#and that's fine!!! there can be two similar people in terms of sexuality who use COMPLETELY different language and labels

[uncanny-tranny]

How do I know if I'm bi?

So this might not be a helpful answer, but it is my genuine thought, and I want to be honest: You know you're bi if you find comfort, or happiness, or understanding of yourself in that label. It's not necessarily about split attraction to multiple genders.

Yes, bisexual people will often be attracted to more than one gender (not just man and woman, either! Many bisexual people aren't attracted to both binary genders because bisexuality is yet another complex and nuanced component of human sexuality, which in itself is inherently complex). Yes, many bisexual people express those attractions, and yes, many bisexual people share things in common. But frankly, not every bisexual is going to have similar experiences or thoughts or expressions of sexuality. My bisexuality is going to look different than yours might because I am a different human being. As such, I think it's less helpful to say "to be bisexual, you need to have these experiences," but it's more helpful to say, "if you find comfort in the bisexual label, use it"

The worst that happens with sexuality labels is you find one that matches better. I used to use the label pansexual when I was younger - the worst thing that happened was I stopped using it a year later when I felt it didn't accurately describe my feelings anymore.

If you suspect you're bi, there's likely a reason for that, and there's nothing wrong with you investigating that further. However, I don't want you to feel like you need to Prove Yourself to even use language that accurately describes your sexuality or sense of sexuality - no matter if that language is as simple as saying you're bisexual or not. Sexuality is an important aspect of identity for many folks, and you deserve the opportunity to make it as important or inconsequential as you want. Nobody is going to throw you in jail for not being bisexual or queer "enough." There's no law that says you have to have a 50/50 split attraction to binary men and women only to be bi. There's no bisexual card we hand out to you, saying you've been vetted as Bi Enough.

[blughxreader]

Speaking of the A/B/O verse and how sexually charged it is...

How would the batfam deal with their omega sister going into heat?

This is under the assumption that the reader is the only omega in the pack.

I prefer the version of heats/ruts that are non-fatal and last a few days each month (instead of menstruation). (Or a week long heat every three months, whichever.)

Prescriptions are readily available for heats/ruts, so people can go years without having them. I think several members of the Batfam are on medicine to make life simpler.

Like, what if Gotham crime spiked during Batman's rut cycle because he disappeared for a few days each month? Gothamites on twitter would have a field day with this information lol.

@ btmnboobies tweeted: "batman horney leave starts on monday. if u jerk off all day then youll be fapping the same time as him"

@ ticklealphauwu tweeted: "batman is getting plowed time to rob a bank"

So, realistically, omega!reader would be on heat suppressants.

BUT IF, for drama's sake, there was no way to avoid a heat, then I can see two options:

1. They rigorously screen and import the best heat companions, then never repeat one. It's common for long-time heat partners to become attached, so you'll never see the same alpha twice.

Of course you'll get this talk: "tell them anything and they die. I programmed artificial intelligence to listen for key words, so I will know." and the alphas will be monitored for a minimum of five years afterwards.

Each member of the batfam would rather cut off a limb than have a stranger fuck you in their own home, but it's better than you being dead (or ruining your relationship by fucking you themself).

2. Or, Batman would go to the JL.

If a JL member has a darling who happens to be an alpha, then I can see Batman considering setting you two up.

Or he'd ask a favor of Clark or Diana.

Can you fucking imagine him asking for a meeting with Wonder Woman in private and it goes

Batman: Your world has similar genetics and rituals as ours. WW: Yes, in some ways. Batman: And casual partners during times of need are commonplace. WW: Quite... Batman, expression darkening: ... My daughter... WW, finally smiling: Oh, I see. You trust me. Batman, looking physically pained: Yes. Her first heat is at home coming and we are looking for long-term solutions. For the time being, would you mind... *grinds teeth*... assisting? WW: I would be honored. :)

Then Wonder Woman plows you all weekend

Damian would be torn between "hm yes a fine arrangement becoming of my cherished sister" and "NONONO YOU CAN'T GET MARRIED YOU HAVE TO LIVE WITH US FOREVER"

because DUH you'd want to lock her down. A golden opportunity to escape the batfam shows up in all her short skirt and big muscled glory.

Lol it's a silly thought but probably the only way you'd live a semi-normal life. Until WW turns out to be a crazy yandere too? 👀

[shinedoitsulikeabright]

So, about God Games...

I know I recently made a similar post in regards to 600 strike, but I can't stop thinking about what this song could've looked like if we had all 12 Olympians taking part.

So, this is what I've managed to come up with thus far. It ain't much, but it's honest work.

(I won't be going in any particular order. This is going to be a long post so brace yourselves.)

Dionysus: His whole argument is that Odysseus never lets loose and parties. Instead, he's spent these 20 years being all miserable and serious.

Athena's rebuttal: Sure, he never lets loose, but how could he? He's been continuously going through nightmare after nightmare. If Dionysus agrees to let him go, he'd return to his usual whimsical, silly guy self and party for days to come, celebrating the reunion with his family.

Hermes: Although Hermes wants to let Ody go, he still chooses to tease Athena because he's a troublemaker like that. He would say something obviously wrong, just so Zeus can't say that he didn't participate. He'd probably say something dumb like "had Ody been smart, he would've entered Circe's palace and simply stolen the piggies when she wasn't looking".

Athena's rebuttal: She'd roll her eyes but play along. Her response would basically be no, he couldn't have done that because Circe would've known. And even if he succeeded what would he do with a dozen pigs on board? She'd then point out how similar the two are: both very cunning, manipulative and skilled with words.

Demeter: Her argument could be that while Odysseus was away, he failed to take care of his land and people, leading to the agriculture suffering (because I honestly doubt that Penelope had the mental capacity to attend to all that the way she normally would with everything on her plate).

Athena's rebuttal: She'd try to draw the parallel between the relationship between Demeter and Persephone and Odysseus and Telemachus. She could point out how heartbroken Demeter felt when she couldn't see her beloved daughter, tugging on her heartstrings and convincing her that Odysseus was going through the exact same agony.

Artemis: I honestly think she wouldn't care about Ody. The only reason why she'd participate is to appease Zeus. Anyway, I think she could do the Hera bit where she's like "gimme one good reason why I should help".

Athena's rebuttal: Athena could try to recount the boar encounter to show how great of a hunter Odysseus is. Plus, she could add that Ody's weapon of choice is the bow aka something that Artemis also uses.

Apollo: Since we're doing Artemis, might as well do her twin next. Apollo, as the patron god of Troy, could point out that Odysseus destroyed the walls he helped build. Then, he could also add that argument about the sirens.

Athena's rebuttal: Here, Athena could say that it wasn't Ody who destroyed the walls, but the Trojans who demolished them in order to let the wooden horse in. As for the sirens, she can repeat that argument she used in the official song. Or, better yet, say that if Odysseus returned home, his journey would inspire countless songs and works of art.

Hephaestus: I think his entire bit is perfectly fine (both in terms of the argument, as well as the rebuttal). Either way, I doubt Hephaestus really cares and it shows. He just wants to get back to work... And Athena wants to be out of there asap considering their history.

Aphrodite: I think her argument is good, although I do find it a bit strange since she is most typically associated with romantic/sexual love. Hera or Hestia would've been better picks for familial love imo. Anyway, if I were to rewrite her argument, I'd make her be petty and say something like "he hasn't bed his wife in 2 decades!". Overall, she really couldn't care less, she just wants to mess with Athena.

Athena's rebuttal: I think she'd snap and be petty back, saying something like "well, who's fault is that?" (considering it was Aphrodite who basically started the Trojan War). Then, she'd recompose herself and say that if Aphrodite agreed to free Odysseus, he'd return to his wife and make up for all the lost passion.

Ares: Great argument imo, no notes. Sidenote, but I love Ares so much. In fact, I named my first dog after him.

Athena's rebuttal: Her canon rebuttal needs work, I think. After all, it wasn't the lack of bloodshed Ares had a problem with, but cowardice. If I were to rewrite it, I'd make Athena defend Ody's actions by pointing out that what Ares sees as "cowardice" was simply strategy. As for the Telemachus call-out, she could point out Ares' hypocrisy. On one hand, he insults the kid for being pathetic and on the other, he prevents his father from returning home, thus not allowing him to teach the necessary skills he needs in order to be a warrior. Additionally, she could appeal to Ares' softer side. He's one of the few gods who actually loves and cares about his kids, so she could appeal to that.

Poseidon: Yes, the big, bad man himself. At first, Athena is a bit worried about her ability to convince him (I mean, in the original Odyssey it says that he was one of the few gods she feared opposing directly + they already have a strained relationship due to the Athens rivalry). However, Poseidon is so done with this mortal that he just lets him go before his niece even gets the chance to open her mouth. In reality, he wants Ody to be set free just so he could kill him with his own hands. He's way too invested in this, dammit.

