#I’m here for the lesbian drama almost exclusively

[thestarlightforge]

People are genuinely watching for the CGI war machines… Wild 😂

[whamss]

*extremely normal* once again getting all doomer abt hsbc and clenching my fist hard. istg if this team doesn’t give rosemary some degree of good closure i will bite all of their heads off

like. listen. it’s not like i want to doubt them. we haven’t even seen rose or kanaya in either timeline yet since they picked the story back up. but to this day i think it’s insane to me that the only established sapphic relationship in post canon has been turned into a parody of what it was in canon that exists almost exclusively to cause drama. and any sapphic relationship outside of that (‘jaderose’) is purely just to contribute to the drama rosemary is supposedly destined to cause. TO THIS DAY i think the choice to make rose cheat on kanaya is vile, esp when meat rosemary was already as messy as it was (and for the record, i think meat rosemary is good drama. candy rosemary is pointless drama that completely undermines not just rose’s canon character, but her established characterization In The Epilogues. yk, the thing they’re trying to play off of).

and i don’t want to sit here and say i think candy rosemary should be redeemed, i hope they divorce. i don’t think they should be salvageable as is, at least not easily. even moreso i hope to god that they stop treating kanaya like a sad punching bag who is solely victim to all of rose’s destructive impulses. kanaya has more than the capacity for anger, and more importantly i think kanaya loves herself. i hate to see a story where the one 100% canon lesbian character we have is forced to suffer and sit there looking pretty. i hate to see a story where they basically make kanaya’s entire life revolve around rose, forcing her to watch while she betrays her over and over. kanay was never like that, rosemary was never like that. it sucks that this is what they’ve turned into. i hope kanaya gets to kill people, or at least grow outside of rose. especially in candy, but in meat as well

i think meat rosemary has the potential to still be a good thing, they have some very interesting set up imo, but UGH there’s nothing more annoying than seeing kanaya immediately positioned as like, this sad figure who does nothing but think abt how much she misses her wife while rosebot exists to be nothing but a menace while terezi and dirk establish themselves as characters around her. and maybe i have no reason to, but i worry a lot anyways that we’re going to go into their arcs with this new team and they’re going to continue to discard them and either force kanaya to keep being a background character who watches rose destroy both of their lives, or sideline both of them entirely and position them purely as tools to fuel drama for the omega kids and otherwise act as catalysts for other characters to develop around

post canon in general has an undeniable woman problem. outside of vrissy it feels like the only women who’ve gotten any semblance of establishment as characters are terezi and alt calliope (even this recent update, aradia heavy as it was, had aradia mostly positioned to center some of the issues davebot is going to have to work through. which is fine, i guess, but not encouraging). i want to see this team live up to our hopes and deliver a good product. i’d like this team to treat its women well. i’d like them to treat their sapphics right. i believe that they can, i’m not trying to imply otherwise, but UGHHHH man do i think the old product didn’t set itself up well for this. and im just worried that this new team might not care enough to actually give rosemary (or rose and kanaya individually) anything remotely satisfying

[dichromaticdyke]

Genuinely not trying to start drama just to preface this I'm just curious, but do you have an opinion on bi/mspec lesbians?

*sigh* top one ask to send panic into my very heart.

yes, i do have an opinion.

i thought about just leaving it at that and refusing to elaborate further, but one of my new year’s resolutions is to stop being afraid of saying what’s on my mind and being assertive so. full opinion below the cut. i’m posting it here, and i’m never talking about it publicly again. if you disagree with me, that’s fine! you’re more than welcome to unfollow or block if my opinion rubs you the wrong way—i do the same. it’s fine. i will block anyone being a dick to me about this.

before we start, let’s just make two things clear:

this conversation is trans-inclusive. when i say women, i mean cis women, trans women, and nonbinary people whose genders and/or material experiences are similar to the social class of “woman.” when i say men, i mean cis men, trans men, and nonbinary people whose genders and/or material experiences are similar to the social class of “man.” we’re not going to use this conversation as a means of transphobia.

i’m a stranger on the internet. i have one opinion. my opinion is my own and does not reflect all lesbians’ opinions, or even the “correct” opinion—if you think my opinion is wrong, that’s your prerogative. i’m not gonna tell anyone how to identify, and i don’t have the power to enforce that either way. this is just how i feel.

i don’t understand why some people want to use the label lesbian when they’re attracted to men. i just don’t get it. there are multiple labels for experiencing attraction to multiple genders—bisexual, pansexual, polysexual, omnisexual. i’m sure there are ones i’ve never heard of, too. but there’s only one label that is, by definition, exclusive of men as either the subject or object of attraction. that’s lesbian. and if you want to emphasize your preference for women, there are multiple words for that too: sapphic, wlw/nblw, even queer can imply that preference. i never understand why the people who insist on calling themselves bi lesbians never seem to offer an alternative word for women who are exclusively attracted to women. because if that word isn’t lesbian, then what is it?

combining bisexuality and lesbianism also ignores the experiences and histories of both communities. yes, i know lesbian used to mean something you did instead of something you were. bisexual also used to literally mean being double-sexed or double-gendered. words change and meanings evolved. both lesbians and bisexuals forged their own communities around those words to describe the specific experiences they go through. sapphic, wlw/nblw, queer, etc. are all umbrella terms to describe shared experiences; lesbian and bisexual are not.

and, because this conversation almost always centers around lesbians but the lesbians who assert that they don’t feel comfortable with people insisting that they can/should like men, i asked a friend of mine her opinion. she’s bisexual but identified as a lesbian for almost half of her life, and so i thought she would have good insight as someone who was deeply, deeply passionate about the lesbian community but still realized she didn’t have a place there upon recognizing that she did, in fact, love and want to be with men [transcript in alt text]:

if you feel called to identify as a lesbian, i do encourage you to investigate that. maybe you’re not actually attracted to men but are dealing with compulsory heterosexuality. that’s fine! but if you investigate it and determine, yes, you do love and want to be with men, that’s also fine! it’s just in my opinion that you use a different word instead of lesbian. again, i won’t tell you what to do, you can ignore me. but that’s how i feel.

no one publicly ask me about this again, i’m serious.

[johnmulaneys]

ok. rebelde 2022 thoughts from someone who has been a rebelde 2004 fan since it originally aired 

let’s start with: i don’t like the netflix 8-episode seasons, they don’t give me enough time to actually know everything i need to know about these characters and get attached to them (it’s the same issue i had with young royals tbh). rebelde 2004 was a telenovela that aired almost daily for basically 2 years. they could spend 5-6 chapters with some b-plot storyline going on and still have us hooked with other storylines and all that, and then move on to a completely different storyline the next week, you know?

so having jana be like “i thought what we had was real” to esteban after (what it feels like) only knowing him for 3 days? blargh. also having them as the main couple was just... a terrible idea. they’re boring, very troy and gabriella which is nothing like the rebelde couples we love. mia and miguel? diego and roberta? the blueprints of enemies to lovers. maybe the 2022 romantic dynamic that hit the closest to a rebelde dynamic was dixon x mj, with dixon being the more wildcard, rebellious one and mj being more sweet and innocent (a similar dynamic to lupita and santos) and even that still felt a little rushed (again 8 episodes... not enough); i also really liked andi x emilia but thats because rebelde 2004 didn’t have gay people so 2022 wins there.

also that jana x esteban break-up at the end felt so out of the blue. it lacks drama, it lacks silliness, it lacks everything that made the og rebelde so good.

another thing: the personalities for these characters felt really flat. out of the main 6, luka was the one with the most distinguished traits, i feel like he was the one that was the closest to having a whole “hero’s journey” going for him (obviously he’s my favorite). the thing about rebelde 2004 that really worked was that the main 6 characters were very flawed, completely different from one another and very cartoonishingly so. 

mia was an extremely girly-girl-spoiled-bratty-most-popular-daddy’s girl ever, roberta was the most rebellious-rock-n-roll-post-feminism-punk girl, lupita was the peak angelic-church-going-innocent-eternally-virginal type, etc. all these characters were very distinctively different from one another to the point where watching them learn how to get along felt much more interesting and rewarding. and even the supporting characters, the teachers, the parents, etc., all of them felt very unique. meanwhile in 2022 these traits that are supposed to tell them apart are kind of... flat. i can kinda compare them to the og 6 but i cannot right away categorize jana or esteban in any kind of archetype, all these 2022 characters feel like a bella swan-ification of the og main 6 and it’s boring tbh

don’t get me started with la logia... 2004 la logia were truly terrifying. they’d specifically target scholarship students, it was some sort of neonazi allegory, using anonymous threats and real violence and it was genuinely scary whenever they were around. like you’d be fearing for these characters’ lives when they were caught by la logia, people would end up in the hospital fighting for their lives fr!!!!!!! and now... la logia catches the newbies (regardless of status) and makes them... sing? laughable

and “you can’t compare the two” won’t fly here. it’s a direct continuation of an iconic piece of entertainment, and i am a fan of the source material, i am exclusively watching it to make comparisons. not to mention, the characters themselves made direct comparisons - which actually make me dislike them a little more (jana cohen you will never be mia colucci)

and a few lore issues:

so pilar and tomás just... broke up? i guess it happens, of course not all of the couples that ended up together in the 2004 version would be together forever but when you’re making something for people who watched the material source... maybe a little explanation wouldn’t hurt? i wasn’t even that invested in pilar and tomás (i’m more of a lesbian pilar truther tbh)

celina was pregnant when the og rebelde ended. where is the child? that child would be 15-16 in 2022 which is the perfect age for them to be in elite way school... being a character... causing trouble...

speaking of elite way school: this new version is so fucking ugly. the og ews was this DREAM school we all ENVIED and the students would use their laptops in class (i remember being so jealous because laptops were still like. A Big Deal) but this new one is like: concrete. here’s all these students with this wannabe 2000s aesthetics, but this school will be just boring concrete. ugly as fuck and looks tiny

why were there no celina and pilar scenes? they’re literally the two characters that connected us to the original story and they’ve known each other for a long time. celina now has pilar’s dad’s job! and i would’ve felt it in my heart if, in that final scene of the nonames (i refuse to call them rebelde) singing that iconic song, celina and pilar had just fondly smiled at each other because of the good ol’days..... but then didn’t do it! ugh

but let’s go to what i liked:

luka. i’d be biased anyway because he’s a colucci but as i mentioned before he felt like the most distinctive character out of the main 6 and his journey felt the most rewarding to follow.

the anita twist: was genuinely surprised by that. maybe i wasn’t that interested in the logia storyline since it felt so silly compared to the og but seeing her in that revelation scene was quite surprising

diversity: something rebelde 2004 really lacked and the 2022 version managed to do better (we can always keep improving though).

andi x emilia: although it still felt rushed (fucking 8 episode season), it was very refreshing to see a queer storyline in the rebelde universe

lourdes: she was very likeable (even though she purposefully tries not to be), loved her attitude with the students and i wish we had seen even more of her

the covers: i actually enjoyed the covers (although i thought the salvame mv was very corny but not in a camp way like the 2004 one, you know?), listening to songs i’ve loved for more than half of my life in new versions was fun and i’m always up bop to tras de mi .

these are my first thoughts tho. if i think of anything else i’ll keep talking about it i guess lmao

[thecaffeinebookwarrior]

Monster of the Week: A Writer’s Guide to Vampires!

The Basics: Vampires From Around the World 

Almost every culture has its vampires, and they go way beyond Dracula and Nosferatu. 

There are obviously too many to include in one post, so here are a few especially unique vamps to get you inspired and interested in learning more! 

The Penanggalan, Malaysia - Literally meaning ‘to detach,’ the Penanggalan is an exclusively (apparently) female creature. 

By day, she masquerades as a normal woman (and let’s be real, don’t we all.)  But by night, her head detaches from her body and floats around, entrails hanging like tentacles -- which they nightmarishly use to entangle their victims -- and preys on pregnant woman and babies.  Lovely. 

Creepily, the Penanggalan gravitates towards day jobs such as midwifery, so she can get closer to her prospective prey. 

The Manananggal, Philippines - Much like the Penanggalan, the Manananggal has an unfortunate habit of detaching parts of her body to fly around.  Described as an “ugly, hideous woman” (mood), the Manananggal can detatch her whole-ass torso to fly around like a bat. 

Like the Penanggalan, she preys on pregnant woman and unborn babies, with, creepily, her incredibly long tongue.  Some, however, prefer to seduce and prey on men -- preferable, to be honest -- in which case they appear young and beautiful.

