#this show was definitely not made for bigots

[ragana62]

Yeah...

Don't buy the merch. Don't go to the theme parks. Don't see Cursed Child live. Don't watch the new show. Don't buy the games. Don't give her a dime.

The only reason I still engage in the Harry Potter fandom is because I can do so without giving her money. I can read or write or make fanworks or talk with other fans (specifically the ones who don't fuck with her bigoted bs, if you're a TERF and you're still here somehow, take this as your cue to leave my blog, my queer NB ass is not for you, I promise.) and she won't see a cent off it. Quite frankly, I'd have strong hesitations on even that after her 'anything to do with me is supporting me' bs if I didn't also know she's got a long history of hating fanworks that deviate from canon except in ways she deems acceptable.

"Separate the artist from the art" only works if the artist can't actually gain anything from your engagement with the art. It's for 14th century poets who wrote bangers while living lives that definitely don't hold up to modern standards of ethics, or your problematic fave whose foundational work of SF has been public domain for decades. She's alive, kicking, and turning a profit off it that she turns around and reinvests into real, serious, harm to people. Don't put money in her pocket. I guarantee, any merch you want there's a fan creator who can make you something just as good or better who isn't a terrible person who will spend all the money you give them on evil. The new show is explicitly a way of keeping the original cast members who have publicly disagreed with her from continuing to make money off merch with their faces on it (not to mention, it will continue to fund her bs). None of it is worth it.

If you can't get past that little piece of your childhood/young adulthood (I get it, it was a major emotional support series for me in an abusive home, it's hard to let go of things that sustained us when we needed them even if the people responsible for them turn out to be monsters), I'd encourage you to engage in fandom consciously. Do so in a way that doesn't fund her disgusting rhetoric and the evil she supports.

Beyond that, if you're going to read fics/look at art/etc. I'd strongly suggest that you consider moving outside of the default zone of innate familiarity (and your personal one as well) too. There are lots of fanworks out there that center queer (and especially trans) stories, that center people of color in ways that are clearly better thought through than the casting decisions for the new show indicate she's doing, that develop the setting and characters in wonderful ways that have the added benefit of making a bad person upset if she ever stumbled across them. There are stories written and art made by people from all different backgrounds who bring their own unique perspectives to the narrative that might challenge yours or at least make you think about things slightly differently than you do as a default.

Maybe give them a try, at least some of the time. And definitely explore ways to support the real life humans she's harming in whatever way you can, whether that's by educating yourself, calling out harmful rhetoric where you see it, phone banking/advocating to your representatives when you see related issues come up in your own countries, contributing financially to charities and other groups doing the hard work of legal defense for people impacted by these harmful laws or advocating against them passing in the first place or providing support in accessing healthcare/housing/other necessities for the trans community, etc.

all these arguments about the new harry potter casting but all i can think is that every person involved in the series has willingly signed up to work with such an outspoken transphobe

[hermitcraftx]

the only reason dream everrrr had a platform or was popular is bc everyone made thirst traps of. his blond fake sona for years (he has fucking BROWN HAIR???) and then when he revealed he was a pedophile creepy weirdo right after he revealed his face everyone that made a career making daddy dream manhunt NSFW didn't stop blogging because some people would fuck steaming piles of human garbage if it was white and had abs. like every dream stan I've ever met is perpetually living in 2021 and dream is too and if that's not the biggest sign of the world's most colossal fumble I don't know what is. genuinely the only talent dream has is being uncannily manipulative and vague to try and get away with everything and play the victim later on after he says genuine rancid dogshit but he's not even the best at that. genuinely he's the definition of a career made by other people and if he thinks for a second his little white suburban fake redneck yuppy mr beast wannabe that he's going to successfully be a right wing grifter after being known as the gogy wogy uwu yaoi queerbait streamer (and yes I do think he's genuinely the ONLY real person that word applies to) then he's fucking insane. ain't nobody fucks with him. he's a footnote in Minecraft history. the worst people alive in the community don't fuck with him. tommyinnit is having tea with jacksepticeye and doing comedy shows and having fun with all the remaining good internet ogs and regularly pulling lots of views meanwhile the only way dream stays relevant out of his cesspool wretch infested pedophile apologist echo chamber that is his fanbase is regularly triggering dsmp drama to feel sorry for himself. can't do manhunt without cheating and it wasn't even an original idea another abuser took that from him can't do an smp tommyinnit made that for him it really seems to me on a psychological level that to a degree some of that cdream shit wasn't roleplay because dream knew the most memorable part of the biggest part of his career would be tommyinnit forever and always. and now he has to fight for tommyinnit beef scraps saying slurs and shit when he's not even involved getting way too comfortable after Trump gets elected when tommy barely pays him more mind than he paid Logan Paul when he WORKED with dream for YEARS. tommyinnit gets to be known as the man who fostered love and care for his fan base, an all around good person and joy to be around and a ray of light in the dark space that is the mcyt space, and a guy never backed down on his morals and ethics whereas dreams only claim to fame now are being a cheating bigoted ableist creepy pedophile-esque freak with no concept of proper boss/employee conduct or creator/fan conduct with a Republican bastard and a sexual assaulter as friends who was seen as mildly hot by teenagers in 2021 without y'know being able to comprehend you're not supposed to reciprocate. and I know it keeps him up at night because otherwise he wouldn't try and regain relevancy by starting shit with Tommy every 6 months. is it because tommy is an adult now, clay??? when people look back on fond memories of fandom in 20-30 years not a single person will be able to look at anything dream has been apart of without grimacing not even his fans because I know all those arguments on behalf of a nasty ass pervert will not be fond memories. the only original thing he's done is say the r slur- oh wait. I mean groom minors- oh wait. I mean be a bigoted racist- oh wait. I mean have gross misconduct with a fan- oh wait. I mean start drama a lot in hopes of getting attention- oh wait. genuinely the most pathetic shadow nothingburger ass of a man I've ever seen in my life may dogs eat his face off in the middle of the night.

[manicpixiemidgirl]

Y'know, I think you and a lot of people mistake House for being homophobic, racist, sexist, and transphobic (maybe a little more credit to that one, but if the show was being made in more modern day we might see otherwise). None of them remotely realize,

He's being edgy.

He's purposefully getting a rise out of people because he likes getting people angry at him.

If you listen to what he says when he ACTUALLY means what he's saying, he's actually progressive, especially for the time. He calls the HIV guy's dad a bigot because he thought he hated his son for being gay. He told the football player "you won't need to play sports now to get a good career" when his skin started to discolor to white. He literally said "white, skinny, pretty people make all the rules in society" at one point. All of his actions prove that he believes women are just as capable as men are, if not more so in some cases, especially with Thirteen and Amber. He's FIERCLEY pro choice and doesn't even try to hide it or pretend otherwise.

And while he definitely has some pretty terrible stuff going on with intersex/trans people, the show frames him in a bad way for doing so.

House is a horrendous person in a lot of ways, but he's not ACTUALLY a bigot. He just likes to pretend to be because he hates it when people like him and tries to push them away.

[jewish-vents]

Being Hmong American and Jewish is exhausting. My family had to flee to the US because of what the US did to Vietnam, my parents witnessed atrocities committed by US soldiers, and the only people who showed them any kindness here? The local Jewish community. That's why they converted. They wanted to join these people whose ethos was love and kindness, who saw them as illiterate immigrants and whose first instinct was to help. Now people try to tell me I'm a colonizer and genocidal and I stand there thinking, "Your parents' generation bombed, raped, and murdered my extended family. I don't blame the whole generation for it and definitely not the whole US. Why is it acceptable to blame my family for things we never did?"

I don't trust goyim who say that they only hate zionist Jews. Not just because they don't know what that word means, but also because I see how they treat my parents. I see them act like two people who lived below the poverty line for 90% of their lives, who learned to read in their 20's, who barely survived in this world, are colonizers and racist and bigots. I see people who say they don't hate all Jews hurl profanity at them when they wear their Magen Davids. I see the way people radically alter their treatment of them once they know my parents are Jewish, the fixed, too-steady smiles and tensed shoulders, the side-eyeing, the questions about income. And a part of me wants to tell them this is what they get for being xenophobic and hateful - if these same white goyim had accepted my parents, my parents wouldn't have found a home in Judaism. If they didn't want there to be Hmong Jews, they should have made Christianity look appealing instead of hypocritical.

