#Representation sins

[mamacarlyle]

I'm gonna complain about the presentation is trans women in horror movies. The bride in black (insidious) IS NOT A WOMAN. Angela Baker (Sleep Away Camp) IS NOT A GIRL. Norman Bates (Pycho) IS NOT A WOMAN. There's probably more, but these characters do not identify as female, they were abused and (in the case of BIB and Angela) forced to present as female. There's a whole ass scene in Insidious 2 where Little BIB gets in trouble with his mom for using the 'Name his father gave him'. If you wanna talk about trans serial killers, let's talk about Buffalo Bill... I'm sure there are others but it's almost 1 am here and I will most likely edit/reblog with changes later.

[kat-chan02]

oh. my. god. i swear if i see one more person hating on and complaining about the caitvi sex scene im gonna throw hands!!! it's like they've forgotten that,, you know THERE WAS ANOTHER SEX SCENE IN SEASON 1 ?! don't remember hearing any complaints over that. just because it's a queer couple doesn't mean that people should just hate on the scene. if you weren't mad about Mel and Jayce getting it on,, you shouldn't be mad about Cait and Vi either.

[girl4music]

Happy 29th anniversary to the pilot episode of XENA.

Original air date: September 4th, 1995.

Directed by Doug Lefler. Written by Robert Tapert.

Lead starring Lucy Lawless as Xena.

and Renee O’Connor as Gabrielle.

I will watch and write meta about other TV shows.

I will watch and write meta about other TV ships.

But nothing I watch or write meta about in this world will ever come close to matching my fan passion and loyalty to the TV show ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’ and the TV ship Xena and Gabrielle. They are my one true love.

What ‘Sins Of The Past’ does once you’ve seen the whole TV show and watch the episode back over is it shows you how intertwined these soulmates already are as the event of them meeting saves their lives and once you are aware of the wheres and whys of this - the show itself completely changes into something more valuable than you initially saw and understood. I recommend people go back and watch it and only view it as a love story from the very beginning because the way it hits you when you do is just mind-blowing.

They set up a beautifully complex and layered WLW love story between Xena and Gabrielle without really realizing that that’s what they were doing because it’s such a very natural and authentic queer storytelling of two strangers that find home in the soul of each other.

"There’s not a word yet, for old friends who’ve just met” is a lyric in a song written by Paul Williams and Kenny Ascher from ‘The Muppets Movie’. Writer and co-executive producer, who wrote many of the most formative episodes of ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’, Steven L. Sears affectionately ascribes that lyric to Xena and Gabrielle because he believes it perfectly describes the incredible soulmate connection that the two main characters share right from the very beginning of the TV show. And I would have to say that I agree with him on that because no matter what alternative Universe, Uber timeline, reincarnated lifetime or afterlife it is, they meet each other and they develop an attraction to and affinity for each other that seemingly goes way beyond basic friendship and romance and they have a dynamic that is so strong, so substantial and so damn profound that the studio gave up on censoring them. It’s a dynamite chemistry that can be felt so viscerally that you can watch the episodes countless times over and still pick up on fresh new things about the way these two characters are with one another and how they balance and complement each other so perfectly that they’re basically the human representation of yin and yang. And you can read my Xena and Gabrielle: Character study thesis to learn what I mean by that.

Their relationship is incredibly well-written in that it’s so carefully and conscientiously slow-burned and evolved from friends into lovers that it will make it impossible not to ship them together. Believe me - even if you’ve seen Xena before, you haven’t seen it like this. You haven’t seen it as a WLW love story from the beginning to the end. But once you do, you will be attached to it in ways that will make you just like me.

That is… Lifelong dedicated to and enamoured with it.

This is a TV show that finished airing in the year 2001 but it’s been my everything since I first discovered it at 5 years old just flicking through the UK channels bored out of my mind or so my parents have told me.

