#i love when anything has queer platonic friendships so much it makes me go a little insane

[myoonmii]

Edwin doesn't really understand the concept but he is very enthusiastic!!

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Top 5 platonic friendship moments

Thank you SO much for asking me this, I love friendship!!!!

Nick and Sand Kissing in Only Friends, Ep. 9

gif by @aprilblossomgirl

I know you have your thoughts on Only Friends at this point because of how it ended, but there were a lot of things I do think Only Friends got right, one of my favorites being the platonic make out session between Nick and Sand. I mean, we talked about this before. It felt so queer, and it also did a really great job showing the difference between platonic and romantic feelings, because the kiss gave us nothing, and did the same for Team Second Option. I will forever love the fact that they made out, giggled, cuddled, and then giggled some more about it because it was kinda awkward and a little embarrassing, but they love each other as friends and that kiss changed literally nothing about their dynamic.

Porjai giving Mhok a Massage in Last Twilight, Ep 6

gif by @khaopybara

I like that some of the shows this year are starting to get in to the relationship dynamics of exes who stayed friends after. Like, listen, I've never been in a relationship before, and I know why it does happen where exes never really speak again, but it never made sense to me why 99% of the ex-partner relationship dynamics I've ever seen are bad. Like, this is a person who matter so much to you, and then you're just never going to see them or talk to them again? I love this massage moment that Porjai has with Mhok especially because it feels familial and familiar and friendly, and it is the scene that made me be like "man I can't believe they used to date" in exactly the same way that Porjai was confused when Day called Mhok her boyfriend.

Wataru Being a Little Shit on Shiro's Birthday in What Did You Eat Yesterday? Season 2, Ep. 7

Wataru is such a little shit, and I love him desperately, and his whole relationship with Shiro and Kenji is so strange. He's such a complainer, and while it can feel like the four gay men in this show hang out and are friends because they are the only gay people they know, it is moments like these that sell their actual friendship for me. Sending your friend a bouquet with a MASSIVE 50 balloon in it because you know it'll piss them off is pique best friend behavior.

Gay Boy Cuddle Pile in A Boss and a Babe, Ep. 9

gif by @paisky

I am not immune to a gay boy cuddle pile. I will never be immune to a gay boy cuddle pile.

Having had multiple conversations with a straight male friend about how much cis men lack platonic, physical touch from friends I now get emo about when boys hug, cuddle, kiss cheeks, hold hands with each other especially if they are not dating or hoping to date.

Rose Trying to Steal Charn's Phone in Laws of Attraction, Ep. 4

gif by @panncakes

It's such sibling energy, and I love it so much. As an immature adult, I love when adultier adults than me are shown being childish/immature themselves. No one should be expected to be put together all the time, and I moments like these show such a beautiful form of love.

and cause Laws of Attraction is technically a lakorn...

Sailom and Yiwa in the entirety of Wedding Plan

They love each other so much they were going to enter a Lavendar Marriage just so that Yiwa especially could be free. I can't say much about them because if I start talking about them I won't stop. But it is by far the most sacred form of platonic love we've had all year.

ASK ME MY TOP 5 OF ANYTHING BL 2023

[vasito-de-leche]

Do you have any specific queer headcannons of r1999 characters if so which ones and why?

I wrote a bunch of stuff for this post but then tumblr fucked me up and reloaded without saving it so here we are..... rewriting it all over again ... OAUGH. usually I default to seeing everyone as Vaguely Bisexual and Not Cis until stated otherwise, but you asked for specifics so here we go!

6 is aromantic or demiromantic.

On one hand, it's because I love projecting on my faves. On the other hand, it's because he genuinely doesn't feel like the type of person to be interested in relationships. But this isn't something that's tied to any potential disgust, repulsion or even trauma related to his Revelation and struggle against fate -- to me, 6 just doesn't feel romantic attraction. At the very least, nothing strong enough to consider pursuing. It's not in his priorities. I really dislike this specific thing that fandoms do in which every single character who is introverted, or who happens to be alone/isolated (either by chance or by choice) is secretly lonely, touch starved, pining and desperate for attention and romantic love. It feels like such a huge disrespect for their equally important platonic or familial relationships. 6 already holds a lot of love for his own community and his childhood friends, a type of affection that is shown in his subtle and unique ways. I like it when his character focuses on those aspects instead!

Mesmer Jr. is aromantic and asexual.

In her case, she's the opposite of 6. Mesmer Jr.'s trauma and OCD is much too intense for her to even consider the idea of an emotional or physical bond with anyone. She's disgusted at the idea of touching others so casually, and she's afraid at the possibility of allowing a person (someone she logically cannot have any control over) into her life because what if they throw her off her schedule? What if they mess every meticulous thing she's planned for herself and her mental stability? What if she loses her grip? Yes, it's plausible that she may find a partner who works perfectly with the way she needs things to be, and yes, you can headcanon that she heals and her OCD becomes "manageable" enough to have a stable relationship, but personally? I just like it when characters don't get to have stereotypical happy endings in which everything gets better through love and friendship and support -- like, yeah everyone loves to see their faves happy and all but eh... It's a bit of projection on my part! Some people don't get to heal and do all the things their disabilities prevented them from doing, even if we're given all this support and love. Some of us just have to find ways around these things, anything that works for us that makes our lives easier.

Sweetheart is queer but has a complex relationship with love. In a somewhat similar vein, Blonney has gone through every single letter of the LGTBQ+ community.

I tried my best to explain my thoughts on Sweetheart but at this point she deserves her own post because it's honestly a LOT, this single part was just too long so I cut it out entirely. Just trust me when I say she's queer and has a very complex relationship with love. In Blonney's case, we discussed the possibility of her being written as comphet and it got me to think a little about her. I see Blonney as the type of girl who presents as a straight bimbo, following the themes of her character and all, but who has constant crisis after crisis in the privacy of her bedroom, the only place she's allowed to be more than just a blondie. This constant journey questioning her orientations and gender happens entirely in her head and in private. I like to think that she just has these long monologues in her head. Sure, she's identified as straight her whole life, but maybe bisexual works better because there was that one girl she kept meeting under the bleachers. Oh, but maybe she's a lesbian, since all her boyfriends are just huge disappointments and none of them ever make her truly happy. Oh, but maybe that's just because she has bad taste in men, there was that one guy in class who keeps making her laugh after all. Ahh, this would be so much easier if she were a guy, her femininity is mostly performative after all. Ah, but she actually really loves pink and fashion... Nonbinary then? No, she's not the type to pick something so vague, it's one or the other. Oh, how about both? Genderfluid! Etc etc. If you ask her about how she identifies, she'll simply brush you off with a "What's it to you? That's none of your business, creep!" and move on, but this is something very personal to her. So far, she knows she likes being femme presenting and that she likes Jessica!

Eagle is a trans girl.

Have you guys seen those posts going around tumblr about how important it is that trans women exist because they fight for their own womanhood and girlhood in a world that constantly looks down upon feminine things and all women as a whole? Yeah. Yeah. Eagle being a scout that fights so hard to prove herself, the feelings of not belonging into the Boy Scouts and seeing how the Girl Scouts are created eventually, a space for her. The fact that she visits her father's grave so that he can see her grow up.

Kaalaa Baunaa, Oliver Fog, Medicine Pocket and Melania are probably bisexual, but they're super busy with work so they don't have time to address that.

Self-explanatory <3 I do like to think that Kaalaa and Medpoc are more chill about it, Kaalaa because she's a grown ass woman who is very mature, and Medpoc because they genuinely give no fucking shits about dating in general, so who cares about confirming whether they're bisexual or not. Oliver Fog is a little more flustered at the idea of exploring his orientation and whatnot, but it's tolerable. BUT MELANIA? I LOVE to think that she's FULLY aware that the MOMENT she acknowledges her bisexuality, she will have a crisis and then what will she do? She has 3 papers due next week and a heist this weekend, she can't possibly sit there wondering about liking girls! She's got things to do!

