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watashime-ciel · 6 months ago

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more organized RH headcanons +picrews of their (human) designs !!

hello yes the title of this

there are headcanons i'd like to share but they're either too personal or too uh. idk what to call them but i would have to use a trigger warning a lot and i don't want that. i don't wanna include that here- (but just a note, if i ever post human DJ Yellow drawings, i am not putting a tw for his scars as they are healed. that's all)

this is VERY LONG so sit back and enjoy your stay

credits to the respective creators of he picrews! had fun using most of them (Cecil has elf ears because fuck you thats why)

DJ Yellow

or; Yotsuhe/Yellow, age 22

gay boygirlic (a boy who experiences feminity in a way that doesn't affects their gender identity; explanation i can give fron what i understood of the original definition), any/all pronouns (he doesn't cares at all)

he has freckles but only visible on the sun

surprisingly, can take headphones off. just don't ask him to do it, he might just ignore you. but it is now common to see him headphoneless

he lets his hair grow a lot and then refuses to cut it, but in reality he hates having long hair

the idea of being a famous DJ known all around the world like Skrillex or CHU² in RAISE A SUILEN doesn't makes him too happy. that's why he participates as a DJ in most of school events or in local parties. he prefers to be known for his VOCALOID songs/covers or his cosplaying or dancing, or even his MMD videos. being a DJ is more of a hobby for him so "why be known for it when i have something else that's my actual passion?"

sanest Hatsune Miku fan. buys all the cosplays he finds, the figurines, funko pops, dolls, wigs, posters, stickers, keychains, phonecharms, pins, decoration and plushies he finds. basically he is me when i see something Husk, Vox, TMNT or Wakfu related, but with Miku

Yellow knows a lot about VOCALOID and hates you forever if you mistake a VOCALOID with a SynthV etc. also hates you if you think vocal synthetizers are AI

Len Kagamine is like his second identity, as he learnt most dance moves from him, including the acrobatics. he now breakdances whenever he has the possibility. thanks Len Kagamine

Yellow needs glasses most of the time. the problem is that he loses them a lot so he's just. blind. too much roblox

he has three voices: his normal voice (voiceclaim: kokichi ouma english, kyo or yuu from zola project), his more childish or mocking voice (len kagamine soft, elmo or bluey. you read that right. elmo.) and his feminine voice for... uh. doesn't matter (marcille from dungeon meshi in latin spanish or amalia sheram sharm in french). the uses of the last two voices is unknown... for the public knowledge

silly picrew time:

Student

or; Katsumoto/Blue, age 21

bi male, he/shark pronouns, proud boygirlic protector

after years of dating, he was forced by Yellow to learn some dances for cosplay performances, even if he knows Blue suffers of social anxiety. it was enough for him to GO to a convention with Yellow. now imagine him cosplaying KAITO or Sebastian Michaelis and dancing Cendrillon. poor guy is exploding

number one germs hater. carries 70/30 alcohol+water everywhere, sanitary towels and tiny bags

don't leave him alone at home. he's the living Senshi but in blue. he's baking you 30 types of chocolate cake if you leave the house for 2 minutes

or, you can choose to leave him alone and surprise him singing, which he rarely does to the public. not even Yellow. but, what does he sing? something in spanish for sure, maybe El Cuarteto De Nos. or maybe he's choosing Atarashii Gakko? or maybe he's humming a Minecraft song. who knows

he enjoys drawing and animating, making really smooth animations

he has one voiceclaim for two situations: YOHIOloid for when he is singing, Hazu Kashibuchi for when he's talking normally

Blue has had his phase of long hair but soon enough asked for help to cut it out because the feeling was not letting him live normally. he wanted his "floor cleaner hair" (named like that by him) back

he is THE autism. and also a theathre kid. favourite musical is probably heathers or ride the cyclone

silly picrew time. do you prefer long haired Blue or bald

(needed an excuse to show the human djs kissing picrew)

J.J

or; JayJay/Jason/Leo/Leonardo/Jay, age 24

bi male, he/they/she pronouns, jokingly responds with "my pronouns are i/ta/ly"