The Upir, Eastern Europe - Ukrainian, Belarusian, Russian, Romanian, and Czech cultures all have mythos around this abnormally bloodthirsty vampire.  Not only do upirs drink the blood of their victims, but they bath and sleep in it.  They eat the flesh of their victims as well, and are especially partial to the heart.  In a uniquely sadistic detail, the Upir is thought to consume the children of a family and then the parents. 

The Alukah, Judaism - Literally meaning “horse-leach,” the Alukah is one of the earliest vampires, originating in the Bible.  

A fixture of Jewish folklore, and sometimes described as a demon or witch, the Alukah is unique in the fact that she is not undead but a living, shapeshifting being (according to the description in Sefer Hasidim.)

She can fly by unfurling her long hair.

The Brahmaparusha, India - This nightmarishly extra vampire will drink the drained blood of its victims from a skull (which it carries around at all times), before noshing on their brains and wearing their intestines as necklaces and crowns.  Worst of all, this vampire has an unusually ravenous appetite, and consumes several victims per night.  

The Callicantzaros, Greece - In Greece, children born between Christmas and Twelfth Night were thought to be bad luck (?) and susceptible to vampirism.  The Callicantzaros was considered to be egregiously unpleasant, equipped with devilish talons with which to tear victims to shreds.  Their first victims, post-transformation, were supposed to be their own siblings.

Unfortunately, this led to a degree of mistreatment and hostility towards children born during this period, as parents watched for signs of their progeny’s prospective vampirism.  In order to ensure that they didn’t become Callicantzaros, the children’s feet were dangled above a fire, like a reverse Achilles.

Vampire weaknesses: 

Garlic - This one’s not just particular to Western mythos.  Southeast and far Eastern vamps like the Manananggal are also vulnerable to garlic. 

Salt - The Manananggal is vulnerable to salt, as are vampires from most cultures in which salt is considered holy or purifying. 

Silver - A holy metal.  The origin of the “vampires can’t see themselves in mirrors” myth is because it used to be a component in mirror-making. 

Vinegar - Again with the Manananggal. 

Daggers/stakes/sharp objects - Especially through the vampire’s heart.  In many cultures, burning the heart is also advisable.  Be careful, though: sometimes, staking an upir will only bring them back to life stronger. 

Dismemberment and fire - Most vamps are susceptible to this, including the Penanggalan.  The only sure way to kill an upir is to decapitate them and burn the remains. 

Counting - Much like the Count of Sesame Street, vamps can’t resist counting things.  If you scatter some small, countable objects on the ground, the vampire will have to stop and count each one. 

The tails of stingrays - in the case of the Manananggal. 

Sunlight - Obviously.  Though not universal, this pops up in vampire mythology around the world, including the Manananggal. 

Detachment - when the Penanggalan and Manananggal detach their heads and torsos, their discarded torsos and lower bodies are vulnerable.  In the case of the Manananggal, sprinkling the discarded legs with garlic and salt.  The Mananggal will not be able to return to its lower body, and will perish with the rising sun. 

Starvation - The Alukah can be starved if she’s prevented from eating for long enough. 

Stupidity - In the case of the Penanggalan.  If you turn the Penanggalan’s body upside down, she’ll re-attach backwards.  I’m not sure what the purpose of this is, except the exhilaration of punking a vampire and making them walk around on their hands all day like a jackass.

Protection: 

Thorns around windows - Thorns will keep the Penanggalan from harassing you or your unborn children. 

Strings of garlic - Just make sure SOME IDIOT doesn’t take them down (RIP Lucy from Dracula.)

Pots of uncooked rice, ash, or salt - Repellent to the Manananggal.

Running away and hiding - Basically the only method of recourse against the Brahmaparasha.

Eating bread infused with an upir’s blood - Sounds kinky, to be honest. 

Stay on sacred ground - I.e. graveyards and churches.  Just be sure you’re not trying to avoid the kind of vampire that dwells in graveyards if you go for the latter.

Holy water, crucifixes, silver, et cetera - Anything sacred or holy.  Varies based on culture.

Imbibing the ash of a supposed vampire’s burnt heart - I’m not even going to joke about this one, since people actually did this during the vampire scare of New England (my homeland.)  I learned about it from a book about local vampire encounters at the Newport Public Library at age twelve, and it scarred me.

Dangle your baby above a fire - Actually, no, PLEASE don’t do that.  But that’s what seventeenth century Greeks did to prevent their kids from turning into Callicantzaros. 

Age of consent laws - Specifically for Edward from Twilight.

Don’t get a welcoming mat - Counts as inviting them in.  Duh.

Ways to Become A Vampire:*

*Ask your doctor if becoming a vampire is right for you.

Biting - Obviously.  Though if you read Dracula and early accounts of vampirism, it was more of a slowly progressing illness than a sudden transformation.

Reject Christianity - In the case of upirs.  More specifically, the church buried non-believers outside of graveyards, leading them to rise as servants of the Devil.  Honestly, I feel like the church kind of brought that on themselves. 

Be born between Christmas and Twelfth Night - At least if you’re in seventeenth century Greece.  

Be influenced by the Devil while dying - Another version of the Upir origin.

Be a demon possessing a corpse - One prospective explanation for the Brahmaparusha.

Making a pact to obtain eternal youth and beauty that involves not eating meat for 40 days and then breaking it like some kind of an IDIOT - One version of the Penanggalan origin myth.  I shouldn’t judge, my self-control isn’t great either.

Get startled by a man while meditating in a bath and jerk your head so hard that it flies off and at the interloper in fury - Another prospective version of the Pennangalan origin. Relatable, honestly. 

Be so bitter and jealous of couples that you go on an insane killing spree of pregnant woman and get publicly executed by being ripped in two - The Pennangalan, again.  She makes the Kardashians look tame. 

Chanting an incantation, anointing yourself with oil, and purchasing a black chick - In the case of the Manananggal.  The black chick reportedly lives inside the Manananggal, eating its innards while also acting as its life source.  Honestly, after all the drama of the Penanggalan’s origins, this seems reasonable.

Other Sources

Video Essays: 

The Power of the Vampire Myth - A superb sociological dive into the cultural significance of vampires. From the post WWI antisemitism of Nosferatu to their ability to subvert the Hays Code, vampires tend to reflect the shadows of every society. 

Dracula: A Brief History of Eternity 

CREEPIEST Vampire Legends from Around the World 

Vampires: Folklore, Fantasy, and Fact

How did Dracula become the world’s most famous vampire?

Vlad the Impaler: The Real Life Dracula

Influential Vampire Fiction:*

*That I’ve read/seen so far.

Dracula - Duh.  The greatest adaptation of which is, obviously, Dracula: Dead and Loving it.  

Nosferatu - It’s good to be aware of its antisemetic overtones, but it’s still revolutionary at evoking dread.

Varney the Vampire - A penny dreadful series that helped popularize vampires in Victorian England.  It gets bonus points for sounding like a children’s show. 

Camilla - The ORIGINAL lesbian vampire, predating Dracula by decades.  Became an adorable webseries and movie, which I recommend even more than the original novel.

‘Salem’s Lot - Serves as a study of what makes vampires scary in the modern era.   

Underworld - Aside from serving as a badass alternative in the Twilight era, it merits inclusion exclusively for causing my Sapphic awakening at age twelve.

What We Do In the Shadows - Has a unique understanding of the cultural significance of vampires, and why they appeal to societal misfits.  Also has vampire “children” who eat p*dophiles. 

Vampires in the Lemon Grove - The titular story is one of the most unique interpretations of vampires that I’ve seen in the modern era.  Beautiful language that evokes a powerful emotional response.

Twilight - Exclusively because it gave us Rosemary clocking shop in a wedding gown.  And the baseball scene.

Nonfiction:

The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters

From Demons to Dracula: The Creation of the Modern Vampire Myth

Vampires and Vampirism: Legends from Around the World

New Orleans Vampires: History and Legend

Mummies, Cannibals, and Vampires: The History of Corpse Medicine

A History of Vampires in New England 

Happy Halloween, and happy writing, everybody! 

[sparklywaistcoat]

Yeah so the drama yesterday has left a couple of bees in my bonnet and I’m gonna let another one out here.

It’s very problematic to claim that Emma and Cathy must be lesbian based on the fact that they are mentally and physically strong women who assert themselves, because this claim ultimately is based on the presupposition that to be a straight woman is to be weak and compliant.

Claiming that Emma and Cathy are lesbian because of their strength is based in a kind of essentialism that pigeonholes strength and weakness into categories labeled “male” and “female” respectively, and also plays into the homophobic and transphobic othering of lesbians as women who supposedly somehow wish they were men. It’s also probably racist on some level, because the whole idea of “feminine and fragile” is applied almost exclusively to white women, and not to WOC, who often are viewed very differently and viewed in ways that are detrimental to them.

It’s that kind of essentialist, patriarchal, misogynist thinking about gender and gender roles that leads to the rape of Pussy Galore in Goldfinger. Pussy dares to assert herself, verbally and physically, which means that she dares to usurp territory that is supposed to be exclusive to men, and therefore she must be punished and feminized by being penetrated by James Bond, a Manly Man of Manliness(TM) so that Pussy can be turned into a Real Woman(TM) by Bond’s magical dick.

And that’s why Avengers fans find it problematic when people go “teehee Emma lesbian.” It’s because that headcanon plays directly into the idea that straight women can’t be strong, can’t be capable, can’t be assertive, because a straight woman’s role is to be passive and to defer to the men around them. It’s because the Avengers took that gender essentialism, turned it on its head, and stomped on it.

A huge part of the ethos of the Avengers is a refusal to conform to essentialist ideas of what it means to be a man or a woman, which has the effect of further unwinding the gender binary and of refuting misogynist, patriarchal constructions of masculinity and femininity for everybody, straight and LGBTQ+ alike.

That is so fucking important, and y’all who go “teehee Emma lesbian” are completely missing the point.

[whimsyprinx]

Anyways a while back me and my friends (one of whom is @therealstara ) were rewriting ouran for fun and like so here’s the characters

Haruhi: a nonbinary icon, doesn’t care about gender roles and does what she wants. Sick of rich peoples nonsense. She’s a freshmen, basically the same as in the series but it’s acknowledged by people close to her that she’s nonbinary. I think joining the host club helps her realize she’s nonbinary and also bi!

Tamaki: just a himbo hes pure of heart dumb of ass and adorable, he occasionally get a hold of one of the two host club brain cells (one is almost always with kyoya and the other bounces between the club) he tries his best and means well but usually just causes so much trouble, the host club is like family to him and he genuinely loves them. Also the daddy thing he does in the series either isn’t done or isn’t gross and is done for actual laughs like, it’s ironic and dramatic and not weird and gross. He’s a second year. Bi bi bi

Kyoya: Not a gross asshole, doesn’t do that shit he did where he pinned haru down because that was shitty. He still seems distant at first but it becomes clear that he loves the host club and enjoys being a part of it! He’s probably closest with tamaki though. He still has a lot of his shoulders with his families expectations of him and all that and is expected to act a certain way but eventually haruhi calls him out in his rude behavior and idk learns about him and his life and haru along with the host club helps him grow. He’s a second year. Also bi

The twins: they’re still mischievous but also mean well, when they cross they line they apologize for their actions and make amends fort to make it up and grow. The whole twincest thing is gone none of that is nasty we aren’t having it. They both as the story progresses begin to experiment with their style more, I think one of them will come out as nonbinary too! They both have a mole on their face in a diff place but they also will sometimes use makeup to cover and move the mole when they wanna make people think they’re each other (but that doesn’t happen as often as it does in the og series) they’re freshmen.

Honey: he’s not an upperclassmen anymore, he’s either a freshmen or at the end of middle school (what is the Japanese equivalent to eighth grade? Like if we went with that route then ouran and it’s lower level school would be connected ig) his relationship with mori is still close since they’re cousins n all he’s still a sweet summer child and childish at times but not to the point where it’s creepy and gross, he’s short compared to other people his age. He still loves stuffed animals and sweets but outwardly dislikes being called cute and babied but actually love it and the attention (again not in a creepy way)

Mori: literally the exact same hes perfect the way he is I can’t think of anything I’d change. He’s trans. He gets nicknamed grandma because idk he likes to feed and take care of the club and others (I’m projecting because I did this in school and would constantly buy ppl food and treats and give them candy and stuff)

The lobelia school girls: no gross predatory lesbian stereotypes that’s gross we’re not doing this here. They’re gay gay gay and at first think that the ouran guys are being mean and awful to haruhi after they mistake something that happened I think or haru and the host club get into an arguement and are like “oh no not today” and attempt to cheer haru up and whisk her away. They come on strong at first but then realize that how they’re acting was rude and wrong and apologize and genuinely become friends with haru while having a frenemy relationship with rest of the host club . They help haruhi feel more connected to her mom.

