idea or at least touches on it. Its VERY #mechposting, and VERY #robofucker in its story and nature.

A pilot who has artificially induced autism and special interest, to make him a superhumanly capable pilot.

And it backfires; making him fall romantically in love with his plane.

Its only five episodes, and its based on one of the most well loved Japanese scifi novels of all time written in the 1980's -- with the anime being made in 2003.

The trick too is, the plane is intelligent. seems to reciprocate.

There's also ... kind of an implication the pilot has to be estrogenized for the conditioning to take, so he has the emotional bandwidth to handle it in the latest book apparently?

So its weirdly trans-adjacent too?

I remember too, lot of people on 2ch believed Rei Fukai is literally the character Anno based Rei Ayanami in Evangelion on???

Weirdly full circle then, that the planes are designed by Ituko Yamashita who designed the Evangelions too.

idk, I feel like Yukikaze either is, or is going to become a significant text to certain parts of Tumblr which haven't discovered it yet.

Like imagine if Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, 2001: a Space Odyssey, Top Gun and Signalis had a child. That child is Yukikaze.

It talks a lot about how people can't properly conceptualize of a foreign conflict, how disinformation is used and how people are tricked into falling into narritives and mythologies.

In with all this, its some how incredibly queer and has a love-triangle between a man, someone who has discarded gender almost entirely, and an AI driven fighter-plane. The air combat too and planes are rediculously well researched and designed.

idk, give it a go. Or don't. I'm not your mom.

[that-nerd-who-writes-fanfiction]

Okay, if you were asked who are in Merlin BBC that you can see based on canon that are gay/bi/pan/demi, which characters are they? Why?

I’m just gonna note that I’m not attached to any sexuality headcanon because people are going to have different opinions and it seems daft to lose more than half the fan content (art, fics, etc) just because of a headcanon. I’ll read more or less anything, I play around with queer themes in my writing fairly regularly and multiship everyone in the show, sometimes with characters from other fandoms too, but these are the sexualities I’ve written most of for each character otherwise this would be way too long.

And I know I’m assigning modern understandings of sexuality to medieval characters, but it’s a show with dragons and magic, also capes, a French castle, and whatever the hell that chainmail was so I think I can be excused for my historical inaccuracy.

Merlin: either gay or bi with a a preference for men. I could never get myself to really like Freya in the show, she wasn’t bad and I didn’t hate her, I usually just forget about her because it was one episode so I didn’t have enough time to get attached. She deserved more screen time and I love what the fandom has done with her character, but I usually see her where Merlin’s shipped with someone else so I honestly forget their romance exists most of the time. Other than that, I usually see him shipped with knights or Arthur or if he’s shipped with another woman, it’s someone who didn’t get enough screen time to get attached, or a mergwenthur (is that their ship name?) poly relationship.

Arthur: bi and demi. He needs time to like someone, canonically only started wearing a shirt after he got married but he walked around his chambers naked when it was just Merlin/no sexual implications in a servant of two masters. I’ve done deep dive character analysis into that and what it says for their trust of one another if anyone’s interested. It goes into them being platonic but acting like a couple and why meant so much for me to see as a kid and also why I think that proves their relationship is more than words can fully encapsulate. Also he’s had crushes on men and women so bi just fits.

Gwen: bi with a preference for men, she and Morgana had chemistry and I ship them pre season 3 but after that, not so much. Also had crushes on Lancelot, Merlin and married Arthur. They’re an adorable couple, honestly I love them. I don’t really have much else to say.

Morgana: aroace lesbian. Just my favourite headcanon, I like that she never had a canon relationship but she definitely had chemistry with Gwen. They’re just sweet together. I don’t know, mostly just vibes and my desire for more aroace rep.

Lancelot: bi with a preference for women. Gwen and Merlin. Yeah, that’s pretty much all I have to say. I just love that he’s such a great guy, I don’t think there’s anything more to it than two crushes in canon and vibes. I’ve written him as unlabelled or queer a fair amount, it really just depends.

Leon: Romance and sex averse aroace. Again, I just want representation and think he’s cool. I’ve seen him shipped with others, but I tend to default to aroace Leon in my own works more than anything else. Occasionally I’ll give him a qpr but it just depends on what I’m writing.

Gwaine: aromatic pansexual, he likes flirting but I think the idea of a permanent long term relationship would be “the one to tie him down” and it never entirely fits right. I’ve seen him shipped with Percival, I love that but usually if I’m writing it, I’ll have them in a qpr. I think he definitely feels low levels of romantic attraction but not enough to want a romantic relationship with someone, he loves so much, just not in the traditional ways and writing aroallo Gwaine is always super fun.

Elyan: I headcanon Elyan as trans masc but I don’t think I’ve got any specific headcanons for his sexuality. I’ve probably written him straight slightly more than anything else, but it’s a close tie between writing him straight and bi. It never usually comes up, so maybe just unlabelled or queer. I don’t know, he’s just Elyan. That’s all really.

Percival: I know in canon he had a wife and kids, I write him as being gay more than anything else, but my main headcanon tends to be that he’s bi or pan. Purely based on vibes but if it’s not relevant to the plot, I won’t bother mentioning it.

[divorcedfiddleford]

Random but - if you were given an opportunity to rewrite Ford's character and his arc in the show (and later J3), how would it be like?

canon gay and trans

so the thing is that i think most of how ford himself is written is really really good! i just think that the writers (particularly alex) have a bias against him, and so a lot of the narrative ends up feeling like he's either being punished or being forced to atone for his past. so i'm gonna ramble and daydream for a bit but i want to be clear i actually really like how he's written in general (yes, even in the book that i have so much beef with!!)

there's very few moments of catharsis for him, and those that he gets are either short (reunion with fiddleford) or undermined by the writers' bias (the ending of journal 3 where he burns all his bill stuff but has to keep reminding us that he was stupid for trusting bill in the first place). so i think a lot of the problems i have would be resolved with tonal shifts and a few cuts, like that fucking scene in the stanchurian candidate with the mind control tie. the implication of reaganite ford is bad enough but then to have a guy who has very specific trauma relating to being mind controlled/not being in control of his own body just hand that over is really fucking stupid. then again i think that whole episode is stupid so i'd end up rewriting all of it lmao

i've said before but if i really had my way i'd cut roadside attraction entirely and replace it with another ford episode. i loved how goofy and fun dd&md was and i think if more of that lighthearted side of him was shown it would endear him to the audience more. a long time ago i had an idea for an episode where they go back to the bunker and ford basically does puppy talk to the shapeshifter who is actively trying to kill them. i never followed this idea through to its conclusion but i think it still sounds entertaining, plus it would also give more time for him to reunite with fiddleford so it wouldn't have to be squeezed in the finale.

speaking of the finale... my personal fantasy is that i'd love to have a scene stuck in there where stan apologizes to ford. it REALLY stood out to me that despite all their fighting, ford still at least says the words "i'm sorry" to stan. stan never apologizes for anything he did to ford - neither for breaking his project, nor for banishing him to the hell dimension for 30 years. i get that they were mistakes, but you still have to apologize for mistakes (and if i allow myself to get very self-indulgent for a second, i've often thought the whole story would be a lot more resonant if stan broke ford's machine on purpose). i had a whole section in here where i talked about what a scene like this would look like but it was so long... if people want to hear more about it i'll say more but it's the kind of thing that warrants its own post.

