#he has enough father issues to be at least a little queer rep

[pinep-ne]

Arthur attracts a concerning amount of artistic/flamboyant/queer-coded characters to be the Hetero Alpha Male half of the fandom considers him as

[captain-crackship]

Just finished Wednesday. My thoughts.

This might be a little too spicy for Tumblr, but some of you didn’t finish the first season. You watched, what? A couple episodes? And made a judgement call on that? So I will debunk a few of the rumors going around Tumblr about the show. Namely, the queerbaiting and racism claims. This post will be sectioned off so not to create a huge wall of text on people’s dash.

Starting with the first issue: Queerbaiting. Who better qualified to discuss this than a queer person?

Your first complaint was that the dynamic between Wednesday and Enid were clearly hinting at a sapphic relationship that was never confirmed. This was not the case. Enid’s romantic interest from the start was a male character. Wednesday I’m willing to believe is on the ace spectrum, at most demiromantic. Would they be cute together? Yes. They’re one of my newest ships. But believe it or not, two people of the same gender can just be friends and love each other platonically. You need to learn what a headcanon is and stop making it everyone’s problem. This issue runs rampant in another fandom I’m in and I’ve seen it enough times to recognize it.

Your second complaint with queerbaiting was Eugene’s moms. A major supporting character had two moms that are minor characters within the show. They didn’t appear for a split second in one episode. They appeared at least twice across two episodes and had spoken lines and dialogue with the main cast for both appearances. In your hyperfixation on Eugene’s moms you missed the other minor queer rep at the Rave’N. There was a sapphic couple at that dance but they were background extras with no spoken lines. Neither of these instances are queerbaiting. Queer normalization at best, and tokenization at worst.

Contrary to what conservatives may tell you, we’re not out to force queerness into your everyday lives and indoctrinate your children. We are regular people. We are also vocal minorities with active communities. You will see more queer people in a city like Montreal than you ever will in a small backwater in Vermont because we gravitate toward our communities where we feel safe. I live in a backwater in the Deep South. I have one other friend here who is a lesbian and I hear people talk shit about her all the time. If there are more like us here they’re closeted for that very reason. It’s not safe to be openly queer in rural communities.

The second issue you had with the show is racism.

I will not defend Tim Burton. He is a racist. He has said egregious things about Black people and the Black community and he is notorious for casting Black actors exclusively as antagonists in his works. That is not the case with Wednesday.

Bianca may have started out as a bully but she became friends with Wednesday as the season progressed and helped her to defeat one of the season’s villains-- a white colonizer who burned outcasts in a barn. She has also been given a backstory as a troubled teen whose mother is in an MLM-slash-cult.

Lucas? Sympathized with the outcasts at Nevermore and had remorse for his actions at Pilgrim World and the Rave’N. Also became friends with Bianca, who steered him away from his mother’s MLM. Even his father was ready and willing to work with Nevermore to solve the murders around Jericho. These are realistic characters with redeeming qualities, not the one-dimensional villains Burton is known for like Crackstone and Thornhill-- who, let me reiterate, are white and racist toward the outcasts of the show. Outcasts that could reasonably be seen as stand-ins for LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC.

In conclusion: The Tumblr Wednesday discourse is an excellent example of why critical thinking skills are important and to not be terminally online. Also Wednesday is a good show and you should watch it.

[queer-and-dear-books]

Title: Darius The Great Deserves Better

Author: Adib Khorram

Genre: YA Fiction | Romance | Friendship | LGBTQ+

Content Warnings: Depression | Anxiety | Bullying 

Overall Rating: 10/10

Personal Opinion: Following Darius’s trip to Iran, he returns to the states much more confident than before. He has his first boyfriend, he’s working at his dream job, and he’s making friends on the soccer team. Not everything is as perfect as it may seem though and as you read why, you’ll find yourself repeating the title to yourself again and again. Because Darius Kellner does deserve better.

Do I Own This Book? Yes, I bought a copy the moment I learned there was a sequel!

Spoilers Below For My Likes & Dislikes:

Likes: - Firstly, the title. It is perfect. I mean, there were literally so many points in the book where I had to put it down and say, “Yeah, Darius does deserve better!” His relationships with sex-hungry Landon and flip-flopping Chip were  a mess. Boys. Come on. It works with the title and content though. Darius grew up and he has learned so much. But he’s still dealing with depression, anxiety, and body issues. Those will never go away but he’s learning to live with them. And I think that is so incredible because he is. He’s learning to live with them. I adore him and I want to protect him.

- Gabe and Jaden are real ones. I love them. They have small roles but they support Darius through thick and thin and especially through all of Trent Bolger’s stupidity. Gabe is an amazing player and doesn’t blame Darius for their first loss. Jaden is a Fractional Korean so ayyy, Asian rep! Love that. And when Jaden told Darius that he wanted to keep being friends even after the season ended? I just about fell in love.

- I love the development of Grandma and Oma slowly but surely opening up to Darius. As tired old queers, I totally get where they’re coming from but damn, they could’ve been at least a little nicer. But it does kind of make sense how they ended up making Stephen.

- Laleh must be protected. The racism she dealt with, the microaggressions! Her teacher, Miss Hawn, just straight up ignored it all. Darius trying his best to help her truly made my heart swell. And he was so supportive of her in all of it. Even encouraging her to go to the gifted program and it was the right decision! I adore their relationship.

- There were many adorable moments with Darius and his first relationship with Landon. I also love the intense chemistry between Darius and Chip. It’s electric. There were so many moments where I physically “aw”-ed. But I love that their relationships weren’t perfect. It was so real and you knew, at the beginning, he would not work out with Landon. Because he wanted more than Darius could actually give him. I do appreciate him for asking if Darius was okay with some of his touches and kisses but there were moments where Darius obviously didn’t want to go any farther and still, Landon pushed. I am glad that Darius knew to put up boundaries and Landon respected them enough not to cross them.

- I did not get Chip and Trent, like Darius said. Until the  end when Chip explains that Trent is his Sohrab. Then it all clicks. And I love that he needed that moment talking to Darius to realize he’d been complicit to everything bad happening to Darius. Teens, man. It’s hard to do the right thing when it means you might lose your best friend. You let certain things slide. So I do get it on some level. Trent’s an asshole but his history with Chip makes him important to Chip and I respect that.

- The growth between Darius and his father is magical. They became so much closer, so much more affectionate. And he talks to Darius like a father should. Reminding his son that he’s proud and that he loves him no matter what. It makes my heart swell.

- The progression with Darius and his mother too. I love that they talked about how she was acting around him whenever he did something queer. And it resonates with a lot of what I have seen. Not homophobic, just insecure. Darius having no real desire to discuss until the end makes sense to me too because he was so afraid that his mother would hate him. He was afraid Mamou would hate him. And we all love Mamou.

- Sohrab makes me want to cry so bad. I love everything about him. He’s so supportive of his best friend. I, too, was so god damn worried something really bad happened to him when he went off the grid. But he was just seeking asylum! Oh god, I hope he comes to Portland. If he and Darius can be seniors together in another sequel, I’d die happy. The way he talked to Darius about Chip made me so giddy too. Ugh, I want to hug him and protect him from all the people that reject him just for being Baha’i.

- The taarof jokes are great too. Javaneh’s parents and the moment when her dad was so shell-shocked by Landon, who did not understand taarofing, telling him “okay” had me rolling.

- Landon kinda sucks but I’m glad he had that last talk with Darius. I’m glad Darius was able to walk away from that relationship because it really was toxic. I mean, Landon said that he hooked up with intact guys like that was the thing to say after That Scene. I mean, hello? Not everything is about sex.

- Speaking of Landon though, I love his dad. I thought that I wouldn’t because he seemed so elitist about tea. But damn, when he told Darius that there’s nothing wrong with having a hobby stay a hobby instead of a career, I wanted him to be my dad.

- Coach Bentley? A queen. I love how supportive she is to the team. I thought she was going to be cutthroat but she was so nice to everyone. No matter how much or little they did on the field, she made sure they didn’t feel bad about their shortcomings and instead worked with them to improve. That one team-building exercise is just so cute too. I adore her. I want her as my coach. And I don’t even sportsball.

- I love all the casual diversity throughout this book. Chip is part Latino, Bentley is black, Laleh’s friends with South Asians, Oma is a trans woman which makes Grandma a queer woman, and I’ve already mentioned Jaden’s Korean. Then we have the nameless customers at the tea shop, like non-binary folks and same-sex couples.

Dislikes:

- I do not get Trent. His best friend is queer and he’s still an asshat. Homophobic too! It’s so ridiculous. The guy literally saw Darius and Landon together and tried to spread rumors in hopes of Darius being targeted. All the gay sex jokes too. Why was he so obsessed with Darius’s sex life?! It’s just nonsensical. He was supposed to be Chip’s best friend and yet he didn’t act like it. Was he in love with Chip or what? I’m so glad Darius said, “You can have queer friends and still be homophobic” and “This isn’t a TV show, where you can torment me for years and then kiss me […] It doesn’t work like that!” Because he’s right. Everything Darius said in that moment was right! I just… I am so happy that he was able to put his foot down with Chip’s complicit behavior. Trent is the one that makes no sense to me though. He lives in a liberal town, there’s a QSA at school, his best friend is queer, so what was his deal? It’s so confusing, I need a deep dive on how he was raised.

