#issues: ambiguous representation

[ao3org]

Updates to AO3 "Mythology" Fandoms

Hi AO3 users! You may have noticed that recently, fandoms previously canonized as "Mythology" are being updated to "Religion & Lore". This renaming project is part of a wider ongoing process on AO3 about respectful treatment and naming of various religions, spiritual beliefs, faiths, and collections of folklores belonging to a particular religious or cultural tradition. This includes both major and minor religions, as well as reconstructionist, ancient, and modern religions.

In the coming months, the term "Mythology" is being phased out of canonical fandom names. This is because of its potential for use as a disparaging term, and the way in which it is used primarily for religions which are already under-represented. Since "mythology" has connotations of being fictional or inferior to the religious beliefs of the speaker or writer, and is unfortunately used in this way by some, the decision has been made to replace this term with something that the Wrangling Committee believes is more inclusive and less derogatory.

After extensive discussion between individuals from varying religious backgrounds and beliefs, including wranglers representing the various fandoms which were being covered, it was felt that "Religion & Lore" was an appropriate and neutral way to describe the bodies of faith, belief, knowledge, and tradition associated with many of these religions which were ancestrally imparted and regional in nature. It is also hoped that this will decrease ambiguous or confused use, allowing people to more accurately describe their works and find works in which they are interested moving forward.

The use of "Ancient" in many of these fandoms' names reflects that these countries still exist but now have different predominant religions or spiritual beliefs. For example, Ancient Greek Religion & Lore (as Greece is now a predominantly Christian country) or Ancient Egyptian Religion (as Egypt is now a predominantly Muslim country). Because "Norse" does not refer to an extant country, region, or culture, it is not necessary to specify that it is historical or ancient in nature.

The names of these fandoms will also have the native language piped, if the English-language demonym is significantly different from the native-language demonym or if there is a culturally specific term based on consultation with individuals who speak these languages as a first language. We hope to give representation to the language of the source culture by doing so.

Each of these changes has been and will continue to be carefully researched and discussed with traditional knowledge keepers and researchers from the cultures represented in the fandoms under discussion.

Many religions face the issue of texts being written long after their events occurred. Unfortunately this is something which is shared across many religious fandoms; AO3 seeks to treat these religious fandoms equally. Care has been taken in researching characters relating to these fandoms, and character tags will be canonized or made a synonym on a case-by-case basis. Fandom tags that are currently synned to the Ancient religious fandoms have been checked as thoroughly as possible to ensure that they are not referring to modern folk tales, and where possible such relatively modern folk tales are canonized as their own fandoms.

(From time to time, ao3org posts announcements of recent or upcoming wrangling changes on behalf of the Tag Wrangling Committee.)

[blue-eye-samurai]

Listen, I don’t condone people being hateful and/or blatantly rude towards anyone for simply having headcanons about fictional characters that they like. That’s definitely not okay and I would never do that. However, your personal interpretation of Mizu being nonbinary is just that — a headcanon. If you think otherwise, then … yes, you are wrong.

Mizu IS canonically a cisgender woman of color. That is literally the whole narrative of her story and it’s genuinely exhausting how so many of you continue to argue otherwise. The creators of Blue Eye Samurai refer to Mizu with she/her pronouns. Amber Noizumi (the show’s #1 writer) is a biracial cisgender woman of color who shaped much of Mizu’s story around her own lived experiences. The character is also heavily inspired by Amber’s daughter, who is also biracial … so why are you still so convinced that this show is not actually about a woman?

Why are you so sure that Mizu doesn’t privately feel and identify as a woman even though she’s not traditionally feminine? Like seriously, I don’t understand why so many of you are so comfortable with discounting Mizu’s perspective as a woman. Are you truly under the impression that cisgender women (especially cisgender women of color) can’t have complex feelings about their gender identity? If that is the case, I assure you that we most definitely do. Cisgender women are not one dimensional, we are complex human beings … just like everyone else.

Also, a lot of you fail to realize how problematic and highly inappropriate it is to view a story about non white people from a modern western lense, especially when that story takes place in a very different place and time period. Yes, all kinds of various queer people have always existed in every place and time period, but that’s not the point of this show. It’s a well known historical fact that cisgender women have often had to “pass” as men in order to protect themselves and to archive their goals. Mizu presents as a man because she has to, not because she wants to.

Again, Mizu is a biracial person living in the 1600s Edo era of Japan, who’s womanhood was stripped away from her since infancy without her consent and she has been forced to hide her true gender identity out of survival. I can understand why a lot of queer people (trans, nonbinary, intersex, etc…) will be able to resonate with that lived experience, but y’all should still be able to resonate with a story without making everything about yourselves.

You don’t want to touch Blue Eye Samurai anymore simply because lots of people online aren’t accepting your personal interpretations as facts? Okay. That’s perfectly fine. Nobody is forcing you to watch. At the end of the day, this show isn’t about you and it was not created for you. It’s about women of color (including cishet ones) and it was created by women of color too, so they are naturally going to be the main audience here.

And as someone who is a biracial (Asian/White) and multicultural cisgender woman myself (who is also not traditionally feminine either but still identifies as a woman), I’m still amazed by how this show made me feel so seen and heard for the first time in my life. I’m so used to feeling invisible in the media that I consume that it actually took me by surprise to see so much of my own feelings and lived experiences in Mizu’s story.

So yeah, I definitely understand what it’s like to be marginalized in more than one way and I’ve always been able to resonate with characters that have different lived experiences from me, but that’s exactly why I don’t understand how some of y’all (mainly white queers) can’t seem to do the same thing here as well. Why does Mizu HAVE to be canonically queer in order for y’all to still be able to resonate with her narrative? Why do so many of you feel this entitled to a story that is not even about you and wasn’t created for you in the first place?

I understand trans mascs and nonbinary people crave good representation, but so do cisgender women of color. Our stories and experiences matter too and we don’t stop being “women” just because we don’t fit into society’s ideal standards of beauty and femininity. Blue Eye Samurai is canonically about women of color and that certainly includes Mizu. Anyone who insists otherwise is simply projecting whatever they want to see in a story because they can’t relate to it otherwise.

On tiktok, I made a comment implying that Mizu might be nonbinary or maybe have a rather complex personal relationship with gender, and someone literally reacted with a callout video. Like I got dozens of hate comments just for suggesting that Mizu might not identify as a cis woman.

What sucks is that I don't really even want to touch Blue Eye Samurai with a 10 foot pole anymore. I feel dumb and like my interpretation is wrong, but at the same time, I don't really understand how it's wrong. Mizu having a complicated relationship with gender and experiencing the full breadth of violence and pain in a world against women aren't mutually exclusive. Mizu having to be a man to seek revenge and having gender related childhood trauma doesn't mean they have to be a woman. At least not to me.

