#poor boy is having a gay panic guys

[dogday-shines-bright]

tell him how you feel or you may not get a chance too

"O-okay... I think I can try... H-hahah, my chest feels funny..."

"It will be okay! It will be just fine, I'll just tell him!"

"How bad can it possibly go? The worst thing he can say is no!"

[jewbeloved]

How would the guys confess to you on Valentine's Day 💌

Note: This is 3 days late I know, I was on a writers block and I was having a fever and I kept throwing up in the progress while my stomach hurted and I missed a day to go to school on Wednesday to do my test because of that. And now I got a massive headache, everything is just spinning at once I can't take it anymore. 😭

Warnings: Absolutely none.

Characters used: The main boys.

Gender: Neutral

💙 Stan Marsh 💠

Man wants to confess to you on Valentine's Day, he literally be eyeing his calendar and keeping track of the days leading up to Valentine's Day.

But when the day actually comes?

Oh sh!t, he's already in a panic. He doesn't know what to give to you or how to even approach you in general to confess.

He went to Kyle for advice and even practicing his confession for you with him. He knows Valentine's Day can be a really special day for your friends and s/os.

He doesn't want to mess up or make things awkward by vomiting all over you like how he did when he was with Wendy :(

He probably might go with basic presents such as: chocolate, teddy bear, etc.

He will confess to you behind the school just in case his confession goes up in flames and he doesn't want other people to see.

"Uhm, Hi..(Name)...I know it's Valentine's Day and all....and I was just wondering if you wanted to be my valentine...". 💙💙💙💙💙💙

💚 Kyle Broflovski ☘️

Jews aren't supposed to have valentines-

Just kidding.

But seriously though every time this boy has a love interest it always ends up in a complete dumpster fire for him. (Not Cartman being the man cause for it anyways).

You and him have been good friends for a good couple of months and Valentine's Day has finally arrived.

This is his moment to shine and he won't let anyone ruin it for him, not even the fatass-.

He already got a big 4ft sized teddy bear with a heart box that has your favorite candy or sweet inside it. He also got you both matching outfits to wear if you accept his confession.

He probably might want to confess to you in the park near a big tree. (Yeah, classic romance confessions)

Please accept this boy's confession, it will literally make him the happiest jew in south park.

"Hi (Name)! I hope nobody else has confessed to you...or maybe they have. But I just wanted to ask you if you could be my valentine for this holiday".

❤️ Eric Cartman 🔥

Cartman is mysteriously preping for something and not being an ass as his usual routine?

I wonder what's on his mind.........probably you.

He obviously doesn't know what to get you for Valentine's Day and he probably doesn't care so he will just get whatever he feels you might like. He forced his mom to buy the presents though! :3

He probably wants to confess to you because you're the only person besides his mom who puts with his psychotic behavior and rude nature.

And probably because you don't make fun of him for being fat😭

The confession will be in his room because he doesn't want the guys ripping on him for having a soft spot for you.

He will confess in the mostly lazily and cheesy way in the first half before actually being honest with his confession.

"So it's Valentine's Day huh? This makes me feel like I am gay if I was doing this for the guys, but since it's just only you (Name), I don't mind it. As anyone would tell their s/o, will you be my valentine?".

🧡 Kenny Mccormick 🧸

He's poor asf how do you think he can afford even a gift for you?

He feels so sad at the times you give him something and he can't gift you anything in return due to him being the poorest kid in south park.

So instead of buying something, he tries to make a homemade gift for you with whatever he can find (He cleans the material he's using if he finds something useful out of the trash).

Definitely sneaked around alleyways and stole some spare changes from homeless guys so he can use it to at least get you a candy or snack he can afford.

Same as Kyle, he will confess to you in the park while bringing the homemade gifts and snacks he got you.

He wanted this confession to be special like the holiday itself so he took a bath in the river (without soap) and fixed up in his hair a little, not a lot though.

He decided to wear his Princess Kenny outfit afterwards.

"Mmmmm...mmmphmmmmhmmphmmmmmmmmhmmp!" (Im sorry Name...I know this isn't much since I'm poor and I can't gift the same amount you do for me and my family, but it's the least I could to repay my gratitude! Will you be my valentine?).

A new banner for my new south park Masterlist that I will be making soon.

[intothedysphoria]

Steve was aware of the irony of the fact that he was hiding in a literal closet instead of messaging a hot man he’d met at work. That didn’t stop him from doing it though.

Searching “how to make gay thoughts go away” had just lead him to conversion therapy websites and that made Steve run out of the tab at the speed of sound. He wasn’t trying to repress anything. He just needed these inconvenient feelings to become a little more manageable.

Billy from work was beautiful, granted. He kind of looked like a bad boy, with the motorcycle and the leather jacket and the whole 1980s rebel aesthetic. That really was very in right now. But he also was fussy about the way he took his tea and read obscure French sci-fi and apparently owned like six cats.

Telling Billy his dream of having six kids was probably coming on a little strong. Then again, Steve wasn’t very good at doing things casually.

He’d told a first date he loved them. Twice. Who knows where he’d be if it hadn’t been Carol?

It was utterly humiliating. So Steve decided that he was going to hide in his closet, with his iPad and a bowl of grapes until it went away.

The plan was foolproof. It really was. Except Billy had given Steve his number, presumably in the assumption that Steve would actually text him.

That was a big assumption. Steve’s only real experience texting a guy in a way that wasn’t platonic was Tommy Hagan in high school. Most of the time he’d just text “what’s up man” then they’d give each other sad, repressed handjobs in Tommy’s attic bedroom.

“What’s up man” probably wasn’t going to work on Billy. He couldn’t really panic and use a straight persona on someone who’d presumably shared his number in the hopes of a hookup. Date. Anything.

Babe felt a bit strong. Did gay men call each other babe? Maybe the closet was getting to Steve’s head because his breathing had started to come out quick and panicky. Fucking shit.

He was going to text Billy, then hide from his phone for the next four hours. Yes, that was a good plan. Hide from the feelings Steve.

He rambled something out about Billy being hot, Steve being a hot mess and pressed send before he could think about it too much. Then he put his phone on silent and went to wash the dust out of his hair.

Billy hadn’t texted back by the time Steve had gotten out of the shower. Texting again would make him seem clingy and fucking weird. He put on Legally Blonde, the comfort film he’d resolved to tell nobody about and decided to forget about it.

The hours ticked away and Steve slowly went about his daily routine, phone sitting forgotten on the counter. Dustin visited, Steve endured a lengthy conversation about Dungeons and Dragons, and he finally made pizza without burning it to a crisp.

Then he remembered.

Shit.

Running to check his phone and cursing the fact that his hands were still sticky from the pizza, Steve stumbled through unlocking the passcode and found five new messages. All from Billy. Some slightly panicked.

Steve was not the only clingy one it seemed. So he phoned.

Billy still sounded kind of breathless when he picked up which made Steve kick himself. The poor guy had been waiting for a message back for six hours and Steve had been hiding from his phone.

They managed to establish some stuff.

Both of them were attracted to each other. Neither were good at doing casual. And both of their Fridays were free.

Perfect.

Steve did awkward finger guns at Billy when they stepped into the restaurant but considering Billy managed to trip over his motorcycle helmet, he thought that wouldn’t be an issue.

And he managed not to say I love you when Billy took his hand on the way out, which was progress.

Maybe on the next date then.

For the lovely @shieldofiron who as much as she loves angst also loves some cheesy fluff

[watchingblsnowandforever]

Hello!!

The crack post saga continues... =D

Warning: long, long post 😊😅

To be very honest though, for today's ep I will be getting serious more than usual, because it was quite significant in the flow of the plot, and also had moments of communication (this emotional constipation is what makes me yearn for Cherry Magic ah) that need to be studied a little closely.

HOWEVER, there will most definitely be crack because this group of friends is (unapologetically) batshit crazy and my brain refuses to not make comments at the most inappropriate times.

Peem: NO ONE SAW ME CUDDLING MY CRUSH TO SLEEP RIGHT?!

The sheer panic in his movements, oh my gods. It should not be as hilarious as it is 😭😂

To be very honest though, I would've panicked a bit in his place too, with friends like those, they'd never let him live it down

Peem is so cute 😭

Nothing to see here, just a guy getting shy over how his prince charming hom-ed him, and they kissed through his hand and cuddled all night hehe

Phum: here he comes again :) *eye twitch*

Peem's expression, how he's still holding his hands as if he has the cup, Kluen's disbelief, and Phum's smug af face-

I'm wheezing 😭🤣

Kluen, I'm kinda starting to like you, but no.

You don't stand half a chance against them and their situationship.

Hope you find another boyfriend to fall in love at first sight with (and leave my boys alone please, they don't need any more complications) <3

Oh, Fang knows too. Of course he does, that's his little brother right there

We all know how protective of his brother he is, there's no way he'd let anybody else take care of him... unless, he knew Phum liked that person

les voila

Poor Tan, his theerak just ignoring him T-T

*looks between them* yeah, pretty much the same pic 👀

And here it is. The root of all his fears.

See, in this camp, almost all of them are paired up in the sense that they usually stick to that person. Even Beer has MIck. But then comes wild card Kluen, who's hogging all of Peem's attention as much as he can and that leaves Phum. Alone.

I will be getting back to this running motif of Phum being alone and how it changes through the ep in later scenes as well

Also, after they went back, both Mick and Beer asked if he really was okay, which made me smile, because maybe, Phum isn't as alone as he thinks himself to be. There are people who care for him, who are concerned, who'll support him, and of course, he always has Fang, his beloved phi

My poor babie Tan 🥺🥺

Also, notice how the shot is taken in such a way that they're the only ones in the frame, and are also standing within one specific part of the wall? (Ignore Kluen's head and hands please). It reflects how they're in their own world with each other, especially Tan

The nosy peeps gang strikes again!

Jokes aside, the synchronised strides, the background music together set the perfect levels of suspense and comedy

Peem, smug: yes! that emotionally constipated dumbass is finally getting out of De Nile

Pun: wait... is my plan actually working? Ah, of course it is

Toey: head empty, no thoughts, but... DOES P'Q ACTUALLY LIKE ME OMG I'LL DIE

Oh gods, FINALLY. I wish them a happily ever after. Sadhu 😌🙏🏼

Pun forgetting all about being quiet when Toey finally confesses is so on character 😭👍🏼

Also... what's even the point of being quiet? Q and Chain have been friends with these idiots since high school, of course they know they're peeking

Toey: *shooketh*

Gays in thai bl and staring off into the distance 😭

This scene was so, so beautiful and also quite important for both Q and Toey

Q knew what was up, more or less, but his confusion stemmed from his knowledge of Toey

Would Toey really go to these lengths? For him?

"Why? Are you the only one who can tease me?" <- Q says this to tell Toey that he might have been angry, but now he understands that Toey didn't really have any bad intentions

Hugs always get bonus points from me, and this was pretty up there

Pun hiding behind Chain is so on point

His friends: you're an idiot so we had no choice but to intervene 😭😭

Matt's (JJ) comedic timing is >>>>>>

Toey and Matt's friendship is also given weight in the series, and I'm happier for it.

Also revenge is sweet ehehe *coughs*

Moving on.

If there's no live singing dedicated to your One True Love, is it even Thai BL??

We Are making generous use of MSP songs 😭👍🏼

This scene.

The apology. It is at this point that they're leaving all the past pain, grief and anger in the past

Q makes sure to tell Toey that yes, he may have loved Milk Frappe Boy, but now, in the present, all his love was for Toey, his lovable annoying mentee

This apology is not only to Toey, or Milk Frappe Boy, but to himself as well, because by causing pain to a person he loves twice, he'd caused himself pain too

The perfect sweet and romantic moment, but also with a teeny bit of teasing, because that's who they are

No joke, I gasped and nearly stopped breathing when he said this

Peem's reply, his soft but kind of hurt voice were just so painful to hear

But it's also this moment that Peem gives Phum a reality check – if he really didn't want to, he wouldn't be doing any of this, and Phum had no business trying to control his life

The conversation outside with Q was significant, but also a diluted reflection of Peem's earlier (in ep. 7) talk with Q

Even a few episodes earlier, Q would have gone ballistic on Phum for treating his bestie like this, but now, he asks Peem how he feels for Phum, tries to understand exactly what their relationship is

It was at this point that he knew, he fucked up

Beer is a godsent. I love him <3

I think Toey says "I asked hia Tan to blow it up for me."

Also, Tiw and his rubber duck floater from MSP anyone? 👀

And, we are back to square one where Phum is left alone again

As I'd said before, this a repeating motif throughout the series, but especially the last two episodes

This is how it has always been in Phum's life: he has been left behind. He does have Fang, but now even Fang has a boyfriend. And while this does not affect his brother's affection towards him in anyway, it does introduce a new strand of lonliness for Phum because 1. no matter what, he loves his brother a lot, and knows how much he loves Tan, so he definitely will try to stay out of their way at least sometimes and 2. he wants a boyfriend too. Further, he wants Peem, but there's a push and pull there, and after what he said, in his mind he had pretty much ruined his chances with his crush

This is the moment Phum starts to hope that maybe, just maybe, his feelings aren't as unrequited as he'd thought.

On the other hand, Peem is the one afraid here. What if the deal is all that's holding them together? What if without it, Phum will have no reason to be as close to him?

Peem, baby, for one, your groups are already merged, and secondly, this guy is head over heels for you, no way he'd stop following you like a lost puppy

(Apparently, it's not Peem's turn with the communal braincell this week 😭)

Here, Phum is technically alone, but he's surrounded with friends, and he's smiling

He isn't left behind here, for once, he's sitting there by choice (to shamelessly ogle his crush, but shh we don't talk about that) with the comforting knowledge that when/if he jumps in, he won't be left out, Kluen be damned

Once the floodgates of affection have been opened to Q, there's no going back <3

(Also, notice how Tan is already asleep on Fang's shoulder? 👀)

FINALLY

I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT SINCE PEEM KICKED PHUM'S BALLS

Jokes apart, this moment is so, so beautiful. The kiss, the soft question "are you ready for my answer now?" (maybe Peem isn't, but hell if he denies this man his kissies).

Everything leading up to this point is also so very delightful

Phum helping them out in the cafe, despite probably having never worked a day in his life, discovering how Peem still kept the roses and finally, finally, the completed painting. This sight, above all, is what convinces Phum that Peem might have feelings for him after all; because which fool would lie about not having completed something that would free them from being a slave to someone? A fool in love, that's who

ALSO,

if they don't get together and have the fluffiest moments in the next ep, I swear to god, hands will be thrown *grumbles* they're already making me wait a whole damn week

Anyways, that's all for this week, see you next ep! (I cannot promise I won't be jumping around and screaming, but then again, this is supposed to be a crack post so-)

And if you made it this far, thank you so much for reading! 😊

Here, have a bubble tea and a sandwich 🧋🥪

[If you'd like, here are my previous posts: Ep 8 and Ep 9.]

[autumn-foxfire]

IT'S TIME! FIST OF BLUE SAPPHIRE! THE NUMBER ONE KAISHIN MOVIE!

How interesting though, that this movie is set after Ran and Shinichi are officially dating but they went for KaiShin instead with ShinRan sprinkled in from time to time. I guess they were like "you had your cheek kiss, let the gays have something" and we appreciate them for doing so!

And that card is how poor Kaito is dragged into this sinster plot T-T

I appreciate the movie actually understanding Ai's character better than Gosho does. This should have been her response when Shinichi had pestered her for the antidote for the school trip.

I still don't know why Yuusaku hasn't used his "many" connections to help his son get a passport but Kaito's solution worked too. And is a lot gayer.

Kaito really likes to dress up as cute girls XD We stan a gender non-conforming thief.

We don't acknowledge enough how gay Kaito's "I've been waiting a long time for you," is. We know honey. The boy still believes that he's straight but he'll get there.

Did Kaito strip Shinichi to put all that tan on him? I just need to know. Because that is also very gay of him (also creepy but he was only did it because he needed Shinichi's help and he knows that Conan can't be in Singapore so he's just being a good future husband protecting his identity).

Shinichi always sees Kaito as so handsome.

The second best part of this movie beside the Kaishin? We get really cute Makosono.

It's funny that Sonoko says "they have good vibes between them" but we know that Ran is already aware that this is Kaito and she's acting to catch him off guard. She's a better actor than Shinichi and now I believe that she's always acting when it comes to Shinichi.

Kaito and Shinichi are already being gay with one another. Come on guys, get a room. Shinichi has just been kidnapped and he does not give a shit because it was his husband that did so.

Agasa totally made that suitcase. Jii definitely had him make it. What I'm saying is that Agasa is a bro and wanted Shinichi to have a date with his boyfriend.

Shinichi and his love for Sherlock Holmes T-T

Ran is very pretty in this dress by the way. It's a shame that her wife isn't here. My only complaint about this movie is that there is no Sera even though she definitely should have been.

This movie shows us why KaiShin are such a great couple with one another. There's no tension between them, they're always on the same wavelength and it's amazing.

Makoto showing us why he's an amazing boyfriend and why he and Sonoko are so great together!

Sonoko is very gorgeous in this movie.

I love how he panics. When Shinichi panics he drops all pretense but with Kaito, he keeps his grin on his face, probably because of how he's trained his poker face but all it does is make him look manic XD

Kaito's love for sweets is being seen too T-T

Sonoko is the most supportive girlfriend.

It can't be a double date Sonoko with Ran, Ran's wife isn't here sadly. But you can have a double date with KaiShin.

Ran: This is definitely not Shinichi. He is not a smooth talker at all. And he would not interact with my dad that way.

This movie actually also shows us Ran's intelligence, though it's only revealed at the end. What I'm going with this is that SHE. SHOULD. KNOW.

One complaint, again. But how come Makoto gets to have muscles. It's not very apparent but they're there. Ran should get them too.

We love a self-confident Kaito. And Shinichi being exasperated at his husband for being so.

The jealousy Makoto has towards KID is actually one of the few in the series that I don't mind because Sonoko is very open about how she is attracted to KID (though she has assured Makoto her heart is his and even here she makes sure he knows that).

You know Leon saying Kaito's hands belong to that of a magician is also something Ran uses as confirmation that this isn't Shinichi.

You know Kaito is annoyed because it's Shinichi that deserves all the praise that Kogoro gets.

We know that Ran knows this is Kaito, so I'm willing to be she also knows that Arthur is actually Conan and that's why she's okay with this small child who is all alone following them around. Let her be the intelligent women that she is.

Kaito, my smart boy.

AND HIS FIRST HEIST STARTS.

HE'S SO ACROBATIC. HE'S INCREDIBLE. Although, it's because he's so acrobatic that I find it hard to believe his hands are "supple" like it's said. Gymnasts are prone to calluses on their hands due to it. I guess the excuse is that Kaito wears gloves, but that doesn't actually stop them from forming.

MY POOR BABY GOT TASED. AND THEN ALMOST DROWNED. This is the Kaito goes through it movie.

Leon: I am one step ahead.

Shinichi: Hold my beer.

KAITO JUST SHOOTING THE GUY WHO GETS IN THE WAY IS SO FUNNY. He knows who the danger is.

Kaito your adrenaline junkie is showing.

He's so goddamn pleased that Shinichi helped him.

Shinichi: Got to save my idiot husband.

He looks so good in this movie.

And Shinichi just casually waiting for his husband to pick him up is so goddamn cute of him T-T THIS MOVIE IS SO GOOD T-T

They're so adorable, flying over the city while discussing a case. It shows how much trust they have in each other.

And there's the obligatory Shinichi and Ran. I can't even be made about it because I'm being fed so well.

Shinichi is so flustered that Kaito is actually interested in why he chose his name. He's not used to it.

AND HE'S SO CONCERNED FOR KAITO.

Someone pointed out that Kaito doesn't hold his hand over his heart, he usually holds it more to the left. So there is a reason he does so for Shinichi and that reason is gay, gay, homosexual gay.

Lol I just noticed he stole Shinichi's shoes and put him in sandles.

And the acting award goes to Ran! She's doing all of this just to catch out KID and we love her for it!

In fact, she knowing that this is Kaito but chosing not revealing that it is actually gives support that she to my idea that she knows Arthur is Conan and that there must be some way he brought Conan here that was illegal so the only way he can actually get him back home is to let Kaito be arrested in Japan. In this essay I will-

ANOTHER GREAT THING ABOUT THIS MOVIE. Ran is showing off how much she enjoys martial arts too.

The distance Ran put between herself and Kaito is so interesting (and Sonoko doesn't even notice, suggesting she'd do the same for the actual Shinichi).

I'm assuming that Kaito raided Shinichi's wardrobe because Shinichi likes pink shirts with white. He wore it in London and now Kaito is wearing pink and white in Singapore.

I love Kaito's disgrunted look in the background when Kogoro says he won't get the belt. Those are fighting words.

Awww, Shinichi looking back at Kaito was adorable. He's curious but also concerned about his husband as he knows he's being led into traps.

