#I do agree with what people are saying in this post about queer rep and aspects of the indie culture around podcasts

[cripplecharacters]

Is there any list of stuff you wanted to see more in autistic representation? I'm autistic and I'm quite "stereotype material": white savant male good at STEM and who's not aroace but don't want a partner, and it bugs me that it's always like that, so I wanted to know what other people would like to see when I try writing autistic people.

Hi!

Honestly, I just want more autistic characters in general. There are hardly any!

Here are some things that I have never seen represented:

characters with mid-high support needs, both related and unrelated to autism

characters who use AAC [link to post about high/low/no tech aac] and who struggle to communicate

characters with cerebral palsy, tourette's, intellectual disability, or any other common comorbid condition that's not ADHD

characters who don't live with their parents

characters who don't infodump or know a lot of facts about their special interests, just that their interests are the things they engage with

characters whose special interests aren't "useful" to their life

characters with "unusual" sensory needs (for example i always see characters who hate loud noises and bright lights, but i know many autistic people in real life who are not bothered by those or actively seek them out)

characters misdiagnosed in childhood with ODD or another common misdiagnosis, or neglected as a "difficult kid" even if they have higher support needs

characters who use gait trainers, adaptive strollers, or manual tilt in space chairs

characters who have a supportive community or know multiple other autistic people

adult characters in day programs

queer characters, especially ones whose sexuality or gender is difficult to separate from their autism

characters who have harmful stims and not only when they're upset

characters who are not big. (this might seem weird but there are a surprising number of tall/large/imposing autistic characters, especially those with higher support needs; that's not what every autistic person looks like!)

So Many More!! If every autistic writer made a character who was just like them, each one would have at least one autistic trait that has not been represented before.

Mod Rock

Hello!

To be honest, just characters that don't generalize autism. On one hand you have "representation" that's all "all autistics are boys, 12 or under, who like trains and barely speak" and on the other you have "hi, I'm a very low/no support needs autistic who is very socially acceptable and lol like imagine liking trains instead of having Real and Cool special interests like me" (sometimes it's overdone to the point the character quite literally doesn't have any autistic traits). Too much autistic representation made to combat a specific stereotype just ends up shitting on the people who do in fact exist. Some people say that "ahh all autistic rep is those damn boys with they trains!!" but I don't think anyone would say that this kind of representation is actually good or thoughtful - not because of the train or the boy, but because these characters are barely treated as humans most of the time.

We need more complex representation of all parts of the spectrum, from successful savants in STEM to "obviously disabled" autistics who are intellectually disabled, have huge mobility delays, and stim at all times, to "everyday" people who just have their special interest, don't get social cues, and are kinda awkward.

I'll take a "stereotypical" character that's actually explored and developed properly over a cardboard that's there to be a "subversion of autistic stereotypes" any day.

mod Sasza

Hi,

I largely agree with the mods above. Mostly I want autistic characters treated like people and not plot devices.

But I wanted to say specifically: I want autistic characters of color. I am basically begging to see more autistic characters who are not just white people. We exist too, and really I barely see characters who have autism and aren't white.

Also, I want to see autistic characters with romantic and/or sexual partners. I feel like autistic characters are often desexualized or infantilized in a way that has them only rarely having a partner.

And I also want to see autistic characters whose special interest[s] isn't "useful" to their life, it's just there. Just part of their life. Like, it isn't their job. I feel like that's often a default.

Like Sasza said, we really need more complex and thoughtful representation of the spectrum. I don't need 'subversion' of autistic stereotypes, not particularly.

The subversion itself would be an autistic character being more than a plot device and portrayed with thought and care to the things that make their life difficult, the ways their autism affects the way they interact with others and the world, the things that make the person unique and themselves, and not just focusing on one of those aspects and ignoring everything else.

Hope this helps,

mod sparrow

[purpledemonlilyposting]

Oh good the Lorch is sending herself asks about me again.

[Lily's Post]

Oh yeah Lily calling marginalized people a "pick me" for not having the same exact opinions as you doesn't make you look bigoted at all.

Unlike you I don't think children's cartoons are activism. And my pointing at that some people like to try to downplay the lesbian themes in Steven Universe, or at least the way lesbians interact with the themes of the show, actually has nothing to do with the show itself.

Hey Lily did you know I also really don't like the word queer being thrown around, refuse to call myself that because it means strange and also dislike "anti-assimilationist" types?

Speaking of which:

[Lily's Post]

Yeah I say that about the kids telling me queer has been "reclaimed" for me. I would think you'd agree, Lily.

Those are two completely different concepts you dumbass. We can have gay content in mainstream media without it being insulting dreck driven by rainbow capitalism.

Lily is the one who basically wants the Hayes Code back. She wants every show and movie to tell her who is good, who is bad, what to think and for the bad guy to get thrown off a cliff at the end.

Lily just because those are the only two pieces of media YOU know I like doesn't mean that's all I like or have ever seen. Have you seen But I'm a Cheerleader? How about Saving Face?

Hey Lily if you'd actually watch my responses to you:

No I sneer at shows with bad depictions of gay characters when they have bad depictions of gay characters. Especially when they break their own spines patting themselves on the back for it.

Are you trying to get ahead of my VOD you falsely struck going back up on Thursday? You know the one where you said an early 2000's flaming queen stereotype in some shitty Alicia Silverstone vehicle was super good "gay rep" because you had some retarded need to paint a narrative that Canadian cartoons "did it first"?

The whole "she's just mad other shows are outpacing things she likes" lol it isn't a competition, dawg. That's you, Lily. That's how you think.

This is how I know its a self ask.

Yeah that's why in my reaction to James Somerton's somehow EVEN WORSE takes on Utena than yours I kept saying things like "Utena isn't really that hard to understand it just tells it's story in a very abstract way".

Also if you think the Sword of Dios is "the sword of patriarchy" you really didn't get it but much like James here I doubt you ever even watched it, Lily. I look forward to your "In a Nutshell" video where you will read out TVTropes with zero context and get everything wrong.

Lily I hadn't watched the show fully in over 15 years when I made my very first video on you. I wasn't even expecting to talk about Utena you just went on a tirade about it in the middle of your 2023 Steven Universe video.

In fact, the reason I even cut that video in the first place is I was so impressed with my own recall of the show. And then it got 5k hits out of nowhere on my then completely unestablished channel because people just hate your takes that much.

And now making fun of you has paid for my new GPU and CPU. No Man's Sky is running great and I'm ready for Dragon Age Veilguard so cheers!

[castlebyersthoughts]

Dude those Reddit posts—Yikes! The mindset of some people is startling. At this point I’m not sure if I want to laugh or scream. I know ST is just a show or whatever but we’re talking about possible queer representation and we’re getting called out. They really don’t understand how groundbreaking it would be. There’s so much straight rep out there and you don’t have to look hard at all. In any other instances you could have theories going back and forth in a fandom and people would be open about it or at least be like “hmm…that’s interesting now that you mention it”—but the second you try to imply that a character could be queer all hell breaks loose. Why? Does that threaten their favorite ship? If they’re so confident in them they shouldn’t have anything to worry about? It’s so stupid to call us delusional just for hoping for some queer representation. We want to be seen too.

The audacity to say “if they wanted it to be obvious they would have done it like all the other couples” you mean all the straight couples who can live openly and be comfortable with who they are and fall in love with who they want to without fear of judgement or shame. I swear people watch this show with their god damn eyes closed and their fingers shoved in their ears. Do people seriously not understand that it’s set in the 80’s at a time where there was zero positivity surrounding queer people. Every tv news program or newspaper article was filled with hate, death, slurs or quoting some bullshit bible verse.

