#and I still get annoyed when you say it would be bad bi representation

[wheelercurse]

every two months I say the same thing: Mike is bi; and I never elaborate on my mindset.

[drill-teeth-art]

A late night, slight retrospective on the tiny amount of Tumblr fame I've gathered that also might be slightly annoying for my audience to read so feel free to skip it if you want.

I started sharing Transformers fanart on here back in 2022, around October. I had been posting art on here for a while before actually but people really started following me and asking about my work and actually reblogging my stuff when I started posting Transformers fanart in 2022. I was in a really low place then, and I really welcomed the attention. My art was and still is something I take a lot of pride in. It's my own. There's quite a few years of my life where the fact I could still draw was the only thing stopping me from attempting suicide. It's something that has always meant a lot to me, so the attention on one of the only things I really liked about myself was nice. It was nice for a while.

But I've gotta say the slight Tumblr fame (and I do mean slight, I've only got around 3k followers which is a lot of people and more than I ever thought I'd have following me and more than a lot of folks will ever have but not like A Ton Of Fame) has wreaked havoc on my mental health. Which is already pretty rough as is. Suddenly I wasn't just some guy making Transformers fanart while desperately saving up to get out of my parents' house. Suddenly I was some people's FAVORITE Transformers artist. Suddenly I was a role model to people and I had people in my DMs clambering for my attention and I had an audience that would cheer or boo or go awkwardly silent at my every post depending on how much they liked it. And it was Not Good For Me. I had and still do have people all over my inbox, excited about how I drew fat and disabled and trans characters asking me over and over to draw some specific representation that I don't want to draw right away. I had and still have people begging me to draw their favorite Transformers character who I happen to not really care about and not want to draw at all. And I am painfully aware how often people take personal offense to my polite "no I'm not drawing that unless it's a commission" and my not answering their ask because I'm not in the mood. I've had people send in asks asking for a specific drawing and then follow up asks when I don't answer in a timely manner. And it's really uncomfortable! And it's almost more uncomfortable that it feels like a lot of people don't even notice that they're making me uncomfortable.

And I like learning how to draw bodies I've never drawn before. I like looking at a character who I think is meh and being like "well actually how can I make them interesting to me...". But it really felt and still feels like my art was getting away from me, like I was drawing more what people were asking me to make instead of what I wanted to because people would take it so badly when I'd say no. I was getting commissions though and I was saving up money to move out so I ignored that bad feeling of getting distanced from my own craft because I was trying so hard to save money and I was actually making some. And I still wanted the attention. Plenty of people were still kind to me despite everything.

Things got weirder for me after I released my Good Bi Gender comic. Which I do still recommend people read I think it's some of my best work. But that comic became a huge hit. And it made things really complicated for a while. I got anon hate. I was told to kill myself by strangers online more than once while I was already deeply suicidal. Something I thought I stated very clearly in the comic itself, that I didn't want strangers calling me "she" though I did and do let my close trusted people call me "she", was immediately ignored by my regular audience and people reading the comic. I got a lot of "you go girl!" kind of messages in response to my comic, and I didn't say anything at the time but it made me deeply uncomfortable. The comic was partly about how the she/her part of my identity is off limits to strangers. How I don't let just anyone she/her me because I work so hard to have the he/him aspect identity acknowledged at all. And it was like what Tumblr decided for me was to go against my wishes. Was to be like "we'll accept your identity for you!" when that's not what I wanted. I did NOT want to be she/her'd by thousands of strangers at the time. And though I'm grateful to have heard the understanding stories of other folks with nonbinary gender identities in the notes, it was deeply humiliating and invalidating to watch as others decided for me to accept the Girl part of my identity. The opening lines of the comic are explicitly a plea to the reader to listen and understand why they're not allowed to use she/her for me even though I'm opening up about the complexities of my identity.

And like. I don't care anymore if people online she/her me. At least I don't care right now that's why she/her is in my bio right now maybe I'll change that. But at the time it was awful. It was something I asked people not to do. And between that and the constant clambering for my attention from people I didn't want to talk to (because I was severely depressed and wasn't looking to make a ton of new friends) and the alienation from my own work I felt like shit. I felt like garbage. I still do. I hate my art sometimes. I really hate it. And for a while, I considered breaking my own fingers just so people would stop acting so entitled to my art and I would have a reason not to post. And honestly the only thing that stopped me was just trying to get by financially. Just watching my follower count and regular notes steadily trend upward so I could do more commissions so I could move out.

And doing things for the numbers, even for a relatively short time, only made things worse. It sounds a little silly even to me, but I get so stressed out when my posts flop, especially if it's art I was really proud of. I'm struggling to detangle my sense of worth in my art from the online numbers game. And I'm proud of the progress I'm making, but it does really suck and it's really hard. And I really wish I was still the same person back in early 2022 who could say "I don't care about the numbers!" and actually mean it because god I WISH I didn't care about the numbers now. Especially now. I dunno if it's me posting more art people don't wanna see or people leaving Tumblr or a shift in the culture of Tumblr but fewer and fewer people interact with my posts despite my follower count ticking up slowly but surely and it kind of bums me the fuck out. But. I am very proud of myself for still drawing the ocs that I want to draw even if they get less notes every time. And even if I'm slightly frustrated they get less notes every time.

I don't really have a neat bow to tie on my personal story right now. I'm still healing and sometimes I backslide and it's hard and it sucks. I don't want to sound ungrateful or to sound like I'm trying to shoo people off my blog because I'm not. I'm really grateful for the attention and interest and I'm not trying to turn people off my art blog. But it's been a rough few years on here. And don't be surprised if you see me take more and more breaks from this website. I do sincerely hope y'all will stick around and watch me continue to post whatever art and say kind things because I do appreciate that a lot. I'm trying really hard to mend my relationship with my own art. To not be so hard on myself. And for the record I don't want any asks telling me to take breaks when necessary or reminding me to draw for me. I appreciate the sentiment, but I already know all that and I personally don't find it helpful to be reminded of things I already know. But anyway. I hope that I will draw more and more of whatever I want to, even if that means I fade back into obscurity.

If you stuck around to read me reflect on the stresses and occasional humiliation of my small amount of online notoriety, then thank you. I appreciate that. And really I do like people looking at my art on here and sharing it and sending asks about my work. And the person I expect to be responsible for my mental health and how much social media is impacting it is Me first and foremost. But sometimes I think that it's important to remember there's a person behind your favorite art blog. And sometimes when you get swept up in parasocial attachment and hype, you kind of treat that person really fucking weirdly. And no that doesn't make you a bad person or a monster. But it does mean you have to learn to deal with it when someone who you might even idolize is like "back off me you're making me uncomfortable".

Anyway. I shouldn't be up as late as I am. A headache has been keeping me up all night. I'm gonna try to rest though. Goodnight.

[bohemian-nights]

yeah the suggestion that sophie should be erased is deeply annoying to. like i need male centered white women who are fujos to step away from bridgerton and benophie. Sophie being a woman, a bastard woman, and navigating her gendered oppression because of her lower class is integral to benophie. if people want lgbtq representation they can go watch another show, or better yet, create original characters and go write fanfic if they want.

There is a place for LGBT+ rep in Bridgerton, there is even a place to turn a couple of the characters bi, but specifically gender swapping any of the main love interests/protagonists just would not work, and people need to be honest about that. However, they won’t be because they are just using the excuse of the show not being “diverse enough” to not support a Black woman playing Sophie Beckett.

The reality is that Bridgerton has tried to be more diverse than most shows, but they do not have to check every single box or else the show is not “progressive” enough. That’s not how it works.

It’s not “unprogressive” to keep the most oppressed woman due to her gender and class in the eight book series a woman. Again taking rep away from women(and marginalized women at that) to give to a (white) man that way you can see two (white) dudes fucking on screen does not make you “progressive.” Trying most surely does not make you a good ally(seriously where are you people when we are actually getting bad rep?).

Just because you see Black people in a period piece that’s highly popular, in a place where you feel we don’t “belong,” that doesn’t mean that we have to give up our space to fit you inside it.

(Mind you this is a place that we created because if Shonda hadn’t adapted these books added the diversity this series would’ve never done the numbers it has. Bridgerton is a sensation because of racial diversity that isn’t steeped in racism and race. It’s neither here nor there, but we constantly create our own, everyone wants to eat off our plates, and then leave us with scraps after they’ve had their fill).

This whole discourse is just incredibly bizarre, but the thing I find the most disturbing about it is the fact that even if you want to say Sophie should be a man, Benedict doesn’t like men.

I mean this literally should be a non-issue since he has shown 0 interest in men for two seasons and he’s had plenty of opportunities to fuck them if he wanted too.

Now if the show turns around and makes him bi this season(doubtful, but I’ll humor the weirdos) he still clearly likes women too so why Sophie should get the boot is beyond me, but not surprising considering the state of fandoms.

Silently off topic, but kinda related since it comes from the same place of using the lack of prominent LGBT+ rep to justify keeping a Black woman from being Sophie.

Which brings me people who think that Masali Baduza(suspected Sophie) can’t possibly be Sophie and instead insist that she’s either related to the Stirlings(the family Francesca marrys into) or that shes a gender bent Michael.

