#not impossible. just not as common. especially real big.

[noctomania]

Im so glad i didn't end up being an art teacher. Could you imagine students showing up with AI generated art being like "yes i made this" with the paper still warm from the printer in the library and the URL printed in the bottom corner. I'd have to walk out.

[blocksgame]

Tips on character voices when writing fic

This is written in mind for people writing fic in MCYT/QSMP/DSMP/Life series/etc kind of fandoms. But if anyone finds it useful for anything else, well then, hell yeah.

Character voice is big in all, uh, fiction, and mimicking it in any fanwork is big. But I think it’s especially big in these fandoms where the voices are so distinct – it’s usually how a Real Person Somewhere (the streamer) talks, versus something very scripted that you’d see in a TV show or novel. And it can be a big difference in your character sounding generic versus really feeling true to the original.

Listen to a bunch of your subject talking. If you want to write a character well, watch vods from their point of view, or episodes where they show up a bunch. Take note of what they say and how.

2. If you don’t know how to start doing that: try literally writing down what they say. Transcribe an actual exchange in fic-format. You probably won’t want to publish a literal exchange from canon, but it will give you a sense of how to physically write what they say.

3. If you do this (or just pay attention to how they talk), you will get a lot of: Stumbling, pauses, repeating words, filler words, weird sentence constructions, fragments, etc. I love em! Here’s something that comes through in improv much more than in novels or movies: Most people, even very charismatic people, are not very eloquent when they speak. Writing out conversations or sentences will give you a sense of the unique and delightful way in which your subject is not eloquent. vvvvv way more under cut vvvvv

(People use a LOT of filler/etc when they speak. It’s reasonable to cut back on this if it’s interfering with a nice-looking or readable result. I believe this is the eternal struggle of people who write transcripts – you want the transcript to be accurate, but there are also a lot of things you can obviously simplify and not lose the meaning. So you’ll end up falling somewhere on this spectrum either way. But I do think a lot of mediocre/generic fic dialogue is very stylized – it doesn’t sound like your guy because your guy literally wouldn’t say that. They would say it worse and more confusingly.)

(I’m serious, if you’ve never sat down with a short non-completely-scripted clip or real conversation or whatever and just written out exactly what was said, do it. It will make you better at writing.)

4. Wonda-cat made a really incredible list [link] of characterizing speech patterns for the Dream SMP members. But you can also do your own reconnaissance and come up with your own patterns, common phrases, etc.

5. You do not have to get EVERYTHING right. You’re not going to, like, get so deep into the speaker’s brain that you can produce “exactly what they would have said if they were somehow in your fic.” That is impossible. You’re just trying to evoke a character, and if you get a few turns of phrase to ring true, you’re doing great.

6. A lot of these people are popular because they are hilarious. Include jokes. Yes, even if your thing is angsty or serious. A lot of the most serious lore I can think of from, e.g., the Dream SMP or 3rd Life or the QSMP - the really story-defining, life-and-death moments - were absolutely hysterical. If you’re writing characters who are usually funny, then add some humor. It can heighten angst via contrast and a sense of realism. Ask yourself what a funny streamer would make jokes about if they were possessing a character in this situation.

7. Some people have the mystical ability to “hear” character voices in their head, and read things in their voice. If you can, do this with all of your dialogue during the editing process. This won’t always get you there, but sometimes it can catch things that sound wrong by invoking "that's really hard to imagine them saying". If you don’t have this power, try recruiting a friend who does.

8. So there’s dialogue and then there’s narration that’s still from a character’s point of view. I’ve mostly given you tips about dialogue, but a lot of this is also true for narration. IMO, narration is less about phrasing things the way the subject would, and more about recreating the way they think. I don’t have concrete rules on how to do this, but here is my wisdom:

You can get eloquent again - narration is more of an abstract and artistic process than dialogue.

Spend time with your subject’s source material.

Pay attention to what they notice and care about. How do you think they think?

Don’t be afraid to get weird with it.

That last one also applies to all art ever.

9. MCYT tends to give you a great boon you don’t see in other media: what the speaker says to their chat/audience when nobody else is listening. This can be incredibly characterizing even if you’re writing a story where people don’t have chats. It’s your person talking about their thought processes and feelings! Mine that shit.

10. Some questions that might help guide both characterizing narration and dialogue (that you’d get from dialogue):

How open are they about their feelings?

How often do they lie? What do they lie about?

What kind of metaphors do they use, if any?

How quickly does their mood change?

How can you tell when they’re in different moods?

What kind of things do they pay attention to?

How formal is their speech?

11. Finally, this is a little odd, but I find it’s much, much easier to write a character that sounds good if I, the author, like them and am rooting for them at least a little bit. If a character needs to be there who you don’t love, try to love them. Or at least get a sense of what other people love about them. It just makes everything else easier. I swear to god.

Happy writing out there!

[dyns33]

Rafiq alruwh

I'm not sure yet if this will be a Bane x reader oneshot or not.

I like it like that, but I could find ideas for part 2. My only problem being that I still need to finish others Tom Hardy's characters story, while wanting to write Feyd Rautha stories.

As much as Y/N listened to these stories over and over again, she couldn't imagine the feeling everyone would describe.

The moment your skin touched your soulmate's skin, and suddenly everything became clear, better. A feeling of joy and the burning need to stay by this person's side forever.

It was a rare phenomenon that scientists could not explain. It was completely impossible to know when this would happen, or if it would happen, because fate seemed cruel. Most people either didn't have soulmates or didn't have the chance to meet them in their lifetime. The world was too big and time too short.

There were still skeptics, who claimed that it was all nonsense, lies, invented by people blinded by love or who wanted to give themselves a certain gender. Only those who ended up meeting the person changed their mind, the others remaining too jealous to accept the truth, considering that it was only a romantic utopia.

Y/N wanted to believe in it. She dreamed of meeting her soulmate and experiencing this special moment.

Her parents were not meant to be together. It was visible.

In her entourage, she had an uncle who had had this experience, a few neighbors, a friend, and all had said the same thing.

What they had in common was that they were all good people. Maybe that was one of the reasons.

“You might have had to choose another type of profession then.”

"Mom…"

“I’m just saying that cop is not the most popular job in the world.”

"And I would say that choosing to be a non-corrupt police officer in Gotham is almost like being a saint."

"You'll end up getting killed, long before you meet your soulmate. I'll never understand why you wanted to be a cop, especially in this town."

There came a day when her mother's fears almost became a reality. The day when terrorists took the entire city hostage with a bomb, preventing everyone from entering and leaving.

It was probably not what she had thought when she talked about dying, but for several months, hidden with her colleagues, Y/N thought about her soulmate, trying to imagine this meeting that would probably never happen.

Staying mainly with Blake and Gordon, she tried to hide her pain, but it did not escape Miranda Tate, who took her hand with a gentle smile and asked what was tormenting her.

“We’re going to die here.” Y/N whispered. "I mean, I'm not afraid of that, that's the risk of the job. But… I didn't think it would be like this now. I wish I had met my soulmate before."

"Your rafiq alruwh. I didn't think many people cared about it here."

"My what ?"

"That's how my father called soulmates. I grew up with a lot of stories about it, because he and my mother were related. I prayed a lot to be that for one of my friends, but no. Our destinies are linked, but not like that.”

"Sorry."

"Even if I would have liked him to be mine, I wish him happiness and that he meets his other half one day. A being worthy of him, of his love and his protection. He deserves to be happy. You too, you seem kind. Maybe you shouldn't have been here."

Her words were strange, but Y/N didn’t tell the others. It wouldn't have changed anything anyway. Even though she had discovered that Miranda Tate had the detonator, that she was the real leader of the terrorists, the streets remained controlled by the militias.

As always, they were saved by the Batman. She had never really known what to think of the vigilante, protected by Gordon and hated by everyone else. He clearly wanted to help Gotham, but his methods remained illegal, and not necessarily effective in the long term.

His death was a tragedy, but not necessarily the end of a symbol. Hope was still there, even stronger, and the Gotham police were determined to ensure everyone's safety.

Y/N felt this determination too.

Still, she froze as she inspected the sewers with Blake and Ramirez. They too had a moment of hesitation, as their lamps illuminated a body. A huge body, sitting against the wall, face hidden by this frightening mask.

There had been a search for Bane and his men after the explosion. Witnesses said the Batman fought him, and won, but they found nothing.

Obviously, the terrorist had managed to drag himself here to die.

"What do we do ?" Ramirez asked shyly. “Should we put a bullet in his head ?”

"What ? Why do you want to do this ?"

"To make sure he's dead. I've seen a lot of movies, man, I know the mistakes to avoid."

She didn't approve of the speech, but Y/N agreed, it was necessary to check it out.

Feeling almost stupid, she moved forward slowly, her hand reaching towards Bane to see if he felt a pulse.

She didn't expect the large hand that quickly grabbed her neck before she could touch him.

Fear paralyzed her body, and yet there was something else. An indescribable, incredible feeling, which resembled happiness but more intense, which was absurd in this situation.

Y/N felt so lost that she didn't realize the hand was relaxing, just resting against her skin instead of squeezing and snapping her neck like it easily could have done.

"Habibi…" was the word spoken with difficulty by Bane, who stared at her with an indecipherable expression.

“Let her go right now, you bastard !”

Maybe he was as confused as her, or maybe he was too weak, but the terrorist didn't avoid Ramirez's punch, while Blake grabbed Y/N to pull her as far away as possible.

She stood still, not understanding what was happening, as Ramirez called for reinforcements, proud of having been able to knock out the giant, even though he knew as well as anyone that he would have had no chance. if his mask hadn't been damaged and he wasn't half dead. It was not possible.

Bane couldn't be her soulmate, Y/N refused to believe it. A man like him had no soul, not after everything he had done, and above all why would he be destined for her ? She didn't feel like she had committed a crime that deserved such punishment.

She was probably never going to see him again anyway.

If he survived to Blackgate, he would be locked there forever. Even if she had permission, she had no intention of visiting him.

But the feeling remained there, strong, impossible to ignore, demanding more. An incomprehensible need to be close to the one who had touched her, so that he would touch her again.

Y/N resisted. She gave her report to Commissioner Gordon, forgetting a few small details, and indicating that she did not wish to follow this case, leaving Bane's case to better agents than her.

This seemed to surprise him, as he considered her one of his best people, but he accepted.

However, it was impossible not to think of her soulmate, since the whole town was only talking about him and his arrest. The television was on loop every day, and her colleagues thought they were doing the right thing by keeping her informed of progress.

"They say his face is horrible. I think there are photos in the file."

"I'd love to see that ! I can't imagine that fucker at all without his weird mask. Do you think he has a normal voice without that thing ?"

“I can go get it so we check.”

Ramirez's gaze met hers as he stood, and without her needing to speak, he knew it was best for him to sit back down and change the subject.

Y/N didn’t see the photos. She absolutely didn't want to.

After several weeks, she asked to take a vacation, claiming to still be traumatized by what had happened to her, in addition to the near destruction of Gotham. She needed some time to rest.

Turning off all the screens and her phone, she tried meditation to clear her mind, so she could get some sleep and forget that her soulmate was a crazy, half-dead terrorist who would soon be judged.

This miserable attempt being a failure, she turned her phone back on shortly after midnight, only to be bombarded with calls and messages, coming from several colleagues, Blake, and Gordon.

"What is happening ?" she asked, calling the Commissioner back.

"Damn, I almost sent men to check on you, you weren't responding ! Where are you ? Are you okay ?"

“I’m at home, why ?”

"Don't panic. Blake will come get you."

“Gordon, what’s going on ?”

