#it's an allegory for being trans lol

[keeps-ache]

!! Freak Shock !!

[athina-blaine]

kabru's relationship with his eyes makes for suuuuuch a fantastic trans allegory (an aspect of your body alienating you from your community, being compelled to understand the perspective of someone who also has a complicated relationship with their body in the hopes that you'll better understand your own, people straight up misunderstanding biology) it makes me kind of insane because now I feel like I can't dig into any complicated feelings he might have about his body in relation to his gender without feeling like im just ... double dipping?? like fifjpejgh ryoko kui straight up already told that story in a way that exquisitely fucks??

[storytellering]

Love your art and I'm generally curious as to what the appeal of Dante/Vergil is to you? Do you have any hc that you're drawing from or is it just personal preference? I struggle to imagine the right conditions for them to be involved in that way and would like to know what inspires you.

I will premise this by saying, that I’m actually not a MASSIVE fan of just DV for its own sake, if Nero isn’t also included (or like, with the assumption he will, 100%, be included once he’s in the picture). To me it’s kind of a baseline pairing?

As in, I don’t even have to think about it. Of course they’re in love, of course they’re together, of course they’re fucking. It’s almost an afterthought to me, the way the married parent couple of the protagonist in a story inherently are. It doesn’t necessarily interest me by itself, that fact, it’s just a certainty, it just is. I guess, for me, the interest in DV specifically comes more out of what other people make of it, because for me I’m almost always approaching first from the perspective of Nero being there also, haha.

There’s also the fact that I have a lot of hc about just like, the way demons function as a species, I guess. I took a lot of things dmc canon gave me and went like, “alright, time to project this into the most self indulgent, non-human society but humanoid looking species I can think up in my brainhead”. To me a lot of the appeal comes from it being not necessarily a predestined thing as much as like, a biological inevitability - (going to speak in definitives about my own hc from here on, so not making any statement about canon dmc lol) demons mate with their kin, and with whoever deems worthy - and twins from the same litter would inevitably end up being the other’s first partner, their first choice, their other half. In a sense, to me, they’re soulmates - though honestly I prefer to think of it more as two halves of the same soul, following the implications in 3 and the 3 manga that them being twins comes from the spawn of Sparda being too powerful to just be born in one body. That might sound like I’m just saying they’re soulmates in a different way, but not really - to me, if I had to go the soulmate route, Nero would be both of their soulmate - because the two of them make one single soul, and the match to that would be Nero’s.

I kind of just go off of the assumption that they are in love and have been since they were in the womb, you know?

That colors the way I see their every interaction. To me, in their fighting, their squabbles and their feuds, there’s always love at the source. Familial, yes, but romantic and sexual as well - and to me, when I think about them, it’s all one and the same. To love each other like family is to be intwined, is to be mated, is to be a pack and is to be one.

That’s the more deep thoughts I have about it, I have more shallow/surface thoughts (and specifically ship dynamic thoughts about like, what appeals to me about them sexually lol) but if I had to quickly sum it up that’s what I would say, I think. 

[aroarachnid]

"but if it were me, I'd really wanna be, a giant woman"

stevens relationship with gender is so fascinating to me. his entire diamond days arc is a clear trans allegory, but more specifically reads as a transmasc allegory, what with everyone reffering to him as "rose" or "pink" and feminine terms despite his repeated insistence that he is *steven*. and yet he never actually corrects anyone when they use she/her. he only corrects his name. this was pointed out in the tags of that one post youve probably seen:

this post doesnt show it, but steven is delighted when blue said this. obviously you can read this as steven being glad that shes making an effort, even if incorrect, and is just choosing to let the wrong pronouns slide. but its never explicitly stated. and like i said, he never corrects she/her, he only corrects his name. although it is interesting that, by the time the movie rolls around, the diamonds have switched to he/him.

its also interesting to mention how excited he was to put on pink diamonds outfit, and also how quickly he took it off once he got the chance.

