#fandom is not a queer utopia

[g1deonthefirst]

like sure, john is a war criminal, but tlt isn't political. john is a war criminal, but those blood of eden characters are all terrorists, which is exactly the same. actually it's even worse. john is a war criminal, and sure he killed people, but he couldn't have sexually abused anyone. because that would make him irredeemable, and he can't be irredeemable. he's just a funny war criminal guys!

i also think that it's pretty telling that the same people who are insistent that there aren't sexual violence metaphors in tlt will happily call john a war criminal. in that it shows what sort of violence they believe should be treated with gravity and what sort of violence is easily meme-able and dismissed.

[rivetgoth]

The fact that I’ve seen a few people try to analyze I Saw the TV Glow through a lens of it being about like, fandom and obsession with media and nostalgia being bad ?? is genuinely blowing my mind. Obviously there’s the fact that this movie is as unambiguously about being trans as it can possibly be without just saying outright “this is a movie about being trans” but I also think this is crazy because I would say it actually has one of the most unambiguously positive relationships with concepts like “media consumption” and “nostalgia” that I’ve seen in a movie.

Like, to say it’s a shallow interpretation of the film to call it “about media/fandom” (and especially a negative depiction of such things!) is putting it quite kindly because I kind of feel that anyone who utters such sentiments didn’t actually understand the core element of the entire movie: “The Pink Opaque” is not a show. Commentary the film makes about watching “The Pink Opaque” cannot translate to commentary on watching shows broadly because the movie spends half its runtime making it explicitly clear that “The Pink Opaque” may be a show that exists in a literal sense but is not one in a figurative sense. “The Pink Opaque” represents the possibilities of childhood and innocence. Innocence that still is not free from judgment—Owen gets told the show is for girls, Maddy’s friend accuses her of sexual harassment on account of her sexuality while they were watching it together—but it’s the moment in your youth (or any time! it doesn’t have to go away!) when the possibility of queerness and more explicitly queer utopia feels real to you. The external pressures to conform are still there but you can tune them out if just for a moment to envision a future and a life for yourself free of it and living authentically. I think this is an experience all LGBT people can relate to, but in the case of ISTTVG it’s very explicitly primarily focusing on queer femininity, predominantly transfemininity, but in Maddy’s case as well she is a queer woman (I’ve seen some interpretations of her as transmasculine but I disagree personally). Hence the on-the-nose nature of it being PINK.

What feels very genius about Schoenbrun making it about a show though is that it’s so generational, right? For all of us LGBT people who grew up in the age of screens that WAS where a lot of that early imagination going wild resided. The first time you explore a new name is on anonymous forums. The first time you explore your masculinity or femininity is with which character you relate to in a show, or which gender you select in Pokémon. Movies and shows with “queer subtext” or even without give young LGBT people the chance to envision relationships and futures for themselves, what many grow up and call “shipping.” You have your first gay crush while watching your favorite movies. You envy those of your true gender while watching your favorite movies. Amongst many other things when Maddy watches “The Pink Opaque” she’s given access to a world where two women share this intimate connection and overcome obstacles together. When Owen watches “The Pink Opaque” they’re given access to a world where femininity is a real option for their future.

The relationship these characters have to “The Pink Opaque” is a net positive and the movie makes that so incredibly obvious when Owen goes back to rewatch it later and finds that it’s nothing like how they remembered, it feels childish and immature and dumb. That is a bad thing. This is a bad thing. The movie wants you to see this as a bad thing. This is the result of repression, of conversion therapy, of violent coercion into normative lifestyle—That sense of limitless possibility is destroyed and the idea of accessing one’s transness, of imagining this utopia where you CAN be yourself and live as a woman, strong and beautiful on the other side of the screen as said in the film, is lost. Now you tell yourself it feels silly, it feels childish to imagine such things, it’s not nearly as deep and meaningful as you believed it was when you were younger and less inhibited, or it’s at the very least easier to tell yourself that. Owen’s feeling embarrassed is of note here. If it weren’t for these external pressures that have been internalized they very well may have been able to still enjoy the show, even as they’ve aged and grown and matured, even if their perspective has changed a little. But they can’t. Not yet, at least.

I feel kind of out of my mind seeing people try to approach it through a lens of commentating on media consumption because it’s so deeply missing the layers of what’s actually being said… and not even in a wildly obfuscated way. The movie is ABOUT the relationship these characters have to “The Pink Opaque” and how the loss of that is a bad thing. How you can possibly watch it and see it being about some kind of growth from obsessive media consumption is mind boggling to me. Seeing multiple reviews and posts in tags about it is crazy. One thing I really like about this movie is that it so confidently argues for a more positive interpretation of being obsessed with “fantasy” and the childlike wonder of the limitless possibilities of fiction. I think that’s a very very trans narrative, as I mentioned it feels tied deeply into Queer Utopia, and I find it much more bold of a stance to take. In a world where people tell trans individuals (and especially trans women) that their identities are works of fiction or products of the imagination or even caused by excessive media consumption, to embrace these things and turn them over and use them as a symbol of the whimsy and innocence and excitement that first ignites that spark as a positive, thrilling, beautiful thing is very cool.

