#Ren being gay for fictional characters

[happiness-in-fiction]

yet another one of his characters for my f/o list <333

[ender1821]

re: shinyduo/gempearl being so not normal about each other after life series. other anon was so right why are they freaky.

pearl is definitely just as at fault imo. gem’s excellent at innuendos and tone of voice (“your red skin is my favorite~”) but pearl’s yes and filter falls apart in front of gem. the pickles a prime example, and the ren stream disaster wedding of course. she’s also very genuine and i love that for her. but that results in crazy lines like the “love you gem. always will. even if you dont want me, ill still be there.” TO STREAM WHEN GEM WASNT EVEN THERE.

and i need to mention the latest stream. Pearl “I only get asked if im gay when you’re in the picture” and how they both have to take a minute of silence to process that flejelejwkej. whose fault is that pearl? whose fault ?? to her credit she seems genuinely confused by the extent of her actions. the most damning evidence for her straightness i fear. rip gem though, she seems to be having fun anyway.

theyre both professionals and follow up in that stream with how the fandom will always play around with them as characters etc etc. good communication, very healthy, good for them. but this post is about why they graduated from shenanigans and innuendos to 2 hours of fanservice and it doesn’t even feel intentional half the time.

as for next life series, i would be shocked if they didn’t keep up this befuddling yuri bit. theyve mentioned seeing all the tierlist maker dream team posts and pearl had to ask her chat “OTHER than gem, who should I team with” so theyre well aware demand is there. theyre fantastic as enemies and well aware of that, but they could get some scarian level drama by teaming together, and i dont say that lightly. since pearl keeps stalling pvp on hermitcraft, theyre never getting that 1v1 without cosmic intervention or a declaration of love 😭

rambling now. love to hear your thoughts xoxo

yippee i love anon rambles!!! im glad we’re all unwell

im NOT gonna go on another rant about the life series alliance situation because as i’ve just demonstrated yesterday i can literally rant. for hours. and we don’t need that lmao. at this point whether or not they team up in the next one SOMETHING will happen. i have that much faith in them. they’re bound to run into each other and do something and that’s the shiny duo connection speaking god bless

like the other anon said, i do think they can work with just about any dynamic and it’ll be insanity-inducing either way. one of my favourite things about them just as a pairing (in any context, platonic, romantic, etc.) is just the way they will drift towards one another, to be linked in a way that’s indescribable, to always carry a piece of each other with themselves wherever they wander because the influence they’ve had on the other is irrefutable— and okay yeah they’re getting way too freaky about it get out of my fan fiction-esque rant. what are you doing here. why are you like this. what. like there’s something going on when what they’re getting up to creeps more and more into being what i usually read in fics. i. hello???

i really, really want to give them the benefit of the doubt. okay. listen. for every mention of feet and poking at pearl’s straightness, there’s a chat message behind it that warranted it, i’m sure. this isn’t the post to be getting into how fans are with cc boundaries and how we’re STILL bad at figuring our tags out, but i feel like this discussion eventually HAS to touch on the fact that it’s been made clear that they don’t want to see shipping stuff, and bringing it up in chat crosses that boundary just as well. i think they’ve handled it well in acknowledging that they’re aware it’s for their characters, drawing clear lines between what they’re comfortable with and what they’re not, etc. i think just the muddled lines from people continuously bringing stuff from a fandom space up to a cc contributes a lot to why we got. whatever happened on that wednesday stream. honestly, from these instances on stream i think it’s been shown that they just find this stuff amusing, and good for them, y’know? still doesn’t mean we should be regularly poking them about ships and. well. i dunno. literally bringing it up in chat?

but still. BUT STILL. god the ways they “yes, and” each other just keep getting worse. stuff like the pickles and the wedding (and the SL ep 4 ender dragon fight! still one of the most baffling “yes, and”s i’ve ever seen from them, i swear to god) were almost completely just them. that was just them. there’s no blaming chat for gem saying “wait, i don’t have a beard” right after pearl rejects ren for having a beard, and CERTAINLY NOBODY ELSE TO BLAME when pearl takes that and literally proposes to her. that was all them. and why. girl. huh??? i do believe, at least to some extent, that pearl is oblivious to the implications of what she does/says. but that only goes so far. sorry man i can only give so much benefit of the doubt for like 2-3 streams of 2 hour fan service. good lord

i was texting a friend who isn’t into mcyt about this whole. thing. and the way i described it was: imagine being a gempearl shipper, and you’re enjoying life, driving this train with fanfics and fanart and everything’s all good… and then for some reason gem and pearl jump on the train, hijack the conductor seat and starts directing the train elsewhere. nearing the end of that stream i was questioning my life and screaming for a way off this train. that’s how it felt to me. of course i’m exaggerating but like. genuinely how did we get here

[mizisuaenthusiast]

Introduction

Call me Li shu, I have a ding dong and I'm a minor. Pansexual and Genderfluid (I'm way too lazy to add colors) any pronouns will do, I don't really care.

I have mixed Chinese and Filipino genes (I grew up in the philippines however)

I am a victim of sexual assault and grooming. Good things about me, this shittt harrddd 😭😭🙏 anyway have a normal mindset and I'll treat you with decency 💜💜

Bad things about me, well....take a guess💜 and this account is a whole different persona. So anyone who knows me in a specific app.....

─────❀*̥˚────────❀*̥˚────────❀*̥˚─

IMPORTANT NOTE

Finally decided not to interact and engage with proshitters any further (recommended by my therapist) at first I was being stubborn and persisted about my decisions on continuing to ruffle some feathers (proshitters) and engaging in back and forth replies but whatever. My therapist is RIGHT, I shouldn't waste my time on engaging further with these weirdos who obviously needs help. (I made this after a therapy session)

Anyway I'm STILL making anti-proship posts

─────❀*̥˚────────❀*̥˚────────❀*̥˚─

DNI (DO NOT INTERACT)

Literally the basic criteria of DNI (tw!!)

— proship

⠀⠀— anti anti, pro fiction, com ship, etc

⠀⠀— you ship illegal ships

— incest, pedophilia, etc

⠀⠀— you think fiction doesn't affect reality

⠀⠀— you sexualize minors

⠀⠀— you fetishize lgbtq+ pairings

⠀⠀— you identify as a minor attracted person/pedophile

⠀⠀— you identify as a fujoshi/fudanshi

⠀⠀— you romanticize or glorify problematic media

⠀⠀— you romanticize or glorify problematic tropes in media, mental illnesses, self harm, physical, sexual, or emotional abuse/assault, rape and other illegal or immoral tropes

— racist

⠀⠀— xenophobic

⠀⠀— sinophobic

⠀⠀— colorist

⠀⠀— orientalist

⠀⠀— anti blm

⠀⠀— anti black

⠀⠀— anti stop asian hate

⠀⠀— you say slurs you can't reclaim

⠀⠀— you think people in racial minorities can't also be racist

⠀⠀— you think white people can be oppressed for being white

⠀⠀— etc

— anti lgbtq+

⠀⠀— homophobic, lesbiphobic, biphobic, panphobic, etc

⠀⠀— transphobic

⠀⠀— transmed/truscum, radfem, terf

⠀⠀— anti neopronouns or xenogenders

⠀⠀— anti non-she/her lesbians or non-he/him gays

⠀⠀— exclusionist

⠀⠀— radical inclusionist

⠀⠀— etc

— zionist

⠀⠀— pro israel

⠀⠀— pro idf

⠀⠀— anti palestine

⠀⠀— etc

— sexist

⠀⠀— misogynistic

⠀⠀— transmisogynistic

⠀⠀— you think men can be oppressed for being men

─────❀*̥˚────────❀*̥˚────────❀*̥˚─

Interests

alien stage, identity v, honkai star rail, reverse 1999, mononoke (2007 and 2024), nanbaka, danganronpa trigger happy havoc/goodbye despair/killing harmony, junji ito, bungou stray dogs, blue lock, persona 5, demon slayer and many more

─────❀*̥˚────────❀*̥˚────────❀*̥˚─

Characters I LOVE to a concerning amount

ITHAQUA(Night Watch), RICHARD STERLING(Knight), Michiko (Geisha), Galatea(Sculptor), Joseph Desaulniers(Photographer), Edgar Valden(Painter) ── Identity V

Sua, Sua, Sua, Sua, Sua, Sua, Sua, Sua, Sua, Sua, Sua, Sua, did I mention Sua? Mizi, Luka── Alien Stage

Medicine Pocket, Tennant, Argus, Zima(Зима), Getian, Lucy ── Reverse 1999

MICHAEL KAISER, Chigiri Hyoma, Sae Itoshi ── Blue Lock

Ren Amamiya/Akira Kurusu, Futaba Sakura, Ann Takamaki ── Persona 5

OTHER FAVS

Braz Daniel Blood, Hydra Bell ── Blood Lad

Medicine Seller (both 2007 and 2024), Kame, Asa ── Mononoke (2007/2024)

