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onesidedradiostatic · 14 days

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A trembling thought hit me like a freight train, what if the reason the crew went back on saying Al in aro is because he and Vox actually did date?

And then Vox wanted more and they broke up?

Like, I just have a nagging fear that that might come up in season 2 and I really don't know how to feel about it

Like on one hand it should make it easy to clarify that, yes, Alastor really is aro for he gave it a try and found it really wasn't for him

But on the other, what if the crew (or whoever is in charge) is all, "Well he dated once so he can't be aro, therefore he is only ace"

I've seen these kind of conspiracy theories before where people think there's some planned surprise romance plot for alastor and that's why they don't want to confirm him as aro and well.

I disagree.

for in-text, meta, and my own reasons. lemme go through it one by one.

in-text reasons

if we ignore ANY sort of word of god, statements from staff and whatnot, the only thing we have is the rosie dialogue. I've talked about it before, although she only says "ace in the hole", the context in which this is said is the idea of alastor dating charlie, this is a romantic context, and rosie says she's joking because she knows he wouldn't do it because he's an (aro)ace in the hole. the joke here is that alastor brought a girl with him and she's jokingly assuming they're dating (unless we're really thinking she jumped to joking about them fucking). so she KNOWS he wouldn't date and that's the thing, the only way I could see vox and alastor having previously dated and still have rosie say this is if them dating and alastor realising he's uninterested is specifically what got rosie to realise alastor wouldn't do that. otherwise no, it wouldn't make sense to me that alastor would've dated when rosie said this.

meta reasons

old faustisse streams. I'm not a pre-series fan but I've done my research. sure, there's info they've said before that's been deconfirmed but that's because some info from them are stuff they only say they "think" and not stuff that they 100% confirmed with vivzie, just opinions based on what they know about the characters. alastor's aroaceness is different though, faustisse was VERY forward that alastor is AROace and they SPECIFIED vivzie did not want to canonise it because of shipping wars and all that, so I'm fairly sure it's not because of some surprise alastor romance plot. faustisse may not be a 100% reliable source since this is from years ago now but I will say alastor being aroace is about as canon as husk being pansexual. both of this info is from faustisse. arguably alastor being aroace is even more canon than husk being pan because of the rosie dialogue. you can read the transcript of one of the old streams here. don't take this as a necessary reflection of my take on alastor shipping, no, I don't like reciprocated romantic alastor ships. at all. but I also definitely don't think harassment is okay. shippers will exist, and nothing you say will stop them so it's best not to waste your energy shouting at them.

my opinion

first let me say, I DEFINITELY don't like vivzie's choice to not confirm it. I understand yes people can be very aggressive in shipping wars, I understand harassment happens. but. IT IS HAPPENING REGARDLESS. ALL OF THIS IS HAPPENING REGARDLESS. it's just made WORSE by no solid statement on him being aromantic because then there's people who will argue it's not canon. confirming alastor as aromantic will not stop the shippers from shipping or having fun, this is like saying confirming angel dust as gay prevents angel dust x women shippers from having fun. they will exist regardless. confirming alastor as aromantic WILL NOT CHANGE THIS, all it will do is ASSURE aromantic people that they are being represented. all it will do is stop people from saying "alastor is ace not aro!" and acting like alastor being aro is an obstacle to their shipping.

that aside, I'll talk about my opinion on the idea of alastor having dated vox in canon. now, okay, I don't mind the idea if it's done in a very clearly aromantic way and it was just something alastor tried out but didn't like. I would even like it if it was done properly! but I also don't trust vivzie to write an aromantic character in a romantic relationship, so I'd rather it not happen in canon. and I do think vivzie is more likely to not take the risk of trying to write an aro character in a relationship anyways (and if she did I would definitely hope she does lots of research).

also it doesn't really make sense to me why he would try dating with vox instead of like. a woman. like rosie or mimzy. and I don't mean this cause of heteronormative reasons I mean this because alastor is clearly more comfortable with women, it just makes more sense to me that if he were to try out dating it would be with a woman. like... why vox? the only reason I could see it happening is vox is the only friend who tried to confess to alastor and so he decided to try it out cause he was a friend but then didn't like it. that isn't to say I wouldn't enjoy reading about this in fanfics or anything cause I probably would LMAO it's an interesting concept, but doesn't really make much sense to me and I'm not sure if I trust the allo writers to do it in canon.

that's all I have to say.

*mic drop*

#ask #osrs.txt #oh my god this got long sorry #aroace alastor #hazbin alastor #hazbin hotel alastor #alastor #hazbin vox #hazbin hotel vox #vox #onewaybroadcast

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positivelybeastly · 4 months

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Would you consider beast being a closet bisexual @

"I'm an open heterosexual, thank you very much, and I would recommend that in future, you keep such speculation to yourself."

"Ehehehey, well, wow, that's quite the question, not often I get accused of being a closet anything, but, ah, pretty firmly straight over here, friend."

"Despite what you may have heard from the press or a certain ex-girlfriend of mine, I am quite firmly in the heterosexual camp."

"I think someone needs to have gone on a date sometime in the last year to be qualified to be anything sexual, no?"

"Asexual aromantic. And if you ask again, I shall be displeased."

"Do you have a pulse? Are you happy with scalpels in the bedroom? Actually, your answer to that second question doesn't particularly matter, we'll get you warmed up in no time at all."

All right, so this is one of those moments where I have to pull back the curtain a little bit and talk about how I play a character who is canonically heterosexual, but whom I read to be bisexual because it's truer to the character as I find them.

Now, you know, I actually misremembered how this conversation went? I remembered Emma saying that Hank had never had so much as a gay thought, but that's not what she says here. She say that Hank has never had any kind of physical relationship with another man, and . . . you know what, I kind of believe that to be true.

Because as much as I fucking love THIS moment, it's not a relationship.

We can all agree that a kiss is not a relationship.

However.

. . . Guys, Hank is, like . . . really queer.

This post sums it up nicely, but yeah, Hank acts in a very over the top, dandified manner, over speaking and over-exaggerating everything about himself so that you won't pay attention to the blatantly obvious. He performs masculinity in a way that reads as overcompensating because he feels like he's been othered by his mutation.

There's also panels like this.

"Flirt with everything this side of Boy George."

Boy George being the androgynous gay icon of the 1980s, yes?

And this is coming from Hank's girlfriend, who he has admitted in dialogue to only really being with because she feels stable and safe and familiar, a tether to his old life in a time when he feels without a direction in life?

Like, this isn't me putting words into Hank's mouth, this is HIS dialogue during a time when he was arguably his most heterosexual! Yeah, you could just read it as him having a wandering eye, because he's a very flirtatious fellow, but that really isn't how it reads, is it? It reads as, I need reassurance I'm doing adult, normal things while my life goes weird, abnormal places.

It reads as, I think I'm kinda fucking queer but I'm too afraid to admit it.

Because lemme be real with you, this is Hank at his most heterosexual, but there's. Some. Stuff. Going on here.

"I was GOING to go out on a date with you, really pretty girlfriend, but then my MALE friend turned up and I just got so excited that I went out with my MALE friend and am basically hanging on his every word and eager to impress him, while the straight people at the table (Isaac and Dolly) are on an actual date, and Overmind sounded concerned about three wheeling a date when they asked to come with?"

Ladies and gentlemen, I am a gay man, and I have never been in just a towel around my best friend while he scrubbed another man's back, because that's just a little gay.

Hey, did you know Bobby's gay?

I don't bring that up for any real reason, just, you know.

And then there's Simon.

Oh boy is there Simon.

From Earth-763, but.

Like.

Come on, man.

When Logan and Hercules did this shit, people were celebrating in the streets because it confirmed bisexual Wolverine, but when Hank and Simon do it, no-one gives a fuck.

But that's an alternate universe. All they've done in 616 is kiss (GAY), so maybe it's just, you know, horsing around.

Right?

Hank, you don't look happy to be put down.

Hank never smiles like this on the X-Men. I'm not exaggerating. I've read X-Men comics for nearly 20 years, and Hank does not smile around other people like he does around Simon Williams. He looks fulfilled. He looks free. He looks delighted, constantly.

Are you two gonna fucking hold hands, like, WHAT?

