#those tragic little gay women

[youknowitslove]

my perception of fanfic lengths is so funny to me because a 50k word fic that took me a week to read will be remembered as if it was 200k but a 150k word fic that i read in a night feels like 20k to me

[x-itzzzzzz-x]

i’m literally Nana Komatsu

no one understands her the way i do , i don’t think i’ve ever related to a character more

[mirrren]

Going back to straight fanfiction after years of gay men making out on my screen at all times of the day is kinda like going back in the closet for a few months. Or like. Reading a book and then watching the adaption

It’s like. I know this. I used to read this all the time but now it’s different? There’s something missing. Not enough tension

[hauntingcryptids]

I really want to start writing Good Omens fanfics! But I have so much to finish first! Ugh!!!

[unsolicited-opinions]

On the fires in the Los Angeles area:

American right-wing fundamentalist "Christians" Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell pissed off extraordinary numbers of Americans when they shared their views of what brought about the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001.

Said Falwell:

"Throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad." "...[T]he pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way �� all of them who have tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'" "Well, I totally concur," responded Robertson.

They asserted that their own (supposedly omnibenevolent) God visited these Islamist terrorist attacks on the United States...because God didn't like the direction politics had taken (away from Christian Nationalism, towards religious freedom, and towards the bodily autonomy and legal equality of women). God, in their view, hated what/who they hated, and that's why God brought these attacks upon the United States.

People were outraged by this for many excellent reasons. Among them was how these men abused a terrible tragedy in order to attack the things they always attacked. Islamist terrorists attacked the US, they claimed, because the US did not sufficiently persecute American women, LGBTQ+ Americans, or the enemies of Christian Nationalism. It was a monstrous, disgusting thing to assert and they were rightly excoriated.

That excoriation was so intense that Falwell (a man who had no conscience whatsoever) actually had to apologize. The apology, however, wouldn't stick because Falwell pretended at being a victim of a smear campaign.

...two weeks after Falwell apologized to God and Geraldo, the Jerry Falwell Ministries sent out a fundraising letter written by Falwell's son, the Rev. Jonathan Falwell. The letter charged that "Satan has launched a hail of fiery darts at dad" and that "liberals, and especially gay activists, have launched a vicious smear campaign to discredit him." The younger Falwell suggested that supporters could assuage the elder Falwell's "personal hurt" by sending "a special Vote of Confidence gift for Jerry Falwell of at least $50 or even $100."

Falwell was a garbage human being. When he died, Christopher Hitchens found a polite way to say on national television how incredibly full of shit Falwell was:

“If you gave Falwell an enema, he could be buried in a matchbox.”

My thoughts keep returning to Falwell and Robertson when I read about Code Pink and JVP (Jewish Cosplayers for Peace) blaming the fires in the Los Angeles area on Israel.

Code Pink reportedly posted on Instagram:

“When US taxes go to burning people alive in Gaza, we can’t be surprised when those fires come home.”

The post about it on their web site never really makes a connection, except to also accuse Israel of environmental crimes, so just as Falwell asserted that God was punishing the US for politics Falwell didn't like, Code Pink believes the universe is punishing the US for for politics Code Pink doesn't like.

JVP also blames Israel for the Los Angeles fires.

Firefighting is not funded by the federal government and if the Los Angeles area firefighters had twice the budget, this still would have been a massive, horrible, tragic disaster...which JVP, just like Falwell and Roberts, crassly and disgustingly tries to leverage for their own political purposes.

But JVP isn't done. They also blame Israel for failings in Hurricane Helene relief for Appalachia

And now Israel is also, says JVP, responsible for global climate change.

In Our Lifetime is also getting in on the action.

Fatima Mohammed, a leader of the hardline anti-Israel group Within Our Lifetime, posts an image of the fires and says, “The flames of Gaza will not stop there.” “Dropping hundreds of thousands of bombs on Gaza, turning it into a blazing inferno, has consequences,” she says. “There are climate consequences that will find us all.”

God (Code Pink, JVP, and In Our Lifetime seem to say) hates who they hate: Israel.

This is a new antisemitic low, even for these Jew-hating groups.

New York Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres said it well:

"The nature of Antisemitism is to scapegoat the Jewish People and the Jewish State for everything wrong in the world-no matter how tenuous the causal connection. Toward that end, the antisemites of Code Pink are blaming the Jewish State for the wildfires in California.

The modus operandi of Antisemitism is slanderous scapegoating: when in doubt, blame the Jews."

This is naked, obvious antisemitism.

It seems, though, that only a tiny fraction of non-Jewish liberals (like Torres) see these as analogous to Falwell and Robertson and see the obvious, historically consistent Jew hatred staring them in the face.

But this is worse: When they are called out for their antisemitism? They, like Falwell, will claim to be slandered victims and decry that their critics are slandering them to discredit their righteous crusade against Israel, and they'll raise money on it.

And it'll work. It's been working beautifully for them for about fifteen months.

