#the fact i kind of look like a trans version of him is crazy

[purpleguysimp]

Random alex drawing maul them

[darklinaforever]

So ! I need to say that !

Hades & Persephone's relationship is canonically a loving and quite healthy relationship in the context of Greek mythology which represents a form of balance for the world through the cycle of the seasons. Persephone is not a victim of Hades either... Anyone who has studied Greek mythology can actually explain it to you.

That's a bad vision of the original myth due to a too modern interpretation. It's not the modern era that romanticizes this basic relationship. This was already the case in Greek times...

It even seems to me that Hades and Persephone were often represented on the vases given to newlyweds (pretty crazy, since Hera was literally the goddess of marriage) because they were always described as having a loving, supportive and harmonious marriage.

And if you're looking for a real culprit in the union of Hades & Persephone, there's literally Zeus, who authorized the marriage between the two after Hades came to ask him. Hades didn't kidnap Persephone as soon as he saw her. He first asked to his father, Zeus, for her hand in marriage, as in the Greek traditions of the time.

In some versions of the myth, it even seems to me that Aphrodite is the one who provoked Hades' love for Persephone by sending Eros to plant an arrow in her after being upset by a refusal. But for now, I'm not sure of Aphrodite's real involvement.

But regardless, in the original myth, the one blamed is actually very clearly Zeus. He is the one, once again, having authorized the kidnapping of Persephone, which in Greek traditions translates into an engagement, and who has caused the whole messy situation with poor Demeter.

As for the grenade episode, it doesn't seem to me that we can know the original version. So the whole "Hades forced Persephone to eat the pomegranate" thing is also bullshit.

There doesn't even seem to me to be any indication of Persephone having been mistreated in any way by Hades in the myth. It's again bullshit.

I'm making this post because I've had yet another person explain to me that Persephone is a victim of Hades and that our modern age romanticizes the relationship between the two.

"Yes. Like Persephone gets bastardised. Persephone was Hades's assault victim. People try to "modernize" her by making her want Hades (all while making Demeter to be in the wrong). Mina was Dracula's assault victim. People try to "modernize" her by making her cheat on Jonathan for Dracula."

Except no. Persephone is not a victim of Hades in the context of Greek myth. That's a stinking modern vision. Kind of ironic, when you argue that it's the modern view that stands in for the real version of Persephone being a victim of Hades when... well no. It's the modern era that makes Persephone a victim of abuse at the hands of Hades, (this all reminds me of how people make Rhaenyra a victim of grooming in her relationship with Daemon) while that is not the case in the context of the original myth. As I explained above, this interpretation is modern bullshit. And it is very important to transcribe the myths in their ancient context to understand their various messages, otherwise you will miss the point.

But I won't elaborate further because @cthonisprincess has already explained it very well. I invite you to go and see these reblogs below which detail the whole affair of Hades and Persephone in much more detail :

I even recommend this video :

My god, I can't believe that in 2024, people are still at the stage of demonizing Hades, even though he is one of the rare decents gods, and still claiming that Persephone is an assault victim of Hades... This is a shameful distortion of the original myth and a real bastardization of the goddess Persephone.

Also... we're literally talking about a myth. The goal of a myth is to be reinvented according to the times. So what does it matter that there are adaptations of the myth that differ from the said myth, or rather from the biased vision that some have of making Persephone a poor victim of the evil Hades ?!

@aleksanderscult

[lanawinterscigarettes]

Jason Dean dating someone who's transmasc

Warnings: brief mentions of transphobia, canon typical stuff such as bullying, swearing, violence, murder, etc, slight suggestive things but nothing that's full on smut (I might make another post with that later), smoking (because we all know our boy JD smokes like a chimney), mentions of dysphoria, mentions of menstrual cycles/periods, some forcemascing by JD (sorry I couldn't resist)

A/N: I did a Veronica version of this like two years ago and since I'm currently obsessed with JD (and it's pride month) I felt the urge to write one for him too (also because I've come to the conclusion that I might just be transmasc and not genderfluid so this is mostly just written for me)

I wanna start off by saying that yes JD is an asshole, but he'd never be (intentionally) transphobic. However, if he thought you were trans then he would push your buttons a little bit to see how long it would take you to admit it, especially if you met before you came out

Let's say you two started dating when you still saw yourself as a girl or something (I know that JD's supposed to be "straight" or whatever but he's bisexual to me okay fight me on it). If he saw you acting a little uncomfortable being referred to as his girlfriend or having to use the women's restroom at school he would 100% call you out on it

Not in a degrading way or anything like that, just to see how you would react to it. The second you start to get defensive or give him the silent treatment he shuts up, not only because he accomplished what he set out to do but also because he feels a little bad

Eventually you just decide to rip off the bandaid and come to terms with the fact that you're actually a trans guy, him being one of the first people you tell. His only real response to this "startling revelation" is to look at you and go "Yeah I kind of figured that one out for myself already, I was just waiting for you to"

Your worries that he'd want to break up with you after telling him disappeared almost immediately as you crossed your arms and rolled your eyes at him. "Ha ha, very funny smartass"

If you decide you want to cut your hair shorter then he will absolutely offer to help you with it, insisting that there's no reason for you to go to a professional with him there (it's totally not just because he's very possessive and would never let anyone else touch your hair other than him, that's crazy)

You may have wore his clothes some before, but he practically begs you to do it after you come out. Why would you ever need to go shopping when you can just raid his closet, y'know? Plus seeing you in them really turns him on

He gets ten times more protective afterwards too, constantly following you around to make sure you're okay. You could have classes that take place at the same time on opposite sides of the school and he'll always skip his to join you. Eventually the teachers just move his class schedule around to match with yours since he never attends his anyway

Always has an arm wrapped around you no matter what, especially if he sees someone like Kurt and Ram passing by. It's best to distract him with kisses or something so he won't hear the things they call you and get mad (he hears them anyway but can't resist making out with you so he lets it slide for the time being)

Speaking of making out, he does it with you everywhere and all the time, whether it's a modern au or the 80s. He's not worried about what people say or do, usually letting his gun do all the talking. He shoots them is what I'm trying to get at here lol

Most people are much too scared to even breath too loud near you because of your attack dog boyfriend but if it ever does happen that you get bullied (whether that be verbally or physically) he will go out of his way to make sure the local morgues, cemeteries, and funeral homes have plenty of business

Feeling anxious or stressed about having to spend time with/be around someone who misgenders/deadnames you? Just let him tag along. He might not say much but what he will do is very passive-aggressively correct said person on their "mistakes". It pretty much always works as no one wants to argue with a guy who frequently carries a gun

It's not the best habit around but he probably gets you hooked on smoking at least occasionally, especially if he hears you complain about your voice being too high. Oh, you're worried that you sound too feminine and "girly"? He has the perfect way to get you that low and gravelly voice that you want! You think he's talking about voice training or something until he hands you a pack of cigarettes and with the most serious expression ever says "these will do wonders"

Even if you don't smoke religiously like he does it's kind of hard to resist it completely given how often he lights up a cigarette (and yes, he will blow smoke into your face, because while he loves you he's also an asshole and thinks it's funny when you wrinkle up your nose in disgust at him)

He's not the best at comforting you when it comes to days where you feel dysphoric. Like, he won't flat out say that he thinks you're acting ridiculous because he knows it would only make things worse, but he's also not great when dealing with emotions, so the most he might do is let you cling to him while he gives you a few awkward pats on the back

If this goes on for days borderlining on weeks, however, that's when he'll start to act less sensitive and give you a bit of tough love. "What are you talking about saying that you 'don't look like a guy'? Are you crazy? You really think life would be better if you were still living as a girl? Do you honestly think that would make you happy?"

It surprisingly works, believe it or not. Even if you know he's purposely trying to rile you up it ends up making you feel better and more confident in yourself. Anytime he notices you starting to slip back into feelings of self doubt or insecurity, he just wraps you up in his arms and whispers soft encouragements in your ear. "You were never a girl, you just need to work a little bit harder than others to grow into the man that you are. If anything, that's a testament to your strength for being able to do that"

This certainly happens whenever you're on your period and feel grouchier or less confident than usual. "You're so strong for being able to endure this every month, did you know that? You're much braver than I am, I doubt I'd be able to get through it as well as you"

Sometimes you almost start crying because of how emotional his words make you feel, and sometimes you roll your eyes with annoyance while muttering "you're a condescending asshole" under your breath. Either way it ends up making you feel better, especially when he offers to rub your lower abdomen when your cramps get too bad

If you decide to start HRT then he wants to be there to help you take the shots, even if you insist you can do it yourself (he likes being part of the process of helping you "turn into" a man). Same thing if you use T gel or whatnot, he gets really pouty if you ever apply it without him

He's not really the best person to do "guy bonding" activities with unless you like making pipe bombs or planning the murders of people you hate (hypothetically speaking, of course) but if there's anything like that you want to try out then he'll definitely be there to support you. Like I don't know, hunting/fishing? Or watching sports games while drinking beer? Or breaking out the toolbox and fixing things around the house? Sorry I don't really know things that guys do despite being one myself 😭

The only exception to that is probably car maintenance. I see him as being very protective over his motorcycle and learning how to take care of it himself so he doesn't have to worry about taking it to the shop and having them screw it up. He'd be happy to teach you about how to change your own oil and might even teach you how to ride it as long as you don't accidentally scratch up his paint job. He might not kill you for it, but he will be very upset and end up ignoring you for a few hours afterwards

Purposely introduces/refers to you as his boyfriend in front of others just to see your face light up with confidence. It's not like JD has a lot of friends or anything but anyone that he does know feels as if they've met you already because of how he much he talks about you (he's totally that one annoying person you know who never shuts up about their partner ever)

All in all, I'd say he's a relatively good boyfriend in general, but especially if you're transmasc. Solid 8/10 (one point was deducted for his slight insensitivity and another was due to his crazy streak. Sorry JD I promise I still love you </3)

Main masterlist | Heathers masterlist | wanna be added to my taglist?

