#but I don't think any other Disney show has had this problem | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

cookinguptales · 2 years ago

Note

Can I ask you to do a post about Disney & disability please? You mentioned it and I’d love to know more!

Well, my notifications can't get any messier, so why not?

This post got very, very long because I ended up talking about a lot of the accessibility solutions in detail (and... ranting about how accessibility at Universal was so bad that I got physically injured there) so I'm putting it under a cut for you.

To preface this, I have mobility issues (as well as a lot of food intolerances/allergies) and general chronic illness, my sister is Deaf, and I have friends who regularly attend the park with autistic family members with high support needs. These are the disabilities I have experience with, so while I've heard a bit about others (such as portable descriptive devices for visitors with visual impairments) I can't speak as much about those accommodations.

I have also traveled quite a bit, mostly as a disabled adult. I can work from anywhere and my family enjoys traveling, so I've been very lucky in this regard. I also used to live in central Florida, not too far from Disney, and benefited from their FL resident rates.

So I'm coming at this from a person who has a lot of experience traveling while disabled and a fair amount of experience going to WDW, though I haven't been nearly as often since I moved out of Florida.

(Good fucking riddance.)

So know that I am speaking from experience when I say I have never, without exception, been to a single place half as accessible as Walt Disney World. It is literally the reason my family would go there; it was one of the only places we could all safely go together. One of the only places I've been on earth that even approached their level of thoughtful accommodations is Barcelona, which apparently did significant renovations throughout the city in order to prepare for the 1992 Paralympics.

(Hey, if anyone is reading this from Barcelona: I teared up the first time I used one of your curb cuts in my wheelchair, just so you know.)

Going through those parks in a wheelchair is a breeze, though you will probably have to fight a lot of clueless parents with strollers who are hellbent on using resources intended for wheelchair-users and then glaring at you when you try to use them yourself. Level ground, spacious sidewalks, accessible transportation, well-kept gradual ramps, roomy buildings, lots of accessible restrooms, alternate entrances at many rides for wheelchair users, special wheelchair rows in movie theaters that we're loaded into first, accessible queues in most rides designed or renovated in the last fifteen years, special viewing areas for shows/parades/fireworks so you don't end up staring at able-bodied butts for a half hour...

Like, structurally-speaking, the parks are very easy to get around in if you're a wheelchair user. That was built in and you can see a lot of very mindful design choices. As far as the rides go, most of their rides actually have special cars that you can load into while still in a wheelchair. They're pretty neat. I can transfer, but that means often leaving my wheelchair and/or cane with a cast member during the ride. They are always, without fail, waiting for me on the other side of the ride, no matter how far the exit is from the entrance. I have never once had a problem with this. A cast member will be there to put my assistive devices in my hand before I even have to think about getting up. Guaranteed.

Wheelchair users always used to be able to skip the line, but there was unfortunately a problem with able-bodied people pretending to be disabled to skip lines (because god forbid they not have access to a single thing we have to make our lives livable) so now there's a system where if you cannot wait in a line, they'll basically give you a special time to come back that's equivalent to the length of the line. Which feels fair to me as someone who often cannot be in even an accessible line for extended periods. (I have problems with sunlight, heat, and often need emergency food or restroom.)

More important than all this, though, is the fact that cast members are impeccably well-trained in all of this. Any disabled person can tell you that the most accessible design on earth isn't worth shit if the people working there aren't well-trained. (More on this later, when I take a giant shit on Universal Studios.) But Disney trains their employees, many of whom are disabled themselves, incredibly well.

Every employee will know where the accessible entrances are. Every employee will know the procedure for getting a return time. Every employee will know about first-aid centers, and every employee will know where the quiet areas are for people with sensory issues. Every time you make a reservation for a meal, hotel room, transportation, etc. they will ask for all accessibility needs and they'll be ready for you.

Every waiter you have will be incredibly careful and knowledgeable when it comes to special dietary needs, and chefs will often come out to discuss them with you. They often have specific menus for different dietary needs, and they are scrupulous when it comes to allergens. I have a few intolerances that suck and allergies that could kill me and I have always felt very safe in their hands. This ranges from fancy sit-down restaurants to quick service burger places.

And -- honestly, I have just always been treated with respect. I know that sounds like a low bar, but most people do fail to clear it. Disney has their employees very well-trained on how to interact with disabled guests. People speak directly to me, never to the able-bodied people over my head. They never treat me like I'm a child. They never ask invasive questions or make uncomfortable jokes. They never, ever get impatient with my accessibility needs.

The few times I have misjudged things and have injured myself or gotten extremely ill, they were professional and caring as they provided much-needed first-aid. It's kind of embarrassing to be doted on by a costumed character while you wait for a doctor to come help you sit up again, but also kind of endearing, I'll admit.

They also, in addition to captioning all videos in the park, have some of the best sign language interpreters in the world, bar none. They're very personal and professional, they're easy to reserve, they will always be in a visible place during shows, and they're incredible performers as well as being very technically proficient. In addition to the professional interpreters, many cast members, performers, and characters can sign as well.

In addition to that, and this brings me to my next point, you'll meet a lot of disabled employees throughout the park. In front-facing positions. Deaf employees, employees using mobility aids, etc. They're well-known to hire disabled people and treat them well. This is. Fuck, this is incredibly rare, I say as someone who was never able to find a job in Florida with my health conditions. It's the moral thing to do to hire disabled people, but also -- selfishly, there's something so heartening and normalizing about seeing people who look like you working at the park. I'm happy every single time.

I have a little less personal experience when it comes to accessibility for neurodivergence, despite being neurodivergent myself, but I've been told that Disney is very, very accommodating for people on the spectrum. A lot is done to lessen crowding, waiting, sensory overload, etc. for autistic guests. Cast members are usually super good at this; finding designated quiet areas, helping autistic guests avoid more crowded areas, keeping them out of long lines, making sure they have access to any particular experiences that are special to them, etc.

For folks who need help from their group, whether that's an autistic child who needs to be with a parent or a disabled adult who needs someone to push their wheelchair or anything else, Disney has a rider switch-off model. In other words, if you're there with both of your able-bodied parents, for example, and you need one of them to be with you at all times and you don't want to be on the ride yourself, Disney will allow one person to go on the ride while the other waits for them to finish, then will allow the second person to go on without any additional wait. This makes sure that everyone in the family gets equal access without leaving disabled people alone. (Which... can be a very shitty feeling, I assure you.)

I know that Disney has also pioneered a lot of assistive technology. The accessible rides, obviously, which can be ridiculously cool (like Toy Story Midway Mania has an accessible car with alternative "guns" for people with dexterity limitations so they can play the carnival games as well) but also handheld assistive devices for visually impaired guests, etc. Like they are literally inventing new forms of accessibility technology, which is so cool.

And honestly, I'm always learning about new ways they assist disabled guests. I've stayed in Disney's accessible hotel rooms before (they're very nice!) but I don't like to swim so I've never been in the pools. But even just this week, someone told me that Disney has pool lifts for disabled guests, which I had never even considered. That's so cool.

The best part about accessibility at Disney is that in some ways it's very casual. A lot of their design decisions are so intuitive that you never even notice how accessible the parks are until you go somewhere where that's... not the case.

Like -- just so you don't assume that any of these things are industry standard, let me tell you about the two times I went to Universal, a park very close to Disney. I went there once for an event and once with my family.

The first time I went was for an event at the opening of the Harry Potter park. (This was before JKR made her most appalling views public, to be clear.) It... was frustrating. Guests asked if there would be food and drink available for people with special dietary restrictions (such as sugar-free butterbeer) and were pretty much told that no, that was not something they were interested in pursuing. It became very obvious very quickly that the park itself was so narrow that it only barely fulfilled ADA standards -- when empty. We were told that JKR had actually specifically insisted that it feel "cramped". Which is a nice way to say that I couldn't actually get around in any of the stores while people were in them.

It was overall a frustrating experience, but it was like. One night. I figured it was probably a fluke and they were still ironing out all the details. So I ended up going back with my parents later.

Y'all, it was a shit show.

Broken elevators that prevented disabled guests from accessing rides. Performers being up on raised platforms/sidewalks so disabled guests couldn't get to them. Sidewalks being made inaccessible by putting movable signs directly in the middle of them. Stores (even outside of the HP part) that were so damn narrow that I actually ended up getting hurt trying to navigate one of them. And no -- it was not easy to get first aid.

And my god, was the training bad. We went to one of the new HP rides, asked if there was a specific entrance for disabled guests. We were told no. We waited for a very long time in a line that honestly I shouldn't have been waiting in, but I wanted to be a good sport. I was pretty sick by the time we got through it, and the line itself had some very dangerous inclines/turns for wheelchair users. We get to the front of the line -- and the employee asks why we didn't just use the accessible entrance. 🙃

(Side note: several of their rides are also just unrideable if you don't fit within a pretty narrow body type of thin and able-bodied, so... there's that.)

We'd asked repeatedly and gotten incorrect answers, and I'd been put in physical danger as a result. Wild. I started to notice that if you asked different employees, you'd get different answers about almost anything, really. Just exceptionally poor training. Even stuff that should've been a no-brainer, like loading wheelchair users into a stationary movie theater, ended up creating chaos when they did it incorrectly and we had a giant wheelchair pileup.

