#coren headcanons

[tealfling]

Y'all all have girl dad Rolan's.

Coren and him would spend a long time being really cool Aunt/Uncle.

But if all rut/heat pressing eventually resulted in something it would be a boy.

[tealfling]

THIS. is. Them.

there's this character dynamic that's not necessarily enemies to lovers, where one or both parties don't initially respect or trust the other person in much the same way that a feral animal sees anyone who tries to approach it first as a threat that's like cocaine to me

[aaravhoes]

Sorvus hcs!!

- they don’t spoon, they cuddle each other while just being a mess of tangled limbs and arms. They just drop on top of each other and find any comfortable sleeping position. They are not picky about it. Sometimes Soren likes to be held and Corvus happily does that without hesitation. He just wants to give as much as possible to soren.

- in the morning they both almost wake up at the same time and soren is usually the type of guy who’d be giving corvus a morning kiss. corvus tells these words to soren in between the kiss often, “you have bad morning breath... but I am loving it.”

- soren usually has greasy pizza or Chinese takeout from the night before as their breakfast and Corvus sometimes wakes up early to make pancakes for them but most of the days he just spends his mornings feeling the warmth of soren’s legs intertwining with his and shrugging at every stupid idea soren proposes to him, occasionally kissing soren’a forehead or jaw.

- corvus on any random morning : hey sor, wanna see me stuff my mouth with marshmallows and say “i love you” after every marshmallow?

soren : YES I WILL RECORD IT.

- soren is kind of competitive in everything and he competes with corvus a lot about dumb shit. Soren just wants to be the best and needs to win something/compete in something to make himself feel validated. So he competes with corvus about how far they can throw a disk or how many pizza slices they could eat in thirty minutes etc. sometimes corvus loses on purpose because he likes to see soren so happy and that’s all that matters to him.

- corvus is now used to wearing socks in the shower just because soren does it too and somehow brainwashed corvus into believing that if we wear socks in the shower, we are washing our socks at the same time as we shower and hence saving water.

- soren likes to do dumb dance moves and in public corvus usually refrains himself from joining soren for a typical millennial dance step but when they’re home, they both just break it down together.

- they play the sims 4 together and decide to name their child uzuzwevwevwe and laugh about it while discussing it in public. They both just like to be big dumbs and big softs at the same time. But above all they love and care for each other more than anything else in the world.

[mokutone]

On the subject of dog nose kakashi, there’s a headcanon I’ve seen that the reason he wears the mask is because it helps block out smells so he can focus. I like that one combined with him hiding his fangs to protect his mother’s identity for whatever reason and to hide his ethereal beauty because it makes him stand out too much lol and now to also hide his dog nose!!

i have seen a lot of these headcanons, and they are cool and valid!

my personal take is honestly less that he wants to hide any one specific feature of his face (whether inherited clan attributes like teeth or nose) or facial differences, ethereal beauty, etc,

the one i give most personal credence to is probably the blocking out smell, but even then i'm sometimes wishy washy on whether i go for that hc depending on my mood

but here's something interesting and dog related, i got it from another stanley coren book "How to Speak Dog" again, i have mixed feelings on his writing, but his studies and conclusions are interesting and worthy of note if anyone is interested in dog science and communication. anyway here's the fun tidbit, it's talking about why dogs tuck their tails as a gesture of fear.

"In essence, the dog is making its presence less obvious by preventing the release of the odors that identify it as an individual. Some scientists have suggested that the tail-between-the-legs action is the canine equivalent of an action seen in insecure human beings—especially children—who hide their faces when brought into the presence of a dominant or potentially threatening person."

(worth noting that stanley doesnt use dominant here in terms of the weird stupid wolf hierarchy thing)

anyway. my point is that i don't really see kakashi trying to hide his face as anything specific to his face at all—his students certainly do, and all theorize about what could be so "horrible" beneath his mask that he "needs to hide it", but imo what he's hiding is not physical, it's emotional, hiding his face because he is ashamed/insecure, etc.

i know this might seem a little odd since he's worn this mask since he was a kid, before his fathers death, before obito, rin, etc, and he may have seemed outwardly arrogant as a child, but Sakumo was clearly somebody who carried a lot of shame and guilt, not just for the one incident but as a matter of course, and children can often take on that worldview. similarly, arrogance is also usually a protective mechanism to keep the individual from having to confront the inadequacy they fear, etc etc

[deco-devolution]

Do you have any head cannons for what songbird does when he's not with Elizabeth?