I hope Milkvan’s enjoy their time living in blissful ignorance cause come season 5 that shits going crash down real hard.

Oh my god, anon, I know. You're trying to find excuses for them but let's face it, the ones I posted here were pure homophobia. Because they wouldn't react this way if Will was a girl, it wouldn't be seen as such an unthinkable thing, especially in season 3 out of a 5-season show. It's a normal and even basic progression of the story to slowly reveal another love interest for the protagonist who's been struggling with his relationship, especially when it's the best friend who's had feelings for them the whole time, it's like every romcom ever.

To be completely honest I did select the worst comments for that post, some people actually agreed with Will possibly having feelings for Mike, even if they all thought it was going nowhere. But Mike not being straight is just never a possibility for them, I guess because he had a girlfriend at age 12? It's either ignorance/heteronormativity or homophobia. Which is why representation is still so important, especially with a character like Mike, who's seen as the "normal" character, the audience stand-in.

And yes you're absolutely right about queer couples in the 80s not having the luxury to just be open like the straight ones, it's just completely crazy to think they could ever write Mike and Will like they did Jonathan and Nancy. I also don't know why those people are not considering the simple fact that the writers are taking their time writing a careful, coherent story? It's like everything is about instant gratification these days and people forget what a piece of fiction even is. They don't realize a story needs to have a beginning, middle and end, and characters need to go through a journey and grow. But somehow since Mike and El kissed in season 1 they have to end up together, no question about it. It's like these people have never read a book or even watched another tv show? It's truly baffling.

I guess in the end people who react this way are either: 1) M*leven shippers who use any excuse they can to stay in denial about Byler, 2) homophobic people, or 3) casual fans who don't pick up on the little details and queer subtext and aren't used to seeing that type of storyline in their "monster" shows, so they just don't register Byler as a possibility. Honestly the ones I'm most shocked by are definitely the M*leven shippers, because these people are absolute fans of the show, have watched it many times, and know how the writers and cast talk about it. Maybe they're just skipping all the Byler scenes on their rewatches, I don't know, but it just amazes me how they can convince themselves that Byler is just a fan-made crack ship and their beloved couple that's been terrible together for the past two seasons is the only possible endgame.

Like you said, there's going to be a big crash down from them after season 5. Because even if for some reason Byler doesn't happen, I am absolutely sure that Mike and El aren't ending up together. They're ET and Eliot, they're gonna have to part ways at the end of the story. Fortunately there don't seem to be many M*leven fans left, so I guess if the season is good this won't affect the global reaction to season 5 too much. Like the Duffers said, "You just can't please everybody"!

[do-you-know-this-adhd-character]

SUBMIT THROUGH THE FORM IN THIS POST, NOT MY ASKBOX, FOR YOUR BLORBO'S SAKE. I WILL LOSE SUBMISSIONS IF THEY AREN'T ALL IN ONE PLACE!

Hi! I've never run a poll blog before, but I like the "do you know this character" type blogs and I searched and didn't find one for ADHD characters so I decided I'd make one!

Submission Guidelines

Both canon and non-canon ADHD characters are allowed, but YOU MUST PROVIDE EVIDENCE FOR NON-CANON ADHD CHARACTERS! I completely understand just looking at a character and going "oh they have the Vibes" but it's not enough to be posted on this blog. Even just "they exhibit a lot of impulsiveness and distractability" is enough for me to go on - just give me SOMETHING to work with. However I reserve the right to not post a character if I don't think the evidence is compelling enough, i.e., if you don't list any traits that are specific to ADHD.

You may not submit real people, only fictional characters. I find it disrespectful and uncomfortable to speculate on the mental health of real people, and will not be posting those for my own comfort, even if those people will likely never see it. Also, the point of this is characters, not real people, so even people who have said they're ADHD won't be posted.

YOU MUST SUBMIT THROUGH THE FORM, NOT MY ASKBOX. I am, of course, ADHD myself, and I need all the submissions in one place or I'll lose them.

Got it? Here's the link to the form.

About the Mod/Blog

You can call me Mudkip if you'd like, or my name, Réka. She/her only please, do not use any other pronouns for me including they/them. I am an adult. I was diagnosed with ADHD at a very young age and have it bad enough that I consider myself disabled. So ADHD rep is very important to me! And I'd like to both learn about ADHD rep I might not have heard of, and spread awareness of what ADHD people are like through the characters that people might not even realize are like us.

My icon is the character 707/Seven from Mystic Messenger, I chose him because although it's a bit hidden he is canonically ADHD! There's a call where he talks about how he talks to himself, and if you say "I heard people with adhd talk to themselves a lot..." he agrees with you, as well as displaying other ADHD traits through the whole game.

...is this entire blog partially part of my agenda to spread the word of canon ADHD Seven? Maybe.

Header is Zack Fair from Final Fantasy VII; he's not canonically ADHD but there's strong evidence for it and I couldn't resist using the "Me? Gongaga." meme.

I often can't resist making non-poll posts on this blog, although I swear I try. If you're just here for the polls you might want to filter the tag "not a poll"!

My main is @hungarianmudkip69 .

Tagging System, for your searching or filtering convenience

#poll - the polls. this only includes "do you know this character" polls, not any other polls I might do.

#not a poll - anything that doesn't get the above tag. Including other types of polls. You know what I mean.

#canon adhd character - polls for characters that are canonically ADHD.

#noncanon adhd character - polls for characters that aren't canonically ADHD, but have solid evidence behind the headcanon.

#poll results - a reblog of an ended poll with calculations of how many people know the character and what percentage of those people know/see the character as ADHD.

#poll reblog - any reblog of a poll that isn't poll results.

#other polls - polls from other blogs.

#blog management - anything about the running of the blog.

#ask - asks. I don't know what else to tell you.

#approval inquiry - asks asking if a character has been approved for posting.

#submission inquiry - asks asking if a character has been submitted.

this was part of the original pinned and I always like seeing this part of poll blog pinneds so I'm leaving it

I'm supposed to tag other polls for visibility, right? This was largely inspired by @who-do-i-know-this-man and @doyouknowthisdisabledcharacter as well as @do-you-know-this-queer-character !

If you want to know if someone's been posted, check below:

Polls in progress:

707/Saeyoung Choi from Mystic Messenger (canon)

Kyle Klimson from The InBESTigators (noncanon)

SpongeBob SquarePants from SpongeBob SquarePants (noncanon)

Sherlock Holmes from the original Sherlock Holmes stories (noncanon)

Evan "Buck" Buckley, from 9-1-1 (canon)

Meg Murry, from A Wrinkle in Time (noncanon)

Bokuto Koutarou, from Haikyuu!! (noncanon)

Finished polls (under the cut):

Quicksilver/Pietro Maximoff from the X-Men movies (noncanon)

Rumpleteazer from Cats the Musical (noncanon)

Bobby Drake/Iceman from DC Comics (noncanon)

Karlach Cliffgate from Baldur's Gate 3 (noncanon)

Evelyn Wang from Everything Everywhere All at Once (canon)

Osana Najimi from Komi Can't Communicate (noncanon)

Barbara Gordon/Batgirl/Oracle from DC Comics (noncanon)

Sora from Kingdom Hearts (noncanon)

Dr. Coomer from Half Life VR but the AI is Self Aware/HLVRAI (noncanon)

Johnny Gat from Saints Row (noncanon)

Bart Allen/Impulse from DC Comics (noncanon)

Michael Tate from Greater Boston (canon)

Uraraka Ochako from My Hero Academia (noncanon)