Hera: As the goddess of marriage and family, Hera could argue that Odysseus had been a bad husband and father. I mean, he spent 20 years pissing off gods and monsters instead of focusing on returning to his wife and child.

Athena's rebuttal: Athena could argue that he's actually been an exceptional family man considering how much he was willing to sacrifice just to return to those he loved. Then, just to put the nail in the coffin, she'd repeat the whole "never once has he cheated on his wife" slam dunk.

Zeus: Our thunder bringer isn't exactly pleased that his daughter beat the game. In fact, he's pissed because she not only humiliated him by winning, but she also won by humiliating him (with the whole not cheating argument). Anyway, the canon event happens where he strikes her with lightning and she begs for Ody to be set free.

[report-rqs]

Step-by-step: Let's report a radqueer for inciting violence

This is a tutorial on reporting. Don't find this user, don't contact them, don't harass them, etc - I am showing how you should report these posts instead. Content warnings: Radqueers, murder, torture

Here is our post in question:

"transtorturemurderer: a transharmful term for one who wishes to or identifies as having commited torture murder"

Archive the post.

Report the post to Tumblr.

Block the blog and everyone in the notes of the post.

Tutorial on each step is under the cut:

Archive The Post

When a radqueer advocates for violence, child abuse, animal abuse, abuse of a corpse or actual CSAM material, it's very important that you archive the post. Saving evidence of radqueers promoting harm is important, especially if this user later comes back after their account is removed.

(It is important to note that I am specifically saying "advocates for" as in in real life. If a radqueer coining post doesn't specify, it can be reported to Tumblr as IRL. I'm noting "IRL" here because so many people think that fictional child sexual abuse material (and similar things) are perfectly fine, although I would like to note that I do not support/endorse "fictional CSAM" and it is recognized as being equally harmful to IRL CSAM/CP by places like MissingKids.com (organizations dedicated to stopping child abuse). But I'm not dedicating this space to arguing about that - Do not derail this post by arguing with me about this. This is a tutorial for something specific.)

You have two main options for archiving:

Archive.Org

Archive.Today

I tend to use both archivers, but if you only want to use one I suggest Archive.Today. Open the main page and copy-paste the URL of the RQ post into the field. Press enter, and it will store an archived version of the post. (Sometimes this takes longer than other times, this is based on how many people are using the site at once.)

If you plan to do a lot of reporting, install the Firefox extensions for Archive.Today and Archive.Org, they let you archive your current page with one click.

If a page has been archived before, you get this message. If it looks like a post has been edited or there are new replies in the notes from radqueers encouraging it, I suggest archiving it again.

Now you've got your updated archived URL. Hold onto this URL.

Report Them To Tumblr

You'll need to view the post in dashboard view if they have a custom theme. Custom theme URLS go like blogname.tumblr.com, and dashboard view is tumblr.com/blogname/post122121212121212121.

Once in dashboard view, click the hamburger menu (the three dots), and you'll see the red option that says "Report blogname."

This takes you to a basic categories menu. Select "Report something else."

That takes you to a sub menu which lets you pick from the following options:

Copyright violation

Trademark violation

Harm to minors

Privacy violation

Impersonation or Non-Genuine Behavior

Suicide or self-harm concern

Hate speech violation

Suspected terrorism

Sexually explicit material

Gore, mutilation, or bestiality

Violent content or threat

I’m being harassed

Unlawful uses or content

Spam

Election Integrity

I bolded the options which radqueer posts will most likely fall into. For the post I'm reporting, I am selecting "Violent content or threat."

You'll enter Tumblr's permalink (the post url), enter a name, your email, solve a captcha and most importantly describe how it violates Tumblr's Community Guidelines. Since I'm reporting this for violence, let's go right to the Community Guidelines on Tumblr:

What Tumblr is not for: Violent Content and Threats, Gore and Mutilation. Don't post content which includes violent threats toward individuals or groups - this includes threats of theft, property damage, or financial harm. Don't post violent content or gore just to be shocking. Don't showcase the mutilation or torture of human beings, animals (including bestiality), or their remains. Don't post content that encourages or incites violence, or glorifies acts of violence or the perpetrators.

You can use the way a website's phrased their guidelines as a sort of base for writing your report. However, on Tumblr remember that it needs to be fairly short because there's a character limit. So, questions to answer:

Does this include violent threats towards a person or group? Is this a label/"pride flag" about committing violence against a person or group?

Does this encourage violence - is it telling people to commit acts of violence?

Is it glorifying acts of violence or their perpetrators?

In this example, this is a pride flag, which denotes pride, and it says "one who wishes to or identifies as having commited torture murder" That is reasonable enough cause to call this post glorifying violence. So, here's what I'm saying in my report: (Changed phrasing slightly from the screenshot above)

This user is posting "pride flags" for people who "identify as" and "wish to" into murderers and other violent perpetrators. In this post, they made a "transorturemurderer" pride flag, for people who wish to commit torture murder. This is very concerning, this blog seems to be completely serious. Please take this blog and other radqueer blogs down.

If a user has many posts right on their blog that violate the Community Guidelines, you can say something akin to "More examples: (Link)" and link to the archived post/s.

Once you're satisfied with your report, you can click submit and Tumblr will say "Got it" and let you know it was received.

Block the blog and everyone in the notes

If you still have the post open, quickly go through the notes and block everyone interacting positively. (Don't spend time looking at these blogs, it will likely be upsetting/disturbing)

Closing Notes

I could've phrased the part about removing other radqueer blogs better. My reason for adding that is that I want Tumblr to start becoming aware of what radqueers post. I believe firmly that once enough people report radqueers for their content, Tumblr might respond to future petitions or requests to ban all radqueer content.

Don't reply to radqueer posts. Don't reply to radqueer posts. This can be tempting, but I don't think it's a good idea. Even if you've got good intentions or make some great points, radqueers like to screenshot anti radqueer posts and post them as examples of "antis harassing them". Your post could even be shown to someone who is questioning being radqueer, grooming them into the community with a sort of "Look! See? All of those mean antis will never accept you, all they do is harass people for disagreements!" air.

I'm autistic and can't read tone well, and I also have OCD that makes me overexplain my intentions. If parts of this post were hard to read, please help me make them shorter.

Tagging some relevant blogs for visibility and critique on this post: @anti-radqueer-zone @radqueer-repellant @radq-blocklist @antiradqueer

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Aita for not making any of my characters, that I have to crank out daily, pansexual/polysexual/omnisexual specifically and only making them bi?

🏳️‍🌈👶🏼 so i can recognize this later lmao also I'm not panphobic or anything, this isn't about the validity of the label, pan is fine.

So i (20snb bi) have a project I'm working on where I take all the characters from a specifc media I'm into and pair them up with each other to make every possible ship kid from every possible ship(excluding characters who are kids themselves or are related or something, that shit is gross). Basically taking every character and pairing them up with another and creating a kid I think they'd have. Its a big project with lots of characters and I'm easily over 400 at this point. I really enjoy this, even if I'm not even 25% complete.

However I set a schedule for myself that at least one ship kid needs to come out each day which, considering I draw them, color them and give them some development and some even have siblings, (The refs themselves easily take me an hour to an hour and a half) I have to make lots of them quickly to keep up with my daily grind. I've been doing this project for over a year and although it's stressful, I can get them out quickly with breaks for myself.

Their character sheets all have some pretty basic info like their name, gender, pronouns, personality and more but it also includes their sexuality/orientation. I have a pretty basic list of options for what their sexuality will be: straight, lesbian, gay, Enbian, bi, Aro, ace and aroace with a few random things like polyam, WLW and a good amount of the something-loving-something/juvelic terms. I did this because, well, there's not many entirely unique orientations outside of them and although I love mogai/xenogenders and complex identities, I dont want to potentially drag up discourse or bring problems to my budding art blog over it. Its just not worth it to me to turn something I really care about on its head, even if I like microlabels.

In this case, I'm using bi as an umbrella term as most of the other terms share the same definition with slight variations in wording or action but not much difference in practice. We all like everyone, it's basic stuff. However, apparently this is a problem.

I've gotten one or two anons asking me questions about my guides asking some kind stuff like is this lesbian ship kid a butch or femme or Is this picture of them now or just at the age you put on the ref and other harmless stuff. Then things got rude with some Nbphobia but thrice now I've gotten asks:

1. Asking snarkily if im a panphobe

2. insulting me for not specifically writing pan or Omni and just writing bi.

