#I think all race headcanons are valid but also it’s important to take canon and context into consideration

[boysborntodie]

Latino!Johnny is super popular in the fandom and my headcanon too but I wanted to elaborate a little bit on why I think it's important to both the narrative and his character for Johnny to be so (no matter what SE Hinton says).

(Also I am not Latino or American, and all my information is second-hand so if I'm wrong about something or said something insensitively, I apologise and please correct me!!)

While Greaser is now mostly used to in reference to the subculture, the word 'Greaser' was often used as a slur against Mexican/Hispanic American, especially in the Southwest.

Greaser subculture itself is heavily rooted in ethnic groups such as Italian, Greek, Latino and Hispanic Americans, both influencing the subculture itself while being the main demographic (at least at first, having later spread around to lower class Americans in general and becoming a sort of movement).

Johnny’s main reason as being depicted as a POC seems to be the scene where he tells Ponyboy his skin is too dark for him to have blond hair. But I think it goes beyond just that and that race is a theme ever-present in Johnny’s progression throughout the book.

Now with Johnny, his entire character is, at first, summed up as 'poor kid who's been kicked down too many times'. He’s got no prospects. He’s bad at school. His parents despise him and he’s, for the most part, homeless.

We later learn that Johnny isn��t actually unintelligent in academic matters. He’s able to pick up themes and details quite easily. The education system is very flawed and has failed many students for centuries. Students of colour have often been neglects and even abused by teachers (esp in the past eras). This is espec true of children whose first language isn’t English.

One thing that I’m a little hesitant to get into but I think it important is that Johnny’s constantly noted to use a lot of grease, more so than any other character. He also keeps his hair quite long and unkempt. Hair is a status symbol and sign of pride for greasers but Italian, Greek, Hispanic and Latino people have been stereotyped as unhygienic and unkempt, especially in regards to their hair.

At one point, Johnny and Ponyboy find themselves in need of directions. Johnny suggests Ponyboy pretend to be a farmboy.

Ponyboy’s constantly says that Johnny looks like a kicked puppy and pretty much harmless. But here he notes that Johnny looks threatening to a stranger. I think this is another scene with racial connotations.

A major event in Johnny’s life was the time he was attacked by Bob and his friends. Johnny’s been noted to have developed PTSD, paranoia and anxiety since then. The suddenness of his attack and extent of violence is unusual. Ponyboy also notes that Johnny isn’t afraid of getting hurt due to his abusive father, so it wasn’t the pain but rather it was the fear they made him feel that affected him. Johnny being a POC adds another layer to this entire incident and especially to his paranoia afterwards, especially with the details that are left vague.

The last point I want to bring up is that Johnny’s character is of one who’s deeply embedded into the Greaser subculture. He’s never been outside of Tulsa and doesn’t expect to ever leave. He’s put against character like the Curtises (who are white) who have the power to leave Tulsa (and the class dynamics it symbolises) and even those like Dally who have that power but are too deep to ever use it. Johnny being a POC makes this lack of freedom his other white friends have give his character even more complexity

TL;DR: That is a Latino man.

[getosboobies]

reasons i think matchablossom is or has been canon!

once again, i have become overly obsessive and have throughly analysed each and every kaoru & kojiro scene that we currently have. i indulged and created my own list of “ are they besties or are they banging or both “ but i have decided to share it all with you :))

( keep in mind, i’m a reacher and these are just my interpretations. i will go to any extent to prove myself correct - no matter how unlikely )

so first of all, we have the fact cherry is the only one we have yet to see at joe’s restaurant after hours. this immediately shows that they are extremely comfortable with each other and spend a lot of time together even when they’re not skating. it also potentially suggests cherry is waiting for joe to go home, maybe a habit they’ve developed over time. before these scenes, the producers always show an image of the restaurants front door which states closed. by showing this frame, it obviously gives the impression it’s important for us to know that it is closed and therefore showings us that joe and cherry’s relationship is more than just some rivalry banta and that they have an established friendship built on trust and time. the creators could have just not shown that it was closed and had us assume that’s they were just good friends who spent time together but they went a whole step further and showed us these two men’s personal lives are somewhat intertwined with one another, showing us that they don’t have large boundaries for each other which would be considered strange in contrast to the “ arguing “ we had previously seen between them. if this isn’t enough for you, in these scenes we also see joes uniform unbuttoned so i take this as even more evidence of how comfortable they are around each other. also ! restaurants tend to close quite late ( avg. 8pm-12pm ) and on all the shots of the closed door, it has been dark outside. why wouldn’t cherry be home at this time settling down or something??? or maybe cherry has a lot of love for joe if he’s willing to wait that long for him to finish work... just sayin’. more on this, i analysed the restaurants design and noticed that the plug in the wall is really low down to the ground. maybe this is just one of joes odd design techniques or maybe it was specifically placed for cherry to charge carla, the concept of which, makes me very happy

keeping on the point of joe’s restaurant, whenever we have seen cherry inside he always sits right in front of the kitchen, this is pretty normal unless you think about 1) how much time he spends there 2) how busy restaurants get 3) he came there while he was with a colleague. we’ve already seen that cherry doesn’t mind coming after hours so why did he come during the day if he knew joe would be busy? this is similar to the fact he came in with his colleague in episode 2 - he obviously wasn’t expecting to be able to talk with joe while he was out for a work meal, so why on earth would he sit right in front of where joe would be, which is situated in a considerably inconvenient table for work meal? what i’ve interpreted from this is that cherry’s must enjoy being in joes presence. cherry canonically having anxiety would explain why he likes being close to someone who he knows well, and that cares for him. being able to see and hear joe so close is perhaps very relaxing for cherry.

now when i watched sk8 for the first time, i gather the impression that joe was a forgive and forget kinda guy when it came to someone who did him wrong. when we’re introduced to adam it’s evident there is some hostility within joe but this does not nearly compare to the anger cherry showed. when suggesting a beef their intentions seem to be completely different. cherry outrightly admitting to his grudge and anger for adam whereas joe seems to just want to prove a point to adam by winning against him ( i mean look at the image above, their facial expressions show it all ). but i noticed that as cherry would speak about adam, joe’s intentions slowly shifted and became far more serious and full of anger. “ there’s someone i’d like to punch “ is a sentence said by joe in episode 8. this is quite different to what we had seen in earlier episodes of him just wanting to make a point. i think this shift was predominantly when joe found cherry at the ocean view. joe knew how cherry was feeling towards adam BEFORE this scene because he knew where to find him, but the realisation that cherry was standing there, alone, and reliving some of his saddest memories probably hit joe that cherry couldn’t do this alone. therefore stepped up his game and met cherry’s loathing so they could do it together. as far as things go, this is one of the most important things they have done for each other because it shows clearly how devoted they are to each other.

this is one of the most confusing lines in this show thus far. i’m sure it’ll make sense in the oncoming episodes but i have come to two conclusions. so either adam has created this false reality of what happened and has told himself his evil ways stemmed from joe and cherry or, the more likely in my opinion, adam always felt like he was in need of a partner, a rival but also someone to love. this is displayed in the show in his predatory ways, aka, he wants his own ‘eve’. now there’s no ruling whatsoever that a skater needs any sort of dedicated rival, or skate partner, so i believe adam probably got this want from his peers, for example, joe and cherry. adam seems to believe you need to love your ‘eve’ and it gives me the idea that maybe he saw joe and cherry -in love- and decided that was what he wanted, but then as we know he went about it in an extremely toxic way. the “was it so“ was really hard to interpret, he’s clearly quite smug by the way he shrugs and smiles and shows that he’s very confident about what he’s saying but the question is short and leaves a lot unknown, which suggests why cherry and joe don’t respond. either they are as confused as i am, or they have a slight idea what adam could be suggesting and they feel guilty. we all know cherry and joe aren’t bad hearted people but as adam is insinuating ‘no, you guys parted ways from me first’ it could suggest that joe and cherry had perhaps become closer in high school and had developed a stronger bond than they had with adam and this left adam feeling lost and alone. this is more of a canon compliant headcanon that would make sense rather than a fact but it’s certainly something to think about.

one of the most obvious factors in their relationship is how they always know what the other is thinking or planning. we’ve seen in recent episodes that when cherry was racing, joe knew exactly what his motive was even without discussing it, thats enough information to show how well they truly know each other and how connected they really are. it’s also shown with cherry. when joe is racing, and is going extremely fast towards the corner, we see a frame of miya and shadow being worried for him, but then it shifts to cherry watching and there’s not a spec of worry on his face because he KNOWS what joe is planning and knows he will be fine. they know each other’s techniques better than anyone and it shows they don’t doubt each other’s choices one bit.

we learn right from the beginning that cherry and joe like to argue and fight, at first we think this is because they dislike each other but we learn that they are best friends. so when watching back you notice that none of the insults are ever actually insulting. let’s think about it, the most common insults they use are gorilla, dimwit and four-eyes. now to me, none of these actually seem insulting whatsoever and even if they do like to argue a lot it’s obvious they never ever mean any harm to one another.

from analysing the scenes one of the things i’ve noticed the most is how cherry and joe turn up and leave together. when the cops came during the langa x adam skate they both started to run off together leaving everyone else behind. as we know, they spend a lot of their personal lives together but leaving and turning up together every single time we’ve see them there seems like they’re a bit more attached than i originally thought. there’s a chance they meet before hand but why always that late at night? why aren’t they ever at home alone? unless...they live together. i mean it’s a perfectly valid suspicion right now as we’ve never seen either of their homes and we’ve never seen either of them turn up anywhere alone but either way it confirms they spend an awful lot of time together in general life. going back to my original point of them not only turning up and leaving together but they also never leave each other’s sides. there’s a heap of frames that you can see them standing together watching a beef or even just them talking. they’re literally attached at the hip and nothing makes me happier.

the creators of the show have made countless points to show that joe and cherry have a lot of history. from the school references to the fact they have TRAVELLED THE WORLD TOGETHER. they could have just shown one or two so we know that as a general fact they’ve known each other a long time but they bring it up an awful lot for it to be just a general fact. this being shown so much let’s us know that this is important information and that they’ve obviously wanting to lay down a foundation to bring something crucial up. so far they have mentioned their social studies trip, a school excursion, joes love for haunted houses, holiday to La and the Paris bar they went to. now you might be thinking, oh they were in the same school they probably just went on a trip together nothing confirms they were close, well i am here to prove that statement false. joe said he found cherry’s wallet, this not only shows that joe was close to cherry when he lost it but also that he knew where to find it, showing how well he knew cherry. another point is that legal age to drink in Paris is 18 so unless they had fake ID it’s safe to say this is a trip they’ve done since becoming adults and leaving school. it’s also canon that have gone together, so the fact they’ve been travelling as adults together is quite interesting. same with the restaurant in LA, sounds kinda like a date.

over the course of the episodes we’ve seen so far there has been a few comments they have made to each other that suggest a little bit of jealousy. for cherry, these comments are made in episode 6 in the hot spring. cherry brings up joes love for haunted houses and then joe agrees and says it’s because “chicks get scared and grab onto me” * with a smirk *. now what’s interesting about this is cherry’s response. “you really are a scumbag” this insult feels a lot more insulting than usual and the response itself surprised me. at this moment cherry looks away from joe which is an action people tend to do when they’re hurt or pissed off. either works in this scenario but neither make much sense as we know cherry’s already aware of joes status with girls. so why was he mad? well this was obviously a fond memory of cherry’s and joe replying with a statement about girls probably made him a bit angry because that was supposed to be their memory. but joes smirk with the comment makes me rethink, did he state that on purpose to make cherry jealous? obviously we can’t be sure but the entire encounter left me a bit confused. now onto joes jealousy, in episode 2 dub joe says “dude, you’re talking to a machine?” now in context this seems like joe is partially bewildered by the fact cherry is casually talking to his AI skateboard but he also seems slightly jealous that cherry is talking to carla instead of talking to him. this is one of the only scenes where joes facial expressions actually seem insulted rather than just having a bit of fun. he follows this up with “figured you’d give your board a girls name seeing as you can’t get a real one!” why can’t he get a real one? we hear tonnes of girls screaming compliments at cherry when he turns up so he definitely could get a girlfriend if he wanted, and joe no doubt knows this too, so why would he use it as an insult? i’m not sure what to make of this but it’s got to be a factor somewhere.

more on the haunted mansion chit chat, the line about chicks grabbing onto joe is quite funny when you look at the entire scene, because as soon as they get jumped they grabbed onto each other in fear. seems a little ironic if i do say so myself.

they both seem very secluded about their personal lives. cherry more specifically does not like the use of his skate name in his personal life or vice versa. joe is the only one we have seen to be aware or use cherry’s real name. the way joe slips up and calls cherry ‘kaoru’ at “S” shows how close they are and how much time they spend together to be able to accidentally mix up the two parts of their lives. this is just an extra point on how conjoined their lives must really be. in the photo above we see how cherry easily calms joe down when he starts to get annoyed. joe is the only one who knows fully about cherry’s life as emotions and cherry is the same for joe.

now one of the most heart wrenching matcha blossom scenes is when joe finds cherry at the ocean view. i have a lot to say about this so let’s start at the beginning. first of all, joe noticed cherry was missing. it’s not like cherry was there for a massive amount of time, so joe noticing that cherry was gone for even as much as an hour or two really says a lot about the placement they have in each other’s lives. there was really no reason for joe to worry about where cherry was considering they’re grown adults but he continued to go out and find him anyways. this is also set in the late afternoon judging by the sky, whereas the previous scene had been set at night at “s”, so this is suggesting the ocean view scene is on a completely different normal day for them (another factor showing how much time they spend together). next, the fact joe knew exactly where to find cherry. this truly shows how much they know and how connected they are to each other but also how well they understand the others coping mechanisms. cherry was dwelling on memories from 7 years ago and yet joe still knew exactly what he was doing and what he was thinking about. plus cherry didn’t even seem surprised when joe turns up. but one thing i noticed is that in this scene is the way they (in this case, didn’t) hold eye contact. while cherry is faced away, joe is staring at him but as soon as cherry meets joes eyes, joe turns away. either joe didn’t want to be caught staring or joe realised something crucial in that moment. i’ll let your mind decide what that is.

obviously, miyas comment about joe and cherry being his parents is a light hearted joke just to ruin joes chances of flirting with girls but it also implies that the group can tell that joe and cherry are respectively closer than anyone originally thought and they perhaps have caught on that the tension between them is a little bit too gay to be just a bit of banta. obviously in this scene we then see joe looking at cherry’s legs while a blush clearly intensifies on his face. yeah no, this is self explanatory.

one of the things i like about joe and cherry’s relationship is the fact that within that joe also has a somewhat dynamic with carla. although carla is non-living, there has been several interactions between them. for example the beginning of episode 6 on the boat joe recognises carlas voice immediately. i mean straight off i think it’s suspicious as hell that they all happened to be going there at the same time but the fact joe realised cherry must be there because of the sound of an AI skateboard? that’s impressive. also, at the beginning of the series carla is aware of who joe is when calling joe an imbecile, this shows that cherry has obviously had this modified to specifically refer to joe as joe rather than just refer to him as a general person.

there was a popular tiktok i saw the other day (if anyone has the username of the person please tell me so i can credit them!!) and it showed the two images above. in these photos it shows joes skateboard and his odd looking wheels. the creator of this video further analysed that these reflect the general outlook of a cherry blossom flower. though the actual wheels in real life don’t look as similar to a flower as they do in the show. but now if this is what they’re meant to look like, this is a really sentimental fact and shows how highly joe thinks of cherry in his skating career. but what about his personal life? well that’s where my analysing comes in. i noticed in the dessert joe makes in episode 5 he had a range of fruits displayed on the top as well as a single flower. this flower looks identical to a cherry blossom. once again the reflection of cherry within joes life makes an appearance. we’ve seen that flowers actually mean something in this show (toxic example but adam’s red roses for langa) so it would make sense for this to actually mean something about their relationship. i studied a range of Japanese desserts and, although every chef works differently, most of the dishes tend to only have a display of fruits and no flowers. so i have come to the conclusion that this dish certainly had some symbolism to cherry in joes life, some way or another.

so overall, their dynamic already shows that they have a very thin and mistakable line between very close best friends and potential lovers. although some of this was based off personal interpretation the majority is cinematic displays and general facts. so take this and use it however you like. let me know your opinions and other factors you have! for all i know i could be completely disproven with the next few episodes but surely if this many people see a bit more than just a friendship there’s got to be a reason for it.

if we can have one lgbt+ character... why not two more?

