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bills-pokedex · 3 years

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Worldbuilding Month: Day 3

{According to my outline, today was supposed to be “explain to the audience that culture is not erased but rather embraced; it just happens to coexist alongside Common and other international efforts for unity and peace,” but because yesterday’s post was so in-depth, fuck it, we’re talking about gay stuff.

Putting this behind a cut because the intro is long and the meat of the post is longer, and also, I’m one of those people who say the word “queer” a lot and would prefer to have this up as a warning so I don’t have to explain to folks why it’s okay and why the “queer is a slur” thing is TERF rhetoric.

Because Pokémon is a children’s franchise from a country that’s somehow more conservative about LGBT+ issues than the United States, it should come as no surprise that there’s very little explicit queer rep in canon, and anything that could conceivably connected to the LGBT community is either: A) actually fanon, or B) treated as a joke. (See any time crossdressing is brought up for the latter.)

It should also come as no surprise that I like to ignore this. Or, rather, I like to briefly touch on it now and then because I like the idea of using media to discuss topics of real-world importance, so the short answer about whether or not homophobia/transphobia/etc is dead is “legally, yes; culturally ... eeeeeeeeeeh.” As in, no one’s outlawed being queer. Gay marriage is legal everywhere. No government, national or otherwise, cares that you’re gay. Resources are not that difficult to find if you’re new to this and trying to figure things out, and the trainer community is very, very queer and very, very prone to having older trainers mentor younger ones so they can figure things out for themselves. (For the latter, the entire point of training according to trainers themselves is to go out, find themselves, and change their lives out there, so even if the rest of the world was just like it is IRL, honestly, training would probably be a lot like Tumblr, only with fewer TERFs and a lot more walking.)

On the other hand, there’s still a lot of tension. The entire idea of world unity and openness is still a pretty new thing, so older generations aren’t as accepting of queer people as the younger generations and various governments themselves are. There’s not really any violence, exactly, but it’s not exactly unusual for someone to have a parent who believes their lesbian daughters just need to meet the right person or a grandparent who’s just casually transphobic. The point is Bill’s world is definitely a utopia compared to ours, but it’s not perfect. Yet.

When it comes to culture beyond the old-fashioned folks out there, queer people are pretty well-accepted. There’s no push for having queer people in certain roles because on a greater scale, discrimination doesn’t exist. To that end, a lot of the characters you’re familiar with may be queerer than you think.

Which means I’m about to get into a List, but first, a couple of side notes:

1. The canon pokémon professors are largely ace, straight, or lowkey bi. Professor Juniper is definitely a lesbian, and Sycamore is pan, but the majority of the others are currently cis dudes in marriages with cis women, cis dudes who were once married to cis women, or Professor Magnolia (who’s aro). The point here is that most of the canon pokémon professors are at least attracted to a gender other than their own.

2. Giovanni is a painfully straight dilf, but the other evil team leaders are some form of queer. For example, Maxie is gay af, Archie is pan and in a poly relationship with his own executives, Cyrus is aroace, Ghetsis is sexually attracted to taking over the world (and himself), Lysandre is very gay and lowkey pining for Sycamore, Guzma is bi, Lusamine is also painfully straight, and Rose is pan but pretends to not be interested for the sake of the media.

3. All of the pokémon storage system administrators are queer with the exception of Amanita, who’s eight years old and therefore we are not going to fucking talk about what she wants right now. Granted, this is largely due to Bill’s habit of adopting every underdog he can find and turning them into administrators, and it just so happens that society’s most offbeat characters might be a little bit queer, generally speaking. I’ve gotten into which flavors of queer in previous posts, but I might bring it up again in a resource post of its own this month if people are interested.

4. Ash Ketchum is perpetually ten, so like Amanita, we’re not gonna talk about what he wants. He is, however, absolutely questioning his gender. (Red, who’s a separate character from Ash, will be mentioned below. Likewise for Blue, who’s separate from Gary. Alls I can say is Professor Oak had really bad luck with children and just so happens to have three orphaned grandchildren.)

That leaves the gym leaders, trial captains, kahunas, Frontier brains, and the Elite Four gauntlets/Champions, which are as follows:

KANTO

Brock is bi but doesn’t realize it.