Etcetera from Cats the Musical (noncanon)

Richie Tozier from IT (noncanon)

Gary Smith from Bully/Canis Canem Edit (canon)

Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation (noncanon)

Leonardo from Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (noncanon)

Mungojerrie from Cats the Musical (noncanon)

Achilles from the Iliad (noncanon)

Tajima Yuuichirou from Ookiku Furikabutte/Oofuri/Big Windup (noncanon)

Benrey from Half Life VR but the AI is Self Aware/HLVRAI (noncanon)

Crowven Corvuson from Cemetery Mary (canon)

Martlet from Undertale Yellow (noncanon)

Zell Dincht from Final Fantasy 8 (noncanon)

Skimbleshanks from Cats the Musical (noncanon)

Goku from Dragonball (noncanon)

Yuma Tsukumo from Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal (noncanon)

Moritz Stiefel from Spring Awakening (noncanon)

Sydney 'Syd' Novak from I Am Not Okay With This (noncanon)

Yuki Takeya from Gakkou Gurashi/School-Live! (noncanon)

Annabeth Chase from the Percy Jackson series (canon)

Maria von Trapp from The Sound of Music (noncanon)

Lift from The Stormlight Archive (noncanon)

Tim Drake from DC Comics (noncanon)

Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece (noncanon)

Apollo Justice from the Ace Attorney games (noncanon)

Stella from Winx Club (noncanon)

Roy Harper from DC Comics (canon)

Michelangelo from Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (canon)

Tony Stark from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (noncanon)

Aiden Clark from School Bus Graveyard (canon)

Serpaz Helilo from Vast Error (canon)

The Doctor from Doctor Who (noncanon)

Ronan Lynch from The Raven Cycle (noncanon)

Leo Valdez from the Percy Jackson books (canon)

Moth Flight from Warrior Cats (canon)

Ramona Quimby from the Ramona books (noncanon)

Joey Pigza from the Joey Pigza books (canon)

Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables (noncanon)

Spinner Mason from Degrassi: The Next Generation (canon)

Lupin III from Lupin the Third (noncanon)

Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (noncanon)

George Beard and Harold Hutchins from Captain Underpants (canon)

Alex Woodroe from All the Feels (canon)

Agent Curt Mega from Spies are Forever (noncanon)

TG from Castle of Nations (canon)

Shawn Spencer from Psych (canon)

Sydney Scoville Jr. from Grrl Power (canon)

Marinette Dupain-Cheng from Miraculous Ladybug (noncanon)

Zagreus from Hades (noncanon)

Sherlock Holmes from Sherlock & Co. (canon)

Ash Ketchum from Pokémon (noncanon)

Misfire from Transformers (canon)

Herlock Sholmes from The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (noncanon)

Christine Canigula from Be More Chill (canon)

Aubrey Little from The Adventure Zone: Amnesty (canon)

Lt. Columbo from Columbo (noncanon)

Billie from Billie Bust Up (canon)

Wei Wuxian from Mo Dao Zu Shi (noncanon)

Jimmy Casket from VenturianTale (noncanon)

Sara Eriksson from Young Royals (canon)

Magnus Burnsides from The Adventure Zone: Balance (noncanon)

Scout from Team Fortress 2 (noncanon)

Luz Noceda from The Owl House (canon)

Zack Fair from Final Fantasy VII (noncanon)

Percy Jackson from Percy Jackson and the Olympians (canon)

April Polls' Day posts, for posterity - ran polls on non-ADHD characters:

Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Zenos yae Galvus from Final Fantasy XIV

P.I.X.A.L. from Lego Ninjago

Brutus the Ducky from Real Life and also Rubber Ducky Hell (our only canonically non-ADHD poll subject)

Sophia from Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (please play it)

[toxicfucksaround]

Might delete this later because I'm kinda heated while typing this but

For the most part I agree with the people against Salem Wolfertinger and his partner WisArts

Like yeah from the evidence provided he's hanging out with predators and groomers and being an asshole which is not cool. It's a blockable offense and I recommend you do so.

The only thing that bugs me about this situation is the fact that people keep digging into his art, which is where I'm like, confused and annoyed.

His art is good. His art is nice and textured and obviously personalized towards himself and his tatstes. It's genuinely an inspiration for one of my own styles. And maybe that's why I'm annoyed.

I have double carpal tunnel. My own art right now is not great. But it's mine, it's all I can make without my wrists hurting. The idea that art is only good if it's polished and every piece is different, is just, gross.

People are also mad that his art doesn't relate to them, and it's like, yeah, of course it doesn't, Salem draws stuff to relate to himself. His experience as a non passing trans guy is insanely different from a passing trans guy.

Maybe I'm the weird one, right. I'm Genderfluid with stable pronouns, I am always they/he. But on my masc days I just look kinda like a tomboy. And I'm okay with that. Do I wish people would use my pronouns, yes, but I'm happy with myself and my body, even if it's super curvy and feminine. And if the only way to avoid being misgendered is to change myself and my body, well fuck man, I'm good on that, I'd rather everyone just keeps misgendering me.

Artists don't owe you shit

Another thing too that bothers me. People claim it's fetish art, and like....

Regardless of if it is or isnt

Why the fuck does that matter? Genuinely speaking here.

Artists draw for themselves.

Some artists make art to tell stories, raise awareness, and feature a diverse cast with different body types, face shapes, disabilities, sexualities and genders.

That's great, but not owed to you

If someone wants to draw feminine, non passing trans men, that's their prerogative.

If someone exclusively draws their fetish, that's their business!

Sex isn't evil, drawing sexy characters or horny posting is not an offense

I myself draw a lot of queer characters, non and passing trans people because I make exclusively queer ocs.

I also draw my sonas a lot.

Some of them are sexual, some I exclusively draw when I wanna draw something hot to me, some have deeper stories and some exist purely to get their back blown out by characters I find hot.

These are my bitches and I'll do with them what I please

Salem, while a shitty person, has every right to draw whatever the fuck he wants, ESPECIALLY his own Ocs and persona

Like Salem says all the time that his characters are reflections of his own transness. He draws what he wants, you just come across as transphobic when you claim the characters aren't "good trans rep" because they don't pass and wear feminine, revealing clothing.

Fuck trans rep.

Fuck this idea that every trans character has to be perfect and pass or want to pass or their bad rep and fetish material

Fuck off with this puritan "wholesome passing gays and trans only uwu" bullshit

Uh

Tldr

I blocked him and I recommend you do the same, but don't be a petty asshole about it and attack his art and his transness. Draw what you want and block people you don't like, cool? Cool.

Peace and love or whatever idk how to end a post

[mazzystar24]

idk who else to go to with this but i have so many people sending me hate because i don’t like bucktommy when i literally never even post about them????? they keep calling me toxic and a hater and i’m not i just have shipped buddie for years and i don’t vibe with tommy…. it makes me sad because this fandom used to bond over buddie so much but now i just see angry tommy fans (and admittedly some buddie fans but nowhere near as many) spreading so much hatred and rudeness while turning around and calling buddie fans toxic when we just want to ship our 6 year long standing ship… and like i said i genuinely never post about bucktommy, and if i do say something about them that can be perceived as negative then i always tag it “anti-bucktommy” and i NEVER tag it bucktommy so that they don’t have to even see it! It hurts to open up the app not knowing if i’m going to have another person calling me homophobic or a fetishizer (i’m literally queer) or calling me a toxic bitch when i literally don’t do anything but post happy buddie content 9/10 posts! and like i said i know i’ve seen some buddie accounts go to extremes and i’m not defending that, but i’ve seen people who will call out even the slightest apprehension to bucktommy as if they stepped on someone’s grave, while simultaneously bullying and harassing buddie shippers for minding their own business… like i can’t even go into the buddie tag and it’s people attacking us left and right while the bucktommy tag is nothing but everyone gushing over them… i hate that we can’t enjoy a 6 year old ship anymore because half the fandom decided to jump to this other one that has barely gotten any screentime between two characters that don’t really have chemistry with each other and they want to berate us for it and call us names. I’m not a fetishizer and I’m not toxic, I’m just a late 20s queer girl who wants to talk about buddie without a barrage of hate and insults thrown at me but I can’t do that anymore… 9-1-1/buddie used to be my safe place but now i can’t even come on tumblr because i’m worried a stan will be lurking in my asks/replies waiting to tell me how awful i am.

i’m sorry to dump all of that on you but i just opened a really nasty ask and it hurt a lot to read what they said about me and you were the first person on my dash

Hey anon!

