#one of the main characters is nonbinary and she was talking about their inclusion and pronoun usage pertaining to them

[freshlypeeled]

This morning my gf woke me up during a dream where I was sitting in a car with my dad and his father (who just passed a few weeks ago) while we listened to a woman on the radio who was analyzing one of the characters in the book I’ve been working on for the past decade. It was surreal because for one it was so vivid, and secondly she was using words that I’ve honestly never thought/used to explain the portion she was talking about, but everything was very accurate. It was super surreal and vivid.

[themonsterundermystairs]

short list of lgbt-inclusive games that i love (in brackets is the kind of representation):

- cattails and it‘s sequel, cattails: wildwood story (nonbinary, queer in general): these are both great games that warrior cats fans will love. also, every single cat in the game is non binary. everyone is only referred to by they/them and you can have kittens with anyone.

- starfield (nonbinary, bi, same sex relationships, trans): you can choose your pronouns (he, she or they) no matter your body type. you can also always change your body and pronouns for a small fee. some main companions talk about former partners of the same gender, in at least one case, a character references dating men and women. guards may also reference a partner of the same gender.

- skyrim (same sex relationships for player, gay): you can marry regardless of gender and adopt kids with your spouse. there is a dead gay couple. (this will be the only game with so little representation on this list. i included it because i love skyrim, because you can make it gayer with mods and because it is from 2011 so i don‘t have high expectations)

- ikenfell (nonbinary, queer relationships, neopronouns): a really fun rpg with a fun combat system. also very queer, every character has their pronouns listed and there are nonbinary people with they/them, ze/zir and even he/him pronouns. i haven‘t quite finished playing through it yet, but there are all kinds of queer relationships. oh and you save the game by petting cats

- wandersong (queer relationships, gender nonconformity, nonbinary): a really unique and wholesome game about a bard that wants to save the world. it has an amazing story and some of the most well written characters i have ever encountered. the bard is nonbinary and uses all pronouns and there is a noteworthy nonbinary character whose story doesn‘t revolve around them being nonbinary. they are fully accepted. there are plenty of queer relationships. there are mermaids with beard stubble.

- a short hike (nonbinary): an amazingly fun game that actually feels like a holiday. it also has a super fast turtle that goes by they/them pronouns

- shovel knight (queer relationships, trans, nonbinary): fun platformer that allows you to choose your body type (male/female) and your pronouns (he/she/they) independently from one another. you can also do the same for all bosses and your love interest.

- squidlit and super squidlit: really fun gameboy style games that were created by independent trans developers.

[tavyliasin]

Fandom Essay - Body Positivity and Validation

Good timezone darlings~ Lia is back at it again with some examination of BG3 Fandom and some more of the wonderful things we can find within it. This time we are talking about representation of different physical features. If you feel this might be a little much for you, either in regards to your relationship to your body or any potential dysphoria, please feel free to skip it. Second disclaimer that I will be mentioning trans and nonbinary people here from the perspective of a Cis person - this is absolutely not my right to speak for or over anyone so I thoroughly welcome the voices of those with lived experiences to join in the comments with their input, but I also did not want to leave the topic out of the discussion and you may just see why as we get into it~ So on with today's long title:

How FanWorks Can Be Important To Self Acceptance And Body Positivity - The Next "Callout Essay" from TavyliaSin (Who is calling herself out with these too) ((there are reasons it feels targeted I know where to aim)) (((but honestly it's fine it's all positive I promise)))

Today we will be discussing: body types, disability representation (only a little though, this one may need a full post of its own), body size, gender (and gender euphoria), scars and "imperfections", visible ageing. This will be through the lens of both the canon inclusion and everything we see in mods, edits, and fan creations of all kinds. As usual I will use sub headers and encourage anyone to skip what makes them uncomfortable, as well as to join the discussion~ so let's begin, shall we?

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What Does Body Positivity Mean?

Let's start off with the simple one. Body positivity doesn't mean promoting any one body type as the ideal or as better than any others, it is about being positive about the mortal flesh vessels we inhabit and all of their features. A lot of people can find this difficult, to love oneself or even just accept oneself, especially in a highly critical society. But that is where representation and even fan creations can step in - by being vocal and loud about appreciating features that people may feel negative about in themselves, we can help build up confidence and self worth, as well as reminding all of us that we do not have to look a certain way to be desirable and desired~

How Does This Relate To Baldur's Gate 3?

On the surface, we do have a lot of characters with more conventionally accepted body types in the main cast and romance characters, though it is worth noting that the base models were updated to be less "Hollywood muscles" on a couple of characters, which made more sense to the character stats and backstories (unless Gale was working out every day in his tower, he's not that much like a bodybuilder physique).

But aside from this, when you look closer, there's also an awful lot to appreciate in the standard character designs. A lot of these are things which fans pick up on and adore, despite how they may be features that people are actively bullied for or that are seen as undesirable by beauty standards. Those "beauty standards" can get in the trash too, but I'll use it here to point out the things we are shining a positive light on in the face of those societal values~ Karlach - Our tall queen, strong and muscular and not particularly feminine with her tattoos, piercings, and hairstyle. But she is adored for all of those things, even her broken horn is an important feature, alongside the glowing heart and fire that have some in the game view her as monstrous until they look closer and know her. Astarion - His laugh lines. Gods don't we love those? The wrinkles in his face are experience, and of course he has those signs of exhaustion in his eyes that make him so much more relatable to many of us. Lae'zel - This might feel like cheating as she's not human, and is less human-like than most of the other characters, but in a way that is also an important one. She's still desirable and treated as such in the romances, as well as very much adored by the fans. Gale - The little signs of ageing and stress mark Gale's face, and even the hints of greying in his hair are picked up on and chewed on by those who love him most. Wyll - More on him later but honestly is he not the poster boy for physical acceptance? Not only do we have his initial appearance with the stone eye but with one choice his entire body is completely changed and part of his story is arguably learning to live with this and how his new look is likely going to be seen as everything he ever feared. Halsin - Are we cheating with BIG TALL MUSCLE MOUNTAIN because many people find this attractive to start with? Maybe, but again he has clear signs of ageing, as well as very obvious facial scarring. His look might easily be described as fearsome, and yet his personality couldn't be further from it. Raphael - Hello there lovers of older men, who look at each one of those wrinkles and his brow lines and start sweating a bit more. I'm with you, he's gorgeous because of those signs of aging, not despite them. Abdirak - Our real poster boy for scars and visible wounds. Features which have long been given only to villainous characters in fiction (particularly that aimed at younger audiences) and yes he is one of the most violent characters, but he is also immediately deeply sympathetic to the player. So we are no longer equating scars/visual difference with pure evil. In general we have a lot of features that are not overly smoothed out or homogenised to fit certain standards. We have different nose shapes, visible pores, scars, acne marks, wrinkles, greying hair, moles, freckles, body hair, and a lot of variety across face shapes and features. It makes the characters feel more real, more relatable, and seeing features closer to our own can be comforting and validating in a lot of ways. Of course there are more examples, and far more we could say about each one of these and all the things that make them unique that we love about them, but we would be here all day and there are other topics to cover!

What About The Player Characters?

So we do have a range of fantasy races, many of which arguably don't represent real humans at all, and we do also lack variation in body types in the standard game. But we also have player characters with shorter statures with the dwarves, halflings and gnomes. Beyond just being part of the lore and story, there is some representation here for similar body types in real life. I can't say a lot on this as I neither have personal experience nor do I personally know anyone who could speak on how they feel about these races in comparison to lived experiences, but it would be equally unfair to leave the point out of the conversation - please do add something in the comments if you have the knowledge and emotional bandwidth to spare, I would love to hear about your experiences and opinions! Aside from this we have a wide range of skin tones (though my own is too close to plain paper to be able to tell you if this is anywhere near adequate so please feel free to weigh in with lived experience here) as well as scars and other features in the character creation. There's also vitiligo pigmentation, which is not only representing the condition but also normalising it to those who aren't familiar and making some rather beautiful options for our characters in my opinion. Even in the hair styles there are a couple of options featuring thinner hair or baldness patterns. There are less options for textured hairstyles and the facial features are equally limited, but there are some truly gorgeous mods out there which I'll mention later.

Player Characters And Gender

Another caveat to please weigh in with your lived experiences, but this one is one that I've seen friends enjoy and it was really wonderful to see that delight. Being able to select pronouns, genitals, body type, and voice all independently of each other is something which is so vastly meaningful to a lot of players. To some it might just be "oh cool I get to choose what my character looks like naked", but to a nonbinary friend of mine... Well, they were sending me happy, joyful, and what can only be described as "delightfully shouty" messages when they were in character creation. To paraphrase, and to tone it down just a little, it went something like this:

"Wait you mean I can have a character look and exist the way I want to be? I can actually have myself represented on screen, and nobody will misgender me, and nobody will decline a romance based on any of this?!"