Misty is painfully straight.

Lt. Surge is painfully straight.

Erika is trans and a lesbian. She may or may not be pining for Sabrina. (Related note: She’s the daughter of one of the kimono girls from the same troupe as Bill’s mother. I bring this up because of the whole technically canon point that only girls can learn the dances to summon Ho-oh and Lugia, which means Erika was taught these once she came out.)

Koga is ace but heteromantic.

Janine is a lesbian though. Koga doesn’t know, and Janine, knowing her father is super-traditional, has no intention of telling him, so she’s 100% in the closet.

Sabrina is ace but questioning her romantic orientation, and probably the only thing that gets her really flustered is the entire concept of romance (which is to say, Erika).

Blaine is gay.

Blue is very gay.

Lorelei is aroace.

Bruno is straight.

Agatha is straight and also salty over a failed relationship with Professor Oak. (Blue’s father is her son, by the way, but not Gary’s.)

Lance is gay af.

Red is pan and perpetually confused by Blue.

Trace does not exist idek what you’re talking about.

JOHTO

Falkner is bi.

Bugsy is aroace.

Whitney is a lesbian who likes to pretend she’s bi so no one questions why her gym is full of pretty girls only.

Morty is gay and publicly in a relationship with Eusine. (Or, at least, people know he’s in a relationship, but the media just refers to Eusine as “a local pokémon collector” and nothing more.)

Chuck is bi and happily married to his wife, thanks very much.

Jasmine is trans and aroace. (I like to pretend Special didn’t happen.)

Pryce is aroace.

Clair is probably the gayest gym leader you’ll come across. Yes, I’m including Kalos here.

Will is gay.

Karen is not only gay but also has been elevated to gay icon by the media. She is the sort of gay baby gays look up to and hope to be one day.

HOENN

Roxanne is trans but straight.

Brawly is bi.

Wattson is shockingly (no pun intended) straight and happily married.

Flannery is gay. She’s not as gay as Clair, but she comes very, very close. She’s also post-op trans.

Norman is aroace, and we won’t get into what that means for his marriage.

Winona doesn’t care for labels. (She’s nonbinary but goes by she/her and she’s pansexual.)

Liza and Tate are, like, eight, so we’re not getting into this either.

I take my comments about Clair back. She’s the most lesbian gym leader. The gayest gym leader, hands down, is Wallace. As an unrelated side point, he's not in a relationship with Steven Stone, contrary to popular belief.

Juan is Wallace’s gay mentor, but because he came from an older generation, his queerness is kinda toned down by comparison.

The entire Hoenn Elite Four is aroace. All of them. Glacia is trans.

Steven Stone is also ace, but he’s panromantic. He’s currently in a relationship with adventure.

SINNOH

Roark is gay.

Gardenia is gay. And trans.

Maylene is bi.

Crasher Wake? Gay.

Fantina? Gay.

Byron? Bi and married to a cis woman.

Candice? Gay.

Volkner? Very gay. Not dating Flint, weirdly enough. Yet.

Sinnoh is famous for having an extremely gay lineup, in other words. It’s a meme among the pokémon training queer community that one day, everyone will just move to Sinnoh and be ridiculously gay in the snow.

The Elite Four, however, is three-out-of-four gay, with Aaron, Flint, and Lucian being the gay ones here. Bertha is not gay but rather aroace and also trans.

Cynthia isn’t gay, contrary to popular belief, but she is in a wlw relationship. She’s actually pan, and her partner is Diantha.

UNOVA

Cilan is straight. Chili is ace. Cress is gay.

Lenora is bi and extremely happily married.

Burgh is aroace and nonbinary. (Pronouns are they/them or he/him.)

Elesa is ace but doesn’t quite know where she is romantically speaking.

Clay is extremely straight and furthermore one of those old-fashioned people I was talking about earlier.

Skyla is a very proud lesbian.

Brycen is gay and in the closet because he’s afraid Unovan tabloids would have a field day with that.

Drayden is gay, but Iris is pan.

Cheren is gay but too uptight to admit it.

Roxie is bi and also poly, incidentally.

Marlon is bi.