3. Saying that I "clearly dont care about pansexual representation." Then brought up how my primary oc is native american so i clearly care about representation but that oc used to be a sona and I'm native?? Its confusing. (And Lowkey racist shit to just assume any native character is a "diversity quota" character instead of just a person existing but I digress-)

Im not pan, im bi so ig these people assume I'm not cool with pan people which isnt true? I have nothing aginest them, they are just pretty similar and I dont feel like it matters if they are specfically bi or pan or poly or any other label. I don't go into details like that for any other sub-group, not even pronouns and I included combinations and some common Neopronouns. I understand the importance of representation but my project has less than 50 people looking at it every day, Im not netflix or something. I'm one guy on the most LGBT blogging site with a big project and very little audience, I'm not showing people who wouldn't already know what pan is that pansexuality exists.

This project isn't that deep considering the characters in question aren't human/dont have human characteristics.(no it's not hazbin/helluva) Also ive never spoken about lgbt discourse or stated anything remotely close to it beyond the guides just passively having characters who are an LGBT identity. I've not even mentioned all the potentional orientations they could have so I'm not sure where/why this came up in the first place. The most politcial things ive said are calling out a creator in my fandom who outed themselves as a transphobe and mentioning im pro-palestine. That's it.

I mean this is pretty low stakes, I can just block these people and be done with it and this some seriously online shit but I just wanna check.

Am I being an asshole for just writing bi instead of specifying their mspec label because I have to produce characters quickly and I don't see enough of a difference to warrant a change/specification that would ultimately slow and clog an already stressful and complex project?

I dont think I am but idk lol

What are these acronyms?

[lemotmo]

This feels accurate

Q. That episode was way over-hyped and I'm not sure why Oliver felt the need to gush about it so much.

A. Oliver enjoyed a Buck heavy episode. The Denny/Karen/Hen plot was the heavy plot (and to me was the plot that didn't fit the way the episode was hyped). But I think that plot was used just as a way to introduce the conflict that Hen and Karen will have this season, Karen believing Hen isn't present enough. Buck's plot was the Halloween fun everyone claimed they wanted. But what most people seem to have meant by 'fun', and I am also guilty of this, was relationship trouble for Buck. And that wasn't what Oliver meant by fun. The other problem people are having, at least according to my ask box, is people still want and expect Tommy to start being portrayed as a bad guy and that's absolutely not how the show is writing him. The show is not telling the story of Tommy the bad guy. The show is telling the story of how Tommy being perfectly fine for Buck doesn't make him right for Buck. And after watching the episode a second time I think that was the entire point of all of his scenes. Tommy tried and for the most part he was fine. Which I think was the point. I have said repeatedly that the show does not view Tommy as a bad guy, and that's also why I always believed his past wouldn't be the reason for their breakup. The show doesn't want him viewed as a bad guy. He's just not right for Buck.

Eddie and Tommy reacted very similarly to Buck in this episode. In fact Eddie and Tommy's surface level similarities were quite present in all of their scenes, but Eddie gets the benefit of the audience knowing that even when he seems exasperated there's always a level of fondness and genuine understanding of Buck that coexists within that. Eddie gets the benefit of familiarity and belonging. A theme that was abundant throughout Buck's plot in this episode. And I think that was intentional (and just because it still bugs me, I will also say again that in terms of scene chemistry Ryan and Lou work much better together than Oliver and Lou ever have). Tommy was consistently shown as the obvious outsider in his scenes. Take the scenes when he's visiting Buck in the hospital, and again when he calls Eddie to come tend to Buck's face as examples (super interesting that he was the one who called Eddie by the way because even Tommy already knows Eddie is the one Buck will actually listen too). Eddie was the one placed in the typical partner role in both of those scenes. Eddie was the one that didn't need to be there, but Tommy was the one who actually felt out of place. And Tommy being an outsider was driven home with the group text scene. He's not part of the group, something that I think will come back around when it is time to start relationship drama. And as a side note, it was kind of glaringly noticeable how Buck and Tommy didn't touch, even in instances where they definitely should have, at least in some capacity. I don't know if that's the show helping out two actors who seemingly aren't super comfortable with one another, or if it was a deliberate story choice. Either way it was awkward. The Eddie of it all is the unknown. We don't yet know the actual plan for Eddie, and while it still feels like a sexuality arc, I don't know how much of that we will actually get in episode 6. One thing I do want to point out that also feels super noticeable is the fact that while Buck and Eddie are clearly consistently talking they're clearly not talking about anything really meaningful. Eddie has talked, albeit briefly, about Christopher with everyone but Buck. The one person who loves and misses Christopher almost as much as Eddie does. I feel like they both tend to believe that once they talk about something together that something becomes real and as long as they don't talk about it together they can kind of collectively be in denial about it. I do think this season they are going to have to have some big boy conversations though. Episode 6 calling back to Eddie Begins should open the door to conversations the two can't keep putting off, especially if the plan is to put them together. This got long, anon but the gist is basically the actors are allowed to like parts of their stories that are not about Buddie, even when we don't always particularly like them, lol. It was a good episode. And was actually quite a bit about Buddie and Buck's relationships in general. It just didn't do what lots of people talked themselves into thinking it was going to do, but that doesn't make it a bad episode. We have 13 episodes to go. I would advise everyone to take a deep breath and ignore the nonsense others might try to create.

Thank you for dropping this in my inbox Nonny!

I'm not going to repeat all the things I've talked about in my previous posts about the same subjects, but I agree with a lot of Ali's observations and conclusions here.

I also think that people need to step away from thinking that every single episode Eddie is going to stand up and declare himself queer before kissing Buck stupid.

This is a delicate storyline that'll take some time to build up. They'll get there in the end, but I really do think they'll take the rest of season 8 to get there. And that's fine. At least then they'll have time to do this story justice.

IMPORTANT! Please don't repost this ask and/or a link that leads straight to my Tumblr account on Twitter or any other social media. Thank you!

Heads up! For anyone who is giving me the shifty eyes for reposting Ali's updates instead of reblogging. Read this.

Remember, no hate in comments, reblogs or inboxes. Let's keep it civil and respectful. Thank you.

If you are interested in more of Ali’s posts, you can find all of her posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

[warlordgab]

Analysis of shipping: Found family and pseudo-incest?

Last year I was requested this rebuttal to detractors, but it took a long time to make because it was hard to pinpoint where these arguments came from

But, after one perceptive individual nailed it right on the head, I finally had something to work with

So, let's start with the argument: "These characters can't end up together because they're like family/siblings, so that would be incest"

This isn't unique to one single fandom. Antis had used this reasoning against NaLu and similar pairings in the past, based on the fact Natsu and Lucy belonged to the same guild, a community that treated its members as "family"

Needless to say, they stopped using it after seeing how Mashima made pairings like Gajeel and Levy, or Gray and Juvia, pretty much canon. Making it clear that romantic relationships between members of this particular circle or community were perfectly fine (That doesn't mean cheating is fine though!).

But, this argument still persists in other fandoms. One Piece is not the exception, where the anti-LuNa crowd constantly tries to paint all romantic potential between Luffy and Nami as "incest" because they're "siblings."

Let us address something first, what's incest?

"Sexual intercourse between persons so closely related that they are forbidden by law to marry"

- Merriam-Webster, 2024

"Marriage or sexual intercourse with a relative within the prohibited degree of consanguinity. In other words, incest is sexual contact between close blood relatives"

- LII / Legal Information Institute, 2024

After 1000+ chapters worth of story, nothing implies Luffy and Nami are related by blood. So, where does the argument comes from?

In reality, antis are using a concept people don't often hear about: pseudo-incest

It's not a widely known term, in fact, it's not even in the Oxford English Dictionary (OEA), the Cambridge Dictionary, or Merriam-Webster.

However, we can still find some defintions that helps us to understad what do LuNa detractors mean with this?

"Sexual involvement between family members who are not blood relations (e.g., siblings by adoption, stepparents and stepchildren, in-laws)."

- Wiktionary, 2024

Once, again we hit another wall, since Luffy wasn't adopted by Nami's family, nor Nami was adopted into his. So, why do antis claim they're "like" siblings?

Let's go from the minor statement to the big one. The first argument is that "The have a sibling-like dynamic"

This is one is odd, because it can come from actual unawareness about the nature of relationships, or the malicious use of the common traits seen in all sorts of human connections

After all, all healthy relationships, either being with relatives, companions, or potential romantic partners, are defined by affection, shared values, support, and sometimes a little bit of discord and/or conflict

If we were to use these traits to label the connection between two characters as that of "siblings," we could describe a lot of official pairings (and potent relationships) from a huge lot of stories as "siblings" instead of lovers/spouses.

