why don't i ever drop lore anymore wtf lmao

question for the culture of the ellie x reader community that i’m genuinely trying to understand but also having an even harder time wrapping my head around… and don’t fight me bc i know how this community loves to fight about everything!

in fics where the reader has a second love interest outside of ellie (excluding the ellie x reader x abby or ellie x reader x dina fics), why is the love interest always a man?

i myself have written a fic where reader was a lesbian that had an ex-boyfriend but only because it took place in the 80s and because it was actually relevant to the plot. and even then, i still made sure to tag that there would be references to reader being with a man in the past so that if anybody did read my story, they were doing it on their own discretion.

in a lot of the kinds of fics i’m talking about though, the reader being with a man could literally be swapped out with reader being with a woman and it would not change the story at all. but for some reason the default is 9/10 of the time, a man. it honestly wouldn’t even be that bad for me if 1) people tagged their works better and 2) if this didn’t happen so often.

this is a wlw space, where the common denominator that we all share is that we are attracted to women and non-men regardless of our specific sexualities. therefore, why is there a constant need to still include men in sapphic spaces? when you make reader be in a relationship with a man or have reader cheat on their male partner/love interest with ellie, you are automatically excluding those of us who are not attracted to men. plus, always having a lesbian, even more specifically a masc lesbian competing with a man puts a very strange taste in my mouth that i don’t think i can articulate the way i want to, but i feel like you can understand where im getting at here. i’m not even masc, im a hyper femme lesbian and it still rubs me off the wrong way, especially because most of this also only happens when it’s a fem reader, and the guy they’re with is always masculine.

and i’m sorry but im just gonna say it: ellie getting jealous of reader being with a man? yawn. boring. overdone. overused. predictable. trope ive seen way too many times. ellie getting jealous of reader being with a woman? im sat. adds spice. adds flavor. give me that shit.

if you disagree, that’s fine. we could (like civil adults) talk about it. i’m usually not the type to police people on what kinds of fics they write so i was very hesitant to even post this because i’m actually pro write whatever tf you want. but i definitely feel like it’s something that people do need to be more mindful of, so i guess i’m just asking people to do that, or at the very least can we tag our fics better so that i as a lesbian don’t waste my time reading the millionth fic where reader has both a masc lesbian and a man fighting for their affections? thanks, love yall. 🫶🏾

Coming Out Story

Basically, I’ve bored right now, so this is my coming out story, except coming out to myself and being accepting of my own identity if that makes sense. Also, I’ll only be doing elementary school and then a brief summary as to not reveal my age. Stay safe kids!

Trigger Warnings: homophobia, internalized homophobia

I was a pretty “sheltered” kid, by that I mean no one told me anything about anything important in the world. I remember when I was six someone mentioned two men getting married, and I was flabbergasted. It seemed the like craziest thing on the planet to me. But, I probably moved on and just held that memory without thinking much on it. Now, we skip to kindergarten, and I have what I really hope was my first crush but to be honest I have no clue- Basically, there was this boy, and I guess little me was like, “But the way he smiled at me as he threw sand in my face.” Needless to say, I got over that pretty quickly. Now, in first grade I meet this other guy, and I like him. It’s mutual so we have one of those little ‘first grade relationships’. But, the person I really liked was his sister who must have been in… Second grade at the time? I don’t really remember. But, in my head, I convinced myself that I just thought she was really cool. Then, when I started second grade I moved and started a new school, and it was very different. Here kids would openly shout swears and throw handballs at each other’s faces. It was usually fine if you weren’t hanging out in specific areas. Another big thing that happened here were these two girls that were best friends. And they said they would get married one day and have a family because that’s how close of friends they are. And I remember thinking (maybe I even said this), “Isn’t that a bit weird?” I don’t remember what happened next. Let’s skip to third grade, and I start to become OBSESSED with Harry Potter- Well, he’s cool too, but Ginny Weasley was probably the reason for that obsession. (Yes, I would read an entire book series for a pretty girl, you dare underestimate me?) And she was my favorite character ever, and I was even her for Halloween. Other than that, I don’t really have many other core memories for third grade. After that, fourth grade is a bit of a blur. I think I finally learned what gay is, but was still denying that I am. At this point, I’ve had quite a few crushes on girls, but I had always played it off as, “I just want to be her friend,” or something like that. Okay, now a lot happened in fifth grade, bear with me. At sometime in fifth grade I had bought a pride pin not knowing what it was, that’s kind of insignificant, but also some silly foreshadowing. Oh, also in fifth grade I found out that a few of my classmates were queer. And then, my mom taught me what the word queer meant when relating to gay people. Then on top of all that, I finally realized that I had a crush on someone, a girl. And the classic sapphic logic states that it was clearly my best friend… I ignored my feelings and shunned them. Called myself horrible things, for some reason brought religion into it? But at some point I learned the term bisexual. And I was like, “Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, that seems fitting,” so I stuck with that and didn’t tell anyone until the following school year. But that’s a story time for a different day. Now, skipping to the present, I identify with the terms omnironantic, sapphic, asexual, and queer. Thank you for reading my chaos!

Unpopular opinion (in the RWBY fandom ig): but I actually would've loved if the story leaned into abusive Blake and even abusive Yang.

I will forever prefer Ladybug and FreezerBurn, but I do think BumbleBY has a lot of story potential there. Having Yang and Blake falling for each other when they both represent aspects of their previous abusers is actually very interesting in my opinion.

Yang falling for Blake, a coward who runs away and abandons people, while she is healing from the neglect of her mother who abandoned her

Blake falling for Yang, a temperamental woman prone to bouts of anger, while recovering from Adam, who also had anger issues.

I would've loved to see them both maneuver through their complicated relationship. Them both being victims but having negative traits themselves, maybe even picking up traits from their abusers because that's all they know, and then unlearning those traits together and coming out stronger together because of it. That mixed in with the conflict that comes from Blake abandoning Yang and Yang getting angry with Blake would be a masterful opportunity for most writers.

It's actually a real shame because BumbleBY has so much potential to be one of my favorite WLW pairings ever. Unfortunately, I find a lot of sapphic relationships in media to be very bland and boring because they're portrayed so safely.

There's no conflict, external or internal, there's no meat. But if CRWBY weren't so afraid to just give their main cast negative and interesting character traits, this wouldn't be an issue.

I've said before that I don't mind if the story wanted to go into how Blake and Yang start replicating their more toxic traits when faced with trauma, especially with Blake's behaviour in V4 towards Sun mirroring how Adam treated her to the point that Arryn literally compared her behaviour to how abuse victims often become abusive themselves.

But the biggest issue here is also an issue that the show constantly struggles with. There's no consquences for this. Blake's behaviour towards Sun has no negative impact on their friendship, on Sun, or on Blake herself. She's not called out for what she did to him, she's called out for her pushing her friends away, which is not what should be talked about at that moment.

And Yang's anger issues were brought up, given "development", and then came right back but this time they're funny or Yang being a girlboss rather than having an actual flaw that needs to be handled if she's meant to be Blake's girlfriend; the girl who's abusive ex was volatile, violent and pushed her to abandon them because he was too much.

Literally V9 had Yang go red eyed and angry, and Blake reacting in fear, and it was played for laughs. That just shows you how the writers feel about this relationship and these characters.

🔥 Batman comics in general

Send me a “ 🔥 “ for an unpopular opinion.

Oooh! I do think a lot of my saltier Batman comics opinions aren't exactly unpopular in nature (too much grimdark and never in the right direction, the misogyny, Killing Joke was a mistake, BruceBabs was a mistake, stop misusing Rogues), so I'll try to bring up some less-discussed ones! (Or at least ones I see discussed less, lol.)