Shauntal is gay. She has a crush on Caitlin.

Marshal is gay.

No one really knows which way Grimsley goes, and he seems to delight in not telling anyone. (He’s bi.)

Caitlin is a very tired trans woman who’s also bi.

KALOS

You would think Kalos would be gayer than Sinnoh, but actually no. A lot of them are actually straight, bi, or simply ace.

Viola, Ramos, and Wulfric are all the “we’re just cis and straight” crowd.

Grant, Korrina, Clemont, and Valerie are all ace.

Valerie is homoromantic, though.

Olympia is bi and also post-op trans.

Malva is straight and once had an unfortunate thing for Lysandre.

Wikstrom is straight.

Siebold is shockingly straight, to the surprise of literally everyone before he’d clarified this point.

Drasna is gay ... which is also to the surprise of literally everyone, who all thought she was straight.

Diantha is openly gay, but her relationship with Cynthia isn’t public knowledge. She leans into the gay identity to be a lesbian icon for younger queer kids, but she’ll still accept roles for straight characters (even ones in romance movies) because she wants to also show off her range as an actress.

ALOLA

Ilima is gay and trans.

Lana is eight and what is this.

Kiawe is bi.

Mallow is also gay and trans.

Sophocles is aroace.

Acerola is surprisingly not ace but rather just simply straight. I have this headcanon because I refuse to make a pun out of her name.

Mina is pan af.

Hala is straight.

Olivia is very, very straight.

Nanu is too tired to care. (At one point, he was bi, though.)

Hapu is a baby gay.

Kahili is an awkward af gay.

Molayne is not only gay, but he’s also the storage system admins’ wise gay uncle, who possesses the only brain cell among the storage system admins’ gay community. He’s also nonbinary (they/them or he/him), but he’s honestly extremely chill about pronouns.

GALAR

Galar is basically the Sinnoh for bi people, ngl.

Milo is bi.

Nessa is bi.

Kabu is bi.

Bea is bi.

Allister is eight years old and what is this. (Probably ace, though.)

Opal is actually pretty straight. She was once in a relationship with Mustard.

By contrast, Bede is very gay. And also trans.

Gordie? Bi.

Melony? Bi.

Piers? Very bi.

Marnie is bi but kinda denies it.

Raihan is extremely gay and for some reason thinks the other Galarian gym leaders are gay too.

Klara is bi.

Avery is bi.

Leon is bi.

Mustard is straight and once had a relationship with Opal but is currently happily married to someone else.

Peony is basically like Clair and Wallace for straight people. Like ... he’s the straightest person you will ever meet. Take all the stereotypes about straight people, remove the toxic masculinity, and distill the results down, and you will have Peony. Peony is so straight you can use him to hang pictures perfectly. He’s so straight that if you’re ever insecure about whether or not you’re gay enough, you need just to stand next to Peony for five minutes. Peony is basically why almost everyone else is a little bit bi—because Arceus or Mew or whoever put all the straightness in the world into Peony and went, “Wow, I think I went a little too far.” Peony is that straight.

ORANGE ISLANDS

Most people probably don’t care about this region because it’s an anime only, but I care.

They’re all gay. Luana’s daughter exists because of a sperm donor, but Luana herself isn’t married and is very much a lesbian.

Furthermore, Rudy is trans because Electric Tales of Pikachu once made a trans joke about him, and you know what? I’m going to fix that so it’s something that actually respects trans people.

The Orange Islands are basically the other location gay trainers say they’ll turn into a queer commune, only it’s for gay people who judge the snow-loving gays hardcore. (To be fair ... they have a valid point. Listen. Listen, my fellow queer people. Why would you want snow when you could have sunny beaches and no frostbite?)

BATTLE FRONTIER

Anyway, Noland is aroace.

Greta is ace but biromantic.

Tucker is nonbinary (they/them or he/him) and also aroace.

Lucy is straight, shockingly enough.

Spenser is aroace.

Brandon is aroace.

Anabel is bi.

Palmer is straight.

Thorton is aroace.

Dahlia is homoromantic but ace.

Darach is 100% straight.

Argenta is aroace.