[sjbattleangel]

Moon Studios' Thomas Mahler supports a hate movement

As someone who adores the Ori games, this is just awful in so many ways.

"Cancel culture" DOESN'T EXIST. What you're talking about is people demanding certain figures of power and influence to be held accountable for spewing bigoted hate speech or causing a toxic environment.

"Woke culture"? You mean a culture that acknowledges the existence of marginalized communities i.e people of colour, disabled people, queer, gender-non comforming people. Yet to you, that's somehow a terrible thing.

How dare you use a powerful poem dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust-the horrific tragedy of the history of humanity-to complain about your first-world persecution complex! To whine how sad it is that cishet white men like you own-*gasp*-slightly LESS of the world! Oh woah is me! You don't deserve to utter those words. Also, wanting more diversity, representation and equality in video games, game development and games journalism ISN'T THE SAME AS NAZISM! And don't me give that "The Nazis were socialists" bullcrap! THEY WERE FAR-RIGHT FASCISTS! You should know better. You're Austrian for crying out loud!

Having a women and minorities exist in video games and development isn't an "agenda". It's called KNOWING PEOPLE OTHER THEN CISHET WHITE GUYS EXIST. Also, "Hollywood" and "west coast developers" have nothing to do with this. Society is just changing, becoming more inclusive for the better and entertaining of all mediums are reflecting that. And that's great! Unless you have a problem with that.

Your friends were never "ridiculed" because they "didn't conform". Far from that tragic martyr rubbish you claim. They were rightfully reprimanded and fired for being bigoted jerks who didn't respect the humanity of marginalized people....just like you.

If you really believe the existence of minorities are "political", then I have nothing to say but SCREW. YOU.

Overall, there's just no way of putting it: Thomas Mahler is member and supporter of Gamergate.

Despite what they might tell you, Gamergate isn't and never was about "ethics" or "wanting fun apolitical entertainment". It is, has been and always will be a white supremacist hate movement (alongside Comicsgate and The Fandom Menace) dedicated to chasing women, LGBTQ+ people and BIPOC out of gaming and fandom. Its members and ringleaders are and have always been LITERAL NEO-NAZIS. Even when boycotting certain games over the supposed diversity consultants or the inclusion of minorities, they can barely hide their hatred.

Oh, and once again, THESE PEOPLE ARE LITERAL NEO-NAZIS:

(As evidenced by the "Embrace Tradition. Reject Modernity" white supremacist slogan*.)

Remember, if you still want to play his games, that's fine. I don't have the power to stop you. Just be warned that this developer stands with a hate movement.

*Hey, Nazi-turds, Japan and Korea aren't your Aryan utopias nor are their people your precious Aryan supergods!

[ecoterrorist-katara]

I’m so tired of wlw background ships in mlm fandoms.

mlm shippers almost never develop wlw ships to the degree that the audience feels invested in them. The conflict and character development and love story rely on tropes rather than actual narratives, yet fandoms act like they’re doing wlws a favour by shoehorning in this shitty “representation” when it’s just golden retriever x black cat over and over and over again in different fonts.

To be clear I don’t blame anyone for not having big wlw ships, because most major media out there do not have two fully fledged female characters you can ship together. If you want to write mlm ships, good for you! If you want a lazy wlw ship in the background, that’s fine! But don’t act as if the fandom actually cares about them, or that anyone did the legwork to make them characters that you can care about. Most of these female characters are never properly developed in the canon source material, and they’re almost never properly developed in the fanon material either. You can always tell by how these women are like, one archetype + gay (sporty gay, feisty gay, slutty gay etc, like some kind of gay Spice Girls). Yet fandoms just love to act like these background wlws mean so much & have the best love stories & everyone just should ship them. It’s all so performative.

wlws are not an aesthetic. wlws are not 2D happy couples to round out your queer utopia, a queer utopia that somehow still manages to foreground men. Women are always treated as 2D characters in narratives, except now there’s a subgenre where these 2D women are gay. Groundbreaking.

