#but I've always read her character as being intersex

[lgbt-aesthetics]

hi! i know you probably do the monster prom icons based on requests and dont fully look into every single character, but zoe is canonically a trans woman and it feels a bit uncomfortable seeing icons of her with other gender flags. (i know some people use their own pride flag on icons with an unrelated character, but its not usually the first thought when ppl see pride icons)

That's fair! I'll go back and tag all non-female aligned posts with Zoe as "ncc: zoe" for you to filter them out (ncc standing for "non-canon compliant") :)

[plaidos]

I have no particular dog in this fight as I'm not a GF superfan or anything, but I would like to question a bit of your analysis.

I think you're right that the version of GF where Dipper is transmasc makes Mabel's canonical actions transphobic.

I would like to question the insinuation that those same actions would've been "normal sibling rivalry" (?!) were Dipper closeted transfem or even cismasc, as opposed to "worst sister ever" (!?) behavior. Especially if we're going with transfem Dipper, those incidents of bullying remind me much more of patterns of bullying against transfeminine people, and intersex people CAMAB (such as myself) that I've personally witnessed/experienced.

Also, to the idea that Mabel being transphobic fundamentally changes her character in some way. Like, sometimes characters we're supposed to like hold a bigoted attitude which they will unlearn over the course of the story. Sokka from Avatar and Weiss from RWBY come to mind. Mabel being one of those characters doesn't fundamentally change her storyline or arc.

you’re right, Mabel’s actions and teasings are still mean with a transphobic undercurrent — even if Dipper is a dyadic cis boy, to be honest. but she’s also a twelve year old born in 1999. i too have received the kind of bullying associated with the way Mabel acts towards Dipper about his gender, but i’ve also had similarly “jokes” from loved ones who didn’t realise how shitty they were being because they didn’t have the political framework to analyse what is fucked up about it.

but if we’re reading Dipper as transmasc, it’s like… everybody he knows is accepting enough of his identity to gender him correctly, but they’re still totally willing to say things to him that you would categorically know are bigoted even at that age. like a twelve year old cisgender girl who knows about trans people and respects their existence might not realise how needlessly callous she is being when she teases her (seemingly) cisgender brother for having “girly” interests, but that same cisgender girl would probably be able to identify that her openly transgender brother wouldn’t want to wear makeup and that it would be incredibly fucked up to make him. i’m not saying it’s “right” but Mabel needs to actively Be A Transphobe (rather than just having some twelve year old cis girl ideas about gender & masculinity) to treat Dipper the way she treats him if he is openly transmasculine, but I feel like there’s more of a plausible deniability. i feel like the Mabel we see in the show is a couple years away from being like “wow, that was spectacularly mean of me, i hope that didn’t have an effect on Dipper’s self worth”

i feel like if (in the crazy alternate universe where this is possible) there were an episode where Dipper came out as transfem after feeling hurt by Mabel’s jokes she would be really torn up about it. she’d say something like “i’m really sorry, i didn’t know you felt so strongly about gender… i thought we were just joking around but i should be paying more attention to how you feel, Dipper…. wait, maybe you don’t want to be called Dipper any more. Oh no I AM a bigot!!!” and then Soos would come in and be like “heheh. total hatecrime dude” and then we’d cut to Bill being like “i don’t care what gender you are pine tree… i’m gonna get that GIRL if it’s the last thing I do” except girl would be obviously ADR’d over in Alex Hirsch’s normal voice with his live action mouth over Bill’s animated mouth

also transfeminine Dipper has just always made more sense. the big argument was that he uses a nickname instead of his birth name which he keeps a secret. and that would make sense if Dipper had a girl’s name, but Dipper’s birth name is “Mason”. so he actually is choosing to not use a male name and instead use something gender neutral, even though he really loves matching with his twin sister & having matching names is a family tradition — so he probably has a pretty big reason to not use it, considering he still doesn’t even with all the reasons he has to.

[penguin--nipples]

truly nothing has affected me the way that reading the wicked years this past week is affecting me I have a million disorganized thoughts and I'm only partway through son of a witch:

Glinda and Elphaba's relationship is so much more fleshed out in the books than it is in the musical - the yearning and the pining and Elphaba showing up at the cloister of St glinda over and over again

Elphaba has two soulmates and that affects me deeply what do you mean someone who feels like they could never be loved has two soulmates

Why the fuck did Gregory include a line about Fiyero shitting his guts out right before dying?? Did the guy at the bar poison him?? Did the guy at the bar purposefully show him the bears being killed/hurt and then poison him?

Elphaba and her son both being bisexual disasters is actually my favorite thing

Elphaba and Fiyeros deaths both occur somewhat 'offscreen' and there is no evidence of their bodies

BOQ in the book is such a loveable character I despised him in the musical

Glinda is absolutely bat shit but also some kind of intuitive genius, the way she sees Fiyero after a decade and immediately deduces he's fucking somebody and minutes later says something along the lines of "send my love to elphie". And the way she interacts with Liir for the first time is also absolutely insane, but she also instinctively knows by the end of her conversation with him that he is Elphaba's son

Why is Nanny immortal? And how did Chistery learn to talk so well with her as the only human around?

As much as I hated watching Liir get bullied I loved the chapters at kiamo ko with sarima/her sisters and Nanny randomly showing up to terrorize the group, nothing like a found family of mostly women

I understand the queer reading of Elphaba's character obviously, but I don't understand why people think she is intersex. The book literally states "Only after a second and third rub was it clear that the child was indeed feminine. Perhaps in labor some bit of organic effluvia had become caught and quickly dried in the cloven place." - I always read this more as an acknowledgement of what Sarima explains later on as hot and cold anger and Elphaba having both. I feel like this is more of a trans allegory or that Elphaba has elements of being male and female (2 Spirit?)/a dissolution of gender, than her being intersex. and yet this rumour persists among discussion posts and boards, making it feel like a real life propaganda trail for the book since I've seen it said in the context of "woahhh the book is so much freakier than the movie omg". Although I guess it could be androgen insensitivity syndrome as well

What the FUCK is Yackle? She is described as the opposite of a guardian angel but idk what that means

Did gelphie fuck or not I'm so confused, they "spent a night together" and I see people saying they canonically had sex and maybe it's the nature of the book enjoying switching perspectives every time something interesting happened but I feel like they didn't? Or it's something I haven't read yet?

I feel like Liir becomes an audience surrogate when he goes into Southstairs guided by Shell - this is genuinely how it felt reading the books sometimes, he saw Shell be sketchy multiple times before putting it together like 'wait are you having sex with them???' which is basically me every time Gregory implied a sex scene subtly, making me not super sure if it happened or not

[bonefall]

With the discussion and the mention of the voice being described as 'sinister' I don't think this is the case anymore, but reading the chapter with Moonpaw in it after reading the prolouge made me guess that starclan actually intentionally made Moonpaw fuse with her sibling so the sibling could be a guide and companion to Moonpaw.

It's still leaning into the problematic nature of portraying the fusion of two embryos as one 'killing' the other but the idea is that bc they're fused in she's kinda in this inbetween-worlds state where she can relay info from starclan to moonpaw like a messenger or a gaurdian angel, and that their conflict with eachother would be more akin to normal sibling conflict.

"You're annoying I hate you!"

"Well I hate you too!" *gives moonpaw the mental image of her crossing her arms and turning her back to her*

"... sorry"

*still giving her the silent treatment*

"seriously???"

See, that's cute. That's ideal, imo. Like you said, it still leans into the problem of implying Vanishing Twin Syndrome/Fusion Chimerism is akin to one sibling "killing" the other, but I think this kind of dynamic would have enough love and complexity to soften that.

