#non intentional lesbian color scheme ???

[belluzinhaa]

realization

[kcrabb88]

Queer Movies/Books/TV Shows for Pride Month!

Happy Pride everyone!! For your viewing/reading pleasure I have made a (non-exhaustive) list of queer media that I have enjoyed! 

Movies/Documentaries

Pride (2014): An old tried and true favorite, which meets at the intersection of queer and workers’ rights. A group of queer activists support the 1985 miners’ strike in Wales (complete with a sing-through of Bread and Roses + Power in a Union)

Portrait of a Lady on Fire: On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman (or, two young lesbians fall in love by the sea, and you cry)

God’s Own Country: Young farmer Johnny Saxby numbs his daily frustrations with binge drinking and casual sex, until the arrival of a Romanian migrant worker for lambing season ignites an intense relationship that sets Johnny on a new path (Seriously this movie is GREAT and doesn’t get enough love, watch it! It’s rough but ends happily)

The Half of It:  When smart but cash-strapped teen Ellie Chu agrees to write a love letter for a jock, she doesn't expect to become his friend - or fall for his crush (as in she falls for his crush who is another girl. This movie was so good, and really friendship focused!) 

Saving Face:  A Chinese-American lesbian and her traditionalist mother are reluctant to go public with secret loves that clash against cultural expectations (this is an oldie and a goodie, with a happy ending!)

Moonlight:  A young African-American man grapples with his identity and sexuality while experiencing the everyday struggles of childhood, adolescence, and burgeoning adulthood (featuring gay men of color!)

Carol:  An aspiring photographer develops an intimate relationship with an older woman in 1950s New York (everyone’s seen this I think, but I couldn’t not have it here)

Milk: The story of Harvey Milk and his struggles as an American gay activist who fought for gay rights and became California's first openly gay elected official (the speech at the end of this made me cry. Warning, of course, for death, if you don’t know about Harvey Milk)

Pride (Hulu Documentary):  A six-part documentary series chronicling the fight for LGBTQ civil rights in America (they go by decade from the 50s-2000s, and there is a lot of great trans inclusion in this)

Paris is Burning (Documentary): A 1990s documentary about the African American and Latinx ballroom scene. Available on Youtube!

A New York Christmas Wedding:  As her Christmas Eve wedding draws near, Jennifer is visited by an angel and shown what could have been if she hadn't denied her true feelings for her childhood best friend (this movie is SO CUTE. It’s really only nominally a Christmas movie and easily watched anytime. Features an interracial sapphic couple!) 

TV Shows 

Love, Victor: Victor is a new student at Creekwood High School on his own journey of self-discovery, facing challenges at home, adjusting to a new city, and struggling with his sexual orientation (this is a spin-off of Love, Simon, and it’s very sweet and well done! Featuring a young gay man of color)

Sex Education:  A teenage boy with a sex therapist mother teams up with a high school classmate to set up an underground sex therapy clinic at school (this has multiple queer characters, including a featured young Black gay man and also in season 2 there is a side ace character!) 

Black Sails: I mean, do I even need to put a summary here? If you follow me you know that Black Sails is full of queer pirates, just queers everywhere.

Gentleman Jack:  A dramatization of the life of LGBTQ+ trailblazer, voracious learner and cryptic diarist Anne Lister, who returns to Halifax, West Yorkshire in 1832, determined to transform the fate of her faded ancestral home Shibden Hall (Period drama lesbians!!! A title sequence  that will make you gay just by watching!) 

Tales of the City (2019):  A middle-aged Mary Ann returns to San Francisco and reunites with the eccentric friends she left behind. "Tales of the City" focuses primarily on the people who live in a boardinghouse turned apartment complex owned by Anna Madrigal at 28 Barbary Lane, all of whom quickly become part of what Maupin coined a "logical family". It's no longer a secret that Mrs. Madrigal is transgender. Instead, she is haunted by something from her past that has long been too painful to share (this is based on a book series and it’s got lots of great inter-generational queer relationships!) 