Maybe it seems silly but I got tearful to see them just absolutely losing it over having these options. They've been stuck with binary options in most fantasy RPGs for so long... Of course there's still things that could be improved, there always will be, but that joy? Priceless. It meant something in that moment and I hope it will continue to mean something to a lot more people in many moments to come. Of course there are still flaws - the faces and bodies are still gender matched, and it isn't possible for people to refine the size and shape of player character chests. In some ways really what we have is the bare minimum, a start that needs to go further, but seeing as there have been precious few games in the genre to even reach this low bar it is good to recognise it, to say "this brought people joy and is worth the effort to make it happen", and to say "please go further because there is genuine interest."

What About Mods?

This is where we can see a lot more of that positivity flourishing. There are countless options, from having more hairstyles and hair types, to face shapes and features, all the way to body types and adding in top surgery scars. Giving the game the ability to be modded, and potentially even encouraging and supporting it, means we can see so much more of that body positivity and representation. Having a hero who shares your features, seeing romances play out where the characters are valued in every way just as they are. Being able to mod softer and wider body types to the Origin characters too, taking the form away from the bodybuilder/model physique and far closer to more average - and undeniably still devastatingly attractive - body types. Seeing the trans-Origin character headcanons portrayed too, that's just so utterly divine~ (There is a lot to be said about parallels to LGBTQIA+ experiences in the Origin storylines, too, so feel free to comment on those at the end if you would like to) To all of you out there making mods, and sharing the characters you've created using other peoples' mods - thank you! I adore seeing all of these, as well as people's happiness in sharing and using them too~

I don't even use mods, honestly darlings I'm not the best with tech at times and as I'm spending vastly more hours writing than playing it's likely not as worth it for me - especially when people share the modded content for us all to enjoy in videos and screenshots. But I love how many there are, that they exist, and all the ways they give people joy and euphoria to see their own body types and/or body types they find to be desirable~

But Wasn't This Post About Fandom and Fan Creations?

It was - and is! Because after all of the content you can get in the base game and in the modded version, what comes after is where the fans go with it from there.

That's truly where we get the most body positivity and joy. Headcanons leave the head and pour onto the page. We see characters reimagined a hundred times, each with their own twist, their own enthusiasm both from the creator and from fans just eating up every piece that comes out. There's so much variety there seems to be almost anything you could wish for with almost any character, and I can guarantee you that if there's something you'd like to see and aren't seeing out there, there will be an artist willing to work on the idea (most likely on commission basis, we do prefer to ensure our artists can eat after all, but there may be some willing to just adopt ideas to draw as their own too). This even extends to cosplay, with gender-swapped characters, as well as the one thing I will always be vocal about in cosplay - everyone should be allowed to wear the character costumes they love regardless of body types or how well their body/face matches the original character. Though this does come with the caveat that skin should never be darkened to match a character's look (if that character has a natural type skin tone, obviously green etc is not an issue) - just be your own version of the character if you adore them enough to put the costume together.

And your work?...

Thank you for asking Lia, let me answer that one for you. Of course, take it away, Lia! Ahem silliness aside, there is something you might or might not have noticed in my writing. I don't do a lot of body-type description. You can imagine whatever you like as you read - Gale with a soft tummy to snuggle? Yes please! Or you can imagine him with sculped abs, or a more slender frame - whatever brings you the most joy to read. This is especially true for anything I do with gender neutral character fics (usually "character x Reader"/2nd person pieces) - I try to stay away from any specific gendered features and focus on actions and sensations which can be common to any body.

How Does This All Add Up To Body Positivity?

Simple, love - by sharing and making all of these works we are saying "these features are beautiful, we love them, we want to see more of them as we fall head over heels time and time again". It might not seem like a lot, but the mind is both powerful and very easily open to suggestion. If a person keeps seeing negative things about a feature they have (eg, as a mild example body hair on women/feminine people) they will internalise that and wish to change themselves (eg, waxing/shaving/etc). In the case of a bit of body hair that might not seem drastic, but it still changes how someone feels about themselves. At the end of the day, the more we love ourselves the easier it is to look after ourselves and be happy in the mortal flesh vessels we pilot around this terribly strange universe~ For my part, I have seen my body shape which I had struggled with shown time and time again as "wow look at this character who looks this way, they are amazing! I love this feature, and that feature, and the way the artist made sure to include this particular thing-" Every time I see that, every time I see parts of myself I struggle with being applauded and appreciated, I feel a little brighter. A little more comfortable. A little more like I am allowed to dress it up nicely and spend time and care to feel good about it. I also feel less shame for old scars, for every part of myself that has made me look at the mirror with unkind eyes. Confidence is not a single brick, it's many that need to be built carefully with the right cement. If it is chipped away at too many times, even by little self-deprecating "jokes", it will erode. It will crack. It will wear away piece by piece instead of building up. And before anyone decides to try equating weight and health, darling this is not the place. If you truly care about someone's wellbeing, leave their health to the private discussions they have with their doctors, and remember that looking after oneself is far easier from a place of loving oneself. If you care about a thing, you want to look after it. If you see a thing as already broken, you're less likely to be cautious in how you handle it.

Where does this essay end?

Well, I believe that would be here. With the endless gratitude for every creator out there bringing us mods, images, fiction, art, cosplay, content of all of these wonderful characters in every incredible variation that we can think of. I encourage those of you who are feeling lower in confidence about yourselves to really look at the fan responses to these creations - the excitement and desire for every body type, every feature, everything that we might see of ourselves and dislike there are so many people out there seeing those exact same features we have and feeling nothing but attraction, desire, love, adoration, and praise~ We are often our own worst critics, but not one of those characters would ever reject us, neither are we rejecting any of our favourites when we see them on the screen. I certainly hope to see more games bringing us this variety, and going further too. There is power in fiction and fan-works, and it is helpful to recognise it too.

Apologies if this one felt too long, rambling, or like I lost my point - it was done over 3 days and I'm rather tired~ I have other essays coming in the next few weeks too, and I really would love to hear your opinions on any of them~

As a final note - please do add your own views and experiences on the topic! I can only offer my own as a disabled white cisgender asexual/bisexual/panromantic woman with too much time on her hands~ I neither wish to ignore experiences outside of my own nor speak over them. All I can offer is what I see, what I hear, and of course my endless love to all of you~ That, my very dear darlings, is never in doubt. I love you just the way you are, because of who you are, and will see the beauty in everything that makes up the sum of your wonderful selves~

[fadingwinnerpirate]

You Should Play Noisz Starlivht

Noisz Starlivht is a rhythm game bullet hell RPG microgame collection rougelike Visual Novel, and if that laundry list of genres doesn't catch your attention, then the fact that it's the most diverse and inclusive piece of media I've ever experienced probably will. The premise is that four post high-school, if not post college, idols are performing a show when they're attacked by a Noisz Beast, which is basically the physical manifestation of a piece of music, and they're conscripted to repel these monsters using the Noisz by the mysterious Beyond. It's an odd mix of an idol story and a magical girl story, where the themes and tropes are more similar to the former, but the actual story structure is more reminiscent of the latter.

Also, everyone of the main characters is queer in some way, except one, and her straightness is used more as a joke than anything. The player character, who serves as Starlivht's Producer, is a wheelchair bound sapphic woman who's definitely not important to the plot haha. There's one trans man and a nonbinary person who changed their pronouns between this game and the prequel 2econds to Starlivht (which you should also play), which is neat! Two of the main characters are in a relationship from the word go, and the other is a trans woman who's voiced by a man in the songs because she's confident enough in her own presentation to not need to train her voice (she might also be too lazy lol). She's helped me cope with my own voice dysphoria because it makes me realize that people actually won't really notice or care if a woman has a deep voice, and the only reason you should do voice training is if you WANT to, if you try to do voice training purely because you think you SHOULD sound more feminine or whatever, you'll never be satisfied with the results. Uh, one of the protagonists is also ace, which is revealed over the course of the story, which is neat.

There are also a number of characters with disabilities and neurodivergencies. The Producer has already been mentioned, but one of the protagonist's big sister is also wheelchair bound, and there's even a little scene where the Producer recommends their wheelchair model to that character. There is also two characters who are a part of a system, which was a bit of a surprise for me, but not unwelcome. It also behooves me to mention that these characters talk like they're in a Discord chat half of the time, which is hilarious to me.

Also, the game is completely free to play, though it is greatly improved by spending the twenty bucks for the full version. It also works remarkably well for being a mobile rhythm game and (usually) only using your two thumbs. It's actually reasonably challenging, if that's something you care about, though there is an option if you just want to experience the story.

tl;dr- look at what.

YOU WANT TO PLAY NOISZ STARLIVHT

[zip-toonz]

Please tell the masses the ideas you’ve had for Calem and Serena!! Your designs for them are adorable and I’d love to hear more about your interpretations of The Frenchies

Sure thing!

Both of them have bits about them that represent different parts of the player character.

Calem: I made him selectively mute because he's meant to represent the main player character who doesn't have a lot of dialogue. He will talk when he feels like it and that's mostly with the friend group, Sycamore, His mother, or if he feels its absolutely necessary. He mainly uses sign language and occasionally the holocaster/a notepad if he's not speaking with someone who knows sign. His friends and Sycamore learned sign to make conversations more inclusive for him.

