#he has canonically said trans rights ok

[luigikittykat]

I'm late but...

Of course I put the main focus on the main heroes of the Mario Movie for Pride Month!

[herbirdglitter]

I'm watching Midsomer Murders for the first time and the vibe of the queer representation is so confusing that it's amusing.

like I am four episodes in to this show, and this season aired in 1998, and there have been canonical queer characters in ever episode so far. Every one. in 1998. But they also fall into some interesting stereotypes. spoilers btw

we have one very creepy weird slimy dude, who has a weird relationship with his mother, he's gay.

Then we have a trans icon, or a gay person who liked doing drag, they just see women's clothing and jump to conclusions and then constantly call them by the wrong pronouns which, I mean it's the 90s. they're the victim, because we can't have nice things

then we have a nice couple, one of whom I took one look at and said "he's going to be gay because they've put him in a floral waistcoat" and I was right, because that's the type of show it is, and then his concerning partner, who was most likely bisexual, but they act like he just hasn't gotten over women yet or something, and of course he cheats

and then there's a lesbian couple. and to no one's surprise, they are the murderers. or both played a part in it anyway. but, there love is treated like it's very real, which is nice.

but the bit that's absolutely sending me is the different attitudes of Barnaby and Troy. The decision to make Barnaby, the older more experienced one perfectly ok with it all? spectacular. And the way he keeps sending Troy to talk to the queer people specifically because he knows it makes him uncomfortable??? unparalleled. Except when it really matters and he goes and talks to the one lesbian about the well being of her partner.

I am in love with this man. This show is so fun and now I have 24 seasons to watch. and it's still airing. Now I have something to fill the hole law and order left in my heart.

[shitswiftiessay]

“multiple posts in support of the lgbtq community”

her LGBTQ “activism” pretty much started and ended with the lover era. she released the musical equivalent of “it’s ok to be gay,” she waited until she was in a blue state on the eras tour to even barely address the anti trans legislation that was being passed in OTHER states (states she had just performed in where her speech would’ve made much more of an impact). and telling people to go vote without specifying who you’re voting for or bringing attention to the important issues is not activism. it’s merely a voting reminder. which is fine, but, y’know, it doesn’t make you an lgbt advocate. which she promised to be as she accepted an award for it.

and despite the fact that she’s reportedly “spending a lot more time” in fuckass missouri to be with travis, she’s yet to say anything about the anti lgbt legislation being passed in that state.

she also went off tumblr because people asked her to talk about BLM and swifties act like it was the cruelest thing in the world to expect of her 🙄 but she made a whole thing in her documentary about wanting to be on the “right side of history.”

and taylor did the black square too so if you’re gonna attack joe for that 💀

and she made some promises on twitter to be “loudly and ferociously anti-racist.” then she went on to date racist pos matty healy… and use ice spice as a shield. AND she also made sure that her publicist let everyone know that the “controversy” surrounding matty’s racism had NOTHING to do with her decision to split from him.

so… yeah.

these same miserable fucking swifties used to praise joe alwyn for speaking out against men abusing their power over women in hollywood but now their whole blogs are basically dedicated hate blogs to him. because he committed the crime of not marrying taylor so now they’ve decided he’s the worst man on the planet. 🙄

meanwhile taylor’s working with rapist directors, hanging out with SA apologists and high-fiving an abuser at football games. her feminism and “advocacy” is limited ONLY to herself and it’s painfully obvious she does not give a shit about anything that doesn’t directly affect her.

also, joe’s name wouldn’t have been added to that ceasefire letter if he didn’t WANT it added. it’s a risk to anyone in the entertainment industry to openly support palestine and no one’s name is going to be “just added” without their consent. signing that ceasefire letter may be bare minimum shit, but it’s still more than anything Miss Americana has said or done regarding this issue, which is absolutely nothing, and you have to ask yourself WHY.

also if you’re upset about people saying that taylor was encouraged to be more political because of joe… idk what to tell you that’s literally a canon event that came straight from taylor’s own mouth.

and it’s not that i think she’d be a trump supporter without joe but… it’s pretty obvious that since they’ve broken up (and even in the year leading up to the breakup) she’s not dared to do anything remotely resembling activism or being “controversial.” if anything she’s just too fucking narcissistic and self-absorbed to care about anything going on in the world, just like her bestie selena.

[sparklyshakespeare]

the case for hyper-femme hotspur

this is my tumblr blog and this is like kind of just what we do heresies

OK so basically okay so

first of all i think anytime there is a character who is so strongly associated with an extreme form of gender expression in our collective zeitgeist (i.e hotspur and hyper-masculinity) there’s something not only extremely fun to play with but incredibly valuable about analyzing the story from the opposite end of the gender performance specturm. also canonically there are like 3 female characters in 1h4 and that sucks. also also don’t you want to see hotspur in pink glitter? i know i do and this tumblr is not a democracy!!

in this hypothetical dream sparkly version of the play, both hotspur and worcester would be women. not played by women, i mean textually explicitly women. this is important!! 

worcester should be very nancy pelosi hillary clinton-esque in the way that this is a middle-aged woman who has been taught that to be successful in her field (politics) she will have to strip herself of most of her femininity and perform a certain level of masculinity in order to be taken seriously. this creates a whole other layer to the hotspur/worcester dynamic when all of a sudden this young, hyper-feminine woman is being taken more seriously and being given more praise than someone who has worked and fought through the bullshit and done it all “right”. she hasn’t earned her place, she hasn’t had to struggle - and worcester resents her for that. (there’s like a whole dissertation to be written about how much of 1h4 changes when only worcester is genderbent, i love you queen worcester you are everything not in this version here you kind of suck lowkey)

henry iv is just a misogynist he just kinda sucks but like this is something we all knew screw that guy

ok now we can talk about hal because i know hes like the one all you little gay people care about. 

to me, it’s never made sense why the Henriad is framed as hal’s hero’s journey. maybe it’s because i’m queer (i’m like actually positive that’s why), but leaving home and finding acceptance and family from a group of outsiders who society has deemed as worthless is the path i’ve watched so many friends walk. having to leave that and return to your shitty dad because “duty calls!” and THEN leaving behind and disavowing the same community that opened its arms to you? i don’t see that as an awesome coming-of-age about learning how to handle responsibility, that’s deeply, deeply tragic. and far farrrrr too true a reality for most members of our LGBTQ+ community here (Bible Belt). SO guess where this version of 1h4 is set!!!!!! anyways, its the Medieval Revival of the ‘70s in the Bible Belt south, the Boar’s Head is a gay bar, and hal is trans. 