Songbird Headcanons

NOTE: For all his viciousness and ferocity, Songbird is still a thinking being- not near standard human intelligence obviously, but instead somewhere around the Average Work/Obedience Intelligence level on the Stanley Coren scale of dog intelligence. While my headcanon is that Songbird is made from human tissues (much like a Big Daddy but sourced from multiple test subjects), I feel that Songbird’s capacity is lower than not only humans but also Big Daddies, as the combined brain tissue was slightly damaged by the crude transplant methods used by Finkton Labs. (For context, on the scale of intelligence mass-produced Big Daddies measures in at Above Average Working Intelligence with Alpha series at Excellent Working Intelligence)

While the game only shows him flying around, occasionally Songbird is grounded for maintenance- because of his strength however, as well as his capacity for daily maintenance via preening and other comfort behaviour it’s been done only when he is injured beyond his physical limits, though this has only happened a handful of times, usually after accidental encounters with outside forces. 

Strange as it seems, Songbird loves to play. When Elizabeth was younger the two would play indoor/outdoor catch, with Elizabeth throwing a rubber ball out the library window for Songbird to catch. Now that she’s distanced herself however, Songbird has to find his own amusements elsewhere- swooping at nearby fish and birds, rolling in the snow (on sturdy structures only because he’s Learned his Lesson) and making enormous crude nests of scrap metal and rubble. 

Is occasionally adopted by other flocks of birds. While too large and intimidating to have a permanent flock, its not unseen for a procession of smaller migratory birds to hang around Songbird for protection, nesting near Elizabeth’s tower or even sitting on his head. He’s essentially a bird capybara.

[moss-c0uch]

someones reviews: castle of lies is kinda of f putting and there are themes of inc-

me, reading the story while dousing it in headcanons: actually most of the characters are poc and thelia parsifal and corene have a good familial relationship and percy is bi and thelia is demi and corene is-

[mcnystorcies]

Bold  what  applies .      italicize  what  applies  sometimes  .

𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓  .     small  towns  .     big  cities .     six  thirty  curfews  .     lights  that  take  the  place  of  stars .    blanket  nests  .    light  through  blinds  as  a  wake  up  call .   found  family .     finding  a  single  star  in  the  middle  of  new  york  city .     window  shopping  .    watching  something  terrible   &    enjoying  it  .   growing  numb  to  the  sight  of  injustice .     wilted  flowers .    faded  caricatures  .     bright ,  bold  colors .

𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆  .     crickets    &    lightning  bugs .     car  engines   &    ac  units .    a  phone  call  to  mom  or  dad  .    laughing  with  friends .     jokes  that  are  so  bad  you  have  to  laugh .     the  clicking  of computer  keys .     noise  cancelling  headphones .    the  sound  of  silence .   muffled  music  from  another  room .    drumming  fingertips  on  a  table .  clicking  of  pens .    listening  to  a  clock  and  swearing  the  ticks  get  slower  .   ringing  in  the  ears .  the  voice  of  someone  you  love .    pitch  shifted  songs  .

��𝐎𝐔𝐂𝐇  .     being  held  close  during  a  long  night .     fleeting  reassurances .  holding  hands  when  you’re  scared  .     brushing  fingers  through  strands  of  hair .     freshly  dried  clothes .     bruises  on  your  knuckles .   silk    &    satin .   your  favorite  pet’s  fur  or  feathers .     wringing  your  hands  anxiously .     snuggles .     comforters  in  the  dead  of  winter .  nails  against  skin .     cold  metal .   leather  in  summer  .

𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄  .     coffee  in  the  morning .     tea  in  the  evening  .     bubblegum  that  lost  its  flavor .   alcohol  burning  the  back  of  your  throat .     homemade  cooking .    blood  in  your  mouth  .     stale  air .     menthol .    fresh  vegetables  .     the  first  meal  you  cook  by  yourself  that  tastes  good .     foreign  sweets .   fast  food .   bittersweet .     sour  .   spicy  .   sweet .    bitter  .    too  much  salt  on  fries .