anyway. moving on from the show itself. so possibly my hottest take is that i think journal 3 should not have been published KJSHDFLGKHSDFGUIWEHRGJSDF. basically i think instead of trying to write the actual journal 3 they should have picked a handful of stories from his research era that they wanted to tell and made a graphic novel about that. i got WAAAAAAAYYYY off topic and wrote PARAGRAPHS about this but it's not related to the question you asked so i'll just summarize by saying i think it would play more to their strengths as writers, leave more to the imagination, and they could leave out all those fucking retcons that i hate

as it is, though, again, i think that ford is written pretty well in the journal. there are a few off-handed comments and lines that give me "he would not fucking say that" vibes but overall it very realistically portrays what it's like for someone to be manipulated, isolated, drawn away from his loved ones, etc. it's a very poignant story which resonated with a lot of people, myself included. again my main problem is that it's undercut with the writers being like "BROOOOO HE'S JUST LIKE ICARUS!! FLEW TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN!!!!!!!!" as though it's all his fault, and that it ends on a very moralizing "i learned my lesson" note. so really the biggest characterization problems i have with journal 3 have to do with fiddleford, but that's a whole other can of worms

anyway i hope this was... interesting? informative?? i hope i answered your question to your satisfaction. have a nice day :)

[sepublic]

TOH Gallery Nucleus Info!

            All right! The Gallery Nucleus livestream just ended, so here’s some info and trivia I found relevant!

         When asked what they would’ve liked to see in S3 that they couldn’t fit in, JBO said “more dates”, while Cissy replied merely “Detention”. Sarah wanted to see the kids go to school, and Shawn Responts suggested one of the demon kids visisting the doctor, and us learning about demon physiology that way.

         JBO continued his answer, saying he’d like to see the kids explore more via a road trip, with so many options; Maybe Maine where they’d be trapped in a lighthouse, or a haunted, mossy Charleston. The group joked about Hunter driving, or Vee disguised as an adult.

         Sam Bosma would’ve liked to see them visit a comic con and see some Cosmic Frontier stuff, especially for Camila!

         Cat Harman Mitchell suggested a grocery store; In exploring concepts for the Thanks to Them end credit illustrations, one idea was thrown out of Amity and Hunter looking suspiciously at a banana; Which, I guess that means the Demon Realm having bananas was retconned, Amity is also really sheltered, and/or Demon Bananas are much deadlier than human ones, hence Amity’s distrust. Gus and Willow would’ve been stoked by a bottle of mustard, which I find connects nicely to Gus’ ‘mustard ravioli’ recipe that he thought Camila loved!

         Eden Riegel said she’d like to see King visit the human world and become a youtuber!

         Amity’s witch outfit from the S3 montage was designed after Vivian from Paper Mario… Vivian is a trans girl, could this mean…?

         The Duolingo homage initially looked too much like Garfield, so they had to change it.

         In designing the Boiling Isles, they looked to Flemish and Dutch architecture, avoiding Gothic because it was too obvious and also complicated; Hieronymous Bosch paintings served as inspiration. The one thing that was too gross even for Dana was Latissa, AKA the Titan’s armpit, which initially had a lot more hair follicles.

         It was confirmed that in designing the Boiling Isles, they had this idea of the Titan trying to regenerate, hence all of the fleshy masses, body parts, too many bones, etc.! Which can I say, as someone who guessed and analyzed all the way back in Season 1A… I CALLED IT!!!

         JBO also mentioned that in early drafts, the show’s sixth episode (of S1) would’ve had Camila in the Demon Realm!

         Likewise, he revealed that Belos wasn’t always Emperor; Originally, there was going to be an insect ruling family, with the current ruler being Emperor Pupa. However, they were stuck in their cocoon and had yet to emerge because of Belos, who claimed to be the only one who understood why the cocoon screamed; They changed the idea as it was too complicated and weird. VERY reminiscent of the Titan’s will, the implication he’s still alive and trying to regenerate, showing glyphs, not to mention the giant heart in the throne room…

         Vee is around Luz’s age, at about 15-ish! All the kids would be entering Sophomore year, while Hunter is a Junior!

         According to Rebecca, Dana said the timeskip was a few months, and the exact number didn’t matter, because in the end the characters would still act the same. Tbh, I respect that; Writing the main story and keeping in mind what matters, really does take precedence over the little details in the back imo.

         Luz’s palisman egg is in her fanny pack!!! She took it with her into the Demon Realm!

         In regards to the QnA, the first question asked that for writing a show like TOH, where everything comes full-circle, what was solidified?

         JBO said that the main and only thing (and this can change!) is knowing exactly who the characters are. One of Dana’s great strengths is the cast, and having believable characters that you could know what they’d do in a situation. One thing that’s hard about TOH but helps make it what it is, is that the writers had to throw out a lot of stuff to get to what they felt was real and right. You go in with characters and think you know what they want and need, but that can change; It’s really about knowing what feels real. JBO also said that Dana had certain visuals/images she wanted for the ending of the show from the start!

         When asked what surprised them for making it in, even if it was too gross; Andy Garner-Flexner brought up the magic shop the kids visited and all of the references, like the Ness shirt. They also put some Pokemon Team Aqua and Magma costumes in some boxes too! Fun fact, Andy’s husband asked him to hide a bunny for him in the background of S2 near the ending.

         Surprisingly, some stuff would be gross or messed-up, and they’d make it even worse, only for the execs to love it; Like Flapjack’s death scene! Oof…

         The crew had to avoid religious connotations for background books, so a D&D manual called “Advanced Sinning” was cut. Showing guts was fine, but no Donald Duck; Shawn wanted to put in a Donald Duck easter egg, for the implication he visited the Demon Realm or was even from it. Copyright was the hardest thing to get past execs in general… They tried to get Disney’s version of Hades on Luz’s wallpaper, but had to settle for the videogame instead. Cat can’t believe they got away with Hollow Mind and Lilith’s ice cream scene.

         In regards to favorite fan theory? Sarah Nicole-Robles explained she didn’t know the plot in advance, so when she got the scripts for S2, she wondered if Hunter would be a homewrecker for Lumity, but was relieved and confirmed that no, he’s a SIBLING. Rebecca loved the Collector Luz theory, and JBO joked about the “Lego Eda” theory being right, their plans for a spin-off of her… Not to take it too seriously but this does remind me of my theory about the Collector turning everyone into toys…

         In regards to a premise for a TOH spinoff, Sarah said she’d love an MTV cribs one-off of the Owl House, a tour of the rooms. Cat wanted a Lilith show about her historian adventures; Maybe a How I met your Mother style flashback show for the adults as teens, and how they got to the point they are now.

         Andy wanted a Raeda prequel; JBO wanted to explore the deep past of the Demon Realm and the world beyond the isles. The characters would be unconnected to TOH’s on the surface; Different characters in a different part of the world. Rebecca joked about a Hooty spin-off.

         In regards to the hardest character to work on; For JBO it was Belos… He was hard to write because he’s from so many different places and lived lots of lives in the Demon Realm, they had to ask does he have a set slang, a way he talks? Does he talk like a colonist? Likewise, Belos’ plans and motives are a secret for a good portion of the show, so it was tricky figuring out how much to reveal and when throughout the show.

         Andy said that because he asked Dana, they changed the way they did glasses in side-profiles! This change can also be seen in Them’s the Breaks, Kid; Was he responsible for that too?

