#so i made one with their female variant for the lesbians

[prince-liest]

Don't mind me getting on my soapbox for a moment... a lot of this musing is admittedly for the sake of my own processing of this topic, re: aroaceness. Read at your own peril! <3

I'm generally a very "ship and let ship" kind of person, but I think I would definitely append a little caveat of, like, "As long as you're not being actively invalidating and detrimental to others" to that. Which is a delightfully vague statement that can be interpreted practically any way, I know, hahaha.

In the case of this particular post I've just been thinking about how, like... seeing an aroace character like Alastor get written into dozens upon dozens of PWPs (including ones that don't even touch on the subject of his aceness at all) is really not something that I personally find to be hurtful or offensive. It's just smut for the sake of smut, of a character people want to see awful, sexy things done to (or doing). Valid! I vibe with you! More people should just write the PWPs they want to see in the world!

But on the other hand, I've several times seen this very particular type of art (usually it's a comic, but admittedly I haven't been reading very many Hazbin Hotel fics so maybe it's there, too) where Alastor is slotted into the "methinks the lady doth protest too much" trope. As in, he's expressing strong feelings about a character (usually Vox or Lucifer, sometimes Angel Dust) to someone, probably Rosie, and the person he's confiding to is some variant of, "Oh, silly Alastor, you're obviously in love!" And then he denies it, says that the very idea disgusts him, and the character titters to themselves about how he's so naive in the matters of romance or whatever.

And it's, like.

The "strong feelings" in question are almost always frustration/annoyance/disgust, and him being like, "Nnnno, I just hate his person" is treated like a silly and naive misunderstanding of his own feelings because obviously he's in love. Please imagine that Alastor was a female character who was established to be a lesbian. Now examine how that suddenly makes this scene feel.

(Also, Rosie being the go-to for this is a little frustrating when she's the one who, in canon, explicitly says that she wouldn't make that assumption of him.)

There's such a chasm of difference between how I see people wanting to ship Alastor for reasons of "I just want to!" vs folks who engage with him being aroace in ways that are infantilizing and invalidating. There are so many people out there - not just aro/ace people, but anyone who's not exclusively into the standard type of person they should be into at the time society deems they should be into them, which is most queer people and even many cishet folks - that have been told that exact kind of thing in real life. It reads like something out of a compulsory heterosexuality guidebook, and it actively makes it harder to leave the closet or even realize that you're in one at all.

So I guess it just feels frustrating to see it get made into a punchline, especially by folks who are shipping queer ships. I genuinely can't wait until fandom society advances to the point of consistently treating aro/acespec folks as queer instead of Queer Lite (TM), because let me tell you, ime the comphet experience and the amato/allonormativity experience are in fact nigh-identical except for how they're treated within online communities. There's a reason the pan -> gay -> ace pipeline is a thing.

But, hey! We're already doing way better than we were in 2012!

[thebibutterflyao3]

Marauders Fandom

We need to talk about Lily Evans.

The amount of misogyny directed at this character is truly mind-boggling and I think many of you are completely unaware you’re doing it. There are so many rich, in-depth characterizations of the male characters in the Marauders era because we accept that they are deeply flawed people. It’s because of these flaws that we identify with them, adore them, and can relate to them. These four idiots experience damaging trauma, homophobia, discrimination, and countless character building experiences that allow them to capture your imagination. Through fanfiction, we inflict numerous situations and create relationships that challenge logic, reality, and canon. It makes them powerful figures in our minds!

Now, let’s talk about the female Marauders era characters. Dorcas and Marlene are lesbians. Marlene is a Sirius-variant. Dorcas and Mary are Black. Lily is perfect in every way. Mary is stylish and popular. This is more or less the level of depth given to these characters in nearly every fic I’ve read that includes them. What a disgusting disservice to women.

Female characters can be written with just as many flaws, experience the same challenges, and deserve the opportunity to grow into the powerful figures they could be. The one that I feel is shafted the most often is Lily mother-fucking Evans. The witch who was at the top of her class, compared in canon to Hermione as a perfectionist and know-it-all muggle-born, who grew up with Petunia as an older sister, and Severus Snape as a best friend. You’re going to look me in the eyeballs and tell me this woman wasn’t complicated? She wasn’t flawed, traumatized, and intense? We’ve taken the rich characterization potential this character offered and given it to Regulus Black. The correlations that can be made between Regulus and Lily are wild, yet anyone who writes her as anything but sunshine and rainbows is accused of villainizing her.

News flash: Your misogyny is showing. Why do you expect Lily to be perfect? Because society expects women to be perfect. Why are male characters allowed to be flawed assholes? Because society allows and accepts men as flawed assholes, encourages it even.

I find it endlessly fascinating that I can write Regulus as a snarky, intense, anxious, and a complete prick with nothing but full support from the fandom because he’s “traumatized.” If I write Lily the same way? I’m “villainizing” her or you “hate her” for thinking she knows better than everyone else. Stop treating women like dolls. We are powerful individuals with the potential to brighten or destroy your whole fucking world. Don’t make the same mistake the patriarchy has and dismiss, undermine, and overlook women.

I know Lily Jane Evans (yes, I gave her a middle name because she fucking deserves one). I wrote a 430k+ deep dive into her childhood and upbringing, as well as all 7 years at Hogwarts. I explored her friendship with Snape, her family, and her relationship with James. I’ve done my research and I built her character from the ground up. Lily Evans is an anxious, intense, introvert who made Hogwarts her home and rose to the rank of Head Girl before she left. Sound like Percy Weasley to anyone? She’s certainly a compassionate, loving, and generous person too, but let her have flaws! Let her be annoying, feel inadequate, and fuck things up! Let her live!

If you want more fanfiction focused on female characters, stop pretending they are perfect. No one wants to write about perfect people. No one wants to read about them either. Let women be flawed assholes too. We can do both. We’re flexible like that.

[madi-konrad]

My book's cover art: Flowers!

So, I am still incredibly ecstatic about the cover art I was able to commission from @queenzora for my book, A Demon's Name Upon Your Lips (see my pinned post for links to buy!).

But what might not be immediately obvious is that I worked with her to choose which flowers would appear around the border, using an online almanac (this one in fact) to pick which ones would appear. I thought it was appropriate, as the book takes place in a secondary world loosely inspired by the British Victorian era.

I thought it might be neat to share why we picked these particular flowers! (and, do note, we worked with easily found information, as I am certainly not an expert in Victorian-era flower symbolism!)

We made them in three batches; each side reflects the characterization and journey of their respective characters, and the center (top and bottom) features flowers that represent their relationship as it develops.

(I'll keep detailed spoilers out of the following explanation with only a few vague allusions to events that happen in the novel, but those who want to go in completely unspoilered should give this a miss.)

Explanations beneath the break:

First, on Talia's side (left):

Amaryllis (amaryllis belladonna). This stands for Pride, which is, to put it lightly, one of Talia's defining characteristics.

Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia Hirta). This stands for Justice. Talia is, of course, on the warpath to avenge the death of her father on those who conspired to frame him sixteen years ago.

Butterfly Weed (Asclepias Tuberosa). "Let me go." This one is hard to talk about without getting into spoilers, but is a defining moment in Talia's character arc.

Yellow Carnation (Dianthus Caryophyllus). Carnations can have several meanings, but the yellow in particular stands for rejection, disdain and disappointment -- another defining moment in Talia's romantic arc with Lucia.

Second, on Lucia's side (right):

Purple Hyacinth (Hyacinthus genus). The purple stands for sorrow. This is in direct response to Talia's Yellow Carnation.

Dark Crimson Rose (Rosa genus). This one complements and strengthens the meaning of the Purple Hyacinth, as the dark crimson variant in particular stands for mourning.

Yellow Carnation (Dianthus Caryophyllus). Again, mirroring Talia's own. Geez, it's hard to talk about these without getting into spoilers!

Red Camellia (Camellia genus). "You're a flame in my heart." Finally, something positive! Lucia definitely yearns for Talia with a fiery passion.

Finally, in the center arch (and center-bottom for the carnations):

Iris (Iris genus). This stands for faith, trust, wisdom, hope and valor. All of these are qualities (well, less so for wisdom perhaps…) both Talia and Lucia need to develop in order for their relationship to survive.

Yellow Lily (Lilium genus). Yeah, I just picked this one 'cause it's Gay. These bitches gay! (Gay as in happy? No, gay as in gay).

Lesbian-colored Carnations (Dianthus Caryophyllus). In general, without getting into specific colors, Carnations stand for female love (in addition to fascination, which is definitely going on too -- and Mother's love which is… not). We decided to underline the WLW of it all by casting this one in the colors of the Lesbian flag!

[theoldlesbianwithcats]

prev anon here: the article is far too long, but i quoted the section. this article is from the 1970s, but it was reprined in this issue on the request of some other reader, so there are women who still think this way.

"HOMOSEXUAL – This word should also, in my opinion, be erased from our language: les-bian language. According to Webster’s Dictionary, the homosexual is one who has, or “exhib-its sexual desire toward a member of one’s own sex.” As has been pointed out by others before,such a definition puts the total emphasis on the sexual aspects of our lives – homosexuals aresimply sexual beings (i.e., resulting in such questions as “What do they do in the daytime?”).Calling ourselves homosexuals almost seems to reinforce the stereotype that lesbians are over-sexed women who will be “cured” (sic) as soon as they meet the man (penis) capable of fulfillingtheir vast sexual desires. Another possible misleading undertone to the word homosexual is theimplication that female homosexuals are attracted to women in the same manner that males areattracted to women. Of course, the primary reason a man is attracted to a specific woman isbecause of her physical beauty, and I doubt lesbians love women solely for their physical charac-teristics. And despite what the general public believes, generally a lesbian who’s attracted tosome woman acts nothing like most men would (i.e., whistle, grab, put the make on, hustle, try toscore, etc.). The term homosexual almost implies that lesbians feel and act like straight men,since both simply “desire” women, but thankfully this is far from the truth. In her book LoveBetween Women, Charlotte Wolff states that a lesbian would more correctly be labeled “homo-emotional” rather than “homo-sexual,” making the important distinction of placing the emphasison the emotional, instead of the physical, part of her orientation. Yes, I enjoy sex with womenmore than I did with men, but that is basically because my emotional relationships with womenare so much more intense and fulfilling than those with men could ever be. It is because of theserelationships that I am a lesbian; I am not a homosexual."

"i am not a homosexual" we know lol.

"homoemotional" really in every generation bisexual women were busy inventing the split attraction model because they simply dont understand that bad or boring sex with men because men are shitty to women does not make them lesbians, preferring sex with women does not make them lesbians.

this whole argument is so dumb i dont even know what to say. its like when you tell TRAs a woman is a female so they respond with "oh so you think woman are breeders?" um no? also how is saying lesbians are attracted sexualyl to women implying they need penis to satisfy them? disgusting and stupid.

i understand why homosexual is the one word all gay and lesbian people are increasingly using, because all these fakers and appropriaters hate it.

Thank you! :)

As always, polilez can't help projecting their own feelings and showing how lesbophobic they are. Being homosexual is being sex-crazed, shallow, etc. and of course they denounce the lesbophobia of lesbians having a supposed male exception... even though they had sex with men and call themselves lesbians anyway (In a way, "abusive men made me a lesbian" / "comphet made me have sex with men" are just negative variants of "lesbians have male exceptions")

In my case, I was thinking of a big proponent of political lesbianism in France and Europe, Alice Coffin, who said in her book Lesbian Genius (right after talking about her ex-boyfriends...): "I am not lesbian because of orientation or attraction, like the wind veers north. Lesbians are not homosexuals."

(Speak for yourself, dumbass!)

So many bi women think preferring women or being disappointed in men makes them lesbians, and they outnumber us so easily that they can enable each other and marginalize us... I've even seen fakebians have an obvious crush on a man and being told by other "lesbians" that its doesn't mean anything and it's comphet! How does that confusion help anyone??

Homosexual doesn't have any ambiguity, which is definitely a good thing, but I don't want to abandon the word lesbian either... (and I think gold star sounds cute!)

