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

[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!

[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)

[eddiediazismyhusband]

Why do you insist on infantilizating the characters who were victims of Tommy, who have clearly forgiven and embraced him? Do you think you know better than them? You act as though every Tommy fan is a damn nazi while ignoring the actual POV of the characters of color affected by his actions.

Btw there are absolutely context clues given in the early eps that Tommy could be queer.

Stop acting like you speak for anyone but yourself. There have been a lot of posts by black, queer men, that are pro-Tevan that you seem happy to ignore. If you think Tommy is a racist, unforgivable character, fine. But you can't stop acting like you somehow staked a claim to some moral high ground here when the reality is you wouldn't care at all if he didn't threaten your ship.

oh look guys i pissed them off again by calling them out on their bullshit :) it’s been a while i was wondering when you’d show your (anonymous bc you know people would call you on your shit if you weren’t) faces here

i have never called you people “nazi’s” and think it’s vile that you view being called out on the constant defense of this blatantly racist character as an equivalent to being called a nazi

it’s disgusting behavior to say “oh you think im a nazi if you disagree with me” when you’re being called out and i cannot believe you had the absolute gall to say something like that on my blog

you are not a victim. this is the victim mentality i was talking about.

you say im only threatening by him bc he “threatens my ship” meanwhile the show has not treated him as a serious LI, and has actually taken more time to ignore him/parallel him to buck’s previous failed LI’s than setting him up as a serious contender for edngame w buck. you’re the ones (rightfully) threatened by eddie because he actually had plot armor and has a character that’s not a bunch of stolen headcanons that you’ve all placed on him

you guys love to call it infantilizing poc characters when we, yknow, fairly call out negative behavior but then you get so upset when people make valid criticisms of his character because you know his personality and character have no actual stability within the plot because he has not been developed beyond being racist and being gay

it’s funny that you ignore hen’s standoffish at best attitude towards him simply because you know that if hen was blatantly against him, you would have no leg to stand on because they’re never going to treat him as more important than hen

idk how what “context clues” you’re talking about in early eps regarding tommy being gay, but even if there were, that doesn’t excuse his actions. there has been no narrative development past his early episodes portrayal aside from them slapping a rainbow on him so they had someone to get buck out of the closet

i can direct you to countless people who agree with me on this, so i am not speaking for myself unlike most tommy cultists bc you all just woul rather take lukewarm queer rep when it’s a white racist man than the potentially groundbreaking queer story that can be told

sorry but that doesn’t give me positive vibes

you people love to bash main poc characters for their flaws and storylines when they actually take the time to tell these stories and provide context, yet when tommy is racist and misogynistic to hen and chimney, you all suddenly find it fine to forgive him the moment he kissed buck

i don’t claim to be on some “moral high ground” but you people have no room to claim that either when your fandom are out here spreading nothing but anonymous hate to people who call you out on your bullshit, while you also harrass the cast and crew for not giving your favorite racist a spotlight.

i fear you don’t have any stake to claim on whether or not someone is or isn’t “morally superior”

do me a favor and block me so i don’t have to lose braincells trying to process the bullshit that comes put of your brain while trying to defend a racist man

[hauntingofhouses]

Seeing fan discussions about Blue Eye Samurai and especially Mizu's identity is so annoying sometimes. So let me just talk about it real quick.

First off, I have to emphasise that different interpretations of the text are always important when discussing fiction. That's how the whole branch of literary studies came to be, and what literary criticism and analysis is all about: people would each have their own interpretation of what the text is saying, each person applying a different lens or theory through which to approach the text (ie. queer theory, feminist theory, reader response theory, postcolonial theory, etc) when analysing it. And while yes, you can just take everything the authors say as gospel, strictly doing so would leave little room for further analysis and subjective interpretation, and both of these are absolutely necessary when having any meaningful discussion about a piece of media.

With that being said, when discussing Blue Eye Samurai, and Mizu's character in particular, I always see people only ever interpret her through a queer lens. Because when discussing themes of identity, yes, a queer reading can definitely apply, and in Mizu's story, queer themes are definitely present. Mizu has to hide her body and do her best to pass in a cisheteronormative society; she presents as a man 99% of the time and is shown to be more comfortable in men's spaces (sword-fighting) than in female spaces (homemaking). Thus, there's nothing wrong with a queer reading at all. Hell, some queer theorists interpret Jo March from Little Women as transmasc and that's totally valid, because like all analyses, they are subjective and argumentative; you have the choice to agree with an interpretation or you can oppose it and form your own.

To that end, I know many are equally adamant that Mizu is strictly a woman, and that's also also a completely valid reading of the text, and aligns with the canon "Word of God", as the creators' intention was to make her a woman. And certainly, feminist themes in the show are undeniably present and greatly colour the narrative, and Episode 4 & 5 are the clearest demonstrations of this: Mizu's protectiveness of Madame Kaji and her girls, Mizu's trauma after killing Kinuyo, her line to Akemi about how little options women have in life, and the way her husband had scorned her for being more capable than him in battle.

