#so much subtext

[chlochette-sunde]

As an introduction to Tumblr, I wanted to share my thoughts on Supernatural so far.

I started watching the series earlier this year. It had been recommended by a friend of mine, who insisted that "it was so cool! And all the characters are great! And the music!"

I confirm the first seasons were cool. I could feel there was a certain... subtext but I couldn't really discern it at the time.

Then came season 4 and Castiel. And a whole new world (or "trashcan" as some of you call it) opened to me.

I haven't finished watching the whole serie yet (I just started season 14) but I can already say that watching Supernatural is draining me. Because its subtext is just so dense and heavy. It is exhausting to notice all these clues and innuendos that they regularly insert and never resolve.

And I'm not even a queer looking for these clues and innuendos. I'm just an ally with eyes, sensitized to these topics and tropes.

If it's exhausting for me, I can't even imagine how it's been for some of you who were looking for glints of recognition of your everyday realities, orientations or battles.

I am a Destiel believer and had been before spoiling myself with the serie's ending. I do believe Destiel is Cockles' fault. And I also believe Dean is a closeted bi.

I strongly believe Supernatural would have been drastically different if it had been host on another network. I mean: thousands, or maybe even millions, of us are aware that Supernatural is/can be queer coded. Jensen & Misha won an award for best chemistry and Destiel is still the ship that inspires the greatest number of fanfictions on AO3, by far. And I believe it happened for a reason.

Sure, Cockles helped. A lot. But what we acknowledged as clues and innuendos weren't just the happy accident of the chemistry between Jensen and Misha. It was how the episodes were scripted, how they were directed, how they were edited, even how the music was added sometimes.

I have to believe that the whole crew knew exactly what they were doing, that they shared as many ideas as they could through subtext. And if it is indeed the case, I also feel for them because it must have been straining to tiptoe on this thin line for 15 years.

Now that this have been expressed, I can go back to season 14.

I'm counting on you for a warm welcome!

Cheers from France 🇲🇫

[aheathen-conceivably]

Gio you piece of shit. WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO THE WOMAN YOU LOVE???? I'm going to go insane what is wrong with him (joking. Kind of) - LGL

Oh, LGL, however did I know this little wrinkle with Grocery Boy would bring you out of the woodworks…

I could literally write a mini essay on this so I’ll try and overview it as fast as I know how because we have some toxic dynamics building up right now, and without seeing that clearly the story may go off the rails very quickly.

Let’s go back to the 1920s. I admit I did not show this dynamic as explicitly as I would have liked, but you can see it in this post. Josephine in some ways delights in knowing that Giorgio is “below” her, in feeling like she’s the one with the power in their relationship. She gives him just enough emotionally but never all that she knows he needs and craves (see this post too).

Despite this (and perhaps because of it), Giorgio is hooked on her. He’ll never admit it (not even to himself), but in doing this he’s trying to reverse that power dynamic. Now she is the one who needs him, and that’s all he’s ever wanted. At first this was just a desire for his partner to need and rely on him emotionally (again, here), but the more Josephine manipulated that and put him down, the more this evolved into a larger complex.

Of course the reasoning that he gives is not totally fabricated, and Giorgio knows better than any of them just how bad the economic situation is. His father is a mafia leader (which has been alluded to), and it’s clear that he has intel into the larger issues in this era. It’s important to note that while we see this clearly in hindsight, it’s perhaps not as clear to those living it day to day. So when he says that he’s doing it for them, he means it. New Orleans in the 1930s is in horrible economic straights, and he was offering the lifeline he has to his friends and the woman he loves. As we’ve now learned, this lifeline is far from perfect (looking at you barren soil and home loan), but when you consider the alternatives and the value of a home itself, it is at least a base to weather the storms of the decade.

However, he knows that Jo would not accept a lifeline, because it would make her dependent and indebted to that person, therefore giving them power over her (which she admits to herself here). So he told himself that he was obscuring part of the truth for her sake, not his own. But then we’re right back to Gio’s underlying, more manipulative reasons, which now color this new dynamic and put Josephine in a situation that while “safer”, ultimately robs her of making an informed choice and meeting Giorgio on equal footing if she had chosen this on her own.