The Haunting of Bly Manor:  After an au pair’s tragic death, Henry hires a young American nanny to care for his orphaned niece and nephew who reside at Bly Manor with the chef Owen, groundskeeper Jamie and housekeeper, Mrs. Grose (sweet, tender, wonderful lesbians. A bittersweet ending but this show is so so wonderful)

Sense8: A group of people around the world are suddenly linked mentally, and must find a way to survive being hunted by those who see them as a threat to the world's order (queers just EVERYWHERE in this show, of all kinds)

Books

Loveless by Alice Oseman:  Georgia has never been in love, never kissed anyone, never even had a crush – but as a fanfic-obsessed romantic she’s sure she’ll find her person one day. This wise, warm and witty story of identity and self-acceptance sees Alice Oseman on towering form as Georgia and her friends discover that true love isn’t limited to romance (don’t be turned off by this title, it’s tongue-in-cheek. This is a book about an aroace college girl discovering herself and centers the importance and power of platonic relationships! I have it on my TBR and have heard great things)

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters: Reese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she didn't hate. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of: a life of mundane, bourgeois comforts. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. Now Reese is caught in a self-destructive pattern: avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men.Ames isn't happy either. He thought detransitioning to live as a man would make life easier, but that decision cost him his relationship with Reese—and losing her meant losing his only family. Even though their romance is over, he longs to find a way back to her. When Ames's boss and lover, Katrina, reveals that she's pregnant with his baby—and that she's not sure whether she wants to keep it—Ames wonders if this is the chance he's been waiting for. Could the three of them form some kind of unconventional family—and raise the baby together?This provocative debut is about what happens at the emotional, messy, vulnerable corners of womanhood that platitudes and good intentions can't reach. Torrey Peters brilliantly and fearlessly navigates the most dangerous taboos around gender, sex, and relationships, gifting us a thrillingly original, witty, and deeply moving novel (again, don’t be thrown off by the title, it too, is tongue-in-cheek. This book was GREAT, and written by a trans women with a queer-and especially trans--audience in mind)

A Tip for the Hangman by Allison Epstein: A gay Christopher Marlowe, at Cambridge and trying to become England’s best new playwright, finds himself wrapped up in royal espionage schemes while also falling in love (this book is by a Twitter friend of mine, and it is a wonderful historical thriller with a gay man at the center).

Creatures of Will and Temper by Molly Tanzer: a very very queer remix of The Picture of Dorian Gray (which was already quite queer), featuring amazing female characters, a gay Basil, and a much happier ending than the original. 

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston: The gay prince of England and the bisexual, biracial first son of the president fall in love (think an AU of 2016 where a woman becomes president). Featuring a fantastic discovery of bisexuality, ruminations on grief, and just a truly astonishing book. One of my favorites!

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston:  For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures. But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train (This is Casey McQuiston’s brand new novel featuring time-travel, queer women, and I absolutely cannot WAIT to read it)

The Heiress by Molly Greely: Set in the Pride and Prejudice universe, this takes on Anne de Bourg (Lady Catherine’s daughter), and makes her queer! 

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters:  Nan King, an oyster girl, is captivated by the music hall phenomenon Kitty Butler, a male impersonator extraordinaire treading the boards in Canterbury. Through a friend at the box office, Nan manages to visit all her shows and finally meet her heroine. Soon after, she becomes Kitty's dresser and the two head for the bright lights of Leicester Square where they begin a glittering career as music-hall stars in an all-singing and dancing double act. At the same time, behind closed doors, they admit their attraction to each other and their affair begins (Sarah Waters is the queen of historical lesbians. All of her books are good, and they’re all gay! The Paying Guests is another great one)

(On a side note re: queer books, there are MANY, these are just ones I’ve read more recently. Also there are a lot of indie/self-published writers doing great work writing queer books, so definitely support your local indie authors!) 

[melleonis]

Wifelink: Lesbian Pirates Edition

yeah, i’m still doing this.

okay the ixalan block is fun - dinosaurs, mesoamericanish human & merfolk empires, vampires, and lots and lots of pirates. pirates are hot, it turns out, so we’ve got plenty to work with. in no particular order:

Dire Fleet Neckbreaker (art by Daarken). Orcs are a weirdly-underrepresented creature subtype in Magic (53 of em over fifteen years, by my count - compare that with 206 merfolk, 341 goblins, and 353 elves over the same period). This is unfortunate because orcs are Big and therefore Hot, even if Dire Fleet Neckbreaker's mostly-solid fashion choices (black leather and bone over a swashbuckle-length red tunic) are drowned out by Glove Mistakes. Cheap jokes about Tetsuya Nomura aside, six buckles is too much for one glove, and the shoulder-cuffs are......bad. Wouldn’t you rather be showing off your well-defined arm musculature, Ms. Breaker? I’d certainly prefer it.