Okay so I can already guess I’ll be late posting this cos i think I’ll be replying to this in increments throughout my day today, and also I can tell this is really bothering you so I don’t wanna just give like a short rushed answer - oh wow I actually wrote this in one sitting cos I can’t shut up once I start

Yes the fandom has been a downright mess lately and it’s like I always say, people if you wanna engage in discourse that’s your prerogative and no one is faulting you for that but it’s the utter lack of fandom etiquette these toxic fans have that’s the real issue and I also feel like as you said a huge issue is this kind of imaginary high horse they seem to have

Like I totally agree that there is like this section of toxic bucktommy fans who try to warp not liking bucktommy into being biphobic- which look if people are actually being biphobic by all means call them out but when you’re going to actual queer people who posted 166283894 posts celebrating bi buck, only to attack them for not liking the ship?? Then that’s just plain stupid I’m sorry, like being happy to have the queer rep and not liking bucktommy isn’t mutually exclusive and it’s ridiculous people are trying to make it out to be

Like I’ve personally been sent an ask like that where they implied that I was biphobic for not being a big fan of bucktommy and that “I don’t know how exhausting it is for bi people” - which I gotta say made me go what about my blog would ever make someone think ah yes straight 🤩

And thing is at the time they sent that my most note filled post was my celebration reaction meme extravaganza to getting bi buck which I feel added some fun irony to the whole thing

And calling people shipping two MEN (buddie) homophobic takes a special kind of cognitive dissonance that I gotta say I’d almost be impressed with the leaps in logic if it wasn’t so annoying

Now I personally don’t know what state the bucktommy tag is in cos I mostly stick to the 911 abc and the buddie tag but I know how the buddie tag has been and I agree the misuse of tags to make a negative space is absolutely ridiculous and again that all goes back to the etiquette part

And the fetishising thing is also just another thing that absolutely grates my nerves, because these toxic fans really need a dictionary thrown at their heads because buddie is like the polar opposite of that.

First of all a large section of buddie shippers im aware have asexual Eddie headcanons and that aside let’s say we want gay Eddie and buddie and all those things, let’s even say we want them to fuck nasty *gasp🫢* and sloppy and write 156273 smut fics where they plain fuck like rabbits (*nun faints in the background* also probably some pearl clutching occurred upon reading this),

THAT’S NOT THE POINT HERE- the point is the main appeal of buddie as a ship isn’t that ooo look two hot guys kissing; it’s the history it’s the friendship, it’s the vulnerability, it’s the will scene, the shooting, the trust, the parallels, the understanding of each other, it’s the domesticity and it’s all these moments that have nothing to do with sex or objectifying their dynamic or mlm relationships but rather shipping them because they are two people with this amazing connection and these experiences

and THAT? That’s the furthest thing from fetishisation

Now I could be controversial and talk about how SOME and some is the operative word of this sentence- SOME toxic bucktommy fans have been blatant in not really caring about the story or the characters or buck and Tommy as individuals or the team dynamic or anything other than seeing these two men kiss, these being a lot of the same fans who refuse to watch the show other than the bucktommy and Tommy scenes and then will act like they somehow understand the show more than fans who’ve been here years or seen the whole show BUT I digress because I know that saying this is me basically asking for spam hate (so shhhh let’s pretend I didn’t say that 🤫)

who said that? 👀not me👀damn that’s crazy a ghost just ran across my keyboard 🙄

Anyways back to you specifically, because I really do think it bares mentioning, if you’ve been respectful to others then that’s all you can do and thank you on the behalf of everyone cos it really makes a difference, and I wanna say sorry on the behalf of every asshole who’s deciding to attack you for ridiculous reasons, the best advice I can give you is to genuinely not let it get to you I know it’s easier said than done but you know who you are and you know your intentions and some dumbass sitting behind a screen who can’t even properly comprehend what biphobia or fetishisation actually is (or worse DOES know what it is but is just using it as a way to put others down over a tv show to have an imaginary high ground) isn’t worth your time or your distress and they cannot change who you are

This part might be over explaining the obvious but in case you don’t know/ are new to tumblr or whatever: If you wanna continue to have fandom spaces as a safe place filtering should get rid of a lot of the posts and so should blocking but ofc you’ll see a few so just skip past and enjoy the content you like, if you wanna make posts and are scared of asks from toxic shippers maybe you can turn off your asks temporarily until you feel like you’re in a better place mentally to deal with it

Oooo or an idea that might work is you can ask your followers and mutuals (who are the ones most likely to be sending the nice asks) to use an emoji at the start of their asks to indicate to you that this is an ask you’ll like then you can delete any ask without that emoji without even having to look at the hate if it’s causing you that anxiety - if that makes sense?

I hope my reply somehow made you feel better and I really hope that you can have your fandom space and enjoyment back 🫶🫶🫶🫶

[spuddlespud]

I've been seeing a lot of posts talking about trans people feeling scared and lost, and I have one useful thing to say which is JOIN A UNION.

Nows the time to get involved:

Attend your workplace trade union meeting and bring a motion on support for trans people. It will probably pass.*

Ask for casework support from your union when you have meetings/issues - they're there to help

Ask your reps to take a motion to your local trades council (a collection of unions in your area)

Ask for money to start projects, do some outreach or run an awareness event or know your rights events - unions have money and love to spend it on useful things

Ask your branch to donate to charities (normally a locally based charity)

Ask for resources to put out at work, ask your rep to arrange a talk in the office or to review your equalities policies (if your rep doesn't reply ask other people in your branch)

I literally got involved in my last union branch because they gave me money for a project I was working on.

I've seen old school trade unionists (as pontificating and bureaucratic as you might think) risk decades long friendships by standing up and ardently telling them to stop being "gender critical". I've seen a cis man address a union meeting of 100 people and successfully argue down terfs. Trade union banners turn out at anti-transphobia and anti-racism rallies every time near me. **

*Spuds guide to writing motions: clearly state what you want in a way that can be voted upon, keep it short and sweet, bullet points are your friends. Some people use the 'this branch notes: [context and links]' 'this branch believes: [political stance e.g. x is wrong]' 'this branch agrees: [action points to be voted on] (I have a really basic 'we support trans people and will put our pronouns on zoom meetings' type one I can DM to anyone who wants it, or if you want to send me any to read through)

**I'm not trying to paint a rosy picture, there are issues with racism and transphobia within the left, and within unions, and there's a lot of work to do. But in my experience, a lot of trade unionists are queer and are making changes, and there are a lot less terfs than you think (although as always they do like to make a lot of noise).

Also my experiences are from the UK and its likely with upcoming legislation that our unions are going to be reclaiming some of the power and rights that have been stripped from us, which is good news and a great time to be a union member.