𝐒𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐋  .     morning  glories    &    honeysuckles  .     freshly  cut  grass .     hot  chocolate  in  the  middle  of  winter .     nail  polish .     acetone .     hospital  rooms .   smoke .     hairspray .    your  favorite  shampoo  or  conditioner .     the  scent  of  home .     perfume .    cologne  .something  burning .     wet  dogs .   copper .  metal .    unemptied  ash  trays .    something  familiar  yet  different .

[cometchasms]

More Sky the Cat headcanons; Angst addition! (warning: mentions of character deaths and torture)

Due to side effects from the tests of Project Starstruck, Sky's skin is incapable of healing itself. Any wounds she gains will never close and heal, meaning she's essentially constantly bleeding out. Luckily, her paint abilities bleed out first and form a second skin of sorts over the wounds to stop her from dying of blood loss

If the paint is removed, a massive gash on her back- gained from escaping Narmik's underground lab- will kill her almost instantly due to its severity.

Oh, also the paint is actually paint.

It's technically her blood mixed with toxic and complex chemicals that makes it look and act similar to paint.

All those marks on her fur? Yeah, open wounds with a layer of toxic blood keeping her from dying.

Sky underwent a lot of painful experiments during Project Starstruck: Burning, electrocution, injections. More often then not she spent her time in pain as the tests began to alter her body drastically.

Sky and her sister were placed into Project Starstruck when Sky was 7 and Fayla was 10.

Sky had a girlfriend during her stay in Narmik's lab; a spotted owl named Coren.

Fayla was killed during a tests that Sky was supposed to endure. The calico knew it would be a fatal one and took Sky's place in hopes of saving her.

Sky, Fayla and Coren would often talk about escaping while in their cells: how they would get out, where they would go, what they would do first.

Sky and Coren didn't make an attempt to escape till four months after Fayla's death.

Coren stayed behind to give Sky a chance to get out and was supposedly shot to death by guards.

Sky has a weak heart, due to it having to pump not only her blood but the chemicals that form her paint as well. Her Derby outfit features a heart monitor on the chest plate to make sure she doesn't push herself too far past its limits.

Despite the weak state of her heart though, Sky still has a need for thrills and often willingly puts herself in danger of a heart attack just to have an adrenaline rush. (Shadow found out and now acts as a voice of reason to stop Sky from taking things too far)

Sky has frequent nightmares where she talks with a dead version of herself who accuses her of being the cause for Fayla and Coren's deaths.

If Sky becomes too emotionally overwhelmed, her body loses its control over the chemicals flowing through it, resulting in the chemicals tearing apart her body from the inside out.

This state is what Sky refers to as being "Starstruck", wherein her mind will go into a zombie like State from the pain.

Sky is deathly afraid of snakes thanks to Narmik. Most reptilians upset her and put her on edge, but she has full blown panic attacks at the sight of snakes.

Now for some nice and fluffy hcs to lighten the mood~

Sonic refers to Sky as "Starburst"; his reasoning is she's bursting with energy and her markings make him think of stars when they flash with her powers

Oh yeah Sky has a major weakness for small and/or soft things.

This girl is prideful and stubborn as hell, and is willing to do just about anything to prove a point.

Seriously, she once threw herself off a building just to make a point to Shadow that she's capable of handling herself alone....

[tealfling]

I always headcanon my Coren does not like to wear pants under her arcane robes.

Maybe one day she can get Rolan to try it instead of knock it.

Rolan with a partner who asks him to wear a skirt. He's deeply upset about how good it feels to wear.

[tealfling]

Coren has battle music in my head.

(You need to visualize Snow White's fight entrance in Shrek 3)

[cosmik-homo]

okay wait idk if you want to do this or if it's a good one for 5 headcanons but i just remembered dgc/tangled au and how much i love it so.... idk if you wanna talk about it but *I* certainly do lol

tangled au is great, I love taking disney stuff and making it gay! I’ll try my best to find five stuff

1. “This is the story of how I died. don’t worry, it’s actually a very nice story! and it’s not even mine. it’ more the story of a man named Coren/Alfred.” ( I can’t choose okay). remember how we were talking a while back about them and the lotr scene of wondering if people will tell stories about them and Haplo pointing out how important Alfred is? yeah. also, this totally sounds like narrating to their kids.