It's not the hate that bothers me, deep down. It's the hypocrisy. It's the way people don't even flinch when they blame me for things Israel did when their country razed my parents' village to the ground. Hmong and Jews have a very major thing in common, which is long memory. We remember the Vietnam War. We remember the Holocaust. We're both still waiting for an apology we know isn't coming, and we've both given up on the thought of the rest of the world learning from what happened.

.

[aspecpplarebeautiful]

question.. asexual people are queer, right? i saw a post on twitter and so manyyyyy people said we are not.

It's important to remember bigots are loud. But most surveys show that when lgbtqia+ people are polled, the vast majority consider ace to be a queer identity, most queer and LGBTQIA+ spaces are actively ace inclusive and anti gatekeeping, and frankly asexuality is not heterosexuality.

It can definitely be stressful and upsetting seeing a lot of people invalidate your identity and exclude you like that. Before they all moved to twitter, these people used to be really active on Tumblr (and are actually the reason I made this blog), and they're upsetting on purpose. They also use multiple blogs and tend to be extremely active to give the impression of numbers, but you won't see a lot of them in less bigoted and more moderated spaces. I'm sorry you came across it. You're the only one who gets to decide if queer is a good label for you or not.

All the best and take care, Anon!

[nedlittle]

hey i don't mean to be mean or anything i'm just wondering about that marauders fans post.

how would a marauders fan art benefit jkr? how would a fanfic about gay and trans characters benefit her? i feel like it does her more harm that people think of her characters as queer. and i think most marauders fans already know not to buy her books or go to the wizarding world or watch the new show or whatever.

like when it comes to spending money everyone's careful to not support her except terfs and people support her ideology and whatnot.

i'm trying to think of how someone posting headcanons about these characters on tumblr can somehow benefit jkr

again, i don't want to come across as hateful or anything i'm genuinely trying to understand your point

thank you for asking this in good faith. i've been having trouble wording stuff lately, so apologies if this isn't as coherent as i'd like.

participating in the marauders fandom continues to benefit jkr simply because you cannot divorce the marauders from their larger context. the fandom may have turned the marauders into something more than glorified side characters, but they cannot exist without the framework of the harry potter universe which has bigotry baked into its very core. imagine we're all playing in a sandbox. marauders fans may be making beautiful sand castles and art with their own two hands, but they're using the sand toys that jkr left for them and the sandbox that they're playing in is in her backyard and in order to play you have to get your hand stamped by joanne personally.

it would be so easy for people to just....make their own ocs or switch to a different fandom. the marauders are hardly characters to begin with, but the inability to let go of a text which gives them basically nothing as characters ensures that the bloated corpse of the harry potter fandom continues shambling around long after it should have died.

and for the most part, the marauders are not relevant to normies. i think even if someone was a big fan of the books in middle school, but has moved on, they aren't going to think of the marauders beyond the characters we actually see on page. the prevailing cultural view of those characters in the context of how they were written is not "look at this cool and diverse friend group coming of age in the 70s and sticking it to the man" or w/e it's "those guys who were mostly in the background." most people do not think of these characters as queer because they aren't doing the mental labour of filling in jkr's world for her.

but because this fandom is so popular--it trends every other week, pinterest is filled with it, youtubers are making video essays on marauders fandom as a queer utopian reclamation of hp--jkr sees the continued relevance of people talking about her characters. she does not see the caveat that you are taking this character who is just a name on a page in some supplementary material and making her into a black lesbian (which is a whole other thing where ppl treat diverse headcanons as a "punishment" for bigoted authors in the same way that twitter libs will qtwt homophobes like "i hope your kids turn out to be gay" which is....not activism but anyway). she doesn't see desi james potter and gay trans boy remus lupin, she just sees the interaction between creator and consumer. she sees this as "people still care about the art i have made and must agree with my views". it makes her believe she still has an audience, which she definitely does unfortunately, which is why we're getting the series reboot and theme parks and merchandise for a piece of ip that peaked what? 15 years ago? i'm not looking that up

tl,dr in jkr's brain support of her work = support of her views

[ceaselesswatchersspecialboy]

The accidental trans-coding of Danny Phantom is an iceberg in of itself, made ever more amusing by the fact Butch Hartman — Well-known Extremist Christian — would probably keel over and die if he saw it, presuming he hasn’t already.

(This isn’t even touching onto the heavy Autistic-coding of the Fentons vs Butch “I can pray the autism away” Hartman).

But I think as well, this coding, and how widely accepted it is in the Phandom, or at the very least, acknowledged and respected, shows the very fascinating phenomenon of a fandom becoming so separate from its creator, the creator arguably has no sway over his creation anymore. I mean, legally, he doesn’t, but I moreso mean a common occurrence in Fandoms today especially, at least in my experience, is a very close association with the creator of the medium.

I don’t think that was devoid of fandoms previously, in fact, Butch Hartman was very interactive with the Fandom back when the show was airing, rather, I think Danny Phantom being such an old fandom has given it sort of an… immunity? It, as a fandom, does not truly belong to any one creator anymore. Butch’s opinions have no effect on what is done. It’s lived so long on itself that it doesn’t need nor care for the opinions of a bigoted creator.

It’s definitely helped by the fact he is legally detached from the IP, but again, I think it’s more than that.

It’s a self-sufficient community. It has been for two bloody decades.

There’s entire headcanons that have simply… become canon in a loose sense. Lore that is accepted. A more darker understanding of the series’ implications.

And, going back to my original point, a complete reframing of the series as a whole through different lens, because death of the author has never been more at play here. His intent truly does not matter. The Trans-coding is accepted as a valid read of the show! The autistic-coding is accepted as a valid read of the show! Be free! Do whatever you wish! The ghost is your oyster!

So basically, the show about a half-dead boy has a phandom that fully encapsulates the meaning of ‘death of the author’ and I think that’s both hilarious and fitting.

[grayscale-sparks]

@lordofthesoups tumblr has been FIGHTING me from posting this it’s take four and your ask has been eaten

anyway your prompts were a date across universes and washing Arthur’s hair and I got Very Carried Away

1200 ish words in the Sea Major AU

“Letting you universe hop has to have been the best thing I have ever done.” Kayne said matter of factly.

Arthur rolled his eyes. “You said that about giving me cat ears yesterday.”

“That’s true they were very cute.” Kayne nipped Arthur’s ear. “I can bring them back?”

“No, thank you.” 

“What a shame.”

Kayne looped his arm in Arthur’s. They were walking through the streets of a picturesque city somewhere in Europe- Arthur wasn’t quite sure. Kayne seemed to know where he was going, so Arthur wasn’t too concerned. He knows he should be- just a few weeks ago, he’d be digging his heels into the ground, demanding to know where each step took them.

But… forgetting was easy when faced with such wonders of this and every world. He’d spent so long seeing the worst the universes had to offer. Sometimes sinking his teeth into a chocolate pastry was all he needed. (They were ever so slightly different from his own because of a spice trade with a long forgotten civilization. According to Kayne, anyway.)

“Describe it to me.” Arthur said, leaning his head slightly into Kayne.

They were allowed to be… affectionate, of a sort, in public. All due to Kayne’s abilities, of course. He would be remiss if he let some mortal bigots get in the way of their conversation.

Still, Kayne frowned. “I gave you your eyesight back, Artie. What do you want me to say that you can’t see?”

“You know I like poetry.”

“You know I’m not a poet.” Kayne shot back. “Still, I’ll try for you, darling.”

Kayne cleared his throat, straightening his tie, making a show of preparing for his wondrous poem. “Let’s see- the city is dull/but you my dear are full/or will be tonight.”

Arthur shoved him away, protesting through his laughs. “You’re awful!”

“I don’t know, maybe I am a poet.” Kayne said with a devious grin, trying to reign Arthur back to his side.

“I’m never asking you to describe anything ever again.” Arthur said, face still red. “That wasn’t even a proper haiku.”

“Bullshit, yes it was.” Kayne argued.

“Your middle line was six syllables.” Arthur said, giving into Kayne’s attempts at taking his arm back, and settling back beside him. “It’s supposed to be seven.”

Kayne rolled his eyes. “How do you know that the haiku rules are not different in this universe?”

“You’re incorrigible.”