MAKOTO T-T DON'T LISTEN TO HIM.

TIME FOR CUTE MAKOSONO. And Ran is a bro letting Sonoko have some alone time with Makoto, using Kaito as an excuse (she also wants to investigate).

We love Ran.

KAITO OUR GENDER NON-CONFORMING QUEEN. I love how he flirts with the inspector to return his phone too. My queer king. (Yes he is a king and a queen).

Kaito, did you really need to drop your skirt first? Or have you always wanted to do that.

I like to believe that Kaito only noticed the letters because he's learnt a lot from his detective boyfriend.

ALSO ANOTHER THING A PERSON NOTICED THAT WASN'T ME. This time around, Kaito included a propellor on his handglider. There was another Kaishin movie where his detective boyfriend complained about having to land and Kaito telling him they had no choice as it's not like he has a propellor on his glider. Me thinks, he doth use one now due to that.

MY DEAR KAITO

This is why we don't like police. They shoot indiscriminately.

What's with this face Shinichi. Disappointed? Or concerned? Both. He can't have his husband framed.

Nah, definitely concerned.

MY POOR BABY.

I adore the way Sonoko looks at Makoto.

She adores him so much.

And Makoto adores her and just wants to do everything in his power to keep her safe T-T Him catching the knife between his fingers was so cool of him.

SONOKO.

She's going through it too. She and KID can bond over their suffering.

KAITO THE JANITOR T-T Keeping up the act even though he's been injured himself and is in pain.

MY POOR BABY CAN'T EVEN GET PROPER TREATMENT. SHINICHI GO BANDAGE UP YOUR BOYFRIEND.

He's so calm about Shinichi seeing him as his true self too.

Hehe, half naked.

NO ONE SPEAKS ABOUT HOW GREAT THIS MOMENT IS. KAITO GIVES EVERYTHING BACK TO SHINICHI, ASKING FOR HIS FULL SUPPORT TO SOLVE THE MURDER BECAUSE THATS HOW MUCH HE TRUSTS HIM. AND SHINICHI DOES SO. HE DOES WHAT KAITO ASKS.

Shinichi does not need a room with two beds. So, what I'm saying is that they shared a bed. And Shinichi is the blanket hog while Kaito sleeps with barely any and snores. Actually, with how wrapped up Shinichi is and how there is so little on Kaito but the bedding is going in the direction of Shinichi, I think we can confirm this is a double bed they are sharing, as well as a blanket. Noting this down.

OOF. He just lets Rishi fall to the hard floor. Shinichi you are a cruel man but I can excuse you because you want to solve this case before your husband is hurt any more.

MAKOTO AND SONOKO ARE SO CUTE IN THIS MOVIE.

We don't get to see Sonoko and Makoto as casual as they're being so it's nice to see them interact.

TIME FOR KAITO'S COMEBACK.

Awwww, this isn't what Sonoko wants Makoto T-T She wants you to be at your happiest and she knows that is fighting against those who are strong. She doesn't want to be a burden to you.

ALSO CAN WE TALK ABOUT SONOKO'S RESPONSE TO FEELING LIED TO! IT'S WHAT WE'VE WANTED WITH RAN AND MORE. SHE IS UPSET MAKOTO ISN'T BEING HONEST WITH HER AND WON'T LET HIM TRY AND LIE TO HER. QUEEN BEHAVIOUR.

I know what you are Kaito.

RAN JUST DOESN'T CARE SHINICHI IS SCREAMING. She totally knows that Conan is Arthur (and that Shinichi is Conan) and is letting him tell of his boyfriend.

Kaito gets Shinichi down to a tee, even to how he abandons Ran T-T

TIME FOR SHINICHI AND KAITO TO BE GAY MASTERMINDS WHO SOLVE THE CASE TOGETHER. The gay part is very important to it.

Look at these babies being dramatic together as they sum up the case so far to try and solve it.

This is how playful teasing is done by the way. Neither of them think less of the other so the teasing is just that, something that neither of them mean. This can't be done between Ran and Shinichi because we know he actually views her that way.

KAITO BOUGHT SHINICHI A SNACK AND IT'S SO CUTE. HE'S NOT EVEN BOTHERED BY HIM REVEALING THE TRICK, JUST CURIOUS HOW HE KNEW IT WAS COCONUT WATER.

I love Kaito using casual magic tricks with Shinichi too. It's just so cute and so Kaito.

Shinichi: Haibara, can you figure out who this is? KID took it

Ai: WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU WITH KID?!

Shinichi: ...I'll explain later

Ai, already used to Shinichi at this point: Fine, don't be stupid.

It's kind of funny that Leon says he'll build a new city and he's not wrong because Shinichi and Kaito do blow it up for him.

Kogoro: Did I just get mugged?

LMAO Ai knows Shinichi so goddamn well. It's why they make great partners.

Kaito is having fun playing detective, isn't he.

Shinichi: My idiot husband fell right into the trap

Kaito: As if you haven't fallen for things like this too

And Rishi fell into Shinichi's trap.

Poor Sonokoa and Makoto.

LOL Kaito be careful of your detective. You don't want him falling off your shoulders.

SHINICHI AND KAITO DOUBLE TEAM.

LMAO Shinichi shading both Rishi and Leon. He's the king at making you feel stupid XD

Kaito: Actually the detective is closer than you think.

TIME FOR THE CLIMAX.

MAKOTO T-T He'll protect Sonoko with his life.

RAN. YES. SHE GETS TO BE INCREDIBLE. ANOTHER SCORE FOR THIS MOVIE.

And it's Shinichi who gets to be the damsel in distress who is saved by his man T-T As we love!

AND IT'S TIME FOR SHINICHI'S BEST PLAN TO DATE. HE ASKS KAITO TO HELP HIM BLOW UP A HOTEL.

I WANT TO SPEAK ABOUT HOW KAITO IS CARRING AROUND AND PROTECTING HIS LOVE WHILE MAKOTO IS DOING THE SAME. CAN I?

Kaito is one hell of a shot. And he has no ascended to the god of fighting as that was said to be the only thing to make the bracelet fall off.

Obligatory Shinichi saving Ran where it wasn't really needed but I'll allow it because we've been fed so much AND-

She gets the last move. So it's okay.

And Kaito can't forget his purpose. He is a jewel thief after all. And it makes a good reason to get people to shoot at him.

Kaito loves to make people bungee jump. He has to make them into extreme sport lovers too.

Oooh. What do you do two do in the bedroom. Makoto is very good at tying knots I see.

TIME FOR THIS SHIP TO MOVE. Kaito and Shinichi are so insane for this.

Makoto fighting with Sonoko on his back is also insane.

I JUST REALISED HE WAS HOLDING HER HAND! I ADORE THEM.

Sorry, that's just really funny.

Shinichi and Kaito did this. I fucking love them.

And Kaito has fun having the last word. King.

Sonoko has a fringe? I just thought it was as long as her bangs.

ADORABLE!

Shinichi got to say the line. Can't have a movie without it.

RAN IS THE MVP OF THIS MOVIE AND THIS IS WHY. SHE IS AN AMAZING ACTRESS AND PUTS SHINICHI TO SHAME.

What a warm welcome home for Kaito.

Again, it's not cute for Shinichi to insult Ran because he means it. Also she doesn't KNOW YOU FUCKING ASS.

Well. We'll ignore that last moment.

[porcalinecunt]

𝐈 𝐊𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐀 𝐁𝐎𝐘 — 𝐏𝐓 𝟐

✟ 𝐇𝐀𝐊𝐊𝐀𝐈, 𝐌𝐈𝐓𝐒𝐔𝐘𝐀, 𝐊𝐎𝐊𝐎𝐍𝐎𝐈, 𝐈𝐍𝐔𝐈

✟ 𝐅𝐋𝐔𝐅𝐅

𓂅 ✧ tokyo revengers boys kissing their boyfriend for the first time + finding out they like boys

𝐜𝐰 — some suggestive themes. biting (kokonoi!). more tooth rotting fluff.

𝐚/𝐧 ❥ yup, more gay hc’s bc im gay and i do what i want on this acc AHA— but anyways, yall wanted a pt 2 thanks to the poll i posted a long while ago. sorry for the delay, life got busy and i’ll probably have slower updates for now. enjoy! 🤍

𝐇𝐀𝐊𝐊𝐀𝐈 𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐁𝐀

gay panic

poor baby is weak around pretty boys!

always had eyes on you ever since you accidentally bumped into him trying to find the bathroom.

you were a good friend of yuzuha, so it’s no surprise you’d see hakkai a lot.

every time she’d invite you over to study, hakkai would have to lock himself in his room. so you wouldn’t see his beat red face.

despite that, you curiosity got the better of you.

you’d start to pay more attention to the blue haired boy, looking his way and smiling at him innocently.

you cannot lie, you love the way he practically melt when you look at him. hiding his face to avoid embarrassment, but only drawing you closer.

the gap between you two would close however, when one night, yuzuha would run out to grab some snacks. it was only you and hakkai sitting the the living room.

despite the effort, you two couldn’t ignore one another forever. one thing lead to another, and suddenly, you were talking to him.

maybe the topic of crushes comes up? to your surprise, hakkai revealed that he never had a romantic partner. sure, he did have a few crushes, mitsuya being one of them. however, he could never muster up the courage to say anything.

the both of you knew what the other was trying to say, there was no point in hiding it anymore. not with hakkai’s pink cheeks and your flushed face.

“you like me, don’t you?” you’d asked an already flustered hakkai.

there’s was no point in denying it anymore, he could only utter the word “yes.”

moving your face closer to his, you hear his breath hitch and his cheeks grow beat red. awaiting your lips to make contact with his.

it wasn’t anything intense, a quick peck that becomes a smooch when you grabbed his face and presses it closer to yours. his face was hot against your hands.

it only lasted a couple seconds, before you pulled away, meeting a flustered hakkai.

“c-can you do that again?”

𝐌𝐈𝐓𝐒𝐔𝐘𝐀 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐈

absolute heartthrob!

it’s no surprise that a couple guys would end up crushing hard on him, including you.

after passing by his club a couple times, you couldn’t help but peer in. curious to see why mitsuya was so popular with the girls. safe to say, you got your answer.

you also decided to join the club, despite you never touching a sewing machine in your life.

despite constantly pricking your fingers, messing up a couple threads, mitsuya never once lost patience with you.

your heart flutters every time mitsuya speaks with you, whether he helps you with the sewing machine or small talk, hearing his voice only made you fall deeper in love with him.

so it's no surprise when one afternoon, you decided to shoot your shot at the club leader.

it was only you and him alone in the clubroom, since you stayed over to help him clean up.

however, as the time to leave inches closer and closer, you still couldn't spit it out. your mind became a train of thoughts that discouraged you from confessing.

you feared the thousands of possibilities of your confession going wrong, maybe he isn't into guys? does he only see you as a friend?

just when mitsuya was about to leave, you quickly stopped him before he could walk through the door.

impulsively, and messily, you finally told him the truth through stutters and shake hands. your face grew hotter and hotter from embarrassment.

shutting your eyes, you braced yourself for the rejection, when you felt a soft hand touch yours. looking up, you practically jumped when mitsuya's was near yours.

you froze when his lips touched yours, it was gentle and sweet. the taste of berry chapstick kissed your tongue, as you loose yourself to him.

pulling away, you could barely look at him in the eye. this is not how you'd get your answer, then again, you weren't complaining.

"wanna walk home with me, love?"

𝐇𝐀𝐉𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐊𝐎𝐊𝐎𝐍𝐎𝐈

my favorite bisexual ♥

you didn't pull him, he pulled you!

a couple of flirtatious remarks and even more flirtatious texts was enough to sweep you off your feet and into his arms.

but even then, you have yet to give him your first kiss.

it's a bit laughable, but poor you couldn't even look at koko without getting ridiculously flustered.

however, koko enjoyed having such a shy boyfriend.

as much as you try, he knows you'll never initiate a kiss. no matter how much you claim to or would want to "prove it", Koko can already imagined you melting into a puddle.

your first kiss with him would be a surprise.

the both of you are on one of your typical dated, ending with a simple walk through the park.

while he was talking, you were barely listening on what he was saying as you kept staring at his lips. the urge to just give them a quick peck almost took over, but you couldn’t bring yourself to do it.

“hey, are you even listening?”

koko snapped you out of your trance, now his whole body is facing yours.

gazing into those eyes of his made you want to scream, trying to find a way to break it without it getting awkward.

“why the red face? i know you wanna kiss me love.”

your heart was pounding at this point. he was right, you did want to steal a kiss from him. but how could you?

cold fingertips touched your warm cheeks, which only got hotter as he rested his palms on them. your mind was running in circles at that point. the only thing you could do is shut your eyes as your boyfriend finally did the very thing you couldn't do.

what you didn't expect was a a bite to the earlobe, forcing a yelp out of you and clinging onto his shoulders.

beyond flustered to even look at him, he could only laugh at your reaction. something he both expected and enjoyed.

"what's the matter? shy?"

𝐒𝐄𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐔 𝐈𝐍𝐔𝐈

scary boyfriend who loves you!

despite all your doubts, you somehow managed to score a date with inui. boy oh boy, did that man flick a switch in you.

similar to kokonoi, you have yet to steal your first kiss with him despite dating for a good two years now.

only difference is, inui is the shy one!

attempts to kiss him ends with his hand over your lips, all while he tries to hide his flustered face and reddened cheeks.

of course, that never stopped you. it surely didn’t on the night of a certain date.

sitting in the car after spending the evening at a diner, you two were just talking, occasionally staring into one another before one of you got too shy.

suddenly an idea came over your head.

maybe you two are doing a at home date, snuggling and watching a movie. inui loves physical affection, so it’s natural for him to be a cuddle bug!

at one point, you snuggle extra close to him. maybe plant a little kiss on his shoulder.

he notices, a pink hue begins to form on his cheeks. you would keep going, kissing his shoulder up to his cheek. till he turned his head around, and you stole the opportunity.

the kiss was sudden, until inui succumbed to it.

it was slow and passionate, with you resting your hands on his shoulders to calm his tense nerves.

pulling away, inui was more flustered then before. however, he cracked a small smile before looking down at your hands that were now holding his.

“that was…better then i could imagine. 🤍”

[ruby-winchester24]

Tweek Tweak headcanons!!

{sfw+nsfw} {fem reader}

when you first met him he was a total wreak, he was trying to come off his meth addiction and also trying to cope of being left by Craig.

when you got closer he figured out he wasn’t totally gay like he thought he was.

the school and his parents were also very surprised, mostly all is South Park.

his parents really do like you, but you don’t really for what they did to Tweek. but you still keep the peace.

they are happy to see there son happy again.

he found comfort in your presence more then he did in Craig, that definitely fucked up his emotions.

it took him a while to finally understand his emotions and not go into a panicked rage.

you had to be the one to confess your feelings first, i’m not sure if he could without having a panic attack.

a lot of people asked questions about your relationship.

mostly what’s it like to be with a spaz.

you work at the coffee shop with him.

and yes you do get paid very well😋

he always makes you go home early if you have to close shop because he is scared you will get kidnapped.

it was his idea to have life360 so he knows were you are at all times, because of anxiety.

he is actually in great shape for being a meth addict.

you are his biggest supporter when it comes to his boxing.

he always waves at you when he is in the ring.

he always has bruises or cuts on him from being punched so much.

boxing lets him release a lot of stress he has built up over the years, he finds it better then any therapy session.

he continued to do boxing throughout his childhood and now he is getting scouted out by prizefighting officials.

definitely thought it would be to much pressure.

poor boy is definitely starved of love so show him some.

thoroughly enjoys sleepovers.

you made him delete twitter because it makes him a nervous wreck.

he loves to cuddle at first he wasn’t so sure but now that’s almost all you do now.

he still has ticks, because of how messed up his body and mind are from the constant amount of meth is his system for years.

it also messed up his growth he is only 5’8 i don’t see him being to tall.

once you play cod zombies and he had a panic attack because it’s low key scary asf, so you don’t play that game anymore.

he told you about the underwear gnomes.

Craig was also surprised that Tweek wasn’t all about he way gay.

Craig was upset to see him with another person but he also dumped him because of how Tweek acts, so he moved on quick.

words of affirmation and quality time are his love languages, he just needs to know you actually love him😭

he forgets to brush his hair a lot so you always have to do it for him.

he is very insecure about himself especially his teeth because there so yellow from him drinking coffee every day for years.

because of his anxiety he is always worried that you will find someone better.

he freaks when you talk to another guy because what if he steals you from him!?

you always remind him that your not gonna leave him.

homeboy is always asking were your going when he see’s your location move on life360.

he does not like pda the most he will do is hold hands, he doesn’t like when people look at you guys.

you always drive him places, he hates driving.

also when you make a risky decision on the road he will scream like a child.

he talks a LOT.

he has mommy and daddy issues☹️

if you cry he will cry too.

you guys have spa days a lot, it relaxes him so much.

he writes you letters all the time it’s the easiest way for him to express his love for you.

his hands are freakishly big compared too the size his wrists

he love’s fidget toys.

NSFW!!

switch, mostly a bottom bitch.

5 inches.

but when he does top he goes feral.

his pace is always fast and animalistic.

he holds you like your a porcelain doll

when he is jealous he goes crazy in the bedroom, but he will not degrade you but he will put you in your place.

he would hold you with a death grip.

he would make you make eye contact with him when he cums.

“why w-would you make me jealous like that!”

“you know that i’m t-the only one that can make you feel t-this way!”

“ahhh fuck your p-pussy is so good~”

eye contact that’s all i got to say.

remember how i said his love language is words of affirmation that also includes in the bedroom.

“oh g-god i love you so much”

“ahh jesus you make me feel so good”

when he is on bottom he is super whiny and he just wants to be good for you.

he calls you mommy 100%

and yes he likes to be pegged. that is 70% of sex between you guys.

he really likes a slow pace, he would rather make love then fuck.

he is mostly vanilla but he does like is praise.

sometimes he likes to act like a brat so you punish him.

his favorite punishment is when you deny his orgasm but that’s his little secret

he always holds your hand during sex, he just wants to touch you.

kissing always turns him on. every single time.

poor guy just wants to make you feel good.

he loves it and when you call him sweet nicknames

“your doing so good for me sweetheart”

“such a good boy for mommy~”

he is LOUD, like i’m pretty sure the neighbors can hear…

i am so so sorry for not getting this out sooner i had some bad writers block but thank you for the support over this time i luv you all❤️

[mischieffoal]

Kugrash; Rat Jesus; Bruce Kugrich; you know him, you love him - is a repressed, closeted, gay man. In this essay I will… tell you why I think that, I actually wrote the essay. (It’s not an essay it’s a long text post, it doesn’t have an introduction or a conclusion or citations don’t come for me)

Anyway, I’ve just finished The Unsleeping City chapters 1 and 2 and Kugrash has infested my brain and wormed his slimy way around my heart. I don’t need to proselytise him, if you’re reading this post you already understand the appeal of a crusty, washed-up rat bastard of a terrible father who’s trying to make up for everything he’s ever done. What I particularly loved about him was that he is gay-coded in such a specific way that it makes the poor little meow meow of it all even worse. Was it on purpose? I doubt it. But it certainly is there. 

(I doubt it was on purpose because the joy of D20 is that all the characters are kind of just pan unless specified otherwise and homophobia is only a thing that villains do in the first five minutes of a character’s introduction. So it’s like, I doubt Murph did this on purpose because he’s probably just being very queer friendly and it comes across this way because of the Kugrash of it all)

Evidence that I remembered to write down is as follows: 

Perry the Pigeon

Kug doesn’t actually want to date Perry, but he doesn't object to going to the wedding with him/sort of leads him on/definitely flirts with him/tries to let him down nicely. 

Murph did just choose the name Perry at random. Could have been a girl pigeon, but no. 

Perry is serious about Kugrash. Like, “still mourning him” serious. 

Perry isn’t only into Kug, he is an established gay pigeon who later marries another man (/rabbit)

2. The Kugriches

When the other PCs tell Wally there’s a pigeon with a crush on his dad, Wally immediately asks “What’s his name?”

Wally and David’s mum is out of the picture. David said that Bruce abandoned them when Wally really needed him, which I think implies she’s been gone since before Kugrash was cursed. Why? Who knows, Bruce was a bastard in many ways - but if his sexuality was so obvious that their son can only imagine his dad dating a male pigeon, it was probably obvious to Bruce’s ex. 

3. Lowell Masters

Kingston: finds out Lowell can Identify things by sticking them up his ass Kingston, two seconds later, pointing at his good friend Kugrash: “This man, what is this man?" Lowell: gives Kugrash an ass jacket Kugrash: “Yeah, yeah, sure thanks, appreciate it.”  Kugrash: “I smell like lube now instead of trash.” Kugrash: “We’ll link up at some point”

4. The totems

All men. When the Intrepid Heroes came up with what their totem animals would be in an Adventuring Party, they weren’t particularly gendered, but weren’t sentient either, so who knows what that’s worth

Perry (see Point 1)

The campest unicorn you’ve ever seen or heard in your life

5. Best friends with a hairdresser

6. “You goddamn beautiful boy, you fucker, you absolute arsehole.” I get it, Kug. Ricky does it to us all. 

