#it might not be canon but he was so gay as a teenager its not even funny
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Okay but. Now I am thinking of transfem Evie Harrington starbara canon au where Barb is like. Preeetty sure she only likes girls. Possibly. But she's willing to give Steve a try. He's charming and goofy and listens when she says to cut out all that mean talk and is also, shockingly, very interested in her.
So she thinks sure, she'll try dating a boy. Feel like a normal teenage girl for a bit. It's fun and Steve listens when she tells him to back off. And she really does like him. So maybe she just likes mostly girls usually, and sometimes a boy. Mostly Steve, though.
But then she gets taken by the demogorgon and survives the Upside Down and everything is awful. Steve is still there, and he's worried and protective and so so glad she's back mostly safe. She thinks she might be a little in love with him.
They date, and it's nice and good and normal and Steve lets her set the pace with how to talk about the Upside Down. She does talk about it, and he talks about what happened in the right side up, and they both cry. Barb knows she loves him, and that he loves her. It's nice and comfortable, they kiss and have sex and saying it's love is probably fast but they've survived monsters apart, so now they want to stick together.
One day, maybe the spring or summer after round one, Barb convinces him to lay back and let her get him dolled up. They've got a free afternoon and she wants to practice doing someone else's makeup just in case. Also, it's fun. It's silly and they deserve a little silly. She doesn't really wear a lot of make up but she's got mascara, a couple colours of lipstick, rouge, and a whopping four different eyeshaddows. While Barb prefers the dark red lipstick, she thinks the lighter, cherry shade would be better for Steve. She curls his lashes (borrowed the curler from Nancy and forgot to give it back) and adds just a little pink eyeshadow, then blush around his cheeks. She's admittedly not very skilled or practiced, but it's definitely passable application. The finishing touch, though, is that Steve lets her style his hair, parting it to the side because of all the cowlicks, and letting its waves curl slightly around his face. She climbs off him and stands, looking down at him.
"oh. You make a very pretty girl, Stevie. Or. Hm... Evie, maybe? Wanna see?"
He pauses for a moment before crawling off his bed to the bathroom, and when he faces the mirror Barb can hear him stop breathing. It's just a moment, before he turns to her and smiles. Kisses her cheek and likely smears lipstick on it (which does give Barb a bit of a thrill, and little jolt of pleasure and longing and she doesn't want to think about that because she loves Steve. She knows she does. If people can be a little gay sometimes Barb can be a little Straight with Steve. She doesn't need lipstick on her cheek or to watch a skirt brush the ground or anything else like that when Steve is beside her.)
It isn't until after the tunnels that Steve brings it up. A week after, he's barely gotten the go ahead to slowly get back to school (he's able to do half days until the headaches get too much), they're laying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, holding hands and just breathing together.
"Barbie?" He starts, and stops.
She hums, encouraging.
He sighs. "Do you remember when you...when you did my makeup?"
"yeah, I do."
"you called me Evie. Like my great Aunt, my favourite Aunt, I would've been named after if I was a girl instead of my great Uncle."
She turns her head to look at him, still staring at the ceiling, squeezing her hand tighter now.
"I did..."
"I need you to know I love you. I do. I really, really do."
She almost sits up, but stops herself. Whatever Steve is talking about is important, he's clutching her hand tightly but not looking at her. Instead, she squeezes back. "I love you too."
Steve's breath hitches. "I really liked it when you called me Evie." It's a whisper, a breath.
Barb squeezes his hand again.
"Barbie. I really, really, liked it. I wish it was my name." Finally he turns to face her, and his eyes are glossy. She reaches up to brush her fingers against a yellowing bruise on his cheek. "I wish I was that little girl that was named after her Great Aunt Evelyn and I could wear makeup like you did for me whenever I wanted and that I was a pretty girl."
Barb leans in to kiss softly, a brush of lips. "Maybe you are?" She doesn't know. Just knows that Steve, Evie? Is upset. She doesn't want to see someone she loves upset, and it seems like saying that may help. She doesn't know.
Breath hitches. "You think I can be? Just like that?"
Combing her fingers through her...through her lover's hair, Barb shrugs as best she can lying on her side. "I've never wanted to be a boy. But you want to be a girl. I think. I think maybe that's what makes you one?"
"yeah?" It's a tiny, cracking, word and Barb wishes she could help fix whatever grief is causing it.
"well. I don't think any people who aren't girls want to be girls."
Her lover shifts, enough that their foreheads touch. "And...would that be okay? For you? For...for us?"
Barb leans closer, so their lips brush when she speaks. "Pretty sure you're it for me, Evelyn Harrington. Whoever you decide you are, I'll love."
"and if I want to be your girlfriend?"
She grins, can't help pressing into a kiss. "Then I guess I've got the prettiest girlfriend in town."
Evie presses in for another kiss. "Mmh. No. I think that's me." Barb can feel her smiling against her lips.
#starbara#steve harrington#barbara holland#barb x steve#steve x barb#hollington#trans steve harrington#trans fem steve harrington#great aunt Evelyn is the oc that just keeps on giving#stranger things#finda writes stuff#stranger things au#fluff#fics
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a post in defense of (a very much alive) S5 Jonathan Byers
under the cut b/c this is more frustrated commentary than strict analysis, and you shouldn't have to read if you don't want to.
I feel like it must have come from the dry spell between seasons, but I have to say it: all of this “Jonathan is gonna die and that means Stancy could happen” stuff lately is not only giving "I just like angst for its own sake," it's lowkey nonsense if you look at it thematically (in context of the Jon/Nancy/Steve madness yes, but especially in context of the Byers family).
—like? Friends.
Given the Duffer’s track record of refusing to fully kill off major characters even when it could have made sense to (cc: Hopper and Max), I don’t think anyone is actually meeting their end, but let’s be SO serious about who is actually likely to get axed: the boy with a mom, brother, step-sister and girlfriend who have been central to every single moment in this show…or the one they've put into a triangle we all thought was over until S4, who they’ve honestly written into a corner, & whose primary drive in four entire seasons was getting a girlfriend and protecting a bunch of teenagers?
I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's just talk Jonathan.
The Duffers (Matt especially) have openly gotten upset at even the notion of Mike dying because "that's depressing" AND "that's Nancy's brother" (showing the familial ties are a HUGE part of what would keep them from ending someone), in addition to them saying they've thought through every imaginable scenario" on who might die—
—and you think its Jonathan whose meeting his end? King of championing "not liking what you don't have to" and the outcasts in all areas from music taste to being queer...after all the Byers have been through and knowing The Duffers write toward championing the outcasts and those who embrace their differences?
That, combined with the fact that the only "evidence" I've ever seen for him potentially dying has been that speech he gave to Will in the SBP somehow being connected to (you guessed it) setting up angst for Will...I'm gonna take a hard and wild educated guess based on the entirety of the rest of the show and say that was literally written so Will could catch a goddamn break, not as a death tag.
The fact that Noah confirmed it wasn't in the Duffer's OG script, was written day of filming + was done because "it was important for people to see will wasn't alone" is evidence enough for that.
Even so, the fact that there are still at least 4 unresolved plots Jonathan is part and privy to makes his death even less likely, because it wouldn't make sense for resolving anything for him to die at all, never mind in the episodes before our supposed timeskip.
Jonathan's messy relationship with Nancy, the fact that he's the only one who actually knows Will is gay, and the fact that he's the only other character who saw & understood the ULTIMATE Chekhov's gun in the form of that painting (on top of also having a longstanding relationship with Mike )should make it clear he isn't going anywhere from a narrative perspective...and I'm not even sure where the idea that he would die popped up, other than fandom warping the canon and projecting onto the plot.
The Duffers have always been clear about not doing things solely for the sake of surprise + not liking things that don't make narrative sense...and Jonathan's death would be both of those things, done solely for shock value.
I just. Be so serious right now. if you want to imagine the weight of Jonathan dying SOLELY for fandom angst DO THAT...but don't pretend like his death in the show wouldn't be the most poorly foreshadowed thing in this entire show, on top of not matching a single theme of the ongoing Stranger Things narrative. ☠️
Put some respect on his name lmao
Bonus: If you really want to talk about character's dying (and not just jump into angst for its own sake): they haven’t given Steve a proper love interest EVER outside of Nancy, made Dustin cry over Eddie instead of staying close to Steve S4, and haven’t ONCE referenced that boy’s family properly more than a few times in passing (and only by Steve himself).
He is the only character who craves normalcy despite this show being about championing the outcast, was supposed to die seasons ago but stayed because Joe Keery was so beloved, and has now been written into a corner where every single person who is central to him (esp Dustin and Robin) either have a new love interest or are worried about something else more than him, which...if you want canonical evidence for a possible death, you're looking in the wrong corner of this love triangle.
#HERE U GO ANON LMAO#my st commentary#jonathan byers#stranger things#he will be alive and well in S5!#single? maybe. but DEFINITELY alive lmao
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This was supposed to be a timeline for all the mys ships that did/might happen in my rewrite(which isn't even started but shh). It ended up being just me ranting about mys!Garrance.
