#trans-ing characters again

[your-unfriendlyghost]

how the pilot of supernatural probably went idk

context: Dean arrived at Stanford to see that Sam's transitioned. He's ftm in my head but you can interpret it however lol

Yup 100% how it went on the drive to California. i think.

edit: hey look i didn’t think I had to add this but don’t tag wincest okay?? That’s not what this comic is so please respect that

[coffinkissez]

happy pride month here’s some of my hcs

[musical-chick-13]

I know this may sound petty, but I think you're the one who will be able to understand this frustration: how come any post about special characters is always titled 'special little guy' can't girls be special?

No, I literally complain about this all the time (mostly to myself, but. you know).

First of all, there are so many posts that don't mean "guy" in the sense of "hey you guys" as a general catch-all term. They specify "boy" or "man" or "him" or you can very clearly infer from context that they are talking specifically about men. And I just...you know that women can be these types of characters too, right. Women can be sympathetic villains or have Problems™ that inspire the "I can fix them" impulse or any of the other things people usually say about men. It's not hard to say like. "Character" or "Person" or "Blorbo" or even "guy (gender neutral)."

As always, this wouldn't bug me so much if there was a similar level of popular posts circulating about the women, but. There very much is not. (And also plenty of the posts that are exclusively about the women get overtaken by discussions of male characters.)

[shakespearean-dream]

last of the big five yall!!!!

happy late fourth of july! remember to keep boycotting, speak out and listen to palestinians, the people of congo, native americans, queer/trans people and women currently being oppressed this independence day because america fucking sucks!!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🦅🦅🦅🔥🔥🔥

here are a couple good places to donate! please remember to do your own research and take care of each other, it’s getting scary out here.

ohhhh nimdok, where to start with you….

i have been dreading doing him because he pisses me off so bad but i actually had some decent fun with him :D. designing him and branching out farther away from his canon self was nice, but im not touching his backstory or personality really, that stays about the same for me in my head.

speaking of whichhh! like benny, i understand how the game makers had a short amount of time to fit an entire character arc of an old man undoing his deeply internalized racism/xenophobia/ableism in a singular short scenario, but unlike benny i actually somehow like his better?? nimdok had a lot more to get over (well not saying being a dickhead murderer isn’t a lot but 😭) and i enjoyed seeing him actually help out the people he would’ve previously turned in. it still feels a little hollow/unrealistic because again, he’s been like this his whole life, but considering how much AM takes him away from the group to (most likely) psychologically torture him for his actions he’s probably had a bit of a revelation.

doing his scenario was unfortunately funny at times because of the strange way we had to go about redeeming him with the golem guy😭giving him a smooch caught me off guard but ykw? i’ll take it for being able to kill mengele like immediately afterward. also speaking of whichhhh…

i would go into more detail about nimdok and mengeles relationship to give it some depth because god i love me some queers, but that is??? a real fucking guy???? a real life monster???? im less than comfortable picturing the fucker in my mind, much less giving him depth with a character who i also don’t like. like why ship ur essentially OC with a REAL LIFE N/AZI??? just another one of the reasons harlan elision creeps me out. (if that just pissed you off google search him s/a-ing 2 people, marrying a 19 year old when he was in his 40s and defending a child r/apist i really don’t feel like arguing with you. the guy was a horrible fucking person and he makes me sick, i just like this franchise.)

i cannot cough up anymore thoughts about this fella pls forgive me; these past couple days have been rough on my 3 brain cells. AM will for sure be next and after that fully rendered/decked out full bodies are in order!! so look out for that:]]]] i may also start posting some art fight things since i was just complaining about the lag a post or so ago☺️ jk ily artfight. team seafoam lets goo

ok i love u guys!!! if u have any requests for me drop a comment or an ask, and thank you so much for the continued support on my art❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ lots of links on this post but one more quick reminder to take a look at my commission page if you’d like!!! yolanda is still in the shop because they cannot figure out what’s wrong with her :(

have a good night friends 🫶

[literallys-illiteracy]

'Trans-ing' death; an essay of gender allegories:

Abstract (the fancy word for a tl;dr):

In media exists themes that are shared throughout media as a collective human experience. Within this collective, the extant concepts of death and rebirth are analogous with those of maturity, growth, and change throughout ones life.

The primary example that one may use is the correlation between the posited themes, and the shared experiences of many transgender persons and communities across the internet — Within this postulated "collective experience" that said communities share, their live's stories are correlated with those themes of death and resurrection. This association between a commonplace theme (death, rebirth) alongside its connotations in the collective unconscious of that community/humanity (change, growth), and the experiences that a particular group may endure, leads to a plausible correlation between media depicting major themes of change and the aforementioned transgender experience, whenceforth media depicting said themes may be interpreted as an allegory.

Trans allegories can take many forms in media due to the wide range of shared and collective experiences natural to humanity as a whole, alongside the wide range of symbolic events and ideas that can be strewn as allegorical in nature.

A primary example i will be drawing from in this overview is the Project Moon series, alongside various literary sources, if any section contains spoilers for its media, it will be noted in advance.

My philosophy regarding allegories, especially those relating to such a viscerally human (and thus diverse) topic, is that there are no wrong answers, in its essence, everything and anything can be an allegory, regardless of the intent of the author. The Death of The Author brings the "life" of the reader, allowing their creation to exist beyond its creator's confines (a concept which will be elaborated on).

In large my opinion has been impacted by the idea of "Yuri of Absence", also known as the "This Too is Yuri", wherein any element of struggle; any paradigm shift a character undergoes; any longing for themselves or another, for a better world; any journey that one's story encompasses, is inherently allegorical in nature so long as one may imagine it as such.

That's the preamble, now I'm going to go through different motifs and themes and how they can be used as or related to in this vein.