To me, all of this implies Kugrash is gay, but quietly. He’s certainly not out-and-proud like Pete is, but his children know. Did he tell them or was it obvious? I don’t think Kugrash knows. I think he’s closeted to no-one but himself. A business man in the 1980s isn’t the most likely guy to have searched his soul for any sexual deviancy, and since then he’s been very busy being depressed/ashamed/a literal rat in the sewers. Misty and Kingston do a lot of work to pull him out of the underground and actually talk to human beings again. They know he’s gay, from the things they say about him (see in particular Point 3: Lowell Masters). I don’t think Kugrash would have ever had a “gay awakening” or a “gay panic” if he’d stayed on the mortal plane, I doubt his sexuality would be that shocking or confusing - I just don’t think he’s noticed. 

Being cursed into a ratman gives you the space to learn all sorts of things about yourself, and if that doesn’t quite work, you can always eat an everything bagel and become omniscient, when you can finally realise that Bruce Kugrich was in fact gay the whole time.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. 

[rappaccini]

a queer reading of spider-gwen

okay. this is fifty pages long so i'll skip the sentimental intro: spider-gwen's existed for ten years, and over the course of that decade she's steadily been written as a more and more overtly queer character.

gonna get gwen's appearances in animation/movies out of the way first.

IN OTHER MEDIA:

in ultimate spider-man (2015), gwen collaborates with peter and miles but no romantic tension is present, and she clearly prefers working alone or with aunt may. takeaway: inconclusive.

in marvel spider-man (2017), gwen's teased as a romantic interest of peter's, but they ultimately stay friends. at the big end-of-series dance, her date is a boy who's a side character at best. she has a ton of tension with anya corazon, her female best friend and has a moment of gay panic when she sees black widow-- though both could still read as her just being affectionate towards other women. takeaway: inconclusive, but with plenty of fuel that she might be bi with a preference for girls or a closeted lesbian.

in marvel rising (2018), gwen has no romantic partners and expresses interest in no one. the murder of her male best friend, kevin (peter placeholder) motivates her, but she shows no signs of romantic feelings for him. she's still a drummer for the mary janes and exclusively interacts with other women. takeaway: inconclusive, queer if you squint.

in spidey & his amazing friends (2021), a cartoon aimed at preschoolers, gwen is an elementary schooler. takeaway: irrelevant.

IN THE SPIDERVERSE MOVIES

in ITSV (2018),

gwen's a supporting character whose arc is about warming up to miles and embracing new friends after the death of her peter (here referred to as only her friend, which was probably all he was at this point in development).

even if the planned romance plotline was cut down to 'miles has a crush, gwen's so reserved you can read her either way, and they end the movie agreeing to be friends,' she's still in the movie. so the writers probably intended for her to be straight.

and her personality is so off that it wouldn't surprise me if they never read her comics past her initial origin story, the spiderverse event and sitting in a tree... which means the writers probably didn't realize gwen was queer until after they expanded her role for atsv.

in terms of gender presentation... gwen has an edgier haircut and an eyebrow piercing, but the piercing's lifted from katie bishop, miles's first love interest in the comics. and she's also a ballet dancer, so she's automatically coded with conventionally feminine interests.

and let's be real, there's no way the writers intended gwen to be trans-coded until atsv at the earliest.

takeaway: inconclusive, but probably straight.

ATSV (2023)

gwen canonically has romantic feelings for peter-65 and tension with both miles and hobie (though she insists hobie's 'just a friend,' given that gwen's lying for most of the movie, hobie does for gwen what she does for miles in his parent's apartment at the end of the film and pav is 'good at reading people' and says something's going on there... something probably went on there). it is crammed down our throats that gwen is definitely into guys.

gwen interacts with many female characters, and is in the mary janes band, but has no chemistry with any of them, does not regard any of the female characters her age (the mary janes, margo) as friends, and is hostile towards them all. she clashes with rio. she seeks a female mentor in jess, subtextually a mother figure to gwen, but has a poor relationship with her that frays over the course of the movie.

her plotline entails compulsively lying to everyone in her life to protect herself from rejection, being hunted by the authorities for an identity they disapprove of, running away from home after being revealed to an unsupportive parent, and sheltering with hobie, who's confirmed to have a genderqueer influence in concept art. and we've all seen the scene where gwen comes out to her father (lifted word-for-word from the comics). however, these could be read a variety of ways. if you don't want to see the subtext, technically, you don't have to.

she's also the most romance-driven version of spider-gwen that has ever existed:

the first words out of gwen's mouth, the words that open the movie, are "let me tell you how special the boy i like is, and how i wasn't loyal enough to him"

instead of being repulsed by peter's advances, gwen clearly intended to go to the dance with him as a couple and is upset that she didn't get to

her origin story is sanitized to make sure she doesn't have any hangups about getting a boyfriend, and that miles doesn't have any about being attracted to her.

she's so fixated on peter that she's projecting him and the relationship she wanted with him onto miles

the storyline about gwen isolating herself from her friends, adapted from the comics, is recontextualized so she's pining for miles the entire time because she thinks only he can understand her

she risks her life (since at this point she assumes being sent home could get her killed, and knows about the gwen death canon event)... to see a boy she hung out with for one afternoon a year and a half ago

she reunites with miles by diving onto his bed and creeping through his window. you know what that implies.

she takes him on an elaborate swinging date through the city, where their compatibility as a team is emphasized and she introduces herself to his dimension as THEIR friendly neighborhood spider-woman

(said date includes a storyboarded shot that was cut where gwen and miles photobomb a wedding in the places of the bride and groom)

the date ends with them visiting a special secret place to watch the sunset and talk about their feelings

she seems more upset by the idea that she can't be in a romantic relationship with spider-man (not even "a spider." a spider-man.) that ends well than that she will die young

the entire party scene is essentially miles introducing his girlfriend to his parents, and gwen failing to win their approval

gwen interacts with hobie with romantic intent as well-- wearing his clothes, flirting with him, constantly spending time with him, talking about him when he isn't around the same way she would miles, sleeping over at his place, getting flustered when he's brought up. even pav has noticed that something's going on between them.

gwen observes miles being protective of children in mumbattan and has a moment of Lingering Eye Contact with him when they look at mayday's baby pictures. the directors want you to think of them as parents together, and spiderverse gwen doesn't share her comics-counterpart's repulsion towards babies

she and miles are given a "wendy and peter pan" parallel in dialogue

she's catty to another girl over a boy's attention

she becomes disillusioned with the spider-society not because of her own mistreatment, but because of miles's

she stands up to the spider-society not for her own sake, but her future boyfriend's

she has a ~mysterious connection~ to miles that allows her to sense he's in danger across dimensions. they gave her a brand new superpower that revolves around being constantly aware of her boyfriend's needs even when he isn't in the same universe as her. it isn't even clear if the connection runs both ways.

gwen reunites with her father because she returns to their apartment for a photo of her and miles, and her reward for making up with her dad is a portal watch she can use to see miles.

she spends the movie in a subtle love triangle with hobie and miles, and despite knowing hobie far better and being far more comfortable with him, we know she's choosing miles for some reason. a relationship with the straight boy she barely knows, can't be honest with, and has barely done anything for her somehow matters more than the queer-coded boy she has a deeper connection to. she's choosing the heteronormative option.

the climax of gwen's arc isn't actually her confrontation with her father. it's when she goes to miles's to apologize, puts miles' hoodie on (you know what it means when a girl wears her boyfriend's clothes), and wins his parents' respect by defending him to them. it's literally all about introducing herself to her boyfriend's family and reassuring them that she's good for him.

the ending of the movie is gwen handpicking a team for miles made of all his friends and allies and ends the movie on her way to deliver them to him. it's only her team until he shows up. then she'll immediately fall into line as his support.

gwen decides to defy her narrative by... pursuing miles to apologize for not being honest, confess her love for him, bring him home to his family and prove how devoted she is to him by helping him protect what he loves.

gwen's atsv arc is about deciding to be brave enough to be a straight boy's supportive girlfriend.

(we know btsv is going to involve gwen's death canon event, it being subverted somehow and the gwiles romance getting, according to the straight white nerdy guys who wrote this story, a 'satisfying' conclusion.)

this is the first time in her character's ten-year history that a spider-gwen plot has been dominated by gwen wanting a boyfriend.

so if nothing else, gwen seems to be written, directed and performed as straight. her design has a queer vibe, but her behavior does not. and i doubt they'll want to introduce any more rivals to their precious gwiles, so she'll probably stay that way.

but in terms of gender identity, she's definitely coded as transgender.

we've all seen the 'protect trans kids' flag in her room, and the abundance of pink, blue and white in her world's color palette. if i had to bet, some animators picked up on the queer vibe of gwen's storyline in the film and/or knew her comics counterpart was much more overt, snuck the flag in as a way to acknowledge her queerness without contradicting the narrative's need for her to be only attracted to men. (they would never have made gwen a lesbian, and even bi-coding wouldn't have worked because the plot obligates her to be a male character's love interest, she has no sapphic vibe or even positive relationship with any other female character, and having gwen 'come out' to her dad as bi-- right before she gets a boyfriend-- isn't the most coherent; no queer girl would come out to her conservative cop dad if she were going to be introducing him to her straight boyfriend. she'd just not tell him.) and when it got a good reception after the trailer came out they got the go-ahead to crank up the vibe in the animation effects, which elevates gwen's story from 'open to interpretation' to 'so intentionally coded if you don't acknowledge it you either didn't pay attention or you're deliberately refusing to see it'.

so now, those visual elements plus gwen's coming-out speech, her runaway plot, camaraderie with hobie, her ability to fit into hobie's clothes, her haircut, her conventionally masculine childhood hobbies (like playing with action figures; mentioned because if a young gwen was socialized as a boy, that's what she would have been steered towards) and even her religious father saying he hates gwen's alter ego because 'she took a boy i think of as my son away from me' have a much clearer subtext. gwen's story is a queer narrative about running away from and eventually reconciling with transphobic family, sheltering with another queer kid, having her vulnerability exploited by opportunistic adults, and finding acceptance with other kids like her.

the takeaway: spiderverse gwen is probably intended to be heterosexual, but is definitely trans-coded. i could see the writers using this as a way to acknowledge spider-gwen's queerness (... and dodge potential backlash for straightwashing a queer girl to make her the main male character's gf and refusing to switch gears once they realized what they did) while making sure she stays Miles's Girlfriend above all else.

we'll get back to this. put a pin in it.

IN THE COMICS:

the source of all these alternate versions of spider-gwen. i'm gonna try to go in chrono order, but where overlapping events hit, i'll just place the event where it doesn't disrupt the flow as much as i can.

IN SPIDERVERSE (2014-2015)

gwen's first appearance. at this point she had no established lore or personality, so her default state as Peter's Love Interest seems to be the guiding principle. also, tasm2 came out recently and the gwen/peter romance would have been front of everybody's minds.

for ref this also tends to be the personality gwen has in all other team-up events: she's nice, social, competent, enthusiastic and always in peter's corner. (out of universe, this is who writers who don't read her comics think she is. in-universe, this is how gwen wants to be perceived by the other spider-people.)

gwen's first moment of shippy behavior happens when she meets peter 616. he immediately orders her to stay at the camp where it's safe while the Real Spiders go to war. she begrudgingly agrees. ew.

later, when she gets him to let her leave the kitchen, we get this. cradling his face, staring deep into his eyes and promising to protect him is not platonic.

this is never followed up on. whenever they interact past this point, it's as friends. this is a good thing.

peter continues to have to remind himself to let gwen fight her own battles and not intervene on her behalf. this is a bad thing.

gwen keeps getting more shippy moments with peter variants sprinkled throughout the event. the peters keep trying to have a moment where they touch or hold each other, stare into each other's eyes and apologize about failing each other's variants. and she allows it.

takeaway: our first impression of her is that she's presumably a heterosexual cis woman who was in a romantic relationship with peter-65.

IN WEB WARRIORS (2015-2016)

tricky continuity: after the inheritors are defeated, the web-warriors stick around to clean up a few loose ends. gwen is on this team. so technically, though the latour run starts before ww, ww takes place during the couple months gwen leaves home to fight with the spider-army and gets stuck on battleworld before her solo kicks off.

in general gwen hangs out with several spider-people, including an aged-up mayday and anya, but there isn't much of a vibe there. unlike in sv, gwen seems to be accepted as a comrade instead of a potential love interest. and she's cool with it.

gwen is referred to as peter-65's "girlfriend" by his bullies in a flashback. the writers don't have the details right, but this is their assumption of that relationship. they clearly think gwen's into guys and that gwen was peter's girlfriend.

one interesting thing does happen: gwen meets hobie here, and he, like many of the peters in spiderverse, immediately gets flustered. it could be hero worship of a girl who has his favorite musician's name and face, it could be a crush. probably a bit of both.

regardless, gwen is initially weirded out and surprised by hobie's interest in her. she's more concerned with how her alt self dies than hobie's starstruck reaction to her, but she doesn't mind him clutching her hand like he's in a regency novel and that touch lingers a bit longer than normal. and by the end of the event, they've become friends and proceed to go on many missions together.

takeaway: inconclusive. if i had to guess, gwen isn't being written as queer; she's being written as 'straight, but off limits to guys who aren't peter parker.'

IN THE LATOUR RUN (2014-2018)

GWEN'S GENDER IDENTITY

first of all, to the spiderverse fans who think trans gwen is canon to the comics: thanks for the enthusiasm, but gwen is not explicitly trans; at no point in the canon is she referred to as such.

and gwen being trans-coded isn't necessarily that prominent. there are seeds you could read into... or not:

she goes through a physical change after an injection, and has a secret identity that people despise and her father initially hates. the spider-man metaphor works for so many things that you can take or leave it.

gwen worries being a spider-person makes her a ''monster'' and if "a real friend would give [her friends] a chance to run"... which could be about a trans girl being anxious that her queer cis friend group won't want her, or about any number of gwen's other issues, most notably the fact that she killed their mutual friend and is keeping it from them.

she has traditionally-masculine interests-- like d&d, drumming, fantasy novels, cop shows and kung fu movies-- but is also written as a tomboyish nerd who grew up with a single dad who shared his interests with her.

she's insecure about her breast size and her body, but that's probably just male writers being male writers.

she has a lanky build, dresses in an androgynous style and even wears a hood sewn into her costume, but given that the writer's intent was to keep gwen from being sexualized by intentionally not giving her curves and form-fitting skin-baring outfits (and the hood was a very 2014-era commentary on how "wearing a hoodie doesn't make someone a criminal")... something else is going on there.

murdock cracks a joke about pronoun usage when gwen's venomed out... but everyone who uses venom uses "we" pronouns

mattea murdock later uses gender-neutral pronouns when discussing her, however that's probably just an earth-138 thing.

it's there if you want it to be, but there's a counter to every point, and most of those points are so ambiguous that they can speak to a number of different situations or queer experiences.

the strongest argument you have is the power-up pills.

gwen loses her powers, and becomes dependent on using pills that temporarily restore them so she can keep being spider-woman. she only has a limited supply, and wonders if running out or throwing them away will mean she's 'normal' again.

however, the problems persist. enough villains know her identity that they'd continue to seek her, and she wouldn't be fulfilled.

murdock gets his hands on them, and uses them to force gwen to do his bidding. the subtext is that murdock is gwen's abusive partner who's keeping her dependent on him by making her take drugs when she's with him. or dealer. your choice.

the metaphor works with any drug. given that gwen's constantly on benders after peter's death, keeps being found by her friends passed out in bars and alleyways, and her relationship with her symbiote is initially written as an "addiction" -- her taking something to numb the pain is the most obvious reading.

and in general the power pills play into the run's theme about gender and power: gwen claimed a power that typically isn't given to a female character, and cindy moon 65 took that power from her because she was angry that she wasn't the special one. gwen loses her powers as she's dominated by men and gains her symbiote when she gets her independence back.

but if you want to take the power-ups as a story about a trans girl being violently denied her identity by a transphobic cis woman, contemplating going off her meds and detransitioning, before realizing it won't change who she is, and then becoming trapped in an abusive relationship with someone who controls her access to her medication... it's a very good allegory.

however, given that sitting in a tree insists that gwen-65 is the past version of gwen-8, who gives birth to two children... gwen must have the hardware for that to be possible. that, or bendis really had no clue what the fuck he was doing when he created earth-8 and made gwen have kids without realizing she doesn't have a fucking uterus... or the terrible implications of writing a story about a trans girl being told that in the best possible world where she's accepted and beloved, she'd have to be capable of getting pregnant.

also, if you're looking for a trans-coded character in the cast, there actually is one: earth-65's captain america is a genderbent sam wilson. she has a clone, sam 13... who is somehow male.

takeaway: enough is there that you can read gwen as trans if you want, and the coming-out narrative can work for gender identity as much as it does for sexuality, but it's not an overwhelming and intentional subtext. it's a "maybe, if you want."

not like the subtext surrounding her sexual orientation is.

gwen could be trans... but she definitely is not straight. and it's been that way since the start of her solo run.

(so to the people insisting that the spiderverse writers couldn't possibly have known that gwen was queer back in 2018... yes the fuck they could have. it was always this obvious. they didn't know because they did no research or had already decided they wanted her to be straight so they could ship her with miles.)

GWEN'S SEXUALITY

gwen's plot across the latour run is basically a coming out arc.

she has a secret side to herself that her family and community despise, that led to her turning down a relationship with a boy the audience expects her to be with, and being hunted by the police and hated by her father.

she spends much of her time lying, sneaking away for days or weeks at a time, and contemplates running away for good to a place where someone 'like her' would be more tolerated.

she's constantly informed by powerful people that she's supposed to have been in a heterosexual relationship, and keeps ducking out of them.

she's sussed out by various people-- friends who guard her secret and support her, and enemies who use it to exploit her.

she begins coming out to the people in her life one by one: her father, harry, the mary janes, her neighbors. it takes time for some to accept her, and others embrace her right away.

she breaks out of the last of her repression and embraces her emotions in their entirety... which scares people.

she reveals herself to the world because she's no longer afraid of the consequences of being exposed, and to take away the power from someone using her secret as leverage against her.

and then the systems of power in her world lock her up and leave her to face abuse to punish her for events that kicked off with her refusing comphet.

it's very, very clear. especially when you factor in her relationships.

THE MARY JANES

the first thing we learn about gwen is that she's a drummer in an all-female rock band. as soon as gwen has her own backstory, it decenters and deromanticizes her relationship with a guy we all expect her to be the girlfriend of, and places gwen in a peer group and subculture that skews extremely queer.

and over the run we gradually learn the mary janes are almost entirely made up of openly queer and queer-coded girls (em jay is bisexual, glory is a lesbian; betty is unclear, but is repulsed by/indifferent to male attention even if she jokes about finding guys hot).

betty brant:

not much here. betty hugs gwen and gives her a 'vampire kiss' once, but she has an odd sense of humor so it's not clear if she's serious. and regardless, gwen seems uncomfortable.

glory grant:

the girl gwen singles out as the one she prefers to talk to the most and her closest friend in the band.

glory is the first person in the band gwen nearly 'comes out' to about being spider-woman. (not em jay.)

gwen admits to finding it enjoyable when they land on top of each other after stage diving during a concert. in this same issue, it's confirmed that glory's an out lesbian.

tbh, if gwen's into any of the mary janes romantically in the latour run, it's glory.

em jay watson:

em jay mentions finding gwen attractive early in the run, is the first in the band to guess gwen's spider-woman, is especially upset when gwen puts herself in danger as spider-woman, and has a habit of getting into belligerent fights with other members of the band (felicia, glory, gwen). given that she and glory later get together, being rude and demanding seems to be a signal that em jay's attracted to someone.

for future reference: em jay is openly bisexual. she has an infamously colorful dating history containing at least one guy, glory jokes about em having too many exes, and she's even lost a friend, liz allan, because liz's boyfriend made a pass at em, and when em came to liz to tell her about it, liz believed em was cheating with him. being promiscuous, noncommittal and unsafe to leave around someone else's partner are all stereotypes leveled at bisexuals. and em jay has lost a friend because of them. put a pin in that.

on a night out, while glory, randy and betty are scrolling on dating apps, gwen and em pair off together, em tells gwen she'd never use one, and talks about the inevitability of being rejected. it's implied she's talking about having tried and failed to attract gwen.

given that em later begins flirting with glory, who asks em if she's just a placeholder for gwen (which em denies), it's clear that em had romantic feelings for gwen, gave up and got together with glory instead.

gwen seems totally unaware of or indifferent to em jay's feelings for her. she does not reciprocate during the latour run.

felicia hardy:

former member of the mary janes

mentioned because if em jay gets bitchy with all her crushes, given that she and em hated each other, that means felicia was one of them. possibly even an ex.

she is paralleled to gwen: both are young women with single fathers who they are extremely close to, who have belligerent tension with em jay (mutual for felicia, one-sided for gwen) and quit the mary janes to 'go solo', who have vengeful streaks and despise matt murdock, who are obsessed with their pasts.

and felicia hardy 616 is canonically bisexual

throughout the run, gwen constantly seeks the mary janes' company, even when her secret identity keeps her from being honest with the girls [who piece it together themselves long before she tells them], and she always keeps herself apart when they flirt with her or each other. the implication being gwen is closeted but just aware enough of her sexuality to crave kinship with other queer women.