of course stevens relationship with his mother and his identity issues are going to play a big part in how he percieves his gender, given that for a large chunk of the show he actually belived they were the same person, at least to some extent. ("im my mom and my sister?! what kind of magical destiny is this?!). how would you define your "agab" when half your family is telling you that you are a centuries old alien called rose/pink who has no sex and used she/her? not to mention all of the various gender identities and pronouns his fusions have.

thats not even getting started on how the gems percieve gender, which is to say, they generally don't. gems are sexless beings and their society has no concept of gender, although after spending a long time on earth im sure the crystal gems have a better understanding (i actually could talk about the gems relation to human gender a lot more but ill save that for another time). for steven, a child raised by gems for a good chunk of his childhood- who use feminine terms as a default-i can see how that would lead to some interesting perceptions on gender presentation.

thats not even getting into stevens gender noncomformity. and while gender presentation doesnt necessarily have anything to do with your gender identity, its interesting to note and i just think its really cool that a male protagonist is so unapologetically feminine

also i could talk for days about connie and stevens knight/princess dynamic, and how it parallels pearl and roses, but in a healthier way that nips the whole "obssesive self sacrifice" thing in the (rose) bud as soon as steven notices it. but then id have to talk about pearl and then wed be here all day lol

so yeah, stevens relationship with gender fascinates me. I mean, does the concept of "cisgender" even apply in the way we usually mean it to, given stevens unique experiences?

[hieronymus-nosk]

💥Spoilers ahead💥

Honestly the one thing I adore about Hakita and ULTRAKILL itself, is that most interpretations a person could have of the game is completely valid. He himself said so and there are many canonical backings to most headcanons/theories.

I will use Gabriel being revealed to be canonically genderless and the common trans fanon as an example.

In the game, the council is shown to have referred to Gabriel as an "it" and according to the dev stream, pronouns in Angel culture are tied to their rank, how important they are. My interpretation is that not only is this an official way to demote him, but to strip him of pronouns that he earned. That he likely had to fight for.

More Info revealed about the council is that they weren't actually malevolent, they were only doing what they thought was right (not defending them lol) and that Gabriel only killed them because there was not enough time to change the way they think. My new idea is that if you believe the fanon that he's trans, the council was the type of "I am literally afraid of this and don't understand it" transphobic. So calling him an "it" had two meanings. Both rooted in power/ the loss of it. They could have changed, but there was literally no time for change to happen.

Gabriel knew that Heaven and hell were in absolute shambles, and there was nothing left for him to do.

His secondary arc, canonically speaking, was and is an allegory for coming to terms with being queer.

Having Gianni and parts of the dev Team lean into it is pretty fucking rad, too lmao

The game is about a sentient hell wreaking havoc and there are in game explanations as to why the graphics are low poly. Crazy shit happens in this game and Hakita loves our creativity.

I've dedicated thousands of words to this game in the form of writing and it's extremely validating that the people behind it are so supportive of us as a community.

[pachimation]

redrawing my very first chiscara comic/art i ever did for chscr day!!

old comic under the cut!!

lol a bunch of sappy semi serious stuff below bc i cant help but be a bit genuine about this ship today :’3

i cant possibly put into words how important this silly little ship and its community mean to me haha,,,, this comic was made in 2021 but i didnt really get serious about chscr until late 2022 after a bunch of pretty bad interpersonal stuff happened and i needed an outlet,, COINCIDENTALLY a certain someone was announced to be playable around then and i was already thought chscr was Pretty Neat™️ so i ended up diving headfirst into the ship. it also gave me a good excuse to work on more comics too!! i’d done a pretty big zhongven comic earlier that year in the summer, but in terms of lore there was only so much i could have worked with at the moment.