hal is trans-masc in some way and this needs to be incredibly explicit (like pronouns pin with trans flag on costume explicit). and then when the news breaks, when “I’ll to the court in the morning.” (we’re cutting the text so this is where that scene ends. cool? cool. cool!), hal takes the pin off. it needs to be like A Moment. it should make me cry, and i cry really easily so that’ll probably be pretty easy to do, but this is a gut punch. 

oh and lady percy is still a woman, they’re gay, because i said so. blah blah blah because look hotspur and hal really were so alike all along and look hotspur is fighting so voraciously because she’s hungry for a world where she can openly and unabashedly be with the person she loves but ultimately because i love lady percy and i love lesbians and this play doesn’t need another man. but also because look hotspur is fighting so voraciously because she’s hungry for a world where she can openly and unabashedly be with the person she loves. worcester and vernon should also both be women and have the blossoming of a relationship but be a lot more discreet about it (worcester should be extremely hesitant). now we get a cool split between younger and older generations of activists in both the feminist and the gay rights movement oooo themes oooo motifs oooo lady gagita 

as far as hal/hotspur parallels go, it’s probably pretty obvious at this point. your dad constantly praising someone who represents, at least in his mind, the ideal concept of a woman, disappointed you can’t be more like her, all the while you’re coming to terms with the fact that you’re not a woman, but he’ll never see that, so what the fuck are you supposed to do?!? it’s a LOT! but i think there’s also something to be said about the less obvious parallel. which is that hyper-femininity is NOT an attempt at ideal polite womanhood or self-Stepfordization, hyper-femininity is in fact the extreme performance of womanhood in rejection of that. hyper-femininity is queer in nature (also hotspur quite literally has a wife but i guess hal wouldn’t be able to tell that just by looking at her) there’s something to be said about the moment hal and hotspur see each other, and then the moment hal and hotspur seeeeeee each other. and go hey, you’re just like me. this person who you’ve been constantly compared to and made out to be lesser than  because you dare to be deeply wildly madly truly you is in fact exactly the same. we’re the same. and oh my god, in another world wouldn’t it have been lovely to just like go dancing together? sucks it’s not another world now we’re going to gay fight each other i guess

[conceptofjoy]

what do u think of dirk n hals Gender Situation given 10 or 20 years? if they ever finally settle down their various identity issues etc

......... great question..

dirk's masculine gender identity is fucking fascinating and there's always something new to consider when i look at it at a different angle. and i mean this also goes for bro too. like gender is a very complex thing in homestuck with many metaphors physical or thematical littered about. Dirk specific gender identifiers are lil cal (empty), being seen as cherry red (either failing at those standards or admired for achieving them), and bro-ism which in this instance is often interchanged with heroism.

canonically in caliborn's masterpiece, after dirk seals caliborn away into cal, and lets cal and arq go, homie has straight up lost all the signifiers he's identified with and is left in his pink god tier outfit. literally forced to reckon with the fact that he is a gay man, and how that actually may be way better than the alternative that he was trying so desperately to be seen as. idk there was a series of posts i made about it a month or so ago. this is like, the final realization dirk has in the comic. i mean i dunno about specifics of labels, but gay and genderqueer is like the basic all encompassing ones. to be honest most homestuck characters fall under this extremely broad category, as queerness is a huge underlying theme.

a dirk that doesn't immediately go through caliborn's masterpiece learns this the loooong way. cis guy-> trans guy (refuses to acknowledge this during the session but slowly gets it towards the end of 3 year voyage. will NOT say he is trans through his lips though.) and then shit just stagnates there. i think it depends on his environment, but 5+ years (depends on who he surrounds himself with. if its no one, he is COOKED.) is about the time needed to have those same revelations.

and then there's hal........ arq is one of them brightly colored gendersonas. like what swimz said, arq sacrificed her continued existence for her friends. i dont think arquius ever gave her gender a name because of how thoroughly she embodied it by her self love/ the joy she felt for being alive. it was already said by her existing. hal getting a body vs hal getting a body after being arquius r people who understand vastly different amounts of things about themselves.

a hal sans arq brain meld has a silent kind of depressive acceptance about them. yeah i got a body, things feel better, but it feels like there could be more i could be doing for myself right now, however do i really need it? umm sandpaper floor room esque. trying to figure out what to do with herself after getting less than the bare minimum of being a person. would take a bit to realize she can be a girl.

hal post arq brain meld. holy FUCKING shit i can feel like that?? suddenly no longer arquius's confident persona and is kind of freaking out about the various implications. there would be an amount of time where she falls into a depression, however tries to bring herself up back to that point because a part of her who was arquius knows she deserves it. she would over think the gender thing though, ok yes im a girl, BUUUTTT -etc etc-. almost for the same exact reasons why dirk is attached to those bro-isms. she was supposed to. red girl struggle. again, idk the specifics, gay and genderqueer is hella broad.

i do think hal is fem aligned and more confidently can call herself a girl over time, and dirk can finally wear pink without thinking about it and wanting to decapitate himself.

[thebearme]

Any tf2 headcanons?

I was hoarding this ask for when I have alot of hcs but I now realize that that was an awful idea becuz now there too much going on in my brain. So I'll tell you the ones I can remember rn.

(btw this is gonna be a mess of silly and sad contention into a blender, so sorry for any whiplash)

Everyones business last name is TF2. It's canon, Ms Pauling said so.

Scout and Ms Pauling have one thing in common, they're simps for women out of their league and it's sad.

My current idea of the plot is that Ms Pauling is now the new administrator and the mercs are still working for her but now instead of a war they are now a Hire-A-Merc organization. Why, so they can pay the blood pact that the old administrator got them in from Abraham Lincoln.

The team is a merge for BLU and RED team members.

BLU: Scout, Medic, Soldier, Engineer | RED: Heavy, Demo, Spy, Sniper, Pyro

Engie has an gaming channel.

Engie is a little person. (you can't convince otherwise LOOK AT HIM)

Engie does his own surgery, not that he doesn't trust Medic. He just doesn't trust Medic. He has more trust that in his drunken state he could chop his arm off cleaner than Medic because of his god complex.

Engie says trans rights.

Engie has two moods: Wholesome bumpkin or manic "i am better than all of you".

Medic and Heavy are married. (but to be fair thats just canon)

Medic never had a medical license but he did go to school... for animal care.

Medic has a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree and lied ALOT to military when he got drafted to get out safely.

He got a nazi skeleton and dead parents out of that.

Medic burn his documents so now the only people that knows is the people he tells like Heavy.

Medic only have two reasons for being here- 1) to experiment on everyone. 2) Heavy

Medic eats like a cat eating a dragon fruit. And so does Archimedes.

Medic is the definition of "no rules no boundaries he doesn't flinch at torture and sells blood for money. He's your new best friend."