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

Warning: Rant ahead. Do not read if you wanna avoid me venting about the wider RRverse fandom & their attitude toward the TOA fans.

Seriously. This is a vent post. Stay away if you don't wanna risk getting upset. I just need a place to get it off my chest. It's been stewing in my head for long enough and I usually feel better if I write it down/type it down somewhere. Makes my chest feel less tight.

Stay safe <3

"No one is treating you guys like outcasts!"

"With your annoying POV-"

"Everyone was so OOC-"

"Meg is such a Mary Sue-"

SHUT UP

SHUT UP

SHUT UP

THIS IS WHY I STICK TO THE TOA FANDOM.

THIS IS WHY I BARELY INTERACT WITH THE LARGER PJO FANDOM.

THIS IS WHY I GET ANXIOUS ABOUT SAYING I LIKE TOA ON A DIFFERENT PLATFORM THAN TUMBLR.

BECAUSE. OF. THIS.

Recently, I have left a comment on a Youtube video. All in all, it was basically just me listing off reasons why I liked TOA and - in hindsight - naively going "idk why people don't like it".

Top Ten things said before disaster.

The next day, I got two comments.

One was along the lines of-

"Don't care."

The other was-

"Jasper broke up and Jason died - it's not canon to me!"

...

Excuse me for having an opinion, I guess.

What sucks even more is that when a fellow TOA commented to me, the second guy ALSO responded to them with "yeah but PJO and HOO are still better maybe even MCGAA to"

Like what the fuck. who does this. who has the time????

people who don't have a life, i guess.

And then. and then this same person just Keeps Going when I replied. They said "TOA's an AU" and "It relies too heavily on cameos" and then turns around and says "this would have been better if *proceeds to give a list of cameos* were with Apollo instead of Meg"

like. URGHHHHH.

They. Complain. About. Every. Single. Thing.

Even Tristan McLean going broke. And wishing "something" had been done to "fix" it.

Like fixing something of that caliber would be easy. One of TOA's things is that it deals with Reality - and I get it, some people may not like that, especially for a fantasy series - but come on. You can't expect everything to be fine and dandy 24/7 about a series of GREEK MYTHOLOGY, THE CREATOR OF TRAGEDY.

Then they went on to say they hoped that if the show gets to HOO, they "fix" its ending so TOA doesn't happen.

...BRO HOO ONLY EXISTS FOR TOA TO SHINE. RICK'S FAVORITE CHARACTER TO WRITE IS APOLLO AND THAT'S A PILL YOU NEED TO SWALLOW.

they also went on to say that TOA is "example of a story that overstayed its welcome" and i'm just. GAHHHHHHHH *screams into pillows*

"we got new characters in PJO & HOO-"

Me: *can literally name off 27 new characters from TOA from the top of my head*

Them: You need to respect other people's opinions-!

Me: SAYS THE GUY WHO INVADED MY COMMENT??? WHO LITERALLY CALLED ME ANNOYING??? WHO'S COMPLAINING ABOUT A CHILDREN'S SERIES??? AND REFUSED TO AGREE TO DISAGREE WHEN I GAVE YOU THE OPTION???

Them: There's a reason why people don't like TOA. Can you guess? Because we didn't read the book? Nope i read all 5 and the reason is it's not as good as the others-

Me: bro that's not even a solid REASON-

The condensation on that last one really pissed me off.

What was especially baffling, however, was...

Them: I am pretty sure you have hidden opinions that make you like ToA, like maybe you are LGBTQ or LGBTQ Supporter-

WHAT. DOES. MY. SEXUALITY. HAVE. TO. DO. WITH. THIS.

THAT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!

and as a matter of fact, what are they even implying here??? it just sounds like they're saying I must only like TOA because of the queer rep and I can tell you that reason is bullshit.

(I love the queer rep dw it's just not the #1 reason why i love TOA)

also here's a full list of the characters they said were 'OOC': Piper, Frank, Leo, Calypso, Hazel, & Reyna.

A few of these, I understand the confusion (but also disagree with) - but FRANK? FRANK ZHANG WAS OOC?

AT THIS POINT THEY'RE JUST LOOKING FOR SOMETHING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT.

(In another person's comment about loving TOA they also went "well there's no Percabeth in it-" OH MY GODS JUST STOP ALREADY.)

It was especially infuriating when I pointed out the hate the TOA fans in the comments experience, they replied with "Nobody's treating you like outcasts!"

TELL THAT TO EVERY TOA FAN WHO'S GOTTEN HATE!

TELL THAT TO ME WHO JUST GOT HATE FOR IT.

just. AJHGSFGH. people. some people.

I want to block them. But youtube has removed that feature (thanks a lot youtube).

I'll stick it out. I am point-blank telling them to drop it. We'll see how that goes.

just...people. Guess you still can't have an opinion, huh?

Jokes on them they merely fueled my stubborn fire. I only love TOA more now. The harder they argue, the tighter I cling.

Anyway. If you've stuck it out this far, thanks for listening. I just really needed to vent. It's been bugging me for a few days and ruining my mood every time I open up youtube.

No response is needed, btw - again, needed a place to vent.

ToA fans, you're the best <3 Love ya <3

[relaxxattack]

agree heavy with ur davepeta post lol. i have a fondness for them because when i read homestuck, i was 13 and still thought i was cis, so davepeta was probably the first.. "good" representation of a nonbinary character i'd ever seen. not a robot, (kind of) not an alien, not a villain, etc. i loved nepeta a lot because i was huge on cats as a kid. you get the picture. i still identify as "just a cat" nonbinary to this day, i love it.

but now as an adult i keep seeing the cracks, i guess. it was good for my age, and stuck with me for a long time. something can be profound without being... *good*. if you want to read nepeta as a trans man or davesprite as a trans woman, it feels weird to invalidate those identities with a "girlboy genderfuck 1/2 binary male and female" fusion. hussie isn't cis, so i see less problems with this than i would a cis author. but it's still not fun as a trans narrative to me, so i understand where you're coming from for sure

a lot of stuff in homestuck feels like a joke, tbh. i think its cool on that people can find meaning in all of it, have emotional attachments to every crumb, write lore and fanon for stuff hussie might not have thought twice about. just the nature of homestuck. but part of me does feel disappointed in the later acts of the comic that feel like they're mocking the audience for caring about nepeta or the lalondes or lil hal. different for everyone's interpretation i guess!

yes, this is exactly how i feel as well! if nepeta were a trans boy and davesprite a trans girl it would still be strange to have the culmination of their arcs be… forever getting misgendered because they are sharing a body with someone of the opposite gender.

davepeta feels like, much like all the other sprite^2s, a big joke at the expense of the audience. and even if it were not a joke, being half one cis identity and one half another cis identity is a clumsy look at nonbinary identity. of course i’m not bashing hussie for this in any way, because even if this was a planned plotline and not a spur of the moment joke, it clearly wasn’t meant to be hussies’ one big thesis on gender. nitpicking the work of queer artists for not being “good enough representation” is extremely tired. but, i think it’s also okay to recognize when something was probably not… even intended to really make a good statement on that in the first place.

theres absolutely nothing wrong with people examining davepeta and arquius and jasprose and having fresh new takes on things, saying “what if this was better” because we all do that. my confusion only lies with the like… uncritical praising of these things as the world’s best and most deep trans rep, i suppose

[italianpersonwithashippersheart]

911 Thoughts

Haven't watched the new episode yet, so bare with me. I have some thoughts on the recent Bi-Buck stuff and they are semi conflicting and all over the place so I am putting it all in one post.

