#she's got a mane bc she's trans

[aethersea]

Hello! I am really enjoying your Thistle the Show analysis posts, there are some really interesting ideas in that show! (and also from a goncharov-ing a story perspective they are so much fun to read)

eyy I'm so glad! I love that show, I love the heavy atmosphere and the overwrought symbolism and the 'power of the land' magic that's never fully explained and the tragedy of it all, god this show is so good at tragedy for something that does technically earn a happy ending. if KILLING OFF YOUR EPONYMOUS PROTAGONIST can count as a happy ending, god, I never recovered, even if he did come back to life afterward that still just MURDERED me.

it's so thematically satisfying is the thing T.T he dies and I'm just sitting there like....the themes......we're breaking the cycles of trauma and vengeance.......

[dumbasswhatever]

Imagining an episode of mlp where twilight hears the word "transgender" and asks what it means and rarity gives her a rather formal fanciful explanation and twilight acts like she understands it but she's actually confused as hell. And so she runs off and begins researching it on her own while the rest of the mane six carries on with their gender shenanigans. Pinkie asks rarity if being transgender is similar to having a food allergy, and rarity is baffled and says no, and pinkie says that's very good bc her friend has a sprinkle allergy and pinkie just can't IMAGINE not being able to eat sprinkles!!! And pinkies trans so she wanted to know if she had to avoid sprinkles or not. Rainbows like "whoa hold on, you're transgender?" and pinkies like "sure am! Sure as rain! Sure as snow, and hail, and sleet, and sure as my pinkie sense! That's how I learned" and rainbows still just a bit confused but rarity sends her a glare so that she shuts up and doesn't say anything insensitive, then tells pinkie herself that she is very happy pinkie told them and they will do anything they can to make her comfortable. Fluttershy quietly tells them that she's trans, too, and pinkie gets sooooo excited that fluttershy came out to them and decides to throw a party to celebrate it. So then the A plot of the episode is pinkie and fluttershy planning the party together, with pinkie occasionally offering to invite more people than fluttershy is comfortable with and fluttershy learning to speak up for her boundaries.

And then the B plot is rainbow dash asking rarity about how gender works. "Wait, so there's no such thing as a girl? Is that what you're saying?" "No, rainbow. What I'm saying is that there is no meaningful way to distinguish a girl from a non-girl. In fact, someone can be both a girl and not a girl at once, or their gender can change over time. I myself used to identify as bigender once, as it was all the rage in canterlot after princess Luna came out, but I have since grown to realize that the label 'lesbian' fits my gender better." " Uh, you're gonna need to run all that by me one more time"

Rarity and rainbows whole talk takes place while rarity is trying to choose the perfect outfit for the party and rainbow is just following her around with questions

Then it's time for the party, and rainbow asks fluttershy "so um... You're transgender. So that means you're a boy now?" and twilight, who has only just now run out of the library after doing research, is like "oh nononono if fluttershy is a trans boy then that means she. He. They were a boy all along! Well unless their gender fluctuated, which can happen" and pinkie, who has seen fluttershy already become upset a few times that day, gasps and covers fluttershys ears, and rarity and twilight and rainbow dash begin arguing about gender. Until applejack comes in with the apple cider she brought for the party and sees everyone a bit upset and tells everyone to QUIET DOWN. She then walks around and asks fluttershy "fluttershy, how do you want us to talk about you? As a mare, right?" and fluttershy nods, so applejack asks the same thing of pinkie, who says "wellllllllllll it's a bit funner than that actually, you can call me a colt too! Double trouble" and applejacks like "well, there you go" and rainbow tries to ask a few more questions but applejacks like what's the problem it's easy enough to understand. I got it when big mac came out and I was just a filly. And twilight, finally a bit less anxious bc she thinks she understands a bit more, says that you don't need to understand everything about your friends so long as you can respect it. Applejack nods and says exactly "oh, an' while we're here, I should tell yall that I like to be called a 'he' and a 'they'", and everyone's like oh alright applejack, and rarity brings up that her gender is a lesbian, and pinkie is like "WOW this gender party just keeps getting bigger! Now we can all celebrate together" and fluttershy admits that she didn't really want a party thrown just for her, but if it's for everyone, then that sounds a lot more fun. And they all party together the end

[chubbening]

OH MY GOD OKAY HEY so me and a popular artist friend who shall not be named recently got into your fic Calories and Kink and IT IS SO HOT AND SUCH A HUGE INSPIRATION!!!! I literally started my own fic bc of it and I'm trying so hard to do my own things based on my own tastes and not lift too much inspiration xD

I just wanted to ask if any of your characters (Alexa, Reggie, or anyone else) has references? We may or may not be doing gay fanart for your adorable fat lesbian comfort fic.

Also I was stoked to find you're trans (us too)!!! Happy for you, also just learned you're a system!!! You both rock, keep up the good work, you got some real fans here :D

I think you just broke Ava's part of the brain lmao (she'll be fine) but thank you so so so much!! We've gotten so much lovely feedback on this story, and it means so much to us that what started as a kinky little side project has so engaged folks in our corner of the internet <3 Best of luck with your fic! One thing about writing is no one else is gonna do it like you, so even if you take inspiration, it'll still be your own.

It's funny you ask about references, because we've been thinking about commissioning some art for a while, just haven't gotten around to it (*coughcough* $$$). So like, we don't have ref sheets or anything. But (speaking of lifting inspiration) Reggie was originally inspired by one of NekoCrispy's characters, Astrid. Specifically the energy of this piece sparked something. Obviously we made Reggie a maned wolf and very much our own character, but we still think of her shape as similar to Astrid's (while compensating for NekoCrispy's more stylized hips), but 6' tall and with bigger arms ;)

For Alexa, shape- and vibe-wise, we go to https://www.tumblr.com/littlestpigletann. She's been posting since she was a lot smaller, so it's handy to dig back (on various platforms) and get a sense of Alexa at various points in the story. Although, Alexa's probably a bit lankier than Ann, who if I remember is 5'1" (Alexa's 5'6").

Feel free to DM us with any questions (about this stuff or w/e), we love chatting with folks! Honestly feels surreal to have people calling themselves fans and talking about doing art of something we created, like… Obviously no pressure to follow through, but we'd love to see what y'all come up with!!

Woo, trans! Honestly if we had a do-over, the one thing we'd change is making one or both of the MCs trans. We were just at a weird place with our dysphoria when we started writing it, and by the time we got comfier with things, there wasn't enough support in the story to retcon that. That's probably why we started doing more with Ash, tbh.

Okay, last anecdote here, the system thing is so funny in relation to Calories & Kink, because we didn't know we were plural when we wrote most of it, but we 1000% wrote Alexa and Reggie as individual self-inserts. When one of our partners started reading it, she compared us (still unaware) to Reggie because I fronted more during sex, but Ava, the more frequent fronter at the time, was like, "What? No, I'm way more like Alexa."

Anyway, thank you so much for sharing this message <3 We'll be giddy all day now ^^

Promise we'll work on the last few chapters soon--we really do want to give this thing a proper ending.

Take care,

Seija

[thistletheshow]

May I request information about Firria?

Yes! Though the first bit of information is she’s had a name change since the start of all this, and also a species change – she’s not Firria the hedgehog anymore, she’s Elline the lioness! (She’s got a mane bc she’s trans.) 

And Elline gets visions.

Prophecy is the domain of the stars. Those holy acolytes who devote their whole lives to the sky might, if they are clever and clear-eyed and learn to bring stillness into their souls, learn to touch the gift of divination. But Elline is a child, who’s devoted herself to nothing. And yet she is sky-sighted. 

She’s had them as long as she can remember. They started as dreams, but for the past year or so they’ve been coming to her in waking moments too. It’s hard to say whether that’s happening because she’s been training for nearly three years now to induce visions on purpose, or if they would have started doing that anyway and the training is the only thing keeping her from slowly unraveling at the seams.

Visions aren’t an easy gift to carry. She sees the future, which means she sees possibilities, because nothing is set in stone until it has already come to pass. Sometimes she sees through the eyes of the one living that future, or through the eyes of many people facing the same future; sometimes she sees it all from above, like a ghost drifting over it all; sometimes she gets nothing but sounds, sensations, an emotion so deep and visceral it leaves her shaking. 

They often give her debilitating migraines. Sometimes they give her an odd strain of dysphoria, where she remembers being someone else so strongly that for a little while after, she feels unsettled in her own body. Usually this is only for the strongest visions, and only for a few minutes, but once or twice the sense of being someone else has stuck with her for days afterward. She has nightmares sometimes about losing track of who she is for good.

Elline met Thistle about three weeks after she first dreamed of him. He came to the abbey where Ell lived to help the nuns with something, Ell didn’t know the details and she didn’t really care. What she cares about is that he can take her away.

It’s a good abbey. A good place to live. The nuns are kind, the life isn’t too hard, the training in how to channel her visions is demanding but effective. There are very few other children, and none near her age, but Ell’s gotten used to the loneliness. There’s nothing wrong with this place. That’s not why she has to leave.

In two months, Sunfell will overrun the abbey, and the nuns will surrender at once rather than suffer the consequences of resistance. Sunfell will learn of Elline’s powers within the week and take her away to their capital, where she will be forced to aid in their conquests all the rest of her days.

She sneaks into Thistle’s room in the dead of night. He wakes at the scrape of the opening door. By the time she’s taken three soft steps inside, he has his hands around two weapons and is braced for any attack.

He is not braced at all for a child’s voice, only barely above a whisper, saying, “I’m Elline. I’ve been dreaming of you. I need you to steal me.”

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

i've decided kopa is a trans lady lion with a beautiful mane and vitani loves her very much

just to get it out of the way- how can lions be trans?

Well in the movies, very easily- they are a society with gendered social norms, re: Scar in Lion King 1 "It's the lioness's job to do the hunting..." and the fact that's it's always the great KINGS of the past, with Kiara in Lion King 2 the first time we hear of a Queen ruling the pride lands. If you want to dip into the Lion Guard (i don't, but) you've even got the idea of the King's brother guarding the pride lands as a tradition.