End notes: this ended up being much longer than I anticipated but I have absolutely no regrets whatsoever at all

Likes < reblogs | comments are greatly appreciated | requests are currently open

🏷 taglist: @missmewts @ghot-girl @gilmore-angel @your-next-daydream @the-night-owl-blr @noisy-dumb-piece-of-shit @pregnantmen @theonetruepotato87

[jinbeisluffy]

I see so many posts over different social media platforms about sexuality/gender hcs for the strawhats and i want to add in my own two cents because i believe im very correct (but anyone’s opinion is valid so long as it doesnt go against canon coding)

Luffy - the most aroace and trans guy to ever BREATHE. i dont mean aroace in that hes somewhere on the spectrum where he can still be attracted to people, because he cant. this guy had never grasped the concept of romance and never will, because theres no reason for it to him. hes trans because i say he is, i dont have many reasons for THAT but its just the signals hes sending me. trans to trans communication trust

Zoro - gay. thats it thats the post. no but i dont ship luffy with anyone but zoro is just attracted to literally any man who is strong, thats his criteria and thats all he ever needs. is he aware of it? not at all, he has no idea that its not normal to get bricked up by the thought of other men

Nami - i havent seen a bigger lesbian in media ever, genuinely i dont think any other character is as obviously lesbian as she is. she loves girls unapologetically no matter what, supports all girls at the end of the day (cough kalifa) . i also hit her with the asexual beam because i can, specifically demisexual because i THINK so

Usopp - while i wanna consider kaya, i wanna consider sanji too and thats making me lean between bi or omni even if omni is a label under the bi umbrella. its more a question of if he recognises his preference for men or not, because he does prefer then at the end of the day. the ace beam bounces from nami to usopp because he too doesnt feel anything and doesnt think about it either

Sanji - oh my god where do i begin. maybe just the blatant queer coding of wci as a whole?? of course hes attracted to women, thats not an aspect you can remove or just toss around to being something else. he loves and respects women, but he is so QUEER. all of wci is just queer coding, its a queer story and sanji is a queer character i will die on this hill. he probably has some kind of gender issues too, what specifically? no clue, but he likes people of multiple genders and is in deep denial about it all the time he wont ever truly accept it but he can one day as a treat live with that fact

Chopper - oh hes a reindeer he cant really have a sexuality DID WE FORGET THE FACT HES HUMAN TOO ISNT THAT LIKE HIS WHOLE THING, NOT BEING A MONSTER BUT ALSO A HUMAN. HE IS BOTH? i dont have any specific labels to slap onto him, just that hes a people lover and encourager of literally everything. ace beam bounces onto him too

Robin - trans trans trans trans trans trans trans trans you will accept robin transfem into your life right here right now. she can like anyone, she has no label on it, she just likes people and cant bother with genders or anything like that. the ace beam actually skips her because if they were doing a hear me out cake she’d be the one putting all of the crazy things. freak. (lovingly)

Franky - HOW TRANS CODED IS IT NOT TO REBUILD YOUR OWN BODY TO BECOME A BETTER VERSION OF YOURSELF AND TO REBUILD YOUR LIFE IN A WAY YOU WANT, BUT GOING BACK TO WHAT YOU LOVED ABOUT YOUR OLD SELF, AND EMBRACING IT. literally, trans goals. he modified his body and went i might as well give myself top surgery and an awesome dick while im here!! sexuality wise hes a lover of everyone, but he has preferences for women (robin) but encourages all bromances (with brook)

Brook - THIS IS WHERE IM MOST PASSIONATE!!!! people can say that hes the token straight grandpa. but theyll never understand the joy of old gay brook had a romance with his captain, the joy of brook trying to subtlety let the other strawhats know he accepts them (he isnt subtle at all and everyone knows). look at brook in drag twice for no reason and tell me he isnt queer, in some way. the ace beam finally hits someone and its brook, insert skull joke here

Jinbei - very specifically old gay man who didnt really do much throughout his youth, he always knew he liked men but he never had TIME to do anything, too busy being awesome and a father i fear. now that hes with the crew he isnt automatically gonna seek anyone out, but hes also not gonna restrain himself from finding interests in people, hes being more selfish now and thats good for him. finally the ace beam hits jinbei and proceeds to fly off towards other op characters that i might talk about some other time

can you tell im asexual and love projecting onto characters with it !!!!

[fatalcn]

I love your fallen hero art! May I ask if you’re willing to share any info about your sidesteps? What sort of villains they are, or something like that? No pressure, of course!

Sry for replying late bc i don't use Tumblr much…Anyway,i’m glad you like the artworks !

And about my steps!That is a little bit difficult for me to answer because I focus on the dynamics between steps and ROs instead of paying attention to steps themselves.And I have plans to introduce more about them through artworks, but still I am willing to share some info about them here.

And the villain style of them…i think Malin hasn’t focused on the villain life of sidesteps yet.So i’m not very sure,it may change in the future.

Fem one named Eve Becerra.

Calm, sensible,doesn’t show much emotion to anybody except Ortega.She wants a better life without the Farm or the other shit bother her anymore and decides to be a mob boss even though she'll be living in the underground world for the rest of her life, at least she'll have the rest of her life.

Though she looks soft,Eve doesn't mind killing. She doesn’t hesitate to kill anyone except Ortega who gets in her way.Try to keep a low profile,you can think of her as a mob boss like HG. Low profile, but not to be messed with.

Male one named Adam Becerra.(Their puppets are both named Eden, no deep meaning though) I create him as Eve’s gender-trans version only because Chen is gay.But I surprisingly find his dynamic with Chen is VERY interesting thus he becomes a total different and independent steps gradually as I thought about his ship with Chen over and over again.

Adam is quiet, often lost in thought, doesn't like to talk to people and likes to eat chocolate ice cream while watching horror films. It's all on the surface. Inside he's a real crazy and creepy terrorist. Adam's hatred for the Farm is extremely intense that he angers everyone involved. In order to destroy them Adam can ignore the deaths of innocent people.In fact,to him, the accidental killing of civilians isn't even a necessary evil, he doesn't even feel the slightest bit of emotion about the civilian deaths. Bad luck for them,that’s all.

The government is his enemy in his opinion so he is an anarchist.Though Adam doesn’t give a shit to the civilians,he has a high fanclub-num strangely .In his armor Adam is radical, ruthless and cruel, but his overwhelming power and rebellion against the system has given him a huge following. He leaves his followers behind and never pays any attention to them because he has issues dealing with people,he's more like a kind of spiritual leader.

[palettepainter]

As someone who is transgender, Penny has caught my eyes and I love how great she looks and just her character in general

Aww that makes me so happy!! I'm so joyed that you like Penny!! I've never done a trans female OC before, and I thought it would be an interesting way to strengthen Penny's and Laser's bond! (I have been debating drawing a younger version of Gavin and maybe Penny too, when she's experimenting with female pronous and such, but idk I'm still a nervous of accidentally upsetting any irl trans people with how I draw Penny)

Since most of the cousins have been getting posts with facts about them, lets dedicate this one to Penny!

