#same with queer villains too tbh

[zootzbootz]

people who think making a mentally ill character a villain in a story is AUTOMATICALLY ableist every single time no matter what shut the fuck up challenge/srs

I've literally seen ppl be all "if you make your villains mentally ill/ND/disabled you are a bad person and you're ableist!" I've literally had someone directly tell me not to make a character with NPD a villain. we have NPD, mind you. and have quite a few OCS with NPD that fall all across the moral spectrum. Because that's the REALISTIC thing to do! suffering from a mental illness does not guarantee a person to be "evil" , but it doesn't guarantee a person to be "good" either.

Genuinely if you think villains can't be mentally ill, like please stop talking. PLEASE. the issue is with blaming the characters status as a bad guy on their condition and/or only having villains be canonically or coded this way. Literally all you have to do for it NOT to be ableist is

1. Not make it the REASON they're evil.

2. Let the good guys be mentally ill too. Yes, including the " scary" mental illnesses. ESPECIALLY the "scary" mental illnesses. If you balance it out it'll be less skewed.

That's literally it. in the story I'm working on currently, nearly all of the characters are neurodivergent, mentally ill, disabled, etc. both good and bad and neutral.

Remember that in the real world; anyone can be a good person, and anyone can be a bad person. though many are in between. and doesn't matter what mental illnesses someone has or doesn't have. I feel like characters in fiction should reflect that. they should be complex, and fleshed out like real people. But remember, many people are morally gray in the real world and fall somewhere in the middle. a roster of characters should reflect that. unless the black and white good and evil dichotomy is what you're going for, use "(pure) good" and "(pure) evil" characters as sparingly as you can, regardless of the characters " diagnostic history "

Just. Use. Common. Sense.

[lgbtlunaverse]

It is such a travesty I was hardcore not looking at the fact that I was into girls when I was a kid. The amount of "mia and me" mia/violetta wattpad fanfiction 10 year old me could've been writing... tragic.

[yubnubforhire]

I’ve seen a lot of people decry criticism of the rwrb movie as simply either homophobic or anti-cringe, with the statement ‘let queer people have our cringe rom-coms’ a common defense. This idea is flawed for many reasons, not least of which being that this movie is like… barely queer. Sure it’s about a queer couple, but that’s about where it stops.

First off there’s the blatant bi erasure, with no discussion of Nora’s sexuality, no June/Nora/Pez, the word bisexual only being used once or twice in the whole movie, etc. Second off is the complete lack of queer education or community: where is Alex learning about the gay lib movement and feeling like he understands something new, deep within himself? Where is Henry talking about his role amongst the erased queer figures of the past? Where are the crowds supporting both of them, in the US and the UK? (the scene at buckingham where you don’t even see the crowd felt so cheap) Where was Amy’s role as queer elder and protector? Where was Luna, and Alex’s realization as to why he looked up to him so much and why his betrayal hurt so bad? Where was Alex realizing he and Liam had actually ‘had a thing’ when they were younger, and reconnecting with him as someone who can fully be himself? Where was all the support when they got outed? Where the fuck was Catherine? Where were Bea and Catherine fighting for them during the confrontation at buckingham? Movie!firstprince feel so isolated and without community, which is just SO not the world CMQ created in the book.

More broadly, the movie just felt so shallow. I completely understand the need for adaptation and translation to a new medium, but so many of the things they changed either lower the stakes or remove them entirely. Bea is a non-character, with no depth or backstory. Nora only exists to tell Alex to fuck Henry. Pez gets all of one line in the entire movie. June does not exist, which should completely change things because Alex does not act like the only/eldest child of the POTUS. We never really see the emails and a lot of them are adapted to onscreen dialogue, so what exactly was leaked? Why are they called the Waterloo letters? No one watching the movie alone will know. Who leaked them? I figure the movie implies it was Miguel, but then why have Richards be a character at all? CMQ was making a point with the Richards/Luna story, and the movie having a new side character as the “villain” is just… so disappointing. We don’t see any of the scenes of Henry acknowledging how fucked up the monarchy is (other than a few throwaway jokes), the comparison to the Empire, any of the Bea storyline, or him trying to avoid military service and renounce his royal inheritance, so the one line towards the end when movie!Henry has an outburst about the monarchy being antiquated is just completely unearned and comes out of nowhere.

They kept the line where Oscar tells Alex that ‘sometimes you just have to jump and hope it’s not a cliff’ but it’s now completely devoid of the context— that line is about Oscar telling Alex he doesn’t regret getting together with Ellen, no matter how it ended. It doesn’t work the same if Oscar and Ellen are still happily married! (Justice for Leo also tbh)

In the confrontation at Buckingham, the king (don’t get me started on the things they changed to avoid comparisons to queen liz) still suggests to Henry that they should claim the leaks are deepfakes and deny it, but Alex already gave the live televised speech in the movie timeline! It’s out already! The entire scene with the king honestly just does not work if Alex has already made the speech. Also side note, there’s absolutely no way in turbohell that Alex would make that speech without talking to Henry first.

There’s so much more I could talk about, from more script shenanigans to the Pip of it all, but this is honestly already way too long. All I want to say now is that it’s obviously everyone’s prerogative to like a movie or not, and nothing anyone else says should change the way you personally feel about a piece of art. That does not mean, however, that any criticism of said art is incorrect or unwarranted. You can like something and still acknowledge its flaws. And no, cringiness is not this movie’s main flaw.