- Ay, yo, Landon, what the fuck. I love that he asked for consent and cooked for Darius’s family but damn, the sexual advances were too much, my guy. I do think Darius could’ve spoken more on his body issues but damn. Slow down.

- Chip thinks Darius is beautiful naked. I love that. But don’t tell someone about someone else’s penis! God. How was he so blind to Trent’s behavior? “That’s just his sense of humor.” You think stealing bike wheels and a seat and being constantly homophobic and calling someone a “terrorist” is HUMOR? Chip, I am going to need you to take an EQ test for your own good. Yes, teenagers are dumb but what the fuck.

- It feels like there is more to this story honestly. Like there is room for a third novel. What if… one from Chip’s POV? Because I feel like his life needs a deep dive. I was really rooting for him and Darius but dude. You fucked up with telling Trent that. You do not tell people other people’s private business.

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: “A Night Off”

So RWBY has this weird thing going on in Volume 7 where it’ll give me a truly horrendous episode and then manage to turn things around just enough so that, despite my frustrations, I quite like parts of the next week’s stuff. That proceeds to get my hopes up, only for them to turn around mess it all up again in the following episode.

What I’m saying is, I should expect next week to be a pretty rough ride.

First, let me chuck out the details I personally loved in this episode that fit better together than spread out across a recap. Namely, treating Oscar like an actual human being. Thank you, Rooster Teeth, for:

Having him continually be involved by monitoring Jaune’s aura levels. (It likewise hasn’t escaped my notice how much he’s been paired with JNR lately. The fandom might get their new ‘P’ after all.)

Giving Oscar some thoughts and feelings beyond just the Ozpin situation. He’s worried about not having his semblance yet. Hark! A characterization!

Nora very kindly firing back with, “Well, I bet we’ll all be jealous when you do.”

Yang using Oscar as a convenient armrest. Granted, Yang hasn’t exactly treated him well enough lately to have earned that kind of casual buddy-buddy-ness, but if the writing is never going to call the group out on their Volume 6 behavior then I’ll take unearned kindness over continued indifference or cruelty

Jaune going out to the movies with Oscar and them both inviting Weiss. I mean, same issue here. Why is Oscar so comfortable and eager to hang out with the guy who attacked him? I wish that we had some acknowledgment that these kinds of things don’t just disappear once someone apologizes. Jaune still hurt Oscar, badly enough to leave him flinching against a wall... and none of that even takes into account Oscar’s supposed hesitation about lying to Ironwood. He should be acting more like Ren, involved with the group yet wary at the same time.

In addition, keep in mind that Oscar is currently living in this happy bubble where everyone has chosen to forget that Ozpin exists. I’m still highly suspicious of how they’ll treat him once Ozpin is out in the open again and Oscar is the convenient scapegoat for their anger. As said though, for now I’ll take it. I mean, look at that smile.

Right. Onto the actual plot.

We open on the aftermath of the Mantle riots, which is somewhat disappointing. I had hoped the group would actually be involved in that, giving them the chance to tackle a situation where brute force can’t be the go-to answer. You can’t punch out desperate citizens or run them through with your scythe. Instead, Ironwood’s men are handling it and we reconvene with the group the next day, election day. For the record, we know it has only been a day---and not longer rioting as I initially assumed---because Weiss comments that her father dropped that bombshell “the day before the election.” Which for me just speaks to how much time must have passed during those training montages. The political parts of this volume couldn’t have happened in any short amount of time. 

We’re shown an interview with Hill wherein she quite firmly doesn’t condone the rioting, but admits that there are good reasons for it as well. Her body guard stands very awkwardly in the background in a way I don’t think the shot really needs.

We then segue back into the group training and, like I mentioned above with Oscar, there are a lot of details here that I really enjoyed. Two of which are Weiss creating a mini version of her knight to sneak up on Winter---yes, please show us this kind of creativity in the actual fights---and Nora and Jaune practicing with a rubber ball. Ren is also deep in meditation while all this going on, which raises some questions about how aware of the world he is in this state. Is he able to simply ignore all the commotion, even Ruby flying straight at him? Is he so deep down that he’s entirely disconnected until he resurfaces? If so, does he only meditate like this when he’s 100% sure he’s in a safe place? Would the group be able to wake him if something were to happen?

As you can see, I’m obviously a little too invested in details and world building lol.

Speaking of world building though, we learn a little bit more about semblances here. Namely that, like hinted at in Volume Five and recently with Harriet, all their semblances are “evolving.” Jaune can apparently regenerate his own aura now, much more quickly than he could before. And Ruby...

Okay, real talk. Did I miss something here? It’s entirely possible I did, but if not what even was that conversation between Ruby and Oscar? She flies at the pillar Ren is seated under, divides into three rose petal clusters to get around it, and recombines on the other side. You know, the thing we’ve known she can do for a long while now. Since Volume Four I believe. Except then we get this exchange:

Oscar: Have you always been able to do that?

Ruby: I don’t know. I don’t normally think it through that much.

What are you talking about? Of course you know, Ruby! This isn’t a new technique. And what do you mean by, “I don’t normally think it through that much”? Is the writing trying to imply that she’s done the split thing so instinctively in the past she didn’t even notice she was doing it? I’m just massively confused by this moment. Others have pointed out that the writing tends to make up easy to solve “problems” for the cast to deal with so it looks like they’re achieving some kind of growth. The most egregious example being Ruby’s lack of hand-to-hand in Volume 5, culminating in a single headbutt against Mercury. Notably, this supposed flaw hasn’t resurfaced at all since then. Not even, say, when she’s at a party without her weapon and Tyrian attacks...

This feels like another moment where they just threw out something random to make it look like Ruby is improving alongside with the other, actual developments they’ve managed to think through, such as Jaune’s aura. Which is particularly strange considering Ruby was set up as the one to evolve her semblance. Which will probably still happen... but why paint an old skill as new along the way? It’s just all very strange.

Anyway, we get a nice shot of Ren coming out of his meditation where the whole world is gray like when he activates his semblance. Excellent visual cue as to his emotional state. This continues as Ironwood arrives and the group lays into him about needing to trust Hill. Which is hilarious considering that none of them are currently trusting Ironwood. He points out that common ground can only exist “if she’s open too”---unlikely given the second half of the episode---and Nora is about to challenge that when Ren interrupts, asking about mission assignments. Ironwood announces that they’re getting the night off instead.

Note though how guilty Ruby looks after all that talk of trusting others.

We cut to the girls later that night in their room, listening to the election news and getting ready to go out. It’s all very cute, but I think Nora is onto something regarding how Blake and Yang are always together. It’s so blatantly obvious they’re falling for one another, especially after this episode, and I’m honestly thrilled we’re finally getting some queer rep beyond former villains and minor characters. However, I hope that as Blake and Yang’s relationship develops that the writers don’t completely lose track of their co-dependency issues as well. Meaning, Yang totally wrote Blake off because she “ran away,” AKA went home precisely like Yang did, warping a natural and understandable choice into a personal betrayal. Blake in turn broke down sobbing and promised Yang to never ever leave her again. Separation is not a new issue for them. Their desire to spend every waking moment together is definitely cast as romantic now, but it’s also tied up in their inability to function well without each other. As we saw recently, a throwaway comment about fighting with someone else generates legitimate anger in both of them. Couples have to be able to spend time apart, so I hope the writing eventually lets the girls work through all that as well. 

For now though, they’re going dancing with FNKI. Very bad dancing based on what little we see. It’s enough to convince Weiss that the movies are her best choice here. Especially since she’s clearly not interested in Hill’s preemptive victory party. We see a tiny bit of that tension between Weiss’ views and Nora’s, but nothing with any substance. We just keep getting tiny glimpses that Nora is potentially passionate about the people of Mantle before it’s all quickly overshadowed by her romance drama with Ren. More on that in a moment.

The two of them plus Ruby make their way out into the streets where Ren admits that, “We spent so much time worrying about how Ironwood would react to the truth about [Salem], but have any of us even considered how we’re going to beat her if we work past that?”

Ruby reminds them that Jinn told Ozpin he couldn’t destroy her. Nora: “Maybe someone else could?”

It only took you weeks to figure that out! Though I love how this still---still---apparently has no bearing on how they view Ozpin. This was another perfect, quiet moment where three characters, notably three of the least angry characters, could have acknowledged how terrifying this information is. How they still can’t bring themselves to tell Ironwood, a man who thus far has done nothing but support them. Wow, I totally get why Ozpin would have trouble telling us. Oh also, we just realized that maybe Jinn’s information was specific to him. Maybe someone else can destroy Salem. That’s a pretty big revelation. I wonder if Ozpin himself realizes that? We should probably try to talk to him at some point.