-She's older then Laser by ten minutes

-Laser was the first person Penny told about being trans. She asked Laser if he could refer to her by female pronouns when it was just the two of them, just to see if she liked it. Laser agreed, and while at the time he didn't understand Penny's feelings fully, he did see how much happier she was

-She's a big binge eater when she's sad. Her favourite foods include London cheesecake, strawberries, strawberry flavoured ice cream and eclairs

-She's had top surgery and the rest of her cousins know about her being trans, but she's still very shy about wearing clothes that are more revealing, suck as bikini's and some types of dresses. She's not loud and open like Laser is, and Penny finds it difficult to be so. Laser pats her on the shoulder and tells her to not force herself, for now Penny is comfortable with just her cousins knowing about her being trans

-She and Lips are nature besties and have very in depth talks about wildlife conservation and natural environment preservation. Lips is probably the only band members who has seen Penny drunk (she gets very emotional, mostly sad, when drunk. She cries about manatees)

-She has a gianormous manatee plushie named Marvin who she treasures and adores with her whole heart. She's very particular on who she lets hug him cuz she hates it when he gets dirty. Laser may hug Marvin when he's sad - after Penny checks his hands are clean - and her other cousins may hug Marvin with permission

-Penny likes the band, they may be a bit much at times but she has no malice with them....she cannot stand Teeth's fashion sense though. The different patterns combined with the clashing, brightly coloured patterns make her head hurt if she stares for too long. It's kind of thanks to her OCD she has such a dislike for some of his outfits, but she tries to not bring it up

-She has a soft spot for their youngest cousin Liv. Liv has told Penny and her other cousins all the crazy and dramatic stuff she's gotten herself into since joining the band as their sparky. And while she and the band always make it out fine in the end, Penny can't help but be a teenie, tiny bit concerned at times for Liv

-Her and Teeth bicker over what cheesecake it better, London cheesecake (a pastry dessert with icing and coconut ontop) or Newyork cheesecake (apparently the type of cheesecake Teeth likes is called Newyork cheesecake?). Both are utterly perplexed by the others favourite dessert choice because it's so different from their own. Their discussions will either end in them agreeing both types of cheesecake are delicious, or a vicious battle to the death

-She was terrified of Animal when she first met the band and would offer several, quick, awkward pats to his head whenever Animal would randomly give her one of his many bizarre gifts

-She's since grown fond of Animal and actually likes him a lot. Me and @jjsesame spoke about an idea of Animal, sorta like how he is with Nora in Muppets Mayhem, being a bit smitten with Penny. Also inspired a teenie bit by his character on the OG Muppet Show, but Animal respects all women, trans women and women and anyone who thinks otherwise gets bit. Cuz of this Penny grows to really like Animal, and will sometimes bring him snacks and stuff when she comes to visit since she knows Animal is a bottomless pit (has joked to Floyd if she can borrow Animal for emotional support if she ever gets the courage to go to a pride parade)

-Debating on her being Aroace or just Aromantic, Penny just strikes me as the type who wouldn't really be interested in romantical relationships, but would be perfectly comfortable and okay with just having a queerplatonic relationship with somebody if she ever found the right person

-Her job is making custom suits, dresses or fancy outfits of any type for people. She's visited the Muppets a few times when she and Gavin have come down to see Liv, and surprisingly Penny has made a strong friendship with Piggy, whom she likes to drink wed wine and gossip with. She's also close to Deadly, both being fashion designers they like to ramble about little details they put into their work and offer valuable tips and pointers to each other (She also loves Piggy's dog Foofoo, Floyd doesn't see the appeal)

-She boxes to relieve stress. Raph offered to teach her mediation, but Penny just didn't find it helpful. Initially hesitant, Raph proposes she try boxing, and to his shock it works. Raph is more or less Penny's fitness couch, she's not a supreme boxer, but she does own a punching bag at home and gloves so if she ever needs to blow off steam she can (her OCD leads to her anger sometimes being more violent then others, so the boxing is a good and healthy way for her to get her anger out without hurting herself or breaking things). Outside of Laser, Raph is the person Penny trusts the most

-Since entering the world of the fashion business she started smoking to help handle stress. Raph smokes occasionally, not as much as he used to when he was younger, but sometimes him and Penny will step out have a smoke together in silence

[catgirl-catboy]

My problematic headcanons? Well in that fandom I really don't know what hc count as problematic or not

But I hc Chihiro as both trans and bigender spectrum so I enjoy the discourse surrounding around it because idk it sounds fun.

And yeah, they forget that game is from Japan and their gender norms and identity revolving around gender is different than we have.

Quite nsfwish but I hc Taka as a top leaning switch yeah this is not even a problematic hc but when I see people tear eachother down for simple hc, I like to include that too

And I believe Gonta would identify as X gender if they have the knowleadge about it (x gender is ig an umbrella for genderqueer identities in Japan)

And I like the hc Gundam have skin picking disorder and his bandages comes from it, well i believe he would do that because of the way he can't healthily manage his emotions when he was a bit isolated one. Or maybe a harmful stimming behaviour, idk really know

(idk what pronouns you prefer for Chi, so I just used my own HC of she/her for this.)

Honestly, Chihiro has such a complex about others looking down on her for being weak, you could argue that any gender makes sense with canon because she simply hasn't thought about it enough.

Also, in the context of a killing game, physical strength means nothing if you have the sense to carry around a weapon. Even if you weigh a hundred pounds soaking wet, nobody will fuck with you if they know you've got a knife. Also, they won't attack anyone they percive as crazy, like Syo or Nagito.

My take about the chapter is that none of the tropes involved were transphobic (the existence of GNC characters isn't transphobic), but comments made by the characters were really squicky and not to my tastes. Since I can't play the game in original Japanese, I'm hoping Sakura's "this girl is actually a boy!" is a mistranslation. I also feel like the fact Kyoko does the same thing to Hifumi that she does with Chihiro makes it less bad.

In a perfect world, I'd also like "maybe we should still treat Chihiro how they were currently presenting, since we don't know if they wanted to live life as male after the secrets were released and might be training as self-defense" but since lives were on the line it makes sense they weren't thinking.

(context: I'm ace and will read smut, but won't read PWP works. It needs to be attached to dead dove or a longfic for me to get invested. Also porn with feelings best tag)

I headcanon all of my faves as tops simply to avoid the weird characterization that comes with them being bottoms. Its like if people took what kind of bunk bed you preferred and based your entire perceived personality based off it and as someone who has a normal bed, I just don't get it.

Yeah, Gonta in canon is so performative about masculinity, in a way that I don't think came solely from them being in the woods. I feel like in their mind, Gonta conflates fitting gender roles with approval from their family, which can't be healthy long term. Also, in Gonta's mind gentleman is "someone that can help others perfectly, even if they don't want to be helped" and if that isn't met they're failing. Even if his version of Masculinity isn't obviously toxic, its still Toxic for Gonta specifically.

Yeah, Gundam probably has a host of unhealthy coping mechanisms. It makes sense for his character, since its revealed he'll hide in the nurse's office to avoid having to be in loud physical situations. I like to belive that Sonia and/or Mikan help him move past them.

[hairscare]

Was there any inspiration for your takes on the other creeps? And do you have any fav versions of them from other aus or by other artists?

this is a long one sorry

ngl i really dont look at much creepypasta fan stuff i pretty much stick with my own interpretations. for a lot of them its really just taking these stories where this characters are op edgy crazy killers and being like okay how would these characters actually be as teenagers and then forming their personalities like that.

jeffs obviously a megalomaniac wannabe edgy boy who thinks he can do anything without effort and that leads to him embarrassing himself constantly. extremely comphet unaware gay

ninas story is also very over the top and shes able to like dodge bullets and stuff and is very harley quinn to jeffs joker except theyre both young in these stories so for her its manic pixie dream girl who romanticizes the edgy boy (basically what jeff fangirls were like) but then actually meets him and dates him for a week and is like wtf youre not who i thought you were??? anyways shes scene

janes character is nothing revolutionary really shes goth though i do think she really leans into fancy feminine gothness as both gender expression (shes trans) but also as escapism from the fact that shes just some girl who was thrown into a horribly traumatic situation so she compensates by making herself a character that she feels can overcome the situation and defeat her enemy.

ngl i really dont remember bens creepypasta i know hes supposed to be a hivemind but i also think that personality wise hes like if an imp was a 12 year old. like the demon whatever thing was like you know what i like this kid im gonna be a 12 year old link cosplayer and then he was. so yeah hes a gamer tween who wears those gamer shirts and plays fortnite.

my sally is arguably the most different compared to how shes usually portrayed as a sweet innocent kind young girl. my interpretation is that shes a no filter rambunctious bully bc shes stuck in an 8 year olds body and has severe trauma and doesnt know how to deal with it at such a young age so she puts up walls. shes mean but in a little kid way where its brutally honest and childish all at once. she calls jeff gay and he breaks down crying.

jack is mainly a semiserious tired guy, but he also can be a creature when he wants to. hes depressed mall goth and is team edward forever. he also really likes gardening and nature tho he has a bunch of cacti and likes walking through the woods

slenderman is like how hes normally portrayed except hes more gay and also enjoys gardening

habit is habit hope this helps

the rake is a dog but also a guy who sleeps at the end of slendy and habits bed but also will break into your room and whisper prophecies to you but also is a dog

smile is if a dog was a sassy gay man

the proxies are just vibing college students

the clown throuple visit sometimes and are. killer klowns

and zalgo is a silly dilf

[irenedubrovna]

A post regarding Euphoria for the benefit of myself and basically no one else

So, it really bothers me when people say Euphoria is groundbreaking, progressive media. Here’s a dissection of why I don’t think it is, because this is what I feel like doing at work:

The character of Rue is objectively great. She by far receives the least overt sexualization, and is treated neutrally in terms of active sexuality. She’s treated like a normal teenage girl with mental issues and an addiction to drugs. She falls in love with a girl who she pines for and places on a pedestal. The reason I think she is written this way is because she is a Sam Levinson proxy. She written with gender ambiguity and with little regard to the experiences she’d go through as a black gay female, probably because Sam Levinson has no insight to that aspect of life. Her performance is heightened of course by Zendaya, who breathes unique life to the Sam Levinson’s artistic extension, and without her performance this show would not get even half the acclaim it gets. Attribute that to Zendaya of course, because the director has done little to deserve this acclaim.

