#with two poc... one of them being canonically nonbinary

[punkiio]

I know that, as of right now, Lucy and Maximus are the canon relationship in the show (and I like them together)... But I can't help but think that the show has the perfect opportunity to use Dane and Maximus as commentary on the way queer people in the military were treated in that era (40s-50s) and what their lives were like, if they decide to make Dane and Maximus have at least a little thing together...

[starrycrim]

For the thing -

Reborn : Adrienn

Rejuv : Alexandra

Deso : Nova

hell yea!! ty for ask <3

adrienn

sexuality headcanon: pansexual!

gender headcanon: afab, nonbinary, xe/they/fae! xe/they are canon obvi, but I love headcanoning xem using fae/faer pronouns as well.

a ship I have with said character: two primary ones! I love xem and Arclight a lot (Fairyloudshipping), they're really sweet and make my heart go :) but I've also been growing really fond of Ace/Adrienn as well (Enchantedillusionshipping). nonbinary solidarity but also there are Piles of headcanons-- I think they'd really get along and they're adorable to me.

a BROTP I have with said character: Elias, actually! I'm very fond of his character ending and I think like. a character who's all but lost faith in the city meets a character who is determined to restore xyr faith in the city is v heartwarming to me.

a NOTP I have with said character: LORD. um. really getting put through the ringer with these rn, I don't really have one 😭 I enjoy both of the ships I have with xem v dearly. also nonbinary representation in relationships always makes me really happy as nb characters tend to be forgotten in relationships. 

a random headcanon: xyr friends conspire to carry them away from work to rest when they're overworking themself. Arc and Ace co-conspire to surprise them by teleporting them to places that they'd enjoy but don't necessarily have the time to get away to so they can get there and back quickly when xe can only get away from work for a few minutes.

general opinion over said character: oh the beloved. xe was one of my favorite characters before Ace pitched a tent in my head just because seeing genuine nonbinary representation made me so happy. I love them very dearly.

---

alexandra

sexuality headcanon: bisexual, female lean!

gender headcanon: afab, cis, she/they

a ship I have with said character: I like her and Karen as a ship although I don't know a ton about them after seeing all your art :> it's very cute!

a BROTP I have with said character: Sashila gang as a whole, tbh-- I think they're all really interesting.

a NOTP I have with said character: explodes and dies. don't know a ton about her enough to answer this, but I'll just say I support it as long as someone's being respectful!

a random headcanon: gives me the vibes that while she might never have much time for it with her job, enjoys drawing and painting. probably desperately needs a hug but enjoys it as a sort of relaxation.

general opinion over said character: honestly I need to know more about her before passing further judgment, hahaha. I love her design though, and poc representation as always makes me really happy. I think she's really pretty and has a really interesting role in the story as of now, and I love how you draw and portray her!

---

nova

sexuality headcanon: bisexual, female lean owo

gender headcanon: she/they icon. afab

a ship I have with said character: therapy, honestly. girl needs it

a BROTP I have with said character: I think she and Rosetta after everything winds down and stops being Everything Is Awful could be gal pals. I'd love to see them hang out and support each other.

a NOTP I have with said character: hard to answer this since Deso isn't done and knowing E6 stuff (since my lips are sealed), but Shiv and Nova I suppose. Shiv is a neat character but they both kind of deserve a healthier relationship.

a random headcanon: has a guilty pleasure for sweet things, including sweet drinks like martinis and margaritas. doesn't like to admit this.

general opinion over said character: not a favorite blorbo or anything (that is reserved for Aaron) but I do care her a lot. her development is really sweet and she's also very Pretty,, I am weak for pretty girls. if high-top tall shoes could kill.

[ultimate-marysue]

Oooh, we're airing our Campaign 1 and 2 Hot Takes™???? Because I have a few:

-Whenever Sam's character reveals to not be a two dimensional parody everyone acts like they never saw them as such...but their posts complaining about them being just jokes the week prior are still there. Same for Jester, you just have zero faith in the cast sometimes.

-The fandom baits itself with some queer couples. Like, sure, Shadowgast and Vaxmore had a base. In fact they're both canon (one as an epilogue the other as exs). But the way the fandom took Gilmore (and Essek) and obsessed over them week after week when they weren't even in the shower and then act surprised when Vax moved on is absurd. Sure, to you it was only this morning the last time you read a long meta on Essek's feelings for Caleb, but in game it's been months since they last talked. Stop building your expectations so much and then be mad that the canon differs.

-Tary is underappreciated as fuck. He had a banger of an arc, great story and was super cool LGBTQ rep (a little bit basic, but still great). In fact people always forget him when talking about Critical role's LGBTQ+ characters

-Also, people misgdendering Molly and Kingsley...just why. This fandom likes to be all preachy but at the same time they do this kinda shit. And sure, I'm not going to cancel anyone for a honest mistake. But don't attack the cast for things of the same caliber while denying you've ever done something like that. We all screw up at some point, and if you refuse to admit it, I don't trust you.

-People give Fjord a lot of shit for sleeping with Avantika when he only did it to get some information. While we're at it, I don't like the treatment of that moment in general. Caleb pressuring Fjord into sex with someone his scared of could have been a very interesting conversation on consent, but since Fjord's a dude no one questions that he liked it and done.

-The guests are super lovely and I feel really bad whenever the fandom shits on them for not playing at the same level that the other profesional players at the table. Specially the way people treated Aimee in Exu was wild. She didn't knew the game but still managed to be an excellent roleplayer, not afraid of playing a deeply flawed character as her first (in front of such a massive audience). And people still get mad at her for mechanical details I-

-Fuck all of you being biphobic towards Vax. Not only was he attracted to various NPCs (most notably Gilmore) but he also joked about it in different occasions (most notably, the love potion bit). While we're at it, Scanlan being bi (while part of a joke) was collectively ignored by a big chunk of the fandom, and so was Vex's bisexuality too. Sure, they came out because of jokes, but like so did most of my irl friend group????

-Just, in general the way the fandom treats discourse in general. people act as if every character has to say "hi, I'm Molly, I'm nonbinary and bisexual" for it to be canon. I swear, I will see a post shitting on Vax's bisexuality with thousands of likes and the next one is someone telling a non binary critter to std for saying that it pronouns for J'mon Sa Ord were not the best option. Sometimes you manage to simultaneously speak over LGBTQ+ and POC critters so you can "defend them", while also shutting down their valid constructive criticism.

-While we're at it, criticism. I've seen really cool posts about race, sexuality, gender and feminism from the critter community. This are posts that point out micro aggressions or stereotypes so that the cast can be better. If no one points out something, how the he will you fix it?? They have sensitivity consultants (at least now), but things can always be better.

And then there's that part of the fandom that assumes bad faith from the cast in every single mistake (or perceived mistake). People telling them how they should roleplay their characters and play their game. Bitch, and I mean this disrespectfully, find your own game if you want to play it so bad.

-THE MISOGYNY. Just, wtf. Why do people treat the female cast and the female characters like that?????? The infantilization, the demonization, just the whole deal of judging them differently. I know it is hard to admit that we have this double standard imbedded deep inside us because *society*, but come on. It's just ridiculous and it makes me too upset to even speak about it. I want to make a long post on this someday but, just not today.

-People interpreting things their way (totally valid) and getting mad when the cast had different intentions all along (fuck off). Jesus Christ, just for the love of God and everything Holy, admit you want to play your own game and leave the rest of us alone. Some of you have not played D&D and it shows. It's a roleplaying game in which people do whatever the hell they want. The rest of the annoying crowd is D&D people I would rather die than play with. I don't want to be in a table were people are going to get mad at me when I have different ideas than what they intended.

-Critical Role getting big is not some sort of betrayal. We made them big, now they are big. Easy. If you want to support only the most indie games, go support them and leave us alone.

-Also, stop acting like "being big" means that you can just send hate to the cast. When they answer you always act like they are being super mean because your just a teeny tiny Twitter account and they are famous. Look, if thousands of you keep saying "Keyleth is shit" it's normal that one of you is getting QRT with a "stf" from the cast. They are still people, and you're the one's at Goulet for them not interacting as much ,(which apparently you hate)

-Having said all this, I don't get mad about this shit on a daily basis because I curate my TL to only have people I like and that don't engage on toxic fandom bullshit. If fandom is hindering your enjoyment of the show, use the block button.

[rantrambles]

Ever get so upset you make a Tumblr account to vent?

