#i guess it was some of the first explicitly gay media

[dadbastiandisaster]

What is it about Black Butler that sticks with you so much? Like, I read all of death note about the same time as I watched Black Butler for the first time, and much as I have boundless love for the series it just didn’t alter my brain chemistry on the same level as Black Butler did. I have a another friend who has broadly moved on from a lot of her old fandoms but is still in the kuro fandom. What is it about kuro?

[crowleysgirl56]

Ok, so I wanted to do a deeper dive into this particular passage of Good Omens:

For context, this is at the climax of the book, they’re at Tadfield airbase, the horsemen have been dispensed with, Aziraphale has his body back, and Satan is about to claw his way out of the pit.

In most of the proceeding chapters involving Crowley it talks a lot about how scared Crowley is. He is very scared of Hell.

One could perhaps say maybe he is scared of them due to The Arrangement, but that is never explicitly stated. I think it has more to do with Hell is bad, and Crowley has spent the majority of the book being yelled at by some entity through the radio or TV telling him how he’s going to be in super amounts of trouble when they get their hands on him. He is just scared of what will happen. When he comes across the book shop burning he doesn’t cry for his lost friend. He curses Aziraphale, and I think it’s because the one person who may have been able to keep him safe and protected from Hell is now gone.

So when he thinks to himself (as shown in the above screen shot) that there is now nothing left for him to lose, this is why I never thought (upon reading the book the first time that is) there were any romantic feelings between him and Aziraphale. I know that technically he had already lost Aziraphale. But by this point he was back again, and back in his body. If there truly were romantic thoughts between them surely the idea of losing him again would come up.

I have read so much fanfiction, some old, some new, and what they all have in common is the detailed inner monologue of Crowley’s turmoil over his feelings for Aziraphale and how he doesn’t feel like he can act on them. In the book we get nothing of the sort, from either character. Even when they’re separated there is hardly ever any description of them thinking of the other except occasionally to frame a short reference to something. Reading the book I never got the impression that there was anything more than two ethereal beings spending time and proximity to each other and doing work for each other for no other reason than they’re essentially a bit lazy.

I think they’re only queer coded for the fact that there’s the line about Aziraphale appearing “gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitric oxide”, and Crowley is, well, very Freddie Mercury coded. Them being seen as gay together and all the gay slurs in the awful racist scenes of Aziraphale body hopping about in culturally indigenous people after the bookshop fire has more to do with the very typical 80’s/90’s trope of “being gay = comedy gold”, than them actually being together romantically.

I think the reason why they were shipped so much after the publication however is for the same reason we ship so many male couples (or female couple) in modern media, why we’ve always shipped them: because of the complete and horrid lack there of, of proper queer representation.

If you’ve ever seen the magnificent Russel T Davies TV series It’s a Sin, there is a wonderful scene where the character Ash starts a job in a school library and the headmaster asks him to go through all the books and find any book that has queer love scenes so they can be removed. Ash then gives a most beautiful and impassioned speech (albeit it turns out the speech is just in his head) of how there is nothing. Absolutely nothing. There is nothing to the point where they are nonexistent. They are invisible. They are not seen. (Or like, something to that effect. I tell you though, it’s bloody brilliant).

So I think that’s rather the point really. You have two iconic characters, albeit supporting bit characters practically, and I think a lot of our minds automatically get drawn to wanting to put them together because of the sheer lack of queer couples. People have been doing it for years from Frodo and Sam, to Harry Potter and Draco (or Ron I guess), to Sherlock and Watson (even before the Benedict Cumberbatch show. Also as an aside let’s not get into how obsessed people got about Sherlock Holmes back in the day when those books were first published. The obsession was the reason Doyle killed the character off the in first place, then after getting letters from people telling him they were literally going to kill themselves, the reasons why he resurrected him again. Don’t tell us that modern day nerds are weird and obsessive. We’ve ALWAYS been like this).

It’s for this reason why queer representation is so god damn important. Why I still support the idea of Good Omens season 3. Because regardless of how the characters were originally intending to be represented in the book, it’s very clear now that they are so much more than “Just friends”. And we NEED that! Whether you subscribe to the idea that they will be physically intimate with each other, the fact remains is they love each other. They love each other immensely. And that comes from years of Terry Pratchett (and the other guy) accepting that canon and telling fans that it’s true. Because Michael Sheen made a choice and held a belief about how he saw his character and then David Tennant followed suit. That literally tens of thousands of fanfiction writers have decided the same.

So that’s my take. I don’t think loving each other was ever intended that way in the book, but in the last 35 years their story has morphed into the ineffable husbands that we now know.

What are your thoughts? Have I rambled on long enough to make any sense? Do you agree? Have I missed something completely obvious and gotten it all wrong? Keen to hear thoughts.

[stillness-in-green]

What do you think about Horikoshi ending the manga without a canon couple? Do you ship or used to ship MHA characters? Did you see romantic potential? Do you think Horikoshi might confirm a couple later?

No canon couple?  Au contraire, my dear anon!  The manga ended with the most important canonization of all!

(Everybody give a huge hand to The Only Hets Who Matter, Gentle and La Brava; they deserve it.)

As to the ships people actually care about or were expecting some word on (e.g. the stuff with the students), my reaction there is overwhelmingly “lol gj hori”.  I’m glad he ended it with no canon student couple to speak of!  While I do sympathize with the position of certain people on Twitter who contend that Ochaco’s arc about repression really needed her to actually confess to Deku, I hated what her crush on Deku did to her arc anyway, so I don’t have it in me to be too annoyed.  Anyway, I don’t think it’s possible to do the Iron Might 2.0 part of the epilogue if Deku and Ochaco[1] have been dating the entire time, so I’m perfectly happy to run with the headcanon that she did confess at one point and it didn’t work out for whatever reason, so by the time the last chapter rolls around, they’ve just been friends for years.

1: Or Bakugou, for that matter, but with all due respect to the BakuDekus who haven’t been seeing Shonen Jump battle manga come and go for twenty years with nary a confirmed gay MC amongst them, that was never in the cards.

I remember posting once ages ago about a Japanese fan’s hope that Horikoshi, who the fan perceived as being at least somewhat progressive about women, could manage to end the series without a bunch of timeskip romances showing up at the last minute.  While I have some deep reservations about Hori’s progressive cred at this point in time, and am not tremendously impressed with his writing of women, either, credit where credit is due: he did end the series without any timeskip romances.

As to there being any confirmation of couples in the material we have remaining, I imagine the last train station[2] for that is going to be the final volume release in December, as, on top of the usual volume extras, Horikoshi should be considerably more free to include expansions that his schedule and exhaustion kept him from in the weekly publication.  I could even see a bonus chapter of some sort, maybe something post-epilogue so we can see the power suit in action or something silly and fourth wall-breaking to celebrate the series conclusion.  There’s also going to be one last fanbook released in January, which I have been assuming will be a data book like Ultra Archive.

2: Or harbor, I suppose, since we’re talking about ships.

Now, do I think any of that stuff will confirm ships?  Eh, that’s not really in my analytical wheelhouse.  The farthest I’d venture to guess is that I would a) not be surprised to get some clarification on Deku and Ochaco, and b) definitely peg the volume release to have material like that over squirreling it away in the fanbook.

For myself, my shipping habits are somewhat erratic—it’s not really where my primary engagement in media lies, and certainly not for this series!  But that’s not to say I don’t have ships, or that I’m not happy to talk about them, so if you’re curious about that, do feel free to hit the jump.  I’ll order them by general sphere first, then by how passionate I am about them compared to ones I just think are kinda cute or funny for whatever reason.

DISCLAIMER: While I have not explicitly stated as much here before, I am a 40-year-old asexual proshipper, proshipper here meaning I'm in favor of curating your own fandom space and not harassing people about their fictional ships under any circumstances.  When I say I ship something, that does not mean I’m idealizing the relationship, want it to be canon, think it would be cool in real life, or am mentally putting myself in the place of one the characters.  It’s solely because there’s something in the dynamic I think is fun or interesting, and “interesting” can very much include the same kind of interest one might have in watching a building get demolished. 

