#it depends on your performance

[nothingwronghere]

[waitineedaname]

mxtx characters who, in my humble butch opinion, should be butch

Luo Binghe: listen. look me in the eyes. in a genderswap situation, Binghe should get to be butch. one of the key themes in SVSSS is gender, and one of the things that distinguishes SVSSS!Binghe from PIDW!Binghe is that he's not the hypermasculine protagonist and instead is allowed to enjoy more feminine things (like being Shizun's housewife). that's why he's specifically called Bing-mei and it's also why im on my transfemme Binghe soapbox all the time, but that's a whole other topic. what im saying is if we're reversing the gender situation, then fem!Binghe in SVSSS should get to enjoy more masculine things. it's what she deserves. she strikes me as the kind of butch that gets a thrill out of doing gentlemanly things like giving SQQ her coat when she's cold. she should be the Bing-di to PIDW's Bing-jie

Shang Qinghua: this one is deeply self-indulgent projection but don't fucking worry about that okay. SQH is a very specific flavor of low effort butch nerd. SQH is the cookie monster pajamas to butch pipeline. SQH cuts her own hair with regular scissors for convenience and Shen Yuan is dying to get her to just buy some goddamn clippers. SQH is running off of four red bulls and spite. She inexplicably has game and she's just as confused about this as you are

Xie Lian: imagine this for me. you go to one of those volunteering events where you're cleaning trash out of a creek or something. there is a woman there in cargo pants or maybe overalls, something with a shit ton of pockets. she has not shaved in months, maybe years. her hair is in the messiest bun possible, or maybe tied back under a baseball cap. she is somehow the most beautiful woman you've ever seen. after taking away all the trash and informing everyone how to sort the recycling, she is picked up by another woman who appears to be the definition of high camp. you leave this encounter feeling like you might have been converted to something. perhaps to lesbianism. this is what an encounter with butch Xie Lian is like.

[weatherfey]

I think a lot about the way Dorian used to see Cyrus as the perfect older brother, the perfect prince; the way Dorian felt free to go and find himself because Cyrus was capable and dependable and ready to be a leader. That isn’t the Cyrus we see! But I think it’s a lot more interesting, for both Cyrus and Dorian, to take that seriously. They’re princes, and we don’t know what that means because we haven’t seen their home, but socially a court is an elaborately constructed farce. And of course it can be easier to be competent in any familiar environment, but I also think it’s easier to know how you fit within a court environment specifically because there is an overwhelming number of factors to define yourself against and they all have expectations of you, and if they aren’t suffocating you like some kind of spider’s web then it might be perfect, like being a star in a constellation, or just the right puzzle piece. I think it’s reasonable to think that Cyrus was something like who Dorian thought he was, at home; except that Cyrus, like Dorian, wanted to choose the things he’s defining himself against. And I think it’s meaningful that he got swindled in the immediate aftermath of discarding that constellation of puzzle pieces. He was a fool (beloved), but it happened in the first blush of freedom, when he was just starting to figure out who he was or wanted to be without all that defined expectation, which is also - not coincidentally - the state Dorian was in when the spider queen sunk her fingers into his heart and twisted his alignment. The ‘hello world! uh oh’ of it all is something they had in common.

(Something they both had in common with Opal, too.)

I do think it’s interesting to look at Dorian’s sense of responsibility in light of this. I almost think Orym was a kind of north star for Dorian through parts of EXU prime, and I ship them, but it really felt like one of the things that made him able to reject the spider queen is that Orym needed him to. I think he wanted to be someone Orym could rely on, but I think Orym’s regard mattered to him because they genuinely had that protective urge in common - the pathway the spider queen used to skitter in was Dorian’s desire to protect his friends. And that drive to protect added a lot of poignancy to the in-universe reason that Dorian couldn’t return to bell’s hells after Cyrus’s debts were repaid, not just because Cyrus was still getting his legs under him but also because Opal needed help. That’s responsibility, again - he’s finishing what they started. Duty, obligation, but this time he’s chosen who and what he’s beholden to. Like maybe he’s chosen a new version of a puzzle piece that he might have thought he was throwing out entirely when he chose freedom and walked away from home.

I loved that Fearne’s vision also haunted Dorian; he misses her, and it also feels like a solid way to illustrate the spider queen’s effect on Dorian, that the danger of his own corruption has rarely been something he had the luxury to think about. His friends have always needed him. I don’t know if he had time to process his aborted fall during his time in Zephrah, or if there’s still something underneath, but I think it’s telling that this fear doesn’t look like Opal, the one literally bleeding ichor from her forehead; it predates that, it started before Opal was the one to worry about.