Let's use a potent relationship as example: Sabo and Koala feel affection for one another, share similar values, support each other, and may have an argument from time to time...

...does that make them "siblings"? What about Ace and Isuka? Does the combination of affection, support, and occasional conflict rule out any possibility of a relationship upgrade?

If we apply this "measurement" to official pairings from other series, we're likely to jump to similarly flawed conclusions about their relationships.

However, even if there are similarites, there are several differences. For bonds outside our family circle. we may see chosen affinity, sometimes a greater attachment and/or emotional codependecy, a strong passion, and even a deeper sense of compromise coming from the willing choice of those involved.

Potent relationships have all of this, even if they're yet to become canon. And due to their emotional chemistry, LuNa seems more like a deep companionship with the potential to evolve rather than a sibling-like bond

However, that was just the minor statement from western fans. We may deduce some say this because they can't picture a romantic relationship without one (or both characters) being a total simp; perhaps they're so used to the "loveable perv" trope, that their idea of romance relies how horny the characters act with one another; or maybe they just too enamored with the cool good-looking buff guy to acknowledge anything deep, but I digress...

Still, we're yet to address the elephant in the room, the bigger argument, which is a combination of two things:

Just like some anti-NaLu fans did ages ago, a lot of anti-LuNa fans take their "sibling" argument from the same place every other permutation of this reasoning came from, a misuse of another concept: Family of choice

Family of choice, Chosen Family or Found Family, all refer to a group of people who willingly stick together to provide each other with the sense of community and belonging, as well as a feeling of affection, joy and security inherent to a functional family, without being related by blood.

It's seen as an alternative to those who faced rejection from their biological family, or society itself, and even to people who lost their relatives to tragedies or disasters.

It's a useful literary device to develop characters due to how flexible it is, given that members of these groups don't need to fill particular roles for their relationships to work, which provides authors with a lot of freedom in terms of writing.

However, some detractors have been abusing the "family" part of the term to argue against pairings that have enough development and history together for a natural relationship upgrade. How?

By limiting each character to a specific role: Father, Mother, Sibling, etc.

This allows them to claim, that characters within "Found Families" cannot become couple because that would be pseudo-incest.

As some people already noticed, this makes no sense; it replaces the versatility of the trope with a far more rigid, static, and limited form of narrative; and goes against what the idea of "Found Family" was supposed to be, which is an alternative to "family," not a carbon copy of the traditional family structure.

So, how does this argument survives logic and reason?

Well, here's the elephant in the room: in the SBS Volume 48, Oda was asked the question: "If the Straw Hats really were an actual family, who would be the dad, and who would be the mom?"

The following was Oda's answer:

Dad: Franky (Thug)

Mom: Robin

First Son: Zoro

Second Son: Sanji (Punk)

Daughter: Nami

Third Son: Usopp

Fourth Son: Luffy

Youngest: Chopper

In the SBS Volume 50, Oda added Brook would be the "Grandfather" "If you Likened the Crew to Family".

Here we have another example of a quote taken out of context, because the question was 'if they really were an actual family', and Oda later framed his answer as "Position in the crew if they were a family."

It was never about the strawhats being "an actual family," it was merely mindless fun with a "what if." To drive that point home, Sanji still gets horny for both Nami and Robin, yet nobody in their right mind would accuse him of lusting after his "sister" and "mother," because they're not actual relatives.

And this leads us to a couple of plot twists: all of this started because of the song "Family" performed by the strawhats seiyuus which, while invoking the "Found Family" trope, includes the following statement:

"We're not relatives… we're not even siblings!" (親戚じゃなくて　兄弟じゃない)

Which pretty much kills the "they're like siblings" argument used by detractors to liken LuNa to pseudo-incest.

The second plot twist comes from the SBS Volume 99, Oda says that if the cew was an actual family Jinbei would be the "father," replacing Franky who would now be given the position of "pervy granny"

This proves two things. First, that such "positions" are neither "fixed" or "absolute," they're malleable and can be changed or altered at any given moment.

Second, that this "Family" thing amounts to a mere joke, it's just a silly little game with no real impact on the story and characters. Although the idea of Frobin Vs. Jinbin(?) sounds amusing, but I digress.

So, what's the conclusion?

Even if the strawhats are an example of "Family of choice," that doesn't make the greatest potential relationship upgrade within the crew problematic, it all depends on how the author handles the situation. And given Oda is a top tier writer, we got nothing to worry if he decides to pull the trigger

And, despite what huge players within the community said before, Oda never claimed the strawhats were "an actual family." So any accusation of pseudo-incest, whether subtle or direct, is just the result of general ignorance, misinformation, and/or personal agendas

BONUS

There are times in manga/anime when one character refers to another as brother/sister/sibling, despite not being related.

One example would be Winry from Fullmetal Alchemist, who claimed Edward is like a "brother" to her. However, given that they're not related, nothing stopped them from falling in love, ending up together, and having children...

If we rely on the same reasoning used by antis, we could conclude this relationship is problematic. However, even if they have some moments when Winry goes ballistic on Ed...

...nobody in their right mind would dare to say their relationship is akin to pseudo-incest.

Oddly enough, we have a case in One Piece, when one character (Kinemon) made a similar brother/sibling claim to Tsuru, using a similar reasoning to that of Winry's...

I'll give you three guesses on how these two ended up, the first two don't count

[imitationgame77]

What is Aromanticism???

Here on Tumblr, I see many posts mentioning aroace, aromantic, queer-platonic, etc., and I have been trying to understand, but still find it difficult.

If a person describes self as aromantic (= have no experience of romantic feelings towards others), this is fine. It is subjective definition, so must be respected.

But I don't know what it means when a relationship between two individuals is just described as aromantic, I don't know how to interpret that, unless there are more descriptions.

It is almost like dividing all the fruits into apple and non-apple. We can accept that it is NOT an apple, but then what is it?

Obviously, if we are talking about two individuals who can agree on their interpersonal relationship, that is fine. But when there is not necessarily agreement between the two participating individuals, how do the outsiders know?

Even more so, if these are fictional characters.

An American psychologist Robert Sternberg developed the famous "Triangular Theory of Love" in 1980s, where he characterised love between individuals with 3 factors: Intimacy, Passion, and Commitment. When these are combined you get 7 types of love. (Liking, infatuation, empty love, romantic love, companionate love, fatuous love, and non-love).

Generally, passion is interpreted as related to physical/sexual attraction.

So, if you see two individuals who seem to like each other a lot, but remove Passion from the picture, you are left with either "Liking" or "Companionate Love".

Companionate love is great for long-term relationship where the excitement is gone, but trust, caring feeling and understanding are still there. But I feel uncertain about calling ALL the GREAT relationships minus the Passion part as just "companionate". Something feels missing.

Why can we not call that excitement when you get to know someone and you just click? Instant chemistry, and you know that this person is going to be a great friend to you. Sometimes you can get infatuated with your new friend.

Friend or best friend are also good terms, but they don't encapusulate the specialness - some people have lots of best friends. (Or so they say.) Sometimes, there is a sense of exclusivity - resulting in jealousy when a third party comes along.

I wish there is a term to describe a relationship where two individuals care for each other greatly, can understand and accept each other with all the differences and irritating bits about each other, so special and valuable that do not want to lose each other, and gain greatest pleasure in each other's company above everything else.

I think it is possible to have this without sexual or physical attraction, can even have other friends or sexual relationships elsewhere. But this is THE most significant relationship that transcends everything else.

When people see some of these traits, we tend to think of them romantic. Even when we do not expect them to have relationships like lovers do. Because we see chemistry, bond, trust and everything that we desire. Maybe, the same brain areas that process very romantic things respond in a similar way.

I see this in Holmes and Watson (original), Sherlock and John (BBC Sherlock), House and Wilson (House, MD), Myron Bolitar and Win (Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar series), and recently, Murderbot and ART. (That used to include Aziraphale and Crowley while their passion bit was subtext)

I don't imagine them in sexual or other physically intimate relationships, but the special bond between each of these pairs feels romantic. Because they are so special.

I need a simple word. Not a word meaning "not-something"...

[haarvira]

Hey! I mean no disrespect by this at all I'm just genuinely curious, in your bio it says you're an emotionless / loveless aplaroace, but you're taken? How does that work?

Oh hey, you're fine. So, I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you know that aromantics can still date, and aces can still participate in intercourse or other. You don't need attraction to do these things, though I'm sure it certainly helps! There identities that are on the aromantic/asexual spectrums where they can experience attraction as well or want to participate in these sorts of relationships(ex: romo or sexual positive aro/aces). Now apply this to the broader aspec/anattractional spectrums.

