#but watch that movie and you see the queerness all over it easily

[dimonds456]

Transfem Stan Thoughtdump

Okay so @/abyssalzones made a pretty good post that sums up a lot of my thoughts as well, but I have a few extra ones I'd like to add to this discussion, as well as elaborating on one of the post's points. I've been thinking about transfem Stan for a couple of weeks now and at this point I'm like "fuck it we ball" and throwing it out there. 

For one, it warms my heart whenever there's an older character who was raised in the mid-1900s/older times who realizes they're queer, or comes to terms with their identity in old age. You're never too old to realize you're part of the community, and never too late. Adding this on top of the many, MANY identities that Stan has had to take to survive in her life, it'd be like really turning over a new leaf for her. She'd get to really step into an identity that she aligns with completely, and not something else given to her or that she took to protect herself. 

Not to mention, everything regarding Ford. The fact that she had to pretend to be Ford for so long, she more than likely never had the chance to even think about taking on any other identities. She had to keep this one as intact as she could. Otherwise, she could risk loosing the Shack, and with it, the portal- her brother. No way that was happening. 

It was briefly touched in the post, but when Stan was watching that one movie and she was like "JUST LIKE ME FR", obviously the writers intended that to just be a joke since this was as far and away from Stan's identity as they could get. But we're gonna ignore that and take it at face value for a second. 

The channel introduces itself (jokingly) as the boring old lady black-and-white channel, clearly something that a manly-man like Stan wouldn't be into, and he reacts like how you'd expect. But once it gets going, he gets fully sucked into it, leading eventually to the scene where the main character, seemingly about to complete a Character Arc™, tells her mother "I'm not just a dutchess, I'm also a woman!" and Stan cheers for her, saying the "just like me fr" line. 

Without any transfem headcanons, again, this is a joke. Or you could interpret this in hindsight as Stan feeling a similar way about his father, since lines like "I'm a woman!" declared like that usually means "I'm free to make my own choices," which is a message resident make-my-father-proud-issues Stanley Pines would relate to pretty hard. Even though this isn't a conclusion Stan comes to in the show, we could easily see him coming to a conclusion like that in the future.

Now let's add the transfem headcanon back in. With that new layer to it, Stan (whose egg hasn't cracked yet) would be confused as to why she relates so hard. After all, she's a man who was raised to shove feelings down and be a manly-man man by Filbrick. She's more than likely gone her entire life trying to conform to that idea of toxic masculinity that her dad pushed on both her and Ford. Stan was always the one who resorted to punching, after all. That's a manly-man trait, so surely this goes no further right

There's a part of Gravity Falls that I feel doesn't get discussed enough, and that's the underlying misogyny of it. There's not a ton of it, but there are quite a few jokes about how men are stronger than women and the like. Stan has quite a few lines like that herself. So she would be subscribing to a similar mental state, the idea that if you like punching, CLEARLY you're a guy. Cuz that's how it works. Obviously. 

Introducing Mabel Pines, someone who is VERY much a girly-girl. She likes pink and unicorns and rainbows and makeup and sleepovers, stuff of the like. Now I could make a whole other post about my headcanons for Mabel and her queer journey, but one thing she can definitely do that "girly-girls" DON'T? Punching.

Mabel can punch. And she punches a lot. 

It's a small thing, and something I think Stan has just kinda accepted without question over the course of the series, but if she were to stop and think about it, she'd be like ".....wait a minute." and it could very well be the first piece that cracks the idea of manly-man masculinity vs just. existing as a person and what that actually means. 

Once Stan finally starts to break away from toxic masculinity and all those lessons she got thrown into her head, then her egg would finally be able to start cracking. 

As for why it even matters, first off, it just makes for an interesting interpretation of the character I haven't really seen before until VERY recently. Like, within the past 2 days recently (and maybe once like a month ago?? idk). 

But secondly, for her character, it would be a good, healthy step into really taking back her identity. Who IS Stan Pines? She's spent so long being other people, either as a form of self-defense or pretending to be her brother so she can help save him from the sideburn hell dimension, that I don't think she's really allowed herself to connect to who Stan is. 

This is true regardless of gender headcanon, but I think the transfem angle makes it so much more interesting. Who is Stan? Not even she knows. And she's starting to feel VERY confused about the whole thing. 

As for Ford, I think he'd be more than willing to support an identity journey for Stan. After all, he's traveled across dimensions and more than likely had all his teachings questioned as well. I am willing to bet money he's encountered trans people before. And, knowing Ford, he'd be open and curious to the idea, not close-minded, no matter what their father tried to teach his kids. Honestly, I could see Ford pestering Stan with questions long into the night regarding the whole thing, and taking up the whole identity mystery for himself as something the two of them can "crack" (heh) together. Just another adventure for the crew of the Stan'o'War II! 

There's SO much more but I don't wanna re-say things that the og post already said, these are just the big ones that stick out to me and what I wanted to elaborate on. 

TL;DR Stan goes on a journey of realizing that toxic masculinity Is Bad Actually and honestly so was his father, and once he accepts that and starts actively challenging his own beliefs about gender, her egg cracks and she realizes that maybe she isn't a guy at all. The rest of the Pines- but Ford especially- are supportive, and although Stan has a LOT of self-reflection to do and I could see her getting frustrated, flustered, or even embarrassed of her newfound realization, ultimately it makes her happier like this. Cuz it's her identity. She's not pretending to be anyone else anymore and she can just wholly be herself.

Thank you and goodnight

[alexjcrowley]

Yesterday night I felt sick with my stomach and stayed awake all night making audio recordings to my best friend about watching Quantum of Solace for the first time (I am still finishing it) and then I started randomly talking about 00q and accidentally opened up the Pandora Box of my memories but I instantly remembered everything I ever knew about 00q like when it got adopted by the BBC Sherlock fandom or the Paddington is the new Quartermaster stuff or when everybody was obsessed with the fucking Téméraire and it was EVERYWHERE and everybody made the joke "It's a ship!!!" and the age difference discourse between James and Q and Q being called Quentin and Mycroft and Sherlock being Q older brothers and disapproving of his relationship with James Bond and the fucking tea mugs and so many cats and everybody talking about Q's jumpers and making up OC minions for him and every fanfiction in which James retires to be with Q because he was the only one he ever loved aside from Vesper and Q feeling insecure because of her and all then Madeleine Sawnn came along and everybody was distraught even though the flirting was there in Spectre and we were all distraught because we could have had it all and so many fix it fics so many fics about James cosntantly loosing his gadgets and how hard it was for Q to watch him seduce other people and everybody was saying they were grumpy x sunshine/black cat x Golden retriver coded BUT THEY WERE NOT ACTUALLY in my humble opinion but they were easily flustered x flirting menace and Q had such salty one-liners and everybody believed he was a posh boy and do you remember when years later you had the same museum scene with Hannibal it was clearly a parallel and then there was No Time To Die and Q was officially queer oh my God oh my fucking God it was CANON he TOTALLY CANONICALLY MUST HAVE HAD A CRUSH ON BOND and we saw THE CATS and WHO WAS Q WAITING FOR?????? James must have been jealous but then the movie was what it was and a lot of people hated it and all of the fix it fics in which Bond said his last words to Q because it was always Q it will always be Q and also everybody making up names for him names were such a huge deal Q revealing his name to James in his last moments grieving fics in which James died but you also had silly ones and spicy ones uhhh a lot of those because sometimes you just need to ignore canon and see them happy and maybe both retiring or maybe they kept working flirting over the comms and annoying everyone at MI6 which wasn't exactly Avengers "Everybody Lives in The Tower" au but it was close they weren't a found family per se but some of them were very close there used to be edits on youtube yeah before TikTok came along youtube edits were A ThingTM with all those retrica-looking filters and pop songs or sad love songs and fake trailers who remembers those or like scenes edited to look like they were from a romcom and comments on the scenes written in small usually white text that were meant to reflect the character inner thoughts like "That's hot" or "He's so annoying I need to kiss him" or "BITCH" and fics in which Q was kidnapped and James went berserk and a few years ago Knives Out came out and we tried to to have Bond and Benoit Blanc related do you also remember that?