[inthemaelstrom]

So we're about six weeks out from another "most important election of my lifetime" and it's predictably making me literally sick to my stomach. When Trumpacabra got elected in 2016, I threw myself into politics in a way I never had in my lifetime and it almost wrecked me. I was one of those people who never voted for religious reasons (long, separate story) and I felt I had to make up for lost time. By the time 2020 rolled around, I was an unhealthy mess. I had stopped reading. Everything. When I wasn't watching MSNBC and political commentators obsessively, I started consuming absolute junk TV: home improvement shows, crack paranormal ghost hunter crap, etc. Things with no plot, no emotional investment, no danger. No fear.

Right before the 2020 election, old fanfic friends from my days in the Master and Apprentice Star Wars listserv found me and saved me.

They dragged me back into fandom, introduced me to Discord, and got me writing again. I updated a story I hadn't touched in 5 years. I made new friends online and in RL. I got some great fiction and fic recs from those friends and discovered a subgenre called Hopepunk—low stakes fiction with very little if any violence and fear and with happy endings. (Becky Chambers writes a lot of what I read, and Amy Crook has also become a favorite.)

One morning, I had one of those really vivid, realistic, linear plot dreams that literally dragged me out of bed to the keyboard. It was a meet-cute modern au of The Phantom Menace's characters, set in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I cranked out about 2000 words the first day. Then another 2000. Then another 2000. Then another 2000. And so on every damn day for the next four years until I had four novels, about 668k words, several timestamps written by three other collaborators who've come on board, some beautiful art I've been allowed to use, and now a fifth book in the works.

This is the Yooperverse.

It's not just The Fic That Saved Me, it's the place where I'm writing a vision of what the world could be like into being. A place where people with fucking obscene amounts of money don't spend it on themselves, or hoard it, or exploit other people to get more, but use it to help other people. It's a place where people who are bigoted dicks either get their comeuppance and crawl back under their rocks, or learn better and do better. It's a place where abused kids get rescued, everybody gets therapy and healthcare and is paid a living wage, people learn to value themselves and each other, and protect each other and defend each other. It's kinky and queer (although I'm neither) and above all, if not entirely safe to be both, I'm trying to write both things as just being another setting on the dryer. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's not a utopia, by any means, because there are still assholes and the government is still ... the government, and capitalism is still a thing. There's some danger, especially in the first book, and there are accidents and illnesses and the vagaries of life. In the middle of the series, I had spinal surgery and was out of commission for a few months and that made me start thinking more about my main character dealing with aging and the limitations thereof. There's a LOT of mental health issues and the working through thereof, and a lot of ongoing process. Nobody's perfect. The world outside is still pretty much what it is. But in the little corners where my characters dwell, life is pretty dang good, sometimes great.

It's a vision of a life we all deserve. It's the thing I loved about Star Trek's universe, where people's basic needs are cared for and the obstacles to them developing their best selves removed. It's what I've loved about science fiction in general, especially Ursula LeGuin's: that opportunity to explore possibilities that are better than the present. It's modeled on the MacArthur Genius grants, but you don't have to prove your worthiness first. My main character invests in people's potential, young or old, with scholarships and grants and a steadying hand. His partner builds low or no-cost housing for people in need. There's an informal network of queer and straight kid rescuing going on under the noses of unfriendly governments and failed social service safety nets. The main characters build refuges, literal and emotional. They love each other fiercely and respectfully.

Right now, we're living in a country that is almost the antithesis of these ideas, for far too many of us. People are being manipulated by their fears, which are stoked by unscrupulous, lying shitbag politicians whose all too real evil would never make it past the pitch if you were going to try to sell it as a TV show or movie. They're consciously turning us on each other with lies about our common humanity, about the state of our country, about who and what's responsible for many of its faults, sewing suspicion and hate. And though the Yooperverse started as my personal comfort fic, I'm trying in my very small way to counteract what's happening in the world right now.

I've always believed in the power of story to change people's minds and lives, and I've experienced it myself. When I talk about story, I don't just mean fiction, though. I mean the narratives we tell ourselves and others about our own lives as a whole and day by day or moment by moment. I mean the stories we tell about each other when we're together, at the bar, at wakes, at a party. I mean the stories we invest in as fans in whatever kind of media we consume. I mean the stories we spin for ourselves and others to explain what the everloving fuck is wrong with the world.

Stories aren't separate from the world, they are the world. They tell it into being. They give it shape and purpose and meaning and a sense of possibility. Whatever stories we tell ourselves or each other about how things should be or how we should act as human beings (also called our "beliefs" or "morals" or "ethics"), they shape us, and we shape society. We are society, both together and as individuals. One person with a big voice and a story can tip a mass of people into either violence or solidarity.

I have no illusions that the Yooperverse will ever have that kind of power. It has a tiny audience on AO3 and Discord and it's mostly written for me to explore the things I feel deeply about, and wish I could do, and to teach myself to be a better person and live up to my own ideals. It's a world I'd like to manifest, to call into being, even in a small way. Even if it's just a story.