I will say that emotions can be similar. You don't need to have emotions to be in different kinds of relationships.

Emotionless/loveless are terms I go by to describe my overall experience and/or identity. It does not specify how much emotion or love I can experience, it's just easier to go by the terms instead of describing it all, as like with my aplaroace label which does not specify which identities I go by under that.

I also find it matters little to certain people and they treat me like others who experience even less than I do.

Now with all of that out of the way, I am on the aroace spectrums so I do experience attraction to an extent, and I experience it only with my two partners. All three of us have varying and different types of attraction. I also experience some other non-rose attractions to my partners and even for people outside of them, such as communal or community based attraction, impersonal attraction, solaic, et cetera.

You can really have any type of relationship, as long as it's consensual and in good faith, it's really limitless. Maybe you don't care about that and that's totally fine. Labels, identities, relationship styles/dynamics are for us to use or enjoy but it doesn't mean we have to. But I do and it makes me happy. My partners know I support them and wouldn't want either to be in a relationship with me where they are unhappy or discontent.

[angstics]

nonsense deadpool & wolverine rant

ive been talking about deadpool 3 for days over on twitter -- which is a lot for a movie i was meh about and will forget in 2 weeks (like i have all other deadpool films). BUT i like thinking about how gay ppl & themes are treated in popular film and this is probably going to be the biggest "gay themed" film this year ... which is sad considering this is the year of 2 luca guadagnino films and monkey man and tv glow et al. anyhow. this was a big hit in fandom -- which should not be a surprise considering the mcu and comics fandoms. the "this was sooooo gay" response has been irritating, and so has the counter-argument. the text may not be a gay text but it DOES use gay elements in its text. like Obviously so. to the point that it's hard to discern whether it's appropriation or meaningful, a homophobic joke or somewhat earnest... and why???

part of it will always be the comic characterization of deadpool as a hypersexual pansexual freak who sexually harasses men because that has been deemed highlarious. there's at least one joke recycled (about being tied up together and getting an erection), replacing spiderman in the comics with wolverine in the movie. i can easily see straight men playing these jokes with each other -- i probably have on youtube. this is what makes the "you cant deny this is gay" thing fandom people say sooooooooooooooooooo annoying -- HOMOSEXUAL encounters are not limited to people with THE GAY GENE. straight men sexually harass their friends ("friends") all the time. allllll the time. what makes someone (and a relationship) gay is intention and affection and desire and identity and cultural place -- and a billion other things. there are many movies about two men (and less about two women) who everyone sees as super gay... defiant ones (1958) comes to mind since i recently was reminded of it. heat 1995, thelma & louise 1991. dead poets society 1989 also comes to mind. but no one Serious is claiming this is the dominant (as in "common") reading or INTENDED meaning -- no one is saying these are gay characters in gay relationships. they arent like fried green tomatoes 1991 or midnight cowboy 1969 or rebel without a cause 1955, where it was verifiably gay in some way.

there's a phenomena where a character / relationship (probably) wasnt supposed to be gay, but it came off that way UNDENIABLY because they borrowed too much from gay experiences -- like scream 1992, or very commonly in terms of trans experiences: psycho 1960, silence of the lambs 1991, synecdoche new york 2008. and fraiser lol. Every movie is different and has a different way of doing things which result in different suggestions and conclusions and interpretations and impacts. Big surprise.

deadpool 3 obscures these boundaries in this new pseudo-progressive age. but it is still inaccurate to pretend it was "gay coding" -- as in they were hiding a gay story via Big Subtext and using a straight story to sell a gay movie (which i have seen suggested the use of DP's ex). i cant fucking believe we're still doing destiel conspiracies. im sure stucky had a similar reaction this deadpool ship has (and the spideypool ship), but i think it is understood that Steve Whatshisname wasnt and would never be gay (Bucky could be, he has time).

the misunderstanding comes in the blurring. it's like in the middle of a political compass. ok fine i made one

some moments obviously meant to evoke a gay spirit: bar scene, car scene, madonna scene, "introducing the boyfriend" scene, the Appreciation of the Male Body & Fighting as Fucking theme (note that DP's lesbians were just standing there in 2 scenes?)

Deadpool (and Wolverine) really are pan: an alternate Wolverine is in love w the Mythic Hercules in a comic series (and maybe Cyclops? Subtextually? Throupley?). deadpool is well known in comics, but he does off-hand talk about having non-vaginal sex (? or masturbating?) in this movie

what is romantic is defined by DP's LI: the movie cant hide behind everything being a joke when it has a guiding emotional core consisting of DP's lost (female) love, who he can express affection and attraction to in both serious and comedic contexts

No honest romantic or sexual tension: i have seen movies with subtextual / coded tension and this doesnt have it. it's no popped champagne bottle, or face caressed in blood. there is also no story. i havent mentioned this yet but this movie has a really lackluster story between dp & wolverine that doesnt allow for much interpretation even in a platonic or narrative sense

all these things are true at once, and ignoring one aspect for another doesnt make sense of the film (and characters and audience reaction) as a whole. at the end of the day............. it doesnt matter........ i only really care about being accurate and respecting film history & gay history & continuing to call for gay gay gay stories in popular film. dp3 made a lot of gay jokes that were genuinely unexpected, so it isnt LE FOU 2. but it isnt the end of the line. this was a good thread that described the split well

[stonegoldsxcrxt]

Okay so I honestly haven’t been active on tumblr in forever. But if I’m ever thinking of star wars, I like to take a peek at your blog because I feel like you are one of the few who loves Luke as much as I do. But what I want rn is to give my two cents on this whole acolyte thing. And I hope you don’t think I am trying to come at/attack you or anything of the sort. This is just my (somewhat complicated?) take on things. Sorry if this gets super long. I have many thoughts. And I hope I don’t confuse at all while trying to explain! Unfortunately, I’m not very eloquent lol. Anyway:

Personally? I’m kinda intrigued by the Osha/Qimir dynamic. And this is coming from someone who honestly severely disliked the sequels—especially kylo and reylo (but a lot of it was due to fandom bs as well). I mean, I’ll admit some of it is due to my own bias because this time around I’m glad both of the actors are hot and they are both absolutely acting their asses off. And maybe there hasn’t been enough for you in the show (I get it tbh, the episodes are short and there’s only so much you can do with 8 episodes and this is honestly a problem with D+ and a lot of streaming services now), but I can see what Leslye was aiming for with the dynamic. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is one of my fave movies so I definitely see the influence. But Headland did also point out that a lot of enemies to lovers is about one character going “I know there’s good in you!” or what the hell ever—and Osha didn’t do that. That’s something I can appreciate whereas in TLJ it seemed like Rey was all about freaking Kylo and was convinced there was still good in him even though the literal day before he had nearly killed both her and Finn.

I do disagree about there being no manipulation, though. Qimir IS being honest and vulnerable, but clearly he hopes to gain something with Osha from that. But whereas I didn’t buy any of it with Rey and Kylo, I can see how and why Osha might fall to the dark side. She is clearly conflicted about everything from her emotions to her very own identity. But Qimir is offering her a sense of clarity about that AND on her past. Osha loves and admires Sol deeply of course, but he has obviously been keeping something huge from her. And if it turns out he was majorly involved with whatever happened to her coven, it makes sense that Osha would then embrace whatever negative emotions that are brewing within her (even if Sol was slightly less involved the fact that he knew and never told her should rightfully make her angry). It will obviously destroy whatever faith she had left in the Jedi, but imo she might begin to question how it makes the Jedi any different from Qimir.

And now that I’ve explained that, I also wanted to say how I felt about some of the discourse. Fandom feuds are always annoying, but now that I’m essentially on the other side...? I’ve gotta say I am low-key offended and high-key pissed over it. I mean, if ppl don’t like Qimir or the relationship between him and Osha—fine. But I’ve seen some absolutely disgusting comments over this. Like someone on twitter (who ss a post of yours too) who was calling Leslye Headland’s lesbianism into question. Like idc if you don’t like the ship but there is literally no need for discussing her sexuality like that just because she likes a problematic ship you hate (which she literally created so idk what ppl expected anyways)!!! And then there are the “fans” (I use that term lightly) insulting Manny Jacinto’s looks (which is ridiculous cause the man is hot idgaf). And I honestly think that shit is hypocritical af since a lot of these ppl are fans who were rightfully upset at reylo/kylo stans for saying similar disgusting things about actual people.

I like quite a few villains in multiple fandoms, so to me it seems like the same ridiculous arguments. There’s nothing wrong with liking a fictional character who happens to be a villain. As long as no one’s trying to make excuses for their heinous actions (jokes are another thing) I don’t think it matters. It’s literally not that deep imo. And liking said problematic characters does not have anything to do with people’s real life morals. That’s just bullshit.