The rest of the females, sans Lexi, are pornified to a disgusting extent, not only due to the fact that they are supposed to be underage, but also because their existence as people is treated as being absolutely secondary to their sexual appeal. They are foremost presented in terms of their relation to sex. Cassie, Maddy, Jules, and Kat cannot be removed from their sexuality without disrupting the plot or their journeys in relation to the plot. Why are the females so intrinsically linked to uber fetishized versions of female sexuality, or uber fetishized versions of blossoming female sexual identity?

Maddy is presented not only scantily clad 90 percent of the time, but also dressed in a precariously unattainable sexual fashion. At any given time she is styled to look straight out of, simultaneously, a high fashion editorial, and a “barely legal” porno. She is airheaded and profane, and promiscuous, her mannerisms dictated by the adult films she’s “studied” in order to project an image of perfect hyper sexual femininity. She’s complacent in becoming a prototypical housewife because it will earn her a comfortable place as a trophy wife. She has no aspirations beyond that. So, let’s unpack all of that. Maddy’s role in the show is mostly passive. The most active thing she does in the plot is revenge fuck a man in the pool of a party. Nearly everything else she does in the show that is plot relevant is of someone else’s volition. Even less of what she in the show is related to anything other than a man. She is abused and then pressured into framing another man for said abuse. She has no agency as a character. The only notable difference to this rule is when she takes drugs at a carnival, knocks a pot of chili over, and calls her ex’s mom a cunt. Removed from her active sexual life and carefully cultivated aesthetic, she’s a trite stereotype of an unambitious girlfriend who gets treated poorly. I see people call Maddy iconic, but if she wasn’t gorgeous and well dressed, I doubt anyone would even think twice about her, let alone create fancams and Instagram pages dedicated to her. She exists as a plot device, and as pretty set dressing to build up the shows aesthetic. Her emotions are not well explored, her motivations are sexist, and she is often there to be demeaned, objectified, or to say a bad word. The most damning part of her involvement in this show is her episode where it is stated that she, as a fourteen year old girl, lost her virginity to an adult man, and it is stated she was in control of the situation. This is a dangerous thing to say about a character, to any audience, but especially a young one. To imply that a precocious young girl was in control during her first sexual encounter with a much much older man implies things that frankly border on rape apologist ideology. This show states this unflinchingly and with no further elaboration. If there’s one thing that tells you that Euphoria is a bad show, let it be that. Also, if there’s one thing that tells you about Sam Levinson as a person, and the way he views girls and women, let it fucking be that.

Jules is a young trans girl. She also likes to have sex with men as a means to “conquer femininity”. Scratch that, she likes to have degrading sex with older men in order to “conquer femininity”. This mindset is shown to be toxic, of course, but I think the problem with this idea in general is that there’s no deeper exploration for what this mindset means. It implies that she believes women are the sum of their intrigue and degradations. This mindset I can only assume would be a cultivation of dysphoria and internalized misogyny, which this series is absolutely not prepared to address in a tactful manner. Jules is a teenager with mental illness, trauma, and is undergoing an identity crisis. There’s something powerful in her character, something worth saying, however we only get trimmings of those meaningful things, and are ultimately left with a hurtful depiction of a trans girl because all of her musings on womanhood and identity are incomplete, and they fail to reach beyond the surface of their thesis statement. She wears colorful clothing, is overtly feminine and artistic in her presentation. Everything about her screams insecurity over her own womanhood. That is the crux of her character. Now, I think we should ask ourselves, is trans person who is insecure about their identity peak representation? Is this what trans people deserve? Is it “groundbreaking “? If this show was run by someone else, I might be inclined to say that there’s nothing insidious about this, but this is the guy that made Assassination Nation, so I think we know what he thinks of young women, the way they should be portrayed (that is, for the capitulation of a man) and realize his inclusion of a trans woman in his cast is no more meaningful than the inclusion of any other woman. Women to him are made to be categorized and should, at the end of the day, be easily palatable for the capitulation of a man. The device of having Jules being interested in older men and rough sex for identity reasons is transparent. Trans women are exploited and objectified with a similar fervor to cis women, the caveat being that they are “a forbidden fruit” of sorts to straight men. Jules is sissified, her presentation fetishistic. Her role in the plot is more involved. Her relationship with Rue is sweet, though toxic on both sides. She is ultimately betrayed, blackmailed, and snowballs into something of a manic episode, all well portrayed by Hunter Schafer, but I don’t think her inclusion in the show absolves it of any of its many sins.

Let’s talk about Cassie. Cassie is the Eurocentric beauty standard exemplified. She is the blonde haired blue eyed girl next store, and her boobs are of course always on display. She is notably promiscuous, something I say right off the bat because that’s how she’s introduced, as a so called slut through the words of the devil (Nate Jacobs). She is a girl with daddy issues, which we are all familiar with at this point. Her sexual boundaries begin and end at the whim of her partner. The terms of her consent are much like the terms of consent of many young girls brainwashed by society and the rising tide of degradation porn: everything is alright as long as you provide them comfort and affirmation afterward. You can touch them roughly without asking, you can use them as a tool to affirm your masculinity. This is the way men prefer their women now: just broken enough to say yes to anything they want. It’s become a joke at this point. Men like girls with issues, but only the ones that will feed their own desires. Cassie Howard is meek. Her inclusion in the plot I suppose ties to themes of drug addiction and how it divides and destroys the people you love. It doesn’t show what it does to her beyond shaping her sexual encounters, which is no surprise. Overall I’d say Cassie is in this roster of females as the most traditional categorically, in relation to how men view women and further how they sexualize them. She has a relationship with someone who doesn’t really love her. That mostly what she does here. Gets used. Doesn’t drive the plot or conflict much. More pretty set dressing. More aesthetics. How this show consists of so many women but is driven so much by men is unsurprising, and, again, very enlightening in the grand scheme of things.

Lastly we touch on Kat. I’d like to begin with the fact that self actualization through sexual exploration, in a show run by a man, is just a cloak for a woman to gratify the audience with her sexuality. Regardless of whether or not she is plus sized, this is overt objectification. She is on this show to be sexy. Beyond that, the fact that a minor using sex work as a form of liberation is disgusting. Whether or not she is portrayed as “owning” her sexuality is negligible, and speaks to the same mindset discussed with Maddy. Minors cannot fucking consent to sex, sexual acts, or anything within the confines of such. It’s crazy that this occurs with two different characters in such a similar way. It has echoes of “Well, she looked older..” and “Well, she wanted it..” or “She’s advanced for her age”. Never, not once in the events of the series is there meaningful introspection on what doing this kind of thing does to a minor. Moreover, these acts are explicit, and made clearly for sexual gratification. None of these things are absolved by the fact that she’s plus sized. If anything, her body type is fetishized in this context. It’s also another case of a “good girl to bad girl” transformation, which are archaic and, of course, sexist. With the rise of adult websites targeting minors for explicit content, this is even more reprehensible. Once again, in terms of representation, is this really what speaks to you as progressive? Groundbreaking? A girl gains control of her own narrative by having sex with lots of men. She gains control by being sexy. She gains control by dehumanizing and objectifying herself. No she doesn’t. Media controlled by men will tell this story to you thousands of times, don’t listen because she’s bigger than a size four.

ALL OF THESE CHARACTERS ARE UNDERAGE. ALL OF THEM HAVE EXPLICIT SEX SCENES, EVEN THE SEXUAL ASSAULT IS MADE CINEMATICALLY PORNIFIED. THESE SHOTS ARE MADE TO BE OBJECTIVELY SEXY. THIS IS NOT A CASE OF SOMEONE CREATING SOMETHING FOR THE SAKE OF REALISM. IT IS ABOUT MAKING SCENES THAT SPEAK TO A MALE AUDIENCE. THAT CATER TO THE MALE GAZE. ARGUE WITH THE WALL.

I won’t go further into the plot, other characters, or the structure or the episodes for sake of brevity, but I felt compelled to air my thoughts on this to the void. I can only hope I was critical enough that Sam Levinson will one day see this and cry because another bad feminist thinks something that he made sucks

[echonvoid]

Holy Shit!!! Thank you guys so much for 50 followers!!! Have a celebratory screenshot redraw of the best bois!!

I started with just wanting to draw them with face masks (a strange benefit from quarantine; I never knew how much I loved wearing masks); which led to wanting to draw them wearing merch outfits. I spiraled from there. Raph’s was the hardest cuz I wanted it to be like corpse husband or the dude from Tokyo ghoul; an eyepatch face mask combo. But neither fit. So a teddy bear would do (although now I’ve totally decided it’s a knock off glam rock freddy)

Other headcanon shit:

They all definitely had a Minecraft phase that they will sometimes re-hyperfixate on (Pbbfffttt I’m not projecting I dunno what you’re talking about/s)

Techno’s death hit them all hard. He was definitely a MC CC that they all enjoyed; the potato war was much quoted in their household. He probably passed shortly after the movie, so it was salt in already massive tender wounds.