Haruhis dad: he’s a drag queen, he’s never called the t slur, no one is transphobic towards him (if anyone in the series was the main character would call them out and deck them) I think he may teach the club cool drag stuff maybe, he starts out overly protective of haru but begins to realize that he’s being over protective and loosens up and starts to trust haruhi and their judgement more.

The host clubs primary goal is to make people happy and have a positive atmosphere for both girls and guys and gnc people to come to (I’m sure it would still mostly be girls and the LGBT’s attending but it’s not exclusively for gorls) it’s not as shady as the original club and no hhh gross stuff happens but there’s still lots of fun hijinks and drama that ensues! They still probs do the whole date thing or whatever but again it’s not gross it’s just meant for fun and to be positive n chill. Honey isn’t asked for a date unless it’s by ppl around his age, any attention from people who aren’t in his age range are usually from people who dote on him and treat him like an adorable younger sibling

Basically I’m removing all the transphobia, lesbiphobia, gross relationships (such as the inc*st and sh*ta as well as kyoyas nonsense and basically every gross uncomfortable thing that went on in the anime and manga) still gonna be like slice of life hijinks with dashes or romance n stuff but it’s gonna be heartwarming and fun and not have icky moments that make you wanna cry

[mithliya]

ive been saying that i’ll be posting receipts on the hetfem server, which was also heavily requested by plenty of people on here. this post is going to be pretty long, so i’m putting it under a read more. keep in mind, this isn’t every single wrong thing that has been said on the server, some may disagree with some parts even being wrong to begin with, and this post may have more added to it afterwards in the reblogs. the individuals who have provided me with receipts were all feeling threatened due to knowing how vicious and prone to harassing others the women in this server often are. so ive been sent countless receipts with context, which i have tried to summarise as well. please remember that the point of this post isn’t to call out specific individuals, but rather it is to showcase that the concerns and ‘rumours’ going around about this server were reasonable and true, and to show how lesbophobic and racist this server is (which many have publicly stated before being dogpiled by members of the server). 

first is the zionism and racism in that specific regard. “theHettyishere” is black-diaspora, “Autumn” is probablyaterf. both are partaking in the erasure & justification of how israel is treating palestinians, erasing palestinians proven ties to their country, erasing the war crimes israel partook in, and also erasing the racism within israel which prioritises ashkenazim over mizrahim and black jews.

then they got more blatant and started saying that if you’re anti-zionism then you’re .. anti-semitic ?? keep in mind these people aren’t even jewish 

then they go onto defending christianity

and falsely claim hitler ‘deeply respected’ islam. interesting considering hitler called muslims ‘half-apes’ and all but oh well!  

second set of receipts is the defending of blackface and justification of it. in both these ‘debates’, they literally only present one side and then act like they had a great discussion at the end of it when they’re all just confirming their pre-existing beliefs and using one another to support that. anyways, girlsfrommars had previously come under fire for publicly defending the blackface tradition existing in her country, the netherlands. this is her doing it again after backpedaling on tumblr on this topic, and people in the server standing by her. battleking is bookrebelwordwarrior on tumblr. 

the conversation kinda goes on for a bit and girlfrommars does the same thing she did on tumblr not long before this convo, which was give a “oh ok i’ll reconsider!” which may not be her truth anyways.

next is people on the server saying straight women don’t have enough good representation and even talking about being upset over bi women and even lesbians being represented?? again, autumn is probablyaterf. laughing bird will appear in the screenshots a lot, although i’m not sure what her url is.

idk how to tell these het and bi women.... that lesbians have practically no good representation. especially not as much as het women. there’s a lot of parts of this conversation that are highly questionable. tldr its bad if lesbians or bi women headcannon gnc women as bi or lesbians. also its bad if gnc characters aren’t straight.

this next screen is coming from a het woman so keep that in mind. i don’t know how to put into words why i find this iffy so yall can see it and decide for urselves

she justifies it w this when a couple of members make it clear they find her message questionable:

on a different occasion, girlsfrommars, a white woman, decides to randomly ask other white women in the server what they think about reparations. a bunch of racist white women show themselves during this conversation. please keep in mind i was not the one censoring their usernames so i myself have no idea who these women are, but the person censored in white is emanon, who has a tumblr. i dont know what her tumblr is, but she will appear in multiple other receipts after this. keep in mind this entire channel ends up being deleted by probablyaterf to cover up the racism and prevent the collection of receipts, which you’ll see evidence of later on in this post.

then one of the white women dismisses the impact of racism, basically,

then woc start to chime in (white is the white woman, ‘emanon’)

then, after this conversation went on for a while, a mod decides to tone-police and shame the woc for taking issue with what the white woman was saying. this mod is also white.

“my race doesn’t matter, but i’m jewish” sounds convenient. especially since this person admitted to being white and stated thats why she should stay in her lane the previous day:

back to the dispute between LB and the woc:

remember LB’s tone and behaviour in  the above screenshots as you’ll see how different it is from how she acted when a white woman was being lesbophobic on the server. 

probablyaterf eventually comes in with “both sides were bad :)” basically

girlfrommars makes a non-apology apology about bringing up reparations the way she did

the next set of screenshots is just.. i dont even know what to say about it? yall can see it for yourselves because i think its self-explanatory. battle king = bookrebelwordwarrior, thehettyishere = black-diaspora, autumn = probablyaterf.

then the subtle lesbophobia comes in

this convo was then moved to a channel that was eventually deleted (receipt of that will be shown on this post).

probablyaterf then comes in and says lesbians are All saying the things mentioned above 

then radfemkitten talks about how upset she was and probablyaterf goes on about how this conversation should stop or something 

PAT then lowkey admits that part of the point of her server is to be able to talk shit about lesbians without being criticised for lesbophobia: 

radfemkitten more or less confirms this

PAT basically says “if you think women here are lesbophobic then leave but if you keep criticising what is said then i’ll mute and maybe even kick you!” ok

after this PAT muted that woman for saying that some of the women were being lesbophobic. 

someone showed exactly where lesbophobia was present 

 “straight women should have a space where they can shit talk lesbians without criticism” basically ^. this is the 3rd screenshot where members of the chat, specifically the creator PAT, states that the server exists partially so that non-lesbians can say shit without being criticised for being lesbophobic. 

this was then said by emanon (racist reparations lady): 

then probablyaterf coddles the women who were upset for being held accountable and kicks out the women who called out lesbophobia

probablyaterf deleted entire channels which involved members being lesbophobic and racist for the bullshit reason she provided here, basically admitting she would remove things to prevent the collection of receipts:

this is why she is so confident on her blog about how people can’t possibly have receipts on her server. because she makes sure to delete the evidence. issue is, she did it too late. she then started twisting the story and lying to save face. she removed the conversations regarding reparations, separatism, the accusations of racism & lesbophobia, them complaining about there not being enough good representation of straight women, etc were all removed. evidence:

then it gets even more blatantly sketchy, where PAT basically tells the members of the group to not repeat the drama or dish the details of it, as any honest and open person not hiding questionable shit would do, apparently. 

the details and specifics of this drama were all kept quiet by those involved as well, and those involved agreed to not talk about what has happened in detail.

the bit “one of the members was crying SO MUCH because you called her lesophobic that she almost LEFT HER JOB :(” is funny as y’all can see the situation for yourself up there, she said something and people questioned her on it. this wasn’t a case of a poor defenseless victim being cruelly attacked or whatever.

“a lot of them do tho clearly” keep in mind that there were like what .. 4 lesbians that took issue with the server? and initially there was even less than that.

radfemkitten then goes onto a lesbophobic rant.  

then they changed the story within the server and claimed that the accusations of racism were directed at woc... when it was directed at white women exclusively, as shown above. keep in mind the person claiming this and putting racism in quotations is a white woman herself so. hmm.

next incident is some white woman being very blatantly lesbophobic on the server. several people took issue with it, and she received multiple warnings but was not kicked. keep in mind that earlier, someone was kicked simply for questioning a member on the server and saying they were being lesbophobic. yet when someone is blatantly lesbophobic, they receive multiple warnings and then get away with it. “pinkie the feral one” goes by roxxy, i don’t know if she has a tumblr. notice how laughing bird is comparatively very civil and patient with this roxxy person. 

bi & het women determining that lesbians talking about thinking of pussy somehow implies ‘homosexuals are sex crazed deviants’, is what’s homophobic, btw.

next are when the hetfem server came under fire after TD spoke against it and drama ensued. i was initially 100% for the hetfem server and said those opposing it were being illogical. however, after a while of that drama, some lesbophobia was starting to come out from the hetfems which is when i said i think both sides are wrong. the hetfems took this very personally and proceeded to make lesbophobic comments about how im just bitter bc i dont have a gf or something (altho i was in a relationship back then so lol) and then they blatantly said they dont think het women have power over lesbians. the convo resulted in them full on arguing that lesbians have it easier than het women.

next coming is the hetfem server arguing that abrahamic religions actually *helped* women and how radfems should be talking about that. keep in mind some of these are the same people that mock people who say islam is a ‘feminist religion’. 

next is them arguing on the hetfem server that Nasime Aghdam, the youtube shooter, is male and referencing a meme as a source. they completely ignored the fact that Nasime’s childhood photos make it pretty obvious that that meme was inaccurate anyways. also probablyaterf argued that it’s somehow racist to note that nasime aghdam resembles many other people in the middle east (somewhere im from & where ive lived my entire life). its interesting considering how many things she argued weren’t racist or homophobic, yet noting that someone isn’t a Weird Unusual Looking Alien like she wants to claim is ..racist

the probablyaterf goes on to strawman that i claimed all iranians are clones of each other or smth simply bc i said nasime aghdam’s face is not unusual in countries like iran. also keep in mind the person censored in red is a white woman lol.

henryhetta = foxfur-nadine.

listen.. ive seen women wearing borderline clown makeup in my country. it doesnt make them male. anyways then PAT says ‘maybe im wrong but ill insist im not anyways’, basically.

next is the time black-diaspora posted a pic of my mom taken from my country’s gov facebook page, which provides people with her first & last name. this was brought up on the server. they said i was lying (i was not) and went on about how im crazy and need to get laid. also calling me a ‘nigel’ in one of those screens.

then they just keep justifying it and insulting me. instead of taking issue with what a member of their server did.

so basically “calling out lesbophobia is bad, but posting information that leads to someone’s mom’s full name and facebook is ok, and somehow posting something from a ‘public news article’”

then they said “homosexuality is legal in bahrain” to somehow justify any of this??? as if Bahrain doesn’t have a history of killing, imprisoning, torturing, and exiling Bahrainis that they see criticising the government (which i frequently do) or anything. not like around 200 people have lost their lives for critiquing Bahrain’s government or anything. moreover, plenty of things are ‘legal’ in Bahrain but still lead to punishment. sex outside of marriage is illegal and gay people can’t legally get married, for one. and people have been imprisoned in Bahrain for kissing members of the same sex. but whatever i guess. anyways then radfemkitten argues that i sent a picture doxxing my own fucking mother to black-diaspora. so i endangered my own mother and then begged these people to delete the information they posted, apparently? 

sadly, that is the end of the receipts i have on the topic of BD endangering my mom and the hetfem server justifying it and finding ways to blame me for BD’s actions. so i don’t have the bit that confirms how she explained herself to others and justified it, however she did justify and defend it publicly when i called her out on it. BD was not kicked or muted or anything of the sort for what she has done, and as you can see, everyone justified it and took it as an opportunity to insult me. this wouldn’t have been as much of an issue if i wasn’t from a dictatorship and if my blog wasn’t so political. what BD posted is STILL present on another blog and i could not get staff to delete it, so if the information falls into the wrong hands i don’t know what’ll happen to my mother, or even to me.

next is them justifying allying with the right despite their homophobia, racism, etc. keep in mind some of these women reblogged white supremacist propaganda in agreement with it so this isn’t particularly shocking. christmas begins in november = autumn = probablyaterf.

the issue with this, by the way, is associating with a group that is often misogynistic, homophobic, and racist solely to have a slightly larger platform of people who are more or less heavily for gender, gender roles, and more, sends the message that somehow these are ok things to side with as feminists. yall notice how many ‘radfems’ are literally just conservatives who are against some aspects of misogyny or trans people? these are the people you’re roping in a lot of the time. and this makes the voices of radfems easier to dismiss by the left as well. instead of establishing a space in the left, you end up placing yourself closer to the right and effectively putting the success of your movement to a halt.

these coming screenshots are the hetfems arguing het women have it The Hardest in radfem spaces 

separate event is just some lesbophobia, again.