MISC: KITTY PRYDE

assassin gwen has a bit of tension with.

like felicia, kitty is also paralleled to gwen as another rageful young woman with a complex relationship to her father (though kitty's is alive and she kinda hates him), who has trouble retaining her agency and is being manipulated by murdock

and like felicia, kitty is also bisexual in 616.

MISC: CINDY MOON AND JESSICA DREW, 616

when gwen teams up with both women, there's no tension. gwen and cindy dislike each other, and gwen views jess as a mentor.

jess asks gwen if she’s interested in a boy or girl romantically, which gwen never answers. its possible that jess has figured out that gwen is queer… but she might also just be covering her bases. regardless the possibility of her being bi is first teased out loud here.

gwen's dislike of cindy stems from "being afraid she'll end up like her." cindy (... who has the most romantic tension with other women) spent a decade sealed in a vault by a man she trusted, she was hunted the moment she got out, and hurled at peter as his hypersexual 'soulmate' by the writers. that's what gwen is afraid will happen to her.

as for her relationships with men...

it's rough. the latour run is bookended by gwen encountering male villains who want to exploit her sexually and punish her for not being attracted to them: gwen's backstory kicks off with lizard attacking her because she accepted a date with a different guy, and gwen's first villain encounter in the present is rhino, who gropes gwen while they're fighting. the story ends with gwen defeating murdock, who has a sleazy obsession with her.

i mention this because the context is important: gwen's got a lot of trauma related to being forced into intimate situations she doesn't want. not just with her villains. with her friends too. and often those friends become villains because they want an intimate relationship with her at any cost.

PETER PARKER 65

peter and gwen are childhood best friends and neighbors. even though she's referred to as his "girlfriend" by peter's bullies, that's all they are. friends.

peter parker was attracted to gwen. he resents that they aren't in a relationship, and that she's the one protecting him from bullies. he's jealous when harry asks her to the prom, and his lizard rampage is triggered by seeing harry that night.

he's also infatuated with spider-woman's power, and wants it for himself. he doesn't seem to know she and gwen are the same person, but he's still possessive of both sides of her.

gwen's origin story kicks off when she literally has to kill peter parker to start her character development as spider-woman.

and how does she kill him? by "breaking his heart" -- physically, by bashing his ribcage in. and emotionally, by not wanting to be his girlfriend.

gwen was not attracted to peter at all. she only ever refers to him as her 'friend' and mentions she never had feelings for him multiple times, to harry, to miles, to gwen-617. given that she just learned that in most universes they're a couple, and had to deal with dozens of peters pushing that vibe onto her, it makes sense that she'd be so insistent about this.

it's also interesting that she keeps this information secret from all the spider-people during this run. now that we know she and her peter were never involved romantically, that means all those moments where she seemed into the alternate peters weren't genuine. she was faking it.

the thing that gwen's world turns on her over and sends her to prison for is "breaking peter's heart." it's not following through with comphet. gwen literally gets demonized and locked up for not being straight.

SIDEBAR: CLONE CONSPIRACY (2016)

it's not clear when this event occurs in gwen's chronology. she has spider-powers and doesn't mention her power-ups, so though this was published during the power-up pill arc, it seems to take place before gwen loses her powers. so best i can figure, clone conspiracy takes place after gwen reunites with harry and they forgive each other and before she encounters cindy and jess from 616 (additional proof: during the spider-women crossover, the mary janes are shocked when gwen turns up; it makes more sense if she's been in 616 for a few weeks than if they just saw her at the bonfire).

anyway: gwen travels to 616 to help kaine infiltrate the jackal's latest clone nonsense, and impersonate the resurrected gwen stacy. during this time gwen and kaine spend possibly weeks alone together. and gwen spends a lot of time literally replacing the girl she's constantly compared to.

gwen and kaine have chemistry and a mutual protective streak towards each other. they were an effective team during their time alone, and bonded over their common status as the inferior doppelgangers of 616 icons. at one point gwen likely undressed in front of him. i'd say it's all incidental, but then they're paralleled to peter and gwen-616.

so yeah that shit's on purpose.

basically the vibe is that gwen and kaine probably hooked up or had some kind of tryst off-page while they were investigating the jackal, but then got back to business.

if it did indeed happen, gwen's first and to-date only sexual encounter was with a much older man who has the face of the dead best friend she had no feelings for and killed because he kept coming on to her, and this hookup occurred at a time gwen was extremely fucked-up about said friend's death, aware that all the spider-men expect her to have feelings for him... and peter-616 in particular (who kaine is cloned from, and who has a mixed-to-negative relationship with him). so there are other factors at play that aren't attraction.

if gwen got with kaine, it was most likely a mix between a sense of obligation (fine, she'll screw a version of peter) and maybe an act of rebellion (but not the peter anyone wants) or sabotage (she's choosing the guy that'll make the peter she's expected to be with too uncomfortable to even think of going further with her... and it worked).

it's worth mentioning though that the encounter, if it happened, seemed to work out fine for them both at first. they're not awkward, angry, regretful or uncomfortable, they work together well, they part on good terms... but when gwen's back in her own world, she later mumbles about how she dislikes clones and she makes no effort to be close with kaine ever again. if they hit it, they quit it and though gwen was cool with it at the time, she later sours to the experience.

takeaway: this gwen's being depicted as straight again. but in context, she seems to be trying to negotiate with or subvert comphet.

BACK TO LATOUR

soon after clone conspiracy's published, sitting in a tree happens. the writers seem to have realized a few years into spider-gwen's existence (and a few years removed from the amazing spider-man movies) that a gwen-peter romance would be a terrible idea... so they're tossing her at alternative spider-men to see what sticks.

[all the more relevant when gwen-617 essentially looks into the camera and says "stop trying to force her to be a love interest. she's her own person."]

MILES MORALES

siat is a mess. for these issues only, gwen is smitten with miles-- who she barely knows-- and then barely mentions him for the rest of the run (and is never wistful or pining when she does).

the whole team-up feels like two writers with very different takes on the relationship fighting each other. bendis wants gwiles, latour doesn't. the characterization's all over the place.

(so are the ages. gwen's 19-going-on-20, but based on gwen8's canon age of 38 and the 20-year-anniversary announcement of her wedding to miles... i guess bendis thinks she's 18? also, miles is 15-16 here but insists he's almost 17.)

the event, split between miles and gwen's solos, is also split between their povs. relevant because it turns out that they have slightly different perceptions of the events.

in siat, gwen constantly initiates touch with miles. she grabs his hands and wrists, leans on him, clings to him, whispers reassurances in his ear, stares deep into his eyes. on the surface, it looks like she's into him.

his entire side of the story, told in retrospect to his buddies, reads her behavior as swoony and romantic. the whole time miles thinks he's The Man for attracting this hot older spider-woman. he never picks up on any of her signals, or if he did, he ignored them.

(and kept ignoring them, because later in champions, miles calls gwen his "girlfriend from another dimension" when he's trying to impress the team. they don't buy it and drag his ass for it, but he still did it. miles views her as a status symbol.)

when they discuss her peter, she says he "followed her around like a puppy"... just like miles does in siat. and since gwen wasn't into peter... hm. wonder what that implies.

miles and murdock, who are both canonically attracted to gwen and want relationships with her, have a dick measuring contest. you could read it as 'miles, the good suitor, is standing up against matt, the bad one'…. or, as them being juxtaposed to show how similar they are: both impose on gwen a relationship she doesn't want and neither cares about her agency. you know, like peter did.

miles keeps pushing gwen's boundaries and not listening to her. he takes too long to let go when they hug. he puts her in danger when she tells him not to take her webslinging (she doesn't have powers) and he does anyway; yes, he ~saved her from falling~ but he pulled her off the edge of a building in the first place. he follows her into a club when she tells him to wait outside. he doesn't tell her about his invisibility power when she'd need to know about it. he trusts her, but not that much.

throughout the event they keep having ~romantic moments~ that are interrupted by discomfort: are they awkward teens... or do they just not have chemistry?

when gwen and miles encounter kamala khan, who at the time was his potential love interest, and the vibe is ~uh oh, miles's two girlfriends are in the same place~... miles gets flustered. kamala gets twitchy and concerned. gwen isn't either. she even invites kamala along on the mission, and sticks with kamala instead of miles.

when she and kamala are alone together, and kamala tries to say she's cool with gwen and miles being a couple... gwen gets embarrassed, says "why can't we just be friends" and when kamala misreads again, she facepalms. when gwen's alone, she drops all interest in miles. which means when gwen's with miles, she's faking it.

when they discuss having variants with preexisting relationships gwen says she feels "twisted up lately" and is used to doing "whatever it takes" to get through hard situations. she's not saying she wants to be with him; she's saying she feels pressured to.

and then she's lured to earth-8, where she sees the Perfect Future created by gwen and miles marrying and having a perfect nuclear family... gwen's reaction isn't excited or awestruck. she asks if she's hallucinating, she looks underwhelmed, and only smiles when she's leaving. she brings the kids, but only as reinforcements for a fight she's reentering.

gwen suspects she was taken there on purpose, and implies she thinks earth-8 is the answer to her problems. and then kisses miles.

there are two depictions of the kiss in siat. one is from miles's pov, at the start of the story when he's recounting it to his friends. you've seen it. it's pink-toned, sexy and dramatic... but only in his memory.

the other is from gwen's pov, as it happens. it's depicted as distant, cold and dark, with their faces in shadow. from her pov, it was not a good experience.

gwen immediately pulls back, apologizes, and can't give a clear a answer as to why she regrets it, but insists she doesn't want to replicate earth-8, that if they get together she "can't feel like we didn't have a say. like we got forced by the hand of fate"... third time she's said she feels forced.

she makes him promise to stay friends. though she promises it's just "for now" she never follows up and immediately goes on the run with another future love interest.

also, while on the run with said love interest, she contemplates fleeing to another dimension, and after considering earth-8, she dismisses it altogether, says earth-8 is no safe haven, and commits to standing her ground in a battle they think they have little chance at winning. gwen would rather risk death than return to earth-8.

even though earth-8 is sold to her as an ideal future, she clearly disagrees. it's not gwen's ideal future, it's miles's.

remember gwen's issue with cindy? oh look, gwen's worst fear is coming true: she's trapped, pressured by forces outside her control into a relationship with a spider-man she has a dubious amount of consent in, and that relationship is turning her into an object. the only difference is instead of being a sex object, gwen is a status symbol and vessel for children. gwen's worst nightmare is miles's dream come true.

the story feels like gwen going through comphet, trying to make herself like miles and failing. and/or pretending to reciprocate to avoid hurting his feelings-- probably because the last time gwen was bluntly uninterested in a boy who puppy-dogs after her, he tried to kill her friend. the trauma's not keeping her from being with him. it's keeping her from rejecting him bluntly.

for future ref: gwen and miles never go on a solo adventure together again. every time they're together, it's in a group setting where she's friendly but unattracted. she makes no effort to see him on her own, and avoids him when he reaches out with romantic interest. one has to assume she's uncomfortable with being alone with him for that reason.

much later, we learn that the omniscient watchers [implied to be stand-ins for the writers/fans] overseeing gwen's world have already written her off as destined to become gwen-8. in other words, god has already decided that gwen's purpose is as a wife and mother, and in order to be accepted, gwen has to be straight, whether she likes it or not.

gwen-617 refers to gwen-65's future being determined [as earth-8] as "wrong," "dark" and "toxic." and that it perpetuates a "cycle" she, another spider-gwen, intends to break.

it's implied she sent gwen to earth-8 and earth-617, the two possible known futures for a spider-gwen-- the one she'll be forced into, and the one she'd actually want-- so she'll be able to tell the difference and save herself before it's too late.

HARRY OSBORN

both he and peter are gwen's high school friends who have one-sided crushes on her.

harry asks gwen to the prom, she agrees but seems indifferent about his proposal and oblivious to it having been romantic in nature. she also doesn't meet him there or at all once peter attacks. so she didn't exactly turn him down or accept him.

unlike peter, gwen doesn't repeatedly insist she was never attracted to harry.

when harry returns two years later, he's still carrying a torch for her but maintains that they are friends and never tries to push anything else on her.

talking to harry is enough for gwen to break through to him, and they embrace.

harry's treated as the foil of peter parker in the latour run-- both are nerdy, bullied boys gwen befriends in high school, whose attraction to her she's (while in high school) indifferent to, who become villainous as a result of abuse and ostracization and take lizard serum to punish her. however, peter does it to punish her for accepting another guy's attention. harry does it to punish her for killing peter, but forgives her, and reforms into a close ally of gwen's.

in short, harry did what peter couldn't: he was able to understand that gwen's her own person who makes her own choices, and to let go of his anger and break the cycle of violence that caused it.

this could mean that unlike peter, harry accepts gwen as a friend.

or unlike peter, gwen reciprocates his feelings.

either works.

right after siat, harry osborn returns. the end note that gwen and miles are essentially in an arranged marriage immediately being followed up by gwen running away with another boy she has tension with? that shit's on purpose.

the predators arc is all about how deeply connected gwen and harry are: he can call her from across the world and she'll drop everything to come to his side. they'll run away together and live on the lam. she'll care for him while he's sick. they'll fight for each other, they'll keep each other alive, their history runs deep and the symbiote is made of, among other things, a piece of each of them.

during their time in madripoor gwen and harry become much more touchy. they're constantly clinging to each other by the end of the event.

gwen's feelings for harry seem to evolve over the run from platonic during high school to something deeper by the time they part ways in madripoor. they never kiss or acknowledge any feelings, they never go on a date, but something has shifted.

it's still ultimately ambiguous as to whether this dynamic is romantic or platonic.

THE SYMBIOTE

in madripoor, gwen creates and then absorbs the venom symbiote, which restores her powers without a need for power-up pills, grants her a new set of abilities unique to her, and frees her from murdock's control...

though it takes a few very difficult weeks for her to get used to it, and she has to change her behavior and open up to others if she wants to maintain control of it. like with 616, a symbiote and its host are a relationship unto themselves.

when the symbiote is created by gwen, it's to save harry. and when gwen gains control of it, it's thanks to the sound of her band. the people gwen has the strongest emotional connections to are the reason why she's able to regain her power and be her most authentic self. (in other words, gwen's at her most free when she embraces her feelings for both men and women)

her symbiote "makes you who you always wanted to be" and removes your inhibitions-- it doesn't corrupt you, it reveals who you were all along. gwen isn't in a relationship with a sentient being, she's in a relationship with herself.

so what does gwen want all along? gwen's symbiote helps her escape a situation threatening to take her agency away. it helps her maintain her freedom by taking her on the lam, and eliminates and menaces people she views as threats to her and her father's safety.

she also finally reveals her identity to her friends, the parkers, and the entire city.

gwen's symbiote gives her a repulsive, frightening appearance and makes it difficult to be sexualized or touched without her consent. probably pretty appealing for a girl who keeps being pressured into intimate situations she doesn't want.

it's mentioned by the watchers that gwen keeping her symbiote would jeopardize the earth-8 future, and her earth-8 children refer to it as gwen's 'greatest villain' who she presumably defeated before marrying miles. why? what about the symbiote makes it such a threat, other than that an uninhibited gwen would never want to live in heteronormative bliss with miles?

this means that gwen-8 either rejected the opportunity to live as her truest self... or had it taken from her, and everyone around her, including her own children, believe it was the right thing to do. we don't actually know what gwen-8 thinks about it-- or anything about her life on earth-8-- because she never actually appears in-canon. we're only told by other people that she Sure Is Happy. hm.

gwen-617 is revealed to have become her world's venom equivalent. of the two futures we see for gwen, one is a heterosexual marriage with a nuclear family where she's kept offscreen so she can't tell us what she honestly thinks about her life, and the other's a single, childless, uninhibited gwen who bounces through the multiverse protecting other gwens' agency. one gwen loses and demonizes her symbiote, the other uses it as a source of empowerment.

so literally, having the symbiote sets gwen free from her worst fear: having to be spider-man's love interest.

gwen-617 bursts into earth-8, the heteronormative world, and tells the watchers [and the readers/writers they represent] upset that it might not happen: "what about this is so scary to you?" it's a challenge to let gwen be single, queer and independent in her own world instead of becoming some guy's girlfriend again.

even though gwen-65 has no idea this conversation occurs, she still makes the choice to voluntarily re-host her symbiote and stay in her world after her release from prison despite being able to move to 616. she's choosing to take after 617.

in other words, gwen's embracing her queerness in her own world for the first time, when she could recloset herself or leave for another world where she still has a 'secret identity' as a normal, read: straight girl.

the takeaway: gwen is definitely queer. we just don't know what kind of queer. she might be a lesbian. she might be bisexual. she might be asexual.

regardless, she starts the run concealing her true self from her loved ones as she grapples with guilt over peter [over not being straight], resists giving in to comphet, and ends the run by becoming her most authentic self and coming out in her own world.

IN SPIDERGEDDON (2018)

key words: own world. when gwen's in spiderverse events, she's depicted as more girlbossy and chipper than she is at home, and also doesn't use her symbiote much or at all, even when she logically would.

again this is probably due to writers being unfamiliar with her personality or powers. which means in-universe, gwen has kept it to herself.

so in a sense, gwen's still closeted to the other spider-people because she's afraid they'll reject her if they find out she's 'not one of them.' (remember: her first exposure to the spiderverse consisted of being constantly come onto by peter after peter. she knows what they want from her and that if she isn't in the club, she'll be vulnerable to interdimensional threats). for instance, the one time gwen does use her symbiote in spidergeddon, she waits until all the spider-men she's with leave first, even though she's in serious danger. very telling.

anyway: gwen's at the center of a subtle love triangle with hobie and miles that was definitely inspiration for atsv.

unlike in atsv, while miles still carries a torch for gwen, she's friendly to him but indifferent to his crush. (note that this event came out the same year as itsv, where miles's one-sided crush on gwen is a plot point. synergy.)

but when hobie shows affection, this time she's receptive to him.

contrast gwen's reactions to hobie and miles. when miles gushes over gwen, she throws him a peace sign and keeps her distance. when hobie throws himself at her for a hug, she lets him have it and keeps coming back for more.

there's a clear difference: gwen was serious about not wanting a romantic relationship with miles and is keeping that door shut. she feels the opposite about hobie-- initially she was only interested in friendship, but as of spidergeddon her feelings have evolved. this hug is probably the moment something shifted.

gwen stays close to hobie throughout the event. they're always together during the fighting and are drawn to each other after the funeral. they're constantly protecting and checking in on each other. (... and gwen is more concerned about him than peter and miles)

gwen returns his embrace, see above.

both assume responsibility for the funerals: he leads the eulogy, she informs the dead's loved ones.

she also reciprocates his touches (not dissimilar to what she does with harry when he returns from abroad).

she confides in him about her visit to earth-3109, the world where gwen and em jay are a couple. his immediate response is to insist on staying with her for support and tell her she doesn't have to fight her battles alone. he knows.

hobie suggests they find time to hang out together again. gwen shuts it down because she doesn't want to stress the collapsing multiverse. even though gwen isn't as enthusiastic about meeting again as hobie is, she's sad when they part ways, so it seems like she wanted to say yes.

they haven't interacted again, so i guess the vibe still stands.

very interesting that we're revisiting gwen's connection with hobie and making the interest mutual. remember, the last time they met, gwen was pretty firmly regarded as peter's love interest and wasn't allowed to like anyone but him. now that we're officially out of the Peter's Designated Girlfriend era, she can reciprocate. when gwen takes steps towards emancipation, she gets closer to hobie.

also, another confirmation that she knew peter-65 was attracted to her, and that she was uncomfortable with it. she wasn't unresponsive because she was oblivious-- she was trying to discourage peter. you know, exactly like what she's doing with miles during this event.

the takeaway: gwen's not comfortable enough around other spider-people to be herself, but she's getting firmer about rejecting comphet. she's still interested in some men though.

