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deathscastleofficielle · 5 months ago

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Death's Castle - Pride Headcanons

Since my beloved Jack did this with his versions of the PDP Amnesia characters, I definitely felt like I should join in! So this is basically going to be a masterpost of the characters' queer identities with some anecdotes on how and why I came to these conclusions.

(Note, the artist has since changed their handle to NoxAtraWendigo, which is... Unfortune, but I'm afraid I have to move on.)

One more thing, I am mainly listing specifics here. As far as I'm concerned the entire castle is some shade of queer, but unless I have a specific label for them I'm not putting it in the list. For example, some characters have displayed attraction to the same sex, but you may not see any specifications there because I simply haven't determined if they're also attracted to the opposite sex, or even in that case if they're bi or pan. This stuff's complicated, and I don't like putting things in boxes if it's not entirely necessary.

WARNING: There are spoilers for Death's Castle under the cut. It would have been too hard to talk about their identities without pointing to specific moments.

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The Big Five

You know funny story this was never meant to be their official title, but Zoe picked up on Lullaby calling the primary Bros "The Big Four" so I guess that's what I'm going with now.

Stephano - Bisexual

This one isn't really a surprise to anyone who's been reading my posts or the fic itself, but Stephano is very much a bisexual man. This one was just a bit of lifting from the videos, despite how much he insists he's straight and the anecdotes of dating women he undeniably displays attraction to the same sex. The way I personally write it is that he has an easier time flirting with and finding initial attraction to women, but falls a lot harder for men.

Jennifer - Biromantic Asexual

While normally I think of specifics as I go, Jennifer was a case where I actually knew from the start what I wanted her sexuality to be. When I began conceptualizing her story, I knew I wanted her to be asexual but not aromantic for a few reasons.

At the time and even still today, a lot of our aro and ace representation was synonymous with each other despite them being separate identities. So even for just a fanfic, I wanted to make characters that showed more of the nuance of asexuality and aromanticism.

I wanted to explore her love for Pewdie through the lens of asexuality. It seems a lot of allo people base their initial feelings off sexual attraction, so what does such an intense love entail if sexual attraction isn't involved?

Jennifer is fat and struggles with her weight, and I'm sorry to point this out but I feel like a lot of body positivity boils down to assuring people (mostly women) that they're still sexually attractive. But what if being seen that way is almost as repulsive as being "ugly?" I wanted to write her story to focus on body positivity and beauty in a way removed from sex.

Honestly, Jennifer's story ended up being very personal. When I started Death's Castle I was under the impression I was simply a straight ally. By the time I got to her backstory though, I had realized I was asexual myself, but had struggled to realize it since my experience didn't conform to the usual stereotype. As such, there was a lot of catharsis writing Morning Glory, which is probably why her section is the longest here oops.

Mr. Chair - Grayromantic Homosexual

While Jennifer was thoroughly planned out, Mr. Chair's identity was kind've a happy accident. I sort of knew he was gay, but over time I realized that a lot of his writing lined up with an arospec experience. Mr. Chair is very unfamiliar with romantic love and what it feels like, and while he definitely feels something for Skully, it's never portrayed as particularly intense. As such, I came to the realization that he's definitely under the grayromantic umbrella. He experiences romantic feelings infrequently and perhaps not as strongly as others do.

Piggeh - Panromantic Asexual

Yeah, I made the character that did nothing but talk about sex ace. Deal with it. In seriousness, again, a lot of this was kinda just something that happened and honestly feels more on the lines of allegory than a straightforward example, but I think it's fine to make official. While Piggeh definitely enjoys sex, he isn't really sexually attracted to anybody. In fact, he finds most people (including himself) physically unappealing. Despite this, he does display romantic attraction, showing that appearance and gender don't really factor in for him when it comes to that. Again, ended up kinda cathartic in hindsight.

Mayo - Androsexual Agender (He/They)

This was a case where the character kinda just evolved as I wrote them, which you know what is fitting for a teenager growing and discovering their identity. He started as a boy, but as time went on I started to realize something wasn't cis about this kid. I played with a few ideas before I settled on him being agender. In-story, he first started to realize he may not be cis in Geode when Martin taught him that people can feel being a specific gender, inadvertently revealing that he didn't. This culminated in Peter's Gate where they realized that they felt uncomfortable being seen as a boy or a girl. For now he only uses he/him pronouns, but I'm hoping to start incorporating the they/them pronouns in future chapters.

I do see him being attracted exclusively to men or masc-leaning identities, hence androsexual. This has been established through him mentioning wanting a boyfriend in Binding Ties, and the implications that he had a bit of a crush on Stephano when he was a little kid. Unfortunately, not many romantic options since the other teenagers even remotely around their age in the castle are too old for them.

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Other Bros

Martin - Genderfluid (All Pronouns)

Development wise this is a long story that is almost too hard to recall if I'm honest, but I knew pretty early on I wanted Martin to be genderfluid if just to display some of the world building. As readers of the fic will know, Martin was born female but basically swapped bodies with Sammy Sue in order for her to live as a woman and for him to start over from his previous life as "Susanna." Martin now presents masc, but they still identify as both genders, or sometimes none at all.

