#straight man as in a comedy duo. not heterosexual

[dozydawn]

Bride’s Magazine, 1989.

Model: Kristin Clotilde Holby.

[tentative-wanderer]

Reviews: Homophobic Cop Marries Gay Ghost, President’s Son Gets Together with Prince

Recently watched 2 movies with gay main characters in different genres. One was Red, White & Royal Blue (available on Amazon), one was 🌟 Marry My Dead Body 关于我和鬼变成家人的那件事 (available on Netflix). Spoiler-free thoughts below 😊:

❤️🤍💙 Red, White & Royal Blue is an American romcom. It has a 10/10 trailer—incredibly inviting. The movie depicts many women in power, I love that! Many witty jokes, nice! The movie might be better if it were a drama series instead; to save time, it zoomed through the falling-in-love part with the use of text messages—the production team packaged that as well as they could, but it was still too rushed. The ending left me wondering if there could’ve been a tiny bit more to make it feel more complete. Though the movie doesn’t score as highly as its trailer in my opinion, it’s still a decent movie.

(That reminds me of how That Musical Montage in episode 1 of the Heaven Official’s Blessing donghua made me super keen to watch the rest of the series, but it turns out that that was the best part. Quality-wise, Red, White & Royal Blue is overall better than the TGCF donghua though.)

👻👮‍♂️💓 Marry My Dead Body is a Taiwanese mystery + comedy + supernatural movie. Let me copy the blurb from Google: “Wu Ming-Han, a straight policeman who is homophobic and ghost-phobic, accidentally picks up a red wedding envelope while collecting evidence. He finds himself betrothed to the envelope's owner Mao Pang-Yu, a gay man who died under mysterious circumstances. The duo must work through their differences and join forces to solve the case, seeking justice for Mao.” (Real-life context: marriages between dead people and live ones are/were an actual thing in Chinese culture.)

I’ve just finished watching this movie, love it! Let me get the “con” out of the way first: I wish the movie ended differently! The ending was not unsatisfying, it’s just that I personally could have been more satisfied.

Okay, now I am free to gush.

This movie is HILARIOUS. Won’t describe the humour here, you can see it in the trailers on YouTube.

I love the unravelling of the mysteries (police cases). The feelings would not have hit half as hard without them and the exploration of Maomao’s non-romantic relationships (formed during his life) after his death. Even though I highly value a good plot apart from the romance when I read/watch something, I like talking about feelings more, so that’s what I’ll do.

I have Intense Feelings about these guys. They went from being Not Keen about getting stuck with each other to being really cute together—I notice that the movie managed to do this EVEN WITHOUT having them hold hands or do anything physical beyond that. That is crazy. Romantic physical contact is great, but if you can show chemistry without it, and with minimal flirting—that is exceptional.

(Side note: I think it would be harder to convincingly depict a heterosexual pair arriving at romantic feelings the way Wu Ming-Han and Maomao did: (partly) through constant banter and trading barbs. A man looking down on a woman would have come across as a lot meaner because the threat that poses is larger in the patriarchal society we live in.)

Wu Minghan went from casually homophobic to being on track for bisexuality for a ghost, such character development. The scene where Wu Minghan genuinely calls Maomao “my husband” for the first time is AMAZING, unexpected. At that moment I was like, oh my god, he loves him. Or at the very least, he has good potential. It had taken a series of hilarious strong-arming, including a close call with the loss of Wu Minghan’s family jewels, to make this dude marry Maomao, but now he’s calling Maomao husband—in that particular state, at that timing. I cried. I was smiling at many points throughout the movie, I also cried at some points. I said something similar when I wrote my review for Merman’s Fall: a book/movie that makes me laugh and cry will go at the top of my favourites list. Unlike my danmei list, my favourite movies list is too short for me to put Marry My Dead Body at the top or bottom, but it’s definitely in there.

[justgottafinishthischapter]

Writing Romance: Opposites Attract

One of the most widespread among romantic tropes is opposites attract, and with good reason. When a couple are opposites, they’re meant to be one of a few things to each other: 1. An inverse reflection of each other. 2. Compliment each other 3. Cover each other’s shortcomings

In a sense, a good Opposites Attract serves to turn two incomplete people into one solid force. If they’re a battle couple, they’ll tend to fight very well together, often balancing force and finesse, melee and ranged, or physical and magical abilities. If the show or book has a lot of time dedicated to foils and character moments, they are more likely to be the ones that each other lean on, since their opposing characters makes them interesting to react off one another. Their roles, story arcs, and backstories tend to run opposite or parallel to one another depending on the series. If one character’s arc is to mature and become more responsible, likely their partner’s arc might be to learn to loosen up and have fun, learn to trust people, or to face a trauma in their past that made them so mature at a young age.