It’s while they’re talking about the heavy stuff that Ren mutters about how they should still be training. Nora counters that they deserve a night off and the two of them clash enough to walk off angry. We see now at least part of what’s been bothering Ren lately. Nora is a very bubbly, silly, go-with-the-flow sort of person, whereas he is hyper focused on becoming as strong as possible in the hopes of finding a way out of this Salem mess. He doesn’t want to hear compliments while searching for a geist, or have her playing with his hair while on patrol, or turn training into a conversation about their relationship, or waste time on frivolous parties. There’s obviously a happy medium between Ren’s work ethic and Nora’s relaxed attitude, though they haven’t worked through that at all because they’re too busy kissing. Again, more on that in a second.

They reach the party, Penny is there, Nora and Ren dive into another fight that serves to canonize both them and Blake/Yang. Nora comments about how they’re spending so much time together, Ren observes that they’re at least friends again, and the response is,

Nora: “Friends, huh? Just friends?” Ren: “What else would they be? Nora: “Two people who have gone through so much? I think there’s more going on...”

It’s clear at this point that Nora is talking about them rather than Yang/Blake, but the initial comparison holds. Though she uses them as an in to discuss her own relationship, I doubt she was lying here. She clearly views them as a parallel to her and Ren: two partners who have been through a great deal together and, as a result, have grown to love each other as more than just friends. Those who insist that Rooster Teeth isn’t heading in a Blake/Yang direction don’t have much of a leg to stand on anymore. That ship (ha) has long since sailed. 

Ruby sneaks away from their fight though nothing terribly exciting happens. She adorably clings to Penny’s arm. They adorably fist-bump (ouch). Marrow and Hill get into a conversation about making change and whether or not she’ll accomplish that within the bounds of the law. Funny... I thought we saw that very same theme last volume. If only the writing acknowledged that there’s a connection between this conversation and our protagonists. We’re supposed to see both sides of the situation here: Hill’s need to bend the rules once in a while and Marrow’s desire to keep the peace; how the law is a man-mad construct that’s far from perfect and the importance of making change in a way that will stick---namely, legally. Here is a complex look at a morally difficult question and notably both Marrow and Hill are minor characters. It’s only when RWBYJNR is involved that the message moves from ‘Each side has a point’ to ‘Teens are 100% justified in breaking the law and anyone trying to stop them is an evil, crazy racist.’

It honestly astounds me that Rooster Teeth can give us that subtly here but never when it comes to our heroes.

When Ruby finally returns she finds Ren and Nora still fighting. As she snuck off we heard Ren admitting---in the round-about way of theirs, pretending that they’re talking about other people---that he’s worried, there’s a lot going on right now, and basically implying that he doesn’t know how (or doesn’t want) to balance a new relationship on top of all the horrific Salem business. Which, fair. The problem is that they don’t discuss this. Hill’s speech about how they’re always stronger together resonates with Nora and she tries to initiate a conversation, asking Ren to explain more fully what’s bothering him. To talk about it. He admits that talking has never been his strong suit.

I expected this to segue into a cliche, “Well try” moment and we’d finally get Ren and Nora bonding outside of their jokes and silent communication. Sadly, that didn’t happen. Look, I’m all for a renora kiss, but we have got to stop portraying sexual assault as romantic. Because that’s what Nora does here. It doesn’t matter how sure she (or we as the audience) are that Ren will like this kiss in the end. Grabbing someone and kissing them without their consent is sexual assault. Ren has not agreed to kiss her. He hasn’t expressed any desire here to kiss here. He’s completely blindsided by it and is flailing before he gives in.

People will justify this because, again, we all “know” that Ren secretly wants it and will be grateful that Nora got him past his fear. But that’s a terrible message to perpetuate in a world where others insist they also “know” when someone “really” wants them (they don’t) and where kissing or sex is seen as an easy way to supposedly solve problems between a couple. How many times have we seen an angry woman in media essentially told to shut up by a guy kissing her? The message is that her thoughts and grievances aren’t important here. The man knows her better than she knows herself and the second her forces her to start kissing him she realizes that’s really all she needed all along. That trope isn’t redeemed by changing the gender dynamic. Ren clearly has problems with their relationship that he’s struggling to work through. Nora clearly recognizes as much. Yet instead of acknowledging them and overcoming them, she erases any potential development by forcing him into a kiss. I’m sorry, it doesn’t matter how much Ren enjoys it a few seconds in. The continued message that forcing sexual intimacy on someone will fix both their hesitation and your relationship problems has go to stop. Kissing Nora doesn’t magically solve whatever it is Ren has been grappling with for the last six episodes. You know, the stuff they were just arguing about.

Once again, RWBY succeeded in giving me something I wanted, but in a way that severely downplays that enjoyment. I wanted a renora kiss, but not without consent and as a way of ignoring their issues. I wanted more focus on Ren and Nora as a whole this volume, but it would be nice if their characters could exits outside of each other some. Like the criticisms against Blake and Yang, Ren and Nora seem to be a package deal. They don’t fight with anyone else. They don’t go to different activities (why can’t Ren continue training if he’s that focused on it? Let Nora vent her feelings to a friend while he’s gone). They don’t interact with Ruby when they’re out with her. Their arc, it seems, doesn’t exist outside of each other. Which I suppose is better than no development at all, but still.

From then on things devolve rather quickly. While Hill continues her speech---and we see the ever closing gap between her and Jacques---Ruby gets a quick look at Tyrian’s tail before Watts turns out the lights. From there Tyrian proceeds to murder so many people, including attacking Fiona and going after Hill. All the while Ruby and Penny struggle to attack, despite the fact that Penny clearly has night vision and hangs back too long, obviously for plot purposes. It’s when she finally gets him away from Hill that Watts turns the lights back on, making it look like Penny had attacked the crowd and Hill was defending herself from her. I’ll admit, making Penny suitably creepy during the battle helps sell it.

Man do I hate framing plot-lines though. Not in a ‘Rooster Teeth shouldn’t have done this’ sense, just that it hurts to watch people react so badly based on a misunderstanding. This setup works best when there’s no one to refute the assumption. Yet here we have Ruby who absolutely saw Tyrian there, Penny who absolutely saw him with her night vision, Marrow who just made a connection with Hill and took the time to insist, “This wasn’t us, I swear,” etc. We’ve even got really basic stuff like, does Penny have blood all over her blades? Yet based on Hill’s look, all the evidence against Penny being the attacker isn’t going to do much good. Which makes for a more frustrating experience than a sad, yet understandable one.

We end with Jacques thanking everyone for his victory, rigged by Watts. Watts uploads the video of the attack, which has presumably either been altered in some way or just shows Penny in that damning position with her weapons out. If the former, that would at least go a long way towards explaining the inevitable backlash against her. An angry mob in the heat of the moment is one thing, but if Watts is looking to convince the entirety of Atlas that Ironwood is using his robot---a robot the people seem to currently love---to take out his competition, a doctored video of Penny attacking innocent people is far more persuasive. For both them and us the audience, wondering why everyone is this gullible. So far we’ve gotten some truly excellent villainy this year. Let’s continue that with them thinking ahead. 

At the very least this should (should) provide us with some excellent development for Penny. She’s long struggled with her status as a robot and being the defender of Atlas seems to have helped her come into herself. Having others accept her differences as a boon will do that. Now that she’s labeled as nothing more than a dangerous weapons again? We should see some inner conflict. The writing didn’t let her or anyone else grapple with her death. For the love of everything, at least let Penny grapple with this. 

Finally, Ruby and the others are forced to spend the night defending the city from a ton of grimm. Seriously, take in how many grimm showed up because of an election. Now think about what will happen if Ironwood announces Salem’s existence... I don’t think the cast is admitting to themselves precisely how many lives they’d be sacrificing by pulling that stunt. Ironwood at least (as far as we know) truly thinks he has a shot at winning the war. Ruby has no excuse at this point, with the exception that telling people about Salem is just plain hard.

Insert standard ‘Ozpin was right and they’re being hypocrites’ meta here.

And that’s it, folks! Issues aside, an all around better episode than some of the others we’ve gotten this season. Based off of experience it’ll be a small miracle if RWBY manages to keep that up next week.

Until then 💜

Minor Things of Note

All the people who were arrested the day of the election... do they get to vote? I know Watts rigged things, but potentially keeping everyone that furious with Ironwood from deciding who will oppose him on the council won’t exactly look good... especially combined with the Penny situation. Not that I think RWBY would actually introduce that as a complication. Just a thought.

Another extremely nit-picky thing, but it’s hilarious to me how bare the girls’ room is. Obviously there’s little time or inclination to animate personal items, even the few they have, but it kind of looks ridiculous to have this sterile space with one mirror and one tube of mascara. Here are the exact things we need for this scene and nothing more! I do like that shot in the mirror though.