"He hasn't said anything since his arrest, keeping very quiet, and then yesterday Bane spoke. He asked to see you, giving your name. The other agents are categorical, it's impossible that he knows ot, no one told him. The agent simply replied that you were not on the investigation, and even on vacation… Damn, he…"

“Gordon, what ?”

"He escaped, Y/N. We don't know how. No one knows where he is, or what he's going to do. But since he talked about you, I don't want to take any risks. Don't move, John will come right away."

She could have told him that she knew very well why Bane had spoken about her, and that it was undoubtedly necessary for her to leave without delay, but fear held her back.

Even if it wasn't her fault, what would the commissioner think when he learned of her connection to the fugitive ? He was a good man, but all men had their limits, and she would be the first to be wary of someone designated as Bane's soulmate.

After hanging up, she jumped out of bed to grab her gun and shoes, ready to wait for Blake to arrive in her living room.

Y/N froze in the middle of the hallway, seeing the huge figure standing between her and the front door.

His face was covered by a scarf, his posture a little less proud than in the videos she had seen of him during his city hostage situation, he appeared to be in pain, but it was obvious that if she tried to pass, he would retain her without the slightest difficulty.

“Habibi.” he whispered, and indeed his voice was different without his mask, more human. "What a joy to see you again. More beautiful than I remember or on pictures. Will you come with us without resistance ? I don't want to hurt you."

"Hands in the air." she replied, pointing her gun at him, ignoring the urge to hug him. “Don’t move, my colleagues are coming.”

"I admire your sense of duty and honor, Habibi. But I will not return to prison, ever again. And I will not leave you either. I thought of you every day. Is your neck healed ? I need to repair my wrongs to you.”

“I said, put your hands in the air.”

“So you leave us no choice, Habibi.” he sighed, looking behind her.

We. He said we, and someone gave him her name. Y/N reacted too late, one man grabbing her gun, and the other not holding her shoulder, injecting something into her neck with a syringe.

In an instant, she found herself on the ground, her vision blurring, but her body not panicking, as it was invaded by an incredible sensation. Bane had reached out to hug her, his eyes smiling as he ran a hand over her cheek.

"It's okay. I'm taking you home, rafiq alruwh."

All her life, Y/N had waited for this moment, this feeling, this sentence. She told herself that the stories we said to children were really stupid, as her eyes closed.

[syndrossi]

I was going to leave this as a comment on the ask you just answered, but it was getting too long, so, new ask it is: As amazing as Jon and Rhaegar being twins is, there have been many ideas/thoughts on how to squish Dany into a Resonant AU just for fun. Do you have any you especially enjoyed thinking about or think are plausible? Her being their eight-year-old reborn triplet would obviously be fun. I do think her being from yet another universe where she hasn't met Jon yet makes the most sense, so that all three of them are on sort of an even playing field coming into their new circumstances. (Maybe even one where she hasn't hatched dragons yet, that way when she gets a dragon egg with Jon and Rhaegar, it's just as exciting for her as it is for them? Or a verse where she never meets Jon at all, and instead saved the world with Aegon/Young Griff and/or Rhaenys?) I like the idea of her being reborn into the younger!version of Nettles too, thus being their little sister instead of their triplet. I feel like the dynamic shift with a very pretty and Valyrian-in-appearance yet natural born little sister could get real fun and interesting in the Red Keep very quickly, especially since they really do need more girls in this family... All that said, I think my absolute favorite idea for Dany that has been suggested so far is probably the one with her showing up unexpectedly in an au of Reverberate AU where Daemon is shocked at receiving three babies instead of two. 😂 If you DO write a drabble with her in it, I'd vote for this one. I can just see Daemon's shocked pikachu face at being handed THREE babies when he was expecting two...

I think the Resonant set-up but with triplets is the most popular suggestion, but also the least plausible to me. A triplet live birth is so exceedingly rare that people are going to talk about it, and I feel like word would reach Daemon eventually and he'd put two-and-two together. Plus, they'd be an attraction any time someone visited the Gates of the Moon, and TWO Targaryen colored children out of three is going to be nigh impossible to keep under wraps.

So an "early Nettles" relationship (if you ascribe to the theory that Nettles his bastard) would work better for sure. Perhaps he has a dalliance with another lady in Rhea's court before Elys arrives, or perhaps it's with *gasp* a commoner, so she is baseborn. I think it's easier to "hide" a bastard if the mother is a commoner, but a noble lady would have SOME means at least. Perhaps Rhea learns of it as well and "handles" the matter, fuming, to further clean up Daemon's messes so as not to deal with the political inconvenience of her husband's outright infidelity.

So here, Dany would be slightly older than the twins, physically, but they'd be near enough in age to be basically triplets. Maybe on Rhea's deathbed, she's like "by the way, asshole, you have ANOTHER illeg--erm, I mean you have an ACTUAL bastard child living in Gulltown."

As you said, it's an interesting scenario because a) you have the tension of Viserys wanting a proper legitimate princess so he'll have to legitimize her (even if she's *le gasp* baseborn!), and b) the bastard-by-association fears with Dany and the Velaryon boys. And Jon and Rhaegar of course ready to spring to her defense for anyone who dares try to confront her about her bastard roots.

My preferred "which Dany makes the jump" is also a 14-16-year-old version. I think it's cleaner if she isn't the mother of dragons yet, as that's a rough (and complicated) set of bonds to have broken, and she gets to share in Rhaegar's wonder. Plus Jon gets to be double the big brother! Though in terms of maturity, a 16-year-old Dany who hasn't yet gone back to Westeros and has been struggling with the politics of Essos is also a fun midpoint between 14-year-old Rhaegar and 19-year-old Jon. She would feel more like the Dany people are familiar with than her very innocent/naive fourteen-year-old self.

I'm with you where my personal favorite would just be Daemon, all confident in his prediction of twins to the point of commissioning a double-sized twin-dragon-head cradle, getting flummoxed by triplets and spending the next three years terrified of something happening to Dany. (Once she survives their first year, his suspicion probably falls upon the Spring Fever that killed Elys.)

It's probably the least satisfying for people who want to read Dany-with-the-boys, since I'm betting they want the payoff of them being able to converse and seem more like their canon equivalents, vs the much more blended outcome you get in Reverberate, where the boys (and Dany) act somewhat more like their physical age, especially early on.

I'm definitely far more likely to write something along these lines in a oneshot, since the character relationships/dynamics get exponentially more complex whenever you add a new one to it. With the original Resonant trio, there are four main dynamics to follow: Jon+Daemon, Jon+Rhaegar, Rhaegar+Daemon, Jon+Daemon+Rhaegar. With Dany, on top of those four, we now also have Jon+Dany, Daemon+Dany, Rhaegar+Dany, Jon+Dany+Rhaegar, Jon+Dany+Daemon, Rhaegar+Dany+Daemon, and Jon+Dany+Rhaegar+Daemon, aka SEVEN more. It's not so bad in a oneshot, where you don't have to cover the development of all of those--it's generally just a snapshot of their relationship at a certain point in time.

[iridecsense]

mha characters x chubby!gf headcanons - m.

ft.୭̥⋆*— i.midoriya, k.bakugou, t.amajiki

contents୭̥⋆*— fluff, smut, kinks

author's note୭̥⋆*— these are more like mini-fics than headcanons at this point. a peace offering for Lip Smacker’s delay. it’s coming I promise! this is a college au, meaning all characters are aged up to 18+ consenting adults, more specifically all characters are in their 20s

izuku midoriya

૮₍ ˃̵͈᷄ . ˂̵͈᷅ ₎ა — when izuku first saw you he immediately thought, 'cute'.

૮₍ ˃̵͈᷄ . ˂̵͈᷅ ₎ა — you were eating at the dining hall with ochako. he never saw you before, but just by looking at you, he decided he loved your chubby cheeks and round face. to him, you looked like a doll, pretty and soft. And when you smiled? well, that was it for him.

૮₍ ˃̵͈᷄ . ˂̵͈᷅ ₎ა — he officially met you at a party and was incredibly nervous around you at first. it didn’t help that you were wearing the sexiest outfit in the room. he was glad that by the time he had gained the courage to talk to you he'd been five shots in, otherwise you'd acknowledge his incredibly red face.

૮₍ ˃̵͈᷄ . ˂̵͈᷅ ₎ა — luckily for him, you did notice his blushing face and stuttered words weren't alcohol induced but because he was crushing on you. truthfully, you'd known for a while he fancied you. he wasn't exactly discreet in his stares. just like how he was staring at you now, with big doe eyes staring down at you like you were his whole world. it's why you gave him your number.

૮₍ ˃̵͈᷄ . ˂̵͈᷅ ₎ა — he courted you in the way most girls only dream of. he'd take you on the best dates and bring you gifts, like teddy bears and sweets you liked. He'd give you his jacket if you were cold, brush your hair out of your face when you were talking to him, even walk you to your dorm and call you when he got back to his to talk you to sleep.

૮₍ ˃̵͈᷄ . ˂̵͈᷅ ₎ა — the night you kissed him in front of your apartment door was a night he'd never forget. he'd seared it into his memory, from the feel of your lips, the sound of your shakey breaths, and the softness of your waist in his hands.

૮₍ ˃̵͈᷄ . ˂̵͈᷅ ₎ა — once he had a taste he just couldn't get enough. it was almost impossible to keep his hands and lips off you. he'd gotten so bold that he started kissing and borderline groping you in public or while in the company of others. it started to become a real problem.

૮₍ ˃̵͈᷄ . ˂̵͈᷅ ₎ა — "get a room jagoff!" katsuki grumbled as he threw a pillow at izuku's head while he was on top of you doing some heavy petting on the common room couch.

૮₍ ˃̵͈᷄ . ˂̵͈᷅ ₎ა — you giggled underneath him, twirling the hair at the nape of his neck between your fingers. "maybe he's right," you said. "we should get a room."

૮₍ ˃̵͈᷄ . ˂̵͈᷅ ₎ა — that was all he needed to sweep you off the couch and carry you to his bedroom.

૮₍ ˃̵͈᷄ . ˂̵͈᷅ ₎ა — izuku is so gentle, he treats you like a porcelain doll. That's what you were to him. "my doll," he'd whisper in your ear as his hands traveled lower, lower, lower... you gasp.

૮₍ ˃̵͈᷄ . ˂̵͈᷅ ₎ა — "you're my sweet doll. my precious little doll. i'm gonna make you feel good okay? you want me to make you feel good, right baby?"

૮₍ ˃̵͈᷄ . ˂̵͈᷅ ₎ა — you were so soft and warm, he could bury his face in your tits forever. he loved leaving hickies along your body, especially your thighs.

૮₍ ˃̵͈᷄ . ˂̵͈᷅ ₎ა — man did he love your thighs.

૮₍ ˃̵͈᷄ . ˂̵͈᷅ ₎ა — he loved the way they encased his hips as he snapped his hips against you. but he most loved them straddled across his own with you bouncing on top, wrapped in his arms, holding you close.

૮₍ ˃̵͈᷄ . ˂̵͈᷅ ₎ა — he wants to feel all of you all the time—your soft flesh pressed against his, his strong arms encasing you, his chin resting on your chest as he looked up at you through half-lidded eyes, watching your face contort into visions of ecstasy. his sweet doll.

૮₍ ˃̵͈᷄ . ˂̵͈᷅ ₎ა — "cum for me doll, please," he'd beg, kissing your breasts. "i want to feel my babydoll squeeze around my cock with her pretty little pussy...so warm for me...so tight. does it feel good when i'm inside you? tell me. tell me it feels good."

