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eldritchsun · 1 year ago

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I found my Realm Of the Elderlings opinions in my diary and I still stand by them almost 5 years later

first entry and it's already terminal :

aug 30 2018

OHHHHH my god fitzchivalry YOU ARE THE REAL FOOL

i am so fucking done with this ABSOLUTE dumbass i can’t deal. the farseer books got me fucked up. he is SO stupid sometimes!! [ranting in french] fitz you are so self absorbed!!!! you really are just furious because u love the bastard. i swear to god fitzchivalry, just square the fuck up i’m teleporting to les six duchets just to shake you a lil

sep 26 2018

My ass is losing it reading The Liveship Traders!!!

Altheaaaaaa!! Mrs Hobb I BEG you!! We’ve suffered enough with One Dumbass Teenager! Fitzchilvary growing up is enough Pure Dumbassery-driven decision making for the next ten years of my life, and that’s from someone who’s still running on dumbassery themselves!!

The worst of it is... rn I’m like Althea... hoe plz... stop... but I can feel it. This is how Fitz got me... is this a stupid teenager with Big Problems who’s gonna grow through and despite them? What is this within my heart?

And Robin Hobb bursts through my door, my beating heart in her hands, slams it on the table and bellows “ITS THE SEEDS OF LOVE”

oct 19 2018

Kennit “[wintro's french name] is beautiful” Pirate King

Hobbs recurring gay themes r so ??? To me but at the same time bring me so much joy lol

Canon nonbinary Annoyance Fool “in love with Fitzchilvary” Prophet

Althea “drag king” Vestrit and lesbian/bi girl solidarity friendship with amber.

Malta “Homophobic Queen” Havre.

And now, absolute legend kennit “surcoure do you love me” pirate king. I know one gay couple is actually endgame over the course of Hobbs books [ndlr i don't remember wtf i was talking about] and I’m thinking it might be this one. I mean, it’s not great hashtag representation but it’s great story telling!

Sweet monk Wintrow with dumbass pirate kennit? Who’s completely and irrevocably in love and admiration for him?

This idiot of a kennit is literally constantly like [french ranting about kennit etta hate and wintrow love]

Lol kennit mate come out

however the next entry doesn't make much sense but features the sentences "kennit thinks he’s so smart!! Fuck you, half a pirate!!!" (the title of the entry (oct 26 2018) is "kennit bitchass of the century" so clearly he fell out of favour)

nov 26 2018

Literally in ROTE if I was there for one of Ambers prophecies I would legit be like... ok sis... wig?

nov 30 2018

Checked the notes on that women writers rec list and several other people already wrote “this is Robin Hobb erasure” in those exact words :’)

So in honour of this hivemind I must say : I am having the time of my life with the Liveship Traders, excites rant with (huge) spoilers ahead :

I am at that point where Kennit is about to get absolutely WRECKED and I swear to god it feels so satisfying. The character arc and development for every single character in these books is pure mastery. In the case of Kennit you really go from “what a despicable man he really just has luck on his side” to “well I guess even if he did good accidentally he still did good... I almost love this Awful Imbecile” and finish straight into “OH!! NEVERMIND he really was a despicable man the whole time!!!”, a pit of disgust right on time where the whole story is setting up to absolutely destroy him. Kennit is a great example of how “does the right thing for the wrong reasons” is not equivalent in terms of ethics as “does the right thing for the right reasons”. But to quote a great thinker “they really had us in that first half I’m not gonna lie!”

What I really like in these books is that the centristTM opinions of certain main characters are not automatically & heavily presented as the right ones. I am still cackling at Hiémain’s “but they didn’t deserve to die!!” bullshit not being put on a pedestal. Ms Hobb did that! Her mind! Also the Vestrit family not being given an (entirely, let’s be real) free pass for not standing up to Kyle and letting Vivacia happen. The main characters, the actual heroes try to pass off responsibility for bad things and in most media it’s like “but they didn’t directly kill someone with their own hands so aren’t they kinda innocent?”

and then it skips to a single entry line (dec 3 2018) "reyn khuprus is a massive idiot" :')

dec 12 2018

Fitz I missed u so much

I have not seen this boy for 9 books and this hoe is worried abt being ugly, please never change boo

dec 14 2018

Fitz and the fool interacting is genuinely maddening I’m just walking along like KISS! KISS! KISS!

Fitz you are an immense idiot and the smartest one of the bunch is the goddamn wolf.

Jan 8 2019

Ohhhh my goodness gracious

I have gone full baby on Dutiful, he is the sweetest most cute drama teen since Fitzchivalry himself. I love him with the force of an exploding sun. His interactions with every other character are both precious and absolutely hilarious. He’s got a great mini-me vibe going on with Fitz, wrapped in Hobbs usual delicious irony.

Also poor Dutiful so lonely and starving for warmth, human attention!! The bit where Fitz is like all them hoes been begging me for this for MONTHS but I just can’t say no to those baby blues. I was like congrats Dutiful you just got a dad! Free dad with your meal!

And the Fool interaction like Dutiful you lucky boy you! You went from zero dads to TWO! It’s buy one get one free.

This dad was kinda mean so I had to get another one to counter balance it.

Jan 15 2019

Fitzchilvary « Homophobia » Farseer

Fitz!!!!!!!! Fitz!!!!!!!! Robin Hobb I swear to god you better gay these boys up or i will see you in court

the latest entry is apparently post "the golden fool"

Jan 29 2019

BELOVED WENT HAND TO MOUUUUUUTH!!!!!!

I am absolutely losing it! hand to mouth hand to mouth !!! Fitz called him BELOVED!!!!!! YAS MF QUEEN! Icon! legend!

and if i remember rightly (which i don't, it was five years ago, i don't remember anything) i got real upset at queerbaiting and stopped reading. i like googled "are they actually gay" the answer came back hashtag no and i stopped reading out of disgust :/

#rote #fitzchivalry farseer #well i still love these books intently but i did get really cross at the time

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mr-walkingrainbow · 1 year ago

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also? I really think you need to take a second look at this. Because Clawdeen is actually canonly a lesbian in the series. It was confirmed in the monster high Bible and she’s gonna be with a girl in season 2 and she’s legitimately having a scene where she comes out to her mom soooooo

you were wrong about that too,

and uh? Did you not??? Notice the things Gil has wear over his gills to breathe without a water tank? Cause that’s not just a fashion choice. I’m pretty sure without them hed suffocate

Also!!! Twyla! Is finally canonly autistic! Something we NEVER had in G1! Not only that but we will have numerous more disabilities and disorders revealed in season 2! It’s already somewhat canon for Ghoulia. As she says people like her physically can not move around as fast as others. And need help from some things to keep up/function normally. (Aka in this case her skateboard as a version of a mobility aid)

We have NUMEROUS canon lgbt characters that are played out and see n on TV. Frankie is Non-binary is is referenced as They/Them and Mx.

They also have a crush on Cleo! And in the movies they keep calling Deuce attractive. So that’s at least a possible Bi/Pan right their

Cleo is CONFIRMED Pan! Also in the monster high Bible. She dated deuce and she’s now with Frankie in the series!

Deuce has two Moms! And they don’t shy away from them being a couple at all! Called Mom-dusa and Mama. They also tell the origin story of their first kiss!

We! Have ! Gay! Backround Characters! DEADWARD MY BABY! He’s gay and with Bram the Vampire! Theirs also a lesbian couple too!

We have plus sized characters! Which is a first cause we all know monster high G1 females were all rail thin and the only actually plus sized character we got was Kala, which wasn’t shown at all (cause they did such a cop out and made her slightly curvy in her tail. Cause oh yeah she’s a freaking kraken squid girl who you wouldn’t be able to tell was curvy at all without someone telling you)

They have a GAY STRAIGHT ALLIENCE FOR QUEER PEERS! Like what the fuck can you even believe that type of representation in a kids show?! They canonly said it and it’s a group that’s respected! I would have killed to see something like that in my youth!

Once again. Many disabilities that are hinted at! Manny with OCD. Lagoona with possible Anger issues/emotional regulation problems (shown through her ‘Chomps’). Toralei and BPD (not canon but I have BPD and see myself so much in her)

Also!! We have canonly abusive parents. Like?? ? Can you believe that??? CANONLY? Toraleis mom emotionally abuses her (and it’s largely implied that she’s physically abusive too) as someone who’s had a pair of shitty parents themselves, this was EVERYTHING to me. Everything!

And!!! They don’t even stop there! They have a spectrum!! Of bad parents! Usually it’s just a one bad parent and done deal but noooo, Cleo’s parents are also shown to be neglectful of her in favor of her older sister. The neglect has clearly caused Cleo to have a falsely big ego. As she likes to flaunt it to hide the fact she’s deeply insecure about being always told she’s less than or treated like a second choice in comparison to her sister! However! It’s also crystal clear her parents love her! Even if they can’t see that their obsession with Nefera has resulted in Cleo feeling pushed down. Theirs a clear difference between them and Catarina.

I could literally go on cause theirs so much more representation in this series. And it genuinely pisses me off that you’d take a look at all of this. All of its achievements. All of its glory. All of its steps in the right direction. And then practically spit on it and say G1 had more representation.

like. It DIDNT. Very blatantly. We even know if this from freaking Garret Himself! Numerous times he’s confirmed that he’s tried to add more representation of different things in the show and movies but was repeatedly told it wasn’t ok or wasn’t time.

Don’t get me wrong. Monster high G1 was amazing. It broke down so many walls in terms of being yourself. It will always live in my heart. I will always be its biggest fan. But what simply is the truth is that G1 was created in a time where representation wasn’t fairly encouraged. G3 is! And it’s already made leaps and bounds in terms of progress

MONSTER HIGH G3 IS NOT AS INCLUSIVE AS MONSTER HIGH G1

Maybe that sounds crazy. Maybe it's been said a million times. Anyway, I'm just ranting about my 3 am thoughts.

I know in G3 we have non-binary Frankie (who also has a prosthetic leg), and the Draculaura doll is more curvy. But as far as I'm concerned, they took everything else that made Monster High inclusive.

For starters, and I know it was never actually confirmed, but still, Clawdeen is lesbian (bisexual at best). Once again, it was never confirmed, but in my opinion is a theory popular enough for the Monster High management to hear about it.

If they really wanted to make it more inclusive, why did they not confirm Clawdeen sexuality and give her a female romantic interest?

No, they had to break up one of their best couples. This leads me to my next point, what the fuck are Cleo and Deuce doing being separated?

The first G1 dolls literally came as a package. If you got one, you got the other. That's how much of an obvious couple they were. And not only that, in the Boo York movie, they broke up for like five minutes before realizing they didn't want to be without each other.

Which, in my opinion, it's so fucking cute because they come from completely different worlds. Cleo is royalty, Deuce is just a normal guy. Cleo is a little too superficial, and Deuce looks like he never showers. But they love each other and that's enough.

And you know who else loved each other and that was enough? Clawd and Draculaura. What do you even mean with "Clawd likes Cleo"? That man was in love with Draculaura, that man would've done anything for her, and you're telling me they also broke them apart?

Especially since they made Draculaura curvy, it would've been beautiful to see them together. Because it would've been a great plot point to have jock, almost-bully Clawd evolve into falling in love with curvy, smart, witchy Draculaura. But no, they just separated them.

On a completely different note. What the fuck is Gil doing without his tank? Do I even have to explain why this is taking inclusivity out of the Monster High concept? He couldn't live without his tank outside the water. Ergo, he was limited without his tank. If you ask me, this is Monster High equivalent to something like hearing aids (and this is just an example, there are many other things you could compare Gil's tank to)

Also, Ghoulia talking bothers me a lot. First of all, she was the smartest of the group, but we couldn't understand what she was saying, which added a lot of comedy since us, the spectators, were only pretending to know what the fuck Ghoulia's plan was. And I repeat, she was the smartest of the group.

The smartest of the group couldn't communicate like everyone else. I won't even explain why that is fascinating in itself, because it just is and it added so much depth to whole story. And to add more to my problem with G3 Ghoulia, why is she standing straight and walking at a regular speed?