For issue #1 people claim that Masali and Victor Ali(the man who they suspect is John Stirling) “look alike” therefore she must be playing his sister. Victor Ali and Masali don’t look alike outside of both being dark skinned Black people(the people saying they do look hella suspect🙃).

And while Masali isn’t a household name she did have her own show(Noughts + Crosses) so she’s too big to just be playing someone’s sisters on Bridgerton. Not to mention the secrecy for a side character seems extremely unwarranted.

Now for issue #2, people are using a casting call(cause at least they know that it makes no sense for Masali to be a side character) that allegedly went out two years back to say she’s gender-bent Michael.

If you believe in the casting call(a similar one went out for Kate calling for a Indian actress when she was being cast so it is on brand) it says that the actress cast will be the lead for season four. Francesca’s story most surely isn’t going to be next up(skipping over both Eloise and Benedict? Be real) and it’s also another gendered issue to where if you make Michael into a woman you are changing up the story so much you might as well created an OC.

There is plenty of evidence that suggest Benedict’s season is next, Sophie has been cast, she’ll be in s3, and even if you don’t want to believe the casting call right now, that Masali is playing her, but instead of seeing what’s right in front of them people want to say that it just can’t be.

Overall I feel like people are doing a whole lot of talking and “advocating” for nothing cause they are butthurt that Sophie doesn’t look how they want her to look.

It’s still hurtful though to see that people would rather want Sophie to be a man and take away everything she stands for than see her being played by a Black woman, but again fandoms are unfortunately weird like that.

Let me end this by saying that while my rants my sound like I have gone crazy or am trying to start some bs, I have been suffering in silence since Bridgerton came out nearly three and a half years ago so this is me breaking my silence.

Again this isn’t really about erasing Sophie. It’s about keeping Sophie from being played by a Black woman which is fucking nuts considering that a Black woman is producing this crap.

First it was how Sophie couldn’t be non-white because it would be problematic. Then after Simone was cast as Kate it was how the show had no East Asian representation or Latina rep and had “too many Black people”(where are the Black people besides Lady Danbury and Will 🙃)so Sophie could be non-white, but she should not be Black.

Now that it truly seems like a Black girl it’s how Sophie should be a man cause the show has no LGBT+ rep.

And yeah everyone deserves rep, but the fact that people have continually said that their has been enough rep for Black people as a way to silence us and push their own representation at the expense of Black people is disgusting.

I can not reiterate this enough, the one thing this shitty ass fandom has been consistent in is saying that a Black woman shouldn’t play Sophie Beckett.

All I can say is that I hope Shonda has not listened to the people who keep yelling at her to give them representation at the expense of Black people while at the same time being fucking passive aggressive whiny little anti-Black bitches to her and all the Blackish actors on the show.

[eisforeidolon]

I feel fans should be able to interpret shows and characters any way they want but it really bothers me that shippers die on the hill of Dean is such a closeted bi sexual and Sam is the biggest heterosexual out there. I love these characters because they are extremely toxic and codependent on each other. The story would not be the same with out that. Why would anyone look to Supernatural to be their all time gay representation love story when it most obviously is not. it just blows my mind how out there Destiel shippers are and how much they truly hate this show and hate Dean without even realizing it. I need someone to figure out how we can get rid of them from this fandom...LOL

Yeah, IDGI either. Fandom is supposed to be about just having fun however you want with the building blocks from the canon + your imagination. It's not even the main point that they're hilariously bad at interpretation, project too hard onto the characters to even see them, can't understand context to save their lives, pointedly ignore a million things that directly contradict their agenda, and too much of their so-called proof is actually gross backwards stereotypes about sexuality and masculinity (neither of which they seem to understand very well at all). If they were just having fun with it, who the fuck cares? Sure, it's annoying, but a lot of fandom is annoying because it is so specifically tailored to things not everyone is gonna like. There are other canons with fans who are fine admitting they just like playing in the canon world but not the canon itself that much.

No, the problem is hellers are not content to just enjoy their non-canon interpretations in fandom. They feel entitled to flood any and every tag associated with the show, trying to demand their interpretations be considered indisputably canon fact because ... reasons ... and anyone who doesn't agree with them is A Bad Person because ... they say so. Their ship is the greatest love story (n)ever told, the best representation evar in media! It's the only important thing about SPN - and if they couldn't change the canon, they can change the fandom narrative! The fact there's actually no there there under their overblown thousands upon thousands of words of inept meta is why the very suggestion it's not canon, that someone doesn't see it as the greatest thing ever, that maybe Dean is actually just a heterosexual instead of putting on an elaborate performance of one or even that Sam might not be the straightest character ever written? Is taken as an attack upon their self-declared status as the real main audience. Which makes sense, because they never were. SPN was anything but subtle as to what its actual focal relationship was.

To some extent I get how they echo-chambered each other into believing their ship was/would be a thing in canon. If you just look at the size of the piles on piles of cherry-picked nonsense they accumulated over the years without actually engaging your brain to see how variously flimsy, out of context, or how many other more sensible interpretations there were for any of them? If you wanted to believe and surrounded yourself with others who did, too, and kept talking each other up, spending way more time doing that than watching the show? It's no wonder some of them ended up with really skewed expectations.

What I don't get is how they're still going this long after the show ended. SPN is over and there's no more 'Well, next season for sure!' to promise themselves. There are increasingly more stories out there now in a variety of media which are centering deliberately, openly LGBT+ characters and relationships they could invest in championing! Hell, just saying screw canon and burying themselves in writing their idea of "better" fanfic is a perfectly reasonable way to deal with disappointment, no matter how self-inflicted. Instead, they're still here making up elaborate conspiracies about how SPN was something other than what it blatantly obviously always was - because admitting they were wrong and the only thing they ever liked about it was their own OOC fanfic very, very loosely based off of it? Well, that's more than a bit embarrassing in light of how long they spent campaigning and how vehement they were about it totally being not just A Thing but The Most Important Thing Ever. So I don't know what would actually get them to move on, they clearly love being miserable and wrong and pretending to be martyrs over it far too much for me to comprehend.

[theoldlesbianwithcats]

I'm a gold star lesbian. I have always been extremely skeptical of the narratives women give of being with men as supposed lesbians. But the more time I spend around other gold stars (online) the less I find the arguments compelling. A lesbian couldn't self-harm by having sex with a man because it goes against her base instincts? Does cutting one's skin not go against one's base instincts? Does suicide not? I feel like I'm missing a link here that makes this argument make sense. I'm absolutely looooooathe to give a speck of credibility to clearly bisexual women who spend lives sleeping with men and then try to worm their way into lesbian 'identity', but I'm struggling to grasp the logic that a lesbian could not possibly sleep with a man if she were, say, not in her right mind or if she were sufficiently pressured or, yes, coerced. On the other hand, I just do not believe 99% of the stories I've heard purely incidentally. Is there any room for nuance here? I think it's also troubling me that the majority of outspoken gold star lesbians on here are rather unintelligent and reactionary and I find it difficult to align myself with women like that. It's humiliating to say that I'm a gold star lesbian and to be immediately associated with women like that. I saw a woman say recently that being interested in lesbian history is a red flag for being a 'fauxbian'. I've seen other gold star lesbians say that real lesbians do not have close male friends or support male artists. At this point we've lost our minds entirely. It's a horseshoe turn into our own brand of political lesbianism. I really appreciate the posts you've made about the topic as you're very reasonable and you clearly give a lot of thought to what you say. I wish I could say the same for others.

Hi anon,

Not gonna lie, this message exhausts me because it contains two things that I don't like getting in my inbox:

Debating in which circumstances a lesbian could have sex with a man (which is just a negative version of "can lesbians have male exceptions")

Complaining about gold stars you disagree with on anon with no hint of you doing anything for gold stars off anon

For the first part, I don't see why a lesbian would have sex with a man as self-harm when there are so many other ways to harm yourself (including having violent/unhealthy relationships with women). Also many of the women I've seen claiming to be lesbians who self-harmed with men came out as bi later. It's easy to tell those women are bi because they relate to bi and het women who had bad experiences with men, but are weirdly lesbophobic, guilt-trippy and lacking in empathy with gold stars who self-harmed.

For the second part, I wish the gold star community on here was more mature and focused on creating positive spaces and content too. I don't like reading insults online because it mentally exhausts me, even if it comes from people who are on my side.

The reason why this part of your message still annoys me is that I've been telling lesbians on here for eight years now that you need to kick your own asses and put yourselves out there, express yourself (not in my inbox! on your own page!) and create what you want to see. But from what I've seen, while queer/trans/polilez have been creating more and more fanzines, novels, webcomics, podcasts, videos, indie games, etc., actual lesbians are just complaining that no one is doing anything. You are all staring and telling each other "Will someone do something? Not me, but anyone else?"... Then you wonder why we're all lonely and have no representation, even in amateur spaces? Really?