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Madhubala (Mughal-e-Azam, Barsaat Ki Raat, Mr. & Mrs. '55)—The Venus of India; heart-throb of all who saw her; responsible for the sexual awakening of every single desi lesbian I know (including me!) And my god, she is breathtakingly beautiful. Look at the subtle grace with which she moves, and that smile - the kind of radiant smile that can make you laugh with sheer delight, or cry because of its hidden pain. Those wild curls! That Cupid's bow! The way she tilts back her head and smiles at you with mischief dancing in her eyes! She has a way of looking at the camera that makes you feel she's sharing a private joke just with you; it's something about that quizzical twist of the lips and eyebrows. As an actress, she is inimitable; she seems to effortlessly inhabit roles ranging from a heart-broken courtesan to a laughter-loving socialite. Fun fact : she's had quite the fan following in Greece! Stelios Kazantidis even wrote a song as a tribute to her.

Linda Darnell (Hangover Square, Unfaithfully Yours, A Letter to Three Wives)— Her dick is ENORMOUS. She was Fox’s resident bad girl for a while, and she was goddamn sexy during it. She could also play sweeter, and she was still beautiful when she wasn’t crushing men beneath her heels, but also she sometimes crushed men beneath her heels and it was really hot

This is round 4 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Madhubala:

An icon of Bollywood, who was well known for her beauty and has continued to inspire performances and songs into the 21st century. She was at times described as "the number one beauty of the Indian screen" and "the biggest star in the world".

SHE IS EVERYTHING AHHH. JUST LOOK AT HER SMILE-

She's been nicknamed the Marilyn Monroe of India and was one of the highest paid actresses in the Hindi film industry (the term Bollywood did not exist yet) during the 1950s. Also an extremely talented dancer and singer

SHE'S JUST SO STUNNING, like seeing her eyes IMMEDIATELY CAPTIVATES YOU, THE DANCING, THE BEAUTY!!!!!!!!! She worked in Bollywood for over 20 years and passed away at a sad early age of 36, BUT THE IMPACT SHE HAD WAS UNMATCHED!!!!!

That sassy sideways glance she does always has me WEAK AT THE KNEES. And when she's making silly faces at the camera to mimic someone ahhhh my gay little heart <3

Linda Darnell:

LOOK AT THOSE EYES. She redefines sultry and dreamy.

ok i have a lot of feelings about linda darnell. she was so complex and messy and talented and just such a tragic figure and deserved so much better. her mom basically ignored the rest of her kids in favor of pushing linda into hollywood, which led to her missing out on a lot of childhood experiences, prevented her from enrolling in college, and caused some mental health issues later in life. it’s especially heartbreaking that she met such a preventable end so early in life, and i always wonder what might’ve happened if she had been able to make more movies. she also disliked the hollywood social scene, which i think is totally valid of her. anyway, i loved her in a letter to three women and unfaithfully yours, and especially in no way out, which i think is one of her better roles, really showcasing her acting ability. and the fact that she never really got recognition keeps me up at night,, in my heart she has all the oscars

[maxdibert]

I think, out of all the insults antis throw at Snape, calling him homophobic is top-tier when it comes to stressing me out. I saw your response, and honestly, how can someone think like that? They literally write Barty as some poor, uwu, misunderstood little thing who suffers so much, when canonically, the man is completely unhinged and has a twisted obsession with Voldemort. The others are so irrelevant that some are barely even mentioned by name in the books.

"Oh, but Snape is homophobic, I can feel the vibes." You mean the same Snape who wore his mother's clothes? The same Snape who is described as having feminine handwriting? The same Snape J.K. Rowling herself said "wanted both Lily and Mulciber"? I'm pretty sure we're not even talking about the same character at this point.

Headcanons and fanon are great, really. But it's frustrating how people create nonsense, based on absolutely nothing, just to justify liking a character — and in the process, they turn them into complete idiots to make them more "acceptable." Like, your favorite character is an asshole. Embrace it. Don't strip away what makes the character good in the first place.

I mean, I can deal with people calling him racist and fascist because at least I can understand where that’s coming from. I can deal with the whining about how bad of a teacher he was because, honestly, being a jerk is basically his personality throughout the entire series. But homophobic? Or some kind of sexual predator? Where the hell are they getting that nonsense from when Petunia mocks him for wearing women’s clothing? When one of the reasons the narrative treats him pejoratively is precisely because his appearance, mannerisms, and interests don’t conform to the masculine standards of the time?

So you’re telling me that Sirius Black, who is described 800 times by Rowling as the ultimate macho man—because she was obsessed with reminding us over and over again that Sirius was the perfect alpha male who loved motorcycles and had pictures of half-naked women on his walls—can be turned into some kind of twink LGBTQ+ icon. But Severus, who is humiliated by guys like Sirius specifically because he isn’t as macho, aggressive, or traditionally masculine, is the homophobic heteronormative one here?

That Remus Lupin is basically considered a gay icon despite being a more realistic representation of a middle-aged man in crisis who sleeps with younger women, gets one of them pregnant, and then takes off—but the one who’s supposedly a predator and a creep is Severus, who bowed his head and walked away the moment Lily cut him off? Or that James Potter, who is canonically described as stripping a classmate in front of everyone to boost his ego, and who even blackmailed Lily by saying he’d stop bullying her friend if she agreed to go out with him, is somehow turned into the tragic hero of magical Brokeback Mountain? But the one who’s painted as some kind of sexual aggressor is Severus, who was literally the victim in those situations?

What the hell is wrong with these people?