That is to say, there are a handful of Too Problematic For Tumblr ships in here—one age gap but otherwise wholesome, one age gap and tacitly abusive, and one that really hits the Tumblr Trifecta by being age gap, abusive and incestuous. I've put all three at the very bottom in their own section in descending order of Most BadWrong, but if you’re one of those people deep into The Discourse about how ships need to be Morally Correct otherwise the shippers are terrible people who should kys, this is not the post for you.  The block button’s there if you need it—and be advised that it’s there if I need it, too, and I’m not afraid to use it. (I grew up in dark fantasy shoujo fandoms; I am not litigating my ships with anybody.)

~~~Stillness’s Dubious and Delightful BNHA Ship Opinions~~~

Villain-o-rama-rama:

Spinarakiya, ShigaRD, Spinaraki: Alas for my short-lived OT3!  I was really, really pumped for this in the stretch between MVA and the early stages of the first war, what with there being such interesting possible angles between all three parties, only for Re-Destro to get arrested and never seen in person again, Spinner to get snatched up by Gigantomachia and never look back, and Shigaraki to get lost to the possession plot for, at least as far as scenes with his allies were concerned, basically the rest of the series.

Not exactly great material for my shipping heart, though I’ll refrain from the rant comparing how long the PLF members were living in close contact with each other compared to the League of Villains and why that should have meant they developed stronger relationships than what we got.

But canon being what it is, I do still ship the hell out of these three in a canon divergence situation, or any number of potential AUs.  I love the connective tissue there, with Re-Destro + Shigaraki having some startlingly strong background parallels and lasting injuries courtesy of each other, Shigaraki + Spinner having the gaming and the emptiness themes, and Spinner + Re-Destro having their Big Gay Feelings About Shigaraki as well as an appreciation for patterned fabrics some shared early frustrations about Shigaraki’s seeming lack of plans or direction.

It's a good dynamic, and I think they could all do a lot for each other, though certainly not in ways that are good for the continued survival of Hero Society.  But fuck Hero Society anyway.

As to the component parts, I don’t ship Re-Destro and Spinner without Shigaraki being at least an invisible part of the dynamic (though I would read the fic where he wasn’t with considerable interest!), but I’m also very much on board with ShigRD and Spinaraki individually.  My constant refrain about Shigaraki and RD is that they have a lot of common ground but very little common language, and I’m fascinated by how much of that they could recognize in each other and how much of it they could then recognize back in themselves, versus how much you’d get one of those cases of, “This guy is a freak and I’m so normal.”

It's so, so, so important to me that Re-Destro is the first ally Shigaraki won entirely on his own merits.  He's got no borrowed reputation from Stain, no monsters on loan from Sensei, and no help from people on Sensei’s payroll, yet still, as a result of his efforts (both in his own fights and in making the League his own, even if it didn’t start that way) he wins himself an army and a follower who never saw a light that wasn’t his.

I weep for the Shigaraki/Re-Destro relationship we could have had if Horikoshi didn’t decide that Shigaraki in the endgame was to be nothing but a pawn, and therefore couldn’t be allowed to keep any of his markers of independence and growth.

As to Spinaraki, man, what is there even to say?  The relationship so clear and obvious that it had even the mhatwt bros out there saying, “Spinaraki but at what cost?” in the last chapter!  I will admit that I liked them better when their romance had that apocalyptic tinge than when it suddenly started getting painted as primarily about them being Gamer Bros, but at least that melancholic “beauty at the end of the world” shading came back when Shigaraki talked about destroying Mount Fuji for Spinner (be still my heart!).    

They will meet and be close in every world and I will hear nothing else.

RiKoku: I don’t think I truly understood the appeal of ex-lover ships until these two.  They snuck up on me in a big way, pretty much entirely a result of my realization when I was halfway through the (first and only, sadly) MLA Week event that Trumpet was pretty free-roaming and independent from Re-Destro all the way through Deika only to be glued to his side from there on out.  Together with the Spinner parallels (the subordinates who fought each other and then came together to the crater to see their worlds remade) and my jokes about wanting to see the MLA heads during their stressed-out, over-achiever college years, all the pieces fell into place for a Rikiya and Koku who had dated for a few years and then broken up when Rikiya realized that his authority as Re-Destro—and Koku’s strong subordination to that authority—meant that he could not responsibly stay in the relationship.  (This also presents several good explanations for why a man in Rikiya’s situation isn’t married with at least one child already.)

Anyway, to me, they never really fell out of love with each other; Re-Destro just couldn’t justify overlooking the power dynamic problems once he realized how extreme they were.  (This does make for a fun alternate angle on RD’s personal life post-Deika, wherein Trumpet watches RD pass the mantle of leadership to Shigaraki Tomura and then more or less immediately pounces on him because now he doesn’t have the power dynamic excuse anymore.  Look up the great Whatever Is Spared by @leftofrevolution on AO3 for more on this.)

Overhonest: I just like Nemoto much more than I like Chrono, and thus my Overhaul ship of choice follows suit.  I like the idea that their feelings are wildly unbalanced but not totally one-sided—Overhaul has more baggage than a freshly loaded airport carousel, but he does like the Shie Hassaikai, as proven by them being mentioned in the Likes section of his character page. Nemoto in particular is someone whose presence we know Overhaul finds reassuring and we know it because he told Nemoto so directly when Nemoto asked, which means it can’t be anything other than the plain truth.  He relies on Nemoto enough to make demands of him, he expects (and gets!) effectiveness, and he even bothers to take the time to justify out loud why it would be okay for him to merge himself with Nemoto physically (because Nemoto would say yes if asked, right? of course he would) rather than just doing it with no thought to Nemoto’s feelings about it because why should he care about that.

And Nemoto, for his part, is of course an obsessive weirdo who’s totally smitten with the first person he’s ever found who legitimately wants him around, so smitten that he’ll happily overlook the fact that Overhaul primarily wants him around because he’s useful.

Moving away from what’s on-the-page canon, I enjoy (and write) the take that Overhaul is sex-repulsed, not because he’s fully asexual, but as an extension of his mysophobia.  This makes his sex life extremely fraught, but not non-existent.  When I dabble with writing them (and they’re by far the ship I’ve written the most explicit material for in this fandom), I write him as basically a sex-repulsed demi (not that he would know or use that terminology!) who is attracted to Nemoto but has been largely left aggravated and sexually frustrated by their periodic experiments in non-traditional ways of getting him off.  (Nemoto, for his part, is more than willing to keep trying!  No kink is too weird for this guy if it means finding something Overhaul would actually like.)

(To get real here for a second, if Spinarakiya is meaningful to me as a person who’s comfortably poly, Overhonest is meaningful to me as an asexual person who's only ever had allosexual partners.)

AFOUji: Truly the Evil Husbands of all time.  I wish the shift from Final Boss Shigaraki to Final Boss AFO hadn’t left Ujiko with a few truly inexplicable characterization beats,[3] because I truly do love these two as just the worst pair of mutually enabling monsters making the world worse and more dangerous for everyone while being 100% supportive of each other’s passions the entire time.  Here’s to 70 years of Dark Lord/Mad Scientist domestic bliss.

3: For the record, I consider these to be his, “I've only been living for the boy's sake,” line in Chapter 269 and his clear reticence and dissastisfaction with Shigaraki getting the surgery in Chapter 240.

DabiSkep: Skeptic is the only man Dabi has ever thanked for his contributions.  Dabi goes out of his way to kidnap him.  I’m 90% convinced that they’d been working on the video together prior to the Villa raid.  The combination of Skeptic’s deep and abiding neuroticism with Dabi’s swings between lazy malice and manic pushiness is extremely funny.  What can I say; it’s just about the only Dabi ship that really clicks for me.  I enjoy leftof’s take that Skeptic had a goth phase he never completely exited and so Dabi appeals to his inner Hot Topic teen, which he is 100% aware of and 150% embarrassed by.

   

School Environs:

Mirio/Tamaki: Tamaki literally regains consciousness at the exact moment Mirio loses his quirk.  Other than cases where there’s some actual explanation for that—a magical connection, psychic powers, etc.—I have never seen that kind of beat happen outside of a shoujo manga.  The bit where one romantic lead just mysteriously has a Bad Feeling in the same instant that something Bad happens to their love interest is so shoujo-coded.  Jesus Christ, Tamaki is so moe.  And Mirio so clearly thinks the world of him, too, as evinced by what an over-the-top sobriquet he dubbed Tamaki with.  They’re great, end of story.

Monoma/Shinsou: I’ll admit I liked this somewhat better when I thought there was any chance at all Shinsou might end up in Class B—I kind of loathe that he wound up in Class A for the self-evidently terrible reason that it’s The Main Character Class, when it seems so obviously a conflict of interest for Aizawa to be teaching him.  But eh, it’s okay; it just means Monoma will have to nobly learn to look past it after a lot of time spent being completely obnoxious about it.

My annoyance with Shinsou’s class placement aside, Monoma is one of my favorite students, and I like that he immediately latches onto Shinsou as a kindred spirit.  And, like, if that were 100% one-directional, I would probably shrug it off, but Shinsou, despite trying to play at being aloof, does actually get invested enough that he gets pretty bothered by the idea of Monoma needing help, even in something as inconsequential as a class exercise.  It’s just a much, much more interesting dynamic than Shinsou has with Deku or especially Kaminari.

Also, as someone with a bit of a Thing for mind fuckery, the way Copy and Brainwash can play off each other is Good.

MomoJirou: The fanart is cute and I like Momo better than Kaminari.  And the culture clash thing is fun.

Shouto/Inasa: The fanart is cute and I like Inasa better than Deku or Bakugou.

   

Professional Sphere:

Hawksdeavor:The age gap adds flavor.  The fact that Endeavor is still married but deeply unhappily so makes it even spicier.  The difference in what they represent (or could potentially represent) to each other is the best part, with Hawks, for Endeavor, being someone who represents a totally clean page, while Endeavor, for Hawks, represents a lifelong adoration.  Finding each other’s reality in all of that would be an interesting relationship arc and could be extremely fulfilling and strengthening for both of them.

The spoiler is (or at least should have been, if I’d been writing the series) their divided feelings on Dabi.  Honestly, I really wanted to see them clash over the matter of Touya and how to deal with him, with Endeavor wanting to save him but not knowing how and Hawks just wanting him gone but not knowing how to get away with it.  A certain pair of facts is glaring to me: first, that Hawks was a chief architect of the second war’s battle plans, whereas we never saw Endeavor involved with them at all, and second, that, when the big day came, Endeavor was slated to fight All For One with Hawks at his side despite at least some guilty protests from Enji that he really ought to be facing Dabi.

It smacks strongly of Hawks making some profoundly selfish decisions under the guise of clear-headed strategy and I really wanted it to blow up in his face when Dabi found his way to their battlefield anyway.  Pushing Endeavor into a place where he had to choose between them and ultimately chose his son (say, by protecting him from an attack coming from Hawks) would have been validating for Touya, done a lot to lever Endeavor’s arc out of the reactiveness and passivity that drag it down so badly in the canon, and also handed Hawks a real consequence for how dismissively he treats the lives of Villains and how much he’s tried to avoid reckoning with both Endeavor’s abuse and Enji’s own attempts to do said reckoning!

In summary, Hawks and Endeavor could be very good for each other, and the incredible amount of baggage they’d have work through first would be key to either making that good ending feel earned or lead to them dramatically and deliciously imploding.  Either one works for me, and either one, even without the romantic angle, would have been more interesting than the pablum we got.

NightMight: Speaking of could-have-been-good relationships that dramatically imploded!  I love Sir Nighteye as the most visible cost of All Might’s lifestyle, the one he lost because he couldn’t step away from the path his ideals had set out, and how that ideal inevitably took him full circle so that he found himself standing, for Deku, in the same place Nighteye once stood for him.  And of course by then it was too late and Deku wouldn’t listen to him anymore than he himself listened to Nighteye back then.

But Nighteye didn’t give up on caring about him, even if he had no avenue left to express it but throwing himself into finding a successor All Might would accept, which led to Nighteye's own (wonderful) relationship with Mirio.

Just great, difficult, adult stuff about irreconcilable differences that never stopped them from caring about each other even as those differences forced them to their parting of ways.

Mount Lady/Kamui Woods: They’re cute and I like the idea that they both have trouble, for opposite reasons, with cameramen.  I like that he calls her just Lady when he thinks she’s in trouble.  And not to put too fine a point on it, but I like that they’re kinda the most explicit Pro Hero couple and yet she’s the more prominent and important character with the more visible arc, which is a nice contrast to most of the other hetero relationships in this benighted manga.

   

Other/Cross-faction:

