#where's cute LGBT romance

[pack-the-pack]

The struggle of being an asexual BL lover and then going to Netflix and seing that every bloody LGBT series and movie between men is about sex and kinkiness 🥲

If you have a show to recommend that is not just abt sex, I'll gladly hear it my friend.

[bananafishdepression]

Yuma Uchida be voicing every single gay depressed/angry character and serves every single time, I remember his voice as Ash Lynx's and when I try to watch another BL and I hear his voice I get flashbacks but I try my best and now he voices Hisashi in Twilight out of Focus (which is the only reason I read it and watched the episode) and the resemblence is crazyyy 😭😭😭 they didnt need to look exactly like Ash and Eiji but I'm thankful they did 'cause now we can be delulu and say they got their happy ending in another life

[actual-corpse]

Saw a YT vid with the title, "Fandom Can't Handle Asexuality"

You're right, they can't... Because it doesn't fucking exist to them.

[chrispychanniem]

My Honest Opinion:

I swear this series is one of the most underrated BL series of all times. Like why doesn't anyone talk about this series? When I first watched it, I felt like this series needed more recognition and I still believe the same.

The storyline is rather easy to understand and that is exactly what I love about this series.

I personally love this series and highly recommend watching it.

[davekat-sucks]

lute x adam is better than davekat and chaggie. they both sound killer singing together.

also just like wish's "villain", I find no fault in adam's reasoning, sinners such as rapists and pedos should be eradicated. i dont give a fuck about how apparently there are random kids in hell to emotionally manipulate the audience, for all we know that could be a grown ass man pretending to be a kid, and maybe that could have been more interesting: to see a hell's citizen take advantage of vaggie's kindness. it'd explain her trust issues & lute's bizarre reaction to actual mercy.

whats up with modern shows/films these days and their weird morals...

Adam x Lute is better than Davekat and Chaggie. Funny enough, Vivziepop confirmed that pedophiles, Nazis, and racists are already wiped out after they died. Like, human pedophiles/Nazis/racists who die, don't go to hell, limbo, purgatory, or heaven. They just get erased from existence. Angels have nothing to do with it. The Hazbin/Helluva universe already does its work. Of course, imps and hellborn creatures like hellhounds or the Sin ringleaders, can still be pedophiles, Nazis, and racists. But they are exempt from extermination. So the only sinners that do get sent to Hell to just do the same old shit would be murderers, con artists, human traffickers, rapists, and those who commit slavery, are still around. Which makes me question where does child murderers or those who lead child human trafficking and slavery fall in. Do they get wiped out from existence too if they didn't touch the child in that way? Do they get wiped out from existence for harming a young soul? Or do they get straight sent to Hell because murder is bad, regardless of age? Probably doesn't help that Heaven already admitted they don't know the requirements of people getting into Heaven, so it's a mystery on who is even checking since apparently at this point, even innocent souls who likely died of accident or bad circumstances, get sent to Hell regardless. It probably will be answered later on by some bullshit means, but it raises more questions on when in point did that become a thing. People pointed out that Angel Dust's sister, MOLLY, is there. What point in time Heaven allowed others to get in before it all changed with the extermination? Does even something small as when you were a kid stealing from the cookie jar, count as a major sin to be sent straight to Hell and that's why the child is sent in? Who the fuck knows. Maybe it will get answered in finale. Maybe they will hold it off for season 2 since it is confirmed and they are already recording the lines as we speak. I think the reason for these weird morals in recent modern media, just only goes for the straight black-white mortality, but hide it differently in these recent times as an act of justice that we won't make the same mistakes like we did in the past. Unfortunately, they are but are too ignorant to see it. Also in the case of how Hazbin Hotel is presenting with its rushed pacing, people, audiences and creators, would rather get to the heart of the matter fast and immediately than to build it up on how to get there. Why the fuck should we know about Camille and her backstory when all that matters is that she is a protective mother and that's it? No need to build up sustenance, all it matters is just the emotional factor to pull at your heartstrings for one moment like a quick sugar rush. No need to show the slow burn romance of why Vaggie likes Charlie. All it matters that she is now cute lesbians with her and its a good rep for LGBT. TL;DR of that is people are impatient.

[kathrahender]

Stop with the "shoot first and ask questions later" heroes. Gimme more heroes who don't attack the villain without thinking. Heroes who want to know more things about the villain, to discover why that villain turned into a villain. Gimme heroes who are willing to give villains a second or a third chance and they actually make an effort to redeem them. Gimme heroes who don't justify the villain, but they understand them.

