#not because it has a disabled queer character

[queer-ragnelle]

Understand is is a very weird question to get out the blue so no offence taken if this gets left in the inbox, but I was wondering how (if at all) to integrate transgender knights into arthurian retellings/adaptations ect while trying to keep it vaguely true to the medievalisms of the whole thing? I know its easy and liberating to just go 'fuck it everything queer' and its a totally valid way to go about it, but (as a trans person) I like having a narrative examine queerphobia and other structual issues with the setting - gives the whole thing a bit of meat (in my personal tastes). That being said, it feels like its a nightmare to try and have a transmasc knight stay stealth in this place! Everyone feels like theyre getting stipped and tended to after breaking a rib in a joust or merlin shows up and is a dick about pronouns and outs you to get you married to a Roman king. Stuff like that - things that feel a little easier to dodge when its a civillian character, not an ruling class.

Is this a 'kill the cop in your brain' kinda deal? As a queer storyteller yourself do you have any tips or strategies or tools you use to crowbar this kinda stuff a little easier together? Or do you know any stories/retellings/academic texts ect that cover these kinda things (even if its in a 'for the love of god, don't do that' way). Love the work you do for this fandom a lot, regardless of your answer! Hope you have a good day.

Hello anon! This is a great question.

Now let me preface this by saying I’m not transgender and I’m not a medievalist. There are plenty of trans medievalists on tumblr, but I’m not one of ‘em. So my answer is coming from a queer but cis author and enthusiast perspective. I'm going to provide lots of links to read things as well so everyone can draw their own conclusions from the material.

I think a large part of this does come down to “kill the cop in your head.” But at the same time, I’ve been exactly where you are wondering, “How can I make this story feel authentic to its era without torturing the trans characters?” Because you’re right, there’s a lot of nudity and close proximity interaction between knights in the medieval stories and Merlin is totally the type to be a dick about pronouns. I've also searched and struggled to find a medieval-set story that manages to incorporate queerness in a period-appropriate way (so far as we can guess) while balancing the narrative as to not tip into something deeply unpleasant for the target audience to read. (See: the series by Lavinia Collins, which has great queer rep, yay! But tons of horrors previously unseen and still unnecessary, boo!) So where does that leave us?

Well first I’m going to give you an example of how not to handle transness in an Arthurian story....

The book Once & Future and its sequel Sword in the Stars by Amy Rose Capetta and Cory McCarthy went with the phenomenon you already described as, “fuck it, everything queer.” It doesn't take place in the past, but does use the medieval stories as more than reference, it's not as divergent as something like Port Eternity by C. J. Cherryh, the reincarnated characters do interact with the past directly at times, so I'm using it as an example.

Anyway most characters are either gay (umbrella term) or trans. Except the way trans characters are treated sucks majorly (in my opinion). I completely lost faith in book 1 after the introduction of Lamorak, a gender fluid knight who uses they/them pronouns. Merlin misgenders them and gets corrected by Kay, to which Merlin does this whole self flagellation routine about. Lamorak is also disabled, missing their left hand. (Why isn't it Bedwyr? Anyway not the point...) Lamorak gets no dialogue here whatsoever, all agency is completely stripped from them regarding their disability and their gender identity. Double whammy.

This is worsened when Percival gets introduced, as Merlin then makes a point of asking for pronoun clarification in the most obnoxious way possible. To which Percival takes no offense at the weird slight against his sibling and tells Merlin his pronouns.

But what about the sequel? Surely these two queer authors improved with time.....

Is this a joke? Is this the best way they could indicate the inclusive realm of Avalon? Why not just describe the women as they are, all shapes and sizes, and let the reader figure it out? The authorial intent would be so obvious by this point. Instead they say it… like that. Gag.

It only gets worse when Mordred is born. Then they're weird about a literal infant.

What in the bio essentialism? If the characters have been living in a future that’s broken out of the gender binary, the baby’s genitals should be irrelevant. Gwen’s literally saying Mordred is going to fulfill the evil prophecy because he was born with a penis. Even if this is intended to be a teaching moment, I hate how it’s handled. These quotes are in order of appearance in the books, so after the subtextual implications of all that came before, this last part really doesn’t sit right with me. Sorry I find these books completely abhorrent. They've won awards, they’re beloved by many. Maybe it's me. But no thanks.

Honestly, so long as you're not blatantly offensive with your handling of such things, I think you'll be fine. It's important to remember that even if one is part of a demographic they're depicting, it's always a good idea to hire sensitivity readers and take that feedback seriously. Not everyone will love your work, there will be advice you don't utilize, with time you'll be able to weed out the bad faith feedback, (the "all depiction is glorification" crowd) and ignore it. But it's so important to open oneself up to constructive criticism so you can learn and your work can develop into the best possible version of itself.

Now let's get to some ways you can go about researching a way to do this that fits in your story. It’s important to remember that throughout human history, many people lived stealth their whole lives and we don’t know about them for that reason, not because no transgender folks ever lived authentically and happily in medieval times. So it’s never impossible to incorporate a trans character into a story who experiences no direct violence, even if the world they live in isn’t presented as a queer utopia. The other thing is that public opinion regarding queerness, cross dressing, etc have varied a lot over the centuries and were vastly different depending on location. Not every “woman” found in armor would have been treated as poorly as Joan of Arc. So there’s lots of wiggle room for interpretation when you go about writing these narratives. The majority of my examples deal with the ruling class so they address the concerns you mentioned with added scrutiny a noble would face if they were to experiment with gender presentation compared to a commoner. I’ll be spoiling the plots of everything on the list to make clear why I’m suggesting them.

