#like people are complex. there is a homophobic wolf in you and the wolf that supports gay people

[taigastyle]

like. completely unrelated to anything.

the issue with straight allies is that it is bare minimum to be supportive. pat on the back dude, you held up a sign, clap clap you're a good guy. but the reality is the moment things get difficult, the moment their feelings are hurt, they will immediately turn around and say something like, idk, "You're not a man you have a vagina you homo." and then it's kind of hard to be like, yeah you go so hard for gay rights. you've always been so consistent, this one oopsie this one slip where your feelings were hurt and you immediately pulled out the "men with vaginas aren't real men" and a slur is so valid. you're right you said gay rights, so therefor you are absolved of anything.

[buckybarnesss]

Sending this on anon -

I think there is a latent amount of misogyny in the star wars fandom that people aren't ready to face lol.

Like there was so much hate for RebelCaptain and Bix x Cassian (MechanicThief? Bixian?) After andor, and we were called homophobic for 'not wanting to ship' the mlm ships, and I'm like???!! First of all multiplies exist, and second of all, complex, dramatic, well written ships also should exist!

And I'm now seeing the same pattern where it's encouraged to ship Din with the men, but not with the women

I think that a lot of fans really need to look within their consumption and see if they're really looking for representation, or for Ken dolls they can experiment with.

DinBo is so fascinating and I really can't wait to see how they develop

oh y'all want me to get spicy. i'm gonna put his under a read more.

i don't even think it's latent. the female characters receive an excessive amount of hatred or are pitted against each other. i've been in fandom spaces a long, long, long time so i know it's sadly nothing new but people have a hard time accepting that not all the misogyny comes from men.

there is no quarter for woman characters like jyn erso and bo-katan. they will never please. especially when they may have possible romantic relationships with the male leads.

i have thoughts on the shipping atmosphere for the mandalorian and it's not positive.

i am very much a ship and let ship person. i prefer to stay in my lane and enjoy what i enjoy. no harm no foul.

but i do find it -- shall we say interesting -- that bo-katan and din have a multiple episode arc where they develop a deeper understanding of each other overcoming their differences from when they first met but is met with the attitude of ew no cooties. it is fine to prefer a more sibling dynamic between the two but some have been really nasty about others shipping it romantically.

i didn't even really ship it at first but it's grown on me over the course of the season. they compliment each other and have a lot of protentional to explore.

it's one thing to not like a ship but i've seen a lot of language that i consider problematic and outright anti behavior of labeling something you don't like with dog whistles of incest, grooming, toxic and disgusting when it's in fact none of those things at all. just say you don't ship it and keep stepping.

like, the most popular din ship over the past two years has been dinluke which is a perfectly acceptable ship but in canon they've exchanged like a handful of words in one scene. it's fanon.

the armorer and bo-katan has become a popular ship which is again built on a few interactions.

but somehow din and bo are terrible, no good and gross.

we don't even have canon sexualities for these characters and headcanons are not canon. hell, i personally see din on the ace spectrum and bo makes sense to me as bi but that's my headcanon.

this is also not dean winchester being based of a bisexual character and fifteen years of evidence of subtext or stiles stilinski's bisexual baiting by jeff davis on teen wolf.

i get the desire for more lgbta+ representation in star wars but a heterosexual relationship existing is not your enemy and if you think it is than you are part of the problem.

[h-worksrambles]

Leo Alvarez for the ask game 🥺🥺

First off, you have no idea how badly I have wanted to do any kind of ask game for Echo, so thank you.

Oh Leo, the wolf with flags as red as his fur...and yet...

An incredibly complex and tragic character like Leo naturally has a lot to dissect in terms of his relationships with other characters. With that in mind, here are my five favourite Leo dynamics.

1. The most obvious pick by far is Chase. And I've already touched on some of my thoughts on these two already. Leo's best friend, his ex boyfriend, one of the most important people in Leo's life...and we watch that relationship go to hell in the most painful way possible. It's an incredibly layered relationship between two deeply flawed, troubled people. You could write an entire essay on this relationship and how much it drives a freaking dagger through my heart, but I'll just give the cliff notes version. At the end of the day you have two dumb, kinda shitty teens who have become two dumb, kinda shitty twenty somethings, both carrying a shedload of mental health issues that neither knows how to handle. Their relationship falls apart because they each have a very false, idealised notion of how relationships work. In part because they’re both young and inexperienced in that respect.

They bond in part due to their shared trauma, both the horrible loss of Sydney and the more mundane but still very painful process of trying to figure out their identities in a deeply homophobic, backwater town with no real queer community or role model to look towards. They clung to each other as an ideal they could use to hide from their problems. Leo's guilt over failing to protect Sydney manifests as controlling overprotectiveness, magnified by his unresolved anger problems. Chase's state of stress and dissasociation after that same event leads him to take a very passive attitude to the relationship, happy to let Leo make all the decisions and thus enabling his controlling behaviour, but also tending to be indecisive, self-centred and uncommunicative about what he wants because he hates conflict. There's also the interesting subtext that their relationship has a pattern of toxic heteronormative behaviour (a result of their own inexperience with even being queer). Leo wants to be the provider and breadwinner, he calls Chase a feminised petname, 'chula', he dotes on Chase, but also tries to control him. Chase's passivity and the harm that comes from that, demonstrates just how damaging trying to cram queer relationships into those kinds of heteronormative boxes actuallly is.

Over the game, across the different routes, we see them unpack the factors that caused their relationship to fail. Leo's inability to move on from Chase is part of a wider desire to cling to the past, because he feels like he peaked in his teenage years and now feels adrift. The town torments him with those feelings and creates a phantom of Chase that embodies every unhealthy emotion Leo's projected onto him, and is slowly driving him to madness. Leo's 'so I just pretend' monologue which describes how this influence took route is painful to see unfold. And god, the amount of symbolism I could talk about that feeds into this! The anchor bracelet that embodies the conflicting imagery of safety and familiarity, but also that of beng trapped and bound to each other and to their past. The horrifying scene in Jenna's route where they are literally almost nightmarishly bound to each other. The fact that Leo's bad ending has Chase's inability to resolve his conflicted emotions end with him going from being torn emotionally to being torn physically (please Howly, McSkinny! I can only take so much symbolic body horror!)

One of my favourite moments between them is seeeing how they first got together in Route 65. You can see the connnection between these two old friends, slowly figuring out their identities and bonding over it as a result. There's a real tenderness to it. But you can also see all the warning signs. The fact that Leo is already hiding things from Chase. The fact that Chase will go along with whatever Leo says and overlook those signs despite his better judgement. The fact that they'll ignore people around them, often hurting their friends as a result, to be together. It's equal parts heartwarming and agonising when you know how it'll end.

Watching this deeply toxic relationship fall apart is agonising, but seeing the endings where they mutually grow is so worth it. Chase putting his foot down, firmly making his own decision and ending things with Leo is what allows them both to escape the town's influence. Meanwhile, with his delusions shattered, Leo is able to start healing, not just letting go of the past and growing past his own worst traits, but making amends to people he previously hurt (we'll get to that). That final goodbye between the two at the end of his route is the closest I've come to crying at a videogame in a very long time. I cannot stress how much it affected me emotionally.

I could go on, but I need to move onto other relationships so to sum up, Leo and Chase's relationship is dark, tragic and yet strangely beautiful to watch unfold.

2. Micha's relationship with Leo only really comes up in Jenna's route, but nonetheless is very interesting. Micha was already one of my favourite side characters. A lonely, angry young man but one who's also very clearly been dealt a hard lot in life. If Heather represents what Jenna could have been if she didn't have a support network of friends who could help pull her out of her shitty abusive upbringing, Micha represents what Chase or Leo could have been if they'd been in similar circumstances, as well as being ostracised for their sexualities by their loved ones rather than accepted. And since Jenna's route is about the importance of healthy connections with others and how crucial they are to self improvement, this is very pertinent.

Micha was one of the first people who Leo really related to in the process of figuring out his sexuality as a teenager. Their experimenting leads to them doing something very, very stupid and reckless that still makes me uncomfortable to think about. But immediately after that of course, Leo gets together with his longtime crush and, as he and Chase did to pretty much all their friends, basically left Micha out to dry. This left Micha to deal with getting kicked out of home for being gay alone. For as much as Leo romanticises his past, there are darker elements he needs to come to terms with, wrongs of his own that he needs to right.