KOKOMI TERUHASHI, SAIKI KUSUO, Nendou Riki ── The Disastrous Life of Saiki K

Jiaoqiu, Ling Sha, Stelle, Aventurine, Robin, Sparkle ── Honkai Star Rail

Epel Felmier, Riddle Rosehearts, Skully J. Graves, Idia Shroud, Ace Trappola ── Twisted Wonderland

[vacantgodling]

re. about

you may call me: ren, renjamin, rimz, r.a.a, or vacant

refer to me with he/him pronouns (masculine nicknames like ‘king’ & terms of endearment like ‘dear’ or ‘sweetie’ are also good. just nothing overtly feminine like ‘queen’ is the gist)

i am 26 and my birthday is october 2

i am black, transmasc, neurodivergent, and queer (achillean or yknow gay if you want to be specific. i’m a fag ok.)

as a psa: i don’t care if minors follow me but i’m not your parent so proceed at your own risk.

aside from writing i like: playing video games (mostly overwatch, my special interest for a ridiculous amount of time. but also, legend of zelda & the sims), drawing (when it’s not annoying me), gothic literature & older books with flowery prose, the colors pink, black & gold, history, anime (older anime+demon slayer really), and i’m learning japanese (to the best of my ability. むずかしです)

re. wips

find a list of all my wips HERE! i work on them sporadically when inspiration strikes. find a wip sampler where i show off a piece of prose from the work to give you a sense of its vibe HERE!

if you’re interested in being on my taglists, fill this form out!

my 2023 year in review!

also, for ease of access: current tag games i’m doing (i want to keep track of it this year)

last line tag 2024

wbw 2024

ask games 2024 (general)

tcol character tournament!

re. connect

here are other places you can find me:

bluesky || cohost || pinterest

my partner yves and i make stories together, which is here -> @mothgrudge (i also rb a lot on @babylonsfalling)

i have a discord so if we’ve spoken feel free to ask for it (however i don’t really do servers. maybe one day, but for now no)

maybe this year i’ll work on an actual website & i’d love to make a youtube where i just talk about shit so… maybe, we’ll see...

re. navigation

talking -> musings and personal thoughts

about renjamin -> insight to me / who i am

ren analysis -> when i get meta about my wips

ren mix -> a treasure trove of my music taste

ren polls -> any polls i make

ren reads -> for my ramblings and analysis as i try to get back into books

friends tag -> talking with friends or boosting my friends work

others work -> boosting other writeblrs work

hall of fame -> praise / things that make me happy that i want to keep

ren writing -> all of my writing in one place

ren poems -> all of my poems in one place

short stories tag -> micro or flash fiction bits and bobs

ren art -> all my art

q eh you eh -> queue

sex mention -> tag for any sexual content.

worldbuilding -> all of my worldbuilding notes across all my wips

ren hot cakes -> specifically for my overly opinionated opinions

to read -> others works that i need to get around to reading

rens ocs but sims -> for when i make my ocs in the sims lol

ren plays -> me talking about video games but it’s usually overwatch

ren is jopping on main -> for the rare occasions where i talk about kpop

character stats -> when i decide to compare and contrast my ocs to see trends

ren rabbit hole -> i like history and mythology and the ancient world and i Will ramble about it

[absolutebl]

One year ago I had never read or watched anything in the romance genre and I have now hit 150 BLs, so I’ve been thinking about how I got here!

Until I was in my early 20’s I only read litfic, sci-fi and fantasy, never romance…. Then I started reading fanfiction but again, only based on sci-fi or fantasy shows/books - and I always rejected the coffee shop or university AUs - why take characters who can do magic or are vampires and make them normal humans who work in a library? So again, I missed out on all the romance tropes.

Then, during the pandemic I started reading Shameless fanfic and perhaps because the characters are humans who live in our world, I ventured into the AUs for the first time and discovered that I love all the romance tropes! Give me all the enemies to lovers, forced proximity and arranged marriages please…

Finally, this led to BLs and for the first time in my life almost all the media I consume is romance and I love it so much! What a weird journey… I’d love to hear if you’ve always enjoyed romance and how you got here?

Oh my goodness what a fun question, okay let’s hit it...

My Journey to BL via SFF, Yaoi & M/M Romance  

So way back at the dawn of time I was once a hard-core fan, specifically in the science fiction and fantasy realm and specifically around 90s franchises that had to do with bad ass female warrior characters, so think Xena: Warrior Princess, Farscape, Buffy, Firefly. I did cosplay and crossplay (although we didn’t really call it that, then). I went to my first SFF con as a minor actually, as soon as I got my driver’s license and some autonomy I was out and about doing cons, ST:TNG Creatathons (is that what they were called?) and such. 

I was of the right age, but that was also how I found and got involved with queer fandom, ren faires, and kink. First prides, first alliances, first marches, first dungeons, first orgy - ya know, as ya do. I sexually matured super early and ya know what? It was fine, I’m fine. It all worked out. I regret nothing and stayed healthy emotionally, mentally, and physically, probubly as a result of the companion friendship groups I was forming, so... win win! 

And all because I read books like... THIS: 

I’m a FAST AF reader and super advanced, I read Tolkien at like age 8, and came to fandom via books more than TV or film. (Please don’t take this as a brag because I skim and retain NOTHING, so it’s not exactly a life advantage.) By high school I was into primarily fantasy, and always wanted/liked/preferred a romantic arc and some kind of found family element (so friendship groups = a big WIN). I also really gravitated to any authors who dealt with or mentioned queer characters (like Mercedes Lackey). That’s also when I first started noticing the “kill the gays” trope. 

I was always a really voracious reader. I read pretty much all the fantasy that my local library had, and then (partly because of Anne McCaffrey and a few other authors who also wrote romance), with no where else to go I moved into the romance genre. I actually got into romance before I got into science fiction. I was reading bodice rippers at age 10. Again, it was FINE. Some of us mature real early. Also I was living in the UK when Queer as Folk was doing its thing while reading lots of Mills & Boon. 

Then in the early 2000s I started actively looking for consumable queer literary media. By that I mean: anything that had queer characters as the main characters. However, I really don’t like literary fiction (too depressing), and I really wanted that romantic arc. I wanted stories that gave the queer characters happy endings TOGETHER, and also that didn’t gloss over the sexual side of being queer.

This basically led me to Japanese yaoi. I don’t recall exactly how I found my first one, but I do remember the hunting. 

I had to either find them and get them shipped to me via weird black market back channels, or I eventually started ordering them off Amazon. In fact, the first thing I ever bought on Amazon was a yaoi manga in dead tree form - so they might be why I opened the account. Only a few publishers were producing yaoi in translation back then, a name I particularly remember was DramaQueen. I actually even owned some yaoi publisher merchandise, which means I had an account WITH the publisher. I mean, who does that?! I had a T-shirt that said “seme” on one side and “It’s tough at the top” on the other side. I was so proud! I would wear it to sci-fi conventions, but was so obscure then that nobody I ran into ever knew what the shirt meant. I mean us geeks knew anime and even some manga, but yaoi? Not so much. 

Honestly, I still only really enjoy consuming manga in printed form (I struggle with webtoons), which is one of the many reasons I haven’t followed it (or manwha) closely in recent years. 

Meanwhile, at the same time I was being a yaoi fan (without a fandom) I was getting into the Hollywood indie gay romcom phase, so like Latter Days, and Shelter, and some of the other queer indie movies I talk about in this post: 

Old Guard Queer Cinema for BL Lovers 

So now we’re in mid 2000s and there just wasn’t a lot of manga in translation, let alone yaoi, thus I kept hunting for a more queer romance fiction to read. 

Which is how I became a really early adopter of the very first, what was called back then, m/m romance. There were only a few houses producing for the American market, small publishers like Loose ID.  I bought and read a ton of them in physical form, and then was super early on the e-book bandwagon because of this market almost entirely. I mean, we are talking early e-books that I had to go to the publisher’s website to buy and download - this is in the days of Sygil and Calibre. You had to read them on your laptop. I owned a FIRST generation Kindle.

At this point I’m reading mostly romances and no longer any SFF. And then recently (within the last 10 years, the two have started cross pollinating again, although now I only read SFF that has a strong romance thread and a happy ending for the queers. No exceptions will be made. 

Gotta have my standards! 

So I become a romance reader mostly because of yaoi, and now I do read other queer romances (not just gay ones) but before we didn’t have a choice. (Although gay romances still dominate the market.) 

I kind of left mangas behind for a long time.

So when I discovered BL, and I think SOTUS was my first one (?), although it might’ve been Love by Chance or Love Sick, or... (honestly when I jump into an obsession I JUMP TF IN so early 2019 when I discovered BL I tried to watch EVERYTHING I could all at once), I brought all of this baggage and affection (and forgiveness) from my history with yaoi and early mm romance (which get a lot of things WRONG not just about being gay and queer identity but also about sex and relationships and communication) to my interpretation of the BL genre.