[bimoonphases]

Happy (*sobs in the distance*) Halloween Marauders fandom!

It's officially been ONE YEAR since I started to wrote my marauders/golden age of piracy AU on ao3 to cope with the usual Marauders fandom October depression, so to celebrate I'm going to publish the next chapter today as soon as I'm done with work and house stuff!

Meanwhile you can catch up or start reading here:

We Chose the Sea

It's mainly Wolfstar-centric but has multiple povs so you'll find as well Dorlene, Jily, Rosekiller, a lot of tropes of found family and queer utopia and fighting the establishment! Enjoy!

[tacticalgrandma]

I love how fandom and ao3 are gay gay queer utopias right up until someone mentions how these environments seem to replicate the misogynistic patterns of the societies they come from, at which point all writers are cishet women.

[poppletonink]

The Marauders Fandom and How It Has Changed The State of Fandom Culture

The Marauders Fandom defies the natural state of fandom culture. Within the realm of the spiderweb of links, clicks and likes, fandoms have been born, have been nurtured and have been destroyed. Typically these fandoms follow a particular mould: by focusing on canon events, characters, and relationships between said characters, more art, writing and wonder is born. However, the Marauders fandom is unlike any of its predecessors or any fandoms being born today. Though its characters were once residents of the world of Harry Potter, in the eyes of the fans they are no longer bound to the confines of their original character archetypes (and their minimal development) as provided by writer J.K. Rowling. The internet has created a fandom renaissance - a rebirth of the characters who were originally solely there as ancestors and side characters to the so-called Golden Trio.

With this rebirth comes a subversion of what people think they know. James Potter (the father of Harry Potter) and his friends are no longer the distant memories of a forlorn, mistreated young boy. Through headcanons, fanfiction, edits, and fanart, and the "fanon" versions of these characters, they are given substance, personalities and backstories much richer than those that were scrawled into the pages of the Harry Potter series. From All The Young Dudes by MsKingBean89 (the most-read fanfiction on Archive Of Our Own) to Crimson Rivers by bizarrestars, formerly known as zeppazariel, these characters are given new life.

A queer utopia - perhaps that is the best way to describe and define this fandom. As it has settled into its cozy corner of the web, the fandom has become more bold and outlandish in their ideas. Debates have run riot over romantic pairings and sexual orientations projected onto any and all characters clawed into the cast that is beloved by this ever-growing group of people. Is Remus Lupin "as gay as the day is long" (as he was described in the original print of Casey McQuiston's Red White and Royal Blue) or is he a bisexual man (as unfortunately rare as they are in the literary world)? That is just one of the many questions thrown around from tongue to tongue, from text to text, in this fandom. The importance of queer representation has been established again and again in our modern world, but it has existed and prevailed within the world of the Marauders Fandom.

The pairings in this fandom range from canon, sensible and strongly backed up with evidence from the original books (like James Potter and Lily Evans), to wild, wacky and completely obscure (like James Potter and Regulus Black). However, the fandom has decided to take their own route, no longer caring what words the creator Rowling has to say about her characters. On numerous occasions, J.K. Rowling has stated that Sirius Black and Remus Lupin do not have romantic feelings for each other, and yet 'Wolfstar', as they are so-lovingly nicknamed, is one of the biggest ships in fandom history. Alongside this, after the proclamations of Rowling's transphobic views mid-2020, the fandom took a stand declaring many of the characters (especially Regulus Black) to be transgender in their eyes. Through this, the Marauders Fandom has made these characters even more relatable for those who read about them. Even more notably, they have used these characters to take a political stand - to make it clear that we must stand up for those in our society who are shoved aside and discriminated against.

Fandom culture is taking art and making it into something even more beautiful, making it something that people relate to and adore even more than they did before. While the art originally belongs to the person who creates it, once it is put out into the world it becomes open to interpretation. People project onto songs, onto books, onto art and it helps them to escape the trials and tribulations they face within their realities. After all, isn't that what entertainment is truly made as - an escape? As a result of the Marauders Fandom, we can look towards a future where fandom is no longer defined by its canon, where it becomes a group of people who love something and share creative ideas together. As a result of the Marauders Fandom, fans have the ability and the opportunity to have a sense of more artistic expression, which ultimately leads to more media and literature for us to enjoy. The Marauders Fandom is a fundamental and quintessential part of fandom history - it is a story of its own, born and bred of minuscule threads and mere sentences about interweaving characters. It shows just how we as people are powerhouses of creativity and that, as is said in Dead Poet's Society (1989): "poetry, beauty, romance, love - these are what we stay alive for".