And again, it’s actually INCREDIBLY fucking hypocritical, ESPECIALLY coming from star wars fans who have been sexualizing villains like Darth Maul, Thrawn, and a young freaking Darth Vader for YEARS. But now it’s a problem with Qimir????? Not to mention the romanticization of other literal problematic ships like anidala or reylo. And I’ll be honest—as a Filipina????? I do feel like some of this is racially motivated because literally WHAT is the difference with Qimir and Osha/Qimir versus all of these other characters and ships?????? I think that’s what gets me heated is the hypocrisy of it all. And of course the fact that it’s all fictional anyway so I don’t know why it should fucking matter to some people if fans like a character or ship that they don’t.

Anyways...I think this is essentially all of my thoughts on the matter. Again, I hope I didn’t come across as rude or like I was attacking you. Like I said, it IS a bit complicated for me. Because as someone who hardly liked anything from the sequels, I was definitely cringing at the multiple mentions of reylo and kylo in Leslye’s recent interview. And yet....I see the vision.

hey!! so, there's a lot here and I do actually want to talk about all of it! I really appreciate you approaching this with nuance and being open to have a conversation. I'm gonna number my responses just so I know I covered everything I wanted to talk about and everything you mentioned.

One: I don't think there's anything wrong with being intrigued by a character dynamic like Osha and Qimir's, in fact I actually do find it very interesting from a psychological standpoint myself. I also don't think there's anything wrong with depicting a character dynamic like Osha and Qimir's, with one caveat, which is that you have to recognize it for what it is. I truly would LOVE star wars to approach it with the angle of "hey, this is how people can weaponize your own emotions against you, especially how a man may try (and even succeed) in manipulating a woman this way," and particularly what that looks like with the Force, because a LOT of Jedi and Sith principles are based around the acceptance (or aggravation!) of emotions. I think that's a totally interesting plot line that would actually be super fascinating to see. I also find it believable that Osha could, theoretically, be convinced by Qimir and turn (in fact I think your entire third paragraph is a very valid interpretation of what has happened so far). It's not that I don't think these are fascinating possibilities to explore. It's not that I don't think Osha joining the dark side is out of the question or even unreasonable, whatever the reason.

In fact, pre-interview, almost all of my criticism was pointed at the way the fandom immediately jumps to believing everything Qimir is saying without thinking critically about how he could be lying to Osha to get her to act the way that he wants her to. This comes from an intense place of frustration dealing with fandom in general who excuse the violent actions of men towards women (which is the reason why that one post doesn't actually even name Qimir or Osha, even though I did tag their names, since it applies to like a half dozen ships I can think of off the top of my head). In fact, I praised the writing of the acolyte in my breakdown post, assuming that Headland was purposefully creating all the cunning ways Qimir talks to Osha and all the tactics he appears to be using to manipulate her, and that this would be plot relevant. Whether Osha realized she was being manipulated and snapped out of it, or whether she never realized it, and fell to the dark side, and what that would mean for her, etc.

However, post-interview, things are different. No more am I simply dealing with a fandom that is willfully misinterpreting a toxic relationship as romantic, I am now dealing with the showrunner herself saying lots of things that disturb me. I can give her credit for not pulling the "there's good in him" card, but that's about as good as I can do. Headland may say that she does not intend the relationship to be manipulative, that she intends for Osha and Qimir to be equals, but if what she has presented to us onscreen does not read that way, then she has failed to accurately convey her message as the showrunner. You and I agree that Qimir is manipulating Osha, yet Headland says the opposite. I now have a showrunner for Star Wars, a massive franchise viewed by thousands, giving interviews saying that there is nothing wrong with this man's relationship with this young woman, but continuing to show the opposite. She can't have it both ways. The statement "Osha and Qimir are equals," is simply so far removed from the reality of what Headland has presented Qimir to be (a conniving man who is strong enough in the Force to eliminate a dozen Jedi at a time, and is so callus that he calls a girl an "it" after he's murdered her) that it's such an unbelievable statement I actually can't even believe people are buying it. I'm not saying that to be mean; what makes Qimir and Osha equals? Genuinely? That he cooks soup sometimes? That he disrobed in front of her? What about this relationship is equal?

Here's my bottom line when it comes to this discourse: I am sick of seeing young women getting treated like shit by men, and it getting romanticized as hot and desirable instead of what it is. I am sick of it whether the fandom does it, I am sick of it whether the showrunner does it, I am sick of it whether people in real life or in fiction do it, and I am allowed to feel that way.

Two: I won't be insulting Manny Jacinto in any capacity. He's doing a good job as an actor. I have acknowledged in past posts that he is obviously an attractive man.

If you think Qimir is hot, please, by all means, feel free to sexualize him in the manner that others sexualize Thrawn or Maul or anyone else. I'm an advocate of self insert fanfiction and of course (within reason), would find nothing wrong with that.

I am generally not a villain-lover, but there is nothing wrong with finding villains attractive or compelling! I haven't said there is. I have said that there's a problem within fandom and now literally within the media itself, with recognizing when a young woman is being mistreated by someone, sometimes because a lot of you are far more lenient on attractive men. The reylo fandom took this about twenty steps too far from 2015-2019 to the point where if you ask some of them, they still don't think Kylo even WAS the villain, and Headland is rapidly encouraging fans to take that angle with Qimir though I have given evidence to the contrary in spades.

There is a lot to be said about whether or not fiction affects reality. I believe it does, but I obviously do not believe that liking an evil character makes you evil. That being said, while not all fiction has a moral, all fiction has a theme, and you as the audience do take lessons from themes, whether you realize it or not; it sticks with you and may help you form your opinion on a similar set of circumstances you may come face-to-face with later. Fiction affects our feelings on a situation. A disturbing theme I'm seeing a LOT of in Star Wars lately is men being cruel to women in one way or another and the women finding it attractive and acceptable. Of course, depiction is not automatically endorsement... until we have now literally seen this type of relationship fully endorsed by Lucasfilm showrunners and directors twice in a row. Tweens and teenage girls *will* watch the sequel trilogy and the acolyte... what are they taking away from it? From what the director or showrunner has said about it? Honestly, this is much less about fandom to me now, and more about how official creators are treating these dynamics.

Three and finally and most important: I'm sorry that you've been seeing things like that being said about Headland, I think that's bizarre, rude, and uncalled for. I often do not go looking in fandom spaces anymore so I have not seen this, but that doesn't mean it's not out there. I generally do not trust Headland's creative input anymore, nor do I necessarily even like her, HOWEVER, I have not and will not make any such comment on her sexuality as it has nothing to do with any of this. I don't know which post of mine they screenshot, and I'd like more information actually, if they are using my post to say I think those things too, but regardless, I would not say this about her, or about anyone, and I don't condone it.

This is absolutely not racially motivated from me and I want to make that absolutely clear. I have been vehemently anti-reylo since the day I learned it existed, so I hope that you do not feel as though I am speaking out against the way that the Osha and Qimir storyline has been handled out of such a place, and I would never want anything to come across that way in any of my analysis or critiques. You will find I usually have less to say about anidala, seeing as the majority of the fandom does not depict Anakin as "doing nothing wrong" in that relationship, nor does the source material, so I feel I do not have to explain as much as I do with reylo and now Osha/Qimir. I want to make that absolutely clear that this type of relationship being presented in this type of way is a huge red flag for me regardless of the races of the characters involved. If you refer to the fandom at large, I don't want to invalidate your experiences, and don't know what other people are saying or what their reasons are. Unfortunately the acolyte fandom has been riddled with homophobia and racism since before the first episode even aired, and I want to make it clear that I think all of that is entirely unacceptable and that my critiques have nothing to do with either of those hateful ideologies.

[existencebringsonlypain]

Okay! So! This post is factually inaccurate. I'd been told the creator of the sunset aroace flag was a nazi, turns out that's a baseless accusation and comes from another untrue rumor. So. I won't delete this post, because it was a fun exercise to create a flag, but take every claim about the morality of the og artist with, like, negative one grain of salt.

I've heard about the whole controversy regarding the aroace flag, and I do get the sentiment- we shouldn't be using a flag created by a nazi. However, it's so widespread and recognizable a flag that it's hard to change it without backlash. Makes sense, if people are used to a certain flag to mean their identity, they'll probably resist changing the flag- it may make it feel like you're replacing their identity.

Therefore, I propose we do indeed change the flag, but make it highly reminiscent of the widespread flag, so the transition between the two is easier and less significant. Yes, it's still using a similar design to a nazi's, but it might be the best we can do- and who says we can't reclaim a symbol?