[lostboiking30]

I’m studying Film History right now and because I am deeply fascinated with queer history I have been trying to watch older films with queer subtext. We are currently studying the golden age of Hollywood and I am stunned by how many actresses were bisexual simply because it’s never mentioned. Once the Hays Code was adapted, queerness was all but erased from the screens so in addition to being heavily discriminated against in real life, there was also no positive queer representation in film and other media. Any time there was queer representation they were either the villains or heavily stereotyped or killed off. This went on throughout the 20th century and until recently has affected how media has been portrayed and adapted. So naturally because I am watching films from the 1910s-1930s I began to think about Legend of Korra, the probability of Korra and Asami being bisexual (I thought about Ginger and Wu too tbh) in that time frame and how “realistic” it would be. I also thought about how remnants of the Hays Code has prevented Korra and Asami from kissing on screen at the end like Aang and Katara. It always struck me as odd that it was okay to show two young heterosexual teenagers embracing their love for one another but how taboo it was for two consenting adult women to do the same (after showing in detail the enormous amount of trauma both women experienced—like I think about this all the time. Legend of Korra is a brutal show). All we could get were hints of Korra and Asami growing closer and a suggestive hand hold at the end of the series and the only people who noticed the subtext were queer people themselves or shippers who shipped Korrasami (whether queer or not). Because even in 2014—80 years after the Hays Code was set in place and 40 years after it was abandoned—we still were not able to have explicit positive representation because that actively challenged the notion of “family values” that was ingrained into our society and Nickelodeon wouldn’t have it. I guess this is why the Legend of Korra ending and subsequent comics are so important to me aside from the fact that I am genuinely in love with both characters (and the fanfiction I read just reinforces that—y’all are so talented 😭😭😭) Anyway I guess the point of this post was to say that Korra and Asami being bisexual and Kya being quiet about being a lesbian is both canonically accurate and IRL accurate.

[khaleesiofalicante]

To get to know you better I hope you can indulge in my ask! :)

Favourite 5 novels of all time (and why?)

Favourite ships of all time (and why?)

What are your favourite Shadowhunter novels? (and why)?

Favourite Shadowhunter ships (and why)?

Much love :)

Of course! This is lovely! Thank you!

A) I have more favorite 'series' than books/novels tbh.

You'll see that I love books more for the plot than the characters, It's the same for any media I consume. I often don't relate to characters a lot. But I love stories and if the plot is good then I don't care if I like the characters!

In no particular order:

A Song of Ice and Fire (novel version of Game of Thrones) - I've never read a better series with a plot so captivating and the world building is just something else. I also love the characters so much!

The shadowhunter chronicles - I've always been obsessed with the concept of angels and demons (maybe it's my catholic upbringing) but I got sucked into the series very easily. One of the things I love about tsc is that the friendships have just as much emphasis as romantic relationships.

Red White Royal Blue/Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - These are two of my favourite queer novels because these were some of the first queer novels I read so they mean a lot to me. I love the characters in both!

Sherlock Holmes - I've read every single story and I was obsessed with Sherlock Holmes growing up. Mystery is my favourite genre and the writing of Conan Doyle really influenced my own in turns of how much I love leaving clues and plot twists. He is just brilliant!

Ponniyan Selvan (This is a novel in my native tongue) - I read this when I was very young and this is, to this day, one of the most brilliant pieces of writing I've ever read. I started writing stories when I was 8 (my mom took me to school competitions etc) and this story was my inspiration to start writing. (because growing up I only write in my native language. I think fan fiction was the first time I started writing in English).

B) Favourite ships:

I don't actually have many hehe. Like I said, I don't connect with characters/ships easily. But some ships I do like include Malec, Firstprince (rwrb) and Ineffable husbands (Good Omens).

There are also this from my own writing that I love a lot hehe. But I'll save them for later.

C) My favorite shadowhunter novels:

My favourite series is TMI. I think it's because I like the gang best (they felt like an actual real friend group to me as opposed to the others who had too many mini friend group inside them). I also like the plot of tmi and the villains much better.

I also love the three novellas - the bane chronicles, TFTSA, and GOTSM. This is some of CC's best work if you ask me (And those who co-wrote them with her!). And of course, I love the red scrolls of magic. The book was perfection. 100% perfection.

D) Favorite TSC ships:

Malec - Just because I understand them the most and I love their dynamic and I love how much growth we've seen from them (individually and together). They're the kind of couple that inspires others (in the tsc world and outside). I love that!

Herongraystairs - Idk there is something about the three of them and how much they love each other that gets to me. I wish we got to see more of them together!

Some honourable mentions I love: Henry/Charlotte, Gideon/Sophie, Gabriel/Cecily (I actually like all the ships in TID actually), Gwyn/Diana, Jace/Clary.

