#the joke is that we are both genderqueer

[tarotfurbyandchill]

organizing my collection shelf (my partner affectionately calls it the "girl shelf") for the billionth time

[thefandomcassandra]

I wish every aromantic a "polyamorous friend who sincerely offers to marry you for tax benefits and to get your parents off of both your asses"

[aptericia]

Not proud to be here.

--

Ok, here goes draft like 5 of this fucking post. I spent 4 hours tossing and turning in bed last night thinking about this, and then this morning I found a tumblr post that really helped me understand what I was trying to say.

The post talks about how aromantic "advocates" claim that "aros don't take up resources, so there's no reason not to include them!" And if that's actually what people believe, I think I can finally articulate why it is that I feel so alienated in queer spaces.

It's because aspecs in general aren't "welcomed" by much of the queer community. We're tolerated. We perhaps get the luxury of not being contradicted on our own identities, or not being specifically kicked out of LGBTQ-only spaces, but that's the whole point: what we get out of the queer "community" is people NOT doing things, not actually doing things FOR us. And that, frankly, is not enough. We deserve conversations about us. We deserve to have others consider our feelings, even when making lighthearted jokes. We deserve varied, respectful representation in media. We deserve the active deconstruction of amatonormativity in society. We deserve to have space made for us, rather than at most being told we should "go take up more space!" ourselves.

Of course, the reality is that my being aspec is a personal matter that does not inherently affect anyone else. But the same can be said for literally any queer identity. Your being gay doesn't say anything about me, so of course I shouldn't hurt you for it, but why should I help you either? Because your happiness and comfort are important. The same goes for aspecs.

And most of the time, I don't even need anyone to make space for or expend resources on me; I can live fine in everyday, non-queer-specific places without mentioning my identity at all. But it's the queer community that claims it will make that space for me, doesn't, and then acts defensive and morally pure if I call out the hypocrisy because "we're queer too, you can't erase our identities to advocate for yours!!!!"

Again, this post isn't about specifics. I have queer friends who are incredibly thoughtful and supportive about my identity, just as I have non-queer friends who are. I find more solidarity in aspec-only communities, as well as trans/genderqueer ones, although there are still many exceptions. This post is also not about amatonormative ideology, which is extremely common from queer and non-queer people alike. This post is about the reason I've felt so betrayed by the queer community.

--

On a personal note, I remember being so excited when I started identifying as aromantic (and later asexual). Fitting myself into labels has been a lifelong struggle for me; to this day I still can't confidently say if I'm White or PoC, neurotypical or neurodivergent, abled or disabled, cisgender or not cisgender. I continue to struggle making friends because I don't fall into social cliques. To discover that I officially, certainly, was LGBTQ+ lifted a huge weight off my shoulders. And now I'm just so sad to find that despite that, I'm still stuck in the middle. I didn't get rewarded with a community. I still feel alienated from both queer and non-queer people. I know it was silly to get my hopes up when there's such vast diversity in both groups, but it really was a disappointment. Going to my first Pride parade last year was really the moment where I realized this.

[genderqueerdykes]

thank you both for this, i was literally in the process of writing a post about this as i saw these.

i came out as bisexual when i was about 19 or 20 years old, in 2011 - 2012. this was such a difficult thing because everyone around me suddenly had very pointed opinions on me. suddenly i wasn't queer anymore, i was a straight person. i asked people why and they said well bisexual people are half straight, which makes you straight, which means gay people don't want to be around you. i was told nobody likes bisexuals because they're too straight to be gay and too gay to be straight

i had a literal personal dilemma because i didn't feel like that at all. when i was realizing i was bisexual i was realizing i was attracted to all genders in a queer way. i did NOT feel like my attraction to men, women or genderqueer people was straight in any way, shape or form. i've always fit in much better in both gay and lesbian circles. those have always been my home, and my community

in the early days of my transition, when "genderqueer" wasn't even remotely heard of, i had to try to transition into being a man to be seen as trans at all. i went from being forced into lesbian spaces to being forced into gay male spaces. nobody let me pick where i was existing. i was being pushed around. i liked both lesbian and gay male spaces, but i was being told when i could and couldn't occupy the spaces. and then when it came out i was bi everyone called me a traitor and said i was a straight person

my best friend at the time came with me to pride meetings and when her mom found out about that, and that i was bi, she told my friend she couldn't come to those pride meetings anymore, and that i was turning her daughter into a lesbian. her mother would not stop calling me a lesbian all throughout my life. from early childhood, she thought me and her daughter were dating because i was butch and she was femme and we were very close. her mom carried this belief into adulthood, asking her outright if we were lovers. her brother thought we were, too, and taunted us about it.

my own mom weaponized lesbianism against me. she hated how butch i was. she hated that i "looked and acted like a lesbian". she called me a butch and a bulldyke hatefully. she told me not to dress or look certain ways or else people would assume i, and her by some proxy, were lesbians. my mom was insanely butch so i don't really know why this was being leveraged against me but either way when i became a young adult and my mom was trying to force me to learn to drive (something i am terrified of doing due to having 2 dissociative disorders), she asked what kind of car i would ideally like. i said a truck. i was standing there in a purple plaid shirt and she just sighed and went "I knew you were a lesbian." she pointed out my shirt. she was weaponizing lesbophobic and butchphobic stereotypes against me, but either way, reinforcing that i was a lesbian in one capacity or another

i got so tired of my friends harassing me for saying that if i was bi that meant i was straight and i needed to stop calling myself gay because i wasn't, and that it was an "insult" to the gay community. note that nobody gave a singular flying fuck about the bisexual community at all. i was literally bullied out of identifying as bi, because my straight cishet male friends hated it, and my lesbian identifying GF was uncomfortable with it because it made me sound too straight.

the thing is, none of these people asked what being bisexual meant to me.

i actually liked the lesbian community a lot. i really love other lesbians. i have always been attracted to lesbian and butch identifying people for as long as i could remember. i loved seeing strong butch women on TV, even if there were rude jokes. i loved the idea of being a masculine person who is sometimes a queer masculine woman. i loved the idea of being with femmes, i loved queer women and people who took femininity to the next level. i also loved seeing gay men when and wherever they existed. i always felt like i fit right in, and like i was seeing a reflection of a part of myself i needed help discovering.

i have almost always, as long as i can remember, identified as a gay man, and a lesbian, at the same time. my attraction to men, women, and people of all genders is queer no matter what gender of mine is involved. it doesn't matter. i have never felt "half gay half straight" which is why people weaponizing heterosexuality against me as a bisexual forced me to strictly identify as a gay man for almost a decade. it was painful to ignore my butch lesbian side, and to stop identifying as gay, because people would criticize how attractive i found women, and other people

if people had let me exist and explain what bisexuality means to me, they could've understood that bisexual is an inherently deeply queer attraction no matter what genders are involved, but NOBODY cares to listen to the bisexual. everyone LOVES to speak for us because we're just "straight people invading the queer community."

we've had it. bisexuals are queer. even if they DO identify as "half straight" they're STILL queer. let bisexuals define bisexuality. there is no one size fits all form of bisexuality. every single bisexual defines it differently and that's the point. it's a very complex identity with many layers that often relate to gender and presentation as well as attraction.

let bisexuals define bisexuality.