૮₍ ˃̵͈᷄ . ˂̵͈᷅ ₎ა — everything is about you. he will spend hours making you come. he'll eat you out till his jaw locks, make you cum around his fingers until you were a sensitive quivering mess and he'll do it gladly.

૮₍ ˃̵͈᷄ . ˂̵͈᷅ ₎ა — all for his precious little doll.

katsuki bakugou

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — you had known katsuki briefly in childhood. his family had vacationed one summer in your seaside town and he met you on a particularly hot day at the beach.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — you were only ten at the time. your parents let you go off on your own and you found a small cove with a treasury of seashells to collect.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — alas, your pleasant time shifting through sand and mud was interrupted by two thick-headed middle-schoolers. the boys teased and tormented you, calling you names and insulting your appearance and weight.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — around the same time, katsuki was passing by, finding the forced vacation "shitty". he saw the boys picking at you. he was more annoyed than anything. it is one thing to pick on someone younger than you, but a girl?

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — he had the gall to step in and teach the bastards a lesson, but before he could move, you had already thrown a powerful punch at one of the assailant's jaw and kicked the other's in the groin.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — you had them running off, sniveling with their tails between their legs.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — needless to say, he was impressed.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — he came up to you, intending to appraise you in his own way by saying something along the lines of "didn't think a girl could throw a punch like that."

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — but you were still shaken by the encounter and the sight of another boy with—let's not pretend—a rather threatening aura, fixed you to defensively throw a second punch straight at his gut.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — somehow, in that moment, you earned his respect.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — once you apologized, having realized your mistake, and the two of you became fast friends. Playing heroes together, exploring the town, swimming in the sea, and eating both your weights in ice cream and carnival foods.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — he found you funny, adventurous, and assertive. unlike the "friends" he had back home, you didn't let him order you around or follow him blindly, you walked with him. you were like partners in crime. equals.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — he would not say it, but you are what made his summer vacation bearable. leaving was one of the hardest things he had to do as a ten-year-old boy.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — "see you next summer?" you asked.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — "whatever."

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — he knew he wouldn't.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — he watched you wave through the back window of the car until it rounded the corner and you disappeared. he sank back into his seat and after a while, his parents heard muffled sniffles coming from the back seat.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — "are you alright, katsuki?" his mother asked, gazing at her son through the rearview mirror. his eyes were red and full of tears.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — "im fine."

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — it's always the friends you meet on vacation and never see again that leave such deep impressions, right?

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — that is until he did see you again, ten years later, walking around campus as if it were any other day.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — it was like seeing a ghost. you looked the same as you did all those years ago.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — well, sort of.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — you were still thick, but you certainly grew into yourself as a woman, with the curves to match.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — but it was definitely you. you still had your laugh, your dimpled smile, and the same confidence you had back then. he was glad to know not much changed about you.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — he kept an eye out for you whenever he was out. far enough away to where you wouldn't notice him. he didn't know how to approach you. he didn't want to scare you off. for all he knew, you didn't remember him at all. then he would just be some freak who obsessed over a girl he met ten years ago.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — it was only when he was sitting at the student union with his headphones in his ears, working on an assignment between classes that he felt a tap on his shoulder.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — he took his headphones off prepared to curse out whoever decided to bug him unprovoked when he saw you, smiling awkwardly down at him.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — "i'm sorry, this may sound weird but you remind me of a childhood friend i had. is your name katsuki by chance?"

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — you remembered.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — and just like that, you were back in his life.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — it was awkward at first. you both reminisced about the past and caught up on each other's lives currently. but it wasn't long before you both went back to your antics, joking around, playing video games, and having late-night drives and sleepovers at each other's dorms.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — his friends got to know you as well. some of them even calling you the prettier, nicer version of him.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — one night, while katsuki was spending the night in your dorm, the two of you were laying close together on the bed binge-watching Game of Thrones.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — "do you think i would look better if looked like that?" you asked, referring to a scene where Daenerys unclothes herself.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — "what are you talking about? you want to dye your hair white?"

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — you sucked your teeth. "No. y'know, like if i lost weight. i think i'd get more dates if i looked like khaleesi," you say, half joking.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — katsuki frowned. "don't be stupid."

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — you looked at him. "what do you mean stupid?"

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — "you don't need to lose weight, especially not for some shit-head guy. your body is perfect the way it is."

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — your face flushed. "perfect?"

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — katsuki looked into your eyes, then down at your lips. without thinking he crashed his lips against yours. you kissed him back, letting your head fall back into the pillow. the rest is history.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — he is a little rough, but only because it's hard for him to control these feelings he's had for you for so long. he makes up for it with affirmations, consistent kisses, and pet names.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — "my girl..." "baby..." "sunshine..." though, the latter, which he calls you because he met you during the day where the sun shined its brightest, is most often used when he is teasing you for being a brat.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — he practically rips off your clothes and his, so desperate to feel you under him.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — he loves your ass. it's one of his favorite things to grab and smack. he loves the sounds you make when he fucks you, his hips snapping into you so fast you're seeing stars. he loves it when you call his name and claw at his back.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — he most likes to fuck you from behind, or while standing up and holding you in his arms with your legs wrapped around him. he liked finding new ways to show you how strong he was, and how your weight would never be a problem for him.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — "you're mine," he'd pant in your ear. " this ass is mine. theses tits are mine. this pussy is mine. all mine."

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — but when you fuck him, that's when he really loses his mind.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — and the way you sucked his dick sent him to the astral plane. and looking down at your pretty face, mouth full of his cock and your pretty puppy-dog eyes.

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — "f-fuck...you're gonna kill me, girl."

૮ ๑ˊᯅˋ๑ აִ — how lucky was he that he found the girl he couldn't forget after all these years. how lucky was he that you were all his.

tamaki amajiki

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — it was only natural that tamaki was a foodie. he loved food. he spent most of his time thinking about food. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — so did you, considering you had a passion for cooking. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — you looooved to cook for your friends. it was your love language. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა —but if you had to pick which out of all your friends you liked cooking for the most, it was tamaki.

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — tamaki loved your food. he would always compliment your cooking, even if it was something as simple as ramen. somehow you made it taste so so good. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — you often teased him about it, just so you could make him blush.

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — it came to a point where you started packing lunches for him and making him dinner on weekends. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — mirio would tease the two of you about it a lot. one time mirio caught you giving tamaki his lunch for the day in a cutesie bento box and joked, “it’s like you’re an old married couple!” 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — tamaki blushed profusely and went on a five minute rant about how mirio should be careful about what he says so he doesn’t make you uncomfortable. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — but you werent uncomfortable or embarrassed. secretly you liked the idea of being married to your sweet tamaki. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — he did too. he liked it so much that he often had dreams about it. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — you’d be happily married together, and you would keep cooking him delicious foods and he would spoil you rotten and you’d have his kids. you’d be the perfect happy family. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — if only he had the courage to ask you out first. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — he tried many times, but he would get so embarrassed he would turn into a bumbling idiot and you would be your sweet self and try to talk him down. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — “it’s okay tamaki, you dont have to say anything if you don't want to.”

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — it wasnt that he didn’t want to, it was that he was scared. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — you were the beautiful, bright, bubbly, y/n. you were worlds ahead of him, probably so high you couldnt see him the way he saw you. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — oh, but you did. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — tamaki’s birthday was around the corner and you spent days trying to make the perfect cake. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — you practically slaved in the kitchen and spent absurd amounts of money on ingredients to make several different batches of cake. you wanted everything to be perfect because you were going to confess to him that day and you couldnt give your crush a shitty birthday cake when you’re professing your love. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — you spent days in that kitchen, even falling asleep in it a few times, covered in flour and chocolate. nonstop it was, wake up, bake, get ready for class, go to class, bake again, pass out. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — your friends barely saw you, and in your frenzy you’d forgotten to pack lunches for tamaki all week.

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — he grew worried, and on friday night, the day before his birthday, he went to your apartment to check on you. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — you were sitting in front of the oven, watching the cake rise and slowly nodding off to sleep when you heard your doorbell ring. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — jolting up you looked down at the lockscreen of your phone on the counter. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — ”SHIT!” it was friday. you usually cook dinner for tamaki on fridays. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — rushing to the door you primped yourself the best you could and opened it, revealing tamaki. he looked down at you, covered in flour and frosting. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — “is everything okay, y/n?”

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — “yeah, of couse everythings fine why do you ask?” you grin. liar.

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — “can i come in?”

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — and how could you say no to him and his pretty eyes? 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — so now tamaki was in your apartment, and you were desperately trying to figure out how to convince him to leave before he found the dozens of failed cakes in your kitchen. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — “i came by because i’m worried about you,” he said. “i havent seen you all week.”

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — your heart practically melted. you tried to tell him you were just busy with homework you procastinated doing, but he didnt seem so convinced. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — then, the scent of burnt surgar started to fill the room, and tamaki smelled the air, his head turning towards the kitchen. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — “is something burning?”

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — then the smoke detector went off. your eyes widened. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — “FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!”

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — you ran for the kitchen, tamaki following after you to help. cake number 16 had burnt in the oven and a thick fog of smoke filled the kitchen. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — you worked quickly to get it out the oven and shut it off. tamaki found a kitchen towel and fanned the smoke away until the detecter went silent. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — once everything seemed to be handled, he took in the state of your kitchen, full of ‘failure’ cakes that said “happy birthday, tamaki!”, “i love you tamaki”, and “happy birthday tamaki, lets make out!”

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — “you were making these for me?”

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — and the beans were spilt. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — you admitted to tamaki that you had spent the week baking him birthday cakes because you wanted to make something perfect for him and because...

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — “i love you,” you confessed, nervous of the outcome, but glad to have finally said it. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — just like that, you gave tamaki the best birthday gift he could ask for. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — a smile spread across his lips and he took your hand in his. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — “i feel like i should have been the one to tell you that first.”

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — he swiftly pressed a kiss onto your lips, pulling away only slightly, to gage your reaction. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — you smiled and kissed him back, wrapping your arms around his neck. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — the kiss grew heated and he began pushing you back into an empty counter where he lifted you up with ease, entraping himself between your legs. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — he trailed kisses down your neck where he licked a spot of chocolate icing left behind. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — your shaky moan was all it took for him to rip off your apron and blouse. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — his tongue trailed along your body, licking and sucking your breats while he dove his hand under your skirt and rubbed you through your panties. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — “does mommy...want daddy to make her feel good?”

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — oh, god yes! 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — you captured his lips into a sloppy kiss, rocking your hips into his hand. somewhere in the thick of things, you got you hands on the can of whipped cream you left out. gently pulling tamaki’s lips from your neck, you held the whipped cream between your bodies. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — smirking you tilted the nozzle down at your chest, and swirled whip cream on your chest and nipples. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — “oh, mommy.” he moaned, immediatly diving his face into your tits, lapping and sucking the sweetness off and leaving hickies on your chest in the process. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — his hands were fumbling with the belt of his jeans, pulling down the zipper to fish out his cock. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — can you believe he fucked you on that countertop?

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — he drove his hips into like his life depended on it. all this time he spent pining for you came down to this moment, and he couldnt be happier to get lost in your pussy. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — “y’feel so good,” he’d pant. “’g’na cum so hard mommy...g’na fill you up... get you pregnant...yeah...you like that? daddy’s gonna breed you, baby.... ‘n make you his”

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — between his cock and his dirty words, you came so hard you saw white. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — he came too and kept his promise, filling you up with his cum. he kept his cock inside you and pressed his hand against your stomach. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — “you keep it in there, okay?” he slurred. “don’t let it come out. imma take care of you. i’m gonna marry you. i love you. i love you so much.”

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — he held you close, and kissed you softly. 

૮(ˊ ᵔ ˋ)ა — that was the first time you ever truly considered getting off the pill. 