(Well, that’s a massive run-on sentence I’m not bothering to fix. nash) 

So there it is. A very long way of saying: 

because of yaoi I got into m/m romance 

because of m/m romance I became an ebook romance reader

because of gay romance I have strong standards for my happy ever afters 

and because of THAT I got into BL and that history still dictates the KIND of BL I prefer

TA DA! 

*insert twirling flourish here* 

And then, because I am an obsessive completest, I have been systematically using all of lock down to try to watch every BL ever made. Some of us don’t, ya know, stay still very well. I needed a QUEST. 

Notice what’s missing? Fanfic. Yeah I have never been into it. It’s all good, I’m not against it or anything like that, just like D&D or Star Wars or electrical play... not my thing. 

(source)

[happiness-in-fiction]

literally obsessed with this pic of him RAAAA he's just so??? he's so gorgeous and he just looks so great here and i'm so jealous of her </3 he should be leaning against ME /lh anyway his hands!! his face!! (so kissable...) and lord his LEGS he has no right looking like thissss i need to lay on top of him and cuddle with him

[sidhewrites]

New intro post, because why not?

❀ About Me: ❀

My pen name is REE. I’m 25+, use THEY/HE/SHE pronouns, and live in the PST Timezone. My official pen name is Ray Lane, and you can get my first novella HERE.

I’ve been writing for well over half my life now, with varying degrees of success. I’m also really bad at being concise, so expect lots and lots of rambling any time I open my mouth. Ask me for neat animal facts!

I like zombies and guts and fairies and things. If it’s either either really cute, or high-stakes horror, or a mixture of both extremes, then it’s for me. Most of my writing is HIGH FANTASY, and has been leaning towards LIGHTER AND SOFTER themes of late, but I’m a fan of a wide array of genres and styles. Eldritch beings and monsters are a personal favorite, including the old folk tales surrounding western Eurpoean fae folk and supernatural beings.

I also illustrate. You can find my art blog here.

❀ Main Projects❀

❀ I Met a Girl in the Graveyard aka “Graveyard Lesbians.”

Draft 1 complete! Now in editing stages.

While wallowing in misery after a recent breakup, skeptic Kaz heads down to the local cemetery to sabotage the investigation of some big-name ghost hunters. While there, she meets Lucy, a goth woman who seems just as interested in causing trouble as Kaz herself. But something seems off when the hunters’ tech keeps picking up on signals coming from Lucy’s direction – or, it would, if Kaz didn’t think they were just getting really lucky.

…She’s a ghost, y’all. Lucy is a ghost, and Kaz is too stupid to figure it out.

GENRE: Supernatural, comedy, wlw, urban fantasy

ADDITIONAL TAGS: Gay and bisexual main characters. A senior cat as a major supporting character. Ghost hunters. Jock MC.

More Info Here

Silly Powerpoint Here

Start reading here

❀ Secondary Projects ❀

❀ Glimte (Complete!) As a child, Katja’s father told her that sirens live in the bioluminescent waters surrounding their small village, but she seems to be the only one who believes in them. Her belief is solidified after a siren saves her as a child – and cements her fixation on sirens throughout her life, even through the tragedies and changes throughout the years.

Genre: Short fiction, wlw, low fantasy

More info here.

Get the eBook here.

❀  Silverlight: Polly is a healer’s apprentice in a sleepy village, where the most exciting thing in her life is sneaking into the forest with her best friend Jack, an exiled fairy with no magic to his name. But when they find an injured fairy solder in the woods, they set off beyond the veil into a world of magic and danger to stop the wicked Night King before he can cover the world in darkness forever.

GENRE: Light fantasy, adventure, romance subplot.

ADDITIONAL TAGS: Bisexual main character, transgender love interest. Talking animal sidekick. A requisite masquerade ball. Polyamory. Childhood friends to lovers, bodyguard romance. #LetPollyHaveABigSword2k23

More Info Here

❀ Tertiary / Backburner Projects ❀

❀ Untitled aka “Ren Faire Lesbians.”

Zanna loves her job at the local Renaissance Faire, but her world is turned upside down at the appearance of Aurelia of Velaqua, a knight who has nothing but her magic sword and a vague memory of how she arrived on earth. With no other ideas, Zanna takes her in as they work together to find a way to get Aurelia home. But they soon discover that the danger of one world is seeping into the other, and it’s going to take everything they have to stop it.

GENRE: Romcom, cozy fantasy, romantasy

ADDITIONAL TAGS: loyal lady knights, reverse isekai / portal fantasy, only one bed, fish out of water, height difference, horse girls tm, himbo best friend

More Info Here

❀ April Showers

Lise and Cass have lived a sleepy, art-filled life with nothing more exciting than the occasional riverside picnic or pillow fort to occupy their days. But this year’s spring rains bring something entirely unexpected – a selkie named Fiske. Their world is immediately changed as they try to make her as comfortable as possible while searching for a way to get her home without being found out.

Genre: Queer Romance, slice of life, low fantasy.

More Info Here

[farewell-superiors]

I have a theory that Atlus developers and writers desperately want to put queer characters in their games, but someone or something isn’t letting them, so when something is explicitly labelled as gay or whatever, they have to make fun of it, like with kanji or those guys from persona 5, but then they write some of the best queer coded characters in fiction. Like if the writers had their way we would’ve had gay romance options in a mainline game by persona 4. And ESPECIALLY with persona 5 royal, third semester all but SCREAMS at you that Akechi and joker are gay, but they’re not allowed to actually say it, so undated we just have REN’s biggest wish being to be with Akechi and have a credits theme about him mourning that he’ll never wake up next to him again okay atlus.

Basically I’m 99% sure that Atlus writers want to write queer characters and are fantastic at it, but some higher up or just the culture isn’t letting them explicitly be gay or queer so they have to queer code it while being forced to make fun of queer people (it always feels so out of place like it was added on as an afterthought)

the yosuke problem

ok the thing that pisses me off most about the yosuke storyline is not that the homophobia is like bad and morally wrong or whatever. BUT THAT IT MAKES HIS CHARACTER WORSE.

in canon, he's homophobic cause he's an asshole. full stop. i guess the "best friend" character is just an asshole now and you like him less. LAME.

give him a romance route and his character becomes so much more layered. he's lashing out at kanji because he's scared of himself and his own feelings.

when he confesses to you, he's also confessing to himself, accepting a piece of his identity he doesn't want to. you know, the theme of the game? accepting uncomfortable truths about yourself and finding joy through it? it also shows that self-acceptance isn't a one day thing, we don't have just one shadow, but multiple different demons that we have to conquer throughout our lives. ah, depth and thematic coherence, how homosexual thou art!

its straight up more interesting storytelling, it's efficient, meaningful and its not in the game because ATLUS ARE TOO COWARDLY TO MAKE GOOD STORIES >:((((((

[kitkatopinions]

Can we talk about the rampant bi/panphobia surrounding Yang "looks at guys like they're fresh meat in the first 3 volumes and chibi" Xiao Long? Blake's gets brought up a lot as 90% of her reason for existing is to be the romancable NPC, but it's hardly talked about with Yang. She has shown express interest in guys. Even if Bees goes canon, it's not a Bi/Lesbian ship. It's a Bi/Bi or Bi/Pan ship or what ever other possible identity that doesn't erase Yang's attraction to men. I get the whole wanting rep thing but there's more lesbians in RWBY than any other LGBT identity and they aren't really that good in terms of representation. Do we really need another angry/aggressive/problematic lesbian in RWBY? And whenever it does get brought up, Lesbian!Yang fans always go "oh, it's just comphet". Um, excuse me? Isn't comphet not supposed to be a thing in Remnant?

Okay, so there's a lot to unpack here, and I do get why you're so frustrated because as a bi person, it gets so frustrating dealing with not only a huge lack of representation, but also feeling boxed out of, undervalued by, and invalidated by your own community sometimes. I myself have been really frustrated and even hurt by the way many RWBY fans (and specifically Bumblebee fans) have talked about Blake and Yang's sexuality, like they would be less gay or less rep if they were bi, how shipping them with men is 'wrong' because it's 'straight behavior' and 'validating the straights,' and I got particularly annoyed once by a post that claimed that people only shipped Yang and Weiss so that they could force Blake - who they claimed was a canon lesbian - into a relationship with a man. I think it's clear why people talk about Blake's status as bi more than Yang's - Yang has one moment in eight seasons where she acts clearly attracted to men, whereas Blake has had two canon romantic relationships with men, Adam being her ex and her having gone on a date with and kissed Sun on the cheek. When people dispute Blake's status as a bi, sometimes they (rightly) come at it from the point of view of 'this is just my own personal headcanon for my own benefit.' But too often, Blake's attraction to men is dismissed outright and fans try and find every excuse to invalidate it so that they can insist that Blake is a canon lesbian. That's pretty openly biphobic imo. (Also I don't agree that 90% of Blake's character is a romancable NPC. I think maybe she's become mostly not an active character who only really exists as support and romance, but the idea that it's 90% of her overall show character is weird to me, Blake is done dirty by the show but that doesn't mean she's not a character for the first five seasons.)

