#but there are other Disney villains that are queer coded that people still like to say are lgbt so idk | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

crazy-pages · 6 months

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I'm going to throw my two cents in to the conversation about why James Somerton didn't get caught earlier. Part of the answer is of course that he did get caught, he just bullied and lied to get away with it for a while, but I know a lot of people still express confusion. And of course he went out of his way to make sure his audience didn't know about other queer history sources other than himself. But still. How could he have so many viewers of his videos and none of them had seen X source material?

Well. To be blunt, most of his videos were pretty basic. He tended to copy the highlights of what he was plagiarizing, not the really advanced stuff. And insofar as he copied the advanced stuff, he had a tendency to chop it up and serve it out of context alongside other plagiarized work. The material he was presenting was revolutionary to an audience unfamiliar with queer history, but like. I'm guessing 'Disney villains are queer coded' is not exactly a new concept to the kind of people who read multiple books about queer coding in film.

Now I'm not a film studies person, I'm a physicist. But you know what I do when I get a video in my YouTube recommendations about some fairly basic physics concept?

I skip it. No shade to the creator, but like. I hit that topic a decade ago and I've added literally thousands of hours of studying and research to my brain since. I'm just going to give it a pass, all right?

These kinds of videos self-select for an audience which isn't going to be familiar with the source material. The people who know it are unlikely to keep listening after the first minute or so.

And you've got to remember how much of this content the experts have consumed! With very few exceptions for weird little things that stuck in my head after all these years, I would probably not notice a physics explanation plagiarized from one of my textbooks! Not because I wasn't intimately acquainted with the textbook, but because I was intimately acquainted with many such textbooks. Spend enough time learning this stuff and it all blurs together a little bit. Does this explanation sound familiar because you've heard it before, or because you've just read books which cover this specific topic seven different times? And does that wording or that example ring a bell because it's plagiarized, or because it's common to the field?

Catching this kind of plagiarism requires having the kind of people who are already familiar with these sources, and therefore uninterested in video summaries on the topic, to watch the video. And among those people who do, it requires them to match Somerton's words to one specific source on the topic out of many, that they probably read quite some time ago. And then you have the filter of how many of those subject matter experts have the source on hand to check, to turn a vague "...hmm" into something solid.

If you know enough about queer history to say that some of his plagiarism was obvious, now that you've watched the video, then you should remember that there is a reason you probably weren't one of the people watching his videos! And because YouTube promotes videos through algorithmic engagement, none of this stuff has to pass the sniff test for any other expert in the field before it gets released. No experts have to like it for it to get published or for it to get good reviews or for it to get a recommendation in, I don't know, the New York Times.

The only people who have to like the videos for them to get traction are people who are just trying to learn introductory queer history and film theory. The exact people who aren't going to notice this. And for those of you who to whom it is obvious, ask yourself. When was the last time you watched a basic level queer history introduction on YouTube?

#hbomberguy #james somerton

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faelapis · 8 months

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despite some concerns raised by the trailer/marketing, i am still excited for the wish movie. a lot of that has to do with king magnifico.

that being said, i approach it from a different direction than a lot of other people excited for a “classic disney villain.”

first of all, yes. i, too, love the camp and melodrama of classic disney villains. i love that they express their wishes through big bombastic musical numbers, and said musical numbers are often the best in their movies. i like how queer-coded and fun they often are. i like the sass, the drama, the energy.

where i disagree with a lot of people is with this notion that disney movies “don’t have villains” anymore. i don’t think the likes of hans (frozen) and tamatoa (moana) are less evil than "classic" villains - they’re plenty willing to kill with a smile on their face.

i think what people ACTUALLY miss is the big performance around it all. the aesthetic. someone who does these things while being a major character (so not tamatoa) and deliciously, obviously evil while having fun with it the whole time (so not hans). i think it’s that specific combination people are missing. we still have villains, they’re just either not as “fun” or not as “important.”

of course, that take is less punchy than saying disney doesn’t have villains because "steven cringeyverse destroyed western animation and now companies are too scared to make real villains >:( !1!!!"

yeah i never understood where that came from. if anything, redeeming villains is more controversial than killing them. especially in america, being punitive is the norm. forgiveness is cringe. yet so many act as if there was some big consumer and/or corporate pushback against the idea of villains…? at some point?? i guess????

someone must've forgotten to tell that to disney tv animation, where you’ll find everything from bill cipher to belos in the modern era. (also, other companies exist? dreamworks is not some indie studio, they’re fully willing to have big, campy villains.)

but yknow, people like to feel like underdogs. they like to feel like they're somehow oppressed because some animated media don't have classic villains anymore... despite there still being plenty around. you can’t just like villains, you have to make it everyone else’s problem. like disney is obliged to do the same character tropes in every movie. or villains are "dead."

what actually happened is just… some writers at disney decided they wanted to do different things. that’s it. so you now have a handful of movies where the villain is either a minor character, or nonexistent.

it’s not a conspiracy, it’s not a concerted effort to destroy villains. it’s, at most, a trend. because some writers wanted to push against the previous status quo. and now other writers who grew up with that want to have more classic villains, because that’s what they see as exciting and new. it’s just a cycle of trends and countertrends.

anyway. long tangent aside, i’m actually very excited for king magnifico. in part for a classic villain performance (he gets a song!!) - but also, it sounds like he might scratch a particular itch of mine.

which is to have a big, dramatic, irredeemable villain… who is still a human and has an understandable pov.

yes, you can combine these things. it’s not common for disney, but a lot of what we consider “great movie villains” throughout history have been this exact combination. they have to be defeated, they refuse redemption, they are 100% committed to their goals and will not budge - but they also GENUINELY BELIEVE in those goals.

what i’m really asking for here is a sincerely motivated character. someone who is a villain, but doesn’t SEE himself as a villain. someone who isn’t lying when they try to endear themselves to the hero or promise to make the world better if they join forces. it’s just that they are completely misguided about what would be good for the world, and nothing will persuade them.

whether someone is a villain, a hero, or anywhere in between, i think asking a character’s motivation - and playing those motivations straight, rather than just as a mask for plain selfishness - is key.

as i’m saying this, you might notice that it’s not actually too far off from what i like in other characters. jasper in SU is basically this in her "main arc” in season three. she refuses help, she’s a huge dick to everyone… but she also 100% believes in homeworld as an institution and is actually, genuinely selfless. even if it means her own corruption, she refuses help, because that would betray her cause. which she values above her own life. and by rebecca sugar’s own words, jasper doesn’t even believe she deserves help.

the common thread here is really tragedy. someone you can root for and against at the same time.

so how does this relate to king magnifico? well, jennifer lee (writer for this movie & also the frozen movies) just had an interview where she talked a lot about wish, and in specific, having a classic disney villain in magnifico.

she illustrates a lot of what i’ve been talking about - that there is no grand conspiracy at disney against villains. they just had different stories they wanted to tell. there was no mandate either for or against villains, not in this movie or any other. they just did what they wanted to do with those stories. (btw, that’s not me saying there isn’t pressure at disney to tell certain stories and not others. it’s just that the concept of a villain isn’t as important to the corporate side as, say, not making elsa gay.)

anyway. what makes the king magnifico portion interesting is how lee talks about exactly what i’ve been saying. they knew they wanted a classic disney villain, but it sounds like they still want him to be different from other such characters. namely, they wanted to find the benevolent side of him, how he genuinely believes what he believes and DOES want what he thinks is best for the city of rosas.

and the plot totally checks out - basically, he decides whose wishes come true. and that’s really interesting, because a wish can be anything, good or bad. it sounds like he really wants to prevent what he sees as bad wishes from coming true, and is too conservative in what he allows or not. and his way of being kind about rejection is to remove those wishes from people’s hearts if he cannot fulfill them.

that’s SUCH a great concept for a villain. it speaks to issues of control, of agency, of being in the paternalistic position of deciding what is “best” for everyone else. it gives me a little bit the wizard of oz (as in the wizard himself, who is a charlatan trying to maintain a pleasant status quo, even if it’s a lie), and a little bit white diamond (controlling the lives of others, but genuinely believing you are being selfless and heroic about it / steering people on the “right” path).

reading that interview, my excitement for this movie went from like a 2/10 to a 8/10. jennifer lee seems to have a real interest in creating characters, not just stock tropes. elsa is one of the best disney princesses (fight me) for exactly the same reason.

another great concept talked about here (which you also see in lee’s frozen, with anna and elsa as opposites) is that of duality. there’s a lot of talk about magnifico and asha being two sides of the same coin, both initially believing in this system and wanting what’s best for the city. and from there, they divert to their opposite paths in what specifically they think is right. the interview talks about them as if they were this thesis and antithesis about what’s right for the city, needing to reach a synthesis. in talking about this concept, they included this illustration:

notice the similar poses. both have their hands behind their back (commonly used to convey a character is hiding something), their feet pointed out, and give the world a pleasant smile. asha has a darker color palette in a world of light, magnifico is a ray of light in a dark space. it's interesting for its duality.

so yeah. all in all, i’m still excited for wish. i want to take alan tudyk goat out back and shoot it for a quick, humane death… but failing that, i’ll just pray his role was hammed up for the trailer. please tell me it’s not that insufferable. please.

because i do really like everything else i’ve heard about this movie!! i like that asha is described as this idealist with “dumb courage”, like maybe she’ll actually have some character flaws and need to learn?? (maybe? hopefully?) i like everything i just said about king magnifico. i like that we have this blend of 2d and 3d animation, that’s such a clever concept for a “100 years of disney” celebration.

so yeah. i will be watching. never have i ever prayed for chris pine to save a movie, but today might just be the day!