[frogblast-the-ventcore]

As requested by @thediam0ndt, the list of Frogblast's headcanon Ace Combat AU major characters (in order by game release date). Genderswaps abound:

Phoenix: cis/female/aro-ace

Nemo: Genderfluid-genderqueer-enby/pan

Mobius 1: cis/female/bi (additional notes: married to Yellow 4 post-war)

Cipher: cis/male/gay (additional notes: furry)

Pixy: cis/male/pan (additional notes: married post war, had a son, who became Osean fighter pilot 'Tabloid')

Blaze: enby/pan (additional notes: married to Nagase post-war)

Nagase: cis/female/pan (additional notes: aeromorph fetish enjoyer (she was really into the Arkbird after all...; married to Blaze post-war)

Bartlet: cis/male/bi

Chopper: cis/male/bi

Grimm: cis/male/pan

Snow: cis/male/straight

Talisman: cis/female/bi

Trigger: cis/female/lesbian (additional notes: full name and titles: Countess Anamaria von Hartmann; country of origin: Belka; DoB: 06/06/1995; place of birth: Stier Castle (family estate); confirmed furry; involved with Rosa Cosette d'Elise by several years after the Lighthouse War)

Count: cis/male/graph straight (additional notes: dating Huxian post-war)

Huxian: cis/female/straight (additional notes: dating Count post-war)

Jager: cis/male/straight (additional notes: married, with one child)

Mihaly: cis/male/gay

Hugin: Genderfluid-genderqueer-enby/omni

Munin: Genderfluid-genderqueer-enby/omni

Monarch: transfemme/enby/pan

Prez: cis/female/poly

Diplomat: cis/male/pan (additional notes: married to Comic)

Comic: cis/female/bi (additional notes: married to Diplomat)

Crimson 1: cis/male/gay

K-9A Driver: cis/male/straight

K-9A Eye-Tee: cis/female/straight

K-9B Bookie: cis/male/pan

K-9C Cobb: enby/straight

K-9D Brick: cis/male/gay

Additional notes on this AU below the cut:

* Some of the aircraft flown by certain squadrons got upgraded from earlier models to the newest and best versions available, assuming the nation is either the originator of said variant, or IMO able to afford it monetarily and diplomatically

* includes fanon names for many characters not given full names

* McKinsey's first name is Dick (in canon we know it starts with a D), and I cannot be convinced otherwise

* a new LRSSG squadron has been made (Gorgon) to fit the reassigned Spares (Alexander "Tabloid" Foulke is squadron lead, members include Avril, Full Band, High Roller, and other former Spares

* all squadrons are now properly 12 aircraft, though most of the members do get the "generic Spare" treatment bc I cannot be bothered to fill up 36 spaces on a TO&E, even for the LRSSG). Rage and Scream, old friends of Trigger's, had their contract bought out by Trigger herself and now fly with the group.

* many cool fanon skins have been turned into full squadrons

* Brownie lives and becomes squadron leader after Knocker bites it being dumb and trying to fight Mihaly (who properly ignored two retreating aircraft openly broadcasting that they were doing so)

* Razgriz is here! It consists of Blaze (proper name I made up for him: Daemon Nacht), Bartlett (now married to his Yuke spy waifu), Chopper (who landed in the river, and still listens to Blurry) and Grimm (who remains as extremely competent as ever). They now fly F-14

* OMC and OANG squadrons get some love!

* Labarthe lives, and unites a lot of the Erusean Conservatives into a functional faction that properly allies with the Oseans. Shilage's independence claim is respected, and so Mihaly doesn't get shot down and gets to fight alongside Trigger

* Some of the named Aces show up (pulled from an excellent mod on Nexus that created actual assault records for the enemy aces from 7; the Su-47 from Cape Rainy, an EASA test pilot; the F/A-18 from Faceless Soldier; now an EASA field coordinator for a whole Hornet/Flanker drone squadron, has a Copro unit as a backseater like Mihaly, named "Copine"; the MiG-21 ace from the first mission returns to head a squadron that all use Su-35s, except for him: Silber vibes); the Mirage ace from Stonehenge shows up as the leader of Erusea's demonstration team that got swept up into actual combat; the Su-35 ace from the night Anchorhead mission is retconned into a Conservative ex-noble who stays alive.

* Many named squadrons survive/get reconstituted as they would in actual wartime.

* Yellow Squadron is here! Yellow 4 didn't act dumb and stayed behind after getting guerilla-bombed in AC04, so she leads the Yellows now. She and Mobius got along so well after the war that they got married. Her name is Algerian-based and her callsign is the French word for "catgirl" bc some Yellow 13 concept art had a catgirl on his flight jacket.

* Rosa gets Royal Guards now, some flying F-15EX and some flying X-02S. They are very competent, despite their ceremonial functions and fancy white-and-orange Erusean rose paintjobs.

* An Erusean intelligence/internal security squadron called "Polonium" works with the LRSSG in taking out the Alicorn

* The Alicorn has an anti-mutiny occur during the events of SP03, and doesn't get sunk, goes on to form a naval dream with the Marigold and the Eminent Domain. Torres gets to rant about "crisp white sheets" in a jail cell.

* The Erusean cowboy F-4 pilots from SP01 get to stick around since they weren't TGTs in that mission, and they were fun as hell

* The one poor MiG-31 with all the "mechanical issues" from SP01 and SP02 ends up leading the squadron by virtue of being the only one still alive, which may or may not be one of the squadrons that did the Erusean side of the satellite oopsie via ASAT missiles (like the MiG-31 can carry IRL)

* Nuclear ordnance is considered as a backup to Stonehenge in taking out the Arsenal Birds. Luckily Railgun Mommy McOnie gets Stonehenge working as in canon (and without randomly using civilians as surveyors)

* Lots of countries represented in an actual multinational IUN set up! Yukes! Belkans! Ustio! Emmeria! Estovakia! Cascadia! The Federation!

[erigold13261]

📢Psychonauts NSR AU Observations, Chapter 5: Metro Division District📢

Welcome Bot B

Milla: Ooh! It’s a Type-02 robot! I really like these kinds, they seem very friendly and would hurt anyone if they are rubbed the wrong way.

Sasha: Who knew that Type-02 robots would still be popular these days? They don’t seem to make these kinds anymore.

1010 Fanmail Box (Fan-Made)

Milla: Wait, 1010 has their own category of mail? Oh man, I want to send a love letter—I mean a letter to admire their design.

Sasha: 1010 seemed to be so popular that NSR decided to create their own variant of mail. Most of the things that fans send them are nice fan-letters while some of them are… well, the nicest way to describe it is… ‘really crazy’.

Captain Oleander Poster (Fan-Made)

Milla: “Captain Oleander, great warrior of Vinyl City and manager of 1010.” With a tagline like that, I am not afraid to challenge him to a fight.

Sasha: Captain Oleander is the management of 1010, but despite being the manager, he does get recognition. Possibly due to the fact that he was soldier.

Cal Poster (Fan-Made)

Milla: “Cal, brave and dynamic.” And handsome!

Sasha: Before 1010, Cal was originally going to have five variants. However, Captain Oleander decided to make 1010 more diverse. So it kinda makes sense that he is the leader.

Edgar Poster (Fan-Made)

Milla: “Edgar, cool and strong.” I can agree on that, I wonder if he and the others are made out of Titanium…

Sasha: Edgar is indeed the strongest of the team, to the point that when people give him a hug, he tries not to hardly hug them… the last time a superfan hugged Edgar, Edgar hugged her back that she fainted.

Gloria Poster (Fan-Made)

Milla: “Gloria, clever and beautiful.” She is also very dramatic. Had anyone saw her crying her eyes out after getting a huge thank you?

Sasha: Gloria is the sole female member of 1010, so she ended up opening to more fans such males and lesbians.

Boyd Poster (Fan-Made)

Milla: “Boyd, funny and charismatic.” And his branded-milk is delicious.

Sasha: Boyd was often involved in the community, and was often asked to 1010 involved in other promotions. His most famous one was that he sponsored a milk company.

Fred Poster (Fan-Made)

Milla: “Fred, kind and caring.” This should appear everywhere! Spread the word! Fred is kind and caring!

Sasha: Fred does have fans, but not a lot. There’s actually a website built by his fans to promote him.

Tasty-Branded Cookbook (Fan-Made)

Milla: IT’S TASTY! AS IN TASTY FROM SEPTENTRION! HIS COOKBOOK IS STILL EXISTING!

Sasha: Tasty the guitarist was a known cook. His recipes are very popular to this day.

[dandelion-wings]

kaeya and jean as VERY belated submissions to the ask meme?

I feel like we have discussed all of this in depth (and I did write a whole fic about my gender vibe for them), but I suppose that is how you know I have opinions! XD Under a cut because this got long.

Kaeya:

Sexuality Headcanon: Bi/pan, as a very strong feeling rather than as default, and while I'll still write him romance if the narrative calls for it, you have definitely made aromantic Kaeya my dominant headcanon for him. And very much a sadomasochist, which feels as relevant to his sexuality as all the rest to me.

Gender Headcanon: COMPLICATED. As you well know I enjoy going in all sorts of directions for him on this as fits/is fun within the particular narrative, but my dominant headcanon for him is that his relationship with his gender is a lot like his relationship with his loyalties--what he is performing does not necessarily match what's going on deep down, and he does not want to examine it too closely and have to deal with revelations that might go against the expectations on him and what he's resolved to live with. And, like his loyalties, I enjoy being able to decide the details of that as an individual story/setting/timeline allows!

...So I guess somewhere between "variable" and "but also, genderfluid itself works in a lot of cases"?

A ship I have with said character: AND A BROTP I have with said character: Jean and Rosaria, because while they have very different individual vibes with him, they both share the privilege of me absolutely adoring him with both of them in ANY permutation. I write him with Jean more because, well, it's Jean, but they share that particular privilege for me and so I won't try to divide these two questions up between them.

A NOTP I have with said character: I... don't really have one? I don't really feel Childe/Kaeya or Kaeya/Albedo very much, but I get where the people who do are coming from and I don't dislike them, I'm just not going to seek them out. I think pretty much all his popular pairings I'm cool with.

A random headcanon: Aside from his canonical spying on the Treasure Hoarders, I tend to headcanon that the reason we don't see them much in Mondstadt except for Dragonspine and Old Monstadt, when in Liyue and Inazuma they're implied to be much more of a danger to travelers, is that Kaeya has a complex system of deals and threats and extortion going on that comes out to, they're allowed to hunt for treasure in areas where people aren't, but they don't get to harass merchants and travelers.

General Opinion over said character: I think he's fascinating and very fun! And he has a lot of range. :> Still probably my second-favorite in the game, or one of my second-favorites, since the exact depth of my passions for various characters does shift from day to day.

Jean:

Sexuality Headcanon: Definitely sapphic, and my dominant headcanon is “bi, leaning towards women,” though “lesbian so determined to carry out her dynastic expectations that she tries to convince herself she’s bi” is a perpetually fun variant.

Gender Headcanon: I had a very long essay here citing her clothing descriptions and everything, and then the post editor crashed and I’d saved the draft just before I started on Jean, so I am NOT going to retype it and am just going to summarize with: cis female, walking a very careful line between feminine and butch because she genuinely can’t untangle her own feelings from the expectations she lives with.

A ship I have with said character: Okay I’ve tried to keep it to one ship per character for these, but you KNOW Jean is my bicycle for this fandom. XD;; That said, I’ll go with Lisa, because no matter who I pair her with, once Lisa enters the picture I immediately start thinking about how to make it poly....

A BROTP I have with said character: Kaeya, obviously! Though also Barbara, in the wistful “I would like this for them” way.

A NOTP I have with said character: I... don’t really have one. I will take Jean with ANYONE.

A random headcanon: Jean lies VERY badly. She understands when it’s necessary, and she does her best, she’s just not good at it and generally delegates any serious diplomatic/mission-critical lying to other people because she has a thousand tells.

General Opinion over said character: MY GIRL. 12/10, beautiful, stunning, powerful, perfect, no notes*. *(many notes, but all her flaws just make me love her more as a character >> I have a type and Jean is it)

[xxcr0wv0mitxx]

i've been drawing them nonstop! they're one of my fave prisoners!!

[gatheringbones]

[“If I have not already ruffled enough feathers, then let me start plucking: there is no such thing as butch flight. There are transsexual dudes who cheat themselves out of a full life for fear of being ostracized. There are butches who fear to live beyond male and female because dykes might assume they are guys. There are FtM-spectrum folk who have never been butch in their lives. And there are genderqueers who want nothing to do with our decades-old identity wars. But there is no butch flight.

There is, however, butch arrival: people who have tried other genders, most often femme and/or guy, who made the switch and joined the ranks.

So if more butches is what you want, I can get you butches.

Is your community short on butches? First, we need to remember economic class. Most of the butchless lesbian spaces I’ve seen, at least the ones strangely lacking harder butches, are also moneyed spaces. Butches, being gender-variant, tend to be broke.

Second, we need to help butches transition in. We must celebrate former femmes who want to dance the boi’s part. Like any dancer who switches roles, she’ll probably be more graceful than those who haven’t.