If a society assigns social roles based on things people (or talking lions) are born with and can't control, there will eventually be someone who doesn't vibe with that

i've gonna headcanon kopa as one of those. bc it's makes me feel !!! inside~

The start

"Just can't wait to be king, huh?"

-asked simba one day

"Nope! Queen or nothing."

-said cub kopa, running away forever, or at least until a badass lesbian saves her life and brings her home again

(there are no gendered social norms when you're a rouge wandering around on your own)

(there's a chance you might meet a terrifying lioness who pins your heart to the ground and smirks at it and thinks you're cute tho)

(maybe once upon a time when you were a cub running away from home you were found and chase by outlanders who wanted you DEAD-)

(you tried hiding Scar's old lair, but another cub was already there, skinny and with more of a mane tuft on their head than you had, not at all scared of the fire geysers or old bones- and they looked at you, scarred and bleeding and terrified, and they hesitated, and told you "Run" before turning away to join the other outlands, and you ran and ran and ran....)

the reunion

(Maybe you recognize her, years later, running from other rouges this time.)

(maybe her slightly deranged and very bloodthirsty grin scares off the rouges but leaves you staring and out of breath all over again)

kopa stays at the edges of the outlands

(vitani's little mane fascinates her. that's all it is, she tells herself, staring wistfully into the sunset as vitani walks away)

kopa fell first, vitani fell harder

vitani won't share her mom's plans-

kopa's not much of a fighter anyway, wouldn't be much help

the outlander's war has got nothing to do with the rouge it is NOT vitani wanting to keep her safe-

(she doesn't recognize the terrified ball of fur in the lion in font of her now, and kopa has so many new scars the ones from that day don't stand out)

but kopa has a nice big fluffy mane and that would look like a threat to kovu in zira's eyes

so she keeps kopa hidden from her murder mom, for SOME reason-

(vitani growing up surrounded either by power hungry lions- her mom, nuka- or ones preparing for power- kovu- or the ones desperately relying on this power grab plan to WORK- the rest of the outlanders and herself-)

(then one day she meets a rouge who doesn't care about that. about being in charge, or if anyone is, or anything but being herself, a lioness without a pride)

(even if it's stupid, even if it means living a hard and dangerous life)

(a lioness who's starving but likes being kind, is hurt and hunted and chased away and fine with that, not resentful, as long as she can be herself)

(and some part of vitani wakes up like)

Oh.

(so you can just... want things for yourself, huh? you can just BE yourself. you can just do things that you feel are right, even if it's stupid, even if your pride doesn't think so? Thats..... kinda badass)

vitani turning against her mother and her pride bc it's stupid and dangerous and it's who she wants to be

it's who Kopa makes her want to be

lion king two but meanwhile-

one day she comes to find kopa while all scratched up from fighting

(kopa is terrified. nuzzles her all over, checks every scrape)

(vitani pretends not to care)

but suddenly Kopa realizes- Vitani's talking about how Simba's still king BUT his daughter's waaaay better at ruling already and she can't wait for Kiara to actually be queen.

And. The hunting's better in the pride lands. More water.

It'd be more comfortable for Vitani to visit if Kopa lived there too-

and Kopa's heart leaps

bc if a lioness can rule the pride lands like one of the kings of the past, then maybe a lion can live in the pride lands like a lioness

maybe she can go home after all

....maybe she'll can find the nerve to try, with vitani pacing along besides her

going home...

it takes a while

But

"What've you got there, sis?" Kovu askes, staring at the whole entire lion Vitani brings home

"A girlfriend" says Vitani

"KOPA!!!" yells Nala and Simba, running over and dogpiling the all grown up cub they'd thought got eaten ages ago

vitani's lioness guard instantly adopting kopa and nearly mauling to death any rouge who tries challenging her

them all giggling whenever kopa gets distracted grooming/playing with Vitani's tiny mane tuft, until vitani leaps up and chases them off roaring and snarling while they laugh harder

a new old life

"princess" going from vitani's favorite way of insulting / teasing kopa-

"I'm a lioness, not a-"

"Well then you've gotta be a royal one too, princess. A normal lioness wouldn't think she's so special, wandering around on her own without her pride."

"...oh. okay" O///O

to a nickname, to actual real title

(oops kopa maybe forgot to mention that)

then finally to an endearment bc she's gay and kopa is p r e t t y

she tacks on a "my" sometimes when feeling extra sappy (and pretends its to tell Kopa apart from the OTHER princess, Kiara, but no one's buying) (especially not Kiara)

everyone freaking out at vitani "murder is my fav emotion" smiling SOFTLY while looking at her gf

kopa bonds with kovu over being maned lions who go off hunting and cub watching while their gfs do the ruling and guarding of the pride lands

"Listening to people talk is so BORING"

"I'm getting antsy just thinking about it"

"How do they not lose their minds, having everyone coming to them with questions and problems? I think I might eat half of them just to cut down the workload."

"I'd be tempted. Imagine not having time to go hunting"

"Blegh."

Hunting

nala having the time of her life out hunting with her son-in-law AND her miraculously still alive daughter who finally came home

"Mom...? Can I, come hunting with you and the lionesses?"

"Oh Kopa, of course you can. I'm so proud..."

"T-thanks mom."

"...Your father never learned, and your sister is worse. You've broken the family curse~"

"Uh. Thanks mom?"

"Hmm... Maybe I should try abandoning them in the wild for a season or too. Maybe that would work."

"M-mOM NO!"

"Kidding. For now."

(simba was lucky he only had to hunt grubs while growing up with his gay dads)

vitani very proud of her big buff beautiful gf <3

vitani also very worried and forever trying to teach her gf to fight bc kopa can hunt sure, aaaaaand that's about it

kovu feels her pain

(kiara's ok in a fight and GREAT at climbing- like her dad, like her gandfather- but hunting.... she's at the shallow end of the gene pool there - like her dad. like-i like to think- her grandpa)

tangent moment sorry

(PLEASE IMAGINE FOR A MOMENT the great a powerful mufasa trying to flirt with serabi by going hunting with her only to realize he's an absolute epic fail at it, being honestly flummoxed by this as he keeps trying again and again, not getting angry just more and more confused, and serabi looking at him being an idiot hunter like that one i want that one-)

anyway, nala gave up on teaching simba how to hunt ages ago (or fight) and is just glad he grew into a tank

(ohhh u say but simba fought nala- and lost- and he fought scar- thinner, who'd been lazing around on his butt for who knows how long AND almost got simba in the end anyway)

i will die on the hill that the only things simba's family is good at is climbing stuff and looking Hot

simaba and The Talk

simba proudly redoing kopa's presentation when she comes back so he can show the pride lands what a cool daughter his cub grew into

"You're not angry? About me, not wanting to be king and... running away..."

"Kopa, I thought I'd lost you. And I know something about running away, and not wanting to be king... but you don't have to be. I'm here. Kiara's here- and you belong here. Just... promise not to leave again?"

"I won't, dad. ...probably."

"Probably?"

"Well if Vitani ever asks to, I'd-"

"KIARA! Can you come here a moment, please!? I need you to have a talk with Vitani for me!"

vitani smirking @ her brother bc now she is also marrying a princess HA

speaking of princesses-

kiara vibrating with delight at having a SISTER

A SISTER!!!

kiara FURIOUS her sister can actually do the pouncing thing and catch stuff

revenge pounces kopa at every opportunity

yes even during the morning report

she never misses bc kopa always holds still for her little sis

(kopa is the first one kiara really opens up to about all her pain growing up under the weight of being future queen- Kiara is the first and only one who really UNDERSTANDS why kopa ran away)

(kopa's scared kiara will hate her, for leaving to carry all that instead)

(maybe kopa hates herself a little for it after meeting her little sister who she almost never got to know and who had to become so wise so fast)

"Thing's would've been easier for you if I'd stayed, huh?"

"No. I would have watched my big sister being miserable. That isn't easier."

"Dad might have been less... dad, though."

"Maybe. Orrr maybe we'd have run off together as cubs, just two sisters sprinting across the savana! Kiara and Kopa against the world!"

(kopa would die for kiara)

(short of that though, of COURSE she'll always hold still while her sister pounces on her oh-so-stealthily)

inspired, kovu tries this on HIS big sister!

bad idea

he spends the rest of the evening terrified and hiding on the top of pride rock while vitani hunts for him

someday big fluffy aunty kopa uses her mane to hide one or more cubs from their boring circle of life lessons and aunty vitani knows exactly what her wife's up to, but just smirks and pretends to be groggy and grumpy so she can snap at zazu when he comes poking his bill around

[rawcherrycake]

@theartofeverything OHHH BOY ALRIGHT I'LL RANT ABOUT MY SCHOOL

Alright, so in the country i live there's like a net of semi-private schools (Semi as in to enter a school you have to pass an infamous test of 40 questions and to guarantee a vacancy you have to get at least 25 right, which isn't all that easy bcs i studied for two months straight and got 26 LMAO)

But i got in! (Somehow!!) And my school is the second largest in the area so super cool even though i tend to get lost HSHSH

Firstly, they are super inclusive. Only reason i haven't told anyone i'm trans is because my mom threatened that if i did she'd get me out of that school but teachers have pins and stickers about inclusion (mostly LGBTQ+) and they have a mural with a pride flag!!! Which i'm very happy my mom missed when she visited!!!!! An old friend of mine that studied there for a year before me assured that if i told the teachers about my situation they'd be very careful to use the right pronouns when talking to my mom, but i'm still paranoid as hell so

Secondly, it's SO more organized than local public schools, we always have a teacher, they don't allow smoking in school grounds and the enviroment is simply better (they got a pond with geese and turtles AUGHH)

ALSO i'm a highschooler but they treat us like we were in university. We can come and go as we please, can stay until 10pm if we wished to, we can bring our own food and they got a MINI KITCHEN FOR THE STUDENTS with a fridge, and microwave, and sink, it's amazing!!!! Though this also means more responsability for us, but i'm all in for that.

On the first day they also have this weird tradition where they make every first year class watch a video of tap dance where the ocassional motivational word pops up and everybody just YELLS it, it's so funny because we didn't understand a thing of what was happening at first but just accepted it and joined the yelling HRJJAHD

They also have after-class clubs and courses, which in my country are very rare, though sadly i can't join any because of my schedule.