And I think he knows he didn’t fail them - Cyrus, Opal, Fy’ra - accidental thunder damage notwithstanding - but, with the way he felt through that suggestion spell and its aftermath, I don’t really know what to make of his abandoning Dariax. It’s a little hard to look at that and not see a drive to isolate. Determined to leave him with a good memory, but most of all, to leave. He started that one-shot interlude having just admitted to himself that he was longing to be Somewhere Else, but I almost wonder if he still would have gone back to bell’s hells if Orym hadn’t asked.

(God, the suggestion spell. The way they processed it was hurtful to me personally. Dariax immediately shifting from ‘won’t leave Opal!’ to ‘let’s go! Opal has a plan’ kind of broke my heart, and I actually think that the spell could have worked on Dorian by just making what was really happening feel reasonable - the last shred of your friend is trying to save you, and you can’t save her from anything except becoming your murderer, so you should do that. But the spell can’t make sense out of abandoning Cyrus’s body, so Dorian just goes numb with grief and rage. Mass suggestion is 24 hours. That is 24 hours of numbness, and rage, and walking, and walking, and walking, and every once in awhile Dariax’s voice, friendly and steady and sure, ‘Opal has a plan.’ And at the end of it the ability to feel returns, but he’s so tired, and he hurts, and everything hurts too much to think about, and poor Dariax probably stops in his tracks, just ‘Dorian? What was Opal’s plan?’)

And he really was so angry. It’s interesting to wonder if that’s still under the surface. He immediately turned to levity - for their sake, and his own - but that moment where the group tells him who killed Will and Derrig, and Robbie instantly wrote down Otohan’s name, didn’t just read like a player taking notes, to me, it read like Dorian putting a name in a ledger. I think it’s easy to let that go because he learns that she’s dead in the very next moment, but I think Dorian felt a weird kind of relief for that half-second, because so much of his anger at what happened to Cyrus and Opal was from being forced to acknowledge that there wasn’t anyone easy to blame, except perhaps a god; and blaming a god is like blaming the universe. What a relief, however short lived, to be faced with a problem you can solve.

[shannonsketches]

Do y’all ever think about how Vegeta’s only ever mad at Freeza for what happened to his planet and he’s never mad at Freeza for what happened to him because I think about that a lot

[two-sides-samecoin]

okay i absolutely hate the thinking that some people (ronancers) have of ‘why are you not shipping this w|w ship because of steve who is a man why are you depending a man’s feelings on a w|w ship’ maybe it’s because regardless of your gender or your sexuality screwing over and betraying a friend is exactly that! it has NOTHING to do with sexuality or gender! SCREWING OVER A FRIEND IS SCREWING OVER A FRIEND REGARDLESS OF WHAT YOU IDENTIFY AS!!

[dragkingsrule]

How do I get started in drag?

I wish there was one simple answer I could give you, but it’s not a very one-size-fits-all process! This blog isn’t really for advice, but here’s some questions to consider for yourself and learn for your situation:

What do you want for your drag? Do you want to perform in shows, or would you prefer avenues of drag that don’t involve performing on a stage? Try makeup/makeup tutorials, try costuming, try dancing! Experiment and discover what you want for your art!

Is there a drag scene in your area? Go to the shows! Get to know the performers! If you want to do shows, ask them what you need to do to get into a local show!

Are there open shows in your local drag scene? Find them, and find out how to sign up! Open shows are shows that you don’t need to be ‘booked’ for/asked to perform in. They’re ways for performers to get more experience performing and they’re great for getting to know the local scene better. Who knows—maybe you’ll be booked for other shows after performing in some!

[zhongrin]

if serval and geppie can use their instruments/instrument cases as weapons, surely i can make my s/i carry around a guzheng hard case (or the guzheng stands) and use them as a weapon 👍🏻

[n3felibata]

I don't think some people realize how bad the power imbalance between Blitz and Stolas would be if it becomes a boss/employee ship

I understand it's not as bad as the power imbalance they had in the beginning of the series... but still pretty bad.

Like dating your employee is sketchy as is, given Blitz can control whether Stolas gets a raise or pay cut, gets promoted or demoted, fired or not...

But this is presumably after Stolas lost his home and job and is now living in poverty.