Fiona getting teary-eyed over Hill being on the council was beautiful. I barely know them, but I like these two.

I’m just gonna post this again... 

[thatgryffinwhore]

My Personal Voltron Season 7 Review

Okay, so I’m seeing a lot of S7 hate and love on here, and I have some opinions of my own, so let’s talk…

(Just so you know, none of my opinions are influenced by which ships did or didn’t get their moment.)

THE BADS:

• First off, I hated the game show episode. Hated it. The only part I liked was the end where they all voted for who should get to leave and gave reasons for it, but then they just cut through a good moment with Keith’s reasoning for picking Lance. Like, totally threw his character development out the window for a jab at Lance, which, ha ha, makes an audience of ten-year-olds laugh I guess. But for older and long-time fans of the show, it just fell short of anything good. The whole episode was full of Lance jabs, too. And Lance has been developing as a character, so I don’t think that was very fair. Here, it’s like the one-sided rivalry all the way back from S1 is back, but this time Keith, the leader, is the petty one. I just really didn’t like that episode. Overall, they were barely in character, character development was completely ignored, and it did not move the plot along What So Ever. Filler episodes were cute in earlier seasons, but this season is the penultimate. There’s sooo many more filler options that could’ve maintained the tone of the season while still being funny and light-hearted.

• Too many new characters. I feel like the writers are digging themselves in a hole here. Don’t get me wrong, I like Romelle, but she’s just… there. In the background. The only scenes where she’s given any screen time are comedic ones, which is great, but she’s just tagging along and the loss of hER ENTIRE CIVILIZATION AND HER BROTHER DYING IN HER ARMS Is never acknowledged. I would’ve liked to have seen a bonding moment between Allura and Romelle, maybe even with Coran. Hell, they could’ve made THAT the filler episode. Aside from Romelle, I feel like they did a good job with Krolia’s character and her bond with Keith, but they haven’t really given us a reason as to why she’s there. What’s her purpose? Too much screen time with too little impact on the plot, in my opinion. Don’t get me started on Acxa. No point. Literally no point. I seriously hope that the writers have plans for her in S8 other than Keith’s love interest. Characters don’t have to fall in love to get closure, but it seems like that might be the “closure” route they’re heading to with Keith and it scares me. It’s such a forced relationship. I don’t mind Keith getting with a girl but shit, at least put him with someone the audience can connect with. A blade member that he fought side-by-side with or something, not “I’m so sorry for being on an evil team, I’m different now” and “don’t you remember how she never wanted to kill him uwu” ugh. Please stop. And I like Griffin’s team, a lot, but I’m not sure what the purpose is of introducing a group of characters with main-character potential with only one season left. Maybe it’s a surprise, or maybe they just did it so the audience could be better invested in the flashbacks about what happened to Earth.

• The??? Fucking getting lost in space??? How? Like, I sort of understand the purpose: Keith’s been separated from the team for a while, and they need to re-establish their bond. However, it seems like Keith’s character development has been ignored again, and he’s reverted back to S1 Keith, which is really annoying. I was rolling my eyes the whole time. Like, I get it, they’re going a little space-crazy, and they’re gonna turn on each other a bit. But it’s like the writers forgot that they aren’t in S1 and S2 anymore, or at least that’s how it felt to me. Angsty Keith, *yawn* been there, done that. He’s an adult now. And their leader. They could’ve gone about re-forging the paladins’ bonds another way. Not to mention, the time-lighting thing was never explained, never made any sense. Oh! And guess what else was ignored? The characters figured out a long freakin time ago that they could call out to their lions for help, did they just forget?

• Shiro and Keith practically don’t interact throughout the entire season, besides ep 1. Again, I kind of get it. They dedicated an entire episode to their bond, last season and this one. I’m not looking for more proof of their bond, but they need to talk about Shiro being dead, Keith fighting his clone, and Keith willingly falling to his death with Shiro. They’ve both got to be traumatized on some level, and it’s not even acknowledged. Like, what are the writers afraid of? Are they afraid that the Sheith shippers will get their hopes up? Are they afraid Klance shippers will get mad? Are they afraid people will get bored of Shiro and Keith interacting? Did they just not have enough time to address it (*cough* game show episode *cough*)? Like, regardless of the reasoning, a lot of shit happened between the two that needs to be talked about. I don’t know and it doesn’t matter if the writers intend for them to be like brothers or best friends or something more, that kind of stuff needs closure. Shiro probably has nightmares about dying/being dead and trying to kill his team. Keith probably has flashbacks of the first person other than his dead father to care about him trying to murder him and saying he should’ve abandoned him. Writers, please, even a thirty second conversation would suffice if it’s done well. They at least need a

“I’m sorry I tried to kill you, Keith.”

“It wasn’t you, Shiro. I’m sorry I didn’t know you were dead.”

“It’s okay, you saved me from that darkness. I thought I was going to be there forever.”

Then they hug and go on their ways. That’s it! That’s the bare minimum. That would’ve sufficed. Shiro’s obviously got some heavy inner monologue, why push it off to S8 or ignore it completely?

• And for my last bad, we have: killing Adam. This isn’t about shipping; I really didn’t care if Shiro and Adam got back together or not. But they deserved closure. Shiro deserves closure. I know Shiro’s the “stoic leader” but he has feelings, and the writers just keep making bad shit happen to him and never address how it’s affected him. Listen, Shiro is an LGBT+ rep regardless of whether he’s in a relationship, as long as he isn’t killed off. But give him some depth. The closest thing to that we’ve gotten so far is knowing that he (used to have?) muscular dystrophy, and seeing his memories of Keith. Other than that, where’s his backstory? His reason for joining the Garrison? His family? How his adventures have affected him mentally? Adam could’ve been the window to all of that, but they killed off an opportunity. If they wanted to highlight the loss of war, they could’ve killed one of Lance’s many family members, or one of Hunk’s; but Adam, as far as we know, was all Shiro had to come back to. He was the only way that they could’ve taken Shiro and made him into a more complex character. Besides that, I don’t think it’s right that they had us anticipating meeting this queer character for nearly an entire season before revealing he’d died. It’s not as bad as when some shows kill off queers, but still… I hope they give Shiro a romantic interest in someone else; queer representation includes healthy queer relationships and happy endings.

Overall for the bads, in my opinion, this is the gist of it: Character development was ignored at times. Some of the writing was lazy. Too many characters/plot point, too little time. Not addressing major issues with characters. And… queerbaiting. You don’t have to agree, but this is my opinion on queerbaiting: it isn’t black and white. Sometimes it’s terrible, sometimes it’s just a little annoying. Voltron killed off a queer character, but he wasn’t a main, and he wasn’t the only queer, and we didn’t know him. On the other hand, he was the only other (confirmed) queer character’s love interest. On a queerbaiting scale of 1-10, I’d call it a 5. Like I said, it’s partly redeemable if they give Shiro another male love interest.

THE GOODS:

• Shiro’s flashbacks of Keith. We’ve been seeing since S1 how much Keith cares about Shiro, and now we finally get a glimpse of Shiro caring about Keith. The “we saved each other” line. The flashbacks paired with Keith’s desperation really cemented that bond that they started showing us in S6, and little Keith was adorable. It was also important to get a little more background on Keith, it tied up all the loose ends from Keith and Krolia’s time in the quantum abyss. Also in ep 1, the humor was top-notch. The writers managed to make comedy out of a dire situation for the paladins, and Romelle seemed to fit in very well! And I find it impressive that shifting back and forth between the funny, light-hearted adventure of the others and the solemn, tense situation in the Black Lion didn’t kill the mood of either plot line. It will come as no surprise to you that ep 1 was my favorite of the season; probably one of my favorites in the series.

• Having Krolia separate from the team. Don’t get me wrong, I love Krolia. She’s a great mom and her relationship with Keith was written perfectly; it checked all the boxes for my hopes when Keith finally met his mother. But she was older and more mature than the paladins; she didn’t fit in. In her heart, she’s a member of the Blade, and she knows she’s more useful to the cause as a spy and fighting alongside Kolivan. I’m glad that they didn’t undercut my love for Krolia by having her awkwardly tagging along. And the writers kicked fragile masculinity’s ass with the goodbye scene between Keith and Krolia. The soft smiles, the “I love you”s, the hugs, and KeiTH GIVING HER HIS BLADE THAT HES HAD SINCE HE WAS A BABY BECAUSE HE KNEW HED SEE HER AGAin those were all wonderful. Everything about the mother/son relationship between Keith and Krolia, from the moment they met to the moment they said goodbye, was perfectly executed. They took their time with it. Kudos to the writers for that.

