#well. really thinking about the autistic coding of that man. especially in the way that he communicates

[gender-luster]

thinking about that fictional traumatized autistic middle-aged man again

[splatoonpolls]

a really long analysis about fanon Marina and the flanderization by fandom she has gotten

fanon marina (the version created by the fans) mainly focuses on two things, her being autistic coded and her being basically confirmed to be a lesbian. And I do think this has to do with her being VERY much like a typical splatoon fan in many people’s eyes. Her being a nerdy queer neurodivergent person. This is also why other parts, especially her relationship with her being an octoling gets often locked away. Subconsciously at least

if Marina was a book, several chapters would focus on her identity as a dome octoling. Her being autistic would probably pop up here and there, but it wouldn’t be a whole chapter. But her very much gay relationship with Pearl would definitely have a few chapters. But with people focusing on those few lines and chapters rather than the whole book. People would slowly ignore the other chapters, get shocked like Adam Sandler learning Pac-Man was the bad guy in the hit movie pixels.

the splatoon fandom’s western side is mainly white Americans and Europeans. Which is one reason why the fanon Marina doesn’t focus on her identity as an octoling, but also on how many details are not really told to the player. Marina barely shows her ears, which can both be read as her having sensory issues (which is a super valid headcanon(, but also her not feeling super comfortable with her body. With her ears being a reminder of her “you are with people who still think you are only going to steal stuff”. Her tentacles may be weird, she may lack the eyeliner an inkling has. But those things can simply be a stylistic choice. Her ears can’t be one. They are too different. I also know the DLCS focuses more on her identity as a dome octoling. However many can understand how her arc as a whole can be paralleled to the real life experiences of people belonging to marginalized ethnic communities. I also want to point, while writing this. I realized (which many people probably already did). Dome octolings you see outside of the domes (splatoon 2 octolings, Marina, Acht, Paul), are all refugees. They are all characters who grew up in a society that had been shunned for decades, even centuries. That society ended up being oppressive both due to external and internal issues. They know the society they’re living in is no longer a good place to live in. So they escape. Hoping to find a place that will take them on. For agent 8, Marina, and Paul. They found a safe place. Acht wasn’t super lucky however. They were told they could find a “promised land” only to be left in even more ruin before. So not only does Marina’s character arc focus on her being a part of an ethnic minority, but a refugee at that. so why does fanon marina usually avoid that part of her? Well as a mentioned before. Marina has three things that makes her very relatable. While the more backstory focused things are less relatable to a way smaller margin of the splatoon fandom. A way smaller part of the fandom are poc in a very white country. And a very small percentage are refugees.

if we removed Marina’s backstory. We would still be left with the fanon version. A nerdy autistic lesbian who deeply loves Pearl. I love how Nintendo got a game that also isn’t afraid to show a society that cares about queer people if not is queer centric itself. Which is probably why many people cling to that part of Marina. But if we removed that part. What would we be left with? Well, we would have an octoling refugee who is a trained soldier and can create weapons of destructions (and she would still be in love with Pearl, it is an important part of her backstory). im not saying the splatoon fandom’s openness to lgbtq and neurodivergent people is a bad thing just because they boil down one of the most plot heavy characters down to those things. It is actually a really great thing to have a fandom that is open to these marginalized groups.

i just want to say, due to this love for Marina being a character you can relate to. It feels like certain parts of Marina’s character (which can also be very relatable to some) is being drifted away to the more lore centric side of the fandom. Which will lead to a sort of fandom flandarization which is very unintentional and just done due to a love of Marina as a character.

If you’ve read this an disagreed, that is fine. Character writing is a very subjective thing

[stanislaw-jerzy-let-s]

Since everyone is super hyped about Dandadan (and I’ve recently read the manga because of the hype), I’ll give my two cents about one aspect of it that I really like, which is the treatment of Okarun as an autistic-coded character.

Basically, I think the story strikes a pretty good balance between showing how bullying and social ostracization affected him and not infantilizing him as a character. I guess good autism representation (at least in subtext) is not that hard to find in anime recently, just "Komi Can’t Communicate" and "Mob Psycho 100" easily come to mind. But in DanDaDan in particular it blends nicely with the relative gender nonconformity the MC pair has, especially for a shōnen. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the quick-thinking and bluntness of Momo reminds me of a typical action protag, while Okarun seems to act more as the heart of the group down the line, what with the effect on the group his injury had in the alien invasion arc (particularly how it led Momo to throw out Vamola, I think this scene would have gone pretty differently with Okarun consciously there) and the way he reacted to learning that PeeWee had a sick child (man was ready to lose his family jewels all over again…).

I guess I enjoy the relative subtlety his characterization has. Okarun is less good at quick-thinking than Momo, which does not mean he’s totally bad at it or that he doesn’t get better. He struggles to connect with people and he wants to do it mainly through his special interests, but he does very much care about people. Even the problems he has with social interactions are to me very realistic and veer neither towards "he’s a perfect snowflake that the world does not understand" and "he’s a weird gross nerd" - he is shown to have real issues with self esteem, overthinking and communication (could have just told the class rep to let Momo in for instance, but probably hasn’t even realized this would affect Momo’s feelings) while being able to slowly work through it.

My favourite scene that touches on that is this one:

From context in the next scene we learn that this has been partially a setup by Momo to encourage Okarun to have more male friends. And how sweet is that? Not did she trust Okarun to be able to work through his jealousy (and IMHO clearly communicated that she’s not romantically interested in Jiji) but also had enough trust in Okarun to know he’ll be able to befriend Jiji (who, to be fair, is a golden retriever of a person). It’s a well-selected challenge!

I like how balanced interactions like that make the relationship between Okarun and Momo feel while being great for his character growth. One really does feel the mutual respect in this ship.

[chaifootsteps]

some tags on a post I just wanted to share:

hb#critical#FOR FUCKING REAL#this is exactly why i HATE when people say 'but blitz came onto him first! thats why stolas thinks he likes it!'#one moment of consent does not IMPLY consent for all future interactions.#especially in entirely non-sexual situations. stolas is a grown ass man. he should know better#i see 'stolas is autistic/bad at reading tone' a lot too. which is one thing#but blitz isnt using some neurotypical secret coded language. he says 'i dont like this' TO HIS FACE.#if he was just bad at reading tone and/or blitz WAS playing hard to get wouldnt stols take that at face value and stop???????????

that sums it up, really. It's annoying to see so much work done to unpack people feeling entitled to someone they dated/slept with once, or Nice Guy Syndrome, only for the HB fandom to act like we never had those conversations

if the only defence of Stolas is 'well Stolas thinks he likes it because Blitzo slept with him once' then we don't have much nice to say about Stolas, do we?

there's no amount of mental backends one can do to excuse the fact that Blitzo was not 'leading him on' - he immediately dipped after that first night, avoided him, didn't want to take his calls and acted completely disinterested in Stolas outside of the time he was forced to spend with him. Even the whole 'Stolas thought Blitzo liked dirty talk' is categorically untrue because when he pulled that in The Circus Blitzo straight up snapped his neck all the way around and said 'Ew. Stop it' to get him to shut up

Say it with me: Blitzo is not responsible for Stolas' delusions and it's not a flaw on Blitzo's part for wrecking Stolas' illusions about him and their relationship. It's on Stolas for having them in the first place and keeping them way longer than he should have

Oh god, it's the kind of thing that'll break you if you think about it. Years and years of conversations about enthusiastic consent and rape culture and how one consensual encounter doesn't automatically mean consent forever, gone like a fart in the wind.