         For Cat, one challenge was how short King was; They had to go for the shortcut of him riding on shoulders. This is because they’d want to do shots of characters, but not show their feet, but King was so short he’d be cut-off; So they went for the “Pikachu solution” to keep him in-frame.

         When asked what their palismen would be, Sam Bosma said a penguin; Rebecca wanted a deer/elk, anything with antlers to stab with and use as a melee weapon in conjunction with magic. Andy went for a mole (which is also his fursona), JBO asked if anyone had a moth palisman? Shawn said he’d be a giant ground sloth, about the size of the Bat Queen, that he’d have to drag around.

         Cissy went for a honey badger, since it could get stuff done; Be mean for her when she’s too nice. Sarah brought up a puppy, dragon, octopus (this last one reminds me of Thanks to Them!), Cat would be a puffball cat; The opposite of Ghost’s sleekness, just fuzz and eyes.

         When asked what Hunter’s first day at Hexside would be like, JBO said that he’d simply “turf out”. Rebecca said he’d get eaten by a locker, as did Sarah; Rebecca explained Hunter would make the mistake of putting food into his locker, so the next time he opened it…

         Cissy of course said detention. Cat said Hunter would get lost; Rebecca said Flapjack would have to help, and everyone cringed because y’know, JBO said that was too soon.

         Someone asked how they approached fleshing out Camila through a dream sequence? JBO explained that from the start, they KNEW she was a good mom and wanted what was best for Luz, and not in a super wrong-headed way either. But at the start of the show, all we had was that she sent Luz to camp, so it was hard to reconcile this take with that action. It took a lot of thought, how did this happen? Everyone had their own experiences with their moms worked in.

         In the end, the writers realized they’re all at that part of life where you realize your parent is their own person and doesn’t feel any older than anyone else. So when they looked at Camila as her own person and not just Luz’s mom, that helped them make their breakthrough on her character.

         Andy brought up as another bit of Camila characterization was the background, and all of the queer community books she was reading; Not only does she support in one way, but she’s learning. And in regards to what Camila went through after Manny passed…

         In the background, you can see signs of things being unfinished in the house; A lot of things incomplete, boxes not yet unpacked. It’s like a stand-still in time; Camila couldn’t keep going with some of these things. There were still boxes at the end of the hall with the family photos, it was half-painted. Given the short runtime, they really used the background and environmental storytelling to flesh out Camila this way.

         When asked what coven they would be, Andy mentioned he thought of this answer in anticipation of that type of question, on his way to the event. He considered Oracle or Construction but decided on being a wild witch. Rebecca went for Abominations or Beastkeeping; JBO also wanted Abominations, so he could get to the bottom of what this thing is that he’s making, and talk to it; Is it bad to have it blown up every other second? Someone jokingly suggested what if Abominations were just Titan boogers.

         Cat chose Illusions, Shawn opted for Potions and Oracle. Sam Bosma went for a smaller coven from Covention, like the Tiny Cat Coven. Sarah decided Bad Girl Coven was a cop-out answer, so considered Plant or Beastkeeping, ended up really feeling the former today. Lilith would be Emperor’s Coven; Just kidding, it’d be beast-keeping to keep all eight-legged friends far away. Eden chose Bard Coven.

         When asked about the human outfits they liked, Bosma mentioned he loved the Cosmic Frontier ones; They always had the red and yellow in mind as a DS9 reference, but he still experimented with other colors.

         At one point, Dana couldn’t decide between two Gus shirts; So she flipped a USB drive instead of a coin, and with that opted for his Dinosaur shirt! Cat said Hunter’s wolf shirt was a vibe; Andy mentioned they ‘tortured’ Matthieu Cousin by asking for more and more costume variations, until he said he needed a break for his wrist. Andy said Amity’s fits were good, Sarah concurred that Amity looked so hot and was killing it.

         When asked if Flapjack ever tried flapjacks, Sarah said objectively yes. Rebecca figured he probably did; Andy suggested it was because of Camila, and Flapjack was told he was eating flapjacks too, but didn’t know if they were good.

         (This led to a question among the group of whether palismen had taste buds, which they figured only Dana could answer. We know palismen hate the taste of goreberries, so the answer is yes!)

         When asked what the characters’ zodiac signs would be… Dana prepped Rebecca with an answer ahead of time for this; She told Rebecca to tell them that Earth’s astrological calendar didn’t exist in the Demon Realm, they didn’t even have the same number of months. It’s a much more confusing system and they can’t answer that question; There’s thirteen months and 666 days, and the animals associated with each month are worms or other tube-shaped creatures.

         (Andy did say he HC’ed Willow as a Virgo since he was one too and related to her. This isn’t canon however.)

         When asked what anime the kids would like, Andy brought up My Hero Academia, Naruto, Yuyu Hakusho (which inspired his fashion choices). JBO said Gus would really get into a show about some dude addicted to gambling but also GREAT at it, always finding a way to pull it off; Like a mahjong anime.

         In regards to their favorite creature/demon, it was the skin-eating fairy from the first episode for Cissy, whom Eden voiced! Cat said Hooty was a disgusting work, Rebecca liked the little version of the Owl Beast and had a plush on hand of it! For Andy, it was Titans. Bosma liked the detention guards, and…

         Shawn said he liked the Bat Queen; And in their discussion, JBO revealed she wasn’t the Titan’s palisman (pointing out he was too big for her), she just belonged to a giant who lost her. Shawn liked her story of becoming a ruler after that incident.

        And that’s it! Very illuminating stuff about production. Very sad to hear the Bat Queen’s backstory here, since it likely means we won’t have it addressed in S3, nor will the writers retcon her as the Titan’s to fit it into the remaining storyline. Thrilled about what we heard of the Titan’s regeneration and Belos’ original story concepts, especially since I WAS correct in likening him to a beetle in Season 1B, after all! Between this and Titan King, my earliest S1 theories have been getting vindicated, babey!

[inbarfink]

I guess the only thing that actually bothers me about the whole ‘David Theory’ thing in DHMIS, is how, like… I think it leads people to examine that aspect of the Death episode entirely as a Way to Decode the Secret Lore of DHMIS and stuff - and to kinda ignore the Meaning and Context of it in the actual episode?

Like, whatever or not the ‘David’ Stuff means something for some sort of Hidden Grand Narrative, I think it’s also important to remember that it also has a very important emotional theme within just the context of the episode itself.

Because the whole thing about Duck being buried under the name David and being memorialized with things he never did… leaving aside any possible lore implications, this is first and foremost a really poignant message about how much it hurts to see the people closest to you being remembered wrong. 

It is not uncommon for grieving friends and/or family to watch their deceased loved one get ‘twisted’ after their death, being immortalized as something different from what they remember, something they know is wrong. Whatever it is because of refusing to speak ill of the dead, or trying to fit them into a more comfortable narrative, or doing a Performative Mourning for a person you didn’t actually know well, or people just refusing to accept the person the deceased actually was...

(Like, okay, let's not beat around the googly-eyed anthropomorphic bush. I don't know if that was the creator's intention but this is a VERY common experience for queer folks. Like, 'being buried and mourned under the wrong name' isn't just some sort of absurd cartoony exaggeration - that is a real terrible thing that happens to real trans people!)

And it hurts because memorialization SHOULD be an important part of their healing process. It should be comforting that your loved ones will live on in the memories of people, that you can reminisce and commiserate about your loss with others… but sometimes, the person who lives on is just not the same person, sometimes no one seems to talk about the person you lost.