Togachaco: The yuri ship that could.  My god, the canon divergence I want to give these two.  You know why I want Deku and Ochaco to not be together in the end?  Because I want Ochaco to realize that she did everything in her power to save her Villain while Deku—after all that talk on the cliff!—just killed his, and triggered Toga just before he left to do it, meaning Ochaco had a harder time with Toga than she might have otherwise.

But, I’m not here to talk about No. 2 Green; let’s talk instead about the canon divergence where Toga survives (shove that absurd death-via-blood-transfusion right into the incinerator) and then Ochaco has to come face to face with a system that does not want to let her be anywhere near as kind as she wants to be.  The canon divergence where Ochaco realizes that her forgiveness is immaterial to justice, where she watches the system she fought to defend gear up to try Toga as an adult because Japan needs a scapegoat for the destruction of the war and all of the people who are actually most responsible are already dead or dying.  Where Ochaco realizes that she has to do something drastic if she doesn’t want to live the rest of her life haunted by the knowledge that her compassion got a 17-year-old victim of emotional and psychiatric abuse executed by the state.  The one where she decides to take a fucking stand, and it forces the rest of her class to confront that need as well.

“The cutest girl in the whole world,” my god.

Kotarou and Nao: I’m not as big on it by the time we’re seeing them in the Tenko flashback, though I certainly wasn’t pulling for some mean-spirited, allegedly feel-good “Nao slaps Kotarou and the whole family walks out of him” thing like you see in fanfic sometimes.  No, what I really like with Kotarou and Nao is thinking about them when they’re both still young, in the stretch of years where they really think they'll be happy together.  That her being with him can make all his problems go away, that him being able to bury his past and be better than all the people who hurt him (and there were so many people who hurt him) will be enough, that love is the answer to everything. Sure, the cracks are there, but they’re thin, and they can be hidden beneath all the days when things are good, when the two of them hold each other and feel safe and loved and sure.

The cracks are still there, and love isn’t enough when love becomes a band-aid and a blind eye.  But the love is still there too, and it’s so fierce and so desperate, and it still won’t save them.

Sorry, everyone; they make me emotional.  They are beautiful in the way of sparks dancing above flames, or early flowers blooming right before a vicious cold snap.  Ah, me.

StainMight: GOD, All Might really needed to grapple more with Stain’s side of his legacy.  Like, StainMight is really a victim of the way the story looked like it was setting up to criticize All Might’s methodology as well-intended but not sustainable long-term, but then, like every other aspect of the series that was about systemic critique, that criticism just evaporated and Stain became an All Might cheerleader with nothing to say about the system All Might supported for thirty years.  Maddening!  But for real, All Might should have been badly hurt in that car attack and then rescued by Stain, both to give Deku some stress about how All Might could be in danger after they parted on bad terms, and also to really make All Might have to sit with this opinionated zealot all-too-prepared to talk about how no one else is really living up to his example.

And there should be UST the whole time.

Yoichi and Kudou: I am almost entirely negative towards the OFA Collective these days, especially Kudou’s role in the endgame, but I still have some fondness for what he and Yoichi could have been.  My god, the first One For All transfer really should have been because they kissed.  More beautiful, more tragic, more profound, and preserves the Yoichi that had some actual fucking agency in the life he lived instead of just constantly being AFO’s or Kudou’s trophy princess there to talk about how respectively terrible and awesome they are.

TogaTsuyu: I just think it would be interesting if Tsuyu were actually allowed to be more present in the Toga plotline, rather than only arriving as a spoiler to avert major shifts every time.  Toga says she likes Tsuyu, too, after all, and Tsuyu is so different from both Ochaco and Deku, so much more thoughtful and considered.  I dunno, I just wonder how things might have gone if, for example, it had been Tsuyu that Toga managed to draw away in the Jakku fight.  Given that side story with her snakey friend Habuko, evidence suggests that Tsuyu is a good deal more observant and intuitive than Ochaco, and I wonder if she might have been able to suss out what Toga was actually asking there better than Ochaco did, and how that might have changed things.

   

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THE TUMBLR PROBLEMATIC ZONE:

Gentle Criminal and La Brava: I was willing to follow the canon’s initial vagary about these two, but I also like them quite a bit together, so if canon wants to put them in wedding rings at the end of the series, that’s fine by me!  Yes, I’m aware that there’s a pretty significant age gap there, which would have been at its most apparent when she first sought him out, but I don’t for one single instant believe that he’d be anything less than a total gentleman to her.  Indeed, it’d be entirely plausible to mount an argument based on his behavior that they were not at all romantically involved circa the Culture Festival arc,[4] and only become so after Gentle’s imprisonment and subsequent release.  But in general, what I’m more concerned with is the dynamic—I regard a power differential in a relationship as a reason for both parties to be cautious and mindful of that differential, but not as an immediate game-ender.

4: Most obvious is that when she says, “I love you,” he only says things like, “Thank you,” in return.

In that sense, Gentle and La Brava are great—they click together perfectly and obviously make each other tremendously happy after a lifetime of rejection.  La Brava, in Gentle’s theatrical attention-seeking, finds someone who accepts her overflowing way of showing love; Gentle, in living up to La Brava’s feelings, finds a reason for his skewed heroism beyond satisfying his pride.  To whatever extent their life together was heading anywhere bad (and there’s no evidence of this at all save that Heroes were always likely to catch up to them eventually, making La Brava’svery extreme response to Gentle’s defeat likewise inevitable), Deku’s intervention got them off of that path and back onto one that let them be accepted by the world, which they seem to have capitalized on marvelously.

They’re the only Villains I can think of whose turn to Team Hero in the endgame works for me without any significant quibbles.  Good for them!  I hope they are so, so happy together, because they deserve it.

AFO and Kotarou: MEANWHILE, IN MY OTHER KOTAROU SHIP.  I love AFO knowing Everything about what he’s doing here while Kotarou knows absolutely Nothing about what AFO is doing here.  I love an AFO who is self-amused in being friendly and reassuring and distractingly attractive to Kotarou, an AFO who knows that his toying with Kotarou would make Shimura Nana sick with terror and rage, and even if she isn’t alive to be so anymore, the fantasy of it is satisfying enough, especially since Kotarou is himself a very handsome young man, one whose hurt and resentment AFO finds beguiling to sometimes prod at, as if unable to leave a bruise alone except the bruise isn’t on his own skin.

I have an AU I’m never likely to write where Kotarou winds up successfully knocking out Tenko on the night of the accident before going on the run with him, only for them to get picked up by AFO a few weeks later, and let me tell you guys, that’s where all my guilty pleasure AFO/Kotarou really lives.

That said, I liked this one much better before we got the opening for it in canon, and not just because AFO’s disguise persona was doofy-looking instead of devastatingly handsome.  It was always one of those ships that tickled my inner hedonistic wickedness fancier but that I never wanted to be canon because my affection for the ship's vibe was not more important to me than the integrity of Shigaraki’s arc, and Shigaraki’s arc was far better served by his early childhood being as free from AFO as possible.  Alas, the reveal is very AFOtarou but at what cost.

Dabideavor: Sorry not sorry everyone, but all the people screaming about how this is SICK FILTH seem to have missed the point that it is indeed, absolutely and completely, sick filth and that’s part of the appeal.  Personally, I like it for two main reasons.

Firstly, I want Endeavor to have as hard a time as possible, and times don't get harder than this. I enjoy it when he's frozen and helpless in the face of the son whose life he destroyed because I have a long history of enjoying stoic male characters being made vulnerable through suffering.

Secondly, and more importantly, I like it because I like the version of Dabi you see in it, particularly compared to the Fanon Dabi who made so much League of Villains fan content un-fucking-readable for years.

I'm going to try to keep the hot fandom tea to a minimum here, limited to the upcoming footnote, but I hated Fanon Dabi.[5] He was an incoherent mash of a character designed to be a vehicle for the unabashed revenge fantasy of bloody murder against Bad Dads while also presenting no danger whatsoever of splash damage, a Woobie Big Brother who was completely harmless except to the father whose organs he was planning to paint the walls with. Every excuse that could be made, would be made, for Dabi's more questionable or even outright nasty moments, even if it meant minimizing or outright erasing the harm we saw Dabi do, right there on the page in literal manga monochrome.

5: There's a particular type of flanderization that goes into Fanon Dabi, the same kind of flanderization I saw attached to Steven Universe's Lapis Lazuli, and which informed the absolute umbrage certain people took with Rebecca Sugar for describing Spinel, the SU movie's villain, as toxic. There is a portion of fandom that loves abuse victims who get angry and lash out, but which will go absolutely ballistic at the slightest suggestion that abuse victims are themselves also capable of harm, that lashing out has the potential to hurt innocent people. In a perfectly executed DARVO, it becomes "victim blaming" to confront an abuse victim about the very real abuse they're inflicting on others. I only specified fictional characters here, but it's a dynamic you see in real life, too. Some people hunger for nothing so much as an acceptable target and abuse victims are not exempt from that statement.

The Dabi I thought was fun was the high-energy maniac who doesn't give a shit about anyone else getting caught in the crossfire of his revenge. Both that version of Dabi and the Endeavor who's paralyzed with guilt and despair are facilitated by Dabi’s father-obsession having a taboo sexual dimension to it that Dabi is all too ready to shove in the face of absolutely everyone who would think worse of Endeavor for it.  That means Endeavor himself, of course, but also all the good little civilians who Endeavor keeps telling to watch him.  Watch this, says Dabi, as he makes lewd hand gestures on force-streamed national television.

It's not about Dabi healing as an abuse victim, and it’s not about Dabi having a fulfilling arc—covering that stuff was canon's job!  It's about the fact that I, for reasons both personal and related to fandom spite, am personally entertained by Dabi being pedal-to-the-metal deranged about doing whatever it takes to seize Daddy’s attention and never let him look away again, which also means acting to ensure that no one is capable of or willing to save Endeavor from that fate. Like, if you want someone who would spend ten years plotting the most agonizing possible way to torment his abuser, then it’s sophistry to suddenly declare some agonizing torments off-limits.  Dabideavor is just committing to the bit.

[leliosinking]

I dunno, but having grown up in the 90s/00s with the ‘94 film.. it is admittedly very frustrating seeing new fans constantly trash talking something that was so foundational for queer people my age.

Like, no, it’s obviously not as gay as iwtv22, but it is still very very extremely very queer coded. And that coding is all we had for a long time. Like Lestat’s first levitating bite with Louis? Lestat and the Fop? Louis’s heavy-breathing farewell to Armand? Louis and Lestat’s reunion? These moments meant so much to me growing up, before I ever even knew there were books. And then later reading those explicitly queer moments as I grew older?? It only further cemented the importance of the coded sexuality and how it allowed me to love this very queer thing without having to unpack its queerness with my family.

I just think there’s a lack of consideration for the era where queerness in media was something that had to be kept secret, and using that against the film as some sort of “gotcha” isn’t the move you think it is.

And, yes, Tom and Brad suck as people. We don’t have to debate that, I agree wholeheartedly. But this constant dumping on older fans for.. cherishing an old thing that meant a lot to them for extremely specific reasons? That really sucks.

(the gatekeepy older fans can rot though)

Like let’s be 100% real here: every adaptation of these books is deeply flawed because the books themselves are deeply flawed. Not just structurally, they have serious problems regarding race, sexuality, women, children… Anne did not create a perfect foundation to work with, and she herself was an extremely flawed and often problematic person. And no matter how much you want to imagine that the tv show is divorced from all that.. it never will be. And that’s not your responsibility or mine to contend with any of it. It is a piece of media. It has no bearing on you as an individual.

I guess what I’m saying is that this series is nearing its 50th (!!!) birthday, and we as fans are very fortunate to have not only this incredible television series, but two iconic films (yes, QotD is iconic but in like.. an ironic, highly camp way), a musical of.. dubious but magical quality, and not one or two, but SIX stunning comic adaptations.. I just think it’s time to stop pitting the show against the movie when it’s all part of this massive, deeply flawed yet incredibly beautiful, wonderfully queer body of work.

[sirshio]

First time I learned about Dakavendish was the day when I decided to watch a review from a videoblogger I like. He said that MML is a failed and boring show and these "pistachion guys" are similar to each other and have zero chemistry ("Even Carl and Major Monogram have more chemistry", said he). And despite I like (well, liked!) this dude, I was aware that he loves to search for weak spots and often can't say anything good about media he talks about. So I thought that MML is a decent series and wasn't opposed to idea I might watch it.