#wish #wish 2023 #disney wish #disney 100 #king magnifico #wish asha #long post /#ask to tag /

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wisteria-lodge · 5 months

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Sorting Gaston

Up until now, all the Disney villains in my little project been criminals, loners, weirdos, or some combination of all three. Gaston is notable for being none of those things. He is a popular community leader, extremely Establishment, always surrounded by people. He’s also our first explicitly sexist villain (“It’s not right for a woman to read. Soon she’ll start getting ideas and… thinking.”) Belle is, of course, disgusted by this. And that’s the problem. The question here is why has Belle specifically gotten under Gaston’s skin so badly that he has to marry her… when he probably could’ve married all three of his blonde groupies at the same time. Like... Belle isn’t THAT much more beautiful.

At first I thought it could be an insecurity thing… but... Gaston isn’t insecure. So I think it’s more ideological than that. Belle is a rebel who mocks and rejects Gaston's idea of an ideal community, and that is incredibly disturbing, and threatening to him. In kind of a twisted way, the best way to deal with this is to marry Belle and you know - slot her into the established system. Bring her in line. Gaston handles “crazy old Maurice” the same way, by getting corrupt authority to throw him in the insane asylum.

I separated this out from my other, goofier Disney villain sorting, because when talking about Gaston I really wanted to bring up Howard Ashman, the creative force behind the film, who died of AIDS before it was finished. And it’s easy to see some of his experience in the ‘monstrous,’ ‘unlovable,’ shunned Beast, and the rule-breaking “peculiar” Belle who just wants out. Ashman drops lyrics like “We don't like / What we don't understand / In fact it scares us” during Gaston’s villain song, and that’s some pretty real stuff. Andreas Deja, who designed and animated Gaston, is also gay, and I think it’s so interesting that Gaston’s design went from REALLY queer coded at the beginning of production.

To the much *straighter* macho outdoorsman we have today.

(also I want to throw in this amazing drawing I found on Andreas Deja’s website, where he’s shipping Gaston with another character he designed/animated.)

But I’m still slotting Gaston into my system here, and for all those reasons - the community, the Establishment - I want to say that he is a Badger primary villain, and goes hard with Badger primary dehumanization in the way he interacts with Maurice and the Beast. He’s also a Lion secondary. Round up the troops, give them a rousing speech, charge in at the head of the forces. “Surprise Wedding” is also a comically Lion secondary beat. It’s actually kind of fun that he is a Badger Lion, since that is typically the Hero sorting. That’s the point of Gaston. He looks good. He looks like the hero at first… and then you think about him for five seconds.

#gaston #beauty and the beast #disney stuff #howard ashman #andreas deja #shc #sortinghatchats

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takeachillpillshawty · 1 month

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No, some people do shit on Vil. I like to think there's a spectrum when it comes to Vil haters and Vil lovers.

Vil haters will demonize Vil and call him racist because he 'hates' Epel's accent, when that's not even true! He hates how crude and inappropriate he talks to others, you forget that Rook speaks French in some of his dialogues? Vil doesn't even bat an eye making the whole Vil is racist thing completely ridiculous and meaningless.

'Vil is abuse towards Epel!' Epel literally tried to pick a fight first and y'all are mad he actually got hurt? What did you want Vil to do? Stand there and take it? You all make jokes about Riddle getting his shit rocked by Ace because he was a little shit, but mad at Vil for doing the same to Epel? Vil doesn't go out of his way to abuse Epel, the fuck?! And I'm not saying that Epel is a terrible person nor a saint, we can have characters who are both flawed and still like them.

I see Vil as the type of mom you think is an asshole but when you get older you realize she was trying he best to raise you when you were a difficult child. I do agree that Vil has flaws that he needs to work on, the thing some people can't comprehend is that Vil will admit that he's wrong. Vil isn't self centered or some snobby rich dude, he strives to be a better person for himself and others that includes admitting he's wrong and bettering himself. He wants everyone in his dorm to be a better version of themselves and in one of his birthday cards it stated that while in his club he learned more about what goes on behind the scenes of movies because of his club member's help.

Vil, who is an actor appreciated the help of his fellow club mates for teaching him more about what goes on behind his profession. And I can't fully go in more dept because I'm an English twst user, and unfortunately some of the dialogue is either wrongfully translated or censored because Disney can't handle the queer themes of his character despite most of their Disney villains being QUEER CODED due to the Haze code back in the day. I'm seeing that people love to bring up the 'him trying to kill Neige' situation with his overblot, and I have to admit... Mans was genuinely tweaking, not gonna lie.... But you have to understand that Vil literally spent his life perfecting his acting skills despite his villainous roles he's given. He still held his head high despite it all, only for Neige to step in and steal that role of the hero. How would it feel to spend years at something that gave you an identity, the only thing that you're good at only to be out shined by a person who never felt the struggle of requiring that talent. I'm not saying Vil had every right to do what he did, but damn I understand why he did it.

Now onto Vil lovers, like I said it a spectrum. We have the Vil lovers who like myself can see his flaws and can agree that Vil has some issues but can see that he's a good person despite it all....then we have the Vil fans who hate and demonize Neige.

I can't understand why we can't have both, you also know you can like both characters without putting down or demonizing one over the other. I think that Neige is another version of Kalim honestly and I think he's a really sweet guy, but come on... You guys are just making stuff up to excuse Vil almost killing him which again I say, we can admit Vil was fucked for that but blaming something on Neige that he didn't even know happened is crazy. It's not Neige's fault that Vil hates him but the circumstances in their lives that put them to where they are now. Neige didn't ask to be famous, hell he didn't asked to be an actor he needed the money to have a better living situation for himself and his friends.

This has now become a Vil rant and I don't care, I love this man so much.

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland shitpost #twst rant #twst vil #vil schoenheit #vil shoenheit

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tomyo · 11 months

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Nimona and a Decade of the Queer Experience

To me one of the most anticipated aspects of the Nimona adaptation was to see how they changed the a lot of the queer themes from the original comic. Nimona was created in a time where it was still taboo to represent same sex relationships in anything trying to be marketable into an era where it is so commonplace that Nimona would have seemed regressive if it stayed true to the material.

Naturally the way Blackheart and Goldenloin are portrayed has greatly changed but also has a lot of the message from the original. Nimona is now about the trans experience.

This isn't to say transness was never at the core of Nimona but I don't think even baby nonbinary me would have been able to connect it directly to that.

Nimona the comic, to me, deals with similar but different issues from Nimona the movie. The comic was a story of trying to upheave an untrustworthy militarized state through the initially goofy lens of a budding father daughter relationship that ultimately fails.

