#so the question 'are they queercoding characters' is not helpful to me. yes. they are. 100% they know what they're doing

[piromantic]

its like. it seems a little silly to me when people can fully recognize methods of queerbaiting in bbc sherlock or whatever but when it comes to the gacha game space its either like 'wow, i can't believe they didn't realize that they were making this kind of gay!' or 'wow, i can't believe Evil Asian Censorship prevented these characters from being queer!' or like maybe the game was produced by people who made intentional creative decisions aimed towards making people spend money. just like how all mainstream media works. sorry

[hard-times-paramore]

Please tell us about your new blorbo!

Thank you so much for asking! Today's Blorbo is Kang Yo-Han from the Korean tv show The Devil Judge!

Favorite thing about them: this is a hard question not to answer everything, but. I think my favorite thing about him is how he doesn't mind - and almost enjoys - being backed into a corner. He always has a plan, and not in the boring "ah yes all according to keikaku, I planned for this from the beginning" kind of way. He plans on the go and still comes out on top. It takes real smarts to do that, and I'm impressed every damn time.

Least favorite thing about them: I don't actually dislike this trait of his, because it's a well-written character flaw and it gets addressed on the show. But, Yohan, stop self-sabotaging! He believes his revenge must come before everything and anyone, and for that he ends up pushing his loved ones away and not allowing himself to form bonds! Stop ruining your friendships and the principles you achieved challenge!

Favorite line: "If the devil really existed in the world, it would be the self-pity of the powerful." I'm a Yohan apologist actually.

brOTP: him and his niece Elijah. They have a bitchy relationship and they really do love each other.

OTP: who else? Him and Kim Gaon. They're written into the queercoding of the show with the clear intention of being endgame to each other, at least that's what I think.

nOTP: him and Jung Seon-A. Not that I'm against shipping two evil bisexuals. They're just so insufferable together it gives me a tummy ache.

Random headcanon: Yohan does feel the taste of food, or else he wouldn't hate the Nanny's food. He just doesn't allow himself to enjoy flavor, because his trauma tells him he doesn't deserve good things, or any things. Until Gaon cooked for him, with love, and he realized maybe he deserves good things. A friend of mine helped with this headcanon.

Unpopular opinion: HE'S NOT CRINGE! Stop calling him a loser just because he is one!! 😔 :( ok for real now. His edgy lines are because he hardens his exterior and tries to sound so cool, which then contrast a lot to his awkward domestic moments and made him look like a loser. But those moments to me are of someone just learning to be human and to be loved. I can't see him as cringe after all that.

Song I associate with them: Brianstorm by Arctic Monkeys.

I doubt it's your style Not to get what you set out to acquire The eyes are on fire You are the unforecasted storm

Favorite picture of them: he looks so in his element during the trials, he might as well be a vengeful god.

Thank you for the ask! Thank you for the opportunity to infodump about my blorbo!

[lindwurmkai]

Heyooooo

I have a chinese drama question and thought you'd be the perfect one to ask!

I was watching a chinese anime, fantasy historical, as you do, and thought 'hey, if i like this so much maybe I should give one of the tumblr propaganda live action shows a try?'

I just don't know where to start, the one a while back with the demon man with the flute(?) and the very serious looking man in white looked really good! But is a good starter show? And uuuuh what was it called again?

Cheers!

lmao i hope you don't mind me answering this publicly. that would be the untamed! it was the show that kicked off this whole ... thing. for me.

is it good? yes. is it a good starter show? hoo boy how do i even judge that at this point. 😳

i'll say this: you're going to be confused. many characters have 2-3 names, there are some plot holes (mostly as a result of censoring or just things getting cut for length iirc), and there is simply ... a lot going on. personally i went in completely unfamiliar with the genre as well, so stuff went over my head and i didn't know what some terms meant etc.

i can probably dig up some helpful posts tho!

i would also love to recommend some alternatives, but i'm not sure what you're looking for. the major genres or genre groupings i have experience with are, roughly, xianxia (focused on gods/immortals/cultivators whose goal is to become immortal), wuxia (deals with the "martial arts world" a.k.a. jianghu, which i cannot sum up in one sentence but basically it's a little more down to earth, although fantastical elements often exist to varying degrees, and it tends to feature characters living on the fringes of society), and historical/fake-historical stuff that doesn't fall under either of these. court dramas can be surprisingly entertaining if you ask me.

a bit of overlap is not unusual, i think, and then sometimes the plot centers on romance within one of these genres.

so do you want romance? is het romance of interest or would you prefer an "as much queercoding as we can get away with" adaptation of a BL novel instead (like the untamed)? which of the genres sounds most appealing? how much do you mind major character death? (very important question 😂)

i can recommend one or two things set in modern times as well, including the absolute mess (said with love) that is daomu biji (the thing with the graverobbing adventures), but you probably don't want to get into that or you'll be here forever. :P

please answer my riddles three give me some pointers and i'll make a guess at which of my faves you'd like best. or i'll just go looking for those explainer posts about the untamed tomorrow.

[tasteless-lemonade]

Stressful Comic Reading: The Human Target

My pilot chapter of Stressful Comic Reading, All-Star Batman & Robin, was pretty much just angry splutter about the infamous "Batman: Year One" sequel. To this one, I'd like to make a more structured text. At the core, I'm still complaining endless about shiny spandex people comic book, but now with more coherence.

Synopsis: Christopher Chance, The Human Target, disguises himself as Lex Luthor to see who is trying to murder him. Due to that, Chance ends up taking a poison that was meant for Luthor, and now has 12 days to live. He spends his last days looking for the killer, who is someone among the Justice League International.

If you never read a JLI book, maybe you will like The Human Target. If you are a JLI fan like me, it probably won't be the most enjoyable experience

Tora is written as a femme fatale, "good girl actually bad girl" style. Not only that, she openly despises being a nice sweet girl. She clearly hates it and her actions throughout the book are motivated because she doesn't want to be nice anymore. She gets angry to be referred to as kind and sweet.

Now, a storyline that deals with how Tora feels with the common view of her being shallow "sweet" would be nice. But this whole story seems to hate the idea that Tora might be a sweet girl. Tora doesn't has to be a femme fatale bad girl in order to be interesting and Tom King obviously hates this version of Tora, as he is always trying to show his Tora is better, his Tora is way better than boring, nice Tora.

Because oooh, my stories deal with MURDER and SEX so they are Deep™ and much better than your kind-hearted heroism.

The same way he is trying to say his Tora is better, he is trying to say his Tora relationship is better. Yes, now we talk about Guy Gardner.

This whole characterization of Guy is based of him at his absolute worst moments. Calling Tora a bitch, stalking her, beating up Chance for dating her. People can argue that Guy was indeed an asshole during his first JLI moments, but The Human Target canonically takes place after Tora came back from the dead. It makes no sense for him to be acting the way he is acting, unless years of character development have been magically erased.