childe and scaramouche have that perfect combination of silliness and angst and violence that could be explored or expanded in so many ways and i love love love seeing other people’s interpretations of their dynamic and relationship. they’re so complex,,,,they’re narrative foils,,,they’re narrative parallels,,,they’re trans allegories,,,they’re flies in the spiderweb of the games lore,,,they’re my stupid little meow meows,,, they’re just two losers i want to see make out,,,

in a nutshell, they’re everything to me. well, i hope i get that kind of sentiment across in my own comics,,,,

and i cant get started on all the people ive met through chiscara or the way that having something i can call “my thing”, as in, the thing that i like and that i will spend a lot of time and effort (and money, but lets not talk about that) to surround myself with because it makes me smile. its stupid to say, but being a nerd about these two stupid guys who have never had a single canon onscreen interaction in some random game has made me a much happier and confident person that i could have ever imagined back in my freshman year of college,,, when i say i dont know who i’d be if i hadnt gotten into chiscara, i really do mean it lol

i’m actually surprised i’m making it to over a full year of regular-ishly making art, especially for the same game and ship! thats never happened before and my art has improved so much over this past year!! more than anything else, i’m happy! i get to be excited talking about these characters with my friends and i love to see art of them pop up on the tl. i make stickers of them and decorate my phonecase with them and have little figures of them in my room that i look at when im up late at night working on schoolwork. sometimes just the thought of finishing a comic or daydreaming about a scenario or seeing what my mutuals are up to are some of the few things getting me through a tough day.

,,,,so believe me when i say, to both childe and scara and to everyone else as obsessed with these pathic losers as i am, thank you! i’m having a lot of fun!!!

(also i just found out tumblrs copy/paste doesnt work on my ipad??? idk if this ends up legible i may or may not have deleted smth by accident and im not in a mood to proofread haha)

[fischtoria]

If you're not in the know what's happening in Warframe right now, next week a new quest gets released with a new Warframe that's rumoured to be a different character (that was in the game from the beginning) kind of like post-transition. And, much to the dismay of the average Gamer Bigot™️ the developers also donated 10.000$ to rainbow railroad and trans lifeline each for pride (along with a bunch of ingame pride items).

Anyway, on their website they have a lore conversation between the Stalker and Hunhow (stalker being the rumoured-to-be-trans character, ignore the edgy name, they came up with him over 10 years ago lol) and HO BOY, feels like every second damn paragraph of that conversation is loaded with trans allegory, here's some snippets that are most blatantly obvious:

"What do you owe them? A lifetime of old hate spent pupating new regrets."

"Envy those whose bodies your 'vaunted' matters stole."

"It does seem tiresome. One monster to buckle against the weight of battalions. Little wonder you would seek allies, friends, confidants. Family."

"You know what must be done, but still fear your own weakness more than the outcome. You fear that you have taken too long-- that your hesitation has already destroyed-"

"All the more reason you should heed me: it's not too late."

"Let us dispense with veils, my Shadow. You want me here to lament at your ear like some chirping conscience. You want to hear the truth."

"No matter which way the tides drift, the only options left to you will bring a target upon your back."

Like, you can see it too right? If you're trans, chances are you can see yourself in at least one of those quotes (I know I do), and personally, I cannot wait for the bigots to huff and puff and cry about it, happy pride <3

[monstersandgirls-webtoons]

is powers a trans allegory because I can see her being interpreted as trans-coded

No, but I will admit, halfway through working for "A Gift for Powers" I went "oh huh. this absolutely feels like an allegory for being trans/gay....whoopsie lol". I've had a few people tell me they also read the multi-parter/Powers as such, and while it wasnt really my intention, I do like seeing what people make out of it.

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

hello mod goldmary here is the promised essay about alear's gender

so. let's start with the obvious. the "dragons as a metaphor for gender" thing. it is very easy to slot Fell Dragon and Divine Dragon into agab and gender identity respectively. Alear was a Fell Dragon, now they're a Divine Dragon. Alear used to be their agab, now they're something else.