[amuseoffyre]

"You can't catch a fish, unless the fish wants to be caught." "And you're the fish?" "...we're the fish. I think."

[cthulhum]

does anyone realize how crazy it is to have the actor of a mostly headcanoned queer ship say the fans were never crazy and they were right all along after 10+ years of everyone just absolutely going nuts over the said queerbaited ship

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Normal Friend Behaviour.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[dungeonrabbits]

"chilchucks a real hater"-wrong! chilchucks a lover!!

[lizardson]

I understand people who hate lirin (he is a very frustrating character) but I also think they tend to ignore that he spent years believing he killed both his sons because he refused to give in to roshone. The way he treats kaladin is awful, but it comes from a place of intense shame and regret, not a place of judgement. When he tells kal that he should've obeyed and proven himself to his masters instead of fighting against them, he says it because that's what he wished he had done. Lirin in RoW is not the same person from the WoK flashbacks and his extreme and irrational moral rigidity is the result of trauma and grief, not just "he's a surgeon so he thinks killing is bad."

TLDR lirin is more complex than people give him credit for and also your son miraculously returning from the dead doesn't negate believing for years that you killed him by having the audacity to fight against your oppressors. thank you for coming to my ted talk

[arillustrated]

thinking about mizu from blue eye samurai. thinking. thinking so much. thinking about how mizu operates outside of gender. like we joke about her gender being revenge but straight up? it literally is. like she grew up as a boy and is most comfortable being a man, but behind that is the feeling of betraying himself because he isn't being honest about who he is and he lives in fear of being discovered. and when he lived as a woman, she found joy there as well. she fell in love, and though she wasn't good at it, she liked being a wife and enjoying a simple life. but in that life too, she isn't being honest about who she is. and when she reveals her true self, it's not a woman, she's a demon, a weapon. she's to masculine to be a woman, and too feminine to be a man. ultimately, mizu is most comfortable when they are being a murder machine. that's when they feel they are being the most true to themself. like a sword, they are neither man nor woman, but a blend of both, which makes them stronger.

[fuckitdoaquadflip]

Idk yall the whole premise of wade believing so strongly that there was another logan out there that would help him because that's what HIS logan would do and also the "worst" logan at his lowest and still being willing to help when none of the rest would even hear him out and then finding someone to live for again is just so fucking fruity like

[bixels]

Taking the current topic as an excuse to ask you to tell me all the reasons you love Rarijack. Your art for the ship is so sweet and intimate I'd love to hear any in depth thoughts you have.

Breathes in.

I think what makes their dynamic really strong is that they have opposing personalities but aligned values. It's deeper than just "opposites attract." Rarity's fancy, prissy, and femme while Applejack's modest, rough, and "masculine." But both value hard work (to the point of being workaholics), their families (both have guardianship over their little sisters), running successful businesses, and eventually each other. Their relationship can be boiled down to, "Despite our differences/disagreements, I still like you because we value the same things."

We see their relationship develop so much. In the first season, they can't stop bickering about surface-level differences. By season four, they still bicker, but will mend their relationship because they can't help but do nice things for each other. In Trade Ya, they start off arguing over personality differences (Applejack likes old junk and Rarity likes useless crap). Then they pivot and start arguing that they value their relationship more than the other. In the end, they mend things by sacrificing their needs and buying each other a gift. Even if they don't understand it, they know it'd make the other happy. And that's all that really matters. It's a genuinely sweet moment that shows how arguing can be healthy and necessary for relationships to strengthen.

We even see them dropping their hang-ups about each others' personalities. In Made in Manehattan, when Rarity runs off in dramatics about someone's fashion, AJ doesn't roll her eyes or scoff, she smiles. Oftentimes, their conflicts are very common domestic conflicts romantic couples face. Applejack's Day Off is about a woman's inability to balance work and life and find time to properly spend with her partner, causing her partner to feel neglected.

By season seven, they're actively participating in each others' interests. Any problems or conflicts that arise are dealt with, and they come out the other end stronger and closer. In Honest Apple, AJ pretty much spells out why their relationship works so well: even though she doesn't understand fashion, she can recognize and appreciate how much work it takes and wants to respect that. When she realizes her mistake in the episode, AJ goes above and beyond to fix things and apologize to Rarity. They care about each other so much.