And you know what, let's talk about the X-Men.

Scott, for someone who said very firmly that Hank wasn't gay before, you don't even throw that in there first?

Is it because of what comes next?

I'm - sorry? What in the FUCK are you trying to say to me?

And let's, for a moment, turn to Dark Beast. Because he has some words on the matter.

You know what, yeah, Dark Beast does seem like the idea to suck, fuck, thrust and kill his way through a Tuesday night, honestly.

And look, I know that alternate universes are shaky ground to be drawing conclusions from, but, like . . . this is. Getting to be rather a lot of very suggestive dialogue.

Look, I get that there's not quite the same amount of outright coding that Bobby had before he was forced out of the closet (Cloud, Emma Frost's prodding at his mind, all the stuff stacking up across Lobdell and Austen and Liu), but it's still . . . questionable. Isn't it? Like, at this point, I have to question why we think Hank has to be straight. Which is why I don't think he is.

So, now we get to the point of the evening where I pull at the curtain, because how Hank talks about himself in my threads works according to a certain kind of logic - canonically, as of right now, 21st of January 2024, he's officially straight, so any references to canon events will be as if he's 'straight' but actually just closeted bisexual. Because I care about continuity and keeping my facts straight and drawing as closely from the comics as possible - within reason - but my interpretation still takes precedence.

And my interpretation is that Hank, at any point in his life, is a bisexual man who feels afraid to admit it. But here's the question you're going to ask - WHY is he afraid to admit it?

You could go with an answer that draws on canon, and point out that when he tested the waters with coming out as gay, Scott and Emma both basically verbally smacked him and said he wasn't.

But that's not my style. I don't personally read it that way.

In my mind, Hank considers coming out to be That One Last Step Past Normal that goes too far. Like, it's one thing if he's a blue furred, canonically kinky, canonically weird, basically canonically bipolar, canonically psychologically damaged beast, but if he's a blue furred kinky weird bipolar psychologically damaged bisexual beast, that's the point where people will turn on him and be disgusted.

I could see him drawing that invisible line and deciding, I have to keep this one aspect of me to myself because I can't trust people to accept that from me. I think Hank has conditioned himself to believe that being accepted is something he has to earn over and over again, in part because of how Xavier schooled the X-Men's train of thought on that, but also because, unlike Nightcrawler, he knows what it's like to go from passing to not passing, and experiencing that scarred him in a way?

Like, one of the last bits of good Hank content we got before Krakoa was that Christmas special where he's back at his parents' for the holiday, and he can hear them talking from downstairs, and they're their usual lovely sweet selves, but they mention wanting grandkids, and . . . for someone whose bedrock, whose psychological wellbeing, is so incredibly dependent on other people, especially his parents and friends, I could see him being terrified of threatening that, even if it means he has to hide a part of who he is (perhaps unnecessarily).

There may be a degree of that where I'm projecting, because I had to deal with my dad being very heteronormative for a while after I realised I was gay, and even though I was certain he wouldn't reject me because of it, it felt easier to just not challenge that and let it slide because What If, you know?

But I feel like it makes sense for how Hank is, with his very tenuous relationship with feeling accepted, and I feel like this also accounts for why Emma 'saw' that he was straight in New X-Men, because he's wound himself into a psychological knot to the point where he reads as straight telepathically, even though he doesn't act like it and isn't.

If there weren't hints, I'd be inclined to be like, okay, maybe I'm just reading it this way because I see myself in Hank and him being a bit more like me makes me happy, but then there are GENUINE hints. The Exiles relationship, the fact that everyone basically treats Hank as Simon's emotional support, EVEN HIS GIRLFRIEND, and then the DeMatteis comment from Vera about how he flirts with everything this side of Boy George.

This isn't looking at pre-Krakoa Logan and Scott and thinking, yeah, they have tension, they want to fuck, this is looking at this guy who is extremely sex positive, flirtatious, open minded, and hearing from his girlfriend that he doesn't confine himself just to the purely feminine.

And it's also, like . . . like, I've talked about this with my boyfriend, and people love to throw out the YOU'LL JUST SHIP ANYTHING accusation, and maybe that's kinda true for some people, but I find I don't do that. Like, there are people out there who ship Hank with Cyclops, and I'm like . . . sure, fine. I don't personally see it, but you go for it, my dude.

If I genuinely did just want Hank to be an action figure that I smash with other action figures in a gay way, I feel like I'd have a stronger reaction, but instead, I look at the way he is with Bobby, and with Simon, and even, to a degree, with Logan (pre Krakoa, obvs), and I'm like . . . this is not the way a straight man acts. This reads as a bisexual man who doesn't feel like he can be 100% himself because he feels as though he's already asking a lot of people to accept him as he presents himself to be.

Hank's entire character from, like, moment one makes so much sense when you understand that he's basically always playing someone else. Sometimes it's who he wants to be, sometimes it's who he thinks other people need him to be, a lot of the time it's who people want him to be - like, I was reading the 2004 Nightcrawler solo the other day, and Kurt is internally narrating about how everyone on the X-Men is just an emotional basket case EXCEPT Hank, and I'm like . . . THIS.

THIS RIGHT HERE, is what the problem is! No-one on the X-Men is capable of seeing that Hank is constantly performing, and just how exhausting it is. That's why Simon is such a breath of fresh air, because Simon doesn't need him to perform, he just needs Hank to be . . . fuck, man, he just needs Hank to be happy, because that makes him happy, and the sheer lack of self-interest inherent in that dynamic is such a GIANT part of why I think Hank finds Simon so attractive. Like, imo, Scott's so insistent that Hank isn't gay during the New X-Men arc because of all of this, because he fell for the act, because he thinks this is just another joke that Hank is gonna duck behind.

Scott is SO INSISTENT that Hank isn't gay, and it's like, bro . . . Scoot . . . how do you know? You barely know what you want on a good day, and you think that just 'cause you and Hank hung around in the OG X-Men locker rooms for three years that you know him better than anyone else? He was on the Avengers and the Defenders and he has so many friends that you just DON'T KNOW ABOUT. How. Do. U. Kno. Scoot. Like, in universe, if Hank was working his way up to maybe coming out, and using the excuse of a joke to do it, THAT kind of reaction, and Emma TELLING him that he isn't gay, would push me RIGHT back in the closet.

If there wasn't coding, if there wasn't a genuine basis to this, it wouldn't have come up in Exiles, honestly. Like . . . okay, so multiversal stories are an excuse to do off the wall shit, right, and especially make characters gay just to push and prod and see what actually changes, right, like Governor Logan and Hercules, but they can also reveal a good amount of truth about a character out of what DOESN'T change.

And on a meta level, like, SOMETHING made Jeff Parker think Hank and Simon worked. He didn't pick Hank and Bobby, he didn't pick Hank and Hercules, he didn't pick Hank and Warren - Hank has NO shortage of male friendships you could pick from, but he picked Simon, and it's because there's enough there that even if you don't buy it for 616, it makes sense for a multiversal thing. Which means there's SOMETHING THERE.

And Ben Percy, cursed be his name, only added to that with X-Force. The idea that Simon is somehow going to be the catalyst for whatever awakening of classic, GOOD Hank is going to happen is just so . . . like, he still clearly cares for Abigail? They were on panel doing the eye socket thing? But, and this is partly because of who Abigail is, the narrative did not change because of her presence. But it does when Simon's around.

Yeah, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but sometimes a cigar is something to unpack. Like, I really Do Not Know how Hank became 'the straightest X-Man,' because A) have you fucking read Avengers and Defenders, and B) even discounting ALL of that . . . do you not find Hank's way of acting to be a little . . . you know . . . effete? Like, yeah, it's an act, he's playing the dandy, he's offsetting his appearance, but there are other things you can do to offset the Beast.

So why does he always go back to the brightly coloured suits, the loud fashion, the high energy, the camp, the billion dollar words - to put it bluntly, why does he always seem to act just a lil' fruity?

So, yes, in my mind, he's a closeted bisexual man, and that's how I play him. Thank you for coming to my lecture.

#vinial453 #outofmuffins #verse: all-new #verse: earth's mightiest!#verse: getting by #verse: each of us is a nest of lies #verse: another time and another place

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makelikesprinkles · 3 months

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I meant to post this on Sunday but whatever! For aromantic awareness week, I wanted to compile all the evidence for John Egbert being aromantic, in chronological order.