I gave him the female excusive nickname C-Kins because honestly the only gendered nick name is Lady and this is my house. The group started calling him Seaking because C-Kins sounded like Seaking if said fast enough. He loves the nickname.

He's the son of Grace. Which contrasts to the Serena usually being her daughter (anime/manga). He actually enjoys rhyhorn racing and doesnt mind his mom teaching him. Him being selected to be a dex holder was his mothers idea to get him out of the house a bit and Sycamore was happy to include him. He picked Froakie as a starter.

His journey wasn't about being the best trainer but more so about exploration. He likes helping Shauna with her scrapbook and stopping to take it all in. He did obtain the 8 badges but never really beat the league because well it was never on his to do list. Even so he still gave Serena a challenge.

The feather in his hair is a molted feather from his mothers Fletchling. It makes him feel close to home as he travels.

Serena: She's Meant to represent the main rival but has some Player characteristics to her. Shes the one with the mega ring and beat the Champion. Unlike in the anime and manga she's the daughter of the 'amazing trainers' mentioned by Shauna. Serena loves training to the point she's often sunburnt from staying out doing so and forgetting to use sunscreen. Most people assumed her passion is because her parents pressured her but that's false. Her starter was Chespin. and she has the Battle Chateau title of Marchioness.

Out of the friend group she's the natural leader. Despite having a fiery nature to her she's the coolest under pressure and tends to step in to be the voice of reason when situations get tense. Part of training is patience and quick decision making and since battling is second nature to her it carries over into other parts of her life. Not to say she's never acted impulsively. The team flare situation was a bunch of quick decisions some of which were impulsive or heavily influenced by emotion. She tends to keep Shauna and Tierno (the most emotionally driven people in the group) from acting based on feelings if it would be detrimental to them. She knows your heart is in the right place but you cant help anyone if you get hurt by not having a plan. She knows youre upset but this argument isn't going to solve the problem. And yet in situations like Trevor's mom or Team Flare all that's thrown out the window and she's also acting on emotion and adrenaline.

She got the nickname of S- Meister (its my house gendered nicknames don't exist anymore brought to you by nonbinary gang/lh). Tierno gave it to her because of her skills as a trainer. But Shauna calls her Rena/Rina. She enjoys participating in her friends passions so they have a reason to push themselves further. Trevor likes dex battles? ok! lets go fishing to see who can catch the most individual water pokemon. Tierno likes dance? Cool! lets make a pair choreography! Shauna likes scrapbooking and writing journals about her journey? Time to make as many memories together as possible! Calem likes Ryhorn racing? Even if its casual shes happy to learn from him to give him a bit of friendly competition.

[writer-citation-needed]

Different Kinds of Fruit is a middle-grade novel centered around Annabelle, who has lived in the same small town and gone to the same non-traditional school with the same group of kids since she was in kindergarten. Hardly anything changes for her until the first day of sixth grade, when a new kid says that they've not only just moved from Seattle but are nonbinary (something she's never heard of). With a glimpse into a life so far from her own, Annabelle learns more about those around her than she ever thought sixth grade would teach.

It took me about a week to sum up my thoughts on this novel, because while I really enjoyed most of it scene-to-scene, I think it drops the ball on many of the larger issues it contains. Given the number of subplots and themes, the ending is quite messy, but I think it could be a very important book for young readers. For the most part, this novel has a lot of heart and great queer rep in nearly all areas.

My favorite aspect of Different Kinds of Fruit is the protagonist, Annabelle. She is super endearing in her kindness, curiosity and her passion for supporting the various causes of her classmates. I really loved her narrative voice and thought she was incredibly funny and charming. I also related to her a lot in her simultaneous confusion of and desire to explore her sexuality and it was satisfying to see her come into her own by the end. I was really surprised that she didn't end up being ace though, given that at the beginning she describes herself as "someone who didn't like boys, but didn't like girls either." In a book filled with rep of all kinds I was really excited to have an ace MC but was fine with her ending up coming out as pan and dating one of her newly-trans classmates in the epilogue :]

Other than the very main plot surrounding Annabelle and Bailey, I think the book gets really messy and sat poorly with me at parts. For the most part, this can be summed up in two points: too many subplots and a huge lack of nuance.

Lack of Focus

I mentioned how it's hard to concisely describe this book, and that is mainly because of how many subplots are added without much resolve. I don't think it had to be a bad thing though! When we're introduced to the new teacher Amy, the class believes they will be able to learn about more than the standard sixth-grade social studies unit and begin to suggest a year-long curriculum covering many social and environmental justice topics. Annabelle herself is involved with two major projects as a part of the class's interest- the National Coming Out Day panel and a solar power proposal. While both are shut down due to Dixon and his mother, only the first gets any kind of narrative followthrough. The solar panels, which would have calmed Annabelle's climate anxiety as described many times throughout the book? Dismissed in the epilogue. Of course, I understand that the story sort of requires more time and plot for the LGBTQ issues, but I don't understand why the main character's secondary concern is treated (I feel) more like a catalyst for her to fall in love with one of her classmates (ALSO only in the epilogue) rather than a genuine theme.

What makes the dismissal of the environmental theme worse is that so much of the queer subplot are also completely unresolved! As much as I liked Annabelle's parents coming out and having a q&a with her class (and how they formed a local support group in the epilogue) it only worked to tie up (most of) the interpersonal conflict, not the systematic conflict. Even in the epilogue, nothing is done to make the Lab more inclusive despite the major subplot of E being kicked out of school in another town and Annabelle's realization that her school is not as progressive as she thought. I was really disappointed that the social justice was limited to one parent storming out of the class angrily and the principal being contradicted and forced to do the huge act of.. allowing Annabelle's parents to talk about their identities for an hour. While the epilogue does see more action done, it is super short and mainly done in a "look what we did in the past year! yay!" kind of way. I would really have preferred for the events mentioned in the epilogue to have more time than some of the build up for a very small-scale revolution on the LGBTQ front and a barely-resolved environmental project.

One-sided Argument

This part is tricky. Obviously this is a kid's book, but I found there to be such little nuance in the conflict between Bailey and Annabelle's dad. It really made me dislike Bailey in these scenes, because they seemed to make no effort to understand him meanwhile he must overcome his years of trauma and history to fit into Bailey's idea of trans ideology. Rather than both characters learning from each other, Annabelle's dad is treated like he's just some uncultured boomer instead of a part of a very real conversation about identity. Honestly, I found Bailey to be very privileged and though they sort of point to that a couple times, it seems incredibly naive for them to not even attempt to understand a world where it isn't acceptable to introduce yourself to your class by saying "I'm nonbinary, and while you might not even know what that is or how they/them pronouns work, I'm going to be very offended if you try to ask me anything about my identity that isn't perfectly politically correct as I see fit". Like, I hope that all kids can explore their identity without any pushback like Bailey and their friends, but I feel that this outlook completely diminishes what could have been a really interesting perspective on queer issues from Annabelle's dad (which I thought was why the spectrum families setting was made prominent (instead we just got introduced to new side characters that were really only there for one scene and to magically turn Mike into the perfect activist)

General Thoughts

Overall, I like Different Kinds of Fruit as an introduction to queer identities for younger readers. The main character is very relatable and kind, and I loved her journey of self-discovery and her quest for social justice, both interpersonally and on a larger scale. I did find, however, that there was simultaneously too much going on for the time frame of the novel and not enough nuance for a story that prominently features both younger and older queer characters. In terms of a cute and informative queer middle grade novel though, I would give this a recommendation.

[crisp-sweet-pink-lady]

Summer of Strawberry Shortcake: Across the Berryverse

Since I've already said a lot about Berry in the Big City over the past year, I'm not going to give it its own post, and instead wrap up my rewatch series with a look at all four versions of the franchise at the same time and what I've gleaned from watching them all in row like this.

Mostly I want to talk about how each version has a different main focus, the theme that really makes the show tick. The original specials were made first and foremost to sell toys and other merchandise, and that is built into each special's DNA. The plots are dictated by what was new to the toyline, and once a character has served their purpose to the plot, they are relegated to just being part of the crowd (especially in the Nelvana series), saying lines that need to be said and going through the motions of things that need to be done because the plot calls for them, not because it's in their character to do so.

SSC03's backbone is Friendship. Most of the plots revolve around making new friends, being a good friend, how friends patch up their differences. Back when the series was first coming out, that was one of my gripes against it, that everyone had to be friends, that Strawberry wouldn't rest until all her friends were friends with each other. And while all the other versions are about friendship, too, none of them run on it the way that SSC03 does. Berry Bitty Adventures has a similar focus, but its theme is Community. When problems arise, it almost always effects the whole community, not just the girls in Berry Bitty City, but the Berrykins, the ladybugs, the bees, and so on. The girls don't just have places to live, they have places of business. When a new main character was added to the series, they had to have a place in the community (see Cherry Jam's arc in the first half of season two), and Lemon even tried to leave when her place was taken by a machine. Yes, the girls are all friends, but they're also a community.