But Yang is also worth talking about. Because of the fact that her moment of displaying clear attraction towards men is brief and early in the show, many fans have just... Thrown it out entirely, and decided that not only does it not count, but that anyone who brings it up is living in the past and is stupid for paying attention to the early seasons. That's obviously really dumb. The idea that after the first five seasons, Yang is displaying clear romantic attraction towards a girl for the first time, she is now one hundred percent a lesbian in canon because she's only displayed romantic attraction towards men once... That's also rooted in biphobia. Being attracted to men doesn't just suddenly go away because you're attracted to women and vice versa, no one chooses to be bi, gay, straight, ace, whatever. If Yang was sexually attracted towards men at seventeen, that part of her doesn't stop existing just because she's sexually attracted to women too. The thing is, headcanoning Yang (or even Blake!) as a lesbian is totally fine. I think the RWBY creators did say that sexism, racism, and homophobia doesn't exist in Remnant, but like ??? Idk why they'd decide something like that if they were gonna make jokes about Jaune and Qrow wearing skirts haha laugh at the non-gender-conformity of men, and if they'd write the first five seasons with literally one gay character, while tons of straight relationships that get credence, everyone else expresses no clear romantic inclination towards the same sex for five years of the show running. And we're supposed to think there's no heteronormativity at least? Cardin and Jaune both have clear toxic masculinity problems that Jaune grows out of, but we're supposed to think that toxic masculinity has nothing to do with any sexism or homophobia, however internalized? I think if people want their fans to believe there is not sexism or homophobia or racism in their fake world, they need to make good and sure their own internalized issues don't leak into their work. So I don't think it's wholly invalid when people decide that in their headcanon, they think Yang just acted like she was attracted to men because she thought she should. I especially think it's valid for people to headcanon that Yang had acted like she attracted to men because she thought she was. She was only seventeen, seventeen year olds put on behavior that they think is cool and she is the niece of Qrow 'wink at Winter to piss her off' Branwen, and Yang could've realized maybe during school that putting on behavior was all that was, and that she isn't actually attracted towards men and likes girls - specifically the girl dancing with Sun at the school ball. That's perfectly valid as a headcanon. But that's all it is, a headcanon.

Yang is not a canon lesbian and it's perfectly valid and supported by Yang's canon interactions for people to consider her bi or pan, and people can even headcanon her as ace if they want. Trying to demand that other people see fictional characters as the sexuality you prefer them in is just going to drive wedges, especially when so much venom seems to be directed towards bi characters, with others acting like they're literally less rep if they also have romantic interactions with people of the opposite sex. Like, people literally have the idea of "I love that Blake is bi, but I hate that people are shipping her with men or talking about Blake's romances with men and idk why the show put any focus on her romantically interacting with men." Like, sure, okay, so you support bi characters so long as they don't be bi too obviously. But... I'm getting off topic.

Here's the thing... I would caution not to get too deep in this "there's too many lesbians," concept. We're supposed to all be one community, supporting and fighting for each other. The problem isn't that there's too much representation for lesbians, the problem is that there is not enough representation for bi people, or pan, or ace, or trans men, or trans women, or non-binary people, etc. We don't have to wish less for other gay people to wish for more for ourselves. I agree that disregarding Yang's moment of attraction to men maybe isn't the way to go, but it's not that there are already enough lesbians in RWBY. There are only three side characters (by the way, two of them aren't confirmed lesbians, just because they're in a relationship with each other,) two of whom made a very minor appearance in all of two or three episodes and will likely never return to the story. As you say, the rep that lesbians have gotten in RWBY isn't very good. Them desiring more representation is perfectly valid, and I even get them wanting that representation from Yang, despite her single moment of lusting after boys in season one. That's a perfectly understandable desire. I myself want gay Neptune despite him expressing interest in women. It's not wrong. The only thing that's wrong is villainizing and mocking people for their own very valid ships like BlackSun or Yang x Jaune or Yang x Mercury or Blake x Ren or whatever ships people like. I'm sorry that I can't agree with you here, but if there was a scene in RWBY where Yang discusses her feelings for Blake and says that she realized she's a lesbian... I might not be particularly happy with the writing staff, because I already heard there's an element of disregarding Blake's former relationship with Sun in things like the comics, which is frustrating as a bi person. But I would be happy for the people who would find in this something that speaks to them and makes them feel like their own experiences are represented. Sometimes I can feel excluded from the LGBTQ+ community due to my attraction towards men, and that's hard, but I'm not going to start devaluing the victories of other gay people because of it, I'm not going to start getting upset when they get representation, or when a character they love claims an identity that reflects their own.

I do get where your frustration is coming from though, and it's perfectly valid to feel upset and exasperated both with the way MKEK write their queer relationships and in how people in the fandom tend to disregard the bi identity of characters.

[samiwok]

❝ for your love ❞

[ 𝘇𝗲𝗿𝗼. ] 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀

𝖻𝖺𝖼𝗄 | 𝘇𝗲𝗿𝗼 | 𝗇𝖾𝗑𝗍

⋄ masterlist

This is not a part of the story. Consider this as a kind of preview for what’s coming and for you to be prepared. In which the two groups ( the one with Yn, Kuroo and their friends and the other with Sakusa and his friends ) are giving an interview about this social media after filming.

> Part one is with : I. = Interviewer. || Y. = Yn. || K. = Kuroo. || B. = Bokuto. || O. = Oikawa.

I. ; Good evening ! You guys are our first group to be interviewed today, hope you’re okay.

O. ; Yes we’re all fine ! Right ? [ he turned to his friends sitting next to him. ]

K. ; Perfectly fine. [ he smiled and looked at Yn. ]

B. ; I gotta say I’m not really okay today.

Y. ; Ko’ ? What’s wrong ?

B. ; Kuroo really suffered in this. And Yn too.

I. ; Uhm I-

K. ; Come on Bokuto, it was just a fiction. Another show to divert iwaishiteru’s readers.

O. ; Yeah and we’re actors dummy... [ he sighed. ] that wasn’t real.

I. ; So tell us something about you.

O. ; Yn hates Ren.

Y. ; WHAT ? No need to expose me like that you know.

I. ; Who is Ren ?

K. ; Ren is our manager. And also the manager of the others.

Y. ; Kuroo please could you respect them.

K. ; No he pissed me off.

O. ; [ he laughed. ] How can you be like that? You just said to Bokuto it was just a fiction.

K. ; You know what is not a fiction ?

[ we had to cut the twelve next minutes because of inappropriate vocabulary. ]

I. ; Okay a few questions just to get to know you guys better, may I ?

[ they all nod yes. ]

I. ; Good. So, which one is the funniest in FYL ?

K. and O. ; Me.

[ there’s a blank. ]

[ they’re arguing and Yn decides to attribute this title to Bokuto. ]

I. ; Since when are you all friends ?

B. ; Kuroo and I used to hangout together when we were studying, so it’s been a few years now.

K. ; Still hard to deal with him honestly. [ yn hit him ]

O. ; I personally know Yn since a while now, we know each other since we’re in high school.

Y. ; Yes, Oikawa is my dearest friend just like in FYL where he is the friend you can confess to and all.

K. ; Basically he’s the gay friend.

Y. ; Oh shut up.

[ kuroo added something about oikawa being a b*tt*m and then we had to cut the next five minutes. ]

I. ; Who is the one that suffered the most in FYL ?

K. ; It’s Yn. It was hard for her.

[ yn shrugged. ]

I. ; Could you tell us how does the story begin ?

B. ; Yes ! Basically Yn and Kuroo just finished filming a romance movie. Kuroo plays a character named Taiyo and Yn plays a character named Usagi, and there’s a prev-

[ oikawa covered bokuto’s mouth. ]

O. ; GOD ! Too many details. Please end this interview right now or he’ll say too much about the story.

I. ; Fine ! Thank you for coming today, can’t wait to see the whole story. Don’t forget to be here on November, 1st of 2020 ! And see you later for the interview with Sakusa Kiyoomi and the others members of this social media au.

[mandwhore]

Before You Follow

DO NOT INTERACT

General DNI criteria - racist, lgbtphobic, terf, truscum, transmed, bigot, believe in radical feminism in any way, pedophile apologist

Pro cop, or “can’t” support acab

If you ship pedophilia or incest

Don’t think that fiction affects reality, and use that to justify consuming nsfw content of characters who are minors, or “aged up” minors

Think there isn’t whitewashing in tbb

Cannot consume content without critical thinking skills

Minors. This is an 18+ blog.

THINGS THAT I DO NOT LIKE AND WILL POST ABOUT HOW I DO NOT LIKE THEM 

Note that you can follow me if you like them, but I do actively make and rb posts about disliking them.