First we have him and the prospect of marrying Rose

He doesn't equate marriage to love and is caught off guard when asked if he will fall in love. He is generally shocked and shuts down the topic.

Next is kissing Rose's dead body.

Notice how he doesn't express any opinion? Instead of being uncomfortable with the romantic associations of kissing like Terezi (arguably, she could just be grossed out by Tavros being dead or him in general) and Jade (who doesn't want Jack to spy on her first kiss), John takes it in an objective matter and doesn't think that much of it.

Then there's his alternate doomed self's date.

He doesn't think of their interactions as romantic until Vriska points it out, to which John is a little bit shocked about. He doesn't seem to have any interest in going on dates.

Next is a while later while talking with Jade on the ship.

He shuts down their conversation about romance and assumes nobody else cares about it either. He emphasizes his feelings for people are purely platonic.

Then a LOT later we have his thoughts on Vriska

The key phrase to note here is "I was just used to the idea that I liked her." Not that he liked her, but that he had that idea in his head. He is very cut off from any romantic feelings.

Then we have Roxy's opinion on the matter

Roxy has a bit of playfulness in her sentences, whereas John is quite serious.

Finally we have Dave's input after the retcon

John is very enthusiastic about liking Roxy up until Dave implies romantic interest. Then John is at a loss of words and very uncomfortable at Dave's joking insistence.

And that's it for evidence from Homestuck proper! John rarely talks about romance or crushes, and when he does, it's because of the other person's initiation. There is some evidence from the epilogues, but because of their status as dubiously canon, I will leave them out of this debate.

Honorable mention for evidence:

Very iconic of John.

It could be argued that John is quickly shutting down talk of romance, but he doesn't outright deny his own feelings for people, just feelings for boys.

And that's that for aromantic John! I hope this sheds some light on the canonical interactions between John and love, even if you don't agree with the headcanon.

#see guys? its not just me projecting #he totally feels what i feel about love by coincidence #homestuck #john egbert #j egbert #aromantic #aromantic headcanons

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gay-disabled-characters-showdown · 2 months

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LGBTQ+ Disabled Characters Showdown Round 1, Wave 5, Poll 7

A character being totally canon LGBTQ+ and disabled was not required to be in this competition. Please check qualifications and propaganda before asking why a character is included.

Check out the other polls in this wave and prior here.

Jem Carstairs-The Shadowhunter Chronicles

Qualifications:

Jem was tortured by a demon as a child, leaving him dependent on a drug that was slowly killing him. He’d be weak from withdrawal and used a (sword) cane. It’s later cured but for the trilogy he’s a main character in it’s pretty prominent. In a basically canon polyam relationship (literally says that Will is half his heart and Tessa’s the other. He and Will are referred to as Tessa’s two great loves. The three of them were in love the only thing stopping them was their circumstances). Arguably bi (like in canon his and Will’s relationship is platonic because of their magic bond that wouldn’t work if it wasn’t. But once again he called Will half his heart, and they named their kids (both with Tessa) after each other and I can’t find a straight explanation for that)

Propaganda:

Jem is the character of all time. He’s a polite victorian gentleman who plays the violin. His day job is killing demons. He does all that while dealing with a painful illness. He has an immortal pet cat who hates everyone but him. He survived by becoming immortal at the cost of cutting all ties to his past life, but he still met with Tessa once a year on that bridge for over a century, still came when Will made his dumb excuses to call a Silent Brother. I love him so much.

Lapis Lazuli-Steven Universe

Qualifications:

Disabled: Lapis has PTSD as evidenced by her storyline and character design. She has combat PTSD from being a prisoner of war and this manifests in her avoidance of her triggers. Once she starts to heal later in the show, her initial character design which includes wings (representing flight) change into fists (representing fight). This is an allusion to her PTSD. Queer: Lapis is one half of a lesbian asexual/aromantic relationship!

Propaganda:

Lapis Lazuli has severe PTSD and the fandom did her so dirty by villainizing her symptoms! This is our chance to redeem her

Anything Else?:

Her queerness might be in question but through analysis of her "roommate's" (Peridot) storyline, I think it's pretty clear their relationship is meant to represent asexual/aromantic queer people, making her an asexual lesbian!

Submitted by @hairless

#polls #poll #disabled characters #lgbtq characters #disability #lgbtq #lgbtq dcs round 1 #lgbtq dcs wave 5 #jem carstairs #the shadowhunter chronicles #lapis lazuli #steven universe #id in alt text

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mysterycharacterbracket · 5 months

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Winners bracket B semifinal #2 (Round W5)

This is the winners bracket. The winner of this poll will advance to the winners bracket B final round, and the loser will drop to the losers bracket round 11.

The first contestant is:

Character 72: He’s the cute comedic sidekick. He’s arguably the most powerful being around. His childhood dream ironically came true in the most extreme way possible. He wants a family. He’s been his mom’s roommate for years. He was once a successful author before got replaced by the author’s self insert. He gave away his favorite plush toy to a god. The main bad guy was at one point a tumor on his dad’s body. He’s a silly guy

That contestant again is:

The second contestant is:

Character 272: A tomboy with frost themed powers, but her personal backstory isn't very tragic. She's an aromantic asexual tomboy with ADHD (first told by the author later when fans were happy she didn't have a forced love interest that was kind of a must when the books first came out, the latter stated in canon). She's naïve and can jump head-first into danger to save strangers. She also has a twin brother, who while also has ADHD is near the polar opposite of her, making them a great team.

That contestant again is:

#mystery character bracket #polls #round w5

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heartslobbf · 10 months

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i watched heartstopper s2 because i was an avid osemanverse enjoyer in my early teen years (back when alice oseman still had anons on rip) and owe some of my aspec self-discovery to their writing. i knew they had written an aroace storyline into this series and wanted to see it because whilst i knew as an aroallo lesbian i wouldn’t totally resonate and might be a bit cheesed off by aspects of it, i enjoy aromantic crumbs, and i enjoy discussing aspec Stuff even more. it was……. an interesting experience? has certainly given me a lot to think about. gushy rant below the cut :)

i will say, i think that the amatonormativity is still strong, and rigid in this show. it’s like, isaac is the exception to the rule and his true love is books, and he gets to yell at his friends for all being so damn couple-y and romance-obsessed but there’s no resolution to that. is that realistic? yeah, sure, allo friends can fucking suck, but heartstopper is the kind of show aiming to do certain things for queer kids where id expect a dialogue about this. you know, charlie & co coming to understand aspec identities and becoming more conscious of how amatonormativity affects them, interrogating it in such a way that these queer couples can also be liberated from its trappings. juicy shit like that. didnt happen tho. isaac gets a book about asexuality (no mention of aromanticism on its cover!!! the word is used by the artist who vaguely explains both terms to isaac, but there is a much greater focus on asexuality, so much so that this morning i saw pink fucking news celebrating isaac’s asexual storyline without a mention of his aromanticism) and that’s it.

a lot of that criticism is arguably coloured by my experience as an aroallo person, because i just want aromanticism to be engaged with as aromanticism. you know aroaces we are besties in arms solidarity and all that, and im so fucking happy you got some great asexual rep that frequently used the word asexual, as well as your flag and iconography. like fuck yeah!!!!!! let’s go!!!!!! however, aromanticism is not a subset of asexuality, is not an ‘extreme form’ of asexuality, does not necessarily have anything to do with asexuality. im sure the aspec folks know this, but allo fuckers dont and that means that this canonically aromantic character who was emotionally affecting to me is one that im gonna be barred from resonating with again and again.

you know, moments of isaac’s story were so profound and moving for me. i cried at the kiss scene in episode 5, it was probably the single most relatable moment of tv (related to my experiences with sexuality) that ive ever seen. its certainly not my favourite tv moment of all time lol, relatability ≠ quality, but when youre part of a marginalised group and experience a lot of loneliness and alienation surrounding your identity it is great to see it reflected. i honestly loved that shit!!!!! ive been there!!!! that’s me!!!!!! the wanting and the not wanting!!! the jealousy and confusion and alienation, the longing to be able to feel what you can’t just so you don’t have to be so lonely, the knowledge that you’re just not that person…… oh it was great. it was fucking great. so you can maybe appreciate how upsetting it is for other people to neglect the aromantic facets of this canonically aromantic character, when we dont get shit.

having said that, asexuals also dont get shit; my issue is absolutely not with isaac being aroace, but rather with how mainstream understanding of aspec identities is still so piss poor that people neglect the aromantic aspect of that identity. i found isaac to be a relatable character and i enjoyed and appreciated that about him; i wish more people would talk about him being both asexual and aromantic, because aromanticism does not get talked about enough as anything other than an ‘extension’ of asexuality, an idea which only diminishes the complexity and vastness of both (fucking awesome and beautiful) identities. love and light and solidarity forever with all other aspec folk <3

#im not tagging this as anythjng lol this was just for me hence the cut #i am once again riddled with osemanverse opinions #shut up daisy

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kingdimitrx · 2 years

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Douma - Another Rant

I’ve been thinking a lot about Douma’s sexuality and whatnot, because this is how I roll and because there’s a lot to consider here. Like, first of all, we can analyze what we see in him, how he’s portrayed, and the things that are obvious.