The Battle Frontier is, in other words, the closest thing to a Sinnoh or Galar for ace people. }

#worldbuilding month #resources #pokemon headcanon #pokemon lore #long post

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girl-outta-hell · 4 years

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{{ Questions for Canon Muses

{{ Found the questions here:

https://fallxnprxnce.tumblr.com/post/160809400830/questions-for-muns-of-canon-muses

1. What is the biggest headcanon deviation from the canon material that you have incorporated into the way you write your muse? Why did you come up with it? I am incredibly attached to canon, so I try not to deviate from it, as much as possible. There is one detail, which doesn't exactly deviate from canon... but I took a little detail from the comics and twisted it into something freshly agonizing.

In the original comics, Raven's mentor and all of Azarath's spiritual leader died (of old age) when Raven was 10. Now, considering the DCAU movies, 10 looks to be just about how old Raven was when she brought Trigon to Azarath... so I kept the comic!canon that Azar died when Raven was 10, but headcanon that rather than dying of old age, she died alongside all the rest of the Azaratheans by Trigon's hands.

As for what possessed me to conclude that, I have no idea whatsoever, and can only point in the vague direction of "I Was Trying to Figure Out How Old She Was", and then it just kinda clicked.

3. What is something that was never addressed at all in the canon material that you have independently developed for your muse? Raven's methods of coping with having an abusive parent literally attached to her head? I think we'll be seeing some Conflict of That Nature in the upcoming movie, but as for the daily struggle, that’s all me.

4. Have you made any outright changes to the canon material in order to write your muse the way you wanted (entire scenes you chose to omit, chapters you say never existed, things you assume were never said, etc.)? I say I take comic canon into consideration to fill in the gaps where the movie doesn't address canon fact... but when I say "comics", I pretty specifically mean the New Teen Titans comics, and even THEN, I intentionally and specifically don't count anything after, oh, maybe 1989?, during or after the Wildebeest / Titans Hunt storyline. Aside from being confusing and convoluted, I've just never felt compelled to address that story in anything I've ever touched.

(Besides the over-arching and undeniably canon fact that Raven is really hard to kill in such a way that she’ll stay dead-forever. I keep that. I love that about her.)

But the absolutely WORST comic canon that I absolutely REFUSE to acknowledge as ANYTHING other than a terrible fanfic is definitely the Sons of Trigon plot from the 2008 issues of "Titans". Vast potential for phobia triggers aside, Raven was so terribly out of character, the story was poorly written, the writers ignored everything Marv Wolfman had ever written (Trigon HIMSELF said Raven was his ONLY heir! over and over and over again), mathematically it just didn't work (there's no way between that time and the time of Titans that Trigon had 6 more grown-adult kids), The NOTP was there and they laid it on out-of-characteristically thick, the fact that I put more effort and development into my own canon-compliant OC than whoever wrote those comics (who didn't seem to bother reading ANY of Raven's history with Trigon), just... so many reasons. I despise that story and will never lift anything from it as any kind of inspiration. You ever want to get me Instantly Salty, just remind me that story was published by Actually Factually DC Comics. I'm disgusted.

5. What is an aspect of your muse’s canon material or canon existence that you never had the opportunity to explore but really want to? Ah, much better! Truth be told, that's what I write fanfiction for, so most of the answers I could put here have already been penned (whether it's in a file or actually posted). Things like, what if Raven DID have a sibling? Can she fall ill from MAGICAL things? How does she cope with the guilt of everything she feels is her fault? And of course, the 80's comics dedicated an entire issue to exploring her upbringing in Azarath, so that has already been explored quite explicitly. And even on the fluffy side, JLvTT explored her actually Having Fun, which was super nice to see and warms my heart... but, you know, A Happy Raven could always use more exploring. c: Not just in "distraction" either, but comforting her? Heal The Child!! I can and I will address her grief and loss and SEE her HEALING! Not just healing other people, but HERSELF as well!!

6. What is the general opinion of your muse’s fandom about them? Do you agree with it? Eh, this particular side of the TT fandom is a lot more liberal with her emotions than I've ever seen any reason for? I mean, statistically, she does smile more in this verse than in other aspects of canon, but she still restrains her emotion and she still acts distant and aloof most of the time. She definitely cares and engages and smiles, but like.... not nearly so much, or as quickly, as people tend to write or draw. I don't even think we've ever seen her cry, solely excepting the scene where she's watching Trigon destroy Azarath. Despite all the terrible things that have happened. That says something.