Bo Katan, Satine, and the Death Watch. We bully yt women who would call me a slur, and the yt fanatics who appropriate the culture of mandalorians who were displaced on this blog. 

k*lo ren. Please do not mention the space nazi to me. (Also applied to ad*m driver because he was in the army to "avenge the us for 9/11" and I am someone who is directly affected by the patriot act)

lukedin. They are both my favorite characters but they have few interactions, one of the biggest one being Din giving away his kid. Also having interacial gay relationship with large age gap with the moc being the older one is bad, and I should not have to explain why.

The Sequels. I really liked tfa, and the potential it had. We were going to have a black ex-stormtrooper turned jedi protagonist, a latino pilot who had an interesting backstory involving a military legacy, and a woman with force sensitivity and an unknown backstory. Instead we ended up with... well *guestures vaguely*

MCU. Especially t*ny stark and class traitor peter parker

ABOUT THIS BLOG

18+ MINORS DO NOT INTERACT. I post stories with smut and rb stories with smut.

This is a multifandom blog. Mostly star wars tho and my current coc (crushes of color)

There is a queue, and the askbox is always open! Currently the anonymous function is on. Basic askbox etiquette is expected (read as please be kind!). The anonymous function is a privilege.  

ACCESSIBILITY

I try to make this blog as accessible as possible. 

This means I try to make sure that all of my posts include an image description, video descripton, etc. if necessary. This also means that I will reblog posts that contain resources on accessibility. 

I am not perfect. I ask if you notice mistakes to gently point it out! Please ask if you need other accommodations.

More information on what I do here. 

ABOUT ME 

BASICS

I’m Ami! I’m 21, my pronouns are she/they. I am a disabled non-binary woc (no that’s not an oxymoron), and am bisexual. 

I am latine (mestize centroamericana) and desi (jain)! I speak spanish fluently, though my dialect is an odd mix of central american, caribbean (by proximity to lots of dominicans and boricuas), colombian (from medellin specifically), and repressed old lady (it’s because of a curse in my family it’s since been broken don’t worry). I also suffer from the gringo latine phenomenon of very little formal schooling in spanish, entonces typing in Spanish is so hard for me

I really do just log into tumblr and treat it as my own personal diary 🤪 

Also I’m a virgo and I refuse to learn which are my moon sign, venus sign, delta sign or whatever.

STATS

Favorite Characters of all time (in no particular order except Katara is number one) - KATARA (atla), Aang (atla), Buffy Summers, Luke Skywalker, Din Djarin, Adora (spop), Mako (lok), Ming-Hua (lok), Mulan, Peggy Carter, Akane Tendo, Ukyo Kuonji, and Kiki (kiki’s delivery service)

Favorite Movie - The Princess and The Frog (the way they are the best disney couple ever 🥺🥺🥺)

Favorite Star Wars Movie - Attack of the Clones (it’s about the forbidden love 🥹🥹🥹)

Favorite Star Wars Couple - Anidala (i am sorry they just hit me with the yearning. i am young and biracial and queer and they just make me yearn)

Favorite Tropes - Enemies-to-lovers, Forbidden romance (it's the angry biracial bisexual in me)

Main (i don’t really post political stuff here, but my main is half political and half shitposts and i don’t have a tagging system there)

HOW TRIGGER TAGS WORK ON THIS BLOG

As a note I tag all potential triggers as #tw trigger ! Triggers are more likely to be filtered by tumblr when tagged that way.

These are tags that I need. (General DNI criteria is applied). My catchall tag is #ami don't look.

R*pe/sexual assault

Assault

Excessive gore/horror (all fall under a horror tag that I have filtered)

Clowns

Sharks

Mentions of suicide

Flashing lights, other seizure warnings

Please send me a public ask reading “lip gloss” to let me know that you have read this post and understand it! I will not publicly answer the ask. If you often interact from a sideblog, please mention in the ask the name of the sideblog you interact from!

that feeling when yodito grogesh djarin (named to appease the latine-desi me 😌) thinks genocide is fun

[ID: The “Friendship ended with” meme edited to say “parentship ended with yodito now gon freecss is my only son.”

Gon Freecss, from Hunter x Hunter is edited onto the image on the face of the right person in the original meme. In the two spaces of the bottom corners of the image, Grogu from The Mandalorian is edited there with a green “x” marked over his body. End ID]

[kukuandkookie]

Oh, fun!! I’m always happy to see more posts about my obsessions hahaha. 😆

I admit I’m also a little surprised by the lack of attention from the international community. I guess I’ve always had my assumptions on why, but I have admittedly been more put off by the lack of attention since I got into it myself, if only because I’ve seen a lot of English-speaking people, who are either danmei/BL and/or romance fans, discover the series and get promptly super into it.

Though if I were to really hypothesize on it not getting as much attention from English speakers, I mostly assume it’s the issue of being “problematic.”

I have developed pretty strong feelings about what it means to ship/read something “problematic” as I get older, mostly because I am genuinely baffled by the rise in rhetoric that fiction cannot depict problematic things ever. But I’ve seen this even before the recent rise in “antis” on Twitter; back when I first visited Sissy’s NovelUpdates page before I was even into the series, I saw reviews of the novel being 1/5 just because people felt like Shui Qian Cheng was “disturbed” for writing this stuff at all. It bothered me even back then, but like with the discourse around SVSSS, it still made me hesitate to check out this series. And yet when I did with Shabi, I ended up having fun, even if I was initially put off by all the fighting Lijian did. Yet here I am now, completely obsessed with them lol (something something “art should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed” LSFNKSJS).

The other reason I guess it’s not as popular internationally is maybe translation quality…? While not too bad, Beloved Enemy’s main translation is kind of iffy grammatically, and so is Shabi’s (I am still confused why Shabi of all novels is the one with a censored translation, mostly because it’s one of the few novels where I genuinely feel like the sex scenes are absolutely intrinsic to everything about the story and characters 😂). The better translations also aren’t often complete (yet), like Blazing Armour, My Little Poplar, and Winner Takes All… So I guess accessibility is an issue for some of them.

But I guess its popularity is rising!!

As for Professional Body Double being most often chosen for foreign adaptations… Honestly, I have no clue haha.

I don’t have strong feelings about the ship so I wonder why it’s extra appealing? I feel like Additional Inheritance is a better introduction to 188 overall, and I’ve seen really mixed reviews on how “bad” Yan Mingxiu is. But maybe the rebirth/fantasy and entertainment industry is more appealing to the masses? 🤔

I’m pretty excited to hear you’re enjoying My Little Poplar via the manhua!! The manhua artist’s art is really nice, and Yu Fengcheng remains my favourite 188 gong—even after I’ve recently finished Blazing Armour.

(Like yes, Gong Yingxian is cute and less “brutal,” but I still appreciate Yu Fengcheng’s eventually more caretaking side and how long we got to spend with his remorse—which felt so strong despite him not even being that bad by 188男团 standards. Also like…it’s almost as if, in being “less bad,” Gong Yingxian’s decisions hurt all the more, especially since I found Ren Yi to be a really likeable protagonist—and like Jian Suiying, he was so in love with Gong Yingxian, that pain hit harder for me than usual because it happened again and again and he was really really beaten down. It doesn’t mean I dislike Gong Yingxian; again, I still find him really cute, but…Yu Fengcheng remains my favourite after all haha.)

And yeah, My Little Poplar can definitely be interpreted as propaganda in some ways, but I guess at least it’s right there on the tin. Getting into a piece of media with characters in the military when it’s not about the horrors of war specifically means said media will likely paint it as admirable. I didn’t find it to feature too much at least, and depicting gay relationships in the military does almost feel like a reminder that “hey, this doesn’t endorse the military in the way the military/country would sanction/fund/approve,” so it still feels a bit rebellious lol. Less like Call of Duty, but we still get to enjoy some good action scenes.

Speaking of action scenes, slight awkward transition here, but even if Gong Yingxian has to rank 2nd or 3rd as a gong in my books, I did find Blazing Armour to be a personal 5/5 novel, both subjectively and mostly objectively. I’m not exactly stingy with 5/5 when I do have to rate things because I know writing is hard, but for Blazing Armour, I feel like it deserves it all the more since I could see Shui Qian Cheng’s dedication to research; her improvement in writing (like compared to Shabi, you don’t just get told characters’ feelings briefly, as she more fully delves into the emotions); and it did keep me guessing—like man tbh it stressed me out so much. 🙈

Now on stress…oh my God I’ve been seeing (or rather, hearing) clips of the Shabi audio book and it is intense!! I was actually thinking about our conversation earlier, because it served as a reminder and another kick in the shin for me to get Manbo lol.

Shunzi has definitely done amazing as Jian Suiying. I heard from Twitter that he’s only ever voiced tops before, and his voice really does have that deep, rich charm and domineering, lower cadence of someone you’d usually imagine “on top.” So it’s extra impressive hearing his interpretation of someone so domineering being…well, dominated for the first time.

