#sense8 avatars

[isharaneith]

Whumptober 2023 – No. 26

“Sometimes I get so tired; I don’t even know myself.”

Seeing Double | Working To Exhaustion | “You look awful.”

Like, reblog or comment if you save, please.

[in-a-continuous-daydream]

I can't fathom the fact that some people watch a movie, show or read a book they like and they just go: "I liked it :)" and that's it....girl how?? Whenever I like a movie, tv show, book or musical I need to inhale that piece of media like it's air, I need to self insert myself in it and create an elaborate plot line for my character in it, then I listen to music that reminds me of the piece of media and think of it 24/7, while obsessively rewatching scenes and analyzing every bit of it till I notice details nobody has seen, finally, I try to convince people to watch it with me so that I can experience it for the first time through them. Then my obsession dies and I feel empty until the next one comes along..... and you're telling me people can enjoy something and just...go to sleep and not think of it again????

[leverage-ot3]

the found family trope is inherently queer and you can’t change my mind

[low-budget-korra]

I will sacrifice myself to save everyone// I will sacrifice anyone to save you

I wouldn't marry me either // i would marry you with paper rings

I would kill everyone for you // I would die for you

In the end we will all be judged by the courage of our hearts // I am brave enought to be with you

Together? // Always

i'd die for you // You did

[bengiyo]

I’ve just finished my rewatch of Go Ahead, a cdrama you will probably never watch because it’s het and mostly about family trauma. But it’s one of my all time favs and one of the best things about it is the strong found family theme—it’s essentially about three broken families and how they join together as one to support each other. It got me thinking about my fav found family narratives, and especially those that are explicitly queer, because there’s often added life or death stakes in those stories. What are your favorite found family stories in queer media?

This is an interesting question, and I think you qualified appropriately right away by bringing up the life or death stakes of this kind of narrative. I think I want to make a distinction between "finding your people" and "found family" because I think these things often get blurred in romance stories.

Favorite Queer Found Family Stories

For me, a good found family story has to be about the found family component of it. Romance can be a significant portion of the story, but the primary driving relationships need to be about the queers being each other's primary network. I think estrangement from your bio family is a critical component, because knowing you are all each other has is a big part of it.

POSE (2018-2021)

It's really impossible to establish what found family looks like without referring to a show about ballroom culture in NYC in the 90s. We were dying. We were being abandoned. The houses gave people a place to be and a sense of purpose. These kids called their leaders Mother for a reason. Every single queer character in this show was saved by another character in this show before going onto save another character in this show. No show has ever done it like POSE.

Despite their fighting and bickering, Elektra saved Blanca. Blanca would go on to form her own house and provide shelter and support for multiple kids. There is a desperation to queer found family for me that makes it so important. Pray Tell's final choices still resonate with me to this day.

Queer as Folk (2000-2005)

We remember all of the fucking in this show, but this is another show where the queers are their primary support network. Their families aren't really there for them. Justin is kicked out of the house and lives with Debbie for a while, and is nursed by his community after being bashed. Michael and Ben adopt Hunter. Brian donates for Lindsey and Melanie. Debbie housed Brian in the past. Emmett's family disowned him, so his friends are all he's got. The community rallies constantly to protect each other.

Part of what makes this show so special as found family, like with POSE, is how often these folks piss each other off and get into huge fights. They fall out repeatedly in this show over fundamental disagreements that are not easily solved. Some of those fights are ugly in a way only people who know you best can hurt you.

The Fosters (2013-2018)

There's no way I'm not including my favorite TV lesbians of all time raising all them kids on this post. These two public servants found each other, made the difficult choices to be together, and keep expanding their family with more fosters and adoptees over time because there's always more love to go around. This show tackled how important it is to be able to call people family, and what it means for that to be a choice over an obligation. These two always found a way to make it work for their complex family and gave a budding queer the space to grow and be a brat of a teenager after saving him from having the shit beaten out of him for wearing a dress.

Sense8 (2015-2018)

From the directors of The Matrix (1999) and the creator of Babylon 5 (1993-1998), few shows are as queer as Sense8. Eight strangers suddenly become connected to each other and cannot turn it off. Half of them are queer in some way, and it's about their adaptation to each other and looking out for each other as they're literally being hunted. This is one of my favorite sci-fi concepts of all time, and I love the way their relationships outside of their cluster play into their dynamics.

She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat (2022- )

This is a recent favorite for this, particularly because of Season 2. In Season 1, we know that Nomoto puts a distance between herself and her family because of the pressure to become a wife. In season 2, we learn that Kasuga has severed ties with her family because of the expectation that she surrender her own life to take care of her family. When she tells Nomoto this, Nomoto gets angry on Kasuga's behalf and they decide to commit to living together. They are also building their community around them, and I better see everyone in their new apartment in season 3.

