i'm sure it's been said but i feel like both Raxtus and Ronodin can be argued as "the only gay kid in the family and consequently shunned/rejected" and it's like. so weird bc Mull is so Mormon he'd probably rather eat his shorts than even acknowledge the possible existence of gays but
i mean. Raxtus literally has a fairy form. he's a fairy dragon.
Ronodin was just emo lol
and they both get so thoroughly rejected and sidelined by their families their whole lives and it turns Raxtus into an awkward but basically decent guy who runs back to the approval of his family once he's performed masculinity/violence enough to be accepted, only to then realize that he's basically just being used and still not fully trusted/accepted and having to betray them to save his real friends
(who sadly are probably actually homophobic but that's ok bc they're not dragon-phobic so that works out for him)
while Ronodin's like "fuck it. chaos and murder then!" and can you really blame him? he spent his entire life trying to conform to the "right" (in this case, Light) way of life, started spending time with the outgroup and learned to question things, then was told he was "too corrupt" to remain in his home
like. the symbolism is right there.
it's so funny, because sure Raxtus isn't a bad guy, but Ronodin definitely is and he pretty much gets sent to a type of hell at the end of Dragonwatch
and while Raxtus gets kind of a happy ending, like, him becoming an effective killer in a war and being accepted by his dad for being Good At Murder in the first Fablehaven series is presented as a happy ending. if Celebrant didn't wind up being the main villain for Dragonwatch, that probably would've been the end of it! gay kid learns how to soldier and is finally accepted by his homophobic family bc he's finally aggressive enough for them to love him
(i mean i have MANY issues with Celebrant being the main villain later and the reasons he's framed as bad but like. that's a separate rant lol)
the queer reading is right there. but also it's very bad and you can tell completely unintentional. or at the very least highly repressed. idk man i don't look into Mull as a personal individual bc i doubt i'll like what i see and i don't care that much but Dragonwatch was SO MUCH MORE MORMON than Fablehaven already was and it's so weird, seeing the fingerprints of it all over.
i feel like he either has a new editor or he's been doing this for long enough and sold enough books that he has the clout to veto changes made by editors or SOMETHING, bc i feel like? he's gotten worse?? and more unfiltered?? that or something happened and he's like. even more religious than before or something idk
like fablehaven was just kinda generic/bland fantasy with some fun ideas for magic items/powers/one sentence character premises, with just a hint of sus Mormon ideology, and then Dragonwatch just went. Full Mormon.
but then there's somehow even more weirdly queer shit. like. he's repressing so hard he's approaching queer from the other side??
idk man i wish this deeply mediocre man's writing wasn't a formative piece of middle school reading, leading to me still giving more of a shit than i really should over questionable children's literature now
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Disclaimer: this isn’t directed to anyone on here. I just need to get it out of my head.
I’m getting really sick of seeing people fawn over Ghost, but then needing to mention how disappointed they were when they saw Sam Roukin because he’s “ugly,” “looks like Mark Zuckerberg,” etc. Like where is y’all’s tact? What do you get out of calling a man ugly when he has done literally nothing but give life to this character you so claim to love?
And furthermore, since it matters so much I guess, Sam Roukin is not Simon’s face. Ghost does not have a “canonical” face at all.
“But-but Sana!!” you cry, “They motion captured his face! And Ghost’s eyes are modeled after his!” Well, yeah. Duh. They need to get the facial movement under the mask and Sam’s eyes are big and expressive; aka good eyes for a character where that’s the only feature you can see. But his face is not Simon’s.
So, you can still head canon Ghosty as your little pretty anime boy (def doesn’t look like that btw) or whatever. But being rude for no reason is so unnecessary. Sam is a normal fucking dude with feelings. Maybe remember that when you feel the need to passively call him ugly whenever you’re talking about how hot and sexy Ghost is. Shit just pisses me off.
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((WHY YOU LOOK SO FUCKING DIFFERENT, SEEK-))
((He definitely get some more sleep and food than he ever was. It also remind that he is not in his 30s, but actually turning 26. He actually weirdly look his age, and healthy.
See it like this side by side do be jarring af.))
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