Ghoulia standing like a zombie was, again, to me, a form of inclusivity to all the kids out there who had some walking impediment, or, in general, had any chronic illness that stopped them from moving around. And her walking slow as fuck was just straight-up funny (especially that one web episode where she got a motorcycle).

There's a lot of things I do like about G3, as I think it improves the brand in wonderful ways, but they definitely took some of the most essential things that made Monster High what it was.

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masked-alien-lesbian · 3 years ago

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I would absolutely KILL to be in a poly route with Hades and Persephone in Rage of the Titans! I've seen more of Hades than my actual LI so it would only be fair!

#rage of the titans #Rott #Romance club #RC #Hades #Persephone #hades x persephone #Wlw greek #F!Hades #Lol #This book is so terrible #But I am drawing inspiration from it and making it better in my head #I am so getting Stacey's Mom vibes whenever I see Hades #They done the one canon bi/lesbian couple so wrong #As most media writers do

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buckleyblueyes · 3 years ago

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buddie + coming out

Jess this got...so fucking long. I'm putting it under a cut. (send me a ship and a word and I'll give you a head canon)

Okay, so Buck first. I imagine that Buck first realized he wasn’t straight when he was in high school. He didn’t mention it to his parents because it’s not like they were that interested in who he was dating anyway. But he did come out to Maddie back then. They were driving around her jeep (coming out in cars is Real okay) and there was some cheesy pop music on the radio (it was the early 2000s) and he didn’t have the word “bisexual” just yet, but she asked if he was dating anyone/if he had a crush on someone and he said “uh...yeah. His name’s Jamie.” and she just took it in stride. Just kind of “oh, okay.” and then he added quickly “I still like girls, too, though” and since she was already through college at this point, so she knew sexuality wasn’t just gay and straight, so she didn’t even blink. “So, tell me about him” and he did. When he was done, she grinned, told him she wanted to meet Jamie some time, and turned up the radio. They drove around some more singing along to whatever cheesy pop song played next.

As far as Buck coming out as an adult, at some point in his late teens or early twenties he found the word bisexual. He never really tried to hide it, but he also never went out of his way to broadcast it. He never felt ashamed of his sexuality, per se, but he never felt proud of it either. It was just like...sometimes he dated guys, y’know? Anyways so flash forward to when he joins the 118. He doesn’t make a big deal out of it, but at some point early on Hen describes him as “a straight white boy” and he’s like “bold of you to assume I’m straight” “you’re not?” “not even a little” and leaves it at that. Sometimes he mentions hookups with guys during his 1.0 phase, but other than that he doesn’t really talk about it. He comes out to Eddie sometime in season 3, when he’s bemoaning his loneliness and Eddie says “you’ll find the right girl someday” and Buck suddenly realizes he’s never actually told Eddie he’s into guys so he responds. “Right person, actually.” and Eddie blinks twice. “What?” and Buck sighs. “I’ll find the right person, I’m bisexual.” and Eddie blinks again. “Oh...Cool…” and then they just move on.

Which brings us to Eddie. Eddie does not come to the realization that he’s queer until much later in life. He worries he might be gay in high school, because everyone else is interested in dating and girls, and he’s just. Not. Everyone always tells him that he and his good friend Shannon would make a good couple, and he’s pretty sure she has a crush on him, but he just likes her as a friend. Until one day, the summer after they graduate from high school, he looks at her and his heart starts racing and his palms are sweating but it’s not from the Texas humidity and oh my god. Is this what liking someone feels like? This is terrible, actually. But he was right about Shannon having a crush on him, so they start dating, and it’s great. And Eddie is relieved because falling in love with Shannon means he’s straight. He was just a late bloomer, like his mom said.

Anyways, so flash forward about twelve years and Eddie is starting to think he was wrong before. Oh, God, he was so wrong. He’s not sure when Buck went from his best friend to someone he was falling in love with, but it’s too late to go back now. But it’s fine. It’s fine. Buck is straight anyway, so it’s not even worth getting worked up over because it’s never going to happen and--Buck isn’t straight. Oh, hell.

And then he meets Ana, and she’s, well. She’s pretty, and he likes that she guesses his name right, but then he blows up at her and also she’s his son’s teacher, so that’s kind of weird. And then the pandemic hits, and he’s forced into close quarters with Buck and it gets impossible to deny his feelings to himself any longer. But he doesn’t know what to do about it. The problem for Eddie is that he’s only really had strong feelings for two people ever in his life, and the word ‘bisexual’ doesn’t to fit. More like ‘these two people in particular-sexual’ but that doesn’t really make sense.

So, when Ana comes back into his life, it seems like the easy way out. Nobody has to know that he has all these weird, confusing, not-heterosexual feelings. He’s 33 years old, who has a sexuality crisis at 33? Of course, the universe has other plans. He gets shot, he almost dies, and he realizes he doesn’t really feel anything for Ana and he probably never will, and predictably by the time he’s finally ready to confront his feelings and sexuality, Buck is dating Taylor. Great.

Anyways, so Eddie goes to Hen for help figuring himself out because if anyone would be able to help, his married lesbian friend seems like a very good bet. And he’s right. He explains how he’s only ever been in love with two people and that gender doesn’t seem to be a big factor in it, and she points him to the concept of asexuality and aromanticism, and more specifically demisexuality/demiromanticism and it just clicks for him. He wasn’t a “late bloomer” after all. So, I guess Hen is the first person Eddie comes out to. And he doesn’t really feel the need to come out to anyone else at that point because it’s not really anyone’s business.

Eventually, he and Buck get together. And for Buck, telling people isn’t a big deal because he’s been out as bi for years. Eddie isn’t reluctant to tell their found family, or even the rest of the 118. But he is nervous to tell his biological family. He doubts they’ll be too happy about him being with a man, let alone understand the concept of demisexuality. He starts with Abuela and Pepa, the family he’s closer to (literally and figuratively). He comes out to both of them at the same time, at Abuela’s, over a home cooked meal. He tells them that he and Buck are dating, that he loves him. Pepa puts a hand over his and gives it a gentle squeeze. “I’m proud of you,” she says. “It was about time you put that boy out of his misery.”

Eddie chokes on a surprised laugh. Then he looks at Abuela. Abuela is quiet for a minute before standing and walking around the table to where Eddie is sitting. She pulls him up to standing and gives him a tight hug. “Te quiero.”

Next he comes out to his sisters, who are pretty chill about the whole thing, and lastly his parents. His parents liked Buck when they met briefly, so if Eddie was going to be with a man, at least he picked a good one. And given that the rest of the family already knows and is supportive, it’s not like anyone would be on their side if they had a problem with it, and they want to keep seeing their grandson. So they just say “okay” and accept it in the most passive way possible.

Anyways this got SUPER DUPER long and detailed, so I’m going to end it with this: After they’ve been out (both Eddie coming out and Buck and Eddie being out as a couple) for awhile, Hen drags them to that year’s LA Pride with her, Karen, and the kids, and they end up meeting up with Michael, David, Harry and May there (and Bobby who is wearing a t-shirt that says “Free Dad Hugs” in rainbow letters, Buck takes him up on the offer immediately).

#buddie #bi Buck #demi Eddie #you can pry my demisexual/demiromantic eddie headcanons out of my cold dead hands!!!!!!!!#coming out hcs #1331 words later lmao

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flodaya · 4 years ago

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[1/3] The recent discussions I’ve seen in the Skam fandom regarding queer rep got me thinking about the idea of quality vs quantity. The general consensus that I’ve seen is that Isak’s season was well-written and important but that other remakes have improved the queer rep because they included more than just cis white guys. But then I started thinking about how for example in Skam Espana, they expanded the diversity to include two bi white

[2/3] girls, a cis gay white boy and a cis boy of color, but the writing for Lucas/Kassim was yikes. With Druck’s old gen, they had trans and bi rep with David and Mia, but both had aspects that weren’t handled well at all. Skam France added a wlw story including a WOC and they introduced a trans character, but I won’t even get started on the writing for all of their queer characters. 😬 Lots of fans of these remakes tout that the rep in each was

[3/3] much better than in Skam, so does that mean that most people have decided that quantity beats quality? (Obviously the ideal would be to have both, but that hasn’t really happened so far except with Druck’s new gen.) Curious what your thoughts are. :)

this is a super interesting discussion, get ready for me to write a lot about this because I have thoughts

as far as queer rep goes the following is my ranking (only talking about remakes that have done a season with a queer main character)

1. druck new gen

2. skam españa

3. druck og

4. skam

5. skam france

6. wtfock but like with a huge gap between skamfr and wtfock lol

I feel like this should be quite self explanatory but I can elaborate a little on each

for me good queer rep needs to have three things: good quality, variety, and authenticity (often best achieved by queer writers and queer actors)

apart from wtfock all remakes have tried to improve skam’s lack of variety which is good

eskam and druck new gen are the best at authenticity (ignoring the whole kassim sl :)

eskam giving isak’s storyline to a girl like it always should have been 10/10

druck new gen has wonderful variety, since it’s save to assume ismail is nb, their canon queer characters represent three different letters of lgbt+

they’ve also given their canon queer characters depth, developing them both outside their sexualities but also giving enough focus to their sexualities to make it feel very real

druck og had variety but included harmful tropes with not enough follow up development; making even a trans moc was one of druck’s best decisions but the public outing was one of their worst decisions, and they didn’t properly follow up this plotpoint either; plus mia’s bisexuality was not developed enough, and throwing in a female love interest in the last second didn’t really help, quite the opposite tbh

edit: forgot to add the good about druck og, david being portrayed as a desirable and cool guy and when everyone finds out he is trans that doesn’t change that at all; also he gets to talk about his experience, and the fact that lukas was helping with the script makes it more authentic

skam had one outstanding queer storyline but disregarded and ridiculed wlw which kinda disqualifies them for being in the top three (sincerely a lesbian)

skamfr has variety but due to them valuing style, aesthetic and dramatics over story telling their queer storylines often lack depth and authenticity (main example imo are their queer sex scenes)

they’ve also repeatedly used harmful tropes and stereotypes (bi/pan ppl are cheaters, outing someone; yann leaving lucas after he comes out)

not in the mood to explain everything wrong with wtfock’s queer rep, it’s basically everything, worst of all how they made it so easy to fetishize their mlm couple and how they included harmful tropes without any development

I don’t know if this answers your question, overall I would say quantity is not more important than quality, but a lack of variety and authenticity definitely something that bothers me when it comes to queer representation in media

I want to mention that this is very much just my opinion and super biased; also need to admit that I basically didn’t finish amira n’s season so I don’t know how harmful and bad kassim/lucas storyline is 🙈

#skam ranking #ask #my posts #queer representation

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kaypeace21 · 4 years ago

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Hey Kay! I was wondering... I'm thinking of writing a Byler fic. Is there anything that's missing from the current fic library that you think would be good to see, in terms of tropes, characterisation, things to explore, etc? I would also appreciate hearing from your followers. Just any ideas that people would like to see in a fic.

yeah sure ...

1)We need more povs from Mike’s perspective. (Almost all are from Will’s pov - let’s mix it up sometimes)

Mike in canon is the pinning-gay -(overly romantic) whipped one , but we never see it. And he’s pretty much never written this way! Mike in s3 has 6 drawings from Will on his wall (he kept them up since s1-for years- despite replacing the poster on the same wall). Has even caressed extra drawings of Will’s that he’s kept in his binder. In s1 wrote a whole story for Will about defeating a monster and giving the king it’s 7 heads (cause Will rolled a 7 when the demogorgan attacked him.) And as a Star Wars fan he had his own character be given a medal by the king (like how leia gave the medal to Han for his heroism.) He attacked people for insulting Will. Literally hates apologizing -but is quick to do so for Will . Boy ran in the pouring rain twice for Will- disobeying cops, the government, and his parents to do so. He initiates every byler moment (arm thing, hand touch, ‘best thing i’ve ever done’, ‘crazy together, right?’, always asking Will “what’s wrong?” or “are you ok?” etc). And was upset at Will dancing with a girl + insecure about Will replacing him -after he moves away.