“imagine a straight/bihet woman wondering what the purpose of a lesbian is” go outside. there’s plenty of that. one idiotic woman saying that about bisexuality doesn’t somehow override that.

more blatant lesbophobia in a separate event. note the reactions underneath the text (all in agreement)

how often have gay people talked about how the stupid “you have equal rights now uwu” bullshit is simply bullshit? this is exactly what men use to dismiss feminists, why do it to dismiss talk of homophobia?

a bunch of white & het/het-passing women joking about making a straight pride or kkk march

remember the white woman, emanon, who argues against reparations because “what about poor white people? :(” she comes in with more racism, and some intersexism too! this is her calling caster semenya, an intersex black woman, a man and using ‘he’ pronouns for her. girlfrommars, the white woman keen on defending blackface, comes in to express her agreement.

then they argue that semenya was raised as a male.. because she refused to wear feminine clothing including in school & because some people thought she was, and thus treated her as such until they realised shes not, a man??

this is more recent than a lot of the previous receipts. i reblogged one post by radfemkitten a while back, and she was so flattered she felt the need to complain about it on the hetfem server, to which someone replied by likening me to a male hippo from madagascar. 

[brandonxdylan]

Omg OK so there’s yet another gay 90210 storyline that I feel compelled to offer commentary on, and this one’s perhaps the most frustrating one of all (which is saying something because none of the gay representation on this show has been what I’d call good, and in fact most of it has only served to make me hate these self-involved heteros even more). 
So here we are. It’s season 9, and all the drama is extremely contrived at this point, and you can tell that the writers are basically just pulling ideas out of a hat. What if Val murdered her dad? What if Dylan came back? What if Donna had a heretofore unmentioned cousin who was a pro figure skater and also a pro schemer? It’s from this context that we get “hey, what if Steve’s mom was gay?” 
Personally, I’ve always appreciated the continuity with Steve’s family life. His parents are pretty well-rounded characters with full, consistently plausible(ish) backstories, which is more than I can say for half of the regular characters on this show (*cough cough* Noah). Given that, is it random and contrived for Samantha to come out as a lesbian? Yeah, probably. I don’t think this was some grand plan that the writers had been sitting on for nine years, just waiting to reveal. But I don’t really care because it’s also true to life. A lot of people come out in middle age if not later, and this was a post-Ellen world after all. Being a gay celebrity (Steve’s mom is a sitcom star) was no longer unheard of. However, it was still considered a huge risk to come out as gay and still expect to find work (especially if your work was expected to be “family friendly”). So the conflict here is timely, and fairly realistically written. The actress who plays Samantha, Christine Belford, sells it, and there’s a nice sense of empowerment that comes through in her character, who is clearly not willing to tolerate the bullshit box that society wants to put her in. There’s the makings of a truly compelling story here. But of course that’s not what we get, because man, does Steve piss me off in these episodes, and as per fucking usual, the writers completely let him off the hook. 
When Samantha first comes out to Steve, he’s shocked. Fair enough. But it’s not long before he begins to place lots of unfair judgment on his mother (despite David trying to talk him down by saying lesbians are valid because two girls making out is a turn on…thanks for that David). Eventually he goes so far as to remind the reporter from a gossip magazine who contacts Steve for comment regarding rumours of his mom’s sexuality that’s he’s adopted. Naturally, Samantha takes this as tacit admission that he’s ashamed of her, as she sees this as being Steve’s way of distancing himself from her and her sordid Lifestyle.™ Which it absolutely is. This is where we get the exchange pictured above in which Samantha justifiably questions Steve’s selfish expectations of her and he comes back with this WAY HARSH slap in the face. He immediately regrets it, but the damage is done. His true feelings are crystal clear. 
And to be clear, my issue is not with Steve’s homophobic feelings. I actually think that, especially for the late 90s, Steve’s reaction isn’t that unusual (sad though that may be), and I think there’s lots to be gained from digging into the ways in which latent homophobia can manifest itself in unexpected ways, and how that can cause massive problems within otherwise close families. No, my issue with this episode is with how Steve’s homophobic feelings are resolved. The storyline culminates in Samantha getting fired from her much-hyped comeback sitcom once she’s outed. And it’s not until this happens that Steve finally starts to come around. But this is what pisses me off the most, because right up until then, Steve is only thinking of himself, and how his mother’s sexuality impacts his life. He even goes so far as to question why she adopted him in the first place, asking if it was part of her heterosexual cover up. My good God, this is some hetero nonsense that I simply CAN. NOT. Anyway, when she drops the bomb that she got fired, suddenly Steve becomes protective of her and is furious that she has to suffer such injustice. But…like…BRO. You were literally JUST treating her the same way. The whole thing reads as “you’re my mom, and I can be homophobic and treat you like a pariah, but the rest of the world? HELL NO!” 
And honestly, like so many Very Special Episodes of 90210, it’s not the fact that the characters are flawed that’s the issue. The problem is that no one ever learns from their flaws or has the opportunity to grow in a realistic way. The characters are often depicted as having latent (and sometimes straight up blatant) prejudices, and that is okay, because we literally all do. But almost every time, these prejudices only function to give the main characters an opportunity to simply change their mind and get a pat on the back for doing the bare minimum. Steve’s relationship with his mother changes exclusively as a result of external factors completely outside of his control. He doesn’t have to do anything. He barely even apologizes! It totally feels like the show is condoning Steve’s earlier behaviour, which feels pretty retrograde by today’s standards, and I’m sure was not particularly progressive even by 90s standards. It pussyfoots around the complexities of the questions it raises, and to be honest, that always leaves a bit of an icky taste in my mouth, because it seems clear that the issue isn’t being raised out of interest in exploring it - it’s being raised to pose as a problem for the straight characters. 
Still, I don’t want to speak for all queer audiences, but I for one am very used to accepting scraps. I mean fuck, this blog literally exists because I projected a non-existent romance between Dylan and Brandon on to the show because queer audiences are so used to having to do the work that most shows won’t in terms of creating queer characters. So to see a show like 90210 actually attempting to address queer issues on TV in the 90s (however shallow and frustrating the end result may be), is still satisfying. It was a worthwhile endeavour, and many similar shows did it well. And as much as I’m tearing into this episode, I’m still glad it exists because even though it provides no answers or legitimate commentary (90210 is weirdly centrist when it comes to political and social issues), it at least acknowledges that gay people exist, and that they can be middle-aged mothers, which is a demographic that doesn’t even get a ton of representation now, let alone in the 90s. Most coming out narratives follow teens or twentysomethings, which is fine, but coming out can happen at any age, especially in the 90s when the stigma was only just starting to lift, and many people who had been closeted for decades felt like they could finally come out. And for all my issues with the way Steve is portrayed, Samantha’s portrayal feels surprisingly tender and sympathetic. But, like so many queer characters, she ultimately shows up only to offer complications for the straight people around her before vanishing into thin air, because this was the last episode Samantha appeared in. 
At least this way I can imagine her living her best gay life somewhere.

[expshared]

hello! do you have any yuri manga recommendations? im trying to read more of it but i get overwhelmed with how there are simultaneous so many and so few

Aaaah dude I hear you. I was voracious for a time and went dumpster diving into mangadex’s yuri tag and consumed the entire thing a while back and there are a lot of bad takes. a lot. I’m overwhelmed thinking about the mountain of trash i had to climb to stand here but i would absolutely love to share some works that stuck with me!!

I think Kase-san and Morning Glories is a great place to start, and I consider it to be a hallmark gl series for a lot of reasons. It’s an easy way in-- the stakes are low, the drama is minor, both characters are charming and wholesome but not Class S Chaste. But there’s lots of gl manga that take place at a high school and are about two girls falling in love, so if you’ve already covered Kase-san, check out Hana ni Arashi or Hana to Hoshi. I will always make a case for A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow, even though it gets flak for not being Yuri Enough or whatever because i think it is nice to look at and sweet to read 

Bloom Into You is as fantastic as everyone says, and although I personally think it’s a better character piece than it is a romance, it’s still well worth the read. BiY is concerned with many lesbian experiences and really tries to showcase that. Not exclusively gl, but Shimanami Tasogare is a very nice read that addresses and looks at a number of LGBT experiences and features a lesbian couple as part of the main cast and should definitely be considered part of the queer canon. 

Speaking of the queer canon, please consider reading My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness, which is not a manga so much as it is a manifesto. There is no easy way to read My Lesbian Experience, every pass at it is affecting, and it hurts to read about hurt but if you’re reading gl work, i think it’s important to read this one real lesbian’s take alongside it. 

if I had a nickel for every gl that was about a girl getting into a relationship with a girl while already being in a relationship, i’d have a couple of nickels. which isn’t much, but it’s weird that it happens so often. please note that these feature cheating pretty prominently. Run Away With Me Girl is a soaring, magical manic middle finger to compulsory heterosexuality and the idea that marriage and children is for men and women only. Even Though We’re Adults plays out much the same way, except it is more about the Guilt of realizing you’re Gay but in a relationship with a Man. (Takako Shimura has a couple of gl works, so if this one doesn’t call out to you, try Sweet Blue Flowers, which is high school slow burn. Her work is often about messy people with messy emotions and can be divisive, but I admire her hauntingly sparse layouts and very human characters.) After Hours is a little different, a little more hip, a little more about girls who meet girls at clubs and then stumble into being DJs and then perform with their new gfs at a club after they break up with their bfs. 

Lesbians who fuck up, so much! So Do You Wanna Go Out Or is a masterclass in disaster lesbians but it’s also really smart about how it presents sex-- frank and fun and kind of mortifying. Still Sick is a meta manga about messy lesbians who create doujin and manga. 

Some recommendations for gl that aren’t strictly manga: Her Shim Cheong, a historical Korean revenge thriller webcomic about the role class, religion, and tradition take in oppressing women and women who love women. Mage and Demon Queen is good self-aware genre schlock full of lamp-shading and is about what happens to all those little girls who grow up with crushes on Disney villans. Roadqueen: Eternal Roadtrip to Love is giddy manic goodtimes that almost borders on parody, but like, with a pure heart. 

As a rule, yuri is a niche genre, so if you find a work you enjoy, try seeing if the author has done more because quite often they have. Morinaga Milk and Akiko Morishima are big names and have quite a few works, so definitely try something by them because odds are there’s something you’re going to like! Also, basically anything Sexy Akiba Detectives scanlates is good shit bc they’re good taste gang

There are more titles I’d recommend, but then it starts getting into the weeds of preference. Stuff like Cheerful Amnesia, My Wish is to Fall in Love Until You Die, Pieta, or Just Let Your Future Burn, which I like well enough but would have difficulty selling. There are dozens and dozens of high school romances as mentioned, so I could rattle off more of those, too, haha.

looking forward, we’ve got Otherside Picnic and Adachi and Shimamura getting anime adaptations soon, so consider checking those out!

[yurireview]

Supercorp are not in the same situation as Swanqueen

Hello dear Tumblr users, you have probably heard this phrase "The Supercorp is the same as the Swanqueen, both are Queerbaiting" and honestly ... I am tired, so it is time to destroy this statement with facts that many Supercrop and Swanqueen ignore

The first element for which the Supercorp is in a better situation than the Swanqueen is a very simple one.

Elimination of Male "ENDGAME"

The Swanqueen were never able to remove the greatest obstacle so that the producers could have at least one option to return canon their ship ... that was Hook.

Literally the Fourth and Fifth Season a lot of the plot revolved around these 2, not to mention reducing screen time for Emma and Regina

Everyone has different opinions but (The Supercorp eliminated Mon El) is a reality

Many have hated Mon El since he was introduced as a slaver and not to mention the misogyny in his narrative.

But also the Supercorp at that time was very strong, it still is but at that time it was a boom ... literally opaque to the Karamel in many ways especially on Twitter-Face-Tumblr (not to mention internationally the Supercorp became even better known going to a ship

In addition, critics literally hated him (95% of the critics hated Mon El) and the ratings dropped quite a bit because the show focused so much on Mon El

So in a way Queller couldn't save him and some would say "Chris wanted to go" and I'll tell them, really? because he really left because everyone received his character negatively.

He was so conscious of accepting that his character did not work (although before he defended Mon El but it does not matter) he accepted it

Then there was the Lames ... but this one was destroyed quickly and strangely enough it helped to increase the link between Kara and Lena ... so really I don't count this much as a "rival" ship

This was the biggest victory for the Supercorp fandom, for the first time a lesbian ship (not canon) had the power to eliminate the main ship of the protagonist (a very bad one in my opinion)

Second point and something that could not be done without the first (Development and impact in the series)

Many do not accept that without having discarded Hook ... they could not have real development for the Swanqueen.