I myself personally fall into the camp of Mizu leaning towards womanhood, so i tend to prefer to use she/her pronouns for her, though I don't think she's strictly a cis woman, so I do still interpret her under the non-binary umbrella. But that's besides my point.

My gripe here, and the thing that spurred me to write this post, is that rarely does this fandom even touch upon the more predominant themes of colonialism and postcolonial identities within the story. So it definitely irks me when people say that the show presenting Mizu being cishet is "boring." While it's completely fine to have your opinion and to want queer rep, a statement like that just feels dismissive of the rest of the representation that the show has to offer. And it's frustrating because I know why this is a prevalent sentiment; because fandom culture is usually very white, so of course a majority of the fandom places greater value on a queer narrative (that aligns only with Western ideas of queerness) over a postcolonial, non-Western narrative.

And that relates to how, I feel, people tend to forget, or perhaps just downplay, that the crux of Mizu's internal conflict and her struggle to survive is due to her being mixed-race.

Because while she can blend in rather seamlessly into male society by binding and dressing in men's clothing and lowering her voice and being the best goddamn swordsman there is, she cannot hide her blue eyes. Even with her glasses, you can still see the colour of her eyes from her side profile, and her glasses are constantly thrown off her face in battle. Her blue eyes are the central point to her marginalisation and Otherness within a hegemonic society. It's why everyone calls her ugly or a monster or a demon or deformed; just because she looks different. She is both white and Japanese but accepted in neither societies. Her deepest hatred of herself stems primarily from this hybridised and alienated identity. It's the whole reason why she's so intent on revenge and started learning the way of the sword in the first place; not to fit in better as a man, but to kill the white men who made her this way. These things are intrinsic to her character and to her arc.

Thus, to refuse to engage with these themes and dismiss the importance of how the representation of her racial Otherness speaks to themes of colonialism and racial oppression just feels tone-deaf to the show's message. Because even if Mizu is a cishet woman in canon, that doesn't make her story any less important, because while you as a white queer person living in the West may feel unrepresented, it is still giving a voice to the stories of people of colour, mixed-race folks, and the myriad of marginalised racial/ethnic/cultural groups in non-Western societies.

[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 🫶🫶🫶🫶

[sometipsygnostalgic]

Yeah the Plow drama was WEIRD. Dozens of PSAs about how staff is racist, all based on a white TOH fan's unsourced viral post. The SPOP guy who announced his best friend's podcast canceled because he said the word "dykes" which is in the title. I even had mutuals saying that ND had the DUTY to step up and interrupt him. The constant videos about how ND is TRANSPHOBIC because Double Trouble is "sexualized" and "evil". Queer people are nuts.

So a couple of things here:

The Sow* stuff was real. The crew actually apologised for it and said that they didn't mean anything by it, but that nobody should excuse them for it. I appreciate this response. It was a whole thing. Also it all happened before The Owl House even started airing... (EDIT: Incorrect comment because TOH started airing seven months beforehand) but I don't want to pretend the Sow stuff was a big hubbaloo over nothing. It meant a lot to people and I think it demonstrated a lack of self awareness within the crew. There are other moments like this. The Entrapta leash gag was brought up a lot at the same time as another example of insensitivity, and I absolutely agree, but I do respect that the crew responded to the backlash the best way they could - by admitting their wrongdoing and saying theyll work on having a better perspective. I do think there are other areas they could've done better as well, like Mara turning "blonde", and all the characters having magical multicoloured hair instead of natural black hair, or even dark hair that was dyed a different colour. Some of those are handovers from dreamworks shera but it still sucks. *Sow, not Plow. We both forgot.

I don't know anything about the podcast. Never heard of it. However, if that is true, that's really unfortunate - Everyone has turned hard against "dirtier" terms like Dyke, despite how much work has gone into reclaiming them. Also, whether "queer" is a socially acceptable self-descriptor seems to vary on a year by year basis. People need to recognise other queer people are not slandering them by using these terms.

Double Trouble being an "evil nonbinary shapeshifter" right? Well, Nimona is also an evil nonbinary shapeshifter. Nimona being nonbinary is a new aspect of her presented in the movie too, not the original comics. And it's fucking awesome!!!! I think what people have been starting to realise is that evil nonbinary shapeshifters are the ultimate genderfluid power fantasy. I think it's fair and valid to want more visualisations of nonbinary people who can exist in a real world, who didn't "start off" with magical genderless abilities, but I also think there will always be a place for the nonbinary shapeshifter.