Second time I learned about them was when my bestie who is a fan of PnF decided to watch MML. She began to watch and to tell me things about the plot and The Gay Timetravelers. I thought this is really nice show, these timetravelers really are gay and I want to watch it.

Third time I learned about Dakavendish is when I watched the series itself. And literally no one said I will be so insane and not normal about them!!!

Now I can say that this blogger IS STUPID AS FUCK. Not get me wrong, I can understand that some people are just too heteronormative, but that doesn't excuse ANYTHING he said about Dakavendish! I don't know how it is possible to say they have zero chemistry and they are similar to each other! WHERE WERE YOUR EYES AND BRAINS ANIMANIAC

ZERO CHEMISTRY WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK

He had absolutely no respect for MML. I can understand that not everyone can ship homosexual ship that is not (explicitly) canon or at least see them as a ship that someone might like. I can understand that someone can dislike some media, it's perfectly okay. But this doesn't give you an excuse to seek out for weak spots and pretend that are no good spots. This doesn't excuse you to say that two characters have "zero chemistry" when one of them literally sacrificed himself thousands of times to save another (of course, there are a ton of other signs they deeply care for each other, but this is Animaniac we talk about). This doesn't excuse you to say they are similar to each other, when it's absolutely obvious they are so different. If you are doing this, you have no right to name yourself a "critic". You are someone who enjoys to hate media (for no reason) and the video you made is not a "review". Because when I watched his "review" I thought MML is... just okay, I guess, nothing good, nothing special.

/I watched that shitty "review" for a long time ago and I still can't get over it!/

I will fight for Dakavendish, Milo and the plot itself, I love them with all my heart. And I glad that I didn't believed Animaniac. First - because I am an independent human and tend not to blindly believe someone's opinion. Second - I already knew that this dude likes to mock and put down decent medias.

/Shio when will you calm down just let him go.../

[neonscandal]

Just see this in twitter by someone : "I'm starting to think maybe people should read actual BL manga. perhaps considering manga written with actual gay characters in it in addition to shipping m x m from whatever battle shounen you're into."

Like because of those subtext, there can be fanfics and fanarts, right? And then I decided to come here, your blog is really one of my comfort place....

Comfort place!? This makes me want to carve out time to post infinitely more. 🥹 Even though it feels a bit aimless, I’m glad I could cultivate that for you and hope I can continue to do so.

RE: twitter, without context, it's hard to tell whether this person is earnestly recommending people to expand their interests into BL or if they're dumping on people who tend to support and identify queer shipping across other genres.

On the one hand, heavy agree that if you appreciate queer pairings of any kind to absolutely find media and stories that shows healthy (and authentic, if possible!) representation of whatever you're into. I feel like sometimes in BL, specifically, there’s a lot of toxicity or violence passed off as romance which is why I recommend being discerning. Here are some green flag recommendations and I kind of touch on the importance of identity through engaging with queer content by way of BL's featuring fudanshi's there. Isn't always the case, but it's a storyline I appreciate.

If the poster was side eyeing queer ships in "mainstream" or shonen stories... they should grow up. I've been in and out of fandom for like.. 20 years. There have always been people who recognize and popularize queer ships. Back in the day? Characters didn't even have to share the same show, universe or genre to end up in a crossover slash fic on Fanfiction.Net.

Don't get me wrong, I've definitely needlessly explored several crack theories or made off-base assumptions about a story for the sake of trying to guess at where it’s going. But I sometimes question people's competency for reading/watching comprehension when a particularly shitty hottake is making its rounds on social media. Like are we not watching the same thing?

Subtext does exist. I don't know that all authors are as elegant or intentional in its execution but if you're not bothering to consider the possibility, you're potentially missing out on critical pieces of a story you're choosing to invest hours/years of your life into! This isn't simply as it pertains to shipping but also picking up on critical exposition (Attack. On. Titan.) or even questioning whether the information we're getting as the reader or viewer is conveyed with any sort of narrator bias. Yes, this is absolutely a My Hero Academia call out. ✨

Queer coding does exist. Tons of reasons why queer characters aren't always explicitly identified as such. More often than not, there's some form of censorship. Whether at the editing level during manga production or when it comes time for manga/shows to be approved for international distribution (re: information that's lost in translation vs outright decisions to alter the flow of the story). Most glaring example of this that comes to mind is Haruka Tenou or "Sailor Uranus"/Michiru Kaiou or "Sailor Neptune. In addition to gratuitous name changes when Sailor Moon was pushed abroad, several countries would rather portray the two as unusually close relatives despite the clear romantic undertones exhibited whenever they were on screen together. Also, IDK why, but pretty sure I'd seen somewhere that, initially the creator of Naruto did want to canonize Sasuke/Naruto but, truth be told, I've never watched the series and that could have been a fanon theory I'd seen.

Overarching messages exist. Similar to the first point, a story is seldom just a story. More often than not, you're looking at some sort of social critique or opinion that's being expressed or explored through the story. To not bother thinking critically about what you choose to spend time in enjoying is a pretty bland way to miss the point of it.

When all else fails, it's not our fault that the only relationships most shonen mangaka focus on developing is the one between "rivals". That's it. If there were more dynamic characters or literally any consideration toward the depth of intimacy between the main character and whatever tritagonist female lead the male lead inexplicably ends up with (aside from the simple rationale that "she is the girl 🎀"), then maybe fans won't have to hone in on how the only agency, equality and intimacy is between the only two characters of substance. That was a mouthful but so are the overly poetic soliloquies shonen rivals inevitably share about one another.. ✨

I'm guessing this question might be related to the last anon ask about fanfics? I agree regarding the fact that subtext allows for a richer selection of fan art and fics. I think, depending on content, the motivation for reading fics will subsequently differ. For instance, I'm less likely to read fanfics for a romance series even if I sometimes write for them because the source material generally satisfies what I wanted from them. But fix it fics, angst and romance fics for shonen/seinen series'?? I'll definitely pick them up because, 1) there are usually unexplored relationship dynamics in the source material, 2) there are alternative domestic/fluff storylines you'd never see because the genre doesn't allow for it, 3) the canon plot is usually so devastating *cough, JJK, cough* that I need a respite, and/or, 4) the developing plot tends to have a lot of holes that writers can explore to craft uniquely compelling AU's and alternative plotlines that I wouldn't imagine.

Man, it's been a while since I nerded out and really took the time to bang out a rant. I've had so many thoughts bouncing around but just zero time. Thank you for your ask and the reminder that there's someone else out there in the shipping trenches. Stay safe out there, anon!

[possessionisamyth]

Given what Lily Gao has said about Ada, do you think Capcom is becoming aware of the criticisms regarding Ada's "dragon lady" persona and is working to correct it?

I'm going to preface this with I am not Chinese nor Chinese-American. I'm black, I taught english in Japan, and knowledge on this kind of racial stereotyping is growing at the same rate as my knowledge on antisemitism, AKA I know some but am still learning. So sorry again for this being long, but my answer will focus on how I look at writing/story analysis.

To be honest, for me when it comes to critically thinking about and analyzing media, I don't really care about what people say in interviews. I don't even look for them. The first exception I make to this is if someone has made enough of something that I can catch the patterns in their story-telling/depiction, and I have a desire to know where that comes from. That desire to know is also extremely rare, because there isn't a piece of written work (sans music) I don't analyze to some extent, and I've gotten great at guessing where ideas sprout from. Too good actually.

I say this not because the information is irrelevant, but because if what they're saying is true it will be executed well in the piece. If what they're saying is true, it will have met the goal whether or not they explicitly tell me what their goal is. I don't look at voice actor interviews, screenwriter interviews, or director interviews, and I haven't since my university classes. The other exception to this are blooper reels and director cuts with commentary. It's a shame many pieces no longer do these because they do highlight the goals of the movie better due to being in the moment with reels or by explaining why things were removed instead of why things were there, which is also more valuable to me.

I'm much less inclined to take Resident Evil voice actor opinions because I do not know how long they'll have that job. On top of that, IF we get Separate Ways DLC, I want how they took her lines in RE4R to make more sense as a result. I have a voice acting friend who loves Ada's new voice, but had problems with the direction they took her lines in. I didn't really hear it. I'm not experienced in that avenue. Me and my friend already have proven to have different opinions since I like when VAs voices crack or sound weak or warbly because it makes the scene feel more real to me. Voices aren't always perfectly practiced sounding without error because it veers too far into the uncanny which is why I stopped listening to ENG dubs of anime.

I love Ada talking to Luis and Leon like they're her subs. I love how bored and uninterested she sounds. It's a million times better than the "don't you want to fuck me" voice because anime has rotted the brains of many, and I'm a stupid gay who think women with deep voices can say anything so there's clearly a bias here! Yet until we see that DLC, which I'm praying we get, I can't tell you if Gao's words are true or not. Japan has a nasty history of being super xenophobic towards chinese people, and their xenophobia has been horribly normalized to this day. (I lived there, and I'm going back, and how nonchalant people were about it made me sick.)

As long as the DLC doesn't half focus on Luis, who Leon/Luis shippers are doing their own "latino papi" racist takes on link included check out the article, we'll have to see. I want to see the Remake Separate Ways DLC put in the work of departing Ada from the dragon lady stereotype. I want to know the writers and directors behind it realized how bad the original RE4 made it via making the remake DLC simply showing Ada as a woman who puts herself and her beliefs first no matter how gray those beliefs are. If it accomplishes that goal narratively, then I can assume whatever Lily Gao said is correct because other people will be talking about it. If it doesn't, then it doesn't regardless of the actor's interpretation of the piece.

Personally (this is related to the racist stereotype topic though veering off topic) If they do RE5 Remake, I will be flooding the tags with either praise or vitrol because jesus fucking christ the african stereotypes in the original? Painful. Physically painful for me. If they don't fix it, you all will know. In the meantime, praying we get that Separate Ways DLC. Really hoping to hear chinese voices who either enjoyed or felt neutral about Gao's acting on the DLC if it drops.

[lovejustforaday]

Gay Pride Anthems (According to Me) - Your Disco Needs You

Your Disco Needs You (Casino Radio and Clubs Remix) - Kylie Minogue

Genres: Euro-Disco, Nu-Disco, Dance Pop

IT'S PRIDE MONTH BABY!!!!!!!! 👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨🌈⚧️🌞🕊️🗣️🏳️‍🌈💃🏻🪩💪🏽🥵

Technically, where I'm from, "Pride Month" as a concept basically exists more between the second half of June and the first half of July (SO I'M NOT LATE THIS TIME, MMMKAY?). Our city's parade happens halfway through July every year, so I guess my definition of Pride Month is a little skewed.

Actually, we didn't get a parade last year. As is the case with a lot of other smaller cities, we're big enough to have an out and open, vibrant queer community, but small enough that seemingly everyone in it happens to have petty drama with each other. Hence, our local pride organization's executive board basically self-destructed and went kaput last year because of infighting.

But from the ashes of its implosion, a newer, hopefully better, and brilliantly flaming phoenix emerges and baby I am SO READY!!!! We also just got a new gay bar after basically having none in the city ever since 2020 *cough* happened.

But if I'm being honest, I feel like there's a lot of stress at this time of the year for a lot of gay/trans/bi/nb folks. Folks in the closet feel a greater pressure to come out. Rightwing nutjobs double down on their anti-Budlight campaigns or whatever the fuck they're on about this time around. Lonely gays gotta deal with watching all the happy gay couples being out and proud everywhere.

And of course, there's the """""discourse""""" every year, surrounding everything with the the same arguments over "kink at pride" to "straights frequenting gay bars" and basically every other beating-a-dead-horse topic that the social media algorithms push like crack to feed our brains' collective addictions to ragebait. Sometimes it can be as much of a headache as it is a good time for any of us, and the increasing corporatization and commodification of what was originally a very radical tradition in our community can be disheartening. It seems that we have been undergoing a reckoning with a fundamental shift in this community over the last decade, as our proximity to comfort through class, race, and perceived "queerness" has created two very different kinds of "pride".

But idk, this year I really wanna just focus on feeling those good pride vibes extra hard, and not worrying about all the drama for once (Don't get me wrong though - no cops at pride, just Florence and her sword). Things have been looking pretty up for me ever since I've fallen in love with the most wonderful boy in the world, and I want this year to be a gay ass celebration, dammit!!