Micha is understandably terrified of even seeing Leo again after how badly this 'relationship' fell apart. But slowly, the walls come down, and that more protective side of Leo starts to come out, but in a good way this time. Leo recognises that he hurt Micha and does his best to keep him safe during the mass hysteria, to atone for the harm he did, to make things right. And by the end of the route, Micha's still there, accepted by Leo and the rest of the group.

There are those who want to ship them because of this, and there's certainly grounds to read it that way, but I personally don't. Partly because knowing what we do of their history makes me a little personally uncomfortable at the prospect, but also because I think a big part of Leo's arc is to let go of his very idealised, somewhat toxic idea of romantic relationships. I think him learning to be happily single, and valuing the friendships he has, is much more appropriate. He has all the time in the world to meet someone new. For now, just let him have some good friends. Ones who he can help just as much as they do for him.

3. Next up, TJ and Leo. Because of the direction Leo's character takes, he basically torpedoes his relationships with most of the rest of the main group. His disastrous fling with Flynn shoots that friendship dead, (we'll get to that). He and Jenna used to be incredibly close childhood friends but that gets complicated fast. Their mutual feelings for Chase fuels Leo's jealousy in Jenna's route, and as she learns more about just how much Leo has been hiding about himself as a person from his friends, she struggles to see him the same way she used to. And Carl was especially affected by how much Chase and Leo neglected the others after becoming a couple and I don't think he ever quite forgave Leo for that. They care about each other a lot and do come through for each other when the worst happens, but their stories seem to end with the group learning to value the time they had together and then moving on in most routes.

The only exception who Leo seems to maintain a positive dynamic with and seems to genuinely get on well with, is TJ. And it makes sense why. TJ is the most patient, gentle and accepting of the group. He still cares a lot about his childhood friends and isn't shy to let them know that. Leo, like I've said, thinks of himself as a protector, and tries to be everyone's 'big brother' figure. So it figures he takes great care to watch out for the youngest of the group. It's a dynamic that demonstrates the best aspects of Leo's protectiveness. When his unresolved trauma isn't twisting that protective instinct into hyper controlling, obessissive behaviour, he can be a really great friend. I always think of that one scene in Leo's route where he and Chase go to join TJ at the park. At this point, we've seen many of Leo's red flags. How he's still obssessing over his ex. How his anger problems are getting worse. How he's manipulating not only Chase, but also all the rest of his friends just to contrive a scenario where he and Chase can work things out (that phone scene is a gutpunch, dear god)...and yet. Even though Leo's entire plan is dependent on staying alone with Chase to patch things up, he's willing to compromise that because TJ is his friend and he's hurting, and Leo wants to make him happy. Leo is a walking hot mess of a person, but it's that conflict between his selfless and selfish urges, his best and worst instincts, that make him so compelling to watch.

And still there's more to dig into. Because a big part of TJ's character is about how he's often talked down to and talked over even by his closest friends. How TJ is a repressed, curled up ball of insecurities and anxieties who can't express himself because everyone around him treats him like a precious innocent uwu smol bean. Well meaning though he may be, Leo's over protectiveness means he is unintentionally coddling TJ just as much as Jenna is, preventing him from healthily unpacking his pain, a dam that finally bursts in Flynn's route.

Even so, TJ and Leo's relationship provides an insight into Leo's better qualities, and a glimpse of how this friendship dynamic may once have worked in the past.

4. Oh, Flynn and Leo. You know what I'm gonna say. Metaphor. Freaking Metaphor. Flynn is my favourite character in Echo and his history with Leo provides fresh insight into both characters. Based on when you meet them in the prologue, Flynn and Leo could not appear more different. Leo seems earnest, affectionate, protective and reverent of the past the group shares. Flynn is cold and distant, it's unclear how much his attitude is banter and how much is actual spite towards his old friends. And the argument scene at the river is in large part a blowup between these two: Leo wanting to return to the past, and Flynn wanting to discard it to get answers. But once you dig more into these characters, you quickly see the similarities run deceptively deep. Flynn is, in his own way, just as trapped in the past as Leo. Leo can be just as cruel towards his friends as Flynn, while Flynn can be just as protective of them as Leo. Two characters both so alike, and yet so different.

And then you're thrown the bombshell that these two banged.

In Flynn's route we learn that Flynn and Leo briefly became an item after Chase broke up with Leo and went to college. Flynn even took him to the Smoke Room, a part of his life Flynn tells barely anyone about. In Metaphor, we see them together briefly, and it's probably the most comfortable and happy we see them around each other in the entire game. Of, course, as we immediately find out, it ended badly. Leo broke things off with Flynn shortly before Chase came back to visit Echo, hoping to rekindle that relationship. And Flynn's reaction to this: "I guess that's okay...if that's all you want..." is a painful reminder of Flynn's own struggle, desperate for intimacy, but also deathly afraid of it, terrified of losing a real connection like the one he lost with his best friend so many years ago. It's genuinely heartbreaking to see. Especially when Flynn talks about this with Chase in his route: How coming to terms with his sexuality was especially painful because, while he was dealing with awful homophobic treatment by his parents before he finally got away from them, his other two friends who could have helped him become more comfortable with his queerness, were too wrapped up in each other to notice.

Do I think they could have worked out? Hard to say. I think Leo did desperately need to date anyone other than Chase to get over him. But I also stand by my earlier point, that Leo needs to learn to be comfortably single. Meanwhile, while I think allowing himself to be emotionally open in a relationship would do him a world of good, I wonder if hooking up with his few remaining friends, potentially ruining those friendships, is actually all that productive a solution for Flynn (although I am a shameless Flynn and Carl shipper so what do I know?). Still, maybe they could have had something. But that ship sailed a long time ago. Even so, Flynn will still come through for Leo, and the rest of his friends, in Jenna's route, because, whatever he says, he still loves them dearly. They're basically all he has.

(Also, one minor detail. In Route 65, Flynn is the one who let Chase know about the party because he knew about Leo's feelings for Chase, and, now that Chase had come out, decided to play matchmaker and get Leo to finally spit it out. A nice reminder that Flynn looks out for his friends, even if he'll never admit it).

5. Clint and Leo's dynamic is understated, but surprisingly tragic when you think about it. Clint bullied Leo and the others plenty as a kid, and was generally a berligerent, homophobic ass to them. But it's very strongly implied that both Clint, and his sister, were suffering some pretty awful abuse at home. That doesn't excuse his behaviour, but there's more going on with Clint than we fully see.

In the present day, the tables have turned, and if anything, Leo is the one antagonising Clint. Leo's anger isssues have only gotten worse, and he'll happily take any excuse to give Clint a sock in the jaw after eveything that happened between them as kids. Never mind that Clint is a meth addict in no condition to fight a huge maned wolf, and is currently being exortorted by a predatory serial killer.

In many ways, their dynamic feels like a foil to Jenna and Heather. Heather was someone who hurt Jenna when they were young. But Jenna is able to recognise that Heather was suffering in a way not too different to herself. She doesn't entirely forget the pain Heather caused her, but she empathises with her, is willing to help her deal with her own hardships and move on in her life. Leo and Clint meanwhile, are repeating their childhood fights, stuck in the same old routine, with no such empathy between them. If Leo wants to go back to the old days when he was younger, I guess it figures that he still relishes getting one over on his high school bully.

Truth be told, Clint is a character I would have liked to see get a little more screentime. To see his struggles explored a little deeper the way Micha and Heather's were. But there's still a lot to interpret about his enmity with Leo and how it ties into Echo's themes of dealing with trauma and letting go with the past.

Anyway, that's all five of my favourite relationships involving Leo. Leo is one of my favourite characters in Echo and his story affected me so deeply. I still struggle to listen to Blurry or Theme For A Lonely Wolf without choking up. So it was very hard not to just word vomit when given the chance to talk about him as a character. I hope it morphed into a good answer to your ask. Thanks again for sending it to me!

[vmures]

Thinking about Teen Wolf and it's funny (funny-strange, not funny-haha) to me how vicious some of the meta and discourse gets and how defensive people get over their favorite characters. Then you add in fanon and fandom creep with a nice dash of "this is how I understood that scene and that is the only way it can be understood (aka my headcanon is canon)," and you get a hot mess of ugliness.