IN THE MCGUIRE RUN (2018-2021)

GWEN'S GENDER IDENTITY

... yeah there's not much for the trans coding. nothing disproves the reading but not much supports it either.

people glaring at the sight of gwen on a date with harry, gaping at her, politicizing her when it's convenient, jumping at the chance to demonize her at the slightest indication that she did something wrong... sure, it could be her city reacting to her as an out trans woman, but it's also that she's a famous controversial superhuman who got out of prison a month ago.

the trans coding still works, but in general, the vibe the power-up pill arc in the latour run gave gwen largely fades away past this run. so she's presumably cis from here on out.

GWEN'S SEXUALITY

gwen, 52 days out of prison at the start, is ready to restart her life and trying to adjust to a world where everyone knows her secret identity. she wants to "have it all"-- a normal college experience, friends, superhero adventures... and yes, she tries dating too. it doesn't end well.

("have it all" is a phrase famously associated with the modern career woman. think every 90s romcom protagonist: if you can juggle a heterosexual relationship, a family, a social life and a career, you 'have it all.' like earth-8 gwen. so gwen, fresh out of prison, is trying to emulate this ideal.)

gwen's coming off of having been locked up and abused for a series of events that started with her not being romantically interested in a boy... and is emerging into a community that has mixed feelings about her.

she can't perform with her queer friends without the venue being bombed.

she can't go on a date without being kicked out of the building because the sight of her is upsetting the customers.

she has to go to school in another city where no one knows her because at home she's gaped at.

and even at school, someone figures out What She Is, stalks her, kidnaps her, and tries to sexually exploit her.

she's constantly scrutinized by the media.

her identity is used as a political prop.

she's ultimately driven out in favor of sue and johnny storm-- two gorgeous, palatable straight celebrities who literally play up an incest vibe for ratings; so any straight activity is preferable to a single queer woman-- and has to flee to 616 to avoid being imprisoned again.

put into context, the latour run was about gwen coming to peace with her queerness, coming out and winning the support of her loved ones. the mcguire run is about gwen being rejected by her community after doing so and the consequences of that trauma.

said consequences being: gwen starts to regress to protect herself.

she cozys up to the cops instead of questioning their practices

she tries dating a boy

she starts spending a lot of time in another community where she isn't out to anyone but a single friend

she starts dressing like that community's preferred version of her (from here on out she has gwen-616's haircut, and her style is no longer androgynous and grungy.

she flees to that community when she's kicked out of her own, and stays in the closet while she's there.

(note that this run came out the year of itsv, and the status quo for this run is 'gwen becomes a multiverse-jumping spider who loves hanging out with peter and miles.' this was the first big attempt at forcing gwen into 616, and it's all for spiderverse synergy.)

HARRY OSBORN

the run opens with gwen running into harry and agreeing to eat with him at a diner. they bond, she shares her spider-gwen experiences with him, and they hold hands at one point.

but the interactions are ambiguous: are these dates, or just friends getting food? harry's still into gwen, but does she like him back?

after two more occurrences of this, he formally asks her out. and she agrees... while telling herself it's "normal".

she also needs no clarification that it's a date, so their diner meetups were dates too.

this is the end of the ambiguity about gwen's feelings for harry. nope, it's not just that he's her friend. it's romantic.

[so clearly, gwen's feelings shifted from platonic to something more before she went to prison and after harry returned from abroad. i'm guessing it happened when they reconciled after the green goblin fight. remember that very shippy embrace? and how the next time they meet right after siat, gwen drops everything to run across the world to his side? yeah.]

[also, gwen and harry discuss the prom, and refer to each other as having been each other's dates. so in hindsight, gwen does see herself as having accepted his proposal.]

but when they go on a formal date-- dressing up, gwen being given flowers, going out to a nice restaurant as a formal couple-- her internal monologue is nervous, she's taken aback by how expensive everything is, and panics and leaves in a rush.

to be clear, she flees because they're asked to leave the restaurant because the patrons recognize and are bothered by gwen. gwen tells harry she can't go through with the relationship because she thinks being a public figure makes dating too difficult... but something else might be going on here.

it isn't that she isn't attracted to him. even though she calls him a "really good friend" gwen continues to get touchy with harry, seek out his company, puts him on the same level of importance as the band, says he keeps her "sane" and that she "needs" him. they go back to casual diner dates and he turns up at her gig to support her. so gwen clearly does have feelings for him. and he's still into her, but willing to take things at her pace.

harry's even supportive of gwen being a superhero (... unlike em jay). he reassures her when she's doubtful. he's someone she confides in about her activities. he helps her access oscorp so they can investigate her symbiote together. he's worried she doesn't have any use for him since he doesn't have powers. he wants to be a part of her superhero life, but doesn't pressure her into making room for him.

like with miles, harry's written out quickly and never returns, but unlike miles, it's because harry gets put in a coma. he and gwen have a shippy bridal carry and she sits by his bedside, but after the mcguire run he's awakened offpanel and they haven't interacted again on-page.

there is no closure to their relationship.

PETER PARKER 616

the shippy vibe of spiderverse is dead. gwen and peter have a brother-sister dynamic.

she even takes shots at the idea that people think they might date, and keeps stressing that he's too old for her and she's not into him.

this all unfolds as gwen tells peter about her symbiote. he's the only spider-person who knows about it other than her.

revealing the symbiote and slamming the door on ever being interested in him romantically feel linked.

THE JACKAL

a 616 villain. empire state professor who's obsessed with cloning and "in love" with 616's gwen stacy. tracks spider-gwen to her home dimension and kidnaps her, straps her to a gurney, and declares he wants to keep her forever. another creepy man who wants to possess her.

MISC

gwen mentions miles is her friend a few times but makes no effort to see him when she's in 616, and cites him being in school as why (note that gwen brings up that peter's too old, and miles is too young). that 'friendship' is all spiderverse movie synergy.

gwen's 616 classmate, kosei, seems to have a crush on her. after a few interactions, she has a charged moment with him. it goes nowhere and we never see him again.

it gets real spicy when we get to the girls.

specifically, EM JAY

gwen begins the run circling a romance with harry, but then is dropped into an alternate dimension where gwen and mj are a couple (and peter and harry might have been one too). then, after gwen returns, she can't quite commit to a relationship with harry and he's conveniently written away as em jay comes into focus.

gwen starts noticing em jay's feelings for her, becoming more attentive to her and showing her special attention. if i had to guess, seeing gwen goblin/mj made gwen realize she could have that too (... or she feels as obligated to the gwen/mj relationship as she is to the gwen/spider-man one).

gwen notices em jay's written a song about wanting to be picked by a noncommital love interest, but dismisses it being about her.

em's belligerent crush attitude is back.

gwen's first instinct when the jackal threatens the girls is to protect em, even though glory and betty are also there.

gwen uses her portal necklace to take the janes to another dimension's version of em's favorite band, and plans to do it even more. all four girls are there, but gwen's attention is all on em jay. she and em jay throw their arms around each other and em jay's wearing a "latveria is for lovers" shirt.

and get this: glory's right there and doesn't mind. (also of note: glory commenting about em and betty hooking up. could be a joke, could be a sign the girls really are in a polycule. regardless, glory isn't the jealous type... at least for now)

when gwen's exiled by the storms, her final voicemail is to em jay.

the end of the run is devoted entirely to the tension in gwen and em jay's relationship bubbling over and imploding. the entire gwenom vs carnage event is incredibly gay.

first of all, gwen's roommates in 616 look exactly like the janes. so while stranded in 616, gwen made little effort to hang out with any of the spider-people there, including the men she's been shipped with, and sought out the closest thing to the band she could get.

jackal kidnaps em jay for an experiment intended to locate gwen because em has a "bond" with gwen (remember: he noticed gwen protecting her over the other girls), and infuses her with some of gwen's symbiote...

which causes her to teleport across dimensions to gwen by bursting through her heart. and to turn into carnage.

so, just like gwen, em jay's symbiote was activated by intense feelings towards men and women (fear of the jackal, love of gwen).

the symbiote, arguably a metaphor for her queerness, is what alienated gwen and em yet now connects them. it helps them work out their issues, but is also causing their conflict. hm.

throughout this run, gwen is interested in learning about her symbiote's potential with harry as it begins acting up... at the exact same time she's drawn towards em jay. in other words, she's exploring her sexuality with a guy, only to find it leading her towards a girl.

during the run, gwen is extremely in touch with her symbiote. she starts using its unique features, like her gummy spiders, and it even appears often-- and always in reaction to gwen being hurt, cornered or feeling threatened. at this point, gwen's symbiote has a clear motivation: defense, survival and protection-- of her, of people she views as vulnerable. she lets go of her reservations when she feels her physical safety-- and her freedom are threatened.

since 65 symbiotes remove their hosts' inhibitions, we learn em has been hiding a deep jealousy that gwen got the power and public attention instead of her, the frontwoman. she's angry that gwen's presence in her life has made it so difficult and that gwen left.

the conflict is that these girls who love each other a lot but not quite in the same way miss each other and want to be in each other's lives again. gwen comes to understand how hurt em is, but not why. em can't understand that gwen genuinely can't help her lack of commitment. so the conflict ends unresolved.

we get a flashback of gwen and em in middle school, and learn em first thought of the band then, as an activity she wanted to do with gwen together. the vibe's that em has had feelings for gwen for years, envisioned a future where they're together, and is upset that it hasn't come to pass. another layer to the conflict.

em jay, like harry, mimics peter parker: both em and peter are childhood friends of gwen's who have crushed on her for years, and are angry that their love is unrequited. both go on monstrous rampages to punish her for not returning their feelings and becoming someone they cannot control with a life that does not center them.

a shippy 'it's not you, i know you're in there' fight ensues, with gwen pulling her punches, trying to talk em down, and the girls landing on top of each other.

when discussing peter's death and her spider-heroics, gwen says she did it to protect harry... and em jay. (even though em was never threatened by the lizard fight at all)... this isn't about peter. this is about how gwen now thinks of harry and em in the same light. both are love interests to her now. (or, she understands both are attracted to her, but cannot reciprocate)

the fight starts when em jay literally bursts out of gwen's heart and ends with em in gwen's arms.

the mcguire run is bookended by gwenjay. it starts with gwen learning that in another world she and em jay are a couple, and ends in em jay's feelings for gwen erupting, and gwen's just starting to evolve.

SIDEBARS

the glory-gwen vibe from the latour run is gone. gwen no longer confides in her or has any vibey moments with her. i guess she had a bit of a crush and is over it now.

betty's interest in gwen has cooled off too. just friends.

sue storm has no chemistry with gwen, but she is foiled with her: both are blonde famous superhumans. gwen uses her powers responsibly but keeps being perceived as a villain; sue maintains a hero's reputation but is secretly evil. sue is beautiful and cares about her appearance, gwen's canonically mid-looking and isn't interested in being attractive to others. sue gains her powers by seducing dr doom; gwen gains hers by 'taking a boy's place' and denying him intimacy. sue plays along with the system and it rewards her, gwen tries to resist it and it spits her out. mentioned because sue is the female hero who forcibly takes gwen's place as new york's protector-- the one-two punch of earth-8/sue storm has given gwen a very clear picture of what she has to be like in order to be tolerated: she needs to cater to the male gaze, play along with the boys, partner up with a man, and get her power sneakily.

the takeaway: gwen's feelings for harry are confirmed as romantic. she also begins to reciprocate em jay's feelings for her... but doesn't seem totally aware that she does. the subtext is that gwen's bi or pansexual.

but as gwen's feelings start to evolve, her comfort with them devolves. now that she's out, gwen's trying to 'have it all' to regain her lost sense of normalcy and make herself palatable enough to be tolerated, but it fails. she loses the people she's trying to protect, wrecks two relationships before they can even begin, and the straight people she's trying to placate drive her out anyway, to a different city that's less accepting of her, where she goes back in the closet and stays.

coming out isn't a one-and-done thing. you do it over and over to everyone you meet, in every place you go-- and though sometimes, it's safer to keep it to yourself, it takes a serious toll on your relationships and your sense of self. that's the new status quo for spider-gwen going forward.

... it's not a happy story, but it's a very queer one.

LAST REMAINS (2020-2021)

(takes place before gwenom vs carnage, but probably after gwen's exiled.)

gwen and the order of the web protect peter as he deals with the return of the green goblin. they get briefly possessed by kindred, tear up 616, get better, get kidnapped and end up in a creepy dinner party setup the villain uses to punish peter.

not much to report. gwen interacts with cindy, julia, jessica, anya, peter and miles, and there's not a hint of romantic tension.

she and miles don't mention siat or his gushiness over her in spidergeddon, and behave like coworkers. given that tiana's in the picture by now, he's hopefully over gwen. or at the bare minimum, he can behave himself around her now.

with peter, she puts her foot down on not being a stand-in for his gwen or needing to be defended by him when norman skeeves out on her. which, great for her. but peter's backsliding into treating her like a gwen616 placeholder. years into their friendship, he still can't stop himself. and don't give the ~unhand her~ moment any credit: it's not about protecting gwen, it's about peter showing off how badass he is. gwen is back to being a vessel for his Dead Girlfriend Feelings.

... and none of their friends say or do anything about it.

symbiote sidebar: in general, during gwen's exile to 616 and during all the multiverse minis, gwen doesn't reference her symbiote once or use its unique abilities, even when she logically would. she uses it for spider-powers, and for quick changes, but nothing else. gwen hasn't rejected it, and has remained in control of it, but that's all.

apply the allegory and you get: gwen doesn't hate herself for her queerness, but doesn't feel comfortable enough to reveal it to anyone and only embraces the parts of it that help her fit in... and that behavior is starting to bleed over even when she's at home.

takeaway: inconclusive. gwen has no tension with anyone, and she's still holding her ground about not being a love interest, but peter's no longer listening to her.

SIDEBAR: SPIDER-PUNK (2022)

aside from hobie continuing to have an interest in gwen-- though he refers to her as a friend-- he drops her name to mattea murdock, who has the gayest possible design and a strong queer vibe (... and red hair and a name starting with the letter m) with kamala-138, and suggests they'd get along great.

you could interpret it a few different ways, including hobie wanting the girl he likes to meet his friends, and---because gwen told him about her time in gwen goblin's universe, including who that gwen was in a relationship with, hobie noticed that gwen's into women--- he's trying to set her up with his friend.

since he's spider-punk, i think both interpretations are correct; his entire friend group's got a polycule feel, most of them are canonically queer and even the ones that aren't have a strong queer vibe-- hobie included. if anything he probably wants her to join the polycule.

included here because even without gwen appearing in the miniseries, it keeps building the context: the only spider-man we know gwen hasn't rejected the advances of is the one who realized that gwen is queer, and he's supportive of it. he is also the first person outside of earth-65, and the first spider-person, who gwen has come out to.

GWENVERSE (2022)

not much to report here. gwen's still single. no sign of harry. no symbiote. gwen meets many alternate versions of herself. her characterization is very off the whole time, it's not clear how she made it back to her dimension after her exile and some of the lore is wrong (em didn't start the band with gwen; she started it with glory). it's very somehow-palpatine-returned.

but there are a lot of shippy moments with women here.

there's this moment where spider-zero saves her. and since zero is younger than miles and gwen is over 20 that's the most i want to say about it. gwen's age is another thing that seems to have been forgotten.

gwen visits a universe where the mj variant is ecstatic that gwen's a hero and fangirls out on her. and spider-zero seems a little annoyed that the woman she's into is getting attention from someone else.

this moment feels very shippy, especially since gwen just came from a world where her em is angry that being ghost-spider is pulling her away from the band.

... but gwen is uncomfortable with mj wanting to hug her. could be that this isn't the em jay she wants approval from. could be that gwen's interest in em jay has faded and she doesn't see her like that anymore. could be that even if em embraces gwen's powers, it still won't be enough for them to work as a couple. needs more data.

takeaway: she's still in her Have It All era, though: dipping out of her unaccepting home with another girl to meet women? hm.

SIDEBAR: END OF SPIDER-VERSE (2022)

gwen is a minor character in this crossover. nobody flirts with her, nobody comes onto her, and she's too busy trying to stab peter to take interest in anyone.

but since she's possessed by shathra the whole time, she and all the other waspified spiders she's with during this event (including miles and hobie) are out of character for the whole crossover. we can't really take anything here as evidence for an argument.

(no symbiote, btw. so as far as we know, she's still keeping it a secret.)

takeaway: inconclusive

SIDEBAR: GWENPOOL (2023)

gwenpool / gwendolyn poole isn't actually a variant of gwen stacy. gwen poole is a totally different woman.

however, everyone assumes they're variants, to the point where gwen's marvel rising adaptation ended up with her pink hair because her concept artist accidentally referenced gwen poole. this hair has been adapted for the spiderverse movies too so at this point it's gonna be here to stay and most people assume they're variants.

i'm mentioning her here because of the potential impact of this character's sexuality on the overall perception of spider-gwen:

gwenpool is canonically aroace. she has an entire comic about that experience, mentions it multiple times elsewhere, and has worn the flag.

and if almost everyone who sees gwenpool assumes she's gwen stacy... you do the math.

MISC ALTERNATE GWENS

first and foremost, gwen-616. dater of men, lover of guys with football player builds, infamous love interest of peter parker. clearly intended to be straight at the time she was written, though she's had a few 👀 moments with mj. this is the gwen spider-gwen was created in response to and is constantly compared to and in conversation with. notably, everyone (friends and enemies; by characters within the stories, and the writers and audience who make and receive them) treats spider-gwen as a copy or lesser version of gwen-616.

an alternate spider-gwen is a valkyrie who has a charged moment with an mj. gay.

spider-gwen and mj get vibey during a zombie apocalypse in a-force (... as early as 2015). gay.

gwen-8, supposedly a 'possible future' of gwen-65 who leaves her world, marries miles and has his kids. definitely intended to be straight. but if it really IS gwen-65, given all the coding, she's closeted and miserable and i hope she goes out for cigarettes and never comes back

gwen-617, a split-timeline version of 616 gwen stacy who doesn't die on the bridge, eventually leaves her peter parker and is content as a seemingly-single woman living as a superhero. inconclusive, but given that she's contrasted to gwen-8, the Straight Option, i think gwen-617 should probably be assumed to be queer.

marvel action gwen: a continuity where she, miles and peter are high schoolers who attend a daily bugle internship program together and spider-people who work as a team. gwen's just friends with both boys (and is better friends with them here than in the main continuity) with no hint of a romantic subplot with either of them-- though she does get a ship tease with harry osborn. glory has em jay's usual role of being gwen's belligerent band leader bff (make of that what you will). gwen's got an extremely gay fashion sense, discusses clashing with her father over it, and how she's not sure how to move forward with her life because she's "proud of who [she is] but going public could ruin [her] dad's life." she's into guys, but there's a hint of bisexual coding.

earth-3109: the mcguire run opens with gwen spending multiple issues interacting with an alternate version of herself, gwen goblin, who she helps get back together with her mj. this is a lesbian couple marvel won't let kiss or say 'i love you'

what if? dark's spider-gwen is a variant of gwen-616 whose boyfriend peter dies, and has a charged interaction with mj. probably intended as straight, given that it's written by gerry conway

earth-21798: this one's a bit of a reach, but the continuity where gwen stacy becomes the vigilante nightbird involves a backstory where she's preyed on by professor warren and flash thompson-- more abusive comphet-- and studies psychiatry at an asylum, before going insane and being committed there. maybe it's just me, but even though this character's 'based on batgirl'... she screams poison ivy (creepy professor) and harley quinn (abuse+committed to the asylum she once worked at). and harley and ivy are now famously bisexual. harley even shares gwen's status as a female character who spent decades defined as a more prominent male character's love interest, before stepping out of his shadow as her own person as the toxic sexual tension with her redheaded friend comes into focus... who gets put back into that guy's shadow because of a major movie release and will supposedly get a solo movie co-starring with other women a la birds of prey. (fun fact, the writer of the upcoming 2024 ghost-spider ongoing? used to write for harley quinn. hmm.)

RAPID FIRE SHADOW CLONES GWENS:

an alternate gwen is seen marrying a man who looks a lot like peter parker. so, into men at the minimum.

an alternate spider-gwen is male, with the trans flag and symbol (⚧) pinned to his costume.

an alternate gwen is having a fruity mj interaction at college. inconclusive, but probably queer.

an alternate gwen is standing in front of a pride flag.

bringing these up because the number of gwen variants created after spider-gwen debuted that are queer or queer-coded is unusually high. it is more likely for a spider-gwen to be queer than for her to be straight, and the creation of spider-gwen in the first place is what probably tugged all the gwens after her in this direction. there's a growing consensus among the people writing and drawing marvel comics that gwen is queer, even from people who've never written for her at all.

(the animated spider-gwen section isn't here because of organizational issues. i'd recommend rereading it and noting the progression as it relates to the comics canon:

in the earliest days of gwen's character, they tease a relationship with peter or keep her totally uninvolved with any romance.

but as time goes on, she starts gravitating more towards women. (not-so-coincidentally during the mcguire run era, where gwen starts leaning towards em jay romantically.)

and then everything changed when the spiderverse attacked.