Death:

I have already written on this in the past, and i intend to write about it again in the future when discussing the concept of rebirth or life as an allegory of many sorts, however i want to note on it here because of how it acts as the beating heart of several other themes, separate but integrally linked to death in their nature.

Death is inherently a concept linked with change, it marks the ultimate paradigm shift in ones life — Death is an instinctually meaningful idea for all persons living, the idea that one day, one moment, there will be a time that the moments come no more.

Death does not end only in the death of a person however, the death of a country, of a title, of a group, of an identity, all encompassed by this same idea.

The concept of death, specifically linked to that of an identity, is one that is far from foreign to trans communities, the concept of a "dead-name", many referring to their past as a "previous life" or their transitioning as a "death" of whom they used to be.

Death, though initially a foreboading and overwhelming concept, does not conform to the strict consuming nature that many first feel it to be; In death comes the final rest, the moment at which sufferings, worries and all your sorrows come to an end. There is a comfort to be found in death, the comfort of knowing that your suffering is not eternal, that there will be an end to all things. In the chrysalis of death comes the end to your sorrows, your suffering, and crawls forth from the cocoon a stronger, happier person, able to fly freely with their newfound wings.

I have already used this as an example before and time again, the 'Funeral of Dead Butterflies' from the game(s) Library of Ruina and Lobotomy Corporation, but i feel it encapsulates the meaning of death far better than i have any capacity to.

“Until then, they flutter their wings uselessly. The wings that may have been many jumbled into one, or one split into many. Butterflies are supposed to pollinate flowers, but not a single proper flower blooms in this place. There is no choice but to wait. After all, there must be an end to every world.”

There will be an end to all things; no matter how suffocating, how eternally you think to be trapped, there will come a time for you to use your wings, to fly in a place where flowers bloom, to live as you should live, as you were meant to live.

Death in itself is an comfort, a dread, a beginning and an end. In death there is the knowledge of life, and that life is not defined by the present moment of suffering.

.

As was alluded to in the above paragraph, the aforementioned concept integrally tied to death, is of course, the image of "life", as well as that of "rebirth" or "metamorphosis" — Life on its own does not inherently exist allegorically, but a coin cannot exist with only one side, invariably the motif of death will be linked to that of life, and as is said by many before "life carries on".

Metamorphasis:

Metamorphosis is an allegory of both life and death, ultimately summarised in the idea of "rebirth".

At the same time there are other implications that may be drawn from that of a "rebirth", those of which i will elaborate on when talking of Kafka's "The Metamorphosis".

However, i dont believe that i could do justice to this section better than the post which inspired its fully fledged inclusion (warning, 18+ blog, be warned)

You know. Romina instills such powerful thoughts within me... The burning sting of losing something, but the brilliant, twisted realisation that you can grow anew... Sometimes I fantasise about myself lying down to slumber... and as I sleep, my body begins to change. I feel as though ever since I have made the steps towards deciding I was trans, I feel like a bud. Pre-transition, I feel like a bud, waiting to bloom... This bud... Will transform... I fantasise about my body transforming, in a twisted, and beautiful way... I fantasise that my bottom half grows long, and takes the form of the torso and bottom of a centipede... A torso long enough so that I could be the one who cradles myself to sleep... So I can comfort myself... So I can have a form that truly feels special. A strange girl. A strange and monstrous girl, who draws both adoration and terror. Something truly beautiful...

-- @mossy-green-aka-ferrythemGreen, on 'Romina, Saint of the Bud' (Pictured Below) (Romina not mossy)

As mentioned, i cannot do the same justice to this idea as she has, and i do not wish to try, so instead i am swapping to purely analytical for the time being.

As she mentioned in her post above, there exists the "burning sting of losing something", the grief of loss, death of your past life, where you look back at what could have been — Alongside this death comes the beauty of a second birth, of a new form, a new life, standing straight, looking forward at the newfound path in front of you, and continuing forth to every possibility that can be. Moving forward in this new life with the fearlessness to keep on living, leaving behind your past, the weight and sorrows that are bound to it.

Becoming a better you. Becoming You.

-

And now comes the other half of this coin, the other plausible implications of Metamorphosis in an allegory.

As mentioned, I will be referring to 'The Metamorphosis" itself, and some other sources that are mentioned in turn.

[CW: mentions and references to Suicidal Ideation, Chronic Illness, Parental Abuse, Antisemitism (In the footnote)]

Keeping this somewhat brief as due to the aforementioned sensitive content: Kafka's The Metamorphosis, while open to being read as a trans allegory (from Gregor's physical changes and struggles adjusting to his new life) is a story about Kafka's own longing for death, his idea depiction of a slow deterioration and the effects that a chronic illness may have on those around oneself. Through Kafka's life, he wrote of his own death in extreme detail — While there is much more nuance than this, with context provided by Kafka's father's poor treatment, often punishing Kafka when he spoke out of line (such as when he told his father he wished to be a writer), however as to not turn this section writing purely about Kafka I wont be taking much more time for this topic.*

The Metamorphosis is a manifestation of Kafka's self loathing, his longing for death; Gregor acts as a surrogate, with a negligent family, and abusive father who "came hissing like a wild man" upon seeing Gregor come out of his room. Gregor's slow deterioration of both physical health and of his mind, through his emotional seclusion and neglect. The image of this transformation is most easily and clearly read as a burden, akin to that of a chronic disease: Gregor's decay is inevitable and constant through the story, being unable to do more and more things, losing eyesight, and suffering many injuries of mysterious origin, inevitably becoming an object and nuisance to his family, so much so that his death comes as a relief to those around him — I know many people who have shared this kind of thought, that if didn't suffer from their ailment, their restrictions and burden being both inescapable and irrespective of their actions.

A metamorphosis is not always representative of a change for the better, the irreversible, and undeserved changes that one can undergo in their life, which change it for the worst.