-but 90% of byler fanfics (don’t get me wrong some are good) are from Will’s pinning perspective. Also do people realize Mike is clearly the more romantic/ emotional open of the 2 while Will is clearly the more emotionally closed off/aloof one? He loves Mike too- but he’s def less obvious about his feelings- based on how he behaves. Will rarely opens up to people (Mike being an exception). But, it’s never written that way (usually it’s the opposite).

2) as a gay women all the reductive stereotypes annoy me. it’s obvious when fic writers try to have the gay romance be modeled after het romance- and try to make one into the ‘girl’/ ‘guy’. Duffers don’t stereotype Mike or Will but a lot of fanfiction writers do in order to make the gay romance resemble a straight one more (canon character traits, be dammed). Please, stop pushing heterosexual dynamics on gay and lesbian couples and trying to make one “the girl” and “the guy”. It’s very offensive and innaccurate.

Because he’s taller and most people head canon him as bi they make Mike a jock (despite in canon having horrible aim and not being able to run as fast as the rest of the gang). And Will (since most see him as gay) is weak/ sucks at sports compared to mike...despite knowing how to use a bat, shoot a gun, and being able to tear castle byers apart with his bare hands . Also nothing in canon shows Will likes to wear makeup and dress in drag (but it’s a constant thing that i’ve heard come up or heard others mention). It would be fine if he wanted to express himself in such a way. And if it only came up in an occasional fic it wouldn’t be a big deal. But it’s such a common theme that comes up (despite no canon evidence) that in most cases it just screams ‘straight writers trying to make Will into “the girl”’. Not to mention the huge emphasis of their height difference (shows this too). It can get annoying calling him “short” & “petite” (a term used for women) when will isn’t even the shortest guy member- and now his actor is way taller than gaten (dustin) a bit taller (I think?) than caleb (Lucas) and barely shorter than finn (Mike’s actor). But writers even in future fics write him as short...ok? ya’ll really can’t let go of making Will “the girl.” Cause ya’ll incorrectly equate shortness to femminity. It’s tiring. Some writers straight up say he’s “pretty “, “feminine” or “looks like a girl” 🙄

3) it’s not byler if it’s unrequited- stop tagging it as such

4) more emphasis on Will’s passions(art, writing, horror movies). Maybe in his upbringing with Lonnie.And jon being a good bro to him. Will’s Mental health issues maybe ?

5) mike is a socially awkward, clumsy, unathletic, (caring) science/sci-fi /D&D loving nerd. In au whatever- but mike is not a bro-y jock, or a cool bad boy. 😂 plus , more writer mike would be nice to see

6) headcanon him all you want -but at this point it’s pretty obvious (to me at least) Mike never loved el,and was just lying/confused/ projecting Will on her. And El is/was also confused and never loved mike. so it would be nicer to see that instead of Mike just ‘falling out of love’ with her. Mike is gay. people say in s3 Will saying “a day free of girls” is gay coded but everyone ignores Mike in s3 saying “BOYS ONLY”. same energy. writers even threw in a telemarketing joke so Mike says in s3 “El? no. sorry not interested.” And Mike has more rainbow refs than Will. Boy is clearly gay not bi (way too much evidence to talk about here) . They even compare mileven to ted/karen who “never loved each other.” The writers make fun of mileven constantly and say over and over it’s not actually romantic - (if you choose to read just 1 link read this one and get with the program) . plus, most Bi dudes wouldn’t stop being attracted to a girl the more fem she gets (and only be attracted to her when she looks like a “guy”(specifically their guy friend).which yes the characters in s1 said over and over again that El looked like a “boy”/“will”. And then they have him Makeout with her while putting up a drawing of said male bff on the wall (cause now she looks less like him) and so he needs to look at said bro, to stomach the makeout seshes/ and in an effort to transfer said romantic feelings from guy friend to gf. Then push his gf’s hands off himself during the kisses- sing to stop kissing, and kiss to mostly show off how straight he is. And without said pic- not kiss back and just keep his eyes open and not reciprocate. Nor would they have Mike equate het romance to something he thinks he has to do as a part of growing up . Bi dudes consider falling for a girl as simply romance not a foreign idea that has to be done cause there’s no other option and that’s ‘just what old people do’. Mike claims el is the only girl he’s ever had feelings for - but like dustin said mileven is “bullshit “ (stancy parallel -where nancy was not in love but faking it). So mike’s never been into a girl and is also into Will... so...

7) it’s the 80s they can’t just be open/ have pda in public (you could have gotten k*lled or beaten severely.) And most of their friends/fam would not take it well initially. (I think jon, Karen , and steve/robin would take it well... but not most of the crew.) although they’d all prob come around eventually . -Takes me out of a fic to have such historical revisionism when everyone is just totally fine with byler and they’re out to the public/strangers.

but that’s just me. What about you guys?

#byler #byeler

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autisticpride · 4 years ago

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April 10th: How important is representation to you? Is the representation that is out there generally good or bad? What is your favorite piece of representation? What you like to see more of in autism representation? What would you like to see less of?

representation is really important to us and we’ll end up going on a couple long rants about some of our favorites (under the cut) because we can, it’ll be real messy because theres at least 3 of us talking and im just about positive that people were blurry when writing shit out so sorry about that but that’s just how it is

for us, representation enables us to see people like us in stories. the other thing for us, not specific to autistic representation, is just that we tend to enjoy more diverse stories more? maybe we’ve just had good luck but we’ve found that stories with characters who are members of marginalized groups (whether the story itself is diverse or not) tend to be better written. maybe it’s because we generally prioritize ownvoices works, idk.

so first i wanted to take a look at some numbers regarding autistic characters we’re familiar with (yes we know there are more, we just have a focus on books in our brain) and we started with books & comics and got some interesting numbers that we weren’t expecting! we haven’t read all these books yet so there are some gaps in the information.

of the 10 characters (from 8 books and 1 webcomic):

5 are female, 4 are male, and 1 is nonbinary. 2 are black, 2 are white, 1 is mixed (surinamese/dutch), 1 is mixed (vietnamese/irish), 1 is mixed (fictional races). 9 (possibly all 10) are main characters 6 are over 21, 2 are under 12 (9 and 11), 1 is 16, 1 is 18 3 are straight, 3 are gay/lesbian, 1 is bi.

I think that’s very cool actually! we would like to see more trans autistic characters (the only trans character out of the 10 seems to be the 1 nonbinary character) for sure, and more explicitly canon autistic characters in general. i’d like to see less “autism representation” that isn’t actually canon (even though we do love some of the characters, if you have to go find an interview with a producer where they say probably in order to find out the character’s autistic, it’s not canon).

now time for our specialized little rambles!

so i’m going to start with another quick explanation of fictives again because it’s extremely relevant right now.

again, a system is multiple people in one body. individuals within a system are system members (there are many different terms, that’s what we prefer). fictives are system members who are/are based on/are versions of characters

i’m a fictive of danny becket from the webcomic sharp zero and honestly we all love sharp zero! it’s extra fun now because it’s one of the special interests we all share and it’s my source and i’m double autistic (system as a whole is autistic, and I was autistic to begin with) so i now have this intense special interest surrounding... myself??? anyway, sharp zero is great because

sharp zero doesn’t go “the autism one is pure and innocent <3″ sharp zero goes “the autism one drags a corpse through a magic portal to perform a ritual to resurrect him” and that’s pretty cool

also explicitly showing the use of stim toys!! tangle spotted

~Danny

I’m a fictive of Julian from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and I’m one of the favorite cases of representation for most of the system, which is very interesting for me. In the show, it’s a case of unnamed disorder, which my parents tried to ‘fix’ via genetic engineering. I specifically matter to the system because of one particular parallel.

When I was a child, my parents noticed me ‘falling behind’ and decided to ‘fix’ me, and then proceeded to hide that information from me. When I was 15, I found out what they’d done, and began going by a different name.

When the body was a child, we were going to a neurologist for other reasons, and the parents were told that we’re most likely autistic but to not get a diagnosis ‘unless it gets in the way’. They proceeded to hide that information from us. When we were 15, we found out about that. Around the same time, the old host came out as trans and began using a different name.

That parallel is very important to most of our system members, especially the old host.

Despite it never being stated that I’m autistic, and it being implied that my parents may have succeeded in their attempt to ‘fix’ me, it’s clear from my behaviour that they didn’t. Even if they had, it was clearly shown that what they did was illegal and wrong, and that it did direct harm to me. But every autistic person we’ve met who has watched DS9 has taken one look at me and said something along the lines of that man’s a whole autism.

I’m shown having clear interpersonal issues, including trouble with social cues and clear implications that I never had friends before arriving on DS9. My own parents thought a half-finished hologram with no personality who didn’t recognize them was me.

I think that kind of representation is important. The kind where things did go wrong, where there has been suffering and loneliness, and it takes time, but a support system does get found.

-Julian

k now y’all need someone who isn’t just sorta talkin about themself i think, who fuckin knew i’d be the one who was giving the general system-wide opinion

so, rep is really important to all of us, seeing people who’re like us. makes us all feel like someone might actually understand it and understand us

our favorite autistic rep is probably julian, which is real fun with him being here and all that. and i mean it’s actually fun and we all get each other. the way our system works, the way we have a mostly-shared memory, means that we all really get it, and all of us relate to julian a lot in one way or another

anyway, a while back we started lookin’ for books with autistic rep by autistic authors and the first one we found was on the edge of gone by corinne duyvis, and we’ll always have a soft spot for it cuz it’s really good and it was the first one we got

-trip

#actuallyautistic #30daysofautismacceptance #2021 #um. idk the brain's tired right now #not sleepy just tired #plus im autistic now bc the whole system is #but i wasnt before #which is why i can be sorta objective about it #theres also someone else we could talk about #but we cant bc of promises one of us made #sorry but we're not bein' dicks just to talk about rep

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anotheronechicagobog · 4 years ago

Text

The Crackship Sails To Molly’s - Jay Halstead x Ethan Choi

written by @anotheronechicagobog

A/N: Homophobia, the Catholic church, Catholic guilt, mention of canon-compliant violence, mention of two men having sex, it’s all pretty mild but I wanted to make sure it was all in the warnings, also I don’t like Doris and it shows

A/N 2: What do you guys think their ship name would be? Choistead? Haloi?

A/N 3: If you have a problem with LGBTQ people please go fuck yourself

They ran into each other at the last place they thought they would. Since Jay and Ethan had both been in the military, though in different factions, they figured they might run into each other at military events, they already had. But literally bumping into each other at an LGBTQ+ military personnel picnic? That shocked both of them. Ethan took notice of Jay’s pansexual flag pin and Jay looked at Ethan’s bisexual one. After the initial shock wore off, Ethan smiled, he was happy to know that he wasn’t alone in his social circle. Sure, Leslie Shay was a loud and proud lesbian, but they didn’t have anything in common and just made sure to say ‘hi’ whenever they ran into each other and buy each other nachos whenever they ran into each other at pride events (don’t ask, it just became their thing). Ethan went to give him a ‘dude hug’, as Leslie had dubbed them, when he noticed the fear etched onto Jay’s face. “Halstead, are you okay?” Honestly, he looked like he was about to burst into tears. “Jus- uhh” Jay hiccuped and Ethan was now justifiably worried. “Don’t tell Will.” And then Jay ran away from Ethan and the gentle arm he’d had on his shoulder like a bat out of hell. Jay could still feel the warmth of Ethan’s hand on his right shoulder as he drove away.

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Ethan didn’t tell Will. He didn’t give any indication that he knew something Will didn’t. He understood how important it was for him to keep quiet, but at the same time, it was so hard. Ethan wanted nothing more than to march up to the redhead and beat some sense into him. Will had obviously made to Jay that he wouldn’t be accepted if he came out. And he didn’t care, quite frankly. He had absolutely no sympathy for homophobes, he was done giving kindness and sympathy to people who wished that others wouldn’t exist because it deviated out of what they considered ‘normal’. So he’d gone back to being impassive and straight-faced. He pushed all of his feelings down because if he allowed himself to feel anything it would be complete and utter rage.

The next time he saw Jay was when he’d come into the ED to interview an assault victim. Apparently, there was a group of men catfishing and then assaulting LGBTQ+ men. Ethan’s heart ached just thinking about the case, all of the injured, betrayed victims. And Jay. Ethan didn’t want to know what was going through his mind, he probably viewed this as another reason not to come out.