i don't have the spoons to find screenshots rn so uh. just take my word for it lol. but in Chapter 20, after Griss does the big reveal (which can be read as outing in this interpretation), Alear's friends assure them that they are who they choose to be, not what they're born as. Timerra literally says "if you wanna be a Divine Dragon, you're a Divine Dragon." actually fuck it we're going all in with the metaphor. so Chapter 20 in this interpretation is basically: Griss outs Alear and Alear gets (understandably) really distressed; they lose all confidence in themselves, they believe their friends are better off not associating with them, they feel like they've been lying to everyone, and they're worried that the people around them will see them differently because of this. Alear's friends assure them that it's okay, Alear is their friend, they're not lying about their identity, and they even affirm Alear's identity (see Timerra's quote above).

speaking of affirmation, let's look at a place where. there isn't much of it. yippee, Sombron's transphobic now. "No child of mine shall live as a Divine Dragon. Death was this one's inexorable fate" yeah fuck you too bitch. in Chapter 20, Sigurd mentions that Sombron "turned his back on [Alear]" and that Alear's "life was in danger." basically, Sombron disowned Alear for being trans and threatened them with physical violence, which unfortunately happens too frequently to trans people. Eveyle also disowns Alear in her boss dialogue in Chapter 21. i don't remember the words exactly but basically Eveyle calls Alear a coward for turning to Lumera (in this metaphor, finding a support network that affirms their identity) and says that they are not her sibling.

Sombron then kills Alear in what is obviously a transphobic hatecrime (this is a joke, the actual scene fits better as a metaphor for child abuse)

the Chapter 22 flashback (the one where tomato Alear commits PatricideTM) is. augh. as Alear is dying in Lumera's arms, they lament how they wish they could be more like her. Lumera is their role model. Lumera is everything they're not in their mind, even though they did something heroic. they are who they wished they were, but they can't see that beyond all the pain and trauma they've suffered. the fact that they're a Fell Dragon is at the forefront of their mind when they finally fall asleep. their last thoughts before the coma are literally their dysphoria like. ough agh ow.

can you tell i'm normal about past alear

also yeah. the blue hair is just. dragon transition. lol

i will admit i'm. not totally sure where Corrupted Alear fits into this metaphor. uh. BUT Emblem Alear is Alear fully embracing their gender identity. they've had doubts in their Divine-Dragonness before (aka they wonder if they're really their chosen gender identity), but here they embrace it. congrats to them on their transition. i've always wanted to make that joke. the really interesting part is that they don't totally reject their Fell-Dragonness, though. yes, their Emblem form is fully divine, but their normal form? still red and blue. there are multiple ways to interpret this and I love all of them equally.

oh yeah. Alear's immune to transphobia now. Griss rubs Alear's Fell Dragon lineage into their face, essentially saying that Alear will always be their agab in this metaphor. Alear's response? "Lol ok. why are you such a bitch." pop off king (gender neutral)

AND THAT BRINGS ME. TO CHAPTER 24. i have. an entire thing written about it. on my blog. lemme see if i can find it

OK HERE IT IS:

ok so if we're going with the idea that Alear is a trans allegory then

does that mean Past Alear's interactions with Alear in chap 24 could be read as gender envy

(incoherent word dump about Alear's gender thoughts under read more)

“this is like looking in a mirror. what I see... bothers me”

suddenly i am not normal. i am pointing and screaming and sobbing

it's like if you ever look at someone who is everything you wished you were, and you hate yourself for it, you hate how you are, you hate that you were born like this, and attaining that is so clearly unachievable, it is literally physically impossible to change the body you were born with to ever match that. you hate yourself for even having those thoughts in the first place, because this was how you have always been and always will be, no matter what

and you have no idea it is actually possible to change this, because you grew up with the idea that this is what you are, you have to fulfill that role like this this and this, and if you don't you're defective and wrong. if you want to throw that label away in favor of something else, you're a failure and don't have the right to live. you grew up with this label and it doesn't fit right at all, like a shirt 5 sizes too small, but you have no idea it's possible to change that label into something right. that label defines you and sticks to you everywhere you go, it defines your relationships with others, it defines your relationship with the world around you, and you wish you were born differently, that you weren't so aware of this crawling feeling in your skin.

but you push all of that aside, because if your father realizes you feel this way, he'll kill you, like he killed all of your other siblings, and that terrifies you. you keep walking down this path that you hate, because it's the safest option you have. and being safe is better than being yourself when you don't even know what "yourself" is.