The very second it's about Blitzo, these people start talking like old 1960s white men asking what the victim was wearing.

[allshadesblue]

This is a Succession essay. I genuinely think that most characters in television and films tend to be autistic/autistic coded, and I think this is by complete and total accident

Trying to make a character weird, or giving them issues picking up social cues, or what have you, say, extremely strong interests, it often speaks to autistic people and our experiences in a variety of ways

Kendall Roy is a big one for me, he stims in his car (episode one, rapping and hitting the chair in front of him in the car before his big day?), he's so genuine and cannot tell when everyone around him is making fun of him (L to the OG, singing a rap song he made up about his dad?), he gets emotionally and physically overwhelmed (too much birthday?), he has issues expressing his emotions and picking up social cues (his phone call with the bank, telling Polk to fuck off, where he tries to emulate his father and fails?)

There's this poignant scene where Kendall is calming down in the same way his clearly autistic son does. Both of them are overwhelmed by the family dinner, so they sit outside and play with Legos together, an act Rava, his ex wife, does not engage in. It's parallel play, they're sitting together and calming themselves down side by side, not necessarily playing together. This is very common amongst autistic people.

And Kendall, like many autistic people, wants to emulate those around him socially, so he can be liked the way he thinks his father is. Kendall often incorrectly assumes that if he mimics all those around him, copies their social skills, pretends like he fits in, people will finally see him the way he sees himself. And Kendall really is a good person. At least he tries to be, having that much wealth and power is always going to make you a bad person, especially when you don't take the steps to deconstruct these power structures. But Kendall wants to be a good person. He wants to do the right thing. He tries hard to be the involved father, the perfect son, the kind boss, the fantastic husband, the good friend, the caring brother, the greatest business man, he wants to be the most loved, the most loving, the person everyone likes and who fits in. But he can't navigate it quite right. He's understanding of how to grow Waystar Royco into a business that's successful in the internet age is actually quite spot on. His desire to create what he views as an inclusive environment, a respectful one, is genuine.

But Kendall cannot fit in no matter how hard he tries. And I don't think it's just because of his wealth, though it plays a factor. His siblings, in particular Shiv and Roman, especially Shiv, are considerably better socially. They, like many neurotypicals, can become social chameleons, changing how they interact and act to fit in with whatever crowd they're in. They're out of touch due to their wealth, certainly, but there's a difference. They socialize well in the wealthy circles they grew up in, they transfer these skills to other social circles, they socialize so well they can advance their career. Noticeably, they lie well, they can pick up on when most everyone is lying to them, they can navigate all of their respective spheres well.

Kendall cannot do these things really, when he tries he always falls flat. Even in out of touch, wealthy circles, he really cannot fit in. His inability to be the person he wants everyone to see him as is two fold. His wealth and abusive childhood is one dimension of it, he doesn't have good footing for where to start, so when he genuinely tries he falls flat on his face. But he's autistic, compounding these issues. It makes it much harder for him to actually understand what to do, how to do it, and his only guides through his life were wealthy people constantly working to undermine him, to cut him down. Shiv and Roman, not so much. They know what is the "right thing" and what is socially seem as the right things to do, and they can adapt their presentation to match that. Shiv knows it's socially acceptable to be a democrat, and so she is, though she isn't one. Kendall cannot, and though he tries to do the right things, and he tries to do them because he sees them as the right things, he cannot conceptualize a life other than his own, cannot fit in, and with no other guide but his father, cannot be the person he truly wants to be.

His attempts are genuine. He tries very hard to be an excellent father. He loves his children. He is by no means good at it. But he wants to be. And he makes greater strides than his father ever did, and in many ways for him this is a great effort. He is pained by how no one seems to like him, no matter what he does. There's this scene in the first season, where he looks at the falling stock price and tells his brother, "this is how much no one likes me." In season three, he tries to get people to like him by being self aware about how much they hate him, tries to let himself be made a mockery, because then maybe they'll want him. But he doesn't understand why they do. And it becomes a form of self harm, like maybe if he lets them hate him to his face, he'll understand why they do emotionally. Sometimes he understands objectively, but really he doesn't. And he self medicates to make it easier.

Kendall noticeably does drugs the most when he is struggling to fit in socially. Before therapy with his family, because he wants to fit in with the group of people he's with, wants to fit in back home. Also a very common autistic experience. It seemingly makes him likeable, makes him comfortable, lowers his inhibitions so that maybe he'll fit in, and maybe he'll get over his fears.

Kendall's struggles as an autistic person become Shakespearean in height due to the wealth and station of his life. It makes you wonder if one moment of his life were to have been changed. Say he doesn't get into the accident with the waiter, he'll escape the grasp of his father, and probably he'll have the means he always wanted to create the meaningful change he longs for. He stays committed to outing his father's negligence on the cruises. Something different, something new. Hell, even just a diagnosis, and I'd bet Kendall's life looks utterly different. It allows him, at the very least, a modicum of comfort and understanding of his life. Best case scenario, Kendall has the tools to navigate the world, and as such, can become the very good person he feels he ought to be.

Kendall Roy has autism. And autism is not tragic, but him having it in a world so hostile to him, without the knowledge of his autism, is.

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #287 (Part 1?)

Well, today is the day. In about an hour and a half, I arrive at the place to get some teeth yanked out. I know today's letter is really early, but I don't know if I'll feel well enough to write later, so I wanna make sure I do it now. I promised a letter every day, after all. I'm hungry. But you're supposed to be, if you're getting knocked out. They don't want you to end up throwing up while you're being operated on.

I'm a little nervous. I'm not nervous about dying or whatever; I'm nervous about being in a lot of pain when I wake up. I'm nervous about being in pain for at least the next week. Nervous about the aftercare aspect, what with needing to squirt saline in the little holes left behind. Nervous about ending up with dry socket. Nervous about the fact that for the next couple days, I'll probably have to rest. Nervous about the discomfort of the braces after the fact.

…

Well. I put on my favorite shirt. I will be brave and do the scary and uncomfortable thing because I know it's gonna be better for me in the long run.

Unfortunately, when we have problems - even if those problems are not our fault - there's no easy way out of them. There's no shortcut to solving them. As unfair as it is, you just have to grit your teeth and get it done. It holds true for teeth your parents never got looked at. It's true of PTSD, of autism, of ADHD. It holds true for lots of things.

…Suppose I learned really early on that no one is actually coming to save me. No one can pop by to wave a magic wand and fix the inside of my face without discomfort on my part. No one can pop by to wave a magic wand and instantly install mindfulness and coping practices into my PTSD-addled brain; I have to practice them. No one can pop by to wave a magic wand and make the world accept queer autistic AFABs; I have to practice good boundary skills and I have to be the example of what I want to see in the world with the hopes that it will inspire kindness and compassion in others.

It's as the song says: "There's no easy way out. There's no shortcut home…"

Oh. You might not know that song. Here, I'll give you the version of it done by The Protomen; I like that one better than the original. Their lead singer is astounding:

The Protomen have A LOT of really amazing songs. They have their own rock opera based around the Megaman games. It's definitely worth taking a look, I think.