Batfam is conceptually good, but nobody is handling it well. As I've previously expressed, Batfam content constantly oscillates between "Bruce is an abusive kidnapper of traumatized children he trains into child soldiers despite having the means to have them live in luxury, does not provide with love or positive reinforcement, and regularly pits against each other" and some of the most facile, cringey, early 2010s Tumblr conception of found-family to be seen, when I think it's more dramatically effective to find a happy medium between the two. A loving superhero found family with its share of dysfunction, hurts, and mistakes and appropriate nuance being brought to these conflicts is apparently too much to ask for (as is writers remembering Robin(s) and Batgirl literally exist as kid appeal characters).

Likewise, canon Harlivy is seldom handled well. As I said on Twitter the other day, "corporate Pride ate Harlivy". Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy's relationship, both back when it was subtextual and later on as it became Harley's main ship in iterations where she's able to get out of her abusive relationship with the Joker was groundbreaking and important. It was absolutely crucial to middle school me. But somewhere along the way, people lost the plot that they are indeed villainesses (whose queerness was meant to make them more endearing/sympathetic/relatable, but not change this status), and it fell prey to the respectability politics traps that plague just too many sapphic ships once they go canon. In order to be 'good representation', their villainy extends to 'haha RANDOM' irreverent chaos, and their personality gets boiled down to the shallow archetypes of 'chaotic and perky' Harley and 'snarky and sexy' Ivy. Their relationship to one another is 100% fluff, because God knows any nuance, tension, flaws, or friction between two master criminal characters with canonically tragic histories can't possibly be allowed. Because of the misogynistic expectations of Women Being Soft And Good coupled with the homophobic respectability politics of being as toothless, soft, and desexualized as possible to appear nonthreatening, sapphic ships are held to such unfair standards wherein the slightest conflict will be termed abusive and bad representation, and as such, they're written cardboard-flat, and unfortunately, this has befallen Harlivy in most canons where they're together. Even if it's realistically exploring things like recovery for either lady, because that's messy, and complicated, and nonlinear, and who wants that when you can have a memeable 'be gay do crimes'? Oh, but don't worry. Sometimes they will be sexually active - for the titillation of straight men. In-universe. (Don't get me started on the Harley Quinn show...) And poor Selina gets roped into third-wheeling/cheerleading the most boring possible version of them too often...

A lot of the most popular/famous titles are not the better ones. (Not you, Long Halloween, you're a delight and everyone loves you.) Everything that's there to say about The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight Returns has been said better by people smarter and better-versed in comics than me, but Batman: Hush is just contrivance upon contrivance, everyone and their mother is tired of the shit-billion stories about Joker fridging yet another person, and perhaps my most unpopular opinion is that Batman: Year One is entirely overrated. I like the noir atmosphere, the truly corrupted Gotham it gives us, and the sweet triumvirate between Gordon, Harvey, and Bruce, but seeing adaptations like The Batman (2022) and even The Dark Knight (yes, I'm saying something nice about Nolanverse for once lolol) take these elements and do so much more with them really highlights the weaknesses in this story. There's some really good origin/character work for Bruce becoming Batman and the psychology behind it, but past that, not a whole lot happens beyond a very thin and confusing police corruption plot, and everyone is just too damn mean for the sake of the grimdark setting. Bruce injures an already exploited child in the red-light district and sexually harasses the Gordons to throw them off his trail for being Batman, and the latter is played for laughs. Jim cheats on his pregnant wife with a coworker half his age and both women are portrayed as stereotypically in these roles as humanly possible. Selina Kyle is...there, to be angry and sexualized and not much else. It just feels like a lot of buildup without much payoff.

Lastly, and jumping off the above, I'm taking away the Gordon family from writers until they've learned to play nicely with them. I don't know what it is about Jim Gordon that makes writers - men in particular - work through justifying their weird issues about women, but my God, the poor man has been character assassinated to hell and back. (Everyone has in comics, but it's always in the same way with Gordon that properly grosses me out.) If he's not cheating on his housewife with a much younger coworker he's presented as oh-so-noble for not outright workplace harassing, he's neglectful, abusive, or otherwise aggressive to his loved ones in ways that are almost always justified or excused narratively because he's 'dealing with a lot' or xyz past trauma. He's frequently made into a mouthpiece for misogyny, calling women "bitches" in the Arkham series and making other such delightful comments, fetishizing Harlivy (in the Harley Quinn show!), or putting down Barbara's capabilities. If he's written to be struggling with addiction, it's always played as a joke. And for Barbara's part, since The Killing Joke, she's always such a favoured writers' punching bag/doll to put in uncomfortable relationships, often having her talents, skills and intelligence undermined in favour of portraying her as a sex-crazed, overemotional disaster who's in it for the thrills until she is narratively punished in some gendered way. I don't get it! I'm all for what makes characters tick or challenging them or giving them flaws or new horrific situations to work through, but why is it always the same tired, offensive hows and wherefores for the Gordon family? Let them rest!

Hii

How are you? Hope you're doing good. I want to say that I love your art and it's a huge inspiration for me :D

I also really love your metas! Especially about transmasc Nanami. I was wondering...in this interpretation, what would Tsuwabukis role be in the story? Would Keiko (and the others) still follow Nanami around, or would the 3 spectacles guys be a replacement entourage? Personally I think Nanami is too good for them lol

Also, what do you think of transfem Saionji and (possibly trans) Wakaba? Or Wakaba and Anthy?

Feel free to ignore if you don't want to answer, I just really appreciate your thoughts!

{Slightly off topic, but THANK YOU for your takes on A:TLA. As someone who did enjoy the show when I first watched it, it irks me to no end when fans think of it as the pinnacle of representation. I'm mentally begging them to watch a different show}

Thanks, again!

hello hello ! im alright anon, thank u ! i hope ur doing good as well thank u thank for ur kind words, im happy u enjoy my anthys 💜 to be honest i did not think that far into that AU. canon tsuwabuki ... maybe instead of putting nanami in danger to be more like touga he's nanami TWO ✌🏼 and is what transmasc nanami is to touga ? as in he chooses to emulate nanami as a prince and is still his little stooge ? haha. maybe instead of putting nanami in danger tsuwabuki would set up scenarios that puts other female students in danger in front of nanami for nanami to "save". to show off his princeliness ??? im sure nanami would still get mad if he found that out because its so much trouble hahaha or ... if tsuwabuki is a girl she would come up with schemes to put herself in seemingly mortal danger in front of nanami ? i think nanami could still have aiko keiko and yuuko in this AU. i agree that nanami is too good for those spectacle guys hahaha ... theyr way too boring ... for me .... perhaps the only difference for their motivations being friends with nanami in this AU is that. theyr settling for the lesser brother. similar to canon, how they are friends with nanami for her connection with touga. but thinking about it, isn't this ... a bit sadder though ? transfem saionji & wakaba ... lets take this opportunity to throw wakaba in with juri in the unrequited sapphic storyline club hahaha. iv always liked to interpret wakaba in canon to actually have a crush on utena but is completely unaware of it because of comphet. i do also truly think she had a crush on saionji too so if i had to label her i do think shes bisexual. but i cant help wanting to lesbianise everything can i ? and i think itd be fun ... an explicit love triangle [is it a love triangle if neither saionji or utena romantically love wakaba back 🥲 sobs] between them trans wakaba ... i feel like this would need an entirely different post to be honest. but ... one thought i have. perhaps of nonbinary wakaba. the binary narrative sidelines them because this story is not about that. well ... it IS but not in the way that wakaba is. does that make sense ? metaphor how nonbinary genders are invisible under heteropatriarchy ? while utena is gender nonconforming her gender as she herself states in the show is still binary. i dont know if that explaination makes a difference to anybody reading though. though theres a lot of directions i feel i could go with this. im having too many thoughts about it so im going to need to put a lid on it for now 😅 aaa, lastly, i dont think i really had any "takes" on ATLA ? just that i called it orientalist and that i dont really like it as much as RGU ... surprisingly though, a lot of people disagree with calling it orientalist ? really odd. thats like disagreeing with me saying the sky is black. but i have also learned from others on here that the "casual" definition of orientalism is conflated with anti-asian racism, so i guess i understand ... ? [even still though i do think ATLA has facets of anti-asian racism. but i doubt people who dont even know the origin of orientalism could understand that] also its odd to call ATLA "representation" to me. its not representation at all. well ... i mean. i guess it could be called "asian representation" the same way berserk is "european representation"

Favorite movies and shows i’ve watched in 2021

I've only watched a few because of my weak attention span that year. In no particular order.