Of the episodes I've watched, pretty much everyone on the show is a dick at one point or another, which tracks because they're teenagers and I remember the horrors of puberty and emotions all over the place. I find most of the fully adult characters worse because they don't have the excuse of youth--with its general lack of experience and fluctuating hormones. But there is not a single person who doesn't have several scenes where you go "wow, that was a dick move." And if you really look at the actions and words of the characters, there isn't anyone particularly nurturing either.

Stiles has those he considers his and he'd probably burn the world down for them, but most everyone else he can care less about. We do see moments where he does go out of his way to help someone not necessarily his (the scene in the library with the kanima and him running over to check on Erica comes to mind). Scott does try to look after others, even strangers, but also has moments where he blatantly manipulates those around him for his own gain (he blatantly uses Danny at the dance in season one to keep Finstock from kicking him out of the dance and the implication, at least to me, was that he knew Finstock wouldn't make a scene about kicking out Danny's date for fear of seeming homophobic). You can find examples of kindness and assholishness from each and every character is this show and the tendency trends towards asshole for all of them. Different types and varying levels of assholes, but still assholes. But you know what? That is okay. They're very human characters in that regard. Every single person on the planet has someone who thinks they are an absolute dick. Their complexity makes them fun to write.

But just because they're all assholes in their own way, doesn't mean I have to like them all. Just like shows that are comprised of characters that flip this metric (mostly nice with moments of dickishness) can have characters that just don't vibe with you. Just like in real life there are foods you don't like, music that isn't to your taste, and people who just grate on your nerves for one reason or another. It's just a matter of personal preference. The world would be very boring if we all liked the same things and reacted the same to everything.

So some people like some characters and focus on those points of view and their takes on the characters may be wildly divergent from your own, but it doesn't necessarily make them wrong. Where it gets even more tricky is the fandom creep and headcanons as canon additions. Because if you are willing to debate the merits and behavior of a character and you cite something that doesn't ever happen on screen, some are going to get frustrated because they don't see that as canon. We all have to add conjecture about what happened off screen to make a story make sense, but that is still conjecture and it's going to vary widely from person to person since everyone views a story through their own experiences and issues.

Sadly we seem to have culturally misplaced the art of debate and the notions of civility. In particular the "agree to disagree" notion where each side acknowledges that they are unlikely to persuade the other side and people move on to other things rather than rehash the same material over and over or devolve into outright harassment and suicide baiting. Muting tags and blocking people who frequently have takes you can't stand is so much better for your peace of mind.

So that's my take. I do not think this is the only way to interpret things, but it is one of the ways you can interpret it and it's what shapes my headcanons when I write. You can have different takes, but I am not required to agree with them and you are not required to agree with mine.

[frenchfriesoverguys]

toxic shipping

I typically don’t make content like this but I feel as if we need to open this conversation up. Please educate yourself before commenting.

Toxic mlm shipping is homophobic.

mlm shipping is almost exclusively a straight women’s fantasy. However, I don’t mean the people who want two male characters to get together. I mean specifically, the ones who are damaging the LGBTQAI+ community without even realizing it. 

To bring in some real life examples, I’ll talk about ‘buddie’. For those who don’t know, this is a ship between the characters Evan “Buck” Buckley and Eddie Diaz on the show 9-1-1. The show has many forms of representation from a black lesbian couple to a black gay couple to an interracial straight couple. Not to mention; a kid with mobility issues and complex family dynamics. It’s spin-off show 9-1-1: Lone Star has an interracial gay couple, a muslim woman firefighter, a black transgender man and even representation of learning disabilities. So to say that it is a well represented show is an understatement. Yet, all I see online about the show is how by not making buddie a canon ship (aka: written on the show) the show is queerbaiting. Or how the actors must feel uncomfortable acting as gay men. Or people harassing the showrunner who is a gay man. Or people hating the character’s female love interests and the actresses who portray them (which is sexist but that's a whole nother conversation). I am so tired of this. 

Harassing the actors online is not going to make the ship canon. All you are doing is causing harm and stigma around not playing gay characters (which people actually in the LGBTQAI+ have talked about being unfair to actual gay actors who struggle to get parts because of their sexuality). You are harassing an gay man in real life just for a ship. 

Now let’s back up a little to why I think mlm ships at least half the time are just straight women putting their sexual fantasies onto these men. In the spin-off of this show, the ship for the gay couple (tarlos) is based on how attractive the actors are. If you were to look up that ship on tumblr, you’ll see mostly gifs of on screen hookups between the characters and then less popular gifs of their actual relationship. In the original 9-1-1, the gay men in this show are older but have an adorable love story. But they aren’t shown sexually so no one in the fandom talks about them or gifs them. The fandom brushes them aside and eventually the show had to as well since it wasn’t a popular story line. 

When all you’re looking for is sex between mlm characters, you are not supporting the LGBTQAI+. You are not an ally. Yet the same people will pat themselves on the back for “speaking up for the community” that they are not even apart of. 

9-1-1 was the first show I thought of (as it is currently airing new episodes), but not the only show this has happened in. Teen Wolf was another. People harassed and read into everything Dylan Sprayberry and Cody Christian did. As well as Dylan O’Brien and Tyler Hoechlin. Rumors started about Cody Christian being homophobic and uncomfortable playing a gay character (not true btw). Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie is another (although the MCU truly doesn’t have good representation for the community). The list can keep going. Straight women cause harm and ignore the cries of the actual LGBTQAI+. There are real issues in representation but they get drowned out as out of control fans talk over us. Most of the shows I listed have other gay characters that the fans just don’t like. Probably because they are actually portrayed as gay and not as “normal” straight men. Just admit you like the idea and sexual component to gay relationships and not actual gay relationships.

[noys-boise]

What's something you love?

Tell me about it. I'd love to know. <3

MY FAVORITE QUESTION

Prepare for some autistic inofdumping here

First of all I don't think it's suprising if I say Falsettos. It's my main source of comfort, I'm absolutely OBSESSED with the characters, the music, the story, the cast (both the original and the revival) so yes. I talk about Falsettos a lot

On that topic I want a seperate shoutout to In trousers, the prequel of Falsettos. It makes very little sense, it's chaotic, it's confusing but it's SOOOO GOOOD. First of all, THE ORIGINAL CAST HOLLY SHIT I would die for Chip and Mary and Alison (more on that later) why does everyone on that album sound so GENDER??? Also the songs holly shit I love William Finn so much istg every single song on the 1979 recording of In trousers is a banger!!! And it really just gives a deeper understanding to Falsettos if you ask me

Into the woods!! The stage production not the movie I don't like the movie. Once again, Chip Zien!!! Also the music is so catchy it's stuck in my head constantly lately and the plot is so.. Unlike anything I've seen really. Did I mention the music? It's not just catchy by the way it's so complex and like. The amount of times that one melody appears (talking about the bean theme here) also it's just really fun. And I love the characterizations. And Milky White <333

A NEW BRAIN IS SO UNDERRATED!!! It's a musical by the same composer as Falsettos, it's really autobiographical and well not a lot of people know it exists, sadly. It's really good tho it somehow combines brain surgery, sailing, a weird frog man who's the host of a children's show and is referred to as homophobic, horse racing, on that topic: daddy issues (related to horse racing), homeless people, books- it's pretty crazy AND it's only an hour and a half long. Also the 2015 version has Jonathan Groff and he's basically playing the best written self insert I've ever seen

I don't want to spend too much time on famous people I like because there's a lot, but let's do a speedrun of my favorites (in no particular order): William Finn. Andrew Rannells. Chip Zien. Christian Borle. Alison Fraser. Mary Testa. Brandon Uranowitz. Anthony Rosenthal. Betsy Wolfe. Tracie Thoms. Michael Rupert. Ariana DeBose. Andrew Garfield.

FOREST <33333 obviously I gotta mention my amazing partner here 💖

Also my wonderful queerplatonic partner Lake!!

Cats cats cats cats cats. Especially my own. Especially my giant orange blob of a cat.