Like -- let me stress to you that many of the things that happened could have caused actual injury to people. Some of these situations were dangerous. And some of them were just alienating, like when I'd have to wait outside a store while my family could go in.

I never went back after that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ We just kept going to Disney.

One thing that'll probably show how good Disney is at accessibility is the whole Make-A-Wish thing. A lot of people know that it's a popular Make-A-Wish request, and you're likely to see at least a couple kids with Make-A-Wish buttons during your visit if you keep an eye out. One reason for this, is that, y'know, Disney World is fun. Kids want to go there. But more important, I think, is that Disney can accommodate people with at-times severe medical needs. Those kids can safely go anywhere and do anything in those parks that able-bodied kids can, and that's important.

All in all, the parks are just so accessible and you will never, ever be made to feel like you're lesser for needing those accommodations. You will be treated so well and you will not have to worry about accessibility because the cast members are always doing it for you. They'll usher you into the correct entrance as soon as they see a mobility device, and they'll do it with a very warm welcome. It's one of the very few places on earth where I have never felt like a burden.

Again, y'know, I know that Disney does not have a perfect track record on a lot of issues. I would never defend them from rightfully earned criticism. I strongly support labor action against them, and I do think they should be criticized whenever they fuck up. I have been uncomfortable with the sheer amount of power they have both in Florida and in the entertainment world just because no one should have that much power. But I am far more uncomfortable with that power being stripped away for blatantly discriminatory political reasons.

I do have some loyalty to Disney just because there is no other place on earth where I've been able to safely have fun with my friends with so little agony. That's... I mean, it's important, really. To be able to just exist in public without getting grief for it. And I have some loyalty to them because they were a safe space for me as a young, queer kid who was not safe being out in other areas of my life.

(Like, I am talking about actual literal safety. I kept seeing notes on my post saying that Disney didn't care about creating a "safe space for queer people" but as someone who lived in Florida for the entirety of my teenage years? It was the safest goddamn place there.)

I do not have enough loyalty to defend them when they do immoral bullshit, but I do have enough to make sure that people know the good that they do as well.

I want other businesses to follow Disney's model for disability. I will praise them forever for what they've done in that regard because if I don't, there's no reason for other companies to follow suit. I want to praise them for the good things they've done so they have incentive to keep doing it, and other companies have an incentive to do it as well.

Like bro, I just wanna be able to move around and be treated with some dignity, y'know? My bar is so low. lmao

But yeah. That's why you always see so many disabled guests at Disney. It's literally the only place some of us can go to have fun.

#disney #disability #ableism #replies #honestly I used to go to the parks a lot but I wouldn't presently consider myself a superfan of disney or anything #but goddamn it sometimes you just wanna be able to go out and do the same things as everybody else #and disney always let me do that

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queen-of-the-avengers · 4 days ago

Text

Don't Stop Being You

Pairing: Bartender!Bucky Barnes x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~4k

Warnings: fluff

Summary: You have always seen the good in people, and the landlord is no exception. The guys are afraid of him but you’re going to prove to Bucky that no matter what, people are generally good. You just didn’t expect the night to backfire on you.

One in a Million Series

Square Filled: experience (2024) for @buckybarnesbingo

Author’s Note: any and all comments are appreciated <3

“Tell me again why you wanted me to come to the store with you.”

“We have a budget and I don’t trust the guys to stick to it.”

You look at Bucky. “So, I’m here for moral support?”

“Yeah.”

You chuckle and look back at your phone. He pulls into the store’s parking lot and looks for a spot, seeing one close to the entrance. He even puts his blinker on for good measure and starts to pull into the spot. However, a car on the other side decides he wants the spot and rushes to get it instead. Bucky and the man slam on their breaks, and you look up to see the man cursing at Bucky.

“I was here first! Go around!” Bucky yells back.

“This is my spot!”

“Go around!”

“Come on, Bucky. He’s probably a really nice guy. Maybe he’s having a bad day.”

“Don’t defend him.”

“I’m not!”

“You always do this. He’s in the wrong!”

The man honks the horn, and you two look at him. “Ge that piece of shit out of my space!”

“Why don’t you come over here and say that to my face!”

The man takes out a gun from his coat pocket and shows it off, and you gasp and duck down. Bucky would have gotten out and beaten the man’s ass. However, you’re with him and he doesn’t want to put you in any danger.

“God, that’s a gun!” you gasp.

“Do you still think he’s nice?”

“Maybe no one has ever been nice to him before. Maybe violence is his only tool to express himself.” You pop your head up and smile at the man. “Hi!”

“Stop! What are you doing? Get down!”

“Don’t use the gun. Sorry about this guy,” you say and point to Bucky.

“What are you--Don’t apologize for me!”

“Just put the gun away, okay? No need for that,” you smile. The man nods and puts his gun away, and you wave nicely at him. “Thank you so much.”

“I can’t believe that worked,” Bucky whispers.

The man backs up and puts his hands up apologetically.

“Have a good day!” You wave. “See? You always see the worst in people.”

The shopping trip is now ruined so instead of taking the spot, Bucky pulls away and heads straight home. Grocery shopping can be saved for another day. Maybe this time without you. Sam and Steve are at the kitchen table eating when you get back home, and Steve is on a ramble about his job.

“Disney has been working my butt off. I’m the illustrator for two movies, and they need at least five strips of film before Friday. For both films. That’s three days. Not to mention Natasha. She’s sending me mixed signals. Are we a thing? Does she like me back? Women are hard.” Steve looks up and spots you. “Oh, hey Y/N.”

“Why do you always have to start fights with everyone, Bucky? Not everyone is out to get you.”

“He had a gun, Y/N. I was more worried about you than me. I was ready to beat his ass.”

“See? That’s your problem. Your immediate response is to fight.” You look at Sam and Steve. “Isn’t Bucky one of the most negative people you’ve ever met?”

“Yes,” Sam and Steve agree. “All he does is stare at people. It’s like he’s murdering them in his mind.”

“See? They agree with me,” you smirk.

“I’m sorry, Y/N. I guess I don’t live in a world where I can smile and people do whatever I want them to do.”

“You don’t smile. Ever.”

You turn the faucet on to wash your hands only to get a face full of water. You shriek and try turning the water off but to no avail. Bucky jumps in and jerks the faucet to the right before turning off the water. You cough from the water that gets into your mouth, and Steve hands you a dish towel.

“What the fuck was that?” you shiver.

“Don’t feel bad. We’ve all had a face full of water once or twice.”

“There shouldn’t have been any time when you get a face full of water. I’m calling the landlord.” Bucky, Steve, and Sam all protest, and you step back in shock from the outcry. “What?”

“You’re not calling the landlord,” Bucky says.

“He’s a terrible man,” Steve informs.

“Don’t call the landlord,” Sam warns.

“Okay, I won’t call the landlord.”

You really thought you could listen to them when they told you not to go to the landlord, but you can’t help yourself. It doesn’t matter if he’s a terrible man or if the guys are afraid of him, he’s a landlord. If something is broken, he has the responsibility to fix it. Bucky takes the guys on a shopping trip since you couldn’t go earlier despite them never following the budget. You’re all alone which is perfect for what you plan to do.

Desserts are a great way to break the ice, so you whip up a quick batch of delicious chocolate chip cookies. These cookies are universally liked so you don’t think there will be an issue. The landlord lives in the basement of the building, so you use the elevator and head down there. It’s pretty nice for a basement. Why live somewhere else when you can live in your own building?

“Excuse me? Mr. Landlord?”

“Back here.”

You follow the voice to the back of the basement and see a rough and burly man sitting by a table whittling something.

“Hi. I hope you like cookies. I made too many and decided to come down here to see if you could take them off my hands.” He looks up and just stares at you, and you put the plate of cookies on the table. “I’m just gonna leave this right here.”

“What do you want?”

“Okay, I’m one of the people living in apartment 4D, and there is a laundry list of things that are considered a safety hazard. I was just wondering if you could come upstairs and see about getting them fixed.”

The man pretends to think about his answer even though you already know he has it.

“No.”

You nod and look around the place to see what else you can talk about with him. There is a picture hanging on the wall of two stick figures. It looks like it was drawn by a child.

“Oh, that’s neat. How old are your kids?”

“I did that. That’s me and my ex-wife.”

A shiver runs through your spine. “Okay. Listen, my roommates are scared of you, but I can tell you’re not as bad as they say you are. I’m sure you wouldn’t want the four of us living in such a dangerous place.”

“Four?” You freeze. “There should only be three.”

“Did I say four?” You start to stutter. “I’m sorry, I always seem to count myself… twice. Okay, bye.”

You quickly leave before the landlord can say anything else about your situation. By the time you get back to your apartment, the boys are back from shopping.

“Hey, you guys are back,” you smile. “Listen, we should try playing a game. I want you to think of a time when you did something stupid, how you were treated, and how you wish you were treated.”

“What did you do?” Bucky asks.

“I talked to the landlord.”

“What?” All three men stand up in a panic. “Alright, it’s happening. Do we have enough time for Escape Plan 1?”

“What’s going on?”

“Only three people are supposed to be living here. Not four.”