HE IS POC and you cannot say otherwise

he smokes, but smells like roses

screams in italian when he is overly exaggerating with his reaction. it's the perfect source of laughter for Cecil

he can also play the bass, being a 'support' when Cecil practices songs on the guitar

he can also sing, but thanks to Cecil's demands of him singing like an agonizing racoon he rarely does. "agonizing racoon" comes from the fact that J.J has an Ado complex and uses a lot of screaming and growling in everything he sings. Cecil is worried about his vocal chords, even if J.J knows what he's doing

she was an emo before switching his life style to visual kei until the end of time. no one knows how his eyes look like without makeup

J.J still lives with his parents, actually. he has his own department but fuck that. he uses that department for music purposes (or he goes there to cry). but he wants his momma

you can't call him a visual kei nerd if he is the visual kei. has played with Cecil's cousin in the past and formed part of Megamasso for quite a long time until he gave up with Ryou's "bullshit" and left the band. Later forming what we know as the Rockers, or as i like to call it, the Rhythm Heaven Watashime Slug thing. but i'm stopping there because i have all things planned for the Rockers and this Watashime Slug thing leave me alone i'm normal (i'm not)

his room is very clean, and he has many figurines around the shelves and desk. there's one in particular that doesn't fit the "vibe", and it's a dinosaur plushie. it belonged to his younger brother who passed when J.J was 15 and his brother was around 12-15. everything that belonged to him was sent to charity or to the basement, except for that dinosaur

for his voice i never got creative. but back in the day, his voiceclaim was Kaito from Danganronpa. back in the day when Cecil was named JAVID.

silly picrew time, i promise i'll make more that look more... drawable or whatever

whatever you say jason leonardo from rhythm heaven headcanons

Cecil

or; Sou/Cez/Cece/Soushi/Cil-ly. age 23

pan nonbinary, he/they/ey pronouns

all his life he played the violin. it was at the age of 17 that he started playing the guitar with J.J

his mom is very much against the whole visual kei thing and him looking androgynous, but with time she has learnt to accept the differences™. as for Cecil's dad, he's a super chill adam sandler typa guy. adam sandler as in clothing. it was his dad who introduced him to the guitar world, with guitar hero lol

Cecil has a few voiceclaims for me but it's because i can't decide, only for his singing voice that's on my yt channel; fukase soft/normal. but for a spoken voice, i had Brandon from Team Hot Wheels in mind. but now i can't decide so bro won't talk. he shall sing

Cecil's very clumsy with his eyeliner so he always cries to J.J for help

he is Blue's best friend, and how they became friends is very funny actually. one time when J.J and Yellow were fighting, both Cecil and Blue decided to run away from the problem and hide somewhere until they were done. they were casually walking to the same place to hide. that's when Cecil decided to speak with "I suppose he talks crap about me to you too eh?...", to which Blue responds "...Yeah, but you don't look that terrible...". best friends forever the end

he is actually waiting for J.J to finally let go of his mother so they can go living on J.J department for music™, but that's not happening very time soon

Cecil cries very easily, actually. one time J.J was invited to play with his old band for a few concerts in another city and Cecil spent whole nights crying in call to J.J because he missed them. poor guy

he also enjoys animating, like Blue, but he has a more youtuber animation storytime type of style, more static and less movements depending of the situation. but he has a good hand with MMD

when him and J.J formed Watashime Slug, he spent hours not paying attention in class, writing the first song they recorded. half the school year lost, why ya askin

before singing in front of a lot of people he actually needs to kick or punch something while he hyperventilates. otherwise he id exploding

one of his vocal stims is quoting the life gives you lemons vine, with the voice crack and all

silly picrew time. CECIL ELF EARS JUMPSCARE and kissing rockers oh my god are they even real (they should be. i'm going insane)

Red Woman

or; Connie, age 22

sapphic girl, she/her pronouns, also a proud boygirlic protector

Yellow's best friend from faaaaaaar. they cosplay, sing and dance together whenever they got the opportunity. one might mistake them for a couple for how close they are, but nope yellow likes mem and connie likes wemen

she prefers to sing metal rather than rapping. mainly she does it because she wants to growl and scream like Lena Scissorhands, her idol. of course J.J then wants to do sing with her. she's also a soprano. how cool is she dude she's the whole package

her voiceclaim is Ruby and v4flower from Vocaloid. Ruby for english, v4flower for japanese. with both she can talk lol

she made black kusanagi nene canon y'all it wasn't me it was connie

she's in a relation with Jenna (blue woman), but many people think she's dating MC Adore due to them being close. she has two situations where she's mistake by someone's partner but no one knows about Jenna lol