It's usually not about eliminating all problematic aspects, that's impossible-- just being aware of them, addressing them when necessary.

After all, that's why BB's goal is generally to "address," not "eliminate." (Within my personal comfort and ability ofc, see the content warnings)

From what I've seen of the Chimerism/Vanishing Twin critique, what seems to be requested in representation is positive portrayals, not total elimination. Duality as a point of love and pride, guiding each other.

Fusion Chimeras are rare though-- and usually identified because of visible intersex traits at birth, so I'm also gonna be looking over at the intersex community to see what they're looking for in portrayals too.

And, from what I'm seeing from the pwDID in my inbox, audience, and around the fandom, what they're usually looking for is complexity in alter/headmate characters. Not "evil voices," but fleshed-out personalities, especially when those headmates have a "purpose" in the function of the system.

(Like, for example, an alter who is loud and abrasive to stand up to threats and protect the rest of the system. Or one who is very caring, good at resolving conflict and making the system feel comfortable. Personalities which were formed for a reason.)

Not necessarily always benevolent-- sometimes you do have to deal with a bad headmate, or adjust the behavior of an alter. Like a roommate you have to evict or have a meeting with. Complexity. Not just vague entities.

All that to say, Sibling Headpaw sounds like it would be the best way foward. I hope this is what we get in canon 🙏

[penumbramewtwos]

Secondary Character ref-sheet master post

Even though I've posted these guys separate, this is to keep things neater on the pinned post.

Below the 'Keep reading' is all their information written out again, in case it's difficult to read for anyone ^^

Effigy (Mew):

Height/Weight: N/A [multiform] DOB: 4 BIllion years ago Birthplace: Kanto region Sex, & gender ID: Intersex, Genderfluid Sexuality: Aroace (Aromantic, Asexual) Nature: DOCILE Food Likes: N/A Food Dislikes: N/A Characteristics: Quick to flee

Other Info [Point list]

Effigy is the hive mind of all Mew-kind manifested into a multiform spirit.

They reside on Utmost Island (Faraway Island) where the memories of every mew can be accessed like a database.

Any Mew can talk through Effigy, dead or alive; but is most commonly used as a way to communicate to the other Mew that is currently out of hibernation.

There are two Mew's left on earth populating the planet. One is A Shiny.

Effigy was a gift left behind by the Origin Mew as a way for Mew's to communicate their culture, and purpose in life as a creator of all pokemon eggs.

Rotom (Okita's Rotom phone):

Height/Weight: 0.25M / 0.21kg First opened: 30/04/2044 Birthplace: Aunura Region Sex, & gender ID: N/A, Non-Binary Sexuality: Aroace (Aromantic, Asexual) Nature: Impish Food Likes: Sour Food Dislikes: Dry Characteristics: A little quick tempered

Other Info [point list]:

Rotom was a birthday present for Okita's 10th birthday. Okita became upset when she was told there was a pokemon living inside it; even though it could deposes at any time.

Okita began writing software for Rotom so it could use its pokemon moves freely in its phone possessing state. In doing so, she accidentally trapped the pokemon forever inside the phone.

Rotom's personality is a combination of being a complete drama queen, and unapologetic towards everything.

Rotom and Okita have a friendship based on insults, but are highly defensive of each other when someone else gets involved.

After Okita jailbroke Rotom with the homemade software, Rotom's now able to adjust its ability, pokemon level, and pokemon moves via the internet; as well as downloading TM's at will.

Rachael Lyn (Okita's pokemon trainer):

Height/Weight: 178cm / 57kg DOB: 01/10/2033 (October 1st, 2033) DOD: 15/02/2098 and 28/03/2099 Birthplace: Galar Region (moved to Aunura age 4) Sex, & gender ID: Female, Female. Sexuality: Bisexual Nature: Rash Food Likes: Dry Food Dislikes: Bitter Characteristics: Proud of its power

Other info [point list]

Rachael owns 6 pokemon: Metagross (first pokemon), Gardvoir (Male), Alakazam, Chimecho, Ninetails, Mewtwo (Okita).

In the Aunura region, she's known as the "One-Hit-Wonder" as her pokemon style is to use over levelled pokemon in gyms to take her opponents out in one hit. Including Okita's parents a year before they met.

Rachael badly suffers from ADHD. She's known for never stopping/always moving, talking very fast,

Rachael and Okita have a strained relationship in the early days, growing to be inseparable over time.

After capturing Okita, she bragged about capturing the most powerful pokemon in the world to her friends, only for Okita to not know how to use pokemon attacks when brought into battle. Rachael usually battles in 'underground' arenas around the world to challenge herself.

[madintersexmermaid]

Ya'll. I had a realization earlier today.

Let's start at the beginning: I was watching an interview with Chappell Roan earlier and she was talking about how a conversation with a drag queen named Crayola who opened for her in London made her realize that she was a drag queen:

"A drag queen opened for me in London named Crayola. She was like, 'Oh, you are a drag queen.' And I was like, that was the first time I'd ever been told that. [...] I was just getting ready and, like, my makeup wasn't done yet and I was like, 'Oh, I'm like you. I need to get my makeup and my clothes on and kind of transform.' And she was like, 'Honey, you are a drag queen. You're not just getting makeup on. You're a drag queen.' [...] Like that was very altering. Like that--there was something that switched. I really have taken that on as an identity and it's been very freeing to be like, 'Oh, Chappell Roan is my drag project.' And I think that's also helped me personally to separate it as a job and as like a project."

While that was interesting on its own, it was ultimately this comment in the comments section of the video that grabbed my attention:

"I think what people don't understand is that drag is about gender and about performance and about self transformation, and about hiding yourself and revealing yourself at the same time but 90% of it is about having and being FUN. Making people laugh, and then cry, and then laugh. Being a doctor for the audience's soul."

And then that's when it hit me: drag entertainers parallel clowns, fools, jesters and court jesters. They've each have a history of being fun, funny, witty, silly, campy and light hearted in expression and persona, but having a lot of emotional, intellectual, poetic, social, artistic and political depth to them.

I've always had a fascination with stories and fairy tales that had clowns, fools, jesters, court jesters, etc. at the center of the stories and I've always had a soft spot in my heart for characters that were clowns, fools, jesters, court jesters, and lately the clowncore and jestercore alt fashion, aesthetic and subcultures have become my new favorite hyperfixations, which in turn brought back nostalgic memories of the stories I read growing up and how I've always felt like a jester, a jokester, a clown and a court jester for all of my life, especially given me being autistic and neurodivergent though I feel like it's just now later in life at 30 years old that I'm stepping out of my shell and evolving as an individual and re-embracing the hyper, energetic, outgoing and jokester side of myself that I repressed at some point. (That and I've fully leaned into the fact that I'm unserious, unhinged, witty, quick witted, sarcastic, ruthless and very sardonic with a very dark, twisted, morbid and messed up sense of humor though I'm also a very very analytical melancholic deep thinker, I'm very introspective, philosophical and artistically and poetically inclined, and I also like to make others think, feel and reflect, as well as laugh, and I also like to shock and even anger and tick others off too from time to time, though only if there's a meaningful purpose behind it.) Plus I also realize that my journey as an autistic in having to mask my entire life and my initial irritation with being always seen as comical (though now me embracing that as a natural advantage to my ability to do comedy and bring humor).

Then drag queens are folks I've also had a fascination with and admiration for for a long time because of the campy, colorful, expressive, endearingly over the top and dedicated artistry, the creativity behind the personas and the additional dedication to some of the most ruthless, cutting, fierce and side splittingly funny clapbacks and iconic catchphrases ever.