Deadeye Rig-Hauler (art by Victor Adame Minguez). Now here’s a woman you can’t easily knock over. Obviously good with rope, if you’re into that, although I hope for your sake she’s got a couple coils of something gentler than hemp. I enjoy her expression a lot - intensity of focus with a touch of both humor and menace. No one else in this block so obviously tops.

Contract Killing (art by Winona Nelson). I think this is actually the first non-creature (or -planeswalker) spell we’ve featured on Wifelink! Contract Killing murders a creature on the board and leaves you with two treasure tokens for your trouble. The woman is the clear standout here, with delightful curly hair, the demeanor of a practiced, careful professional, and no fewer than four visible blades.

Daring Saboteur (art by Victor Adame Minguez). She’s fun, isn’t she? That’s the smirk of someone who knows how to party and is not concerned with her own well-being. She ends up having to crash at your place a lot - one time when her ex kicked her out, another when she had just gotten out of jail (six months for possession), and you want to help, you honestly do, but you start to realize you don’t like who you are when you’re with her - and anyway, she’s moved out again before you can really process that. You don’t hear from her for a year, though her parole officer comes by looking for her, and when she turns up again she’s hooked on the pills she’s been selling and is in a lot of trouble - you try not to get sucked back in but she really needs you this time and there’s a certain gravity to her you’ve never been good at resisting. Then you wake up in a detention cell with her, looking at counts of grand theft auto and reckless endangerment, and you realize you’re not helping, you’re enabling, and something has to change. She won’t, so you have to - and that’s all. You haven’t seen her in most of a decade. You hope she’s doing okay.

Jadelight Ranger (art by Jason Rainville). This winsome fishlass, on the other hand, is nothing but wholesome. Look at her elaborate fantasy overalls! That is pure Neutral Good Lesbian Energy.

Vraska, Scheming Gorgon (art by Grzegorz Rutkowski). Yeah, Vraska is another character who is just an auto-include every time she shows up in a set - I know my brand and I’m sticking to it. A secretive assassin or underworld queen in most of her other appearances, in Ixalan she plays the swashbuckling pirate to the literal hilt. Look at her power walk - that’s hot. And who else could pull off snake pauldrons and referee pants in the same outfit?

Vraska, Relic Seeker (art by Chris Rahn). Hanging off the side of your tastefully-beskulled pirate ship, rapier drawn, snake-hair blowing in the ocean breeze is a supremely aesthetic thing to do. I really appreciate the warmness of this painting, the texture of the sky & clouds - this would be right at home among N.C. Wyeth’s Treasure Island illustrations, so much so that I think it was probably intentional.

I do always wish that Vraska had actual snake-head hair but that’s apparently a pretty specific gorgon variant in Magic, and I’m not about to complain about attractive pirate gorgons, so.

Huatli, Dinosaur Knight (art by Anna Steinbauer). In a shocking turn of events, it turns out I’m okay with gorgeous, intimidating women riding brilliantly-colored feathered dinosaurs.

Huatli, Warrior Poet (Tyler Jacobson). Get you a girl who can do both, as the kids may or may not still be saying. “Dinosaur Knight Warrior Poet” already sounds like a fucking dream date even before you find out that she looks like that. Huatli, like Vraska, is a planeswalker, which means she has the potential to show up in future blocks even if they have nothing to do with the plane of Ixalan, and I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing her again.

Pterodon Knight (art by Anthony Palumbo). I feel like I’m being sold a bottle of fancy olive oil for some reason? That’s not, like, an ‘extra virgin’ joke or anything like that, I just feel like you could shop a bottle of Bertolli’s into her hand and slap her up on a Whole Foods wall and it would all make a weird kind of sense. Don’t get me wrong, though - if she wants to advertise olive oil, I want to buy it.

I’m going to talk about the vampires in a bonus essay sometime in the next week, so you’ve got that to look forward(?) to.

[lia-nikiforov]

Winter 2018 Anime Final Review

Why yes, pretty much all the Spring premieres are done (don’t even remind me haha I’m so far behind) and this is horribly late, I had a busy couple of weeks ;---; and am still struggling to catch up, but here’s my final rundown of this long slow winter! Worst to best, as always.

Dropped

Basilisk Ouka Ninpou Chou: Although I’d said I’d keep watching for the Nobunaga twist, given the onslaught of new stuff for Spring, it’s unsustainable to keep watching something so mediocre I don’t even find anything to say about it. Also Nobunaga hasn’t been mentioned in three episodes.