Gameboys 2 (2022)

So much of what's going wrong for Gav in this season is that he doesn't feel connected to the rest of his bio family after his grandmother passed, and he's desperately holding onto all of the friendships he has because he's so lonely. It's why he's still close with both of his exes (Pearl and Terrence), and why he won't let them go. Also, he's falling apart and Pearl is the one making sure his bills get paid on time.

The Shape of Water (2017)

Shout out to my man Doug Jones for always playing creatures that everyone is attracted to. The way this movie is so much about undesirables choosing to love each other and saving each other. Go watch it if you haven't. This film is not about a sexual awakening. It's about loving inside of a white capitalist structure.

Not Queer But Good

Shout outs for my faves. Some have queer characters in them, but aren't inherently or explicitly queer.

The Golden Girls (1985-1992)

No one did it like them. A bunch of aging women living together and making the most of their lives still resonates almost 40 years later.

Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008)

All of these kids are estranged from their families, and are building out something that works over the course of the show.

The Good Place (2016-2020)

I really love that this is a show about people who didn't get it together in life getting it together in the afterlife because they decided to work together, and then to care about each other. When you're literally being tortured by devils, you're all you've got.

What Doesn't Fit?

This is where things can get a little bit wiggly, but why I want to draw a line on this. I think that shows about queer friendship are important, but I also think that there's a difference between "we are all we've got" and "these people are the most important to me." So we end up with shows like the following.

Noah's Arc (2005-2006)

I often call this the Black answer to Queer as Folk, but I don't think it had time to fully-develop the found family themes in a way that QaF did with its much-longer runtime. Noah and his friends are super codependent and absolutely there for each other, but I don't think the absence of their families is explicitly attributed to their queerness but rather a byproduct of the focus on their gay life dynamics in LA. I love this show dearly, but there isn't a desperation to this that belies the family angst necessary for found family.

For The Boys (2021)

In many ways a spiritual successor to Noah's Arc, this show falls into the same place. The friend trio at the core of this is the most important relationship in their lives, but this show doesn't have the necessary found family angst.

What about QL?

For me, the biggest problem with doing found family in QL is that the primary genre is romance. These shows prioritize the way these relationships will turn romantic in a way that detracts from the found family component even when it's present. Also, because QL focuses so hard on coming of age plotlines, there's an element more of "finding your people" that supercedes any found family dynamics.

I Promised You the Moon (2021) is a good example of this. The primary drama of this show is about the romance between Teh and Oh-aew and the complications they face once they leave Phuket. Oh finds his people there and blossoms from it, but this is a story about how he and Teh can't get over each other.

As much as I love What Did You Eat Yesterday? (2019- ), the only real component of that is in Wataru's character. Kenji gets along with his mom and sisters, and Shiro is working on repairing the relationship with his family the entire time.

With Thai BL especially, I feel like they're big on friend groups, but not as big on found family. New Siwaj loves big friend groups that love each other, evinced by Love Sick (2014-2015), Make It Right (2016-2017), Until We Meet Again (2019), EN of Love (202), My Only 12% (2022), etc. He's done some great work in the space with queer friends, but not really queer found family.

Cheewin, a former collaborator of New's, also loves friend groups that have each other's backs. Probably his best example of that is Secret Crush On You (2022) with that friend quartet. The closest I think he came to found family was Uea in Bed Friend.

Another example that comes close is the unit that forms on their road trip in The End of the World With You (2023). I often think about this group of queers and the kid they adopted screaming to the heavens that they want to live.

Something I love, but which doesn't count for me is Our Dining Table (2023). There are powerful family dynamics here, but like in WDYEY they're adding Yutaka to their family and Yutaka reconciles with his adoptive family. I don't generally think that adding a romantic partner to your family counts as found family. Besides, Yutaka has a stable job and housing.

Final Thoughts

For me, the stakes are pretty high with queer found family, and it really needs to have a queer basis for me to feel strongly about it. Going back to their bio family is not an option, and often times the terms we use for traditional relationships don't always fit properly (yet another reason why Unknown got so much right). I don't think it's queer found family when they're students in college whose families just aren't around because they're paying for their kids to go to school. Finding your queer community as an adult is a huge part of growing up, but a queer found family is there for the really ugly and desperate parts of existence that your friends might not see.