You like the Marauders and want to erase their personalities and invent completely new ones to excuse yourself for whitewashing bullies and abusers? Fine. You want to take the biggest representations of toxic traditional masculinity in the series and paint them in rainbow colors? Great. But don’t excuse all of them, don’t slap a coat of paint on all of them, don’t even justify a psychopathic torturer and Voldemort fanatic like Barty Crouch Jr. just because he fits the Pinterest face claim you’ve chosen for your wet dreams, while villainizing and tearing down only one character—the one who actually has, by nature, all the qualities you’re trying to force onto the others.

And especially not when that character has canonically been abused at home, at school, discriminated against for his appearance, his background, his lack of money, and for not being “masculine” enough.

Honestly, they and their disgusting classism can go to hell.

[novelconcepts]

Staunch hater of men but travis is just my skrunkly little guy. Love how sad he is. Love how tragic he is. He’s just one of the girls and he loves it.

Travis is so good, largely because, if this show had been made in the 90s, he WOULD have been a girl. He and Javi both would have been the lone girls in a sea of boy soccer players. Travis is the love interest; Javi would have been the archetypical annoying little sister. And because YJ likes to play with gender dynamics and flip the scripts, they both still play out as you’d expect the Sole Girls in a male-dominated story to do. Travis’ whole arc is about learning to navigate outside of what society tells him to be—and, other than that, he’s there to be Nat’s love interest. Even as an adult, in Natalie’s memory sequences, he gets the Dead Wife lighting and soft framing in bed. He even gets, as a friend pointed out, fridged to further her story. When the girls get progressively more violent, Travis is the victim, or he’s told to take Javi out of the room. He starts off as a shitty boy, as is befitting of 1996 culture, and he gets to unlearn that which does not serve the hive. He is tragic. He is doomed from the start. He is learning to be soft in a situation where softness gets you killed. He is the representative of sibling dynamics in the wild, and now he’s the answer to the question: are you still a big brother when your younger brother is gone? He’s fucking devastating.

I just really love that the only three men in the wilderness are the gay coach, the complicated love interest, and the sacrificial lamb. Those are all positions usually reserved for women, and I love YJ for flipping it around.

[faegoddessog]

25. Fake it ‘til you make it

Ok loves, I've decided to try something to stretch myself creatively with this challenge. I'm gonna dribble my drabble and see if I can tie each theme into an actual story that I'll write day by day! We'll see how it goes! Wish me luck!

Here is my ongoing masterlist of this project.

My other works are here if you are interested!

Check out the fun challenge here by @slowsweetlove . Feel free to jump in too!

Warnings: cute, cuddly drabble

Austin pulls you in close big spoon style as Callum excuses himself to the bathroom. Austin nuzzles the shell of your ear contentedly. 

“That was beyond hot, thank you,” he whispers, kissing behind your ear.

“Thank me? Thank you,” his breath sends little aftershocks coursing down your spine. Callum returns, pausing at the door. Clearly wondering if he’s invited to this little cuddle puddle. 

“Get in here, you,” says Austin as you simultaneously reach your arm out for him.

With a big grin, Callum slides in and like the puppy he is, pushes his forehead into your chest. He burrows in for pets, wrapping his long arm over the both of you to rest on the back of Austin’s thigh.  You throw one leg over his waist as he tucks himself in between your legs. Your three bodies are like opposing swirls, a living ying-yang.

You sigh contentedly. Yup, these two belong to you now, whether they like it or not. You  wrap your fingers in Callum’s dark curls and lace your other hand into Austin’s under the pillow. It’s bliss. Several minutes pass as the boys doze on either side of you.

“Well gentleman, that was delicious,” you arch your back, then settle down again between them, “How the fuck did you two get so good all that?” 

“Fake it ‘till you make it baby,” a muffle reply comes from between your breasts. 

“I prefer ‘Face it ‘till you ace it,’ I’m not that into faking it,” Austin jests.

“Really, all that time you spent together shooting and you two never got busy before? Not even a little?”

“No ma’am,” Austin drawls in your ear. 

“It wasn’t for lack of trying,” says Cal. “But that one was all oblivious and single with women tossing themselves at him.”

“Ok, I was thinking about that whole oversexed thing with those WWII boys in England, but honestly Gale was too in love with his girl back home to- wait what!?” Austin’s voice becomes incredulous as his brain catches up to what Cal just said, “when did you ever ‘try’ anything?” 

“That one night,” Callum looks up at Austin almost hurt, “when I said something about  how our characters were probably tragically gay and that maybe we needed to explore that.”

“Oh, well hell, I just thought you were drunk,” Austin pets the back of Cal’s head still buried  between your breasts. “But I don't think I would have done it then anyway. I just was not in that headspace, plus everyone on set would have known.” 

“Well, I for one am glad you waited or I might have missed out,” you pipe up. 

Both of them squeeze you tight. 

“Agreed,” says Austin, “I liked having you with us, made it comfy.” 

“Yeah, thank you,” Cal agrees. 

“Well, for the record, I’m keeping you both,” you say smugly. 

credit to @saradika for the graphic!

Always tag me: @purejasmine, @slowsweetlove, @richardslady121, @austinbutlerslovers, @tadpoleteef, @allittakesisoneflight

"I've been tagged by you before Lumiere!": @thisworldisntrealhoney,  @1nho,  @megangovier, @briaandthephantoms, @andro-inherdreamworld @callumsgirl @blombardo  @fefeisastar @hacunamy @nestito702 @denised916 @jayydep @r0m4nitcl0v3r @heyidc03, @secondchild-2, @flander42 @natural-born-rebel-spirit @lecosymood @kathrynzaragoza @bsunshinexo @jayydep @ifyouloveweedletsgosmoke

[marley-manson]

Finally watched the Xena finale, thanks to the fanon episode order treating it as a midseason soft finale that gets fixed by When Fates Collide lol.