[dailyadventureprompts]

Tableskills: Creating Dread

I've often had a lot of problems telling scary stories at my table, whether it be in d&d or other horror focused games. I personally don't get scared easily, especially around "traditionally horrifying" things so it's hard for me to recreate that experience in others. Likewise, you can't just port horror movie iconography into tabletop and expect it to evoke genuine fear: I've already spoken of being bored out of my mind during the zombie apocalypse, and my few trips into ravenloft have all been filled with similar levels of limp and derivative grimdark.

It took me a long time (and a lot of video essays about films I'd never watched) to realize that in terms of an experience fear is a lot like a joke, in that it requires multiple steps of setup and payoff. Dread is that setup, it's the rising tension in a scene that makes the revelation worth it, the slow and literal rising of a rollercoaster before the drop. It's way easier to inspire dread in your party than it is to scare them apropos of nothing, which has the added flexibility of letting you choose just the right time to deliver the frights.

TLDR: You start with one of the basic human fears (guide to that below) to emotionally prime your players and introduce it to your party in a initially non-threataning manor. Then you introduce a more severe version of it in a way that has stakes but is not overwhelmingly scary just yet. You wait until they're neck deep in this second scenario before throwing in some kind of twist that forces them to confront their discomfort head on.

More advice (and spoilers for The Magnus Archives) below the cut.

Before we go any farther it's vitally important that you learn your party's limits and triggers before a game begins. A lot of ttrpg content can be downright horrifying without even trying to be, so it's critical you know how everyone in your party is going to react to something before you go into it. Whether or not you're running an actual horror game or just wanting to add some tension to an otherwise heroic romp, you and your group need to be on the same page about this, and discuss safety systems from session 0 onwards.

The Fundamental Fears: It may seem a bit basic but one of the greatest tools to help me understand different aspects of horror was the taxonomy invented by Jonathan Sims of The Magnus Archives podcast. He breaks down fear into different thematic and emotional through lines, each given a snappy name and iconography that's so memorable that I often joke it's the queer-horror version of pokemon types or hogwarts houses. If we start with a basic understanding of WHY people find things scary we learn just what dials we need turn in order to build dread in our players.

Implementation: Each of these examples is like a colour we can paint a scene or encounter with, flavouring it just so to tickle a particular, primal part of our party's brains. You don't have to do much, just something along the lines of "the upcoming cave tunnel is getting a little too close for comfort" or "the all-too thin walkway creaks under your weight ", or "what you don't see is the movement at the edge of the room". Once the seed is planted your party's' minds will do most of the work: humans are social, pattern seeking creatures, and the hint of danger to one member of the group will lay the groundwork of fear in all the rest.

The trick here is not to over commit, which is the mistake most ttrpgs make with horror: actually showing the monster, putting the party into a dangerous situation, that’s the finisher, the  punchline of the joke. It’s also a release valve on all the pressure you’ve been hard at work building.

There’s nothing all that scary about fighting a level-appropriate number of skeletons, but forcing your party to creep through a series of dark, cobweb infested catacombs with the THREAT of being attacked by undead? That’s going to have them climbing the walls.

Let narration and bad dice rolls be your main tools here, driving home the discomfort, the risk, the looming threat.

Surprise: Now that you’ve got your party marinating in dread, what you want to do to really scare them is to throw a curve ball. Go back to that list and find another fear which either compliments or contrasts the original one you set up, and have it lurking juuuust out of reach ready to pop up at a moment of perfect tension like a jack in the box. The party is climbing down a slick interior of an underdark cavern, bottom nowhere in sight? They expect to to fall, but what they couldn't possibly expect is for a giant arm to reach out of the darkness and pull one of them down. Have the party figured out that there's a shapeshifter that's infiltrated the rebel meeting and is killing their allies? They suspect suspicion and lies but what they don't expect is for the rebel base to suddenly be on FIRE forcing them to run.

My expert advice is to lightly tease this second threat LONG before you introduce the initial scare. Your players will think you're a genius for doing what amounts to a little extra work, and curse themselves for not paying more attention.

Restraint: Less is more when it comes to scares, as if you do this trick too often your players are going to be inured to it. Try to do it maybe once an adventure, or dungeon level. Scares hit so much harder when the party isn't expecting them. If you're specifically playing in a "horror" game, it's a good idea to introduce a few false scares, or make multiple encounters part of the same bait and switch scare tactic: If we're going into the filthy gross sewer with mould and rot and rats and the like, you'll get more punch if the final challenge isn't corruption based, but is instead some new threat that we could have never prepared for.

Art

[commsroom]

happy birthday! ive been meaning to ask for a while if you have any spare minkowski thoughts, just in general. if not, are there any other characters in w359 that you see as trans or queer?

thank you!! sorry for not getting to this one on my birthday; i've been trying to come up with some minkowski thoughts for you, but i'm not sure if they'll be new!! one of my favorite things about minkowski is how much she really, truly has "guilty pleasures" in the most typical sense. when emma sherr-ziarko said the track name "minkowski watching 50 shades of gray with a tub of ice cream and enjoying it nonironically" informed her perception of the character, etc. i love that. all of the best characters are self-contradicting in very real and human ways, and minkowski has a ton of that. her love of musical theater gives us such insight into her interior world; she treats so much of her life like these separate, practiced "roles" to play, as if there can be clear divisions between them.

minkowski is a great leader, but she's not a natural leader, and - in fact - everything that does ultimately make her a person worth following is completely at odds with how she tries to lead, or how she thinks it's supposed to be done. i think she was in a dozen different clubs in high school, but didn't really have friends. i think she could get really into historical reenactment (and i would love for eiffel, hera, and minkowski to go to a ren faire - i think they'd all enjoy that, but for very different reasons.) i think minkowski earnestly believes in the concept of a "cheat day" and marks when she allows herself to eat a whole bunch of ice cream on her calendar - this is horrifying to eiffel, but she finds it sincerely motivating. i think minkowski's interior decorating sense is at least 30% more "live, laugh, love" than anyone else around her would be able to take seriously. she's the kind of person who needs everything in her house properly labelled and put away in the same place every time. eiffel is the kind of person who leaves everything out, all over the place, and forgets it exists if someone puts it away. making them live together is hilarious. i think minkowski likes romcoms and hallmark christmas movies; she's easily moved by very sappy media, and very defensive / embarrassed about that. she's used to being mocked for her taste, and for how it goes against her image as a career military woman. i do not think hera would share her taste in movies at all, but minkowski + hera girls' night is very important to me.

what else... oh!! i've talked to my friend @hephaestuscrew a lot about minkowski's parents, and i agree with the assessment that they are probably... pretty laid back? like, the kind of people who encouraged her to be whatever she wanted to be - the pressure she puts on herself to make something of herself is the kind of person she is, and a message she got from the world at large more than her parents, i think. her dad's first name has an anglicized spelling as well, so i think there's something kind of... well, there's something that rings true about minkowski trying to hold onto these parts of her heritage that her parents aren't as concerned about. koudelka's a czech name; we don't know anything about him, but i wonder if maybe she made that connection with him at least partially because they were both american children of (at least one) eastern european parent(s) in paris. and her mother is french, she learned french before she learned english, but we don't really know if she spent time in france before that. there's a sense of displacement to that.

(as for the other part, well... i'm not sure! obviously jacobi is gay, and i would generally agree lovelace and maxwell are as well. i think eiffel is technically bi, but he's straight culture bi. i think it would be difficult to get minkowski to really examine her sexuality. whatever kepler's sexuality is, i think he's done his best to close himself off from any sincere desire. my thoughts on hera's sexuality would require a whole other post, but obviously i read her as trans. there isn't really anyone else i think of as trans, but that's not to say it's impossible - they're mostly military or military-adjacent people born in the 70s and 80s; by and large i think they're coming to these topics of identity from a different perspective from those of us on tumblr dot com. but i think doug eiffel is one of the most cis characters i can imagine.)

[scoupsahoy]

starting from zero

for @strangerthingsreversebigbang with art from @anaccidentwaitingtohappen

When Robin suggests that she and Steve skip town, he assumes she’s joking. She’ll say stuff like that all the time, because Hawkins has bumpy roads that exacerbate Steve’s migraines, and because the kids and be annoying and cliquey and exclusive, and because she’s heard from her aunt in Chicago that some women over there dare to have queer little haircuts and girlfriends whose hands they hold in public.

So when they’re watching Dirty Harry in the middle of the night and Robin says “we should move there,” Steve laughs and takes a sip of his beer.