And so, I've decided to focus on something that we can all agree on - the fact that gay pride anthems fucking slap!!! Every year, one of the main things I look forward to is going to venues that'll actually have a chance of playing some good fucking music!

So I thought, why the hell not? I've got a music blog I barely touch outside of the year-end list season. Let's do some funky little reviews about ✨ gay pride anthems ✨

Now, what you and I consider to be a ✨ gay pride anthem ✨ may be very different. In this informal and unranked list, I will obviously be including songs with explicitly LGBTQ+ themes and by LGBTQ+ artists, but I am also taking the liberty of covering songs that are either culturally or historically significant to the broader queer community, or personally significant to my own self-discovery journey as a gay man.

I'm also going to throw in a couple of songs that just kinda exude gayness, queerness, and transness as per my own "gay ass music" barometer. You are free to disagree with my selections on any of these reviews, but I should let you know in advance that if you do disagree then you are simply WRONG.

Okay, with that outta the way:

THE ARTIST

Kylie Minogue really needs no introduction. If you're gay, live in an English speaking country, and are older than like, 22(?) then it should go without saying that Kylie Minogue is one of the most beloved and celebrated of the many, many queer-ally pop divas of the last five or six decades.

Ms. Minogue really kind of is the platonic ideal of her archetype. Her music is bouncy, playful, sleek, passionate, and unafraid to go camp. The Australian queen of pop just seems to get us, in a way that never feels pandering or cynical.

Perhaps what is so particularly affective about her appeal is her ability to adapt and change her sound without ever really appearing as if she's trend-hopping. Every change in her career (at least, post-self-titled) feels organic, and she always seems to enjoy whatever it is that she's doing.

Compared and contrasted (and I apologize for doing this in advance) with the career arc of her most obvious (and much more famous) counterpart Madonna, I've never once gotten the feeling that Kylie phoned it in, or just did a new sound because other popstars were doing it.

She's managed to stay relatively down to earth and focused on making fun and memorable pop music, while Madonna frankly continues to dilute her artistry with weird takes, cynical career moves, and whatever this is.

I'll admit that, while I'm familiar with many of her singles, I've really only listened to Impossible Princess, Light Years, Fever, and DISCO as far as her LPs go. But what I have heard in full, I've always enjoyed, especially her punchy yet highly introspective Impossible Princess, which is one of the most underrated and totally left-field records to have ever dropped from an established name in the pop mainstream.

Today's cut is a more well-known remix of a song off of her 2000 LP Light Years, perhaps her funnest record, which I just listened to in full last week in preparation for writing this review. And by the way, I'm covering the remix because it's bigger, better, and gayer, so don't @ me if you prefer the album version mmmkay?

THE SONG AND WHY IT SLAPS

"Your Disco Needs You" is an unabashed, unashamed celebration of all things glorious and free. And no, I don't mean whatever crappy country you live in, F patriotism - I'm talking about the dancefloor at your local gay bar.

"Camp" is an understatement, and probably too obvious to describe it. No, this song is BRAZEN and FLAMING. It has no interest in being subtle; it is a fervent call-to-action. Your goddamn motherfucking disco needs you dammit! You have been officially conscripted to get off your ass and serve your dancefloor. Make haste, you gays!

Flashy euro-disco with triumphant marching band trumpets, horny big man military chants, gratuitously french-spoken bridges, and insanely well-executed key changes are always gonna get my stamp of approval.

But it is perhaps the nasally way she sings "YOUR DIS-KOH" as she chants along during the chorus that really just seals the deal. Forgive me, but she sounds so vaguely somewhere from mainland Europe - It immediately makes me think of one of the crossover successes during the golden age of disco, like "Yes Sir I Can Boogie" by Baccara or "Dancing Queen" by ABBA which is a gay disco BEHEMOTH in its own right.

Everything about this song is everything it needed to be, and it all comes together exactly the way it should. Credit goes to Kylie's larger than life presence, as well as kudos to the backing vocalist for their thundering command, and huge HUGE kudos to the producers for getting it to sound exactly like an updated version of what it pays homage to, down to the last beat.

And have you seen the music video?!? An army of Kylie Minogue clones marching in tights towards disco glory is the only military campaign I will ever gladly endorse.

According to Kylie herself, the song was apparently "too gay" and "too camp" for the label to release it as a single in the United Kingdom. I mean, come on, how fucking punk rock is that? "TOO GAY FOR ENGLAND" is a badge of honour that I'd readily have permanently tattooed on my forehead if I were ever the recipient of such a prestigious title.

Oh, and anyone who thinks this is wholly ironic needs to GTFO now. We are now several light years ahead of when broader Straight™ society suddenly and viciously turned on the great big, glossy old-school disco in the early 80s. We should all be able to understand by now that this is a love letter to everything that was dramatic and overly-extravagant about that era. And it's all the better for it.

WHY IT'S GAY

This is the first on the list, but definitely will not be the last, of a set of songs that are really just blunt and in-your-face with its production and manner of delivery. There is something among LGBTQ+ folks, particularly among drag queens, femme gay men, and men-attracted transfemmes, where being unapologetically bold with your personality and image is widely common and celebrated.

And it makes sense; spending so many years hiding who you are because of society's prejudice means that there is a whole stock-pile of self-expression that hasn't been given its proper outlet until one's coming out eventually happens. There's also the exhilarating thrill of recent liberation that makes you just want to flaunt your colours everywhere.

There is an especially potent emphasis in most cultures on performing masculinity "the correct way" and a strong disdain for those perceived to be "sissies". To be an out and proud feminine man or woman with XY chromosomes, one must be very bold. Or as black and queer NYC ballroom pioneer Junior Labeija once put it "it do take nerve" to be who you are when you are gay/bi/trans/etc.

That amount of nerve is often doubled when faced with the extra added challenges of being poor or belonging to a racial minority, which is why a lot of the boldest and most ground-breaking underground dance music (such as the origins of House music, or the aforementioned NYC ballroom scene) originates from predominately black and brown, lower-class queer communities.

Likewise, music that feels gay is not just dance music, but dance music that often feels bold and fearless. We celebrate and laugh in the face of prejudice and adversity. Dance music that plays to this striking, defiant confidence immediately sets off our "gay barometers" because it reflects how many of us feel inside when we are partying amongst ourselves.

Kylie just gets it. She may not be one of us per se, but she understands that radical, defiant confidence and boldness that is what really makes a legendary dancefloor banger for gay bars everywhere. And okay, something also has to be said for the chants. I dare you to listen to those burly, jovial voices and tell me you don't immediately conjur up the image of a rippling 80s leather daddy muscle stud with the handle bar mustache and bikers cap. They knew exactly what they were doing when they made this.

And so I rest my case. Tis gay, your honour.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go serve my country dancefloor.

[cuchufletapl]

Free! (2013) is a sports anime that (while not being an actual shojo) caters to teenage girls, and one of the main draws of the show is what I like to call fujo-bait: the main cast is all attractive teenage boys whose relationships with each other are very easily read as gay.

And that's not just fandom doing fandom things, it's very obviously intentional. I guess it's a sort of queerbaiting, except, unlike western media, there's no "will they, won't they" aspect to it — the anime isn't marked as a BL (probably because it allows it to be aired during daytime[1: edit below] and to be marketed with further reach), so everyone who watches it knows that none of the ships are gonna be canon. The almost "kisses" and the pushing against a wall and the ambiguous dialogue and such are meant as fanservice to inspire doujinshis and other fanworks in Japanese fujoshi fandom.

Here's a pretty good video on this subject in general, if you're interested.

Anyway.

Enter Yuri!!! On Ice in 2016.

A sports anime. Not marketed as a Boys' Love anime. If I remember correctly, it also aired at daytime[2: edit below].

Both the Japanese fujoshis and western otakus thought that we knew what to expect. Something along the lines of Free! and any other anime that had decided to lean into queer fandoms as a marketing tactic.

I remember when in episode one Victor stood up from the bath completely naked and people where like, "Holy shit, okay, they're starting really strong with the fanservice." The couple episodes that followed it, when Victor was still coming very strong onto Yuuri, there were jokes about how the amount of exclamation marks in the title seemed to correlate with how gay and fujo-baity an anime was gonna be. That's all we thought YoI was ever going to be, like its predecessors in the genre had been.

And then they kiss in episode seven. And actual, honest-to-god kiss.

People lost their shit.

Tumblr's servers collapsed.

The censorship of the kiss gave way to heated discussions on whether it had been a hug instead, but their faces' angle and the audience at the rink's reaction made it clear that it hadn't been — particularly when the show kept going and things like Yuuri and Victor getting engaged in front of the Sagrada Familia happened, further cementing that their relationship was textually, explicitly romantic.

It also reframed every interaction they had had up until that point, because then, oh, it's not just fanservice for the fujoshi watchers, it's build-up to an actual romance.

Obviously I can't speak for everyone who watched YoI, but in my corner of fandom and what I saw outside of it, everyone was shipping victuuri but no one was hoping for them to be canon. I can't emphasize enough how unexpected it was.

I believe that was the point, also. I think (I'm not sure, maybe I'm misremembering, I can't find the statement, take it with a grain of salt) that Kubo said something to that effect — she wanted to make a sports anime that wasn't (strictly speaking) a BL and that had an m/m couple as endgame.

A lot of people getting into Yuri!!! On Ice after that go in with the knowledge that victuuri is canon, so I think some of that "cultural reset" feeling may be lost? Particularly if they're not familiar with other sports anime and manga like Haikyuu!!, Kuroko no Basket or the aforementioned most egregious example, Free! — because they haven't experienced what the fandoms of not-canonically-gay-but-still-very-gay animes are like. (On the other hand, it allows y'all to view and enjoy the anime as an actual romance from the get-go, which is cool.)

[1] edit: so I recently learned that it's a myth that BL/yuri can't be aired during daytime. Actually, most anime except really popular series (or kids' television) is broadcast late at night anyway, even if they're not considered to be 18+. That probably included Free!, given that it first aired on Tokyo MX, which is known for late-night anime according to Wikipedia. Sorry, I should've fact-checked that before posting!

[2] edit: no, it didn't and I wasn't remembering correctly. YoI airing during daytime as an explanation for why the kiss was censored is a rumour that's been going around in the fandom since the beginning (see above for limited broadcasting of yuri/BL not even being a thing). I've taken it at face value for years, but it's patently not true. dragonaeve set me straight in the replies: Yuri!!! On Ice aired past 2am. Sorry again!

I don't think anyone should be permitted to watch Yuri On ICE and judge it unless they have not watched the first two seasons and one movie of Free! before. You just cannot understand the cultural impact without.

[letters-to-lgbt-kids]

My dear lgbt+ kids,

it's Pride Month, so I have an excuse to talk about my favorite lgbt+ media with you - and today I want to share my favorite Asian gay dramas with you. All of those are available with English subtitles.

Note: these are my personal opinions - taste is subjective. These are all mlm (I guess that's just what I gravitate towards when picking something to watch) but the first one also has a wlw couple!

CW for "Until we meet again" (suicide and death mention).

Bad Buddy (Thai series): My absolute favorite series that I just can't shut up about. Think Romeo and Julia, but in a modern setting and gay. This series manages to be funny and have that comforting rom-com feeling while still having a solid, emotionally stirring plot. It subtly turns a lot of overused tropes in gay movies on their heads and the acting is so good. Also has one of the best kissing scenes ever.

You can watch it on Youtube.

Wish You (Korean movie): A soft and sweet comfort movie (no homophobia, no tragedy, just a love story!). The plot is very simple: A keyboarder and a singer fall in love. But the simplicity is what makes it so incredibly beautiful. The storytelling is subtle and gentle - it really doesn’t need a lot of dialogue or action, their eyes tell you more than words could. This movie just feels like a comforting hug.

You can watch it on Netflix and Rakuten Viki.

2gether (Thai series): Funny, sweet and comforting. This one holds a special place in my heart as it became my safe haven during quarantine. The plot is... well, don't think about the plot too hard. It doesn't really make that much sense. But it has a fake relationship that leads to real feelings and it feels very much like a cheesy fanfic, and sometimes that's exactly what you need.

You can watch it on Youtube.