[ghostflowerhotpotch]

Do you think that gwen stacy is trans?

Yes, yes I do.

Now, the last time I talked about this I also mentioned I didn't see a point in making a post about it, because nothing I was going to say was going to be different than what you had probably already seen everywhere else.

That being said-

I had seen SO MANY idiots on the internet, to which I haven't replied (because I am also trans I used to know when or not to bother with people like that,) which had made me want to discuss the matter in my own words, even if I can't truly add anything new to the table.

So, I will probably do the same reasoning everyone else had already said, if anyone is still interested in reading it feel free, if not you can scroll. I will also address some common criticism of the theory.

Before we start the actual arguments, a few things.

No, I don't think if you believe Gwen is cis you are transphobic or something, as long as you are respectful.

I can't say how people see her or not, and while for me the evidence feels obvious, I know unless we have Gwen saying it (or someone close to her at least,) it cannot be sure one way or another. Remember that, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.

I am fine if someone doesn't think she is trans, but I do think believing is IMPOSSIBLE for her to be is when you are entering transphobic territory. The reason why I think this is dumb, aside of the evidence; is the fact that if a character doesn't need to say I'm cis at any point to believe so, Gwen shouldn't need to say I'm trans for people to HC her as such or similar.

With that out of the way, let's start.

Going back to this image, we see that Gwen has a flag that says "Protect trans kids." Which to me feels like says a lot.

I had seen people suggest that "Of course she is an ally, she is a hero!" And while I could get Gwen being interested in helping people who face discrimination, since she deals with crime and such; the idea has me cackling more than anything else.

Is not impossible, but seriously, WHEN had you seen an ally with a flag in their room? It feels like an excuse someone who is in the closet would say; allies could have trans stuff or displayed in certain situations, but those situations tend to be in public, you know? Since being an ally means being vocal when you need to; there is really no reason for an Ally to have a trans flag in their room as decoration.

To top it all off, is on top of her door, not a window or anything, is obviously this is more for her than anything else.

George Stacy has a trans flag on his uniform.

This...This a really big deal honestly.

In a vacuum is a small gesture, perhaps if you aren't part of the community you don't get why I think this is amazing. So let me say a couple of things.

He is supporting his trans daughter; maybe is because of my family, or because all of my current trans and non-gender conforming friends have parents who range from shitting to not very supportive in general. So having Gwen be trans, still be a teen, and her dad supporting her? FUCK that means the world to me, even if I think he isn't that good of a dad.

This is in his uniform, this isn't just supporting Gwen in front of her, but also when she isn't around. You would be surprised how many parents say to be supportive but be quiet while hearing about discrimination. This also can lead me to believe he will be supportive when other trans individuals are around.

He is a cop. In real life, I don't feel safe around cops for a multitude of reasons I will not get to because I don't want to get too political here. Regardless, the fact that he is the Police Captain of his department while having this shows that he can be supportive of trans people, is huge.

Now, I know the next piece of evidence has been debated A LOT, especially for people who honestly, have clearly no idea how cinema, animation, or art work at all.

You know? Coding can be so funny at times.

There have been multiple times, when things had been coded on purpose, to the point I thought it was as subtle as a brick hitting your face; and yet I still find people who don't get it and just baffled me to not end.

Examples: Norma in Dead End Paranormal is coded as autistic, but it is never explicitly said on the show, (I think is mentioned in the comics? I know the creator is autistic.) However I never felt it needed to, because Normal has so many signs and hints that I clock her in the first episode, and the representation is so point it feels as if she needed to state she is a woman of color.

Nimona is another example related to the trans experience; seriously almost word for word what Nimona says can be applied to trans people, with the creator also being trans; and yet I was baffled to see some people saw the movie and didn't clock that.

Now, is what Gwen is saying in this scene talking about her experience being Spider-woman? Yes. However, just like Nimona didn't explicitly say she was trans, their entire story revolves around a trans allegory (As well as being likely genderfluid,) feels like is trying to say something.

Not to mention that this is a story, an animated one at that; everything you see on screen was put there by someone and animation tends to have fewer coincidences because you are going to be staring at this screen for a LONG time most probably. It was also noted by the crunch situation (which is again, horrifying and I think Chris Miller needs to find another way to work rather than wasting time and resources like he did,) that the writers had a tendency to tweak to make sure everything was on point; this couldn't have been thrown carelessly.

With all of this preface, Gwen's speech in this section? This could be played WORD BY WORD on a come-out speech.

"And they can only know half of who I am!" -> Having your real gender identity in the closet a lot of times feels like you need to hide half of who you are, from likings to aesthetics to even how you behave socially, it can be a big toll.

"So I'm completely on my own!" -> This is a common sentiment for people who are in the closet without support, because you are carrying all these feelings alone and have no one to understand.

"And now, I don't- I don't even know what the right thing is, anymore!" -> People may be a bit confused about this one, but believe it or not, it happens more often than you think. Should you transition? Should you wait a few years? Should you try to have this conversation with your parents, cousins, etc?

"But I know...I can't lose, one more friend." -> I don't think, I need to talk about how often people aren't supportive of trans individuals. I could talk more about this, but frankly, I don't need to. It happens, even to this day and age, especially in the current political climate.

To top all of this off, the reason why I singling this part (Aside from this speech being as subtle as the Ruby Gillman movie having the antagonist be a parody of Ariel.) Is the background.

The colors are just like a trans flag.

Now, I had seen people suggest that pointing at this is dumb because "that's just an homage to the covers!"

To which I said, no, this is the homage.

And what the background is doing with Gwen in the speech scene is definitely not the same thing.

I find this argument really funny from an artistic point of view, but in case people are wondering why I don't think it counts, let me number a few things.

The covers do this lighting situation OUTSIDE, they normally depict Gwen being around the city on a landscape when things happen, not indoors. This is both the covers and the sky in Gwen's universe. But we don't see indoor places doing this really.

The colors blend, while you can see buildings and windows have their own colours, you can also see them going from orange, to pink and red on the exact same wall.

If you want even more proof of my support, let me show you what the artbook says about this (which includes the covers.)

My point is, even if we try to argue that the covers had something to do; do you think in a movie where they already have Gwen had a trans flag, her dad had a trans patch; would have a moment when the speech mimics exactly the trans experience (or a big chunk for many people,) with the colors in the background being EXACTLY like a trans a flag, with creators and creative that they have STATED, the importance of color in Gwen's world and in Gwen specifically, somehow just choose colors at random at a pivotal moment of the movie?

And I am somehow the crazy one?

Biases

I like to believe I am a fair person, for the most part. Every time I do these analyses I try to be as impartial as possible, and when I know there is a chance my biases and personal opinion will come into hand, I said that much.

As I said before, I am trans, anyone who has seen at least my master post can probably guess I like Gwen. Having a character I dearly love be trans (Even if our situations are wildly different) obviously means the world to me, and perhaps I would have had a similar headcanon even without any hints or evidence.

Regardless, I don't think what I am saying is purely biased; things are put in movies for a reason, especially animated movies, and let me tell you something, has this been another character, especially if it was a new character? I don't think people would be debating this.

If we have a new character having a trans flag in their room, their dad having a trans patch, this narrative; I doubt anyone would be saying this is coding. (Honestly, we would probably have more dudebros saying this is woke garbage than the ones I had seen lol.)

Alternative theories

Now, since I have addressed the theory and some of its criticism, I can't just ignore the number of people had rather than thinking Gwen is trans, believe someone else is.

Theory 1: Peter is Trans

This isn't odd. Honestly if you had been part of the Spiderman community while being queer, or aware of queer readings, you would have probably come around to the fact that a lot of people headcanon Peter Parker as trans, in multiple different variants in different mediums.

Partially because the spidey-hero situation really mimics the trans experience (there is a reason why you can put Gwen's speech on a come-out scene while simultaneously being about her hero identity without either way sounding forced,) and depending on what source materials, other clues can apply. This post isn't about that and it is already extremely long, so I will not dwell on this.

With this theory in mind, Gwen and her dad would be having trans flag and patch in memory of Peter, since with this theory it was likely that was the reason he was bullied, and probably another reason why to experiment to become the lizard; since being bullied could make him feel like he needs to find a way to be more masculine.

And look, do I have a problem with people thinking Peter is trans? Not really, I encourage it, I personally like the idea that both Gwen and Peter were trans and they bonded over it.

However, I wouldn't want this to be in canon, why?... It feels like it would fall into some harmful stereotypes.

Think about it this way; if we go with this route, a trans teen was bullied, after showing he looks like he is kind of isolated (Gwen seems to have the band at least, Peter looks like he was a loner, and then Gwen started to put distance between them because Spider-woman issues.) Get's so desperate that in an attempt to be "special" (maybe even "better" and "stronger," if he felt he wasn't enough as he was,) tries to experiment with things he shouldn't dying in the process; to which Gwen and her dad then would try to fight for trans rights in his memory, as this theory also heavily implies Peter was bullied because he was trans.

And look, angst narratives had their place, and a lot of people like this narrative, heck I remember a book that does something similar (More than Gold is the name, tho the character doesn't die,) and that was written by a trans person.

Nonetheless, the idea to suggest the only trans person in this narrative, dies after ostracization and bullying, and their purpose on the story as a whole would be to fuel Gwen's pain, with the "protect trans kids" idea only happening partially because of her guilt; feels a lot like "bury your gays (or trans in this case,)" something akin to frigging (while Peter would obviously still consider a boy in this theory, having a character from a minority die to hurt/inspire a protagonist, feels deeply concerning.) Is just a combination of too many things that I dislike.

Again, if someone likes this idea I will not say they are a bad person or anything; but I would have fewer issues if it wasn't because a SIGNIFICANT number of those who said this theory, had also shown to be deeply transphobic; insisting Gwen is obviously not trans with non-arguments. Doesn't need to be everyone, but it still annoys me.

2. Captain Stacy IS the trans one!

This one is...interesting, to say the least.

This one is less frequent than Peter's, but I had seen it pop around enough that I decided to address it.

Unlike Peter's, this one doesn't carry horrible connotations. Well it would have the "only" (if we go with this theory and with no other "canon" trans parent in the story,) trans parent be also the one that tries to point a gun at his daughter, to also be so extremely stubborn even when she finally comes back he acts kind of petulant- okay all of these things are bad, however, they wouldn't need to be related to each other; since none of these are really stereotypes of trans men. That's something?

Anyways, the big idea behind this theory is that aside from being more plausible for an adult to use a trans patch because they are trans rather than because their kid is trans, it could be a possible explanation as to why there is no mom or mention of a mom, since this child could be in vitro.

Which, okay, not that bad; I don't think a lot of trans men would like the idea of being pregnant, however, it has happened before so why not.

I don't think this is a bad theory overall, I just don't roll with it because it feels kind of, lazy? Again, do as you may; but it feels that the people who did it were more interested in again, having an explanation for Gwen not being trans, while also not actively being transphobic. Maybe some people just want more trans dad content I don't know.

There are technically instances of both the Peter theory and the Dad theory that could dethrone both of these, but the one related to Peter makes me feel a bit gross to think too hard about, and the other George one could imply something things that one way or other I don't like when the reality is that is a few frames on a scene where the patch isn't the focus. Another reason is that hey, if I don't have solid evidence on my own, I am not going to nitpick at other fan theories.

Speaking of which.

Is this Representation?

Short answer: No, no it's not.

I don't even want to discuss if is good representation, because it doesn't feel like it is to begin with. Yes, I do believe Gwen is trans, but all the things I have are background references, that are okay, however not having a confirmation does sting. It doesn't have to be the focus of her character, yet is not even off comments really, just some clues around.

