#i was gonna say except gender specific dialogue | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

devilofthehounds · 1 month ago

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[image id: A screenshot from Monark featuring Perrine Ikejiri, her dialogue reading "I'm Perrine! Nice to meet'cha!" /end id]

And if I'm gonna praise Monark for its surprisingly decent asexual representation, I do feel like I need to address the other end of the scale, Perrine Ikejiri.

Monark spoilers and discussion of transphobia under the cut.

And to be clear, the following isn't meant to be an end-all be-all on this subject. This is just how I feel about it all.

For those who don't know, Perrine Ikejiri is a minor NPC in the first-year building. After your first meeting, Perrine's alter ego will appear in the art room in the same building. Once you collect it, Perrine's student profile is revealed in full.

[image id: Screenshots from Monark featuring the student profile for Perrine Ikejiri, which reads as follows:

A member of the Go-Home Club who enrolled in the academy for high school. An honor student with a gift for painting who goes by Perrine and gets upset when referred to by his birth name, Shinjiro. A boy pursuing feminine beauty, Perrine was drawing self-portraits in the art room when the anomalies started.

/end id]

Yeeeeeah, not the greatest look in a vacuum. I got curious and decided to look up the original Japanese text.

[image id: Perrine's profile in Japanese. /end id]

Here's the original text for copy and paste.

---------

帰宅部。高等部から学園生徒になった外部生。絵画の能力が高い、特待生。

ペリーヌと名乗っておリ、進次郎という本名で呼ばれると怒る。

異変前は美術室で自画像を多く描いていた。

女性的な美を追求する少年。

---------

Here's what Google Translate gives. Where the Japanese text doesn't indicate gender, I've replaced the assumed pronouns with "pronoun".

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A member of the after-school club. An external student who became a student at the academy from the high school division. A scholarship student with great artistic ability.

[pronoun] calls [pronoun]self Perrine, and gets angry when people call [pronoun] by [pronoun's] real name, Shinjiro.

Before the incident, [pronoun] would often draw self-portraits in the art room.

A boy who pursues feminine beauty.

---------

The only gendered term in the original Japanese text is 「少年」 (shōnen), which taken literally means "youth", but is often used to mean "young man". Historically, it was used to refer to young people in general. More recently (around the 20th century), it started to get used specifically for boys, and a distinction between "shōnen" and "shōjo" (少女) became more prominent. (Wikipedia) (one of Wikipedia's sources)

Maybe I'm giving too much benefit of the doubt, but you could theoretically say the original profile tries to avoid gender altogether. If you took that idea and applied it to the localization, you could come out with something like this:

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A member of the Go-Home Club who enrolled at the academy for high school.

An honor student with a gift for painting who goes by Perrine and gets upset when referred to as Shinjiro (birth name). A youth in pursuit of feminine beauty, Perrine was drawing self-portraits in the art room when the anomalies started.

---------

It's just that writing around gender, especially pronouns, is harder in English than in Japanese, and whoever localized it probably didn't want to go through that effort, or they didn't give as much benefit of the doubt as I am, and went with he/him to make the deadline.

But unfortunately for me, as I started making this post, I wasn't satisfied with only considering the student profile, so I went back to some of my old saves and sprinted through the whole game for all of Perrine's dialogue (documented here).

Most of it is one-note and generic, like most non-story related NPCs, except two instances.

Shinya's Act of Woe

[image id:

Hahahaha! It's me... Shinjiro Ikejiri! That's right! I'm actually a guy!

What, you think I tricked you? Well, cram it! Blame yourself for making assumptions!

/end id]

Act 3/post-game

[image id:

"It's me! Perrine!"

See... Every time I said that, it was partially to myself, too.

But if I say I'm Perrine, then that's exactly who I am--Perrine!

Not some loser named Shinjiro Ikejiri, or whatever.

Anyway... I'm Perrine, and that's that!

/end id]

The only two instances of dialogue related to Perrine's gender are:

A) Perrine talking about being a boy while under the influence of madness-inducing Mist.

B) Self-affirmation of identity as Perrine.

I wish I had the original Japanese dialogue for the first one, but changing my Switch's language doesn't change Monark's language like with other games, and I doubt any walkthrough on Youtube went back to the first-year building's roof at that point in the game.

But with everything here... I'm not sure what I'm supposed to make of Perrine.

The easiest read would be transgender girl, given the profile's focus on chosen name vs deadname and the post-game affirmation. However, Shinya's Act of Woe, as well as Perrine never explicitly saying "I'm a girl", instead focusing on cuteness and adorability, could give points to interpreting Perrine as a cross-dresser or otokonoko, or maybe even just gender non-conforming.

If you twisted my arm, I'd probably say trans girl, but I have no knowledge of what the writer's intentions were. Even so, considering the other queer depictions in Monark:

Mirai Otomo, explicitly asexual. There's a minor plot point about getting her stalker to back off during Act of Lust, an arc all about romantic relations and feelings.

Koichi Izumi, explicitly stated to be attracted to men, was once bullied for being effeminate, and accepts himself by the end of the game.

Secret Scoop: Little Daemon?, which talks about both a male student and a female student developing feelings for Sumire Tono.

Sumire Tono herself, whose attraction to her twin sister Akane is a plot point. Regardless of how you feel about the incest part, her being attracted to another girl is never questioned or derided, and in a scene prior to the reveal, her "unconventional feelings" are met with acceptance.

Perrine wouldn't feel out of place as a clumsy but well-meaning attempt at trans representation. The post-game dialogue especially feels like an expression of Ego, which is literally the theme of the game: "Follow your Ego. Control the madness." Wherever you turn, people are telling you to hold tight to your Ego, hold your head high and live by your Ego. Hell, just read the game's opening monologue:

[image id:

If you wish to be your own person, to have your own Ego, then don't give in to what others call normal.

Only you can defend your will and desires. Your beliefs and morals.

Because in this unjust world formed of incomplete thoughts, your Ego is what makes you who you are.

Should the world deny your Ego and refuse to accept it...

Then prove to the world that you live by your own rules.

/end id]

With Perrine's post-game dialogue being "I'm Perrine, and that's that!", the game itself is affirming Perrine's identity. If the game were trying to be overtly transphobic, we'd probably have dialogue like "I was just kidding myself pretending to be a girl, I should accept myself as a boy named Shinjiro". But instead we have "If I say I'm Perrine, then that's exactly who I am--Perrine!"

The presentation isn't perfect, but I can see that the writers were trying to do something here, even if they didn't quite hit the mark.

Tl;dr: If intended to be transgender representation, Perrine isn't the best example in the world, but I feel there's more nuance to be had than just "this game is transphobic" and throwing the whole thing away.

#monark #monark game #monark spoilers #perrine ikejiri #devil chrono tag #transphobia tw #transphobia cw #tbh “clumsy but well-meaning” feels like an apt description of monark #it has a lot to say and it will say it #even if it doesn't always hit the mark

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lady-lunaaa · 3 years ago

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Light in the Dark

Pairing: Cassian x f!reader

Rating: SFW but minors dni

Warnings: no specific body or gender descriptions except use of pet names "pretty girl" and "princess", mating bond, hurt/comfort and just plain ol' lovey dovey fluff

WC: 1.6k

Summer prompts: outdoors, stream x

Dialogue prompts: "Let's go on an adventure", "Thank you, for tonight" x

a/n: just a lil' something something for my wife @dabilove27 who has Cass brainrot 💙 I hope this scratches some type of emotional itch, next time they're gonna fuck, promise. This is unbeta'd and was written in a couple hours, it probably shows lmao.

Lullaby: link here

Today was a hard day. You couldn't say why, it just was. Everything set your anxiety wheeling, spinning around your mind until it made you dizzy and sick. Your intrusive thoughts spiraled out of control, escalating and growing until they were all you could see, hear, think and feel. As soon as you woke with the fluttering wings of anxiety in your chest and that telltale pressure in your stomach, you wrote the day off.

You avoided everyone in the house, too lost in yourself and that hollow feeling the depression carved out of your chest. You felt bad for avoiding your friends, your family, but you were too tired for their bickering and teasing and the concerned looks you knew they'd give you when your answering smile was too tight and your words too short. Cassian was away today, training early this morning and then business at the Illyrian war camps, no doubt to butt heads with that War Lord dick, Devlon. But when you woke you felt a flicker of reassurance shoot down that bond between you, caressing your soul, soothing. It was also a question, to which you sent back an equally reassuring caress, 'I'm fine'.

Maybe it was a good thing, for him to not have to bear witness to one of your moods. You loved him dearly for always being there for you religiously when you were down, but it also pained you, the thought that your own dark moods might drag him down with you. He always assured you that wasn't the case, but it didn't stop your brain from telling you otherwise. You sighed, a tear rolling down your cheek, and just like that the dam opened. Emotion, pain, blossomed in your chest and lanced through you, and you barely managed to clamp down on the connection between you before you broke. Sob after sob escaped your throat and your thoughts ran rampant about what a terrible person you were, what a terrible Mate you were. Never good enough, always a burden. You don't know how long you lay there crying to yourself, desperately trying to keep your despair from leaking down the bond to your Mate.

At some point you fell asleep, and that was the blessed moment the relentless thoughts and emotions stopped, your mind clearly too tired to antagonise your dreams. It was a warm, calloused hand that woke you, cupping your cheek gently, warming you from the outside in. Your eyelids fluttered in recognition, Cass, the other half of your soul returned. You nuzzled into his palm and gave a small, sleepy smile to your Mate.

"Hey, pretty girl," his deep resonance rumbled through the air between you, from deep in his chest all the way to yours, sinking into your bones and calming your nerves.

"Hey, pretty boy," You teased lightly, your mind already clearer and anxieties dampened, like seeing him immediately put those self-hating words to bed. You opened one eye to peer at him and were greeted with Cass in his casual leathers, weapons and siphons away for the day, and his still-damp hair tied back in a loose bun. He must have come home, found you asleep, and slipped into the adjoining bathing room for a wash. His beauty never ceased to amaze you, every time you saw him those first time butterflies fluttered low in your stomach. His tanned skin looked even darker in the gloom of your shared room, his wings a mere shadow, black against black. And his golden eyes were so bright they almost glowed--your light in the dark.

"Is that so? I prefer to think of myself as rugged, handsome, sexy as all hell; but I'll take pretty. Az will be distraught, that's his specialty." You can't help but smile at your insufferable, cocky, silly Mate, always doing his best to make you smile on cloudy days.

"Oh sure, you're all those things," you hummed, "but you're right, Az is very pretty."

Yours words sent a growl rumbling through Cass, his broad chest deliciously defined in the blank tank that stretched across his pecks alarmingly. Oh, how you loved to rile him up, he always fucked you best when you pushed him.

You laughed, "Okay Okay, I take it all back!"

But apparently, that wasn't enough, if his large hands that reached for you were any indication to go by. He scooped you into his chest as if you weighed nothing, his thick fingers sinking into soft flesh as he tickled you mercilessly. You squealed in alarm and squirmed in his lap, and while you were distracted he rose from the bed and marched over to the balcony that led out into the open air. He drew the curtains and took a step into the outdoors. One wingbeat, and you were airborne.

The feeling never got any less thrilling, the quick ascension into the heavens that made your stomach drop and hair whip around your face fiercely. But within seconds you had leveled out and were gliding through the air peacefully. You were wearing your thick comfort leggings and a white shirt, nothing fancy, but you were glad for the long sleeves that kept the slight bite from the wind at bay.

You sent a thrum of confusion down the bond, and Cass flicked his eyes to yours.

"Let's go an adventure." His lopsided grin was all canines and charm, and your heart tugged, love blossoming anew for the beefy male who held you so firmly in his arms.

You snuggled into his chest, arms tightening around his neck and playing with the loose hairs at his nape, ready to embark on whatever journey he had planned.

You landed in a small clearing that was cut through the middle with a gurgling stream, the sound of water rushing over pebbles filled you with a sense of peace that you had craved all day. You breathed in the fresh evening air, the warm temperature dampened the chill off the water, and the night sky your new home was known for by its people shone brilliantly above. Stars flecked the heavens above, sworls of blue and purple painting the sky, illuminated by the moons glow.

You sighed contentedly as Cass set you down in the grass, joining you moments later. You looked out across the sparkling water before side-eyeing him curiously.

"Why are we here?" You asked quietly.

"Why not? I can't take my lady for a midnight stroll? Is chivalry dead?"

You shoved an elbow into his ribs and he wheezed, cutting you a playful look that turned instantly solemn, those amber eyes full of concern.

"You felt it," You sighed out the statement.

"Was kinda hard not to, I was worried so I came home early."

Guilt tore at your insides and Cassian's pained look told you he felt that too. You played with your fingers, twisting them together nervously.

"Do you want to talk about it?" His usually loud and cocky tone was so gentle and low that it made your heartache. The voice he reserved just for you.

"No. It was just the usual stuff, a bad day is all." You answered honestly, voice a little thick.

"How's that bad day lookin' now?" He asked you, that playfulness returning but still edged with a gentle concern, as he nudged your side with his arm.

"A whole lot better," you smiled up at him earnestly, marvelling in the way his skin gleamed in the moonlight, a sweep of silver across his high cheekbones.

"Can I make it even better than that?"

"Mhm," you nodded at him coyly, "you can hold me."