[darcylightninglewis]

Whelp, I’ve fucking had it with people. And that 3 discords (queer art, 2 nerd art) kicked out of and one volunteering to leave because I’m Jewish. But that’s right, I’m the problem, me, existing in a fandom or creative space. You want to have your views mirrored back to you, right or wrong? That’s not intelligence, open mindedness, or being an ally to a minority. You don’t have to pick and choose. You can be pro Israel and pro Palestine. Just be anti terrorist. I know it’s getting harder these days, what with them willing to murder you too, but hey, a girl can hope.

I’m so fucking done. All I want to do is be a nerd. Why is that so infuriating to people? I try to educate and I’m an elitist, I try to clarify things as a minority and I’m the problem. Fucking children thinking they know everything. Best of luck in your utopia, I’m sure you’ll get the help you need when they come for you too.

Really tempted to make my info say: “the big bad Zionist under your bed” just embrace the hatred.

[frogwiththephatahh]

MASSIVE spoilers for the ending of season 4

I'm still so mad about this

Five deciding that the entire family needs to die is the worst narrative decision the writers could have possibly made. Firstly, it's so unfair to all the alternate Hargreeves kids. We're informed pretty early on that there are infinite timelines. INFINITE. For every timeline where the Hargreeves are abused and mistreated and suffer, there's another where they are happy, content, and raised by a Reginald who genuinely loves them. It's never really implied (as far as I remember) that EVERY timeline involves suffering and bad things. Besides, that's just not possible. Infinite is a pretty big number, and it is so far beyond the realm of believability that every single timeline includes the Hargreeves having a bad time.

"but we have to break the cycle" of what? death and rebirth? that's literally the cycle of life. That's supposed to happen. There HAS to be a timeline where the cleanse doesn't start because Jennifer remains hidden. There HAS to be. THERE'S INFINITE TIMELINES

This is why I hate media with "infinite" timelines or time travel or whatever

or did Five mean the cycle of abuse? Because lemme tell ya, killing yourself does NOT stop the person who abused you from being a shitty person. it does NOT make you feel better.

The idea that one bad link should just die and then everyone else gets to be happy is such a bad message I have to assume everyone on staff was too scared of Steve Blackman to point out how fucking bad it is. Pain and suffering and sadness is part of life. It just happens. It's always going to happen. We could live in a Utopia and you'd still have a bad day every once in and while. I just. I can't even FATHOM how they made such a bad decision. Especially when this is a show with a fandom that is largely comprised of queer people and other societal misfits. Having the final solution be, "hey just kill yourself and everyone will be better off without you" is so incredibly irresponsible.

And it makes absolutely no sense narratively.

The reason why characters sacrificing themselves is usually so meaningful is because those are characters who are shown to be very unlikely to want to do that. My best example of media that does this BRILLIANTLY would be Rise of the tmnt The Movie with Leonardo.

Throughout the entire show and movie, Leo is shown to be egotistical, self centered, and selfish. He throws his brothers into harm's way to get things he wants. He compromises missions just to get the spot light. etc, etc. These are the reasons his choice to sacrifice his own life to save the world is so meaningful at the end. He learned to put others above himself. He learned that his family matters more to him than his own life. This is a great ending to his character arc.

It doesn't work with the Hargreeves because the Hargreeves are never shown to be egotistical or self centered or really even selfish. They were specifically raised NOT to be. These are people who have been putting others over themselves their entire lives. Showing characters, who have done nothing but suffer because of things beyond their control, KILL THEMSELVES to save the world is such a bad decision from a narrative standpoint.

But you know who's character arc would have been greatly improved by self sacrifice?

SIR REGINALD MOTHERFUCKING HARGREEVES

This man has been nothing but vile and stubborn in every single scene he has ever been in. His arc being concluded with a quick, "well, at least you hesitated three seconds before killing the man you RAISED this time so maybe you're not a bad person after all" is so fucking lazy it hurts. Reggie is not and has never been a good person and him feeling kinda bad about shooting Ben (which he later regrets btw. not killing. he regrets HESITATING) is not a satisfying end to character. If Reginald, who he know is a total asshole, decided to sacrifice himself to give the people he raised a chance at a normal, happy life, that would have been soooo good.

and there is a canon-compliant way for this to happen. We know from season 2 to Viktor has the power to move marigold around, as seen when he accidentally gives Harlan powers. And it could have been foreshadowed for like half the season! Reggie tells them about marigold and durango, Viktor realizes he can control it, they don't really know what to do with it though. Cue the rest of the season. Viktor can still have that semi-healing adventure with Reginald, who realizes now that he's actually spending time with one of his kids that he's quite fond of them

They're running out of hope. Five comes back and says all the marigold needs to be absorbed for this to stop. Sadness, arguing, whatever. Reginald tells Viktor to transfer all the marigold into his body. Everyone leaves with their families on the train. Reginald is left behind to die and his last words can be some sort of apology or wish of good fortune or whatever.