2. so Haplo thinks of himself as a cold, cool, selfish criminal. in this world it’s each man for himself, etc etc. he was already being too damn sentimental befriending this stray but oh well, guess he’s a thief with a dog now. 

3. Haplo when he’s bumblingly threatened by this sheltered blue-eyed white-haired prettyboy to accompany him:

as we say around these parts, he has a big storm coming. (sorry, this au is bringing me back to Old Times fandom stuff… we need to bring back beauty and the beast too.)

4. speaking about beauty and the beast made me think about Happy Alfred getting his library and also about what a big gesture it is from haplo’s side, so now I’m having emotions about lots of stuff at once- i’ll try and give you an overview of my Many Thoughts. Alfred being amazed at the Outside World. the lights scene and how happy he would be and how affected Haplo would be from seeing him this happy. (shining in the starlight,,,, bilingual brain on fire in the background because that’s literally what Coren means). 

“I should have given this to you before, but I was scared. and the thing is, I’m not scared anymore, do you know what I mean?” “I think I’m starting to”, and Haplo subsequently realizing he Cannot possibly hand Alfred back over to his “guardian” for any jewel in the world?????? also reminds me of the end of your angst coma script which, i lay at night thinking about a lot.

5. I feel like Alfred has a bit more Magic Potential then Rapunzel, not only healing and stuff but also at least some offensive magic, but idk. Samah-as-gothel? definitely manipulative, definitely emotionally abusive in a way that causes lasting issues (because that is definitively a way to interpret a lot of alfred’s stuff and tho i don’t have the experience nor the theoretical psychological knowledge to actually do it but I have to mention it) and definitely using his time between visits to pull so fucking many political strings in so many places.

6. (yeah SIX you can’t tell me what to do you’re not my mom!!!!) All Aus Lead To Dancing. honestly, just as it should be. also FLOWER BRAID I INSIST

[eldridgecandell]

Tell me about your ocs! I forgot to ask you the question!

OOC

Where do I even begin? Most are all inspired by real life people in my family, they all steaming from my main that I created back in 2005. Long story short, I was in throes of a grand bout of depression due to my mother’s death and then budding relationship with my wife where a Freudian slip created a name. From there I just kept adding to a legacy of characters that I just can’t escape or stop connecting (I’m big into spider webs). So here we go!

Zexx Candell ( @zexxcandell ) a hero for hire and victim of the multiverse of my head; the son of Eld

Eld Candell ( @eldridgecandell ) witch hunter and monster hunter who uses past traumas to aid the the now; the father of Zexx and son of Erlain

Lain Candell ( @erlaincandell ) man of Stormwind, witness from the First War, butcher turned holyman; father of Eld and grandfather of Zexx

Oplisca Du’mere ( @opliscadumere ) a mislead sister and former lover of Zexx who was eventually cast into the void and later freed thanks to the Alliance; formly obsessesed with destoying Zexx until she finally won

Fenrag Onehand ( @fenrag-sonofsevlaz ) an orc from Outland and son of an assosciate of a former mentor of Zexx; maimed, broken, and reforged to serve the Horde as best he can; originally fueled by revenge for a murdered father, time and experience have made him question his motives

Alfred Klaudin ( @alfredklaudin ) an old dead risen during the Third War, freed by the Dark Lady, and zealot to the Forsaken cause; adversary to Eld and always watching for him

The Troupe ( @gatesofthetroupe ) a multimuse blog for all the many npcs who I made up and just can’t imagine making so many more blogs for. Beatrix Gallina Candell, Zexx’s true love; The Rogues: Xaya, Gendry, Rey, and Gwynn, children lost in time; Ganus Klaudin, Alfreds younger brother; Kinowin Du’mere, a brother who sold their souls for power and the divine; Coren, a servant of the Bronze assigned as guardian to the Candell Legacy; The Coldbringer, a corrupted soul bent on breaking the cycle. The list goes on and on I guess if you want scroll through it.