“Why didn't you tell me this? Why did you let me move in?”

“We needed the money!”

Someone knocks on the door, and all four of you seem frozen in fear. No one can move from their spot, but you’re the first one to shake this off. You walk to the front door and open it to reveal the landlord.

“Someone told me four people were living here instead of three?”

Bucky looks at you. “That idiot doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

“Come on,” you whisper to him.

The landlord pushes his way in and observes the place with judgemental eyes. He walks toward Steve’s room that’s located next to the kitchen, and everyone follows him like sheep. He moves to the bathroom, your room, Bucky’s room, and Sam’s room. Apart from a fourth person living here, the place isn’t as bad as it could be.

“This could have been worse. Four people living here are fine. I don’t care. Just leave me alone.”

“Mr. Landlord? I’m sorry for lying about how many people were living here--”

“Stop reminding him,” Bucky whispers.

“--but since you’re here, why not fix a few things?” The landlord has tattoos running down both of his arms, and you notice a particular one that stands out. “Please, Remy?”

“How do you know my name?”

“It’s tattooed on your skin. I took a leap of faith. Look, Remy, I can tell you’re a good guy.”

He sighs and looks around the place before settling his eyes on you. “Fine. What do you need fixed?”

“Close your eyes and point to something,” Bucky says.

“Her. Not you.”

You turn and give Bucky a smug smile to which he gives a mocking one back. The most pressing items on the list is your closet door that’s stuck, a leaking faucet in the bathroom, and the faucet in the kitchen. There are other things but you’ll start with those things first and see where Remy is at.

Remy decides to start with your closet door, and you sit on the bed to keep him company. To make him feel more comfortable, you bring up a conversation about his ex wife.

“Sorry about your divorce. I can’t imagine it’s easy.”

Remy gets on his knees and looks at the track your closet door is on. He takes out two of his tools and starts to tinker with it.

“Thanks. I’d say it was sudden but I should have seen it coming. We stopped talking, you know? We stopped doing things we loved. I’d come home and all I’d want to do is crack a beer.”

“Do you have any kids?”

“Oh, God, no. She never wanted any. Claimed that she wanted all my attention on her. Just as well, who would want a landlord as a father?”

“Don’t do that to yourself, Remy. I’d bet you’d make a great father.”

You could have sworn you saw him blush, but you move past it.

“It must have been really hard.”

He shrugs. “It is what it is.” He stands and looks at you. There’s a look of recognition in his eyes. “It was hard.” He drops his tools and steps back from your closet. “Alright. Give her a whirl.”

You get up from your bed and walk over to your sliding closet door. You grab the handle and pull to open it the rest of the way but it’s stuck. You yank a bit harder but again, nothing happens.

“Here, let me try.”

Remy walks up behind you and grabs the closet door. Even with both your strengths, it’s not enough to make the closet door move. Bucky’s in the kitchen when he hears grunting coming from your room. He is about to pass it off when he remembers Remy is in there with you. He scrambles out of his chair and approaches your room not knowing what he is going to see. He scoffs when he sees Remy behind you. He’s so close that your ass is practically touching his dick.

“Okay, that’s enough.” You and Remy part ways. “Can I talk to you alone, please?”

You leave Remy in your room and join Bucky in the kitchen with a smug smile.

“Ready to admit you were wrong?”

“That man wants to sleep with you.”

“No, he doesn’t. He was just showing me how to open the closet door.”

“Anytime a man shows a woman how to do something from behind, it’s just an excuse to make her heart race and get her all nervous in the cute way women get when they’re nervous. Here, let me show you.” He spots a mug on the table. “Pick up that mug.” You shake your head and pick up the mug. “Oh, no, Doll, you’re doing it all wrong. Here, let me show you.”

Bucky walks behind you and wraps his thick arms around you. For a split second, you allow yourself to feel what it feels like to have Bucky’s arms around you. You close your eyes and relax into his embrace, feeling your heart race. He moves his head closer to your neck so his nose brushes against your jaw. A shiver runs down your spine; and no, you’re not cold. Despite Bucky’s metal arm, he makes you feel warm.

Is this what love feels like? No. You can’t be doing this to yourself. Your eyes pop open and you shove Bucky away from you before you start to confess your feelings for him.

“He was not doing that!”

“That’s exactly what he was doing to you!”

“You always see the worst in people!”

“That’s because people are the worst.” He holds up his metal arm. “How do you think I got this arm?”

You sigh and look away from him. “People can be good, Bucky. You just have to give them a chance. Why can’t you just admit you were wrong? I was nice and now he’s fixing stuff in our apartment.”

Remy walks out of your bedroom without his shirt on. He has an undershirt on but it covers even less than what his shirt was covering.

“Man, I am working up a sweat. I hope you don’t mind the smell of a real man in your room.” He grabs a cup from the cabinet and pours himself a glass of water. “Let me know when you want to get started on that bed.”

When Bucky can’t see him anymore, he looks at you with a disgusted look.

“Don’t give me that look. He’s turning my mattress.”

“Yeah, sure he is.”

You roll your eyes and leave Bucky standing in the kitchen all alone. The things in your bedroom don’t take a lot of time, but the leaky faucet in the bathroom does. In fact, it takes all day. During which you got soaked from the faucet spraying all over your shirt. Bucky hears your squeal and sees you coming out of the bathroom in laughter.

He, Sam, Steve, and Natasha are in the living room just watching you and Remy walk out with water all over you.

“Oh, hey, Nat. You guys would not believe what just happened. I was watching Remy fixing the sink when water sprayed all over me. I was totally soaked.”

“You were so wet,” Remy smirks.

Bucky has to stop himself from going to Remy and beating the shit out of him.

“Man overboard! So, to thank Remy for the work he’s been doing, I invited him to dinner. Who’s in?”

“Um, Steve and I have something planned,” Natasha mumbles.

“Yeah, I have a… thing to do,” Sam follows.

“No, thanks,” Bucky straight-out says.

“So, it’s just me and Y/N, huh?” Remy asks.

“Oh, no,” Bucky immediately says. “I change my mind. I’ll be there.”

Bucky crosses his arms to make them look bigger, and you have to look away before he catches you staring at him. Natasha smirks when she sees the slight blush on your cheeks but thankfully, doesn’t comment on it. Everyone but you, Remy, and Bucky leave the apartment, and you start making something light for dinner. Salad, a little bit of chicken, and a nice bottle of wine. It’s nothing fancy, just whatever you had leftover in the fridge. Remy, after getting ready in the basement, brought his own bottle of wine… that he made himself.

“Remy brought over… whatever this is.”

“I ferment things in the basement.”

You pour yourself a glass of the homemade wine, but Bucky has other plans for you.

“You’re not drinking that, Y/N.”

“Yes, I am.” You grab the cup before he can and take a huge sip. That was a mistake. It’s fucking disgusting. You spit out most of it and swallow the rest, but you give Bucky a wounded smile. “See? Yum.”

“Would you like some?” Remy asks.

“Oh, no, thank you. Someone needs to stay sober to fight you later.”

“Bucky,” you hiss. “Stop it. You and Remy actually have a lot in common.” You look at Remy. “Bucky got out of a really bad relationship last year. I heard it was really bad.”

“In the end, we all go through the same issues,” Remy says.

“Okay,” Bucky whispers.

Dinner was mostly awkward but by the end of it, Remy and Bucky were in a much better mood. You three take the small party to the couch. Remy takes a sip of his fermented wine and laughs.

“Man, I didn’t think I’d ever get to enjoy myself again. Thank you for what you did here tonight.” You give him a kind smile. “I’ll be right back.”

When Remy leaves the living room, you move closer to Bucky.

“See? I was right.”

“What do you mean? Did you see the way he was buttering me up so he could move in on you?”

“Why can't you just admit you were wrong?”

“How can you live this long on your own?”

“There is no part of that man that wants to sleep with me.”

“He’s been creeping on you all night!”

“No, he hasn’t!”

Bucky is about to answer when Remy walks back into the living room. Only this time, he’s not wearing any pants. The look on Bucky’s face is enough for you to turn and notice Remy.

“Hey, Remy, what happened to your pants?” you stutter.

“I’ve never had a threesome before.” Your mouth drops several inches in shock. “That’s what we’re doing, right?”

“Okay, I never expected this,” Bucky mutters.

“I’ll be in the bedroom.”

He turns and leaves, and it takes several long seconds before you can find your voice.

“What the fuck?” you whisper.

You get off the couch and approach your bedroom slowly. Remy is inside doing leg stretches. You chuckle and close the bedroom door before turning to Bucky.

“I love watching you be wrong, Y/N,” Bucky smirks.

“Okay, I admit. Tonight is a bad night, but people are generally good. I’m not wrong about that.”

“People are jerks.”

“He is hurting from his divorce--”

“You’re seriously making excuses for this man?” Bucky smirks. “If you feel so bad then get in there.” You open the door and see Remy doing lunges to get himself warmed up. You chuckle nervously and shut the door again. “I’m so turned on right now.”

“You would seriously have a threesome with him just to get me to admit that I’m wrong?”

“We could do a lot worse than Remy. He’s got strong arms,” he says sarcastically.