…I generally find this song inspiring when I gotta just grit my teeth and do the thing. I focus on, "We're not indestructible." I focus on, "I think it's unbelievable how you give into the hands of fate," as in, "why would you give in to fate when you have choices?" I focus on, "Some things are worth fighting for; some feelings never die." I focus on, "I'm thinking about what I used to be," as in, "I've already come so far."

I get really confused by the line that goes "Giving in can't be wrong", though. It seems kind of antithetical to the whole rest of the song. So I usually just lop off the "apostrophe-t" in my head. 😋

The Megas is another group based on the Megaman games. Here's one of my favorites:

I especially like the parts that begin at around 1:40:

------- "Brother if we walk the program, what system do you serve? Is your song just lines of code or something that you heard? And now you want to know what you're supposed to be; stop pretending you don't have a choice - only that can set you free. And now you want to burn the world into the ground? This rage is not your destiny - it's holding you down!"

"I refuse to believe that I'm nothing more than a machine! I refuse to believe that we can't learn to see! The truth was in a dream; I will not kill; no, I will believe!"

"Believe me when I say, if this could end today, I'd do it, I would. [But] for his crimes, should his life I take? Does that mean no man or machine can learn from his mistakes? [That] no man or machine is more than their mistakes?"

"I refuse to believe that I'm nothing more than a machine! I refuse to believe that we can't learn to see! The truth was in a dream; I will not kill; no, I will believe!" -------

...The "brother" who wants to "burn the world into the ground" turns around. Just in case you wondered. 😁💖

...Ahaha... It's hard for me to talk about The Protomen without also talking about The Megas. They're both really great groups. Thanks for bearing with me.

...Well. I suppose that's it for today. I had better get ready to go. I'll be back home in a little while. Maybe I'll write again later today. But just in case I don't:

I love you. Please, please, please stay safe out there. Please remember that you have choices and that you can do good, kind, and loving things with them. Please remember that even if your path is difficult and really long, you're capable of so much more than you think. Even if the process of rebuilding and restoring that which was broken isn't easy, it's still worth doing. Please give it a try, and remember to ask for help when you need to.

I'll write again soon.

Your friend, Lumine

[lotus-duckies]

the queerness of 2012 is really weird because it straddles the line of plausible deniability so well and the fact it's so obviously edgy teenage boy coded, so when something kinda queer happens you're like "wait was that intentional or" as opposed to Rise, where the queer coding is blatant, especially with its usage of gender nonconformity and literally putting a rainbow flag into the show

so anyway here's an essay about leo's bisexuality. yes this will be covering his crush on karai in a romantic context even though everyone hates it and wants to rephrase it as gender envy, i'm sorry but someone has to do it

The first question we must ask, does Leo have some kind of indication of having attraction to more than one gender?

There was a tumblr post recounting canon tmnt facts, one of which says the art book states that Leo has a 'man crush' on Captain Ryan.

Which, I am wheezing at the idea that the thing that makes Leo imperfect is the fact he has a man crush on Captain Ryan. Nothing else, just the man crush.

I did google the definition of a man crush because even though I am clearly just so manly what the heck is that.

-an intense and typically non-sexual liking or admiration felt by one man for another. -a man who is the object of another's intense liking or admiration.

Yeah that's approximately Leo's relationship with Captain Ryan, an intense admiration for a fictional man. Obviously, having a man crush doesn't automatically mean you're attracted to men, but given Leo's general behaviors in the show, I'm more inclined to believe he does have Some Kind of attraction to men.

Karai

The thing about Leo's crush on Karai is that it was executed in a distinctly different way than any of his brothers' love affairs.

With his brothers, they're very open about the fact they're into whatever girl the narrative has assigned them. Donnie's crush has been known by everyone since episode 1 and he and Mikey are not subtle about their admiration. Raph was talking about how cool he thinks Mona is and if turtles and newts can go on dates even though she was introduced as an antagonist before becoming an ally.

Karai was also introduced as an antagonist who Leo has some kind of attraction to, but he hid it. He refused to tell his family about it, only telling April who then chastised him about it. His family only found out by accident, and even then he either didn't tell them he liked her, shrouded in excuses of "We both like the fine craftsmenship of swords" and "I can see the good in her, I can save her", or begrudginly added "I guess I sort of liked her" at the end.

This reads as a very queer narrative, closeted kids discovering themselves and only their friends know out of fear of getting rejected by their families.

And this is also why I do think Leo has an Actual Crush on Captain Ryan. Trying to explain it as having an admiration for Captain Ryan and wanting to be a hero is much the same as trying to explain why he was hanging out with Karai, wanting to help her or admire swords.

His personality as a Very Good Boy who follows the rules and cares if they accidentally hurt people exemplifies the changes he went through from Karai's influence.

(also like. if space heroes is supposed to be a parody of star trek. girl star trek is so horny. and Leo says that space heroes has a ton of fans currently, implying he's seen the fanbase, and the very strong possibility that the fanbase is mostly populated by gay fanfiction

and yknow. Leo's the embodiment of 2010's tumblr fangirl, which has a lil queer autistic in it)

Karai is very visibly a lesbian, an edgy punk butch lesbian, and she and Shinigami lowkey embody a butch femme dynamic and the fact Karai is depicted as the more formidable, domineering force with a sword and Shinigami as a bit more pathetic with a cat is reminiscent of the japanese lesbian dynamics from this post. It's all very gay.

And she's an antagonist lesbian to Leo's closeted and internalized biphobia.

She represents the desire to give up and be swallowed by selfishness, forgoing responsibility and cleanliness in favor of having fun.

Leo is resistant to giving in. His attempts to do so immediately get shut down, and he's rejected by his family, even for a moment, for wanting to go do Bad Things. He tries to fix Karai, make her good and acceptable. But he slips further, eventually falling into Karai's circle to be gay and commit crimes against the Foot Clan empire.

In this way his sexuality is explored through self expression, the moral ambiguity, and transition from an absolute rule follower caring deeply about the affects his actions has on others to burning a building full of money. It's very classic "good girl getting corrupted" story telling, but at the same time it isn't, because Leo maintains an overall good moral compass, he just grew up. Sometimes killing people is a necessity, sometimes you make mistakes, sometimes people get hurt.

Being queer stops being this huge shameful, evil thing and it starts just being part of you.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

hey sex witch! long time listener, first time caller, and i was hoping you could help me out

i'm about a year on hrt, and my sexuality has been in major flux because of it. i went from being 1000% asexual for almost a decade to feeling a lot more comfortable calling myself bi, and it's been a really great feeling to get in touch with my sexuality in a new way!

my question really is......how do i initiate sex, especially casual sex?

i've never tried to before, because i was never really interested before. i'm aromantic and totally opposed to having a romantic partner, so there's nobody that i can sit down with and say "i would like to try this new thing," and i'm autistic, so figuring out that social dance is a mess and a half.

do you have any advice? thank you for your time!!! i love reading your blog <3

okay so first off congrats on the hrt and the fun new sexuality, etc etc, love that for you, love to see it.

anyway now that we got that out of the way I'm going to say something that a lot of people who are new to this whole sex-having thing need to hear: there aren't cheat codes, man. there's no single answer to "how do I initiate sex" that I can give you, and anyone who says otherwise is probably trying to sell you something. no matter what you say or do, there will be some people for whom it's an instant panty dropper and people for whom it's an irrevocable turn-off forever.