But since the Supercorp was able to overcome that ... we could have an undeniable development and that right now affects the series

I will always say that the development of the Supercorp really started in the second half of Season Four.

They focused on how Lena and Kara love each other, how Kara is willing to do whatever it takes to protect Lena

They started to make blatant parallels with the Clois that literally anyone with a brain could see

Season Four had a great finale and the SDCC 2019 was almost a gift to the Supercorp, almost everything there was around the Supercorp ... now Did this happen with the Swanqueen?

Obviously not, I do not deny that they have a large fandom ... but their ship has not reached this level (so in case we are very different)

We reached the Fifth Season where something is verified that in my opinion makes the Supercorp only a matter of time

Be essential in the series and affect the course of this:

I'm not going to talk much about the first half ... but whatever they say (Everything points to the Supercorp)

Clois parallels

Kara afraid of losing Lena

Kara comparing her relationship with Lena to romantic relationships

More intense looks of both, with dialogues that further increased the intensity of their relationship

Drama ... a lot of drama

Many say "After the crisis they did not Homo" but I disagree for many reasons

It literally all starts with Supergirl heartbroken by Lena ... while Lena felt the same way (more Lilian saying she gets weak for Kara)

Not only did it not work, but this chapter showed that Kara really wants Lena to be by her side but wants her to return voluntarily

In fact in one of the realities they were a couple and this is undeniable

The following chapters How was the "date"? It was uncomfortable and of course Kara did not want to be there, literally all her friends pressured her.

But they did not develop in any sense in fact they gave all the signs that Kara does not want to be with him

The last 3  "Let's develop Kara and William" but they did the opposite

They went so far that when they had Lena and William together (the only one who noticed Kara's pain ... was Lena) and he was chasing her like a girl in love (Lex noticed it)

This scene literally killed William x Kara (because this guy does not know or know how Kara feels ... Lena does and she really loves her)

After Lex makes them fight ... Kara was so angry and frustrated (because she didn't have Lena by her side) she thought she got it back when she came to her in the 5x17

But she left her side and she is angry that Lena "chose Lex" and also comments that "I understand how to enter another reality"

Only for Lena

Then we had all the drama of Lena's apology to Kara ... we see the steel girl so hurt by Lena (again look at the approach that is given to both)

Compare that to Kara remembering William "the tall guy with the accent" literally total disinterest

Kara frustrations come from Lena because she wants her

Now Chapter 19 you could say that it was a Supercorp chapter par excellence ... there were many things.

Mutual glances at the same time of romantic music

Lena risking her life to protect Supergirl even without powers (parallel with Lois Lane who always does that)

Kara smiling knowing that Lena will always be on her side, literally she was "bad" with Lena there because she did not want to "let her in" because Kara would not bear to lose her again

But now she knows that Lena will always be on his side

No matter how negative you are, this one here was an exclusive moment for Endgame couples and to make matters worse, they saw that Lena has the same weight as Alex

Lena proud face killed me (like saying ... yup, I'm his future wife)

William instead. Do you know what it was used for? to increase the bond of Lena and Kara ... the moment Lena protects the identity of Supergirl

Supergirl was so indifferent to William that later she did not even remember his existence

At the end of it all, they not only made the passes (but they will now be the "partnert" that we saw in chapter 13) and their journey begins ... this is what they established this season

No William x Kara, everything here established the Supercorp

before finishing I hope you vote for Katie Mcgrath (it is time to give our support, you can vote more than once and with other accounts)

https://telltaletv.com/2020/05/vote-for-your-favorites-the-2020-tell-tale-tv-awards-final-round/

So do not come with the Swanqueen it is the same as the Supercorp because they are not (we respect the ship and we like it because it was born first obviously ... but the Supercorp had a better career, development and at the same time this season gave them a great opportunity )

I am sure that many will know how support for the Supercorp from critics, review pages has increased ... but not only that.

The Supercorp always makes a trend William's episodes caused the show to lose 400k in audience The 5x13 (Supercorp chapter) had the best score.

Basically the series has established that Lena is Kara's Endgame (even if she unluckily pairs her with William ... they were separated by everyone's negative reaction) literally William is 10 times more hated than Mon El.

In addition to being such a bad character that instead of supporting William ... many who did not support the Supercorp are doing so after this season.

Supercorp has the development, the support, the opportunity and currently the series alone established them as soul mates ... so this ship not only has an opportunity but the Endgame is a matter of time.

I just want to say "SUPERCORP ENDGAME"

[elrondsscribe]

No ATLA shipping wars, please. There is room for ALL the ships.

So I’m sure anyone who’s been tracking me lately knows that I’ve been all up in Avatar: The Last Airbender ...

And I must say, after checking out the tags, I am TERRIFIED to speak my mind about ANY of the ships I like!! Like, I don’t want to be thought of as a poisonous Supporter Of That Which Is Toxic And Problematic because I did or didn’t gel with one ship or other. Spoilers under the cut.

See, I’m always the kind of fan that nobody likes: I’m the MCU fan that appreciates Steve and Tony; I’m the Star Wars fan that loved all nine Episodes. So when I say that I sail literally all of the ships because all of them hit me in different kinds of feels, well, y’all know to expect this from me.

(I should say at this point that the only thing I’m considering ‘canon’ for the purposes of this conversation is A:TLA; no LoK or comics is relevant here.)

(Also, can I just say what a wonderful change of pace it is to be in a property where, at least in the generation of our ‘mains,’ there seem to be more named, developed female characters??)

So I’m gonna start out with saying: I like the canon pairings as they stand! Kataang, Sukki, and Maiko being the main ones, obvs. However, I also like all kinds of AU pairings too!

Like Zutara - I mean, I can hardly say anything here that ten thousand others haven’t already said better, but their journeys do parallel each other in a lot of significant ways, and I think that, by the end of the show, they do legitimately share enough to have the foundations of a good relationship, if as a fanwriter you wanted to go there. You could make much of the poetry of their differences (”you rise with the moon, and I with the Sun”), and/or really develop their existing ability to safely be the ‘splash zone’ for each other’s turmoil. Besides, I think Katara’s mothering fussbudget energy would be a great thing for Zuko, and there’s a gentleness to her that he’d find healing.

{Now, I’ve seen a lot of comparisons between Zutara and Reylo, made by people who either want to demean or defend both ships. I’ve also seen these comparisons soundly trashed by people who like one, but not both, of these ships. As someone who never has had strong feelings either for or against Reylo, and as someone who loves Zutara but not exclusively, my response to all of that drama is a big old shrug of my shoulders. So don’t come at me screaming about Reylo, either to stan or cancel. Please just don’t.}

Also I don’t know a good way to say this, but you know how some people just can’t seem to resist reading Zuko and/or Sokka as gay? Well, I can’t stop reading Mai as lesbian; I don’t know why.

I don’t know which pairing Taang is. If it’s Aang/Ty Lee, omg yes!! Kill me with all the sparkles and rainbows! I already want to eat them both up. More seriously, I think Aang’s peaceable temperament would be a really welcome change in her life, after Zuko’s turmoil and Mai’s ice and Azula’s, well, Azula-ness. She’d probably just love Aang’s aura :) 

If Taang is Aang/Toph, well, we’ve observed that our flighty lil’ Aangster could use a grouding influence :) I don’t know who on Tumblr pointed it out, but Toph is the last person in the world to fangirl over Aang, which seems to be very good for him, while also not clipping his wings. While I do believe they’d be the kind of couple to quarrel and, at times, drift apart from each other (she’s incredibly rooted while he’s the embodiment of a free-spirit), for some reason I can easily see them finding each other again. There’s a scene in my head, one where an adult Aang is faced with the necessity of a sacrifice play that he might not come back from, and instead of tearfully trying to convince him not to do it, Toph says, “Go get ‘em, Twinkletoes.”

[And if you ship Zutara alongside Aang/Toph, you could have a fanfic where you did a Parallel, with Two Ships Of Opposite-Power-Benders. I’d be a fan!]

Now I’ve seen Sokkla floating around too, and I must say that this intrigues me, especially the way that this ship is connected to ideas about the redemption of Azula. I’ve seen some people being really upset that Azula never got a redemption arc in the show, but c’mon guys. A redemption arc for Azula would have taken a long-ass time - it would’ve been awesome, but it would’ve taken a long-ass time, definitely longer than a fourth season, I think. But if you were going to go with a combination of a redemption arc and a ship for her, Sokka would be a great idea. I don’t think Azula knows what fun and merriment are, and who knows those things better than Sokka?

[Honestly, that’s the thing about shipping Sokka with anyone: he would bring them laughter.]

But enough about the het AU ships, let’s talk about the gay ones!

Zukka would be the most prominent example, of course. The rapport that Zuko develops with Sokka over ‘The Boiling Rock’ is beautiful to behold (jokes about ‘that’s rough, buddy’ aside), and heaven knows Zuko needs someone to teach him how to laugh.

And remember how I said that I somehow can’t see Mai as straight? Well, I also can’t stop shipping her with Azula (don’t know the ship name for this one, but I know it exists). Obviously this ship would have more than an edge of ownership and manipulation about it, but they’re so deadly radiant and it’s like I can’t look away from them.

And Ty Lee is just so adorable and sincere (even with all the buried sadness) that shipping her with almost any of the other girls just makes my heart melt. Especially Katara, who would just cuddle the hell out of her whenever she’s feeling down. Or even Azula, who would totally own and work her but also, like, dazzle her. Main exception being Suki - for some reason, my head goes all kinds of hot, dirty places when I imagine Suki and Ty Lee sparring.

However, all this being said, I still have love for the canon ships that we got.

For example, like I said, I do ship Kataang, and I think together they’re incredibly sweet, but I also think that Katara’s tendency to hover and Aang’s tendency to (literally and metaphorically) fly away from/float above problems would jointly become a not-inconsiderable hurdle in a long-term relationship. Now I’ve observed couples in real life with similar dynamics, and I’ll stick out my neck and say that I consider this a workable hurdle, especially if both Katara and Aang grow in maturity and interpersonal understanding as they get older.

Similarly with Maiko: we see that, where Zuko’s emotions tend to run fire-hot, Mai’s tend to run ice-cold; we saw a clear example of these tendencies really clashing with each other. And Mai’s way of showing Zuko affection does seem to have genuinely perplexed some people who watched the show, to the point that they didn’t read it as affection at all. But again, drawing on what I’be observed, some couples really do develop a ‘love code’ that they understand even if literally no one else does. I don’t see any indication of either Mai or Zuko actually ill-using the other; and I will always stan this line from Mai when she made her big choice: I love Zuko more than I fear you.

As for Sukki - well, you already know. Sokka definitely grew and healed a lot from it, but I don’t think the trauma of being unable to protect Yue is one that will ever truly leave him. And as much as Suki understands him, I do think Sokka’s protectiveness will sometimes grate on her. She’s a motherfucking warrior-chieftain. And yes, this can definitely shape into a relational problem, but not one that can’t be worked around.

So ... TLDR, I love all the ships, and refuse to be part of the anti drama.

[alexsfictionaddiction]

Alex Recommends: May and June Books

I must apologise for the late arrival of this post. It should have been up days ago but I’ve been struggling to read much for the last month or so. My head has been very foggy and dark with all of the confusion, anxiety and hate that has been filling my news feeds and I’ve been filled with a desire to combat it. Before this month, I’d have run in the opposite direction from any kind of confrontation but recent events have given me the kick up the butt to actively do better. I’ve been calling out bigotry when I come across it and I’ve noticed that some people, notably my older relatives, haven’t necessarily reacted favorably to the changed, more outspoken Alex. It has been pretty daunting and I’ve worked myself up into fits of rage and tears several times over the last couple of months.

A lot of things have changed for me since my last Alex Recommends post. I’m currently temporarily living in Staffordshire with my boyfriend because my depression got too bad for me to stay at home for much longer. I missed him unbelievably much and I knew that spending some prolonged time with him would help -and it has. Both him and I have spent 12 weeks religiously following all of the rules, so we’re both extremely low-risk for catching and spreading COVID-19 and being together was something that we simply really needed to do. Please don’t hate me for it! In other news, I have also started writing again, which feels amazing. I’m now a few thousand words into a queer Rapunzel retelling that I have lots of ideas for. Maybe I’ll even post an extract or two, when I feel it’s ready to show you.

In the centre of the renewed energy of Black Lives Matter and the undeniable exposure of the horrors that is police brutality, the book blogging and BookTube worlds vowed to uplift Black voices. I wrote a very long, in-depth blog post full of Black-written books and Black book influencers. Please check it out to diversify your TBR and educate yourself on Black issues, which is what every white person should be doing now and always.