Okay, now he’s making it into a game. There’s no way in hell you’re backing out now. Like hell, you’re going to be the one to admit that you were wrong. You’re going to get Bucky to admit that he was wrong even if takes you all night. You kick your shoes off and Bucky’s eyes widen slightly.

“Let’s have a threesome.”

You turn and head inside your room. Remy grins at the thought of doing this with you two, and he grabs your wrist to pull you in closer.

“So, a menage a trois is about three people… a trois… menaging fully.”

“Got it,” you nod.

“This is happening right now,” Bucky says. “We’re doing this.”

“Yeah,” you nod.

“Okay, this is going to get uncomfortable, but as long as we keep communicating, we will get through this. Let’s get some relaxing music going on in here.”

“Great idea,” Bucky says. Remy walks over to the small radio on your desk, and Bucky turns to you with panicked eyes. “Why can’t you admit that you’re wrong?”

“Why can’t you admit that he’s a good guy?” you whisper back

“We are about to have a menage a trois with this guy because you can’t admit that you’re wrong.”

“You are out of your mind. All I’m saying is that he’s a good guy.”

Music starts playing and Remy dances over to you and Bucky. You and Bucky stop whisper-fighting to dance along to the music.

“Yeah, get into it,” Remy grins.

“Oh, I am so into this. Are you into this, Y/N?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“Admit that you were wrong and this will stop.”

“Nope. I love this song. Turn it up.”

Remy walks up behind Bucky and starts massaging his shoulder. His first instinct is to turn and deck the bitch in the face, but he won’t result to violence. He tries to shrink away from Remy but the older man won’t let Bucky go anywhere. Bucky’s face contorts in panic because he knows that Remy can’t see him. He glares at you but you refuse to back down. Honestly, you want to know what Bucky will do if you refuse to back down. Will he let things go too far?

“I know this is awkward but the more you loosen up, the better it will be. Right now, I’m just massaging your shoulders, but then I will be unbuttoning your pants.”

“Okay,” Bucky says, his voice cracking.

Honestly, this is kind of funny. At this point, it’s about how far you can push Bucky. How far is he willing to go if you’re willing to go all the way? Bucky hates when people touch him so it’s a miracle that Remy is getting as far as he can with him now. Remy slides one of his hands in Bucky’s hair, and Bucky looks at you with fire in his eyes.

“Then I’m going to unbutton my shirt, but I’m going to keep my underpants on.” Remy pulls away from Bucky but the relief is short-lived. Remy takes one of Bucky’s hands and one of your hands, bringing them together. “Right now, you two get us started.”

Oh, fuck. You don’t know if you can do this.

“You want Y/N and I to get it started?” Bucky looks at you and his grip on both your hands gets tighter. “Are you doing this?”

“Yes, are you doing this?”

“I will do this, Y/N,” Bucky says seriously.

“Good because so will I.”

“Say you’re wrong and this is over.”

“I’m not wrong. You admit that you’re wrong and then this can end.”

“Fine, let’s do this.”

Bucky grabs both sides of your face and leans in. No, this isn’t how you want this to happen. This isn’t how you imagined your first kiss with Bucky. You imagine it’s after you tell him how much you like him. Love, if it even gets there. You imagine doing it in private with no one else around. You imagine sparks to fly, like you two are meant to be.

No, this is all wrong. You are… wrong. Before Bucky’s lips can touch yours, you push him away in anger. Not at him but at yourself.

“Fine! I admit it! I’m wrong!”

“Yes!”

“Sorry, Remy,” you sigh.

“What is going on here?”

You, Remy, and Bucky look at the door to see Sam standing there with a confused look on his face.

“I’m not ready for a four-way. I’m out,” Remy says before leaving.

“Get out,” you sigh. “Please.”

Bucky looks at you and immediately feels bad for the entire evening. Still, he and Sam leave you alone in your room. A few hours pass before someone knocks on your door, and you open it to see Bucky standing there.

“Listen, Y/N--”

“Whatever you have to say, don’t. I’m not in the mood.”

You turn and walk to your bed but leave the door open for him to either come in or close it.

“Just because I see the worst in people, that doesn’t mean you should stop seeing the good in them. I admire that about you.”

You look at him with a smile. “Were you really going to kiss me?”

Bucky returns the smile and grabs the doorknob. “Goodnight, Y/N.”

Guess you’ll never know, but deep down, you know the answer.

“Goodnight, Bucky.”

Want to be tagged? Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes fanfic #bucky barnes fic #bucky barnes fluff #marvel #marvel fanfiction #marvel fanfic #marvel fic #marvel fluff #mcu #mcu fluff #mcu fanfiction #mcu fanfic #mcu fic

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study-trash-child · 4 months ago

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Nonbinary Characters in Polish Dubbings

It's a very short list, there's a LOT more they/them characters in media but for many, I couldn't find any dubbed scenes of, and I can't afford to purchase every streaming service ever just to watch a short scene with that character so-

Onto the topic

I so stupidly enjoy finding out translation differences between languages, and what better topic that Nonbinary characters translated to a language that genders everything.

In Polish, if you say you did something, you change it depending on the gender

I was reading - czytałem (male) or czytałam (female)

I feel like it is becoming more popular to use "o" as a gender-neutral way to say something (czytałom) in friend circles but it's still faaaaaaar from being legally(?) recognized by many many other people and dictionaries.

But more on it later (kinda)

Some examples I found throught the years on how different shows handled the gendered words fir genderless/nb characters in Polish translations.

RAINE WHISPERS - The owl house

One of probably most popular characters here, Raine Whispers.

It's Disney. I think it answers a lot already.

The show already had one queer couple, why make another, Raine throught the show is using male pronouns but was voiced by a woman.

On my own note, I really was not a fan on how they changed things in the dubbing including many of the names (Amity-Anita, Willow-Witka, Flapjack - Franek)

The Collector's official pronouns are He/They but the They was simply ignored. 'Easy as that'

ANGEL and MEREKID - Craig of the creek

Never properly watched it but when we (aka my sibling and me being a parasite) had HBO I tried to find epsidoes with them to see.

There are 2 nb/agender characters in that show as far as I'm aware (for some reason I though there were 3, so sorry if there are actually 3 of them)

For one (Angel) they just used he/him.

Other episode with nonbinary kid (I believe it was merekid) is completly gone from hbo in my country.

(overall HBO has a strong problem with many episodes of shows missing, like Adventure Time missing around 30 episdoes...)

STEVONNIE and SHEP - Steven Universe

They just refer to Stevonnie as two people (we, for version that includes at least one guy. Since there is difference between polish we for only girls - robiłyśmy - and we for either girls+guys or only guys - robiliśmy - ).

SHEP

Well, uh. I believe there is some kind of dubbing for the "future" series but I don't have prime and so on so I can't confirm it as of now...Sorry :/

UPDATE: Managed to find an episode with Shep in polish dub. Shep is dubbed by a woman but the whole episode omits any kind of gendered words ("em" "am") by Shep and everyone else.

FRANKIE STEIN (G3) - Monster High

In the new cartoon and movie they are indeed referenced to as they. Even in polish dubbing Frankie uses "o" when doing something instead of just making them a girl (for both animated show and live action movie)

That's also a part of what I mentioned that the nonbinary way of speaking is becoming more 'common' in Poland.

DOUBLE TROUBLE - She-Ra

I adore them, honestly

Well, quick note or so on, their polish pronouns is He/Him (since thier body is more male presenting)

Also their name in polish is "Kłopotowski" I had no idea till now and I wish it stayed that way, I laughed

BATTLE KITTY - Battle Kitty

I so, so, soooo love this show/game (the ony interactive options is picking where you want to go next. It changes nothing in the story). It's not so popular because it's an 'interactive game' which means that many people didn't give it a chance or just skipped it but I beg you to watch it. Me and friend had a blast honestly. It's a 'game' so your only chance to see it is to watch it on netflix.

The main character Kitty is Agender and uses they/them pronouns which carries over to polish dubbing!

REVERSED EXAMPLE

Huuuuh, that's honestly unusual.

So-

Nimona, many loved it, it's a giant allegory for transidentity/ and gender fluidity. I watched it with my mom (hence in polish) that's why I even know of the change

In english Nimona refers to herself as a she and others refer to her as such.

!In polish though! (I will use Nimona's english pronouns)

While everyone else refers to Nimona as she (including Balister), Nimona refers to herself as they ("o"). Honestly, unusal, it took me a few takes of Nimona talking to herself to even catch that, not to mention be sure that it's an "o". So yeah, polish made a character even more queer! Honestly unusual.

Hope you enjoyed my little, not really insightful post. It's just something that I'm really interesed in thus decided to make this (albeit) short post. There's a lot of overall different language changes, including how polish really tries not to curse in trasnlation (amazing example would be deadpool 2) or other changes that are really random (spiderverse, the amazing digital circus).

Hey, maybe it will spark some interest in you too. Make check langauge differences as well, have fun! Or suffer. Probably the later one.

If you (somehow) have something you'd like me to check out translation vise, let me know and I'll try to do just that

Cheers!

Edit: Small add on, regarding the analisys.

You could probably figure it out yourself but it seema like big studios like Disney will be the ones pushing for characters to be of she/he pronouns. While smaller studios will have a better chance of character still being referenced to as they/them in other languages.