We also need to help MtF butches make the trip. Their roadblocks are (1) an underfunded, ageist, and rigorously heteronormative transgender medical system and (2) a lack of accessible radical gender education. You need to be a gender radical to grasp that it’s possible to transition into gender variance and come out as an unconventional kind of trans and/or woman, but most radical gender education is aimed only at those who already are out as trans and/or who the educators read as female. Why are there so many more flaming FtM dudes than butchy MtF women? Most of the trans-flamers started their critical feminist education among women who read them as gender-bending butches. And while they were included, this education did not welcome my untransitioned MtF sisters. So the swishy FtMs transitioned and most of the boyish MtFs assumed they couldn’t. But this is changing; every year, I see more MtFs in boy-drag, neckties, and mullets than ever before.

So what we do now is keep fighting gender-normativity in the medical system and orient feminist education to grasp that many “boys” are actually girls who are stuck in the closet. We do this, and the world will not only be a friendlier place for all genders, it will also have more butches. They’ll even be tall and stubbly if that’s what you’re into. And they won’t re-transition to male. Probably.”]

amy fox, from changed sex. grew boobs. started wearing a tie, from persistence: all ways butch and femme edited by Ivan Coyote and zena sharman

[janetsnakehole02]

Soooo I found this in an MCU insta comment section and now I’m about to make it everyone’s problem

Before I get started here’s my disclaimer - I personally don’t hate Sylvie, she just pisses me off a lot of the time and that’s largely the writers’ fault, not hers. Still not very pro-Sylvie sentiments here so beware. Okay now moving forward

“Definitely overhated and simply because she fell for Loki (which got misogynistic girls mad) and then betrayed him.”

Make the assumption that people who hate Sylvie are jealous that she fell for Loki ONE MORE TIME SAY IT I DARE YOU. That is such a heteronormative assumption and don’t you think it’s a little misogynistic to assume that every woman who who watches Loki is in love with him? Please, continue to erase and ignore criticism from lesbian/ace/aro fans, that’s so gracious of you. And yes, people that love Loki are obviously upset that she betrayed him. Whatever her reasons, he was still hurt in the end. He learned to trust again and it was shattered within a matter of minutes.

“The story would NOT progress without Loki, period.”

Alright, I’ll bite. First two eps are about him, sure. Loki being captured, Loki being the one to find out where the variant is hiding, Loki helping the TVA, so far all Loki. Great. Then we get to episode 3 and we’re introduced to Sylvie. She doesn’t like calling herself a Loki, constantly looks down on Loki and is laser focused on her mission. Somehow she taught herself enchantment and visibly Loki is immediately impressed; the viewers now know she’s won him over. Then Loki gets them on the train and also gets them kicked out, and all the while Sylvie has made it perfectly clear that all Loki is, is an OBSTACLE. Again, laser focused on her mission. That’s her life’s work. The first thing she says to him: “you’re in my way.” Episode 3 onwards is focused on SYLVIE’S journey to destroying the TVA. We get a flashback of Sylvie on Asgard before she was taken and later we get to see her sort of reflect on her running from the TVA before Loki jumps in to tell her ���she’s amazing!”

Everything we’re told about Loki in episode 1, however, is forgotten and ignored. Not once is it ever mentioned again how Mobius blamed Loki for Frigga’s death or how he said Loki was destined to fail so others could succeed. He sets everything aside to focus on Sylvie now. The idea to enchant? Sylvie’s. Killing He Who Remains? Also Sylvie. Loki is part of the plot, sure, and if he were completely removed from it things would be different but that is simply because he was a CATALYST in Sylvie’s mission. He was able to help her get there faster because the writers clearly wrote it so that minute he became so impressed with her the storyline would change their roles and all of a sudden it was Sylvie’s mission that took the forefront and Loki would do whatever it took to help. Sylvie clearly knew that. And the minute he expressed doubt in the Citadel, she knew he had become an obstacle once again so she kicked him out by taking advantage of his awe and trust for her (I’m not calling it love, that’s not love).

My point here is that even if Loki hadn’t been a part of the plot, Sylvie would’ve still gotten to the Citadel. It was her idea to enchant Alioth after all. It would’ve taken her longer and having someone who was ready to drop everything for her helped it go quicker, but she would’ve still been able to do it nonetheless. Upon Sylvie’s introduction, the only role Loki has is moving the plot along faster. All the major plot points, the ones that are absolutely necessary for it to make sense, those are Sylvie’s. Everything Loki does from episode 3 onwards is tied back to Sylvie. Even though we know Loki has his own motivations to destroy the TVA, the focus shifts towards Sylvie’s motivations, and Loki himself even says as much in the Void. He no longer wants to destroy the Time Keepers for his own sake, no, he tells his variants he wants to do it for this AMAZING female variant, the only one he DOES trust. And it is that trust that helps Sylvie get to her end goal faster. Basically, it’s not that the plot wouldn’t progress the same without Loki, it’s just that it wouldn’t progress at the speed that it did.

“She had her reasons.”

Alright, slight tangent first, but it makes no sense to me that people respond to our complaints about Loki being pushed aside for Sylvie with “he chose not to be selfish, he chose to care about someone else, get out of here with your toxic masculinity.” Okay pull the brakes. So Loki wanting to destroy the TVA is selfish? But I thought when people were coming at Sylvie for killing He Who Remains, they needed to take it easy because she had a good reason. She did have a good reason, but what gives you the right to invalidate Loki’s reasons? Did he not lose enough of his life to the TVA for you, is that what it is? The reason people were calling Sylvie selfish is because she chose to go forward with her choice despite being informed of the drastic consequences. Neither Loki nor Sylvie knew of those consequences before talking to He Who Remains, but once they did, Loki chose to (rightly) think before they make a decision they regret and can’t take back, whilst Sylvie saw his mindset as nothing but an obstacle.

Actually, the way Sylvie reacted the minute Loki showed any signs of disagreement was scary to me. It reminds me of people in my life who have tried to get me to do something that could get us into major trouble and I ask them to be reasonable, think it through first, and not act on impulse. Then they gets a crazed look in their eyes, similar to the one Sylvie had when she said “why are we not seeing this the same way?” Honestly it really creeped me out. She can’t handle being told “no,” for once in her life, and she lashes out by insulting Loki: “this was all because you wanted the throne.” That is so SO toxic I don’t even know where to begin. That is a manipulation tactic used by people like Sylvie to get people like Loki to do what THEY want. Because internally when someone says such outlandish falsehoods about you, you feel the need to prove them wrong. So eventually you give in - fellow non-confrontational girlies you know what I’m talking about. But Loki didn’t. He stood his ground, made sure she knew that he didn’t want the throne but that he also wasn’t budging. And Sylvie had to take drastic measures.

That got away from me a bit but anyway, she had reasons, yes, but so did Loki, and look at the difference in his reaction and hers. I’m not using that to invalidate her trauma. What I’m trying to say is that if she knew how terrible it was to be on the run from the TVA, she wouldn’t have wanted to subject others to the same kind of treatment. Which is what would happen once the multiverse breaks. And this plays into how she was so intensely hero-coded, which I’ll get into next.

“There’s a beautiful foundation for a complex, traumatized, and strong female superhero to be made there.”

You had me until “superhero.” Because nothing Sylvie does matches up to what a hero would do. She put her own revenge over the fate of the entire universe. That’s not something a hero would do. She burned brainwashed minutemen alive (while she KNEW they were brainwashed and variants like herself) and enchanted them to the brink of insanity. Hunter C-20 didn’t survive it. That’s not something a hero would do either. And it was frustrating how the writers tried to pass her off as a hero by having her call out Mobius on “arresting little girls, classic hero stuff.” Making Sylvie say that line sounds incredibly hypocritical. And listen, they’re right, this is a solid foundation - FOR AN ANTIHERO. I’d actually be all for this plot if the writers weren’t always trying to get us to root for her. If the writers hadn’t always been trying to excuse her actions and instead simply portrayed her with no filter as the morally gray character she is, then it would’ve been fine. The same way Wandavision a) successfully acknowledged and kindly validated Wanda’s trauma and b) made sure that it came off very clearly that THAT DOES NOT EXCUSE HER ACTIONS IN WESTVIEW. I wouldn’t consider Wanda a superhero and I don’t want her to be either. There’s no shame in being a morally gray character or an antihero. What’s frustrating is if the writers try to portray such a character as either a) fully a hero, the way they did with Sylvie, or b) fully a villain, the way they did with Loki.

“Sylvie is underrated and her powers and trauma are overlooked by the viewers.”

I wouldn’t call Sylvie or her powers underrated. She has a lot of fans and there are thousands of fan pages for her. It’s very clear that the show hyped up Sylvie’s powers more. There was a scene in episode 2 about all of Loki’s powers, but with Sylvie, we got a bit of that added “I taught myself” and then we watched her enchant Alioth a few episodes later. Not to mention she actually got the Loki outfit and Loki didn’t, not once, in a show named after HIM. I’ve seen all the edits on my explore page, alright, it’s pretty obvious that everyone thinks Sylvie’s powers are great. Anytime someone makes a compilation of “magic in phase 4,” Sylvie is always included. The show’s intention was “Sylvie > Loki, Sylvie = superior Loki.” And that may not be what ALL fans believe, but some definitely do. And most are pretty fond of Sylvie overall, so again, underrated is not the right word for her or her powers.

Now her trauma - that’s a different story. I’m not sure how ALL the viewers perceived it, but based on the interviews we’ve seen, it’s clear the writers themselves think Sylvie has been through more and that Loki’s is insignificant: “Sylvie has deeper scars” -Eric Martin. “Loki uses his trauma as an excuse to be selfish.” -Michael Waldron. And a lot of fans, at least from what I’ve seen, think that Sylvie had a harder life growing up because she didn’t grow up with the royal lifestyle like Loki. I also saw someone say that Sylvie’s backstory failed to evoke any pathos compared to Loki’s, though. Comparing trauma, no matter which side, is unacceptable. That’s all there is to my Ted talk thanks for coming

Tagging some moots that I think would enjoy this bc I am actually really damn proud of this lmao and I 100% want it to get more traction I’m not ashamed to admit it @lil-stark @valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn @mostlylokisometimesbucky @ashdoesfandom @musclesandhammering @alwida10

[lucianalight]

It's disturbing that the Loki series is now responsible for new transphobia terms for trans and genderfluid individuals to be h*rassed by. Phobs have discovered the word autogynephilia. This was the problem of claiming to be trans positive in your interviews when the series labels the sex(gender)fluid man as a narcissist. The series never cared to discuss LGBT+ themes, trauma, or the exploration of self love with an ounce of compassion.

I didn't know what autogynephilia meant and I searched it and I'm still fuming because I can't believe how transphobic it is.

"Autogynephilia” is a sex-fueled mental illness created by Ray Blanchard in 1989. Blanchard defines it as “a man’s paraphilic tendency to be sexually aroused by the thought or image of himself as a woman."

"One of the key concepts in this model is the premise that everyone who is gender variant can be categorized based on one of two “male” sexual interests: homosexuality or paraphilia." [X]

In contradiction to the commonly accepted model (both then and now) that transgender people have a gender identity that is incongruent with their birth-assigned sex, and distinct from their sexual orientation, Blanchard proposed that there were two fundamentally distinct types of trans women, each with a different sexual-orientation-related cause. Blanchard presumed that heterosexual trans women (i.e., those who are exclusively attracted to men) were driven to transition because of “homosexuality.” And he claimed that all other trans women (i.e., those who are lesbian, bisexual, or asexual) suffered from a “misdirected heterosexual sex drive” that led them to become attracted to the idea of becoming women themselves. Blanchard called this supposed misdirected-heterosexual-sex-drive “autogynephilia,” and he believed that it was simultaneously 1) a paraphilia (i.e., a pathological sexual desire), 2) a sexual orientation unto itself, and 3) the cause of any gender dysphoria and desire to transition exhibited by this population. [X]

This theory has been refuted many times in research literature.

I am so horrified and furious that a series which was about a genderfluid character, instead of raising awareness and helping trans and genderfluid people to be seen and accepted, managed to bring back so many transphobic notions and harm trans people and their progress.

The series made people relate sex to gender identity. While sex(genitals) does not determine your gender identity. People are not sexfluid. They are genderfluid. On top of all that now it caused people to relate sexual orientation to being trans and using a transphobic term that claims many trans people have paraphilias and that's why they transition. It's gross.

Did no one do their research? Couldn't they ask for advice from experts? They could at least read comics.