Actually, it makes. In an effort to make Chance/Tora look better and to make the author's self insert Chance look cool, Guy is written as a abusive, jealous ex who has an unhealthy obsession with Tora and a hatred towards Chance for "stealing his girl"

Then the book falls into the typical of "Man beating up girlfriend's ex to prove how he is such a Better Man For Her". Sigh.

There's a scene where Tora and Chance kill Guy and go fuck while the corpse is melting downstairs, for fuck's sake.

It would later be confirmed Guy faked his death here with Tora's help, but it still clearly a scene to show how Chance is awesome and this cool action hero and the man Tora needs that I feel like someone kicked me in the balls again. This trope never sounds good.

"What about the rest of the JLI?" you may ask. Well, they are certainly here.

They just show-up in the story, do what is needed for the plot to move and then disappear, not being given actual characterization or development. For a book supposedly about the JLI, I was waiting for them to be more than plot devices. AND STILL.

Bea??? Had an affair with J'onn???? Cause he liked being burnt??? But felt guilty for it??? Why???

Other than that, Bea doesn't do much other than be Tora's friend (still queercoded) and a suspect for Chance's poisoning. Almost all of J'onn moments is just "J'onn you did something bad you slept with Bea" and basically no depth other than that.

Ted has a nice moment of team-up with Ice and talks to Chance to give him information for the plot to move forward. Booster shows up and eats some bagels and that's it. There's also this take on Booster and Beetle relationship which is... questionable. At best.

Rocket Red is the only one who seems to care about Guy (because despite referring to the team as family, no one, not even Tora seems to at least like Guy throughout the whole book). He asks Chance where Guy is, because he wants to at least bury his brother. I gotta say, it was a good scene.

G'nort is also there to... uh... be a plot device for... take them to Oa and... that's it.

That's it. During 12 issues, we got beautiful art and some wonderful mischaracterization of these guys, well done!

To quote the words of @shoesofthefishermanswife

[yeah-thats-probably-it]

hi its the ring for jeeves analysis anon sorry im so illusive can't help my mysterious nature its inexplicable, quick question: have you read any psmith??? if so thoughts on them do you hold any opinions, postulations, assumptions etc. in re: queercoding, possibly even queerer coded than jeeves series??

Mysterious Ring for Jeeves anon! Just when I thought you forever borne away on the four winds, you have returned again to the masked ball to drop your calling card (three black goose feathers and a shard of mother of pearl collected from the silver sands by the light of the season's first full moon) into the hollowed-out tree stump at the edge of the garden. I receive and understand your message, and shall await your signal directly the cock crows thrice.

Now, to answer your question, Psmith had been on my "should really get around to it" list for ages, but this ask prompted me to finally download the Psmith in the City audiobook and put it on while I was packing and now I DO have thoughts! My first thought was that I had no idea working in a bank was so much like working in hospitality, but that's a post for another day.

Short answer: yes, this is queer as hell. And it isn't even the first non-Jeeves Wodehouse book I've read that felt even more queer coded than Jeeves-- the first was Ukridge (aka It's Always Sunny in London), which I'm going to go ahead and compare and contrast with Psmith, because I feel like I'm starting to uncover a pattern in Wodehouse's POV characters that I think could lend support to queer readings of a lot of his works.

For those who aren't familiar, Ukridge is ALSO the tale of an extremely blatant self-insert character inescapably captivated by the magnetic personality of an old school friend. Corky, a starving writer who's always struggling to get his articles published in magazines and is totally not Wodehouse by a different name, is deeply irritated by the get-rich-quick schemes of his freeloader friend Ukridge. He knows Ukridge is taking advantage of him, and rarely has a positive thing to say about him, yet clearly finds something about his indefatigable spirit immensely compelling: "to me this tame subsidence into companionship with a rich aunt in Wimbledon seemed somehow an indecent, almost a tragic, end to a colourful career like that of S. F. Ukridge. [...] I should have had more faith. I should have known my Ukridge better. I should have realised that a London suburb could no more imprison that great man permanently than Elba did Napoleon."

This quotation is followed by Corky finding out that Ukridge has acquired six Pekinese dogs (which will turn out to have been pinched from his aunt) that he's planning to train for show biz, and would Corky like to invest. If you wanted to know.

The queerness is rather more unilateral in Ukridge than in Psmith, but no less glaring for that. Corky really doesn't seem to like it when Ukridge is interested in a woman, and shows little to no interest in women himself, iirc. I mean, the first time he sees Ukridge in the company of a woman he sounds almost betrayed: "Never in the course of a long and intimate acquaintance having been shown any evidence to the contrary, I had always looked on Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge, my boyhood chum, as a man ruggedly indifferent to the appeal of the opposite sex. I had assumed that, like so many financial giants, he had no time for dalliance with women—other and deeper matters, I supposed, keeping that great brain permanently occupied." THIS is his reaction to Ukridge announcing that he wants to get engaged: "The thing was too cataclysmal for my mind. It overwhelmed me." GIRL.

If I had no prior familiarity with Wodehouse and I read this book, I would be asking which straight boy hurt him.

Finally, one of the Ukridge stories contains this exchange between Corky and a pugilist Ukridge has decided he's going to make a star, which I would like to present here without comment before moving on:

“You ever been in love, mister?” I was thrilled and flattered. Something in my appearance, I told myself, some nebulous something that showed me a man of sentiment and sympathy, had appealed to this man, and he was about to pour out his heart in intimate confession. I said yes, I had been in love many times. I went on to speak of love as a noble emotion of which no man need be ashamed. I spoke at length and with fervour.

Skipping merrily along, let us now come back around to Psmith in the City, starting with the primary POV character and then bringing in Psmith's relationship to him.

Mike is an even more blatant self-insert than Corky. This would have been obvious even if I didn't already know that in his young adulthood Wodehouse, owing to the fact that his father could no longer afford to send him to Oxford, had worked as a clerk at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. The jokes are too precise to not be from personal experience. As Mike is our audience avatar, he's naturally the more normal, less distinctive character. Despite his relative nondistinctness, though, he's written in such a way that it's clear Wodehouse deeply identified with him. The sections where he's feeling emotions like homesickness or out-of-placeness or sympathy, for instance, are very vivid and evocative. You really feel what Mike is feeling.

Then there's Psmith, manic pixie dream boy and destroyer of bad managers. He handles every situation with a debonair smile on his face and breezy condescension in his voice, completely unflappable... except with regards to Mike. His feelings typically aren't described in as much detail as Mike's are, but it's obvious he adores him, to the point of slight codependence. He needs Mike near him to hear his thoughts on life, and nobody else will do. As much as he tries to maintain his air of blithe nonchalance at all times, real emotion slips through whenever the situation involves separating him from Mike or Mike being in danger.

When Mike is moved to the Cash Department, Psmith is immediately desolate. I love the way he's like, "but- but if you relocate Mike, then WHO pray tell will PAY ATTENTION TO ME?" and this is a genuine crisis for him. He resents the new guy just for not being Mike. Local annoyingly imperturbable gadfly inconsolable due to boybestfriend going to work in a different department than him, more at eight. Then, when Mike gets into the fight at Clapham Common, Psmith feels genuine fear as he prepares to intervene in the fight and tell Mike to make a run for it.

