#hes such a fucking positive representation for it its insane

[animentality]

Tbh I think it's still legit if you read and like Blue Lock for being so gay (at least subtextually), despite being misogynistic Kaneshiro seems to have sympathy for queer people to a certain degree. Besides the gay sidekick, As The Gods Will also has some other queer side characters (a lesbian, a trans girl, a few more hinted gay boys and a non-binary villain according to my memory) even though not all of them are well-written, the good ones are good. Specifically my most favorite is the gay sidekick Ushimitsu, he's actually a pretty well-rounded character with very strong role as a co-lead in ATGW 2, I never feel like he was disrespected in the story (rather I think he's obviously Kaneshiro's favorite), sure he's got an open ending that can be seen as tragic but it's actually in line of the whole theme of the story and I respect Kaneshiro to commit to writing it rather than just give a copout happy ending and it also proves his gay feelings as real & deep despite heartbreaking.

Now I wish Kaneshiro can have that same energy in writing Bachira as he's in a similar position to Ushimitsu in ATGW but somehow poor bee boy got pushed aside in bllk after U20 arc (probably in favor of more popular Isagi ship with Rin or Kaiser 🙃), I hope he makes good on the promise that Bachira will be a key character later in the series and this time since nobody will die in Bllk I hope Bachisagi will get a deserved happy ending.

well that's the thing, anon.

I feel bad for liking blue lock because it has such a misogynistic creator but it's hard not to cling to something so obviously queer friendly.

like honestly.

there's definitely Japanese media that's queer neutral or queer friendly but blue lock actually feels like it's always on the verge of just being properly queer.

it's not fanservice like free or yuri on ice. it legitimately feels as close to canon as it can get without changing genres. and I think the creator having queer characters in the past gives him some street cred.

i know what homophobia in a manga looks like. it's that awful rapist character from one punch man. this hyper masculine but also hyper feminine muscly man who sexually assaults other men.

it's tokyo ghoul having its only queer characters being pedophiles, rapists, and sex addicts/victims who get sexually assaulted until they're "corrected."

it's having no subtext at all and only ever using gay men as a one off joke and gay women as a fetish.

at least blue lock does seem to respect its characters enough that it takes their hinted at sexualities seriously.

it really doesn't go for the obvious "ewwwwww we're both guys" jokes. it's kept very ambiguous. it's subtle (except when it's not, lol).

the only character who really fits the usual offensive gay anime representation tropes is Shidou, but even him I wouldn't count as bad rep (as the closest to canonically gay character, aside from Bachira).

Shidou might be super flamboyant but he also gets to have the coolest fucking moments in the series. he's not just some pervert, he's a badass. he doesn't just flounder around like some useless weird loser who only exists to be the butt of a joke.

he loves to fight and play soccer and feel alive. he has the coolest aura in the series and everyone is constantly in awe of the ridiculous things he can do.

he's a proper villain, who's out of pocket and insane, but who's also intensely lovable and silly. and honestly portrayed pretty sympathetically. for all his faults, he can be very kind.

there's a lot of depth to him, and honestly, I think Blue Lock is pretty good at not doing anything to suggest oh hahaha homosexuality exists. isn't that funny

plus I think Bachira is canonically gay. we know he's canonically in love with Isagi.

kunigami and aiku are actually confirmed bisexual too.

Shidou and Sae were also highly suspect during u20, to the point where even homophobes cant deny they have something weird going on.

so to me... that's a lot of queer characters who are taken seriously and actually have characters outside of being a joke or a gag. they feel like real people. they have distinct personalities.

the bar is in hell, but it's more than most manga/anime manage.

so I have to give Kaneshiro credit. he's doing as much as he can, without overstepping the boundary I'm sure kodansha has set for him.

it's just a shame he's a sexist. also, I hope Kaneshiro grows a pair.

just have bachisagi get married in the last chapter you pussy.

let Shidou officiate!!!

[zephyr-paladyn]

there's something so genuinely powerful abt euden being an explicitly aroace character AND also the strongest embodiment of how strong the power of love can be. friendship, family, bonds, pacts -- all are expressions of love that euden holds. and that very power of bonds -- power of love -- is the strongest force in the multiverse that can take down its gods that want to destroy it...

[beloveddawn-blog]

Misunderstood this as 'in the tags' because to be perfectly honest I should just go to bed now.

Poorly explain your favorite series in the comments/reblogs

[dasnercaret]

i had so much fun drawing this guy it's unreal. please observe siffrin from @protectorcraft's fic a bell chimes somewhere!! what a dude. what a lad. what a weirdo (positive)

some more details under the cut! (spoilers for isat and the fic under the cut as well!)

i imagine that since siffrin's creachur form has something to do with wish craft, it wasn't too far-fetched to say that his eye would be colored too, especially given how the sky kid focused on it. however since this isn't his wish to stay with his family, i thought it would be nice to make it a different color... something representing the universe........ Sky Blue It Is

it helps that i am also obsessed with shades of sky blue AND the line from the fic that the sky kid said that it had "everything" in its eyes

i didn't illustrate it, but i think it would be extra cool if creachur siff's eye color changed as per time of day. just because. he's like the eye color version of that one 'do you love the color of the sky' post

i like to imagine that siffrin still has a strange Light in his eyes even when in his human disguise. can't remember if the fic mentions it or not but he has a sky blue highlight in those eyes now in my design. because i can :3

speaking of human disguise, i like to think that even with his transformation he's still not that subtle. mirabelle picks up immediately that he's weird but also that he's friendly and VERY good at survival, and so isn't too bothered by his... quirks. this might end up being canon to the fic honestly but i just wanted to trot out my two cents regardless while i'm here

i'm hoping i managed to communicate some of that off-putting nature in his face! especially his eyes. they're almost unnaturally gray aside from that strange highlight