Harry says the line about feeling lucky, and then Robin says “did you know that punk used to be slang for, like, a gay guy, or something?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Lots of gay people in San Francisco, by the way.”

Harry finally kills the Scorpio guy. “Yeah, it seems real safe there,” Steve says.

He’s not looking but he can feel Robin shrug next to him. “Can’t be worse than Hawkins.”

The camera does a really gross zoom in on Scorpio’s stupid bloody face, so he looks right at Robin, who looks deadly serious. Her mouth is small, the way it gets when she’s trying to shut herself up. The way she looks when the gears in her brain have been spinning for too long without letting anything out.

That’s when Robin gets dangerous. She’s a planner. Steve can usually see right through her, but there’s always been enough for the both of them in this town – or, well. He always thought there was.

“Are you– what’s going on?” She looks a bit like she’s going to cry, which is so unlike her that it makes Steve’s heart shake.

She takes a deep breath. “What if we just left?”

“Hawkins?”

“Indiana,” Robin says, shrugs again, gets a wild look in her eye. “The country.”

Steve cracks a smile. “The world, even.”

Robin laughs, this great big beautiful sound that fills the room and travels down the hallways. The house doesn’t ever feel dark or empty with her inside, with her pantomiming a rocket launch to outer space, like she can imagine living on Mars with him like he can with her.

“What’s even keeping you here?”

It’s a loaded question. In theory, this is his home. In it, everyone he’s ever known, ever loved, ever heard of. Except for his parents, who might be in the Hamptons and might be in Vegas. Except for Nancy, in Boston. Except for half the town, lost in the rubble of an earthquake they all pretend happened.

He stays, really, because Robin is here.

And Steve, for a long time, hasn’t been able to shake the nagging feeling that she could have had more if it wasn’t for him, that she might go anywhere for him, and he’s the one who’s too cowardly to think of leaving. Robin’s chosen to stay, despite her little jokes about leaving. Despite a girl she fell in love with over a whirlwind summer leaving for college in Texas. Despite the little horrors of this town and the passions she could have easily followed. She has ambition and talent and drive. She has family and she knows what she wants and she knows who she wants it with.

And the worst part is that Steve is the one she wants it with.

There are days where he locks himself in his house, sulking and exhausted and alone, and she climbs in through his bedroom window, just as determined as he used to be before all of this. She plays with his hair and draws on his shoes and brings over movies he’s never seen and he would stop the spinning of the world for her.

He knows anyone would, if they had her like he does.

It’s been eating him alive, a little bit. He’s been frozen in time and space since a chasm opened up in the town and left him completely unable to move.

Steve takes a deep breath. “I don’t know. What’s keeping you here?”

“You,” Robin says, looking at him hard past her eyelashes. “Dingus.”

“You want to go to San Francisco? To live?”

“Yeah, I think we could do it.”

–

There are some things you can’t really say out loud without ruining the magic of them.

Steve and Robin go to work the next day and the day after that and the day after that. Robin had found them another job at a restaurant on basically the other end of Roane County where they get paid like shit but can work for tips. They’ve both been working full-time since Robin graduated high school, saving up for nothing in particular, skirting past a new shitty manager and getting free meals for the kids when they come in.

Steve supposes, once the idea is up in the air, that another reason he’s held back for so long was because of the kids, with all the things they’ve gone through, and all the people that have left them. He doesn’t want to be another person that leaves for better things. Steve’s a person who’s been left, in so many ways. It always feels like a betrayal on the other end of it.

So they don’t say anything about it to anyone, not even really out loud to each other, until one shift after weeks and weeks of saving and shuffling and looking at listings from newspaper clippings they get sent from Jonathan in California and Nancy in Boston and Robin’s aunt in Chicago. Jonathan and Nancy and even Robin’s relatives don’t bother asking questions, are secretive enough on their own, so there’s no pressure on that front.

Erica sits at a booth on a Sunday afternoon teaching Robin how to make friendship bracelets on her lunch break while the restaurant is dead.

“Why aren’t you with your friends?” Steve asks, stealing a french fry off Robin’s plate and eyeing their work.

Erica rolls her eyes, ever expressive. “I hate the birthday boy so much that it wouldn’t even be worth it to go and make fun of him. Plus, I’m getting too old for birthday parties.”

“Yeah Steve,” Robin says, holding up her bracelet. “She’s too mature for that.”

“Don’t condescend to me,” Erica fires back. She pulls at Robin’s sleeve to gather a bit of the string and tighten it before it falls apart on her. All things considered, Erica’s always been one of their favorite of the kids, if only because if she didn’t want to stick around, she wouldn’t. And yet she’s always there.

Robin and Erica talk lowly while they graze and gossip, right up until Erica turns around in the booth to level Steve with a look while he busses the next table over. “So when are you guys leaving?”

“Uh,” Steve checks his watch. “We have like three and a half more hours.”

“That’s obviously not what I meant and you know it. When are you leaving? Like, moving away, skipping town, getting out of here?”

Robin turns around too, now, giving Steve a look that says she hasn’t even alluded to that. Erica is startlingly perceptive, though, and cares way more about the people in this town than she’d care to admit. With all the people who have moved away in the past few years, all of the kids who she went to school with who left because of the earthquake, it’s not exactly all that surprising.

“When we can afford it, basically,” Robin says finally. Steve has a weird lump in his throat that keeps him from saying anything before that. Something about having to look Erica in the eyes makes it seem all the more real.

She still raises an eyebrow at him. He shrugs.

“Where are you going to go?”

“Not too far that we won’t visit,” Robin says, reaching up like she’d dare try to pinch Erica’s cheek. “Don’t worry.”

Erica purses her lips and glares harder, and if Steve knows her like he thinks he does, he’d guess her face was hot and embarrassed under all of that sarcasm. “Like I care. I just figured you’d start telling people at some point if it’s so obvious that I’ve figured something’s up.”

“What do you mean we’re being obvious?” Steve asks.

“You know,” Erica gestures a little wildly. “You guys have been acting weird. All quiet and secretive with your little conspiratorial looks. And you offered to help me make friendship bracelets. You’re getting in your weird older sibling fantasies and that either means you’re dying or you’re moving away. You’re not dying, are you?”

Steve smiles. “Nah, we’re fine. And we’ll let you know when we’re actually making real plans.”

“Well. Good.”

There’s a bit of earnestness that peeks through, a little bit of personality that’s only for people she really likes. She helps them make beaded friendship bracelets for each other, pastel pinks and blues, and she keeps the secret just as good as either of them.

–

People who know Robin the way that Steve does know that she has an overcompensation streak that could rival anyone. She’s stubborn and superstitious and anxious and combats all of her fears by learning everything she could possibly need to know about them. By the time Erica figures out that they’re leaving Hawkins, Robin decides she’s going to learn everything there is to know about every major city in the United States. By the time she tells her parents that she’s going to save up and move out, she’s got an entire notebook full of notes and plans and phone numbers and addresses. She is positive that she can do it on her own. She doesn’t need help.

There are no cracks in her plan, in her demeanor, in her routine. Especially facing Steve. She tells him he worries too much for his own good anyway.

There’s one moment, though, before they get too far into their search, before things are finalized, right after they decide on San Francisco after all:

Robin has her nose in three different books from the library in the next town over. She’s got her pen in her hand and she’s taking her notes. She’s got a crease in between her eyebrows and takes a shaky breath that sounds a little too familiar.

Steve, at the other end of the couch, two books of his own that he’s trying way too hard to understand, about the logistics of moving across the country, pokes at Robin with his toe. She looks up at him like she might collapse.

“What if this is a horrible idea? Like, a catastrophic idea. Like we’re going to die before we leave, kind of idea. I know you didn’t read that Stephen King book that just came out, but what if it’s like that? Those kids are haunted and what if we’re haunted?”

“Robin,” Steve starts.

She pushes a book about taxes off of her lap and onto the floor, folding some of the pages in a way that’s going to make her feel bad later. “What if I don’t find any jobs out there? And then I have to do street art for tourists who think I’m an idiot for not going to college?”

Steve reaches over and touches her on the shoulder, rubbing gently. “Robin.”

“What if girls don’t like me?” She really looks like she might cry, now. It’s rare enough that Steve’s heart lurches violently in his chest.

