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monsters-villains-and-bastards · 7 months

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(I am once again thinking about fallen hero (i never stopped))

Ya know, I feel like one of the reasons that fallen hero resonates so hard, at least for me, is how queer it is. Obviously, you can play as a cishet sidestep, but when you do play a queer sidestep? It *feels* queer.

Its rare that I come across a story that feels unapologetically queer. To me, there's a big difference between a story that features gay characters, a story that "is gay," and a Queer story. And even further, a story that is unapologetically queer.

With Fallen Hero, there's so many moments that are queer in a way I just, don't see often.

(I currently only have 1 sidestep who is a queer transman, so im comin at this from this perspective, but if anyone has played it other ways and would like to add, I would love to hear about your experiences with it)

When I play it, like I said, I currently have 1 sidestep who is a queer transman. So far, I've played it where he romances Ricardo, Wei, and Daniel (plus Ricardo and Wei, and Richard and Daniel). Each of them add something different to the story when they are romancing a transman that I can't help but adore.

The scene with Ricardo in his apartment, and sidestep is about to have the conversation about being trans, sidestep can panic because they don't know what exactly to say, how to do it, and what Ricardo's reaction is going to be. And you know what, yeah, that can be a very scary moment for someone who's trans. How do you tell someone you're trans when you don't know exactly what to say and how they'll react to it? And then, if Sidestep does tell him, Ricardo *cries.* He was so worried about Sidestep, and didn't know if he done something wrong, and he cries. There's also a point where he tries to make a joke or comment to lighten the mood and says something about being more familiar with those parts. And ya know what, ngl, that was a bit in poor taste but really funny. But I'm happy that it was included! Because sometimes people say things trying to lighten the mood and ya know what, sometimes it's a little bit like "why would you say it like that" and sometimes it's also funny. He's not perfect, he doesn't understand everything, but he's *trying.*

Either before or after that ( I can't quite remember, but ik it's within the same set of scenes), Sidestep can talk to him about being bisexual. Depending on the choice you pick, Ricardo can talk about growing up in Texas and that being gay or bisexual wasn't really okay. When he talks about his and Sidestep's past, there's a point where it's like, yeah, he would've been torn to shreds by the media if he was openly bisexual. And yeah, it isn't easy for everyone to come to terms with their sexuality, and it's easier to ignore it that try to deal with it, especially if you're going to experience public backlash on top of being raised in an area that was Not okay with queerness. It's scary!

One of the aspects I specifically love about Ricardo's romance, is that it's messy. You're playing a character that he knew in the past, thought was dead, and comes back into his life after so much has changed. Two people who have been broken down over the years of trauma they had to experience. There's so many ways you can play it that its hard to talk about all the ways in which the variations add their own mess to the situation too. So yeah, the romance can be so queer and so messy at the same time.

With Steel, if you're playing a trans sidestep, he already knows they're trans because of the pictures he got, but it doesn't change anything for him. He's a gay man who tells sidestep that who he sees is a man. It's that simple. He even tells sidestep that he was attracted to Sentinel, who was also trans.

With his romance, there is an age gap, but he didn't have attraction towards sidestep until after they came back, and they tried to become friends with each other. There's also some messiness with his romance if Ortega is a man because he had/has feelings for him.

With Herald, he's open about his attraction, isn't afraid to be who he is, and while at his apartment, he seems a bit nervous, he's also happy. When sidestep talks about being trans, there is a moment where he admits that he isn't sure what to say because he's gotten in trouble for it in the past, but he doesn't care, he happy either way.

For every romance in Fallen Hero, there's something messy about it. Every character has their own past with some kind of shadow looming over it. Everyone makes mistakes, eveyone has something that gives them sharp edges. None of them are perfect people. All of them are struggling with something.

Sidestep is also just an absolute dumpster fire of a person pretty much however you decide to play them. Sidestep, kinda sucks! Even if they're pretty good, by god, do they make dumb decisions!

And I do think its so important to note how much of a mess sidestep is, along with whoever they are with, if they are either a) with someone romantically, b) with someone sexually, or c) not with someone at all, because, imo, it differentiates itself from a story that has gay characters, a "gay" story, and a queer story.

When I think of a queer story, I think of the messy parts. The aspects that aren't "love at first sight" or two people who got it all figured out or "unproblematic" (sidenote: i do think we should remove the term problematic from people for a while), or two conventionally beautiful and young characters falling in love and having the most like. Heterosexual relationship you can have with 2 gay people.

Fallen hero doesn't really have conventional relationships. Even when discussing friendships, it's not conventional.

The story is Queer because of the unapologetically messy characters that exist within its setting. No one is perfect. No one has it all figured out. Sometimes a character doesn't know what to say or they stumble a little during those hard conversations about sexuality and gender. They're allowed to cry, or be confused, or understand. Not to mention that sidestep's morality can fluctuate between a good person who doesn't know what to do, to someone so unapologetically evil and proud. Allowing a character to be queer and their morals to be anywhere on that morality spectrum allows it to be a more queer story imo.

There's so much more that can be said, and could 100% be said by someone who's better at writing down those thoughts. But god, fallen hero is such a beautiful story. The conversations that can be had about it's themes of sexuality, gender, trauma, morality, neurodivergency, among other things is amazing. OUGHA, love this story.