This is what Red Guy and Yellow Guy go through with the whole ‘David’ thing in the episode. The mourners claiming to be ‘friends’ despite not even knowing Duck’s proper name (I mean we don’t know it either but still) is just the most literal interpretation of seeing people performatively grieve for people they don’t even know.

And that whole angle, I think, is very important to the episode themes and - like - Red and Yellow behavior throughout it. Like, this is a huge reason why they couldn’t get on the ‘right’ way to grieve.

And if you want, you can also connect it to the Deeper Hidden Lore Theory about David. Like, I suggested it in a previous post the idea that rather than just Yellow Guy being some sort of version or manifestation of David Lesleyson - it’s all Three of Them who represent different aspects of David. And that Yellow is simply the favorite because he’s Lesleys favorite part of David - the innocent and inquisitive child. 

And you can connect that theory to this whole aspect of the Death episode. Like, the Three of Them are all different ways people remembered the actual David and Yellow was simply Lesley’s version. Or if he’s Lesley’s favorite because he’s based on the parts of David she’d like to remember. 

For Lesley, David will always be remembered as her innocent and curious little kid, no matter how much more complicated the truth was (he might’ve had more snarky and selfish qualities like Red Guy or Duck). And in a way, that is not much different than just straight-up burying him under the wrong name.

[digital-roots]

Regular Show Sexuality and Gender Headcanons

Mordecai: Repressed bisexual. Early season mordecai wouldve said stuff like "haha dude thats so gay" at rigby. Post cj breakup there's an episode where he has to kiss Rigby for a bet and he actually feels good about it. This leads to him a week long breakdown thinking that he has a crush on his best friend. Some spirit of bisexuality is summoned in front of him to make him realize he doesn't but he just likes men too. Is still not good at romance but at least he knows his identity.

Rigby: Token cishet. Used to make lots of stupid 'attack helicopter' jokes and the like but as he matures he stops doing that.

Skips: Unlabeled. Mona was his one true love but i think he had something with Gary. He's trans because i think itd be really funny if Mordecai and Rigby saw his too scars and were like "woah dude how did you get those sick scars" and then Skips tells them a story about how he traveled to a mountain and fought the elder gods of testosterone or something

Benson: Bisexual but he's like EXTREMELY repressed like even worse than mordecai. Dad was really homophobic. Benson himself is fine with gay people its just that he heavily denies any sort of implications that he himself is gay. Almost had flings with his old band but flaked. Getting a boyfriend wouldn't really fix him but it'd help if he accepted his true self.

Muscle Man: Straight. Used to be really homophobic in high school but once he befriended Fives he started to look into himself and became a very supportive ally. Realistically hed also be cis but I like him being trans. Bonus after muscle dad died his mom got with a woman and now he has two moms to make my mom jokes

Hi Five Ghost: Gay. Had a onesided crush on muscle man but when he started dating starla he let it go. Also transgender but literally no one knows about this because he never thought to tell anyone

Pops: My friend said I can make him aroace so he's cupioromantic asexual. Mr. Maellard always pushed him to get a wife but after several decades he stopped.

Eileen: Bisexual Trans woman. Gives me the vibe she was part of the gsa of her school. Owns lots of pride stickers, puns, and various other merch with cheesy puns on them.

Margaret: Lesbian Trans woman (trans part technically canon). She and Eileen met in a lgbt support group back when Margaret first transitioned. Suffered HEAVY comphet but shes finally doing okay now :)

[camp-mithril-lake]

Oho? Another person with a fan continuity? I read up on your ideas and i love it i cant wait to see more of your au!!

I love seeing fan continuities! They are so fun!

I am more than happy to talk about it more! I'm still hammering out details so it is subject to change though. I have been fully convinced to include Strongarm though. I am just deciding if she is the Ultra Magnus kid or the JazzProwl kid. Leaning towards JP though, because it would be hilarious when she drops certain things her "mentor" taught her and everyone thinks it was Prowl.

I have done some more building on everyone! And have a few "episode" ideas. I'm going to frame it as Seasons and have smaller fics be episodes instead of one larger fic. I've always wanted to do a similar frame never found the perfect story for it.

The main things I've built up are Hot Rod, Thunderclash, and Ambulon/Bob/Sunstreaker's backstories. This will be long, so I'll put it under the cut.

HOT ROD & FLAMEWAR

Hot Rod is a war orphan who was taken in by Kup who found him alone and sick in a house. Hot Rod was too sick to tell anyone that his twin sister had left to find medicine/help and they'd been alone there for awhile with Hot Rod getting sicker. The medics in charge of taking care of him had trouble because they didn't know he was a split-spark twin and and couldn't figure out what kept causing his spark to go into distress. It is unhealthy for twins, especially closely bonded ones, to be separated until adulthood.

Sunstreaker was actually the one who noticed it as bond shock and fetched Ratchet. This saved Hot Rod's life and Autobots were immediately sent to check for his sister when he was coherent enough to offer a description and designation. She wasn't there though.

He bonded quickly with the rest of "Kup's orphans", especially Springer and Arcee. Hot Rod is trans and during his final upgrade adjusted his frame to suit his preferences. He is always on the look out for his sister who he knows is still alive because their bond is active. Though very weak and suppressed due to the medicine he has to take.

He grew up underfoot with Kup interacting with the Wreckers and other special groups, mostly moving from place to place in the training areas or staying on the ship, because Kup didn't bring kids into active war areas. When it was possible he sent them to stay on family housing where it was safe. Hot Rod still grew up learning how to make bombs and where the perfect place to stab someone was because the Wreckers were not the best babysitters. As the youngest he was incredibly spoiled and protected in their own strange way though, especially once Springer got into a position he could recommend his baby brother be sent to safer places and Arcee started working directly with Prowl and Elita-1.

Kup told them they had to let their brother live his life and was the one who arranged for Hot Rod to get the job and have a little breathing room.

Hot Rod's twin sister, Flamewar, actually ran into the Decepticons first and tried to rob them, biting and getting caught and grabbed by the Combaticons. By the time they could move out to investigate Hot Rod had already been found and the area they'd been hiding in was destroyed.

The Combaticons weren't free to go back to safely drop off an orphan so they just took her with them. When she started to grow ill, later than Hot Rod as she'd been mostly healthy, they kidnapped a medic and forced him to treat her. She stayed with them for months and they became her new family.

They kept her, registering her as part of their elective kin and she grew up a Decepticon but one who was less than enchanted by Megatron. She loved them and was happy and they supported her search for her twin, who they were incorrectly looking for under the name Flareup.

The Combaticons eventually rebelled though after careful cost-benefit scenario but made absolutely certain to not implicate her, going as far to leave her somewhere else and distance themselves so it wouldn't come back on her. She got to visit them during their trial and Onslaught told her to betray them so per her parents' orders she spoke against them on the stand. She was pardoned, and to repay an old favor, Soundwave made sure she was cared for. She had definitely inherited the Combaticons opinions and views though and kept getting in trouble.

She was eventually sent to Dreadwing and Krok.