Medic is slowly going more insane with time and can't tell if it's because he sold his soul to the devil or because someone is secretly fucking with him. (it's Spy)

Heavy met Medic before joining the team.

Heavy has a cooking channel.

He's a masochist. (he has too if he's with Medic.)

Heavy will kill Soldier before he starts having kids with Zhanna. He's still not ok with him.

Heavy has lots of cute moles on him. (Medic makes sure to kiss each one and make sure they're not lethal.)

While Im at it Heavy family is cursed to fall in-love with insane men.

Pyro-vision is just Pyro going through a heat stroke.

Pyro is the leader of the hate spy club.

Pyro has kids that live in the ocean with his mermaid wife. Don't ask how, it's Pyro.

Engie and Scout are the only ones that understand what Pyro is saying completely.

Engie adopted Pyro unofficially but that's his son right there.

Soldier and Zhanna are gonna have twins.

Soldier and Demo had kiss once- with their socks on.

Medic did a blood test on Soldier and he actually is not 100% American, he doesn't know and everyone intends it to stay that way.

Soldier and Scout actually know each other from before getting hired by BLU. They were comrade in the 100,000 new men program in Vietnam.

After Scout left in general discharge from a land mine incident he thought that would be the laat time he sees him. He was wrong.

Don't worry they're chill, well as chill as man can be when their hand is somehow a magnet to your neck.

Sniper is a social smoker.

Sniper is like a lizard, he doesn't fuck with the cold.

Sniper is younger than Scout. He just spent too much time in the sun and now he looks like a divorce 40 y/o dad struggling with his mortgage. Or just a brown Adam Sandler.

Sniper got those old man bones AKA my bones. His knees be cracking down the hall.

Sniper hops round different peoples places for the holidays. He spent the most time at Engie's house with Pyro; he had spent a Christmas or two with Scout's family but a "certain someone" doesn't appreciate the bushman there and ruining his holiday with his family.

When Scout has to give directions or details of the area he just draws it. Because NO ONE understands this mans writing.

Scout's life mission is to be Gods greatest gift and not just for the women. Like the bible said "a hole is a hole"... or atleast thats what Scout remembers from church.

Scout while being illiterate CAN speak Spanish, Italian, Vietnamese and French. (but he doesn't remember where he learned french from tho.)

Scout is resistant to radiation at this point.

Before becoming a merc, Scout was working at a diner that fitted him quite well.

Waffle House at the graveyard shift.

Scout's fuckboy attitude comes from daddy issues while Spy slut attitude comes from mommy issues.

Spy came from a rich family until he ran away to help in the war effort and became a spy. He doesn't regret his decision nor miss his home but does wish he did a proper goodbye to his brother.

The reason Spy has teeth capsules in his mouth to begin with is because one time him and a his fellow spy were getting torture by the enemy by having their teeth removed. Now all his teeth are fake.

Speaking of teeth, Scout got his buck-teeth from Spy.

Spy HAS gotten lungs transplanted several times from Medic because this mf refuses to chill out and get help with his smoking problem.

Spy is gender fluid.

Spy is a furry.

Demo is going to kill him one day.

That day is when he finds his DA account.

[nyaagolor]

Ok, This is the anon that said ages ago that I think that Tohya is trans, and I finally have gotten back to write my thoughts on this

I will be dividing this discussion into two sections, how Tohya being trans is supported by the text, and my own EXTREEEMLY indulgent rewrite of Tohya as an explicitly trans character.

There's a lot about Battler's character in canon  that seems to me and other people like egg behaviour.

His hatred of his name, his often cartoonish machismo, the closed room scene in episode 6 in which one of the escape methods mentioned would be to cut himself up in little pieces and push them down the drain, this idea of destroying yourself to be able to exist in the outside world, the fact that I have seen 2 maybe 3 people think that Battler is Beatrice in some way (one person coming to this conclusion from the closed room scenes in episode 6 in which a witch at the opening scene haunts Battler from the outside, as if implying to come of the closed room would mean to face the witch) the fact Tohya dreaded meeting Ange because he was afraid he'd be forced back to being Battler, that the man that was Battler would come back and kill him.

It's honestly that last scene that sealed it for me, as it's very metaphorically similar to someone transitioned away from their family and is now afraid to see their family again because they're afraid they'd be forced to de-transition, LIKE YOU CANNOT CONVINCE ME THAT TOHYA IS CIS, and I think a trans Tohya reading elevates the text (TO ME) and makes the death of Battler so much less metaphorical and a lot more literal, it makes Battler Tohya's deadname.

Now I understand the pushback towards a trans Tohya/Battler reading, despite Battler's comically masculine behaviour at times he's also put into a lot of situations where he behaves "unmasculine".

He cries often (one of the reasons I love his character), he's often under Beatrice's thumb and is made to submit very often, the fact that he's called a bride in his wedding to Erika by one of the chiester's, with this being done to degrade him. 

His masculinity is often under attack, so I understand why people like the idea of him still being a man and still being masculine despite it, which I respect and my own trans reading isn't here to invalidate that.

HOWEVER.

I think what a lot of people forget when discussing Battler as a character is that he's not real. 

He's a fictional character within a piece of fiction, and I don't mean this in the piece vs meta aspect.

No, what I mean, is that in Sayo's message bottles she wrote of him having not seem his is 6 years, so a lot of her assumptions about him might not have reflected reality, and while Tohya was Battler, Tohya no longer is him, and a lot of his depiction of Battler is tinged with survivor's guilt and a seeming dislike to his past self. 

That is also not accounting the idea that Tohya's Battler and Sayo's Battler's characterisation is so similar may not be because Sayo had got his characterisation right, but because Tohya choose to stick close to her characterisation closely even if it was wrong, as a way to make the forgeries not only more convincing but also as a way of honoring Sayo's writing decisions. 

A lot of the depiction of Battler as we see in text is extremely biased, as the depictions are of all characters but Battler especially!

We come out of Umineko not knowing anything about what the true Battler might have been like.

And doesn't this say something about how we're supposed to interpret the text? That the main man of this tale isn't and has never been real?

Battler, under this reading, may continue to be a man, despite the narrative's attacks on his masculinity, because he exists to be a character.

But Tohya is fundamentally not Battler, Tohya is real in ways Battler is not, so Battler's masculinity should not reflect on Tohya's

NOW ONTO MY VERY UNHINGED IMAGINARY WORLD IN WHICH I WAS IN CHARGE OF UMINEKO AND NOT RYUKISHI

Now you may ask, "anon, why would you want to rewrite Tohya's character? Didn't you just go on multiple paragraphs about how the canon text supports a trans Tohya reading?" well yes, but I think it could have done so in a better way, as in, by making them actually trans, and not just having Tohya be trans in text, but by changing a very crucial aspect of the writing.