June was Pride Month and I tried my best to compile a series of recommendation posts in honour of it. These included gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, ace, pansexual and intersex lists. I’ve had some great feedback on this, so I hope you find some fantastic new reads. It felt especially poignant to put them together the same year that one of my childhood heroes came out as an ignorant trans-exclusive feminist. As a lifelong Harry Potter superfan and someone who has repeatedly publicly supported Rowling in the past, I feel the need to clarify where I now stand. I do not support or agree with a single thing that she has said in recent times with regard to transgender people. I’ve never felt my own status as a cisgender female threatened by trans people wanting more rights or believed that children or women were at risk due to their existence. 

I read her words more than once and struggled to find any semblance of the woman who wrote the books that have most defined my life. I’m hesitant to say that we can always successfully separate the art from the artist but I will say that it makes sense to me that the Rowling of 2020 is not the same Rowling that wrote Harry Potter. She was a destitute single mother when Philosopher’s Stone was published in 1997 and of course, she is now a million worlds away from that lifestyle. It breaks my heart but it makes sense to me that she has changed beyond belief because her life has changed beyond belief. I’m not and never would make any excuses for her recent behaviour and I have stopped supporting her personally but I will not be getting rid of my Harry Potter books and I will undoubtedly re-read them several more times. However, I am now hugely reluctant to buy any more merchandise or special editions of the books, which saddens me but at the moment, it feels right. There is no coming back for her from this and I will make a conscious effort to keep Harry Potter and Rowling away from my future content. It can be really tough to admit that the people you once really admired aren’t great humans but it’s something that we all have to acknowledge in this case, in order to move forward with our own quests to become our best selves.

It didn’t feel right to post my May recommendations last month as I didn’t feel comfortable promoting my own content in the midst of boosting Black voices. So today I’m bringing you a bumper edition of Alex Recommends. Here are 10 books that I’ve enjoyed since the start of May that I’d love to share with you. Enjoy! -Love, Alex x

FICTION: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Set in the affluent neighbourhood of Shaker Heights, Ohio in the 1990s, two families are brought together and pulled apart by the most intense, devastating circumstances. Dealing with issues of race, class, coming-of-age, motherhood and the dangers of perfection, Little Fires Everywhere is highly addictive and effecting. With characters who are so heartbreakingly real and a story that weaves its way to your very core, I couldn’t put it down and I’m still thinking about it over a month after finishing it. 

FICTION: Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

When coding nerd Chloe Brown almost dies, she makes a list of goals and vows to finally Get A Life. So she enlists tattooed redhead handyman and biker Red to teach her how. Cute, funny and ultimately life-affirming, this enemies-to-lovers rom-com was exactly the brand of light relief that I needed this month. The follow-up Take A Hint, Dani Brown focuses on a fake-dating situation with Chloe’s over-achieving academic sister and I can’t wait to get my hands on that.

FICTION: The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart by Margarita Montimore

Just before her 19th birthday at midnight on New Year’s Eve 1983, Oona Lockhart finds herself inexplicably in 2015 inside her 51-year-old body. She soon learns that every year on New Year’s Day, she will now find herself inside a random year of her life and she has no control over it. Seeing her through relationships, friendships and extreme wealth, this strange novel has echoes of Back To The Future and 13 Going On 30 with a final revelation that I certainly never saw coming.

NON-FICTION: The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

Atmospheric and engaging, The Five details the previously untold stories of Polly, Annie, Elisabeth, Kate and Mary-Jane -the women who lost their lives at the hands of Jack the Ripper. Full of fascinating research and heartbreaking accounts of what these women’s lives may have been like, Rubenhold paints a dark immersive portrait of Victorian London and gives voice to these tragic silenced lives. Although we can’t know for certain if these accounts are entirely accurate, they feel very plausible and in some ways, The Five exposes how little time has moved on, when it comes to the public portrayal of single, troubled women.

NON-FICTION: Unicorn by Amrou Al-Kadhi

From a childhood crush on Macaulay Culkin to how a teenage obsession with marine biology helped them realise their non-binary identity, Unicorn tells the story of how the obsessive perfectionist son of a strict Muslim Iraqi family became the gorgeous drag queen Glamrou. Packed full of humour, honesty and heart, this book will give you the strength and inspiration to harness what you were born with and be who you were always meant to be.

MIDDLE-GRADE: The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates by Jenny Pearson

When fact-obsessed Freddie’s grandmother dies, he discovers that the father he has never met may actually be alive and living in Wales. So he has no choice but to grab his best friends Ben and Charlie, leave his home in Andover and go to find his dad! I laughed so many times during this madcap adventure and I know the slapstick crazy humour will hit the middle-grade target audience just right. It’s also a wonderful depiction of small town Britain with a focus on the true meaning of family.

MIDDLE-GRADE: A Kind Of Spark by Elle McNicoll

When Addie learns about her hometown’s history of witch trials, she campaigns tirelessly to get a memorial for the women who lost their lives through it. This wonderfully beautiful novel gives a unique insight into the mind of an 11-year-old autistic girl with a huge heart. Busting myths about neurodiversity while tackling typical pre-teen drama, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry but most of all, you’ll close the book with a huge smile on your face. 

HISTORICAL FICTION: Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

In 16th century Warwickshire, Agnes is a woman with a unique gift whose relationship with a young Latin tutor produces three children and a legacy that lasts for centuries. This enchanting, all-consuming account of the tragic story of Shakespeare’s lost son, the effects that rippled through the family and the play that was born from their pain will send a bullet straight through your heart. Wonderfully researched and beautifully written, Hamnet is worth all of the hype.

HISTORICAL FICTION: The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

When a vicious storm kills most of the men of Vardø, Norway, it’s up to the women to keep things going but a man with a murderous past is about to come down with an iron fist. At the heart of this dark tale of witch trials, grief and feminism, two women find something they’ve each been searching for within each other. Gorgeously written with a fantastically slow-burning queer romance, Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s first adult novel is an addictive, atmospheric read with a poignant, tearjerker of an ending.

SCI-FI: Q by Christina Dalcher

When one of Elena’s daughters manages to drop below the country’s desired Q number, she is sent away to one of the new state schools and Elena is about to find out something she’d really rather not know about the new system. Packed full of real social commentary and critique of life as we know it while painting a picture of how things could be even worse (yes, really!), this pulse-racing, horrifying sci-fi dystopian gripped me from the first page and refused to let me go. 

[jandjsalmon]

Not to shade you or anything, but ask yourself whether do you REALLY care about Sprousehart or Riverdale. Or do you just follow them because they have more contents. I have been following you and unfollowing you for quite a while because I do not see any love. You seem more keen on Dylan which is fine but I have an impression that deep down you are irritated by the fandom and SH in general. I may be wrong but that is my impression. I am not keen on fan fic tho. So maybe my dash is different.

Like I said earlier, I’m in a FOUL mood today - so I’m going to take your criticisms one by one and address them instead of ignoring them (as I do with most messages from people who don’t own their opinions and send cowardly unkind anons). You can thank the headache later.

…ask yourself whether do you REALLY care about Sprousehart or Riverdale. Or do you just follow them because they have more contents. 

Do I really care about Sprousehart or Riverdale? Yes. Yes I do. Thank you for suggesting the self evaluation. 

I’m invested in Bughead, Sprousehart, and Riverdale (as an actual fan who still watches and doesn’t continually moan about how “much better season one was” - how’s that for being a super special unicorn in this fandom?) - and maybe my interest is not illustrated on my blog in a way that makes YOU satisfied, Grayface - but it is in a way that makes me happy. This is not a blog dedicated solely to any of those few things. It’s a multifandom blog… you know, like those fun posts that point out that not everyone has a sideblog for every interest? Yeah, like that.

Do I really care about those things? Yeah. I just don’t need to track the locations of two actual real people and moan about whether maybe one might be cheating or whether one is too good for the other, or whether their relationship is just PR, or whether their lesbian friends are really not lesbians at all because they MUST be wanting the magical peen that can’t be controlled. I don’t NEED that kind of drama in my life - so I have filtered that garbage out of my fandom experience because those parts of their lives are NONE of my business and because I’m here to enjoy my free time.

AND what does it even mean “do I just follow them because they have more contents”? I’m at a loss, dude. First “follow” who? Are you asking if I’m just pretending to enjoy thing things that I say I enjoy? Like the hyperfixation is my identity or something? Are you implying that my value in the world matters only by what I reblog here? Look, I’ve had this blog since 2012. I still have followers from 2012. I have gone through MANY a fandom and gained MANY a follower from the various hyperfixations - but it is Riverdale that I have fricking POURED my heart into. If you honestly believe I’m NOT invested in this fandom and that I don’t care about these things - then I wish you would tell my family that, because they would argue that with the hours and hours of time I spend beta reading Bughead fanfiction, finding LOST Bughead stories for people on a blog I created over two years ago and have run almost exclusively on my own (I’m so appreciative to K and MM but both have taken huge hiatuses over the past two years and I was left quite literally to run the blog alone) - they would argue that I spend more time with everyone here than I do with them. So tell me how that’s just sticking with a fandom because it has more “contents”? O.o

I have been following you and unfollowing you for quite a while because I do not see any love. 

I apologize for not showing you all the love that you think a true fan should effuse. I wonder what the magic number is. What does the right amount of love look like? Is there a quota for how much content must just be Cole and Lili or Bughead? Because #bughead is my number one tag and I tag almost everything so what exactly am I not doing enough to show you that I actually LOVE them? How can I prove to you that I actually like them? What will satisfy you?

And honestly - why are you following me at all, Grayface? You don’t need to keep following and and unfollowing. As evidenced by the fact that instead of sending a message as a friend - or even just signing your name in an Ask and owning your opinion - you clearly don’t want me to know who you are - and that means you probably don’t mean all that much to me either. You honestly don’t need to keep refollowing. I won’t even notice you’re gone. 

You seem more keen on Dylan which is fine but I have an impression that deep down you are irritated by the fandom and SH in general. 

This is actually the most laughable bit of your rant. I am keen on Dylan. I really am. I like him a lot. It’s not a secret. I’ve had many a mean anonymous message about it actually. While I liked Bughead and Cole first, it’s true - I also like Dylan. But here’s the thing - I’m allowed. I am also super keen on Matthew Sprouse. In fact, if there was more “content” about him, I would probably happily curate my blog and dedicate it just to him and to Magnus (who is actually my favourite Sprouse). Do you also go to the people who post a lot about The 100 or Olicity or Star Wars or Brooklyn 99 and tell them they don’t love SH and Bughead enough too? 

Am I irritated with the fandom and SH in general? I’m not irritated with Sprousehart. They are two beautiful people in love and I LOVE their love. Their love makes me SO happy for them. I appreciate every single thing they choose to share with us on social media whilst respecting that it is a TINY portion of their life. I love them as individuals - I’ve grown to care about their families and their friends. I love that they come together and share those moments together (whether they show them to us or not). I love the fun of speculating things like “will Lili wear wedge heels to Duan’s wedding so she doesn’t get stuck in the grass?” - but I do not feel the need to reblog every movement - every like on Instagram. This is not a dedicated sprousehart blog. There are other blogs that will do that - and that’s super and hopefully brings them joy (you should follow them) - but that’s not the point of the jandjsalmon blog that has been here since 2012. I do not need to track the social media movements of two people whom I will never meet and whom would not remember me in fifteen minutes if I DID meet them. One thing people who get overly invested forget is that while SH means a LOT to us we mean literally nothing (as individuals) to them. They appreciate their fans and they are touched when people are kind and supportive. But we literally are not their friends. We don’t matter - no matter how often you pay the exorbitant amount of money to have a photo with them at a convention or how often you have a fan photo with them on the street or how often you send them flowers or presents on set. The faves do not think about any of us individually when they lay their heads on their pillows at night. I love seeing their beautiful faces and their beautiful clothes and I support them 100% in their endevours - whether it’s in Riverdale or their other projects - but their life is not my life. And though I’ve not always been this way - I have enough wherewithal now to be able to take a step back from obsession and move into “passive fandom enjoyment.” It’s a good feeling.

So I’m not irritated with SH. But who I AM irritated with are people who think that a friendship with King Princess must mean Cole is cheating on his girlfriend with her. It’s offensive to both Cole and KP even if she wasn’t out and proud, but it’s extra gross with how it’s ignoring her sexual identity. I AM irritated with people who I can only assume are insecure adults who’ve never been in a healthy relationship or are adolescents who think relationships must be codependent and unhealthy or they aren’t “twu love” and must be “on the rocks.” I’m irritated with people who on one hand say they’re Lili supporters and “only want the best for her” because “she deserves better” but then go on to think that she is a stupid child who can’t possibly have a mind of her own because her boyfriend is totally abusing her and she’s just letting it happen. That annoys and irritates me because it takes away her agency and infantilizes her - at the same time as it criticises and hurts the person she loves “with her whole heart” (thank you Mama Reinhart for that quote). SO if you’re one of those SH bloggers who say and do that? Then yes - YOU irritate me. 