#fallen hero #fhr #fallen hero rebirth #fallen hero retribution #sidestep #fhr sidestep

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olderthannetfic · 1 year

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This might be a somewhat controversial opinion/rant, but as a black queer woman (i really id myself as being more genderqueer, but since i'm afab there are just things about womanhood growing up that has just stuck with me as formative experiences.), I find it really difficult to build community with queer men, even in fandom. I've tried to have friendships with transmen, but so many just feel the need to ramp up misogyny to 1000 to validate themselves as men, and then with gay men, some will say the most out-of-pocket, misogynistic things but because they're not attracted to women, it's somehow okay, I guess. But lately, there's been this trend among queer men of saying and doing misogynistic things but justifying it by stating they're talking about white, cishet women. But the thing is, there's nothing in what they said that can be specifically applied to only white women. It's a target to all women (I refuse to play the oppression olympics of who has it worse). And now I see other queer women in fandom saying the same things to each other. I typically stay in anime/manga and danmei fanbases because that's where a lot of my interests are now, and I don't have to deal with USAian nonsense as much. But now that 7 Seas has unfortunately decided to translate more danmei into English that's changed. A queer male fan of a popular series has been unfollowed en masse by danmei fans for saying wildly misogynistic things about the author. Everyone all week has been scrambling to figure out where this came from. "He only ever said these things about cishet white women," but you guys... he was always talking about us the whole time. Now, I just don't know. Now I see why men aren't generally welcomed in or are common within romance-genre circles. It's just really frustrating to see the same thing over and over again. I'll add on that the only genuinely cool queer men in fandom I've met have come from yuri circles. The ones who try to talk about BL are, from my experiences, generally misogynistic, toxic, and feel as though everything should center around them because they're men and in BL the characters are men, as well. But when other women don't want to form community with them, they scream about 'homophobia' and 'fetishizing gay men.' No, you're just an annoying, awful person to be around, and the queer male yuri fans didn't want to deal with you either. Has anyone else, or you specifically, dealt with this? Is there a way to become friends with more queer men in BL spaces who aren't... like That? Or are there specific things/patterns to look for as far as who to avoid?

God, so much of this sounds so familiar.

I've known a sad number of trans dudes who overcompensate in dickhead ways. A lot of them do calm down a few years into presenting publicly as male, but it's infuriating to see that crap even if it's temporary.

I will say that two of my close circle of offline friends are trans men, including one who came out during the time we've all been friends. The defensive tomfoolery is in no way inevitable. Both of these dudes are nonwhite and have experience in various other geeky and queer spaces beyond BL (gaming, drag queens, etc.). Maybe that broader perspective helped, or maybe they're just nicer and more mature people than a lot of the little jerkfaces I run across online.

TBH, I often have better luck in offline meetups because to show up at all, people have to be a little more comfortable with getting along with others and behaving themselves. It's also sometimes easier to detect the people you want to back away from slowly when you can see how they treat people in person.

One of my neighbors is a cis gay guy. White, able bodied, middle class, yadda yadda. Exactly the demographic you'd expect to be the worst in certain spaces. He and his partner have lots of queer friends, and plenty of them aren't fellow cis gay guys, which is basically my litmus test for non-annoying cis gay guys offline. (Toxic cis gay dude culture is its own kettle of fish with a different set of issues than defensive trans boy culture, but I've encountered it plenty too.)

This neighbor is interested in geikomi and was delighted to find out I'm a fellow nerd and eager for all my nonfiction book recs about queer Japanese stuff. We don't necessarily overlap in our manga tastes, but there's still a lot we do share. When I ramble on about how AFAB queer people and/or bisexuals study history that's presented as cis gay men's history because that's all we have for most historical periods, he's like "Yeah, that makes total sense!" and not "Mine and not yours!"

I think the key here is that this is a dude who is secure in his identity, who's getting both his media and queer community needs met, and who's in his 40s, so he has some god damn perspective and doesn't need to pretend BL is aimed at him.

A lot of the little jerkfaces make me think "Did your preschool teacher not teach you how to share your toys?"

To be honest, there seem to be plenty of dudes hanging around my tumblr. A few cis. Many trans. But they're not going to bring it up incessantly in some defensive "you know I'm not a cootie-having girl, right?" way because who does that?

It comes up when there's a discussion about trans shit or BL as #ownvoices or whatever. (And, in general, any dude worth hanging out with will not think BL as an industry is, or should be, anything of the sort—even if he's expressing his own sense of queerness by writing some.)

On the flipside, I have seen some pretty extreme "no boys allowed" clubhouse nonsense in fandom. It's less common than it was, and past shitty dudes have often been the inspiration, but it can still be a bit much. The nicer class of fandom dude is often pretty hesitant in certain spaces because he's expecting to be met with hostility and is trying to figure out how to participate without tromping all over everyone. (TBH, the guys worrying about this are rarely the problem, but you know how it is.)

I've had dudes send me private messages being like "this thing you said seems kind of stereotypical and anti-man", but in the adult capable of conversation way, not in the tantruming 5-year-old way. And we had a conversation, and they stuck around.

I think having a very clear "It's not #ownvoices, fuck off" stance deters a lot of the more pestilential set. Being equally clear that everyone is welcome and that male yuri fans and female BL fans are pretty equivalent makes the guys worth knowing come out of the woodwork.