"okay so how do I figure out the difference" well. you take the time to get to know people and figure out a.) if they seem like they'd be into sex and b.) what the best way to broach the subject with them is. that time you spend with them could be half an hour over drinks before you head back to your place to bone or it could be building a friendship over weeks and months before you broach the subject of adding sex to the mix; that part's up to you.

the only part that's not optional is that whether you're looking for romance with your sex or not, no sex is going to happen without some amount of communication with other people and care about them as individuals. that's gonna mean a lot of potential awkwardness and risk-taking that's just part and parcel of having sex, you don't get the rewards of boning without the mortifying ordeal of being vulnerable with other people.

um so that's how you do it you go places or you get on an app or whatever and you find someone you think you could have a good connection with and at some point you put yourself in the position of being told "no" when you ask them if they'd want to have sex with you and then you just deal with whatever the answer is and don't take it personally either way. and you figure out a way to navigate all of that that works for you and makes you happy. and that's how you have sex.

[titsgirlbuffy]

hey sorry if you've gotten a million alerts about me liking way too many of your posts!! i'm currently rewatching Buffy and Angel for the first time in over a decade (i first watched both shows between ages 10 and 13 so this has been an eye opening rewatch) and the hyperfixation has returned big time! I've been scouring the internet for meta and all of yours that i've read resonate with me a lot.

if you ever feel like writing them out (no pressure of course!) i'd love to read some more of your gay Wesley thoughts -- i've also always read him as gay, and i have such a strange time going into his tag on tumblr because soooo much of it is Wes/Lilah content. i'm particularly curious about your thoughts on how a gay reading of Wesley impacts his storylines with Lilah, Fred, and maybe Virginia. also sorry if all this is weird from a non-Buffy-blog stranger!!

Omg Thank You for sending this! It’s been sitting in my inbox for a while cause I needed to actually think about it in words rather than just. Autistic screeching. And also cause I wanted to see more of the Wesley/Lilah relationship to make sure my first thoughts weren’t totally baseless (if anything they’re being proven further). Just watched Apocalypse Now-ish so there’s probably later stuff I’d add in if I’d seen the whole show.

I’m really surprised by how many fans read him as straight (no offense but we have different eyes). Wesley’s coded as queer pretty often – part of it’s just the queer-coding of the Buffyverse supernatural in general (see This Old Gang of Mine for a questionable but really clear-cut example), but there’s also tons where it’s him specifically (in Sanctuary where the council’s kill squad call him out on his “perverted” relationship with Angel and also call him a ponce, Wesley stopping Angel in that same episode before the fight to make sure he knows he gave up a chance to go home and be accepted by his father and culture For Angel, multiple times in season one when outsiders assume he and Angel are together, that time Angel gets possessed by an old guy who assumes Wesley is his boyfriend and tries to let him down gently but freaks out when Wesley goes to touch him… etc etc etc). Plus the way he looked up to Angel in early seasons absolutely comes across as a crush, he and Gunn were So into each other but Wesley especially was repressed about it (running theme, man radiates internalised homophobia), and all his relationships with women… well, there’s Layers going on.

So his early relationship with Cordelia was the first time (if you don’t count just. Looking at him) I solidly thought Wesley must be gay, rather than any other label. To me that’s absolutely a comphet relationship on his part. The crucial parts of the Cordelia/Wesley relationship is that 1. He sees himself as “a bad, bad man” for wanting to pursue anything with Cordelia, and as such 2. She is completely unattainable, but 3. When it’s proven that she’s Not unobtainable actually, the relationship falls apart the instant they try to do anything about it. He’s attracted to Cordelia because it’s a safely straight crush where he’s not Allowed to actually follow through on anything (and panics the moment he does anyway), and to an extent because a relationship would give him a reason to stay in California.

I headcanon Wesley as actually working out that he’s gay between seasons 1 and 2 – purely because he’s the one who introduces the group to Caritas and was visiting it between seasons, which… do I need to explain why Caritas is a gay bar? Please feel to ask me to explain that if anyone doesn’t get it, but for now, trust me, as a frequenter of gay karaoke bars, Caritas is 100% a gay karaoke bar. This is also around the time he starts dressing differently, stops wearing multi-piece fully buttoned suits year round in California. He’s getting more comfortable being himself.

Which all makes his relationship with Virginia really interesting. They met when he was mimicking Angel’s Straight Man Persona (literally in the same episode where Angel was getting therapy and being told that his manly persona is an act and that it’s hurting him. Yeah), and I’m not totally sure if she was a beard or a purposefully chosen Public Relationship. She was a billionaire socialite – again, Wesley’s internalised homophobia is off the charts, and this is a relationship that got into the papers (and would definitely get back to his family, if they made any effort to look). Sidenote, I’m genuinely certain that he was just homeless until they got together. Wesley is established as Broke™, starts dating a billionaire, and suddenly has a large swank apartment? In LA? I am simply drawing connections. So yeah, while I’m undecided about how much Virginia knew this, their relationship reads as one based on public persona and just social climbing generally.

Fred’s the most complicated of his relationships with women. The rivalry with Gunn is probably a part of it, but actually I think a bigger part is Billy. As in, Billy, the guy who made any guy who touched him (or his blood, sorry Wes) become violently misogynistic. Side eyeing the writers for that one, but still, it Really fucked Wesley up. Fred was fine, she doesn’t blame him, but after the spell wore off Wesley literally hid in his room for a week then told her “I don’t know what kind of man I am anymore” then Cut His Hair Short Again. Some sort of closeness to Fred had been alluded to before this (protecting her in This Old Gang Of Mine despite her very much being able to protect herself, suddenly being given an interest in science despite being a linguist), but that was really the turning point for this being a textual Attraction. Even then, similar to the Cordelia thing, Wesley never makes a move (assuring everyone who asked that he would when he was ready. Okay), and when he talks about it, it’s an attraction to a Fred that literally doesn’t exist.

Fred doesn’t need anyone making a shovel talk on her behalf – she can and will just kill them herself (at the point I’m at, she and Gunn might break up because He killed someone when she’d wanted to do it on her own). There was a great moment when Lilah dressed up as “Fred”, complete with schoolgirl outfit and glasses, and the shot cut to Fred, hair down, glasses free, ready to hunt a ghost with Gunn. The irony is that the Fred who actually Does exist has way more in common with Wesley (it’s honestly just the gender that’s the issue here), but in a combo of self hatred and need to redeem himself post-Billy, Wesley’s created this sweet innocent young scientist who he needs to Protect™. Is that love? Well, he didn’t make a move when he thought it was.

I can see why people like his relationship with Lilah. They’re awful. Literally the first time they slept together it was because Wesley was So depressed and was hoping he wouldn’t regret it until the morning (didn’t work. Regretted it instantly). He doesn’t have a job, and Lilah’s trying to recruit him to W&H. I said, the second time we saw them on screen, that he was prostituting himself. I was joking! But uh. Canon jokes about how “giving” Lilah is. Expensive bribes (“gifts”, Lilah insists) Wesley could never afford. He makes a bet with her for ONE DOLLAR, loses, she MAKES HIM SIGN THE DOLLAR, and then LEAVES IT WITH HIM. They’re in bed for this. I just. I was joking. I wasn’t expecting an actual scene of them in bed with a dollar bill between them. What the fuck. Anyway, that aside, he really does just hate himself right now, tangibly depressed post-baby-theft, and Lilah is There. Caritas doesn’t exist any more and there’s no plausible deniability in a non-demon gay bar.