DUMPSTER FIRE

Darling in the Franxx: So we’re halfway through the show and still feels nothing of importance has happened, except we learned “lesbians are not viable, what a relief” and also KOKORO REALLY WANTS TO MAKE BABIES. The whole Kokoro business is very unsavory because on the one hand the writing is a dick to Walking Fat Joke Futoshi, but on the other hand Futoshi is an entitled Nice Guy who acts like Kokoro has some obligation to return his feelings, so basically everyone sucks lmao. Btw, does anyone know what happened with episode 13? I went to watch it but what I got instead was a Deadman Wonderland episode, complete with the story of Palurdo meeting Lab Experiment-turned-Beast Waifu as children and making a promise that would subsequently be forgotten until they meet again in their teenage years. Jesus, does Womenz are Beastz: The Anime have a single original idea?

How am I supposed to measure my own disinterest and contempt

This basically means I didn’t care for these shows. I don’t hate them but I was aggressively unengaged in them and I can’t really rank them from worst to best because that would imply me having any measurable emotional reaction to them

Violet Evergarden: I don’t think I have much to add about this one that I haven’t said before. Tryhard Sad Anime Girl stories rehashing old clichés with little novelty to them,  with a bonus of a super poorly explained and thought out child super soldier tragic backstory that still has me ?????? The final episode has the addendum of trying to redeem That One Asshole in a “he treats her bad because he’s sad about his brother dying sob sob sob he’s totally not a jerk” and i was very annoyed by that.

Koi wa Ameagari no You ni: It’s complicated to talk about this show. I really liked the first episode, hated the 4-6, then was mostly bored by the rest of it. The whole romance angle was completely dropped in the latter half, but I’m not even sure if that’s a good thing given how tastelessly it was being handled in some moments, or a bad one given how bland everything else was. It felt like Akira’s crush on Kondo turned out to be insignificant in the grand scheme of things. It also felt like Akira was profoundly underdeveloped, and it bothered me because Kondo was developed properly. His character felt more fully realized than hers. Like idk, I just cared so little for the last few episodes and it didn’t feel like Akira’s emotional progression was very connected with the first half of the show. 

Fate/Extra Last Encore: I don’t even have a screenshot. Apparently the reason the show started so late into the season is that it took a long time to produce, and apparently there are two more episodes that will be released at some point in July. But really, what matters is that I have no idea of what this show was trying to accomplish. The characters were a bunch of pieces of cardboard spouting pseudo nihilistic philosophical nonsense and I don’t even know how to describe the plot. It was generic in its Boss of the Week approach but the execution was often very flat. Definitely none of the fun from Apocrypha’s cool characters was to be had in this iteration of the franchise.

Too much iyashikei

This season we had too much iyashikei and I’m burned out. Here are the ones I didn’t hate but also wasn’t super in love with.

Miira no Kaikata: I think this show would’ve worked better as 3-minute vignettes. 20 minutes of it was a bit too much and I struggled to pay attention. I also felt the dragon and MukuMuku had very tangential roles. I don’t have a whole lot to say. It’s cute, if cute is your jam this show is for you. Connie is best smol monster.

Hakumei to Mikochi: Another cute show that gains extra points for its somewhat unique setting, beautiful color palette and picture book aesthetic and because the two main girls are great characters. I particularly liked the first and last episodes. It’s a relaxing, fun little show

Sanrio Danshi: The harbinger of feminism made into a toy commercial, while not quite iyashikei, is still a slice of life that just occassionally indulged in too much melodrama. It was nonetheless a fun little thing that managed to turn cynical consumerism into a positive message for boys: it’s okay to like non-traditionally-masculine things. One of the details I liked most was that none of the boys had to give up on their previous groups of friends even after “coming out”, Kouta’s friends and Shuu’s team were supportive of them and even participated in their dumbass musical play. Some may even read this show as a not-so-subtle allegory on homosexuality and while I don’t think this was Sanrio’s intent (their intent is to broaden their market, plain and simple) the fact that it works so well with that reading is honestly great. I had very minimal expectations for this show and I’m happy it turned out better than those.