In 99% of spaces, I do not give a fuck if some man has his precious feelings hurt by a double standard or default suspicion of men... But fandom is a little unusual because of the demographics and relative power here being so different from in most spaces.

I've definitely seen some people who think women liking BL are fine because we care about characters' personalities, while male fans are all predators or all write f/f that is just fetishy porn or m/m that sounds like Nifty.org and not other fanfic or whatever.

And, yeah, I'll shut down the dumbasses crying in my inbox because I made a joke about Nifty and "coke can dicks" (the kind of guys who have clearly never read m/m that's aimed at dudes outside of fandom spaces), but at the same time, we should extend a little benefit of the doubt to our fellow fandom members of whatever gender. There are usually plenty of men facepalming right along with me at these inexperienced young fools who cannot bear to share.

I think you're just running into the problem that the loud people whose identities you know are often using those identities to browbeat other fans on social media.

There are fewer men in BL spaces than women or nonbinary people, so one will typically end up knowing fewer men.

Honestly, I think you find the reasonable people and get rid of the unreasonable ones in the same way regardless of gender: Gatekeeping bullshit is a red flag. Very Online understandings of oppression are a red flag. Enthusiastic and clueless blanket endorsement of own voices as a concept is a red flag. Lots of talking about "fetishization" or even "appropriation" in a very online way is a massive red flag. Monetizing fanfic or seeing other pro authors as competition instead of peers is another. (Professional jealousy and fear about earning potential are behind a lot of bad behavior.)

A lot of it is down to whether you're willing to make yourself a target by publicly telling annoying people to fuck off.

If others can tell what you stand for, they can figure out if they want to hang out with you. Most people keep their heads down a lot of the time, so it can be hard to even hear of them, let alone know if they're your sort of person.

tl;dr – Be nice to nice men. Tell shitty men to take a hike. Making friends with men is really as simple as that.

There are larger issues here with what kinds of queer spaces exist and whom they prioritize and with toxic understandings of what representation even means and what should be demanded of whose art. But as you say, a lot of women are also promoting toxic-ass understandings of these things.

The bottom line is that we must resist social media clout-driven understandings of justice. The loudest assholes in the room are rarely worth listening to.

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acidh2otoby · 1 year

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Resident Evil Sexuality / Identity Headcanons, part 2

Ingrid Hunnigan

Lesbian / Female

Hunnigan is a strong headed lesbian that falls under the more masculine side but still identifies as female

Any time Leon tried to flirt with her in the beginning, she wanted to jab in his face but couldn't because he was in a different location

The only reason Leon stopped was because Hunnigan made the small joke after one of his flirts saying, "I pull more girls than you without all the stupid pick up lines"

Jake Muller

??????

It must be a Wesker thing because Jake confuses me as well

From one point of view I think "There really isn't enough screen time between him and any other character other than Sherry or Chris, who Jake clearly has a rivalry with"

From the other I think "But there's a chance he's queer of some kind"

But I honestly don't know...

Jill Valentine

Lesbian / Non-binary

You cannot tell me that Mx. Valentine is not a lesbian that doesn't identify as a specific gender

Like, c'mon, LOOK AT THEM

That was theirs and Chris' bonding in S.T.A.R.S. was both of them finding out they were attracted to opposite genders and Jill being non-binary

That's why they're both tight with each other because gays protect each other, it's a code

Karl Heisenberg

GAY / Male

If you think Heisenberg is straight, you are fucking mental

The part of his greatest plan of getting his revenge on Mother Miranda(r) that he didn't tell Ethan was trying to win his heart and running away with him, CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE

The moment Heisenberg saw Ethan, he thought, "I'mma make this bitch mine"

Leon Kennedy

(I love him and his stupid food-loving ass)

Bisexual / TRANSGENDER (female-to-male)

Leon's bisexuality has a preference, a preference for men, Ada is his only exception otherwise, he'd be gay

He's SO TRANS, it baffles my mind how much transness oozes off of him

Leon's flirting isn't to necessarily gain a female's attraction but more-so just because it boosts his ego just a bit because he knows he's hot

Piers Nivans

GAY / TRANSGENDER (female-to-male)

Riddle me this, Batman... have you, in your entire life, met ANYONE with the name Piers?

Doubt it, Piers rats out his identity faster than a bullet from his sniper

Also, he's SO in love with Chris, it's so fucking obvious

I said it once and I'll say it again, FRIENDS DON'T LOOK AT FRIENDS THE WAY PIERS LOOKS AT CHRIS

Rebecca Chambers

Aroace / Non-binary

I never remember Rebecca ever trying to gain anyone's attraction on purpose and actually kind of avoided it

They had love for people, but never romantic, they looked at Chris like he was a big brother and not a potential boyfriend

They didn't even show any attraction to Billy, who was more than nice to them while my dumbass was wishing I was getting saved by Billy every 20 seconds

Also, Rebecca being non-binary just clicks in my brain a certain way that works for me

Rosemary Winters

Pansexual / Genderfluid

Rose doesn't quite understand why it should matter who you're attracted to and even got into a few arguments about it

Being born from someone that had a virus also fucked up her genes pretty good, they were born female but their puberty process and mental gender never matched

They never blamed their dad for the weirdness of going through puberty but they did find it a bit annoying

Sherry Birkin

Straight / Transgender (male-to-female)