And man, it really was a hot mess. I could barely follow the plot, and many aspects were very arbitrary and like, revealed off-screen. The most hilarious of course being Xena suddenly announcing, like a minute before the end of the episode, that oh actually apparently she has to stay dead, sorry Gab, xoxo

It is VERY Xena though to have a plotline where Xena anticlimactically dies in the pre-credits scene at the beginning of part 2 and both you and the characters assume for the rest of the episode that she's going to come back to life like usual until the tragic twist lol.

Akemi was... resoundingly mediocre as one of Xena's exes. Her only personality traits were 'proto-Gabrielle' and 'wants to kill her dad.' Also like... was there incest subtext there? Like it was implied that the little creepy afterlife she was in was like, her dad's ghosts' personal brothel or something? But like I said, the plot was very hard to follow.

The themes were also a mess of course, it's been said many times but yeah ignoring the central theme of the show (atonement is pointless if you're doing good now) in favour of redemption thru death was dumb, the set up was dumb (we're blaming Xena for 40k deaths because she set a couple dudes on fire in self defense? Man at least give me an actual deliberate atrocity here), and choosing death over Gabrielle was like a dumb reverse Ides of March. Also Gabrielle just going like, 'damn okay I guess, bye forever,' was unbelievable. Even if Xena wants to backslide, I'm pretty sure Gabrielle would force her to come back to life anyway, fuck those souls. Like, it's not even clear how Xena's death helps them? Killing Akemi's evil dad again freed them from torment or whatever, who cares if they don't get avenged? What is a state of grace? How will they be lost, if she comes back to life? People go unavenged all the time, deal with it.

That said, I'd been under the impression that somehow Xena's death here contradicts the whole reincarnation thing, but I didn't get that at all? Idt there's any stipulation that she has to stay in the Japanese afterlife, just that she has to be killed and stay dead, and it does make sense since in their next lives Xena is a lot older than Gabrielle, so she should logically die a few decades earlier.

On the more positive side of things, it was very fun to see Gabrielle shining as ~the new Xena~ Love to see her kicking that one dude's ass twice, and the moment she catches the chakram is super cool. The non-Xena chakram-catch has always been framed as an 'oh shit, this woman's gonna be hardcore as hell' moment in the show so I love that they use it to show how far Gab's come.

And of course, gay gay gay homosexual gay. Like, season 6 is the point where I would say it is textual if only the show didn't go out of its way to scream "IT'S STILL AMBIGUOUS" a couple times lol (reporter's question in You Are There, fans in Soul Possession saying "yay Xena and Gabrielle are finally together" when they hear Harry and Mattie are married, eg.) "If I only had thirty seconds to live, this is how I'd want to spend them: looking into your eyes. I love you, Gabrielle." Like goddamn. I appreciate this cast and crew so much. Plus the incredibly thinly veiled makeout scene <3

Finally, while I think her chatting with Xena at the very end was meant to be more metaphorical or symbolic rather than literally Gabrielle talking to herself, it was an unfortunately funny image and a pretty terrible final scene imo. I do like the 'I hear they're in need of a girl with a chakram' reprise though, I gotta admit. Go kick some ass babe <3

And despite very much not liking that Xena dies in the finale, I would still read/watch the shit out of Gabrielle's now-single adventures as a just-as-invincible gay hero, kicking ass, fucking women without ever settling down with anyone, telling stories about Xena and becoming even more famous herself.

[spidermanifested]

❤️💙💖🏳️‍🌈 for FMA. Lay those unpopular opinions on me

oh im feasting today thank you so much

❤: Which character do you think is the most egregiously mischaracterized by the fandom?

see. just by VOLUME id say probably mustang? because he has so MUCH fan content out there and so much of it makes him either a suave cool seductive sexyman or a tragic wet beast whos never done anything wrong. so percentagewise i think itd be hard to compete

However. if we're going in terms of whose personality ive seen get just absolutely mangled to the worst degree. and i think thats whats being asked here. Pppppprobably hohenheim or scar. scar because of racism. and hohenheim because nobody knows how to be normal about a well intentioned fuckup of a parent so instead he has to be literally the devil i guess

oh ling also gets done super dirty as well. people forget that his Airheaded Entitled Royalty act is in fact an act, BUT at the end of the day hes still fifteen years old so he can still be a little dumb and reckless despite being great at strategizing. these layers are apparently incomprehensible to those who want to flatten him into "goofy fun sunshine boy" or "thats basically a grown man right"

id mention the way the women and girls of the series get treated but honestly they either seem to get ignored, Hashtag Girlboss Queen'd and THEN ignored, or made into romantic set dressing for the guys. which is unfortunately too par for the course as far as fandoms go for me to have any kind of novel commentary on it. Sucks Out Here

wiat theres another one but i dont know if im allowed to say it. im scared

💙: Which character is not as hot as everyone else seems to think?

mustang again

💖: What is your biggest unpopular opinion about the series?