As for Berry in the Big City, after watching two seasons, I think it's safe to say that its focus is inclusion. Main characters, side characters, even background characters reflect the world around us with racial diversity, different body types (a big deal in such a doll-dominated franchise), LGBTQ characters, and as of season two, even characters who are trans and nonbinary. The show may have a more comedic tone than any of its predecessors, but at its heart is a main character who comes out on top because she never lets anyone's differences keep her from trying to make them her friend.

One more thing I want to mention real quick is that while other characters may have fundamental changes from version to version, all of the different versions of Strawberry share certain qualities: a sunny disposition, being a fantastic baker, unflagging optimism (though they do get discouraged from time to time), an unwavering loyalty to their friends, and a touch (sometimes more) of spunk. These are immutable qualities of Strawberryness, and probably why the character has managed to endure for four generations.

[lastescaped]

i think another point of frustration is the fact that this feels like groundhog’s day. a couple months back the ressie fandom imploded because a jill writer was so staunch about using a white face claim when jill has been said by capcom to be half-japanese. the amount of borderline to blatant racist shit that was spewed around that, from things like “well it was just a marketing ploy” and “there’s nothing in canon that blatantly states that she’s japanese” was extremely hurtful to hear.

and frankly, does there have to be anything blatant in canon stating she’s half japanese?

like, as someone who’s a quarter mexican, i’mma keep it a buck with you; i don’t look it. i’m as pasty as glue. i burn bright red in the sun. but it doesn’t change the fact that i’m hispanic, i come from a hispanic background, i have hispanic cultural experiences. am i only hispanic if i’m walking around in a sombrero waving maracas? am i only hispanic if i can speak spanish? of course not. that’s insulting and silly.

poc are severely under-represented in media so i really don’t see the problem with capcom, a japanese company, saying “yeah, this character in our horror game is japanese” and then not feeling the need to throw it in your face every five seconds. it’s also not really something you can be canon divergent about. racebending a canonly character of color to be white sounds fucking insane, right? because it is. there’s already so much white representation in media. why take away from poc rep when it’s lacking?

it’s not always the same with lgbt rep, but it’s pretty similar. whether we intend to or not, whether we want to or not, the default has been straight for.... well, forever, basically. so rpers, fanfic writers, you name it, will take characters who are assumed to be straight and portray them as bi, as gay, they’ll headcanon presumably cis characters as trans or nonbinary; we as a community are lacking in representation so we strive to create it however we can, and the easiest ways of doing that are with already established canon characters.

BHVR’s announcement that david king is canonly gay is similar to a television show writing in a storyline about a main character being gay a few seasons in. i use that example since BHVR announced last year they were creating what is essentially a diversity and inclusion team to better incorporate representation into their game. they also worked with gaymerx, a nonprofit that supports LGBT gamers and developers, on incorporating non-het sexuality into the game, currently in an already established character that people are familiar with. they’ve also announced that david’s tome lore is going to heavily tie in with this and feature more development on him being a gay man.

from my perspective, as a lesbian, i think BHVR is handling this responsibly. i don’t think it’s forced representation when you look at all the work they’ve been talking about doing on this for a year, and there’s the high likelihood that they will introduce new characters that are established as LGBT into the game in the future.

the reason why it’s harmful to peel back on this representation, which they are going to follow through with, is because gay people get so little of it, especially in characters that aren’t seen as the stereotype (i.e. effeminate, sassy). and to take a character that the creators have come out and said is gay and headcanon them as bisexual.... that’s taking away a core piece of them and a core life experience, considering that, whether we want to accept it or not, gay people and bisexual people face different kinds of oppression, and bisexual people do have privilege over gay people. it’s also extremely privileged to deny gay representation when there’s so little of it and act like denying it isn’t harmful, when it is. 

it’s one thing to headcanon a character that is in the majority with their race (i.e. white) or sexuality (i.e. straight) as something divergent from canon. but to headcanon a character that the original creators have come out and stated are gay as anything but is erasure, no matter how you slice it, and it’s inherently harmful.

[educate-vote-makechange]

Addressing Ignorance and Promoting Change: Without Giving Up Things That Bring You Joy

            As you move out of the sheltered spaces in college and into the real world, there will be many occasions where you are confronted with individuals whose views are not in line with your own. Here’s what to do: educate where you can, vote for policymakers who hold the same values as you, and ignore ideologies based in hate. Recently, J.K. Rowling has made it clear that she personally holds anti-trans views, and that can leave many of you wondering what the best way to denounce those views is, and does that mean you can’t love Harry Potter anymore? The best thing to do is apply the strategies listed above educating ignorance, and using your vote to make real change. While J.K. Rowling's personal views concerning the trans community are heavily transphobic, fans can still enjoy Harry Potter as a safe space, and do not have to choose between supporting trans rights and trans people and continuing to enjoy the beloved franchise.

            The communities that have been birthed from the series have given many a place to belong, and to be their whole, authentic selves, and the series as a whole carries a message of unity, inclusivity, and believing in yourself. However, Harry Potter isn't, and never was, the epitome of all things moral and ethical; a main theme of the series is the blurring of individual's morality. In her article, “The Time Has Come to Let Go of 'Harry Potter',” Kathleen Walsh (2020) argues that fans must abandon the use of Harry Potter as a measurement of morality, “We can no longer use the series as an ethical yardstick, measuring right and wrong on a scale of Voldemort to McGonagall” (para. 16), but morality in the face of war is a grey colored thing. Many of the main characters, the good guys, use unforgivable curses, illegal magic, and break laws in the pursuit of justice against Voldemort’s tyranny, does that make them evil? One of the biggest bullies in the series, Severus Snape, turns out to have been doing the right thing from the beginning, but does that good outweigh his poor treatment of students? People have a spectrum of good and bad inside them, and that is why it is important to not discount every person with differing views, as evil or as unworthy of a chance to change their mind. Open the discussion, and use the knowledge you take away from school to educate others. Walsh (2020) tells us, “"Let’s use this opportunity to talk frankly about anti-trans violence, TERFs, and the importance of language that identifies people accurately" (para. 19). Use the power of your education to eradicate troublesome views wherever you might find them.

            As despicable as they might be, J.K. Rowling is a private citizen, and is entitled to have her own opinions. She will have to face the consequences of voicing her opinions publicly, even if fans continue to consume Harry Potter media, and although views like hers are frequently at the root of the impediment of trans rights, the best way to change that is through voting in policy makers that value equal rights for trans people, and not through boycotting Harry Potter; you can still be an ally who respects and supports trans lives without giving up a series that may bring you joy. Ideas like Rowling’s are at the root of anti-trans legislation that affects all people, not just trans, nonbinary, or gender nonconforming folks, "When North Carolina adopted HB2, the anti-trans “bathroom bill,” and began policing who could and could not enter women’s restrooms, it was actually cisgender women who were being denied entry — women who did not conform to societal standards of femininity and beauty" (Maines, 2022, para. 13). Nicole Maines uses her article “Nicole Maines: Why I’m Still a ‘Harry Potter’ Fan Despite J.K. Rowling’s Anti-Trans Views,” to address how anti-trans policies negatively affect more than just trans people, and changing these policies is where our focus needs to be if we want to see worldwide equality for all. So use your votes, get out there and support campaigns and policymakers who will act in a way that is in line with your values.

            You do not have to abandon Harry Potter, and the safe spaces within the franchise's community, in response to J.K. Rowling's personal views on the trans community; you can better support trans rights by focusing on voting for policy makers who value equality for all, denouncing Rowling's troubling views, and educating her and others on the facts about people who are going through transition. You have power in your knowledge, use it to make our world a better place for all.

[anonymous-eggy]

okay, im gonna get a little real for a second and use my voice. this is literally just me ranting and getting this off my chest because its been bothering me a bit.

you can ignore this if you really want to im talking about the pronoun options thing

while I cant speak personally for the race part of representation because im white as hell, i can speak personally for the gender and pronouns part because I am a Non-binary person who uses he/they pronouns.

I've seen some people say the pronoun choices are to bait people into playing. you know what? im glad the choice is there.

i dont remember who i saw say it, so im not going to assume the gender of the person, but females honestly have it good with romance games. it's literally marketed towards them. males and nonbinary people dont get that, so these pronoun options are more than just "bait" to us.

To us, these pronoun options are like being told "there may not be many of you guys, but we see you. and we welcome you. you deserve to be seen and have a chance to experience this comfortably!"

i. am. glad. okay? because as a he/ they person who absolutely despises using she/her pronouns, those pronoun options that you call "bait" are one of the main reasons i play.

this world still has a hard time accepting me and others for who we are and I'll straight up say it. The Arcana and Fictif's pronoun options, along with their love interests have saved me multiple times.