There's no such thing as a lesbian prophet who will tirelessly provide all lesbians with everything we need, we're a tiny minority so we all need to take part and get our hands dirty, there's no other choice. And I'm going to say it... A lot of lesbians are super ungrateful to the lesbians who actually try to make things : when I made a lesbian website years ago, not even my lesbian friends shared the articles on social media and I only got three external contributions, so I abandoned it ; I created a local group chat and organized meetups until I got a job that made it impossible, the other members not only did not have their own meetups like I encouraged them to do but just let the group chat die entirely ; I created a discord server for gold stars who want to make creative projects together, I'm the only one who posted anything on it. At this point, the only lesbians who are allowed to complain about lesbian community/representation in my inbox are the ones who are trying to do something about it 🤷‍♀️

[mdhwrites]

Why I Think The Owl House Got Shortened

I have three theories and literally none of them of them have jack shit to do with the representation. I think people who think The Owl House got cancelled for that haven’t been paying attention to Disney at all, want a reason to hate a corporation that hates them (because this is by no means calling Disney an ally. They’re evil) and ignores that Disney has been using representation as a marketing and distraction tool for YEARS now. Besides, Disney has to approve everything TOH does and they still let the Lumity kiss happen. They still allowed Luz to do her bi presentation at the start of season three. Moscha is blatantly non-binary. These are all good things and all things Disney let through. If Disney hated the show as much as people claim, at least for the representation, NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED. Moving on. These will be in order of what I think is most plausible btw and these are all just theories. Theory 1: Dana pisses some people off with her treatment of S1. The fandom knew REALLY early on that Dana didn’t like the first of Season 1 and that she blamed changes enforced by Disney for it. Mind you, I joined the fandom when S1 was ALL WE HAD. As far as a content creator’s job to promote that which they make, let alone the DIRECTOR of the show, saying “Hey, half of what is out, the first half, is not great,” is kind of a dick move to your own creation. Say that once there’s five seasons, a dedicated fandom, etc. like that? Go right the the fuck ahead. That’s not going to stop most people who are watching the show and half a season in return for nine times that amount in good content is a trade some will make. I would not be surprised if this ended up really annoying some of the people at Disney and eroded trust they had in Dana. That would have made the budget cuts made during Covid easier to choose because you have a show where the creator itself is causing problems in its numbers. Theory 2: Disney decided they’d been lied to and that the show wasn’t what it was pitched as and they didn’t want the new version. So if we go off of the pilot, and the unreleased pilot for that matter, what would be a good description of the thesis of the show? What is the elevator pitch that gets a network to start producing it? For TOH it’s actually pretty simple and you can see why current Disney wanted it. “We want to do a fantasy comedy show where a young girl goes to another world where she learns life lessons and magic. The comedy is predicated mostly on subversion of fantasy tropes.” As Disney has been loving itself some subversion of its own tropes, that’s pretty appealing since it also works well as a kid’s show and Amphibia was also approved. But... How true is that of TOH? Season 1 at least tries to do lessons about morality but more often than not, Luz learns nothing. Or the lessons get muddled because Eda is a terrible person in S1. The comedy also isn’t clever in any way with its subversions and there’s also plenty of fantasy in TOH that is reliant on the excuses and the like of fantasy. It’s really nothing special in that regard even while it mocks fantasy. But the worst part is the magic for Luz. The Intruder and Adventure in the Elements aren’t bad but one DOESN’T have a lesson for Luz and if it does, the other uses similar mistakes she made in The Intruder to cause the problems that happen. Also nothing really comes of “There’s magic everywhere” in that episode so there are two glyphs that don’t really have any meaning behind them. But then it doubles down in Grom where Luz just gets the plant glyph at the beginning because *shrug* and then Winging it Like Witches gives her the fire glyph. You CAN make a case that this gives her an arsenal so she can do more with the adventure aspect (I would argue this is not a good thing because it means she needs to be less clever with her magic, which happens in the season finale and opener for S2) so they can brush that off. Maybe. But then Escaping Expulsion happens. Not only is it exceptionally anti-parents for Amity without proper build up or the like ON DISNEY but it nukes Luz’s arc with magic without Luz even interacting properly with the B plot of the episode. She is not involved in the ending of her own journey in becoming a witch. And for anyone who wants to say “The glyph combos could that...” Dana would have had to show that the script and boards for the very next episode included “Here is barely an explanation for how I now have INVISIBILITY. The bigger explanation is ‘It’s magic, I don’t have to explain it’“ Which is usually the number 1 complaint about fantasy writing. And your subversive comedy just used it over and over again for the main character’s arc with magic, especially for why it’s as strong as it is. At that point, you ask for a meeting to discuss just what you’re actually getting as a company and how much more of it you want. Theory 3: TOH is expensive to make, even for an animated cartoon, and Covid hit so it was decided to be made shorter for long term budget cuts, especially since S2 looked even more expensive. So... This has a lot to just do with the fact that TOH’s magic especially is very budget unfriendly. Gus, Willow and Amity all practice forms of magic that cause secondary entities to appear with them and can continue to move after the initial cast. So now you have a far more complex scene because you need to track Gus’ illusions, Amity’s abominations, Willow’s plants and those are just those three covens. Pretty much all of the coven magics have this issue. The only ones that kind of avoid this are potions and power glyphs. Also, quick side note: Power GLYPHS. Not going into it here but there’s a reminder that TOH’s magic sucks and does not feel planned out. Speaking of glyphs: Those don’t really help. Yes, those are at least static but Luz also demonstrates that they allow for quick casting so that’s a lot of new elements and half of her glyphs still leave behind debris that the animator and artists have to keep in mind as the fight goes on. This is why a lot of times, even in a show with a lot of magic, you might have the dude who specializes in artifacts or weaponry or goes into a special mode where he just glows a bit and gets buff. All of that is WAY simpler than literally anytime the witches in TOH cast magic, let alone for the big set pieces TOH likes to do. Dana’s penchant for outfit swaps doesn’t help either. After all, you work with a TEAM of animators. You have to make the notes for them of how the new outfit works on the character. Works in specific lighting. What if it gets wet? Etc. like that. That stuff takes time and money to hammer out but if you don’t do it then the character looks off model and shifts more between artists because there’s unifying document. HOW MANY OUTFIT SWAPS ARE IN SEASON 2? And how many of them are permanent, or at least for a good number of episodes, so this work is more required than a one off outfit? In general, there’s a lot about TOH honestly, from how populated it is, how it handles magic, how it handles outfits, etc. like that makes it feel honestly expensive. It’s a GOOD looking show after all but that effort, and especially those high quality set pieces that are obviously made with a high frame rate essentially (drawn on 2s or 1s instead of 3s I think is what one would say? I’m not an animator)? It could just be that it stressed its budget, Disney looked at that, looked at Covid and decided that in the long term, they didn’t want to keep spending this type of money on this show so they shortened because they had a contract with Dana that demanded 3 seasons and the specials were the closest way to ending that contract early. Those are my thoughts. My theories with what little business knowledge I have and putting myself in Disney’s shoes. One thing you might notice is that I didn’t do a quality call on it because quality very rarely matters to corporations. What matters is views, costs and profit. If quality mattered, Teen Titans Go would be dead because it is THE WORST. Like it literally teaches bad morals which is about as bad as a kid’s show can get. So why would it matter for TOH?

[aroacesigma]

By all means ignore this if you'd rather not talk ab the show, but what exactly makes the loki series bad? Genq bc I'm kinda on the fence about it

dont worry i am ALWAYS happy to talk about why the show sucks . sorry this will be very long

basically it boils down to two things: straight up transphobia towards gfluid people , and character assasination . andddd the rest under the cut cause i tend to ramble ab this .

so, for a while now its been canon in marvel comics that loki is genderfluid. fans obviously were calling for this to be acknowledged for a while, actor seemed on board (still seemed on board . gonna be real w u hes the only member i dont blame he didnt seem particularly pleased about a lot of choices), blah blah . so obviously the producer gets asked and the dick michael waldron says yep ! yessir we have rep .

the rep in question was splitting the character into a male and female version, giving no indication towards any genderfluidity whatsoever (having all the 'male' variants be shocked that theres a female one like wtf), and then pulling some good old selfcest between the two at the end to really seal the deal . the bi representation that was also promised was a one off easily missable line but thats a whole other can of worms . it got worse after the show, whenever prompted about it people involved would say very weird shit. kate herron tried to pull the cis queer card a few times if im recalling correctly. dont even get me started on sophia di martino .

second problem, characterisation. at that point in the timeline we have loki straight out of avengers . which means you either have evil and a bit crazy loki or you have an opportunity to confirm the popular fan theory of mind control . neither happened , instead i think they were trying to speedrun his ragnarok/infinity war character development, fucked it up spectacularly and rather than making him a more morally grey but still a little bit yknow, loki, made him like...really wimpy for some reason? a lot of his actions were extremely out of character . theres a lot of focus on him being full of himself (hence the selfcest), which is kinda fundementally misunderstanding him as a character . the self obsession is a front which is obvious to anyone who watched even half of thor 1 . yknow, the very first movie hes in . side note michael waldron said he didnt watch thor 1 ? i cant tell if he was joking or not but on god it did not seem like he was from the show.

also more related to comics synergy, just sylvie as a character . they mashed up loki while fem presenting (why.), amora, and sylvie lushton when they couldve just had amora for a romance plot ??? sylvie lushton also fucking sucked like the comics community generally has a low opinion of her . her ass is homophobic and annoying and an amora knockoff . you could really see the inspiration shine through .

honestly the agent of asgard run is a very good example of how the variant concept can be handled well, and without blatant transphobia . honestly they shouldve gotten al ewing to write the whole thing hes the only person i trust to write loki .