Dinosaurs was a thing they love because of splinter and the Jurassic Park series; he hyperfixated on them when Jurassic World came out. And they all loved getting to share it with him. It was one of his healthier mental and physical health times when they were growing up. Only Mikey actually ended up hyperfixating on dinosaurs, to the point he’s the only one that can name the more obscure dinosaur species

MCC is sacred. They, splinter, April and all their other friends join. It’s essentially the Super Bowl for them. They all pick/vote on who perspective they’ll watch from (Philza being the most often picked) eventually Draxum is roped in as well (Mikey definitely bonds with him by playing Minecraft with him)

Individual Headcannons:

Leo:

Still has his can, it’s just pretty hidden. He’s a huge Ranboo fan: I mean Gender and Gay? Sign him up. (Also the fact that they can both teleport in some fashion or another is just an added bonus)

It took him a long time to accept his transness; he never felt like he should consider himself that since he’s amab and a demiboy. Finally April and Donnie helped him accept that he’s still trans, transitioning or no.

He still struggles with it, not wanting to take away from “actual” trans people, but he’s working on it. And the fucking comfy ass pj pants really help.

Donnie:

The cape/cloak is supposed to be JoJo’s Bizarre adventure merch (a cloak I saw on their store) but all the cloaks had ridiculous patterns and character art on the back, and I had no fucking idea how I’d even go about doing that. So you get a mosaic esque one instead

The only other merch he’s wearing (except for maybe slippers idk) is a Philza beanie, which of course says Dadza on it; it was given to him as a gift by Mikey in honor of all his robotic children

The non-Bi-nosaur is my pride and joy, it’s based off of this I found while looking for ideas and inspiration (I added the Bi part, god I love puns)

God I want the pants I drew for him. Oh and he’s definitely wearing arthritis gloves to help with pressure sensitivity and joint pain

EDIT: I totally forgot to mention that Donnie’s mask is based on Corpse Husband

Mikey:

Made his own mask based off of some of my own versions of c!Ranboo. He’s a huge fan of beeduo and the whole arc where they adopted Michael. Fell in love with Minecraft bees. They spent weeks drawing the Minecraft family. (Fell out of the fandom cuz of the craziness of the kraang, and all the ccs doing different things)

The jacket is definitely not the same matching pair Tubbo and Ranboo bought; not at all /s

And yes her shirt has a Minecraft EnBee on it.

At this point it’s safe to assume they’re all wearing arthritis gloves to help with all kinds of pain and sensitivities. Mikey’s help with a cooling salve he puts on whenever his scars start feeling like they’re lighting on fire. The glove pressure is just a nice soothing bonus

Raph:

I need to give Poot Raph some more love, he’s definitely how I feel as an eldest sibling and someone with very nasty anxiety disorder. Apparently my love of twins is too powerful

Like Donnie, he has a burning blistering rash along his skin where the kraang infection had been. It healed after a couple weeks but the scarring and irritation remained.

The siblings all compare him to Glamrock Freddy, which to him is the highest honor they could bestow upon him; it really works well since both Freddy and Raph were mind controlled at some point (a fact that they don’t bring up too often)

Raph’s shirt says “Dinosaurs are cool; Transphobia is not” (from the great Jammidodger) and his Jacket is a Techno Memorial hoodie

His right eye can only see in Ultraviolet after the Kraang invasion. The eyepatch is incredibly important so he doesn’t get a sensory overload or blow a breaker in his brain from such different spectrum inputs

This is what he sees:

[scribbleboxfox]

So I once said I have ocs inspired by TLRH and I'm here to infodump (since iirc you wanted to hear) despite the fact it's literally 5 am

So the ocs are a 3 person group of mercenaries, with Crusader, Bombastic and Viper in said group with Crusader unofficially leading said group. They're a very efficient group but they're not too smart lol.

Crusader is a tall tan trans man with dark brown hair, brown eyes, lots of scars and glasses. His armor is Hellcat armor (halo 5) with a scout helmet (like Felix, but merged with the Halo reach version), and the primary color is black with secondary dark blue. He uses snipers mainly, with a shotgun to balance it out, but he'll also use BRs pretty often. Crusader is a stoic guy, but mostly on accident since he's awful at expressing emotions (touch of the tism yknow). He loves bombastic and Viper and would die for them, but that doesn't mean they don't regularly drive him up the wall lol. Crusader is actually a pretty nice guy and he can be silly and sarcastic when he warms up to you. Still aloof tho. He used to be in the UNSC, but he hated how things were ran and how the soldiers tended to be treated, at least where he was stationed. He dipped the second he could, and is MIA (well. There's more to it but I can't remember much of his story rn lol, he's a criminal).

Bombastic is an older man, with short white hair buzzed on the sides and dyed red at the tips. His armor is ODST armor with an enforcer helmet, and currently I can't decide if his primary color is white or dark gray, but the secondary color is red. Bombastic is extremely excitable and energetic and likely has a southern accent. He's very fatherly but in the kooky way. He adores explosives and mainly uses a shotgun, and he can fashion explosives out of literally anything. It's kind of terrifying, but very useful. Bombastic is a super happy guy and prefers to look on the bright side of things. Bombastic used to be an ODST himself, but a mix of awful treatment from the military and PTSD landed him with the insurrectionists, becoming one himself. He stayed with them for a while before breaking off, preferring to do his own thing and meeting Crusader in the process.

Viper is a very terrifying, happy but short tempered and sadistic woman. Her armor is mainly venator armor, though I currently can't decide her helmet (probably also venator or just smth sharp looking), and the primary color is dark gray and secondary is neon toxic green. Viper is extremely sadistic, and is kind of a terrifying mix of South, Felix and dr gray. She LOVES sharp objects and poisons, and loves getting up close and personal with her enemies, so she mainly uses knives with simpler guns like magnums and needlers. She loves her boys and loves terrorizing them, but she's the ONLY person allowed to torture them. She was also a skilled soldier in the UNSC, but an extremely sadistic one, and one day she'd gone too far, landing her both in jail and with brain damage. The government decided to try and use her to attempt to find a 'cure' for brain damage, but failed, leaving her traumatized. She met crusader and bombastic in said space jail and they teamed up and broke out.

Also, they all have different armor abilities- Viper has her camouflage, crusader has an emp, and bombastic has shielding. :)

I hope you like them!! I made them on a whim and I love my crazy bastards dearly lol

OMG I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!

Do they know I would die for them? Please tell them I would die for them.

I wanna wrap Crusader and Bombastic in little blankets and give them hot chocolate and smooch them both on the forehead. And I wanna give Viper a really cool knife. Like a karambit but with a glowy blade or something. And then politely ask her not to use it on me.

Also I LOVE the armor choices for them. They're all very cool! Especially the combination of the Scout helmets! And I love the idea of white armor with red accents for Bombastic! owo

AAAA THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING THEM WITH ME!!! THEY'RE ALL SO COOL!!! ;A;

[hello-im-not-a-possum]

YEEHAW IT’S MIDNIGHT WHICH MEANS IT’S AUGUST 1ST WHICH MEANS INK DEMONTH SO I CAN FINALLY POST THIS NOW:

1. Pride

Diversity win! There is not a single cishet in the hivemind of ink creatures (To their knowledge) that you slaughter on a daily basis to make yourself beautiful! AKA: Possum has a fuck ton of LBGT+ headcanons regarding the BATIM cast and is happy to use this DeMonth prompt to indulge them. (Set before the loop starts, but after Buddy Boris meets/befriends the lost ones.)

Malice flicked through the channels of her cameras, trying to find more prey in her territory, and stopped when she saw a gathering of the lost and the searching (and exactly one Boris, the most perfect one she had ever seen.) in the Heavenly toy’s lobby, their prophet was brazenly sitting on the side of the waterfall as if he did not fear the ink when he should have.

Her ears steamed with anger as she saw that group, it was far too large for her to deal with on her own and too far away from the Projectionist’s grounds for her to manage to lure him to them. But on the bright side, she could learn some important information from them, after all, with how casually the prophet was sitting and gesturing and how the other freaks in the crowd were responding, this was clearly not one of his normal sermons.

(“I still find it rather funny that almost none of us are straight and that the few straight ones among us are trans, it’s like all this time we thought we were sheep hiding away in wolves’ clothing among wolves, unaware that the “wolves” were simply other sheep in hiding as well!”)

[Funnily enough, I’d rather be a sheep than a wolf, I think it makes more sense for me to be an animal that’s helpful to others but also easily scared.] The Boris wrote on a typewriter. [Or at least, I wish I had some kind of input on what I am, but I doubt I’d make myself an animal…]

(“Speaking of which...”) The lost one next to the wolf whispered in his ear as she looked over his typing. (“How are you holding up, Buddy?”)

Instead of typing, the wolf drew himself shrugging and put a bunch of question marks around him, then stuck the drawn-on paper in his typewriter and added to it.

[It’s hard to think most of the time, Boris always seems stronger when I’m alone, but I know the Ink demon will find us if I stay with you, this hunger is driving me crazy, and I just wanna go home. But on the bright side, I don’t have to deal with periods, chest pain from binding, or people condescendingly calling me ‘Miss Lewek’ anymore.]