Another factor I feel makes the queer coding stronger here is that unlike Bertie and Jeeves, there isn't an obvious plausibly deniable reason for Psmith and Mike to always be together. Jeeves is Bertie's employee. He's an unreasonably devoted and loyal employee, but you expect a gentleman to be accompanied by his valet about town, and for the gentleman and valet to share accommodation.

Psmith and Mike are just like that. They live together because they like each other and want to. Psmith spends the whole book essentially treating Mike like his boyfriend and sugar baby, again, simply because he wants to. I mean, the novel literally opens with Psmith bringing Mike home to meet his parents, and Psmith's father later refers to Mike as the "youngster [Psmith] brought home last summer." Psmith invites Mike to go out on an excursion with him "hand in hand" not once, but twice. The end goal of all his scheming is for him and Mike to be together at Cambridge.

'I need you, Comrade Jackson,' he said, when Mike lodged a protest on finding himself bound for the stalls for the second night in succession. 'We must stick together. As my confidential secretary and adviser, your place is by my side. Who knows but that between the acts tonight I may not be seized with some luminous thought? Could I utter this to my next-door neighbour or the programme-girl? Stand by me, Comrade Jackson, or we are undone.' So Mike stood by him.

I find it very notable that despite one of the big themes of the book being Mike and Psmith feeling uncertain about the future and trying to figure out what they want to do in life, neither of them ever mentions or thinks about marriage as something they might want someday. From what I've seen it looks like that might change in later books, but it stuck out in this one. And it's not like they couldn't have! Mr Waller's daughter and her on-again-off-again fiance were at that extremely awkward dinner, and that could have prompted a thought about whether or not the prospect of engagement sounded personally appealing to either of the boys.

This book feels like a wish fulfillment fantasy in much the same way the Jeeves books do. Imagine you have a fascinating friend who, using his money and/or resourcefulness, can rescue you from your terrible job and terrible shitty apartment (or other, richer varieties of soup, if you're Bertie Wooster), freeing you to pursue the life you truly want. He's clever, and quotes all your favorite Shakespeare lines, and is intensely devoted to you (he's also kind of a weird stickler about clothes but you can put up with that). And all he asks for it is that you look at him with awed wonder and gratitude and tell him he's a genius a few times a day.

So! In conclusion, I think you could read this as romantic or queerplatonic according to your fancy, but there's certainly nothing straight about it. And loath as I am to speculate about the personal lives of people who were alive in recent memory, I'm kind of starting to have some questions about P. G. Wodehouse. But that's neither here nor there. I'm going to go read some fanfic. Thank you so much for the question, Mysterious Ring for Jeeves Anon!

[the-uss-wossname]

So I recently saw a post about discovery being the queerest star trek and I said I wasn’t going to write a speech about why it’s actually ds9, but i did it anyway.

So! Below the cut I’ve listed most of the queer moments and queercoding that I remember from my two watches of ds9. There are a lot of them! So even if you don’t read the whole thing I still urge you to watch ds9 if you’re a fan of trek and want to see queer trek!

Note: this post contains spoilers for ds9

In explicit canon:

-Jadzia Dax was the first canonically pansexual and transgender main character in Star Trek. No one ever makes a big deal of this. She is shown correcting people on her name and pronouns on screen and people just rolling with it!

-Rejoined: jadzia falls in love with a woman on screen, the entire cast supports her. They tell a queer story by including an in-universe taboo on reassociation, and beautifully pull off a queer story where women loving each other is seen as natural and normal, but also reflects on the taboos of gay relationships in present society!

-mirrorverse ezri and Kira’s lesbian kiss!!!! (the entirety of the mirror verse is so queer, actually)

-we hear about a man giving birth in casual conversation and this is treated as normal. He gets paternity leave! “You mean he’s pregnant?” “Yes!” “Oh I should send him something”

-a cross dressing ferengi woman is better at finances than quark and gives him gay panic when she starts hitting on him as a guy- by the end of the episode it’s implied that he did actually reciprocate. This was an Interesting one.

-that time quark had to dress up as a woman to further the woman’s rights movement : granted this was mostly played for laughs but the implication of quark getting mtf surgery in like an hour no questions asked sure is something, and most of the humor comes from the fact that it’s Quark.

-O’Brien saying he wishes his wife could be more like a man sometimes (this man is bisexual)

-Changelings don’t have gender. Odo doesn’t have a gender. He is literally gender fluid. I believe it was one of the comics where he pointed this out as an excuse to help Kira do a mother-daughter thing. But yeah he’s very explicitly chosen his human form and gender, which is pretty neat!

-so much sex positivity! They have so much sex on this show! We see odo lose his human and goo virginity! The amount of times quark gets oomox on screen! Sisko and kassidy waking up together! Worf and Dax! Quark and his Klingon wife! Bashir and leeta! Kira and her various lovers! Dax is talking about it constantly! Quarks mom fucked the Nagus and brunt was in his closet! Sex is treated both as a serious thing and as just a thing you do and the topic is explored in so many interesting ways!

-great takes on masculinity and parenting as well! Sisko is such a good dad! Rom’s entire arc touched on this as well! Miles who is just such a wife guy! All these men who love their children, aren’t afraid to be emotional and caring and kind, especially with the contrast of misogynistic, overbearing, “manly” characters like quark and dukat being shown as undesirable!

And of course, there are plenty of storylines that hit on queer themes like found family, coming out as “different”, the intersection of gender and cultural norms,

So much queercoding:

-garashir is so intentional that Andrew Robinson (garaks actor) has, on multiple occasions, expressed that it should have been canon, discusses how he set out to flirt, their entire first interaction is about the gayest thing I’ve seen, they have regular lunch dates, get very anxious when the other one is gone. The way they look at each other like they’re gonna eat each other. It’s more canon than some of the canon relationships to me and is the closest two trek actors have gotten to spirk since spirk

-garaks storyline and character on its own is very gay. Props to Andrew Robinson for making the “ziyal likes garak” storyline so uncomfortable and for acting garak so gay we love him for it. He has said before that garaks sexuality is inclusive and you can read more about that in the book he wrote if you want!

-Kira nerys is a lesbian. (“The stones are straight, it’s me who’s-”) She dresses and acts like a lesbian. She eats every woman she sees with her eyes. Every one of her relationships with men is with a man who has power (eg the lesbian “he must therefore be attractive, right?) and ends with them dying or leaving. (“The prophets said we weren’t right for each other” lmao ok). Her last relationship was with odo, the literal gender fluid. That man is goo, that man is the last man you date before you finally admit you’re a lesbian “just to see”. PLUS her lesbian kiss in the mirrorverse I rest my case.

-odo was played as asexual for the first few seasons and Rene has said at events that he has always thought of him that way. Do I wish they continued with this? Yes.