“They will.”

“What if they don’t?”

“Well you’ve got me,” he says. “And we can get married for tax benefits, and girls will see you with a wedding ring and probably flock to you even harder.”

And like a shot, Robin snaps out of it enough to roll her eyes. They put the books down for the night.

–

There’s a long day where Steve’s mother calls their landline just to check on him. She’ll do this sometimes, ask how he’s doing, what he’s eating, make comments on if it’s enough or if it’s too much. She makes comments about Robin, whose name she only barely remembers from the times Steve has shouted it from across the room while on the phone. She tells the same stories about how her and his father will be coming to visit soon, and he laughs and almost believes her when she tries her hardest to seem earnest.

But it’s been a long day, and Steve works for tips and makes shit money, and he and Robin don’t know what they’re doing because they don’t know anyone who’s doing it alone like they are. They’re so close to leaving that every day left feels a little like torture. And he’s alone in his house, empty while Robin’s with some band kids on break from school. And his mother says “we’re thinking of coming to visit soon, your father and I,” and Steve actually laughs. She ignores it. “He misses you, you know. You can call the car phone whenever you’d like, I’m sure he’d pick up.”

And they both know it’s a sick lie, because his father gave up on him years ago, never even bothers to come on the line when his mother makes her pity calls. The line goes silent while they both sit there and wait for some truth to come out of it, and Steve almost feels bad for this woman who clearly forgot how to be a mother back when she prioritized being a wife.

“Well,” she says, eventually. “We’ve actually got to get going, sweetheart. Your father has one of those boring old work events tonight in Santa Fe.”

“Alright,” he manages to say.

She takes a deep breath, like she’s gearing herself up for another lie. “We love you. We’ll visit soon.”

Steve hangs up.

Robin will be dropped off at his front door by morning, he knows, and he also knows that she doesn’t need to be let into the house in any kind of formal way. It’s just as much hers as it is his. And it’s more of their house than it ever was his parents’. And Steve imagines, just for a second, what would happen if he locked all of the doors and windows. If he changed the locks and ate the keys. If he filled the entire house with concrete and smoke before he left the place to die.

He wonders if his parents would ever find out. If they would bust the door down looking for him, the way Robin would. She would climb down his chimney if she was that desperate to get inside. Steve locks the front door for the first time in what feels like years and falls asleep in his parent’s bed, untouched for a year at this point, staring at the popcorn ceiling.

Most of the rest of the house, everything worth saving, is packed into boxes. His entire life. And this whole room was left untouched for his parents to return to.

He doesn’t remember falling asleep, but he wakes up to Robin plopping cross-legged at the foot of the bed with her hands clasped together. Her hair is messy and she had a bit of eye-makeup on that’s smudged, and she looks entirely awake.

Once Steve’s awake enough, Robin starts talking. “I don’t think I’ve ever even seen this room.”

“You like it?”

“It’s extremely ugly in here,” she says, turning her nose up at the tacky hotel room art on the wall, the exact thing that Robin would hate. “But we could probably rent it out in the paper. Pretend to run a bed and breakfast or something.”

“My parents would freak if they saw that.”

Robin, gracefully, doesn’t point out the obvious, which is that his parents would never notice or care. She doesn’t have to. Their wedding photo with the cracked frame says it loud enough. And there’s a ringing in Steve’s ear that hasn’t gone away for hours, taunting him.

When he was younger, he would run to his parents room and his mom would rub his temples with her fingertips, gaudy manicure scratching his hairline.

“Do you think we can sell this place before we leave for extra cash?”

Steve smiles. “I don’t think Hawkins is exactly prime real estate right now.”

“Not to mention this place is, like, really ugly.”

“Well there’s a reason I never come into this room–”

“No, I mean,” Robin squints. “The entire place. Every room, not just this one. When we get a house it’s gonna be way cooler than this one.”

“For sure.”

“With short ceilings. I hate the echo.”

“And these awful, gaudy chandeliers,” Steve says, glaring at the ugly crystal light fixture above the bed. When he was younger, he used to have nightmares about it falling and crushing his parents. He doesn’t dream much anymore, but it’s one of those dreams that stuck with him.

“I kind of want to hit it with a baseball bat.”

That shocks a laugh out of him. “Like a piñata?”

“Yeah,” Robin says, eyes glowing. “Don’t you?”

Steve stares at it for a second. “I used to play baseball.”

And then they’re standing in the center of the room with a full children’s baseball bag. “This is stupid.”

Robin’s eyes are wide and wild. “Maybe,” she says.

“They’re not even going to notice, you realize that, right? They’re in Santa Fe, probably cheating on each other and mingling with other shitty parents who don’t care about their children. They’re probably never going to even bother coming back.”

“Doesn’t that piss you off?” Robin takes Steve by the shoulders, shakes him. “They should care about you, Steve! They’re your parents! They’re supposed to care about you, it’s their job! And they’re bad at it! Doesn’t that make you mad?”

Steve flexes his jaw. “Yeah.”

“Good! Because it makes me livid!” She throws the baseball in her hand at the horrible light fixture, aimed so that it bounces off in a different direction, and an ugly hunk of glass falls and shatters on the ground. The sound reverberates around the entire house, the way Robin’s laugh does. This person that cares about him more than his parents or the town or the people that left without considering what that would do to him. The people who left without asking first. The glass shatters into thick, ugly carpet that crunches under their sneakers, and so he throws the baseball in his hand, too. It leaves a dent in the drywall above the headboard, and it feels like his heart gets cracked wide open, and he bleeds cold throughout his body, and it’s the best he’s felt in months or maybe even years.

Robin yells loud enough to rumble the house and stir the neighbors if they ever cared, and she rips clothes off their hangers while Steve hits the vanity mirror with the baseball bat. They rip the nice, expensive, hardly-used sheets and joke about burning it up. They joke about burning the entire house down and leaving tonight. They shut the door and lock it behind them, and they don’t open it ever again.

–

The town wishes them goodbye. Or, at least, the people left who care about them wish them goodbye. The Byers-Hoppers throw a little party, and Dustin has a shitty little speech, and Max pretends to cry early on, and then actually cries a little bit when they get to their cars to leave. Erica holds it over everyone’s heads that she knew first, and they leave for San Francisco the first thing the very next morning, just the two of them, holding hands, a scorched sign that says “come back soon” in front of a rising sun.

[vintage-bentley]

How in the fuck are you going to be anti trans and a Good Omens fan as if both the book and the show don’t explicitly establish the existence of several nonbinary characters and both Aziraphale and Crowley themselves are genderless beings

Not to mention both David and Michael’s staunch support of the LGBT (really emphasizing the T here, since you love to drop it) community as a whole, and David literally has a trans child

Part of me is even asking this in good faith because how do you see a series that is so incredibly queer and like it considering how much you shit-talk trans people on your lackluster TERF blog

There’s many reasons, actually! I’ll explain them in good faith, because I think that people who ask questions like this don’t understand the perspective of so-called “terfs” and assume we think like you do.

Firstly, I’m a feminist, so I’m used to media not aligning with my politics. I expect it, actually. Down to very simple things, like knowing I’m never going to go into a show and see a woman just existing with body hair like men do in shows all the time. But I’m comfortable and confident enough in my beliefs that I can consume media that doesn’t align with them. This extends to my feelings regarding gender. A they/them character doesn’t make my head explode, it’s just the same for me as seeing a Christian character (like Ella from Netlix’s Lucifer) or a female character who’s pro-beauty culture (like Elinor from First Kill). It’s a representation of a belief I don’t agree with and personally don’t believe in, that’s all.

Secondly, Good Omens is set in a made up universe with fantasy themes. I can easily get behind the idea that the true forms of angels and demons are genderless, because that makes sense to me in the same way God being genderless makes sense to me. This doesn’t have to carry over to me believing that humans can be genderless (I don’t believe in the concept of internal gender identity, because I don’t believe in souls. So I guess the better way to put this is that I don’t believe humans can be sexless unless we’re using gender and sex as synonyms). In the same way that it makes sense to me that angels and demons have souls that are put into bodies issued to them…but I don’t have to believe that also applies to humans. Or how it makes sense to me that Aziraphale and Crowley could survive without food, water, and sleep…but I don’t have to believe that also applies to humans. Etc. etc.