-> (... given that these movies take many years to make, they're discussing a canon that's 3-5 years behind the release date.

-> do the math: itsv came out in 2018, and centers gwiles, which was attempted in 2016/17, and depicts gwen the way she was written in sv crossovers: a hypercompetent straight girl here to have a romantic tease with the important spider-man.

-> atsv released in 2023, centers gwiles, which has been a nonentity since 2018, features margo kess and a miles-gwen-hobie love triangle-- both of which only appear in a 2018 event, and calls gwen "spider-woman," when she's been ghost-spider since 2018.

-> Not Great that the atsv script would've been written when gwen's queercoding-- in particular her sapphicness-- was very clearly present in her comics.... and the spiderverse writers completely ignore this, include no positive female relationships with gwen, and emphasize how totally into boys gwen is, and how she prefers the straight boy she has little connection to over the queer boy she's spent months with. so either they didn't bother to read past the first handful of issues in her solo run... or they did, and intentionally left her sexuality out because it would be an obstacle to gwen being miles's future girlfriend.

-> the trans coding is important! but it's still only implication, and switching out one queer identity for another isn't good. they aren't interchangeable. and gender identity and sexual orientation are two different things. she could've been both trans and bi.

-> atsv is clearly taking inspiration from sitting in a tree, but they're inverting the story: now instead of a closeted-queer girl trying to worm her way out of a heteronormative relationship being forced on her by canon... a presumably-straight (but trans-coded) girl wishes she could be in a heteronormative relationship being denied to her by canon. you get that's worse, right?

-> so atsv is simultaneously depicting a queer(-coded) girl coming out... as it's erasing her queerness and insisting that getting a straight boyfriend is the answer to her problems.

-> btsv is probably going to borrow from comics releasing right about now. so given that gwen's sexuality has been all but confirmed this year to be "bi and in the closet" and she’s being dragged out of her homeworld for spiderverse-synergy (… and therefore, gwiles)…. we'll see what beyond the spiderverse does about that. if they ignore it, it's definitely on purpose.

RELIGION SIDEBAR

here because there isn't a better place to put it.

plenty of alternate gwen stacys have had crosses on their graves, gwen-616's mother had a christian memorial service according to the gwen stacy miniseries, and sv gwen says grace with her dad and is irish-american, so is most likely catholic.

the status quo for the stacy family seems to be that they are or were christians.

gwen-65 and her father aren't religious, and haven't been since high school at the latest since it isn't mentioned in the latour run, but given all the other gwens likely had this background, it's more likely that she did than that she didn't.

if we're taking after 616, they likely were at the time of her mother's death. which means the falling-out happened sometime after gwen was a toddler and before age seventeen.

this is a sidebar because if gwen-65 had a religious background it adds a new wrinkle to gwen's tendency towards repressing herself: she likely shares the common queer experience of growing up in a religious household and later distancing herself from said religion (right around the time a lot of kids figure out they're queer), but still holding onto some of the behaviors it instilled in her.

which retroactively means latour-gwen's guilt, repression, initial black-and-white view of right and wrong, need to punish wrongdoers and protect the innocent, and later belief in redemption for herself and others may stem from that upbringing too-- much in the same way that a lot of peter's behavior can be interpreted as coming from his jewish background.

and her perception of fate, canon, and the omniscient watchers will be interpreted through an ex-christian point of view. she's probably going to interpret these concepts in line with god's plan, canon law, and, well, an all-seeing god.

so when gwen discovered the multiverse, and that the higher power she rejected or distanced herself from (probably in part due to queer angst) does seem to exist, and given her usual fate, hates her more than she could have ever possibly imagined... except for in the utopian future where she marries miles, she would absolutely have associated that with "you can only go to heaven if you're straight."

[... during siat, when gwen discovers earth-8, the antagonist gwen's facing a future of being trapped with is the devil of hell's kitchen]

there's no way that wouldn't absolutely fuck her up. the existential horror is off the charts.

(on a less depressing note, since christianity's the default for a gwen, especially a gwen who takes after 616, when gwen-617 tells off the watchers gathered on earth-8... it's a middle-aged queer woman breaking into heaven to tell a hostile god "there was never anything wrong with my younger self, leave her alone.")

in SHADOW CLONES (2023)

gwen interacts with em, but doesn't have any chemistry with her. em's still belligerent, so i guess there's that.

gwen has zero chemistry with a new character, her boss mateo, yet has a crush on him that apparently has existed for three months. he asks her out on a date she bails on to fight crime, and then she asks him out at the end of the miniseries. we never see the date. we don't even know if she went through with it. regardless after this mini he never returns or is referenced. so clearly it didn't work out.

gwen also mentions being interested in dating, and having "some" feelings for mateo-- but believes she's unable to pursue anything thanks to her superhero responsibilities and lack of confidence.

we glimpse dozens of alternate gwens, including yes, one gwen marrying a man--identity unclear, most likely peter. which is extra questionable given that the wedding is juxtaposed with text describing the villain's loss of "a chance for love"-- therefore implying that gwen's 'chance for love' was peter.... does the writer realize that spider-gwen was never attracted to her peter parker?

anyway. there are many more single and queercoded gwens. featuring a panel of our spider-gwen surrounded by them with a pride flag dangling over her head.

like. come on.

shadow clones is... confused. it uses that surface-level girlboss gwen characterization writers unfamiliar with her default to, resurrects her blushy need for a relationship with a guy she's had no romantic interactions with not seen since siat-- and it's all dropped right after.

it also forgets that gwen has a symbiote. and given that her symbiote is tied up in her queercoding... yeah. sounds about right. hey maybe it ate mateo.

the takeaway: shadow clones gwen feels very written-as-straight, but put into context with the rest of her continuity, it feels like gwen's comphetting again in response to spending so much time in limbo between worlds. she's still trying to Have It All. and as she's assimilating back into her own world, part of her process is getting a boyfriend.

but the flag's still there. so at the least, there's an acknowledgment that many of gwen's alternate selves are queer.

... it doesn't feel like a coincidence that this characterization happens the year atsv is released featuring the most boy-crazy spider-gwen yet. or that her out-of-nowhere love interest is a latino guy whose name starts with the letter m. synergy.

(... or that shadow clones introduces a trans-coded genderbent spider-gwen in the same year that spiderverse gwen is coded as a trans girl.)

bonus pride flag easter egg on the backpack:

SMASH & GIANT SIZE (2024)

where we're at now.

[minus the annual where apart from some minor tension with white fox/ami, who gwen has never met before and will never see again, the only thing to note is that gwen's being drawn with a very queer fashion sense: when given an opportunity to put gwen in a bikini, a princess gown and a flapper dress, she's instead given a wetsuit and leather vest, armor, and a suit.]

combining these two because they were written back-to-back by the same writer. same creative vision.

gwen is back with her band, touring for dazzler and co, who are being stalked by earth-65's bruce banner.

this is the first time gwen takes part in a textually queer story, because in issue 3, it's confirmed that em jay is in love with gwen, in issue 4, that gwen doesn't feel the same right now, but believes she could someday. and in giant-size, that one of gwen's greatest fears relates to losing a queer girl to the closet.

CONTINUITY SIDEBAR

glory having a problem with em jay's interest in gwen is a new development, and em using glory as a placeholder for gwen is too (remember how she and glory got together only after reassuring glory that she isn't one?) i guess we can streamline this into:

em tried to move on from gwen, but ultimately couldn't. she just shoved those feelings down without ever letting go of them. gwen's return from prison woke them up, they've been eating at her ever since, and they became toxic during gvc.

glory's fine with em sleeping with other people, but not when serious feelings are involved. or, she tried to be a good sport about it but now that it's fucking up the group dynamic she's on the verge of a breaking point.

gwen started to realize em had feelings for her-- and that she might return them-- but her exile forced her to set that aside and she's compartmentalized it away. now that she's spending more time on 65 and with the girls, they're reemerging because she's starting to poke her head out of the closet again. and if em jay's parting words to gwen are any indication, they're one conversation away from gwen coming out.

anyway. s+gs is FULL of gay shit.

em's jealousy of gwen and dazzler's connection is explicitly romantic, as called out by glory. it's possessive too: emjarnage says dazzler's taking "what doesn't belong to [her]"

so's em's anger that ghost-spider is 'taking gwen away from her'

glory hates being a "third wheel" to gwen and em jay

for the first time since the mcguire run, glory and em jay's relationship is acknowledged. they never kiss, but they're constantly touching and they sleep in the same bed on the tour bus

the tension in the band stems from the glory -> em -> gwen love triangle, now back from the latour days but textually confirmed for the first time

em jay passes up an embrace with glory to hug gwen, and several panels show gwen separating (... coming between) the two of them

smash opens with em jay singing about how her love interest will regret leaving her in the past, as she's looking at gwen.

em jay is kidnapped and gwen comes to save her in a classic damsel-in-distress storyline

em jay's love for gwen is compared to bruce banner-65's stalkerish obsession with dazzler

a dazzler song plays over gwen and emjarnage's fight, about the pain of being in love with a fantasy, and realizing your crush doesn't want you back

even the focus on mutants in the miniseries connects, since mutants are an allegory for minority groups-- increasingly, queer people specifically

dazzler's a mutant pop star. her character in 616 always had connotations of "female pop star with an enormous gay fanbase that she's an outspoken ally of." no surprise that she turns out to be an ally of the mary janes.

natasha romanoff, whose 616 counterpart is bisexual, makes an appearance. doesn't feel like a coincidence.

gwen remembers that em jay likes dazzler's sparkly microphone and gifts it to her at the end of the series.

as of smash, everyone has noticed the tension between gwen and em jay and calls it out. betty jokes about gwen being distracted by em's "big long tongue". (glory gets mad about the joke.) they're called "an unconventional pair" by orlando octavius and a "striking pair" by mortis.

even gwen calls em "thirsty" and offers to... help with that by giving her bottled water. the double entendre is obvious.

when em jay turns into carnage, we get a replay of the i-know-you're-in-there fight from gvc. twice. and both times, em jay's go-to move is pinning gwen to a wall and licking her face as mortis comments about how their dynamic is "complicated".

just like in the jackal confrontation, gwen favors protecting em over glory and betty.

when em jay leaves gwen, it's because their 'partnership' is toxic. the scene is on a rooftop at sunset with another woman pulling away to 'give them a moment', and it ends with them staring into each other's eyes, embracing, and gwen shaking and crying as em jay tells her she loves her. that's our last image of them in this story.

it's queer.

but what kind of queer story is it?

the central conflict, that gwen's queer friend group are angry at her for not being what they want her to be, reads as an allegory for two specific queer experiences:

1: an openly queer friend group being frustrated that a friend they can tell is queer hasn't come out yet. they tried to be patient and supportive and to let her do it on her own terms, but she just isn't getting there on her own, and if anything is regressing and pulling away from them. they're upset, they're concerned... and they're tired. and gwen, still in the closet, can't articulate why she's having such difficulty staying with them.

then gwen ends smash by acknowledging em jay's feelings for her and admitting she's open to a romantic relationship with her (which implies other women are on the table too).

when giant-size picks up right after, all the old signs that she's crushing on em jay are coming back: double entendres aplenty. gwen being more protective of em than the others. gwen getting emotional when em jay leaves her because they're finally getting somewhere with their dynamic and she wants to keep going.

em revealing herself as carnage on live tv is referred to as a "coming-out party"

when gwen sends betty and glory to safety, she throws them in a closet, and one of her worst fears is leaving them in it until they die. or, in other words: losing her relationships with them forever because she never comes out.

gwen has started fearing gwenom, her most uninhibited self, again.

2: variations on the same theme: queerphobia within queer friend groups. the mary janes might not be comprised only of lesbians, but they are completely uninterested in men. that kind of dynamic can be unwelcoming if you don't quite fit the bill. two options here.

-> a: gwen is asexual and her sapphic friend group is mad that she genuinely isn't attracted to them.

they consider booting her out because she's 'not really one of them'

gwen worries that her lack of attachment makes her a bad or broken person

all of em jay's advances on gwen are treated with reluctance and repulsion. gwen does not like being touched by carnage.

or the more likely answer:

-> b: gwen is bisexual and her sapphic friend group is angry that she won't "commit" to 'their side.' and no one's angrier than em jay, the only other confirmed bi girl in the group.

gwen's struggling to reconcile the two sides of herself after spending so much time only favoring one, in a community where the default perception of gwen stacy is Straight Girl.

look again at gwen's dilemma of being torn between two worlds: a world of straight men who want her in a heteronormative relationship that is fundamentally bad for her, that she has no choice but to continue visiting and is under immense pressure to stay in forever; and a world full of queer women who want her to commit to them only, even though it's fundamentally not in her nature to do so. the multiverse-hopper gwen arc is about the bisexual experience.

the girls' problems with gwen are dead ringers for biphobia: she can't commit to us, is she even one of us at all, can we really trust her, that other side of her is causing problems for us, she can hang out with us but she better not bring up What She Is.

em jay hasn't dated or been interested in a male character after committing to the band. she 'chose a side' -- dating women-- and expects the others to as well. gwen included.

she and gwen are the only symbiote hosts. and it takes an emotional response to both male and female characters to activate their symbiotes.

unlike gwen, em jay has no control of her symbiote. when gwen's was like this it was all the way back when she hadn't come to peace with herself yet.

so what's em jay repressing? can't just be her romantic feelings for gwen, because they're out in the open, yet she still has no control.

aside from her lack of anger management and issues with possessiveness, there's something else too: remember em jay's history with internalized biphobia? how she got a reputation as a promiscuous, noncommital, untrustworthy girl and a bad friend?

now, as her relationship with glory's breaking down because em "can't commit" to either her or gwen and she thinks she's about to lose a friend... her reputation's coming true.

em jay's hate of her and gwen's symbiotes goes hand-in-hand with her anger at herself for not being able to get over gwen and at gwen for not loving her back and not "choosing a side" like she did (maybe gwen's fame isn't the only thing em's jealous of).

she outright says she feels like ghost-spider, half of who gwen is, is an obstacle to them being together.

she's taking out her internalized biphobia on gwen.

not a coincidence that this also happens to be a story where symbiotes are used extensively-- the most since the mcguire run.

THE SYMBIOTES

as gwen's reconnecting with her community and her queer friends, and acknowledging the possibility of her own queerness, she's starting to drop the mask she wears in 616: she's whipping her symbiote out in front of a crowd instead of waiting to be alone before she uses it.

the symbiotes take center stage in the climax of smash when em jay turns into carnage again. this is gwenom vs carnage round two except now the quiet part's being said out loud: em jay is in love with gwen and angry that her feelings are not reciprocated.

gwenom emerges when gwen is cornered and helps her flee and eliminate the people she views as threats to her safety and freedom. gwen's most authentic self is ruthlessly committed to protecting her own freedom and safety-- and that of others.

emjarnage emerges when em jay is angry at gwen, and wants to dominate her. em jay's most authentic self is a lot like the lizard or miles: someone who loves gwen not as an equal, but as a possession.

right as she and gwen discuss her feelings, we learn carnage is still active: it's out there, and now they have to deal with it.

emjarnage keeps emerging and she still has no control of it, because her core instincts haven't changed.

and gwen keeps beating it down while never using her gwenom morph... because after spending so long dodging her problems in the multiverse, she has repression problems now too.

-> given that giant-size has closet joke after closet joke, it's pretty clear what she's repressing. the subtext is obvious.

in giant-size, gwen works with emjarnage for the first time -- you know, as partners-- as the tension between them is acknowledged by their supporting cast.

and when mysterio exposes their deepest fears, it's not clear whose are whose. the simplest explanation is these are fears they both have in common.

two of them are gwenom and emjarnage. they're afraid of their own-- and one another's-- most uninhibited selves. why.

gwen's afraid of emjarnage because she can't ignore em's feelings for her... or that there's a toxic element to them: em doesn't just want to be with gwen, she wants to be the center of gwen's world, and to punish her for stepping out of line.

-> for some reason, they haven't followed up on their promise to talk about em's feelings, and gwen isn't ready to reciprocate. this is probably why. gwen doesn't want to be with someone who hates half of who she is, or who wants to control her.

em's afraid of emjarnage because she doesn't like what her feelings for gwen turn her into: a jealous, possessive, abusive monster.

-> they refer to em and carnage as separate beings, and carnage behaves like a separate consciousness from em... but they're not, because that's not how earth-65 symbiotes work. neither can acknowledge that the toxicity is coming from em jay, so they displace it.

-> you know that tendency for queer women to insist that there's no way they could be toxic or abusive to each other because We're Queer Women? gwen and em jay are doing that here.

gwen's afraid of her own symbiote because the time gwen's spent refusing to use or acknowledge it has damaged her relationship with it. she's spent so long trying to get people to like her that she's lost touch with that core need to protect her own freedom at any cost and she has internalized the idea that it's a bad thing.

-> gwen hid her symbiote on earth-616, where she passed for straight. she still refuses to use it on em jay... because she knows em jay doesn't like that gwen isn't just sapphic. she's not out of the closet yet, remember?

and em's afraid of gwenom because if gwen's her most authentic self, she won't go along with what em wants from her. em jay wants total commitment and devotion from gwen, and sees ghost-spider as an obstacle to that, because ghost-spider is the literally empowed side of her that's capable of fighting back or leaving. and gwenom is gwen at her most uninhibited: ruthlessly dedicated to protecting her own agency, and in touch with her attraction to both men and women.

the third fear, of betty and glory dying because they were left behind in the closet during the fight pretty clearly symbolizes the fear of losing a girl you love to the closet.

in combination with the symbiotes, you get: gwen and em are so afraid of losing each other that they won't acknowledge the relationship they're on the verge of starting would be a toxic or outright abusive one.

and here's the thing-- it is. look at the way gwen and emjarnage behave:

the dynamic rollercoasters back and forth between intimacy (the women clinging to each other) and violence that's largely one-sided: it's emjarnage tying gwen up, yelling at her, threatening to kill her and anyone she shows attention to, and trying to hit, bite, scratch and throw things at her as gwen laughs it off, tries to talk her down or has to fight emjarnage to get her to stop while pulling her punches the entire time.

whenever emjarnage pins gwen to a wall and licks her face, gwen squirms away. there's clearly a sexual undertone, and gwen clearly doesn't want it. (it feels like a callback to gwen's fight with rhino)

in smash, as em's paralleled to abusive creep bruce banner, gwen insists that 'deep down em jay's still good' ... and they never actually solve the problem, they just brush it away and push on.

and then em jay does that shit again. it's a cycle.

in giant-size, em jay's set off by gwen making mistakes in her drumming. judging by the way glory and betty react, this has become routine: gwen does something minor wrong, em jay flies into a violent rage, and gwen has to scramble to stop her from hurting someone and put herself in harm's way to calm her down. it repeats again and again. nothing changes for the better.

(and they have yet to start on gwen unpacking her own feelings because their dynamic is all about placating em jay... and because if they do, they'll have to acknowledge that gwen isn't just sapphic: she's bi. and em jay doesn't like that.)

you know what this is an allegory for. if em jay were a guy, you'd say it right away. queer people can be in toxic relationships too. (... and compared to lesbians and straight women, bisexual women are even more vulnerable to abuse, intimate partner violence and victimization, even from other queer people.)

but here's the twist: em jay owns it.

she acknowledges that her behavior is harmful, she absolves gwen of the responsibility for containing it, she takes the initiative to get a grip on her impulses and to stay away until it's handled. and she doesn't want gwen to go any further with her until that happens.

like harry, em jay has become a foil of peter parker and done what he never could: acknowledge that she doesn't have a right to control gwen, that her behavior isn't acceptable, and that it's on her to fix it.

in other words: the central conflict of gvc has been resolved. gwen now knows why em is so upset with her: em jay is in love with her. and em now understands how difficult it is for gwen to have her powerset, and why her sudden departures are often necessary (even her jealousy has been resolved: now em has her own power source, and the whole world knows about it so her fame is skyrocketing to a level comparable with gwen's.). she's also taken responsibility for her toxic behavior... at least for now. we have no idea if it'll stick or not.

the takeaway: off this miniseries alone, gwen is textually bicurious and wants to explore her feelings for a girl. put into context with the rest of her canon, gwen is definitely queer, and definitely in the closet.

she's letting go of her need to "have it all" by wanting to stay in earth-65, with her queer friend group. and she wants to talk out her feelings with the girl she likes... but can't do that until said girl addresses her own issues first.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

yes, comics spider-gwen could be read as trans. but it's iffy. the coding fades away after the latour run. if you want to read her as such, you can, but the hill to climb is steep and getting steeper with every year that passes. (and they'll probably never bring that coding back, let alone make her canonically trans, because straight guys really want gwen to be cis, and one of the biggest draws to gwiles is gwen being the vessel for miles's children; they're gonna want to leave the door open to that being possible.)

but over the past decade, it's become all but clear that gwen is definitely not straight. the subtext was there from the moment gwen got her own backstory, but it's gotten clearer as time has passed and more and more of her writers her have tripled down on this aspect of her character. gwen is queer. the only way you can't see it is if you have no familiarity with her character or if you're intentionally denying it.

the specifics of her queerness have fluctuated. under latour, gwen seems more asexual, under mcguire she leans towards bi. her writers have mostly oscillated between those two. not all the people writing her seem to realize it, but most of them do, and even some of her artists have given her a queerer fashion sense.

we're now reaching the point where we're in an emperor's-new-clothes situation with gwen's queerness: the readers know, the writers know, the artists know, but it can't be canonized since

1) gwen is a character marketed to children. she's the biggest female spider-hero marvel has, and they won't want to jeopardize losing merch sales if homophobic parents lash out and decide their kids' hero being queer makes her a bad role model. 2) gwen is a variant of gwen-616, one of the most famous Girlfriends Of Comics. men have spent fifty years jerking it to gwen, who tends to be stereotyped as an uptight Good Girl, and marvel's not going to want to disrupt that fantasy. 3) gwen's biggest push to date has come from the spiderverse movies, which are why she's been rebranded as a ~multiverse character~, deaged to a teenager and keeps getting pushed as a trio with peter and miles. and since she's miles's love interest in the movies and people fucking love this whitebread romance, they're not gonna want to dilute that while spiderverse synergy's making them money.

odds are gwen hasn't said she's queer yet because of outside factors. out-of-universe, it's that marvel is homophobic and wants to make as much money off gwen as possible, and thinks her queerness is an obstacle to that. so they aren't letting the writers go there.

so in-universe, the way to explain this disconnect is that gwen is in the closet about her sexuality. all but confirmed as of giant-size given all the closet jokes.