so yeah sorry for the very long paragraph 😭😭😭 this show just drives me up the wall SO BAD

[shadowfiredemonwolf]

one of the most annoying things I see is when people try to pull the but there arent many same sex ships ( that are canon) out there to defend korrasami and try to shame people into being okay with it when no it doesnt matter that there arent many same sex ships or examples of lgbt rep representation isnt more important then good writing they arent exempt from being criticized 

you dont need to support every same sex ship or “example of lgbt rep with a mc   to support the community or  support the idea of there being a mc same sex ship the important thing is whether the writing is good if it has had proper buildup etc

( also its funny how many times they get mad if the lgbt character isnt the character they wanted to be lgbt like ilia  and act like its wrong that she started on the bad guys side  even though she quickly changed sides

( its funny since I have seen people support the idea of azula being bi  given how she was )

or them getting mad if instead of the popular same sex ship  that they wanted one of the girls ends up with a girl outside of the pairing( I dont recall the example they used ( it was in the tags  naming ship names and I dont recognize all of the ship names)

but imagine someone getting mad if freezerburn happened instead of blacksun 

this way we both get what we wanted they get lgbt rep involving two members of team rwby  and blacksun got the payoff to all the buildup that it received ( while bb got nothing which is why I say its forced  direction change to suddenly start heavily pushing it in v7 ( v6 finale at best)

( and to be blunt the fact is the idea that  all members of team rwby

 had to be in relationship with each other  their partner because team jnpr got teased with theirs ( and if neo joins and gets with jaune it will still be the case) is ridiculous   by that logic it would be fair for one of team rwby to die ) heck it would be fine if none of team rwby were in relationships with eachother or were paired with a guy ( it wouldnt be forced if it was teased by the show with the proper buildup) like blacksun

(  I always find it funny that there are people who will genuinely call a straight ship being teased forced just because it was straight  and they wanted a same sex ship to be teased  instead (that isnt what being forced means it means writing wise . the fact they wanted bb to be teased is irrelevant they didnt get anything to hint at bb beforehand )  then will claim its homophobic to  call a same sex ship forced because after years of nothing hinting at it they were pushed and became canon as treated as something that is practically canon like in v7 or v6 finale ( while blacksun received actual teasing mutual attraction and development) there is no doubt if blake was a guy they would claim queerbaiting.  it doesnt matter that there are plenty of het ships that are canon people dont ship blacksun over bb because of the genders involved and when I see people claim that it comes off as projection

I think my initial disdain for the way Sun and Neptune are written came from how sick and tired I am of straight ships being forced on the audience when lots of us are in the lgbta community. Part of it was because my gay ships were sinking I’ll admit but honestly I’m just sick of forced straight ships especially in one of the only shows with enough well written female characters to /actually/ have believable gay ships. I don’t think I hate Sun and Neptune but I do hate how forced the ships are.

I think this is all the explanation needed(and all you need to dismiss people trying to take moral superiority over liking Bumblebee). Something the toxic side of the fandom loves to do is project and project hard. They cannot understand why someone would not think like them or like the things they do unless there’s something wrong with them or they contextualize it through what they themselves would do.And that’s one of them accidentally explaining how that relates to Bumblebee: wasps like it because it’s a gay ship. They thought Black Sun was forced because it was not a gay ship. Therefore, since everyone must either think like them or be defective, clearly you think Bumblebee is forced because it’s not a straight ship. You don’t like it because it’s gay.“

basically they are just calling blacksun forced because it was a straight ship if sun was a girl they wouldnt make that claim so I cant take anytime I hear someone try to pull the you would ship bb if it was a m/f pairing  or wouldnt be calling it forced if it was a m/f pairing for if sun was a woman and yang a man they wouldnt be shipping bb and would call bb forced

if whether you ship  a ship or not  is determined by genders involved  like say if two ships were paired against the other and what causes you to ship one over the other  the pairing  is genders involved  it is a shallow reason   representation isnt more important then good writing

u/punny-aggron

People need to stop over analyzing every single little detail about Bumblebee. Holding hands and hugging doesn’t mean these two are an item. They barely have any chemistry; in fact, almost every interaction between them suggests how terrible they’d be for each other:

In volume 2 Yang showed concern over Blake’s well being and winked at her while inviting her for a dance (we barelysee that dance btw) which is good, don’t get me wrong, but then everything starts going south after that. Blake was the only one on team RWBY who didn’t believe that Yang wasn’t going crazy, which doesn’t bode well for their relationship at all. Then Yang attacked Adam to save Blake, and Blake ran away after that without so much as a word, and Yang was rightfully upset and continued to be until volume 6. In that volume they do interact and Brunswick farms, and Yangs anger towards Blake briefly resurfaced. They then stabbed Adam and consulted each other after that. Then in volume 7 they complement each other’s looks (dating based off looks is never a good thing), then Blake’s introverted personality gets completely replaced into someone who likes to go clubbing (seriously, does Blake strike anyone as someone who likes to go clubbing?) and we don’t see that either. Then they talk in a van, and not even about each other, you know, something that would result in some good, healthy chemistry? And that’s it!

Yang and Blake barely have any chemistry together, and yet for some reason, almost everyone in the fandom thinks they’re compatible. They aren’t. They’re the farthest thing from compatible. Blake has more chemistry with Sun, and that is no speculation, the two of them spent two entire volume together for their relationship to flush out.

Look, I am not against Bumblebee, but this kind of nonsense needs to stop. We as a society need good, properly developed romance between LGBT characters (especially gay characters, ever notice RWBY’s lack of them?), but since people don’t know what that is, they settle for below subpar stuff. I believe Unicorn of war said it best: “we’ve been feasting on scraps when we deserve a banquet”

( something said around v7 )

All of the BumblBY moments, in my opinion you have to want them to be romantic and interpret them that way. There’s nothing inherently about them which suggests anything other than a close bond, unless you really want it to. The biggest BumlBY moment, when they hug after killing Adam isn’t romantic by nature. It’s simply two people comforting each other after killing a man who has caused the both of them trauma, and who at one point meant a lot to one of them.BlackSun on the other has many moments which you simply can’t deny are romantic. Blake blushes when Sun winks at her, Blake gets flustered when Kali says that she likes Sun, and the two of them go through an arc of opening up to one another and learning to trust each other, which is inherently romantic in nature.You can ship anything you want, but I’m getting a little tired of some BumblBY shippers claiming that ‘ the ship has been developing from day one’, when the truth is, no it hasn’t. If it is developing, it’s much more recent development, compared to BlackSun which now has several volumes to support it.

bb only reall began to be teased in story in v7  they might have intended for the v6 finale to be a romantic moment but it really wasnt

[furornocturna]

Queer Ace Charlastor shipper here also chiming in.

Charlastor is not lesbian, wlw or asexual erasure. A bisexual woman and an asexual man is not a straight couple when neither are straight. They are both queer, and neither’s identity is being erased by pairing them together. Charlie is still bi no matter what gender she dates, and being asexual does not mean Alastor is incapable of being in a relationship. Asexuality is a spectrum. If anything, it’s biphobic and acephobic to say either are “turned straight” and invalidating their LGBTQ status for dating the opposite gender.

I watched the pilot only knowing Chaggie was canon from supplemental material and while watching thought “did something change in production that they didn’t update on the wiki yet?” because there was so little there portraying them as a couple.

Then Alastor enters the scene and the sparks are EVERYWHERE.

In a matter of seconds, I was more invested in these two’s dynamic than what’s supposed to be the primary couple. Alastor is both a tentative ally and potential obstacle. He offers to help Charlie with running the hotel, but clearly states he doesn’t believe in the cause and is only in it for personal gain/entertainment at watching it fail.

He approached Charlie with this proposal because he found her disastrous interview to be the most novel thing he’s seen in years. It, in his own words, gave him something to engage in again after decades of endless, aimless, uninspired BOREDOM.

Charlie isn’t stupid. She knows his reputation and to be wary, so when she takes up his offer, she knows not to accept a deal and makes it clear that she’s not going to take shit from him.

You can do SO MUCH with this. The ways these two can challenge and inspire each other. Seeing who’s going to prove who wrong/right first. How they clash with their opposing morality and ideologies, yet bond over their shared love of performing, singing, dancing, the arts. They can contribute so much to each other’s character arcs.

Also just, that Reprise?

You expect me to watch this and not ship it a little?

I know Alastor’s an asshole, that he undeniably has ulterior motives. But where’s the fun in an Enemies to Friends to Lovers journey without the “enemies” part? Though perhaps it’s more “antagonistic tentative allies” than outright “enemies”.

The seeds of potential and their chemistry is just captivating. They both stand strong on their own as their own people with their own personalities as well as click really well as a duo in the pilot. And while they haven’t interacted much in the show proper yet, we know they’ll get some scenes together in later episodes from what we’ve seen in the trailer. And I’m excited to see how their ally-ship/friendship will be showcased.

When the show premiered, I tried to keep an open mind and hope that Chaggie would get to be fleshed out more. Only it didn’t. Four whole episodes, and every moment with them is a nothing burger. Either the scenes interchangeable being read as platonic (I’ve seen multiple people online voice how they mistook the two for just friends or sisters from their interactions in the show), or what are supposed to be more overt moments come across as hollow and shallow because there’s so little substance. No development, no chemistry, no depth, nothing.