[themagnuswriters]

Writing a Muslim Character

The Mods of the Magnus Writers discord server and community are putting together a variety of resources for Magnus Archives fan creators; these have been collated from articles on the topics, our own experiences, and the experiences of the members of the Magnus Writers discord. These are definitely not comprehensive or the only viewpoints out there, and are by no means meant as a way to police fanworks, but as a way to support and inspire fan creators in creating thoughtful and diverse works. Please note that external links will be added in a reblog to outsmart tumblr’s terrible tagging system, so make sure to check those out as well!

This resource in particular was put together by Mod Jasmine: hi, all! 

While there are no canonically Muslim characters in TMA, Muslim headcanons are common in fanworks—particularly for Basira, and sometimes Jon (which I love to see!). I have cobbled together this post from my own experiences to help support and inform fans in these areas, and as part of my diabolical plan to get more Muslim!Basira and Muslim!Jon fics to shove into my brain.

First, two gigantic caveats:

I was raised Sunni Muslim in Egypt, which is a majority Sunni Muslim country, and still live there. This means my experience will be very different from someone raised in a majority Christian country like the UK, and different again if they are not Sunni and not Arab.

I am currently ex-Muslim. This does not mean I bear any ill will towards Islam or Muslims, just that it wasn’t for me, and I felt it was important to be upfront about that. I’ll be linking to resources by practicing Muslims in the reblog to this post, whether to add to my opinions and experiences or provide you with a different opinion. I am not here to put my voice over that of Muslims, just to do some of the work so they don’t have to. Obviously, if any Muslims have any additions or suggestions for this post, I’m happy to accommodate them.

Alright. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get started with the basics of writing a Muslim character.

(Warning: this is absurdly, absurdly long)

Basics:

Muslims follow two main sources of religious instruction: Quran and Hadith. 

The Quran is the holy book, considered to be dictated by the angel Gabriel to the Prophet Mohammed, who then relayed what he was told to his followers. It is composed of surahs, or chapters, which have individual ayat, or verses. There are no varying versions of the Quran, later additions, or anything considered lost in translation. Any Arabic Quran is considered to be the same text that the Prophet Mohammed relayed, unchanged. As a result, while Muslims can debate interpretations of the Quran (although that’s often still left to the scholars), none debate the actual words of the text.

Hadith, meanwhile, are the sayings or teachings of the Prophet Mohammed. Their validity can be disputed, as they were written by his followers after his death, and mainly depend on having several witnesses for a specific saying or situation. The more witnesses there were, the more valid the hadith is considered to be.

When in doubt or should there be any contradiction between the Quran and Hadith, Muslims will always refer to the Quran first and foremost.

Denominations:

The bigggest (but not only!) divisions of Islam are Sunni and Shia, and both of those have separate madhabs, which are the separate thoughts and stances of specific Imams. When writing a Muslim character, a good first step would be to decide where your character’s family might have come from, as that could help inform which denomination your character might belong to. This will in turn inform things like the beliefs they grew up with, how they pray, their holy holidays, and so on. Obviously, all denominations fall under the bigger umbrella of Muslim, but can vary in practice.

Background:

The intersection of culture and religion affects a character beyond which denomination they likely belong to, such as whether they call prayer salah or namaz, the foods they might associate with Ramadan or Eid, and their community’s stance on things like hijab and alcohol.

One thing to keep in mind is that being Muslim is not synonymous with being Arab and vice versa. Not all Arabs are Muslim, not all Muslims are Arab or even Middle Eastern. In fact, the largest Muslim country in the world is Indonesia. That said, depending on your character’s race and backround, there is the potential they may have faced Arab elitism or other strands of racism within Muslim circles. Please see the reblog of this post for an article about  one Black British Muslim woman’s experience with racism.

And, of course, your character and their family do not need to have been immigrants at all. They or their family may have been converts instead. According to most Muslim schools of thought, all that’s required for a person to be Muslim is stating the shahada in Arabic, honestly and with intent. It goes, “Ashhadu an la ilah illa Allah, wa an Mohammadan rasul Allah,” which translates as “I bear witness that there is no god but God, and that Mohammed is His prophet.” Shia Muslims, I believe, have an additional section, but otherwise that’s it. Recite that in front of witnesses with sincere belief and that’s all you need to be Muslim.

Pillars of Islam:

These are the duties or cornerstones of a Muslim’s faith and considered to be acts every Muslim should strive for. What the pillars are can, I think, differ between denominations, with Shia Muslims having additional ancillaries as well (any Shia readers, please feel free to correct me!) but both denominations agree that the following are important:

Salah—prayer

Sawm—fasting during Ramadan

Zakat—giving a certain percentage of income to charity or the community

Hajj—pilgrimage to Mecca

In all cases, these are considered mandatory only for those who are able. A person who cannot perform hajj, whether due to not being physically able to or lacking the funds to travel, is under no obligation.

Prayer:

Prayer is performed five times a day while facing the Qibla, which is the direction of Mecca. Prayer is formed of units, called rak’at, which consists of a set of actions done in a specific order. The “How to Pray Salah, Step by Step” article linked in the reblog of this post provides fairly good prayer instructions for beginners, so check it out for details!  These include bowing, prostrating, and reciting some surahs. 

Each of the five daily prayers has a different number of rak’at, as well as its own name and allotted time of day, as follows:

Fajr, which means Dawn and can be performed at any point until the sun rises (two rak’at). 

Dhuhr, which means Noon (four rak’at)

Asr, performed in the afternoon (four rak’at)

Maghreb, which means sunset and can be performed at any point until it’s dark (three rak’at)

Isha, performed at night and can be done at any point until dawn (four rak’at)

The specific time of prayer will differ day to day and place to place, according to the sun, but those are the rough timeframes for each. It’s generally preferred that a Muslim does their prayer on time, but in practice some Muslims find it difficult to wake up for Fajr, for instance, and just try to make sure they get a morning prayer in before noon.

On Friday, there is a congregational Friday prayer at Dhuhr in a mosque called the Jumu’a prayer (which, fun fact, literally means gathering and is also the Arabic name for Friday!). Only men are required to take part in the congregation, however.  

In Muslim majority countries, the time for prayer is announced by the adhaan, the call to prayer, from mosques and in media. This won’t be the case in the UK, and the character will likely have to rely on an adhaan app or looking up what time prayer should be. 

There are various requirements for a prayer to be correct, chief of which is facing the Qibla and purity. Before performing prayer, a Muslim must purify themself by performing wudu, or ablutions, which basically involves washing the hands, arms, nostrils, face, head, and feet a specific number of times using clean water. The way I was taught these must be performed in a certain order, and the person shouldn’t speak during or after until their prayer is finished. This may be different for others.

Wudu is considered valid until nullified by bodily functions such as urinating, defecating, vomiting, flatulence, or any sexual activity. For Sunni Muslims, it’s also invalidated by going to sleep. If none of these have happened, a Muslim can perform more than one prayer using the same wudu.

Notably, a Muslim cannot pray if they’re on their period, as they’re considered in a state of impurity. 

Another important requirement is that a Muslim be dressed modestly for prayer. The general guideline is that Muslim men should cover the area between their navel and knees with loose, non-revealing clothing, and that during prayer it’s preferred that they cover their chests as well  Muslim women should cover everything except their face, hands, and feet. This means that a woman who isn’t hijabi would still wrap a hijab for prayer. For nonbinary Muslims, I don’t think there are specific guidelines yet, although please feel free to correct me. 

If praying at home, a family may choose to pray together. In this case, the male head of the household usually stands at the front and acts as Imam, leading the prayer. Other men will tend to be in front of or beside women, as generally women should not pray in front of a man. This is the case even, especially, if he is not praying.

Children aren’t required to pray, as they’re considered innocent and have no obligations, but may want to take part early on or may be encouraged to practice.

Praying is one area you’ll find denominational differences. For example, while Sunnis fold their arms in prayer, Shia keep their arms to their side, and while Shia Muslims make sure their foreheads touch a piece of clay or earth when they prostrate, Sunnis do not. If you write your character praying, keep these details in mind.

Fasting:

During the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims fast from Fajr (dawn) until Maghreb (sunset) every day. This means they abstain from consuming anything—yes, even water, cigarettes, and medicine. They should also abstain from sexual activities and cursing. Most importantly, they must have the intention to be fasting. This means that not eating and drinking because they were asleep for that entire period of time or just lost track and forgot does not count as fasting.

Generally, the idea is more to try to be more pious and avoid sin throughout the month. It’s thought that the shaytan (or devil) is chained up during Ramadan, so any temptation or sinning is a person’s own doing. The way I was raised, I was taught that sawm/fasting is invalidated by sexual thoughts  and raising your voice as well. Many people also try to dress more modestly during Ramadan, with some women opting for looser clothing or a headscarf. Many Muslims will try to read the whole Quran during Ramadan. 

After Maghreb, Muslims break their fast with Iftar (which means breakfast, hah) and have a late night meal called Suhour. Since the Muslim calendar is a lunar calendar, Ramadan is 11 days earlier every year. Depending on when Ramadan falls in the year, there can be barely any time between iftar and suhour in certain parts of the world, as the sun is up for so much of the day. 

Given the length of time and difficulty involved, there are exceptions and allowances for fasting. A person is not required to fast if they are:

A child (up to puberty)

Ill or has a medical condition such as diabetes

Pregnant

Travelling

On their period

In fact, if they are on their period it will not be counted, even if they do fast. That said, sometimes people choose to fast while travelling anyway, as travel is less strenuous now than it used to be. If they’re crossing time zones they will have to consider which time zone they’re breaking their fast to. As far as I remember, it’s based on the time zone of the place they just left or started their fast in. 

If an obstacle to fasting is temporary, such as their period, they’re expected to make those days up with additional fasting before next Ramadan. Otherwise, they are allowed to make up for the lost fast in another way, such as by donating money or feeding fasting people. Whether due to societal pressure (which is formidable in Muslim-majority countries) or out of consideration for others who are fasting, those who are not fasting for whatever reason may often choose to hide this and only eat in secret.

If a person forgets they were fasting or accidentally consumes something, it does not invalidate the fast , and as soon as they remember or realise the mistake they can have the intention to fast again and continue with their day. 

While children are exempt, many families will start them off by fasting for half a day so they can build up to a full day when they hit puberty.

Ramadan traditions vary wildly from country to country and culture to culture, but generally it’s a time for family gathering and celebration. Often there are special Ramadan-specific food, drink, and decorations, and it ends with Eid ul-Fitr which has its own specific foods and celebrations. Basically, imagine if Christmas lasted a month. That’s how big a deal Ramadan is. 

In my experience, the first few days are usually the hardest. Water is what I tended to miss the most, even if I managed to stay up long enough or set an alarm to wake up to drink just before fajr, followed closely by swearing. Anyone who drinks caffeine or smokes cigarettes will likely find abstaining from those more difficult than water. By the end of the month, though, it gets much easier and I often got to the point where I barely noticed. I will say, however, that the longest I’ve had to fast has been maybe 16 hours. A summer Ramadan in the UK would be more difficult due to the much later sunsets.

Halal and Haram:

Halal means “permissible,” while haram means “forbidden.���  You might have heard these words in passing before, such as halal food, but they are used for many areas of life.  

Things that are considered haram include:

Consuming, serving, or trading in intoxicants, such as alcohol

Consuming improperly slaughtered meat or meat from forbidden animals, such as pork

Extramarital sex

Tattoos

Gambling

Men wearing silk or gold

A Muslim woman marrying a non-Muslim man (although it’s fine for a Muslim man to marry a non-Muslim woman)

Being immodest

Modesty is expected of all genders, including men. If you’ll recall from the section on prayer, the general guideline for male modesty is that they should cover the area between their navel and knees with loose, non-revealing clothing. Note that for women, modesty does not necessarily involve wearing a hijab.  There is actually a ton of controversy as to whether the hijab is a fard (requirement) or not, as described in the following section.

The Hijab:

To be hijabi takes more than just throwing on a headscarf. As a word, hijab means “barrier” or “veil,” and a hijabi person would be expected to cover everything except their face and the palms of their hands, and to ensure that their clothes are loose and non-revealing.  It all comes from an interpretation of two verses in the Quran that many scholars nowadays agree to mean the hijab is required, and that some say actually call for a face covering as well, which is called a niqab. 

This wasn’t always the case, however, and these days there is still the occasional controversial scholar (I remember a few kerfuffles coming out of Egypt’s Al-Azhar mosque recently) saying it isn’t and has never been required at all. At least in the Arab world, this is largely due to the wave of Wahhabism (which is a specifically fundamentalist interpretation of Islam) that’s taken over the region in the past half a century. Before that, the idea of a hijab being a religious requirement was less widespread.

I’m not here to argue who’s right or wrong, just to make you aware that the hijab as we know it today hasn’t always been considered a requirement for a Muslim woman. Most of the women of my family never wore any form of head covering, but more and more they are an exception rather than the norm.

The choice of whether to wear a hijab can mean very different things, depending on the surrounding culture. For instance, my grandmother, the strictest woman I have ever known, got married in a very cute sleeveless dress that went just under the knees, and when she grew older she wore a head-covering more as a cultural indication of age rather than any religious reason. In my generation, in a country with a Muslim majority, lack of visible signs of devoutness have become almost a class marker, with some upper-class women using their lack of head-covering as a sign that they are “more Westernized” or “modern.” And again, I want to emphasize that this is the case for my country only. 

This will be completely different for Muslim minorities, where the hijab can become a symbol of pride and unity.

I will say that it’s very rare for women to be forced into getting veiled, whether in Muslim minority or majority countries. I’m not saying it never happens, just that it’s not the “oppressive tool of the patriarchy” outsiders sometimes think it is. Women may face some societal pressure, but by and large it is considered a choice and often an empowering one. In fact, I have friends whose families discouraged them from wearing a hijab too young and emphasized only taking the decision when they were sure they wanted to. If writing a Muslim character when you’re non-Muslim, I strongly suggest not trying to tackle the story of someone forced into a hijab, as there’s a lot of nuance there and it’s very easy to fall into harmful stereotypes. The hijabi woman who gets “liberated” and takes off her hijab is also overdone and harmful. Please don’t.

Everyday Life:

Muslims are not a monolithic entity, and some will be more devout or religious than others. There are those who will pray their five a day and others who only pray during Ramadan or Eid, some who don’t drink and some who do, hijabis who dress only in loose clothing and those who wear tight trousers or show some of their hair, some who have tattoos, and some who may date or even have sex before marriage. However, this isn’t a carte-blanche not to do research when writing a Muslim character, because even if they break a rule of Islam, they will be conscious of it, may be concerned about their community’s response to it, and in any case will be affected by it.

For instance, I know many Muslims who drink alcohol. Some interpret the text differently, saying that since the sin is getting drunk then they won’t drink enough to get drunk, just buzzed. Some only do it on special occasions or on vacation, saying they know it’s a sin but it’s fine on occasion and they’ll repent later. All of them would probably dive under a table if they thought their family was nearby.

For more opinions on Muslims and dealing with alcohol, take a look at the “Islam and Alcohol” article linked in the reblog of this post.

Here are things that a character who is a practicing Muslim might do or be concerned about in their day to day life:

Checking ingredients to make sure they’re all halal. This goes for things like food, drink, medicine, anything consumable. Things like gelatine capsules are only halal if the source of the gelatine is itself halal, for instance.

Keeping up with their prayers. With five prayers a day, some will inevitably happen while they’re out of the house. Some Muslims prefer to just group their prayers when they get home, but since it’s preferable to do prayers on time, others may try to pray while out and about This means considering the following:

Finding a bathroom for wudu. Part of wudu involves washing feet and the head, which isn’t feasible in a public location or if the person is hijabi and doesn’t want to unwrap and rewrap their hijab. In that case, they can generally wipe a wet hand over their socks and top of their head covering. 

They may carry a prayer carpet or have one stashed in a convenient location, but it’s not a must.

Finding a clean and secluded place to pray. Generally, it’s not done to pray in a place where someone will pass in front of you, and a woman must also take care to pray away from men’s eyes. 

Figuring out where the Qibla is. Luckily, there are apps for that.