In one panel comics did more for trans and genderfluid people than the 6 hours series with all their false claims. Loki casually turns into her female form while declaring that she is always herself. This is not only about what is happening in the story and the ego death, but also about her identity. And her gender identity is part of that. She says in any form she is always Loki. And that's how Loki's genderfluidity should have been portrayed. They could both be shown to alter their forms but preferring one to another. Not as two different variants with different genders. Not making all Lokis cis. Not making being female a personality trait! The show has been really harmful to trans and genderfluid people.

[jadedxrealityw]

-Chapstick- Pansy Parkinson x Female Reader

    ☼-☪-☼

   Kody: the lesbians have risen

  Request: pansy x reader where they are friends & reader loves chapsticks very much because chapped lips also the taste and the smell are cute ?? and then she has different variants of it. Pans could smell it sometimes when she purposely gets closer, got curious one time and asked for it and she casually gave it. One time Pans asked what flavour was the one on her lips right now because it's different from the usual??? and reader was like see for yourself and then they ki- IM SO GAY FOR PANSY PARKINSON - 💐

  House: Slytherin

  Possible Triggers / Warnings: lesbian power couple baby, cursing, y/n being a bottom, making out. 

    ☼-☪-☼

   since day one you had been best friends with Pansy Parkinson. Even in your small little friend group that consisted of Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini, and Theodore Nott, you just gravitated towards Pansy more. Maybe it was because you were both girls or the fact that you had met her first.

   throughout your school years you and Pansy were like a power duo. Some were scared, some wanted your title, and the rest despised you both. Even with all the popularity you weren’t mean or cude to people who didn’t deserve it. Kill them with kindness is what you’d always say.

   around your 6th year is when you enveloped your slight chapstick addiction. You had noticed your lips become more flaking and chapped as you grew up so over the summer when you visited america you bought a pack with a variety of different flavors. 

   Pansy made fun of you at first because of how quickly you had started to buy more and more until you had a collection. After all the teasing you two developed a sort of game you could say. Anytime Pansy could smell the chapstick on you she would try and guess what scent it was.

   at first it was cute and friendly, but out of nowhere she would grab your face and bring it close to hers so she could smell the chapstick. It would be so sudden and make your stomach twist in a way you had never felt before, especially when she would send you a wink after she backed away. 

   after a lot of thinking and ‘therapy’ sessions with Theo you had come to the conclusion that you had fell for your best friend. It was very cheesy, but it was true. Pansy Parkinson had stolen your heart and you terrified at the power she held over you.

    ☼-☪-☼

   7th year

   you were practically running towards the field, hoping the outfit you chose would keep you warm enough in the nippy weather. You did not want to be late to Draco and Blaises quidditch match against Gryffindor. Of course you cheered on your friends, who wouldn’t?

   you began to climb up the stairs to make your way into the stands. Once you make it to the top you gaze through the crowd and spot the familiar black haired female leaning back to look up at the sky. She looked very focused on something in the sky.

   Pansy was wearing a large black sweater with some kind of white t-shirt sticking out from the bottom with matching black pants and shoes. She looked in casual clothes- in anything really. You make your way through the crowd, pushing past a couple people while mumbling ‘excuse me’ and such.

   you take a seat next to Pansy who looks back down to face you “Thought you weren’t gonna show. You look nice by the way” she comments and you shake your head. You were wearing a black crop with matching pants and a oversized navy blue hoodie. 

   your stomach twist like many times before. “Thanks” you reply before suddenly realizing you were missing a friend “Where’s Theo?” you ask. Pansy lifts up her hand to point in front of her. You follow her finger until you spot the back of Theos head “He wanted to be closer to watch Blaise”

   you nod once before you heard Lee Jordan begin the announcements.

    ☼-☪-☼

   while watching a breeze blew past you and towards Pansy. The Slytherin girls nose scrunched up as she smelled something, something fruity? (because your gay duh) She turns to look at you, brown eyes narrowed. You felt her eyes on you and face her “What?-” 

   Pansy grabs your face with both of her hands. You could feel the cold metal of the rings she wore against your cheek. Pansy leans in close, her nose centimeters from your mouth. You could hear her sniff as your face began to feel hot. 

   she was so close. The smell of hrt minty breath from her gum she had been chewing made everything in your body flare up. It was only a second, but felt like hours before she pulled away “Your wearing strawberry” Pansy had a cocky smirk on her face as she spoke, her hands slowly falling from your face

   you blink mindlessly as you reach into the packet of your jacket. You pull out the tube of strawberry chapstick. Pansy’s smirk only grows wider “Knew it, what's my prize?” she asked. Your face twist a bit. A prize? She had never asked for one before.

   “What do you want?”

   “A Kiss”

   your mouth opens a bit to speak, but you choke on your words instead. Pansy lets out a chuckle and turns to face forward again “I’m only kidding”

    ☼-☪-☼

   you were walking alongside Pansy, Theo, Draco and Blaise. You were all leaving the quidditch field and head back to the common room. Slytherin had won and the team was going out for butterbeer at the three broomsticks. Draco and Blaise had opted out saying they wanted to celebrate with close friends.

   just you guys, how sweet.

   “So- did Y/n and Pans. I flew past you guys and for a brief second and i swore i saw you guys making out” Draco spoke making Blaise and Theo laugh. “You guys were what now? I knew you were close, but no that close damn” Draco adds were made the boys laugh even harder.

   you roll your eyes playfully and walk behind behind Draco. He doesn’t see you as you wack the back of his head “Ow!” he exclaimed. Pansy chuckles “We were not making out by the way. I was smelling her chapstick” she explains. The boys nod and silence consumes you all after that.

   that is until Theo speaks up “That’s still gay”

    ☼-☪-☼

   you all spent the night together, talking, goofing around, and drinking firewhiskey. It was a fun idea at the time, but you all got wasted more than you’d like to admit. Your E/c eyes open slowly and your met with skin? You lift your head up, you were laying on top of Pansy.

   Y/n.exe has stopped working

   she was wearing her black flannel pants as well as her matching sports bra. Your heart might have stopped right then and there. You look down at what you were wearing and noticed you only had your undergarments and Pansy’s sweater that she had worn at the game. 

   before having time to freak the hell out you heard the black haired girl mumble under you “morning” she mumbles, her eyes opening slowly. You give her a half smile before sitting up “Um- how did- how did i end up here?” you ask. Pansy uses her elbows to prop herself up.

   she pushes her bangs from her face. They had began to grow over her eyes, but refused to cut them after you said you liked them longer. “You got a bit tipsy so i brought you here to rest. As well as those three” she says and points to the floor. You raise a brow and crawl to the edge of the bed.

   on the floor was Blaise and Theo cuddling on the ground. Cute. Draco was laying next to Blaise curled up in a ball with a blanket over him. Also cute. “Damn, i guess you played mom for a bit huh?” you joke, sitting back down on the bed. 

   Pansy shrugs her shoulders “You could say that. Your hug things in your sleep, did you know that?”

   “I’m sorry what?”

    ☼-☪-☼

   later in the day you were in your own dorm room studying for an exam in charms you had the next day. While writing down a few notes you heard your door open. You place the quill down and turn in your chair to see Pansy at the door. 

   she had on a black t-shirt with a sheer long sleeve one underneath, black pants with a white dragon that stopped above her ankles and black socks with checkered vans. Pansy had a plate of food in each hand “Theo told me you hadn’t eaten lunch yet so i brought you some.”

   “You look cute by the way” she adds with a wink

   you smile lightly and pat the chair next to yours “I’m guessing you came to eat with me as well?” you ask and she nods, taking a seat. She places the plate of food in front of you and places her down as well. Pansy began to move your textbooks around as you reached into the pocket off your black jeans.

   you pulled out your new chapstick ‘fruit punch’ and took off the cap. You smear it on your bottom lip before popping the cap back on and into your pocket while rubbing both your lips together to apply it evenly. Pansy smells something fruity again and smiles lightly.

   except for this smelt different. Way different. Nothing you had worn before.

   Pansy looks at you as you grab a fork with a amused smirk “New chapstick?” she asked. You noticed her playful tone. Turning in your sea you face Pansy “Maybe, maybe not” you say vaguely, shrugging your shoulders. Pansy rolls her eyes and faces you too.

   like last time she reaches up and grabs your face, pulling it close to hers. You hear her sniff just like before, but this time her eyebrows furrow “What the fuck is that?” she asks, making you laugh quietly “Can’t figure it out?” you tease. Her brown eyes narrow into a glare “Shut up” she hisses.

   what a baby

   Pansy stays like that for a couple seconds before exhaling loudly “What the hell is it” she grumbles. A risky idea popped into your mind in an instant. It was dumb, but you were so tired of just being friends with her. You were willing to risk it all in one question.

   “See for yourself then”

   you couldn’t really remember much between the the couple seconds of silence. All you remember is Pansy’s lips on your feverishly. She leaned into kiss you deeper, making you almost fall out the chair. She was not taking it slow in the slightest.

   As Pansy’s mouth moves against yours she leans down and uses her hands to scoop up your thighs. She lifts you up and you wrap your arms around her waist tightly, making Pansy let out a muffled noise. You felt a hard surface hit your back and assumed Pansy had leant you against the wall.

   Pansy ran her tongue against your bottom lip. You open your mouth slightly for her and Pansy’s tongue slipped into your mouth instantly. You felt a cold piece of metal on your tongue that connected to hers. It took you a second to process what it was.

   she had a tongue piercing

   “You have a tongue piercing?” you ask between hot kisses. You feel her smirk against your lips as one hand traces circles on your exposed stomach. She pulls away for a moment “Yeah. Problem?” she questions, panting slightly. You shake your head quickly “Nope- it’s just really hot”

    ☼-☪-☼

   an hour later

   “You owe me ten galleons” Draco spoke.

   Blaise groans and reaches into his pocket to dig out the money and place it in his hands “Yeah, yeah whatever” he grumbles.

   Theo smiles happily “I’m so happy for them!”

   Draco nods slowly “I’m pretty sure the whole house heard them though”

    ☼-☪-☼

   Taglist: @the--queen-of-hell @sonbelleame @dracosathenaeum @pxroxide-prinxcesss 

    ☼-☪-☼

   Kody- lesbian things lesbian things. Anyways request are open, peace.

[thinkingimages]

Joan Bennett in the film Secret Behind the Door

Sexuality and Space edited by Beatriz Colomina

Elizabeth Wilson

In the early 1990s the addition of “sexuality” seemed to take the vibrant debate on space into new territory. The very title of Sexuality and Space reflects this, and as Beatriz Colomina remarks in her brief introduction to the collection of articles it comprises, to insist on “sexuality” as a component of space can be, at one level, to insert feminist concerns into a masculine discourse—although it is dispiriting if sexuality is still perceived as women’s domain, somehow suggesting that anatomy still is destiny and/or that women are still equated with the bodily in a way that men are not. As Colomina makes clear, however, the volume, like the symposium at which the papers it contains were initially presented, aims to do more than simply “include women.” Nor does it aim simply to explore “how sexuality acts itself out in space,” although this would have been an interesting subject in its own right: how actually existing urban, architectural spaces are used intentionally or illicitly for sexual purposes. We could have had papers on the role of the “cottage” (public lavatory) in gay sex, on museums as pick-up grounds for intellectual singles, on the voyeurism of peep shows, and so on. But this would presumably have been too literal a project for the theorists gathered. Instead we are invited to treat architecture as a “system of representation” on a par with film and TV, and to ask how space is “already inscribed in the question of sexuality.” Gender is inscribed in space and space is never designed in a gender-neutral way.

Accordingly, the articles range across the visual arts in a fashion that at first glance seems not so much interdisciplinary as wildly eclectic—Atget photographs of Paris, Alberti’s writings, an Australian advertisement for real estate. The approaches taken by the authors are also widely divergent.

Jennifer Bloomer has missed an opportunity to explore the purported “effeminacy” of Louis Henri Sullivan’s architectural work. She raises the interesting issue of the assumed relationship between gender identity (and/or sexual orientation) and allegedly “feminine” architectural forms and decoration, but instead of developing this theme she flirts with it, creating a theoretical bricolage that fails to achieve intellectual coherence, her discussion of the function and symbolic importance of ornament not fully meshing with the problematic figure of Sullivan. A similar collagist approach is used by Catherine Ingraham, and I can see that it may be a kind of postmodern criticism; but while it permits the introduction of a variety of interesting, if only tenuously related, points and theories, it has a modish feel, especially when the usual theoretical suspects are rounded up for an airing, Lacan’s lavatory doors making repeat appearances. By contrast, Alessandra Ponte’s essay on the 18th-century antiquarian Richard Payne Knight is very focused (as is Molly Nesbit’s meditation on the absence of “la Parisienne” from Atget’s photographs of empty corners of his city), a piece of historiographical excavation revealing the phallocentrism of 18th-century theories of architecture.