Classicaloid 2: Classicaloid isn’t quite iyashikei either but it fits in the “didn’t love it, didn’t hate it” category. I’m a huge fan of season one, but unfortunately a big part of S2 failed to capture the magic. I think most of it was restored in the second cour, specially with brilliant episodes such as the one where Dovo-chan becomes a super-realistic painting of himself, and the last three episodes really captured what made Classicaloid great. I’ve really come to love this cast, so I wouldn’t complain if we got more seasons (please do Vivaldi!!!)

Shonen is a Good Genre, Actually

Shonen as a genre/demographic is much reviled for its repetitive clichés and childish stories, but I think we live at a time in which we can have well-executed shonen anime that, although falling for the same old clichés, have enough heart and sincerity that makes them enjoyable. This part also isn’t necessarily ranked, since my favorite one will change depending on which day you ask me

Nanatsu no Taizai: Imashime no Fukkatsu: As I have mentioned before, this second season seems to be the polar opposite of the first one’s rapid pace. It’s been a while since I read the manga, but I feel like it took a lot less to get to the mid-season cutoff point there than this anime would lead you to believe, especially the training part felt excruciatingly long. NanaTai has other various flaws including its 1000% not funny harrassment jokes and the dumb introduction of quantified “power levels” (why Suzuki), but characters like Diane, King and Ban give the show a unique flavor. And I’m not even gonna pretend to be unbiased, I just love everything involving Ban, even the weird and questionable choice of bringing Elaine back. I’m excited that we’re finally approaching Escanor’s arrival.

Yowapeda Glory Road: I also forgot to grab a screenshot lmao. Yowapeda is a very particular beast, and with its episode count already in the hundreds, it’s not something I’d reccommend unless you’re super into dragged out ridiculous sports anime. This second season of Onoda’s second year has not been without its flaws either, starting with the, imho absurd persistence in making Sohoku look like underdogs even though they’re reigning champions. It’s made a lot of the first two days of the Interhigh feel a lot grimmer than this cheerful show ought to. Kaburagi is still an insufferable character, and the fact that he drags the team down doesn’t help him either, and I just wish the writers would let Best Boy Teshima win anything. I hope the second day ends on a lighter note, because the gloom and doom is making this a less enjoyable watch than it should be

Mahoutsukai no Yome: I feel a little better about this one knowing the final was anime-original, but at the same time I’m beyond livid with how it was wrapped up. I loved the second half of the series because of how well-written and emotional Chise’s growth was, and everything up to her embracing of Cartaphilus’s curse was a beautiful display of her strength and will to live. What I’m not here for is that asspull wedding whatever that makes no sense in the context of the previous events, especially because after the fact, Elias’s attempt to kill Stella is swept under the rug. This could’ve been my favorite show of the season without that bullshit ending and while I don’t regret watching it, it leaves me with a sad feeling of what could have been

Best of the season

Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens: It had a slow start, but with its endearing cast and well-developed character relationships, HTR won me over, especially the last quarter. The animation was veeery barebones, but Lin and Bamba’s charisma and their organically developed relationship carried the show to be one of the most enjoyable of the season. I also really appreciate the fact that the series includes a gay couple with an adopted daughter and that Lin’s crossdressing is never used as a joke or treated as a character flaw or a “phase”. I love stories about found families and I’d love to see more of this gang fighting crime and doing shady business in their city of assassins.

Garo: Vanishing Line: This iteration of Garo had a somewhat slow start, but boy did it pick up steam in the second half. The action was great -the final fight against King had some incredible stylistic choices, the characters’ journeys felt complete and very human and the story was interesting and different enough from other Garo to not feel repetitive, yet with enough Garoisms that made it feel connected to everything else. Like I said, I love stories about found families, so the way Sophie found a home with Gina, Luke and Sword by the end was very touching. Watching Sophie’s journey has been a treat, and I’m immensely happy that this wasn’t a Guren no Tsuki disaster, but was more in line with the excellence of Honoo no Kokuin.

Gakuen Babysitters: This was the huge surprise of the season for me, I almost expected it to be pretty dull. Instead it turned out to be super cute and extremely heartwarming. It had a couple of duds here and there, mostly the not-actually-a-pedophile joke character and the early love triangle skits, but the former disappeared and the latter was vastly improved in the second half of the show. I wish Ryuichi’s grief had been dealt with a bit more, but I think what they did show was very well executed and empathetic. And the portrayal of the kids felt very realistic, including both children’s most adorable and most obnoxious behaviors. KIRIN IS BEST GIRL

Card Captor Sakura Clear Card arc: I have expressed some complaints and dissatisfactions with this sequel all through the season. Mostly in regards to the new cards and how the old ones seem to have been forgotten (also the lazy designs of the new cards). In spite of that, Sakura hasn’t lost any of its heart in these 20 years, the characters are still the kids we grew up with. It is an overwhelmingly cheerful and positive show, from Sakura and Syaoran’s shyly developing relationship, to the hopefulness of Sakura’s magic and just the simple day to day life of Sakura and her friends. In spite of all its flaws, Sakura is still my favorite show of the season and I’m happy we get to spend one more season with these characters. Just please give me more Yue??? 