“Your incorrigible.” Kayne said, knowing full well it made no sense. “You try. Give me a haiku, Artie.”

Arthur sighed. “Darker than the night/but I know you will be mine/master of my heart.”

Kayne bit his lip, studying Arthur’s downcast eyes. A flicker of burning affection licked through his chest, not for the first time and definitely not for the last. “Your middle line was seven syllables,” He said softly.

Arthur scoffed. “I hate you.”

“You’re the one being insensitive to this universe’s poetry.” Kayne said. They were coming up on the grand hotel- shockingly empty, wonder why- that Kayne wanted them to stay that night. It held a gorgeous view of a strip of the city, and beyond that the sparkling river and bridge leading to the forest on the other side. Everything glittered at night, turning the dark night into a blanket of indigo and gold.

Only the best views in each universe for him.

“Here?” Arthur asked. “It’s… fancy. What’s it called?”

“Languages developed differently- just enough to be unrecognizable. In your world, it would translate roughly to Hotel Wanderlust.”

Not really true, it was closer to the Voyager Hotel, but Kayne allowed some poetic interpretation. Arthur seemed to like it, so it didn’t matter either way.

“Up we go, I’ve already got us a room.” Kayne said, ushering him inside. He let Arthur circle the lobby, taking in the gilded walls, the crystal chandelier, and the grand piano off to the side. There were a couple of high backed plush chairs beside the piano. They’d take breakfast, Kayne would convince him to play something. Maybe they’d head back up to the room, maybe they’d explore the city. Whatever Arthur wanted.

Lazy mornings with Arthur were… something he’d grown inexplicably fond of.

“Where is everyone?” Arthur asked.

“Do you really want anyone to disturb us?”

Arthur shrugged, and Kayne took his hand, leading him up to the highest floor, down the hall to their room. It was only marginally less lavish, opting more for Arthur’s comfort than the most crystal and gold. 

Arthur stood in the middle, shoulders tense as he kept his eyes on the floor.

“What… What’s wrong?” Kayne asked. He had trouble with temperatures, was it too cold? Arthur didn’t really care, though, so what? The view? They could get a different room-

“Sometimes I wish I was blind still.” Arthur said quietly. Kayne stopped in his tracks, like a line running into each other’s backs and nearly tipping over. He stared at Arthur, waiting for him to continue. “I- I miss him, Kayne. I shouldn’t have… survived when he didn’t. I shouldn’t be able to see all of this when he can’t. I should have… tried harder to save him.”

John. Of course.

That was still a sore subject between them, and Kayne had to remind himself it really only had been a few weeks since his death. 

“He got his wish.” Kayne said carefully. “To be human. And you’re getting your wish.”

“And that is?”

“To know the world.” Kayne said. “At least, I assume. Am I wrong?”

He hesitated, then he shook his head. “No.”

“Close your eyes.” Kayne said. “I’ll lead you.”

Arthur turned to look at him, and Kayne prepared to argue his case. Who cared about trust? It was just them. Arthur knew Kayne wouldn’t kill him- they didn’t even know if he could. But Arthur let his silver eyes flutter close. “I trust you.”

Kayne was glad Arthur couldn’t see him absolutely shatter at that, trying and failing to get his expression under check. 

“What first, my love?”

“I could use a bath.” Arthur said.

“Yeah?”

Arthur nodded sagely. “We’ve been on the road for how long? I need to relax.”

Kayne decided not to comment on Arthur’s insistence that a bath would calm him down. It seemed rather contradictory, but he had said the same thing several times now. Kayne led Arthur to the bathroom, glancing back to see Arthur’s eyes still dutifully shut.

“I’m going to turn the water on now.” Kayne said slowly.

“Okay.” Arthur said. “Make sure it’s warm.”

Kayne rolled his eyes- of course he would. He sat on the edge of the tub as it filled, studying Arthur. There was blood on his shirt and his hand, smudges in his hair and face as well. All from where Kayne touched him. Watching Arthur get bloodier with each day was something that made Kayne think very irresponsibly. He nearly faded into oblivion when Arthur took his hand, not expecting the blood, and pulling away only to inspect the crimson before taking his hand once more.

Kayne would mourn washing the blood off- especially from himself- but he’d already committed to giving Arthur anything he wanted. It was like a little experiment. Take everything away from the test subject to see how they break. Give them everything back and see how they react. Except this wasn’t a test subject, this was Arthur Lester, and none of the results Kayne collected were expected.

Arthur Lester, his one and only. How did he put it? Master of my heart.

[pro-sipper]

I definitely agree with "fiction affects reality" in the sense it can introduce new ideas and concepts to an audience that never considered or heard of them. What I take issue from puritans drawing the conclusion of "oh so this means someone reading an incest fic will make them want to kiss their sister" is that they only ever think about how it can make someone do bad things but never positive things. In fact, if they think about how fiction can motivate someone to do good things, their argument would fall apart quickly when they realize how often this isn't the case in reality. There's so much popular fiction out there you can find radical, far-left themes inside of so if fiction really was this powerful mind control device that puritans act like it is, all the normies who watched stuff like Gundam or Squid Game or Chicken Run or Hunger Games would have become radicalized anti-war vegan anti-capitalists but they didn't. While there are people out there where that absolutely was the case, that was entirely on those peoples' own ability to see those themes and agree with them. You can also find bigots in fandoms for media with positively portrayed women, queer, and BIPOC characters. I could drag a raging homophobe into a movie theatre to see every action movie with a positively gay character in there, he's still going to walk out as a homophobe. The reality is, fiction can never make you learn something you refuse to learn.

...and people are absolutely not looking at ship art, reading AO3 smut, or playing morally bankrupt eroges with the intention to learn something, nor expect that these things were made with the purpose to educate.

Exactly!! Such a good point about how they only expect fiction to affect things on a 1:1 level if it's something negative.

I'm sure it's been said before but overall positive and light shows like My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic or Steven Universe have so many good messages that are delivered in an appropriate way for even kids to understand and yet their fandoms are notorious for being full of hate and arguing. If a show was all about the power of friendship and fiction affects reality so severely, surely their fandoms would be the happiest places on earth?? No? Maybe because that's not how things work...

Hopefully one days antis will understand. If they even want to at this point.

[dangerpronebuddie]

WIP Wednesday!!

Tagged by @tizniz @hippolotamus who both shared WONDERFUL stuff y'all should definitely show some love!! 🩵🩷

I don't know where the beans for my other wips went, but Baz (🩷🩷🩷) helped me find some for a new one!! I made this post this morning and couldn't stop thinking about it, so now the boys are investigating an arson case! Have most of what I've written so far 😁:

"Didn't the man from the store fire die right beside the lamp too?" Buck asks in a whisper barely loud enough for Eddie to hear. Eddie nods, his brow furrowed. "You're thinking what I'm thinking," Buck says, a sly grin on his face. "I'm thinking twice is coincidence," Eddie corrects, mostly just to mess with him. Even he has to admit this coincidence is a little suspicious. "And I'm thinking you don't believe in coincidence," Buck counters. He takes his helmet off and runs a hand over his sweat-damp curls, pushing any thoughts at all from Eddie's brain. He says something else, but Eddie doesn't hear him. (Seriously, this whole being in love with his best friend thing is really counterproductive). "What?" Eddie asks, blinking out of his trance as Buck sets his helmet on the engine bumper. "I said, maybe we should go back inside and look around," Buck repeats. "Do you know how much trouble we'd get into if we tried that?" Eddie asks. "We're only in trouble if we get caught," Buck grins. "And it's not like Gerrard's gonna even notice." Eddie scans the area. Hen and Chim are still treating patients. The beloathed bigot is still arguing with the homeowner, Athena standing by glaring daggers at the fool. "Okay, but we gotta be quick. There's a door around the side we can use." Buck hops to his feet, plopping his helmet back on his head and handing Eddie the halligan. They tiptoe around the side of the house, both checking to see they're not being watched, before ducking inside.