-

.* Note that Gregor's depiction as a vermin carries more weight than mentioned, additionally being representative of Kafka's Jewish descent, with the Nazi Party referring to the Jews as "Lice and Cockroaches", and a common antisemitic phrase referring to them as "Insects of humanity".

-

Other examples exist downstream of this concept, being that of change as a negative, notably Limbus Company's character of the same name, and Fromsoftware's Chaos Witch Quelaag.

To avoid confusion, Limbus Company's Gregor will be referred to as such, or as "bug guy", and Kafka's Gregor will be referred to as "Samsa"

Gregor shares a similar story to that of his namesake, having an insectoid arm — LCB's Gregor exists as a direct allegory of disability, akin to that of Samsa's. Where the two differ is that Buy Guy's story may be read as a direct result of parental neglect or abuse, with the character 'Herman', whom genetically modified Gregor's arm in the past, referring to Bug Guy as her 'Son', whom she gave a lifelong burden to bear for her own gains.

Then Gregor, now Quelaag.

Quelaag may be taken as an allegory of better nature. I personally know many trans women who would want to look like this

Quelaag's story is one of the same vein as the former two, being that of a parent's actions, and the lasting consequences on the children (and also using the same Insectoid/Arachnoid motif for trauma//Chronic illness?). This concept is extended in the review of "The Fair Lady", Quelaag's sister, who suffers deteriorating health similar to that of Samsa's: immobility, deteriorating eyesight and senses.

These themes exist as collective experiences and shared predispositions that a community, or humanity in whole, may have towards a certain concept. In this sense of collective human experience, one may find connection within the 'humanity' of stories; Within any given groups Conscious and Unconscious consensus exists keystone experiences that are innately, viscerally, human at their core — Death in a vacuum is not inherently connected with growth, with change, but through humanities perspective, our universal constant of growth, change, and, inevitably, loss, this "death" is personified, the agent of the end, of change, of entropy, all concepts which forthcome from humanities perspective.

If we continue to view this unconscious consensus as a latent, unseen paragon of these interpretations, of this integrally meaningful, 'Human' story; alongside it comes the understanding of not only yourself, but of your story, and the humanity present in these stories, in any story, in 'humanity'.

My message is fruitless if not for the understanding that whence these shared ideals come forth is an endless well of shared humanity, of the collective, unfiltered, beautiful, Human, experiences.

This is the first of a series, it will be continued in near future.

[xasafi]

Okay, so Nora was active on Twitter again and... wow. We learned so many new things.

For example, Jeremy's eyes are BROWN?! My fellow blue-eyed-Jeremy enthusiasts, it's time to cry.

Jean finding a new hobby he falls in love with? Yes, yes, yes, my boy is healing! We love to see that!

There is a chance Neil will curse in Polish in TSC when someone appears?! First of all - as a Polish person - YES, LET THE BOY SAY KURWA! Second of all, who will appear? Ichirou? Jean's partner from the Nest? Jean's family? Someone else?

Jeremy is a service top? 👀👀👀 A lot to consider...

Nora CRIED over TSC?! Oh, it's over for us, it's over for sure. We're gonna be HURTING. A LOT!

I'm glad Nora reminded some of you that Nicky did what he did at Eden's because Andrew told him to drug Neil. They were both in the wrong, let's be real. Though SA-ing Neil was Nicky's own idea. I'm not gonna excuse him.

"But he loves his family so desperately. He'd move mountains for them." Oh, Nicky.

Nora likes the trans!Neil headcanon, nice. And there will be trans character in TSC!

Andreil having guests for Christmas? Yes, let the boys enjoy having a family that loves and cares for them! And the cats!

Jean 'hating the memories, not the language'... Oh, the pain.

Wymack the only father figure we love and appreciate, that's right!

"He's just trying to claw his own throat open he'll be fine." Um, Nora. What the fuck. WHAT THE FUCK!

I also love how respectful Nora is towards us as a fandom. "We share a sandbox but we're building diff castles, if that makes sense." So wholesome.

[silenthill2ps2]

While I'm already being an annoying ass punk and @'ing you I'd love to know your thoughts on Richter's identity issues and stuff during SoTN if you'd like to make a metapost about it 🤸‍♂️ Belmont lineage fucked this boy up he's got BPD now (in my eyes)

FINALLY IT'S RICHTER TIME

so DURING sotn? that's a good question since i'm not sure if he was lucid (like if he could see what shaft was making him do while he was possessing him) or not. in my opinion he was completely under shaft's control and had no idea wtf was going on (like maybe it was like a dream to him?) but it's only when alucard saves him that it allllll comes back to him. naturally he freaks the fuck out until maria calms him down

for pre and post sotn i have MANY more thoughts so let's get into it. i think an important aspect of richter's character is that he defeated dracula when he was literally NINETEEN years old. he was so young and his life was basically complete. he did his destiny for his family and the rest of the world by protecting them from dracula. what now. cue existential crisis and horrible coping mechanisms!!!!!!!!!!! then he spirals and has a mental breakdown he goes to the spot where dracula's castle crumbled shaft exploits and possesses him yadda yadda you know the deal. i also think the succubus contributed to richter's mental breakdown as well but that would delve into more headcanon-y territory. i just want her to have a bigger role ok

then we have post sotn where i think richter is just completely consumed by guilt but he still recognizes the problems that the belmont clan had and that's when he decides to pass the vampire killer onto the morrises cuz this shit CANNOT continue. and what makes him even more tragic is that his plan just... didn't work out in the end. julius still had to fight dracula hundreds of years later and even though soma is a normal nice boy dracula is still gonna get reincarnated eventually. the cycles babyyyyyy.