[sparklemaia]

Heyyy!!

So I've recently read a lot of your comics about top surgery, and I really resonate with your experience (I haven't had it myself but I'd like to). I've recently been exploring my own gender and realising I might be non binary, but I guess I feel sort of an imposter in that I want to keep my name and pronouns (afab), despite feeling like I never got the memo about what a "woman" is, which I know is fine, but I guess I was wondering how the shift from your agab into realising you were nb felt?

Like, you seem to describe your gender as sort of unknowable and indefinable, and I guess that's sort of how I feel? I just want to be... More me. I guess what I'm really asking is, how would you define/feel about that shift into realising you were nonbinary, do you still feel connected to your agab, how do you reconcile the two?

Sorry for the long ask!

Hi, this is such a good question! I actually DO still feel pretty connected to my agab. I feel like I am a girl but also more than a girl but also not enough of a girl, simultaneously. (Weirdly, I never ever feel like a woman, and definitely not a man, but I do feel like an adult at least some of the time.) Top surgery was 100% the right decision for me; my body feels so much more correct and I am grateful every single day this procedure was accessible to me. (I was on a low dose of T for a year and a half too, and I basically just got biceps and a sliiiightly lower voice out of it. We stan.) I simply don't have strong feelings about how these things do or do not map onto gender identity or other people's perceptions of my gender. I am generally perceived as female, and that's fine! Like, close enough! I often feel somewhere BETWEEN cis and trans, or even between cis and nonbinary, and sometimes I joke that I'm just "nonbinary for insurance purposes." I mostly use she/her pronouns, although won't object to they/them. I like my "feminine" name -- I chose it myself years ago for reasons unrelated to gender and I have no plans to change it again. In terms of gender presentation I'm usually somewhere in the "tomboy femme" zone. Basically, I've been through a medical transition but not a social transition. Which is not very common, or at least I haven't seen much representation of it! (Be the bad trans representation you want to see in the world, i guess??)

Even though the words are often used interchangeably, I feel more alliance to genderqueer as a label than nonbinary, because nonbinary feels too clinical and "third checkbox"y to me, whereas genderqueer feels more expansive and undefinable and dynamic, with space for the ways in which I both am and am not performing girlhood correctly. When pressed to pick a gender word for myself, that one feels the closest. But if I'm filling out a government form or whatever? Yeah sure F is fine.

A lot of where I land with this stuff, though, is just kind of relaxing my grip on language. Top surgery was a relief, it helped me feel present in and connected to my body. Ultimately it doesn't matter much to me how much of that was *gender* dysphoria and how much of it was just... something I wanted, a way to make my body feel more like mine, to align my mental image of myself with the thing I had to stuff into clothes and walk around the city every day. I believe very strongly in bodily autonomy, and in making our lives as easy and comfortable and joyful as we can for ourselves, without needing to have a clean and tidy explanation for our choices. It is very possible to know with reasonable certainty that you want something, that it will be a net positive for your life, without being able to articulate, even to yourself, WHY you want it. It doesn't need to have a bigger meaning than ahh yes, this feels right. At this point in my life, I'm more invested in marveling at the sheer improbability of my own existence than in wedging myself into the taxonomy of known and acceptable gender narratives. I'm just a person, here for the merest twinkle of a moment in cosmic history, making soup and knitting baby hats and admiring bugs and singing off-key and cutting my own hair and doing my gosh darn best to light my tiny patch of night sky with stories so that you (and you, and you) feel less alone on your own journey through the unfurling dark. Gender is just such an inconsequential detail in the narrative of my life, and pretty open to reader interpretation anyway.

Not having to wear bras is pretty great though ngl

[ladytauria]

actually, I'll give you something cute

Jason and Tim gotta pretend to be a married couple in a suburb or smth, specifically thinking they adopt like a dog/or cat while there (and then keep them obv)

but yeah playing happy married couple while totally not pining after each other

this is so messy i’m sorry lmao

mutual pining is one of my absolute favorite tropes <3 & you know i love a good undercover + identity shenanigans fic

I don’t have a lot of clear, defined ideas for the set up (I find casefics so hard to conceptualize for some reason???? Sigh.) But. I have a few thoughts— first, I don’t want them going undercover together to have been the original plan. Second, I kind of want to have originally been Jason’s case? Bc I kind of want there to be an opening thread of like. Jason’s such a planner that having his plans over turned is always upsetting for him—he’s adaptable, it rarely ever affects his actual work, but he still gets grumpy about it :/ So him reaching out for Tim’s help isn’t like. A Big Deal but it isn’t Not a Deal at all, you know? Like it means something that he’s asking Tim to come in for… SO many reasons.

Alternatively I suppose it could be something they were assigned to do by Bruce or Babs or asked to do by Steph, even, ‘cause it’s someone else’s case & they need intel but also more freedom to do stuff?? I dunnoooo. ALSO thinking that maybe Tim & Jason are the obv choice for such an assignment bc Jason is still legally dead & doesn’t have much of a civilian life that anyone knows about, and Tim is no longer involved with WE or doesn’t have to do much with the company so his free time is also… very open.

I’m also torn on like. WHERE I would want them to be. In a Gotham suburb? Or outside of Gotham completely? Like, say, Metropolis? There’s something appealing about the latter bc like. They’re already undercover, posing as different people, but NOW they’re also someWHERE else so it feels even more like this is a distant dream they can never have. However, if it’s in Gotham you could have that underlying “we could have been this if life had been different.” (You can kind of get that with the former too, but.)

Also thinking that as much as I love the gendefuckery of crossdressing / going undercover as a woman, AND as much as I love the idea of genderqueer/fluid/trans Tim, I want them to be going undercover as an MM couple? (Although, now I’m thinking about a similar situation where Tim, who doesn’t oft explore the femme side of himself in depth, actually would get to… hm.) ANYWAY. But yeah for this one, they’re going undercover as husband & husband.

Tim’s undercover persona… I’m split between something with tech or working as a mechanic. (Hush.) Jason… hmm. College TA or going for a college degree, so he’s mostly the stay at home/house husband type. Or maybe one or both of them should have a career that calls for traveling a lot?? Hm.