I’ve listened to a lot of Jian Suiying voices now and enjoyed all of them (the Paradox of Love fan audio drama is maybe one of my favourite versions in terms of specific “sound”), and I definitely find Shunzi to be absolutely up there in terms of everything: charm and expressiveness (eg the scene where he talks with his dad and Jian Dongyuan tells him to give way to Jian Suilin because “everything still belongs to the Jian family,” and you can really hear the bitterness in Jian Suiying’s forced laughter) and his new takes on the lines do feel fresh. Like there have been multiple line reads that feel unique from previous audio interpretations. The performance overall is just quite strong.

Which means that scene with Jian Suilin is truly so impactful. Those screams really convey the terror of that specific moment in a way the other adaptations haven’t fully captured—even more so after what I think has been a sliiightly frustrated response from fans over the alterations the manhua had to make. Like it’s understandable given censorship, but the manhua team does seem to have been struggling a bit to fully hit those emotional beats, so it feels almost more impactful to get so soon one of the most brutally grounded interpretations of Jian Suiying’s trauma at Jian Suilin’s actions. Especially since it’s a scene every fan knows, and now here it is, re-presented with a full intensity and horror, reminding fans that even in their familiarity with the scene and the fact that it’s fiction, such a thing is horrifying and traumatizing.

Even when the emotions aren’t so intense, like when Jian Suiying is “just” cursing Li Yu out in anger rather than fear during their first time in Beihai despite both scenes being assaults, Shunzi’s performance still completely conveys how uncomfortable it is.

So with all that in mind, the audio book adaptation of Shabi has certainly proven really impressive! I’m really glad we got it, both because I always enjoy new food, but also because it’s genuinely been of good quality.

Thoughts on Beloved Enemy Getting a Thai Adaptation

Originally this was a response to another post but I think it deserves its own. To be honest I'm not confident about this project at all. This is (imo) not one of SQC's strongest works and is really really really not fitting for today's BL audience. To demonstrate what I mean, here's an alignment chart of 8 of the (current) eleven gongs/tops in the 188 series (courtesy of a moot of mine on X, link to the original thread in the description).

Ming is the guy highlighted in purple. Look at how high he is situated relative to the other guys (and this is his novel counterpart btw). Now I love (most of) my 188 blorbos so it is with true affection that I say Ming really is pretty mild for 188 standards but I remember everyone losing their collective shit over Ming and he was already sanitised in the show. Basically 99% of you can't handle Yuan Yang (or whatever his name will be in Thai). It's not even just the non-con. I'm not sure how familiar people are with the original plot of the Beloved Enemy novel but without spoiling too much, the main conflict is so vile that even I, a resident toxic yaoi enjoyer, was traumatised by it. The moot who made the chart even explained that they added the 人渣 scale specifically because of Yuan Yang. Is he uniquely bad, no, not really actually. He's just really bad in a boring basic way that I lost interest and couldn't even stand to read the extras.

Seriously, why THIS particular IP (I know why, it's for money) when Winner Takes All is right there. Look at him, Zhao Jinxin is the cutest red flag, he's not even a red flag, he's a pink flag. He will gaslight you, he gaslit me, he's the gaslighting king (actually no, that's probably Luo Yi or Shao Qun but Jinxin actually won me over so really who wins).

[2ndblogg]

Hey! Just read your hot take on novel!wangxian and I absolutely agree. I'm gonna have to say here that I believe it boils down to the fetishization of homosexual men in a lot of the fandom culture that surrounds mlm shipping, as you said it's a space for a lot of women to experiment with their desires and whatnot, but I think therein lies the breaking points between reading novel!wangxian as a good, healthy relationship vs. reading it as a very flawed and toxic one. As an LGBT person, reading the way the author dealt with their relationship made me extremely uncomfortable, it just really feels like something that is written by someone who is more invested in using her queer characters for satisfying her and her reader's own pleasure than a well-built, strong relationship between two characters. Not to take away from the novel in some other aspects, I believe that novel!wwx is a much better, much more nuanced character than what he is in cql, but when it comes to wangxian, I think the intentions are very different for each of them. To each their own, I guess, but I do find it very troubling that some people in the fandom have a really hard time admitting that novel wangxian is not even remotely healthy.

Absolutely.

And can I just say how glad it makes me to see that not everyone is praising this book for it’s lgbt representation...

But I guess that’s also why I just occasionally feel the need to scream my frustrations into the void or try to make sense of the novel.

And why I try to be understanding and accepting of people’s opinion of the novel and not take it ‘personally’ (in the sense of sitting there thinking “holy shit this is how they view ME, this is what they think of ME” etc).

I was in fandoms back when they were really a place dominated by straight (homophobic) women and realism or lgbt representation wasn’t on anyone’s mind (and the occasional dude butting in to say that’s not how sex works or bottoming is experienced was ignored or told to get out). I experienced this change to fandoms being more of a lgbt space, of people becoming aware that media can shape your views of groups of people, of people becoming aware of their fetishizing of fictional gays vs. their prejudice against real life lgbt people etc.

And tbh MXTX just writes like one of those, she writes wangxian like everyone wrote their gay relationships around 2005 and earlier; clear power imbalance, clear roles and attributes that are divided into ‘manly’ and ‘feminine’, certain physical attributes (like the female self insert character aka the bottom being pretty and slight and weaker and shorter), men/the penetrating partner can’t really be raped so anything the woman/bottom tries isn’t really ‘bad’, the male love interest is forceful and self centered but ONLY because he’s so in love and since he’s emotionally stunted he has to express that through sex, men/tops NEED sex and it’s rude/mean to deny them that, the girl/bottom isn’t THAT horny or in charge of their own sexuality but wants to please their partner and what they really get out of it is the emotional aspect, decisions need to be made for them because the dude/top just knows better, the girl/bottom is childish and flirty and the guy/top suffers through it until he finally snaps and shows the girl/bottom who'sboss etc etc. (honestly homophobia and misogyny is so tightly knit in this kind of fiction, if it wasn’t so frustrating it would be very interesting).

Tbh I disagree with novel!wwx being more nuanced (despite a lot of ppl whose opinions I really respect also feeling this way), because I simply cannot seperate him from the wangxian relationship. All I see are tropes and stereotypes applied to make him ‘work’ in the context of the wangxian relationship instead of an actual personality...

To me, in CQL WWX is clearly the main character and you love his interactions with LWJ and want more of them and value them, wheras in the novel most of the time WWX plays second fiddle even when a scene should technically be about him and LWJ’s presence is incredibly suffocating, because he’s always being controlling or at the very least influencing WWX.

I also don’t feel like WWX has much of a character arc/growth. We’re essentially told he had one but the only thing that really actually changes is him hating himself a bit more and letting LWJ smash..., and I guess: he’s less independent than ever, he’s more isolated that ever...

I’ve called novel!wangxian a relationship between an abuser and his victim, because you can find evidence of that in the text. Not because I think the author wanted to portray an unhealthy gay relationship. Like you said, she was fetishizing and wrote for a similar crowd. But to me that ‘realization’ helped...I still don’t see how people can call it a masterpiece but I can at least understand hyping something you like up...

And like, badly written gay relationship or not; gay/straight,man/women, I see how people can find it hot. Exploring your sexuality through fictional characters isn’t necessarily a strictly straight girl phenomena. I probably have read fic that was exactly like this, I can’t judge anyone for it. But no one prints out the last PWP they read and goes, “this is ideal lgbt representation and nothing will ever be this good, the fact that it includes rape makes it so realistic” like????

(Is that part or an effect of the woke and purety culture? you can’t say ‘i like this book but it has flaws’ or ‘i’ve enjoyed this but it’s not up the feminism or lgbt acceptance that i preach/live’ so you have to pretend it’s flawless?)

And like, I do think novel!wangxian is a nightmare when it comes to lgbt representation and I do believe this is largely due to a cishet woman writing about gay men and fetishizing them (the fact that a lot of peoples arguments why novel!wangxian ‘is better’ boils down to ‘there’s kissing and sex’ is also pretty telling). And I am frightend and worried by some peoples response to it.

But is it really fair to see it as just that? It’s a problem sure, but that same thing happens in straight media (which I am admittedly not well versed in). Stephanie Meyer didn’t set out to write Edward Cullen to be a creep and non of the teenage girls that went crazy over him viewed it as such...Reylo fans (aside from some of them proclaiming Finn to be the real villain and saying it’s racist and misogynistic to not find Kylo Ren hot) found a way to view him threatening her as romantic and sexy, Loki fans that didn’t ship him with Thor usually fell into the camp of “he would be a perfect boyfriend” or “what if this OFC was his slave and he raped her everyday <3″... like ignoring/glorifying/romanticizing behaviours or exploring what kinks you might have through the safety of fictional characters and fictional settings isn’t JUST happening when it comes to ‘the gays’...