Soul (2020)

I rarely watch animated films, but the premise is very interesting. I don’t think i have seen a before-life concept. Plus, music? Especially jazz. Light and heartwarming at the same time. Will make you reflect about your life, self, identity and purpose. 

Rafiki (2018)

SAPPHICS! You all need to watch this. Tired of white lesbians dominating film when this gem is right here. It is also banned in Kenya soooo let’s all support it! One of the best chemistries i’ve seen, vibrant cinematography, simple and well-executed, the best soundtack (made me cry) and the acting is natural, but deep. Just a content warning for blatant homophobia and violence near the end. And when i recommend a wlw media, there’s an assurance that it’s a happy ending so don’t worry my loves. 

Three Identical strangers (2018)

Oh this one was a big Mind F! I thought it was just a usual netflix documentary, but i was wrong. With my short attention span, i was focused from the start to end. And it started fun and chill, but has amazing lessons. Not a waste of time. 

Dickinson (2019 - 2021)

I have to admit that i haven’t finish this, but it’s not the show’s fault. Despite that, i still put it in my recommendation list because it is unique and entertaining. Modern dialogues that other shows can’t pull off. Also, it’s vert funny. 

Jiva (2021 -)

This show is fire! Female-centered and i think this is the only street dance show/movie where all leads are women?? Not sure, but please recommend if you know some. No white-washing too. It always boggles me everything white people are the center of dance media because uhm hello? It’s black people’s culture and creation. Also it’s time for people outside Africa to see the beauty of their dance (South Africa in particular).

Mine (2021)

You know it’s a good drama when Kim Seo Hyung is in it coz she is very picky on which project to choose. Not a typical infidelity story, it’s very feminist. I also think this is one of the best lesbian representations i’ve seen in media. Her character is very smart, calm, strong and didn’t make her sexuality or romantic life her whole personality. And i love the female-friendship and solidarity in this show. 

How to become a tyrant (2021 -)

The plot is on the title itself. If you think your leader is a tyrant, this is how you confirm it. Recommend it to everyone. Also, it’s not boring and dragging so you know, it’s digestible to people who are new or really not into politics. 

The sex lives of college girls (2021 -)

Ok this is one of the best teen shows i’ve watched and it’s college! We rarely get that. First of all, the leads are women! And there’s no unnecessary cat fights. I hate teen shows where women ang being pitted against each other and mostly because of a man. This is so fresh and authentic. It broke a lot of stereotypes too.  

Couple of Mirrors (2021 - ?)

Another WLW! This one is so cute and i also find it campy and dramatic (in a good way). And i’m a sucker for period pieces (except when they are white because i’m tired). I think there should be more chinese WLWs. 

More recs:

2020

2019

2018

2017

My least favorite to My favorite books I read in 2022

23: We are totally normal by Rahul Kanakia: Okay first thing first this book made me incredibly uncomfortable; however not because of the sex but because this book did an amazing job capturing how cringe,annoying, and mean highschool students can be which I enjoyed. When books have teenagers I feel a lot of stories feel the need to make them more mature to better fit the plot but in this book they felt like real people you probably went to high school with…take that as you will. Anyways the book is about Nandan who never before liked guys but hooked up with his friend Dave, Nandan starts his journey trying to understand his sexuality. I didn’t love this book but I didn't hate it. I was excited to give it a chance because it seemed pretty heavily disliked. I understand the hate because Nandan is incredibly unlikable at times and I do feel bad for Dave at times because Nandan's actions hurt him, however Nandan is written to be a confused teen and never doesn’t do anything bad on purpose. The ending for me wasn’t my cup of tea and personality. I didn't want Nandan and Dave to get together since I think them being friends works better but not horrible. Overall not my vibe, but it made me laugh at times and I liked the realistic portrayal of teenagers.

22: Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers: First this book cover is beautiful and I love the idea of an workaholic overachiever doing something crazy and reckless as they slowly find themselves and it was sapphic on paper this book sounds amazing…but it was just okay, the book was pretty boring and I practically had to force myself to finish it. Grace Porter, our main character, gets drunk and marries a woman she doesn’t know in Vegas and that sounds really cool but the execution was a huge disappointment. None of the people in Grace's life including her best friends/ roommates, her parents, or even her love interest are written to be very interesting and Grace herself is pretty boring. I did however like the writing style the author chose for this book and the way the author describes the characters, setting, and what and how they feel is written beautifully and I truly enjoyed that. Overall it was pretty mid, My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.

21. Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli: I bought this book to get a discount from Barens and Noble not because I wanted it. I haven’t read Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda nor did I see Love Simon so I came into this not knowing anything about Leah or the other characters. Despite that I thought the book was alright, nothing too special and pretty predictable but fine. The book is about Leah who’s getting ready for Prom and preparing to head to college, she’s a plus sized bisexual girl which is great to see and all the side characters are pretty cool. I’m not a big fan of Leah’s personality at times and her romance with Abby is fine and at times really cute, I like Abby encouraging her to pursue art that was nice. I also liked seeing Leah bond with her mom’s boyfriend and find the perfect prom dress that was really nice. Overall cute story. fun characters, and a nice romance, Nick deserved better

20. Across a field of starlight by Blue Delliquanti: Fun space adventure and first graphic novel I’ve read with two non-binary characters as the main character. Fassen and Lu have had a long distance friendship. I loved the artstyle and the diversity but I found the storyline super hard to follow to the point I can’t even give a real description. Fassen and Lu are both cool and I liked the characters but the storyline wasn’t for me. Overall beautiful art but hectic plot.

19. The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang: Adorable and charming. I really liked the unique art style in this book and the relationship between Prince Sebastian and Frances is very sweet. The graphic novel is about Frances who is a talented seamstress who is secretly hired to make dresses for Prince Sebastian who enjoys wearing beautiful dresses but can’t let anyone including his parents know because of his royal status. Sebastian and Frances' friendship is sweet and I love how they treat each other. I felt like their falling out was forced and I didn’t really understand why Frances was upset, but the last two chapters made me so happy. Overall I loved the artstyle, loved Sebastian and Frances friendship, and loved chapter 11 & 12.

18: The girl from the sea by Molly Knox Ostertag: Morgan and Keltie are adorable and the art style was gorgeous. This sapphic graphic novel is about Morgan who lives on a small island with her mom, little brother, and has friends. After accidentally falling in the ocean she's met by a fish girl named Keltie who she once met when they were both children, after saving her they share a kiss, Keltie then comes into her life saying her love transformed her from a seal to a human girl. It’s cute, it’s silly, and it's sweet. Bittersweet ending but a fun read. Overall sweet sapphic love story, seal girls are better than mermaids.

17. The Gravity of us by Phil Stamper:It’s basically what would happen if the moon landing happened in modern day. We follow Cal, a 17 year old journalist who has to leave his life in Brooklyn to move to Houston when his dad gets a job working as an astronaut at NASA. Cal is probably the most unlikable protagonist I’ve read so far but he gets better as you read the book . The romance between Cal and Leon was really nice and I really like Leon as a character and found him the most relatable. Overall fun read, Leon should have his own book.