And as much as I don’t think I should, a classic blog will be in the works soon because my vanilla brain is building the days of former Azeroth. Sevlaz, Grumvald, Hornur, Crawlen, and probably a lot more.

I have a problem.

Hope this gives some insight into this cavalcade or headcanon that I’m stewing.

@jacobdcheshyre

[tealfling]

So basically I read this Lia headcanon by @fic--writer

They both have a strong sense of justice.

And care deeply about those around and those that other's may overlook.

both have a deep sense of family and community

and like i posted on the reblog:

Duchess Lia Ravenguard

Rolan's sister having a more powerful social standing than him? Honestly, he'd be so proud.

Like, what fault is he going to find in Wyll? He's a catch by any standard and a literal Prince Charming. Also one of the few people in the Grove open to tieflings!?

Rolan doesn't think anyone is good enough for his siblings, but he has to admit- you can't get better than Wyll.

If anything having Wyll around more probably makes Rolan feel more lacking as a partner. (Something we can kiss and make better with lots of praise).

[Coren screaming in my head, my sister-in-law is going to be a Duchess?!]

Okay I've talked about chaotic girl dad Astarion, BUT imagine this: girl dad Wyll with a tiefling daughter. 💕

We all know Wyll would be an incredible father, but I felt like if he had a little tiefling daughter, it would be especially precious. He looks at her and remembers all the little tiefling kids he helped train and protect in the grove all those years ago. Maybe he keeps in touch with some of the kids in Baulder's Gate and they become like big siblings to Wyll's daughter.

I imagine tiefling babies/toddlers go through a phase similar to teething when their horns are first growing in. Their little horn buds on their forehead become sore and inflamed. Wyll spends hours holding a cool washcloth to his daughter's forehead to soothe her, as well as learning how to make topical ointments to help. As he holds and comforts her she wraps her little tail around his wrist. ❤️

As she gets older Wyll teaches her proper horn care, like how to make them shine with a bit of oil. Wyll always making sure she feels like the little beauty she is. He learns all sorts of fancy hairstyles that curl and twist around her horns like elegant vines.

Duke Ravengard makes up for being a less-than-stellar father to Wyll by becoming the softest, biggest pushover of a grandpa you've EVER seen. Spoils that little girl to no end. Wyll has literally never seen this side of his dad and is both baffled and highly amused. Definitely teases his dad about "going soft."

Her growing up and never once feeling self-conscious playing around the human or elven children in the upper city because her horns are just like her daddy's. 💕

[deathgatesideblog]

Important Childhood Headcanons

I have spent far too much time thinking about Alfred’s childhood. I mean, he’s adorable as a grown-up man, so he must have been even more delightful as a little boy.

He was ridiculously short until his early teens, at which point he hit a massive growth spurt and entered an awkward stage that has never entirely ended.

His hair was just SO FLUFFY, guys. Like a dandelion or white Pomeranian (or my Havanese!) or something.

Quite frankly, people should have figured out that he was ridiculously powerful when he was very, very small. There were… Incidents.

Incident 1: Sartan children were traditionally taught how to replicate things very early on, as the spell was both simple, practical, and a good way to teach control. The other kids managed to replicate a cupful of water. Little Coren flooded the entire room and nearly drowned half his classmates. The teacher was not pleased.

Incident 2: Sartan kids learned how to fly a little bit after perfecting replication. The other kids hovered slightly on their first attempts. Coren shot up like a cannonball, smacked his head on the ceiling, and knocked himself unconscious.

Incident 3: He once tried to make a simple light rune and would have been blinded for life if his mother hadn’t healed him.

The poor thing couldn’t understand why he kept having Incidents because he had no idea where he was going wrong with the power-regulation exercises that were working for everybody else. Was there something wrong with him? But he wanted to learn magic, so he made up his own power-regulation techniques, which he mastered in the space of a week. Coren internalized his techniques so well that he almost entirely forgot he didn’t do the same thing as everyone else. 

I like to think that he enjoyed playing imagination games as a lad. Perhaps he even pretended to be a dragon sometimes. :)

The various Incidents caused him some difficulty in making friends, which might have contributed to his love of books.