(tags under the cut! As always please let me know if you want to be added/ removed):

@lover-of-mine @loveyouanyway @daffi-990 @kitteneddiediaz

@ronordmann @steadfastsaturnsrings @inell @exhuastedpigeon @diazsdimples

@thekristen999 @monsterrae1 @actuallyitsellie @diazheartsbuckley @wildlife4life @theotherbuckley

@rainbow-nerdss @alliaskisthepossibilityoflove @lunarspark-cos @idealuk @shipperqueen6 @slowlyfoggydestiny

@misshiss727 @lin27 @jshadow01 @orangeboxfox92

@thegeekcompanion @emilybahu @lemotmo @awolfnamed-nyx

@kaseysgirl86-blog @darkrose6578 @totallynotagoraphobic @dandelioncasey @bibuckbuckgoose @whatsgoodinthehood22

@lady-elaine @buckley-diaz-rules @buddiedaydreamer911 @monroemary @pirate-hunter

@nonspeakingkiku @eddiedisasterdiaz @drunkandsupportiveeddie @traumabuddies @epicbuddieficrecs @disasterbuck

@tofanasmuse @gnoeltop @keynb @cassi-brooks @-syrup-sue @punkrock00 @shannonhutchins @lasagnatheory @aroqueerfandoms and anyone else who wants to share!! 🥰🩷

[teecupangel]

Hii teecup!! Hope you're doing well!!

May I ask some a/b/o AltDes stuff please (alpha! Altaïr and Omega!Desmond) because there's not much of it out there :'D

Now I'm sure Altaïr would more open minded and much less of an asshole to omegas then most of the people back in his days..... HOWEVER, please hear me out, what if he wasn't

He could be low-key about it, unlike most alphas who are very vocal and open about their 'opinions' on Omegas and such. He's very aloof when it comes to omegas in general, not having strong feelings on anything (very Altaïr behaviour honestly). That is until he meets Desmond.

Now instead of time travel, this time Desmond was born in Altaïr's time. This means Desmond would be raised as a traditional and submissive omega, but he still fought back. He could be born in Alamut (because Eagle of Alamut XD) as the son of the mentor (who is not Diya al-Dīn because he would never) who trained and became an assassin... sort of because idiot bigots.

Desmond is the best assassin in his entire brotherhood, BUT he's not officially an assassin. His father/mentor isn't as strict like most and let him get away with his antics, usually.

That is until Desmond was 'of age' and that's when it starts getting bad for our boy. His dad became more controlling and won't let him sneak off to do missions or fight anymore. He was to be married to whoever the assassins could use as allies. Basically just a bargaining chip. Desmond would fight back harder then ever, even with one of the best assassins guarding him and monitoring his move all the time, he would still be able to sneak off to continue doing missions to make them see just how capable he was.

He could runaway, he probably should runaway, but deep down all he wanted was for his father to love him again. To look at him with pride and treat him like a son again. (Altaïr would use this fact as an advantage later on)

But then it all comes crashing down when he finally gets betrothed. (Idk who he should be betrothed to LMAO it could be whoever. Someone very powerful that the assassins could use)

And all was going to shit for Desmond but it all went to super shit when Altaïr showed up. Because oh boy, Altaïr was a Strom of his own.

Now I honestly don't know how he and Altaïr meets, but it definitely left an impression on Altaïr because he was smitten from the first time they made eye contact. Man was obsessed from here on out kajsksjssoakakak.

And uhh yeah that's all I've got, plot wise

Some notes.

- Desmond pulling all the alpha assholes like catnip.

- Altaïr, manipulating Desmond as a sign of affection

- Malik suffers because we love him <33

Honestly teecup, I just wanted a toxic a/b/o au but it grew plotty legs and ran out of my grasps, my apologies.

And that's all for now!

Sorry in advance if my English is very trying, I'm typing on my phone and it's not the best experience.

PS please make it as toxic and horny as Tumblr allows you to, and I would give you my kidneys.

PPS if you think you know who I am by how I write..... No you don't/lh

As horny and as toxic as Tumblr would allow it? I don’t even know the limit of Tumblr’s tolerance hahahaha

So for this one, if you want Desmond to be born in Alamut as a son of the mentor but not Diya al-Dīn, we can make him the son of an older brother of Diya al-Dīn instead. Born more as a way for the older brother, who was passed over because Diya al-Dīn was more worthy of the title, to try and get power with his son being the next in line for the imam since Diya al-Dīn was still childless at that point.

Diya al-Dīn would be the kind uncle who tried to do right by his nephew but can’t truly intervene because his brother was controlling and had a firm grasp on Desmond’s every day life. It was going well, all things considered.

Desmond wasn’t a genius nor was he inherently talented but he was a hard worker and he always went beyond what was required of him.

His father rewards his hard work by giving him a bit of leeway, all the while making him drink medicinal tea that was meant to change him into an alpha.

It didn’t do anything but hide his scent… which had been easy to do in the first place because those not yet of age only had a hint of scent to show their ‘status’.

Diya al-Dīn tried to be accepting of Desmond’s wish to be an Assassin even if omegas aren’t exactly… well… only omegas that could control their ‘base instinct’ could become Assassins which was hard for an omega without the help of some kind of medicine that would leave them in pain or groggy.

Desmond, unfortunately, is one of the omegas that cannot be medicated. Even if he drank more than he should, that only leaves him in unbearable pain.

That’s why his father pivoted from Desmond becoming the next imam to having some talks with certain powerful rulers. Finding Desmond an alpha that would take him as their official wife or one of his concubine.

His father was less picky of Desmond’s standing and more interested in creating a political bond with a powerful ally (whether he plans to use this to usurp Diya al-Dīn or he simply wants more power outside of the Brotherhood is up for grabs)

And he finally finds one but Desmond would enter into that household as a concubine. His marriage proposition wasn’t a good one all things considered, the alpha was a powerful one but it was well known that his official wife and the older concubines were dangerous. Newer concubines either die from poisoning or accidents or childbirth and, more often than not, their children would not survive more than five summers.

So Desmond escapes. Maybe, just maybe, Diya al-Dīn had a hand in the patrol routes that night and it left certain large windows of opportunity for Desmond to use.

Alamut, of course, will look for him. That’s why Desmond would try to hide from them.

That’s how he meets Altaïr.

He was desperate and his heat was upon him. Altaïr’s scent was overpowering and he could feel it within him that this was an alpha that would fight tooth and nail to keep his omega safe.

He wasn’t a romantic.

He had already accepted the very idea that his alpha would not love him.

He doesn’t need it.

Love did not bring his omega parent any happiness, no matter how overflowing their love for Desmond’s alpha father had been.

What he needed was an alpha who would take care of him and any child he would bear.

So he used his scent to weaken the alpha’s defenses.

It was Desmond who made it impossible for Altaïr to resist.

And so Altaïr claimed him.

.

Unorganized Notes:

Desmond escaped a few weeks after Altaïr killed Rashid but before AC Bloodlines. (So late Sept, early Oct)

He was on his way to Alamut to talk to Diya al-Dīn about being the new mentor (he doesn’t want to be the next mentor) and they actually spent Desmond’s heat in a random abandoned home

Alamut Assassins found them afterwards and, by that point, Desmond was sooo thoroughly claimed that there was no way to say that Altaïr wasn’t his alpha.

This also changed Altaïr’s desire to not be the mentor because the easiest way to keep Desmond by his side is to be the mentor of Masyaf with his marriage to Desmond being a way to ‘mend’ the broken relationship between Alamut and Masyaf.

Desmond’s father was not pleased but fuck him, by law, Desmond was now the property of his mate and Altaïr has no qualms killing the asshole if he doesn’t stop yapping about how he raised Desmond and should have the final say on everything.

He returns to Masyaf and… sorta kicked all the Flowers of Paradise. To be more exact, they were transferred to another part of the fortress while the entirety of Paradise became Desmond’s new home. (Desmond and his most definitely growing child)

That is the second headache Malik got.

The first one was the fact that Altaïr returned with Alamut’s blessing as the mentor (which Altaïr had stressed he would never take) and an omega mate (which he had always said would never happen)

Desmond is free to go anywhere in Masyaf but he will always have guards on him because security reason.

Desmond believes Altaïr’s affection stemmed from the fact that he did more or less coerced Altaïr to biting him during the throes of heat-induced passion so he wants a child to further keep Altaïr ‘happy’ and satisfied (not knowing that the mentor title isn’t passed down from father to son in Masyaf, he honestly believe Altaïr is Rashid’s adopted son)

Altaïr was never fully enthralled during Desmond’s heat. He has been trained to have high tolerance as part of Rashid’s plan to make him the ultimate ‘attack dog’. He marked Desmond fully knowing Desmond was desperate and was trying to ‘seduce’ him.