Which leads to my discovery of a pride flag for intersex drag queens and drag kings which had been calling my name for a long while, and after the interview and YouTube comment I mentioned, and after how much said interview and YouTube made me resonate with claiming drag queen as an identity, I 1000% claim being an intersex drag monarch. And after re embracing clowns, fools, jesters, court jesters and embracing the clowncore and jestercore alt fashion, aesthetic and subcultures as a nostalgic part of my life and a newfound autistic hyperfixation along with my discovery of clown-gender and jestergender identity and expression labels, I 1000% embrace being a modern day clown and court jester.

So I'm an intersex/interfemme autistic drag monarch court clown jester! 😊😊♠️♥️🃏👑👑

[couldtransitionsaveher]

CALIBAN from THE TEMPEST

JUSTIFICATION:

"In addition to being an example of likely Black and/or Palestinian (frequently theorized by scholars on the website I visit for scholarly papers) and a disabled subject of white and abled labor, I believe Caliban, in her "deformity" and only positive relation being a woman outcast by society for being a witch yet still subservient to her, is a metaphor for nonwhite transfemininity in Early Modern Europe. In other words, if she transitioned or even took some sort of estrogenic compound that was available, she wouldn't have been as bad as she was made out to be in the play. Plus, her "aberrant" gender nonconformity through transfemininity being contrast through "acceptable" gender nonconformity like Ariel's, who could stand in for transmasculinity or perhaps the Early Modern English tradition of young boys, often epicene looking, crossdressing, could work as commentary on even how our modern gendered caste system often praises CAFAB or "feminine but not a trans woman, I'm totally a boy/other gender" gender nonconformity as long as it's "acceptable"/doesn't cross the line into gender transgression, while demonizing any form of transfemininity, whether it passes or not. I also personally wonder if Caliban could be an intersex transfem, but I haven't read any articles enough nor have I read The Tempest in a while to judge. Otherwise, I've always stanned Caliban and think she could've been a good trans character." - @sunkern-plus

Reminder: Submissions are always open! Submit here!

Did you make your daily click today?

[bigspicysynopses]

Review of "The Empsium"by Olga Tokarczuk

Spoilers, thoughts and feelings below the cut. Maybe I need to devise a system to rate books too...

The book was a really interesting look into the psychology and culture of central Europe (specifically Germany and Poland) in the 1910s. There were a lot of philosophical discussions and quotations that mostly served to distinguish the protagonist from the "other learned men" in the story. The undercurrents of the horror elements were not always present, and tied up really quickly in the last few chapters. Whether the supernatural elements are nature spirits or extra dimensional beings or the collective will of the divine feminine is intentionally very blurry.

The protagonist explores his and eventually her feelings on being intersex and how that ties to outward appearance in the time period. This first manifests to the ready as Mieczyslaw being a paranoid person, then perhaps it's the local liquor making him think that, then it's revealed to be that Mieczyslaw has been brought up this way to hide the difference in his body, and was socialized male despite it. Then when the nature spirits refuse to accept him as a sacrifice he quickly leaves the town and decides to start living as a woman stealing a dead woman's passport and her name.

It is really hard for me to nail down exactly how I feel about the book just now. I feel like the ending is rushed, but the discussion of philosophy and psychology was really dragged, repetitive and heavy handed. The main characters float through the motions and then it switches to full speed. The main character has agency but seems to take forever examining things and being confused. The plot seems to meander, uncertain and then it rushed to the finish line with a brief epilogue summing up the fates of the characters.

Perhaps the entire book is meant as a look at the confusing nature of naming one's gender identity and the horrors and discomfort and desire to hide one's body are all wrapped up in that. Wandering vaguely and then one day there's a eureka moment and everything is clear from that point forward.

It's a ponderous work that I'm glad I read, but I'm putting it back on the shelf not feeling dumbstruck by the depth of the message, but wondering if it could have been accomplished in a more punchy, striking way.

I'll try to think up some rating scale for the next book I review on this blog and hopefully do a better job reviewing a chapter or two at a time.

Let's call the Empsium a 6/10. Beautiful prose and a setting that I've never before experienced. I was fascinated by the early chapters of exposition and where the book ended up. I wrote down a few quotes from the book but I'm not sure how much I'll remember offhand. I'd definitely give the author another try, but I'm hoping to see something more succinct.

[marvelfilth]

Since you and your followers want an answer so badly but can't be bothered to actually look up stuff yourself, here you go:

From a trans person btw. And I've mentioned several times how I've seen it in these communities, communities I'm a part of lol, and even have a trans friend that doesn't like it so it's funny that you all just keep going on about it being cis people when it's not lol.

Idk how you're getting just use "girl with a penis" from what I'm saying when that's the exact same thing as using GP. I'm saying to specify when reader or charter has one by saying "x, has a penis". It's like you're purposely being obtuse about all of this because you don't want to change what you're doing.

I'm not being obtuse (funny how the second you're hit with questions you start calling people obtuse), I'm just not actively looking for hate where there's obviously none, and asking questions because (surprise!) I'm not about to change what I'm doing just because some noname on Tumblr told me to. I expected you to say something factual, but, so far, you've only said that some people don't like it and then jumped straight to it being harmful. Are you the obtuse one?

“Don't say girl with a penis, say character x (in this case Natasha) has a penis”

So if Natasha Romanoff has a dick in a fic I'm not allowed to call her a girl? Is that what you're trying to say? Is that what the issue is? And how is that even an issue? What are you even trying to say?

“Cissexist language and framing”?

Please, please tell me where in my fics have I ever used cissexist language and framing.

“Why does the tag g!p even exist when it essentially casts women with vaginas as default, inherently othering an already marginalized group of women…”

Because when you're reading a wlw fic and then get to the smut part and suddenly one of the women has a dick you'd be a little surprised. The majority of women have a vagina, so it's natural to expect that women in a fic would have one too.

Some people don't like being surprised like this, that's why we put a warning.

“Why does the combination of these two always frame trans/intersex women as not being as 'real' as cis women (generally implicitly, but the messages are pretty clear, and pretty much standard in g!p fics)?”

Again, I don't know what kind of fics you read and what kind of blogs you follow, but I've never even hinted at this in any of my fics.

Look, if i used the tag for a trans character (for example Natasha transitioning f to m or m to f) and put the tag gp THAT would've been harmful. I would've never used the tag in this case, because I understand how wrong it is in this case.

But my fics are not the case.

What I get from this is that some people simply don't like the wording. There's a number of very simple solutions. You can idk scroll? Block? The possibilities are endless.

[brightbeautifulthings]

Hello, lovelies! Tell Me Something Tuesday is a meme created by Rainy Day Ramblings and currently hosted by Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, That's What I'm Talking About, For What It's Worth, Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Offbeat YA. It provides weekly discussion prompts on various book and blogging topics with optional participation. You can sign up for prompts here.

This week’s prompt is: Share some LGBTQ-character books you've recently enjoyed.

Since I've been on a streak of mediocrity in my reading lately, I decided to choose some of my favorite LGBTQ+ novels of all time for this post rather than keeping it strictly recent. (Trust me, these are better.)

L: The Dead and the Dark by Courtney Gould This is both one of my favorite YA horror novels and, coincidentally, one of my favorite wlw romances of all time. It's wonderfully creepy and good on the representation in other ways (mlm and poc), including a Gay Dads ghost hunting show that I fervently wish was a real thing.

G: I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson I love this book a ridiculous amount, and I've read and reread it enough times to have sections of it memorized. Noah and Brian's mlm romance is hugely complicated by the fact that neither of them are out yet, and it's one of the most beautifully handled mutual pining stories I've ever read--plus gorgeous writing, and lovable, heartbreaking characters.