Thank you for the questions! Please feel free to tell me about all of yours too! I'd love to hear it 🧡

[writtenonreceipts]

Hi friend! Can I ask you a book related question? So I read the Skyward series from Brandon Sanderson—those were the first of his books that I’ve read, and I loved them. I’ve wanted to read his other series for a long time, since I always hear so much about them, but I have no idea where to start. Cosmere? Stormlight? I read that they take place in the same universe, so do I need to read those series in order? If you could help me out it would be much appreciated. If not, I’m sure I can find the answer somewhere through google, but I thought I’d ask a friend first 🫶

Hey friend!! Yes! I love book questions! Haha 😄and I love Sanderson too, lol, and never get to talk about it enough. Forgive the rambling that is about to commence 😅

Skyward is honestly such a good place to start with his books tbh. He is very much a high and epic fantasy writer and that series really eases readers into his style as well. I still need finish them, lol, but I'm so glad you liked them! I've just read the first one and it was such a fun reach honestly.

As far as his other books go: The Cosmere is basically what Brandon called the magical universe he created to interconnect most of his books. (I think theres only 1 or 2 right now that aren't considered part of the Cosmere). So yeah, if you wanna choose chaos you can read any of the different series as you want in whatever order. But I do have some thoughts:

I do recommend starting with Mistborn. It is what he is best known for and what really launched his career. It's...it is a little denser, but the world building and characters and pay offs are phenomenal. It highlights a great magic system, political intrigue, overthrowing evil, and heists. Brandon describes it as his Cinderella heist novel, lol. It's the what would happen to the world if the villain had won? And highlights one man's desire to fight kill/eat the rich. The Mistborn books are considered "Era 1". He has 3 series planned set on this specific planet in the Cosmere.

Era 2 of Mistborn: The Wax and Wayne Books. A Western fantasy. And I love it. Queer characters, autistic characters, chaos, broody male mc, sarcasm and puns, marriage of convenience (thought that plot is very small. It's my favorite thing about the series though). The final book just came out last Nov. I'll spare you all the other thoughts lol. But it can technically be read on its own without needing to read Era 1, though, there are a lot of things about this series that work better when read after the og trilogy. I hold this series close to my heart. It's a lot of fun and you can tell Brandon just had fun.

Warbreaker. Handsdown love this book. I want to recommend reading it even before Mistborn as it does bridge the gap of ya to adult fantasy rather well. The magic system is different and fun too. This book has the forced marriage plot a bit stronger, political intrugue, queer rep (albeit small), and magical talking swords that want to kill you be your friend. And I love the female characters. Vivenna is my love. Hands down one of my favorite female characters ever. I don't think this book is talked about enough tbh. I could go OFF an all the things I love about it.

The Stormlight Archive. Get ready to buckle in. It is planned to be a 10 book series. Book 5 should be coming out in 2024. They are 1,300-1,500 pages long. So... yeah, long and epic but so so worth it. Like. I can't even begin to describe it. War, mental health, religious discussions, honor, depression, hope. Iconic characters. I also hold these books special to my heart. You can jump right into this one, but there are references to world hoppers on this book and the magic system is steep. So, I would recommend reading at least Mistborn. But that's just me.

>>Other Sanderson Books and thoughts: The Rhythmatist, people have mixed feelings but I liked it, which is why I bring it up. It's another ya almost adult fantasy. It's another great one to get into the way Brandon does magic systems and world building. Elantris is technically his first published. It was not my favorite. I mean...I enjoyed it but it was hard to get through. You can tell it's his first book. The premise is cool and interesting but I struggled with it. It is technically the first book of the Cosmere universe. He has a book of short stories and novellas interwoven through the Cosmere. If you can find it on it's own The Emperors Soul is great.

I'll stop. I loved this...anyways...

[bleekay]

finished rereading. couple of thoughts:

since it's the freshest in my mind, i have to say the ending of rwrb remains absolutely devastatingly cathartic, this alternate reality where the events of 2016 and beyond in this world didn't happen. i remember my first time reading it, like actually sobbing because the trump election still felt so fresh and painful and raw, and that final scene where they flip texas, my home state, really really hit home.

which is another bullet point on my long list of grievances with the film. that scene was just. not nearly on the emotional level as the book. it was supposed to be this like. grand build-up. and instead it fell flat for me. it was too short, too condensed.

which, frankly, i think that's essentially what i disliked about the film overall. it was way, way too condensed. and look, i get it, you're crunching down a 418 page book into 2 hours, they have to cut stuff out. but they cut out. everything. they took the handful of scenes with henry and alex and cut everything else out like it was all just superfluous to their romance. JUNE. june was gone!!! alex's sister who looked out for him and who knew him better than he knew himself, who had such a huge role in the book, was nixed from existence. i can't fathom why. nora and pez and bea were there, but barely. there was no "white house trio" or "super six" or very much at all of alex's or henry's friendships outside of each other?

rafael luna, someone alex looked up to immensely, the blueprint of the man alex wanted to be, a senator who was like him, a queer latino in politics for the genuine desire to do good, whose seeming betrayal cut alex to the core, but through whom the corruption of richards was revealed? he also was nonexistent in the film. instead of that entire arc, richards' scheme to publicly forcibly out alex and henry's relationship, luna's role in helping bring that all to light, was replaced by....... some reporter guy that alex hooked up with once, who it is implied is the villain behind outing alex and henry. with no, like, explanation whatsoever. jealousy, i guess. gay guy jealous, outs guy he liked because he didn't hook up with him again? because he's a skeevy reporter who doesn't care? what the hell kind of story is that. queer on queer violence easier to put in film, i guess, than the story of corrupt republican candidate (also sexual predator) who wants to crush democratic encumbent president so has his team hack private email server and then leaks all the alex-henry emails to the public and pays people to get hotel footage and take photos to back it up. i literally just. can't understand this change whatsoever. it feels gross. tbh.