The eye contact between them was brief, but Jay showed him vulnerability, and then thanks when Ethan gave him a sympathetic smile. Just trying to untangibley reach out and connect with his aching soul. And then suddenly it was gone, the grace that had bound the two of them temporarily, and Ethan had to watch with a sinking heart as Jay emotionally shrunk in on himself. “How’s our victim doing, Choi?”

“Not great, I’m afraid. He’ll live, but there’s going to be long lasting health problems for him.”

“That’s terrible.”

“Yeah, it is.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two days later, after the catfishing homophobes were caught, Ethan ran into Jay outside of Molly’s. His eyes were dark, broad shoulders were slumped, and he moved like his mind possessed all the strength his body just couldn’t muster. “Hey Choi- uh, Ethan?”

“Yeah?”

“Could we go somewhere to talk? Maybe get a drink?”

“Well, we are standing outside of a bar.”

“Somewhere that’s not packed to the seams with nosey people who know who I... Don’t want to hear what I want to talk... About. Y’know what? This was stupid-”

“How about Osso’s? Over on Folger street? It’s not a bar, but I’m starving and their booths have curtains.”

“Yeah, that sounds great, actually, thanks.”

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“I figured out that I was bi when I was fourteen. I was watching The Mummy for the first time and I couldn’t stop thinking about how hot Brendan Fraser was. I mean, don’t get me wrong, Rachel Weisz was hot too, but Brendan really got my attention. When the movie was over, uh, well let’s just say that my Catholic guilt took hold. My mom knew, I told her when I was seventeen, and she kept trying to set me up with her friends’ daughters. She didn’t care, just told me that she loved me and that there was nothing wrong with me, but that I shouldn’t tell my dad or Will. She didn’t sugarcoat anything, she took me to this secluded spot on the pier and told me about homophobia and how bad it was, not just morally, but that it ran rampant, and that my father and brother were two heavy believers in an institution who made it their mission to oppress as many people as possible. Looking back, I think my dad knew, don’t know how or if he actually does, it’s just more of a gut feeling. My brother is still incredibly Catholic, he’s become more accepting over time, but it’s clear that while he’s okay with strangers being LGBTQ+, he’s not okay with anyone he’s close to being anything other than straight. The, uh, my first time I was nineteen and it was during my rangers training, with one of my now best friends, who I dated during that time for a while. Everything kinda fell apart when we got discharged. Mouse or-”

“Greg Gerwitz. I remember him.”

“Yeah, we broke up after we were discharged. Well, he broke up with me. Neither of us were handling being back well but he was handling it worse. It hurt like he;;, I missed him so much. After I started in Intelligence I brought him in as a CI. I just wanted to know he was okay, be near him again. But he was not the same man I’d fallen in love with. He was an addict, had a record, a small one, but still. I broke my heart almost as much as our breakup did. A little later I got him a job as our tech guy. It was good having him around, especially cause he was coming back, y’know? He’d quit his habits, became a law-abiding citizen. It was great. Then, he asked me out, asked me to take him back, and I did. Without a second of hesitation. Being together again felt amazing, but then he got his record expunged, dumped me, again, and went back to the rangers. It completely tore me to pieces, I got time off and didn’t get out of bed for two weeks after he deployed. Uh, wow, sorry to unload all of that on you. And that was probably a lot of information you didn’t want to hear-”

“No, no, Jay. It’s actually nice to talk about this, even though I’m out and open, I don’t actually get the chance to talk about it all that much. I’d actually like to share if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all, go ahead.”

“I was twenty-one when I figured it out. I was on brief leave in the navy, just a couple of days without duties while we were docked in Puerto Rico. I got pretty drunk, a guy I was dancing near was pretty drunk too, he kissed me, I kissed him back, and one thing lead to another. When I got back to port the next day, my friends all asked where I’d gone off to. I told them I got laid. It didn’t really hit me until the following night when I was in my bunk, lying awake because I couldn’t forget the feeling of his lips, or the callouses on his hands, or... Other quite honestly filthy details I probably shouldn’t share in a public place. I couldn’t sleep properly for two weeks, I come from a traditional Korean family. All I could think about was how they’d react. What would they do if they found out? I found out when I was twenty-nine. My sister, Emily, had somehow found out, and when she burst through the door, drunk off her ass, at the first Thanksgiving I’d been able to attend in five years, she announced it to everyone when I tried to calm her down and get her up to bed. The look, on my parents’ faces, I couldn’t even look at my grandparents. I just said sorry and ran out. I crashed at a fling’s place for a week. I couldn’t bring myself to pick up the phone or to go see them. I felt like someone had put my chest through a trash compactor, I couldn’t stop crying. I had lost my entire family in less than ten seconds. You know that subtle, back of the mind dread you feel when you’re boarding a plane for your next deployment? Normally, you push it away, accept it’s a possibility but try not to think about it. I welcomed it. I hoped I’d get killed, that I wouldn’t make it home. But then... My grandparents were at my gate. Their faces just lit up and they welcomed me with open arms. They both hugged me and made me promise to come home, not to be a hero. They gave me hope. They loved and supported me, went toe-to-toe with the rest of my family for me. I’ll never be able to thank them enough.”

“They sound really great, I’m glad that you have them.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Suddenly the heavy curtain closing off their booth from the rest of the world was pushed to the side. “Gentlemen, your food is ready. Who ordered the grilled salmon?”

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Ethan and Jay had grown much closer, having bi-weekly dinners. Sometimes at Osso’s, sometimes at Bartoli's, sometimes at their own apartments. They’d become close, close friends. But because drama followed them around like a moth to a flame because it felt like they lived in an overly dramatic tv show sometimes, it couldn’t stay that way.

Jay started to watch Ethan when he licked his lips after he took a sip of a drink, when the muscles in his arms lengthened themselves when he reached for something, that twinkle he got in his eyes whenever he got cocky. Jay knew what was happening from the first moment he found himself looking at Ethan’s lips for more than a millisecond. He was falling in love. And all that he could do was loathe himself for boarding a vessel with impending doom.

Reasons I Can’t Fall In Love With Ethan

Will doesn’t know I’m bi

Ethan works with Will

Ethan is in the reserves and Mouse left me to go back to a warzone, it would kill me if it happened a second time

His ex, April, is currently trying to get back together with him

April also works with Ethan and Will

Ethan doesn’t love me so I’d just be ruining our friendship

Jay looked down at his list and recited it in his head, over and over again. He needed to memorize it, live by it. If he didn’t his entire world, which he just finally found comfort in again, would crumble to the ground.

Jay didn’t distance himself from Ethan, his heart wouldn’t let him, but it got harder and harder to ignore his ever-growing feelings. But he couldn’t tell Ethan, he couldn’t be with Ethan, he knew that far too well. So the next time Ethan confided in Jay that April had made a move on him Jay did something incredibly, fabulously, thoroughly idiotic. “You should ask April out, man. I think that you guys would be great together.”

Yup.

He actually did that.

Sigh.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Alright, who is she?”

“Excuse me?”

“Come on Jay, I’m your brother. I know you. The last time you looked like this and were drinking vodka, of all things, was when Erin left. You only drink vodka when you’re experiencing troubles of the heart.”

“I drank vodka when Mouse went back to the rangers.”

“After he’d broken up with you to go back to the same warzone he’d almost died in.”

Jay choked on his drink and felt his heart plummet out of his body and onto the floor. Burning tears blurred his vision and Jay felt more afraid than he’d ever felt in his life. He’d been shot at, blown up, shot at again, taken hostage, tortured, and he never felt this scared, this small. “Jay? Oh my god, Jay are you okay? Breathe, man.” But he couldn’t. Why couldn’t he breathe? Why was his chest so tight? Why couldn’t he move? Suddenly he was yanked off of his couch and onto the floor, his head shoved between his bent knees. “Deep breaths, Jay. Just take slow deep breaths, in and out, just like me... Okay... Good, name five things you can feel, four things you can see, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste.”

“Uh... floor, couch leg, carpet, coffee table... you... Um, I, uh, I see...”

“Four things you can see.”

“Jeans, scrubs, crumbs, Kim’s wine stain... Hear, u-uh, Netflix, heating system, the Needlers arguing again...”

“Your neighbours sure do fight a lot, but you’re doing great. Keep going. Two things you can smell.”

“... Pizza and your terrible cologne...”

“Ignoring that, one thing you can taste.”

“Your terrible cologne. Seriously, Will, your supposed to spritz it, not douse yourself in it.”

“Well you’re feeling better, but you’re still shaking. You feel a bit cold, get back on the couch I’m gonna grab you a blanket.” Will was right, he was still shaking, and he felt cold to the bone. His heart was pounding so hard it was terrifying and his chest was still tight... But he was feeling better. Panic attack. He’d gotten them before, along with anxiety attacks, night terrors, and paranoia. All connected to his PTSD. He’d just never had a panic attack about his sexuality before, only about the action he’d gotten overseas and in Chicago. When Will returned with a thick fluffy blanket he’d gotten from Kim for secret Santa, the same night she’d made that wine stain on his carpet, Jay was on the couch and gripping his knees tightly, trying to get a grip on himself. Will had also brought Jay’s first aid kit and was checking him over, after he’d been wrapped up like a traumatized child, and Jay released a shaky breath, unable to look his brother in the eye before speaking at the same volume as a mouse. “How long have you known?”

Will stopped what he was doing and regarded his brother. Jay was older and had always been Will’s hero growing up but right now... He just looked like he needed a hug. “I’ve known since you were nineteen. You brought Mouse back to visit with you while you guys had leave and when mom and dad had work and I had school, you guys had the place to yourselves. I realized when I was a couple of minutes away from the house that I’d forgotten my lunch, so I went back to get it. When I walked in you guys were making out on the couch. You were really... into each other, you didn’t even notice me. I was gonna bolt to the kitchen and back... But then you took off each other’s shirts and started reaching for belts so I bolted. I love you, Jay, and I don’t care who you have sex with, but I never want to actually see it.”

“Jeez, I’m sorry we must have traumatized you.”

“No you didn’t, I would’ve reacted the same way if I saw you with a girl... Which we both know is true cause you and Erin had a very bad habit of not closing your bedroom door.”

“Sorry about that... If you’ve known all this time, why have you never said anything? I mean you used to make these weird comments about being related to gay people, but...”

“I thought that you needed to be the one to tell me. It was your closet to exit, I thought it would’ve been rude to force it. And about those comments, I don’t know, it’s just you never told me. More and more time passed, and from the letters you were sending mom I could tell you and Mouse were still together but you never said anything. I was trying to give you hints that I don’t care, your sexuality doesn’t matter to me. I love you no matter what. The only reason that I brought up any of this now, forced you out of the closet... I’ve never seen you like this. It rivals when you came back. You are hurting and I want to be there for you, but I can’t if you won’t talk to me, if you won’t let me in.”

“But I’m sinning. You’ve always been more devout than me.”

Will scoffed. “Have you been reading the news? The Catholic church really can’t decide what’s right and wrong considering all they’ve done and covered up. Plus, did you really think I was going to make all my life choices based on the teachings given to me by men who forced us to wear plaid suit jackets for elementary and high school? Really, I can’t wear plaid anymore, I don’t understand how you can tolerate it, I swear I’ve got plaid PTSD.”

“Well, maybe it’s cause I actually have PTSD and there are far worse things to go through than having to wear plaid to school every day.”

“That was a bad comment, I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright... So you’re really okay that I’m bi?”

“As long as you're happy, I’m happy.”

“You have no idea how much it means to me to hear you say that and mean it.”

Jay was tearing up again, but this time they were happy tears. Will just wrapped his big brother in a hug and relished ina feeling of closeness that he hadn’t felt since they were kids.

“Okay, now seriously Jay, who’s giving your heart trouble?”

“I don’t know, Will...”

“As long as it’s not Connor Rhodes I don’t care.”

“Well...”

“Oh no-”

“Ha! Just kidding! Your face, seriously, what did that guy ever do to you?”