Hell, Vaggie isn’t even a character outside being an accessory to Charlie. She’s just “the girlfriend”, and we barely even see her be that with their interactions. Everything about her revolves around Charlie. She even says this is her whole purpose practically in Episode 3. Most other things I know about her come from supplemental material and not the show itself.

I get wanting more wlw representation in media. I’m all for it. I’m also going to be critical when I see bad writing for any romantic relationship. Forced gay ships are no less annoying to watch than forced straight ships. Characters who don’t exist independent of their partner are examples of terrible writing no matter the orientation. It’s not homophobic for a queer person to want quality writing in queer representation.

I believe the upcoming 5th episode is going to involve Charlie introducing Vaggie as her gf to her dad, and supposedly they’ll have a romantic duet together too, but why did it take this long to get an explicit, unambiguously romantic confirmation in the show when it wants us to believe they’ve been an established couple this whole time?

I don’t ship Chaggie because nothing about them sells me that they’re a couple. I’m trying to like it, but there’s nothing there for me to invest in. I need substance to be invested, not just cute screenshots. And I actually feel bad that this is all there’s been to show for this couple for the people who do ship it. You guys are barely being given SCRAPS compared to everything the show’s given for HuskerDust by comparison and they’re not even official yet!

I know Charlastor will never be canon, but I’m still going to ship it regardless. The stories and themes that can be told with it are so much more engaging than anything Chaggie has provided in canon.

Can't belive people think Charlastor is popular because of lesbiphobia and not because it's just... better.

Like I wish Chaggie had that type of dynamic. Like

Surprise surprise people like naive character that has to work with a powerful being x powerful being that has to work with naive character + their relationship is developed through the story and they become friends/lovers more than naive character x her gf (that naive girl disrespects all the time)

Wow yeah I wonder why do people like Charlastor more

Exactly! Despite what Viv's fandom likes to parrot, not everything is about homophobia and plenty of Charlastor shippers are queer. People just gravitate towards whatever ship they feel has the most chemistry, and for a lot of people, that's Alastor and Charlie.

[golden-songbird]

widely accepted fanon roman things that i hate and am vetoing right now:

1) “roman is big and broad and muscular because he fights in the imagination and he’s brawny because of that.”

no wrong incorrect. first of all, not every athletic person is muscular, like i’m super athletic and i’m a beanpole with almost no muscle. second of all, it’s just an annoying cliche 😭 the brawny meathead? we’ve seen it before a million times!! give me a beanpole roman who looks all delicate but can lift up your mom and an entire refrigerator. or give me a roman who just is delicate and weak, but is still a brave prince who fights and wins battles because of his wit and his speed!! roman doesn’t always have to be a brawny meathead!

2) “roman is going to have a villain arc where he becomes pride.”

no get that away from me right now. okay here’s the thing: roman is the LAST side who would be doing this. he values the others’ opinions of him so much, that if anything, he would be changing himself to be as GOOD as possible so he can be seen as something other than the scapegoat. if he “magically became evil”, that would further prove the point that he’s a horrible creativity, which is NOT the message that roman wants to send whatsoever. i swear when people say this it feels like we aren’t even watching the same series. also, pride is not a bad thing!!! pride is a good thing, and literally half the second season of sanders sides has been trying to teach us that liking yourself believe it or not, IS NOT A BAD THING TO DO. liking yourself is totally cool and chill and awesome and good!!

3) “roman is bisexual and he’s dating my female oc.”

KILL IT WITH FIRE. okay here’s the thing, i’m not gonna be biphobic and say that roman couldn’t possibly be bi, you do you with headcanons even though i personally strongly disagree with that headcanon. but the fact that people make him bi just to ship him with girls when thomas is EXPLICITLY GAY sends shivers down my spine. if you want your oc to be with a dude, give her to the millions and billions of straight and bi dudes that are all over the internet in OTHER MEDIA. let roman be mlm representation pleaseeeee.

4) “roman is the most masculine side and he’s super manly and tough and he wears the suit at the wedding and blah blah blah”

first of all, heteronormative much? gay relationships don’t have one guy who’s “the girl” and one guy who’s “the boy” that’s not how that works. second of all, roman is obviously super feminine!!! he bodied that skirt trend and clearly was the most enthusiastic about it. he loves expressing himself through traditionally feminine things, and he just is a naturally feminine person!!! don’t erase that beautiful part of roman just to fit him into a stupid box. please!!!

i am making a part two to this most likely cuz as the irl filipino version of roman, there are some things that i just gotta clear up.

[ordinaryschmuck]

About Lumity Shippers...

I see a lot of people voicing their distaste toward Lumity shippers. Or, more accurately, voicing distaste toward Lumity shippers who focus solely on Lumity when it comes to The Owl House. Now, I'll admit:

Some several elements and characters are better than Lumity.

It's annoying how fan content not involving those two get ignored.

And there is a ton more to Luz and Amity's characters than Luz being oblivious and Amity being gay for Luz.

I fully understand the annoyance toward Lumity shippers...But leave them the hell alone. Alright?

First of all, can you blame people for being obsessive about it? For the first time, two characters of the same sex, one being the main protagonist, have high chances to become a couple in a Disney cartoon. After years of basically giving the LGBTQA+ community scraps of representation, Disney's finally taking a leap in the right direction with Luz and Amity, and it's awesome. I didn't even accept that I was bi as it was happening, and I still thought it was awesome. I get why people are excited, even if it does seem like a bit much at times.

Also, you have no right to tell people how to enjoy their favorite content. If a person likes a show because of a ship, then let them have it. They're not hurting anybody...unless they haze and berate crew members of the show over it. But that hasn't happened yet, and as long as we make it clear that's a bad thing to do, then no harm, no foul.

Now, this doesn't mean the obsessive Lumity shippers are entirely off the hook. Because I have two things to say to them:

Lumity is not the main focus of The Owl House, nor is it even a third of the focus. It's more like...a fifth. It's a great fifth, and I'm always happy to see it develop. But if an episode doesn't focus on that thread, that doesn't mean the episode is inherently bad.

Don't haze or berate crew members over it. I know I breezed past it, but seriously, it's not worth it. These are fictional characters. It's not the end of the world if the writers do something with them that you don't like.

Overall, there's no reason to create discourse over something so stupid as a ship and a really great one at that. Some fans are gonna obsess over it, and others are going to sing praises over the rest of the series. Either way, at least we can all agree that The Owl House is a great show that we would recomend. What aspect of it we recommend shouldn't tear us apart.

[hopeshoodie]

I was uper annoyed during that scene is s2 where the girls say they will make the boys do a man to man strip or whatever and then when Noah and Lottie's partner kiss while practicing for prom as joke. It's so annoying to me how they don't take like gay/bi men seriously. It's especially so hypocritical if the girls talk about how uncomfortable it is when boys sexualize two girls like being physically close. It's like they try to be woke and say fetishizing wlw is bad but then fetishise mum like????

^^^ All of that.

And like... I get it. Love Island the tv show is super homophobic and heteronormative, basically by design, so it makes sense that a game would fall into those tropes. But it hurts more when said game emphasizes inclusivity in other aspects (neurodivergence, mental health, body shape, etc) but keeps falling short with lgbtq representation.

IF games in general do the wlw vs. mlm thing a LOT, giving female LIs and normalizing wlw relationships while completely ignoring mlm experiences.

Bobby wearing a dress being played as a joke

Bobby wearing a maids outfit and it being played for a joke

Boah explicitly being a joke in cmm

Having two boys kiss in S2 for a laugh

Having Elijah and Arjun get together off screen

Making it so that Tai and Ciaran only date if the player is also queer, so that a majority of players are completely oblivious to their relationship

The boys in S2 thinking Noah is hot is played for a joke multiple times because they couldn't ~actually~ have feelings for him.

And like all of these things, to me a queer person, could be justified by saying 'people are closeted and coming to terms with their sexuality, and there's a lot of denial and humor used to mask that irl'. But... It's not irl. I'll talk more about that in my next post, but these are characters being written by writers primarily to make money and secondarily to entertain with a story. It doesn't matter what the authorial intent with these choices are, because they're creating problematic jokes at the expense of queer attraction.

LITG was never meant to stand up to this amount of scrutiny. It almost feels personal when it's problematic, but that's what happens when you have a team of less than 25 writers on a project. But it still merits scrutiny and criticism. It's still a game/story/art for public consumption.

[casually-slips-into-coma]

An Essay (sort of) Explaining the Many Grievances I Have With Debbie Gallagher

Once again, Debbie is the fucking worst.

I’ve been wanting to write out my feelings towards her character for a fucking minute now just so that I have a full concise list. Now, I can talk about how Debbie has a constant need for attention, or how her character has become someone unrecognizable in the past few seasons, or how she’s a terrible mother, but what I really want to focus on is the center of my issues with her: her sexuality. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t about to be a homophobic rant or anything. I just think her queer development has been written terribly and that should be addressed.

Too often I see people praising queer characters or relationships based solely on the fact that they are queer, and as a member of the community, I get it. I am also starved for representation. This, however, does not mean I’m going to settle for annoying, poorly written characters.

Why Make Debbie Queer?