-quark and Odo’s weird little thing. They hate each other. They love each other. They’re obsessed with each other. It’s great. Its definitely unhealthy and also pretty queer. One time they kissed for comedic effect on screen and it was a little bit too convincing.

-the O’Brien polycule. This series of episodes was great because it showed surrogacy as a valid thing to happen, and also because of that whole thing between Kira miles and keiko. What happened there? Who’s to say

-Kira and Dax, especially in the early seasons. Kira was truly following her with her eyes in every scene together it was great. I personally don’t see it but many many people do

-ezri my beloved she is a lesbian as well. Look at her. I personally have always been of the opinion that she’s non-binary. But also look at her, short hair, tense relationship with her family, drive towards found family and a queer community, mirrorverse lesbian kiss, yk

-also Julian bashir is trans coded. I don’t know enough about this to tell you but my transmasc friend said so so it must be true. They changed a lot with the genetic engineering who’s to say. Also the name change is right there

Quite frankly, the only character that isn’t presented as some sort of queer at one point or another is captain sisko! You could make an argument for every single other cast member for some or another type of queercoding which is wonderful!

So, yes, in many cases they weren’t allowed to say it outright, and they of course weren’t advertising queerness as a positive in the 90’s- but ds9 is full of both canon and implied queerness and touches on so much about gender and sexuality which was really boldly going back then! That’s why it is and will always be one of my favorite shows and my favorite trek!

[handsmotif]

The Queercoding of Pinky and the Brain

This originally was just me infodumping to my friends on discord, but I decided it might be interesting to some people on here, so I polished it up and made it an actual essay lmao

To start, we’re going to break this into 2 sections -- the relationship between the mice, and Pinky’s relationship with gender, because queercoding doesn’t just mean gay!

For a 90′s show, Pinky and the Brain (and its mother show, Animaniacs) was very progressive for its time! But there were still lots of things that they couldn’t slip by censors, and thus, that’s where we have to read between the lines. And that is something I wanted to clarify here before we dive in, the actual meaning of queercoding. It’s NOT the same as queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is when the people producing certain media purposefully dangle the possibility of queer representation to lure in audiences (most prominent examples are BBC Sherlock, Riverdale, and Supernatural I GUESS? who knows abt that last one anymore), but never follow through, purely for profit. Queercoding is when media producers WANT to write in queer representation, but can’t, usually because the censors won’t let them. So, they must resort to subtext. (example: the policemen from Gravity Falls) It could also be unintentional, simply assigning certain characteristics associated with the LGBT community to characters. (example: Bugs Bunny, many Disney villains) Either way, it heavily relies on the audience picking up subtext, but whether it’s malicious or not varies, depending on the media. Bugs Bunny is an example of positive accidental queercoding, while a lot of Disney villains are negative examples.

Now, to actually discuss the gay little mice! Pinky and the Brain, whether it be intentional or not (based off comments from Maurice LaMarche, Rob Paulsen, and Tom Ruegger, signs strongly point to intentional, but it’s never been explicitly confirmed), is an example of positive queercoding.

There are many moments that I could pick out to discuss here, but we’ll start with some VERY on the nose gay metaphors. 

Remember Romy? If you don’t, that’s their actual biological son! Romy came about due to a cloning accident, where their DNA got combined and spat him out. 

There’s SO many things I could say about Romy. Every appearance he makes has an overarching gay metaphor as the plot. His first appearance in the episode Brinky (yeah it’s literally titled their ship name), it deals with his dads (WHICH I ALSO WANT TO POINT OUT, he DOES call them both dad, and they do both call him their son) disapproving of the fact that he wants to leave home and not follow in their footsteps of taking over the world. Brain even goes as far as disowning him whenever he tells him, which is certainly something a lot of queer people can unfortunately relate to. Also seen a lot in this episode is Pinky and Brain arguing even more than a married couple than usual, which pushes Romy away even further. Later, when Romy eventually does leave, and Brain starts to regret chasing him away, he tries desperately to reach out to him, but Romy doesn’t want anything to do with him. They end up tracking him down to an apartment building, where Romy is now living with his human girlfriend. When questioned about their relationship, the girlfriend, named Bunny, goes off on a tangent about how people shouldn’t judge others based on labels or relationships (hello?), and that Brain needs to be more tolerant. Brain apologizes and Romy forgives him. Happy ending.

Romy’s only other appearance is in the comics. Essentially, the plot of this one is that Brain wants to become the president of the local high school’s PTA, but he needs Romy’s help to make it look like he has a normal home life. He also enlists the help of Billie, the obligatory Woman introduced to make sure Brain doesn’t look as gay as he actually is, that he has a crush on. She pretends to be his girlfriend, and Pinky pretends to be Romy’s uncle, while they make up the story that Romy’s actual mother was lost at sea. Because if the organization found out that Brain has a son with a MAN??? THINK of the controversy! Anyway, the plan works, and Brain actually manages to get elected as president. Throughout this though, Pinky gets WEIRDLY jealous that Brain keeps brushing him aside for Billie. To the point where during Brain’s inauguration, Pinky actually dresses up as the wife/mother lost at sea and storms into the room.

[ID: Comic panels of Pinky, Brain, and Romy on stage at the inauguration ceremony. Pinky busts into room wearing drag, saying, “Yoo hoo! I’m back from years lost at sea to be with my son and ungrateful husband! Narf!” He then hugs Romy, while glaring at Brain. He goes on to say, “I’ll stand by your side, even though you left me behind!” The people in the audience begin to question this, saying, “Oh great fuzzy bangs!”, “What’d she say?!”, “He deserted her to be with that other woman!”, “What kind of monster is he?!”. Brain then rips off Pinky’s wig and says, “This isn’t my wife! This isn’t even a woman! It’s my roommate, Pinky.” Pinky replies, “Well, yes... But Romy really is my son! Poit!” And Brain responds, “N-Nonsense! He’s my son!” More people in the audience angrily speak up, saying, “What’s that?”, “He lives with a guy who likes to dress up in women’s clothing and the both claim to be that kid’s father!”, “Grumble! Mutter!” /END ID]

Needless to say, this doesn’t end well for them. What we can conclude from this is that homophobia exists in the Pinky and the Brain universe, and our characters are directly affected by it.

Moving on, And-There-Was-Only-One-Bed is a pretty common occurrence with these two. Their cage is big, they have plenty of room for two beds, but? They choose to sleep together? Even in some times where this has been inconsistent and they DO have separate beds, they’re always RIGHT next to each other. (what if we put our minecraft beds together ❤😳)

I would like to mention the episode, You’ll Never Eat Food Pellets In This Town Again! This episode is interesting to say the least. Deals with a lot of the meta of the show. Anyway. In this episode, Brain has a nightmare that he’s in a loveless marriage with Billie. You know, the woman he’s supposed to have a crush on. In the end, he wakes up from the nightmare in the same bed as Pinky.