SUNSTREAKER, BOB, and AMBULON

Bob (Bucket-of-Bolts), Sunstreaker's nickname for him that became his name, was an Insecticon in the same facility as Ambulon and Sunstreaker. All three of them were test subjects for the experiments going on there done by Scorponok and Flame (who betrayed the Autobots). Sunstreaker and Bob bonded and Ambulon eventually started working with them as well to escape. The facility was not approved by the Decepticons as Scorponok was plotting to overthrow Megatron, which lead to it being attacked once discovered.

They escaped but Sunstreaker and Bob were injured in the attack. Ambulon was planning to go neutral but seeing their injuries instead called the Autobots and turned himself in to assure they lived. Ambulon defected and joined the Autobots during this time. Bob was gravely injured and couldn't transform any longer and had some damage that he potential could never recover from. There was a possibility he could heal especially with care and steady spark energy transfusions to assist, but that was only a possibility.

Sunstreaker immediately devoted himself to Bob's care and is weaker and off the frontlines because he is doing transfusions daily to help in his recovery and vowed to stay with Bob no matter what his frame looks like or severe the injuries. Sunstreaker had also taken a very long time to recover due to the extent of the injuries.

Ambulon is trusted by them both and eventually was off parole and approved for service and got sent with them as a result.

THUNDERCLASH

Thunderclash is the main Autobot Commander in the area nearest to them and will appear often as well. He was recently reassigned to the Safe Zone, which has caused a bit of a scandal. He is also Hot Rod's age and shouldn't be in command due to this.

Thunderclash was another orphan who Ratchet took in when his family, a relatively wealthy political family, was assassinated. Ratchet did not want him to join the war effort at all and did everything he could to discourage him. This lead to some fighting and eventually, Thunderclash running away. Ratchet was heartbroken. Thunderclash was already very large and lied about his age to join the Autobots in another region.

He was doing well and came under the wing of the base commander who was more than a little reckless. During a risky maneuver that failed, their command structure was devastated and Thunderclash, having been closely working with him had the clearest idea of what was going on and where everyone was, took over temporarily to get them through it and won the battle.

He continued to stay in command since there was no way to get out communication under siege and was in control for awhile keeping the region together and eventually being officially promoted to fill the role. He was rapidly promoted, caused at least partially by further deaths to a higher position much too quickly. When the area finally settled and connections were reestablished he was considered famous both militarily and politically.

When he was sent to meet High Command and give his report though, Ratchet recognized his kid through the final upgrade and new paintjob and the whole charade was revealed. It was a huge blowup and Thunderclash's age and inexperience coupled with his too rapid promotions being backfilled by more trusted officers lead to his "reassignment" to calmer climes with more experienced officers accompanying him to ease him into leadership since they now had the option.

This lead to rumors that someone had tried to suppress the "rising star" of Thunderclash, who was actually very relieved by his reassignment and flying by the seat of his pants.

He was deeply traumatized by the events that lead to his promotion and his "heroics" are nothing but terrible memories. His issues with his previous commanding officers recklessness leading to so much death causes tensions between himself and Hot Rod.

[vasquez-rocks]

i know i’m in the minority here but i really don’t love the way disco deals with transness, particularly vis a vis gray. there are these throwaway lines that are supposed to let us know that he’s trans, which, like, fine, but what few of them we see are largely focused on making little jokes about how hard transition was for him. i get the point of this – having him talk the way a trans person might talk about their transition today makes him relatable and maybe inspirational, if you’re early in your transition – but it strikes me as deeply unhopeful? transition SHOULDN’T be hard. it SHOULDN’T be an emotional ordeal. it shouldn’t be stigmatized or seen as unusual. the implication i get from this (and from adira’s awkward coming out, which, sorry, IS awkward in a way that makes no sense for the setting) is that, for the sake of being relatable, a show set a thousand years in the future has decided to treat transness much the same way it’s treated today. i find that deeply depressing, not hopeful.

(and this isn’t even getting into the fact that we KNOW from ds9 that transition is normal in the federation! quark fully transitions via an outpatient procedure solely for the purpose of schemes and no one’s weird about it or gatekeeps the care! and that’s from the most transphobic episode of any star trek show! aaagh! i feel like i am going insane)

[rollforfelicity]

Idk how to word this or how fully fleshed out this idea is, but I'm having this recurring experience where people will applaud a piece of media for representation but in actuality the media is (or started off as) making fun of the thing they're "representing."

So for example in my post about BG3 not having any options for your Tav to be fat, people in the tags mentioned that the Saint's Row games allow you to make fat characters, but a few people mentioned that in Saint's Row having a fat character is played off as a joke. I haven't played those games, but it made me wonder: would I rather play a game where I can't make a character who looks like me, or a game where I can but my inclusion is meant as a joke?

That got me thinking about Parks and Recreation, a show I loved deeply while also cringing almost every episode at the fatphobia. People point to Donna as being a great fat character and applaud the show for portraying her as a desirable woman, but that aspect of her character was initially a joke. It was played off as surprising that someone like her could be popular with men. This is even more true with a character like Fat Amy in the Pitch Perfect movies. In college, fat women I was friends with would talk about loving Fat Amy and identifying with her but when I watch those movies all I see is a caricature of a fat woman, her sexual desires played for laughs because who could possibly want someone like her?

People also give credit to It's Always Sunny for the episode where Mac comes out to his dad (which is a beautiful scene). I love It's Always Sunny, but the "Mac is a closeted gay man" aspect of the show started with Mac dating a trans woman. His storyline originates from a joke at the expense of trans women. There's an argument to be made that the other characters calling Mac gay for dating a trans woman is just an example of those characters being horrible assholes, which is the point of the show. But if they as a writing team decided "hey, Mac actually is gay," I feel like that changes the implication of the original joke, right?

I don't know. There's a power in taking something that was supposed to hurt you and saying "actually this is mine now, you can't hurt me with this," but at the same time I wish that weren't kind of the only option when it comes to fatness.

I don't really like talking about fat politics online because a) people are horrible and b) someone is always like "you only care about this because you're fat." Yeah, that's probably true! Because (for the most part) thin people don't give a shit about fat people at BEST, and are disgusted by/hate fat people at worst.

[ultraviolet-psyche]

One last Yorukura episode review thing from me. Spoilers under the cut.

Well... that was kind of disappointing.

I don't think the finale was bad, per se. We got some nice moments, like Kano's anxiety persisting even as she goes on stage to perform, and Kiui's big smile as they end their stream with their usual sign-off. Overall, I think Kiui and Mei got some pretty solid conclusions to their character arcs.

Everything else about this finale, though... it all feels very fairytale-like. It feels a lot like everything just got magically resolved with a song and some smiles. If this was a typical happy-go-lucky idol or CGDCT anime, that'd be fine, but Yorukura's first half gave me the impression that its conflict resolution was going to be more grounded. The pacing has been seriously off throughout the last few episodes, and while I certainly appreciate Mei and Kiui getting more development, I'm not sure if they each needed an entire episode dedicated to them so late in the anime. I don't even think the low episode count is necessarily the problem; I feel like 12 episodes could've worked fine for the scope of this series if they allocated their time more wisely and maybe cut out some parts that weren't entirely necessary (the Koharu episode for example didn't really add much to the overall plot; nor did the Shizue episode for that matter, and I say this as someone who really enjoyed that one.)