16. Conventionally Yours by Annabeth Albert: I love Geeks falling in love. It's my favorite holiday. This book is a duo POV with Alden and Conrad, while I didn’t see it as enemies to lovers as the book is advertised I still really enjoyed it regardless. We follow Alden and Conrad as they go on a road trip together to make content for a YouTube channel they both make appearances on called “Gamer Grandpa” which they play a card game named Odyssey also plan on playing at an tournament to win money and an opportunity to play the game professionally. Learning about both the characters' struggles, family lifes, and why they need to win the tournament all while becoming closer and closer was so fun to read. I really like Alden and Conrad and think they made a cute couple. I'll admit I knew who was gonna win barely half way through the story but that doesn’t matter to me. I liked the romance and where the characters ended up at the end. Overall this book was adorkable and I wished Odyssey was a real game.

15. Out of Characters by Annabeth Albert: More Geeks falling in love but now ex-friends to lovers version. This book is also a duo POV with Jasper and Milo, Jasper was a minor character in Conventionally Yours and in this one he gets his own story where his old childhood friend Milo comes to him needing help after he lost his older brother expensive Odyssey cards in a game. Seeing Jasper and Milo reconnect was adorable and their adventure was so much fun to read. I also loved reading about Milo getting out of his comfort zone, making new friends, and better coming to terms with his sexuality. It was so great and he and Jasper have amazing chemistry. Overall friends to lovers is underrated and I need more books with the characters cosplaying.

14. The darkness outside us by Eliot Schrefer: This book was a mindfuck and I loved every single page. This was one of my first Sci-fi books and it is amazing! Ambrose and Kodiak are both sent into space on a mission, they have no memory of the launch and the only company they have is each other and the ship’s operating system which tells them to do their tasks and encourages them to follow their mission to get on Titian. Since the book is mostly building suspense and leaving small clues leading to the plot twist the romance isn’t that developed but I still think Ambrose and Kodiak are good together and I really liked them. Overall a great book and the ending is so satisfying.

13. You should see me in a crown by Leah Johnson: This book makes me so happy! We follow Liz an black gay teenage girl living in a primarily white and rich neighborhood. She has no interest in popularity but when she finds out the winner of prom queen gets scholarship money that can help her pay for her dream school she starts running and works hard to get votes. I related to Liz so much when it came to friends, her family, and feeling like she needs to protect the people around her. Seeing Liz reconnect with her old friend, make new friends, and her relationship with Mack is just so wholesome. Overall great book and I wish Liz was real so we could be friends.

12. Infinity Reaper by Adam Silvera: This seems hit or miss with some people but I loved it! This is the second book in the Infinity series. It’s hard to explain the plot without spoiling anything from the first book but I really enjoyed it and can’t wait for the next one. Overall Ness is my favorite character and I hope Adam Silvera doesn't kill him.

11. Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller: The Hype is real. It’s the story of Achilles' life Achilles told by his lover Patroclus. The two meet after Patroclus accidentally kills another boy over dice and his father Menoetius banishes him away. The two become friends and later start a romantic relationship. We see Achilles' life from childhood to when he fights in the Trojan war. It's written beautifully and it’s truly heartbreaking. Overall terrific book, Achilles and Patroculs are the best historical gays.

Honorable mention. Rogue Sun volume one: Cataclysm: Okay so this was a book my brother really wanted me to read so I gave it a chance and it was really good. We follow Dylan who is a regular highschool student who recently finds out his father passed away, when going to the reading of his fathers will he finds out his dad was the town's hero named Rogue Sun and he passed down his powers to him. I liked it, I thought it was a good mix of action and real life emotions and Dylan was a great main character and really grew on me, I also thought it had a nice twist. Overall not my usual vibe but I enjoyed it nonetheless

10. I kissed Sara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston: Casey McQuiston has never written a bad book in their life and I kissed Sara Wheeler is great, We follow Chloe green who goes on an adventure to find her academic rival and most popular girl in school Sara Wheeler after she kissed her on prom night then completely disappeared she has the help of Sara’s boyfriend Smith, and another character named Rory who Sara also kissed on prom night. Sara leaves small clues for them to follow to help find where she is. My only real issues is while I like Sara and Chloe I liked the side characters even more and wanted to see more of them, I wanted to see more of Smith’s exploring his identity and his relationship with Rory, other characters like Ash, Benjy, Georgia, and more seem like interesting characters who could’ve been so fun to read if given more attention. Overall fun mystery and I need a second book about Smith and Rory.

9. Red, White, and Royal blue by Casey McQuiston: I’m a basic bitch I know but I really did love this book.This book is about the first son Alex falling in love with the Prince of Wales Prince Henry. I really don’t know what to say about this book that hasn’t already been said but I loved it. This book is super funny and Alex and Henry had immediate chemistry which was so much fun to read. I wish the side characters like Pez, Nora, and June got more attention but since this is a romance I understand why they were sidelined. Overall sweet political romance and obtuse fucking asshole is the most romatic line in any book ever.

8. One last stop by Casey McQuiston: It’s probably slightly controversial having One Last Stop ranked higher than Red, White, and Royal blue but the main reason I ranked it higher is because I loved every single character and felt like everyone one had a nice conclusion unlike Red, white, and Royal blue and I kissed Sara Wheeler where I wanted more attention on the side characters. I also loved seeing August and Jane's relationship build while also trying to help Jane understand what happened to her and seeing August find herself on the way was great. Overall another great mystery by Casey MCQuiston, I’m a sucker for sapphic romances

7. Extraordinaries by T.J.Klune: This book is the reason I downloaded back Tumblr it fucking amazing! Gay superheroes, fanfiction, and a main protagonist who is hilarious and relatable this book is fucking awsome. We follow Nick Bell who is the biggest fan of a neighborhood superhero named Shadow Storm who fights his arch rival Pyro Storm. In this world people who have super powers are called Extraordinaries and Nick desperately wants to be extraordinary and to make his fanfiction come true by being with the super hero of his dreams. I’ll admit I didn’t love Nick much at first but she really grew on me. Not only is the book great but it also has great ADHD rep and LGBTQ rep. Overall my favorite superhero novel better than marvel movies

6. Every word you never said by Jordon Greene: This wins for having the prettiest cover I currently own. This book is also a duo POV following Skyler Grey an nonverbal boy who was just recently adopted and enjoys wearing skirts and dresses and Jacob Walters who recently came out and dealing with shitheads because of it including his own father. The book is about Skyler fighting for his right to express himself when Jacbo’s own father tries to make rules to stop him from doing so. Skyler and Jacob are adorable and seeing them get closer and closer was heartwarming. However the book does talk a lot about politics and the ugly side of christianity which made me feel uneasy at times but the romance and message was so strong I couldn’t help but love it. Overall clothes have no gender!

5. Winter Orbit by Everina Maxwell: To be completely honest this is probably the best written book I’ve read all year. The writing, story building, character building, and explaining of the politics of the world was written, in my opinion of course almost perfectly.The book is about Kiem and Jainan who are forced to marry to seal an alliance between their respective empires after Jainan pervouse partener was killed suddenly. However it becomes more complicated when a Jainan becomes a person in interest in his death. Admittedly the romance in this book is pretty secondary in the story and is mostly about Jainan and Kiem trying to prove Jainan is innocent, I still liked the romance tho and seeing Kiem being sweet and patient with Jainan who has a lot of unresolved trauma was nice. My only issue is that the book felt kinda slow at times but the end result is totally worth it. Overall I felt smart reading this book. Kiem is a sweet cinnamon roll who deserves the world.

4. Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake: I don’t usually like adult books but this is a huge expectation. This book is a romance between Claire Sutherland who is a single mom with an eleven-year-old daughter dealing with an undependable ex-boyfriend and Delilah Green who is hired to be her estranged step sister Astrid photographer at her wedding. Delilah had it tough growing up with losing her mom, dad, and living with her uncaring step mother and Claire had her own issues with being a single mom and dating. Delilah and Claire are sweet together and I really liked their relationship and it was a nice story. My only issues is that there is a side plot where Claire and another mutual friend of her and Astrid wants to stop her from marrying her dick head fiance and that pretty much goes nowhere in favor of the romance, I love Delilah and Claire’s romance but I would’ve liked to see more of then trying to talk sense into Astrid. Overall Cute and spicy sapphic romance can’t wait to read Astrid Parker doesn’t fail next year.

3. Heat Wave by T.J. Klune: FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC ending to the extraordinaries, The dad squad had my entire heart, seeing everyone work together to stop Simion evil plan of taking over Nova city was epic and the epilogue at the end its probably the best epilogue I’ve ever read in a book. However I wasn’t a big fan of the ending and what they decided to do to Owen and I hated how they kept talking about how “You shouldn’t see things as Evil vs. Good because things are more complicated than that” when Simion was very clearly evil and had only bad intentions but with the great plot twist, sweet moments, and of course the amazing epilogue I was able to get past it and enjoy a great conclusion to a great series. Overall this series was extraordinary and Jazz is a badass.

2. Flash Fire by T.J. Klune: This is more just me. I tend to like the second book in trilogies the most and this wasn’t any different. Seth is my favorite character and in Flash fire he gets more attention and I loved that. This is also when we learn more about Nick’s mom Jenny who passed away 3 years ago and Nick learns more about himself, in this we learn more about Simion’s plans, we also meet new characters like Mateo/ Miss Conduct, Jerry the burrito guy, and T.K who are all introduced in a cool and funny way. Overall Second time is always the best and Pyro Storm is bae.

1. Cinderella is dead by Kalynn Bayron: Words can’t describe how much I love this book but I will try. This new dark retelling of Cinderella's story takes an unique and cool spin on a classic. We follow Sophia who lives in a world 200 years after Cinderella found her prince charming and “Lived happily ever after” Ever since the king forces the people in the village to live their lives following Cinderall’s story. Sophia has no interest in marrying a man and would rather marry her childhood friend Erin but is forced to go to an annual ball and find a husband or else. I love this fast paced story about fighting the patriarchy and learning the real story of Cinderella. Sophia and Constance bounce off each other perfectly and I love their chemistry, not much romance but the book was so good it honestly doesn’t bother me. I loved this book so much and it’s my absolutely favorite book in 2022. Overall I loved a dark retelling and Sophia is a girlboss.

OUAT Thoughts Pt.65--Episodes 1-2

I have watched through S7E2; spoilers DNI. Also, spoiler warning for anyone further behind than I am.

—I know I started this with a salty attitude, but I’m already invested. First episode didn’t do it for me, but goshdarnit if episode 2 didn’t just get me. Still a bit shady going forward, but I’m checking it.

—Alice’s lil mushroom shirt is cute. Of course, mushroom shirts are among the most sapphic of things, so I’m legally obligated to like it.

—Her glowing-mushroom cave is fun, too.

—Other Hook having his daughter’s rook while she has his knight is sad-cute. I might be willing to place some money (not much) on Alice being his daughter? Mostly because she’s s u s and because chess is very Wonderland. Also, that Hook is a bit older, so the vengeful witch who locked up his daughter could be Cora.

—Hunny, I cannot stand Rumple’s outfit. And I don’t even know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. He’s supposed to B styling in either a suit or some leather, but he’s gone full Texas tuxedo. On the other hand, he do be cuffing those jeans a bit, so….even wash. (Also, the shaggy hair is really top-tier.)

—I feel much better knowing that other Hook is the one in Hyperion Heights. He’s still sad, but at least CaptainSwan are together in Storybrooke.

—Also, Hook and Emma expecting a baby? YES!

—It amuses me to no end that Hook’s last name in Hyperion Heights is Rogers.

—Rumple looking for a moral compass in a partner is v swaggy. I was expecting the writers to put their heads up their asses and write him as a villain, and even if he seems a little dubious anyway, at least he seems to be a pretty chill dude.

—Mmmkay, so why do he and Alice know each other? And does he actually know her, or does the Rumple from the wish-world know her? Is that even our Rumple?

—Henry inviting his mom to come on his adventure in Cinderella world is nice. And I adore him for not acting like he’s too grown to use one of his Operation codenames.

—I think maybe these two episodes, especially the first one, have been trying too hard to recapture the spirit of the early first season. Is it interesting to see the story repeat with Henry? Ngl, I do enjoy a decent cyclical narrative. But it’s kinda copy-and-paste for my tastes, although I do have faith that it will improve with time. The potential almost makes me disappointed there’s only one season of this.

—Gee, there’s a lady who can cook and makes frog references? Wonder who that might be.

—I’m also not sure how much I like that we’re basically exploring the concept of a multiverse. I hate most multiverses. It makes stuff overcomplicated. However, I will concede that the idea of seeing how different choices make the same people different is cool, and I have liked the alternate realities we’ve visited. But this is different, because Cinderella is an *entirely* different person, yk, different actor and all that rubbish, so it’s not quite the same.

—I’m also not sure I like the way she’s been characterized. Cynical princesses aren’t really my thing. Hope is the inborn magic that draws me to Disney princesses. A lot of their lives low-key, maybe high-key, suck, and if they can be hopeful than so can I. I can deal with a lot of personality traits, such as the difference in Cinderella’s enduring kindness and Merida’s brash recklessness, but hope is something I think those ladies need. Having a cynical Cinderella doesn’t hit the sweet spot for me.

—Do they really expect me to take that bland-ass boring old dry toast biddy seriously? *old person voice* Back in my day, the evil ruler of a cursed town was the one, the only, the stunning, the inimitable, the QUEEN Regina Mills! Tremaine don’t got nothing on my girl.

—Henry’s clothes in the Cinderella world are very Charming-esque.

—I think they cast adult Henry pretty well. It’s nowhere near the caliber of young Snow White, but let’s be real reaching that bar is impossible. His voice is the best, and every now and then he gets an expression that looks very much like Henry.

—Kinda gives me mental vertigo when I think about how much time has passed in the show since the finale of season 6, or since the beginning of the show. Henry’s a full-grown man with a wife and a daughter now. It’s gotta be at least fifteen, maybe twenty, years since the first time we saw him. *sniff* they grow up so fast!

Finished volume 3 of SVSSS. Thoughts...I can see why people Shang Qinghua and Mobei Jun, though I wish we saw more of them.

I also desperately wish we actually saw Su Xiyan instead of just hearing about her. I am not surprised about this but I am also Disappointed. In general my thoughts on women characters in this book can be described as, “Unsurprised but disappointed” with the sole exception of Ning Yingying. Even then, after Ning Yingying’s one real cool thing she doesn’t really do much again. Which sucks.

Liu Mingyan is probably the single biggest disappointment. As the former main girl of the novel there was a lot of potential for her to do shit. Especially with Shen Qingqiu. But she just...Doesn’t do anything? She shows up and is mentioned as having a cool veil and like that’s fucking it. Like...She’s there? I guess? I feel like SVSSS would be a stronger book in general if Proud Immortal Demon Way’s female characters were used for much more than jokes and Liu Mingyan I feel is, by far, the character who would add the most to it. As is she is squandered.

Given the mention of the nuns pestering her, I choose to believe Liu Mingyan shall pick up the role of harem master in Luo Binghe’s place.

These opinions are unsurprising I guess, given that my gender is “Sapphic who moonlights as a bi man sometimes”.

The sex scene I also found boring at best. Thankfully everything else after that and before it made up for that in spades but like. It was not a good sex scene. Not even for the kind of tone and thing it was supposed to be.