Honestly, Altaïr just wanted Desmond because his scent had been the sweetest ambrosia he had ever smelled and he believed that meant they were meant to be.

And he will not let anyone get between them, no matter who they may be.

[theweeklydiscourse]

White feminism is when white women use it a) to divide POC communities, b) to exclude WOC, or c) performatively. It's not meant to be a tool used to shut down a ship you don't like. Kataang shippers are actually losing their minds.

Tbh, I'd say they're a lot closer to white feminism. They're the definition of performative activists. They're fine with Bryke stripping away Katara's agency as long as she's Aang's perfect girlfriend. But anyone who wants better for her is wrong and a bigot? Oh, and don't forget Zuko's apparently a colonizer so forget all his character development he's the devil as soon as he's shipped with Katara. Nevermind the fact that the people saying this ship him with Sokka.

Kataang was made by white straight men for white straight men. Pretending otherwise is inaccurate

Very true wisened anon. They’re fine with Katara being diminished and relegated to a passive role and they will aggressively defend their stance on the basis that Katara “chose” that path. To them, criticizing the writing decisions that led to such an outcome is akin to misogyny because critics are supposedly “not respecting her choices” and denigrating her feminine qualities. Doesn’t that just say it all? The jokes are writing themselves.

These people couldn’t care less about intersectionality, I’m not fully convinced they understand the meaning of that word either. Their biggest tell is their selective attention to subjects like racism and colonialism, never wanting to have a genuine conversation about the colonial elements/implications of the actual show and opting to only speak of it in conversations about non-canon and fanmade content. This is particularly apparent when you compare the flack Zutara gets for being a “colonizer romance” while no one breathes a WORD when it comes to Zukka.

On your last point, the fact that Katara was written and created by white men is something that every fan should be reminded of. The writers are not the paragons of progressiveness that many fans believe them to be, they had blind spots and biases that become quite apparent when you take a good hard look at the text. Kataang shippers especially want to believe that the writers were infallible and woke so they can continue to entertain their fantasy that their ship is totally wholesome and perfectly constructed.

[popculturebuffet]

MGADD: The Gatekeeper Review: The Masterpiece Shelved by Disney's Cowardice and Transphobia (Comissioned by WeirdKev27

Hello world I have arrived... because Disney has done something so monumentally stupid and offensive, even for them. I genuinely wish I was talking about this episode under circumstances that weren't "Disney showed what it really thinks of queer people... again", but if it weren't for a brave animator mentioning it off hand and the episode leaking soon after, I wouldn't of been able to.

The short vision since i'm sure most of you reading this know what's going on but to recap: thursday night an animator on Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Derrick Malik Johnson (Thank you The Mary Sue for recording the names), mentioned that an episode of the show was shelved due to "Which party won", while a poster on reddit, superootoro backed up the story. Both posts have since been deleted because the mouse clearly got upset this story got out.

Their also likely not pleased the episode ITSELF got out soon after thanks to disney fan Owlphibia. How they got it I don't know, and someone on the crew definitely supplied it.. and I applaud our anonymous hero. If a company isn't going to make something fully available for audiences to see, there is no shame in leaking it anyway. I felt that way when I thought Scooby Doo and Krypto Too was never getting released and reviewed it last year. and still want someone to escape Warner HQ with copies of Batgirl, Scoob: Holiday Haunt and Coyote Vs Acme.

We'll get into the episode shortly but needless to say it's focus on an openly trans character who outright states she's trans with a bigoted asshole who tries to move goalposts as the villian made it clear WHY Disney shelved the episode indefinitely, with Johnson claming they said it was due to who won the election. That said the presence of the beyonder, who disappears early into season 2 and the redditor saying the episode was meant for early season 2 makes it clear this is just an excuse: They shelved it, waited to see which way the country turned, then formally dumped it the second it was clear they MIGHT get heat from the new president over this rather than stand up for what's right.

Their response... does not help. Disney CLAIMS the episode was shelved not banned and their PROUD OF THE DISCUSSIONS IT BRINGS AND OF THIS SHOW WE JUST CANCELLED. NO FOR REAL. I doubt this will actually make it go away and making the tweets making accusations go away, thank alvis for screenshotting, just makes it more clear that no, they just wanted to shelve an episode that frankly and honestly talked about a trans child's struggles with no metaphors about brooklyn being trans: her transness is why the villain hates her and why the episode happens. It happens because a woman is a bigot, and Disney coudln't handle that. They can handle when the bigots an immortal definitely religious man but we don't say that or a super soldier from another dimension, where the subtext is blatant and what it's calling out is blatant, but Disney still has deniability. But when someone wants to tackle queerness openly and honestly.. they run.

It's a pattern for them. They cancelled owl house because its main romance is between two girls. They are oddly and throughly convinced that Lightyear failed not because it's a tonal mess that tries to squeeze buzz light year's cheesy good world building into a darker hard sci fi story that it doesn't fit in, but because two women kissed, and were so paranoid about that that they tried to make Inside Out 2 straight as possible by making the girl Riley has a blatant crush on older than her.. which.. it just makes it a crush guys. Thank god their so bad at this

And of course the piece de resitance before this: Firing openly queer black man and show runner for X-Men 97 Beau Demayo for both wanting his show to actually tackle prejudice instead of just rubber stamping it and being openly sexy on his socials when.. tha'ts his right, thent rying to frame him as an abuser, allegations that ONLY sprung up long after the show had already aired and only when they tried to bar him from showing up at an awards ceremony for an episode he fucking wrote.

Disney is not a good company on most days. They fuck up at least once a year from their implicit support of the don't say gay bill, to the owl house debacle to writing off a ton of shows for tax purposes. I love the CONTENT they fund, I love the card game ravensburger made with their properties, I love the creative stories many an animator has made. But I don't love them. Not anymore and probably not in the foreseable future. I love the stuff peopl ehave created under them but it's become clear Disney has become desperate, greedy and souless. While all companies struggle to be represnetive it's disney who shows their ass the most. Wether it's saying "first gay character evah come see" for characters who were there for a minute so it could be cut from china, banning pride flags, or not letting an alien we can all tell is gay just.. say she is when everything around Penny implied it. Let her fuck a duck disney christ.

I'm so.. tired of this. I've been at this for almost 6 years. I've been covering disney this whole time, starting with ducktales reviews and while I haven't been covering shows as they come out for a variety of reasons, I have kept a firm eye on them. And they just, keep fucking up. They dont' care about queer people. They haven't evolved AT ALL since this half assed tweet Alex Hirsch mocked back when twitter was relevant

And this should be spammed to them because my god. This is a fuckup of monumental proprtions. And it hits personally as I fear for my trans nephew in this colder, worse world we're entering. He may be 14 but he would've appricaited this and so would the many trans kids who just need someone to say: your okay you matter. That's what this episode was trying to do.. and it got shuttered.

The only good news is the pressure MIGHT get disney to actually release it. MIght being a strong word. Last i checked you could find the episode on internet archive, but I'd find it where youc an while you can as Disney is likely going to be doing everything to cover their ass

And that dear friends is one of the main reasons for covering this episode: Disney might try to bury it as deep as they can, so I want a full record of it. To show the content and context of it. The other is to judge the episode on it's own merits. I'll say right now: this is an excellent episode and it deserves to be released. But it's important to get into why: why this episode is good, why it deserved better and why this SHOW deserves better. Moon Girl was canceld recently and if anything this story draws more attention to somethign Disney likely thought they could do quietly and to the show from people who haven't watched it or may of given up after season 1. It's important to me as a critic and person to look at this work for what it is and not just what disney has done to it: a well done story that takes a side character and makes her a star, while also being bonkers in the conkers in a way that absolutely works. Join me under the cut won't you as I break down this tremendous episode.

The episode begins with the volleyball team at lunella's school gearing up for a regionals match. I'd honestly forgotten about these guys as their main spotlight episode for season 1, Goodnight Moon Girl was one I kinda half payed attention to as I wasn't a huge fan of the gimmick.