And yes, sadly, we all got baited. There's no confirmation, or even any sort of strong implication, that Kano/Mahiru is canon. I wasn't expecting them to start making out on screen or anything like that, but come on... even just a super brief scene with Kano or Mahiru saying something like "I want you by my side, for the rest of my life" while they're smiling and blushing at each other would've been enough for me. And I think it would've been enough to clearly communicate that yes, Kano and Mahiru are in love. As far as LGBT+ rep goes, I can at least say that we have the trans(-coded?) Kiui, and Mei very clearly having romantic feelings for Kano and liking girls in general (though she does unfortunately fall into the "predatory lesbian" stereotype), but Kano/Mahiru feels like a missed opportunity. We were getting some great relationship development that genuinely seemed like it was going to lead to a sapphic love story, then episode 9 happened and it all went downhill from there. I struggled to even care all that much for their relationship in these last few episodes because there was so little focus on it, and when they do finally see each other again, they're just hugging and giggling like besties as though nothing happened. (Well, they each acknowledge that they said/did some shitty things, but that's about it really.)

Make no mistake: I really enjoyed Yorukura. I love the JELEE members and even some of the side characters. The art, animation and direction is fantastic, and overall I think it's a fairly solid coming-of-age story that emphasises the importance of loving yourself for who you are. However, I do wish that the second half of this anime was better. I wish it had better pacing. I wish we had a more satisfying payoff to the major conflicts introduced, and Mahiru and Kano's relationship in general. I wish the antagonists – Yukine and Mero – got further development and perhaps more serious consequences for their actions. I just wish the last few episodes held up as strongly as the first few. I suppose I'll just go check out Girls Band Cry for the Yorukura I'd hoped that Yorukura would be.

So, yeah, that's about it. I may end up writing some fanfics down the line to "fix" some of these issues I have with the ending haha

[marley-manson]

scattered thoughts on season 2 of xena after marathoning it over a few nights.

-- Girls Just Wanna Have Fun is so fun lmao, it didn't even occur to me that the vampire ladies could've been hypnotizing Gab until I saw it mentioned in a tumblr post lol, I 100% just took it as Gabrielle being attracted to them. I mean one of them even has a buzzcut.

-- Xena is great because it's a true genderswapped cheesy genre show, complete with extremely bland one episode love interests who die to provide our heroes with manpain. Also Xena totally subconsciously let Callisto kill Perdicus, come on. Loved Gab's rage afterwards <3

-- Lucy Lawless and Hudson Leick are excellent at playing each other. Hudson Leick is so good as Xena that I always forget Lucy Lawless isn't actually in Ten Little Warlords lol, and Lucy Lawless' Callisto is great too, especially when she's playing Callisto pretending to be Xena.

-- Love Ares' first episode as a mortal too. Love that he's scared of rats, a decent fighter but still needs Xena to save him a few times, and the moment where he contemplates having actual blood on his hands for the first time is *chef kiss*

-- I'd skipped Miss Amphipolis when I first watched Xena because I'd heard it was transphobic, and then saw a post praising the episode for its progressiveness so I was like hm I guess I'll give it a shot. Honestly, it had its good elements, but yeah I think the criticism is warranted. Awesome if it's true that Karen Dior was openly HIV+ when she and Lucy Lawless kissed here, love that. And if the idea was that Miss Artiphys was more a drag queen than a trans woman it's not too bad I guess? But if she was meant to be trans then yikes, terrible depiction, lots of 'he's really a man' shit (plus the name c'mon). And the lack of clarity doesn't help either way.

Also Gabrielle's mild homophobia was a weird choice, and I didn't like that she only won after every other woman turned down the crown lol - I get the point that none of them really wanted it or enjoyed the pageant while Artiphys did, but I feel like that point could've been made without putting her in last place.

Kudos to the director for objectifying her just as much as any other woman though lol.

-- They should've given a little bit more time to Xena and M'lila's relationship in Destiny, since her death is the catalyst for her going evil, but unfortunately it felt like a very arbitrary final straw. It was funny though that M'lila died for her because she just knew it wasn't Xena's time to die yet lol. Like c'mon, at least imply they got close off-screen.

-- Also Xena 🤝 Dennis Reynolds: because of the implication. I'm actually torn on how much that's intended lol, because on the one hand they certainly do not frame Xena as an actual rapist here, she's still sympathetic and Caesar's still the ruthless villian. But on the other hand the predator/prey metaphor when she was coming onto him was incredibly on the nose (she even says "cutting off his path of retreat" like, yikes girl); Xena later points out that crucifying her was an overreaction and thinks she must've fucked with his head; Caesar has psychosexual nightmares about her in another later ep (ie killing him mid sex basic instinct style); and Caesar's "all those who prey on Rome" line is basically the payoff to his earlier "I am Rome" thing, essentially a coded way of phrasing "prey on me," which fits the sex thing more than the hostage thing, since that was literally preying on Rome.

Idk, I'm curious what the writers were aiming for here. Maybe some of it's just meant to suggest that Caesar has a crush and is mad about it lol, but it's eyebrow raising.

-- Also also: the montage of Gab and Xena at the end of Destiny is so ridiculously romantic <3

-- I love that Xena agrees to only possess Autolycus when he gives her permission, then bodyjacks him whenever he says no anyway. Autolycus is a delight in this ep. And I love how the show does everything it can to make it clear that it's Xena kissing Gabrielle in Autolycus' body, from Bruce Campbell's acting demonstrating exactly when he regains control of himself, to his "Seems like you two worked things out" in repsonse to the kiss, to him not noticing his hand was still on Gab's ass lmao.

-- A Day in the Life is still such a ridiculously good episode.

-- Can't believe how almost explicitly gay Blind Faith is even with the rest of season 2 to compare it to. Like okay maybe it's not quite The Quest's kiss, but something about Gabrielle's conversation with the gay dude where they both very overtly use ambiguous pronouns for the people they love feels like a step beyond. It's not just two close characters who love each other, it's lesbians situated specifically in a gay solidarity context, idk. I love it.

-- Also I cite this a lot but idc, I still fucking LOVE that Xena is temporarily rendered blind in this episode and she is still never physically challenged by anyone in a fight lmao. Like you'd think as a plotpoint it would be a way to have her uncharacteristically defenseless and reliant on this one-ep dude to defend her, right? Nope, she still outclasses him, all she needs him for is to watch out for cliff edges.

-- Also also I love that this annoying dude sees her as an idol and it's just accepted as obvious, absolutely no commentary on a dude modeling himself after a woman. She's Xena, of course aspiring warlords desperately wanna be her.

-- Ulysses here to reassure the straight audience after the tidal wave of gay we've seen in the last few episodes, but it can't even do that right because Gabrielle and Xena still 100% interact like they're hooking up and catching feelings but not exclusive.

-- The Price would be a perfect episode if it weren't for the racism in the depiction of the antagonist force, man, it's such a blot on an ideal Xena story. Also Xena is at her absolute sexiest here. I'm usually more of a Gab girl, but fuuuuuuck her hardass sadistic commander persona has me like 🥵. Hits the perfect balance of serious and dark, while her warlord flashbacks tend to be a little too exaggerated and campy to be truly sexy to me.

-- Also another episode where I love how men relate to Xena. She shows up, they find out she's Xena, and they immediately go "holy shit please take over, please command us, you're our only hope."

-- Cecrops is one of my favourite one-ep characters I think

-- Comedy of Eros is dumb but fun lol, I always enjoy how the show flips the script for Xena's occasional heterosexual turns, in the sense that she's the active participant, acting upon the men and going for what she wants. It is a relief when it stops being earnest and starts being solely for the sake of manipulation though lol, and I'm glad we have Cupid to blame for this one too. In fact, I think all the genuine reciprocated het is behind us now, right?