HONESTLY???? just going off how my posts on the subject were received im going to have to say its "maes hughes was really conservative and kind of sucked". people did not like that one

🏳️‍🌈: Which character who is commonly headcanoned as queer doesn't seem queer to you?

hmmmmmmmmmmm. trying to rack my brain thinking of one. honestly there isnt really any character im immediately compelled to point at and go CISHET even if i dont like them because im a big enough person to admit that my fellow lgbts can be pieces of shit too. i am not a fan of olivier armstrong but shes definitely a lesbian and roy mustang is bi and deep in the closet and him and hughes had Something going on in boot camp #diversitywin #loveloses

maybe jean havoc. i know some people ship him with mustang, i have nothing against this demographic, however my personal read on havoc is just a larry butz type individual who at most tried to "go gay" out of desperation one time but found out it doesnt really work like that

[aprillikesthings]

Elsewhere Online I'm in a group for women who realized they were lesbians later than most

(I'm in a minority in the group for having been out as bisexual for years before changing my label; the majority of members thought they were straight)

And in between all the heartbreaking posts of people trying to decide whether to get divorced, are the stories of women finally dating/kissing/having sex with other women for the first time.

And some of those stories are SO SWEET if a little tragic

Like, "Oh, this is what attraction actually feels like"

"This is what I've been missing"

"This is what kissing/sex/romance is supposed to feel like and I never knew, how did I live this long without knowing that"

"I was so nervous to have sex with another woman because what if I'm not gay after all, but then I did, and OH GOD. I'M SO GAY"

There was a genuinely charming story posted recently--at an icebreaker thing at an event for lesbians, a woman confessed she still hadn't had her first kiss with a woman, and another woman there was like "oh hell yeah I'll kiss you, if you want" and said kiss was amazing (as bystanders cheered them on lol) and they proceeded to make out off and on all night

Another said she was on some app or another and her profile included the fact that she hadn't actually had sex with another woman yet, and someone messaged her like "...I can fix that for you lol" and they had a one-night thing. I was like "some lesbian across town saw the 'I'm a gay virgin' bat signal and said 'this is a job for ME'" and OP laughed and said, "yeah basically!" and they both went into it knowing it was a one-time thing but they both apparently had a great time.

Recently there was a post of "...I didn't know women were that soft???" and the whole comment section was people going "I KNOW RIGHT???" and talking about how their first time with another woman they couldn't stop just touching/petting her.

Anyway. Re: Divorce. Y'know how there's still that cultural idea that women don't really like sex? That men are always hornier than we are, want sex more than we do, "men are the gas and women are the brakes" and all of that bullshit?

One of the ways that fucks things up REAL BAD is the number of women who are actually gay and have no idea, because their marriages to men are fine other than the sex, and they just think that's normal. For years. Like some of these women are clearly married to men who are good people! They genuinely care about and love these men! They just...have always been ambivalent-at-best about sex with said men. And now they have to decide whether to end otherwise-happy marriages (and decide on custody of their kids, in a ton of cases) and all of that, just for the chance at getting a genuine romantic/sexual connection with a woman. Some of them are so clearly torn and I cannot blame them: "How can I do this to him? To my kids? What if turns out I'm not gay?"

(Me and other people often point out: your husband also deserves the chance to be with someone who is actually attracted to him, though.)

Like, bi/pan women do not usually have this problem? Or at least, it's way less common. Even if they don't realize they're sapphic until after they're married to a man, they're usually at least attracted to their husband, or were at some point.

It's specifically a problem for lesbians who don't/can't realize it until years later, because their sex lives with men are just Meh, and they so often think "well that's what being in a relationship is like, I guess; everyone knows men want sex more than women do, right?" ;_;

[leastdatablebracket]

QUARTERFINALS, MATCH 4

Propaganda under the cut!

Joseph Christiansen

Propaganda

So many reasons. He's already married, he's a jerk to his wife, he's already slept with at least one of the other romance options. That romance option goes to you before a date with Jospeh and damn near begs you not to be stupid and go with him. The worst part? You put up with all this and he leaves you to "work things out with his wife". She deserves so much better than him! One of the writers even said he's a sociopath. 

Married and a youth minister.

Cheater, cringe man, father of creepy children, possibly evil cultist, left a guy feeling used which said guy also became friends with Joseph's wife who appears to be an alcoholic likely as a coping mechanism since she's married to Joseph

He cheats on his wife, has done so before, lies to you by claiming that he's going to leave his wife when he clearly never intends to (and, in one ending, will even cheerfully suggest that you two continue having an affair in an extremely sleazy way), and judging by the fact that the other guy we know he cheated on his wife with, Robert, hates Joseph and is now very close friends with his wife, it seems clear to me that this whole "purposefully mislead someone into sleeping with you and then later drop the bomb that it was an affair" thing is repeat behavior with him. Also, I just find much of his behavior to be very manipulative and controlling; there are many situations where it seems to me that he's actively trying to paint others in a negative light while still coming off as saintly himself, such as an early scene where he subtly implies his wife is a shitty mom because she *checks notes* let their toddler out of her sight... during a neighborhood barbecue in a fenced-in yard surrounded by trusted adults and other kids. Also notice how in this scene he pushes *her* to go look for their son, rather than just looking himself, all while keeping up his "long-suffering husband" act. (and in other scenes can be found letting his other young children wander off into the woods with sharp implements and visibly not caring, but whatever). He does this with Robert, too -- the other guy he had an affair with. Almost everything he says about or to Robert is a subtle jab about his personality or his alcoholism. Classy, Joseph. Meanwhile, the fact that you can't actually end up with him in the end (because he was never going to leave his wife for you) started some of the most volatile discourse in the fandom and had people calling the devs homophobic and claiming they were spreading a message about "gay men needing to stay in loveless abusive marriages to women" (just ignore the fact that there are several other divorced gay dads in this game who all have great relationships with their kids and are not demonized in the slightest). HOWEVER, if you see people claiming he's a cultist or demon or something, that's untrue and was just going to be a non-canon spooky alternate ending that ended up getting cut. So I empathize with him a little bit for getting literally demonized by some fans for that cut alt ending. But he loses all those points by cheating on his wife multiple times and showing clear intent to continue doing so.