Both of them expect themselves and/or the other to kind of struggle with it. For multiple reasons! The first being that they have feelings for the other—there’s a part of me that actually wants to make one of them (probably Tim) oblivious to their own feelings until a week or so into the charade & have a sudden realization? But also I like the idea of both of them going into it knowing that they like each other and resolving not to let it affect things. They both also expect to miss vigilante work, because while they’re able to go out occasionally it’s not like either of them are used to.

And while it’s definitely difficult to find things to occupy their time with at first… it’s not as hard as they expect.

Thinking they adopt an animal fairly early on (thinking it should be a stray they start feeding & fall in love w). I’m leaning hard on the idea of a cat but a dog could be fun too lmao. There’s a lot of joking arguments about post-case custody but then those peter off as they start letting their roles bleed over into their lives.

And then. The case ends. They get the intel they needed, bust the operation, and it’s time for Tim & Jason to quietly pack up and leave.

Thinking the last couple of days they spend as their fake identities are awkward. They can’t find the ease they had before because they know they’re about to leave, so when they’re not actively performing for their neighbors… they’re more withdrawn.

And then they both go to their separate homes. Thinking Jason got primary custody of their dog or cat? But I could be convinced for Tim as well. Anyway. Both of them feel a little hollow; like they’re missing something. They cant stop thinking about their life together, how *real* it felt & how much they miss waking up to the other. How much they miss even the idiosyncrasies they used to argue over. (Even if at least half of those idiosyncrasies were made up for the persona. They still know each other well enough to know which ones were real and which were fake… & they find themselves wondering which parts of their private lives they left out, good and bad, what living together would *really* be like.)

Eventually one of them makes an excuse to go see the other—to check in on the cat/dog, obviously. And maybe there’s an awkward invitation to keep visiting, and a sort of. Ambiguous/open ending with an obvious/hopeful slant for them to be a couple in the future.

And then maybe an epilogue / one shot sequel set a few months in the future with a look at their established life <3333

[ send me an AU & i’ll give you at least 5 things i would include in it ]

[lastoneout]

I actually do think like the basis of the argument biphobes use about bi people only facing homophobia and never facing any backlash when we are single or in an m/f relationship is because they just fundamentally do not understand what bisexuality actually is and don't care to correct that.

Bi people have been screaming forever about how we aren't half and half anything, we are an entire new identity based on being attracted to multiple genders, but the queer biphobe doesn't believe that. They see us as half gay and half straight. Without even realizing it they are openly admitting they do not listen to bi people when we talk about our identity and then they weaponize their willful ignorance to harm AND silence us at the same time.

They do not conceptualize us as a new identity, we're basically just a fucking math problem to them(and since these types also tend to lean aphobic and truscum and radfem they think of all oppression like a math problem, but I digress). Like their logic goes: no one hates people in straight relationships but they do hate gay ones, and gay people obviously would never hate another gay person for being gay just like straight people would never hate you for being straight, so you are clearly only experiencing homophobia and maybe some misogyny and that ONLY comes from cishet people, any "bigotry" coming from the queer community is just you being a whiny homophobic loser with passing privilege who is pretending to be oppressed and mad gay people don't want to date you because again, you can only be hated for your gay half and gay people don't(or can't) hate other gay people for being gay.

But there's no math to do. You can't do math on oppression anyway, but bi people are not half anything. Again, we are a whole new identity in of itself. "Half gay and half straight" is not the definition we use, we have almost NEVER used it except in like, jokes and memes and shit. The way we define ourselves is as people who expirience attraction to two or more genders, and that doesn't even always mean being attracted to both men and women! There are loads of genders, bi doesn't inherently mean men and women and thus "half gay half straight" can NEVER be a definition that encompasses all of us. And you'd KNOW that if you actually LISTENED to us.

We are hated because our society still expects people to be attracted to one gender. Even in monosexual queer spaces there is the expectation that you only like women or only like men or only like nonbinary/genderqueer people, you HAVE to pick one. Refusing is deviation from the norm and is punished with violence and exclusion and bigotry from BOTH sides. And until biphobes can finally get their heads out of their asses and actually LISTEN to us when we do something as basic as DEFINE WHO WE ARE ON OUR OWN TERMS WITH OUR OWN LANGUAGE they will never be able to accept the existence of biphobia or their ability to take part in it.

They don't believe it exists because deep down, they don't believe bi people exist. We're just two identities in a trenchcoat, that can be easily divided with simple oppression math. We are not whole people with a whole new identity, we're a gay person and a straight person trapped in the same body, pretending to be something we aren't, facing "half" the oppression, if that(OR we're really just a confused gay or straight person who will figure it out eventually and give up that "bi" nonsense). And they don't care if they're wrong because that would mean they're bigoted and doing harm and they can't possibly accept that they are capable of being bigoted and causing harm, especially to other queer people.

Anyway, listen to bi and other multisexual people when we talk about our identities and problems. It's not hard. We're begging for people to take us and our problems seriously instead of pretending we don't exist or trying to fit us into a framework that cannot fully express our existence and acting like that means we can't be oppressed for being attracted to multiple genders. And tbh I don't think that being biphobic is something you can't come back from, but you have to sit down, shut up, LISTEN TO US, realize that you don't fully understand what you're talking about, accept that you have held harmful beliefs, and then work to be better.

It's hard, but bi people need allies. So please, at the very least just listen to us when we tell you who we are and what we go through. Just listen.

[whoishotteranimepolls]

This blog is really fulfilling my near constant need for long lectures over fandoms that I never really get to flex out huh? I'm going to start making powerpoints. Alright, time to explain Ivankov and Bon Clay with a quick history of the LGBTQ+ community in Japan. Disclaimer: I am not Japanese, I am from a western country, but I will try to do my best to summarize the history and connotations to the best of my ability. I also do understand that some of the genderqueer characters do seem to be based on stereotypes, but that will be explored.

