#because that's Just How These Things Go

[princesscolumbia]

...hold on, hold the FUCK on...

...an anime featuring a lesbian couple front and center for a mecha series where, and this is the part I need to be 100% clear on:

TᕼᕮY ᗪOᑎ'T ᗷᑌᖇY Tᕼᕮ GᗩYS?!?!

EDIT: After having been properly educated (by both the OP and my GF, who wasn't happy with me for getting into an argument on the Internet in the first place let alone on something I was flat-out wrong about), I've promised to give Gundam another try, starting with Witch from Mercury. I'll probably be doing a "live react" or something on a Tumblr post or something. And because it must be said as publicly as I made an ass of myself: I'm sorry to OP and I'm sorry to the fandom for running off assumptions in the heat of the moment.

(This, at least, will give me something to do instead of sit in the dark and cry over the fact that my GF is leaving going back to her hometown for a month and probably never coming back because everyone leaves me eventually and I'll probably die alone ...maybe I have issues.)

Anyway, much like my issue with Warhammer 40k, I allowed myself to be completely blinded to the actual content of the IP by dudebros who gave me a completely inaccurate picture of the property. This is the dudebro's fault for being douche-bags about it and my fault for believing them, not the fault of the actual Gundam fandom or the property itself.

Why not just delete the post? Two reasons; first, it's already escaped confinement and second I don't believe in deleting stuff I've posted just because it's wrong. It feels disingenuous to me, like I'm trying to hide it and lie about it. I'd rather people find the original straight from the source with apologies or corrections (like this one) than have a game of hearsay telephone happening with possible out of context screenshots.

I've been deliberately avoiding this series because...well, it's Gundam. If there ever was a series that was overhyped it's Gundam, but mostly because it's a progressive march of fuckboys in penis compensation machines saving the day because Reasons™ and you're telling me The Series for Cis-Het Dude Protags has two lady queers front and center AND THEY DON'T KILL THEM OFF?!

I mean, okay, okay...backing up here...maybe I'm jaded. It took me 20+ years to find out there's a playable faction of women characters in Warhammer 40k because I couldn't see past the neo-fascist fanboys who have hard-ons for a zombie emperor. Maybe all I'm seeing are the wannabe otaku who saw one (1) series of Gundam and decided it was the Best Mecha Anime Ever and are just four-bajillion forms of annoying about it.

Maybe I've been watching from the sidelines as the "Yes Lesbians!" vs. "No Lesbians!" factions lob grenades at each other without ever talking about whether these two protagonists even have a story arc.

But for the LOVE of all that is good and pure would you people start TALKING ABOUT WHETHER THE GAYS GET BURIED OR NOT?!?! (EDIT: See below) I grew up as a closeted queer in the 80s! I've had buried gays up to my eyeballs! I tune out any media that features any hint of homosexuality until it's spoiled for me with the announcement that "The Queers Live!"

The elder queers are dying of thirst here! We've gotten accustomed to drinking from the poisoned well of 'bury your gays' because it was all we had for DECADES...no, centuries!!!

Please, please say the important part out loud! Tell us up front that the sweet queer couple in the series aren't killed off or married off in some hack-writer way to get rid of the queers!

EDIT: I understand that my lack of clarity was, once again, me falling into the dudebro's traps and not paying attention to what people actually said, and clearly people in the Gundam fandom, esp. the queer parts of it, have been saying it right up front for some time. The meta-message I was going for remains valid, even if my application of it to this particular franchise was wildly off-base. Please create content where the queers live, we don't want to bury our gays anymore.

I mostly think this poll is hilarious (and some people are taking it way, way too seriously) but it’s starting to get really weird how often people on the opposite side are dismissing Gundam — a giant of science fiction that remade a genre in its image — and quite literally lying about Suletta and Miorine. I’ve seen people claim they were canonically married to men, people claim the show’s ending was rewritten by interns, claim they never hugged, and other claims regarding them not being canon.

While Bandai and Kadokawa did censor one interview, and Bandai released an “open to interpretation” statement, these no longer hold true. Official material has henceforth referred to them as married. One instance of censorship and a statement they’ve clearly walked back on does not erase the fact that the show itself heavily emphasizes their wedding rings, refers to Miorine as Eri’s sister-in-law, and makes it abundantly clear that they are married.

“I knew I was going to make an epilogue, but it was a while before I decided upon the exact number of years that should pass in-between. The ending itself follows “The Tempest,” and depicts Suletta and Miorine getting married and becoming partners.”

- Hiroshi Kobayashi

They are completely and unambiguously canon, and arguably were never decanonized to begin with given the literal text of the show.

An addendum to this: I’ve also seen a strange dismissal of the history that G-Witch pulls from.