Ikuko.

Listen I love Ikuko, I love unhinged women, why would I read Umineko "unhinged women the visual novel" if I didn't, but Ikuko as a character exists as a writing device, she's the author's insert, there to literally spell out the meaning of the text, and there to explain how the fuck Tohya survived post memory and identity loss.

But that kinda means that she doesn't really get to exist as a character and a person, which means that her weird actions and behaviour aren't really interrogated by the text. 

Like, we all agree her, a woman at least in her 30s, grabbing this half dead 18 year old off the street and taking him to her house, NOT A HOSPITAL, and becoming his career post island trauma and later after he becomes paralyzed is suspect right?

Like I loved the fic Coracle that interprets Ikuko's actions in a sympathetic lens, but there's a reason some people interpret Ikuko's behavior as immensely creepy.

BECAUSE WHAT SHE DID TO TOHYA IS LITERALLY WHAT KINZO DID TO BEATRICE THE FIRST. Beatrice the first was injured, so Kinzo took her to his house and his doctor friend treated her there.

In both situations the consent is suspect, but while in Kinzo's case we're invited to interrogate his actions we are not intended to do the same with Ikuko, because she does not exist to be a character, but as a writing device.

And that bothers me, so let's fix that.

Combine Ikuko and Tohya into one character.

No, I'm not joking.

Instead of canon, in which Tohya is picked off the street by a rich benefactor, they are instead forced to make it on their own, and without any idea who they are, injured and unable to support themselves because a fresh 18 year old with no name and no credentials and brain damage is not very hirable , they predictably do not do well for themselves, becoming homeless.

This is to mirror the reality to many queer people who get cut off by their family.

However through the help of individuals in similar situations, and a couple of good samaritans (showcasing the importance of community outside of family) Tohya managed to make a meagre living for themselves and eventually after gaining that stability gets introduced to the forgery scene and start writing forgeries of their own under the pen name Ikuko, the story of the Rokkenjima massacre feeling horribly familiar to them.

Later when Eva is dead and Ange is investigating the forgeries, she does meet with Tohya, tho under the name of Ikuko.

And despite Tohya being her "brother", she does not recognize them as Battler, in fact she does not recognize them at all. Tohya  having partially transitioned, plus the stress and age, makes Tohya look vastly different to her than what she remembers Battler being like.

This is serving two purposes.

One, this is to reflect the Shannon and Kanon situation and how despite both being Sayo the Ushiromiyas didn't recognize them as the same person.

Two, it makes Tohya look less callous than in canon. While a trans reading of the canon text makes the reason why Tohya put off seeing Ange again for so long understandable, a lot of people don't read it that way and often interpret his refusal to see her as callous.

But if Tohya does meet with her and she doesn't recognize them, well it explains why they wouldn't tell her who they are. I mean, would she even believe them?

It also makes that last scene in the novel where they meet after all these years (again in this case) after Ange has changed her own name into Yukari and is now an author much more poignant. Battler only got to "see" Sayo after he understood Beatrice, Yukari only got to "see" Battler after she understood Tohya.

This also just results in tighter writing (TO ME), we get more time getting to know the person Battler died to become even tho we may not know who they were when we are first introduced to them.

Just imagine the potential of Featherine as Tohya's witch sona (since here Tohya and Ikuko are the same person), imagine meta Ange getting to snark Featherine, subconsciously bickering with Featherine the same way one would bicker with their siblings, and everyone else being confused why Featherine isn't smiting her, it would have been great.

And this could work in a multitude of ways. I used to be firmly in the trans girl Tohya camp, but nowadays I'm more so of an enby Tohya liker, something about Tohya being able to abandon gendered categories in a way Beatrice only dreamed of with the existence of Lion feels right to me.

HI sorry it took me so longer to answer I've been so busy but OHHHHHHHHHH MY GOD I LOVE THIS A LOT. going thru this bit by bit:

I hc Battler as intersex / trans / having some repressed gender related smth or other for those exact reasons. The whole thing about being in the closet in EP6, his "late puberty growth spurt" sounding like exogenous T-induced puberty, the way his character intersects with gender and how he seems mildly uncomfortable with the way he's praised for performing gender "correctly"... all of it just makes me go hmmmm there is a trans reading here. I go back and forth between intersex battler and golden land butch lesbian battler and a few other things but nonetheless. Gender.

The whole thing about Tohya and Battler being involved in a deadname / fragmentation of the self is SOOOO perfect and I'm kind of obsessed with it. I see the vision and the vision goes crazy. As for the whole thing about Battler being a character and not a person, AGREEEEEEED i think it's one of the least spoken about meta aspects of the narrative. I haven't really written about it much outside of discord but the whole idea of Tohya maintaining the image of Battler so as to not hurt the people who cared about him but didn't know the real him is so... ough. Also intersects with Sayo's themes of understanding the heart / seeing things with love extremely well

ok I will not lie I do not really think too much about rewrites for Umineko specifically but you are COOKING with this. The whole thing with Yukari not understanding Tohya, not SEEING Tohya until she understood herself and abandoned her grief... stellar, incredible, 10/10 no notes (side note the whole deadname with Ange is why I think she's trans, but this is about Tohya rn)

I'll get to the other asks soon but WOW WOW WOW this goes crazy. OP what is ur discord we need to have a discussion. this could be us.

[character-of-all-time]

I cannot emphasize how great the firestar-Sans team is. PROPAGANDA

Canon Firestar things.

Hated a child for like half an arc because he looked like his dad

Saved his fathers gay lover from exile

Killed his Emo Half-Brother after said half-brother RIPPED THEIR MUTAL ENEMIES STOMACH OPEN

Started dating his meangirl ex-bully

Had a crush on a cat-nun/doctor- that persisted after death to her ghost

The only Warrior Cat to ever be ok with adoption (Cloudtail)

Despite being called one of the most ‘morally right’ protagonists, he has KILLED SO MANY PEOPLE

Commits cat crimes (religious flavor)

As said before-hand he possessed someone and immediately went back on the murder grind.

is hardcore and attached a trans pin to his bare fur (dubiously cannon)

Is a cute kitty cat.

Sans-

Is now hanging out with a feral cat that probably has like 7LV

Silly

I don’t need to explain Sans undertale

But just imagine the funny man hanging out with a bright orange murder cat.

in a fight Firestar would win. Sorry not sorry

yea but u forgot to mention how the half brother ripped their mutual enemies stomach open specifically so hard that he went thru all 9 lives that clan leaders are granted instantly. which i think thats the ONLY time thats ever happened, more than one life being lost at once, unless it happened again after i stopped reading. thats how murderey that lil guy was.