• Character development. Barring everything I said in the ‘BADS’ because I don’t want to be repetitive, the character development in S7 was phenomenal. We have Lance taking on more leadership responsibilities, stepping up, protecting people he cares about at the risk of his own life, and respecting Keith as the team leader. In this season, I’ve grown to respect Lance a lot (ha) more. And we finally get some background on Hunk, we see him missing his family and home, we see him crying, being frustrated about it. We see him opening up to Keith. Keith, of all people (maybe Keith was the only one who asked). Either way, I love the depth they gave Hunk, and I love the acknowledgement of Keith and Hunk’s friendship, especially after that lost in space scene. And Keith’s character development, omg. It was the best. He was a leader before, but now, he could give Shiro a run for his money. Maybe he already did. The team respects him unhesitatingly. He leads them out of every life-or-death situation on top. He helps them forge a closer bond with their lions than they’ve ever had before, on more than one occasion. And he does something that’s really hard for him, which is asking someone else (Hunk) to open up to him. He offers to listen to his teammate’s worries. His fighting (mostly hand-to-hand combat) skills are clearly the best we’ve seen in the show, right on the same level with Shiro. When he killed that Druid without seeing him I was like 😯, and when hE LAUNCHED OUT AN AIRBORNE LION AND SLICED THROUGH SENDAK LIKE HE WAS NOTHING BECAUSE SHIRO WAS IN DANGER I Was like 😲!!!

• The animation was outstanding. I know the poor animators were busting their asses, especially during those last few episodes. It’s got to be the best animation I’ve seen in the show so far (besides the ‘The Black Paladins’ animation in S6, it sent me into another dimension). In fact, VLD has some of the best animation I’ve ever seen in shows of its kind, and that’s saying something. Those fight scenes get you so immersed, and they’re like a visual orgasm.

• This one is more opinion than anything else, so I’ll keep it short, but I love how they showed the fighting spirit of Earth. How humanity never gives in. I think that’s part of why everyone enjoyed those flashback episodes of Earth so much; the audience felt they could relate to those people, and they felt proud to call themselves human. In the show, while interrogating Sendak’s memories, they asked, “What do you do if a planet refuses to give up?” (Referring to Earth). And Sendak basically says, “We destroy it, but the only planet who’s ever refused to give up is Altea.” And I. Love. That. Time and time again, we’ve been shown how smart and powerful the Alteans were, and now we’re being compared to them. I love the overall way that the writers handled the paladins’ return to Earth. I love the paladins’ interactions with Griffin’s team, I love the Alteans integrating easily with humans, I love humanity’s resilience being showcased, I love the reunions, I love Keith’s interaction with Iverson, and, most of all (some people won’t agree with me on this), I love that humans already knew about aliens and the Galra when Voltron returned. I would have dreaded them having to go through quarantine, and being called crazy, and having to fight against the Garrison, and whatnot. I just love how most of the last few episodes were handled; it was mostly the middle of the season that I had issues with.

Overall for the goods: I liked getting a little insight into how much Shiro cares for Keith. I liked ep 1 a lot. I liked how well they handled everything about Krolia. I liked the character development and background that we FINALLY get throughout the season. The amazing animation. Enough said. And the way the writers wrote Earth, in the flashbacks and in the present.

Overall for the season: I don’t think it completely tanked. I think too much of people’s opinions are based on ships, but I agree that this was not the best season, and it fell short in a lot of areas. It was a little disappointing, but not un-redeemable, and I think everyone who’s saying “fuck Voltron” and swearing to never watch it again is a bit ridiculous and childish, tbh. Disagree if you want, but that’s my opinion and last I checked, I was allowed to have one.

Alright, let me know if I left anything out! Feel free to add anything or share your opinion, even if it’s negative, I want to know your thoughts!

[kitsunebellproductions]

Thoughts on Voltron Season 7

SPOILERS, OBVIOUSLY! Things that annoyed/angered/saddened/frustrated me: *Kuron still being treated as though he was nothing more than some evil monster and convenient spare parts for Shiro. I am still nauseated by the whole thing. This poor precious baby boy deserved so much better. *Shiro’s hair -I mean come on, his fringe was pure white before but now it’s grey? What, did the whole process leach colour from the rest of his hair yet restore some to his fringe?! I will just assume it’s meant to be white but they felt this particular shade of white/grey worked best aesthetically with his outfits etc. *Too little Shiro for too many episodes. *Too much Keef. (Sorry, fandom has completely ruined this character for me, he’s not a bad character but I am repulsed by his mere name thanks to the toxicity in this fandom. I wish I could go back to the beginning of watching Voltron when he was just another decent character that I felt neither yay nor nay about, but it is what it is.) *That weird game show -if it was some magical space mage mumbo jumbo thingy that just transported their consciousness, why wasn’t Shiro there? And the whole ‘comedy family’ shtick with the Galra... I mean, it was a bit funny but... mostly weird tbh. The funniest parts were the commercials. *Way too little background/interaction with Shiro and Adam. *Also Adam’s design -like, why do you make an entirely new character that looks a lot like a mix of two other characters who are father and son (Matt and Sam)? You could have done literally anything to his design but you went safe and way too familiar? I mean holy moly did you see Kinkade? Fuck yeah what a gorgeous design, that is exactly what my hopeful heart pictured for Shiro’s boyfriend but nope. Give us generic floppy-hair glasses boy with a generic medium brown palette, it’s so fresh and new and interesting. Not. *Adam FUCKING DYING before Shiro even got back to Earth. You could have at least let the poor boy have a reunion with someone waiting for him on Earth before burying some more gays, but no. He must suffer. *Shiro getting like three seconds to mourn Adam. 