The original Gundam inspired Revolutionary Girl Utena, with Lalah Sune in particular (the creator of an iconic Gundam archetype) serving as the inspiration for Anthy Himemiya. Gundam has had a queer fanbase for decades, and has had gay characters (with Yoshiyuki Tomino himself confirming this) since the 1990s.

G-Witch draws from Gundam’s extensive, genre-shaking history, classics like Utena and Rose of Versailles, and Shakespeare’s The Tempest. It brings Gundam and Utena’s connection full circle, and is in conversation with every Gundam series that came before it.

It’s unfair to dismiss it as just some random show, or — as I’ve seen some do — credit its open queerness to the influence of completely unrelated American media, as if Japan is utterly devoid of gay people.

[reesiereads]

I need ya’ll to realize running back to TikTok like nothing fucking happened is exactly what this motherfucker wants. He wants you to run back and to be grateful. He wants you to forget that the Supreme Court has just passed something that indicates they can pursue intense censorship and remove our access to free speech and non-propagandized/monitored spaces whenever they want. He wants you to be so focused on all this that you completely forget that he’s about to pass at least a hundred horrific policies stripping us of our rights as soon as this week. He wants you to stop talking about Palestine who is still in danger and is in desperate need of aid despite the ceasefire. He wants you to turn your attention away from all the people in LA suffering thanks to the fires.

I don’t want to say it’s just an app, because it’s not. I was incredibly sad about losing TikTok yesterday. Many of us had a community that meant a great deal to us torn away suddenly and I am not saying we shouldn’t be upset about that. But I am saying that as much as the Supreme Court has more important things they should be focusing on over banning TikTok we have more important things to do then run back to an app that was obviously used for a publicity stunt by Trump and will inevitably be influenced by him and his fascism.

We’ve been discussing boycotting Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X, and other Meta platforms due to their connections to Trump and his posse of billionaires. TikTok must be treated the same way so long as the CEO and company is in Trump’s pocket.

[lazylittledragon]

can't believe we're all adults being forced into the club penguin level of censorship in 2024

[gibbearish]

love when ppl defend the aggressive monetization of the internet with "what, do you just expect it to be free and them not make a profit???" like. yeah that would be really nice actually i would love that:)! thanks for asking

[loserfae]

learning that self deprecation isnt cool and just makes the people around you uncomfortable unironically improved my mental health a lot. like if you just stop saying negative shit about yourself you will genuinely like yourself more and other people wont be repulsed by your attitude and you will have more friends. it's true.

[anna-scribbles]

adrien in my outfit from a few days ago✨ feat. my claws out converse

bonus:

[boatemboys]

elon: are you saying all democrats are gay

connor: i think everyone is gay

elon: are you gay?

connor: no

[inkskinned]

the thing is that they're so fascinated by sex, they love sex, they can't imagine a world without sex - they need sex to sell things, they need sex to be part of their personality, they need sex to prove their power - but they hate sex. they are disgusted by it.

sex is the only thing that holds their attention, and it is also the thing that can never be discussed directly.

you can't tell a child the normal names for parts of their body, that's sexual in nature, because the body isn't a body, it's a vessel of sex. it doesn't matter that it's been proven in studies (over and over) that kids need to know the names of their genitals; that they internalize sexual shame at a very young age and know it's 'dirty' to have a body; that it overwhelmingly protects children for them to have the correct words to communicate with. what matters is that they're sexual organs. what matters is that it freaks them out to think about kids having body parts - which only exist in the context of sex.

it's gross to talk about a period or how to check for cancer in a testicle or breast. that is nasty, illicit. there will be no pain meds for harsh medical procedures, just because they feature a cervix.

but they will put out an ad of you scantily-clad. you will sell their cars for them, because you have abs, a body. you will drip sex. you will ooze it, like a goo. like you were put on this planet to secrete wealth into their open palms.

they will hit you with that same palm. it will be disgusting that you like leather or leashes, but they will put their movie characters in leather and latex. it will be wrong of you to want sexual freedom, but they will mark their success in the number of people they bed.

they will crow that it's inappropriate for children so there will be no lessons on how to properly apply a condom, even to teens. it's teaching them the wrong things. no lessons on the diversity of sexual organ growth, none on how to obtain consent properly, none on how to recognize when you feel unsafe in your body. if you are a teenager, you have probably already been sexualized at some point in your life. you will have seen someone also-your-age who is splashed across a tv screen or a magazine or married to someone three times your age. you will watch people pull their hair into pigtails so they look like you. so that they can be sexy because of youth. one of the most common pornography searches involves newly-18 young women. girls. the words "barely legal," a hiss of glass sand over your skin.