Okama is slang interchangeably used for gay men, drag queens, gender nonconforming men, and transgender women. It is very similar to the English word "Queer," especially in the idea that current members of the LGBTQ+ community are attempting to reclaim it as a positive phrase, rather than the slur that has been used against them. A large part of Japan still conflates gay with crossdressing or transgenderism, which is why homosexual men are sometimes referred to as okama (literally a 'pot' but meaning something similar to the English word 'queen') and are usually represented as cross-dressed and effeminate. The use of the term okama derives from the slang usage of the term to refer to the buttocks and thereby to anal sex which is considered to be the definitive sexual act engaged in by homosexual men. Homosexuality in Japan has had a fraught history that I do not have the character space to completely include here. Bon Clay is a character that first appeared in One Piece in the year 2000. Now, I know a lot of modern day fandoms do not understand the history of queer characters in media. This was long before we had shows like The Owl House, Steven Universe, Yuri on Ice, or She-Ra (I can't think of a lot of modern queer anime off hand). We had very little canon queer characters, at at the time, it was far more common for queer characters to either be women (Sailor Uranus, Utena), or male villains. And Bon Clay was not only queer, he was an out and proud Okama. He was referred to both as a man and a woman, and sang an entire song "Okama Way/Oh Come My Way." Bon Clay, despite being a villain, got a redemption, he befriended the Strawhats, and helped them to escape from Alabasta, even though he himself was sent to jail instead.

“One may stray from the path of a man. One may stray from the path of a woman. But there is no straying from the path of a human!”

In the end, this world is broken down to men and women But I'm a man who is a woman So I'm the best (the strongest) The best (strongest!) OH COME MY WAY

Emporio Ivankov

As Mod pointed out, his design is based off of Doctor Frank N' Furter from Rocky Horror Picture show and Norio Imamura, a real life Okama and a member of Mayumi Tanaka's acting troupe whom Oda met. Ivankov is gender fluid and uses their fruit to switch between whatever sex characteristics they want to have. Ivankov refers to himself as a "Newkama", as opposed to an "Okama". This is a double pun made by mixing words. It basically goes "Newhalf" (Transgender) + Okama (Crossdresser) = Newkama (Newcomer). Newkama claim to go beyond the concept of gender since almost every one of them has experienced life in both male and female bodies thanks to Ivankov's Horu Horu no Mi. Also, there is a question on what pronouns Iva uses, with in the Japanese text, they appear to use something like Neo-pronouns, always replacing the first character with a V in the pronouns they are using (Vatashi vs Watashi for "I" but I do not know enough Japanese to speak on this or how their pronouns should be translated)

She was the queen of NewKama Land in Impel Down, a secret haven inside of the prison where prisons escaped to. (This is why Mod jokes that One Piece fandom took over Horny Jail, we have a gay club in our jail in source material that was created by a transgirl and maintained by genderqueer okamas. We cannot be stopped). She is also a member of the Revolutionary Army, (MANGA Spoilers: A former slave), and Queen of Kamabakka Queendom, a place where okamas can be free to live their lives with no criticism and to just, be themselves.

Now, I understand why the artstyle turns people off and makes them seem like harmful stereotypes, and they aren't always treated well in the story. While Luffy is extremely accepting of Ivankov and Bon Clay (The only people in the entire story he refers to with honorifics are them, and he uses female honorifics, Iva-Chan and Bon-Chan), Sanji has shown to be pretty transphobic. But I also think that they encapsulate the messages of One Piece: Complete and Utter Freedom. The Freedom to be true to yourself, to live your authentic life, and to live without regrets. These characters are not only strong, respectable, and free, but they fight for that freedom for others as well.

There is no queerbaiting in One Piece. The only canon LGBTQ+ Identities we have are the transgender characters, probably attributed to Oda not wanting to write romance, and thus it is harder to make canon gay/lesbian/bi ect characters. Luffy, on the other hand, is argued heavily whether he's canonically aro/ace, or just heavily coded. We have other queer characters as well, especially in Wano. Kiku is a transwoman, and Yamato is a transman. Bon Clay, Ivankov, Inazuma, and other "Okamas" are genderqueer, although the identies may not translate nicely into English. Some of it may not have aged well as well (The use of "Transvestite" for example). But overall, the LGBTQ+ Identities have been respected by the narrative of the source material if not necessary by the characters or author. (And definitely not by some fans). Its also important to remember, Bon Clay was introduced in 2000. Kiku was introduced in 2018, that is nearly 20 years to learn how to depict trans people. She has no gags, she just exists as she is. Oh, and none of the queer characters die in the series, and Bon Clay even has the quote "Queers will never die!"

(Morley should probably be added to this analysis, as a transgender woman who pretty controversial, but she doesn't appear much in the manga/anime so I don't know a lot about her lol. I'm also not going to touch the "debate" of Yamato's gender here)

Sources: Male Homosexuality and Popular Culture in Modern Japan

One Piece: A Queer Retrospective

For context, they are responding to this post about Emporio Ivankov and Bon Clay

Well done! Great job! You deserve a cookie. Because this is why I love Defend Your Blurbo. Emporio Ivankov and Bon Chan would be proud of you

Fun fact, the horny jail reference actually comes from the bg3 fandom and the narrator outtakes. I just think it's very appropriate for the One Piece Fandom at least when it comes to my blog and what you guys have put me through

[postsforposting]

subtext

this is a headbutt

this is also wade-as-deadpool's conception. angel is a "virgin mary"/mary magdalene foil. that headbutt is head-in-butt aka anal. he conceived himself, an impossible conception. created before he was conceived, then died and was born again.

not immaculate but out of sin--because it's out of wedlock. wade pulls vanessa's proposal ring out of his ass, where he was saving it for marriage. vanessa's "jinx" reply confirms her anal question was also a proposal.

her first proposal to him was on women's day, but he got cold feet. marriage is "creating a new life together" which is why it has to be on christmas, jesus's birthday. women's day is march 8; 8 is infinity/"Forever" in another direction, so he's also saying he doesn't want forever with her. wolvie, on the other hand, is the 8th variant we meet.

this means both wade and deadpool know the themes, subtext, and symbolism of the stories they're in. wade knew he was in a story before he was deadpool. the scene with the pizza boy in someone else's apartment is him telling us that he knows there's an audience and he's being watched.

even as "just" wade, he knew he was destined for something else out of his reach. that vanessa wasn't "endgame". she was "the one" for wade, but he knew he wasn't going to be "just" wade for much longer. he could only keep it up all year, not forever. he proposes at the end: an attempt to save his life and create a new one, just before it's all ending. because he wanted to live, he didn't want things to end.

because endings, death and suffering, change you into someone else. that's explicitly the theme of dp2. that's why he wanted francis to fix it so he could....live again. that's why he left vanessa, and why vanessa also changed how she acts with wade after her own stint in the oxygen tank. why they broke up after they both died for realsies--because they'd changed too much and wanted different things than when they'd met.

he expected francis to get away during the bridge fight (winter soldier bridge fight reference) and reacts with fake disbelief when negasonic says francis escaped. he knows there can't be a story if he kills the villain in the first act. if there isn't a story, he doesn't exist.

he doesn't merely see the audience, he knows the structure of the story. he knows what time jumps are, and knows when scenes are played out of order: "we all know how this turned out" as he gets in the cab in dp1.

