#so to me no one's wrong no one's right

[usercelestial]

i have complicated feelings about where the word queerbait leads us in current time. we're a long way from where we started with tumblr's big queerbaits. there are a lot more shows with real queer rep now, queer characters are becoming more and more normalized. which means now, when we have a show full of queer characters, they're going to be subjected to some of the same bad writing or baiting that any straight character could. i don't keep up with the press or the marketing, so i can't say for sure what exactly nandermo was being presented as, but as the fandom's Big Ship i'm sure it was being pushed quite a bit. i don't think it's fair to call it queerbaiting when, historically, that's been used to say they're promising queerness and not delivering. the queerness of the show was present the whole time. i understand why people are upset, even if i've never approached the show with a nandermo lens, but i think it's hard to have a conversation when everyone seems to be operating with completely different ideas of what queerbaiting is.

i absolutely get this perspective, queerbaiting has a very long and complicated history. i think where I lie with nandermo is that the show recognizes the potential of the ship and understands it gets traction and marketing potential from it, a really egregious example of this is promoting the season with guillermo and nandor edited into The Bodyguard poster. personally i don't think it's that big of a deal, i figured they were playing it up for promotion and weren't planning on following through with it because the show isn't a romantic comedy, it's just comedy that has a theme of things never really changing but even if you didn't expect it to happen i understand why it's frustrating that ship was never taken seriously but was used as promotional material. i think paul simms comments about it being problematic and not wanting to pervert the relationship also contributed to people being pissed off because obviously the entire show is problematic if you want to get into semantics, najda literally hypnotized laszlo into sleeping with her and they have literally fucked on screen as bats, so people took those comments as very homophobic because obviously you let the man and the women get freak nasty and be in love (and allow for gay sex scenes of minor characters for laughs (not judgement)) but when it comes to the relationship between two male main characters, suddenly a romance plotline is perverted and problematic because of power dynamics. it feels a little like he just didn't want to commit to a permanent on screen relationship between them.

i think when it comes to nandermo, we need to purge the word queerbait from the discourse because you're right, no one can seem to settle on one solid definition. i think the arguments of "they were acknowledged by canon" + "the show has queer characters" are equally as reasonable as "relationships between two men don't seem to be taken as seriously as the ones between a man and a woman" + "the one relationship between two men is hinted at and joked about but is never pushed further" and to be honest, i think all of these opinions need to coexist because this show DOES have good queer rep, its fun and silly and light hearted, i enjoy the fact that we get nasty gay sex scenes occasionally and it's treated as a normal or even encouraged act, it's very unapologetic and real HOWEVER that doesn't mean it's immune to treating the queerness of these characters and the relationships they have as less than or using them as surface level marketing. we should always be pushing for more and better, even if we have what we asked for.

[prokopetz]

I think people sometimes misunderstand why we come up with such elaborate justifications for shipping two characters together. I don't justify my ships because I feel that I need to; I justify my ships because squinting at the published canon with furrowed brow and asking myself "okay, how exactly would this work?" is my idea of a good time.

[egophiliac]

still ruminating over Lost In the Book With Spooky Skeletons Part 1, so here's a selection of some of my favorite little bits! (...some more loosely paraphrased than others) (I just feel like Idia has no room to criticize in general, okay)

anyway, I'm sure we're just going to have a fun time celebrating Halloween and nothing bad is going to happen whatsoever! :)

[hinamie]

wanted to practice some more intense angry expressions and what better excuse to further my agenda of giving megumi the emotional catharsis he deserves

[sigmalaussene]

Gay people do love glitters

art • commissions

[lygma-nygma]

Being a batfam fan is funny because people will make a post like “here’s my headcanon-“ and it’s just something that’s directly canon to the story then post about major canon events and get everything wrong.

[benevolenterrancy]

never mind fucking your clone, Shang Qinghua has resolutely decided that he would, in fact, eat his bff's clone (or he would if it tasted better, of course SQQ's clone tastes like warmed up cucumber)

Luo Binghe is presumably somewhere in the Abyss, unwittingly experiencing the most profound jealousy known to man or demon

[yourbestbuddie]

Headcanon that cas does not understand human pet-names in the slightest. Sure he knows about ‘darling’, ‘honey’, ‘sugar’, but he doesn’t understand why those words are chosen specifically. One day, Dean and Cas are in the kitchen, Dean’s making dinner and Cas is watching him, and Dean’s like, “Hey Cas, can you pass me the rice?” And Cas, wanting to impress Dean with his knowledge of human interaction/emotion, responds with “of course, Milk.”

[soapysudz]

Jason after a certain incident

@bonerot19 enjoy :)

Poll is in the weblogs (why did my spellcheck change it to that???) Ahem REBLOGS to decide what comfort to give him, so far the cat distribution system is winning

Edit: the cat distribution system won! stay tuned for whenever I finish that

[trauma-bot]

sin eater

[thefrsers]

I'm here, baby.

[turtleblogatlast]

Tiny little guys

(That comic of mine is on its way - wanted to share the little ones from the current wip haha - EDIT: no longer wip!)

[theerurishipper]

Honestly, I do love Dick as Nightwing and Bruce and Dick's complicated relationship, but sometimes I like the old days when things were sweet and simple you know? When it was just them and Alfred and they all had fun with each other. Like when they blew off boring parties to go on patrol by using Dick's bedtime as an excuse. When Bruce let Dick go off on his own and said he was allowed "a little escapade" and ruffled his hair. When Alfred always brought coffee and "turkey sandwiches with Swiss cheese" to the Batcave while Dick and Bruce happily talked about their nightlife escapades. When Dick would make Bruce laugh regularly.