“We’re not talking about the man who thinks he’s smarter than me. C’mon, tell me who it is. Is it someone I work with?”

“It’s Ethan Choi...”

“You guys have been spending a lot of time together over the past year, so I can see that. And he’s pan, right? Yeah, I think that you guys would be cute together and I think he’s got a thing for you, honestly. Why don’t you ask him out?”

Jay fell back and groaned. “I told him to ask out April the next time she hits on him.”

Will just blinked and stared at his masochistic and self-sacrificing moron of an older brother. “Why would you say that?! You clearly like him! You idiot!”

“... I’m gonna need the vodka back if we’re gonna keep talking about this.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jay felt like the weight he’d had on his shoulders was traded for another. He wasn’t worried about Will despising his existence anymore, but now he had to watch Ethan date April. And on top of all that, Will was always on his case about his miserably non-existent love life. So yeah, he wasn’t really enjoying his life at the moment. He was currently sitting up at the bar at Molly’s, avoiding ‘chexton’. He could hear April’s giggles and Doris squawking “you’re so perfect for each other!”, “I’m so glad you got back together!”, and “I call maid of honour!” over and over and over again. He knocked back the last of his beer when his phone buzzed.

Mouse: Hey Jay, I’m back on leave for a couple of days, just got off the plane. Want to meet up?

Jay: Sure, you up for a beer at Molly’s? I’m here right now.

Mouse: Actually I was thinking of a different kind of meet up. Your place? Just the two of us?

Jay: Sounds like a plan.

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Jay and Mouse spent the two days he was home screwing each others’ brains out. That really was the best way to put it. Their time together was hot, heavy, and passionate. They wouldn’t get back together, no, but there was a bond there that would always remain. They’d both had tension that needed to be released and release it they did. Jay dropped Mouse off at O’Hare early on the third day. “Hey, thanks for this weekend. It was nice, it was good to see you again, Jay.”

“Yeah, you too. Stay safe Greg.”

“It’s Greg now?”

“You’ll always be important to me. You were the first man I loved, but you’ve left me twice. I need to move on.”

“It sounds like you already have. I’m happy for you, you deserve nothing but happiness, Jay. But, uh, should you have just spent an entire weekend naked with me if you’re with someone?”

“He doesn’t love me back.”

“Is he straight?”

“No, but he’s pan and got a girlfriend.”

“I’m sorry Jay. For your situation and everything else.”

“I know. Stay safe.”

“I will.”

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Jay turned on his phone for the first time since he told Mouse to come over. He was met with an abundance of texts and missed calls. The texts were mostly from his colleagues, asking if he was going to be at Molly’s. A couple were from Will, asking if he wanted to get together to watch a game. The person who’d sent him the most texts and had made most of the missed calls was Ethan. Jay didn’t bother going through them all, he just sent his brother and Hailey quick text messages letting them know he was alive and would be at work on time, he’d just spent the weekend with a friend. He called Ethan as he made his way through the city. “Jay? Are you okay? Where have you been? I’ve been so worried, I called your brother and Hailey and none of them could tell me anything.”

“I was okay, I was at home the whole time.”

“But I went by your place, I knocked on your door, no one answered.”

“Oh, that was you? I thought it was Karen from down the hall. I was a little... Busy.”

“All weekend? Alone in your apartment? With no assigned case or old case that’s been bothering you?”

“Well, I wasn’t alone, actually.”

“What?”

“Yeah, Mouse was on leave for the weekend so he came over.”

“... You were alone with your ex-boyfriend for an entire weekend... Doing what?”

“Each other.”

“Damnit, Jay.”

“Eth-” And then Ethan hung up. Jay was confused and distressed, but he’d arrived at the district so his relationship with Ethan would have to wait. Well, friendship, not relationship.

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When Voight needed someone to go collect a statement from an accomplice at MED Jay’s reaction rivalled that of Katniss Everdeen. He was given a couple of odd looks, but he and Hailey made their way to the hospital, Hailey side-eying him the whole way. “Do you need to talk to Ethan?”

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“He hounded me for two days because you weren’t texting him back. He was really worried, Jay. What’s going on with you two? I mean, he was acting like...”

“Like what?”

“Like a worried boyfriend.”

“We’re not dating Hailey. Why would you think that?”

“Because you two look at each other the way Trudy and Mouch look at each other. Like you’ve hung the moon and the stars for each other. I don’t judge, Jay... You’re always really happy around him. I think you’d be good together.”

“He’s dating April.”

Hailey scoffed and rolled her eyes so hard her head rolled with them. “No, they’re not dating. She was acting like it, and Doris was yapping away about it on Friday at Molly’s, but Ethan was just quietly sitting there the whole night, he looked really uncomfortable honestly. A couple hours after you left he asked April if they could speak in private. It didn’t stay that way for long. Ethan had tried to tell her that he didn’t want to get back together and didn’t love her anymore, and she was upset, obviously. But it seemed like she understood. She hugged him and went to sit back at the nurses, but I guess she told them and Doris blew up, screamed at him, made a huge scene. April had to actually take her home. Ethan immediately came up to me and asked where you were.”

“Oh.”

“So you volunteered us to talk to him?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey Ethan.”

“Can we talk, Jay?”

“Yeah, I’d really like that.”

“The doctor’s lounge is free, we can talk in there.” They entered the darkened gray room together, both feeling the tension between them. It felt strange to just stand there, in the middle of the room, and Ethan wasn’t meeting his gaze. So Jay sat down, hoping that Ethan would follow his lead. He did. “I’m sorry that I worried you.”

“Don’t apologize, I should actually be apologizing to you. You didn’t owe me an explanation, we don’t have the kind of... Relationship that warrants you letting me know when you’re going to disappear for a weekend with your ex. We’re just- We’re just friends.” Jay was silent for several moments, trying to think of what to say. How to phrase what he was feeling. There didn’t seem to be an eloquent way to phrase it, so he decided to just jump in and hope he didn’t get hurt. “I don’t want to be friends with you Ethan. I want to be more than that, I love you. I understand if you don’t feel the same way, but- I’ve never felt this way about anyone. I’ve been trying to distract myself, with Mouse most recently, but it didn’t work. It doesn’t change that I really want to kiss and date and be loved by you. Will you go out on a date with me?”

“Yes, there is quite literally nothing else I’d rather do. How about tonight, because I don’t think I can wait any longer. And I love you too.”

“I know that the wall behind us is basically just a window but I really want to kiss you-” Thankfully Ethan didn’t care about that, and gave Jay a kiss so incredible, he saw stars.

... And missed Hailey and Will high-fiving behind him.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After informing the accomplice that he was being arrested for armed robbery, obstruction of justice, and public urination, Jay and his partner left MED. Jay was so happy he was practically vibrating as he skipped out of the hospital. His, highly amused, partner got into the passenger side of his truck and thumped his shoulder. “See? I told you that he likes you.”

“How did you figure out I’m not straight, anyway? I’ve... Played that pretty close to the vest. I only told Will a week ago.”

“You know Nico’s Diner over in Greektown?”

“Yeah.”

“My family owns it. I started working there when I was nine, I think? I worked there through high school and college. And I go there once a month to catch up with my brothers. You used to go there all the time with this guy and you’d hold hands and kiss him quite a bit, so I figured you were more than friends. I recognized you when I walked onto that robbery scene a couple years ago.”

“So you knew, this entire time, that I was bisexual and you didn’t say anything to anyone? Why not?”

“It wasn’t my place to tell Jay, besides, I didn’t know that you were bisexual, just that you liked men. I just spoke up now because you were really hurting Jay, it was so obvious, and it was obvious that Ethan was hurting too. I really hope that you guys are happy together.”

“Thanks, me too.”

“Soooo... Where are you gonna take Ethan on your big date?”

#One Chicago #chicago med #Chicago PD #ethan choi #jay halstead #ethan choi x jay halstead #jay halstead x ethan choi #will halstead #hailey upton #greg gerwitz #greg mouse gerwitz

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ourimpavidheroine · 4 years ago

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Do you think Bryke meant to queer-code Wu?

The short answer to this is that no, I don’t think Wu was meant to be queer-coded. I do not think Wu was meant to be gay at all.

That being said? I think there’s a lot more to it than that.

The long answer to this is that I think Wu is, as a character, queer-coded. I mean, wildly so. In fact, I think he’s the most blatantly queer-coded character in both ATLA and TLOK, and I am including characters that Bryke have told us after the fact are queer, including Smellerbee and Kya.

But do I think Bryke purposefully coded him that way? Nope. Not at all.

Now, what they did do was create a character that was meant to a)irritate us, b)eventually amuse us and c)mirror Mako’s growth as a character. To do that, they gave us a very spoiled, very clueless rich boy. However, as part of accomplishing their goal of a character who would give us A, B and C, they chose to make him both effeminate as well as someone who doesn’t respect social/personal boundaries.

As in, here’s an undeniable sissy-boy who has his hands all over Mako. But! Never fear! To “prove” that he wasn’t (GASP) Gay For Mako, they had him hit on women.

Because apparently, in the minds of cis white Gen X dudes, having a character hit on women, regardless of how badly he does it, sort of Erases The Gay that you’ve coded him into with all the mannerisms and grabby-hands characterization.

I could be wrong, but I am going to make a wild guess that they didn’t have a queer person - especially a gay man - in the writing room. Because I am pretty sure anyone on the rainbow spectrum could have told them that a part and parcel of being in the closet is enthusiastically proclaiming your sexual attraction to people of the opposite sex. Like, very enthusiastically. So everyone will get that you really, really super duper like people of the opposite sex and could not in anyway be construed as being gay/lesbian. Because wooooo-wee! Look at those ladies (men)! Pretty hot, huh? That’s because I am a heterosexual person! Very heterosexual! Yes, I am!

I mean oh my god. Methinks the lady doth protest too much, hello!

Do I think Mike or Bryan are homophobic? Well, I think that they don’t want to be. I think that it is very important to them to have representation and I think they are making a very big effort towards that. I fully believe them when they say they wanted Korra and Asami to be bi and have a relationship in the show and certainly the two of them are a couple in the comics. They had Kya come out in the comics as well and while I personally don’t like the whole coming out/homophobia in the Fire Nation/acceptance in the Air Nomads plotline that was written into canon via the comics I do appreciate that they included it because representation matters to them. Korra, Asami and Kyoshi have been specifically canoned Bi/Pan and Kya is a lesbian and Smellerbee and the nameless City Council clerk in TLOK are somewhere on the trans spectrum.

That being said? I will point out that at this time (unless I have missed it) there have been no actual canon gay men characters or canon bi/pan male characters.

Which is...par for the course. Lots of het cis guys will include queer female characters and consider that queer representation without realizing that they are excluding men. It happens a whole lot. If you call them on it, they will insist that they are not homophobic! They have lesbians! But gays? Eh, not so much.

(And there’s a whole fucking lot to unpack about that but there are plenty of amazing queer scholars who have already done that work and I don’t need to clumsily rehash it. It’s a well-researched and written about thing. It exists. Systematic homophobia exists.)

I think that Bryke could, if they chose, take a step back and ask themselves why they wrote Wu the way they did. They could also take a step back and ask themselves why, exactly, Wu and Mako could not be a couple when canonically speaking they really do suit each other very well. Mako yells at Wu and Wu doesn’t care! Mako gets all pedantic and pissy and Wu doesn’t care! Mako imparts Mako-wisdom and Wu not only listens but takes it to heart! Wu never shuts the fuck up but Mako’s lived with his brother and clearly doesn’t care! Wu orders Mako around and Mako clearly doesn’t care! Wu buys Mako shit and Mako is clearly used to this and not only doesn’t care but considers it par for the course!

Mako never quits the job, regardless of how annoying Wu is supposed to be. And he very easily could; he even just accepts it when Beifong tells him Raiko is planning on sending him to Ba Sing Se with Wu which is just bananas. I mean, a)Raiko has no authority to do that whatsoever and b)Mako isn’t even a citizen of the Earth Kingdom. But Mako just...goes along with that without a fight at all. The dude is a pro-bender. He’s the pal of the Avatar and has personal contacts with some of the most influential people in the world. He’s a decent cop (although not a particularly by the rules kind of one, see growing up on the streets in a criminal gang). The man does not need to settle for being a bodyguard if he doesn’t want to be, is all that I am saying. So why does he keep doing the job? Oh, I think we know.