Firstly: The show has always been queer, it had gay characters since the start. I agree that it's not just gay now.

Buck being Bi is still amazing and huge. For many reasons: the figuring it out late rep, and the fact that we have seen hints for ages, we have all been here we have all seen it, and it finally happen. 7 Seasons in.

I do think it's good for Buck to explore dating men and figuring stuff out before jumping into buddie (if we are getting buddie)

I like Tommy. I think he and Buck have a nice chemestry.

I understand why people like the Even bit, but personal pet peeve. I hate when characters do that. Like at least give me a scene where Buck gets asked if he wants to be called Evan. I don't know I hate when someone has a prefer way to be called and then another character ingores that. At least give me a scene where he asks. Like ok I can assume Buck is ok with it and maybe he asked off screen, but like let me see it.

That said, it's not nearly as annoying then when Anna full named Eddie. That shit got my nerves. It felt like it was full naming him like you would a child who is in trouble.

Speaking of which: If no buddie, can we all agree that Eddie should be single. I don't know what it is about 911 that lets them write amazing female characters and then renders them unable to write a decent one for Eddie to play off, I don't know why someone that I know can have chemestry with women (Ryan Guzman) suddenly is unable to have any in this role. But it's painful to watch. The man has moved on from his dead wife, he just likes to be single. If the writers can't have a love interest that feels like it's there for more reasons then to remind people Eddie is straight by giving him emotional scenes with women instead of just with Buck then they just fucking need to stop and keep him single.

Like I said I like Tommy, and I do not think that Buck being Bi is useless or lessen if we don't get buddie.

That said if we are not getting buddie I will forever find it a little sus that they give Buck a male love interest that is so similar to Eddie.

I still want buddie. Not just because it's a ship between two main characters, who are equal in the series, and it would be the first gay ship between main characters in the show (SIDE NOTE: I can't help but notice that despite HenRen being amazing, they are the only major romantic relationship of the show that is One Main and One Side character, and it's the gay one. Like yes 911 has always been gay but it has not always been equal) but also beacause it would be first slow burn multi season gay ship in tv history (at least in the west).

Think about it, the hets have many ships like that, multi seasons arcs, slowly showing us them falling for each other. Pam and Jim; Booth and Bones; The main ships from Parks and Recs (I don't remember the names); Amy and Jake from B99. And many many more. But with gay ships if they are both main characters (rare) it always starts in the first season they got introuduced. Or they are already together, or they get a side character. I am not saying those are lesser ships, and sometimes that is the good choice for a show but I want my gay multi season slowburn (and don't say suprenatural I am not counting that)

GIVE ME DEMI EDDIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cloudbrooksblog]

i am :pinched_fingers: THIS CLOSE to blocking the hazbin/helluva critical tags. its so fucking irritating to read that shit, cause most of it is just nonsense! things that don't matter! "Oh no viv likes the main character and his love interest! is this why people who hate the main character are portrayed as antagonists?" like holy shit its so annoying. the show is called "helluva boss" guess who the boss is.

and then with hazbin hotel, some of the criticism i understand (like specifically the parts about racism are points i can't argue against. cause every POC i see is agreeing with it and im white so like,, who the fuck would i be to say "erm actually" about it) but the other criticism is like... "theres too many stereotypes" "angels theme song is too stereotypical" like ok some things are stereotypes but look at the parts of the characters that you're laser-focused away from. people talk shit about the bad queer rep, but like. idk man, hazbin hotel as a show hasnt come out yet. Helluva boss has some criticism against it i guess, not as much as hazbin... that might be because there's less to criticise, but i also feel like that might be because hazbin isn't out yet lmao.

and this is the thing i hate about the internet, they dont enjoy new media, they analyse it to see if theres anything that annoys them, and then if too much annoys them they shit on it endlessly because shitting on things as a group is fun.

literally people are seeing how a24 is agreeing to the asks of the unions and the first thing they do is post about how they hope vivziepop promotes the show more.

maybe wait until the show comes out! stop making yourself stressed about the future of the show! have a little patience! I know its been "yeeeears" but for fucks sake we GOT a release date. vivziepop never promised a release date before now, and now we have an estimated release date, so why not chill? why feel so entitled?

i swear. whenever a new episode of helluva boss comes out, i race to the socials to just have fun with the community that enjoys the same show i do. i think "oh boy i sure do hope i've gotten here before the haters". if it wasn't like this, maybe i'd be less irritated about the more general discourse, but this is the situation we are stuck with. Do these people realise there's an actual... regular fanbase? Like, there's a fanbase for this show that engages with it normally. We speculate on where it might go, we talk about what we like about the show, and some of the things that missed the mark (in discord servers etc). Then inevitably a viv anti comes in the discord, causes a storm in the "discussion" channel, and leaves declaring that we are brainwashed. chill maybe

[waitmyturtles]

Hi,

I am writing in context of my comment to your recent KP rewatch post. I have only just started to look at your older posts, and I must thank you very much for actually being the first place where I find proper in depth-criticism of Only Friends. As I mentioned, the show is very dear to me, and when it aired I only saw a lot of ranting and 'Boston is being punished for being poly' commentary, which being poly myself, I just couldn't see at all, as I never perceived Boston as poly rep. Also thank you for bringing Jojo's comments on Boston onto your blog, because I was not aware of those, and they recontextualize the anger of many people a lot for me. But maybe a main reason why I didn't even think about something like that is because I perceived the show absolutely not as a morality piece but as a depiction of a questionable queer friends group and their antics. I always saw the title as ironic, as the cast never gave found family vibes style friends group to me, but instead always showed how deeply problematic they all are.

There is much more I want to say here, and maybe I should make a proper meta post of my own once I have read more of your (partially also reblogged) posts on the matter.

For now I just want to add that I don't see any of the main cast as without major flaws, and I am hoping for a second season that is as messy as the first (messy not as in bad, but continuing to play to the characters' flaws and work with that), as the current stable situation doesn't seem to me like something that will remain. And all that I say as someone who usually doesn't like messy.

To end my rambling, thank you very much again for making your blog such a goldmine of excellent discussion, and insightful meta. I love it.

Thanks so much for the compliments, I appreciate it, @the-iron-queen!

Very interesting to hear that folks were interpreting Boston as poly. Yeah, no. I did not ever go there in my interpretations of him. The polyamory that I’ve seen in Thai shows is limited to the second season of Gay OK Bangkok (Aof’s and Nong Big’s triad) and 3 Will Be Free.

I saw Boston instead as simply having casual sex, and being judged for it. I’d posit that he was judged both by the characters within the show, and — and I say this with a fair amount of seething bias — by the creative team of the show itself. To the point you made about Jojo’s own quotes of calling Boston a slut, I think the character of Boston was likely written with judgement of casual sex in mind. (Which, wtf.)

My review of Theory of Love covers my strong distaste for judgements against casual sex, in part because I subjectively and personally think that judgements against casual sex offer judgy individuals false states of moral superiority that ultimately ring as hypocritical and disingenuous to me — especially if and when those judgy individuals jump at the opportunity to have casual sex themselves. In regards to Only Friends, what I felt was truly disingenuous about the whole show was its original marketing on being a progressive show about casual sex, depicted by actors who seemed to be ready to leave the confines of their branded ships. We got QUITE the opposite instead — the ships shipped together in a seeming condemnation of casual sex outside of monogamous relationships. The way Boston was condemned and left behind by his friends and Nick just seemed kinda unnecessarily brutal.