Anything that's gay, really

[alectology-archive]

I’ve seen some anti Catradora people say they don’t like the ship on the basis that Catra and Adora have the same mother and are sisters and—ignoring how much of a reach that is—I feel like it plays into the “these two girls can’t be love interests because they’re family” trope? Like I also saw this with Wolfwalkers. Taking the story at face value—a British girl learns that Irish myths are real when she meets a Wolfwalker (people whose souls becomes a wolf during sleep)—is nice. There's some 1)

2) the movie has a clear anti colonialism theme and a condemnation of the church. But it’s enhanced through a queer lense, when you view the British girl and the wolfwalker girl she meets as love interests. The ideas of conforming to a society that doesn’t accept you, undergoing a transformation that doesn’t fit in said society, and coming to embrace your true self mean soooo much more when you view the girls as lesbians. (The quote “the city is no place for a Wolf” also takes on deeper meaning)

3) Even the clear anti church theme, with the evil christian guy wanting to “get rid of the wildness of the forest” and begging god to “help him tame it” and him trying to force the british girl and her dad to conform to his rigid ideals mean so much more if you view her as a wlw and being a wolfwalker as coming out of the closest. (10/10 recommend, btw) But even though the movie is enriched by looking at it from that lenses, people still view the girls as sisters!!! It’s a big problem.

4) Viewing women in love as sisters, both in Wolfwalkers and in SPOP, cheapens the complex stories. But people keep doing it!!!

Okay diaclaimer: I feel really uncomfortable shipping robyn and mebh because they have a pretty significant age gap and they end up becoming stepsisters by the end of the movie. But I definitely feel the queerness in the movie is undeniable when you discuss its themes so I prefer to think that they're both individually queer without being in a relationship with one another.

I just generally feel that the trend of fandoms aggressively pushing for two kids from animated shows to be shipped together is not a good thing since they tend to be so young (and this is why I generally hate every single person in the atla fandom and have all of its tags blocked).

Legend of korra and she-ra are a different story in the sense that their characters are aged 17-21 for both based on the season and feature an age gap of less than a year so I feel a lot more comfortable with them.

But wlw relationships definitely have a tendency to be sidelined and demonised and picked apart and cancelled in ways that mlm ships never are. I think with lok and spop people also tend to forget that both of them were very heavily censored (although spop somehow managed to sneak in so much queer subtext that on a rewatch it didn't really feel like it) which is why the interpretation of THEY ARE SISTERS and THEY ARE FRIENDS exist in the first place, often originating from the homophobic crowd. And akdaksjdk yeah unfortunately all two men have to do is interact politely to get a massive shipping subfandom but even if women literally kiss on screen there'll be a lot of discourse over it and they're eventually forgotten and mocked for not being As Good as the rep in the shows that follow although they laid the foundation for them.

[snapeingturtle]

bro I feel the same way about wolf star shippers, most of the wolfstar fandom spaces make me super uncomfy as a gay woman because they’re just fetishing the hell out of a relationship that just has the basis of uwu my gay babies that can do no wrong. Like wolfstar has the potential to be something super interesting and complex but everyone always takes out the more intriguing bits because it doesn’t portray Remus and Sirius as precious gay beans instead y’know... their canonical selfs. It’s just frustrating because these people try and take the high ground and call you homophobic for not liking wolfstar but refuse to the reflect on their own... I’m sure there are completely normal people out there that ship it, but the majority I’ve seen are crazed. Anyways, sorry to rant in your inbox. Love your blog and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day! :)

Please rant in my inbox anytime you want.

Agree with basically anything you said. I like the Marauders. But the Marauder fandom is making it increasingly difficult to like them and it's mostly because of this breed of wolfstar shippers making the fandom space really uncomfortable.

Initially I disliked the ship because I didn't see a connection. I didn't (and still don't) think they were even that close as friends. I always thought they wouldn't be more than casual friends who occasionally chat if it wasn't for James. Plus, y'know, the werewolf prank happened and Sirius didn't take Remus's condition seriously even after the fact.

What made me really dislike the ship was the content that basically took the their personalities and replaced them with stereotypes.

I really don't like the wolfstar shippers' version of Sirius. That Sirius is so here, so queer, and so ready to fuck Remus. The wolfstar content (that I've seen despite trying to avoid it) is really sexualised a lot of the time. By itself I don't think I'd care that much but combining it with the other things I've talked about makes me uncomfortable.

I'd rather have a Sirius with flaws. I want the least favourite child going off the rails. The reckless yet fiercely loyal dude who has posters of women on his bedroom walls. The kind of guy who would die for his friends but has trouble with taking serious things seriously.

What made me hate the ship enough to block any wolfstar tag I could think of was the behaviour I talked about earlier. The people I've talked about are not fun to interact with and the whole deal with indirectly invalidating bisexuality as a whole is personal enough for me to want to minimise all the chances of running into those people.

Too bad they're often also obsessive Snape haters and they always find their way in my favourite tags or in my inbox.

[shippedwithmonsters]

So here for complex backstories tbh.

Share away, if you like.

(Honestly the whole being descended from two separate lines of werewolf mechanisms from different universes is the kind of concept I used to work with all the time back when I first started designing OC’s. My ‘verse is a bit more standardized nowadays, but I’ve still got plenty of the old OC’s hanging around. They’re just not my F/O’s. Said it before but I’m pretty new at Selfshipping. Character design though? I’ve been at that almost a couple decades now.)

Okay, I'm gonna share what I can but there are holes.

Kadan's father started life as a werewolf from a published werewolf romance series (he wasn't a character from it or anything. he's still an OC, his species was just from that series). Later in life, he (the father) became a superpowered god-like entity, able to travel between dimensions. When his kind (god-like entities) reproduces, their offspring get a few interdimensional abilities and they take after the species the person was before becoming such a powerful entity. In this case, a Romance Novel werewolf species.

This god-like entity traveled to another dimension that had a different species of werewolf and had twin children with a woman there. This resulted in the werewolf children being half Original Werewolf and half Romance Novel Werewolf. For whatever reason (who knows why gods do anything they do?), the god-like entity took one of the children, Kadan, from that dimension back to his original dimension and gave Kadan to a werewolf family there.

Kadan was assigned female at birth and was raised in the early 1900's. Werewolf packs, especially ones from this Romance Novel, are pretty shitty to women. They're viewed as their male mate's property, and before that their father's property. And it was worse in the early 1900's (not to say it's much better in the Romance Novel that takes place in 2012 🙃). So Kadan didn't have a very good life in that pack. He was expected to find a mate and be a good little wife for some big macho werewolf. As the daughter of an Alpha (barf), he also was a pretty high value mate (no one knew he was adopted except his parents) because he would supposedly have good DNA for making male children that could eventually become Alpha as well.

I'm using He/Him pronouns for this part part because calling him a her at all here seems gross given the subject matter. Hopefully he doesn't mind too much that I'm not switching up the pronouns in this case...

Anyways, this whole situation sucked. Bad. But to make it worse, remember how I mentioned that offspring of these interdimensional god-like beings have some interdimensional powers themselves? Yeah, well poor Kadan got the gift of sight into other dimensions. It was barely more than some vague dreams at the time, but they were enough to cause trouble.

The Romance Novel werewolves have destined mates, signified when they meat by markings that appear on each other's skin and the ability to read each other's minds. And Kadan, from a very young age, had visions of his mate thanks to his interdimensional visions. And little baby Kadan didn't know any better but to tell people "Hey, I've seen my mate and they're not a boy!"

😬

Well, the very traditional homophobic werewolf pack did NOT handle that great. Of course, they just assumed at first that Kadan was just a confused kid. But it set things in motion...

Kadan did eventually learn to keep his mouth shut about his visions, though he still knew in his heart that he was having visions of his future mate, who was in fact not a boy.

Now, in this werewolf family, Kadan had an adopted brother. The adopted brother was younger than Kadan and didn't know Kadan was adopted. And of course, this brother was in line to take over as Alpha from their father.

Here things get murky in my own writing. The reasons aren't completely clear, but basically their parents died. The way these werewolf work is when one dies, their mate also dies so both their mother and father died at the same time. The adopted brother, perhaps feeling threatened by Kadan for some reason, decided he needed to lock Kadan up.

The brother had enough damning evidence that Kadan was 'dangerous' and 'crazy,' reminding people of Kadan's visions of a mate that *gasp* wasn't a man. When questioned, Kadan couldn't really deny that he still felt the same way. That he still had the visions. And so... the adopted brother was able to convince the pack to keep Kadan locked away.

In order to further keep people certain that Kadan was dangerous (and to prevent Kadan from convincing anyone otherwise), he drugged the food Kadan was fed with an herb that forces werewolves to stay in their wolf form.

And so Kadan was trapped in a dungeon, stuck in the form of a wolf. The Romance Novel werewolf species live hundreds of years and Kadan was down there for one hundred years. Now, while Kadan's physical self was limited in both action and thought, he found he was able to mentally travel between dimensions. During those hundred years, he saw his mate clearer than ever before. He saw many other people, including his biological brother. His mind traveled throughout many many dimensions.