silly picrew time look at her gooooo yayyyy

Blue Woman

or; Jenna/Jen. age 22

sapphic girl, she/they pronouns

i don't have much headcanons about her, but she's also a soprano and main choir singer for Connie

she has auditioned for some musicals but never got the role ever. her dream role is Jane Doe and Miss Argentina

her voiceclaim is CUL from v2 with a lower gender parameter setting. as for english and/or spoken voice, i'd probably say constance from rtc

she loves her gf. a lot. she has a lot of love to give

loves going out for walks, no matter what time is it

silly picrew AND KISS YAY it's the last kiss picrew i promise

Red Rapper

or; Kohai/Ko/Red/parappa. age 22

transgender man, unlabelled, he/him

he has a cousin-like bond with Connie, as their parents are super close and they grew up together. unlike Yellow Rapper and Jenna, that they're actual family. specifically siblings

also Yellow's best friend and one that stayed most of the time on his side during difficult situations until he met Blue

a rapping voice he might have besides his og voice, is TOPHAMHAT-KYO's from FAKE TYPE. as for talking, i'd say tankman? the one that appears in fnf because i forgot his name so now you know *which* tankman i'm talking about... at least after training his voice. and as for his singing voice, ARSLOID is a close choice for me, but not sure

he has dated Yellow Rapper in the past, but it's not like they felt romantic feelings towards each other all the time? it was more sort of platonic, so they stayed as friends. but remember something...

kissing the homies goodnight

his name was actually gonna be something among John or Noah, but when he came out to his parents and was asked what name he went by, his dad interrupted him and told the story that if he was amab, his name was gonna be Kohai, a japanese his dad fell in love with after living in Japan for years. cuz yeah, Red's american, not japanese. Red found it cool and decided that's gonna be his name. boom. lore.

silly picrew that's actually silly!?!?!?!?!!! please please check this picrew out it's super awoowoo /silly

none have the same vitiligo but they're close to the one i draw

yes he likes lemon demon

MC Adore

or; So'ra/So/Adieu/Amore. age 23

pan polyamorous female, she/her

her dream was to be a model, actually. but got an emotional attatchement to the imagination movers once, and thus made her insanely interested in music, evolutionating to rap music. then she built her persona, a serious but chill and fancy woman, collaborating with other rappers and artists around the Tengaku school (the biblically accurate rhythm heaven school where everyone with a bit of rhythm and coordination can study no matter how old they are. but that's for another day)

her singing voiceclaim is Merli and IA from vocaloid. for talking, back in the day ive chosen Agatha from O Surreal Mundo do Any Malu, but today i'd say Leslie Kritzer as Miss Argentina (or Delia) or Rosie from HH

as a joke she would smooch Connie until Jenna sees them and gets slightly angry, just to get a laugh. it's just kissing homies which is not gay btw🙀

many years ago, her and Yellow dated as they were the top famous at school, and big fanatics shipped them!? so they were like "...are we supposed to do somethkng about it or-". it was kind of forced, of course, and obviously they broke up because they actually didn't feel anything. textual words of Yellow: "thank God, i was just about to tell you i like men and boobs scare me"

mc adore picrew jumpscare

WITH THE FEVER UNIFORM🗣️🗣️🗣️💥‼️

Pitcher

or; Peach/Pitch/pinkie. age 19

transgender girl, bi with female preference, she/her

she has a crush on Reporter and hs been there for a long time now, but can't get Reporter's attention on that

she's extremely shy and insecure, but So'ra approached her once to share lunch and she became her friend. so if she feels in danger sometime, she just hides behind the first person that was nice to her: So'ra

she wants to be recognized for playing baseball but doesn't sees any progress on her. so she gets frustrated easily and would stop going to the practice to stay home and do it on her own time

she once got the role for a musical because Reporter signed her in, but she never played the role, as she felt she was going to faint. the reason reporter signed her in was her harmonious voice that could be perfect for Lydia Deetz, Sky the Scout or Heather McNamara. but she simply couldn't

voiceclaims for her include Kaai Yuki and Otomachi Una sugar for singing, two childish, girly and soft voices. for spoken voices, Himiko from Danganronpa and Luo Tianyi are my target options

Peach is super fluid in chinese, and doesn't gets the big chilling (bing xiling) meme at all. "what's so funny about ice cream?"