And here's the extra round of HCs that don't require that much text to explain or that lean towards being more silly!

Eternity has literally outlived the concept of gender. She/They royalty.

37 has QRPs instead. It Just Works. No one but herself and her partners understand the dynamics, though. As god intended <3

APPLe is a raging bisexual and has been spotted in many gay bars. Regulus is also bisexual.

The world would've been a better place if Bette was a butch lesbian.

Balloon Party and An-An Lee play with gender like its playdough.

Baby Blue is Not Cis and she's Not Straight either because none of that shit matters to her anymore, since she's been disconnected from reality and society for so long. She also doesn't care about labelling herself.

Diggers is trans, but no one can figure out which way exactly. It doesn't help that he refuses to clarify either. The same thing happens with John Titor, except she's very vocal about being a transwoman.

Bunny Bunny is bisexual but she hasn't realized this yet. In similar fashion, Horropedia is bisexual but he just forgets about it sometimes.

Druvis III as a trans woman goes hand in hand with Forget Me Not as a gay man. This is why they're both super divorced.

Leilani is pansexual because she prefers the colors of that specific flag over the bisexual one. Spathodea is pansexual because the personal distinction between pansexuality and bisexuality matters to her.

Tennant is bisexual because she can scam and seduce more people that way.

The Fool is nonbinary. Mf should've been born in the 2020's, I just KNOW he would've loved mirrorgender.

Zima is in the closet not out of shame but out of safety. Just in case.

Sotheby assumes that every girl in the world likes girls. So far no one has been able to prove her wrong because all she does is interact with other sapphic girls.

Pavia is nonbinary out of spite. But I also love transguy Pavia HCs so so so much, give that guy boobs, he would never get top surgery <3

Vertin is nonbinary too but she doesn't care about people knowing about it. She does, however, make the effort to be a little androgynous, as a treat for herself.

Madam Z and Katz absolutely had a Situationship going on during university. Katz was bicurious and Madam Z helped her experiment. Now the Situationship is between Madam Z and Constantine, the latter using Madam Z as a rebound after fumbling her relationship with Vertin's mother <- the machinations in my brain will astonish you.

TTT is genderfluid by virtue of being a picture on a TV, so I like to think she can just shift her appearance. In similar fashion, gender means nothing to Alien T and Voyager because they're aliens.

I specifically love the idea of all of the 1.2 gang joking about how Tooth Fairy is their token straight adult figure -- she's actually bi and asexual, but likes to keep that to herself so the kids can make their little jokes and have fun.

Enigma is gay and homophobic because his self-loathing is just that strong.

Turns out that the push Click needed to explore his own sexuality was getting killed on the battlefield, so now he's free to be gay. perhaps bicurious.

[the-lark-ascending69]

I'm sorry but I have a very real problem with Vickie as a character. A fan-favorite character is revealed to be queer in the previous season and gets a love interest shaped appendix with no plot relevance or personality, created only to be Robin's trophy girlfriend, in a way that is so painfully and obviously different from how they did it when they tried to make a new character entirely to give her a love story with an already existing main character.

I'm talking about Robin herself, and how, despite not having the deepest character arc in S3, she still had some meat on her bones. She still had some stuff to work with. She was actually important and involved with the plot and had real chemistry with her would-be love interest, Steve. Making her a lesbian at last second pretty much saved both her and Steve's characters and made the Scoops subplot, the only redeemable subplot of S3, actually salvageable. By recontextualizing Stobin with that revelation, you go from a forced, heteronormative/amatonormative "love story" with mysoginistic undertones (because what are frmale characters if not trophy wives for male characters!) and 1) you give Robin actual stuff in her life that has nothing to do with Steve, turning her into a real character on her own, yet also shows why their friendship is so valuable to her, giving her a mini-arc in the process about overcoming isolation, alienation and loneliness, and 2) you wrap up Steve's arc the way his character clearly needs to be wrapped up - by moving on from his immature pursuits of women as romantic/sexual fulfillment and his highschool persona constructed on that, and embracing maturity by working on himself with the help of the people who challenge him the most, his platonic bonds (Dustin and Robin). Like I'm being 100% serious when I say making Robin a lesbian somewhat saved season 3.

But you can tell the brilliance of that move did NOT come from the Duffers' mastermind because they couldn't even attempt to replicate their unexpected success with Robin and Vickie. Because even before Robin was made into a lesbian, she still had SOMETHING. Vickie has nothing. She's a non-character. And it's interesting to note the difference in treatment when it comes to straight male characters vs. queer female characters. You can make the case that Max's introduction in S2 followed a similar pattern to beta!Stobin - new character paired up with pre-existing character. But you wouldn't say Max was added just to give Lucas a girlfriend, because even if her plot relevance in S2 was rather lackluster, she still had... so much more than even Robin in S3, and she's simply uncomparable to Vickie. She feels like her own person right from the start. We know the Duffers like to add wayy to many characters, making the show feel crowded and inevitably leaving a few characters behind, but when they add new characters in a given season, they're actually pretty good at making us fall in love with them quickly. Max, Robin, Eddie, hell even Billy if you're into that - like I said before, there's always some work that goes into them that makes you care about them.

Sure, there are less important characters that don't get half the effort put into them - Heather, Benny, idk, Barb's parents? And many others I can't remember right now. Not every character needs to be a fan-favorite.

But none of these guys were a main character's love interest. Not even for like, a second-row main character like Robin. Lucas gets a girl and she gets proper character development. Steve was originally intended to get a girl and she gets plot relevance, screentime and charisma (and a bit of character development pre-coming out too). Robin gets a girl and... it seems like Robin and her girl don't matter that much.

Which makes me question, why give Robin a love interest at all if they weren't going to do anything about it. My guess is that, well, she's a lesbian, so of course she gets to kiss girls. Character arc? What is that? Just watch her gush over a girl without last name and not care about anything else for most of the season. The writers just didn't know what to do with her now that she's no longer gonna be Steve's trophy girlfriend. Just throw in a poorly put together gay subplot, because everyone knows gay people only get to kiss other gay people and there's nothing else about the lesbian experience worth talking about (like, idk, the loneliness? The alienation?). I'm of the belief that, if you're gonna half-ass it, don't write a romantic subplot at all, regardless of the characters' genders and sexuality. But what bothers me isn't a shitty romantic subplot. It's the difference in treatment that the queer characters get vs. their straight counterparts.

And it bothers me because it could have been fixed SO easily! You get three options:

Give Robin a character arc that's not a romantic subplot. That doesn't mean she doesn't get to have a crush, but it should be in the background. My idea would be to make it about her, Nancy and Barb, and their old friendship + Robin's sense of alienation. Robin learning the truth about Barb's death, and her and Nancy helping each other heal. Robin and Nancy becoming friends through long conversations about their feelings, through which Nancy gets a sort of "second chance" at having a friend again and Robin gets to connect with someone who initially hated her in her own special way. The point is to not make r0vickie obviously endgame, EVEN if it turns out to be that way next season, because if it's obviously endgame it suddenly begs for a deeper development and the lack of it becomes a problem. An easy solution would be to give Robin multiple crushes, to signal at how unserious they all are at the moment.

Give Robin a love story with a newly introduced main character. And the obvious option is *rolls drums" genderbent Eddie! Or Vickie in Eddie's place. Best and easiest solution imo. It may sound weird but if you think about it, it all makes sense - plot relevance, character development... only problem would be killing your gays if you squint, though Robin would be alive and ready for a new character arc next season, as a changed person. Sad, angry, possibly seeking revenge and seeking to assert herself as a threat after hiding and running her entire life. Robin's feelings are suddenly plot relevant now. I'm picking Eddie here (or rather, his role) because he's the most important one out if all the new S4 characters, and the one that spends time with the group the most. It's clean, minimalistic and practical.