wow i got really off topic ANYWAYS back to post sotn richter. i think he has a lot of memory issues and possibly even some brain damage cuz he was literally possessed for a year. also even more gender dysphoria (he's a trans guy to me. of course) and just general dislike for his body since it wasn't his own. for a whole fucking year. i feel like combined with all these issues he eventually leaves the belmont clan and lives peacefully (but still depressed and traumatized) cuz he just couldn't handle being among the family members that had such high expectations of him and were partially responsible for his downfall.

i also think he has a lot of nightmares about shaft coming back to possess him again/possibly even kill him. he would have some abandonment issues cuz even though maria did look for him tirelessly and alucard saved him and broke the spell he has this itching feeling that no one would come back for him :( i feel like he wouldn't even consider himself a belmont later in life cuz of how detached he became from them. i think his guilt would never leave him wayyyy into his elder years and he would never fully recover from his trauma.

in conclusion please get this man some therapy

[slenderofthejoker]

UPDATED INTRO THINGY MA JIGGER!!!! Ace is helping with making it not look like shit like my last one! I'm simply here to keep things organized so Wildcard doesn't get distracted, apologies for the intrusion.

=General information=

Aliases: Wildcard, idiot, dumbass, Wc, ne m'oublie pas fleur (BY ACE!), eldest sib. I don't think the insults need to be included. THEY'RE ENDEARMENTS ACE!

NEVER USE: Joker, don't use that name anymore f!@#ers! Slurs should also be avoided please.

Pronouns: She/he/they, card/cards, dice/dice's, luck/luck's, chaotic/chaotic's. Whatever the f!@# else no preference any and all these are just the main shit.

A 9ft tall (MINUS HEELS) land shark based slenderbeing with a cool as shit fashion sense! Please get more clothes dear....you can not just wear that once outfit. Watch me!

Trans masc, pangender, aroace (maybe cupio f@#$ if I know and apothi) demi-queerplatonic and grayplatonic. Platonic partners with Ace! (I am generally referred to as Pink, but hello.) and eldest sibling to the suits!

I F@#$ING LOVE GIFTS AND TRINKETS GIVE EM HERE!!! Cards and dice and shiny shit! I will take anything you f!@#ers give me!

Hey f!@#ers! I'm the f!@#ing WILDCARD!!

Mess with the sibs or those I give a shit about, you mess with me.

Former dealer at THE suits casino, I like to shake it up every now and again, everything in life's a f@#$ing gamble, all in the cards.

So....what d'ya say?

Wanna make a bet with a Wildcard Doll?

OOC Mod status: SLOW.

OOC under cut.

This blog is a slendlr roleplay blog.

General rules and info:

Mod is not a minor but would appreciate asks be nothing more then suggestive, flirting is allowed with Wildcard but luck is as dense as a rock.

Mod uses pink/pinks/pinkself and xe/xem/xyr pronouns.

Magic anons are allowed. General rule of thumb, be nice, don't be bigoted and any hate will be deleted

(You are allowed to be mean to Wildcard and to bother them within reason as long as it's clear its for in character and not just to be a jerk to people like Mod or others. It is in fact encouraged you snark Wildcard its amusing.)

Shipping is also allowed.

If something is said or done in character that makes you uncomfortable or is too much during an interaction PLEASE let me know.

Blog may sometimes cover topics such as violence, death, cannibalism, threats, biting, and censored swearing (and probably other things...). Things will be tagged as needed.

Fun stuff and mentioned Characters above outside this blog:

100 faces meme list (For doodles, Wildcard and Pink are both options for this)

A03 where mod sometimes puts slendlr oneshots and lore snippets

Wc's Voice (Attempt) (OLD)

Wc's voice claim (updated)

Ace/Pink - @/pinkslenderman

THE SUITS

Hearts - (who is not available anymore I believe) @/slenderofhearts

Diamond - @/slenderofdiamonds

Spade - @/slenderofspades

Club - @/slenderofclubs

Tags list:

slendlr - general fandom tag

the wildcard - general tag

friend of the wildcard (used for an interlude when Pink was a messenger for Wildcard and anytime ey post on here) - general tag

make a bet - ask tag

ooc post/mod post - out of character posting by mod

mod answers - out of character ask answered by mod

(Additional tags for when Mod remembers to use them....will be edited in later for older posts))

ace - tag for asks/start of interactions with Pink in chara

the suits - tags for asks/start of interactions with wildcards sibs in chara

Lore events are sometimes also tagged with set tags but i do not remember them all (usually under the influence of magic anons ex. cheesed wildcard, etc)

[you-cant-fuck-megaman]

so, as mentioned before, 30XX is a lot of fun. (i'm going to get back to updates soon, this game has simply siphoned my soul and now i am a child again experiencing the entire spectrum of megaman emotions at once.)

but one thing that's really starting to annoy me is the story. or rather, the complete lack of it. i guess it's true to the source material, given that the story in megaman isn't really all that great either, but at least it's straightforward before we hit the zero series. you know what you're doing, you're a little guy about three apples tall and there's a bad guy sending out robots you have to shoot. then you hit the zero series and it's just someone forgetting their meds and thinking Mechanical Violator Hakaider was a good movie (it was ok) then you hit ZX and fuck it we Kamen Rider now

point is, it's all pretty firmly straightforward shit. we know what's going on, there's an evil scientist destroying things with his robots. stop him. pls

30XX doesn't really tell you squat.

spoilers below, in case you're a moron like me and you're deeply emotionally invested in the story of megaman-alikes.

the opening tutorial cutscene features ace dying to wake up nina, who just says there's work to do. and then you hop out, shoot a robot, and end up in a space station base where a tiny lesbian tells you there's work to do. also ace is ok, you can jump into a capsule to turn into him. either that or nina is the fastest transitioning icon in media but go her i guess (go him??? idk how trans-ing works) you jump into the levels, shoot the bosses, and see a tall lesbian that tells you she's doing work and that you can't stop her work, and then the second largest cock i've seen comes out of the interdimensional hole and you mount it and you fight AU tiny lesbian and Alpha 1.0 pre-transition Nina and Ace in there.