But the whole community? Heck no. There are some amazing people here who love SH and are just here for the fun! Really kind and funny people. Really loving and sweet people who just love to get excited about stuff. I LOVE those people. I want to be around more of those people - but I gotta tell you, having mass panic on my dashboard was not good for my mental health. It’s not good for anyone’s mental health to panic about things they have absolutely no control over. So maybe I unfollowed you a while ago and you’re salty about it. I’m sorry - but I’m not sorry. I gotta curate my dash to make myself happy. 

I may be wrong but that is my impression. I am not keen on fan fic tho. So maybe my dash is different. 

Perhaps your dash is different, Grayface. You must not follow a lot of the same people I follow - or maybe my original post wasn’t for you? If that’s the case - then maybe you didn’t need to be so unkind in an Anonymous message. I dunno. This whole thing maybe could have been avoided. Honestly - if you feel my blog doesn’t have enough of the content you like - then you shouldn’t follow me. You should follow blogs that DO make you happy. No one tied you to the bed frame and made you follow (and then unfollow and then refollow) me. 

It’s no secret - I’m here for the fic. I love fanfiction. I particularly love Bughead fanfiction. (interestingly enough - I love paperlesscrown’s Sprousehart fanfiction too… heck - I even beta read it). But my dash isn’t just fanfiction- it just so happens that I’ve met and made friends with a lot of fic writers and lovers over the last three years and we all follow each other and therefore there are going to be days where we all reblog the same stuff. My post this morning was exasperation because the same fanfic was literally reblogged on my dash 18 times within about a half hour from when I woke up this morning. So I lashed out inappropriately. I said “holy cow we look like we all only follow each other - clearly we all need new friends” - and it would have been a non-issue when I took a breather from tumblr, had a cookie, and checked back. I probably would have even laughed about it - or at the very least, deleted the post.

But then you (and the Anon before) had to go and send a message like this. 

How incredibly unkind of you, Grayface. Honestly - if you DO follow me, please stop. I’m clearly not the blog for you. You don’t want to be my friend. And I kinda don’t want to be yours either. I don’t want to have friends who send anonymous messages to other people to tell them all the things that you feel is wrong with them. That’s not my brand. Find your fun somewhere else. Better yet, block me and then you never have to see my lack of support and ill-quality as a Bughead, Riverdale, or Sprousehart fangirl ever again.

[emilyjunk]

Chloe and everyone's reactions to finding out about Beca/Emily relationship or sex?? Yes please? I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to see Chloe be jealous or upset. (Love her but I also love jealousy fics)

this isn’t really jealousy im sorry but it is what it is. anyway read ON AO3 or below

Beca would’ve paid good money for the Bellas to find out about herand Emily in any other way than the way they did. To be honest, she would’vepaid good money to have someone knock her out hard enough to get amnesia so shenever had to remember the incident ever again.

Maybe it would’ve beenbetter if she and Emily weren’t so new, the two of them still navigating thestrange emotions that led to them making out on the couch in the Bella livingroom. And maybe it would’ve been better if Beca hadn’t already been keeping thesecret of her internship from them the whole year. And also maybe if she hadn’thid the fact that she’d broken up with Jesse halfway through the year and hadbeen single for a good four months.

Or at least she hadbeen, until the day after the retreat when she’d been alone with Emily in theBella house, the two of them spread out on the floor of the living room doingtheir homework, and they’d kissed, first soft and slow, then fast and intense.

But that had been amonth ago, and even if they’d gotten over the initial shock of that perfectfirst kiss, they were still new and fragile -- they weren’t even exclusiveor anything -- and Beca was sure the Bellas sticking their noses in Beca andEmily’s business would be enough to scare Emily off.

(Okay, maybe notenough to scare Emily off, but God, it was definitely enough to scare Beca off,and she really was trying to avoid that kind of pain and drama where Emily wasinvolved.)

And it’s not like theywere trying to get caught, not like they enjoyed the rush of the secret, thehigh that came when anyone could walk in on you at any moment. No, it wasn’tthat at all, because they were supposed to be alone.

They’d come home fromthe recording studio, high on their success from Flashlight, their phonesbuzzing with group chat texts from the Bellas saying they were going to theTrebles’ for a party and to meet when they were done.

So really, Beca had thoughtthey were alone, that they would continueto be alone for at least sometime, and then they could go join the rest of the Bellas in drunken shenaniganslike every other weekend of their college lives.

That’s why she had letit happen, why she hadn’t been nervous when Emily had crawled in her lap,pushing her against the couch cushions and sliding their lips together. Whyshe’d allowed herself to let Emily work her up, kissing up her neck, unzippingher jeans, dragging her fingers down Beca’s stomach and below the elastic ofher underwear.

If she had known whatwould happen next, of course she wouldn’t have let it happen.

As it was, she didn’tknow, so happen it did.

“Oh my fucking GOD!”

The warmth of Emily’sbody immediately vanished from on top of her as Emily nearly jumped out of herskin, her body rolling off the couch and butt hitting the floor.

Beca pushed herself upon her elbows, her eyes wide and heart beating out of her chest.

“Amy -- ”

“What the fuck?”

“Oh my God?”

“Legacy, you player!”

Heat rushed throughher body as Bella after Bella crowded into the living room, all of them havinggotten an eyeful of Beca pinned against the couch, helpless and panting underEmily’s touch.

“Umm.” Emily scrambledto her feet, her arms wrapping around herself delicately. “You. And uh. Here.Beca and I. So… yeah. Yeah.”

The Bellas were alltalking over one another and Beca couldn’t understand any of what they weresaying. She pushed herself off the couch, her elbow brushing Emily’s, and metthe eyes of the only person not screaming at someone else about what they’djust witnessed.

Beca’s heart droppedinto her stomach. “Chloe.”

“Chloe?!” Stacieexclaimed. “She’s involved in this too?!”

“I’m certainly not,”Chloe snapped, her eyes sliding away from Beca and narrowing in Emily’sdirection.

Emily flushed brightred. “We just…” She looked at Beca helplessly. “I mean, I… um…”

“We’re dating.” Theexclamations and excited conversation came to a sudden halt as all the Bella’sstared at her. Beca could feel Emily looking at her, too. “It like, juststarted, so please don’t make a huge deal out of this.”

“Honestly, it’s moreof a big deal that you bottomed for Legacy than the dating part for me,” Stacieinterjected. “I did always peg you for it, though.”

“You should chooseyour words more carefully,” Amy said to Stacie. “If you pegged her, obviouslyshe’s a bottom.”

“I know what I said.”

Beca was probablygoing to die from embarrassment. Emily was just standing stock still, her gazeflicking from questioning toward Beca to guilt at Chloe.

Chloe had crossed herarms, her jaw clenched tightly. Beca thought if looks could kill, then Emilywould probably be Chloe’s newest victim (after DSM and the Trebles of course).

“Chlo.”

“Really, Bec? Anotherdistraction? Another secret.”

“Anothergirl fight,” Cynthia Rose excitedly whispered.

Chloe grunted. “Inter-groupdating is bound to end horribly, and where will we be then? Homeless probably,because we’ll be disbanded forever!”

“You can’t live herewhen you graduate, Chloe,” Jessica tentatively intervened. “Nobody is going tobe homeless. We’re all moving out.”

“I think they’recute,” Ashley said, smiling at Beca.

“Thanks,” Beca spitout.

Emily’s fingers foundtheir way between Beca’s, questioning and uncertain. Beca tightened the grip,trying to ground herself. Chloe was still glaring daggers in their direction.

In the back of hermind, Beca wondered if there was more to her anger than Chloe was letting on,but it was a bit too late to take a walk down that path. Beca squeezed Emily’sfingers harder.

“Look, this group isfull of drama and fighting and one crisis after another. So let’s just, like,take it down a notch. Nobody is going to be homeless, and if the Bellas getdisbanded, it’s not gonna be because of me and Emily.”

She glanced at Amy,who lifted one shoulder. “Yeah, that’s probably fair.”

“See, even Amesagrees.”

“Agrees is a strongword.”

“Y’all have my lesbianblessing,” CR grins, shooting Beca a wink. Stacie makes a hum of approval andloops her arm through CR’s, leading her to the kitchen and saying somethingabout tequila. The prospect of shots has Amy and Flo following quickly behind.Soon enough, all the Bellas have dispersed, even Chloe, who’d stormed off witha dramatic huff.

“Sorry,” Emilysqueaked out, finally dropping Beca’s hand. “I shouldn’t have… you just lookedso pretty and we were so excited about the song and I just -- ”

“Stop, no.” Becapeeked over her shoulder to see that Bellas really hadall gone. “It’s fine, dude. This was a two-way thing. I mean…” She shrugged. “Iwanted you to.”

Emily nodded, fiddlingwith her fingers. Beca wanted to grab them again. “Chloe was like, really mad,though.”

Beca hummed, reachingout to tug Emily’s hands apart so she could hold one. “She’ll get over it.There’s always some kind of drama here that makes someone mad at someone else.In two days, something new will happen and everyone will probably be mad at Amyinstead.”

Emily chuckled. “Yeah,I guess.” She looked at Beca uncertainly. “So you really wanna be dating? Imean, I know we hadn’t talked about it or anything and we only kinda started thislike a month ago and stuff, so I don’t know if you just said that to say thator like, if you -- ”

Beca laughed. “Ididn’t say it just because.”

“So you want to?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh.” Emily smiled,first shyly, then growing bigger by the second. “Okay, me too.” She hesitantlycupped Beca’s face. Beca didn’t want to wait for Emily to kiss her, so sherocked up on her tiptoes and pressed their lips together. She felt a familiartightening in her abdomen when Emily sighed hotly into her mouth.

“Oh my fucking GOD. Isthis gonna be a thing now?!”

Beca internally rolledher eyes, barely disconnecting her lips from Emily’s. “Fuck off Amy.”

“Fine, whatever, justkeep it out of our room!”

“That’s gonna getannoying,” Emily giggled.

“Yeah,” Beca agreed.“But I don’t care.”

And really, Emily’shuge smile against her lips almost made the whole incident worth it.

[themyskira]

The Life of Captain Marvel - issue #1

So here we are. Issue #1 of The Life of Captain Marvel, the miniseries that was touted as a bold new origin story that would change everything we thought we knew about Carol Danvers.

And it starts strong by exploiting family violence, trauma, mental illness and traumatic brain injury for melodramatic effect, with no intention of dealing with any of these complex themes in any depth or sensitivity.

For all that, infuriatingly little actually happens in this first issue. No exaggeration, the issue actually includes a stretch of nine months wherein Carol essentially does nothing except mope and grow her hair out. The dang plot doesn’t even arrive until the final seven pages.

Content warning: This issue begins with a flashback to Joe Danvers verbally abusing and hitting his kids. I haven’t included any images, but I talk at some length about Margaret Stohl’s abysmal handling of themes of abuse and family violence. Just a heads up.

The story opens on a flashback to an idyllic childhood holiday in Harpswell, Maine. There’s a montage of Carol and her brothers flying kites, wrestling each other, splashing in the water and stuffing their faces with candy, while adult Carol muses that she used to think her family was perfect.

Then the flashback takes a turn. One of Carol’s brothers rips the kite from her hand, tearing it. Their father, Joe, descends on the boys in a rage and begins verbally abusing and physically beating them as Carol looks on, because — surprise! — it’s Traumatic Past Retcon time!

Goodbye Joe Danvers, well-meaning but hard-headed dad who’s never understood his daughter and whose approval always seems to be out of reach. Hello Joe Danvers v. 2.0, scary unpredictable drunk who hit his kids and terrorised his entire family. Aren’t comics fun?

The flashbacks are interspersed with shots of Carol in the present day, where she’s battling supervillains Tanalth and Moonstone. As the flashback progresses, present-day Carol lashes out violently, alarming friends and foes alike.

“That’s why fighting’s easier than remembering. I tell myself that if I’m strong enough… I’ll beat the memories down so hard they’ll never come back.”

What’s strange to me about this page is the way it deliberately draws a parallel between Joe, snarling and raising his fist to strike his powerless young children, and Carol, snarling and raising her fist to strike down a powerful villain. By implication, it places Carol in the role of abuser, indicating an intergenerational cycle of violence.