Anywho, i can't wait to make some new friends! I'm a very out-going and talkative person so i get along with pretty much everyone, but i haven't really made friends xD I tried talking to this girl from another class that had cool spiderverse pins but she never answered my messages sssoooooo... not gonna pressure her if she doesn't want to

OH ALSO they got an insta account made by students where if you see someone you're interested in (either platonically or romantically) you can anonymously send a pic and everyone teams up to figure out who it is 😭😭 wing-maning to the next level. My family jokes that one day i'll see a pic of myself there but i highly doubt it HSJSKA

Maybe these are all normal stuff for some people, but man for me it isn't.

I come originally from a third-world country where schools don't really have teachers or resources, and where i currently live conditions are MUCH better but a lot of public schools are very disorganised so i'm super hyped for this school jahfjsk

[nightly-ruse]

Draw my lad Crowfrost?? I’m so unnecessarily attached to this random cat hsjfbfn

Was going to wait to draw this lad but then I made a sketch for fun and had to draw it. Also looked into his appearances and Crowfrost is actually so interesting??? Def a new favorite

-He’s based off a piping crow! Also gave him three feathers for his kits. I never knew he was the parent of Juniperclaw, Sleekwhisker, and Strikestone but I love that a lot for him

-From what I gleaned from his wiki I see him as a very loving and caring father but anxious. He also does what’s right no matter who thinks it’s against the code. Very moral and wise, quite good with his words which is where he got his suffix from

-Hc him as a trans tom using he/him and unlabeled tho leaning towards mollies. Dawnpelt (his mate) is trans fem using she/they

-I think losing Juniperclaw and Sleekwhisker during the kin hurt him a lot and he grasped desperately onto his last kit, then Strikestone died in battle. While he is dead now I wished he could’ve lived longer and more focus was put on him. Him alive during the current arc would be so interesting bc of the political mess ASC is so far

(ID- Crowfrost is a rounder sleek but spiky furred cat. He’s sitting to the left with his head turned to the right and tail up. His paws are crossed and his round frosty blue eye looking towards the camera. He is a blue gray with a darker gray down his back, tail base, back paws, ears, and face in a diamond mask. White is on his mane, front paws, toes, nose in a triangle shape, chin, under his eye in a talon like shape, and in his ears in wing like fluff. He has a unsure, shaded expression. Three crow feathers are on his shorter tail for his kits. The fur on his head is swept back, a lot of spiky fur on his chin, spiky eyebrow, on his neck, belly, back of his legs, and on his back in a wing like marking. In the top right corner is the color sheet with his fur colors, eye color, nose, feather, lineart colors, and the opacity of the color that shades his eye. On his shoulder is the faint signature “Nightly Ruse”. End ID)

[oorevitcejda]

blank flank luz at the start

titan!luz taking belos down as a witchicorn and thanks to the titan, an alicorn

luz in the future, a few things leftover from her time merged with the titan

she has chin fuzz that witchicorns have and shes very proud to have in both worlds. the rest of her hs thought her relavation was that shes trans and started horse t but shes always knows shes trans

she also has extra elbow and wrist fuzz (and ankle/knee) that she loves playing with idley.

luz is just a bit longer/ taller of a pony ala fleur-de-lis

their tail is physically an inch longer as well.

permanent ring of yellow around the edge of her iris

chest fuzz and the feathered nape of the neck which is why she keeps her hair short to show off

purple/orange streak in mane and tail are new

lost the white band around her chest (it grew into her wings and was taken with the titan)

She also got her cutie mark when stringbean hatched so eda was sad to see it at first (cutie marks were belos' way of sigil control bc witchicorns dont have cutimarks but luz was excited and Eda felt a lot better when she met camila and seen hers. (also the fact that its personal to the pony helps eda overcome her knee-jerk reaction to seeing it on luz))

[c4nn1b4lc4n1n3]

the otherzzzzz!!!! 

these r the other selves of cain in whatever universe it’s in. they r not always copy pastes of cain n have their own super cool backstory so im gonna write them here lolz. 

Cain (ga’hoole)

Owl cain is a sooty owl and a trans dude who uses he/they/it. He colors his own feathers with plants, his base color is black with whiteish face n underbelly. He used to be in St aegolius, where he was raised as 18-3. They were captured when they were a chick but were forced to kill their parents when they tried to save him. He got saved by Soren and his gang when trying to save Eglantine. Cain helped kill the owls that tried to attack them while they saved Eglantine bc Soren saving his sister reminded him of his parents. Now he is in search and rescue and is one of the best fighter in Ga’hoole, but he has a dark penchant for sadism in fights due to his time at St Aegolius.

Tailslide (wings of fire)

Tailslide is nonbinary and uses they/them and sometimes neon/neons/neonself. They are a sky/night/rain hybrid. They used to be just a nightwing, but they got enchanted by Darkstalker to be an hybrid (he’s neons boyfriend). They lived in darkstalker’s time and got enchanted by darkstalker to be immortal. Darkstalker never got enchanted to sleep in neons timeline and darkstalker is king of the nightwings. They were born on a bloodmoon and can see how people die, but they can also spit venom and fire. They r really good at flying.

Gore (warrior cat)

He’s a tom and the son of scourge (he doesn’t know who his mother is). He was in bloodclan but after the battle he just leads a little group of loners in the city. He is in love with Longtail but he doesn’t want to become a clan cat. Longtail doesn’t know if he should be with him bc gore still is a bloodclan warrior and he wants longtail to join them in the city. 

Neon Boom

A pegasus!! Genderfluid, doesn’t care about pronouns. She’s a worker in the RAINBOW FACTORY and wants to kill rainbow dash to take her place as leader of the rainbow factory, but also kind of has a crush on her. She’s faster than anyone but rainbow dash. In her universe all the mane five are their evil creepypasta variant. She’s rly pretty and Rarity loves to make her kool emo clothes. She’s also friend with nightmare moon, the mane six works for nightmare moon to take over celestia.

MINORS DO NOT FOLLOW, tumblr is dumb so i can’t rly hide nsfw/gore content properly so my blog contains stuff that is not for minors. cringe is dead buy gold byeeeee

[donttouchtheneednoggle]

could you do #21 and Elyan and Leon please :D 💘💘💘

21. “Why are you always so reckless, huh? Do you ever think about what would happen if something happened to you?”

(Slight warning for referenced transphobia bc do you really think that Uther would not look at a trans person just minding their own business and not scream SORCERY. And of course that is not in any way Elyan’s fault. Camelot just sucks.)

“Elyan stop this!” Leon yells. Elyan glances behind him, face split into a wicked grin, and urges his horse on faster.

He nearly got away with it and he knows it. If Leon hadn’t been coming back from patrol along the road into Camelot he would’ve gotten out and back in without anyone noticing anything amiss. If he didn’t get into a stupid accident that is. And if someone didn’t notice something was amiss. But these aren’t things Elyan ever considers.

As it is Leon nearly didn’t notice him. Elyan is so good at acting like he belongs somewhere. One time when Gwen was away he got bored and decided to see what a feast was like so he went up to the palace and just started serving food with the servants and no one even questioned him. Another time he’d somehow got hold of a guard’s uniform because he wanted to climb up on the battlements without getting yelled at. Both incidents had ended in him being yelled at by some combination of Tom, Gwen and Leon.

This time, riding one of the royal horses in their decorative tack down the road out of Camelot in a tunic and jacket, he looked like any knight’s son out for a morning ride, so regal and confident yet casual enough that even Leon’s eyes slid right over him. It had taken him a full five minutes to realise what he’d seen and swing his horse back around, away from the rest of the patrol. By that time Elyan was already galloping up one of the grassy hills that surrounded Camelot.

At least he’s not stupid enough to ride his horse like this through the woods. Careless and reckless as Elyan is, he adores animals and would never risk her tripping and injuring herself, perhaps fatally. Leon just wishes he would show the same thoughtfulness towards himself.

He urges his steed forward; he’s quicker than the horse Elyan as riding and before long they draw neck and neck. He recognises the horse; one of the beautiful white mares mostly used for ceremonial purposes or for when one of the more nervous ladies of the palace wants a quiet ride.

Though at the moment the mare looks anything but quiet. Her very long mane is loosely braided back so it doesn’t bother her, her ears are forward as she gallops and her eyes lit with the same lunatic zeal that Elyan’s face is.

Leon manages to catch hold of the mare’s reins and pulls carefully, trying to get her to slow down. She does not think much of this however, pinning her ears back and shaking her head irritably. This makes her stumble and unseats Elyan, toppling him to the ground with a yell.

Leon manages to slow down his horse and the mare and calm her before dismounting and leading both horses over to Elyan who is laying on the ground, glaring at him.

“Are you hurt?” Leon demands roughly.

“What’d you do that for?” he yells back furiously.

“ARE YOU HURT!”

“NO!” he bellows back. This is how conversations with Elyan seem to go more and more nowadays. He’s gone from an adventurous, dreamy child to an impatient, irrational idiot as a teenager. It’s been a long time since Leon’s called his basically brother ‘trouble’ out of fondness.

With difficulty Leon gets his anger under control and pulls him none too gently to his feet. “Come on. I’m not even going to bother asking what the hell you thought you were doing.”

“She gets bored just being ridden round that little field every day!”

“Right, because that’s the biggest of your problems! Why don’t you just steal her while you’re at it! Oh wait, that’s what it already looks like! Well done genius!”

His face falls and he swallows hard at that. “I didn’t mean-“

Leon softens a little. “I know,” he says wearily. Elyan never means any harm. He also never thinks about the consequences of his own actions. “I can talk to Todd and keep this from reaching the king but he is definitely going to sack you, you know.”

Elyan folds his arms stubbornly across his chest. “Good! I didn’t want to be a stable boy in the first place, it’s boring!”

Right, like you didn’t want to be a blacksmith’s apprentice, or a girl, or live here at all apparently, Leon doesn’t say, not wanting to start that fight. Even animals can’t make you stay somewhere safe. He knows he can’t help it, knows it’s just how he is, but sometimes Elyan’s inability to just accept things as the way they are grates on him. But that’s just how he is; changing, restless, full of righteous, directionless idealism. Maybe if he lived in a less hopeless time it would be a good thing.