She turned on the sound in that room, watching them like one would watch a Tv drama, but what she heard caught her off guard.

“So as long as we’re being honest about ourselves with each other…” The lost one stood up and pointed accusingly at Sammy. “Were you and Joey and a thing all along before the machine came into the picture!?”

If she was drinking water, she would’ve spat it right back out. Sammy, with Joey?! In the latter’s dreams, maybe! Even a few of the other lost ones looked shocked at the question, the Boris even gasped loud enough for it to be audible.

“Technically yes, but not by choice, mind you.”

“WHAT THE FUCK?!”

What the fuck indeed random lost one. The angel wished that she didn’t hear that, but now that she couldn’t unsee it, at least it made a little bit of sense in hindsight. After all, in her eyes, they were awful enough to deserve each other.

“...Why?”

“It’s just, well... somebody had to keep his eyes from wandering to the lambs- err- younger, more naive, less experienced employees, not children (to my knowledge). And at the time, I really thought that he did at least care about me beyond our work relationships, at least a little bit…  But from what I’ve seen, I believe the only things he had ever truly loved were himself, and the idealized versions he had made of other people. His ‘dream versions’ of them, if you will.”

“And this whole time, I thought he was running off with Susie with all those lunch dates! Or where the three of you all… yaknow, *together* together?”

 “Not knowingly… However I wouldn’t put it past Joey to cheat on people. As for Susie... I did like her, maybe even love her in a way, but I doubt I could ever love her in the way she wanted me to love her, and-or love her carnally. I don’t even think I could fake it like I could for Joey, she was never signing my checks and wasn’t holding that over my head so I’d be too disgusted to even try.”

Malice was almost about to march down there herself and push him into the ink, but she knew this troupe all too well, and knew that sometimes this place worked on story logic, he’s now going to say something that alters the context of that statement enough to not justify her going over there and slam dunking him into the ink.

“Now that I think of it, I don’t think that I’ve ever loved… anyone in that sense. I can’t think of a single person or situation where the idea of doing that is anything other than gross at best. In fact, there was someone who was close to me a long time ago, someone who, while I have long forgotten now, would perhaps even be what one could consider a soulmate. Even then, the mere thought of doing that with them still makes me queasy…” The prophet sighed. “I suppose I am simply meant to remain alone in religious celibacy. A relationship of that kind would interfere too much with my worship anyway.”

"Ahh fahr foehck's sake... I can't believe dat it's dis foehckin stupid..." A more lucid, absolute giant of a searcher in the back of the crowd slapped his forehead.

“It?” Malice repeated curiously. “Huh… maybe it and I had more in common than we thought.”

“You're clearly a sex-repoehlsed asexual, you doehmbass! literally everyahne who's ever been in de dark poehddles at de same time as you figured dis ooeht befahre you ded!” He shouted through cupped hands. “celibate people are people who WANT sex, boeht dahn't poehrsue it fahr variooehs reasahns, dey ARE NAHT people who are desgoehsted wit sex to de point where dey legitimately throw oehp and feel 'ahrreble after doin de nahrmal vanella stoehff! Stahp foehckin foehckin people when you're clearly naht cahmfortable wit it, and you and future partner..s? 'll be 'appier wit yooehr rahmantic poehrsuits!”

The searcher, upon realizing that he had furiously sworn at the Prophet, their leader, the one who does not fear anything within the studio, not even the deepest depths of the dark puddles, and most terrifyingly of all; the former music director, he slinked into a puddle within the crowd in fear of being the target of reawakened ancient wrath. Everybody else looked back and forth to the prophet and back at the searcher who spoke out as they remained in stunned silence, even their eavesdropper was worried for his fate, even if in her case she feared how the show would end rather than his outcome. Surprisingly, and luckily for him, the Prophet broke the tense silence by laughing in that caught-off-guard tone of it.

“While you were rather… crude about it, what you’ve said does make a lot more sense then Joey being so bad at sex that he turned me away from men altogether, even if it is funny to assume that he was.”

“A-aye… and I can't believe dat you wrahte an entire foehckin sahng abooeht it! 'ow ded you naht get fired fahr dat?!”

“Good question, I wish I could remember the answer…”

[Maybe you had blackmail on Drew?] The Boris typed out and handed to Sammy.

“Yeah, maybe because you used to be so close to him, you saw skeletons that Joey would want to keep in the closet” His lost-one friend added.

“Like HIMSELF!” A voice from the back added, making the others in the room burst into laughter.

With the tension in the room gone, the group just went back to talking about either journeys they took to become comfortable with themselves, or the various past relationships that they had, or wished they had or in some peoples’ cases, all three.

Malice continued to watch them bitterly. It was as if they had either forgotten what the outside world was like to people like them or they simply didn’t care, and she wasn’t thinking about the ink that made up their bodies. Part of her envied how freely they had talked about themselves and each other, part of her felt like she had been smacked across the face, and a third part of her felt lonely. All of them seemed so happy telling their stories and building each other up, and here she was hiding away with her own story that she had wished to bury.

However, there was no iron clad law stating that she couldn’t tell them her own story. In fact, maybe if she came out of her own cage, made Sammy understand that big part of why voicing Alice was so important to her, made sure that it understood that as the very first explicitly female character she voiced, that Alice Angel was more than a beloved character to her, that she was a part of her, the biggest symbol of her own femininity, then maybe it would recognize the error of its ways. Maybe it would see how devastating it would be to be shunted aside without notice in favor of someone newer, prettier, ‘more feminine’...

She shut off the camera and thought it over, and she made up her mind. While she still didn’t want to share her story with everyone, Sammy needed to know it. Whether the Prophet liked it or not, she was going to pay it a visit.

[inadequate-nefelibata]

i did not study and i did not make the damn mind map and I have more ideas for posts so im like..... why

i really want to be able to separate my ideas into coherent posts that deal with a specific topic that’s been interesting me. but im also aware that all of those things converge and intersect and they keep criss-crossing eachother in my mind. in short, i cannot begin until i have made all the necessary points already. 

let’s make a list and im just going to throw things there and to hell with making a coherent post (here’s me from the future to tell you i did not, in fact, make a list. it’s just one point. :/ )

about the relationship between miyagi and daniel, and how they fit into this tradition of movies that have tried to represent a diferent, kinder version of masculinity. + queerness

i said on another post that their relationship is built on unconditional kindness. so there’s this very interesting thing were. a sports movie also manges to affirm that you don’t actually need to prove your worth in a show of strength.  daniel doesn’t earn a relationship with miyagi (or with Ali, another post). the relationship i’s possible because of their ability to be open with eachother. and because miyagi is willing to extend his kindness to Daniel when he sees him struggling. And I just, kept thinking about what this could mean in terms of the representation of masculinity, but also of coming out stories in general. (i meant to say coming of age but... tru)

So then I remembered this moment during the Celluloid Closet where the director of “Rebel without a cause” is describing his intentions in regards to the film. And he says: “’Rebel was about tenderness, intimacy, It was an attempt to widen. The permission to love, when men were supposed to be one way with eachother.”

And there’s this clip of the character of James Dean offering Sal Mineo’s character his jacket because he sees that he’s cold.

A simple act of kindness. 

(I should clarify that the relationship doesn’t begin there, they’ve interacted before, so it’s not a direct parallel. still ...)

Of course, it makes a difference that these boys are the same age, because as always, when you talk about expanding the boundaries of masculinity (or gender roles in general), the potential of queerness is just there. Even if it’s not intentional. But I keep thinking about the Karate Kid because...even in the context of a platonic student-teacher relationship, there is still this potential for self discovery when you realize that there’s more than one way to be masculine (or femenine). That the love you get from your mentors or peers can be unconditional. 

And I kind of wondered, how did queer audiences feel when they saw the Karate kid? You know, with Daniel being a pretty different kind of male lead. I mean, I know how queer ppl in Tumblr feel. 1) We all know Ralph Macchio looked like a butch lesbian, and 2) a lot of us are going crazy with his kk2 looks (especially that one, you know the one, im still trying to find a shirt like that).  I’m not sure how the 80s crowd responded though, because I didn’t get very far in my research.

But I did find this article, written by a trans gay man, who grew up in the 80s. It’s titled “Finding a More Tender, Queer Masculinity in ‘The Outsiders’”. (published last year) Here are some quotes:

“ I still don’t know if my attraction for those teen matinee idols was more about a desire to be with them or to be them. I think both. During those dyke years, pre-T, pre-facial hair, pre-wrinkles, didn’t I, just a little bit, resemble the cute-but-not-stunning teenage Ralph Macchio, with his soft-butch, androgynous vibes? “

About the Outsiders: “ These were my personal memories—these gentle and tough guys who loved each other and, despite the violence they couldn’t escape, wanted to live in a world of beauty and tenderness. (...) Not only did my teen idols serve as mirrors, they also helped me grasp another kind of masculinity, one that included tenderness, intimacy, and love. “

“ I’m not alone in my love for The Outsiders as queer role models. The queer masc population of a certain age grew up on those images and embodied them—trans guys named Ponyboy, dykes sporting greaser attire, and plenty of “Stay Gold” tattoos.”