His eyes sparked, that molten gold igniting, as he happily pulled you closer to him across the earth. You hoped you didn't get grass stains all over your leggings, these were your best bum-around pair. Cass enveloped you in his warm embrace, your back pressed to his muscled chest and his thick arms around your middle. You sat on the bank by the river and let your Mate hold you, thinking about all he did for you, just to cheer you up. He knew exactly what to say to have you giggling and smiling so wide it hurt your cheeks. He knew exactly what to do to take the stress of the day off your shoulders, how to wash it all away and replace it with only love, affection and a shared silence that only lovers can find comfort in.

His chapped lips pressed soft kisses to the back of your neck slowly and his heated skin kept you cozy and warm.

"Thank you," you spoke suddenly, "for tonight."

You tightened your fingers where they laced through his, resting in your lap. He squeezed back firmly and rubbed his cheek where it rested against your own, the act so soft and intimate that your heart swelled.

"Anything for you, Princess."

You turned your head to the side and caught your lips with his, his surprised hum vibrated through your flesh and made it tingle. You allowed him to part your lips with his own and poured yourself into him, giving all of yourself to your Mate after the suffocating loneliness and isolation you inadvertently shared with him earlier. You hoped to erase the bitter taste of the bad feelings for you both with something sweet and light. And Cass accepted. He drank you in, drop by drop, tongue sweeping over yours hungrily.

And as your tongues danced languidly under the stars, he poured all his emotion into the bond that tethered you to him forever more. You opened up the connection completely, absorbing the adoration and contentment and desire he allowed you to feel flowing from him. You wrapped the swirling emotions tightly around yourself, to protect you from hurt, a balm on your heart.

And you took all the love and positivity and affection that you saved up just for him and weaved it around his, strengthening that tether between you that joined your hearts as one. Your Mate. Your light in the dark.

This is for you beautiful wife. Hope it lifts your spirits and gives you the warm fuzzies. Love you always <3

#cassian x reader #cassian acotar #cassian x you #acotar #acotar fanfiction #cass x reader #cass x you #acotar cassian #my writing #🌜luna writes🌛#light in the dark

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azurelyy · 2 years ago

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!!Azurelyy’s 100 Supporters Event~!!

I’d like to thank all of you for 100 supporters! This blog has helped me through a lot of personal shit and I want you all to know that each and every interaction, follow, comment, etc. means so much to me! This event is to celebrate you all and is my way of saying thank you. <3.

Okay, now that the mushy stuff is over with... On to the fun!

I have fluff and smut dialogue prompts from a collection of my favorite movies/tv shows/books! You may choose any prompt with any character from: Naruto, Avatar the Last Airbender, FMA Brotherhood, Kingdom Hearts, or InuYasha (so long as they aren’t on my will-not-write list, found in my rules).

Rules

- This event will last from July 28th, 2022 - August 31, 2022. This is a celebration, after all!

To participate, you must send in an ask/message me and indicate your request is specifically for the event.

You must choose a line of dialogue from the list AND the character to go with it. Please specify if there is anything else you want (ie. specific setting, a specific trope/kink, or if you have a preference on whether the char or reader says the dialogue line you chose.)

The requests will be posted on my own time. I will try and get to all requests before the end of the event on August 31.

Please make sure to specify gender for Smut requests. I mainly write f!readers, but can do m!readers if requested. Gender neutral smut requests will be implied only (how the character feels, etc. without specific descriptions).

These requests will (hopefully, this is me we’re talking about) be shorter than my usual requests. I am hoping to keep these as drabbles that are 1.5k words or less!

Once a prompt is chosen, I will cross it off. If you choose one and it has been taken, I will allow you to pick a new one - if you want!

All requests will be tagged under “azurelyy.100event”

You have to follow my rules.

Have fun! Thank you guys again for 100, and I hope we can celebrate more milestones in the future <3.

Fluff Prompts:

“Don’t forget: I’m also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”

“So, it’s not gonna be easy. It’s gonna be really, really hard, and we’re gonna have to work at this every day. But I wanna do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, you and me. Every day.”

“I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

“You have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love… I love, I love you. I never wish to be parted from you from this day on.”

“It was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together, and I knew it. I knew it the first time I touched her. It was like coming home, only to no home I'd ever known. I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car, and I knew it. It was like magic.”

“I’ve fallen in love. I’m an ordinary woman. I didn’t think such violent things could happen to ordinary people.”

"Love isn't patient, and kind, and humble. Love is messy, and horrible, and selfish, and bold. It's not about finding your perfect half. It's the trying, and reaching, and failing."

“I can't see anything I don't like about you.”

"I am done being scared, and I am done keeping secrets. I love you."

“But mostly, I hate the way I don’t hate you. Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.”

“Why me?” “Because you saw me when I was invisible.”

"I've come here with no expectations, only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is, and always will be, yours."

"You're late." "You're stunning." "You're forgiven."

"As you wish."

"I'd rather fight with you than make love with anyone else."

"I'm the exception..." "You are my exception."

"Me? I'm scared of everything. I'm scared of what I saw, I’m scared of what I did, of who I am, and most of all I’m scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I’m with you."

“I can’t remember anything without you.”

“You had me at hello.”

"What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey, that's a pretty good idea. I'll give you the moon."

Smut Prompts:

"I wish I knew how to quit you."

“Now, try your best to stay calm.”

“Put that thing back where it came from or so help me.”

“You must forgive my lips... they find pleasure in the most unusual of places.”

“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”

“You’re only in trouble if you get caught.”

“You should be kissed - and often - and by someone who knows how.”

“Take me to bed or lose me forever.”

“Either you have feelings or you don’t.”

“Oh, how we’re going to hurt each other.”

“The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield it.”

“Tonight, I will make you mine.”

“I desire you. I burn for you.”

“I need to taste you.”

“What are you doing?” “Making you feel really, really good?”

“I need you... do you feel how I need you?”

“Will you be quiet?”

“Where did you learn to kiss like that?”

“Beg for mercy. You can’t have it, though, not yet.”

‘I didn’t say I wanted an apology, did I? I said ‘Bite me again.’“

#azurelyy.100event #i am so excited #thank you all so much #100 follower event #naruto x reader #fma x reader #inuyasha x reader #kingdom hearts x reader #x fem!reader #avatar x reader #pinned

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whoree321 · 3 years ago

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the bad batch + what romance/rom com movies they watch with you

each of the bad batch x gn!reader

ok first and foremost i really truly believe to the pits of my soul that every single one of these fuckos loves romances and you cannot under any circumstances change my mind

ALSO it’s a gender neutral reader except kinda in echo’s theres like a very brief quote regarding breasts but like i still think even that is pretty gender neutral tbh

so anyway

Hunter: Pretty Woman

this is not the first time that i have publicly declared that i think hunter has a deep rooted connection to the movie pretty woman and it will not be the last

first of all this movie is incredibly soothing to hunters overwhelming savior complex

second of all hunter is literally richard gere (debonaire but emotionally distant gentleman that learns to love) and julia roberts (hooker with a heart of gold) at the same time

he was a little skeptical the first time you put it on but he instantly fell in love with it

the humor, the sensuality, the class divide, the glamour, the unconventional cinderella story of it all. it just really butters his bread

after the first time, when you suggest watching a movie and you pick this one he’ll act very aloof about it (“whatever you want cyar’ika, it doesn’t matter to me”) but secretly he’s really really happy bc it’s one of his favorites (you def know this and def pick it more often)

he absolutely hates the scene when stucky the lawyer hits vivian. like it doesn’t matter how many times he watches it he will fully turn his head away from the screen and say “I don’t like this part” and when it’s over he nuzzles a little closer into you and very tenderly kisses your forehead

he loves the soundtrack too. like he fully exposes how much he likes the movie when you catch him singing or humming “pretty woman” or “it must have been love” absently to himself (you kept it to yourself for a while but eventually you just had to tease him about it. he just smiled a little sheepishly and admitted he liked the songs before promptly changing the subject)

hunter also lowkey definitely wants to recreate the ending where richard gere shows up to her apartment in the white limo with you bc he thinks it’s such a sweet gesture and he wants to treat you like royalty

Crosshair: 10 Things I Hate About You

if there’s one thing about crosshair it’s that he’s a sucker for the enemies to lovers genre

maybe its just him projecting (spoiler alert it most certainly is) but he really enjoys watching the drama conflama of a miserable bastard be tricked into love

and really that’s the true essence of 10 Things I Hate About You

he will grumble and bitch and moan about not wanting to watch a ‘chick flick’ when you put it on, but 15 minutes in and he’s hooked

he has strong negative opinions on literally every single character except for kat and patrick

(crosshair really really wants to think he’s patrick but when it comes down to it he is katarina stratford in every single possible way)

he doesn’t say a word throughout the entire movie but you can tell when he’s annoyed at like bianca or cameron or joey bc he will openly scoff at them

will absolutely hum along in your ear during the “can’t take my eyes off you” scene and make out with you during the paintball scene

(seriously he wants to be patrick verona so bad)

when it’s over and you ask him what he thought he’ll roll his eyes and say “i guess it could have been worse” but his little smirk let’s you know he enjoyed it a lot more than he’s willing to admit

Tech: 50 Shades of Grey

ok hear me out on this one

tech is a huge movie talker. like subtitles are a non-negotiable if you wanna be able to take in any of the movies dialogue bc tech is most likely gonna make commentary over it the whole time

this makes him absolutely indescribably so much fun to watch bad/corny movies with

he will go off about EVERYTHING. the plot, the dialogue, the acting, the costuming, the music, the production quality. nothing and no one is safe. whether you just enjoy letting him talk at you or you join in on the roast, cheesy movies are a hoot between you two

and honey. 50 shades is one of THE cheesiest movies ever

you and tech will literally spend the entire duration of the movie tearing it to shreds

and the thing is tech is a very sarcastic, funny guy when he wants to be (and when it comes to you he definitely wants to be) so by the end of it he will have you in absolute stitches from laughing at the ridiculousness of both the movie and him

with any of the other batchers watching a movie like this either turns into a shy, slightly awkward experience (wrecker, echo) or an incorrigibly horny experience (crosshair, hunter)

but in this context tech literally has no shame or squeamishness about sexual things (why should he it’s a natural biological process?) so to yall the sex stuff is just another thing to roast

literally christian grey could be fully tying dakota johnson down and flogging her and tech will be like “in the last 3 minutes they have panned up to her nipples 4 times. this is criminally shoddy cinematography”

even tho he’s busy giving a detailed play by play critique, he never fails to keep some sort of physical contact with you (wrapping an arm around you and running his hand up and down your skin, playing with your fingers or your hair) so you know he’s enjoying spending this time with you despite his nasty words about the movie

also 1000% after you watch it tech will do extensive research on the ins and outs of bdsm and will have lots of hypotheses he wants to test out (as long as you’re willing and able ofc) ;)))

Wrecker: 13 Going On 30

of all the bad batch members, wrecker is the only one who unabashedly loves any movie that could be considered a chick flick

like he doesn’t even try to hide it or act like he’s too masculine for it. he loves romance and he’s proud of it

this man will have full marathons with you. rom coms, regular roms, tragic roms, hallmark roms, you name it and he’s game

his absolute favorite tho is 13 Going On 30

i feel like he has a huge soft spot for childhood best friends to lovers stories like he finds that type of lifelong partnership so endearing (and he loves to live vicariously through jenna since that type of romance was obviously never an option for him)

wrecker is also very childlike at heart and i think the idea of a 13 year old sweetheart trapped inside the body of a 30 year old cut throat magazine exec is so amusing to him (and maybe makes him feel just a little bit represented in the media)

he is definitely the type to completely engulf you in a cuddle for the entirety of the movie and he DEFINITELY cries into your shoulder at matty’s wedding when jenna is crying on the stoop with her dream house

he wants to try razzles so bad. like so bad. i think if he ever came across them somewhere he would barter at least one of his brothers for them

wrecker really just loves love and watching movies about it just reminds him of how lucky he is to have his own love story with you <3

Echo: The Princess Bride

i feel like it’s glaringly obvious why echo loves this movie

pirates. sword fighting. decades long revenge plots. the value of an honorable, loyal man. true love that never wavers even in the face of devastating tragedy and the darkest of hardships. clever but goofy humor.

echo considers this an action/adventure movie and NOT a romance movie (even tho it 100% totally is a romance movie) and requests to watch it very frequently

he can quote the whole thing. i’m seriously telling you echo loves the princess bride with his whole chest

even tho he refuses to admit it’s a love story above all else, he really does try to model himself in your relationship after wesley

like especially given what happened at the citadel and all the time you thought he was dead, the cinematic parellels are alive and present in y’alls relationship and he strives to be even half the man to you that wesley is to buttercup

literally in your day to day life he will sometimes respond to your requests with a smooth “as you wish ;)” (it doesn’t matter how many times he does it it still gives you butterflies)

when you watch the movie, he snuggles as close to you as possible and does his best to make youre comfy the whole time (he’s insecure about his prosthetics hurting you no matter how much you reassure him they don’t)

he just loves to be able to feel your heartbeat and your laugh when you giggle at the funny bits

every single time without fail at the part when buttercup is about to stab herself he leans down, ghosts his lips against the shell of your ear, and whispers the line in time with wesley: “there’s a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. it would be a pity to damage yours”

every single time without fail you wind up making out until he pulls away and tells you to watch the next part when wesley challenges humperdinck to a duel to the pain

echo just loves you to bits and wants you to know he’d endure a thousand fire swamps for you