I would not have learned who i was and become comfortable with it without The Arcana. Asra being a he/they Non-binary character taught me that its okay for me to feel that too. If they didnt exist, even if you guys insist his pronouns choices are performative, taught me something that made me more whole as a person. Asra is so special to me because they helped me with something i was struggling with for a while and tearing myself up over.

those "baiting" pronoun options? those make me feel comfortable being my true self. i dont know if you guys know this, but not a lot of romance games do that. Usually. you are forced to align femininly. which is a big oof for people like me who love romance games, but arent female.

every single time those 2d characters refer to me with my correct pronouns I get a rush of happiness.

those devs put in the effort to make sure people like me enjoy their game. I am so thankful for that. they decided to be inclusive to people who are male and nonbinary aligning. they chose to put in that extra effort so that we could feel safe and comfortable playing their game.

and, yeah, its not perfect all the time. sometimes they slip up a bit (which is more than a little jarring), but the fact that they are even doing this is more than majority of romance games I've played do.

what im saying is, leave those pronoun choices out of your discourse. I'm damn glad those are there.

i hope you all have a good night/day and if you read this rant and have thoughts to add go ahead.

[margridarnauds]

So, I’m trying to articulate my thoughts on Valhalla and gender, which is sparked by the fact that, while Lagertha is prominently mentioned as the mother of the Ragnarssons (and you can find her axe), we never hear so much as a word about Aslaug/Thora, who is pretty much the real protagonist of Ragnar’s saga. 

On one hand: Lagertha is pretty much at a high of popularity right now, courtesy of Vikings (derogatory). On the other hand: Aslaug is in Vikings (derogatory) too. We see her AS THE MOTHER of most of Ragnar’s sons. There’s no reason for her NOT to be recognizable enough to be included. (Lagertha’s inclusion is also problematic - Instead of being able to divorce Ragnar and have her own life, they went the cheap route by having her being shot by a Finnish arrow.) But, at the end of the day.....it feels like, while Valhalla DOES include a diverse range of women (including our protagonist), ultimately there is....some sort of hierarchy involved, where women who fight, or at least wield weapons are automatically seen as better? 

Of our two longterm romantic interests, neither one wears a dress, both of them in traditionally masculine clothing, likewise for Ciara in WOTD. With Randvi, we’re first really invited to pity her/consider her as a really viable romantic option when we hear that she COULD have been a Jomsviking....had she not been married off to Sigurd. We see her taking down bandits, drinking ale, and we’re supposed to think, at that point, that she’s a worthy love interest. 

There’s this rather confusing line from the artbook, which says: 

“As a strategist, Randvi does not dress in a warrior’s outfit, but neither does she wear the typical women’s clothing of her time.” 

Which...seems to imply that being a strategist (a role that primarily involves her being behind a table), is automatically at odds with wearing a dress. Even if 9th century Scandinavian clothing was restrictive (it isn’t - We’re well, well before the days of tightlacing here, and women had to be able to go about their daily chores, and even IN the days of tightlacing as the peak of fashion, plenty of women didn’t, or went about their daily chores), she’s not doing anything that involves intense manual labor. Putting her in pants is simply a way of saying “Look! Look at Randvi! Look at how independent she is!” which....actually doesn’t work, when almost EVERY OTHER major female NPC is ALSO in pants. Including Valka who, as a völva, ergo a non-combatant role that mostly involves eating shrooms in her huts, has no practical need for pants, even if, once again, the clothing was impractical. If I didn’t know What A 9th Century Norsewoman Should Look Like, I would just assume that this was something that all noblewomen did. 

It’s very rare to see women actively weaving, as I’ve discussed before, with Eivor only weaving as one of the disguises that she can take to blend in. As a shieldmaiden who’s up and about constantly, I honestly wouldn’t expect Eivor to devote that much time to weaving, but it is a little jarring when the women who are constantly at the settlement don’t so much as mention it, since this was a great opportunity for women to get together, share gossip, tell tales, talk shit about the men, etc. in their own spaces. And there was a bit of an anxiety around it, because, while this was a necessary function for the creation of clothing (which, in the game, seems to just materialize in chests over the game world), it also was tightly associated with magic and sorcery. (Hence why there was a stigma against men practicing magic....unless you’re Odin, in which case Loki will talk shit about you but is anyone else? No. Because you’re Odin.) I want to emphasize that my issue here isn’t “STAY IN THE KITCHEN AND BE A PROPER WOMAN, EIVOR”, it’s more....erasing what the vast majority of women in the Viking Age DID. 

The closest we get to more traditional, more conventional women would be in the form of the religious women, but, from the Anchoress to the one murderous nun in the mysteries event to Frideswid in the Lunden Arc to Acha in the Lincolnscire arc, they tend to be portrayed as either zealous and evil or confused and easily manipulated, which ignores the reality for many medieval women, which is that, for many women who didn’t want marriage for one reason or another (whether it was that they were facing the possibility of a forced marriage, or they had no dowry, or they were lesbians, or they were ace, or they were any combination of those things), it was their one chance at a life of their own. I’m not saying that it was IDEAL, or that the medieval church was ideal, but it did give them options (that, incidentally, in the pre-Christian times....you didn’t have. Which is why I don’t attach any real sense of horror to Christianity coming to Ireland, at LEAST from the standpoint of women’s rights. There are other aspects to that, but we’re here, in 9th century England, so I won’t go into it.) No, it has to come from some moral defect, otherwise, they would be independent, like Eivor, like Randvi, like Petra, like Eadwyn, like Valdis, or even like Fulke, who is a religious figure referenced, extensively, as mad and heretical, but who makes a large impact on the plot and at least earns some level of respect, as opposed to the others who make relatively brief appearances.

Now, when discussing women warriors, there tends to be some moral value attached to it: “Women warriors DIDN’T EXIST, and if you argue that they DID, you just want women to be men, ignoring that non-femme women might find comfort in the knowledge that they aren’t alone”, often with a sense of moral guilt-tripping over “Erasing women’s suffering” (which also falls into the trap of assuming that being a woman = suffering, or that that’s the defining experience of being a woman) VS “Women warriors EXISTED and they were #NotLikeOtherGirls and that’s ALL we’re going to talk about as far as women at the time, as well as ignoring any potential evidence for trans or otherwise nonbinary identities”. Both options have the potential to erase or diminish what either option can mean to people. I hate both options equally, and I find that the way they’re brought in is incredibly manipulative. I’m not interested in saying that putting an axe in a woman’s hand = setting back feminism for twenty years. I’m not interested in saying that having essentially no more conventional women in the main cast = feminism. Both are bad, but what I’m concerned about is the lack of nuance in Valhalla and how it seems to assume that there’s ONLY ONE WAY to have power. (I’d hoped that Lady Eadwyn would be cool, and she is....even though we only see her in armor, she’s kind of what I would expect from a medieval woman, in the sense that her husband was Ealdorman and now she’s following in his footsteps, defending her rights as his widow, but then we replace her with a dude.)

As someone whose relationship to gender is Weird, I actually really, really enjoy playing a female character who has the kind of independence that Eivor has - I enjoy getting to jump around, killing things in a gloriously rendered historical environment. I enjoy that, with the exception of Dag, no one really questions it (though I would have been down for a more in-depth examination of gender in the Viking Age). I enjoy that Eivor is compassionate, clever, and aggressive, and that she’s able to have romances with both sexes. I’m not trying to nuke her via historical accuracy here (especially since the historical reality of shieldmaidens is SUCH a hot topic, I feel like wading into either end of the historical accuracy pool is a recipe for disaster) because I actually really, really like her as a character. There are relatively few times where I really, really identify with and love a main female video game character, especially since, so often, even into the present, when things are supposed to be better, I can still TELL that they were made by and for straight men, and this is one. What I AM saying is that I hate that it comes at the expense of basically every woman who ISN’T a warrior or otherwise “independent” by the game’s standards. You do have merchant women, the tattoo artist in camp, Valka, as mentioned before, but it all goes back to that point - We never really see a prominent woman running the household, managing the money, giving orders, which was an immensely important, powerful job, and as a result, it always feels kind of halfway done, that we’re over-representing one relationship to gender at the expense of another. 

[takaraphoenix]

Grey’s Anatomy: Review

Took me four months, but I have successfully watched all 16 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy - and what there is of season 17. Figured it deserves some words.

HOLY SHIT I LOVE THIS SHOW? SO MUCH?

(To set the appropriate mood for this and give you a TL;DR.)

That being said to open it up, it is most definitely not flawless. So let’s start there. For me, the one big flaw it has is really the writers’ cuckolding kink. So. Much. Cheating. And - worse than the cheating plots - the cheating apologism. They echo the exact same sentiment so often, that cheating is only one mistake and humans make mistakes. That’s... at one point, that stops being a plot device and starts to be very telling about the writer, to be quite frank.

That being said, let’s roll out the positive. And let’s kick it off with something that relates to all the cheating; so many forced love-triangles, but they usually don’t include toxic rivalries. It’d be so easy to have the men throw punches over the women or the women pull hair and scratch each other’s eyes... so many other rom-drama shows do it already, after all. But, honestly, the two lose ends on the love V (because these things ain’t triangles) usually have such a good dynamic with each other, ranging from civil to friendships to deep mentor ships - Meredith and Addison, Mark and Jackson, Cristina and Teddy? Seeing these dynamics, quite frankly, makes having to sit through a love-triangle-nonsense actually more than bearable.