Your comments reminded me of some people's takes on Entrapta as autistic rep, and how she is seen as bad because she's the autistic savant. And yes, the autistic savant is a stereotype, but I feel that Entrapta subverts it aggressively. She's a genius but she's rather dense, she's VERY friendly unlike most "autistic savant" characters and her social problems are highly relatable. She isn't hyper competent, but autism IS a "strength" of hers, not so much because of her genius, but because it allows her to ignore or question social standards that exist to hold people back. She doesn't give a shit how important Hordak is, or what a Horde soldier or Rebellion princess is supposed to be like. She's free, and very much a power fantasy in the same way Double Trouble is. Hell even in aforementioned "leashing scenes" that I have problems with, she breaks free as soon as it starts to be annoying. I love her.

[pruesgaultier]

9am rant, agatha all along edition

saw this post about marvel queer rep and i disagree, HEAVILY

here’s why

A) singlingout out lesbians is very weird and malicious. i definitely don't agree with the homophobia cause ew that's weird asf, but im gonna assume it wasn't just us. we don't have to be happy about ALL queer rep just because we have so little. i don't have to be happy about queer rep that doesn't represent me, sorry it does nothing for me that 2 boys kissed in disney media because they did it in eternals (terrible movie btw) and none of you gave a damn (and outside of the movie being bad, i have my reasons as to why im supposed to care because it's y'all favorite white boy of the month getting his rep? no thanks.

B) which brings me to my last point. i know this was a billy centric ep, but we already knew he was gay from the first episode, why are acting like this kiss was groundbreaking for queer rep? marvel has many queer or queer coded female characters who never ever get to kiss or get so little screen time, we never see them develop. to actually get a kiss between agatha and rio would ve been much more groundbreaking. i love the fact that we KNOW they're canon and we see it in their own emotional and intimate scenes, and im not even saying a kiss would 'solidify' their canon-ess but if marvel truly wanted to be groundbreaking it would've been agathario kiss and that's just that

C) i'm going to remind you of something very important: all rep for a group of people isn't good rep and it's very limiting to that group of people. and this is something i know as a black woman ACTIVELY seeing people who look like her phased out of hollywood or only seeing people light enough to pass a paper bag test, so no i wont be happy that marvel gave us something they gave us 3 years ago. because they had 3 years to FINALLY do something about it in an extremely popular show, and defaulted to what they decided the norm was in terms of queer rep.

a lot of you have rep you want but since it’s not with the“right” people, you dont like it nor do you care

anyways, that's for coming to ted talk, lesbians i love you and no i really don't care about this "queer rep" in question, sawri

[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

[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!!!!

[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:

[shimmerluna]

YRTS: Wilmon or Wilmonarchy?

view context and the rest of the series here!

I have a theory that the show was never really about Wilmon as a couple and it's actually mainly about Wilhelm and the monarchy. People just decided to focus on the gay stuff instead of seeing that as more of a plot device and that might be why people are reacting to s3 this way

People who know the show more have talked about the fact that it doesn't really care about Simon/Simon's perspective on things. You can say it's a problem that they're focusing on mr rich white boy while making the brown kid unsympathetic by ignoring his perspective, and I would agree, but I do think there could be a not-solely-racist narrative reason for it, and the reason is that Simon is a plot device in a story that is actually about classism and abolition of the monarchy, not queerness, non-white experiences, or even his general personality. He's there to make Wille more aware of classism and decide to abdicate, not necessarily to be his own person.

If he was meant to be his own character outside of Wille's privilege awakening, I think they'd get more into the racism that likely shapes his life just as much as classism with more than minor microaggressions. Sure, it's in the subtext, but it's not explicitly discussed (I'm ignoring Felice's s3 plot bc I'm talking about Simon and even that was just crammed into the last season when they've had to 3 to bring it up. that's a whole convo for a different time)

Basically, my theory is that this might be a drama with gay people in it for plot reasons, not a gay drama, and it makes sense that people interpreting it as the latter would dislike the ending, but idk if that's really what the show was trying to do.

disclaimers/other notes under the cut

I feel like it's relevant to mention in the main post and not just tags that I'm Black since I talk about race a lot and in a somewhat picky way in this post. I think it gives this a different tone than if you're imagining a white person "defending" (which is not what's happening here, btw) them treating Simon like shit while also getting upset about the race rep they do have.

I'm pretty critical of implicit racism in media. I enjoy thinking about it and wrote a whole essay about it for a class, but you won't see it on my blog much because it's understandably bad for my mental health, and it negatively impacts my enjoyment of analyzing other aspects of certain media.

Also, as an asexual I feel obligated to say that in the event that I feel this hypothesis is supported by my rewatch , blah blah blah amatonormativity bad, blah blah blah automatic prioritization of ships over plot in fandom, blah blah blah anger when the show doesn't prioritize the ship as much as the fandom does, blah blah blah you've probably heard this before, but there's a reason you've heard it before, and that reason is that it's true :)

[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