Looking back on the ep though it's easy to see why they gave the team's captain, Brooklyn, her own episode: she's funny, has an entirely relatable rivalrly with her sibling, and was open and welcoming to lunella. IT's easy to see why Lunella is now the team's eager hydration technician and casey is preparing the half time show. It also shows off the series tight continuity: They tend to bring back characters you wouldn't THINK come back, or if needing a side character using one of the casts established friends, with the volleyball team also playing a supporting role in the dance episode that chronologically comes after this. Brooklyn and co are pumped and ready for the other team whose team name I forgot but is mostly a threat thanks to their leader and her mom/coach greer.

Greer is played by Amy Sedaris and look the show had me at Amy Sedaris plays the main villian. I forgot just how good she is at being evil and her comedic energy nicely offsets just how.. nasty this person is.

While i'm not hiding that Greer turns out to be awful a touch I like is that the episode does for a second: Greer seems like a hypercompetivie hellicopter mom, but offers orange slices and is nice and cordial to everyone. It seems like it was just a bait and switch and given how the show goes, had this episode not been banned, you'd be expecting it to simply segue into some problem for Lunella that leads to her doing a science.

Instead the problem is entirely Greer and it starts simply because Brooklyn and her best friend Tai, who was previously established as non binary, something the episode makes sure to point out again later. They just joke and laugh reminscing about playing soccer together back before Brooklyn transitioned, with Brooklyn being happy she's not on the "boys team".

Unfortunately for her, Greer hears this. And just like that a switch flips: the animation is exagerated and it's clear this bitch is immediately nettled. It telegraphs a problem trans people in general face: that just saying your trans immediately makes some people target you. That just an offhand mention can lead to someone trying to make you miserable simply for being YOU. It's one of MANY reasons the targeting of trans kids disgusts me and i'ts something the show portrays chillingly well this sudden.. entitlement to decide who a person is based on their body. That because you can't get past it, this kid has to suffer. I"ve seen it, I hate it, and the show does it well and Sedaris does it very well, using her usual comedic energy to make a character whose utterly loathsome, yet in such a skincrawlingly real way. Greer is far from a subtle character.. but transphobes tend not to be. While her tactics are for the most part not over the top, her bigotry is portrayed as loud and hateful as we've seen from the right. (Not to give the democrats a pass given the sheer number who want to throw trans people under the buss for the party's systemic issues that caused the election loss, but the right are far more vitrolic and operatic about their transphobia, like Elon Musk deadnaming their daughter and making up a story about them being intrested in women's clothing.. only to get utterly wrecked by his daughter pointing out he was never around for her as a child. Given how fragile elon's ego is and how terminally online he is, zinging him on his own platform does way more damage than anything else could possibly do.

So Greer goes to tell coach Hrbek, Luna's reluctant science teacher and loveable jock, that Brooklyn was biologically a male. Not her terms but fuck her for that. I like how greer just tries to imply it.. she won't come out and SAY Brooklyn's trans: just because transphobes aren't subtle dosen't mean they don't try to do this doubletalk bullshit. Hrbek nosells it just blinking condescndingly and when she dosen't get it telling her bluntly yeah he knows and tells her in no uncertain terms Brooklyn is a girl and she's playing.

He then slips on an orange because life is not kind to this man: like he dosen't get injured a lot but he is stuck teaching a concept that while giving it his best, he's not good at and dosen't like teaching. And now after doing something genuinely heroic, standing up for a kids right to be who they are and telling off a bigot, and only likely not saying fuck off because a crowd's present, he gets hurt. Poor guy. True hero

With the only adult out of the room Greer tries every bullshit tactic in the book to get Brooklyn disqulaified and I love her reactions: no coach, player coach. Her pride flag pads are ones she got from the store. Her bottle.. has water. Greer tries every bullshit thing but you get the sense this isn't the first, and sadly probably isn't the last time, some asshole has tried to disqualify brooklyn based on her gender.

In the locker room getting ready the rest of the Squirrels have picked up on what's going on. Lunella is upset and want sto do something but can't, but it's telling both Brooklyn and Tai try and brush it off. Tai outright tells them not to mentoin their non binary or Greer might explode and Brooklyn shakes it off just.. used to it. And it's fucking sad that a child whose 14 at most, the same age as my nephew, just has to be.. used to it. That people will hate you and try to unperson you just for being what you are. It's part of why this episode being delissted is so frustrating: the message is told well and it's one trans kids need to hear. It's why representation matters: that little voice that says "you are not alone". As a bisexual seeing bi characters makes me happy as their not common even now. While we don't share a gender, Luz being bi on loud house and the show making sure that was clear felt nice. It felt good being seen. That kids after me won't have to struggle with these feelings and just see someone and go "That's me.. that's what I am" and it's so fucking terrible Disney coudlnt' see past their already overflowing wallets to understand that, that the only chance the episode has of release is because they fucked up.

Since greer can't rules lawyer or bully a child out of competttion she goes with plan b: a magical key. Yeah another good reason to cover this one and something that understandably won't get as much coverage? This episode is fucking bonkers. While greer is a well written villian.. she's also a TERF who bought a magical key at a yard sale. No really the beyonder recaps how she got the key. It's not the first villian whose done that on the show, and I do want to someday meet the villian who hosted that yard sale, so it still works in the shows mythology. It also hope the show has had some rediculous villians: Living hair , a symboite tha'ts an online troll, lady stitlman at home. The show is serious when it needs to be this episode included, even the living hair episode had a serious aseop on the racisim black women get about their hair and the internalized racisim that creates. But the show isn't afraid to get weird so while a karen with a magical key she what bought at a yard sale is defintely the weridest foe lunella's faced, it's still within the realm of posisblity for this show. And definitely the marvel universe as a whole. I mean spider-man's rogues include a nazi made of bees and a stegasaurs man, both of whom I hope lunella fights if we get a season 3.

So Greer locks them in the locker room which turns into an escape room/death trap where they have to find keys. Thankfully Brooklyn's awful little brother loves them, so they have an edge and she shoots down lunella just.. mcguivering their way out. It's also intresting to have a super villian fight.. where lunella ISN'T in costume. She's just her normal self, and still just as competent and the only reason she dosen't break things right away is that everyone involved , particularly their leader, assumes they have to play this game fair. And given how in most death games breaking the rules usually kills you it's an easy assumption.

Our heroes do solve the puzzles well, and we get a great joke with Kai whose excited by the lava... and one of their teamates shouts "no it can kill us stop that".

That's a suprising thing I found with the episode: it is REALLY funny. I forget how funny the show can be, and this ep might be it's funniest as Casey, Luna's bestie and sidekick, is forced to stall like a motherfucker as she gets the sense something is wrong.. I mean opening the locker room to find no one there is a good clue. And yes Casey dosen't figure out this is supervillian stuff till near the end but it's done resonably: she can probably get the hint Greer's done SOMETHING but assumes she just locked them in another room or tricked them or something. You know standard school setting vilian shenanigans. Not "This terf tiger mom happens to have a magic key she found at a yard sale. Casey HAS seem some shit at this point, I mean one of the episodes in this very season not long before this was suppposed to come out is her and lunella having to travel inside the dinosaur whose also one of their best friends. But usually the villians on this show wear a costume. Even the gentrifying assholes from season 1, while wearing suits still had super tech and a very obvious black and white motif Lunella should've seen as a red flag. Greer for all intensive puproses is just a bog standard transphobic karen. You just.. can't plan for "turns out she has a key from a super villian yard sale." It's like "a giant obese monster from another dimension who literally needs raitings to lives kidnaps you to star in his shows or else". It's certainly plausible given how weird the marvel universe, but no ones ever really prepared for Mojo that hasn't met the floating fat man. Who for those who aren't freebasing x-men regularly is entirley real. I made none of that up

He also made chibi clones of the x-men called the x-babies. Look it up.

Point is no matter how fucking weird a characters life is, they can still be surprised. So Casey instead decides to stall. Stall as if her life depended on it which.. it dosen't but a lot of other kids do. So she makes up a tradition where they have to do THE WAVE before a game. And I love both her hammy calls to do the wave and the mascots gradual exhaustion. Best gag of the episode.

Let him Rest. Eventuallyt he poor guy collapses, but luckily Devil comes in as Casey called him over and tells him to vamp. Vamp like he's never vamped before. Vamp as if, in her words "Your mariah carey opening for beyonce". And he does... and while he sounds about how you'd expect him singing to, like he's gargling the marbles he ate this morning, everyone loves it. Because it's a singing dinosaur.