The most impressive thing about the show is, to me, the amount of rep on it. I mean sure, the main lead is white and I’d estimate half the overall cast are white, but even from the get go - in 2005 - the ratio of white actors versus actors of color in the main cast was five to four. And they’re not background or side characters - I mean, two of them are, aside from Meredith, the only ones to still be around on season 17. They all have their own plotlines, their own relationships and troubles and struggles. It’s not just the Meredith show, not by far.

And beyond that, the queer rep on this show is... honestly mindblowing? I mean, seriously?

They introduced their first queer character in season 2, in 2005, when other procedual dramas that aired then in large parts just... never... added queer characters. And sure! Joe was only a recurring character and not a main character, but he was recurring for six seasons, he recurred a lot, he got established, he and his husband partook in the plot. And, again, this was just the beginning, back in 2005.

They’ve since then steadily broadened their horizon and become more inclusive.

Recurring and main character wise, we’ve had 5 lesbians, 5 bisexual women, 4 gay men and 2 trans characters over these 17 seasons. That’s a very solid list, honestly. If I look at other shows, again especially procedual dramas that are still largely aimed at a more conservative audience, the fact that we’ve had actual queer storylines in every single season since season 2? That’s amazing.

Even more so on the one-off characters, to be quite honest. Just... casually, this patient has two moms, this man is visited by his husband, here the child of the patient is nonbinary, look this patient is in a polyamorous relationship. Sure, those are only the one-off episodical characters, but you have no idea how much that matters too.

I know I’m repeating myself with this, but especially when compared to other procedual dramas, where the characters are often only queer when it’s important to the plot. He got beaten up and ended up in the hospital because he was gay. She got killed because she was trans. They’re motivational and important to the plot (and also usually used to victimize the characters).

The fact that this show, even 10+ years ago already, just... included queerness as part of our reality, included it casually, positively and repeatedly - really, it’s not just like it’s one episode per season like it’s some obligation, it happens a lot? For no actual needed plot reason, she just has a wife and she’s just happily married to her wife and that’s it, because queer people exist.

And I just, I struggle to express how much this casual rep means to me? And how it becomes even more amazing if you consider how long ago it started? And if you add to it the steady prominent recurring/main character rep?

Sure, it’s not perfect - the majority of their characters of color are black; it’s not overly diverse when it comes to what characters of color it included, it took forever to include the second Asian character and the first Muslim character and it could feature a broader variety of ethnicities, just like it could offer a broader variety of queer experiences, I mean it took them forever to introduce the first mlm main character and they have yet to include a bisexual man, I’d also just love to see an ace character or a polyamorous character, to paint a contrast to the sex-obsession and cheating plotlines - but... it’s doing more than many others and I do think it deserves praise for that and it keeps improving. They didn’t just add Erica and Callie as the first wlw couple and then stuck to only having two queer ladies on screen at the same time and never more, just constantly replacing Callie’s girlfriend. They kept adding more, they keep adding more.

Now, on to my absolute favorite thing about this show.

Because, let’s make one thing clear, I hate cheating and under other circumstances the amount of cheating on this show would have driven me off it ten seasons ago. But despite all of the very forced romance drama and sex obsessed allos on the show, that is not the show’s main focus.

This was never mainly about the romance. It’s always been about the platonic relationships first and foremost. Romances changed and broke up and got complicated, but what prospered were the friendships and found family relationships.

Cristina and Meredith are the defining relationship of this show. They are... friendship portrayed in a way I have never seen friendship portrayed before. The writing on their dynamic is just amazing.

And when Cristina leaves the show, the shift to Meredith-Alex and to the sister-dynamic between Meredith, Maggie and Amelia really works.

Personally, after watching the show, I’ve come to divide it into three arcs, each with a Part A and a Part B.

The first arc of the show - spanning seasons 1 to 5 - are about Meredith, Cristina, George, Izzie and Alex. And they explore the dynamic between those five and the individual relationships between them all, so very well. This was really found family done right.

Arc 2 is what I dubbed the rebranding arc - seasons 6 to 10. In Part A (s6 to s8), we got the focus on the Mercy West merger, ending in the horrific plane crash. While Part B is what I call the outfall, season 9 dealing with the outfall from the plane crash and season 10 being all about that Meredith-Cristina outfall.

I love Arc 1 a whole lot, it’s really good. I think Arc 2 is good too, especially the plane crash and its outfall were very gripping and well done, but I do think that this middle part earns the dub as rebranding because it feels like the show itself is trying to find its footing, trying to figure out a direction after MAGIC graduated into residents (and, inevitably, fell apart with the death of George and the departure of Izzie). It’s a bit unfocused on where it wants to go and I still loathe the big misunderstanding nonsense of season 10 (but am glad that Meredith and Cristina rekindled before Cristina’s departure).

Arc 3 is the sisters arc, where the Meredith-Maggie-Amelia dynamic rules, with a more uneven split between A and B, because A spans seasons 11 to 16 for me and is lovingly dubbed the Merlex arc by me, while B is just... season 17; the corona pandemic is really shifting the tone and focus and it coincides with the departure of Alex.

I’m more mixed on it than I am on the other two. For me, Cristina and Meredith just are the heart and soul of the show, so despite just how brilliantly they handled that all, I still miss them (though I greatly appreciate the fact that she still regularly comes up through phone calls, texts, etc). I greatly disliked Alex’s departure (which is a rant of its own).

On the overall, I would actually rank them in order - the first five seasons were my favorite, followed by the awkward middle because it still added brilliant things to it regardless, and despite coming in last, I do also love the second half of the show with the sisters in the focus.

I do admit that I had high hopes that Jo would become Meredith’s new person in season 17, considering the tremendous growth their relationship had - especially considering how Meredith crawled into Jo’s bed and was the one to coax what had happened with her mother out of her; that was “my person” behavior, quite frankly, and I also thought that Alex’s departure might bring them closer. I truly did not like Alex’s parting words to Meredith that she’s always been her own person.

Well, duh. Meredith Grey is an absolute badass. Which, also a thing I love a lot about this show. She is so incredibly strong and brilliant and takes care of herself.

But the point of her having her person was never that she needed someone else to stand in for her; it was to have someone around whom she didn’t have to be that strong. Someone she could come to to be weak around, someone to have her back when everything became too much. You just... can’t do that for yourself. So that sentiment was just incredible rubbish and I will be very mad if they truly have her embrace that nonsense, because she deserves someone like that.

Lastly, let’s talk romantic relationships. Very broadly, I assure you - I wouldn’t even have the patience to tackle them all, I mean seriously everyone has had sex on this show, or so it feels (no but seriously, the amount of overlapping ships on this show is ridiculous).

The only note I do have on that is that... nothing lasts forever. Quite frankly, the most “endgame” ships on this show are Richard/Catherine and Ben/Miranda (which, bless them, those two are literally my favorite of the canon ships). Everything else is just... fair game? They change, they break up, even if you absolutely hate a ship - don’t worry, it’s gonna end soon.

And occasionally, that... is even more rewarding than seeing a couple you do like get together? I mean, honestly, watching a ship you dislike for x reasons and then having them break up on screen and a character actually listing x reasons to the other’s face? Very carthatic.

I also have to mention the adoption positivity; Meredith and Derek adopt a child, not as a last resort after all else has failed, but simply because they fell in love with that little girl, Ben and Bailey took in Joey, because they have big hearts. So often, adoption is only shown as that very, very last option after you wasted thousands of dollars on all other biological options and then it is like a tragic compromise or something. Seeing them just... fall in love with this baby and adopt her and love her is so refreshing?

This show is just... really, really good? The writing is brilliant. I mean, this show made me laugh more than some comedies have? It’s funny, poignant and... not overly dramatic? I mean, of course it’s dramatic - it’s a drama. But it’s more... grounded. Even with some outstandingly extreme things happening, it is still very down to Earth, compared to other dramas that feel the need to go higher and more bizarre each season. It’s incredibly consistent, it includes so much rep and actual plotlines for every character, it really draws out relationships - familiar, platonic, romantic - in such great details.

I just really love this show.

[starshipviolet]

A MESSY LOVELESS REVIEW

I finally finished Loveless so I can follow Alice Oseman without fear of spoilers god I missed them?? It’s been over a month since I stopped following her it felt so wrong.

But here’s some Loveless thoughts! (It’s a tiny bit critical heads up if you’re not up for that.) I might edit this up into a formal review for like goodreads or something, but for right now the rambly bulletpoints just kinda work with how my brain works.

ALSO THIS INCLUDES SPOILERS

I have... let’s just say slightly unrealistic expectations from Alice Oseman novels sometimes, probably bc Radio Silence was just like, everything to me, like a major hyper fixation, it hung the stars, etc. and I related so hard to it when I read it, and her other books are fairly different than that and I’m not as quick to relate to them.