At first, it follows smh. But then. It's just me rambling. Well. It's me rambling in general.
tw for mentions of homophobia and smoking.
Now, now, i think i've been neglecting these two recently. Honestly I don't even remember how I started shipping them but I did, and years later here I am, still drawing and writing about gay block men.They're literally engaged in mys and no one is convincing me otherwise(<- this whole thing will get its own post eventually). Uhm, okay, now that I got that out of my system, maybe I should give some actual hcs.
◇ Garroth is a year older than Laurance.
◇ They used to be close friends when they were little(most of the mys cast knew eachother in childhood at some extent), but once they entered their teenage years they grew apart,and the fact that Garroth and his family moved away when Garroth started high-school not helping their situation.
◇ Garroth did his freshman year and a bit of his sophomore year in O'Kasis Academy, but due to not being able to fit in ended up moving to Phoenix Drops High(after a lot of complains and pleases from him and Zianna towards Garte).
◇ Well, when he got in PDH, Laurance has been there already for like half a year(he was a freshman), and was already hanging around the Shadow Knights, so as you may imagine Garroth and Laurance didn't really got to interact a lot.
◇ In that summer, Laurance and Gene broke up for unknown reasons. The entire school, of course, found out about that.
◇ Garroth did try to get closer to Laurance that year. It did not work.
◇ Laurance spent that year mostly alone, with the daily interruptions of some people who were trying to try their chances with him.
◇ They started finally getting closer again when the 'canon' started(Laurance's junior year, Garroth's senior year)
◇ Aph basically made them interact by befriending them both and making them sit together every single day.
◇ Regardless, Laurance and Garroth started hanging out together on their own not long after.
◇ Laurance fell first. Garroth fell harder.
◇ They never got together in high school, actually, though it was pretty obvious they liked each other.
◇ Originally, Garroth didn't even realise he caught feelings. Man was busy, ok? He was thinking about college, and besides, his father would NEVER accept one of his sons being queer-
◇ The realisation that he is, in fact gay hit him like a brick.
◇ Regardless, that's a subject for another time.
◇ Aph and Travis, the best wingmen EVER.
◇ They were hyping up Garroth's every move. It was very obvious what was happening, for everyone but Laurance, that is.
◇ Laurance had long rants about his 'secret crush'.
◇ it was not a secret.
◇ They were very in love. But a bit too stupid.
◇ Anyway. Garroth leaves for college next year(thankfully for him missing most of the Ein situation)
◇ Laurance weeps the entire year.
◇ He still finds ways to make Garroth visit though
◇ Be it complaining about forgetting his lunch and being too busy to go and get something for himself or being about cigarettes.
◇ Garroth, of course, 'falls for it' every time.
◇ Laurance finds out Garroth was planning on cutting off his family entirely(temporarily, he regains contact with Zianna and Vylad a bit later on. He litteraly wakes up with Zane going to a college close to his)
◇ Basically, he takes Laurance with him.
◇ But first, Garroth goes to his last family dinner for a while, Laurance there's to. Garte isn't pleased.
◇ Well, they clearly make an exit.
◇ They're dating at that point, sharing their first kiss in the car. Very romantic.
◇ While college they share an apartment somewhere close by.
◇ When they meet the rest of the cast ABSOLUTELY NO ONE is surprised that they're dating.
◇ Of course, after college, they move in together, somehow being persuaded by Dante to let him move in with them.
◇ They get engaged in Emerald Secret, I'll expand on that eventually.
◇ Pet names. A lot of them. From both sides.
◇ They don't do pda a lot because Garroth doesn't feel comfortable doing so, but behind close doors, Garroth IS the clingy one
◇ They're still holding hands almost 98% of the time,though
◇ It doesn't bother Garroth that much that Laurance smokes, but he still tries convincing Laurance to do it less and less.
◇ Which actually works because Laurance does smoke much less than he used to! He is trying to give up on it completely, not only for Garroth but himself. But of course, as any addiction, it's hard.
◇ Anyway. They aren't very jealous. Of course, there is some type of jealousy there, but it's rare, and they usually talk it out privately.
◇ Kisses.
◇ They are hyping up each other constantly.
◇ I just like them being happy, ok?
◇ As I said before, mys!Garroth is a dog person, mys!Laurance is a cat person.
◇ Yeah, so...Ungrth and Raven. Not so much of mystical creatures in this one, are they?
◇ Those two are their kids. They don't actually really want actual human kids. Not now, at least. Maybe later.
◇ Their idea of the best date is lying on the couch together with some snacks while watching crappy movies
◇ It's a bit hard when a certain someone is blasting music from the basement(cough Travis cough)
◇ They love him tho
◇ They also miss Dante sometimes(<- moved out eventually)
◇ Laurance knows how to play the guitar. I think you know what he has done with this ability.
◇ It was in private, though. Garroth might have sobbed a bit(/pos).
◇ Laurance also blasts music while he does his part of the chores. It's country music. It's the only time when he actively listens to it.
◇ Something about his fiancé and country music combined is very attractive to Garroth.
◇ mys!Garroth doesn't know how to cook(does not stop his from complaining about Laurance's way to do things tho, in a light-hearted manner, obvs). mys!Laurance is a very good cook.
◇ Garroth likes reading a lot. He sometimes reads to Laurance before sleep.
◇ They're eachothers comfort.
◇ Cadenza made it clear that if they ever have a wedding, SHE'LL design the suits. Of course, no one complained.
◇ Speaking of, the Zvhals adore Garroth.
◇ The Ro'Meaves. Uhm. Well. Garte dislikes Laurance. A lot. Zianna adores him, though! Vylad and Laurance are friends(I have yet to work on their dynamic in mys, so that's all I have for now). And then there's Zane. Mys!Zane and mys!Laurance are the best yet worst frenemies you'll ever meet.
◇ Speaking of, Garte hates more the fact that Garroth is dating Laurance than the fact that Garroth is gay.
◇ He got used to Garroth's 'queerness'. But not with Laurance.
◇ Laurance doesn't stand Garte either for obvious reasons.
◇ They went over for a family dinner once. Yeah. It was even worse this time.
◇When they first started dating, journalists were all over them. Garroth hated it, Laurance wouldn't have cared too much if it didn't bother Garroth.
◇They are being left relatively alone nowadays
Yeah, that's all I have for now. Thank you for actually reading all this, and pls ask me stuff about the cast or other ships. I'm always happy to rant about them or hear others do it
#aphmau#aphblr#aphverse#minecraft diaries#andi's random rants#mystreet#laurance zvahl#andi's mystreet rewrite🛣#aphmau fandom#laurence aphmau#aphmau laurance#aphmau mystreet#mystreet laurance#garrance#garroth fanart#garroth aphmau#aphmau garroth#garroth ro’meave#garroth romeave#garroth ro'meave#aphmau gene#aphmau zane#garte ro'meave#zianna ro'meave#aphmau cadenza#aphmau headcanons#garrence#mystreet zane#garroth mystreet
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I saw some people talking about yuumori character sexualities and just wanted to add my own headcanons <33
Sherlock: see now, we all know sherlock has been explicitly stating his... Repulsion (yes, not "oh im not attracted to them" straight up repulsion at the thought of being in a romantic and/or sexual relationship with them)
And im not saying sherlock is misogynistic. He has been seen very happily helping women with their cases. And might i add that on the Noahtic, while everyone was prancing around with a lady on his arm, sherlock was standing in the corner. Even though he was also with ladies he was CLEARLY in it only for their appreciation of him. Because you see, Sherlock is a clever man. He saw these bunch of women who had no one to dance with and was aware that they would be head over heels for his skills. And he was probably sent to the Noahtic by mycroft, so why not pass some time and get some praise?
But as soon as he met Liam he felt an instant obsession connection. Not necessarily romantic, but this is where that japanese feeling that i forgot the name of comes in. The feeling of meeting someone and instantly knowing that while you dont feel anything now, you could potentially be dynamic (is that the correct word, for sherliam i think it is)
And as i said and will say again, sherlock is a clever man. Of course he's not gonna sit around sexually frustrated, when he can easily use his charms and skills to find the right people. But as per literally canon, until he met Liam he didnt feel romantic (that comes later though, first was obsession) "attraction".
Conclusion? Gay demiromantic.
William: now while william never had a "repulsion" to women, I'd say he quite literally has a repulsion to any idea of a romantic relationship at all. He looked at london and got his "lemme fix that" hyperfixation game so heavy that he forgot he was alive most of the times. That man falls asleep on random occasions at literally anywhere at any time because he avoids sleep for his plans. Do you expect him to have any sort of romantic or sexual relationship? No, sir.
Then waltzes in Sherlock. Like i said, instant obsession. Though for William, that japanese feeling never came. While he was always hoping for a different reality where he and sherlock could be together, he never acknowledged his feelings enough to let himself feel something.
But talking about sexual attraction, while i do firmly believe Liam doesnt feel it for the better part of his life, he did start to feel some things a while after meeting sherlock. He fucking KNEW what he was doing with that "catch me if you can, mr holmes~" I think it surprised him too, all this strange emotions trickling in slowly after years of not feeling anything.