Which of course is never explored or discussed beyond this, because Stohl doesn’t want to actually talk about the lasting impacts and terrible toll of family violence, she just wants to exploit it for THE DRAMAS.

As Joe whales on his sons, kid!Carol tries to run to their defence, only to be held back by mother Marie, who tells her, “You’ll just make it worse. Now’s not the time.”

We will be told numerous times over the course of this book what an incredible, loving mother Marie Danvers is, and how she’s prepared to sacrifice everything for Carol. Her actions, though? Her actions consistently portray a woman whose number one interest is in not creating more work or emotional angst for herself, even when it means hanging Carol out to dry.

This is not to say that Marie isn’t a victim as well in this scenario: though she never fears for her life or safety (she could pummel Joe into the ground without breaking a sweat), it could well be that constant gaslighting and emotional abuse have left her feeling unable to oppose her husband in anything.

It could well be, but that is nuance that Stohl is not interested in exploring, and all we get throughout this miniseries is Marie making excuses for Joe’s abusive behaviour and prioritising her own comfort over Carol’s emotional wellbeing and safety.

So anyway, flashback!Marie says “Now’s not the time”, and in the present day Carol shrieks “WHEN - IS - THE TIME?!” while damn near beating Moonstone into a pulp.

The other Avengers are disturbed by this.

Iron Man: Hey, Carol? Could you maybe leave a little something on the plate for… you know… bad guy jail? Black Panther: Would you call that rage… disproportionate?

hellooooo unfortunate paternalistic implications. A female superhero has a hysterical outburst on the battlefield, while her almost exclusively male colleagues look on in bewilderment. (‘This is why women can’t be superheroes, they’re too emotional!!!’)

Cap and T’Challa have to physically pull Carol off Moonstone, as Carol begins to hyperventilate.

Adding to our list of things that this series has zero interest in exploring:

What it’s like to experience a panic attack or traumatic flashback

What it’s like to live with an anxiety disorder

What it’s like to live with trauma

The Carol of this story is not a woman living with trauma and mental illness, she is a woman who swoons hysterically whenever the narrative starts drag a bit. Her panic attacks are purely a plot device used to ratchet up the dramatic tension at convenient moments, and it’s some of the most insensitive handling of mental illness I’ve seen in comics for a while.

Next comes the obligatory scene of Carol getting a full medical in Tony’s lab, only for Tony to throw his hands up and declare, ‘welp, there’s nothing physically wrong with you, are you sure there’s not something else going on????’. Because apparently neither Tony — who has personal experience with trauma — nor Steve — who lived through a FUCKING WAR — know PTSD when it’s punching them (well, Tanalth and Moonstone) in the face.

I mean REALLY.

Tony: Look, the breathing thing is probably some kinda nervous tic.

hi, hello, person with an anxiety disorder here, please do not tell somebody having a full-blown panic attack that it’s just a ‘nervous tic’, you absolute insensitive fuckstick.

Carol: [sigh] It’s… Father’s Day. Not my favourite day of the year, you know?

waitwaitwait, so CAROL recognised that she’d triggered and experienced a traumatic flashback, but for some reason decided to play dumb about it until she’d after she’d had a pointless medical examination??

Tony tells Carol she needs to get herself sorted out or else somebody is going to get hurt, so she goes to visit her mother and younger brother Joe Junior at the family’s holiday home in Maine.

Carol flies into town past a sign that reads, “Harpswell Sound / Summer Home of Captain Marvel” Carol: [narration] Oh, brother.

‘Oh, brother’ is right. I guess at least it isn’t as embarrassing as the time Stohl introduced a D-grade Captain Marvel TV series.

“Sugar’s Donuts / Official Donut of Captain Marvel”

hoookay yep that’s a bit much now.

At the donut shop, Carol runs into childhood friend Louis Lee, who’s grown into a Designated Love Interest with an obnoxious phonetically-spelled accent

“Better keep that to yah self, Ms. Danvers. Wouldn’t wantitah get out that yah cheatin’ on us…”

I despise him already.

Carol goes up to the house and hangs out with her mother and brother. Over dinner, Marie and JJ ask her why she’s dropped by so suddenly. Carol evades and JJ blows up at her because apparently he’s been holding in some anger about how he feels she abandoned the family and didn’t even bother to come home when their dad was terminally ill. (Which, hey, here’s another potentially rich thread to explore — PITY IT NEVER COMES UP BETWEEN THEM EVER AGAIN.)

Carol shoots back that he knows full well she was avoiding home because of their abusive father, only to be interrupted by the door slamming as their mother walks out.

…eeeeeexcept apparently that was an art mistake, because the very next page is Carol chasing after her brother, the one who actually stormed out. She finds him at their father’s grave, drinking booze.

He offers his recovering alcoholic sister the bottle, and when she lightly turns it down he gripes that she’d always thought she was better than everybody else and she should feel free to piss off any time now. Then he gets into his car and Carol lets him drive home drunk like the responsible person she is.

“Part of me knew I should go after Joe Jr. I mean, nobody in my family was any good with a bottle.”

WHAT IN THE HELL, CAROL.

But nah, see, she has more important things to do, like scream at her dead father and desecrate his headstone, because that’s sure not going to upset her family further, nope.

Her little tantrum is interrupted by the sound of tyres screeching and a car plunging off a bridge because YOU FUCKING MORON you stood there and watched your brother stagger drunk into his car and made the conscious decision that ‘nah, I’m gonna let this one play out’.

and ohohohohoho how ~poetic~! He crashed right through the ‘Summer Home of Captain Marvel’

god I hate everything in this comic.

JJ is rushed to hospital, where he is diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury, leaving him in a catatonic state.

And of course, Stohl’s Carol makes it all about her-fucking-self.

“In an instant, everything changes. You ruin someone’s life… it ruins yours right back. You’d give everything to have gone after him… and acted like the hero you’re supposed to be.”

Yes, JJ is in a coma with a traumatic brain injury, but let’s talk about how his near-fatal car accident ruined Carol’s life.

Anyway— NINE MONTHS LATER.

No, really.

We just skip over nine months.

Wherein apparently Carol has been doing nothing but poor-me-ing over her brother’s hospital bed.

Like.

She gave up her entire life and career.

Stopped saving the world.

Stopped interacting with everybody.

Just sat by JJ’s hospital bed looking melancholy and growing her hair out so that comic bros would stop complaining that she looked like a lesbian.

Tony tries texting her and she turns off her phone. So he appears beside her in an explosion of pixels.

which-- how?!?

There’s no visible technology at work here, nothing to indicate what’s projecting his image or enabling the two of them to communicate. Tony might as well be speaking to Carol via magic, for all we can tell.

Christ, it’s a superhero comic, it’s not like you have to work that hard to sell it to the reader. Two lines of dialogue: ‘What the actual hell, Tony?’ ‘Well, you wouldn’t return my calls, so I [insert technobabble here].’ That’s all you need. How lazy can you get?

Tony asks her to come back to the Avengers — we miss you, we need you, this isn’t good for you, etc. — and Carol’s like, ‘nah, I’m too busy wallowing in self-pity’.

And yes, like Carol’s PTSD and panic attacks, like the family violence, JJ’s brain injury exists solely here as a plot device. It’s not a disability he lives with or a trauma he survives, it’s a vehicle to bring melodrama to Carol’s story and a weakly-fabricated excuse for Carol to stay with the family and discover what she’s about to discover.

Because now it’s time to bring the still-catatonic JJ back home. And since the downstairs living room is more accessible than his upstairs bedroom, he’ll be taking the couch, where Carol has been crashing.

Yes, even though Carol has her own childhood bedroom in this house — we see it next issue — she has been couch-surfing for nine months.  But now that somebody else has claimed her spot, she’s got to move into… JJ’s bedroom.

So she goes up the room and rather rudely starts going through her catatonic brother’s wardrobe and pulling his clothes out to make room for her own shit. Again, I cannot stress enough that she had her own bedroom in this house. She’s just… weirdly choosing to impose on everybody else.

In the wardrobe, Carol finds a box belonging to her dead father. The box contains a love letter, in Joe’s handwriting, addressed to a woman who is not his wife — along with what is obviously a piece of alien technology.

This is a comic with a goddamn identity crisis. It keeps tossing out plot hooks, only to abandon them pages later in favour of the next shiny idea.

It begins by announcing, ‘This is a story about Carol returning home and confronting her childhood trauma.’ Then it abruptly swerves: ‘wait, scratch that, this is a story about Carol struggling to hold her fractured family together after her brother is hurt in an accident she had the power to prevent’, and then, ‘hold up hold up what we meant to say was, this is a story about Carol discovering a hidden truth about her family and parentage’.

It’s like Stohl doesn’t know editing exists. Because spoiler alert: this story is not about either of those first two things. The first fifteen pages of this issue are a dead fucking weight. They do not need to be there, and in fact a lot of problems could have been solved by cutting them.

Carol decides to spend some time with her family because she’s working through some personal shit, and discovers a letter hinting that her late father was leading a double life. That’s it; that’s the story.

All these convoluted logistics around who gets the couch and who gets the bedroom? Not necessary. Again, Carol has a bedroom in this house. Since she’s not around much, it makes sense that Marie might be using it as a general storage space. So: Carol is staying in her old room and has to shift a few boxes to make space. In the process, her dad’s shoebox gets knocked loose from whatever nook it was stuffed into. THERE. EASY. DONE. PLOT UNLOCKED.

Like, the car accident actually makes it harder to get Carol to that point. The only reason I can see for it being there at all is to force the passage of time so that Carol can grow her hair out and dudebros can stop complaining that she’s unattractive. Because I guess it just never occurred to anybody that they could draw her with long hair to start with?

But ‘oh no, the aliens and the superpowers I can accept, but in the last comic I read Carol had short hair and I AM SORRY BUT there is NO WAY human hair grows that fast, this is BEYOND THE PALE’.

Oh, and can we talk about how Carol’s response to finding OBVIOUS ALIEN TECHNOLOGY is to go, ‘huh, I wonder what this is, let’s see if I can open it by smashing it repeatedly with a hammer’??

Carol: Huh. Let’s see if we can open it. [starts bashing the device wildly] Gah! Why — won’t — you— Marie: [off-panel] Carol! Can you help me with Joe’s tube? Carol: [wandering off as the device activates] Coming, Ma!

And then IMMEDIATELY GETS DISTRACTED AND WANDERS THE FUCK OFF, failing to notice that the OBVIOUS ALIEN DEVICE has suddenly activated and is now beeping ominously????

So while Carol blunders around obliviously, the obvious alien device sends a signal to a galaxy far far away, which in turn activates what is seriously and embarrassingly called a Kree Kleaner. A small spherical vessel orbiting a distant planet lights up and begin speeding towards Earth, while inside some kind of Kree cyborg gestates and grows to maturity at a rapid rate.

Meanwhile Carol sits by the sea with Digital Tony and mopes that “I knew my family wasn’t perfect… but I thought love was”.

you.

you fucking.

Look, I recognise that trauma is complicated and that family shit is even more so.  I know people process and cope with things in different ways and at different speeds. And for Carol to suddenly discover that, on top of all the grief he was causing at home, her father was leading some kind of secret life with another women, must surely feel fucking horrible and bring up a lot of deeply painful memories.

But her reaction doesn’t gel with everything Stohl has told us about Carol’s relationship with her father.

We’ve been told that Joseph Danvers was a physically and verbally abusive alcoholic who terrorised his family to the point where, to this day, Carol struggles with PTSD and anxiety attacks. We’ve been told that Carol thinks of him as a mean, violent drunk who even in death haunts her family. She doesn’t understand why her mother stayed with him or why her brother still defends him, when all he ever did was make all of them feel small and powerless.

The idea that Carol would think all of this and yet still be totally blindsided to learn that Joe and Marie’s marriage was not a true-love-fairytale-romance is utterly, outrageously laughable.

Stohl presents the letter as bombshell that overturns everything Carol thought she knew about her family, indicating that Joe was leading a secret life she never knew about. It’s not. All it is is a confirmation of everything we’re told Carol already thinks about her father: that he was a cruel, self-absorbed bastard who treated his family like crap. You know what is a fucking bombshell?

The fact that Joe Danvers apparently had personal access to OBVIOUS ALIEN TECHNOLOGY.

AND AS FOR THIS LINE.

“And like they say, families were made to be broken.”

literally nobody says this.

I even checked, just to be fair to this comic, on the off-chance that it was in fact a thing.

One of the six search results is somebody on instagram quoting this comic. The other five are all related to the title of a single playlist on 8tracks.

But hey, like they say, Margaret Stohl is a fucking hack.