I haven’t even listened to The Penumbra Podcast yet but it’s on my list because it’s insanely popular and the cosplays I’ve seen are hot as hell (A+ to all the cosplayers I’ve seen you’ve done great work). Now, with the recent news surrounding the podcast, I’ll wait till it’s done if I ever do get into it. I’m Asian and part of the LGBT community but I’m not nonbinary so I can’t say much about the trans represention in the art but I wanted to add my two cents on the matter as a person of color and someone examining the situation from the outside. Also, before I get deeply into it, I’m not the only person of color with opinions on this matter so if people have their own frustrations and criticism with the racism in The Penumbra Podcast and/or the new artist they hired, definitely listen to them too. These are my own personal opinions, and I’m sure other people will disagree and that’s fine. We’re all going to have different views on this so bear that in mind. Also, feel free to correct me or add anything if I’ve missed some information. Here’s a great breakdown of the whole situation for those that don’t know what happened. Finally, I was very hesitant to post this, but I felt it was important because I make a statement at the end on how race should be presented in a podcast format so if you are interested in making a podcast and want to have a diverse range of characters, please skip to the end to read those thoughts.

I’ll start off by saying, I’m not even that upset with the new artist that The Penumbra Podcast hired. I know that statement alone is controversial but I don't personally know them, and I’m not going to judge who they are as a person by a few pieces of art they’ve made. They are the least of the problems that I have here. Since the announcement and the backlash, I’ve been scrolling through the artist’s Instagram account and I can tell why people find the designs offensive, but I’m also comparing the designs to the artist’s other work, and I honestly believe that’s just their style. They’ve exaggerated the features of just about every character they’ve made, regardless of race or gender. From what I’ve seen the sharp angles and overly round curves in the anatomy that make some of the character’s features more jarring are how they prefer to draw. I’m sure they’re capable of drawing more realistic proportions but for the most part they’re art aims to call attention, be bold, and create distinguished features. Not inherently a bad thing on its own.

And yeah I’d understand the issue if this were a scenario where the artist heard how these characters acted in the podcast and thought “hey, obviously this character is a black woman because they are super strong and therefore must have big muscles, no other woman could look like that” or “hey, this character has to be Asian because they act super seductive sometimes better draw them as such.” But from my understanding the race was already decided by previous official artists and a general description of the characters were already generated by the audience, similar to how The Magnus Archives leaned towards drawing scrawny Jon with black, greying hair and dark skin. The new artists couldn’t really change those features even if those features aren’t described in canon because a depiction that strayed too far from popular fandom interpretation would make the character’s unrecognizable to the fanbase. 

I think the reason this became such a big issue for most people is because the new Penumbra artist used their exaggerated art style when making these characters and people of color and nonbinary folks already see themselves drawn as these exaggerated caricatures all the time (with those images being used to further discriminate against them). I’m sure the artist didn’t mean for their art to be offensive, but that of course doesn’t change how it was received. 

According to some, the poses and expressions the artists chose did not fully represent the characters entirely and only served to further perpetuate harmful stereotypes, and I’ll have to take their word for it because I still haven’t listened to the podcast so I have no idea how the characters act. But again much of the criticism is based on the one line-up and doing a deeper dive into the artist’s work I managed to find artwork that was much less offensive. Here some art where Vespa is depicted in a non-violent pose and one where Vespa is in a threatening pose but not an overly violent one. Here is Peter drawn in a non-seductive pose. Hopefully, the artist truly does keep the criticisms in mind as they work on the new official art. I’m just not the type of person that wants to get the pitchforks out and cause this particular person to lose a job they seemed really excited about over their old character line-up, especially when that person is also part of a marginalized group.

Again, that’s just my opinion on that particular artist. Those who are offended by their art are still valid in how they feel, and the artist should absolutely take their criticism to heart to better how they represent the characters.

What I’m more upset about is that I think The Penumbra Podcast should never have released official art for their characters in the first place and that’s their mistake that they refuse to own up about. They have made it clear that the story was never meant to portray characters of colors, a fact emphasized by the fact they hired mostly white actors from the start. They only started releasing art of the characters to get a profit. And the thing is they know what they did was wrong. All I had to do was search Penumbra Podcast racism and there is a note on their website saying that they archived some old official art.

“We have discontinued all Penumbra merchandise that uses the original character designs, and in the meantime, any profits on the sales of that merchandise will go to the For The Gworls project. We also realize that the depiction of these characters as POC, while not appropriate for us to use in our marketing and merchandise, has nonetheless become personally meaningful to many POC listeners. For that reason, and because we do not wish to distance ourselves from our mistake, we are keeping these images on our website for archival purposes. Though we do want to make it clear that many of the main/featured voice actors are white and that we did not write the characters to represent any specific POC experience, you are, as always, free to imagine these characters in any way that you like.”

I went to their shop and they still sell posters and pins with the character’s faces on them, but they are donating it to a good cause so hopefully that stays the same. However, I still find it a little uncomfortable that they are still selling character merch and have plans to continue selling character merch. They have no right to dissuade the fans that already found representation in the characters, but they also have no right to profit off the representation that was built, regardless if they made the story. 

Let’s compare this to another piece of popular media. I love Avatar the Last Airbender and, I liked the ATLA voice actors just fine but there should have been more people of color doing voice acting behind the screen too. The voice actors for that show were mainly white too, however, the creators knew that they would be making poc characters. That’s what makes the difference. Did they still choose to go with mostly white voice actors? Yes. Could they have done better and pay more people of color? Also yes. But I’m not as furious at them because they did their research on the cultures they were basing the ATLA world off of and intentionally gave us a show where Asians could see characters that looked like them represented on the screen. The Penumbra Podcast did not do any of that. Again, they openly admitted that it was never their intention to make the character’s people of color when they made the podcast so that goes to show no research was made to properly represent specific cultures. The color of the character’s skin in their official designs therefore became more of aesthetic choice rather than representation, and it wasn’t even their aesthetic choice to begin with!

Race isn’t a color you can just throw onto the character because you feel like it. So I want this to be a lesson to anyone that wants to make a podcast: if you want to include poc characters please do some research into the cultures you plan to represent the way you would with any other form of media. Just because the audience can’t see the characters and just because it’s harder to smoothly introduce the character’s appearance doesn’t mean you’re allowed to be lazy on how you present the characters. Do research before you start writing the first episode and take the time to hire poc actors. Hiring poc actors is actually the least that can be done to show representation. Also, since the audience cannot visually see the race of the characters on a podcast and it can’t typically be described the way you would in a book, you’ll have to be creative. It’s not my job to say how, but my suggestions would be, before the fans come up with their own image of the character, you need to establish race in the first few episodes or release character profiles on a website so that the fans know you canonically intended the characters to be of a certain race even if you aren’t able to mention it in the actual podcast. If you are unwilling to do any of these then the best route is to avoid stating race at all and allow the audience to build their own representation into your form of media. However, once this happens, you are not allowed to profit off popular fan interpretations. You lose all rights to create official art or images of the characters. You cannot use “we have a diverse cast of characters” when you market your story. It doesn’t matter whether you created the content or not, you did not create the representation for those minority groups.

It’s one thing for fans to build their own inclusivity into a form of art like a podcast, but it’s another thing for the creators who never worked to make the representation happen to take advantage of the representation that the listeners built for themselves. Thank you for attending my TedTalk.

[crashdown]

What's murderbot about? Why'd you recommend it? 👀👀

oh my god im so glad you asked!!

so murderbot is a series of four novellas and one novel (with one standalone novella and two short stories as well). in short, it's about a sort of construct (cloned organic parts and robotics) designed to protect humans (it's a security unit, or SecUnit). it's controlled by a governor module which restrictis its free will, but it manages to hack it and basically gain autonamy. however this secunit (murderbot), doesn't really want to do much other than watch media. it's very antisocial and finds interaction and humans in general exhausting, so it simply does its job so it can get back to its soap operas. obviously something happens to comprimise this, and it has to figure out how to not only stay alive itself but keep the group of humans it's gotten tangled up with safe (which is very inconvient and annoying).

there are so many reasons you should read this series. murderbot is a very very relatable character for neurodiverget (specifically autistic) people (i'm autistic, i've never related to a character more). however, the humans it interacts with treat it with respect and (usually) handle its boundries fairly well, which is increadibly refreshing. the books have drawn in so many neurodivergent people becuase of this, making the fandom one of the most welcoming i've been in. the author, martha wells, has touched on this specifically. it's intentional neurodivergent representaion.

the queer elements are also a big win for me. murderbot itself is agender, being a construct, but the queerness is aparent in the humans as well. most relationships are polyamourous, with main characters having canonical same-sex partners. there are also canon nonbinary characters, use of they/them pronouns as well as neopronouns, which is super refreshing to see in a sci-fi story.

to add to the queerness, murderbot has a very close relationship with a sentient ship named ART later on. murderbot is very adiment it's not romantic (it doesnt feel romantic attraction), but it can be likened to a queerplantonic relationship in many ways.