what the fuck?

what am i doing? why am i here? what is happening? what the fuCK IS GOING ON???? WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOR?????????

the cursory idea is that you have to find the data terminals to learn what's going on in the world, but near as i can tell the tall lesbian isn't actually an evil scientist destroying things with her robots, because the world is already dying and so that's different because but it seems the more i get into things, the more lost i'm getting

characters will just randomly appear on the ship and i'm just expected to accept it. who is Delta, outside of being a dashing, charismatic, sexuality-threateningly handsome cool guy who likes a challenge? who is the scrap salvager, outside of maybe being Vika from 20XX? tiny lesbian says that if i vouched for them then they're all right to havE AROUND BUT I DIDN'T VOUCHE FOR THEM I HAVE NO CLUE WHO THEY UFCKING ARE!!!!!!!!!!

i suspect it's because of the expansion in scope in trying to make a bigger game. there's not really a lot of ways to really justify the plot of a roguelite, there's only so many methods you can explain away death and rebirth happening in-universe. last time i asked my doctor about the cycle of samsara he just told me "you have to wake up, the accident wasn't your fault". in 20XX, you're just a pair of flash-cloned experiments doing experimental runs. and that's really all the context you need; you have a setup, a goal, an antagonistic force, and a reason to do things there's the question about how the game world continues after you win the game and destroy everything and escape the space station, but i didn't say it was perfect. but it was good! it made sense!

meanwhile, 30XX seems to be about multiversal collapsing and each run is a separate world disparate from each other. there's too many worlds and each world is trying to share in the same place because the infinite universe is actually finite. and nina was demonized after 20XX because of her super-power because despite Sharp and Flat both being idiots they were actually, like, super-geniuses that made the strongest robots ever. (these are the same guys that mass-produced buzzsaw hamsters) oh, and everyone's already dead??? man this sure is some tonal dissonance from how fucking goofy everything is. not three minutes ago i saw the universe's second-largest cock plunge through time and space. midgard? more like midhard hah hah hah hahhhhhh

at the end of the day they're focused on the gameplay instead of the story. and that's perfectly fine. admirable, even, for a megaman-style project. a lot of megaman fanstuff creators (myself included) tend to masturbate text out with forces rivaling the niagara falls. oh baby, expand that wordcount. it's good to see something that just wants to focus on jumping and shooting instead of trying to write the next masterpiece exploring the nature of the human condition. but i'll admit it's a little underwhelming. i liked nina and ace and i cared about what they were doing, and 30xx doesn't seem to be willing to really flesh them out.

oh well, time for another run! 9/10 game tbh

[ariestarfairy]

Gale Dekarios: A Mansplainer or a Wizardsplainer? And I am off on another Gale related topic yet again, this time it involves a small subset of individuals who believe that Gale Dekarios is a mansplainer. Yes you heard it, Gale Dekarios is a mansplainer! I know, I know I want to roll my eyes hard enough to see the back of my skull as well. Let me preface this by saying I am not here to undermine the harm that mansplaining does to the recipients, typically anyone presenting as a women or playing as a woman. Mansplaining is a real problem in the gaming, TTRPG, and LARP-ing world. As someone who identifies as a woman I know this. When you are maligned, treated like you don't understand, talked down to, objectified, or your character is side-lined as milady who is helpless or forced into certain roles with expectations, it is infuriating. I just want my female barbarian to feast on the flesh of her enemies and use their splintered bones as toothpicks without someone saying women aren't supposed to do that. Mostly it's because your woman presenting character is too masculine and dude-bro paladin needs a girlfriend to protect and do the dirt with (because that's all your character is good for, oh and maybe healing), but we are not here for it. I've seen this happen to men playing characters that are women as well, it's a disease. It sucks, you experience it enough and any time a man starts talking it can be a trigger. I get it! With that in mind I think mansplaining loses its meaning when we take it out of context and just apply it to any kind of trigger. Context matters, understanding the material matters, the lore matters. What does not matter in Baldur's Gate 3 is your character's gender. Let's be very clear, if you are playing the game through the lens of a woman and your character is also a woman and you think Gale is mansplaining to you then you need to reset your game and play it as a man. I tend to spice up my gender variety for funsies and if you are constantly playing as the gender that matches your gender identity you might just view the game through that lens. I'm also going to be real I'm a M/M slasher, I go back and play Gale and Astarion as the origin protags because Bloodweave for life baby! But I do mix it up with genders. So what happens when you are playing entirely through a singular lens, when you are a woman playing as a character that is a woman? You might look at Gale as a mansplainer, but the reality is he's running on a script and he is going to say the same thing to you if you are speaking to him as a cis-man/woman, trans-man/woman, non-binary, or if you are Astarion (okay you might get a bit of variation because it's Astarion and not Tav), but the script is still the script. Your Tav is going to get the script. Now the second part of this is that Gale is a Wizard, you know when someone is a wizz they are very good and successful at the thing they do. Okay so if you are playing as a Sorcerer or some other magically tangent class, you might think Gale is a magic snob, that you are a Sorcerer or you are also playing a character that knows magic as well and him explaining magic to you is him being condescending and talking down to you. No. Gale is a Wizard, Wizards are magically superior, their knowledge is magically superior, this is the rule not the exception. Pick up your D&D handbook, flip to the part where it talks about Wizards and it will tell you they are supreme magic users, they are scholars of the arcane, they are the mathematicians and programmers of magic. They understand it. They have the Ph.D., Sorcerers at best have their A.S., and any other class that uses magic has their H.S. Diploma or G.E.D. Sorcerers are talented magic users, but their knowledge is limited, they rely on raw potential and inherent ability. They don't have the same range because they did not go to graduate school, but they believe they are superior due to carrying a magical birthright through bloodline.