----

tldr Past Alear has really bad dysphoria but can't really do anything about it because they don't even know being trans is possible. and also that trying to experiment is incredibly dangerous in this environment

again i want to point out how Present Alear doesn't reject Past Alear. in fact, they seem to come to a greater understanding of themself afterwards.

when it comes to like. the trans lens of Present and Past Alear's relationship, i've always seen it as Present Alear coming to peace with their dysphoria. Past Alear vents all of their frustrations with their life, with themself (Past Alear comparing themself to the Corrupted and then immediately following that up with how much they hate the Corrupted. ough), and Present Alear listens. they provide assurance to Past Alear, and though that assurance falls on deaf ears, Present Alear never stops being kind.

so. yeah. Alear trans :thumbsup emoji:

👀

[mamawasatesttube]

it really does drive me crazy when ppl act like magdalene visaggio invented the idea of transfem kon and act like its so sad her proposal got rejected. lest we forget, she also:

called kon "the jason todd of the superfam"

claimed that the name "kon-el" is bad because "it's still a name someone else gave him"

(yet still decided to call transfem kon "constance lara" as in, lara lor-van and some conveniently made-up relative of martha's after that. lol.)

said her vision of transition involves burning down everything about your old life and who you used to be

DIRECTLY compared superman to jesus christ

came up with antagonists named "saint", "shepherd", and "savior"

had kon abandon his relationships with the kents to go fuck off to live in texas with jinny hex, because as we know, trans people can't have loving or supportive families

introduced a plot with kon resenting clark despite that like. only being a thing in yja before

SUPERMARTIAN. THE FUCKING SUPERMARTIAN.

"leland" aka the "luthor-dominant" clone brother he had. bc hey we LOVE emphasizing biological family over anything else. also in proud geoff tradition, we can't google basic genetics terms right??

and again. the EGREGIOUS christian allegories rubbed all over the SUPERFAM. you know. the immigrant family based on a character made by jewish people in the wake of ww2.

like ngl. every single time i see someone going "ohhh but dc rejected this proposal so sad..." i just go ah youre white arent u. or u just dont... care abt the antisemitism inherent in "superman = jesus christ" being directly stated in the text? "rimi who is saying this in 2024" youd be surprised i literally JUST saw a post going wahhh we couldve had it all. i know i can't fix peoples reading comprehension skills but my god man. "jason todd of the superfam". what if i became the joker of the superfam

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: Body Horror

David Cronenberg: body horror is the art of possibility. the body is the canvas. to change the body is to change reality, to unmake & remake the world. Junji Ito: what if your head was a balloon lol

Junji Ito: submitted for the approval of the midnight society, i call this the tale of the fashion model Junji Ito: so this film crew hires an actress with a really striking look Poe: what's the look? Ito: oh she's like an obvious monster Ito: like 100% she's definitely a monster

Ito: anyway everyone is all "wow what a striking look" Barker: you know Barker: there's a problem with all these monster women you draw Ito: what? Barker: you're not horny enough

Ito: they're not supposed to be horny Barker: no i mean YOU are not horny Ito: Poe: clive leave him alone Barker: hey i'm not throwing shade Poe: no it really sounds like you are

Ito: how can you say that? Ito: look at these  bishōjo heroines! Barker: don't get me wrong, junji Barker: you got some real cute little straight couples in your comics Barker: but they should fuck

Barker: is the problem that this body horror is too straight Barker: is that it? Ito: what Barker: i mean more power to you Barker: i think it's great what you're doing Ito: Barker: you know despite your handicap Ito: Barker: of being straight

Barker: it's just so cool how you're showing that straight people can do body horror too Ito: Barker: real inspiring! Ito: Poe: that's enough clive Barker: no shut up edgar i'm having fun

Barker: i'm just saying its unusual to see a cishet in this field Barker: i mean Barker: anyone here who's written body horror that is NOT some kinda trans allegory, raise your hand Eve Harms: Lor Gislason: Franz Kafka: [raises hand] Barker: uh uh uh uh franz Barker: not so fast!