Stop with the "evil, cruel, emotionless and merciless" villlains. Gimme more villains who care about their henchmen. Villains who'll do anything (good or bad) for their loved ones (wife, husband, children...) Villains who care about innocent people getting hurt. Villains who can empathize with the hero. Villains who "want" to hurt the hero but not to make them suffer (They could also not want to hurt them but do it either way because the heroes are in their way. That doesn't mean they would want to shatter them). Villains who are able to recognize when they have gone too far. Villains who have a moral event horizon, a line they wouldn't cross no matter what.

Stop with the "girl who wants two boys to break up" thing. Gimme more girls who are happy of them being together. Gimme more "They're kinda hot/cute together ngl" girls. Gimme more girls who help the two boys to be each other's partner. Gimme more girls who aren't jealous of their relationship.

Stop with the "straight hero with a crush" thing. Gimme more LGBT heroes. Boys falling in love with other boys. Girls falling in love with other girls. Heroes falling in love with whoever they want, not caring about their gender. Heroes falling in love with no one because they're not interested in romance or in sex. Heroes who are trans women or trans men. Heroes who don't identify as female or male. Heroes who identify as both.

Stop with the "female love interest whose life is only centered in her relationship with the hero" thing. Gimme more independent women who doesn't want to have romantic relationships. Gimme more women who rejects the hero because they don't feel the same. Gimme more women who doesn't follow her crush everywhere because "they're in love with them".

Stop with the "villain and hero hating each other until their deaths" thing. Gimme more enemies to lovers and more enemies to friends stories. Gimme more stories where they're forced to work together. Where the villain rescues the hero because deep down they care about them getting hurt. Stories where their relationship goes from enemies to reluctant allies to frienemies to friends. Stories where the two of them accept they're similar. Where they balance each other, just like ying and yang.

Stop with the "villains dying after redeeming" trope. Gimme more villains who redeeem and live. Villains who join the heroes and have to learn to fix their past mistakes. Villains who have nightmares because of their past. Villains who apologize to the heroes for hurting them. Villains who are protective of the heroes. Villains who make the heroes understand they don't have to be "strong" all the time. Villains who help the heroes to heal their wounds, physical or emotional. Villains who decide to be compassionate with other villains because they know it isn't too late to change.

Stop with the "strong hero who doesn't cry" trope. Gimme more heroes who show their anger, their fear, their pain, their humanity. Gimme heroes who aren't afraid to cry. Heroes who actually cry. Heroes who eventually break because everything is too much. Heroes who snap in front of someone, no matter who it is (the villain/their enemy, their rival, their best friend, their lover, their parents...). Heroes who not only cry but scream or have a panic attack, because the pain is unbearable. Heroes who don't want to worry their family/friends and they break in front of the redeemed villain (because they already saw them in their lowest point).

[squeakygeeky]

Just when I was losing faith in Vietnamese BL they somehow pulled off a historical BL with a happy ending. Mind you, I'm not saying it was good on an objective scale--this was clearly a labor of love by a tiny team with an iPhone and access to an old building. They did the absolute most with what they had, though.

It's called The Dandy and His Servant and I watched it based on the title along, because not gonna lie I've probably read a romance novel with that same title. This show speedruns its way through all the tropes you could want it to hit in a very cute way. There's caretaking and learning to read and the servant is shirtless gathering wood and of course there's the 'call me anh' conversation. Actual kissing too.

The attempted arraigned marriage crisis worried me, because this was the point where it could have shifted dramatic and tragic, but that was resolved pretty quickly and happily for (almost) all parties involved. The subtitles are good but hard-coded.

@heretherebedork I feel like this was made for you specifically.

[alice-jem]

Personally I find the chemistry between Luz and Hunter obvious and if the show was created even 5-10 years ago no one would have much of a problem with Hunter and Luz shippers. It would’ve been what everyone expected to be endgame. Sure, I love lumity, it’s a cute sapphic high school romance. But narratively, there’s a case to be made for lunter while lumity is more just to be cute. Plus Luz is bisexual so any argument about erasing her sexuality doesn’t make sense. Plus it’s not like fandom is on the same level as the actual tv show like if a group of people want to imagine Luz and Hunter dating that does absolutely nothing to take away from the canon sapphic romance! I don’t have anywhere I feel like I can express this without getting literalky DOGPILED by Twitter teenagers who think the end all be all of queer liberation is making cartoon teenagers kiss.