And not just specifically in fandom spaces either, a lot of ‘romantic’ movies include inappropriate touching, the boy/guy knowing better than the girl what she wants etc. And I absolutely do believe that that’s something that normalized these things for a lot of young girls and guys (I don’t want to get into this too much, I’ve really seen a change in the past few years, but before that it was pretty common for young boys to believe they need to keep pursuing and pressuring a girl that has said no, girls truly thought boys could die of blue balls, girls thought it was their duty as good girlfriends to let their boyfriends fuck them even when they weren’t in the mood, that they couldn’t talk about what they want in bed or what they don’t find enjoyable because ‘sex is for boys and girls get a relationship in exchange’ etc.).

And in much the same way movies have only relatively recently begun being called out for that, it’s also still pretty recently that they’re being called out for having their one queer coded character be a pedophile and a murder or whatever...Like, society as a whole becoming aware of these issues.

But do authors that publish their work with a specific target audience in mind have a responsibility to think about the effect it might have on them? (And I can already hear loud screams of ‘no way, it’s not your fault if your audience isn’t smart enough to understand that this bad thing is bad’, but I actually do believe in a way they do. That doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t write whatever you want, just maybe take a look at HOW you bring your point across. (We do KNOW people are influenced by what propaganda they’re consistantly fed. I mean, you wouldn’t write a pro-drugs childrens book...) )

What if the author isn’t aware of their bias and prejudices? Or their target audience isn’t their actual audience?

And do we, society and media, judge female and male authors differently when it comes to romance and sex in fiction? (The answer is yes btw) But also, where do we draw the line at calling something ‘badly written’ and calling it toxic? Can it be both? As I’ve said before, a lot of people claim that only the physical intimacy scenes of novel!wangxian are bad, because they’re badly written and OOC, some say the book as amazingly written and only the wangxian relationship is bad because the author doesn’t know how to write gay men. In my ‘hot take’ I essentially said that’s not necessarily bad writing so much as it’s simply an (okay, unintentional) toxic relationship. And would this relationship still come across as toxic (or badly written, whichever you want) if we didn’t know the author to be a cishet woman? Or if a gay man had written it? (my personal, eloquent answer for this is: yes, but differently.)

Which was really all just a rambly way to get to my point of: it’s not just fetishizing of gay men, it’s also the homophobia and self-inserting in a safe situation.

You can literally replace WWX in the novel with a female character and it wouldn’t change a thing. The author takes such an effort into building up this power imbalance in every aspect of their life that if WWX were a heroine nothing would change in this (sexist/ancient society) setting.

(And clearly this is something that appeals to people if you look at the amount of female!WWX fics...)

Not even the sex scenes. There are maybe two allusions in all of them combined that WWX might also have a dick but like, you can’t be sure and it sure as hell doesn’t need stimulation.

(and again, that could be written as a kink...but it’s just not.)

CQL is a gay love story. MDZS at it’s core is none of that.

But I also very much agree with your ‘to each their own’, like here I am criticizing and trying to find explanations and whatever, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter why someone might like (or write) a book like this, I vastly prefer CQL!wangxian but people have their own reasons for not doing so.

The ‘problem’ really only lies in, as you said, people not being able to accept that it’s not a healthy relationship. Or claiming it to be perfect lgbt rep.

And because my brain can’t shut up today:

I also can’t stop thinking that the way some people ‘glorify’ the book as due to their age and ‘inexperience’.

When I was a pretty young kid and got into fanfiction, there was nothing but completely OOC!whump to be found in the first two fandoms I was in. And I loved it. It was YEARS later that I thought I might like to read something with the characters being...in character. What I’m trying to say, in different stages and phases of your life you might enjoy different things, for different reasons...and obviously, in that moment, you won’t think about ‘what appeals to me here/should this appeal to me/etc’.

I don’t mean inexperience as ‘sexual inexperience’ here, though of course that could be part of it, but also like, inexperience with this genre (is this the first book like this you read, or did you just read 50 in a row that all had the same unhealthy vibes?), with lgbt people and issues (do you know any lgbt people or is your only image of them either the cute boy you can’t have and don’t want to see with another girl or grown men in full kink gear in front of children during CSD? and also: do you think ‘i like this’ and that’s the end of it or do you notice how many people idolize this objectively unhealthy relationship and won’t allow critique on it...)  

I...just wanted to say thanks really.

I just can’t stop rambling apparently and I know I mostly just repeated what you said or what I already said but in longer... I just really do feel very strongly about novel!wangxian and the perception of them and have actually at times felt very personally...worried/affected, by people’s acceptance and love of them and I just... have to try and make sense of it...

[pompadorkery]

What do you mean you find it hard to relate to female characters. It's a fictional universe, you can make them anyway you want. Lucy is pretty feminine and Anglo too. I realize almost all the moms of your ocs are bad or thier children hate them. I understand that you have an abusive mom but do you really have to projected on every character you have. Do you have something against women or your just not attracted to them. Probably the latter because all of your ocs are sex dolls.

Wow. Where to even start with this one.

Why do you think the majority of Hollywood action heroes or video game protagonists are cis white males?

It's because it's the easiest to relate to for the biggest demographic of their audience.

Many anime have just a boring plain normie male protag for the same reason. They're supposed to be easily relatable, and like a blank slate that you can project on.

For me, female characters are hard to relate to.

Growing up, I never cared for female protags or love interest characters. And usually actively disliked them. (Much of this is because female characters are generally poorly written in alot of media, but that's besides the point)

I have never felt "in touch" with womanhood. I could never relate to female characters because none of them were like me, or had the same thoughts or struggles I had.

The female characters I like now are generally mold breaking. They don't fit in the typical box. And they give me something I can relate to.

For example:

Mako Mankanshoku from Kill la Kill. She's an absolute idiot and a total bimbo. She eats alot, she's loud, she's kinda useless at times, and she cares alot about her friends.

Satya "Symmetra" Vaswani from Overwatch. First of all, she's on the autism spectrum. She's rigid, stubborn, and can often come across as mean- but in reality she's just very goal oriented and likes things to be orderly.

While these are very different characters, I find alot of things in them that I can relate to and identify with. Not every aspect is true at all times, and there are plenty of things in their characters that I can't relate with, but regardless, there are aspects of myself that I can see in characters like them.

I've always related better to male characters. And like I said, much of the time female characters aren't written well, while the male characters are. I just always found them cooler. I liked their designs more, and they had more interesting stories. Whereas many female characters entire plot revolves around getting with the protag.

I've struggled with gender my entire life. I never felt like a girl. Even the people around me would say that I was such a "tomboy". I would often get told to dress more feminine, or that my haircut made me look like a boy, etc. One of my happiest moments as a teenager was when I got to play a male character in my high school's spring musical and during that entire time everyone referred to me in character, as a boy. I had a great time playing this character, and it really showed through in my performance. I was comfortable for once.

I identify as non-binary now, and I still have alot of questions about my own gender, and I'm still figuring alot of things out. But what I know for sure is that I'm not a girl.

Now, getting into my OCs.

You claim that all my OCs have troubled relationships with their moms, because I have a troubled relationship with my own mother.

2 of OCs.

2 of my OCs have mommy issues.

Out of all the characters I have, only 2 have issues with their mothers. So like, are you just pulling things out of your ass, or?

Lucy was abandoned by his mom at a young age and has alot of bitterness towards her because of this. Which is perfectly reasonable given the situation.

Sanka is just a brat. He still loves and cares about his mom, their relationship is just strained due to his own insecurities and self-loathing.

All my other characters either have no mother in the picture at all, or have perfectly fine and normal relationships with their moms.

Neither Sanka nor Lucy's moms are abusive. So it's pretty yikes of you to bring up my own abusive mother in this conversation. What are you trying to prove? In your concocted narrative, I'm writing characters with abusive moms because my mom was abusive and that's the only mother figure I know. So.... I'd be writing from experience.... in what world is that a bad thing?

You also mentioned Lucy and Angelo being feminine. "Feminine male" does not equal "woman". Those are two very different things. Just as a butch woman is not the same as a man. Experiences are completely different. Equating them is extremely sexist, and could be incredibly transphobic if you also think this way about real people.

And claiming I'm not attracted to women because my OCs are 'sex dolls'. Literally what are you even trying to get at? You do realize that real women and fictional characters are different, correct? Plenty of lesbians create stories or art about mlm characters. Plenty of lesbians draw gay porn. Are they not attracted to women because they draw men getting fucked?

I am bi. I also fall somewhere in the ace spectrum, due to alot of my own dysphoria. Of course I'm attracted to women. Real women are so incredibly sexy and beautiful and interesting. What isn't there to like? Just because I like making male characters doesn't somehow mean I hate women. I just haven't been able to create a fictional woman I find as interesting and captivating as real women are.

Also. I just enjoy drawing men. So a majority of my characters are gonna be men. Sue me. Sorry for enjoying myself.