the whole plot is just so off. it doesn't even feel like the same story in a lot of ways? the ending of the movie is actually, legitimately nonsensical. they're publicly outed and alex i guess decides of his own accord to like. make a public speech confirming their relationship? this is while he and henry haven't been able to talk, communication lockdown, no conversations with henry whatsoever to even ask if he'd be okay with confirming their relationship like that. (book alex would ne-ver go public without explicit consent and support from henry) and then afterward the king is like "oh well technology these days, they can fake photos and emails" my dude the first son already announced it live on tv. there's no choice to be made there. you can't say "it was all faked" when alex claremont-diaz already told the world it was not fake. lmfao.

there is one thing -- JUST ONE THING -- that i appreciate about the film. and that is leaving out all the h*rry p*tter references. (to be fair, the book was written before the infamous transphobic twitter spiral, and also casey mcquiston, the author, has since actually removed the hp/jkr references in her book. which. bless. i didn't actually know that until i looked it up right now. i ought to buy a newer version.)

anyway. the book is really, really good. it offered me great escapism the first time i read it. it offers me comfort now rereading it. the movie........... was not it. there were certainly pretty men kissing and boning in it so if that's what you're looking for it's fine. (although i hold that alex's actor does not look like alex to me, which was actually one of the reasons i didn't initially want to watch, on a petty note) but as far as the meat of the story, the heart of it, the depth of it, it just wasn't there.

but it did get me to reread the book, so at least there's that.

[celluloidbroomcloset]

Hi, other anon! First ranty anon here. Thanks for adding the bit about Rhys and Taika! In my head I included them in the cast and crew who helped shape their characters but actually didn't put that in the rant... 😅 And I gotta rant again, sorry! Please yell at me if I'm annoying. I just gotta rant at somebody.

But of course canyon op downplays their contributions! They're straight, they don't count! Only Con does since he's the only queer one in the "main three" cast! Besides who cares about how wonderfully adorable and romantic their little ad-libs made Ed and Stede! Nobody cares about Ed and Stede!

/sarcasm

Never mind the (admittedly slim) possibility that either Taika or Rhys or both could be queer and just publicly identify as straight. I don't know or care if they are or aren't, that's their business. But downplaying their contributions to the show just because they identify as straight is not the best look. Same with trying to villify Jenkins for his original plan (which still doesn't matter because he scrapped it) just because he's cishet.

"Jenkins never meant for this show to be so kind to queers!" they say as if Jenkins had nothing to do with the casting of so many queer actors and the hiring of the astoundingly diverse writers' room. He asked for queer writers and actors to help him shape this! Why does canyon op try to paint it as queer actors subverting a straight showrunner to make something awesome when he asked them willingly to contribute? Is it not better that this cishet man went to members of the community to help him make his show a wonderful celebration of all types of queerness because he recognized his limitations? Do they not realize just how rare it is to have that? Do we not want more awesome queer media that treats the community with love and respect, no matter who makes it? Why try to paint one of the few truly good things we have like it's just barely dodged being yet another lame "queerbait" when it's anything but?

(sorry again but I just saw their additions and justifications and like...did you not read your own tags, canyon op? you are trying to turn people against Jenkins with your post and you are twisting his words to turn him into a villain and downplay his involvement and make the show entirely the result of the cast dodging around him and...I'll stop now. sorry! 😆)

I think the original poster blocked me, which I'm more than fine with, but I still do find it quite funny that I literally didn't realize they were going for a "David Jenkins bad!!" narrative.

It's hard to say who shapes what in a show like this; again, it seems pretty indicative that Jenkins is collaborating with others and not simply forcing through everything himself. The whole point of allyship is for those in positions of privilege and power to use that to hold the door open for others who aren't. (I know there are lots of people who take issue with Taika, for different reasons that are perfectly legitimate, but he has undoubtedly held the door open for others, and it seems that Jenkins has too.) So to criticize Jenkins for making a poor choice and then deciding he could make a better choice, and that turning into what we see on OFMD, seems not at all about allyship or queer rep, but about personal animosity.

Same goes for Taika and Rhys. Again, plenty of actors can and would categorically refuse to do the queer romance. Others would be entirely uncomfortable with it and try to brush it off. I know nothing about these men personally, but every interview has them talking about how proud they were and are about what they've been able to do. (It's also, TBH, unusual to see two straight male actors being so openly loving about each other, which I think is nice to see.)

What struck me and so many others about the first season is that...they actually did that. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and it didn't. They're gay. It's a romance. There are bisexuals and trans/nonbinary people and asexuals and polyamorous people. The cast is hugely diverse. One of the leads is a biracial indigenous man and the other is the whitest man on the planet and they're shown falling in love (look at media history sometime and let me know how common THAT is). The big villains are toxic masculinity and colonialism. Classists get burned alive. Racists get their hands stabbed.

It is very much not a perfect show, and there are things it could do better, but what it does is fucking remarkable. You will not find someone more leery of white male artists than me, and it is always possible to be disappointed by a direction a show takes, even when its first two seasons are so good. But we should embrace it when art is done right and this show, so far, is done right.

I sure as fuck will not let a teeny group of dingbats mad that it doesn't conform to the story in their heads ruin that.