So I came into this book super excited, I live in the US and it took forever to ship (and during that time I had to unfollow Alice, and block the osemanverse tag bc spoilers, god, these are signs of the impending apocalypse.)

Overly dramatic first world problems aside, as I kept reading I was not like... overly excited about the first few sections?

I really liked the first first part, with the introduction of Pip and their texting, although Pip pressuring her to kiss Tommy was Not Fun In Many Ways. I thought Jason was sweet though and I liked the platonic relationships being set up, also the sleepover movies was a cute kinda realistic detail to throw in.

It was cool that they were just kinda dorks? (I love them, and so am I, but like. They’re such dorks. I don’t care that Jason’s trying to reframe himself as some sort of rowing jock, he is.) Like they had all their in jokes and sleepover nights and just kinda like low key hanging out which was nice bc there’s a lot of focus on like clubs and partying in YA and Alice’s books and it was cool to affirm, like “hey look, still happy without that.”

Tommy trying to kiss her was so painful but it also meant a lot to me that there was the “wait what I’ve just been lying to myself about liking him what does that mean” bc you know, lesbian solidarity vibes.

So you get to Durham, and it just... wasn’t as exciting as I hoped for the first chunk? Like I was mostly excited for enemies to lovers with Pip and Rooney but I forgot that means that they have to be horribly annoying to each other at first and I didn’t like Rooney right away.

This is where I should probably give a Big Huge Note that just because something made me uncomfortable doesn’t mean it’s bad writing or that it doesn’t serve a purpose. Georgia’s social pressure to conform to heteronormative ideas of romance is a reality so many people face. Rooney needed to have flaws at first so we could see character development.

Bottom line is, for me it was uncomfortable to read parts and I didn’t start truly loving the book until probably after she broke up with Jason. Their relationship was just so terrible. Again, do I know it serves a purpose? Yes. Did it enhance my personal entertainment of the novel? Absolutely not.

That being said, there were some good Pip/Rooney moments, and as basically a theatre kid the Shakespeare Society club meant a lot to me and I thought it was a good inclusion and also JESUS I thought I was gonna freaking die from all the tension in Pip and Rooney’s Beatrice and Bertrand performance. Wow.

Also Sunil!! I love them! I did think it was slightly weird that he was only referred to with he/him pronouns when they use he/they, but I’m not nonbinary so I’ll look out for what other ppl are thinking about that. It was so cool to have him there though, bc those kids needed some guidance and he needed some time to just have fun so, win win! We are so lucky for Sunil, we don’t deserve him.

Also I need to know everything about Jess bc I have a suspicion we may be the same person. Except I’m not in orchestra. Or British. Or aromantic bisexual. Whatever. She just seems awesome! And I would’ve loved to hear some wisdom from a slightly older queer woman, I guess.

So! Jumping now to some criticisms, I feel like there’s a bunch of parts where Georgia is explaining her feelings, or explaining someone else’s motivations or actions, and it didn’t do a lot for me, I wish there was more like show don’t tell.

There were some points when the writing was genuinely so good, like Pip’s dialouge was always fantastic, especially towards the end with Georgia, it showed off their friendship in a way I really would’ve loved to see more of. Alice’s imagery and character descriptions, especially outfit descriptions had some really good moments, like the main example I think about is the ball because that was everything for me until it wasn’t.

I just really did not enjoy Rooney kissing Georgia, it was such a painful scene and even more than my discomfort, it was just trope-y, you could tell that Pip would catch them and it didn’t feel necessary. I think they could’ve structured it where Pip is just mad about what happened to Jason and it would’ve been better.

But the outfit descriptions! And the bouncy castle game! And the decorations! It was definitely one of my favorite scenes.

I also loved that Alice included Ellis, just like, hell yeah it was so good especially the part where she talks about how there’s magic and love in painting and friends and living and everything.

Georgia and Rooney’s relationship toward the end made me SO emotional and I cried at the part where Georgia was talking about how she’s afraid her friends will leave her and Rooney comforts her.

And the big platonic gestures were fantastic, I knew that they would happen but I was worried it would be too cliche but it was the perfect amount of dorky and I loved it.

This book made me so happy and taught me a lot and I can only hope it will do the same for others and Alice will continue creating brilliant content. If you got this far, gee thanks friend, you have commitment. *Gives you friendship flowers*

[actualbird]

nobody asked but i think hanso, brynn, and xandra from neopets’ comic “the faeries’ ruin” are queer | a 1.8k presentation i am presenting to my friends at an online party on the 19th, but you guys get early access because for some godforsaken reason, you like this content from me

Good evening class.

Last last time I attacked your dashboards with a long post, I discussed Neopets that would benefit from therapy. I’m sticking with my Neopets shtick but in a funkier Pride flavor. In this post, I will be discussing why the three main characters of Neopets’ “The Faeries Ruin” are queer. 

So what is “The Faeries Ruin?”

“The Faeries Ruin” was a Neopets plot that ran through January of 2011. Plots can affect the website's appearance, services, and gameplay, and this plot was most notable because it turned all the Faeries of Neopia to stone. 

Quick crash course on Neopets lore, for those of you who don’t know anything about it: Neopets are the main population of the planet of Neopia, but they share the world with other creatures as well. One of these creatures are Faeries, magical beings who can be benevolent or malevolent. Majority of them are good, and can be visited to receive gifts, abilities, new appearances, better stats, etc. Faeries are the most powerful creatures on Neopia. With the Faeries of Neopia turned to stone, all Faerie run services, from games to shops, were suspended because. Well. It’s hard to run a business when you’re stone. 

“The Faeries Ruin” had an accompanying quest to play through, items to collect, puzzles to solve, and most important to our discussion, is the accompanying comic to read.

“The Faeries Ruin” comic is 17 chapters plus an epilogue. You can read the synopsis on the slide, and the story follows Hanso, a thief, Brynn, a guard, and Xandra, a scholar, who are all investigating the curse put on the Faeries.

A lot happens in the comic. Really, a LOT, so I don’t have time to summarize it for you. If you’re curious, you can read the plot here, and I’ll explain plot stuff as it becomes relevant to our discussion, but what’s really important are the characters. 

These three in particular, Hanso, Brynn, and Xandra, are who I will be focusing on from the queer perspective.

But because I aim to be inclusive, before we dive into calling Neopets characters queer, we need a quick crash course in ‘queer’ definitions. 

This is just so that we’re all on the same page. (Also so that I can use the readings I got from the queer theory class I was in last semester.)

Alex Pilcher in the Introduction of “A Queer Little History of Art” gives the word “queer” three definitions. First is the simplest, the word “queer” can act as an umbrella term for anybody who is not straight or cisgendered. The second definition is “queer” as an identity in itself. Instead or in addition to using sexuality or gender labels, one can opt to identify as queer and that does away with any hierarchies or too small definitions that may bother other people. I, for example, am bisexual, asexual, and nonbinary. However, that’s kind of a mouthful, and sometimes I don’t want to explain every facet of my identity. So sometimes I just tell people I’m queer, and fuck them if that’s confusing, it feels good for me. The third definition of “queer” is what I will be referring to quite a lot of times in this discussion, “queer” as a deviation from the norm. This is a callback to the word’s more archaic use, meaning odd or strange. What is “queer” then is what goes beyond or resists against society’s expectations.

Queer Theory is a huuuuuuuge academic genre, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. But we’re on a schedule here, so let’s queer some goddamn Neopets.

First, we have Hanso. 

His Neopets species is an Ixi and he is a young rogue/thief. He knows Brynn because he’s a very shitty thief and he constantly gets captured by her. His personality is self centered and egocentric, but deep down, he has a heart of gold, even if his morals are a little skewed. 

Also I think he’s bisexual. Why? 

As a rogue/thief, he is outcasted by society, a type of queering from the norm. He is only accepted by those like him, which symbolically is parallel to how queer people often find other queer people to be with. Aside from Brynn, nobody trusts him. They think him to be a liar and a cheat, and this, I think, is parallel to the unsavory trope of the “untrustworthy bisexual.” Much the same way bisexuals are often told to “pick a side”, Hanso has both a desire for good and a desire for mischief, a duality that confuses other Neopets, and makes them wary of him.   

Hanso is bisexual. And he isn’t sorry about it.

Next up we have one of my early childhood crushes. Brynn.

Brynn is a Kougra, a feline like Neopets species. She is a guard/soldier from the land of Brightvale. She knows Hanso because she keeps catching him, he’s a terrible thief. Her personality is one dominated by courage and a duty to Neopia’s safety.

And I think she’s also bisexual, but more interesting to me her queer expression of masculinity.

Jack Halberstam, a transgender man, wrote a book called “Female Masculinities” prior to his transition (I mention this because I know a lot of you may be wondering why a man gets any say about women’s issues, but I think this is a special case and that his views are still valid.) Halberstam, in his book, posits the concept of masculinity divorced from maleness. What this means, in simplest terms, is that masculinity is not something inherently male, just predominantly male. A female masculinity is thus outside of the norm, and a unique and queer expression of gender.