he doesn't address us directly until after dying the first time, until after his face-down staking--not crucified upright like christ nor merely the opposite, but "in another direction" because he plays for neither heaven nor hell but his own franchise.

he addresses us just before acquiring his swords, because jesus's second coming will have a sign and is not in peace but with a sword. wade was "just a man", which is why he doesn't get off on international women's day and why he forgives the pizza boy with just a confession and apology. unlike jesus the preacher, he doesn't address us during his "first coming" as wade, because that's the jesus foil. he saves during the first go round--except those he's ordered to kill by the government, something bigger than himself--and is unforgiving in the second.

deadpool is a superman though, more than a man. like jesus was "more than a man". that's why the gender jokes start up after he's deadpool, not while he's wade. he's going "in his own direction", and in another direction as deadpool: he didn't "come with a sword" ie on women's day, but as deadpool he acquired katanas and swapped from vanessa/women to play for another team. his own team, his own franchise, not mere men or women but only those as fucky fucky--cockeyed queer--as himself. specifically he fucks up and touches people worse than himself. aka worst wolverine, literally from the peanut gallery and not one of the good seats.

wolverine is the only other character referred to like deadpool is: genderqueer AND who's played for no other teams but his own. when the godly disney franchise demands that everyone find their other half in the opposite gender, playing for no one but yourself is as queer as it can get. and as homo-same-sexual as it can get.

same as yourself......"only you". only himself. vanessa demanded he show her he cared about something bigger than himself.

he couldn't because he's a....homosexual.

god-anchor-logan is the same as but also bigger than jesus. (dick joke.) deadpool has always cared about that, he just couldn't reach him. he's misunderstood by even those who should be closest to him.

he's defying the narrative of what's expected of him. is it only pansexual if you'd fuck anyone? deadpool explicitly doesn't. or is it pan-sexual if you only want a partner who is every gender and every sexuality while also none of them? just like yourself, which also makes it homo-sexual? all sexualities, all genders/sexes, ie pansexual? everything and nothing, alpha and omega?

you know, like the father, the son, and the holy spirit are supposed to be everything but also from nothing. transcendent, above it all, because it does not matter....like pan is defined as "it does not matter".

is that still pan? like how the sex jokes work both ways? pan is queer, but is queer "only you" still pan? or is it something else entirely?

the movie wants you to think about what your expectations do to people. how much can you queer something before it's "too different"? if it's not what you expected, does that make it wrong?

but in being wrong and unexpected....isn't that exactly the definition of queer? to not be textbook accurate?

vanessa is also a virgin mary/magdalene foil; francis is god, deadpool's father. oedipal complex: deadpool literally fucked his mother, subtextually fucked angel-who-is-his-mother, and did three kinds of fucking by killing his father. deliberately, because he knows how stories are supposed to work and instead of playing along, went "fuck that". he fucked his whole family in his crusade to defy the narrative.

to defy the narrative is to start your own franchise is to play for your own team is to....fuck god. as in how he addresses us as fuckface at the end of dp3. cause that was not what we expected.

that's what made it feel so right.

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Sword gays showdown, poll for the third place of bracket two

Propaganda:

For Haruka/Sailor Uranus:

She wields the space sword, one three talismans. She's also in a canon sapphic relationship with fellow sailor soldier sailor neptune and later is raising a child with her and another sailor, sailor pluto. Their daughter calls her papa because she's also a genderqueer icon. 

For Hikaru Sulu:

1) Okay, first off: Which version am I submitting? Prime timeline (TOS) or Kelvin timeline (AOS, also known as the reboot movies if you're not in the fandom)? The answer is both. Prime Sulu has the more iconic fencing scenes (and is also said to have other sword related abilities) while Kelvin Sulu is canonically gay. Specifically as a tribute to George Takei btw who played prime Sulu in TOS and is famously gay and an LGBT+ rights activist among other causes. The picture provided is prime Sulu but if you've only watched AOS, feel free to vote for him anyway.

I'm not gonna link any videos here since that would probably exceed the scope of the propaganda section but clips should be pretty easy to find. And if you can't, just trust me: The TOS fencing scenes are amazing. The AOS one is probably fine too but it's been ages since I've watched it and I forgot it even existed so it can't have been THAT memorable.

Fun fact: George Takei initially didn't know how to fence and didn't find out he'd have to until pretty late and started taking fencing lessons only three weeks before the filming of that episode (The Naked Time) and apparently "became so out-of-control and boisterous that he had to be separated from the rest of the production personnel, for their own safety" which, in context of what the episode is about, is just absolutely amazing. Truly iconic.

Anyway, considering Star Trek is an important part of queer history (I'm only half joking) you need to vote for Sulu, we all know George Takei is an icon, make the right choice here.

2) When they got hit with the drunk virus he took his shirt off and started challenging people to duels. Iconic 

3) This bitch got the outer space disease that makes you silly, and revealed they were gung ho for fencing, and brought out their sabre to just. Swashbuckle. Goes "/oh my/," and is clearly gay and played by a gay actor

[cupcraft]

How do we begin to deplatform abusers in content creation circles?

It takes fans of course. There's a lot of posts talking about this (from me and many others).

But we also need to talk about fellow ccs. And their role in being complicit in abusers platforms.

It's not just the ccs who openly and brazenly go "I support them/they're innocent". It's in the ccs that mention them, its in the ccs that quietly unfollow but don't say a single word at all about it (and don't post anything supporting the victim whatsoever), it's in the ignoring the problem, it's in the treating abuse in some cc circles as not abuse (ie when ccs treated dreams allegations as "minecraft shit" or treated it like controversy and drama and not srs grooming allegations in which minors were harmed). It's in the liling a generic "support victims" tweet and thinking that's enough. It's in the moving on without a word. It's in the allowing ccs and ccs that openly support abusers to attend content events, to attend tournaments, to attend conventions. It's in the staying friends with them or speaking highly of their work. All of these things contribute to platforming abusers. Its in the way they speak over victims and make jokes about their story and dont apologize for it (thinking of xqc hasan and ludwigs handeling of adrianah's experiences) All of these people are complicit in abusers in their industry.

The way to destroy abusers is to not be silent. It is to speak up and support victims the way that they need. It is to hold both the abusers and their loudest defenders accountable and to keep them away from gaining power in their career. It is not just unfollowing quietly and pretending that's enough. And don't think it's impossible don't come here and defend your "fav" and say it's too large of an expectation. It's fhe bare minimum. And it's always funny, to see that it's always the women and genderqueer ccs that speak up first. The men are often silent, the burden of supporting victims in their career doesn't fall on them.