I've made my own take on the flag. I'm not saying this is the best one, just the best I could do.

As with any flag, the stripes have meaning.

The orange represents love, in a platonic/familial/aesthetic way, all the aspects of love- excluding romantic and sexual. This is why it's not red, the main color for love, because it can be different for us than it is for others. It's also reminiscent of a sunrise, and due to that it can represent the beauty inherent in love. It's meant to symbolize how though aroace people may not experience romantic and sexual love, but we sure as heck still feel love.

The tan represents unity, not only between those who are aroace, but with the queer community as a whole. Though we are not allo, we are still queer, and we are part of the whole.

The white is, actually, not in fact white- it's a very light warm grey. This is to represent the spectrum of identities under the term aroace. The white isn't actually white, but that's okay, it makes the flag more cohesive. The aroace term might not quite align with your identity, but that's fine. Words are what you make them. Colors don't always fit in rigid boxes, and neither do people.

These are going to be out of order, just because it makes more sense to read it this way. I would do it in this order on the flag, but I both want it to look like the widespread one and want it to look like a gradient.

The darker turquoise represents the joining of aromanticity and asexuality- residing between the two colors in the color wheel. It's not a direct mixture between the shades, because when the two identities combine, they form a whole new identity, while still reflecting the original. Also, it's more vibrant.

The sky blue represents the variety ever-present within the identity. It represents the aroacespec people. It's lighter than the color between aro's green and ace's purple, because attraction can vary. Demi and auto and flux people exist, and they're still in the flag- because they're still part of our community.

This flag is very similar to the more common aroace flag, but that's not really a great flag to use. None of the colors are the exact same, intentionally. It's unique enough to be separate, rather than just a redesign of the same flag, but it's still recognizable as aroace. Here's a comparison:

In my opinion, at least, it looks better. The top is a more cohesive gradient rather than a yellow coming from nowhere, and the bottom band isn't as contrasting. The duller band in the middle just makes it look nicer in general imo, but it's mainly motivated by the meaning.

This isn't perfect! This flag is just my little experiment, since I always liked how the flag looks like a sunset, yet didn't want to use a flag designed by a nazi. Feel free to use this flag anywhere you'd like, as long as it's, like, a good use. Like, no oppression or exclusion. Keep the original meanings in mind. We are all a community.

Finally, a call to action: try and use this flag rather than the original! Or, if you don't like this flag that much, make your own! Try to come up with your own meanings, it's harder than you think. This is our flag, ‍‌ and we choose what we use and what we value. Or just inform people on the history of the flag, I personally had no idea it was issue-laden until recently. Either way, let's go out there and love.

[acourtofthought]

About Az and his sexual perversions.

I always imagined that I liked one or two different things, nothing much.

And Gwyn has her past, but it doesn't and shouldn't dictate the kind of sex she should have and can't have X because she can only do everything gently.

And the fact that Elain did her first time with her ex-fiancé doesn't make her too experienced or tempted by kinky sex, nor does it say that Az doesn't need to be gentle with her.

For me, Elain and Gwyn can move on from being nice to whatever they want to do with their partners when they feel ready.

They are characters from a book but this thing about She can't because she needs this and that and so on...

Sarah won't match anyone with anyone if they don't match and there's one in the other's way.

I confess that this speech about Az and his sex life and how people treat it makes me want Elain and Gwyn far away from him.

Giving the impression that he can't be kind to anyone and can only be with someone who doesn't even need kindness at any time and has to have a thousand sexual experiences.

I don't even know if you understand, but that's it.

I also think people are making assumptions about what him being a freak in bed means. We have no idea what SJM considers a freak in bed. She could simply mean he uses his shadows in the similar way Dorian used his magic on Manon and really, that's not that freaky. Maybe Az likes to be tied up and that leaves him at Gwyn's mercy. Maybe he's into toes. It's amusing that some automatically jump to Az being the Christian Grey of the ACOTAR series complete with his own red room of pain especially when that would be completely out of character for him in terms of how he treats women. When around Elain he speaks "softly, gently" and "carefully" takes her hand in his own. He was bothered by the treatment his mother received. Yet they assume he's going to get Elain behind closed doors and leave welts on her ass from his flogger? Also, I think some fail to realize that when you break it down, Gwyn and Elain's experiences somewhat parallel one another. Rape is a crime of violence, control and power. Elain was first kidnapped then thrown into the Cauldron: Kidnapping is described as a violent crime of taking away someone against their will, and normally involves holding them in false imprisonment or confining them against their will. Do you know what Cassian said of Nesta being thrown into the Cauldron? "I don't blame her," Cassian said, shrugging despite his words. "She was - violated. Her body stopped belonging wholly to her." Then she was kidnapped a second time (both times had her gagged and bound). Both Elain and Gwyn are victims of being held against their will and having their bodies violated. I realize that some don't relate to Elain's trauma because there is no cauldron in real life but there is kidnapping and having something done to you (regardless of there being a cauldron or not) that is against your will is a violation to your body. Gwyn's trauma was a sexual violation but it's still a violation to her person just as Elain's was. So I'm not sure why some E/riels are convinced that Elain would be fine being held down by someone when that could very well stir up memories of being held down then forced into the Cauldron which led to the loss of everything she loved while being certain that Gwyn wouldn't be alright with it. At the end of the day, we have no idea what preferences any of these characters have but I can guarantee that SJM is not going to write Az as being so insanely kinky that he can't respect the needs of his partner, that he can't be gentle for someone's first time after their trauma (if that's what they desire because again, maybe that's not what THEY want). I guarantee that SJM is not going to write either female as incapable of embracing her sexuality and exploring when it's with the right partner. There's a lot of ridiculous arguments in the fandom but claiming Elain is more suited to Az in bed than Gwyn would be is one of top ones. It's also hysterical how they'll use Gwyn's SA against her, claiming she could never be right for Az while ignoring how we're told cruelty bothers Elain then pairing her off with the IC's torturer who knows how to draw out his work in a "symphony of pain".

[diapereddarling]

Hello! It's me, from your notifications! Do you have a summary of your story anywhere? I went through a few character tags, but didn't find one. Also, I love that Damian is disabled but still gets to dress up all fancy. I didn't realize how rare it is to see that.

Hihi :D! I don't really have a story summary yet as a lot is still in planning and it's very wip BUT I can give you some links in semi chronological order of what I have got and also gush about it here!

aaa I'm so glad you like Dorian and how I present him >u< full disclaimer, I myself am a physically abled person. I'm trying my best to write and present him as respectfully as I can with a lot of research and opinions of friends in similar states of disability- but I may be ham fisted or get things wrong, so to anyone who reads this, please let me know if I fuck up somewhere. I'd rather be told I did something wrong or presented something disrespectfully than have people be uncomfortable in silence about it. DISCLAIMER OUT OF THE WAY- Yeah I noticed like, a lot of disabled characters ( be it physical or mental ) don't really get presented as if they like dressing up or looking nice- particularly after trying to look up more disability friendly ways Dorian would probably use. It Sucks lol. At least from the people with mental disabilities side of it where I sit, I can say that ain't true of everyone at all. It's just harder.

ANYWAYS, SUMARY OF POSTS AND STORY RAMBLING

So you can find some character reference stuff from this post here with picrew images- they were mainly so I could get a general idea of the main cast without physically having to draw them quickly

The story so far

The first post chronologically would be this one, as it talks about what happened to Dorian specifically. A bit about his home life, his parents, his neighbour and how he was released from said situation. I'm currently working on figuring out what the antagonist of this section's ties were to which god- but my main goal was to make it feel realistic at first before involving mythos with it. CW: : Stalking, kidnapping, delusions (involving pseudo incest thoughts ), (spinal) injury

After the incident, Dorian was hospital bound for a While. He'd been given a spinal injury, he was severely traumatised and could not be trusted to look after himself after all that yet because he was 6 months into being 18 when Mayline's life time of stalking came to a head. Even with rehabilitation efforts alone, the stint in hospital would've been a long one but then there was also the mental hurdles too. You can read some of that experience here. CW: medical setting, reactions to trauma, involuntary wetting and messing mention, a character being forcibly restrained in a non sexual way and trying to come to terms with mobility loss.

So while he was trying to adjust to his new normal there were a lot of things he would try to do to feel as if his life hadn't drastically changed ( it had, it's unfair that it happened but it is fine that it is now his life. Period of adjustment and all. ) He waited until Mayline's trail had been dealt with to carry on with education because, well. He's scared of her. He wants to know what's going to happen with her before he tried anything. During that time he read a lot, basically exposure therapying himself to the dark stories and stuff he enjoyed before because he didn't want to lose something that he felt made up so much of his identity. It almost definitely wasn't healthy but that is how he dealt with it.