Speaking of female love interests, Pinky is seen having multiple relationships with characters of different species. Any time this is brought up by Brain, Pinky counters with Brain being too intolerant. An honorable mention with this is in Wakko’s Wish, when Pinky is with Pharfignewton, and Brain’s constant pestering about their relationship could be read as jealousy. Pinky needs a mousy date, after all!

Something else I would like to mention is in one episode (I forget what it’s called, I’ll try to look it up later and edit this), Brain is applying for a job. The employer asks Brain if he’s married, and Brain hesitates before saying he “has a roommate,” but that he’s occupied with his own things, which then cuts to a shot of Pinky applying lipstick.

Leading into part two of this essay, Pinky’s relationship with gender! Pinky has always been very gender nonconforming, and loves to wear dresses, do his makeup, and make himself look pretty. For the most part, this is played pretty straight, and not as a gag, like a lot of shows tend to do! It’s just a casual fact about him that he likes to present femininely sometimes.

This does play into their taking over the world plans pretty often, where Pinky wears drag, usually either to sneak into somewhere. Like in one of their earliest appearances on Animaniacs, Noah’s Lark, where they pose as a couple to board Noah’s, and I quote, “love boat.” After boarding, Noah says to himself, “Who am I to judge?” Okay. Yeah. Alright. Anyway.

I actually had less to say on this than I thought I did, but I wanted to make sure to emphasize that Pinky at the very least is coded as being Not Quite Cis, and that he’s played a key part in helping a lot of people watching the show figure out that they’re also Not Quite Cis. 

Wrapping this up because I’m hungry, but I want to throw in some more honorable mentions that I really do not see any type of cishet explanations for:

They literally go on a romantic date at a very fancy restaurant in Brain’s Night Off. This is played extremely casually, and the only remark from anyone that they receive is that they are “much smaller than the usual clients.”

Pinky, on at least one occasion, daydreams about him and Brain being a married couple, and wanting to be a housewife (the original malewife ❤)

There’s an issue in the comics where Pinky has a crush on another male mouse, and when Brain gets annoyed, Pinky reassures him that he thinks Brain is cute and quite the catch too

Brain attempting to kiss Pinky in the reboot??????

Brain actually did conquer the world once in the Halloween special, because Pinky made a deal with the devil for it, and thus Pinky got sent to hell! Brain actually went to hell and gave up the world to bring him back

Brain was extremely close to conquering the world once more in the Christmas special, but after reading what Pinky’s feelings for him were (nothing romantic, just Pinky basically just praising Brain for being so hardworking and an amazing mouse, and lamenting that he never gets anything for it), he gets so emotional that he sabotages himself and wishes everyone a Merry Christmas instead

TLDR; these mice are very queer and need therapy, and are probably the most heavily queercoded characters that I can think of in children’s media.

[marveliciousfanace]

I'm guessing Timon and Pumba are two of the queer-coded characters, but who's the third one?

Sorry it took me so long to get to this! You asked a simple question, but I love to talk, so I’ll give you first a simple answer and then a more complicated one.

The simple answer is: yes, Timon and Pumbaa are the first two queer-coded characters (fun fact: originally, a more comedic version of Elton John’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” was written as a duet for them, before it was altered for Simba and Nala). The third character is Scar. And all three of these pose a problem.

Now for the more complicated answer. First, in case anyone thinks I’m making shit up as I go, I’ve done a number of research projects into queercoding at Disney. A source I used heavily, and one I really recommend, is the book Diversity in Disney: Critical Essays on Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Sexuality, and Disability. There are a ton of great essays here, but I draw mainly on two of them from the section on gender and sexuality. They are “’What Do You Want Me To Do? Dress in Drag and Do The Hula?’: Timon and Pumbaa’s Alternate Lifestyle Dilemma in The Lion King” by Gael Sweeney, and “Mean Ladies: Transgendered Villains in Disney Films” by Amanda Putnam. 

Okay. Sources cited. Now my explanation. 

The post I made about this talks about how the three queercoded characters in The Lion King serve as problematic threats to what is upheld as the good/true/pure/natural heterosexual order of things. Let’s start with Scar, because this is the most blatantly malicious. Scar is queercoded ala what some queer scholars refer to as the “limp-wristed trickster” archetype. This is particularly true of the original film, simply because the 2019 version lacks enough stylization to give a full impression of physicality, and this archetype relies heavily on action. It’s used in everything from Disney animation to James Bond, and it denotes a male character (usually a villain) who is cast as effeminate via traditional queer stereotypes (the limp wrist and hand motions, the slow drawl, and often an invasion of male character’s personal space in ways that is framed as unsettling and predatory). Compounded with what we know of Scar’s backstory (drawing purely from what the film tells us, as the average viewer wouldn’t look farther), we’re given a somewhat ominously effeminate male character, cast out of favor in his family for his hyper-masculine brother, who identifies largely with other outcasts as opposed to his own family. As a queer person, that’s intensely relatable. But we aren’t supposed to identify with Scar. He’s the villain. He and the other outcasts use trickery (the archetype includes trickster for a reason - because obviously these people are inherently deceitful and can’t triumph honestly) to ruin the good, heterosexual paradise that Mufasa commands by taking control for themselves. Scar in particular ruins “traditional, pure heterosexual marriage” by his advances at Sarabi, trying to coerce her into marrying him instead (and notably, there is a distinct lack of even “jealous lover” coding here, so the politicality and violation of modern heterosexual norms is even stronger). Even if the audience does not consciously recognize Scar’s queercoding, it’s highly probable that most can subconsciously draw connections between him and stereotypical traits placed onto queer people. Queercoding villains is a long-time tradition in media for precisely this reason.

But Timon and Pumbaa aren’t villains...or are they? The thing about Hakuna Matata is that, for all its catchy, merchandisable qualities, it’s not actually supposed to be a good thing. Timon and Pumbaa are recognizable as a queer couple (Timon particularly is intended to be somewhat camp) who adopt a son and raise him together in an “alternative lifestyle.” The original film makes it seem somewhat shallow - fun, yes, but ultimately something unnatural and wrong, which I’ll get to in a minute - but the 2019 version makes it downright sinister. Hakuna Matata goes from care-free love and family to “don’t care about others, look out only for yourself, and ignore whatever impacts you might have on other people” selfishness. And it is framed as selfishness, even though I can’t actually see what’s so bad about the actual way they live. The fact that the line metaphor (as opposed to the circle) is used and vilified takes on a particularly upsetting overtone for me: Timon and Pumbaa are prey animals, so the fact that they would not see a circle, but merely the way those at the top (predators -> lions -> the heterosexual patriarchal structure) take advantage of those at the bottom (prey -> queer individuals who don’t subscribe to heterosexual lifestyles) is both relatable and apt, and so for a line metaphor to be instead framed as ignoring the needs of the community (which Hakuna Matata is literally built on - the sanctuary of the prey community that Timon and Pumbaa have built together) in favor of selfishness is particularly distressing, and the fact that in the new film, their relationship has a much harsher, more belittling edge to it did not help.