Thanks again for reading my stuff @lostupst8 <3 never apologise for spamming me, I crave attention

[willows-rambles]

im very very interested in robopsychology, do you have any HCs of what specific neurodivergencies, mental illnesses, etc any robot masters or reploids would have? like for example bass is 100% autistic with NPD, time man has OCD, etc etc.

personally, i believe if you try and emulate humanoid personalities, then there will inevitably be blips and irregularities that cause similar things. i.e. a logic loop in the self-presevation protocol could cause similarities to narcissitic personality disorder

So I do have a lot of thoughts on this, but not in the way that you think and are probably expecting from me.

Firstly, I do want to make a comment about "robopsychology." Psychology overall isn't the study of mental illnesses, but rather the processes of behavior and cognition. What you're asking about is more specifically psychopathology, a more specific branch of psychology (hi, I'm majoring in a behavioral science).

Secondly, I don't really like using human neurodivergence to assess a Robot Master's condition or state of mind, not when I think about it in a serious manner. I'm going to approach this in a very sterilized and removed manner, so apologies in advance if what I'm saying sounds a little cold or aloof; that's not my intent.

I don't see the Robot Masters as human.

Anthropomorphizing the traits they may or may not develop is a slippery slope that, for a lot of people, results in them removing the mechanical aspect of these robots, just from what I've seen from a distance.

Human mental disorders and mental illnesses are not well known and have countless different factors that result in them manifesting in a plethora of different ways, and those can range from trauma, environment, genetics, etc. Robots lack a lot of those influences because they, as AIs, have more restrictions on such developments. They are set to develop along a specific way.

What we, as humans, may see as a disorder could very much be something that shows the robot is working as intended, because it maximizes and optimizes their functionality. In that case, it's not a flaw and therefore not a divergence.

Are there blips and irregularities? Oh yeah, for sure. That's not a doubt in my mind. You could say that a Robot Master might develop a quirk reminiscent to a human disorder, but the causes of that are inherently going to be different enough to be hard to justify calling it by the same name.

Autism for robots is something I especially have a hard time swallowing. Autistic by whose standards? Robot Masters operate so inherently differently from humans. Do you see what I'm getting at here?

I also want to make a statement that I very much do not like assigning mental disorders or illnesses that I do not understand to characters, for all the reasons stated a bit above. They're not well known. I'm also like, not autistic so adlskgjhadsflkjhasdf me assigning autism to a robot just feels awful because I don't know what it's like at all.

I think it's fine if someone views a character as like, autistic-coded! That I know is very much a strong source of comfort for many people, and that itself is fine. But I don't feel comfortable with saying that a machine is autistic, or has OCD (for myself personally). You don't approach an animal with a disorder in the same way you do a human; the brain operates differently. The same standard should be held for machines. Robot "disorders" are specific to robots; they may have a similar expression or trait to human disorders, but they're not the same.

To paraphrase a good friend of mine in the psychology field, any robot processing unit, when compared to a human brain, is neurodivergent, because neurodivergent means a brain operates differently from what's considered the "standard" (which is its own mess because again, the human brain is not a well known thing. We know more about space than we do about the operations of the brain).

Robot psychology to me is more a study of the problem solving, path finding, and logic of a machine when presented with a puzzle/situation to navigate, removed from any sort of phenomenon that could be considered an "illness." I just believe a sterile and mechanical approach to the flaws a machine could develop is more appropriate, and also for someone like me who doesn't have the disorders you listed as examples, it's also safer. I don't want to make assumptions.

This is getting long and I could get way more into it but to answer your question no, I don't think the Robot Masters have any human neurodivergencies. I very much want to keep those two spheres separate.

[miiilowo]

Ough tell us abt William and gender

bc Funtime Foxy and Springbonnie are both characters Will had a very strong influence in making. I've personally always seen it as (likely unconscious) projecting on his part. I have Many Thoughts on Funtime Foxy being feminine presenting with a masc voice and passionate entertainer like William. And Springbonnie being William's absolute favorite; and Sb can very much be interpreted as not caring about gender and using any pronouns from the fnaf world screens

How do you think William's life wouldn't turned out if there were no murders and nothing bad happened? Would he have stayed with Henry and Fredbear's or pursued different passions? What would he be like as an old man and potential grandfather, theres not too much in canon you can base on so it's fun to ask and seeing all the different answers you can get

Would do you think about William's apparent fondness for the circus and the like? (Based on the SL designs and ar springtrap having a clown skin) I think it makes the random "1810 circus pipe organ" audio in fnaf 1 real fun. Like. the implications of it or something

I LOVE HOW FUCKING QUEERCODED HE IS 💥💥💥💥IT GENUINELY MAKES ME SO HAPPY TO THINK ABOUT. i 100% would not be surprised if scott did it on purpose, especially when you take the spring bonnie gender thing into account. he is bisexual & aro To Me and while i do generally perceive him as a cis guy, that doesnt mean he cant get a little silly with gender stuff :3c id never thought it about funtime foxy being projection, but it absolutely makes sense, especially considering the tie-in with him being an entertainer. using spring bonnie probably wouldve been bad rep at that point in the timeline, so having using funtime foxy instead is delightful and im incorporating that into how i view him now. i love effeminate queer coded villains. they r everything to me. no way this dude wasnt spotted as being queer by the general population. type of motherfucker to have a musical number if i am being honest. like if there was an animated fnaf movie i wholeheartedly believe he would have some over the top song and performance about his Evil Plans. he loves that shit. hes soooooo FUCKING SILLY im going to eat him alive. anyways

he probably wouldve just kept doin what he loved if everything went well. its his passion ! god knows the two of them would be well off enough to retire. i dont think theyd be anything too extraordinary, though if william went down the path of wanting to be Better than henry still, murders aside, then i can see him achieving some pretty cool shit. i think he'd eternally have like, weird uncle or embarrassing dad energy for the rest of his life. this is because he is autistic

aaaaaaaand as for the circus thing, i think it just makes sense given his adoration for entertaining. being a clown isnt really too far off what he already did- both of em dress up as characters to perform for people, especially kids, and are known for doing silly little tricks. e.g. juggling. which he can do, canonically. im not sure he has too much interest in clowns, just likes them, and it makes a lot of sense thematically :o)

[spooky-switch]

Spooky's FNAF Movie Review (Spoilers Below The Cut)

Final Rating:

★★★★☆

General Information:

↬ I have only played the first two games, and that was years ago, but I am fairly familiar with the lore thanks to theory videos and infodumps from my little brother. I think it is safe to say that even if you have not played the games, you can still follow alone with this film and enjoy it. ↬ Takes elements from multiple games and incorporates them all into a new (but familiar) storyline Long term fans will be pleased by the references but might have a hard time with changes made to the lore. ↬ Matthew Lillard and Josh Hutcherson stole the show, of course. They both have some serious acting chops and performed their parts well, though this is not to say that the rest of the cast did a poor job. Most of the cast members did a pretty decent job, though a few minor characters broke the tension at times with comedic overacting (this was probably intentional, though, as this is a PG-13 film). ↬ The puppeteering and suits by the Jim Henson company were absolutely amazing! While I had my doubts after watching the trailer, in the final film they looked far less like CGI and more like actual physical objects, in part due to how they interacted with the actors and the environments. ↬ There were a couple of plot holes at the end of the film that had me scratching my head, but this is 'Five Nights At Freddy's,' so I tried not to nitpick it too much. Looking at the series as a whole, I would say this is the most cohesive story we have been given, so plot holes can be forgiven in my opinion.