My initial advice would be to read medieval literature with queer themes followed by essays on the subject. The best examples I know of are:

Yde et Olive

Transmasc knight (good ending). 12th century French romance. Yde’s mother Clarisse died giving birth to her & later when Yde reaches maturity, her father makes advances, so she disguises herself as a man & flees. Yde becomes a successful knight & is married to the king’s only daughter, Olive. When it comes time to consummate the marriage, Yde must confess the truth of his identity to Olive, who vows to keep it secret. This is overheard by the king who then attempts to uncover Yde’s identity but is stopped by an angel who chastises the king for harassing such a good vassal. Then Yde is transformed into a man, the king dies, & Yde is able to have a child with Olive. They name him Croissant as if it couldn’t get any more French than it already was. Anyway the story alternates pronouns for Yde given the situation which is pretty neat & in the end he gets to live his best life! Yay!

Le Roman de Silence

Transmasc knight (bad ending). A 13th century French romance about a baby girl named Silence. Silence is raised as a boy because King Eban won’t allow women to inherit property. Like many medieval romances, the hero's adventure is often punctuated with personified emotions (Dame Fortune, Lady Love, etc) but Silence is tormented by Nature & Nurture as he comes into adulthood. He becomes a knight & eventually takes on an "impossible" quest, to capture Merlin, which supposedly can only be done by a woman. Content warning for the ending, it does not go well for Silence. Merlin reveals his backstory, & he’s forced to take a feminized version of his name, live as a woman, & marry the king to keep his lands.

Wigalois by Wirnt von Grafenberg

A 13th century German romance that follows Gawain’s son, Wigalois [Gingalain], but this ain’t about him. There’s a character Marine who fights as a knight. She’s consistently referred to with she/her pronouns, but she’s renowned for her knightly virtues & fights alongside the men in the war. She’s treated very well narratively & dies in battle after apprehending a high-value hostage. Everyone mourns her & there’s a big funeral held in her honor. So even if Marine never presented herself as a man the way Yde or Silence do, she provides an example of a female thriving in a male role. Food for thought.

Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach

Another German banger from the 13th century. This one’s about a cis male knight but Parzival has transmasc vibes. Trust me. Here’s my favorite article about it called The Clothes Make The Man - Parzival Dressed & Undressed by Michael D. Amey that really illustrates what I mean.

After that, you can check out these retellings:

The Story of Silence by Alex Myers

I bought this but haven't read it yet. It’s a retelling about the aforementioned Le Roman de Silence. This book uses neutral they/them pronouns to refer to Silence, which I can say from experience sometimes causes confusion with readers, so it's good to study how this author did it & determine if that method feels right for you. (If you ever decide to do something like that with a character.)

Spear by Nicola Griffith + Spear's Author's Note

I enjoyed this one, beautiful prose. It didn’t feel like the most comprehensive Grail Quest retelling, but Peretur can be interpreted as a butch lesbian or transmasc, it’s ambiguous. She only uses masculine pronouns when stealth, otherwise using she/her, but it has a happy ending! It’s firmly set in the era & felt authentic on that front while letting the queer characters relax. Peretur isn’t alone. (A/G/L enjoyers keep winning + sapphic lady of the lake ftw + the other hotties Peretur pulled.) Definitely worth checking out.

The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman

This book just came out in 2024. Including it here is already a spoiler given the topic but I’m going to spoil fully from this point on so ignore this if that’s a problem. This is the best example I can give for your reading/writing tastes based on the ask; Dinadan is a trans man. His transness isn’t revealed in the main character Collum’s pov, but in Dinadan’s backstory pov, opening in his childhood. He & his twin brother were sent to different schools but young Dinadan would leave the girl’s school to practice knightly skills with the fay, which retroactively explains why he has a fairy sword that Collum was admiring. In exchange for this training, the fay ask that Dinadan slay Merlin. Which he agrees to while never believing he actually can, but the wrath of the fay in the afterlife is worth his ability to live as a knight. I love how it was all handled firstly because Dinadan has a fighting style that works for his smaller frame & because every knight has a different fighting style (Dagonet’s is “If it sucks hit da bricks.”) Dinadan doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb yet his physicality is accounted for. Secondly Dinadan explains the lengths he goes to in order to stay stealth from obvious ones like binding his breasts to pretending to shave his face every couple days & wearing a packer. Later on, Dinadan’s secrets are revealed when he goes swimming in the ocean with Palomides (who evidentially already knew) & Collum joins them. Collum had no idea, which I think brings up an interesting point about all of this which also reminds me of Gawain not recognizing that Beaumains was Gareth—the power of expectation. Just as Gawain expected to find a kitchen boy & would have no reason to assume his brother (who hit puberty since they last saw each other) would be stealth in the kitchens so therefore didn’t recognize him, Collum expects to find men as knights of the Round Table, so when Sir Dinadan is introduced, & Collum had heard of him before, Dinadan’s stature & high voice don’t register to Collum as anything but traits that this guy Dinadan happens to have. Learning Dinadan’s secret in the presence of another knight who already knows & is chill about it also encourages Collum to be accepting too. So giving Dinadan at least one ally in his corner throughout the story went a long way. In the end Merlin, who can only be killed by a man (which is why Nimue had to settle for sealing him away) is stabbed by Dinadan. So it’s like a reverse Silence/Éowyn situation that Dinadan’s gender is affirmed in his ability to kill Merlin. This book also includes the part from Le Morte d’Arthur where Dinadan’s forced to wear a dress, which in this context is very transphobic, but that’s the point. It’s made better when Dinadan gets to go insano style on Merlin so he gets payback. Just a heads up about that.

Some fantasy/scifi that’s not Arthurian but may help, as Arthuriana is largely fantasy to begin with, this may help you determine where on the spectrum your taste/writing falls regarding the bending of reality/history to fit your narrative.

Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf

1928 novel about a character named Orlando living during the reign of Elizabeth I. Orlando is born male, then at some point in his early adulthood, falls into a deep sleep from which he awakens the exact same person, now metamorphosed to be female. Orlando, for her part, adopts this new role immediately & keeps on moving. She lives for 300 years as such & has many adventures, including an instance where she then presents as a man to elude marriage. Transitioned so she could cross dress in the other direction. She would’ve done numbers on tumblr. Ultimately, Orlando does marry… a gnc sea captain! The success of their marriage is attributed to their similarities in gender non-conformity. Even though this book only remains in the late medieval era for the opening, I think it’s a poignant example of a transgender individual living their life in their time & still getting to enjoy themselves without excessive suffering that may provide lots of inspiration.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin

1970 Hugo & Nebula award winning novel. A fascinating examination of gender from the point of view of a cis man named Genly Ai having to reconcile his interpretation of the gender binary when confronted with a society who operates outside that. His travels with ambisexual Estravan challenges what Ai understands about the universe. His ignorance forms the backbone of the narrative as he grows close to a person from this other society. Even if it’s not a medieval setting, it may help you develop a narrative voice regarding this subject you’re able to bring to your work. Also it’s just really good.

The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner

2007 Locus award winner, Nebula & Gaylactic Spectrum nominee. High fantasy medieval setting. Katherine is a country girl brought to the big city Riverside by her uncle the Duke where she’s offered the opportunity to train as swordsman (ie cross dress) instead of political marriage. She’s unsure of the reasoning behind her uncle’s motivations for doing this, but goes along with it & kicks ass. A preview is available on Google books (linked).

The Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb

This is my favorite series ever. It spans 16 books published between 1995-2017. The fandom on tumblr & ao3 is hugely active. (Avoid tags to dodge major spoilers or check it out for amazing art & many quotes!) The series has many gnc characters in a fantasy medieval setting. First & foremost, The Fool, who’s in all the books & whose gender ambiguity is mentioned book 1, to which he says, “None of your business.” The character ever. Without getting too specific, there are several trans characters including gender fluid characters who will alternate between masc/fem presentation & pronouns. This is my favorite example of gender fluid characters in any fantasy I’ve read, especially since there are several & each feels unique. In The Liveship Traders trilogy, Amber coaches another woman how to hide her period while pretending to be a ship’s boy by using a sock, so if anyone finds the blood on it, she can say she cut her foot. Little things like that really deepened the realism in an otherwise fantastical story for me, because addressing those details answers questions my overly analytical mind would ask & wonder about if unacknowledged.

Lastly I'd like to suggest the article Armour of an Alienating Identity by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen. While it doesn't mention Parzival (the text), it does mention Perceval (the character), as well as Gareth Beaumains, Lancelot, Gawain, Yvain, and even Arthur himself. It goes on to reference endless examples to support its thesis including Greek heroes such as Achilles and Odysseus with references to many different medieval stories from Old English Beowulf to the Irish Ulster cycle to the works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Most (if not all) of the texts mentioned in this essay can be found on my blog for cross reference if you desire, although the article already contains many quotes.

Okay I think that’s all I got. I’ve given you a ton to think about and read. Ultimately I don’t think there’s a clean cut answer for this. Nuance, you know? Having hired an editor and many sensitivity readers myself, it really is just a professional a vibe check sometimes. You write what you want to the best of your ability, then other people weigh in, and you keep tweaking it until it’s as good as you can possibly make it. During development, and even in its final form, there will be people who don’t enjoy your story and that’s fine. It isn’t for everyone, it’s for you and your audience. No single experience in this life is the same so each fictional depiction emulating life will also be unique, there’s no “right” answer on how to write this or anything else, only the way you want to.

Hopefully now you have some tools to help you learn how best to express your vision. I know they gave me a lot of insight and ideas I lacked before when writing trans characters in my books. Thank you for trusting me with this question and good luck with your project! Take care! :^)

[matchbet-allofthetime]

Jayvik Rambles + Arcane Babbling:

As an aro/ace queer...

I will NEVER see Viktor as strictly asexual. I can't, and I refuse to. I won't.

Lemme tell you why.

He is written in with quips and little moments and jokes that heavily imply sexuality, even if he prefers to brush it to the side in lieu of his work.

NOTHING about what he did with Jayce was ever, at any point (even the damn day they met), platonic or lacking tension.

As an aro/ace, I can ALSO say that even if he WAS asexual, almost every asexual has an exception at some point or another. Asexuality is not linear or specific, it simply means little to no sexual attraction.

Which means there is a firm chance that Viktor didn't give a damn about getting with much of anyone UNTIL Jayce.

That aside, I think it's important to note that they ARE romantically involved, they ARE sexually involved (see: Viktor literally picking Jayce up by the throat multiple times, stroking Jayce's lip, purposefully making their "fight" a dance on his end, a tease.)

I'm sick and tired— AS AN ARO/ACE DISABLED PERSON— of seeing characters like Viktor immediately thought to be aro/ace. Because he's just clearly... Not.

I'm all for people having HCs, but trying to say it's canon (regardless of what the creators have to say, bc clearly the producers didn't see jack shit that the animators and voice actors were getting up to, that shit is FRUITY) is absolutely just... Not right.

They're partners. Cosmically intertwined soulmates. They're destined to always find one another, always love one another, always protect one another. They live and die for one another. They parallel one another in more capacities than any other two people in the entire series (even Mel and Viktor don't have quite as many, and they've got several bc of how those two relationships correlate to Jayce.)

Jayce saying "he's like a brother to me" in S1 was absolutely him trying to convince himself that's all he felt. Convince himself he wasn't falling in love with his best friend, his other half.

And while I'm here, thinking about it, I want to say this:

Mel and Jayce found comfort in one another when they fucked. They found comfort, and they loved the IDEA of the other.

Jayce was a way for Mel to rebel, to be herself, to push back at something and have it give beneath her fingers while also pushing back in turn.

Mel was an idea for Jayce, what could be, what he could have. Not power, not money— but a purpose, and a place, and a pride worth keeping.

They didn't even really mean to fall into bed together— the idea of the other just appealed, and that's where it ended.

It ended the second Jayce left Mel's bed to find Viktor. Because she was important, but Viktor was so much moreso.