And the whole "sex doll" comment. I answer the questions people ask. Which happens to be alot about sex. What can I say? People have cumbrain.

I'm also an nsfw artist. So obviously alot of the art I create is gonna be porn.

Is that the entire story of the characters? No, of course not! Do you think me and Ren would have enough storyline for an entire book if all the characters did was fuck? There's so much more to it than that. There's so much more that people don't see.

I mean, what's more interesting to see a drawing of:

Two characters in the heated embrace of love making

Or two characters sitting on the couch doing completely different mundane activities

There's a time and a place for everything, and sometimes drawing something simple and mundane is a fun look into a characters life.... But also I just like drawing dicks and the faces of people who are thoroughly wrecked.

Tl;dr- It's not that deep, fam.

[thewhitefluffyhat]

Thoughts on Rika’s Magical Girl Story

This is a real blast from the past!  Wayyy back for the February Magia Rapport, I was thinking about writing a “favorite Flame magical girl” post from scratch.  And then I looked through my Magireco folder and realized I basically already had - back in September 2017.  As usual, I never post things until literally years later because I am a silly.

So yes, the reason Rika is one of my favorite Flame characters, even to this day? It’s because back in 2017, Rika’s Magical Girl Story was a major turning point that got me invested in Magireco.

The following was written the very first time I read Rika’s story, but I still stand by these comments on it even today.

Going into Rika’s Magical Girl Story, I already knew the main twist ahead of time.  And I was worried that since the Magical Girl Stories are very short, Rika’s whole character would just be some lesbian stereotype.

Turns out that’s not the case at all – Rika has plenty of other interests, friends, and personality beyond the parts of the plot related to her orientation.

In particular, I love that her story’s main theme isn’t “lesbian angst” it’s “don’t judge people by appearances.”  Rika is purposely introduced in a way that makes you think she’s shallow, vain, boy-crazy, and super cheerful.  But then the story goes out of its way to break that stereotype, and show that Rika sticks up for her friends, is actually a bundle of stress under that cheerful mask, is surprisingly mature in realizing magic-induced love is wrong, and oh by the way, isn’t even straight. 

Then there’s the whole subplot of Rika and Hinano becoming friends.  They both have very different interests and personalities, but they put those differences aside to support each other.  And the end result is a very sweet mentoring relationship.

I really like the subplot of “magical girl realizes wish-granted love is wrong and works to fix it” and the “magical girl is revealed to be a lesbian” subplot, but the combination is a bit unfortunate.  The end result is that the single explicitly lesbian magical girl gets a story about her realizing she needs to get her girlfriend back with a boy.

If they’d kept the “don’t judge by appearances” part of Rika’s story but done the “undo my wish” subplot with a different, straight character (and maybe added more explicit discussion of “this is bad because no consent”), that might have worked a little better.

In general, I liked Rika worrying what Hinano would think about her if she revealed her orientation.  I’ve read too much yuri-bait where the reason there’s no homophobia is to leave open the interpretation that the girls aren’t gay, they’re really just “best friends.”  For me, it was far more impactful to get a full confirmation that Rika not only likes girls, she’s also aware of all the real-life difficulties that entails. 

I also really love the way that the homophobia angle is handled.  We get Rika’s angst and her feelings on not being able to talk about the subject, which felt to me like a legit “first time I’ve ever come out to someone” conversation. And even better, that’s followed up by Hinano’s strong reassurances that anyone who thinks badly of Rika because of her orientation is a jerk.

So the end result is that we get an exploration of internalized homophobia that centers on the lesbian girl’s experience, while avoiding being exploitative and reveling in homophobic comments and bullying.

And then to top that, it seems like Rika and her girlfriend were dating without anyone giving them trouble.  Indeed, it might very well be that her wish didn’t change her friend’s orientation - after all, the main effect was to make her forget her current boyfriend. 

When you put the whole thing together, it seems like Magireco strikes a decent balance.  Kamihama is at a place where Rika may have had some bad experience or heard some ugly comments in the past, but in the present most people are actually pretty fine with gay people.

But probably the most interesting surprise for me in this story?  The little bit of Part 3 where Rika cries about not having a place in the typical romance narrative.  Her friend and the girl’s boyfriend are the princess and the dreamy prince, but Rika doesn’t fit in either of those roles.  So who is she?  Just the cupid who makes their love happen?  What about HER love, what about HER story?  Doesn’t she deserve a place too?

There isn’t really a resolution to this, but I was so happy that she brings it up.  This is why fictional representation is important, dammit! 

(Someone please give this child a copy of Revolutionary Girl Utena.)

tl;dr: Tragic lesbians are definitely overdone, but the angst here feels way more nuanced than I expected, and the short story also has some other legitimately great themes.  Good job, Magireco, please keep going this direction!

A last note: I know it’s a long shot, but I’m still holding out the hope that this isn’t the end of Rika’s story. After all, the game isn’t anywhere near done.  They’ll be adding more magical girls in the future, so it would be super easy to dump a new batch of 3*s where one has a character story where they meet and fall for Rika.

...

......

Amusingly enough, exactly one week after I wrote that last comment above?  Ren was released.  With the very first new character introduction event, Magireco had given me exactly what I barely even dared to hope for.  

 Needless to say, that was the moment I knew I was in this game for the long haul.

[kob131]

Wooo momma CJ, you have somehow become even dumber.

So for context- I am not a Bumbleby shipper. It just kind of exists to me, which is usually how Blake-related stuff happens. I prefer Ruby or Yang. The most I have to say about this is that ‘Stop fucking giving moments that can be edited out for China RT- I do not trust you to do anything but make the move that would profit you” and “I would really like for this to have happened in a way that flipped off all those Bumbleby shippers that tormented the writers by denying every single bit of LGBT rep before this’. (Then again, I feel the same way about Blacksun shippers).

So naturally, I’d be somewhat inclined to listen to this on principle. But boy howdy did CJ fuck this up out of the gate.

If this is supposed to be about ‘better writing’ CJ, then shouldn’t you be making the argument about what KIND of relationship Yang should be in, if any? Her ending up with another girl or, surprise!, no one are still valid options. Before you even begin with who she should be fucking (Let’s be honest, that’s what you care about)- You should probably define her sexuality or decide not to.

And the funny thing is- He’s implying that it would be better writing for Yang to end up with one of these four guys. But by as he’s said before- they fuck execution as much as conceptualization so no matter what, the writers would be fucking up the relationship. Because most things can work if done properly in fiction. And thus- there is no reason to believe that Yang would work with them than Blake or whoever.

But sure- let’s assume that the problem is that Yang is gay. ... A fucking stupid idea since Yang never barred the option of being bisexual but let’s accept the premise for argument’s sake.

The options we have are the following-

Ren-Someone who not only has a love interest but his character was SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED to be a reverse of Nora’s so he doesn’t work with anyone BUT Nora.

Neptune- A guy whose barely a character with no real grounds to make a judgement on if he’d be better in this or that relationship.

Jaune-A guy that the writing can’t focus on for more than five minutes or else Miles gets death threats in the mail.

And Sun-A character that seems to have been SPECIFICALLY MADE for Blake, much in the same vein as Yang.

None of these guys by concept (except maybe Jaune) are any better than any other option, let alone Blake. Because like Sun, Yang was made as a character with her relation to Blake in mind, platonic or romantic. It’s why Sun and Adam, two other characters made with Blake in mind, share some elements with Yang.

This whole thing is just a fuck show. I don’t know if CJ is homophobic- This is fiction and not reality. Not to mention he’s probably doing this for ‘anti-Bumbleby’ clapback points. But honestly- I don’t care if you do call him that now. Cuz it’s really easy to see this are homophobic.

P.S. Just so i can kick that ‘grumpy bitch’ argument in the balls on the way out-

The world is fucking ending, she lost her fucking arm, the person she lost her arm for ran off, she likely has depression on top of her PTSD, people won’t stop lying to each other and her mother turned out to be a pathetic coward. As a person- Yang’s likely going to be grumpy. As a character- the tone is more desperate and dour than before, no shit she’ll show a more grumpy side in response.

Lmao this guy (if y'all are on twitter you know who it is)

First of all, “devolved into a grumpy bitch”. Like lmao the misogyny jumped out. Sorry Yang has more character traits than just being a blonde funny party girl with big tits and that she actually has a personality and a backstory.

Also his great idea “hey guys! If instead of having the bad idea of Yang getting with Blake—her teammate and a character whose arc is directly connected with hers—the writers were good and Yang got with one these clearly better choices, who would it be?” *Proceeds to put two of Yang's friends who already had love interests in the show and two other guys with whom Yang has interacted maybe twice in the show*

Also, I really like the implication that it would only be good writing if Yang dated a guy! Like, obviously, even if it wasn't Blake, Yang dating another female character, like Weiss or Nora, would be terrible writing too, because what's really bad about the writing apparently is that Yang is sapphic and not dating a boy.

Like lmao.