i originally wanted to make his eyes even weirder but then i thought that being Too Weird would kind of defeat the point, and the point of this is that siffrin kind of has to pass as a normal human which means no glowing pupils, unfortunately. i can totally Give Him Pupils though. gotta get that subtle horror/ creepiness in :3

he gets glowing pupils / tapetum lucidum in the dark though. or when he's angry (see top left). as a treat

didn't draw his in between state (between human and dragon) but i imagine it looks kinda fucked up ! his horn and ears grow, his tail gets longer, teeth get sharper, his whole face sort of. Distorts. in a distinctly uncanny valley way. the blue highlight starts bleeding into his eyes (and his pupils start transforming from round to slit to star-shaped)

continuing, this in-between form in my head is sorta like the dragonkin soldiers from elden ring, just in terms of 'this is a weird hybrid of human and dragon and it just Doesn't Work'. like human, cool, dragon, cool, in between? fucked

siffrin is INSANELY floofy. even with the fact that he hasn't bathed in ages and his floof is all matted and tangled from lack of care he's still crazy soft. i think his fur also has similar insulating properties to his cloak so he never overheats or gets too cold. always the Perfect Temperature

if i were more confident in my skills (and which way this fic is going to end up going) i would have drawn a big hero 6 style moment where everyone is just lying with their face buried in siffrin's fur, like how everyone lays on warm marshmellow baymax.

i originally meant for siffrin to be more cursed and body-horror-y, and then i was looking at the fic descriptions for him (as of chapter 7, so there may be more detail later that i didn't get to see as of writing this) and was like 'wait... he kind of looks like the dragons from BOTW doesn't he' and then the inherent majesty kind of. just. Happened.

i like the fact that he looks kind of majestic though! i think it's a good representation of siffrin's terrible body image issues in this fic where honestly he looks awesome but he just doesn't realize it because, hello negative self-worth

didn't color the last doodles of human siff at the top left. apologies. i got sleeby

in another life mirabelle rides his dragon form into battle and it is exactly as awesome as it looks like it would be

kind of shoehorned my own oc into here as well but i SWEAR aleph is so absurdly similar to this design it's actually kind of hilarious. if i had a nickel for the number of space dragon designs i've made i'd have two, which isn't a lot but

and the full page of doodles! just cause

[bestanimatedmovie]

Choose your favorite!

Vote in the other polls!

What fans say:

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron:

I was a Horse Girl TM, so I watched this movie a million times as a kid. It's honestly the best horse animation I've ever seen, all the backgrounds are gorgeous, and the soundtrack is incredible. Also the plot is anti-colonial/anti "taming of the west". Genuinely cannot pick a favorite scene, but I love the scene where Spirit commits many acts of violence against the US military <3

horsie :) I love how they use actual horse body language instead of just turning them into a dog. Also enjoy how the protags are easily understandable with just body language and neighs. Also the 2d and 3d animation blend seamless.

I cannot begin to tell you what makes this movie so good. It's a corner stone of animated media. The societal commentary. The incredible emotion of not only the story but the animation. The songs. Sound the Bugle makes me cry every time.

This movie was a key part of my childhood and “Sound the Bugle” still makes me tear up.

This is like the greatest horse movie of all time and I will not change my mind. I watched this movie so many times as a kid that both the VHS and first cd I had for it got ruined and we had to replace it with another cd LOL. I once convinced my teacher to let us watch it in class because it had a few scenes with Native Americans and we were learning about them at the time(It's about the old west and the expansion of the United States westward so it has some Native American characters but def not enough to make it a Native American film, but it does have positive representation I think?) The main character is the horse Spirit, a lead stallion for a herd of mustangs. His thoughts are narrated but he doesn't actively talk and the horse behaviors are pretty realistic, also the ART of it all, James Baxter was one of the lead animators for this film and his work is incredible, and hand done. Some of the behind the scenes stuff in the extras makes the animation look 3d its so good, and the camera work is also insane. As a horse obsessed child this movie was a staple for me, and I prefer it even over live action movies with actual horses. ALSO THE SOUNDTRACK OH MY GODDD how can I almost forget, the soundtrack for this movie goes so hard, I used to use some of the songs as hype music not even lying.

The Mitchells vs. the Machines:

It’s in its core about family, how we can drift and argue. Not because of one true fault, but because we are different. It shows how being weird and different don’t make you less of a family while not demonizing people who do have more stereotypical ‘perfect’ families. I think it portrays our humanity and the way we bond and what we do for those we love, what we sacrifice, so well. It’s so funny and so sweet.

It's funny and the family is neurodivergent and it's just really nice v good time it looks like anti technology at first but its clearly more of a criticism on capitalism I just really like that movie its pretty to look at.

It's funky!!! hang on, bullet point list time: - has such a unique and expressive animation style - has a lot of pop culture references that don't really feel overbearing - has honestly one of the best family dynamics in a movie I've seen???? - realistic characters!!! with realistic and interesting character arcs!!! - absolutely hilarious. makes me laugh every time i watch it :) - comedic villain! gotta love me one of those. also she's badass for a smartphone so - tHERE ARE FURBIES - basically it's very chaotic but also heartwarming, and it's honestly my favourite movie :D

Heartwarming story about family! Also kickass animation

Very good stylized animation. Well written and designed characters. Super funny and sooo heart warming. Fucking rad action scenes (again the animation is fantastic). The story comes together well, it's just quite well written. + Protective dad character who's not annoying as hell (that's rare!). I love every part of when they're at the dinosaur museum thing.

[queerplatonicshipshowdown]

Quarterfinals, Match 1

Balloon and Suitcase (Suitloon) from Inanimate Insanity vs. John Doe and Arthur Lester (Jarthur) from Malevolent!