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bri-the-nautilus · 8 months ago

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Come To the Dark Side, We Have Hot Guys: A Star Wars Story

Spoilers below for S1 of Ahsoka and the first six episodes of The Acolyte.

I'm writing this with The Acolyte most of the way through airing its first season, with episode 6 having released earlier today. Say what you will about the show, but it's really brought out a lot of the uglier sides of the Star Wars fandom. Everyone and their mother has seen videos or Reddit threads dunking on the Critical Drinker or SWT and their mouth-breathing misogynist audiences at this point, so I don't feel particularly compelled to retread that ground. Instead, I want to talk about the... other side of the fandom, the hypocrisy therein, and how we're all being played for absolute fools by the creative team at Disney Lucasfilm.

Yes, this post is about Qimir.

Now I want to say that I have no problem with villain simping/shipping. Far from it. Most of my posts on this account are me simping for Shin Hati (we'll talk more about her later) or various Soulsborne bosses. Hell, my mutuals and I have a running joke about me having a weakness for evil blonde women. While I personally am too gay for my own good and couldn't care less about men as a concept, I absolutely see the appeal of characters like Qimir and Kylo Ren. I absolutely get why people thirst over them and love making fandom content for them. I think Qimir/Osha has the potential to be a really fun ship, actually. The point I'm making here is not "simping for these characters is wrong and bad," and I want to make that crystal clear before we continue.

That said, let's talk about Qimir, and how the landscape of the show and its surrounding discourse has changed since his reveal. Again, I'm ignoring the chud sphere here, partly because their little corner of the Internet has remained remarkably stagnant since then. The podcast bros still think it's woke, fucking Shadiversity is still whining about fight choreography (which as someone who actually has done HEMA/stage combat, Shad annoys me to no end, but that's an entirely separate can of worms), and it all seems to be business as usual over there. No, the most marked changes have been on the Acolyte-positive end of the fandom space. Here's what the top posts in "hashtag TheAcolyte" on Twitter look like tonight:

You get the idea.

Again, no hate to any of these people. This is tumblr ffs, we've all engaged in a little simping for a morally dubious hot person. I love seeing fans having fun engaging with something, and again I kinda dig the Osha/Qimir ship.

Anyways, if you were around for the Acolyte-positive discourse before the Qimir reveal, and especially the show's marketing and the reponse to that, you'll have noticed a marked difference.

Fans quickly began to see The Acolyte as " the gayest Star Wars ever." Showrunner Leslye Headland is an out lesbian, and her wife was cast as Master Vernestra Rwoh. Archetypical girlboss Carrie-Anne Moss was cast as Master Indara, immediately drawing comparisons to her role in the Matrix movies. Leads Osha and Mae Aniseya are played by the nonbinary Amandla Stenberg. The lesbian witches of Brendok were talked about in press releases before the show aired. Dafne Keen (Jecki Lon) stated in an interview that she portrayed the short-haired, serious Theelin as having a crush on Osha, something that fans were picking up on in their first interactions in the premiere before Keen even gave that interview. While Headland said in a post-premiere interview that she didn't set out specifically to make "a capital Q Queer show," it's an objective fact that no Star Wars movie/show has had as much potential in that area, and fans (especially the queer community) took notice. (For what it's worth, in the same interview Headland commented that she was proud of creating something that so many queer fans identified with.)

The show came out, and Master Indara was killed off in the first sequence, which I'm honestly fine with. It was a good scene and works on a lot of levels. Headland's aforementioned interview came and went. Episode three aired. The lesbian witches turned out to be even gayer than was previously thought possible, and people ate that shit up while the Critical Drinker's brain suffered a major cascade failure. Jecki became a runaway favorite in the premiere and episode four, as did lovable himbo Yord Fandar and the wise, paternalistic Master Sol. In Acolyte-positive circles, this was basically how it went. People thought Brendok was cool, the Yord Horde became the show's biggest social media sensation, Jecki and Sol cultivated devoted followings alongside Osha and Mae, there were a wealth of different ships involving various combinations of Jecki, Yord, and the twins... you get the idea.

Then episode 5 happened.

The writing was really on the wall when the Brendok coven was abruptly wiped out. Introducting such an interesting (and queer) Force-wielding culture only to exterminate them in the same episode was certainly a choice that somebody made. But episode 5 was a shock to the system for many fans, as the show's resident Sith revealed himself and killed Jecki and Yord in some of the most brutal recent onscreen deaths in Star Wars. To be clear, I think this was a great sequence. Two beloved main characters being suddenly and gruesomely killed off was a masterfully executed shock to the system, especially after viewers were lulled into a false sense of security by all the redshirt deaths in the previous scene.

This, understandably, completely changed the landscape of the Acolyte fandom. Virtually overnight, much of the simping and shipping involving Jecki and Yord dried up, and once the dust had settled as far as the "rip blorbo, gone too soon" posts went, what remained were the usual Sol/twins offerings and a wave of Qimir hype. Which is understandable. He's a badass emo Sith boy with a cool helmet who brutally murdered fan favorite characters in front of us and has palpable tension with the female lead. Who wouldn't love... wait a minute.

This feels familiar somehow.

But if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothing's changed at all?

And just like that, "the gayest Star Wars" is all about the (straight) sexual tension between an edgy, murderous Sith boy and a light-side girl plagued by dark thoughts whose friends said boy just killed. This is all eerily similar to how the Sequel Trilogy focused on Rey and Kylo while abruptly dropping Finn and Poe's character arcs. Even the fandom discourse is the same. I mean Reylo was so ubiquitous back in the day that it became a derogatory catch-all for good girl/evil boy shipping. Multiple authors now have either gotten their initial start/fame writing Reylo fics, or straight up published legally distinct Reylo fiction after the fashion of Netflix's After. You had the occasional person piping up to say "hey they kind of just left Finn and Poe hanging after TFA, it would've been cool if they got together but at the very least don't relegate them to being side characters/comic relief in separate story threads," and that was it. The same thing is going on with The Acolyte now, only the sequel trilogy wasn't marketed on the strength of being a queer story by a queer creative team. The Acolyte is, which makes it all the more baffling that by the midway point of the first season, all the gays have been buried and the show seems to be heading straight for Reylo 2: High Republic Boogaloo. And the fans are eating it up.

As an interesting aside, I think it's an interesting exercise to contrast the Kylo/Qimir pattern with the broader fandom's treatment of Shin Hati (told you we'd circle back to that), and the ship between her and Sabine Wren. On paper, Shin is very similar to Kylo and Qimir. Villain? Check. Edgy-looking armor? Totes. Emotionally damaged/stunted in some way? Sure looks like it. Tension with the heroine? You betcha. If anything, the only major difference is that Shin isn't as evil as the others. Compare her actions in Ahsoka (clearing out part of a light cruiser with Baylan and making repeated attempts on Sabine's life) to Kylo (oversees multiple war crimes, kills his fan-favorite dad) or Qimir (orchestrates the murders of several Jedi before brutally executing two fan-favorite characters). She's definitely bad, but I struggle to see her as on par with Qimir, let alone fucking Kylo, in terms of evilness.

Which makes it all the more interesting to me that the Shin/Sabine ship has received so much more mainstream skepticism/criticism than the Osha/Qimir or Rey/Kylo ships. "They have no chemistry!" "She's an evil murderer!" "She's a blank slate!" "Sabine is taken!" I may be a touch biased, but from where I sit a large part of the fandom, even the ostensibly progressive side, seems to look down upon Shin/Sabine shippers while swooning for heterosexual variants with far more evil villains.

This isn't a monolith, and I can't stress that enough. I'm not trying to start shit here. Villain shipping is awesome. We support women's wrongs in this house. You do see the occasional person decrying Reylo or Osha/Qimir as toxic, which I think is fairly unnecessary. Like yeah, maybe it's a toxic dynamic, but these are fictional characters. For these specific characters, part of the crowd appeal is the toxic badboy side of things. I don't think we should really spend much energy attacking any fictional ship (between adults, mind you) as toxic, which is why it puzzles me that an as-yet-unconfirmed lesbian ship in a niche show receives such a large proportion of this sort of criticism compared to the canon relationship between two main characters of a blockbuster trilogy.

At the end of the day, this whole affair has been rather sobering for me on both Disney Lucasfilm and the Star Wars fandom. For all the support the Shin/Sabine ship has received from Ahsoka cast members Ivanna Sakhno (Shin), Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Sabine), Eman Esfandi (Ezra Bridger, the other character people like to ship with Sabine), and Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka), I'm rather sour on the prospects of it becoming canon. The sequel trilogy dropped the ball on what many saw as a promising chance for an MLM romance between Finn and Poe in favor of trotting out the "why do good girls like bad boys" dynamic, and The Acolyte, "the gay show" overseen by a lesbian, has seemingly shifted to center a similar dynamic after killing off most of its prospects for a queer relationship among the main cast. Simply put, I think that Disney as an international company based in the frighteningly divided United States is reluctant to commit to anything beyond lipservice in terms of LGBT representation in their movies/shows, which again doesn't leave me feeling optimistic about WolfWren's canon potential. And the fandom takes the bait. People love the damaged evil badboy/good girl dynamic, and when the queer fandom suggests the possibility of a queer ship taking center stage in a show with no other extant relationships, even the more progressive side of the fandom tends to either ignore it or actively push back on its basis in reality until Disney Lucasfilm inevitably puts the kibosh on it. The amount of times I've heard people dismiss WolfWren for the same reasons they now like Osha/Qimir and liked Reylo (before that ship was fleshed out/canonicalized, anyway) is ridiculous, but at the end of the day you kinda feel stupid for expecting anything else. Again, I think Qimir is a cool character and I'm as much of a sucker for villain romances as the next girlie, but seeing how easily the fandom lets dangling heterosexual carrots lead it away from Disney Lucasfilm's broken promises of queer rep is a sobering ordeal.

