#is this considered a dbda poll?

[demcrazymandolin]

I've been seeing more and more of people's background picture on their blogs set as a gif, and it looks cool af. I'm considering this myself bc I really wanna change mine to a gif from the dead boy detective intro, but at the same time I really like the vibe I have now...so I need some help.

[edwinspaynes]

Very curious what other people think of this because I've seen several different takes.

In my interpretation of DBDA, I think Edwin knew he was gay already before the beginning of the series. As in, I think he knew it when he was still alive. I don't think he was out, obviously, and I think the kids at school killed him for being... campy, for the lack of a better word. Visibly queer? But my point stands.

However, I think he was extremely repressed because he was ashamed of this fact (and died as a result of it), so he totally avoided thinking about his sexuality (that he was already aware of) until the Cat King and Monty unlocked a reason for him to actually think about it and mull it over. And I think Niko helped him to combat internalized homophobia. I do not think they were his gay awakening. I think they were a step toward acceptance of something he knew about himself.

A lot of people seem to assess things differently, saying that he never considered whether he might be gay or not until meeting the Cat King. This feels unrealistic to me - Edwin's very analytical and likes to assess facts and evidence, and his murderers were chanting a homophobic slur while murdering him. It would be something he'd have thought about, in my opinion. I don't think that it's an invalid reading, and rewatching episode 2 last night, I understand why some people think this. I just think he was repressed and avoiding it. But yeah.

I also think that Charles probably knew the ins and outs of Edwin's death, solely based on how close they are and how long they have known each other. It would have at some point come up. I definitely think Edwin's avoidance means that he would never have even conceptualized coming out to Charles until 1x6. But I think Charles in his heart of hearts a) thought Edwin might be gay, and b) gave 0 fucks and didn't think about it much.

Hence this poll:

[read-write-thrive]

hi everyone it’s time for another poll in relation to my gender swap/ butchfemme payneland dbda au !! this time I’m trying to figure out swapped Niko’s name, what do we think?

here’s how I came up with/consider these options:

there is the option to just keep it as Niko since that’s technically a unisex leaning masculine name in Japan but I don’t want to confuse anything so I’m not a huge fan of keeping it

Jiro is taken from @technically-human ‘s swapped boys and works with the idea of Niko meaning second daughter (as Jiro can mean second son—there was a good post explaining Niko=second daughter but I can’t find it, if anyone knows it pls share!) but I don’t want to use without permission in case that starts any drama

the rest of the names have varied meanings/gender connotations but were chosen bc of the “K” sound / kanji used in them is sometimes used in Niko (we never see her write her name so no real way to know) AND bc that kanji can be used in the translation for dandelion which I thought was fitting :) plus I liked the shorter, two syllable names for the vibes

all the names are fairly unisex, w/ Niko, Kaito, and Jiro leaning more masculine and w/ Taeko leaning more feminine (according to magicbabynames ) if that makes any difference to anyone! I think Taeko would interesting as it leans feminine and since Niko is a masculine name used for a female character it would make for a fitting swap…

also, in case anyone missed it: Crystal’s equivalent is going to be Alexander Palace in my AU as inspired by @local-limebug ‘s comments under this post of mine :) thank you again for the idea/letting me use it !!

[sinespuzzle]

I like Niko’s character, but still consider her a racist stereotype.

(For the hot take DBDA poll thing)

oooh this is a good one thank you anon!

for the record, i can't see who answered what