I don’t know where im going with all of this. Maybe that there’s this thread that has been running throught this movies. The power if being tender, when that’s not always valued in men. How it’s like those. What’s that thing where you throw a rock and it generates waves? I remember there was a v good metaphor about how small actions, good and bad, can spread in a post I read recently. About... Good Omens? 

Anyway, at the same time, even if i don’t want to identify as a boy myself, I do feel weirdly included in this movie? On one hand, there’s the value of unconditional love in a coming of age film. But also, I don’t know. It’s a sports film, probably aimed at boys, but I see myself in Daniel, and also in Ali, in a way that’s... It’s cool. It’s great.

Here is where the posts start to mix together again. Daniel and Ali and a different kind of romantic relationship, because neither is really the pursuer or the pursued ? Which makes me feel weirdly included both as a woman who likes men and as a woman who likes women. (Again, am i daniel or am i Ali? Later, I can talk about that and Daniel and Kumiko!!  <3, later.)

okay I was going to continue the post and talk about how the real sucessor of Miyagi and Daniel’s relationship (and all that tender masculinty) is Eric from Sex Education  but its getting too long. So. Eh. tomorrow? (no i should really study, i have an exam)

[metatiki]

A Wee Bit of Writing

I haven’t written much lately, but I finally got around to getting out one of the many versions of trans Wardens in my head in honor of Pride month. I have a lot of feels about this Warden, in that in some ways he's like me, and in other ways, he's definitely not. This is one version of him (of course I have several, hush).

~~

Ficlet: A Wee Bit of Love Rating: Teen & Up Warnings: Small hints of lemons Relationships: Male Brosca/Zevran Arainai

~~

Renn didn't know a lot about love. He knew his mother hadn't given him very much of it growing up, choosing instead to throw all her love and attention onto the older sister Rica, the pretty one who might actually draw the attention of a noble lord in Orzammar's Diamond Quarter who would seed her womb with a healthy male baby and lift them out of poverty. For a while, Renn had been jealous of his sister for that, and jealous of his sister's beauty, but then...well, then later it just didn't matter, and he wouldn't have taken all the beauty in the world.

His first lovers hadn't really been very loving, all told. His coupling with Leske had been more curiosity about learning what the fuss about sex was about, and though he got close to an orgasm once or twice, it always felt wrong in ways he couldn't even begin to imagine. The encounters with Beraht had been easier--*he* had always just wanted a mouth with a talented tongue wrapped around his cock, and didn't particularly care who it belonged to. Jarvia...well, Jarvia had felt wrong from the beginning, because her body kept reminding Renn about what was wrong with his own, so he'd usually just let Jarvia do what she needed and then left once the woman's drunken snoring echoed in the room.

By the time he gained his terrifying freedom on the surface, Renn knew almost nothing useful except how to swing an axe taller than he was and that he hated with his entire being the name his mother had given him, along with all the guilt and self-loathing it inspired. Renn--something short and easy to shout in a fight--was the only name he told Duncan, and it was the only name he gave to others.

Of course, how Duncan treated it did make him love the man a little. But then, how hard was it not to love a man who treated you with dignity, who had a gleam of understanding in his eye when you told him why you couldn't bear to look in the mirror or wear clothes that actually fit? He would always treasure the way Duncan had offered to cut the long locks his mother had insisted he maintain, obeying Renn's order to throw them in the fire without hesitation, and the way Duncan helped him craft an undergarment that wrestled his body into a shape he could handle. Surely that warm glow was love, though it felt more like what he felt for his sister than a lover.

But Duncan was dead, and Renn had been on the road for many of what the surfacers called moons, though he didn't quite understand how they could tell time by the changes in the largest of the white orbs in the sky. But then, he still didn't like looking up, even after a fortifying sip from the flask Oghren would sneak to him every week or so.

But the elf...there was something about the elf that left him warm inside. Not between his legs or thereabouts, but in his chest and his mind. Something about the elf's smile, about the way his hands would somehow find a way to linger on his wrist and palm when he helped him up after a fight was over, or the way the elf just seemed to understand when Renn needed a story or even just silent companionship... That all mattered. He suspected he would have accepted Zevran's not-so-subtle attempts to invite himself into Renn's tent by now if he wasn't so worried about what Zevran would think about him beneath his armor, but in the meantime it was fun to daydream, and wonder if this was what love felt like.

And then came the moment Renn had been dreading from the moment he first saw a blue sky: the inevitable return to Orzammar.

He didn't warn his companions. None of them knew that he'd had another name once, and he hoped that they wouldn't have to deal with those who remembered the Carta thug he had once been. At first, it seemed his wish had been granted--right up until they ran into a couple of his old comrades-in-crime while on the way into the tavern.

Naturally, maddeningly, the first word out of their mouth was his old name. It was enough to make Renn's stomach twist and his hands to clench into fists, but before he could react, Zevran stepped forward with a cheerful smile on his face.

"Renn," Zevran told them. "His name is Warden Renn Brosca."

"His name?" The henchman rolled his eyes. "So she's as crazy as--"

Before Renn could even cringe, or think, or speak, Zevran was already moving. The dwarf found himself slammed to his knees on the ground, forced to look upwards at the dagger point less than an inch away from his eye, as Zevran said in the same impeccably cheerful voice, "His name is Warden Renn Brosca. And the only reason you aren't dead is because you and your friend there are going to go tell anyone in Orzammar who might think differently that their memories need some correction, hmm?"

As the smell of urine permeated the air and the dwarf babbled a promise, Renn stared at Zevran with wide eyes. Once the two dwarves had stumbled away, Renn marched over to Zevran, grabbed his face, and hauled him down into a kiss. As their lips touched and Zevran's arms wrapped around him, it felt right in a way nothing really had before. In fact, it felt like love--the kind he'd read about in the books the Carta smuggled down from the surface and in the stories Leliana had told Renn at night under the stars to distract him from the wide open sky.

It felt like he'd finally found someone who saw Renn for who he really was, not what the world had been telling him to be since his birth.

And, as he pulled back and looked up into Zevran's gaze, a smile came to his face as he murmured, "Where's a tent when you need one?"

Zevran gave him a wink. "I'm a clever fellow. I'm sure we can improvise something even down here."

A statement, as it turned out, that Zevran was more than happy to prove true, and Renn was more than happy to confirm.

[heraldofzaun]

//Still lurking.

Some thoughts below the cut. A little melancholic. A little ranty. Many thoughts on how Viktor is perceived by the fandom at large. It got away from me.

I think I’ve mentioned it elsewhere, but I have followers here and this is also a Viktor blog... I think it would be nice if people stopped making fun of Viktor’s accent - I saw T/BSkyen’s (I think that keeps me out of the tag) shorts video on Viktor, and it was disheartening that he chose to make fun of Viktor’s accent several times throughout a one-minute video. No other character with a hammy, over-the-top accent, as far I know, receives this treatment. No one makes fun of Caitlyn’s British accent in character analyses of her. No one makes fun of Fiora’s French accent in character analyses of her. (I just checked his videos on them, actually, and guess what - no mocking their accents by doing them! Although Fiora’s accent does get mentioned, at the least.)

Just... stop doing it? We know the accent is cartoonishly bad and not accurate to actual Russian accents at all. But why, specifically, are people - T/BSkyen, in this instance - compelled to make fun of Viktor by putting on an accent and saying “Get reed of all emotions“ and “GLORIOUS EVOLUTION” and “BEEP BOOP ROBOT BRAIN”? (The misspelling in the first is not mine. It is in the actual subtitles for the video.)

I mean, we all know that the answer is the fact that American (and other countries, but we can focus on America for now) media spent the Cold War convincing Americans that Russians and Eastern Europeans were mindless followers of ideology and/or Crazy Insane Scientists, instead of like... people with diverse thoughts and feelings who may or may not agree with their government, but like... I have to ask the rhetorical questions here because no one else is going to apparently. Anyways it’s 2021 stop conflating people and the governments they live under, I guess.

Anyways, also very disheartening that I just checked the pinned comment on that video and he is now saying that Viktor’s endpoint is the Battlecast universe, which is not a canon fact even in current lore. It’s an assumption. I can’t even say that Full Machine Viktor is Viktor’s endpoint, because that was retconned into being a janitor skin that randomly breaks into Spanish in the skin bio for a... “joke”? (Because that’s a cool thing to do. I’d ask how that got past anyone, but that’s a pointless question.) But Battlecast is not stated anywhere to be the end result of canonical Viktor, as far as I know. I suppose it’s not stated to not be the result, but... Like, what other character gets an AU skinline that people then say has to be their canonical endgoal when it is not said to be their canonical endgoal by any official source?

Quothe the loremaster... “The endpoint of Viktor's quest is the Battlecast universe. In case y'all forgot. Read between the lines of his stories even a little bit before stanning him, I'm begging you.”