I’ve said before that Mako, in Bryke’s eyes, is clearly the handsome young protagonist. He was a pro-bender and is a self-taught bending master! (There is no other character in either ATLA or TLOK who handles lightning the way Mako does.) He had both the Avatar as well as the beautiful Asami Sato as girlfriends! He had a tragically romantic background! But as the seasons go on it is revealed that actually, Mako is kind of a dork. He’s the Mom friend. He’s pedantic. He’s not really all that great of a cop and not much better as a bodyguard. He’s a socially awkward mess. (I personally think he’s autistic as well as suffering from massive PTSD, but that’s for another time.) But even still, handsome, manly Mako? He can’t possibly go for the Rich Disaster Twink. Because that’s not what handsome young protagonists do.

I wish like hell there had been a queer person in the writer’s room; I wish they could have taken Bryke aside and pointed out to them that using queer coding in order to make a character annoying is homophobic as fuck, even when you have the best of intentions. But clearly nobody did that, just as nobody has sat them down and said, so after the entirety of Season 4 and all of the good that Mako and Wu do for each other, why exactly are they not a couple? Because Mako is straight and has to remain that way because...why? Why exactly? It’s okay for women to be canonically queer but not men because....?

I just wish.

#blah blah blah #Prince Wu #queer coding #etc etc etc #long post #Anonymous

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positivityforlesbians · 4 years ago

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There aren’t “many lesbian characters and relationships in movies and shows” at all... there are actually so few! A lot of characters that are called lesbians are actually canonically bisexual, even if they don’t dare to use the word. And nothing wrong with having bi representation, that’s good too but lesbians and bi women have different experiences so when I’m watching a “lesbian” show/movie and it ends up being bisexual it gets a bit tiring because I can almost never relate to those stories. In almost every wlw love story I’ve ever seen, one or both of the women have relationships with men and I get that’s relatable to many wlw but when it’s the only type of storyline we ever get is... it gets old, idk. I’d love to watch a wlw story with no men involved, no straight sex scenes, no more “married woman cheats on her husband with a girl” or “lesbians break up so one of them goes and has sex with a man to get over the breakup”, no over-sexualization, just 2 women in love with 0 men between them at any point. I’m not saying that having that kind of past is not a common experience for many wlw, I’m just saying it’d be nice to have more exclusively wlw stories and more really lesbian characters. Because in an ideal reality, no lesbian should ever have to be involved with a man, and it’d be nice to see it at least in fiction, for a change. Gentleman Jack was great because Anne Lister was the first lesbian character I ever related to, I wish there were more like her, with no interest or involvement with men in any way ever. I also loved The haunting of bly manor because they handled the story so well and it didn’t feel like the typical “men forced in a wlw story” thing, so it can be done well if only they tried. Anyway I guess what I mean is that we don’t really have many lesbians in fiction, and there are even less wlw stories without men, so I consider we have so little representation and most of it is pretty bad... idk why you all think we have more representation now, we really, sadly don’t. I relate to the other person about not being able to enjoy “lesbian” media because it’s full of straight and unrelatable stuff in between tbh.

Responding to this message daaaaays later but I’m 100% sure I never said that there are many lesbians characters today, rather I said “more”, which is correct considered the fact that when I was a teenager I knew an exact total of one tv show with a lesbian couple, which was Naomi and Emily in Skins second generation (it was also my first lesbian ship, oh how time flies !), while I do agree with you on how there’s too many stories where men are involved and we really need to see more lesbian characters and lesbian relationships were men are nowhere to be seen I don’t think that there are many characters that are called “lesbians but are in fact canonically bisexuals”. For the most part we have characters whose sexual orientation isn’t stated, if there isn’t a clear coming out scene then we have to read between the lines to know what their sexual orientation is. If they have relationships that they enjoy with both men and women then the characters are bi women obviously, though the films/shows will rarely have the word “bisexual” be heard, yes we lack terribly representation of lesbians who call themselves lesbians (and lack just butch representation, that’s the worst of it all) and have zero men attached to their past, you seem to be considering lesbians who did have such a past (that they didn’t enjoy, they didn’t know their sexual orientation right away) as if they are not lesbians at all. I’ll just clear this out again, they aren’t bisexuals.

There’s a difference between bi women and lesbians who (unconsciously or not) were trying to fit in with society pushing straight relationships on us, I wish this was different but studies show that gay men realize that they’re gay men sooner than lesbians realize that they’re lesbians (if I remember well gay men realize toward 16-17 years old, while lesbians do toward 19-20 years old). That being said yes again we absolutely need more lesbian representation without that past, without men in the vicinity of these characters’ relationships and just us knowing clearly what their sexual orientation are, it would be amazing !! The worst type of shit I saw was that film “The kids are alright”, I never want to see again a married woman cheating her wife with a man “just because”. Gentleman Jack and Bly Manor were indeed both really well written and the representation felt refreshing and Just Right ! 👌 Xx

#anonymous #my answers #lesbian safe #lesbian representations #bi representations

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pjo-hoo-nextgen · 5 years ago

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Pjo Hot Take

Okay, so, let me address the influx of LGBT+ and Racial posts about the PJO and HOO characters on my dash really quick.

I am all for headcanoning certain characters as Bi, or Trans, or Gay, or whatever. However, condemning the canon and people who love the canon is wrong. Making them feel dirty and guilty for liking the canon is wrong. Acting like you’re right and that the canon is wrong to belittle people just....isn’t fair.

Like listen, I’m a Theyna shipper. But Theyna isn’t canon and probably never will be. But I don’t go around telling people they’re wrong when they disagree and say that the “hunters are all ace/aro.” Because you know what? They’re the ones who are right. Rick has said on numerous occasions that the hunters are all ace/aro. That’s canon. I can’t look someone in the eye and be an ass to them because they like the canon. It’s just not right.

I mean, I’ve seen a lot of “Percy is Bi and here’s why. No I won’t take criticism because I’m right” posts and they’re just so...ignorant to other people’s feelings? I get you can be passionate about something but you don’t have to be rude and aggressive about it.

Do I think Thalia is a total Lesbian? Yeah. Do I make posts telling people they’re wrong if they think otherwise? No! Why? Because there’s no need to. There’s none at all.

The bottom line is that canonically Percy is straight for all we know until or if Rick says otherwise. That’s the canon. You can headcanon that he’s some other sexuality, but trying to force people to accept your viewpoint bt making long posts saying “anyone who thinks this is this. Or anyone who thinks this supports this and is blah blah blah.” Especially when so many people find themselves in Percy.

Yes, representation is important. I believe heavily in it. But there’s also a need to represent healthier straight relationships too, because a majority of them in literature are pretty toxic. At least with Percy and Annabeth we get to see a healthy progression of friends to lovers that was otherwise handled poorly in other series.

I mean, JK Rowling’s whole Ron/Hermione thing pissed me off because it didn’t feel real or substantial. But Percy and Annabeth do and it’s important for kids to grow up knowing what a healthy relationship looks like whether it’s straight or not.

That being said, Nico and Will being a couple is fantastic. Nico is important for all young LGBT+ kids and I’m thrilled Rick included his sexuality as an important part of the book. Wanna know why?

Because when it first came out I was upset that Nico was gay. That’s right, I said it. But here’s the thing. I couldn’t explain why I was upset by it. Now? I adore it. Why? Because it was one of the first representations/exposures I had to what the LGBT+ community was. I had to learn and I grew from that and I’m so happy I did because there are so many wonderful queer people who deserve the world.

Now, moving onto the racial issues.

Should Rick have handled Piper’s depiction as Native American better? In my opinion yes. Did he? No. Can we be upset about it? Yes. Is that healthy? Yes. But we should not be explicitly hateful towards artists who draw Piper as her canon description. That’s what they have to go off of and if they’re trying to stay true to the book then why should they change it? Can we politely bring to their attention/ask if they know what Rick could have done better in his Descriptions of Piper? Yes, but do it politely and be patient. Most people don’t notice anything wrong because they’ve never been exposed to Native American characters. They can’t tell when something isn’t right in a description.

Moving on. Is Percy black? No. Is he Latino? No. Can you headcanon that? Yes. Should you be upset at people who disagree with your headcanons depicting him as another race? I mean, sure, but don’t be rude. Why? Because the canon states otherwise and most people except the canon first and foremost. And a lot of the audience is younger, because younger siblings and even kids of former PJO readers are reading these books, and don’t necessarily have the capabilities to project Percy as a different race. They take literature as it is. I mean, I started reading the first series in second grade. I had no clue Percy and Annabeth liked each other. When I re-read the series when I was a few years older, it was so obvious I was embarrassed I never realized it the first time. But here’s why I didn’t. I was young and my concept of the world was very narrow. When we get older our understanding of things changes. Now:

Should people white wash Hazel? ABSOLUTELY NOT. But should you be mad if she’s not drawn “black enough?” For your liking? No. Should you be mad if she’s drawn too dark? No. Why? Because artists have different ideas of what is “black” and how “black” to make a character. If the message is clear that “this is Hazel an African American” then who cares? Their style will change and grow as they draw the character more and are exposed to other takes on the character. Be kind and patient.

To clarify, it’s pretty easy to tell when someone is actively lightening a black character’s skin tone to be coppery in color etc. what I’m referring to is different shades of black. Not off shades of the color.

Now, I know some of this is probably annoying to you all and I understand. Do you have every right to disagree with me? Absolutely! However, I just want my opinions and views on these matters to be as clear as possible. If I have worded somebuc odd or made something offensive in nature, that wasn’t my intention. Bring it to my attention and I’ll do better in explaining it.

Thank you.

#pjo #hoo #percyjacksonandtheolympians #percy jackson #heroes of olympus #rick riordan #opinion post #hot take #pjo hot take #text post

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ponett · 5 years ago

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Welp... it’s over. After nine years, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is over. I just got done watching the series finale with Anthony and, just like I knew I would, when the credits rolled, I cried my eyes out

I should probably say something, huh. I’ve been sharing thoughts like this mostly on Twitter lately, but I started using Tumblr to blog about MLP, so I don’t think it would be right to post this anywhere else

I have a complicated relationship with MLP:FiM. It’s a show that got really hit or miss after the second season, and it has a fandom so toxic and so full of edgy libertarians that it scared me off from formally participating in fandoms for the rest of my life. But it’s also probably my favorite TV show of all time. There are other shows that are much better written, that have more to say, that are more consistent, even including several other cartoons from the same decade. But I think I’d be lying to myself if I said it wasn’t my favorite show

No other piece of media has had as massive of an impact on my life as My Little Pony

I grew closer to some of my closest high school friends because of our shared enthusiasm for the show. I started PonyPokey with Jake and Derek and made a bunch of bad videos and got invited to be on a wildly disorganized BronyCon panel with Jenny Nicholson in 2012. (We went on stage immediately after Lauren Faust’s panel. I barely said a word due to stage fright.)