Demand more of your ccs as you do with fans. To destroy abusers in these industries takes approaches from both aspects to keep victims and others safe. Demand more of your ccs they aren't helpless or without responsibility.

[haupkmn]

Hi, please don't donate to the OP of this post!

The OP of this post is very openly racist, lesbophobic and transphobic who openly admits to supporting pedophiles. Please do NOT donate to her or give her money.

Receipts are under the cut.

TW: blackface, racism, homophobia/lesbophobia, transphobia, the d slur and pedophilia

Hound is around 21 years old and a white tme genderqueer lesbian. Hound has mentioned using any pronouns so this post will be using she/her.

She has a long history of doing blackface, both seen in my tag for her on my blog, and the photos below.

In addition to her doing blackface multiple times in the past year and a half, she's been using slurs that only black people, specifically black lesbians, can only reclaim (d*ke)

Several black people and black lesbians have asked her and given her sources to stop, but she only replied with this, and kept the slur on all of her profiles.

Hound in the past few years has made several jokes at the expense of an underage character being shipped with an adult, and how the ship itself (Gon/Hisoka) is nothing but a slight controversy.

Along with joking about pedophilia, Hound follows several twitter accounts dedicated to l*licon and rape fetishes.

Hound has a very long history of making posts asking for donations and either lying about what the money is for, or even needing the money at all.

Several years ago she made a post asking for around $2,000 to afford an Airbnb because she got kicked out, while I do not want to say my location outright, I do know that we live in the same state and I've had some rather unfortunate experiences IRL in the past.

If she even got kicked out, according to several mutual friends it's heavily debatable that she got kicked out to begin with, but most airbnbs in the area do not cost $2,000 for a three night stay. Several other IRL friends have noted that she's made donation posts asking for money for food and just spend it on weed and vape pens and other things that are not food.

tumblr is refusing to let me add more images, but she's following several minors between the ages of 14-17 while posting porn.

please don't donate or support her

[foxglovepng]

Pride Headcannons + ships🌼🥀

Characters: Riddle, Cater, Ace, Deuce, Jack, Ruggie, Jade, Jamil, Kalim, Vil, Epel, Idia, Malleus, Lilia. + Ship mentions Trey, Floyd, Azul Literally everyone.

CW: Mentions of internalized homophobia, ship mentions, probably incorrect dragon biology. Book 7 spoilers Lilia!!!!!! (Please don't come for my Idia and Cater ship name its a JOKE) I went a little unhinged with some of the ship names

A/N: Happy pride month since you gay and shit. When I was writing this I legit forgot Savanaclaw existed and accidentally left them out (OOPSIE). By the end of pride month, I am going to figure out if I am a lesbian or not.

(Just a disclaimer these headcanons don't change who I will write them for I just have these specific headcanons)

Likes and reblogs are appreciated <3

NOT PROOFREAD

Heartslabyul

Riddle (Closeted Gay man)

Riddle has internalized homophobia. For gender, he's questioning/experimenting, but because of his mother he very much has internalized homophobia.

Cater (Bi preference Men + Non Binary)

So if you look at Cater's guitar straps in his club card it's BASICALLY the Non-binary flag (He/They)

Like?? It's basically it maybe just missing a color but like?? You can't tell me I'm wrong.

He also gives off Bisexual with a preference for men. Like just looking at him he would date women however men are usually his preference.

Ace (Trans FTM + BI preference woman )

We all know about my FTM Ace headcannons and I will die on that hill for them, BUT Bi preference woman headcannon Ace.

Also because of Adeuceyuu, I will include that he's Polyamorous.

Deuce (Pansexual)

He's comfortable in his gender however he is Pan.

I know people are like "But but he gets nervous around women" fun fact I don't give a shit he's PAN

Also adding because of Adeuceyuu he's poly

Savanaclaw

Ruggie (Bisexual)

He gives off Bi vibes idk why.

Like you can totally catch him checking out guys and girls you can't tell me otherwise??

Jack (Pansexual)

Another Pansexual. I can see him not caring about gender he would date anyone.

(Insert Epel and Jack ship)

I think he prefers rather or not they are a good person and would workout with him.

Octavinelle

Jade (Unlabeled)

I feel like Jade experiments with Gender stuff and pronouns. I also feel like when it comes to sexuality he doesn't really care and chooses not to label himself. Who cares if his s/o is a male Why does that matter?

Scarabia

Jamil (Agender + Unlabeled)

He gives off agender vibes tbh like no straight man has hair that gorgeously long NO STRAIGHT MAN HAS A GORGEOUS SILK PRESS SMH (drop the hair routine or Kalim gets it)

When to comes to his sexuality I feel like he's unlabeled as he also probably doesn't care like Jade. He also isn't actively seeking out a relationship because of his position as a retainer.

Kalim (Pansexual + experimenting)

He'd date anyone for sure doesn't matter the gender.

Are they trans? sure are they a woman? sure are they am eldritch horror? sure why not.

I feel like he also experiments with his gender and plays around with pronouns. Like maybe one day he wants to dress in drag and he next he just wants to vibe.

Pomefiore

Vil (Genderqueer + Pan)

Vil is literally referred to with both masc and fem pronouns so it's giving very much genderqueer.

They would date literally anyone all that matters is their beauty n shit.

Epel (Bisexual)

He's bi because I said so

I could see him dating a girl, but I could also see him dating a guy..

Ignihyde

Idia (Aro/Ace)

I could see this man being Aroace. Like he really does not go out and if you have seen his Phantom Bride card you'd see it too.

Diasmonia

Malleus (Genderfluid + Pan)

According to my sources if I am correct Dragons are genderfluid (Source: Cafae latte)

Malleus is a dragon (DRAGON DEEZ NUTS-) so that makes them Genderfluid in my book.

And I also feel like they would be Pan because they would definitely date anyone and since being genderfluid I feel like gender wouldn't matter as He can make it work.

Lilia (Agender + Bi + Poly)

So because Peepaw is 700 years old I feel like he just messes around with gender and would use any pronouns.