[mourningmaybells]

Yeah, I have definitely seen people rec Dracula as a wholesome novel about queer and autistic progressive young adults who team up to take down a privileged abuser and rapist, and it's like, I understand where the idea comes from, but like, not only is most of that just a possible reading at best to outright modern fanon at worst, but the entire plot is inseparable from the whole reverse invasion thing where the villain is an evil predatory Eastern foreigner who menaces good white women with overtones that can read as antisemitic in addition to the xenophobia - obviously, no one is evil for reading and enjoying the novel, but historical context matters and needs to be taken into account or you're just replicating Victorian attitudes tbh

You know I think I’ve probably done the same thing at some point (sometimes excitement or intense emotion over something can get to you… I was so so crushed by Damien’s suicide in The Exorcist I was in deep denial that the author was condemning him and the suicide was intended to be a “redemption”… don’t look at my old posts about it), but I tend to look up research papers of things I’ve read after to understand it more.I already noticed the way Dracula’s face was described (the nose particularly) had antisemitic and xenophobic red flags so things that are obvious to me aren’t obvious to everyone else, but I’ll admit I had blind spots too when it came to the phrenology with Van helsing. Either way, everyone needs to study and confront biases. Yeah it sometimes feels like homework to go look up what books meant and see it’s place in academic studies, but it’s important.

[bronanlynch]

once again it's "what the fuck did I do this week" time

listening (podcast): there was a new episode of Media Club Plus this week. lots of good smart conversations, including Jack saying some incredibly insightful things about the music that I would never have noticed on my own

somehow forgot to mention the all-timer of a Palisade episode from last week, which was somehow completely blown out of the water by the even more all-timer of a Palisade episode that dropped this week. jesus christ. how do they keep doing it like this. the most recent ep is very special to me personally though, on account of how [MAJOR PALISADE EP 29 SPOILERS] my favorite character is back <3 and also everything about Dahlia was perfect to me. I genuinely think it's very good that most of the antagonists this season lean more into the evil of empire as something mundane & bureaucratic in a way that makes it more terrifying. however. I also love to see an antagonist who is evil in the more melodramatic, fucked up & twisted anime villain monologue kind of way

listening (music): the only music I listened to this week was so many anime openings & endings. there are many things that can be said about Persona 5 The Animation and also Persona 5 more generally but the music does slap. I realize this is a basic opinion but Rivers in the Desert is the boss battle music of all time tbh

reading: as usual, same two books as last week. Rule of Wolves briefly gets a lot more fun when other Six of Crows characters show up, reminding me that I would much rather be reading about Kaz than any of these other people. also, I'm once again irritated by the complete lack of worldbuilding around queerness. there are implications that Fjerda doesn't approve of lesbians, which makes sense since they're obsessed with maintaining rigid binary gender roles. but never at any point do we learn shit about like, queer culture anywhere, or what the situation is like in other countries

I'm getting near the end of Water Outlaws, which still fucking rules. the chapters I read this week had a bunch of fun stuff with strategy & siege defenses. and also as usual some sick fight scenes

watching: still keeping up with Bakeoff. I was legitimately surprised that Dan stayed on after his bread was barely edible but I am thrilled for Tasha getting star baker because I love her and everything she makes looks so good. also in general bread week is always one of my favorite because I often find the dessert concepts too sweet for my personal taste but I fucking love bread

forgot to mention that we watched the last episode of the Ahsoka show last week. this is because it was fairly forgettable and I was- well, disappointed is the wrong word because I didn't have any expectations but anyway. the fight choreography was so clunky and had a bunch of weird pauses, and if you're not going to give me good writing you better at least give me cool visuals, so that was unfortunate

watched another three episodes of Hunter x Hunter to keep up with Media Club Plus, and I'm realizing that I was not remembering incorrectly when I thought that I hadn't actually seen this bit because I have no fucking memory of any of this except the scene of Killua ripping a guy's heart out, which I distinctly remember being shown out of context (I started watching HxH with some friends who were already partway through the first arc, and then went back to watch the first few episodes later but I guess never got to where I started)(something pretty significant happened in the first episode I ever saw so I'll know when I get there). anyway. epic highs and lows of this show, Killua rips a guy's heart out of his chest, Gon makes some extremely clever observations, Kurapika is the most character ever, but also there's the transmisogyny

watched a little more Legend of the Galactic Heroes. I love it when the most important part of a space battle is alternating scenes between each faction talking about what they think the other faction's plan is. this is Television to me. also I'm just now realizing that the columns on the bridges of the Imperial ships are actual literal stone columns, which seems wildly impractical but also extra as hell

most of what I watched this week was, as previously mentioned, the Persona 5 anime, because we wanted to watch something that we didn't have to pay much attention to. it's not, like, a good anime (the pacing is wild, they don't do a great job compressing the story of the game into the limited runtime, the art does not look good, they refuse to pass up an opportunity for jiggling tits or an ass close-up, the ending is thematically incoherent because they refuse to commit to any specifics of what "improving society" actually means materially even more than the game does). however. that's not the point. the point is that Persona 5 contains some of my favorite characters of all time, and also we were watching the dub (I'd already seen the sub) specifically to hear Robbie Daymond as Goro Akechi in all his flirty glory and oh boy did he deliver. also the music fucks