Blackheart at the start of the comic already is trying to defy the government and Nimona seeks him out because he's actually playing the role of the villain already. She herself felt like this mix of female and queer rage. It made believe somewhat in the idea that the little girl by the end of the story was truly her who had once tried to do better for her home and was rejected for becoming something *different*. Overall you can feel more presently that deafening dread that Blackheart and Goldenloin love each other and acknowledging that would ruin both of their lives. This is moreso due to that whole conflict of their ideologies and sides they are on interfering but the metaphor is there. We could read this easily as Blackheart being out of the closet and at odds with society where Goldenloin on in the closet and working on the name of oppression. By showing Blackheart looking visibly like a villain it harkens back to the queer coding of Disney villains and a feeling a lot of queer people had to experience at that time, being an enemy to the public simply for existing. Coming back to Nimona, she's the perfect example of a trans masc egg experience; punk in a way that isn't fully certain in embracing or trashing anything feminine. Not fully androgynous but butchy and an unfocused anger at everything around them. I can never speak for the entirety of the trans experience but I know the feeling being born in an afab body and violently hating the society that I want badly to accept me, the way we insist that we intend to fully express our being while also creating this weird mix of unconvincing conformity. Again I laugh so much at her design elements; shaved head, tomboyish in chainmail but with curves, and short dresses, and impractical belts. Her actions also read as someone who's greatest sore point is loss of her bodily autonomy which ultimately she's subjected to during the climax. The monster/power of Nimona to me tends to ultimately mirror more of an emotional state rather than transness itself. Both version of Nimona have people see it as something Nimona is inflicted with rather than a part of her existence as she reveals at the end. Even Blackheart believe he can cure her of it with the equivalence of a procedure or medication but it's because he only perceives Nimona as the little girl and not the little girl as a part of the whole that is the dragon. I think there is a lot of things we can read into the dragon being and even at the idea that queerness is something people seek to cure that doesn't need one in the first place. And ultimately that's why the story ends on the somber tone it does, the biggest focus of the story was how Blackheart became the parent to Nimona and misguidedly tried to 'fix' her. And like a lot of people, especially for the time period, Nimona had to leave behind the family and society that couldn't accept her as her.

And so we move forward through the years.

Media is not made in a vacuum, Nimona the comic is a critique of early 2010s ideologies and maybe doesn't even worry about them as serious in a pre 2016 world. Nimona 2023 however exists on the other side of that threshold. Like I said, I don't think the original comic was consciously trans mostly because the zeitgeist wasn't conscious of transness. 2012-2014 (the comic's creation period) encapsulated me personally going from no aware knowledge of gender to confusion at learning my friend's pronouns to fully identifying as nonbinary in a world few people knew what that meant. But not long after that we had Korra's ending, the reveal of Ruby and Sapphire, Kaitlynn Jenner, Menanists, and then the nightmare of the 2016 election and all that came with it. The truth is a contradiction occurred; queerness became a part of the in group so long as it followed the rules of heteronormativity. I think it is fair to say a lot of queer people became more eeeh conservative for lack of better terms. For once we finally had a chance to be out and so long as we followed the conditions set out, exist well. We can live comfortably, why rock the boat? In other words, respectability politics. We are then at odds with those who believe we should keep complacent for fear of being rejected.

That brings us to Nimona the movie.

Blackheart no longer is the guerilla activist he once was, we now are introduced to him as a part of the system; specifically the model minority. Movies only have so much time for you to build understanding of it's world themes and ideas and so it tends to need to be more punchy with getting the point across otherwise become less coherent. So rather on the nose "Knighting a non noble is against god" as very flatly stated in the begging. Since the time of the comic, being gay has been normalized and we now see Blackheart and Goldenloin start out as a couple (to be frank I couldn't fully tell if they were official or not but they were all but in writing together) and by in universe logic, Goldenloin is the golden child pastor's son with divisively accepted boyfriend. Blackheart is an inspiration for his common men while his noble classmates are disgusted at the idea of him being allowed the same rights as them, essentially being allowed to be an policeman. It's his role as the model minority that he still believes the system is right when he is framed for murder; it is the one bad actor who's at fault despite a whole society shunning him with little reasoning needed.

Nimona in the other hand is a bit more in control of the relationship. Nimona of the comic latched onto a spurned man who was more methodical than she was in her work but Nimona of the movie is pretty much what pushes Blackheart into the image of a villain. Movie Nimona's goal is more or less to find community and for reasons we will get to only believes she can find it with other cast aside from society. She is jaded enough to know that Blackheart will continue to be labeled as the way they do to her. This time the shape shifting is explicitly trans; Nimona now is no longer worried about experimentation or trying to be cured but of being called a monster, the fear of her, and eradication; words I feel like I've heard too much in lgbt spaces lately. She talks about wanting her own demise with her heard turned down and eyes somber in moments that hit too close to home. She is a worn down warrior for her own existence. On safer grounds with Blackheart she more wittingly challenges his transphobia. Blackheart cannot perceive her out of the binary that she is default a girl and her transformations are something else, he asks if her transitions hurt, and he tries to convince her to blend in with others for his own comfort. As he spends more time with her, he's able to view the world he was taught differently and doesn't view the less pretty sides of Nimona as scary. However, programming is hard to free yourself out of.

The Director is by definition, conservative. She believes is a religious like text that society should not change unless it all falls a part. Her belief in this runs so deep that she easily is willing to kill pseudo religious figures as her personal code of morals override any actual logic in faith(anyone remember how magas talk about Trump as being sent by God while also disavowing him for encouraging vaccinations?). Her rhetoric that non nobles with be a societal slip eminates classism and racism (commoner is somewhat of a race allegory). She denies her own words to hold power, criticizes Nimona of whispering deceipt into blackhearts ear while actually being the one doing so to Goldenloin, and justifies her actions through holy scripts. She holds a stern belief in cleansing the society of it's demons down to intending to kill a large part of her society to rid it of the tran metaphor Nimona is. She is the quintessential conservative power so bent on it staying that way that she will destroy everything in spite of any logic to why it's right. Goldenloin, as the champion of the institution, a head cop if you will, looks upon the chaos learning the director's intent to kill thousands and says "what are we doing here?" A lot of institutions (aah there's the naming for you) in our country are like this. I think to some like, there are people who entered religion or became a police officer because they wanted to do good. But the rhetoric in these spaces can skew that perspective exponentially. Some with better access out may find that point of "What are we doing her" The moment the logic of the system no longer makes sense. I would love to talk more a lot this an the comic institution at a later point.

Back to Nimona and the queer identity.

Nimona was searching for a group to accept her, changing her appearance to fit in. She thinks she has it with Gloreth until Gloreth is taught that Nimona's existence was monstrous and rejects her as well. The scene of the villagers attacking her is poinient as well; they endanger and threaten her with violence (which would likely have been more explicit if not for kids) and she first turns to something weaker to escape but they refuse and so she is forced to turn to something bigger ane vicious in order to live but it only sets up the narrative that there is a reason to fear her when she didnt attack first, she simply had to protect herself. Nimona in the present is ready for her death, the narrative so out of control that it breaks her.

Blackheart is able to bring her back from the brink by doing the important thing of truly apologizing, have humility for his mistrust and bigotry, and offer her support on equal terms. Nimona this time does not flee her friend that failed her but sacrifice herself for the hope of a better future beyond the walls.

The final part to mention; the walls. The walls are mad out as a big deal in this. No one leaves beyond them and the one small town of Gloreth fills to a big capitalist tech dystopia that markets dragons as both cute mascots and something to eradicate to as young as children. Society is a small shoebox not allowed to even see beyond the walls; see a new potential of this world. Simply put, the beyond is the beyond of heteronormative society. Even as society has become more accepting of LGBT identities, it has only liked to consume it in an easily interpreted manor. There are a lot of even just fringe identities that used to get lambasted for being weird simply for existing, trying to apply those same rules within their spaces as they've become socially acceptable. For every push forward we make, there is still presentation and identity that will get ostracized for being out of the box. We create these walls and only build them out further every so often rather than knocking them down. If there is anything to take from Nimona it's to embrace the beyond.

Morning edit; Hiii thank you for reading all of this. I kinda furiously typed this after watching the movie last night and there are certainly some flaws for it. Towards the end you can see a lot of typos because I was literally falling asleep and there are definitely some concepts I would've liked to flesh out better but kinda glossed over to focus on what the stories were saying about Nimona specifically. I think if anything, I'd want to reexamine Blackheart in both stories because I honestly forgot a lot of his actions in the comic, same with the institution because it took a while to even remember about the Director being a character from the comic. To be real, there's some really specific events on where Nimona was made that tend to hit me pretty hard so I rushed through the comic when I read it last year. I might try to take me time now because Nimona is so meaningful. I even want to talk about how it made sense Disney tried to shut it down (I'm certain there's a lot of business reasons but I don't think it was compatible with the Disney brand). For all the ways we have queer stories, I don't think we see a lot of trans stories yet. I'm hoping the series like Dead End Paranormal Park and Nimona are the start of a new era that focally represent that.