Conclusion? Demisexual AND demiromantic.
John: thought he was straight, but you all have seen his reaction to irene when they dressed up as the king of bohamia right? I'd say bisexual, but he's still learning to embrace that part of his identity. And even when he does embrace it, i dont think he's gonna do anything about it. Cuz like cmon, its 19th century London. Do you think he'll damn himself by loving a man when he is capable of what most people like him are not (to love someone of the opposite gender)? But I DO think he had a crush on louis for a while but i think that just for shits and giggles hehe
Louis: aroace. No questions asked. He loves in a very... Devotional way. Like liam and possibly albert, he has an unbreakable attachment to them. His love for their found family? He is soooo aro ace coded.
Albert: wineromantic. bisexual disaster.
Moran: pansexual just cuz. He loves his women but he has had something with albert and possibly james that is simply not heterosexual. And he was in the army cmon if there's a hole there's a goal
James: pansexual BECAUSE, hear me out, he had known this since he was a teenager. Which is why it took him until he got to Moriarty's to realise he actually wants to be a man. He had known men love him, so he was styling his hair and wearing tight corsets. He had known women loved him, so he was putting on disguises to kiss and snog. I think he was just so comfortable in his identity he never felt the need to be the opposite gender. But he was and, well, we're happy for our boy.
Fred: ace, maybe demi, and genderfluid. I might be projecting on the genderfluid part here but can you blame me? He/they pronouns.
Jack: he's above such measly attractions (idk maybe he was young he could have had something but idk anything while looking at him now)
Mycroft: gay gay homosexual gay. No straight man spends 30 minutes every morning putting pomade in his hair (hiding a part of your identity, already? Huh myckey?)
Miss hudson: straight because she didn't feel any (okay maybe somewhat) attraction to irene but when she met JAMES ouahahahaha
Herder: married to the grind 💪💪💪 making love to the game 💯💯💯 he only loves one thing and thats his craft 🔥🔥🔥
Just kidding he definitely has something gay going on
Billy: he has some WAY GAYER going on. Have never seen him interact with women (how gay) so i can't say much but he definitely gives bi/leaning on gay vibes
#just a personal little headcanon that sherlock fell for liam on the durham date#i mean look at this cute math professor with a nice ass and pretty voice listening to his hyperfixations and taking interest in them too#how was he supposed to NOT fall#plus the way he looked at him when he realized can literally be seen from miles away in canon his face was literally sunlight#moriarty the patriot#sherliam#william james moriarty#yuukoku no moriarty#sherlock moriarty the patriot#von herder#billy the kid#henry antrim#louis james moriarty#albert james moriarty#sebastian moran#mycroft holmes mtp#fred porlock#james bonde
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Soulmate Bracket: Round 1 [Side A — Part V]
Provided reasoning under cut:
Wei Wuxian & Lan Wangji
They are canonically called soulmates!! In the live action this is platonic due to censorship and in the book it is romantic but the term actually used is zhiji (知己) of which soulmate is the closest english translation but is more literally like. the mirror to your soul. your own self in another person. i am not good with translations only wei wuxian dies but lan wangji mourns him for thirteen years (despite wwx being hated and despised by the world) because he can never love another. when wwx is brought back he recognises him instantly despite being in someone else’s body. they literally would find each other in any time or place
Oh boy. Ok. They're not explicitly called "soulmates" in the show/book but Netflix does use that categorization in its description of "The Untamed". Nor are either of them technically reincarnated BUT Wei Wuxian does get resurrected in another man's body through some shady necromancy, which is pretty darn close. They've got a fascinating relationship journey (basically enemies/rivals to lovers) Mr. Follow-All-Rules-To-The-Letter Lan Wangji meets Mr. Break-All-The-Rules-In-The-Name-Of-Fun-And-Showing-Off Wei Wuxian at teenage exorcist summer camp, they go through some sh*t, Wei Wuxian dies, Lan Wangji spends over a decade trying to find any sign of his lost soulmate while raising his adopted kid, then the shady necromancy happens and Lan Wangji IMMEDIATELY clocks that this guy simultaneously solving exorcist issues using slightly questionable means and causing shenanigans is Wei Wuxian. He might be in a different body pretending to be another crazy man, but HE KNOWS it's his guy because he acts the same and he knows the secret love song Wangji wrote for Wuxian that he shared one time in a cave during one of their near-death bonding experiences. Then history starts kind of repeating itself, only this time they stick together and make sure EVERYONE knows that they've got each others' backs, and they are absolutely legendary. Also Wei Wuxian is INCREDIBLY dense and it takes him just about until the end of the story to realize they're both gay and in love. They're complex and fascinating and tied to each other by the red string of fate so tightly that they are incomplete without each other. That's destiny, baby. They're soulmates, always and forever. (Possibly literally as the proper practice of exorcism (called "cultivation" in this world) can lead to immortality, and you know Mr. Follow-All-Rules-To-The-Letter Lan Wangji has the potential, and he will drag his guy along with him so they are never separated again.)
Okay so I feel like it could be argued if they count but the Netflix description of the show calls them soulmates and WWX *did* get reincarnated and then almost immediately run into LWJ who had been mourning him for 16 years. LWJ composed a little musical theme for them that ties them together and WWX playing it on a super out of tune flute is what let LWJ fully recognize him. Their magic which comes from their souls is very compatible and neither of them have ever been normal about each other in their life even though WWX spent a long time being extremely dumb and repressed about his very gay feelings (they are romantic soulmates, just takes them a bit to get there). Big "you and me against the world" vibes once WWX becomes the number 1 wanted guy in the entire universe due to dabbling in dark magic even though WWX was like "lan zhan if someone has to kill me i want it to be you" (LWJ did *not* want it to be him and did his very best to keep WWX alive even though it meant betraying his clan and the world as a whole). They got fake married as teens back when LWJ didn't even like WWX. There are multiple moments where they parallel other soulmates/soulmate-coded characters (song lan and xiao xingchen, baoshen sanren and lan an). They're the only two characters who get to be happy at the immediate end of the story and that's because both of them being alive and together and getting to wander around fighting monsters and playing music and being grossly in love is all that they both need.
Utena Tenjou & Anthy Himemiya
[SPOILERS] at the end of the series, it is revealed that they weren’t living in the real world this entire time. Utena was sent somewhere else. Anthy goes to find her in the movie, and Utena has lost all of her memories of Anthy in that world. At the end of the movie, they end up escaping to the real world
Utena falls in love with Anthy on first sight and makes sure she becomes her prince without even remembering who she is. They're stuck in a timeloop and eventually find themselves together near the end escaping from the horrors theyre trapped in. (Spoilers kinda) Anthy is hinted to have came back to life after being burned st the stake for being seen as a witch so the reincarnation exists,,,(they're in love your honor vote for my silly sapphics)
Every version of RGU is the narrative repeating itself. Devouring itself again. The serpent eating its own tail. Utena fights for Anthy again and again. Anthy betrays Utena, or lies to Utena, or cannot save the both of them quick enough. Anthy escapes, or they both escape, or they both get trapped again, and the story repeats, and Utena is winning the hand of the rose bride, and Utena cannot escape the narrative. Each time the story is told again Utena cannot quite remember how she got here, but it gets more familiar each time. RGU is a time loop that the characters can hardly escape. In every version, Anthy and Utena find each other. Betray each other. Find each other, again.
#the untamed#mo dao zu shi#revolutionary girl utena#soulmatebracket#wei wuxian#lan wangji#wangxian#utena tenjou#anthy himemiya#utenanthy#id in alt text
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This might get me cancelled, but idc, so...
Fanfiction is supposed to be transgressive. It is supposed to be about looking at something and saying "I could go somewhere interesting with that", "That was stupid, I could fix that", "I can make that better", "I can make that happen", "I can make them fall in love", "I can make them happy".
It's why one of my fandoms had about 30% more works shipping the main character with her (male) best friend as opposed to the guy she marries in the show. People looked at it and said "That isn't right. This is better". So they made it themselves.
But guess what? Shipping her or just liking her more with her love interest was still more popular amongst more casual audiences. And the fanon shippers were surprised by this!
It's why I am baffled by the things I see stated online.
People thinking that there being more fanfiction about a particular ship means more people ship it, as if one fan writes a fic each and then leaves and as if there are no people who ship it and just don't write fic? Because they are not writers?
People being surprised that main characters are shipped with other main characters more as opposed to a character that appears in one episode.
People being surprised that people can believe a character is straight in canon and still enjoy fanon slash ships where he's shipped with other men.
Of course there will always be more M/M works than M/F works. We have enough heterosexuality in media already and as for F/F, while queer women do write F/F fanfic, there aren't that many queer women in the world statistically as opposed to straight women and even if fandom has a larger number of queer women than average, queer women write M/M works too.