[chaifootsteps]

Hazbin and Helluva are praised up the ass by their fans for their apparent inclusive representation and tactfulness when handling abuse, but as soon as people from the groups Hazbin and Helluva are claiming to represent take issue with how that representation is being portrayed, their voices and input are immediately discredited. Doesn’t matter if you’re a black person who points out how Viv has her black-coded characters be designed so racially ambiguously that it’s almost impossible to tell, or you’re a victim of Male victim of SA who dislikes the pretty obvious fetishization of Angel’s situation by the creator and artist who storyboarded those scenes. At the end of the day, it’s about hailing Vivziepop as a good and competent writer, not about the people she’s claiming to represent. If they don’t like how they’re being represented, then they can go fuck themselves.

This. They pride themselves on being a diverse fandom until someone doesn't toe the line, then trans people are grounds for misgendering, victims are lying about being victims, and black people get the n-word.

I desperately wish I could say I was exaggerating.

[lelet-draws]

Explaining the issue people have with Venus hair:

I would like to note that:

I’m half black (racially ambiguous) and have a loose Afro (something between 3c and 4a). The lack of Afro hair representation is an issue that affects me directly, but not as much as darker skin folks.

I’m not a G3 hater, this post is made due to disappointment. I like G3, but it’s not perfect and some aspects could really be improved.

Starting with a hot take, Venus having straight hair, in a vacuum, isn’t an issue. The real issue lies in the context, of all the female dolls in G3 she was the only one allowed to have textured hair.

The protagonist of this generation is black and has Afro hair in the show, but she is barely allowed to have it in her dolls.

Catty Noir who is black coded also wasn’t allowed to have textured hair in her debut, only a few braids.

G3 clearly has racist/texturists tendencies when it comes to their black characters, which is such a bummer for a generation that prides itself on inclusivity. Black folks deserve proper hair representation. Our hair has been called ugly, unsanitary, (bombril if you are brazillian), for ages and the lack of representation contributes to that idea.

I was born in the 2000s, fairly recently, yet I still had almost no dolls with hair like mine growing up. The only doll I ever owned with hair like mine was a Howleen Wolf doll. And it’s not like G1 had a lot of dolls with Afro hair either, she was one of the few exceptions.

When G3 came out I was hopeful we would get more amazing dolls with different hair textures. It breaks my heart seeing them miss the mark so badly.

Straight haired Venus isn’t the issue, it’s a symptom.

[an-amber-in-the-ashes]

Hi! I'm a reader with hEDS like Violet, and Fourth Wing made me feel like I'd been spat on.

*This* is what we get for representation? One million instances of pushing through pain?

In terms of Violet being lanky and skinny, I get it. A lot (not all! Not all! Do you hear me! Not all!) of people with hEDS are extremely thin, but also very tall. I felt a bit sad that that second part wasn't explored-- it's way harder to keep from bumping your elbows when your arms are that long. What I really wanted to see with the "uwu I'm sooooooo white-- I mean pale -- and skinny owo" was some kind of sunburn. Hell, even more evident bruising. There are consequences to the EDS complexion (obviously poc will have different experiences, but we're talking about a Generic White Fantasy Girl Here)

I kept hoping that she would get some kind of mobility aid, some kind of help from her small dragon, a brace, anything. We got a few mentions of wraps, but considering her biggest issues seemed to come from her shoulders and knees, that's a bandaid on a stab wound. It wouldn't save her forever.

The opportunity to explore accessible and altered sex positions was entirely ignored. Considering, again, the shoulders, there should have been more thought put into it. (Also, did you know a hEDS symptom is easier bruising? This includes the cervix. Do with that what you will)

I kept waiting for something (electric finger splints? Aches from the storms her powers cause? A day when she finally went too far and couldn't move? Nosebleeds from flying too high?), and it just never came. Violet was the bestest and the most powerful because she pushed through her body's warning signal that something was about to give, and was rewarded with Ambiguously Brown Man #45.

What a waste of time. What a message to give to the people with the same condition.

I didn't have very many opinions about this because I didn't know very much about hEDS. But even to me the whole thing of her having the disease felt kind of gimmicky because of the way that it was treated. I honestly didn't realise (because of the way everything was written) until like the end that her getting injured easily wasn't just another quirky trait of hers because she was just so tiny and petite and fragile.

but after hearing yours and reading other people's testimonies about how debilitating the condition can be, it's really insane to me how RY managed to misrepresent her own condition.

I don't understand why authors always make their mc so short and teeny tiny like it's so weird.

I feel like RY started writing her as a person with EDS and then got bored/forgot about it quickly and just peppered in symptoms while editing.

To me it felt like she was just using it as a way to add to Violet's QuiRy-ness and nothing more.

As far as I remember the only aid Violet got was the big dragon helping her stay on his back while she was riding but I don't think that that helped her very much.

I have mild hyper mobility and even writing for a long time is difficult because of that. So how Violet is able to ride a dragon and fight with a condition a million times worse and no aid I will never be able to understand.

I feel like RY didn't give her any mobility aids or anything because it would make her seem "weak" but de stigmatizing the need for additional help is an entirely different topic.

Honestly imo she just used the syndrome as a gimmick and an easy way to make her character interesting.

There is so much that could have been explored but wasn't.

Another case of lost potential, weak research and bad writing

[eros-vigilante]

issues w/ the octopath fandom, racism, and ableism

whats from the source

octopath does some racist bs quite frequently.

cotc (the mobile gacha) has an entire storyline filled with anti-indigenous and racist tropes.

the mainline octopath games have yet to design a traveler with curly hair, and frequently whitewashes the tan and dark-skinned characters in official artwork (compare these with the real ones; here's partitios official cotc splash art). ochette's hair especially is straight-as-a-ruler and silver. also worth considering eye colors. partitio is sad because his concept art had only one design where he's white and a couple even had dreadlocks, and yet his splash art refuses to match his sprite colors.

the beastlings... i'm white and have done more research on the tropes in cotc since i play it more, so while i did have thoughts of my own while playing, here is a better post i found that lists off all the bad choices about them.

also worth mentioning kaldena. one of the few dark-skinned characters in the game is a villain (and also has straight silver hair). other people have also broken down what choices in temenos' story around this were bad better than i could. i can't find a post with a quick search so if you want to reblog this to talk about it i will reblog/link it.

ableism. while i am a big fan of the autism-coding in the franchise, it's still true that there are a lot of jokes made in the games at the expense of osvald and cyrus (moreso cyrus). it's setting accurate for people to be mean to autistic people, but you're still supposed to laugh at "i guess cyrus isn't actually that smart!" which pushes the idea that autism affects intelligence and maturity. i think overall the autism representation is great (pspsps my essay) but it's definitely the source of some awful shit i've had to read people say about cyrus and osvald.