This comedy is just... fantastic. The shows humor dosen't always land, but this is it at it's best: silly, over the top, yet grounded in the characters; Casey using her natural ambtion and improv skills and Devil using the voice Satan gave him to sing to a souled out crowd. It's good stuff and nicely helps with the tension of the a plot, with the two cutting back and forth, i'm just not doing that because I don't gotta.

Speaking of which we get a nice musical montage of our heroes bravely solving the puzzles. And they do, passing all sorts of shit to do, opening the final door.. only to find the game's reset.

And here it is: the episodes signature scene. Out of all the cut stuff from the episode, this is the bit i've seen the most on social media, the bit I saw before I even saw the full episode. The speech that helps make what Disney did SO much worse and helps tie this all together.

Brooklyn realizes the hard truth: because Greer dosen't consider her a girl, she has to quit the team as in Greer's warped eyes, her playing at all is against the rules. It's a metaphor that's blantat as it is heartbreakingly accurate: Society always keeps moving the goal posts for queer people. No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try to fit in or just be accepted, there were always be people who will just not care and will keep trying to shove you back int he closet because what you are is inconveint to them. if it dosen't exist to THEM it dosen't and they will keep making your life harder to try to break you down, to try and get you to quit.

I'm Bisexual. Mentioned it before in this article, and have never been shy about it. But it's also a side I struggle to explore sometimes. Growing up in a society that didn't even seem to have a word for what I was and already horribly awkward with women, I FEARED my bisexuality, convinced myself I wasn't. In hindsight.. I didn't want another thing on top of my autisim and anxiety for people to judge me for. Even now I don't try to date.. I mean part of it is i'm broke and have issues, but I realized as I wrote this article.. part of it is fear. Fear of rejection, fear of someone trying to change who I am, fear of getting beat up for being who I am.

And the fears I have I need to deal with, the reality I deal with.. is multipled twentyfold for any trans person. I have trans relatives. I won't get deep into details on the ground i'ts not my story to tell, but what they've faced is heartbreaking. What my nephew has had to put up with just for existing is fucking devistating. It's a bleak world that just wont' let them be who they are without a fight because the idiots who can't accept it have the power and some of those who have the power to stop it.. turn a blind eye. Again a good chunk of democrats were all too quick to try and throw trans people under the bus when Kamala didn't say hardly ANYTHING about trans rights. The knives come out easily and quickly and someone's personhood simply dosen't matter the second it makes your life harder. It's why these guys hate prounouns and trans people: They see just wanting to be who you are as entitlement, as a lot to ask.. when .. it's not. It's not hard at all to ask. It's not hard to treat someone with dignity.

In my case.. it was thanks to, ironically enough tv. It was the summer after high school, I was bored and had a lot of spare time so I watched a lot of the canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation. And while degrassi is far from the most subtle show or free of mistakes, when it came to queer rep it had a solid track record, slowly evolving with the times. As such this is the first show I saw with actual trans representation: a character whose out as a trans man, adam torres, and has to deal with the metric ton of bullshit kids STILL face, while also having plenty of story outside it, from his friendship with best bud eli to his marveling at his brother Drew's poor life choices. Adam wasn't a token, wasn't just a prop for trans stories (Though this being an early 2010's teen drama he both had a TON of stories about being trans and perscuted against and was played by a cis actress. Again not exactly free of mistakes), he was a fleshed out human who just wanted to be who they were. It helped me see Trans people exist, and accept it easily.

And that's why this episode being pulled.. fucking bothers me. Because realizing she can't win, Brooklyn breaks down, blaming herself for what's simply truly isn't her fault. It's Tai who naturally steps forward, pointing out she CAN open up to them and that when Tai came out as nonbinary.. Brooklyn supported them. It's not selfish or being a burdern to let others help you.. and it's easy to support others. to lift them up and accept who they are and defned them against dickheads who say otherwise. The most heartbreaking part is the simplist as brooklyn laments

"How many doors do I have to break down before they stop locking them"? And given disney put one up themselvfes.. it's galling. Btu the message.. persisits: support is easy, and support matters and you are not alone. It's okay to let others carry you sometimes, and it's not a burdern or drama to vent about shit this frustrating.

The other message is an important one as the republicans no doubt prepare to lock more doors... sometimes... playing by the rules dosen't work. Bigots simply will make more to try and keep you from playing. Sometimes you just gotta say fuck it and say fuck them. Fight. Don't play civlity politics, don't play nice, tell them to fuck off.

So our heroes do smashing reality and reealizing things are fragile in this reality: it's held together only so much.. and thus they start breaking it.

Back outside Greer's key starts to glitch and Casey finally gets it.. as does Greer's daughter whose HORRIFIED at what her mom did. That she wanted a fair match. And so did greer.. but only by her rules. GIRL POWER.. no really she says that. I love they just make her a TERF outright and the way amy sedaris says it just shows how hollow that statment is when you won't accept ALL WOMEN.

Her daughter also isn't having this shit and steals the refs whistle, not letting this start till EVERYONE is here. Luckily it's time for the shows ocne an episode beautfully animated musical sequence. This time using all sorts of pride colors and some really nice looking sprites. I lespecailly love them taking the menus of an rpg battle system and breaking out of the frame with it. Really fun stuff and of course we get the shot almost everyone has used and I'm no exception. Brooklyn in front of a pride flag, using a trans flag volleyball to smash her way out.

So our heroes are free, and with the key obviously glitching the Ref, whose mostly just been.. done this whole episode, gets the picture and Brooklyn, not being stupid, uses those soccer skills she mentioned to smash the key while Greer's escorted the fuck out. I mean granted the ref should also.. call the police or shield or somebody as several woman were kidnapped, but given it was in front of a large crowd AND this is the cellphone age i'm sure someone did. But it's just as statsifying Greer is left making hollow threats to get the ref decertified as the door slams in her face. Now she's locked out and that door should neve ropen again.

So Brooklyn and head.. rival team girl... whatever her name was, shake hands. Also kev sugggested they end up going out and I like that. Mostly because i'm pretty sure greer would fucking melt and then all the children everywhere would sing.

So we end on Brooklyn spiking. We don't know who won or lost.. and it jus tdosen't matter. What matters is Brooklyn got to play the game.

The Gatekeeper is excellent. Strong contender for my best of the year list which fast approaches as my backlog

Piles up as usual.. i'll manage most of this. But this episode is fantatic and wether you've seen the show before or not, watch it. It's excellent, and I hope to god the pressure from it makes disney actually release it on disney + next batch. I'm still not 100% they will hence doing this.. but as long as we keep the pressure up it could happen. And who knows, we could even get a season 3. Why not shoot for the moon? Thanks for reading and just remember "I'm pulling for you we're all in this together"

[ringsofpowerconfessions]

It’s disappointing to see how your account has shifted from being a space for all Rings of Power fans to something that seems… much more selective. You present yourself as ‘open’ and ‘okay with different opinions’, but when actual concerns are raised, especially about the harassment and hate certain fans have been sending, or confessions about ships different from Haladriel/Saurondriel, you go silent or dismiss it, or even allow opposite takes to be shared (such as some absolutely borderlining hate).

You used to share a broader range of thoughts, call out racism in the fandom, and now it feels like only certain perspectives are truly welcome (is that because the main antis share the same ship as you?...). If this is a space primarily for Haladriel fans or those who want to focus on Annatar/Sauron/Galadriel discourse, that’s fine! But at this point, I think it would be more honest to rename the blog to something like ‘Haladriel Confessions’ or ‘Annatar Discourse Central’ instead of pretending it’s a neutral space?....

I genuinely hope you’ll reflect on this and consider if your blog is truly welcoming to all Rings of Power fans, or just the ones who align with your own preferences.

Hi Anon,

Thanks for your message. I only started this blog for something to do in my spare time and to take my mind off some life changing events happening in my life right now which has been having a negative impact on me. I'm autistic/ADHD so big change can throw me sideways and the show/fandom has been helpful and distracting on my bad days and I've made a few close friends through it on other platforms.

I used to run a confessions blog here years ago in The Hobbit fandom and never experienced such negative backlash back then, even when I posted opinions on ships like Tauriel/Legolas or Bilbo/Thorin. 