But regardless of the degree to which Hakuna Matata is vilified before Nala’s arrival, it is her arrival that solidifies it as A Problem. We see the nasty, evil gays I mean hyenas, led by Scar, ruin the pridelands with their greed for power and control (ie a voice in politics) while other queercoded characters raise Simba in “selfish” tranquility and happiness. And then Nala shows up. Heterosexual “love at first sight” does not instantly cure Simba of his “alternative lifestyle,” but it does open him to doubt about the validity of it, further instigated by the instance of Rafiki and his cloud!dad that he has strayed from his nature (heterosexuality) and must return to it. By rejecting Hakuna Matata (queerness) and returning to Pride Rock (heterosexuality), Simbra re-institutes the “natural order.” The sun literally rises again out of the darkness, and all of the queercoded characters literally die, unmourned, in flames. All except Timon and Pumbaa, who have earned the “privilege” of leaving their community in favor of being charitably adopted by a bunch of predators. As a queer person watching the film, this smacks uncomfortably of “pet gay/gay best friend/token gay” stereotypes and traditions, that queer people who can perform their queerness inoffensively for straight people can earn the privilege of not being seen as “one of those gay people” by virtue of knowing their place.

I’d apologize for the essay, but this is actually something I care about deeply, so I’m not sorry at all. In conclusion, I like The Lion King (not the 2019 version, which is an abomination for a number of reasons), but it is important to be aware - particularly if you’re a straight viewer - of the implications that queercoding can have on your narrative via who and how it is done. The Lion King’s queercoding would not inherently have been a problem, except that it applies a) to a villain and b) to a lifestyle that is explicitly condemned and must be overcome by the protagonist. 

[tepkunset]

Excitement and Lack Thereof for the Upcoming X Titles LOL

Do the solicitations for these new titles say a lot? No. Am I judging anyway? Yes, because that’s what they’re there for.

X-Force

X-Force is the CIA of the mutant world—one half intelligence branch, one half special ops. Beast, Jean Grey and Sage on one side, Wolverine, Kid Omega and Domino on the other. In a perfect world, there would be no need for an X-Force. We’re not there…yet.

TL;DR: Even if what sounds like rebooting X-Force Vol 3 of all versions wasn’t enough to kill all of my interest to begin with, if you can’t be bothered to include even one character of colour in your X-Men, I don’t give a shit.

“X-Force is the CIA of the mutant world—one half intelligence branch, one half special ops.” You lost me already. 

The original X-Force was all about a new #edgy insurgent approach to mutant conflict. A bunch of angsty young mutants and their grumpy ma and pa who figured they might as well try pushing back, and literally had a whole (iconic) issue dedicated to a big fuck you to Xavier for trying to suggest otherwise. But this sounds more like some twist on X-Force Vol 3, because yeah, it went so well for that volume. (Sarcasm.) Regardless of plenty of issues I have with Liefeld, it’s still worth taking value in the fact that his goal in his part of creating X-Force was to make an activist group. Yes the best thing that happened to X-Force was him fucking off LOL, but that take still stood, and it was a good one. So why do writers want to keep turning it into the complete opposite?

The original X-Force also featured fairly diverse groups for the time. 6/12 of all the characters who were ever on the team were nonwhite. (And two of them were high high high key queercoded, cause that’s the length they were ever able to be, and of course later outright confirmed.) Subsequent X-Force runs have failed to live up to this level, but this? Not having a single character of colour on your team in the year 2019 is pathetic. Beast, Jean, Sage, Wolverine, Quire, Domino, Colossus and Black Tom... congrats on forming a team completely of cishet white characters. Really breaking new grounds you are, with that. Definitely worth of calling your book X-Force. (Sarcasm.)

I know plenty of people think Quentin Quire might not be straight, but I don’t give a flying fuck personally, because I regard him as annoying fuckboy who too often has been used as a message of the “dangerous left” or whatever. If anything, him being on the team is another turnoff.

I haven’t been able to stand Colossus or Beast for a long time, either.

All in all, I have no interest whatsoever in this series, having basically everything going against it in terms of what I want from an X-Force comic. Which is sad, because the original X-Force is one of my all-time favourites.

Fallen Angels

Psylocke finds herself in this new world of Mutantkind unsure of her place in it… but when a face from her past returns only to be killed, she seeks help from others who feel similar to get vengeance. Cable and X-23 join Kwannon for a personal mission that could jeopardize all Mutantkind!

TL;DR: The little snippet for this one is one of the most vague, and yet at the same time is enough to generate a lot of questions and theories, and that has peaked my curiosity quite a lot.

Is this a trend of the titles having nothing to do with their namesakes...?

I’m so excited over Kwannon being the new Psylocke! Like, legitimately and not just Betsy in her body! It has me very interested in where it could go, especially after the most recent Uncanny X-Men had her say all of like, three things and do nothing but act as Wolverine’s personal servant before disappearing without any further mention or thought.

There is just so much that could be done with Kwannon to set things right by the character, but at the same time I’m scared to hope this is going to be that. Because it could also go so wrong...

...What also concerns me is how this story is gonna be handling whatever is going on in the background of #2′s cover, with all those children locked in cages. Honestly, I personally like it when X-Men gets political, so long as it’s handled, well, tastefully and respectfully and is done well.

I’m excited to see what comes out of Kwannon and Laura being on a team together, because I feel like they could have a really interesting dynamic.

I do have a very important negative question: WHY THE FUCK are Kwannon and Laura dressed like that. There is zero reason for Kwannon to dig out that old bathing suit that Betsy wore as her and not the cool looking assassin outfit she had in the recent Uncanny X-Men--basically the only good thing about her use in that comic. I also don’t understand why you wouldn’t jump at the perfect opportunity to get rid of Laura’s shitty, ridiculous getup from her reduction to “X-23.”

In fact, why is she still going by “X-23″ again? I don’t see Logan being called “Weapon X.” It was a dumb move to begin with after her character so forcefully rejected that label, and it’s dumb to continue to use it. There’s no reason she couldn’t go back to being Wolverine as well (I will yet again motion to Hawkeye and Hawkeye as an example,) or fuck, just go by Laura Kinney (à la Jean Grey).

Finally, I’m curious if this series will make me like the new Cable, because X-Force Vol 5 certainly did not.

I will be checking this one out, albeit hesitantly. 

Excalibur

Mutantkind has always been special…as has their relationship with the world—or WORLDS—around them. As this new era dawns, a new connection forms between mutants and the magic of the world… and that of Otherworld! Can the new Captain Britain forge a new way through the chaos with her companions Rogue, Gambit, Jubilee, Rictor…and Apocalypse?!?

TL;DR: Honestly, you had me at this lineup. (We’re just gonna pretend Apocalypse isn’t there.)

The idea of Betsy being Captain Britain seems like a perfect and much needed new direction for her character. (Especially if it means Kwannon is taking over as Psyloche as well!) I’m really interested in where this is going for her.