I cannot even begin to imagine of who I’d be without this TV show and TV ship in my life and I know no other will ever come close to it or them for me for the rest of my life. So all day today I am spending my time celebrating not just the TV show’s anniversary of its pilot episode but also Xena and Gabrielle’s anniversary of meeting and becoming the greatest love story ever told in TV art/entertainment history. They’re iconic and legendary in the LGBTQ community for a reason. That reason is that they’re the first and, honestly, still the best WLW/queer representation that can ever be witnessed and engaged with on the TV screen. The factors as to why that’s true are many,… but mainly… it’s because they were allowed to exist and evolve together as the only lead main female characters in such a way that no other WLW ship on TV ever would or could do so again. They may have been severely censored as an explicit romantic and fully maintext confirmed and committed couple on screen but the creators never let that prevent them from providing a depiction of an all-encompassing love that was much like a romance and still went beyond a romance. Xena and Gabrielle’s love went way beyond the boundaries of romance. I’m not ever saying it’s not that. I’m just saying that it’s more than that and that’s exactly what makes it even more romantic than anything else ever created at least in the TV format and paradigm it was.

Since then, the landscape has changed so drastically that TV WLW/queer ships are never given what they got. Which was a 6 seasons, 22-24 episodes-long epic journey of them just being each other’s absolute EVERYTHING. You can see, hear and feel every single moment of that in who Xena and Gabrielle are as both individual main characters and as a main character dynamic because they do not ever neglect any real and raw aspect about them. The only thing you do not ever get to see between them - although it is heavily implied often - is sexual intimacy. That really is not a loss because everything else that should or needs to be there is there way more than it is with any other WLW/queer TV ships in any other TV shows because they’re lead main characters. In fact… they’re the only lead main characters that are credited throughout the entire run of ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’ and, honestly, sometimes I do wish TV ships in other TV shows would censor themselves every now and again so that they would be forced to dig deeper into the nuances and details as much as they did with Xena and Gabrielle.

I know many would disagree with me here but I’m adamant that the censorship helped them more than it hindered them because what you got instead with them was such a powerful representation of true love that didn’t have to rely on sex to represent it. I know that they couldn’t be shown to be sexually intimate because it wasn’t allowed to be sexual. Nowadays it can but I find that sex is used too much now when it shouldn’t be because a real life WLW/queer ship is more than sex and that’s why Xena and Gabrielle is still better representation even in this day and age.

It’s a combination of queer censorship, unbelievably strong chemistry between the leads and the creator/cast/crew’s sincere intention with queer storytelling that gave us the truly EPIC WLW love story that we got with XENA and I wouldn’t have it any other way because, for me, that is everything I could ever want.

So if you love this TV show and TV ship, please join me in celebrating the timelessly magical experience it is by writing meta about what these things mean to you.

XENA: “You know, I’m sending you home in the morning.”

GABRIELLE: “I won’t stay home. I don’t belong there, Xena. I’m not the little girl that my parents wanted me to be. You wouldn’t understand.”

XENA: “It’s not easy proving you’re a different person.

*Gabrielle eyes her curiously, Xena throws a bundle of blankets at her, gestures to the other side of the fire*

You can sleep over there.”

XENA: “You know, where I’m headed, they’ll be trouble.”

GABRIELLE: “I know.”

XENA: “Then why would you want to go into that with me?”

GABRIELLE: “That’s what friends do. They stand by each other when there’s trouble.”

XENA: “All right, friend.”

[moe-broey]

One day. I will be able to find the words. To explain what the difference is between Lif and Mani. There is a Core Difference between them. Of what they Are. Today apparently is NOT that day though.

[i-am-trans-gwender]

I'm just gonna ramble about common personifications of two of the Seven Deadly Sins (I don't have anything interesting to say about the other five)

Personifications of Lust are often depicted as a conveniently attractive woman (or occasionally a man), which is weird since the other sins are shown engaging in the sin instead of inspiring it. An exception is Lust in the Doobus Goobus video Seven Stupid Sins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wImMLAgb3Es

Personifications of Gluttony are usually plus size, which I don't like. The issue isn't weight, but overindulgence. Theologically, it's excessive consumption of anything not just food. Beelzebub from Helluva Boss is the only exception I can think of. I imagine Gluttony as a skeleton: always hungry but never satisfied.