Basically, just because something is in a fantasy show, doesn’t mean I have to believe it’s real.

Thirdly, what the actors do in their own lives is none of my business. I don’t agree with supporting the TQ+ especially in relation to LGB (considering they’ve made it a primary goal to harass lesbians into pretending we can like penis, and to take every chance they get to express their hatred for homosexuality. I love to drop the T because they dropped me and my fellow homosexuals years ago). If two straight male actors want to do that, whatever. I also don’t agree with Sheen having a baby with a woman his daughter’s age, but that hasn’t stopped me from watching the show or appreciating his talent.

This all takes me back to what I said about believing you don’t truly understand the perspective of those you call “terfs”. Just because you might not be able to comprehend watching and enjoying something that doesn’t perfectly align with your worldview, doesn’t mean others feel the same. For example, many radical and rad-leaning feminists enjoyed the Barbie movie, despite it not being radical feminist. We’re capable of watching and enjoying things we don’t agree with, and of having discussions about why we don’t agree with it.

A much simpler answer to your question would be: I’ve always loved angels and demons and all things supernatural. I’ve always loved old cars. I love Queen. Religious/moral commentary and critique interest me. I love lighthearted comedies. I’m gay and starved for representation of healthy gay relationships. I love gay star-crossed lovers stories (go watch First Kill). Naturally, I’m going to love Good Omens, even if it doesn’t perfectly align with my worldview.

[narutocharacterpolls]

ROUND THREE

ROCK LEE vs HYUUGA NEJI

Reasons for submission under the cut

Lee

ROCK LEE VS GAARA

kind as can be; willing to jump to action to help his fellow comrades even after going through a life-threatening, major surgery

practical and fashion-forward with his bright green onesie. Function over form, and is prepared at all times by carrying around a spare onesie he will give without question to anyone - even complete strangers

has a surprising edge to him at the beginning of the series; he was ready to severely maim anybody that he saw as a genius

more dedicated than anyone. Was forced to face his own mortality and make a life-or-death decision in the name of his dream, after a literal crushing defeat, and he chose to fight for it. Inspiring

embodies the ideals of original series Naruto. True underdog, had nothing going for him, came from nothing with no legacy or powers, was so disadvantaged that he physically could not meet the bare minimum abilities of his peers. But he worked harder than everyone else and proved that he can be a great shinobi despite all the adversity he faced

Sasuke had to copy Lee’s moves with his Sharingan to succeed during Chuunin exams

cute as a button. Come on.

his fans are dedicated and make amazing work, fanart and fanfic

Kishimoto said he was his favorite character to draw. Boom. Favoritism. Love to see it.

pairs well with everyone. Platonic or romantic, Lee has a great dynamic with other characters

his summer outfit from Guardian of the Crescent Moon Kingdom was the best outfit in the movie

gave us Metal Lee! Blessed us with Metal Lee, really

was the character to beat in the early series if you wanted to show how strong you actually are

Gaara vs Rock Lee was one of the most iconic fights in the series, and everyone remembers where they were when they first saw Lee drop his weights. He owned that fight so hard that people forget he lost.

was wronged by the series. He deserves to win as justice.

got [submitter] personally through the worst times; his ability to persevere face of adversity convinced me I could do it too. He wasn’t special and neither was [submitter], but we didn’t need to be. We can make ourselves great. If no one else got me, Rock Lee’s got me

he’s one of the first non-jutsu using ninja so make such a big impact

was the first person to actually harm Gaara

played a huge part in Gaara becoming a better person

he’s one of the only people that can catch up to Sasuke and easily rivals Naruto in Taijutsu

his kind, determined and cheerful attitude is a joy to watch

Rock Lee removing his weights is easily one of the most iconic moments in the entire anime

has helped several submitters feel better by simply thinking about how he wouldn’t want them to think like that

objectively would’ve made a better protagonist based on the themes alone

KICKS MAJOR ASS

wrecked Sasukes shit, I like Sasuke but that was really funny

he looks like a frog. Who doesn’t like frogs

inspired Sasuke

fights are always entertaining, they’re very well choreographed

he forgave Gaara for nearly killing him and nearly ending his dreams; he was never even mad at him

Rock Lee vs Sasuke was iconic

his heart is so full of love

never did anything wrong

had a squirrel befriend him

hard worker

good friend

rises to any challenge

when he does diss people they are the most brutal yet entertaining disses you ever hear

positive, weirdo, energetic, enthusiastic, joyful, chivalrous, motivated, dedicated, sweet

Lee and Neji had something homosexual going on

YOUTH !!!!

Neji

very tragic character

has so many layers

has a great arc (if you ignore the. yknow)

the eye imagery is very good

the inherent queerness of rebellion

carried the Hyuuga clan

awesome hair

disrecpected by the narrative

could've easily been a revolutionanist if the mangaka wasn't a coward

[vital-information]

When I say Fourth Nattawat’s performance in My School President (2022) recalls Zac Efron in High School Musical, it’s not just a genre connection between two high school musical romances; I mean that Fourth evokes a sincere charisma and presence that a select few actors can bring to the the screen. It’s exhilarating, undeniable, and has little to with crafting their character. What matters is that these performances seem to compel us to watch and care. A star is born, as they say.

Roger Ebert wrote about it in his review for the comedy Nine to Five in which Dolly Parton made her debut, “Nine to Five is a good-hearted, simple-minded comedy that will win a place in film history, I suspect, primarily because it contains the movie debut of Dolly Parton. She is, on the basis of this one film, a natural-born movie star, a performer who holds our attention so easily that it's hard to believe it's her first film. There have been other debuts this unmistakable; you could name Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, John Travolta. And what you'd be talking about in each case would not necessarily be a great dramatic performance in an important movie. You'd be talking about a quality of presence, a personal life force that seems to take over the screen.” I remember watching East Siders with friends once—a show I found to be cheap-looking with lots of stilted performances, but the air on set and in the living room in which I was watching the show seemed to change when Constance Wu walked on. It was almost as if she had brought her own lighting designer the way your face was drawn to her as her character barreled through the set. Like her, Fourth, playing the dumb but deeply genuine Gun (the type of character Channing Tatum specializes in), evoked such raw magnetism and vulnerability that it raised the quality of the whole show. This is the presence of a movie star.

It’s just so thrilling to see this kind of performance emerge in the BL scene, as well. Plenty of other actors on these shows are doing fantastic work, and the writing is easily beginning to compare to Euro-American work (I’d say besting them in many ways as far as depicting and thematically orienting toward queer life). An actor with the kind of presence Fourth has really brings more potential for broad crossover appeal so all of this work can be more broadly recognized and appreciated.

[fictive-culture]

(Not fictive culture ask) What rant did ypu wanna go on about fictives from problematic sources? /genq

!!!!

Okay SO! When it comes to fictives problematic sources basically don't fucking matter. Like if someone is an avid harry potter fan yea that is shitty. However if someone has a harry potter introject and that is the only information you have you can not assume the same of them as you would a harry potter fan.

They could have been a fan when they were a kid and either introjected them then, or since the memory exists within them, they can't just forget everything about the source. The brain decided to introject them later. Even if they are non traumagenic you don't know how or when they got introjected and if they are still a fan of that source today.

By all means, if a source is triggering to you or makes you uncomfortable, you don't have to interact with them, but you can't make it their problem. Simply block them because unless you can easily see they are still a fan of and support the source, the only way to figure out how they got a fictive is to ask incredibly invasive questions and make people defend themselves by talking about their trauma or their past self which no one is entitled to.

Also, this isn't fictive specific, but liking a source doesn't even always automatically mean they're a horrible person. Jk bitch has irreversibly ruined her books but if the books were really important to someones childhood and they just talk about it amongst friends or keep a couple pieces of merch they bought before they learned she was awful to hold on to the good memories. They aren't a bad person? Burning or throwing their merch away isn't going to take the money back from her. If they don't support her and don't buy the merch, don't watch the movies they aren't really doing anything wrong. If you do throw your stuff out because it makes you uncomfortable, that's valid but if you put on a big show of it it's kind of just performative hating the show more than showing care and support for all the people she is against. Just don't be a clown and put your hogwarts house in your description, or people are gonna assume you support her.

People still read and enjoy the various stories by Lovecraft and he was awful. People still watch marvel movies when so much is wrong with various directors and actors.