(christ did yall ever read the scourge backstory manga? bc god that thing was ROUGH. he just wanted to use the tooth to get the collar off....)

that doesnt contribute to firestar i just think that scene embedded itself in my brain

[stars-n-spice]

Silly Squad 2nd Gen WIPS!

started on a little something something because I can't afford therapy to fix what s3 caused so-

Silly Squad families 10 years or so into the future :)

Find out more about the 'Silly Squad' here!

Star Wars said, "oh no sorry, the interracial poc couple can't be together" so I said fuck that!!! and made all of them poc/inter-species couples with mixed kids!! no i'm not biased at all.

Also, let's pretend that the clone aging thing isn't a,,, isn't a thing because 1) too much math and 2) too much angst potential.

Though it is funny to think about the clones with their fast aging and then their partners are all notoriously slow aging people ("black don't crack" and "asian don't raisin" sort of deal). You got this super old dude and then you look at their partner and they don't look a day over like 30.

No, I didn't cry while drawing this what the fuck are you talking about? Aha,, aha...ha...

Additional info about the families under the cut!

Starburst Family!

ok so since I've had Khea the longest, her family is the most thought out at this point

In order, from top, left to right: Itri (14/15), Marama 'Mara', Maia 'Mai' (both 10, 23 min apart), and Elio Nultez (7)

I made a post about them earlier so for more detailed info on their kids you can find it here!

Khea found Itri when she was about 4/5 years old and decided to take her in as a Foundling (she's also trans)

When Khea brought Itri back and showed her to Wrecker he was in complete shock (he thought she was Khea's biological daughter) but immediately took to the role as being a dad

Twins were an accident (oops) and an absolute handful but Khea and Wrecker wouldn't have it any other way

I saw a lot of people say that Wrecker would have a lot of kids and I agree, he's be a great dad (and he is!)

But pair that up with a Mandalorian wife? I'm sure both of them would adopt any and all kids that come their way

Not pictured is the twenty-something pets that their kids have adopted over the years - they could have a farm at this point

Sharpshooters Family!

I don't know where the idea came from but one day it randomly hit me how I wanted their family to be - but essentially after finishing s3 I knew Cross was just a girl dad through and through so I gave him a daughter

That's Akona and she's half Nautolan and half Pantoran! Oh and a HUGE menace!

Akon is eight and Cross found her when she was six

Since Pantorans have the yellow tattoos to mark their clans, Akona and Tay both got tattoos to represent Crosshair's, well, Crosshair tattoo since they're their own little clan

Tay also capped off his lethorns to prevent Akon from hurting herself and getting poked because she loves to climb all over him

Idk how they came across her but I'm thinking Cross decided to go out on a mission with Echo just this once and found her (and Tay was probably sick at home or something, idk)

Tay was super unsure about it (he's terrible with kids) but Crosshair assured him that things would be fine

And things are fine and better than ever :)

Scompscope Family!

I don't have names for these kiddos yet but I know I want them to be in tribute to Fives and Hevy!

So like,, I know technically Echo probably can't have kids and originally I was going to have them just adopt some clone cadets or something but uh,, me being biased I wanted biracial kids so-

BOOM! He can have kids in this AU.

They probably took some time to decide on the decision to have kids though since Echo and Viram are both dedicated to the cause of helping clones but eventually they do decide to settle down

Like all the Sec Gen kids, these two are absolute trouble makers and never back down from a challenge

They're a little less than a year apart, but they're 8 and 7!

TechPhee Family!

wow, I can't believe that this is actually canon guys!!! :D Isn't that amazing????

Anyways, Techphee kids don't have names yet but I am open to suggestions!!

Also,, these kids are an absolute THREAT. They're smart as hell, they're witty, they can fly a plane like it's nobody's fucking business, they're skilled with pistols and a vibroblade, there is NOTHING these kids can't do.

Except have 20/20 vision. Whomp whomp.

Hey, nobody is perfect.

Daughter is far-sighted and son is near-sighted!

Daughter is 11 and son is 8!

Guardians Family!

not pictured is the ten to twenty other kids that Hunter and Jung have adopted over the years

the super lovely and wonderful @taraneen and I were talking about this timeskip and she mentioned that she thinks that Hunter would eventually go back and adopt some kids after Omega leaves and I couldn't agree more

Him and Jung probably run some kind of orphanage or something where they talk in kids and if they so happen to be Force-sensitive, Jung helps them out with it

Look at these three, they're like,,, having a "who can grow out their hair the longest?" competition (Jung is winning)

Of course Omega loves all her new cousins and siblings as well :)

Omega is around 24 years old here so she's also like a big sister to all of them and they all look up to her and admire her deeply

[homenecromancer]

There’s a read-more on this post because it turns entirely on an excerpt that is a huge spoiler for the final portions of both Dune the novel and Dune: Part 2 the movie.

Part of the reason Dune has meant so much to me ever since I first read it is, like… OK, here’s a passage from very late in the book (page 445 in the Berkley paperback).

In context: Paul has literally just awakened from a near-death trance caused by ingesting the Water of Life. His mother, Jessica, has just verified this fact, and its significance — her child is the prophesied Kwisatz Haderach, and possesses psychic ability beyond any other human being.

"What happened?" Chani demanded.

Jessica shook her head.

Paul said: "There is in each of us an ancient force that takes and ancient force that gives. A man finds little difficulty facing that place within himself where the taking force dwells, but it's almost impossible for him to see into the giving force without changing into something other than man. For a woman, the situation is reversed."

Jessica looked up, found Chani was staring at her while listening to Paul.

"Do you understand me, Mother?" Paul asked.

She could only nod.

"These things are so ancient within us," Paul said, "that they're ground into each separate cell of our bodies. We're shaped by such forces. You can say to yourself, 'Yes, I see how such a thing may be.' But when you look inward and confront the raw force of your own life unshielded, you see your peril. You see that this could overwhelm you. The greatest peril to the Giver is the force that takes. The greatest peril to the Taker is the force that gives. It's as easy to be overwhelmed by giving as by taking."

"And you, my son," Jessica asked, "are you one who gives or one who takes?"

"I'm at the fulcrum," he said. "I cannot give without taking and I cannot take without . . ." He broke off, looking to the wall at his right.

OK let’s shift gears real quick and I’m gonna describe this image rather than make it: you know that Gundam meme where the viewer is going “wow cool robot” as said robot shoots the actual themes of the anime over their head? Now imagine that but I am the reader and Frank Herbert is the, uh, giant robot.