And this would work so well for Viktor, too! Him being the one to technically kill their dad, freeing them from his shadow, from his wrath and evilness, would be so good for Viktor.

But no. The writers gave up and decided instead of just picking out whatever story lines were most important, they dumped all of them on us then set it on fire so there's a very slim chance this show or concept will ever get picked up again.

Anyway I need to drink some water and get started on a fix it fic

[maxwell-grant]

🔥 X-men/Krakoa?

Allright let me swing at the hornet's nest here a bit: Krakoa was wasted on the X-Men, not the other way around.

Krakoa was, however problematic and shitty and complicated it might have been even from day one, was onto something enough to generate the intense interest and instant fandom it did, and it's biggest problem wasn't with the forgiving of unrepentant monstrous villains (because that door got blown open forever ago), or the no-humans-allowed policy, or the genocide in Latin America, or the pod people resurrection that took the bite out of every mutant genocide and death past and future, or that the entire premise was built around them trusting the funi haha eugenicist Nazi to build their paradise and let himself be stopped later, or that it kept revolving around the petty courtly intrigues of the arch assholes in charge with only like, two writers capable of propping up this to make it worth reading about. The central problem didn't have as much to do with the fact that the newfound central focus on shadowy detached superhumans huffing their supremacist royalist fumes 24/7 is precisely why nobody likes the Inhumans and especially why nobody liked them as a replacement to the X-Men, and you can't cobble a story out of Magneto/Emma Frost/Mr Sinister mean girl one-liners and hot takes even if that's all the fans want (yes, the X-Men are bastards and so is everyone in the MU, how cutting and insightful and powerful they are yes very impressed, but an Epic Bastard Moments compilation is still not a story). I don't even think it can be entirely blamed on the fact that they had the X-Men speedrun through the 14 rules of fascism as the opening act to a larger story only to decide that actually, we don't need that larger story after all, thanks Hickster but we can just take it from here and keep Stage One as is, everyone's gonna be cool with the cult shit if it still feels like it's going anywhere other than back to the school, we can keep this up forever now! This isn't even a bit, I don't think these things were the biggest cause of death for Krakoa even if they all were there.

I think the biggest problem is that, no matter how many cool or great characters they add to their ranks or what turns into epic pulp sci-fi bombast they take, the X-Men might just be foundationally, irreperably broken as a concept, smothered under the weight of the selling metaphor that just gets more dated and problematic and easier to tear holes into with every passing year, and Krakoa ultimately just elevated all these problems to center stage. There was never going to be a world where Magneto says something as full of shit as "There has never been a mutant war and we've never conquered or stolen land or made slaves and that's why we're better, by the way we're going to be your new gods now" with a straight-face and didn't have that proven immediately wrong (not counting all the people in the Council who absolutely did do all of those things). Krakoa couldn't be both the terra nullius dream clubhouse and the "queer separatist utopia" people desperately craved and a cult backed up by genocide run by self-destructive warmongering hypocrites and a next step in evolution and the headquarters to a superhero team you need to tell monthly exploding punchy stories about and a place that was going to live forever and lead us into the better future and a house of cards waiting to be toppled. It didn't have a future because quite frankly, the mutants don't have a future.

The mutants are, even after all this time, still a half-baked idea of people entirely defined by their oppression, by their death and torture and the hollow space where you're expected to insert your own marginalized traits to identify with instead of much of anything akin to how real marginalized identities are formed and developed and solidified over time. Pretending that the mutants can subsist forever on past shoddy worldbuilding and dated, vague parallels just gets more embarassing over time. It's not an issue individually cool comics or characters are going to fundamentally fix. Krakoa, to it's credit, was some way towards trying to define the mutants past their oppression, but they barely had a language or a flag, and even these attempts were smothered under the Claremontian shadow that's been choking this franchise forever and by the inability of The Big Two to truly hand the reins to anyone other than the same stables of white dudes who always get the final say in everything. Krakoa was Going Somewhere up until it wasn't, and the promise alone breathed a whole new life into the X-books, we really did get some very good comics out of this era, but it was always going to end the way it ended.

Actually scrap all of that, my hot take is, not for racist reasons or anything, but we should destroy the X-Men and replace them with big cool robots that can make us safe forever. Has anyone tried that already?

[molter-writes]

—Oh. And then she’d turned, and the horse looked, a spark of attention she hadn’t once seen. This is Meleys.)

Oh fuck you, it’s TOO SOON. Ow, my heart, my bb.