Propaganda for Suitloon:

I think of them as queerplatonic, because theyre incredibly close and are pretty much each other's support systems. Balloon is Aromantic (technically canon? one of the creators said he was so im rlly hoping it is canon) so this is NOT a romantic ship. They dont have any romantic interactions, but you can spin every scene how you want. I just think they're in a QPR and are heavily supportive and understanding to each other. (Since like. half the people in the show fucking hate Balloon, and not many people seem to like to let Suitcase speak for herself)

Propaganda for Jarthur:

The inherent intimacy of having a guy (John) inside your (Arthur) head who you don't know the history or goals of but still bond over the atrocities you go through in your shared body. And sometimes he's an arsehole but you know that he wants the best for you and it's so much more than any other relationship they could have and in the end they always have eachother and I'm jealous of a sad British man and the voice in his head. They're friends and each others world and everything and I want what they have. OH DID I MENTION THAT ARTHUR IS FUCKINF BLIND AND JOHN IS HIS ONLY ACCESS TO SIGHT? IT'S BEAUTIFUL. Like John always takes such care to describe their surroundings (no seriously he starts waxing poetic). I mean yh he withholds it sometimes but every door has its issues. Anyways yh I love them and they deserve the world.

They are extremely close, both literally and figuratively. John is inside of Arthur's head, and they often fight in ways that have been referred to by the fans as 'divorce moments' but they still very clearly care about and love each other, in a way that is explicitely non-romantic. Their love is desperate and aching and they're not just friends, but they are definitely not dating, and a LOT of the fandom interprets them as queerplatonic.

Oh, the special kind of affection and friendship that can only bloom between a 1930s private detective and the eldritch entity that ends up possessing his eyes and left arm. 95% of this show is Arthur (the detective) bickering with John (the eldritch entity) like an old married couple, and falling in and out of trust with each other. Despite that they are both fiercely loyal to the other and by the point the podcast is at now they seem to trust each other implicitly - Arthur has to rely on John to guide him since John can see out of the eyes of their body and Arthur can't, but when they fall into an abandoned mine and are reunited (long story) they immediately fall back into that old, trusting rhythm. They share a body and their initial goal in the podcast is to be separated, but by the point we're at now they're not too fussed about it. They're making plans to go out to dinner and the movies. Also, Arthur is aro-coded - there's a big emotional arc that involves him accepting the fact that he never had romantic feelings for his wife, even during the birth of their child or her death, and how that doesn't make him a bad person or diminish the love he felt for that child.

They have fought gods together. Also they're positive plural representation. What is there not to love????

[bigolbrownsadeyes]

Ya know what I find interesting, (sorry, this is a long one.)

Let me start off with this: It's biphobic to assume or portray that bisexual characters sleep around more than gay or straight characters because they got "double the playing field." That they can just do whomever they want, therefore they are promiscuous, high libido, sexually driven, and are "sl*ts." (which some of you who aren't women love to throw that last word around so, check yourself.) That's something that should not be intrinsic to queer characters, the idea that they sleep around constantly.

However, within context of Buck's story, and what Oliver said he wants,

Buck has been in multiple major relationships since Buck 1.0 where he's taken it so seriously it's backfired. He has asked multiple people to move in. He rushes, and he rushes fast. The idea that Buck, as a character, having *fun* and having sex, responsible, and consensual sex, makes sense for someone who's 32 years old who has had nasty break ups and has Buck's specific history. Buck's character also has been taking it *too* seriously, at the point of rushing, and rushing. and rushing. I think we're connecting what Tommy said to Buck about how Buck still has a lot to learn and uncover, that Buck has to experience his discovery, with Oliver's statements about him wanting levity within Buck's love life to be non-committal and just have fun with people, which *is okay to do as a bisexual person.* This isn't a Buck 1.0 Reversal. (though trusting a tv show to do this in a positive light is a hard ask. its a tv show after all.)

I read this, and as a bisexual 31 year old man who also struggled with identity and rushing in my own relationships, (I know, wild that my personal life feels 1 to 1, which is why I kinda relate to Buck.) What Oliver said isn't wildly biphobic to me. It doesn't feel biphobic. I and my own friends often have had very non-serious, non-committal sexual relationships in the span of the many years as a queer man. It's some of our lives. What would be nice is not to be villainized by it. I felt like what I read was wishing for a character to not take relationships as seriously as he has been because he's constantly getting into painful break ups. Something that he is doing isn't working out for him. Remember that Oliver also mentioned he wanted Buck in more queer spaces too! He wants his character to also just experience being a bisexual character. I will though agree, Oliver was a jokey about it, and that can feel hurtful and painful. Having that level of levity feels bad when you have a queer relationship break up and also include the fact we're talking about coping mechanisms and discovery vs wanting the character to have sex. It feels hurtful for someone who is straight to be stating these things about bisexual representation. And if you feel hurt, it's valid.

I also think we can look at this as a slip up of someone who has corrected people before and defended comment sections about bisexuality/queerness and has spoken against harmful rhetoric. Disappointment is fine, some of y'all are *wishing* for a show to end or to suffer ratings when it has wlw representation and poc main characters who are vital to the show as much as your notion that the male cis gay couple is. What the fuck is up with that energy? It's insane how quick some of you have drawn daggers at Oliver already for something this quick when he'll probably learn from this, and how much y'all are putting on Lou as if he's not a grown man who I see some of you babying him as if he was betrayed.