-- I love the fake out where Gabrielle nearly sees Xena first before Joxer gets in the way. I feel like I've seen some writer say once that they considered having Gabrielle fall in love with Xena for this episode, but they decided against it because they didn't want it to be a joke she gets over, and I am 100% behind that reasoning. It would've felt cheap imo. But the tease was cute lol, they know what the audience wants.

[defaultnaming]

WARNING: COULD BE CONSIDERED CRITICAL OR ANTI. DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T LIKE DW CRITIQUE

First thoughts:

I'll be honest, I went into the episode a bit biased, 10 is nowhere close to a good doctor for me and I dislike the RTD era. But open minds and all that.

I DON'T like the mcu logo. MCUification of DW on main.

I need an in-depth explaination on what regeneration energy does after that ep. Like, how does it make a suit and long coat, ties, a new sonic screwdriver, perfectly fitting glasses and a judges wig (he didn't know he would need it so he would have to have it on him so... how??)

Okay, why the big exposition cold open if you're going to exposit the info in conversation, feels a bit like you wasted time there I'll be honest. Could've went to solving the ep problem cause that was rushed.

The old doctor is back.... and apparently has a personality like at least a couple thousand years haven't passed... okay....

The part about 'Why does everything have to be a big goodbye?' I mean, it seemed really wierd that he would refuse coming for a cuppa because he CAN do that. We've seen it over 15 years, the doctor has developed to do that stuff. Also, bar a few phrases, didn't really see much of 13's personality there and it's shame. DT is a good actor, he could pull it off (I mean, he also could've pulled off the outfit but....), you didn't need to do 10 on repeat .

I like rose! But is she 15 cause.... no? Also, how to tell your trans character is written by cis people: 'DiD YOu jUsT AssUMe tHEIr ProNOUnS!?'

Love the starting her business, didn't like that they made Donna a mum who doesn't respect boundaries but still the support and the plushies were cute and I guess being nosy is in character for her.

Meep was cute! Feel like the meep was suitably menacing and it was peak cheese. Also, Miriam Margoles was perfect for the voice. I also love the bit where the meep was clinging to Donna, brilliant. Also, tactically landing in a steel mill and not being really contrived was good! I also loved that 'living sun' hypnosis, it made sense to me. I also loved the cheesy bug things, they we cute as well and I love that they took the time to explain why the cab never got hit properly cause I was wondering.

Also, Sylvia wanting to KO the doctor on site to keep him from seeing Donna... accurate, funny and I wanted her to do it I'll be honest. Saun temple, absolute king, just drinking respsct wife juice. Like, if my partner gave away that much money I'd divource but he's just better than me.

I love UNIT as this alien first responder force, that was neat. I love that they were inclusive to disabilities and the characters were still suitably badass.

I love the (albiet clumsy) trans positivity in the episode. But let's not give them too much credit, the doctor has been trans and trans positive (with timelords mind) since about 2014.

Didn't like the implication that transmascs are inherently more dim/stupid than transfemmes. Also, that is literally what they said because the text was literally 'if you were female (still a woman) presenting, you'd understand'. I won't lie, as a transmasc person, it kind of hurt. I feel like we should be past the feminism that drags men instead of uplifting women but yeah.

I feel like they undercut the tradgedy of Donna's sacrifice by having her just... be alive. I get she... shared?... the metacrisis but it kind of ruins why Donna was such a tragic figure in DW. Also, gee DoctorDonna, why didn't you just think 'get rid of it' before? Could've saved a lot of trouble. The cracks through London just kind of disappearing when the ship was stopped was wierd but I get it, they need to move onto other things and that would be too big of a distraction.

Also, they're going to visit Wilf yay! Why did the TARDIS redecorate? Why did you then give a workable reason why she would need to reconfigure immediately afterward? I love the design, very retro but again, felt a bit contrived.

All in all, a cheesy, old nu!who episode vibes (I clarify, not my thing) that has some great building blocks and despite the problems, I am looking forward to new episodes to come!

[sobeksewerrat]

Okay so- if you saw my aroace chr headcannon list, you probably saw Adam from Hazbin Hotel on there! It's been a while since I have written an essay, but honestly I really wanted to expand on my asexual Adam thought and @kiichu asked me to so here we go ;)

[ Just. Don't expect any actual thoughtful analysis. I am mostly just grasping at straws and projecting because I kin the dude ]

[ Oh yeah and I will reference the Trans Genesis AU a lot. Nope, Stanley and I did not abandon it. Sorry not sorry ]

First things first, let's look at his first appearance in episode 1.

Needless to say, he was a bit of an asshole. But something really stuck out to me.

In one of the scenes, he was recounting a date/one-night-stand he had to Charlie (because of course he was).

He clearly seemed to be describing the dinner date itself in detail, but he literally just caps it off with "and then we fucked, and it was awesome".

This line can be read in a few different ways, depending on your view.

1. They didn't actually fuck, the woman ditched him or didn't exist to begin with and he's lying to seem cooler.

2. It wasn't awesome (*at least for him, but yk could go both ways) and he wasn't about to go into detail about his less-than-stellar sexual encounter (I feel. Really uncomfortable writing this, I am too ace for this shit).

3. The logical explanation of the writers not wanting to include it for rating reasons and because of the episode's already short run time and also because we as the audience don't really need to know that. Though I think that if that were just that, a better alternative would've been that Adam either continues describing the date or starts describing the sex and either Lute or Charlie (or both) stop him.

For my interpretation of the ace Adam, we'll go with the second interpretation.

Allos love pointing out how "asexuals can still date/have sex" but they always neglect one thing: that's not exactly how sex-favourable and sex-neutral aces work.

I can't speak for everybody on the spectrum (especially since I am mostly repulsed), but wanting to have sex doesn't mean you feel sexual attraction.

So yeah this doesn't disprove him being asexual, though I am aiming for a very different interpretation.

Sex-repulsed Adam.

NOW, PLEASE HEAR ME OUT I KNOW I SOUND CRAZY!!

Ace men rarely get any representation, and a lot of men (especially cis men, but trans men too) don't realize they're ace or are actively in denial about it because of this thing called ✨toxic masculinity✨

I don't think it's too much of a hot take to say that Adam clearly falls into a lot of toxic masculinity stuff.

Being literally the first man, the original dick (or the original pussy if we're talking about the tgau), he is probably expected to uphold these harmful beliefs of masculinity or at least thinks he has to to be taken seriously (or be percieved as cis at least-).

Therefore, he's probably is in deep, deep denial of his asexuality and tries to cover it up by, well, sleeping around I guess (*hopefully not with human souls because i don't need any of the implications that come with that).

But that doesn't necessarily mean he enjoyed it, you know.

Now I don't wanna go too deep into this honestly quite depressing line of thought, so to keep it brief that's probably why he wouldn't go into detail about that one night stand- even though he totally seems like the type of guy who would talk about this stuff in excessive and unnecessary detail (can you tell I love torturing this guy. I mean if yk the TGAU you probably already know but shush).

That or because a lot of aces literally cannot talk about sex seriously. It has to be a joke or about an ao3 smut fic.

*ahem* Moving on-

The infamous "Now, I'm going to FUCK you" scene that every Adamsapple shippers love (no hate to Adamsapple shippers btw, except @roryheart fuck you Rory /lh silly (I love you buddy don't take this seriously)).