(As evidenced by the trailer showing Stolas' home being frozen over, and him seeming genuinely scared and needing Blitz to protect him instead of using his powers)

This all seems to have happened in the same day, too. Living in poverty is bad enough as is, but this man had everything and now suddenly has nothing and is just left to process that.

He also presumably has to provide for his daughter as well as himself, assuming he didn't lose custody of her in the divorce (Oh! And that reminds me! He's going through a divorce...)

And Blitz... is his hope of surviving after such a devastating turn of events. Who he happens to be dating...

I get that Blitz isn't very financially stable either, but he'd still be Stolas' provider and in a better position than he is. He still has the high ground, even if it isn't super high.

Boss/employee relationships are all the more questionable when the employee is in such a vulnerable position emotionally and financially.

[reticent-fate]

part 2/26? (might be restructuring uploads so it might be 27 parts instead. dw about it.)

from the beginning

inspired by the whole genre of otherkin hrt comics (obviously, i just forgot to mention it in the body of the first part)

[monsterfuckermilligan]

completely agree with ur thoughts on sam being 'woman coded' but what do u think about ppl saying dean is. I don't think he's woman coded because he likes to clean or whatever moreso because he's been shoved into a weird position in his childhood where he comes out of it acting like the eldest daughter. Does that make sense

hi, anon! i actually wrote about this on a post that i since deleted. i think his ‘girl coding’ is heavily influenced by john’s parentification and emotional incest. i actually see him more narratively compared to women (if we’re going off of family dynamics on the family is hell show) than sam, but this isn’t me arguing for him being girl coded. idk if that makes sense. it’s more like, if we’re going to talk about that, can we talk about it in a way that doesn’t compare sam and dean’s masculinity? because a lot of those readings don’t take into account dean’s femininity and kind of use him as what a man is, when he’s consistently over performing masculinity as part of his mask.

under the cut are the screenshots of my rb on someone’s post about dean’s typical girl coded readings, which were all the things u mentioned. my views on these types of readings have also evolved since I wrote this, so please keep that in mind.

[TEXT ID:

“i agree in some ways, but wanted to add to your reading of dean becauss my girl readings of dean in comparison are different and wanted to share those thoughts with you!

i don't view dean's eldest daughter core stuff as him being the patriarch, because in that aspect he's supposed to have control, but he doesn't. he has perceived control but not his own will, he is merely echoing all of the things the true patriarch of the house is (john) which means he slowly has to come away from that and form his identity. he is treated as more of john's partner wife in that he is responsible for things he shouldn't be as a child, including but not limited to the responsibilities of taking care of a child, but also john's emotional needs. even as an adult, john relied on him to do things while knowing very little about him, everything that he was valued for were things that he could rather than who he was, versus sam's potential was valued so strongly that dean's was ignored. his identity was wrapped up in 'taking care of sammy', like a mother is always a mother first and never a person. sam's feelings are heavily emphasized as being important, but when push comes to shove, dean's are ignored, even when he's older and despite the insistence from sam that they matter. and this is not just by him but by the narrative in general. he is regarded as too emotional, his intelligence is questioned, and his ending arc is about having identify, which...he ultimately doesn't get to have.

he was never allowed to have an identity outside of taking care of other people and that is an expectation placed on women constantly. and not only the expectation but the responsibility that comes with it. girls are not allowed to be children. they're women in training. they have to take care everyone else before themselves. they will be molded into something that is surrounded by duty. the duty is more important than them as a person, and we see that mentality in dean until his very last breath where he gets permission from sam to die, to be relieved of his duty.

it's not eldest daughter core in the way of not only having the physical responsibilities, but the punishment that comes for not taking care of a boy/man properly. he ended up in the boys home because john punished him specifically for being unable to feed sam. and then john lied to sam about it to make it seem like dean just didn't care. it's also in stuff like who got sheltered from hunting, because it was not dean! it was sam. like who got punished for flagstaff? not sam! it was dean.

it's girlcoded reading in the way that girls do not get childhoods, they're expected to grow up fast and have excess responsibilities while "boys will be boys" and we see this with the way that they're treated by the characters around them and by the narrative. sam was able to cultivate enough of an identity to want to go to college. he was allowed to be angry and stand up to their dad. he was allowed to disobey. and this doesn't discount any of what you

said at all about sam, because i agree with a lot of it. i just also think that the implications with girl coded dean are not the stereotypes, but the expectations that are put on women and the way society treats them, as well as the lack of identity outside of his responsibilities and the things he's supposed to do, and the punishment that comes from either john or god or the narrative when he does not.