[and because gwen is 1) a Gwen Stacy, famed girlfriend of peter's and fantasy fuel for the mostly-male comics audience, and 2) the general public now sees her as Miles's Girlfriend thanks to the spiderverse movies, they will never make gwen a lesbian, or fully aromantic-asexual. marvel can make more money if they leave the door open for her to be shipped, especially with men. so they will. we're probably in the era of gwen being Miles's Designated Girlfriend and it'll probably last, at minimum, until after btsv comes out. it might even last forever.]

so. she won't be aroace, a lesbian or trans in canon. what can she be?

she's attracted to women, but doesn't consciously acknowledge it; gwen favors relationships with women, shows signs of attraction to them, and has admitted she might be interested in women and wants to explore those feelings, but has yet to confirm that she is.

she is attracted to men, just not as much as she thinks she is. when it comes to men, gwen distances herself from most male attention (peter parker, miles morales), but she is receptive to it from specific men under the right circumstances (harry osborn, hobie brown, possibly kaine).

but here's the interesting thing: gwen's a lot less interested in romance in general than she thinks she is-- every time gwen goes on a date, or is pushed towards a conventional romantic pairing, something goes wrong, she flees or she withdraws.

the first thing we ever see gwen do is make a romantically-charged vow of devotion to peter parker... after which point she treats him like a big brother, finds the idea of them dating repulsive and makes fun of it.

gwen is indifferent to dating in high school and to our knowledge never went out with anyone there.

gwen is aware that peter-65 is attracted to her and uncomfortable with his advances. it is important to her to bring this up to people often.

gwen doesn't realize harry is romantically interested in her when he asks her out. she accepts, but they never end up going to the prom together; they show up separately and then peter rampages.

gwen is uncomfortable with the world where she and miles marry and have children, tries and fails to make herself like it, and the more time passes, the angrier she gets about it.

gwen is receptive to some physical and emotional intimacy with hobie, but when he suggests they spend more time together, she becomes hesitant.

gwen flirts and is physically affectionate with harry, and goes out with him several times, but when they try to go on a fancy dinner date as a formal couple, she panics and flees as soon as it starts.

whenever em jay tries to get gwen to 'commit' to her and the mary janes, gwen responds with obliviousness, indifference or discomfort.

gwen accepts when her coworker mateo asks her out, but immediately bails to stop a robbery. later she hypes herself up to ask him out and succeeds, but we never hear of or from him again so clearly it didn't work out.

when gwen expresses interest in figuring things out with em jay (who she knows is in love with her), em has to put a stop to it and insist she needs to work on herself first because the situation is too toxic.

this could be due to many factors-- and aside from plain old not-feeling-a-spark, being too busy with superhero adventures, finding interdimensional dating too complicated, or just preferring to be single-- gwen has suffered a lot of trauma related to intimacy and relationships that needs to be acknowledged.

the initial trauma from peter taking gwen's lack of interest as an invitation to murder her date, gwen having to kill him to get him to stop, and the way everyone turned on her as a result of this domino effect.

the compounding trauma from the many, many other people who've tried to force her into relationships and intimate situations: the jackal and murdock wanting to possess her sexually, being groped by rhino, fate forcing her and miles together, peter treating her like a dead girlfriend traumadump, the many spider-men who've projected their gwens onto her, emjarnage.

the way gwen keeps getting shoved into intimate situations with both predatory older men and people she considers her friends, and comes out emotionally distressed saying "i didn't want it, i didn't want it, i didn't want it" to everyone in her life. and said male friends (and at this point, the fandom and certain makers of canon) don't believe her and keep doing it. (... and at this point, so does emjarnage) add to this her decision to keep a power that makes it difficult to be touched without her consent but also alienates her from all her actual friends... there's a sexual assault trauma allegory to be made

both her canon earth-65 love interests have been attacked because of their proximity to gwen: harry was put in a coma, and em jay was forced to host a symbiote

her awareness of her status as a Gwen Stacy, how the most prominent and beloved gwens tend to be straight or straight-passing, and how romantic relationships tend to cause variants of her harm... yet are still expected of her

hell, even her awareness of the many, many alternate spider-gwens who are in relationships with their mj watsons counts: is gwen reciprocating em's feelings because she actually wants to, or because she's seen so many versions of herself doing it and feels obligated to follow their lead? (remember, she also did this with peter and miles: she was exposed to an alternate world where she was their girlfriend, considered following that world's lead, and later snapped out of it and realized she wasn't being genuine.)

if she's religious: the existential horror of learning the higher power she rejected might actually be real, it dislikes her and she cannot escape it, and the only way it'll be nice to her is if she represses her true feelings and starts a nuclear family

she was put on trial and locked up for "breaking peter's heart", was abused behind bars and is so afraid of returning that she compromises who she is to win people back and constantly has one foot out the door of her own world

so she's clearly built up some walls to protect herself. if all you've ever experienced-- and all you've ever been told is possible-- is unwanted affection from people you aren't attracted to, or relationships with power dynamics that always hurt or disempower you, of course you're going to be resistant to romance.

however, gwen wasn't romance-driven in the first place. all the way back in high school, gwen was still indifferent to it. this lack of interest predates all her trauma. so if anything, the trauma's not preventing gwen from following through with romantic commitment-- it's forcing her to seek it out even when she doesn't want it. (... she wants to Have It All, right?)

look back at those relationships. there's a pattern: comic-gwen only tries to force herself into relationships whenever she feels pressured to fit in...

when she goes to the prom, she's expected to have a date, so she accepts harry's offer on autopilot

when she joins the spider-army and meets other spider-people for the very first time, and learns their leader/the Most Special Spider-Man had a gwen he was in a relationship with, she falls into that role of 'sensitive girl he needs to protect' with him and a few other peters because she wants to belong and make them and especially peter-616 like her

when she's depowered, her dad's in prison, murdock is exploiting her, and a higher power dangles the only happy future gwen has ever seen for herself since entering the multiverse in front of her and tells her "you have to end up with miles to get it", gwen kisses miles and contemplates a future with him

when she wants to feel normal after being released from prison, she goes out with harry, and cites that as her reason for doing so

when she wants to feel more confident and as she's integrating back into her world after her exile, she asks mateo (her boss) out.

when she's on the verge of reintegrating into earth-65 after bouncing through the multiverse and encountering mj after mj who's romantically interested in their gwen, and when putting off em jay's feelings is fucking up the band/friend group, she rushes to partner up with em jay (who controls the band and therefore whether gwen is allowed in it) and tolerate her toxic behavior even though the partnership is unsustainable and they've done nothing to unpack gwen's own feelings.

... only to pull away from those dates as soon as they start, because she realizes she doesn't want the relationships, just the stability and belonging that participating in them can give her. she's said it herself: she'll do "whatever it takes" to get by. and at this point, hypergamy is one of the tools she uses.

this isn't to say she isn't interested in romance at all. but gwen's romantic priorities are unusual.

gwen doesn't get jealous or possessive

gwen doesn't want to settle down or have kids

gwen doesn't want a longterm relationship that requires commitment, exclusivity or following typical romantic conventions, regardless of the gender of her admirer

gwen doesn't even seem to develop crushes on strangers

gwen wants love and affection, and is open to relationships, but she isn't motivated by dating or hookups and she isn't impressed by big romantic gestures. she's capable of being interested in specific people, but she does not seek out romance or sex and doesn't feel like anything's missing if she's single

gwen's attraction is very conditional, and only to people who satisfy the following:

1) a preexisting familiarity. every single person gwen has shown attraction to is someone she had to spend time with as a friend or acquaintence before she developed feelings for them.

glory, the first girl gwen shows attraction to, has been her friend for years. so are harry and em jay, her only canon love interests from her world.

gwen spent a lot of time with kaine we didn't see and according to them they got to know each other very well.

(i'd rather forget mateo exists, but gwen did spend three whole months as his employee before she started crushing on him, so technically he fits the pattern)

gwen had to get to know hobie platonically on their web-warriors adventures before she developed an interest in him.

2) respect. they need to care about gwen as a person, understand her boundaries, not treat her like a prize or object or turn on her if she decides to stop the relationship.

glory and em jay love gwen and constantly worry for her well-being. they call her out often, but their anger is always rooted in concern.

em jay's relationship with gwen falls apart when em resents that gwen's more powerful and famous than her, and that she isn't the most important priority in gwen's life-- because em doesn't want gwen to be her equal. and then when em jay finally understands where gwen's coming from, acknowledges it, and takes a step back to fix her shit... gwen's feelings for her are revived.

kaine doesn't coddle gwen, trusts her abilities, and works well with her as a teammate. and as a clone, he understands how it feels to be constantly compared to a 616 doppelganger and has had her back when she's been compared to gwen-616.

harry is contrasted with peter as the male friend who was able to respect that gwen didn't want a relationship. he listens to her, offers advice, takes things at her pace and doesn't hold her apprehensions against her.

hobie quickly shapes up and treats gwen like a friend and teammate. he's the middle ground between kaine (keeping it professional when they're on the job) and harry (wanting something more, but letting her set the terms).

harry, hobie and em jay begin with one-sided crushes on gwen that she only reciprocates after she sees proof that they can handle rejection without holding it against her, and that they respect her.

3) a similar lack of interest in conventional commitment. they aren't babies-ever-after people. they want something casual, nonmonogamous or unlabeled too.

glory and em jay are queer women in a relationship that doesn't seem exclusive (it's possible the mary janes are a polycule). the dynamic goes to shit when em starts favoring gwen over glory and demanding that gwen put her first.

if gwen and kaine hooked up, they got right back to business and he had no problem treating her like a partner afterwards.

harry and gwen are great when they're on the run together, investigating oscorp or having casual dates. the thing that fucks them up is trying to be a serious couple playacting traditional gender roles.

hobie is likely queer, possibly in a polycule with his own band and definitely not interested in conventional relationships given that he's spider-punk.

so. to try and pin it down, it seems like comic-gwen is bi/pan in terms of her preferences... while possibly being somewhere on the ace spectrum in terms of how she expresses her orientation (most likely demiromantic/sexual).

... and she's in the closet about some or all of this. but she's very, very close to figuring it out.

and the overall arc for gwen so far is:

gwen started to come to terms with her identity. she got over her internalized guilt over not complying with comphet, came out to her friends and family, and even her entire society… but she didn’t come out as any particular identity— she came out as “not straight.”

after encountering an alternate version of her that's queer, she even started to consider that she might be queer too, and took steps towards starting relationships with both a boy and a girl.

but after being imprisoned, rejected by her world and bombarded with messages from her friends, community and literally the entire multiverse that she will only be wanted and accepted if she 'straightens' up... she's starting to do that.

she's changed her look to be more feminine. she's losing her radical politics and regressing to something girlbossier. she's concerned with public perception. she keeps throwing herself into relationships that she keeps dipping out of. she spends more and more time in places where no one knows she's queer, and even when she comes home, she can't be herself anymore.

ironically, trying to be palatable only led to gwen alienating all the people who love her, losing her connection to the place she belongs, and hiding the most uninhibited parts of herself even when there's no one around to take issue with them... to the point where she's starting to fear those impulses again.

she started to let go of her need to "have it all" by recommitting to her home and her queer friends there. in doing so, her queerness is starting to reemerge, and she has made a commitment to face it and figure it out this time with someone she lost because of her recloseting.

but she also needs to realize queer relationships can be just as harmful as straight ones.

and if she's ever canonized as on the asexuality spectrum, she's got even longer to go before she figures that out.

.....and here comes the stuck-in-616 run! dammit!

so, where are we going from here?

instead of figuring her sexuality out with other queer people she trusts in a familiar environment... gwen's moving to the city she went to when she wanted to hide. "for good."

this city is even less accepting of gwen's identity than the one she's leaving. it has an ironclad idea of the type of person she's allowed to be-- a straight girl who's subservient to her boyfriend's narrative. she will never be able to step out of that straight girl's shadow.

this city's also filled with 'friends' she doesn't trust enough to be herself around, who keep comparing her to the idealized straight version of herself, pressuring her to be more like that girl, and coming onto her… or who don't do anything to stop their friends when they engage in that behavior.

gwen is definitely not moving here because she wants a clean slate somewhere she'll be more accepted. 616 is not that place.

and now that spiderverse spider-gwen is the definitive spider-gwen and atsv synergy is underway, she's going to be expected to behave like that gwen too-- a teenage girl who might not be cis, but is still definitely all about her boyfriend miles-- as she's thrust into proximity with miles, the boy she knows fate wants to force her to end up with and as she's referred to as a "teenager" in her character descriptions even though she should be in her early 20s.

and since gwen has an established pattern of getting into relationships she'd otherwise refuse with people who tend to be more powerful than her when she wants to fit in... well. there's no guarantee that anything will happen, but gwiles is on the table again.

(... and since gwen may have responded to the multiverse throwing her at a very specific man and insisting that they kiss by getting with his clone who he has a complicated and often negative relationship with, which killed the vibe between her and that man... she might act out similarly to try and rebel against gwiles.)

if gwen and miles get together, it's not because she loves him. it's because she's giving up on being independent and comphetting again. miles morales is not ~the guy who's going to set gwen free from her harmful canon.~ he's the guy who's going to drag her back into it and keep her there forever. since gwen's story is about discovering herself as a queer woman and affirming her right to exist and thrive in her own space away from heteropatriarchy, and miles is currently the biggest obstacle to that, that by definition makes him the villain of her story. the only way that'll ever stop is if this ship sinks for good.

until that day, back in the closet she goes.

two steps forward, one giant leap back.

sorry to end this on a gut punch!

[castlebyersafterdark]

What do you think of the idea of Mike having a bit of a crush on Eddie? It’s personally one of my favourite things to see explored in pre-s4 fics. The way he’s ogling Eddie in the cafeteria scene while Fever by the Cramps plays is so 🤭🤭 and I love the idea of it being a bit of the “oh haha I just really admire this person” sort of denial that I went through when I first started noticing other people of my sex. I feel like some bylers don’t like to acknowledge this because they don’t like to see Mike crushing on someone who isn’t Will, or because Eddie is older than him (a non-issue imo because he’s clearly in love with Will, while Eddie is more of a “wow guys are hot” type of crush which nothing is going to come of, plus tons of teens have crushes on older people they don’t act on). I just love the headcanon of Eddie being somewhat of a sexual awakening and part of the common experience of “do I want to be them or be WITH them?”

(Why did this get so deeply lost in my drafts and I never posted it??? Anyway.)

LOVE the idea, the idea is pretty much canon to me and to anyone who read that cafeteria scene properly!! FEVER was playing?? Why in the entire catalog of music was THAT song playing if not to insinuate a specific mood. My take on Mike is pretty complicated, but the basics include the beginning stages of recognizing his sexuality to be during the in-between from season 3 to 4. It took a cataclysmic shift in his life to jump start that already over-driven brain into panic mode, realization mode. We are not quite in acceptance mode as of the end of 4. Freshman year? The gay thoughts are starting to catch up with him. His relationship with El was put into questions, as are his feelings about Will. And then in walks Eddie fucking Munson and Mike's brain is flipped upside down.

Eddie represents a lot for Mike. He's unapologetic about who he is, he's very anti-authority, he's loud and confident, and he's a fucking nerd. While still being, in his own eyes, a badass. I think to Mike, he is one of the coolest conceptual people he'd ever encountered. While being, in reality, not cool at all. And that's a lot to handle. And he's such a man. There's something so so so formative in the life of a young gay kid, the whole concept of "do I want him or want to be him" and it's so real, so authentic. This is very much the Eddie effect when it comes to Mike.

EVIDENCE and BODY LANGUAGE

Look at him?? That's his smitten with a boy face.

Dustin is so clearly tense and on edge and Mike is so casual? He's actively accepting the physical contact. That internal thrill when your crush touches you.

This one is ridiculous. Dustin's forcing a laugh and Mike is just. Delighted. We rarely see him smile like that.

I think this one is my favorite. Dustin so clear wants anything else to be happening and Mike actively leans in closer.

And this was earlier in the scene, but you're telling me Michael Wheeler and his abrasive ass personality, anti-authority, hates being bullied, doesn't take shit - giggles and smiles when Eddie throws food at him? Oh, to him he reacts like it's flirting. A mess, you poor little gay boy. A smitten mess.

[edwinpayne-deadboy]

Welcome to the Dead Boy Detective Agency.

I am Edwin Payne, and this is my partner @biconcharlesrowland. Some other people that are associated with us are @crystal-isalive, @nikoisalsoalive, @reallycoolcatking, @montyisntacrow, and @jennys-meat-cleaver

What brings you here?

This blog is unfortunately run by two other versions of me. I will have blue text and run the cases and regular interactions.

I'm a dark, "villainized" version of the Edwin you know. I'll use red text and run the more aggressive asks and discuss, darker themes.

And I'm a demon. I find it fun to mess with Edwin and get him to engage in more explicit acts. I'm using bold text and I'll occasionally take up cases and questions about Hell.

OOC: Hello again, Mae here from @mystic-mae. With, well, a third rp blog. Don't worry, this is my last one. I hope.

× ALL EDWIN TAGS ×

#magnifying glass - Looks like Edwin and Charles are on a case! Did you hire them for it?

#charles no - Edwin's just looking out for him.

#cat bracelet - Whenever the Cat King is mentioned or Edwin's just having a gay panic.

#soppingwetcat - Poor guy needs a break. Probably give him one?

#edwin appreciation - Edwin reblogging posts about what people say about him or when they draw art of him. 'Cause this community loves him and he needs to know that.

× REGULAR!EDWIN TAGS ×

#edwardian detective - Casual conversation with Edwin.

#hell's babydoll spider - Super angsty moments with Edwin. Possibly includes Hell.

#what's [blank]? - He's trying to learn all about the Internet and slang. Charles was the reason why he has a Tumblr in the first place.

#ball of sass - Edwin being a sassy, cunty Edwardian ghost.

#oh you love this don't you? - Well, it looks like Edwin's a little jealous...

× VILLAIN!EDWIN TAGS ×

#one little spell - Casual conversation with villain!Edwin.

#runes and curses - villain!Edwin causing some mischief. Maybe something bad happens, no one knows.

#colder to touch - Oops, you angered villain!Edwin. Try and survive... (the angst tag.)

× DEMON!EDWIN TAGS ×

#paradise or limbo - Casual conversation with demon!Edwin.

#spider's den - demon!Edwin's angst tag. He remembers a lot of what happened to the original Edwin, seeing as Hell altered him so much that he became a demon himself.

#infernal deeds - It's just demon!Edwin being a flirty little shit. Only ones affected are Charles, Cat King, Monty, and Simon. And probably any gay man in the area...

× RULES & REGULATION ×

NSFW is allowed! Just no heavily sexualized actions or super gorey stuff that the Edwins (or I, the mod) tell you is uncomfortable.

Heavy gore is to be directed towards villain!Edwin and demon!Edwin. However, regular!Edwin can and does experience gore from time to time. I, the mod, will tell you when to stop with the gore.

Failiure to comply results in being blocked, sorry.

No racist, transphobic, homophobic, or ableist shit here. I'm not gonna deal with your asses, and neither will any of the Edwins.

I suppose you can be rude to Edwin, but why would you do that?

Have fun!

[iceaxeflynn]

I absolutely love my Tav and Astarion. They just so yes.