(edited) adding on that it’s full of people of colour, in particular women of colour! again something very refreshing to see in sci-fi. oftentimes media (including things like star wars or battlestar) will be incredibly white with a few poc here or there but in murderbot, much of the main cast are people of colour. i cannot believe i forgot to add this, my apologies!

if this matters, it's also award-winning (2021 nebula and hugo awards for best novel).

they're just good books, and very nice to read as a queer, autistic person who loves sci-fi but hardly sees myself in it. they're cleverly written and the novellas are short, so they're easy to get into. they're also easy to find! martha wells is writing a few more before she wraps up the series. if they sound interesting i would highly, highly reccomend them. they're some of my favourite books. funny, engaging, heartbreaking, all sorts of Emotions.

thank you again for asking though because i love rambling about them

[fen1s]

Lmaoo so there is this one tweet that actually describes what I really think the insane mauruaders stans and the tweet goes : some of yall heard one fucking word and now yall can't stop saying it (and it's like a reference to those fuckers who say gatekeep, gaslight, toxic but for everything and they act its profound or some shit). I think they um definetly saw those words and deadass went let's be eco friendly and reuse the same arguments and everyone else went yes. And when there was a genuine difference of opinion they go to their backup response : by supporting this element or seeing their pov you are ( anti Semitic /racist / homophobic) and it's just like :you are aware the same people exist in this community right???

(also I really find it funny that some of them literally don't think the mauruaders won't fucking hate crime them, no ma'am they will hate crime you and then proceed to get the slap on the wrist, they are the reasons your school has anti bullying week [also lmaoo pandering to them makes to be in the 'group' makes all of you Peter Pettigrew you know the same dude you all decided to ignore] )

And then I have to remind myself that there will be one of them who will raise kids and try to be 'jily' parents which I assume is living vicariously through your child because God you peaked in highschool and you won't shut the fuck up about it (and lack any fucking development) which is consistent with Canon so hey it does work out. Also like who's gonna pay for your child's therapy when they realize people who are dickish to you are simply just dickish and no why do you think this is an enemies to lovers trope (and also for their kids dry ass personality which they got from their parents because ik they would want them to be constantly involved but like gym teacher with a kid who's into slight sports and now the kid has to try to get in the national team lol)

Like I need them to have a snape attitude towards kids which was very much : fuck them kids ( and I honestly couldn't agree more to.)

Hey so if you're a fan of the m*rauders and this appears in the general tag, im sorry, i tagged the post correctly but sometimes the tagging system doesnt filter content correctly, but just so yall know, below the read more will be content that is very m*rauder critical which yall may not like or may be upset by. this is a fair warning

It's genuinely frustrating how often they repeat the same arguments as if we care. like we know snape isnt a kind person and we know he doesnt make the best or morally correct decisions, but they never hold other characters to a remotely similar standard that they hold snape to

they like characters due to popularity and how much they can add in headcanons, we know almost nothing about the marauders era, so they can make their own universe independent of the harry potter plot line, but they dont actually give a shit about the canon characterizations we already have

the m*rauders are not canonically progressive, their bullying of snape isn't coming from a progressive stance. they literally only bully him because they think hes weird. there isnt any canon evidence that they went after students who were actively causing harm to others, such as avery and mulciber (two boys who actively were attacking muggleborn students), they never went after regulus despite the fact that je was outspokenly supportive of voldemort to the point where regulus basically had a fucking shrine dedicated to him, there isnt any canon evidence that they went after any other junior death eater. there is canon evidence that they attacked random kids simply for annoying them. there is canon evidence that they used illegal hexes on students that had the risk of causing permanent bodily damage. and i think the real nail on the coffin for the idea that the m*rauders only went after snape due to him being a wannabe death eater is something sirius literally says

this means that even during the war, the m*rauders didnt suspect snape of being a death eater, let ALONE when they were at school

they also just think all snape fans are white straight cis women who obsess over the "always 🥺" line. like they dont take into account POC fans, lgbtq+ fans, nonbinary or trans fans, jewish fans, poor fans, disabled fans, neurodivergent fans. they paint us all with the "you never read the books you just want to fuck alan rickman" brush and call it a day so they dont actually have to engage with us despite constantly coming into our spaces

also it BOTHERS me how they'll call snape a n@zi and then turn around and say "awe james was just a bit of a jerk !! 🥺🥺" bestie he was an actual genuine sadist who got off on bullying and sexually assaulting kids he deemed weird. like sorry to the alt m*rauder kinnies, but if you're punk, emo, goth whatever james potter would've bullied the absolute hell out of you. canonically. sirius literally defends his bullying of snape by calling him an oddball, yall dont think you would've been on the other end of their bullying?

[roshambo05]

This. This a million times over. Say it with me, everyone. Representation. ALWAYS. MATTERS.

And not just representation, but GOOD representation. Because I cannot stress the number of times I've run into minorities being represented for the sole purpose of vilifying them, especially with disability.

I'm autistic. I'm low-empathy. The stigma around low empathy and even just autism itself has branded it as an inherently bad thing and many pieces of media only seem interested in representing us when its focus is to reinforce that stigma. I have gone most of my life without having a single character accurately represent my experience for this reason. And if characters like Sheldon Cooper weren't enough of a slap to the face, I'm into comic books. I ask you, can you name one--ONE-- good canonically autistic comic book character.

Black Manta? Villain. Baby murderer. Autism was immediately erased and retconned. Mr. Fantastic? In the same breath as that was canonized, he said he was trying to cure it. Johnny Do? Doesn't fucking exist anymore.

In all the media I've consumed in my 18 years of life, I've only found two well-represented autistic characters. Two.

It's shows like Big Bang Theory, movies like Music and Rain Man, comics like the ones I just mentioned, that ensure autism is seen as something bad that needs to be cured. That autistic people are a nuisance. That autistic people are assholes and villains.

And autism absolutely isn't the only disability or minority represented in this way. Think about it. Which characters have more of a tendency to be deformed or scarred? That's right, villains. And what about LGBT+ rep? There's an entire trope dedicated to the evil gay villain. And need I even go into the absolute hellscape that is POC characters?

When you only represent a minority to undermine and vilify them, it's not good representation. It's not a breakthrough or a milestone. It's just bad representation. Your background nonbinary character that gets all of two lines and exists only as a backdrop is not good representation. Your disabled villain who is desperately searching for a cure is not good representation. Your whitewashed POC who still manages to follow every fucking stereotype about their race is not good representation. Must I go on?

It's not enough just to be represented. We need to be represented WELL. We need people to stop reinforcing negative stigmas around who we are. We need good representation. For all the reasons I've just said, and all the reasons Nimbus gave in the original post.

A Rant on Representation in Media (mostly comics)

CW: ableism, disability erasure, mentions of fat phobia, mentions of fetishization, lmk if there’s anything I missed

I can’t believe that here in 2023 we still have to say this, but fuck it this year has already been hell enough so why not add another thing

Representation, whether it be for disabilities or culture, race or religion, any marginalized group— ALWAYS MATTERS

I spent the majority of the other night dealing with people trying to downplay the impact of Barbara Gordon’s paralysis being retconned. Wanna see how that went?

“Oh, but it’s okay if Barbara Gordon still has some mobility because there’s paralyzed people that regain their ability to walk”

Her spinal cord was completely severed, she was left fully paralyzed from the waist down

“There’s a 60yo fighting in a Kevlar bat suit and shifting clay people, but Barbara getting her legs back again is a problem?”

Okay, can clay people restore a spinal injury? Can Batman punch a nervous system into fully functioning? What relation does that have?

Aside from the fact there’s zero connection between the two, paralysis actually fucking exists. Batman and clay shifters, believe it or not, don’t. Lemme know if you find an irl Batman or Clayface that needs representation. Go on, I’ll wait

“Barbara being able to walk again isn’t disability erasure, there’s other paralyzed characters”

The definition of disability erasure is literally terminating someone’s disability under the belief it makes a person less than. The fuck you mean it’s not?

And how many paralyzed comic characters can you name? I’m willing to bet it doesn’t come to 50. Every character belonging to an underrepresented group matters. Whether their representation is taken away completely with that one character’s erasure or not isn’t the fucking point. You’re still fueling the already negative stigma around disabilities and sweeping disabled people further under the rug

“Her disability erasure doesn’t matter, DC will just paralyze her again in later issues”

I’m sorry, are you completely paralyzed from the waist down? Do you embody each and every paralyzed person and their experiences? No? What makes you think that you get to determine whether the erasure of something you don’t even have matters?