The two go out of their way, sacrificing their personal desires and beliefs and doing things they normally wouldn't, to make the other happy. That's just love.

There's Simple Ways, where AJ gets stuck in an unwanted love triangle between Rarity and her hipster crush. And her frustration and anger can be so easily interpreted as AJ finding herself in a terrible position; the girl she loves wants another man, and that man wants her.

I dunno. I've always had a preference for opposites attract ships, but Rarijack's stuck with me like a brain worm because they have the perfect chemistry. The way they show they care, or do things for each other, I've always read it as the truest representation of romance in the show.

[ofswordsandpens]

thinking about how the (greek) big three swore to never sire any more demigod children because those children are just too powerful (dangerous) and also thinking about how the characters that, arguably, seem to have the greatest proclivity for cruelty in the name of justice or vengeance are also the (greek) big three children... there's something there, a connection to be made I'm sure of it

[oconist]

franco colapinto + what gets lost in translation

R.F Kuang, Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence / Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quijote de la Mancha / R.F Kuang, Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence / John Ciardi, Translator's Note in Dante's Inferno

i've seen in the past days multiple interviews by franco in spanish that have been translated to english. there isn't a single way to translate, nor there is there a way to convey everything that is being said when translating. as someone that translates from english to spanish and viceversa frequently, a language does not stand on it's own. it has a culture, a context, mannerisms that don't really exists in the language it's being translated to, and all a translator can do is try and convey everything the best they can just using words.

franco is, after all, argentinian, and has spanish as first language. he prefers to talk in spanish over english, and with the rise of translations due to the amount of interviews he does in spanish, i've seen a lot of either mistranslations or translations that don't fully convey the context or the nuances of what is being said, and act like franco textually said that.

that's why i urge non-spanish speaking people to not take every translation as it is. dig a bit deeper before misinterpreting translations of what he said. language isn't just a mash of words that can be translated one-to-one and still keep the same meaning.

with that said, i want to dedicate this web weaving to @divorcedpierresteban, the ennabler of me making this.

[casscainmainly]

I know people love saying 'Bruce is a girldad' and I totally get it, we want to show how much he loves Cass and that she's his daughter. But Bruce's initial love for Cass was largely predicated on how not girly she was. He openly dislikes her girlhood throughout Batgirl 2000 (including but not limited to: dismissing her civilian identity, berating her for any romantic attempts, weakening her friendship with Stephanie, undermining her relationship to Babs, etc. etc.). Cass' femininity interferes with his ability to project onto her, so a lot of the time he just dismisses it. Is it really a coincidence that Bruce's only adopted daughter is one who wasn't raised as a girl?

[strangerinthelight]

Can we talk about this scene for a minute? Because after the whole “it’s about who” thing it makes it so much better. Loki basically flying at Mobius because subconsciously he needed him more than anything in that moment is just sheer perfection

[hallucinatinghalos]

I don't think this contains spoilers but if you don't want to hear any book references or season 3 speculation be warned.

Reading the interview clip where Sam Reid said that Lestat is ripped from the stage by Magnus is wild because we know he knows the books, that's not how it happens there, so he's maybe let Rolin's version slip. Which, if holds true, would be a seismic change. Instead of being torn from Nicki's arms while they sleep, Lestat would be taken during a performance, in front of an audience. Surrounded by humanity, by those he loves, but not a soul can save him. The one place that brought him joy would now be connected to the trauma of Magnus and his turning. If he truly is going to be the catalyst for the theater becoming hunting grounds in the show, for better or worse, it would seem to be related to this change as well. Also, his rockstar moment would have a desperation to it that reflects the books but is tragic in its own way. It would all become devastating in a subtly different way than how Rice wrote it. Even events that only happen in the show would have a different impact. Like Armand first approaching him telepathically while he was on stage would now seem cruel and calculated, and later choosing to put the trial on stage. Sorry about the ramble but it blows my mind how much a small change, changes so much. The murder of the opera singer...the mocking of the Dracula film...the baby on the Mardi Gras float...would all feel different.