Sensory Information:

↬ This movie contains plenty of jump scares (which is normal and expected for the franchise), so expect lots of loud, sudden noises. I watched it in theaters with my little brother, and even though we took care to pick seats away from any speakers, it was still so loud at points that we needed to cover our ears. If you are especially sensitive to sound like I am, I would recommend either bringing hearing protection or watching the film at home (it should be available for streaming on Peacock). ↬ This film also contains tones of bright, flashing lights. These are littered throughout the film and go on for long durations of time. I was not bothered by them but those with high sensitivity to bright lights (and those prone to seizures) might want to be wary of this film.

Spoilers:

↬ Can we all agree that Abby is autistic coded? To me, the whole relationship between her and Michael is a big brother learning to connect with his neurodivergent little sister while cope with some pretty severe trauma (the loss of their parents and brother). ↬ I am sad to say that, no, Markiplier is not in the film. However, I can happily say that MATPAT IS, even if just briefly! ↬ Of all the jump scares, the stupid Balloon Boy one was the only one that really got me (even after the third time they did it). ↬ The tickle scene was not as bad as I thought it would be, in part because I had fair warning of what it entailed and where it would be in the film (thanks for the heads up, @unbeleevable, I owe you one). It was arguably less cringy than the 'Barbie' tickle scene, which is all I could really ask for (besides Michael getting pulled into the tickle fight, which I knew was not going to happen). ↬ Honestly? Vanessa was really getting on my nerves. If she had just TOLD Michael what was going on, it would have saved them both a lot of trouble. I mean, if she really cared about Abby being safe, why not explain everything to Michael so he would be more motivated to keep his sister away from the pizzeria? ↬ OH, and when Vanessa just TOSSED Michael's medication into the water?! Like, girl, do you know how much that stuff costs, especially in this economy (we all know Michael was probably having to pay out of pocket for it, too, since there is no way that man had health insurance)? ↬ Oh my god, when the Springtrap suit was finally revealed, I was so excited! It looked amazing, standing out as one of the best practical effects of the film, especially when combined with how it moved and Lillard's vocal performance. ↬ So, did anyone ever find the body of the aunt? Last time we see her, she is laying dead on Michael's living room floor. Did he call the police? If so, how did he explain her death? If not, WHERE DID HE PUT THE BODY?! ↬ When they played the Living Tombstone song at the end, it took everything in me not to start jamming out to it, especially seeing how happy my little brother was. We sat through the credits just to hear the whole thing.

[yippieitsarvensart]

YIPPEE!!!! YOURE SO REAL AND SO VALID I LOVE TALKING HCS WITH PEOPLE AND HEARING THEIR PERSPECTIVES!!

Bring it back to Floyd because I love yo project on him SO MUCH, I like to think that even though he likes clothes and fashion now way more than he did when he first got on land (sensory overload anyone?), he still has certain fabrics/materials he avoids like the plague. Jade and Azul avoid said fabrics as well so he can run up and tackle them at any time without worry of touching the Gross Fabric. Tablecloths and cushions in the lounge were made with this in mind as well.

So sorry Scarabia lovers but I haven't studied Kalim or Jamil under a microscope long enough yet to come to any detailed conclusions, but neither of them are neurotypical that's for sure!!

Also skipping Pomefiore bc they scare me (/j I just don't pay much attention to them personally sjheiddjbdjffb)

I mean Idia is the obvious one, right? He's the most universally agreed on, he literally goes nonverbal regularly and has aids he made with his engineering/programming special interest to accommodate that, like it's just. It's RIGHT THERE ya know? He almost leaves nothing to discuss XDD Him and Riddle are clashing autistics and it's a shame, you hate to see 2 pretty people fight but especially when they're on the same team 😔

And then there's Diasomnia. HOOO BOY is there Diasomnia. Lilia and his gaggle of autistic kids. Starting with Malleus, he also almost leaves nothing to the imagination when it comes to how he is, like?? Idk it's so Right There!!! His special interest is gargoyles obviously, he also has heavy preference/safe foods, he never seems to be on the same page as his peers, leaving Jim to feel isolated and Different, not only does he not fluctuate his tone so people can't tell when he's joking, he can't hear tone to tell when other people are joking so it's just miscommunication after miscommunication. He enjoys learning now things but prefers the company of his most trusted people, that or either quite isolation in a dim/dark area to decompress!! He's the type of guy who doesn't realize he's been overstimulated for like 6 hours until he gets to his room and lays down and it hits him all at once and he's like OH! Oh THAT'S why I felt like shit and wanted to smite everything and everyone. Okay, cool.

Idk if this will make sense to anyone else but like, Silver is Disney princess coded, right? And Disney princesses are autistic coded in small ways, right? Yeah. Yeah that's really the only way I can explain it SKSBAIKSDHHD but like!! I know I'm right okay!!!! As a very very sleepy autistic person I just KNOW, I see him and I know. Also animals love him which like, understanding animals better than you understand if someone is trying to deceive/take advantage of you? Idk dude, that's pretty autistic /silly

Sebek is tough because I havent fixated on him at ALL and have like none of his cards, but the BIG STRONG INTENSE EMOTIONS and lack of volume control and how he's apparently actually very emotional/sensitive, and how he likes to stick to his routine and his people and anything that interferes will be YELLED AT ACCORDINGLY!!!! Idk, I don't really know this man (yet) so I also can't fully explain my vision here XD

Also, everything is platonic unless specified otherwise btw!! Yuri Jeizu is so canon, but to me the octotrio is like, SO queer platonic coded so I almost always just default to that akshsksndhf

It's nearly 4 in the morning and I'm going INSANE, like there's 8+ rambles I could send you about queer/identity headcanons and ships!!! I haven't even STARTED on the side characters yet, I have so much fuel in this hyperfixation fire!!! Also if you literally ever want me to stop for whatever reason let me know and I will, no hard feelings akdvejskfh, I know answering a lot of asks can be A Lot

PLEAS ENEVER STOP unless you run out of things to talk on !!!!!!!!!! this is so in-depth I'm reading and nodding like yes yes I get this I GET YOU... Also literally same with Scarabia LOLLL I skipped most of the story... sorry Scarabia stans... I literally only paid attention when the octatrio was around.. skull emoji!!

And actually answering tons of asks ain't that hard for me right now, I'm full of writing energy because I've been working on an AU between twst and another franchise I'm #insane about >_< (I've been trying so keep it at a not insane level of detail because I know I'll focus too hard on certain characters but I also desperately need feedback on it... NOT THAT I'M ASKING RIGHT NOE THOUH I'm just complaining aha) (unless.... unless..........)

Floyd finding an interest in fashion (especially shoes) is something I forget often for some reason, I think it's because I also hc that Floyd hate hate HATESS the feeling of clothes (just fuckin' all kinds of clothes, he especially hates having multiple layers of all different kinds of clothing items on at once) against his skin, so that's why his uniform is never on properly...