As for DC re-paralyzing Barbara, it’s been retconned since 2011. Even if they do plan on undoing whatever whack job microchip magic they’ve got going, they sure as hell are taking their sweet-ass time

I can’t believe people were actually arguing in favor of Barbara’s disability erasure, but here we are. Representation has always mattered and always will, and yet media loves grossly misrepresenting everything. Barbara was such a strong character as Batgirl, and flourished in her character development even more as Oracle. Her struggles, overcoming them, and learning to love herself and value her abilities beyond the mantle made her a well-loved inspiration for many. To have all of that stripped away and undone with a microchip was just as insulting as it was a destroyed opportunity for character growth

And unfortunately that’s not the first conversation I’ve had regarding the representation of characters

Oh, you thought I was done? Ha! I wish. How about Spiderverse?

“Oh but Sun-Spider can’t be a superhero, she’s wheelchair-bound!”

Professor X. The Chief. Oracle.

And just to cover all my bases: Bucky Barnes, Daredevil, Hawkeye, Doctor Mid-Nite, Hornet, Jericho, Cyborg. And that’s not even going into characters with much more hidden disabilities. Disabilities never stopped anyone from being able to achieve anything, nor should it ever

“Fat spider-people? Really? That’s just unrealistic”

Yes, really. What’s the problem with that? Surely it’s not the webbing, which have been proven to be durable enough to support buildings. No way it’s how they’re shaped when there’s a car, a horse, and a whole ass T-Rex spider variant

Some people really forgot the whole concept behind the first Spiderverse movie. How Stan Lee made it clear that “anyone can wear the mask.” It doesn’t matter your body type, whatever disorders or disabilities you have, your ethnicity or your upbringing. Being a hero is so much more than that, and the diversity of each spider-variant only reinforces how Spider-Man represents everyone

But let’s go even further with voice acting

“So what if Sunspot is being voiced by a white person instead of an Afro-Brazilian voice actor? It’s animated”

Oh wow I wasn’t aware that representation stops at the sound machine. Yes, Sunspot’s newest voice actor is Brazilian, but with a character whose ethnicity plays an integral part in his story, you’d think Marvel would figure casting an Afro-Brazilian VA would be more authentic for the role than the fourth white dude in a row, but no. Of course not

And with each VA they cast, Marvel pushes Afro-Brazilian VAs out of this role they’d intimately understand and be passionate in representing. VAs that Sunspot fans would love to see knowing that their favorite character (or even themselves) would be understood, rather than being hollowly voiced with characteristics that don’t match the person

“If Sunspot should be voiced by an Afro-Brazilian voice actor does that mean Magneto should be voiced by exclusively German Jewish voice actors? It’s not a monolith”

And neither are Brazilians. Hell, neither is any religion or race. That’s why we want an Afro-Brazilian VA. There’s so many nuances that can only be breathed into the character by someone who understands because they themselves have lived that life. It may be small but those nuances are what make the character feel alive to their audience, and the closer a VA is to the experiences of their character, the more genuine the character feels

Portraying animated characters doesn’t fall completely on the writers and artists. Artists may take control visually, and writers may be responsible for plot and voice lines, but it’s the VAs that are in the spotlight. VAs are the ones that gives these characters character. And those characters can’t be fully and properly represented for viewers if it’s not all there

Representation always matters. Its significance doesn’t go away with erasure, and it definitely isn’t less important because other people who aren’t among that marginalized group refuse understand. Disabilities don’t define who someone can be, nor does body type, or culture, or religion or any other background. It doesn’t stop at the sound machine. Anyone who says otherwise are just adding to the ignorance most media uses to excuse the already shit representation of the entertainment industry

Every marginalized group is valid. Every minority deserves to be portrayed as they are and not feel like they’re being fetishized, infantilized, or inaccurately represented for the sake of plot

Little me, the queer adopted Asian kid with raging ADHD, severe anxiety, and shit communication skills deserved more than the fetishization from anime characters and shouldn’t have needed to wait until they discovered Cassandra Cain, the first character to show that superheroes could look like them too

And people that never struggled to find themselves represented in media sure as hell don’t have an excuse to encourage lacking representation and feign ignorance when common decency and basic human empathy is free

[imthepunchlord]

Did you hear about new character from ml africa special, LadyLion?

I did, and not really impressed. 

The African special... where in Africa? It’s ultra white just to vaguely say Africa. Even the American special was specific about where it happens. Same for the South American special that’s going to be set in Brazil. Maybe its a case he doesn’t have a specific place picked out yet, but by choice of wording has issues. 

And what’s with them and having black characters associated with white/lighter colorations. The worst was the black girl in the NY special going all white. And now another hero with an all white costume, which looks like onsie pjs with a belt and bracelet how uninspired are you with girl costumes?! Also not a fan of her hair being that long. That is grabbable. Also, with their track record with black heroes, is her skin color naturally that color or is it lighter than what she naturally has? Every new black kid I gotta question that. 

And before I saw that she’s for a special, I actually thought that this is maybe Alya and a new miraculous for her; I wasn’t crazy about Alya with the fox anymore after seeing RR in action. It didn’t feel like a good fit with her in terms of her character. What I see with the fox, better with cunning and subtlety and Alya herself is far more straightforward. It’s not a bad idea for her to get a miraculous to help her learn to be more subtle, but she also needs something with a little more aggression to it, and fox doesn’t have that. Tiger or goat I was actually thinking for her but was open to roll with lion before I saw what this new character is for. 

And I am so mixed if I would’ve preferred this be Alya with a new miraculous; cause on one hand, it’s good to include more diverse characters, particularly characters with dark skin; but we also already have a huge roster of characters, and the ones they have aren’t being developed (outside Chloe who ultimately was a big waste of episodes), and that implies that these new ones aren’t really going to get attention or development making them pointless in their creation and existence. Unless we’re going to get like, spin off series of these new heroes? Miraculous Adventures in New York? Brazil? Wherever in Africa this is happening? 

Either way, at most, I’m mildly curious for Lady Lion (and why not just do Lady or Queen Lioness? Or is she supposed to be like, gender neutral or nonbinary and is going between two gender pronouns? ...though that’s probably over speculating), but over all I’m not excited. They are adding in too many characters and too many miraculouses. And a lot of these will be pointless outside the special and we can’t be certain we will see them again. They’ll have too many characters to pick from and develop; and with their track record, they’ll stick to spoiled white kids as the main focus. Making a lot of these heroes and are here to just get brownie points for making poc heroes without really caring to include and develop them. 

Alya hasn’t gotten the same amount of attention as Chloe. 

Nino is barely a character. 

If they’re not interested in their two major supporting kids of color and were more interested in the rich white bully, why should I be excited or have faith in how they’ll handle this new girl? 

So, yeah, at most, mildly curious but ultimately not excited. I will say, I am kinda cracking up at the craziness that is ZAG. Like, what is going on in there? How is it still around? You have Zag going ahead and doing his own take of ML and seems to be setting up for the show to struggle (poor animation quality for the show but his movie will get better quality, and apparently he’s pressuring Thomas to make Lukanette and Adrimi canon so he can do Adrienette? Idk, that’s what I heard) so his own take can succeed, and he’s expanding his own ML verse without Thomas and it’s like... what’s going on. It’s kinda funny but incredibly baffling. 

[raayllum]

I FEEL THE SAME WAY (same anon of the tales of arcadia post), like, i always feel a bit.. ehh? when ppl instead of asking for the story/plot, they ask “are there any gays??” which is fine because we NEED more diversity (lgbt, racial, body, disabled, neurodivergent) but also,,, i can’t watch something in which the story/plot/worldbuilding doesn’t catch my eye (and yes, IMO, i like tdp more than she/ra)

right!! like i’ve tried things that are more diverse (like kipo) and things that are not (like gravity falls) and bailed for similar reasons: both were a bit too quirky tone wise for me, kipo especially. like i’m someone where, if i like a show, i have to like every part of the show. while there may be certain areas of a show that i’m more focused on fandom wise (ie. a favourite ship or character) i have to genuinely enjoy every other part basically in equal measure. it all has to work for me, hence why i tend to be a bit pickier. 