*Speaking of burying your gays... (not to mention a delightful dash of the ‘evil lesbians’ trope): Ezor and Zethrid. Yayy on their relationship, nay on them being presumably killed off (I mean killing 3 out of 4 queer characters while keeping the straight characters safe is not a good way to show how queer friendly your show is. And no the ‘we had to show how dark and dangerous war is’ excuse doesn’t work when the only characters you kill are the queer ones. There were plenty of characters back on Earth we’d have felt just as deeply about -or more even- considering we’ve heard about the other paladins’ families back on Earth but we’d never heard of Adam until now. Just imagine if Veronica had died -that would have been intensely emotional and really had gone to show all that you wanted about the dangers of war -especially as I don’t doubt for a second that Lance would have gotten an entire episode at least to mourn her while Shiro got like three seconds. Because Shiro is apparently not allowed to mourn). *And isn’t it funny how the most alien-looking Galra women are the evil ones, while the ‘good’ ones look more or less like lavender-skinned human women (and are also very pretty, petite and with slender, ‘sexy’ bodies.) Like, seriously... *Not to mention how creepy it is that Keef’s Galra mom and the other ‘good’ Galra woman (Acxa, who for whatever reason the show tried to force some out-of-the-blue yucky heteromance together with Keef) look disturbingly much alike (and they look to be the same age too more or less. So sick and tired of the ‘hot young-looking mom’ trope in media but especially animated shows. And especially when the kids end up banging girls looking to be more or less the same age as their mom). *Shiro not reacting when Ezor and Zethrid went for Pidge -he’s consistently been shown to be very protective and self-sacrificing, yet here he barely bats an eye. I get it was a scene framed to lift Lance, but it felt extremely ooc for Shiro to not at least try to help. *Ezor and Zethrid’s relationship being honestly way more explicitly stated than Shiro and Adam’s (which was the relationship hailed as the big lgbtq+ rep for this season). No, they definitely didn’t need to get back together for Shiro to still be considered lgbtq+ rep -you don’t need a partner to be lgbtq+! But when you wave a specific relationship around as a big banner of glorious lgbtq+ rep to come and then barely even hint at it in the show... well... not so much of a rep then, is it? *Not showing Shiro in that worldwide message of ‘these are our beloved brave heroes from Earth’. Like, this boy was kidnapped by aliens, spent a year being tortured, brainwashed, cloned, dismembered, pretty much violated in every concievable way, then immediately after escaping (with a shitload of PTSD in the baggage) he was sent back out into space and chosen to lead some war against seemingly impossible odds, a war that really wasn’t his war to fight, a war he still fought bravely and selflessly despite his physical and mental issues, a war he died in, but meh I guess he wasn’t worthy of mention. (And I don’t know why Keef wasn’t mentioned either, but maybe being half Galra makes you too much alien to be considered part of the world you were born and grew up in *heavy sarcasm*). *Shiro’s bond with the Black Lion and his role as the Black Paladin being pretty much erased/retconned -it’s like Keef gets to sit his ass comfortably down in the seat Shiro shed blood sweat and tears for and struggled so hard for, easily just gliding along on what Shiro has paved the road for but without acknowledging the huge role Shiro had in it all. Shiro was the one who brought out the wings for Keef in the end of the last season because Keef was unable to do it himself, because Keef had never bonded with her the way Shiro did -Shiro and the Black Lion found and saved each other in so many ways, and the Black Lion loved Shiro so much she saved his ‘essence’ inside herself, yet now we’re supposed to just accept that Shiro is old news and no longer worthy of being considered part of the ‘mighty Paladins of Voltron’. Myeah, did not like the feeling I got of this saturating this entire season. Keef can still be a big hero -or even your new main character- without grinding Shiro down into the dirt on the way. *That arm... it’s so big and clumsy-looking it makes him look weirdly lopsided. The comically large arm works for Sendak, considering his ‘evil sadist who loves crushing people with his alien prosthetic’ shtick, but for Shiro it just looks too big to be practical. If it was intentionally meant to imply that Allura just grabbed a prosthetic modelled after someone bigger than Shiro and remade it, and that’s why it’s so big on Shiro, that’s fine. But it feels impractical for anything other than fighting evil alien generals. *Shiro not getting to fulfil his arc as the abused victim and underdog by overcoming and defeating the evils pushing him down, but instead being forced to take the backset to a character forced into a leadership role for what seems like nothing more than a desperate clinging to nostalgia. It is mindboggling that everything Shiro has worked so incredibly hard for, everything he’s struggled and fought for is being taken from him and he’s supposed to be satisfied with a consolation prize. Yeah, Shiro going full Magical Girl Princess was amazing but he didn’t even get to deliver the final blow in any fight -not even his personal fight with Sendak- because apparently Shiro is not allowed any victories at all. *The whole sense of Shiro being punished for choosing his life’s dream over becoming the obedient house wife of his ex -he had only a short few years left to fulfil his dreams, and yet he’s painted as the bad guy for ‘abandoning’ his boyfriend (who was the one that left Shiro, actually). Yes, Adam had the right to choose to not want to separate for so long -during what was likely the last few years Shiro had enough mobility to do all the fun things couples dream of doing together- he had the right to say ‘I’m sorry but I can’t put my life on hold, and I wasn’t really prepared to go straight to caring for someone with a debilitating disease without a few more years of fun in between, I want to break up’. That still doesn’t make Shiro’s choice to follow his dreams any less valid than Adam’s choice to not wait for him. I bet Adam had an exciting bucket list waiting to start ticking off as a consolation when Shiro was denied the role of pilot for the Kerberos mission -I doubt he’d expected Shiro to actually be allowed to go and that probably seriously stumped him- but it’s incredibly cruel and selfish (and ableist) to expect a person to sacrifice their last few years of being able to fulfil their dreams just so their able-bodied partner can fulfil their small dreams and wishes of things they want to do for the last few of that person’s fully mobile years. And yet everything about Shiro’s arc paints a very very grim and ableist story of ‘you chose your own dreams over bending to your partner’s will, now let us show you what a horrible decision that was by torturing you relentlessly throughout the rest of this series without ever letting up. You will never be allowed happiness again because this is your punishment.’ I agree with other people that the way Shiro’s been treated throughout this series -constantly tormented without ever getting a single break or getting a real chance to fight and overcome his demons- seems way too much like torture porn. *The feeling that Shiro’s Magical Girl Moment was only there to blind us to the fact that him being probably the only one able to transform the Atlas means he’ll be conveniently grounded next season, forced to stay on Earth to ‘protect his home’ while the rest of them get to go off being the ‘amazing Defenders of the Universe’, leaving both Shiro and his legacy behind, unsung. I hope I’m wrong, but I get an overwhelming feeling that Shiro is being pushed into the background because they never intended for him to be the hero of the series but by the time they realised that’s exactly what they’d created with him it was too late to take it back, so now they’re trying their hardest to push him back into some mentor/backseat role in a sneaky enough way that they hope people won’t notice because they’ll be dazzled by the shine of his ‘new role’. ... Things that made me happy/excited/pleased: *The animation level. I mean holy mamacita Shiro is so beautiful he glows in like every single frame. *HUNK. Love this big gentle boy and love that he got to show more of who he is and what he has to give this season. *Seeing the families we’ve heard so much of. Seeing them reunited. Seeing flashbacks to happier times with the families. *Pidge finally getting her entire family back together. *The designs of all the alien/Earth tech. Gorgeous. *The design of some of the new characters <3 *So many new Galra characters with faces and personalities even if we only saw them for a few seconds. *All the ‘Earth preparing for alien invasion’ scenes/episodes. *Finally getting to know more about Iverson and who he is as a person. *Sam and Colleen. *Shiro being the new Princess of the new Castle ship. *Shiro fucking transcending being the Princess and transforming the entire Castle ship Atlas into a new Voltron type battle robot. *The Atlas being this beefy paladin type knight on top but t h i c c femme legs on tippy toes/high heels on the bottom. 10/10 what a beauty. *White Lion Shiro... I mean, I’m certainly not the only one thinking it, right? *Just Shiro. Wow. What a strong, beautiful, good person who cares about everybody else above himself. Someone give this poor traumatised boy hero a fucking vacation with the softest bed surrounded by therapy animals. Perfect cinnamonroll too pure for this world. *Shiro fighting Sendak hand-to-hand on top of a fucking space ship free-falling (read: CRASHING) to Earth instead of trying to escape I mean this boy *Keef fucking anime-slicing Sendak in twaine for daring to try to hurt the person he loves like a brother (bloodless and nice for the young’uns of course, but still). *Hunk carrying Shiro. *@ anyone claiming Lance ‘never gets screentime or development’ -fuck you. Look at this brave, strong boy who started out as a self-centered antagonistic jerk yet has grown into such a good and mature person. I may loathe the Lance I see portrayed in the fandom, but in the show he’s still such a good character. *Coran, Coran, the gorgeous man <3 *The mice and Kosmo the space wolf for MVP *Kaltenecker, most chill character in the entire universe. *Shiro’s prosthetic not being attached -at first I was like ‘noooo’, but then I realised... fuck yeah this is exactly what people in fandom need to stop erasing disabled characters. It is way too common for people in fandoms to claim that a person having any kind of high-tech or magical prosthetic that makes their disability less visible (For example Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist) isn’t actually disabled at all ‘because it’s like they have normal limbs’. Having a prosthetic arm that has a big void between itself and the shoulder attachment makes it impossible to ignore the fact that Shiro is missing a whole arm. (And maybe, just maybe, people will finally stop with the shitty ‘he’s got a full sleeve of tattoos instead of a missing arm in this AU fanfic because erasing disabilities is super cool’ trope.) *The entire Shiro/Atlas transformation scene -ugh so beautiful <3 ... Phew, that got long! (=A=;;) I’ve probably forgotten a lot of things -but it’s been a few days since I watched it so it isn’t as fresh in my mind as I’d have liked, however I don’t have the time to rewatch it right now to refresh my memory so it’ll have to do. These are just my personal thoughts -things I found negative might be things someone else found positive, and things I found positive might be things someone else found negative. This isn’t meant to be a debate or attack -just a way for me to put my thoughts down and remember them for the future. And one last thing -please remember to be kind to each other -and don’t go attacking cast or crew -most of them have no real say in what happens on the show anyway, and harrassing and threatening castmembers to the point where they’re scared to even show up at cons is not the way to make the higher-ups listen to your complaints -however legitimate they might be. Now I guess we’ll just have to brace ourselves for season 8...

[jonahbex]

Get to Know the Friendom Tag

(first off can i just say it’s adorable that we’re calling ourselves the friendom, i love it sm)