(There is a certain portion of the fandom that sees him as canon bisexual, which I am aware of as I am part of that portion. Even so, I'm still doing the analysis.

For more context, it was stated in what I believe was a page made by the KNY mangaka that Douma switched partners every now and then, to attempt playing the “childish game of love”. The part that implied him to be bisexual was that the kanji was gender neutral, instead of being feminine or masculine.)

There are three people in particular I’m focusing on here:

- Kotoha

- Shinobu

- Akaza

Douma’s relationships with each one are unique, and because I’m the way that I am, I’ll be analyzing each one separately.

First, Kotoha. With Kotoha, Douma was seen to be gentle, he regarded her fondly and seemed to regret her death. He took care of her, slayed her abusive family, and intended to keep her at his side without eating her. A lot of people ship him with her because of this, and that makes sense, somewhat.

Next, Shinobu. This is one of Douma’s most popular ships, likely because she’s the only “confirmed” love interest for Douma. As I stated earlier, after his desth, Douma randomly proclaims his love for Shinobu and whatnot, confessing to her, calling her cute, and begging her to go to hell with him. Despite the fact that she despises him and treats him quite poorly, it’s onvious there was some sort of chemistry there, at least on Douma’s end.

And finally, Akaza. This is one is actually my favorite to analyze, as in my opinion it has a lot of potential for several dynamics, and there’s a lot to think about here. Akaza, a fellow demon, is openly annoyed by and very irritated by the presence of Douma. Meanwhile, Douma “adores” Akaza, regarding him as his best friend. He even views Akaza literally punching off half of his head as a “friendly” gesture. Douma is also very touchy and talkative with Akaza, more physical and expressive with him than anyone else. These two are a relatively popular pairing for Douma, usually in a sexual setting.

So, in my opinion, we have three types of attraction that is seen in Douma towards these people.

With Kotoha, it seems the most likely to be platonic. They are never shown to be romantic, they were simply two very close people who happened to be male and female. However, I think based on Douma’s descriptions of her and the way he responds to mentions/reminders of her, it’s clear he loved her one way or another. (I am a person who writes for this pairing, however, my thoughts apply in my writings, too.)

With Shinobu, it seems like Douma got very attached very quickly and was very passionate about it. This, combined with how desperate he was and how much Shinobu hates him, leads me to conclude that his feelings toward Shinobu were a mix of obsession and desperation. There wasn’t actually anything between them, not really.

With Akaza, Douma is very touchy, talks a lot, and seems to enjoy Akaza’s presence greatly. It even seems like Douma either doesn’t understand that Akaza doesn’t like him, or he simply disregards it. This one seems very intimate to me, given how hard Douma pushes for Akaza to like him, plus how close and personal Douma acts with him. I think out of all three mainstream pairings, Douma having some sort of feelings for Akaza makes arguably the most sense, just based off of what we see in him alone.

But then, I can’t ignore Douma’s lack of emotion, empathy, or human understanding. Remember, he struggles greatly with forming/maintaining close social relationships.

When I consider this fact alone, I’d imagine Douma would probably be aromantic and possibly asexual as well, though his sexual behavior is more of headcanon/fandom’s interest than canon.

But when you look at the whole picture, when you consider his apathy alongside his behavior, it becomes a bit more complicated. Is this behavior part of his act? Are these relationships exceptions? Is this just him being overly friendly and taken out of context? Here’s what I think.

I think it’s possible he’s somewhere on the aro spectrum, because of his lack of ability/interst for interpersonal relationships. However, his behavior with Akaza, Kotoha, and Shinobu all show some sort of attraction coming from him.

Honestly? In conclusion? I think he’s neurodivergent, I think that’s what this all comes down to. He’s clearly capable of attraction and intimate behavior, but not really capable of understanding either. So that leaves him in some sort of limbo where he can’t/doesn’t pursue anything more due to his condition than anything about his sexuality or romantic orientation.

#douma my beloved #douma #thoughts #sorry for the rant #rant post #my rants #kotoha hashibira #shinobu #douma x kotoha #douma x shinobu #demon slayer akaza #akaza #douma x akaza #demon slayer #kny #kimetsu no yaiba #machigai rambles

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lucere-aeresta · 7 months

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The other day I was talking with @hey-sherry about Poirot and Holmes' relationships and how Holmes and Watson got separated at the end in canon but the bad ending is easier mitigated; yet in Poirot it's totally another beast. (there's some spoilers involved in not only Poirot but all kinds of things but I guess...since nothing is new so I'm safe to proceed?)

All Poirot's problems lie in the final book, Curtain. It's arguably the best Hercule Poirot book and it requires intensive reading on the previous books to appreciate how that ending is the absolute climax of Poirot's career as well as his character. It deepens the character in a way that all previous books lead to this moment of fulfilment and tragedy, the absolute value and paradox of justice, the torment and sin, yet the self-realization and glory of Poirot. Poirot's ending is irreplaceable and there is no better way to conclude his life in such a highlighted moment.

ACD has little luck with his lazy plots of Moriarty in the same attempts to finish Holmes off. After a long batter between ACD and SH fans and capitalism, the story carried on, and the true ending of Holmes turned out, yet again, somewhat an anticlimax, even bizarrely so in a way that it becomes nonsensical. Poor Watson has long been under scrutiny for being an unreliable narrator (like, somehow his devoted wife got his first name wrong. Curious indeed), and Holmes' account is not doing any better. Even if we leave all that literature analysis alone, just from a fanfiction point of view, it's not hard to remove all the narratives about how they end up not seeing each other often but still leave the core stories intact. The ending of their tragic relationship is forced upon them by a few additional paragraphs which granted no importance to the character development or mystery or plots whatsoever.

But back to Poirot, Curtain relies on such a premise that nobody truly knows Poirot's current state. Not Vera, not Miss Lemon or his loyal valet George, not even Hastings, the man to whom his trust extends to the time beyond his death. Poirot is utterly alone, and the aloneness is the key to the final mystery. At the end, his is all alone to face the ultimate choice and he braves it with the stake of his own life. Hastings only learns about the truth when it's all over. The last case of Poirot is solve by him all alone.

As great as Curtain is, it leaves no room for further interpretation or bending around or...any sort of fanfiction maneuver. The only thing to do is to either accept the eventual aloneness of Poirot, or to ignore/alternate Curtain all together, thus diminish the depth of Poirot's character. This assertion applies to any shipping, including the canon Poirot/Rossakoff. At the end of The Labours of Hercules, it hints that Poirot could have a chance with Vera Rossakoff, but in Curtain the only sensible conclusion is that their relationship did not work out. In Poirot TV show series, their relationship is portrayed as a heart-breaking tragedy, and I think it matches the ending of Poirot perfectly.

I always say that Poirot is such a loving, tender soul yet his love life is always turbulent and tragic. All the people he is interested in turn out either criminals or leaving him--and, well, almost criminal, but on which account Poirot himself is no better either.