Coren was the kind of kid who would use healing magic on every slightly wounded animal that crossed his path.

Everybody else add your own!

Oh my god??? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything as pure as this post, okay let me give it a shot

My sister provided the image of young Coren entertaining himself by creating little magical visualizations of the books that he read. I think that Alfred definitely was always awkward and that was only compounded by his mental hangups, but I also think that he was always less awkward when it comes to magic and dancing and things like that. Speaking of Alfred and music, I really want to believe he played some kind of instrument. Music is so important to the Sartan, and even if everyone was really worried and busy taking care of Arianus, I feel like that would still be the case? Also thinking about him healing wounded animals made me think about little Coren making good friends with a dog that way....... some things never change?

Ah I feel like I don’t have ones as good as these, though, other people please add some???

[bigskydreaming]

All over the place thoughts about both Voltron (Yes, That Thing That Happened) and Bobby/Pyro in the comics: 

I am curious to see what they do with comicbook Pyro and Bobby, even though it wouldn’t be my first choice of pairing for him (Bobby/Johnny Storm) or even my second, third, fourth or fifth choices, but it’s better than nothing and there’s just enough of a push to make this new Pyro catch on that like, a pairing with him has a decent chance of going somewhere. Which is the real issue these days with LGBTQ+ comic book representation.

Like, this is something I’ve been thinking about since VLD’s new season came out yesterday. I do still watch that show casually, even though I’ve stayed far away from the fandom and the discourse from the start, because, like...survival and self-preservation, yo. But tbh, I haven’t been invested in it for several seasons now, ever since the utter shitshow which was the season of ‘let’s make our only black character the perpetrator of vile slavery metaphors because racism allegories with zero self awareness FTW amirite Dreamworks’? So, the latest evidence of its shitshow-ness didn’t hit me as hard as it did others, because I am Cynicism, hear me roar, but it still sparked some thoughts, which tie into my thoughts on representation in other media.

Basically....I’m super not impressed by content creators who think saying oh he’s gay and then like....NEVER FUCKING DOING ANYTHING WITH THAT is in any way, shape or form representation.

I mean, I can headcanon any damn character I want as gay myself. I don’t need you all in order to do that. If you’re going to make a character gay in order to call it LGBTQ+ representation, then fucking REPRESENT me. DO something with that. And no, that doesn’t mean every single facet of that character’s being needs to be about them being gay. It means that character needs to be treated like any other character, in every facet of their being. Or else you’re not actually representing anything other than how little this is a priority for you.

'Gay people exist in this universe’ with an arrow pointing at the single gay character you’ve established as such, with no other evidence outside of a single scene to indicate that they are in fact gay outside of audience headcanons - that is not representation. No viewer needs to see that the content creator acknowledges that yes, people like them do in fact exist, to feel validated on like....an existential level. We all KNOW we fucking exist. We don’t need you to fucking confirm that, thanks. We get annoyed as hell when you go out of your way NOT to acknowledge we exist, but like....just acknowledging we exist isn’t representing us, its literally DOING THE BARE MINIMUM TO DEMONSTRATE YOU ARE AWARE YOU LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE PEOPLE OTHER THAN YOURSELF EXIST.

So, despite what my online persona might suggest, in my real life outside the internet, I’m what most gay and bi guys would call ‘masc’. I frequently get told I don’t ‘come across as into guys’ by both gay and straight people, as though this is some kind of compliment. It actually just depresses me, because for myself, I’m painfully aware of how much my adult personality and mannerisms are a result of repressing anything that might ‘give me away’ as gay or bi when I was a closeted teenager. I WORKED at that. I cultivated this adult persona I have now, back when I thought it was a matter of survival and that being who I really was wasn’t either a good thing or something I wanted. And now, as a grown adult who’s been out for over a decade, I do regret never getting a chance to know who or what I might have become, what I might have looked like, acted like, if I’d never had to teach myself to conform to external ideas of what it meant to be masculine.

My point is, I, like many other gay and bi men, each with their own reasons and circumstances, do not visibly come across as gay or bi in casual encounters. Most people meeting me once, outside of me directly referencing my orientation, would not walk away thinking ‘oh he’s bi’. So I’m very aware that yes, characters can be gay or bi without otherwise ‘seeming any different’ from any straight characters. They don’t need to ‘be obviously gay’ in order to actually be gay.