A big thank you to @the-suitelife-of-disneychannel for tagging me! 😄

Favorite Andi Mack character:
 Buffy for sure. I love her bc she’s so fearless and confident, and that’s an important role model for young women of color to have. Back when I was Disney Channel’s target demographic age (I’m 18 now), Raven from That’s So Raven had a huge impact on me and made me want to be myself, so I’m glad there’s a character like Buffy on Disney Channel right now teaching young girls that it’s okay to love themselves and own it even when they’re only 13 years old. Is that your all-time favorite? If not, then list that here:
 My all time favorite character is Riley Matthews from Girl Meets World. I see so much of myself in her, from the way she stands up for her beliefs and does what is right, to the way she tends to be naive and trusting, seeing the good in people. One of my favorite things about her is that she is shown multiple times trying to make people into what she expects them to be, and I can relate bc I have the same problem. I love that she’s wonderful and strong but also realistically flawed. Favorite Andi Mack cast member?
 Idk much about the cast; I don’t follow them on any social media except Josh here on tumblr. So I guess I pick Josh, he seems pretty cool 😊 All-time favorite cast member? If not list them: 
 I know this is getting repetitive, BUT I LOVE ROWAN BLANCHARD. She’s so woke and amazing at such a young age. She’s an activist and an intersectional feminist, she stands up for marginalized groups and goes after what she wants. I truly love her so much and look up to her even though she is younger than me. I hope to someday raise a daughter just like Rowan Blanchard. Original reaction to the show:
 I originally watched the show bc I saw a gifset on tumblr, then read an article and thought it was so cool that Disney Channel was going to address teen pregnancy. So I knew the plot twist before I watched the first episode. Tbh I was super unimpressed with the show at first, like after reading about it I was really disappointed watching the first episode, bc to me the acting felt so stale and badly paced. BUT I decided to give it another try bc I really wanted to support the show bc of how important it could be to Disney Channel, and after watching the second episode, I concluded that the acting and pacing would get better as the season went on, and then after watching the third episode I was hooked. Current reaction to the show: I’m just a little bit addicted. I keep wanting to binge watch the whole season but it’s not out yet, and tbh I’ve looked through those free TV websites for leaked episodes but there are none. The “next time on Andi Mack” thing is really effective bc there’s a bombshell dropped every episode and the preview makes you want to keep going.
 Favorite Andi Mack Plot Line: BEX AND BOWIE!!! Their scene together in episode 8 was my favorite, like Bowie is so sweet and he wants to be back in her life and help raise Andi, but Bex is obviously trying to avoid talking about it (the pizza trick again), and I n e e d to see how this ends. And I also kind of want to know where it started. I just want more Bowex overall.
 Least Favorite Andi Mack character: Idk if I have one? Like I kind of like most of the characters equally. And it feels like the only real choice here is Amber, but her character really bugs me bc of how she is written. So far (up to episode 8), she is a one-dimensional character. The writers only ever show her as a bad person who does horrible things to Andi and insults people and fucks with a middle school boy’s emotions, but they never show any of the reasons behind her actions. She was created as the stereotypical, pretty, “cool” mean girl who is only around to serve as a foil to the awkward, kind, unconfident main character; Disney Channel does this all the time and I’m kind of sick of it. Amber needs depth. We need to know why she’s clinging to Jonah (despite CHEATING on him), abusing him, threatening people, and just overall antagonizing others. The closest thing we got to depth with her was the one time Jonah mentioned to Andi that Amber is insecure, but that’s not good enough. I need a plotline around Amber’s insecurity. I need the writers to show that people act a certain way because of their personal issues or circumstances, not because they are inherently evil. Maybe she has home problems and that’s why she goes after Andi so hard about her family??? Maybe her father has been absent most of her life too? I need some character development with Amber. I’m not satisfied blindly hating her.
 All-time least favorite character? If not list them here: I can’t think of any characters I hate right now.
 Upcoming Andi Mack episodes I’m worried about: I’m sure this is on everybody’s mind, but how are they going to show Cyrus questioning his sexuality? It’s Disney Channel, so I really don’t want to get my hopes up, but I really hope it doesn’t turn out like Beauty and the Beast with that blink-and-you’ll-miss-it gay rep with Le Fou. Like, if I were a heterosexual and not specifically looking for signs that Le Fou was gay, I probably wouldn’t have noticed it at all. I’m worried that the same thing will happen to Cyrus, where since we’re all looking for him to be gay, we’ll jump for joy when they start dropping subtle clues, when in reality, the plotline does nothing to teach kids about LGBTQ people bc it goes right over their heads. Like I can’t see Disney Channel airing an episode where Cyrus explicitly says that he’s attracted to boys, let alone uses the word “gay,” but that’s exactly what young questioning kids need to hear: truth and validation. In addition, I’m worried that even if it explicitly comes out that Cyrus has a crush on Jonah, there will not be a happy ending for him. Andi is the main character, and as per Disney Channel rules, the main girl always ends up with the guy she likes. So even though Cyrus likes Jonah, he’ll never get to be with him, and he’ll just be another add-on to the list of queer characters who suffer from unrequited love, whose queerness is only used as a plot point to show struggling. No matter what, I feel like the Cyrus sexuality plotline will not play out well, either from being too subtle or from being unnecessarily sad. Sorry, I kind of ranted on those last two! Anyway, I’m tagging: @tritagonist @margotandthemoon @youtuber-positivity @moonshapedwaffles @zayadorah @andi-shack @unidentifiedgayobject @universe-melody


[habibialkaysani]

okay, let me preface this with a little note about my identity. I am a queer, mentally ill muslim british cis woman of colour. specifically, I was born in britain and my parents both hail from bangladesh. I am not white or black or latinx. so my opinions will - understandably, I hope - be from the perspective I am offering based on the intersecting parts of my identity.

so, let’s start with that. as a nonblack woc, I think it’s pretty patronising to be told that you don’t have to be black to be a person of colour. I know that. I don’t need that explained to me when I am literally not even black to start with. nowhere in my post did I say a mixed race pairing requires a black person. of course it would be interracial if someone was latinx. rene/thea is interracial. so is cisco/caitlin, and amy/jake, and those are just off the top of my head. pairings involving asian people are also interracial - wally/linda, for instance, and lena/jack. and while not latinx myself, I am aware of the issues latinx people face, enough for me to know that of course they are people of colour. I never said that latinx people face the exact same struggles as black people. I know they don’t, although they do overlap at least insofar that they’re groups that deserve far better.

my focus on black people in this post, btw, was partly to address the antiblackness I see in my own racial community. but also, me making the focus on antiblackness in my post does nothing in and of itself to dismiss other poc or, as you’ve suggested, throw other poc under the bus.

and that brings me to my main point. as far as I was aware, for a character to be considered racial representation and thus a person of colour onscreen, I thought the person portraying that character had to be, at the very, very least, a person of colour also and preferably also at least the same race as the character purports to be.

let me put this another way. as a desi woman, I would not have considered jack spheer to be desi if he was portrayed by a white actor who’s a bit tanned, calls himself bengali onscreen and calls his mother “amma” and, idk, eats rice and curry every day, and thus I would not consider him bengali representation because he was whitewashed. I was under the impression that a similar logic could be applied here, because, yes, maggie calls herself nonwhite and andrew kreisberg called her latina and she spoke spanish to her father, but floriana lima is still white. if you personally feel like whitewashed representation counts as representation, fine. but to me, sanvers is just another white wlw ship that the racist white non straight fandom flocked to because god forbid they give an interracial ship, irrespective of genders, a chance. I listed it because I was trying to make that very point - and, absolutely, if maggie were portrayed by an actual latinx actress, I would never suggest that sanvers is the same representation wise as clexa, wayhaught, cophine, avalance, etc., because there would be a person of colour who could potentially make the pairing important and groundbreaking and different. but she’s not. floriana is white. chyler is white.

now, I don’t know a lot of latinx people on here, so I’m not sure what the general consensus is on this. but I have seen latinx people speak out against maggie being whitewashed. at the same time, I fully acknowledge that I am not latinx myself, so if you think that representation that is so watered down and in your own words flawed is still adequate, fine. but put simply, me slighting maggie sawyer or sanvers with regards to racial representation isn’t me slighting latinx people at all. because maggie, to me, at least, and to a fair few others, isn’t truly latinx when she is portrayed by a tanned white actress. just like an ~exotic-looking white woman does not desi representation make. *coughamyjacksoncough*

I feel like poc should be in solidarity with each other. and if I said anything against samantha arias, rosa diaz, amy santiago, cisco ramon, rene ramirez or any of the other latinx characters on tv who are genuinely portrayed by actual latinxs, I do apologise. but in this instance, I can’t in good conscience consider maggie a woman of colour when the actress portraying her is white and she is clearly whitewashed, and therefore, I don’t see sanvers as a truly interracial relationship when they clearly are not in reality.

fandom racism is a huge problem, I agree. but you pointing this out doesn’t help. in this instance, I’m pretty sure it was supergirl and floriana lima who whitewashed a character who was meant to be a woc, not the fandom. the fandom whitewashing actual poc played by poc is what you should be calling out - zari tomaz, for instance, is often whitewashed in edits, and people assume sameen shaw is white even though she’s persian. people lauding chyler leigh and caity lotz, two straight white women, for being lgbt ~allies when maisie richardson sellers and keiynan lonsdale, two non-straight black people, are right there being as straight and white as a rainbow, is fandom racism. the 100 fandom practically starting a riot over a fridged white lesbian who wore brownface and a bindi and then staying radio silent or, worse, defending poussey washington’s death is what you call fandom racism.

I get that you mean well, but I did not say anywhere in my post that I felt nonblack poc were in any way less important than black people. me focusing on one race of people in no way diminishes the importance of other (nonwhite) races. if you truly consider maggie sawyer a woman of colour, good for you. I don’t, and I won’t until they decide to recast her with an actual latinx person (which is highly unlikely). so please don’t assume all other poc share your view, and don’t label my behaviour as ignorant or careless. 