#nimona

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kitkatopinions · 1 year

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You want to know what I think about why they haven't confirmed Yang as queer yet or had either Yang or Blake explicitly say anything about be attracted to women (unlike our "hetero" characters)? Because the writers know the bees are the beginning and end of their gay representation. We can have Arkos, Renora, some Rosegarden and maybe some White Knight now (bc framing), but when it comes to sapphic couples, the bees are it. And they see no problem with that either.

As I'm answering this ask, I will be heavily criticizing RW/BY and Bumble/by. Fans of the bees, please beware. If you can't stand to see criticism, just move along.

Here's what we have for confirmation of attraction to the opposite sex from our main characters:

Weiss asks out Neptune. Blake goes on a date with Sun and she and Adam had a prior romantic entanglement. Yang openly leers at shirtless men and verbally says that she approves of their shirtlessness. Jaune is romantically interested in Weiss and kisses Pyrrha. Nora kisses Ren and openly says she's in love with him. Pyrrha kisses Jaune. Ren 'melts into' the kiss with Nora and talks about his feelings for her. Qrow goes on about how he was undone by the sight of a female waitress's skirt length. That's eight out of ten main characters (the other two being Ruby and Oscar,) and if you count Sun and Penny as main characters, that's nine out of twelve because Sun asked out Blake.

The majority of this happened in season two. In the second season of the show, people were asking out people of the opposite sex, and the only characters that didn't have their interest in the opposite sex confirmed within the first three seasons were Ren and Nora. When Ren and Nora kissed after they were hinted at being romantically interested in each other for seasons, they were far and away not the only main characters to have confirmed attraction to the opposite sex and weren't even the first kiss between characters of the opposite sex. If someone wanted to prove that the ship between Jaune and Weiss was going to happen, they don't have to say 'Jaune looks at her, he was upset when she almost died, they go out with a group one time,' they can say 'Jaune has confirmed romantic attraction towards her' and 'At the very least, Weiss has expressed canonical interest in men.''

Here's what we have for confirmation of attraction to the same sex from our main characters:

Nothing. Literally nothing.

We have two very small side characters who appeared in a couple episodes of season six, a villainous character who is in love with her former friend who is described by her voice actor as straight in what looks like official RW/BY merch, and a transgender character who has only existed for two seasons as a more minor character. And then we have Blake and Yang, who have been coded as queer for years now with no canon confirmation so that even though they're clearly meant to be perceived as romantic by queer people, homophobes can pretend it's not happening and Yang can still describe Blake as her sister in side content like video games while Rooster Teeth the company with a huge history of bigotry can sell pride shirts. This is behind the curve of heavily censored cartoons made by big companies like Cartoon Network and Disney. There's no excuse.

When people say that there's nothing queerbaity about Bumble/by and that it's just a slowburn like Re/nora and therefore we should all say nothing about it, they're really ignoring that Re/nora is the exception, they were some of the only main characters who hadn't expressed confirmed interest in the opposite sex, while even Ruby and Penny had seemed to want to talk about 'cute boys' in season one. And even Re/nora at this point is far more confirmed than bumble/by. People like saying that Bumble/by is a slowburn, but that doesn't mean that Blake and Yang couldn't have been confirmed as queer looong ago. Like, people act like Jim and Pam had zero confirmed romantic interest in each other or any other people until they got together and were shown dating in season four. Most slowburns don't look like this.

And people also are pretending like no outside meta matters at all, whether that's the history of a lack of representation for queer characters or considering the company's history of bigotry or the biphobia of one of the creators and lead writers Miles Luna. Despite the fact that there's no queer main characters in ten years, despite the fact that Blake and Yang's progression is unnatural because their tender moments are not allowed to be backed by even a discussion of feelings, despite the fact that the first male character who was coded queer was brutally murdered, despite the fact that there was wild heteronormativity in the early seasons where several characters just casually talked about their attraction to the opposite sex while the creator of RW/BY said that he'd be willing to include queer ships eventually maybe if he thought they were earned, despite the fact that Blake was described as straight by her VA as late as 2019, despite the fact that RW/BY is the biggest money maker for a company that is not only seemingly always struggling with funding projects but also constantly having controversies often about displaying bigotry and needing to get back into people's good graces, despite the fact that they've tried to sell Pride merch and Bumble/by merch that said like 'maybe they're a couple,' despite all of this... No one is allowed to suggest that there might have been intentionally stringing queer audiences along, or that it's a bit suspicious, or anything like that. No queer person is allowed to side eye a bigoted company. Because then we're 'ignoring the slowburn' and just being really unfair to Miles Luna the man who told an 'anecdote' about how hot he thinks watching girls make out is. No queer person is allowed to think that Bumble/by is badly done, because we'll literally get attacked, no matter how much we might like tons of other queer ships, including the canon queer ships from other shows like Adventure Time, Owl House, or Steven Universe.

I think that it is because Blake and Yang are likely to be the end-all-be-all as far as their confirmed queer characters, I think that's why fans are so defensive. Blake and Yang as a ship had juice before volume six and had a lot of people who shipped them, I'm not saying that the only reason they've been shipped is because they're likely to actually be confirmed. But. There's a habit in most fandoms to take what's either the only confirmed queer ship or the queer ship that's most likely to be confirmed and then instead of asking why there aren't more queer ships, people start acting like any fan who doesn't ship it or has any problem with it is trying to hurt queer people. Like if the content creators hear that the ship might not be popular, they just won't do it. Like we'll be punished for not being grateful for the scraps. So fans take it upon themselves to be knights and guardians for these ships, because instead of having grievances against the content creators who make queer ships so rare (and sometimes, badly done,) fans often seem to act like other fans are the enemy for not liking the one ship we have or might get. There's this element of...

A lot of rwde posters who care about queer rep wouldn't care very much about the relationship between Blake and Yang if they weren't the end-all-be-all of the main character rep in the show. If Weiss and Ruby or Weiss and Penny had been a thing, or Jaune and Neptune or Jaune and Ren or something, or other queer ships involving the main characters existed, then Blake and Yang's own status as queer wouldn't be as important because they wouldn't be the only (coded as) queer characters. Like, Lapis Lazuli and Peridot in Steven Universe weren't in an official relationship, but we had Ruby and Sapphire, and Pearl had been in love with Rose Quartz, so I at the very least didn't feel strung along by their 'roomies' language.

Another thing to note is that once again, what I at least care about is whether or not Blake and Yang are confirmed as queer, not whether or not they're in a relationship. People accuse rwde posters of not being happy with a slowburn queer ship and that we think that queer relationships should all be rapid paced (the defense against comparisons to Disney's the Owl House or Arcane having Vi out and out say that she thinks Caitlyn is hot.) But in actuality, this is willfully ignoring that they could've been confirmed as queer without getting in a relationship, just like Jaune talking to Ren about his feelings for Weiss doesn't mean they're destined to be together, and Weiss asking out Neptune doesn't mean they need to have an emotional journey with each other and have a passionate kiss at the end of the show. Yang could've gone to the Vytal dance with Velvet instead of with no one. Blake could've had feelings for Ruby before she had feelings for Yang instead of going on a date with Sun. Ruby could've had feelings for Penny before the Fall of Beacon the way that Pyrrha had feelings for Jaune. Neptune could've had a crush on Jaune during the Vytal dance, instead of having only turned down Weiss because he couldn't dance. Clover could've actually been confirmed as queer and wound up in a relationship with Qrow. But instead all we have is... Ten years of nothing but side characters who don't get much screentime and two main characters nuzzling foreheads and a bunch of fans screaming at us for saying 'we want more.'

It's disappointing.

#rwde #anti-rwby #anti-bumblby #anti-bumblebee #anti-bumbleby #anti-bb #anti blake x yang #anti yang x blake #anti bees #rwby criticism #anti rooster teeth

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outplacedwriter · 1 year

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things I think frozen does very well that were forgotten by the anti-hype crowd

It is a natural occurrence that the breakthrough of a piece of media will eventually end up in its own anti-hype crowd culture. We have reached a point, long ago, in which saying that Frozen is bad or that Anna and Elsa aren't as great as the hype says became a sign of...

✨ status, intelligence, not-like-other-girls revolutionary warrior ✨

It's impossible to say "Frozen" anywhere without someone popping out of thin air to preach how they don't like it and how flawed and annoying and how X is better, because reasons.

But after Frozen II, this crowd became louder. I just can't find a single video on YT about Frozen that is not about someone dashing or overly criticizing the movie and its characters because it's cool, and different, and oh-so-clever to be one of the superior ones who weren't caught on this Disney trap.