edit 1: friend reminded me of something i forgot that i only learned after talking to it about it a while ago: therion's story is actually really really weird in how it tries to frame cornelia and especially heathcote as helping therion when what they did is enslave him.

whats from the fandom

fanart whitewashing. there is a lot of fanart of therion and partitio with pale skin tones. there is fanart of olberic and ochette with significantly lighter/barely tan skin tones. i'm not going to find any to link because harassment and arguing is not the point of this post, but if you've looked through fanart you've seen it.

here's their skin tones blended. even with the highlights included, they're not white. i get it, their splash art is very ambiguous from the colorism, so if you weren't using the sprites: here's your new references.

ableism directed at cyrus and osvald. i've seen people complain about osvald's personality writing and then cite ptsd and autism symptoms, so many people call cyrus stupid, an idiot, or imply he is not mature. people assume/default hc that he is bad at adult activies. he is a thirty year old professor. it is his job to be mature, good with children, smart, etc. this is infantalization of an autistic character. it's a default assumption that the autistic man is below-average at adult functions.

infantalization of ochette. there are hcs and portrayals of ochette to be far less responsible and mature than she is in canon. she is the protector of her island, it is a theme of her story that she was forced to grow up more mature than everyone else. yes, she is funny, cheerful, energetic, but some fandom portrayals of her reduce her to just that, like she's a puppy. always being irresponsible, impulsive, etc. this matches to her dynamic with castti going from the sweet found family of their crossed path into "castti is the mother who needs to rein in this wild child"- and also consider how it looks to portray the only (consistently portrayed as) dark-skinned character as wild when she is responsible and mature in her story. similarly to cyrus, people tend to default to hcs that she would be bad at normal adult activities just because she has 'childish' traits.

what do you want me to do about it

eyedrop skintones from sprites or go darker for the guys who aren't white. consider changing their hair up, like using the concept art design for partitio. drawing characters of color differently from canon doesn't solve the racism in the game industry, but it is good practice for drawing poc and representing them more accurately.

don't... insult the autistic characters. there are things cyrus is canonically bad at that have nothing to do with his autism, like singing, but don't act like he's bad at everything that's not part of his interests. real people act how osvald does due to trauma. neither of them are two-dimensional in personality, they're written with nuance and a range of emotions outside of Being Autistic.

respect ochette more. are you portraying her as only silly or the savior of her home, or both? would someone who hasn't played ot2 know that ochette has overcome challenges based on your portrayal of her, or would they think she's a comedy relief?

learn about racism. learning about what kind of racist tropes are common in media and games helps a lot with recognizing it in other places, like the beastlings or kaldena. and most of all, learning about racist stereotypes and tropes makes you less likely to perpetuate them unintentionally.

putting the cotc racism essay down here so i can say that it has spoilers for Bestower of Power if you're a cotc player. it's different from the post i linked at the start; way more focused on just the anti-indig stereotypes in the villain's design.

the last thing i want to say is oh my god i love talking about this stuff so much. if you are confused about ANYTHING i talked about or want to talk about it more, or add your own experiences, or ask for recommendations, i love that shit. i made this because i believe most people who are really active in this fandom don't do this kind of stuff maliciously, and would benefit from just having a chance to talk about it. for some reason i am very into explaining/taking apart bigoted language, where it comes from, what it means etc. Please

[tallerthantale]

On False Memories

There is another moment around Scarlett's allegations I want to expand on. It does come from bits where Tortoise is doing the pseudo attribution thing, so keep in mind we don't have the exact wording used by Gaiman or his lawyers, we have Tortoise's characterization of what has been said. I am going to go forward on the working assumption that it is a generally accurate representation of what was said to Tortoise.

"Rachel Johnson: Neil Gaiman’s account suggests we should treat Scarlett’s allegations with caution, as they first surfaced when she was hospitalized, he says, for the treatment of a condition that’s associated with false memories. But we know her allegations pre-date her admission to hospital. Scarlett’s medical records also show us that Neil Gaiman’s claim that Scarlett has a serious preexisting medical condition to be false. According to her records, she presented as a genuinely high risk of suicide and was discharged after recovering overnight.

Rachel Johnson: There’s no mention, even in her previous medical history, of any condition like the one Neil Gaiman claimed in his account. The only medication she was on was the sleeping pill Zopiclone."

The things about this series of claims that jump out at me might be a bit different than what other people would be paying attention to, so I want to explain what stands out to me and why. But we are going to need to do a little bit of background first. Getting into this is a big ass can of worms, but I'm going to see if I can do a bit of a cliff notes version.

The underlying issue is that a propensity to develop 'false memories' is a disposition that all humans have. That's just normal brain functioning. It isn't a condition you will find in diagnostic manuals because it is the condition of being a human. It's hard for people to process and accept that knowledge, because everyone hates it. Doesn't make it any less true. Functionally everything you consciously remember is a post hoc reconstruction to suit the needs of your current situation.

Under normal circumstances this does not account for things like spontaneously constructing major sexual assaults into existence. That's not a thing, but not having the memory in the front of your conscious experience for years, and then remembering that you have that memory later when it's triggered is a thing.

For most people, most of the time, the shifts of constructed memories are things like your brain not bothering to pay attention to what color someone's shirt was, and making it up later to have a cohesive memory. It would account for something like a person thinking they said no louder than they did, which shouldn't be relevant anyway. It could account for thinking you stated a boundary very clearly, but when you look at the message later it's actually ambiguous.

Ideally, the needs of the current situation are to remember what actually did happen. Unfortunately memory can be highly vulnerable to suggestion in the name of preserving continuity. This why police will do things like shouting "stop resisting" while beating up someone who isn't resisting. People absolutely will form a memory of the person resisting to make it make sense. Not because they have a specific condition, because that's how brains work. The counter to this is for the general public to understand that it 'makes sense' for the police to engage in that deceptive strategy. Once that is widely known bystanders will be more likely to remember the events for what they were.

In moments of high emotional distress people's minds generally prioritize 'making myself feel better' as the main need of the current situation. What it makes a person feel better to remember is going to be very context dependent. One day it might be what validates seeing themselves as a victim, the next it might make them feel better to frame themselves as in control of the situation by seeing themselves as a villain. Both genuine victims and genuine perpetrators can cycle through both perceptions. Shifting reframing of memory to form a narrative can occur to all sorts of things in all sorts of scenarios. These are examples of what's called cognitive distortions. Learning about how they work does not prevent them from happening. They exist in all people. Yes, even you, yes, even me.

However, if a person's emotional regulation is shit, and / or they are stuck in a childlike mode of emotional development, these mechanisms can be more dramatic and reaching. One of the most common folk psychology (popularly believed psychology misinformation) things I run into is people attributing cognitive distortions solely and specifically to people with Cluster B personality disorders.