He takes hold of his arm. “I’m taking you back to your father.” Tom, and Gwen too, will be even more furious and worried than Leon is but Elyan will only pay attention to the anger.

He wrenches his arm from Leon’s grasp. “I’m not a child!”

“Then act like it!” he explodes. “Why are you always so reckless, huh? Do you ever think about what would happen if something happened to you?”

“Something would happen?” Elyan retorts cheekily. His grin dropped, the mischief in his voice replaced with dripping sarcasm. “Instead of, oh I don’t know? Nothing ever fucking happening? My life’s not like yours, Leon, I’m not a knight.”

“I should think not! They don’t need reckless fools! How many incidents before they arrest you hm? How many before you are dragged before the king and they pull up your records and find out? There’s no Elyan Smith listed there!”

At this Elyan visibly recoils and Leon feels bad about it but he needs to get through to him somehow. It’s not just him that will suffer if he is found out. “I would and will do everything I can to keep you safe. But you’re fifteen, you’re not a kid any more. You need to start taking some responsibility for you and your family, and not just doing the first fool thing that comes into your head just because you’re bored or too smart for the work you’re doing.”

But Elyan’s stopped listening. “Or I could just leave,” he says quietly, gazing off into the distance. His eyes are disquietingly bright.

The fear that shoots through him renders him temporarily dumb. “Ok now you’re being stupid.”

“Why not?” Elyan demands. “If all I’m going to be around here is a danger and a nuisance, why should I stay?”

Leon stares at him, his heart thudding in his ears. “That’s ridiculous,” he hears himself say.

Elyan looks at him distractedly. “Maybe.” He is suddenly unnervingly calm.

“Come on,” Leon says. ”We’re not talking about this. We’re going home.” He wraps an arm round his shoulders, worry softening his anger, and a horribly quiet Elyan allows himself to be led back home.

[bluebuckstallion]

the sun will rise again - mlp fic p2

part one contents: aj and big mac are like. 13 and 15. big mac realizes she is a trans woman, and is guided by applejack, but there is much more to it than just that lol. its also a little hard for her. sappy, feel-good, tough internal conflict but overall happy fic. paragraph one is previewed here, the rest is below the cut! disclaimer: there is no transphobia in this fic lmao im not gonna write abt horse transphobia. this is a feel good. but cw for fear of outing (note: i am aware my blog makes posts a little hard to read bc of a glitch, i am trying to fix it at the moment, i apologize D: i rec reading it on tumblr mobile or highlighting the words as you read, im sorry!) paragraph one: The wind whispered lovingly, cooling little Big Mac and Applejack's drowsy heads. A time like this in a young pony's life can be very confusing, something the two of them had grown to be very familiar with. Applejack rested his backside against the trunk of one of his family's old apple trees, if they had no where else to take solace, at least they had the orchard and each other's company, he thought. It felt nice, having this little secret kept safe by somepony you knew would protect it, and who still cared about you just the same. "If nopony accepts us, at least we have each other. I don't care if it's just you and me, Big Mac, we'll be jus' fine." Applejack stated in a soft voice, breaking the silence. He was accepting of his circumstances, no matter how they turned out. As long as him and his sister ended up okay. And again, he was sure they would. Big Mac smiled and folded her hooves neatly, "Eeyup."

-

Applejack worked his fluffy hooves through Big Mac's mane, doing his absolute best to make the fine ginger hair into a braid. He wanted to do something nice for his sister, something to celebrate her bravery and courage in realizing - and telling - Applejack, and he wanted her to feel nice in her own body, even if she couldn't change much right now, or for a while. No matter how small the act, Big Mac was especially grateful. Nobody had ever treated her like this, on purpose at least, like she was a mare. And every chance Applejack could sieze he would do just that, remind her that was what, *who* she was. "So, Big Mac, what do you reckon I call you now?" With that her eyes widened, and her brows furrowed, it caught her off guard. "Like...my name? I didn't know I could change my name..." she let out, slightly confused, a tender hoof raising to her chin as she thought hard. "Yeah!" AJ beamed, not straying from his tedious work. Big Mac, still lying down, started shuffling her hooves again. "Well... I always thought if I were a girl my name would be something pretty, which I mean, I am a girl and all, but I don't feel very pretty ever," she admitted disheartened. "You're plenty pretty! You're an Apple! You wouldn't say Ma or Granny wasn't pretty, would you?" Applejack pointed out, gesturing absentmindedly in the air with his hooves, then promptly returning back to his work, being sure to keep a steady hoof. "Well... Nope." Big Mac blurted awkwardly, pursing her lips. "But-" she began. "No 'but's'!" Applejack interjected, "You're an Apple, and a dang pretty one!" Applejack closed his eyes and lifted his head proudly, putting his non-dominant hoof against his puffed chest, "Look at me, I'm an Apple and I'd say I'm awful handsome, just like Pa!" he said with an endearing foal-like passion and certainty. He chuckled, his cheeks growing slightly cherry as he let out a tiny chuckle, and got back to his work, about a quarter way down the locks. Big Mac grinned slightly, "I suppose," and tapped her hooves together shyly, playing with the grass falling between them. "You know, I always did think my mane was a little long for a stallion," she laughed playfully, diverting from the subject and trying to reassure herself. She went to touch her mane, and was swiftly batted away by Applejack's quick hoof, "Nuh-uh Big Mac, I'm workin' here. Don't go touchin' it now," he said sternly but still non-maliciously. He just wanted it to look perfect for his big sister, he wanted her to be proud, and feel as pretty as she could. Applejack wanted to know how it felt to look pretty, too, but in the way he'd always dreamed of. He wondered often if he'd ever get the blessing of such a wonderful feeling. "Applejack, do you ever wish you were born a colt?" Big mac asked genuinely, still a little unsure of what Applejack was feeling, but knowing there was solidarity in it somewhere, she just had to understand it a little more. "Well - not really," Applejack spat out, his eyes looking away from his busy hooves, and quickly darting back to them before he drifted off in fantasy. He thought about it for a second, and still felt strange. "I wasn't really born a filly or a colt... or anything, I think, I was just born me. And I wouldn't really have it any other way. Sure, I mean, maybe I'd like shorter hair or somethin', or a uh," he struggled to find the words in his young foal vocabulary, "maybe if my nose was a little more colt-ish I'd be happy. But I think I'm pretty happy with me now. I do hope when I'm older my voice is a little better, though. I can't really do much though," he sighed dismissively. He continued, "I don't ever really feel too bad about who I am... I think I just feel happy about who I am. When I see myself as not a colt and not a filly, just a foal, a pony, it makes me real happy-like. But, I don't get too sad unless people are real serious about calling me a filly. I do get sad sometimes though, when I look too much like a filly to other people..." As Applejack placed an orchard blossom in Big Mac's hair, tucked snug and safe behind her ear, a thought went through Big Mac's head. "Applejack!" she jumped up, the rush of movement startling him, who was so concentrated seconds prior. "Let's give you a haircut! It'll be like how you braided my hair for me, we can cut yours!" Applejack nervously rubbed his elbow, then raising his hoof lightly beneath his muzzle, and he began to sweat. "Well, I, what if Ma and Pa don't like it?" Big Mac thought hard as Applejack grimaced, "Well, we can hide it with one of Pa's hats, an' I'm sure they won't mind," she suggested happily. Applejack considered briefly, just for a moment, the downsides of it all. He then immediately turned them all away and smiled so hard his eyes shut, stomping his front hooves against the ground up and down, "Okay, let's do it Big Mac!" As they galloped back to the barn, Applejack had suddenly realized he was so surprised with how much Big Mac had been talking, she never seemed so excited to talk about anything, and he realized how much this all meant to her. It meant a lot to him, too. Especially that his sister was so supportive while still knowing so little, but in her defense, he didn't know much either. It was a very special feeling, he thought to himself, very pleased. They skidded to a halt clumsily as they reached the doors to the barn. Foal-ishly peeking through the front windows, they realized it was only Granny and baby Bloom home, their parents must be out. They looked at each other, grinning, and cantered to the back, sneaking inside through the back door. When they made it to the bathroom, Applejack noted Big Mac looked a little worn out, wearing a tired look on her face. She figured all this chattiness probably made her sister a little exhausted. He shot a reassuring patended Sibling glance at her telling her all she needed to know, not needing words. Big Mac let out a gentle smile. She helped her little brother reach the cabinet above the sink, reaching the scissors that were so high up it took them both working together to reach. Applejack had a slight doubt in his mind, his parents probably didn't want him touching the scissors by himself, did they? But he had his big sister with him, and it had to be done! Nopony else would, and only they understood. Applejack balanced shakily with two hooves on Big Mac's back, warily reaching one back hoof up onto the sink, as he balanced with his two front hooves against the edge of the cabinet. He grasped the scissors between his teeth, and brashly jumped down, just barely missing a potential accident, even though they both knew better than to jump around with scissors, they threw caution to the wind regardless. Applejack happily put his front hooves on the rim of the sink, tapping them and bopping his little head, he looked at his big sister, who began working at his hair. Big Mac chopped with a great lack of care, playfully snipping one strand then the next. Applejack beamed the whole time, simply happy to have it happen, plan or not. Big Mac frequently spun around him, balancing on three hooves and sometimes getting in so close that she held his face with one hoof, his hair with another, and cut with the scissors firm in her mouth. Applejack's body relaxed completely and was kicking and rearing with every cut, wiggling and happily holding his front hooves together and constantly swishing his head from side to side to check how it looked, one side fell to his muzzle, and the other to his chin. He smiled bigger than ever before. With the final snip, Big Mac dropped the scissors carelessly to the tile below. She gently grasped Applejack's chin and turned her sibling's head forward to face the mirror, and his mouth immediately fell agape, his jaw slack, and his eyes slowly widening with the purest joy there ever was. He cupped his hooves to his mouth, removing them, turning his head to the side, and then fixing himself and putting his hooves to his open mouth once again. He felt a soft tug in his throat and his chest, and he couldn't control the watering in his eyes, "Big Mac!!" his voice cracked. "Yes Applejack?" the filly said apprehensively, fearing that she had done something wrong. "Oh Big Mac, oh my gosh I love it so so much!!" He bucked and whinnied, spinning in circles, his once-flowing tail too short to trip over now, and the euphoria of it all was the most overwhelming emotion little Applejack had ever felt. The tugging became so immense he couldn't ignore it, and he acknowledged it by leaping onto Big Mac with a hearty hug, squeezing her tight as his little arms could, and he rubbed his muzzle into her neck. Big Mac politely pushed her hoof between her neck and AJ's hoof, making sure he didn't squeeze too tight, struggling slightly to breathe. This foal was definitely a strong one. "Thank you so much big sis!!! I feel so great!!" he neighed, stepping back, one hoof raised wiping his immense wave of tears. The feeling of euphoria shot through his body in a rush, showing itself in the form of a tiny but powerful hop, as he lifted his legs into the air and threw them around. Applejack rushed back to the mirror, urging Big Mac to come look as well, as she didn't quite see herself yet with her hair "done all proper-like." Big Mac's face became pale, as she felt the rush of a thousand different emotions. The paranoia became astounding again, what if she didn't like how she looked as a filly? What if she still didn't feel right? What if it wasn't - Her thoughts were abruptly cut short by Applejack tugging her over, knowing her sister just sometimes needed a push in the right direction. "Lookie Big Mac!!" he placed his arm cheerfully around her, wrapping it over her back. Big Mac's eyes were glued shut, and she only bashfully peeked one eye open because curiosity would've ate her alive otherwise, and deep down she knew she had to see herself eventually. She uncovered her hoof from her eye, and opened both of them slowly. Her mouth opened ever so slightly, and she wasn't even aware she had stopped breathing, her eyes fluttered up and down the braided locks, along with her heart, and her eyes landed on the blossom in her ear. She couldn't speak, her throat clogged up from such elation. She felt the choking once again, but it wasn't like before, this feeling was quite welcoming actually. It rushed from her throat up to her head, and took her breath away. The sobbing ebbed at her cheeks right away, and she turned to look at her brother. As they spoke with lack of words, they stared with inordinate graditude. As Big Mac smoothly turned back to the mirror, Applejack stomped all his hooves again, one after the other with no apparent order or care, shaking his head in a frenzy as his ears twitched and he smiled a mile wide. He finally felt *pretty.* Big Mac watched herself adoringly, for the first time ever, and felt this acceptance and understanding of herself coursing through her veins with a confidence she'd never had. She blushed, and her ears fell downward, a small smile creeping onto her face. "Applejack," she whispered softly, as if she were too worried the world would hear her secrets. Applejack peered closer with wide, curious eyes, "Yeah Big Mac?" he whispered back. "My name.." she mumbled. Applejack raised his eyebrows, captivated, as Big Mac slowly lifted her hoof to the blossom behind her ear. "Blossom?" Applejack stated inquisitively, before Big Mac could shake her head AJ corrected himself, "Orchard Blossom!" he exlaimed, leaning back and jumping in the air, "Oh big sis, that's so pretty!! I love it so much!!" Orchard Blossom nervously gestured for him to keep it down, as he was prone to being unaware of his volume control. Applejack embarassedly covered his mouth with a shy smile, "Oops, sorry big sis." he cleared his throat, "Orchard Blossom!!" he yell-whispered, the excitement shining through him, he stamped his tiny hooves and clapped them together in celebration. "That's so pretty, Orchard Blossom!" Applejack told her earnestly, loving the new name. "I don't think I want a new name, but I'm really happy ya found one you like!" "Orchard Blossom, Orchard Blossom, Orchard Blossom!" Applejack repeated, playfully prancing in circles, excited by the sight of his short tail, he spun even faster. "What's all that commotion in there? Applejack? Big Mac? Are ya in there?" they heard through the shut door, hoofsteps gradually approaching, painstakingly slow but steady. Both of them felt their hearts drop from their chest as they froze, unable to even fathom moving. How would they explain any of this? Applejack hurried to clean up desperately, brushing the hair together with his hooves, coldly sweating from his brow as he frantically hurried to remove any evidence. He stopped mid-sweep to quickly shove his father's hat on his head, which slumped immediately and blocked his vision. "Oh dangit Blossom, Pa's hat's too big! I can't see!!" Orchard Blossom was still unmoving, sheer panic stopping her very breaths. Applejack felt the tugging in his throat rise up again as he began whimpering.