For a lot but not all things you have to learn how to consume things critically, or you are going to end up being unable to watch anything because at least one person in it's creation was awful or at least one part was kind of problematic. And if it's all or nothing it's going to be so hard for you to tell apart good and bad people. There are probably moms out there that go to pride give out water bottles, free mom hugs and supports her queer kids to the moon and back but obsesses over hp and knits inspired blankets. She's not a bad person she's probably just confused and old.

I hope even like half of this makes sense and I just used HP since basically everyone knows what it is I thought it was neat for like half a year when I was 15

TLDR: Fictives ≠ supporting the source and they don't owe you how they formed. Problematic sources are 98% of the time not even worth 100% canceling you just need to learn to consume things critically.

[paperstarwriters]

*Sigh* Ok, ok, firstly, I just wanna know where the people who don't mind the culture shift, but also still don't really like the show are. Like — I actually really like the casting choice for The Addams They're really cool and I really like them. Personally, I'm particularly fond of Wednesday and Gomez but still.

I just… don’t really like some aspects of this remake. One being that the actors for Gomez and Morticia felt so...uncomfortable while performing. Like the 1991 & 1993 movies, Gomez and Morticia were so clearly and so fondly in love and were very comfortable with expressing that, with their over-dramatic expressions of love feeling very easily expressed and normal for them. Here, I don't think the actors were quite as comfortable in performing that kind of expression of love, which just kinda made their romantic interactions just uncomfortable to watch.

Also, it's disappointing that they kind of just... abandoned the murderous core of the Addams? Like, I understand that there may be more appeal in having the Addams keeping the torture to themselves rather than bestowing it onto unwilling victims, but I think it just feels a lot like... telling us that they enjoy torture and fighting rather than showing it. In all the scenes where we see them, the Addams seem so uncomfortable when it comes to causing or receiving torture or harm. They flinch at needing to kill someone, and yet they say that they revel in it? Gomez takes insult at being told he isn't a person capable for murder and yet as far as we know, he is?

It makes their whole torture ordeal seem like it's just for show which feels disappointing and sad. It just makes it feel like this show is trying to call the old 1991 Addams family fake. As if they too were only ever really putting on a show to impress or (more accurately) surprise people, which I just really, really hate. Originally, the Addams family felt like a group that cried out that you did not have to conform to the ideals of the people around you to be happy, which speaks a lot to queer communities and neurodivergent people—even people of color. By implying that they're just... faking being strange or odd, it just makes me feel like I'm attempting to exclude myself.

Thing, I think is practically their only indication for being odd or strange and yet he's often set aside, and just acts like a strange yet funny sidekick amidst these Addams. He kinda feels like the token character to remind the audience that these are the Addams who have very strange and murder-y things with them.

I think, largely the issue here is that we don't know these Addams. here, the Addams are an entirely new set of characters separated from the older 1991 and 1993 movies, but because of the opening with Wednesday and Wednesday's typical demeanor amidst the entire thing, I kinda felt like I was led to assume that it would comply with the older movies, only to be unpleasantly surprised.

I know they're trying to set up a huge mystery surrounding who the Addams are and how that's tied into this school and the town, but with the way the story is currently going, I feel like we may never know.

It feels like I'm reading an alternate universe (AU) fanfic where the characters are represented differently than in the original source material, but it is not readily obvious. Like sure, the setting is a little different, and their situation seemed to have changed a bit, but the story implies that it's the same characters who have lived through the same events as they did in the source material. While some people may be interested to witness or understand why this change exists, most people will feel like the characters are being OOC and will quickly abandon the story because they don't understand why their favorite characters are so different.

Because this story is so clearly different from the 1991 Addams family, the show probably should have established not only how and why the family was different but also how they are tied into the original Addams. They should have been introduced as if they were entirely new characters. Show what they're like when they're in their element. When they're killing and murdering or if not that, torturing and being tortured. If they don't kill, establish that. Maybe make a statement along the lines of, "Addams don't Kill, we don't want to cut their torture off short, do we Wednesday?" which would help us to better understand why Gomez and Morticia would react that way to a murder.

Idk, maybe I'm just biased because I liked the 1991 Addams family and the 1993 Addams family values movies, and because I know that version of the Addams family so well, I just can't appreciate this new iteration of them.

[weirdstuffinthewoods]

Bride of Chucky

A Review

Ronny Yu made the correct choice working with the one and only father of Chucky, Don Mancini. I feel like Don's seamless continuing control over the Chucky franchise paired with Ronny Yu's absolute lack of knowledge of the Chucky franchise (and his love of the monster) made for a one-of-a-kind franchise installment.

Writing- 5/5

This entire script takes the snark we know Chucky for and dials it up by giving him a dominating sparring partner in Tiffany Valentine. There are some jokes that kinda feel needless (repeating the "what a crock" joke only got an "eeh" out of me), but Voodoo for Dummies?

And lines like:

"For God's sake Chucky, drag yourself into the 90s"

"Martha Stewart can kiss my shiny plastic butt!"

When Chucky tells Tiffany to "act natural" and this is her response

The entire weird sex scene conversation that 100% does happen in a film about two sentient dolls? It was only a matter of time before we got here, let's be honest.

The addition of Tiffany Valentine allows for a totally valid reason to shake things up- creative kills, high-speed freeway chases with two DOLLS holding two whole adult humans hostage, and the film's only gay character (spoiler but RIP David) getting absolutely blasted by an 18-wheeler for no reason other than Don probably just realized the cast needed to shrink real quick.

Special mention-

The honeymoon suite kill scene. Yeah, it looks a little cheesy, but you best believe before I was old enough to watch horror movies, my older cousin was telling me about this scene in vivid, terrifying detail (much scarier than reality, but what can you do?)

Soundtrack- 4.5/5

Living Dead Girl starts this movie off with a bang and a moment I haven't forgotten for one second of my spooky sapphic life. These are the moments in which horror icons are made.

The soundtrack is mostly upbeat drums and chugging guitar riffs which I loved (it especially added to the freeway chase) I just didn't go full 5 stars because I didn't notice it as much as I'd want to in a party movie like this (because yes, if I ever do host a halloween party I will be popping in this exact VHS to play on repeat).

Also shout out to my boy, Graeme Revell. Been a legend since The Crow in my eyes (but also for so much iconic 80s and 90s horror....and Sharkboy and Lavagirl) and I'll always get excited when I see that name in the credits!

Effects- 4.75/5

First let me say Chucky looks fantastic. Can he emote as well as Tiffany with those pencil-thin eyebrows? Maybe not but this is the opus version of Chucky, so.

The animatronics are still my favorite thing to watch in a Chucky film because you forget that these aren't sentient dolls almost constantly (except when Chucky's body double is crawling on all fours- that's some nightmare fuel). Their faces are so expressive (for rubber doll faces) and there's even a shot of Tiffany walking across the floor of a Winnebago (maybe?) without a wire in sight! Oh, how far we've come.

The effects in some scenes are a little cheesy (the honeymoon suite kill, the gross, fleshy title card, etc) but it's easily overlooked because Chucky and Tiffany are by far the main event of the sfx team.

Extra ratings?

Queerness-3/5

Written by an out gay man, HELLO!

Alexis Arquette!! Easily the second-hottest person in this movie, I loved seeing her camp it up (in a masc role, but goths love to play with androgyny so I'll take it) as the try-hard Damien.

This also unexpectedly features the gbff trope usually reserved for rom-coms in David, a guy whose queerness isn't painfully exaggerated like some portrayals were at the time, and who's probably the most level-headed of the bunch.

RIP, -2 because David got blasted by a big rig and not in the fun way.

Bride of Frankenstein retelling 5/5

It's pretty obvious on rewatch, but this is a whole Bride of Frankenstein retelling. It even follows the title convention (I tell my younger self who completely missed the comparison). I haven't read the dissections of the original that explain why the bride is a metaphor, but in a more literal sense, this Bride has the power unlike her predecessor. Even though she falls in with a toxic ex, she has autonomy and pushes back, eventually sort of kind of helping the two teens (who are not interesting enough to put in this review) stop Chucky. And she gives birth to a weird demon baby while mostly charred through a non-stretch plastic vagina so. That's pretty metal.