As much as I adore Gambit and Rogue together and really like them as a couple, I am SO happy to see Gambit and Jubilee on a team together. Remy is best when he’s in big bro mode TBH, and I hope we get to see more of that.

Also just like, Jubilee period is gonna be a great balance in terms of personalities from the rest of the lineup! And I love her iconic hair again!

But you know what? You know what? Doesn’t even matter who the rest of the characters are because I’d still be reading this just for Rictor, TBH. Throw an OG New Mutant or OG X-Force character in there and I am obligated to read it. 

Anyway, it’s Excalibur, and the description is already talking about magic, so I expect nothing less then some wicked weird shit.

Out of all of them, this is the second-most one I am looking forward to. (I think we all know which is #1 but it’s called saving the best for last for a reason?)

Marauders

Even in this glorious new dawn, Mutantkind faces hardships and oppression from their human counterparts. Led by Captain Kate Pryde and funded by Emma Frost and the Hellfire Trading Company, Marauders Storm, Pyro, Bishop and Iceman sail the seas of the world to protect those hated and feared!

TL;DR: Not... what I was expecting...?

I mean, lets get the obvious out of the way first, of course: X-Men pirates? Huh. Alright.

Quick question, then: Where is Nightcrawler?

You have an X-Men Pirate Series and Nightcrawler isn’t in it???

Like please tell me I’m not the only one confused about that, though.

Anyway... the premise sounds interesting, and if nothing else, different. And besides from strangely missing Nightcrawler in what would be his peak element, the team looks pretty great. 

Though I am curious if that’s the original Pyro or Simon from Gold? Because if this is a new timeline, does that mean he never died? There are certainly many other characters who have been ‘reset’ to life. Either way we got two MLM so that’s cool. (Well, OG Allerdyce Pyro was only ever intended to be gay according to Byrne, but died before that was ever confirmed, so... IDK. Maybe if he is back alive we’ll get to see that intention actually be put on page? Or if it is Simon, he was already shown to be gay or bi.)

Emma’s suit jacket. That is all.

To be honest, I don’t know if I’ll read this one or not. I don’t have anything at all that’s driving me away, but at the same time, despite liking the potential of this team, I’m, well, hesitant. I think I’ll end up waiting until I hear reception of the first one or two from others before deciding.

X-Men

The X-Men find themselves in a whole new world of possibility… and things have never been better! Jonathan Hickman (HOUSE OF X, POWERS OF X, SECRET WARS) and superstar artist Leinil Yu (NEW AVENGERS, CAPTAIN AMERICA) reveal the saga of Cyclops and his hand-picked squad of mutant powerhouses!

TL;DR: I don’t know those names enough for them to carry as much weight as I think they are intended to LOL, so if that’s all you have to offer as a solicitation it ain’t doing shit for me.

I am highly amused by Cyclops naturally including Wolverine in this Summers family reunion. But that said, as cute as that gimmick is, what was it I said above about X-Force? Oh, right. If you can’t be bothered to include even one character of colour in your X-Men, I don’t give a shit.

Like it’s 2019 and the X-Men have always stood as metaphors for minorities. That metaphor falls flat when you don’t include any minorities in said stories. Are you seriously telling me fucking Vulcan and Corsair’s asses are more important than the long list of nonwhite mutants that deserve some spotlight? Who gives a fuck about them???

Honestly I don’t even have anything more to say. There’s nothing here to say anything about.

Not interested in this one.

And finally...

New Mutants

The classic New Mutants (Sunspot, Wolfsbane, Mirage, Karma, Magik, and Cypher) get together with a few new friends (Chamber, Mondo) to seek out their missing member and share the good news… a mission that takes them into space alongside the Starjammers!

TL;DR:

AKSLDJAGDSLAFJDSAGEAGS

WE ARE GETTING A NEW ONGOING NEW MUTANTS SERIES WITH DANI AND XI’AN AND DANI BOBBY AND DANI AND ILLYANA AND DANI AND DOUG AND DANI AND RAHNE AND DANI AND PROBABLY SAM LIKE SAM IS DEFINITELY THE “MISSING MEMBER” RIGHT

AND DANI

ASHEALFEJSAIFKLESAHGESJKAFJDSKAFJEIAGHESAGSFKJS

I SWEAR THE FUCKING GOD HICKMAN AND BRISSON YOU BETTER NOT FUCK WITH THIS

NOT EVEN MY DISTASTE FOR THE STARJAMMERS CAN DAMPEN MY SPIRITS OVER THIS

So anyway Amara is not there but that’s fine. She’s the one and only OG New Mutant I don’t care about LOL. Also Warlock is technically (get it) there in spirit I guess, considering Doug’s arm situation? What’s going on with that anyway? 😲

*Googles who the fuck “Mondo” is* Oh... okay then. I guess he can be there too. And honestly I’ve never had anything against Chamber, though I’ve also never been enthused about him either until the recent Uncanny X-Men made me start to like him a little... you know, before he was unceremoniously killed off for #ShockValue. So I’m open to his presence.

I am SO confused by timelines now though you have no idea... So, Karma has a prosthetic leg, so that means Second Coming still happened? Or did she loose her original leg in another way? Like to be clear I’m not complaining, I actually think it’d be pretty sketchy if they erased her disability, I’m just curious how it happened in this new canon.

I LOVE their outfits. I LOVE how they’re all reflective of the classic ones but with their own unique modifications to them.

I love them so much it makes me all the more sad and annoyed that Illyana is for some reason in her Uncanny X-Men Vol 3 outfit. As much as I love those hair things, the rest of it is just... ugh, ridiculous and frankly non-fitting of her, IMO.

Anyway

AAAAAHHHHH

I can’t wait for this!!!!!

[elizabethrobertajones]

This is just a short, random question but is there any particular reason Dean blurted out "Cas get out of my ass!" in 6x19? XDD It's both hilarious, random, and Destiel-themed. Did you like it?

Argh, short fun question but long grumpy answer, because I’m afraid not, sorry… At least except for how you can apply the longing retcon to why Cas chose to pop up specifically then and there… The longing retcon makes everything better.

The immediate context is:

BOBBY: I’m looking, but I’m thinking maybe it’s time you made a call.

DEAN: Why has it always got to be me that makes the call, huh? It’s not like Cas lives in my ass. The dude’s busy. (Cas appears behind him. Dean turns around, surprised.) Cas, get out of my ass!

CAS: I was never in your – (Dean gives him a look.)