Omega: Clueless

i have this really specific obsession with omega being a total girly girl and having very traditionally feminine interests as she keeps experiencing the universe and being exposed to a spectrum of gender expression beyond clone (masc and boring) and kaminoan (ugly)

so with that headcanon of her in mind, it’s vital to me that she sees clueless as soon as possible

clueless is an essential piece of media for a girl entering adolescence and i will die on this hill

it has literally everything you want and everything you need to develop into a well-rounded young woman

it’s so deliciously 90s and glamorama and valley girl humor and camp. its got meaningful female friendships and valuable life lessons and paul mf rudd

if there’s one thing you should encourage a burgeoning hetero teen girl to do, it’s to stick to dating guys like paul rudd in clueless. the earlier this message can be broadcast the better

the second you’re able to steal omega away from hunters watchful eyes (“hunter we’re just gonna watch finding nemo i swear!”) you show her this movie

at this point omega is not really a girly girl, but omega also has absolutely zero feminine influence in her life

the first time she sees clueless she is absolutely obsessed. like seriously she is so enamoured with the glitz and glam of cher horowitz

she asks you questions the entire time. she wants to know about EVERYTHING. the makeup, the clothes, the hair, the slang

(she definitely goes around saying stuff like “i’m totally bugging” for long enough afterwards that almost all of the boys have slipped up at least once with some ridiculous valley girl slang. you thought you were gonna die of laughter when you overheard tech say “as if!” to wrecker in the middle of an argument)

it just really introduces her to this whole world of femininity that she didn’t even know existed and she absolutely loves it

she makes you watch clueless with her seriously once a week at minimum. she begs you to style her hair like tai’s and you can’t help yourself when you happen to run across a little yellow plaid dress and buy it for her on sight

(hunter was gonna scold you for recklessly spending credits until he saw how omega almost cried from how happy she was for the gift)

honestly she enjoys the romance of it all and paul rudd is def her first celebrity crush but she enjoys more that you and her now have this special thing of hair and nails and pretty dresses

she loves how confident and beautiful and special you’re able to make her feel, and you love that you get to bring her that small sense of normalcy and happiness

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ventriloquisthief · 2 years ago

Text

i keep thinking about how kris was the peak of fire emblem avatar customization but i'm gonna put it under a read more because i have many thoughts

sure, robin and corrin are both cool, but the fact that kris wasn't locked to a specific class at the start of the game and instead got to choose from a pool of classes meant that they could simply have a decent bow or lance or whatever non-sword(/tome for robin) weapon that was available except for staves.

the portrait changes a bit depending on the class you start as which? very good touch. sure it stayed as that one if you reclassed into a different branch of classes but the fact it was different at all is what matters the most.

also the stat/growth customization being more than "select stat to go up. select stat go down." is nice too, since the somewhat abstract choices deciding modifiers also have some small effects on the actual dialogue. not big ones but like, if you say you were a noble's child then a piece of dialogue in the sixth prologue map will reflect this. but if you say you were a farmer it uses a different line instead. all five options are different there (and there's a couple other instances of this for the other questions' answers) but i can imagine it'd be hard to do that for the whole game. it's the small things that count sometimes though

(before someone mentions them, yes, byleth and shez both also exist for the class options but. all you get to customize for them is name, gender, and class. something with the cutscenes i'm sure but that's not the point i wanted to talk about with this post)

#fe12 #fire emblem #ramblings

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cienie-isengardu · 3 years ago

Note

Erron Black. Arguably a character I don't know much about. Is Erron Black feminist, sexist, or just soft on girls? Now I know MK everyone can fight everyone, but in story mode...

In MK10 Milenna impale his hand with a knife, but he doesn't fight her. I'll except injury for that one.

But then with Cassie Cage later, he fights her, only after she engages him, but once he knocks her down he stops fighting her to fight Kung Jin in the market.

Later on the bridge fight, we do see him fighting Jacqui Briggs, in the background, but she charged him, so she initiated it, and when they focus in he is fighting Kung Jun again.

In MK11, when young Erron Black goes after Jade and Kotal, he let's Jade leave without so much as a glance.

In the Black Dragon fight pit, even though she is right next to him, he ignores Sonya Blade until she actually attacked him. He doesn't even point the other gun at her, he points it up and looks away, until she punches him.

The only time it looks like he initiated a attack on a woman was when Sheeva got shot in her shoulder armor (and shrugged it off), but we immediately see him chasing down Nightwolf, so that looks like a accident. And they only fight after she punches him across the room.

And in the comic's when he kidnapped Cassie and Jacqui he defended them against Kano, telling him not to hurt them, and when he realized they were in serious danger, tried to free them and help escape.

Unless I'm missing something, well he doesn't avoid it, he doesn't fight initiate fights with women.

Before I will talk at length about Erron Black and his attitude toward women I wish only to emphasize this is my subjective opinion and there is no need to agree with me on this. Because no matter how much source material will be brought into discussion, there are many ways to interpret his mindset, especially since A) what Erron says is not always compatible with what he is doing and B) the specific game mechanics that limit and/or adapt his “personality” to the needs of the storyline.

Long text ahead!

Mortal Kombat X’s stated Erron Black was hired by Shang Tsung 150 years ago. So he was born and raised at least the previous century and half, thus his approach to women may be old-fashioned but I wouldn’t say he was somehow deeply concerned per se about gender to begin with. Yes, the mentioned examples suggest otherwise but their context is as important as Erron’s action alone. Because the context of the game will not always work well with in-universe logic. I’m talking here stricte about game mechanics that are built around chapter’s main hero that must win against the opponents and in the mentioned examples Erron was sadly just an obstacle to beat down so it is not like he could headshot Mileena, Sonya or Sheeva or any woman and be done with the problem despite how marksmanship is his forte. Also, the game mechanic in MKX kinda made me joke that Erron shouldn’t be left on his own for too long because his competence in those chapters seemed that bad (from Outworld’s main cast only D’Vorah looked to me as a competent character and she was a traitor, that says a lot about Kotal’s team doesn it?). Anyway, on the basis of the specific nature of the game alone I wouldn’t go so far to judge Erron’s mindset, especially since he was a background/supportive character in MKX and MK11 story modes. So far, Black didn’t have his own chapter - thus the story isn’t told from his POV.

To be honest, games and comics present Erron in different lights, thus his approach to women may vary from one source to another. Because of that let’s firstly look at the sources separately.

In MKX, on Kotal’s voiceless order, Black was going to kill Rain. Mileena attacked Erron by surprise before he could shoot down the rebel but it was Kotal’s chapter so the emperor was the one that dealt with her. Erron was part of the background during chapter 2 without any impact on the story.

Then we have chapter 4 about Kung Jin.

When Cage Team met Erron Black for the first time, the man demanded to know what is Special Forces’ business here including “a reason why we shouldn’t kill you”. Despite the not so friendly welcome, Erron was willing to address Takeda’s remark (“I can read you… You’re not from Outworld.”) and did not resort to violence once Cassie’s explanation did not satisfy him. Looking at the uncertain situation of Outworld, Erron’s lack of trust is understable - Kotal was still at war with Mileena thus in constant danger. Of course, it is up to interpretation, did Erron listen to Jin solely because the prospect of money spoke to him so much or there is some bias (thus the cynical remark about Raiden’s seal and dismissive attitude) against Cassie, the woman in charge. I personally tend to think Erron was simply cautious because the last Earthrealm that got close to Kotal tried to kill the emperor. And yeah, Kano is nothing like Cassie, Jacqui, Takeda or Jin but there was no way for Black to know that for sure, especially since Outworld and Earthrealm weren’t really at the best terms at that time and Raiden’s name did not foreshadow anything good.

The next sequences may be interpreted as Erron being soft on women but I’m gonna present here different possibilities:

Once Jin went ahead to disrupt the execution, Erron’s first reaction was to shoot him yet Black took aim instead of shooting blindly without care for the crowd (or at least the slow down of his action is how it looked to me). Because he was focused on Jin - the main culprit whose action caused unwanted riot, Cassie easily stopped the attack. Should Erron be more focused on the female soldier at his side? Most likely, but all of this happened in mere seconds so I can understand why stopping Jin acting on his own accord was priority to the mercenary since it was related to his job and he was the one that agreed to take Earthrealmians to Kotal. Which may be the reason why Black just knocked down Cassie and immediately ran after Jin. And mind you, Erron knocked down Cassie by hitting her on the head with the butt of the pistol, which is not a gentle way by no means.

The chapter 6 is focused on Takeda and partially on Cage Team’s run from captivity. The Earthrealmians were important hostages, even if falsely accused of working with D’Vorah. So it makes sense that “Outworld Champions” weren’t trying to kill them. Otherwise Kung Jin would be shot down for good yet Erron kept him just at gunpoint. Once again, the game mechanics don’t make much sense considering how Jin stayed behind as air support but somehow ended up on the bridge while Jacqui disappeared somewhere in the background. Also, the same as with Cassie in Chapter 4, Erron did not kill defeated opponents nor tortured / injured for fun (Rain is a different matter because Erron went for killing only after Kotal’s voiceless order to finish the traitor).

In Chapter 11, Erron is even more degraded into a support role and he did not attack nor take part of the skirmish in the forest until Jacqui beat down Kotal. Personally I suspect he could be (in universe) too injured for hand to hand combat but once Team Cage was surrounded and Kotal gave the order for execution, Erron was aiming at Jacqui and if Sub-Zero did not show up, Black most likely would shoot to kill.

(Also, he did not shoot any enemy from a distance, so the women and men were treated the same although if this is a matter of game mechanics or Erron’s own moral code, hard to tell. Black recognized himself more as Outworlder than anything else so he may actually follow the common there idea of one on one fight.)

So, MKX story mode alone does not tell us much about Erron’s mindset about women because he has never been the one starting fights in the first place. This kinda makes sense since he is a mercenary and kills or injures only those who Kotal wishes to see dead or punished. Besides that he didn’t injure / kill Cassie when he had a chance but he didn't do so with Jin either. MKX!Erron gives the impression of a collected, detached type of person who is far from macho stereotypes or psychopath/sociopath like Kano.

Thankfully there is additional information like dialogue intros and Erron’s ending (from what we learned about Erron's approximate age) that aren’t canon per se but at least give some insight into his psyche.

The best counter argument for eventual Black’s habit of going easy on women is his own ending in which he ambushed and killed Cassie, Jacqui, Takeda and Jin (this situation was repeated in Briggs’ ending except this time Cage Team was saved by Jax). This is a rare moment in which Erron was the attacker and on his own initiated the violence toward others. In this case, he attacked women and men alike.

Then we have intro dialogues in which Erron usually deals with people in a professional manner, some even sometimes addressing in a polite way. Like “Mr. Kung” to Lao, “Mr. Hasashi” to Scorpion and “Mr. Takahashi” to Takeda. Surprisingly, he addresses Cassie and Sonya by their military rank (Sergeant Cage and General Blade respectively) which suggests that whatever Erron learned a century or two ago about gender-related social norms most likely evolved accordingly to his own life experiences, especially those gained in Outworld.

At the same time, it seems some of outfashioned - harmful - convictions are still enough deeply rooted in him to say stuff like that:

Kenshi: The friendless wanderer.

Erron Black: Least I don't take orders from a woman.

Kenshi: Which century are you from?

Which is kinda ironic since Kenshi takes orders from Sonya whom Erron addresses by high military rank without any snide comment about a woman in the army. But as far as I managed to check the intros, this is the only(?) one outright sexist thing Erron said to anyone and surprisingly, he didn’t say that to any woman, just to Kenshi. Frankly, if the idea of taking orders from women was so offensive, why would Erron bother to call Mileena the Crownless Queen or Kitana the Fallen Princess, if both titles by itself imply facing women that are used to give commands or even hire people like him? Once again, there is little to no sexist attitude toward women in context of their power over other men. Which suggests that whatever prejudices Black may have, he does not allow them to affect his interaction with other characters. Usually, at least.

Okay, the insult toward Kenshi could be some of Erron’s deep-seated sexist beliefs adding to the reason why he didn’t support Mileena in the fight for the throne. Yet, at the same time, if that was the case, he could outright say he doesn’t agree to be bossed by a woman to her (or he could be accused of that by her or any character really). Of course, it could be something similar to Black’s claim to care only about money with MK11 strongly hints he is saying one thing and doing differently but I will come back to this topic in a moment.

Another argument against this insult: Erron was one of the characters that did not mock Mileena’s look, origin or called her crazy. If he really thought listening to women's orders was so bad, then he didn’t show that when interacting with her or other female characters.

At the same time, like many other male characters, Black is not immune to the beauty of women around him and some of his comments sounds disrespectful and are unwelcome by the ladies:

Sonya: The gunslinger.

Erron Black: I could take you away from all this.

Sonya: I must be a jerk-magnet.

→ Sonya is not amused by Erron’s words at all.

Erron Black: Hello, beautiful.

Jacqui: Messin' with the wrong girl.

Erron Black: But it feels so right.

Jacqui is like the only one woman described by MKX!Erron as the beautiful one, the other he usually referred to along the lines of hot / sexy. Yet once Jacqui outright warned him to not mess with her, Erron deliberately ignored her because it amuse him. Whatever it is a sign of an old-fashioned mindset (a remnant of the times he grew up) or just simply (male’s) egoism on his part, Erron likes to flirt with women but he does not always respect their opinion or wish to be left alone.