Yet I feel like the hype made people forget *why* the world was so impacted by this story in the first place. I have my own whys, and some popular whys, here is a list of a few of them that I care to discuss.

Sympathetic Neurodivergent Character. In all fairness, Elsa might still be seen as a villain by some people -- usually because of their inability to understand nuance, analyze a text, or just self-righteous ignorance. But it is very obvious in the movie that the whole narrative and the artistic choices try to paint Elsa's struggle and personality in a positive, or at least in an understanding light. She's not the monster who people fear, who she fears, and who another story would make to be a villain. She's a traumatized child dealing with a burden too great for anyone. Let's remember that back in 2013 the talk about mental health wasn't as nearly as spread as it is today, and having a queer-coded, canonically neurodivergent Disney PrincessTM was unthinkable. Dare I say, Elsa's significance and symbology were completely green-lit by accident. Maybe the artistic force behind it was aware of that, but Disney Corporation just wanted the cute girls to sell dolls and hopefully pay itself. This is a win for the mental disable community and for the queer community that is forgotten and downplayed everywhere. After all, we are woke now!

Complex and Shattered Sibling Relationship Getting Healed. I swear to heavens if I have to hear anyone else compare these two to Lilo and Nani, and try to force them against each other like it's some kind of necessary comparison I will-... Anna and Elsa are sisters who love and care about each other. But they are in a very specific context in which their relationship is broken. This exact premise is what makes the movie excels. It was original -- as far as originally is possible or real. And such a breath of fresh air. The premise of this conflict in which the problem did not have an easy solution, was enough for a very compelling tale. It's so beautiful and wholesome to watch these young women struggle and find healing. Their undying affection and genuine love for each other make us hope so hard that they can finally find peace. I won't even touch on the matter that sibling relationships are complex and nuanced and how Frozen showing that to kids might help them to mend their own conflicts because it goes without saying. Just in the matter of narrative alone, this is a story that had to be told and should be praised again.

The Soundtrack Slapped Everyone In The Face Repeatedly. The song is good. The Broadway vibe is delicious. It's a fact.

#frozen #frozen 2 #frozen 3 #queen elsa #elsa #queen anna #anna #princess anna #the fifth spirit #cant a dyke enjoy her neurodivergente sisterly movie IN PEACE????#also we dont have to have a big deep reason to like anything #the movie is cute and have singing #let people enjoy frozen again #it doesnt always have to be about something #frozen is a victim of its own success and the cliche is true

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lizethvillavicencio · 1 year

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My current hyperfixation is Lab Rats.

Not the animal, but the show. You know the one. Leo Dooley has just moved in with his Step-Dad, Donald Davenport, and discovers a secret lab in the basement, where he finds three kids with incredible powers that they call Bionics. He forms a bond with them and brings them out to the normal world for the first time in their lives, which sets up four seasons of wild shenanigans, villains, and self discovery.

And a constant laugh track.

I always thought that Lab Rats had such an amazing concept. The idea that someone made three regular people super with advanced technology, leaving room for morals about self identity and family along the way; I eat crap like this up every time. But Lab Rats was very limited in what it could do because it was a Disney Sitcom. There was no room for character growth that lasted more than an episode or discussions about the trauma that would come with being raised by a narcissist in a lab, never knowing the light of day until your late teens. The neurodivergent and queer coding was never brought up, and just over all, darker themes could not be explored.

So, Tumblr, I've decided to pull a Thanos and do it myself.

I want to make a story about what the show couldn't. I want to write about how the Davenports' relationship will be effected after they meet other people and learn what normal family dynamics are like. I want to write about Donald's emotional neglect and narcissism and how this would be the main key towards Douglas' redemption. I want to write about Adam, Bree, and Chase, exploring their genders, sexualities, masculinity and femininity. But, most of all, I want Donald Davenport to face consequences for his actions.

You may be asking, "Person, why announce this to Tumblr when you can just post the story to Ao3 and/or Wattpad and be done with it?"

Because I wanted to ask the people what they want.

This story isn't just self indulgence, it's for the fandom, whom has already done so much to add more depth to the Lab Rats world. So, I want to know what you want to see. Here is what I have planned to add so far:

1. Chase has D.I.D

I am a firm believer that Spike isn't just some Bionic that Douglas gave Chase. I believe that because of the practically endless trauma that Chase has gone through(going on missions to save the world and Adam's abuse) he developed a D.I.D. system and Spike is the protector. I know that people with D.I.D. usually have multiple alters, but it's not impossible to only have one. Or I may add more. Let me know what you think.

2. Adam, Bree, and Chase are triplets.

They still have the same birth order, they're just triplets now.

3. The main three have less bionics

Oh my god, these kids are so overpowered. To help fill some plot holes, here are the bionics they're going to have:

Adam: Super Strength(his limit is a ton)

Super Durability

Heat Vision

Blast Wave(but he becomes

incredibly exhausted after using it,

so he saves it for emergencies)

Bree: Super Speed(her highest speed is

70 mph, but she becomes

incredibly exhausted after using it),

Super Durability

Super Agility

Invisibility

Vocal Manipulation

Chase: Super Intelligence

Super Durability

Force Field

Laser Bo

4. Douglas has more kids

I'm planning on making Daniel WAY more involved in the plot and Douglas having another daughter. I don't have a name for her yet, so I'm gonna call her E for now. My plan is that after Adam, Bree, and Chase are taken from him, Douglas and Krane just relocate and make more kids. Daniel and E are definitely going to be there, but I might add more. Daniel's bionics are going to stay the same, and I'm deciding between giving E geo-leaping or molecularkinesis. The main purpose for the two of them is to further the I-Am-Your-Father arc, as I like to call it, and to open up new perspectives on Douglas as a father figure.

5. Douglas and Krane are/were in a relationship

Every scene with them is just them being an old married couple.

6. Mighty Med and Lab Rats existing in the same universe is a lot bigger to the plot

I don't want to reveal how I'm gonna execute this, but trust me, it'll be there.

7. Adam has ADHD and Dyslexia

After watching the show fiftyleven times, I can say with confidence that Adam is not dumb. He has a short attention span, sure, but he can think quick on his feet and is actually quite clever. He may not excel in the classroom, but unlike what a lot of parents will tell you, grades are not a good reflection of someone's intelligence or skills. And while Adam's spelling skills are below average, this doesn't usually occur to someone in their late teens unless they a) didn't have access to a good education, or b) they are lazy and incredibly spoiled, and Adam is none of these things. But, something that neurodivergent people tend to do in situations like these is uplay their "dumbness" to the point where it's OBVIOUSLY a joke, except it's not. They just don't want people to think they're actually that dumb.

I wouldn't put it past Donald to just label Adam as dumb and not get him assessed.

8: Bree also has ADHD

Bree also seems to have trouble concentrating and waiting, but where Adam hyperfixates for months at a time and is innatentive, Bree's hyperfixations last for a few days at most before she moves on to the next thing.

9: Chase is bisexual

Do I even have to explain this one?

10: Chase has autism

Listen, this man does not get social cues and info dumps like crazy.

And last, but certainly not least,

11: Krane's story is going to go beyond the every Disney Villain motivation of wanting to take over the world

I always wished they had done more with Krane than the simple, "I wanna take over the world," crap that most Disney villains do. I wanted more lore, more backstory, more motivation. Now, I'm finally getting it.

Please let me know what you think and have a great day!

#lab rats #adam davenport #bree davenport #chase davenport #leo dooley #donald davenport #douglas davenport #rewrite #fanfic #fanfiction #mighty med

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ravenwitch45 · 1 year

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what do you think of 2023 being disney's 100th anniversary?

Well I think it's impressive at the very least, certainly not every year that you get to a 100th anniversary of anything but as well... Disney in the early days weren't the best at respect and representation of other cultures and communities, The Native American's in Peter Pan, The Siamese Cats in Lady and the Tramp, The fact that almost every villain was queer coded till Disney just stopped having Villain characters, and as I've grown more cynical and less blind to childhood nostalgia, I've held it against them, cause for every person who looked on in wonder at there movies, there was the possibly hundreds of people looking on in horror and betrayal, at their communities, personalities and very identities being demonized and belittled, and that very frankly is impossible to ignore.

But, I will admit, they have gotten better, Mulan and Tiana, are buttkick women of color that are active roles in defeating the evil of their own movies and honestly deserve a rewatch, not to mention they get what they want at the end. Go get it girls.