For the Bi and poly headcannons

Ahem

IT'S LITERALLY CANNON

According to my sources in book 7 he tried to wife up Malleus's mom and Levan (Idk who Levan is he's just there)

Bi Lilia cannon fr

My favorite ships

AdeuceYuu (Ace + Deuce + Yuu)

Dumb and Dumber (Or Adhd + Autism) (Ace + Deuce)

Aceyuu (Ace + Yuu)

Deuceyuu (Deuce + Yuu)

Beauty + Fuckass Shining Armor (Vil + Rook)

Twink and a redhead (Idia + Cater)

Magicam freak + SFW Donut Daddy (Cater + Trey)

Octopus + Chef that would cook Octopus (Azul + Jamil)

Applejuice (Epel + Deuce)

Gym Rat + Small enough Gym Rat crush with his bicep (Jack + Epel)

Ships I can get behind but aren't my favorite

You aren't enemies you are just gay (Malleus + Leona)

You're honor they're gay (Azul + Riddle)

Terrorizer + Terrorizer's favorite person (Floyd + Riddle)

Beauty + Beast (Vil + Leona)

[cipherdragon]

yeah so i got some isat theories

take note i’m only on arc three + i don’t plan to spoil anything for myself SO DONT TELL ME IF IM RIGHT OR WRONG PLEASE <3

i did accidentally check the isat tag on both here and ao3 so i got possible spoilers which influence the headcanons but whatever

if none of this is right feel free to make this an au bahahha

anyway this went from theories to just me rambling lmao

i’m sorry

loop and the king are probably a part of siffrin

“refer to me with the royal we” loop uses they them and jokingly(?) says to use “we”

king literally has sifs hair bruhhhh

“do you remember?” all three are not from vaugarde

the island north of vaugarde people don’t remember its existence. sif cannot recall where he’s from. HMMM…

reoccurring books sif cannot read. refer to island north of vaungard theory

sif uses he they and this may be a stretch but king uses he/him and loop uses they/them so sif took the pronouns in the divorce (not a literal divorce)

so i’m guessing siffrin, once you basically wear the poor guy down from looping 100+ times because you’re trying to make everyone happy, just GIVES UP and goes “yeah let’s freeze my friends in time THATS GONNA MAKE THEM HAPPY FOREEEEVER :D” but he’s too far gone to realize “wait wait wait no no that’s WRONG” (get this man some therapy istg)

also i think sif is aroace or at LEAST just ace. “yeahh i don’t like the idea of doing things with people in that way” in regards of mira saying she doesn’t want to fuck people during her quest-to-learn-what-is-upsetting-the-poor-girl

mirabell is cisgender aromantic asexual. one of the younger ones. doesn’t really give off any exact age but def 20smthn. they all are except for dile and bonbon.

isabeau is gay transgender (he says he “changed” and he doesn’t use his old name. mood lol) (i swear changing is just hrt but better) - prolly mid 20s

odile just doesn’t care what she identifies as (at least this is what it feels like) but i’m pretty sure she’s cis. she’s deffo in her fourties. or late thirties. gonna get wacked in the face with her book for sure.

bonnie is nonbinary (i don’t got much for the kid) prob 11 or 12

siffrin. oh siffrin. he’s a guy, but he could be nonbinary. he’s def ace to me, but in the “haha i make funny sex jokes while ace” way. maybe he feels romantic feelings. maybe he doesn’t. he doesn’t have time to figure that out. it would be funny if sif was 18 but nah sif’s likely 21-23 (idk the legal age for the world of isat. i GUESS it’s 20? or 21) (sif is an adult, that much is obvious.)

loop? loop doesn’t care. they’re whatever you think they are. they’ll laugh if they think your guess is funny, but honestly they just don’t care. “loop is gay” “loop’s a lesbian” “loops a genderqueer asshole who siffrin REALLY wants to punch in the face” loop’s everything and nothing woooo magic star glitter everywhere (sorry) (loop has no age cuz they’re a star)

sif’s not attracted to isa. isa is attracted to sif. poor siffrin hates how he can’t reciprocate isa’s feelings. he’s worried he’ll upset isa by telling him he doesn’t see isabeau that way. he keeps looping over and over to try to get isa to say he loves sif, sif tries to get the courage to say it back, despite it not being true.

and odile slowly figures out sif’s secret about the loops each loop, but they loop back before she can bring it up to sif.

aight i think that’s everything. i got over 30 hours in this game on my switch and i think some of that is a weird glitch because surely i haven’t been playing that much??? i think it managed to keep adding numbers even when my switch was off. hmmmm.

[davekat-sucks]

"You can still think he is bi and ship him with whatever girl you like. Fuck what the fandom thinks. Just do what you like." Another banger from davekat-sucks. Sometimes I feel like you're the most sane person in this fandom, I swear to god. Unpopular opinion on Dirk's sexuality and identity: He canonically does not like to label himself. It's in the comic and in his own words. People can cite him saying that he felt like Jake was the only option and Roxy calling him the gayest man in the universe or whatever, but neither of these things means that the man is 100% homosexual. Maybe he felt like Jake was the only option because Jake was just plain the only one he felt a romantic attraction to. Maybe sometimes friends say shit like "you're the gayest person ever" as, like, a joke, or maybe it could have been wishful thinking on Roxy's part since him not being gay might make his rejection of her hurt more. I don't know. It's never explicitly stated. Isn't it possible that Dirk is homoflexible, or maybe even pan? I just don't get people being mad because someone wants to imagine Dirk and Jade kiss or something. It's also funny to see people being all about headcanoning him as transfem/genderqueer or turning him into the daintiest sluttiest girliest twink of all time while pissing their pants about stuff like this. Isn't hypermasculinity and being a man a big part of who he is? Why is making him a woman/feminine okay, while making him hold hands with Kanaya or something is a homophobic hate crime? If we're playing in this space, is it not a little hypocritical? If shipping him with a woman is homophobic why isn't it homophobic to make "the only canonically gay man" into a girl or a flamboyant stereotype? On a smaller note, I know that you've talked about this before, but the same people who freak out about this stuff are the people who totally erase Dave's identity as a bisexual man and say that he's completely gay. He's expressed interest in women (an understatement), and he's dated them. I'm starting to think that people just hate bi men. I want to understand the logic that these people are using.

Yep, Dirk did say that when speaking with Roxy.