Yet most of the articles, despite their apparent divergence of subject, are united by theoretical protocols as well as by the central concern of the book as a whole, which is not eroticism but gender, and not architecture but space in a variety of manifestations, many of them historical. The main uniting factor is psychoanalytic theory.

The material throughout is rich and detailed. Beatriz Colomina contributes an analysis of representations of house designs, particularly interiors, by Adolf Loos and Le Corbusier. She explores the way in which these houses are photographed, and some of the ideas informing them, drawing out the way in which these utopian, perfect rooms are—paradoxically—theatrical sets for dramas of domestic life. There is an implied contradiction between the architect’s dream of perfect space and the actually existing mess of daily life; but either way the woman is always positioned as hidden and within, object of the male gaze. Surprising similarities (or perhaps they are not so surprising) are revealed between these modernist architects and the Renaissance architect and philosopher Leon Battista Alberti. Mark Wigley shows how Alberti, both in his treatise on the family and in his architectural writings, describes the ideal house as a building that encloses, conceals, and ultimately fetishizes heterosexual intercourse; the separate rooms of husband and wife may be entered by a private intercommunicating door, so that other members of the household need never know when the partners engage in sexual relations. More generally the domestic interior becomes, in Alberti’s propositions, a prison house for women, although Wigley suggests that this architectural manifestation of patriarchy only fully came into its own with the 19th-century bourgeoisie.

Patricia White’s paper is concerned with the filmic representation of a house, “Hill House,” as explored in Robert Wise’s 1963 horror classic, The Haunting. As she points out, this film is truly terrifying, but achieves its effects without any special effects or any actual representation of anything horrific. White identifies the underlying horror as arising from the film’s exploration of lesbian sexuality, demonstrating convincingly how the film’s central character, Eleanor, played by Julie Harris, although destroyed by Hill House, whose “gaze” she cannot escape, yet manages to “exceed” the narrative, speaking finally in voice-over from beyond the grave. White’s deployment of psychoanalytic film theory seems particularly apt and nonreductive; she uses it to bring out the ambiguity of the film, in which lesbian desire is apparently defeated and yet remains disruptive, “exceeding the drive of cinema to closure.”

Patricia White inevitably refers in the course of her argument to Laura Mulvey’s well-known article “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.”1 I have never entirely understood why this article became so hugely influential, given its negative and pessimistic reading (especially from a feminist point of view) of cinematic pleasure. But perhaps that was the point: as this volume itself demonstrates, psychoanalytic theory (especially its Lacanian variant) has been the basis for a “criticism of suspicion,” by which I mean a criticism that not only deconstructs the way in which effects are achieved and exposes meanings that might otherwise be hidden from an “innocent” audience, but invests all aspects of any aesthetic work with doubt and dubiousness. The excavation of cultural products must always, it seems, uncover skeletons. In this regard, architecture and cinema are two forms of cultural production particularly vulnerable to what Martin Jay has termed a 20th-century “denigration of vision” that has supplanted its earlier (Enlightenment) celebration.2 Viewing and the gaze, the totalizing vision and the nobility of sight, have been comprehensively delegitimated as (white, Western) masculine methods of control and domination.

In Laura Mulvey’s original article there was no place for the female spectator to lay claim to the gaze other than by becoming masculinized. Mulvey has since sought to modify this view, while never renouncing the underlying assumptions on which it was based, and she contributes to the present volume a meditation that considers Pandora and her box (“the box can … stand as a representation of the enigma and threat generated by the concept of female sexuality in patriarchal culture”), the Hitchcock film Notorious, and the idea of female curiosity as a transgressive exploration of forbidden spaces. For her, psychoanalytic theory as used in feminist criticism is transgressive, for “curiosity describes the desire to know something that is concealed so strongly that it is experienced like a drive, leading to the transgression of a prohibition,” and feminist curiosity then constitutes an unmasking of the patriarchal structures of popular, or indeed any, culture.

Yet, as Victor Burgin argues in his essay on the photography of Helmut Newton, Mulvey’s original article has itself been fetishized; its influence has neither diminished nor evolved. Having made this statement, however, Burgin himself makes little further attempt to develop it, confining himself instead to an analysis of a Newton image, interesting enough, but much narrower in focus than his opening sentence had led this reader, at least, to expect. Burgin is rightly dismissive of the way in which psychoanalytic theory has been “sociologized” and collapsed into a vulgar-Marxist version of woman-as-commodity. He might feel that Lynn Spigel’s essay on television and the postwar American suburban home is too “sociological,” but this is one of the clearest articles in the collection, a model of structural simplicity and accessibility, in which the ambiguity between public and private, outside and inside, created by the plate glass doors and picture windows of the suburban home, is shown to be reproduced by the advent of television with its concomitant notions of the living room as theater and the TV space as a safe, sanitized public space introduced into the home. (Indeed, although television created fears of a new generation of what we now would call “couch potatoes,” the screen community of the sitcom often seemed preferable to the real-life communities of the new suburbs.)

With Elizabeth Grosz’s article on bodies and cities we return to a more euphoric postmodern take on the relationship between sexuality and space. Grosz moves the discussion beyond traditional metaphors of the “body politic” or the humanist idea that at one time people unproblematically built cities; instead she explores the way in which “the city is one of the crucial factors in the social production of (sexed) corporeal bodies: the built environment provides the context … for most contemporary … forms of the body.” But disappointingly she does not develop this idea, falling back instead on a familiar and arguably exaggerated vision of a cyborg future: “the city and body will interface with the computer, forming part of an information machine in which the body’s limbs and organs will become interchangeable parts with the computer.”

Meaghan Morris’s contribution, too dense and theoretically “over-egged” (i.e., incorporating too many ingredients) to summarize, rewards several readings, and is a serious attempt both at a critique of theories and at an analysis of two specific cultural events concerning property speculation in downtown Sydney. It is insightful and thought provoking; nevertheless it illustrates both the virtues and the flaws not just of the book as a whole, but of the general state of cultural studies. Simultaneously populist and obscure, such studies can become both incoherent and philistine (although the latter is certainly not an adjective I would apply to her essay or any of these contributions).

Indeed, this is a (probably rash) generalization, not a comment on any particular article in Sexuality and Space, but if I have seemed to single out some authors for negative criticism, it is less on account of their specific contributions than because they are the heirs of what for me are ambiguous, indeed dubious, tendencies in contemporary cultural criticism, in which the debunking of Marx and all Enlightenment thought is married (or at least engaged) to a fundamentally uncritical appropriation of Freud (or at least Lacan). I have gone terminally off Lacan since I discovered that, when Antonin Artaud was his patient during World War II, Lacan showed little interest in the deranged playwright3; an illegitimate ad hominem argument, I know—but the grip of his theory on academic critics has always been mysterious to me. Even worse is a practice, which I fear may have been on occasion my own, whereby a critic distances herself ironically or cynically from an assortment of postmodern theorists (Baudrillard, Deleuze and Guattari, even Derrida and Foucault) while simultaneously appropriating their thought, not infrequently in the form of spurious generalizations—a feature, Meaghan Morris suggests, of the work of Deleuze and Guattari themselves in relation to Freud. The whole is then likely to be couched in dauntingly arcane and grammatically tortuous language. Faced with this bricolage, I am totally with Edward Gibbon—who identified one aspect of the decline of the Roman Empire as the decadence of its later literary tradition, when, he complained, “a cloud of critics … darkened the face of learning, and the decline of genius was soon followed by the corruption of taste”4—and I cannot but feel that this kind of postmodern criticism is indeed an index of decay.

But I suppose that postmodernism in general and contemporary psychoanalysis in particular is the theory our epoch in history deserves. Psycho-analysis has certainly been reconstructed to fit; in contrast to the highly moralistic and adjustive Freudianism of the 1950s, which was in any case a therapeutic and sociological rather than a critical tool, we have today psychoanalysis as an ideologically empty vessel, a theory without consequences. A fractured body of thought pleasingly open to endless reinterpretations and deconstructions, a detheorized (or perhaps etherealized) theory, it holds up a (splintered, it is true) mirror to assist in the contemplation of ourselves, one which can be thrillingly seen as “transgressive” while remaining devoid of any calls to action or any social or moral imperatives. Truly a theory for our postpolitical times.

1. Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Screen 16, no. 3 (Autumn 1975): 6–18.

2. Martin Jay, “In the Empire of the Gaze: Foucault and the Denigration of Vision in Twentieth Century French Thought,” in David Couzens Hoy, editor, Foucault: A Critical Reader (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986), 178.

3. See Stephen Barber, Antonin Artaud: Blows and Bombs (London: Faber and Faber, 1993).

4. Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985), 83.

Elizabeth Wilson is on the faculty of the School of Information and Communication Studies at the University of North London; her recent books include The Sphinx in the City and Chic Thrills: A Fashion Reader.

[transthaumaturge]

Squirrel Girl is Super Gay for her Roommate and I Want Everyone to Know

A gay infodump of sensible length by Rachel Tikvah

ALRIGHT, SO The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl was the very first comic that I ever read regularly, back when I was looking for more stories with strong female protagonists but didn't really know why. Back then I just thought I really liked strong female characters and not that I was being gay on main, but now I know the truth. The comic had a 5-year run, and it was the first time that Squirrel Girl, AKA Doreen Green, had had her own series. She had a brief run in the mid-2000's where she was established as someone who could beat up Thanos with her bare hands well, more like squirrel hands but was mostly a joke character that happened to be incredibly buff and had indestructible plot armor. USG decided that Doreen's next major life goal would be to enroll in college to become a computer scientist, because her writer, Ryan North, is really into computer science and they basically gave him free rein over Squirrel Girl canon for five whole years. Like, a solid third of the plots are solved with some kind of computer science smarts. It’s really cool. Anyway this is Doreen in one of the gayest solo pictures I could find of her on short notice, which is also one of the variant covers from the actual series:

And this is her college roommate, Nancy Whitehead:

I'm like, 99% certain that Ryan North intended for them to end up as a couple and Disney!Marvel told him no. So he decided to make them AS GAY FOR EACH OTHER AS POSSIBLE without explicitly saying that they were a couple, and it ended up going under the radar. What follows is evidence for that claim. I’m going to put a "read more” after this so it doesn’t clutter everyone’s dashboards, but please read on if you’re interested. There’s a lot of cute gayness after this point. I’m also going to put all of the image descriptions at the end, since they take up a lot of space and I don’t want to break up the flow of the post. Finally, a quick spoiler alert for one arc in the middle of the series and a couple major plot points from the final few issues.