If a woman is not hijabi, she would have to carry a veil and, depending on her clothes, something to cover up so she can pray.

If they’re hijabi, they’ll probably have to adjust or re-wrap their hijab throughout the day, depending on the material and their activities. This would typically happen in bathrooms or any other space that doesn’t include men, as they can’t reveal themselves to any men who aren’t of their immediate family. For more on the hijab, and the day to day realities of wearing and wrapping one, take a look at the links provided in the reblog of this post.  

A Muslim woman may choose not to accept handshakes from men who aren’t family.  She has probably considered how to deal with that potential awkwardness.

If they’re fasting, they might carry some dates or biscuits or something in case they need to break their fast while on the go.

If making plans, they might say, “Insha’allah” which means “God willing.” I was always admonished to do so to acknowledge the future is entirely within God’s hands.

If asked how they are, they might reply with “Alhamdullilah” which means “Thanks be to God.”

When starting to eat, they may say, “Bismillah,” which means “In the name of God” and when done eating may say “Alhamdullilah.” These can also be invoked silently.

As you might have noticed, Allah’s name is invoked pretty often. While it’s not preferable to swear using God’s name just to make a point (“Wallahi”), there’s nothing against it, really.

Fundamentally, an important thing to remember is that Islam is a religion of ease and not hardship. This is an actual Quranic quote. What this means is, it may seem like there are a lot of rules to keep in mind, but there are also a ton of allowances for when those rules aren’t feasible, just like the case for fasting above. Other allowances include how an elderly or disabled person who may not be able to perform the motions of prayer can pray while sitting in a chair or even lying in bed. If there isn’t any clean water to purify before prayer or if using the water would mean lack of drinking water, a Muslim can use dust or sand to purify, and if no dust or sand is available then they don’t need to purify at all and can simply pray. 

This means that, say, if your Muslim Jon wants to pray while kidnapped by the circus, he can, even without being able to perform wudu, even without knowing where the Qibla is, even without being able to move or say anything at all.

For more day-to-day tidbits, check out the “More on writing Muslim characters” link in the reblog of this post. 

LGBTQ Muslims:

Needless to say, Queer Muslims absolutely do exist, and their being Muslim doesn’t cancel out their queerness or vice versa. While there are Quranic verses that have been interpreted as condemning homosexuality, there are also other interpretations, and queerness has existed in Muslim societies for ages. There was a ton of homoerotic imagery among Abbasid poets during the Golden Age of Islam, for example. 

However, modern-day attitudes can be difficult to get around, and queer Muslims may have difficulty finding their place in both Muslim spaces and queer spaces, the latter which often expect them to reject religiosity.

Although I am queer myself, I don’t feel it’s my place to speak for queer Muslims and their relationships with their communities beyond this, so I’ll let some queer practicing Muslims speak for themselves.  Please see the reblog of this post for valuable contributions from queer Muslims about their experiences.  

Miscellaneous:

This is mostly for all the random tidbits I thought up while writing this that didn’t fit anywhere else and also because I don’t know when to quit apparently, SO!

Allah is just Arabic for God. Muslims can and do use these terms interchangeably, such as saying “God willing,” instead of “Inshallah,” even in an Arabic-speaking country. 

Also, God has 99 names! Just a fun fact for you there. 

The Devil in Islam is pretty different from his Christian counterpart. Referred to as Iblis or Shaytan, among other names, he is not a fallen angel and there is no great revolt story, nor is he considered a root of all evil. Instead, he is a djinn made of smokeless flame who refused to bow down to Adam, as he felt he was made of superior stuff and not about to bow to a creature made of mud. His disdain for humanity is what has caused him and other shayateen/demons to try and tempt humans.

A person’s right hand is considered purer than their left, so it’s encouraged to always eat with your right hand. Unfortunately, this does mean left-handed people face something of a stigma—or at least that’s the case here in Egypt. My cousins, both lefties, both eat with their right hand, though they  do everything else with their left.

Similarly, it is considered better to enter spaces with your right foot, though only the most devout are likely to think of this all the time. This is especially considered for entering a mosque or new home.

A Muslim might say or write “Peace be Upon Him” whenever the Prophet Mohammed is mentioned, written as (PBUH), and “Subhanuh wa Taala” when mentioning Allah, written as (SWT).

The Evil Eye is mentioned in the Quran as “hasad,” and considered to be a very real thing. This jealous or envious energy is considered able to ruin good things in your life, even if the jealous person didn’t intend to. There are some surahs that are considered good to ward against it, as well as incense, the colour blue, the number five, and the symbols of the nazar (which is a round, blue-ringed eye) and the khamsa (an open five-fingered palm, also known as the Hand of Fatima). The nazar, khamsa, and belief in the evil eye aren’t unique to Islam at all. What is unique to Islam is that a Muslim might preface a compliment with “Masha’allah” which means “As God wills it,” to ward off their own evil eye. 

Much of the Quran in Arabic rhymes and is very poetic, which can make surahs easy to memorise by rhythm. It can also make recitations by a skilled reader very lovely.

[tolkien-feels]

I just read your thoughts about Nienna and Manwer and I loved your take! What are some other thoughts you have about the Valar, especially their relations with the maiar?

(Please pretend I'm answering this in a timely manner)

This post, right? Yeah, that's one of the way too many thoughts I have on the Ainur.

You see, I grew up reading Padraic Colum's The Children of Odin so when I got to the Silm I was, if anything, more at home with the Valar than with the elves (who weren't much like the elves I knew from the Hobbit and LotR) - and then when I read the Book of Lost Tales I was like "!!!!!! This feels even more like coming home!!!!" Which is why I never shut up about BoLT!Valar even though I don't usually talk much about HoME

People very often either dislike the Ainur (either as in "I don't like how they're written" or as in "they're incompetent/evil") or else they like them to be eldritch beings. These are all very valid readings of the text, but I tend to see the Ainur as simply another step on the hobbit > men > elves loose hierarchy Tolkien has got going on. I see them as fundamentally alike the Children of Iluvatar, differing in culture and might but not really in nature (at least not completely - though there are canonical differences.)

I also think that, fallen Ainur aside, they're all genuinely doing their best even though that is often not enough - most of my issues with how they behave are really issues I have with Tolkien's worldview, and that's something that comes up in many other situations as well and I'm not getting into it. But all in all: my take on the Ainur is that they're fundamentally good even if flawed.

Now as for how I headcanon the relationship between the Valar and the Maiar: Complex™️

For one, I think it depends on the specific beings involved. Uniformity is Sauron's thing - Iluvatar actively encourages diversity and creativity, so I see no reason why there would be a rigid pattern they have to conform to.

Similarly, I also don't think that the Maiar are (functionally) a race created to be slaves, which is a take I've seen more frequently than I'd expect. You know that scene when Aragorn calls Faramir from the shadows and Faramir just... instinctively recognizes Aragorn's authority, and is moved to offer his service to the king with the very first words he speaks? That's how I imagine the Maiar. They're an extremely idealized embodiment (hm... enspirtment? They don't actually have bodies to embody anything lol) of the love of a vassal towards a lord. Similarly, the Valar themselves are ideal lords, and their authority is benevolent, not tyrannical.

Many of the Maiar we meet in the Silm were children of the Valar when Tolkien first came up with them, and I like to keep some of that by having part of the authority of the Valar take the shape of guidance. You know how the Valar often go to Manwe for advice when a situation is too important or complex for them to feel sure on how to act? I imagine that's how the Maiar are.

But while speaking of authority, I have to say that I think the relationship between Valar and Maiar is pretty much defined by love. There's no reason why it shouldn't be, given how Tolkien's universe works. Think... Frodo and Sam but on a cosmic scale? Like, there is a clear hierarchy, but the mutual devotion is really the most important and remarkable aspect.

As for specifics, like I said, I headcanon it would really, really depend on who we're talking about. Crafty Aule probably teaches his Maiar stuff all the time in a way I don't imagine Ulmo does. Manwe is probably way, way more inclined to be Soft™️ than Mandos. Orome's Maiar probably hunt with him, and Nessa's dance with her. There's just... A lot of room for diversity - and I'm speaking of broad groups here. But there's no way Mairon and Curumo had the same relationship with Aule, because their personalities are simply too different.

This is. Already way too long. So I'll shut up now. But feel free to ask me to elaborate on any of these points! I just don't want to bore you

[annarendellsa]

my heathers headcanons

it's the way i see them and draw them, you don't have to agree! this is based on both the musical and the movie

CW: mention of suic*de and e*ting disorders (bulimia) as well as various mental illnesses

Heather Duke

• heather duke is aromantic and yes its because she wears green, have you seen her socks in the off broadway musical? /hj

• more seriously, she IS aromantic but it took some time for her to figure out. she is allo but she doesn't label her sexuality, and she was always confused and frustrated to experience sexual attraction but never romantic attraction; she had a hard time accepting this part of herself.

• post heathers: maybe she discovers about non binary identities and asks her girlfriends to test out they/them pronouns on her? idk? aro-agender duke?

• she also struggles with empathy as she is naturally apathic

• and she's putting this image of a cold mean girl because she believes she can only be that given she's aro and ND

• post musical: she had no idea mcnamara actually tried to commit suic*de and when veronica tells her she breaks down in tears and spend a few days writing an apology letter to mcnamara

• post musical: mcnamara helps her to develop her compassion, knowing it's not her fault she's incapable of empathy. she didn't have to forgive her, but they did, and it really motivates duke to become a better person and be as nice as her

• post musical: she sees a doctor! she eventually recovers from her bulimia. veronica and mac are 100% supportive of her recovery, and very proud

• she gets bigger as part of her recovery and learns to embrace it

• duke is very pale with really dark and thick hair and eyebrows, soft features and quite a lot of body hair

• you know the bootleg where duke has blonde hair? when she's on the tv she speaks german and i vibe with german duke now

• duke Cannot say fuck and if someone is prude/innocent/idk it's her. the why are you pulling my dick was just to fluster veronica i think

Heather McNamara

• they use she/they pronouns!! just because. she still identifies as a girl though

• mac is autistic of course, it's like semi canon in the musical

• since she's very tall (movie) she stims while standing like being on the tip of her toes or rocking back and forth and the others can be quite annoyed because she moves a lot but they never snap at her

• post musical: veronica finds her stimming endearing and they know it's safe to stim around her, especially since veronica stims herself

• post musical: mac hums as a stim too and you can often find macnamawyer snuggling on the floor while humming in harmonies together

• she used to mask a LOT and it played a big part in her depression. she knows they had to stop themselves from stimming when she was a heather, she had been the weird kid in middle school but now that chandler took her under her wing, she has to pretend to be NT in order to stay in the lifeboat (😭)

• she's a lesbian!! of course she is

• she knows it since she is in middle school and has been """gal pals"""" with chandler since them but she still struggles with it she has comphet yk, but still less than chandler

• chanamara definitely practiced kissing together "to be ready when we'll have to kiss boys" 👀👀👀

• chandler always had a soft spot for mac and tried to hide it by being cruel to duke

• post musical: it took mac some time to understand that duke had nothing against her personally. she was chill with them until chandler died. from that moment she had to prove herself as the new queen bee and mac was a collateral victim

• duke definetely gave her trauma though and mac is in the process of trusting her again

• mac themselves is not a cinnamon roll just yet and she still has to make up for what they've done to others

• mcnamara has nicknames like mcNcheese or macaroni (veronica came up with those)

• they're also a vegetarian and she loves yellow food

• like she ever only eats yellow food actually (autistic thing). that girl is deficient! part of why she looks that fragile and thin

• also i see mcnamara as mixed race with golden/light brown skin and they have this type of curly curly hair but she straightens it all the time so it's only just wavy (once again, to blend in with the heathers)

• her natural hair colour is actually a dark strawberry blonde? her dad is irish and he's a redhead that's why (stole this from @cam-eats-candles hehe) but she dyes it so it's lighter

• post musical: she starts wearing her natural hair!! and goes with her mom to the afro hairdresser to start to get her curls done right (cornrows mac!!)

• their parents divorced (movie) and it's for the best. mac has daddy issues and only goes to her dad to get cute jewellery for their girlfriends 💖 (he doesn't just sell engagement rings. a lot of regular expensive rings, really)

• she's not a baby, she's not weak nor completely innocent and pure!! the girl is a head cheerleader, she's strong and flexible as hell.

Heather Chandler

• heather chandler is Also a lesbian BUT she is on the ace spectrum like demisexual? so yeah she's double disgusted when she "sleeps" with men

• as a queen bee she's also convinced that the only way to exist is through male validation :(

• chandler is taller than duke and veronica but shorter than mac

• chandler's skin is like rosy and it freckles very easily. i see her with the same cloudylike hair she has in the movie, dark blonde, with the red scrunchie only holding back some of her hair

• she is Buff and is genuinely into sports (lesbian jock like regina george)

• she has a sharp hourglass shape her shoulders are broad and her legs long and strong. she could lift veronica against a wall easily. and she did

Veronica Sawyer

• ADHD!! she's been diagnosed for a while but only became medicated post musical

• bisexual!! so bisexual!! without a preference. she's always been open and proud about it and her parents are supportive

• for me veronica is brown, with thick and dark hair and dark brown eyes, midsize, average height

Martha Dunnstock

• that's canon i know, but she's fat, and not the socially acceptable-hourglass kind of fat. big arms! big tummy! double chin! (i see fanart of her just being chubby quite often and it's ANNOYING like that's a big part of her character)

• she's perfectly healthy like this as are many fat people :))

• i also like the hc that her attempt at sewer slide made her permanently disabled and that she keeps using a wheelchair! because it happens, it's important to show it, and it gives me a lot of ideas for cute kindergarten girlfriends prompts 💓💓

• of course realistically being fat AND physically disabled in the 80's was and is not an easy thing to go through but it's in my head so

• she's also a tiny bit taller than veronica

• i don't hate the outfit she wears in the off broadway show, but I like her west end outfit better!! it's a lot more 80's inspired and i totally see her in kidcore/clowncore etc, even if pastels are cool too

• in the current west end version, martha is played by a black woman and she looks amazing! however I've been drawing and imagining martha as east/south east asian, for no reason really?? also idk kinda rubs me the wrong way that in the more official versions of heathers it's always duke that is black, or martha? not the others? hmm

• i'm not comfortable with hcs that exclusively babyfy her or patronise her like a bunny rabbit just bc she's a fat outcast who likes unicorns!! she's not just cute and giggly! martha can and does swear and she Fucks, like mcnamara

• big round glasses + big nose + long brown hair

• taking inspiration from the princess bride line but she's a huge movie nerd. yes she loves happy endings but she also loves horror movies, as long as they have a happy ending

• she never gets a makeover omg y'all just hate people with glasses and a childish aesthetic istg

• she takes this aesthetic further though and

• post musical and high school: she doesn't just wear baggy clothes anymore as she only did that to prevent more bullying. she develops an unique style with a lot of pink and glitter and she's awesome

------

ok this is getting long ill probably do more!! tell me what you think <3

[crispyjenkins]

hi! i am just very confused about one of ur posts with the mandalorians and cultural genocide and was wondering if maybe you can explain more? i thought mandalorian culture was about like family and arts with the colors and stuff? is it really just about war? i know a lot of people headcanon that the clones are mandalorian but now i feel uncomfy about putting a warrior culture on characters played by a maori actor, whose people still struggle with martial race stereotypes today :(

hello!! i am absolutely not an authority on this topic, so i’ve compiled a bunch of posts that explain it better than me, but short answer is: mandalorian culture is not all about war. there is a ton of intention put into mandalorians (specifcially not death watch, who literally fought in the civil war because the true mandalorians were like “maybe stop pillaging and killing people for no reason” and they didn’t want to stop; or the new mandalorians who threw out every god and myth important to the true mandalorians, as well as its language, cultural importance/sacredness of armor, religious customs, etc, because Satine interpreted true mandalorian culture as nothing but war, but that is extremely extremely not the point of the resol’nare or the codex) and how they draw on Māori culture and customs, because temuera morrison played jango fett in the prequels.

your concern is so so valid and absolutely something to keep in mind when interpreting “canon” and “legends canon”, but satine’s take on true mandalorians is inherently false.