[teacupofgooglyeyes]

ok im back for my rant about the fucking BRILLIANCE of Sir Terry Pratchett, specifically surrounding the discworld novels (because im probably a teensy bit insane but oh well who isnt nowadays)

first off, im a huge fan of the way he writes in general- so much so, in fact, that my own writing style is pretty inspired by him. its the perfect combination of sentence structuring and comedic timing and side-notes. not to mention the structuring of the novels themselves which also adds so much to the novel!!!

the comedy is always on-point (at least in my opinion, but that applies to everything i say here tbh) with short references and just ahajerirkrkfk my brain is short-circuiting but i fucking love pratchett humour its something unique and wonderful and oh so incredible. an example to possibly aid my word vomit- the use of footnotes to provide a comedic position on whatever its referencing whilst also providing context and worldbuilding is fucking genius and makes me laugh every single goddamn time.

on that note, the world-building is insane. the discworld novels are a collection of novels concerning a world that is flat and circular atop four giant elephants atop an even bigger space turtle called the great a’tuin. theres vampires, dwarfs, trolls, werewolves, gnomes, witches, wizards, warlocks, gods of almost absolutely everything under the sun, and all of them have bucketloads of history and personal culture. theres huge goddamn cities, rivers, towns- you name it, its probably been covered in the incredible worldbuilding. and yet its built in such a way that you could probably pick up any book in the series and read it with little to no context and still understand and enjoy the novel itself.

heres something i personally have the most admiration for: the casual inclusion of subtle lgbtq+ representation that just lights up my heart to no end. my favourite example is the dwarves. dwarves in discworld had little concept of gender in the traditional sense, all had beards and kind of just existed as a whole. when they started to move out of the mines and caves they lived in and into the big city of ank-morpork they gradually began exploring these concepts of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ and some dwarves realised that maybe they themselves wanted to be women too. most kept their beards and some changed how they dressed/presented to be more feminine but not all. of course there were some older dwarves who were dead set against this whole gender thing but overall its pretty accepted in the universe and there’s even a female dwarf as one of the main characters of the discworld subplots

anyways yeah i fucking love terry pratchett and everything hes done for this world thank you and goodnight

[knackeredforever]

So this is it the end. I won’t be able to watch WAD live as I live in the uk I know there are ways to watch it live outside of the Disney channel but I’d have to stay up to 1 am and I don’t want to watch the finale while tired. So I’ll have to watch it tomorrow instead on YouTube.

I’m so not ready I don’t want the show to end no one does it wasn’t supposed to finish this early and the shows incredible enough to deserve double the seasons it’s gotten. The characters are amazing ,the story and lore are brilliant ,the action and animation is breathtaking the representation is the best in any piece of media I’ve ever seen. The owl house is not just the best animated show in years it is in my opinion the best animated show of the decade although considering we are only 3 years into this decade there’s a chance it could get supplanted from that position in the future but for now I absolutely consider the owl house to be the best show of the decade.

It’s funny how I originally got into the owl house because of its similarities to gravity falls as well as being made by most of the same people. Due to my nostalgia for GF I would never have imagined that through me watching the episodes of this show over the years I would genuinely start to prefer TOH over GF I relate to TOH’s characters more. TOH’s art style is more beautiful than GF especially the fight scenes which GF doesn’t really have to the extent TOH has. While bill cipher is still one of my favourite villains of all time and absolutely the funniest and most chaotic. Belos is so insanely evil and a complete bastard while at the same time completely in the belief that he’s the good guy. While I can’t say I prefer one villain over the other as they are so different the both of them are easily the best villains of all time (and no I don’t just mean just animated villains, best villains of all time period.) while both being really funny I still think GF is funnier overall but TOH is still really funny and plus even not being as funny it makes up for it with how dark, dramatic and emotional it is going to places even GF wouldn’t go.

TOH is a show that is not just a masterpiece but a show that helped me realise things about myself and I’m sure helped many other people realise things about themselves too it’s beautiful, it’s terrifying ,it’s full of hope and full of despair. I love it and it inspires me in my own work. It is a show that like GF before it I will rewatch and will keep recommending it to people for years to come

I’ll be watching this show forever and dreaming for more content from this universe.

Goodbye owl house I’m really gonna fucking miss you.

[ovidiomedes]

Anyways, onto better topics, would you like to talk about Naehiro and/or Naegami? Because I’d like to hear you talk about either of those, if you’re willing.

naehiro is the representation of how much makotos relationships matter to him. by all means he doesn't interact w chihiro that much before she dies, but it still mattered to him. her death is devastating to him, and it's a sentiment that continues w alter ego

im fucking BANANAS over makoto and alter egos relationship. its so insane bc its that positivity and joy to help its friends that alter ego showcases that motivates makoto to keep going.

alter ego and makoto make each other better people. alter ego sees how much makoto is fighting and it makes it want to fight too! in its final moments where alter ego is about to be crushed by monokuma. it smiles. bc they did everything they could to help their friends.

a mission that doesn't even end there

[featherymainffins]

Succession was honestly so insane in the best way possible for everything. Like. It would have been far easier to just make this a drama comedy about the elite and how divorced they are from the struggles of the average man and how inhumanly they talk and behave. It would have been entertaining on its own.

But this aspect is also "enriched" by the four siblings also being victims of abuse. And this doesn't take away from the previous paragraph at all, which is a fucking miracle, because a worse show would use it as an excuse for everything. But these aspects are, while not divorced, not shown as going hand in hand. They're all privileged people whose business does terrible things and they're also victims of abuse and don't deserve that, because nobody does.

Plus the abuse is portrayed VERY very realistically, both when it comes to Logan's (the abusive father's) behaviour and the way his children react to it. All of them seem to be incapable of deciding if they hate him or not. The only one who is just resigned is Connor (the oldest), because it's been clear to him for some time that he might as well not exist in his father's eyes.

There's also whatever the living fuck literally everything about Tom and Greg was. Like. Well. That did happen. Greg was also a nice commentary on how people who start out as average people can become parasites who prey upon their fellow men because they see their opportunity to climb up and they stop caring if it kills everyone below them. But there was also everything else. And I do mean that positively I just have literally no fucking idea how to describe whatever the hell that was.

Oh also canonical BPD representation AND it's one of the main characters. You don't see that every day considering most BPD rep is just heavy subtext. Which is not a bad thing, many BPD characters live in worlds where a diagnosis wouldn't even exist, but many a time even word of god tends to beat around the bush, which sucks. I love how they just fucking dropped it in the middle of a conversation here. Like yeah yeah Roman has BPD we've all seen it, time to move on.

Oh also the cinematography fucked. Genius to use water as a purely negative element and a symbol of doom and death. Water is usually used in a positive way and a symbol of life and nurture. To use it as nothing but ruin is pretty sexy ngl.

