#personally I WILL be seeing and believing that that character is queer until proven otherwise.

[catwouthats]

Me when I remember that forcing myself to think a character is straight until proven otherwise is actually damaging to my mental health because it subconsciously tells myself that I can’t be someone like that —a hero, the good guy, have power, be anything— and queer because it is a rare thing (near impossible) for someone to be both.

I am pushing my dreams further away from myself whenever I agree with a homophobic fan that a character is probably straight and I’m probably crazy.

[skygirlstars]

❤️🧡💛🏳️‍🌈 for unpopular asks game!

yayy thank you for the ask!! this was so fun. it's yappin' time

❤️: Which character do you think is the most egregiously mischaracterized by the fandom?

this is a tough one because there's so many lol. Barriss (not a villain), Han (not a player), literally SO many of the Jedi, the list goes on. but I think Luke is one of the most interesting cases because I feel he's mischaracterized in different ways by different sides of the fandom. there's the dudebros who think he's just badass, which he is, but nothing else. his most important character trait is quite literally his compassion because it drives the plot of the whole OT. he's a kind and empathetic person, not some embodiment of toxic masculinity bullshit. on the other hand, there's the poor little meow meowfication and infantilization of him from another side of the fandom. yes he's a ray of sunshine but that doesn't mean he can't be tough too!!! he's nice but he also has zero tolerance for bullshit, is headstrong and stubborn, and the furthest thing from shy. many people (myself included) headcanon him as gay or bi and that characterization of him also enforces really harmful stereotypes and narratives about queer men. so in summary, a lot of the fandom mischaracterizes him through a lens of either toxic masculinity or harmful stereotypes. not fun. that got way longer than it was supposed to be, whoops 🙃

🧡: What is a popular (serious) theory you disagree with?

in-universe: that Padmé was somehow manipulated into loving Anakin, whether by Anakin subconsciously using the Force, or by Palpatine, or whatever. nope, my girl Padmé just has horrendous taste in men (case in point: my least favorite SW character, Clovis 🤢). she saw the red flags and decided red was her favorite color. stay delusional queen. out-of-universe: DISNEY LUCASFILM IS NOT GOING TO RETCON THE SEQUELS FFS. that is the dumbest shit I've ever heard sorry not sorry. Disney admitting they made something not good??? not possible. I can't believe people still honestly believe this. the sequels are not my faves either but with the amount of money made off them anyway, a retcon is not happening

💛: What is a popular ship you just can't get behind, and why?

do we consider Reylo popular??? it's very divisive so idk if it counts. but I hate it lol, it's the yucky toxic BookTok type of enemies to lovers. bro deadass tortured her. me personally, I wouldn't let that slide. they also feel like Force cousins or something in a weird roundabout way...? we've already had one incestuous kiss in SW, don't need another. also Rey is lesbian imo. if we're not counting Reylo as popular, I quite dislike Sabezra just because I see them very much as siblings. honestly, any ship where I see the characters as siblings feels icky to me -- Anisoka, Rexsoka, Obikin, etc (although siblings vibes is not my only complaint with those examples, unlike Sabezra).

🏳️‍🌈: Which character who is commonly headcanoned as queer doesn't seem queer to you?

quite honestly I think this is the hardest one for me because I headcanon so many characters as queer HAHA. my personal philosophy for fictional characters is bi until proven otherwise lol. maybe Ben Solo/Kylo? idk how much he's HCed as queer but I think he and Hux are shipped fairly often and I just don't see it lol. that's a straight man, I'm afraid. but he's really the only one I can think of off the top of my head, though I'm sure there are more

here's the original ask game if anyone else wants to have a go or wants me to answer any others (please send me asks I love asks I love yapping)

[yes-these-obsessions-are-healthy]

This is nearly ten years late to the party, but even as an “all people are bisexual until proven otherwise” truther, I don’t care that Cassandra Pentaghast is canonically straight, because tbh I think straight women should be allowed to operate and look as she does and not be automatically assumed to be sapphic. To me it kind of falls into this trap of “you behave and look like this, so you MUST be queer, right? Because only queer people would ever fuck with gender expectations like this”.

But this is a fantasy world where queerness is not seen as odd, so really the only things that Cassandra is perhaps eschewing are perhaps the more feminine expectations of a noble house, but even then she comes from a house that was full of dragon slayers, so already she’s not cut from the same cloth as some pretty lady from Val Royeaux.

Idk it just feels really reductive to me. I continue to be ??? when I see DA fans complain that Cassandra should’ve been romanceable by female characters BECAUSE she looks and acts like she does, as if that means anything. It is “Astarion should be gay because well look at him” but for a female character nearly a decade ago. This is probably one of the only characters that I hesitate to make Bi or Gay because, well, there isn’t that much rep of competent strong het women being het women in ‘bulwark’/‘tank’ roles.

I feel like while queer rep has increased dramatically, cishet rep of women that are specifically like Cassandra has been folded up into queer rep. I understand intersectionality, but there is a subtle difference in being a cishet woman in such a role compared to being a queer woman in such a role to the media landscape at large, i.e. ‘Cishet = Acceptable, Woman = unacceptable; queer = unacceptable, woman = unacceptable”.

One could argue it’s a dead end to want to preserve characters like Cassandra as cishet, but fact of the matter is is that there are masculine women who do only like men but face pressure to trim those aspects of themselves for fear of seeming queer or just generally unattractive by men. You could also make the argument that wueer acceptance will trickle down into more acceptance of variations in gender presentation by cishet people, but this far the results have been mixed on both the cishet and queer side. I don’t miss the lamentations of sapphics who are “fooled” into believing a cishet woman is also sapphic because she wears her hair a certain way or carries herself with a certain masculine swagger that is found more often on the butch spectrum.

I dunno, I feel like keeping Cassandra cishet is a milestone in of itself in representation because it shows how, as a cis woman, your sexuality and gender expression are not 1:1. Personality and behavior are not intrinsically tied to sexuality, and vice versa. And conversely, it also quietly implies that you don’t need to be breaking gender conventions just because you’re lgbt. You don’t need to be actively making every breath and movement a political statement when your very existence is enough.

[shaftking]

https://www.tumblr.com/godmodebeginswithlesbians/732567688496431104/we-need-less-sanitized-queer-stories-youre-the

I can’t believe the amount of notes this post has of people agreeing with it. I have no idea what The Locked Tomb is so I can’t speak on that, but regarding She-Ra, ever since the finale, I’m one of the people who’s been agreeing with the statement that OP is mocking here. To clarify, though, I’m not a puritanical anti at all- in fact, I’m all for less sanitized LGBT stories (yes, LGBT, not q**r), but I want them to still be well written, make actual sense narratively, and deliver a positive message for a target demographic of children, all which She-Ra failed at.

I read some of the notes and aside from the typical nonsense I’m used to seeing toxic She-Ra fans spew, there are people who reblogged this defending She-Ra while simultaneously admitting that they DIDN’T EVEN WATCH THE SHOW. Ofc they’re not gonna understand or interpret any of the criticism in good faith if they haven’t even watched the damn show. That’s the brainless mob mentality that’s to be expected on this site.

Anyway, as a writer who majored in animation, seeing posts and notes like this is so disheartening. I don’t have much hope for the entertainment industry (especially animation) or the LGBT community. Both have proven that their standards are lower than dirt and that they all have piss poor media literacy and critical thinking skills that lead them to harassing and hating on anyone who dares criticize the media that they blindly worship. It’s insulting as a writer and sets a bad precedent that professionals can just produce poorly written fan fiction with a budget that validates childish NPCs who eat it up as long as it caters to their sensibilities and is under the guise of progressivism for kids so it can be praised as “groundbreaking.” It makes me wanna steer clear of this industry entirely tbh.

I’m also familiar with SPOP but not The Locked Tomb, so I can speak on that. And we all know that I really can’t stand SPOP. I personally view it as one of those shows that was fine and even good at times until it self destructed in the last season and especially the finale with just an astonishing lack of self awareness.

The problem with Catradora, especially compared to the other ships in the show for the most part, is that’s it’s dysfunctional and toxic in a show that is targeted to children that otherwise pushes a lot of life lessons subtexually and textually. This also isn’t just a problem of the relationship itself, it extends to their actions towards other characters, such as the fact that there is no real consequence for Catra literally killing Glimmers mother out of complete selfishness. I think the whole show kind of suffers from sudden character amnesia about other characters past crimes. Because it happened with Hordak and Scorpia and Entrapta as well to varying degrees.

And I think the doublethink the show has about being Mature and Complex vs It’s A Children’s Show So You Can’t Criticize It extends to fan attitudes. And let’s be real, the Catradora kiss was not that revolutionary when SU and LOK already had their representation moments years before. In fact it’s weird and dysfunctional asf to have characters who were implied to have grown up as sisters and raised together (the literal reason why Catra was jealous and over dependent on Adora) just kiss and have all of their problems and past just basically vanish so that they can have a few cute shippy moments before the series finale.

All that aside I personally hate being pandered to and baited. I genuinely want to see stories about people who are LGBT and different races and with different belief systems and backgrounds, but just slapping a label onto a character or story doesn’t make it good, you still have to write good characters and story. You still have to work to make things cohesive and you have to understand that as a writer you will always face criticism. Especially when you market your work so hard as the next big thing.

And as an audience member, at the very least as a teen and onwards into adulthood, you should be capable of media literacy to the extent that you can watch a show about a couple toxic codependent weirdos and recognize that they were toxic codependent weirdos even if you mostly just had fun watching them get up to fucked up shenanigans.

[fanby-fckry]

Reblogging for reach and also to add my experience.

A lot of what I’ve seen is other queer people with shitty attitudes who think they’re doing the community a great service when they’re actually being queerphobic, but there’s some classic queerphobia in there, too.

This got long, so I’m adding a read more.

Content Warning: discussions of queerphobia (obviously, lol), and fandom discourse

1. Talking over other queer people to claim “bad rep.”

The greatest example of this is Angel Dust, with people saying that his portrayal is homophobic and/or transphobic. I’ve seen accusations of both transmisogyny and trender-stereotyping, from cis queer people, with no input from the trans people they’re oh-so concerned about. 🙄

The existence of a feminine, gay, drag queen, addict, sex worker is apparently offensive to some queer people – never mind the fact that there are scores of other queer people screaming from the rooftops about how we relate to him, or the fact that there are irl femme gay men, drag queens, addicts, and sex workers in the queer community.

2. Gatekeeping and infighting among a-specs in how Alastor is portrayed in fanworks.

I know multiple aroace people who’ve gotten anon hate and threats over supposedly erasing Alastor’s identity for *checks notes* putting him in QPRs that reflect their own experiences as aroaces.

Everyone making fanworks of Alastor with nuanced portrayals of aroace-ness are allo aphobes until proven otherwise, apparently (sarcasm).