Sherry started her transition really early and didn't even realize what it was until she was in her 20s

It was also William that helped her be comfortable with herself even as a kid, because Annette sure wasn't about to

Leon made sure that she was okay with herself as well whenever he saw her

Sherry was able to twist her words to be able to get surgeries from the government for free, making excuses that missions would be hard if she didn't have the right kind of body

Sheva Alomar

Bisexual / Female

Sheva also has a bisexual preference, she prefers women over men

Not to say there's only one guy keeping her bi but she's threatened past boyfriends with it, makes her laugh every time

She definitely had a crush on both Chris and Jill in the beginning but it calmed down when she had to actually work with them (mainly Chris)

Steve Burnside

(I RAN OUT OF FUCKING PICTURES OF USE IN THIS STORY AND HE'S THE LAST CHARACTER FUCK!!!)

Bisexual / Transgender (female-to-male)

I think we can all agree that there was definitely something queer with Steve in all versions of him

Steve doesn't have a specific preference and is kind of a hopeless romantic

The sad thing about Steve that kinda separates him from the other trans characters here is that he never got a full transition before he died 🥲

Did I ads that part to make people feel sad for him again? Yes I did because I genuinely liked his character

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lonelier-version-of-you · 1 year

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Sorry if you’ve already had this epiphany because You’ve spent a lot of time dissecting this but it didn’t really have to be one or the other with Henrik and Jacs SLs? Henrik could’ve had the breakdown he was headed for and divulged in a safe environment about being a CSA survivor. And ppl speculated sth happened to Jac offscreen to push her to breakdown, her running into her abuser or someone from her past could’ve fit that.

Ok yeah they’re similar storylines but has that ever stopped anyone before + Henrik and Jac are similar characters for a reason. And I know Holby was pisspoor with therapy so lbr it wouldn’t have been a safe place for Henrik (it wasn’t for Jac) but you get my drift. There were ways for both of them to have SLs they needed that they show had built up to instead of half assign one SL for each of them and it being the wrong one. (And Henrik deserved a chance to speak abt diagnosis)

These asks have been sitting in my inbox for the best part of a week while I've tried to find the words to properly reply to them, so sorry about that.

I strongly agree, in theory. Obviously anything they did with Jac's mental health should not have been written in the way it was (i.e. a flat-out copy of Rosie's own breakdown), but that goes without saying, I think. (As does the fact that anything to do with Henrik being abused as a child should not have been connected to the Shah family in any way except as an explanation for his harassment of Sahira.) Both characters could've easily had both storylines.

However, I do have to admit that for my own personal reasons I just wish the show had left the CSA stuff with Henrik entirely alone. I feel like addressing his sexuality was far more important than addressing the CSA subtext, and I'm not sure we could ever have had both without the fandom throwing a tantrum about how "OMG, this is saying being abused will turn you gay!!". Also, I don't like living with the knowledge that a large segment of the mainstream Holby fandom... well, has fantasies... of "broken, tainted sexual abuse victim Henrik", and I feel like they would still be doing that even if the storyline had been better done. (In fact, I'd think it's a large part of why there was so much outrage about him being bi. People love their fantasy of "oh, poor little Henrik, he was corrupted into homosexuality by an evil gay man when he was a perfectly innocent straight boy!! He needs to find the love of a good woman to fix him and erase the dirty queerness he was forced into!!". They do not love seeing Henrik form mutual, consensual relationships with other men, whether it's John or Russ. In their mind, that means Henrik was asking for it. They feel like he "tricked" them into feeling sympathy for him when they thought he was straight, only for it to turn out - again, in their minds - that he has nothing to be upset about and he was asking for it all along.)

That being said, I do think the show could probably have alleviated at least some of the fetishisation, complaints, and discourse if they'd made Henrik's abuser a woman. One good thing (the only good thing) about the fact that sexual abuse by women is seen as less serious is that less of the fandom would have seen Henrik as dirty and broken to the extent they do. (Speaking as someone who was abused by a woman here.) There would also probably be fewer comments connecting it to his sexuality (though there would definitely still be some "so you're saying Henrik being abused by a woman put him off women and now he can only like men??" comments, it would be far fewer than the "they're saying Henrik being abused by a man made him attracted to men!" comments). The downside is that Henrik's abuser being a man fits a lot better with stuff like his internalised homophobia (and specifically, his behaviour around John, alternating back and forth between openly flirting with him and seemingly ignoring his feelings for him), but I'd rather lose a bit of characterisation if it meant the fandom saying less horrifically harmful stuff about CSA survivors.

Idk, as I say, I can't be objective about this because when I think about Henrik's abuse I think of the deeply triggering fandom responses to it. Sorry.

He definitely needed that breakdown though. But yeah, as you say, Holby was dreadful about handling anything related to mental illness treatment. ://

I wholeheartedly agree about Jac though. That part of her past really should have been addressed. Also: "ppl speculated sth happened to Jac offscreen to push her to breakdown, her running into her abuser or someone from her past could’ve fit that" That makes complete sense, it really would fit. I don't know how I've never thought of that before.

(Also, yes, Henrik really really needed to get to look into autism diagnosis. The CSA stuff itself is a reason that needed to happen, sort of, because abuse rates are a lot higher for developmentally disabled people. So that just makes it yet another thing that ties back to Henrik's autism.)