links under the cut with a lil explanation for each! (edit: this is long as fuck, i’m so sorry 🥲)

we’ll start with this one which is from star wars insider issue 86, because it covers a lot of the basics of how eu and legends wrote mandalorians. HOWEVER, also keep in mind this groundwork was all laid by karen traviss who is a racist, sexist, classist, homophobic dirtbag, like i don’t even know where to begin with her, but her early work for jango fett in the republic commando novels is still important to understanding mandalorian culture in current continuities. (i also believe this issue was from before clone wars began airing)

this one goes more in depth than the post i recently reblogged which i think you’re referring to, about the imperialism of the new mandalorians and their cultural genocide of true mandalorians more or less based on satine kryze’s experience with death watch, a splinter cult off of the true mandalorians (i’m using cult intentionally here, btw) who literally just didn’t want their murdering and stealing to be regulated.

this post is about mental illness in true mandalorian society, which is intrinsically tied to the root of true mandalorian and early mandalorian religion and daily culture, and the concept of fighting stagnation and destruction/war against the things that are choking you and stopping self growth, it’s not about conquering people or planets, it’s about bettering oneself constantly, based on the mandalorian creation myth ( @izzyovercoffee goes more in depth with this in the post). death watch, and many fans, interpret this ideology as the right to violence and the destruction for destruction’s sake, which isn’t what it’s about at all.

alright this one is directly related to the concepts of the last one, and surmises a lot of the points, and is maybe the easiest post in my list for a quick understanding of mandalorian philosophy?

here’s a shorter post that gives a little more insight/reiterates new vs true mandalorian ideology, because lord knows my autism brain likes more than one way of explaining something.

this one is an interpretation of canon and new mandalorian imperialism, which is technically headcanon, but boy howdy does canon not disagree with it, and forms the basis of my own interpretation of mandalorians as a whole

here’s a cool post going into the language mando’a and how it cannot be separated from culture, which i think is incredibly important to keep in mind when looking at new mandalorians and how they don’t use mando’a.

more explanation and interpretation of new manadlorians and their portrayal in the clone wars, and why it’s important against all the canon content we got before clone wars aired

this one is from before boba’s return to “canon” material in season two of the mandalorian where he and jango were reconfirmed as mandalorians, but is still super, super, super important in relation to mandalorian diaspora, and the way writers cannot separate mandalorians from their roots in māori culture, when it was created because temuera morrison played jango fett and his clones. also goes into how important “family without blood” is as the basis of mandalorian family and cultural structure, which explains a lot about the show the mandalorian!

this one’s just a cool take on the parallels between mandalorians and jedi, who are also rather disgustingly misinterpreted by fans (interestingly as the opposite, as complacent and too bureaucratic vs the violent and imperialist take most have on mandalorians).

here’s a post going into how din djarin’s tribe/sect in the mandalorian tv isn’t a cult, and how that relates to bo-katan kryze, her position with death watch, and her connection to the new mandalorians because of it.

okie the next few are about how māori customs, things of cultural significance, etc are intentional in the portrayal of (true) mandalorians

this one is about the keldabe kiss or the kov’nyn, forehead-kiss, headbutt 

this one is a video of boba fighting set to te reo māori thrash metal, and a short explanation of the importance of the battle its about, which i think is important in remembering that while the māori people today do suffer from awful marital stereotyping, you cannot divorce them from their own form of warrior culture without erasing that history or importance; there isn’t anything inherently wrong in warrior cultures, just how white people interpreted and appropriated it.

THIS ONE I LOVE and is mr morrison himself bringing the traditional māori dance the haka into boba’s fighting style in the mandalorian tv, as well as the use of māori-style weapons 

which also relates to this post by @catboydindjarin

and sums up my feelings on associating mandalorians and the māori people, how important jango and boba fett have been to people like temuera morrison and daniel logan (who played lil boba in atoc) and bodie taylor (who played the mid-20s clones). as a white person, it’s incredibly important for me to remember the stereotyping and violence still being done to indigenous and first nations people, and to be aware of and respectful of how i use and take pieces of the those cultures in anything, but especially fictional aliens. but to pretend forms of battle, pretend weapons and songs and philosophies that do involve violence were not and are not still culturally important to those peoples is erasure, and is what satine kryze chose to do when faced with a completely different people’s violence.  to separate (true) mandalorians from the māori people is to erase them from the narrative completely.

so!! on a lighter note, here’s a post with bodie taylor and captain typho’s actor jay laga’aia performing haka with mr morrison during an aotc press event

here’s an excerpt from one of the repcom novels about jango being a Dad and how important children are to the true mandalorians 

it won’t let me upload gifs at the moment so here’s a post of several delightful gifs of mr morrison on set for aotc with a rainbow umbrella

here’s one that touches on the importance of armor color as you mentioned in your ask

this wonderfully funny textpost from @letitrainathousandflames that illustrates more of the mandalorian parental instinct (which is shown time and again in extended/legends canon to be more important than “war” or battle)

here’s some highlights from the eu about boba reconnecting with his mandalorian heritage after jango’s death

this one is a short post by @jester-mereel about what jango chooses to be jaster’s legacy, which is vital because jaster mereel the one who created the super commando codex and the true mandalorians, is the one who looked at how people like tor vizsla were using their heritage and thought “we can do and be better than this”

here’s the wookieepedia article on jaster mereel (all wookieepedia stuff should be taken with a grain of salt, of course, especially in regards to the jedi order but that’s another matter)

here’s the wookieepedia article on the supercommandos, which is what earlier material referred to the true mandalorians as, basically the commandos that followed jaster and the supercommando codex

here’s the one on the codex if you want to jump to that specifically

this is an actual copy of the basics of the codex as well as the resol’nare or six tenants, which existed far before jaster, but what jaster used as the ethical basis of the codex (the site is written from the point of view of a supercommando, just a heads up if that’s confusing)

here’s the wookiee article on death watch, i trust you to keep an open mind and don’t take anything said by the vizslas or bo-katan at face value, because, again, they splintered from the supercommandos because they wanted to keep stealing and killing people just because, and used the “savage warrior past” of mandalorians to excuse it

here’s the mando’a dictionary that’s most accessible, also remembering that translations are interpretations (specifically the discourse about “k’atini” comes to mind) and is constantly being revised

and then some of my favorite excerpts from it, in relation to what mandalorians actually find important:

“Ni kyr'tayl gai sa'ad” | adoption vow - lit. “I know your name as my child.” (meaning adoption is no less important than blood heritage, and in some interpretations is actually more important)

mandokar | the *right stuff*, the epitome of Mando virtue - a blend of aggression, tenacity, loyalty and a lust for life (and aggression does not always mean violence)

“Gar taldin ni jaonyc; gar sa buir, ori'wadaas'la.” | “Nobody cares who your father was, only the father you'll be.” (Lit: Bloodline is not important, but you as a father are the most valuable thing.) Mando saying emphasising the importance of a father's role, and that a man is judged more by that than his lineage. (this dictionary chooses to gender things unnecessarily, when words like “buir” are gender neutral, but you get the gist: parenthood is very important to mandalorians, which is of course the entire basis for the mandalorian tv plot) 

demagolka | someone who commits atrocties, a real-life monster, a war criminal - from the notorious Mandalorian scientist of the Old Republic, Demagol, known for his experiments on children, and a figure of hate and dread in the Mando psyche (again, children being more important than violence)

bajur | education, the raising and nurturing of children - a wider meaning than just school work, includes preparation for life and survival Aliit ori'shya tal'din | Family is more than blood.

shereshoy | lust for life and much more - uniquely Mandalorian word, meaning the enjoyment of each day and the determination to seek and grab every possible experience, as well as surviving to see the next day - hanging onto life and relishing it. An understandable state of mind/ emotion for a warrior people. Closely related to the words for live, hunt and stay safe - and, of course *oya*. All from the same root.

and since you mentioned color, this post is so feckin cool as it talks about white =/= purity, and goes into quite a bit about the “destruction” in mandalorian culture being about the rebirth, not the violence

and then here’s a few links to content in the mandalorian tv

“the poc experience of keeping ur mouth shut bc ur too tired to argue w/ a white person“ about boba downplaying his mandalorian-ness to bo-katan, a known violent xenophobe 

more on din’s sect the children of the watch not being a cult vs death watch

some cool thoughts on the differences in how boba and bo-katan interacted with din during season 2 which i think is important in terms of illustrating the differences between death watch and true mandalorians, again

a cool dialogue on din and removing his helmet in season 2 and his religious/cultural views in relation to being mandalorian

i spent like three hours on this and i definitely only meant to give you like. five links. but uhhh i hope this helps!! feel free to shoot me further questions, but just keeping in mind i am not māori and cannot speak to the māori experience in fandom or in regards to jango fett and the clones.

i hope you’re safe and well!! 🌻

[oidickhead]

I'm developing some opinions about headcanons of race in TMA and I say this without invalidating anyone's take on TMA characters' race headcanons / fanons. I have drawn Jon as South Asian (personally hc as Pakistani), and I like it for many reasons. Whatever you see them as, that's absolutely fine! Sometimes the intention behind the writing is not as important as the meanings we give the text as fans and that's completely valid and important, way more than my musing on meaning and authorial intent. I'll even go as far as to say that when it comes to fan activity, it's absolutely ok to completely disregard some elements of the canon and decide they do not fit our enjoyment of something. As long as we're aware those things were originally there, and we're not imposing our interpretation over what is actually textual, fan activity is fan activity and our own business. This goes for big things like race/sexuality/gender/religion hcs that might help us relate/project onto characters, but also for smaller things (I do not care if Jimmy Magma's eyes are canonically grey they are GREEN TO ME).

Keeping this disclaimer in mind, I'm relistening to the podcast from the beginning and if we're talking canon content, there's definitely something of a race indicator that makes me think they're absolutely written with whiteness in mind: both Jon and Martin trust the police and are subsequently surprised to find out just how much violence and corruption is in the force. I don't think especially Martin could be anything but white when in the interrogation with Daisy he sounds so clueless and lost and betrayed at the idea that cops don't actually care about justice, especially since he's also queer and comes from a low income background. His whiteness would be the privilege that allows him to still hold a faith in the cops/the system like that.

This also applies to Jon - he also trusts the police at first, in season 1 he says he's sure they'll do thorough investigation of Gertrude's case.

And this fits in the overarching theme of all the characters of TMA learning that they all are, one way or the other, complicit in a system of horrors that feeds off powerless people with no regard for whether they somehow "deserve" it.

I'm not saying this is ultimate and definite truth and they're canonically white. It's not canon, it's just a reading of the canonic text that I thought was interest to consider and keep in mind, and would like to see what others think about it. I especially wanted to preface all I have prefaced cause I'm the first to hc characters as parts of my identity even when the text hints against it. I also don't think I'm the first one to think this, it's probably a lukewarm take I've missed the conversation about and I'm sorry 😅

[marai-posts]

Speaking of bad LGBTQ+ writing:

I WANNA TALK ABOUT NAOTO

Also Spoiler Warning

Now let me make myself clear,

If you enjoy thinking of Naoto in her canon writing in which her desire towards masculinity is fueled by an oppressive work place and extreme prejudice toward females in said workplace then You Are So Valid And Respected, that's not what this is about.

Because prejudice towards females in a work setting is a Real Thing and shouldn't be glossed over EVER. Respect Women Guys.

And if you enjoy seeing Naoto as a trans man who simply didn't have the means to understand himself and work through his issues in a healthy manner because of Inaba's clear prejudice, and a general lack of knowledge of LGBT+ people as a whole, You Are Also Super Valid And Respected.

I actually enjoy the point of their character, which calls out workplace sexism as inherently bad, unfair, and hurtful.

Cause it is, let's be real. All humans are equal in birth no matter their race, gender, or sexual preferences. We Are All Human.

I also understand that this game was made a while ago when LGBT+ representation was super taboo and rare but-

AS A TRANS MAN MYSELF-

God I Wish Naoto Was Written Trans

So before I go on my rant, I want to just say, no matter your opinion of this topic, no matter your preference or if you use them as a coping mechanism either way:

You Are Valid. You are understood.

When I think about people arguing over them I get upset because I'm someone who chooses to think in terms of humanity and respect. If people didn't have different opinions and interests, society would be unable to progress. Fighting over opinions starts wars, it inspires violence and hurt, and is just not worth the pain it causes.

Debates are necessary. Fighting is not.

If two people see the same characters in a completely different light, that shouldn't be a problem. Each person should take from Naoto what they need for emotional comfort. If you've struggled with sexism, I support you. If you're trans too, I support you. If you're in neither category's and simply love them devoid of personal projection, I support you.

Because in the end, it's just a game.

And they are a character.

And Living Breathing Humans should never be at each others throats over a character.

Instead if you love Naoto as a girl, and another person loves Naoto as a guy, you both love Naoto and are in agreement that they are a lovely person. No matter what they would choose as a gender identity.

Hell, they could be gender fluid.

Now that I've expressed how I feel about the debate over trans Naoto, I'll say my own personal opinion devoid of judgement for those who see them differently. All headcanons and real canon can coexist peacefully. That is the beauty of fiction.

Now:

I see Naoto as a trans male, so while I write I'll be using he/him, but whichever pronouns you use is Good. These are just my personal headcanons and opinions and yours are just as important and worthy. I Respect You.

Now then, I see him like this because:

The few times I've personally seen a character outwardly show themselves as a different gender it's usually either crossdressing, or rooted in insecurity. Like Naoto, or even Chihiro from Danganronpa. And that's,, kinda upsetting. It suggests that trans people are just insecure, or that they need a 'reason' to be trans. Which is probably how some working on the game viewed being trans. But this is a product of prejudice and uneducation, and is untrue.

I'd really like more canon trans characters.

Properly written trans characters, of course. With actual information on real trans individuals and their experiences and struggles, that came from trans people.

The trans characters out there now are very important and I hope to see more of them! Represention is important to progress.

Now this is what I would of liked to see:

I think after the 'Naoto is biologically female' reveal, when he starts going by she/her and letting people refer to him as a girl, I think he should of realized it causes him discomfort.

Let him become uncomfortable when people desire femininity from him. Let him realize that it hurts when people call him 'her'. Let him try wearing female clothing again and realizing he feels super gross in them.

Let him talk to Yu about how he doesn't understand why he still feels this way. Let Yu suggest that maybe he doesn't like others perceiving him as female. Let them discuss it properly and let Yu offer him unconditional support because they're close and Yu is a good dude and is the kind of person who values his connections to other people no matter if he can relate and personally understand or not, proven several times not only in-game but in spin off's as well.

Let them talk to the others about it, let them all support his decision because they all love him regardless. Let them all make an Active Effort to call him he/him and refer to him as a guy because they see the way his face lights up when they do and They Care A Lot.

Let him and Kanji have a discussion about their experiences and support each other because Kanji liked him despite his gender and that hasn't changed in the slightest.

Let him find happiness as a male without seeing in a necessity to his job. Let him dress the way he wants because it makes him happy, not because of other people.

Let Him Simply Be Trans.

[snowflake-of-destruction]

For the ship ask game:

Reki/Langa

NamiKaiXi

Risem

Sephiroth/Cloud

Reki/Langa

Ship it!

What made you ship it?

The heart eyes and obvious adoration. Sometimes, I'm just a sucker for a sweet ship where both adore each other and are not shy on the compliments in the slightest, existing to hype each other up.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

That, alongside the adoration and support, that they have differing opinions/philosophies sometimes, and reconciling those includes compromises and acknowledging where both of them are a bit wrong when they fight.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I don't know the popular and unpopular opinions about Renga, because, while I love them, I haven't felt the urge to seek out other people's headcanons and fic all that much.

 If I had to wager on a less popular reading that I have though...Our sweet boys may live happily ever after, but it's going to be a bumpy road first. Reki has a lot of emotions and is not afraid to show them all, and he's very sensitive, which isn't a bad thing. Our unflappable Langa may seem like a good complement to him--and he is in my opinion--but he's also the type that, even though he has his list of Reki's best qualities handy, doesn't realize that he may need to say them more than once and doesn't read cues enough to know right away when hearing "the obvious" might help reassure Reki. 