[your-unfriendlyghost]

guys gray is trans he told me so

[rjalker]

Welp, since the OP turned off reblogs on the original post:

My original reblog:

Okay, I know RTD has fucked all of this up by using the words "male-presenting" in this way, but male-presenting is NOT a synonym for "looks like a man" or "wear's men's clothing".

Saying that butches could be considered male-presenting is just. flat out wrong. That is not what these terms mean.

You can IDENTIFY yourself as male-presenting or female-presenting. You cannot assign those terms to anyone else, which is one of the major things RTD did wring with this scene!

No one asked the Doctor how hea identifies, everyone just went "well you're played by David Tennant now so you look like a man so that means you're purposefully presenting yourself to the world as male" and that's not how this works! At all!

Trans women not being out or able to socially transition doesn't mean they're male-presenting.

"male-presenting" is not a synonym for "looks like a man" or "assigned male at birth" or "wears mens clothes".

It is not something you get to assign other people, it is strictly a self-identification term, saying that you are choosing to present yourself as male, or masculine, or whatever descriptor is being used.

And I'm not even going to bother getting into the whole "the Doctor was a woman (because Jodie Whittaker had the role) five minutes ago" because again, that's literally not how gender works. Looking like a woman because a woman is playing the character does not equal "the character is a woman now" when it's just been established in this episode that the Doctor is nonbinary.

You can, and should, point out the biological and gender essentialism in this scene. But you shouldn't be ignoring the fact that the Doctor is being misgendered by being assigned male-presenting by people who have not asked, and are literally just deciding that for themselves because they think the Doctor looks like a man.

Do not use "x-presenting" language for other people --including fictional characters, which as we can all see from the fallout from this scene makes people think they can do this to real people-- unless it's something that person self-identifies as.

Calling anyone "male-presenting" or "masculine-presenting" or "female-presenting" or "feminine-presenting" without them first telling you that's how they identify is literally just misgendering people but pretending to be progressive about it.

Which is the most fucking damaging impact of this scene. And I'm getting really tired of having to explain this over and over again when people have been talking about why these terms are not okay to assign to other people for years now. Russel T Davies just came along and fucked it all up by making people think this kind of misgendering is okay when it's not even remotely.

= = =

@daily-sloop-john-b:

Okay, I'm —ing confused.

@rjalkers-polls can you please send me where you're pulling the "presenting" definition from?

And what's the word(s) for referring to that outside shell to which onlookers ascribe a gender?

No animosity meant at all; you seem to have a very specific idea of it's usage, and I'm curious what community it comes from.

= = =

Me:

this isn't a definition you're going to find in any dictionary, because it's not an "official" thing in any way, it's what many trans and nonbinary people have been talking about over the years.

I can link some posts of people talking about it if that'll help.

in no particular order:

4 days ago

September 2023

June 2019

2 days ago

November 2021

December 2021

And there's a whole lot more on my blog but tumblr doesn't want to let me find them at the moment, mostly because I didn't think to create a tag specifically for it.

Try searching any of the variations on tumblr or google.

Before November 25th 2023 you'll find a mix of people using them as self-descriptors, people talking about how it's misgendering to be called it without permission, and a few people assigning them to other people thinking it's okay.

And now after November 25th 2023 you'll see a massive surge in people throwing these terms around willy-nilly in the most absurd and bigoted ways.

The proper way to describe people without assuming and assigning gender to them is to describe them in factual statements. Are they tall? Short? Fat? Thin? Long hair? Short hair? Big chest? medium chest? Flat chest? Light skin? Dark skin? Round face? Angular face? Eye color, ect.

And if you know someone's gender, you can call them by that. A man, a woman, a nonbinary person, an enby, ect. At no point is it necessary or okay to describe them as "x-presenting", because as I say above, that's taking your internal bias and saying it's something they're doing on purpose.

If someone calls me female-presenting because they think I look like a woman, that's misgendering. I'm not presenting myself as female, I'm literally just existing in a body that happens to have boobs, through no fault or choice of my own.

= = =

@walks-the-ages:

Here's a post I reblogged nine years ago that captures the essence of why using “x-presenting” language is misgendering; you’ll notice that the post makes no mention of x-presenting language, because that only really started popping up in the last…. hmm, maybe three or four years? It became a popular way to describe someone whose gender you didn’t know, but was thankfully shot down pretty quick when trans and nonbinary people pointed out this is just a new way of misgendering someone but trying to sound progressive, by looking at someone’s appearance and assuming that what you think they look like (aka, like a man, or like a woman, or androgynous) “must be!” what gender they are.

[ID: a text post by user Viciere, posted October 31st 2014, that reads: “if somebody wears a dress and copious amounts of makeup and has ass-length pink hair and they say they are a boy you call them a boy gender stereotypes are not an excuse for misgendering someone it doesnt matter what gender you think they “look” like. respect the gender they ARE.” End ID]

If you look at the tags and replies of many of the posts made about the “male presenting” line in the Star Beast, you will find countless, countless trans, nonbinary, and even cis people expressing how they have personally been misgendered by people referring to them as ‘x-presenting’ based purely on their clothes or their physical appearance, which is especially hurtful to trans and nonbinary people who already suffer from negative body image and body dysphoria, especially if they can’t afford or physically cannot safely get top or bottom surgery, wear a packer, or padded bra, or even safely wear a binder.

TL;DR: “X-presenting” language should only be used as a self-identifier, or exclusively for those who have given you express permission to refer to them as such. Using “x-presenting” language for someone you don’t know is the same as misgendering– if you don’t know someone’s gender, just ask :)

[utilitycaster]

I never got into D20 because I really didn't like Fantasy High, but I started Neverafter and I really like it so far. What non Fantasy High campaigns would you recommend?