Sherlock Holmes, on the other hand, is a lucky bastard who just gets the true love with no string attached. Of course he is no robot or heartless, but his social skill is questionable and he is, canon-wise, asexual and aromantic, somewhat aversive to all social connections. Yet he has Watson. the unconditional love/friendship, the ultimate bond that nothing can undermine. Even with ACD being so painstakingly to separate them, the room for alternative narration is so abundant that the creator's hinderance becomes some kind of delightful challenge for future writers rather than problems. I mean, we can all agree that ACD is a master of breaking his own world-building even though he took the effort to make it realistic; after all, ACD himself relinquished the seriousness of lore-keeping in Empty House. If he is allowed to break his lore, surely anyone else could. And ACD recognized this freedom too--"You may marry him, murder him, or do anything you like to him”. Bless this noble soul; we have his permission for eternity.

As a habitual fanfiction writer, it naturally comes to a (personally) inherent paradox of fanfork: it thrives on the imperfection of the original work.

By "imperfection", I don't mean artistic flaws of the works (though it could be); I mean the aspects that are ignored or otherwise not under the spotlight of the original work. In the context of fanfictions, mostly relationships.

Again, I must stress that it's pure personal. I know a lot of romance/relationship focus works have a huge fanbase devoted into it's already well developed romance perspective. But I almost never got attracted into those fandoms. I find it limiting, not enough room for me to explore and insert my own ideas and creativities. I believe, however, that I am not alone feeling this way. A lot of others may have similar experience that they somehow inserted part of themselves or their own feelings and understandings into a fandom/ship/character/etc. that part of their identity belongs to, or extends from it.

(We all agree this discourse has nothing to do with copyright and profit and the like, I assume, but just to make it clear here. )

In fandom and fanworks, there is a sense of belonging, and more importantly, ownership. The aspects that the original work creator discarded are treasured by fans; the nook and crannies not explored in the canon is the kingdom of fan-creators. There is a space of creativity, of personal expression, of standing on the shoulder of giant (or just normal persons, but a higher ground nevertheless) and overlook for the horizon. In a fictional work one may find a language of self-expression they have a hard time to find on their own, and they can start from there. It's the beauty of fandoms.

The original creators assert the first and foremost ownership. They decide the trend, the structure, the mood, the back and forth. And it comes the fanworks. But there is always space of negotiation, some small and some large. This kind of flexibility creates a harmony as well as a tension, thus the love and conflict between the fans and the creators.

The conflicts stem from many things, one of which is when the creators claim an aspect (again, mostly, relationship, especially romantic ones) of the original work.

That's why I realize why I am more into the non-romantic works more than romantic ones. And that's how a work can be homophobically gay, even worse, intentionally so.

When the creators acknowledge an pervious ignored aspect of their work, they claim it and define it. They take the ownership rather than leave the gray area to the fans. It is nice to be comprehensive, yet it could be dangerous especially if they did not have the best intention/interest of others in their mind (or really it doesn't matter what their intention is at this point).

Without specify the name (but y'all know what I'm talking about) of the work, there is the worst offender that I have off the top of my head: after over a decade they have the characters confess their love right the minute before the ultimate death.

It's the worst kind of acknowledgement of a relationship. It attempts (inadvertently or not or something in between) to take away the ownership of the fanworks and the fan community on these characters and claim that "I hereby assert my ownership of their relationship and deny anything you have bestowed". It is not like a legal statement to enforce with the backup of real power or anything, but at this point the original creator announced their point clear and loud. It's a way to cancel out anything that previously attached to the work from their point of view yet still present as "supportive" to a said relationship. It's utterly destructive in both artistic expression of such character relationship and a social equality point of view. It's, in a way, as bad as, if not worse than, "gay characters must die" in old-school homophobic works.

(Of course the fans can still stand against such attempts and create their own fanworks based on them. I mean, nothing stops individuals from expressing themselves from certain medium anyways.)

In a work that designed to acknowledge and/or focus on the relationship of characters, it circles back to the issue of how the story is structured and how well it is written. I personally find a perfect written story leaves no space for my personal interpretation and expression, so I appreciate it and move on. It's always some ambiguity gives inspiration and life to my personal creation based on someone else's work.

Thus, once a creator shifts their focus on their work, there bound to be a conflict. An example is Good Omens 2. Personally it is a weird case that the creator themselves attempts to make a fanwork on their own work that originally focused on something else totally different. I know it sounds crazy but that's exactly where the controversial comes from--if a fanfiction writer writes something impressive you either hate it to the gut or love it to to bones, or are forced to ignore it, one way or another. When the creator themselves claim an aspect of an artistic work, the conflict with the audience is inevitable. In the example of GO2, the ending suddenly limits all the possibilities of the relationship of the characters into that single moment, the climax at the end of the show. It's almost like forming a black hole that all timelines collapse into one singularity. For the people who love this moment it is the best thing they can expect for this show, but for the ones who'd already claimed an ownership and/or an identification in alternative expression of this show, it's the ultimate disaster.

(Needless to say [but somehow still necessary], I am talking from a standpoint of artistic appreciation and personal tastes. Anyone who disapproves the ending of GO S2 because of homophobia, they can go fuck themselves with a cactus for all I care.)

As for the works that are designed for characters relationships from the very beginning, it's much simpler and solely relies on how the relationship is portraited. Again the more marvelous and airtight the structure is, the less room it leaves to the fanworks. In this way I think OFMD kind of maintains such a balance. It's not within my personal taste because how the confession comes kind of lack of tension, but exactly because the relationship development can be altered, and the climax not limited to the moment of confession, there followes much more room to be explored by other fan-creators. I personally found it not intense enough, but as I said earlier, the imperfection is the source of fanworks inspiration, a motivation to make it perfect.

But on another note, for me and a lot of fan creators like me, a more emotional intense expression is more likely to inspire, albeit limiting. To be honest, there is no universal law but just how a person perceives certain work and how much room the said person finds in it.

#sherlock holmes #hercule poirot #fandom #personal thoughts about creativity and fanwork #no other tags about certain things I mentioned for some peace #my post #text post

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diviinepillar · 1 year

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Since its pride month, here's some headcanons for the Phantom Thieves + a few other p5 characters!

Joker/Ren/Akira - Demi, and has really only loved one person in a nonfamilial way. Also too busy to dedicate time to a relationship.

Morgana - this one is arguably canon, but a trans boy. He is a baby, though, so i havent put much thought into his romantic interests.

Ryuji - Bisexual disaster. Literal embodiment of that meme where "nobody wants him" but only because he is so dense they throw in the towel.

Ann - Also bisexual, but not a disaster like Ryuji. Happily dating Shiho imo

Yusuke - MLM, and asexual.

Makoto - WLW and happily dating Haru. This is canon as far as im concerned.

Futaba - Aromantic Asexual, but thinks dirty jokes are funny.

Haru - Pansexual, but only has eyes for Makoto.

------Some Others------

Akechi - MLM, but so dedicated to revenge he is not pursuing romance or even interested. (It also doesn't help that the one person he might like doesn't return the feeling at all because of the way Akechi treats him)

Sumire - demisexual, but has bigger concerns at the moment than dating.

Ohya - Actually married to the girl from her confidant

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catgirl-catboy · 1 year

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I still want to hear your sexuality hc about your fav characters like an idiot

Types up small essay:

(I included some gender hcs too, since there's a lot of gender HCs that are very important to me.)

I've already mentioned some of these, but it pains me to make an incomplete list. Also, it's divided by fandom. (for fandoms you aren't in, disregard!)

These are only the ones I'm very attached to and cannot imagine the character without. No worries if you are squicked by or disagree with any of em!

One Piece:

Luffy: Canonically asexual, but I hc him specifically as sex positive. He doesn't really get the point, but would fuck you if you asked. Also NB. Man does not understand the hype around gender in the slightest.

Nami: Sex NEGATIVE asexual, and will only use sex appeal to steal your wallet.

Franky: Trans dude. If he can make himself a robot body, he can make himself a robot dick. Also he's Bi. He never mentions any of this, and is surprised that his crewmates didn't already know.

Zoro: Has legit never thought about it. He has no fucking clue what his sexuality is. He just does what he wants in the moment.

Sanji: There's a solid arguement to be made in canon that my dude is not Cis. (There's simping, and then there's getting euphoria for being in the body of your hot female friend.) I personally HC him as bigender. Also, no way is he actually into ladies.