After years of being too afraid to share my art online, I started putting more effort into learning digital art so that I could draw ponies. It started out rough, but with the drive to improve, I quickly got better. I started Fluttershy Replies. For the first time, I had an audience. I had people who cared about my work and supported me. Even as times have changed, many of you have been following me since way back then

Around the time I came out as bi in 2012, I got really into MLP shipping. Writing sappy comics and drawing sappy art became an outlet for my years of pent up feelings, and helped me sort out a lot of stuff. My Little Pony also completely changed the views on femininity that had been beaten into my skull since childhood. Suddenly, it wasn’t this strange, alien thing to be afraid of. MLP, at its heart, is a show about how there’s no wrong way to be a girl. That’s an incredibly powerful message. Rarity wasn’t a vapid snob. Fluttershy wasn’t a background character who got made into the butt of the joke. Pinkie wasn’t a ditz. These were characters written to be empathized with. And writing about my own feelings from the perspective of Fluttershy felt... right. It took me a few years to fully process those feelings, but eventually, I realized the truth. I was a trans woman. And a cartoon about horses was the first step on my path to realizing this

In 2013, one of the roughest years of my life, I decided to download RPG Maker on a whim to give myself a distraction. Naturally, my first instinct was to make a game where Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash kiss. What was initially supposed to be a short, Fantastic Game-esque playground of silly little jokes spiraled out of control and became Super Lesbian Horse RPG, a game that I poured my heart and soul into over the course of a year. And then, a couple years later, my desire to preserve the ideas from my copyright-infringing fangame also spiraled out of control, as all my creative projects do, and became SLHRPG’s successor: Super Lesbian Animal RPG. SLARPG isn’t really a reskinned MLP fangame anymore--it’s more like a new game inspired in part by my old project. The story has been drastically rewritten, the characters changed, the levels and gameplay redesigned. Most of the cast of the new game wasn’t in the original project in any form. There’s much, much, much, much, much more new content than old left in the game. And the original game had already strayed so far from the canon anyway. But I’m also not sure it would exist without MLP

I made a bunch of friends online, including close friends I still have to this day. I met the people like Bee and Thomas who I’m still working with on SLARPG. Most importantly, because we both blogged about MLP and had some mutual friends, I met Anthony, the love of my life. We’ve been together for five years now and supported each other through good times and bad. This is the lamest, corniest, stupidest thing I will ever say in my life, but he’s the Rainbow Dash to my Fluttershy

...

So what about the finale itself? (spoilers, obviously)

I have... mixed feelings on the finale. There were some things that really annoyed me in there. But also, like I said, I cried, so I think it’s safe to say they did good overall

I think the thing that stuck in my craw the most was Discord. Which I guess shouldn’t be surprising. I’ve been saying for years now how I hate Discord, how he spits in the face of everything the show stands for. He’s an obnoxious elderly manchild who constantly causes problems on purpose and torments his so-called friends the second they stop paying attention to him. But they have to put up with him and give him infinite second chances, because he’s a god and Celestia said they had to reform him

The overarching plot of the final season is that Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, Tirek, and Cozy Glow (a Darla Dimple-esque filly villain from season 8) had teamed up with Grogar, a “new” villain taken from G1. While this goes on in the background, Twilight is making her preparations to become Celestia’s successor, as we’d known would be her destiny since the day she got wings six years ago. The villain team-up stuff was genuinely fun, and a highlight of the season for me. But then, in the three-part finale, it’s revealed that Grogar was actually Discord in disguise, and that he’d been intentionally trying to orchestrate a big attack on Twilight’s coronation so that she and her friends could save the day and get a big confidence boost going into her reign as princess. This is like... one of the most bafflingly stupid plot twist of all time. It’s literally the end of the show, and Discord has learned nothing. He’s “nice” now, but he’s still intentionally causing huge problems and putting everyone’s lives in danger to solve his problems. He freed four different villains they’d already defeated just so Twilight could beat them again, and in the process they literally blew up the goddamn castle in Canterlot and nearly killed everyone. And yet... they still forgive him, because they have to

I did, however, think that the last two-part adventure episode was fun overall. It tied a nice bow on much of the series, bringing back a bunch of old friends (including cameos from the movie cast!) to band together and save the day. Of course, in the end, they beat the bad guys with a big rainbow laser and sealed them in a statue. You know, even though a previous season finale was all about how solving their problems with a friendship laser and sealing the villains away never worked. Also, Cozy Glow might be evil, but she’s still literally a child? And now her petrified body is on display in the center of Canterlot? What the fuck????

I’m complaining a lot, but again. It was fun overall. It was nice to have one last big adventure, and to have the mane six reflect on how they’d grown since Twilight moved to Ponyville

...

And then we got the actual final episode. And boy did this one hit me HARD

I’m so glad that they ended on a quieter episode about the main cast’s friendships, because that’s what the show is actually about. The two-part adventures to save Equestria every season are fun, but that’s not the real show. We all came back every week for Twilight and her friends

There are things I can complain about here, too. Spike being a buff adult dragon with the voice of a child is fucked up. I’m still not used to seeing Twilight be Celestia’s size. But more than anything, I was always worried that we’d get a Harry Potter ending, where all the characters are paired off into arbitrary marriages so they can all have kids. Thankfully, this didn’t really happen. The only one who had a kid was Pinkie, who apparently got married to Cheese Sandwich (Weird Al’s character) at some point. Like, they literally shared two episodes together, with no hint of romance? But then they got married and had a kid off-screen??? What the fuck???? A lot of people also think that Fluttershy ended up with Discord, and I know I’m massively biased against that ship, but... I mean, they teased the FlutterCord shippers, but there wasn’t really any actual textual evidence that they were any closer than they had been previously. Y’all weirdos who ship Fluttershy with an obnoxious elderly man can interpret that as being “canon” if you want, I guess, but it’s not

The other relationship that shocked everyone in the finale was Applejack and Rainbow Dash, who... appear to be a couple? It’s definitely hinted at. I have... very, very mixed feelings about this. I mean, okay, obivously I’m the big FlutterDash fangirl. But I think AppleDash is cute, too! The problem is that, like... they’ve barely interacted in years? Like, they had a lot of episodes together in the first two seasons, but then the writers barely ever had them interact past that point. I can’t even remember when the last time we got an actual episode focusing on them was. And no, the one where Rainbow takes Granny Smith to pony Vegas doesn’t count

Like... yeah, it’s cute. It’s a nice gesture. Lyra and Bon Bon getting married in the background was also cute. But we can do so, so much better in 2019. We have so many explicitly canon lesbian couples in cartoons. Couples that actually kissed, or got married, or showed feelings for each other. Rainbow and AJ barely even fucking talked to each other in the final few seasons. I dunno, it just feels very hollow to me. Even the Equestria Girls crew admitting they were pushing RariJack felt more substantial to me, because at least they were given on-screen chemistry and lots of canon interaction

But in the end, complaints aside, the finale was about Twilight moving back to Canterlot, and worrying that her friendships would fade because of it. Honestly, I think this is what the finale of the show always would’ve been. It was the perfect story to end on. And boy, it hit really close to home

And then the last song happens, reflecting on how things have changed, but how they’re all still friends. And we see all the other friends they made along the way. And the camera zooms out, and the book from the opening of the very first episode closes, bringing the entire nine-year saga full circle

And then I started sobbing really hard in Anthony’s arms

...

I dunno. I just got done nitpicking a lot, but I still think that the last episode was a good and very emotional ending for the show

I’m going to miss this show dearly. I know it will be back in a new form, and that the leaks indicate that it’ll still star slightly different versions of the Mane Six. I’m also used to shows like this getting rebooted. Hasbro cartoons are honestly lucky to last past three seasons. FiM, on the other hand, got over 200 episodes, a theatrical film, a few specials, some shorts, a bunch of comics (which I still need to read), and a spinoff human AU series that was also really great. There’s no shortage of content, and I’m sure I’ll be returning to the series for years to come. I’m also glad that the show managed to go out on a high note

But still. It was a constant presence in my life for nearly nine years. Even as the quality got really hit or miss, even as they took the premise in strange directions, even as the crew of the show grew more and more dominated by men, it was still a show I could rely on to always be there, 26 episodes a year. I’ll miss it. I hope what comes next is just as good, if not even better. I also hope it’s gayer

I was going to end my ask blog, Fluttershy Replies, around the time the show ended. I’m not sure if I’ll do that just yet. I don’t know. I think that might be a bit much for me to process emotionally. Too many doors closing in my life in quick succession. But I do want to do more with it. These characters will be special to me for the rest of my life

I mean shit, I haven’t even drawn StarTrix yet. I’ve still got a lot of work to do with these horses, folks

#bobby thinks about horses

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cardiganloser · 5 years ago

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Fictional Characters Who Are, In Fact, Bisexual

1. Peter Parker

He's a bisexual trans man in my eyes. I know that Stan Lee (RIP) didn't personally agree with this, but agree to disagree. He had a gay awakening to one of the Avnegers before he met them and it's his darkest secret.

2. Dean Winchester

Look, I haven't watched a lot of Supernatural, but from the footage I've even I've managed to figure out that this man is a bisexual idiot in love with the gay angel, and his brother is sick of third wheeling.

3. Stiles Stilinski

Again, haven't seen a lot of Teen Wolf, but I have watched some Stiles clips and this man is undoubtedly not straight. I couldn't give less of a shit what canon says. Look at this boy's layering and cheesy jokes. Look at him consistently asking if gay guys think he's hot, and how comfy he was with the offer of sex from another guy. He ain't straight.

4. Arthur Pendragon

I know, you know, we all know. This, man is a bisexual idiot in love with his best friend and I don't accept criticism. I'm proud to claim him as one of us, even if he's an idiot.

5. Quinn Fabray

Maybe I'm just really in love with Diana Agron but I'll die on this hill. She said sex with our lesbian queen Santana was a one-time thing and then did it again. Ryan Murphy does have a track record of biphobia and ignoring bisexuals, so I'm not surprised he pussied out of this one.

6. Ginny Weasley

She's too pretty to be a straight. I will die on the bisexual Ginny hill. She had a md crush on Luna at one point and I don't accept any other answer. Joanne is a coward though so don't expect anything canon.

7. Scorpius Malfoy

While I agree with a small crush on Rose in first year, anything more than that after how she treated him is bullshit. This is a boy with a lot of internalised homophobia, who is, in fact, in love with Albus Severus Potter, I don't care what Joanne says.

8. Jake Peralta

This might as well be made canon tbh. Some of the stuff he does that's perceived as flirty and romantic with women is so done to guys, and the amount of boy crushes isn't straight. I appreciate b99 for having queer rep (Holt, Rosa, Kevin, etc) but please, just one more thing.

9. Finn (FN2187)

There is nothing straight about that stare. I'm so pissed Disney didn't make Finnpoe canon out of their homophobia and cowardice, and I will never forgive them for it. We could have had an amazing romance, but we got one of many queerbaits.

10. Gina Linetti

Her and Jake are bisexual best friends, try and prove me wrong. I will die on this hill and the others I've mentioned in this post. When she told Rosa they would make a hot couple in another universe, I always saw it as her meaning "I think of you as just a friend" not "I am straight". Like, come on, her energy is too chaotic for a het.

#peter parker #dean winchester #Stiles Stillinski #arthur pendragon #quinn fabray #ginny weasley #scorpius malfoy #jake peralta #fn 2187 #finn star wars #gina linetti #proud bisexual #Bisexuality #bi mlm #bi wlw #headcanon #queer headcanons

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ingayderzim · 5 years ago

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not to be that person who asks a googleable question but wtf is hazbin hotel bc i googled it and the only “critical” thing i could find was a typo-ridden article of someone saying it has good animation and its haters are stupid. i was able to glean what it is/what it’s about but idk about the discourse lmao

Im actually so glad u asked this. Here's the lowdown, this is my definitive answer to hazbin shit from here on out, unless new info comes about of course.

Hazbin hotel is an independent cartoon by vivziepop. Most people (that ive seen) have agreed that the pilot of the show really isnt that great but the reason it has so many fans is bc of the entertaining livestreams, massive amounts of canon content produced (she has had these characters for years), unique art style, and the characters. (Ass ugly but unique.)

Its haters are totally justified bc of some of the "controversial" (read: bad) things vivziepop has done. Here's the conclusion that my friends and classmates (several of whom are Black, one Hispanic woman, and one trans woman...nellie if ur reading this i 💜 u) and i came to after discussing this stuff. I am NOT saying "well my black/trans friend said it's ok so i dont have to think about it!" this is based on a few different conversations that my friends and i have had about this topic so what im saying is that my opinion was formed by talking about this situation with multiple people affected by the controversy.

One controversial thing is a drawing u can easily find on google (called beastiality.jpg i believe?) It's a cropped (chest and up, but hes obv naked) drawing of vivziepops character, drawn by vivziepop, moaning, with a snake around him. The character is 17. Many people have interpreted this as child porn. I dont think this image is pornographic, i think it's a stupid joke (it was even tagged as a joke iirc) and completely inappropriate but since it's 8 years old on top of not being porn, i think it's just an example of a dumb drawing. That being said, i would NEVER argue that someone who is uncomfortable w the drawing (im uncomfortable with it! It's gross just not porn) or considers it porn is wrong. They are entitled to that opinion and i would never expose them to vivziepops work or talk about her stuff around them if they expressed to me that they disliked the image.