On topic but getting more queer, The Owl House and Amphibia also succeed in having a diverse and powerful cast, Honorable mention to Ethan Clade from Strange World for being the first explicitly queer guy in a Disney Film. Give all of these a watch if you want a heartwrenching but powerful tale

Now I do want to make one thing clear, Many diverse Disney projects get censored and unfairly treated by higher ups, Luz and all her friends are not thanks to them and they deserve no credit. Dana Terrance and Matt Braly respectively practically had to fight tooth and nail to get there stories told. And unfortunately the Owl House had it's third season cut down to only three specials which I am STILL mad about but I digress.

People still need to fight for Inclusion, and it's unfair that they do, but it's clear things are changing, doing this kinda thing is getting more common and Disney is following because of the creatives that make these beautiful stories to include everyone, and we're getting closer to the day stories like these are everywhere for everyone to see and that's important.

I didn't even mention Turning Red, and the big hero 6 shorts being unabashed about AFAB reproductive cycles as well as queer and cultural representation and so much more stuff that strived for this stuff.

This is what Stories are for, for everyone to feel seen, and loved because they deserve it, and I hope one day everyone will see that.

I have my problems with Disney, trust me I do, they still mess up, but with what we're getting because of the creatives, and what they fight for, I think one century of Disney is proof that it can change for the better despite it's blunders, it can be a force for good and love and what's more magical then that?

#ask reply #disney 100 #mulan #princess and the frog #the owl house #amphibia #representation matters

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missycolorful · 2 years

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🏳️‍🌈 - Give your thoughts on the Dream SMP's portrayal of queer/LGBT+ identity.

What a fun question, because beforehand, I hadn't really had much to say about the queer stuff in the DSMP. But that's a good thing, because I think that stems from how normal it is on the server.

Like, let's think about it: Most romantic relationships on the server are queer: the fiancés, Niki and Puffy, Sam and Ponk, and depending on how you view them, Tntduo and Beeduo--this isn't even including the brief flings other characters have had with one another. Heteros are basically in the minority. There is a conglomerate of characters who go by different pronouns and/or genders (Aimsey, Eret, Ponk, Punz, et cetra). The queerness is so integrated into this world. In every narrative perspective, at that!

While not every single person who has a queer character has the same sexuality/gender/pronouns as their character, I heartily accept these streamers playing into a spectrum they don’t fall into. Not only to explore different, spicy dynamics, but also for the sake of, as I said, creating a world that makes it so normal. Because even in modern day, we're not quite there yet.

But with this total normalization, there comes a caveat, but what I find to be a good caveat. It’s that the queer relationships are ones that are flawed and broken. That these people are people who do bad things, even to each other. That their relationship might not end up with a fairy tale ending. Literally every single one is/has been severely damaged at some point. Now, of course, so many friend-/familial relationships are complicated in the server, as well. But that's what makes it so good: they're not afraid to make queer couples shitty.

A good amount of queer rep in other media, specifically for younger audiences--because a big portion of the Dream SMP's viewship is teenagers (though some more adult media can be like this, too)-- prefers to give gays characters happy endings. Mostly in modern day, they’ll give gay characters flaws but still make them good guys (look at all those queer coded Disney villains in the olden days i.e. the Renaissance Era. Though they were THE BEST!!). Bury Your Gays is our beloathed. You won't see a lot of family media have queer relationships that break off permanently or be abusive/toxic or anything too negative, especially so when it's at the forefront of the story. This all gives you an idea of how we anticipate queer media to be presented in the modern era.

But the Dream SMP flips that whole idea upside down. The Fiancés had a good relationship that fell apart due to strained dynamics between one another, especially with Quackity obsessing with revenge and power. Sam literally ripped off Ponk’s arm. Tntduo... whatever the fuck’s going on there. Even the one canon wlw relationship in the server is strained due to their different stances on L’manberg, et cetra (I don’t think they ever reconciled? I don’t recall). We are watching them fall apart before our very eyes, because with these moments, they are the main characters! And none of these couples are happy. They’re all pretty fucked up.

And I fucking love that. It highlights that even queer rep can have couples that aren’t just complicated, but damaged to an irreparable degree. It makes them feel even more normalized, by recognizing that any couple can be miserable or fucked up. Having young people witness that dating your fellow gay won't be all rainbows and sunshine, and in fact it can even be heartbreaking or even toxic, is something I think young people need to see more.

#dream smp #dsmp #lore discussion #lgbtqa #missy rambles #(Wow #that was a lot woops. This is why the others will take a while... sorry)

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sparebutton · 3 years

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I love when Disney makes yet another queer coded villain, but then they decide that that character has too many human emotions and makes too many good points, so they decide to make that character a protagonist instead of an antagonist but they keep the queer coding

#ok Elsa is the only one that never does anything to purposely hurt others but my point stands #I also wonder if these characters had remained villains if ppl would still say they’re gay #I think about that with Elsa a lot because if she was evil then I wouldn’t want her to be lesbian #because I don’t want people to think leabians are evil lol #but there are other Disney villains that are queer coded that people still like to say are lgbt so idk #disney #frozen 2 #frozen #elsa #Vidia #tinkerbell #disney fairies #namaari #raya and the last dragon #ALSO I KNOW VIDIA IS A STRETCH but I wanted a 3rd character lol #tbf she is a lot meaner in the books imo #and Namaari is kinda the villain of the movie but she has an arc and is good by the end of the movie

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yellowocaballero · 2 years

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FIC MASTER POST

I write a lot of AUs, and also just in general. A lot of it is too short, bad, or weird for AO3, so I post them here. For ease of access, I'll put links to every short story here. Those that belong to a greater AU will be sorted under the AU. Miscellanea will be posted just under the fandom. They will be roughly chronologically ordered.

(Fun fact: I had to go 30 pages into the 'my writing' tag to get these! And there's probably more I'm just not digging up!)

4-26-12 EDIT: I changed my URL, so I changed the links to suit the new URL. If I missed anything and any of the links are still broken, please let me know so I can fix it!

Fic under the cut.

MARVEL

Best Life A pseudo fusion of the MCU, 1970s-80s Marvel Comics, and completely made up backstories. Exclusively utilizes the lamest superheroes I could find, including Moon Knight.

AO3 Fics [Starring Moon Knight]:

Mens Rea

Good Luck, Jake!

and Letter Column, an AO3 collection of the side stories listed below and more.

Side Stories [Starring other lame people, and sometimes Moon Knight being lame again]:

Dr. Strange Works Retail and Peter Parker Makes a Multiversal Mistake

Ghost Rider visits the Hell DMV

Colleen Wing and the Immortal Iron Fist Participate In A Cultural Exchange Program During The Weirdest Spring Break Ever

Moon Knight: Marc & Steven Meet Jake; Realize Youngest Siblings Are The Worst

Worldbuilding Notes & Meta

Matt Murdock: Ninja Union Organizer & Normal Guy

Assorted Marvel AUs

Moon Knight AU where Jake's the worst teenager you've met in your life; Jake Plays Minecraft, Marc’s a Wine Mom, and Frenchie & Layla Meet a Serial Killer

And companion piece Jake Stays Up Past His Bedtime, Meets His Contemporaries, and Wants a Dog So Fucking Bad.

STAR WARS

Roleswap AU

Roleswap AU set from the Clone Wars era to three years after ROTS. Family is found and lost. Children grow up and become angsty teenagers. Badly parented children become bad parents. Child soldiers become pirates. Local kitten adopted by pack of wolves thinks it's a wolf.

AKA: Rogue Jedi, Rogue Queen, and Rogue Clone go on a space adventure to rescue a dad, cry instead.

AO3 Fics:

Reel to Reel

Less Than Zero

SIDE STORIES:

Cody POV Interquel of Less Than Zero

Obligatory Canon Crossover

Mandalorian Crossover

Book of Boba Fett Crossover

[REDACTED] POV of Clone Liberation

NO CHIP AU: An extensive detail of situations in which, hypothetically, many people would be very bad parents.

Order 66: More Like A Suggestion This Time

Bly: The Perfect Boyfriend?

MORE than Zero?

Torture Adventures of Rex, Supernanny

SW:Rebels Depa Bilaba vs. Cartoon Villain Cody

Fox Takes A Really Nice Nap and what Mace Windu does during the nap

Rex, Padme, and Ahsoka's zany family hijinks

REALLY COOL SHIT THAT OTHER PEOPLE DID THAT I LIKE A LOT

@bobafett's Interquel Outsider POV

@nirelaz SUPER DOPE fanart of Ben & Blanche and another one!