Homestuck:

Vriska: Trans woman, transitioned super young. Will fight you if you misgender her.

Karkat: Not being able to feel certain quadrants places him on the Troll aromantic spectrum. Troll sexuality is different and my HCs should reflect that!

John: Bi, and doesn't understand that Bi isn't the default. Everyone finds their male friends attractive, that doesn't mean they want to date them! (he is wrong.)

Aradia: Lesbian in red and pitch quadrants.

Roxy: Pan, and uses she/her + Neopronouns (I'd think it/its and nya/nyas fit her vibe.)

Jade: Queer, and very open about having a crush on everyone in her friend group at one point.

The Owl House:

Willow: Trans woman. Her intro episode has so much trans subtext, what can I say!

No South Park Headcanons I'm really attached to, but practically everything but Transfem!Butters has canon backing at this point.

I actually don't headcanon Mr. Kitty as intersex because Ms. Cartman totally replaces Mr. Kitty whenever something bad happens, and that explains the inconsistencies.

Total Drama:

Bi Owen is arguably canon, if played for laughs. (I know the shows old, but yikes!)

But have you considered... closeted Bi Heather? Gives me peak "get out of my school vibes" with Gwen.

Julia seems the type to pretend to be gay on the internet for clout, then realize she actually is gay. She's horrible like that.

I know Wayne is canonically the best Ally, but Harold knows more about LGBTQ+ history than everyone else put together and will happily talk about it when asked. He has helped at least 3 people figure out the name for their sexuality.

I saw someone posting about Aroace DJ, and it has not left my brain since.

Bi Zoey! She's not open about it, due to not wanting to be the only openly queer person in her small town.

Scott is gay, but he also knows very little about sexuality. It takes him embarrassingly long to figure it out.

Jasmine is questioning her sexuality, and Sammy (I will not call her Samey, I refuse.) was her first known crush on a girl. Still love her and Shawn though.

He/they Shawn. Based off vibes.

Priya gives me "me before I realized I was into girls" vibes. I don't make the rules.

Ace Attorney:

Bi Gumshoe. If he's straight, why does he act the exact same around Edgeworth than he does his CANON crush.

Aroace Athena. I cannot imagine her having romantic feelings for anyone, I'm sorry. (Junie had a crush on her at one point though, and she was flattered.)

NB Apollo. His relationship with gender (makes contented buzzing noise!)

Demi Edgeworth: Cannot have a crush on someone without knowing them for 5 years first.

Transmasc. Maya, because gender roles in her village is pretty key to her arc, and that'd be a cool way of exploring that.

I know Bi Phoenix is the prevalent headcanon, but I am a Gay Phoenix enjoyer. His fling with Dahlia reads as Comphet to me.

Danganronpa:

Gonta's relationship with gender in canon is so ??? no way is he cis. I'm giving him the Genderqueer label, but Cisn't. I don't think he's quite figured it out though.

If I am despised for liking Bi Tenko, so be it. It makes sense with what we see of her backstory, and no way am I allowing my fave to be a stereotype.

I am a trans Chihiro enjoyer, but fuck you if you think the people that want to use Chihiro's canon pronouns are transphobic. The whole thing is stupid, and people should be able to have fun with the character without discourse

Very Openly gay, All Pronouns (including Neopronouns!) Ibuki. They lead the GSA at Hope's Peak. Ate a gender for breakfast once.

Demi Taka. Also Demi Mukuro.

Aroace Togami. Man only has an interest in sex because its expected of him, and does not enjoy when someone is sexually attracted to him.

Aroace Makoto with a million QPPs. It doesn't make sense with canon, but it is one of my favorite headcanons.

Bi Toko.

Poly Kaede.

#ask tag #crowtalks

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sparxwrites · 2 years

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your Scott and Cleo writing popped up on my dash and while I’ve only watched last life I am in love w the true aspec (especially aro!!!) vibes of it and the validation in the idea of rejecting a soulmate and choosing someone yourself but still not as a soulmate. just wonderful vibes that really resonated! I’m not loveless but it felt like your depiction of Cleo was akin to a loveless aro which was very cool to see outside of an informational post <3 thank u for the lovely writing!

on the one hand, i'm delighted my work resonated with you! but on the other hand, as a writer, i do find like... "identity readings" of my work to be kind of depressing. like, if you just scan something and go "oh hey that person is x and that's what this fic is about!", you miss. a lot.

that fic is about a lot of things. yes, it's about cleo saying she doesn't experience (romantic, or perhaps any) love - but if you actually read into what she says/thinks (rather than uncritically accepting her own, unreliable narration of the situation), it's also about someone who clearly has a deeply unhealthy relationship with her own emotions and does not understand them. like! she tells joe she doesn't even know how to be kind (despite plenty of canonical evidence to the contrary). scott shows affection to her, and she can't even name the feeling it gives her in response, just the physical sensation of it (affection, cleo. you're feeling reciprocal affection). that's not someone who's got a good understanding of what she's feeling, or a healthy persepective on her emotions and self.

i'm not saying cleo is not aromantic, or that you were wrong to read that into it. i wrote her there, and will always write her, as someone who has a very complicated relationship to, uh, relationships. depending on how one defines aromanticism, she falls in or somewhere adjacent to that category. but i also write her as someone who struggles with the fact she's technically a "monster", and historical trauma relating to that and the way people have reacted to her, and her own irrtational guilt/shame about her "monstrous" status. she's someone who struggles with the fact she's loud and brash and domineering, and jumps straight to violence or aggression a lot of the time - which is tangled up with her understanding of herself as a monster and as someone who is dangerous and "inherently bad". and so her reaction to all of that is "i'm incapable of love or kindness", both as a pre-emptive defence against being accused of just that, and as this weird distortion of "i'm unloveable, and so if i convince myself that i'm incapable of caring about others then i won't be hurt by forming unreciprocated bonds with people.

and it's also about a gay man who's had a woman assigned as his soulmate, and his set of equally complicated feelings about that and about whether this means he is somehow "wrong" about his sexuality. which, again, you miss if you just zoom in on cleo as 'aspec rep'.

because really, fundamentally, this fic is about two non-straight people trying desperately to make sense of something deeply upsetting and worrying that has happened to them and that is inherently intertwined with their orientation(s) - to parse through the extent to which "soulmate" is a technical term for a randomly-assigned "someone you share health with" vs something that the world assigned them based on who it thought would be a "good relationship fit" for them. and them knowing it's probably the former, but worrying about what if it's the latter because that idea taps into similar very deep-seated anxieties they both have ("but i'm '''incapable''' of love" / "but what if i'm '''capable''' of loving a woman").

so you have someone who is saying she is incapable of love, romantic love specifically and also love or caring for others more generally - but also someone who has a trauma history, and a lot of self-worth issues, and something that's arguably internalised misogyny (or at least an internalised sense of shame for behavingin a way that's not gender-compliant), and is dealing with all of that in a way that's psychologically unhelpful. and you've got that contrasted with someone who's struggling with what kind of feels like an instance of homophobia (though in reality is chance) and who is looking for reassurance about that. and they're kind of talking at right angles to one another - cleo's trying to talk herself into being okay with abandoning her soulmate (and therefore into an understanding of soulmate as a relationship designation, not a mechanic, because she's yet again pre-emptively pushing someone away so there's no temptation of taking emotional risks), and scott's trying to talk himself out of being okay with it (and into an understanding of soulmate as a mechanic, not a relationship, because he's aware that it feeling like a microagression is a bit irrational).

if you reduce that down to "she's loveless aro!", you're a) flattening something really complex and nuanced that i spent like a week putting together into Yay Identities, which i find kind of a bummer as a writer, and b) a) conflating a form of emotional self-harm with An Identity (which is, tbh, the bigger deal given it worries me on a number of levels, especially if that's the bit that is resonating with you).

all of that said, i'm not having a go at you, anon. i'm not angry, i just... thought this was a good opportunityto talk about something that often frustrated me with what i guess i'll term "noveau-fandom", where people write fics that are clearly a single-issue "look at this person's Identity!" thing, and then where other stuff gets viewed through this lens of "rep" as a result of that being a common type of story. and sure, representation is a great thing! but representation isn't a story; it doesn't make a story good; and if you're reading stories uncritically (which this phenomena is part of) then you're going to miss a lot of the author's intention / possible interpretations you could read into stuff. and you're also, like here, going to end up mistaking representations of unhealthy thought/emotional patterns as "representation", just because the narrator is a reliable one and the author didn't guide you through it.