[darkfire359]

I don’t understand why people are so upset about Christian Linke’s declaration that Viktor is asexual. Like, I don’t know anything about this creator personally, so maybe he is just homophobic on his own time or something. But as far as I can tell, he basically said two things in his interview:

- Jayce/Viktor shippers didn’t influence the writing of season 2 because they didn’t plan to take things in that direction. This shouldn’t be surprising. It also doesn’t really affect how gay Jayce and Viktor’s relationship ended up looking in practice.

- Viktor was written as being asexual from the beginning, and Linke had explicitly talked to queer Rioters ahead of time to ask what representation was lacking (they said asexuality). The latter seems like a confirmable event and thus a weird thing to lie about. So I think he genuinely did plan it from the beginning and not just decide on it as a reaction to shippers.

Now, while I’m annoyed that he seems to be conflating aromanticism and asexuality, this is kind of what I expect from the average cishet person. Honestly even queer writers like Vivziepop are guilty of this (the “ace in the hole” joke about Alastor in Hazbin Hotel is made in reference to Alastor not being romantically interested in someone). But I do prefer that writers at least *try* to write queer characters rather than just throwing out the whole thing as being too confusing.

And my impression is that they *did* try—the show had multiple points where Viktor is shown to not reciprocate Sky’s affections, as well as one point where he seems to not really understand Jayce’s interest in Mel. And of course Viktor is unbothered by having a robot body that’s incapable of sex (if only we could all upgrade ourselves like that…) In a show that doesn’t use the word “sex” or use any labels for anyone’s orientation, I think it’s hard to be explicitly clear here.

It seems like one thing people are upset about is Viktor being both disabled and asexual at the same time, and I’ll admit I don’t really understand the issue. First of all, Viktor is not the only disabled character—Sevika and late S2 Jayce are disabled as well, and it’s a particularly big issue for the former. Both of them are pretty canonically non-ace—Sevika due to the line about her visiting the brothel, and Jayce from his sex scene with Mel. I think this is like 2/5 of the characters in the whole show that are specifically non-ace.

Secondly, it seems like some of the concern with disabled characters being depicted as ace is them being seen as sexually undesirable—something clearly not the case with Viktor. Viktor is drawn / voiced very attractively (or so I gather), and in-universe he is being crushed on by Sky. Jayce also has a whole speech about how Viktor’s disability is beautiful. If the creators thought that Viktor’s disability made him unattractive in some way, they sure didn’t portray that, at all.

So yeah, I do not understand the problem with this announcement.

[madame-helen]

@such-justice-wow It was a financial failure and the most hated game of DA.

Horny fanart? Wtf, if it has the ugliest characters in the franchise! And I didn't saw none of them. That's not a success, it's just delusional gooning.

For fuck sake, drearrelic! "BioWare had lesbian romances before". Wokeism in media isn't "there's are gay, women, disabled or non white characters". It promotes DEI and ideological hiring practices that creates ideologically homogeneous studios that metastasize into Lysenkoism, toxic positivity culture and a competency crisis. It's pandering, virtue signal that use women and minorities as a shield from valid criticism!

Just because you like something, it doesn't means its good. Apart for all the ideological shit inserted in the game (the non-binary bullshit, mastectomy scars in the character creator in a damn magic world, you can't either made your fem avatar busty, the director is a self proclamed " queer gendermancer" etc).

The writing and history are trash, the companions are ugly and insufferable, the gameplay looks likeit was made for noobs, the puzzles are too easy and the enemies are weaklings easy to kill.

[oldtvandcomics]

Happy Queer Media Monday!

Today: The Movement from DC Comics

Inclusive superhero group done right.

(The team sitting over their city at the end of the first story arc. From left to right: Vengeance Moth, Burden, Katharsis, Virtue, Tremor and Mouse.)

The Movement is a 12 issue comic book series published in 2013 and 2014 by DC Comics as part of The New 52. It is probably best known on Tumblr for featuring the heroine Tremor, who is canonically asexual, but it has so, so much more to offer.

The Movement is a group of disenfranchised teenagers in Coral City, led by Holly Ann Fields aka Virtue. The series can be kind of divided into three story arcs: Their fight against the corrupted police (issue 1-8), Batgirl visiting (issue 9-10), and Burden’s fight against his brother (issue 11-12).

Superheroes being used as a metaphor for oppressed groups is nothing new, but what makes The Movement special is that they really are an incredibly diverse group, featuring many different identities. We have:

Virtue / Holly Ann Fields, who is a Black lesbian,

Tremor / Roshanna Chatterji, an asexual Indian immigrant,

Mouse / Jayden Revell, who could be argued to have an intellectual disability, though nothing concrete is actually said,

Katharsis / Kulap Vilaysack, a Laotian immigrant,

Burden / Christopher, who is gay,

Vengeance Moth / Drew Fisher, a former addict and wheelchair user with muscular dystrophy

Here is an article from when the series launched, where the creator discusses the politics of it, and a lengthy one written at the end of its run about how it championed diversity in the superhero comic medium. 

Here are the Wikipedia and DC fandom wiki articles about the series.

Queer Media Monday is an action I started to talk about some important and/or interesting parts of our queer heritage, that people, especially young people who are only just beginning to discover the wealth of stories out there, should be aware of. Please feel free to join in on the fun and make your own posts about things you personally find important!

[maneaterwithtail]

Because he's given what they want and he is very very indolent with what he has.

I like how the FIRST sign of suicide in this show AND standing up to authority come from him and they are deliberately not sympathetic and not corrected by validating this sense as a whole and the show is cheekily aware of this.

sorry to be cheap like this. But he VERY intentionally comes off like Galinda from Wicked with all the many fine criticisms and annoyances the character is intended to draw. With the key point where Glinda is manipulative and agenda driven and somewhat intentionally satiric as were contemporary broadcasted characters like Sarah Newlin and Regina George. deliberately cultivating a sweet passive aggressive social alpha stance so bad that even when intending to be good these acts are motivated by base urges and through nasty means with no fucking cost whatever their massive forward facing piety (the closest male equivalents are Light Yagami, usually some form of abusive mastermind boyfriend on lifetime). This HURTS. ESPECIALLY in presence of explicit queer, disabled, racial minority, or just recent class apartheid struggles or characters said character can come off as massively entitled, selfish, and damaging/triggering or reminding of ongoing frustrations or real traumas to the audience eager for the fresher rarer or more personally relevant story.