The first thing I want to address is why suddenly develop a WLW storyline for her. Given that Debbie started as a little girl on the show, this gives the writers a lot of opportunity to give a character like that interesting storylines because she does not yet have a solid personality. It gives writers the liberty to take her story anywhere they want to without the constraints of established character because she, as a person, is still developing into adulthood. The show runners unfortunately dropped the ball with this.

From season 4 and onwards was when Debbie began showing interest in dating, sex, and romance having just turned the corner to puberty. From then up until season 9, she has shown exclusive interest in men. It isn’t until Alex the welder that Debbie deviates from this path. Alex is portrayed as a stud who confuses Debbie. I am inclined to believe that Debbie was originally attracted to her because she was masculine and therefore close enough to the people Debbie had previous experience with.

This arc was treated very much as Debbie experimenting with her sexuality, something that Alex also ends up realizing after Debbie tells her that having sex with a girl is “not that bad” and “like having sex with yourself” (S9E4). Once this storyline wrapped up (with Debbie shouting “you make me want cock again”) the writers powered through, adamant about Debbie now being a lesbian.

I have two theories as to why they’ve been fighting so hard for her queerness.

1) This was around the time that Cam was leaving Shameless. This obviously didn’t end up happening, but I was under the impression that the writers were freaking out at losing their token gay character and needed to fill that position. When Cam ended up staying, they were stuck with a queer Debbie storyline and decided to just go with it.

2) Shameless was planning on doing a WLW storyline regardless of Cam’s choice to leave and were originally going to give it to Fiona and her lesbian tenant that she had a close relationship and a lot of chemistry with, but Emmy Rossum wanted to move on from Shameless, and so they pivoted and gave the arc to Debbie, a character that was not supposed to be moved in that direction and so her new sexuality seemingly came out of nowhere. Fiona as a bisexual character would have made sense. Debbie still does not.

Shameless’s Awkward Relationship With Bisexuality

One of the biggest issues I have with Debbie is her insistence on being a lesbian. Lesbianism doesn’t come out of nowhere. Bisexuality, however, can. When you grow up being told that you are supposed to feel attraction to men, and you genuinely do feel attraction to men (which Debbie has expressed in past seasons/episodes) it’s easy to ignore your attraction to women and write it off as something that either isn’t a big deal, or something that isn’t there. It’s a lot more confusing than being strictly at one end of the spectrum. It would have been so much more believable if they had simply made Debbie bisexual. Unsurprisingly, they didn’t because the show has a history with bi erasure.

Bisexuality has been treated badly all throughout Shameless, used as a vengeful plot device back in the earlier seasons where Monica was only ever with women when unmedicated. Then in Season 7 when Ian’s boyfriend Caleb cheated on him with a woman (enforcing the stereotype of bisexuals being unfaithful) Ian, possibly acting out of anger or ignorance, said things like “only women are bisexual. When a man says he’s bisexual he’s really just gay”. The only semi positive bisexual representation on the show was Svetlana and Vee when they were in a poly relationship with Kev (though I also think that storyline wasn’t handled as well as it could’ve been).

This fight against the bisexual label in media is not a new one but it is also a harmful stance to take when writing a sexually fluid character. Debbie declaring that she is, in fact, a lesbian after waxing poetic about how Matty had a big dick and Derek had a great body and knew what he was doing is not the way to go. 

You could argue that Debbie, like many other queer women, is an unfortunate victim of compulsory heterosexuality, but frankly I don’t think the writers are well versed enough in queer theory for that to be a possibility.

Debbie as The White Feminist

Debbie is the pinnacle of white feminism. It’s an unfortunate thought that has occurred to me a few times throughout the show. She talks a big game as a man hater and someone after the equal treatment of women but she herself participates in a lot of problematic and anti feminist behavior.

For one, she r*ped Matty back in season 5 when he was blacked out and unconscious. This was a point in the story that was glossed over and one where she suffered no repercussions other than Matty no longer wanting to be around her. It was explained in the show that Debbie didn’t realize what she did was wrong until after she was explicitly told so because she was maybe 14 when it happened (not 100% on the age Shameless is very inconsistent about timelines). It was treated as somewhat of a punchline, something that Shameless has unfortunately done more than once when referring to male sexual assault (Mickey’s r*pe, Liam in season 10 ((i think??)) and in this latest season, Carl) but that is a different topic. 

There was also the time in which she lied to her boyfriend about being on birth control so she could trap him into a relationship with pregnancy (which also counts as r*pe!!) Good on Derek for getting out of that.

Debbie has also been pro-life in the past. Now I understand this was when Fiona was pressuring her into aborting her pregnancy, and as a pro choicer myself, I believe that Debbie was fully in her right to have bodily autonomy and go through with the pregnancy. This isn’t where the issue lies. It’s when Fiona finds out that she too is pregnant and tells Debbie that she wants an abortion that Debbie accuses her of “killing her baby”. Again, her behavior could be explained by her age given that Debbie was still a young teen during this time.

When her actions as a White Feminist become less excusable is mostly in the latest season. Her relationship with Sandy is one that I’m not really happy with because Debbie doesn’t deserve her.

Recently, it has been revealed that Sandy is actually married to a man and has a son. It’s explained that she was basically married off against her will at the age of 15 to a man twice her age. This implies that the product of the marriage, her son, was most likely conceived through dubious consent (or worse) at the hands of an adult when she was just a kid. Just because Debbie thinks that Sandy’s husband “seems nice” does not give her the right to try and make a victim of grooming feel bad about not wanting to be with her abuser. While I understand that Sandy’s son has no fault in how he came into the world, I’m still gonna side with Sandy when it comes to having to take care of a child she didn’t want and who is most likely a source of trauma for her. It’s not difficult to sympathize with Sandy and see that she’s clearly gone through something fucked up and Debbie, despite claiming to love and support her, AND despite her dumb white feminist arc about wanting equal pay and all that jazz, turns her back on the girls supporting girls aspect of feminism.

This isn’t even mentioning how shitty it was to just leave Franny by herself and assume that one of her siblings would take her to school and pick her up and stuff as if they don’t all have separate lives. She talks a lot about being a good mother but decided to “let off some steam” by fucking off to a gay bar to get loaded on coke and fuck a gay man (which wtf thats not a thing that really happens with casual coke but whatever I guess). Once she realized she fucked up, instead of taking responsibility she decided to paint herself as the victim as well as spew offensive bullshit about how she “probably has AIDS now” because of her sexual encounter with a gay man. No lesbian in their right fucking mind would ever say that because as members of the LGBTQ+ community, you are at least a tiny bit informed as to how devastating and tragic the AIDS crisis was for queer people.

(I also have an issue with how Debbie capitalized on her felony as a sex offender and her sexuality to start her Hot Lesbian Convict business but I think that’s enough said.)

Blame the writers

The show got almost an entirely new cast of writers after season 7 which is why the show feels more like a sitcom with low stakes and no consequences rather than a drama, but if there is a queer writer on the team it’s not very evident. Even the better half of the queer relationship story, Ian and Mickey, I don’t feel has really been done justice since the change in writers. It’s just become painfully obvious that the actress is a straight girl playing a gay character (not to mention I have never seen any chemistry between her and all of her female love interests). I don’t fault Emma Kenney (the actress) for this. I actually really like her as a person and I like the videos she makes about the cast and such, and I think she does her best with the script she’s given. My complaints with Debbie are targeted entirely towards the writers.

This brings me to my final point. I need them to let Debbie be alone. Her whole thing for the second half of the season has been that she clearly has abandonment issues and is afraid of being alone. It’s why she’s so adamant about keeping the house and fighting with Lip about it (I’m actually on Debbie’s side for that one but that’s besides the point). They had her and Sandy break up which leaves Debbie to spiral further into her loneliness. From a writing point of view, it makes sense to take this opportunity to give her an arc in which she can overcome that and feel comfortable with herself so that she can move on as an adult instead of jumping into a new relationship. This is especially true since this is quite literally the last season ever of the show and any character development needs to be wrapped up. Introducing a new character out of nowhere does not give the viewers enough time to actually get invested in the new relationship. It’s also unfair to Debbie’s character because her arc is going to feel incomplete.

Anyway,,,,,,uuuhhhhh,,,,,feel free to add on if u want lmao

[forestlingincorporated]

Bernard Dowd

DC made me do it. Fandom made me do it. So here it is, the character retrospective I never thought I’d ever write. 

Bernard Dowd was introduced on December 17th, 2003, in Robin #121. Tim has recently transferred to Louis E. Grieve Memorial High School, his fourth school since his introduction when he was 13; Tim is 16 now, and was recently forced to drop out of Brentwood due to his father’s bad investments loosing them their upper class status. Jack and Dana Drake are still alive. 

Bernard Dowd is the first person Tim meets when transferring to this new school. Bernard picks him out of the crowd as new, and immediate tries to determine what Tim’s clique is, only to determine, as we all know, Tim is pretty much impossible to cleanly box. 

Bernard thinks very highly of himself. He views himself as also being above cliques, and wants to give Tim the impression that he’s “runs the school.” He thinks of himself as a cool guy, and he doesn’t like to be called “Bernie.” 

His attempts to befriend Tim are rather presumptive in a way that comes off as rude. He treats Tim like a lost little lamb in need of guidance. 

So, Tim ends up casual friends with Bernard. In fact, at this point in time, Tim says he’s his only friend at school. 