[ohdaylight]

Max Riemelt - 400x640 avatars rpg

[nik2blog]

Dear @netflix,

Maybe... just hear me out... instead of canceling great shows that we actually enjoy watching (Shadow and Bone, The Order, Sense8, Santa Clarita Diet, Daybreak, Spinning Out, AJ and the Queen, Altered Carbon, Jupiter's Legacy, Cowboy Bepop, Raising Dion, The Imperfects - to name a FEW)

...just stop churning shows that get bad ratings (The Goop Lab, stuff like Devil in Ohio, Hype House and Too Hot to Handle and The I-Land especially.)

Just stop trading well-written and produced shows for boring and overworked bullshit.

Sincerely,

Just some girl who hates mediocrity

PS. We riot if anything bad happens to Avatar: The Last Airbender.....

[aletterinthenameofsanity]

that problem when you as a fic writer get into a tv show and you can already tell that you won't be writing fic about it bc it just doesn't have the cracks for your brain to force itself into yet you know you're going to want to binge it anyway because ReasonsTM so basically your brain is calling an effective hiatus for the next however-long-it-takes-to-watch-this-damn-show-and-consume-relevant-fanfic-for-at-least-a-few-weeks

[dasenergi]

Ten Shows To Get To Know Me

1. Twin Peaks

2. The OA

3. Sense8

4. The Leftovers

5. Legion

6. Devs

7. Mr. Robot

8. Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005)

9. Battlestar Galactica (2004)

10. In Search of… (1977)

[raidergamerspice]

I recently binged all of Sense8, but even before I finished it, I'd already thought that every other media should have at least one Sense8 AU fanfic.

I mean, the idea of multiple people all over the world being psychically linked with one another as a sensate cluster, being able to visit each other and share knowledge and skills whenever it's needed? It's so fucking brilliant! Not to mention, all the queer themes, stories, and characters... It's all so beautiful 😭

I actually first got interested in this show through a Final Fantasy 16 fanfic that retells the story of FF16 so that all the Dominants (minus Joshua) are a sensate cluster. That in itself was interesting, but then I checked out the actual show, and I was hooked.

I even checked out the wiki just to look at the rules for clusters, and they seemed fairly simple: clusters can be as small as two people and as large as twelve people. And family members can be part of the same cluster, so Joshua could have also been part of the cluster in that FF16 fanfic, but the author's main reason for leaving him out was so that he and Clive wouldn't be able to...well...sense each other when things...got steamy...did I mention that there were a few times where the cluster in Sense8 all got together to...have some adult fun? Yeah, it's a very adult show, and the author of that fic was understandably valid for not making Clive and Joshua part of the same cluster.

But I feel like, for Sense8 style AUs, not everything has to be sexual among a cluster, ya know? 🤷‍♀️

Anyway, with these rules in mind, I feel like other fanfic writers could have a field day with this concept. I already first thought of a Sense8 style AU for Twiyor in Spy x Family because the idea of Loid and Yor being psychically connected is so juicy. Personally, I feel like this would nudge them closer to romantic territory compared to what's currently happening in canon lmao. Plus, just imagine when Yor gets shot in the butt, Loid feels it too 😳

Then I thought of a Sense8 AU for Avatar: The Last Airbender, though I wasn't the only one, where each Avatar would be bonded to multiple people in a cluster (the number of cluster members would vary with each Avatar); therefore, just like there is only one Avatar each lifetime, there can only be one cluster each lifetime.

And then...I thought of a Sense8 style AU for Dissidia: Final Fantasy. Imagine all sixteen Final Fantasy heroes (yes, I'm including Clive because why wouldn't I?) being a giant cluster despite all being in different realms! Wouldn't that be something? It'd be chaotic, that's for sure 😂

Finally - for now, at least - I figured a Sense8 AU could also work for the Heart Hotel in Kingdom Hearts. Just imagine Sora being connected to the rest of the Heart Hotel like sensates?

Phew, another long post where I ramble lol. What do you guys think of these ideas? I could probably write fics for this myself...but I have constantly wavering confidence and focus on fanfic writing, which is why I try to inspire ideas for other, better writers 💀

Also, here's a link to that fanfic I mentioned. It's currently still going, but it's very good so far: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48588124/chapters/122560603

[cobalt-knave]

Fanvid Rec List #1

Ah, fanvids, my most beloved and underappreciated medium. Fanvids are video edits often done to music (though not all fanvids are music videos). They take an absurdly long time to make. If you check out any of the vids on this list, be sure to comment to give some appreciation to these great vidders!

General warning that fanvids often include flashing lights in their transitions, so take caution if that is an issue for you.

Fresh Blood: Vamp Willow & Tara by brunerousse 

Fandom: Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Song or concept: Constructed reality in which vampire Willow sires vampire Tara.