I see a lot of people start learning about Cluster B and then very quickly start seeing signs of Cluster B everywhere. I think that is because they are largely learning from people who fixate on 'warning about of the dangers of Cluster B people,' describe Cluster B mostly in terms of cognitive distortions, and then frame those cognitive distortions as more or less 'the thing Cluster B people do.' People who get their information from that sort of content start looking IRL and immediately see them everywhere, but it's because literally everyone has cognitive distortions all the time.

My first impression of the "condition associated with false memories" line was that it looked to me like Gaiman was trying to claim that Scarlett was a narcissist and / or borderline off of a poor understanding of those conditions. If Gaiman thinks false memories are 'the thing Cluster B people do,' Gaiman using that narrative fits with claiming she was hospitalized on suicide risk due to the condition and him associating the condition with false memories.

I didn't see anything in the fake therapist's videos or ramblings that looked like he was in the dark triad fandom, (my name for people with strong folk psychology attitudes about Cluster B personality disorders) but it is certainly possible he is. The book that conspicuously popped up on Neil's... amazon reading list? something like that? a while back was a book about getting out of relationships with narcissists.

The other side of the false memories issue is that certain types of hypnotherapists claim to be able to recover memories of childhood abuse through hypnotism. This is a very bad idea to try to do for multiple reasons. While there is evidence that these hypnotherapies result in a person having more memories after than they did before, those memories are post hoc reconstructions, because that is what all memories are. And those post hoc reconstructions are vulnerable to suggestion, particularly surrounding the needs of the immediate situation and continuity.

If the explicit goal of the therapy is to hypnotize a person into a heightened state of vulnerability to suggestion specifically so that they can remember a specific thing, there is little reason to believe any particular memory 'recovered' by a hypnotherapist has anything to do with reality. What ads another layer to the horrifying is that since there is no neurological difference between a false memory and a real one, a hypnotherapist 'recovering' false memories of trauma will create trauma that is just a real as if those things did actually happen.

Neil's fake therapist and the communities he is connected to might have some overlap with the people who still think hypnotherapists doing traumatic memory recovery is a good idea. it's the flavor of pseudoscience they seem to be running on. It is also possible he is more aware of the dangers of hypnotherapists because he has encountered them and bothered to do a bit of reading.

Since he is not actually a real mental health professional and is in community with pseudoscientists, he could have ended up with an overinflated sense of how common hypnotherapist nonsense is, and he may not realize how much policy and training and best practices go into preventing real mental health professionals that work at hospitals from planting suggested memories.

From his own message to Scarlett, he was wildly reckless as to the risk that he might be planting suggestions himself, (assuming that wasn't the intention) in ways a trained professional would know not to do. While many things about him set off red flags, this point was the biggest, and what made me immediately inclined to prompt a license review, which started the 'he doesn't actually have one' rabbit hole.

"A condition associated with false memories" sounds to me like they are trying to diagnose her with a Cluster B personality disorder. Trying to time the origin of the claims to the hospitalization could be an argument that Scarlett was implanted with false memories of the content of the allegations by irresponsible crisis workers. It looks to me like the reasoning of a person who read a few bits and pieces of real things in isolation and put them together into a dangerously inaccurate mess. Which is the sort of thing that can happen when unqualified people LARP as therapists. Or as Cluster B experts.

If the "condition associated with false memories" claim is referring to Cluster B and tracks back to Wayne and his phone call with Scarlett, that would be very gross on a lot of levels. Wayne is not qualified to do that, you really can't diagnose personality disorders off a single session even if you are qualified, Wayne had a preexisting investment in the situation before talking to Scarlett, Wayne did not have her as a proper client, Wayne would have been passing information about his opinions on Scarlett to a different person after claiming to be speaking in confidence, ect.... I can't say if that's what happened, but if it did happen I would have some choice words to say to him about that. On top of the ones I already have.

There is a conversation between a civil lawyer and a psychologist about a lot of these topics on youtube from when they were looking at the Marylin Manson case. It goes over a lot of the issues around false memories if people want to listen through it. It's a bit over an hour. I have mixed feelings about the lawyer in question, (and you probably don't want to look at the chat) but the psychologist is very qualified and knows what he's talking about.

[the-eeveekins]

Why The Witch From Mercury is Important to Me

This will be a long, somewhat rambling and mostly personal thread. It's not about the show's quality or any issues I had about it (and YES, the show is flawed and has issues), but about why G-Witch's characters and themes were important to me and I think many others. Most of this I've already shared to a degree, but I wanted to expand my original thoughts, and put them all into one post.

I've been a Gundam fan for over 20 years, I got into the series with Wing on Toonami and have watched the vast majority of the animated series. As a woman, I longed for the day Gundam would have a female main character in the spotlight of a major show, but honestly at some point I'd given up on it. I just thought that if they hadn't done it by now, they never would.

Then, last March, they released this short 30 second trailer revealing The Witch From Mercury, and showing off Suletta and Aerial, and I was ecstatic! Finally, a female MC in a Gundam series, I was so excited for a new Gundam series for the first time since 00! I watched that short clip countless times over the months in anticipation of the series airing, I even grew addicted to the little song that plays during it.

Over time, the characters and key art were revealed and I saw some people float the idea that maybe Suletta and Miorine would be love interests. I didn't pay it any mind at the time. I was sure they'd milk their relationship for bait along the way, but there was no way they'd commit to Gundam's first female MC being gay. Even after the first episode aired I was still skeptical: There was the bait I was expecting, they're not seriously going to go through with it though.

And here we are, almost 10 months after G-Witch started airing, and Suletta & Miorine are married. It not only wasn't bait, but they committed to it in a way I never would have imagined coming from a franchise I loved like Gundam. It was done with care and respect for the characters, it didn't feel like it was exploitative or added just for fanservice, but was a very real relationship.

I'll admit, I was initially among those disappointed we didn't see a kiss or the wedding at the end, but my greatest fear was the ending would be as ambiguous as possible, or even worse, walk back what we'd seen, so as not to offend people. Instead we got the sister-in-law line, the matching wedding rings, how close they were and they way they looked at each other with love and talking about going home together. We didn't see them kiss or see the wedding, but we got to see them married, and I think that's incredible.

As a gay woman, and a Gundam fan of over 20 years, Suletta is an immensely important character to me. Suletta and Miorine's relationship, and it being a central focus of the story, is immensely important to me. They're things I dreamed of having in Gundam, but never really thought would ever happen. I've been so happy about them for a long time now, but these last two days I've been so unbelievably happy that I was given their story. I love them so much and I'm never going to forget these two.

And this ties into why I think G-Witch has been important to so many people, regardless of how they feel about it's quality, because of it's representation and themes. Suletta, the main character of the show, is a queer, neurodivergent, disabled woman of color. She was well written, and she got to have a happy ending married to the woman she loves, where she's thriving and happy despite her mobility. She's not treated with pity or remorse, and she's still pursuing her dreams of making a school.