Ooooof, finally I’m done with this! PLEASE LET’S NOT TALK ABOUT THE 20+ SHOWS I’M SAMPLING FOR SPRING AHAHAHAHA. There’s too much anime. Anime must be stopped, immediately. Don’t hesitate to send me your thoughts about the winter season, even if it seems I’m losing my mind a little Dx TOO MUCH ANIME

[daekie-gw2]

hi! all of my toons are gay. THEY SAY WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW-- so this is just A General Rundown of the entire roster lmao whoops

della fearflight, pact commander! aroace trans woman, gay (okay closer to grey-aro/grey-ace or demi spectrum but she’s just Not Really Feeling It 99% of the time). has Something queerplatonic going on with caithe. they have ‘divorced but still friends’ energy despite not being divorced or ever having been remotely interested in each other romantically

lante dawnsong, dawn warband legionnaire / order of whispers creator! gay gay lesbian gay. daughter of the pact commander (...okay the fact she’s a blue shirt away from being the bi flag was not intentional,)

svess! vigil crusader & taimi’s girlfriend maybe. it/its. gender: ??? why are you asking it these questions. demisexual & gay.

meditrix trilli! trans man, he/him, bisexual homoromantic. as i said before: diversity win the inquest mediscientist filling your bones with lead did your top surgery while he was at it--

“cee”, ex-order of whispers lightbringer, ex-mordrem herald, it/she/they. transgendering. has not divulged personal details to my brain beyond this but by god it’s transgendering out there in the wild. look into your local [INSERT AREA HERE] and you may find a friend(???) and gender(??????)

her twin, “aes”, who i am persistently bouncing back and forth between Transmasc / Genderqueer Twink. warden of the grove, healer tempest. he/they, pan

astriferre, crystal bloom chronomancer, trans woman. bi bi bi. dating lante. if you take her mesmer magic into account & say the crystal bloom’s color scheme has enough blue in it she’s the entire bi flag actually!

amaris malette, she/her, blessed by balthazar, very pan & poly. i need to work on her glamour ingame one of these days, she’s a port of a character from another setting so i don’t really know what her deal is yet besides ‘my god doth protest too much’. has a parasocial crush on both marjory delaqua and kasmeer meade that she’s very embarrassed about.

itzel ironscribe, norn...holo? mechanist? look i’m figuring it out i think she’s canonically a holo. aromantic lesbian. diversity win the inquest collaborator running their test facility is gay--

eithwn! non-pale tree sylvari, sunspear, she/her but not in like... a girl way. yes she’s a girl no she’s not a girl <3

nelvey! olmakhan-raised asura, support scourge, ve/vem, demisexual gray-aro. olmakhan have genders that legion charr haven’t even imagined i think. that’s what freedom from the legions means baybee

project nickel /& nico bathory! ex-engineer, current soulbeast perma-melded with a fire wyvern. ex-inquest test subject, the commander’s pet project who got dragged along to cantha to figure out if jade research could upgrade their prosthetic jaw & help with their.. general health issues. they/them, pan & poly, would love to mack on detective rama or engineer yao if they could get over their crippling paranoia and dysphoria thanks, (& you know also ask either of them out) (that would help) (look nickel’s had a lot going on)

also a burgeoning plural system which they’re still kind of figuring out?? so it turns out that, uh, nico didn’t actually become nickel, they ended up splitting & nickel is a protector/memory holder alter who’s been basically the host since [gestures] you know. the inquest test subject trauma. the two of them are uhhh. well. they’re working on figuring out how to coexist but it’s getting there

dagmar lonecaller! raven shaman, norn firebrand, shi/hir, studied under queens nahlah and dahlah to really get a Good Grip on the afterlife. probably married to a non-norn i think.

oathseeker adelaide donahue. she/they. chosen of lyssa. probably gay but has no time for it because jesus fuck lyssa can she stop getting prophetic dreams about enemies for five minutes,