At the same time, Erron rarely tried to change women’s minds about him or their eventual relationship. So far, only the intro dialogue with Kitana seems to be the exception:

Kitana: Stop!

Erron Black: We've barely begun, my lovely.

Kitana: It will end quickly.

Black may put his own amusement above other people's personal comfort, yes, but didn’t act creepy like Kano did, especially toward Blade-Briggs-Cage family as a whole.

So we have this

Jacqui: I really don't like you.

Erron Black: I really don't care.

Jacqui: As long as we're straight on that.

in which Erron doesn’t care for Jacqui’s dislike of his person but doesn’t impose himself on her. He does not resort to the common rapist “excuse” that woman says no but her body says otherwise, like Kano did (“Your mouth says Kano, but your eyes say Kan-yes.”) and this contrast puts Black in a more positive light. Similar thing happened in the intro dialogue toward Tanya.

Erron Black: My friend, Tanya.

Tanya: We are not friends, bounty hunter.

Erron Black: Have it your way...

Again, whether trying to be friendly or ironic, once Erron was “turned down”, he simply accepted the situation without any additional crude remarks.

Interestingly, interaction with Sonya showed that Black was capable of rethinking his statement about hot/sexy women:

Erron Black: Girls with guns? Always hot.

Sonya: I'll shove 'em up your ass and fire.

Erron Black: Almost always hot.

Those examples suggest Erron may treat women differently, depending on their “fighting experiences”, age and origin and maybe even how sexually / aesthetically appealing they are to him. For example, veteran Sonya’s threat was taken seriously while (novice / new generation) Jacqui’s warning was ignored. At the same time, the intro dialogues didn’t hint at any romantic or sexual interest in Ferra (a young female symbiote) nor D’Vorah (Kytinn) and relatively good looking Mileena who deserves a separate paragraph.

To be honest, Erron, Johnny and Kano are like the main three men openly showing their (sexual?) interest in women around them. Understable, Black’s flirting / comments rarely were appreciated yet he still was less creepy or aggressive towards others than Kano. Erron didn’t bother to hide his eventual (sexual) interest in beautiful women but it can’t be said A) he had no control over his sexual drive and B) has rapist / sexual predator tendencies.

Another interesting thing: with few exceptions like Kano or Quan Chi, Erron threatened people with violence usually after they offended him and most of the time maintained professional neutrality toward his rivals. In that regard, Erron treated other characters the same regardless of their gender.

This is something worth keeping in mind how Black, as mercenary, in general is not the initiator of violence. Unless someone will pay him. For money, Erron would attack (kill) anyone, including women (to Tanya, “The Kahn wants your head.” + Erron’s Epilogue).

The last detail to talk about: one of the intro dialogue with Cassie suggests Erron thought she was an easy opponent.

Cassie: Is something funny?

Erron Black: I'll win this easy.

Cassie: You're going down hard.

but to be fair, he thought the same about Sub-Zero

Erron Black: You're an easy target.

Sub-Zero: As are you.

Erron Black: Bullets beat snowballs any day.

so I wouldn’t say it was the bias toward Cassie because of her gender and just Erron’s own arrogance (and maybe lack of good judgement on his part).

In summary, MKX!Erron in game alone tends to act in a professional manner. He had an occasion to shoot defeated opponents but did not seize the opportunity against not only Cassie but Jin as well. During the storyline he was rather collected, emotionless. In intro dialogues he openly expresses his interest in tough, relatively attractive women yet the banter is far from the creeping tone of Kano’s interaction with female characters.

Then we have Mortal Kombat 11 in which past and future timelines are messed up. Sadly, Erron’s characterization departs from the neutral-polite one seen in the previous game. Of course, this could be blamed on the younger version of Erron, but frankly, twenty years for someone living at least for a century and half shouldn’t make that big difference in behaviour and well, MK11 outright claims Erron is prone to violence for violence’s sake instead of just money. Which is one of many plot-holes and divergences between both games I guess.

Anyway, Erron, again, was the background character to beat down, so it is worth remembering that he couldn’t permanently hurt or kill anyone from the main cast. In chapter 2 he let Jade get away when he was facing Kotal and frankly, there is little explanation for that in-universe wise. I personally suspect it may be related to Erron’s own sense of honor, as in respecting one on one fight without cheap moves like shooting someone’s beloved person. Not practical in the mercenary job but it is possible for someone born and raised around two centuries ago. Also, Shao Kahn’s anger was focused mainly on killing Kotal for taking the throne. Because of that Erron could be not interested in Jade who simply did not have any significant political matter at that time. Sadly, it is really hard to say for sure what was on his mind.

In chapter 6, past!Erron stormed the Special Forces Base alongside Black Dragon members. There were women in that group but sadly, Black did not interact with anyone beside Johnny Cage. We can at least assume, Black did not mind fighting side by side with women.

Similary, present!Erron in chapter 7 showed up in the background during the alliance attack on Coliseum. The attack was led by Kitana (albeit did Erron join her to save Kotal out of loyalty or for money, it was not explained) and there were female fighters in the group. It seems then Erron does not mind fighting side to side with women.

During the pit fight (chapter 8), past!Erron faced the past!Sonya and the past!Johnny. Frankly, the same as in the previous chapter, game mechanics make little sense because there was no real reason for Erron to open the ring and face the characters when he could simply shoot down both from a safe distance. This really undermines the whole point of Black being a gunslinger, isn’t it?

Anyway, Cage took the forward position (which I think is both because despite his injuries he tried to shield Sonya AND because he actually met Erron during an attack on a Special Forces’ base) and got shot in the arm. After a short skirmish, Erron knocked down Johnny and aimed to kill the injured man.

The most logical thing for Erron in this situation would be to shoot down Sonya first and then finish already beaten down and exhausted Johnny. In defense of the Black though it is worth emphasizing that he didn’t completely ignore Blade nor turned away from her.

Most likely the weird slow-down action of aiming at Johnny was a moment of distraction that Sonya simply used to attack. Similar to MKX, game mechanics do not allow Black to headshot the main heroes, even though, in-universe, he should do just that and be done with the job. There is also a possibility that past and present Kano still wanted to keep Sonya alive for their own amusment (torture and sadly most likely rape) what could explain why Erron didn’t shot her from safe distance. I mean, the game alone did not voice what Kanos really ordered Erron to do.

I know that MK games like to slow down action for dramatic effects, but I strongly believe it was actually a matter of a few seconds of distraction (Erron looking aside to shoot Johnny and aiming) that Sonya took advantage of rather Black ignoring her on purpose. Even more since Black did not hesitate to shoot at her and seemed to enjoy facing “the legendary” Sonya Blade.

The same as MKX, Mortal Kombat 11 does not explain Black’s mindset. He does not shoot Jade or Sonya when he has a chance but he does not make any rude remarks toward women in general. However the intro dialogues shed a light on the complicated relationship that Erron has with women.

From what we learn about Erron, his childhood was far from normal or safe. We don’t know details, but what he shared with Cetrion and Cassie strongly suggest that Erron’s both parents were abusive people:

Cetrion: You shot your own father, Erron Black.

Erron: Sonofabitch had it coming.

Cetrion: Honor thy parents, mortal!

Erron: My Ma would’ve loved you, Cassie Cage.

Cassie: Aw, sounds like you miss her bunches.

Erron: I hated Ma.

Erron: I grew up around tough women.

Cassie: Didn’t they teach you respect?

Erron: They taught me to hit back.

The last statement suggests young Erron was abused by women (most likely including his own mother) to the point he is now willing to hit back anyone regardless of their gender without remorse. Erron himself says “I ain't above shootin' a lady” (intro dialogue vs. Sonya).

Beside that, an abusive mother alone could influence Black’s approach to women - and most likely she did, since he admitted to hate her. Surprisingly, Erron uses the past tense (“I hated Ma”) so there is a chance he gained distance over time in that matter. It also seems like whatever he feels about mother usually doesn't affect his relationship with other female characters. For example, in the mentioned banter he did not insult Cassie for reminding him about the abusive parent. Despite the bad childhood intro dialogues hint Black actually likes dangerous women.

Erron Black: I stepped out with Nitara before you.

Skarlet: You clearly have a type, Erron.

Erron Black: Just like living dangerously.

Like in the previous game, Erron openly shows his (sexual) interest in various women. The interesting change however is how:

His interest extends now to more alien-looking female characters like Nitara or Sheeva. Surprisingly, Mileena’s advances are still rejected. Also, Erron has like zero respect for the goddess Cetrion but to be honest, he does not respect any god.

Erron is more disrespecting by using nicknames like Legs or Baby Doll for Sonya or Sugar for Cassie. Of course, it may be just the “charm” of younger Black - hard to tell in most cases which version is speaking - but it creates an overall feeling of ironic, at times irritating or insulting approach to female fighters. At the same time, there are women that Erron refers to in a rather consistently respectful manner - Jacqui (Miss Briggs, Little Lady), Jade (ma’am, missy), Kitana (Princess, Kahn).

Before I will focus on the complex situation with Mileena, I need to talk about Erron’s important trait: he often says one thing but does the opposite. This is especially noticeable in intro dialogues concerning money and loyalty. Both games agree the main motivation for Black is a good payment, albeit MK11 highline also the thrill of danger. Anyway, Erron admitted he is willing to betray Kotal, a current employer, if someone offered a better deal (“Until a better offer comes along.”, “There's always a better offer, Kotal”). This strengthens the impression Black cares only about himself yet he rejects all propositions coming from Kotal’s enemies such as Shao Kahn, Rain or Mileena, Quan Chi, Shinnok and Kano/Black Dragons. At the same, he is willing to work with/ for Kitana who happens to be the best friend of Jade, Kotal’s beloved. Which makes Erron still operate in a group wishing no harm to the ex-emperor.

I’m bringing this into discussion because there is strong possibility that under the tough guy act, Erron still follows some “old-fashioned” sense of morality and is decent enough to not attack or harm women (and in my opinion, people in general) unless A) it is part of the job or B) is self-defense. Which could explain why he let Jade walk away or why he didn’t shoot Sonya from a safe distance but faced her in hand to hand combat. Depending how long he lived in Outworld, he could simply adapt into local customs - the people of Outworld are a combat-focused society and because of that have a strong sense of honor code. Erron’s eventual softness toward female fighters would get him in serious problems and I doubt he could afford such weakness when serving Shang Tsung or Shao Kahn.

So, why did Erron not want to serve Mileena, the designated successor? As the Empress, she was in position to offer the best (materially wise at least) deal after all.

In MKX!banter Erron claims Kotal paid him better:

Mileena: You aided the usurper.

Erron Black: He offered more coins.

Mileena: ...and no protection.

Meanwhile, MK11!Black outright says it was not a matter of money but of Mileena’s behaviour. Considering how prone to violence she was, it is no wonder why Erron decided to work for someone else.

Erron Black: Now what's got you all rip-snorting mad?

Mileena: When I gained the throne, you abandoned it.

Erron Black: Wasn't no pay worth dealing with your crazy.

This brings me back to the MKX’s banter suggesting Erron may dislike being bossed by women. Considering the implication he is currently negotiating a proper deal with Kitana Kahn (“New Kahn, same deal?”), the problem is more complex than judging someone by gender alone. I mean, Erron worked for Shao Kahn who himself was a cruel tyrant so sadism shouldn't be anything new for Black, right? Except, he was hired by Shang Tsung and because of that I think it is highly possible Erron had just indirect contact with the Emperor. Thus Erron could be not ready for Mileena’s unstable nature(?) and cruelty.

I mean - Erron comes from a pathological family and grew up around tough women. In his opinion Cassie has some traits or behaves in a way for which his mother would’ve liked the girl. So there are certain things that Black connects to hated mother. Now, Cassie is more of an extrovert type of person, showy and with sharp ripostes but she is one of the good guys and cruelty for fun is not her thing. So, if someone like Cassie can somehow make him think of a hated parent (that most likely is dead for decades now), how much Mileena could trigger Erron in the wrong way? To the point he chooses his mental health over money and/or thrill of danger?

If this is true, we may further wonder if bad experiences with tough women in childhood are the reason why despite flirtatious nature, Erron’s interest in female fighters usually is strictly sexual attraction? Because it really looks like he does not try to emotionally connect with women. Even his “thing” with Skarlet seems to be more a matter of thrill than a serious relationship, considering how Erron was okay with her eventual death.

(The possibility of Erron being freaked out by Mileena also rises an interesting question about her mental state between MK9 and MKX)

This is why I think Erron did not have a problem with working for women as long as they did not remind him too much of past abuse. And this is pretty nice implication, considering how tough guy Erron is for most of the time.

Because of that, Kotal questioning if Erron is jealous of Jade could be read in different way too:

Erron Black: So, you and Jade, huh?

Kotal Kahn: Jealous, Erron Black?

Erron Black: She's quite the looker, Kotal.

And yeah, Erron brings this to the matter of appearance alone, but hopeful as I proved earlier, Erron sometimes says one thing but does (thinks) something totally different. Because of that I suspect he may not be really jealous of Kotal for having a sexy lady but actually of the relationship itself. You know, build on respect and love than just build on sexual drive.

Like I said before, the game cutscenes and character banters may be interpreted in many ways but for me MK11!Erron Black - at least the older version - seems to mask his trauma and/or complex nature of his relationship with women under the act of tough guys. At the same time, there is a high possibility he still follows an out-fashioned sense of honor and though he is not above shooting women, he does not attack them unless it is demanded. Though to be fair, in my opinion this is how he approaches everyone. A mercenary’s mindset that distinguishes him from the likes of Kano.

In Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermatch, Erron met Sheeva, when the Shokan Queen in the company of Fujin, Nightwolf and Shang Tsung carried a coffin to the Soul Chamber. Black and Baraka decided to confront the Shokan woman and it quickly turned into a fight (and the typical game mechanics).

There is a question though - did Erron really take Kitana's offer or did he stay with Kotal? Because it’s really suspicious that he happened in the place where defenless, injured Kotal was in the healing process. Anyway, whatever the case, Black directly or indirectly worked for the new Kahn so it is highly possible his actions were dictated by Kitana’s best interest rather than his liking or disliking anyone.

Let’s just look at the situation - Kitana is the empress but she promised to treat her allies as her equals. That means Sheeva, as well respected Shokan Queen, plays an important role in the new regime - killing her or permanently injuring was out question, otherwise Shokan people could rebel against Kitana and in result the freshly established peace would go straight to hell.

In my opinion, this is why Erron asked Sheeva’s group to go with them quietly so the situation could be explained to Kitana without unnecessary violence. Black actually was okay with Sheeva go to Soul Chamber as long as Shang Tsung (Shao Kahn’s sorcerer) and the suspicious coffin was returned to him. Thanks to Shang Tsung, one of Tarkatan warrior died and thus the situation got out of hand. It makes sense Erron was more focused on Shang Tsung (hated by Kitana), Nightwolf (whose current self is revenant) and Fujin than on Sheeva who, potentially, was protected by political immunity.

When the Shokan Queen beat down Baraka, Erron in my opinion did not try to hurt her, only fired a warning shot. Maybe to make sure Sheeva will not kill Baraka (another important leader whose support Kitana needed to uphold the peace in Outworld). The Earthrealmers on other hand were another matter. Maybe Erron was too trusting or too reckless to not pay more attention to Sheeva or simply didn’t really think she was the traitor. It was after learning she is trying to resurrect Kitana’s evil mom - a dangerous, not consulted with Empress decision - Erron faced Sheeva in hand to hand combat.

Not much to analyse here, especially not with limitations of game mechanics yet I strongly believe Erron’s course of action was dictated by political situation and Kitana Kahn’s best interest so killing or seriously injuring Sheeva could be out of question. Also, like I said previously, Black is rarely the aggressor, what I believe is related to his mercenary’s mindset.

The last source, Mortal Kombat X comics series, requires a little clarification: I treat it as a potentially additional insight into Erron’s psyche than any real canonical material. Partially due to many plot-holes but also because of overwhelming violence used for violence’s sake alone. That said, here what happens:

Earthrealm (Special Forces) and Outworld (Kotal Kahn) weren’t on the best terms. To help Kotal, Erron and Black Dragons kidnapped young (under 21 years old) Cassie and Jacqui and took them to Outworld. During the journey through the dangerous jungle, girls tried to run away but got hurt in the process by Kano. Erron openly talked against brutal treatment of prisoners.

Looking at the difficult situation of Kotal, it was in Erron’s best interest to keep Cassie and Jacqui in one piece. Otherwise the whole plan would fail and then Kotal would be forced to deal with really pissed off Sonya Blade. And that would take a bad turn for Black himself. But like I said earlier, the tough guy act could also cover Erron’s more empathic nature that in the mercenary world was seen as a weakness to exploit. I personally think he did not like torturing people if that was unnecessary but also that he would have spoken against it even if Cassie and Jaquie were boys.

Then the Red Dragons attacked to take over hostages.

(Once again, a tough guy act with the “girls are Kotal’s property” as in cover up his worries about the situation or his true mindset, or mix?)

When the fight started, Erron went to tied hostages:

One one hand, Erron needs the girl to stay alive and not be taken by the enemy. On the other hand, he does not promise them safety nor ask them to run away. He is freeing them so the two girl (both under 21 years old) will fight against experienced criminals armed with swords and other dangerous stuff. This is actually an interesting detail, because it suggests Erron thought Cassie and Jacqui had a chance against thugs or that at least that way they wouldn't be a burden to him.

Jacqui punched him and Erron, either was taken by surprise or did not want to hurt her, was “saved” by Kano. And then betrayed by the Black Dragon leader.

Kano’s worlds raise a question, how much Erron is driven by the money and how much he uses the tough guy act to actually hide his unwanted “vulnerability” (as in, having moral sense and not being the heartless psychopath like Kano).

My general conclusion about Erron is that, for a side character he has a really complex relationship with women around him. I strongly believe that Erron sticks to some old fashioned sense of honor that mixes well with a mercenary's mindset. Thus rarely he is the one attacking first. This most likely influences his interaction with female fighters but at the same time, Outworld is not a place where people are judged by gender but for their skills and powers. So, Erron living there for decades for sure got influenced by that mindset to some degree.

I would not call him a feminist - not because he couldn’t be one but for lack of proper material to analyse. Feminism has many shades but in the most general sense is about establishing the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Erron does not show much opinion on that matter and does not interact with “common” women; those truly weaker than him, disabled or anything else other than warriors, soldiers or queens. With lack of such interaction there is no chance to come to a proper conclusion.

Does Erron have a soft spot for women? It is possible but that would not stop him from hitting back or killing them if the situation called for such action. I think the safest option is just that Erron is in general a more emphatic and honorable human that he wants to admit, to not look weak or be exploited by others. In contrast to Kano, Black for sure has some moral code he follows no matter what. Even if this get him into trouble more often than not.

Hope it answers your question!

#mortal kombat #erron black #my replies #my analysis #erron is like a turtle hard on outside soft(er) inside i guess #sorry it took me so long to write there was many stuff to talk about #hope it helps!

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nostalgiahan · 4 years ago

Text

Still Into You

genre: songfic, fluff, smut

pairing: graffiti artist!changbin x afab!reader (gender-neutral language)

word count: 2k

warnings: drug use (cannabis,) trespassing, oral sex (f,) car sex, little dialogue, changbin and reader run from the cops lol

a/n: i was listening to still into you by paramore and this just kinda. came into existence. it’s also very song focused so if you’ve never listened to 2000s alt rock... i’m sorry lmao. the sugarmill in the story is also a real place that my friends and i used to visit and smoke take pictures at, although the cops never found us there haha. anyways enjoy folks.

Your nails had been tapping on the windowsill enough to wear them down to nubs by the time Changbin pulled up in front of your house. When his beat up Subaru pulled up next to the curb, you just about jumped out of your skin from excitement. Today was your fourth anniversary, as well as Valentine’s Day, and the adrenaline rushing through your blood was a sign that you were more than looking forward to whatever fun plans he had up his sleeve.

Compared to most couples on Valentine’s day, your outfit was pretty plain and not at all glamorous. Practical boots, jeans, an old band hoodie and Changbin’s dark green parka were your clothes of choice, but you knew that your boyfriend wasn’t going to take you to some fancy restaurant. No, you two were going adventuring.

As soon as you hop in the passenger seat of the car, shoving a couple of receipts into the foot well, Changbin reaches into his hoodie pocket and gives you a card. It’s crude, made of a folded sheet of printer paper and hastily scribbled on in pen but it’s very fitting for him.

“You better enjoy the card,” he says with a smirk, “because it came to me in a dream. This is pure, undiluted Changbin, packaged for your enjoyment and convenience.”

Giggling, you open the card. Inside is a barely legible “i love you so much y/n” surrounded by hearts, and in the corner is a drawing of a cow dressed in a lab coat and holding a beaker labeled “Moorie Curie.” It’s perfect, but what else did you expect from him?

“Happy anniversary, my love.” When you look up at Changbin, he has the widest smile on his face, cheeks dotted with flecks of paint and eyes crinkled up into little crescents. He’s dressed similarly to you, hair sitting in a pile on top of his head, clearly not having been paid attention to before leaving the house. It doesn’t matter, though, since the both of you will be wearing hoods over your heads anyways. You lean over the center console to give him a quick kiss, although it takes a couple of tries to get his lips since you’re both smiling so hard.

Changbin kicks his old car into gear as he sets off towards his destination. He’s explaining where you’re going, but you can barely hear him over the car speakers blasting Simple Plan and Green Day.

“So yeah, it’s this sugarmill that caught on fire in, like, 1910, and they never renovated it. There’s a bunch of cool abandoned shit around there, too. I think there’s, like, three fucked up couches.”

As you listen to him talk, you stick your fingers through the gap at the top of the side window. It’s permanently cracked open like that, and you have vivid memories of trying to throw cigarette butts through the gap when the two of you were bored.

After a while of listening to pop punk and playing with Changbin’s fingers over the gear shift, you arrive at your destination. Several charred brick buildings sit in the middle of a field, dead trees framing an open area in the center where someone has set up some logs and rocks to form a makeshift circle. Your boyfriend’s eyes scan the landscape, looking for his next canvas. Eventually, he tugs your arm and leads you towards one of the buildings, smiling back at you. “C’mon, let’s go explore this place.”

The two of you wander for a while, over rickety walkways and up staircases, taking pictures with your Polaroid and holding hands the whole time. Eventually, Changbin finds a stretch of wall big enough to start his work. Setting his duffel bag on the ground, he beckons you over and crouches down, inviting you to hop onto his back.

He pulls out a can of white spray paint, shaking it and popping the cap with his thumb. As he starts to paint, making large, sweeping motions with his arms, you really wished he had worn something sleeveless, however impractical. After lighting a slightly crushed joint you’d fished out of your pocket, you nestled your nose into his shoulder, holding the joint up to Changbin’s lips. He takes a few pulls as he works, the previously bland wall turning into a beautiful blend of blues, purples, and whites. It’s always fascinating to see how he works, seemingly not thinking before laying down a line of paint, yet each stroke seems to perfectly fit in with the others.

As he’s switching colors, Changbin lets you off his back, settling his hands on your sides. He stares at you for a bit, trying to study every bit of your face that isn’t covered by the oversized hood of his jacket. After a while, he smiles, pulling you close and kissing your forehead. Changbin always called you his muse, but you never expected him to take it as literally as he did, often staring at you or asking unrelated questions when he was stuck with a piece. He sways gently back and forth, pressing little kisses to your head, as Good Charlotte emanates from the tiny phone speaker in his back pocket. Occasionally, he’ll pull back just a tiny bit to really study your face, kissing you softly and muttering something along the lines of “i really can’t believe how fucking incredible you are” or “i love you so much it’s unreal.”

It’s not until a few more songs have ended that he pulls away, inviting you back onto his back as you light another joint. The piece is almost done, the tag “SPEARB” painted in blobby letters, shining artificially. All he has left is the outline, but his work is cut short when you hear the faint sound of sirens approaching and the light creeping in from the broken windows flashes a faint red and blue.

What happens next is like clockwork. You hop off of Changbin’s back, putting out the joint on the wall and throwing it into his duffel bag along with the other cans of paint he’s left out. What you’re supposed to do next is grab the bag and run, but Changbin is trying his best to finish a really specific detail and the more time he has that can in his hand, the less time you guys have to get the fuck out. After what seems like an eternity of whisper-yelling and (gently) stomping your foot at him, he caps the can and throws it into the bag. Finally, the two of you are off. As he’s picking up the bag, however, you notice what he was taking so long to finish. In tiny lettering, in the bottom corner of the piece, 4 words. “fuck cops” on one line, and “for y/n” on another.

As the two of you clamber over wooden planks and piping, pulling your hoods over your heads and your masks over your faces to hide your identities, Changbin grabs your hand and squeezes. He lets go almost as quickly as he grabbed it but the sentiment is still there; i’m here, i’m gonna keep us safe. It’s a welcome sentiment when shouts of “police,” and “show yourselves” echo through the abandoned hall.

Fifteen minutes of running and one chain link fence climb later, you’re back at the car, cops nowhere in sight. You’re panting heavily as you throw off the parka and throw it into the backseat, and Changbin doesn’t look any better as he’s gulping water and fanning his face. Right as you’re about to climb in, he grabs your arm and spins you so you’re pressed between him and the car, holding your cheeks in his hands and grinning at you.

“God. Fuck. Wow. You’re unreal. I love you so much.”

You’re unable to do anything but nod. The two of you are still breathless and in that moment you realize that’s what your love was like. In the four years of you dating, your love never went stale, you never settled into a routine. You were always doing new things, like going on spur of the moment road trips or fucking around at playgrounds in the early hours of the morning. You never thought about the future, just did your best to enjoy your time in the present and bask in the glow of each other’s affection. You expected that after such a long time together you’d at least feel a little duller, but everything still feels as fresh and new as when you were teenagers and sneaking out to make out on park benches when no one was looking.

As you’re lost in thought, Changbin pulls you impossibly closer and presses his lips to yours, hard. Music is still playing from his phone as the kiss becomes more heated, and you make sure to add 1985 by Bowling for Soup to your “running from the cops” playlist later. Almost every memory you have with Changbin is attached to a song, and this one is no exception.

Changbin pulls away to wrench open the back seat door, guiding you to sit and kneeling on the dirty floor. He heaves the duffel bag on the seat next to you and you dig through it, searching for the joint you threw into it earlier. Once you’ve gotten to My Own Worst Enemy, you’ve lit it and Changbin has gotten your jeans halfway down your legs and your thighs over his shoulders.