And not just Suletta, there were so many characters belonging to different minority groups that got strong representation and happy, satisfying endings. If you're a woman, if you're queer, if you're a POC, if you're any sort of ND, if you're disabled, The Witch From Mercury not only gave you good representation, but also said you're deserving of love, empathy and happiness.

With regard to it's themes, I absolutely love how G-Witch stressed love, empathy, compassion, acceptance and forgiveness over hate, vengeance, punishment and karma. Suletta and Miorine made many mistakes during their journey that they could never take back, but they accepted each other, including their mistakes, and resolved to move on together and makes amends for them if possible. Suletta never got mad at Miorine, Prospera or Eri for the things they did to her and she never blamed them, all she did was understand and accept why they did the things they did, and move forward with her love for them. She accepts the people she loves, mistakes and all, because of her unrelenting love and compassion for them.

Even Prospera, the main antagonist, ultimately rejected revenge for the sake of saving her daughter. She was a less than stellar parent to Suletta, and her actions lead to a heavy death toll, but ultimately Suletta accepted her and her actions to save Eri. And rather than go for an easy karmic death, she was allowed to have a happy ending: Eri was saved, and she's living a peaceful life with her family. A life that was robbed from her 24 years prior.

And ultimately, those themes are why we had an ending where literally no one died, and nearly every character got to have a happy ending. Gundam has always said that violence is bad, but The Witch From Mercury was the first to say "Alright, then we'll solve the problem without violence." We got a big magic spell that was a Gundam Pride Parade in space, and combined with Miorine's actions, events were resolved peacefully.

That's why G-Witch is important to me. It gave me and many others representation in ways you almost never get from a major franchise like Gundam, and without feeling like it was doing it to just check boxes off on some executive's diversity list. It stressed themes of love, empathy and acceptance and rejected hate, revenge, karma and even death. And I think that's incredibly important in this day and age. Representation Matters. Love Matters.

I've been very emotional over this show the last two days because I've been loving it for a while now, and while I'm sad to see it end, I'm so grateful that it happened, flaws and all. I've been crying on and off since the last episode ended and I've had trouble sleeping, but I've been so unbelievably happy over what this one show did and how much it's meant to me. The characters may not be real, but the happiness Suletta & Miorine have brought me is very much real.

For me; Suletta, Miorine, and The Witch From Mercury were truly a blessing.

[i-heart-hxh]

Thanks for the great response, as always! I essentially agree with what you're saying, but I want to explain some of the reasons that I hold back a bit on my expectations, and also some of the reasons I'm optimistic at the same time.

My hesitations with it becoming truly, explicitly canon have more to do with external forces and restraint on this topic in Japanese culture than Togashi himself. Shonen Jump, the manga magazine HxH runs in, is immensely popular, profitable, and culturally relevant, and I suspect they might fight him on making the leads of his series full-on canonically gay, as that would be a historical precedent that I'm not sure Jump is ready for even with how many Jump series tend to flirt with the idea. It is a magazine originally aimed at boys, after all, even though it has become extremely popular with a wide swath of the population. Jump may be concerned about how it would reflect on their brand.

However, from what I understand Togashi owns HxH fully (which is not the usual situation at all with Jump properties as far as understand), and because HxH is enduringly very popular, if Togashi doesn't like their terms or feels they're suppressing him, he might have the ability to just take it to another publisher, so I think he has a very unusual degree of creative power over HxH.

I also think at this point it's possible Jump has given up on placing limitations on him because of that risk, and HxH is certainly profitable (and increasingly even moreso the past few years, with all the merch and events and such). Then there's the fact that he almost definitely won't make another long-running series after this, so it's not as though he has to worry about ruining his chances with publishers and audiences for future series. AND as one last point, they did announce the series wouldn't run in standard Jump from here on out (we don't know yet how it'll be published in the future, possibly Jump+ or something else), and whatever it moves to might give it a little more leeway to be controversial than just the standard Jump. Though I strongly think the scheduling is the main reason for the move so that might not even be relevant.

Gay topics and themes in anime and manga have also gotten increasingly more and more common, acceptable, and explicitly canon, though there's still plenty of progress to make in that area.

But, I do still wonder how much pushback he'd receive on making it explicitly canon from those around him, because it could affect merch sales and such in the future for his properties if he does do that. (I don't necessarily think this matters much to him, I'm sure he and his wife are financially set, but I'm not sure how the companies and industries around him would respond and if that would have sway or not...) To a certain degree, I do think it fits his writing style for it to stay somewhat ambiguous, as well. Though I agree as the series has gone on, it has gotten less and less ambiguous rather than more, and even having a random f/f kiss in the manga that wasn't strictly "necessary" and the whole Hisoka and Illumi engagement ring/pre-nup thing makes me wonder if he's testing the boundaries further.

That said, of course I'll be beyond delighted if it does become explicitly canon, and I'm not ruling out the possibility. I just prefer to temper my expectations to a certain degree because there are factors to consider beyond just Togashi's own wishes. If it turns out even more explicitly canon than I expect (assuming we ever even reach that point in the first place), that's fantastic!

Anyway, have this representation of Togashi from Sensei Hakusho, by one of his assistants, which I think summarizes his philosophy on the matter (and this is yet another thing that gives me hope):

Do you think togashi Will sink killugon in the future by denying the romantic reading of their relationship?

Hi anon! I strongly don't think that'll ever happen. I truly believe including the romantic subtext between them is intentional on Togashi's part, and I want to be clear I'm not saying that just as a shipper, but as someone who has spent years deeply analyzing the series as a whole, as well as Togashi's influences and interests. The deeper I look into it, the more I'm certain he includes all the things he includes with full intention.

Again, I post this because everyone deserves to see it:

Togashi wanted to create works with queer characters before HxH even existed, and he was deeply invested in this concept! It's possible pieces of HxH even came out of this original idea he had--he did say he might publish it someday in "a different form," so it's not an impossibility.

I think likely one of two things will happen with Gon and Killua's relationship in the future of the manga:

Togashi will bring them back and reunite them, and we'll (at least eventually) get some sort of ending for them that may not be 100% undeniably canonically romantic, but likely continues with the same kind of romantic subtext and ambiguity that's been present all along. (Think something like: They decide to travel together again and promise to stay together without it actually saying if they mean it in a romantic way or not, but there might be hints or wording that imply it is intended in that way, with Togashi trusting those of us who see it that way will understand.) Or maybe we hit the jackpot and he does make it explicitly canon. I don't think that's super likely, but if anyone could get away with it, it would be Togashi, for a whole list of reasons I won't get into on this post.

Sadly he won't reach that point in the manga due to his health and how much of the series remains, but he won't say either way what he intends their relationship to mean, and we're free to continue to interpret it how we want.