#asks #anons #tw;csa #tw;sexual abuse

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livebloggingmydescentintomadness · 3 years

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i can't speak for exactly how offensive fruity is in every region or context, but... homophobic language doesn't become okay to use against someone who's not reclaiming it just because it's 'on the milder end.' rule of thumb is that if it's descriptive of or aimed at a specific person who hasn't indicated they're okay with it, no homophobia period. not as a joke, not affectionately, not because it's something you wouldn't be bothered by, not at all.

also: repeating a slur or other harmful language, approving of its use, and putting it on your blog is using it. if anything, in its own way it's worse, because you're encouraging and providing a platform for it. the guy who laughs when his friend says the f-slur around the water cooler, let alone repeats it himself, is making things just as unsafe for marginalized people as his friend, if not moreso.

okay i’m not actually trying to argue with you and be like “i should get to say slurs” but i don’t understand your argument.

if you’re saying that we should never ever be allowed to say even the mildest of slurs in joking or affectionate ways, then why is queer okay? why is gay okay when it’s been used as a slur? why aren’t you also saying that i should never ever be allowed to jokingly or affectionately call someone/relog someone calling someone a bitch, slut, or whore? or what about crazy, stupid, lame, or dumb? all of those are also slurs in some way or another, but you have not tried to call me out for ever saying any of those or reblogging content with those words in them.

prior to the past ~year i have only heard the word fruit used derogatively a long time ago, pre-internet times; in the past several months on tumblr, i’ve suddenly been seeing fruit and fruity every single day, used by queer people, in jokes about people and characters they like. if this is such a terrible thing to do, why have i not seen a single person calling out a single other person for using it? i have not seen a SINGLE person before you tell anyone else “don’t say fruity it’s a slur”.

if you want to institute a policy of “we can never ever say or reblog others saying harmful words” then it’s fine for you to do you, but it sounds like you’re singling out homophobia as worse than other bigotries, or singling out fruity as worse than other mild slurs. it doesn’t seem logical or fair to say that homophobia is this much worse than misogyny or ableism, or that cracking down on use of a light slur being used BY queer people is more important than cracking down on a light slur used by disabled people or a light slur used by women. why exactly is fruity significantly worse than bitch or stupid?

since i have a lot of queer people following me, i’d like to ask anyone reading this: does me reblogging a post that has a joking or affectionate use of “fruit(y)” offend you or make you feel unsafe? like, for real, please tell me if you have ever thought that. does the use of that word make you uncomfortable?

#anonymous #ask

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heroes-never-discourse · 3 years

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I've seen discourse about changing a character's sexuality just for shipping and it kinda made me feel bad that there are characters I felt like shipping with the opposite sex when they're said to be lgbt+ in canon (most of the time cause they had a lot of good interactions in that canon that would've been shippy). Back then i thought it ws okay cause it's just fanmade works and people do it all the time with making straight characters gay. What are your thoughts on this as lgbt+ yourself?

So, I will admit I'm a bit split on this.

I do want to mention up front that taking canonically straight characters and making them queer is not completely analogous to taking canonically queer characters and making them "straight". It's a matter of queerness still being a source of prejudice, as well as having conversion therapy and other homophobic practices in its history. Also there being so few canonically queer characters in comparison makes it so that we often have to make our own food so to speak, whereas there is no shortage of straight ships and straight characters to latch onto. One of those things that sounds the same on paper but in practice has very different implications.

Now, generally, as far as myself as a pro shipper goes? It's fine. Sometimes you get attached to a ship, and fandom is supposed to be the place where canon can be stripped for parts or scrapped entirely.

Someone deciding they just love the romantic/sexual dynamic of say Soldier 76 and Ana so much that they ship it ultimately aren't hurting anyone (obviously as long as they in turn aren't shoving their preferences on anyone), and fanon Ana 76 will never and can never take away the fact that Soldier is canonically gay. So it's fine, let then have their ship.

Where my personal discomfort comes is generally when it's characters who are canonically gay or lesbian and who also have storylines or character beats that hinge on their gayness being shipped with different gendered characters.

My main example is always Dorian Pavus from Dragon Age Inquisition, who both is blatantly and forwardly gay, and also has backstory relating to trauma endured when his father tried to change that. The subsequent bi mods for him make me hella fucking uncomfortable because of it.

Ultimately though, again, my pro ship side wins out. I don't have to like you shipping Dorian with women for me to go "okay, you do you, I'm going to curate my space so I don't see this stuff, and in turn please tag your shit appropriately so I can more easily filter it out". We can both coexist in fandom even if our tastes are that astronomically apart, and no one has to or should get harassed for it.

Obviously, if you're doing it specifically out of homophobic reasons that's a whole other game. That's not good, and if you find yourself consistently taking canonically gay characters and "turning them straight" for lack of a better phrase, that might require some introspection. But as you clarified, liking their interactions or dynamic or even just how they look together is fine.

(Note: "turning them straight" does not entail hcing them as a different identity, especially aro/ace or mspec).

Your tastes in ships are your own, and I do not know all of your reasons for shipping the ships you do. Therefore, it's not my place to dictate what you can and can not ship, especially when fandom should be the place where canon can be left at the door.