He's still married when you start dating him. He's also got like 5 kids that are some "children of the corn" kinda shit, and all their names have "Christ" in them

You don't even get to date him he's still married to his wife who he doesn't get along with. Tragic really

Cullen Rutherford

Propaganda

stupid racist cop creep whose fans cry about how hes "changed" and "you can't judge him he was addicted to magic drugs" nah he still chose to be a racist cop and abuse his power over innocent people and i hate him. the writers making him romanceable in da:i after how blatantly horrible he was in da:o and da:2 is baffling but i guess they had to appeal to the part of their audience who watch those "mafia boyfriend" videos on tiktok or whatever

He's creepy in origins, though still 100% willing to kill the female mage pc he's crushing on, as well as all the other mages trapped in the circle with him. He's the second-in-command in an even worse circle in 2, listening to and defending the increasingly obviously insane meredith until literally the end. He's one of the people still pushing for the circle system by inquisition, and yes he's going through withdrawals and working through the traumas of previous games. And to be brutally honest his was the first romance i took and while i don't remember much from it, its not worth all the girls going absolutely nuts over knockoff terrible alistair.

He's basically a cop who thinks being born a certain way can revoke personhood and by Inquisition still thinks mages are monsters to be controlled, not people. He gets a fairy tale cutesy romance that focuses on his personal struggles with addiction while showing absolutely no regard to the atrocities he committed and still thinks were justified. He can be romanced BY A MAGE and his actions and beliefs are just glossed over. He believes mages are 'not people like you (Hawke) and me', but if the Warden was a female mage he canonically had a crush on her and would deliberately hang around her despite the fact that he was her *jailer*. If that Warden romanced Leliana, there is war table dialogue in which he pesters Leliana for news of his 'former' crush despite her repeated statement that she doesn't want to talk to him about her. All this shitty behavior and lack of introspection gets swept under the rug by the game, not even giving the PC the chance to really challenge his beliefs. Like damn even Fenris could apologize when he lashed out due to past trauma with mages, and if anyone has a reason to hate mages it's Fenris. If you want an ex Templar hottie Alistair is RIGHT THERE. Tbh I know Cullen is a popular romance and I'm not here to tell anyone what they can or can't do or like in a video game, I'm just saying I think he is deeply undateable

Spends the first two games as an antagonist, fervently devoted to the cause of subjugating mages, then a bunch of "character development" happens off screen and the games treat him like he's completely reformed. However he's actions make it clear he still sees mages as dangerous and lesser. Not to mention if you romance him with an elf he doesn't pay your culture more than lip service respect like most of the devout characters 

He was a total villain in the first two games who was violently prejudiced against mages and uses one single bad experience as an excuse for it (a bad experience that is pretty much exactly what he in his job subjected graduating apprentices to, mind you, but this is never brought up). Now he says he's changed, but his words and actions say otherwise. He still distrusts mages, sympathises with the rebel Templars trying to kill them, and he never owns up to the terrible stuff he did and helped others do in the past two games. He totally knew what Meredith was doing and says he doesn't, and he still tries to defend her intentions. And you have no option to call him out on it. If you romance him as a mage, he angsts about how he might have seen you as subhuman in the past but NOW you're one of the good ones, and when you ask him if he'll kill you if you get possessed, he dodges the question. And the PC is written as being almost sad that she's a mage? Like 'can you love me despite what I am??' Also if Leliana romanced a female mage PC in the first game who is still alive, he asks her creepy questions about their relationship. Fitting considering his original purpose was to be creepy to the female mage Warden. 

I hate him and want to cause chaos. Plus his VA is an asshole.

Cop

I think you covered almost everything but don't forget that beautiful moment in DA2 - Act 2 where you find out some templars had a petition to lobotomize all mages and Meredith, THE HARDCORE TEMPLAR LEADER, rejects it, but Cullen says they got a point. Despite the fact that we just found out that those templars were using lobotomy (or the threat of) to rape people and get away with it. And then Cullen in DA:I is whining that anything that happened it's not his fault because Meredith kept the worse away form him so he didn't know, but also that anyway Meredith had a point and did what she had to do. Meredith does not go mad until Act 3, before she was of sound mind and Culllen was her second in command BECAUSE he hated mages as much as (or even more) than her. What the FUCK did she even hide from you, Cullen. Oh, but he changed! Because the writers make A VICTIM OF THE TEMPLARS say so. And anyway he only says so BECAUSE HE READS MINDS not because Cullen did anything to show it. Also the narrative wants to sympathise with Cullen for his drug problems while Cullen is openly attacking the only other character with the same problem for...having the same problem. And he's the antagonist, so there were OTHER things Cullen could be mad about. But he is mad about the drug problem. Also I'm not an expert on writing characters with addictions but he is an addict only when it's time to have a cut scene where you pity him. Otherwise it has zero impacts on everything else.