B: Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales Representation is so important, and I've never felt seen in a novel like I did in this one. I love having a bisexual main character who has both male and female love interests in the story (but no love triangle trope, don’t worry). I’ve read books with bi mc’s before, but never one that so directly addresses bi erasure and not feeling “queer enough” to be in queer spaces.

T: Not Your Villain by C.B. Lee This is technically the second book in the Sidekick Squad series, but you should be reading it anyway for its excellent rep in the cast of main characters. Bells is one of my favorite trans characters ever, complete with cool shapeshifting superpowers and a sweet, heartfelt best friend crush.

Q: Strange Grace by Tessa Gratton This has one of my favorite poly ships ever with the three main characters: Mairwen, the witch, Ruhn, the saint, and Arthur, the outcast. It also includes spooky woods, lurking monsters, a dash of witchcraft, and some complex examinations of gender identities.

I: Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire It's hard to go wrong with the Wayward Children series, and McGuire always delivers on the diversity and representation. When Regan faces challenges in being intersex in the human world, she escapes through a doorway to an equine world that accepts her as she is, complete with major Horse Girl vibes, found family, and my personal favorite murder horse, the kelpie.

A: Radio Silence by Alice Oseman Oseman's prose and characters are an absolute delight, and this is one of the most beautiful friendship stories I've ever read, with one of my favorite asexual characters, Aled. I love the way friendships are never discounted as "less" than romance in this book, and there's an excellent celebration and critique of Tumblr/fandom culture.

+: Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller We know if there's an assassin character to be found anywhere, I'm going to love them the most. Sal is a genderfluid thief who joins an audition to be one of the Queen's Left Hand, a group of the most elite and feared assassins in the kingdom. There's also a clever, worthy love interest in Elise.

[semper-legens]

170. The Shadow Cabinet, by Juno Dawson

Owned: No, library Page count: 504 My summary: Her Majesty's Royal Coven is still dealing with the aftermath of the downfall of their previous leader. But all is not well in the county of Yorkshire. Leonie's brother is missing, probably gone after evil warlock Dabney Hale. Elle's husband is acting very strangely. Theo struggles to fit into school, between being a witch and being a trans girl. And Niamh Kelly is not who she seems... My rating: 3.5/5 My commentary:

Ah, back to Her Majesty's Royal Coven. This is the second book in Juno Dawson's first series for adult readers, and though I am very much enamoured with her writing when it comes to YA fiction, HMRC left me a bit cold the first time I read it. I've discussed it with a friend (herself a trans woman) since, and she hit the nail on the head with her commentary - while she didn't think it was a bad book per se, she was disappointed at how it was aimed more at middle-aged cis women with book clubs than trans women. Trans women don't get so much fiction that is aimed specifically at them, after all. And I agree with her on this - a lot of Dawson's writing in this series trends towards what I call the 'baby's first' style of writing. By that, I mean that it introduces a social issue, but in a way that is meant to be for people who have absolutely no prior knowledge of or experience with that social issue. In this case, it's a combo of baby's first trans teenager and baby's first systemic oppression. None of this is by necessity bad. It's just not quite what I was expecting or looking for.

So yeah, as previously mentioned, the main protagonists of this book are middle-aged cis women, though trans teenager Theo does get some point of view time and her own B plot. This isn't necessarily meant to be a book about transness, but as I said, I'm still left a little disappointed by the lack of trans characters. That said, this book introduces an intersex witch who helps Leonie in her quest to find big bad Dabney Hale and her brother Radley, so that's an interesting addition at least. But for all I have complained about the focus being on said middle-aged cis women, it isn't as though Dawson writes them badly. On the contrary, she manages to perfectly walk the line of universality (everyone knows a woman who acts like at least one of these women) and specificity, where her characters still feel like full people with lives and stories that aren't just meant to be blandly relatable. Reading about them is fun! I particularly like housewife Elle, who learns of her husband's infidelity and winds up unlocking a part of her and a power that she wasn't aware of previously. It's an interesting idea and I want to see where it's going.

But the politics of this book are very baby's first. I get it, when you're writing about issues like women's rights and trans identity, particularly transfeminine identity, in a modern setting then there's no reason why your characters can't be spouting the modern social justice terminology when they talk about it. I just think that the messaging with the politics of the book was a little too clear-cut and unsubtle. I would have liked a little more ambiguity, and perhaps for the characters to not always talk like internet teens sometimes. At its worst, it just came across as clunky and obvious, and that's the kind of thing you really want to avoid in a book with these sorts of messages.

Like I said, the characters in this novel are engaging. Ciara is one of our main point of view characters, the sister of Niamh who took over her body and is now masquerading as her. The heel-face turn she is slowly making, plus her attempts to piece together her past and understand who she really is, are engaging, and her voice is a fun one to play with. Poor Theo gets a subplot where she is coming to terms with her magic and her transformation after the last book which raises some interesting ideas about dysphoria, identity, and gender as well as being really endearing. Leonie's determination in her quest to find her brother is strong, and Elle's more domestic problems are a slow tragedy that is nonetheless interesting to see unfold. I'm probably gonna end up reading the next book in this series when it comes out. I do still really like Dawson's writing. I'm just a little disappointed that this story could have been a lot more complex than it is.

Next up, back to CHERUB, as a plane crashes into the ocean.

[authormars]

Do you have a future au? Where MC is gone and they’ve all graduated from RAD?

My darling girlfriend once again asking questions she already knows.

You know you can phrase this as "Tell them about your future au" you don't have to act aloof

But I will elaborate on the question "What happens when MC dies/isn't there anymore?"

This is also a lot to unpack for one ask so I'll only be skimming the surface of the lore for this au bc I doubt anyone cares (though I may mention characters like Ari, Dev, or Metzi in my stories)

Lucifer

Anyone who's on my page would know I'm an avid Dialuci shipper. In my Future AU, Diavolo and Lucifer are married and ruling as the Kings of Devildom.

Life doesn't change all that much for them. They're still always working. They don't go to the HoL family gatherings (hosted by the twins and Beel's wife Dahlia) unless they aren't swamped with work.

Mammon

Mammon is one of the brothers that keeps in contact with NB! MC who's become a demon by now (M!MC according to my universe becomes an angel with Simeon after the two fall in love and F!MC becomes a reaper with Thirteen after the two fall in love)

Mammon gets a wife named Aezorin Idreius, Zori for short. Mammon and Zori run a series of casinos called Lucky Coin.

Zori is a wrath demon. She's an axolotl demon. She's Scottish and much taller than Mammon. Zori is an intersex woman who's a siren. Zori is also the feared captain of the Black Mantis, a pirate ship.

Leviathan

One of the brothers that doesn't get married. He gets a (partner? Best friend?) roommate named Adramalech Dreik-Mukhin, Adra for short.

They're a friend Levi met in school. Adra is a coder for a company that makes video games and Levi is a game tester. Adra and Levi live together.

Adra is a transmasc envy demon. They're a dragon-fly demon. They're very anxious always and generally keep to themselves at the HoL family gatherings, which Levi and Adra regularly attend.

Satan

Satan lives at the castle as one of two Royal Archivists. The Archives are books and magical typewriters charmed to write the history of the entirety of Devildom. An Archivist's job is to sort these books and read the history.

Satan's girlfriend is named Metztli Rex, Diavolo's adopted younger sister. Satan and Metzi met when Diavolo hired Satan to be an Archivist.

Metzi is a greed demon with cotton candy pink hair. She's much smaller than anyone else and is often hovering slightly above the ground. She's an albino bat demon. She's also extremely traumatized (which I will not go into unless someone asked. Check out my AO3 for more info)

Asmodeus

Asmo lives as a fashion designer and p'rn star. He has three partners (bc Asmo is polyamorous bc of course he is)

Solomon is the first and most obvious. He's still the greatest sorcerer and still normal him. Ariadne Kamini is a fashion designer Asmo met at a modeling job. She's a succubus. Devereaux Eros is a str'pper with the nickname of Rose Quartz. He's an incubus. Asmo and him met at a str'pclub.