But we’re talking casual, one time encounters here. Anyone who’s known me for longer than that, knows that I’m bisexual. Whether friends, coworkers, even casual but regular acquaintances.....it comes up. Because its not some minute, tiny part of me. It’s as big a part of me as any straight person’s heterosexuality, and you need to THINK about how often that comes up. Because it does.

Our orientations are not just evident in who we take out on dates or go home with at the end of the night. People who know me well know of my orientation  because of the jokes I tell, and reflect this back in the kinds of jokes they tell to me. People who know me know of my orientation because of the way I reference past relationships and the way I talk about what I look for in future relationships, and they reflect this back in how and when and in what ways they share details with me about their own relationships or what they look for and value in them. People who know me know of my orientation because I am the result of all my experiences, and those experiences include my romantic ones. They shaped who I am. To know me, to know who I am, means to know where my life has taken me, and that includes the various times a romantic or sexual encounter has played a large role in shaping who I became.

On Voltron, Shiro has been one of the main protagonists for seven seasons. The audience has interacted with his story, shadowed his story as this main protagonist, for seven seasons. That is not a casual, one time encounter on the street. It does not work to claim ‘oh you wouldn’t know he was gay if you met him casually, people aren’t always obviously gay’ as though audiences haven’t been exposed to Shiro in his most private, vulnerable moments, the same as all the other main characters. It does not WORK that in seven seasons, there was ZERO opportunity for Shiro’s orientation, the role being gay has played in his life and how it’s shaped him, the fact that he had a freaking fiancee at one point, one that Keith at least KNEW, given that he was spying on them at one point.....it does not WORK that no matter how ‘not gay seeming’ Shiro normally comes across as, in this seven season long story about these six individuals who come together as a family, who know each other better than they know their own families, this story where according to the creators, they planned on Shiro being gay from the start, or at least from season two.....it does not work that there are NO places where Shiro’s orientation should have organically come up before now, been a matter of reference for him or other characters, anything like that......if he were ACTUALLY being treated as representation, rather than tokenism.

We didn’t know Shiro was gay before now, not because some peoples’ gayness is just so inherently invisible and damn hard to see, but because his creators didn’t WANT us to see it before now. Because it wasn’t a priority. Because people want to include marginalized groups in their media and call it representation, to appease those viewers who are DESPERATE for representation, to see lives like theirs played out in these larger than life tales, to see themselves in the heroes who get to save the day....but without actually DOING anything with this so-called representation.

Because how do you see yourself in a character whose creators have gone out of their way to KEEP you from seeing him fully, until now? When the only way they decide to show it to you now is by giving him a fairly watered down scene with an ex who we’re told but not shown mattered a great deal to him, and then killing off that same ex five episodes later, thus ensuring we’ll never actually SEE not just how this character matters to Shiro, but what Shiro’s like when you’re NOT hiding or obscuring that part of him that’s literally the part that represents us?

The problem with Adam’s death on Voltron wasn’t even his actual death. It was the end of the final episode. When all of Team Voltron gets to tearfully reunite with their loved ones after everything they’ve been through, in celebration of their victory and acknowledgment of all they’ve lost. We see Hunk with his parents, Lance with his family, Pidge with hers. Allura and Coren and Romelle. Even Keith has his mom and his surrogate father figure. And perhaps we didn’t see Shiro have a scene like that because he isn’t an actual Paladin like those other five anymore. But also....Shiro COULDN’T have a scene like that, even if they wanted to give him one. Because Shiro, unlike all those other characters, has no one outside of them. And this is by design. Because his creators CHOSE to have him have no one. Oh, I know what the writers are saying online. That Adam was killed off to show the stakes of Earth’s invasion. LOL bullshit. In a show that prides itself on creating realistic stakes around a team who pilots flying robot lions to form a giant robot that fights evil aliens, you can not possibly believe that killing ONE tertiary character we’ve only seen ONCE and who we only know even matters to one of our protagonists because of that one mention....is what makes or breaks the ‘stakes’ of this storyline. 

