#it’s the queer coded friendship and the whole ‘I would burn the world for you’ vibe

[danni-phant0m]

Ok ok I am sure I’m not the first person to notice this

Silena rides into battle with Clarisse’s armor on and gets killed. Clarisse avenges her by going on a rampage while invincible with the blessing of Ares.

THE PARALLEL TO PATROCLUS AND ACHILLES????? ARE YOU SHITTING ME?????

[idarafeka]

FFVIICC IS TRANS CODED

Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core is trans. And I don't know if anyone cares or will even see this post, but in it, I'm going to explain why.

FFVIICC is the prequel to the famous FFVII and the game where the story of Zack is told. In the original game Zack is a character only presented to us through small dialogues and optional cut scenes, so they had room to expand the universe however they wanted, thus presenting us two new characters, Genesis and Angeal. Our two trans characters.

Genesis and Angeal, as presented by the game, are two first class members of SOLDIER, who on top of the already standard mako infusion they were experimented on with JENOVA cells. Genesis after birth and Angeal even before his conception, being his mother the one who got the "treatment".

That is what happens to them in the game. But now let's see it from another angle. Angeal and Genesis were both childhood friends. One son of a humble family with no food to take to their mouths and the other heir to a great fortune. They used to spend all their time with each other, even after joining SOLDIER they were never not together. Or at least, that was the case until a third force came in, Sephiroth, the hero. We don't know much of their friendship, only that they fought. A lot. And that Genesis seemed to be jealous of Sephiroth, or at least that was the case when they spoke, since Genesis was usually more invested in reading, and reading and reading the book for the play Loveless it stands to reason to think social interactions were not top priority.

But why was Loveless so important? Loveless is a play that tells the story of a godess, her return, and how she brings the end of the world, or that's what's thought happens, given that the last chapter is lost to history. Genesis is obsessed with that story. In every single scene Genesis shows up, Loveless is quoted to show the ambition Genesis has to bring the godess to the world. To become the godess. Genesis Rhapsodos is a trans woman.

Thinking about her this way gives a whole new meaning for her story and actions. Her running away from home, her hate towards Sephiroth and the world and, mostly, her friendship with Angeal.

Going in order, is not hard to guess why she would hate her family. They didn't accept her, that's why she runs away to only end up killing them and burning the whole town down once she finally comes back. Which makes sense, given that her diary shows us she was a lonely child, she was likely also not accepted by the folks in her hometown.

After that, we have the hate and evny towards Sephiroth. I see it as something as easy as the resentment she felt at someone who was happy and didn't know anything about the pain it brings to not have parental love because they hate your kind. And yes, Sephiroth may have been an orphan, but Genesis clearly seemed to think that was a better option.

Finally, we have Angeal. As I said at the start I also belive him to be trans, but in a different light. Angeal is presented as an stoic, no nonsense character, contrasting with Genesis' explosive and theatrical persona, which for me represents a different way of dealing with the heart break that was his mother not fully accepting him.

At first the thought of his mother being transphobic seems unreasonable, after all, she loves her son, she seems worried about him when you speak to her. Well, yes, but the problem is both things can be true at once. The reject of his identity, while clearly a hate driven action, in the eyes of a parent can be confused with an act of love. The real problem begins when they refuse to change that view, such as she does.

When we meet her she doesn't answer to "Are you Angeal's mom?" but only to Zack introducing himself after she remembers her son wrote about him in a letter. Now she knows who he is asking for, who Angeal is, and her first question is "Are you with Genesis?", or, as we are seeing this plot, asking if he is also one of them queers. Zack says no, which in turn makes Gillian willing to speak with him about Genesis and her son, who I belive treats in masculine not out of acceptance in this scene but because she understands Zack might not know and doesn't wish to cause troubles to her only child. After this interaction, next time we see her is dead, after taking her own life and with her son staring at her corpse. This also marks the time Angeal's character goes down a spiral that makes him a "monster".

With both chracters' stories more or less covered, now I want to talk about their struggles and ultimately their demise. Both trans people not accepted by their families and town, they run away together to the big city. Once there they try their best to live their life, Angeal manages to, at least to some extent, while Genesis unable to transition becomes more and more consumed by the pain and hate she feels. Angeal is unable to let go of the mother he left alone after his father died, and tries to mend the relationship, but fails time and time again, taking a toll on him. Genesis, on the other hand, doesn't care about those who didn't care for her, killing everyone that dared to wrong her. Angeal suffers when her mother died, Genesis finds it just. Angeal cannot go any further with what he caused, he might be trans but wishes he wasn't, he sees himself as a monster, thus becoming one and asking Zack, his only friend left, to end him. Genesis, with each day that passes, which each second she feels is pushed further and further from her goal, she loses it more and more, beliving herself to be the godess who will bring forth the end of the world, and so she becomes a bastardized form of the godess, who also ends up defeated and left to rot, alone and broken. Both of them imitating the play loveless. Stories about revolution and change, cut too short, the last chapter lost to time, forever.

And that's my trans coded reading of the characters! I know it's depressing and also not at all what the story and plot is about, but it's also something I clearly see when playing the game, and art is suppoused to be a personal experience, so this is who I choose to see my own experiences through this silly guys:)

also if you read this shit I love you and are entitled to ask me to buy you a gift as prize

[fangirlshrewt97]

A Promise Forged by Betrayal (Komuram Bheem)

(Ram Version)

///

All he could see was open fields, so he kept running, pulling Malli onto his back when she started to slow. The earth beneath his feet was rough and wild and untouched. Never known the unnatural footsteps of the white people. It was only when his own vision started going double, and Malli begged him to stop that he slowed down. He kept going till they reached a covered alcove of trees, setting down his charge on a flat Rock before falling to sit by her side, head resting against her small knee. He felt her hands carding through his hair, grimy and covered with dirt as it were, loosening the curls. Tears sprang to his eyes, the events of the last few days finally hitting him. He took a heaving breath. Malli was here. Safe. With him. He could not break now, could not bear to see her cry anymore tears, or feel anymore fear. "Anna, are you ok?" She asked, voice still hoarse from where she had been crying.