Langa is also the type to just agree to things and then quietly do whatever he wants. We see it in canon and we see Reki take it badly, and yet I still think saying they will go through many different versions of the same fight without any change in behavior happening will be an unpopular opinion. Also, while Reki will always be able to make Langa's heart beat faster for his own reasons, Langa has more than a bit of a thing for danger and challenge, and having fun to infinity with Reki, may be what he'd always choose if he had to, but he's going to constantly seek out more challenges, whether it be increasingly dangerous stunts or places and people to race, seeking out the pulse pound until Reki's nerves fray apart. There will be dramatic fights and multiple break ups. They'll work it out though.

Now we read more the rest because of length

NamiKaiXi

An intriguing concept, and they would be cute together, and probably work well as a unit because they would all care for each other's needs and be in tune to each other's emotions, but I'm going to say I lean toward don't ship it. But imagine it said with a question mark. Don't ship it?

You know what, why not? Why should I not ship it? I wrote a long, moralizing thing about not subjecting the girls to a double standard when I've already been clear that I just can't get past/reassess my twins/family type reading on Roxas and Sora. It's hard to work up a deeper feeling than "it could be nice" when there isn't much interaction--and none as a trio--but "I ship it" definitely does not need to be a deep or "forever" declaration (and I am the last person to ask others to justify/moralize what they like) , so just the fact that you said "namikaixi" and my mind can list a series of scenarios I would definitely find cute enough to excitedly chatter about....we say ship, for today at least.

What made you ship it?

This ask. Idk. It’s cute. I like the characters. You saw, I said “why not?” and there it is

What are your favorite things about the ship?

All three have dealt with being left behind, dismissed, and used then discarded. Two out of three have had their personhood questioned. They are not alone in these issues, but I just imagine these three, each finding the other two such an inspiration that it's criminal they could ever be made to feel insecure, going on validating and lavishing praise on each other, and healing together. I also see it as a very even polycule if that makes sense. I tend to dislike fictional polycules that are just "A should be able to date both B and C" in origin--which is personal taste and obviously in real life relationships come in all forms-- and prefer ones where all parties love each other just as much and I could see any 2 within the 3 functioning well as couple as well as the 3 working as a unit without falling into any more pitfalls than any other relationship (The "as well as" being important because, let's take Squall, Rinoa, and Seifer from FF8. Squall/Rinoa? Good. Squall/Seifer? Fantastic! Seifer/Rinoa? Underrated! But the three together, I can only see DISASTER and jealousy longterm. But I digress. This ain't about them).

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I feel that this is too rare to have popular or unpopular opinions, but my uncommon opinion about Namine in relationships in general is once she's comfortable she becomes vocal and dominant and just takes the lead in everything.

Risem

Eh, I'll probably always be ambivalent/just kind of playing along, but, no, no, you got a point when you talk about this one. Ship it.

What made you ship it?

Friends don't let friends ship alone.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

Slow corruption. Voices whispering in ears. Ansem's whole *waves vaguely* deal from voice to wardrobe. Riku's willfulness and the fact that if he ever does give in to something it's because he wants to/that's there's no way for anyone else but Riku to win in any battle [insert "despite game mechanics" joke here]. It's a set up for a good "guilty pleasure" ship

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I don't know. Let me muse on them enough to write something for Risem week and I'm sure I'll come up with something others  disagree with lol.

Sephiroth/Cloud

Ship it. Is there a Cloud ship I wouldn't ship?  Probably, but this particular ship I fell off the slippery slope awhile back

What made you ship it?

The compilation and their appearances elsewhere. Specifically, the directions that it started to move in portraying Cloud and Sephiroth's link, Sephiroth's respect and growing obsession/fascination that Cloud just keeps besting him and has proven to be so much more than he thought at first, and, yes, the fanservice-y "you didn't need to animate it that way, or have them say that line, but you did and now it's everyone's problem" type stuff . Such a short answer for the ship I have thought the most about and shipped the longest, but it's as simple as that---and, of course, moving to the "sometimes the ships that are the most problematic are fun"

What are your favorite things about the ship?

How joyfully Sephiroth approaches it versus how Cloud must loathe himself still being attracted to Sephiroth (Which he is. Don't make me break out gifs from the Remake) and bound to him, or even remembering that this was once his hero and maybe his first crush other than Tifa, in light of how Sephiroth killed his mother and set his hometown on fire and then decided that was only the beginning. Did I just say my favorite part is causing Cloud pain? Yeah, that's problematic too. I'll ring the shame bell now.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Such is the nature of the FF7 fandom, that there is no unpopular opinions. Every conceivable opinion has a large subsect of people about to go rabid defending it.

[incorrectcatfacestudios]

Headcanons + Making this to replace my old headcanons post.

Disclaimer: JUST GOING TO SAY NOT EVERYTHING I GIVE THEM IS SOMETHING I AGREE WITH! like Some characters will have a headcanon that’s more because I can ACTUALLY SEE Them enjoying an activity but even if they do I DON’T their are things that these characters would do that I DON’T think anyone else should do EVER!

Asch

Has a safe space in his room where he can be himself. It’s a place where He gets to let his guard down. that is his earth room

Has a tendency to be more attracted to those with a darker tone then him. then again its not really hard to have a darker complexion then him. (Regardless of race someone could have a tan or something, or just be a bit darker than him.) He himself hasn’t noticed this and probably never will.

Mirage sleeps in his room

If Rhys somehow got really sad and mopey he’d locate that ice cream truck and angrily threaten the ice cream man to give him all of the ice cream or DIE. Or he’d just want the entire truck, & if no one stopped him then he’d throw it through Ava’s window into her apartment.  

Sometimes late at night when everyone’s sleeping & Asch can’t, he summons Rhys to his room and forces him to read him a bedtime story. Rhys used to do this when Asch was younger as well. He really likes Rhys’s voice. 

If he was a human he’d probably be some NEET gamer who spends all his time roleplaying on World of Warcraft or something and he’d always rage about bad plot points or game mechanics in Anime & Video games.

The most likely to dirty talk

He sneezes like a kitten and when he does fire comes out. 

Would be god awful at pole dancing

 He doesn’t know what to do when it comes to love and isn’t used to physical affection.   Its.....very pleasant whenever he gets it...but it also feels too comfortable for him. He’s scared of comfort, despite loving it.  

Later on once he embraces affection he becomes absolutely addicted to it and is by far the most passionate of them. Though that angry scowl never leaves unfortunately . His passion rages on like a burning flame, like....an intense RUSH of desire. It can be overwhelming at times. 

In fact he DEMANDS the affection. 

In battle he’s more brutish than the others by far. A giant barrage of flames being sent EVERYWHERE . 

One time he read a fanfiction & thought it was 100% Canon. & when anyone said otherwise He screamed angrily and shot fire balls at them; Even when they weren’t physically there. Of course since they weren’t there he just  ended up burning the phone Ava got for him, but you know, whatever.

Loves curry 

Really likes chocolate and caramel for whatever reason, but he can’t stand other sweets. he also likes strawberries 

He enjoys the video game Indivisible, & some war military tactic games. He also likes rage games for some reason too even though he hates them, its complicated but he can’t stop playing, he gets too into it and too angry. He also enjoys racing games & MARIO PARTY, Especially when he wins.   

His favorite animal is the bull  

Dhaur is his husbando 

His sin is wrath  

 Used to hate Steven Universe at first then grew....to like it. then love it. It seemed so dumb to him at first but as he watched it he came to understand it more. 

Asch trusts Rhys more than the other daemos. He’s known him the longest and believes in his judgement he doesn’t think Rhys would EVER lie to him or deceive him.  Because of this Rhys is the only person Asch is ever fully open with. He wouldn’t leave anyone else he was this open with back on daemos. He is quite FOOLISH to believe this however. :) after all Rhys is working with Lady Grandma. 

He once dared Leif to eat a cactus after getting particularly angry in a game of truth or dare 

 Him and Rhal never get along ever. They always yell it eachother, and get into arguments.

Rhal has far more Knights than Asch 

As for Lady Bish. Asch is completely indifferent towards her.  

He doesn’t know why but he keeps on sniffing Ava’s bra for reasons obvious to the rest of us. Regardless he destroys them just the same

Smell/sweat Kink bitches 

 Probably into S&M.  

 He sometimes rehearses villainous Dialogues with himself in the mirror when no one’s around. 

He also does this with Rhys on occasion...if he’s feeling particularly BRAVE that day

Holds up a lot of pent up emotions and hides it pretty well. He prefers to let them out as anger instead..but when he gets drunk it all just POURS out of him. He just sobs and cries and hugs and kisses and laughs. just...everything. ALL OF THE EMOTIONS BESIDES ANGER he expresses openly. He doesn’t become a completely different person he just becomes far more open. He compliments a lot as well.

He got drunk once and decided from that day NEVER AGAIN! 

 Though when he first got drunk he really liked it. Despite the flavor. and downed like 3. 

 That was a #Mistake 

His favorite Crystal gem is Garnet, or Sapphire? Its hard for him to choose between them. 

Rhys

 The thiccest of the daemos on earth. By that I mean he has the biggest butt 

 What I mean by that is he does a lot of squats, & Glute exercises. He also has a magic that makes all the fat he gains go to his butt but that’s not important. Its not always in affect only for emergencies.   

Would be VERY interested in science if he knew what it was

He would eat pizza with a fork

Gluttonous in any task he enjoys. When he eats he eats ALOT, sex would last a long time with him Though not many people know this about him because he takes his time. 

The  common one is Research, reading, observing, & ESPECIALLY LEARNING.

 He also adores validation give him it.. Wears a long trench coat to hide his big butt from the world well not hide but-. 

 specifically daemos since some uncultured daemos tend to be quite handsy.

 It doesn’t always work but whatever trench coats are cool. 

 has frequent discussions with Asch in his room. He’s the only one Asch is completely honest with. Asch trusts Rhys with EVERYTHING. 

If he was a human he would be a college student studying to be a scientist of some kind. 

He would also work volunteer jobs at the retirement homes. 

If he was a human he’d probably meet Asch by working as his grandmothers nanny. I don’t think Asch would live by himself.

has a tad bit more fat on him than the others. but his muscle can distract from that. Plus his fat isn’t even noticeable outside of his ass His lover would nickname him sunrise, because his smile can chase the night away, cause his face is what brightens their day, because he is the beginning of something new bright and beautiful. 

loves Rubix Cubes If he romanced Ava it wouldn’t be because he likes her it would be because he wants to use her. mostly for her nonexistent power ((magical and political)) 

Loves sweets more than the rest of them

I think I had enough for him last time. 

His mother and Asch’s were close.  

Spends waaayyyy too much time trying to over analyse tv shows he watches 

Is a big fan of Pheonix wright, Fran Bow, Gravity falls, Danganronpa, Dr. Stone, Dr. Who, Fnaf, & pretty much any other game or TV show that either gives you a lot to think about after the episodes/playthrough, is chock full of thousands of possibilities and theories, or requires a lot of thought and problem solving to play. He also likes strategy games like Fire Emblem, & Final Fantasy Tactics. OH! And Pokemon but not for the normal gameplay for the competitive scene. 

Due to having the element of water he is  usually cool calm and collected. but he also is able to flow with a situation if needed. He’s passive  

 Often reads to Asch because Asch has a harder time reading. Him and Asch went to school together when they were younger and thus have a closer bond than the others.  ((Lady grandma forced Asch to go)) 

Once asked Ava if she had any more of those porn magazines. Was pleased to find that Ava had an entire closets worth. Though not all of it was the fighting techniques he was looking for. 

He  has no fucking idea how a vagina works in the slightest. or what vagina’s even look like? Despite his extensive knowledge sex is one of the places where he knows the least. Because he has no idea what lesbian sex is he is completely oblivious to the fact that he’s been staring at 2 girls fucking it on in those magazines he’s found underneath Ava’s bed. 

 He once had to help Leif out with the creation of the Furby organ. It was incredibly difficult for him but also very insightful 

 The Furbies terrify him though.  That STARE its..just...ugh 

 The best at pole dancing. 

Is far more elegant on the battle field than the others. His attacks are more precise and careful than theirs are. 

He’s also the best at dancing...well fancy dancing. like ballet,  and slowdancing. 

Sleeps in Ava’s fridge sometimes. 

Starting teaching Noi how to read a bit more after they went to the mall. The shops are cataloged after all

 Is cold resistant to a point. I mean ice magic CAN still hurt him but like...less. I’d liken it to a Pokemon. 

His favorite crystal gem is garnet. If your talking singular gems then I’d say Ruby. But...like Garnets amazing why would you want to choose just ONE of them as your favorite when..

 Likes classical music, R & B, Soft...indie songs, Soft pop, Trap music & Bossa Nova 

If Ava did marry him she’d probably get locked into a loveless marriage for power that doesn’t exist 

If he found out about Ava’s lies he might have a fucking meltdown. :D like everything he was working towards EVERYTHING would have been for nothing. 

That is until the prospect of watching how the human world continues to function without magic...he’d realize they have TECHNOLOGY and how...amazing it is. 

Leif

The more he likes you the more he’ll want to stab you. Just how it is

The more he’s attracted to someone the more he’ll want to stab their guts out. he’s weird like that.

Big sadist I mean we already know this but like in all the ways? ya know?Like he literally gets an orgasmic feeling in his veins when he slices someone open kind of sadistic.  

If he was a human he would probably be a doctor or surgeon who only has his job because it allows him to legally cut people open.

would’ve probably been one of those school bullies who only bullies someone because he’s in love with them if he was a human

You could literally get him to do anything by being like “ I bet you couldn’t do that. “ or saying “ ____ go get the ____ for me” He makes everything into a competition.

Broke EVERYTHING when he was a child. 

Tried to eat a cactus, because Asch dared him to.  

Asch didn’t think he’d actually do it. 

 His sin is PRIDE of course, which is why he feels like he has to prove everything and lives to have his ego STROKED.

Later he tried to shove a cactus up his ass because a stranger on the internet said that only cowards don’t use cacti as dildo’s 

He had to go to the doctor many times. 

He really liked the large amount of sharp objects in the hospital room 

He may or may not be banned from that hospital

The nurse had to file a restraining order it was a sad day.  But they got the pricks out!! and that’s all that matters! PLUS Leif got a new thumb to add to his collection!

He really likes it because its a special decorated one. With PAINT on the tips. its weird and shiny. The nurse probably won’t need it anyways. 

He has a rotting placenta in his bedroom no one knows where he got it!(AND NOBODY ASKS) but it still has the umbilical cord attached no baby though :(   

He isn’t allowed outside anymore for obvious reasons

He found out what Furbies where and fell in love with them instantly . He stole 20 

He made a Furby organ. why? Because its infinitely stupider and more terrifying than a regular one. He forced Rhys to help cause Rhys is smart. It still took like 90 tries and costed Ava alot of money, and Furbies.

He keeps it in his room and he plays it constantly. Mostly to annoy Asch, Ava, and everyone else around him. He also loves the fact that its called an organ. 

He was dared to eat a jar of nails and he fucking did it. 

He obviously had to use healing magic on himself 

He’s really hot for Noi. Like...a bit too much no one notices though.

 A bit hotter for Ava than Noi though, That’s why he keeps wanting to penetrate her with his knife. The more he threatens to do this the more he likes you. 

His element is Life, or earth. Mostly life which is why he’s so vigorous and excited. 

This is also the reason why he’s so obsessed with killing things. when you live your ALWAYS killing, every move you make you end thousands of lives just like that!  Daemos of the life element seem to want to enjoy life to the fullest and never look back. EVER 

As such he’s also good at cultivating life, weather it be a plant or an animal. Everyones always surprised by this

Back on Daemos before his snap he’d actually be alot kinder to Noi, ((IN the first 4 episodes whenever Noi got hurt he was the only one to ever show any concern. I find that interesting in contrast to how he threw that out in some of the later ones. )) He’d often be the one that consoles noi or talks things out with him. 

Leif is more aggressive, energetic and far more cruel in more docile environments. He becomes much more empathetic, & Calm in hostile ones. ((Like that time where he actually got on Rhys’s case for being too hard on Asch, or the times when he was like “Hey are we actually going to let Noi die” and offering to heal Noi when he was writhing in pain when they came to earth.  ))  

He’s actually more perceptive then he seems, he cares about those around him NORMALLY its just going this long without killing anything is maddening for him. HE NEEDS TO KILL. to let it all out, once he does he’ll act as he normally does.  

He was the only one even remotely kind to Noi back on daemos, that changed when they got to earth. (besides Pierce. ) 

 Though due to his normal lack of empathy in a world where he’s human he’d probably be one of those people who just don’t care about how what they say affects those around them. Doing and saying whatever he wants regardless of how others may interpret that. 