The ~joke~ is that Dean is saying Cas doesn’t “live in his ass” aka isn’t always following him around, doing whatever Dean wants (aka what Cas says he does more seriously in 6x21 with “I always come when you call” and at least during parts of earlier canon where he was able, did answer a few of Dean’s prayers/come when he needed him, although tbh there’s never been a particularly stable time where Cas was always on call to do what they needed with nothing better of his own to follow, except I guess between 10x10 and 11x10 (That part ended with Cas giving us another “I came as soon as you called”, even…)

Of course Dean is actually pissed off since 6x01 that it turned out Sam was alive and Bobby, Sam and Cas conspired to keep it from him so he’d stay with Lisa, instead of being where he’d truly want, which is with his brother and hard-earned family, doing what he felt was his job, while they prioritised, all of them, the idea of Dean, who they loved deeply, leading a normal life even if it meant not having it with them. So he’s already pissed off about that, but then Cas won’t answer their prayers and in 6x03 shows up only because the staff of moses was more interesting than them, and for several episodes the only way to get him to show up is by mentioning more heavenly weapons, and meanwhile Dean’s in soulless!Sam meltdown, so Cas not answering is just making everything worse for him. 

And he still won’t tell them what’s going on with the angel war even by 6x19, the very previous episode Cas didn’t answer when they prayed, Rachel came instead and Cas only showed up when she started insulting them. Basically none of his appearances have been good and given Dean any real implication Cas came because he liked them or wanted to help them, so by this point he’s pretty much had it with Cas (which, of course, makes his absolute digging in his heels refusal to allow the idea that Cas betrayed them next episode even worse - it’s the same old same old, where Dean is furious with Cas on the surface level but makes enormous allowances for him on a deep personal level where obviously he still loves Cas deeply, no matter what he’s doing. 12x19 and 12x23 had that feeling in spades from Dean as well.)

But anyway. “Dude’s busy” is the most massive understatement of how slighted and miserable Dean was feeling about Cas’s attention that year.

Then obviously because he’d been talking about Cas being in his ass, in the sense of, idk, brown-nosing hanger on (why are all our terms and phrases for this about poop. why. humanity has issues), so when Cas does pop up unasked but immediately when they start talking about him (”you know who spies, Cas? SPIES.”) and he’s standing RIGHT BEHIND Dean, Dean’s already mentioned Cas being up his ass and there he is in a suggestively close, strange place to appear, making a joke on the other times Cas appears close behind Dean for dramatic effect. So Dean snaps at Cas because it’s really uncomfortable to have him that close without warning, and of course there’s the whole innuendo going on all the way through this, that they’re pretty much using butt sex as the metaphor for everything ELSE in their lives. 

(And Cas maybe genuinely had no idea or maybe plays innocent about listening in and makes the very Cas comment of taking him very literally instead of realising it’s all a metaphor >.>)

In the wider context, I really don’t like it because it implies Cas is being kinda creepy and paints his interest in Dean as, well, getting too up close and personal with Dean’s ass for his liking. It’s similar to the 5x18 lashing out from Dean except despite it having a ton more obvious context about why Dean says it, on an emotional level, in 5x18 the total lack of context to why Dean’s obsessed with Cas blowing him or him getting laid last time someone looked at him like that, makes it contrast to him lashing out at Bobby for not being his father and at Sam for being a failure of a brother or whatever it was, showing Dean has a very specifically directed anger he doesn’t *mean* towards all 3 of them, and these are the 3 different ways he feels about his brother, father figure, and angel… Like, once you go past the very top layer, it’s pretty impressive Destiel subtext, as it’s the sort that’s deeply integrated and uses other characters as direct contrasts. Also in 5x18, Cas is doing nothing creepy and is entirely the one being wronged by Dean’s words and actions.

In season 6 Cas is recharacterised as distant and grumpy with the excuse of the angel war and as I said is entirely “unhelpful” for most of the season. 6x20, the episode AFTER this, offers us all the context where the writing is sympathetic and Edlund does such a good job bringing in the philosophical themes from season 5 and showing what happened to them, and Cas as a result, that watching from 5x22 to 6x20 and then continuing on your way is a weirdly valid way to skip through, just because the episode puts so much contrast on what we’ve seen so far in the season and reveals everything, and puts such a strong Cas spin on things that going back and rewatching, the entire season looks different. And more on Cas’s side and more like we know what he’s dealing with so it’s easier to understand why he has no time for Dean and lashes out and doesn’t answer his prayers, and left Dean to rake leaves, and so on and so on. 

But also in season 6, the occasional snark about Destiel from earlier seasons is multiplied by a lot, especially with Balthazar indiscriminately snarking about Cas having a thing for both Sam and Dean depending on whichever one he’s talking to, and then Crowley gets involved in 6x20 onwards, trying to paint a word picture of him home wrecking Cas and Dean. And this sort of language is all over the season, and Balthazar and Crowley are Cas’s main co-conspirators, and are heavily queercoded/actually shown kissing dudes on screen in Crowley’s case, and anyway even if Cas consistently shows no interest in sex they *still* find a way to make him as close to evil and skanky as you can go within his characterisation (*side-eyes 6x10* and not just the Meg bits - all of it with the porn and all and, yes, of course that includes the bit where Samuel walks in on them and thinks they’re all perverts) - it was all characterisation choices across the season to aid in building Cas up to kill him off (and, incidentally, the ABSENCE of evil skanky Cas in season 12 is why it was abundantly obvious they had no plans to permanently kill him off)… 

In THAT context, that Cas was the queercoded big bad of season 6, who had only once been a friend and only Edlund interceding meant we got any sympathy (and he had to argue for that episode to happen the way it did and for there to be a chance to tell Cas’s side as a character-leaving tribute, but imagine season 6 without it, just another plot episode with a one-sided confrontation…) and so on… that line in 6x19 is prime material for making fun of Cas and Dean’s connection, specifically in a way that paints Dean as the straight dude who is uncomfortable with butt stuff, and Cas is the one equated to wanting to get up Dean’s ass. 

With Cas eventually coming back, redeeming, and the writing deciding to be kind to him again once a Cas friendly writer was back in charge, it is MUCH easier to laugh about these lines and look at them in a really different context of what Destiel became, but actually thinking about the line as it is and if I like it? Nope, in 6x19 Dean belittles and complains about Cas constantly while upset with him, and of course he has a sympathetic (and at that point, only offered side of this argument) reason to feel this way, but he vents his frustration with harsh words, and then the narrative is going out of its way to make Cas look bad, and this is like the unholy meeting point of all of it >.>

…

But since 10x10 you can say it’s canon that angels don’t need a formal prayer, they can respond to a longing instead, and Dean was just talking angrily about Cas not being in his ass, and hahaha Dean repression Winchester at work making on-the-nose jokes about what he can’t have and is scared to ask for, woah that was bad timing for Cas to just mysteeeeriously show up without being FORMALLY PRAYED TO rrrright after Dean was musing on Cas being up his butt. No wonder he looked shocked and offended at his appearance, and Cas got so confused responding to Dean’s shock and offence for showing up for a prayer booty call only to find Sam and Bobby watching…

Yeah, that fixes a lot, thanks, Buckleming, for being too lazy to look up if angels can still track people who aren’t warded (spoilers: uh, no one ever took that away from them?? Just from tracking Sam and Dean??? But this works great too!)

So yeah, the fanon version of this line is very amusing to me in the right light :P