3. Gatekeeping queer headcanons.

This discourse honestly feels so pointless to me, but the rampant transphobia that comes up during it is worth discussing.

People keep claiming that headcannoning gay characters and/or characters in same-gender relationships as trans/nonbinary is somehow erasing their canon queerness. Way to tell on themselves, lol. How exactly would Angel Dust being a trans man make him less of a gay man? Is it because you don’t see trans men as men? Mhmm, that’s what I thought.

I’ve seen it to a lesser extent with transfemme!Charlie headcanons, but people seem to be most vitriolic about transmasc!Angel Dust. Maybe it’s just the bigger sample size, though, because I come across more transmasc!Angel content.

4. Interphobia/Intersexism in fanworks.

This is a general fandom problem, but I sure have seen a lot of it in Hellaverse fanworks. It seems to mostly be caused by ignorance, not malice, but I think that makes it even more worthwhile to talk about, tbh.

We have got to stop calling fantasy genitalia/all non-cisnormative genital configurations “intersex.” 90% of the time, the word fans are looking for is “altersex.”

From InterACT’s Intersex FAQ:

Intersex is an umbrella term for differences in sex traits or reproductive anatomy. Intersex people are born with these differences or develop them in childhood. There are many possible differences in genitalia, hormones, internal anatomy, or chromosomes, compared to the usual two ways that human bodies develop.

“Intersex” is a word that refers to real and innate differences in sex traits/reproductive anatomy.

A non-human character with animal or fantasy genitalia is not intersex. A character or person who transitioned to have traits that don’t fall within the constructed sex binary has not “become” or “transitioned to” intersex.

Again, the words fans are most likely looking for is “altersex.”

From the LGBTQIA.Wiki Page for Altersex:

Altersex is a catch-all adjective to describe primary and secondary physical sex characteristics or a combination of that do not align with typical arrangements. The term is largely intended to describe fictional characters that have a mix of physical sex characteristics, but this usage is not exclusive.

As I said before, I do believe this is mainly caused by ignorance, but perisex fans (and perisex people in general) do have a tendency to react poorly when called out on their interphobia, lashing out and digging their heels in.

I say this, both because it’s true, and because I’m half expecting someone to come at me with that energy now that I’ve spoken up.

Full disclosure: I’m perisex, but I’ve seen intersex people complain about the intersex tags being flooded with altersex content and about people generally misunderstanding/misrepresenting the meaning of the word intersex. I’m simply echoing that sentiment.

5. Erasure of canon queer identities.

Ok, this may sound out of pocket from the guy who was just complaining about false accusations of erasure regarding fanworks/headcanons, but give me a second to explain.

I’m not talking about fanworks/headcanons, I’m talking about fans (and antis, some of whom seem more invested in the franchise than actual fans, lmao) straight up claiming that confirmed canon labels “don’t count.”

This is mainly in regards to a-spec and m-spec characters; the aphobia and biphobia is present, front and center.

I’ve heard people claim that:

Alastor isn’t ace (no followup explanation; just vibes, I guess)

Alastor is “basically straight” (worse than the above, imo)

Cherri Bomb isn’t bi because she only shows onscreen interest in men

Charlie is a lesbian rather than bisexual, because she’s in a relationship with Vaggie

I’ve even seen one person claim that Viv, herself, isn’t bi, because she hasn’t publicly shown interest in another woman. (What?) Granted, I couldn’t figure out whether or not that was a bait account before blocking, but real fans and antis do seem to conveniently forget that Viv is sapphic/m-spec when criticizing the portrayal of sapphic and m-spec characters in her shows.

I’m not saying that her identities make her exempt from queerphobia, but people do tend to act in what I’d consider to be bad faith, not taking her experience as a queer woman into account and treating her like some straight girl who only wants “diversity points.”

End Notes:

Ok, that’s about it, I think!

Keep in mind, my experience with this is mostly limited to tumblr and some early twitter content (like pilot-era; no idea what it’s like over there, now-a-days), so I’d say it’s a bit more focused on inter-community discourse/morality politics than queerphobia by non-queer people. If that’s not what you’re looking for, I totally understand.

Doing some research for a new video about queerphobia within the Hellaverse fandom (including Helluva and Hazbin) I would love to hear people's experiences with this that I can discuss on my Youtube channel. Obvs you can be anonymous.

For clarification: I've heard that there are some fandom groups on Facebook but also things like Reddit that have a tendency to want to exclude queer people altogether from their groups and try to downplay and ignore the overt queer themes within the show. But really if you've experienced any kind of queerphobia I'd like to hear about it.

[satorugojowidow]

I don't understand why they read regular shonen at all since not everyone is just buff and punching things. I really dislike that the anime industry cater to them too, it's why you only hear about nekketsu, Isekai and shounen romcom since they are too scared to loss their balls if they watch anything with a female mc

Some people have a very basic scheme of thinking, in binarie and opposite terms. That is why they love stereotypes and will read stories that are a little more complex from their basic scheme. I don’t know why it is, if it is laziness or they found something appealing in stereotypes.

There is something called “the Evangelion effect” that explains why anime has lost quality these days (there is more anime than in the 90s but few of those anime are quality content).

About the fear of losing their balls (lol) there is something always performative in gender related to the need to fit in the peer group. People would believe that it starts with the other person’s view on you, but it starts with how you see yourself. People will do an inner effort to fit to whatever they believe they are supposed to be, that is why they will quit a character or anime when they found out that in queer coded. They like the character or the anime, but they believe they can’t, so they force themselves to dislike or try mischaracterized to fit their needs.

The internalized trans/homophobia is (also) the fear to be trans/homo, that is born from the idea that being trans/homo is something wrong. Plus, the heteronormativity (the idea that everyone are hetero until proven the otherwise) is behind the idea that hetero people are in risk to become non hetero, that is why they will try to avoid queer cultural content. Is also behind the idea that regular animes must be cis hetero and queer representation must be limited to some specific genre.

all the hate that queer representation get is sympthom of the resistence of this cultural and mental structures

[im-the-punk-who]

Could you post some more malex thoughts? What about that song? Or thoughts on them being endgame? Or season 3 malex thoughts?

Baby’s first RNM meta request 😭

ABSOLUTELY I can.

So I am gonna start with my S3 thoughts and endgame thoughts because everything else will tie into that.

From what I’ve seen, Roswell had 5 seasons originally planned, which is still what it feels like it needs to me. Which is cool! It also means we’re probably(hopefully, actually) not gonna get canon malex in s3.

The show has set them up as the ‘will-they-won’t they’ couple - most of their tension together focuses on *whether or not they get together* instead of if they’ll stay together. To me at least, it’s pretty clear the show’s assumption is that if they end up actually getting together in a healthy way(which they both seem to want in their relationships now), they will stay together.

If the show actually does it’s job right and takes the time to let both of them heal, grow, and experience other things that likely won’t happen until at least mid s4. It would make a nice dramatic midpoint for the season, they could play out a bit of that relief of finally being together in the late s4, and then whether or not they renew s5 they’ve told the story they wanted to. But if they do get a fifth season they can play with some hurt/comfort with Michael and Alex actually building/cementing their relationship. 

As we’re seeing with Liz and Max, tension has to come from somewhere and where RNM(as most shows do) fails is thinking it needs to come from the relationship, which is what I’m afraid would happen if malex get together so soon after making the(at least private) commitment to get better for each other. There won’t be enough time for growth and dramatic build to sustain the afterglow and they’ll have to find something else to torment the poor boys with. 

I don’t hold out a *super* large amount of hope for it, because like...this is the CW. But I do think either way malex will likely be endgame. Just from everything the show has told us and set up, I would be extremely surprised and honestly really fucking angry if they don’t. Not necessarily because they’re My Ship, or because it would be any sort of queer baiting - they’d both still be undeniably queer and I assume Alex would end up with Forrest or someone else in that scenario.

Honestly it would just be bad storytelling to set up your characters as having this deep cosmic connection, setting them up directly in parallel with our other pairs of starcrossed lovers Max/Liz and Nora/Tripp, dropping all the hints in the music choices(Holy Moly being the big one when linked with the Would You Come Home scene, but there are other small parallels in song choices - ‘Through Your Eyes’ as Alex walks away in 2x06 for example.) Especially with the literal confirmation that they both still *want* to be with each other (Alex’s song saying ‘if I got better and worked through my issues can we be together’ and Michael recognizing he’s got to give Alex the space to do that work so that maybe someday they can be together. ‘It’s not our time right now.“ “But it will be.” “I hope so.”)

Anyway! So, I would count a Not-Malex-Endgame as a bad ending, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if we get zero canon Malex content in S3. In fact given where the characters are, I think it would be an AMAZING choice to have these characters who are fan favorites and who everyone *wants* to be endgame - stay apart and work on themselves, and build all that TENSION( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) for an entire season in order to cash in for an s4 payoff.

Also, I really want to see Alex grow as a person. 

Michael really started to change in Season 2 - we’ve seen him start trying to be better, dealing with his emotions more, recognizing how bad his relationship with Alex is and trying to improve with Maria as well as building his other relationships, too. To me, Michael is already very different than he was in S1 and honestly, Alex has some catch up to do in terms of working on his fears and how they relate to how he cannot stand to be around Michael in stressful situations.

To that end, I really want to see how Alex and Forrest interact, and how a relationship with Forrest might change Alex. We heard before that Alex doesn’t really consider himself to have had a real relationship, and Forrest does *not* seem the type to be up for a fast and easy thing, so I think he could really push Alex to face his issues around commitment and his tendency to cut and run. 

Which would actually be really cool! I am not a Forrest-endgame person at all, mostly because he seems both way too put together and way too needy for Alex long term, but I do think they would be really fun to see played against each other and also just .... nice things for Alex Manes please. 

Also then we get lots of Michael making sad eyes at Alex which is just *chefs kiss*.

For Alex, his personal conflict has always centered around his trauma, his father, being ashamed and afraid of being openly gay, and having enough faith in people to believe he personally is worth fighting for and my main wish for Alex is to finally fucking learn how to love and be loved in return.

So in that vein and especially if we see Malex as endgame, it only makes sense that Michael’s journey needs to be a parallel one of him finding something worth staying on earth for. He’s started to build a family for himself fucking finally - Maria, Isobel, Sanders, hell I think there is even the potential for Liz, Max, and Kyle to be family. And of course, Alex has always been his family. But previously no one has ever had his back in the way he’s had theirs. 

From what we’ve seen, Michael has always been the one who gives with his whole self - both Maria and Alex comment on it - “I don’t doubt your capacity for love” & “He keeps secrets because of how much he loves Max and Isobel, not because of how much he loves you.” He is a character who has spent his life throwing affection and emotion at the wall and seeing what(if anything) sticks. 