His brother was the Alpha of the pack for most of that time, until a hundred years later another werewolf defeated him and took over that pack. With the new Alpha came a Healer, a person with a magical ability to understand werewolf ailments and cures.

This healer recognized that herbs were being added to Kadan's food to keep him shifted. She made sure no more herbs were given to him and eventually, he was able to become human again.

Except... as he started returning to his own mind, he realized that as a female werewolf, he would still have those same expectations on him that he had before all this happened. He would still be expected to be a male's mate and to do his duty as a female. He couldn't have that! He wouldn't!

When he became human, he somehow was able to make himself appear to be male. The healer, seeing this and her healing abilities giving her the understanding of the situation she needed, used her magic to cause the whole pack to misremember Kadan as having always been a man.

When Kadan recovered somewhat from his time stuck as a wolf, the new Alpha allowed him to join the pack.

But there was a huge downside to being human. His mind was firmly back in his own body. He could no longer travel between worlds and see his mate.

These Romance Novel werewolves have a little quirk, and it's part of why female werewolves are valued so much (in some ways). Werewolves have a darkness in them and their mate is the only one that can keep it from taking over. Werewolves that live too long without finding their destined mates become dangerous and unpredictable. Females are very rare, so it's hard to find mates. Therefore... a lot of werewolves have to be taken care of, as they can never find their mate.

It was never thought of much of an issue for female werewolves. Males were the ones that had the darkness and females were the cure. But Kadan felt it. Kadan could feel the darkness and despair taking over. His ability to see his mate during his imprisonment kept it away, but that was gone. He had no way of seeing his mate every again... unless...

He stayed with the pack for quite a while, but eventually he was transported between dimensions! Perhaps his interdimensional father took pity on him or perhaps it was just the luck of the random dimensional portal (those happen sometimes). But he was brought to his biological brother's dimension.

He met his brother for the first time, though he had seen him many times before during his imprisonment while his mind traveled the worlds. And he was welcomed into the pack. His brother had been raised by their mother and was told that he had a twin, though originally he had been informed that the twin died. (there is a bit more here about how the brother actually met their father and there was a whole big thing but basically the father told the brother that the twin was alive, but didn't mention gender or anything so the brother was perfectly accepting that he had a twin brother).

Kadan remained with his brother for a while, but it didn't stave off the darkness... Only Kadan's mate could do that, but his mate was not in that dimension and he had no idea how to find them...

[azuremist]

As a CSA survivor, I understand better than most people how upsetting and triggering it can be to be scrolling through your favorite tag, only to see a post either depicting or advocating for the same abuse that you went through depicted through your favorite characters. So I decided to throw a blocklist together!

The purpose of this blocklist is to keep CSA/trauma survivors safe from viewing or being followed by people who post triggering content. It is not a list of people to harass.

And, if any “pro-shipper” sees this: as much as we all love to make blocklists something ‘cringy’, this is to keep people who are triggered by your content safe. And, yes, I am a CSA victim who is triggered by “pro-shippers”. So if you truly care about respecting victims of sexual assault, as you say you do, you will not interact with me. If you respect me, I will respect you. I am just trying to keep people like me safe. 

I tried my best to focus on people who either create/have recently created either pedophilic or incestuous content, or “pro-ship” blogs. This list will be updated as I find and are suggested more people, so watch for that!

Blogs who need a special note will receive so in parenthesis next to their username.

  antis-delete-your-blogs-pls-thx

ironcandybabe (contains sexual drawings of children)

fandoms-for-exalla

problematic-butnothateful

dysphoric-rohan

shutupsmileformefandom

pro-ship-spring-bonnie

tonyjcrowley (openly admits to not reading or caring about DNIs; when I mentioned that I was an anti on a sideblog, they PMed me to say they write r@pe p0rn, to me, a minor)

(many more blogs under the cut!)

scofflawsins

problematic-fiction-101

im-a-goner-foryou

shirosrighthandman

pupa-stronga

oi-chibi-oi

anotherproshipper

commander-erwin-smith

peachy-pro-shipper

edgelux

shayromi

incompetent-shippings (also supportive of noMAPs, as stated in bio)

antis-delete-your-blogs-pls-ty

fuckoffantitrash

shippingisnotactivism

yaoi-fake-goth

plague-of-insomnia

sweetswordswoman

griever-bit-my-finger

goofatron

kawree

shippy-mcdiscourse

tirediscourse

0liver-rants

whogivesa-ship

chara-hates-antis

just-antithings

freedom-of-fanfic

fandom-is-for-pleasure

grumpy-old-fandommom

anti-ship-wars

iwillshipwhatiwant

antis-are-so-shameful

proshipshy

stop-bitchin-its-fiction

armada-of-ships-against-antis

konatas-pro-fic-cafe

freedom-of-fiction

antis-suck-but-you-dont

fiction-is-not-reality2 (is openly supportive of pedophiles IRL, was the mod on AO3 who created the MAP (minor attracted people) anthology)

pro-fiction-starscream

glimmergf

anti-anti-a-la-bi-bi

b-b-b-bakaaa

tired-and-salty

shippingisntactivism

multishippers-deserve-happiness

fullmetal-anti-shit

multishippers-hate-antis

golbatgender (claims all antis are homophobic which is... a lot)

discoursecatharsis

princessesdiscourse

positivity-boots

dracfics

antis-are-wrong

androgynousblackbox (won’t delete reblogs upon request, as stated in bio)

shipswith-no-morals-reincarnated

theassholeantiarchive2-0

antis-fuck-off-challenge

problematic-kai

antiantis-saltmine

shipping-isnt-morality

thecatdiscourses

reysistantis

everyshipisgood

heroes-never-discourse

shippy-mcshipface

shipwhateverthemotherfuckyouwant

fandomsense

cottoncandyshipwall

dad-n-deathjokes

forest-of-stories

rougetheantianti

matilda-against-censorship

fictional-me

venom-hates-nasties

muchymozzarella

pro-shipping

shipper-forces

reniisbooks

joeyjojos-for-ships

glock-blocking-antis

youareagoodperson

yourfavisafujin

fujinshipped

weirddnibanners

problemtique

fiction-and-reality-are-complex

bigbadfujin

fahrenheitdiscourse

shipping-positivity

coffee-ships

hydras-white-wolf

proshipping-kitten

anti-anti-wincest (also supportive of incest in real life, as stated in bio)

underratedcharactersandships

legendary-discourse

bkdkpro-shipper

khrysoprase

mordellestories

kidgephobe

proshiptsumugi

fuujinofcourse

as-thou-will

pan-catra

let-our-ships-sail

aniitaruiz

nuvex

xxkoichiixx

your-fave-is-pro-ship

callme--starchild

bloodyjinxii

musingartblog

weirdojacko666

anti-anti-stevidot

shipwhatever

yourfaveknowsfictionisntreality

romelle-for-proships

your-fave-hates-antis

lesbianstarker

stop-stalin-and-suck-my-dick

wetwareproblems

nonbinarypastels

xenoqueer

tired-user

theliterarywolf

best0utthere

largic

iggycat95

calisdraws

heroic-deku (does not respect DNIs/people triggered by anti antis)

bebe-benzenheimer (does not respect DNIs/people triggered by anti antis)

blackbrokensouls (does not respect DNIs/people triggered by anti antis)

simply-pro-ship (despite having ‘anti harassment’ in their blog title and having a DNI themselves, they also do not respect DNIs)

ask-deltatale

eltiolimon

qbanalras

cchoco017

metadinhxs

zemikiart

oraclesaturn2

the-triangle-cat

sinfulzany

malenchka

pierrotsdrawer

heavenrose150

ekou-ascii

xiang-doodle-place

likeabosslikeafox

kaliu6

elleapdraws

franszine

askyanberry

sansfrans

aniitaruiz

fransweek

spite-for-the-antis

hagakure

huiluis

arlen-lestat

freerangeflowerbrat

a-small-tragedy

daydenmax-drawings

smol-pastel-boi

[thehollowprince]

Just curious as to why you feel that way about Queliot?

Oh, boy...

So... here's the thing. The Magicians is one of the few shows where I have been there in the fandom since the beginning. Since before the beginning, if we're being honest. The pilot was on iTunes for free about a month or two before the first season aired and that's how I saw it. Like most people who watched this show, I was immediately hooked and started making posts. I've never been a big content creator in the fandom, mostly because I don't know how to make edits or gifs, but I've been here.