Give Robin a love story with a pre-existing main character, i.e Nancy. As a ronance shipper, I maintain that pairing up Nancy and Robin would have been original and unexpected in the best way. I feel like I don't even need to explain why this would have been a good idea - tons of people already have. Mostly, I want to lament the impossibility of this option, which links directly to the point I'm trying to make.

Robin was never going to be paired with a main-main character, old or new, because queer relationships on-screen need to be pushed to the sides as to not interfere with or threaten the straight main characters. Nancy, as the main girl, was never going to get a romance with a girl. Vickie was never going to get the centrality that Eddie got. Straight relationships get to be taken seriously, even if they're writen stupidly, like whatever the fuck happened with stancy and jancy in S4. Queer relationships don't get to be more than silly forgettable subplots. Queer characters like Robin need to be inobtrusive. She could never fall in love with Nancy, even if one-sided-ly, because that would create a conflict straight audiences don't want to see.

And if a queer character DOES fall in love with a main straight character, like Will, it's all meant for pointless suffering. Not the kind of suffering that's vital for a character arc, or the kind that gives depth to a character. It's not a kind of suffering that leads them to change, to take any given decisions that they wouldn't otherwise have taken. It's not a suffering that could possibly interfere with the straight main couple's happiness. It's not a pain that causes conflict. Queer love and pain doesn't get to be part of the conflict in straight-dominated stories. So Robin can never fall in love with someone from the front-row sphere and Will suffers pointlessly, even though that pain has no real effect on him.

[zootopiathingz]

If you really think about it, the ship where Alastor would be involved in that would most likely be canon so far would be Charlastor.

I mean, he despises Lucifer and sees Vox as not worth his time, so he's not gonna be throwing himself all over them anytime soon. Nearly everyone he interacts with besides the three women he's friends with, he's either indifferent, respectable or hostile to, but towards Charlie? This man has allowed her to touch him without permission, stated multiple times that he has faith in her beliefs and even handed her his source of power. Twice.

I'm aware he's doing all this with some underlying motive, but you can't deny he won't do all this for just anyone. I really can't imagine him all comfortably curled up in Angel's bed or getting handsy with Lucifer (He wipes his hands after touching him, man really doesn't like him at all). I support all ships with Alastor but if we're looking at this at a canon perspective, Alastor interacts with Charlie the most and will continue to interact with her as the show goes on, it's more possible to happen in a sense with Alastor.

Plus with all the romantic cues the show has (Unintentionally?) given so far, with the part where both Charlie and Alastor are laying on the heart shaped pillow but Charlie falls off the bed while Alastor remains on top off it, it seems that there could be a very small possibility that there might be an unrequited crush on Alastor's part.

Yeah, it's a stretch, but hey, he didn't have to lay in that bed. He could have stayed standing, looming over Charlie to show that he might be helping her but he still sees himself as above her and in control of the situation. But! Someone still animated him on that bed! They still animated him on that heart shaped pillow right beside Charlie! They didn't have to, but they still did and my minds still reeling after that fact.

No because you’re absolutely correct here.

Out of any of the characters in the series for Alastor to end up with, if he were to have a romantic subplot of any kind, it would be Charlie. They have the most potential together as a pairing and there have been so many little hints and visual cues that I’m honestly shocked that a romance plot isn’t where their relationship is going.

I genuinely cannot see Alastor ever engaging in anything romantic or physical with Vox or Lucifer in any way. And whenever I say that people like to excuse me of hating gay ships (which I clearly don’t. I am queer, and I love seeing queer ships that actually make sense and have good chemistry, and not just because they’re gay). It’s because he canonly hates men and is much kinder towards women—except for Vaggie lol. Yes, ship Alastor with whoever you want. It’s not my place to tell you if your ship is bad or not. I honestly don’t care because it’s your opinion and as long as you’re having fun with it, that’s all that matters!

But like anon is saying here, if we’re looking at it from a canon viewpoint, let’s think about it. Again, Alastor clearly doesn’t like men and can’t even be bothered to shake Lucifer’s hand without being disgusted. There have been three women who could be potential love interests. First is Mimzy, which I can see there may have been some flirtation here and there in the past, or even an unrequited crush on her part. But with her basically using him to get her out of trouble all the time, I can’t see them going beyond their on-and-off friendship. Then there’s Rosie, who he’s obviously very comfortable around and lets her touch and grab him as she pleases—which he wouldn’t let slide with any male characters in the show. And the Radiorose ship is cute I admit, but to me they’re a pair of gossip buddies who would maybe pretend to be in a relationship if needed, but otherwise their feelings don’t go any further than platonic.

And so that leaves us with Charlie. When I first watched the pilot I absolutely assumed they were going to have some kind of slow burn, not only because the idea of the princess of Hell and this feared Radio Demon falling for each other is so intriguing, but generally just the way they acted with each other. In like a span of eight minutes they were happily dancing together, with Alastor calling her one of a kind, tossing her around and making improvements to her dream hotel.

You can imagine how surprised I was when I found out they weren’t canon and weren’t going to be in the actual show. Like, I was legit going “🤨🤨🤨” and this was before I was even in the fandom lmao

And thank you so much for mentioning that scene in her bedroom because…

What is this. What do you mean the mfs making this show drew out this scene, carefully looked at every detail for the final product, and went “yup👍” if there wasn’t supposed to be something more going on here???

Like seriously if you’ve never watched this episode and you saw these two frames, what exactly would you assume is going on here? Be honest with me

But ya know, charlastor “isn’t canon” (so they say🙄) so the animators here were def trolling us lol

[outrunningthedark]

What are your thoughts on Bucktommy/Buddie now? Has anything changed? I can't help but notice you seem to be distancing yourself from Buddie (or more specifically from Buddie stans? – I bet you still love the pairing) and embracing Bucktommy more (you do seem more protective over them now than you were before) but I also might be projecting so I figured it'd be better to ask.

Hey, nonnie. Questions are always welcome. <3 I still have love for the Buddie dynamic and will always appreciate the organic, innate chemistry Ryan and Oliver bring to the screen, but it's something that I've learned to live without while still enjoying the show, if that makes sense. Back in seasons four and five, for instance? I was not afraid to express my disappointment over a Buddie scene that didn't meet expectations or could have been included over whatever happened in canon. Since season six and even more so as we got through season seven? If we get Buddie content, great, I'll enjoy it for those few minutes, but I'm not asking *where* Buddie is or *why* scenes got cut or even thinking ahead to what might happen for them the next week. It makes my viewing experience much more satisfying these days, especially with show runners who CLEARLY do not plan months, never mind weeks in advance and will change any part of a story line or scene to fit their mood at any given time. Do I think Buddie could still happen? I choose not to rule it out completely because we can't time things that have no current end date, but as it stands, I think it would be something that isn't seriously considered until near the end of the series/the story because at that point...there's nothing to lose, you know? When it comes to BuckTommy, I have definitely activated my "protective side" not because I am already planning "endgame" in my head (look at Lone Star - endgame isn't real), but I can't sit back and watch people deliberately misrepresent facts (as in, things that are canon) to fit a headcanon. Especially when we've had Ryan out here on multiple occasions explaining why Buddie's platonic friendship resonates with him. He could change his mind, absolutely, but as of right now? I won't be silent while people disregard his personal feelings for the sake of winning a fabricated ship war. I respect his journey regardless of whatever crap he's put out on the internet through the years because I'm not him and I don't know what he went through as that young kid from Sacramento. Also, just like I don't appreciate people trying to speak about me and my experiences as a person with a visible disability, I feel it's important to boost the opinions of the fans, the male fans, who actually understand the story we're watching unfold. [As much as queer women might be able to relate to parts of Buck's journey, it's not actually FOR the women when there are no queer women involved. And guess who's overseeing every detail? A man.]