There are other possibilities of course, but I think those are the most likely outcomes. I do think he fully intends to reunite Gon and Killua and I've written about this in-depth (whether the series actually reaches that point or not). I don't think he intends to "sink the ship" ever because he's the one giving us an uncountable number of reasons to believe in the ship in the first place... And I do think he's doing it out of his own personal interest, not just for marketing reasons or whatever like we see in some other shounen series. It's deeply embedded in the series and the number of things pointing in this direction is just so, so many.

I don't think there's any reason to be pessimistic about Gon and Killua's future, aside from the factor of Togashi's health. However, I try to take the attitude that, in the case that it doesn't ever get finished (and assuming Togashi doesn't have some sort of back up plan, and I suspect he might), we get to choose ourselves how it ends. I deeply hope we get a canon reunion between them someday, the thought of this happening is something that keeps me going in life, but if we do have to continue to imagine it ourselves, it certainly could be worse.

[kalboykiyay]

Why I'm Likely Skipping Out On The Warriors Musical

It's been awhile since I've done an in-depth post on here, hasn't it? This was inspired after reading that post by @stuckasmain. Well, I've looked at the plot of the musical on Wikipedia and looked I have a few issues with a lot of shit there. So, I'll be listing what I don't like mainly, but I will tell you what I do like as well.

The Girls Are Fighting? Let's address the most obvious thing first. The Warriors are women. Now before you call me misogynist or whatever, hear me out. I personally have made shitposts about an AU where the Warriors were girls and they were a lot of fun. Thing is, they're shitposts for a reason; they played into tropes and gave goofy ideas for the girls. This feels like cheap representation and women deserve better than that. The woke-ification of a franchise that was supposed to be inherently problematic in nature feels forced. I've talked about why a remake of this film would not work, but this wasn't something I could have expected. A lot of the things are pretty (stereotypically, I'll say) gender-specific. There's a lot of things that a remake would likely take out of the charm of the original film (which itself is already romanticising what happens in the book and that's its own problem).

The Bizzies? No. They've been running into guys all night, but now they're all infatuated with them because they... wear cardigans? Okay... Thing is, they could have still been the Lizzies and nothing would've fucking changed even if the Warriors were women. If anything, it seems like their guards would've been lowered if they were the Lizzies instead, right? Let's just make all the Warriors gay.

Ajax... Oh, sweet Problematic Ajax... Apparently she's played by Amber Gray, which is straight fire. Let's get into this. Ajax's entire character was part of the reason I said a remake doesn't work. The existence of this character serves to remind the viewer that not all members of a gang are "good" people. They have their good moments, relative to each other and what not, but it feels like when this character leaves, it's not because they were doing something triumphant and going out in a blaze of glory, it's supposed to be a comeuppance of sorts. Musical Ajax getting arrested for beating up a shitty cop doesn't feel like that. It just... it feels like you're punishing a woman for a man's shitty behaviour as opposed to because she's the problem. Just seems unsatisying to make this particular character some sort of heroic "for the girls" type of character (especially considering that the character from the original book was also supposed to be pretty problematic from what I recall).

This should have been at the top but WHERE THE FUCK ARE SNOW AND VERMIN?! You take out the two baddest bitches in the movie and leave EVERYBODY ELSE?! At least you left Cochise, but damn! What the fuck are you doing?! Now, none of the Warriors are double cheeked up on a Thursday afternoon! Also, I hate to go here, but it's pretty disrespectful to remove one of the few black Warriors from the group but leave Cowboy in, just sayin'...

Now, I DO like that Cleon was kept alive! The movie did set it up in a way that he could have been left alive, since Masai wanted the Warriors alive when they were brought to him.

I also like that there was no ambiguity for the other Warriors surrounding what happened to Fox! This plot only works when very few people have all of the information, but the Warriors knowing about Fox's death changes nothing in a negative way. Of course, there could be an argument made for them not knowning since Fox's death is supposed to be kind of abrupt. (Sure, it was because the actor who played Fox was fired in the movie, but it still works pretty well given the setting, methinks).

I also like that they gave the Hurricanes a larger role here, as they did have a large role in the game as the main antagonist for a mission.

In any case, I hope that those who enjoy continue to post about it as it is still nice to see some new faces in the fandom!

[thedreadvampy]

none of the following dichotomies are all-encompassing, they're often ambiguous, and many of them contain really bad ideas about trans/NB people when used to describe misogyny:

"women and non-binary people" vs "men"

"woman-aligned people" vs "men"

"non-men" vs "men"

"afabs" vs "amabs"

"females" vs "males"

buuuuut there's an issue, right? because ultimately patriarchal misogyny is a driving social force in most contemporary cultures. and patriarchal misogyny does operate on a dichotomous model. so if we're going to talk about systemic injustices we need shorthands for "people who tend to be socially categorised as women under patriarchy" and "people who tend to be socially categorised as men under patriarchy". "people who are expected to submit to violence" and "people who are expected to deal out violence". etc but I can't write out a full description of each role bc they're very very very complex, that's why there's all these BOOKS about them.

I use "men and women" or "male and female" or "masculine and feminine" not because that's a true representation of how people ARE but because it's a true representation, I think, of the pressures EXERTED ON PEOPLE. I don't want to expand that to "women and afab NB people and NB transfems" or something bc that's less accurate, because it implies that that's a coherent group with a shared single experience. it's not - neither is "women". In the context of discussions of patriarchal power, "women" is a social expectation not a group of individual actual people. as is "girls", "men" and "boys". There isn't a non-binary version of the patriarchal "women" construct because the whole point of patriarchal gender is that it's a binary system of power. that doesn't mean non-binary people don't exist, just that it's not a coherent patriarchal gender role.

anyway with this as with many things I fear that in an attempt for universal language we end up preventing ourselves being able to discuss Very Obviously True power dynamics 🤷‍♀️

[nightcolorz]

Daddy wants 2 hear ur thoughts on Armand’s relationship with lestat ‼️if you don’t I will aggressively butt fuck you and spank you like the naughty little boy you are

Xoxo -TOTALLY not your favorite boy toy Edward

(Also I imagine someone already asked you this cuz ur so hot and popular so u don’t have 2 answer if u already answered someone else’s ask about it)

Edward I instantly recognized ur sexy voice and I pissed myself cuz I was so eager to answer ur ask 🥹❤️. I love how ambiguous this prompt is so I can talk about whatever I want 😈💦💦. I sure do hope my answer is sufficient so that u won’t butt fuck me and spank me bcus im a naughty boy who needs to be punished 🥺

uh anyways. Armand and lestat !! They r my favorite ship in the vampire chronicles ssh don’t tell anyone. Devils minion is a very, very close second. By nature of the polyamorous blood orgy dynamic of all of the vampire chronicles characters, all of the main cast is in some way deeply in love with every other member of the main cast. The great thing about this is that every character has the capacity to have a deep and important romantic and sexual connection with any other given vampire, regardless of how many deep and romantic connections they may have. But even with all this in mind, in my opinion, out of all of the loves of his life Lestat has had, I’d argue that Armand was the most significant. By this I mean their relationship is fundamental to literally every relationship Lestat has had there after and the vampire chronicles literally wouldn’t have happened if lestat and Armand hadn’t become insanely psycho sexually bonded for a little bit in 1700s Paris. Even tho Lestat and Armand never end up as “endgame” bcus they r 100% incompatible and their love is less like an affectionate desire to be with someone and more like a virus they can’t control, I think that Armand is always going to be lestats “soulmate”, in the sense that if any pairing in the vampire chronicles is destined to always find each other in every universe, it’s lestat and Armand. I mean this incredibly derogatorily btw.