Your boyfriend wastes no time in burying his face in your heat, licking hot stripes up and down and moaning loudly into your core. He pulls away to rest his head on your thigh and take a few puffs of the joint, and in that moment you remember your Polaroid exists and manage to snap a picture of him blowing out smoke, with your hand in his hair and his face squished between your legs.

Changbin pays it no mind and gets straight back to work, sucking on your clit and easing his tongue into your hole. Your grip on his hair tightens and you arch into his mouth, fucking yourself back on his tongue. Picking up on this, he hooks his arms under your thighs and pulls your towards him, close enough that you’re afraid he’s going to suffocate himself trying to pleasure you.

It’s hot and sticky and perfect, and the atmosphere combined with the weed and the fact that Seo fucking Changbin is eating you out is too much for you and you cum all over his tongue, which eagerly laps up your release, taking long, languid strokes to make sure he gets every drop. As you come down, Changbin is stroking your thighs and sucking hickeys into the soft flesh, and you register that Misery Business needs to be added to your “dirty car sex” playlist.

After basking in the yellow glow of the car’s overhead light and the thrilling afterglow of just having done something you shouldn’t have for a while, lazily finishing off the rest of your joint, the two of you get your things in order and begin the journey to Changbin’s apartment, speeding down the highway with the windows cracked the whole way. He carries you into the building like he always does, setting you down gently on the couch before heading off to the kitchen so you can make some blueberry muffins together. You do, and they’re terrible, so you heat up leftovers instead and watch reruns of old James Bond movies, cuddling on the couch. The night ends with Chasing Cars and you laying on Changbin’s chest, naked and sweaty and anticipating lots of aches in the morning, whispering tiny i love yous into each others’ skin and it’s perfect. But everything is always perfect with him. What else could you possibly expect?

please let me know if you guys enjoyed this!! feel free to send an ask, i always love receiving them🤌🏻🤌🏻

#stray kids imagines #changbin imagines #changbin x reader #stray kids fluff #stray kids smut #changbin fluff #changbin smut #stray kids x reader #skz imagines #skz fluff #skz smut #skz #stray kids #stray kids fanfic #skz x reader #changbin #can u guys tell i miss hanging out with my friends 😔

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colorisbyshe · 4 years ago

Note

Don’t publish if you don’t want, it’s fine and ilu and hate the clowns that show up in your askbox with anything other than Sasuke love, but ace rethoric, ideology, discourse, whatever you want to call it vibes P E R F E C T L Y with the cissexist, heterosexual, white supremacist patriarchy. it’s the reason why it only took aces a decade to form a semi-coherent movement. the system isn’t afraid. it embraces this shit for a reason. aces ain’t radical or tearing down the system. they uphold it.

I’m gonna close my ask box for a bit after this because... I’m gonna have to defend some shit rn and I’m not in the mood to waste my time like this.

There is something to be said about how a lot of ace rhetoric reaffirms harmful things like rape culture and even just reinvents conversion therapy tactics (and I have said it all, trust me). There is something to be said about how easily asexuality has been absorbed into mainstream culture as opposed to trans, gay, and bi identities, sure. I’ve spoken about that too.

But does it vibe perfectly with all those things you listed? No. If done correctly, asexuality and the ace community could work in tandem with feminism and the LGBT movement (as in allied with, not a part of) to dismantle rape culture. Because people, of any gender, DO face discrimination for not wanting sex. We just must also recognize the same culture also punishes people for wanting sex, too. It’s a catch 22 except for the smallest group of human beings, where your mileage may vary depending on how many privileged identities can stack up and shield you from the catch of it all.

Asexuality and rhetoric around it COULD be extremely helpful in enhancing discussions around sexual expectations and happiness without sex. About boundaries in relationships and how sexual mismatch can be a dealbreaker and that’s okay. IT could be a helpful tool on dating apps so people know “Don’t date me if you wanna smash.” We could have LGBT ace/aro spaces for people who are LGBT but maybe want spaces to talk and organized based on their specific needs, whatever they may be.

Asexuality and aromantism don’t inherently mesh with white supremacist patriarchy or heteronormativity or whatever. They certainly CAN but they don’t inherently.

A lot of the work I would PREFER the ace/aro communities do is already being done in feminist circles and LGBT spaces, I’ll admit to that. But if aces and aros got their fucking shit together, dropped even just half of the appalling shit they say, and joined up... it’d be nice and helpful.

I “got into” ace discourse years ago (and have been trying to escape ever since) not just out of protectiveness for LGBT identities, which a lot of ace rhetoric does harm and attack, but also out of a frustration with a community poised to do SO MUCH fucking good and instead focuses on doing less, every single time.

I want there to be dialogues abotu life without sex and romance and what happiness looks there. I want talks about marriage benefits and assets for people without romantic partners. Or more talk about how to help elderly single people who don’t have kids or partners as windfall for when they can’t take care of themselves. I want talks about how hard it can be to survive on single incomes or discrimination against single mothers or people who want to adopt on their own without a partner.

I want all that so fucking badly and instead I got 5+ years of “My cock is flaccid and I’m queer for it.”

So I won’t take a smear campaign of “Actually, society loves aces/aros” because that’s not true. In some contexts, it might be a bit true. Society would love for some marginalized people to have no sexual desire or romantic impulses. And I’ve spoken on that.

But in a lot of cases... it’s a lot more complicated than that and there are a lot of no win scenarios for people where to have or to not have sex/romance are punished in different ways but punished all the same.

Or maybe society as a whole doesn’t care and doesn’t punish it but also doesn’t consider perpetually single people in terms of designing social services.

There’s conversations I want to have and want the ace/aro communities to be have and they’re being sidelined for ace discourse, inventing a new term for “experiences sexual attraction but is ace for it,” or crying about how if perry the platypus is or isn’t good asexual representation.

Let’s talk on that instead of saying “heteronormativity loves women who never want to have sex or date.” Because... no.

#ace discourse #q slur cw

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butwhatifidothis · 3 years ago

Text

I did it! Finally fucking did it! I 100% the support log for 3H….Holy shit, that took longer than I was expecting, lol.

(Long rant, so heads up.)

I came in thinking “Oh they finally time-locked the supports, so I don’t have to have the damn cursor mocking me every time I open the menu like in Awakening and Fates, hurr hurr”. No no no no no. At least for Awakening and Fates, it was on my dumb ass for pressing the S-support and saving when I knew I shouldn’t. First off, if they wanted us to regain supports for Byleth in NG+, why the heck are supports for characters like Edelgard, Rhea, Dorothea and Lindhart locked? I don’t mean time-locked like the post-TS supports in a regular playthrough, I mean deadass “you can’t buy this, period” locked. “Oh it’s because you haven’t advanced that far in the story yet”. I can buy post-TS supports for the other characters, what makes El and Rhea exceptions?! The only thing that would be lost is that I don’t have to replay their entire route to get their S-support twice. It’s not like there’s enough differences between Bylad and Bylass to warrant the supports being locked, none of the characters specify a specific gender in their dialogue, and as far as different models go, changing models during a cutscene is coded into the game, so that should be no issue.

After going through the monastery option enough times, the hubworld is in this weird limbo state where it feels like it was made specifically for Byleth’s benefit (faculty training, recruiting party members, etc,) but the rest of the party seems to benefit from it instead (Instructions, Motivation points, etc). The Explore vs Battle options just don’t mix well, which feels like poor design choice. You can focus on auxiliary battles to raise your party’s level, but at the cost of potentially missing out on more party members. You can instead focus on the monastery to recruit party members, but at the cost of Byleth falling behind due to splitting activity points between recruiting and faculty training, and being in the monastery means less time grinding for levels. This isn’t as much of a problem in NG+, but if a game needs NG+ to lessen a design problem, then that’s more of a sign to me that the idea itself needed more ironing out.

As far as using the monastery to raise support points goes, the hubworld definitely needs a revamp. The only (good) options available are Meal Time and Choir Practice, with the latter being limited to once per week and the former making me think that the monastery must eat their own weapons to survive due to how fucking scarce food ingredients are. Getting meat and fish isn’t too big of an issue so long as you have enough money, but produce might as well be an urban legend. There were too many times where I had 60+ fish/meat, but produce was at fucking 1. I get that they wanted to be “realistic” in having seeds grow once per week, but if it’s at the cost of a gameplay element being nigh unplayable, then some more thought needs to be put into it. Sothis is a goddess of life and time, maybe her powers allow Byleth to make plants grow faster. Just something to make this section actually playable.

The final thing I wanted to talk about when it comes to the monastery is that, for some baffling reason, it is entirely possible to lock yourself out of key events like S-supports or being able to choose CF, simply by skipping to the end of the month. I’m not sure why this is a thing. It’s not like the game was designed with speedruns in mind (I mean, it is possible to beat a route in an hour, but fuck me if I ever succeeded in that), and nothing happens like a prompt popping up that you have to explore the monastery during that month or even limiting your options to just Explore (which the game has done before). This is especially weird for the quest in getting Jeralt’s ring (how to access S-supports), since Byleth is supposed to be sad in this month, so not being able to do seminars or Byleth being undeployable during auxiliary battles would make sense.

The option to choose CF is even worse though, because at least for Jeralt’s ring it’s a Red Quest that doesn’t allow you to finish exploring unless you complete it. For Edelgard, however? A dime-a-dozen quest prompt you can entirely look over and skip. No prompt by the game, no indication to talk to Edelgard, nothing. FFS, Rhea’s tea time quest was given more thought. At least her quest marker is a unique color.

(End of rant…sort of)

…So anyways, that was my experience with the game, lmao. Now you or someone else may be thinking, “nonnie, if you had this many problems completing the game, why did you bother?”, and the answer to that good question is…I’m not completely sure, lol. I know there’s more than one reason why, so bear with me here. I know part of it is due to sunk-cost fallacy (“I’m already this far into the game, I might as well fully complete it”), but I think a bigger reason is because I knew ahead of time that the routes were so similar to each other that there was little point in having a route split to begin with (except for CF, but who gives a fuck about that?). Despite all of my bitching, I do really like 3H even if I admit that it’s my least favorite FE game that I’ve played so far. I guess a part of me just wanted to like the game more despite my issues with it.

Now that I think about it, maybe the main reason was for fear of future mainline games. People are fear to like whatever part of a game that they wish, but I do think that 3H introduced some fundamental storytelling flaws that I’d rather not see repeated in the future, with me focusing on 3 in particular: 1) The Monastery, 2) Route Splits and 3) Byleth.

Aside from what I already talked about in regards to the monastery, if we are going to get another hubworld in the new FE title, have it to where it doesn’t conflict with how the rest of the story is presented. Is it better to simply tell us that the Western Church is xenophobic in an easily skippable side quest early on, or is it better to show us? Enemy Western Church NPCs going after foreign party members like Dedue or Petra more aggressively and calling them “animals” or the like, the map having Duscari NPCs locking themselves indoors for fear that the Western Church will persecute them, things of that nature. Is it better to tell us that there has been civil unrest in the Empire and the citizens revolting against Edelgard, or is it better to show us? Enemy Adrestian Civilian NPCs, assassins specifically going after Edelgard in a map, maybe one where a large farmland has been stripped bare. Things like that.

I’d rather do away with the Persona-calendar/Monastery hubworld, but if they are here to stay then they need enough content in it to keep the player engaged for 20-odd chapters, because there isn’t enough content in Garreg Mach to even hold up 12 chapters. Speaking of more content, if there’s going to be another route split in the next title, then there needs to be enough differences in the routes that actually warrants having a route split. Fates already did this well in having the route split be early in the game, along with the plot and story maps of each route being different, you could even skip to the route split moment on subsequent playthroughs, so 3H’s approach in having to play the same 12 chapters 3-4 times just felt like a massive downgrade. Playing multiple routes should feel rewarding rather than tedious, is what I’m trying to say.

Finally, and most importantly, I know that no one at IS is reading this but on the off chance that someone is - please, for the love of God, do not make another blank-slate/self insert main character like Byleth. Or at the very least, don’t have them be the focal point of the story, it’s a big reason why AM just works better than the other routes. For a game like FE, “self-insert” and “protagonist” goes as well as oil and water. Now, out of those three flaws listed, the Byleth one is what I’m hard set on. The monastery and route split flaws, my opinion might be flexible within reason, but the Byleth one…not so much, lol. If we really do get another self-insert doll for a main character, that alone is going to make the next game a hard sell for me, because seeing all the praise Byleth got (and has been getting) makes me fear that IS is going to take the wrong lesson from this and think they don’t have to put effort in making their protagonist anything resembling an actual person and their audience will still lap it up. It would be one thing if I just hated the character, but I don’t. I’m disappointed, which is even worse.

…With that said, it’s still better than whatever the heck Cap’n’Crunch is doing. Okay, rant over. For real this time.

—

I agree with a lot said here! But I do have a few disagreements, though they’re mostly my opinion than anything else lol

And this first one is probably like, extremely unpopular given how much shit I’ve seen flung at this aspect of 3H, but like… I actually really like the Monastery? Like yes, absolutely, it should have done more to not shelter the player from how bad the war is and it should change more with the world instead of being in this mostly limbo state where apparently seasons don’t real. I definitely also have those complaints, but to me, the Monastery was fine for the most part. A lot of the issues you brought up, like supports and Faculty Training and supplies for eating, weren’t a problem for me almost at all. My only real gripe is with how hard it is for Byleth to get training in Flying, Mounted and especially Heavy Armor without NG+ unlocking weapons ranks, since they don’t have access to Weekly Chores. I do believe I still managed to recruit everyone while only unlocking C in Faith on my Maddening playthrough of GD, but it certainly wasn’t easy. But I feel a lot of the problem people have with it are on subsequent playthroughs where they’re trying to do things like 100% any aspect of 3H, which yeah is gonna exacerbate the issues tenfold. Cuz like, while those three weapons ranks I mentioned are hard for Byleth to raise, on Normal mode you have unlimited auxiliary battles to help with all the other ones.