The thing with Shang Qinghua wanting to write a danmei novel also stands out to me as something that is a bit disappointing. I liked it a lot, but I also wish we’d gotten to see more of it. That this concept was expanded upon more. Again, especially as it regards Shen Qingqiu.

Despite this litany of complaints, I still have found this to be the most fun read out of MXTX’s three novels. It’s a flawed work, for sure, but it’s a very fun one. And I do think that the handling of Shen Qingqiu’s sexuality is well done. Luo Binghe’s too, but Shen Qingqiu’s I think is the highlight of the book. It also highlights what transmigration literature and similar genres uniquely bring to the table.

I sometimes hear people say that the frame of isekai isn’t really needed, but I always find that claim suspect. It’s not the isekai doesn’t need the frame. It’s that so much isekai fails to make use of the frame properly that it feels that way. Things like Re:Zero and I’m in Love with the Villainess show the potential of the isekai frame in storytelling. SVSSS manages this too. And that I think is its single greatest triumph as a work. It manages to use the framework in a fun and interesting way that enhances the story and which is so integral to it that you cannot remove it and have the same story.

As negative as a lot of this all sounds, I do want to state I like the book a lot. And really a lot of the disappointments are of the form of “I wish this thing I liked showed up more” or of the form of “This had so much potential and didn’t get used”. And I’m very interested to see how the book ends, since we’ve already handled the whole romance starting thing. Which I am very grateful for. I don’t mind books ending on romance starting but I’d prefer they not. I like seeing new couples or established ones do shit. Ex couples too. Like one of the most hype relationships I’ve seen is Imp and Abalyn’s in The Drowning Girl and they’re broken up for most of the book.

We’re starting to ramble a bit so let’s cut the post off here.

Book Review : One Last Stop, by Casey McQuiston

4/5 stars

(light spoilers)

Alright so this was delightful from start to finish. The concept, first of all, was great - loner college student with a knack for investigation, August, falls in love with badass butch amnesiac from the 70s who is stuck out of time in the New York subway, Jane ; awesome. I find subways fascinating, full of history and spooky vibes and potential encounters and dreary routine and urban poetry (I guess this feeds into my obsession with underground places lmao) and the story made full use of the setting. Plus something about the smut scene in an empty metro carriage at 3 am over the Manhattan Bridge was like !!! ok unrealistic but blablabla women being scared away from public spaces and queer ppl being assaulted in the metro etc etc. beautiful. healing.

the dialogue is funny, the two main characters are interesting and likeable and their chemistry has a lot of electric zing and realness to it. sweet but not desexualized or trying too hard to be 'wholesome'. something about their dynamic of two characters who have drifted between places and have never been able to really put down roots due to complicated family history, finding an anchor in each other (on a moving train no less!) really worked for me. plus points for making the love interest a beautiful, desirable, butch character (and Chinese American as well) bc i feel there is so not enough of those. plus it's nice to have a bi character that's an awkward virgin instead of a Casanova, that's also stereotype breaking. honestly good bi rep.

i also really liked the found family of quirky roommates. overall it's a pretty classic stories of early-twenties coming of age, becoming an adult, learning to let people in, putting down roots, daring to become yourself fully, letting go of your past, etc - but done very well. liked all the nods to queer history as well, how entangled it is with city life, and i loved all the 'missed connections' notes of how Jane made an impression on people throughout the years.

unpopular opinion but i was never the biggest fan of Red White and Royal Blue, found it fun but too tropey, kinda bland, and honestly overrated. (and the Disneyfication of US politics really grating. also i just read too many presidential AU fics that were like. better.) my fave part of it was the character of Nora, the foul mouthed witty friend, and the author went with that sort of tone here, which i think she does very well, plus overall it feels like a more original and fully realized story. (which, again, is just my opinion, but it's again frustrating how little wlw stories get attention compared to mlm ones, etc.) so she's kind of won me over with this one, i might pick up 'I kissed Shara Wheeler' at some point.

a few quibbles that kept it from being an all time fave : i do still find her writing a bit, hm, immature in places, not as evocative as it could be. things do get tied up almost a little too neatly, and the love interest's radical politics feel a bit more like an aesthetic gimmick but the book has a big subplot about saving a landmark diner from gentrification so i'll give that a pass. Regarding August, i am also kind of annoyed that every single shitty parents storyline ends up with 'but they tried their best and we're more alike than we know and we reconcile because family!:!!!' like it would be nice to have characters' happy ending be them enforcing their boundaries and wanting distance for once. but maybe that's not fluffy romance territory idk. Also, the cover is - if not awful, nice colors - too close to boring Canva corporate style, i hate this trend, this could have been so much cooler honestly !!! but none of those things are a big deal.

anyway !! i enjoyed it a lot and as a light, funny romantic beach read it was perfect. definitely goes on my list of fave sapphic romances.

SWTOR asks

Going to answer these for myself because I am trying to get my head back to writing. 1. Least favorite class story?

Jedi Knight. Hands down. 

2. Least favorite companion on the Imperial side?

Skadge is the obvious choice.

3. Least favorite companion on the Republic side?

Doc. No fucking question.

4. Least favorite expansion?

Oricon or Iokath. Both because there's no way to complete the story without Ops, and that simply sucks. Also Iokath because it kicks off the traitor arc and the Commander doesn't have a way to say "I'm not allying with any of you. All of you need to get off my lawn now." 

5. Least favorite Kotfe/Kotet chapter?

KOTET chapter 1 because of the walker, and because it actually is hard to see Voss being destroyed. You go through the same areas you played through in the class story/planetary arc and seeing it all in pieces is sad. Also because of the ridiculousness of it being a dark side choice if you don't want that Zakuulan in your Alliance.

I don't begrudge the game giving players a chance to save that person if they want. Obviously, a lot of people want to save him, and cool, you do you. I do have a lot of very strong criticism for Bioware's decision to only allow for extremes, and to make refusing a DS choice. Like if you don't forgive and actively, closely associate with someone who has directly caused you great physical and emotional harm, and if you don't want that character to be there instead of Lana and Theron in the end, that's somehow bad? Okay, Bioware. Please fuck off now and keep fucking off until the end of time for that one.

Runner-up: chapter 8 because that choice was NOT necessary. If you had enough Alliance Specialist influence or had done enough Alliance alerts you should have been able to save both. It's awful. And there's a walker again. The only reason this is not first is because you can pull back the lost companion at the Odessen terminal and I certainly have on my bounty hunters. 

In KOTFE, chapter 10 because no, I actually really don't want to help Kaliyo. 

6. Least favorite romance?

I don't think it's a good idea to say. There are very few romances in the game I do - I'm sapphic and so are my characters, generally. There are some romances that I honestly personally think "I cannot even begin to understand WHY a single person anywhere in the universe would ever like this or want to romance this character." But people do like them and they have that right, and I don't need to understand it. I just filter out those characters' names and ignore it. 

7. Least favorite planet?

Hoth. In addition to the confusing maps that always get me lost, the screens of solid white snow tend to induce headaches for me. I usually get on and off Hoth without doing any side quests because it's physically painful. I really wish they would make a night mode for Hoth. I had a graphics bug once where the sky was dark and it was so lovely.

8. Least favorite flashpoint?

Either of the Ilum ones tied with Spirit of Vengeance because they are like seventeen hours long each and boring as hell. I really like the purple crystal you get at the end of Battle of Ilum but I have enough of them and I can't be induced to run that arc anymore unless it's a Viri clone OR a character who can stealth through the flashpoints.

9. Most embarrassing or bullshit way you have died in game?

Walking across a room. Walking in my ship. Opening a fuse box. Clicking things. It's not a bug, it's a feature. ;) I've also done plenty of falling off cliffs and buildings, forgetting I'd left a character in a combat zone when I went to get a snack, and so on. 