You can believe this is Problematic, but guess what, back then, we were all freaks and weirdos. People would share links on obscure websites because they were scared of being sued. Professional writers would purge all their fanfiction and pray to god no one ever finds out. And if you wrote gay fanfiction? Good luck being taken seriously anywhere.
We went from "ship and let ship" and "don't like don't read" to "supporting this platonic surrogate father-son bond makes you a bigot because the father figure once made an ignorant comment" and "it's problematic to ship the hero with the villain because the hero is scared of him".
Fandom stopped being about Liking and Enjoying things and started being about Fighting People and Proving You're Right and Your Ship is Better. Because if you don't become canon, if you don't Win, what is even the point?
Of course it will be like that, when you tell people shipping something is Activism and not shipping something makes them a Bad Person and shipping something you morally disagree with makes them a Bad Person and more importantly makes you a Good Person for fighting the important battle of stopping people from imagining two imaginary people kissing in their heads.
Shipping is a feeling. Sometimes it's "I ship this, hehehe." Sometimes its "Oh no, I ship this and I wish I didn't." Sometimes it's "I wish I shipped this but I can't." It's supposed to be fun and not a form of mental torture.
It's not a choice. It's not writing fanfiction or making fanart, that comes later, but it's not even a requirement. You can write fanfiction for something you don't even ship! You can write fanfiction for shows you didn't even watch!
And shipping something doesn't make you Better or Worse.
Ship shaming doesn't stop people from shipping something, it only has the potential to make them feel worse for something they, for the most part, can't control. And when the person in question is a literal teenager who also self-harms, it certainly has no potential to do anyone any good.
And it's why when the proshippers see a person like that, a person like them, they welcome them in. "You're with us now. It's your ship. Own it. Come join us." Because they have experienced the same thing and they know they would want someone to stand up for them, too. They won't let you feel as if you're alone. Because you're not and you never will be. You have a community, you just need to look for it and find it.
It's what made me realize that the antis were the bullies. Also, the antis were a bunch of teenagers too, who thought they were doing important activism by yelling at people in caps lock.
So get off your high horse. It's not that serious. Stop talking about it like it's life or death and maybe you will feel better.
It worked for me.
I want the same for you.
And I swear, if someone here starts with "But what about-" No. Let me stop you right there.
#shipping#proshipping#proshipper#fandom life#fandom culture#shipping discourse#yes some of this is about something very specific#but i would rather not share what#please respect that
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2. Page-turning Fanfic Underneath it All by Heartsmadeofbooks 3. Fanfic that made you reach for a box of tissues- Hummel’s Home for Non-Conforming Adolescents by BeautifulUnseen 4. Fanfic where one has an unusual occupation- Dance Me To The End Of Love by Kurtswish 5. Wild Card - Love, Blaine by GleefulDarrenCrissfan 6. ? 7.written for a challenge- The Prom-us Misc authors
8. Made me lol - Chocolate Milk byCoffeeAddict80 9. Trope you don't usually read- Everybody's Naked and There's a Country to Run by CoffeeGleek
Thank you for your card! Find them on A03
2. Page turning fic: Underneath it All by @heartsmadeofbooks
Blaine first meets the mysterious Kurt Hummel at his brother's engagement party, and he's immediately struck by the quiet, handsome stranger. He doesn't expect their paths to cross again, but when life gives an unexpected turn, Kurt might be the only one with the power to help him save everything he cares about.
3. Fanfic that made you reach for a box of tissues- Hummel’s Home for Non-Conforming Adolescents by @beautifulunseen
Blaine Anderson had learned from the time he was marked as Non-Conforming that his life would never go according to plan. Still, the last thing he expected was Hummel’s Home and its head boy Kurt, who had, against all odds, escaped the same fate. Dystopian AU.
4. Fanfic where one has an unusual occupation- Dance Me To The End Of Love by @kurtswish
While unwinding at a club, Blaine Anderson meets a stranger who promises him one night of passion. When the night is over, Blaine wants more, so does Kurt; but what Kurt offers him is not quite what he was expecting.
5. Wild Card - Love, Blaine by @gleefuldarrencrissfan
Blaine Anderson is a typical teenager. Except he’s not because he’s hiding a huge secret. He’s gay. But after reading a confession on the informal Dalton blog, he discovers that he’s not the only closeted boy at Dalton. After a moment of courage, he emails him and ultimately starts up a friendship that will change life as he knows it. Loosely based on Love, Simon.
6. Summer story ------- no choice
7. Written for a challenge- The Prom-us Misc authors @gleefuldarrencrissfan @esperantoauthor @hkvoyage @hippohead @honeysucklepink @grlnxtdr30 @justgleekout @notyourdayrdream @missflurry @starpunchsoup Kellyb321
Kurt and Blaine met just as they did in canon, and even though Blaine realizes when Kurt sings Blackbird that he's in love with Kurt, he never says anything, and Kurt goes back to McKinley. Blaine transfers to McKinley for senior year, and they are best friends, bonding on being the only two out guys at McKinley until Karaofsky comes back. And he's out and proud, and he wants Kurt. And so he asks Kurt to be his prom date, repeatedly until Kurt, in frustration, finally blurts out that someone already asked him. He said the first name that came to mind, Blaine's. On top of that, he tells Dave that they are now dating. Now, Kurt needs to convince his best friend to take him to the biggest event of their high school year, senior prom.
Tropes: Fake Dating, Friends to Lovers, High school Klaine, Canon Divergent
8. Fic made me laugh out loud - Chocolate Milk by @caramelcoffeeaddict CoffeeAddict80
Based off a prompt found on tumblr -- “Yes, I know this is a bar, but you’re a really hot bartender, and I panicked and said “CHOCOLATE MILK” when you asked me what I wanted to drink, now I just want to crawl away and hide forever” AU
9. Trope you don't usually read- Everybody's Naked and There's a Country to Run by @coffeegleek
A take on the "prince/king!Blaine and prince/king!Kurt are getting married and have to do it while naked in front of their loyal subjects" trope. It’s pure crack taken seriously. I’m blaming the heat. The fic started as this wisp of an idea and a single funny Kurt line. It was supposed to all be fast paced and instead sometimes dissolves into a bit of world building, exposition, and Kurt feelings. I do try my best and hope that at least some of the jokes and humor land. It also developed a full blown plot that has a beginning and an end.
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Rant: Killing Kairi off is still bad
I don't often rant about this, because I don't usually bother to give my energy to something I find distasteful or bad. But Helluva Boss has hit a nerve for me that shouldn't be hit in the first place.
To offer some background and an explanation for the title, back in the days when Kingdom Hearts was released and later when Kingdom Hearts 2 was released, there existed an unfortunate trend in the fandom. If there was any sort of female character that was potentially a love interest, it was very typical for the fanfic authors to make the female character into a one-dimensional screeching harpy and kill them off in gruesome ways to ensure their intended pairing got together. The already low sympathy towards female characters by the (mostly) female fandom was amplified once that fandom discovered m/m pairings.
This was rarely done for male characters, because every male character was a potential ship with another male character.
If I were to offer explanations for this behaviour, back in those days there really wasn't much gay representation in the Western media and most of the (teenage) fandom read everything through a Western lens. Therefore, any female main character was assumed to get together with the male main character in canon. Only in fanfiction could the fan favourite couple be together, hence the violence towards the female characters.
This was decades ago, the fandom and society at large have moved on from those days. Now gay rep is not that hard to find and gay couples can get together in canon.
So why do we see an adult indie show focused on gay relationships use the very same tropes that those teenagers used years ago?
Stella from Helluva Boss is written and treated exactly like Kairi was in those ancient Kingdom Hearts fics. There is no nuance in her portrayal and she is essentially just an obstacle between Blitz and Stolas. This is significant because the story is full of flawed characters, yet we are never allowed to see the situation from Stella's point of view, only Stolas'. We don't even know if Stella and her daughter like each other.
This isn't helped by the fact that every time Stella shows up, it is always in some way related to hurting Stolas. There are no scenes involving her that just showcase her character outside her relationship with Stolas.
Now, a writer is allowed to portray an abuser only as far as their relationship with their victim goes. But Stolas is far from a perfect angel himself, forcing Blitz to sleep with him in order to keep a portal book that is integral to Blitz' job. Stolas is also seen abusing his imp servants and spending a trip to an amusement park with his daughter ignoring her and hitting on Blitz instead.
If Stolas is allowed such nuance, why isn't Stella?
Simply put, I think Stella is being treated just like Kairi in those fanfics of yore. She is an obstacle between Stolas and Blitz and so it must be made clear Stolas could never love her. But like with those fanfics, the demonization of the female character is pointless. It is clear what the intended couple is and what it is not, so the efforts to devalue the female character amount to nothing more than padding.
To offer an example of how Stella could have been handled if there was no intention of giving her nuance, let's look at how another adult show handled a similar situation. In Frasier, Niles' ex Maris is never shown nor voiced. What she says and what she looks like don't matter, only that she is cruel to Niles and he should stay away from her.
Now, one might say it is unfair to compare Helluva Boss to Frasier. I have to disagree, though, as both are comedy shows mainly focused on discussing relationships between adults. That HB includes sexuality should not deter it from taking itself as seriously.