[evilwickedme]

Hi there I would like to say I’m interested in the deadpool homophobia rant

hi there! many thanks to you

so the "deadpool homophobia rant" is... a little complicated. I'll try to keep it short because God knows I talk about Wade too much as it is on this hellsite. the point, before we go into literally any detail, is that the writing surrounding deadpool's sexuality is deeply problematic, both in its representation and its consequences in-narrative to him as a person, but I'll try to just focus on the facts.

we all know that deadpool is omni/pan, right? wrong. well, not wrong. just not... quite as solidly canon as we'd like. this is the only reference the actual word gets in canon:

this is from the posehn & duggan 2012 run (my beloved), although don't ask me to hunt down the specific issue, please, that sounds like a nightmare. suffice it to say that it's from the letter section at the end of one of the issues and that it's the only time I can find the actual word referenced anywhere with regards to our boy. you may remember that it was confirmed at some point - yeah, in a since deleted tweet. despite being attracted to anything from aliens to death herself, wade is not allowed to go past plausible deniability when it comes to heterosexuality.

that doesn't mean that wade doesn't express attraction to men, because he does, and often.

(from deadpool team up #887)

(from an early issue of spider-man/deadpool. 2, I think. maybe 3)

(from the daniel way 2008 run, again, don't make me dig up an issue please, but it's the one where he teams up with spider-man to defeat hit-monkey)

(there's also a few panels floating around online where he expresses attraction to cable but I don't have those saved on my laptop. I remember seeing one where wade fantasizes about rubbing sun screen on cable's back? but again, do not have those saved.)

anyway, the point is, wade absolutely gets to express attraction to men, and constantly. but only at his own expense. only when the joke will land. only when he gets to immediately say "no homo". only because he's already quirky and weird and insane, so of course he's also attracted to men, he's not all there, after all.

I'll try not to let this cross over to a connected but wholly separate rant about the ableism in his writing, but it's all connected, at the end of the day.

and it would be one thing if deadpool wasn't a relationship guy. but, although he's absolutely terrible at it, deadpool makes stab after stab at monogamy - always with women. he's a sleezeball, really. constantly asking women out, super and non-super, whether they're in any way interested or not. posehn & duggan pull back from this a little, and instead have him get married to shiklah, in a special issue dedicated to "every time deadpool has gotten married" (or at least thought he did). they got a bunch of previous deadpool writers and artists to contribue to the issue. somehow every single marriage was to a woman, even if she was literally an alien. bc deadpool's attraction to a woman is a tragedy, but at least it's a story; wade's attraction to a man is a joke. his one "relationship" with a man is with madcap, who abuses him from inside his head. they call it "falling in love":

(from deadpool annual #1, from uh... 2013? 2014?)

... but madcap's nothing but horrifically abusive towards wade when they're "together" (as in fused together with madcap playing the role of "white box") and the first arc in the 2015 duggan run is madcap deliberately fucking up deadpool's life because he won't take him back. not exactly a positive canon relationship. shiklah treats wade better.

deadpool also likes to dress in a typical feminine or gay coded fashion, and it's constantly questioned or made fun of by the people around him:

(from the deadpool musical issue)

(I actually had to google this one, I don't know where it's from for sure but it's pre-2012 (cause... boxes) and I'm pretty sure it's from cable & deadpool. no idea beyond that what issue or anything)

we see a constant, then, of deadpool expressing attraction to men and his gnc presentation, and yet the narrative never respects him for it. it plays it for laughs, plays the plausible deniability card, and despite wade himself seemingly being comfortable with his sexuality it is never presented as a good thing or even a neutral thing. deadpool's sexuality shines through despite what seems to be the writers actively fighting against it. and it doesn't have to be this way. nobody made them write him as pan in the first place, although, yes, I'd be sad if he wasn't, and more importantly, nobody made anyone write his pansexuality like this. it's in the movies too, to a lesser extent. it's frustrating and exhausting and it's deeply homophobic.

I love wade. he deserves better.

[surgepricing]

So I've been engaging with a show mostly through my gay friend who watches it religiously and is hardcore into shipping the characters in it but I finally decided to watch it recently.

It's 911 on ABC, formerly FOX, where it had been broadcast for six seasons. My bro was always thrilled to update me on the episodes and what new gay-ish delights they brought with them--two of the firefighters are basically intertwined at the waist, trust each other above all else, have risked their lives for each other and were devastated when the other was in danger, and uh...also basically raise a kid together.

I was very happy to sit on the sidelines mostly because I could see some bad warning signals approaching, that being the burgeoning of an un-canonized relationship that was starting to become a Big Red Button ship. The show had legitimate gay characters, yes, but these two specifically were very, very popular. Familiar with the Destiel craze and the Bumblebee collapse as I was, I didn't see this going in a good direction--the nods from the actors, the talks about gay representation, etc., there was even a spin-off show called 911: Lone Star that featured gay relationships in much more prominence (played by Rafael Silva and Ronen Rubinstein, for those interested) that felt very much like placation or distraction from certain angles.

Then the show moved to ABC, started its seventh season, and holy shit the bisexuality--

Main characters Buck (Oliver Stark) and Eddie (Ryan Guzman) meet a really, really hot, really cool, and really GAY helicopter pilot named Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr) who's been alluded to or mentioned but never shown, and Eddie and Tommy hit it off really well. Buck gets jealous and makes an ass of himself, and there's tension because naturally everyone assumes he's jealous of Tommy getting Eddie's attention but no--it was the other way around. He saw Tommy, got the mother of all crushes, and was down BAD bad, and when Buck tries to apologize for doing way too much to get his attention, Tommy gives him the Kiss Heard Round The World and asks him out, and this is all in EPISODE 4.