Frank Herbert: Weird 1960s Gender Essentialism

me: Paul Atreides was supposed to be one gender but was born another, and people are hopping mad about it. It is repeatedly noted that he is able to do things that people of his (assumed by others) gender cannot. Within the context of his society, he is neither a “normal” man nor a “normal” woman, but possesses abilities belonging to both. His ability to fuse these two genders into one unique thing, specific to him, is crucial to his final rise to power. Muad’Dib… non-binary icon?

…like, I’m mostly serious here — it is certainly not a canonical reading, just a personal, idiosyncratic reaction to the text — but the feeling that Paul was, at a minimum, atypical for his assigned gender meant a lot to me when I first read these books. I couldn’t articulate at the time what fascinated me about passages like this, but they captivated me in the same way as other texts where the protagonist defied their assigned gender. They resonated with me on a level it took me years to understand. (Things began to make more sense when I realized I was trans.)

Anyway. Paul Muad-Dib Atreides’s gender identity is ‘Kwisatz Haderach’

[bandtrees]

i already sent you a character but i wanna send another one. tell me about Oliver

YAERSSE!! SEND ME A CHARACTER!!

Sexuality Headcanon: romance-repulsed, aroallo, gay :] i am very fond of aro oliver - he seems to be the one of the datables with the most hangups on using specifically romantic terminology and i believe in my heart of hearts, when oliver figures out this is an option for him, him and gingi instead have some qpp-adjacent swag going on where they come up with increasingly absurd nonromatic ways to refer to eachother. gingi's like Ok i got it. You're my Grub. and oliver's like HEY IF ANYTHING YOURE MY GRUB. YOURE THE SLIMY ONE and gingi's like Oliveman i have seen the inside of that theater its the moistest place on the planet

Gender Headcanon: trans guy :] might fuss around with neopronouns and the like if he knew of em

A ship I have with said character: well i already went on an oliver/gingi spiel but i do really like it lolol. they mesh together really well - they have a really fun dynamic with gingi being the one to take on the straight-man role from time to time because oliver can just be that weird. there is nothing that delights me more than seeing my friends play dialtown for the first time, meet oliver, and realize OH HE'S FREAKY FREAKY.

A BROTP I have with said character: do you know how happy it makes me that him and god canonically hang out? very happy.

A NOTP I have with said character: i'm not really an olandy guy, at least not in the way the fandom popularly portrays it :'] i don't hate it - it's just not my thing and i am extraordinarily picky about it. i had a concept once for an olandy fic, specifically post-fuckfacev2 ending, that would've been about building yourself up from rock bottom and whatnot, but i haven't found a place where i'm super happy with it lol.

A random headcanon: we know he likes mockbusters in general but i love imagining he really likes dingo pictures especially

General Opinion over said character: it's hard for me to pin my "favorite" dialtown character, especially where the datables are concerned, because my top favs i reckon most people associate with me arent any of the datables - but oliver's my favorite of the datables 100%. i really really like him, and i remember being really touched by his route when i saw it for the first time. i've done a lot of analysis and the like of him for [REDACTED SPECIAL SECRET PROJECTS] and he's a character i found myself relating to a lot more than i thought i would (same name aside lol) as someone who's ruled by empathy and what he thinks is right for others even if it isn't - he's unique in the dialtown cast in that he's already a guy who has a lot of his shit together and most of his issues read to me as more of either "already-resolved past problems, or undercurrents that aren't really relevant to his arc as a whole"(ie. his insecurities you can see pop up sometimes- he's someone who knows he's weird and accepts it wholeheartedly but when it comes to people he wants to actively impress he becomes more reserved, which i find super fun). his flaws aren't as in-your-face as the other characters', but they are there, just gotta dig to analyze him more and i find it really rewarding to do so. i like him a lot!!!!!!

i drew him with my left hand once

[ear-motif]

just out of curiosity, why do you feel Will is trans? like how does that concept look in your head?? (i dont feel he is canonically trans but so many of his themes align with that concept and it makes my heart happy) i'm very open about the subject, just wanna hear your thoughts!!

oughh i love having thoughts thank you so much.

he is not canonically trans, point blank. but god damn if this show was just a little but cooler he would be. inane ramblings below

it started as a selfish projection of myself onto him, because I immediately related to his awkward accidental sincerity and difficulty relating to the Normals. I even have a similar cadence to my voice when I’m being snarky (which people notice and is extremely embarrassing). lets hope i have a hot glow up cause so far I mostly relate to s1 will (sad!). And because I’m gendersomething I’m like lit ok hes trans bc I said so.

But will’s whole inner world and turmoil makes sense to me when seen through the lens of my experience with gender and mental illness (tho ill focus on the gender for now). feeling like there’s a dark, awful part of yourself that’s constantly being taunted at and goaded into taking over. but your normie friends say that you’re a good person for repressing it, for doing whats useful while resisting what you crave. sven if that’s not what they say, it’s what they mean, and it’s what you’ve been implicitly taught your whole life. [for will, i think allegorically speaking its less his “murderous tendencies” that he has to resist, but gaining an antisocial perspective based on his empathy. growing above morality through his intimate experience with death and killers. that would make a man like will very dangerous, not only for individuals but potentially for his entire community. idk wanted to clear that up im normal about will graham]. obviously thats not what everyone or even most queer ppl’s experience with gender is like, but it is for me. yes im making it sound like i have a transgendered Venom Symbiote Guy hiding in my bones but like. maybe i do you dont know

i feel like this is a crappy answer but thats honestly why im like yea willard graham transgendered…and then the writers like to taunt me by making one of his defining drives his drive to be a father which is mean bc I too need to be a caregiver while maintaining my masculine identity so RUDE. and then setting up how that goal is only pushed further from him by his involvement with hannibal by making mason assault margot and sterilize her, killing their child and leaving her with an abdominal scar. and then having hannibal kill abigail, effectively killing their child and leaving will with an abdominal scar. and from what i know abt s3, he doesnt bond with wally like he does with abigail; hannibal essentially stole his capacity for fatherhood like mason stole margot’s capacity for motherhood (except she wins cuz she and alana have a kid right?) fuck this doesnt relate to gender anymore OK IM DONE I SAID MY PIECE IM SO SORRY

[aether-friskets]

Why I Headcanon Waylon Park as a Trans Guy?

it came to me in a dream.

ok but jokes aside (well not entirely it DID actually originate because of a dream i had getting interrupted by a nonexistent video essay on the topic... dreams are weird man), i do want to try talking about my reasoning for this (although it's totally legit to hc a character as trans purely because you want to!! thats totally based also lol), because maybe it'd be interesting to hear the lens through which i saw this game? idk lol but i'm doing it anyway... below the cut in case it gets long

Ok immediate prefaces, A: i doubt this was actually the intended at all and i'm not trying to say it's canon, just saying why i read it that way :3 and B: this will probably be a rambling mess and I apologize, I'll try to make it somewhat make sense.