[gra-sonas]

I didn’t mean to be “silent”, this just took me much longer to write than I had planned. 

First of all, I’d like to point you in the direction of a very good post @adiwriting​ posted a couple of days ago, that sums things up in a very articulate way, you can find it HERE.

~*~

In short: in his most recent interview with the Pretty Little Wine Moms Podcast, Tyler - who’s playing a character who’s half Native American -  revealed, that he did a DNA test with a company called 23AndMe during the filming of season 1 of Roswell, New Mexico, and he test didn’t detect Native American ancestry, even though his grandmother had told him in 2010, that his paternal grandfather Harold's great grandmother was Cherokee Indian.

Below the cut is a transcript of that part of the interview, my opinion on this whole thing, and I answered a couple of asks I got about it. This is a VERY long post.

I’ve already watched the video of the interview, and it shows, that they edited the interview quite heavily. There are several cuts throughout the episode, and some things that can be heard in the audio version, didn’t make it into the video either. 

TRANSCRIPT [I didn’t transcribe every laugh or random words, but I’ve tried my best to make it as accurate as possible]

LESLEY: Did you audition for any of the other roles on PLL?

TYLER: No, Caleb came in halfway through season one. I remember, it was supposed to be a 4-episode stint, a guest starring role. What’s funny though, I lived right by Warner Brothers [studios], so I would drive […] past Warner Brothers and there was a bill board of Pretty Little Liars before it came out and I was like “I could probably be on a show like that.” So, anyway, I auditioned for Caleb, yeah. I never read for… […] No, I didn’t get the role at first because they were like “we really think he needs to be like really ethnic. We need some ethnic diversity. And I was like—

LESLEY: What are you? You’re like “hello”! Part Native American, i mean.

TYLER: Well, no, I’m actually not. I’m actually not, I found out.

HOLLY: Whaaaat? Yes, you are. We did talk about this.

NIA: I thought you were.

HOLLY: We talked about this on set.

TYLER: Do you know when I found out that I wasn’t is when I got Roswell, my character was also supposed to be Native American, half Native American. And I was like “great”, because the pool was like so small. You know, so this is great, you know. I’m shooting season one of the show and do a 23AndMe [DNA test] and I have literally not even 0.1 % Native American.

HOLLY: That can’t be possible.

NIA: No, no, no, no, let me explain how that works. That’s not right.

HOLLY: Nia has some things to tell you.

NIA: The information - I know these things, every nationality in me—

TYLER: Okay, tell me.

NIA: 23AndMe is pulling from— if you do 23AndMe and then you do… what’s the other one—

LESLEY: AncestryCOM

HOLLY: AncestryCOM

NIA: —they’ll come up different. And the reason they’ll come up different from each other is, they’re pulling from the people they already have in their database. So, if there’s not very many Native American people doing 23AndM—

HOLLY: Which there isn’t.

NIA: —it’s not gonna show up.

TYLER: Oh god.

NIA: Yeah.

[INFO: There’s a clear CUT at this point before the interview continues, they even cut Tyler’s “Oh god” you can hear in the audio from the video. So they must’ve talked about this some more before the official version of the interview continues.]

TYLER: Okay, so this is what happened, going back [to being cast as Caleb]. They said “thank you so much for the read” and I really thought I was gonna get it. Because Gayle Pillsbury [PLL casting director] - I’d never even read for her before - and I went in and auditioned, and her response was literally everything you want in an audition. She like lost her fucking mind and was like “where did you come from?”, you know, that sort of thing. I mean, I’m a TERRIBLE auditioner and I get so unbelievably nervous, so for that to be the response—

LESLEY: Wow.

TYLER: So that response… I was like “oh my gosh”. And you even audition and you’re like “I booked it. I booked it!”, you know what I mean? Even though it’s not up to her, you know, but anyway. Then they told me “thank you so much for the read, it was so good, but we want more ethnic diversity”. They came back to me, I don’t know, three weeks later? And they were like “What is your background?” And I was like “I don’t even know.” I called my dad, he tells me “I don’t even know.” He’s like “Call grandma.”. I call my grandma, she tells me her side and then… My dad’s dad passed away before I was born, I don’t know his side of the family at all. So my grandmother talks about his side of the family and says “You know—“ - it was Harold, Harold was my grandfather’s name - —“Harold’s great grandmother was Cherokee Indian. And I was like “Really?” I was like “This is good!”

WINE MOMS,  LAUGHING: “This is good!”

TYLER: So, then I told casting “I’m Native American.” And so they thought it was enough to cast me as, you know, ‘ethnically ambiguous’ or whatever.

[END TRANSCRIPT]

~*~

I’m not an expert on DNA tests. Nia’s comment that tests from different companies come back with different results bc they pull their data from different gene pools makes sense, but I can’t verify whether that's actually the case. Neither do I know whether her claim that 23AndMe pool lacks Native samples for reference is correct.

If it is, it would mean that 23AndMe DNA tests in general wouldn’t be able to detect Native ancestry in any sample. Maybe a test with a different company would come up with a different result, in any case, it would be a very small percentage, given how many generations are between Tyler and his Native ancestor.

The result of the test is only one piece of the puzzle tho, and not the relevant one.

The question isn’t whether the result indicates that what Tyler’s grandma told him is false. The question is, if one Native ancestor 5 generations back and no tribal affiliation of any kind entitle Tyler to play POC characters. 

The answer is a clear no, and yet he’s been cast as non-white characters (and in one case as an explicitly Native character) twice in his life.

That’s unfortunate at best, and ignorant at worst.

~*~

Tyler auditioned for PLL in 2010 when he was 23, turning 24 that year. Initially he didn’t get the role bc they wanted someone “ethnic”. They called him 3 weeks (!) after the initial rejection and asked about his background, and by talking to his grandma, he found out about this Native ancestor.