The downside to being here for so long was that I've watched the obsession with Qu*liot since the beginning. I watched the fixation grow out of the barest interactions, taking over the fandom and becoming more important the plot.

This wasn't like diving into the Teen Wolf fandom halfway through season three, where the St*r*k stans were already so deeply rooted. I watched this shipping fandom take root and grow and I said nothing out of some misguided belief in "not rocking the boat".

It got so bad that I couldn't go into the tags without nine out of ten posts being about Queliot. I eventually had to blacklist the tag because, not only was it everywhere, but people started crosstagging with other characters (like Kady or Fogg or even Zelda) who had nothing to do with the ship. It also just got exhausting watching an entire subsection of the fandom taking shots at a character because she was "in the way" of the ship. Obviously, I'm referring to Alice here, but I also saw this behavior directed at Julia back in season one when she was a possible love interest to Quentin, and then Poppy in season three.

Qu*liot became a stereotypical ship war situation, where fans went out of their way to try and sink any alternative to Quentin and Eliot getting together. That's where we started getting things like "Quentin and Alice are so toxic" or the claims of Fen being a rapist or the complete erasure of the characters of Margo and Arielle, who both played a majorly important role in the rise of that ship on screen, but no, they're not important.

Literally anything that could be seen as an obstacle to this ship being canon was attacked ruthlessly and relentlessly.

Now this wouldn't bug me as much as it does if it weren't so hypocritical. The whole "toxic" claim in particular just bugs me, because while these shippers will point out every possible or even percieved flash in Qualice, the same can't be said for Qu*liot. There's barely a mention of El's drug addiction and alcoholism, or of Quentin's mental illness unless it allowed for the Angst™, which usually ended up in one or the other being cured after a good dicking, which.... no. That's not how that works, at all.

The sad thing is, like I said in that post, is that this ship checked off all my boxes.

Slow burn

Friends to lovers

Canonical mlm couple

Had other relationships

Still their own character, not defined by relationship

Not automatically "fixed"

Still actual people and not automatons

Magic mothetfuckers!

I eat that shit up, but I don't venture into the fandom for content, because all I see when I look at them are the posts and comments and hateful messages that were pro-Qu*liot but anti literally everything else. The fandom erases everything else about these two until only the ship survives that's not what I want from my fandom experience.

The real kicker here is how many fans turned against the show because they didn't get what they want. I watched as they all praised season four, eating up every interaction between Q and the Monster because they thought they were going to get their happy ending, but the moment they didn't, they went into an uproar.

Don't get me wrong, how Sera and John handled Quentin's death in the show was abhorrent and one of the few times that I put my foot down in defense of Quentin, but the aftermath where all of these people who didn't get what they wanted started to try and burn it to the ground in any way they could, throwing out trigged words like "queerbaiting" and "homophobic" to get people to pause and consider before they argued back. I understand that ships are a big part of fandom (too big, IMO) but watching these shippers go out of their way to try and destroy something that has so much diversity and representation, one that deals with issues in a realistic and natural way, particularly for an American show, just because their ship didn't become canon is more revealing of them than it is me or anyone who still watches.

Yes, the "bury your gays" trope is sadly still around, but we had more representation than just Q on this show. He wasn't the only character with mental illness, or same-sex attraction, but because his journey came to an end in a way the fans didn't like, suddenly nothing else matters. And all that does in the end is just showcase how, despite claiming they want diversity and representation, they only want it if it comes in the form of a mildly-attractive white man. If you don't believe me, scroll through the tags or blogs and just look at how many people reduce these complex characters to just their most obvious traits, like Margo's confidence/HBIC syndrome, or Fogg's alcoholism, or Alice's meekness, or Kady being the one to punch. No one gives a rat's ass about their suffering or their trials, because it detracts from Qu*liot.

Now, you may be asking yourself, "what does any of that have to do with this ship?", and I will say that all of this is what flashes through my eyes every time I see that ship name. So much so that I can't enjoy it anymore.

Part of it is also the fact that I am a gay man and I'm sick and tired of watching horny women hijack my sexuality to get off to. I know that's not everyone in the fandom, but its enough that it's a problem. It's enough that I left the discord for the fandom because I didn't feel welcome for not shipping Qu*liot.

For the record, I don't hate the ship. I just can't enjoy it because I associate it with all of the problems I experienced in the fandom.

[thenixkat]

How do you feel about stories featuring werewolves that got pack hierarchies?(like alpha and omegas). I’ve seen a lot of different interpretations of it but they are usually not all too accurate of how wild wolves operate and just come out odd

So this is a complicated topic, b/c how well pack dynamics come off in a story and what they’re like are really variable. And there’s a big difference in how werewolf packs work in paranormal romance/action stories vs straight-up horror vs sci-fi fantasy vs slice of life(?). And also the design of the werewolves has a huge factor in how they work.

This being said using the terms ‘alpha’, ‘omega’, ‘beta’ are just... a big turn off. Not the least being if you search with any of those terms you’ll just get a bunch of abo fics when you want werewolves (and as someone with no interest in sex or romance, and doesn’t care for shipping, in general, it is REALLY annoying). The connection of these terms to the worst and most sexist/homophobic paranormal werewolf works is also offputting as well. And really? If a big ass buff hairy dude said that they were an alpha 100% with dead seriousness? That’s just cringe.

Real-world wolf behavior-based pack dynamics makes a lot more sense for like wolfweres (wolves that turn into humans) since they were born and raised as wolves but it’s a lot less sensible for a group of werewolves who were born and raised human that only change once a month. 

Real-world wolf pack dynamics for humans that turn into wolves, don’t interact much if at all with human society and raised by werewolves who in turn were raised by werewolves and so on and so forth for generations? Makes a lot of sense.

As far as I’m concerned tho, it makes a lot more sense for werewolves (human to wolf/wolf-hybrid monster) to act more like humans since ya know, they are human. The majority of werewolves spend most of their time as humans, interacting with humans, and living with them. Being able to have claws/fangs and super abilities should influence their social dynamics and politics definitely, but these are still people and it makes sense for them to act like it.

I really really love the pack dynamics of horror if I had to pick. In works were werewolves aren’t solitary like the Howling or Wereling and a few others, there’s an almost cult-like aspect to how werewolves act socially. Either that or a super insular small-town vibe like in Wolf Lake.  When these werewolf packs have space and resources to have their own towns there’s influential families that run shit and everyone else generally follow the rules they set.  Or like in Wereling there’s big name purebred families or celebrities that people listen to they clawed their way to the top through presumably murder and money. Or the feel of the Howling of like a cult where the leaders tend to only turn people loyal to them.

I really enjoy the werewolf queen and subservient werewolf underlings, to be honest. Or like pretentious werewolf nobility who are very proud of their bloodlines and trying to avoid giving any presents the bite for fear of say, an uprising. Or werewolf towns with complex politics internally but keeping that shit on the down-low to avoid giving anything away to humans passing through.

I do think that pack dynamics work best when no one is actually called anything like ‘alpha/beta/etc’. And if its a lot more fluid in who has what role and more than one person capable of being in any given role. And also why is this person in this position? Just because someone is the best fighter doesn’t mean they’re a competent leader.

But also wolf packs aren’t really alphas/betas/etc. There’s a tendency for a dominant breeding pair to be the ones who get all the best stuff/resources and the rest of the wolves being their kids. A lot of actual pack cohesion is based on friendship and popularity. And dominant wolves strategically use bullying to cause infertility in rivals in their pack and murder/eat the pups of rivals to prevent competition for resources with their own pups. Sometimes less dominant wolves, mostly teens/young adults, get tired of shit and just leave to start their own pack. And sometimes dominant wolves lose the popularity contest and get overthrown.  Which is frankly, a lot more interesting than the majority of werewolf fiction that uses the alpha/beta thing.