Another reason for him to say this as well is to try and remind the readers that both Roxy and Dirk are in an apocalyptic setting that caring about terms of sexuality, is pointless if they don't want to be dead. The world has gone to shit, so things like that don't mean anything anymore. I bet Hussie was trying to point that out when the fandom would only talk about the kids' sexuality despite the bigger shit going on in the plot, but sadly, it was lost on readers back then. Part of Dirk being masculine is also in part because he looks up to Alpha Bro, DAVE STRIDER. If people want to blame anyone for making Dirk manly, blame Dave himself or another version of himself, for only portraying himself as this that Dirk thinks it is right to try be in that same standards. People had blamed Bro for this with Dave, so why don't we do the same for Dirk and Alpha Dave? The fandom stereotyping Dirk into the stereotypical effeminate gay guy, is hilarious when they are the same people that bitch about being in other media. They want their supposed LGBT rep to be taken seriously and not used for a joke. And yet they would apply it to other characters that don't act like this in different series. At this point, what more do these fucking people want? Another is that most of the fandom probably wants to have that 'gay best friend' because they think they can be cool with them and also have them as their excuse of why they aren't homophobic this or that. Kind of like how claiming to have a POC friend doesn't make you racist. The Homestuck fandom, or fandoms in general in this modern time, just hate bisexuals in general. Any sign of straight couples from character(s) that are comfortable in both sexes, pisses people off. Some claiming that two persons of same sex being close only for not to end up together, is queerbait. Whether or not evidence was there in the first place. I even recalled the Steven Universe fandom was livid when they heard Rebecca Sugar, the creator herself, was bisexual. People assume she was lesbian because of the TV show she created. The thought of her still liking guys infuriated them. At that point, I wonder what does the B in LGBT means if said people who claim to be all supportive for LGBT, hate bisexual relationships. Just because a bisexual person chooses to be with someone of their opposite sex, doesn't mean it automatically means they are straight and can't go back to bisexual. It's ridiculous. That kind of one way street thinking is stupid.

[vergess]

sorry if this is an odd ask to send out of nowhere but i thought your mlp post was really interesting! could you go further into detail about what you think the show does wrong in later seasons? you don't have to, i'm just curious since i really like the show and it's been one of my hyperfixations for a very long time & you have really interesting takes/meta on things in general

thank you for your time!! :3

It very much gets "less about girls" as it progresses. People's background friends/family are suddenly almost always male, for example, with Fluttershy getting a brother, Rainbow Dash's other school friends being male, her dad being more prominently played than her mom, things like that.

This isn't even a bad thing!

While I would argue, and have before, that a show almost exclusively about women is an important thing for the media landscape compared to the glut of All About Men shows?

The reality is that any artistic lens that focuses exclusively on a single gender is going to be worse for it, if for no reason other than where are the trans people.

A truly "gender neutral gaze" would be the ideal, but to be honest I don't even know what that might look like. I can at least conceptualize the female gaze out from existing, limited examples of female led production for a female audience.

But in terms of, IDK, a trans-led production for a genderqueer/neutral audience, I don't even know it that kind of thing exists. It must, because well, trans people are everywhere in the indie arts, but I have never seen it.

Certainly I've never seen it around a kid's show. And one of the things that makes kid media so easy to analyze is, the "allowed" topics are fairly limited. When sex is off the table, you can devote that time to deepening friendships. When men are off the table, you can spend that time deepening female characterization. etc etc.

So anyway, while I would say a female gaze is preferable to a male one in this male dominated society, both have their deep shortcomings. The way MLP handled male characters in S1 by either not having them, or having them be kind of the butt of the joke (Spike) isn't actually a good thing, just a very different one than is common. And there are plenty of ways that the show mistreated Spike particularly for Being A Boy that would make me hesitate to suggest season 1 to, say, trans masc viewers.

But then there are some ways that I can safely say later seasons are just worse.

The fat jokes, for example, were Not A Thing in S1 and as a fat viewer that was a huge relief at first, which became a sharp slap in the face as characters began making fun of heavy eating or using obese background ponies as gross out gags, etc.

On the other hand, the racism very much was present from the beginning, as evidenced by Over A Barrel's portrayal of native americans as literally another species. And that's before we get into the sheer racism of pony colonialism in the first place. Also Zecora the Zebra's... situation. Which was okay as a one off bit in S1, trying if not succeeding at the message of "different=/=bad."

But, like many of these early flaws, the later seasons magnify the problem, especially when the show tries to approach real world issues. Just off the top:

Zecora becomes the magical negro whose mystic knowledge transcends that of the pony gods.

Gryphons become antisemitic stereotypes, obsessed with cash hoarding and isolationism.

Yaks live in technologically inferior wastelands of Yakyakistan, where they are loud, rowdy, and even dangerous.

Dragons are... just... really fucking bad, like by nature, with rare "good ones" going to live among ponies to become civilized.

The fucking saddle arabians apparently just Not Having Perfomance Art and needing to be taught by Trixie.

The kirin being very literally silent to show how zen they are, needing Westerners to give them back their voices.

The sheer audacity to bring Little Strongheart back in the fucking finale and "assign" her as Applejack's token buffalo friend (not even RD???) after AJ and her family nearly wiped the buffalo out and fully never fucking apologized

There's definitely more. Basically every single non-pony species shown to be sapient ends up some kind of a racist mess. At least cows are just like... white people from wisconsin so there's less racism inherent to their depiction but even then...

There are also ways in which the attempts to cater to a male audience weaken the show's overall presentation. Ponies with adult men's human meme images as cutie marks started popping up, for example, which is again not a bad thing, but weakens the overall fantastical world building.

Likewise, the attempts to modernize the setting are... um. Let's go with uneven.

In S1 technology is firmly pre-industrial Euro-Fantasy. I'd put it around 1770-1800 in the human western world.

By S2 there is an electrical grid even in "small" towns like ponyville, something which in the human world didn't take place until about150 years later, with another 50 years to roll out things like video games, which also start appearing.

But only for ponies.

Never for the other species.

I get why they did that. It's a "have your cake and eat it too" scenario where they can keep the pre-industrial fantasy tech level sometimes, but use a modern tech level at other times. It opens up more storytelling options. And it's not like the magical horse universe needs to obey our physics and timelines.

But then why only ponies.

All that does is deepen the racial division between ponies and other species. Which the later seasons LOVe to do. Deepen racial divieds.

After all, in S1 most other species (cows, gryphons, etc) were shown to live in equestria too. But in later seasons, are revealed to live in cloistered ethnostates nominally self ruling but in practical terms subservient to the equestrian state if they want basic rights like the fucking sun.

Which acts to retcon Spike's hatching and adoption from something very heartwarming into something very horrific.

Honestly, the "male gaze" is not the issue I have with late seasons of MLPFIM. It very much comes down to "this show got SO fucking racist SO fucking fast what the FUCK."

And that probably would have happened with all female writers and directors, too, if they were mostly white.

This all makes me sound like I hate MLP, but I promise you, all of this criticism comes from a place of utmost love. This show is really, REALLY good. It is charming, beautifully animated, excellently directed, with passion poured into every aspect of the visuals, the audio, the stories, the characters...

That's what makes these constant missteps so painful to encounter.

Because the highs are so high!

I mean, the movie easily constitutes the best 2D animation out of the western world in DECADES and every track on the album is a banger, and that's just the movie. Cartoon movies aren't exactly noted for their stunning quality, but MLPFIM sure as fuck stuns.

And when the highs are that high, oh man, the lows look lower by comparison.