In terms of design, opposites attract partners tend to be inverse in color schemes. Light and dark hair or eyes, warm and cool color schemes, clashing or complimentary fashion styles, etc. The degree in opposition also varies. Some opposites attract look very similar with only a slight difference, indicating that something small is what set them on different paths in life but are otherwise very similar, almost as two sides of the same coin. Other couples are stark contrasts with virtually nothing in common to really emphasize their differences so that they can better make each other whole, as shown very literally through the character of Garnet in Steven Universe. 

Femme and Butch

While typically, you’re mostly going to see this in femmeslash/yuri pairings, this dynamic is actually fairly universal. This divide focuses on a pairing where each couple reflects the values of masculinity and femininity. Although mostly used as lesbian terms, a femme and butch pairing can also be gay or heterosexual. A fashion-loving twink who cries during romantic movies dating a jock who likes sports and drinks beer is still an example of Femme and Butch. Heterosexual is rather obvious, but can also be inversed, with a tough, assertive woman partnered with a sweet, sensitive man, such as Calhoun and Felix in Wreck-It Ralph. A Femme and Butch pairing doesn’t need to check off every box on this list of traits, but these traits tend to be common in these types of relationships.

Brains and Brawn

Also known as Jock and Nerd, this romantic dynamic prioritizes the usefulness of both intelligence and brute strength. Another variation is Book Smarts vs Street Smarts. The Brains will be good at doing research, organizing, and will tend to fight more strategically while the Brawn is primarily going to be good at fighting and likely protecting the Brains from serious harm. Princess and Bodyguard is another possible example of this dynamic, albeit a little less directly.

Hot and Cold

Hot or Warm characters tend to be friendly, outgoing, upbeat, loudmouthed, temperamental, boisterous, and battle-ready. Cold or Cool personalities tend to be shy, calm, quiet, logical, reserved, serious, and emotionally withdrawn. However, while these extreme opposites of hot-head and cold-shoulder balance each other out, it’s worth discussing same heat relationships. Kiribaku is an example of a Hot/Warm relationship, as Bakugou Katsuki is an angry little spitfire with an aggressive streak, while Kirishima Eijirou is a happy-go-lucky sweetheart with a good attitude. This is sort of the same concept, just that both boys are on the warm side of the spectrum, with Kirishima being the cooler counter to Bakugou’s temperamental hot-head. This also works inversely, as the ship Tododeku is a Cold/Cool relationship. Midoriya is a shy, but upbeat young man who tends not to draw too much attention to himself, while Todoroki is stoic, logical, and a bit dense socially. In this case, Midoriya is Cool while Todoriki is Cold, with Midoriya serving as the “Hot” aspect of their relationship as the more friendly and outgoing of the two.  

Light and Shadow

This archetype is often used as a “opposite sides of the same coin” format, where the characters serve as foils to one another. In Teen Titans, Raven’s powers are dark and demonic, while Starfire’s are bright and extraterrestrial. Both girls get their powers from their emotions, but where Starfire revels in her emotions to make her powerful, Raven must suppress her emotions to retain control of her powers. As the only two girls, they stick out as the obvious foils of the group. Many times, when this trope appears, it’s in the form of Classic Paragon Hero vs Cynical Anti-Hero. Superman and Batman are a great example. Superman is a boyscout token good guy, while Batman is a brooding loner. One is the hope for justice and goodness to always triumph while the other acknowledges that people are flawed, and maybe not everyone deserves to be saved. Naruto is interesting because he has two dark reflections. The first is Sasuke. While Naruto is the golden-haired idealist who befriends villains almost as often as Steven Universe, Sasuke is a dark counter consumed by a thirst for vengeance and the power to exact it. Naruto’s other dark counter however is Gaara. Both are Jinchuriki, but whereas Naruto eventually found friends and love in his fellow genin, Gaara was very much still alone when he met Naruto, reflecting what Naruto could have become without that love and support in this life.

Protagonist and Rival

Another case of “two sides of the same coin”, most anime protagonists and their rival tend to either have very similar backstories, very similar motivations, or very similar personalities, if not some combination of the three. Both Naruto and Sasuke were abandoned in the world at a young age with the Hokage looking out for them from afar. Naruto started off having nobody, and was always reaching out hoping to connect with anyone. Meanwhile, Sasuke started with a family and lost it, and decided to keep everyone at arm’s length and isolate himself further. Rin Okumura and Ryuji Suguro are practically the same person. Both lost their families and homes due to Satan, both are strong-willed loudmouthed tough guys with a knack for leadership, and both share the goal of killing Satan. Natsu Dragneel is immature and battle-ready, but while Grey Fullbuster at least pretends to be above it, he’ll jump into a fight with Natsu practically unprompted. The main appeal of the anime protagonist and his rival is that they push each other to succeed, often coming from very similar roots, but where they end up is entirely up to the effort they put in and the path they choose to take. They both refuse to lose to each other, and that propells them to constantly want to out-do each other.