I think like the fanfics of yore, Helluva Boss cannot shake its rebellious teenage irrelevance. Even with no censors to control the content, the show still relies too much on lewdness and gore. Things that are mostly seen in Adult Swim's 'adult' shows like Superjail. Now, Superjail was a fine show for what it wanted to be, but an emotional exploration of relationships it was not.
Stella's treatment and even her existence is a mark of this immature writing. If you want to explore relationships from the angle of adulthood and maturity, you can't just make a character pivotal to a plot into a strawman. If you want a strawman, don't bother giving it a face and voice.
The sexist nature of this type of writing is best shown when Stella's brother Andrealphus appears. In his scenes in one episode Andrealphus has much more nuance and character than Stella has had in all her appearances combined. The reason for this is, naturally, because Andrealphus is a femme male character.
Stella is only one in a long line of female characters whose existence is only to be awful so the intended couple never has any potential third wheel.
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i just watched the faculty and it was so good but GODDDDDD i hate heteronormativity. like that ending blindsided me sooooo hard. ew ew ew!!!! stokely would not fucking wear that!!!! CASEY IS A TWINK HE WOULD NTO FUCKIGN GET TOGETHER WITH DELILAH ARE YOU SHITTIN GME. BE SO FOR FUCKIGN REAL. ugh.
anyways. headcanon time
zeke is a stone butch dyke <3 or, for a more canon compliant option…hes the token straight on thin ice (turns out to be aspec, the hypersexuality is an act, which he might realize after nearly sleeping with mrs drake and then going 'oh this feels very wrong and bad on multiple levels actually goodbye forever')
stokely is butch bisexual! cause ngl her and stan are very cute. i like to think she and marybeth had a mutual crush on each other before marybeth was infected. i could also see her having some genderfuckery going on (see: the butch part of butch bisexual. also fuck it, goth can be its own gender if you want it to be. im ignoring that ending outfit. i am not looking i do not see it. or maybe her parents forced her at gunpoint to wear it idfk.)
if i understand right, im pretty sure marybeth was just a host for the mother alien, and not like…a fully fake human..? so when we see her in the beginning, shes actually really her. but then again! maybe she isnt! either way, i like to think she had a crush on stokely, if not a specifically sexual/romantic one. shes obviously got a love for humanity, who says she cant get attached to a specific one?
stan is...hrm. okay actually it'd be really fun if stan was a trans egg, and quitting football was sort of the start to the journey of 'hmm, traditional masculinity isnt for me' to 'oh. im literally not a man. neat.' im thinking some flavor of femme leaning nonbinary/gnc/queer/sapphic. shoutout to girlfailure b student stan <3
i like to think caseys transmasc and delilah knew him pre transition which is why shes so eeeeughhh to him cause theyve got like. A History. (toxic homerotic teenage best friendship anyone?) i could also see him being some flavor of aspec. (more canon compliant option: hes a cis gay twink, the pornos under the mattress are a decoy for his weird nosey ass parents. FUCK them btw, omfg they sucked. also shoutout to the lil robot (??) he had sitting on his desk. oO HE COULD ALSO BE A TRANSFEMME EGG)
delilah is lesbian/sapphic, cause she was clearly not interested in stan, and i feel like her homophobia towards stokely was projection. i could see her having a history with casey. i also dont think theyre legitimately dating towards the end, i think its more for the cameras. (girl that kiss was soooo awkward LMAo. but like i cant deny they have chemistry, its just not,,,,That kind of chemistry) i feel like after the alien invasion shed finally start processing her internalized bigotry (and whatever was going on w her dead dad? hello? damn hope she gets a therapist)
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I found my Realm Of the Elderlings opinions in my diary and I still stand by them almost 5 years later
first entry and it's already terminal :
aug 30 2018
OHHHHH my god fitzchivalry YOU ARE THE REAL FOOL
i am so fucking done with this ABSOLUTE dumbass i can’t deal. the farseer books got me fucked up. he is SO stupid sometimes!! [ranting in french] fitz you are so self absorbed!!!! you really are just furious because u love the bastard. i swear to god fitzchivalry, just square the fuck up i’m teleporting to les six duchets just to shake you a lil
sep 26 2018
My ass is losing it reading The Liveship Traders!!!
Altheaaaaaa!! Mrs Hobb I BEG you!! We’ve suffered enough with One Dumbass Teenager! Fitzchilvary growing up is enough Pure Dumbassery-driven decision making for the next ten years of my life, and that’s from someone who’s still running on dumbassery themselves!!
The worst of it is... rn I’m like Althea... hoe plz... stop... but I can feel it. This is how Fitz got me... is this a stupid teenager with Big Problems who’s gonna grow through and despite them? What is this within my heart?
And Robin Hobb bursts through my door, my beating heart in her hands, slams it on the table and bellows “ITS THE SEEDS OF LOVE”
oct 19 2018
Kennit “[wintro's french name] is beautiful” Pirate King
Hobbs recurring gay themes r so ??? To me but at the same time bring me so much joy lol
Canon nonbinary Annoyance Fool “in love with Fitzchilvary” Prophet
Althea “drag king” Vestrit and lesbian/bi girl solidarity friendship with amber.
Malta “Homophobic Queen” Havre.
And now, absolute legend kennit “surcoure do you love me” pirate king. I know one gay couple is actually endgame over the course of Hobbs books [ndlr i don't remember wtf i was talking about] and I’m thinking it might be this one. I mean, it’s not great hashtag representation but it’s great story telling!
Sweet monk Wintrow with dumbass pirate kennit? Who’s completely and irrevocably in love and admiration for him?
This idiot of a kennit is literally constantly like [french ranting about kennit etta hate and wintrow love]
Lol kennit mate come out
however the next entry doesn't make much sense but features the sentences "kennit thinks he’s so smart!! Fuck you, half a pirate!!!" (the title of the entry (oct 26 2018) is "kennit bitchass of the century" so clearly he fell out of favour)
nov 26 2018
Literally in ROTE if I was there for one of Ambers prophecies I would legit be like... ok sis... wig?
nov 30 2018
Checked the notes on that women writers rec list and several other people already wrote “this is Robin Hobb erasure” in those exact words :’)
So in honour of this hivemind I must say : I am having the time of my life with the Liveship Traders, excites rant with (huge) spoilers ahead :
I am at that point where Kennit is about to get absolutely WRECKED and I swear to god it feels so satisfying. The character arc and development for every single character in these books is pure mastery. In the case of Kennit you really go from “what a despicable man he really just has luck on his side” to “well I guess even if he did good accidentally he still did good... I almost love this Awful Imbecile” and finish straight into “OH!! NEVERMIND he really was a despicable man the whole time!!!”, a pit of disgust right on time where the whole story is setting up to absolutely destroy him. Kennit is a great example of how “does the right thing for the wrong reasons” is not equivalent in terms of ethics as “does the right thing for the right reasons”. But to quote a great thinker “they really had us in that first half I’m not gonna lie!”
What I really like in these books is that the centristTM opinions of certain main characters are not automatically & heavily presented as the right ones. I am still cackling at Hiémain’s “but they didn’t deserve to die!!” bullshit not being put on a pedestal. Ms Hobb did that! Her mind! Also the Vestrit family not being given an (entirely, let’s be real) free pass for not standing up to Kyle and letting Vivacia happen. The main characters, the actual heroes try to pass off responsibility for bad things and in most media it’s like “but they didn’t directly kill someone with their own hands so aren’t they kinda innocent?”
and then it skips to a single entry line (dec 3 2018) "reyn khuprus is a massive idiot" :')
dec 12 2018
Fitz I missed u so much
I have not seen this boy for 9 books and this hoe is worried abt being ugly, please never change boo
dec 14 2018
Fitz and the fool interacting is genuinely maddening I’m just walking along like KISS! KISS! KISS!
Fitz you are an immense idiot and the smartest one of the bunch is the goddamn wolf.
Jan 8 2019
Ohhhh my goodness gracious
I have gone full baby on Dutiful, he is the sweetest most cute drama teen since Fitzchivalry himself. I love him with the force of an exploding sun. His interactions with every other character are both precious and absolutely hilarious. He’s got a great mini-me vibe going on with Fitz, wrapped in Hobbs usual delicious irony.
Also poor Dutiful so lonely and starving for warmth, human attention!! The bit where Fitz is like all them hoes been begging me for this for MONTHS but I just can’t say no to those baby blues. I was like congrats Dutiful you just got a dad! Free dad with your meal!
And the Fool interaction like Dutiful you lucky boy you! You went from zero dads to TWO! It’s buy one get one free.
This dad was kinda mean so I had to get another one to counter balance it.
Jan 15 2019
Fitzchilvary « Homophobia » Farseer
Fitz!!!!!!!! Fitz!!!!!!!! Robin Hobb I swear to god you better gay these boys up or i will see you in court
the latest entry is apparently post "the golden fool"
Jan 29 2019
BELOVED WENT HAND TO MOUUUUUUTH!!!!!!