basic ahh picrews but it's better than nothing

Reporter

or; Debbie/Debs/Bee. age 19

unlabelled, strictly she/her pronouns

voice claim for singing is Megpoid GUMI Adult/AdultMellow. for talking, the pilot Charlie from HH or April O'Neil 2018

she's very bubbly and talkative. open to everyone and direct with her opinions even if they sound a little harsh

runs a fan blog about wrestling and otaku culture news, proclaming herself a celebrity

she enjoys dancing a lot, even if she's a bit clumsy

there's no way to make her shut up if you mention something related to sports or if she hears an incorrect fact about otaku culture

she bought most of Peach's outfits, helping her get more feminine and soft clothing that helped her feel better

has a little job working as a babysitter to most of the children living in the area, having a lot of tiny little friends wanting her attention and storytelling. she also teaches them english if they behave properly, so they have a little language their oarents don't understand that they can use when they play

president of the school newspaper. makes sure everything's perfect

you know what time it is. THAT'S RIGHT

Mako

age 16

questioning female, she/her pronouns

adoptive daughter of Annie and Mark, the two sciencists of Love Lab. there was a language barrier, as both sciencists were still learning japanese, but nothing beats the language of love... and Google translator

she met DJ Yellow when she was a child in the Tengaku's dance club, Yellow being a support teacher for kids that got frustrated easily, finding her pouting in a corner of the room. they developed a sibling-like relation, Yellow obviously being the older one, and to this day they call one another sister and brother

she always skipped class to go looking for her parents around school, as they were physics and chemistry teachers until something happened with Annie. maybe another story for another day but don't worry she's still alive

Mako loves dancing, singing and colouring. she's Tengaku's youngest 'idol', even if she didn't want to he one. but she finds it fun

voiceclaim for everything is otomachi una spicy/sugar !!

she's very fashionable, and loves uniform-like outfits

but she also loves sleeping, and spends most of the day in pajamas. she also makes sleepovers with her friends every once a month

her favourite animal are monkies and she's not sure why. she recalls a stuffed animal of a monkey back when she was waiting to get adopted, that she liked very much. she suspects it all started there

drum rolls YAYYY picrew time

isn't she the cutest don't you wanna pet her head because i do she's so skrunkly

AND WITH THIS we conclude the longest fucking post i've ever made. i'm missing out on Haruka and Akira (Girl and Boy from double date) but honestly i'm tired and for them i just include music. for example, Haruka plays the piano like PAREO from RAS and she can high kick when she catches the rhythm on metal and rock. or Akira is good at freestyling. very basic shit

these are the bases of whatever headcanons i make of them, specially the rockers and djs. remember that if you don't like a headcanon, do NOT hate. instead keep the commet to yourself or comment your view in a respectful way🫶🏽 because none of these hurt you, although i get it if it somehow makes you uncomfortable to see a headcanon be different from your own, because it happens to me very very often. but let"s respect everyone's imagination and enjoy the community instead !

i hope yall liked these mfs

cya

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leam1983 · 2 years ago

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So, you wanna play the Wizard Game...

Let's start with a point of comparison.

When I was a kid, in the halcyon age of the Nineties, Earthworm Jim 1 and 2 were my jam on the SNES. I loved the associated cartoon, and basically owed my exposure to absurdist humor to concepts like the Great Cosmic Worm or the launching of cows into the stratosphere using a crude fulcrum. To me, EWJ was zany, lively, more than content to wag its Vaudevillan villains around for non-crucial bits of mundane evilness that went as far as being rude to the postman - and mostly innocent.

Then, time passed, I grew up, and came to learn of Doug TenNapel, the creator of the IP - and of his views.

Doug TenNapel is a Conservative who mealy-mouths his way around bigotry and antisemitism, more or less the type to Tommy Tallarico his way out of a situation by waving the "Lookit, I'm zany!" card as if we were still effectively in 1995. He tried for a comeback with a Webcomic entitled Ratfist, back in 2010, but his views more or less blew up in his face. Ratfist was unceremoniously concluded and TenNapel effectively faded from public consciousness.

I spent a few weeks wondering how I felt about this. I still had some fondness for EWJ and for ancillary projects that bore a bit of that TenNapel touch (like Shiny Entertainment's MDK), and it took me a while to remember that no, some literary analysis devices that I've been taught to use in the field are not, in fact, a form of tacit approval of the author's views.