What will happen with BuckTommy? I doubt Tim even knows that 😉 But I'll welcome their romance for as long as ABC thinks it's worth telling. And if Buck were to move on with someone new? I'll watch that, too. I'm just going where the story takes me, honestly. It's how I've (finally) found my peace.

[markcampbells]

Queer platonic VashMeryl!

For my second self-rec post for @trigunfanfic, I wanted to write about two of my pieces that haven't seen as much love but are very special to me! I found as I was writing a WIP I'm still working on that I absolutely loved digging in to Vash and Meryl's friendship and that it was becoming a really special dynamic to me, and I wanted to spotlight some of those feelings with two gen fics for them. The first is overtly queer platonic; the second is merely a developing friendship fic but was still written from the lens of how I see them.

you recognize love after the fact (1.4k words, T/Gen, TriMax-compliant)

Meryl pulls in a breath and lets it out, measured. "I suppose if it was always obvious for us, then… I should ask the same. About…" The flicker of emotion lasts longer this time, and Vash doesn't master it quite so easily. She sees it—genuine pain, grief—clearer than she's ever seen anything, and it knocks the wind out of her. Reunited on Gunsmoke after months apart, Meryl and Vash have an honest conversation about the people they love, and what makes someone human. (Ace Trigun Week, Day One: What Makes Us Human) content warnings are in the fic notes

As an ace creator who already saw Vash as ace, I found myself relating more and more to Meryl and eventually decided, hey, why not write her as ace, too? That thought was the genesis of this fic for Ace Trigun Week, where I took a small scene from Volume 11 of TriMax (Meryl giving Vash the coin case) and decided to fill in a conversation they may have had about all that time they spent apart, and the people they both love. For folks who love found family and queer platonic relationships, I hope this brings you as much comfort as it did me to write it.

get by with a little help (2.2k words, Gen, primarily TriStamp-influenced)

When she looked up at Vash's face the concern was still there, as she'd anticipated. Role reversal was a hell of a thing. "Don't be silly," he chided, soft enough her heart cracked a little. "Can't I help?" "I wouldn't want you to…" "But there has to be some way to," he interrupted, smoothly as anything. "A little something I can do? I'd rather not sit here thinking I did nothing when you don't feel well." Vash gives Meryl a hand (and a hot water bottle) when her period leaves her dealing with discomfort.

As an inveterate wimp, this piece came about when I was sure my body horror week piece was going to drain the life out of me and thus I needed to write some fluff. This is a bit of tender hurt/comfort between Vash and Meryl, featuring platonic cuddling and as much focus as I could manage on Vash's positive masculinity. I really enjoyed writing it and giving the two of them a little peace to get to know each other better, and I hope folks who like their dynamic enjoy it!

[starbuckaroo]

I think I would be happier w bucktommy all these episodes down the line if Tommy still interacted with or asked after Eddie. I know there’s a lot the show doesn’t put onscreen so there’s no reason why it couldn’t have plausibly happened or couldn’t still happen (and I hope it does), but Tommy was Eddie’s friend first! They hung out a lot!

And yet, since he got together with Buck, we haven’t gotten to see them interact.

Granted, there hasn’t been a lot of screen time for Tommy and that’s fine, it’s a short season w very little room to breathe. This isn’t some sort of angry anti bucktommy tirade. But it does make me just a tad uncomfortable the way things are at this moment. Bc it’s not a stretch to theorize that maybe Tommy was hoping things Eddie might go somewhere and when they didn’t, he tried with Buck. I don’t think that’s supported by the text, but it’s also not negated, either. Idk. It’s not a huge deal at the moment, just a little snag?

Listen I am a buck fan but I am an eddie fan!!!!!!! And I am so so sad for eddie this season it’s been rly fucking rough on him! Not like buck needs to change anything (except not be a jealous freak and lash out physically if he can’t use his words), like I said I’m here for bucktommy I think they’re great. But like. Where’s the awkward “hey how do we hang out now that you two make out sometimes” or whatever?? We deserve to see that tbh! It’s a more common issue in queer circles, that ppl have to slip in and out of romantic/platonic interactions when people partner up or break up. It’s also the first time either of them have dated anyone within the LAFD and so it’s the first time this could ever have even come up!

Idk man. Just I keep thinking about how happy eddie seemed when he was hanging out w Tommy and maybe it’s just bc that ep was meant to be from Buck’s pov but i don’t know what’s worse, thinking it WAS real and now he doesn’t get to have that friendship anymore or that it WASNT real and he was never actually having that good of a time.

MY REAL POINT is that anyone who WAS or IS a buddie shipper or anyone who likes Eddie at all has to acknowledge how important buck and eddie are to each other, right? Which means that in any relationship that either of them ever have, if they want it to be serious and have long term potential, they actually need to integrate their partner with their best friend.

Maybe this is too weird for some ppl? It’s always seemed like a given, like if there’s someone new and important in my life, I def want my best friend to meet them and like them bc I want us all to be able to spend time together! I don’t want to feel split between them all the time! And esp with Tommy already having connections with most of the 118/main cast, and particularly Eddie, it would make sense for us to see them interacting!

Idk. I’m probably wanting too much from my network tv show lol I just. I will literally never take bucktommy seriously as a pairing if they don’t manage to address the Eddie of it all. And not in a “address the fact that buck loves him” contrived jealousy nonsense. I mean address the fact that their lives are bound together! And it predates anyone that either of them will ever date! Plus imagine the character growth it would take for Buck to send Tommy to Thursday basketball with like a plate of cookies and orange slices or something but not show up himself. Be like “have fun with the boys, slap Eddie’s ass for me” or whatever 😂 I would believe Buck was finally on his way to being ready for a long term adult relationship if they managed that, is all I’m saying

[tainted-heartz]

hello!! I was wondering if we could have headcanons with Wally and Eddie (seperate if you don’t mind?)? Perhaps the reader is on the aromantic spectrum, and they’re trying to navigate through a queer-platonic relationship together? Because it’s probably something different for our beloved men, and the reader is more than happy to help them out with how they both want this relationship to go,

| oooh I adore this idea! as someone who is queer-platonic its just...something I weirdly relate to |

- wally is confused when you explain the entire thing or even mention the idea. being queer-platonic never crossed his mind since the poor guy got mixed signals BUT didn't deny the idea of trying to learn.

- in his mind its ‘ oh so its being platonic but having commitment LIKE a relationship minus the love and stuff..that's nice. ’ and he grows very used to it very quickly because you explained it in dental.

- yes he must admit his heart was a bit torn that he couldn't be with you but as long as you were able to have some relationship and spend time together he's glad. nothing can really make him dislike you or your identity.

- if you talk about how he wants the relationship to go he just shrugs. “ I'm happy with whatever you want. you'll always be great in my eyes. ” which he isn't lying about , if you ever even wanted to try and navigate the relationship in some way he's very open to it.

- it makes a few minutes to explain to eddie what queer platonic is but he understands pretty quickly. it's very different from what he's used to but he's always open to learning identitys and such.

- like wally his brain thinks its basically friendship but just commitment like a relationship so he sticks with that. he isn't upset about not being to date you or anything of the sort , he's just glad you're in his life in some way!

- he talks things out with you and never gets upset , he's slow and even asks you about things he can and can't do just for your comfort. but you two are still close no matter what even if he has a small slip-up he learns quickly and apologizes so much.

- now if you ask him how he wants the relationship to be he'd have to think for a minute. “ well jee..I'm happy with what it is now , I'm glad you're close to me and heck even willing to pick me of all people so. I'm happy as it is! ” he'd smile and just pick you up with a hug.

[puppetriix]

Obv take your time answering this (I’m about to go to bed anyway) and don’t even answer if it’s too personal but:

I know you know queer platonic relationships but how familiar are you with relationship anarchy? I’m only asking cuz it’s such a niche topic.What are your thoughts on it? Also would you consider yourself aplatonic? Or simply aroace? How has amatonormativity impacted you?

Welp, I just fell down a rabbit hole!