He took the crayon from Max at the orphanage, told Isobel he killed the girls, dropped his plans to leave Roswell for her, he both defended Alex from his father and didn’t stop him from leaving a place he was in danger, he let Liz experiment with his blood for Isobel’s antidote. He tells Alex once that he was glad that Max and Isobel had an easier time, even if it meant he didn’t. Michael’s biggest character flaw is that he believes he has to be useful to be wanted. That he, as he is, is unloveable. Or, maybe better put, that he is not worthy of the kind of love others have.

In S3 I want this challenged, CW I will fight you. I *REALLY* want to see him have to face head on his assumption that he’s going to leave Earth at some point and everyone is going to be fine with that. I want him to realize he’s become core in someone’s life again. I want to see someone grab hold and refuse to let go. I want it to get messy, and I want them to stay, damnnit! 

I want to see Michael start making plans to stay again.

I said in a previous meta that I thought the growth Michael has gone through already would lead to him being approached by Jones with an offer to leave (so that Jones can separate the pod squad, so that he can use Michael to get to Max, something like that) and I really want to see what decision a more grounded Michael might make in a situation like that.

And what my tiny shriveled shipper heart REALLY wants is a scene where Michael is put to this choice of being able to leave and - despite being offered everything he has been working towards for his entire life - the relationships he’s built are strong enough to make him stay(again.)

(Hint, I REALLY want this to be Alex, for the plot resolution for them in S3 not to be ‘we get together’ but to be ‘we are able to recognize that we can BE there for each other even if we aren’t together’, which would lead spectacularly into an early/mid s4 get together after some light angst :) 

I have a lot more thoughts re: what I want from everyone else and what I’d love to see from the non pod-squad squad (MARIA ALEX LIZ ROSA PICNIC DATE WHEN) (CENTERING YOUR MAIN CHARACTERS OF COLOR WHEN) (TRY MAKING YOUR VILLAIN NOT A FUCKING PERSON OF COLOR!) Also like, Generyx, Deep Sky, Mr. Jones, possible connections between them and characters who aren’t pod squad oh my god can we for one episode focus on someone else, etc, but like.....this is already so long so maybe that’s for another time xD

Also as stated like....this is a CW show so this isn’t what’s going to happen, but it’s what a I *DESPERATELY WANT* to happen. My interaction with RNM is VERY much dead-plot-do-not-eat until proven otherwise and I’m just here to no-thoughts-head-empty enjoy the parts of Malex I like and ignore everything else :)

I’m gonna use this image that Diana made me because honestly this should be a disclaimer to any RNM post I make.

[dgcatanisiri]

The thing it always always ALWAYS comes back to is the fact that it’s no one source that is responsible for the lack nor capable of fixing it. It’s all a bunch of issues in society proper and the industry culture. Videos games will always be written from the perspective of straight people, and almost inevitably straight men. Film is from the perspective of the male gaze. The world we lives in will assume straight until proven otherwise.

And because straight is “the default,” it is what gets catered to, with any claim to the contrary, any attempt to say “hey, what about [queer identity]?” these big chains can argue “not worth the time/effort/money!” Because pure numbers say that’s a valid excuse. Because they can make more money just accepting homophobia than pushing against it. Because pushing against it is “risky,” and, well, we can’t push people too much for something they’re “not ready” for.

Even when people on the chain WANT to do more, offer more... They’ll get pushback. Like, I legit, 100% believe that sacrificing bi!Jaal on the release of Mass Effect Andromeda was part of a fight to keep Suvi a lesbian - we KNOW that it was a fight to keep her from being made bisexual, I buy that the ground of “one of two bisexual men” was given in order to keep the lesbian representation. It’s a shitty situation and a shitty choice that shouldn’t have been forced in, but I damn well believe it happened.

Or with Voltron - I do not give a damn about the dumpster fire that fandom is, I guarantee that Adam being killed off was part of the terms that they had to agree to just to get it to air, get a gay relationship in a cartoon that is primarily oriented to children. Look at all the fights that creators in Legend of Korra, Adventure Time, Steven Universe, She-Ra, etc. have had to go through - and remember that it’s NOT the same thing for gay guys in action-adventure series, that there has NOT been that kind of breakthrough in M/M relationships and portrayals, and yes, this IS a different track to run through, because, put simply, lesbian representation is not the same thing as gay male representation. Similar, yes, and there’s an umbrella they’re both under, but they’re not the same - as much as you’ll find a queer person who celebrates any win under the queer umbrella, they will still have that wish that there was also a win for their SPECIFIC identity.

This is the inherent flaw of grouping so many identities under the same umbrella - we all rely on each other, sure, but at the same time, just because it’s a queer win, that doesn’t make it a win for every individual letter under that umbrella. It’s not always your mirror you’re seeing, and as much as you can be happy that others get their representation, human beings will always have that egotistical part that goes ‘well what about MY needs?”

I’ll also guarantee that there was an active play for Shiro/Keith (like, LOOK at their interactions and tell me that there isn’t SOME kind of significant bond being established that is outright groundwork for a relationship) and THAT had the kibosh put on it as well - that the active choice on the part of some executive, be it Netflix or other producers was that Shiro could be gay, but they could not have two gay lead characters, and that’s why Shiro marrying random extra happened.

Because I don’t think that it’s actively bigotry that drives these kinds of choices. It IS homophobia, implicit homophobia, the kind that says it isn’t worth fighting for or dealing with the inevitable headaches when the conservatives get in an uproar. No, it’s simply that... They don’t want to deal with that headache. They know it’s going to create blowback from the idiots, and while they understand that those people aren’t really worth endorsing, it’s just a lot to deal with so how about instead we NOT?

Because to them, it’s all hypothetical. It’s all an intellectual exercise. It’s a headache to deal with these people who aren’t really worth listening to, but we still depend on their money to turn a profit and keep our jobs, so it’s just easier not to rock the boat.

Meanwhile to the queer people they are denying representation, it’s our LIVES. It’s our mirrors. And often, that is the difference between life or death. That’s not exaggeration. If you never see yourself reflected in your media, if you only ever see yourself in the secondary roles, never the hero... It damages you.

Like, I’ve reached a point where, if for no other reason than sheer spite, I intend to keep kicking. But... It does wear on me. It gets me down. To know that even the scraps that I find are the result of long, drawn out fights that started with the full meal - and then, because the scraps exist, I KNOW there’s some pencil-pusher going over the results of everything related to this content by whatever metrics they have, just LOOKING to use the scraps as justification for why the numbers came up short and that’s why they won’t include more scraps again.

And this just. keeps. happening. It’s every time that the representation COULD be there, every time it’s SORT OF there, but clearly grudging, every time that the only reason we get queer representation is because the developers don’t want to bother with the coding to lock off certain romances by gender, not because it’s cared about, every time that the developers and creators have to go to the people who pushed for this and say “I’m sorry, but I lost the fight, and if we don’t cut it, they will.”

It doesn’t change. We’re about a decade and a half from Jade Empire, the game that gave me so much JOY in being able to play a gay male character in a video game and see a gay man as the hero. We’re about a decade out from Korrasami. And what are we really getting as different? Okay, video game characters don’t have their sexualities so blatantly hidden - I don’t have to turn down every female love interest in order to get the male love interests to even ask if I’m interested. Okay, we’ve seen the progression of Korrasami to Bubbleline to Ruby/Sapphire to Lumity, but these are still moments that basically cause the network to pull the plug.

Y’know, sure, I’m still going because of spite. But that’s beyond cold comfort when it comes to how I look at the amount of books, movies, TV shows, and video games and still don’t see myself in there.

[shadowfae]

1- Not much tbh, just what you've posted, and 2- To be honest I quite like your long answers. It can definitely wait though, you should get some sleep.

Is your warpriest link a constant thing? Does it ever fade into the background? I'm contemplating forming a second link, something happier than my copinglink, and I'm not sure how to tell when to tell when the line of a link vs a persona is crossed when not worn out of necessity.

And the original ask so I have it on hand. I did take a look at your original context, and if you're cool with it, I'll edit this post with a link for those who may find this is a useful answer and need that on hand. Otherwise, it'll stay a mystery.

But yes, it seems like my Sabe experiences would be a useful thing to talk about here. And in order to do that, I need to go over four things: who and what Sabe is, why he exists the way that he does, what that does for me, and lastly what I think he is in terms of terminology and why.

To start, here is his toyhou.se profile, if you want to read more about his actual story and thoughts and whatnot. But I doubt you'll have the necessary context for that, so let me go into it. RuneScape (RS) is one of the oldest MMORPGs in existence. WoW might be older but I doubt it. Basically it's a medieval magic fantasy that's very long running and you the player end up the World Guardian, aka the guy that stops the gods (who are very powerful folks who just don't die of natural causes and typically stand for some philosophy) from blowing the world up because Guthix, the dead god of balance, asked you to. Well, he voluntold you. And that makes you a major chess piece, Elder Gods get involved, it's a big mess.

But before all that happened, back in 2006 when I was introduced to the game and very shitty at it, well. I liked the lore insofar that I've always liked the lore, it was interesting and I liked thinking about it. I didn't have membership and I sucked at playing so I just read the wiki and the God Letters over and over and sometimes the Postbag from the Hedge. Alongside my two friends, we played at being children of the then-triad of main gods: Saradomin, Guthix, and Zamorak.

I liked Zamorak best, but I didn't think his ideas would be the best for society as a whole, so I ended up playing child of Guthix. Eventually we grew up and grew apart but every couple of years I'd go back to RuneScape, read the lore, settle on what choices I'd make if I could play, and think about being the player character. In 2010 I discovered a fic - dawn by khayr, it's on Ao3 and dA - about Iban, son of Zamorak, right around when I was reading Percy Jackson. Cue him showing up as a soulbond and an older brother figure and guiding me right up until the end of sixth grade. Iban got me through the ruthless bullying that would later set the stage for all my major suicidal-ideation and self-hatred for the entirety of high school: even then, I was more stable than I might've been otherwise, because he interfered.

Saradomin stands for strength through order. Procedures and law and diplomacy and war strategy. He was originally kind of a ripoff of the Christian god, but he's grown to be more of an order-over-peace character and is quite well-written. Guthix stands for strength through balance, and has been all over the board in terms of what he's done and will do. He's kind of a dick, actually, but his heart's in the right place.

Zamorak, as you've heard, is strength through chaos and personal strife. It's no "the strong over the weak" or "the strong take care of the weak", it's flat-out "everyone is strong, and just need the right circumstances to tap into it to be the best they can possibly be". Now, his philosophy is kind of more for warriors and scholars, but if you tilt your head, it applies to everyone. Chronically ill folks will find their chaos in fighting to get up every day and maintain a life. Folks in traumatizing, abusive situations find that chaos in their very survival. Scholars challenge themselves and their fellows and their predecessors trying to find the answers they so need. Nobody in lockstep, no such thing as "we've always done it this way."