Bernard has a crush on fellow classmate and lowkey daughter of a crime boss, Darla Aquista. (Yes, that Darla Aquista, of TimSteph relationship drama fame.) He is the one to introduce Tim to Darla, and Tim embarrasses him by calling his bluff over whether or not he’d actually ask her out if her jock friends were removed from the picture. This is when you start to get the feeling Bernard might be all talk and bravado. He’s not the cool, confident, popular guy he makes himself out to be. 

After Tim looses Robin, he invites Bernard over for dinner with his family. His and Tim’s relationship seems... complicated. On the one hand, Tim likes him enough to invite him over to his house, and he’s probably Tim’s closest friend during a period of time when his other relationships are distant (friends at other schools) or cut entirely (the hero community). That said, Bernard is CLEARLY depicted as... skeezy, and skeezy about people in Tim’s life, in a way Tim doesn’t appreciate. 

Months later, if the passing of seasons is to be believed, Bernard is the person to inform Tim that there’s a new Robin. Tim seems to have a larger friend group at Louis E. Grieve, he’s worked out a friendship with Darla even though she still seems to have a slight crush on him, and seems to be friends with several of the footballers, but he still has time for Bernard. 

Bernard believes wild conspiracies that Batman works for a shadow government and owns secret orphanages full of Robins that only last for about three days before they die and get buried in secret government graveyards. 

We don’t see Bernard for a while after this. Darla Aquista is shot at school, dying in Tim’s arms. Stephanie Brown’s death is faked. Tim’s father dies, and his stepmother is in such mentally bad shape she has to be checked into a special clinic in Bludhaven, so Tim transfers to John Wayne High School, his fifth school since he was 13. 

A lot of shit goes down between the school shooting and the next (and last) time we see Bernard in Robin #140. He’s meeting up with a girl named Linda, when his vehicle is destroyed by none other than Darla Aquista, back from the dead as Warlock’s Daughter, who is looking for Tim. 

After she scares the shit out of him, they go to Gotham Grille for age-appropriate drinks, and Bernard tells her that the high school closed down after the shooting and all the students’ families received settlement money. With that money, Bernard attended an unnamed private school. 

He offers to help her become a superhero, which she turns down. While he’s pretty rude to Linda over the phone, he’s depicted softer here, He seems earnest in his desire to help Darla, even if he still has an underlying bit a selfishness. I personally feel like he comes off a little less like the Annoying Try Hard he started out as, and has a bit more Booster Gold-esque charm to him. 

But, we never see him again, after he helps her track down Tim’s new address with his Fake Uncle, so he was lost to the pile of Tim’s former normal boy friends to be forgotten. 

UNTIL BATMAN: URBAN LEGENDS! 

Right now, everyone is excited because Batman: Urban Legends #4′s been released and Tim Drake has some strong Might End Up Coming Out As MLM Soon? vibes. He’s got this Discovering New Things About Himself arc in this comic that’s framed in a very Gay Coded way. Focusing on a gay male couple with the dialog box “like me” over it, Barbara talking about how he’s afraid looking too deeply at himself might “change” him, stuttering over how his old friend “looks,” and of course this pseudo date he’s goes on with Bernard. 

I cannot actually analyze the whole comic in depth, because I don’t own it; I ordered the trade, so I won’t be receiving it until December. This is what I’ve gathered from screen shots of this comic alone. I don’t think Urban Legends is technically in the main canon, but I would not be surprised if this was a test to see how audiences respond - like Joker shooting Barbara Gordon in The Killing Joke (which isn’t canon) resulting in Barbara Gordon’s very canon paralysis. 

There’s some speculation at the moment that Bernard himself might actually be evil, or working for the bad guys. I think it’s equally possible he might be targeted by the bad guys, and not necessarily evil himself. But neither scenario would particularly surprise me, it seems unlikely he would be reintroduced as solely a potential love interest for Tim, if that is indeed the route they’re going down. Consider old flames of Bruce’s that get reintroduced, they’re often connected to the plot in some way. 

I... have not exactly sugar coated that I don’t like Bernard. Honestly, I AM trying to be fair. THIS Bernard seems lovely, from the screen caps, but my most recent experience with Bernard was a recent reread of the Robin series, and I just don’t find him historically likable. Some people may disagree, but I personally think some of those some people are maybe going back after reading THIS comic and rereading him with rose-tinted glasses he hasn’t quite earned. 

So, I personally am not going to start shipping this, at least not right now, though I am putting on my clown make up getting my hopes up that Tim might come out as gay or bi. I’m personally hoping he’s gay, but that’s just me seeing a lot of myself in Tim, and projecting my own experience with compulsory heterosexuality onto him, and I think it would be interesting to explore that with an established character. I would still be happy with bi/pan Tim Drake, and I think that would probably make the most people happy - fans of Tim’s opposite-sex ships get to win, and fans of Tim’s queer ships get to win, and bi/pan people would get a big name character as representation. What would make the most people angry, is if this ends up as a queerbait during Pride Month of all things. 

I... have no hope they might make him demisexual, I don’t know if DC even knows what that word means. 

[feckin-zicons]

that's why i hate larries, i hate them with all my heart. besides being boring they are hypocrites 🙄

Hey nonnie, sorry its taken me so long to reply but if you’re following me you know I’ve been travelling lately and have been more scatterbrained than usual. Not that I’m ever not scatterbrained, but its been just a little crazier than usual!

Now I wouldn’t go as far to say I hate Larries. After all their delusions can be pretty funny sometimes!

Joking aside, I don’t hate Larries, I love Larries, I’m a Larry, so I really hesitate to tarry the whole group with the same brush. However I do strongly agree with you that there are those who are complete hypocrites. Nothing annoys more more than when Larries ™ treat the other boys, other celebrities, their friends and even family as one more side character to the Larry Show.

In particular when Larries ™ flood comment sections asking or in some cases, ordering people to confirm rumors/the couple being together. The absolute fucking disrespect. Not just because they’re flooding comment sections in videos streams, tweets, what have you, that sometimes have nothing to do with the couple in question, but because its presumptuous and rude as fuck to think they’re owed a coming out- just because they’re fans of the boys.

Stop it. Thats fucking ugly as hell.

While I have no doubt all the boys will one day be out (as referenced by their continued efforts in fighting the closet. I don’t get the sense the boys will just stop at being freed from their contractual obligations). It should and will be on their own terms. Provided they’re not forcibly outed some other way.

Coming out is a deeply personal experience and no one, no one ever, has the right to out someone else. I’ll never not be absolutely furious at the Larries ™ who posted about having ‘receipts’ that would out the boys. Which… tbh weren’t receipts at all but thats a whole other story. I’m also still angry at the reactions after Liams Attitude spread that wouldn’t have been as bad if not for the entitled fandom that peddled ridiculous claims beforehand about Liam confirming Larry to be real.

I mean… What the actual fuck. Setting aside the fandom experience of the time, and boy was it an experience. What right would Liam have confirming Louis and Harry’s relationship? I mean, get some perspective? It doesn’t help that a lot of fandom adults were the ones coming up with, and reblogging those theories and the younger fans ate it up. It would have made more sense for Louis and Harry to do it but idk maybe I’m still out of touch for thinking so. I mean, it felt like every other week someone was talking about Larry coming out. It was such a shit storm oh my god.

Biggest issue I still have with them is that the entitled behaviour hasn’t stopped. For some it seems like, Larry coming out is it for them. Like pack it up, goodbye, shows over, Louis and Harry are gay and in a relationship and everything is rainbows, we get to see cute pictures of them and everyone lives happily ever after.

Yeah, no. Coming out, for anyone, is just the beginning, can’t even begin to imagine what its like for them. They’re still going to need everyones support, and it irritates me that for some fans it seems so fucking conditional.

Time and time again, I’ve seen tweets, and posts, and videos, whatever, going on about Larry coming out and it reads like a fucking wattpad story. Not just that but its always on the assumption by the poster, on the off chance they consider the other 3/5ths of the band and Ziam being a possibility, that Larry will come out first?

What?

I’m sorry but, what?

Everything I’ve seen from the boys tells me they’re all in this together, they support each other and are working through the bullshit as a team. We have all seen the No Judgement music video yes? The merch, posts, double speak etc referencing each other, yes?

I mean, I suppose if you only look at Louis and Harry, like so many do, sure. Only Larry matters, everyone else is a side character in their life.

(Lemme just, scream for a second).

However, that kind of thinking leads them to the wrong conclusions. Like… assuming the SBB/RBB countdown was attributed to nothing, when it counted down to Liam finally being free of Sophia. In the years since, I’ve seen Larries ™ backtrack on claiming the bears had anything to do with the boys, that they weren’t behind it at all, or that they were just trolling the fandom.

You know, despite all the proof otherwise, and some really, really good posts breaking down clues about what the boys were trying to tell us. The moment something might not actually be about Louis and Harry its like all their thinking shuts off. Its frustrating. Really fucking frustrating.

Seriously, fans of the other boys as individulas, not just Ziams, have been talking about the stunts too and how they fit together. Its why we tend to be right, because we’re considering the entire group. They’re still a group. They’re not free until all of them are free.

Just for that Nialls coming out first. Lmao. I’ll call it now. Lets go Niall, whens the baby coming. We all wanna know. Its been years.