2010 was a mere decade ago, but it was also a different time. Discussions about diversity and representation on screen, the question whether it’s okay for male actors to play trans women or if shows should pass the Bechdel test were all topics that weren’t discussed as “aggressively (and I mean that in a very positive way, hammer it home that all these things matter!) as they are discussed today, and structures in the TV and movie industry ignored most of it anyway (still do way too often, lbr).

Looking back, it’s easy to condemn what happened as vigorously as we would condemn it if it happened today, but applying today’s standards to 2010 is still a bit unfair. (I’m not saying that what happened is okay, just that back then the level of awareness for it to be wrong wasn’t the same as it is today).

Sure enough ABC execs were all too happy to accept that minimal partial Native ancestry as “enough” to cast him, probably also because Tyler looked “ethnically ambiguous” to them, whatever that means. (Holly also mentioned that they talked about Tyler’s Native ancestry on the set of PLL, and apparently not a single person pointed out that maybe it was a questionable decision...).

Tyler was trying to get his career started back then, and an opportunity like PLL would be any young actor’s dream. When they told him “you’re ethnic enough, you’ve got the job”, he lacked the tools and the awareness to question their decision, neither did anyone ever question Tyler’s decision to accept the role. It was considered to be “okay” by all sides. Which is a systemic problem.

As far as I know, Caleb’s supposed “ethnically diverse” background was never explored on PLL, so they were just happy he looked “ethnic" but never gave a fuck about actual representation. Welcome to the club of most TV shows ever made. Even in 2020, too many shows and movies still try to pull that shit. The difference is, that nowadays they are called out, and people speak up. 

~*~

Fast forward to 2017 when Tyler got the script for Roswell. 7 years of him believing that this partial Native ancestry made him part Native, not half like Alex Manes, but it probably felt like it was “enough” - it had been enough for PLL after all.

He got cast because he’s a great actor, but also because he supposedly had the required ethnic background. This is also on the studio tbh. I assume he was asked about his background and he must’ve told them the same story (since he didn’t have a DNA test he could’ve shown them), and for The CW “one Cherokee Indian ancestor 5 generations back” was also “Native enough”...

~*~

It’s quite a bit of a mess tbh. Fans have been hit rather hard by this revelation, some are angry, some are disappointed, some feel uncomfortable, some probably don’t know whether how they feel is how they should feel after applying all our new-found 2020 ~wisdom and awareness to the situation.

Opinions on the matter differ. Vastly in some cases. Some people feel betrayed, some have “cancelled” Tyler, for others it’s not ideal but also not that big of a deal. It’s a mixed bag, really. 

As for me: 2010 Tyler gets a pass from me. It was a “different time” with different industry rules in place, and ABC’s higher ups, who should’ve known and done better, didn’t. Neither did anyone in casting, nor his management, colleagues, or anyone in his personal life. And he clearly lacked the experience and awareness to question the decision, or himself for accepting it because it never was questioned! Not even in the years following.

2017 Tyler only gets a partial pass. 2017 wasn’t 2020 and too many things were still not all that different from 2010. He’d been on a show for 7 years where this partial Native ancestry was “enough”. Hence he probably felt like auditioning for the role of Alex was okay, and everyone involved in the casting process thought so, too. 

He never pretended to be Native American to get the role, he never pulled a Scarlett Johansson. However... he probably should’ve questioned a bit harder whether a Native ancestor 5 generations back makes him “Native enough” to play a (half) Native character, or any kind of POC character for that matter.

So yeah, definitely putting some blame on him for the lack of awareness, but I’m also side-eying The CW and whoever was involved in the decision making. 

~*~

What I hope for and expect fromTyler now and in the future is, that he won’t ever allow to be cast as any kind of “ethnic” character ever again.

He’s worked hard and has very much earned the career he’s made. He’s an amazing actor, but the circumstances that gave him the opportunity to have that career are based on racist structures in the TV and movie industry, and he directly profited from a system, that cast him - for all we know a white man - as a man of color. Twice.

Imo Tyler’s well aware of these things now. 2020 in particular should’ve been a pretty good eye-opener. It’s good that he has someone like Jeanine to look up to and learn from (not her job to teach him or take him by the hand or anything, but I think she’s a great example of someone who’s already made a name of herself, and uses her influence to help others, and the way she talks about diversity and elevating marginalized voices is very powerful), and I hope that in the future he’ll use is voice and “weight” as an established actor, to elevate minority voices and push for their stories to be included.

Answered your question in part above already.

It’s important to note that there’s a difference between criticizing someone’s actions, and openly hating and/or dissing them. This is a messy situation, and while Tyler can’t change the past, he has to do better in the future. Saying that doesn’t make me (or anyone else) a hater. Tyler’s amazing, but he’s also not perfect. And he doesn’t have to be. No one’s perfect.

When I look back at my life, dear god, I grew up in a very liberal family, we travelled places, I had access to all the books and education, and still. At 23? I was somewhat anti-feminist and a slightly conservative leaning liberal. Not a bad person per se, but also quite ignorant (compared to today’s standards anyway). Thankfully that’s changed over the years. And it keeps changing. Because getting complacent and thinking “I know it all” is BS. I’m working on myself every day, and I’m still prone to fuck up occasionally bc the system is rigged in my favor, and I might not even be aware of it in that moment. 

I’m not cross with Tyler, because I can’t say for certain I hadn’t done the same if the circumstances had been similar. I’m actually quite sure I had done the same, bc society and the industry made it okay. AND NO ONE EVER QUESTIONED IT! He never claimed more for himself than a Native ancestor 5 generations back, and society at large and the TV/movie industry in particular said “that’s fine, you have that ancestry, you can go for diverse roles”. So in part, he fell victim to a system that pretended it was okay.

With MeToo and the Black Lives Matter movement, that “it’s okay” mentality is finally questioned and challenged, and more and more people speak up whenever someone tries to pull this shit. But it still keeps happening and there’s a lot more work to do. 

No one can claim ignorance anymore, though. And he has to do better in the future.

I feel you, nonnie. It’s a messy situation. Imo it’s most unfortunate that this information came out the way it did. In a heavily edited podcast episode with inexperienced (and dare I say “industry-biased”) moderators. We don’t know what else he said or for how long they talked about this.

The podcast hosts were clearly not the most qualified to handle that kind of revelation. There were no follow-up questions, there was no criticism, and the way the interview was edited, the whole thing was treated as a non-issue and “fun” anecdote. Which doesn’t do Tyler any favors tbh. 

But imo it’s also unfair to condemn him solely on what they decided to release. We don’t know what else he said, whether he expressed remorse or whatnot. I don’t know whether his publicist okayed the interview prior to its release. If they did, he should get a new publicist... 

(I’m not implying he should’ve kept it a “secret”, but as a publicist I would’ve made sure this revelation had been handled differently, and Tyler hadn’t been made to look like he was just laughing it off).

I don’t know Tyler personally, but going by everything I’ve seen from him and know about him, I’m certain he won’t take on another POC role. And even if another DNA test should come up with a different result one day, and a certain percentage of Native ancestry would be found, I’d expect him to handle things differently. And imo that’s something he expects from himself, too. He’s a good man. <3

I don’t think he should, but I’m white, so my opinion on this isn’t really relevant. If Native groups would call for him to step down (which I don’t think they would), I’d support it because THEIR opinion on this actually matters.

One option could be that they do a storyline where it’s revealed that the woman Alex believes to be his mother isn’t his biological mom and it turns out he’s not Native - but that’s probably a far stretch, idk.

If he’d give up the role (which he clearly isn’t doing, considering he’s found out during S1 and is about to begin filming S3), I doubt The CW would recast the role with a native actor btw. Alex’d just be written off the show.

What I hope for is, that he’ll join Jeanine in her efforts to push for more Native and Latinx representation and stories on the show (Jeanine talked about that in her recent IG live with congressman Castro, @lambourngb​ made a post about it), and you can watch the entire IG live here.

Fandom’s a large group of many individual people. There are several people who have addressed this and talk about it. And while not every single person in fandom’s talking about it, it’s not swept under the rug either.

And how does this whole thing make Malex fans (another large group of many individual people) look toxic? Malex fans are not a hive mind. I have seen several Malex fans talk about this, and talk about it critically.

I’m sorry that you’re disappointed, nonnie, I’m just not sure what you expected?

[cosmosrival]

Rico besides Kama what do you think about the other indian servants?????

AHHHHHHHHHH THIS IS GOING TO GET SOOOO LONG!!!! i have a different view of the indo fam as a whole. i call them the indo fam but i mean the found family trope!!!! theyre like a group of college students sharing a dorm if that makes sense, since their servant selves are obviously different from their initial myths/human vessels!!!

OK SO. RECENTLY, i have an oomf that found books about arjuna that summarize his exploits in the mahabharata(I DONT HAVE THE STRENGTH TO READ IT ALL IM SO SORRY) and also talk about him in a more philosphical manner such as his states of mind during each event etc and i’ve been meaning to read said book because im genuinely interested in arjuna now!!! and i’d like to know more about this indo prince because from what i’ve seen, he is portrayed in a rather bad light(?) in FGO which i find extremely !!!!!!!!!!! and incrdibley !!!!!!! strange !!!!!!! the mahabharata’s conflicts can be put in a mostly grey area where there’s no good nor bad, its not black and white. so seeing arjuna get bashed because of the way his conflict with karna was written is... hm. let’s say that im REALLY starting to understand arjuna fans that dislike seeing him get mischaracterized so much. OTHER THAN THAT, his design is adorable, his travel outfit is my favourite because he deserves to relax and have some fun!!! fgo making him a chuuni is cute and his VAs little moans are cute cute cute!!!!!!!!!!! (mash grabs my shoulder and forces me to sit down) i think that arjuna deserves better and im really happy to see him have fun in his travel costume voicelines. i think we should take arjun on a date!!! he’s a great lover, we’d have the best time!! OH ALSO, kama seeing him as the student council president in their interlude makes me SOOOOOOO HAPPY its unreal, i think it fits him very very well, the seitokaichou who was elected because of everyone’s hopes and recommended by teachers because he’s suuuch a good student but because of that, the pressure to be good is constantly towering over his head and everytime he looks out the window he wishes he could ditch class and skip a day just because he felt like going to the arcade and be a bad student.......just this once........i think hes very very cute...... i want him to cook for me. HAVE YO U READ HIS BOND 4 VOICELINE ?mmmmmggg i want him to get embarrassed everytime i praise him for having such a muscular waistline. AUG