I'm sorry you're disappointed with what I post, you're right, I should be more open to people's opinions (within reason of course). I'll sometimes read a submission and won't know if it'll hurt someone's feelings or not and I'll struggle to decide whether to post something or not. I obviously don't want to hurt people's feelings but I guess they can also block the blog?

I do support Haladriel yes but that doesn't mean I'm biased at all, I respect all thoughts in regards to the ship and definitely not the type to attack someone for having different views, like some people do I've seen. Maybe I'm too soft idk. I guess I just don't want to receive the hate or slander. I've had some nasty anons which I delete and don't respond to.

I don't know what to do any more, honestly. Of course I want to welcome all RoP fans and opinions, I'm just trying to keep everyone happy without being called a bigot. I'm also a mixed race person so I'll call out racism all day every day. <3

[makorragal-312]

Why the BuckTommy break-up fell flat narratively...

Disclaimer: I am not defending this ship. I hate it and I'm glad it's dead.

1. Prior to the break-up, he made a jab at Abby for dating a guy half her age and riding Buck off as "a himbo." Even though he's literally doing the same exact thing.

That, kids, is what we call "hypocrisy."

2. Tommy said that he "knows how the relationship ends."

Sir, if you know how it ends, why did you go for it in the first place? This just gives off that he was only dating Buck either for a good time or because Eddie wasn't showing any signs of interest, so he just settled for his bestie.

3. Tommy tries to pawn off the catalyst of the relationship ending on Buck, saying that he would "break his heart."

Even though HE was the one doing all the heart-breaking shit to BUCK throughout the entire goddamn relationship.

4. Josh's dumbass advice.

Okay, that's not fair. Josh's advice wasn't dumb per-say, but it was completely irrelevant to Buck's issue. I know that he probably doesn't really know who Tommy is, but making him sound like he was this gay pioneer who led the charge at Stonewall and that his scars should be respected?

Absolute nope.

It ended up making Buck's move-in proposal feel like he was doing it out of obligation because Tommy's been out longer than he has, so why shouldn't he ask him to move in with him?

And on that topic...

5. The return of the hamster wheel

You would think that after dumping Taylor the way he did, Buck would remember that he doesn't necessarily have to hold on to relationships that aren't working and he can just cut it loose, right?

Wrong.

Instead, they have Buck actually take Josh's advice and pull a Taylor 2.0 by asking Tommy to move in with him. This show continues to leave Buck on that fucking hamster wheel instead of letting him get off and it's working my nerve. Even if this was just the show's way of showing that Buck's toxic relationship tendencies don't change because he's with someone of the same sex, it's still redundant and annoying.

6. Buck.

The first and only time Tommy chooses to refer to Buck by his preferred name is when he's dropping him like a baked potato.

And the show never even gave Buck the chance to tell him off about it.

The fucking audacity.

And finally,

7. TOMMY KINARD HIMSELF

This whole scene, the narrative tries to paint Tommy out to be this sympathetic character all throughout, making him look all sad and talking about how "he knew the parking spot was too good to be true" and citing Buck to be the one who would break his heart.

Despite the fact that he literally broke Buck's again just seconds ago.

I'll never understand why the show decided to take this route with Tommy's character for the episode even though in past episodes, he's been canonically depicted to be insensitive at best and flat out bigoted at worse. And throughout the entirety of his and Buck's relationship, he has said and done things that have hurt Buck and he never even apologized for it. And if he did apologize, he gave a lame apology as to why he did do.

*cough* first date *cough cough*

And it definitely doesn't help matters that the show made the active choice not to bring up his past actions within the relationship or for Buck to even know about it. Instead, they made Abby the catalyst for the break up when it could've been Tommy himself being the catalyst.

Obviously, there were a million ways the show could've given the BuckTommy break-up a major impact and there were definitely ways they could've made the break-up solid with the Abby revelation.

All in all, the break-up could've been executed better, but at least the ship is dead.

[theflagscene]

My Top 10 Fave QL Characters of 2024 🤩

More end of the years lists from me, because clearly I have nothing to do for the rest of the week... I wish I was joking. Much like my pervious lists, my only rule for this is that at least some of the series needed to air this year. It can have started in 2023 or will be ending in 2025, as long as some—or all—of the series aired this year, then it's fair game.

1 ) God - Monster Next Door

What can I say about God that hasn't already been screamed from the rooftops by literally everyone who watched the series? He was aptly nicknamed, because this gentle giant was a gift from heaven. The greenest green flag, even when mad or upset, he was still as green as a damn emerald! The sweetest golden retriever character to have graced my screen this year, I will always love this character and this series, it's become a comfort watch for me, that's for sure.

2 ) Yai - The Sign

There aren't enough sweet himbos in QLs imo, typically whilst cute but dumb, they're also mean or bigoted or just not very likable. Yai broke all of those stereotypes, he was cutest himbo around, a perfect brother, friend, bro and husband. I knew I would adore him from the very first episode and I was not wrong, he did not disappoint. Every scene Yai was in wasn't enough, I wanted so much more of Yai (and his scary beautiful wife, Sand).

3 ) Joker - Jack & Joker: U Steal My Heart

Joker and his emotional support idiots might have fumbled the ball at damn near every turn, but he was absolutely adorable whilst doing it. I think it's physically impossible for me to dislike a character War plays, so me adoring Joke was not a surprise to me. A master thief who really wasn't that great at not getting caught, a hopeless romantic, mama bear and perfect grandson-in-law? What more could I have asked for?... Possibly better fake tattoos, but we can't have it all lol.

4 ) Jeff - Pit Babe

I admit with no shame whatsoever that I found Jeff to be one of the most interesting characters on the show. His powers were the ones with the farthest reaching consequences and the most difficult to live with, he was tragic in all the ways I love a character to be tragic. I really wished I could've watched a version of the series from his pov, because I feel like I would’ve fast forwarded way less lol!

5 ) Tae Myungha - Love For Love's Sake

His depressive aura bewitched me body and soul, what can I say? The fact that he tried so hard to make everyone around him feel loved, wanted and important whilst he spent his entire life feeling none of that just broke my damn heart. He was the perfectly example of: the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy because they know what it's like to feel absolutely worthless and they don't want anybody to feel like that.

6 ) JJ - This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans

Poor JJ has an idiot for a bestie and a douchebag (affection) for a love interest, this dude did not have an easy time of it lol. His forever exasperated resting bitch face and constant annoyance at literally everything that came out of both Plawan and Methas's mouths made me laugh so much, JJ had absolutely no time for any of their shit and yet he was constantly dealing with their shit. The poor guy needed a vacation away from the people in his life even though he loved them, which I totally understand lol!

7 ) Aylin - 23.5

While this wasn't my favourite series, Aylin was definitely one of my favourite characters. Her autistic coded self just spoke to me, I too dislike humans to a level that I would easily take the first alien spaceship off the planet lol. Aylin was so sweet and funny, I loved the way she spoke and her lil hats! I just wanted to squish her!

8 ) Fadel - The Heart Killers

Was I expecting to go into this series loving Fadel? No. Should I have? Absolutely. I have always loved the shrew characters when it came to adaptations of The Taming of the Shrew, which is the point of the character so ya know, duh! Lol. Any series with FirstKhao in it I always assume one of them will end up being my fave because well, it's them! But Fadel is the realest of the real when it comes to the slog of daily life, his routines, his annoyance with the general population, his need to remind himself that killing people whilst working in customer service is not worth the clean up nor the prison time. Sure, he's an assassin on the weekends, but hell, who isn't working two jobs in our current economy?

9 ) Rock - Cherry Magic TH

Rock was the perfect sunshine dope of a sidekick and I loved him for it, completely oblivious yet extremely caring at the same time. A man smitten with the idea of a woman who wants to eat fatty foods, will kidnap his Phi for a super secret mission no questions asked and respects a woman's right to say no without becoming an incel about it, he really was a joy to watch. It also helped that Sing played him, because Sing is an adorable ball of sunshine and I luff him.

10 ) Tan - We Are

The first person to get his man, and so easily. It made perfect sense why Fang fell for Tan, his hyperactive sunshine energy was like an instant 'smile' button. He was so genuine with his emotions and interests, he was a simp and made no apologies for it. He loved Fang so completely and unconditionally, he did whatever he needed to make sure that Fang felt safe and cared for. Tan really raised the bar when it came to clingy boyfriends that aren’t cringy, which is a hard thing to do.