[dingodad]

if blood/caste = troll gender, then what would that make karkat? off the top of my dome, it immediately reads to me that he would be considered intersex or trans, both even, and at a glance, narratively that feels cohesive. i dont have anything to counter this reading, just curious on your thoughts!!

generally speaking i find it kind of a waste of time to try to identify "exact equivalents" in any given fictional allegory. blood castes are very much like troll genders and i think that's the most pertinent interpretation to homestuck's core themes, but the benefit of inventing a fictional system rather than straight up saying the trolls are segregated on the basis of sex is that the analogy doesn't have to be perfect and it can be used to represent different things at different times - the hemospectrum being a gender spectrum isn't mutually exclusive with the fact that it is also an economic hierarchy, for instance. a lot of discussions about "coding" in fiction end up languishing in the shallows by ignoring this.

so in terms of what the hemospectrum "makes karkat" i don't really think of it in terms of the exact thing that he would be on earth, bc i think the story adequately communicates the broad strokes; that whatever he is, in society's eyes he believes the circumstances of his birth cause him to fall short of the expectations that come with the strict categories alternia expects all trolls to fit into. i have to assume a lot of readers picking up on this is what led to trans guy karkat being such a hugely popular headcanon (besides trans guy headcanons having simply been the most popular thing full stop for a long time), which i think makes complete sense. i also think there are clear lines to be drawn between blood colour and biological sex in the way that biology never cleanly lines up with the social expectations associated with it, and even if i'm not totally sure terminology like "intersex" applies in the same way in a culture with 10+ genders as it does in a culture with just 2, the fact that trolls have a linear "spectrum" of genders clearly lends itself to this kind of thinking.

(this kind of harkens back to a years-old homestuck discourse: a lot of readers took issue with the suggestion that, despite being called a spectrum, in spinoff stories the troll blood colours are always depicted as fitting into twelve discrete categories. but long before i even began to explore the direct intersections between gender, sex and blood colour, the logic behind this seemed clear to me: surely all trolls ARE different and DO have subtly different shades to their blood, but in order to maintain a caste system where each blood colour has its place in the social order, alternian society has to act like there are only 12 colours. this is, after all, exactly how astrological signs are assigned; you can be born on any of 365 days in a year, but for the sake of neatly dividing the population into easily-described groups, each of these days is split among 12 basically-arbitrary signs. this clear parallel homestuck draws between gender and star sign is also why i find it so hard to take class and aspect seriously.)

so even if i don't think either of your options are necessarily what karkat's character is "intended" to convey in the same way i believe caste-as-gender as an intended reading, the versatility of the caste analogy makes them both very organic interpretations. BUT TO ACTUALLY GET TO YOUR QUESTION LOL: like i said in a previous ask, karkat comes across to me as being closeted. in conjunction with his chronically unorthodox approach to troll romance and the role he plays as homestuck's introduction to LGBT themes long before "trolls are bisexual" establishes itself as a canon fact, karkat reads as "the troll version" of a gay guy hiding this fundamental "flaw" in his being because he feels it's standing between him and the all-american ultra-masculine role he sees for himself among the threshecutioners. so like i said above i don't think it necessarily has to be about his "gender" so much as it is about his relationship to expectations of gender, just as troll-caste genders exist across a whole spectrum of expectations rather than in a strict binary.