[desikauwa]

so i recently watched the old guard (aka it was just yesterday) and like i do with anything nowadays, my brain started thinking about an a3 au for them. I decided to just do akigumi for the main cast because it’s an action movie and akigumi is all about that action. (in other words an au where tsuzuru writes an old guard inspired play with sakyo and azami as the leads). anyways, here’s the cast as follows:

andy - sakyo quynh - omi nicky & joe - banri & juza booker - taichi nile - azami

spoilers from the movie as i talk about my casting choices under the read more

sakyo as andy (andromache the scythian): so this one is actually the easiest to explain. old tired warrior who everyone looks up to just screams sakyo to a T. also him saying, that the new kid [azami] has potential because said kid stabbed him is a really funny image and I can absolutely see sakyo saying that. look i’m out of words but sakyo as andy just makes sense and also i think sakyo and azami deserve to be co-leads. speaking of azami...

azami as nile freeman: look azami and nile have a similar dynamic of looking at this older established group and going “what the fuck is this” before proceeding to join in on the chaos. also just azami stabbing sakyo and just being like “you’ve got to be kidding me. i hate you old man” is very in character but also in character is looking at this ragtag group and being like “i guess you’re my family now” also azami just saving other members of akigumi feels good just saying. now i guess we should move onto banju as the immortal husbands...

banri & juza as nicky (nicolo di genova) & joe (yusuf al-kaysani): look the only reason why there’s only one entry for these two is because i keep changing my mind about who’s nicky and who’s joe. so here’s the lowdown. I personally think that juza is nicky and banri is joe because juza is quieter like nicky but also more likely to say something like “it was destiny” and then banri like joe winking at him. also juza calling banri “an incurable romantic” after banri insults the probably homophobic men who’ve captured them and then gives a whole speech about what juza means to him. the only reason why i struggle with that casting is because of nicky’s line of “the man i loved was from a people i was taught to hate” which feels far more like something banri would say than juza but other than that, i honestly feel that juza as nicky and banri as joe just makes sense. okay now we move onto the more complicated characters/casting starting with...

taichi as booker (sebastien le livre): so major spoilers for the movie but taichi has already been a traitor in canon so casting him in this role gives me complicated feelings but i honestly think no one but taichi could be in booker’s role and give it the justice it deserves. like he’s the second youngest member of akigumi just like booker is the second youngest member of the old guard. also taichi deserves a complex role where his betrayal comes from a deep depression and self loathing and i just think taichi deserves this kind of role. speaking of characters who deserve a kind of role...

omi as quynh | noriko: okay so the fact that omi was once known as the crazy wolf and just like quynh’s backstory with omi as quynh hurts in all the best ways. also im so sorry omi but putting you in a potential villain role is just too much fun.

I would have more things to say but thoughts empty and if i ever write this fic/them putting on a play, i’ll expand

[konako]

Leave me be I am reminiscing in how ruby was to good for the ouat 😭 tell me about your reactions of all the ruby centric episodes- please I must know

LET’S GO. ALL TO HELP A FELLOW RUBY STAN.

Red Handed.

Old, but gold. Sweet season one content. Simple story, with a twist (some say [I do], the best twist OUAT ever pulled). It worked so very well. It gave Red’s cape a purpose beyond being there. It was heavy, dripping with meaning. Red’s bright and light personality was so endearing, so childlike and charming that it breaks your heart to know how she will feel about herself later – she’ll never fully recover. 

Her first meeting with Snow founded their relationship and it was the perfect summary of their dynamic. Red offered her help without needing to know the full story and later Snow offered Red the same, all the while knowing about the danger. With Red Snow, Red is selfless and loyal, Snow is courageous and hopeful. 

Ruby and Granny’s relationship is complicated. Granny has expectations that don’t necessarily take in consideration Ruby’s feelings or Ruby’s choices (and that’s applicable to their EF past as well). Ruby has a bigger spirit than Granny lets her show, and that will continue in the center of their interactions for a long time – but that’s family. And the only family Ruby has left.

SOLID EPISODE. 

Child of the Moon

Suffering from many of the same problems season two suffered as a whole (and what would later define OUAT’s biggest flaw): wasted opportunities, senseless retconing and overall just… too much. Chill.

Red’s mom? Interesting story. Could have been handled better. The first time I watched it, I thought Anita was just a stranger lying about being Red’s mother. It felt that out of nowhere and unearned for me. BUT it opened a dam of potential. Red is the daughter of an Alpha Wolf, the head of a pack that hates humans, and accepts her completely. How could that shape her future? Would she give in to the pack and forget her humanity? The humans are proving to be hostile and unjust lately, both to her and to Snow so… maybe that’s a good alternative? Should she kill them? It’s not really that hard? Would that be so bad? What about eating those Evil Queen men? That wouldn’t hurt, right? 

Okay, well, so she killed her mother. Does that make her the Alpha now? Is she wandering around as the leader of a pack she doesn’t recognize as hers? Or are they after her, seeking revenge for Anita’s death? HOW DOES GRANNY FEEL ABOUT HER GRANDDAUGHTER SLAUGHTERING HER DAUGHTER?? HELLO??? CONFLICT?? COMPLEX FEELINGS??

Red chose to save Snow, then chose to stay with her and help her further. That friendship blossomed into love. On Red’s part and Snow’s. Snow was unwilling to leave Red’s side, even with her cloak ripped and the possibility of a huge hungry wolf coming for her during the night. That’s trust, that’s love. 

And the same could be said about Belle. Belle, who showed Ruby the same trust and hope Snow had shown her in Red Handed: she knew about the danger, and stayed. She know Ruby felt like a monster, and tried her best to convince her she wasn’t. THAT RELATIONSHIP COULD HAVE BEEN HEADED THE SAME PLACE RED SNOW’S WAS. But with romantic love, now. Oof.

There’s a briliant Red Beauty fanfic that deals with the aftermath of that night Ruby chained Belle in the library. Belle confronts her, tells her she understands Ruby’s fears in that moment, but maintains that it was an asshole thing to do. Ruby recognizes it. The friendship survives the obstacle and grows stronger because of it. 

A meh EPISODE. Again, presented with good potential, but couldn’t handle it, so the fandom took over and made something better. That’s as good as we’re gonna get with OUAT.

Ruby Slippers………… sigh

Okay, I’ll give them that one: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA RUBY IS A WLW I KNEW IT FUCK YES A HUGE FUCK YOU TO THE HOMOPHOBES THAT DOUBTED THE FANDOM WE ALL KNEW IT FUCKKKKKK HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW???? 

I’m grateful for that aspect, really. Confirming Ruby’s queerness shone a light on her past relationships with women, and we were given the green light to review her interactions with this new knowlegde: Ruby could have been indeed actually flirting with Belle. Red could have indeed experienced her queer awakening with Snow. She could have suffered with the unrequited love, and settled with being loyal despite the romantic inner conflicts. Ruby’s relationship with Mulan?? Overflowing with the unspoken – they were dangerously close, they were confirmed as wlw, and in OUAT’s rules, any couple with compatible sexuality can and will be together at one point or another, there’s no such thing as platonic relationship between people who could and would fuck each other.

So Red and Mulan’s time in the forest? Something happened there. It was the Las Vegas of the Enchanted Forest. We’ll never know. But they had something.

Which makes it even more frustrating when Mulan isn’t Red’s True Love? But okay, okay, at least we saw the absolute thirst in Red’s eyes with Dorothy. Who know a wolf would be that hungry uh. That brought me life, and I still can’t properly watch their scenes without squealing.

And that brings me to the highlight of the episode in my opinion. Red’s True Love’s Kiss? What’s that?? A furious werewolf searching for her missing girl? Didn’t see it. Emma finally realizing “oh, okay, Ruby is dangerous I forgot about that”? Nope. 

RUBY AND REGINA.

THEY LOOKED AT EACH OTHER. THEY BREATHED THE SAME AIR. THEY WERE THERE TOGETHER.

Regina used Ruby’s wolf as a threat in that perfect Evil Queen way and Ruby so smoothly went along with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Like they were the chosen partners in a cop movie????????? Ruby didn’t even question it, she just welcomed the recognition of her power and made a point to agree – Regina knew Ruby was as furious as she has ever been and she knew she could use a wolf’s anger as leverage and she didn’t even threatened the witch herself, she let Ruby do it because she knew Ruby needed to control the moment????

I mean, yeah, good, lesbian kiss, happy ending woo. 

BUT THE RED QUEEN CONTENT!!!!!

TOP RED QUEEN EPISODE. NO OTHER COMPARES. SOLID RED QUEEN CENTRIC EPISODE. WOULD WATCH THIS RED QUEEN SHOW AGAIN.

[thasorns-moved]

I am interested in all of them. If you feel your interest in characters traits have changed over the years, maybe share how it changed? The reason I asked about what do your favs have in common is because we typically are drawn to those that are similar to us or portray how we wish to be? So yes, I am curious about what characters you are drawn to and why, whether it's from BL shows or not.