ANEWAYS i also have quite the thoughts about karna, his characterization in the game is linked to arjuna’s and thats fine but i think that forgetting how much of a little sassy bastard he can get was a mistake! did you know that in apocrypha’s german dub on netflix, when jeanne calls his name like “You’re Karna, aren’t you ? The son of the Indian Sun God !” HES LIKE “So ?” AND THAT WAS SOOOO BITCHY OF HIM, i think that karna is a good boy in fgo but the fact that he was such a fighty old man in the mahabharata shouldnt be forgotten and is a charm trait. I MEAN ???? HE THREW HANDS WITH AN 18 YEAR OLD(ARJUN) WHILE BEIN LIKE... THIRTY TWO. WHATS WITH THIS ANNOYING OLD MAN !!!!! knowing these little facts about him made me like him so much more actually !! i think karna being so nice is adorable!! but the little bitchy energy u can find in his voicelines is also very charming!! i think karna looking at me emotionless as i ask him to lend me his notes for the nth time that week and then saying “...Mn.” when i thank him is cute!!! his voiceline towards things he dislikes is interesting to me. karna seeming aloof and mean bc he doesnt know how to communicate but is actually nice underneath...... hey... thats a little delinquentcore........ i wouldnt say yankii but hes like... hes like... u know hes the handsome quiet one of the group of yankiis... u know the one...? hey where are you going

ganesha is also a character im deeply interested in but i havent played CCC so i dont know that many details about jinako herself !! my brain goes HMMMMMM it seems lord ganesha is trans in fgo ! (since kama used to be a male god originally as well!!) ganesha uses all pronouns!!! and ganesha is also special to me because they share similar traits with kama when it comes to their characterization AND mischaracterizations. ganesha isnt JUST jinako. theres a part of a god in the servant mix!!! and jinako HERSELF is actually a pretty sad character imo. the whole otaku/neet thing is obviously a facade and her true wish being that she wants to redo her whole life is also proof of how much she hates what shes become, yet at the same time, she doesnt know what else she could do. but anyways, i prefer looking at servants from a lore POV so i think that ganesha should still be considered a god and be adressed as such!! i like seeing people portray ganesha as jinako but i prefer it when a certain lavish more godly side of them is put forward. a side of jinako that managed to move on a little bit if that makes sense ? that got more serious. and became someone else entierly despite sharing similarities. needless to say their bond with karna makes me happy since he shows them respect as you should towards a god!! its a bit different from their bond in CCC... like they matured somewhat!! anyway ganesha is the one who taught everyone else in the indo fam about video games and technology and i will NEVER shut up.

ashwatthama..... MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM %_’(’ç_”’è_ç(è_’”545656455456545453£¨¨µ¨µMµ¨++°=)=)°+ goodness. jesus christ on earth. my love story with him makes me so embarrassed. when he got revealed i instantly fell in love with him despite knowing JACK SHIT ABOUT HIM but since i was the only one in my friend group who was hardcore into fgo at the time, i kept my love for him to myself and just... (looks away)(i drop my wallet full of picturses of him) quietly adored his everything in silence. WELL, ree having an intense crush on yankii type characters isnt new, its been my favourite trope for ages (gyarus go in hand with them!!) and im still very attached to it so thats what made me love him in the first place!!!! BUT THEN. I GOT INTO HIS MAHABHARATAN LORE. And OHHHHHHHHH BABY.......... (im twirling my hair) so theres this 7ft tall war criminal..........<3<33<3(mash leans in and informs me that the convention of geneva didnt exist at the time) SO THERES THIS 7 FTTALL IMMORTALMAN.......<233 gOD he makes me absolutely CRAZY9909840385%£%%£%%µ%µ%µ the love i have for this character is immense and whenever im sad i remember that pako exists and has a tablet and can draw and i suddenly feel so much better. ok im gonna stop horny posting a little bit. but hes my wife. AND WHAT I LOVE ABOUT HIS PORTRAYAL IN FGO IS THAT, they actually made him a good boy despite his initial roughness and misdeeds ???!!! HELLO?? ashwatthama wishing for a redemption ark is my favourite thing and his righteousness that was born because of his regrets is a very interesting drivepoint to me !!! hes a gorgeous character and im buying a ticket plane as we speak right now so i can go find him in northern india. i’ll find him. GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME !!!!!GET OFF ME !!!

miss lakshimi makes me very sad! because every female servant in the indo fam is an already known face. (... would sita count.) and lakshi being a jeanneface is a waste. well, she’s still very pretty and her lore is also quite interesting!! i havent looked into it fully yet but i think she should be kissed on the mouth. her bad luck makes me slip on a banana peel whenevr i get close to her to kiss her and i hit my head on the pavement and pass away- 

parvati is on a tough spot for me atm. i genuinely love thinking of her as the way the indian goddess herself is portrayed because thats where the fun lies for me in her character. especially when shes involved with other indian servants, thats a given!! i would like to see parvati grow, suffer and heal. because branding her as an “all-knowing mom” is easy, but every single parent makes mistakes if you follow that logic. also, since shes the sakura servant “thats closest to her initial personality”, she’s got some of the most Repulsive fans ive Ever witnessed in fandom spaces and lets say that im trying to work my way out of this hellhole and find things to like about parvati without the fandom’s influence. needless to say, im going to keep looking into her mythos and her lore by myself at my own pace and keep doing my own thing in my little corner. 

rama shouldve been a jock. THE RAMAYANA IS OLDER THAN THE MAHABHARATA, WHY IS.....Hrm well him being summoned as his baby version gives me hope for a future rama alt perhaps??? but i think that he shouldve been a total jock and he shouldve been huge with a huge red lion-like mane for his hair and a teethy grin and big biceps and intense love for his wife. SPEAKING OF SITA, her charm point is her purity but i wish.... that their artist still hadnt drawn them like That, im not a fan of lily servants and i think purity = being young is a bit of an annoying excuse!!! rama and sita looking similar is because of their shared history which is fine but... rolls my eyes............. rama shouldve been 6ft tall and sita shouldve been a milf to match...... anyways i doubt ravana would be added as a servant but i’d love to have a ramayana centric event!! where all indo servants have their own lore centric role to play!!! oh thatd be a dream.... but i have learned to not expect much from a fanservice game so im jus gonna draw my own stuff! (strikes a pose!) (mashu claps!)

[damnerd]

Trubbish, Houndoom, Jigglypuff, Sylveon, Weepinbell, Sableye ✨

Trubbish Number one reason you’re garbage queer representation.

I don’t enjoy hyperpop

Houndoom A blistering Hot Take on anything.

I have to hold back from going on a rant about Boyhood (2014) and how much I hate it bc I’d be here all day. My Hot Take: Spider-Man 2 (2004) is the best live action superhero movie ever made and everyone needs to rewatch it NOW. (Literally it’s only flaw is James Franco) I think I cried at least twice when I rewatched this film last year like, please give this movie the respect it deserves!!

Jigglypuff Minor non-homophobic inconvenience that is, in fact, majorly homophobic (e.g., people falling asleep when you sing your gay little songs).

When I’m trying to walk somewhere and there’s a pack of ‘straights’ walking slowly in front of me

Sylveon Pick the three gayest Pokemon. Bonus points for explaining your choices.

1. Espeon. Hands down. The animations they gave Espeon in Pokémon colosseum are ICONIQUE. She’s got style, she’s powerful and fast, she is the moment and she’s a bad bitch.

2. Galarian Rapidash. They made the unicorn Pokémon Psychic/Fairy (the gayest type combination), made it pink, white and blue (trans rights), and gave it a sickening mane as a nod to the track Hair from Lady Gaga’s album Born This Way.

3. Tsareena. It’s all a serve. She’s wearing the Chanel boots, and her signature move is her using the Chanel boots to stomp all over y’all. She’s a powerful woman and gays are drawn to that. She’s got drag queen eyelashes, hair down to her ankles and her own crown. She’s also the Queen Pokémon. Enough said.

Weepinbell Last impulse purchase that you regret.

I’ve made a few, but the most recent one was buying a GameCube USB adapter off Amazon before reading the reviews that it wouldn’t work with my computer 😭 it was cheap so at least that’s something

Sableye Weirdest type of YouTube video you enjoy watching.

The weirdest would probably be either Odd Tinkering’s video game console restoration videos, or that Blood and Makeup series by Brandon Rogers

Thanks for sending these! This was fun!!

[trunkzbriefs]

Any Son and/or Briefs family headcanons? Spicy hot takes? Truths Toriyama and Toyotaro themselves can not handle? Straight up lies?