OTHER STAR WARS

Boba Fett's childhood existential crisis

Fox & Leia's Holiday Special - this one is a less depressing AU of my other work Twilight on Owl Creek Bridge.

Obi-Wan is a depressed teen dad

Fishhooks (Jango Fett obtains a mail-order child, regrets it highly when child adopts two million clones)

AOTC Continuation of Fishhooks, just to make Obi-Wan Kenobi confused and miserable

THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES

(oh boy...)

WEB!JON AU

AO3 FICS:

Sucker's Bet

The technical nonsense that started this don't worry about it

SIDE STORIES:

Web!Jon roleplays canon Jon with mixed results

He's Just Not That Into You: Martin & Jon (this one is a sort of pilot to Sucker's Bet, it's not canon)

Not Your Queer-Coded Disney Villain: Annabelle & Jon

Desolation Destroyed My P----: Gertrude & Jon

THE CROW'S FUNERAL AU

Jon gets involved in local politics, regrets it

AU of AU Where Martin prevents the story from happening

Prequel: How Agnes, Gerry, and Jon met

HUMAN RELATIONS AU

Jon and Sasha versus Bad Telenovelas

Semi-Sequel, Never Completed

Jon and Tim versus the Internet

Jon and Jonah versus the Sixties

ROLESWAP AU:

People are bullied. Nobody does any work. Lesbians flourish. And, since being trapped in an infernal contract with a fear demon means that nobody can get ahead, everybody gets even.

Podfic of the entire series by @stonesfromglasshouses

Fear Demon Intern Michael Does Michael Things

Crossover With Canon

OTHER TMA:

Jon's Trapped In Temporal Time Out: A TMA Time-Travelling Tale

Fandom History: pleasedontaskpleasedontask

American AU: PLEASE don't ask

A short post-canon story of Bell, Book, and Candle & No Sin But Ignorance: Daisy Crashes A Date, Fuck You

MISCELLANEOUS FANDOMS

Percy Jackson: Percy Jackson meets a Landlord, a Tax Accountant, and a Tree Growing in Brooklyn

Loki: Loki Suffers His Own Personal Hell and Participates in Game Shows

Chicken on a Raft: Chicken on a Raft

#ok i kind of see what you guys meant now. finding these was hard.#my writing #to an excessive degree #do I really write this much...?#if i missed anything lmk

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handsmotif · 3 years

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The Queercoding of Pinky and the Brain

This originally was just me infodumping to my friends on discord, but I decided it might be interesting to some people on here, so I polished it up and made it an actual essay lmao

To start, we’re going to break this into 2 sections -- the relationship between the mice, and Pinky’s relationship with gender, because queercoding doesn’t just mean gay!

For a 90′s show, Pinky and the Brain (and its mother show, Animaniacs) was very progressive for its time! But there were still lots of things that they couldn’t slip by censors, and thus, that’s where we have to read between the lines. And that is something I wanted to clarify here before we dive in, the actual meaning of queercoding. It’s NOT the same as queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is when the people producing certain media purposefully dangle the possibility of queer representation to lure in audiences (most prominent examples are BBC Sherlock, Riverdale, and Supernatural I GUESS? who knows abt that last one anymore), but never follow through, purely for profit. Queercoding is when media producers WANT to write in queer representation, but can’t, usually because the censors won’t let them. So, they must resort to subtext. (example: the policemen from Gravity Falls) It could also be unintentional, simply assigning certain characteristics associated with the LGBT community to characters. (example: Bugs Bunny, many Disney villains) Either way, it heavily relies on the audience picking up subtext, but whether it’s malicious or not varies, depending on the media. Bugs Bunny is an example of positive accidental queercoding, while a lot of Disney villains are negative examples.

Now, to actually discuss the gay little mice! Pinky and the Brain, whether it be intentional or not (based off comments from Maurice LaMarche, Rob Paulsen, and Tom Ruegger, signs strongly point to intentional, but it’s never been explicitly confirmed), is an example of positive queercoding.

There are many moments that I could pick out to discuss here, but we’ll start with some VERY on the nose gay metaphors.

Remember Romy? If you don’t, that’s their actual biological son! Romy came about due to a cloning accident, where their DNA got combined and spat him out.

There’s SO many things I could say about Romy. Every appearance he makes has an overarching gay metaphor as the plot. His first appearance in the episode Brinky (yeah it’s literally titled their ship name), it deals with his dads (WHICH I ALSO WANT TO POINT OUT, he DOES call them both dad, and they do both call him their son) disapproving of the fact that he wants to leave home and not follow in their footsteps of taking over the world. Brain even goes as far as disowning him whenever he tells him, which is certainly something a lot of queer people can unfortunately relate to. Also seen a lot in this episode is Pinky and Brain arguing even more than a married couple than usual, which pushes Romy away even further. Later, when Romy eventually does leave, and Brain starts to regret chasing him away, he tries desperately to reach out to him, but Romy doesn’t want anything to do with him. They end up tracking him down to an apartment building, where Romy is now living with his human girlfriend. When questioned about their relationship, the girlfriend, named Bunny, goes off on a tangent about how people shouldn’t judge others based on labels or relationships (hello?), and that Brain needs to be more tolerant. Brain apologizes and Romy forgives him. Happy ending.

Romy’s only other appearance is in the comics. Essentially, the plot of this one is that Brain wants to become the president of the local high school’s PTA, but he needs Romy’s help to make it look like he has a normal home life. He also enlists the help of Billie, the obligatory Woman introduced to make sure Brain doesn’t look as gay as he actually is, that he has a crush on. She pretends to be his girlfriend, and Pinky pretends to be Romy’s uncle, while they make up the story that Romy’s actual mother was lost at sea. Because if the organization found out that Brain has a son with a MAN??? THINK of the controversy! Anyway, the plan works, and Brain actually manages to get elected as president. Throughout this though, Pinky gets WEIRDLY jealous that Brain keeps brushing him aside for Billie. To the point where during Brain’s inauguration, Pinky actually dresses up as the wife/mother lost at sea and storms into the room.

[ID: Comic panels of Pinky, Brain, and Romy on stage at the inauguration ceremony. Pinky busts into room wearing drag, saying, “Yoo hoo! I’m back from years lost at sea to be with my son and ungrateful husband! Narf!” He then hugs Romy, while glaring at Brain. He goes on to say, “I’ll stand by your side, even though you left me behind!” The people in the audience begin to question this, saying, “Oh great fuzzy bangs!”, “What’d she say?!”, “He deserted her to be with that other woman!”, “What kind of monster is he?!”. Brain then rips off Pinky’s wig and says, “This isn’t my wife! This isn’t even a woman! It’s my roommate, Pinky.” Pinky replies, “Well, yes... But Romy really is my son! Poit!” And Brain responds, “N-Nonsense! He’s my son!” More people in the audience angrily speak up, saying, “What’s that?”, “He lives with a guy who likes to dress up in women’s clothing and the both claim to be that kid’s father!”, “Grumble! Mutter!” /END ID]

Needless to say, this doesn’t end well for them. What we can conclude from this is that homophobia exists in the Pinky and the Brain universe, and our characters are directly affected by it.

Moving on, And-There-Was-Only-One-Bed is a pretty common occurrence with these two. Their cage is big, they have plenty of room for two beds, but? They choose to sleep together? Even in some times where this has been inconsistent and they DO have separate beds, they’re always RIGHT next to each other. (what if we put our minecraft beds together ❤😳)

I would like to mention the episode, You’ll Never Eat Food Pellets In This Town Again! This episode is interesting to say the least. Deals with a lot of the meta of the show. Anyway. In this episode, Brain has a nightmare that he’s in a loveless marriage with Billie. You know, the woman he’s supposed to have a crush on. In the end, he wakes up from the nightmare in the same bed as Pinky.

Speaking of female love interests, Pinky is seen having multiple relationships with characters of different species. Any time this is brought up by Brain, Pinky counters with Brain being too intolerant. An honorable mention with this is in Wakko’s Wish, when Pinky is with Pharfignewton, and Brain’s constant pestering about their relationship could be read as jealousy. Pinky needs a mousy date, after all!

Something else I would like to mention is in one episode (I forget what it’s called, I’ll try to look it up later and edit this), Brain is applying for a job. The employer asks Brain if he’s married, and Brain hesitates before saying he “has a roommate,” but that he’s occupied with his own things, which then cuts to a shot of Pinky applying lipstick.