Over the rest of the season, Buck goes on a date with Tommy, accidentally fucks it up and they make up later, he comes out to his sister and to Eddie (who're both very supportive), and then he asks Tommy to be his date to his sister's wedding. They are sexually active. There's a joke about Buck having a daddy kink. Their relationship is positive and mutually attracted.

And I was so freaking shocked because just from what I was absorbing, I thought for sure this was just a bunch of gaybait for the first 6 seasons--and my actually invested gay friend the Buddie Diehard believed that, too. It's not hard to spot in the 2020s when gay audiences are being baited. I thought for sure the Buddie stuff was going to get mild acknowledgement until the show stopped airing and nothing more. Turns out the concept of Bi Buck had been in rotation since Season 2, and the sheer force and fast pace with which Bisexual Buck suddenly happened suggests Fox was holding them back a lot.

The great gay joy of it all is only marred by the fact that we now know what a Big Red Button ship causes when the button is actually pushed: Buddie fans have been absolutely fucking awful towards Tommy, his actor, the onscreen relationship, and anything related to it.

It's everything I always said would happen if this had occurred with Dean Winchester or Blake Belladonna: the rabid shippers go berserk and reveal their true colors. It was never about gay representation or gayness at all, but getting their way and the ship they wanted (and endlessly fetishized).

The homophobia is insane. The bad takes are insane. The furious and willful misrepresentation is insane. You'll never meet fans so openly pissed about a gay ship while pretending they love gay people as the Buddie fans who had to watch Tommy Kinard have the nerve to kiss Evan Buckley.

It's crazy, because there's plenty of BuckTommy shippers that enjoy and ship Buddie, but it marks a clean divide with Buddie shippers who've decided Tommy is evil trash.

And I feel so sorry for Lou Ferrigno Jr and Oliver Stark, who are putting on a great performance and seem really happy to be playing these MLM characters in a positive and healthy relationship.

Hey gang, been a minute.

Anyone remember that first post I made here? Who wants to talk about big red button ships, because I do.

[hugh-lauries-bald-spot]

🔥 whatever topic you're looking to opine on

Unpopular Opinion

I Despise Star Trek AOS

let me preface this by saying that its completely valid to like this series and that i respect the people who do, i respect those who love the characters, who love the cast, who love the pairings, these are just the critiques i have for it and that most of them are fuelled by loyalty to the original series, so if you havent seen that it makes perfect sense to enjoy the new series, its shiny and full of hot people who wouldnt

I WILL elaborate

#1 - little to no body positivity, everyone turns into a slimmer or more toned version of themselves, they dont embrace being stockier, shorter or chubbier at ALL

nichelle nichols is a beautiful woman, but she also isnt the "perfect standard for female beauty", she's shorter, she has thicker thighs and some curves, whereas zoe saldana, also beautiful, is pretty much the EXACT female body standard, shes tall and quite slender, and so it feels like something of a step back for good body representation

now i know that thisll get hate, so ill show that its really not just uhura's casting that demonstrates this

stocky-> slender

stocky -> slender and toned

#2 - Uhura as a whole, i feel like they fucked up BIG TIME on her character, she goes from a super badass "99% of the crews efficiency" independent woman to spocks pining girlfriend, and thats basically her whole character (she has her moments, but most of them revolve around spock in some way) even a google search brings up a lot of spock/uhura stuff, shes just overall a pretty weak character without him which is a DRASTIC change from barely interacting with him

#3 - Casting Khan

need i say more?

#4 - chekov, they didnt even TRY to make them the same character, they just went "ehh theyre both russian, same thing" the resemblance stops there, in the original series, chekov is pretty grouchy and sarcastic, "oh ill live, but i wont enjoy it", whereas aos chekov, who is admittedly Baby, isnt even a little bit like his predecessor, hes bubbly, energetic, eager to help out and caring

#5 - spock, in the original series, spock is the voice of reason, hes calm, rational except for the occasional outburst of still relatively calm emotions, such as during pon farr, in aos, he just snaps into an angry and violent mess very quickly, going so far as to injure someone (which i highly doubt the original spock would do unless said person posed a real threat to the enterprise and it's crew, and when he does encounter a menace, he usually nerve pinches them, a faily painless way to knock someone unconscious, he doesnt just start strangling people) also i do know that jim was being a huge asshole, but he was still way out of line for his character

#6 - kirk, look at how theyve massacred my boy, my sweet jim was a tender and sensitive man in the original series, he was full of love and he was a nerd, he spent his academy years reading (and maybe horseback riding), hes super empathetic, caring, and the polar opposite of self-centered, whereas aos kirk is just a sleazy guy who seems mostly interested in sex and will just borderline harass people in bars (or full harass), which is pretty egregious compared to my hopeless romantic TOS kirk, whom i love, hes kind of a jerk, he insults spock's grieving process about his deceased mother right after his entire planet has been destroyed!! which is an insane thing for him to do!!! and super unbecoming of the original, compassionate kirk, who insulted spock like once in total. overall bad characterization

#7 - what in the fucking hell is this

now you might be saying "but mac, its cause they didnt have the tech back then to make it shiny and futuristic" which, hey, is true, but at least it looks fucking livable, it looks cosy and habitable for a supposed "5 year mission", could you live in the veritable "kardashian-west mansion" hell that is the aos entreprise? its so reflective, its too artificial. calm your tits jj, we get it, its the future. if they had blended the feel of the original and the clean cuttedness of the new series, maybe kept just some of the original palette, it couldve had a really cool look to in in my opinion

#8 - the bond between jim and spock,  shipping aside, the mental gymnastics of saying that they have a weak bond is fucking insane. brothers, lovers, besties, soulmates whatever the fuck you wanna call em, theres a strong connection and 100% a love of some kind. that didnt translate like at all into the movies, they were friends, yes, but like they seemed like the kind of friends who text like once every 2 weeks, there wasnt the same closeness and trust that they have in the original series. there is that scene in (i believe it was) the third movie when jim is stuck behind the glass and slowly dying, ans spock just screams his heart out. while thats a poignant scene, it seems... a bit fake... since they did very little over the course of the three movies to build an actual valid bond since they were so focused on erasing even the notion that they were more than friends, they barely let them be friends at all.

 anyways, thats all for now, if you have any questions or youd like me to elaborate on something, feel free to ask or message me

[themadamespod]

The Great White Gripe

A lot has been said about the “social commentary” within The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. 