Sweet and Sour

My best friend and I are polar opposites in this sense. When we met, she was far too trusting, submissive, and far too forgiving. Meanwhile, I was a lot more cynical, mean-spirited, and unfortunately, a little more closed-minded than I’d like to admit. After five years of friendship, my friend is far more assertive, has a lot more confidence in herself, is a lot better at handling criticism, and rather than just submitting in an argument, she now has the nerve to get in someone’s face and make her point heard. Because of her, I’ve become less stand-offish, more patient and polite, less of a control freak, more aware of valuing other people’s emotions, and more tolerant of a group I hadn’t realized I’d been intolerant toward. We saw the world in such distinctly different ways that we have managed to rub off on each other, and now we’re both such stronger and more complete people for having known each other.

Serious and Goofball

A classic comedy duo, the comedian and the straight man. The Goofball character tends to be immature, a knucklehead, a jokester, and comes off as a bit inexperienced. Meanwhile, the Serious character tends to be mature, responsible, disciplined, but comes off as a bit aloof. The Goofball reminds the Serious character to have a little fun every once in a while, while the Serious character reins in the Goofball before they hurt themselves or somebody else.

Hero and Sidekick

The hero has their act together and the sidekick is just doing their best. This happens a lot in Action movies where the handsome tough guy and the hapless damsel (who he kidnaps a little too often for my liking) is just kind of along for the ride. The two live in entirely different worlds. Sometimes this comes in the variant of Starlet and Manager where one in the relationship takes center stage while the other is content to help them run their life, promote their career, and help them. Another variation is Superstar and Random Extra, wherein one person leads a very visible life in the public eye being adored by millions of fans while their partner works 9-5 in an office dealing with insurance claims. Although they coe from very different worlds and lead very different lives, that doesn’t mean they still haven’t found love in an unlikely place. Often, the reason the hero or big shot loves this random nobody is because they fell in love with them before they ever became famous, or they didn’t know/care who the celebrity was and just liked them as a person without interest in using their celebrity to climb the social ladder.

Loud and Quiet

She’s quirky, outgoing, bubbly, energetic, and talkative. Too talkative. She never shuts up. He’s quiet, simple, down-to-earth, and calm. Too Calm. He never gets excited. This pairing works to push and pull each other until they’ve harmonized. The Quiet one will be pulled out of their shell and learn to be more open and talkative, while the Loud one will learn to think before they act. This couple is divided along lines of Introversion and Extroversion, and together can navigate the anxiety-triggering unease of a social gathering, and finding joy and pleasure in just enjoying each other’s company without needing to fill the silence with pointless chatter.

To be fair, many Opposites Attract couples will fit into more than one of these archetypes, and there’s probably more I didn’t list. But if you’re wanting to create a couple that balances each other out, I hope you find this helpful to you in your writing.

[i-make-fun-of-spn-characters]

Hi!! I just wanted to say that I love your blog sooo much, your posts always makes me laugh and they are the best. I've got a question: Do you think that Sam and Cas are more underrated than Dean is on the show? (Sorry if I misspelled something). Your blog is amazing💕💕

Thank ya! 

Provided I understand your question, from my own perspective, I don’t really feel like any of the main characters are “underrated”, per se. If you mean that Dean is probably the most popular character out of the three, then yeah—that’s probably true, but I wouldn’t really say that means that Sam and Cas are underrated/not appreciated enough by fans. 

I think the important thing to remember here is this: popularity isn’t a zero sum game. Having a favorite character doesn’t diminish the excellence of other characters. To illustrate what I mean...Someone can pick one MCU movie that is their favorite, but still think the other Marvel movies are really really excellent movies and still really enjoy watching them, right? In the same way, I don’t think Dean’s popularity means that Sam and Cas are underrated—just that a lot of people happen to really like Dean for one reason or another. Most of those people also think of Sam and Cas as really great characters. There’s just something about Dean that makes him a little bit more of a favorite to them. We can say the same of most Cas and Sam fans: The vast majority of them also like Dean a lot—there’s just that special something that makes Sam or Cas just a little more dear to their heart. 