Another thing is that she drew a doodle of two racist TERFs. This is the one where my friends of color, my friends who are black, and my friends who are trans women took the lead. I sat back for this part and here's their and my opinion on this after talking about it and verbally going through this whole situation.

She was following these women (who had done blackface and stuff) and drew art of them. The art was a "quick doodle" that she did apologize for and she said she didn't realize the extent of their beliefs. She knew they werent great but hadnt consumed much of their content in depth. I believe her bc while ive never followed anyone as bad, ive certainly followed some pieces of shit and didnt notice for months simply bc im not online all the time and bc of the volume of people i follow, combined with the non chronological algorithms lately.

At the risk of screwing myself, im going to admit that there was about a year or so of my life where i enjoyed The Amazing Atheist. I was even subbed to him. I was a nonbinary lesbian (2 things he cant stand lmaoo) in catholic school and therefore i strictly watched his videos about theological stuff since thats what was frustrating me at the time. I had no clue the type of evil racist, transphobic, homophobic (yes ik hes bi), misogynistic things he thought, said, and did, bc i didnt watch those videos. I literally only watched select theological ones that could be of use to me while edgily debating my teachers (sorry mrs macdougal but u had it coming). I was about 15 at the time and im 19 now. Im sorry to everyone i hurt by ever having supported him. I had one of his quotes written in the inside of my religion notebook in high school. I regretted it and ripped the page out the moment i discovered the truth about him. I cant stress enough how much I HATE HIM. Thats an example of what i think happened here tho.

One of my friends who is a trans woman said (paraphrasing) "i think the worst thing shes done is that terf art but i believe the apology especially bc it was a quick drawing."

That being said, i would NEVER argue with someone who wanted nothing to do w vivziepop bc of this. That's their right. 100%. I would never expose them to her work after that.

The last thing i remember is something about a pedophilic couple in a comic but i heard it was a 17 year old and a 19 year old. Im 19 and if one of my peers did that i wouldnt say pedophile but id say ur a fucking weirdo, BUT, the kids were fake and being written by an adult so i can totally see her thinking that age gap is much less of a big deal than it really is. Like she forgot what it's like at this age. Idk how true any of that part is tho, i heard that info entirely secondhand.

Another thing to do with racism is that there's a joke within the show where one character says to the other

"don't get your taco in a twist"

"Was that supposed to be racist or sexist?"

"Whichever one pisses you off more"

I thought that was gross but one of my friends pointed out that vivziepop is of el salvadorian descent so that's her business. Like if i made a lesbian joke of equal or greater offensiveness than that and someone tried to call me lesbophobic over it id be like "that's literally my territory."

Oh speaking of which that character's name is vaggie and shes a lesbian but it's not pronounced w the same G you'd hear in "vagina." Vivziepop seems to name characters weirdly (like how in helluva boss theres a guy named blitzo and the o is silent) so maybe it's a pussy joke but i have no idea.

The animation was.................better than i could do, i wanna say the faces and gestures were good but god i remember there was a part with a car and my gf had to pause so i could laugh my ass off at it. I wouldn't describe the animation as a highlight but i liked the style in motion i thought it was a fun change. Vivziepops style is not appealing imo but i appreciate it as an art student and as someone whose friends all like she ra and steven universe where every character looks the goddamn motherfucking same, and while its chaotic and i dont care for it, the style actually works way better in motion than you'd think.

A good rule that i def use is to assume hazbin fans are guilty until proven innocent. If someone says they dont care about the discourse surrounding it and like it no matter what, RUN! They would support the show even if the creator was in fact a pedophile, or had done the blackface/was a terf herself! They probably support some horrible ppl and are probably "anti antis." A lot of them are minors tho so i'd say block and move on.

So, do i like it or not? Im an art student and all my friends like it so while i didnt think it was funny, i do fuck with it. At the convention this weekend my friends and i had a convo that led to me drawing an ahego hoodie where the faces were angel dust (a character's) face. It was a joke that i could make a killing by selling that in a booth at a con.

Theres really nothing compelling about the show but my friends like it so i join in on their conversations, and i do have a soft spot for angel dust bc he's like a worse, less amazing and gorgeous version of one of my characters, Candy, the love of my life.

A lot of people say the show was edgy/offensive and maybe im just desensitized but besides the taco thing i didnt pick up on that whatsoever??? The Archer episode "Swiss Miss" is worse than helluva boss and hazbin combined and even archer isn't offensive.

Im probably not aware of all the "discourse" (aka people being reasonably uncomfortable by weird and bad shit this random woman has done, and other ppl saying their opinions are wrong when it's literally just an opinion about a show) so if anything she's done isnt included in here it's not to defend vivziepop, this is genuinely all i know. I wouldnt describe myself as a fan of hers.

#hazbin hotel #anon

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mavrustheunskooled · 6 years ago

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gay representation in Starkid shows: a giant rambly post no one asked for

I have a lot of thoughts about gay representation in Starkid musicals (I would say LGBT+ rep but there aren’t any trans characters except for debatably Chorn, who’s described as a monster, so that doesn’t really count) and I’m sure no one cares but I’m writing about how it has changed and how it differs for mlm and wlw and ye

so first off let’s establish gay characters in starkid musicals (I’ve heard that some of these are up to interpretation, but I’m basing this off the idea that most people recognize the romance-coding in these pairings)

Quirrell/Voldemort (AVPM/AVPSY)

Ron (AVPM/AVPS/AVPSY)

Dumbledore (AVPM/AVPS/AVPSY)

Scarfy/Sorty (AVPS/AVPSY)

Seamus/Dean (AVPC)

McDoon/Cletus (TTO)

Zazzalil/Jemilla (Firebringer)

Alice/Deb (TGWDLM)

that’s 7 MLM characters dating back to 2009, 4 WLW characters dating back to 2016, and 2 that are objects (a scarf and a hat) that can’t really be assigned genders

what I find really interesting is the difference between the way the mlm and wlw are treated. until 2016, starkid did not have any wlw characters in their musicals; however, the mlm characters that they did have were not treated well

Quirrell and Voldemort are an interesting case because it is difficult to discern if they are treated as a joke because they are gay or because nothing is taken seriously in AVPM. I think that, although they are a joke, they’re more acceptable because no couple in AVPM is treated very seriously. if the Ron/Hermione kiss scene exists, then I’m here for whatever nonsense Quirrell and Voldemort want to get up to. (but I’m not done with them- put a pin in this)

(I also have to acknowledge that their scene in AVPSY is beautiful. stunning. amazing. perfect. they are maybe starkid’s best mlm because, even though they start off as a joke, there’s their CHILD and the “okay is wonderful” line and the way Quirrell leans his head against Voldemort and smiles softly and I’m tearing up because I love them okay anYWAY)

Ron is also odd because he is confirmed bi in AVPS, but that point is never revisited. on one hand, that’s nice because his entire life doesn’t revolve around his sexuality and it doesn’t change who he is, but on the other hand, Ron is canonically bi in the AVPM trilogy and it’s never really a thing. (again, it doesn’t Have to be a thing, but that would be lovely. also one could argue that some of his interactions with Harry are a bit like a pining bisexual, but that brings up a bunch of other issues. for one, gay-character-pines-after-straight-friend is Tired. it also enhances the idea that mlm are a joke, an idea that we will revisit again and again in this post.)

AVPM trilogy Dumbledore is bad. what else can I say. he makes inappropriate comments to children. his sexuality and existence are a giant joke. I don’t think there’s any instance where his sexuality is not treated as a punchline.

Scarfy and Sorty are every gay stereotype ever. Scarfy has the “””gay voice””” and they’re a rainbow, which aren’t necessarily bad, but just. Yikes. they do have some cute moments (”why do you have to be so brave”) but also... I’m not saying it’s bury your gays, but one of them does die...

Seamus and Dean are confirmed to be married in A Very Potter Christmas (I believe). it’s a brief mention, similar to Ron, that can retroactively be applied to the AVPM trilogy, but mostly it comes off as a “haha they’re husbands it’s comedy gold”

then there’s McDoon and Cletus. Oh boy. they’re the worst. a good way to tell if gay characters are being played as a joke because they’re gay or if it’s just a joke is to switch the gender of one person. imagine if Cletus was a woman, and then imagine all of the scenes that imply something between him and McDoon. it completely changes the meaning of them. they’re also the villains. gay villains aren’t necessarily bad; however, there is a big trend of villains being gay because it associates being bad with being gay. media influences how people view the world. if every gay person you see is a bad person, you’ll begin to think gay = bad. they’re the worst.

a common trend of starkid mlm, such as Ron and Seamus/Dean, is that they are briefly mentioned once and then never returned to. there is nothing wrong with briefly mentioning that a character is part of the LGBT+ community without elaborating on it because that’s not the only aspect of their character. one good example of this is the gay gas attendant in solve it squad (I know we’re dipping into TCB, but I think they’re great about LGBT+ rep, or at least gay rep). he mentions his boyfriend, and it’s not a big deal, but it’s nice to hear. it’s nice to hear that Ron, Seamus, and Dean are all mlm. the issue comes in when that’s all the rep that exists. the AVPM trilogy is a special case because it has multiple mlm characters, so this rule doesn’t apply as strongly as in other cases, but it’s worth mentioning.

the most common trend of starkid mlm is that they are played as a joke. Quirrell/Voldemort are the closest starkid gets to a loving relationship between two men. and there is nothing wrong with one gay couple being comedic. I adore QM’s songs- different as can be is a work of art. the issue stems, similar to the gay villain trope, from when it becomes a repeated trend. if gay people are always jokes, that means viewers will begin to associate being gay with being a joke. starkid mlm are never allowed to have a beautiful love story like, for example, jafar and scheherazade. the best they can hope for is a nice ending at the end of the third musical in a trilogy after their ending in the first installment was done as a joke rather than sincerely. it’s the trend of lacking a meaningful love story that’s the problem, not the individual cases.

OKAY now onto the wlw.

the main issue with starkid wlw is that they were nonexistent until firebringer. I hope that I’m missing something, but if I’m right, there were not any wlw for 7 years. it’s nonsense that starkid didn’t have canon wlw until then. I know there are excuses to make, like it was a different time and whatever, but it still seems weird.

Zazzalil and Jemilla are great. they’re the main characters, there’s no doubt that they’re in love, and they sing a gay duet. beautiful. stunning. effervescent. I also think the “they weren’t built up enough” argument is interesting because I definitely get it to a point but also straight couples are never built up but they’re everywhere. let a gay couple that’s not perfectly built up end up together like straights do all the time. (also they were built up a bit, although I agree that it could have been more)

more eloquent people than me have praised Alice and Deb before, but I’ll try. Alice is great because she has the exact conflict that a straight kid might have: her dad doesn’t approve of her significant other. Bill isn’t homophobic; he just doesn’t like Deb. when he suggests other people for Alice to date, a guy’s name doesn’t come to mind. he supports his lesbian daughter- just not her taste in women. it’s great.

so starkid held off on wlw until they decided to do representation seriously. their wlw are treated with respect, and they’re interesting characters who are more than their sexuality.

so why do I bring all of this up? because I think it’s interesting, but also because of Workin’ Boys, the (potentially coming) short film.

starkid has not really moved past their joking-mlm days. I’m not saying that they’re super homophobic because they’re obviously not. But, they still do some questionable things. Hidgens is really gay-coded, and it’s a giant joke, and it makes me concerned about workin’ boys. I don’t know if there will be gay characters (although I can always hope), but if there are, I don’t know if they’ll fall into the same stereotype trap that others have fallen into. mlm exist who do fit into the stereotypical idea of a mlm; however, I think it’s important to show a variety of people, and I’m concerned that that will not happen.

TL;DR starkid representation has been hit or miss, but it’s getting better, and I can only hope that it continues to improve.

#I love starkid and i'm not saying they're homophobic so don't @ me #also I had a whole other part planned about transphobia but I decided to not get into it #starkid #mine #also this google doc was almost 3 pages long sldkfljf #rambles

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