[aardvaark]

leverage characters listed from most to least transgender, go

all of them are tied at #1 obviously! okayyy if i have to try and list in order, its def sophie first and then everyone else i think. maybe sophie, eliot, everyone else.

sophie: probably the biggest theme in her character development is about identity. complex relationship with her name & childhood. her "real name" ie birth name doesn’t represent who she is anymore, to the point that she now says her real name is sophie devereaux (in redemption). nate essentially deciding that he no longer *needs* to know her past or her "real name" is a significant moment that symbolically lays to rest one of the central conflicts of their relationship. she’s constantly analysing the way the world perceives her, societal expectations, gendered expectations, etc. has literal "dead" names bc many of her aliases are allegedly dead lmao. in other words, a lot can be said about her journey being like a trans allegory. i also especially love the hc that she’s a trans woman, it’s one of my faves!! (and hopefully tumblr will be a functional website for once if i link to @transsophiedevereaux ‘s tags on a post here. also shoutout to transsophiedevereaux in general like YES the trans!sophie headcanon and also you’re just awesome!)

eliot: significant theme about change & becoming a better/different person. becoming the version of yourself that you actually want to be, that you need to be.

parker: "you were a teenage girl" "only sort of!". gender neutral name, which is very possibly a chosen name. thinks of herself as just parker, and as a thief - doesn’t want/require any other labels or identities, probably including "woman".

hardison: "normal is what works for you", very accepting. talks a lot about change and self acceptance and is a source of info + comfort on this topic for other characters. implied to have went through a time of being pretty lost, but with nana’s help, found a lot more confidence in who he is.

nate: also big themes of change, identity, choosing who you are/will be. really a theme of rebirth. however this is so clearly meant in the most catholic way possible

wrote most of this super late last night so um please forgive any coherency issues!! but i love talking about this show and the characters and trans hcs so much that it was essential for me to immediately start replying lol. thank you so much for the ask!!

[irlfelixcatton]

TALK ABOUT THE TRANSMASCULINE ALLEGORY!!! i want to hear your thoughts

ok. the long awaited oliver quick transmasculine allegory post.

to be so real it is mainly me doing 2 (two things)

-projecting

-using insanely obvious prompts from the text to pull shit out of my ass

i do think that oliver quick's character COULD. MAYBE. be either headcanon'd as trans (BOOORRRINNGG) or a lot of his actions in act one can be closely tied to very common trans experiences.

my biggest thing on 'common' trans experiences as it relates to saltburn, is meeting a cis man and latching onto him with every fiber of your being, because you can't be friends with him, you need to *be* him. the first thing that really prompted me to look at saltburn from this lense was when farleigh goes "[you're almost passing as] a real human boy!", though it's clearly about oliver wearing a rental suit, it's a phrase that i've heard a million times over and over again, and i think that oliver, within this transmaculine concept of his character, dances CONSTANTLY on this imaginary line of "real boy" to "weirdo freak" that i think a lot of trans people can relate to. (i will touch on 'real boy' again later)

theres also an aspect of this incessant watching and dissecting cis men, what they wear, how they talk, how they fuck. and with all of this watching, there's this part of melding your identity into what you're watching, which we see starkly with oliver. at the beginning, when he's this oxford kid, a freak if you will, but he's more or less himself, version A. once he meets felix, he ditches the glasses, the button up shirts, the uptight manner, and turns into this entirely different version of "himself", version B. version B is the version he's taught himself that society will like much more than version A, so it consumes him entirely. version A wasn't someone that girls would fuck, felix would love, and quite frankly be 'enjoyed' by the rest of the world. version A is pre-transition, and version B is post. (all this to say, in relation to irl transition, neither version A or version B are right, good, or bad, they're whatever you want them to be. beauty is in the eye of the beholder)

THIS PART IS JUST WORD VOMIT AND DOESN'T NECESSARILY PERTAIN TO MY POINT OF TRANSMASCULINE ALLEGORY. SCROLL AT YOUR OWN RISK.

for me, another piece i think about a lot is the “you’re just so real” (venetia) but that’s a bit more of a stretch. the reason i think this relates to the main point, is so many trans people have to work and rework their personality so that their 'transness' is socially palatable, real. the catton's have no general perception of a real person, they surround themselves with fake, upper class socialites who lie and cheat. but even if they met a real person, they wouldn't know it. and they don't lol. so when oliver comes around, who isn't this upper class socialite, the initial thought is that he's this "real" and "grounded" person. however, the only reason that the catton's (general society in this case) find oliver (trans people) so "real" and more or less worth accepting into their family is because he has worked and reworked his identity to be so similar and likeable to felix's.

there's also the conversation on cattonquick being a really good representation of what a mlm cis/trans relationship can feel like so much of the time. but i'll only really expand on this if any1 is interested lol. anyways pls dm me or comment on this i really want to talk more about it more.