The entirety of the pinned comment is frustrating. It is frustrating not only because it clashes entirely with the funny comical tone of the minute-long short, which also decides to yet again conflate transhumanism with being trans (we have heard my thoughts on this before. Please stop doing this), but because it is unfortunately true in aspects about current Viktor. He is really not a good man, even though you may be able to argue that Riot’s biased narrator choices mean that a canonical version of the Viktor-Jayce fight does not exist. (Because both lores tell their sides of the story. Biasedly.) But as the story stands, his character getting filled out didn’t make him more morally ambiguous than his original counterpart. The ambiguity that existed originally was due to us not knowing a lot about him and thus being able to interpret things the way we wished. (I’m sure that there is still room for interpretation in the new lore, but it seems lesser to me. Also, his color story is framed atrociously. It’s going for warm and fuzzy when the content of it is giving a kid drugs but this is a long enough post already...)

Riot does not know what to do with Viktor. They’re content to portray him as a Russian mad scientist and buffoon in LoR and in some other media, because... [gestures at the struck-out paragraph above]. But then they have his lore which... could be interesting, maybe, if it weren’t convinced that the way to tell a morally grey story is to have narrators more unreliable than a pull-start lawn mower. Like, they just don’t know what to do with him.

Any analysis of him needs to come with that caveat, not someone deciding that the best way to spent a minute of analysis is to make multiple jokes about Viktor’s accent being stereotypical via... feeding into it being stereotypical... and saying that transhumanism is related to trans rights in any inherent way.

Also, T/BSkyen says that Viktor only has an augmented hand and the third arm, which conveniently ignores the fact that Prototype is probably supposed to be taken as semi-canonical considering its name and the fact it was made when backstory-related skins were a more common thing. (And also because it hasn’t been retconned into being a janitor.) It also conveniently ignores the fact that Viktor’s lower legs clearly don’t look like armor on his model, but this is a side tangent that doesn’t really matter, so...

Whatever, right? I’ve clearly put more thought into this than League’s local loremaster put into that video and subsequent “no guys he really is a baddie stop stanning him and grow critical thinking skills” comment. Sorry if I sound jaded here or am taking this far too seriously or whatever, it’s just... man, it’s a lot. It makes trying to do my take in any public capacity feel kind of like shit, because it’s clear that the general perception of Viktor is currently 1) Haha Funny Accent Man, 2) Trans Rights!1!, and/or 3) He’s Evil :(, and it sucks. I already am writing for a niche audience who will accept a Viktor who never went to Piltover and who exists in old Zaun. I know that that’s niche. I’m okay with it being niche, I think.

But it sucks to build up all this character and do all this writing and try to... I don’t know, present a nuanced view of someone, and then just get another fucking joke about his accent or his design tropes or about what transhumanism is. Especially when those jokes are what people remember, right?

Sorry. This got whiny. But I think it explains why I’ve lost so much steam on writing our favorite Machine Herald, because stuff like this just keeps kind of... happening.

Thank you to the folks that send in anons about my analyses or who like my posts about my artistic endeavors or just... well, interact in general. It does mean a lot to me that you guys are invested enough to hang around and read 2k words of me doing the Pepe Silvia scene from Always Sunny as I connect dots that might not have been meant to be connected. It’s just hard to keep doing it, sometimes, and I guess this is one of those moments.

[tsaomengde]

So, it's been a month, and I have finished Cyberpunk 2077. Time was I would have chewed the game up and spat it back out in less than a week, but now I have children and a house to run. I'm not here to talk about the conditions of its release, the human cost, the et cetera. I'm just here to give my thoughts on the game.  If you want a spoiler-free review, here it is: thanks to my mother-in-law for buying it for me for Christmas. If I'd paid money for it I might have been disappointed. As it was, I had a perfectly fine time. Spoilers follow. (Also spoilers for Witcher 3, which is more than five years old now.)

Let's get this out of the way: should the game have been more progressive? Well, yes, but here's another question: what the fuck is cyberpunk even supposed to be? After all, initially, punk itself was created to sell leather jackets and records, and its defining trait was being subversive. It wasn't about being progressive, just offensive, about bucking whatever Standards there were. It's been refined, and redirected, but there's a reason 'Nazi punk' is a thing.

I personally wasn't expecting this game to be a bastion of progressive thought just because it has the word 'punk' in it. They should have done better by people who wanted to play trans or nonbinary characters. They should have done better with a lot of things. But they should have done those things because that's just what we should expect as people who engage critically with media, not because the game has the word 'punk' in the label. Was I sitting there shaking my head at the fact that V can work with the police? No. You're a mercenary, you go where the money is. The game wasn't advertised as an Antifa 2077 simulator, it was advertised as an RPG where you play the role of a merc who will do pretty much anything for that cash.

Here's the other question: is it cyberpunk? I say no. Cyberpunk as a genre is about human beings trapped in exploitative systems which commodify everything, even our bodies, and the lengths we have to go to in those systems to remain human - or not. The game has a lot of stuff in it showing this commodification and exploitation of everything, including our humanity, but it doesn't really have much to say about it. There are no significant choices in the story about how many pieces of yourself you're willing to cut away for power. Fill up every slot with cyberware or play as natural as possible, makes no difference at all to the story or the endings you get.

So it’s not really cyberpunk. That’s fine, a game can not be a thing and still be good. What’s the story, then? The story is about V (who is supposedly you, but they definitely are a distinct entity unto themselves, this is not a blank-slate Bioware situation) and Johnny Silverhand, and who is going to end up occupying the brain they’re forced to share for a while because of an experimental personality-upload chip that gets lodged in there too good to remove. Johnny Silverhand is an asshole version of Keanu Reeves, and I happened to really like his performance. A lot of people didn’t. That’s down to YMMV. Having finished the story and gone online to read about the endings I didn’t get, I feel that it’s… fine. They give you a decent number of ways to address the issue. I was more invested in the side stories with people like Judy and Panam than I was in the Big Plot, though I definitely warmed a lot to Johnny and Rogue near the end.

I never got the Big Feels, though. Like, Witcher 3? I agonized over the amazing chemistry Geralt had with both Yen and Triss, and had serious debates with myself over who to romance, because I may be a slut, but I’m ethical, dammit. I got big sad when Geralt found Ciri, thought she was dead, and just collapsed in on himself. I got even bigger sad when Vesemir died, and felt very vindicated when I murdered the dude that killed him. All of this from a game whose predecessors I didn’t even play! Cyberpunk never hit the same highs for me.  The most invested I ever was in a mission chain, by the way, was the one where the plot goes full Ghost in the Shell with memory editing and "what is a personality really" and truly vast conspiracies, and then the chain ends and just kind of peters out and you're back to all the other stuff that isn't Ghost in the Shell.  So that was... not great.

What about the *game* part though? Is it awesome? Does it suck?  I mean, the game is also fine. The gunplay feels alright, alright enough that I definitely regretted my initial desire to be a katana ninja person and went pretty hard into guns by the end. I give it credit for the systems being robust enough to support that kind of mid-game playstyle pivot.  The melee is deeper than it’s been in other games, but uh… look, I’m pretty sure Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 had better-feeling melee combat, and that game came out over 23 years ago. Might have something to do with the fact that you had an option to switch to a GODDAMN THIRD-PERSON CAMERA. After seeing the story and playing the game and doing the stuff I am prepared to Pronounce on this, and my Pronouncement is that the first-person camera definitely is more immersive, particularly given the story they wanted to tell, and perhaps you should stick with it during cutscenes if that’s your jam, but Goddamn, give us the third-person mode for melee. Anyway, the game, yeah. The stealth is cookie-cutter basic. The hacking minigame is dumb, and the hacking itself is useful, but underwhelming.

What about the vehicles? What about them indeed? I got a motorcycle from one of the first side quests after the world opens up and never used anything else. Everything drives like shit, but at least the motorcycles let me weave through traffic and get those rare glimpses of the toon I spent an hour carefully creating. Of course, most of the time, she would look ridiculous, since you have to continually equip whatever latest thing gives you the most armor, and there’s no transmog, so it’s only at the very end of the game where you *maybe* stop looking like an extra who wandered off of the set of a quirky indie film about near-future hip-hop dancers.

What about the city? Yes, it’s an enormous open world and it’s crazy detailed and there’s so much to do and so many icons to visit, but look, they didn’t need to go this hard. They could have told this story without a GTA-style open world. They could have told this story with Deus Ex-sized hub areas. Perhaps then the game wouldn’t have taken eight Goddamn years to make and destroyed so many poor Polish game developers’ lives.

I’m a thousand words in and I feel like I could write several thousand more, but let’s wrap it up. Here it is: did the 64.6 hours I put into the game entertain me? Yes, but I was ready to be done well before the point of no return, and still I kept hitting up all the side character stuff because I was invested in them. Am I going to play it again? Not right away, no. I’ll wait and see what DLC they drop, what bugs they fix. I have other games to play, and other things to do. And most tellingly, for this past month, I have never been doing real-life adult stuff and just been thinking the entire time, “I could be playing Cyberpunk right now.” I would play it when I sat down and felt I had sufficient time for something more involving than a run in Hades or Slay the Spire. It did not get hooks in me the way the Greats have done.

Cyberpunk: not a whimper, but not a bang either.