Adam died, because the show wanted to demonstrate that yes, look, see, we have a gay character.....without having to actually SHOW it. Or do anything with it. Without having to show us Shiro and Adam tearfully reuniting just like all his teammates got to do with those most important to them, to show them being a couple, to show them, to show Shiro not just being gay, but being VISIBLY gay, in an actionable way that REPRESENTS gay viewers, that says, hey, this is what a gay man looks like when he’s reuniting with someone he loves or at least once loved. Without having to move forward into the next season, where the other characters will no doubt be shown at least once interacting more with their own loved ones, without having to show Shiro work out what his return to Earth and Adam’s presence in his life again means for him, and whether they’re back together or interacting as exes, either way necessitating Shiro’s orientation, this facet of his life as a gay man, being front and center ON SCREEN just like everyone else’s relationships....all without once ‘requiring’ Shiro be in any way romantically or sexually explicit with another man, like kissing or being shirtless in bed together are the only ways to visibly show a gay man’s orientation in the story you’re telling.

All of which brings me back to Bobby/Pyro in the comics, and how even though it wouldn’t be my first choice of pairing, now that they’ve established a basis for it in their one night stand, I want them to actually do something more with it.

Because Bobby is gay whether or not he’s in a relationship, same as Shiro is gay whether or not Adam lived or died. You don’t need to be in a relationship to be gay, obviously. But like I said earlier.....we don’t need gay characters to EXIST in order to feel represented. Our existence has never been in question or up for debate. Representation, what that means....is if you give us these gay characters, we need to feel they MATTER. That WE matter. That they and their stories are a priority. That they get happy endings as much as they get to suffer. That their being gay is not a footnote to them saving the world, but their being gay and all the struggles they’ve had to overcome because of it is part of what gives them the STRENGTH to save the world.

I love that Bobby, one of my favorite characters, is an out gay man in the comics now. I love that Sina Grace’s solo series wrote him unapologetically as a gay man, where his orientation was clear and visible through every issue of his series even though only three or four of those eleven issues had him actually in romantic encounters. I love that he is very clearly, very definitively demonstrated as having the same characterization, being the same character, being the same BOBBY that I’ve followed since I was a kid, because as an out gay man now and a closeted and repressed man before that, he’s still the same character. Now we just get to see different angles, see him in different lights, get new contexts for old behaviors.

But I need to see him in an actual relationship, because Bobby has always, always, ALWAYS been characterized as someone who WANTS to be in a relationship. Who hates being alone, who fears being alone. And because I’m not represented by a character that Marvel finally makes an out and proud gay man, saying in the process that the reason his prior relationships never worked out was because they weren’t true to who he is.....but then going on to refuse to give him a relationship that’s even just slightly more functional than his previous ones.

I don’t expect him to get married and live happily ever after because yes, it is superhero comics, and drama is part of the package. ALL the X-Men have severely dysfunctional relationships. But they still HAVE them. For all the drama and dysfunction that comes with iconic X-couples, that doesn’t change the fact that Rogue and Gambit ARE iconic. Scott and Jean and even Scott and Emma ARE iconic. These pairings are established. They are long-lasting. They MATTER.

And that’s what it comes down to. If you make a character to represent marginalized readers or viewers.....it can’t stop there. These characters simply existing will never be enough, because that isn’t the point. The point is....they have to MATTER. Every bit as much as their straight or white counterparts. Their stories have to matter, be as much of a priority, be just as impactful.

Or you will always, ALWAYS be sending the message to your marginalized audiences: you are still second class citizens in our eyes. You may exist, but you matter less than these other characters who have ALWAYS mattered.

I do not have to scream my orientation from rooftops in order to be an out and proud bisexual man. I do not need characters to scream their orientation from rooftops in order to be out and proud gay or bisexual characters.

But my orientation matters. My experiences derived from that orientation matter. And if you can’t make the orientation of your characters, the experiences that shape them, matter just as much in how you choose to tell your stories, how you choose to prioritize these characters and their experiences and their stories?

Then do not try and tell me these characters represent me.

Because they most certainly do not.

[tealfling]

Ok, but I'm just thinking about how hot it would be to be a floaty bitch that isn't touching the ground and having someone hook their finger under your chin and drift you into a kiss