Tiffany Valentine 11/5

TIFFANY VALENTINE THE WOMAN THAT YOU ARE

THE COSTUMING

THE TRAILER SET DRESSING

But most of all the performance!!!

I may be looking through heart eyes, but I'm not wrong!

Overall, Bride of Chucky will never not be one of my favorites. The addition of Jennifer Tilly allowed the Child's Play series (and all future iterations), to have fun, but to also play with the tone of its installments. Seed of Chucky and the Chucky series tend to focus on Chucky (and friends)'s humanity and personalities, whereas Curse and Cult of Chucky take the franchise back to an exciting, sometimes scary, and eventually openly queer and complicatedly sapphic place. Ignoring the reboot (which he was thankfully not responsible for), Don Mancini's got quite a legacy going, and Ronny Yu had a key part in that.

[sirfrogsworth]

Bros Review

So I watched Bros. It was okay. Some good laughs and decent queer representation. I really liked that all of the actors were queer in real life. But I do think it was trying to achieve two conflicting goals and that kept it from being a better movie.

I personally have known some straight men in which a large part of their homophobia is rooted in... "dudes kissing is icky" and "dudes having sex is extra icky." Honestly, I had these feelings in high school. However I still felt like as long as I didn't have to kiss a dude, why did I care if other dudes did it? I guess that was pretty enlightened for a late 90s high schooler, but I still cringe looking back on it.

Once I was in my 20s and I saw my gay friends interacting with partners I realized that icky feeling was stupid and that seeing my friends happy was beautiful. But I fear there are a lot of straight men who never have that epiphany, probably because they aren't close to any gay men, or they have other aspects of homophobia (like religion) to keep that icky mindset going.

I think Bros was trying to normalize men being affectionate and having sex and giving people a bit of exposure therapy.

However, I also think that Billy Eichner really wanted this movie to be the gay "You've Got Mail" or "Meet Me in Seattle." Those were very wholesome PG-13 movies that only had kissing and maybe some implied sex. They were movies that families could watch together without too much awkwardness. Bros had a lot of very sweet scenes with flowery romance just like those classic romantic comedies.

But then you have two fairly explicit gay foursomes. No dong was shown, but there was a depiction of a blowjob. I would not feel comfortable watching that with my mom and dad. Just as I never felt comfortable watching straight sex with them. My dad would giggle and my mom would say, "Oh Ron, grow up!" and I would just melt in the couch waiting for it to be over.

I'm not saying there shouldn't be movies depicting gay sex, as I do think that is important in the fight against "icky" attitudes. But I do think Billy's refusal to pick a lane hurt this movie and caused some pretty jarring shifts in tone.

This easily could have been a movie a family with young kids could watch together or they could have gone full adult comedy and sought out young adults and college kids as their target audience.

I admire what Billy was trying to do and I do hope more queer actors and filmmakers get to tell their stories to larger audiences in the future.

[honuofhawaii]

Sarah Kazansky and her place in the Fanworks vs Source Material

Some background:

I only just got into the Top Gun fandom, only having watched the original movie a month ago so that I could be prepared to watch Top Gun: Maverick. Top Gun (1986) is entertaining but not something I’m particularly attached to. The two most compelling parts are Gooses death and the handshake/hug at the end. Overall I walked away, having been entertained but not overtly attached.

TGM is another story. It’s extremely well done, emotionally deep, and really cool. (Is it also blatant military propaganda? yes, but that doesn’t stop it from having a compelling story) Probably the best scene is between Maverick and Iceman. Unlike so many sequels where rivals/enemies become friends at the end of the original and then clearly aren’t, this scene demonstrates a deep love and respect between the two characters without destroying the banter filled rivalry that makes the relationship interesting. Now part of this might be the fact that this sequel takes place over 30 years later, and I’m sure Ice and Mav butted heads over the years, but it shows that ultimately they both stuck by their words to be each others wingman.

Okay Now to the point:

Sarah pretty much has a singular purpose in the movie, and that’s to make Iceman straight…(or at least in a m/f relationship). However it’s done in such a way that she doesn’t actually accomplish that purpose. We see her twice and she never interacts with Ice on screen: first when she greats Maverick and he reads Ice’s terminal diagnosis in her expression. It’s obvious she and Mav have a rapport and friendship. The second is at the funeral where she is presented with Ice’s flag. These two scenes along with the wedding band on Ice’s hand all are meant to imply that Sarah and Tom Kazansky are married. And I’m certain you’ll be able to find sources that explicitly state that but the movie isn’t one of them.

Because of this lack of confirmation fandom has done an interesting thing. Many with a queer reading of Ice have decided not to ignore Sarah but instead embraced the non explicit nature of her and Ice’s relationship and say that she’s his sister. And the fact of the matter is that she very well could be. A sister can just as easily be staying with her terminally ill brother. A sister can just as easily be his next of kin and take his flag. So many young soldiers flags are taken by their mothers or sisters.

Now having an explicitly cannon m/f relationship has never stopped fandom from deciding that a character is queer and writing them thusly. But I just find it interesting how Sarah treated.

Her being Tom’s sister isn’t the universal decision of the queer side of the fandom. I’ve seen fics set earlier in the timeline (specifically set prior to the DADT repeal) have her be a lesbian also in the armed forces marrying a gay Tom to protect both of them. There are also some where she’s unknowingly Tom’s beard.(but those leave a bad taste in my mouth realistic as it may be). I’ve even seen AroAce Sarah marrying Tom for taxes, children, and to protect him.

It’s nice that in general this fandom has refused to dismiss the new women who joined the story in TGM even while still maintaining the iron clad belief that Top Gun is about gay pilots. Many Fanfiction authors have given more consideration to Sarah than the actual movie. (Now it does suck when women are only in a movie to tell you something about a man. that’s a problem)

[thecandyclusteragain]

Contains Barbie Movie spoilers

The Barbie Movie is honestly so weak as a "feminist" text (I won't try to rehash what other people have said about it, if you want to learn more about it I recommend the videos essays The Plastic Feminism of Barbie by VerilyBitchie and The White Feminism of Barbie by Jessie Gender on YouTube) but it is honestly perfect for people with weird gender kinks.

Like- Feminisation, masculinization, bimbofication, objectification, patriarchy/misogyny, femdom- that's all basically textual, but with that foundation there's even more you can play with! Different varieties of gender and queer sexuality kinks that explore the taboo of those things in a world that has a rigid society and binary- like ours -but with much lower stakes. Could easily see tf, forced tf, or sissification in this setting as well. I completely forgot for a second that cucking could be seen as textual as well? (If any of my connections seem unclear to you as a reader, please do ask about them because I'm high and I have AuDHD and my connections aren't always obvious to others)

What a beautiful plastic play place to explore gender and sexuality and social rules in!

Outside of my fantasies, I can get really anxious and paranoid about playing with other people when it comes to some of these kinks because they are quite reactionary. A particular part of my upbringing had a specific religious tone that has been really difficult to shake and I unfortunately internalized a lot of those messages that were really anti-kink- kind of your typical "kink-critical" "how do you know the person who says they're pretending to want to rape you doesn't actually want to rape people? How do you know they're not an actual rapist? What's the difference between the person you're doing impact play with and a domestic abuser?" I'm sure my experience is unfortunately not that uncommon and a lot of kinky people have had to deal and are still dealing with this. So when I have fantasies about non-consensual encounters, particularly of misogynistic and queerphobic varieties, I can get really panicked about whether the people that are also in this space are just pretending like I am. It also doesn't help that I have been in some virtual spaces where people do have on their profiles "this is not pretend, this is not a fantasy, these are my actual beliefs"

But in Barbieland...it's all just pretend, it's playing with toys. Everything is fake! The food is fake, the fire is fake, the ocean is fake- it is literally a world designed for play and make believe!

When the Kens take over Barbieland, it is a shallow pastiche of masculinity. Ken has seen these visual signifiers of what it means to be a man in the real world and it made him feel good. When he came back to Barbieland, he didn't attack anyone or force anyone to do anything- the ideas just kind of osmosed out of him into everybody else. He doesn't actually know what it means to "be a man" (and honestly, who does?), but he has these cultural signifiers of masculinity and manhood. He has insecurities and desires.

And that's no different from anyone who takes part in kink. People who have what I've been calling so far "weird gender kinks" (because that's how I describe it in myself) have insecurities and desires and we often soothe those in the scene of kinks that either reinforce or subvert societal norms.