Prior to today I had no clue what most of those words meant so take everything I say with a grain of salt. (though I agreed with a lot of it, I just didn’t know it had words)

LOVE RELATIONSHIP ANARCHY!! THATS WHAT I’VE BEEN SAYING SINCE THE BEGINNING!!!!

I hate how the societal standards for relationships are Friendship<Dating<Married<Family like come on man, no it doesn’t have to be that way.

Me personally, I don’t think that relationships should even be put into categories like that. The relationship shouldn’t be based off of how much romance stuff you do. It should be based off how much genuine love you have for each other. (Not necessarily romantic love, not necessarily sexual love, and not necessarily platonic love. Just love.)

No, I don’t think I would consider myself aplatonic. The amount of platonic love I feel and have felt for some people is honestly unreal to me. I never knew I could love like that but it’s so freeing and it makes me so wonderfully happy. Yes, I have used the term “friendship crush” because I feel so much “I WANNA BE FRIENDS WITH THEM SO BAD” even when I am already friends with said person. Platonic love I guess :) I do understand why some people would be aplatonic though and I fully respect them.

I am Aroace, Though I’ll explain exactly what that means to me!!

Asexual: I do NOT want a sexual relationship. No sex, no “caresses” (especially sexual ones near my stomach), no stroking my face. I.E.: NO NO SEX NO PLEASE DONT EVEN CARESS ME NO.

Aromantic: I do NOT wanted a necessarily romantic relationship. I do not want mouth to mouth kisses, I do not want anything related romance teehee stuff (sorry i don’t know how to better explain it) I.E.: please no lip kisses eheh no.

But! I am fine with kisses on the forehead, hand, cheek, etc. I also love hugs and cuddles and sleeping together in a non sexual sense.

What love do I want: Queer platonic. I just want to love and be loved equally. I want to cuddle up with someone on our bed when either of us are upset. I am not necessarily opposed to hugging and loving each other in public either. I want someone who can understand the fact that I do not want any form of sexual attraction towards me and would prefer no romantic attraction as well. I do think I want love, but I don’t a necessarily romantic relationship, I do not want what most people label as “dating”. Would I like to be labeled as a family? I am not opposed to it, I love found family and already consider most people I am friends with to be apart of my family. I would also like to note that I would like to experience this with one or more people. Also, I am fine with this relationship being labeled as a friendship :)

amatonormativity. Oh boy. Hate that. I used to think I wanted to have a romantic relationship, and the other person in said relationship wanted that too. But I soon realized: No. I do not want something like that. The other person didn’t understand at the time and I do not know if they’d understand now, (but nonetheless I do not love them anymore for multiple unspecified reasons.)

I think what society views as a relationship is really ucky and I like to just view things how I see them for me.

Love is how you would like to view it for you. Love is love.

[pleasejustletpercyrest]

I’m surprised I haven’t caved and done this yet, but I NEED to talk about how fucked up it is that ole Papa Ricky missed out on prime ace/aro representation via Leo Valdez in favor of? Ruining part of his character arc? Let’s get into it.

Essentially, Leo’s entire character is based off of the loser boy who relentlessly flirts with anything that moves because he’s desperate. We see this in almost every book until he starts to get serious, and of course when the Calypso plot line begins. IGNORING THAT ENTIRE SECTION OF THE BOOKS, and instead looking more closely towards the whole “seventh wheel” thing, I would very much like to point my gay little finger and declare Leo on the a-spec.

Leo as a character is very performative, and we see him taking the role of the comedian, or the resident funny guy along with his throwaway usefulness as the engineer and repairer. In his POV multiple times we see a deeper exploration to his thoughts and actions, while in everyone else’s eyes, he’s just annoying, funny, and hyperactive. While this is an entirely different post I should be making in the name of Leo Valdez and all of his quirks and flaws, I also think that this inherently plays into the loneliness and separation that we see over and over again casting him as the third/fifth/seventh wheel.

I think there’s also something very telling about that desperation. Besides Rick very quickly throwing him into a romance to solve most of his “problems”, a lot of the earlier books show him flirting and throwing himself at women, but there’s no SUBSTANCE to it. In my personal experience, and in something very often seen in the aro/Ace community, to fit into social norms, you often try to attach yourself quickly to people, or convince yourself and your peers that you are experiencing crushes/attraction for a way to fit in to conversation and convention. Unintentionally, Rick wrote this little playboy character who is SO EASILY read as queer, specifically ace/aro!!!!

While we can only give the books so much credit for diversity and representation (as they are written by a cishet white man well past his 30s), the way that Leo is written so stereotypically gives me FUEL to headcanon that he is better than written. I like to think of his third wheel era with Piper and Jason as a sort of PART 1 to this realization, and then PART 2 comes around with Hazel and Frank. There could have been so many silly interactions if he was actually pursued as a queer character, and I will forever rage because of the sloppily thrown labels after HoO with Nico’s coming out arc.

(Once again, big W for the representation being shown, but I do have some issues with the execution)

I just imagine Leo, confused, watching these relationships on the Argo II and taking notes about what romantic attraction looks like. He has messy notes scribbled on his palm like:

-Laughs at joke that is NOT funny because they are blinded by love???

-Look like idiots holding hands and staring into each others eyes

-‘I would die for you’ but in a sexy way (aka how to date in demigod 101)

-Whatever the fuck Percy and Annabeth have going on

Relationships, specifically romantic ones, seem to be the only way that Rick truly allows important interactions to happen. What happened to declaring your loyalty but in a platonic sense? What happened to fighting for the power of friendship? What happened to Grover?!?!!!

I also truly believe that there could have been an entirely new angle explored between Nico and Leo’s relationship, and how they could’ve become tentative friends after Leo comes back from the dead, especially after the death of Jason Grace. I see perfectly an interaction that would go something like:

Leo, approaching Nico wearily at the dining pavilion: hey man, how did you realize you were gay?

Nico, not paying much attention, absolutely destroying a bowl of cereal: didn’t like women, liked men

Leo, nodding seriously, knowing full well that he isn’t gay but also not straight: I see…

ADDITIONALLY there could have been such a fun friendship with Piper and Leo if Rick Riordan wasn’t a coward and actually gave Piper a character arc where she was established as queer instead of just sprinkling it in at random. Piper, as a daughter of Aphrodite, with that ‘love sense’, I truly believe they’re could have been such fun scenes such as:

Piper, suspicious that Leo isn’t straight: so���you have any crushes?

Leo, panicking because now he has to think of someone who could reasonably be seen as someone he was crushing on: uh, um, uh, what’re you? A cop???

Piper, getting literally no vibes of any attraction whatsoever from Leo, throwing her tf off: uh, maybe

This also leaves the very real, very hilarious question of what Leo would see if he ever met Aphrodite. As Jason sees a lot of Piper, and Percy sees basically just Annabeth, I think it would be interesting to have an internal dialogue of Leo meeting the goddess of love and having her features shift constantly to try and fit an impossible attraction by melding together traits that are stereotypically pretty or beautiful.

Not all of this was entirely coherent, but I have very strong feelings on this headcanon and I am HORRIBLE at articulating anything in a way that makes sense. Thank you for, once again, coming to my Teddy Talky.

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Two Friends Diverged in Emotional Sincerity: Reflections on Love in the Big City- Part 1

After a very busy week I have finally managed to catch up on the reading schedule and finished Part 1 of Love in the Big City. Thanks @bengiyo for the discussion questions because I have a lot of disparate thoughts that I don’t think I can really condense in to something articulate, so I’ll start with these.  

I guess I will start by saying that I am curious where my relationship to Young will go because I am not in love with his character so far, and to be honest, I love that. Coming from the BL world, we have too many perfect characters, or those that have a single flaw. It is fascinating to me how having access to Young’s private thoughts is really a major contributor to how I am feeling about his character. He is incredibly flaws, Jaehee is incredibly flawed, but they are human characters in a way a lot of the queer characters I have been engaging with lately are not. And Young and Jaehee’s flaws speak to each other. 