When they discussed Hamlet while riding in the Batmobile. When Alfred picked Dick up from school and dropped him off on dates and helped him go behind Bruce's back on cases. When Dick and Bruce would play fight with each other. When Dick made Batman's meetings with Gordon "more optimistic." When Bruce was being a helicopter parent and wanting to know why Dick would want to go to a public school. When Dick would sneak off with Clark when Bruce wanted him to stay back to finish his homework, and Clark did it for him before Bruce noticed. When Bruce teased Dick about his failed date, and they talked about it and their love lives. When Bruce apparently told stories about Joker to Dick during rides in the Batmobile. When Dick was actually the one who named the aforementioned Batmobile. When they would banter even in between a serious case. When Dick would cling onto Bruce to annoy him. When Dick was contemplating how alone he felt, and Bruce just showed up to catch him and do a routine on the trapeze with him. When Bruce would call Dick "kiddo." When Dick even called him stuff like "Bruce-ter." When Bruce used to call Dick "chum." I miss those days.

Yeah a lot of these are from Robin: Year One but that's just because it's the one I remember most. But there's a lot of them just having a good time and it doesn't feel like we see a lot of that anymore.

[hinamie]

congrats on your recovery n all yuuji but unfortunately for you I thought the scars were cool >:/

[tsukiglitch]

Since that time I cannot stop trying to draw him with his hair down. help-

(It doesn't help that after I drew him last time, I keep seeing him with hair down on my feed constantly)

So here we go again, but with more different style then just wet looking hair. And of course, with our beloved lil Kitten too.

[inkskinned]

oh you know it's all latestage capitalism but the thing is. how are you supposed to be a person inside of this. a person trying to be a better version of yourself.

oh, you started working young, which was kind of hard, but it's just the way stuff works sometimes. and it was 2008 and your family couldn't afford heat. but it's fine, you grow a spine and get used to the professional world and besides it was the suburbs we're talking about here, like, your life could have been actually hard, so what if your father lost his job and you can't afford to move or turn the lights back on. and once you start making money, it's good. you keep doing that. because now they're relying on you. so you have to do that.

oh you were in thousands of dollars of debt at 17 years old so that you could go to school, because you have to go to school if you want to get a "real" job. you even did it "right", you worked parttime and attended community college before you transferred to a public school. you were under so many merit scholarships.

which is fine. you pick yourself up and you say like, okay. i graduated college. i'm holding down a job. i'm doing the Adult Thing, which looks and acts like this, according to all the books i've read. you start with the shitty job and then you climb that corporate ladder.

but the shitty job doesn't cover rent and you stretch yourself too-thin so you get sick. good luck with that. the shitty job no longer pays for your meals. everyone asks why you don't just move, but there's nowhere to move to. and with what money are you going to be moving? and then the loans come back, because they were never going to forgive them, because you were 17 and trying to do the right thing, which was stupid. people are now saying you shouldn't have even gone to school.

which is fine. but because you have no other option, so you do the shitty job, and you apply every day for like 5 new ones, and despite the fact everyone says "there's no one who wants to work!" it's actually just that nobody is fucking hiring so you can either work for 13 dollars an hour in the shitty place you know (where at least you have a passingly friendly relationship with the manager) or you can start from scratch again with a different 13 dollars an hour without knowing how much abuse from the new job you'll be taking.

and if you quit you lose your insurance. if you quit you lose your housing. if you quit, you'll be another burnout kid. the lazy ones. these assholes, look at them!

and you come home to a family dinner and you hear from your father the same old thing. how he worked hard at his job and yes it sucked for a while but he was able to provide for the family and then the house and the dog and the rest of barbie's dream vacation. how the insurance did cover some of it. how you just really need to start speaking up more in manager conversations so they know you're a go-getter. you want to tell him - did you know we're actually doing more now hourly than any previous generation? - but you can't remember where you heard that statistic, and you're far too tired for the fucking argument. and then he starts in on his usual bit. where's the house? where's your kids? where's your ambition.

the same job the same money the same hours doesn't do it anymore. the same nose-to-the-grindstone now just shreds your face off. there's no such thing as upwards mobility, not really. and as far as you're aware, the money certainly is not trickling. you do the soulless stupid shit you signed up for because you fucking have to or else you literally risk your life (food, the apartment, the insurance), but it's not getting you anything. you download the stupid "save more" app and you budget and you do every right thing and then the price of eggs is 7 dollars and you say - oh great! another thing i have to fucking worry about now!

and you go to your stupid job and everyone in your father's generation just tells you to be better about being an adult. they have their homes and their savings account and their bailout and they say. well have you tried not drinking starbucks. well your generation just spends too much on clothing. well you might just be too addicted to travelling. and you - because you need the job - you bite your tongue and don't say i am being held prisoner and you're suggesting i stop pacing my cell if i don't like the scenery and you don't say what the fuck do you think i've been doing with my money and you don't say i haven't spent a cent on something nice in literally forever much less coffee you arrogant asshole. you open and close your bank app and check your loans and check your credit score and check fucking zillow and ziprecruiter and apartments.com just one time more. and still they give you that demeaning little grin and say - see, what you need is -

what you need is for your meds to stop being so fucking expensive. what you need is for the housing bubble to explode into dust. what you need is for billionaires to choke on their wealth. what you need is actual help. what you will get is more economic advice from people who are older-and-wiser.

and above you, almost in a glimmer, you can see the wedged smile of your debt getting toothier, wider.