Depends on what you're into! I've done my best but also given you an overview of all D20 campaigns in case you want to browse, and also in a possibly futile attempt to stave off people recommending things that I would not recommend in the notes which usually happens with D20 recs.

Recommended For You(Based on the fact you are liking Neverafter and did not like Fantasy High)

A Crown of Candy is a full-length campaign with the same cast as Neverafter (often referred to as the Intrepid Heroes Cast) that is, essentially, what if Game of Thrones, but everyone is food. It's very good and it's the first season where they switched up the earlier RP/Combat alternating rhythm, and they have never looked back (thankfully)

Escape from the Bloodkeep is their first sidequest, so it's short and sweet. Premise is "What if the villains of LOTR were the main characters, and also Sauron just fucking died". Notable for Matt Mercer playing When The Gay Baristas Get Mean Witch-King of Angmar and Erika Ishii playing Wine Mom Shelob but the whole cast is incredible.

If you like horror-inflected games or Dracula Daily, Coffin Run is REALLY good and is also a sidequest. Jasmine Bhullar is a fantastic guest DM, the set design is stunning, and Zac Oyama is unbelievably funny in this one.

A Court of Fey and Flowers was extremely popular on Tumblr a few months ago and for good reason. Feywild Regency Romance vibes. A hack of Good Society was used but it was mostly D&D. My favorite Aabria DM-ing yet. Mid-length season (longer than Bloodkeep/Coffin Run, shorter than A Crown of Candy or what Neverafter will be.)

The Unsleeping City is also a full-length campaign with two seasons. Urban Fantasy set in modern day New York City, some of my favorite characters of the Intrepid Heroes Cast, but the first season does suffer from alternating RP/Combat. The second season is in my opinion much stronger and I like the two characters who switched, but the first season is still pretty good.

Maybe?

Pirates of Leviathan. It takes place in the same world as Fantasy High but it's mostly adult characters. It was filmed during early lockdown, remotely, which means the entire cast is people they trusted to be very comfortable with D&D, and also meant they could actually get Matt, Marisha, B. Dave Walters, Krystina Arielle, Aabria, and Carlos Luna to coordinate schedules. It's a short season and it's very fun.

Probably not your thing because they are teen-centric/too close to Fantasy High

Obviously you said fantasy high wasn't your thing. I do think season 2, their only ever live season, was much, much stronger than the first season (which had plenty of growing pains) and it takes place outside of the school (it's spring break and they're on a quest) so if your issue was specifically the format of RP/Combat or being in a high school, and not that it was teen characters (valid to not want) then skipping to that one might be fine, but if the issue was the characters then skip this too.

The Seven is also in the Fantasy High setting, also with teen characters, though they also are on a quest outside the school.

Misfits and Magic is a (trans-inclusive) Harry Potter-influenced game run in Kids on Brooms. Fun and done well, but I'll admit I'm just kind of too over HP to be that into it and it is also about teens again.

Shriek Week is in a dating sim game designed and run by Gabe Hicks. Fun and silly and short and sweet, again with a great cast, but not remotely like Neverafter and if you're not interested in a school/young adult setting (the characters are seniors in college) then skip.

Not my faves, personally

I know a lot of people like Mice & Murder and again, the cast is great, but the low magic and the mystery run in D&D just doesn't do it for me; I do like a British manor mystery even, but D&D is just. it's not the right system. Everyone's a fucking low-level rogue. There's almost no combat. I do always love Rekha though and I want to see Sam Reich play D&D again.

Tiny Heist - the monologues I just posted aside, the premise just didn't work for me, even though, as always, the cast is great. I just think that if you are playing D&D and the cast is mostly rogues and fighters and you're like level 3, you should really just probably run a different system.

I like this one but I truly have no idea when to recommend it

Starstruck Odyssey: I like Starstruck Odyssey a lot! It's also in a different system (SW5e) and it's in a very different space opera setting, and it's truly a ridiculous and convoluted plot even for Brennan, so it's one of those things where it's like, if you are down with all those things please go ahead! But it's not the season I'd spring on a newcomer unless I knew they loved space opera or labyrinthine plots or SW5e.

[sparrowmoss]

as it continues to be a very popular thing to refer to male characters as babygirl/girlfriend/wife/mother/etc, i would just like to ask again that if and when you do this, you take a moment to think about your reasons why. why you feel like you need to use a feminine term instead of a masculine or neutral one. are you feminizing them to infantilize them, degrade them, or something else in a similar vein? are you unable to see these traits in a person without associating them with femininity and womanhood? i think any time you misgender or feminize a character, you should be thinking about why you feel the need to do so in that instance. and i know that a lot of it is just trying to fit in and get a good grade in fandom social circles, but i think every new trend that comes around should be thought about thoroughly rather than thoughtlessly adopted, even if you think it’s coming from other “good” people.

i think there are a lot of layers to how this is part of a bigger issue of people trying to make the gender binary and established gender roles cool again, which we truly should not be circling back to. i’m not saying every instance of this is driven by sexism, internalized or otherwise, but i think an uncomfortably large amount of it is, even if unintentional.

for an example, people churning out “happy mothers day” posts for various male characters on said day every year, usually because their male character of choice has traits that are traditionally associated with women and mothers. are you starting to see why this is not good to adopt into your mindset? it is not a woman-exclusive trait to care about your children by any measure besides society’s patriarchal values. there is also some gender binary being intrinsic to biology bullshit in here but for now i’m focusing on sexism.