TL;DR

You're fine, anon. Ship what makes you happy 💙

#anonymous online #long winded kali strikes again #its not a black and white issue to me #lots of nuance here #and personal feeling that im entitled to #but doesnt necessarily affect anyone else

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morkhan · 5 years

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Will Byers is Gay: The Evidence So Far

With the release of Stranger Things 3, there has been a lot of discussion kicked up about the character of Will Byers and his sexuality (or lack thereof). I've seen a lot of takes about what "it's not my fault you don't like girls" was intended to mean, many of which seem to take it in isolation, so I wanted to make a post putting it into what I think is its proper context; not an isolated incident, but the latest carriage in veritable train of queer themed language and imagery that has followed Will Byers since episode one of season one, and before that. You ready? Alright, let's go.

Season Zero: the Montauk Files

Before Stranger Things became Stranger Things, it was called Montauk. Like many would-be show makers, the Duffer Bros put together a "show bible" describing the premise, setting, tone, and characters of the show they intended to make. Like many shows, a lot of these ideas changed or were lost on their way to the screen, but it's always worth looking into their original concepts. Here is their description of Will Byers in the Montauk show bible:

Obviously, the major whammy there is in the first line "sexual identity issues." But there are some other interesting notes, like his "colorful clothes" that you might want to keep a lookout for on your next rewatch. Now, onto...

Season 1

The thing to pay attention to regarding Will in season 1 is in the language used to refer to him when he is not present (which he isn't for most of the season).

Episode 1: the subject of bullying comes up right away in the conversation between Joyce and Hopper. "The kids, they're mean. They laugh at him, laugh at his clothes, call him names." "What's wrong with his clothes?" "I don't know!" This harkens back to the Montauk show bible, but it's arguable, since it's never made clear what about his clothes draws ire.

She also mentions that he is "sensitive," "not like most," and that his dad said he was "queer" and called him a "fag." Hopper asks "is he?" to which she replies "He's missing is what he is!"

Episode 3: Troy says he's not missing, he's dead. "Probably killed by some other queer."

Episode 4: Troy, again "Will's in fairyland, flying around with all the other little fairies, all happy and gay."

Sensitive, queer, fag, fairy, and gay are all used to describe Will in season 1, but perhaps more notable is the fact that they aren't used to describe anyone else. If the show were truly period accurate, let's be real; the whole party would've been called queers on a pretty regular basis, because "queer" doubled as a generic insult back then. But in season 1, these words are only ever used in relation to Will, with one exception; in episode 6, Steve says to Will's brother, "I used to think you were queer." So it's not even an active accusation in that moment; it's used in the negative.

Hell, Troy walked up to Lucas mockingly proposing to Mike and proclaiming his love for him, and he still didn't call them queers. That language is reserved for Will.

Now granted, most of these are used as insults by characters who don't like Will, but still; as a writer, if you want your audience to remember something, repetition is an excellent way to embed it in their minds. There's a reason for the specificity of language surrounding Will, and a reason that language keeps coming up over and over and over again.

Season 2

Season 2 retires much of the homophobic language used to insult Will, replacing it with "Zombie Boy." The only homophobic language used in season 2 is the word "faggot," used by Billy's father to refer to Billy, who expresses a clear interest in women (and an arguable interest in one particular man, but that's the subject of another post).

Still, there is an arguable bit of queer theming in Will's conversation with Jonathan regarding the benefits of being a "freak" and how normal people never accomplish anything. Jonathan even invokes bisexual icon David Bowie to make Will feel better about his "freakishness."

The clearest piece of queer theming for Will in season 2 comes in episode 8, in this beautiful speech from Joyce to Possessed Will:

"When you turned eight, I gave you that huge box of crayons, do you remember that? It was 120 colors. And all your friends got you Star Wars toys, but all you wanted to do was draw with all your new colors. And you drew this big spaceship, but it wasn't from a movie. It was YOUR spaceship; a RAINBOW Ship, that's what you called it. And you, you must have used every color in the box. I took that with me to Melvald's, and I put it up. I told everyone who came in, 'My son drew this.' And you were so embarrassed, but I was so proud. I was so, so proud."

This is one of the most powerful memories of her son that Joyce has, an image so strong and distinct that she uses it to invoke his true identity against the monster that is slowly subsuming him. She notes very specifically that it's not something he copied, but something that came entirely from Will himself, an image that she felt represented him so perfectly that she took it with her to work and proudly touted it as his to everyone she knew. The Rainbow Ship is Joyce's picture of her son's very heart, and surely I don't need to explain to you how powerful a piece of queer imagery the rainbow is.

Some subtextual stuff; in episode 9, when the girl asks Will to dance, he stammers "I... I don't..." and only goes to dance with her when Mike literally pushes him towards her.

During the final montage, the scene cuts to different characters in time with appropriate lines from the song: "every move you make" cuts to Mike and El (as he is teaching her to dance), "every vow you break" cuts to Nancy dancing with Dustin (as she technically cheated on Steve with Jonathan), "I'll be watching you" cuts to Lucas dancing with Max (as she has playfully called him 'stalker' all season). What line cuts to Will? "Every smile you fake," specifically on the word fake, while Will dances with a girl wearing this expression:

That is not a real smile, that is not a comfortable boy, and that is not an accident; Noah Schnapp is one of the best actors in the entire show, and of the young boys, he is the one the Duffers trust most to do dramatic heavy lifting.