He LOVES Skullgirls. He really likes the character designs and the fact that double always has organs or something hanging out. 

 He also loves all horror movies and video games where he gets to cause mayhem; Like Saints Row, or Grand Theft Auto!  

 He’d be the only one of the daemos that is fully accepting of the weird side of the internet. You know the WEIRD side. He’d be into all of the bizar kinky fetishes you’d find on Furraffinity you just know it.  

 He doesn’t actually like Ava he more-so see’s her as a trophy? I mean well he DOES but he’s mostly in the whole fight for her thing to win a prize. And she’s the prize.   ((Well at least before the newest episode)) 

Pierce

The most Physically affectionate of the daemos even more so than Noi

Big buff bara man. LIKE BY FAR THE BUFFEST 

Would probably run an animal shelter or something if he could

Would be running an animal shelter or something if he was human

Likes….fluffy. waayyy too much 

He’s by far the most empathetic of the daemos. Yes even Noi then again Noi isn’t very empathetic. 

 Very tired 24/7 needs coffee to sustain himself. 

 Often by himself in the quiet. sometimes while alone with his thoughts they spiral out of control, Regret, Doubt, Despair, Uncertainty, Fear, Insecurity.  All at once. Does he cry not at all. He suffers as he stands Silent. ultimately its impossible to tell when he’s having one of these moments as he doesn’t show it on his face.    

 Big PP 

He is very loyal but his loyalty isn’t...friendship. He doesn’t really like Asch very much, but he does trust his judgement and follow his orders. He’s a knight after all, besides he appears to have some connection to one of Asches family members ((The daemos in that Flashback had a crown on their horn)

He likes standing because when he stands theirs no threat of getting too comfortable, no chance of falling asleep and drifting away, no chance of drifting into sleep and deciding to never wake up again, no chance of getting lost in the comforts of the object beneath him. 

He is the one that cares for Ava the most  

 Doesn’t really care about the cultural norms on daemos. he flows free like the wind and accepts any new and sudden changes. 

Heavyish sleeper, gets grumpy when woken up.  Like if your trying to kill him his instincts will kick in and he will wake up but otherwise he’ll just stay asleep. LIKE THROUGH EVERYTHING 

Though while he is the most empathetic of the Daemos he’s also prone to intense levels of apathy, where he just shuts down silent lost in his thoughts unable to be disturbed. these are only momentary  

His element is air. Because of this he’s mostly just free and flowing.  

 Sometimes gives Ava Piggy Back rides to make her feel tall 

 Potentially one of the only one of the Daemos that genuinely care about Ava. 

But also potentially only see’s Ava as a cute pet to love on rather than a person in and of herself. But ultimately he does also care about her feelings, and her opinion on things.

 I prefer to think the latter rather than the former. 

one time he accidentally befriended a large swarm of bee’s and they followed him to Ava’s house. 

 Gives Ava piggy back rides 

Out of the Daemos he’s the one who Ava is closest to. The others have yet to even notice this. 

 One time the boys found porn on the phone and just gathered around the phone looking at it confused all bug eyed. Pierce saw the filth on the screen and made the executive decision to yeet it out the window. 

Ava had to buy a new phone 

 Has a rough yet gentle touch. he takes care and caution when dealing with life. 

because of the above him and Leif have an impossibly hard time cooperating when its just them. 

The best with animals. 

 When not caught up in apathy he is the exact opposite. He becomes far too 

Noi

He would enjoy fortnight if he played it

Would thrive off of old memes 

If he was human he would be that one friend you wouldn’t want to hang out with because he fortnight dances, dabs, uses outdated memes, rick rolls people, and everything unironically.

 The least muscular & Thicc by far. he doesn’t have any meat on his bones, unlike the other 4. Flat boney ass. 

He’d probably be some sort of social media icon or a street performer if he was human. He thrives off of validation. Though because he’s a clumsy fuck street preforming wouldn’t be the best gig for him.

Likes music the most

Would probably be the first of the Daemos to watch and enjoy Steven Universe. ((Though I’d bet the others would come around. They always come around))

 He Rick Rolled Rhys one time. 

 His sin is Envy, he often feels insecure about himself, and he looks up to everyone else seeing how “Cool” or great they are. ALWAYS saying “GOOD JOB ____” whenever they do something cool, he’s always excited but with that excitement comes the thoughts...Why can’t I do things like that? I wish I COULD BE STRONG LIKE PIERCE, I wish I COULD BE SMART LIKE RHYS, I wish I could be PAMPERED LIKE ASCH, I wish I COULD BE HANDSOME LIKE LEIF. That’s why he’s so focused on being better than everyone else. I wanna try! Let me see it! LET ME TRY FOR ONCE. that comes from not only desire but ENVY. he just channels this envy in a much healthier way than most would. *Cough* Leif *Cough* 

 He has EXTREME insecurity problems and longs more than anything to be better than the others. 

After he found out what breakdancing was he dedicated SO MUCH of his time trying to learn how to do it. 

He may or may not be obsessed with that 

 He also really likes Ava. But he’s moreso in love with the idea of her? He doesn’t really listen to much of what she says due to the fact that he’s so scatterbrained and spacey. He just likes when she talks. He mostly fell in love with Ava because she was the first person to present themselves towards him as an option. back on Daemos he was relatively low class. Thus he was viewed as unmarriageable, worthless, dumb, WEAK, & Poor, So trying to enter a relationship with ANYONE was out of the question. The boy thought he would die without finding love.

 He thought Ava was actually GENUINELY interested in romancing him and because of that it excited him. NO ONE HAD EVER actually wanted to romance him. Back at home NO ONE liked him, no one was ever kind to him. Well Leif sometimes was pierce would show some kind of a...paternal affection rarely. But Leif also treated him cruelly and insulted him like the others.

Due to how loving and compassionate he is he was kicked  out of his household. 

 Despite this Noi isn’t exactly empathetic. He doesn’t pay attention to the emotions of others he’s far too caught up in himself.  

In the first 2 days on Earth He & Leif would shit talk Asch behind his back. Mostly talking about how they didn’t really like this plan and just vent their frustrations out at eachother 

Starting on episode 5 him and Leif just kinda. He became too scared of Leif to even approach him as much and thus he kinda grew apart from him. thus causing him to latch more onto Ava. AVA likes him, unlike them. HE HAS PROOF after all. 

 He’s also far too stuck up in the idea of a powerful princess loving him a lowly peasant a low ranking knight someone who.....who wouldn’t be worth anything to her.

If they were to find out about ALL of Ava’s lies he’d take it the 2nd hardest. Asch would be the first, Rhys the 3rd. Leif the 4th, & Pierce the 5th. 

 Mostly because the only reason why she chose him, the only reason why they went on a date wasn’t because she was interested in him but because she didn’t want her cover blown. He thought she actually loved him not to say she doesn’t care for him but-...he thought she WANTED him you know? 

She wouldn’t be a powerful princess, she wouldn’t be a cool sorceress, she wouldn’t be this big thing that he wanted so much she’d just be herself and then Noi’s fantasy would crumble. 

Its the dream the fantasy that someone so powerful so strong would set aside their time and pay attention to him take him out in hopes of COURTING him that he fell in love with. Not ava herself. 

That being said he does like Ava and even prefer spending time with her to half of the main cast.   

Ava

Has to take Prescription drugs

Ate cat food once when she was five

Probably into pet play

Really likes collars

One time she went to some bitch in her high schools  Quinceañera to release a box of 4000 angry bees upon it and run

Greedy  

 Spends alot of her time watching Anime when not with the Daemos

 Her favorite Crystal Gem is Amethyst because god damn

 No where NEAR as thick as Aphmau is. She’s alot more twiggy. 

Would totally do the WEED if her dads weren’t hovering around her 24/7 

 Has a lot of Girl on girl porn in her room. Specif under her bed and in her closet.

[sprinkledonion-blog]

Another real long “I don’t like Bumbleby” post (Part 1)

So this one was a long time coming. I kept postponing it, polishing it, making it look the nicest I could, but it’s finally here. And it’s quite long. Let’s just, uh, start.

The first thing I wanna say is, I watched RWBY without interacting with the FNDM, just at the start of this year. I didn’t know what Bumbleby was, nor its impact in the overall FNDM. I was blissfully unaware of what was going on, so I dived in with a clean, open mind.

First impressions and development (or the lack thereof)

I didn’t think about Bumbleby. For those who know me, I ship characters VERY easily and I don’t really care if it’s a gay, het, lesbian ship, I can and I WILL ship them. I shipped Ruby and Penny like crazy. Ruby and Emerald made my heart jump. Jaune and Ren looked insanely cute together, and Sun and Weiss had very nice potential. And in V2, in the Burning the Candle episode, when Yang had a heartfelt conversation with Blake, and hugged her, I was like “oh?”. It was the first time I had seen Yang this vulnerable, and while I really ignored her through the first volume, this scene made me realize she was more than it meets the eye. And she chose to be vulnerable… with Blake. Oh?

Then Blacksun happened. Oh.

I didn’t like Blacksun. I still don’t like it. It’s predictable and boring for my tastes. But it has a privilege Bumbleby doesn’t: development. 

I will never understand this choice. Barb said it was planned from the beginning. The question is, then: why didn’t y’all spend time developing Bumbleby? Bees will tell me it was developed, but I’ll suggest y’all to take off your rose-colored glasses and revise those interactions. I totally understand the warm, fuzzy feeling when your ship talk, even look at each other (my ships are 99% rareships so I take what I can get), but deep down you know reality isn’t like that. I’ve seen the 40-minute essay about Bumbleby; yes, you can attribute to every interaction a romantic feeling, but I can do the exact same with Jaune and Ren, and fans will roll their eyes at me and tell me it isn’t like that. The only remotely romantic interaction was the whole Burning the Candle episode. It was a nice episode. 

“But Onion”, y’all will say, “are you going to ignore V3 onwards? The plot completely ties Blake and Yang together”. Same as Blake and Sun. Yes, Yang lost an arm for Blake, and yes, she feels betrayed and everything, but… why should I think it’s romantic? Blacksun is being developed at the same time, following common romance tropes that apply to the rest of canon ships, so why should I think it’s any different? Yang could have lost an arm for Weiss and I have no doubt she’d have felt the same. (I also think Weiss would have called her and checked on her every day, until Yang even heard her in dreams.) 

That brings me to my second point. Let’s trust Barb, it was planned from the beginning. Then what was Blacksun supposed to be? “It makes the point that romantic relationships don’t always work and sometimes it’s better to stay as friends.” Valid point, but… Blake? Sun? Why did you keep at it? Blake, why did you kiss him on the cheek? That’s misleading, for the audience I mean (Sun already knows the script). When I friendzoned guys, and when the girls I know friendzoned guys, absolutely none of them kissed the dude on the cheek. The most they did was give a pat on the back or shoulder. Let me know if it’s an American thing to kiss guys you friendzone, because maybe it’s the cultural barrier that keeps me from understanding “yes, they’re friends and nothing more!”. 

And yes, I know Sun told Neptune it was never about that. What was it about then, Sun? Were you trying to get Weiss’ attention by making her jealous? Were you trying to get Blake to paid for the food? I don’t buy that Sun explicitly flirted with her just to be friends. Else I’m an alien and it’s my second day on Earth, or Sun tried to convince himself to feel less pain. Or who knows? Maybe he really was flirting with her to be friends. Maybe he flirted with Neptune too. Writers, give us proper answers. And no, FNDM, filling in the story holes with “show don’t tell, there’s a logical explanation for it” is still fanon and doesn’t count as canon. Show don’t tell is a rule, not an excuse.

Anyways, after the whole coming and going, Sun finally leaves the scene for Bumbleby to thrive on sudden romantic interactions, which are a little late at most. It’s confusing. Yang never felt jealous when Blake showed attraction to Sun. They didn’t choose to clearly spend time together, at least with the “we’re partners” excuse. I’ll delve into this point later, but for now: we had Blacksun, suddenly we have Bumbleby, and we’re supposed to have been cheering for them the whole time. Uhm, was this supposed to be a plot twist? 

Okay, I may be biased on this one, but listen to me. I don’t like this kind of plot twist. Oh, we have a heterosexual couple… OR SO YOU THOUGHT! THE TRUTH IS THAT THE LESBIANS ARE CANON! WE’VE TRICKED YOU, WHAT MADMEN WE ARE!

Get it? My problem isn’t that Blacksun isn’t canon. My problem is that the writers are using a wlw relationship as a tool, a surprise, manipulating and tricking the audience. It doesn’t feel genuine--it feels like they just wanted to cause controversy--or sell. At the end of the day, Bumbleby is way more popular than Blacksun, and a big part of the FNDM came for the bees. Don’t y’all ever wonder why voice actors don’t talk as much about other characters, or Ruby herself? The main main character? 

Let’s bee honest: at this point in time, the biggest thing keeping RWBY afloat is Bumbleby.

“And what’s the problem with all that?”, bees may ask. “What’s wrong with feeding us some good bees?” Ship whatever you want, y’all. But I don’t like getting ships shoved down my throat and treated as peak LGBT+ representation when it didn’t get the time and treatment it deserved. Not all that glitters is gold, guys. (Especially Yang.)

Racism

Oh boy.

Racism is quite the great deal in Remnant… at least that’s what the show tells us. It doesn’t show it. No, Velvet doesn’t need to get stones thrown at her to show us discrimination. But, you know… if there was discrimination, I don’t think she would be in Beacon in the first place. Or that Leonardo would be the headmaster of Haven… Adam Taurus, pack your things and go home; there’s no faunus discrimination worth the fight. (Wait! Don’t go yet, you still have work to do.)

What does racism has to do with Bumbleby?, you may ask. Well, it’s Blake’s main plot. I think it has a lot to do with Bumbleby… but uh, it seems I was wrong. Yang isn’t interested in it, so I guess it’s just Blake’s problem. Until uh, Adam makes a scene, but that doesn’t have much to do with the fact he’s a faunus. It’s still pretty distasteful of a human to kill a faunus, but I’ll tackle that point a bit later.

Blake’s faunity? is very important to her. If she’s an important person to Yang, why doesn’t Yang show interest in it? She didn’t even defend Velvet, even though she could have punched Cardin in the face. She sits around sighing “It must be hard to be a faunus” and annoys Blake with a lighter. This only shows me Yang doesn’t care about Blake’s identity, and not in a good way. 

I know, I know, I take the faunus issue to heart. It must be because I’m a person of color. I could talk hours and hours about the horrendous execution of faunus racism (reinforcing stereotypes, horrible analogies and really unfortunate implications), but I’ll limit myself to Blake for now.

Yang doesn’t care. She’s not one bit interested in reading faunus’ history, in asking Blake about her experiences, in thinking how she could help as a human. She’s like those people who say “I’m blind to race” as if it were a good thing. Yeah, you don’t discriminate, but you dismiss other people’s culture and background. It’s part of who we are. Some of us will take it better, some of us worse, but acknowledging Blake’s identity in this case could do wonders. That way Yang could show interest in her as a person, her motives to fight, her struggle. 

But she didn’t. In fact, she did quite the contrary.

Bonus: I’ve recently seen a… hysterical headcanon. As it turns out, some bees were excited at the idea of Blake getting branded and Yang going berserk, later saving all the faunus in the mine. It was supposedly justified by “faunus needed a reason to respect her” and of course, Bumbleby angst. Do I need to point out the White Savior trope and how blatantly racist and harmful it is? Do I really need to? Considering faunus are supposed to represent the civil rights movement? Especially knowing Adam’s previous treatment? If faunus were explicitly Black, this would be… well, this is a disaster, but it gets swept under the rug. As a woman of color, this headcanon just makes me want to cry.

I think I’ll have to divide it into two parts so it doesn’t get too heavy. Part 2 is here. 