10. Worst multiplayer experience?

Most of the last year or so on Star Forge. I invested in transferring most of my characters off Star Forge because that server had become unplayable. Ninjas, people stealing objectives, people trying to drag me into their mobs so I'd fight their NPCs, duel spammers, people who dress their companions in slave costumes - I'd had way too much of that. If I had not transferred them all I think I would have quit the game because it was unbearable. 

11. Worst fandom experience?

Eh. There are always fandom sheriffs. There are always people wailing when certain characters get screen time. There are always those who are behaving badly in other ways. As someone wise once said, the worst thing about Star Wars fandom is the fans. I filter and block very liberally and do not fucking engage. It's not worth my time or energy, it's just worth blocking them. It's why I have asks turned off entirely and PMs turned off unless someone is a mutual. Fandom's supposed to be fun and nobody has to give even a second of attention to those who are trying to make it not fun. 

hey! I finished Gideon the Ninth and wanted to ask if you could rec other wlw fantasy books? Also maybe a series that’s not wlw. (I trust your judgement more than the leagues of people on Good Reads)

While I have read a number of fantasy wlw books I’ll admit that I haven’t enjoyed most of them! Crier’s War, The Abyss Surrounds Us, and A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (tho this is sci-fi) were all pretty disappointing for me.

There are a few I can recommend tho!

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon: this is a high fantasy adult novel about the rise of an ancient evil, defeated and imprisoned once a thousand years previously and then threatening to reemerge. There’s magic and dragons and a bunch of different POVs.

I will say, the story itself feels a little all over the place and too damn long, but I did really enjoy the lesbian romance in it! It was fun and interesting with a classic little set-up. I will say, the evil witch was also very sexy and a part of me was like . . . yeah, go with this bitch, she’s hot. 

Overall, I do think it’s worth the read! Especially if you’re looking for a feminist epic fantasy story with a queer love story.

Wilder Girls by Rory Power: this is a YA novel about a quarantined girl’s boarding school where the girls are going through like creepy body transformations. My favorite thing about this book was definitely the atmosphere. It was very spooky and interesting and I enjoyed the mood of the piece along with some of the twists and turns.

Contrast to the other book, I found the romance in this one interesting, but way too rushed. Like, the dynamics were at least fresh and I was invested, but the payoff happened far too quickly. Still a good read tho!

I would be remiss if I didn’t do a plug for my own book of course!

We Deserve a Soft Landing Love: Sapphic Fantasy and Science Fiction Stories by Jacquelynn Lyon: a short story collection by yours truly! It covers stories about mermaids in zoos, astronauts on doomed space missions, cursed princesses, floating islands, bog witches, and more! Check it out here. 

Others: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik is a stand alone fantasy book based off of Jewish Eastern European folklore. It’s about a moneylender who gets whisked away by fae-like creatures after she boasts that she can turn silver into gold. I love this book a lot, it doesn’t have any wlw romances, but the female friendships within it are fantastic!

The Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin is my favorite fantasy series of all time! Absolutely captivating, enthralling, and intense. It’s a story that focuses on people who can move the earth (like earth bending but much more complex) and a time period that the people of this world call “the fifth season” which is basically a major die-off event.

I adore the way she writes and I was literally never bored when reading this. I will warn you that it is quiet dark, like Game of Thrones dark, but smart and purposeful in the way it does it. Also, there are a number of queer characters in the series!

Anyway! Those are some of my recs :D

I’ve actually run out of any major fantasy books I’m interested in reading at the moment, I keep thinking about reading Mistborn for the world building but people also keep telling me that the author is kinda sexist. I dunno, we’ll see!

Why do I write primarily mlm fanfic?

This was something I asked myself the other day. I am a girl, I think I'm queer (but I am attracted to men, whatever I am), so why do I fixate on mlm relationships? Why do I never feel compelled to write wlw or even just some good 'ol straight stuff? I brought this up to a few friends of mine who also watch anime. One of them said that it’s because lots of popular media only really focuses on developing their male characters well, and I think this to be a very suitable explanation (as well as the fact that I’m queer and thus gravitate towards queer stories).

Take Sk8 the Infinity for example. I could count the number of female characters in this anime on one hand, and one of them is a robot. The others are supporting roles who only serve to support the male main characters. I love Sk8 very much, and with the possibility of a 2nd season I’d love to see a prominent, well-developed female character (but if they make her Reki’s love interest I will literally stab someone). But as the anime stands right now, there are no female characters that aren't just basically plot devices.

Another show I love dearly, Yuri!!! on Ice, is much the same. While there can be more of an argument made here because 1) competitive figure skating is split up between men and women, and 2) I believe that the story Yuuri and Victor is absolutely meant to be a romance, so having the two men as the focus is somewhat necessary, there's an overwhelming lack of fleshed-out women in the story. All the female characters are supporting members that only exist for the benefit of male characters. Yuuko and Minako support Yuuri, Lilia exists so Yuri P. can improve, Mila is just... kind of there, and Sara's whole character is centered around her brother being overprotective of her.

Okay, so let's look at something a little less... fruity. Horimiya. I've only watched the anime, so if there's stuff I miss from not having read the manga (yet), please forgive me. I still think this is a valid perspective, though, because if there's female development that the creators decided was so unimportant that it could be cut, that still supports my point here. In my opinion, Miyamura is a lot more developed than Hori. He has his tragic backstory of being a loner, and having his secret piercings and tattoos and all that. A lot of the story ends up focusing on his side of things... despite the fact that Hori is the protagonist. The story follows her perspective for the most part, we learn things about Miyamura as she does, yet I feel like she's a bit dull. She has a uncommon home life and has to take care of her younger brother, that's her big bad secret? I get that it's kind of unexpected since she's the pretty, perfect, popular girl, but I still feel like it's a tad anticlimactic. It's hardly ever addressed beyond the first few episodes, too, and it just kind of exists as a fact within the story. Even beyond our main couple, it seems like the other female characters development and stories are all focused on the boy they're interested in (except for Sawada, but she's there for like a couple of episodes and then doesn't really show up all that much again... and her crush on Hori is handled really weird, I didn't exactly love it). Remi's entire character is pretty much centered around her boyfriend, and Sakura and Yuki are basically competing for Toru. Meanwhile, the guys have story beats themed around the girls they're interested in, but I feel like it's not as obsessive or dramatic as how the girls are depicted.

So, we're given these female characters, who are really watered-down and honestly kind of boring, and we're not super compelled to write about them. When we are given flat female characters, there's nothing to work with. It's more fun to use the characters who have had development and play around with the "what ifs" and our own personal headcannons. The characters who get this special treatment are primarily male. And while I commend a lot of shows for developing their male characters in such a way that doesn't exactly fit with society's idea of masculinity (ex: Reki's insecurities and depression, Yuuri's anxiety and femininity, Miyamura's isolation and depression), in the end these characters are still boys, men, males.

I also think mlm is so prominent because of both straight girls and queer people. For straight girls, it can often be fetishization (forgive my generalizing, I'm sure not all straight girls are like that, but an overwhelming amount definitely are). I think one of the best examples I can give for this is Phan. This is a bit different since it's not anime, but instead real people, but if anything that really drives home the point even more. The way Dan and Phil were (and probably still are) treated in the fandom internet space is disturbing, to say the least. Their audience, while much of it was queer, was also made up of an overwhelming amount of heterosexual girls who not only shipped them intensely, but also often sexualized them. And look, there's nothing inherently wrong with being a straight girl and writing smut, but it gets to a point where it can be kind of weird if its excessive. Like, if that's all the relationship is really about, and if the people you're writing about are real human beings, that's definitely overstepping. I will admit that I had a Wattpad and that I wrote Phanfic way back when, and this is something I'm not exactly proud of. Granted, I did not write anything explicit, it was still super weird, whether or not I was queer. And I'm not saying all the problematic aspects of the Phandom were because of straight girls, because what I contributed was arguably problematic, and I did not identify as straight at the time. At the same time, though, there were straight girls who wrote exclusively smut (or "lemons" as they might've been referred to at the time). There were those who analyzed every post, every bit of information they could find about these men on the internet. They obsessed over the fact that they occasionally shared clothes (which is fairly common for roomates of similar sizes to do), and gathered evidence to support the theory that they shared a bed. It was bad. It was invasive, and it got to the point where it wasn't about the people, it was about the fetishized fantasy these girls made up in their heads about these real, actual men.