Until we meet again (Thai series): We are moving away from the funny, sweet ones here. This one also has some light-hearted rom-com moments but it overall has a really heavy, intense feeling. It heavily(!) deals with suicide and death. A gay couple that lives during a homophobic time commits suicide together - and is reborn 30 years later in a more supportive time. (I feel like they were careful to not romanticize or glorify suicide which is very important with a plot like that). I can't remember ever crying this much during a series! It's heartbreaking and at the same time so important. Definitely a strong anti-suicide and anti-homophobia message.

You can watch it on Youtube and Rakuten Viki.

Color Rush (Korean movie): Supernatural mystery romance. It plays in a world where some people can not see colors - unless they meet their one special person. A little bit on the creepy side, especially Part 2, but also sweet and romantic! A good choice if you want something more thrilling than your usual love story. Deals with discrimination in a creative way by not focusing on real-world homophobia and still having messages that apply to the real world.

You can watch it on Rakuten Viki.

Semantic Error (Korean series): I think they never explicitly say that the lead is neurodivergent but this still very much felt like neurodivergent representation. A student exposes his classmate for not putting any effort into a group project and by doing so, messes up his plans to study abroad... It's an "enemies to lovers" and "opposites attract" type of story but never veers into problematic territory. They don't overdo the "enemies" part and the series did a great job on showing consent, especially with a main character who doesn't like (spontaneous) touch.

You can watch this on Rakuten Viki.

Not Me (Thai series): I'm taking a little risk by including this one - I am currently watching this, so I don't know the ending yet! But I already love it so much that I feel justified in already including it in my favorites. A man disguises himself as his twin in order to discover who attacked him and put him in a coma. It's thrilling and fast-paced and a bit more violent than I usually like - but it's so deep and dives into so many important topics. Social justice, anti-capitalism, disability rights, to just name a few. If you feel like most love stories are too superficial and predictable, you'll love this.

You can watch this on Youtube.

Bonus: Until we meet again and 2gether feature lgbt+ actors (not the entire cast), Bad Buddy was directed by a gay man and Not Me by a trans woman!

With all my love,

Your Tumblr Dad

[deanismysavior]

Today I tried rewatching season 4 from the perspective of an audience member who had zero clue about Will’s sexuality before starting the season. I tried stripping my mind of any outside information and just watching the show unfold. And I realized that without context, especially if I was a straight audience member who didn’t easily pick up on queerness, there’s nothing in volume 1 that explicitly televises Byler or Will’s sexuality if you aren’t looking for it. There’s little details and some blink and you’ll miss it vaguely coded convos. But if you had no idea about Byler previously, I feel like it can easily go over your head. Even the painting is a detail that can easily be forgotten. I feel like the first explicit sign is volume 2 and the painting confession but without knowing Will is gay and in love with Mike previously, even that might be somewhat confusing. Thoughts?

I haven't tried to do this, so my view of this might be skewed, but I did watch this with my mom who is not queer and she picked up on Will's queerness pretty quickly into Vol 1. She definitely thought Mike was straight until I suggested the subtext to her, so I think that for general audience members, seeing Mike as gay or queer is a lot harder to pick up on because they don't have the lived experience of being queer and don't understand what repression looks and feels like. To most people, Will comes across more obviously as queer because he's never shown interest in girls and he's been bullied for being gay in the show previously, even if at the time it was just conjecture, the suggestion was still there. But with Mike, I think even though the clues are there, if you put on your straight glasses just because he's with El, people can more easily explain away his actions as being platonic, friendly, awkward, etc. They don't really understand the complexities of queerness. To me, I do think that even without having known about Will's sexuality before s4, the general audience SHOULD have been able to see it, especially in the way Noah played his role this season, but I'm also someone who pays attention to the media I consume, so what seems obvious to me from a narrative standpoint could be completely lost on someone else. I don't think that burden should fall on the writers though. They put enough into the story to make Will's queerness obvious if you're actively watching (the painting, the jealousy, the pushing off the girl's advance, the Alan Turing presentation). I think the real problem is that people don't actively watch what they consume most of the time anymore. Critical analysis has become largely lost on general audiences, which only works to their detriment, but this is to say that them not getting it doesn't make it badly written. There's a lot of power in nuance, and I think that's one of the things this season actually did fairly well, they made people ask questions. Here's my thing: if people can go back and look at the earlier seasons and realize they missed Vecna all along and think it's some crazy cool plot twist, they should be able to do the same thing with both Mike and Will's queerness (not that queerness is a plot twist but you get my point). They should be able to look at the earlier seasons and say, "how could I have missed that?" But likely, instead they'll just say it came out of nowhere. I think I wandered a bit there, but I guess my point is that we shouldn't have to hit people over the head with queerness in order for it to be real. Not sure if this fully answered your question, but these are just some of my thoughts.

[delicrieux]

☆ﾐ 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚜𝚊𝚢 “𝚘𝚑”

PART 10: BIG DICK IS BACK IN TOWN

y/n is back in brooklyn for the holidays. thinking that a stream will make her feel less homesick for cali, she starts working on her famously titled hentai.free.srv. what was supposed to be a relaxing stream turns into a special delivery about two hours in.

─── corpse husband x reader ─── soc. media + written fiction! ─── word count: 2.2k ─── ❥ req: Here's one... You know those apps for delivery like Domino's or whatnot... What if reader is streaming Among Us with Corpse, and reader mentions they're hungry and Corpse offers to order them food, and readers like no no it's fine... Then there's delivery at the door (Corpse ordered beforehand) 

author’s note: fucky format is also back in town baby!!! also if you find any mistakes - no u didnt <3 thank u everyone for enjoying this story sm i literally cant believe how feral yall going strawberry cow was a nuclear explosion im still recovering tbh. got an ask a while ago and decided to incorporate it into myso. happy holidays everyone! myso will continue on monday!

ultimate masterlist.  ҉  myso masterlist   ҉   previous.  ҉   next.

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Indeed, being soft on any social media platform was the biggest disgrace and needed to be eliminated post haste. Moreover, it was a slippery slope - once you start flooding your timeline with cute imagery and heart emojis, what will stop you from posting inspirational Facebook quotes? Disgusting. If Rae were here, she would chide you (not you thinking about her as if she’s dead or something). For once in your life, you feel like you deserve it. 

Alas, you hope this little chaos you’ve caused is enough to throw everyone off. The stans, especially. You know the hashtags, you’ve seen ARMY scourging for info online with the same fervor and ruthlessness 1 Direction fans hacked airport security cameras just to spy on the boys. If you had any dirty secrets online, they are out to the public now - thankfully, besides the Harry Styles stan account (with edits and all), you have nothing. Though, now that you think about it, exposed nudes would have been better than your Punk!Harry edit receiving almost a million views. God, your life’s a fucking mess.

Your fans aren’t the only ones out for info - you, too, are trying to decipher Rae’s message. Code: Barbecue Sauce. The two of you had come up with it roughly two years ago, around the same time when you promised that if you didn’t find significant others by the time you’re 40, you’ll just marry each other. It was one of the many rules found in your friendship codex. Barbecue Sauce signifies information - an exchange of information. And depending on how it ends or begins (”So I’m sitting there” alludes to Rae, “On my titties” alludes to you), secret data on that person is given away, usually free of charge. 

But why? And to whom did Rae give away what? You had pestered her mercilessly and even sent some voice messages where you were crying. You were only crying because of a video of a grandpa smiling you saw on TikTok, but you are a snake, and so you put those tears to good use. If streaming doesn’t work out, you’ll just become an actress. Hollywood would love you. Your PR firm sure as fuck wouldn’t, though.

Rae was having none of it. She said you’ll figure it out eventually. Told you to channel your superior puzzle skills. You were quick to remind her that you can barely count to ten without having an aneurysm. Oddly serious, she admitted that she worries for you sometimes. Why only sometimes?! you demanded. She merely sighed. uttering under her breath something that sounded closely to “Boke.”

You leave her for barely a week and she’s already neck deep in the gay volleyball anime, hoodie and cardboard cutout and everything. Your life is falling apart.

But Brooklyn is nice. It had snowed when you stepped off of the plane. Thousands of snowflakes sprinkling into your hair, dotting your cheeks and nose. You missed this sight back in Cali. You missed your parents, too. 

Home cooked meals, old sweaters, your old room and about 40GB worth of old high school pictures on your computer. You went through them all one night. Some were stomach churning, cringe inducing nightmares. You were especially fond of those. Texted some of your friends that were still in Brooklyn, met up, decided to bake. Bad idea, Rae was the resident chef back in Cali. Besides laughing till your stomach hurt, and almost burning down your kitchen, nothing all that significant happened. Somewhere down the line, at about 3 am, half-way through a cheesy rom-com you had the overwhelming urge to text Corpse.

That’s where the problems really started. God, you missed California, missed being in the same timezone with a guy you hadn’t even met yet, how embarrassing is that?! You missed skating around and taking pictures of the beach in the setting sun, sending it to him, silently wishing he was with you to admire the view. 

You really want to call him. And to hang out with him. But for some reason, the thought of that springs up immediate anxiety and you shy away from asking. Him sending you cute good morning texts doesn’t help, either. Maybe it’s better he doesn’t know that you’re a blushing, stuttering mess each time you read “baby”. 

Late evening. Your stream is already set up, people are slowly trickling in and you greet them with a grin and a soft “Hello! Hi hi!”. You did your best to make your room a perfectly chaotic backdrop - led lights, an embarrassing amount of anime merch and plushies. You always try to balance out your weeb side by dressing hot as fuck for your streams - today’s inspiration just so happens to be egirls. Mostly because you watched one too many egirl make-up tutorials on TikTok, and also because you’ve been listening to Corpse’s song all day.

Yeah, no, who are you kidding, you dressed up this way because you were hoping Corpse was watching your stream. You didn’t forget your cat headphones, either. You know he likes them. You want to make him suffer. Perhaps then, finally, he will ask you out, so you wouldn’t have to.

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“I feel like,” You start when you put away your phone, staring idly at the chat, “I feel like I need a new name for you guys. Calling you guys after two years of streaming is just... weird, no? I also don’t respect men so I don’t want to call you guys. Like, so many creator’s have, like, a name for their fans. Uhm, Cody Ko has the chodesters, Kurtis Conner has, uh, folks? Kurtis Town? Citizens! Markiplier has mommy issues--” You can’t help snorting, “So, I’ve been, like, thinking - I know, shocking! - so I was thinking I’m gonna name you cockroaches. Because you’re grimy little shits impossible to kill. And also then I can use the legendary Minaj meme ROACHES!”

Your stream enthusiastically echoes ROACHES, making the chat swim. Yes, if anyone would enjoy such a name, it would be your audience. You’re as equally proud as you are disturbed.

“Well, anyway.” Leaning back into your chair, you throw your arms out with a bright grin, “Big dick is back in town, baby! If you noticed the backdrops different, it’s cuz I’m in Brooklyn now. Don’t ask me when I will return to Always Sunny, I don’t plan that far ahead.”

While Minecraft boots up, you decide to answer a few questions.

r u dating sykkuno?

You want to smack your head into the keyboard, but as it is, you can’t exactly afford a new one, so you refrain, “No, Sykkuno and I are not dating, we are just good friends. Uhm, I’m not sure how much I’ll have to repeat this, but, we really aren’t, so if the roaches could chill - Oh my God, that sounds so stupid, I love it - uh, yeah, if the roaches could chill that’d be great.”

the roaches lmao sounds like we’re a sports team

“Oh shit, yeah it does, uh-- maybe I can make like, jerseys or something. That’d be cool, I think.”

how disappointed are your parents with the way your life turned out?

“My parents are actually not disappointed at all!” You say with a cute little smile, “Uhm, they’re both really proud, actually. They’re glad I found something I love doing and made a job outta it. Dad finds my Youtube videos endearing. Yes, they watch pretty much all of my videos, unless I explicitly tell them not to. And yeah, with all the fucks and thirsting for anime characters. Uhm, it was very embarrassing at first, but I mean, after a while, shame just...doesn’t exist anymore, I guess? Funny thing about my parents, actually, when they watch my videos-” You eye catches a comment, “Oh! No, they only watch my Youtube videos. They don’t know how to use Twitter, thank God. Uhm, anyway-- when they hear a name they don’t know, like, I dunno, Dabi, or something, they google--” You’re grinning by now, eyes crinkling, giggling softly, “--who that is, and buy me like, merch and stuff. It’s really cute. 

can i be adopted by ur parents plz

will you and corpse ever collab?!

You were about to answer, though the man of the hour himself decides to do it for you.

Corpse_Husband: yes.