Armand and lestat remind me of Batman and the joker, they r like in universal unable to exist or be completed without the other while simultaneously hating each others guts. The great thing about that is that they also genuinely like each other despite the hatred and betrayal and see each other in a very affectionate, human way that isn’t common for either of them. But lestat and Armand require each other in a way that I perceive as very cosmic. I love the concept of two characters who hate each other very much being bound by some force that compels them to care for each other. And that’s lestat and Armand to a tea. They are very brothers to me, Cain and Abel but if Abel is immortal and gives cain wedgies and affectionate punches on the arm after Cain kills him for the one billionth time. Can’t have a cain without Abel, rlly.

Lestat will always forgive Armand for anyway he betrays or wrongs him bcus he is connected to Armand in a way that he is with no one else. They sort of fulfill this primal desire in each other that is impossible to get from anyone but each other. Lestat sees Armand in a way no one else does. He basically has had Armand’s entire life’s story and whole self inserted into his brain by Armand in magnus’s tower, and he ends up knowing Armand in his entirety and being like “well what a pathetic little fuck. How embarrassing.”

It’s important to Armand and to lestat that they both see and understand each other in their entirety and the feelings they come away with are “wow. Ur so gross and weird. But I like u anyway.” Lestat and Armand both have problems with having their identities romanticized or treated like mythological tales to the point where they kind of can’t perceive themselves in anyway that’s normal or comforting. Lestat has his issues where he acts like he’s a doomed god who’s every action and step is some sort of thematic representation of evil, and Armand has been told since he was a child that he’s not human and hes unable to be like humans or even be like any vampire who understands what being a human means. So I think to the both of them, having someone who understands them so intimately, and perceives them just as that jerk nasty they can’t help but like is so important. Who else would ruffle Armand’s hair but lestat? Anyways

most of Armand’s hatred for lestat comes from a place of expecting him to be more important then he is. Lestat takes away Armand’s divine purpose, and then he’s like idk what u want from me I’m like 20 and stupid. Lestat is just as lost as Armand is, and neither of them can give each other the guidance or support in immortality the other is looking for. they r both just kids who have been abandoned who happened to wander into each other on the street. And I think that, ultimately, this what lesmand is all about. While lestat and Armand both have amazing relationships with other characters that define who they r in unique and interesting ways, lesmand breaks them both down to their barest essentials, it strips them of the glamor into smth dirty that they both can’t help but see in each other and love.

in conclusion #lesmand for life!!!thank u sexy for sending me this ask mwah

[liesmyth]

my locked tomb hot take of the day is that the way Harrow’s symptoms are presented in HtN line up much more closely with religious OCD with poor insight and psychotic features than schizophrenia. She shows almost no signs of paranoia or delusions (G1deon really was trying to kill her! It’s absolutely true that the other houses would swoop in like vultures if they knew her house’s true position! Her sword and psyche were both actually haunted, to the point that Alecto could hitch a ride in her body. She is never shown in the text to hold a belief that is inconsistent with reality, IMO) and her only true psychotic symptom that we see is hallucinations, and she seems to most of the time have some idea that they aren’t real, which indicates a level of self awareness incompatible with schizophrenia. She also doesn’t seem to display many cognitive symptoms like thought block or disorganized speech and thinking. The rest of her behavior is highly obsessive (compulsive praying, wearing face paint even when nobody is around, obsessive studying, needing her food to be arranged on her plate a certain way) and is very in line with someone suffering from religious scrupulosity. As someone who has experienced both OCD and psychosis, and knows how the symptoms can overlap, this is is the hill I will die on.

I don't feel like I can contribute in any meaningful way to your points, so I'll just put this out into the world and say that I appreciate your insights!

Speaking from a #meta perspective: I know that around the time HtN came out, Tamsyn gave interviews talking about her own experiences being hospitalised for mental health reasons and implied that was what she was partly drawing on when writing HtN. I can't remember if she called Harrow schizophrenic or stated that it was her intention to write her as such, and the author is dead anyway. Plus, obviously, the fact that someone's writing was informed by irl experiences doesn't have to mean that said writing is a 1:1 parallel for those experiences, expecially in a sff setting where ghosts exists and in fact there's something that Harrow can see and nobody else can.

TO ME, the fact that people who experience psychotic episodes can recognise themselves in Harrow's internal monologue and experiences is more meaningful than whether Harrow “really” has a given specific disorder or she's just seeing ghosts. The point is that SHE feels a disconnect from reality and that she's delusional and cannot trust anything she remembers or reads. Nobody in-universe is ever going to diagnose her, you know? The series itself doesn't claim to be straight-up representation for any specific named issues — things like Cytherea's cancer or Harrow's mental state are left ambiguous and partly influenced by magic. I think the fact that readers can relate to some symptoms some characters experience is more meaningful than whether these symptoms all point to something that can be diagnosed unambiguously.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me!

[akajustmerry]

I've just been thinking about how a lot of bisexual characters have existed merely because its the easiest way for media to appeal to gay (umbrella term) audiences without having to shake things up too much. there's been a shitttonne of academia written about this, and about how bi coded women characters are more common because they appeal to the male gaze and tv/film is mostly run by dudes. also, characters doing bisexuality to show moral ambiguity, or that they're super Other and Weird. all this is to say is that it's actually not that common for representing bisexuality to have the actual intention of a character's bisexuality existing and I honestly find that really interesting. like, how many stories are there where the bisexuality of a character is their bisexuality and not, like, a gimmick or meant to signify something else? I don't think every representation of bisexuality has to be an epic dissection of being bi but it would be nice if bisexuality was given weight in stories as bisexuality and not as metaphor or marketing tactic or titillation or tokenism or a joke.

(edit: to be clear, I think all lgbt stories have these issues to some degree. I'm just talking about bisexuality here because I'm bisexual)

[pessimisticpigeonsworld]

https://www.tumblr.com/crushingthebroken/741170379192745984/the-fact-ryan-condal-keeps-hitting-with-the?source=share

I think there is a lot of bias in this analysis, what is your opinion?