[rainbowdaisy13]

Did you know back in the olden days of the Kaylor fandom that Gen X and older Millenial Kaylors that were pop culture savvy used to worry about Taylor? Yeah, before Taylor met Karlie, she had fans who were insightful enough that they actually used to worry that she would end up like Whitney Houston, spiraling with drug addiction because everyone rejected her queerness until she'd eventually accidentally overdose to death, but then Taylor met Karlie and those older insightful fans weren't worried anymore because Taylor finally found the Robyn Crawford to her Whitney Houston.

I didn't use to understand why they'd compare Taylor to Whitney, but seeing how overly drunk and high Taylor's been getting the last year just to get through simple little stunts with Kelce, I can now see where they were coming from with their Taylor-Whitney comparison.

All I have to say is that Taylor's extremely lucky that her parents aren't quite as terrible and homophobic as Cissy Houston was and that going by how Karlie was looking in her direction during Karen Elson's wedding at Electric Lady Studio, Karlie still obviously cares about her a lot no matter what the status of their relationship is, because with how much illicit substances she's pretty obviously been doing just to get through the bearding stunts, it genuinely seems like she's heading down a dark path not so dissimilar from the one that tragically claimed Whitney's life, but at least Taylor still has a potential support system that could bring her back from the brink if need be unlike Whitney :(

I have watched every Whitney doc there is and the similarities are absolutely there and are heartbreaking in their own ways

The main difference is that Whitney didn’t have an entire Era where she hyped up the queer community and insinuated she was part of it and that she may or may not be wink wink nudge nudge gay pride makes me me don’t step on our gowns

And *then*Whitney didn’t spend an entire new Era dismantling the idea that she is a feminist who supports the queer community or anything she stood for in 2017-2020 but is rather a MAGA loving Trad Wife Barbie

So yeah. No one wants to see Taylor sink to the depths that Whitney did—no one here wishes that upon her. But Whitney didn’t have even 5% of the opportunities Taylor has had as a billionaire white women to live her truth in a time period when that could actually be possible without committing career suic*de

[all-pacas]

being unfamiliar w house md i at least know of most main characters except for 13, mind explaining what their deal is to an outsider?

MY GIRL

So first of all let's just make it clear for the record. Tumblr loves her because 13 is a) played by Olivia Wilde so she's super pretty and b) a Canon Gay (bisexual). For a show like Hatecrimes MD, she's actually pretty fairly portrayed -- it's fetishized a little and joked about a lot, but she's shown in relationships with men and women, there's no bi erasure involved, when she does play into the All Bis Are Slutty trope, it's because she's having an elaborate mental breakdown and sleeping around to cope. Hilariously she's like the third person on the show to do this, so it doesn't even come off as "those slutty gays!"

(I mean. Arguably they're all slutty gays. But you know.)

AS FOR WHAT HER DEAL IS.

In s3 House fires/loses the original team of Foreman, Cameron, and Chase, and eventually (after as much stalling as he can get away with) hires a new team:

TAUB, sleezy little guy plastic surgeon, just here to have fun

KUTNER, Kal Penn playing an enthusiastic nerd here to have fun,

and 13, real name Remy Hadley.

To fuck with Cuddy, House originally hires 40-odd doctors -- anyone who sent him a resume -- and then began whittling them down one by one. To keep track, he'd given them all marathon placards. 13's number was, you guessed it, 13. Her whole gimmick was that she was "mysterious" -- House found her hard to read and she was good at not giving him any hints, and she played into it by refusing to talk about herself and continuing to go by "Thirteen" even once everyone else was introduced. Her name was later revealed, after she made the final team, but House keeps calling her 13, and he often jokes that people who call her Hadley don't know who she is. It sticks around as a nickname at work. Her personal friends/girlfriend/boyfriend tend to call her Remy, but her coworkers stick to the nickname.

It's kind of interesting to note that reception for her was actually kind of negative when the show started. She gets a LOT of character focus, far more than Kutner and Taub, and this was soon enough after losing the first team (Chase and Cameron in particular barely existed on the show for a while, Chase only becoming a major character again two and a half years later) that folks resented her "stealing the spotlight" or having main character syndrome. In retrospect, I don't think it's that bad, although it is definitely true she's favored over other characters.

Anyway.

Part of 13's secretiveness is because of the House Obligatory Tragic Backstory. 13's mother had Huntington's, a genetic disease that is fatal and super degenerative. So did her older brother. 13 knew she had a high chance of having it as well, but refused to get tested out of fear. She eventually does -- and oops, she has it as well. This means she's got about 10 years left to live, and fewer without symptoms. This causes her Existential Sex Bender and a general pattern of risk taking: it's a hard thing to cope with.

Meanwhile, she's on House's team. She's really good: creative and unflappable, if maybe not as devoted to diagnostics and the team as a "lifer" like Foreman or Chase are. She and House also grow close; refreshingly (COUGH Cameron) it's never treated as a shipping thing. He just... sees her becoming self destructive and cares enough to stop her; he cares about her.