But this is me taking into account not just what the show internally is saying, but how I also think the show was conceived of and created externally. Den Panuwat, OF’s screenwriter, also had monogamous relationships as end goals in his more recent show of Playboyy, and I’m watching his first screenwriting work now in War of Y, and I’m not terribly impressed by his art. I do agree the “friends” of Only Friends end up in a non-committal and arguably “messy” place, but other than being judgmental dicks, I don’t know what their motivation was to be disloyal assholes in the first place — the show never told me that. It was all just kinda meh in the end.

@the-iron-queen: I’d recommend watching both seasons of Gay OK Bangkok, 3 Will Be Free, and Theory of Love for much more sophisticated conversations about sex from Thailand. I don’t know why more recent Thai BLs are just putzing out on this topic lately, but there’s a short history of really good shows that delve into this, and if I’m not mistaken, I think a few Japanese BLs are also treading well in this territory right now that I need to catch up on. I hope my back catalogue of Old GMMTV Challenge posts keeps you entertained, good luck!

[thewingedwolf]

We do agree then. Most of my timeline is filled with black women so that is what I'm most exposed to. My main gripe is that black women are always used as the rage bait in these shows. I'm truly tired of the racism and wish that new stories are created for us without the need to replace them for us to get representation. Sorry if I offended you for the 'black' comment.

sorry if i sounded suuuper annoyed lmao, i Am annoyed but at twitter not u aksksk. (also, was working children’s and there were just so many screaming kids today 😭). and that's definitely fair! i know The Interwebs in general is feeling very upset right now because of that romeo and juliet production that tom holland was in, because not only did they not really stand up for that poor actress, or turn off comments, they were just being sooo weird about her on social media. it's really nasty to just cast a black actress, especially one who is dark skinned, knowing she's going to get a shit storm of racism hurled at her and then not defend her and even actively make it worse by refusing to take basic precautions so she's not having people call her slurs in every damn post. and this show itself obviously also has a bad track record with that - not just with all the main black characters of color excluding agatha being light skinned and/or Mixed With White specifically (where's the blasian rep!!! where's the afrolatino rep!!!! why are mixed characters always mixed with white!!!!!!! also i love the sharma’s but not letting anthony and kate have their own fucking wedding OR a sex montage and then giving colin a bunch of annoying sex scenes is so!!!!!!) but also the way marina's storyline was handled was nauseating and pen never makes up to marina for doing something so egregiously awful, and on top of that poor ruby barker had a hard ass time on the set and on the internet. it sucked!!! i hope i didn't sound too mad lol, but my whole tl was either white women having a MELTDOWN over the show "ruining" michael (this is a paper thin character, there is nothing to ruin!!!) or other people (largely black women but also a lot of queer women in general) being like "sucks to suck anywayyyy hope francesca and michaela scissor on screen just to spite you personally" alkjdf and it hasn't even been 24 hours, i'm so over it 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

and yeah, that's something an author i like (i like her as a person, i don't love her romances haha) has mentioned - there are plenty of romances that are explicitly about black characters or indian characters or caribbean characters or jewish characters or whatever you fancy that take place in the regency/georgian/victorian era that could have been adapted but instead they went with julia quinn, who has explicitly talked about how she doesn't write characters of color because they ~don't get happy endings in this time period. and mind you, this is a woman who writes a duke living on every corner in london getting a love match!!! not to mention if they really just wanted to do some funky color blind/racebending, there are so many authors out there who have written longstanding romance series' with all white characters who are just better writers than julia!!! i mean, i have a lot of beef with tessa dare for what i feel is performative allyship (though i don't want to discount the way she has privately been a rock for a lot of authors of color, especially after the rwa blowup, she's still annoying to me tho haha), but she's just leaps and bounds better of a writer and also hasn't gone on record saying she would never write a black main character the way julia quinn has! it's unendingly annoying!!! courtney milan and diana quincy and beverly jenkins are right there!!!!

[mazzystar24]

I’m respectfully about to lose my mind at some of the fandom rn with the way buddie shippers are being treated… It’s like no one understands the whole point of shipping a couple is to want them to be together, so duh if something happens that could potentially lead to that pairing they’re going to get excited and theorize? Yes it’s absolutely important for Buck to explore his sexuality outside of buddie but the way people are trying to say that buddie shippers are homophobic for wanting endgame buddie….. when buddie is literally a queer ship? it doesn’t make any sense to me as a queer person myself because it’s like- y’all do realize that buck dating eddie would in fact mean that he is still bisexual, and that people have wanted thst for years, so A) why are we shocked and appalled at buddie shippers for being happy that they are one step closer to endgame buddie, B) why are we calling people homophobic or biphobic when they are quite literally shipping two men together, C) why are we all acting as if buddie endgame hasn’t been simmering just under the surface for YEARS and that if they were going to give us buddie, then thag means buck and eddie would both have to come oit as queer…

I’ve seen so many prominent blogs in the community who have made posts like “buck’s bisexuality has nothing to do with buddie and you are a horrible human for even insinuating that” and so many people are agreeing??? And not to mention the fact that now these same people are trying to villainize and trash on Eddie when in all honesty Buck’s behavior in 7x04 was NOT okay- physically harming someone because they’re not giving you attention is never okay (and i’m saying this as someone whi ADORES Buck, he still needs to be held accountable.)

It just reads very icky to me that so many people are screaming “bi pride” but then spewing all of this vitriol over a ship that would fit within Buck’s bisexuality…

It worries me that the writers are going to see this negativity from people and they’re going to just completely back-burner Eddie’s character in favor of Buck and it disappoints me because even outside of buddie, a major tv show portraying a repressed gay poc with religious and family trauma would be EQUALLY as powerful as Bi Buck is……

but i guess that’s just people only caring about the queer storylines when it’s about a white man since these are also the people acting like Hen and Karen or Michael and David haven’t been there the whole time

but that’s just me i guess….

I’m bullet pointing not to be curt by the way just because I prefer addressing part by part🫶

1. Agreed like this fandom was relatively peaceful then BAM it fully shifted overnight like in the words of Taylor swift THIS IS WHY WE CANT HAVE NICE THINGS

2. Yesss exactly like I’m very much a dont yuck someone else’s yum type of person so like even ships I don’t like I’ll be like okay respect 🫡 enjoy your fandom space love that for you AS LONG AS THEYRE RESPECTFUL TOO and I’m not gonna lie to you I see the primary source of negativity and stuff in the fandom be people who legit never watched anything other than the bucktommy related content (which I kinda have a whole other rant about but I don’t wanna give you miles and miles to read in one ask)

3. Yes to that 100% - buddie is a queer ship the cognitive dissonance it takes to call someone homophobic for shipping them is honestly fascinating atp, Buck is bi canonically now and y’all do realise that who he’s with or if he’s single even doesn’t take away from that right??? Like the rep is THERE and will always be THERE

4. You worded it a bit weird but I got what you meant (I hope) so anyone who didn’t may require a little clarification, the sentiment of bucks bisexuality being separate from buddie I think is 1000% correct and I agree wholeheartedly that a persons sexuality and their journey shouldn’t be just about their love interests but about themselves as a person, the issue people are taking is that 1. The people saying this are saying it on every buddie post even when the same blogs posting it have 177283 posts talking about buck as an individual and as a bisexual man outside of buddie and bucktommy, so it’s sort of become a weaponised statement if that makes sense 2. The buddie shippers are the ones who have been advocating so hard for the show to give us canon bi buck like that’s just fact no one can deny so to the og fans who’ve been here for YEARS (I’ve only started like 2023 ish so I’m not counting myself there) this must be such a total slap in the face to be receiving so much hate now

5. Oh yeah the Eddie bashers can personally come fight me

6. If I’m 100% honest I choose to interpret the basketball injury as being mostly accidental like I think he got too into it and forgot himself and his own force for a second rather than intentionally hurt Eddie, like it so happens in sports, I think it’s like just the after guilt that made him question himself and his motives, idk that may just be me denying canon because it just felt too out of character for me to believe

7. I think the fake bi pride stuff also irks me BAD like some of these people are looking for very surface level superficial representation and if you don’t push for more and more substantial and meaningful representation then you’re gonna get constant variations of the same exact thing and these are also the same people ignoring every other queer character in 911 which is just🙃

8. Idk how much the writers take fandom into account but I constantly say like if they were to listen to fandom they’d go the route they know people wanted for years

9. YES about Eddie’s character like I made a whole post about gay and comphet Eddie and how meaningful it would be because it’s just so so unique and unprecedented

10.HAHSKDK THE CROSSED OUT PART IS WHAT I JUST SAID BUT I DIDNT READ IT GAJSKDKFM

[discjude]

What are your reasons for liking Japeth and hating Rhian II? I'm just curious because Japeth seems to be a hated character in general.