Like, I wanted to get Claude’s Dex to the max amount right? Just cuz I felt like it. And in doing that I found out just how tedious it is to get levels once a unit gets to a certain point, just cuz while Normal Mode gives you the Retreat option that lets you keep exp so you can drop a unit down on a yellow spot and get a decent boost in exp… you can do that like, twice or thrice on a story chapter. Once if it’s auxiliary (and not the freebie one). And that’s if you even have internet. And using the greenhouse to get Ailiell Pomegranates was a pain because they weren’t really guaranteed even if I used nothing but the right seed - doing that is more consistent, but not always, and I usually only got one anyway. It was annoying! But I was also doing a specific thing that’s gonna heighten the flaws in the system that I never would have noticed - didn’t even notice - unless I did that. The flaws are still there, don’t get me wrong! The Monastery definitely still needs improvement, battles still need to be a little more streamlined for future playthrough, but the flaws can seem a bit bigger than they are once you do certain things outside of a casual playthrough, know what I mean?

But, for example, when replaying 3H on hard mode and looking to recruit everyone after my no recruitment run, I didn’t come across any dilemma over “recruitment or Byleth being good, pick one.” That was the run my Byleth was usable, in fact - my first blind run that was no recruitment (save for Shamir) had my Byleth be pretty much completely useless while literally everyone else was fine. Also never came across problems with supplies for cooking (or at least not any big enough to comment on). So like, while these (and the above stuff) can certainly be problems for players trying to do everything everything in 3H, at least from my experience I just haven’t come across them. The monastery itself definitely needed a better story implementation, but yeah. I could’ve just been lucky tho lmao

I don’t mind how they implemented trying to get on CF at all tho lol. If you’ve been playing the game like it suggests you do - supporting characters and exploring the monastery there’s no reason for players to have missed getting on CF. If players wanted to ignore one of the biggest aspects of the game I don’t really feel that bad for them when they miss out on very achievable things. Plus, CF’s requirements are nothing in terms of FE’s madness when it comes to getting on a route. It may be more specific than any other route, but like I said, playing the game as the game tells you to would naturally land you in it (the only thing that might be a bit unfair is that I think if you talk with Edelgard at all that month you have to decide right then and there, and then the whole month is lost. Kinda ass).

Binding Blade, for example, requires you to do specific things that few first time players would think to do in multiple, random chapters in order for you to get the best ending. With absolutely no warning as to when these chapters happen and what to do in them. And some of these requirements are not fun lmao, I’d prefer how they did it with CF than with how they’ve handled ~secret~ stuff before personally

Pretty much agree with everything else though! While 3H is actually one of my more favored games in the series, I’ll be the first to admit that its storytelling is in dire need of improvement. Having the story and lore of the game just be spat out in lore dumps and this or that NPC just isn’t that good. Or if they are going to do that, at the very least give some visuals to go along with it! Imagine how much impactful Rhea’s story would have been if it was in a visual format, like CGs and/or a cutscene. It still would be an info dump, but at least we can see for ourselves how horrific the Red Canyon was for her! And I do not want another avatar in whatever next mainline game we get, personality or not. We’ve evolved past the need for self-inserts that all the characters Just Like lmao

But thanks for sharing your thoughts!! And sorry that it took so long for me to get to answering ;w;

#submission #anon #exqueuese me princess #but hey I found the og submission at least!! for some reason it got thrown in like the middle of my drafts?? weird lmao #but yeah overall I do think 3H could've done with some refinement for later more intensive playthroughs #and on the other hand I get why they didn't immediately think of them if that makes sense #also lol yeah the base game is infinitely more fun that whatever Cap'n'n doin' lmao

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luckycheesefoodie321 · 4 years ago

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ok...ok ok ok... ok... so I watched Mulan (2020)... spoilers + LONG POST (yo this took me an hour and a half)...

before yall scream at me for spending money on it, lemme just say i was fully intending to wait until December so that I would not have to give even more money to the Disney machine (especially in light of things that happened with John Boyega) nor endorse individuals who support police brutality or oppression... but my mum and sister nagged me to buy it so we could watch it now, and explaining the politics of supporting both Disney’s greed and the controversy around the lead actress and would’ve just frustrated us both so I paid for it -_- please don’t crucify me...

also want to preface this by saying I am not Chinese (though I am Asian), and I understand that the 1998 film and this film have inherent issues, given neither were directed by Asian directors, let alone Chinese ones... so the representation of the Chinese culture is likely flawed (and likely straight up wrong) in many ways... additionally, Li Yifei has been shown to support the actions of police in Hong Kong, so just know I’m viewing her role purely from an acting and movie standpoint...

now that’s done... general rating for the movie

when compared to the original animated film (my favourite Disney movie of all time): scrapes by on a 5/10

movie that stands on its own as I watched it (just note I’m the type of person who can enjoy pretty much anything - even if I’m hyper-critical of it): 7/10 (I’m very generous but my viewing experience was nice)

if I break it down completely into its underlying faults and wash away the Hollywood sheen and the nostalgia filter: 4/10 for themes 8/10 for cinematography and the technical aspects... (this movie was gorgeous to look at and had some really fun camera work, sue me for enjoying the visuals)

Full SPOILER review:

For the most part, my nostalgia filter from the animated film, which I dearly dearly love, basically had me ecstatic anytime there was even a hint of a reference to the animated film (see: occasional notes from the songs), and also sorely disappointed when the acting or the general pace pulled the fun or the emotion from key points (see: A Girl Worth Fighting For being abruptly cut off upon seeing the carnage would’ve been so much more impactful because they actually showed the bodies in the 2020 version but instead we got this kinda funny convo referencing the lines completely separated from that scene)...

The biggest issue I have with the film is that Mulan was naturally skilled from the beginning and was told to suppress her abilities.. making her OP from the beginning undermines the 1998 journey where we see every step of her development both in physical ability and her emotional struggles... then through her wits, intelligence, and strategy, as well as being on par and even better than her fellow soldiers, she manages to defeat Shan Yu and makes us feel her “Hero” status is very much earned... so it takes away from what the 1998 film tried to show in suggesting Mulan could just OP her way to victory at the drop of a hat.. and also implied her being dishonest about her true identity was her primary flaw? idk thematically they were trying to be super empowering of women and the capability of women, and the boxes women are forced into according to society... but then suggest Mulan was always inherently gifted/had a special power and that is why she succeeded, while the other soldiers worked hard and effectively achieved the same goal (albeit in a less flashy manner)... so the message gets very confusing...

i felt that Xian Niang (was that her name?), the Witch, had a lot of potential, but I was also really concerned they introduced her to make sure Mulan had a female enemy to defeat, and Shan Yu/Bori Khan was a minion of this female enemy... so in that sense I’m glad she served as a foil to Mulan... I would’ve liked the parallels more if the “being your true self”/”bring honor to us all” theme wasn’t so muddled... Mulan was accepted while XIan Niang wasn’t because they both had powers, but then Mulan convinces her to take the noble path and so Xian Niang died for her? idk there was a better way to fold her into the story...

Shan Yu/Bori Khan was about as much as I expected from him... I think he matched Shan Yu for skill, though idk about ferocity or intimidation power, though the actor was decent enough... but I did enjoy his and Mulan’s fight... less impactful because he didn’t even know about her and how she was the one to take down most of his army...

didn’t mind that Mushu was missing... fondly referred to the phoenix as Mushu (though I understand there may be cultural missteps in a phoenix being the spirit/ancestor/guardian)...

I also didn’t mind they removed the power imbalance between Shang and Mulan and had her love interest be a fellow soldier...I really liked Yoson An’s character actually...but the romance element was significantly dialled back, so we didn’t get the bisexual icon that is Li Shang... also Li Yifei’s emotional acting was normal but not outstanding... so her feelings for Honghui didn’t really register much except for that first time they chat in the barracks about girls, and right before she goes home... (just me being pouty about him not joining the Imperial Guards to Mulan’s home and presenting himself for matchmaking... though I understand it was to keep focus on Mulan’s journey, not her love interest)...

while it probably wasn’t the intention of the 1998 film, the positive portrayal of gender fluidity, the specific empowerment of trans and bisexual individuals through Mulan and Shang (bc let’s get real, he was just as attracted to Ping as he was Mulan), all did not ring in quite the same way in the 2020 version... again I’m not part of either community, so I can’t say for sure, but this is what I read from it...

overall the fun was taken out, with the songs... I would say this is probably on the higher end of Disney Live Action adaptations, there were some fun moments and funny dialogue even, and I didn’t mind that they were trying to do something different, unlike some of the others which made it note for note the same... but ultimately the biggest flaw of most of the adaptations are that it removes the fun and the levity in lieu of a more serious tone...

I accepted no songs (I was hopeful and then pleasantly surprised when they did pay some minor homages through the score to the original’s songs)... but the fun moments were meant to be intentionally undercut by the reality of the war... there’s a reason A Girl Worth Fighting For was cut off so abruptly in the 1998 version... it was the moment where these trainees (all of them young and having never experienced battle or war before) suddenly realised the severity of the situation before them, and it was in that moment they accepted their fate and duty to protect the kingdom...

the 2020 version just kind of had them walk through the carnage without any real build up... the grand battle sequence with the avalanche was pretty well done, the overdramatic “Hua Jun died but Mulan lived” scene notwithstanding.. i didn’t mind that Mulan volunteered to expose herself rather than be forced half-naked into the snow by the Chancellor dude... didn’t like Honghui got the “you listened to Hua Jun, why is Hua Mulan any different?” line... the “I believe in Hua Mulan” was kinda goofy, but I could see what they were going for... it was kinda undermined by the Commander saying “you dishonoured your family and this regiment but hey, you’re brave and loyal kid”...felt very patronising...

I’m not gonna lie, I kinda loved Cricket... he was adorable and I had half a heart attack when I thought he’d died...

DIDN’T REALISE MING NA WEN MADE A CAMEO UNTIL I CAME ON HERE...so that was nice..

still pissed they didn’t even put the drum beats for “I’ll Make a Man Outta You”...they were using drums during the training sequence too so would’ve been real easy to do so AND THEY DIDN’T...they did it for “Bring Honor to Us All” and “Reflection”...idk why they couldn’t even give us that much of my favourite Disney song...

again, cannot emphasise enough how gorgeous this whole movie looked...and there were so many fun camera work moments... the visuals had me dead on the floor ya’ll...

idk what else i have to say now...

tl;dr I enjoyed the experience of watching it, but hooooo boi the film is flawed as hell...

#mulan #mulan 2020 #long post #spoilers #mulan 2020 spoilers #disney #spoiler post #movie review

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crispyjenkins · 4 years ago

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Hi Crispy! I was just wondering how do you write characters with multiple pronouns (he/they, she/they)? I’m having trouble trying to vary them throughout my story but it just feels strained on my end. I only have my own experiences to go off of as a fledgling non-binary person and I can’t find any writing resources on the subject. It’s ok if you don’t have an answer I was just wondering!

hmmm that's am excellent question! and like most things, there isn't any one answer. (so of course my answer is heckin long rip)

my personal experience with varied pronouns is, for lack of a better word, varied (ﾟ◡ ﾟღ) when i first started going by he/they (oh lord like six years ago??), I was one or the other for whole days or weeks, and i was going by two names also, so myself and others would associate they/them with one name and he/him with the other. truthfully, i've never written this dynamic

i rarely pass as masculine usually, and i've found in work environments it was so so much easier to have coworkers and customers use he/him because i want to be read as masculine first, if that makes sense? like i wish there was a masculine-they/them if that makes sense? (ღಥ◡ ಥღ)

i have only ever had one person in my life successfully bounce between he and they evenly for me, i honestly don't know how they made it look so effortless to just. use both in a conversation or when they're telling someone about me?

in the context of writing, i still struggle switching, say, obi-wan's pronouns to they/them when i normally write them with he/him? like i'm thinking specifically the agricorps obi, good lord i kept forgetting their pronouns and automatically writing masculine ones. and it was hard to correct in editing, because it. read really normal? it didn't actually stand out to me reading it back, i think largely because obi-wan already has masculine pronouns in canon. WHILE writing it though, blehhh it took me out of the groove a lot because i was constantly having to correct myself and then i'd worry about if i was being clear enough on who's who in a sentence, or with dialogue tags, and i relate to the struggle you're describing A Lot. (i'm writing an nb din right now where they also aren't sure of grogu's pronouns so it feels like a MESS of they/thems everywhere, but then i realised it would be a mess if they were all he/hims, too, i'm just more like. acclimatised to gendered pronouns and was way over thinking it)

now, i also had this problem in hunger 'verse, using Naberrie for obi-wan. it felt clunky and out of place and i was constantly correcting myself.

i guess what i'm getting at is that like 99% of the time, the clunky you feel while writing is because it's something you've never done before, and/or are worried about doing it "right" (or respectfully) , and/or are worried you're not making it clear enough.