Dan and Phil's online presence kind of disappeared for a few years... and I don't blame them.

Getting back on track, mlm is prominent for queer people because it's the LGBT representation they so desperately want to see actualized in media. If a show doesn't make their favorite queer ship canon (and they often don't), they'll do it themselves! That's what fanfic is for! I also know that queer people project onto these characters a lot, and that writing about them is almost like a form of therapy. They see these characters as queer, and they see themselves in these characters, so they write about these characters experiencing similar emotions to them. The thing is, the most compelling characters are male, so those are the characters they end up focusing on, even if the person in question is strictly sapphic. My best example is how I project onto Reki. Personally, I end up thinking of him as (and thus end up writing him as) having some internalized homophobia around being bisexual. That's literally what I am currently going through. I can't project this onto any of the female characters in Sk8, because I couldn't see them going through this experience because they're not developed enough to.

Despite all of this, I still enjoy all of the shows I mention a lot. I think it's just an interesting topic that I was thinking about. I'm not trying to bash anything that I used as an example, these were just my personal observations based off of what I know about these shows and their fandoms. I do, though, believe shipping real people isn't super cool, and I stand by that as someone who used to do it. I'm not going to stop you... I just think it's intrusive and inappropriate to pretend like you know enough about influencers to dictate who they should be involved with romantically. Their love life is, frankly, none of your damn business.

So, long story short, we should make anime (and popular media in general) less misogynistic.

(Also, please leave Dan and Phil alone, they deserve privacy)

i really dont want to come off as mean like im genuinely curious ,, why do people ship jinzula? bc they have no interactions so i dont understand where it comes from? pls i want to be education so maybe also gift me with some jinzula hcs

Hey there, Anon! Yeah I 100% understand the confusion.

Honestly, I’m VERY deep in this fandom and it gets to a point where you’ve built all these different ideas and characteristics for characters—especially ones you don’t see much of. So if I were to have just barely watched the show and then saw someone shipping Jinzula I’d be like ???!?!?!??????!??

There are other fandoms with ships who have never interacted, too. Jinzula is a ship I like because I have a pretty good idea of Jin’s canon personality, as well as her fanon one, and I have a pretty good understanding of Azula, too. And I think they’d make a super cute pairing if their met (after Azula gets a redemption and the help she needs).

I mean, I love these two funky sapphics. The intimidating and protective one paired with the bubbly and sarcastic one is a great dynamic! But it’s not for everyone and some people don’t like to ship characters who haven’t met before while others do. (I’m usually not into it but these two are one of the few exceptions lol)

So yeah, Jinzula is something my brain just thought up (though I’m sure other shipped it before me) and I kinda just... rolled with it. Bc I love the idea :)

Now for those headcanons (these all happen after Azula has gotten that redemption)

Azula used to hate the color green, but since meeting Jin it’s become her favorite.

Azula is strong as heck so she can completely pick Jin up. This results in lots of casual bridal-style carrying sessions and piggyback rides. Azula insists it’s just for convenience, but secretly she just likes hearing Jin laugh when she sweeps her up.

Jin braids Azula’s hair when she’s bored. Azula doesn’t seem to mind, which is insane because she never lets anyone touch her hair.

Azula isn’t one to get flustered (EVER) so when Sokka sees Jin make her blush, he laughs about it for ages and excitedly tells Zuko about it.

Jin is very informal and funny, Azula’s straight-faced and has extremely dry humor (not unlike her brother). This makes for some hysterical interactions.

Azula is very intelligent but becomes Dumb As Fuck when Jin is around because she’s a lesbian mess who can’t think around pretty girls.

It wasn’t love at first sight. It wasn’t hate at first sight. They just hung out over and over again because people were encouraging Azula to make friends and one day Azula realized she’d fallen in love with her.

When Jin plans the dates, they end up eating nice meals, stargazing, or sitting on a front porch late at night telling stories. When Azula plans the dates, they end up out of breath running from an angry shopkeeper or throwing knives at targets. They both enjoy all of these activities.

The first time Azula laughs super hard (without any maliciousness behind it), it’s because of Jin. (She did something silly and Azula couldn’t control herself).

That’s just a few, but there are tons of possibilities. It’s basically “the grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one” with sapphics and I love that for them!!

And again, if shipping characters who don’t interact in canon isn’t for you, then hey, that’s cool. I just think they’re neat :)

Thanks for the ask!<3

ahhh i missed your birthday, sending (belated) best wishes ✨ i'd love to know more (unspoilery, tho) abt what you thought about honey girl and ppl we meet on vacation, i have both on my tbr and since you have a similar taste in books i'm very 👀👀 yk:) hope your week's going well!

ohh, thank you so much sabrina, you're an angel <333 hahaha yes, i wasn't really on tumblr that day and after that it felt weird to be like 'yay guys it was my birthday!' so no worries.

ofc i am happy to give you some opinions on both these books! honey girl was actually quite a disappointed for me. i was expecting to end up loving it since it includes topics i have loved to read about in the past (mental health, sapphic relationships, academia and race, the importance of queer support networks/'found families'). but in the end i was just kinda bored while reading it? i couldn't really connect with most of the characters, probably bc the plot was moving at such a weird pace. every time i was getting used to a setting or a set of characters the story would change locations or have a time jump that took me out of the story again. it was still an okay read and i would still recommend it to people who are looking for a queer contemporary that focuses on issues you face in your 20s, but i wasn't majorly impressed bc the writing style just wasn't for me.

pwmov was quite entertaining and i definitely had more fun with this one. but i also really like emily henry's writing style and i generally eat up the friends-to-lovers trope so i might be bias. it's definitely a lot more romance-y and lighter than honey girl, but that also means it makes heavier use of romance tropes. if you despise miscommunication tropes, i think you'll have hard time with pwmov. while i personally don't think it was a big issue, i can see why some people are annoyed by the use of this trope in this story since it is a major conflict. ((idk if it's spoilery since it's basically something you figure out right from the start as an attentive reader—but skip the rest of this parenthesis NOW if you like— but there is literally no reason why poppy and alex cannot be together other than that they are both too chicken to tell the other how they feel... i absolutely sympathize with this fear they have to open up to each other but some people are REALLY bothered by that so if you feel the same and you need a major conflict that is more intense you'll be disappointed with this one.)) another thing i saw people complain about is the non-linear narrative. i enjoyed the non-linear storytelling, but if that's not you're thing either i would definitely think twice about picking it up. it's easy to follow the story tho, so if you're on the fence about picking it up just bc of that i'd say give it a try. generally speaking i don't think this books is or did anything special. beach read was definitely better in my opinion and it brought much more to the table than many other romances. pwmov is different in that regard. it's full on romance without trying to add any interesting contemporary aspects. pwmov is just a cute, light friends-to-lovers romance that doesn't try to be much more, and if that's something you're in the mood for i'd recommend it, but if you don't really care about romance novels unless there is anything special about them you probably won't have the best of times with this book. ((i still think it's better than most romance novels that are out there bc emily henry writes realistic and relatable characters that employ common sense, so i'd rec it to people who like most romance novels))