So i pasted what i wrote before into a google doc and it was over a page long so here is a very condensed version, including my original preface. there’s also a tldr at the end if you don't have half an hour

quick preface just in case people get mad at me for this (dovesso stans are gonna hate me after this one):: I am not trying to convince anyone of anything here,,, this is entirely my opinion and I'm absolutely not trying to insult anyone that doesn't like japeth!! I completely respect it if you like rhian, there's a lot of good reasons to like him and as I'm writing this I realise I don't hate him as much as I thought I did. once again this is my opinion and it's alright if you disagree :)))

My reasons for liking Japeth mostly come from how complex his character is and what role he serves in the story. Though rhian is also very complex and i’m a very big fan of him being everything tedros isn’t as a king, liking japeth is mutually exclusive to liking rhian. Other than that, my two other solid reasons for disliking rhian is the way he treats kei (neglecting everyone else who tries to get close to you because you’re prophesied to marry Sophie? Dick move bro) and the fact that he’s ever so slightly homophobic which is neither here or there

Every other reason comes from me liking japeth, which is because::

1) japeth is very very complex and mostly very well written. Chapters like flesh and blood are very clear on what he’s got going on emotionally, he’s got a very solid motivation, and if you’re really looking for it he’s a clear parallel to Rafal. If you have read any of my other posts you will know i am a sucker for parallels

2) also speaking narratively, i think him being the culmination of every other villain in the series is Very Clever!! He’s evelyn and rafal’s child, rhian’s brother, a parallel to sophie and yknow the other one!! It’s very important to me

3) (this is the big one) i think he’s quite misunderstood and i don’t think a lot of his actions were his fault??? Obviously there’s some unforgivable stuff (if you saw what soman posted last week on tiktok you know) and he’s genuinely quite insane by book 6 but it’s made clear in chapters like Rhian and the Real Thing that there is Some Shit Wrong with him, notably issues with anger and becoming too attached to people. Sort of leading on from this, I don’t think that he’s the one solely to blame for his involvement in Camelot years: i think the two main villains of the last half of the series are Evelyn Sader and Aric. 

I Do Not Like Aric and I believe he’s almost entirely responsible for Japeth’s actions: because of Japeth’s over-attachment to him, he internalises a lot of Aric’s beliefs (the misogyny and only referring to them as “friends” are my best examples) and this ultimately leads to some sort of dependency, which kinda fucks japeth up a lot when aric dies.

Similarly the same sort of thing happens with evelyn and rhian. Evelyn forces a lot of prophecies onto Rhian, and that led to his delusions about becoming king which ostracised him from his brother and gives him this idea that anyone who stops him from being king is automatically wrong. 

It’s worth saying that i Do Not Like Everything About Japeth. Some of his writing and dialogue really falls through, and maybe having your first canon queer couple both be absolute psychopaths isn’t a good idea?? While I don’t think the queer rep done through Japeth isnt horrible, it's. Yknow. Not good. It’s also worth saying that i don’t hate everything about Rhian!! I do think he’s also cleverly written and, again, works very well as a parallel to old rhian. 

I think that’s about it and i don’t want to write any more so if you have any further questions (or if you agree with me somehow) please let me know!! It’s also worth noting that i just really like snakes and went a little wild in 2020 when i read about cool snake villain

TL,DR: japeth’s nicely written and i think he’s generally misunderstood, he’s also got some nice parallels going on, I don’t explicitly hate Rhian but i don’t like him because he treats people around him like shit. I also think that Aric and Evelyn are more responsible for the twin’s actions then the twins are themselves. I condensed this all and it's still so long

also:

[toss-a-coin-to-your-stan-account]

I’ve noticed that a lot of your recent posts seem to be heading the direction of “Joey Batey is our queer savior from the anti queer writers” and I feel like that’s kind of ignoring all of the other queer representation that happened this season outside of Jaskier. He was just talking specifically about Jaskier’s character. And I’m really happy that he got so much input on the character that he is very passionate about.

But the line of thinking that Joey Batey is the cause of queerness on the continent just feels… well it does a disservice to the writers who have clearly been trying to craft this inclusive version of the continent where things such as queerness and diversity feel natural. I am pretty sure Cassie Clare even gave an interview to Radiotimes in June saying that she felt so comfortable playing Philippa as queer because of how the writers had written the world. It’s also ignoring all the other queer characters this season. Whether it’s Philippa getting laid, Ciri dancing with another woman, a woman flirting with Yennefer, or the mages flirting in general, and having been implied to sleep with each other there is queerness outside of Jaskier in many different forms. Like the Continent is just gay af.

It’s confusing how people seem to think queerness wouldn’t exist in the Witcher without Joey Batey, as if there are many other forms of queerness in the show outside of Jaskier. It’s almost like people forget gay women are here too 😂 but hey that’s not unusual is it?

Hi anon. While I do agree that the focus on Jaskier as queer representation is disproportionate in the fandom in comparison to Philippa (<3) and other queer rep. I do want to. Y'know. Clear the air about my own blog.

I'm not trying to ignore other rep in the show; I focus a lot on jaskier because he's been my favorite in the series for the longest since 2020, and his characterization was/is especially relatable to me for a lot of other reasons besides his sexuality. He's been my favorite for the longest, so I do tend to focus on him more than others. It's true.

On the other hand, for example, I've only properly known Philippa since season 3 came out (we only got a brief introduction at the end of s2 & I haven't played/read enough of the games/books (respectively) to really see a lot of her). That's not to put her down to elevate jaskier/pit one against the other, though. On the contrary, she's probably my favorite character of the season so far (or at least one of them) outside the destiny family & jaskier.

And the discourse on my blog when it comes to what could've happened during production/behind the scenes mostly comes from, quite frankly, a lot of the bitter taste in my mouth in relation to some of the poorer writing choices from s2 (it was there a bit after s1 once I'd read the books but it wasn't as bad), because I still regard it with. Mixed Feelings to be honest.

(While I'm enjoying s3 much more, I'm still worried in regards to the second volume bc things feel Too Good.)

That being said, I am really happy (if not pleasantly surprised) to see that the show treats queerness really well! I'm happy that a franchise that's meant so much to me for the past few years is giving good rep. It's just that when I hear things like "oh the actor did revise it with the writers" in regards to jaskier in s3 (when iirc that's not the first time one of the actors has had to work with production to revise smth), my, admittedly, Nosy And Speculative Self will naturally go "...okay so how bad was it before? 😟👀" (bc this is still. y'know. the show that pulled the entire Eskel Thing)

...and there you have it!