If it helps, I can give a few reasons why I think Dean is likely a popular favorite?

Dean serves a lot of familial roles besides just that of an older brother, which I think viewers often relate to and understand in very complex and often very emotional and personal ways. 

Dean tends to headline comedic bits in the show (either with Sam as his straight man, or with Cas as a comedy duo, where they trade back and forth being completely exasperated with each other).

Dean tends to headline fight scenes and kills the bulk of the monsters with relative consistency throughout the series (They did the math) making him kind of the main “badass” of the group.

Dean tends to be at the center of highly emotional moments in the show.

Dean tends to enjoy the little things in life even when his life as a whole isn’t going great. He’ll intensely enjoy one of his favorite foods, make a corny joke and be unduly proud of himself; geek out about Scooby Doo or rock music or horror movies or cowboys. He’s also a mountain of snarky pop culture references. All of this makes him fun and endearing to watch for many. 

He gives a lot of rousing speeches (less so in later seasons, but it’s one of the things earlier in the show that makes him a major mouthpiece establishing the show’s family themes and the Winchester’s underdog mentality). 

From the show’s beginning, Dean’s love for his family is very overt, intense, and sacrificial, and is heartbreaking and moving to many. 

Tbh I could write pages about this, but there’s a lot to appreciate about the complexity with which Dean as a character can be understood without his story ever becoming super expositional in approach, which is probably what I personally enjoy most about him. 

Jensen is very handsome...which is not to say that Jared and Misha aren’t!! All three of them are highly attractive men. But when I go on Reddit, let me tell you... the number of guys admitting unprompted that Jensen Ackles makes them question their heterosexuality is not to be trifled with. He is a very handsome man, and that comes with its own appeal.

We could make similar lists about Sam and Cas! They might have some similar things (for example, Cas and Sam can also be VERY funny!!!), and then there would be other unique things on those lists that are specifically awesome about just Sam/Cas! And just me making this “reasons people like Dean” type list doesn’t make Sam or Cas somehow lesser... making a  “reasons people like Sam/Cas” list wouldn’t make Dean lesser. =D 

They’re all great characters—it’s just about what speaks to a person/draws them in.

[alienjock]

the only two genders are evil game show host and exhausted straight man (in a comedy duo sense, heterosexuals are a myth made up by hollywood)

[justanotherdaylikeanyother-blog1]

Nikandros

Why I like him: I tend to love the straight man character(by which I mean the ‘comedy straight man’, not a heterosexual dude, becauseNik is bi thanks) who’s just done with all this ridiculousness. That’s Nik allover. Also, I love that he’s stupidly loyal. No really. Stupidly loyal. Stealing a pin for a keepsake even though it’streasonous, challenging foreign princes to duels, siding with Damen when it’smost likely going to get them all killed. Nik will do anything for his King.

Why I don’t: There is literally no reason not tolike Nik. He’s a perfect human being. XD

Favourite scene: When Nik calls Damen out forhanding over Delpha to Laurent as a bedding gift. He was just dropping truthbombs right and left. And honestly, get you a best friend that will drag youlike that when you need it.

Favourite line: ‘Exalted, I beg permissionto challenge the Prince of Vere to a duel of honour for the insult that he hasdone to you.’ This would straight up be the worstidea if Damen had allowed it, because just imagine what impact this would have had.But does Nik give a fuck about that when his bro has been hurt so badly? Heckno. Even Nik needs someone to tell him no sometimes.

Favourite outfit: I mean, a chiton I guess? Does Nikever wear anything else?

OTP: I wouldn’t say I have one for him, really.But the fact that I’ve written over 50K of Nik/Nic is probably pretty suggestive. I’d say that’s the closest thing I have.

Brotp: Damen and Nik, obviously. They are THEbros of Capri.

Head Canon: I imagine that Nikandros was offairly moderate birth. The son of very minor nobility at best. Not that hedoesn’t deserve it, but he was only elevated to his current high status becausehe and Damen bonded when they were kids, and it was clear to everyone thatthere was no breaking that duo up. Theomedes understood that Damen needed Nik’sinfluence and would insist on making him Kyros of Ios, so he wanted to give Nikthe experience he would need to be able to support Damen as well as he couldwhen the time came. But as necessary as this is, I bet there was a fair bit ofresistance to the decision to make Nik Kyros of Delpha. Especially since Nik wouldhave been only in his early 20s at the time.

Unpopular opinion: Nikandros and Jord probably wouldn’thave much of anything to do with each other. Nothing against those people whowant to ship them, but meh, not my thing.

A wish: Just to have a happy life. And maybe aday off every now and then. Is that so much to ask?