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ibelieveinvillainsupremacy · 9 months ago

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Oooooh!! I have an idea! How about a pitch black x reader where (Y/N) is totally Gen Z, so nothing really scares them and it drives Pitch INSANE.

Reader is so desensitized that anything Pitch tries to pull they just brush it off or think it’s funny!

Omg first request on my AU <33

Of course! Sounds so cool ^^

(After a lot of time i start writing again qwq)

Before starting, here's a little context on this AU:

I was inspired by @seaslugfanclub Disney Villains/ y/n park assistant concept, I thought something.

What if there was another company (generic name supposedly) that to go against this incredible idea of the Disney Parks to make the Villains turn into actual people decided to do the same thing with non- Disney Villains as well?

And this other y/n had to take care of them, because they are also very chaotic without a lead of some kind...

my most recent post includes way more villains i got obsessed with, so check out the list if you want to request me some asks!

Now, let's go <33

The Disney Parks had made such a smart move on making their bad guys come to life, so their most brilliant rival decided to do same thing.

But how to make their choice not sound like a copy of their rivals?

Easy.

Let's include multiple animated universes and let them come to life together!

Unfortunately for Y/N, the park attendant that has to reunite them all together and "take care" of their actions,

(no kids or human was harmed in this, writer of this confirms! at least not yet),

that wasn't an easy job. Not at all.

Don't get this wrong, the newest addition to the park really enjoyed villains of all kind (and despite not being accepted by the other park) she gladly wanted to work at this new one. Yeah, wanted.

Because the poor human didn't know tha chaos that was about to happen.

One of the villains that was a pain in the ass to tolerate was the lord of nightmares himself.

Now, normally one would be a little bit, at least for a moment, scared of what that man had in mind.

Well, let's just say that Y/N was one of those incredible (and so incredibly frustrating) humans that wasn't scared of the tricks and literal creatures Pitch could materialize out of nowhere.

Spiders? No, the park assistant wouldn't even look at them.

Clowns? You'll get a laugh and a few looks that seem to say "Not today, big guy"

Anything that the obscure could think about would never work.

"After months in your company, I'm still not sure on the reason why you are even able of seeing me, without any profound and maniacal fear in that head of yours."

Oh. That day you were literally head in the clouds, well not fully. You were trying to separate Rasputin and Rothbart (those bickering old-) that were for the thousand time arguing on who was the most powerful, had the coolest song, which one was almost going to be part of Disney (let's just think that he didn't succeed). And who had to help that mess? Guess.

So now you had another problem to fix. A big one.

You knew that he was a little disappointed from that look on his ashen face, so you had to fix that.

"Well, I actually am afraid of things, Pitch, but if I actually start panicking at any nightmare creation of yours, this park would be absolutely turned to dust. And I don't know where you'll go without me, and my frustrating emotionless face."

The villain then gave a small nod in your direction.

"Can you at least be scared next time? Just a little bit?"

"Would that make you happy?"

"I think so."

"Then alright big guy. I'll show you my terrified face, promise."

"I can't wait to see it."

#ask box #x reader #non disney villains #parkattendantau #dreamworks animation #rise of the guardians #pitch black #pitch black x reader #one shot #headcanons

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ingravinoveritas · 1 year ago

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UMMMM DOCTOR AGREEING WITH DONNA SAYING ISSAC NEWTON WAS HOT?!!!!!!! AND THEN WHEN HE ASKS IF HE DOES THINGS LIKE THAT DONNA WAS SAYING SOMETHING ABOUT HIS SEXUALITY ALWAYS BEING ON THE SURFACE?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hoo, boy. Well, I just watched the second of the DW 60th anniversary specials ("Wild Blue Yonder"), and let me say...that was fucking awesome. As I've mentioned previously, I am a very casual Doctor Who viewer, but this felt so much tighter and stronger than "Star Beast" by several orders of measure. I know everyone talks about DW being owned by Disney now and how that has affected the budget, but this episode more than proved that you do not need fancy special effects or over-the-top action sequences when you have two actors who can just do what David and Catherine did.

I've only seen a few other DW eps, but I was amazed at how creepy this was, and having it be so intensely character-driven--that is, having the antagonists be copies of the Doctor and Donna and allowing David and Catherine to create two completely different other characters so that it felt like there actually were four different people on screen--was sheer genius. Absolutely brilliant and hilarious but also wildly unnerving at the same time.

Which then brings me to the moment you mentioned, which is thoroughly delicious on its own:

Right off the bat, what surprised me is how very not surprising this is, at least to anyone paying attention. We know the Doctor is an alien who transcends time and space, so there is no reason to think that he/she/they wouldn't also transcend sexuality. And again, not having seen as many episodes of other incarnations (Nine, Eleven, etc.), I have always seen Ten as being bi or pan, without any question. There was something about Fourteen saying this, however, that felt very akin to 57 academics punching the air, and I am just beyond thrilled that this made it into the show.

What's also been interesting to me is seeing the negative response to this development on Twitter, and the subsequent pushback to said response. I've seen a lot of folks saying the Doctor can't possibly be gay (nevermind that being into men doesn't necessarily make the Doctor gay, since bi/pansexuality is A Thing That Exists) because of Rose, and then other folks responding with examples from Ten's era showing all the ways in which Ten is not/has never been 100% straight. But as easy it is for these pushback people to see this as a possibility for fictional characters, they seem to have a very difficult time seeing that same possibility in real people.

To wit: I saw a tweet yesterday from someone who thought that Russell T. Davies was straight--much to my disbelief--and a subsequent reply on that tweet from another person who thought he was married to Julie Gardner. And sure, I'll grant you that not everyone is interested in the personal life of a DW showrunner/writer...but we are talking about the man who wrote the UK version of Queer As Folk, and gave the world Captain Jack Harkness, for crying out loud. The same man who made David/Ten look and act like the biggest bottom ever to bottom and earned the moniker "Russell T. Daddy" for a reason. Yet the grip of compulsory heterosexuality is so strong that all of these things (as well as the fact that he had an actual husband, who sadly passed away a few years ago) ceased to matter.

But...it also suddenly makes sense why so many people are oblivious to the fact that David (and Michael) are most likely not 100% straight.

If we are going to say that the Doctor is not necessarily automatically straight because of having previously dalliances with women, then it makes sense to say that David is not necessarily automatically straight for the same reason. I've talked previously on my blog about how assuming straightness when someone hasn't come out as straight or because someone is in a straight-passing relationship is a problem, and that people don't need to label themselves specifically to be who they are. Yet as willing as so many fans are to let fictional characters step outside of that confining box, those fans are equally willing to push the actors right back into it.

I still see people calling David a "straight man" when that very well might not be the case. When this year in particular, David has been more vocal than ever before about numerous facets of queerness in a multitude of forms (wearing badges, gay pride boots, t-shirts, etc). I've talked about how the clothes David wears seem to be reflecting who he really is more and more, and thinking about the roles he's played this year--Crowley, Fourteen--I see a similar pattern. And I keep thinking about that little boy in Paisley who was afraid to ask for a DW Leelah doll because he didn't want to be a "sissy." I keep thinking of David likely being told that his career would be destroyed if he was anything other than publicly straight, and especially while playing a beloved character like the Doctor.

For him to come back as the Doctor now--in the midst of a deeply charged period in history, with homophobia and transphobia spiking dramatically in the UK--and to mention finding another man hot in the most completely casual way is nothing short of astounding. And what better vehicle to potentially guide David toward opening up about himself than something he has loved for so long? What better show to serve as a lighted pathway, of sorts? Nothing Russell writes is not deliberate. Nothing being done in these specials is not deliberate. And if 900 years isn't too old to discover or become more open about a part of yourself, then why should 52 be?

So yes, those are my thoughts on this new DW 60th anniversary special, and this particular moment with Fourteen (Ten-Four) and Donna. It really does feel as though this is all leading toward something, and I am definitely looking forward to seeing the third and final special next weekend...

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ace-fandom-dumbass · 15 days ago

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Hey, i had a conversation the other day that left me wondering, have any other aros come up with a good alternative to the description "just friends"? I know plenty of us are frustrated with the hierarchy it creates but I've had instances where it ended up the only way I could get a point across. The recent time I think i ended up switching to "only friends" but that still feels like it has the same issue, you know? Has anyone figured out a better way to communicate that difference without the inherent suggestion of a hierarchy?