because we watched all of P5A we watched significantly less Zeta Gundam. I still love Four very much (rip), and I am amused by the new villain squad of Scirocco, Mouar, and Jerid, even if I find Jerid incredibly uninteresting. like, I genuinely think the show would be better if he had died instead of Lila and we got to have her as the main rival instead. but also I generally wish there were more evil women who stuck around for longer instead of dying almost immediately (or getting completely dropped from the story? not sure what happened to Rosamia tbh but it would be cool if she came back)

playing: I'm now on the final case of Ace Attorney 5. love that it's Athena's turn to be on trial for murder, a very important rite of passage. I am intrigued by whatever Blackquill's deal is but more importantly I want to see Aura again. also I miss Apollo :(

also ran another session of my ongoing Blades in the Dark campaign. they stole a cursed object for a demon, a woman got partially turned into a bird, and one of the player characters got really into celebrity RPF. normal day in Duskwall

making: we started building Miorine so that Suletta can have her wife to keep her company, and were almost immediately thwarted by how annoying the face decals are. so instead here's Suletta watching over her mostly-unassembled wife

drinking: Stormalong's Light of the Sun fucks so hard. it's yuzu & jasmine and both of the flavors come through really well

writing: finished (?) the yuri//vain fic I've been working on but haven't posted it yet for normal reasons of I've stared at it for too long so now I'm convinced it's bad. it's fine, I'll get over that and post it eventually. however I did a lot of writing on other unrelated fics. for example, I continue to be having a normal one about Integrity Friendsatthetable:

also started another Great Ace Attorney fic because I am not immune to the concept of post-canon Kazuma & Maria roommates

[diamondcitydarlin]

but also like tbh morality discussions within fandom as they pertain to characters and what they are perceived to deserve or not seem to always have an element of shallow bias. I absolutely know what it feels like to watch a character slide through or completely past the proper consequences of their actions in canon and have most people in fandom think this is totally fine (usually bc the character in question is 'hot' to them or they ship them with someone etc), while in the same breath arguing that character b who never did anything quite as bad as 'hot' character a can't face enough consequences and honestly should probably just die/get written off the show (I could honestly make a very long list from a lot of different fandoms of the characters I'm thinking of and I'm resisting to avoid unnecessary drama but it's HARD and I know some of my moots who I've known through various fandoms with me WILL know what and who I'm talking about). there's always a bias, there's always some element of hypocrisy that people are unwilling to accept and will instead write paragraph long bullshit diatribes about why their hot fave shouldn't have to face consequences while 'loser' character b should have to face ALL of them (if you supposed that character b is usually either some combo of older/not conventionally attractive/disabled/non-white then you win, because that's p much always the case!). I've seen characters in media do absolutely despicable things that just get swept under the rug by the writers and the fans where other characters deeds do not, so it's a double-standard that has rooting in some subject materials as well. so I guess for this reason it's difficult for me to take any kind of 'this character bad, this character good' at face value bc I know there's about a 99.9% chance that whoever is arguing this is doing so from a place of very deeply seated personal bias where nuance and complexity pretty much don't exist, it's just this character bad, this character good bc I said so. The end. It's not really limited to who the narrative designates as a sympathetic/heroic character or a villain either, it's entirely up to the preexisting prejudices the person has and is just blithely ignoring as they try to form their educated, 'objective' argument. (and ofc this extends to REAL people in fandom too bc inevitably THEY are good and whoever doesn't think like them is BAD, thereby justifying whatever they end up doing or saying to the 'bad fans')

For this reason I'm glad that OFMD is not that kind of show, at least not within the main cast. I'm glad that the subject material doesn't force anyone to designate characters as 'bad, unlovable' and 'good, deserves everything' based on shallow biases like someone thinks they're hot and/or they're a cute little meow meow or part of a fave pairing or whatever. Everyone deserves acceptance, but everyone has to work for it because we're exploring the idea that people and life are more nuanced than that, that we're ALL capable of destruction and pain, that no one gets a free pass from making amends based on some flimsy predetermination that they're 'one of the good ones' who is never culpable for anything. I think it's a really strong theme to go with and I'm appreciative of the writing team for having the emotional-awareness to do it, especially in a story that will inherently attract a lot of people who are used to doing the good guy/bad guy thing, particularly in queer narratives where these viewers tend to think everyone has to be a 'good guy' or they're not a valid queer or whatever.

And idk maybe being forced to see nuance like this will get some of these cut-and-dried narrative people to rethink themselves and life as a whole, maybe it'll force some of them to realize their world-views are deeply rooted in prejudice, maybe it'll get them to think about the complexity of humans IRL and the fact that life isn't as simple as being divided between good (never responsible for anything, always a justification) and bad (never deserving of anything good, should just go die) bc like man...what a caustic way to view life and people in general, what a fucked up way to go through life, what a cheap, easy way to justify your own destruction against others smh

[cherrytea556]

Me thinking about how colleen hoover's 'romances' would be twisted into aro stories instead

I already made one for 'ugly love' here though I can twist the others too

(tw for incest mentions)