- same anon as before, that's understanable. and i'm sorry for the racism that you do get. i'm glad you're able to just ignore it, and that most people respect you. (and for the a*dena,l*xa,s*ra thing) that makes sense. i like them all as characters. but the fandom saying that l*xa is wearing the helm of awe? (not sure if that's what they call it, but it is a bindi, that's just awful. s*ra being shipped with only white women, makes sense. i haven't watched lot for awhile. - p1

p2. but i did hear about the fandom shipping her with “new” character called a*ya? ev*? i’m not sure. and i was a bit confused, if they had like 5 lines together. (if ev*) now that i think about it, she is white right?

yeah, her name is ava, and they’re clearly building up to it and that’s - whatever, but just. five white women and one fleeting poc (leonard) and one woc who isn’t even mentioned by name this season does not diversity make. 

it’s sad that that more subtle racism exists, but what’s sadder is that fandoms on the whole don’t want to admit that it’s a thing and that we’re complicit in that racism. and I say “we” because I’m guilty of it too. I remember when I was watching poi and I was for some reason reluctant to ship carter with reese. just like how I was initially reluctant to ship sara with jax romantically. even tho in both cases the ships had wonderful dynamics. I’m not saying that everyone who brotps them is racist. but this refusal to view black people as love interests for white people is definitely a worrying trend - look at finn in star wars, for example, or even iris west with barry allen and to some extent amaya jiwe with nate heywood. it’s this less blatant racism that most if not the vast majority of us are guilty of to some degree that I think we need to recognise in ourselves and try to do better with. and that doesn’t mean you can’t ship sara with ava, or kara with lena or cat, or, hell, even maggie with alex, but I just think we also have to recognise that that racist bias exists and is a real thing, and, I don’t know, just try to do better by taking a step back and seeing where that racism inherent in all of us is manifesting itself.

[mightbedamian]

#TMIishTuesday #46 - The Trumpet - But why?

Hey there mighty people of the internet! And welcome to issue #46 of #TMIishTuesday - my weekly Tumblr post about what goes through my weird mind and what you guys want to know more about. It can be something very personal, it can be something political, it can be completely pointless - but in 99.9 % of the cases, it involves opinions. And mine as well. // Last week I talked about make-up. On girls, but more about it on guys: Society's general perception of it, some male YouTubers who look ACE with make-up, and my opinion on whether or not men should or should not wear make-up. Not telling you to read it, but… YOU SHOULD! // Disclaimer: I can't treat certain people the same as everyone else. People who just disrespect of groups of people for one, and only one, reason: Belonging to this group. And by saying this, I do exactly that, I know... And I’m still gonna do it. You know, if they were at least a little bit open-minded or didn't treat people like they're sh*t, I'd respect that. I wouldn't cheer for them, but everyone has different opinions - and that's awesome! But I won't respect people who hate on others for having one attribute that the haters don't like: Gender, sexuality, race, color of skin, this list goes on and on. Okay, so if you're not living on the Moon (and even then), you'll most definitely have noticed that the U. S. have a new president. For the reasons stated above, I will not call him by his name, but rather refer to this person as "the Trumpet". Not much of a difference anyway, right? And now you know who I'm talking about, we can start this post. Did I mention that it's about reasons why this person could even become president? Oh, I didn't? Well… Now you know! There are obviously lots of reasons why the Americans eligible to vote voted like they did. I pick three that seem most important to me.  1. The devil vs. the deep blue sea With the elections coming up one thing that I read a lot in polls and assessments of the candidates is: "I can't possibly choose between two inacceptable candidates." As expected, Democrats and Republicans had voted two extremely opposing candidates to go for president - Clinton: the impersonated establishment who still lives on her father's achievements as president and who is rather conservative for a Democrats candidate. And - the Trumpet: the impersonated American dream: business man, self-made millionaire, the exact opposite of the establishment, who bluntly told his opinions on basically everything, even when not asked about it. And I had the impression that people didn't feel that ANY of the two would be a good president. But given the American political situation, with only these two parties standing a real chance to win the election, most people did choose to distribute their votes between the devil and the deep blue sea - or simply didn't turn up to the polling stations. 2. Jobs vs. trade There is a common misconception that many Europeans might have fallen for: The Trumpet's only focus seemed to be on immigration politics. Constructing a wall at the U. S.-Mexican border and getting rid of TPP* and TTIP* trade agreements, before the latter was even signed. These seemed to be the Trumpet's only political goals. At least if you believed European media. Oh my, were we wrong! The Trumpet actually got lots of votes in the Mid West states promising people to get jobs. Of course that's part of the getting-rid-of-TPP-and-TTIP deal. But that's not what was the most important aspect of this issue. The U. S. still suffer from the global economic crisis that was sparked by the failure of the banking industry in the late 2000s. The most important promise of the Trumpet was jobs. Jobs, jobs, and more jobs. And, please correct me, if I'm wrong, dear Americans, but to me it looks like most Americans don't bother too much about what is going on in the world, if the U. S. is not involved. Am I wrong in assuming that? And to be honest, it's looked to me like that over the last few years/decades. Rather, you guys are more focussed on your own country. You know, I'm not a big fan of overly demonstrated patriotism. But it makes sense that you voted the Trumpet then: He promises to get you all into jobs again. Sure, that will work. But there'll also be massive inflation, if he basically closes down foreign trade and goes back to producing everything domestically. But people don't seem to see that. Or they ignore it. Well, if you don't see it, let me give you a quick tour, okay? The Trumpet wants to put import tariffs into place again against any country out there. Sure, most still have import tariffs - the EU certainly isn’t the norm - but over the last couple decades there has been worldwide understanding that we should thrive for lower tariffs and less trade restrictions. In 1947 32 nations signed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) which wanted to "reduce tariffs and other trade barriers" among the signing countries. Over the years, with globalisation hitting in more and more, more nations joined the agreement and tariffs and trade restrictions got less and less. Based on the work that had been done under the GATT framework, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was established by 123 nations in 1995. A huge part of this hard work is at stake now that one of the biggest economies of the world threatens to leave the WTO. As I'm typing this, the Trumpet has just announced that the U. S. will not ratify TPP. A small step for a Trumpet, but a huge one for humankind. Anyway, I'm drifting off. And the effects of the U. S. leaving the WTO and other international trade policies could fill another #TMIishTuesday. Let me know, if you are interested in that! * TPP - Trans-Pacific Partnership * TTIP - Transatlatic Trade & Investment Partnership 3. Ego vs. opinions This might even be the most important factor that got him the crucial votes in the swing states* which ultimately led to the Trumpet winning the entire election. All the way during his candidacy - in the internal Rep duels as well - he has been very straightforward about basically anything he represented. He made clear his goals basically on day 1 of the Rep internal campaign and, from what I can tell, he sticked to them. All this "The U. S. don't need any foreign trade" thing, all this "I don't give a f*ck about minorities" hatred, all this "I'm the king of the world" behaviour - it was there from the very beginning. And even if Clinton didn't change her campaign too much, too - just by not letting anyone exert ANY influence on his campaign, the Trumpet really presented the "I am me, I won't change for others" attitude. When most candidates try to take on some viewpoints of the other candidates of their party to rule out competitors, he didn't do that. Cause he didn't need to. The whole "I won't change for others" thing was already bearing fruit. Many Americans are apparently still looking for a father figure to look up to. And that's EXACTLY what they got. ...Although you might argue that someone, who is as bold as the Trumpet, is not exactly a father figure… Granted, but he's definitely "the strong man" the people were looking for. And I guess the Americans just thought Obama didn't take measures drastic enough to cope with the (perceived as well as existing) problems the U. S. were faced with. * swing state = "a state that could reasonably be won be either the Democratic or Republican presidential candidate" Finally: Judging from the younger history, it just made sense that a Republican was elected president: The last three presidents all took two terms in office - and after each 8 year period a president of the other "big" party - Democrats and Republicans - was elected into office. Right, I'll leave you with that. This post turned out way more subjective than I planned to. But I never promised that. And remember how I started this post? "Disclaimer: I can't treat certain people the same as everyone else." I guess, that's exactly what's happened now. Sorry not sorry! :P Before I go, please let me know what you thought of this post and what your thoughts on the new president are. Do you hate him, do you respect him, do you like him? Place a comment, tweet me, dm me, or do anything else you can think of to get to me. Oh and today's TMIish Queer Shoutout goes to: Anyway Köln TV, the queer YouTube channel of youth centre Anyway in Cologne. I stumbled across the their YouTube channel last week and really liked the videos in which the team took to the streets to interview the people of Cologne on queer topics: Can they tell who identifies as straight, lesbian, or bi just by appearance? Does it work better when the choices are straight, gay, and pansexual? What do you imagine gay sex to look like? And the one that I liked best: How do people react when they are asked to film two guys for a minute and suddenly one proposes to the other right in front of the Cologne Dom cathedrale? Their videos are well thought of and, most of the times, involve strangers they meet on the street. If understand German, check them out and drop a sub! As always: Next #TMIishTuesday next Tuesday. If you have any questions in the meantime, just ask away. Whatever you’re curious about - I don’t bite. :) Until then: Stay mighty! Linkage: - Wikipedia on TPP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership - Wikipedia on TTIP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_Trade_and_Investment_Partnership - Wikipedia on swing states: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_state - Anyway Köln TV channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/AnywayKoelnTV - Anyway Köln website: http://www.anyway-koeln.de/ Oh, and here’s some self-promo: - Last #TMIishTuesday: http://mightbedamian.tumblr.com/post/156001271441/tmiishtuesday-45-guys-cant-wear-make-up - More #TMIishTuesdays: mightbedamian.tumblr.com/tagged/tmi - Poll to decide next week's topic and more very cool stuff: www.twitter.com/mightbedamian - Even more very cool stuff: mightbedamian.tumblr.com