Rec: This is THE constructed reality to me. It really opened my eyes to that as an option. It’s got evil gay vampires and some great visual parallels using footage from a couple shows other than Buffy to create the AU!

Sibling Rivalry by brihana25 ( @brihana25 )

Fandom:Stargate SG1 

Song or concept: “Oh No!” from Veggie Tales, humor

Rec: This is a seminal work to me. It’s one of if not the first fanvid I ever saw. I loved it when I first saw it, was one of the things I always thought of regarding fanvids, and now I make my own vids and hold this one partially responsible for that. It’s hilarious and delightful. I was just rewatching it with a big goofy grin on my face. I finally started watching SG-1 recently (I saw this vid like a decade ago the first time), and I’ve consistently referred to the sarcophagi as “scrabble tables”. I also get absurdly excited when I spot a clip in the show that was used in this vid.

Will Scarlet | F*cking Awesome ♛ by Maria M.

Fandom: Once Upon A Time In Wonderland

Song or concept: “Fucking Awesome/Thrift Shop”, humor 

Rec: This is a fun vid and the thing that got me to watch Once in Wonderland, which is now one of my favorite shows. 

[AVATAR] Katara // River by Force Captain Tilly

Fandom: Avatar the Last Airbender

Song or concept: “Like A River”

Rec: A brilliant character study of Katara, her ferocity and kindness and passion. The transitions in the vid are excellent as one scene’s bending flows into the next fluidly.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell || I'm Dark Matter by KnittinGirl

Fandom: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Song or concept: “I’m Dark Matter”

Rec: This vid is grand, magnificent, and cascading. The use of short cuts and beautiful visuals creates a sweeping sense of grandness and magic in an uncontrolled storm. Beautiful video.

Buffy and Faith (BTVS) - We Must Be Killers - HD Version  by JESS9191

Fandom: Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Song or concept: “We Must Be Killers”

Rec: This video is a brilliant study of Buffy and Faith’s relationship and parallels. “You kill me? You become me.” A stunning video in its visuals with a smattering of dialogue from the show punctuating its every point. The clips are well cut to perfect move from one to the other.

Angel the Series | Rescue Me by 1SnoWhiteQueen1

Fandom: Angel The Series

Song or concept: “Rescue Me”

Rec: Now there’s a vid that will make me want to laugh and cry. A focus on the relationship between the early Angel Investigations crew; Angel, Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn. It so perfectly demonstrates how much this team loved and cared for each other and how their relationship still fell apart as time went on and circumstances and hurt came between them. This covers the whole team, but I associate the song/vid most strongly with Wesley and Gunn. It’s a song I think of when I think of them.

Buffyverse but it's a heist movie by SlayerVid

Fandom: Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel The Series

Song or concept: “A Good Song Never Dies”, humor, heist, constructed reality

Rec:This is exactly what it says on the tin, and it’s GLORIOUS. Grab your balaclava and your climbing gear and get ready to crawl through the vents because it’s heist time, baby! Absolutely excellent and perfect and hilarious.

Rockstar - a Buffy video by Jasmin

Fandom: Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Song or concept: “Rockstar”, humor

Rec: An absolutely hilarious video; I couldn’t stop giggling the whole time I was rewatching this. It lines up video to lyrics in the most literal way possible. We all just wanna be big rock stars!

Addicted To You by AurumCalendula

Fandom: Synetic Theater’s Phantom of the Opera

Song or concept: “Toxic” by Anthony Willis

Rec: I was delighted to find a vid for Synetic’s Phantom. It uses the visuals well as they flow eerily together with the slow instrumental version of “Toxic”.

Way Down We Go || A Zuko tribute  by The Stranger Artist

Fandom: Avatar the Last Airbender

Song or concept: “Way Down We Go”

Rec: An excellent character study for Zuko. The clips sync up beautifully with the beats of the song. The video is full of movement, and the transitions are quite good.

Whedonverse Women - So What  by Stefanie (valamd)

Fandom: Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel The Series, Dollhouse, Firefly

Song or concept: “So What”

Rec: A vid full of movement and quick transitions and ladies (+Clyde) being badasses. What is not to love? 

Believer - Sense8 by absolute_maximus

Fandom: Sense8

Song or concept: “Believer”

Rec: Man, rewatching this made me want to rewatch Sense8. An epic video with every clip fitting perfectly with the beat. I think of this vid every time I hear this song. This perfectly captures the show.

Come Together by Rosemarycat5

Fandom: Good Omens (season 1)

Song or concept: “Come Together” by Gary Clark Jr.

Rec: Fuck it, this is one of my own fanvids. Sue me. This is the fanvid I made that I am currently most proud of. It was so fun to make.