Like imagine in verity, both the main character and the 'villain' are both aroallos with the 'villain' only being sexually attracted to Jeremy and hated being pregnant not because of the kids taking Jeremy's attention away from her but that it would actually complicate their relationship into being more committed as oppose to their relationship being more loose, her not wanting to lose Jeremy and pressure from their families/community, she proceeds to have kids which sinks her relationship with Jeremy more until she just snaps as she realizes that Jeremy doesnt see sex as she did anymore, rather than a fun thing they do, he now sees it as a way to make babies and shes sick of it. The main character (being lowen) would be the same and start off as terrible towards verity but in the end, begins to understand her when she too realizes Jeremy used her as a replacement to verity and her baby making, leaving her to decide on what she should do to get out of this trap shes now in. Hell, instead of making the main character based around Jeremy, why not base it around verity and we see her perspective on the world through the book. Hell, the book itself could be commentary on what people would see as the villain instead of what an actual villain is (e.g, someone who prefers only sex as oppose to someone pressuring someone to fit their standards for humans like them) with the real villain in the 'villain pov' being of the so called 'hero' (which can also mirror lowen and verity)

November 9 could've been around 2 people that had scars from their own past (instead of it being one causing the other scars in the past) and as they do their grand meet up once a year, they explore what makes them comfortable in a relationship before deciding that their perfectly fine with their relationship being undefined and not needing to be fit into boxes

Without merit could've genuinely be a family drama with the main character being aro as she wonders why sex is so important and even asks her step uncle this (though never ask him to do that with her, god no) since he views it as no big deal to which he reveals to her on his aro identity and that she might be one too. I would've had her and her love interest come to terms but ultimately deciding to keep themselves distant to work on themselves. Also quick tangent, but there was no excuse to have her brother sleeping with the step uncle especially when she established early in the book that her ex broke up with her after he touched her breast. So wouldn't it make more sense for him to sleep with her ex because her ex could've broken up with her because he realized he's gay? Like that would at least make presumely the only queer/mlm relationship in her books a bit better than what we got

Idk what else to say but i find it really funny when people like colleen hoover will ignore aros existence meanwhile their romances are as deep as a school's carnival pool tbh

[lilyginnyblackv2]

“Will turning on the others / Will becoming a villain / Will becoming the big bad of Season 5″

All bland and boring takes. Not only has Will already been placed in an antagonistic role in S2 (which isn’t exactly the same as a villainous role, but it is a bit too similar and would feel like too much of a repeat plot idea), we already know that Vecna is still out there, thus continuing the role of the villain / big bad of Season 5 (likely the whole of the Upside Down, tbh).

Not only that, but Will’s character is a foil to Vecna. They share similarities, but we see 1. that Will is “Will the Wise” a “good wizard” to counter Vecna’s “bad wizard” status and 2. Will genuinely loves and cares about the people around him. He’s experienced negative emotions and trauma, but so have many of the others. 

He loves El and Mike and Johnathan, and he still cares deeply for and wants to help his friends. Yes, he felt othered and different and like he was on the outside (especially in Season 3), but we see him working and talking through that in Season 4. Since, for him, it wasn’t Dustin or Lucas being distant from him that upset him, but Mike, specifically. And now, in Season 4, we see that some understanding has started to be reached. Mike is still a bit oblivious to Will’s romantic feelings for him, but they are both talking and connecting to each other again, and that’s what matters to Will. 

Also, at the end of the season, when Will talks about Vecna to Mike, his tone is one of great fear and dislike, in the sense that you can tell he finds the way Vecna to think to be scary and displeasing. I just can’t see how the story could make me believe that Will would willingly join Vecna. He was the first victim of Vecna (specifically, not Henry or 001). So, I just cannot see Will joining Vecna or turning evil or whatever. Maybe back in Season 3, but Season 4 things with him and Mike are in a much better place. 

Will Vecna try and use Will’s struggles with his feelings for Mike and his conflict over Eleven and Mike being together? I would be surprised if he didn’t. Will has that, plus the trauma of being taken to the Upside Down, being bullied as a Zombie Boy, and etc. But I feel Will will be strong enough to not side with Vecna, especially since he is fully aware of what kind of being Vecna is (unlike Eleven who was manipulated and fooled by 001).

Finally, the last reason why I would personally just not be here for this happening...Stranger Things isn’t (caononly speaking) overflowing with queer rep. There is Robin and there is Will (and here things are still in an ambiguous state), so making one of the two LGBTQIA+ characters “evil” is just...Not that great. Of course, not every person or character who identifies as queer or LGBTQA+ is a good person or a good character, but it just doesn’t land well for me when one of the only two non-straight characters in the series “goes evil” or something. 

So I just really hope the writing doesn’t go in that direction. I just don’t see how it would align with the direction of the character arcs and developments we are seeing, the parallel and foil nature of Will and Vecna, or how it would lead to actual interesting storytelling.