Okay, not to say your heart skipped a beat, but it totally did. With a pleased smile, you nod, like one of those bobble head toys sold at the dollar store. The motion is oddly reminiscent of Sykkuno’s own nod. Perhaps you had picked it up from him. The chat seems to notice.

pack it up, sykkuno

More questions pile about this mysterious collab you and Corpse are planning. Yeah, you’d like to hear more about it, too, since he single highhandedly decided one was happening right now. Corpse remains silent. Fine, keep your secrets. 

“Okay, guys, oh, I mean, roaches, Oh my God--” You’re covering your mouth, giggling, “-calling all roaches, calling all roaches, calm down. Everyone grab a snack and a blanket I’m turning up the music volume so we can all chill. Entering chill zone. Entering chill zone. Roaches, prepare.”

we are prepared

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An hour or so passes and you grow hungry. It shows with the amount of cakes you had baked in your server. Currently, you find yourself throwing eggs at the wall of one of the renovated houses, your face scrunched in concentration and slight frustration. 24 of the 50 eggs have been wasted. “What’s a girl gotta do to get some chicks around here?” you had uttered under your breath, until, finally, a screech - the egg finally spawns a mob. Your mouth falls open, “Aww, look!” You approach it, so small, walking in zigzags beside you, “It’s a baby chicken! Die, bitch.” The baby chicken is no more as you swing your bedazzled (you have mods) diamond sword. You’re cackling by the time the dust settles.

y/n is a child murderer

“Roaches,” You address your fan-base, spurring another fit of laughter - you can’t get over the name, “I think I’m like, forgetting that eating in Minecraft won’t actually make less hungry in real life.”

take a break and go eat queen <3

“Fuck no, we starve and die like men. Now I actually really need another chicken.”

Another twenty minutes trickle by and you’re trying to lure back a panda from the jungle when there’s a knock on your bedroom’s door. Whipping your head to the side, you slide down your headphones. At the same time, your mom pokes her head through the ajar door, “MOM!” You scream, “Get OUT of my room I’m playing Minecraft!” But your yell has no actual bite to it, as you don’t manage to hide your smile. Your mom laughs, doing some sort of sign language and motioning for you to follow her with her head. That or it’s some sort of performative dance. 

“I’m live right now,” You tell her, pointing at your screen. She knows this already, though, “do you want to say hi?” 

The roaches spam the chat with friendly hellos. You mom, quite impatient now, waves you over. 

“Sorry, roaches, mom needs something. Be back in a bit!”

Stopping the stream, you rush out of your seat and pleased she slinks into the hallway. “What’s this about?”

“Your pizza came.”

“My what now?” You echo, confused.

“Domino’s. You ordered pizza?”

“What? No? I was busy with the stream, I never--”

Thankfully, you had managed to grab your phone from your room before you exited. You almost choke on spit once you read the messages.

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You decide that it’ll be impossible to stream after experiencing what you had just experienced. You tweet out a quick apology to the roaches (God, that fucking name) and say that you had a breakdown but you’re okay. That is as a close to the truth as you managed to muster. It’s a sad sight, chewing and crying; your mom winced when she saw your state - disheveled hair and rundown eyeliner and everything. “D’aww,” She had muttered, caressing the top of your head, “don’t cry my little raccoon.”

If anyone was ever to ask you where did your chaotic nature come from, you’d answer with my mom. To make yourself feel better, you took a selfie - duck face and peace sign and the horrible 2000′s angle. Sent it to Rae. 

looking hot, her message read. 

thanks, was all you replied with.

You couldn’t just leave things as they were. Once you calmed down, you wanted to text Corpse, but how would you follow up the ungodly caps lock and screeching? Impossible. An idea sprung to mind, one that was brave. Taking the first step.

Instead of sending a text, you sent a voice memo.

“Thank you for the pizza, it was delicious.”

You voice still sounded a bit raspy. His reply was instant. Your heart skipped a beat. He sent a voice memo back.

“Glad you liked it, baby.”

He was going to be the death of you.

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tags (in italics is those i couldn’t tag! make sure all’s ok w your settings!) : @littlebabysandboxburritos - @fairywriter-oracle - @tsukishimawh0re - @ofstarsanddreams - @bbecc-a - @annshit - @leahh19 - @letsloveimagines - @bellomi-clarke - @wineandionysus - @guiltydols - @onephootinfrontoftheother - @liamakorn - @thirstyfangirl - @lilysdaydreams - @pan-ini - @mxqicshxp - @tanchosanke - @yoshinorecommends - @flightsandfantasy - @liljennyx3 - @slashersdream - @unknown-and-invisible - @sinister-sleep - @fivedicksinatrenchcoat - @mercury–moon - @peterparkerspjsuit - @unstableye - @simonsbluee - @shinyshimaagain - @ppopty - @siriuslystupid - @crapimahuman - @ofthedewthesunlight - @mythicalamphitrite - @artsyally - @corpsesimpp - @corpsewhitetee - @corpse-husbandsimp - @hyp-oh-critical - @roses-and-grasses - @rhyrhy462 - @sparklylandflaplawyer - @charbkgo - @airwaveee - @creativedogs - @kaitlyn2907 - @loxbbg - @afuckingunicornn - @fleurmoon - @yeolliedokai - @truly-dionysus - @multi-fandom-central707

more tags are in the comments bcs tumblr only allows me to tag 50 people max 💙

[disaster-j]

Hi,

As an Indian do you think we will ever get Indian BLs? and why haven't we gotten one already. I mean China did it. Yes, they[pre-2016 ban] are all bad and sad but they exist. I don't think I've seen any Indian queer story driven by love as the main plot.

And if we did get one what would you like it to be? Style or story or whatever comes to mind.

At first I wasn't hopeful even after Badhai Do[which was more a queer angst story than queer joy, which is what I associate with BL] but after Kinnporsche trended in top 10 on twitter week after week...I'm not so sure...But I want one.

Queer Indians deserve one. And yes there was Subh mangal zyada savdhan but that's just one and frankly I didn't really vibe with it. I was in theatres with friends and they were like what a good story and I was like huh??? good??? Okay, maybe but good??? Like maybe they liked it because they hadn't consumed as much queer content [at the time it was only Western] as I had. And I was so irritated by the Ayushman Khurana wears a gay flag and gives a speech. Felt like a lecture and not a movie, if you know what I mean.

Okay so, from where I'm standing, having an indian bl industry is kind of impossible. See, these industries' survival is based almost entirely on their audience's buying power. Specifically, buying novels and merch. Those sales numbers are what attracts investors and advertisors whose investments keep projects afloat. BL audiences are made up of majorly young girls and young girls in India simply don't have the kind of financial freedom to buy explicitly gay merch.

The lack of financial freedom that a majority of teenage girls and unmarried women face in our country has been a cause for concern for a long time and there just hasn't been enough progress made on that front. Same sex relation and content depicting the same is also still a pretty big tabboo across the country. Sexual content of ANY kind is a big tabboo too and most BLs are explicit to some extent. The target audience in this case will not be able to meet the kind of sales goals these producers need to justify the cost of producing BLs. This isn't even an educated guess, the creators of queer indian cinema like SMZS have said that since these same sex love stories don't sell, production houses are discouraged from making more such content in the future. Everything is about money and people will not make stuff they cannot sell.

The few queer shows and movies we do have constantly get overly criticised, with even queer audiences expecting much higher standards from queer media than they do from non queer media which causes these films to consistently flop. Yes the flag cape scene in SMZS is a bit preachy but that's the point? The character is actively preaching. He's being shunned and dehumanized and he's reacting to that by refusing to be silenced and forced away from the man he loves. He's being as obnoxious as possible so he's impossible to ignore. Sure SMZS may not be everyone's cut of tea but they did their best to tell a love story between two men with all the grand gestures typical of a bollywood romance and got no recognition for putting in the effort where no one else did even that much. That's demoralising. No one wants to make content that will get nitpicked and boycotted. No one is going to go out there and dedicate their careers to making movies and shows that y'all are just going to rip to shreds at first sight bc it's not this or that enough while straight content gets to be however bad it wants without a second thought bc "no one expects perfection from bollywood."

I want more queer content just as much as the next queer Indian. Understand that the key to getting that is actually appreciating the content that is already there for all the good that it has brought to table, alongside its faults. Watch the few mainstream queer movies like SMZS, Ek Ladki Ko Dekha, Badhaai Do. Watch the ott content like Romil and Juggal or Made in Heaven. Watch the web shows like Firsts and All About Section 377. Create a non-hostile environment where queer media is allowed a chance to thrive the same way cishet media gets without any conditions and you'll see the content you want emerge with time.

[beepboop358]

You say that "a lot of the writers are queer" and I'm sorry but that's simply not true. The only "writer" that we know is queer is the girl who runned the stranger writers twitter account in 2019/2020, Dened. I remember that she got the job in June 2019, so after season 3 was already finished. So we have no proof that they were queer writers for the first 3 seasons. I disagree that Byler happening would be queerbaiting because they never actually baited us with it. Queerbaiting is usually like having jokes of two people being gay for each other but never following through, and teasing a relationship on and off the show. We never had anything like that for Byler. If it doesn't happen, it would be because all their hints were accidents and coincidence or just gay coding for Will only. The only time that could have been queerbaiting would be when stranger writers posted some Byler pictures knowing that they were a lot of Byler comments, like the "thinking about halloween costumes" Byler photo that was posted on national coming-out day, but once again it could be about Will coming out to Mike. So I'm really not confortable with everyone calling queerbaiting if Byler doesn't happen. That's not queerbaiting, they never promised us anything, they never even talk about Byler. I just think it would make the fandom look bad, I wish instead we could just say "well, guess we were wrong", you know.

hey anon!

As far as the writers go, Dened is the only one who has confirmed that they are queer publicly. But this tweet from a few months ago says "we", not singular...

Also, A few of the writers from s1-s3, have worked on several other queer projects. Take Kate Tefry for example who wrote in season 2 and season 3, and also wrote Fear Street Part 3, in other words, the gayest of the trilogy. I'm not saying everyone who works on queer media is queer, not at all, but queer people usually seek out and write queer media.

And, "staff writers" on each episode don't get credited, but they still work on it... So in reality, we have no idea if/how many queer writers worked on s1/s2/s3, because they won't be named as the writer for the episode, so we can't rule out the fact that some did work on the episodes just because someone who isn't queer or isn't publicly out (not trying to assume anyone's sexuality) wrote the episode. And writers are usually fairly private with their lives.

I never said byler happening was queerbaiting? I said if it didn’t it would be queerbaiting, and thats 100% true. Queerbaiting is not just clear jokes or like what you say it is, queerbaiting is and can be in the subtext and in the mise-en-scene as well. And if you take a second to look at the mise-en-scene and subtext in ST, queercoding is EVERYWHERE.

Just some short examples- Take the subtext of the word “crazy” in the show, put that with the crazy together scene, boom. 1000% Queercoding. The eyewitness and ghostbusters parallels put onto byler, is 1000% queerbaiting. Queercoding (and queerbaiting) is not explicit most of the time, but it is very much still there. I suggest you take a look at my byler proof slides if you want to get an idea of just how much queercoding is in the show, 200+ slides of it to be exact.

It’s absolutely intentional, so if they don’t follow through with byler, they intentionally put queercoding in the subtext and mise-en-scene to lead queer viewers on, which i am very much not cool with for obvious reasons.

I go to film school, and i have NEVER seen queercoding in any piece of media as extensive as the queercoding in ST and i am not just saying that, i have literally never seen so much queercoding in one piece of media. Even explicitly queer media has less queercoding in some cases… Take The Wilds on amazon, there is an explicity queer couple in the show, yet there is nowhere near as much queercoding for Shelby and Toni as there is in ST for Mike and Will. Or take Young Royals on Netflix, again another explicitly queer couple in the show but again nowhere near as much queercoding as ST. In fact I think them NOT teasing or addressing byler in the actual show bodes very well for byler happening and not being queerbaiting.

It’s completely fine if you don’t think them not following through with byler isn’t queerbaiting, I respect your opinion. But having dug into the show as much as I have, I disagree. If by some chance byler did not happen, I think it makes the show look bad, not us, and we would have every right to be upset. Ofc i’m not advocating for attacking Netflix or anything, but we would have been led on for sure.

thanks for the ask! I hope you're well! xx

[handsmotif]

The Queercoding of Pinky and the Brain

This originally was just me infodumping to my friends on discord, but I decided it might be interesting to some people on here, so I polished it up and made it an actual essay lmao

To start, we’re going to break this into 2 sections -- the relationship between the mice, and Pinky’s relationship with gender, because queercoding doesn’t just mean gay!