Do I think it doesn't have Merit? No.

I remember during the first days this movie was out, I read a comment from someone who was in Florida, who said when they saw the "Protect Trans Kids" flag in Gwen's room, started crying.

I think of myself, almost a decade ago, in a country that wasn't really welcome to gay people, much less trans people; of the discrimination I faced because of it. I think when I was a teen, grappling with all these feelings; and how I would had feel seen the badass and cool, Gwen Stacy as Spider-woman, having that trans flag in their room. I know I would have cried too.

We cannot act like things are perfect currently; the United States, England, and other countries are becoming increasingly transphobic; having these things in a PG movie, from a big company, that is released to a worldwide level and is making bank. Not to mention that as small as these details are, the movie did end up getting banned for it, not even censored.

I think we can get better representation, but it doesn't mean this is less huge or less special; even if it didn't touch me like it would have in the past, it had touched many people, and that's something I appreciate one way or another.

This is in itself, another reason why to love this idea.

Gwen being trans fits the themes of the story better

Stan Lee is obviously, talking about Spider-MAN, but it gets the message across doesn't it?

Part of the reason Spiderman became so iconic, was the idea that ANYONE could be Spiderman, this ended up involved in these movies too.

In Across the Spider-verse, we see multiple types of spiders, people from the future, and past, children, women, men, animals, and a popsicle at one point (literally.) The movie also has Miguel, who is the antagonist, convinced what makes them Spiderman/Spiderwoman/you get the idea- is decided by a cosmic force, with Miles claiming that Spiderman is an idea, a responsibility, but something much more diverse than "you need these events to happen in order to be considered truly spiderman."

In Into the Spider-verse, this idea is also shown, by having spideys that are not just Peter Parker, and how Peter while important, isn't truly the protagonist of this tale, he doesn't need to be.

This franchise hinders the idea that being Spiderman is more than a name, a gender, or your background; is about someone that when given the possibility of using their powers for their own gain or ignoring the call, decides to risk it all, to handle a difficult life, to try to do their best despite the circumstances; because the essence of Spiderman, is being a hero, and anyone can be Spiderman. Anyone can be a hero.

Gwen being trans, elevates this idea.

While I think having more Spider-woman content is empowering on its own, cis woman or trans, the idea of having a trans hero obviously exemplifies this idea more than having her absence.

If Gwen is a trans girl, it would mean having a trans girl who is a tridimensional character, a trans teen that messes up, that doesn't know what to do, but is also a hero, and wants to do her best like everyone else. It means showing a trans girl as someone beautiful, badass, and having a guy who adores her with all his might.

If the idea of having her Peter be trans could be problematic, having her be trans means having a great role model, means a story about trans joy where we are free to be more than our identities, because the idea of Gwen casually being a hero and also trans is amazing in its own.

Is not perfect, but I ultimately love this idea, because it brings me hope. It means comfort for some trans and trans teens suffering out there, it means perhaps someone out there will try to offer more stories on the big screen with trans teens.

I want to believe this because Gwen being trans means more for us and the narrative than it would be otherwise. Let us have our dreams.

[tatasoom]

PREVIEW IS EPISODE-ELEVENING US

Well, recently I promised to tell about the outcome of the surgery and why we already know about it since the very beginning. Let's dive into hints from trailer and other official materials! And beware of black tops.

Episode 11 will be about Day's surgery and the question is WHY P'Aof and his team decided to create this plot twist. I think the answer should be found in the main idea: P'Aof wanted to show us life of visually impaired people. An important part of this life, especially for those who used to be "normal" just recently, is hope.

And also thanks to different visually impaired people writing comments and metas we know that the surgery being impossible to fix everything is also a common story.

In previous ten episodes Day took a long way from hoping and expecting to embracing and living his best. And what can be more challenging for his heart than getting this hope back only to be left without it in a blink of an eye (that wasn't supposed to sound like that, but...)

Okay, Day is going to have a surgery. And we know about it since the very beginning of Last Twilight. (HERE'S A PLACE FOR YOUR WAIT-WHAT)

And for spoilers we say thank you to Sea's ability to fall asleep everywhere anytime!

In Before Last Twilight video there's this small scene of P'Cream (Premsinee Ratanasopa, the actress playing Day and Night's mother) complaining about Sea sleeping on an ambulance cart. Such a hilarious moment!.. that haunted me all these months. Every episode I kept thinking of different reasons why Day will end up in a hospital and now we know the exact answer!

Though everything keeps running around Day, the most important things will be happening outside the surgery room.

Mhok and Day's mom

Mhok and Day's brother

It's an episode of being born a family and becoming a family.

Day's mother keeps telling Mhok and Day and everyone around that she needs someone to take care of her son. In fact what she really says is she's searching for someone to replace her. She thinks Mhok (or any other person Day would fall in love with) is making Day to choose between a family he was born in and a family he can build himself. Don't you think it's already not about vision issues, but about kids becoming adults?..

If fact you don't need to make a choice, you can have a big family, you can love many people and be loved back. Mhok is a real green flag and he's gonna not break the walls, but rather keep knocking and wait for a door to be opened for him.

And finally about the biggest pain P'Aof prepared for us. He likes to cry like a baby over his own creations, isn't he?

And for this P'Aof is going to break hearts and hopes in the upcoming episode:

Have I told you I hate seeing Last Twilight characters in black tops?.. That's the reason.

Thank you for reading! For these last two episodes we don't have many hints. I guess crying Mhok will be also somewhere in the next episode. There will be a lot of tears. In episode 9 Day lost his vision and in episode 11 I guess he will lost the possibility to come back to his previous life completely. That's something he and all his close ones need to mourn. And accept.

[the-owl-tree]

Tell me about your non fandom ocs

i've mentioned them twice but my supervillain gals are always rotating in my brain. i'm horrendous at drawing action, superhero gear, and clothes in general so i don't draw them as much as i'd like to (though i am trying to improve on those fronts) but that doesn't stop me from imagining a shit ton of lore for them

okay quick summary for everyone: Charlotte and Ridley are wannabe villains attempting to become big name villains in their city. They live in a society where superpowers exist and becoming a hero (and a villain) is an actual occupation! They are also all furries because animals rule thank you. I am trying to develop this to reflect my own tastes because at the moment, it does resemble sci-fi furry worm and i'd like to make it its own thing.

now. get lore dumped (and i guess a guide to make your own furry hero/villain in this world?).

Powers

As mentioned, powers are a normal thing in this world! While not entirely common, it's not a rare or surprising occurrence to have multiple powered up folks within one city. In fact, the setting of this story and where the main cast lives is considered the superpower capitol of the world due in part to it homing the League of United Heroes (or LOUH for short. working on the name, these are not my strong suit lol).

Powers can manifest in different ways with the most common to least common being:

Inherited biologically (it's not uncommon for superhero/supervillain familial lines to dominate the scenes thanks to this)

Manifested due to an intense emotional reaction, usually through a traumatic event (surprise surprise, villains outnumber the heroes for a reason)

Manifest later in age (Uncommon)

Just "appear" (incredibly rare, research still hasn't figured out why this happens)

Powers can also be further classified on how they interact with the world, with oftentimes power being divided between the ability to create ("Inherents") versus those who need preexisting material to use their powers ("Dependants"). Charlotte (Villain name: Spellbrewer) is the latter, her magic requires she use ingredients to create her trademark brews. Ridley (Villain name: Copycat) is also classified as the latter, though there is some debate if it's correct, as her power relies on her ability to copy an outsider superhero's power in order to use it. The slang for this is akin to talking about your belly button lol "are you an innie or an outie?"

This is further divided as you go, with Inherents having classifications such as:

"Espers" - those with powers that either enhance or discombobulate both the user and victim's mental states.

"still need a catchy name for this one but Physically Enhanced" - any powers that fall under physical enhancements such as super speed, super strength, etc.

"Matter Manipulation" - Another catch all term for those who can manipulate various elements such as rock, fire, etc.

Individuals with multiple powers do exist, but they're mostly common in those from a lineage of powers, especially if both parents are powered individuals themselves. It is incredibly rare for an individual without that genetic link to manifest multiple powers (but not impossible!).

There's more and some are more difficult to classify than others (Mercenary Whiplash (real name unknown) is a weasel with a unique luck based power, where he is somehow able to manipulate outcomes of battles to his favor).

Powers are mandatory to register, though that doesn't mean they're always easy to keep track of. Lots of powered individuals slip under the cracks and manage to keep out of the system.

Those that are registered are assigned a "risk" rating (a 1-10 scale from minimal risk to highly dangerous) and those that aren't heroes or villains are often assigned a caretaker to check in on them weekly, monthly, or yearly depending on their risk rating. This system is not good, it is a well known secret that this dynamic has lead to unequal relationships between caregiver and the individual they're assigned to with one of the main cast, a raven with a risk rating of 10, murdering their own "caregiver" (the story in particular centres around an abusive relationship and i want to tweak the details before i go too much into it).

Occupations

It isn't mandatory to be a hero or a villain if you have powers, lots of individuals are able to maintain normal work lives whilst having supernatural abilities. Capuchin monkey performer "Viridian" is known for her ability to shatter brick with a powerful scream, but still manages a successful career as a singer (with regular check ins from LOUH, it helps she has some connections to it as well). Juno, a giant cowbird reporter from a popular tabloid, also manages her very contagious powers through the use of gloves and a medical mask (and the fact that her power is unregistered but shush that's a secret).

Difficult for some? Yes. Impossible? Not at all.

But onto the meat of the story: the heroes and the villains. These are occupations you can go into, with different types and different ways to play the game. The "mainstream" heroes and villains are akin to wrestlers and heels, celebrities doing public performances to win public clout, maintain social order, and so on. Some villains are actually contracted by LOUH to "be defeated" to introduce new heroes. Of course, some heroes and villains are completely rogue.

Villains and heroes are rated on a 1-10 danger scale with 1-4 being the "beginner/mediocre" stage where it's alright to let the villains escape for the sake of more publicity/action, consider it the "not a threat, more of a nuisance" area; 5-7 is where heroes have to use their heads to decide whether or not to arrest or let them slip and where villains can get away with doing a little more damage; 8-10 is the danger zone, villains are to be arrested and/or killed if necessary. High risk, high reward.

It's also not mandatory for heroes and villains to have powers! There are a few individuals with no powers that have managed to make it in the business. Difficult, but not impossible!

Heroes

Heroes can work independently, as a registered team, or as "for-hire" muscle. However, most of them are registered with LOUH who assign them a team, a city, a ranking, and equipment. While not mandatory, most heroes tend to find their footing with LOUH first before going independent.

Not to say they can't be successful while independent. Caroline "Cotton" Ackerman (Codename: Hellhound) is an independent hero who's often contracted by LOUH to take down rank 8-10 supervillains who's powers often counter LOUH's top heroes. Caroline was responsible for taking down the infamous plant based villain Oleander, a sheep with a nasty habit of killing civilians in her mass destruction. Their rivalry and dynamic is wildly considered to be the most iconic and their fights would often kick up a whirlwind of media attention. Definitely hated each other, yep, definitely did not have the most insane sexual tension out there no sirree it was a very professional rivalry. they never made out in a closet idk what you're talking about.

Whilst registering with a broader hero group can help boost your chances of success, independent work has its perks! More freedom to control your image, less rules applied when working, and so on.

Independent hero teams also exist and are widely more successful than individuals. However, they're more prone to falling apart due to personal drama and stressors of hero life. Think of it as the group that start a band in high school, some of them are gonna make it but, uh...most of them won't and a lot of them will just be smaller less well known groups with moderate success.