Asmo and his partners always go to the meetings at the HoL

Beelzebub and Belphegor

They get the same section because I headcanon Belphie as being on the Aroace spectrum.

Beel is married to Dahlia Toth, a gluttony demon who is a cook. Dahlia and Beel own a string of restaurants called Infernal Delights. Belphie lives with them at the HoL bc Beel is never without his twin.

Dahlia is a trans woman. Dahlia was a human before she became a demon (called a Sinner Soul by most demons) and she murdered her husband and then became a demon.

If anyone wants any more information, I do have more. Feel free to check out my ao3 book about this because it has more information. But I will give it later as I've posted two really long things today.

If you have any more headcanon requests or fic ideas, feel free to drop them in my inbox. Remember to eat and drink water!

[wickedlyqueer]

i've been thinking of starting the wicked novels. have you read all 4 novels? are they worth the read?

I have read all 4 novels, yes. And whether they are worth it or not... heavily depends on what you want to get out of them tbh.

WHAT TO PREPARE FOR:

dense prose that clearly has its roots in post-modernism. If you're not willing to read long sentences that begin with a deep analogy for racism and end with some sort of sexual innuendo or disturbing event, this is going to be a hard read for you.

Just. So much sexual stuff. which ironically enough you can also easily read over. (The second time I picked up on it sooo much more than the first time reading it. but in my asexual defense, how tf should i have known what "dragonsnaked" meant).

Similarly to the bullet point above: you can easily read over incredibly important plot points. This is because Maguire sometimes doesn't bother to elaborate; skips years within a single sentence; and is unforgiving to the mind who wanders while reads. There's a reason my notes look like this:

No consistency in character arcs whatsoever. This isn't your average fanfic or even YA novel. Just to put it into perspective: the book is called "The Life And Times of the Wicked Witch of the West". Which is just "Elphaba's Life". But Elphaba barely focalizes (her point of view), and when she does, it's at a point in the book where she's starting to lose her goddamn mind, so there's always a sense of an "unreliable narrator". So just know going in that the politics of Oz have the center, and especially in the later books all characters start to blend together, with a similar tone of voice and sense of humor.

Maguire—bless him and may god help him—cannot write women. He tries, he really does, but anything about the women anatomy is so unappealingly written and I was not the least bit surprised to learn he's gay lmao. He also has a tendency to turn women (especially when they get older) into "waifs". When in the fourth book he describes Glinda as being sad she never got kids I wanted to scream and rip my fucking hair out. Glinda Upland of the Arduenna Clan would never want to be a mother. She'd fucking hate it. And I'll forever hold it against Maguire for ever having suggested otherwise. (He also did something similar to one of my favorite side characters in the second book; Sister Apothecaire. She gets an absolute character assassination by the fourth book).

The biggest "reveal" in book four was literally spoiled by the family tree in the beginning of the book. 🤦 so there's a built up for like 300 pages and all the while you're like "WE KNOW!! WE ALREADY KNOW!!" which made book 4 a particularly frustrating experience imo.

WHAT TO LOOK FORWARD TO:

Understanding fanfics and other fan work much better. A lot of fanfic is based on a mix of musical and book ("booksical"). Even minor characters like Pfannee, Shenshen, Milla, Crope & Tibbet, will make an appearance, even when a fic is more musical based. This was the reason I decided to read the books too back in the day.

Also understanding (popular) interpretations in fanfics better. Like. I tend to write Elphaba as intersex, non-binary and bisexual. That looks very out of the blue when you only have the musical's context, where Elphaba is played by mostly feminine women. But once you read the book you look at those same headcanons and go "word".

Delicious gelphie (sub)text is there, if you want to look for it. But you do have to look for it (twas written in the 90s, lads).

Very queer, actually! And not just in the sense of like "there's a lesbian couple" like we see nowadays in media, but it's just... present. This is written by a gay man, and it shows. You can see queerness popping up everywhere. There's a lot of sexuality and gender stuff going on. And even though nobody goes "I am a trans man" or whatever, you sometimes read stuff and go "that's gender dysphoria babe, idk what to tell ya"

Once you get used to Maguire's writing style... he actually can write some pretty gorgeous prose and he writes with a lot of wit. I like his sense of sharp (dark) humor.

WORLD BUILDING! I honestly just read the other three books for world building for my own fics, more than anything.

FINAL VERDICT:

I do generally recommend reading at least the first book. Especially the first half of the book is just so solid. There's a reason why "Shiz Era" is so beloved in this fandom. Easily the best chapters out of the entire series. It gives so much more backstory to the musical (and bigger Oz lore). The latter half drags on imo, but that's also kinda the point?

The other three books..... depends. I read them for my world building in my fanfics. And I honestly found the second book to be rather cathartic, because it really goes through the motions of mourning Elphaba and that's what I kinda needed after the devastating ending of the first book, but I've heard other people say book 2 was their least favorite.

Basically. If Maguire hasn't utterly broken your spirit by the first book, the other three books still have plenty of joys in them. (For instance, I fucking love Nor. and whenever Glinda shows up in the sequels, it's always the biggest joy ever!)

Usually I describe the novels as such: "I didn't enjoy reading them, but I sure am glad I've read them."

[sjhanny2000]

Hidden Within the Arrangement (1/?)

Summary: The time of war between the Uchiha and Senju is coming to an end. At least, that is what the hopes are as the two opposing groups come together to create not only a treaty of peace but a marriage arrangement between a clan heir from the Uchiha and one from the Senju. With Hashirama already married to Princess Mito of the Uzumaki and their younger brothers' dead, the weight of fulfilling the demanded marriage arrangement falls upon Tobirama’s already straining shoulders. The thing is, his very existence may be the reason why this arrangement falls apart.

A/N: It's been a hot minute since I published Madatobi but I've been holding onto this for awhile. This is technically the prequel to Secrets Worth sharing but can be read as a standalone AU as well. For my Demon Slayer readers, F&ST Finale is being worked on so don't worry!