Concepts related to masculinity are things like power and rebellion. Strength, force, will, that kind of stuff. When we remove these things from maleness and allow femaleness to have these concepts, one of the results is tomboyism. The phenomenon of tomboyism is when a girl, usually young, exhibits masculine qualities. The thing about tomboyism is that it is reluctantly permitted during childhood but less expected as one grows older, the assumption being that a woman will submit to the societal expectations of what a woman is “supposed to be.”

I cannot find any canon sources to say that sexism is a huge problem in Neopia, but gender roles are still present. While we don’t see Brynn’s childhood in “The Faeries Ruin”, it doesn’t take much to imagine that her peers would be surprised with her choice to join the Brightvale Guard, a traditionally male pursuit. And yet she does it. She works hard and becomes such a good soldier that she aids King Altador himself during the story, that King Altador trusts and respects her opinions. Brynn rebels against society’s standards and asserts her own power.

Her personality exudes masculinity as well. Throughout “The Faeries Ruin” she is often dominant over the course of investigation, taking initiative, sometimes omitting truths for the greater good, and generally holding her judgement in high regard. 

Her choices, especially in regards to her relationship with Hanso, is also something of note. Brynn is the one doing the catching and Hanso is the one being caught, an interesting subversion of expected gender roles. I will admit now that I have been withholding some information. Hanso, later in the plot of “The Faeries Ruin”, admits that he wanted to get caught by her as often as possible so that he would have an excuse to see her. Brynn did not know this, but I see it as a Hanso recognizing Brynn’s power and masculinity. I see it as a very romantic submission of Hanso to Brynn. 

So Brynn is bi, because I say so. And she expresses masculinity in a unique, queer, and female way.

Now, before we move onto the last character, Xandra, I need to talk to you guys about Brynn and Hanso’s relationship. I think it is very good, it was one of my first OTPs, and here’s three reasons why it’s a good ship.

Reason 1: They’re both queer, so like, it’s better than the usual M/F couple. Bi people have more genders they’re attracted to, so the person they do end up choosing had to be better than literally everybody else. We can rest assured both of them are good eggs that are compatible with each other.

Reason 2: Their relationship over the course of “The Faeries Ruin” is that of the “enemies to friends to lovers” trope. Which, HELLO? GOOD SHIT? SIGN ME THE FUCK UP? THE HOSTILITY SLOWLY GIVING WAY TO RESPECT? THE RESPECT TURNING INTO ADMIRATION? Your honor, it’s delicious.

Reason 3: This reason is an NSFW concept, so if you don’t wanna see that, just Ctrl+F to the phrase “This brings us to our last character, Xandra” to skip it. We good? Everybody continuing to read wants to see this? Okay.

BRYNN TOTALLY PEGS HANSO. Like, I don’t have any sources, but by this point in the presentation, I hope I’ve established myself as an expert authority, and I hope you just believe me. She has the sword, in this relationship. Both literally and metaphorically. She pegs him and her strap is huge.

This brings us to our last character, Xandra.

Xandra is a Xweetok and also a magic scholar. She studied under Fyora, the Faerie Queen, and helps Hanso and Brynn with their investigation of the faeries’ petrification. She’s a lesbian because I say so, but uhhhhhh…

She’s also evil. Towards the end of “The Faeries’ Ruin” it was revealed that Xandra was the one who petrified the faeries all along. So yeah, she’s evil, buuuuuuut she’s super queer about it. How? Well, the answer lies in her motives.

The reason why she petrified the faeries was because she wanted to start a new Neopia without them. She believed that the faeries were hoarding power instead of using it to truly help Neopians. She actively wanted to destroy not just the faeries, but a symbol of power and control that arguably rules the world she lives in. She criticizes against that which controls the social expectations, and this criticism and questioning benefits the marginalized, the queered from the norm. Her intention was to create a kind of utopia free from a governing body that holds all the power. That’s pretty damn queer.

Honestly, I’m a little pissed she was branded as evil for this, but it was revealed that when the faeries were petrified, their good magic was gone and left Neopia vulnerable to evil magic shadows and Xandra didn’t really care. So uh, she had good and radical queer motives, but she went a little bonkers with power. I still love her though. 

So, Xandra is pretty awesome, I hope she gets therapy then attends a Pride protest. She would totally be there reminding everybody that Pride started with riots. Also she loves women.

Thank you all.

(Read my other off the shits analysis essays at actualbird.tumblr.com/tagged/nobody-asked-but! If you have a request or suggestion for an off the shits analysis essay I can write, send me an ask!)

[tracle0]

I WISH YOU ALL THE BEST - REVIEW

Listen. I don’t really do book reviews a whole lot, but this book has been on my mind since I finished reading it and I want to get the words out so I can hopefully move on. 

Spoilers; I did not like the book. Also spoiler warning for this book.

So! I Wish You All The Best by Mason Deaver is a nonbinary coming out story, following the main character, Ben, as they grapple with rejection from their parents, a new school, the anxieties around coming out and mental health. 

As a non-binary person myself, I wanted to like this book so badly. It had been on my radar for months before I finally got round to buying it, and when it did arrive, I started to read it straight away. 

Am I going to go into every single thing I liked and disliked about this book? I started to write that out, and found it very long, so no, I’ll spare you that. I will try and give you a run down though;

There were some points where Deep Serious LGBT+ talks were injected and it felt natural. In a scene where Ben’s sister is painting their nails, they talk about attraction and how it works when being non-binary. I thought that was quite well done.

However, other points felt really forced or just off-beat - a joke about taking down all straight/cis/allo people fell flat for me because of the inclusion of ‘allo’ at the end. Allosexual people are those who experience sexual attraction at all - the opposite of asexual people. As an asexual person, I’ve... never used this joke. It feels like it was included for representation, and is made more bitter by the fact the only other asexual inclusion is from the therapist, who implies all asexual people are ace because of trauma. Er, no.

Ben’s therapist uses the term ‘LGBTQIAP+’ even after being told that Ben is fine with ‘queer’. She makes the point that not everyone is fine with queer, which is fair enough, but that whole acronym is... a mouthful, and possibly quite overwhelming for people who aren’t in the community. 

Ben as a character is extremely unlikeable. They whine about a lot of things and rarely work to put anything right, they actively ignore any silver-lining that comes their way and get annoyed at people when they act kindly towards them. 

Heck, all the characters were so bland. Background characters especially. I can’t remember anyone’s name beyond Ben and Nathan, and Nathan slipped my mind for a while. They felt very 2D.

Whenever Ben did come out to anybody, they instantly apologized for past incorrect pronoun usage. I would not expect an apology if I were to ever come out. I don’t think any trans people would expect an apology if they came out. Apologize if you slip up afterwards, definitely, but you didn’t know any better before, so you don’t need to say sorry. 

Those are points that spring out to me right now. 

Do I think this is a bad book? Sadly, yes. In some cases, I could forgive all the above issues, and the issues I didn’t mention, if the story is good enough, but I could not get sucked into the story because I kept picking out its flaws. I think Mason Deaver tried to tackle a lot of issues in one book, and as a result, a lot of the story came across as preaching rather than storytelling. The plot-beats were all over the place, and I could not actively predict anything that might happen because nothing really tied together that well. 

I hope the future holds better non-binary representation, but for me personally, this ain’t it. 

[baddie-mattie]

Inclusive Writing

It looks like I now post writing advice. Sure, that works.

In Ainsel, my currently ongoing work, I have some LGBT+ main characters, mostly on accident. 3 of them are bi/pan, one is nonbinary, another is trans, and the protag is aroace. I didn’t mean for this to happen, it just did. When I make characters, I immerse myself in being them.

They’re their own people, essentially, so when I envision them, I imagine them in all sorts of ways. Each and every character goes through this process.

Let’s take the protag, Elena. I envisioned her as all of LGBT+ and a combination of them and her being aroace made the most sense. I can’t see her as being in a relationship or anything like that because it just seems... weird.

Now, let’s talk about pointing out while writing. 

I don’t make it obvious that she’s aroace. I don’t talk about how one is trans, or how another is bi, or how another one is pan, or any of that because it isn’t important to the story. If it were important, I would mention it. For example, one character is nonbinary. It’s only obvious because they are called by they/them pronouns, but it’s never specifically mentioned because it’s just a known fact by the other characters.

If it’s important to the story, mention the fact that they are LGBT+. A guy is in a relationship with another guy? Mention it, if you want. Same for gals. Someone is trans? No need to mention unless it is important to the story.

For example, the work is about problems that LGBT+ folk go through. Then it’s important to mention it because it’s surrounding LGBT+ people. If it’s simply a story about people being people and dealing with issues that don’t pertain to being LGBT+? No need to, unless you want to or it makes sense in the story.

Of course, what’s in my story isn’t what’s in yours and you should assess what your story is about.

So, yes, include people from all walks of life, but don’t worry about it being made obvious. I sure don’t.