Blinking rapidly, he tried to summon a smile. He mostly failed, but Malli was looking at him like she couldn't believe he was real, so what did it matter. He opened his arms, squeezing her when she fell into them. He started rubbing his hand across her back, offering a small comfort as she burrowed into him.

Her presence is a cool waterfall on his heart, which had been burned so much. Another hitch in his breath. Anna. Ram. Special Officer A. Rama Raju. The betrayal was seared into his bones. How dare he. Had any of their friendship been real? Had he known all along? Lacchu. Oh god, Lacchu had warned of a police officer. Was Lacchu the one Ram had been searching for so fervently? He ground his teeth to bite back the growl. He had pointed a gun at Malli. At a child. At the one who meant everything to Bheem. It must have been a lie. Bheem felt so stupid. He had trusted him so much he had given away his mission. Would he have successfully escaped with Malli that night if he had never found him? Never given him the antidote? Never revealed his truth? He gave him his sacred thread to protect him. Told him his friendship meant everything to him. Had Ram been laughing at him that whole time? Finally conceeding that they were not being chased anymore, he looked down to see Malli fast asleep against his chest. Leaning down, he pressed a kiss to the top of her head, taking in her scent. She had suffered how no child should suffer. But now she was back with him and they would go home, put all this behind them. Bheem only wished he could hide the whole village from the world. They were happy in their forest, living their own lives. Why did the rest of the world insist on knocking at their door. Eyes still burning with held back tears, bheem gazed in the direction they had come from. Was the traitor dead? But even as he thought it, his heart ached. He could have easily killed him, pinned down and bleeding as Ram was. Those dark brown eyes looking at him, accepting his fate, whatever punishment Bheem wished to give him. Could he have killed him? Physically yes. But could he have been the one to blow out the fire in those eyes? The one to make sure those hands never raised a whip against another? Or helped to comb through tangles to make him more presentable? The one to deny the world of a smile that crinkled the corners of a serious face, a smile that felt like a victory each time? He had run and he would continue to run till he reached home. He'd have to reunite with the others and find a way to sneak them away from this accursed city. And once home he would make sure something like never happened again. So long as he had breath in his lungs, and strength in his body, no one would hurt his people again. And no one would take advantage of his friendship again. They couldn't. Not if he locked away his heart to protect it. He would live by his duty. It would be enough.

///

Let me know your thoughts!

(Also, the reason I kept the ‘Anna’ in despite going for more queer-coding in this piece is because at this point Bheem is going through so much emotional turmoil, he would stick to what he has known for the past few months.)

[shaolingrrl]

My reaction to being slow-burned

I wrote this for another venue, but I think it captures some of the most basic problems I had with S4: poor writing, cowardice, and dragging their audience, essentially.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Really, my reaction is less disappointment or frustration than sorrow for a lost opportunity and wasted potential. Although I was irked by some really poor writing. (Spoilers, of course, for all of S4 and extending back into S3.)

All of S4 has been problematic due to what was essentially a refusal to engage with the setup they’d given themselves at the end of S3 (along with some of the character development gave Sherlock in The Abominable Bride). In the first few scenes of The Six Thatchers Moffatt and Gatiss: edited out the killing of Magnussen (no consequences for Sherlock); aggressively retconned Mary Morstan from psychopathic assassin and “wicked girl” with an unhealthy possessiveness toward John who tried to murder Sherlock into a loving wife fulfilled by her role as suburban mother; dropped the whole reference to England needing Sherlock (Mycroft’s last line in His Last Vow); and doubled-down on John’s unbelievable, unmotivated, and (most importantly) unshown forgiveness of his lying wife. And the kid only served as a plot point too, really.

For the remainder of the first two episodes, they proceeded to break and put back together John’s and Sherlock’s friendship. Didn’t they already do that in S3? Why do it again? Oh, wait. This time they did it in a less queer-coded way. Gotta nip those rumors in the bud once and for all. Sherlock is a valuable commodity, with a world-wide audience, including huge fan bases in officially homophobic countries.

On to The Final Problem itself.

I first started feeling a sense of misgiving when the cliff hanger from The Lying Detective was dropped. Just — dropped. You don’t do that with cliff hangers. Cliff hangers are a promise to your audience. “I have to go now,” says the author. “I’m going to leave you in suspense with a much-loved character in peril, but if you come back I’ll give you a thrilling and emotionally satisfying resolution.” None of which we got with Eurus shooting John. That showed a total lack of respect for the audience and the character. (Poor Martin Freeman was grossly under-used in both The Six Thatchers and The Final Problem, by the way.)

The whole introduction of Eurus was very poor plotting on the part of Moffatt and Gatiss. Waiting until the last five minutes of the penultimate episode to properly introduce a character with that much influence the main character’s entire arc and thus the show itself character arc was — really not good. Leaving aside her X-men-like powers, I felt the trials she set up for Sherlock did not build tension from one to the next. We were supposed to fear for the little girl on the plane, but that situation quickly became unbelievable.

The Final Problem was a mess, really. A wasted opportunity. I would feel a bit more charitable if it also didn’t seem self-indulgent and dismissive of its audience.

My .02, just my opinion, Moffat and Gatiss will cry all the way to the bank, etc.