[calyroco]

Given that Belphegor, the sin of sloth, is making(or at least approving the making of) Stolas' prescribed brand of antidepressants I'm disappointed that they just seem like regular meds. Like since a sin is approving this stuff, it could've resulted in medications that fuck you up instead of really treating the actual issue.

Maybe antidepressants that treat depression by either killing your emotions completely so you have no strong feelings on anything(sort of like a temporary lobotomy) or sedating you so hard you could have surgery done on you and not notice. Since it's hell you could get away with medications not really working the way they should to make the world feel more alien. Instead it's regular, apparently perfectly functional, antidepressants that just so happen to have the stamp of the approval of a deadly sin. It fits with the sloth ring's general medical theme,but that's the best thing the little antidepressant label nod to Belphegor has going for it for me.

Then again,the incorporation of sins into the feel of the rings and what those rings do has never felt particularly strong. Despite being leaders, it feels like they could disappear tomorrow and their absence wouldn't do much.

Like what would happen to the lust ring if Asmodeus pulled a Lucifer and just stopped ruling for a bit? The residents would probably keep going just the same. It doesn't feel like the lust ring is the way it is because of Asmodeus. It feels like it just so happens to contain Asmodeus,y'know?

Admittedly in the grand scheme of things,this isn't a big deal at all. There are much weirder writing choices that could dwarf this teensy tiny detail easily. I just find it boring how when there's an opportunity to shift away from hell being like a generic U.S.-esque setting with a red coat of paint to something more fantastical and alien, it just commits to being our world with a red coat of paint

[rotten-vivs]

i love that every once in a while someone likes all my shadowrot posts because i know damn well they are going through the #shadowrot tag. like yes please, we need more shadowrot enjoyers

[variousqueerthings]

In anticipation of RTD's next season of Doctor Who and all the contributions he's made to queer representations onscreen.

Couple of takeaways:

I cannot believe people are out there slandering RTD's good name because they personally haven't heard of him, when he's possibly one of the - if not the - most prominent names that created queer television when it was barely legal to do so within Britain and put queerness into mainstream British television (and by extension global television) in a way that's still setting precedents today

"Daddy Davies" thank you for that VB, you're so right

a reminder that queer people writing community stories cannot be considered "bad representation" in the way we describe it when straight cis people phone it in, and RTD's depictions of queerness have been complicated from day one (one can make arguments about how well he's always managed intersectionality within that, but not because he hasn't always been trying!)

demand better yeah. we can do so much better. Listen to Daddy Davies. you don't need disney

also a reminder that -- and granted the plot could be terrible but aside for now (and I doubt it) -- there's several trans and queer actors cast within this next season, and RTD has always been known for writing interesting female characters to boot, he has never given a fuck about conforming

It's a Sin is one of the best narratives set during the AIDS crisis ever made and he had to fight for it every step of the way, even though he was already by then well beyond being a well-established prominent creator within Britain

once I was working at the Attitude Awards and he won an award and had the most delightful speech against conformity and simplification of queerness and fear-mongering against the trans community and went on a whole ramble about wanting every letter of the alphabet and numbers and greek letters in the acronym, because more diversity is always better

literally, nobody doing it like RTD

[libertasforte]

when you're keeping both of them

[arcsin27]

I integrated this into my belief system btw

[dualisume]

|| I'm not certain if i should consider this a headcanon but it's more of a study to furina & focalors biblical references but that i want to establish in my way of writing them but here we go !

The thing is everyone claims that furina is a representation of Jesus, the perfect human, but i think that mihoyo had made Furina be referenced to many more biblical figures. First, is furina being referenced to Mary && focalors being Angel Gabriel. Focalors && furina's first meeting is the enactment of the beginning of new testament , basically the creation of jesus. When focalors, showed up into the mirror, saying the same thing as what Angel Gabriel stated to Mary when he announces the great news, although for furina, the great news isn't as great since she is the same person who have to carry all the sins after all she was a perfect human but No. She isn't , which contradicts to what focalors claim because Furina, is also a reference to people's sin, worshipping Fake Idols, instead of the real God in the bible.