Do you want it to be a little more explicit? Okay, here is that scene in the script:

I mean, that pretty much speaks for itself. It's less explicit in the actual show, but it's still there, you know?

Season 3

And now, the biggest and most explicit thing to date; The Scene. I mean, you could discuss the obvious subtext in the simple fact that Will is the only male main character who has yet to find a girlfriend or express any interest in girls whatsoever, but that pales in comparison to The Scene.

The setup for The Scene is pretty simple; after declaring "a day free of girls" in order to get his friends to run the D&D campaign he's probably spent a significant amount of time creating, his friends have blown him off to continue bemoaning their girl troubles, so Will has decided to leave. Mike, realizing too late that he has genuinely upset his friend, chases after him to try and get him to come back.

A back-and-forth argument ensues, where Will accuses Mike of ruining the party and abandoning his friends in favor of girls, and Mike, in the heat of the moment, responds with "It's not my fault you don't like girls!" After which, everything stops. There is a full second of silence, and a close up on Noah Schnapp's face so you can take in his reaction.

There is a lot to unpack here. Now, acting is up to interpretation to a degree, but to me, that expression conveys two primary emotions; shock, and betrayal. That face says "how could you?" Because here's the thing; regardless of what Mike does or doesn't know about Will's sexuality, Mike knows for a fact that Will has been called a queer all his life by everyone from his school bullies to his own fucking dirtbag father. By invoking even the specter of that, Mike has crossed a fucking line, and he knows it. And we know he knows it, because he immediately backtracks and tries to mitigate the damage. But it's too late. The damage has been done.

I also think there is a tinge of fear in that image. Just a moment of soul raking panic that pretty much every closeted queer person knows intimately. It's very brief. But I think it's there, if you look.

This scene sends Will into an emotional tailspin that culminates in him tearing down the literal last bastion of his childhood in a fit of sorrow and rage. His innocence has been destroyed. He cannot regain what he has lost, and he can never go back to the way things were before. This is the emotional climax of his arc for season three. It's a powerful one-- shame it comes in the third of eight episodes, but that's neither here nor there.

And that's pretty much it for now. Any one of these things taken in isolation could be very easily dismissed, but here's the thing; they aren't isolated incidents. They are part of a clear and consistent pattern, one that goes all the way back to the show's inception, before even one minute of footage was filmed. And this pattern points to one very obvious conclusion; the Duffer Brothers have always intended, and continue to intend, for Will Byers to be gay.

Now, for the obvious question; why haven't they made it explicit yet?

The answer is as unfortunate as it is obvious; I don't know.

It's entirely possible that there is some external force that the Duffers have to answer to that is preventing them from actively pursuing this particular storyline. This happens all the time in Hollywood, and it could be anything from Netflix to Noah Schnapp's parents to Noah Schnapp himself just being uncomfortable with it. Many are the creators who dream Big Gay Dreams only to run into the horrors of our Forced Hetero Reality. If the Duffers ultimately submit to these pressures, I hope you won't be too hard on them. This shit is harder than you think to get to the screen sometimes.

But it's also possible that they just aren't ready for it yet. That they have been saving this for a future storyline, that they just want their characters (and the actors) to get a little older before they pursue this particular storyline explicitly, but they've been busily laying groundwork for it so that anyone paying attention will know it's coming.

I don't know. Only time will tell for sure.

For now, I can tell you this; I see a great deal of evidence that the Duffers still intend for Will to be gay, and precisely zero that they have changed their minds.

I hope that holds true.

#stranger things #will byers #mike wheeler #lucas sinclair #dustin henderson #stranger things spoilers

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maneaterwithtail · 4 years

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The politics are the cough. the disease is flooding to chase the trend of personal brand building. Events and confusing communities and arguably the arrangement of the direct market itself. No simplicity and lots of expense with shakeup one after the other.

And some transparently business or out of story disrupting existing (in humans versus mutants)

Starting Marvel, as an example, is harder than figuring out where to come in on the Fate series. I mention this because Comics are often compared to manga and yet however convoluted in silly may get for the most part you buy one collection, or let's not kid ourselves pirate, or wait until an animated adaptation comes out realize that it's pretty much faithful, go back to the core comic and so long as you start from the beginning you can follow to the end. Even if it's based off of a visual novel chances are everything will progress from beginning to end. It's usually when that models messed up with that something becomes destructive and difficult to follow or deal.

Unlike with manga where if you're having trouble following where to start with, like the Fate series, you can at least enjoy the latest Nasu verse offering. especially if you can turn your brain off and just engage with one example. Or if you don't want to deal with that you can just go to an entirely different property from a similar publisher that scratches a similar itch.

Like the premise of America Chavez buts I think she did it wrong? Well it's not like you can just switch over to Champions because that's a mess as well along with Miles Morales Spider-Man and ms. Marvel or spider woman.

it's expensive, patchy, filled with all sorts of weird continuity that you end up having to buy just to start. As such only the dedicated fanbase could possibly tolerate it but that also is exclusive in the sense that it's so to them with a history that it feels kind of off-putting.

I like the comicsgate comics I have heard of. I can also understand why we try to move away from that. Such as very obvious p*** tracing. And so on. Yes supposed diversity has basically led to a similar story of we're here now we're going to f*** the status quo too strongly relating to the audience or the author's pandering.