For a 90′s show, Pinky and the Brain (and its mother show, Animaniacs) was very progressive for its time! But there were still lots of things that they couldn’t slip by censors, and thus, that’s where we have to read between the lines. And that is something I wanted to clarify here before we dive in, the actual meaning of queercoding. It’s NOT the same as queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is when the people producing certain media purposefully dangle the possibility of queer representation to lure in audiences (most prominent examples are BBC Sherlock, Riverdale, and Supernatural I GUESS? who knows abt that last one anymore), but never follow through, purely for profit. Queercoding is when media producers WANT to write in queer representation, but can’t, usually because the censors won’t let them. So, they must resort to subtext. (example: the policemen from Gravity Falls) It could also be unintentional, simply assigning certain characteristics associated with the LGBT community to characters. (example: Bugs Bunny, many Disney villains) Either way, it heavily relies on the audience picking up subtext, but whether it’s malicious or not varies, depending on the media. Bugs Bunny is an example of positive accidental queercoding, while a lot of Disney villains are negative examples.

Now, to actually discuss the gay little mice! Pinky and the Brain, whether it be intentional or not (based off comments from Maurice LaMarche, Rob Paulsen, and Tom Ruegger, signs strongly point to intentional, but it’s never been explicitly confirmed), is an example of positive queercoding.

There are many moments that I could pick out to discuss here, but we’ll start with some VERY on the nose gay metaphors. 

Remember Romy? If you don’t, that’s their actual biological son! Romy came about due to a cloning accident, where their DNA got combined and spat him out. 

There’s SO many things I could say about Romy. Every appearance he makes has an overarching gay metaphor as the plot. His first appearance in the episode Brinky (yeah it’s literally titled their ship name), it deals with his dads (WHICH I ALSO WANT TO POINT OUT, he DOES call them both dad, and they do both call him their son) disapproving of the fact that he wants to leave home and not follow in their footsteps of taking over the world. Brain even goes as far as disowning him whenever he tells him, which is certainly something a lot of queer people can unfortunately relate to. Also seen a lot in this episode is Pinky and Brain arguing even more than a married couple than usual, which pushes Romy away even further. Later, when Romy eventually does leave, and Brain starts to regret chasing him away, he tries desperately to reach out to him, but Romy doesn’t want anything to do with him. They end up tracking him down to an apartment building, where Romy is now living with his human girlfriend. When questioned about their relationship, the girlfriend, named Bunny, goes off on a tangent about how people shouldn’t judge others based on labels or relationships (hello?), and that Brain needs to be more tolerant. Brain apologizes and Romy forgives him. Happy ending.

Romy’s only other appearance is in the comics. Essentially, the plot of this one is that Brain wants to become the president of the local high school’s PTA, but he needs Romy’s help to make it look like he has a normal home life. He also enlists the help of Billie, the obligatory Woman introduced to make sure Brain doesn’t look as gay as he actually is, that he has a crush on. She pretends to be his girlfriend, and Pinky pretends to be Romy’s uncle, while they make up the story that Romy’s actual mother was lost at sea. Because if the organization found out that Brain has a son with a MAN??? THINK of the controversy! Anyway, the plan works, and Brain actually manages to get elected as president. Throughout this though, Pinky gets WEIRDLY jealous that Brain keeps brushing him aside for Billie. To the point where during Brain’s inauguration, Pinky actually dresses up as the wife/mother lost at sea and storms into the room.

[ID: Comic panels of Pinky, Brain, and Romy on stage at the inauguration ceremony. Pinky busts into room wearing drag, saying, “Yoo hoo! I’m back from years lost at sea to be with my son and ungrateful husband! Narf!” He then hugs Romy, while glaring at Brain. He goes on to say, “I’ll stand by your side, even though you left me behind!” The people in the audience begin to question this, saying, “Oh great fuzzy bangs!”, “What’d she say?!”, “He deserted her to be with that other woman!”, “What kind of monster is he?!”. Brain then rips off Pinky’s wig and says, “This isn’t my wife! This isn’t even a woman! It’s my roommate, Pinky.” Pinky replies, “Well, yes... But Romy really is my son! Poit!” And Brain responds, “N-Nonsense! He’s my son!” More people in the audience angrily speak up, saying, “What’s that?”, “He lives with a guy who likes to dress up in women’s clothing and the both claim to be that kid’s father!”, “Grumble! Mutter!” /END ID]

Needless to say, this doesn’t end well for them. What we can conclude from this is that homophobia exists in the Pinky and the Brain universe, and our characters are directly affected by it.

Moving on, And-There-Was-Only-One-Bed is a pretty common occurrence with these two. Their cage is big, they have plenty of room for two beds, but? They choose to sleep together? Even in some times where this has been inconsistent and they DO have separate beds, they’re always RIGHT next to each other. (what if we put our minecraft beds together ❤😳)

I would like to mention the episode, You’ll Never Eat Food Pellets In This Town Again! This episode is interesting to say the least. Deals with a lot of the meta of the show. Anyway. In this episode, Brain has a nightmare that he’s in a loveless marriage with Billie. You know, the woman he’s supposed to have a crush on. In the end, he wakes up from the nightmare in the same bed as Pinky.

Speaking of female love interests, Pinky is seen having multiple relationships with characters of different species. Any time this is brought up by Brain, Pinky counters with Brain being too intolerant. An honorable mention with this is in Wakko’s Wish, when Pinky is with Pharfignewton, and Brain’s constant pestering about their relationship could be read as jealousy. Pinky needs a mousy date, after all!

Something else I would like to mention is in one episode (I forget what it’s called, I’ll try to look it up later and edit this), Brain is applying for a job. The employer asks Brain if he’s married, and Brain hesitates before saying he “has a roommate,” but that he’s occupied with his own things, which then cuts to a shot of Pinky applying lipstick.

Leading into part two of this essay, Pinky’s relationship with gender! Pinky has always been very gender nonconforming, and loves to wear dresses, do his makeup, and make himself look pretty. For the most part, this is played pretty straight, and not as a gag, like a lot of shows tend to do! It’s just a casual fact about him that he likes to present femininely sometimes.

This does play into their taking over the world plans pretty often, where Pinky wears drag, usually either to sneak into somewhere. Like in one of their earliest appearances on Animaniacs, Noah’s Lark, where they pose as a couple to board Noah’s, and I quote, “love boat.” After boarding, Noah says to himself, “Who am I to judge?” Okay. Yeah. Alright. Anyway.

I actually had less to say on this than I thought I did, but I wanted to make sure to emphasize that Pinky at the very least is coded as being Not Quite Cis, and that he’s played a key part in helping a lot of people watching the show figure out that they’re also Not Quite Cis. 

Wrapping this up because I’m hungry, but I want to throw in some more honorable mentions that I really do not see any type of cishet explanations for:

They literally go on a romantic date at a very fancy restaurant in Brain’s Night Off. This is played extremely casually, and the only remark from anyone that they receive is that they are “much smaller than the usual clients.”

Pinky, on at least one occasion, daydreams about him and Brain being a married couple, and wanting to be a housewife (the original malewife ❤)

There’s an issue in the comics where Pinky has a crush on another male mouse, and when Brain gets annoyed, Pinky reassures him that he thinks Brain is cute and quite the catch too

Brain attempting to kiss Pinky in the reboot??????

Brain actually did conquer the world once in the Halloween special, because Pinky made a deal with the devil for it, and thus Pinky got sent to hell! Brain actually went to hell and gave up the world to bring him back

Brain was extremely close to conquering the world once more in the Christmas special, but after reading what Pinky’s feelings for him were (nothing romantic, just Pinky basically just praising Brain for being so hardworking and an amazing mouse, and lamenting that he never gets anything for it), he gets so emotional that he sabotages himself and wishes everyone a Merry Christmas instead

TLDR; these mice are very queer and need therapy, and are probably the most heavily queercoded characters that I can think of in children’s media.

[veliseraptor]

Hi, Lise......I can't help but want to ask (if you don't mind), what are your favorite (that you personally like) books or movies/ tv series that contains lesbias and gays? Thanks if you want to answer.....

wow I completely forgot this ask was sitting in my inbox and has been for a long while. and uhhhh the thing is here that I actually...feel like I don't have a separate category in my head, so much, for "media that has queer people in it" and "media that doesn't"? which like. feels weird to say, but when I get questions like this, or requests for recommendations, I always...struggle to parse these things out. and also to parse out, for instance, "books that read as having queer elements" from "books with explicitly queer characters."

but I guess if I'm gonna try...most of these are going to be books, with a few exceptions.

BOOKS

Doctrine of Labyrinths is a four book series that comes stamped with a whole list of content warnings (rape and child abuse chief among them, probably) but is also one of my favorite series of all time, so, you know.

The Masquerade series by Seth Dickinson also comes with a big "IT'S SAD. IT'S SAD AND DARK" warning, along with content warnings for serious societal homophobia, but is another one of my favorite series of all time. it's not that I hate happy queer stories or anything, I just tend to like stories that aren't happy

The Locked Tomb Trilogy by Tasmyn Muir which you've probably heard about by now, but honestly I think the common tagline of "lesbian necromancers in space" really doesn't...cover it? It's funny, it's weird, it's unique in terms of setting, story, and magic system, it's doing some very interesting things and I can't wait to find out where Muir is going with it. it's very much stylistically not something that's going to work for everyone, but I would recommend giving it a go and finding out if it works for you.

I loved the series by Lara Elena Donnelly that starts with Amberlough, but that one's definitely Rise of a Fascist State and therefore might not be everyone's cuppa right at the moment.

Oh, Imperial Radch by Ann Leckie is very queer, not in terms of, like, "these characters are explicitly gay" but more in terms of what she's doing with gender. I don't know that I'd say it's a central part of the book but it's an important enough piece of the worldbuilding at least that I'd put it here. I don't actually remember, textually, but Machineries of Empire also feels very queer to me in a similar sort of way. A queer theory sort of way, maybe? idk.

this one's a sort of...not for me exactly but it was cool rec, but The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon was very classic fantasy in a lot of ways, but gay, and with some fresh twists on old tropes.

COMICS

The Wicked and the Divine by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie. look, it's just really good and not just for the queer. I need to do a reread from the top.

TV

I am really enjoying Motherland: Fort Salem actually, which I feel like people either aren't aware of or watch the first couple episodes and get turned off, but. one of the three main characters is lesbian, and sticks her hand down another girl's pants in like. the second episode? maybe even the first one, I don't remember.

Person of Interest doesn't introduce its gay until later in the series, but if you're anything like me as far as what you want in relationship dynamics you're in for a treat.

Yes, it is an animated children's show, but She-Ra and the Princesses of Power gave me such a gift it still makes me emotional because I'm going like. is this what it feels like to get what I want, canonically, in a piece of media? wow.

look, I'm putting The Untamed on here because (a) it is based on a gay webnovel and is pretty fucking gay considering the limits of censorship, everybody in the cast knows it and is playing it, and (b) some of the secondary relationships come off, I would argue, even gayer in the live action, probably because there are actor people putting them right in front of your face. (because the discourse is what it is: censorship isn't progressive, etc., but this is my list and I'm putting MDZS on here too.)

THOSE CHINESE WEBNOVELS I WON'T SHUT UP ABOUT

like, seriously. I mean, look, they take some work getting into because reading works in translation that come from a culture that you (general Anglophone you) may or may not be familiar with on one level or another actually does come with having to learn some shit and get used to some new things about genre and style, and reading webnovels maybe even more so, but as far as I'm concerned it's worth it.

so far the ones I've read are (titles in English, with common abbreviation, mostly from the Chinese) Heaven Official's Blessing (TGCF), Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (MDZS), Scum Villain's Self Saving System (SVSSS), The Husky and His White Cat Shizun (erha or 2HA), and (still finishing but at this point feel pretty comfy recommending) Clear and Muddy Loss of Love (JWQS).

there are several others on my list that I've had recommended and just haven't gotten to yet. my favorites personally are probably TGCF and 2HA, but I'm pending a reread of MDZS with a different translation to do my final assessment there and JWQS is giving me a lot of very good shit.

(I feel like I have to mention, because I'd be remiss if I didn't while I'm talking about ~personal preferences~, that the Coldfire Trilogy is astonishingly queer in my memory for one of the central relationships although it's been years since I read it, admittedly, and the Lymond Chronicles which is a series I love dearly is also incredibly queer, particularly for a series written in the 60s, and is like. juuuuust barely shy of having a canonically bisexual protagonist. and does have an explicitly lesbian secondary character, though fair warning, she, uh, does have it pretty rough.)

there's also some books that didn't make it on here even though they have queer characters because I felt like the queerness of those characters was not really key to the story, for instance the Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin, which is fantastic in its own right and I would recommend to everyone, but didn't quite feel like it fit this post.

I'm almost certainly forgetting stuff, but I did my best.