I am absolutely losing it! hand to mouth hand to mouth !!! Fitz called him BELOVED!!!!!! YAS MF QUEEN! Icon! legend!
and if i remember rightly (which i don't, it was five years ago, i don't remember anything) i got real upset at queerbaiting and stopped reading. i like googled "are they actually gay" the answer came back hashtag no and i stopped reading out of disgust :/
#rote#fitzchivalry farseer#well i still love these books intently but i did get really cross at the time
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apparently redanian intelligence lightly implied that jaskier's romance might be with /radovid/. and. if true. that's bad. that's really, really bad. like i dont have words for how really really genuinely awful and bad that is. radovid is like...... a bonkers genocidal king, an awful person. obviously games arent the books, but the first thing that springs to mind is the witcher 3, where people are being burned alive in the city center of novigrad. dopplers are persecuted and killed. sorcerers and sorceresses are caught and tortured to death. all under radovid's command. he's a young king who is a Bad Person, but is also cracking under the pressure.
also radovid is. like. a teenager???
like genuinely i think this would be like. a homophobic decision. like oh ok the crazy evil genocidal king is gay <3 he's basically the first gay dude we see in the series. he is the one who coaxes a gay romance out of one of the lead dudes. like that is Bad. thats Really Bad. guys i feel like im going insane i hope ppl were just misundertanding the tweet or that it was ragebait to get ppl to watch the season but i cannot convey to you how really really fucking awful it will be if jaskier's "sapiosexual love affair" is with. an evil child king.
EDIT:: inb4 "you're blurring book and game canon" yeah it was like 4am and i wasnt thinkig straight. that said, jaskier/radovid, even a reformed and for some reason aged-up radovid, Fucking Sucks and its stupid to essentially have him date your OC who doesnt need to exist when he already had substantial relationships with men in the books, men who werent. Kings. you dont need to reinvent the wheel. gods i hope the tweet was just ragebaiting and not canon that would suck so so bad
#also. ''sapiosexual''. cringe.#witcher tag#twn critial#spoilers#god. good god. i pray they were wrong. what the fuck
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Hey btw I absolutely want to hear that Yu-Gi-Oh propaganda. Hit me
*sam reich voice* you have until I cut you off to sell me a manga about a Japanese teenager being possessed by an Egyptian pharaoh
Honestly, recommending Yu-Gi-Oh is a bit hard just because of its multiple forms; the manga, the first anime, and the second anime. All of them have good points; some more than others, but there's a few things each has done that I prefer. If you got into just one, I'd rec the manga; if you go anime only, you HAVE to watch at least a few episodes of the original anime before the follow-up.
This is because Yu-Gi-Oh is two (or three. four?) stories stuffed in a trenchcoat and if you miss out on the story it was at the beginning, what happens later will not be nearly as good. I have a lot of other things I want to say but I'm going to put a short version after all my screaming so ctrl-f 'give me the short version' for that, lol
HIT ME WITH THE LONG VERSION. I WANT A TED TALK
Yu-Gi-Oh is a horror story that takes a swerve into shonen through the Power of Friendship, but never loses its horror elements. You might know the basics, but I'll lay it out--Yu-Gi-Oh focuses on a sweet, shy boy named Yugi, who has no friends and gets occasionally bullied by another student, Jounouchi. But when an opportunity arises to take revenge, Yugi passes it up, choosing to treat Jounouchi as his friend instead. Jounouchi turns out to be a golden retriever at heart and immediately becomes his ride or die for life (their names put together literally form the word for friendship. it's stupid i love them). Oh, and a dark personality takes over Yugi and engages the guy who hurt the two of them in an unhinged 'penalty game' where the guy's left tormented by visions :)
Yu-Gi-Oh does a few laps through the grubby teen horror genre, and it's amazing. People are in danger of getting stabbed daily at this school and ALL of them want to stab the protagonists (or beat them up, or steal their spot at the school fair, or--). The only thing that makes Yugi's 'dark personality' the good guy is that the people he tortures are so awful. Yu-Gi-Oh Season 0, as the first anime is usually called, captures this vibe beautifully, everything is dark shadows and bloody sunsets and glowing eyes. It pretty much went wherever while the manga struggled to catch up, so it really builds its own little world; not something you need to watch more than a handful of eps of if you want the overall canon, but delightful in itself.
The horror era doesn't end, but peaks before it really mixes with shonen, with an arc villain called Kaiba Seto, an unhinged rich boy who's taken over his adoptive father's company and is in the process of converting it from a vague business + military tech operation to gaming and theme park related stuff + vague business (king shit) and who after suffering a penalty game from Yugi's dark side proceeds to construct a revenge that involves a death amusement park where he tries really hard to kill all of them, and an attempt to beat Yugi('s dark side) in a card game in front of an audience. Yugi('s dark side) promptly wins and shatters his mind, shrugging that he'll pick up the pieces if there's anything left to salvage.
Then everyone starts playing card games all the time.
The thing with Yu-Gi-Oh is that you have to buy into the central narrative, which is that this card game is essentially sacred. It's called 'dueling' for a reason; it's about honor and proving yourself and philosophical argument and Friendship and, rarely, about actually having fun. If you can buy into this, dueling is SO fun I promise. Although I'm always nostalgic for the wild west 'different game/toy every time' of early Yu-Gi-Oh, many of my favorite moments in the series are duels.
And when you've bought into the premise, Yu-Gi-Oh rewards you with ALL the juicy emotional moments and dysfunctional characters fumbling toward better things and gay shit you could want. I love it primarily from two angles--one, it's at its heart (especially in the manga and the last-ish arc of the anime) about becoming a better person in whatever way you can. It sounds cheesy, but I will go on record as saying that the Battle City arc is one of my favorite narratives about trauma and finding ways to move on from it.
The other angle is that it's batshit and LOADED with characters that are just. So fucked up in various ways. It's a kooky Ancient Egpytian fantasy narrative stuffed into a sports manga about cards continually being stalked by its horror roots, you can pick and choose your own elements of worldbuilding because shit does NOT make sense, and every villain is a GOLDMINE of not only delight but noncon opportunities (*mabel voice* noncoppurtunities). We've got somewhat hinged sadists. We have unhinged sadists. Combat sadomasochists. We have mind control that's actually pretty inventive and creepy. We have people with all-consuming grudges and pretentious depressed bitches who sublimate their trauma into murder. The more consensual ship options are just as varied and delightful.
Kaiba Seto also crawls out of his coma to become the third main character and trust me, if you like Kinnporsche you will almost certainly LOVE Kaiba, especially in the manga. He is a Kinnporsche-ass character. Narrative about trauma and cruelty and power and daddy issues up to here. Huge asshole. My sweet baby boy. Every filler arc the anime added is basically about him and he deserves it, even if they don't fit with the overall narrative.
Oh, and in the fourth season of the anime the writers do a bunch of drugs, watch Atlantis: The Lost Empire, notice that the censors have gone out for lunch, and rapidly assemble an arc where you put up with about forty-five combined minutes of pure stupidity in order to get a urban fantasy horror shonen fusion where we talk about the horrors of war and the fate of humanity and how cults pull vulnerable people in and radicalize them, and do some of the most glorious indulgent fanfiction bullshit ever. It's the horniest and darkest season and will probably punch you in the gut if you have depression and gives us the best filler villains in existence (one of whom was the guy I originally made that post about, lol). Despite its flaws, it functions remarkably well as a conclusion for the story, which is good because the last arc of Yu-Gi-Oh mostly doesn't exist? Like there's a little bit of content at the beginning of the manga arc but other than that it's just. Not there. Weird!
THAT IS A LOT OF WORDS, VIC
I apologize, I have a lot of feelings.
GIVE ME THE SHORT VERSION
Yu-Gi-Oh is a paranormal romance bundled with a story about friendship and personal growth wrapped in a horror story masquerading as a shonen manga and it FUCKS. There are so many little guys you look at and go 'wow! there's something incredibly wrong with you!'. If you can get into it it will Get You. Also I need more people in this fandom that aren't solely into my NOTP or twentysomethings that call ships 'illegal' please for the love of God. I will write fic for you if you get into it. Yes, this is a bribe. pspspsps
WHAT ARE YOU EVEN SAYING I SHOULD READ/WATCH
bare minimum is read the manga best minimum read the manga up to the end of battle city and then watch YGO season four and then read the beginning of the last manga arc as if it were a gradually fading ancient text that crumbles into the dust the moment you say 'wait, what the fuck' out loud. you can also just watch the anime with the background assumption that everything was 2x darker and 1.2x gayer in the manga
THAT SOUNDS DAUNTING, HOW DID YOU EVEN GET INTO IT
Honestly I don't know how I got into it either but this pit's great once you slide down to the bottom.
WHAT IS YOUR PARTING WISDOM, SAGE?
I don't know if this needs to be said but never expose yourself to the English dub it's horrendous
#yugioh#replies#don't mind the opening if you don't watch dropout.tv it's a game changer joke#i'm sorry that you asked for propaganda and i wrote you an article but in my defense:#it was nearly 2x longer#vic talks
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Might I know what the show Margaery meta might be about?