[stranger-rants]

I’m going to bring this back, because I think it’s important to understand if we’re going to deconstruct That Scene. I also want to add a few additional points:

1) We should also understand this scene from the writing angle. The Duffers wanted Billy to be a one-dimensional antagonist who targets Lucas because he is black in the same way Henry Bowers targets Mike in IT because he is black. While his aggression towards Lucas may still be racially charged, I do think we should acknowledge that this initial vision for Billy was not fully realized and it was in the process of changing towards a different characterization entirely after Dacre’s input. They hadn’t planned to tell a story about Billy’s abusive father until much later, which puts this scene much more into perspective. Left as is there would be nothing motivating Billy - why would a guy who admittedly doesn’t like being siblings with Max be so invested in her life if not for the fact that his father makes him watch over her? Why would Lucas all of a sudden become the target of racist violence from an outsider as if he has never experienced it before in the conservative town of Hawkins, Indiana? This “first draft” of Billy is no more or less valid than their “first draft” of Steve, who they intended to be Nancy’s rapist. When it comes to analyzing this scene, The Duffers words are not reliable because they don’t acknowledge or they outright contradict the context of Billy’s actions and the way the scene was acted.

2) While Billy’s violence was extreme, it should still be understood as resulting from severe dysregulation (as explained under the read more above). That being said, there are things that could have been done to prevent the escalation of violence. I’m not laying blame on Lucas, here, nor do I think anyone was prepared to handle Billy in that situation. However, it’s entirely possible for at least someone to deescalate the situation before things got worse as shown with the way they handle Eddie’s initial violent reaction to Steve. The problem is that the entire scene was set up to treat Billy like a villain even before he said or did anything. Max tells everyone Billy will kill them, which is an obvious hyperbole given that the consequences of actual murder would see Billy in prison (…and he is outnumbered anyway.) They go into it believing Billy will get violent and when he inevitably does because no one bothers to explain to him what is going on, it’s used as justification for shouting at Steve to kill him and stabbing him in the neck with an unknown drug. If you take even a single moment to consider Billy’s perspective beyond the shallow “Billy is just evil” then you would realize the situation at the Byer’s house looks extremely fucked up to an outsider (i.e. His preteen sister is with a bunch of boys in a stranger’s house, including his 18 year old classmate).

3) Much of what Billy does and/or doesn’t do after this scene is disregarded. It’s easier for people to say “there was no indication that Billy would have changed if he survived” than acknowledge that Billy’s lack of interference with Max and her friends is evidence that he did in fact change his behavior. Billy does not torment Lucas, nor does he systematically target anyone for their race (or sexuality, considering that so many fans headcanon that he’s homophobic too despite showing no canon violence towards queer people). Billy does not bother Max at all, and the following season shows Max even smiling when talking about him in a very normal way one would talk about a ‘gross’ older sibling. The resentment between them had fizzled to the point that when Billy was possessed, he didn’t ask for help from her so much as he thought it was critical that she knew he didn’t want to be doing what he was doing. That is evidence of change. It’s also really important for people to consider how difficult it would be for Billy immediately after the events of that night at the Byer’s - he had to have come home late with or without Max, drugged out of his mind to a father who we know abuses him. The fact that Billy does not seem to hold that against Max is huge considering much of his resentment towards Max prior was fueled by his father’s abuse.

There’s so much that went into and came out of this scene that is so often held against Billy up to and beyond his death that gets completely undermined or ignored by the fandom who are still operating under the belief that The Duffer’s fully realized their first draft of Billy “Henry Bowers Jr.” Hargrove. That Billy simply does not exist.

The primary scene in which people have used to justify calling Billy Hargrove a “sociopath” is the infamous confrontation with The Party at the Byer’s house where Billy becomes very erratic and violent. There are two major problems with this point of view. One, sociopath is not a real, clinical term. It’s a term specific to “pop psychology” that undermines the complexity of personality disorders and trauma. Two, there’s a logical escalation to the violence in that scene, stemming from a single triggering event. I am going to discuss this below. This is not meant to justify what he said or did. It’s only meant to explain why Billy reacted the way he did.

To preface this explanation, I am a high school teacher. ~98% of the students I teach have some form of trauma. For this reason, I receive regular training on trauma informed instruction. The model I am going to be using in my explanation is usually used to understand why violence can escalate within a classroom setting specifically. It is designed to help us understand how to deescalate violent situations or even prevent them altogether. However, I think it can also be used to explain events outside of a classroom. So, I’m going to use it here and hopefully it makes sense. (It’s also just good practice for me, so if you think I’m doing too much I’m really just helping myself.)

I also would like to state before I begin my explanation that while what Billy did was wrong, it pales in comparison to the kind of violence I see within a given school year. I hear slurs on a daily basis. I’ve been called every horrible name you can think of. I have been physically assaulted and my property has been destroyed at work. My safety has been threatened on many occasion. Murder. Stabbings. Gang violence. Domestic violence. Drug smuggling. I have seen cases of it all in my career. To call all of this behavior “sociopathic” though ignores systemic issues within their community that make it more likely for violence to escalate. So that’s why this is important.

This is going to be less about Billy’s experiences with Adverse Childhood Experiences, and more about his violent behavior and why people like him experience severe dysregulation that may make them seem “sociopathic” to the average person. If you want to read about his ACEs, you can check out my ACEs tag which I will include in this post.

In trauma informed education, there’s something called Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) that aims to identify how a crisis occurs and how best to respond to it. TCI was developed in response to a desire to understand how to work with abused and neglected children. It is not flawless, but they do attempt to understand why violence escalates in reaction to stress in people. They use a model called the Stress Model of Crisis to map this out. Here it is:

On the y-axis, you have the degree of stress. On the x-axis, you have time duration. The more stress builds up over time, the more likely a person is to become violent if there’s no intervention. I’m not really going to talk about the interventions themselves because they’re usually provided by trained adults and no one in that scene was an adult and no one in that scene was trained and no one in that scene should be expected to react to the situation like a trained adult would because they’re not adults and it’s not their fault.

There’s a “pre-crisis state” in which you can expect a baseline of behavior out of an individual. This baseline is based upon what is typical for that person. For Billy, he’s typically stressed because he lives in an abusive household. Before the “triggering event” that leads to the confrontation at the Byer’s house, Billy is preparing for a date that he seems excited about. Then his father and his stepmother step into his space with minimal warning to ask about Max’s whereabouts.

This transitions into the triggering event, where Neil and Billy argue back and forth. It doesn’t matter that his parents might also have access to a car and they are legally responsible for Max, Billy is made responsible for her which Billy thinks is unfair. This is actually not unreasonable even if you don’t like his attitude. Neil escalates the situation and you can tell Billy is becoming agitated. Neil responds to this by physically abusing and humiliating Billy in front of Susan.

So, in a state of agitation Billy is expected to go find Max. This becomes worse when after looking all night for her, he finds her at a stranger’s house with a bunch of boys including Steve who is an older teen around his pre-teen sister. Billy and Steve exchange words which escalate Billy from a state of agitation to a state of aggression. Once someone moves into the escalation phase, you can expect to see more aggressive behaviors including yelling and threats which is exactly what Billy does. This phase is marked by a failure to cope.

This culminates in the crisis outburst phase where Billy becomes a danger to other people and himself. Billy embodies his trauma through his violence. We see this in the way he mirrors his mother fighting his father while she was surviving his abuse by throwing a plate at Steve as well as in the way he says no one tells him what to do despite us knowing Neil has significant control over his life. This phase is marked by “uncontrollable” violence that can not easily be stopped.

The only thing that forces Billy into the recovery phase is “medical” sedation. While you should never stab someone in the neck with a sedative and we know this was just done for dramatic effect, people who reach this phase are regularly medically sedated professionally and sent away for emergency psychiatric care. It’s a traumatic experience in itself, and the fortunate/unfortunate thing is that the way in which the “recovery” phase happens influences the outcomes for that person.

If someone is allowed to safely calm down and learn from their behavior through intervention by trained adults, they are more likely to have better outcomes. They’re more likely to be able to cope with stress and avoid these other phases. However, if “recovery” happens within the context of an abuser’s consequences and continued trauma then they’re not likely going to learn how to cope healthily with stress. It’s why Neil disciplining Billy makes Billy worse.

TL;DR:

Billy is not a sociopath. Once again, he’s an abused teenager who embodies his trauma in his violence. It’s important to recognize this not to excuse the harm but rather to prevent harm from continuing.

[theclaravoyant]

I’ve put off saying this for a while as I dislike causing problems, however as a trans female I couldn’t help but say something after having spent so long feeling upset by your fic. Writing a cis character as a transgender character is deeply offensive to the trans community. You cannot understand how it feels for your gender to be used as an ‘au’ or the difficulty in finding true transgender representation on tv. However creating canonical cis characters to fill your own agenda is disgusting

I’m sorry you feel that way but I don’t appreciate the way you’ve gone from a personal reaction, to a sweeping moral statement and attacking my character.

First of all you seem to be assuming I am cis.

Second of all, you are assuming that you speak for the entire trans community in saying that it’s “deeply offensive” and “disgusting” when in fact:

- trans people asked me to create and write for these characters- trans people have commented positively on these fics, some of them being extremely heartfelt about seeing themselves represented.- I researched and listened to the voices of trans people to create these characters, including reading science, blogs, and other personal accounts, and as I grew as a writer and heard more trans voices, including some who critiqued specific aspects of my fic itself, I included things such as stories beyond coming out, and more diverse facets of the trans experience, and I corrected scientific/medical inaccuracies and potentially offensive phrasing.- I am not cis, so technically, I am part of the trans community 

I also don’t understand what “agenda” you are talking about. Do you think writing trans!fitz and trans!jemma has made me more popular? It hasn’t. I can easily attract ten times the audience with cis smut, hurt/comfort, or fluff, and in fact I’ve had people tell me specifically that they won’t read certain things because they have trans characters in them, or ask me if there’s trans stuff in fics before they decide to read, etc etc, I’m not going to bore or annoy you with transphobes, you know the drill, apparently even better than I do :)

My point is, I’m confused as to what agenda you think I’m promoting (and I’m assuming you meant to write “creating your own trans character” there rather than “cis character” otherwise the sentence makes no sense in context). My main one was to experiment with the representation and characters we are given by canon - much the same as writing characters with non-straight sexualities, non-white races, or even to some extent non-canon ships. In doing so, I wanted to increase representation of an underrepresented group. If you wanna get ‘selfish’ about it, I wanted to practice writing trans characters so that I can include them/us in my original fiction when I get that going, but sure.

Again, I’m not saying any of this has to make you like my fic, or that it makes my fic a beacon of representation. I know it’s not. Even I go back and notice a few cringey, mildly transphobic and certainly stereotypical tropes especially in my earlier pieces, but I feel like the leap you’ve made is a bit far and I’m not prepared to sit back and take it without reply. Your emotions can be as valid as you like, but I’m not the monster you think I am and I’m not going to just let comments like this slide.

I’m not trying to make you suffer, and if you still have a problem with my fic and are at risk of coming across it, I recommend that you blacklist ‘trans!fitz’ ‘trans!jemma’ and ‘trans headcanons’, and/or unfollow, and/or block me, and that should hopefully solve your problem.

I hope that we can either reconcile or go our separate ways from here on out.

Thanks,Clara.

Edit: I want to be clear, I haven’t experienced everything just because I’m not cis; I haven’t personally experienced a lot of the things I’ve written about. I just think that if you’re going to claim “I’m trans and that alone is enough for me to tell you I’m right you’re wrong” you should also be prepared to hear “I’m also trans and that cancels out” (and/or “I based this on the personal experiences / opinions / etc of people who are trans and that cancels out”) As I said above, I’ve also done my research, and have been happy to change things when people point out specific instances or explain why something is incorrect or offensive. I’m not just relying on being non cis as an argument in and of itself - in fact the only reason I brought it up was because it was almost 100% of the grounds on which the message critiques me.

The only reason I brought up my gender id in such a flippant “haha-i-win” kind of way as it has been called, is because I think it is perfectly reasonable to counter “because I’m trans and I said so” with “well I’m also trans and I said not so”. (and ftr I’m happy for cis people to write trans characters in fact I think it’s a great thing, if they care and put effort in, even if they make mistakes) 

I’m open to discussion, and even critique, but I am not open to blindly changing and/or deleting my work and grovelling for forgiveness based on something like this message… and you know what, a cis person who put the effort in like I did shouldn’t have to do that either. Identity is important, but identity is not the same thing as experience, or information, or intent, or effort. Expecting your critique of a work to be heard, and expecting to be immediately and blindly obeyed, are different things.

[attemptingthoughtfulness]

Narrative Reconstructions of History or The Butler isn’t as bad as I thought

For my English finals we had to watch two movies, one of them was the 2013 movie The Butler that retold the story of Cecil Gaines, an African-American who became a butler at the White House in the 1930s after escaping enslavement in the South. It greatly dramatizes the Civil Rights Movement through the lense of a figure whose job description entails to be non-political (which is an entirely different can of worms). The movie had gotten a lot of flag due to its Oscar-bait properties and stretched the phrase “inspired by real events” quite a bit, inventing an entire b-plot to heighten the tension and create conflict.

When I first watched the movie, I met it with the scepticism we all reserve for most things we’re forced to consume and don’t really have any personal stakes in. It was an Oscar-bait, it wasn’t historically accurate and it wasn’t very good – narratively and visually. It was okay, from what I remember more than a year later, but it did inspire a rather lengthy written rant the lights of which I would love to share if the hard drive it is on wasn’t literally 600 kilometres away from where I’m stuck in social distancing.

From what I mostly remember, I criticized it a lot for being historically inaccurate and there were definitely some weird choices from cinematographers but here we get from my rather apologetic insights to my passive aggressive rant: So. I just. Read… I mean, basically a rant on AO3 that was a version of all those very good and insightful video essays that centre around media criticism on pop culture. Basically, it was “Hamilton is bad and here’s why” and I mean, of course I just had to read it, right? I am aware that I am a bit more biased than the usual Joe, but yeah, let’s get into it.

For what the description promised, an essay on deconstructing Hamilton the Broadway Musical and something about the toxic fandom, it started out very rough before I realized what was going on. This wasn’t the work of a media critic at all (okay, if you publish your essays on AO3 and not on your personal tumblr-blog, the aspects of academically sound criticism seem laughable), it was a historian’s perspective.

It is actually better than I initially gave it credit for, not much but definitely a little. I can’t really comment on the aspects of the toxic fandom because I’m quite new to this and never really deeply engage with The Fandom™ as a collective entity but fandoms, by their nature, tend to be very intense and often times inspire a lot of gate keeping and, in that regard, toxicity, so I am sure the writer had some reason for being annoyed by it.

What I had a problem with was the second kind of argument: They were doing what I had done with The Butler, but better. With a more clickbaity title, but still. They wrote a lengthy, historical analysis citing sources and everything; it wasn’t “deconstruction” in the way it’s generally used in academia, or rather philosophy, referring to semiotic analysis rather than literally taking something apart. It was historical analysis, which is, for all intents and purposes, fine.

So, here’s my problem with that: it felt like a rant because it was a rant. It wasn’t an essay because the way it constructed its argument towards the conclusion kind of didn’t work and I should have expected that, but I didn’t, so, let’s get started.

The entirety of the document is “here’s where Hamilton is historically inaccurate” and “here’s why your waifus are shit”, which is. Big ouf. Until we reach the conclusion, which did have rather meaningful insights that we’ll be getting to later. The reason reading it prompted me to write this rant was that I, since The Butler, had finally understood what narrative and creative freedom means. There are actually a lot of parallels between The Butler and Hamilton (one’s probably got more artistically skilled people and a bigger box office but let’s not get there): They’re fictionalized history for consumption – and to a wider extend education.

What Hamilton ultimately did was to take a lot of creative freedom to make a good mixtape and stage show and one could argue, that it is a perfectly sound decision to dramatize and focus on certain aspects of the Revolutionary War than all of them. And I would agree with that argument. I don’t think judging media for its accuracy towards its source material is a very productive way to look at; no matter if you don’t – or particularly if you do – care a lot for its origins. I won’t go too “Death of the Author” on you, because that’s not really the conversation we’re having here and because context does matter and there are more layers to that argument.

You could also make the same argument for the “your waifu is trash”-part, that however we chose to fictionalize a stage musical that already is a narrative construction of history in our heads (in the business we call that “headcanon”) doesn’t really matter. At this point it’s a story of a story of a person who’s been dead for centuries that we only have stories about – it’s pretty much the closest to fantasy we have for reality.