not to mention shera swings back and forth from having very good rep (honestly, mostly racially, and with their side queer romances) to like... terrible rep... like, spinerella/netossa got basically no screentime until the last season and even then spinerella is hardly a character bc she’s brainwashed for 90% of it. bow’s dads are in two (2) episodes of a 52 series run. mara is whitewashed whenever she’s in “shera” (aka her most ‘heroic’) mode. shadow weaver is uncomfortably east asian coded in character design as well as falling into the disfigured villain trope with hordak falling into the disabled villain trope. they put the one autistic coded character on a leash at one point. bow, the one darker skinned moc in the show, is routinely taking care of his friends and doesn’t have more independent arcs / other people taking care of him in the same way until s5. until catra’s s5 redemption, catra/adora and catra/scorpia are unhealthy if not flat out abusive wlw ships and both are completely patched up at the end, particularly scorpia/catra which was acknowledged on screen as abusive and then there’s a 0.2 second “resolution”. the only nonbinary character is a lizard shapeshifter in one season who’s also a villain. all the mother characters are dead by the end of the series. hell, even having bow’s dads have an arc about possibly not accepting their son felt strange given that they’re, you know, gay, and it’s a gay or trans coded arc. if you count catra/adora as interracial that means catra is coded as brown... and is extremely animalistic. alright then :\

meanwhile: httyd has one disabled villain and three disabled main characters, including its Main Character and deuteragonist. toa has rep for kids who were left by parents and there’s no “special reason their absentee parent loved them all along” stuff. claire’s last name is nunez & 3below doesn’t pull any punches when talking about immigration and xenophobia. tdp has a disabled queer woman of colour being a total badass who has plots surrounding her family & her own independent stuff. when royalty of colour (which we need more of tbh) do die, they are replaced by their children of the same race; aanya, ezran, and callum are canonically mixed. side female characters like ellis, lujanne, aanya, sarai, amaya, janai, and khessa are mostly defined through their relationships with each other & other women. all the queer relationships are healthy. every relationship is interracial. 

again, are any of these series perfect, or in shera’s case, terrible? no, of course not. shera has still made new grounds for queer rep and a lack of cisheteronormativity in children’s cartoons. tdp does kill off characters of colour and gay characters of colour (which is softened by having surviving characters of colour, both gay and not, but i get the frustration). the few times httyd does have poc, they’re villains (as well as having an antisemitic caricature in the tv show). trollhunters has a really uncomfortable episode where we meet trolls who, if they were people, would be / have the most stereotypical racist “indigenous” peoples trope possible. 

you’re gonna get representation wrong and you’re gonna get representation right. people are still learning how to balance that. but i think it’s clear to me, at least, as well as how much something grabs my attention, of who has learned how to write solid stories just structure and arc wise, and who hasn’t, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ more solid stories with good representation as a bonus treat, please 

[seblaine-rph]

Can we talk about how Gradian might be just as bad as Joie?

If you want to tell me what brought you here with this comment, go ahead. I don’t have any insight on what their dash looks like and I assume that’s why you’re here. If @gradianvillagerp wants to take a look at the info below, they might improve their rp and grow by learning a thing or two. Remember that having a complaint lodged and/or showing you what you’ve done wrong while unaware that it was wrong is not as big of a problem as reacting poorly once you’ve been told. 

Looking at their main, I see they’re 1. using a known abuser as their main mascot and 2. there are multiple problematic fcs on their masterlist. I’m confused by the fact that there are abusers on their masterlist and there is an abuser for their mascot but they have people on their banned fc list because they’re also abusers. So I guess we’re picking and choosing which abusers we like and which are triggering. I’m also seeing 3. ethnicities not matching properly for canon families. 4. They also have Kristen Stewart as an fc, even though she’s asked not to be used as an fc because roleplay makes her uncomfortable. Jensen Ackles is on the masterlist too, and he is an iffy one, just be sure that you don’t use ANYTHING that has ANYTHING to do with his family. As a convention, he said that he doesn’t mind people using his face to rp with, as long as they do not push it on his family. I haven’t looked at the page to see if there are any pics up of him with any of his family, but if family pics were used then there is a problem. 

5. I also noticed that their masterlist is looking like the cast list for 50 Shades of White. There are a total of 5 people that aren’t white on the masterlist from what I can tell, and these 5 people all have very light skin. Masterlists like this make me feel like the roleplay is not at all welcoming to poc and may include subtle racist undertones. Because clearly the entire ooc masterlist prefers to write white. This is the kind of masterlist that makes me think that all of the poc are probably single because everyone’s writing their white faves and wants to ship with their other white faves. I’m not saying that is definitely what is happening, but that is what it looks like, from the eyes of someone who is not white. And this is based on many experiences. I also don’t see any transgender or nonbinary characters and the lack of diversity in general makes me sad. 

That’s the short and skinny of it, I’ll drop some receipts and go into more detail down below: 

Here’s a full list of what I found in just a few minutes on their main:

Cole Sprouse is their mascot and is on their masterlist. The same Cole Sprouse that has sexual abuse allegations, emotional abuse allegations, and a shit ton of privileged racism spouting out of his mouth. Alex Pettyfer is on their banned list for abuse allegations. Lea Michelle is on their banned list for being racist. But Cole is not only on the masterlist, he’s also the mascot for the main? Receipts and fuller detail on him down below, because it’d take too long to get into here and you’d never get to the rest of the problems. 

Dylan Sprouse is on the masterlist. He posted a pic of a girl he dated on Instagram and the caption was “My African Queen”. The girl’s skin tone was very tan, but many would have believe she was a black woman, but here’s the thing she isn’t black and when people called Dylan out of for having his girlfriend pretend another ethnicity, he made fun of them.

FIRST POST, with a blackfishing/blackfaced, edited photo:

The second post after he got called out:

KJ Apa is on their masterlist. He is fatphobic and sexist. There’s this post where he endorses bullying people if they’re fat because it’s “the only way to stop those useless bags of shit dying a fat, early death.” He’s also posted about beer being better than women. 

Vanessa Hudgens is on their masterlist. COVID is a trigger, but the girl that said, “It's a virus, I get it. Like, I respect it. But at the same time, like, even if everybody gets it, like, yeah, people are gonna die, which is terrible but, like, inevitable?" because she was mad she didn’t get to go to Coachella one time is okay to be there?

Jack Falahee is a Berry twin, twin to Rachel, but he’s not Jewish? Why are we erasing ethnicity? The only excuse to go against the Jewish ethnicity here would be by making the character half black, as per the season one storyline for Rachel’s birth, but the problem with that is that his mother would still be Jewish. So he’d still have to be half Jewish. 

Kristen Stewart is on the masterlist, but she’s asked not to be used in roleplays because it makes her uncomfortable. 

---------------------------------------------------

MORE ON COLE SPROUSE, 

because there was too much to put in one thing:

Cole Sprouse: He believes in reverse racism and has used MLK to attempt and justify his beliefs. He’s stated, 

This pseudo intellectual tone is the epitome of white privilege. As a white man not only does he not have right to define racism but to use a prominent Black activist in attempt to validate his ignorance is truly disgusting.  

He also compared BLM activists to cannibalism.

In 2015, some black lives matter activists interrupted a Bernie sanders rally in Seattle to criticize his campaign for paying insufficient attention to issues of criminal justice and race. Many people had their opinions on the situations, however Cole’s one didn’t make sense but also offensive. He hasn’t apologize for this remark and as a white man, he instead chose to educate people on what activism is supposed to be.

He also posted a pretty sketchy tweet about abuse, which reads “ Don’t become so jaded by abuse that your opposition becomes abusive”. This statement holds strong victim blaming sentiment and sounds like he is claiming that his actions were opposition and not abuse which is gaslighting. It should be known also that his very public ex girlfriend has been claiming that he sexually assaulted and abused her, and she’s not the only one with claims against him. 

It is also relevant to note that Cole Sprouse had this to say about a black man: 

He obviously comparing a black person to an animal. Many people have said him and Tyler are actually friends and this could have been an inside joke. No. 1 if it’s an inside joke then it should’ve stayed off the internet. 2. This is the famous excuse that many people use on themselves or to defend their idols, “I’m not racist, I have black friends!!!” or “I didn’t mean it, it was a joke.” It’s just telling of his character, when you think about the other racist remarks he’s mad. 