A lot of human Zamorakians and Saradominist propaganda says that Zamorak is simply absolute evil: and to be fair, when most of that was written, he kinda was because he was based loosely on the Christian devil. Later writing says that they're typically mistaken on that. Zamorak isn't evil. The very first thing he did upon becoming a god was fulfill a promise and lead a slave rebeliion. (The Avernic uprising, if anyone's curious.) He stands for the downtrodden and says "You are never going to get your dignity by going through the motions and trying to peacefully show you're worth respect. Burn some shit down and prove that you won't stand for this bullshit."

Zamorak in a Saradominist's eyes is someone whose banner you wear when you want to be a crazy murderer. Zamorak in a Zamorakian's eyes is the singing voice who murmurs "Get up, this isn't enough to kill you, you can still do this," when transphobic laws get passed or you hear a slur thrown your way on the street.

And as someone who grew up queer and nonhuman, yeah, that resonates, and the older I get the more I think "Guthixian philosophy is best for a society at large, but Zamorakianism for individuals is good." Because Zamorakianism can't really apply on a theocratic level. It really doesn't. It turns into American bootstrap culture and no social services and all that shitty stuff.

The funny thing is that Zamorak himself has no issues helping out if he thinks you need it. (If he didn't, he wouldn't be cool with asking for help, or giving it when he's asked. Which he does do repeatedly so. The man has more kindness in him than people want to admit.) What I do find fascinating is what he thinks of the actions of some of his longtime subordinates, who clearly support him, but I don't think support his actual philosophy. Because if you ask me, he'd side with the downtrodden humans of Meiyerditch, not the vampire lords that treat them like cattle. He's proven that he likes humans, and doesn't see them as unworthy. I do wonder if Jagex will show us what he might do about that.

Either way. Ahem. Over the course of a decade and a half, I keep going back to RuneScape, refining my philosophy and side, thinking again what I would do playing the game proper. About... I want to say five years ago, Jagex opened up the Sixth Age and I finally noticed, and they rewrote every god's philosophy because they wanted every single one to be actually playable. Not just "hurr durr evil" but actually have a logical line of thought. They probably didn't have pop culture paganism in mind, but the gods of RS are incredibly well-suited to it.

Well, I found that out, and immediately went through every god's philosophy, and reasoned my way through it. What does a worshipper of this god look like? What sort of life would they lead? If i apply this to me, what does that look like from that perspective? Do I understand this? Is it comfortable to exist in?

And as it turns out, I understand Zamorak the most, followed a close second by Armadyl, which was quite surprising. Zaros remains incomprehensible and I don't trust like that. (That's another story.) So I thought about it more, and it stuck even when I wandered off to different fandoms and interests. But what happened was that I ended up internalizing it, unknowingly and without meaning to.

It meant that when, two years later, I ended up in a horrific and traumatizing situation, the anchor I hit that held me together was a mixture of being a Devil - I am a fucking God you will obey me and recognize my power - and Zamorak's core philosophy: this cannot kill me, this cannot stop me, this is pure fucking hell and I am going to laugh in the face of death because people are forged in hellfire and I will walk away knowing what I'm made of.

And I was right. Honestly, out of everyone who was there with me, I think I'm the only one that was that deeply entrenched and walked out without trauma. I do not believe I could have done that had I not internalized Zamorak's philosophy. (That isn't to say if the others had that philosophy they wouldn't be traumatized, because there were absolutely other factors I wouldn't know about and some that I do and didn't do them any favours; but I am saying that it saved my ass and without it, I might not have been okay.)

I walked out of that with zero regrets. Zero. Even now, I don't regret a thing. Because it doesn't matter what happened or how much I was lied to or if he deserved my kindness. I know what I perceived to be happening, and I know how I reacted, and when the pieces were down I was stronger than steel, gave kindness without considering the cost, and I walked away unscathed.

How many people can say they've looked death in the eye and laughed? More than there should be, not too many that knowing what I'm capable of when put into pure chaos isn't somehow impressive. Because it is. And Zamorak's words proved themselves, or rather, I proved him entirely correct.

And when I last went back to RuneScape, and thought about it with enough time to put it all into hindsight, well. Aw, shit, he was right. Then vaguely around that time I went back and read Dawn, which was unfinished, tracked down the author and demanded to know how it fucking ended. (She told me and we're still friends like three years later. xD) Then I went back and found my old OCs, and decided fuck it, I'm making my own World Guardian.

So first thing I did was log in and jump over to the Makeover Mage and make myself into a boy. Kept the plateskirt though, I wanted to have the RS equivalent of a limp wrist to prove I'm Very Queer. Then I went about remaking my character. I wanted to make a self-insert, I was old enough to know it wasn't cringey, it was just fun, but I didn't want to use my default avatar with the black hair over one eye and the Chaorruption. I wanted to make a new self-insert based in nothing I was already using.

So I made the most beautiful man I could! Long, dark brown hair, pretty semi-dark skin, looked Kharidian, and then I said fuck it and made him Zamorak's youngest son. Originally, he was adopted when he was young by Iban and Clivet, and suffered serious imposter syndrome when being WG meant he'd never get demigod powers. But as I grew more confident in myself, he ended up getting powers? And then eventually I rewrote his backstory, and then wrote about his mother, and her relationship with Zamorak, and then he had friends like Blaire and Icthlarin (who was also my furry awakening, rip me).

Then with the most recently questline I've been getting a bit more into RS magical theory, and I've been mulling it over lots, and Seanan McGuire's Middlegame definitely helped; and I figured out how I wanted him to handle being World Guardian: it didn't make sense for him to be openly Zamorak's son, the other gods would just target his family to manipulate him. So I had him play neutral openly and Zamorakian to his friends, effectively living a double life.

Then he just looked up one day and said "Oh, by the way, my father won't acknowledge me to keep me safe but I don't know that so we have a very unsteady relationship because I don't know if he loves me", and then Children of Mah came out, and he was all "Oh and I think I just got disowned (I didn't, Zamorak was protecting me, but I don't know that) so my relationship with Zamorak is Fucking Shitty" and he was stuck that way until I figured out how to save their relationship.

It culminated in Sabe not knowing how his Mahjarrat powers worked and guessing, and hating himself for being half-and-half, and missing everything about being a Mahjarrat, and literally you couldn't have gotten more obvious in order to tell me I was having Fucking Issues coming to terms with the fact I didn't have any understanding or knowledge of my own heritage, but whatever, eventually I noticed that.

And as I've been working to understand myself and my heritage, so too has Sabe been doing that with his Mahjarrat heritage. But for the longest time, no matter how I put him and Zamorak in the same room in a scene to try and get them to talk it out, it wasn't working. Something wasn't right. Sabe resented being World Guardian, hated having to betray his family, didn't know if he was wanted, and hated himself for having to kill Mah, the mother of his species.

Not that long ago, a few months actually, he informed me (which is my shorthand for 'I suddenly figured out this happened, and it genuinely feels like remembering that one fucking word you have on the tip of your tongue, I always knew and just forgot for a while') that no, he'd been ripped in two by a hope devourer, brought to his father's stronghold, and Zamorak split his magic between mortal and divine in order to get around his godproofing and heal him. Zamorak's intense worry for his youngest son was what caused Sabe to break down and tell him honestly what was going on and how he was feeling, which caused Zamorak to do the same, and they finally, finally made up.

A week later, I noticed the connection between Sabe's Mahjarrat issues and my Irish issues, and started to wonder if he was a linktype.

I mean... he's a self-insert. He makes the choices I would, the me in the here and now, that I think are best. He's not a person I was and still know myself to be, he's not someone I grow into, he's not living his life beside me like a shadow. He's me, choosing the things I do, because I say so. But he's also me in the things he reflects, the things he struggles with, and things I had zero fucking conscious input on.

Sabe is the person I am when a crisis hits and I have to deal with the chaos. Sabe is the person I am when I need to lead. Sabe is the person I am when I am desperate to be known and loved by those I consider family. Sabe is the person I am when I want to be sure in where I came from, where I will return to, and the things that I will always be. Sabe is a man of darkness who knows the light as an acquaintance and nothing more, who is cruel and careless and kind.

Sabe is a warpriest of Zamorakian philosophy, because it took me twenty fucking years to put into words how I see the world, and now that I know, I will argue them to death and use them to help others. Drakath may have wanted a messiah to share the hivemind with others. Sabe is a warpriest, spreading the word and calling home the broken and the damned. He is the Last Rider, not the last of the Ilujanka but the one who keeps riding towards the chaos and never falls, no matter what.

Some of who Sabe is I have conscious input on. A whole lot of him was unintentional and perfectly reflects me.

So when it comes to terminology... I don't know what he is. A self-insert, yes. A linktype, maybe. A kintype, also maybe. Sabe doesn't feel like my past linktypes, because Sabe isn't always catharsis and comfort. Until he made up with his dad, Sabe was brutal and hurt a lot and constantly yearning for his foundation and slowly going mad. It wasn't fun. I just refused to do anything but see the story through. I was going to get it right. I wanted to see it to the end. I wanted to be the Last Rider, even though I didn't phrase it that way.

But to answer your actual question, of what he feels like when I'm not actively being him out of necessity, desire, and active thought. If it fades into the background.

And like... it can? Sabe as he is, recognized for what and who he is, is kind of a new thing. Sabe as a concept is very old, but Sabe as what he is right now is new, and confusing, and honestly I'm still trying to figure out what to make of it.

Like, seriously. Sabe is Zamorak's son. Am I Zamorak's son? Is he keeping an eye on me as I am? Would he be proud of me? Would he offer his approval of my progress? Does that make me, in some way, the World Guardian?

I have not a clue, buddy. Not a goddamn clue.

So what it means is that I've been paying attention, really. I don't just become strong in times of crisis. I've been trying to do better. Be better. Learn, and listen, and rethink myself. Break out of lockstep, of doing things the way I've always done them. Try to always do better than I did, build habits I like, stop waiting for things to change and just do it. Become the chaos, instead of waiting for it to hit me.

It means I need to live up to what Guthix told Sabe to do. It means being gentler, being kinder, not burning bridges when I'm not sure. It means keeping an eye out for any sign Zamorak's listening, in case I am his son, in case I really have to decide what I'm gonna do about being the son of chaos incarnate.

But other than the questioning, what it feels like is just... what I was already dealing with, just a little more at arm's length and easier to deal with. Once I recognize that his issues are reflective of mine, if I solve his, I have a pretty good idea of how to solve mine. Some of it won't work exactly right - Zamorak will always forgive him for not being the son he expected he might have had, my own parents may not, yay I'm queer and pagan - but it's a good rule of thumb.