Just. Just look at his face when Lucifer says it.

It could just be pure confusion, which is quite understandable tbh.

Or we could go with the funny interpretation of Adam being so autistic and ace, he thought for a second that Lucifer was actually hitting on him this whole time and he just didn't notice. Purely because this has actually happened to me before and I wanna project-

Moreover, he looks lowkey disgusted by it and just attacks Lucifer immediately.

Whatever, now we get to the ✨angst potential✨ of ace Adam.

Elaborating on the bit of toxic masculinity from earlier, maybe he thinks that his aversion to stuff like is why both Lilith (and presumably Eve) cheated on him with Lucifer, because he wasn't a real man.

And if we wanna get really depressing, all we have to do is just remember that his only purpose was to have as many children with Eve (and previously Lilith) as possible to populate the Earth.

Yeah, sounds like a total nightmare scenario.

I have a few other ideas, but they're really half baked and not really well put together and stuff- idk I just think ace Adam is a cool idea.

Sorry if this wasn't exactly the essay any of you were looking for but I genuinely just think it'd be fun and kinda interesting to explore really.

Btw gonna make "sobek rants" exclusively for angry rants and gonna repurpose "brainingsewer" for essays and analysis and stuff. Not that anybody really cares about my tagging system.

[khruschevshoe]

OFMD (fic) analysis: The Power of Names, Agency, and Creating Yourself

So, this is going to be Part 1 out of who knows how many analyzing different aspects of @aletterinthenameofsanity 's magnum opus OFMD fic series "made a promise when I left for the coast (made a life out of chasing a ghost)." Now, the series is divided into three sections, "Season 2," "Season 3," and "Extras" (which includes missing scenes, AUs, and post-canon "special episodes"). This first essay will be addressing the symbolic/thematic meaning of characters choosing their own names in this series throughout all parts (some of these metas will only tackle one section/season/ or even fic).

It is clear in this series that names take on a particular meaning, due to the multiple times it is emphasized, such as in part 15 of the series (the "pilot" of "Season 3"), when Captain Olu says, "Everyone's entitled to choose their own name on my ship." Names, when taken on a ship, allow someone to both shed their precious life and claim one for their own. I'm going to go through the various ways this is presented in series and how letting characters choose their names on the Revenge allows them to gain agency within their lives and world.

1): Name as Gender: Jim and Pete

Early on in the series, Jim and Pete's friendship is established from Jim's POV, where we discover that before the Blackbeard-Kraken-era, Jim and Pete bonded when Pete revealed that Pete is also trans, which in the series is often referred to as "the power of creation" (there's an essay analyzing the religious implications in the works, I swear). This is a point of connection and pride between them, and is the foundation to a great and enduring friendship and place of trust that often gets both of them through low points.

This friendship is further emphasized in part 13, Pete's internal monologue echoes previous assertions by Jim's internal monologue that "they have things in common that go beneath everything, a connection that threads itself across the sea, through razors and potential top scars and names left buried on land."

2) Name as Family: The Jimenezes and the Spriggs

A) The Jimenez Matelots

During their wedding reception in part 9 of the series, Olu and Archie both make it clear that they are going to take Jim's last name due to the importance of becoming Jim's family. Olu will trade in his last name, and Archie will take on a last name for the first time, as a sign of loyalty, loved, and comfort, because for Olu and Archie, "What price is a last name when it comes to making Jim feel comfortable and loved?"

B) The Spriggs Siblings

The choice of the last name "Spriggs" by Mel and Lucius has almost the opposite backstory of the Jimenez matelots- rather than keeping a last name to honor a family, the Spriggs siblings keep their last name to spite their abusive father. When Mel is asked by Roach in part 18 of the series as to why she keeps her last name when, as a pirate, she could have easily dropped it entirely when starting a new life, she tells him that she kept it because it connected it to her brother. Her internal monologue explains that "She stayed Mel Spriggs, damn the consequences, not because the last name gave her protection, but because it connected her to the one person who, at any point in her life, had protected her." It has nothing to do with "the lily-livered douche" that was her father; it as to do with her connection to Lucius. And as the series progresses, even after Lucius gets married to Izzy and Pete, we see that he keeps his last name while Pete picks up the last name "Hands-Spriggs." As much as his matelots mean to him, shown by the rings they share (objects as symbolism will be another analysis), his relationship with his sister is just as important to him.

3) Name as Intimacy: Frenchie and Zheng Yi Sao | Ching Shih

So, this one is not as startling or connected to character agency as the others, but I really like what this relationship does with language. Zheng Yi Sao literally translates as "wife of Zheng Yi" and is used almost as both name and title, the name of the Pirate Queen and Emperor of China, while Ching Shih is her Cantonese name, within the language she grew up speaking. Historically, Zheng Yi Sao had to learn Mandarin to fit in with upper crust society, and it makes sense that the name she rules the seas with (even in OFMD) is within that more "elevated" language.

But here's the kicker: Frenchie doesn't call her Zheng. He calls her Ching Shih, honoring where she came from, acknowledging that he gets a far more intimate side of her than the rest of the world do. In part 40, in the moment of their engagement (which comes after years of a really fun half friends-with-benefits, half-long-distance-relationship that they have going on), Frenchie accepts Zheng's proposal with the line "I’d love to be yours, Ching Shih, as long as you- not your title, or your power, or whatever, just you - would be mine.”

4) Name as Agency: Mel and Roach

When Mel first joins the crew of the Revenge, Olu calls her "Miss Spriggs" and she asks to be called Mel instead. It is made clear that to her, her first name is a gesture of identity and agency as she begins a new life, a fact that is emphasized in part 39, which covers Mel's life leading up to the moment she murders her parents and leaves home. This part refers to Mel exclusively by the name "Melanie" until the moment she leaves Anguilla and takes her agency back into her own hands, paralleling the death of "Blackbeard" and the freedom of the crew with the line "Melanie Spriggs dies along with her parents; Blackbeard dies along with Izzy’s love for Edward Teach."

In part 18 of the series, we see Roach explain that his choice of name was a similar act of agency, a moment when he chose the name thar embodied his own survival instinct with the lines ""Being a pirate is about creating a life for yourself. A name, a family, a home. I picked Roach because I refuse to let anyone kill me.” He gives her a toothy grin that she can’t help but return. “I’m an invincible little fucker.”"

5) Name as Family (Part 2): Femi Boodhari and the Jimenez Matelots

Finally, we return to the theme of names being used for chosen family. When the Jimenez matelots visit Femi, Olu’s mother, in part 41 of the series, at first Jim is worried that Femi will be disappointed that her son traded away his name for theirs, Femi gives Jim and Archie a way to honor and carry both the Jimenez and Boodhari names and legacies: as a blacksmith, she makes Jim a knife and Archie a new axehead with the Boodhari name in the side so that way the family, their culture, and her own legacy of escaping slavery and starting her own business and family can be honored. Though it's not as straightforward an example of "choosing a name" as the others, I think it is a nice endcap in this series for the theme.

(Also, as a note: these metas/analysises take a lot longer to write than it took me to make moodboards. So they'll probably come out a little less frequently, even if they are just as much fun to do!)

@blue-b-bro @possumsmushroom @yuenity @bricksbloggyplace @cosmicquill @a-pessimistic-swiftie @polikate