I can't talk a ton about lots of other dorms bc I'm so not deeply invested in at least half the entire cast HSAHHAJKFDJ but you are so incredibly real and right I'm shaking /pos

If it's 4am bestie boo you should probably sleep and save the ranting for tmr!!!! or don't, and just keep slaying here LMAOO I'm in a discord server SPECIFICALLY for twst hcs and I'm THIS close to c+psting a bunch of this into there (or just sharing the post I DONT KNOW) cuz it's SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!

[azems-familiar]

I am This Close to watching the untamed

So if you want to perhaps yell about it or something (since you’ve gotten me into stuff that way before) that could be cool idk

OH MY GOD PLEASE WATCH IT

okay to start with. the live action show is very good and a great place to start but it has some important differences from the novel and the donghua (animated show). i personally prefer a combination of cql (the untamed/the live action, that's the acronym i'll be using for it from now on) and the donghua; the novel suffers a lot of lost in translation effect and whatnot and i personally dislike the way the relationship is built in several places in it as opposed to how the adaptations do it, but it's definitely still worth reading. (dm me on discord if you want a copy of a pretty good fan translation of the novel and also like, a link to a place you can watch the donghua, btw.) other problems with cql: censorship hits the live action the hardest and their budget was i'm pretty sure basically nonexistent (they very clearly spent most of it on the costumes and the props, which you know what, the costumes are fucking stunning so great choice). so they changed the worldbuilding some and like.... the fight scenes? are really not good. they're really not good. also the special effects are universally pretty bad. it can make watching some parts of it difficult to get through, and there are some plot elements that are changed as well that i dislike, and a lot of the moral greyness of the original story had to get removed because again, censorship issues (if you want the most accurate, non-morally-whitewashed take first, you'll want to start with the novel, which is also what has the explicitly gay stuff). it's also not explicitly gay - but the actors played it as gay and there are multiple marriage metaphors and holy fuck like. honestly. there doesn't need to be a kiss or a confession or anything it's REALLY FUCKING GAY.

what cql excels in is its character interactions. the acting is absolutely stunning, the soundtrack is beautiful, and every single scene is just done with so much heart and emotion in it. so definitely keep that in mind going into it. i've watched it all the way through i think 3 or 4 times and i still keep seeing new fun details in the background that i hadn't noticed before.

the donghua, on the other hand, has an absolutely stunning art style, very very good voice acting, the worldbuilding and plot are more accurate to the book, and the magic and combat scenes are much more realistic for a fantasy and the powers they have. however, it, especially specifically the third and final season, is very rushed (and it has its own plot changes to fit how much they had to condense things, mostly just in the second half of season 3) and excludes some details, so it can be confusing if you don't know what you're seeing first. i recommend either watching cql or reading the novel first, then watching the donghua!

in terms of like, actual fandom stuff! so the main character of mdzs is, obviously, Wei Wuxian. i'm not sure how much you know but he's like. an incredibly ADHD man with horrible self-worth issues (despite being arrogant as hell) and a very strong sense of justice who is extremely brilliant and goes through a shitton of tragedy. he is known for inventing a viable form of necromancy, which is considered incredibly heretical and, among other things, gets him killed, and then gets him resurrected, so you know. pros and cons. he does magic by playing the flute. he is a disaster bisexual and also a bit of an alcoholic (okay a lot of an alcoholic) and i love him. his love interest is stoic and serious and incredibly autistic-coded and has been in love with him since they were teenagers and literally wrote him a love song. the two of them get trapped in a cave together and have to kill an ancient corrupted divine monster without weapons. it's very romantic. wei wuxian as a younger teenager is basically the epitome of a child pulling a girl's pigtails because he has a crush and is desperate for attention.

anyway, i'm not sure how much you know about the plot, but there's two timelines going on - the present and the past. the present is after wei wuxian is resurrected, and he and lan wangji (the love interest, in case you haven't picked up on the names yet - everyone has like two or three names and it can be hard to tell them apart at first) are basically going on a fun little murder mystery quest while also babysitting a bunch of teenagers which then abruptly devolves into politics, murder, more politics, and more murder. the past on the other hand goes from a high school definitely-not-a-romance to a goddamn war drama to politics and back to. hm. not exactly a war drama anymore but i'm really not sure how to describe everything that happens after a certain event. it's all very much a tragedy and the real "villain" of the story (which is less obvious in cql, again because of moral whitewashing due to censorship, though honestly i feel like they did a pretty good job of staying as true to the source material as they could all things considered, a whole lot of the scenes were word for word from the novel just slightly edited to fit the adjusted worldbuilding or plot changes) is the mob mentality, rumors and gossip and hearsay, and society itself!

lastly, because i am trying not to overwhelm you here, i am going to link you a couple great amvs i've found on youtube that will probably not make a lot of sense without context but will at least hopefully intrigue you?

and

and

the other one i really want to link i cannot because it definitely will make absolutely no sense without having watched the show and so you have to come talk to me when you've finished it so i can give it to you. also hey please feel free to come dm me on discord i Will ramble at length about this. especially about wwx he is my BLORBO and currently taking up residence in my brain. and also i need your live reactions if/when you start watching things oh my god

be glad it's almost 2 am and i'm still recovering from my covid booster or this would be even longer

[sarah-dipitous]

Hellsite Nostalgia Tour 2023 Day 240

His Last Vow

“His Last Vow”

Plot Description: Sherlock goes up against Charles Augustus Magnussen, media tycoon and a notorious blackmailer

I had to check…at the time this aired, I definitely knew Magnussen was played by Hannibal’s brother. The Mikkelsen brothers have a very wonderfully offputting effect on any scene they’re in

Yikes yikes yikes. Sure *I* know this guy is bad, but the way this committee is asking him questions just feels xenophobic

I hate the twist at the end that this is Magnussen’s mind palace and none of what we’re seeing is real…so the only way to get rid of his files on everyone is to shoot him in the head

This man is such a downgrade from Moriarty. Yes, I'm biased, but I'm also right

Wait, there was another person in that room and he just...LET MAGNUSSEN LICK THAT LADY'S FACE?

I do remember how the "WELL I'M NOT NOW" gif was all over this site for a long time after this episode aired. It's probably the highl--I was going to say it's the highlight of the episode but I forgot this one, I BELIEVE, has Mycroft being forced into Christmas celebrations, so...that's...that's better

Man, they really jumped to all sorts of conclusions all while Sherlock was saying that he was in the drug den for a case. Not even a clean urine test saved him from Molly slapping him and everyone berating him. wtf

This is possibly the one time where I'm like "Mmmmm, Mycroft, noooo" You're SIDING WITH MAGNUSSEN?! Look, I KNOW he's got all sorts of info on all sorts of people, but that does not make him an asset to you, bud

John's total confusion about Janine's presence in 221b is very chef's kiss. He's also so fucking annoyed by it.

I'm sorry. But the (lack of) build up for Magnussen's big bad status for this season makes everything Sherlock is saying about him just fall completely flat. I truly don't blame John for remaining more distracted by Janine and Sherlock dating

Remember how everyone wanted Janine to secretly be Moriarty's sister? (That does make season 4 just a little bit funny...) They saw a dark haired Irish actress and went "She MUST be related to Moriarty"

He really needs to stop pulling all these gross power moves. Moriarty would never.