“Since when is Marvel a bunch of SJWs? I don’t need this shit.”

“All this race stuff feels SUPER forced.”

“Oh here we go Marvel tryin to be all woke to get the libs on board.”

If you personally know anyone who spews this brand of ignorance, we’re sorry. 

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear: there is no social commentary on TFATWS. Showrunner Malcolm Spellman and director Kari Skogland simply show the reality of life in America. It’s not their fault that so many (white) people (men) don’t like looking in the mirror.

And some people claim they have no problem with film and television addressing politics and social change.

“Just keep it out of my comic book movies. It doesn’t belong there.”

They could not be anymore wrong, even if Chandler Bing himself was lecturing them. 

If you asked 100 people to name the top ten movies of all time, you’d get 100 different lists. But one thing we can all agree on is that film has power. It has the power to move us, to divide us, to unite us. Entertainment can lead to the kind of discourse that prompts action and positive change.

And that’s why The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and the conversations it’s sparking are so important.

One World, One Reality

“Marvel has always been and always will be a reflection of the world right outside our window.” - Stan Lee

There are two takeaways from that statement:

One: Stan Lee didn’t say that in the 1960s, 1970s, or even the 1980s. He said it in 2017.

Two: Our window, not your window, is a subtle but important distinction, particularly as it relates to TFATWS. The Flag Smashers, led by Karli Morgenthau, live by a simple creed: “One world, One people.” The core message of the show is that white Americans and Black Americans experience the world very differently, but there’s still only one world, one reality. 

It’s just a matter of people opening their eyes and seeing it.

TFATWS is an extension of Marvel’s early support of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1963, Stan Lee created the X-Men as an allegory for the ongoing struggles of the African-American community. Though he didn’t explicitly base Professor X and Magneto on Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, there are ideological similarities.

Five years later, following the assassinations of Dr. King and Robert Kennedy, Stan wrote the following:

“Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today. It’s totally irrational, patently insane to condemn an entire race—to despise an entire nation—to vilify an entire religion. Sooner or later, we must learn to judge each other on our own merits. Sooner or later, if a man is ever to be worthy of his destiny, we must fill our hearts with tolerance.”

In 2021, Stan’s words still resonate. Racism in the United States is as virulent and damaging as it’s ever been. Black Americans are facing deadly policing, Jim Crow 2.0 voting laws, mass incarceration, and countless other roadblocks to mobility that most white people have never encountered.

Through the journeys of Sam and Sarah Wilson, Lemar Hoskins, and the heartbreaking Isaiah Bradley, TFATWS shows the unvarnished truth of what Ira Glass might call Black American Life. And through John Walker, the writers nail home the message that’s really making certain people squirm:

White men are the greatest threat not just to Black Americans, but all Americans, because TFATWS is as much an indictment of toxic masculinity as it is of bigotry. 

As aggressive racism has spread like wildfire since 2016, so has hostile sexism towards women of all colors. John Walker is the embodiment of the hyper aggression that the Proud Boys applaud. The clearest example of this comes when Walker dares to clap the shoulder of Ayo, one of Wakanda’s Dora Milaje.

Her swift and, ahem, pointed response had women the world over screaming like they’d just won the lottery. 

One could also argue that Walker’s dogged pursuit of Karli and displaced peoples supporting the Flag Smasher cause mirrors the Trump administration’s war on immigrants. 

There are plenty of parallels to draw. The point is, none of them are forced or manufactured or exaggerated. And whether we’re talking about a fictional road in Latvia or a real street in Minnesota, white Americans need to stop avoiding conversations that make them uncomfortable.

The Politics of Comics 

In 1938, Americans were still reeling from the Great Depression. Enter Superman, the everyman hero, who made his comic debut while the nation was facing widespread unemployment, rampant poverty, and blatant corruption at every level of government.

Superman could have faced off against any number of supernatural villains. But Siegel and Shuster went a different route, setting a precedent for comic books that has prevailed to this day:

They got political. 

Throughout Superman’s earliest adventures, he fought against evil politicians, apathetic bureaucrats, aggressive police officers, greedy businessmen, and even a Washington lobbyist. 

Then in 1941, Joe Simon & Jack Kirby introduced Captain America just in time to fight the nazis and free the world from fascism. A couple decades later, Kirby and Stan Lee would tell the tale of the aforementioned Erik Lehnsherr, who survived the horrors of Auschwitz. These comics endured because their passion and nuance transcended entertainment. So what was the secret sauce?

Like Siegel and Shuster, Simon, Kirby, and Stan Lee were Jewish. Representation matters, folks. 

Later on, the X-Men weren’t the only conduit through which Marvel supported Civil Rights. In 1966, on the heels of the “March Against Fear” from Memphis, TN to Jackson, MS, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby unveiled Black Panther. When African-Americans were fighting harder than ever, Black children could suddenly read a comic book about T’Challa, the noble warrior king of a highly advanced African nation. 

Marvel has never been shy about critiquing foreign policy either. Tony Stark and Iron Man debuted in 1968 as the conflict in Vietnam was escalating. And let’s not forget, Tony made his MCU debut in a film that is a clear indictment of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We could do this all day, but you get the idea. 

Comic books have always reflected the politics of our times, and so has the MCU. Fanboys can’t start crying now just because they’re on the wrong side of history. And when they do, we defer to the great Jon Bernthal when asked about alt-righters appropriating the Punisher symbol:

“Fuck them.”

Life Imitates Art

In 1986, American men felt the need for speed. After Top Gun was released, applications to U.S. aviation forces increased by a staggering 500%. 