Fast-forward to today, and I'm seeing a world where you cannot extricate a work from its author, where someone having a stroke of genius one particular decade ago and then turning into a raging shithole several years later apparently disqualifies everything they've put up in the past from any sort of consideration.

Now, my girlfriend had a sideline in Art History. Whenever she's confronted with Purity Culture as a concept, she remembers Caravaggio's works. The guy is a giant in the field of later Renaissance art, both for his talent and for his personality.

You see, Caravaggio fucked. He was a serial philanderer, he got into fights over women, cultivated a long list of lovers both male and female - and of open convictions. He also recruited a prostitute off the street and hired her to pose for him - as the Virgin Mary. Imagine picking a lady-of-the-road right across from the church that's just commissioned you, and recognizing that with the right light and medium, her face had those exactingly precise characteristics the elite looked for in their depictions of religious figures. For his time, he was as controversial as you could imagine. By today's standards, he'd probably have a massive following on Tumblr, if he were both alive and had a blog of his own. I don't think it'd be much of a stretch to imagine him as an ally, actually.

Despite that, no Art History student will ever look at his works in the context of who Caravaggio was. They'll look at his works in the context of when and where they were made. There's a massive difference there. In my own studies, I've done the same for everyone between Zola to Steinbeck, and I've definitely given Joanne Katherine Rowling's flagship series more of a critical eye.

Just - not in the way I'd assume most people would appreciate, these days. The Potterverse, if you will, is one that's effectively designed to be formative for younger readers, and one that quite visibly predates the author's drift towards reactionary politics. You can spot weak shades of it in some places, like Dumbledore's tokenistic referral as a gay man, but the series actually strives for inclusiveness. As to why trans characters never came into play, I'd chalk it up to ignorance and lack of comfort. I'm only a cis and bi man, and it took me years of study and careful attention to work past my own fears and workshop a trans character that wouldn't be - hopefully - much of an offense to anyone. Rowling herself simply never had that chance, or never took it once it was offered.

Obviously, she won't take it now even if it's offered. Her later works are disturbingly facile, in the sense that most skilled authors tend to use their external voice to provide mere observations and not to unsubtly pass judgement - an aspect in which she now repeatedly fails. Her posture can still be extricated from what she's written under the name of Robert Galbraith, but it has the relative finesse of a Ben Shapiro wish-fulfillment fantasy. Considering, I find it quite easy to draw a line between the Potter Era and the Post-Potter Era. There's a bitterness at play in her later works that just isn't present in what actually serves as her juvenilia, effectively.

There's a young and hopeful JKR drawing sketches in a café, and then there's the frustrated and bitter woman pulling increasingly desperate pleas for relevance. The lines couldn't possibly be any clearer.

So - let's assume you've effectively killed Rowling in the sense used by Narratology theorists and removed her from any consideration in her works. Can you play Hogwarts Legacy knowing that a small, if not insignificant portion of its royalties are going to go to Rowling's pockets?

Yes. How, you might ask?

Pirate it. If the Wizarding World still matters to you, pirate the fuck out of this one. Rip her books and upload raw PDFs to your Kindle. Considering the game's dev history, I'm sure plenty of employees in Avalanche itself would give you their blessing.

The Death of the Author absolutely does apply - especially in a situation where means exist to obtain the media involved at no cost whatsoever beyond your own bandwidth.

#hogwarts legacy #on buying the game #on not buying the game #on support vs piracy #pirate this thing kiddos

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stolemythesis · 7 months ago

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Gay Episcopal life is being very Bridezilla about what music will be played at your wedding but being deeply deeply apathetic about what the save the date cards look like. And yet hear I am with choice paralysis because Zola has presented me with 1000s of options, none of which communicate: We love each other, the Lord, Sci Fi, and Fantasy. Baring that, I'd just as soon scribble the date on note cards and just send them. Honestly, let's not rule this out, I do kinda like treating this wedding as an art project

#anglo catholic #episcopal #wedding #ramblings

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miodiodavinci · 2 years ago

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i finally have polls so now it's time to ask the important questions

#i'm denying you vanilla extract by choice #if you want vanilla extract you'll have to add your own poll onto this post w

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thecoldsoldiers · 1 year ago

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Bio

Birth Name: James Buchanan (Bucky) Barnes

Known Aliases: The Winter Soldier, White Wolf

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Gay

Species: Enhanced human

Affiliation(s): US Army (formerly), Howling Commandos (formerly), HYDRA (formerly), Winter Soldiers (formerly), Avengers, Wakanda