But then here comes the gospel of Cellspex; regardless of the fact he's the most blessed upper middle class guy with potential before him with exceptions made as to our hard-scrabble kids from the prior episode* His suffering is still VERY real and hurts not a wit less. Vi suffers the fate Jayce was threatened with, you think she appreciate Marcus's mercy of summary ostracisation from her society only to be used to further some clever rich girls agenda to further her already rarefied circumstances.

*Children who have been unfairly rocked by tragedy all their shorter livers for the privileges he takes for granted. Takes for granted so bad he would kill himself while still having all those privileges and advantages when deliberately committing more dangerous crimes more egotistically and blindly despite the devastation it has wrought to his neighborhood and his response to being SPARED EXECUTION or EXILE would do the EXACT HARM PREVENTED to his mother who in flashback he saved but is STILL in less fixation/value than this childlike fascination and attachment to magic in dismissal to everyone's chiding of it.... The harm he is callously doing to others while only seeing himself hurt to the point not see the value in life.

And he's stopped from this act not by desperate sorrowful plea but a cheeky casual almost snide remark from someone whose had less, struggled more, more experienced, and while sees value not going to take his bullshit. If viktor and mel weren't as eager to take his obvious callow annoyances and selfishness as matters to work around they would have nothing from their association with him (and note by strict heirarchy BOTH eclipse him in rank and they STILL have to do this) while he can take them for granted with at best token thanks to appreciate how they support him.

If you have EVER been in this situation. let alone due to identity politics or social unfairness. How someone can be associated with the worse of crimes yet get "promising young man" attached to him out the gate and its seems judgement how little we can or must punish him as to how much we can for breaking someone's ease of living. which, say, being a foreign woman wielding power, or an immigrant cripple you still need to cajole, charm and gladhand to merely stay in place? Watching someone wanting to end themselves because they failed to get more than they feel entitled to do even at the detriment of others and by violation of society's most formal deepest taboos (research into the Arcane "violates the ethos which guided the very founding charter" if I'm paraphrasing somewhat accurately).

A society which fails to play ball with as Jayce doesn't haggle. This forthright quality means can be easy to take as sincere but proven not above deceit and disobedience and won't even be shamed when caught, even in violently failed endeavor. And again we know Mel and Viktor need to calculate their interactions with others to maintain their achievements and position. So yes as there is some.. resentment to Jayce's privilege which he is seemingly callous and devaluing of as is his own life and the harm he causes those around him right from the characters in story closest to him. That this is so present in the story brings it that key versimilitude and creates depth

but its going to foster ALOT of annoyance with the charmed guy who is basically given a special closed trial to be let off for helping setup a bomb in town by the very people eagerly demanding 4 children or ANYONE ELSE of lower status/class or region be scapegoated for public calm.

Think of this as me trying to make clear in character, narrative, and with audience what is happening and why and how, not necessarily reflecting my personal values and judgements.

still don’t get how jayce endured so much hate during arcane. i’m not saying he wasn’t flawed. he was ambitious, naive, and loyal to almost a fault. he had conventions and notions about zaunites that he was very mistaken about, upheld from years of societal conditioning. his convictions were faltering and wavering. outside of science, he didn’t have much confidence or certainty in what he was doing.

i don’t think he was perfect—not by a long shot.

but he was always apologetic when he made mistakes and he tried his best to recalibrate to a different path when he realized what he was doing wasn’t working.

and idrc how ppl choose to define jayvik, romantically or platonically, whatever but you cannot tell me that him choosing death with viktor wasn’t as self-sacrificial and loving as it comes.

i’m rly not here for the jayce slander

[stellerssong]

ok sorry the OTHER thing about lucienne is like. as previously stated she is dream's handpicked emissary from the waking world to the dreaming she's the diplomat in chief she's the translator she's the bridge. because the dreaming is, in a very real way, dream's own psyche, this is tantamount to giving lucienne a tremendous degree of access to his interiority and by transitive property also tantamount to entering into a deeply emotionally intimate relationship with her (unimportant for the purposes of this post whether that relationship is platonic or romantic).

now, in general, looking at the pattern of dream's close emotional relationships—dream doesn't share himself with people as a rule (beyond the access that all things that live have to the dreaming; but i'm talking about his self here, the one he doesn't like to acknowledge he even has), but when he does share with people, it's with people who have some shadow on the soul, so to speak. just looking at attested relationships in show canon, his deepest emotional connection seems to be with death, who embodies the duality of light and dark even better than he does himself. calliope is the muse of epic poetry—heroism and tragedy—and also bears the sort of divine pride that led her to cut dream off for hundreds or thousands of years when he wronged her. the less said about that other guy, the better, but he's no sunshine-rainbows-unicorns type—he's a soldier of fortune, a bandit and a killer, a man who profits from the sale of human life. even best bird matthew, in comix canon, had a sordid past that will maybe be partially retconned for the show but has still been gestured at.

dream likes the complicated ones. he's drawn to them. they speak to something in him that he won't acknowledge in himself (he has to be Whole, fully integrated, without reservation, because he is the king and he is the dreaming and if the dreaming ain't whole then the universe is in trouble—but he feels that ache nonetheless).

all that is to say: when people try to portray lucienne as dream's Designated Well-Adjusted Neurotypical Friend, i begin to harm and maim.

[butnobodycame627]

why didn't peridot stay disabled… it would've added to their whole message of being different being okay and diversity and…. sigh….