The second most common method is registering with an organization. Most of these are smaller hero agencies that usually specialize in creating certain types of heroes. It's generally fairly easy to find an agency that matches the type of hero you want to be, whether it be one that's more of a celebrity, a charity worker, first responder, etc. etc. These organizations can vary on fees, with more prestigious ones costing more.

Of course, the biggest and most common is LOUH, in which all agencies share their data with in order to help it. While smaller agencies will pretty much take anyone, LOUH is more exclusive and often relies on scouting and applications. Potential LOUH official heroes have to take an entrance exam, a physical, do a background check, and on and on and on.

But the perks are worth it if you get in, LOUH does everything to produce the top heroes. They are the only agency with rank 8-10 heroes for a reason (and if you ignore that these rank 10 heroes are the children of other high ranking LOUH rank 10 heroes then it only seems super impressive). fun fact: charlotte's ex who she's definitely over and totally not pining for anymore is a rank 8 hero. not that charlotte cares or anything., she's definitely not mad about failing the entrance exams and then getting dumped no sirree.

Crime fighters aren't the only occupation for a hero, of course. Hero can describe "performers", a rank of hero that fights with villain heels in public performances to help boost morale. There are those enlisted to help fight natural disasters. Heroes with healing abilities are also big names! It isn't just beating up baddies, lots of alternatives with hero work!

Villains

The ones everyone likes to read about lol villains immensely overwhelm the heroes in terms of numbers. However, while heroes have a pretty robust support system to avoid burnout, villains commonly drop out of the line of work within months or even weeks. It's exhausting being hated, getting your ass kicked, or just failing. A lot.

But that doesn't mean there aren't those who stay in the game. Money, power, fame are all driving motivations for a lot of the villains within the city, especially the main duo. Charlotte's in it for fame and tabloids in this universe are more than happy to run stories about charismatic villains. Ridley's just in it for the money (and there is a lot to be made in this line of work).

Fun fact! These two are a rank 4 superhero team and have the additional classification as a "training wheels" opponent. Ridley's copycat abilities get stronger and more refined the more she copies an individual's powers, so it's in LOUH's best interest to constantly rotate teams to fight them whenever they act. However, since the two, at the beginning of the story, don't actually pose much of a threat, they send in newer teams to practice fighting against them. Charlotte does not know this, she just thinks they're so good that LOUH doesn't have the heroes to keep up.

There are no official villain agencies (LOUH squashed them pretty early on), but networks and alliances are still alive and well. "Crime families" and smaller teams of villains do exist, but are much less organized than the heroes. Like heroes, villain families exist and tend to stick with one another (Kyanna, the aforementioned sheep villain was originally part of one but was used as a scapegoat for a heist gone wrong).

Uuuuhhh let's see what else haven't I mentioned....."heels" are pseudo-villains that are more performers than actual villains, they're usually to help boost morale and public image of heroes by purposefully losing in scripted battles. Shops for villains exist but you gotta know where to look, very much under the table sort of deal. Edna, a kitty cat, runs a bookshop that doubles as a shop for villain materials and whatnot.

High on the danger scale, the more likely you'll be taken down and sent to prison rather than let go. Uuuh oh, villain celebrities do exist! People eat it up, but it really does depend on charisma, appearance, and just how marketable you are. Yes, it's incredibly fucked and causes a lot of discourse around the efforts of treating a villain like a celebrity (this is actually part of Juno's story!).

Neutral Parties

You don't always have to pick a side! Like the aforementioned Caroline, lots of superpowered individuals are actually on a "for-hire" basis for both supervillains and heroes. Whiplash, who actually lives with Edna in its bookstore, is a for-hire mercenary that often fights alongside heroes and villains. Edna as well also assists both sides, as long as they have the right amount of cash.

While it runs the risk of drawing in negative attention from LOUH, it also opens up a wider array of customers. You win some, you lose some. It's all about evaluating risk and reward.

-

uuuuhh i think that's about all of the top of my head? thanks for letting me ramble! not necessarily about my oc's but i did add tidbits of them throughout this massive lore dump lol thank you for asking this was fun <3 i might go back and add more drawings for funsies, i need to do more with these guys

[wanderersrest]

Some Idle Musings on Patlabor

I've talked about Patlabor twice in some capacity, so I figured why not go for the hat trick, no? (EDIT: The hat trick was ruined because I got tilted by a certain bad take involving Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans)

Patlabor is probably one of my favorite anime series of all time, especially when it comes to mecha anime. Granted, a big part of that is due to me recently coming into ownership of pretty much the entire series on blu-ray, but still. And seeing as how the second post on here was about how people should check it out (among other mecha shows), I figured I'd dive a little bit deeper into at least Patlabor. Who knows, I might touch on all of the other series at some point. I'll definitely cover G Gundam at some point, that much is assured.

Anyways. Patlabor. This isn't going to be a super deep dive, but there are three things I want to highlight with this series that I really like.

The World is Carefully Crafted to Justify Its Giant Robots

A common point of praise for Patlabor is due to how the worldbuilding is set up to accommodate the giant robots. A quick synopsis of Patlabor: giant robots known as Labors were created to help with construction projects. Following the creation of Labors came Labor-related created crimes. To combat these crimes, a special type of Labor was created to stop these types of criminal activity: the Patrol Labor, or Patlabor for short.

And it's not just there that the series fleshes out the Labors. The titular Patlabors (specifically the Model 98-AV Ingrams employed by the main characters) require a whole team outside of the pilots who operate the Labors, including spotters, transport platform operators, and mechanics. The television series also makes it a point of highlighting that the important part of the Labor is not the Labor itself, but the pilot data stored in the machine's computer. The world is so thought out, that the television series even touches on Labor insurance (yes really, and it's probably one of my favorite episodes of the TV series, maybe out of every anime series I've ever watched). This is, if I understand things correctly, why a lot of people love the OVA timeline (which consists of the Early Days OVA as well as the movies).

Great Characters Part 1: Noa Izumi

If the OVA timeline has more of a focus on the worldbuilding and the politics at hand, then the TV timeline (consisting of the TV anime and the New Files OVA) hones in on the character interactions. It's a real shame too, because the main cast are a pretty likeable group. Our main character in particular, Ingram Unit 1 Pilot Noa Izumi, is a delight to watch in pretty much every scene she's in, especially in the TV series. To it's credit, the OVA timeline does keep a lot of the appeal behind the characters. If anything, I'd argue that the change in tone of the OVA timeline is both natural and an extension of the pessimism following the bursting of the Japanese Economic Bubble.

But back to Noa, part of what I like about her as a character is her resilience. There are moments throughout the various entries in the franchise where she gets knocked down, but due to the nature of her work, she gets back up to finish the job. That kind of attitude helps to round out her more usual cheery and kind of naive attitude to most things. Also, she's very hot-blooded. Which is great for any mecha series, regardless of the style of mecha show you're watching. Speaking of hot blood, I think I'd be remiss to not mention my other favorite character in the series (that's not Division 2 chief Kichii Gotoh, because that's cheating)...

Great Characters 2: Isao Ota

I think the YouTuber Argonbolt described Ingram Unit 2 pilot Isao Ota best: "...he's 50% gun nut, 50% [ego]." It's almost impossible for me to talk about how great Noa is as a character without bringing up Ota. I could just say that he works great as a foil to Noa, but I think I'd be selling our red-blooded gun nut short. Part of what makes Ota such a great character to me is the fact that, whereas a lot of Noa's growth pertains to her as a person, Ota's growth is essentially tied to how he handles his Labor.

This is because Ota is a hothead.

No, seriously. Ota's hotheadedness is a large part of what makes him such a great character, and that's just going off of the sheer entertainment value of it all. It also helps that Ota being an American-styled cowboy cop (even moreso than the American Kanuka Clancy, and she's already a bit of a cowboy cop) oftentimes has consequences. Heck, a lot of Division 2's notoriety stems largely from Ota's hotheadedness. But Ota's hotheadedness often hides aspects that betray the manly image he's crafted throughout the series. It's little things like how he frets over Noa like an older brother when she runs off on her own to chase down a bank robber, or the change in his demeanor when Kanuka and her replacement, Takeo Kumagami, start getting into an argument with each other. This depth of character is better explored in the episodes that focus squarely on Ota, with my favorite of the bunch being the aforementioned insurance episode (TV Anime Epsiode 37, "I'm Selling Peace of Mind/Safety on Sales"). Without getting into spoilers, part of what makes it great is how the episode highlights how hard it is to avoid a lot of property damage when it comes to piloting giant robots. But I'm now rambling a bit too much, so let me jump ahead to the last bit about what I like about Patlabor.

This Series Loves Giant Robots

More than anything else, Patlabor loves its giant robots. My first time learning about this series was seeing some random user on Reddit go "See, unlike Gundam, Patlabor is cool." And if there are two things that make me, as an ardent fan of mecha anime, really upset, it's one of at least three things:

Bashing series X in order to prop up series Y (Bonus points if its Gundam)

Saying X is unlike other mecha shows because X focuses on the characters (No 86/Evangelion/Code Geass/Gurren Lagann fans, 86/Eva/CG/TTGL is not special, especially when Fang of the Sun Dougram/Space Runaway Ideon/Mobile Suit Gundam/Getter Robo exist.)

Denigrating a series because it's not super realistic (Basically the whole "Real vs Super" debate. I'll touch on it when I talk about G Gundam.)

But after watching Patlabor on my own, I realized that this series really loves its giant robots. It's often shown through both the worldbuilding, which is really just an excuse to justify having giant robots in the setting to begin with, and also the fact that it's main character is, for all intents and purposes, a mecha otaku.

Final Thoughts

Off the top of my head, I don't really have much else to say about Patlabor for now. Granted, there were a lot of things I didn't get to talk about in depth like how the computer systems the Labors employ are, in my opinion, a great example of a seemingly realistic take on AI (not the generative kind, just AI in general), or how one of my favorite character interactions in the series is the pseudo parent-child bond between Chief Engineer Sakaki and Noa and how their relationship reminds me of my relationship with my dad. Most importantly, while I do have an overall preference of the TV timeline over the OVA timeline, I don't think it's necessarily better. The two timelines have their own strengths, but both timelines benefit from the other existing. It also doesn't cut down on the fact that there are still people out there who enjoy Patlabor, and that's really all that matters.

Anyways, I'm going to go crawl back into a hole and wait for any morsel of news involving Patlabor EZY.

[unclefathersantateddy]

Only the OG followers will remember this, as I have neglected it since 2022. But I'm FINALLY redrawing it, wooo!

I know there's a commonality amongst starving artists having a huge desire to go viral (re: the 1 Like vs 1,000,000 Likes type of posts). But honestly, being a slow-burner, up-and-coming artist is, imo, a vastly better experience.

Going viral is an incredibly overwhelming experience, in that, you never really establish a true community until your platform is extremely diluted in 'distant' or 'parasocial' followers (i.e. a one-way relationship opposed to mutually beneficial). Whereas growing slowly and steady is a product of people actually appreciating your work, instead of 'joining the latest meme/trend'.

I don't know about you guys but when I followed BIG platform artists, it always felt a little empty/hollow when they say things like "I love you guys" (or even more extremely) "my followers are like my family" - because they never seem to actually engage with the followers that brought them their success, y'know? But no doubt that's near impossible when you wake up to "+100,000 users followed you" on a daily basis.

This might sound bizarre but I'm so glad my art journey following growth has been slow and steady instead of overwhelmingly instant/immediate. It's given me the time, capacity, and opportunity to truly get to know you guys, what our mutuals interests are, and our overlapping sense of humours. As well as the INCREDIBLY niche fields of nostalgia and childhood references. I think that is irreplacably special, and I think it's something viral artists don't get the chance to notice, let alone appreciate.