AND THEY WERE ROOMMATES

So for a while it was just kind of hinted at that they’re in a relationship, mostly because they were basically domestic life partners for like, two whole years in-universe before the comic run ended. But it really came to a head with an arc that was ran about 2/3 of the way through the series. Some pictures of them being, like, so cute together in general and/or talking about how much they care about each other before I get to that arc, though: 

Also Doreen describes her and Nancy's cat as "co-parented" in one of the last issues:

ANYWAY, THE ARC. THE HYPERTIME ARC. So one of the villains created for the Squirrel Girl run (I think they liked making weird shit canon just because they could) was a dude who went by the name "EpicCrimez". He’s a crime streamer. He livestreams his crimes to an online audience. I don't know. *Throws up hands*

He had some kind of laser gun that he built out of scavenged alien tech but didn't really know what it did, so he shot it at Doreen and Nancy for kicks. It shot them into hypertime, so suddenly the rest of the world was moving at a fraction of the pace that they were. They were moving so quickly that they were slated to live out their entire lives over the span of a single weekend if they didn't figure out how to reverse the effects. And...they did. Live out their entire lives together. For the two of them, they were the only two people in the world. There were other people, but they looked like statues unless you spent a very long time observing them. Doreen and Nancy grew old together in a world where they only had each other. This is an incredibly cute domestic scene from a little while after they found themselves in hypertime:

Gosh, I wish I could find more official art from that arc of them just living together, it was so good. But the point is, they were both old by the time that Nancy figured out how to get them out of hypertime. And it wasn't ideal. Their bio signatures were stored in the gun that EpicCrimez shot, and they could essentially "reboot" their bodies from when they were first shot and send themselves back into the regular timestream. But they wouldn't remember anything about the life that they had shared together. Nancy almost didn't want to do it. She raised the possibility of them just living out the rest of their lives together, because she didn't want to forget their life together. This is the conversation they had:

"I don't regret any of it. I don't want to lose it, and I don't want to lose us." "You're not getting rid of me that easily." Every time I look at that last picture, which took up an entire page of the comic, I start to cry. We’re seeing the final moments of two people who love each other more than anything, who were each other's entire lives, savoring their last moments together and wondering what the future holds. Sacrificing the life that they built together so that their younger selves could live a better, fuller one. Dying in each other’s arms, scared but comforted by the fact that they had each other. And then the arc ends, and they can't remember anything, so the status quo is restored. They have some paintings they made of each other while they were living together in hypertime, but they move on pretty quickly without ever knowing the significance of those lived decades. Still, it's clear in the arcs that follow and the adventures they embarked on afterward that they would die for each other. All of that continues until the end of the last arc. Their shared apartment's been blown up at this point by a supervillain who wanted to ruin Doreen’s life before eventually killing her. And in the aftermath of the fight, they're sifting through the wreckage for anything that survived (don't worry, the cat got out in time) when they find the picture that they painted of themselves during the hypertime arc:

They have a really cute conversation about how this chapter of their life is over, but they're going to be okay and they're going to build a new life together. And then Nancy basically tells Doreen that she can't live without her:

And then Doreen says something super queer-coded about how she likes the idea of the world knowing her secret identity now:

On the very last page of the comic, after all of the action is over and the series is about to end, they're talking to each other in what's supposed to be a twitter thread and Doreen asks Nancy a very thinly veiled question about whether she still wants to spend time with her now that her identity's out. She pretends it's about a class project, but it's really not about the class project. Here's how that conversation goes:

With no knowledge of what happened during the weekend when they shared their entire lives together, without ever having heard Doreen say it to her before, Nancy’s heart still knows which words to choose. "...you're not getting rid of me that easily. <3" I believe that the author of the series, Ryan North, did as much as he possibly could to portray them as a couple without saying it outright. And as the last piece of evidence to support that claim, I want to share a response he wrote in one of the series' last-ever letter columns:

"as for more Doreen and Nancy, I hope so too. A Squirrel Girl book without Nancy would feel like--like--like some sort of hypothetical "Super" "Man" book without an equally hypothetical "Lois" "Lane"!" It's easy to write off this analysis as wishful thinking, or as a misreading of the subtext. But when the author of the series says that these two characters are meant to always be together and compares them to one of the most famous couples in any comic series ever, it's clear that there's more to it than that. 

Some Additional Thoughts: 1) Doreen and Nancy are both probably bisexual or pansexual, since they both expressed romantic interest in men throughout the series but they’re both clearly interested in each other too. There might be an element of demiromanticism there as well if part of the reason that they’re into each other romantically is because of how emotionally close they’ve become over the years. I want to make sure that that facet of their romantic orientations doesn’t get erased, because bi and pan folks get erased enough as it is. Neither Doreen nor Nancy are lesbians, just super-cool WLWs.

2) HERE’S WHAT THE ISSUE 50 VARIANT COVER LOOKED LIKE

That’s NOT a fun, totally straight way to pose with your platonic gal pal. They’re so incredibly cute together! I have no words! In Closing If you got this far, thank you so much for letting me talk to you about a comic that’s very important to me, and a couple in that comic that I care about very much. I spent way too long making this (six hours and counting), mostly in writing the image descriptions, and I’m very proud of my work but very tired now. Hyperfixation is a hell of a drug. If this resonated with you, please consider reblogging it so that more folks can see it. If not, even a like is nice. I’d also love to engage with people who have their own thoughts, so feel free to leave some comments in the notes if you’ve got an idea/a reaction/any additional cute Doreen/Nancy scenes that you’d like to share with me. At any rate, this post has gone on long enough and I don’t want to ask y’all to read any more than you have to. So have a great day, good morning / afternoon / night, and stay safe. Thanks again for reading! ~Rachel Tikvah, AKA @transthaumaturge Image Descriptions: Image 1: [ID: Squirrel Girl, a young woman with light skin, is posing in front of a brick wall that she seems to have crashed through, leaving a perfect outline of her body. She’s facing away but looking backwards over her shoulder at us and smiling. She’s flexing upward with her right arm and has her left fist resting on her left hip. Her sidekick, a squirrel named Tippy-Toe, is standing in the cutout she left in the wall and is making the same exact pose while wearing a light pink bow around her neck. Squirrel Girl is wearing brown lace-up boots, fur-lined hot pants over grey tights, and a brown fur-lined jacket with sleeves that come up to her forearms and a symbol of an acorn embroidered into the back. She’s also wearing a hairband with fake squirrel ears on it over short reddish-brown hair. She has a large squirrel tail coming out of her hot pants that sweeps down in a curve behind her lower legs. The illustration is drawn so that everything is bathed in the light of a sunset, and Doreen is casting shadows on the wall in front of her.] Image 2: [ID: Two frames depicting a scene between Doreen and Nancy in their college dorm room, with many cardboard boxes still not unpacked and sitting on a bare bed mattress. Nancy Whitehead is a young woman with dark brown skin and short, curly black hair. She's wearing black tights, a white dress-top, and a yellow cardigan over that. Her arms are crossed as she holds her white cat, Mew, against her chest. Doreen is wearing grey tights and a black long-sleeve shirt with a wide collar and white stripes across the chest. She's holding Tippy-Toe up to Nancy with both hands so she can see her better. The following dialogue ensues: Nancy: "A squirrel? But weren't you the one who was all about pets not being allowed in--" Doreen: "Yeah, I know. But this really interesting person I met today told me that obeying an unjust law is itself unjust." Nancy: "...You know, I was worried I'd get a weird roommate, but you're all right, Doreen Green."] Image 3: [ID: Doreen and Nancy are both sitting on a lavender-pink couch in nightclothes. Doreen has short, orange hair. She is wearing a loose-fitting grey long-sleeve shirt and steel-blue cutoff shorts; Nancy has cropped black hair. She is wearing a dark purple top with sleeves that come down to her upper arms, and loose-fitting navy-blue shorts that come down to her lower thighs. Doreen is side-hugging Nancy as she says, with an ecstatically happy smile, “Nancy, you’re the greatest. You know that, right?” Nancy gives Doreen a full smile as she responds, “I’d always suspected it, but it is nice to have it confirmed.”] Image 4: [ID: Nancy is shown from the shoulders up. She has short, curly black hair. She’s wearing large, disc-shaped gold dangle earrings, and a red jacket with prominent shoulders and a yellow collar. She’s fixing the observer with an angry, determined stare as she says, “She knows this man wouldn’t dream about betraying her, or he’d have to answer to me.”] Image 5: [ID: Doreen and Nancy are eating breakfast at the brown, circular kitchen table in their apartment. Doreen’s wearing a skin-tight athletic crop top that’s striped in black, red, white, and blue. Her arm muscles are well-defined and clearly visible as she puts a spoon in her mouth, closing her eyes as she does so. She has a bowl of cereal in front of her, and half a banana in front of that. Nancy is sitting to her left in a pink camisole top that’s also exposing her muscles, scrolling through something on her smartphone. Her hair is in a yellow fabric wrap that’s knotted on one side of her head. A cup of coffee sits in front of her. The clear blue sky is visible through the window centered on the wall behind them.] Image 6: [ID: Nancy and Doreen are facing away from the vantage point, walking towards an Empire State University campus building and holding hands with their fingers intertwined. Nancy is wearing a long knee-length grey coat and black knee-high boots, with a baby-blue side bag hanging from her left shoulder. Doreen is wearing a magenta sweatshirt with the periwinkle-lined hood down, light brown form-fitting denim pants, and black ankle-high boots, with a dark brown side bag hanging from her right shoulder. Trees and bushes hem the walkway in on either side. The building in front of them is dark red, with glass doors and a row of floor-to-ceiling windows on the second floor. Doreen is saying “...we’re just going to have to take the long way around.”] Image 7: [ID: Doreen is facing towards the vantage point and is visible from the legs up, standing in front of a pile of rubble in the background. She’s wearing high-waisted light blue shorts over black tights, and a red windbreaker with sleeves ending at her upper arms that’s opened to reveal a white t-shirt underneath. Tippy-Toe is sitting on her shoulder. There are two people facing Doreen, each slightly in frame and silhouetted in black against the light of the setting sun. Doreen is fixing them with an angry, determined expression, resting her right fist at her hip while she gesticulates with her left hand and says, “So! I don’t know about you all, but Melissa kidnapping my friend and blowing up my life and my house and almost blowing up my co-parented cat makes me feel like giving her a piece of my mind. Friends...”] Image 8: [ID: A full comic page. EpicCrimez is looking like a dork in a green and black skin-tight jumpsuit, bright red ski goggles, and a green wig cap with his brown hair sticking out the back in a mullet. He’s standing inside a jewelry store and holding up a fist of expensive gems and pearls-on-strings as holds up his smartphone and speaks into it. He’s facing off against Squirrel Girl, with her allies Koi Boi and Chipmunk Hunk on her right, and Nancy and Brain Drain on the left. The following scene ensues: EpicCrimez: “And for those of you just tuning in, welcome to another successful heist by your boy EpicCrimez, streaming live! Now with 10% more live crime action than any other streamer! Don’t forget to like and subscribe!! I know some of you in EpicCrimez Nation have been forgetting to do that lately. Not acceptable.” Squirrel Girl: “You picked the wrong small business to rob, crime-initiator! Because this mall is protected by super heroes.” Brain Drain: “HELLO” SG: “And also an unrelated civilian friend I brought along too!” Nancy: (Not looking up from her phone) “ ‘Sup.” EC: “Check it out--Squirrel Girl and her miscellaneous friends are here! It’s action you won’t find on any other channel!” SG: “Are you...streaming your robberies?” (Nancy pockets her phone) EC: “Yeah I am! For money reasons! And with you “heroes” in it, I’ll make even more!” SG: (Whispering to Nancy:) “Question: a fight scene just gets him more traffic, which lets him profit from this crime even more--so does this mean we don’t fight him?” N: (Whispering back:) “I feel like letting him go causes more harm, but I look forward to us teasing apart the moral implications of this later.” SG: “Nice.” SG: (No longer whispering:) “I’ll like and subscribe, EpicCrimez! I’ll like fighting crime, and subscribe... to a worldview wherein the strong protect the weak!” EC: “Oh my gosh, are you like wholesome Spider-Man or something??” At the bottom of the page, small text says: “Wholesome Spider-Man, Wholesome Spider-Man/Does whatever a wholesome spider can/Is he tough?/Listen bud/He’s here to hear you talk about your day and tell you it’ll all be fine while taking you out for your favorite meal for dinner because he knows you deserve it.”] Image 9: [ID: Another full comic page. Doreen and Nancy are in their apartment together, and their friends Tomas and Brian (AKA Chipmunk Hunk and Brain Drain respectively) are frozen as they look down at the machine that Nancy is on her knees in front of, working on. Nancy, barefoot, is wearing cerulean-blue athletic pants, a black long-sleeve spandex shirt without shoulders, and narrow-framed glasses. Her hair is partially covered by a yellow cloth head wrap tied on the left side, with black dreadlocks spilling out the side and back. The machine in front of her is made of dull grey metal, about a meter tall and roughly circular. Wires dangle out of a hatch that Nancy is fiddling with. Doreen is wearing a flowing, dark-purple pantsuit with wide, ankle-length legs and a halter top with the sleeves tied off at her shoulders. Her shoes are light-brown ankle boots with a horizontal gap on the bridge of each foot. Her wavy orange hair is parted in the middle and down past her shoulders. She looks incredibly cute. The following scene ensues: Doreen: “What do you think?” Nancy: “I think--come on you stupid screw--I think we’re still years away from this thing working, if it ever does. Who knew time machine construction is really hard, except of course for everyone who has attempted it?” (She wipes her forehead with the back of her hand) D: “Hah! No, I mean my new outfit.” N: (Looking up and checking her gf out:) “Doreen! You look amazing!!” D: “Liberated it from a very expensive department store uptown!” N: (Now standing) “Tony paid for it?” D: Tony will eventually discover he was kind enough to leave some expensive jewelry in trade, yes. I pinned a note to him so he knows.” N: “There really are advantages to being friends with billionaire playboy genius philanthropists.” D: “Right?!” N: (Taking Doreen’s hands in hers:) “It’s a shame we can’t take a picture of you all dolled up.” D: “Not without standing still for a few months, yeah. But I was thinking about that. I picked up something else at another store downtown. Thought maybe it could help us with that.” (Holding up a shopping bag with one hand while still holding onto Nancy’s hand with the other:) “Nancy Whitehead, I thought you and I might take up painting sometime.” At the bottom of the page, small text says: “Tony Stark moves from meeting to meeting, his body accumulating dozens of notes every second. He sighs. Stuff like this didn’t happen before he knew Doreen. But then he smiles, because after all...stuff like this didn’t happen before he knew Doreen.”] Images 10-16: [ID: Several pages worth of comic frames, posted together to depict one scene. Doreen and Nancy are now old women, likely in their seventies or eighties. Doreen has short, grey hair. She’s wearing a tan button-up waistcoat and an orange ascot, brown flats with an olive-green skirt, knee-length and softly pleated. Her tail is sticking out the back of her skirt over the top, bushy and brown but with stiffer, less-dense hair. Nancy has her grey-black hair done up in a ponytail, a mass of tight curls behind her head. She’s wearing thin oval glasses, black dress pants, black flats, and a lavender cardigan with a flower motif along the edges, open to show the yellow-orange top underneath. They’re standing in front of a completed time machine. On either side are tall pieces of machinery, and in the middle is a round, flat metal dais hooked up to everything else with snaking cables. The following scene ensues: Nancy: “So...this is it, babe. The new machine.” Doreen: “Your secret project! Nancy, it looks like you started from scratch!” N: That’s because I did. I finally realized our old machine was never going to work. Maybe if we had a few more decades, but...there’s no time. And given that our backs are to the wall, I took a risk. I disassembled the gun right down to the metal, and examined all the parts. And I did find something: a data chip. Doreen, the gun stored our bio signatures when it us.” D: “What are you saying?” N: “I’m saying my new machine won’t send us back in time, and we’ll still have lost a weekend of real time. But it will restore our bodies to normal time.” D: (Hugging Nancy tight:) “Nancy! You saved us!!” N: (Resting her hands on Doreen’s shoulders:) “Not--quite. There’s a catch, Doreen. Our bodies will make it...but we won’t. Look, Doreen...I’m an old woman. I’ve spent most of my life in hypertime. This wasn’t how I saw my life going, but...I don’t regret any of it. I don’t want to lose it, and I don’t want to lose us.” D: “I don’t understand.” N: “It’s like restoring from backup. Our bodies will be restored to how they were the moment we were first hit. But--that necessarily includes our brains, too. Everything we’ve done since we entered hypertime--our entire lives spent together...we’ll forget.” (She looks at Doreen in distress) D: “I don’t either, Nancy. You’ve been the most important person in my life. But if we do go back--we can do it again. All of it. It might not happen again quite the same way, but--well, like you say...we’ll have all the time in the world.” N: (Their faces inches apart, they both tilt their heads down and smile sadly:) “Twist my arm, why don’t you.” (They both step onto the dais holding hands, and blue energy starts to ripple around them:) “You filled up Spidey’s web-shooters before we go?” D: “Yep. Again.” N: “You and me, saving the world.” D: “Well,” (holding Nancy’s hand in both of her own) "No reason we can’t do it twice.” N: “You know, there’s a chance things could turn out differently, now that we’ll have video games to distract us. In 40 years we might decide we don’t like hanging out after all.” D: (Hugging Nancy even tighter than before as the energy from the time machine starts to envelop them, resting her face in the nape of Nancy’s neck:) “Nah. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”] Image 17: [ID: Doreen and Nancy are sifting through the charred rubble of their apartment as night starts to fall around them. Doreen is wearing faded blue jeans and a navy blue t-shirt with a Captain America star in the middle. Over top of the shirt, she’s wearing a dark reddish-brown leather vest with four metal studs at the four points of the folded-out collar. Nancy is wearing black tights and a light green long-sleeve shirt with olive-green sleeves. The front of the shirt has a picture of Cat-Thor, Cat God of Cat Thunder’s head on it. The following scene ensues: Doreen: “So I know we’re only a few hours into it, Nancy, but I think my identity being public isn’t gonna be as bad as I thought.” Nancy: “Oh?” D: “Yeah, Tony’s given me lots of tips, and it does honestly help to know that my parents are protected by a robot tree with laser eyes and my friends live in a city with the most super heroes per square mile.” N: “Most super villains too, but--Hold on. I think I found it.” (Nancy lifts a picture frame out of the wreckage, charred around the edges but otherwise no worse for wear. It has a painting inside of it of Doreen and Nancy, arm-in-arm, from hypertime. Doreen is wearing the lavender pantsuit from before, and Nancy is wearing a tight-fitting lilac dress.) “...And it looks like you and I made it through just fine.”] Images 18-19: [ID: Two later comic panels from the same scene. They’re wearing the same outfits, but Nancy’s now cradling her white cat, Mew, in the crook of her left arm while she holds onto the picture frame with her right hand. The following scene ensues: Doreen: “Come on, let’s talk about it! If we’re starting a new chapter in our lives, and we can decide what’s in it, what do you want it to contain?” Nancy: “Doreen...” D: “What are the three things you can’t live without, Nancy Whitehead?” N: (Holding up the picture so that Doreen can see it:) “Fine. If you must know, all this girl needs to be happy are cats and squirrels and knitting and computers and friends and secret tattoos and super heroes and lots and lots of love. Also food and shelter. And water. And internet.” D: “That’s more than three things.”] Image 20: [ID: Same scene as before, a single frame with a close-up on Doreen from her chest upwards. Doreen cups her chin with one of her hands and says, “Honestly--I thought about it. I really did. But I realized that where I am now, I’m safe and I’m loved and I kinda like the idea of not having to lie to people anymore, you know? Even if it is just a lie of omission. I want to share my whole self with the world. I don’t want to have to hide who I am anymore.”] Image 21: [ID: Something resembling a twitter thread, with dialogue between Nancy and Doreen stacked chronologically as horizontal boxes. Their respective names and handles are at the top of each of their comments. Nancy is Nancy W. and @sewwiththeflo, Doreen is Squirrel Girl and @unbeatablesg. The following conversation ensues: Nancy: “You think I’d leave you high and dry??” Doreen: “I think I don’t want our lateness harming your grades and therefore harming your post-secondary education or career choices and therefore harming your ENTIRE LIFE?!” “So yeah I think you should switch to someone else, real talk. I honestly don’t mind, I promise.” Nancy: “Please. If there’s one thing I know about you, about me, and about how we spend our future together, it’s this. Doreen Green...” “...you’re not getting rid of me that easily. <3″] Image 22: [ID: A paragraph of text, black text on a yellow background. “As for more Doreen and Nancy, I hope so too. A Squirrel Girl book without Nancy would feel like--like--like some sort of hypothetical “Super” “Man” book without an equally hypothetical “Lois” “Lane”!”] Image 23: [ID: A group picture of Squirrel Girl and friends sitting down on a grassy hill and watching the sunset together. Kraven the Hunter is in the foreground for some reason, looking almost directly at the camera. In the background we see Koi Boi, Mary Mahajan, Chipmunk Hunk, Brain Drain, and Mew the Cat. In the middle of the shot, Doreen and Nancy sit together. Doreen is in her superhero outfit with Tippy-Toe on her right shoulder, and Nancy is in a yellow cardigan and jeans on Doreen’s left. They’re holding hands, fingers intertwined, as Nancy leans against Doreen with her whole body. Their heads are tilted inward towards each other, the side of Doreen’s head touching the side of Nancy’s, as they look off into the distance together.]