#anonymous #ask #life smp tag #sparx chats #meta #people saying nice things #also wow uhhhh had Not heard of the loveless aro thing before so i did a tumblr search about it #and bumped immediately into a Tonne of ableism about nd people #which was fun :)#ahhhh good old tumblr.......... never change lmao #ALSO i want to clarify that when i say cleo is talking herself out of emotional risk #i do NOT mean she is secretly soft and sweet and mushy and is trying to be scary to hide that #she's genuinely scary and grouchy #but even scary and grouchy people have emotional connections to others!#and cleo is currently trying to keep those severely pruned #which is................ hmm. how u say. A Bad Life Choice.#when i say 'emotional connection' it's not like she's gonna fall in love with martyn #it'd probably be them raining terror down on the server #with him as her loyal right hand #buuuuuuuuuut she's so unconsciously frightened of him rejecting her entirely or of her developing any kind of emotion towards him #even loyalty or fondness #that she's desperately keeping him at arm's length #(just bc i don't want anyone reading this as me making cleo soft and sweet. fuck that noise i hate that trope)#(cleo is mean and loud and grouchy and brash and i love her for it)

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heartslobbf · 11 months

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thoughts on juri gender + juriori 🎤

so many thoughts. arguably too many. i have cherrypicked the ones i think are most interesting/original for you <3

i guess the thing with juri's gender is that she somehow manages to degender herself in the public eye, unless someone like ruka or shiori comes along and prods at her and makes everyone else realise how queer (in both senses) she is. also whilst i love butch juri truthers with my whole heart and think yall rock, she is a femme to me. bc i am a femme and juri is probably the rgu character i most relate to, which is cringe and lame but you know whatever. if i didnt relate to her i would probably be a butch truther too bc i am a butch lover first human second. i think it is her experiences with gender that most resonate with me, bc of how her gender and lesbianism are just. they are one and the same the venn diagram is a circle and it's just like Yeah. im an aromantic lesbian so whilst i have complicated feelings about Girls and have had a handful of teenage lesbian situationships that fucked me up, i dont Quite relate to juri's angst. that's not a critique of it whatosever, to be clear, because the purpose of art is not relatability, but im talking about how juri is relatable to me as a character so you know. you get it.

i have so much love in my heart for people whose fave is juri i really really do. probably because you are all lesbians and i love lesbians. my fave is anthy but a) you knew that already and b) she is also a lesbian and (imho) an aro-spec one at that. anyway you didnt ask about anthy so i prommy i wont talk about her anymore (lie). i also wont talk anymore about my aromantic readings of rgu (lie).

asking me about juriori is a fun one, because you might want a considered analysis of their relationship within canon, and you will get some of that, but you'll also get my unhinged ramblings about shipping culture. i feel i should disclose that by 'shipping culture' i mean shippy fandom antics and not, like, the presence of romantic relationships in rgu. that's super interesting and i have a lot to say about it, but what isn't super interesting to me is like.. committing a lot of time to intricately imagining the adult lives of rgu characters in monogamous amatonormative domestic relationships with one another, or whatever the hell. not juicy or nuanced or messy or interesting TO ME, an aromantic person who loves conflict, so you know. you (generally, not anon) do you, but it doesnt grip me personally. i DO enjoy fanart of the characters aged up and happy, for two reasons: the fashion, and the way that it's thematically consistent with rgu. it's like a glimpse at their future you know?? it's a glimmer of hope, or whatever.

ANYWAY, my hot juriori take is that i dont know if theyd work out as a romantic relationship, but i also wouldnt categorically say they wouldnt, because the whole point of the rgu ending is like 'fuck knows what'll happen, but you better fucking hope and you better believe in these characters' ability to choose for themselves and escape the trappings of the narrative'. whatever happens happens. this is of course problematic when i, as a writer, have occasionally attempted an rgu fic, bc im always like well fuck idk what juriori would be doing!! that's not for me to decide!! and it's like im literally writing this story it 100% is for me to decide and then i just get annoyed about the 'ethics' of writing rgu fic and get sad about forcing these kids into the narrative over and over and give up. im a normal person btw. i envy people who can write banger rgu fic more than anyone on the earth you guys are wizards to me.

juriori are also kind of funny to me bc all of their conflict stems from the cisheteropatriarchy of it all and how that's shaped their perceptions of themselves, each other and the wider world. like they are just the teenage lesbian situationship girlies and i think that's beautiful. just like me fr. you know for me personally, kiryuu sibling aficionado, it's quite nice to think about juriori and reminisce about my own teenage lesbian situationships as a kind of break from all of the Horrors. they're wonderfully (mostly) disconnected from akio in a way that just makes me skip with joy. that being said, if youve ever seen me talk about azure paler than the sky, you know it's one of my top ten episodes of the show and my favourite duel in the show and also, simply, fucking Agonising. i do think that juri episodes, visually, are some of the strongest in the show.

my other big juriori point that i wanna hit is that shiori is soooooooo noli me tangere for caesars i am coded. if youre unfamiliar with whoso list to hunt i know where is an hynde, what i'm trying to say here is that shiori loves to be hopelessly pursued because it's the only meaningful way she can exert power over others as a 'princess'. but princesses cant exert power over others by definition of being princesses, so she's really a witch. just like the deer in whoso list. but im normal about renaissance poetry, what i really want to say is how compelled i am by shiori's witchification and how oblivious so many people are to it when watching the show even though she's literally ourple. you know, the witch colour. and she's a reddish ourple!!! you know, red. the duplicitous bitch colour!!!!!

ourple is arguably also that colour in rgu, but i feel compelled to point out anthytougaisms at all possible opportunities. the anthy-touga-shiori triad is like. world's most concentrated source of internalised homophobia, machiavellian bull and general malintent towards people who sincerely love you. and i love them. especially shiori because truly why is she like that. like i know why she's like that but it's funny to marvel at how deranged she truly is. no one does it like her fr and i have so much love in my heart for her. i think the only rgu kids i actually actively dislike are ruka (still find him fascinating and compelling tho, he's a brilliant character and there is nuance to him. i also just despise him) and miki which is just a me thing. i am aware that it's funny i dont like miki for being a shit brother when i like touga, but you have to understand that my liking touga is complicated and he's only, like, my fourth favourite character when nanami is my second <3 love and light <3 also idk if ive ever said this anywhere but i genuinely love shiori and touga's relationship in aou, not because i think they're like? good together or whatever?? i think theyre both gay so you know whatever, i just find their interactions compelling and like. mannnn. it says so much about a character. the way that they both are around each other. very very interesting.

my final thing that i must assert as a shiori apologist is that she did nothing wrong <3 like if you didnt know that gay people were real and hated your own guts you too would be a java sparrow hurtling into a glass wall youre unable to see. episode 17 makes me feel like a wild animal. also yes i find juri more relatable and yes i think shiori's the more justified of the two, it's partially bc it's funny and also partially bc juri is mean to shiori!! she is!!!! she closes herself off emotionally and refuses even an ounce of vulnerability, for understandable reasons ofc, but then she gets SO MAD when shiori doesnt understand all her microexpressions and confess undying love to her about it. like be for serious juri. i really do love juriori with my whole heart and i think ive articulated why before in my dyke drama post about them. they just make me happy/agonised because i really do resonate in a way i never have with lesbian characters before. like i think juri's character in particular understands the nuances of being a lesbian in a way that just makes me, a lesbian, :)

#thank you for allowing me to ramble anon i hope this is of interest!!#i didnt wanna just like. talk about juriori in a way that would be rehashing other much better posts about them #so you get a ramble about fan reception and other crap <3 #anon #answered #rgu

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bees-nest · 1 year

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probably controversial opinion about the g.ood o.mens l.eak

[Post-rant edit: To be clear, I am not saying it would be an objectively bad thing. I'm just saying it would make me feel bad.]