I guess I'll start with: a whole major thing of Outlast, is fighting to tear down this large corporation, that is like. the embodiment of shitty systems that exploit people (this post by bry mentions that general topic, although more focused on miles' angle). It's worth noting because, to me at least, fighting these sorts of systems really aligns with a lot of queer folks (and basically any group that gets fucked over by the system, which is most of them loll). There's like, this whole thing of Waylon seemingly fitting that image of the ideal typical man, with the wife and kids and a job, but he has to risk all of that to do what he feels is the right thing.

(Oh yeah, I guess quick tangent on that note. Yes I know in canon we literally see his dick lmao and also we know he has kids, which you might think would deter my hc here. but A: i already said ik it's probably not canon, i can still read into it regardless. B: intersex ppl exist. C: phalloplasty and other similar procedures exist. D: ppl can have kids in non-traditional way. so im prob not gonna cover that element of it more)

My brain hasn't been able to help but interpret his whole journey in a queer way, because i played it as a teenager still in the throes of understanding my identity and place in the world, so in the end this might not even make sense to anyone else. But, I'm trying to explain, so I'll continue to regardless.

I kind of saw it as Waylon hiding in the protection of an "ideal" life. On the surface he looks like he's in that American ideal family, but it's a subversion. He's only one of them because they think he is. Because he doesn't step out of line. Unlike Miles, who's more outspoken about issues, who seemingly has no one around him. He's treated as part of this "ideal" world, while working in the background to try and stop the exploitation and immoral acts going on.

When he's caught, when he's seen as something more complicated than first imagined, he's cast out. Lumped in with the same people being exploited by Murkoff already. He isn't "human" to them anymore. He's something else. Something they don't like.

Although the violence brought upon him is by the variants, it is still in part Murkoff's doing, since they fucked these people up via these experiments to a point of heightened violence and just generally ruining their lives more than they already had been by whatever they had done prior. That being said, they are still responsible for their own actions.

the stuff with Eddie is definitely the part that most resonated with me through this lens. I remember first playing it, and he scared me the most, for a lot of reasons. One of which being what he represented. He's The Groom. He wants someone to be his Bride, and you're it, even if you don't want that. As someone who's aroace AND already knew at that point that i wasn't a girl, this guy felt like a human embodiment of the pressures to fit what was expected of you. That one day, you'll be married and have kids. If you don't, then you're worthless.

But it's interesting especially, because Waylon IS married. He has kids already. He has that family. The difference is, in this hypothetical trans lens, he's not "really" in a traditional family. He's "pretending", as some might see it, because he's not "really one of them". Being Eddie's Bride is the situation that would've been expected of him, but he said "fuck that", and did his own thing.

Plus, like, with Eddie in particular, you will NEVER be what he wants. He will try to make his perfect bride, but you'll never be it. Even before Mount Massive, no one was what he wanted, judging by all the people he killed. He's a broken man desiring something but never liking his options.

Also just fucking. these lines from eddie make me lose my mind.

That part of you the world sees, they think it's perfect. As God intended. Even these idiots and lunatics see it. There's something special about you. On the surface. But when they look deeper, when anybody with eyes to see looks at what you truly are. That's why they don't trust you. You're not what you're meant to be. Not yet. This place can see into your mind. And the things you've done. Oh, they're a sin, darling.

like HELLO??

I know it's probably just Eddie rambling but it felt like he reached through the screen and grabbed me by the throat like.

Anyway in actual relation to my point. uh. Remember the thing I said about Waylon being a "fake" typical family? This kind of relates to that. Like, on the surface, he seems like he's got this perfect typical American family, he's "as God intended" (which. bro. i swear that exact phrase has been used against trans people so many times). But if you look closer, you'll realize there's more to it than that. Also like, going from the "as God intended" line to the thing about the things he's done being a sin, like hmmm. Maybe I'm reading into that too much, considering we know Eddie wants to make you into his Bride, so of course he's gonna think stuff like that. But still. It's a bit interesting to me.

Plus, it's interesting how, despite having a wife and kids, he's still more... feminized, I guess, than any other characters in this game. Both in the game itself, and within the fandom. Like, not just Eddie literally calling him a woman and trying to make him his bride, but also stuff like a variant near the beginning calling him a "pretty flower" before threatening him, Andrew (one of the staff) licking his face at the beginning of the game... A lot of violence and sexual-ish acts that are often directed at women in media. Even Frank, who I don't have as much to say about here, has some weirdly sexual undertones to his whole cannibalism thing.

This isn't entirely related but one part of the game that still sticks with me but I don't see mentioned as much, is near the beginning. Those guys stabbing the dead staff member. One of them remarks that "there are no observers here" and "do you think you're different? Something special?", which I think helps cement the whole idea that he's treated the same as the rest of people being exploited by Murkoff now. There's no turning back to that "ideal" life you were hiding in before. Hell, that's definitely reinforced more at the end of the game, when you choose to publish your footage, knowing Murkoff will come after you for it, and probably ruin your life. Maybe there's more interesting things to glean from that, but i thought they were interesting lines nonetheless.

anyway, overall I know this is probably just the ramblings of a trans/generally queer person reading WAY too much into a character that I happened to resonate with when i played the game, but i thought maybe it would be interesting for others to understand what would lead me to this conclusion? Anyway, that's all i've got on the subject right now, so I hope it was at least a little interesting.

[godfrey-the-chaos-duck]

Okay so me and my sister got into a debate and since you like ducktales, what sounds more legit:

F.O.W.L went to the lengthy process of changing Scrooge's chromosomes when cloning Webby, May AND June to make them girls FOR NO REASON OTHER, something F.O.W.L does NOT DO (sisters incompetent idea)

or

Scrooge is trans (my CLEARLY superior idea)

Btw gonna be sending the message to a bunch of people for majority rules type stuff

Ok. This may turn into an essay, but you'll be pleased to hear it's an essay that pretty much proves your point!

Scrooge prides himself on being a "self-made man", right? And I know most of the time it's figurative, but I personally think he may mean it literally.

And before people come at me saying "how would he have made his transition before gender affirming healthcare became available?" Let me just tell you THIS.

This is Dr. James Barry. Born in Cork (Ireland) in 1789, he got a medical degree at the University of Edinburgh and went on to serve as a military doctor for the British army. He improved conditions for wounded soldiers, and is widely credited with performing one of the first Caesarian sections where both the mother and the baby survived.

But his military funeral was cancelled. Why? Because after he died in 1865, the army discovered that he was, in fact, a woman. He had managed to pass as male for literal DECADES, and wayyyy before gender affirming healthcare was a thing.