GODDAMN SORRY this took a while cause i suck at putting thoughts together. i apologize for my obvious briefs bias i have more hcs for them than the son family despite loving them both :pensive: anyway heres some random stuff

briefs hcs:

all of the briefs are pros at non-verbal communication. i hc that saiyans have their own language (and also in my own Mind Canon they still have their fuckin tails) and a lot of it is done through tail movement/body posture/grunts/etc. etc so theyve all sort of picked that up. even bulma, who doesnt have a tail, is pretty good at getting across what she means without actually speaking. they still do speak normally but it comes in handy sometimes considering that both trunks and vegeta are prone to running out of speaking energy or getting very frustrated with words, so having another way to communicate works very well for them

vegeta is fffffffffffffffffffurry. without getting too deep into my own General Saiyan hcs (thats why i made a whole ass four subspecies!!) i think that the entirety of planet vegeta tended to be very hot aside from the part where the castle was, where the temperature would drop. meaning that saiyans working in the palace would grow thicker fur around certain parts of their body, and in the royal saiyans theyd be Especially fluffy. he kept it down on earth, but he has thick patches of fur around the bottom parts of his arms and legs. kind of like snowy boots and gloves! he also has fur that grows in on his neck like a lions mane.

future trunks is an actions sponge, vegeta is a words sponge. vegeta will pick up words VERY quickly regardless if he fully understands the meaning of it or not (completely inspired by 'THATS RIGHT BOYS... MONDO COOL' in z) and future trunks will unintentionally mimic the actions of people - around people he looks up to he might take a few small mannerisms from but this extends to copying the disposition of anyone; he's just very adaptive. this is the most obvious (and funniest) when he's around vegeta bc it really shows like. yeah damn that sure is vegeta's son

vegeta & bulla have an intimidating bastard smirk naturally. their natural smiles are pretty frightening and they have to put effort into a 'normal' one. this also extends to current trunks, his default smile is the Vegeta Bastard Smirk but he learned to have a normal smile quicker than his father and sister. future trunks has a slightly unnerving natural smile (the fact that his pupils are always drawn so fucking small makes me hc that he just has a very intimidating look of 'cat thats about to pounce on an unfortunate trapped mouse' whenever he smiles) but he learned to look normal even quicker than current trunks since he's around humans a Lot and is sort of their uh, Hope. don't want to look scary to the people who depend on you!

bulma has some fighting knowledge and mildly good ki control. vegeta taught her it as a just in case so that she'd be able to defend herself against Bigger threats if he wasn't there and also so she could raise her own ki to alert someone to her if she had to.

vegeta is extremely clean and can not stand to have things disorganized for more than like... an hour before he has to tidy everything up. every time he goes down to the lab and bulma is passed out in a pile of bolts and circuit boards it kills him inside just a little bit

future trunks has little concept of power control. since his timeline was always in danger it wasn't really an important thing for him to learn. the amount of mugs he's accidentally crushed is impressive

vegeta tends to not sound like he's asking questions when he is. he doesn't add the proper infliction to the end of his questions and just sounds flat most of the time. it's confusing to people who dont know him well.

im not even gonna lie, im a BIG fan of the chill demon panchy headcanon so i love the idea that the briefs have a Lil bit of demon in them but just dont know it ghjnkm

[banging my fists on the 'hcs that not even got could take away from me' table] future trunks has OCD

vegeta doesn't really get labels but he's bisexual & "debatably a man", bulma is bisexal & bigender transfem (sometimes shes Wamen and other times its like "gender? no"), bulla is a nonbinary lesbian, current trunks is a bisexual trans man & future bulma forgot to explain the concept of gender and sexuality to future trunks so he's a little confused on that front and his gender & sexuality are "i have literally never thought abt these concepts in my life but i think men are nice. i refuse to think about gender though" (i actually have two main hcs for future trunks which are either gay trans man or more-feminine-presenting nonbinary bisexual)

son hcs:

goku is Not as fluffy as vegeta at all, but he does have fur on certain parts of his body. namely on the back of his elbows + ankles, down his back connecting to his tail, and on his shoulders. its inherented from gine!

gohan is learning saiyan language from vegeta! vegeta acts grumpy about it but he's glad to have someone to teach. when gohan learned that most of the history had been lost he basically wished shenron for a big ol book on saiyan culture and gave it to vegeta just as an act of kindness and vegeta was like [in an angry voice but very touched] "Ok. Sit down. You're learning." by extension gohan is also teaching the rest of his family!

i will take ox king being actually non-human to my grave so like, chichi has horns and a very short ox tail! gohan and goten both have horns, but they're hidden by hair. goten's horns are bigger than gohans.

goten also has a more ox-like tail, with a little puff of fur at the end. generally, gohan looks more saiyan-like and goten looks more ox/human-like.

although he keeps up his cheery demeanor very well, goku is still haunted pretty badly by like... everything that’s happened in his life. he still has frequent nightmares about cell & buu specifically.

gohan will freak out at worse, zone out at best, if he's even tapped on the neck. it reminds him of the whole 'getting his neck snapped on namek' so that area is pretty off limits to everyone

goten gets along really well with android 17. they both have a love for nature and 17s kind of like his chill uncle, so whenever he gets too stressed out or just needs a break you can find him face down on the ground outside of 17's place on monster island.

goku is really really good at remembering completely random shit. bulma uses this to her advantage whenever she's working and has him memorize random technology stuff. a week later goku can not remember what he had for breakfast that morning but as soon as bulma asks "hey do you remember what i told you last week" hes like "oh yeah sure i have no idea what it means but [blurts out three hours worth of technical garble]"

oh boy is this a headcanon that has a lot more depth to it than just a bullet on a tumblr post, but gohan has DID!

goku, like vegeta, doesnt get labels either, and does not even Try, ask him about any of it and hes like "i dont get the gender thing but i think lots of people look nice :)" gohan is gay and like vegeta, "debatably a man", goten + chichi are both bi nonbinary, & pan is a lesbian trans woman.

both:

bulla and pan are both into music! i think theyd mess around making their own stuff w/ launchpads

i have a general hc of ki mixing or shielding, essentially, if youre close enough to someone people wont be able to tell apart your ki and you can also 'shield' someone with your ki for a small amount of time. if vegeta has his energy low, his and bulma's energy are the same. same thing with goku and chichi! goten and trunks are near impossible to tell apart, and same thing with gohan and videl.

though goten and trunks are both protective over their younger siblings, gotenks is that protectiveness times a thousand. look at bulla or pan wrong for 2 seconds and you're going to have an angry gotenks in your face asking if you have any last words. i like to think that trunks and goten fused casually a lot, especially around the time where bulla and pan were young, so its basically goten and trunks own attachment to them PLUS gotenks' attachment to them as his own person combined.

i like to pretend end of z did not happen the way it did so uub, using nimbus, travels back and forth a lot. goku isn’t the only one who teaches him how to fight as goten, gohan and trunks all think of him like a little brother and love training with him!

fuck you letters to toriyama/toyotaro hot takes:

cell, as cool of a villian as he is, definitely should have had a creepier final form. or multiple- just something that really drives in the fact that he's made up of other's dna & fuckin ABSORBS people. also his first two forms should have had a different absorbtion method other than the tail thing (not the drinking thing thats fine) it just feels.   Weird. not good

it would have been far more interesting to keep the bitter attitude towards vegeta that future trunks had imo... in super trunks was going through a Lot granted but the fact tht he wasnt more confrontational to vegeta being a dick to him seemed kind of off considering his attitude in z i just.. think it would be interesting and far better if they had more of a back and forth 'family but lowkey hate each other' relationship

i dont want to rant about super so heres some super condensed takes, goku black arc specific because thats 90% of what ive seen of super:

mai is a fucking freak ass weirdo, why did they not just make another character to pair with trunks

trunks not flipping the fuck out at his timeline being erased feels... out of character. also trunks deserved the win against zamasu

future bulma did NOT need to die

trunks should have just stayed in the current timeline

please fucking let trunks and goten grow up. we SAW a version of trunks who looked 14 (history of trunks....) and the versions of goten & trunks we have r/n in super do not look 13/14 respectively what in the goddamn hell is going on in the character design department

super definitely should have taken place later down the line

supers version of bulma and videl look awful. why are they That stick like.

vegeta needs to kill frieza. just once.

fu has enough potential to be a very interesting mainline character and i am so sad he's not

i would actively enjoy a sdbh anime with more  budget that isnt just a promo anime and has a plot that makes sense... i think db should have more wild spinoffs

xenoverse deserved a better story that went FULL in on the 'what if' type of timelines- like they did in raging blast which is a FUCKING GREAT GAME

straight up lies:

dragon ball z is a good series

[spyrkle4]

Night Pride redesigns! For context: Night Pride is the name of the Tree of Life protectors from The Lion Guard S3 And their og designs… kinda don’t click for me. Not like I hate their og designs, (the dozen ear details are a lil’ weird) and it’s cool to like their og designs. But I gave them redesigns! You might like them, or not. but these are my interesting takes And in this house we pretend the Night Pride symbol does not exist. Like the Lion Guard symbol is understandable at a few levels, the Night Pride symbol tho? no. Also sidenote… why do we only see the royal fam? Could we at least get some few lions in the bg, or other non-lions as Night Pride members? Hello? I am confusion. …and yes this a screenshot redraw don’t @ me (More detail under desc)

Nirmala: -Kind of hc she’s got blood from the Outsider pride, so line through nose, ear stripes, spots under eyes, head stripe, the works! -Adjusted hair stripe -Pelt more reddish -Uncolored paws -Since a lot of people hc she’s married into the Night Pride royal fam I tried making that more obvious in her appearance bc her og design looks too Night Pride for her to be someone that joined -dark nose gradient, since her stripe used to extend to her nose it’s a little call back. Surak: -Loses ear rims but has ear stripes still, they’re thicker though than Nirmala’s -Bunch of nasty scars, I’ll talk about the one on his eye later when I get to Rani, but as defenders from all sorts of nasty predators they all have some scars. -Same stripe as Rani does. -Dark nose gradient -Mane has two dif colors bc Asiatic lions, the lions I think the Night Pride are based off of (mane behind ear rims) have different colors, and it makes his fluffy mane pop a bit more -His pelt is more darker in color, makes him very scary but Surak is just a soft gentle giant, at least to his family. Rani: -Has her grandma’s eyes. I kind of went for “Scar but not Scar” look-ish… y’know bc of her plotline with Kion 
(sidenote their romance feels rushed I’d prefer if they just were good friends. but y’know… we can’t have boy/girl friendships anymore) -The “mysterious scar” is on her shoulder this time, due to the hc I have that the incident that killed Rani and Baliyo’s parents was a fire. Rani and Surak have burn scars as reminders, Surak’s is much worse bc he saved Rani from inside the tree. -Same eye rim shape like her Uncle, but darker to make the eyes pop out more -Light nose gradient -Adjusted ear rims and color -tail tuft same as Surak and Baliyo, runs in the family! -Hair tuft, wild hair runs in the family as well -No spots on legs Baliyo:

-Still no whiskers, I hc Baliyo as trans, thanks to Tree of Life magic he’s able to grow a mane but it’s slow… and it might not be a full mane but he likes any mane in general -Eye color matches Surak. I love blue-eyed Baliyo but it made him look more related to Nirmala, and golden-eyed Baliyo is a hot take -Adjusted ear rims, he has a few notches tho -Tried toning down his head tuft a tad-ski. -His pelt is a less reddish version of Rani’s. Adjusted spots tho so he only has the ones on his leg