Uhh, idk but maybe comparisons to her book character? I just hate how they took away from the fact that she is very much a victim . I mean, she's flawed, and she still does manipulate Tommen and their relationship is in no way healthy, but she herself is being used for her families political agenda and is also still just a child. Whereas in the show, she's framed as some master manipulator that actively pursues queenhood and wants power for herself. But they also don't really put much effort into making her seem intelligent. Like, she's catty towards Cersei and she uses sex to manipulate teenage boys. There was nothing special about what she did. Also I have issues with them making the Reach so progressive in terms of sexuality. In the books, Loras is allowed to be gay because he performs masculinity so so well. He won't be berated for it in the same way that he would be if he lived pretty much anywhere else (other than Dorne) but his father is still desperately trying to find him a wife and he's still not allowed to be in an open same sex relationship. It's not progressive at all, really. And Margaery is hailed as this pure, untouched virgin who's allowed to get married off as a child bride not once, not twice, but three times. So long as she maintains this image, everything is fine. The book Reach is beautiful on the surface, but it's just the same as the rest of Westors deep down. Which I think is fun in the show too. Loras is a pretty boy and no one at first glance would believe that he could be such a dangerous fighter. Margaery is beautiful and gentle so no one thinks that she could be so vicious and ambitious. That's fun to me!! I also wanted so badly for them to explain why she wants power. She goes above and beyond to be the queen but what does she want to do? To rule just because? Her grandmother and father (to a lesser extent in the show) obviously wants her to be queen, but they don't really seem all that bothered. And she seems to genuinely want it for herself, not for just her family name. So where does that ambition come from? Only god knows because they never explain. Then her age up annoys me because she's presumably in her mid twenties in season two? If we consider the fact that Loras seems to be in his early twenties and she's the older sibling as per show canon. So I guess maybe she's just a small bit older than him. This is a problem because it's not the norm for twenty something year old noblewomen to not be wed. She's also daughter of the second richest Lord in the continent and extremely gorgeous. I know that in the books Willas is around twenty five/twenty six and unwed, but he's a man, that it far more acceptable in their society. And even then, its something that's seen as weird but ultimately makes sense because they're waiting for the most profitable match. But it's unrealistic for her to be unwed at that age. If they were doing the same with Margaery in tbe show, these are her options off the top of my head, her possible matches could have included: Robb Stark, Theon Greyjoy (I forget how that works in terms of the hostage situation), Renly Baratheon, Bryden Tully, and probs more that I forgot). Yet they never talk about any previous wedding plans that had been negotiated or discussed. Seriously??? Was she just waiting for Joffrey to be of age? Maybe, but it's certainly not explained properly. Anyways, I have so much more to say on this subject, and I did not explain this well at all. But anyways, I hope you enjoyed my 3 am ramblings 🤍
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Lyle T. Rourke
Tag: His RP posts will be tagged "muse: lyle rourke" and will include the verse in parentheses.
Full name: Lyle Tiberius Rourke. However, only Milo calls him Lyle. He prefers to be called Rourke by everyone else.
Age: Differs depending on verse/thread, but he always appears 54 (his age in the movie)
Species: Human (also known as Terran)
Gender: Male
Hair color: Gray, with a white streak on either side of his head.
Eye color: Brown
Appearance: He's 6' 4" and full of muscles. He's huge and definitely looks like someone you don't want to mess with. He wears a glowing light blue crystal pendant like everyone else in Atlantis wears. He also has a tattoo of a star (just like Milo's) on his right shoulder.
Sexuality: Gay
Bio/Verses:
Canon-ish verse:
His father was a very militaristic man and raised his son in the same way. He was taught to keep his feelings inside and not let them show, and he got better at doing so as he got older, though he struggled in school (leading to teachers often immediately deciding he's an idiot) and often took out his frustration on the more successful students. He was expelled for fighting on more than one occasion, and decided to join the military as a teenager, where he found more success and respect, but still not what he was hoping for: acknowledgement of his efforts and ANY praise for what he did right.
He has been in multiple battles while in the military and was wounded multiple times.
He married once, but it only lasted four months because of his aggressiveness (according to the ex, though a lack of chemistry/connection may also be to blame. Basically, they were never really in love)
As a result of the way he was treated in school and even in the military (everyone deciding he's just a big, muscled moron), he greatly disliked 'academics', though he will admit he had respect for Professor Thaddeus Thatch because Thatch didn't act like a know-it-all and was actually resourceful in a crisis. This was, oddly enough, when he began to think he might be attracted to men.
Upon meeting Milo, Rourke felt a strong urge to protect him and keep him safe. Along the way, through several instances of helping Milo and just watching him be.....Milo, Rourke found himself having feelings for Milo, though he only got up the courage to say something when Milo lay dying in his arms after being fatally injured in the effort to return the Heart of Atlantis.
After Milo was healed by the Heart, he decided to stay in Atlantis to be with Milo, who he learned was in love with him, too.
Heart of Atlantis verse:
This is pretty similar to Canon-ish, but it's based on an idea running through several of my fanfics. In this verse, Milo's grandfather was actually Prince Talos, the younger brother of Atlantis' king. Not much is different from the previous verse (except that Rourke has confessed love for Milo, and Milo revealed his love for Rourke the night before they arrived in Atlantis) until they visit the Heart of Atlantis. Here, Milo is chosen as the Crystal's host instead of Kida. Rourke tries to convince Helga not to go through with her plan, but only succeeds in turning the other team members to his side, and only after Helga's goon kicks his leg where one of his old war wounds is, sending Rourke to the ground, where Helga kicks him in the face before leaving and stranding everyone in Atlantis. The dying king, with Kida's help, explains how the crystal chooses its host and how Milo is in fact Atlantean royal blood, a prince. The king gives his crystal to Rourke, telling him to take Kida with him and return the Heart in order to save Atlantis and Milo, which Rourke does. Milo is returned by the Heart and Rourke tells him about his heritage.
Future-verse:
Currently just with @the-haunted-office but this version of him is kinda fun and could be used in other threads. He's 9022 years old (subject to change depending on plots/threads). While not a genius like Milo, he is competent when it comes to technology, especially the things Milo builds/invents. He knows enough science/tech/engineering to be able to help Milo with something if Milo asks him to. He also speaks fluent Atlantean as well as English, and can read/write it fluently also. He would be considered an expert on Atlantis.......if people knew Atlantis existed. Which they don't.
Space verse (because why not):
Takes place after Canon-ish and Heart of Atlantis verses. Either one can be used as his background. A Star Trek-ish deal that kinda crosses with my Rovarians universe with Rourke as Commander/First Officer of the vessel RSS Ulysses and the rest of the Atlantis cast as his senior crew (Milo as captain). Ulysses is a multipurpose Saturn-class heavy cruiser (think the Enterprise D from Trek) whose design is actually based on the submarine of the same name that started the trip to Atlantis (the space vessel is a lot bigger, though, as it has a lot more lab facilities and crew quarters and such on board). It has the standard warp speed drive, a high speed drive known as quantum slipstream, and the basically instantaneous transwarp drive (transwarp is only used when absolutely necessary, as it uses a lot of fuel and needs to cool down and recharge before it can be used to "jump" again. The further you travel with it, the longer the time before it can be used again. This is why transwarp is reserved only for times when even quantum slipstream isn't fast enough). I can give you more details should we decide to do something in this AU
*Rourke also has his own smaller vessel, the Zeleya Maru, that he gained on some mission after he and an away-team stole it from a gang of pirate-like thieves (who had likely stolen it from elsewhere) that they were escaping. Since then, Rourke took up a position as primary caretaker for the Maru, and often uses it to make himself and away teams appear to be rogues/smugglers/whatever they need to be in order to gather intel/resources from places where affiliation with the Rovarians is not well received (Rourke sometimes uses the alias "Teir Aurelan" when necessary for undercover work.). Maru is normally kept in the hangar bay of the RSS Ulysses when she's not in use.
**The following are the same for all verses**
Personality: He appears very stern and stoic on the outside (Tron fans, think Uprising Tron), a product of his upbringing and time in the military. He's very good at not showing what he's feeling, and at forcing his own feelings aside. Since staying in Atlantis, he's trying to get better about letting himself feel things and remembering it's okay to not be okay. He admits he doesn't really like the person he became before the Atlantis trip and wants to become a better version of himself. It takes some effort on his part to open up and trust people, especially after Helga, as he blames himself for not recognizing her as a threat sooner. He can get fiercely protective of those he cares about. It takes a lot to get under his skin or make him cry, but there are things that will do it.
In a relationship: He's loyal and dependable, but he can seem cold and unfeeling at first, as he tries to assess whether or not someone is a threat to him or others. Once he does open up, though, he's very caring and loving toward his partner, being (sometimes overly) conscious of how he acts and speaks around them. He doesn't want to be the one to hurt them, as he feels it would be a betrayal of their trust in him. He will often take on the role of being the 'strong one' being sort of a rock for his partner, though he will feel for them or with them.