God, I forgot that Janine was Magnussen's assistant.

Dude. I think this is the moment that I actually hate using Sherlock as ace and/or aro coded representation (and if we're being for real the autistic coding of the character, too). He just proposed to Janine in order to get into Magnussen's office and called her love for him that allowed him to do that "human error." Not being experiencing those types of attraction does not make someone inherently cruel like that

They get wayyyyyyyyy too...I don't even know what to call it. I don't want to call it artistic because that's so broad. But from the moment Mary shoots Sherlock, the way this part is being filmed is such a departure from the "modern twist on the Sherlock Holmes stories" that we get in the first two seasons and even, to a lesser extent, the first two episodes of this season. They're, for some reason, being akin to an action movie.

There's so much time wasted on Sherlock being shot and nearly dying.

EUGH!! NO. Not the subconscious mention of the secret sister that comes in next season

The fact that he enters the very dingy room in his mind that contains a straightjacket-ed and chained up Moriarty while yelling "control!" repeatedly is...it's something. And really?? Moriarty never felt pain?? Were you not on that rooftop with him when he pontificated about how lonesome he was in his life? How boring everyone he's ever met was? Yes, he had his machinations, but that only gets you so far.

Not to bring my "everything is about the Todorokis and especially Touya" into Sherlock, too. But this depiction of Moriarty in Sherlock's mind is so reminiscent of all the times post Dabi's Dance that someone in that family thinks about him and what he's doing at that moment. It's so much more unhinged than anything he's actually doing. And yes, Moriarty had his outbursts, but he wasn't like this all the time

But truly. They could have been friends. They could have been such good and cool FRIENDS. And Sherlock fucked that up by pretending to be in love with her, stringing her along, just to get to Magnussen.

The way John asks who Sherlock would be protecting by not revealing the name of the person who shot him AND AT THE SAME TIME, HE'S SITTING DOWN INTO HIS CHAIR THAT HAS VERY RECENTLY RETURNED TO 221B. It's a good moment

Maybe I'm delusional, but I believe there could have been a way to make this story line good, the Mary is an assassin/spy/whatever and it needs to be kept from John. Her confrontation with Sherlock in the fake building is good, but the immediate revelation that John was there the whole time sucks. There could have been so much more intrigue, if only things were stretched out more over the season instead of cramming it all into this one.

I love Mycroft's petulance

It is kind of funny how John is often perceived as the normal one, but he's surrounded himself by all this. Sherlock's not wrong when he says John's addicted to danger

The gut-wrenching "you are a client now. this is where you sit and talk, and this is where we sit and listen and decide if we want you or not" from John to Mary. I'm not saying she doesn't deserve it for lying to him from the moment they met, but GOD. DAMN.

"Your loss would break my heart" caused more of a reaction in Sherlock than "There ain't no me if there ain't no you" did in Sam. But that might be because the Winchesters talk and lie about how they feel about each other far more often than the Holmes boys ever would.

I forgot he drugs everyone at Christmas as part of a deal with Magnussen...wtf. Sherlock, I know you're not ACTUALLY going to turn over Mycroft's laptop (which he for some reason brought to Christmas dinner) to Magnussen moments after that heart to heart with him

The fact that neither Sherlock but especially John hasn't shot him yet.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T HAVE TO PROVE IT YOU JUST HAVE TO PRINT IT? Aren't Britain's libel and slander laws like...famously bonkers? Like, just incredibly intense? What a crazy thing to have this guy living and working in England who owns multiple newspapers say

We get a couple glimpses in this episode of Sherlock as a kid......not as effective as when we see the Winchesters as kids

Mmmmmm, Sherlock shooting Magnussen is why he's gotta go on that mission Mycroft mentioned earlier that would likely kill him in six months' time

This is truly when Sherlock should have ended. True, it would be sad to have John and Sherlock split up at the end of the series, but nothing that comes after this is good. Also, we could have ended on the threat of Moriarty coming back. I DO remember how the "did you miss me?" image flooded this site

I wish Moriarty had actually come back and not get ruined by the series finale. Then I could have the "if i had a nickel for every time I loved a character who announced they were back from the dead by taking over every screen in the country their story takes place in, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice" meme. But noooooooooooo, Moftiss didn't want me to have anything nice.

[lonelier-version-of-you]

Not related to anything specific but the only thing worse than allistics being like ‘you’re missing the point diagnosing (character) as autistic! They’re just quirky with a bad home life!’ Is media neurodivergents saying that and pulling the ‘but I’m neurodivergent so you can’t tell me I’m wrong’ card. Like what the fuck is that? They always act so superior about it too.

Also I think people need to reckon with the fact that in a pushback against the rude savant stereotype the community now acts like the only valid rep is weirdly sexless uwu innocent infantilised characters especially concerning non male characters. Every time I hear someone say a char is bad rep because they’re not a sweet socially acceptable angel or ‘too stereotypical’ I roll my eyes- *I* am stereotypical under the masking and we’re ppl not, like, moral lessons??

Yeah, I've seen that sometimes and it is really irritating. I hate it when people think their interpretation of a character is The Only Valid Interpretation, and particularly when they pull the "well I'm actually [insert neurodivergence here] so I know this character can't be that" - or "well I'm actually queer so I know this character can't be that", I've seen that too - when they're... talking to someone who is also neurodivergent or queer or whatever in the same ways as them. It makes me want to shout "your opinion is not the only valid one!".

And yeah, I agree that some people have really just reacted to certain autism stereotypes by being like "oh, the answer to this is to stereotype all autistic people, but like, the other way around!". Like... no, we shouldn't be stereotyping at all?? I feel like "stereotypical representation" is a useless phrase when it comes to autism at this point, because some people use it to mean rep that's like "oh this cishet white man character is a bigot and hates women but it's ok because he's autistic uwu" (*cough* Atypical *cough*), but then other people use it to mean... any character who doesn't align with their exact personal experiences. And when it comes to reading characters as autistic, I feel like people are simultaneously like "you can't say they're autistic, they're smart, so it's a stereotype!" and like "you can't say they're autistic, they're not smart, you're stereotyping autistic people as stupid!". (The latter really annoys me as an autistic person who isn't smart.) I don't even know what people want, are we supposed to never call characters autistic at all?? Also, like, as I sort of already said lol, a lot of this supposed ~pile of representation~ for "stereotypically" autistic people is representation specifically for well-off, cishet, white men (Atypical, Rain Man, The Good Doctor, etc. etc.). It's not actually representing anyone who doesn't fit into that little group, even if they have stereotypical traits!

I was probably not coherent with any of this but yeah, I definitely get your frustration. (This sort of discourse is one of many, many reasons why I basically stopped engaging with autism circles on the internet.) I'm glad the Holby fandom isn't bigger, lol, because otherwise I feel like I wouldn't be able to call any character autistic without getting yelled at about "stereotyping" (Henrik, Arthur, and Eli would all probably be deemed "too smart" and therefore stereotypes, Chantelle would probably be deemed "too stupid" and thus a stereotype). (Also, it's interesting that you brought up gender because I've definitely noticed that there seems to be a thing with autistic/autistic-coded male characters where if they don't already fit the "uwu sweet angel" trope, fandom simply infantilises them until they do fit - at least, this is what happens with Henrik. I hardly ever see it happen in the same way with autistic/autistic-coded female characters.)