[arofili]

🏳️‍🌈 + maeglin :)

CW: this one gets angsty and talks about prejudice and internalized bigotry :(

i had to have A Think about this one because i wasn’t sure tbh? and all of what i’m gonna say is not anything i’m particularly convicted on, i’m down for whatever with him tbh. but here’s my Thots:

so first off Maeglin is trans. this post by @daywillcomeagain is excellent and honestly changed the way i think about her? like a lot? even in verses / “canon” (whatever that means lol) where Maeglin is male I can’t really see him as cis anymore. so yeah, Maeglin is trans, sometimes i see her as a trans woman and sometimes i see him as a trans man and sometimes when i’m feeling Particularly Adventuresome i see them as nonbinary/genderfluid, but There Is No Universe Where Maeglin Is Cis.

secondly, and this is where i’m not particularly sold on any one interpretation: Maeglin is gay? question mark? usually in a situation where i want to ship a character w/ the “same” ““gender”” (again whatever that means lmao) but they have an “”opposite”” “”””gender”””” canon love interest i’ll go with them being bi, because there’s never too much bi content and i like to work with canon rather than against it (there are exceptions but that’s my general vibe) BUT-

in this case i think (trans guy) maeglin was overcompensating for his weirdness wrt idril. i don’t think he was Actually In Love with her, he was looking around for a reason to be a Normal Man, and Normal Men Like Women, Right? so he found the prettiest lady and obsessed over her…unfortunately that happened to be his cousin, but he had this fixed idea of Idril As The Embodiment Of Perfect Femininity And What Every Man Should Want. so if he’s a Real Man, of course he would be in love with her….

this is where i should bring up that it’s not until morgoth ~offers~ idril as a prize for betraying gondolin that maeglin even considers her a viable option; before then he “desired her, without hope” and didn’t even make a move. idril sensing Bad Vibes from him and “loving him not at all” is…well, at best it’s post-fall propaganda, at worst it’s idril being transphobic/racist (because maeglin is Extremely poc-coded). what i’m trying to say is: Idril is unattainable to Maeglin. He never had a chance with her, and that was part of her allure. frankly, her being his cousin only increased that impossibility of them working out. so in a way, she was a safe crush, in that he wouldn’t have to ever realize what was going on.

now, this is an experience familiar to me as an aro person. and honestly? aro maeglin is good and i stan that. but i also think maeglin being gay ties into his resentment for Tuor: he’s attracted to Tuor (and weirdly, probably to Hurin and/or Huor as well? he was mean to them too) and just Doesn’t Know How To Handle That. it’s bad enough that he’s trans (though if you want to be boring this would work if he’s cis too), that he’s an outsider, that he’s half-Sinda in a kingdom of Noldor, he can’t have this weirdness too. (because Gondolin is very Noldorin, and they spoke Quenya there, and the city is very much reminiscent of Tirion, and it’s hardass Turgon who’s the king, i think they had similar laws to Valinor. ie: LaCE (ish) and homophobia? but i’m not sold on that, considering I ship Glorthelion and I think Egalmoth is a Gay Icon, so idk, maybe not. and this all just My Personal Headcanon not canon in any way)

anyway, Maeglin is trans and gay. i also say this because i ship him with Turin and jrrt was homophobic to not have these two disaster gays meet in canon smh

I also think trans woman Maeglin could be seen as gay/a lesbian, tho? in that verse her feelings for Idril could be more genuine, and her insecurity coming from internalized transmisogyny/homophobia, like “i can’t be with idril because if i’m with a woman that’s just me using my femininity to take advantage of her, that would make me basically a man!” basically she’s got a LOT of internalized issues and Deserves Better!!!! (ETA: and like the post i linked above says, it could also be her being attracted to what she wishes she was like, confusing gender envy with attraction, or w/e)

or, if we want to go with the original thesis of Maeglin being attracted to Idril because Idril is impossible to be with, she could be aro too. and since then it would be sexual attraction without romantic attraction, she would have internalized arophobia and sex-negativity thrown into the mix, too, and the objectification fear would be even stronger.

anyway: Maeglin is trans, and probably gay, and possibly aro, and i’m open to really any interpretation that includes at least one of those headcanons. (honestly they can be All of those, not even all at once? like genderfluid abrosexual Maeglin who really just Doesn’t Know what’s going on with how they feel? yes please!) the only thing im NOT interested in is predatory straight cis Maeglin. ew. gross. get that away from me. can’t believe that was probably jrrt’s headcanon, smh

[heyimslightlyobsessed]

good omens

bc while you guys can bitch and moan about how Anathema ended up with Newt because he’s a white boy and apparently you can’t do that anymore let’s talk about the good things in Good Omens

- multiple poc (including asian (and guess what they’re not the generic good-at-math-and-nothing-else character))

- the ‘destined couple’ choosing to stay together because they like each other and actual acknowledgement that agnes predicting they have sex is actually super creepy

- picking one’s own destiny and choices instead of sticking to the plans or the prophecies

- traditionally cruel and malicious characters instead being portrayed as soft and caring

- different body types

- a genderfluid character where a. it’s not their only personality and b. scenes of them in female-presenting attire isn’t a fucking joke

- acknowledgement that the japanese whaling industry is fucked up 

- shadwell, while being a dumbass and could’ve so easily slipped into ‘border-line abusive old white guy(tm) who likes shooting people’, is instead protective of madam tracy and just smart enough to swindle two also dumbass 6000 year old immortals

- portrayal of abusive relationships that aren’t romanced-up and escape from those relationships

- multiple nonbinary characters

- characters that are portrayed by female actresses going by different pronouns

- newt, who helps anathema pick her own path instead of being ruled by an ancestor from centuries ago

- asexual! representation! which is a big deal because while the list of LGBTQ+ characters on wiki is long (not as long as it should be) the list of canon ace characters has like, 20 people on it

- loving, healthy, non-heterosexual relationship 

- characters whose sexuality, gender, gender presentation, or skin color isn’t their only personality trait or what makes them ‘quirky’

- violence not being the answer to everything- something that’s super rare in media right now- instead, it’s love that saves stuff (adam’s love of tadfield and his friends over power, crowley’s love for aziraphale, newt’s love/respect of anathema compelling him to let her choose her path instead of taking the predictable and comfy way, etc, etc)

- a genuinely hopeful and happy ending

- an author/creator who willing went the way of death of the author and who is willing to accept any and all headcanons

- look. i’m not saying that it’s perfect- it’s really not. but ‘cancelling’ the show because gaiman sees aziraphale’s technical genderless-ness as a reason for not calling him gay is nitpicky and ignores the stuff that the show does so well and erases the tons of other representation that it showcases that other media doesn’t give us (and can also be seen as asexual/nonbinary/pan erasure which like i said is super important to me and others because guess what, while you have your love simon and charlie bradbury’s we have a list of 20 characters and many many many people who believe that it isn’t a ‘real’ thing and virtually no mention of us in books or movies)

[cezulian]

Aight but like its ineffable for really real yo. I feel so weird about it because I am cis and I don’t want to talk all over people who are starving to be represented in media, like I’m explaining why the Crowley canonically presenting female thing is exciting because of course yall all KNOW, but man. It aint even like that, its complicated. Like when there’s LGBT or specifically pansexual or poc wlw represented in something I of course feel pride and happiness and that I been seen. And of course when any of my other members of the LGBT community get representation, whether they’re close to me or just the community itself, I too feel pride and happiness for them because that’s a great thing and we in this thing together.

But yo....Its like beyond that with this, man. There’s probably a lot of different factors contributing to it, but I almost don’t want to get into what they may be because the feeling itself is so pure and so present I don’t even wanna think about it. I’ve watched “Good Omens” a few times now, and I’m watching it with a few friends who are at different points with it but whenever I watch Episode 3 on my own or with someone else and the Golgotha sequence, which is a beautiful sequence on its own anyway, comes up I’m just filled with this immense joy that I double down on in my head over and over. Here she is yo!!! She’s here and she’s her!!! The actor is cis and playing her like he has been the whole show!!! Its the more “masculine” role of the two leads also!!! Uh oh the least femme one by traditional standards of personality and behavior we’ve come to associate with a very particular stereotype for a long time is playing against our programed understanding of how certain groups of people can sometimes think and behave!!! Uh oh look out its not gonna be mentioned once because why would it be!! Females can just be females and be out here and sound and speak and behave like they do when they in, out or in between because they a whole character!!! It don’t have to be jokes!!! It don’t have to be camp!!! And she can be her whenever she feels without it being like ok lets address the nonbinary bitch in the room this scene is about that now!!!

There’s just so many aspects of just her being there that audiences aren’t used to having presented to them, ESPECIALLY not all at once, without the work being like “alright folks now we know that was a lot of things going on that require acknowledgement, mulling over, and becoming content with, so we’re just gonna let you know that no, you’re not crazy by addressing it to some degree but in a way that is meant to Reassure The Mind. Because just like its impossible to see a non-straight couple and not think about the way that they have sex and how its different from you, this too requires the padding of comfortable familiarity, so lets all laugh at this line because this character can say it, re-regulate our heart rates, and pat ourselves on the back for how good it is of us to not respond to something like this with yelling or murder”Its like the closest thing I can think to equate it to is when I see celebrity women be so effortless and easy in doing something or acting a certain way that doesn’t comply with the list of things we’re supposed to be able to do without cracking even a little self-depricating joke or giving any indication of irony, or even giving off the vibe that we know we pissin people off just by being here and how cool are we for not caring what anybody thinks or whatever. Its just what it is, yall know? Its cool. It be like that no issue, next scene please.