I know how it sounds, but man, if they really do get together romantically in season 2, i will be... "Devastated" is too strong a word, but. It'll hurt.

And there is still a part of me that also goes "omfg, that would be AMAZING!! That would be HUGE!!!" And yeah it would be, but i'd still have very conflicting feelings about it because

This is, like, my one (1) (singular) (sole) (solitary) mainstream example of [what is arguably-] a QPR that I can think of. And even though I've never been actively in the fandom, I've always held go.mens close to my heart because of that. I know the fact that n.eil insists it's not canon that they're romantically together can seem homophobic (from what I've seen, it seems to me that he's just respectfully saying "that is not what we put in the book/series, and I don't do 'word-of-god' statements." But there is certainly lots I haven't seen), but it has always felt incredibly validating to me. Like, it's nice to see that he's "on my side" about relationships not needing to be romantic to be deeply significant

I know it's not a logical reaction, but I would feel so cast aside if the characters actually had an on-screen, explicitly romantic relationship. Bc what I had held so dearly for so long as sorely-needed representation for myself was actually just a lead-up to something else entirely, because once again, the romance is seen as a deeper, more important stage of the relationship, for which the platonic part was just a stepping stone. Only significant because it leads to the romance.

And I'm using "representation" lightly here... I know it's highly arguable since it's not stated in canon. But I feel strongly enough to make this post because-

I've seen multiple people now say something to the effect of, "I know there are ace/aro people who care about the characters' platonic relationship because they see themselves in it, but if the average straight person can't tell it's queer, then..."

And I can't get that out of my head tonight... Why is the average [allo]straight person's opinion at all relevant to the value our representation holds? Why is it our problem if the general public doesn't know about us? If the romantic relationship does happen, I doubt there will be a point in the show where someone says "btw this relationship here is Gay, it is a Gay relationship with Gay people in it." And people watching will still understand what they're seeing because they have knowledge of gay relationships in the real world...

And what I'm saying is, I don't think lesser-known identities/orientations should necessarily have to have a moment like that in order to be valid representation. I don't think a show featuring a QPR should necessarily have to have a moment with "btw this relationship is Queer, it is a Queer relationship with Aromantic people in it" because I don't think the average allo person's opinion is necessarily a very important factor in this equation. Like... We, too, should be able to have representation that doesn't necessarily serve an educational purpose for outsiders.

Like if you tell someone go.mens features a queer relationship and their response is to be patronizing (a complaint I also saw), that's not an issue with the show, that's an issue with the asshole you're talking to.

Idk. I think I'm kinda talking in circles. I should probably block the go.mens tag.

#long ranty vent about aro stuff #random periods inserted into words in order to keep them out of the search #vent #negative

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iztopher · 2 years

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the "if you ask me, te'ijal and galahad are both aromantic" post

happy pride to ME (and to @snowsheba who encouraged me to write this >:3c)

one of my favorite and most foundational headcanons is that both te'ijal and galahad are somewhere on the aromantic spectrum. (fwiw i like aroace galahad and very squiggly aro bi te'ijal)

and i could put each of those thoughts in separate posts, but frankly there's gonna be so much overlap - because their relationship with each other is such a big part of it - it makes more sense to put it together

warning: this post is SO LONG (1039 words under the cut) i'm so sorry i have so many thoughts on this topic. also, aveyond 3 and aveyond 4 spoilers!

i'm gonna start loosely with galahad because that headcanon came first, in 2013. my best friend came into my ask box like "arospec galahad who conceptualizes this fairytale ideal of romance and does not fit into At All" and they were SO RIGHT

galahad is such a rigid person. he internalizes rules about how the world works and refuses to adjust his perspective ever, at all. it makes so much sense for amato/heteronormativity to be one of those, for him to decide his feelings aren't actually decided by how he feels but how other people in his situation would feel, how he thinks he should feel.

(this also, not going to lie, ties into my headcanon that he's autistic, because in my experience as an autistic person you tend to not really understand how a lot of social constructs (which romance definitely is!) work and try to reference other people for them)

which is to say: arguably the most aromantic thing galahad does in canon, to me, is switching on a dime and suddenly acting like he's in love with te'ijal the moment they're human. it has Never read as genuine to me, even when i was like, 11 years old playing the game for the first time. i've always read that as him thinking "okay, I'm human, I'm married, my wife is human, clearly this adds up to me being in love with her. it has to, because that's how the world works"

and it's not, and I love that! 1) because there's a lot of potential to dig into for how it impacts their relationship and both of them individually, and 2) because I'm so used to the trope of romance being the Proof that someone is human and complete and I love the idea of someone operating under that logic and it explodes in their face

on the flip side, te'ijal's response to that being disinterest and disappointment says a lot about her, too, and while part is she's a vampire and perceives relationships differently, i like to read into that as her being aro, too. it's a fairly common aro experience to be "crushing" on someone and then they return your feelings and suddenly you lose interest or become actively uncomfortable with the whole ordeal

not to mention te'ijal canonically, blatantly misunderstands romance. in the promotional interviews for aveyond 3, te'ijal recounts how she tricked galahad into marrying her and tops it off with "it's a romantic story, don't you think?". she thinks of insults as flirting, and when she is genuinely flirted with, it goes over her head and/or she doesn't acknowledge it.

shopkeepers flirt with her fairly often and she makes no more to recognize it

galahad calls her "my love" and all she can think about is that it isn't "spawn of evil"

the one exception to this is john, who asks her to kiss him, and she responds "you don't value your life, do you, uplander?" genuinely i cannot tell if this is her expressing disinterest or trying to flirt back. who knows with te'ijal.

but by any means her relationship with, well, relationships, is clearly her own. it's very easy to take that a step forward and decide that part of what makes it so unique is that she doesn't experience the feelings a lot of other people do that makes them easier to sort or interpret.

i would also go ahead and argue that marrying someone who hates you, partly because you think the fact that he hates you is endearing, works very well for an aro read on te'ijal. te'ijal is canonically not interested in a conventional romantic relationship! if she was, she would not have picked galahad!

te'ijal wants "romance" and a "relationship", but with a misunderstanding on what those actually entail, and without any of the usual connotations of either of those things.

...and while i'm reading too deeply into canon, i'm going to swing back to point out that galahad never gives indication of wanting a genuine relationship, either. galahad complains all the time about how much te'ijal ruined his life, in all the different ways, and he deserves to, she did, but he treats the wedding as one step in the middle of many and never points out that she, theoretically, stopped him from pursuing any other relationships. that is not on the list of things that galahad minds about being married to te'ijal.

this is skewing long and also kind of negative, so i want to wrap up on a more positive note, which is why these two mean a lot to me as reading as aro, which is:

i would argue that ultimately, te'ijal and galahad's relationship does not seem canonically romantic, especially after aveyond 4. i mean, arguably their healthiest, most "that's actually kind of sweet" moment is when galahad breaks up with her. but even before that, their relationship never had anything that firmly set it as romantic. the things that normally would - being married, te'ijal calling galahad's behavior "flirting" - was clearly not, or at least more complicated, in context. which isn't to say it can't be, but like - we don't know. canon definitely doesn't seem interested in giving a long term answer to that question.

the only people who know exactly what is going on between te'ijal and galahad are, well, te'ijal and galahad. and that idea of "my relationship is my own and my partner's and nobody else's to quantify or understand" resonates so strongly with me as an aromantic person and makes this relationship, despite being chaotic always and awful frequently, probably the one i relate to most personally out of all of fiction. i mean, where else am i gonna find a guy calling a woman he isn't in love with and isn't even technically legally married to his wife every time he talks to her?

i just really, really love te'ijal and galahad each with their own relationships to relationships that somehow helps them stumble into something that works for the both of them by throwing any idea of convention out the window and just kind of trying to make it through eternity together in the way that makes sense to them.

#aveyond #te'ijal ravenfoot #galahad teomes #te'ijalahad #additional notes going in the tags lol #you could argue the love potion scene goes against my argument that she doesnt want a normal romance because She Tries To Get One That Way #but i dont think it counts because that is kinda a weird contradictory blurb in the face of Everything Else abt how she navigates this #WOULD YOU BELIEVE ME I SOMEHOW HAVE MORE TO SAY ON THIS SUBJECT

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