@doyou000me, @my-rose-tinted-glasses, and others called the relationship between Jaehee and Young a queer platonic relationship and I wholeheartedly agree. I am in a QPR right now, I cannot imagine what my future looks like without my QPR but there is part of me that knows this cannot last forever. My friend and I live together, we support each other through everything, we tell each other too much, the thought of being far away is odd. But they have a partner now, who I love dearly and who I am so happy they are with, but it has changed the way we interact with each other, because now they have someone else to spend time with and I’m still left alone trying to figure out how to nurture the other real-life friendships I have. I love that I have my QPR because of how legible it makes the relationship between Jaehee and Young to me. I get where they are coming from, I understand how important that relationship is to both of them. I see the small ways they care for one another. 

But life is all about change, and that relationship cannot continue the way it once did. I think that change truly starts around the time of Jaehee’s pregnancy and subsequent abortion. Something I think Jaehee and Young have in common is their strength of character. Even if who they are changes over time they know who they are, they might not like who they are but they know themselves. I am thinking here about Jaehee and Young’s experiences with healthcare, and my own experiences working in healthcare. The way Young is treated face to face with some respect or politeness, and then overhears the prejudice and homophobia that is ingrained in these providers. And he tries to blow it off, he uses his laughter like armor until K, who does not have the same hang ups comes to his defense, shows him that it is okay to feel angry, reads the clinic the riot act. Jaehee does not get the same treatment. Like Young she goes in to her appointment alone, but where Young was harmed passively through an overheard comment, Jaehee is berated, actively, intentionally, in her face for half an hour until she can do nothing but scream. Scream in the face of shame, scream in the face of societal expectations and conservative values, scream for herself because she has no one there to scream for her. Even the nurse, who agrees with her in private that the doctor is being ridiculous and rude and that he was way out of line does not say a word about it when Jaehee is being actively harmed. 

Jaehee and Young make their jokes, and with that I understand an unspoken arrangement between the two to never take anything seriously. We can see it in the way Young processes, or rather doesn’t process his emotions. How in the face of homophobia his instincts are to blow it off with a laugh. How in the face of misogyny and slut shaming Jaehee swipes their stupid fucking uterus model on the way out the door. How they joke about the Fellowship of the Abortion. How Young just so casually in the middle of a sentence references his suicidality and then never speaks of it again. But this unspoken rule between them is what I think is their undoing. 

Because Jaehee gets an abortion, and suddenly things are serious. Suddenly Jaehee is quiet and in intense amounts of pain. Suddenly Jaehee is not responding to Young’s jokes. Suddenly Jaehee is asking Young if he really, truly wants to know the pain she is in…and he says no. And I am not quite convinced that their relationship can be the same after that. Because after her abortion, Jaehee starts to get serious, she gets good grades, she looks for a job, she starts a serious relationship that is important enough to her that she wants Young to meet him. 

And it has me thinking about the fact that Young and K had been together for about as long as Jaehee and her boyfriend had when Young gets the invitation, but Young can’t call K his boyfriend, Young can’t fathom introducing K to a stranger, Young can’t bring himself to really even believe he is in a relationship because he refuses to emotionally connect the way he would really need to for a relationship to last. And the longer Jaehee is in the relationship with her boyfriend, the more serious she gets, she stops partying as hard, you can see these little steps she is taking towards a more calm and mild life. And I’m not sure Young knows what to do with that knowledge. But he doesn’t have to worry about it for long because Jaehee outs him, and he feels betrayed, and he runs. 

Because running is easier than staying and talking through what he is feeling. Running, ghosting, dumping is easier than having to admit his pain, his sadness, his fears. Again, Young’s detachment from his emotions and his nonchalance about his life experiences means he just gives us these brief, off-handed mentions of the shit that he has been through. I do not think Young had any intention of being out in college, but he stood up for Jaehee, his cohort figured it out, and he spent the rest of his college career a social outcast for it. He went in to his military service knowing what could happen to him if people realized he was gay, and so he put himself back in the closet for it. These are things he mentions essentially in passing, and he never really talks about the way those impacted him. But Young knows the punishment for being gay and Jaehee opens a doorway to potential active physical and emotional harm when she tells her boyfriend the truth about Jieun. 

I think I have seen a lot of conversation around the outing, the way that it shows Young that Jaehee is shifting her alignment away from him and towards her boyfriend. Young says he doesn’t understand why he is angry, because all Jaehee had done was tell the truth. But for queer people, the truth can be dangerous and Young does not know Jaehee’s boyfriend like that. We saw from the clinic Jaehee can’t lie to protect herself, and we see from this moment that Jaehee can’t lie to protect Young either. That feels earth shattering to me to someone who used Jaehee’s name as a safety blanket during his time in national service. That feels earth shattering to me to someone who already lost his safety once because of Jaehee. 

But there was something I haven’t really seen anything mentioned about something that definitely hit me hard in what she said:

“-so oppa he’s basically like a girl.”

Jaehee came home and told Young about it. Now, I guess I can’t know for sure that she recounted verbatim what she told her boyfriend. But let’s assume for a moment she did. I fucking hate this line. I know the queer community will frequently feminize their language, gay men referring to each other as girl, using she/her pronouns for each other, etc. but this is different. Young is a gay man he suffers for being a gay man and to see Jaehee’s, I guess, internal perception of Young as “basically a girl” just rubs me the wrong fucking way. 

Especially because I liked what @lurkingshan (and I think others) said about Young and Jaehee bucking tradition in a lot of ways. They were living together as a man and a woman, and their relationship was queer platonic, and that was going against the grain. But, Jaehee still has options to reintegrate herself into the expectations of society, where Young cannot. Jaehee can be wild in her youth, and she can become tamed, and that can be a personal choice or could be from pressure. My impression is that Jaehee changed her outlook on life after she got her abortion, becoming more serious and that Young was just not ready to move past brushing off or otherwise pushing away the serious shit. Not even after K dies. That is, until Jaehee gets married. Until Jaehee voices her fears about the wild parts of her ruining the safety and security she has built in her life. Until Jaehee has literally made a commitment to embrace love, to accept a genuine emotion and she leaves Young in the dust right at the same time he finally lets his emotions stay for a bit.

[tolkien-feels]

Did Tolkien specifically state that elves were heterosexual or is it just some people?

(Like, I'm in no way trying to be rude, I just wanted confirmation since one of my friends ships Russingon, and the other said that elves were heterosexual)

Oh that's a minefield. I'll try to answer this as unbiasedly as I can, but keep in mind I am both 1) queer myself and 2) not interested in shipping as much as I am interested in other aspects of fandom. If either of these things makes me lean towards one side or the other, I will leave to your discretion as you read this.

I'll try to be as succinct as possible but we'll see if this doesn't end up long.

Also this is such a minefield, like I've said, that I will disable reblogs because I really don't want to deal with discourse at best and actual queerphobia at worst.

The first thing is that traditionally, shipping has never relied on whether an author would approve of it or not. So "You can't ship this because the author says you can't" is not an opinion that would have been given much weight for much of fandom history. "Could this theoretically be canon?" is an incredibly recent development, especially when it comes to queer relationships. So your friend could and should ship whatever they want!

In terms of authorial intent, better read people than I could point you in the direction of a small library of literary scholarship debating how Tolkien portrays gender and sexuality. It's a complicated, nuanced topic.

As for what he's actually said... That's difficult to answer. I don't believe there's a sentence out there that says "Elves are exclusively heterosexual." Does that mean that they aren't? Well, not quite.

Maybe Tolkien didn't think anyone would assume anything but that they were heterosexual, and didn't particularly think he had to clarify that point. Or, alternatively, he did not think they were in fact exclusively heterosexual but was not comfortable with exploring that due to a myriad of factors, so he chose not to address it at all. There's no real way of knowing this, especially not without dedicating a lot of time to studying it, which I have not.