& then i also have three more toons who are probably queer but i haven’t figured out their precise identity deals yet (petran spirewalker, charr renegade; embla stensdottir, norn catalyst, canthan; cardsharp narae, sylvari bladesworn, runs a table @ club canach and has incredibly strong anime rival energy)

✨️🏳️‍🌈HAPPY PRIDE MONTH🏳️‍🌈✨️

As a fun celebration, share your queer ocs on this post! Let’s celebrate together the variety of wonderful characters made in gw2 💖

As usual, every reblog with a character WILL get a response and will be tagged as #alt-fun. I love how creative y’all are!!!

[atrabclla]

𝐍𝐏𝐂  :   𝐁'𝐃𝐎𝐑𝐀𝐇

          B'Dorah is a member of the Ash'abah; a clan of warriors that live in exile and defend the people of Hammerfell from undead threats. While she is a fierce warrior in battle, her heart is gentle and hopeful. She was more than content with staying with her clan and fulfilling her duties to her people, but fate had something else in mind. Thrust into an unknown world, her change of circumstance turned her into one of Tamriel's most dedicated defenders. Dubbed the “Vestige”, she was the uniting thread between the Five Companions and the Five Chainbreakers and was largely considered the unofficial leader of the latter group.

Relation to Daeris: assisted Daeris in combating necromancy in Hammerfell while she was serving the Daggerfall Covenant; later became the Vestige and the leader of the Five Chainbreakers, a group Daeris was a part of Full Name: B’Dorah (pronounced like Bed-OR-ah) Nicknames / Aliases: "The Vestige"; "The Soulless One" Title(s): Ash'abah; Member of the Five Companions; Champion in the Fighters Guild Occupation: adventurer; hunter of undead Age: 30 (as of 2E 582) Race: Redguard Class: sword & shield warrior Date of Birth: 12th of Last Seed, 2E 552 Nationality: technically an exile for most of her early life due to Redguard customs, she became recognized as a citizen of Hammerfell for her service during the Planemeld Gender & Pronouns: non-binary fem / woman-aligned (she/her or they/them) Orientation: lesbian Personality: brave, selfless, organized, kind, moralistic, self-conscious, shy, naive Religion: follows the Redguard pantheon Faceclaim: Ebonée Noel (specifically in her role in Wrecked)

[ In terms of my ESO protagonists, B’Dorah is my Vestige as well as the protagonist of the Fighters Guild questline. She was also involved in the Hammerfell section of the DC questline, being a member of the Ash’abah ]

          B'Dorah was born to warriors of the Ash'abah tribe of Hammerfell. The Ash'abah preform the sacred duty of dealing with undead threats in the region, as the Redguard religion prevents honorable citizens from harming the risen dead. As an unfortunate result, the Ash'abah are exiled from Redguard society, though the necessity of their duty ensures their safety from execution. B'Dorah is unaware of many aspects of Tamriel's societies as a result of her upbringing. She was content with her nomadic lifestyle and was determined to serve her tribe until her final breath.

          Her first true taste of the society she was shunned from came when an outsider approached her clan seeking aid. The woman, Daeris, was tasked by King Fahara'jad to obtain the Ash'abah's assistance in defeating the necromancer children of the infamous Suturah. Her clan had been weakened through poisoning of their water supply by the necromancers' followers, the Withered Hand, which rendered most of the tribe useless in the upcoming conflict. B'Dorah managed to overcome her symptoms and volunteered to help Daeris. She travelled with her throughout Hammerfell to help her bring the undead threat to an end. As an Ash'abah, her heroism could not be publicly acknowledged, but knowing the Withered Hand was defeated was all she cared for.

          After the necromancers were properly quelled, B'Dorah returned to her clan to help them recover from the misfortune that had befallen them. She was asked by the clan's new chief to travel to Sentinel to retrieve a cure from an apothecary. When she arrived, she found the apothecary slain in the basement of their shop. A worm cultist laid in wait for her and slayed her in recompence for interfering with the necromancer threat.