Warning(s): Intersexed character, arranged marriage, hurt/comfort, angst, canonical/non-canonical death(s), referenced/discussed abuse, child abuse/neglect, self-deprecation, self-hatred, body dysmorphia, self-sacrificial Tobirama, bad sibling Hashirama

~~~~

If individuals were to describe themselves using a single word, Tobirama would most definitely utilize the word enigma. It was what his grandmother had used countless times in reference to him over the years their lives coincided, her stern eyes of toiled earth forever etched into his memory. It was what other clansmen referred to him as they maliciously gossiped about the “White Demon” amongst their midst, his own people spitting his name out with poisonous venom. Even his own brother had called him an enigma many times, often in moments of frustration or disappointment as they stood on opposite sides of understanding and emotions, Hashirama always warm and expressive while Tobirama stood cold and reserved. He was not like his clansmen, nor like that of his ancestors, forever a sore thumb amongst the Senju and while he never allowed it to show on his exterior, Tobirama could not deny how much it hurt on the inside no matter the effort he put into ignoring it. 

The treatment he faced had begun at a young age, only mere moments after Tobirama had taken his first strained breath. No one could have expected the child that slid out of his mother’s womb that fateful winter day, his head full of shocking white hair and vermillion eyes causing silent panic amongst the midwives present in the room. His grandmother, wise with age and experience, had only seen a child such as him once in her lifetime of forty-two years and had no hesitation in stating that the said child had died within hours of delivery, having been sickly and frail. Yet, even his grandmother had been left reeling as the delivery room’s occupants took in the sight that truly left all flabbergasted. Much to their confusion, Tobirama possessed not only male genitalia but also that of a female, a vagina clearly present behind his small but still ever present penis. Never had any of them seen this phenomena before, though rumors of this happening every so often echoed across the landscape within the Land of Fire. Most born with this condition did not live long, many seeing such a deformation as an evil that was swiftly disposed of upon delivery. Tobirama had been born with not only one but two deformities and the cards of humanity stacked against him only moments into his existence, particularly when it came to his father. Butsuma Senju did not allow any weakness to be present within the family, his words stern and his hands like steel, and the very moment his dark eyes fell upon Tobirama’s sleeping form, his fate was sealed. 

The Senju clan head had taken one disgusted look at his youngest son and chose he would rather his son be dead than show weakness. It had taken both the convincing words of his grandmother and the pleading screams of his mother to stop the man amidst his attempted drowning of Tobirama, his infant self having been no more than ten minutes old. They argued that Tobirama would prove his worth, that he would be just as strong as any other shinobi, to simply give him the chance he deserved by being his son. With bitter reluctance, Butsuma had pulled Tobirama from the bath and unceremoniously dropped him into his wailing mother’s arms, sneering that their claims of the “cursed child being of worth was a waste of breath until proven.” 

The truth of Tobirama’s deformities became a secret that only those within the room knew, Butsuma having promised a swift death to anyone who spoke of what occurred that day. Not even his own brother had come to know about his condition until the mokuton user found him lying amongst a pool of his blood when they were fifteen and seventeen respectively, his first bleed having set in some time during the night. Tobirama, however, had merely been two years old when he discovered that he was unlike others amongst his clan. 

Mother had been bathing both him and his brother when Tobirama had come to notice something peculiar between him and his brother anatomically. Much to his young confusion, the difference in what he came to know as genitalia was not striking but it was indeed noticeable; Hashirama possessed a penis as all males do but Tobirama had both male and female sets of genitalia. He had presented his mother with his confused query later as she tucked him in and Tobirama was met with a trembling lip and teary pools of obsidian, ones that he still missed terribly following her later passing. She had been hesitant in answering, nearly begging Tobirama to leave the matter be but his mind had fixated on the topic and while he was typically an obedient child, he was also stubborn. Eventually, she conceded to his demands, his mother murmuring nervously that the matter would be discussed at a more appropriate time when Hashirama, who was slumbering nearby, was not present. Little more than an hour later, his mother was cradling Tobirama to her chest as she quietly tainted his childhood innocence. 

“I am so sorry, Tobirama. I failed you.”

At first, Tobirama did not understand why she had apologized to him, for the formation of his body had been out of her control. Mother had been perfect in Tobirama’s eyes, being kind yet firm when needing to be, especially with Hashirama’s wobbly emotional state. She was the one who intercepted incoming blows, the person who gave him as many books as she could obtain so Tobirama could amass his knowledge, even at such a young age. Their mother was the one who encouraged Hashirama to follow his heart even though their father blatantly discouraged it, the clan head wanting an emotionless and brutal heir for a son instead of one of compassion and thought. He had witnessed the punishments mother received for her motherly love, ones that left her bloody and in pain, sometimes her clothes having been ripped off and legs caked in a mixture of unholy fluids. Hashirama cried about it often, sometimes even attempting to interfere because he knew what their father was doing was improper, but Tobirama always took his elder brother’s hand with a shake of his head and held him as he cried. Mother, even when so beaten and broken down by years of emotional and physical abuse, was there for them even if she was unable to get out of bed, her sadness too deep and wounds too painful. 

She had still been perfect when she had informed Tobirama that he had not only been born with a condition known as albinism but the Kami cursed him with both male and female genitalia. Her sobs were deafening to his young self as he tried to understand why having such a condition was considered wrong, why it had brought the young woman to tears just thinking about it. It however explained the brutal treatment Tobirama had received from his father, looks of disdain with rough hands, spirit shattered and bones broken, only acknowledging him on the training field and nothing more. The man did not even address him by his name, choosing to use “Boy” or “You” in place of it, something he continued to do even on his deathbed. Tobirama himself had wanted to cry, so confused as to everything that was going on whilst trying to comprehend the meaning behind her words with his small processing capacity at the time. Yet, in that moment, all he had been capable of doing was giving his mother the love she so rarely received. 

The truth of his condition, of the curse the Kami had bestowed upon him at birth, was something that was never to be discussed with anyone beside his mother. 

“Tobirama, you must promise me you will never speak of this with anyone aside from I or your grandmother! Do you understand me?!” 

Grandmother, the one to assist mother in his delivery and the first to take witness of how the Kami came to punish Senju Butsuma for his misdeeds, at least according to her understanding. 

“Your father has taken much and given little, boy. Your own mother is proof of Butsuma’s greed, seeing as how he stole her away from her own family to satisfy his own urges. You, however, are the undeniable proof that no one can escape the judgment of the Kami, not even the great Senju Butsuma. Not anyone aside from myself, you, and your mother will ever come to know this fact, hmm?” 

So, from the tender age of two years old, Tobirama never told a soul. At least, not until  Hashirama came to wake him for breakfast early one morning and found the lower half of Tobirama’s futon and blankets covered in blood, his pale thighs caked in blood much like their mother’s had been all those years. Tobirama’s desperate pleas for the mokuton user to wait had fallen on deaf ears, Hashirama swiftly rushing off to gather not only Touka but his newly christened wife Mito as well, both women demanding to know what was going on as they were ushered in. All three had been left bewildered at the sight before them and even more so as Tobirama gave his explanation but Mito and Touka, much to his quiet relief, had come to his aid immediately, gifting him with necessary products and means in alleviating the pain he was feeling within his lower belly. 

While Tobirama had the outward signs of both genitalia, it had never been confirmed whether or not he indeed had a womb as well until that very morning, shaken and unsure of how to adjust to such a development. Hashirama had promptly been banished from his room upon becoming upset that Tobirama would keep such a secret from him, “-are we not brothers, Tobirama?!” , and it had left himself ashamed and insecure within his own skin for how was he supposed to tell his anija if he was to never know about it? He was the hideous and deformed son of Butsuma Senju, the Ghost of the Senju, the White Demon, the Red Eyed Senju, a freak of nature. Albinism could be explained for it happened every blue moon over the centuries, but being intersexed? Not as much. Tobirama was already made out to be an outcast with his looks and abilities alone, what with his suiton nature rather than earth and his peculiar outward bodily features, ones that had played a role in developing the names others within the clan and beyond viewed him as. News of his condition would only place a target on his back and more of a pariah amongst his people. 

Again, the information pertaining to his person was kept quiet, Tobirama swearing his blabbering brother to ultimate secrecy with blatant blackmail that had the emotional young man squirming in his seat. Tobirama never feared Touka nor Mito of spreading word of his condition, rather the two women were firm in covertly supporting him through his monthly bleeds, offering items of relief and assistance when needed. He quickly became accustomed to retreating to his lab during the third week of the month for approximately four days, usually cocooned within the depths of his blankets with a heated water canteen and means of nutrition waiting at his bedside whenever required. In turn, Tobirama did the same when Mito and Touka experienced their own bleeds, creating a unique understanding and solidarity between them that his elder brother was quite envious of if his repetitious pouting said anything. 

 

With time, he grew accustomed to this new biological process, though it was often frustrating when it arrived early whilst on missions or even worse, on the battlefield. Luckily, he was able to cover any early starts with the draw of his blade, claiming the crimson fluid coloring the fabric of his pants had come from slaughtered enemies. No one had an inkling that Tobirama was such a deformed individual, a description his anija, cousin, and sister in law vehemently argued against if he spoke it aloud, but they always grew stubbornly quiet when he blatantly pointed out that he was indeed abnormal. 

Such abnormalities sealed his fate when it came to matters such as marriage. He knew early on that he would never be marriage material, with so many of his own clan repulsed by his albino features and others outside the Senju believing him to be a demon manifested. It was a persona their father had been eager to fuel from the moment he ordered Tobirama to slit the throat of an Uchiha male at the mere age of four years old, a twisted grin marring the man’s wrinkled face at seeing the crimson spill onto Tobirama’s snow white skin. 

These were just a few of the plethora of reasons why he had been left speechless when during the peace negotiations between the Senju and Uchiha, the Uchiha demanded not only an arranged marriage between clan heirs, but Tobirama specifically. Tobirama had gazed at Madara Uchiha with a poorly hidden slack jaw as those damning words spilled from his lips, vermillion irises searching obsidian ones with concerned confusion. The other Senjus’ had been shocked as well, Hashirama promptly thrown off as he asked the damning question of the day that seemed to be on the majority of his clansmen’s minds. 

“You want WHAT?!”

Tobirama painfully understood anija’s surprise, for he too had believed that Tobirama was incapable of feeling, having grown so used to his younger brother’s cold and calculating exterior that he had forgotten that his otouto felt just as he did, only his emotions were hidden behind a carefully crafted mask. Hashirama had been the one to call him a cruel demon as they trekked home from that cursed riverfront, rage possessing his typically joyful features as his friendship with Uchiha Madara lay in ruins at his feet. Their sibling relationship had never fully recovered from that moment, with Hashirama too stubborn to forgive him for losing his friendship with Madara and Tobirama believing him to be right in doing so. He had never been a child of normalcy, his genetics and upbringing had ensured that was the case, and Hashirama was the clan heir, the blessed mokuton user with a heart of gold that had an enticing personality that drew everyone to him. Tobirama was the spare, the bloodsoaked weapon Butsuma had carefully crafted and wielded without mercy, the cursed suiton user with a heart of ice and unwelcoming personality that scared everyone away. They were perfect opposites, as their mother always kindly pointed out, Hashirama the yin to his yang, the sun to his moon, and such differences had seemingly damaged their relationship beyond repair. Both Mito and Touka had done their damndest to assist the two brothers in mending their broken bonds but Hashirama did everything in his power to skirt around their deepest, most unhealed issue, that being one individual in particular. 

Uchiha Madara. 

This wound only seemed to grow more aggravated when Tobirama, much to his own surprise, accepted the proposal as Hashirama and Touka bickered over the matter, the two remaining members of his blood gazing at him with shock. Hashirama did his best to object on the premise, carelessly urging that Tobirama hated the Uchiha as Touka argued for Tobirama to think sensibly, that such a demand was most likely a trick to kill him once alone with Madara. Tobirama had never broken eye contact with the Uchiha clan heir, memorizing every speck of his cool and collected features in search of some sign of maliciousness or contempt, yet he found nothing. Instead, he found himself taking in a man who possessed a stern resolve, willing to marry himself away to a man of evil that he wholeheartedly despised if it meant there was to be no more bloodshed between their families, the same objective Tobirama held close to his icy heart. So, without a shred of hesitation, Tobirama had agreed, much to Hashirama and Touka’s pure horror, something he paid no mind to, gaze never leaving Madara’s as he watched pained regret spill into pools of obsidian. 

Peace was everything his anija had ever wanted since those fateful days at the Naka River. If he had to sacrifice himself for not only Hashirama but for the overall greater good, so that some justification for Kawarama and Itama’s premature deaths could be made, he swore from a young age he would do it.

He wasn’t a true human after all, right? 