[susansontag]

Okay, two totally random rants from an admiring rando, but I just have a lot to say about two points you made and nowhere to say it! 1. THANK YOU re: Joyce ballet stuff. I'm becoming so fucking demoralized by the tidal pull towards absolute stupidity Twitter fame seems to have on some GCers. I'm a former ballet dancer (as in former company member, not just youth classes), and there is in fact incredibly brave criticism from women in ballet about how fucking pointlessly gendered a lot of it is, and how much that DOESN'T work with women's bodies, actually, because it demands impossible standards of strength AND delicacy, which functionally necessitates an eating disorder and huge physical damage among professionals. Letting us move (and build more muscle AND FAT) like male dancers would be a HUGE feminist win, actually. Ballet suffers so specifically from codified ideals we pretend can never be changed and were handed down by god about What Good Ballerinas Look Like/Move Like, which are just the same old sexist bullshit you'd imagine. We DON'T have to move the way we do "because of our bodies," and we ABSOLUTELY DO NOT need prominent feminists acting like these standards just are the way they are. Especially because a LOT of 2010s feminist energy brewing in the scene has been pretty much entirely squandered in favor of male-centric shit enabled through gender theory. Radical feminist analysis is DESPERATELY needed (in dance as a whole, tbh) b/c no one wants to talk about how much ballet would rather talk about/support/give $ to a male dancer queering swan lake/pointe/etc than have literally one short conversation about letting female dancers do literally anything but be traumatized twigs who are thrown away before they're 27. The difference between how the sexes is treated is so insanely stark and stable, no matter what male dancers call themselves, wear, etc -- the front line is so clearly who has a female body. To see a woman I used to admire throw her lot in here without one thought or cursory google is so disappointing. I've also loved the points you've made about Stock in the past. Fingers crossed Glosswitch and Sister Outrider won't let me down 2. You're totally right wrt Korra, and tbh, I love ATLA but fans really need to admit that season one is not that great. Like it's not terrible but it gets pretty boring in bits imho and lacks so much of what makes the show beloved -- I don't think it's a coincidence that fandom is almost always discussing events from season two and three instead. So yeah, okay, season two of LoK is weak and I think season one is a bit messy (although the high points are SO FUCKING HIGH), but seasons three and four rule, and a solid third of ATLA is lackluster. Feels like that balances them out more than people want to admit

omg, the whiplash this gave me when you went into korra at the end. season 3&4 of korra are sick imo they’re more mature and interesting than most of atla and I like the villains immensely because their ideologies are actually sympathetic.

as for everything else, thank you for this info, I’m really feeling the anger too lol it was an idiotic thing for joyce to say tbqh. honestly I’m not sure if her and stock are even necessarily feminists, certainly not radical feminists at least they turn away from and misrepresent the radical viewpoint consistently… it is very disappointing honestly

[teaveetamer]

You mentioned FNAF and I just want to say that if they had succeeded in getting that kind of community, oh my gosh it would be far worser than it is now. Seriously, the lore over there is a massive mess that barely anyone is on the same page completely. And it's because there aren't concrete answers, just vagueness and more mysteries that makes following the lore worthless at this point. With more and more people giving up on it and growing tired of the mystery when the plot is being badly affected. The villain Afton is seen as a literally "sad dad who did what he had to save his kids" by too many when the stories and his actions speak more of him being more an abusive father who jump to serial killing for more selfish reasons. If FE3H had managed to get a community like that then the El situation will become horrifying in so many ways than what we're dealing with now.

Yeah I stopped following FNAF sometime after the pizzeria simulator one. It was just getting too much for me tbh, like they added so much ~lore~ to keep the lorebait audience interested that it wound up kind of imploding on itself with how complicated it got. Then they kept concluding and unconcluding and reconcluding. And just from a horror perspective? I feel like stuff just started getting too explained and it took the bite out of the horror.

And also Scott Cawthon contributes money to the campaigns of people who think I shouldn’t exist and his best defense to the backlash was “b-buht it’s MY money!” Like yeah but that money didn’t manifest from thin air. You were paid that money from a lot of queer kids and teens and young adults and so you have to expect them to be upset that they supported a creator they love and that creator used their money to tell them to go die. You can spend it however you like but that doesn’t mean you can’t be criticized for it just because it was “yours”.

[winchesternova-k]

okay on second thoughts re: nobody sleeps in the woods tonight,, they somehow managed a bury your gays twice with the same character?? the single gay character rlly only seemed to be there to lecture the audience on homophobia but in a way that felt it was written extremely disconnected from actual queer ppl & also v white centric. then he was given a speech by a homophobic priest who tied him up in a way that felt predatory (ball gag on a teenager???) and this was after a v graphic sex scene between two more minors. they also did that thing like scream where they were self aware abt horror rules except,,, they played it straight??? fatphobia, misogyny, slut shaming and all. the girl who was killed for being too promiscuous (she had sex w one guy) gave a speech abt how she was more than just an airhead (while comparing that to homophobia) and was promptly killed,, and idk if it was the english dub or whether the dialogue in the original is just Like That but a) the speech sucked and felt v unrealistic, b) that’s not how u give a character depth bc u did nothing to back it up and c) lazy! bc y’all still killed her for being a ‘slut’!

also english netflix dubbers: referring to ur villains as ‘the fat guys’? bad! rlly rlly bad! it’s a) fat phobic and b) lazy! it’s not even their defining feature!

tbh the characters all just felt extremely undeveloped (even for a film w a larger cast who were mostly going to be dead by the end) the only two characters i found particularly compelling was the horror nerd who died right at the end & a man who survived an attack and was disabled but willing to fight who we saw v little abt. even the final girl was v underdeveloped and her tragic backstory? hardly mentioned or explored

like the music was rlly good and so were the practical effects but like so much of it was just yikes in the end. like it was rlly hard to keep focussed by the last 15 minutes like srsly this is what netflix is renewing? movies w homophobic garbage, oversexualised teens and an all white cast?