Also, quick aside. I kinda like that I have a genderfluid character that's over 40. It feels like less binary identities like that are often limited to teen or 20-something characters. So she's a good first step for my future projects.

Torchy - Transgender (He/Him)

I've had two headcanon voices for Torchy, and both are trans men, so I was just like fuck it, let's make him trans. That sounds fun. There really wasn't much thought in this decision.

Skully - Intersex (He/Him)

I couldn't decide if he was cis or trans, so I decided on both and neither. To be a little more serious, there isn't a whole lot of deep reasoning for this, I just thought it would be cool to have at least one intersex person in the castle and Skully was standing right there.

Also him being intersex has nothing to do with his ability to mimic voices. That's just a thing he can do.

Pipé - Transgender (She/Her)

This is a long story involving me wanting to do this from the beginning, a now ex-friend using a weird excuse to talk me out of it, and then me having to cram it back in before it was too late, but yeah. Pipé is a trans woman!

Bluey - Lesbian

There was a time where I might have said she was bi but you know what no this girl is gay as hell. Definitely has a thing for Jennifer.

Lullaby and Lisa - Sapphic

"Scout why didn't you just say lesbians?" Because that doesn't really convey the whole story tbh. Lisa is definitely a lesbian, but Lullaby I actually see being specifically gynesexual, which is the attraction to femininity and doesn't necessarily have to be gender specific. Either way though they're in a sapphic relationship.

Save Kitty Cat - Bisexual

Is this mostly because of his blue and purple color palette? Yes. But I have always seen him as being attracted to both genders.

Jesus - Transgender (He/Him)

Honestly this was mainly a "because it's funny" decision. It was inspired by a scientific thing that basically meant that since the biblical Jesus was born from only Mary without any male dna in the equation he would have logically had to have been born female. Thus, trans Jesus.

Disclaimer, Death's Castle Jesus is not actually the Jesus. He just named himself that because he also thought it would be funny.

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Barrels

Red Chair, Gonzales, and Sammy Sue - Polyamorous

Sammy's getting her own section, but like Lisa and Lullaby it felt more efficient to put them together rather than doing three separate entries for the same relationship. But yeah, as many readers are aware, these three are in a polycule. Like many things, this was an idea I lifted from the now deleted fanfic Hyperthymesia. Their relationship has been one of my favorite things to write in Death's Castle, as their more stable and loving relationship provides an interesting contrast against the dysfunctional Bros, especially now that things have started to shift in both groups. Also it's interesting to write just how complicated such a relationship can get in a tumultuous setting like Death's Castle.

Sammy Sue - Transgender (She/Her)

And of course, another idea borrowed from Hyperthymesia, Sammy Sue is a trans woman. She was my first real experience writing a trans character, so she definitely has a strong place in my heart. As mentioned under Martin's section, she was born male but swapped objects with Martin and gained his female body.

Broom - Lesbian

Unfortunately I haven't been able to show this off much, but I definitely see Broom as a lesbian. I intended for her to have a little something something with Jennifer in Morning Glory, but I was told they had more of a sisters vibe, so I decided not to push it there. I have plans to establish her identity though, don't worry.

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The Filthy Pig + Bro

(because there were no other unaligned characters left lol)

Bunny - Aroace

This is a bit on the subtler side in my writing, but Bunny was always meant to be aroace. She never shows any interest in having a romantic relationship and only seems interested in sex for the purpose of reproduction, given that she had kits before being revived in the castle. I thought it would make her a fun contrast compared to all the rampantly horny swines she lives with.

Berta - Pansexual

Again, haven't been able to display this much given her only shown attraction is to Piggeh, but girl's pan. Gender doesn't matter to her, just that special something that apparently Piggeh had.

Gandalf and Rudolph - Polyamorous

Gandalf and Rudolph are in an open relationship. They're committed to each other, but have other relations on the side. I want to figure out a way to actually confirm this in Death's Castle, but it's hard since the Filthy Pig group doesn't really show up that often and when they do the pig trio are often in the background.

Adolf - Aromantic Bisexual

Keeping it simple over here. Adolf ain't much for romantic stuff, but still enjoys a good time with any person.

Bro - Bisexual

Bruno here loves both men and women. He's slept with Piggeh in the past, and previously dated Sammy Sue, which ended... Pretty poorly. He's also shown an attraction to Martin, which actually seems to be returned if their interaction in Geode is any indication.

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Miscellaneous Thoughts

I don't see Bengt being picky about gender, but given he's more interested in cutting people up than fucking them he's probably never put a label on it himself.

I know the Barrel King is into men, but the dude has yet to physically appear so I kinda can't go into it.

During a conversation with Jack, specifically about Tom Hardy's "Paint That Lady" he suggested that Peter could also be Asexual. That would be fun, but I'm not sure about it since some of his dialogue in Morning Glory kinda suggests that he isn't.

Stephano isn't ace, but I have joked with my friends that making him ace would have been a mercy given his... Situation, regarding Janus. But no I want him to suffer.

I've considered that Pipé could be aromantic, but a lot of that also boils down to me not really having a strong ship for her, so I don't feel comfortable making her officially aro yet.

I might remove the colored text if people report issues with reading it.

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