But here’s where that rather long historical analysis in search of inaccuracies and falsehoods has a point that it communicates rather poorly but is a very valid point: History doesn’t exist in a vacuum and how and who we chose to idealize it and its actors in our heads does have effects on how we view history. The reason media that is based on history is often times criticised is because it’s critical (pun intended) to cautiously keep our eyes on the way it sheds light on its actors, on who we chose to dramatize, who we antagonize, whose story we tell. Stories, by their nature, are not reality, they can’t be. They’re narratives that are cherry picked and cherry picked for a reason – and they have a huge responsibility in the impact they have.

While “The Butler” performed unexpectedly poorly at the box office and is probably only watched by bored English students in one of Germany’s 16 states, Hamilton dwarfs that by comparison probably going down in history (pun intended) as one of the biggest cultural artefacts of the early 21rst century, while telling the heroic story of way more #problematic people.

But here’s a thing I learned from all the Hamilton animatics on YouTube: Hamilton the American Musical has ceased to be solely a musical on history; there’s a reason the AO3 fandom-tag for Hamilton is “Hamilton (Miranda)” and not “18th century revolutionary war” or “history” or “actual Alexander Hamilton”.

Here’s a question: Do you even know how Hamilton looked like? How Lafayette or Mulligan looked like? If you aren’t an American citizen and carry his face around in your purse all the time, you probably don’t. I’m sure I didn’t until I searched for songs of the musical “Hamilton” on Google and have his portrait pop up. I would argue that most people who know and love and listen to Hamilton don’t imagine the actual, history-canon, Alexander Hamilton when they imagine the story of the musical, the imagine Lin Manuel Miranda in the costume and role of Alexander Hamilton.

I remember the outrage when Hamilton got released about the historical inaccuracy for casting people of color as the founding fathers and Miranda actually had to justify it by saying he casted whoever was best for the job, which is a perfectly fine statement, and that race is a social construct and it really doesn’t matter, but I bet he also thought at some point that if he only casted historically accurate it would have been the whitest musical ever – even whiter than musicals historically already were. The 1770s were pretty white in terms of players in major historical events and who was allowed to fight in war and participate in politics. Like, super white. Just imagine how fucking white a musical on war and politics would have been.

I’m not saying it doesn’t matter. It does. I’m not saying Hamilton the American Musical can be viewed completely shut off from its historical roots, and in fact shouldn’t be - it’s important to remember that probably every single one of them was super problematic by today’s standards. I’m not saying the historical lense is a wrong method of criticism, it isn’t. But I’m also saying that this are not reasons to disregard it as a meaningful piece of art and ironically Hamilton, the musical not the person, makes the exact same argument in its inherent flawedness: History matters and breathes in our present and telling those stories is important.

[pepperpaprika]

Thinking about this recently cos a couple of folks brought it up in comments/chat. :’) @takashiskeith 

First off-  I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Shiro and Keith having a brotherly dynamic headcanon. Nor is there anything wrong with shipping two people because of intense fictional ‘brotherly’ dynamics that pretty much don’t really occur in real life siblings. The intensity of such fictional relationships is shipped across a LOT of fandoms. Choosing to ship or not on that basis is valid. But. 

Blood-related Br0gane is NOT canon. And there is plenty of logical evidence to suggest a blood relation or adoptive family relationship isn’t in Keith and Shiro’s pasts, either. 

(Also, as an aside, saying two potentially same-race characters are siblings is kind of like Hunk assuming “do you guys all know eachother” to Galra!Keith.Not to mention we got confirmation that Keith is PART Galra which is NOT asian or even human and cannot be Shiro’s fulll blooded brother.) 

Some breakdowns:

You’re LIKE a brother to me. VS. You’re my brother. 

This was supposed to be an impactful scene. Keith is teary. He is appealing to mind!Shiro and wants him to know how important Shiro is to him, but that he’s still going to do what he wants/needs to do. The scene loses all impact if he’s saying his brother is like a brother- basically spitting in your brother’s face because “oh but all this time I never saw you as a brother”. 

So we assume this scene is meant to read as “you are important to me” not “I deny our brotherly relationship”. 

With that context, options. 

Option A: They’re adoptive family= Not Blood Related and he is trying to affirm that bond.

Option B: They have a brotherly relationship, similar to blood brothers who swear to care for eachother as though they were of the same blood. = Still Not Blood Related. 

Option C: You Are My Very Important Friend and I Don’t Know How to Express It Enough. Given that the most intense relationships in the show we see are familial ones (Pidge with her fam, Allura with her dad), it makes sense to latch on to that. As other people have pointed out, there’s also a sense of “no homo, bro”to this. But Nope, not blood related here, either. 

Is it possible they won’t see eachother sexually because they ‘feel’ like they’re siblings and it’s gross? Certainly. Just as it’s possible that one or both of them are not sexually interested in men. Until proven otherwise, the only canon romantic/sexual attraction we see thus far is Lance towards female aliens. Everyone else could still potentially be straight or queer. 

On the other hand, if they DID grow up together, then a few things don’t add up in their current relationship. 

If they grew up together, then WHY didn’t Shiro know that Keith had a knife? That connected to his past and his Galra heritage? That is implied to have been given or left by his father, the human parent who could potentially also be related to Shiro? 

Keith says “I’ve had it all my life.” and Kolivan asks if it’s true. Shiro says he doesn’t know. Ergo, he CANNOT confirm that Keith’s had it all his life because- well, a)he’s never seen it. b)he was NOT with keith ALL of Keith’s life. 

He would have been living in the same house. They presumably had a close relationship which is the basis of their current close relationship, so he would’ve at least figured out that Keith was always hiding a knife-shaped thing somewhere in his room or person. He literally just wrapped up the blade, not even the handle. Shiro also did not notice that Keith suddenly was wearing this knife more or less openly on his belt. If he knew a time when Keith didn’t have it that stretched back as far as childhood, he would’ve been able to answer Kolivan or been able to give a time frame instead of just total nothingness. 

Him not knowing makes it hard to believe that he grew up with Keith. 

The other thing that suggests they didn’t grow up together?

“That really stayed with you, didn’t it?”

“You’ve given me some good advice. If it wasn’t for you, my life would have been a lot different.”

You changed my life usually means that there was a point BEFORE ‘you’ came into the aforementioned life. And that you were cognisant enough to realise there was a ‘before Shiro’ and ‘after Shiro’, so probably around gradeschool at earliest. Taking prior points into account, though, I’m inclined to think they met at the Garrison.

If they grew up together, we know Keith is an orphan, it’s in his official bio- that means if Shiro is his only remaining family, Shiro would probably have had some hand in raising Keith. But here’s Keith, thanking him for good advice which changed his life, not for taking care of him personally. 

Third reason why they didn’t grow up together or are not known to be blood related or even adoptive brothers? Lance. 

That’s Shiro, pilot of the Kerberos mission- that guy’s my hero!

"What are they doing? That guy’s a legend, they don’t even want to listen to him?”

Shiro is Lance’s hero. Shiro is well known, a legend. He knows at least the basic info about him. He also knows Keith personally. presumably sees his name in the leaderboards and knows his surname, if it’s Shirogane or not. But not once does he nor anyone else mention Shiro’s relationship to Keith as family. 

When Keith shows up to rescue Shiro, he doesn’t think “oh his brother’s come to get him”, he thinks “Keith, my rival, is one-upping me again and with my hero!”. He then interrupts with:

Nope. no. Nonono No you don’t. I’m saving Shiro.

 Family is important to Lance- he misses them. He cries about it. I don’t think he’d be callous enough to deny Keith the chance to save his family, even if he is his rival. 

It’s been mentioned before but nobody else mentions Shiro and Keith’s familial relationship at all, even though a lot of season 1 was about family. Pidge looking for her family. Lance missing his family. Allura saying goodbye to her father, her only family. Hunk telling Lance and Keith they’re all brothers. 

But nobody mentions Shiro and Keith are family. It’d be odd to omit that if they were. 

Even apart from LIKE my brother, Keith never acts like Shiro is his blood brother either.

If Shiro were his blood brother, he would include Shiro in the search for his mom/answers. Even something as casual as “hey do you remember mom” or “did dad ever say anything about my mom”? would have established that. But no, instead, he decided to run a gauntlet to prove that he is worthy of getting an answer to his heritage. it’s not Shiro’s heritage and not Shiro’s answer- Keith is very clear about this. he says “I have to do this.” and “I have a lot on my mind.” Mind!Shiro says “then you’ve chosen to be alone.” This quest for knowledge is KEITH’s quest. Not Keith and Shiro’s as a family. Just Keith. 

When he DOES meet his mind!dad, another strange thing happens- his dad asks: “Don’t you want to catch up?” and Keith says “Of course I do.” No mention is made of Shiro being also there for this catch up. Just Keith. No mention of his dad on “where’s your big brother, Shiro?” Just Keith. 

Canonly speaking, all the little cues that would imply a blood or formal adoptive relationship are glaringly missing from the way Keith and Shiro treat or talk to eachother-- and how other people treat/talk to them.

Keith’s Dad Looks Like Shiro.. and that’s okay. 

For the reasons stated above, this is kinda a moot point- but just as an additional aside.

Shiro:

Keith’s Dad: 

The facial shape and brows are similar to Shiro. 

On the other hand, Keith’s dad also has sharp cheekbones (and stubble) and you can see his hairline is not the same as Shiro’s-- his hair parts differently, mind!dad has pointed sideburns to Shiro’s flat look.  The eyes are obviously different as they are Keith’s eyes, made smaller. 

Now look at Keith and Allura:

Guesss what. They share the same brows/brow thickness and the same jaw and nose. They even both have the little curly sideburns. The difference is the ears and altean markings and of course skin color. Even the eyes are kinda similar here, just Allura’s are bigger and a diff color. 

The point being made is that the resemblance MAY be a plot point, but it’s equally likely that it looks that way because of a combination of samejaw style (just like allura, keith and lance share the same face shape) and a stylistic decision to make him appear like an older Keith with a broader jaw. 

As an example look at teenaged Coran ((who also shares the same jaw, body type, and brow thickness as Keith):

And compare with Adult!Coran, whose pointed chin has now broadened a bit. 

So unless Lance, Keith, Allura, and Coran are all related to eachother, there’s no reason for Shiro and Keith’s dad to be related, either.

There’s nothing hard fact about similar appearances except that Shiro and Keith’s dad are both kinda hot in a Nathan Drake way. 

[representativecharacters]

What characters can be submitted?

In short, whatever groups are underrepresented in the media. This includes, but is not limited to, the following groups:

LGBT+ members

POC characters.

Characters with disabilities

Characters with mental illnesses.

Addiction 

Religious characters*

*This will be on a case by case basis; if the character is, say a Christian in America, they will not be accepted as they are already thought to be the norm. However, if a character is from a region where it is underrepresented (ex. Christians in India) they may be included.

Are there any characters that can’t be submitted? 

Yes. representation has to be canon, number one. Non-canon examples, such as queerbaiting, will not be accepted. Please remember that fanon =/= canon. Although some headcanons are popular within a fandom, they do not count as actual representation - and this doesn’t mean the blog doesn’t love those headcanons, but this blog is about canon rep that people can watch and explicitly see rep in/is known for this representation. Examples include: 

Dean Winchester from Supernatural - not a canon mlm character

Harry Potter - not a canon desi character

Peter Parker from the MCU - does not canonically have ADHD 

Characters who are heavily represented - if a character is a white Christian man, for example, they are already represented heavily in the media. While they can obviously be important to you, they are not meant for this blog. 

Characters who have threatened, attempted, or did rape another character. 

Pedophilic characters, including “non-acting” characters. 

Characters involved in hate groups (such as Nazis, KKK, etc.). For superhero/fantasy groups - if the character had to do it for a job, or was brainwashed, or realized they were wrong and stopped, they may be submitted, but characters who knowingly and willingly went along may not be submitted. 

These are submissions that I will not accept under any circumstances; if I am aware/made aware that these characters fall under any of these categories, the submission will be deleted. I also reserve the right to deleted submissions that may also be triggering/offensive that aren’t mentioned here. 

Does the representation have to be canon?

Yes. There are many blogs who will take non-canon submissions (who will be added soon), but we want to celebrate the characters who are canonically representing specific groups. Therefore, we will not accept queerbaiting, or any other implied subtext - we would like canon examples as a reference for people who want to see themselves represented.

In this case, canon counts as:

Explicitly stated in-canon: If the content specifically has the character say: “I am ____”, that is the most ideal form of canon representation, or if it’s stated by another character (*in terms of they know the character is this, instead of speculating). This tends to supersede all other forms of representation (ex. if a character says in-show they’re pan but an actor or writer later says they consider them bi, the pan label stands, as that was what was shown/portrayed/stated to the audience watching).

Shown in-canon: Unfortunately, most shows don’t have characters explicitly stating their rep. But, they do at least show it - for example, Tony Stark clearly has signs of a panic disorder throughout the Marvel series (not in a one-off episode like procedurals or superhero shows may show). There can be speculations on what it is, and signs point to PTSD, but it’s not explicitly mentioned. So, a submission for him would be “mental illness”. Or, a character who’s expressed attraction to men, women, and/or nonbinary people may be largely considered bi in fandom, but a submission would say “mspec”, “mlm”, or “wlw” as we do not know the specific label used.

Actor-stated: if the content shows the character as [xyz] and the actor gives a specific label, it is fine to submit the character as what the actor says (ex. Sara Lance in Arrow wasn’t stated to be bi until years later on LOT, but she was in a relationship with both a male and female character at points in the show, and her actress specifically stated that she is bi throughout this time). 

Word of God: There may have to be an “issues” section in these submissions due to the fact that many Word of God (aka creator-stated) rep isn’t explicit to the audience, but it still counts as canon as it comes straight from the creator 

Coded representation: This is the one I want to be most careful with, especially because there are many coded characters - of all types, but I’m going to go with characters coded to be gay/ace/lesbian/etc. in this example. I don’t want to accept say, queerbaiting, as representation. I generally reserve this for shows/books/movies/etc. that had to censor their representation due to the network they were on (ie. Leverage, Legend of Korra) or had to be careful due to the time period (ex. queer-coded characters in Old Hollywood movies). 

We prefer canon examples that explicitly show or state the representation in the piece itself; however, we understand that certain types of representation can be hard to find, and will accept a writer’s words to be canon. 

Can I submit a character with [x] representation? 

In most cases, absolutely. Historically on this blog, submissions tend to fall under these umbrellas: religious, disorders, disabilities, sexuality, race, and abuse survivors. However, there can definitely be other characters submitted who don’t “fit” into any of those umbrellas, and if you’re unsure, shoot me an ask!

Are there other blogs I can submit to?

We accept all characters, but we would love to suggest other blogs that also take in character sheets/submissions - and who will take both canon and non canon sources.

@c-ptsdcharacteroftheday

@bi-characters

@transcharacters

@jewishcharacteroftheweek

@acecharacters

How do I submit? 

You can either use the submit button (while following this template) or this submission via google forms. 

 I want my submission to be anonymous

If you submit via submission box, please specify that you want to be anonymous! If you submit via Google forms, there’s an option right there on the form. 

Can I request [x] character? 

Absolutely! Just double-check that they’re not already on our requests list

Can I submit a character with [x] representation? 

In most cases, absolutely. Historically on this blog, submissions tend to fall under these umbrellas: religious, disorders, disabilities, sexuality, race, and abuse survivors. However, there can definitely be other characters submitted who don’t “fit” into any of those umbrellas, and if you’re unsure, shoot me an ask! 

What’s the posting schedule? 

As of right now, the submissions have been on Mondays & Fridays at 1 PM, and should the schedule change; I’ll update it.

I submitted a character, but they aren’t in the queue. Should I resubmit? 

Please give me a 1-2 week waiting time. I’m currently in school, studying for two boards, and will be starting rotations in the summer, so I’m not always on Tumblr, and when I am, it’s to relax on a break. If I haven’t updated anything within 2 weeks, please shoot me an ask or chat!

I don’t think [x] counts as representation/Why did you allow [x] to be submitted/Other clear discourse asks: 

Discourse will not be tolerated on this blog, and if you send it you’re literally just wasting your time. I’m not going to argue with people on what representation is the “most” important or valid, and this is about celebrating the different and varied types of rep out there.

There was a mistake/update on [x] submission: 

Please message or PM me for this instead of commenting on the post, as I might miss that notification. I’ll get back to you as soon as possible (again, please give me a grace period for responses) and update/correct a submission if needed.