 Oh my I have to dig deep for that. Let’s see:

As in my childhood I had many but what stood out for me the most were Ai Habara (Detective Conan), TK Takaishi (Digimon), Son Goku (Dragonball / Z)

Ai Habara is an intelligent woman and was always there for her friends even if she was in danger it didn’t matter. The safety of her friends were most important to her and also Ai was my first sexual awakening.

TK Takaishi was always the baby among the group, always cried and whined about missing home or when something went wrong BUT when it depended on him to save his friends, he was the most bravest even tho he was a little child.

Son Goku literally said it doesn’t matter where I come from, home is where I feel safe and surround myself with people who care about me. Your real family can be shitty sometimes so for him the most important were the people he grew up with and with a person who accepted him as his own child.

As it comes to my teenage years probably my favorite characters were Shane McCutcheon (The L Word), Justin Taylor (Queer As Folk), Annie Wilson (90210), Nate Archibald (Gossip Girl) and in general H2O: Just Add Water

Shane McCutcheon was the real sexual awakening for me. Since I was very young I always knew that I’m not like the rest, that I could also like girls. The first time I saw Shane on TV I immidiately knew: YES, she is one of the reason why I like girls! lbr many people thought that and still til today Katherine Moenning is such an attractive woman.

Justin Taylor was the youngest among the group and he had so many obstacles to overcome like bullying in school because he is gay and at the same time dealing with a homophobic father while he came new to term that he’s gay. But to see that you can choose your family who accepts you and into their community was THE best feeling to watch.

H20: Just Add Water taught me how much value a friendship holds. That you are much stronger when you have your friends besides you.

Early in my adult age were Spencer Hastings (Pretty Little Liars), Scott McCall (Teen Wolf), Larissa Loughlin (The Carrie Diaries), Goldi Nahir + Rasha Zuabi (Degrassi: The Next Class)

Scott McCall was underrated as a character. He grew up without a father, his mom was there for him but even she couldn’t be there for him the whole time, she worked really hard to take care of everything. Scott had to grow up at a young age while dealing with school and being a werewolf. Being a werewolf and having those strong powers weren’t that much important for him. His friends were the most important thing.

Larissa Loughin oh my this woman taught me how to love myself and being a feminist and that how I look, how I dress, how I talk it didn’t depended on a man or what a man thinks of it. That I value as a woman and no man could say or do anything to take that away from me. I still remember her one line: “No self-respecting woman dresses for man!”

Goldi Nahir + Rasha Zuabi Goldi taught me how to be an activist and a feminist and to speak out my voice even if I’m muslim, that I’m not invisible. My religion is my own belief that no one can’t take that away from me. She achieved so much. She didn’t take no for an answer. I saw myself represented with both of them. Rasha was the first lesbian muslim I ever saw on a TV. She came out and even Goldi first struggled with it, she accepted her in the end. Being accepted and living free as a muslim oh my what a dream. I feel connected to Rasha and still feel that way.

As for today Pete Pichaya (Love By Chance), Kit (2Moons&2Moons2), Manaow (Until We Meet Again), Tine Teepakorn (2Gether)

Pete dealt with so many things and he’s a sensitive one. He was at a stage in his life where he still didn’t came to terms being gay. He was afraid what people might think and feel disgusted by him. That put so much pressure on him. He feared that people might hate him. All of these things let you feel so many negative thoughts and not accept yourself. He suffered from low self-esteem but he overcame all of this.

Kit oh wow he’s a complex character like Type. He closed himself off and being this feisty, angry distant person when it real he’s a softie and fears to become vulnerable. He doesn’t want to get hurt and it took time to open himself up to Ming. He needed to be 100% sure that ming is really serious with him. This one line will always get me: “I’m tired of acting cool towards you, Ming.” like this says it all.

Manaow probably because I like Sammy a lot. She always wanted to best for her friends. She was there for them, couraged them and cheered them up. She was the positive vibe in the group. She always felt good while doing it.

I already summarized here why Tine is one of my favorite characters.

I’m sorry for this long answer. I hope this clears things up :)

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins (and DLCs), day 10.

Daiwen is very politely waiting to roll his eyes at Nathaniel’s complaints about his family legacy and all that until the man’s back is turned; it’s not like he doesn’t understand family ties and the value of reputation, and his new friend is clearly in the process of gaining at least a little perspective, but he’d still like to forget about the existence of shem nobility, much less Rendon Howe in specific, unless it’s absolutely necessary. He’s not even muttering “Dread Wolf take you and your nonsense” under his breath—well, not loudly enough for anyone to hear him, anyway—he’s grown so much!

I just banged out Anders’ quest, and his approval is now at “+91 (Love)”. I see, ah, certain quirks of his aren’t unique to his DA2 incarnation, heh.

I mean, look, it’s a short DLC, so the characters are all on the flat side. At their best, they’re rough sketches of potentially interesting and complex people that indicate the places where there’d be more to dig into (as angry as I get at G**d*r sometimes, he brought his A-game to Nathaniel). At worst, well, yes, Oghren also had to be flattened somewhat, but was “lol, he’s a homophobic harasser who blew past “functioning alcoholic” three years ago” the best flattening that could’ve been done? (Don’t get me wrong, I still deeply respect the writer in question, she’s taken far too good care of me over the course of the series for me to get properly mad about this, but I don’t love it, and I don’t like Oghren here any more than I did in Origins.)

Well, now that things are properly underway, let’s head for the Wending Wood. Daiwen is comfortable in forests, after all, and I’m eager to form a new perspective on Velanna, who left me cold the first time around.

Wow, Velanna sure starts out friendly to a Dalish Warden. She is still causing problems on purpose, but Daiwen finds her a lot more understandable and has a lot more faith in his ability to resolve this than Alix did.

That said, he’s more inclined to believe that it really was the shems who took Seranni, because fucking shems, amirite, so it may be a whlie before it actually gets resolved.

I am slightly uncomfortable with the differences in accent between the Statue of War and the Statue of Peace—you’d think they’d sound the same, what with being brothers and all, but Peace uses RP while War has certain features associated with West African accents, among others.

Well, Velanna has been talked down and recruited. Things may get hairy with one melee fighter to three ranged, but Anders and Nathaniel are both undroppable for healing/unlocking reasons, and Oghren is both expendable and annoying. Let’s do this.

Velanna, can you wait until after this guy is either dead or out of earshot to make fun of his hackneyed sentiments? Matter of fact, has Daiwen properly explained the whole “the Wardens are basically our clan now, and sadly for us, that does include the shem members, so please try and refrain from being awful to your brethren” thing yet?

Oh, look, it’s the...I was about to say “original-recipe stretchy man”, but no, that’s not right, he’s not stretchy. Melty man? He is pretty melty. Fuck it, he’s the melty man now.

Babies, please. Daiwen is happy to keep the nasties off of you—he’s built and kitted out to not even feel attacks that would floor some of you—but you have to hold up your end of the bargain and at least try to stay out of melee range of the nasties. Please don’t make his job harder than it has to be, there’s only one of him.

Looking forward to gaining enough levels to start trying out some of those Guardian powers.

What’s all this about a court session? Will any of this lot even listen to what Daiwen says? Well, here goes.

Conspirators dispatched. That was satisfying. I didn’t get a chance to do it last time, I left paying the Dark Wolf so late that he didn’t have time to track them before the Crow attack.

Hello, Sigrun. You seem nice. The Legion has done good work for Daiwen in the past. And he has some, ah, positive associations with dual-dagger rogues (and could do with your help on the melee end of things).

Sorry, Nate, we’ll have to drop your girlfriend for a bit. The new girl’s less tiresome, anyway, she’ll be good company.

Yay, I found the side entrance this time instead of barging in the front door and praying that Alix had disarmed enough of the traps to get through safely! (She missed a fair number of them, but we managed.)

Today on Item Names That Sound Like Euphemisms For Something Filthy, I just picked up a Staff of Vigor.

Yay, childer grubs! And by “yay” I mean “oh gods, these fucking things”.

Broodmothers squished. And oh, hey, it’s the Mother. *siiiiiigh*

Yay, a peasant rebellion! Yes, I mean the same thing again by “yay”. Neither Daiwen nor his player particularly enjoys killing people who just want to feed themselves, you know.

More tomorrow, it’s late.