really fascinating just the amount of media that said "heres a gay/trans character, please laugh" and then fans said "wow, a gay/trans character, just like me! thats so cool!" and the writers of that media are so shocked that their characters would have that interpretation. like no youre not supposed to think its GOOD that this character clearly has traits we pulled from contemporary gay culture, youre supposed to want to point and laugh!! how did this happen!!!

Take what I’m about to say with a grain of salt since I wouldn’t say snake was really written to be A Gay Character but regardless the way snake’s gender and overall personality is portrayed is probably one of the best depictions of gay men I’ve ever seen. He’s very pretty, dressed in expensive clothes reminiscent of a prince, with beautiful wavy hair and an air of poise and sophistication. He’s the smartest person in the room and he KNOWS this and he will not hesitate to be a condescending prick. He’s delicate and funny and charming. He has no fear or hesitation about suggesting he and Junpei share a bed or referencing gay sex. All these things tend to make a character the butt of jokes or at the very least regarded as lesser than the other characters but with snake hes the most admired one here. He’s very capable and is in fact so capable he literally needed to be removed temporarily from the situation so that the others could solve the mystery on their own. He’s absolutely fearless, doesn’t care about pissing off Aoi or getting shot multiple times by Ace. He’s fucking strong as hell and is able to survive being shot multiple times and have enough strength to dig his claws into Ace and force them to burn to death together. Everyone loses their shit without him and he’s the key to escape. He’s cool as hell and he fucks severely

The whole framing of Lestat as the sole symbol of patriarchy that fandom is so desperate to put him in doesn't work unless you deliberately ignore how he was also a victim of rape and abuse before he was turned. People want him to be fit into this strict role of "father figure/violent husband/perpetrator" that is only that and not even a whole person, and in doing so they need to push aside the fact that despite being his family's provider, he was also pushed into that role when his father forbid him from joining a monastery or gaining an education that he wanted. Lestat wanted to run away with a theater group as a kid, and actually managed to do so once Gabrielle gave him her blessing and monetary support in order to go to Paris. He didn't always want to be the provider, he was forced into that role and became despondent when he thought he would never get a chance to leave his home.

His new life prior to being turned is pretty much the antithesis to the whole "Lestat is a manly man who would sooner throw up than be compared to a woman" spiel: he lived with another man in Paris while also being an actor, having left his family and "responsibility" to them. The only family member he was ever close to was his mother, all the other male members shunned or ridiculed him. Add onto that the fact that his turning firmly placed him within the role of the damsel/victim: he's kidnapped from his bed by a stranger, taken into a tower and left to rot while being fed on for a week, before then being raped and violently turned all while never even being asked if he would consent to it in any normal circumstance. But you of course have to ignore all of this if you want him to only represent the aggressor/patriarch while Louis is the helpless unhappy matriarch of the family.

My issue isn't that I think Louis isn't a victim, it's that it's not unrealistic for Lestat to be an aggressor/abuser while also displaying traits that aren't regularly assigned to stereotypical depictions of male characters. He's abusive to Claudia while also having been a victim of abuse from his own family. He's not a good maker/teacher, but he also didn't even have one when he was turned. He's the provider/attempted protector of the family and seemed to like being that, while also having run away from his own family prior to this to act in a theater in Paris. He's a rich white man while also being obviously effeminate in public spaces, even to Tom's own bigoted humor.

Like Louis' own complicated story with being his family's benefactor and provider, you can't firmly place Lestat as being one thing or another in terms of gender ideals without deliberately ignoring parts about him that don't fit this. And I don't think it's an absolute necessity, when even in Louis' own story, Lestat isn't stripped of his effeminate mannerisms or behavior while also being the abusive maker/father/lover.

I love Astarion and also I cannot cope with all the fanart of him turning him into a twink. I don't mind not drawing him shredded or whatever but I feel like I keep watching everyone hit him with skinny magic and it makes me want to SCREAM please guys please

I just . Repeating "characters are tools" you end up erasing so much about arashi's character and motivations and interactions with other characters if you avoid using her pronouns aka avoid showing she's transgender. It's on the same level of frustration with the translators i had when i saw they had Mika speaking standard English, there's a LOT that gets lost if you don't show those little things.

"[identity] is or isnt lgbt" are we talking about if we have political goals in common or if im gonna let em perform at a queer poetry reading or if this type of guy would be really annoying to meet at a house party

hot take: stop saying characters in gay ships can't be too feminine or masculine just because it "plays into stereotypes" there's a world of difference between just having a gay character be effeminate and making them into a fetishized/offensive character

(this is primarily about JotaKak but this also goes p much for any gay ship where one character acts more masculine or feminine than the other)

Hey FYI killing or assaulting or raping a woman due to misogyny is a hate crime. It is as much of a hate crime as killing or assaulting or raping any other marginalized group due to bigotry and I’d appreciate if we stopped downplaying misogyny and misogynistic violence when literally every single woman I have met has at some point been a victim of misogynistic hate crime. No, men are not “also oppressed by the patriarchy”, if I see one more person make that claim I’m going to kill them. What the hell do you guys even think the patriarchy is. like. Ok. The patriarchy isn’t a gender norm system, that’s it’s own issue that tends to form under the patriarchy. The patriarchy is a system designed to serve men and oppress women, it’s designed so that men are able to obtain power but women aren’t. That’s literally all it is.

Baffling to see straight men being like no my favorite character CANNOT be GAY!!!! And they're like here's the evidence he's dated women before like buddy I hate to break it to you that gay people exist, bi people exist, and gay people who have dated ppl before they came out also exist and you're pissing EVERYONE off right now.

Also I'm making your favorite character gayer with my mind as we speak.

like yeah this means nothing but it's very funny all the same

Guy who's never spoken to a trans woman in his life:

oh god okay i understand that maybe not everyone is as indecisive/comfortable with saying "it depends!" as me, but like, i'm sorry, i'm sorry, but i just can't take people who call izzy a villain seriously

good luck now that you've kicked the hornet nest because people who adhere to "louis is basically a woman" meta are particularly rabid and have a tendency to harass anyone who disagrees with them. interestingly you'll also notice their only comeback is to claim the only alternative viewpoint is "lestat as mother" even when nobody said that. as though a relationship between two men must entail one being the "woman." of course ultimately you need only glance briefly at the loustat ao3 tag to realize that this argument is by and large nothing more than justification of feminization fetish in disguise. most of this analysis is blatantly not in good faith

I'll be honest I'm surprised you got right down to the point with this message anrkfje. But I appreciate it. And yeah some of the various "lestat is mother" memes that I've seen are more often in the vein of "evil stepmother", which honestly the show doesn't even directly argue against when you have him cartoonishly take off the record player needle in episode 5 or arguing that Claudia is trying to steal Louis away from him. The latter in particular just reminds me of how various women irl have noted that their female relatives directly thought of them as threats for their men's attention even when they were just children. But as I said, this doesn't negate that Lestat is still her father who abuses her, and given how so much of the focus is placed on that throughout episode 6.

Do incels.............LIKE the Joker movie........or did yall just assume that. Genuine question.

i think the reason i wrote l. furius camillus like that is that im like that stereotype about gay guys being obsessed with bitchy aging glamorous women except im a lesbian whos obsessed with bitchy aging effeminate gay guys . btw

like i know these old characters are totally offensive gay stereotypes, but i like them. like im sorry youre tired of vaguely evil effiminate pretty men, but i cannot get enough of them