[dazzlerazz]

Saw your tags, incredibly based I do the same of unintentionally intentionally making my OCs start off as bi ace unless smth suits em otherwise/better. Loved reading the tags tho :0 fun plot trope u got there

AIOHDSGFJ9-FUGIOHGI9-0FOIHJGI=es()OXFIG=soiXFH9isFG0[S OH GOSH HI

It's very easy to fall into "this oc is just like me fr" island because of self projection lol

I genuinely don't think I have any straight ocs, and that's a very weird thing to see compared to how I used to write my ocs when I was like 8-12, but it's not a bad thing! I enjoy it!

Thanks for the ask lol I love to talk about ocs

[uncanny-tranny]

It's very funny how different the reactions to The Shape of Water were when my dad watched it versus my reaction to watching it

[moredifferentthanusual]

I hate this attitude so much! This argument is stolen from disability and poc activists who have been asking for a long time for people playing disabled characters or characters from a particular ethnic background to actually be from these groups. You'll notice this actually makes total sense!

While not having scarjo play your poc is a good starting point, casting a chinese actor to play a vietnamese character because "its close enough for the white people in the audience" is still a problem. And casting accurately solves many many problems. Eg when your writer/costumer/set designer messes up the actor knows and corrections can be made. When they need to act vietnamese can.

Same goes for disability. So many autistic people hate shows about us because allistics are really bad at playing us! They can do stereotypes and act kooky enough to satisfy allistic audiences but like in the above example that means using us as objects while ignoring us as part of the audience. You have any idea how often we see mobility aids used dangerously wrong on tv? Or how often characters are supposed to have an illness but they don't have any of the symptoms! A disabled actor has symptoms! Their aids are real! And when things are depicted as real then we exist

But we don't have these same reasons for queer characters. Sure there is a queer culture, but crucially not all queer people are part of the community. There is no way to act queer the way there is to act muslim or italian, because the only thing we all have in common is being different. We come from everywhere, and we act every way. Some of us try to fit in with our communities of origin, some of us try to fit into the queer community. Neither way is right or wrong. Anyone can be queer and we can be anyone.

There are times when casting queer actors might make sense, like for a visibly trans character, but if they're not visibly trans cis people can do that. And I always like it when queer people are in things because give us money, but we can be anyone so anyone can be us

[rowenablade]

Okay. I’m going to wait to do a second watch before I articulate most of my other feelings here, but I want to address one thing.

I’m seeing a lot of posts like, “I related to Izzy because I am also queer and older/disabled/depressed. By killing him off, the writers are saying that I deserve to die.”

Guys.

I’m not saying your feelings aren’t valid. I totally understand grieving a character that you relate to. But speaking as a writer, I just want to point out that trying to write with the shadow of “what is the absolute worst and most harmful way a reader can interpret this” will smother your ability to create. Twisting yourself in knots, trying to think up the worst-faith takes possible and scotch-guarding all your writing decisions against them is exhausting to the point of making you just not want to write anymore.

And we’ve seen the writers deliberately choose not to do this in Season 1. Remember all those terrible “Izzy is racist” takes that the writers and cast seemed completely blindsided by? That happened because the writers and directors and actors weren’t going over every scene with a fine tooth comb, ferreting out every shot or line of dialogue or micro expression that could possibly be interpreted as racist, and scrubbing it off. Because there comes a point where your story is what it needs to be, and you have to accept that some people will interpret it in ways you didn’t intend them to. And if you can’t accept that, you’ll never find the courage to put your work out there.

The point of diverse casts and writing teams isn’t to achieve a state of, “Nothing bad ever happens to a character from a marginalized demographic ever again.” It’s to achieve a status quo of these types of characters just being people in the world of the story. Not symbols, not representation boxes to tick, not tokens that you can point to so that you can say, “Here, we acknowledged this type of person exists, now where’s our woke points?”

OFMD is full of characters of color, queer characters, older characters, characters of differing body types. And in stories, things happen to characters. Some fall in love. Some make the same mistakes over and over. Some turn into birds. Some die.

Izzy’s character represents a lot of things, but he does not represent every older, disabled fan or fan who has struggled with suicide, any more than Jim represents all genderqueer fans, or Olu represents all black fans. That’s not how the writers were handling him. They were handling him like a character, because that’s what you have to do.

Again, I understand being sad. I am so, so fucking sad. But this idea of, “Any time something bad happens to a character I relate to means that the writer thinks I deserve these bad things to happen to me,” will poison everything you engage with eventually. Because stories are full of things happening to characters, and they won’t all be good things. And the more representation we get, the more often bad things will happen to characters we relate to.

But good things will happen too.

Queer couples get married. Disabled women run off with their favorite husbands. Middle-aged characters change careers. A multiracial polycule finds a home at sea. A fat man covered in tattoos stars in a drag show and all his friends cheer. All these things happened in the same show as Izzy’s death. This is what this world is.

Anyway. I know emotions are running high and I’ll probably get blocked or unfollowed by a few people for this. But I’m just trying to find my peace where I can, and if anyone else finds this useful, cheers.

[demontobee]

Good Omens is queering TV/storytelling - part 1: GAZE

I would argue that part of why Good Omens is so refreshingly queer is because it does not cater to the male gaze (which centers around the preferences - aesthetic, romantic, sexual, visual, logical, emotional, political ... - of mainly white men in positions of power):

no oversexualization of groups or types of people: Women or characters that could be read as female presenting are not overly sexualized. In fact, some of them are shown to be grimy, slimy and not sexual at all. All of them are real characters and not just cardboard-cutout on-screen versions of male misogynistic fantasies. They portray real people with real people problems. They are human, or exempt from our categories when portraying angels or demons. There are no overly sexualized bodies in general (as has so far also often been the case with young gay men, PoC, etc.), no fetishization of power imbalances, and not exclusively youthful depiction of love and desire.

sex or sexual behavior is not shown directly (yet): All imagery and symbolism of sex and sexuality is used not to entice the audience but is very intimately played out between characters, which makes it almost uncomfortable to watch (e.g., Aziraphale being tempted to eat meat, Crowley watching Aziraphale eat, the whole gun imagery).