(For context, my mom was complaining about someone she knew letting their 4 year old watch descendants. Previously she'd complained about Disney channel movies and shows at that age because of how they treat relationships and i was making the point that most of the dcoms, and especially descendants, don't really treat them any different then the classic Disney movies, which she wouldn't have an issue with. She then tried to switch tracks to say the problem was that it never shows relationships between guys and girls that aren't romantic, at which point I pointed out that descendants in particular is *better* at that then the classic Disney movies at that since the core cast is 2 girls and 2 guys who never end up in romances with each other, and while most of them do have romances at some point their primary relationships in the films are still that core 4 group of friends. She then switched to saying her problem with those types of movies at that age was introducing the mean girl type character because despite whatever she says, my brother is right she is incapable of letting herself be wrong)

#aro #aromantic #aromantic question #hestia rambles

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kingmagnificoofrosas · 1 year ago

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Why I don't "ship" them

Ok, before anyone comes running me down, please hear me out! I have solid points to make here! I Promise!!!!

Btw, I'm absolutely ok with people disagreeing, but please, if you want to critique me in the comments, do it nicely! I won't tolerate any rudeness. My blog is a safe space and it should stay that way 💙

‼️Now, of course, like with all my analyses, this one is also based on my very own observation and my personal opinion. Also note, I don't hate Amaya! I hated her actions and dislike her for it. And I have very high standarts when it comes to romance‼️

We are told that these guys are married. Ok. Good. Nice. Naturally you then expect to actually see solid poof that tells us (audience) that this is true. After all, disney has a veeeery long history of displaying true love/soulmates, so this should be no different right? Right? Wrong! Let me tell you why!

I payed very close attention to Magnifico and Amaya throughout the whole movie and there was 0 romantic tension whatsoever! Love is displayed in actions and words, and actions there were none. At least none that had me believing they are more than close friends the least. Even my Mom was utterly confused as to what they even are to each other. In my Mom's words : "Anything but a married couple! More like brother and sister."

Let me explain why I believe that we have a marriage of convinience here.

First of all, Amaya calls Magnifico "Mi Rey" all the time. This is spanish btw and means "My king" And she doesn't even say it in a romantic way, she calls him that like any other person in the kingdom would.

Now, my Dad made the point that back in the days people of high status didn't call each other by surnames, but Magnifico does! He calls her Amaya. So that arguement falls. Also, others are all calling Magnifico either by his name or they say "King Magnifico" so her not calling him by his surename in private is odd.

Of course, not everyone uses romantic nicknames but I think it's just weird that Amaya never calls him anything but 'king' and later to Asha and the others she says "Magnifico". It makes no sense.

She's hardly ever around him in private.

And if she is, she does what she does when in public as well. She mostly just stands around. The most touch we see her give is her placing her hand on his shoulder! No hugs, no caressing the cheek, no loving gestures. Please, any polite human being can place a hand on someones shoulder or give a smile. My dog shows more empathy when I'm in distress than Amaya does to her husband.

Her support is the worst! Literally!

You'd think she knows her "husband" right? You'd think if he's upset, she'd do her best to calm him down and support him, right?

Well, after "Star" appears, his light floods Rosas and Magnifico panics, all Amaya does is telling him to breathe. No : "Hey, I know you're upset and scared, I understand, lets talk about it and try to find a solution together!" I mean, he's told her earlier that he thinks he's being threatened. (Clear PTSD response here)

We saw how Magnifico reacted to "breathe!" She could have given him a hug and told him something more soothing. She could have taken his hands and shown him, she cares. She should, after all, know that he's traumatized. She should know why he reacts the way he does and help him get through it.

The fact alone that the first thing Magnifico does when he's upset is to withdraw himself to figure his problems out on his own rather than seek his spouse for comfort tells me a lot!

Yes, she asks him to put the book down by telling him it's bad and he needs to protect himself, and he does in the end, but what she does then makes me facepalm myself.

Get this, Magnifico's ptsd causes him to panic, he wants to protect himself and his subjects/kingdom and Amaya tells him "Look at your people, they love you because you're their handsome king."

You good Amaya? Your husband just had a panic attack and your best reply to that is, "Breathe, your people love you and you're handsome." ? What in the good grief kinda advice to panic is "you are handsome" ? And mind you, his subjects are one of the very reasons he even panics in the first place!

But of course he reacts nicely, cause he is a sweetheart.

And her not wanting him to get posessed by the book isn't a solid proof she loves him. It only tells us she cares for him. Not how much. And also, she might know that should he get posessed, things are going down.

So what about the hand kiss then?

I'm tired of people taking this little scene as proof for everything. It's a moment of affection. But enough to make me buy they truly love each other? Nah.

A kiss to the top of the hand used to be the bare minimum form of respect a man could pay a woman. Women would have even held their hands out for men to kiss as a form of demanding respect.

We could have gotten a real kiss. If not on the lips, on the cheek, on the forehead, anything that clearly shows us, yes, they love each other. But no. And also, the patting? He patted her hand like I pat my dogs head and the kiss was more a quick peck. Imagine Magnifico would have lingered for 3 seconds, held eye contact or looked at Amaya a little while longer, now that would have been romantic tension, that would have told me, there are solid feelings there!

Yes, in english he calls her "my love" but in german he says "my dear" which you could call anyone as a form of being nice! And even if he meant it in a affectionate way, his actions don't add up to it.

If you say you love someone, you prove it with actions. If there is no action to prove words, it's just not true. And no, even people who have a hard time expressing their emotions do show they love you in their own ways. So let's move on and examine Magnifico's behavior more.

Again, he doesn't seek her comfort! He rather runs across half his castle to let out his thoughts and emotions than talk to her. That means, he doesn't trust her enough. He doesn't feel safe enough to show his vunerability in her presence, open up, vent, cry and let out his feelings. But he should! You should be able to do that in a marriage. He calls her "my love" but other than that? Do his actions underline what he says? No.

If you didn't agree with the above so far, I have this 👇🏼

He knew she'd betray him! He sent out Simon instead of going on his own.

If she were his true love/soulmate, he wouldn't have even spent a single thought about if she could eventually betray him. If you truly love someone, you don't betray them like a snap of a finger. Of course ptsd people have trust issues but Amaya is said to be his "loyal wife"

Loyal my butt!

The first thing she did after he snapped wasn't try everything in her might to get him back and safe him, no, she immediately ran to Asha and her teenage friends and was like, "Oh, I'm sick and tired of him, I've seen so many horrors, I suffered so bad. Yup, he's evil, let's destroy him." (Yes, literally! I'm pointing at that "trample the cookie to pieces" scene ...)

She sings : I've seen too many bad things that I can't keep count!

Huh? Like what please? All of the sudden she acts as if he'd been abusing her all the time. He never called her names, never threated her badly (until he became posessed by the evil in the book that is) he never raised his hand to her. He even told her he's lucky to have her, which (pfff. What did she even do besides sitting and standing still and look pretty?)

Look at what's going on here. And study the facial expressions, please. Magnifico is tired here. He's tired, annoyed, disappointed and upset at his subjects and Amaya is straight up confused. Look at her. She cannot understand why he's so upset.

The situation escaletes, he storms away and she tells him "they question you because you make them feel safe enough to do so."

*holding my laugh right here* Again, what a way to trample into a wound!

Subjects questioning their king is normal in a way, but right here, Magnifico is on the edge of his nerves anyway and she might have aimed to calm him but in the absolute wrong way! If you as "wife" know that your husband has ptsd, and is venting or reacting to a trigger, you don't go talking about that trigger even further. People with ptsd will understand me here. Even if someone means well, if you keep talking about the very thing that just triggered a ptsd response, you're making it worse!

She could have told him, "They're just as confused about the situation as you are. You are their king and they look up to you. I'm sure they didn't mean to question you in a bad way."

But anyway, he pushes her away, saying he doesn't want to be disturbed. Which, ok, sometimes you need to cool down on your own but he does that every single time. And she just runs along clueless and helpless like some sort of servant.

To be fair, people with ptsd/c-ptsd are difficult to handle. Even in a relationship of true love, it's not always easy. But with Amaya and Magnifico, I'm looking at the whole picture and not just a single moment. I looked at every moment we get in the movie and how they react and behave.

Amaya was all smiles until the moment he snapped. Then all of the sudden, yes, he's an evil monster! And oh, her too ignoring the fact that he got ptsd and that it's the evil that has a hold of him now that makes him go bonkers, nice! So much for : in good and in bad times.

Amaya - "The good in him, I watched it melt."

Yes, that is exactly the problem! She watched! Magnifico was suffering and she watched! Also the good was only swapped because he got posessed by evil, lady Sherlock.

Furthermore, when she and Dahlia look into the evil book, and Dahlia states the book says that once posessed by the evil magic, there is no going back forever. And Amaya doesn't bat a lash. Excuse me? What ever the heck happened to : true love breaks any curse? True love's kiss breaks any spell? We even had true love tears breaking curses! (Tangled and frozen)

Amaya didn't even shed one singe tear. None. At this point, Asha cried more over the situation than Amaya did. Just how quickly she was ok with everything, how quickly she accepted the situation ....

Heck, if he'd been her true love, things would have looked way different. Yes, disney tried to pull the "but he's the villain" card, but I don't buy that for a second. They could have made her heartbroken at least but she even snapped at him after he was on the edge. It's him who betrayed everyone. The evil magic book is suddenly forgotten. No, no, no! Ya'll backstabbing him and ignoring the fact he's got PTSD got him into this shit situation in the first place. And if AMAYA hadn't totally failed at being a good wife, Magnifico most likely wouldn't have even gotten as far!