After about a year or two, he decided he wanted to give further education a try. Since he was a kid he wanted to be a baker- he knew at least at the moment it was a pipe dream, mostly because of the various conditions that he has making said environment pretty dangerous. But he wanted to try.

While doing his culinary course, he met Leia. They didn't initially interact that much- very different aesthetics and very different circles. But Leia's a very intense and bubbly lass- so when she saw Dorian reading a book that she'd also wanted to read; there was basically no hesitation in her running up to him to chatter about the book. They became fast friends after that. Becoming friends with Leia helped him a lot in all honesty- Dorian was kind of Terrified of women after the incident ( and felt awful for it ) especially if they shared features with Mayline ( Blonde hair, blue eyes ect ), so Leia being both a woman and having blonde hair helped bring him out of it some what.

Dorian met Steven during the middle of his second year. It was when he decided to get his first tattoo ( the one on his thigh ) and Steven was apprenticing as a tattoo artist at the time. It's kind of difficult to not talk at least a little while going through the pretty long process of being tattooed and they ended up just getting along really well and meshing super well so just continued to meet up when they could because they enjoyed each others company.

Dorian also met Stevens current partner at the time, Charlie. They were all pretty friendly with each other though romantically, Charlie and Steven only lasted about 8 months. They broke it off mutually agreeing they'd be better friends and actually did become much closer as a platonic bestfriends rather than romantic partners. Charlies cool, he helped Dorian solder spikes to the rims of the wheels on his wheelchair to force people to stop trying to get to close lmao. It was his idea.

After university Dorian realised there was no way he could safely hold down a job. The mobility issues were too much to handle in a commercial kitchen setting even without the stress induced narcolepsy. It messed with him for quite a bit.

He lived on the internet for a bit, being fond of niche gothic forums and very surprisingly, still taking interest in true crime. It might've been an interest before his kidnapping but now he just wants to try to understand what the hell was going on in Mayline's head. He met Maxine on one of these forums, they talked about gothic lit for quite a bit before exchanging socials and forming a friendship off that.

During this time Dorian and Steven also started dating- and after about a year and a half, moved in together. They have a lower floor apartment together and one day hope to get a house together. Dorian also got his two kitties, Carmilla and Poe!

While living together Steven suggested to Dorian the idea of videoing himself baking or streaming it. It was kinda him recognising Dorian was trying to get over the hurdle of not being able to do what he wanted since he was a kid but also not wanting to give up completely. It isn't perfect but it works and Dorian finds a lot of fulfilment in it. He doesn't show his face ever, understandably, so he does his best to remain more or less anonymous on the internet with these things :3

All of these characters have been touched by at least one of the gods in in some way in this universe btw. I am figuring out the semantics but ye! That's what I've got so far c:

[lopunnears]

new & improved about me

hi. you can call me a (it stands for whatever you want it to, send me your guesses if you want). i like fighting type pokemon, music, and traveling, so you'll see some posts about that. i'm an adult and any pronouns are fine.

{{ooc: my other blogs are @snowpointmailguy and @greatesteagle , but they all follow from here!}}

{{ OOC UNDER READMORE -- I RECOMMEND CHECKING IT }}

warning: i'm wordy. you don't have to read this whole thing, but i'd appreciate it if you at least skimmed the bold parts!

i've been meaning to update this blog with a fancified account for a hot minute since i got a (frankly surprising) amount of followers from this post--originally, when i started pokeblogging, i was mainly just intending to interact with my friends and they more or less know what i'm about. i think that, since i'm planning on kicking this blog back to life with an event, it's fair that everyone have some basic information about me, what i will and won't interact with, and my character.

for me: hi, i'm eve. i'm also an adult (21) who uses any pronouns, like my character, but that's where a lot of our similarities end, lol. as i'll elaborate on a bit later, this blog is sfw and i don't care if minors follow/interact, but i want this info out there so people can set boundaries as they feel they need to. i'm not excessively familiar with pokeblogging but i've been roleplaying on and off in various places for a long time! i'm wordy and i can be a bit blunt but i promise i'm friendly and would love to rp or talk :3

general boundary-setting:

like aforementioned, anything to be posted on this blog is sfw. for clarifying purposes, this refers to sexual content exclusively, and not necessarily violent content. any interactions of explicit natures will be ignored, and i would rather not extensively interact with any predominantly nsfw blogs; i'm happy to write with sfw sideblogs though! i want this blog to be safe for all ages; generally, i aim to maintain a pg-13 rating, so (for other adult muses only, please) mildly suggestive flirting that fits within that rating is fine!

i'm not familiar with all of the pokeblogging terms, but as a general rule of thumb, i'll interact with any kind of rp blog. canon protagonists, oc protagonists, fallers, sapient pokemon, it's all cool with me. however, i'd rather not interact extensively with any non-rp blogs, because...

i do my best to keep ic and ooc interactions purely separate. i am not generally comfortable interacting ic to ooc, ooc to ic, which means i politely ask you not to reblog my posts (with additions) on non-rp blogs because i will ignore them. asks from non-rp blogs are fine on or off anon as long as they aren't intended to be long-form interactions. i just need it abundantly clear that i am not my character and my character is not me.

about the character:

all of this information below is ooc and most muses have no way to know it. there will be hints for attentive muses but please don't pull anything revealing on him without letting me, the mun know beforehand.

a is an oc protagonist for legends arceus. he is alive in a day close to the present, primarily hanging around in paldea. he looks like a particularly haggard thirty-something, and that's the age range he claims, but he has lived for over a century. he has protagonist-level knowledge of the base game canon and will interact with legends arceus characters with that knowledge in mind. also, warning for a canon-typical complicated relationship with arceus/god figures in general.

a is not his real name. i would say she wouldn't give out her real name, except an attentive muse might notice this blog's connection to @snowpointmailguy at some point. the connection is that they're the same person, from two different points on the timeline. snowpointmailguy is drew pre-hisui timejump, lopunnears is drew many years post-hisui timejump.

various heavy content warnings may apply; i will tag to the best of my ability but feel free to ask if something is showing up frequently that i'm not tagging. if i start any major arc that will have frequent sensitive material, i'll make an announcement post warning for it!

if you got to the bottom, wow, i can't believe i actually wrote that much. i'm no good at being succinct, lol. thank you for reading and i look forward to writing with you!

[ideahat-universe]

Franchise is still just one episode by the way. It's looking like a very good and healthy fandom that definitely will not age its creator drastically through stress and annoyance.

I reckoned this was as good a chance as any to talk about how the shipping of Pomni and Ragatha is based on misconceptions of character interaction. Even without Goose saying that romance is not an aspect of the show, Ragatha only treated Pomni the way she did because Ragatha copes with imprisonment by creating a friendly environment to leach good vibes from.

All the long term prisoners of the Amazing Circus game function like this. They all have some kind of coping mechanism.

Pomni showed no attachment or interest in any of the denizens. When they told her escape was impossible she refused to believe them, leading them to placate her having visit Kaufmo who abstracted and Ragatha basically gets thrashed as her reward for trying to make Pomni feel better and when Pomni thought she could escape she opted to escape over helping Ragatha, ignoring the fact that she now knows that other people have been trapped there and for much longer than her.

In the end Ragatha gave her the cold shoulder and with good reason because Pomni made the most selfish choice in a dire situation.

Again, still allowed to ship them but in the narrative of the story. They aren't even friends.

I have like a similar conversation with my niece when she talks about Shipping Red and Blue from Pokemon.

If you go by just the games, One is an overly self important narcissist and the other is a mute sociopath that only plays ubers.

There's no personality to use for a romance between the two.

I'm just going to be blunt and straight forward about it. The vast majority of ships are just emotional pornography and pornography typically hollows out the fine details of a character and then fills it with sexual gratification and arousal and by the time you've completely changed the body type, personality, and in some cases the age of the character; you don't have the original character. You have a facade and underneath the facade is whatever cheap pleasure you most desire.

People do that with ships. You find characters you like. You get your melon baller and you start scooping out what actually makes the character who they are and once they've been sufficiently hollowed out you start pouring yourself and your desires into the character.

I'm not saying you can't do that! You can totally do that, I'm just saying that, that is what you are doing when you ship characters in ways that are not canon and you need to acknowledge that you are doing that so when you see someone else's ship you don't have to fight over it because unless the ship is canon, you're both kind of hopeless romantics projecting your interests onto someone else's property.

TL;DR make your own story and ship your own characters so Gooseworx (and by extension other writers and artists) don't go insane from having to put out stupid ass fandom fires.