[kagrenacs]

Explaining the Iceberg #6

*Some things aren’t covered, namely things i’ve already discussed or content that I don’t feel is appropriate. And not everything is covered in depth

Tatterdemalion Moon Colonies: A since deleted forum post from MK, discussing the moon colonies of Reman that would later appear in c0da

Tamriel is the Far Shores: Orgnum is the immortal King of the Maormer, also said to be the Serpent God of the Sakatal’ indicating some connection to the Yokudan God of everything, Sakatal. Orgnum’s goal is to conquer Tamriel, this theory states that he may have mantled the Yokudan God and is confusing Tamriel for the Far Shores.

Water is Memory: One of the more difficult concepts to really pin down in these kind of theories, so bear with me. This topic has been brought up a few times in older lore discussions, and once again in ESO quite recently. First there should be clarification that I mean water both metaphorically and literally, just like the towers, there is no distinction between real and fake because this is a video game world. Second thing to note: There’s a lot of conflicting theories and ideas on this, i’m only providing the way I can conceptualize this all. If I provided every theory i’d surely hit some sort of character limit. Do you remember the metaphor about every soul in existence being a singular drop in an ocean? This is looking at the ocean itself, it’s the collective consciousness and memories of everyone out there, past, present and future. But this isn’t a synonym for souls and energy, this is a whole separate process. Sometimes souls are shown to be able to live without their memories (the soul carin), sometimes reflections of people's memories get stuck to places like ghosts (memory stones) When someone dies, their soul/energy and their memories may stick together and go to an Aedra or Daedra, or they might get split apart (like a Vestige) and end up in the Dreamsleeve to get recycled and in the Drowned Lamp which is a name for where all knowledge lost to history goes. This concept can be seen with the Daedra too, when discussing the ‘waters of oblivion’ when they get banished their essence heads back to this beginning place to spring back up. Water is memory also gets brought up quite often talking about Sotha Sil, who Vivec says is the selfishness of the sea, and whose ‘daughter’ is Mnemoli/Memory.

Crassius Curio, Time traveller: Another variant on the Crassius Curio plagiarism theory, accounting for why the lusty argonian maid is in ESO.

The Republic of Hahd: Mentioned in the Pocket Guide to the Empire, a group of people who claimed they lived off the coast of summerset, in an underwater civilization called Hahd. The only point in history that they became relevant was when they received tariffs for the transport of ‘mnemolite’ from the people of Hahd to the people of Nahd, and nearly sparked war between the Empire and the Altmer as they tried to figure out what was going on. Hahd and Nahd were both made up, thought to be by a group of psjjic students, as the island of Artaeum disappeared in that same year again.

Leaper Demons: Another name for Mehrunes Dagon, before he was cursed to become Dagon. Named this because of his ability to jump from Kalpa to Kalpa

Zero Stone: This is related to the towers, it’s the ‘heart’ of the tower, the piece that keeps it stable and functioning, essentially like a cornerstone. For the Red Tower and Walk-Brass this was a literal heart (the Heart of Lorkhan), but sometimes it’s other things like a fruit, or a person.

Tiber Septim Awoke Dagoth Ur: In the same short time as the Tiber Wars, where Tiber Septim was attempting to conquer all of Tamriel, Dagoth Ur awoken in Morrowind, which eventually forced ALMSIVI’s hand in signing the Armistice that would make Morrowind a part of the empire, hand over the Numidium, but allow Morrowind to largely keep it’s sovereignty. This theory suggests that Tiber Septim purposefully awoke Dagoth Ur as a long-term strategy, rather than trying to defeat ALMSIVI in wars. If not done purposefully, Dagoth ur may have been awakened by the presence of Tiber Septim (whose thu’um seemed to have came from Wulfharth, a survivor of the battle of Red Mountain and associate of Dagoth Ur)

Akatosh’s Shadow: MK mentioned Peryite as Akatosh’s shadow. Akatosh/Auriel largely introduced stability into the chaos of the Dawn Era as the God of time. Peryite has a similar function, that being natural order, where he micromanages Oblivion and Nirn. There’s more to this theory that i haven’t included due to sake of brevity  https://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/4zct3i/the_shadow_of_aka_peryite/

The people of Et’Ada: Mentioned in the books The Light and Dark and Sithis, the people of et’ada are the descendants of the clash between Anu and Padomay, the original spirits that would give up their forms to become mortal

The Dwemer became their creations: A thought that instead of the commonly accepted Numidium Skin Theory, the Dwemer souls are the ones powering their automatons. 

Lefthanded Maomer: An in-universe theory that the Lefthanded elves and the Maomer are related. Evidence for this may exist in Orgunm being ‘Sakatal’

Skyrim getting Colder: A theory that says Skyrim is entering the ice age because of the recent snowfalls and the presence of Sabertooth cats and mammoths.

Anti-Magik Zones: Probably taken from D&D, areas where magic doesn’t work for some reason or other.