It's also just comforting to know that when in doubt, nothing can kill me, because I simply refuse to die. I am World Guardian, I am a demigod of chaos incarnate, all the hellfire in the world can do nothing but strengthen me. And if I present those to myself as unshakeable beliefs, because for Sabe they are, then I'll be okay. It probably couldn't stop most disasters or tragedies, but I got hit by a car, broke five bones, and walked away with a record recovery time, so I mean... I can't prove that I can't die by some accident or tragedy, but you also can't prove that I can. (Trying to do so usually falls under what we call 'murder', and I personally believe I can't be murdered. Only assassinated.)

But really, I think the worst that could possibly happen with a new linktype is that you learn what not to do. It's new, it's scary, it's chaotic, and from where I'm standing, that's the best way to learn.

[thegayagenda-forkids]

Why Cami is important, and why we need more of her types of characters.

While everyone is watching the Cartero/Tennis Boyfriends storyline, as well as Elena’s story and Gabi’s story, I want to talk about the only openly gay character at the moment (Episode 7/8), Camilla, but to really get to talk about her, I have to dive a little bit into the history of gay characters in comedies.*

**I’m only including gay characters in comedies because otherwise my list would be too long to be able to dive into, and this post is going to be mostly about Cami.

So, the first openly gay character to appear on American TV is Steve, played by Phillip Carey in 1971 on “All in the Family.” He appeared for only one episode, but he opened the door back when being gay was taboo, and wrong, and he wasn’t killed onscreen or beaten up. In fact, he was played straight, in a way. Throughout the episode, the main character is speculating about several other men being gay, while Steve was described by that character to be “a real man’s man.” It’s at the end of the episode where Steve comes out to him, dismisses the rumors about the other men the main character suspected, and then he was never seen on TV again. And his appearance is so important because it challenged stereotypes of what gay men on TV were, and where it was appropriate to see these topics. He opened the door for more gay characters to show up.

However, it was a bit of a double-edged sword because for the next several years, the gay characters we saw were “very special episode” characters, approached the same way these characters would approach cancer, or drugs, or addiction. They were a sensitive topic people need to know about, the episode will be less funny to show the full gravity of the situation. But, gay people were seen on TV.

Slowly, people start accepting that gay people exist, and while they might not wish direct harm on them, the general attitude was still very anti-LGBT rights. So gay characters shifted on tv and they were no longer sensitive topics to approach, but a minor/recurring character who was overwhelmingly male, flamboyant, stereotyped to hell, and typically, the “Gay Best Friend.”

The true turning point, in my opinion, was Ellen DeGeneres on “Ellen.” She was the main character of her show, personally in the process of finding herself and coming out, and then deciding to have the character she played come out in a serious, but relatively humorous way. There was backlash, her show didn’t last much longer after that, and overall, she took a huge risk. But she started the first step of the process: character first, sexuality second. She wasn’t defined for being gay like every other person, with potentially the exception of Steve, was up to this point.

But Steve and Ellen served different purposes. Steve de-stigmatized the idea of gay people appearing on TV by only revealing he was gay at the end. He only appeared for one episode, let everyone see how throughout the episode, he was the opposite of gay men they built up in their mind, and then only let the hammer drop right before vanishing forever. Ellen went through four years of people getting to know her, she was the principal main character, and then she came out after. Steve allowed gay people to be shown more on TV, Ellen allowed us to get to know them.

Then around that time, let me just say this: “Friends” was pretty problematic with several issues like the character of Ross and how Chandler’s birth parent transitioning, but there was one thing that was pretty well handled and relatively holds up, and that’s Carol and Susan. Now, by no means was their portrayal and representation perfect, and Ross frequently made jokes revolving around the fact that his ex-wife was a lesbian, but they were never jokes about Carol being wrong or weird, but rather self-deprecating ones, and then the show went on to show them raising and co-parenting a young boy with Ross and they even had the first lesbian wedding on TV, and, at least in my memory, they were never sexualized, meaning that they weren’t created to be objects of mens’ desires, they were simply in love and trying to lead fulfilling lives with each other.

And now we go from the sidelines all the way front and center with the original airing (not the reboot) of “Will and Grace.” The main character was an openly gay man living with a straight woman, who had a gay and an ambiguous, but potentially, bisexual best friends (Jack and Karen). And boy, was this show the first of it’s kind. Will wasn’t portrayed as flamboyant and taking on a stereotypical job, but rather the respected position as a lawyer, owning a nice apartment, and him being gay was only used as a fact while he dated men throughout the show. People at the time earnestly believed Will and Grace would get together in the end by how un-stereotypical and “not gay” Will acted.

But acting as his foil was Jack, perhaps the most flamboyant character to ever grace TV screens. He was loud, overly dramatic, cared too much about his appearance, and his goal was to be an actor. And he wasn’t automatically Will’s boyfriend because he was also gay. He was Will’s closest friend, a confidant, and though he could be an asshole, Jack was true to himself, even if his true self was every gay stereotype shoved into one body while Will got to break those stereotypes by being a well developed and well rounded character.

From there, Gay characters are a mixed bag. Normally in tv shows marketed for people 16 and up, not for children, and typically as side characters. We get our Kurt Hummels, our Mitch and Cams, our Oscar Martinezes, and all these others. They’re occasionally the main character in a cast, most of the time the side characters, and they’re varied. They’re also more visible, and they’re popping up more and more. Now, I’m not even going to get into Brooklyn Nine-Nine in terms of Queer representation because I could go on for days about how they’ve got it, and go into the similar media and target audience.

I’m, of course, talking about “Good Luck Charlie.”

Now I know, I KNOW! It was one episode where there were two moms that showed up for a play date. But it was one of the first kids’ shows to show a gay couple, and by kids, I mean that it’s marketed for people under 16 as well. And it was also pretty well addressed. The parents are wondering how to separate the couple in order to hang out while their toddlers played at the same time as arguing over who was the child’s mother since they each only met one. And when they open the door to Cheryl and Susan, they greet them normally and the only acknowledgment that comes is the father hitting his head like he had forgotten a word and saying “Taylor has two moms,” simply settling the argument about who was Taylor’s mom. And the rest of the episode was just about the parents trying to make friends but being annoying people until Susan and Cheryl fake headaches to leave. The episode treated them not as a “Gay Couple,” but rather a couple who happened to be gay. Not even Modern Family 10 years after the pilot can act like that.

And I KNOW you guys are waiting for it: Cyrus Goodman and Thelonious Jagger Kippen. I bet if I were to take a poll right now of who’s Disney’s first openly gay character, at least 90% of people would say it’s Cyrus Goodman. He was developed as his own person first; this adorable, quirky boy who loved his two best friends more than anything and would get over-enthusiastic for anything they did or he decided to pursue, and he went through panic, then he came out to Buffy. It’s also impressive that for Disney’s first gay main character, they didn’t have him already self-assured that he’s gay, but rather figuring it out and terrified when he came out to Buffy. He was afraid of what she’d think of him, what she’d say, and how their friendship would continue, which I touch more on *here.* At the same time, T.J. is also developed from a bully and antagonist to one of Cyrus’s newest, closest friends. He faces homophobic microaggresions while developing feelings towards Cyrus until he finally finds the courage to confess and start something new at the last episode. The fact that T.J. didn’t come out as gay until the last episode does not diminish his worth as a gay character. He was groundbreaking too because he is the first gay love interest in a Disney Show (and I mean mutual, because otherwise, that title would go to Jonah Beck and I’m not sure he can be counted as canon anything).

And now everyone is focusing on Bobby and Liam on “Diary of a Future President,” which is what the writers are shooting for, but we cannot forget about Cami! She is a form of casual representation that we need more of in writing. There was no marketing for her by Disney as a gay character, and she portrays a realistic representation. She mentions her girlfriend, makes small comments like “you two are hetero goals,” and lets us glimpse into her life. And she doesn’t take over a room like Jack does, she’s there for Cami, and has a good relationship with her kids, as proven by Gabi trusting her to pick up Bobby and Liam from Jupiter. And then the significance of Cami freeing Bobby and Liam from a storage closet is something I touched on earlier *here*.

So why is Cami important? Because she is the casual representation we want and deserve! She’s not a big deal on the show, but she also not diminished. She doesn’t need to make headlines to be important. She’s real, and believable, and I’m hoping there’s more of her as well as characters like her. Casual representation is important too, and it’s important because she’s not the only queer character on the show, and the other queer person isn’t her love interest.

Hopefully I got my message across that Cami is the next step of queer characters in shows.

[artistshadow]

Supergirl 5x11 "Back To The Future - Part 1" My Thoughts and Opinions. *Spoilers on the last episode so of*

Now that I have watched the Supergirl 5x11 episode and have had time to collect my thoughts I'm ready to give my opinions on the "queer-baiting" and the *SPOILER* whole William asking Kara out on a date in the next episode.

Okay so first off I really enjoyed the episode! So happy to see my boy/child Winn!! Jeremy Jordan killed it in this episode playing both Winn and Toyman and David Harewood directed this episode and he did an incredible job!!

Now on to the "queer-baiting" of the show. Now queer-baiting is defined online as "a marketing technique for fiction and entertainment in which creators hint at, but then not actually depict, same-sex romance. They do so to attract ("bait") a queer audience with the suggestion of relationships that appeal to them, while at the same time attempting to avoid alienating other consumers." Now I can see how SuperCorp (the ship name for Lena and Kara) is coming off as queer-baiting. I joined the fandom of Supergirl back in season 3. I was watching all the Arrowverse shows on Netflix and when I tell you Lena became my favorite character after Kara I MEAN IT!!! Now a lot of people want Kara and Lena to get together because come on, they would be the ultimate power couple and I myself would love to see Lex's ugly face when he finds out his sister is dating the cousin of his number one enemy!😂😂 But here's the thing: I think the original plan was for Lena to become Kara's best friend (beside Winn and Alex). There would be rough times where everybody would be against Lena because she's a Luthor but Kara would stand by her and have her back and believe in her. They wanted to portray a strong, incredible, unbreakable friendship/bond between these two powerful, strong, smart, independent, successful, bad-A women. They can rely on each other, be there for one another, lean on each other when needed, but somewhere down the line, it sort of slipped a bit and instead of it coming off as true friendship it's coming off as there is a mutual attraction between them. It doesn't help the situation that the actresses (both VERY talented) have some major on screen chemistry.

Okay so in my opinion, MY OPINION, I don't think they are purposely trying to "queer-bait." I think that the writers of Supergirl are trying to give us a healthy friendship between two women that doesn't involve one doing something bad to the other or have them doing some dumb fight crap over some guy. None of that, just a good friendship. But in defense, when you try to write a good, loving friendship between two females, two males, and/or a female and a male (especially that one) it's going to be hard to write and portray it as "friendly" cause along the way it might start slipping and it's going to come off as romantic and people are going to think that they are attracted to each other. Especially if the friends are a boy and a girl cause God forbid a girl and guy be best friends without one having a crush on the other or one of them have to be gay in order for them to be friends.