James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes is a World War II veteran, former officer of the 107th Infantry Regiment and the best friend of Steve Rogers since childhood. Barnes had enlisted into the Army following the attack on Pearl Harbor and was assigned to the 107th in 1943. His unit was captured by HYDRA, where Barnes was injected with the Super Soldier Serum by Arnim Zola. Barnes was rescued by Rogers, who had become Captain America. Barnes and Rogers then formed the Howling Commandos to battle Red Skull's forces. However, during the attempt to finally capture Zola in the Austrian Alps, Barnes was caught up in the ambush and plummeted hundreds of feet. As no body was recovered, Barnes was presumed deceased and honored as a hero who died in service to his country.

Unbeknownst to his team, Barnes' enhanced abilities allowed him to survive the fall, albeit with the loss of his left arm. Once he was found by the Soviet Armed Forces and HYDRA, Barnes was brainwashed and armed with a new cybernetic arm in order to become their operative, known as the Winter Soldier. Over the next fifty years, he would eliminate anyone who posed any kind of threat to HYDRA, including Howard Stark and his wife, Maria. Between all assassination missions, Winter Soldier would be put back into a cryogenic stasis to ensure his longevity. In 2014, Winter Soldier was ordered by Alexander Pierce to kill Nick Fury, in order to ensure that all Pierce's schemes with Project Insight could go ahead. However, Winter Soldier was challenged by Steve Rogers, leading to him to begin remembering his prior life.

In the wake of the Battle at the Triskelion, Barnes, now free, deserted HYDRA in order to remember his past and end his long, violent history. Two years later, Barnes was framed for the bombing of the Vienna International Centre, which claimed the life of T'Chaka. As Black Panther then sought his revenge for his father's death, Barnes was repeatedly saved by Captain America, which sparked the Avengers Civil War as a team of Avengers led by Iron Man was sent to capture him. However, they learned that Helmut Zemo framed Barnes and reactivated his brainwashing so that Zemo could reveal that Barnes had murdered Stark's parents years ago. Having just survived Stark's revenge, Barnes was given amnesty in Wakanda by T'Challa and was placed in cryostasis until all HYDRA's control could be removed.

With the help of Shuri, Barnes was finally cured of his brainwashing, earning the nickname White Wolf. However, as Thanos attempted to kill Vision for the Mind Stone, Barnes received a new vibranium arm and joined the defence of Wakanda. Winter Soldier defeated many of the Outriders alongside Rocket Raccoon, only for Thanos to defeat them and assemble all of the Infinity Stones. Barnes was subsequently disintegrated as Thanos eliminated half of all life in the universe. Five years later, Barnes was resurrected by Hulk and participated in the final battle against Thanos. In the aftermath of the battle, he attended the funeral of Tony Stark with all the other heroes. Later on, Barnes bid Rogers farewell, knowing of his intention to time travel back to the 1940s. Barnes then witnessed Rogers, as a much older man, return home in order to pass the shield onto Sam Wilson.

With his name pardoned, Barnes sought atonement for all his actions as the Winter Soldier. His attempts were interrupted when John Walker was made the next Captain America, and the Flag Smashers emerged to act against the GRC's efforts to handle the aftermath of the Blip. He and Sam Wilson would go on a mission to stop the Flag Smashers, working with Helmut Zemo and Sharon Carter. However, their mission was complicated by Walker's attacks, until Walker murdered a Flag Smasher over Battlestar's death. Barnes and Wilson were forced to defeat Walker to stop him from continuing to be Captain America. Barnes would then join Wilson and Walker in the final battle with the Flag Smashers, helping in their defeat and making amends with his past.