Yes, there's definitely a lot of bias here; op is so clearly a pissy TG stan. This analysis is rife with observation bias and just plain misinformation. I do sympathize with some of their points though. Op is doing something I've seen a lot of TG stans do: projecting the issues in HOTD onto Rhaenyra.

HOTD is a pretty bad adaptation, full of inconsistent characters and just plain fucking up the characterizations of the people. The Velaryons definitely suffer more than most other characters from this. They made Rhaenys rather antagonistic to Rhaenyra, turned Laena into basically nothing, made Laenor a deadbeat dad, and Corlys is just kinda there.

However, op's complaints about the Velaryons' representation show their bias very obviously. They don't complain about Rhaenys' characterization until she's supporting Rhaenyra. They don't talk about the issues Laenor's running away brings in, just about how it makes the Velaryons' support of the Blacks confusing. They complain about Corlys not being hated for offering Laena to Viserys, but don't acknowledge how the show purposely aged Laena down to younger than Rhaenyra to make Corlys look worse. The most damning however, is how they complain about how Corlys didn't care about Vaemond's death.

Vaemond is killed both in the book and the show, both times because he was slandering Rhaenyra and calling her sons bastards. Daemon kills him both times (with Rhaenyra's approval in the book, which was a slay tbh). Corlys doesn't care in either occurrence because Vaemond was attempting to usurp Corlys' line and his chosen successors. Op choosing to ignore the actual truth of the situation shows they just hate Rhaenyra and are bitter HOTD didn't go all the way with making the Velaryons disloyal to her.

Moving on to their complaints about Rhaenyra's portrayal, another thing I agree with to an extent. HOTD made Rhaenyra into a much more passive character than she actually was. They made her virtually inactive politically, removed her approval of Vaemond's execution, and made it so she was unwilling to go to war until Luke's murder. They showed their benevolent misogyny. However, op isn't angry about the sexism of this portrayal or how they nerfed an interesting and fun character, rather about how she does fewer morally ambiguous and questionable things. They're upset that HOTD made it harder to say Rhaenyra is an evil bitch without revealing the misogyny of TG.

Op also complains about how HOTD doesn't condemn Daemon enough while actually portraying how awful Aegon, Criston, and Vaemond are. This shows how op isn't actually using media literacy. Condal and Hess constantly condemn Daemon and went out of their way to make him worse than he is in the book. Daemon didn't murder Rhea or abuse Rhaenyra in the book, those are things they added to make him look worse. Meanwhile they actively defend Aegon raping women and go out of their way to make him more "sympathetic".

Op also sympathizes with Criston, because apparently him being held accountable for his own decisions is wrong. He chose to sleep with Rhaenyra, he chose to murder Joffrey, he chose to dedicate the rest of his life to ruining hers. Criston isn't a good person, he isn't a victim, he made all his choices and can't accept the consequences of them.

Op also reveals how they are very anti Valyrian by throwing in a spiel about how Daemon is a neo-nazi and the Valyrians are fundamentally evil for utilizing slavery. Yes, slavery is abominable, however, criticizing Daemon and Rhaenyra for wanting to hold onto their cultural traditions that have nothing to do with slavery or human exploitation isn't wrong. If every person was expected to abandon their culture just because the culture has morally wrong practices, no person could ever hold onto their culture. This applies to the other cultures of AWOIAF, including TG's precious Andals who tried to literally murder any religion other than the Faith. Daemon valuing his culture is the least condemnable thing he's ever done.

Op also complains about how Otto is portrayed as being an awful person. I have to say, a TG stan wanting to defend Otto is new to me, but not very surprising. Of course Otto is portrayed as bad and the head of the greens, they took away all of Alicent's agency and had to give it to someone. Otto is a raging misogynist and only cares about power, that's all there is to him, but apparently he's more sympathetic than Rhaenyra for some reason.

In conclusion anon, yes, this is an extremely biased "analysis". Op hates Rhaenyra and is upset that Condal and Hess didn't go out of their way to make her the primary antagonist of the show. Apparently it isn't enough that they outright defend a rapist and made the Velaryons completely nonsensical. TG stans are ridiculous and are driven purely by hatred of Rhaenyra and/or House Targaryen, op is no exception.

[solarballs-confessions]

The show's never had any gay characters and I legitimately never think they will. Don't get me wrong, a show doesn't NEED lgbtq rep to be good. But I'm a little worried they're avoiding it for the wrong reasons.

If characters in a show don't naturally fall in love, it feels rushed or forced. A lot of people feel this way about Titan and Titania- We don't know if this'll become a true canon ship or anything yet, because Titan does seem to be a little more distant from Titania's affections, but alas, it is Titania's affections which are the problem. Some think its shoehorned in, and I can't really blame them. The blushing was obnoxious, and Titania didn't spend too much time on-screen with Titan, and Titania never got the development AWAY from Titan to BE a proper character, really. It feels like shipping the main character with a side character who hasn't had their own story fleshed out yet.

So, if love isn't natural, it's hard to lapse into it. I don't want this to happen for any ships on the show, let alone a gay one lol. But I think the whole Titan x Titania thing kind of presents my issue, that they might be falling down the road of forcing ships just because one character is a girl and the other is a boy. If i haven't made that clear, that's bad and I don't want that.

Relationships between characters are hard to handle, and admittedly Solarballs has done a very good job so far! Pluto and Charon were handled wonderfully and I do get the appeal of other hinted ships like Calisto and Triton. Genuinely, they CAN handle ships well. One day I would LIKE to see a gay ship in Solarballs handled with the same grace. But that kind of rises the problem of community shipping discourse. No main character in Solaballs will be revealed to be queer. I'm just saying, the likelihood of that is like. 0%. And it's not because Solarballs is homophobic or anything,, rather its a conflict of interests.

Make your main character gay and anger the fandom who had their own headcanons, ORRRR keep everyone ambiguous! Shipping culture is HUGE especially in Solarballs. The people who make Solarballs KNOW their community, at least a little, and they do listen to our feedback. So, why upset the fandom by taking away one of the Main Characters they PROBABLY have headcanons for already.... and instead just, keep it on the low? Oh also the whole 'their audience is kids' thing and the potential backlash they could get for representation,, if ykyk.

So I guess, no character is gay and no character is straight or whatever you headcanon because we'll probably never truly get a reveal on any character being gay. I kind of hope the same thing is true for straightness, god forbid they make Mercury crush on a woman, you could get the best woman alive and I'd still keep him 16 ft away. LMFAO. ANYWAYS

That was my rant because I needed to get it out and I've seen a bit of this topic from kids in the fandom. Yep. Thanks for reading if u did because lord is this long.

.