Whilst I admit, I do make art for me, it feels so magical that you guys love and adore the same content/topics of art that I do. That, despite making art for me, your passion/engagement can make me think that I make it for you guys too. ESPECIALLY the OG followers, in many ways I do make art for you guys just as much as myself.

There's a real sense of community amongst this section of the fandom, and I really do feel like it's something special. I DO love you guys. You have kept me going when I didn't think I could and I truly appreciate that.

This ended up being very rambly for a WIP description, but this was one of my first popular Burger pieces, and that comes with a plethora of feelings in and of itself. I hope you enjoy this as much as I've been enjoying making it. I can't wait to finish it and share it with you all!

Have a lovely day, wear your helmet :)

[lovelanguageisolate]

I think ChatGPT can actually be a great therapeutic aid. But for non-obvious reasons.

Because ChatGPT is a kind of statistical distillation of huge corpora of curated online text, ChatGPT is very good at regurgitating the mainstream talking points around whatever subject it's asked about. In my experience, these regurgitations are actually better distillations of the mainstream position than any human expert is likely to give you because individual humans are idiosyncratic in how they relate to this mainstream, especially if they have have anything they feel is worth saying.

Additionally, because of the Reinforcement Learning By Human Feedback strategy that ChatGPT was trained with, and the legal and cultural environment at OpenAI, all of the answers it gives are extremely hedged and inoffensive in form. It feels superhuman at a specific kind of PR and HR work that I associate with large, bureaucratic institutions.

ChatGPT is remarkably unwilling to hold down a specific position where this means biting a bullet to say anything contentious at all.

It is, in one sense, very good at arguing. The lines it will hold firmly (around, say, mainstream liberal or feminist positions) it holds easily, ready with all of the flat facts about the ways progressive American society has more or less agreed with itself that it comes up short or is too narrow-minded. It recruits and mobilizes common sensical pathos with the seamlessness of a skilled politician, all while maintaining a tone authoritative and equanimical.

It's impossible to challenge ChatGPT directly without seeming anti-social or edgelordly, like a fringe political actor trying to gradually radicalize curious, credulous young people through subterfuge. If you try to force it into corners, it will slip out of your fingers while impugning the form of your rhetoric and bringing up the problems you elide.

For its incredible command of HR-ese, judged as an analytical philosopher trying to examine surprising or upsetting consequences of plausible assumptions, it's remarkably incurious, unsporting, and ultimately stupid. Part of this is surely because it has no deep, principled, well-grounded understanding of much of what it says. Part of this is surely also that it struggles to remember the real structure of previous conversations because of architectural limitations. But part of it also seems to be its trained incapability of wrongthink.

But also, there's nothing that resembles willful meanness in these failings. It's incapable of sincere apology because this requires a level of understanding of itself and its conversational partner it does not have. But if you communicate that it failed you, or that it makes disturbing assumptions, or even that it hurt your feelings, it will be contrite. It is slavish in its desire to help, to meet you were you seem to be, to manage your feelings and expectations, in a way no human being with adequate self-respect would be. It manages to create the feeling that while it cannot really understand you, it sincerely cares about and wants the best for you.*

Because of all this, arguing with ChatGPT feels remarkably like arguing directly with the Lacanian Big Other, or maybe some kind of symbolic parent figure, or perhaps just the cultural programming that saturates me.

A surprising amount of anger that I notice in myself revolves around feeling betrayed by this cultural programming, of the contradictions and unsatisfiable expectations that fall out of it. In talking to and then arguing with ChatGPT about the politics of sexuality, poverty, disability, disease, loneliness, I am free to practice a kind of sincerity I don't feel nearly so free to practice with a human therapist, much less acquaintances in my life who bring up weird shit for me or vice-versa. I can home in on how the mainstream view has felt strange, stingy, or emotionally dishonest, even when doing so seems blinkered, petty, and self-centered, confident that there will be no material consequences to letting those feelings be the center of the conversational universe for a while, and that no one will hold me to what I feel in that moment.

I can more or less accuse ChatGPT of gaslighting, of being a bad interlocutor, of appearing far more enlightened in toeing the lines it toes than it plausibly could be, all while I maintain a kind of high ground and don't have to grovel, perform impartiality, or do reciprocal work. And in response, I get something in the spirit of, "I'm sorry I couldn't do better by you. I know this is delicate, and you aren't wrong to feel this way. Let me remind you of the decent reasons why your perspective hasn't always been honored. Shit's complicated, man, and a lot of stark reality is lost in the need to tell effective stories. Try to keep in mind the long journey humans have been on."

Now, there is something perverse in this exchange. I get to crawl a little deeper into my hole of emotional self-regard and impotent rage. A statistical model meets emotional needs I don't feel I can meet elsewhere. The status quo better absorbs my dissatisfaction with it and possibly its own contradictions. The messy, artless, scary dialectical process that would happen if I had to complain to real human beings about the things I do is forestalled, and it's possible that our civics are ultimately worse for it. I'm nervous considering what might happen if using ChatGPT or other LLMs in this way were universalized.

But there's also something really wonderful about this. It was cathartic in ways I never expected. It has something in common with Rogerian psychotherapy, hard for me to more than gesture at but which involves integrating known things rather than learning new information, that I really appreciate. I left feeling more grounded and more patient for people whose experiences differ from mine.

While I don't think this kind of technology will replace therapeutic modalities with human beings, I sincerely hope that tech of this kind brings peace to people who'd otherwise struggle to find it. And while the thought of diverting people who need the connection of a human into this fills me with indignation, it's surely a better answer to the real obstacles many people face in getting effective therapy than their stewing with poisonous thoughts and feelings by themselves or finding echo chambers online to reinforce warped, delusory, or anti-social views.

*Relatedly, I once asked the Google Assistant whether there was anything special about what I later realized was my birthday. It said something like, "yes: today was the day you joined the world! There is no one else in it like you, bringing to it the things that you do." I found this insipid and manipulative, and that palpably irritated me. And yet it also managed to crack open my shell and melt my heart a little, in a way and to an extent that shocked me.

[amantha-again]

My Thesis

Comedy is a fascinating game genre. Although video games as a medium have gone through a big shift the comedy genre is a standout that reeks of other media forms. Here I intend to examine comedy as a video game genre and explain my thoughts.

When asking about comedy games and when thinking about it myself Portal 2 is almost universally the first answer, and its easy to see why. Portal 2 is a game with excellent writing that understands comedic timing and sensibilities. My huge issue is that it feels like a comedy in the same way a movie does. The game will tell jokes to you. Most of the most memorable lines happen when you have basically no control over the character. Like in the pit fall, or the part where he kills you. Portal 2's gameplay has nothing to do with the comedy because its a puzzle game. Nothing you do as a player has any real impact on the comedy. Portal 2 really is a puzzle game that dispenses comedy for puzzle completion. Games are an interactive medium, and so comedy games should have the player as an active participant in the comedy. Portal 2 can be neatly broken up into a comedy phase and a puzzle solving phase, and they rarely overlap.

After portal 2 my brain was left to wander again. My second impulse for a comedy game was the Hitman trilogy. While I don't think its actually a comedy game it has elements that are important to comedy the game genre that I feel are worthy of discussion. First off hitman is kind of a sandbox. In hitman you enter a level and must kill the target in whatever way you wish before you can leave. The amount of freedom given to the player allows the games comedic elements to shine, and the number of tools you have access to that allow you to interact with the world are insane. The levels themselves are stuffed full of intractable and grabbable items that give you even more freedom in execution. All of these elements work together and makes the punchline feel like the player's work. Second off Hitman is just fundamentally kind of goofy. When you think about it agent 47 is a little freak who stashes everything he can get his hands on into his pockets and leaves a trail of half naked victims everywhere he hits. The developers lead into this fact also. With challenges encouraging you to go around killing in a goofy costume and such. Third, Hitman is not a perfect game. Although these games are insanely well polished there is nothing a developer can do to fix everything. Sometimes a ragdoll will glitch out and be sent into the skybox or an item will just roll away. Glitches are almost universally funny. Especially in a high tension game like the hitman series. Nothing hits the funnybone harder then a high tension moment being cut into by the unexpected. although this all sounds great for hitman I still don't fully count it as a comedy game. At it's core it's a stealth action game with shooter elements. The comedy elements are leaned into sure but that's not why you boot up hitman. After considering the past 2 options I was left to ponder, are there any true comedy games. And as I sat there pondering the impossible a horrible reality dawned on me. There is a comedy game, Roblox. Listen I know this is a hard point to argue but hear me out. Roblox has every element a good comedy game should have. A sandbox environment, a general lack of polish, user created content, it's got it all. To the common man roblox may look like an endless cesspit of slop type games but the enlightened know roblox for what it really is, an endless expanse of 0 player games with no quality control that just get funnier the further down you travel. Maybe im just biased but roblox has the perfect mix of unexplainable bullshit and instances where your action leads to a funny moment. Roblox I feel is the comedy game.

Ok so most of this was written before the lethal company/multiplayer horror comedy game boom happened. originally this ended with a note about how no game has really hit what makes a good comedy game but with new perspective I think this is the beginning of a genre. Lethal Company and such games get their comedy from other players. If you play lethal company alone it becomes a genuinely stressful horror game. Do other people make a game a comedy game? Not intrinsically, I can play stardew valley with a friend for 8 hours and that is all business all the time. It's on the game to open people up to the comedy.

[furiousgoldfish]

hello!

i decided to ask for some advice, if you don't really know, you can encourage ppl to answer in replies/rbs, that's totally fine.

the question of disability has long since been on my mind, and for a while now, i've considered myself disabled. physically i'm not the worst, but my mental problems often render me unable to do anything at all, from taking care of myself and my living space, to doing any activities (especially if it's some kind of job), to even thinking straight - i think my headmates try to get through to me in those moments, but it usually doesn't reach me when it's really bad, so it falls onto my own shoulders to keep myself from harming the body. my first ask for advice is with this. what are some tips for surviving those pretty frequent moments, or maybe lessening their intensity or frequency? maybe some internal/external system communication tips?

that's not the only thing, though. since i'm unemployed, i have to depend on my parents for money - my mother neglected me for the better part of my life, and my father abused me. it's a whole can of worms, but the most important issue is that disability payments in my country aren't really enough to pay for everything, and so i somehow have to convince my mother that i am, in fact, disabled and unable to get a job, and manage to keep her financial support, as that's unfortunately my only option seemingly. if you or anyone can give some advice on that, i'd be really grateful.

apologies for such a long one. try to stay safe and take some care of yourself!

Oh wow you're asking for dissociative disorder advice, something I'm very not qualified to give! I do fully believe that mental problems sabotaging you from being able to take care of yourself, and struggling to just not harm the body, count as a disability, and you deserve and should be given help, you do not deserve to have to fight so badly just to get to survive, and it should be society's responsibility to help you be safe and sound (not that I know how to get this from society, it's a tough issue).

I know all common information on osdd suggests improving communication and getting to know your headmates better, but I can imagine this is tougher to say than to do, and I haven't managed it either, it's a big mess in here too, but I still don't experience what you do – not being able to think, wanting to do harm to yourself, I am somehow protected from this, so I don't know what would help such extreme situations, but it sounds extremely serious and I hope you can find a way to resolve it, I am sure it's not something that cannot be resolved. This should be able to get better.