Furina in her 500 years of acting as the Hydro Archon , had earned her a lot of fanatics, not for her being the ' archon' but being the ' idol ' of Opera Epiclese , the diety of being able to show twist and giving a good spectacle && good time . You can see in the bible, that people have sinned multiple times, again && again with them praising a Fake Idol , one popular story is the book of Exodus, where Moses broke the 10 commandments due to his people praising the wrong idol. This is the same with the people of fontaine, they do not praise the hydro archon as the archon that protects them but instead she is being praised as someone who can give temporary amusement && enjoyment. It's so easy how people of fontaine turned their backs to Furina, whenever there's no good trial being offered, cause just like in the bible the fake idols are only there for worshipping && praising when there's happiness && no problems, but when there are problems they immediately blame and toss them away.

another popular depiction of furina is the story of whore of Babylon but everyone knows about it already being the reference to the ruler who believed that she would reign over the earth forever. She said in her heart: “I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children" , so I'll not dwell much to that for now

and lastly the whole act 5 finale, in which furina && the cast i being referenced to as the last supper , although furina is said to be jesus here but that isn't quite true, i see that furina is just the reference to enactment of the crucifiction process in the bible.

The whole trial is a reference to the part of the bible where the Romans are asking for jesus to be crucified , the shit show of where everyone is turning their back and screaming at her was a reference to jesus parading himself carrying the cross , where people would insult jesus , spit & call him fake && the other cast , most especially Traveler, is a reference to Judas, turning his back and betraying furina, with their whole plot to make her stand in trial && admit her sins, ( i see Neuvilette here as more of pontius pilate, cause i do believe that he thinks furina is innocent but due to everyone's desire to know that truth, he was forced to do it.) but after the death sentence is being in the process, furina for me doesn't reference jesus here but more of like the sins of the people on the process of forginess, && neuvilette is the one who reference him , since it was his rebirth after the death of Focalors, gaining all his powers and very whole divinity, like how jesus was resurrected, after 3 days, with him being powerful and divine enough to escape the death.

[thundergrace]

Also wonderful? Mouse and Ash. I know it's hard to fathom a healthy romance between teenagers, but they really are doing well by these two (so far).

Every time I think some dumbass miscommunication or secret is going to do them in, they work through it.

I also love that Ash being trans doesn't feel tokenized. He's just there being a wonderful understanding and supportive boyfriend. I would love to see a storyline a bit more central to him, similar to how they involve Kelly. But I know the girls come first, and that's something I appreciate.

[jetwhenitsmidnight]

The Sins on Their Bones by Laura R. Samotin

Source: NetGalley ARC

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Release date: 7 May 2024

Genre: dark fantasy

If you like:

Jewish folklore

(Mutual) gay yearning

Queernorm

Villain POV

Lovers to enemies

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5

Synopsis

Dimitri Alexeyev used to be the Tzar of Novo-Svitsevo. Now, he is merely a broken man, languishing in exile after losing a devastating civil war instigated by his estranged husband, Alexey Balakin. In hiding with what remains of his court, Dimitri and his spymaster, Vasily Sokolov, engineer a dangerous ruse. Vasily will sneak into Alexey’s court under a false identity to gather information, paving the way for the usurper’s downfall, while Dimitri finds a way to kill him for good.

But stopping Alexey is not so easy as plotting to kill an ordinary man. Through a perversion of the Ludayzim religion that he terms the Holy Science, Alexey has died and resurrected himself in an immortal, indestructible body—and now claims he is guided by the voice of God Himself. Able to summon forth creatures from the realm of demons, he seeks to build an army, turning Novo-Svitsevo into the greatest empire that history has ever seen.

Dimitri is determined not to let Alexey corrupt his country, but saving Novo-Svitsevo and its people will mean forfeiting the soul of the husband he can’t bring himself to forsake—or the spymaster he’s come to love.

Content warnings

Domestic and emotional abuse

Implied grooming

Death, war, gore, body horror, blood, injury

Torture

Past sexual assualt

Alcohol and drug use

Vomit

Mental illness/depression

Review

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!!