When I watched the Barbie Movie, I honestly wasn't as blown away as all my friends seemed to be (but there were mitigating factors that could have affected that), but I did genuinely enjoy looking at it from the perspective of Weird Gender Kinks. What a fun environment to play in, what a safe environment to play in, I thought. The shallowness of the movie added to this. The Kens takeover of Barbieland didn't recall to me actual governments and social movements to restrict the rights of women or cultural misogyny- it felt to me like a bumbling attempt to soothe a base, animal and emotional need (part of the reason it failed as a commentary imo).

In conclusion, if I had the spoons, I would start a Barbieland group that would be all about Weird Gender Kinks and give everyone a chance to make a Barbie or Ken sona (or get to play with the Barbieland concept of gender divergence and being non-binary- what if you're not a Ken OR a Barbie?)

[hoperays-song]

Sing 1 Commentary and Review Pt. Final!!

Welcome back to the madness loves!!! Also, I tried to tone down the commentary so I get further in the movie this time. Is this an elaborate plan to distract me from my fic being with my beta reader? Yes! Am I using it for content? Also yes! Enjoy!

This is mainly just the performances this time but it's the last one!!

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Ok, when the curtains open you can hear all of Rosita's kids cheering for their mom and it's so cute I swear.

Also, they built this entire set in ONE AFTERNOON?!?! That's just impressive mate. Like seriously impressive.

Coolest on stage costume change in the series and I will stand by that. The lights and everything? Perfection.

Mike puntable moments counter: 35

The piglets immediately swarming Rosita because they liked the show and to hug her is just... so sweet. I love them.

Also love the immediate havoc they start causing backstage.

Before going on Johnny does a few bouncing steps like boxers do before fights and I can't believe I never noticed that before.

Ok ok ok, I know I've mentioned that Johnny's story can easily be read as a queer allegory but he's literally playing a song known for being a queer liberation song that was written by a queer British singer.

And the people who would likely pick up on that? His British family. Just saying. Elton John is pretty famous after all.

Our favourite supportive uncles!!!! <3

Look at Marcus in this moment. He's seeing his son that he's apparently had no contact with in weeks doing what he loves and is good at, existing healthy and happy and in a much better place physically than he is. He's happy for him. He's happy for him because he loves his kid.

And then we get to see him panic because he messed up and he misses his kid and wants to fix things. He wants to tell him how proud he is. So he decided to fix it in his own way. Is that way legal? No. But should that surprise us? Also no.

Stan and Barry being supportive brothers in the background. I love them, they're so silly.

Girlboss moment. <3

Also, new guitar!

Excuse me you two, I was vibing, why are you here?

Lance puntable moments counter: 32

Becky puntable moments counter: 4

So... Ash is amazing. Just straight up. She's awesome.

Marcus's smile when he realizes he's about to see his son again. I'm sobbing.

Gunter and Rosita are me rn I swear.

Also, this is on live tv Mike, a gang wants you dead, not your smartest decision in this movie and that's a low bar to trip over mate.

Mike puntable moments counter: 34

THE HUG. THE HUG Y'ALL. I SWEAR, YOU'RE CRYING NOT ME.

But the way Marcus hugs Johnny like he's the most precious thing and the world and is scared to break him has me in a chokehold rn. Like one of those hugs and I'm 100% sure all my problems will be solved.

"I'M SO PROUD OF YOU." 😭😭😭😭

Nancy, come rescue you idiot boyfriend. Also, Mike's performance was only so visually cool because of the helicopter so I'm deducting performance points.

Mike puntable moments counter: 35

They're both so awkward, I love them. <3

Mike. Stop. Bullying. A. Literal. Child.

Mike puntable moments counter: 45

The cute thing here is Eddie picked all the stage hand stuff up from Meena apparently so he's helping out his former mentor and I just think that's sweet.

I love how everyone who showed up just completely are vibing with every song, no matter the tempo, mood, or genre. They're just supporting the singers whole heartedly.

Also, why is like every gorilla in the crowd wearing beanies? It's only the gorillas. What's with the beanies?

Awww, they look so happy!!

And with that, all the troupe's problems (and Eddie's inheritance) are gone!

Nana looks like a cat being held and loved against her will.

I love this movie. I so love this movie. <3

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Ok! So that took way longer than planned. But Next I get to watch a ton of shorts!!!

[onbearfeet]

5 please!

"How did you figure out your OC's identity?"

Well, Maggie was easy; she more or less punched me in the face with her bisexuality, like she does almost everything else, while I was writing her initial profile in my notes. After that, the only question was whether/how to bring it up, since the first book really didn't have room for a romance and Maggie tends to keep her personal info to herself by default. So there was a possibility that Maggie's orientation wouldn't be mentioned at all, simply because she had no reason to bring it up or even think about it in narration. I didn't want to leave it for later, though, for fear it would seem like a retcon.

Hilariously, Gabe solved that problem for me.

Gabe was more difficult to figure out. I knew from the start that I wanted to connect him deeply to queer history in general and Black queer history in particular. His role in the story requires a lot of historical context; he's sort of a window into the past of the world we inhabit. As a kid, I always liked it when older heroes or legacy heroes showed up in comics--your Justice Society or Invaders teams, for example--because it made the world feel more lived in, like there was an ordinary kind of history to it. Sure, we know Captain America punched Hitler, but I always liked that we might also see a character dig through a box of their grandfather's junk and find a 1930s gas gun next to some snapshots of unfortunate hairstyles. I liked that ordinary-ness, so I knew Gabe would be connected in a very ordinary, human way to some older characters--one in particular, actually. He's the guy who digs through the boxes.

However, since the series is predicated on the idea that marginalized heroes have always existed, I knew the history Gabe connected to had to include that marginalization. I had already decided that Gabe's superhero forbear would have been (in his secret identity) an investigative reporter from the 1930s or 40s who ended up being murdered for his journalism rather than his masked activities, so I decided to place that journalist within the history of excellent but overlooked Black journalists of the period.

And THEN I watched a documentary about Bayard Rustin, and somehow that long-ago journalist became a gay man in my head, and I started researching Black queer history in New York. (There are these amazing journals in a university archive--long story.)

Now, Gabe was closely connected to this dead journalist in a way I can't describe due to spoilers, and I knew Gabe himself would be some variety of queer, but he didn't feel gay in my head, if that makes sense? I tried a few identities on him, noodling around in drafts and exercises, but it wasn't until I sat down to write a scene in an early chapter that he made himself known. If Maggie punched me in the face, Gabe murmured in my ear.

Quick note about how I write scenes: my usual method is, for lack of a better description, to hit play on a movie in my head, play a few seconds, and then pause to write down what I've seen. I don't have very much control over what happens in the movie--at least, not consciously--so sometimes I write something and I'm just as surprised as you are. This is one of those times.

This scene required Maggie and Gabe to climb a whole bunch of stairs, and Maggie had to go first for reasons. Having known Gabe for all of ten minutes and being someone who doesn't trust easily, she told him she'd stab him if she caught him staring at her ass, groping her, etc.

And Gabe, cinnamon roll that he is, asked why anyone would do that.

And that's how I knew Gabe was ace--because I'm acespec, and that's the kind of question I asked a lot at his age. So I let him explain himself on the page. Gabe has a certain wholesomeness about him that's oddly disarming, even to me (and makes the twist in his story later on a lot of fun), and that's how Maggie ended up explaining her bisexuality to him in the kind of "Oh, thank God, another queer" interaction I think most of us have had at some point.

And so, much as Maggie booting a Nazi in the head in Chapter 1 established the politics of this book up front, there's a conversation somewhere around Chapter 3 that clears up who's what and why and how. I am not usually this organized.

There's also a third lead character who is ALSO queer, but I'm leaving their story a mystery for now. Gender-wise, they're probably nonbinary, but if you asked them their sexual orientation, they'd probably just give you a Look. That blank on my notes is currently just "???????". Maybe they'll figure it out when they're not actively having an existential crisis. As to how I figured it out ... I tried on a few gender identities, and they just sort of sat there in my head, staring at me, until I backed off and they picked up they/them pronouns without further explanation.

I understand that some writers actually plan out things like their characters' LGBTQIA identities in advance. That sounds wonderfully relaxing. I'll have to try it someday.