7. For movie or TV muses, what is your muse’s favorite scene? Why? Can you show a screenshot? Ohogsh, well, her favorite moments are absolutely the times the Titans spend together, as a family. If it weren’t for everything that happened immediately after, the carnival scenes would’ve been among the sweetest time of her life thus far. The things I imagine being her ABSOLUTE favorite weren’t shown on screen, things like Christmas mornings and movie nights, game nights, not even necessarily moments where she was involved, but just times when they’re having a good time, relaxed and enjoying each others’ company. (Especially as an empath, those moments are wonderful.)

I also like to think she’s especially proud of Damian’s growth, but I can’t put it down to a Particular Moment...

8. For movie or TV muses, what is a scene with your muse that you hate? Why? Can you show a screenshot? (So... Suicide tw on this one. Thanks, JLD:AW.)

Seeing her in pain and struggling and suffering always pierces the most tender and sensitive parts of my heart... but that moment... that scene, the one we've only GLIMPSED, in previews no less, from Justice League Dark: Apokolips War. Where she's on her knees, and she's holding something to her throat... and she pulls back... and she's legitimately genuinely right on the precipice of committing suicide? That has shaken me more than any self-deprecation or guilt or ostracization or loneliness from her ever had before. I don't "hate" it, but gods, it hurts, knowing she was right there, and ready to do that. Because you only actually DO that when you're so destroyed and hopeless and agonized and empty that there isn't any room for hope or recovery in your mind, and it just.... It struck a personal chord in me, let's just say that. ;; I only have Guesses about why she's so ready, but every single one of them just HURTS so MUCH. Whatever it was, it hurt HER so much! Gods. I'm trembling. I just... well I hate that she was so broken, she felt like that was the answer.

(okay.... tw over.)

9. For movie or TV muses, what other character played by your muse’s actor/actress has a lot in common with your muse? I'm not enough of a TV person to know what else Taissa Farmiga has been in, unfortunately. I know she's done some work in the horror genre, but that's it.

10. For book muses, what is your muse’s favorite scene? Why? Can you provide a short excerpt? 11. For book muses, what is a scene with your muse that you hate? Why? Can you provide a short excerpt? 12. For book muses, what other character from a book or book series has a lot in common with your muse?

13. What canon character do you really wish your muse could interact more with? Within canon, or within RPs? Because within canon, I'm looking forward to seeing how she interacts with John Constantine. So much. And, I won't lie, I'm desperately curious to see if/how she has any further reactions with Clark, after that devastating life-saving moment we saw in the previews...

~ As far as RPs though, more interaction with the other Titans would be great. Warm-and-fuzzies and camaraderie. Though, as an OC creator, I'd also love to give more love to other OCs?~ I love learning about All-New Characters! I love exploring Raven's interactions with someone she's never met before; someone I know nothing about! And as a writer, I love giving others the opportunity to explore and develop their characters. c: It's a bit of a broad stroke, but it's no less true.

14. What is your ideal AU for your muse? I actually... don't do AUs? I mentioned my fondness for canon, but, heh, this 'verse already feels like a bit of an AU to me! (I've spent nearly 2/3 of my life loving on the '03 cartoon and the 80's comics, so this DCAU-verse Raven was a whole new constellation of my favorite traits! Plus some younger, softer, vulnerable traits that I also love, and entirely new character dynamics with the new team. Even a whole new sHIP???) Anyways, I guess my point is, this already IS my ideal AU for Raven~

15. What plots/interactions leave you feeling protective of your muse? Bold of you to assume I'm not ALWAYS feeling protective of her. But anything that hits a vulnerable spot for her, particularly in the spots I can relate to her on... (Which are a lot of them, honestly, but some hurt more than others.) I called her "my little soul-sister" today, and I meant that with every fiber of my being. So seeing her hurt? Protective Mode: Auto-Engaged!

#{ {{ Rae mun * ooc * announcements }} }#questions list

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