every parent should be caring for their child, expressing love for them, feeding and clothing them, protecting them, and comforting them. if you see these traits in a person, real or fictional, and your knee-jerk reaction is to make a joke out of it and call them a woman, i think you should reflect on that. i truly don’t see how this is much different than right-wing people who see a real man taking care of his child and say “what are you, a woman?” “no real men do this” or the like, and guess what! they quite often take to the internet to say the same things about fictional men on their screens, too! and when your thoughts and sentiments are aligning with people in the right wing, even if you adopt a different tone when saying it, it’s worth some consideration.

all of this is especially worth some deep introspection if you have zero interest in, or even feel negatively toward, your subject character that you feminize actually being genderweird in some way, ESPECIALLY in a transfeminine way. because unfortunately, a lot of queer people do this to characters, and even a lot of nonbinary and/or trans(masc) people do this to characters, and actively dislike the idea of exploring that character’s actual relationship with gender expression, identity, and roles. so many people who babygirl any male character at the drop of a hat are not open to the idea of that character being transfeminine in any way, and that is a problem, full stop. if you’re a cis woman or a transmasculine person and are very attached to the habit of babygirl-ing male characters, but you either 1. only ever headcanon these male characters as transmasculine, or 2. only ever headcanon these male characters as cis men, really, really give that some thought. this is not an encouragement to take the characters you infantilize and demean via emasculation and turn them into transfeminine characters that you then continue to infantilize and degrade/be sexist to, what i mean is that you need to start looking at this mental system as a whole.

just, think about the times you feel the need to feminize a male character when you refer to them. because despite any insistence that fiction has no effect on reality, this can eventually bleed into how you treat real people. and more often than not, the way you are referring to fictional men as babygirls or mothers is only happening in the first place because you hold already established ideas about femininity, and certain traits and their ties to gender, that are harmful and not true.

[riddlegecko]

no one asked, but here's some jasper mckenzie (my hf oc) hcs and stuff bc i'm thinking abt the blorbo from my brain again

the mckenzie family loves game shows, and that includes jasper. pre-rollerama, jasper often dreamed abt him or one of his family members being on a game show and winning a ton of money so they could move into a nicer house. once jasper started fighting in the rollerama and earning tons of money for their family, that fantasy kinda died (not like they needed game show money anymore). but they're still really passionate abt game shows, and when he grows up he really wants to make and/or host a game show one day. somehow both of my hf ocs either work in tv or have aspirations of working in tv.

speaking of jasper being grown up, i could never pinpoint which hf cast member i would imagine playing jasper if he was like a canon character bc they're only 13. but i started picturing what jasper would look like as an adult recently, and surprisingly i think jeff is the closest match. like, jeff with a bit less facial hair and curlier hair is how i imagine adult jasper, at least in terms of which cast member they most closely resemble.

jasper's best friend at the rollerama is jae's fighter character (y'know, the "that was wicked, yellow jacket!" kid). they were also the cause of jasper realizing he was Not Cis. like "wow, instead of going by he or she, you're a they? that's so cool, i wish i could do that :)", "...jasper, i have something to tell you-".

on the subject of gender, jasper prolly goes through A Lot of mini gender crises as they get older. jumps between several different sets of pronouns and labels for a while, maybe even id-ing as a trans girl and changing their name for like A Month before going "yeah nvm, that doesn't feel right". by the time they hit 21, i think he decides to settle back on he/they and not really label their gender.

jasper has a lot of foods that he can't really stand eating anymore after living in poverty for the first 11 years of his life, both from association and just generally being sick of it. pizza and cup ramen, mainly. they can stomach homemade, baked from scratch pizza, but like cheapo take-out pizza and frozen pizza just makes them kinda queasy now. similar case with ramen, the packaged or cup stuff makes his stomach turn, but the first time he got to have real ramen was an Experience. like you can make this stuff good? since when!?

really took to the post-fight rollerskating sessions at the rollerama, and managed to become really good at it. he's one of the few kids at the rollerama to have upgraded to rollerblades, and he's really proud of being able to out-skate some of the older kids.

gets crushes all the time without even realizing it. they've had small crushes on just about every kid at the rollerama, even if just for a little bit. on the rare occasion he does realize it's a crush, he kinda freaks out a bit. they're not emotionally prepared for these feelings, how do you turn them off-

[pro-fiction-spring-bonnie]

Okay, gotta rant for a bit about a game I am playing.

So, the game is generally good at queer rep. The love interests aren't gender-locked, two of the main characters are enby, and there are even poly options. Great, right?

Well, the game decided to introduce us to a transmasc character and it SUCKED.

The character is one we previously met as female. This is fine.

Except his coming out is so shitty, omg. First, he gives us a 6 sentences summary on how he was a tomboy as a child, thinks he should have been born a man, and that he feels like an impostor as a woman.

He pretty much dumps that outta nowhere, even if the player doesn't prompt him to do so. Which is extra weird considering the game is set during ww2.

Anyways, after that the player is given two options which are (word-for-word) "I'm sorry. That sucks." and "Have you thought that you might be transgender?". One of these is the Correct Option and completely ignores the possibility that maybe the player doesn't want to, you know, have an open talk about queerness with someone who is not a close friend during a time period when being queer is literally illegal.

Again, the game is set during ww2, so transgender isn't even the correct term back then. It feels forced, but it gets worse.

(Also, if the player picks "I'm sorry. This sucks." the character simply doesn't come out for the rest of the game and keeps id-ing as a woman as far as I'm aware)

This man, who until 2 minutes ago had no idea transgender people even existed, immediately goes "I will now publically id as a man during ww2 and fuck transphobes". Dude. Has the author ever thought about running this scene through a couple trans men before publishing the game?

Like, this character's transition is so rushed and badly done that I think it would have been better to just have him show up and go "Hi, you used to know me as [dead name], but turns out I'm a trans man and my name is [correct name]". I legit would have prefered it happening offscreen instead of the mess we got.

I've got nothing to add except that I'm happy you got this off your chest anon, I apologise it's just been sat in my inbox for a month.