Oh god, Rhaenys being Rhaenyra’s second mother is SO painfully GOOD, I must take a page from all the hacks and steal it ;)

— “But we’re meant to have power.”

“No,” she’d said, again; and the horses had chuffed, standing by. “We’re meant to serve.”

GOD SHE REALLY SHOULDVE BEEN QUEEN 😭. Westeros would be a queer draconic utopia. ~~you can’t~~ Change my mind

—you betrayed me, pushing and shoving—and Rhaenyra, letting her, eyes just as cutting, you betrayed me first—remember?

GRRRRRR THE ANGSSSTTTTTT IT KEEPS ME GOING. I think you’re one of the few people that get how multidimensional their relationship is and has been and can be. Sometimes to love someone is to let them knife you in the gut because the knife is attached to their hand and it keeps you connected. Every time you put a new spin on them I am in aware.

—“This is an absurdity—Mother loved Rhaenyra—"

“You are a Velaryon.”

(It’s said sort of final; like so call the field to rest. Like here endeth the lesson.)

Oh ho ho! Excellent. I do always wonder why we as a fandom give Corlys such good intent, when he’s just as ambitious and chauvinistic as the rest of them—Rhaenys is simply too much a force of nature for him to go against her, but if she’s no longer a present force turning his ambition to good, he is as much a villain as Otto.

— Rhaenyra still straps him into the baby carrier when they walk, fits his knit hat over his ears; he still falls right asleep. The sight still does something to her

The most important question, however, is: do they watch peppa pig? 🤪

— She swallows. Schools her face. “And Rhaenyra would, if he succeeded—I don’t—” Inhales, slow. “No longer be heir. Or so he thinks.”

Oh my god is Otto handing her HER GREATEST DREAM? Rhaenyra once more out of the public eye and ONLY HERS, with time and energy to devote to her family? Say less Otto. You’ve found Corlys Velaryon’s greatest ally.

—AAAAAND of course Otto is a royalist of convenience, I threw up in my mouth a little with every word of that little “divine right, constitutional duty yada yada” spiel.

—Criston Cole, AMERICAN MARINE oh my goooodssss it’s perfect 😂😂😂

—“No. You were right. You are the truest of all my counsellors, Rhaenyra.” It crackles through the phone; something pitter-patter, something like rain. “You’ll certainly make a true Queen.”

Viserys, you motherfucker! Why must you always say the wrong thing? that shit IS A CURSE, maybe tell your daughter you love her in plain language??? Would it kill you?????

—I tried to reach you and the more I tried the more I was met with your punishing fucking silence.

Please kill me.

—I FUCKING KNEW IT!!!!!

Exquisite, as always. I spy a glimmer of hope, maybe, if Rhaenyra could just focus on the love she has, and not the one she wishes she did (Viserys, you motherfucker), and if they could only communicate honestly. A lot of ifs. I shall away my next torture appointment patiently.

these long beautiful responses unfurl my limbs and pour chicken soup into my soul

[pastellieria]

people will go on about "all headcanons are valid" and "it's okay for people to be interested in dark themes" and "write about whatever you want to express yourself and no one should criticize you" until a trans woman includes the transphobia she has faced irl in her headcanons and isn't interested in escapist fantasies of a perfect queer utopia in her fandom. then she's clearly weird and evil for even thinking about it and she should shut up and never share her ideas in public.

[moonage-daydreamy]

for my mutuals who want to procrastinate on your work, here is a list of Video Essays to immerse yourself into:

The Queer Utopia of the Marauders Fandom | Video Essay (youtube.com)

booktok & the hotgirlification of reading (youtube.com)

Capitalism, Poverty, and Ratatouille (youtube.com)

Why Perfect Blue is Terrifying (youtube.com)

Whiplash vs. Black Swan — The Anatomy of the Obsessed Artist (youtube.com)

How Media Scares Us: The Work of Junji Ito (youtube.com)

Sofia Coppola: The Politics of Pretty (youtube.com)

Social Media's Obsession with Aesthetics and Curated Identities (youtube.com)

Howl's Moving Castle - an Underrated Masterpiece (youtube.com)

what makes gen z humor so interesting? (youtube.com)

everything wrong w/ "romanticize your life": eurocentrism, hedonism, unrealistic, etc. (youtube.com)

[oh-contraire]

Coming back to fandom

Okay so it's been like 15 years since I've been properly excited about a fandom, so I didn't expect to be sitting here in my 40s, supposedly a serious adult with a real job and a real life (such as it is), having fallen even more deeply in love with Good Omens, a show based on a book that I've loved for over 20 years, a story that's always been there for me, this lovely little comfort read with a life-affirming message, and that has now eaten my entire brain and made it abundantly clear that I'll be stuck right here at least until season 3 comes out and gives me that beautiful everything-is-as-it-should-be cathartic resolution and I can finally rest and go back to real life (ha!)