But it's not just they're going to have a trans person in an announcement. Which is a pretty major character trait I imagine that they want to talk about that or include it in the announcement.

the discontinuity does not help you build upsetting characters characterization and Circumstance. This is what I mean you're following themes story and events building to something then a new author will come in and he or she will wreck all that up so that they can go in an entirely different direction. Okay maybe you don't like the homosexual overtones of Eddie Brock and Venom. Maybe you want to stick it to all the slash shippers on Tumblr. But they've been the people who been following the comic and there's been a multi-year build up with sleeper, Eddie Brock and Venom's son.

going no now Eddy has a son he doesn't know about. oh and he was in the car that killed a child and him and Venom hate each other? Basically says f*** that other story we're going back to this story because I liked it better when I was young and I like it this way. And this kind of hostility is constant with every Changing of the Guard which can happen almost every two to three years. This keeps happening right when things are starting to get good or conclusion is reached. this undermines any death any major event or twist especially when it's in the headlines as if it's going to be meaningful

we can't even engaged in the illusion that someone has a plan charting something out when it feels like it's always fly by the seat of the pants the slightest whim can blow off the direction. We know in our conscious nothing that happens matters or at the very least when things end and we don't move on to something else then realize that there was a change but it seems seamless. Or at the very least it's a damn good seem that makes a very likeable and unique and distinct quilt. Again comparing and contrasting with manga

basically constantly ragging on the Politics as if that's what's causing the problem as opposed to Poor practices is off. yeah the customer service is definitely a no-go. But let's not kid ourselves Fanboys started it

I can straight up say that if you had a book that was straight up gay. like it starred the gay couple that once was Rescued by Captain America including his childhood hero And they were joined by the gender-bending exiled courtesan. you know those girls that always hang around in the background of Thor comics and everybody talks about winching and all that stuff? What if we actually focus on one of them and we threw in some mythological deviant queerness with the idea that men who practiced a certain form of Witchcraft had to be ladies. Now in practice this often meant anything from cross-dressing to performing ceremonies with a freaking dildo. But this is Comics so instead I can just go with the idea that after he uses magic so much he can turn or does turn into a lady. At first it's inadvertent but then he Masters the power so much that can transform into any lady. So he can go from weak little nerdy witch man to a Vanir (super durable pretty strong) or she giant.

It gets even more so when apparently he can change not just to a generic woman but any specific one. so he can literally clone an individual lady alive or dead. If she's dead you can act as a vessel for her soul so effectively while he might be booted deep within he can resurrect anyone's female loved one. Until changes back. The Twist is that while he won a beauty contest to be one of Odin's many many side pieces due to the politics and sociology of the time and the setup Odin didn't like admitting that they were both men or equals. Now the crossdressing courtesan isnt necessarily the nicest person. In fact the number one thing that characterizes him is that he hates the alpha male warrior culture or at least what he perceives of the negatives of it of Asgard. But that doesn't necessarily mean that he provides a good alternative. This will be a total retcon. not only would this make Odin effectively bisexual -although it's long since established that it seems like he's banged about so much he has had a child with everyone but his wife- but the idea that Loki and Thor grew up exposed to this weird gender-bending courtesan who tried to compete with the affections of their Queen Mother just so that that way he could get ahead and hated showing the absolute loyalty and Devotion to Asgard seeking glory in battle and death as opposed to conniving Gatling favor and trolling for booty while having to serve drinks for the Warriors that came by and were celebrated in the castle Hall.

Probably make up all sorts of relationships with other lesser-known Danny's that haven't been as much part of Marvel Thor but are important or at least well-known for the tradition. I would also shamelessly ripoff @gumon and her take on Norse mythology. With giants that just naturally produce children whether male or female. anyway ignoring all the continuity just so I could bring in the mythology that I want I would have it so that he was ultimately exiled because he got set up on a failure assignment. He got assigned to the Blue Mountain the traveling planet or set of rocks now that was the home of one of the Warriors Three the blue guy well the guy who wears blue and looks kind of like Angus Khan

The entire point of this is to get a different eye view of the Marvel Universe. What was it like to be one of those disposable pin-up girls. What is the gay population in gay culture and gay people been doing and light of the world that's been invaded from the ground been in a Perpetual fight with remnants of terrorists from World War II. And of course how they've been in for you property and making their lives and how are they responding to the fact that New York finally recognizes their marriage and of course life in the Twilight years as a gay couple that's constantly facing mortality. Also with the usual hey I'm an immortal mystical being who's having to relearn how to be human after having lived a life with a God's but neither being loyal to them nor a particular loyal to my own people. Along with the issues of the shapeshifter gender Dynamics and identity and all other sort of things. Pretty damn gay book. But I read it

Kids like imitating what they see so ripping the idea that someone's going to take some of the more iconic X-Men looks and style themselves after them when they know that their mutant doesn't seem wrong. I like the idea that we're going to open with someone who manages an online community for mutants. I like the idea of Trailblazer I like the ladies thick and I like the fact that she has a more utility power that she's going to have to work with and around hopefully being clever though that backpack does run the risk of becoming the Omnitrix and having the solution for every problem that you need.

Basically I like the children of the atom a bit more than the whole lineup of the new Warriors. I think people really should give the characters a chance so if you're turned off by yet another set of incest siblings in Marvel ya no problem or argument here.

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