Do I condone queer-baiting? No. Absolutely not. I think it's a disgusting, awful, horrible, and manipulative way to reel in LGBT fans in a sense they are going to see themselves represented in the media and get their hopes up just to watch them crash hard on the ground. Do I think Supergirl is queer-baiting? I believe that they're trying not to, but since they're writing for female/female friendship it's coming off that way and we're so far into that it's hard to back up on it because there such a big fandom for it. Cause I know some people are concerned whether of not if they do get together if it's because the writers want them to or if it's just fanservice.

Now onto the William and Kara thing. Guys, calm down. It's literally one date. We haven't even seen the episode yet and already everyone's losing their crap over something we haven't had a chance to watch. For all we know the date might go horribly wrong or they will try it out but realize they're better off as friends. Wait till the episode premieres before we start throwing toxic hate around. Put your pitchforks and torches away and let's find out what happens first. Dang. I guessed that William was maybe probably going to be a love interest for Kara back in the first half of the season. That they would develop feelings for each other over the course of the season. BTW I don't think you need to have chemistry with someone to go out a date with them. The first date is to stroke the fire and see if there's anything there. So let's at least give it a chance. Because at the end of the day, what’s more important: Kara being with Lena or Kara being happy (not saying Kara wouldn't be happy with Lena)? And God knows she needs some happiness with all the hell and high water she's been through over the past couple of seasons. Especially this season so far. Her whole freaking universe was wiped out of existence and there was nothing she could do about it and then had it merged with other earths and now she has to work with the person she hates the most (not to mention he's also considered a hero by the people of the new earth) and lost a close friend (Oliver), plus on top of alllllllllll that her best friend (Lena) hates her for lying to her about being Supergirl and y'all want to make a big deal over a date? That we saw in a promo? For an episode that doesn't air for 2 weeks? Good Lord.

Look for all we know, two things could be happening here: William's secretly evil and is trying to get close to Kara by tricking her or he's just a stand in until Kara and Lena do get together. I could use Shadowhunters as an example. Alec had feelings for Magnus but he agreed to marry Lydia to help his family but then at the wedding he realized that he couldn't hide his deep feelings for Magnus and called it all off, Lydia understood (she even encouraged him to go to Magnus), and then him and Magnus got together. It might not be the exact same thing as what's going on in Supergirl, but something similar like that could be the case. Plus think about it: SuperCorp could happen eventually. It might not be that fast to some of you'd liking, but it could happen. Heck it took them 3 seasons before Brainy finally looked accurate to his comic book character version. Good things come to those who wait and patience is a virtue.

Look, all I'm saying is that I get why you guys might be mad and it's understandable but I just urge you to please wait and see what happens the rest of the season. You might be mad now but you might not be come the end of the season. And it's okay to be upset and to voice your opinions but let's do it in a calm and kind way. There is no need to spread hate. Especially to the cast. They don't write the show so there is no reason on earth that they should be receiving your anger because you're unhappy. Voice your complaints but do it in the right way and to the right people. Otherwise nothing is going to get solved. Make noise but don't make chaos. I heard other people call the Supergirl fandom (as well as the SuperCorp shippers) toxic and I don’t want that to be true.

These are just my opinions. If Kara does end up with William and her and Lena reconnect and go back to being best friends, I won’t be mad. Will I be sad that SuperCorp's not happening? Yes. Will I be angry? No because I'll be happy that Kara's happy. Don't consider Kara and Lena being best friends a loss, consider it a win all its own. I don't want to disrespect anyone else's opinions and if you don't agree with mine, that's okay. Its not going to hurt my feelings. If I'm proven wrong, I won't try to argue over it. I can admit when I'm wrong. If you have any comments on this, your opinions on the whole thing all together or what I had to say about it, please fill free to comment. Just know that I will not be responding to hateful comments and if it comes to the point that people keep coming into my comment sections with noting but hate, I will delete them and/or block the users. Again, just my opinions and I hope you all see where I'm coming from and I have nice day.😀😊

[s-cornelius]

Congratulations, You Played Yourself

OR Why we shouldn’t be having this conversation about Adam

I’ve seen a lot written in the past few days about Voltron not deserving the hype it got for revealing that Shiro is queer, both on this platform and Twitter, and on geek news/opinion sites. Most arguments revolve around Shiro’s ex-boyfriend, Adam--both Adam’s brief screentime and his death--or the conversation between Shiro and Adam in the flashback in 7x01, and it not being explicit enough.

I am of the opinion that the conversation between Shiro and Adam was explicit confirmation of Shiro’s sexuality, and I treat it as such in this meta. I also won’t deal with the widely circulating idea that because Adam and Shiro don’t reconcile, the representation is bad. This just reinforces the idea that queer people are defined by their relationships (and sexual activity), rather than all of the other parts of their personality. As a queer person, seeing these criticisms is very frustrating.

So, I’m not going to focus on those things, because I think that they are more subjective. Instead, I am going to talk about the major complaints I’ve seen regarding Adam’s brief appearances in the show, as well as Adam’s role in the wider story Voltron is telling. 

The major complaints I’ve seen are that Adam is an example of queerbaiting, and/or the Bury Your Gays trope (see #VoltronLegendaryQueerbait on Twitter, for example). These complaints seem to stem from an expectation that after 7x01, Adam would play a larger role in the story, and even might be the endgame romantic partner for Shiro. Then, when that expectation was not met (because Adam barely appears in the season), the complaints of bad representation began.

In this meta, I discuss queerbaiting and the Bury Your Gays trope, and show that Adam is not a good example of either of these issues, through examining his character and his role in the story. Also, this is my take (after long conversations with @messier51) as a bisexual woman and as someone who thinks a lot about how stories are structured/executed.

What is ‘queerbaiting’?

Queerbaiting, as I’ve always understood it, is the practice of ‘promising’ LGBT+ content, but not following through on that promise. The ‘promising’ part is usually nods and winks from the show, but then the characters end up in relationships with members of the opposite gender, etc. The important assumption behind the idea of queerbaiting is that showrunners and production companies want to cash in on LGBT viewership, but don’t want to alienate the majority straight audience. Therefore, the showrunners get as close as possible to a same gender relationship, but never intend to follow through.

I’ve always been skeptical of the whole notion of queerbaiting, to be honest. I think in order to make an argument about queerbaiting, you have to know the motivations and intentions by the showrunners/writers/directors/cast. You also have to assume bad faith; the showrunners are thinking more about ‘tricking’ their fanbase, than trying to tell a coherent story. (sidenote: I think the bigger issue at hand is that queerness is still not normalized in fiction, and consequently, characters are straight until proven otherwise. Therefore, close same gender relationships that never become romantic are more of an issue of lack of imagination, than an willing attempt to hurt people.)

So, let’s think logically for a moment: If queerbaiting is hinting at a relationship between same gender characters, but never intending to follow through, Voltron does not qualify as queerbaiting. If the showrunners of Voltron intended to queerbait, they would not have fought for the dialogue between Shiro and Adam that makes their romantic relationship explicit. Similarly, Bex Taylor-Klaus, a queer person themself, championed explicit, in-text confirmation that Shiro was in said relationship, and then was proud of the fact that that confirmation was included.  Are those things not the opposite of queerbaiting?

Voltron promised, metatexually (i.e. showrunners in interviews, at conventions, etc.), to include LGBT+ representation. In 7x01, Shiro was revealed to be mlm, and had a mlm boyfriend. Therefore, Voltron is not an example of queerbaiting.

What about ‘Bury Your Gays’?

Bury Your Gays is a trope in fiction where queer characters are not allowed to have happy endings. Historically, this trope has referred to the practice of killing of wlw (which is why it was called Dean Lesbian Syndrome before Bury Your Gays gained prominence) going back to pulp wlw novels in the mid-twentieth century. Bury Your Gays was a staple of stories about queer people because homosexuality was (and still is by some) considered to be immoral; characters cannot be rewarded with a happy ending, because in doing so, queerness is being rewarded.

This trope has been in the zeitgeist in recent years, following the death of the wlw character Lexa on the show The 100. The anger and frustration in 2016 stemmed from the deaths of queer female characters. GLAAD notes in its annual Where We Are on TV Report:

“Since the beginning of 2016, more than 25 queer female characters have died on scripted television and streaming series. Most of these deaths served no other purpose than to further the narrative of a more central (and often straight, cisgender) character.”

This is not to say that the death of queer male character can’t be an example of Bury Your Gays, but that this trope historically refers to dead wlw in books and film, and in recent years, outrage with the this trope has concerned dead wlw on television. 

So, where does Adam from Voltron fit in? Well, he is a dead queer character, but whether or not he qualifies as an example of Bury Your Gays is questionable. He didn’t die to further the narrative of a more central cis, straight character. He also wasn’t a well-established character, and he died in a scene where many other characters also died. For these reasons, I’m hesitant to claim that Adam is an instance of Bury Your Gays.

Just because a queer character dies does not mean that it is an example of Bury Your Gays. In an article from SYFYwire, the author argues that: “as the criticism moves forward, consistently reducing our stories into binary tallies of whether we live or die does a complete disservice to the potential for three-dimensional, nuanced characters within genre storytelling that we yearn to see more of ourselves in. “

I understand that the death of any queer character on TV is upsetting to some fans, because there are so few queer characters overall. However, as we get more queer characters (and GLAAD has shown increasing numbers of queer characters in the past few years--up to 6.4% of regular characters in 2017), it’s important to question whether good representation is just a matter of a living or dead character, and if the death of an LGBT+ character is just that character’s demise, or part of a bigger trend (see 2016 and wlw deaths). 

Therefore, I think we have to evaluate whether or not the trope is in effect depends on the context of the death. I think to really decide whether or not a death of a queer character is Bury Your Gays or not, it’s important to answer the following questions: What is the purpose of this character’s death? What are the genre conventions? Are there other queer characters and what happens to them? Are queer characters dying on other shows in large numbers?

In the next section, I will discuss Adam’s role in the story, and try to answer these questions.

Adam, the character?

Before addressing these questions, I think it’s important to discuss who Adam is as a character, and his role in the overall story.

All told, Adam appears in two short scenes, totaling no more than a few minutes of screentime. While on screen, we learn that a) he was Shiro’s boyfriend, b) he broke up with Shiro due to a culmination of issues in their relationship, c) he was a pilot, and d) he died in a Galra attack. As far as characterizations go, it’s pretty skimpy, but ultimately who he was as a character is unimportant. Adam does not exist on the show to explore any big ideas about gender and sexuality; Adam is a plot device, and he serves two purposes:

Adam confirms that Shiro is mlm. By showing Adam and Shiro’s breakup in a flashback, the show is telling us that Shiro is mlm, without having Shiro say “I am gay.” (sidenote: This is called good storytelling, by the way. Shiro’s story is not a coming out story, so if everyone in canon knows that he’s gay, why would Shiro tell anyone his orientation? Since we have no reason to think that other characters don’t know he’s gay, introducing Adam does the work of confirming Shiro’s sexuality to the audience in lieu of Shiro stating his orientation in dialogue.)