Two years later, Errol Morris exposed police corruption in his film The Thin Blue Line. The documentary prompted a new investigation that eventually exonerated death row inmate Randall Adams for the murder of a police officer.

That same year, the Polish government ceased all executions after leaders were swayed to do so by A Short Film about Killing.

Following the release of Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine in 1999, Kmart bowed to public pressure and stopped selling handgun ammunition. 

And 5 years ago, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif changed the law on honor killings in response to the critically-acclaimed film A Girl in the River. 

Like we said earlier, film has the power to spur social change. Even if the effects aren’t always so direct and immediate, television and movies have always contributed to the process in America. 

Seeing the Ricardos sharing a bed allowed some Americans to start relaxing their prudish ways. 

The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Maude empowered women as they fought for reproductive rights.

The Jeffersons and Good Times facilitated calmer discussions about race relations.

And The Ellen Show led to greater representation of queer people on screen and greater acceptance of queer people in society. Though Ellen herself has become a problematic figure in the last year, that legacy still remains.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is hardly the first show of its kind. And given the impact film has on society, we believe Hollywood has a moral obligation to produce content that exposes society’s ills and fosters productive debate. 

Stan Lee would be very proud of the team behind TFATWS for bringing the stark reality of American life into people’s living rooms. The next time you see someone bitching about it, remind them what Stan himself said just a few years ago: 

“Those stories have room for everyone, regardless of their race, gender, religion, or color of their skin. The only things we don't have room for are hatred, intolerance, and bigotry.”

[aemiron-main]

AAAAAAAAAAGHHH I WAS JUST THINKING THE SAME THING HOLY SHIT AGFHFHFHHHF ITS SO FUCKED UP BUT IT TRACKS. IT TRACKS. UNFORTUNATELY.  AND YES IT WOULD EXPLAIN IT. and wait okokok wasnt petey mchew at a summer camp. wait. WAIT THIS COULD TIE INTO THE TOMMY PARALLELS WAIT A FUCKING SECOND I WASNT SURE HOW SOMETHING FIT IN. OKOKOK WAIT. OK, BEAR WITH ME.  so. in tommy, tommy’s father was an allied soldier/pilot who was presumed dead but then came back home and found his wife (tommy’s mom) cheating on him. and then frank, tommy’s eventual stepdad, kills captain walker/tommy’s bio father. i wasnt sure how this fit in because henry and tommy parallel eachother to an INSANE extent right down to exact scenes and phrases, but. if. hypothetically, peter was the one killed instead of captain walker....... killed by victor or virginia perhaps.... or his own parents... and henry keeps people in his mind so what if he somehow kept PETER in his mind (which would explain him taking on the alias of peter because technically him and peter are like. one now)  and what if that’s what activated henry’s powers? what if peter’s death activated henry’s powers just like captain walker’s death activated tommy’s powers/tommy was mute and blind and death from that day on until later in the movie. or what if peter killed HIMSELF (mike parallel) because he was afraid of victor/didn’t want henry to be in danger, so henry’s powers were activated and peter was technically his first victim/in his mind because HENRY FELT LIKE HE KILLED PETER/THAT IT WAS HIS FAULT THAT PETER DIED EVEN IF PETER KILLED HIMSELF/WAS KILLED BY SOMEONE ELSE. AND WHAT IF THATS PART OF WHY HENRY PREYS ON SUICIDAL PEOPLE SO MUCH.  and ok the summer camp? how does that tie in? well, tommy’s mother (and tommy) met frank for the first time at bernie’s holiday camp, and i wonder if they changed this a bit in ST and henry met peter at some sort of summer camp? and throughout the movie, bernie’s holiday camp becomes a representation of some weird imagery with tommy & becomes ‘tommy’s holiday camp’ and represents tommy repeating the cycle of abuse and how he’s abusing people the way that he’s been abused (ie, he gets rid of the name ‘bernie’s’ but he keeps uncle ERNIE as a face for the camp despite ernie having abused tommy & now ernie is in a position to abuse other people). and we see how henry perpetuates the cycle of abuse. and just like bernie’s was where the abuse started for tommy/where his mom met frank & then is the vehicle for which he goes on to abuse other people, peter (who is associated with the summer camp and therefore bernie’s) is the reason why abuse started towards henry/his family suspected he was gay/is the reason henry goes on to perpetuate the abuse. like where or not henry or peter ever went to an Actual summer camp, the summer camp is just meant to represent repeating the cycle of abuse in this example.  like this is all half coherent but i gotta sit down and think on this because. hm. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. it would. fill in a lot of gaps with my tommy parallels. 

and ok. WAIWIWIWIIWIWIAIWIAIIWAIT owens’ son. being peter. peter’s projects. is owens’ son. The peter? the possibly dead peter? ruth, nevada, isnt that where owens lives (it is i just checked). and robin or nancy’s fake name at pennhurst is ruth..... connecting where the owens live to the creels.............. and my math could be off but victor seems to have been born in 1919. and that would make him 67 in 1986. and how old is owens?  we dont know. is henry’s peter owens’ son??? owens seems younger than victor but how Much younger?? and maybe peter wasnt a son at all?? maybe he was a younger brother of owens’??? do they ever say that he was owens’ son or just that he had projects there?? much to think about.  

We know Henry is gay for his queercoding. What if Peter (Owens' son) was the boy he fell in love with when he was younger?

OH???? i don’t know if there’s anything to support that theory but the thought that henry might’ve had a boy he crushed on once just beat me over the head with a brick. i mean Maybe. Im thinking about it now and with the conversion therapy allusions there’s have to be a reason to suspect right

maybe it’s not peter but like. God man. AND IF WE GET ANOTHER GLIMPSE AT HENRY’S PAST AND HE HAD A FRIEND WHO IS SUSPICIOUSLY SIMILAR TO MIKE? AND THE CREELS MOVED TO GET HENRY AWAY FROM HIM? i’d actually kill myself im so serious