          Death was not the end for B'Dorah. She awoke in Coldharbour as a soulless husk of herself. The cultist had sacrificed her to his master, and her soul had been fed to Molag Bal as tribute. But B'Dorah was not content with becoming a soul shriven. She was determined to return to Tamriel, save her clan, and reclaim what was hers. Just as she began planning an escape, a strange nordic woman approached her cell. Lyris Titanborn, she was called. Lyris was of a similar mind and was determined to escape just as B'Dorah was. She said her ally, a mysterious Prophet, was the one who could free them. The Redguard agreed to the Nord's rescue mission. Who was she to turn down a possible chance to escape? With the help of the peculiar knight Cadwell, the two women were able to rescue the prophet and return to Tamriel. B'Dorah was home, but something felt wrong. Her soul was still in Molag Bal's hands, and she would not rest until she got it back and ended his schemes. Without much hesitation, she eagerly agreed to assist the Prophet and Lyris in their efforts to thwart the Daedric Prince.

          Along with assisting her new friends, B'Dorah also volunteered her efforts to the Fighters' Guild. She wanted to do everything in her power to thwart the Planemeld; it was an easy decision. She traveled around Tamriel destroying Dark Anchors and various other Daedric incursions. She became embroiled in a conspiracy during her time with the guild involving the possible betrayal of the Guildmaster, Sees-All-Colors, and the discovery of a Daedric tool known as the Mortuum Vivicus. To destroy the Mortuum Vivicus, the guild traveled to the Earth Forge to recreate the Prismatic Blade of legend. As they went to destroy the artifact itself, it was revealed that Sees-All-Colors was an agent of Meridia trying to destroy it herself, and B'Dorah's Khajiit comrade Aelif was the true betrayer. Aelif challenged her former comrades with power granted by Molag Bal, but she was no match for the blade. B'Dorah spoke on Sees-All-Colors behalf in front of the Fighters' Guild's council in an effort to have her actions pardoned, and though she could not be reinstated as Guildmaster, her friend was given a new title and an opportunity to make up for her deceptions.

          Throughout her journeys, she learned the truth of her new allies. The Prophet was formerly Emperor Varen Aquilarios, they were members of the Five Companions, and they were in truth responsible for the Soulburt. B'Dorah was not angry at this revelation. The past had already happened; what mattered now was fixing their mistakes. The Redguard and her allies ventured into Coldharbour to retrieve Sai Sahan and Abnur Tharn with intent to locate the Amulet of Kings and use it against Molag Bal. Cadwell was also welcomed to their Harborage in gratitude for his invaluable assistance in Coldharbour. After months of searching and fighting against Mannimarco and his minions, the amulet's location was revealed: Sancre Tor.

          Sancre Tor was the most perilous test yet. Mannimarco taunted them at every step. It was obvious his machinations were at work. Whether their actions would only serve to benefit him remained to be seen. Still, they had to press forth. As predicted, Mannimarco took advantage the moment they opened the amulet's vault, and they were forced into a confrontation with the King of Worms. They were able to overpower the necromancer, but in the end, he was his own undoing. In a stupor of his own pride, he boasted of betraying Molag Bal and taking his power for himself. The God of Schemes kept a close ear to his subject and did not let his intent go unpunished. He ripped Mannimarco from the mortal plane, ending the Worm King's threat for the time being. During the chaos, the Five Companions were able to retrieve the Amulet of Kings at long last.

          One final obstacle stood in their way. They had the tools to defeat Molag Bal now, but to actually defeat him, they would first have to get to him. It would take an army to penetrate his fortress, but all the armies of Tamriel were currently locked in a bitter war. B'Dorah was able to reach out to allies in the three alliances and convince the leaders to parley to discuss the Daedric threat. Just when it seemed no agreement could be reached, Molag Bal's minions attacked the meeting and turned everyone's attention to Coldharbour. The leaders would not send their own soldiers but instead agreed to send the Mages' and Fighters' Guilds into Coldharbour to confront the Daedric Prince.

          With a gathered army and the guidance of the Daedric Prince Meridia, they were able to reach Molag Bal's inner sanctum at last. A sacrifice was needed to fuel the Amulet's power, and so Varen volunteered his life so that his companions may confront the Daedra. B'Dorah was used as a vessel for the divine power, and with the help of her allies, Molag Bal was defeated and Meridia personally returned B'Dorah's soul. B'Dorah finally felt like her true self again after months of fighting. She was a hero now. What did heroes do after they saved the world?

          Why, they kept on fighting, of course. At least B'Dorah would. It was not her in nature to retire when she had so much more fight left in her. And so, she set off on her own to adventure throughout Tamriel and beyond. She was a champion of hope now, and she intended to live up to her reputation.