Many women have managed to pass as men to follow their desired careers in history. So could it really be so far-fetched to say Scrooge McDuck, in the DuckTales 2017 canon at least, could've been one of them?

And lastly, there is no way in hell that his parents actually sat down and named him "Scrooge" - that HAS to be handpicked!

So, yeah, everyone's entitled to their own headcanons. That said, show your sister this essay and hopefully you've just won an argument!

[naturenaruto]

nobut literaly i love a forced???

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

transed??????????? jiang cheng like hear me out lmao

-his parents only married bc forced obviously so they needed a Reward from the marriage to reinforce that they did the right thing what they had to blahblah

-what is this Reward oh right a child ofc

-so they first have yanli and ofc yzy is trying sthhoo hard to reasurre that they needed one of these too and that shell make a good bargaining chip in he future just gotta give it 10-16 years hehheh..

-then jfm is like k fine ill deal BUT we had better have a baby with a PENIS next OR ELSE

-BAD NEWS! they dont get a baby with a penis

-cue yzy scrambling to come up with a way to justify a girls existence (So Difficult) bc they already have the one (1) they didnt need TWO babies w vaginas goodness no so after evaluating her state and determining that no more will come out of her own vagvag she then comes up with a brilliant plan that will get everyone what they want: trans their infant

-so they decide that since they havent declared any name or whatever Theres Still Time so they just....start telling everyone they had a son (wiiiith a penis™️) and they had already told yanli she had a little sister but oops haha kids just tend to mishear misremeber things haha nope defintly a little b r o t h e r *yzy glare* yanli: haha o yes my younger BROther haha yes can i go now

-crisis averted

-so then they just decide to raise her ahem him as a son therefore heir Everythings Fine and besides yzy: oh it just doesnt even matter i mean girls can become *just* as good cultivators as boys cough im sure with myyyy training (and genes) he'll be the best in the sect anyways not like a u know what makes any difference amirite jfm: 😒 uhyeah sure honey whatever u say😓

-so anyways jc is raised as a boy and yanli does in fact know but defers to her mother at first and then jc and so

-GREAT NEWS! jc is Perfectly Fine being a boy™️! no worries here haha

-but as it turns out even when it looks like boy and walks like a boy and talks like a boy and fights like a boy if it doesnt have that penis™️

-well

-so this is why i [hc] that jfm resents and dislikes and invalidates jc because he doesnt......see him as his actual son

-like thats why hes always secondguessing and calling him out and pointing things out and commenting on him like......he doesnt do those things to yanli bc theres. o point yanli does whats required of her and also she doesnt Really Matter but jc unfortunaltely does matter and jfm resents that a vagina could be an heir and yzy knows it and knows her husband never respected her even though shes canonically lauded as a cultivator....and knows that the only reason he validated™️ csr is bc he was fluffing her up bc he wanted to marry her....not bc he wanted a cultivation partner but bc he wanted a Wife™️

-well yzy is no mans Wife™️ so she does her Absolute Best to ensure that jc is qualified (and he is!!!!!)

-except enter wwx and all that scheming goes out the window bc now jfm has found not only an actual (re: had penis) son but csr'ssss son and he now plots to put him in front of jc even going so far as to imply that they could somehow untrans him by ~revealing~~ that oopsies he was Actually A Girl the entire time hehe but now she'lllll be married to the successor Mr. Wei so its k now

-!!!!!!

-yzy: *~~~zidian~~~* -jfm: *muffled broken screams of a man being beaten by a woman* -so blah blah blah ppl dying etc blah

-after everyones dead and wwxs gone.....jc just......was never really asked by anyone not even yanli if he was ok with any of this he just kinda said well i still have long hair the clothes are more comfortable i still wanna cultivate does it matter whats in my pants???? its all baggy anyways whos business is it! *classic jc glare* -so besides the (now very dead) wen no one knows or at the very least they pretend like they dont so its realy never an issue

-jc feels fine it doesnt feel forced the only problem was that he knows it was never meant for him and that no matter how good he got........someone with a penis was always going to be better

[starryoak]

One thing I really notice about Chihiro in discourse is just how, regardless of what side you are on the gender debate, absolutely incurious people are about their chosen stance. I know it was inevitable that the discourse would exist because of how radioactive canon is in its transphobia, but it’s just frustrating how little anyone engages with the implications of their stated position, regardless of what that position is.

People who say he’s cis are fine, I fundamentally understand just not wanting to unpack all that shit and taking what canon says at face value. The thing is, though, if you’re going to say he’s cis and portray him as such, you have to, y’know, actually grapple with that! Why is a cis boy who doesn’t want to be seen as unmanly or weak dressing as a girl? Is that even really cis, then? Like. There’s inherent gender fuckery to Chihiro’s entire premise that can’t be avoided.

Then you have the side I tend to agree with, who say Chihiro is trans, but honestly, I find the way most people portray her when depicting her as trans… incredibly boring. People just go “ah, ok, she’s trans. Therefore, she’s already happy as is.” and that’s it, they’re done. And in my opinion that just fundamentally misses the point of almost all of her characterization and what makes her potentially interesting!

The thing is, Chihiro is very clearly uncomfortable with how she presents herself; she’s upset she isn’t strong enough, she wants to be more manly, it’s unavoidable to her arc in game… yet, as said before, she is presenting to the world as female despite this! To me, grappling with that internalized hatred and fear of weakness without denying her gender is what makes her interesting as a character, and by ignoring that contradiction entirely, you’re throwing away most of her potential as a character!

Of course, I fundamentally get why people just want to write her as happy and trans, and I’m not objecting to that specifically, it’s more that I feel like there’s a certain level of… incuriosity in how people go about it? Like, instead of depicting Chihiro Fujisaki, a teenager in 2010’s Japan with complex feelings and relationships around how she is presenting to the world but who is happy nonetheless, people depict Chihiro Fujisaki, trans girl who’s up to date with (implicitly) American 2020’s online culture and has no conflict at all with her gender presentation and neither does anyone else.

You can see what I mean, right? It’s just frustrating to me, how it used to be that fans of Japanese media would make an effort, however weebish and uninformed, to actually try and portray Japanese culture in their works, and now it seems like people prefer to treat American online culture as universal and in some ways the only valid culture. It’s about respecting that the world outside America exists and is worth depicting, and the fact that I’ve seen fandom devolve from earnest and genuine, if slightly fetishistic depictions to “lmao what’s japan?���, like, I have genuinely seen fics that just had all the background OCs have English names for some fucking reason? It’s genuinely appalling, frankly. Yes, fanfiction is for fun and I can’t stop you from putting that little effort into your works, but have some goddamn self respect, for Christ’s sake. this is fundamentally just “old woman yells at cloud” except about fandom, feel free to ignore, lmao