In terms of "Has he ever portrayed a queer relationship?" Eh. Also difficult to tell. There is a lot of ambiguity in how Tolkien portrays a lot of relationships, including heterosexual ones. I could make a case why a lot of his canonical, heterosexual couples are purely platonic, and a case why a lot of his commonly-read-as-friendship, same-gender relationships are romantic.

Also, just because Tolkien did not portray something "on screen", it does not mean it doesn't exist in his world. The Hobbit has no female characters, but presumably, there should be women in the world. So that's also not the way to go about it.

There are a few texts where Tolkien discusses how elves view marriage and sex, but 1) their role in canon is debatable; 2) they contradict each other and also other canonical or semi-canonical sources; 3) they tend to be framed in terms of customs (=what was socially expected among elves) rather than unbiased worldbuilding (=what Tolkien knew to be true.)

This distinction would not usually matter, except many people have proved Tolkien often enjoyed playing with the gap between reality and tradition. The most important texts about elves and love also tend to have a frame narrative of having been compiled or translated, so that's also another layer.

This isn't an intellectual exercise. This is actually important. In general, when Tolkien lays down a custom, you can immediately think of something in direct contradiction to it, and he often draws attention to these contradictions in the text itself. So it's actually very important, when reading these texts, to remember they are fallible by design.

This may all seem like I'm trying to rule lawyer. I promise you that is not what I'm doing.

Here's what I'm doing: I'm showing that to get to an answer, you have to dig so deep that I find it extremely unlikely that this is an important, unchangeable aspect of canon.

Tolkien did change canon over the course of his life - making dwarves more heroic, for example, and working on fleshing out female characters. If he lived forever, and came to think actually he wanted to have openly queer elves, he wouldn't have to break canon nearly as much as he had to in order to revise other things that he did revise.

Honestly? Sexuality in Tolkien's worldbuilding is almost a non-issue. The etymology of the name Maedhros probably bothered Tolkien much more than his love life. You need to break canon much harder to have bearded Aragorn than to have queer elves. If we're sticking to strict, strict, strict canon, we are going to run into contradictions all over the place (ask someone about how nonsensical Tolkien's math is), and I tend to take cues from the text to see what is important to pay attention to.

This is of course subjective, but like, I find Russingon much more canon-compliant (although I don't ship them) than if you were to tell me Fingolfin, who was married in Aman, married someone else in Beleriand. That is enough of a taboo among elves that it comes up, explicitly and implicitly, at several key points.

Now, I still wouldn't care, because I don't need Tolkien's permission to do what I want, but I would say that breaks canon much more definitely than the mere idea of queer elves.

(If anything, Maedhros and Fingon might run into a different taboo - they're too close kin to be in a relationship. But that's a rule Tolkien can't seem to make up his mind on. Which kind of proves my point.)

Having said all this... I would tentatively say Tolkien did not mean for any elves to be queer. But that understanding is informed more by my understanding of him as a person than by my understanding of canon, because again, this simply isn't something that comes up in a clear way. Or if it does and I'm just forgetting something, it's obscure enough that I don't think it really matters as much as issues people routinely ignore in the fandom at large (eg linguistics, or elements drawn from medieval literature.)

So while I do think people are justified in assuming no, there aren't queer relationships in Tolkien, I also think that's got to be the weirdest hill to die on unless you are bringing your biases to the text.

EDIT: Adding @pearlescentpearl‘s reply because it belongs here

Weighing in with a supporting thought! IIRC the clearest thing Tolkien ever said about elven marriage is that it’s *for the sake of children*, which is incredibly congruent with many of the histories Tolkien liked to study. Whether you were straight or queer, having children was incredibly important for a number of reasons and having children within some kind of formal acknowledgement of a union was useful for a. the pooling of resources, and b. the allotment of resources to descendants (inheritance). so for elves, if the purpose of marriage is ultimately for children, and the making of children involves both parents pouring in the strength of their spirits to nurture the baby, a marriage didn’t have to mean ‘I am romantically and sexually attracted to this person’, although undoubtedly common. it could also mean ‘this is the person I’ve chosen to procreate with and no other reason’, which still leaves plenty of room for one or both to have queer relationships outside the formal union they make children with, which is also congruent with a lot of historic practices

[r0b0-writes]

| Reasons why I like SCC |

Starting this off with an explanation before anyone has the chance to say anything. Feel free to read these links explaining the trio's canon (or lack there of) relationship. (As of today's date, [07,01,2023). - Explanation from Nelnal (SCC character designer) - Explanation 1 | Explanation 2 With that out of the way, let's get going! First off, this is a hodgepodge of things from canon (gameplay), and things from Nelnal, plus my own perception of the trio. So, be warned in that regard!

1 | The Backstory for Their Creation: - I just find the fact that Toby originally wanted one shopkeeper and instead went with three because he loved them all so endearing. It's just genuinely such a cool and eat fact. I love that in another universe, there's only one… And we're the lucky universe that gets to have all~ three! - Quoted from Nintendo Everything, "I actually have another story about the musical shopkeepers. I asked a designer I love to design a musical enemy, and they gave me three samples. I liked all three of them, so I couldn’t settle on just one… so that’s how those three came to be" (Brian, 2021).

2 | They Robots: - I like robots. That is all I can say. Next. 3 | One of Them Green: - I like the color green. This is all. Next. 4 | Nakayoshi: - As seen in Nelnal's reference page, the word "なかよし" (nakayoshi) is written! This word translates to good friends, intimate friends, etc. I find this just really adorable. That the three are just the best of buddies. Inseparable pals. It's something that I hold dear to me. They just… auaughh… I love friendship. I love them. I love them being besties and so close that they go everywhere together, that they started a rebel band together. TOGETHER!! AUGH!! FRIENDSHIP!!! This also just makes me think of me and my qpp… We kiss and hug and go on dates… We say "I love you" and try to talk as much as we can. When we're together, it's like being home, being with someone who cares for me. And I can't help but look at SCC and see a QPR like that. Not romantic, not strictly platonic. Just… queer. And I love that so much.

5 | Tropes: - SCC have a lot of personality and physical traits that just match some of my favorite tropes ever. Height difference, opposites attract, friends to lovers, etc. You understand what I mean. It's just so cool that all my favorite tropes are bound up in this music trio! Like, how uber lucky?! 6 | Designs: - The way SCC are designed is just very appealing to look at. The spingly-spoingly arms of K_K… The oblong head of Cap'n's. And Sweet is. Cube. I just love how shaped they are! (The object heads are shaped)!! YAHOO!! Cakes is rectangular… Sweet is cubular… Cap'n is football. (You understand). I wish I could word this better, but in all honesty all I can say is I love how they look. They look so cool and robotic and I love robots, so ofc I love them. And I am probably one of the few that love that their teeth are buttons… 7 | Dialogue: - I really like how the dialogue in the game follows the band name. Sweet talks, then Cap'n, then (sometimes) Cakes. Plus! Sweet and Cap'n finish each other's sentences in the game all the time! I'm also really appreciative of just how much Sweet talks. If my mutuals and I did the math right… Sweet's dialogue takes up 36.5% of the overall dialogue for SCC. (Cap'n being 35.6% and Cakes talking 27.9% of the time). Plus, their hello/goodbye is so adorable. I quote this to myself all the time. Yo! What's up? Hey! See ya! Smell ya! Hear ya! 8 | SCC Color Scheme: - Depending on what color you see them as… I kinda go back and forth w/ Sweet between yellow and purple. But Cap'n's blue and Cakes is green, obviously. And if you see Sweet as yellow… yellow and blue make green. Kinda how Cakes looks up to Sweet and Cap'n. I know I'm reaching for this one, but this is my post about things I like, so this stays lmao.