flaunting heteronormativity: Throughout GO but especially GO2, there is very little depiction of heterosexual/romantic couples; most couples are very diverse and no one is making a fuss about it. There is no fetishization of bodies or identities. Just people (and angels and demons) being their beautiful selves (or trying to).

age: Even though Neil Gaiman explained that Crowley and Aziraphale are middle-aged because the actors are, I think it is also queering the idea of romance, love and desire existing mainly within youthful contexts. Male gaze has taught us that young people falling and being in love is what we have to want to see, and any depiction of love that involves people being not exactly young anymore is either part of a fetishized power imbalance (often with an older dude using his power to prey on younger folx) or presents us with marital problems, loss of desire, etc. – all with undertones of decay and patronizing sympathy. Here, however, we get a beautifully crafted, slow-burn, and somehow super realistic love story that centers around beings older than time and presenting as humans in their 50s figuring out how to deal with love. It makes them both innocent and experienced, in a way that is refreshing and heartbreaking and unusual and real.

does not (exclusively) center around romantic/sexual love: I don’t know if this is a gaze point exactly but I feel like male gaze and resulting expectations of what a love story should look like are heavily responsible for our preoccupation with romantic/sexual love in fiction – the “boy gets girl” type of story. And even though, technically, GO seems to focus on a romantic love story in the end, it is also possible to read this relationship but also the whole show as centering around a kind of love that goes beyond the narrow confines of our conditioned boxed-in thinking. It seems to depict a love of humanity and the world and the universe and just the ineffability of existence as a whole.

disability as beautiful and innate to existence: Disability is represented amongst angels by the extremely cool Saraqael and by diversely disabled unnamed angels in the Job minisode. Representation of disability is obviously super important in its own right, but is also queers what we perceive as aesthetically and ontologically "normal". Male gaze teaches us that youth and (physical and mental) health are the desirable standard and everything else is to be seen as a deviance, a mistake. By including disability among the angels, beings that have existed before time and space, the show clearly states that disability is a beautiful and innate part of existence.

gender is optional/obsolete: Characters like Crowley, Muriel and others really undermine the (visual and aesthetic) boundaries of gender and the black-and-white thinking about gender that informs male gaze. Characters cannot be identfied simply as (binary) men or women anymore just by looking at them or by interpreting their personalities or behaviors. Most characters in GO, and especially the more genderqueer ones, display a balance of feminine and masculine traits as well as indiosyncracies that dissolve the gender binary.

Feel free to add your own thoughts on this in the comments or tags!

[bougiebutchbitch]

:lies face down on the floor:

Things Izzy Hands can canonically survive:

Being held at knifepoint

Talking to Stede Bonnet

Raiding a Spanish warship

Calling Lucius daddy

Being in a duel

Rowing miles on his own to the nearest shore

Watching the love of his life fall in love with someone else in the span of like two weeks

Interacting with the British as a wanted pirate

An attempted mutiny 

Choking/suffocation

Getting his toe cut off without anesthesia

Being forced to eat said toe

Walking, raiding and fighting effectively without said toe

Losing two more toes

Getting knives thrown at his head

Being extremely overworked while missing said toes

Being shot in the leg

Getting said leg amputated without anesthesia

A WHOLE ASS SUICIDE ATTEMPT

A storm on an unmanned ship

Walking hours/days after being shot/amputated to shoot the love his life and save the crew

Several days on the open sea with no fresh food/water

Eating raw seagull

Being sentenced to execution

Alcoholism 

Being (presumably) tortured by Ned Lowe

Being captured by the British 

Having a conversation with no nose Ricky 

Running from/killing British soldiers with one leg

Things he can't survive, apparently:

Getting shot on the left by Some Guy

[sassydefendorflower]

I want to talk about something. I want to talk about ableism in fandom. And sexism in fandom. Oh, and racism in fandom.

Mostly though, I wanna talk about how the discussion about these things often gets derailed because people don't understand what trends and typical behaviors actually are.

Whenever a Person of Color, a woman, someone disabled, someone queer (or an intersection of any of these groups) points out that certain fandom trends are bigoted in some shape or form, half the replies seem to be "but they are my comfort character! Maybe people just like them better because they are more interesting!" or even "people are allowed to have headcanons!" - the very daft even go for a "don't bring politics into fandom" which is a personal favorite because nothing exists in a vacuum and nothing is truly apolitical. But alas~

What most of these replies seemingly fail to understand is something very, very simple: it's not about you.

You, as an individual, are just one datapoint in a fandom. You are not the trend. You do not necessarily depict the typical behavior.

When someone points out that there is racism in fandom, that doesn't mean every fan is racist or perpetuating racist ideas*. By constantly mentioning your own lack of racism, quite often, you are actively derailing the conversation away from the problems at hand.

When someone names and describes a trend, they don't mean your headcanon specifically - they mean the accumulated number of headcanons perpetuating a harmful or outdated idea.

I am not saying this to forbid anyone from writing fics about their favorite characters or to keep anyone from having fun headcanons and sharing their theories and thoughts - quite the opposite actually. A critique of a general trend is not a critique of you as an individual - and you're going to have a much better, and more productive, time online if you can internalize that. If you stop growing defensive and instead allow yourself to actually digest the message of what was pointed out.

I am saying this to encourage some critical thinking.

Allow me to offer up some examples:

Case 1: A DC blogger made the daring statement that maybe Tim and Jason were such a popular fanfic focus because they are the only two undeniably white batboys. Immediately someone replied saying "no, it's all the fun traumatic situations we can put them in!". Which is an insane statement to make, considering the same can be said for literally ANY OTHER DC Batman and Batfam character.

The original post wasn't anything groundbreaking, they didn't accuse anyone, didn't name any names... but immediately there was a justification, immediately there was a reason why people might like these characters more. No one stopped to take a second and reflect on the current trends in fanfiction, no one considered that maybe this wasn't a declaration against people who like these characters but a thesis depicting the OVERALL trend of fandom once again focusing on undeniably white (and male) characters.