Imagine, imagine! Acting like coming out is some race to be won. The fucking audacity.

Go outside and touch fucking grass you absoulte ninny.

I get it, you want to be vindicated, you want to be rewarded for putting your faith in two celebrities being together.

Newsflash you dandelionfluff, its not a race, Louis and Harry coming out isn’t a fucking prize. Thats not what supporting a relationship looks like.

Its worse when someone admits they don’t know much about Ziam or the possibility of Niall being LGBT+, and claim they’re open to it, but then immediately tweet or reblog or sub tweet or tag comment a post or answer an ask from another Larry ™ talking about how Larries ™ are the most marginalized and persecuted group.

???

In what fucking world?

IN WHAT FUCKING WORLD?

If we wanna play that game, boohoo, the media claims Louis and Harry aren’t friends anymore because of crazy shippers. Meanwhile Zayn publicly isn’t friend with anyone and “left” the band… despite the Ziam fandom calling the stunt about either Louis or Zayn “leaving” and getting it down to the exact week (the second article coming out a week before about the Ziam kiss pretty much cemented it for Zayn leaving. Which did a lot to fan the flames of the already rabid fanbase when Ziam got two articles confirming a Ziam kiss over the years and Larry got nada. Like that actually means anything).

Not to mention Larries ™ using the hetties and management tactics against the other parts of the fandom to silence them.

Who cares what the media says anyway!  TPTB, 1DHQ, The Sun, The Mirror, Simon and his minions and their unpaid interns have used the media to split the fandom apart and it worked.

Who the fuck cares if the media calls the 1D stans delusional, you know the truth! The truth it out there and you’ve seen it! The truth is coming! Who gives a damn about what some two bit “journo” who failed out of their creative writing course writes? They get worse by the year. If it wasn’t so pathetic and hilarious I might actually feel embarrassed for them. They can’t even come up with new stories and have just taken to copying old articles, but you’re upset with them??? Give it a rest. Honestly.

The sense of disconnect, entitlement and victimhood of some Larries ™ is absolutely ridiculous.

Oh my god they’re Karens. I’m not trying to be insulting, but thats exactly who they remind me of.

I’m not going to say its a surprise to me that so many in the Ziam fandom are POC, LGBT+, and Neurodivergent and any combination of those, but I am going to say I’ve read a lot of Larry fics that just have Het sex made gay. Those in the Ziam fandom just tend to look at facts in a different way than Larries do due to their life experiences. A interfaith, interracial, relationship where one or both partners fall under the Bi umbrella (not saying Louis or Harry can’t be or aren’t Bi+ but rumors, and the way the fandom markets them, puts them firmly in the gay category) looks very, very different than gay or straight relationship. Both looking from outside and being in one. There’s just different dynamics at play that aren’t often realized or understood by the gays and hets.

Its not a bad thing. All relationships are different. The issue is that theres a lot of biphobia/racism/religious prejudice etc that arises from people being unwilling to understand the inherent differences.

Taking myself for example, I’m bi, like, bi as hell, and I don’t understand how gays and hets only like one gender. I just don’t. Can’t wrap my head around it. If someone asks me to choose one gender over the others to prefer I can’t. Its so stressful. My brain goes into panic mode and it feels like I’m being torn apart. My sense of identity is shaken- its a shit feeling. I just can’t lie to myself like that. If other people feel the same well, its no wonder bi+ have such high rates of depression and suicide. Its not about choosing who to like, there is no choice, I just feel attraction to everyone. Aces, I get. Its similar to being the opposite of what I feel, or not feeling an attraction to someone I’m not interested in. Easy. Gays and hets? I’m completely lost on.

Completely, and I know I’m not the only one who feels that way. But that doesn’t mean I’m not willing to try and understand where they’re coming from. Its alien to me, personally, but I’m not going to shut down the fact, that theres a fuck ton of people who only like one gender or try and make up reasons as to why they’re actually bi+

I digress, none of the boys fall neatly into the gay stereotypes, its just that parts of the Larry fandom have boxed Louis and Harry into certain roles to fit preconceived notions (likely do to them initially fitting in better with the white, sassy, somewhat effeminate twink thats been plastered all over Hollywood as their “LGBT+ representation” for years. Gag), they can understand better, and only look for proof to back up their theories but don’t look at things objectively.

They really need to get out more and make some LGBT+ friends that aren’t on the internet and talk to some gay elders. They need educating that’s not the often sanitized and insulting Hollywood version, that’s all I’m saying.

They made Louis and Harry more palatable for themselves and its… really gross.

I don’t know, I don’t get it.

Some Larries ™ turned the boys into their fandom and fanfiction stereotypes when they’re so much more than that. The Sony leaks should have been enough to dissuade the fandom, and prove that the brand sold to the broader audience is just that- a brand, and yet… Niall only talks about food and golf and Ireland and is only allowed to be straight or ace. If he exists at all its just to be Capt Niall. Liams slow and dumb and depending on the day he’s either Capt Liam or a horrific abusive homophobe. Zayns just The Worst, a unstable drug addict, and the boys hate each other, and they should have kicked him out of the band sooner because he never wanted to be part of them anyway, etc.

It drives me absolutely around the bend some days. They’re real people who don’t owe anyone anything, especially not coming out.

Yes, I think they will. But they’re not obligated to. They can change their minds, I’ll support them regardless of an “official” coming out or not.

Look, a part of me gets it. They wanna be right, they wanna prove the haters wrong, they want to be able to say I called it all along! The vindication will be sweet.

But like, it takes a quick look at someone other than Louis and Harry to realize theres something hinky going on with Liam, Zayn and Niall. Please listen to their fans who have spent just as much time as you have looking into Louis and Harry compiling together evidence.

It might take a weekend to watch the ILYSM and pterodactyl bros videos and a few more hours looking into some Niall blogs, which isn’t much compared to the hours I know they’ve spent looking into Larry. At least then they’ll have enough information to form an opinion on things.

I wonder, for some, what would happen if Larry didn’t come out, or didn’t come out first, or one of the other boys was outed against their will. Because… I don’t know. It seems like some would rather just be proven right at this point.

I get it. We’re tired. Its been eleven long years. But this isn’t a television show were everything can come to a head with a s3 or s4 cliff hanger and fixed in the series finale. Its real life, and they started off as boys trusting industry veterans who never had their best interests at heart.

Iduno. I just want some Larries ™ to take a step out of the echo chamber, realize life isn’t The Larry Show & co. And especially. ESPECIALLY, that every instance were someone, friends, family, co-works, industry peeps etc support the boys they are SUPPORTING THE BOYS, NOT THE FANDOM. They are not “confirming Larry for the fans” they’re doing it to support the couple, not to cater to the fandom. Please stop confusing the two. There’s a huge fucking difference. Learn it.

[shudderue]

Hey ok just saw your ask where you said you didn't like Laura - i've always got a weird vibe from her but haven't had a specific reason for dislike, would you mind going over some of why you don't like her ? No pressure to obviously and I hope you're having a good day !

no worries at all! going to stick this under a readmore though because it's pretty long lol

the personal stuff: if you look on my old blog (@south-flying-sparrow-archive) there's a tag on there called #bi barrel of barf, which is essentially a tag i used when talking to landy about his bi representation and the issues with it throughout phase two, backed by a fair few other people in the fandom.

laura, as a twenty something year old woman, decided she wasn't a fan of the conversation we were having — which landy himself said was polite and that he was happy to answer it in a calm and informed way — and was going all out with snarky qrt's, insults and the like.

i was fourteen when i made that thread and said so in it because it was relevant to something, and yet laura when directly addressing me was horrifically rude and condescending about everything i was saying, adding that as a "bisexual heteromantic pancurious woman" she was perfectly happy about the representation in her literal boyfriend's book. which. well.

eventually one of my mutuals told her to shut the fuck up, which was nice.

on a less personal level, i have a lot of issues with her, including:

her being just plain annoying and childish on twitter (see above, and also that wasn't the first time she'd been rude to a concerned fan)

she started dating landy publicly when he was twice her age — not necessarily something i dislike about her but when she's a very big supporter of valdug, where one of the characters is explicitly based off of her and the other rather obviously off of landy, i do get some yikes vibes off of it

she used to write underage valdug fanfic (allegedly), which is ew

her obsession with leeching off of landy's success is at best weird and annoying and at worst downright infuriating. she wrote a book (and is currently in the process of writing a second) which i read some of and gave up on because it was so bad. you're welcome to read my liveblog on #lucy hatereads tdk

following on, she has a youtube channel which landy promotes constantly. i think it's something to do with makeup, but again is a prime example of laura relying on landy's promotion before having any real skill or trying to put effort into something herself.

drove away so much of the community just by being jealous, rude and childish — i don't know what it is, but ever since landy started shagging her his interactions with fans have gone way, way down and i fully believe that's at least in part because of laura getting jealous

despite the fact that she's saying a children's author, she still finds it appropriate to reply to him and fans with some uh. more explicit details about their relationship, or just talk about them fucking. not good.

all in all, laura is childish, annoying, unpleasant, obsessed with her boyfriend's dying relevance, and an incredibly uncomfortable example of an author dating a fan, and while they may be two grown adults in a consensual relationship, it really worries me how that sort of thing can be taken by younger fans, because again, this is a kids series.