~~~

A/N: Any comments, reblogs, etc. are always appreciated! Let me know if I should continue this as a series or leave it as a one-shot.

[seeingteacupsindragons]

hello, marr! i was wondering if you could recc any of those queer-character-shounens that you mentioned in passing? i'm sure i will probably have read some of them myself lol but i am always up for new recommendations

(also have you heard of call of the night, by any chance? that's a really fun shounen i've been enjoying recently where one of the central themes is literally the aroace spectrum [and also vampires XD])

Going to address the last question first, because it's quicker: Nope!

As for the other, I'm not going to necessarily going to "rec" them, but I'm going to mention some. Spoilers ahoy!

As for things I'm going to exclude: Any of that "super intense shonen protagonist and their best friend/rival relationship even though one or both has a canon female love interest" because that's extremely common but not what we're talking about. Sorry, Naruto, begone. And I'll also exclude things like GetBackers, because they are canonically interested in women despite being advertised, uh, like this.

I'll probably include some seinen, too, because despite seinen generally getting to cover more series and adult topics because of its older demographic, it's still a male-targeted genre and wowwwww the pin ups in the seinen manga sometimes--people assume it targets a similarly un-queer audience.

And obviously limited to stuff I can think of and know.

Let's get started!

HunterXHunter. Alluka (Killua's younger sister) is a trans girl! Everyone in the family refers to her as a boy or a son or a brother, except...Killua, who is also the only person in the family she gets along with. It's really not subtle. There's also whatever Hisoka is, but. Well. We hate Hisoka on this blog, okay?

Dr. STONE. Look, I just watched this one so I'm thinking of it, but there's basically no way Senku isn't aro ace, and this is actually a really common opinion, given that when someone said they could fall in love with him, his response was, "Please don't." Senku has zero interest in romance or sex or any of it, and just cares intensely for his friends. The aro ace community is claiming him, sorry. I know the anime hasn't covered everything, but I cannot imagine him ever getting a love interest, either. It's been repeated.

Akame ga Kill has a gay man on Night Raid. Spoiler, but everyone on Night Raid dies, so he hardly gets a happy ending, but it's not like that's unique to him.

Nabari no Ou is technically a shonen, having been published in a shonen magazine (that also published things like...well, Black Butler, so annnnnyway), and the detueragonist, Yoite, is intersex and has a...probably homosexual...relationship with the protag. It reads that way, anyway.

Luffy from One Piece is confirmed by the author to be ace, and there's a trans dude introduced lately that everyone's been arguing about, hasn't there? Yamato? (I don't like One Piece)

Soul Eater: Crona is nonbinary

Gurren Lagann: Leeron is gay, and although it's not the most tastefully handled, it's definitely canon. It's seienen or shonen, one of 'em.

Boys Run the Riot is a seinen about a trans boy

The manga adaptation of Tiger & Bunny was actually published in a seinen magazine, and *waves at self-identified okama Nathan Seymour, the most-aggressively-nonbinary-chracter*. Plus I'm not over Kotetsu's joke about how Nathan isn't his type because he's "too tall" and not any...um...gender concerns.

My Brother's Husband is published in a seinen manga, and what do you think it's about, come on here.

So anyway, yeah. There's a list to start, just from my own off-hand knowledge without really looking anything up. I'm sure there's been more scholarly and researched discussions on this.

and the point is really: YuuMori isn't unique in the existence of queer characters, queer themes, an unusually queer or female audience for shonen, or anything. While I love it, it's not the only series that's done it. It's not the first.

I saw someone say it "rewrote the rules" for queer characters in shonen earlier today, which is what that comment earlier was about. No, it didn't. I love it, but it really, truly did not. It's building on a long legacy of characters.

[transgirl-gaming-thoughts]

My Thoughts On: Queer Representation in Games

Let's face it: queer representation has its moments, but we have a long way to go before its considered common. However, games have a strong history of featuring LGBT+ characters... though not always favorably.