I love unconventional fantasy novels, where the main characters aren't powerful and heroic, where they have lost everything, where they doubt themselves and their decisions at every turn, but still choose to forge on regardless.

Dimitri is depressed and going through it mentally, after his ex-husband's betrayal and usurpation, and a lot of the beginning of this book is about picking up the pieces in order to move forward. I appreciate how his depression is taken seriously as a legit illness, which is something you don't see a lot of in high fantasy. Vasily is his loyal spymaster who is devoted to his country and to Dimitri, and is willing to do whatever it takes in order to reinstate Dimitri as Tzar. At times, things look hopeless, but Vasily manages to persevere and act under pressure. Alexey reminds me of the Darkling from Shadow & Bone, so take that as you will. He's power hungry and delusional in his quest for more power, under the misguided belief that he must do it for the good of the country. I hadn't expected to get his point of view in this book, and I won't say it was a pleasant surprise, but it was fascinating to read from his perspective and see how differently he interprets things.

A lot of the negative reviews critique the pacing as ""too slow"", but honestly, I didn't even notice? In hindsight I can see how people might find this book slow, as it takes about halfway into this book for the main plot to get going, but I really enjoyed being able to spend more time with the cast, learning about them and their backstories before getting swept up in the plot.

I've also seem some criticism of the amount of sex scenes in this book, which is perfectly fine and everyone's preferences are valid. However, I do feel that some people are coming at this from the perspective that sex scenes are written purely for the purpose of titillating the audience, which is definitely not the case here. The characters have sex for a variety of reasons, ranging from using it as a coping mechanism for trauma, or as a way to exert power or control, or as a method of manipulation, which I think is important to keep in mind before dismissing this book as ""smut"". (But if you're into it that's fine too!)

Another aspect of this book I found rather interesting was how Jewish folklore and customs were written into the world-building. I have zero knowledge of Judaism so I lowkey thought some of it was made up for fantasy world-building purposes, but the author's note at the end of the book was enlightening and gives some great insight into how the author constructed this world with Jewish culture in mind.

One thing that bugs me about this is, I was under the impression that this book was a standalone until I got to the ending. You could still read it as a standalone, I guess. And like, I'm glad that there could be more of this world, but it irks me that I didn't know this going into it.

TLDR; This book weaves a complex tapestry of past and present, love and betrayal, loss and healing. It's about finding light in the darkest of times. 5 stars.

[girl4music]

For straight allies they really were such good sports about this stuff.

Other straight allies that play queer or queer-coded characters would be much more hesitant to talk about the queer representation. But they always acknowledged the parts of the show that resonated for the LGBTQ community and they talked about it openly and lovingly.

I'll always have such gratitude to Lucy and Renee because I know that this is something that could have ruined their careers. But they didn't ever ignore. They didn't even recoil. They really embraced us as fans and they listened to what it was that made these characters so important for us. They fully acknowledged the interpretation that these characters were queer and they even understood as to why.

They wouldn't have paid any attention to a queer narrative otherwise.

I would have loved to have seen those other takes where they had Gabrielle go back to Potidaea and have Xena chase after her instead because that poker face she had on never fooled me. She was just as affected and influenced by their "first meeting" as Gabrielle was. 🥰

[hood-ex]

Have a fic idea where Dick gets blighted like this. I just think blight is fun, don't you? 😌😊

[kingslionheart]

thinking A LOT about the look on aaron's face as soon as he sees jack for the first time since his confession.

at first it seemed as if he felt safe, like he could be himself around her because she knew about his queerness and she, a priest, told him that it was fine, that he did nothing that the god he so desperately believes in would ever punish him for, then there's the moment when those first instances of safety end and are replaced by a sort of darkness that can be translated in the reminder of the guilt he lived in for most of his life, a guilt that can't be pushed down so easily and always comes back at full force.

THAT is the religious trauma experience, the terrible feeling of not being able to quiet down the words, the lies, you have heard your whole life, and that even if you know, even if a religious authority you value told you that it is not something that god would punish you for, you still have the belief you grew up with and that needs years and years to be destroyed, if it ever even cease to exist in the first place.