(Apologies now for the shit picture quality)

My Tav is a druid and a wood elf. He’s the sweetest boy on the planet. He always does whats right, but isn’t afraid to make a sarcastic comment to someone who pisses him off. He’s just trying to be a genuinely good guy.

While Astarion hates Tav thinks there’s always room at the camp, he can’t help but be amused when Tav slings shit in the goblins’ faces because they were being assholes. Or when he tells Absolute followers to get stuffed cause he doesn’t have the patience for them.

Did he think that the twink treehugger he tackled when they first met and held a knife to his throat would be ever so understanding and sympathetic with him being a vampire? Did he expect that Tav would be patient, and affectionate in a way that didn’t matter if it was romantic or platonic? Of course not. But he’s happy it happened.

Poor Tav didn’t mean to even romance Astarion but when he found out how Astarion felt? Hoo BOY did it make that poor demisexual have some gay panic.

And the best part about them is it doesn’t matter if their relationship is romantic or platonic. They love and care for each other. They’re sassy and just love eachother’s company, no matter what.

Oh yeah; and they like to let Karlach in on them making fun of Cultists and collectively going “oh, let’s smite this bitch.”

[princessamericachavez]

Honestly I want for Buck to suddenly mention he’s been bi all along by dating some random hot guy and for Eddie to go through all stages of grief (aka gay panic) as he tries to figure out why the hell it bothers him so much because, clearly, he is not homophobic or anything but then why does watching them kiss make his stomach roll? Why does he feel the need to look away? Why does he feel like punching something? Until he comes to Hen mid life crisis because is he awful? Is he a terrible friend? Is he a bad person? And Hen just grabs him by the shoulders and shakes him and is like “boy do I have news for you”.

Meanwhile Buck is, of course, blissfully unaware of Eddie’s pinning or why his boyfriend acts so uncomfortable whenever they all go out to eat (in the most awkward third wheeling possible where the poor man ends up being the 3rd).

[faggot-dot-jpg]

talk to me about ur ocs u seem silly (sory for showing up unannounced i opt to not control the urge to hear ppl ramble about their self-made lil guys)

WIDENS EYES SO SO BIG OMG

OKAY OKAY OKAY

SO I HAVE THESE TWO LITTLE GUYS

MILO AND AND JAX (no relation to tadc) (I will now stop yelling)

Milo is an angel and Jax is a demon (giggles)

they are both 20 yrs old, Milo is transmasc (he/him) and "straight" (he is actually so bisexual), Jax is gay (he/it)

(runs to my notes app) (lil warning, quite a bit of their story is Jax helping Milo through his fear of his own sexuality, so yea you can guess there gonna be certain themes)

Okay so Milo is like low-key famous up in heaven (he's the son of the king of heavens "manager" I forgor the word) (ITS ADVISOR, THE KINGS TOP ADVISOR TAHTS THE WORD OMG)

so he's constantly trying to keep his public image intact..

but that starts to get harder after he's sent on a mission to deliver a message to the king of hell

down there he sees the king's son (spoiler: it's Jax) and is like " Oh shoot oh no he's hot wth why do I like this guy I'm straight wait what"

OH YEA SILLY HEAVEN LORE DROP: Being queer is totally fine up there, Milo has been out and transitioned for years, but from a young age all angel's are taught that engaging in sexual activity or having sexual thoughts is a big no no

lore drop over, back to the other lore drop :3

so for the next month or so Milo is having progressively more risqué thoughts and even dreams (woagh that's crazy) and he's getting real stressed out because I LIED MORE HEAVEN LORE: when angels start losing their "purity", small parts of their body start changing to red, ie some of the hair, eyes, any markings. SO HES ALL STRESSED CAUSE HES STRUGGLING TO HIDE THE CHANGES :((

ANYWAYS- He gets sent on another mission to hell, this time to ask if preparations for Jax's coronation have started, and gets suckered into helping. The two start getting closer~..

ONTO JAX LORE!!!!!! YIPPEE

Jax is the Prince of Hell, and has been conditioned by its asshole of a father to eventually become king since he was very young. His father would often push Jax past its limits both physically and emotionally. When he couldn't deal with this, his father decided to start just straight up abusing him. (I wanna kill, him. YES I KNOW IM IN CONTROL BUT HES IMPORTANT TO THE STORY FOR NOW 😭)

Because his mother was an incubus (she's uh- out of the picture... also incubi and succubi can be any gender so fun fact!!!) it decides to deal with his issues by whoring around (he's so silly!! <- the poor guy needs severe therapy and to get away from his dad)

One day, an angel comes to deliver a message to his father (WOAGH I WONDER WHO THAT IS!?!??! 🧐🧐) and he becomes absolutely infatuated after seeing him once (bro is down bad frfr)

as it nears time for his coronation, the same angel comes to visit to help with preparations. once again, the two start getting closer~..

NOW GENERAL STORY STUFF!!!!! I cannot thank you enough for the chance to be so soso abnormal abt my silly little guys btw

Before they get closer, Milo is like "nuh uh being friends with a demon is wrong HECK NO" (he doesn't swear :3) but eventually they start talking, Jax opens up about his daddy issues (trauma is the first conversation topic as always with these DAMN QUEERS-) <- I AM A DAMN QUEER YALL

and Jax learns what life in heaven is like (and is absolutely horrified to learn that sexuality is frowned upon)

it now has a goal to help Milo understand that his teachings were incorrect

to directly quote my notes app: One night, Milo comes back to his guest room to see it destroyed.. (While they were working, one of Jax's old boy toys wrecked it in a fit of rage over Milo getting close to Jax) As they don't have any other rooms available, Jax offers to let Milo stay in his for now. Milo accepts, then panics once he learns that Jax only has one bed. Jax doesn't see an issue, and they sleep in the same bed with a little persuasion. (THAT SOUNDS WEIRD, I PROMISE JAX ISNT A CREEP OR NOTHIN)

uhhh umm the next part is kinda- uhmmmmmmm 😳 I don't think I'm gonna say it here

just know some of Milo's dreams come true :3c

SADLY I HAVENT WRITTEN THE STORY PAST THIS PART SO THATS IT FOR NOW :((

TY FOR ASKING

[red-sneakers]

For the bkdk ask thingie, I'm thinking of various times katsuki blows up at something/someone and then izuku just like touching him(hand on his shoulder or something) and katsuki just deflating and causing everyone else immense confusion.

Bonus point if they're not dating (yet)

This little ficlet was fun to write! I hope you enjoy it. It's from Ashido Mina's POV. She calls him Kats because I said so.

“What the fuck did you just say to me?” Kats drops the pan he was washing into the sink with a loud ‘clang’ and spins to face Todoroki, hair standing on end like the angry little Pomeranian he is. Mina sucks in her smile, relishing the drama from her perfect vantage point on the common room couch. If only she had some popcorn.

“I said,” Todoroki drawls and leans back against the kitchen island, stoic as always, “you can’t expect to rise in popularity polls if you don’t accept help fro—“

“After that, you pretentious-ass mutherfucker.” Kats looms over Todoroki, suddenly appearing much taller despite them being the same height. (Kats’s totally shorter than Todoroki without his stompy emo boots.)

Todoroki bends backward, his candy-cane hair tickling the countertop behind him, probably avoiding the spittle forming at the corners of Kats’s feral grin. Poor guy. He tries so hard, but he can never predict what is and isn’t going to set off blasty boy’s explosive temper, not like the Bakusquad can. That, or he riles Kats up on purpose and then plays innocent. In that case, Mina just might have to get to know Mr. Icy-Hot a little better.

“Say it again, I FUCKING dare you!” Kats’s palms spark. Oh, day-um. It’s been a while since he’s let his quirk go off outside of training and on the battlefield. Todoroki doesn’t look scared, but Mina’s a little scared for him. Or, at least, she fears for his beautiful, shiny hair which is in danger of being singed off at any moment.

“Kacchan . . .”

Midoriya emerges from a corner of the kitchen that had been hidden from Mina’s view, still in his All Might pajamas at 1:00 PM on a Saturday. What a bean. He sets his Bisexual Pride mug on the counter and places one hand on Kats’s lower back. Kats stiffens. Mina holds her breath. 

“I know how it sounded, but Shouto didn’t mean it like that.” Midoriya soothes his hand up Kats’s spine, and he straightens up, allowing Todoroki the room he needs to side-step out of the spit-zone. 

“I have errands to attend to, so if you don’t mind—“

“You’re on thin fucking ice, half n’ half,” Kats pokes Todoroki in the center of his chest, “so don’t try and act buddy-buddy the next time we—“

Midoriya squeezes the back of Kats’s neck, and Mina swears to god, he goes limp as a dish towel. And is that a blush on Blasty’s cheeks? What is going on?

“W-we . . .” Kats stutters. Stutters. “Th-the next time we have a team-up mission.”

Todoroki scoops up his bowl of cold soba and strolls away like nothing happened. An oblivious cinnamon roll or an evil mastermind. Either way, bless him.

Mina peeks over the back of the couch at Kats and Midoriya as Todoroki leaves the common room. Suddenly the spying she’s doing feels a lot more like, well, spying. There’s something different about the two 'problem students' alone together, especially Kats. His posture’s more relaxed, but even from across the room, Mina can see nervousness in his eyes.

Midoriya gives the back of Kats’s neck one more squeeze and his shoulder a firm rub before picking up his mug and making his way out of the kitchen. Kats watches him leave, and yes that is definitely, absolutely, 100% blush on his cheeks. No way!

Mina hugs a throw pillow. During first year, she’d posed a crack theory to the Bakusquad (minus Kats) that Blasty’s asshole behavior towards Midoriya was all just gay panic. She’d gotten shut down then, but could it be? She’d been right all along?

Kats delicately traces his nape where Midoriya’s fingers had been. And then he heaves a giant, lovestruck, deliciously pathetic sigh and crumples all the way to the floor where Mina can no longer see him. 

There’s no other explanation. There can be no denying it. Bakugou Katsuki has a big, fatty crush on his childhood friend-turned-rival, Midoriya Izuku. Mina bites her fist to avoid shrieking with delight. She knew there was more to the volatile chemistry between those two! Kiri and Denks are gonna get the ‘I told you so!’ of their lives. All Hail the Alien Queen!

Something thunks. Probably Kats’s head on a cupboard. Mina takes the opportunity to high-tail it out of the common room before Kats can stand up and see her. If he knew he’d been caught simping in HD, who knows what would become of Mina’s luscious curls without Midoriya to defuse Blasty’s explosions?

Once safe in the stairwell, Mina whips out her phone and furiously creates a new group chat: 

'Operation: Bother Blasty in front of Broccoli and watch Blasty simp for BroccoliJUST TRUST ME YOU HOES <3'

[homeless202]

No Home Prompts/Headcanons

[feel free to use these as inspiration for fanfics or fanart. tag me if you post it!!]

(disclaimer 1: this is prolly very ooc but it's also not supposed to be realistic. disclaimer 2: a lot of these are centered around Haejoon and Eunyung and can be interpreted as /r or /p)

HJ stopping someone from harassing EY, similar to the frying pan scene. [one concrete scenario i have is a teacher/supervisor wanting to cut EY's hair and HJ, who's standing next to him (i imagine all dorm boys lined up for the lights-out roll call), grabs the scissors out of their hand and throws it out the window. HJ: "you should go grab them if you don't want them to rust" so the supervisor goes away. badass HJ (altho he's too much of a model student to spite a teacher like that). EY is confused and in awe. bonus points if there's witnesses who marvel at HJ's badassery and authority defiance.]

all 6 MCs hanging out in the clubroom and HJ does sth cool or impressive (maybe sings out loud and it sounds good). juwan and minju are panicking bc 'holy shit he's so hot i want him carnally' like tearing up, rolling on the floor type craving. marie is watching them freak tf out, completely unimpressed, with an expression like she's on the office. hara is like 'hey man, that sounded really good' like the golden retriever sunshine puppy she is. EY is just staring very intently at him like trying to figure out a puzzle with a faint thought of 'he should join the theater club'. HJ, poor him, is so fucking confused as to why everyone is overreacting and a little embarrassed that he accidentally did that.

minju and juwan craving the 184cm mommy issues ghost guy be like:

^^ this is how i imagine juwan's internal monologue like 98% of the times he interacts with HJ. just constant gay panic.

all the other boys in their dorms who have to listen to HJ and EY's screaming matches all the time. poor fuckers. they all often choke on the tension those two create in the room they're in. but the fighting is basically like free live reality TV prime-time entertainment, so they can't be too bothered (unless they're trying to sleep). and generally, everyone is weirded out/confused by their friendship (?). like 'why is the nice popular pretty guy hanging out with model student bully who sees ghosts, especially when they're always just fighting?' <- #confusion. but it's entertaining so eh ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

HJ helping EY study, maybe forced by a teacher, or from EY's own volition (doubtful), or per juwan's suggestion when EY failed too many exams/classes to keep living in the dorms. i wonder how that tutoring session would go. would probably end bloody.

whenever HJ goes to the grocery store to buy food he also buys a pack of sweets or snacks. every time EY sees them in their room he asks if he can have some. HJ lets him open the pack. EY always asks if he wants some too and HJ almost always says no. after the 6th time this happened, EY confronted him abt it 'why are you buying these if you're not eating them?' and HJ is like 'i buy them for you. i know you like them.' EY is surprised and juwan is happy they're not fighting anymore (but also insanely jealous -> 'when did they get so close? grrrr')

(/r) HJ chilling on the couch in the dorm living-room, reading a book for class and EY comes and wants to lie down but there's no more space so he spreads out on the couch with his legs on HJ's lap, who's a bit like 'wtf' but decides against picking a fight. EY is chilling on his phone in a skirt shorts and with his hair undone. they just chill like that for a while and every poor soul who passes through that room are confused and uneasy abt their lack of fighting. at some point HJ notices the scars on EY's knees and rests his hand (the one not holding the book) on them, then goes back to reading while absent-mindedly rubbing his thumb over the scars. EY is startled and also like 'wtf' but let's it be bc he has crypto to mine.

juwan-marie mlm/wlw solidarity. all 3 boys are not surprised when she comes out as a (disater) lesbian but their reaction is 'oh really? i never would've guessed (/s)'. she comes out to them bc she needs help making hara figure out she likes her in an non-obvious way.

the boys' reaction be like:

marie likes hara, minju likes marie, and hara likes her sport (karate? idr). marie is frustrated at hara's cluelessness, minju is annoyed marie doesn't take her advances seriously, hara is oblivious to the turmoil she's caused. [a scenario i came up with is all 6 in the clubroom where minju just goes full out after shit's been building up for a while like ' why do you like hara and not me? i'm here trying my best and she doesn't even care! how is she so much better than me?' marie is beyond embarrassed and also very done with the bs. she pulls minju outside the clubroom and slaps her in the hallway promptly rejecting her. the other 4 saw everything through the door window and are jaw-dropped-flabbergasted. marie enters again after minju left and everyone asks if she's ok. hara's like 'you like me?' and marie says 'now's not the time for that. don't you have practice or sth?'. after a bit of convincing hara leaves for her lessons and the 3 boys ask marie why she doesn't like minju -> 'she doesn't like me, she just likes the chase. if we were to get together she'd get bored in less than a month and break up with me.' juwan agrees bc he knows minju best and that's something she would absolutely do. marie starts tearing up bc this is overwheming and embarrassing but the boys are there to comfort her. (<- what's even more frustrating in all of this is that marie did like minju in the beginning, before she swindled marie for the clubroom, was disingenuous abt their friendship, and friendzone marie when she told minju that she liked her.) ohh how the turn tables]

^^ this is the dynamic i imagine bc it's hella funny /// @ artist on twt

EY wil fight for kids who can't fight for themselves. if he sees a kid/friend get hit by a parent/authority he won't hesitate to throw hands. he'll step in on the spot and sucker-punch the mfer who put their hands on someone weaker than themselves. [the first time the others see this side of him is when they meet marie's brother, who acts like a massive asshole and stupidly smacks marie in front of them. HJ is ready to say sth/jump in but EY is half a second quicker and already gave the bitch a bloody nose. and he fights with the rage he'd fight his dad with, if he ever dared to do that. like a demon possessed, not anywhere near the way he's ever fought HJ before. marie's crying and begging him to stop hitting her brother, HJ and juwan are frozen in shock. juwan wants to try to calm him down but is too scared to approach him when he's like that. meanwhile HJ is just like 'holy shit, this mfer is actually crazy' and goes to pull EY off of marie's brother bc he got too close to killing him. after that everyone is more wary of him in general, marie is somewhat grateful but also terrified of him. from then on the brother either never hits her again or gathers a group of friends to go beat up a blond high school kid.]

i think it would be interesting to see the bullies who forced EY to crawl two stations to get his money back resurface. that group of bullies bumping into our 3 boys and going like 'whoa, EY? is that you? how're your knees doing?' and laughing. juwan is confused as to what they're talking about, HJ immediately knows who the fuckers are bc he knows the knee story, and EY is trying to ignore them with a poker face but really he's terrified inside bc trauma™. HJ has never seen EY so affected/blank/scared/distraught and is concerned. trouble ensues, bonus points if HJ saves the day (aka beats the fuckers up) and bonus bonus points if he doesn't tell EY abt it and does it in secret.

^^ no thought's behind those eyes. only misery and trauma

juwan and HJ gift EY clothes every time they have an excuse like 'oh you passed that exam? nice here is a new pair of jeans' or 'it's Christmas, this is a jacket for you'. bc my boy needs more than one piece of everything. he needs more clothes and his friends noticed and are now providing. they need to have an excuse/good reason to gift the items to EY bc he will not accept them otherwise (he refuses to be indebted to anyone).

whenever EY catches HJ changing clothes in their room, he feels really guilty when he sees the scar he gave him when they first met. every time, he wants to apologize but he doesn't know how to make it sound genuine, and the apology always catches in his throat anyway. he can't say it out loud, so he quickly makes it a habit to leave the room when HJ changes.

idk man, i just wanna see HJ help EY braid his hair. and EY be surprised by how well he can braid or make fun of him for how bad he is at it. [maybe a hand/arm injury that prevents him from braiding his hair himself and he doesn't want to leave the dorm looking like that before he can get to a girl-friend who could do his hair for him.]

EY goes with HJ to provide moral support when HJ has to go back to his old house to pick sth up or when HJ goes to visit his mom's grave (only 52% willingly). [(/r ->) at the house, HJ would definitely have a mental breakdown and EY would be there to unintentionally aggravate the situation, then mend it and comfort him. EY is also terrified of all the ghost items inside that house when he first enters. HJ is a tad happy to see some old faces (<- the ghosts who live/haunt his house). /// at the graveyard, HJ would try his best not to cry, EY would notice and leave him alone for a bit to mourn. when he's done, before they leave, EY looks intently at the mom's grave stone and nods his head once. maybe it's a salute to the mom, or a 'thank you for raising him well', but in any case, that's the first time we see EY use manners. HJ doesn't notice it bc he's busy with his own feelings.]

parallel to that, juwan and HJ come pick EY up from (aka get him out of) his parent's apartment. the parent's are astounded anyone came for their 'good-for-nothing' son. before the boys leave the apartment building's courtyard, EY's mom comes running up to them. HJ and juwan are in defense/protection mode, EY is just so tired and so done with everything he doesn't feel present anymore. the mom doesn't get any closer, she just looks HJ in the eyes and thanks him for looking out for her son. then she turns to EY and says 'don't fuck this up like everything else in your life' and goes back to the apartment. all of them are shocked by the unexpected good nature she's shown and EY is also a bit upset by her comment about his life but he's too tired to give a shit atm.

when EY finally gets back into acting, HJ helps him learn his lines when he has the time. after his first play, HJ is there to give him flowers and tell him how good his acting was. (/r -> this may or may not be the moment EY really (realizes he) caught feelings) also HJ was gen amazed at how good his acting skills are, like wide-eyed 'wow he's actually really really good'.

(/r) i want EY to wear a skirt as a dare or sth and fluster the shit out of HJ (and any other eyes that catch him in that outfit). EY would tease him for blushing so hard and feel powerful bc of the reaction he's got, until HJ grabs him (one hand on a shoulder and one hand on his waist) and pulls him so he can whisper in his ear 'stop that'. the tables turn. EY pushes away like he's been burned, which might be true, seeing how he got so red one would think he's been sunburned.

(/r) idk if it's canon but i for some reason think HJ has weights in their room. so, EY always stares at HJ from his top bunk bed (where HJ can't see him), whenever HJ's using them. specifically at his biceps. EY is unsure whether he's jealous bc he wants those muscles or if he wants those muscles. (if you catch my drift)

i feel like HJ and EY could bond a lot over music. they are often listening to it.

the apocalypse storyline is not talked about enough. someone needs to write this since wanan only gave us a crumb and disappeared.

i mean, look at this ^^. are you gonna stand there and tell me you're not intrigued?