Adam puts a face on the casualties of war during the first attack by the Galra. By killing off Adam in this scene, the stakes have been raised. Volton (both the show and the robot) kills faceless, nameless characters in space battles. I know that the paladins mow down robots all the time, but when Voltron destroys a Galra cruiser or the like, I find it hard to believe that there are only robots on board. But since we, the audience, and they, the paladins of Voltron, don’t know who those people are on board those ships, it’s hard to get emotionally attached to their deaths. The same is true when we see the Galra attack Earth: there is no emotional attachment when the Galra raze major cities, but there is narrative weight to Adam’s death. Now, it’s not just the case that the Galra have killed humans, but that they have specifically killed a human that was important to one of the main characters. The same effect is achieved with Hunk’s family in the work camp.

Ok, so back to those questions: What is the purpose of this character’s death? What are the genre conventions? Are there other queer characters and what happens to them? Are queer characters dying on other shows in large numbers?

To answer the first question: Adam’s death is representative of the end of an era. Adam represents the past: both Shiro’s past with the end of a relationship, and the Garrison’s past with his death as the result of old Garrison defense tactics. His death marks the end of that time in Shiro’s life, and for Earth pre-Galra attack. As mentioned above, Adam’s death also raises the stakes of the Galra attack. Once a character the audience knows dies, that signals that other characters could die too. After Veronica doesn’t get back on the train, the audience genuinely thinks she died. This doesn’t work if the only characters who have died so far are faces on a screen or in background explosions.

To address the second question: Voltron’s genre is part action-adventure comedy, and part war story. The second half of this season feels more like a war story than any part of the previous seasons, despite the fact that Voltron (and the Coalition) has been at war against the Galra since the first episode. In a war story, anyone can die, so it’s not terribly surprising that characters we know end up dying. For example, the Blades of Marmora have had four named characters die (before the timeskip): Ulaz, Thace, Antok, and Regris.

As for the third question: Adam was not the only queer character on Voltron. In explicit text, we have Shiro, one of the main characters, is an Asian mlm with mental and physical disabilities. In less explicit text, we have Pidge, who at the very least could be considered gender non-conforming, and Zethrid and Ezor, who’s relationship appeared to lean romantic.

And the fourth question: LGBT+ representation is really making strides in shows aimed at children and teens. However, there is definitely still a place for questioning whether TV more broadly has a Bury Your Gays problem. In this respect alone--that deaths of queer characters is a trend--could Adam’s death be considered problematic. It’s unfortunate that a queer character was killed in a general media landscape full of dead queer characters, but in the next section, I discuss why I am not so upset by his death.

So what?

What conclusions can be drawn from the context of Adam’s role and his death? Adam is a emotional connection to the toll of the war, both for the audience, and for our mlm main character, Shiro. I do not consider Adam’s death an example of Bury Your Gays, and I don’t think we’d be having this conversation if a heterosexual character had filled Adam’s role in the story. Ultimately, Adam is not the LGBT+ representation fans have been clamoring for, and the showrunners promised to provide--Shiro is.

So, why doesn’t Adam get a happy ending? Because it does not matter if he gets a happy ending or not; it has no impact on main characters or overall storyline. The showrunners could have introduced a different character from the Garrison that we (the audience) cared about, and then kill them in that first battle, but using Adam streamlines this process.

I know a lot of people wanted Adam and Shiro to reunite, and they’d be each other’s happy ending, but this would be Bad Storytelling. Shiro and Adam’s break up is at least 2 years in the past for Shiro. During those years, he has not pined for Adam, regretted his decision, etc. that would indicate that their relationship is not 100% over. In the lead up to season 7, Lauren Montgomery said: “until Shiro made the unfortunate decision [to leave], and they drifted apart and that was the end … for their relationship.”

As I mentioned before, Adam represents the past for Shiro. Shiro has been through so much since their break up, and we have no idea how Adam would have even reacted to the Shiro that makes it back to Earth. If Shiro does get a happy ending in the form of a romantic relationship, it does not make any narrative sense that he would go back to his old boyfriend. Shiro has grown and changed and matured, so a satisfying end to that arc is not going back to where he came from, but forging ahead with a partner who has witnessed that growth and change (if Shiro does get a love interest).

At the end of the show, it will matter if Shiro lives or dies, and whether his ending is happy or not, because he is our explicit LGBT+ representation, the one that was promised to us. But I honestly have complete faith in Voltron. Time and time again, the showrunners, writers, directors, VAs, etc. have shown their commitment to a diverse cast of characters, and representing diverse experiences. There has never been any indication of bad faith on the part of TPTB; they want to make the best possible show for us, and give us representation not found in other television shows.

So, Who Should We be Talking About?

Shiro.

I do think it is important to discuss how harmful tropes manifest in media and why queer characters keep ending up dead. However, I don’t think the solution to this problem is immortal, flawless gay characters who get happy endings just because they’re gay. The best thing we can do is normalize queer characters, and normalizing means creating characters who show the full gamut human experiences. Queer characters can be good and bad people, and have good and bad relationships, so (as long as we don’t get one version of queer people), I think there’s room for a wide variety of queer characters, who have a wide variety of ends to their stories.

So, then there’s Shiro, a heroic leading character the likes of which we haven’t seen before. Shiro is a main character on a non-queer-focused show Asian mlm with mental and physical disabilities, and his presence is normalizing queer characters for a whole new generation of fans.

Shiro is groundbreaking representation, and not just on a show aimed at younger audiences. As GLAAD notes in their report:

“The LGBTQ characters who make it to TV screens tend to be white gay men, who outnumber all other parts of our community in representation on screen ... It’s long past time for television to introduce more diverse LGBTQ characters on multiple levels: more queer people of color (who have long been and remain underrepresented), characters living with disabilities, stories of lesbians and bisexual women, trans characters, characters of various religious backgrounds, and characters who are shaped by existing at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities.”

Shiro is that intersection of multiple marginalized identities, and a main character. By showing experiences of queerness and disability and the intersection of the two, and not relegating him to a supporting role, Voltron is telling Shiro’s story, not someone else’s story with Shiro along for the ride. 

We should be asking of our media “whose stories get to be told?” On most shows, the answer is white cis-men and women, and maybe a token minority, if you’re lucky. Voltron is telling the stories of people who usually don’t get their stories told--women of all kinds, people of different ethnic backgrounds, queer characters, and intersections of these categories. Voltron has not settled for tokenization, but rather given us multi-faceted representation, crossing these intersecting issues.

[old1ddude]

As a person who can be consider as GP (I liked Harry's album and I did a bit of research, but I am not and I never was part of the fandom) I can tell you how the Larry thing looks for me. I don't think "antis" are blind or "Larries" are crazy. I think all this was a hoax their management did, when they saw in the early years of 1D that "Larry Stylinson" was something a lot of fans liked, in order to keep fans talking about 1D and "obsessed" with the band. And, yes, I think H&L were into it. (1)

It's very simple: all that we saw (flirts, singing to each other, DENIALS, girlfriends that really looked as beards, people being shady, M!M fails...) was something we were supposed to see. Everything was part of the game. And because fans, in general, are never gonna tend to think that their idols are lying like this, or laughing of them, then you'll get 2 opinions in base of what the person prefers to believe, "antis" think Larries're conspirators, and "Larries" believe antis're blind. (2).

The tattoos could mean any other thing, or even H&L were paid or obligated by contract to get them (I haven't seen more "couple" tattoos since long long time ago, Harry's bee is the Gucci bee). My opinion is based in: a. The actual situation: even if they didn't want to come out because personal reasons, all the situation with the "fake baby" makes no sense. No sense that there isn't a single fan picture of them hanging out together in 18 months. b. The bears, I know you all love them, (3)

It's impossible that a management who is really trying to hide gay rumors, allows to have these bears in all the shows they were, and no way if you're having troubles with the closet you're gonna do this, which looks as a joke. I think the boys and their management put the bears there, in order to go on with the hoax/ My opinion doesn't mean I believe that things like Haylor were real, or that El is Louis gf. Even H&L could have a thing in the early years and they just finished it in good terms.

Thank you for your polite, reasoned points anon.

In regard to parts 1 and 2:  It’s not the really big things that convince us Harry and Louis are romantically involved, but very subtle looks and touches - things the camera barely caught and can very easily go unnoticed, if your’e not paying close attention.  Harry’s acting in Dunkirk was impressive, but it’s hard to imagine the whole band being in character, every moment they were on camera, with subtle gestures, expressions, slips of the tongue, always pointing out the couple.  While we don’t really know the lads, we have observed them so much that we do know them in a way.  We recognize when they’re uncomfortable, sarcastic, playing to the camera, truly happy, putting on a fake smile, angry, sad, etc..  I have no doubt that 1DHQ played into Larry to some extent, at different times.  The Larry fandom spent a LOT of money on the band.  Over the years, we’ve seen a lot of push-pull.  Sometimes Harry and Louis seemed to be on the cusp of coming out - at other times their interactions were almost non-existent.  Yet, still we would observe how they were always subtly watching and very aware of each other.  1DHQ capitalizing, to some extent, on Larry has no bearing on whether they were, or are an actual couple.  With Larry being quite popular in the fandom, as you noted, why not encourage lot’s of interaction between H and L?  HQ could have had their cake and eaten it too by encouraging Larry interaction, but playing it off as “best friends” in interviews.  The separation of Harry and Louis always seemed unnatural.  What little interaction we got was often very subtle, but laced with a fondness unmistakable to careful  observers.  

I think there are many reasonable people who don’t think Harry and Louis are together.  As for the anti’s, however, they have an obsession with proving they are not a couple and we are deluded.  Maybe we’re obsessed with our favorite band and the idea of two members being in love, but at least we don’t spend our energy on other fans who disagree with us!

As for the bears:  The only people who believe (or believed) they had anything to do with Harry and Louis is the Larry fandom.  One could argue that HQ wouldn’t care about elaborate stuffed animal tableaus when it was only those “crazy larries” who paid them any mind.  