Let me preface my post with this: I myself am a queer Christian. I'm trans (she/they), asexual, and lesbian. This isn't a straight person critiquing queer representation to seem "politically correct" or "like a good ally". This is a queer person sharing their thoughts on queer representation in games. I felt like that needed to be said, and be said first.

Queer representation in games is inconsistent, at best. If you're in a video game fandom, or any fandom really, you've probably seen theories about certain characters being queer, or certain characters in queer ships, but how many canonically queer characters have you seen? Unfortunately, most characters are either queer by the consensus of the fandom, or by confirmation outside of the game itself, such as Tweets from creators, comics, books, etc. During the 1980s, LGBT+ characters were practically non-existent, and when they finally began to become more common in the 90s (not common, just more common), they were often over-exaggerated stereotypes of queer people, and not legitimate characters.

Around the 1990s, video games began to include more queer characters (especially gay man), though they were almost always portrayed as excessively stereotypical. Gay men were almost always portrayed as effeminate men, and trans characters were generally portrayed as men with long hair. This is just another example of the continuous way people misconstrue homosexuality and transgender identities, and no one took trans identities seriously. However, we can see in this era a continuing push for characters to become less shallow, and have more depth to makes them them.

Things really started to pick up around the 2000s. The life simulator The Sims was a monumental release that allowed people to direct any two sims, regardless of gender, into a romantic/sexual relationship. Persona 2: Eternal Punishment featured gay, lesbian, and bisexual characters (with an honorable mention going to the intersex fortune teller). Heck, even Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door featured a trans woman who is bullied and misgendered by her siblings. The early 2000s gave rise to a whole load of new games with queer representation, and I've only scratched the surface here. Series like Persona have continued to include queer characters in their games. The Japanese game market contained and contains a significantly larger amount of queer representation, but that said, its not always positive representation.

Really quick, I want to touch on one of my biggest pet peeves with queer characters, and that's the fact that so many of them are villains. How many times have you seen a queer villain in media? Sure, everyone loves a good villain (Marvel's Loki got his own show, where they subtly revealed he's bisexual and genderfluid), but the portrayal of so many queer characters as the villain of a story has more negative undertones than I care for. In the classic RPG Chrono Trigger for the Super Nintendo, a major villain, Flea, is genderqueer, and states "Male... female... what's the difference? Power is beautiful, and I've got the power!" In a perfect world, I would be okay with queer villains, because if the character fits the role, so be it, but in a world that is still predominantly heteronormative, things like this come across as negative towards queer characters, saying they're the "villain" of whatever story they're put in. This theme continues with the usage of transgender characters, even in modern games.

Warning: May contain spoilers for Catherine or Catherine: Full Body TW: Misgendering and transphobia

The example that comes to mind is the 2011 game Catherine by Atlus. Now, full disclosure, I haven't played this game myself, however, I have read reviews and read the Wikipedia article on the character I'm about to mention.

The character Erica Anderson is a canonically trans woman who works as a waitress. She exhibits confident body language as well as body language that shows sexual confidence. The other characters behave in a transphobic manner towards her, voicing their disgust at the thought of a character having sex with her, and using her deadname several times over the course of the game. Not even the credits are exempt from this, as her deadname is used there as well. In the "ideal" ending of Catherine: Full Body, the definitive version of the game from 2019, Erica never transitioned at all, insinuating that it would be better for everyone if she never transitioned. Additionally, her coming-out scene was used to embarrass another character who had sex with her. Writer Caty McCarthy felt that Erica came off as well-rounded until her coming out was treated like a joke. While some people argue that her mistreatment by characters and plot are reflective of a society that is still dominantly transphobic, it doesn't change the fact her status as a trans woman was treated as a joke. A joke. If the writers wanted to make her character a commentary on transphobia, they could have done so, but it's very apparent that they didn't. People were pleased with her character as a whole, as she was a well-rounded character who went through very real trans experiences, but it's absolutely tragic she got treated the way she did in-game and by the creators. Keep in mind, this game was first released in 2011, and Full Body came out in 2019. I've had people tell me that LGBT+ identities are "the social standard" or "accepted by society", especially from Christians who claim they're being "counter-cultural" by being homophobic and transphobic. Things like Erica Anderson's character in Catherine are prime examples of the fact that yes, we've made progress, leaps and bounds even, but we are so far from being in a good place, and there's a lot of things we still have to power through.

Spoilers end here.

Life simulators and visual novels have always appealed to LGBT+ gamers, and there's lots of games with representation in these categories. Queer dating sims, queer visual novels, and queer options in simulators have been present for a long time. The long-standing MMORPG Runescape from 2001 allows the player to wear any clothes and change their gender and appearance at any time for no charge. The Animal Crossing community has been accommodating and accepting of all peoples and identities for a while, especially since the release of New Horizons in 2020.

Not all representation is obvious, either. The critically-acclaimed RPG Undertale by Toby Fox features a non-binary protagonist (the protagonist's gender is left ambiguous so that the player can project themself onto the character, but as far as the canon goes, they use they/them pronouns). One of the paths in Undertale also involves the forming of a lesbian relationship between two of the main characters (no spoilers here :3). None of these things are obvious representation, however. The main character never says they're non-binary, but they use they/them pronouns the entire game, and no gender is established. The lesbian characters are known to be lesbian not because they said so, but simply because they love each other. None of the other characters act surprised or respond negatively. To them, love is love. Some people have made arguments for a canon male or female gender for the protagonist, but the fact stands that Toby Fox said their gender is ambiguous on purpose; there is no canon gender. Let people express themselves!

In conclusion, how do I feel about queer representation in the gaming world? Mixed.

On one hand, the inclusion of queer characters and the addition of queer opportunities in games gives me hope that the world of gaming can be a more accepting and supportive place. On the other hand, this is also just a new format for homophobes and transphobes to voice their uneducated opinions and spread hate. Things like Erica Anderson from Catherine and the fandom's treatment of the protagonist's gender in Undertale serve as reminders that people aren't all kind and supportive, however much some people would like us to think that LGBT+ identities have become "the social standard".

However, it's not all bad. There are some games that have legitimately well-written queer characters, accommodating queer options, and overall accepting, supportive atmospheres. Games allow us to express ourselves, even when it might not be safe for us to do so in our everyday lives. Not all queer people are in safe environments, and if we can use video games as a platform to raise awareness and spread love, then I'll be there to support that, but whenever there's characters like Erica Anderson who're mistreated, I'll be there to calls shenanigans on that.

It is my hope, my prayer, my belief, that we can work together to spread love. Love is the root of all the good things in this broken world, and if nobody works to spread it, then we're all going to suffer. If video games can be a platform for us to show one another how much we care, and how much we love and support one another, why would we not take advantage of that? The video game industry is in desperate need of more queer characters who aren't there because they're queer, or are the subject of a queer game, but are there because they add something to the game through who they are, and being queer is just a part of that. We need to show people that we don't exist for the pure purpose of being queer, but being queer is a part of the beautiful people we were made to be, and we aren't afraid to show that. If we can have even a sliver of that in the world of gaming, things will get better. I know they will.

Thanks for reading this lengthy post. I didn't initially intend to post this so soon, but I felt Pride Month would be an appropriate time to do so. This is something I feel quite strongly about, and I wanted to share a little history along with my thoughts and feelings on the subject. Feel free to ask me about anything I wrote. You have my deepest apologies if anything I said offended anyone. It is never my intent to do so, and if edits are necessary, let me know and I'll get right to it! For now, have fun, stay hydrated, do what you love, and God bless!

~Alex

If you're interested in more of my ~queer~ thoughts, be sure to check out my secondary blog, Assorted Queer Thoughts!