#not a gay coded villain but a villain coded gay

[anonymouspuzzler]

a few recently villain codeds i forgot to post!!! you will look at them

[aonehattown]

LARPing as a Baddie

A nonlarp friend asked me last weekend why I LARP as a villainous character and what it is that I get out of it in real life. The obvious answer as someone who came to LARP from doing theater is that it's fun to play the villain some times. Good LARPs have safety tools to make sure everyone is having fun and to make sure hurt feelings that characters are going through aren't becoming hurt feelings for the players. And I work super hard to make sure my character's shenanigans are fun for the players around me even if it's driving their characters crazy. That being said if it takes a lot of work why bother playing a jackass? Well, in a lot of ways I consider myself Cade's defense attorney. So I am always tempted to say that Cade isn't a villain (even though they probably are). I will do my best to resist the urge to turn this into an argument about how they're not actually *that bad* and talk about why I play them. A key theme in Cade's story is that they are doomed by the narrative. Cade's moniker is The Albatross and that's not an accident. I will never ever let Cade succeed too much. They are fucking cursed. They will have victories but they will be short lived or will come with a heavy cost. Because of this Cade compromises a lot. They constantly betray their better intentions to get mud on their hands to pull out a win. Or they make contingencies on contingencies to try to achieve a win while protecting their allies. If they start befriending "heroes" and getting too close they'll self sabotage to keep anyone who might be a good influence at arms length. They are destined to want to be better but to never actually be able to achieve that sort of growth. Like Atlas pushing a boulder up a hill right when Cade is about to achieve some sort of personal satisfaction they trip. Another big piece of Cade's issues are they view everything as transactional. They frequently making deals with sea witches, dark shadow spiritual beings, and maybe worst of all the fucking nobility. Cade trades in favors and is constantly juggling much more powerful forces then themselves in order to try and gain an edge. But they also view their mundane relationships this way. When Cade does something heroic odds are they're working an angle. When they do something heinous they justify it as the necessary price for whatever it is they are trying to achieve. And Cade can justify a whole damn lot. Cade knows that they're not a good person but they want to be. But because of the above they do good deeds for the wrong reason and they do terrible things for all of the right reasons. It makes them a divisive character at game. Some folks love them and some hate them. And neither group is necessarily wrong. So why did these themes resonate for me back when I started playing this character? Well, as someone who's family life and professional life as a seminary student hinged on not being found out as queer a character who felt "doomed" by a narrative allowed me to work through a lot. A character with unhealthy ideas of transactional relationships and trust issues was really a mirror. It was pretty easy to get into the head of a character who feels they have to keep running to stay a step ahead of otherworldly powerful beings who want to use them as a puppet or earthly authority figures who judge them.

Like Cade I felt like I was constantly betraying my best intentions. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t be “good” enough for my church, for my family, or for the god I believed in. So getting to play a character in a fantasy world who was a lot like me but could act out about these sort of heavy emotions was not only fun but also a real exercise in me verbalizing the complicated feelings I had. I don’t think I did this intentionally but looking back now I can see it. But that was 10 years ago. I'm in such a different place now. And while I have been working hard to evolve Cade in a way that feels narratively truthful they still have a lot of those scars. I've done a lot of work in therapy to heal and grow. To some degree I've worked on Cade to make sure they didn't feel static. That being said they're still not "good." Petty crime might not catch their attention anymore. Their ambitions have grown a lot. Like I said they want to be "good" and might end up there someday down the road as they continue to grow and change. But they still make deals, they still work angles, and they still have trust issues. LARP is fun. I love my character Cade. I have a blast playing my morally fucked up little gay mess. And I am super excited about where they’re going.

[minzart]

I think about Neuvillette pre Iudex era, and how merciless he was implied to be at some point, and his predecessor as Iudex. and lord imagine how wild it Must have been for Furina be like, i gotta fire one guy WHO THE PEOPLE KNOW to put the dragon we need for a prophecy that WHO KNOWS WHEN WILL HAPPEN, but said dragon is very verry grumpy how do you makes friend with a dragon that does not want to be your friend??? WHILE MAINTAINING THE ARCHON ACT???

[piss-in-boots]

This man has one of the best character designs I’ve ever seen. He’s designed like a stereotypical villain with his sharp features, dark armor, and the scar across his eye…but in actuality he’s goofy and sad.

[wolfythewitch]

new Odysseus design is giving me lion king Scar vibes which is neat

Everything I draw is queer coded it is ordained by the lord

[namespara]

Those about to die wasnt the most well written show in existence but by gawds it was FUN, had stunning lighting and most importantly. Scheming evil little gay man.

There isnt much (any??) Art of it yet so take my screenshot study

[troythecatfish]

[svankmajerbaby]

jakub adamczeswki ~ judas

[escapedaudios]

I'm a big fan of fruity villains IDGAF if people are like "oh no this hurts the LGBT community because queer coding and poopoo caca" I don't give a fuck I love fabulous dazzling flamboyant villains that say shit like "oh darling, but you won't be surviving mmmMMMM" and then do the fruitiest evil laugh ever.

[pauls1967moustache]

Why do you like Paul's mustache so much?

It gives him the same air of arrogance, benevolent mischief, and something strangely gender, as like Emcee from Cabaret, or the Riddler, or Bugs Bunny.

[boonalina]

-LMK season 5 spoilers-

The show has finally met it's villain quota:

-

-

-

The shallow villain who's just angry and evil to be evil:

Demon Bull King

The other shallow villain who just wants to rule the world:

Spider Queen

The joke villains/comedic relief duo:

Jin & Yin

The calm and calculated one:

Lady Bone Demon

The morally grey anti-villain:

Six-Eared Macaque

The filler villain:

Scorpion Demon

The one who thinks they're the hero:

Azure Lion

The one that's just a representation of the hero's feelings:

Ink Demon

And finally, the queer-coded one:

Nine-Headed Demon (aka Snake Boi)

[deconstructthesoup]

Do you think that the Corinthian is the Cat King's ex

(And more importantly do you think that the Cat King's second life ended with his eyes being gouged out)

[13eyond13]

the only gay rep I truly care about is

1. countless lives are destroyed because two proud people can't fully admit their gay crushes on each other

and

2. someone hides being a murderer as a metaphor for also hiding being gay

[wutaijiemei]

link to the rest of the tournament

[legendary-alliance-stance]

something i really hope we see in the future, either in SotO or afterwards

is at least one canon m/m pairing that isn’t background NPCs, especially if it’s an existing male character that we already know

(and please no more “this creepy villain is implied to be bisexual because Oooo Look He’s Also Into Men!! Haha funny joke!!” ;; im begging you anet, no more of this caudecus and joko shit)

[lala-blahblah]

I will never make this because it would be for an audience of one (me) but ever since reading "If we Were Villains" (story about serious drama kids in college who perform shakespeare and deal with a murder) I have been entertaining the thought of a crack fic crossover with High School Musical The Musical The Series where the staff decides they will no longer put on shakespeare after the tragic accident that happened at Thanksgiving, because Shakespeare plays would only increase the tension and drama. So they hire Ms. Jen who decides their spring play will actually be High School Musical (which exists in the 90s in this universe) and it ruins the vibe so much that everyone gives up on being dark and mysterious because they're universally pissed at Ms Jen for making them learn choreoraphed basketball dancing.