barely legal. there are bills in place that will not allow people to feel safe in their own bodies. there are people working so hard to punish any person for having sex in a way that isn't god-fearing and submissive. heteronormative. the sex has to be at their feet, on your knees, your eyes wet. when was the first time you saw another person crying in pornography and thought - okay but for real. she looks super unhappy. later, when you are unhappy, you will close your eyes and ignore the feeling and act the role you have been taught to keep playing. they will punish the sex workers, remove the places they can practice their trade safely. they will then make casual jokes about how they sexually harass their nanny.

and they love sex but they hate that you're having sex. you need to have their ornamental, perfunctory, dispassionate sex. so you can't kiss your girlfriend in the bible belt because it is gross to have sex with someone of the same gender. so you can't get your tubes tied in new england because you might change your mind. so you can't admit you were sexually assaulted because real men don't get hurt, you should be grateful. you cannot handle your own body, you cannot handle the risks involved, let other people decide that for you. you aren't ready yet.

but they need you to have sex because you need to have kids. at 15, you are old enough to parent. you are not old enough to hear the word fuck too many times on television.

they are horrified by sex and they never stop talking about it, thinking about it, making everything unnecessarily preverted. the saying - a thief thinks everyone steals. they stand up at their podiums and they look out at the crowd and they sign a bill into place that makes sexwork even more unsafe and they stand up and smile and sign a bill that makes gender-affirming care illegal and they get up and they shrug their shoulders and write don't say gay and they get up, and they make the world about sex, but this horrible, plastic vision of it that they have. this wretched, emotionless thing that holds so much weight it's staggering. they put their whole spine behind it and they push and they say it's normal!

this horrible world they live in. disgusted and also obsessed.

[nocontext4077th]

[krysmcscience]

Call this the Whoopsie AU (it's barely an AU)

I mean. Narinder never explicitly SAID the Lamb would stay dead... :3c He probably should have been more specific. >:3c

Part Two:

Well. The Lamb tried, but...sorry, Nari, the crown hates you now. Shouldn't have been so quick to lend it out, I guess. :D

Aaaand Part Three:

'Isn't he just adorable?' -The Lamb, probably, while their followers smile and nod and internally scream at the brand new hellcat they now have to share living space with...

Anyway, nothing says 'Dead To Me' like following a person around to loudly remind them of how dead they are to you. Right? Right. Narinder's got this all figured out. <:]

[originalartblog]

Dazai, do you know about Pétrus? That night you left the organization, I opened an '89 bottle of it to celebrate. That's how fed up with you I was.

I've been thinking about this scene, and about how Chuuya in Storm Bringer seemed to consider himself beyond saving while simultaneously yearning for someone to do save him, and about his eventual resolve and commitment to the Port Mafia, and about how his fate ultimately opposes Dazai's.

[mobius-m-mobius]

#there are two types of actors 😂💖

[egophiliac]

ENG PLAYERS I BESEECH YOU

I have been informed that you guys are getting part 4 of episode 7 tomorrow, which means we are FINALLY going to get the official romanization of Revaan's name, somebody please tell me because I need to know what it is.

like, yes, it's probably just Revan/Levan, but look, I'm sitting here with my finger over the button of all these Laverne and Shirley jokes and just waiting for the opportunity to deploy them --

[heartorbit]

happy halloween! 🎃🐈‍⬛👻🐇

[mohntilyet]

still i think the one of the more fun differences drawn between illario and lucanis that was lost would be illario's ability to endear himself to others but serious lack of empathy, vs. lucanis' (self perceived) inability to be charming but how much he cares. it's interesting that the game has gone with the "lucanis' ability vs illario's lack thereof" because i think illario being the dellamorte 'best in show dog' vs. lucanis' attack dog would have made me so unwell.

lucanis is... awkward. he's not unlikable, because he is usually very polite, but he doesn't speak much and only seems to care about the other dellamortes. he once sent viago de riva a knife with no note (who knows what he could have meant by this). he does what caterina asks of him, and by his own admission, cannot say no to her. he is a dramatic and prolific killer, and that makes how untouchable he is even worse.

and the crows like illario, sure, AND he's a good assassin! he's even a good crow! he's so good that he can make lucanis smile, and so he is the charming, sociable one. he's the one that stays in treviso and can be relied upon to care, illario's even the one people prefer over caterina and lucanis!

but illario is decoration. he's the prize poodle, and even if poodles were bred to be working dogs, nobody will ever pick him to protect the house over the german shepherd that regularly mauls intruders. anyways the analogy is getting away from me. the point i'm trying to make is that i want illario to have a different kind of jealousy/hatred that's not just over 'being bad at killing' but also an arrogant loathing for everyone around him that is getting harder to hide, because they've forgotten he can bite and is just itching to rip someone's jugular out. illario is very good at hiding his family resemblance to caterina, while lucanis suffers under his grandmother's, and his own, reputation.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Maybe we never had a chance.

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