The Greedy Man: Another name for Lorkhan due to him ‘stealing’ the divinity of his fellow Et’Ada

Vvardenfell Lesbian Anomaly: The prescence of a large amount of wlw npcs in ESO and the presence of Tel Mora, an island full of women and Mistress Dratha who says she hates men. While the ESO one i’d argue that there’s a fairly equal spread of same sex couples, and Tel Mora is certainly the original developers adding in something ‘strange’ by having an entirely female island, various Lgbt fans of the games have made their own theories on this. @boethiah has proposed that Tel Mora was established as a safe place for lesbians, and Telmoran is the in-universe equivalent to ‘lesbian’ 

Prism Textract: A reference to a book from the mod Legacy of the Dragonborn

Ruptga: The chief god of the Yokudan Pantheon, people debate on whether he’s equivalent to Akatosh or Magnus, if he’s even equivalent to any god. He was the first god to figure out the Walkabout, and taught the other gods how to survive Sakatal (God of everything) shedding its skin.

The Elder Council world control:  References a theory that the Elder Council is an incredibly powerful political entity that controls the entire world. (looking at how things were handled in Oblivion, doubtful.)

Tiber Septim Shapeshifting dragon: Ingame theories that Tiber Septim was a shapeshifting dragon based on the empire’s affiliation with them. (source seems to originate from GT Noonan, pre-Oblivion and Skyrim) Could be an early idea for Dragonborns, or perhaps just a wild conspiracy theory.

Insane Time-God: Another MK text, et’Ada Eight Aedra, Eat the Dreamer. States Aka has gone insane due to how many names he has

The Staff of Unity and Chaos: The object you need to assemble in tes Arena. Is able to open gateways to other realms, near instantly kill people. In some of the early drafts of the main quest of ESO, a similar relic was proposed called the Staff of Towers, and would have been similar to the main quest of Arena.

Dracocrysalis: Mentioned in the Nu-Mantia, it’s largely unknown what this means apart from ‘it keeps elder magic bound so it can’t change into something lesser’ based off wording it probably means something akin to changing into a dragon.

Telescopic Aurbis: Refers to a quote from MK A single Wheel? More like a Telescope that stretches all the way back to the Eye of the Anui-El, with Padomaics innumerable along its infinite walls. Essentially this refers to the cycle of Kalpas, all wheels lined up with one another would make a telescope-like shape. The focal point of the telescope would be Mundus, ascending upwards you hit oblivion, then Aetherius surrounding that, and then lesser, more chaotic realms beyond that. This is also mentioned in the Murkmire book ‘Lost tales of the Famed Explorer.’

Gaenor is Sai: Gaenor is said to be one of the hardest bosses of Morrowind, in the Tribunal expansion you can give him gold and allow him to become an incredibly strong warrior. He has incredibly high luck (770 points) making him difficult to hit. This theory states that he is either Sai, the god of luck himself, or a champion of his.

Haskill is the Actual Mad God: This might be a couple different theories. 1st: The events of the Shivering Isles is a trick played on the player character by Haskill/Sheogorath, and the Sheo you see and interact with is just a projection. 2nd: From a loremaster interview from ESO, Haskill states he’s the ‘vestige’ of Sheogorath, the mortal remnants of the person who mantled the mad god in the last greymarch.

Moraelyn=Nerevar: Moraelyn of the King Edward books was likely an early draft for Nerevar. Both have association with roses, both are from House Mora and are considered a champion of the Dunmer. He probably participated in the War with the Nords, being described in the 36 Lessons.

Tsaesci Vampire Language eaters: From MK’s And we ate it to become it and another interview. https://www.imperial-library.info/content/fireside-chats Tsaesci feed on language, he doesn’t state if this is metaphorical, or literal (if that even matters in these games)

Scarab’s transformation: Refers to Scarab that Transforms into the New Man, or Amaranth. The Scarab is a metaphor for godhood. (Scarabs are symbols of divinity in Ancient Egypt) and the New Man is a person achieving Amaranth and creating a new dream/universe.

Trinimalarky: A fun name for Malarky. 

King Dead Wolf-Deer: A Bosmer transformed by the Wild Hunt. Lived from the first era until the beginning of the third.

Multiple Underkings: Another statement by MK, general consensus seems to be this refers to the existence of the Underking as two people, Wulfharth a nordic general from the 1st era who held the title. Zurin Arctus, who may have taken up the title after the 2nd Era, when Tiber Septim turned him into an undead being. Or both of them sharing the same body known as the ‘Underking’

Thot-Box: https://www.c0da.es/thotbox/7b10359a40bba7d2e654bc10226f694a68009f15 the worlds worst choose your own adventure. From what I understand of KIMMUNE, a thot-box is some sort of AI

Baar Dau is Shit: Pretty well known at this point. One myth states that Malacath got into a disagreement with Vivec and pooped on Vivec City..

Nu-Hatta: In reference to the person, they’re an ancestor cult member. Otherwise this is used to refer to the Nu-Hatta Intercept written by MK. The text in question seems to be a list of the various ways mortals have achieved divinity. 

Talos brought back dragons: Not sure about this one, there’s too many results to filter through to find what this is specifically about

Lyg’s Numidium: The thought here is that if Lyg is the parallel to Tamriel, then it should also have a Numidium that reinforces time and makes events a reality.

Dawn Era Ideological warfare: From UESP, Quote: The Dawn Era was a period during which time followed an incomprehensible nonlinear path and the very laws of nature remained unset, making a timeline an artificial fabrication. A conflict was simultaneously a mere ideological difference of opinion and a manifest war. What this means in simple terms, all possible outcomes in the Dawn era were simultaneous. This might also refer to the Ehlnofey wars where the wandering ehlnofey (ancestor of men) and the old ehlnofey (ancestor of mer) differed in opinion about the existence of Mundus and went to war.

Vivec destroyed Yokuda: A reference to the 17th lesson of Vivec, where Vivec states For a year they studied under their sword saints and then for another Vivec taught them the virtue of the little reward. Vivec chose a king for a wife and made another race of monsters which ended up destroying the west completely. In a literal sense (not that this means much in context of the lessons), this seems to indicate that Vivec created the sword saints, who ultimately ended up sinking Yokuda with the Pankratosword technique. Vivec also said malewife rights.

Ayrenn KIMMUNE: Another MK text. This one states Queen Ayrenn is actually a 9th era cyborg from the future. This was written after MK read an early draft for the Dominion quests and wanted to make it cooler. The writers of ESO have stated they don’t consider this canon.

Tiger Guars: A bit of old morrowind lore, Imperials would mistakenly call Guars, ‘tigers’

Hermaeus Mora is a failed Elder Scroll: Two theories here: 1st: The Black Books are Mora’s failed attempts to create Elder Scrolls (The first pages reference concepts such as the Dreamer and CHIM, Elder scrolls are fragments of creation) 2nd: Hermaeus Mora himself is a failed Elder Scroll. The Census of Daedric Princes describes him as ‘born of thrown-away ideas used during the creation of Mundus’

SITHISIT: the Ehlnofex word for Sithis

Khajiit Tattoo theft: Rajhin the thief god was said to steal a tattoo off Empress Kintyra’s neck as she slept. 

Mythopoeia: irl, it’s essentially a term for ‘world-building’ In the context of the elder scrolls, it means the ability to affect reality using belief or the will to change (similar to CHIM) In morrowind Yagrum uses it to describe the enchantments Kagrenac placed upon the tools. 

Dragons Biological Time-Machines: In the early drafts for dragons, MK described them as Biological Time-Machines. While this isn’t entirely reflective of what they are now, some truth holds. Being shards of Aka, dragons inherently have some ability to alter time itself.

Argonian Tits: I can’t keep doing this.

The Elven Lie: From what I gather, it seems to relate to the idea that the gods are infallible, when in fact they have weaknesses and flaws.

[laufire]

i want to hear more about the following wips: megstiel role reversal, lesbian mary, and all the kaia ones?

(from this list)

MEGSTIEL ROLE REVERSAL

The idea came from this anon’s prompt and it’s evolved into a series of prospective one-shots, each focusing on a different episode from s4-5 (not all of them, as I have little interesting in rewriting some of their plots. Just the ones where I’d get a lot out of Meg, Castiel, or their dynamic with each other).

They’ll be mostly from Meg’s or Castiel’s POVs, although Sam and Dean will have theirs here and there; for example, “The End” is from Dean’s POV. I considered starting 4x01 with his too, but lately I’m leaning towards Castiel’s, as he’s sort of another Lazarus in that one -I’ve made him a brand new demon (although he spent his sweet time in Hell before that), because I wanted to explore how that perspective could be, and as a contrast to Meg as this ancient creature who’s Seen It All.

I want to keep most of the AU choices I’ve made for this series to myself, at least for now, but a couple I don’t mind throwing in is that Crowley is the demon Castiel made his original deal with (I’ve posted a tiny snippet about it here), and that Ruby survives 4x22 (Castiel is not an angel and can’t send Dean to the convent, while Meg remains loyal to Heaven’s cause at least at that moment, so things go down a little differently).

LESBIAN MARY

This WIP was born due to my frustration with fandom’s utilitarian lesbian headcanons, especially when it comes to this fandom. They’re way too often solely to remove a female character from the shipping board. If it was more about the f/f pairing, there would be no reason not to make them bi if they canonically showed feelings for men, js. Plus frankly, it leaves a bad taste whenever I see specifically the Cool Lesbian, Seductress Of Men variant. A lesbian who sees themselves cornered into having to respond or use men’s attraction to her isn’t a Cool Story, it’s fucking tragic. And it just... bothers me that fandom takes lesbianism, something removed entirely from men, and makes it about men, and their ships. Ugh.

That thought process led me to think about the possibility of Mary being a lesbian, because there’s NO way to think about it as “cool”. It’s horrifying. It takes Heaven’s violation of her to another level. And it could be interesting, cathartic, and painful to explore in a fic.

My disappointment with her s12 plot further shaped the story. I’ll likely ignore a lot of the BMOL content because uhhhh. It sucked xD. So plot-wise, idk what I’ll do. It’ll be a more internally driven story, with Mary finding out about the cupids’ plot reclaiming that part of herself, figuring out what she and her sons are going to be to each other, learning about what happened in her absence, etc. Also, with 4x03 and 5x13′s actress in mind, because that’s who I’ll always see as my Mary, and I reiterate it would’ve been a lot more impactful when it came to her dynamics with her sons.

KAIA & KAIA TBP / RESURRECTED DARK KAIA

I’m putting these two together because it’s not unlikely they’ll be part of the same story, or at least the first and last parts of a series.

“Kaia & Kaia TBP” is about Dark Kaia nursing Kaia back to health et al, from the original Kaia’s POV and entirely canon-compliant, going roughly from 13x10 to 15x12 to encompass all the time we missed with her.

It’s also VERY likely that there’ll be an interlude between the two stories (15x12-15x19), with Claire and Kaia’s reunion, the two of them getting together and finding some balance, etc. In Claire’s POV.

“Resurrected Dark Kaia” is exactly how it sounds. Since Jack already brought back the people Chuck killed in their world, I don’t see how his god-like powers wouldn’t allow him to restore the destroyed alternate universes, that he also canonically worries about (Jack Ex Machina, my favourtie post-series plot device asñdlkfjaf). So Dark Kaia would be back, in her world, and the two Kaias would dreamshare again. I don’t know much yet about what happens next, but it’s in Dark Kaia’s POV.

DARK KAIA LIVES

Instead of needing to be resurrected, this time Kaia tries and convinces Dark Kaia to save herself and return with her. Reluctantly, she’s made a space in Sioux Falls as well, where both she and the rest will struggle with the situation. Lots of Claire-Kaia-Kaia shenanigans will occur. For now I’ve only written snippets in Claire’s POV (one where she and Kaia talk about the complications with Dark Kaia, and how both Kaias are the same, but not, but yes, but-; and another after the WS hear about Dean’s death which is... tense -Dark Kaia is NOT a fan lmao), but that might change.

WAYWARD SISTERS AU

This is probably the most ambitious one of all the above. It’s a “what could have been” story about exactly that -what Wayward Sisters as a show could’ve developed like. I want it to follow a structure similar to an actual show: chapters as episodes with their own monster of the week, a “seasonal” plot (firstly, Claire’s search to find who “killed” Kaia), etc. Being VERY ambitious, it’ll cover the remaining SPN canon, maybe a bit more, while likely rewriting a lot of it Because.

It’ll have POVs for each of the characters: Claire, Patience, Alex, likely Jody and Donna, and maybe both Kaias, although probably not since the beginning.

It’s going to need me to create waaaaay too many OCs if I want to do it right, but I think it’s doable. And I plan to use this WIP as an excuse to bring here all my beloved female characters whenever possible. For example, I already have a plot all laid out to bring my dear Bela into the fold xDD, with significant Claire & Bela scenes, and an appearance of the SPN characters for a reunion or two.