Maybe I’m making sense, maybe not but I just felt I needed to get out this like. Vivid euphoria that totally fills me up like nothin else that I’m feelin about this very simple and easy thing. Its totally possible that its just “a lot of happiness” and this whole thing about me trying to describe it is gonna come off as, yknow, “local woman discovers basic state of emotion for the first time”, but I would also totally believe it if I really did just feel a new kind of happiness for the first time ever in 20+ years, I dunno yall, its rockin my world right now in the best way though.

[wingsoffireconfessions]

thoughts on non-disabled ppl making disabled oc's ? curious

I’m going to address the... driving force? behind this ask before I get into what it’s actually asking, because I think laying some groundwork here is important. 

A lot of ‘purity culture’ seems to push that only people who are a thing should write about that thing (as a huge simplification of the arguments used). However, there’s a large difference between writing about that thing and writing about characters who are that thing. 

With disability as your given example, compare these two situations;

A non-disabled person writing a story centered on disability, where the entire plot and focus of the story is having the disability and working to live with it

A non-disabled person writing a story centered on an adventure, where the entire plot and focus of the story is on the adventure itself and the main character is disabled

There is a huge tonal difference between those two things, and to diverge again, a lot of people - generally people who are white, cis, straight, able-bodied, Christian, or otherwise in a majority - see any story with a character who is different from them as meaning the story is about being different from them. It’s why ‘LGBT’ is a category on Netflix, but ‘Straight’ isn’t; it’s implied that LGBT movies are just about being LGBT, while movies without LGBT themes can be everything else.

It is also worth noting that, because many creators are, statistically, going to be in a majority, deciding that they should only write characters who are like them is why media is so straight, so cis, so white, so able-bodied, so Christian. If everyone can only write about characters who are like them, there would be even less representation in media - and it’s already low to begin with - because it would mean that the racism, sexism, and other biases against the authors would mean that their media would face greater difficulty in being published, as it often already does.

(This is not, however, saying that authors should not be criticized when writing characters out of their experience; obviously, a white author who writes racial caricatures of POC, as an example, should be criticized for being racist; an able-bodied author who writes disabled characters who are either evil and killed or good and miraculously healed should be criticized for ableism.)

I think, overall, authors who are not from a minority should not tell stories that are about being that minority; Rick Riordan, for example, created a platform to bolster the novels of other authors instead of writing about cultures he is not a part of. The characters in his novels are diverse, and respectfully so, and while being from a minority is a part of their character and does change how they act, the story is not about their minority status - which would be something that Riordan would not have the experience to write about.

Authors from majorities - cis, straight, white, able-bodied, Christian - should be expected to write characters who aren’t those things. They should also be expected to do so with respect and accuracy, because we live in a world where literally anything is google-able and sensitivity readers are a thing. Authors can, and should be expected to, network with people from different backgrounds to ensure that their work isn’t offensive. 

I am one person; my opinion is that of one person - of a white, disabled, nonbinary lesbian in a non-religious household - and I don’t intend to make my say the only one. There are obviously intersections that my general, Tumblr-post-length answer won’t cover, and intersections I don’t have the experience to specify.

But yes, overall, of course people should aim for diversity in their work. You just have to be respectful - and if you’re creating an OC from a fandom, which is what I assume this is about because this is a fandom blog, you’re already giving that same amount of respect to the canon in order to create an accurate character. If you can go through the books to figure out how the scales are different on a SandWing and a SkyWing, you can learn how to be respectful in your character diversity.

[bunnieplott]

Voltron and LGBT+ rep.

So I am one of those people who jumped for joy when the news came out (lol) that SHIRO was our LGBT+ rep. This made me happy on so many levels!! As well as kinda worried for how the show’s going to continue in varying levels of awesome. All below the cut cause... this got long.

Things that made me HAPPY!!

1) That they actually followed through a gave us a rep at all! And not a side character!

2) That it’s SHIRO! Shiro. The poc, ptsd, superman-ly, everyone looks up to him Leader of Voltron who could be said is the driving force behind the vast majority of the plot. SO Many things happen in this show because of him. The only other person who could pull as much “main character”ness is probably PRINCESS Allura.

3) That and, according to the few clips I’ve seen from s7e1, they actually manage to bring his sexuality up in a really organic way. Again going off clips here, but it really looks like they manage to go for a show not tell approach. Everyone is talking about going back to earth. This leads Shiro to think about things that happened before he left, which brings us to Adam. Then through their conversation we see that Adam and Shiro are together.... and breaking up... but! They had a romantic relationship nonetheless.

This took 7 seasons to come up and honestly it times out perfectly. This is the first time since the beginning that the Paladins have really talked about earth. Likely story is that they’ve been trying really hard to avoid even thinking about their home, knowing that they might not ever get back.

Now they’re headed back, and are all probably thinking about their families. We just SEE Shiro doing it.

4) .......This honestly surprised me. I totally thought our LGBT+ rep was going to be Keith. Though I did have the head canon that they were going to get back to earth, Keith was going to see a male former classmate and go “Quiznack that’s my ex! Hide ME!!” and be all awkward. ...... So I was kinda right? In a way?

So yes very happy! But kinda worried about how it’s going to play out going forward....

Awesomeness levels of LGBT+ness of possible future events as predicted by Bunnie! (DISCLAIMER!; I order ships in levels of probability according to MY own thoughts. Please don’t take offense)

Great) Shiro is obviously still gay, still has interactions with his former boyfriend Adam. (This is all pretty much a given considering spoilers given by the cast/reviewers) However, they either don’t get back together or worse one of them dies.... anyway they don’t actually continue their relationship on screen. This is kinda the level most progressive shows are at right now. They either have LGBT+ character who’s out and proud in some way but not in a relationship, or they get two characters of the same gender together.... at the very end of the show and we don’t actually see the gay. So great! but not yet awesome.

Awesome) Adashi/Shadam do get back together, we have excellent, real on screen interactions of the romantic kind. Definitely a kiss, maybe a wedding..... This does rank kinda low, though, ‘cause it would mean that though a main character is LGBT+, they got him with a guy who was kinda.... invented to be the gay lover? I mean I’m sure that Adam will wind up playing a larger roll than that but... this is how he’s introduced.

REALLY AWESOME) They don’t get Adam and Shiro back together.... HERE ME OUT! They don’t get back together BUT, Shiro does get into a relationship with one of the other male main characters. Probability levels go Keith>Lance>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Hunk (really don’t see much of possiblity of that last one sorry Shunk shippers). Not including Coran cause..... that pings my ick senses a little. (again sorry to anyone who does ship them)

Keith and Shiro are one kiss away from going from “family of choice,” to “family cause we’re married.” (Really strange how those two things are REALLY different feelings but look so similar from the outside....) Lance was really broken up at the end of season 6 about almost losing Shiro, referred to him as his hero on more than one occasion and is in that picture with Shiro’s arm around him as they hold up the LGBT+ sign. ....... Can’t really think of anything for Hunk.

This would mean that not one but TWO of our beloved main cast are in fact LGBT+. Bonus point’s if it’s Lance cause he would most definitely be Bi where Shiro has been revealed (I think) to be Gay. That’s two characters and two letters of the alphabet soup of pride.

MEGA AWESOME!!!!!!!) They do get the Shadam going again it’s as beautiful as we hoped AND two of the other main characters are ALSO in a LGBT+ relationship!! So this would mean 3!! main characters are LGBT+. 

Now possibilities for this would likely include Lance as he’s the character who has been talked about the most for having a romantic endgame. Soooo.... Klance>Hance>Plance with Pidge being Trans and/or Ace. Non Lance ships.... kinda swim around on similar levels of probability for me. Romelle or Krolia in any LGBT+ ship would kinda be a step down in awesome simply because of when they were introduced, they’d fall close in line with Adam for the “introduced nearly entirely for this purpose”ness....

MIND BLOWN IN A RAINBOW EXPLOSION OF SHEER AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!) Everyone is LGBT+!!!!! Personal preferences of most awesome include. Gay!Shiro+Gay!Adam, Gay!Keith+Bi!Lance, Bi!Allura+Lesbian!Romelle, Pan!Hunk+NonBinary!AlienYetToBeInroduced,  Ace!Pidge+technology and finally past Coran+Alfor+Allura’sMom as a wonderful poly!ship.