Touring benefits album sales and an act’s brand, but  the spoils are largely for the band - not the label.  It’s difficult to know how much control the lads had over staging, etc.  We do know that Louis led the boys in rebellion against the sugary pop (I enjoy some of those early songs, by the way) from their first two albums.  Against all odds, they were able to gain creative control over their music - who is to say they didn’t gain some control over their concerts as well?  Of course, image clauses, which exist in virtually all entertainment contracts, are enforceable everywhere.  (Louis and Harry had to be careful how far their behavior challenged the official narrative.  The bears are just stuffed animals.)  There is also a plausible theory that Louis has paid a price for the bears as his reflection was captured in those bear sunglasses and we saw a photo of them in a room that looked exactly like Louis’ game room.  All of the lads have been very good directing subtle shade at official narratives at times.  Nothing in their observed behavior would suggest the bears were queer-baiting, or that they would be okay with that.

Each set of tattoos, on their own, can be very easily explained away.  When you look at all of them together, platonic explanations become implausible.  No one has ever provided and example of an entertainment contract (to my knowledge) witch would require a person to get a tattoo, or otherwise, permanently alter their body.  Harry and Louis have repeatedly proven they are aware of what goes on in this fandom.  You can not tell me that Harry didn’t know the implications of the bee tattoo, or wearing bee shirts, etc..  

I don’t believe that gay men get drunk and impregnate random women.  However, if Louis were a father there would not be so many inconsistencies and striking evidence the “mother” was never in fact pregnant.  Most often, celebrity “love children” are kept hidden from the public until many years after their birth.  Nothing about the story adds up.  I could go on, and on.  I was reluctant to believe Liam fathered a child with Cheryl, but now it does seem to add up and I do believe it.

I can easily see why a casual observer would see thing the way you do.  Harry is an incredible artist and performer - I hope you continue to enjoy his work.  I don’t think it matters whether you believe in “Larry” or not in the lease.  Especially, now where Harry, in particular, is maintaining very strict privacy over his personal life.  I hope that my answer demonstrates to you, in part, why I see things as I do.

Cheers!

[pepperpaprika]

Thinking about this recently cos a couple of folks brought it up in comments/chat. :’) @takashiskeith 

First off-  I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Shiro and Keith having a brotherly dynamic headcanon. Nor is there anything wrong with shipping two people because of intense fictional ‘brotherly’ dynamics that pretty much don’t really occur in real life siblings. The intensity of such fictional relationships is shipped across a LOT of fandoms. Choosing to ship or not on that basis is valid. But. 

Blood-related Br0gane is NOT canon. And there is plenty of logical evidence to suggest a blood relation or adoptive family relationship isn’t in Keith and Shiro’s pasts, either. 

(Also, as an aside, saying two potentially same-race characters are siblings is kind of like Hunk assuming “do you guys all know eachother” to Galra!Keith.Not to mention we got confirmation that Keith is PART Galra which is NOT asian or even human and cannot be Shiro’s fulll blooded brother.) 

Some breakdowns:

You’re LIKE a brother to me. VS. You’re my brother. 

This was supposed to be an impactful scene. Keith is teary. He is appealing to mind!Shiro and wants him to know how important Shiro is to him, but that he’s still going to do what he wants/needs to do. The scene loses all impact if he’s saying his brother is like a brother- basically spitting in your brother’s face because “oh but all this time I never saw you as a brother”. 

So we assume this scene is meant to read as “you are important to me” not “I deny our brotherly relationship”. 

With that context, options. 

Option A: They’re adoptive family= Not Blood Related and he is trying to affirm that bond.

Option B: They have a brotherly relationship, similar to blood brothers who swear to care for eachother as though they were of the same blood. = Still Not Blood Related. 

Option C: You Are My Very Important Friend and I Don’t Know How to Express It Enough. Given that the most intense relationships in the show we see are familial ones (Pidge with her fam, Allura with her dad), it makes sense to latch on to that. As other people have pointed out, there’s also a sense of “no homo, bro”to this. But Nope, not blood related here, either. 

Is it possible they won’t see eachother sexually because they ‘feel’ like they’re siblings and it’s gross? Certainly. Just as it’s possible that one or both of them are not sexually interested in men. Until proven otherwise, the only canon romantic/sexual attraction we see thus far is Lance towards female aliens. Everyone else could still potentially be straight or queer. 

On the other hand, if they DID grow up together, then a few things don’t add up in their current relationship. 

If they grew up together, then WHY didn’t Shiro know that Keith had a knife? That connected to his past and his Galra heritage? That is implied to have been given or left by his father, the human parent who could potentially also be related to Shiro? 

Keith says “I’ve had it all my life.” and Kolivan asks if it’s true. Shiro says he doesn’t know. Ergo, he CANNOT confirm that Keith’s had it all his life because- well, a)he’s never seen it. b)he was NOT with keith ALL of Keith’s life. 

He would have been living in the same house. They presumably had a close relationship which is the basis of their current close relationship, so he would’ve at least figured out that Keith was always hiding a knife-shaped thing somewhere in his room or person. He literally just wrapped up the blade, not even the handle. Shiro also did not notice that Keith suddenly was wearing this knife more or less openly on his belt. If he knew a time when Keith didn’t have it that stretched back as far as childhood, he would’ve been able to answer Kolivan or been able to give a time frame instead of just total nothingness. 

Him not knowing makes it hard to believe that he grew up with Keith. 

The other thing that suggests they didn’t grow up together?

“That really stayed with you, didn’t it?”

“You’ve given me some good advice. If it wasn’t for you, my life would have been a lot different.”

You changed my life usually means that there was a point BEFORE ‘you’ came into the aforementioned life. And that you were cognisant enough to realise there was a ‘before Shiro’ and ‘after Shiro’, so probably around gradeschool at earliest. Taking prior points into account, though, I’m inclined to think they met at the Garrison.

If they grew up together, we know Keith is an orphan, it’s in his official bio- that means if Shiro is his only remaining family, Shiro would probably have had some hand in raising Keith. But here’s Keith, thanking him for good advice which changed his life, not for taking care of him personally. 

Third reason why they didn’t grow up together or are not known to be blood related or even adoptive brothers? Lance. 

That’s Shiro, pilot of the Kerberos mission- that guy’s my hero!

"What are they doing? That guy’s a legend, they don’t even want to listen to him?”

Shiro is Lance’s hero. Shiro is well known, a legend. He knows at least the basic info about him. He also knows Keith personally. presumably sees his name in the leaderboards and knows his surname, if it’s Shirogane or not. But not once does he nor anyone else mention Shiro’s relationship to Keith as family. 

When Keith shows up to rescue Shiro, he doesn’t think “oh his brother’s come to get him”, he thinks “Keith, my rival, is one-upping me again and with my hero!”. He then interrupts with:

Nope. no. Nonono No you don’t. I’m saving Shiro.

 Family is important to Lance- he misses them. He cries about it. I don’t think he’d be callous enough to deny Keith the chance to save his family, even if he is his rival. 

It’s been mentioned before but nobody else mentions Shiro and Keith’s familial relationship at all, even though a lot of season 1 was about family. Pidge looking for her family. Lance missing his family. Allura saying goodbye to her father, her only family. Hunk telling Lance and Keith they’re all brothers. 

But nobody mentions Shiro and Keith are family. It’d be odd to omit that if they were. 

Even apart from LIKE my brother, Keith never acts like Shiro is his blood brother either.

If Shiro were his blood brother, he would include Shiro in the search for his mom/answers. Even something as casual as “hey do you remember mom” or “did dad ever say anything about my mom”? would have established that. But no, instead, he decided to run a gauntlet to prove that he is worthy of getting an answer to his heritage. it’s not Shiro’s heritage and not Shiro’s answer- Keith is very clear about this. he says “I have to do this.” and “I have a lot on my mind.” Mind!Shiro says “then you’ve chosen to be alone.” This quest for knowledge is KEITH’s quest. Not Keith and Shiro’s as a family. Just Keith. 

When he DOES meet his mind!dad, another strange thing happens- his dad asks: “Don’t you want to catch up?” and Keith says “Of course I do.” No mention is made of Shiro being also there for this catch up. Just Keith. No mention of his dad on “where’s your big brother, Shiro?” Just Keith. 

Canonly speaking, all the little cues that would imply a blood or formal adoptive relationship are glaringly missing from the way Keith and Shiro treat or talk to eachother-- and how other people treat/talk to them.

Keith’s Dad Looks Like Shiro.. and that’s okay. 

For the reasons stated above, this is kinda a moot point- but just as an additional aside.

Shiro:

Keith’s Dad: 

The facial shape and brows are similar to Shiro. 

On the other hand, Keith’s dad also has sharp cheekbones (and stubble) and you can see his hairline is not the same as Shiro’s-- his hair parts differently, mind!dad has pointed sideburns to Shiro’s flat look.  The eyes are obviously different as they are Keith’s eyes, made smaller. 

Now look at Keith and Allura:

Guesss what. They share the same brows/brow thickness and the same jaw and nose. They even both have the little curly sideburns. The difference is the ears and altean markings and of course skin color. Even the eyes are kinda similar here, just Allura’s are bigger and a diff color. 

The point being made is that the resemblance MAY be a plot point, but it’s equally likely that it looks that way because of a combination of samejaw style (just like allura, keith and lance share the same face shape) and a stylistic decision to make him appear like an older Keith with a broader jaw. 

As an example look at teenaged Coran ((who also shares the same jaw, body type, and brow thickness as Keith):

And compare with Adult!Coran, whose pointed chin has now broadened a bit. 

So unless Lance, Keith, Allura, and Coran are all related to eachother, there’s no reason for Shiro and Keith’s dad to be related, either.

There’s nothing hard fact about similar appearances except that Shiro and Keith’s dad are both kinda hot in a Nathan Drake way. 

[eciled-moved]

If I may ask, are there any other fictional characters that might inspire/allude to your Riven and how you portray her?

   that’s actually a really good question and i thank you for asking ! as far as   inspiration goes, i’d say i draw from parts of Kratos from God of War; Riven -   like Kratos - pursues something thinking it would bring her what she wants.   She is proud to serve her country and believes what she does is right until   proven otherwise, then seeks their downfall by any means necessary.    I’d say she’s not as vengeful and angry ( have you seen Kratos shout at   everything lmao ) but enough talking to her and you can see her indignation   start to unfold.  

   all that said, i model Riven more off of mythology and real life than anything.   i use Sekhmet as a huge inspiration for the type of person she is. i’ve   also been inspired by @diaspoura, who was the first Riven i ever met   that made her so openly disabled/queer/nonbinary/plus size. it inspired   me to find my own voice for Riven and not do what i “thought” she should   present as. my inspiration for her current appearance is a combination    of things i see in myself ( being black & plus size ) and just generally   wanting people to feel seen through her because like…….people like   us exist. we can be heroes too ! and also have made our mistakes/   be rebellious/be confident. 

   EDIT: inspiration for her powers comes from Sakura/Tsunade because i base    the idea that she can manipulate her ki and release it on contact, hence giving   her absurd, superhuman strength. 

[iamshadow21]

Questions and Answers: a conversation about privilege, fandom, representation, and boundaries