I certainly didn't expect for this silly show about angels and demons to help me figure out this late in my life that I'm non-binary, to have all those parts of myself that I didn't quite understand suddenly start to make sense. I didn't expect to actually start to really own my queerness - which as a perpetually single person at my age, who's straight-enough-passing to not have to hang it all out there, while simultaneously being lucky enough to exist in a group of friends where queerness is basically the default and you'd almost have to come out as straight (old goths are the best) - is such a powerful experience, and is helping me figure out what the next part of my life will be and what the hell I'm doing around here.

The last time I was in a fandom, I was young (well, compared to now). I had parents who were still alive, who I was close to, and who I could share my excitement with. I've got beautiful memories of travelling from Australia to Europe with my mum in 2008, the last time we'd ever do that, of spending a couple of days of our precious holiday at Cardiff Bay watching the post-hub explosion scene in Torchwood Children of Earth being filmed, of her sneaking away and getting GDL's autograph for me on a random piece of paper, when I was too mortified to even consider it. I'll never watch Family of Blood or Utopia without remembering how I saw it for the first time with my dad, randomly flicking through channels and not really knowing what we were in for, and both of us experiencing that incredible, literally jaw dropping moment when Derek Jacobi was revealed as the Master, how I teasingly called him Father of Mine for years after that because it was such a wonderful shared moment for both of us (and because I was a totally cool and normal grown adult even then).

I never expected to fall straight back in love with Doctor Who after that, 15 years later, having lost both of my parents to awful illnesses, having tried to pretend that life, however fine it all was for the most part, hadn't had this constant undercurrent of existential dread, a horrible sense that from now on it would just be a series of losses, that all the things I loved would just fall away until there was nothing important left, that I could scramble for those little crumbs that felt like renewal or purpose but that ultimately felt hollow in the face of what seemed like an increasingly bleak and relentless world of serious things like work and mortgage payments and obligations and the whole thing of pretending to be a real adult doing Important Things.

I never expected just how healing, how utterly cathartic it would be to see 14 come back after all these years, older, tireder, after experiencing all that loss and grief, and to see them love so deeply, to see them find a new home, a new family, and to finally find a way to be actually, truly happy. I cried so much during that episode, and it felt like actual hope for the first time in years, like it helped to heal some part of myself that thought it would never be properly healed.

I'll never stop being in awe of how stories can do that. These silly little TV shows about angels and demons or time travel and the universe, which are really about humans and life and death and love and everything that's actually important, and which bring to the surface those deep truths that are hard to see among the minutiae of everyday life.

Stories are so powerful, and I'm so happy to feel excited about them again, and to have them weave their way back into the fabric of my life. So, thanks to RTD and @neil-gaiman for helping me find this feeling again, and thanks to fandom for continuing to exist while I figured out that this was one of the big parts that was missing from my life! <3

[writingjourney]

Also! This is more of a fun ask :) I like to headcanon Copia either as queer in some way or as a Trans Man (however those depictions change from headcanon to headcanon, fic to fic)

do you have any particular headcanons about Copia's sexuality? I know the fandom all has different views and I'm curious :D

I'll take the time to reply to your other ask tomorrow when I can think on it for a bit but I can answer this one right now because I feel chatty! (under the cut bc it got a bit long) ♡

Basically, I just project myself onto the Papas and think of them (most of the time, I am flexible too lol) as bisexual men who also like to fuck with gender and don't care about gender norms. Like, I personally struggle to label my own gender, I vibe with pretty much anything that's female descriptors as well as gender-neutral descriptors, there's times I prefer one over the other and then it changes again and I don't feel the need to throw a label on it at the moment.

This brings me to, and this is a bit of a wider HC, but I always love to imagine that them growing up in the Satanic church, gender and sexuality did not "matter" as much in the sense that there was not as much of a need for coming out and using labels because everyone is able to express their gender and sexuality freely. Also as an act of rebellion against the very strict norms of Christianity and them spreading that shit all over the world. Just think of Copia wearing the Cornette or Secondo being described as "in tune with his feminine side". Which is why I think they don't bother with labels as much and just do what they want. This is a bit of a utopia of course but I often wish society worked like that, so the "ideal" ministry in my head is just this safe space.

I also love to HC Copia as demisexual though because that is also very relatable to me, even though I don't quite love that label for myself. But I like to think that he needs to trust and know someone a little better to feel sexually attracted to them or get intimate with someone, not being "in love" per se but having a bit of a connection that makes him feel safe :)