Leading into part two of this essay, Pinky’s relationship with gender! Pinky has always been very gender nonconforming, and loves to wear dresses, do his makeup, and make himself look pretty. For the most part, this is played pretty straight, and not as a gag, like a lot of shows tend to do! It’s just a casual fact about him that he likes to present femininely sometimes.

This does play into their taking over the world plans pretty often, where Pinky wears drag, usually either to sneak into somewhere. Like in one of their earliest appearances on Animaniacs, Noah’s Lark, where they pose as a couple to board Noah’s, and I quote, “love boat.” After boarding, Noah says to himself, “Who am I to judge?” Okay. Yeah. Alright. Anyway.

I actually had less to say on this than I thought I did, but I wanted to make sure to emphasize that Pinky at the very least is coded as being Not Quite Cis, and that he’s played a key part in helping a lot of people watching the show figure out that they’re also Not Quite Cis.

Wrapping this up because I’m hungry, but I want to throw in some more honorable mentions that I really do not see any type of cishet explanations for:

They literally go on a romantic date at a very fancy restaurant in Brain’s Night Off. This is played extremely casually, and the only remark from anyone that they receive is that they are “much smaller than the usual clients.”

Pinky, on at least one occasion, daydreams about him and Brain being a married couple, and wanting to be a housewife (the original malewife ❤)

There’s an issue in the comics where Pinky has a crush on another male mouse, and when Brain gets annoyed, Pinky reassures him that he thinks Brain is cute and quite the catch too

Brain attempting to kiss Pinky in the reboot??????

Brain actually did conquer the world once in the Halloween special, because Pinky made a deal with the devil for it, and thus Pinky got sent to hell! Brain actually went to hell and gave up the world to bring him back

Brain was extremely close to conquering the world once more in the Christmas special, but after reading what Pinky’s feelings for him were (nothing romantic, just Pinky basically just praising Brain for being so hardworking and an amazing mouse, and lamenting that he never gets anything for it), he gets so emotional that he sabotages himself and wishes everyone a Merry Christmas instead

TLDR; these mice are very queer and need therapy, and are probably the most heavily queercoded characters that I can think of in children’s media.

#animaniacs #pinky and the brain #patb #brinky #FLOPS ON THE FLOOR this took a long time to write

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themousefromfantasyland · 3 years

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Hey let's talk about queer coding, Disney villains and why this whole conversation always makes me mad.

Coding is when an author implies a character to be from a certain socio-cultural background without actually saying it out loud. The examples that come to mind are JK Rowling writing Remus Lupin's lycantrophy as a metaphor from AIDS and Frozen 2 using the Northuldra's conflict with Arendelle as metaphor for colonization and cultural genocide.

Queer Coding is when certain work of fiction implies that one of the characters is part of the LGBTQ community, but without confirming in canon.

A pretty common criticism against Disney, is that, supposedly, "ALL" villainous characters from the classics were secretly queer coded, hitting at some kind of secret homophobic agenda. I'm not here to defend Disney, it's just that the logic behind some these arguments and analysis is so bad and flawed that makes me cringe.

First, coding needs authorial intent. The author writes a character in way that is meant to make the audience draw a connection between them and a real-life group. The ability of the audience to see a real-life group in that character is essential to convey the message the author is trying to tell. If there isn't authorial intent, we are left only with the audience's headcanon.

Don't get me wrong, to me all interpretations of a fictional work are valid, but an author isn't responsible for interpretations that fall outside his intent, for good and for bad.

An author cannot take credit, for example, for accidentally writting character that certain minority group took a liking to. Let's say that this character is heroic and the audience felt sympathetic to their struggle. Their interpretation is valid, but if the writer takes credit for that, it will be just shameless opportunism, since it was never their true intention. Sometimes the blue curtain is just a blue curtain.

So, it's okay for queer people to relate to Disney villains. A lot of people in general do relate to them better than to the protagonists. But it's in the audience, not in the author. Disney cannot take credit for that, nor can it take for any other character. Disney cannot take credit for Luca x Alberto and Raya x Namaari even if they wanted to.

Just to add another example, JK Rowling writing Lupin as metaphor for people struggling with AIDS is probably the most problematic coding that I ever saw. Werewolves are actually highly dangerous in canon, Lupin was infected as a child by someone who really wanted to infected him and most of the werewolves side with Voldemort in the Second Wizarding War. She is totally responsible for these interpretations since she is the one who invited her readers to draw the connection in the first place.

And this is not to say that there isn't queer coding in the villains of Disney canon. Ratigan from The Great Mouse Detective and Governor Ratcliffe from Pocahontas are both written as two very effeminate male characters, specially if compared to the rest of the cast. Ursula from the Little Mermaid was literally inspired by a drag queen, Divine.

But the standards used in some of these analyses are so vague, so broad, so arbitrary, that you are excused in thinking that all over-the-top, comical villains are automatically gay.

Hades spends the whole film touching Meg, hugging her, comically flirting with her, and somehow he's the gay best friend. His whole personality is heavily influenced by James Woods, a super conservative republican christian, who changed the character from the originally planned Jack Nicholson type to satanic car seller, but he's totally gay right?He did a lot of ad-libbing in his recordings, especially in Hades' dialogues with Meg. If you ask me Hades is totally coded more as an abusive boss or smooth-talking pimp than anything else.

Gaston was described by his animator as a "grotesque prince charming". He's a brutal caricature of the super macho types, a mockery of the cishet frat bro, but he's still often included in the list of queer Disney villains.

I once saw an article that claimed Lady Tremaine was a "men-hating lesbian" and I was left as... Did we watch the same movie?

Jokes aside, if it's to include Disney characters under the rainbow umbrella using every arbitrary trait or popular headcanons, Disney is full of queer characters, both villains and heroes.

Bashful, Flower, White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, March Hare, Cheshire Cat, Alice, Ariel, Sebastian, Beast, Cogsworth, Genie, Hermes, Clopin, Victor, Hugo, Laverne, Mushu, Mulan, Li Shang, Timon, Pumbaa, Kuzco, Pleakley, Jumba Jookiba, Merida, Edna Mode, Go Go Tomago, Elsa, Honeymaren, Oaken, Raya, Namaari, Luca, Alberto. Cross-dressers, outcasts, sassy bachelors, badass spinsters, sensitive men, fierce tomboys. There are already enough people to start a gay-straigh alliance in the Magic Kingdom.

#disney #disney villains #queer coding

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aquaburst3 · 2 years

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Am I the only one that doesn't like the possibility of the Disney villains being exactly like their canon counterparts in the TWST universe? It just seems wrong.

All of the characters idolize the Great Seven. Hell, the first Halloween Event literally had a plot point about them getting super upset over people knocking over their statues. How messed up would it be for these kids to graduate and learn that the people they idolized were murderers and tyrants? It would be like the JK Rowling thing all over again for them, except even more extreme!

Looking back at a lot of the Disney villains as an adult in my 20s...some of them have a point. A lot of the Disney villains are marginalized and fought back against oppressive social norms. A lot of these guys are super queer coded with Ursula being inspired by a Drag Queen. Jafar grew up on the streets and had to climb his way through the ranks to survive. (Canon Jafar reminds me a lot of Griffith from Berserk while Jamil reminds me of Malik Ishtar from YuGiOh.) Ursula was banished by her brother and lived in a glorified hut on the edge of society practically starving. Maleficent was snubbed from an important political event for no reason other than she's scary looking. Scar has a VERY valid point that Mufasa shouldn't have left the hyena to starve on the outskirts of the Pridelands. Do I think they did nothing wrong? Absolutely not! They have done horrible things to reach their ends still. Saying that they were just pure evil the whole time just kinda paints a less nuanced picture of these movies.

Yes, it's true that he further back you go, the less we know for sure. But we still have a fairly strong grasp of Roman Times, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. What we don't know is due to things like the burning of the Library of Alexandria or people not keeping good records like what happened with Kush. But a lot of those stories happened a few hundred years ago in universe. How the hell would these people have that skewed understanding of history with immortal fae, ghosts and fucking gods running around who would tell them otherwise? It makes no sense!

Honestly, if I wrote TWST, I would go the Mirror Verse (good guys are morally grey and bad guys are good) route or just make everyone in these stories morally grey, who have done bad and good in their lives. In real life, there are rarely pure evil people unless you tie in the worst of the worst. Most people are shades of grey. Part of becoming an adult is realizing that. Doing either of those things in this series would've been a lot more interesting and have a bit more of a mortal to this story than...that.

#twisted wonderland #aqua rambles

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