#bio #information

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lgbtqsilentfilmproject · 9 months ago

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Introduction

Over the course of his long and illustrious career as a sexologist, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld used his knowledge and empathy to create one of the very first portrayals of homosexuality on film by co-writing the 1919 film Different from the Others. Using passion and a hope for future generations across the world, Hirschfeld, alongside co-writer and director Richard Oswald, began work on what became a groundbreaking piece of LGBTQ+ history. As exemplified by this quote, said by Dr. Hirschfeld playing a version of himself, the film was something entirely new to the world;

"If you want to honor the memory of your dead friend, you must not take your own life, but instead preserve it to change the prejudices whose victim – one of the countless many – this dead man was. That is the task of the living I assign you. Just as Zola struggled on behalf of a man who innocently languished in prison, what matters now is to restore honor and justice to the many thousands before us, with us, and after us. Through knowledge to justice!" [1]

At a time when such topics were taboo, this collaboration sparked controversy and intrigue in equal measure. Banned in its native Germany, Different from the Others holds significance as the first film to positively portray gay individuals. The film told the LGBTQ+ community that life is worth living as it means you live for those that were lost due to prejudice. This snippet of a much larger story marked the beginning of LGBTQ+ identities in film. Specifically, how they were portrayed before the Hays Code, a set of rules put in place by studios to censor language, sexuality, and violence in films between 1933 and 1967, and how unrestricted these films were in the period before the code was introduced. This essay will discuss the impact films such as Different from the Others had on American silent and pre-Hayes code films and what that impact looks like nearly ninety-five years since the Hays code was introduced.

For this project, I wanted to explore the often suppressed and forgotten films of the early Hollywood years that held representations of LGBTQ+ identities. This topic is often omitted from current conversations about gender and sexuality and is rarely mentioned when talking about influential queer filmmaking. Who made these films? What cultural or societal fears held back the films being researched? Through the research I have conducted, there are laws, societal norms, and personal struggles of the filmmakers have all played large parts into the past of LGBTQ+ films and the present-day state of them as well.

For this project, I make use of films created in the silent and pre-Hays code era of Hollywood. Watching, analyzing, reviewing them within the frame of their impact on society and what they meant to the LGBTQ+ at the time of their release. While these films are the main primary sources for my research – they have the setbacks of being either incomplete or partially recovered. Another drawback to using these films is there is not always much information on them available at all except the film itself. Often there is barely a cast list, let alone biographies of the writers or directors. With that said, I try my best to find as much first or secondhand information on the filmmakers as possible so I can have a better idea of the context for why they made the film they made. However, I will use as many contemporary reviews, scripts, and photographs as possible to round out what is left out from the films.

As I have read through my secondary sources, there are common themes that arise – societal acceptance, repression, and hiding one’s true self. To me, as someone looking at the LGBTQ+ community from the outside, these themes are still prevalent in todays queer culture. As I read in Amanda Ann Klein’s book about exploring and redefining subcultures in American film from 1900 to present, her work has transcended time due to bigotry still being wildly prevalent today. The impact of different subcultures on queer culture and beyond is one of the most integral aspects of my project. How these films I am studying for this blog have affected the films that came after and will be made in the future. I used Queering the (New) Deal: Lesbian and Gay Representation and the Depression-Era Cultural Politics of Hollywood’s Production Code by David Lugowski to learn what queer culture was like in those early days of the Depression and gain insight into how society was treating LGBTQ+ people seen or implied on screen. In short, it was as bad one might imagine it to be for those who identified as gay, lesbian, or transgender. At the time, people had no rights and no way to be themselves publicly. This affects how I am able to look at any films from the period that may be homoeotic or have any queer undertones. Finally, I found Gregg Bachman’s study into the viewing habits of American silent film viewers to be incredibly helpful at giving me the look into what I was unable to see from their point of view. With his book I could try to view the movies as those audiences had watched them in their day.

By traveling back in time to the silent age of Hollywood to explore the queer identities onscreen, I can unlock parts of history that are often inaccessible to the people who are directly affected by its existence. The stories told in these films are not so different from the stories we see in films today. By viewing them through a historical lens and then a modern one, these films are given new life for current and future generations to explore. Through this, anyone form historians to casual blog scrollers, can learn about the life of queer people before censorship set the film industry back over 100 years in terms of progressive social movement for the LGBTQ+ community.

Notes and References:

[1] Different From the Others, directed by Richard Oswald. (1919).

Amanda Ann Klein, American Film Cycles Reframing Genres, Screening Social Problems, and Defining Subcultures (Austin: University of Texas Press. 2011).

David M. Lugowski, "Queering the (New) Deal: Lesbian and Gay Representation and the Depression-Era Cultural Politics of Hollywood’s Production Code" Cinema Journal 38, no. 2 3-35 (1999).

Gregg Bachman, "Still in the Dark - Silent Film Audiences" Film History 9, no. 1 23–48, (1997).

#Magnus Hirschfeld #lgbtq

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