[66sharkteeth]

I completely forgot to pick back up these sort of "weekly thoughts" I have about each episode! But I have a lot of thoughts about last night's episode that reminded me to pick these back up. I still don't know how much people enjoy these, but I figure nobody hates them and I'm trying to post more things for my own enjoyment lately.

Anyway... I guess I'll start with the elephant in the room- Yes, this episode is definitely queer coded. I see a lot of people calling it a trans allegory and while I don't personally know if I'm brave enough to say that's what it was outright... I did basically write Rosie to say what I want to hear from my own family some day. I don't come from a family of biggots to be clear. I'm fortunate in the sense that I don't risk ever being disowned if I were honest about my identity. But... I am all too familiar with the sentiment I wrote Luis to have when I just try to use my friends' correct pronouns.

I don't know if I can ever tell them they're actually mocking me too when they make these comments. And like Desmond, I also don't know if I can ever tell them I don't view myself as "their little girl" anymore (Er- Not that Desmond ever viewed himself as a little girl LOL. I hope my point is getting across though). And the guilt I feel about taking that away from them definitely stops me from further exploring and accepting some things. I'm probably getting way too personal here, but this was a very personal episode.

I saw some comments about how Desmond's own self-loathing for his blank identity has been why a lot of (unfortunate) things have happened in this story and I'm SO glad some people are starting to catch onto that. Desmond has always stood for the blanks that hate themselves more than humans do, much for the reasons I explained above. He took Rosie's brother away and that's something he's hid from her for a long time. But now that Rosie has given him the reassurance that she still loves him the same, Desmond can hopefully begin to swallow his self-loathing and love and accept what he is. He's not Reese anymore, but he still has Reese's heart, and that's all Rosie cares about. ...As long as Rosie stays alive and well haha. You guys seem really determined I'm gonna do something bad to her.

Lastly, shout out to everyone who noticed Shnee was running late for puppy school.

[lavful]

My messy thoughts on Dragons Rising s1 part 2! (spoilers!)

I loved Sora’s arc, it is a trans allegory and you cannot convince me otherwise. She’s an icon! What a beautiful true potential story. Screw the Imperium people for deadnaming her. I feel like Ninjago has always had a message of embracing your true self and this just emphasizes that

Arin is also such a sweetie of course. I love his relationship with Lloyd and Sora ofc. Surely next season focuses on finding his parents

The platonic affection in this series is TOP TIER. The hugs?? Everything. The mentorships?? Beautiful. Arin and Sora LOVE each other /p and I love that for them

Geo and Cole is making me have a whole crisis over Lava. That was NOT platonic behavior. Is it time to become a multi/polyshipper?

The fact that the Lost people can’t leave is TRAGIC the Ninja have to go back and address that

I am dying to know what’s going to happen with Cole, Jay, and P.I.X.A.L. There are tons of other characters that can return but I want to remember to spotlight the new characters

This all being said I appreciate the focus on the RGB siblings. I love them!

I’m honestly fine with Wu being a ghost/not returning. I feel like his arc has been done for a while and Lloyd is the sensei now. His wisdom still echoes through the ninja, it’s not like his presence is completely gone

Kai is top tier! Finally the hot, caring, wise, fun older brother we’ve always known he is

Zane hasn’t been his early season self in a while, he’s plays the role of the flat “voice of reason” too often and I don’t like it but I’m more focused on the positives of this season. I’m so glad he hasn’t stopped thinking of P.I.X.A.L. His scenes with Mr. Frohicky were endearing

Speaking of Mr. Frohicky, what an anxious icon lol. When he said he’s not prepared to drive in these circumstances, I felt that