i've written varied pronouns like you're describing only once, and i never posted it because i never finished it. i got caught up in worrying about if the readers would understand, if i needed to have an explanation in the notes, if other nb folx were gonna tell me i was doing it wrong

i'm all over the place in this answer omf, but my advice is this: there's no formula for how often you switch between he and they, she and they, etc., because every nb's ratio is different, if that makes sense. if your character doesn't lean any more to one side than the other, i sincerely don't think it matters how or when you change up their pronouns (except maybe not in the same sentence, unless in dialogue; jury's out on switching it up in the same paragraph, i think that's up to you!)

it'll be a little strange for readers, only because they've likely never read that before (lord knows i haven't 🥲) but it's a little strange for those reading a they/them character for the first time, too. it's just a new experience, and by the time the reader really gets into the story, they won't notice it

i don't believe in the "only write what you know" because fuck that, BUT using your own experiences as inspiration or a starting off point or as a learning tool is important too! i can't tell you how important it was for me to start writing obi-wan with hunger 'verse, because he was 22 and i was 22 and I needed that connection to really solidly and understand what i was wanting from him in everything else i wrote for him (as well as everyone else in star wars tbh)

so maybe that's a starting point for you? if you go by, or are wanting to go by varied pronouns, there's nothing stopping you from applying that to the character you're writing. when would YOU switch between them? how frequently? do other characters know or is it only in their internal dialogue/exposition?

your writing feels clunky and forced because you're writing it. when i'm unsure if something is clear enough or too confusing, i usually send it to my kid @theclonewarsbrokeme, and cannot recommend another set of eyes on your work enough. not even a full beta reader or anything, just someone else to look at it while you're writing, largely because, quite often, it reads just fine

#omf i hope this helps #i've been writing this since about 4am and hope it reads coherently 🥲#as i'm writing these tags i'm realising i'm a Hypocrite and not taking my own advice lmao #cj answers #anon #trans shit #queer shit #pronouns #and anyone is absolutely allowed to send me more questions or if something needs clarifying!#teaching is my love language and i'm very passionate about non binary things lmao #okay i'm going back to bed i love you all #wait no i'm back to say: anon if you don’t have anyone to send it to or share it with #i would be DELIGHTED to help out in any way you need

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vomara · 4 years ago

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I saw your posts about Katara and the general treatment of female characters in the new ATLA fandom and what i wanna know is, why is it like this now? You know usually i'd say if there's misogyny in a fandom is because the show itself has big problems with it. But ATLA is like, the complete opposite of that? It's a very good show in terms of equality between female and male characters. And it was out there pushing that over a decade ago.

Like who's coming into this show full of great women and going "I only care about the boys and the girls are annoying"? Methinks these people are far too accustumed to shows and fandom where male characters and male focus are the norm, and they come into this show and start perpetuating the same, but this is to me at least almost entirily the fandom's fault. Cause the show isn't out there purposely ignoring or giving bad dialogue and arcs to the women in it. (2/2)

yeah, i agree. there's a very clear and longstanding male-centric bias in fandom in general, and atla is no exception, and yes, it really isn't well-supported by canon, which has plenty of well-developed female characters. atla fandom isn't the WORST i've been in, but the fandom focus has... shifted very male-centric nowadays in a way that wasn't always so prominent. while i'm not gonna say that it was a fantastic thing, before about 2015, there was a little bubble of more female-centric fanwork in the fandom -- mostly concerning azula, but other characters, too. (again, i don't think that it was a fantastic thing, given the fact that a lot of azula fanwork tends to ignore fundamental aspects of her, but it was there, and it existed.) now what? the fandom is predominantly z*ukka, with lingering remnants from a thriving z*utara fandom.

in general, i don't blame fandom for zuko being a fan-favorite -- he was practically designed that way. dramatic and attractive, with one of the most visible character arcs in the series. for other characters, you actually have to pay attention to see how they learn and change; for zuko, you don't have to pay much attention at all. but exempting him, the two most developed characters are aang and katara, both of whom get glossed over in fandom, particularly 2020 fandom. since katara is the main female, let's look at her.

why is she so disrespected in fandom? i think we can start by examining the largest pairings. the z*utara fandom goes all the way back to the airing of the show itself. it's a genuinely compelling dynamic and i like it, but the fandom repels me deeply... because katara is often forced into a position where she has to perform emotional labor in order to force zuko to redeem himself. her character often loses spark, and she sometimes becomes passive in way that's not canon. not to mention there's a whole subset of z*utara tropes that feels very... colonialist. and being a brown girl, fitting her into these more passive, colonized molds is... uh, not a good look on the fans. but i digress. at least she's there and present.

now flash forward to post-2015, but especially 2020, z*ukka fandom. (this fandom existed prior, but was much more lowkey.) the one thing about a lot of mlm pairings in practically every fandom, is how fans can choose to exclude the females of the narrative. this is in no way a disparagement of gay shipping -- but it is a criticism of how those same shippers behave to other characters. other characters, especially females, become accessories to their main ship, and because of that, they often become flat and unidimensional. furthermore, z*ukka had a rival ship in z*utara, so establishing a sense of superiority comes down to proving that sokka is somehow better than katara in some form or another. and how? she's homophobic, she's whiny, she's a "mom", she's "straight" (???) ... or maybe they call her badass and assign her no other traits. maybe they even pair her off with another person to get her out of the way, so they can focus on their mlm pairing, which they justify as more important because it's "progressive shipping". essentially, unlike z*utara, z*ukka stans can very conveniently throw katara out the window. she doesn't need to be present, and so often times, she isn't.

it's just all part of this continued shafting of brown girls in fandom. the fandom CONSISTENTLY loves to hate katara, specifically because she talks about her trauma so much. (which is justified as hell! she lost her mother and then became a mother to the rest of her village at a young age, and she uses this trauma to help her empathize with others!) zuko's out here monologuing about his trauma, and everyone loves him, but this same love doesn't extend to katara. it's irksome to say in the least. sokka, who's of the same race, gets a lot more attention, and that really says a lot about how gender plays into fan-following, because he isn't quite as developed as she is.

there are other girls in the fandom with notable followings, but honestly it would take forever going through each one of them step by step. azula is the most significant in fandom, and that's partially because her character development is strong and visible in the way that zuko's is. also, people have a tendency towards enjoying more unstable females, but that's its own thing. overall, though, even she has been long outstripped by the fan-following of the main mlm ship in fandom. there's no way to compete with that.

and really, that's all it is. this recent misogyny is very much a result of this almost cultish shift towards one particular ship in fandom, an mlm ship that very obviously allows for the exclusion of female characters. once you become a superfan and enwrapped in this type of cultish shipping, you no longer need canon, you no longer need the rest of the cast, and you no longer need female characters, and so you can just enter into a nice little echo chamber where you talk about the same two characters over and over again and get completely disconnected from the original material. and that sucks, because often times, it's the canon context and the complexity of other characters that provide complexity to these characters you're discussing, and now that you've disconnected, you've warped and flattened the dynamic of everyone including those favorite characters into something very generic and boring. and that's a travesty! but, well, i suppose it’s just another byproduct of misogyny.

#i spent over an hour going off i am so sorry #it's wild how this is like... the tip of the iceberg. i had SO much more #atla #ask #text #mine #fandom wank

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sneakyneighboururchin · 4 years ago

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Genuinely asking here bc maybe I've missed/forgotten some stuff but... when homo- and transphobic stuff is said in DA, it's addressed in game as being bad, isn't it? Like Dorian's first personal quest is about his dad acknowleding his homophobia and apologizing to Dorian. And with Krem, Krem and Bull both correct the Inquisitor pretty sternly if you misgender him, and Bull explains how gender identity is respected under the Qun. Not trying to fight you on this, nor do I think DA is by any means perfect, I just don't recall seeing homophobia or transphobia that isn't quickly shut down by the player or other characters. Don't feel pressured to answer tho, I know it's not your job to pull receipts for every shitty thing in a video game lol

Well first off thanks for being so polite and nice in this message, I appreciate it. I'm gonna try and cover the stuff that I've seen myself and have had pointed out to me by other people but keep in mind that I'm not trans, most of what I'll say here on the transphobia issue is me parroting other trans fans who've said this sort of thing before. I am gay though, so I guess we're clear on that front. It's also been a while since i played any of the games so if i get stuff wrong, I'm sorry. This is gonna be long so sorry for that in advance.

So homophobia and transphobia in our world. Why is it a thing? A combination of humanity hating and fearing what it doesn't understand (which Dragon Age also has) and religion, specifically in my experience Christianity (which Dragon Age does not have). Yes the Chantry and Andrastianism is heavily based off of Christianity and Catholicism but it doesn't have any of the bullshit about sexuality and gender that Christianity does. Neither in it's holy texts or it's teachings. The in universe writing about sexuality, a codex by Brother Genitivi, is also kinda homophobic and doesn't explain why this is a thing in Thedas at all. Queer relations and relationships are aparently viewed by most of Southern Thedas as 'peculiar' but no explanation is given as to why. Now I'm gonna go into specific instances.

First off, let's look at some of the stuff you've mentioned. Dorian and his dad. Yeah that whole situation hit me pretty close to home as a queer person who's pretty much accepted at this point that my dad will never accept who I am and my mother died still not having accepted me. What Halward did is definitely portrayed as a bad thing, that is correct. The narrative kind of subtly pushing the reconciliation being the good option is a bit iffy. What Halward tried to do to Dorian is straight up abuse and I really don't like plotlines that push making nice with the abuser and forgiving them as a good resolution. This is kind of more personal feelings than straight from the script fact but I wanted to say it anyway.

Second issue: Krem's treatment. So many trans people have talked about this before me, if you want some more in depth analysis of this you should go check out some of their stuff, it won't be hard to find. The basics though: Krem is voiced by a cis woman. This immediately sets a shitty precedent on the side of the devs lending proof to the theory that they don't care about uplifting trans people, just making money off them. Krem should have been voiced by a trans actor. In the actual conversation with Iron Bull you get the opportunity to be extremely transphobic. And if you do this you get told off, and that's kind of it. The fact that your character even has the option to do that is a) gross from an out of character writing perspective, and b) makes no sense in character. Why would your character have these views? There is no in lore reason for any of the potential groups your character comes from to be transphobic. Also, and this is just my opinion, but if you're transphobic to Krem (even though it makes no sense in universe) the Iron Bull's reaction shouldn't be a bit of disapproval, he should send you through the fucking wall. Seems more in character. Also, gender roles under the Qun also have a lot of potential to be transphobic, they are by no means an improvement on ours imo. Under the Qun your gender is essentially decided by your role. So if you're a fighter you're male. If you care for children you're female. Not only is that pretty hella sexist and reliant on our dumb ideas of gender roles (that again aren't supposed to be a thing in Thedas) it also has potential to be hell for trans people. Yes it would work for someone like Krem, but for someone who was AMAB and good at fighting but they were a woman? Being shoved into male gender roles and treated as a man would not be good. If the writer's intent was to create a society with an entirely different concept of and approach to gender they've done it wrong because of how much of it is reliant on the audience's perception of gender which (going by general gaming demographics) is pretty cis and het normative.

Now I'm gonna talk about the transphobia that doesn't get challenged. Sera makes a couple transphobic comments throughout the game I believe, the one I can remember in detail is in the Winter Palace when she says someone presenting a certain way isn't actually that. And without any further context the only way the audience can really interpret that is that the writers decided to take a cheap shot at someone cross dressing in a bad attempt at comedy.

Sera's writing in general is super homophobic because she was written by a homophobe. I'm not gonna go into all of that in this cos this is already too long and I could write essays about it. Other people already have! But basically, she's the only out and out lesbian romance we have in the series, and her writing in that respect is really not good.

So how about the other games? Well. In origins you can hire sex workers at a brothel. The 'special' on offer is a very masc presenting dwarf in a poorly fitting dress. This was a very transphobic attempt at humour. Zevran, much as I love him dearly, is a walking bisexual stereotype, made worse by feeding into the 'sexy Latine' stereotype on top of that, which isn't an in universe problem so much as it is proof that the writers are guilty of prejudices whether they know it or not. I suspect there's more instances in origins but I can't remember right now.

In Dragon Age 2 Seneschal Bran has a relationship of some kind with a sex worker named Serendipity, a feminine presenting elf with a very deep voice. This is played as something that Bran should be ashamed of. At least I think so, it could be that he's ashamed of having a relationship with a sex worker. Not that far fetched considering Aveline's weaponisation of the word 'whore' against Isabela. But this is also something that doesn't make sense honestly. Why is sex work taboo in thedas? Christianity isn't around to make it so and Andrastianism doesn't have purity culture going except for their clergy ( which also is never explained why and makes no sense.) Additionally, Uncle Gamlen is super homophobic. Why? There is no reason culturally or religiously for him to be that way? Yes he's an asshole but why is he an asshole in that manner? And you don't even get to challenge him on it! It's passive dialogue that you trigger when walking into his house and you don't immediately get the option to fucking fight him about it? Why put it in then?!

A good amount of this is off topic from the actual question so sorry about that but TLDR there's a lot of in universe homophobia and transphobia, most of it is not handled well in or out of universe. I do believe that they're trying to do better in this respect, inquisition was a step up from previous games it just wasn't enough of one.

If you want more stuff like this go check out @dalishious cos they have a ton of very good meta on subjects related to this.

#dragon age critical #homophobia #transphobia

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