......Unfortunately the likely hood of being cannon is inversely proportionate to awesomeness level.... This is a cartoon made to be child friendly. A scifi space adventure which is traditionally content aimed at a masculine audience.  From a LGBT+ standpoint it’s already great, and can very easily be awesome. Don’t give up hope on it being even more though. And Hey, even if it doesn’t reach peak awesome levels...... that’s what fanfiction is for. =P

[everysea-everystar-blog]

Otherkin Challenge

I got this challenge from the blog @justanotherkin and thought it would be a good thing to fill out on my new tumblr! I’ve made very minor changes to some questions. 

1. What name do you go by? What is the significance of it to you? 

The name I go by usually isn't something I’m very comfortable with sharing here, but that has a lot of importance to me because I’m transgender and choosing my name has made me a lot happier. Online, I tend to go by Bumble, which is just a silly nickname but cheers me up. I believe my selkie-self is called Sìoda but I don’t call myself that. 

2. How old are you? What is the gender you identify as? (human) 

I’m 18 and I’m a nonbinary trans guy. 

3. What are your kintype(s)? 

Selkiekin, alienkin, spiritkin, felinekin, and I’m questioning monsterkin. 

4. How long have you known that you are otherkin? How old were you when you awakened? 

I think I’ve pretty much always seen myself as nonhuman and had connections to certain species and such, from a very young age. However, I didn’t know about the existence of otherkin or therians until much later, and was actually against the communities for many years. I think I was just in denial and wanted to join in with everyone else making fun of otherkin. I only started getting involved with the community about a week ago. 

5. How did you find the otherkin community? 

At first through tumblr, and then just searching around for forums and group chats. 

6. How does being otherkin affect your life? 

It doesn’t really affect me much daily, though I definitely feel a disconnect from humanity almost all the time. I do experience “species dysphoria” but I wouldn’t compare it to the level of discomfort that gender dysphoria brings me. I also have some paranoia about friends/family finding out about my identity. I’m homesick most of the time, too. 

7. Are you “out of the metaphysical closet”? If so, to whom? 

The only people I’m really “out” to are those on otherkin group chats or forums, and that’s very anonymous to be honest. I spoke briefly about my worries with my best friend a little while before joining the community, but didn’t want to press the issue further because she clearly doesn’t get it. She wasn’t mean about it though. 

8. How did/would your family react to you being otherkin? 

They would either laugh at me, ignore me, or think I’m crazy. Probably all three. (Sidenote: I am actually mentally ill, so I think my parents would believe that me being otherkin is a symptom of this. I know that isn’t the case, but there you go.) 

9. What does being otherkin mean to you? 

It simply means that I am aware of my nonhuman identity and my nonhuman selves, in whatever form that might take. It’s just a part of my daily life that I’ve recently come to terms with and makes me understand myself better. 

10. How do you believe you came to be otherkin? Is it a psychological connection? Were you reincarnated? Explain. 

This depends on which kintype we’re talking about, so I’ll give it a go: 

Selkie: I’m living a parallel life with my selkie self 

Alien: I was “reincarnated” into my human body from an alien life, and my soul is still alien 

Spirit: As a being, I’ve always been a guardian spirit 

Feline: I have a feline soul alongside mine 

11. What do you hope the otherkin community will be like in ten years? Are you for public awareness or against it? Why or why not? 

I hope that the community is even bigger in ten years time, and hopefully viewed with less contempt from the outside world. However, I’m not really for public awareness, because I think it will only bring us more hatred. Also, I don’t view us kin as an oppressed group, and would therefore like to focus more on the support of genuinely oppressed groups such as POC and LGBTQ+. 

12. Do you have phantom/astral limbs? What are they and how do you feel them? 

While not so much a phantom/astral limb, I often feel the texture of my seal’s tail as a selkie on my legs, as well as other sensory experiences like seaweed and cold ocean water around me. I also have nose and mouth twitches that I believe are related to my cat’s whiskers. 

13. Do you mental shift? Have you ever harmed yourself or someone else during one? 

I do mental shift sometimes, but it’s never been dangerous. The only possible danger is that I might try to do things that my human body can’t really do (e.g. swim in very dangerous waters, go on very long forest walks - I have a disability so this is impossible). 

14. Have you ever mental shifted at a time when it could be considered inappropriate? 

I think some of the times that I go nonverbal (I’m autistic) are triggered by mental shifts, and that’s always “inappropriate” or at least inconvenient. 

15. Do you astral project or practise any occult crafts? 

 I’m a witch currently trying to get back into his practise. 

16. Do you feel you are any sort of danger to society? 

Not at all! I might have some “weird” beliefs and be nonhuman but I’m generally very peaceful. I wouldn’t hurt anyone unless they hurt me or someone I loved. 

17. Does your nonhuman identity complicate everyday life for you? If so, how? 

As aforementioned, the only real impact being nonhuman has on my daily life is feeling disconnected from humanity. This does cause a decent amount of social and emotional issues, as well as “species dysphoria” interfering with my moods. 

18. Why do you believe are here as a human? 

I’m not really sure about this one to be honest, but it could be linked to me being spiritkin: maybe I’ve been sent to specifically protect the nature on earth for the time being. Still unsure, though. 

19. Are you active among the otherkin community? 

Recently, yes! I’d love to be more active on the tumblr kin community too, but I’m scared about all the anti//kin things that I might end up seeing. 

20. Are you religious? What faith do you follow? Does it contradict your otherkin identity or do you feel that the two are synonymous somehow? 

I don’t follow any sort of organised religion; I like to think of myself as a semi-theistic Pagan. I believe in Mother Earth and have thoughts of a great Universal Spirit, but I don’t “worship” them as such. This does’t contradict with me being otherkin at all - in fact I think it might explain my spiritkin identity. 

21. Have you ever been emotionally, verbally, or physically harrassed simply for being otherkin? 

I haven’t experienced this directly, but the fear of it happening is why I’m very private and secretive about being otherkin. I’ve witnessed a lot of online bullying and mockery of us, and for a long time I was one of those people being mean to otherkin/therians because I just wanted to fit with what I saw people saying. 

22. Do you efel you are oppressed because you are otherkin? 

No, not really. Oppression is based in societal systems and ingrained belief, and to be honest it makes complete sense that humans wouldn’t understand people claiming to be nonhuman to any extent. I do think that the bullying and mockery is unnecessary and cruel, but I wouldn’t call it oppression. 

23. What is your take on fictionkin/mediakin/factkin? What about machinekin and appliancekin? 

I’m not sure I really understand fictionkin, but I’m not really against it. However, anyone who gets angry at a writer or other person involved with fiction because they aren’t adhering to their kin canon is just rude, and threatening to harm yourself over this is incredibly disturbing. I would consider myself fictionhearted with multiple characters, and have no problem interacting with fictionkin as long as they aren’t rude like I said before. I definitely have a problem with factkin, as I just see that as identity theft. I really can’t get my head around machinekin and anything else that isn’t living or spiritual, because I don’t believe that a non-living thing can exist in a human body, but I don’t think those people are inherently bad. 

24. Did the awakening process seem relatively easy or difficult to you? Why? 

If I refer to the process of accepting my nonhuman identity as my “awakening” then it was definitely difficult. Like I said, I spent years making fun of otherkin - not actively or online, but with friends, and I would sometimes look at the tags on tumblr - which I know realise was me trying to cope with being nonhuman. Making the transition to acceptance was scary. 

25. What do you think of the information provided online about otherkin - is it relevant or not? 

Most of the things I’ve found have been relevant, but a lot of articles written by non-kin just don’t have a very good understanding. 

26. How has your otherkin/therian identity defined you as a person? Do you feel as if it has given you morals that you didn’t have before? 

I think that coming to terms with my nonhuman identity has helped me be more accepting of other people’s identities as long as they don’t harm themselves or others. I think my general confusion surrounding vegetarians/vegans comes from me being selkiekin and felinekin, but I have nothing against those people. 

27. Have you learned any life-long lessons due to your otherkin identity? 

Nothing is what it seems. 

28. What do you want to do with your life? 

I’d like to go into animal care as a career (e.g. pet rehoming shelters, conservation, ethical farming, animal sanctuaries, etc.) as well as being a writer and musician on the side. I’m willing to do any job in the meantime that doesn’t involve too much social interaction. 

29. Do you have any tips or advice for young and/or newly awakened otherkin? 

Get the “tumblr savior” browser extension (or any alternative you prefer, I think xkit is quite popular, do your research) and blacklist any anti//kin tags you can think of. This will bring you a lot of mental peace, trust me. Surround yourself with positivity but remember to keep a critical eye. Find ways to live in balance with your kintype(s) as opposed to having a jarring double existence. You may have to accept the fact that “coming out” as kin in your public life will likely cause more harm than good. Make online friends. 

30. Anything else you’d like to share with us? 

I’m so glad I’ve finally joined this community - I’d been scared for years.