*I mainly ship him with Milo, but as with all my characters, I'm open to anything else if it happens. Please talk to me in DM first, though.
Trauma: He does have some from the battles he was in, but it's not nearly as bad as the Leviathan attack or the battle for the Heart of Atlantis. In addition, he also has childhood trauma, as his military father was also an alcoholic and very abusive toward Lyle and his mother, even when Lyle was as young as three. He also witnessed his father's beating on his mother (she stayed around so she could protect little Lyle).
Other: He and Milo occasionally visit the surface world to keep tabs on it and make sure there are no threats to Atlantis. They use whatever knowledge they gain to make sure Atlantis is able to protect itself in the even someone else finds their way down there. After all, the two of them and their group did. Because of their greatly extended lives, no matter what time they appear in, they do not appear to age at all. These surface trips are great opportunities for them to meet other muses.
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yeah so the fact that a person, especially someone who is still a teenager, and is honestly barely not legally a child, felt pressure to come out because of continuous online harassment is fucked up. just- just so y’all know. this needs to be said.
that said, i wanna talk about the rhetoric and logic of the online pressure he faced. how do we dismantle these ideas?
generally, the online pressure boils down to two points. a) queerbaiting, and b) queer actors should play queer characters.
let’s take these one at a time. let’s start with the notion that queer actors should play queer characters. what’s wrong with this? inherently, not much. with other identities, we generally seem to agree if that identity is key to that character, someone who holds this identity should play the role. if it’s not important to the character, we generally agree that it’s okay to take that component out. (eg: if there’s an autistic character, an autistic actor should play them. if there’s a latinx character, a latinx actor ought to play the character.) why do we say this? it goes back to the point about identities being key to the character. if that identity is key to the character, then it is often best played by someone who understands the experience of people who have that identity. i, an asian/white person cannot understand the experience of a black person, nor will they understand mine. (this is said with the understanding that experiences of different identities vary; no one is saying that intersectionality is not important. i am simply saying that more often than not, there are regularities of experience for certain groups of people.) okay, so then what’s wrong with the statement that queer actors ought to play queer people? it lies in the way this statement is applied. try as we might to fight heteronormativity, we still assume that if someone does not explicitly state “i am gay/bi/ace/queer/etc,” that they are allocishet. therein lies the problem. we have no way of knowing what a person’s sexuality is; there is an epistemic barrier, we cannot understand their subjective experience of their reality, because we really only have access to our own subjective experiences. when we combine the idea that “queer actors should play queer characters” with “everyone is straight unless otherwise explicitly said”, the statement becomes “out queer actors should play queer characters.” why is this problematic? a) what just happened w/kit connor. people can be forced to come out, so as to defend the validity of their role, when in fact they never contradicted the heart of the statement. b) out-ness is correlated with privilege. those whole are marginalized in many ways can often suppress parts of their identities to appear more publicly palatable. queerness, because of its relative lack of detectable traits, is often chosen as an easily suppressible trait, to “compensate” for something more external, like race. by saying that only those who are out (those who have the resources, and social support to do so) can play queer characters, we severely limit the diversity of queer narratives we can have. queer POC and neurodivergent queer people are less likely to see themselves in characters, because queer narratives will focus only on those who are out, and have the resources to be so. in short, “queer actors should play queer characters” isn’t wrong; it’s terribly misapplied, in a way that is harmful to individuals, and to the queer community as a whole.
second is the claim that a person can queerbait. let’s define queerbaiting first, to avoid confusion. queerbaiting is “the action of intentional giving queer coding or subtext to characters in media order to pander to the queer community, whilst never explicitly making a work queer (often making its characters loosely canonically straight, but not attached to their heterosexual relationships/partners) so as to not offend or lose a more conservative audience.” okay. so. there are two key words here. IN MEDIA. in. media. actors are not characters. (in case it’s not obvious: we cannot speculate on their lives as we would characters. characters are works of fiction that we can use to further understand human society, ourselves, and the human experience. people are living, evolving things, whose narratives and experiences are still being created, as we speak, by our actions.) so. that’s a problem. heartstopper is explicitly queer. nick nelson is explicitly said to be bisexual. there is absolutely no ambiguity about whether or not heartstopper is queerbaiting. it is queer. end of story. so. queer baiting must be media. in the example of heartstopper, the show and comics fall under domain of media. the show is queer, ergo no queerbaiting. but fine. there’s the argument that “well it’s a queer show, so in order to really be authentic, it must be played by queer actors. that’s why kit connor was queerbaiting, because he was “supposed to be queer” but he wasn’t confirming it.” two things. a) how fucked up is it that someone is “supposed to be queer?” conversely, it’s fucked up that someone is “supposed to be straight.” there is no moral imperative for sexuality, not even for someone in the public eye, and especially not for someone who is barely a legal adult. moreover, this implies a moral imperative to come out. and honestly, i shouldn’t have to defend this one. if you like heartstopper, you should know this. b) see section one. there’s nothing inherently wrong with the statement “queer roles are best played by queer actors,” but to imply that kit connor was queer baiting would be to imply that a) he was straight, or b) he had a responsibility to “prove his queerness” by coming out. and. no. again, if you have read heartstopper, this is basic logic and etiquette around coming out. no one owes you their identity, period.
what does this boil down to?
1. people should represent their identities on screen, but with queerness, it’s hard, and there are undeniable intersections between outness and privilege.
2. don’t assume people are straight just because they haven’t said they aren’t.
3. people don’t owe you their identities
4. queerbaiting refers exclusively to media, in the sense that it is a critique of attempting to gain further revenue by pandering to multiple, typically contradictory audiences. a person cannot queerbait, a piece of media/characters in it can.
5. people are not their characters.
another note: while all of this has been an analysis on problematic logic and rhetoric around queerness, there is real person at the center of this this. please be considerate of that and show your support for him :)
P.S. whilst i do support the idea that people of certain identities should play characters with those identities, i just want to acknowledge that there is historical precedent for people without certain identities playing people with them. eg: men playing women on stage, straight ppl playing queer people, allistic people playing autistic people. i don’t think these are usually the greatest portrayals of these identities, and in some cases i think they can be deeply problematic (eg: black face). that being said, some of them can be okay-ish (eg: the danish girl, a story about a trans woman, played by a cishet man. no, it’s not the ideal casting, but ample research was done, and redmayne did consult actual trans people.) while i’m not saying this is how i’d recommend movies to be cast, i would like to acknowledge that proper research can make portrayals at least less problematic, and maybe even relatable for people with that identity.
P.P.S - young royals folks; i’m super excited for the next season to come out in like 85 min!!! i also want to point out that this kind of rhetoric about actors “queer baiting” and being forced to come out is exactly the kind of thing we want to avoid, especially if more of the characters are shown to be queer this season. be kind :)
#please just be kind and be logical#young royals#heartstopper#kit connor#lgbtqia#queer#coming out#queer media
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i saw where someone asked about trans man steve and I wanted to add my opinion
ok so ill read almost anything with trans man steve because I'm trans masc, steve is my favourite character, and I love to project. but so much of it doesn't work in the canon setting. binders as we know them weren't really a thing especially in small towns. it wouldn't work with him being an athlete, between showers, locker rooms and him supposed to be on the swim team? and when its written with him getting medical intervention (testosterone, top surgery) during early high school, it was almost impossible to get medical intervention as an adult it would not have been given to a teenager. (if you want to learn about the experiences of a gay trans man in the 80s look up lou sullivan. he was an activist and a pioneer for the treatment and transitions of trans men. he passed in 91 but there is a lot of archive footage of him talking about his experiences, including top surgery with only local anaesthetic. my favourite quote from him is "they told me I couldn't live as a gay man, but it looks like I'm going to die like one.") he would not have been able to transition in any real way, just minor social transition, he wouldn't have been able to register at school as male unless he had forged documents, everything would have him listed as female. his id/drivers licence would have him listed as female with his deadname. and a lot of people either wouldn't be understanding, or would just flat out not accept it.
(i am trying to write a trans man steve fic where he realises that he's trans post s2, comes out to dustin and claudia because he freaks out about it while he's at their place, comes out to robin in the bathroom scene, but then doesn't come out to anyone else until post s4 at the earliest. he just dresses more masculine and cuts his hair. and he didn't date nancy he just had a crush on her. but its only trying because I have a 3k outline but only 50 words written on the actual fic. it might get written and posted one day, but who knows.)
yeah, i definitely think people are writing an idealised versions of trans steve, understandably. but, as much as i loathe modern au’s, if you want steve to be able to fully transition, the fic can’t really be set in the 80s.
even our beloved characters probably wouldn’t react that well to steve being trans, they just wouldn’t really know anything about it! some would react better than others, obviously. but not everyone would be super accepting, and that’s just too upsetting to think about.
and that sounds like a cool fic! honestly, trans masc steve is dear to my heart, even though i’ve read so few fics, so a fic that’s actually pretty accurate to the 80s would be a good read!
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