like who was punished for the behavior of a boy who had his own autonomy? who was constantly criticized by the other for not using logic enough and only relying on emotion? who was treated as if he was dumb and the only thing he has to offer was his body? who has implications of doing SW to put food on the table? who was shamed for his sexuality and promiscuous behavior while simultaneously being sexualized, harassed, who had implications of doing SW to put food on the table? who was literally called daddy's little girl? who told his mother he never got to be a child, that he was expected to be a mother and a father, who told the ultimate patriarch of literal god who he had attempted to mold him into wasn't who he was? that wasn't sam, that was all dean.

and it's not just that. it's girlcoded in how dean refers to baby as a woman, and how she's used as a metaphor for his body, and only after john dies does he begin to repair his relationship with her and therefore himself. dean consistently narratively parallels with mary (think of when mary was saying she was not just a mother because she was trying to find her own identity after being dead for years) and sam does with john (think of jump the shark prior to them finding out 'adam' was a ghoul and dean wanted to protect him but not to have him be a hunter, versus how sam wanted him to be one) and even when mary was alive, she put the responsibility of handling her emotions even as a four year old. he was never a child, he was a soldier or a caregiver but most importantly he was what everyone else needed him to be and he was punished whenever he tried to go outside of that.

it's all girlcoded to me because to be a woman is to be projected upon, it is to be whatever someone else needs, to take care of people (siblings, spouse, children, parents) and how that identity is wrapped up in servitude. and so going back to dean, to me this includes him being a soldier because being a soldier is to serve a greater purpose, and being a woman is the societal expectation to conform to a life of servitude for others who are more important. and it all comes back to struggles with feeling like a person with an identity, autonomy, and free will instead of just in the ways they're needed and used, like objects instead of people.

TAGS: #i also didn't want to put this in the big post but i feel...icky? idk if that's the word #but i will use it. i feel icky about girl coding based in SA because it is not an innately woman experience #and i understand why it's viewed as that but even in the narrative we see the boys' SA be brushed off and i think that type of reading #might just add to that? idk if this makes sense and i can elaborate further if need be #but that's just something i wanted to add that i didn't want to add in the main post bc idk where/if it fits #also i hope this post makes sense in general it kinda all feels a little jumbled up so if u need clarification pls Imk! #i love these types of discussions and enjoy ur posts #i also have a post about sam and purity and particularly him with food

if ur interested lol #also previous tags said that dean just cooks and cleans bc he likes to. and he may now. #but he was a parentified child who had those expectations dropped on him. there was no one else to do that but him 80% of the time #so yes he likes it but he didn't just start bc he likes it lol

END TEXT ID]

also, i tagged this as transnatural but it wasn’t about that, it was just easier for me to find that way. i think need to come up with a new tag about this. thinking maybe….gendernatural? i have no idea haha

[tangledinink]

WHAT DO THE GEMINI TWINS THINK OF COFFEE

Do they get to drink coffee?

These motherfuckers both LOVE coffee, are you kidding me? Hell yeah they get coffee. Only the fanciest of shits for them, of course. Donnie drinks it WAY more often, but Leo isn't going to look like a little kid and NOT have the occasional espresso, too.

Donnie drinks it like there's no tomorrow (though Mama will chide him in public for appearance's sake,) he genuinely loves it. Leo has grown to enjoy it over time, though he initially hated it and only drank it to try to fit in/look cool. They are both,,,, somewhat addicted. They keep VERY busy schedules, being celebrities and all, and don't always get the most sleep.

[gayofthefae]

Also a consideration to think about what type of performance young Will, Mike, and Jonathan demands when we know that none of the kids were an open call, the were all required to be experienced in the original auditions - and the same with Holly, and I don't think Martie (young Eleven) was open call either. Young Will also wasn't open call.

The resemblance was more important that the performance for them on this because they trust that the performance will be able to be achieved.

Whatever the performance, it is coachable.

[devilsainz]

depressing thoughts in the tags be warned

[rxttenfish]

tbh tho this is EXACTLY what merfolk relationships look like

and they just keep track of this. in their heads. all the time.

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

who hates operación triunfo more edgelords who thing they're above a silly music contest or fans of operación triunfo

[dynamitekansai]

Y’all wanna know why I did it? Because I had to. I had to. I ain’t wanna do it. I ain’t wanna do it! I ain’t had no choice! I never had a choice, because HE is my BLOOD!  There’s one person I blame. There’s one person I blame, and that is you, Sami Zayn!