13 is still notoriously secretive, and she literally vanishes in s7. Tells everyone she's going on vacation and cuts her phone lines. It turns out she goes to prison for over-prescribing meds... to her brother. She euthanized him, as he was suffering badly from Huntington's. Made it look like an accident, that he did it. This sort of destroys her: she feels like it was the right thing to do, it's what he wanted, but she still killed him. 13 tells House, and House offers to do the same to her when her Huntington's gets bad enough.

She doesn't stick around the team for long after getting out of prison. She meets a woman named Amy, and they fall in love; she and Amy go off to some Greek island to try and enjoy the 8-ish years 13 has left. (In episodic terms: she's on the team for s4+5 and most of 6; vanishes for almost all of s7 because she's in jail, and has only guest roles in s8.)

She briefly dates Foreman and it was just really weird. No chemistry. No idea what they saw in one another. The show is so bad at romance.

Most compellingly to me specifically, she and my boy Chase end up being really good friends. They had some Ship Tease for a while, the show might have been trying to set them up, but Olivia Wilde's career was taking off and she stopped being a regular on the show. This was, as far as Chase/13 is concerned, a good thing. Because the show is bad at romance. So instead they just become good friends. Chase also murdered a dude one time, and 13 ends up telling him about her brother. In the same episode, she calls him late at night for help and he just... shows up, no questions asked. They have a lot of shared issues: sick/dead mothers and complicated feelings about them, murder, Existential Sex Benders when they're depressed, and a dislike about talking about personal issues. They also are uniquely close to and good at reading House, and the show even goes so far as to refer to them as the "prodigal daughter/son" in relation to him. So fandom has sort of latched onto the idea of them as "like brother and sister," "best friends," which isn't super supported in canon (they ARE good friends, but no more), but... the venn diagram of these two is a circle.

Crucially, both 13 and Chase, despite putting on good fronts, are very lonely people. So is House. So it's nice to think they can have their own sad little found family, especially once House "dies" and might not bother letting his prettiest employees know.

[thrilling-oneway]

I'd give you 5$ if you post that draft

you didn't even need to bribe. it's not actually in the drafts of this blog so i'll write a better version

i've said it a billion times before: tsukasa is the comedic relief weirdguy, the devs basically will do anything with him so long as it's funny.

so starting with that valentine's day vlive in 2021. during the MC part of that he gets jealous that rui has been getting chocolates and tries to brag that he got lots of chocolates too but then immediately reveals that he got friendzoned by multiple girls. his voiceline that year is something about how he catches everyone's attention on vday and year round bc he's a star or something like that but anyway that whole interaction there seems to suggest he's straight lol.

however.

he's REALLY oblivious. played for comedy ofc but i see a lot of people interpret this as him being somewhere on the aro spectrum (probably not what the writers intended but fair instance of accidentally coding a character as smth). examples include: not understanding why Akito doesn't want to be seen at PXL alone with Toya in an Akito's initial 3* (second story), literally says "thank you" when Asahi basically confesses to him and completely misses the point (he actually did seem to nearly get this one for a second), and he doesn't understand why Rui's friends are impressed that he's friends the incredibly attractive Shizuku (Tsukasa is the only not-gay-coded male character who isn't attracted to Shizuku, probably because they're childhood friends. or if you want to view him as being aspec, then that works too). also when he mentions that he's friends with guys in his class who are cool and popular and good with women, Hibiki says that he was in a class with one of those guys in 1st year and is amazed that tsukasa is in that crowd now, emphasis on the "tsukasa's friends are good with women part". tsukasa's just confused about that because of course they talk to girls a lot they're in the same class.

also he usually rewrites a lot of romance plays to remove the romance. he rewrote R&J to just make it focused on the action (which is probably because he likes playing action heroes more than anything else), and he got rid of the romance plot in little mermaid because he didn't felt it was needed (this one is justified in-universe as they do fun shows for small children and don't really need the tragic romance, and also from production standpoint like you don't do that because fandom). so yeah that could again be read as him being aspec if you want but i don't think the writers intended it to be read that way, especially the R&J one that was purely for comedy.

all that said, this is an idol game, which generally run on the rule of thumb that every character is some flavour of queer, even if it's just for fanservice (i don't play enstars but from what i do know of it it falls a bit on that last point). anyway you can probably tell where this is going but he gets ship tease with rui sometimes. vast majority of this is from Rui's side but there are things like Oki ni Mesu mama

Tsukasa: Waiting for the "1, 2…" signal, holding hands with you is an act of courage for me

or that one part in pandemonium where he drops his persona for a brief second when he's impressed by rui's plan that was very much put there on purpose, or that Tsukasa and Airi's cheerful carnival team name from that event is "swayed by their partners (相方, aikata)" and when you consider that Shizuku and Airi are heavily implied to like each other, and have canonically been on a "date", that was also a Choice.

idk whether to count KING because justified by them being actors and the fang motif in the song... vampires kinda homoerotic it makes sense that the dance routine was that. also i'm not sure if the connect lives are even canon, especially the wxs one since tokishun broke character and the 4th wall.

yeah i dunno. the writers kinda just do whatever they want with him. interpret any of this how you will i'm just recounting shit from the game.

oh hey it's longer than 300 words now