But, the answer is simple. She doesn't love him! Or at least not nearly enough! When she sang, I was fooled by the love I felt, I was like 🤨? What exactly did you love, dear? His handsome looks? His magic? The only praise we saw her give him was when he did magic. When he did magic and or granted wishes she cheered like a child but other than that? Nothing like, "I see how much you give, how hard you try to protect us all everyday. I wish I could help you more, take some of that burden from your shoulders or at least carry it with you."

And if you're still not convinced, this tops it all! 👇🏼

Again, no tears, no sadness, nothing. She even approaches the whole situation with humor! And then she picks the mirror up like a dead rat on its tail and proudly declares "to the dungeons with him!" Not at all a reaction from a wife who truly "loves/loved" her husband.

She gives the tiny mirror away like a trashbag.

So to add things up. There is nothing to prove they truly loved each other. Cared for one another to a certain degree, yes. Magnifico at least showed a sprinkle of affection but on the other hand, he's a gentleman.

So, no, I personally will never ship them. I love Magnifico and the fact that Amaya wrote him off as easy as shrugging off a bug from your shoulder upsets me. 😬

He deserves so much better! He deserves true love. He deserves a healthy relationship full of compassion, support and guidance. He deserves respect and acknowledgement. He deserves healing!

Give that poor ptsd suffering man a break!

#disney wish #wish 2023 #king magnifico #queen amaya #ramble #venting post #I'm sorry but I don't ship them #team magnifico #complex ptsd #ptsd awareness

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madamefeu · 8 months ago

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Here’s what your favorite Hazbin Hotel character says about you! I had a lot of fun with this one:

Alastor: You're either a simp, or you're aro-ace and are grateful to have some representation in the form of a main character, even if said main character is a murderer and a cannibal, and not a soul in between.

Husk: You're a furry, first and foremost. Daddy kinks are common, but you have a grandpa kink, and your ideal man is someone like Paul Hollywood. Or you're a massive Keith David fan and you simp for every character he's ever voiced. Ok, maybe not EVERY character. But definitely Dr Facilier. Come to think of it, if you simp for Dr Facilier, you probably also simp for Alastor

Niffty: You know that girl who looks sweet and innocent but has a criminal record, and has written depraved fanfiction that would get you on an FBI watchlist? This is her

Charlie: Hello, Disney princess fans! Charlie is a Disney princess who cusses and you love that about her

Vaggie: You've supported the 'Vaggie is a fallen angel' theory since day one, and you loved saying 'I told you so!' when it was made canon

Rosie: Hello, Radiorose shippers! Don't worry, I'm one of you. Rosie and Alastor are platonically married, your honor. You also wish you had a supportive cannibal mom

Angel Dust: How's that unresolved trauma that you process by lashing out at others working out for you? No, but seriously, therapy would help you, or at least, it would be a healthy alternative to your substance abuse problem

Sir Pentious: You watched Phineas and Ferb as a kid, and you loved Dr Doofenshmirtz, so it's no surprise that you love a character who is basically him in snake form

Cherri Bomb: Your type is party girls capable of handling enough cocaine to kill a bull elephant. Either that, or you are a party girl capable of handling enough cocaine to kill a bull elephant. Your nostrils will not survive your twenties

Vox: You used to be an Alastor simp but then Vox came along, and now he's your new favorite tumblr sexyman. You never thought that you'd find a TV sexy but that hasn't stopped you from simping for him

Valentino: You've never made a good decision in your life, and you don't intend to start now. Your taste in men is horrible, and you always date bad guys in the hopes of changing them, and you need to stop, because they're not gonna change for you

Velvette: You're the mom friend, and you hate it. You never wanted to be the mom friend, but you have to be because your two friends who are dating can't mediate their own relationship and they make that your problem

Adam: See everything I said about Valentino, because it applies to him as well

Lute: You wish you could be the Y/N in every single boss/employee romance. You fantasise about dating your real boss on the regular, and no one can stop you

Emily: Is Charlie not sweet enough for you? Then it's no wonder that you like Emily instead. Emily is your precious bean

Sera: Lesbian with mommy issues. You're into a very specific type of woman because you have a poor relationship with your mother

Mimzy: Hello, former Steven Universe fans, more specifically the ones who loved Spinel. Mimzy is just a cussing Spinel, and you love that about her

Baxter: You're disappointed that he didn't get any speaking lines in the show. Don't worry, maybe he'll get some in season 2

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motziedapul · 9 months ago

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I had a thought about Wish and why it didn't work that I don't know if others have mentioned.

It was made clear to me after I saw this concept art for Star Boy what this film lacked. It lacked a throughline of DESIRE AND RELATIONSHIPS; not just romantic desire, though the scrapped possibility of "romance" is what made me think about it.

Also, just wanted to say how ironic it is that Star Boy is so reminiscent of Jack Frost from Rise Of The Guardians while Chris Pine, who voiced Jack Frost in ROTG, was the villain (and best part) of this disappointing film.

Despite being ABOUT people's desires and wishes, both Asha and her grandfather's desires are nebulous. "I want to inspire people", "I want more". More what? Inspire them how? Their motivations are pretty unclear, as are their desires. The King even points this out, and he's right to do so.

It wouldn't be so bad for Asha to want her grandfather's wish to be fulfilled if the film could make you feel emotionally invested in him and his motivations. Love for her grandfather and a grave injustice against him and others is a FANTASTIC motivation, which is undermined by the fact that everyone's pretty darn happy in Rosas, and there's no sign to indicate that there's something deeply wrong underneath the surface.

The problem with presenting a society that needs change in a film is that you need to show why it's not working, and yet by all accounts Rosas is a wonderful place to live. SHOW US, DON'T TELL US, WHY THIS IS A GRAVE INJUSTICE. You have to show who's being hurt by showing them being hurt.

It's unfortunate that a movie in the same month dealt with wishes on stars 10000 times better than Wish did, but Puss In Boots The Last Wish did pretty much everything better than Wish did. That being said, they had a blueprint for how to make Wish work, and they didn't even follow it:

Encanto.

I love Encanto. It's not Disney's strongest film, especially plotwise, but what it lacks in plot it makes up for in getting you emotionally invested. The music, the tragedy, the character relationships, they all work. And even Encanto didn't have a romance, but it had suffering, desire, and something was wrong that needed to be fixed, and most importantly, it convinced the audience of that.

In comparison, you have a king taking people's Wishes away because he saw the destructive potential of unfettered desire and greed, all in exchange for peace and happiness - and yet we do not see people suffering from this decision. We see Asha get angry about it before we ever see why she should be angry.

People have already mentioned that Wish lacks camp, so I'm not gonna go into that, but it lacks camp and any Disney animated film that lacks camp is one not worth watching.

In terms of relationships, the only one in the film that has any sort of chemistry or emotional complexity is that of Asha and Magnifico. They literally sing a love song to each other in the movie, which baffles me because it gives you the idea of a budding romance/non romantic but loving relationship between the protagonist and antagonist of this film, only to be followed by a heartwrenching betrayal that justifies Magnifico's descent into darkness. And that would have been a fantastic story (after removing the weird age gap, obviously, though Disney's no stranger to that).

There is no other relationship in Asha's life that seems to mean anything to her, not even her relationship with her grandfather, because the only interactions we see her have with him before deciding what's best for him is 1 single scene where she actively avoids spending time with him and her mother to sneak off.

In Coco, we understand how important Hector as a great grandfather is, because of this scene.

In Encanto, we immediately see how and why Mirabelle loves her family and is proud of them, and yet also how she suffers from their exclusion and isolation of her.

The character who is *described* as caring for others but never shown caring for anybody only ever has a moment with the villainous king, who himself only ever has chemistry with her and his wife.

What's infuriating is that there's a deleted scene that, if combined with another scene showing Asha's childhood and why her grandfather means so much to her, would've made her motivation clear.

There's a deleted scene where her grandfather sings a beautiful song, and her and her mother sit there in emotional silence.

Would've been nice to have it in the film.

The most interesting character in the film is King Magnifico, which is why they had to scrape all the nuance out of him in the second act. Asha is described as selfless but is deeply selfish and self-centred. Her desires are nebulous. Her motivations aren't convincing. The character they try to sell you is one we never see.

A romance may not have been entirely necessary, but Asha having a real relationship and therefore emotional stakes with someone absolutely would have. It would have clarified and justified her desires, her motivations.

What a waste.

P.S. The Animation in Wish is gorgeous, lively, and well-done, but the rendering, lighting and watercolour effects were badly executed. Please make the proper distinction - the characters move beautifully.

P.P.S. Yeah the music's bad. Say what you want about Lin Manuel Miranda but he's at least talented enough and Broadway enough to know how music can synergize with story and character. None of my criticisms about him as a person extends to his musical ability - Moana is my favourite movie, and he did a fantastic job there and on Encanto.

Apologies for the long post, but after seeing so many rants about this film I realized there's still something to touch upon that people haven't fully addressed.

#disney's wish #wish 2023 #thoughts

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