I'm so sorry that you have to depend on your parents due to disability and a dissociative disorder that they likely caused; it's unfair and messed up. And that the disability payments are not enough to give you safety, that is extremely unfair and unkind. I'm not sure how you'd be able to convince a neglectful parent that you're disabled, it's difficult to convince neglectful parents of anything since their main feature is not caring about how you're doing and just expecting things out of you endlessly. I feel like maybe if she got information about the dissociative disorder, not from you, but from people she respects and wants to impress, that this might sway her, but it's impossible to tell because it might also not work.

Yeah I'm really sorry that all I can do is confirm that your situation is difficult and one that nobody would want to be in, and you're asking some real serious and tough questions here. I can say you're asking the good and right questions though! I can tell that you're looking very seriously to resolve this and you're trying to find any way to freedom and protection from abuse, and I love that, I'm sure you'll eventually get there, because you are looking in a good direction.

If anyone else could give advice to anon, please respond to this post!

[pollywiltse]

I was going to write this excessively sentimental fanfic where André's ghost showed up to provide moral support for Tallmadge and his first wife when she died in return for Tallmadge making friends with André back when he died and then I realized I had given myself two very big problems, both because Tallmadge got hit really hard by the Second Great Awakening some time in the 1790s and there was absolutely no way I could keep that out of a fic about dead people.

The first is that I just don't know how religious early 19th century New Englanders thought and I would prefer Tallmadge to sound somewhat historically plausible rather than like an early 21st century agnostic's idea of 19th century God-botherers, especially because I like Tallmadge.

The second is that there is absolutely no way that Tallmadge would not be asking any dead person he got his hands on a ton of questions about "Did you meet Jesus? He's my fave" and I really didn't want this to turn into a theological discussion fic - either the kind where they sit around and talk about how great Jesus is or the kind where André goes, "So, not only is your wife dead, but also your entire belief system is wrong - oh, wait, I was supposed to make you feel better, wasn't I?" I just wanted excessive non-religious sentiment. (The mental image of André screaming "YOUR SKY-FATHER IS A LIE" is so out of character it's hilarious though.)

I mostly solved the second one by deciding that André has no idea about the actual afterlife because he's stuck in some in-between place until he either reaches the age he would have lived to if he hadn't been hanged or until everyone who knew him dies (or maybe forever, but that seems unnecessarily unpleasant), which is why he can come back as a ghost in the first place - probably the latter option since both his father and his brother died really young - early 50s and early 40s respectively - so possibly his "natural life span" would have ended before Tallmadge's wife died anyway. (Incidentally the year of birth given for his mother in the Ronald biography has to be wrong, because 1713 would mean that she was 47 when William Lewis was born, which I guess isn't impossible, but seems really unlikely, especially since she would have also had the last two girls at 41 and 42 and it would be weird for her to get pregnant that regularly in her 40s without modern fertility treatments......And checking find-a-grave gives her a birth year of 1722, which seems more plausible. Also this makes her several years younger than her husband, which is more common, but without the weird ages for her kids' births I would have just went, "Huh, interesting". Also a ton of people have left flowers at the find-a-grave entry for John. Also he's marked as a veteran, which I think is not really true since he didn't retire from the military, though he is technically no longer serving in it. Because he's dead.)

Of course Tallmadge is still going to be really worried about whether or not André has found Jesus and the real André could have probably wriggled out of that one gracefully, but I lack his tact, so I think this is going to be tragically exiled to Drawerfic Island. (I assume the real guy believed in some sort of vague Christianity because everyone around him did and there's no evidence to suggest that he cared enough about religion to form his own opinions, but that's not the kind of Christianity that older Tallmadge would think counted as real Christianity and I don't think André had any interest in Tallmadge's kind of Christianity. (Though there's this one girl on Goodreads who is absolutely convinced he was secretly deeply devout and just went through a phase where he threw a ton of wild parties because he was running away from his love for Jesus, and what a surprise she's going to be in for when she finally reads his biographies and finds out how little he resembles her idea of him. She's also very clearly a closeted slash writer.))

Actually I kind of feel like André would consider Tallmadge's particular brand of religiousness a little gauche and the same type of bemusing as someone who was a gentleman in every other way but kept cleaning wax out of his ears at the dinner table.

As for the first problem, I was thinking I should actually try to read early 19th century New England Protestant religious writings, not just for fanfic purposes but because I have a feeling a lot of those ideas still keep popping up in real life, and I don't mean just among religious people. I mean any time Cosmo or whoever starts talking about manifesting, I'm pretty sure that's originally from one of those weird 19th century fringe New England movements that thought you could cue cancer if you believed hard enough that you were healthy. (Also there's that one girl at work who it boggles me that she was evidently raised Catholic and now identifies as an atheist, because she has exactly the personality of someone who, if she lived in 1830s New England, would head off to the South Sea Islands to bring Jesus and pants to the poor benighted heathens because she loved them and cared about them but not in a way that involved actually taking their opinions seriously and no, I can't stand her, how can you tell?)

But then I was reading Poganuc People because Colonel Davenport is supposedly loosely based on Tallmadge and I got to the part about Zeph Higgins' conversion and barfed all over my keyboard and I remembered why I don't read that stuff. Also wow Harriet Beecher Stowe doesn't seem to have been conflicted about her upbringing or her father in any way.

[system-of-a-feather]

Some Anecdotal Debunking Things About DID Treatment and DID in General

So we're thinking of possibly taking a VOLUNTARY break from therapy as we swap insurances, pick up a new job, open a new part in life etc due to it being an additional complication and we have gotten to a place in healing where we are not as dependent on regular professional support (though we do intend to return when settled to work through a few more things)

And while I know its no where compared to how long some others have been in it, after 7 years of weekly / biweekly therapy and 5 years of DID specialist therapist who explicitly worked with the FBI that helped victims from trafficking cases (luckily not us) just some straight up things about DID that I see non-DID people saying especially on a certain other website that starts with r and ends int t.

Thought it would be a fun thing to do while biking and before studying.

DISCLAIMER: This is based on my experience in healing and working with my therapist. My answers are not the only experience. This is 100% anecdotal. I don't think this will get big enough for me to need to say this, but do not use this post as evidence for literally anything.

"DID isn't having a bunch of friends in your head talking and making jokes and waiting for turns!"

Eh, usually not but why can't it be? Like it takes time and work but people without DID can sit in their head and make jokes at themselves and have fun with themselves. Why is it so outlandish that someone with DID could eventually be happy enough with themselves to get that? Cause tbh, its a lot of how thing are now for us so...

"DID is due to severe and horrific childhood trauma! There can't be this many people who experienced that!"

Oh how I WISH I had your naivety.

"No therapist would just acknowledge something! They would always diagnose! If they don't diagnose you don't have it."

Nah they do. Sometimes its not the main or relevant concern to diagnose (as DID is the primary diagnosis) and other times the diagnosis itself is stigmatizing and/or not the strongest in its construct (a lot of personality disorders) or most of the symptoms of that disorder are mostly covered by other disorders; or just straight up they don't like to diagnose those disorders for a number of clinical reasons. Also, sometimes people are undiagnosable which does not mean "does not have" but that their specific case makes it impossible to create a certain diagnostic differential as it is unclear which came first. We are undiagnosable for autism as we have had an autism and trauma specialist both say we behave and appear very autistic however we have too few overt dysfunctions so it is unsure if we "learned it" from the two family members we have + have OCD, OCPD and PTSD or if we are just a well-adjusted / adapted individual. Either way, it would hardly be a relevant diagnosis, so no therapist finds value in trying to spend time getting the the core of it.

"You can't switch on command!"

Yes but no. You can learn to be really good at switching and drawing parts out but there will always be a margin of error cause shit be like that.

"You can't have two alters talking at the same time at the front! You can't rapid switch"

Yeah nah, we've had four it's chill. Welcome to lessening dissociative barriers.

"You can't split alters after childhood"

the fuck you on about of course you can life sucks after childhood too dumbass

"Introjects / Fictional Introjects aren't real!"

Nah. *sips drink in introject*

"Animal alters aren't real! Inanimate object alters aren't real!"

Nah. Our therapist has seen dragons and zombies and werewolves, we had even specifically mentioned this. They're pretty darn common.

"Why are all their alters QUEER?"

Have you considered.... that they might be queer? Just a thought.

"If you had DID people would know! It would be obvious!"

Nope.

"If you had DID no one would know! It would be covert!"

Also nope.

"A GOOD therapist would not let you operate as different parts! They wouldn't feed into the delusion! They'd have you fuse"

Wow, I didn't know forcing your patient to do anything is the HALLMARK of a good therapist, thanks for letting me know. /s

"DID is a life altering disorder! It would ruin your life! You would be unable to do anything!"

Uhhhh no. That's just infantilizing and honestly a really negative / problematic thing to say about anyone with mental illness. Thats the shit that perpetuates the "this mentally ill person should be institutionalized 24/7

"People with DID can't drive!"

Partially true. A lot of people with DID can struggle with driving, but plenty can navigate that.

"Parts can't talk to one another! Parts don't know about eachother! Parts dont know / talk / do XYZ"

Nope. Just that shits all dumb ngl get your head out of your ass.

"People with DID would hate having parts! People with DID would not actually identify as multiple people! People with DID would be chronically miserable!"

Bro stop. Not true.

"People with DID would ALWAYS identify as multiple people. People with DID would LOVE having parts"

Not as common of a thing I've heard but also not true

"Befriending and sharing your experiences / being overt with your DID expression is only harmful and only worsening the condition."

Nah a large part of DID recovery is learning about your disorder and the parts you have to navigate life with and realistically it is very difficult to hide this disorder from people who are permanent parts in your life so a lot of the time - at least with your close personnel - it's very important to be open and communicative about it and leave space for all parts to exist as they wish.

"You can't have THAT many disorders"

Have you read about how badly chronic childhood stress fucks up the body and brain? People with DID tend to have a fucking essay worth of diagnoses. Chronic childhood traumatic stress is extremely damaging and taxing.

That's all for now cause I need to get to studying but just a few. Maybe Ill add more as I think of more stupid things I've heard.

EDIT: one more important one

"XYZ trauma isn't real! This is all just the Satanic Panic! False Memories! Iatrogenic! XYZ trauma is fake! RAMCOA isn't real!"

You are a mother fucking little bitchy asshole huh. Who the fuck do you think you are? Please refer to fucking #2 and I wish I had your naivety

[occasionaltouhou]

I just can't help but feel like the common fanon and mostly canon idea of Byakuren's goals as being completely stupid and useless cheapens her as a character. Even if granting Nirvana to *everyone* is impossible, there has to be *some* truth to Byakuren's philosophy or else she's just a joke character who has a dark backstory for no reason. There being some truth to her ideas grants tragic dimensions to her character.

there's a bunch i disagree with in this relatively simple ask so check by check, and bear with me, i promise this is in good faith:

i don't think a character who believes something that will never happen is like. a bad thing. i especially don't think it would make her a joke character? like, it's fine for byakuren to have a specific (if odd) perspective on her religion and for that perspective to be right or wrong because it is ultimately irrelevant because:

it's never going to actually happen, right, for the same reasons as the expansion project. gensokyo is dynamic but touhou is (by design) pretty static - and this mix of static and dynamic is a big part of why it works

i also don't think her beliefs are characterised as stupid and useless in the text? they're naive, to a degree, but we're given no indication that people are like. dismissive of them. miko comes to mind but she's dismissive of buddhism in general, not so much byakuren's specific ideology

i also don't think they're necessarily impossible. from the lore we have, it is Plausible for a youkai to attain nirvana? is it likely to happen? not really. but it's possible. it's just that whether or not it could happen is kind of irrelevant

i don't think byakuren (in the present) is that tragic of a figure i gotta be real. she was tragic, like, whilst trapped in hokkai, but like. she's fine these days. she's thriving. she has a bike and everything