[tafadhali]

festivids recs, part 2

Here with more Festivids recs! There was so much good stuff — I bookmarked fully 1/3 of the collection — but I've narrowed it down to some faves, trying to pick one top choice for fandoms with multiple vids. Here's a very reasonable 25 recs:

The Only Way to See (Amaury Guichon RPF): Did not know I needed a Sondheim vid for the chocolate guy, but I really really did! Such a lovely tribute to creativity.

Le Freak (Barbie): Luv the choice to use disco. Really captured all the fun of the movie and the build to Barbie's existential crisis was A+.

Drink You Sober (Bound): All of the Bound vids were a beautiful bounty. This one is just meltingly sexy.

body (David Cronenberg movies): The platonic essence of a David Cronenberg vid. Repulsive! Attractive! Could not tear my eyes away.

Nothing in My Head (Dropout TV): I am loving ALL the Dropout content (the little question marks in WTFIGO? kill me); this one has terrific timing and is such a great celebration of the ensemble.

Do What I Do (Dungeons & Dragons): All the D&D vids were super fun; Holga's my fave character and I really enjoyed this tribute.

We Can Be Anything (Everything Everywhere All at Once): This song, with its tightrope between nihilism and endless possibility, feels like it was written for this movie.

Anymore (Face/Off): Face/Off vid of my DREAMS. This was made for my sibling and it feels almost like a gift for me too. We were hootin' and hollerin' and both yelled "DOVES!" when there were doves.

if i were a fish (Fire Island): Howie and Noah's friendship was my favorite part of this movie, so love that this focuses on that as much as on the romance. Such a cute song!

Northwest Passage (For All Mankind): If I have one takeaway from FV this year, it's that I need to watch For All Mankind! This space-camp-going due South fan definitely cried a little about this song choice and the epic spacefaring; might be obsessed with Molly just from the two vids I've seen about her.

סיפור הגולם  (The Golem and the Jinni): I haven't read the book yet, but this is a STUNNING example of what you can do with a non-visual source. It's such a love letter to a time and place, too!

How to make a perfect Hanukkah movie... (Hallmark Hanukkah Movies): SO funny. I've only seen one Hallmark Hanukkah movie but you absolutely get the vibe with or without having watched all of them.

I Like That (Janelle Monae RPF): Unapologetically queer and self-loving.

'Til You Hit a Nerve (Knives Out): Great combination of the two films, and the climactic build on "I can't miss" rules.

By Way of Sorrow (Les Mis): I am weak for a Les Mis vid and this one crafts such a wonderful, heartbreaking narrative about all the secret sacrifices and suffering that Cosette's parents went through! Makes me cry like a baby.

Everybody Talks (Much Ado About Nothing): This was a great year for Shakespeare vids. This is my favorite play and I love the combination of all the productions and all the great comedic beats.

No Smoke Without Fire (Poker Face): Cool, funny vid. This song is a TERRIFIC vibe for Poker Face.

Wavin' Flag (Ponyo): All the Ponyo vids were so much fun (and I loved the love for Lisa this year), but this one really warmed my heart.

magnetic (Romeo + Juliet): Super captivating and energetic tribute to Mercutio! Harold Perrineau just killed it in this movie.

Tusk (SIlence of the Lambs): Amazing character study of goddamn hero Clarice Starling.

A Better Son & Waiting for Somebody (Sports Night): Okay, I cheated! You think I'm going to pick one vid about love of my life Dan Rydell?

Ángel (Tár): A precise and chilling vid about my favorite film of 2022. The accent on the vid title is the perfect coup de grace!

Blood in the Cut (Taskmaster RPF): Yessssss weird Alex Horne vids.

King (The Woman King): Was so hoping for vids to this source and this one is just a blast. Great song choice.

[thearcher1003]

how did you know you were aro?

I don't know what I am gonna type out here or even if it will make sense. A lot has happened in the last 3 years since the time I started to question my sexuality. I will try to put it into words and keep it short (I did not in fact keep it short and I am sorry for that but you don't have to read through this messy story).

So first, my exposure to queer media. During lockdown I started reading Percy Jackson books where they mentioned the hunters of Artemis, one of the conditions to join them is that you have to take an oath to turn your back on company of men and any kind of romantic approach from any gender or sexuality. I found that idea interesting and I thought to myself how hard could that be, if that's the condition I would happily join them in an instant? When scrolling through some posts about hunters of Artemis I came across the term aro/ace. At that time I didn't think much of it. I never had a crush on anyone and I always thought it was because I was too young to be interested in romance (I was 14 at the time) and assumed that everyone my age was like that, note that it was lockdown so I wasn't going to school which is why I didn't know about the crushes and romantic interests of kids my age. So, the whole lockdown was the time when I became very interested in the queer community, I saw several posts on pinterest regarding this and made a board and thought of myself as merely an ally.

Then schools opened and there were couples all around. I was like gotta focus on studies, don't have time for this, blah blah blah. Also, that year a lot of other shit happened and the pressure of exams and getting good grades was taking toll on my mental health. I was too busy breaking down every other day because of that pressure to think about anything else.

Anyways that shit passed, I was in 11th grade and then came the real sexuality crisis. Some new students transferred to our school and one of them became really close friend. She got a boyfriend and started spending more time with him (which is bound to happen I know now but past me was experiencing it all for the first time) and I felt left out because now we were spending less time together and even when we were together she mostly talked about him. Tbh I was jealous and I thought this was a crush. I thought I liked her (romantically) and I thought a lot about the whole "turn your back on company of men" and came to the conclusion that I am not interested in men still and not even women but just her. That's when I also learnt about demiromanticism and it did click a lot of things in place for me. Like I always thought that the idea of love at first sight was unrealistic when it was shown in movies and questioned how can you fall in love without knowing a person properly and also believed that you need to be really close to a person to actually know them, so overall that term resonated with me. I knew I was asexual but at this point I started to dive more into the concept of aromanticism and the whole spectrum. I was convinced that I had a crush on her. Again a lot of shit happened and I realised that it wasn't a crush, my feelings weren't romantic, it was purely platonic and I was jealous because I became very close with her and suddenly the focus of our friendship shifted from us to him, I was very emotionally attached to her as well because I haven't had a friendship like that in a long time so when she became entirely focused on her boyfriend, I felt like an outsider. It took me a whole ass year to figure this out. And in between that time I gaslighted myself into thinking that I had a crush on this another guy because she asked me if I did and I thought this is what a crush must feel like so I said yes. But as I talked more to that guy, I just, idk how to describe it but it was not exactly comfortable for me, as long as we were having a normal convo about our interests I was fine and actually talked happily but when he started to flirt and I imagined myself in a romantic relationship with him, it felt weird to me, it was not something I wanted, it was just ugh. Anyways, what I realised from that time with that guy is that what I thought was romantic attraction was just me being excited to interact with a human being who was actually interested in me and gave attention to me (you can blame my childhood for that). I also kind of realised that it was how I felt about my friend. But it was more difficult for me to distinguish between romantic attraction and a wish to have a close friendship in her case because I was already emotionally attached to her. End of the story, a series of very chaotic events and break downs lead to me realising that I only wanted her as a close friend, I couldn't imagine myself in a romantic relationship with her and I was only bothered by her having a boyfriend because it momentarily threatened the close bond that we had formed. Now, everything is fine (more or less), there is more clarity between us and we are still very close. During this mess I also questioned if I was poly but I figured I am not. There's more to this crisis but I have already written a LOT so not going into the chaotic details. Sorry for making it so long.

(Edit: One more thing I realised about myself is that I was always so unaware about the supposedly romantic interactions of allos around me unless it was really obvious, blatant or put right into my face. Like even when my best friend and her boyfriend were in the flirting stage I didn't realise they were actually flirting, I just thought they were close friends and that was pretty normal thing for friends to do, so, yeah this realisation had a great hand in me figuring out I am aro. Thinking of romance in other people's life is fine but when it comes to me I find it hard) So sorry for making the post even lengthier :/