(don't get me started on the racebending of white characters in media that has a big Cast of Color and the implications of that)

Case 2: A meta posted on Ao3 about ableism in the Criminal Minds fandom caught my attention. A wonderful piece, very thoughtful, analyzing certain characterization choices within the fandom through the lens of an actually autistic person. The conclusion they reached: the writing of Spencer Reid as an autistic character, while often charming and comforting, tended to be incredibly infantilizing and at worst downright ableist. They came to that conclusion while CLEARLY stating that the individual fanfic wasn't the problem, but the general fandom trend in depicting this character.

Once again, looking at the replies seemed to be a mistake: while many comments furthered the discussion, there were quite a few which completely missed the point. Some were downright hostile. Because how dare this author imply that THEY are ableist when they write their favorite character using that specific characterization.

It didn't matter that the author allowed room for personal interpretation. It didn't matter that they noted something concerning about the entire fandom - people still thought they were attacking singular people.

Case 3: I wrote a fic about abortion in the FMA(b) fandom (actually I've written a weird amount of fics about abortion in a lot of fandoms, but alas) and I got hate comments for it. Because of that I addressed the bias in fandom against pro-choice depictions of pregnancies. I pointed out that the utter lack of abortion in many omegaverse stories or even mpreg or het romances, painted the picture of an unconscious bias that hurt people for whom abortion was the only option, the best possible ending. The response on the post itself was mostly positive, but I got anon hate.

(which I can unfortunately not show you since I deleted it in the months since)

And I'm not overly broken up about it, but it also underlines my point: by pointing at a general problem, a typical behavior, a larger trend... people feel personally attacked.

This inability to discuss sexism, ableism, racism, transphobia, etc in fandom without people turning defensive and hurt... well, it damages our ability to have these conversations at all.

Earlier I said YOU are not the problem - well, i think part of this discussion is acknowledging that: sometimes YOU are in fact part of the problem. And that's not the end of the world. But you can only recognize yourself as a cog in the machine, if you can examine your own actions, your own biases, your own preferences critically and without becoming defensive.

And, again, this is not to keep you from finding comfort in your favorite characters and headcanons. This is also not to say that I am free of biases and internalized bigotries - I am also very much a part of the system. A part of the problem.

This is so you can comfortably ask yourself "but why is there no abortion in this universe?" or "why are my favorite black characters always the top in my slash ships?" or "why do I write this disabled character as childish and in need of help?" - and sometimes the answer is "because I am disabled and I want comfort", and that's fine too.

There is no one shoe fits all in fiction. There is not a single trope that captures all members of a group. There is no single stereotype that isn't also someone's comfort. No group is a monolith, no experienced all-encompasing (or entirely unique).

There is never a simple answer.

But that doesn't mean you should stop questioning your own biases, your own ideals.

Especially, if you grow defensive if someone points out that a certain trend you engage in might be racist. Or sexist. Or queerphobic. Or fucking ableist.

*this does not mean negate the general anti-blackness perpetuated by most cultures as a result of colonialism and slavery

[rheakira]

I've come to temporarily break my hiatus to bring up something deeply important. Because after a recent event, if I have to go another day without talking about it, I don't know what I'll do.

Fandoms have an enormous issue when it comes to bigotry and people feeling comfortable enough to be openly bigoted.

And I want to make it clear: everyone is capable of it. In fact, most people do it more often than they don't. But because this strange myth has been built up that if you aren't "blatantly saying slurs" or "killing others" it can't possibly be bigotry, we have done nothing but become dangerous behind closed doors.

If your friend has odd beef with a person of color in the fandom and holds them to standards they don't hold their white friends to, that is bigotry. If your friend feels some sort of way about the trans person in your friend group and tries to come up with reasons for why they specifically can't stay, that is also bigotry. If your group insists that a person with a personality disorder is making it up just for attention and uses that as a reason for why they can't be around them, that is bigotry as well.

I've never been upfront about it because... why do I, as a human being, need to be upfront about my identity when people randomly decide what I am? But I am in fact a person of color who is queer and disabled. Whenever I join a fandom group that is mostly white people, I am liked until this is discovered. And then I watch as people get brutal about things I do or say. Things that they don't do to other people in the group, and I also watch as they take my words and either twist them for convenience or ruin my reputation for it.

As a marginalized person, both in fandom and out, you are held to a unique standard that does not apply to other human beings around you. It makes doing what you love very difficult, because unfortunately as a marginalized person, people will always subconsciously side with the person trying to oppress or attack you. This has happened to me my entire life, from school to work spaces to even internet spaces claiming to be safe places.

People will say that they care about you and like you and even form a friendly bond with you, but the moment a person of privilege decides they do not like you very much, they can and will side with the other person even without proof of their issues with you. It's exhausting and ruins lives in places that should be fun and safe.

I am on my umpteenth experience with this exact cycle and I would be lying if I said it didn't make me feel like I couldn't live or breath in places I should be allowed to be involved in. It's a very real problem that refuses to end because no one has the courage to challenge it. I am speaking not only on my own experiences, but for the many other people of color or queers or disabled people who simply cannot join these so called "safe spaces" because of our identities conflicting with people who have been taught that we are lesser and not worth love or care.

If this is a problem you face, please know that I see you and I love you. It's hard to keep surviving in a world that wants to hurt you and leaves you abandoned and alone. I want you to know that the world is scary, but we all exist. You should be allowed to experience joy and fun without feeling like you're being suffocated and wanting to die.

You matter. The people around you that make you feel like you don't are nothing by comparison. You matter and I truly hope that we'll one day find each other and become the safe space that we deserve.

The marginalized people in your fandom are more important than your fictional characters and plotlines that you put above us. We're here and we're not leaving. Learn to live with us and protect us.

If we're truly your friends, you would care when your privileged "friends" want to remove us.

Additionally, please do not take this rant and make it only about white people who are part of these marginalized categories. This is a post about EVERYONE. Including the people of color around you. Do not remove us from this conversation. Care about ALL OF US if you support this at all. Thank you.