-

If you have any fanvid recs or want to share your own, reblog this and add or make a new post and tag me so I can watch them!

[be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie]

We talked about Norm and Trudy and Norm and Tsu'tey, but we didn't talk about Trudy and Tsu'tey, or those three together.

Cause Trudy have this personality that I CAN FEEL it attracts Tsu'tey, kinda reminding him Sly, but Norm have this other personality.

If Trudy had every brave trait that Sly could have there is Norm that have any other trait about her.

And there is Tsu'tey that is like conflicted about this: "she is so...but also he is...aaa im conflicted about two sky persons!...but those two"

And there is like Trudy and Norm that are: this is funny, he is ours now.

Oh my god, I do love fixing a love triangle with polyamory. It's my favorite thing except when it's in Sense8 and it ruined my life, @ Lana Wachowski we will be having words.

The thing about it is they all have these connections that one of the others can't ever really understand.

One of the things I adore about Norm and Tsu'tey as a concept is neither of them is each other's first love. They both had their epic love story, their perfect person. They had their fairytale. And now they are both a little older, a little more jaded, and a little more broken and aimless. They also were both in a heterosexual relationship before. It's so far from a replacement of what they lost, it's learning to be a new person in the wake of the old and finding the perfect person for the new ones they've become.

Letting Trudy live does take that dynamic away, which I will miss a ton. I think Tsu'tey needs it. However, it brings a lot more into the fold. Both Trudy and Tsu'tey are warriors; fighters, leaders, and providers. Norm does not relate to this part of him, he is set apart. Both Trudy and Norm are humans, there are things from their past and from their worlds that Tsu'tey can never understand. Trudy doesn't have an avatar, and she can't ever experience Pandora the way Norm and Tsu'tey can. I'm sure there are more. In these little ways, having all of them fills in those gaps.

[polls4you]

Favorite Bisexual Character! (Second Round)

[lovelythethingsbrainrot]

In no particular order...

Renee Minkowski - Wolf 359 (Podcast)

Katara - Avatar: The Last Airbender

Alex Benedetto - Gangsta

Sun Bak - Sense8

Max - Black Sails

Mabel Pines - Gravity Falls

Blue Sargent - The Raven Cycle

Riza Hawkeye - Fullmetal Alchemist

Hazel - Bottoms

Wu Zetian - Iron Widow

Honorable Mentions: Aubrey Wood and Bryony Halbech from Red Valley (Podcast). I love you, you evil geniuses. Also, all the female MCs from Sense8 (Including Nomi Marks (Trans women are women)). Maka Alburn from Soul Eater will always be my original good girl who doesn't care she's a good girl. Rock on, rule followers! Miranda Barlow from Black Sails, how you sometimes consume my thoughts. You deserved to be angry.

Some of these characters are actual soldiers, some are prostitutes, and others are just kids in a story. None of these fandoms would be the same without them.

Name ten female characters you like, you get zapped if it's jsut a male character you call a babygirl or other feminine nicknames because I can't see people calling Lestat coquette again

[bengiyo]

Rules: list 10 of your comfort shows and then tag 10 people

Tagged by @lurkingshan. This is actually kind of a funny question because we've been busy in BL for so long that I actually haven't been able to go back and comfort watch much.

What Did You Eat Yesterday? I am always thinking about a rewatch of this show. Whenever I need to calm my brain and go to sleep I put on one of the episodes.

Star Trek. Usually either Deep Space Nine or The Original Series. I've always loved Star Trek. I will continue to love Star Trek.

Babylon 5. We wouldn't have Star Trek: Deep Space Nine or Sense8 without this show. It's a favorite.

Is it Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? I like adventuring party and dungeon crawling anime that aren't isekai. I compromise on harem anime.

Elementary. Yes, it's copaganda, but the relationships in this show are really well done. This is my favorite adaptation of Sherlock Holmes and Watson.

Midnight Diner. No one does late-night programming like Japan. This show is a fantastic slice-of-life experience about the patrons at a restaurant only open late at night.

Haikyuu!! I love this little volleyball anime.

Yu Yu Hakusho. Smile Bomb gets me going every time.

The Fosters. I still love Stef and Lena so much. I do not miss the Brallie nonsense.

Avatar: The Last Airbender. Really one of the biggest moments in my media life, honestly. I return to this show every other year it feels like.

Let's see about tagging @shortpplfedup, @ginnymoonbeam, @littleragondin, @callipigio, @twig-tea, @so-much-yet-to-learn, @dontgofarfromme, @negrowhat, @fluidsoul31, and @jjsanguine

[ohdaylight]

Tina Desai - 400x640 avatars rpg