I somewhat heard that type of rant that I've been interested to discuss before.. But I think it's better if Hunter has been introduced first than Amity tho. To make Hunter as a Male Lead. Yet the romance plot of TOH didn't go on that route. Because (ugh, another straight couple in Disney)

Unfortunately, everything has been already set by arranging Willow and Hunter as a pair instead Hunter is compatible to be paired with Luz because, Luz is with Amity now and both had feelings for each other before Hunter came. So I can understand what they're trying to defend the sapphic canon ship because THEY NEED LGBTQA+ REP, so if there is a straight couple in their favorite cartoon/show, the fans will gone RIOT and they will forced to make the straight couple to stay friends or platonic then shove it to everyone's throats. But their annoyance of not wanting Luz (who is a CANON BI) had a chance to NON CANONICALLY be together with a GUY who has 10x potential chemistry than Lumity. (I also love Lumity too from enemies to friends to lovers). The thing is, Willow shows to become the heroine for Hunter yet still GoldenLuz/Lunter scenes has more sparks even tho they're jumping to make a side couple (Huntlow) alongside with Raine and Eda (Raeda).

And the biggest and shittiest agenda they've got in the TOH fandom is to make these two characters (Luz and Hunter) as sibling-coded into their dynamic which is a HEADCANON. But FOR THEM IT'S A FACT because of the quarrel, all that banter and starting to helping and protecting each other away from danger/harm. And yet they theorize that when we look at Lunter, it's like there are both young Philip and Caleb.

So the issue of Lunter is because the TOH fandom can easily took it down or banish the ideas and options about Luz and Hunter to become a non-canon ship especially boy x girl ships in general media where the main protagonist is a BISEXUAL/GAY/LESBIAN or part of the LGBT rep. Some of them are a bit oversensitive by the "non-canon" ships might be ruined their canon gay/sapphic ship. Like only you can ship this MC with their same gender and NOTHING ELSE. I tried to keep away from the shipping discourse because the majority wants Lunter to see as siblings, and then they will despise somebody in every fiber of their being who ships Luz and Hunter where they are both BI for each other. Like who are they to have a right to demand a person who just wanna ship without their validation? Toxic TOH fans ain't had a right to accuse somebody because they LIKE a ship that they DON'T like. Yet also the Lunter shippers didn't wish for Lunter to be canon as well. Because they can ship them without a problem canon or not-canon as long as they don't attack nor cause such any harm to others. Yet these antis has so many claims to prove that their ship Lunter is wrong and there's nothing to support of shipping them romantically. So they will non-stop accusing Lunter shippers based on their ship which i migt turned out to become 'problematic' by many.

Luz and her bisexuality is the purest rep where she likes and attracted to guys and girls. Yet when they keep telling to such people that it will erase her sapphic love between her and Amity if Luz is going to be with Hunter in the long run.. That doesn't mean Luz isn't Bisexual anymore. How can these people pushing the hatred towards Lunter where they haven't heard the word "multishipping?" So every shipper has options which good ships to be shipped with this character. They never acknowledged poly ships too so, it's too late to speak up to toxic anti Lunters out there. Stubborn as hell lol. As a Bisexual, people must understand that they cannot ruined their Bisexuality by liking or dating a guy!

[mikuni14]

Be My Favorite Ep 8

Why Be My Favorite is a perfect drama: - one of the MLs doesn't run away in a spur of the moment, because he has a broken heart or there’s a misunderstading and a problem with a phone 😑 - he just states realistically that why would he do it, besides he has responsibilities, like school 🤷‍♀️ - Piseang: "what made you think I'd go tonight?" Kawi and me: um, let me think, all the BL series so far? - when Piseang finally leaves Kawi in another reality, he does it only when he really feels that he can't take this situation any longer (after YEARS of suffering, which he NEVER puts on Kawi), and after leaving, he still contacts Kawi, apologizes to him and wishes him all the best - Piseang thinks Kawi is dating Pear and what does he do? nothing. in any other series, he would run away to the countryside to raise chickens and goats. or raise chickens and goats abroad, whatever, what counts is running away with tears in their eyes, total cut off and silence and DRAMA - the second ML notices that he has a problem with drinking (even if he had it in another reality) and IMMEDIATELY DOES SOMETHING ABOUT IT, i.e. he simply stops drinking - the characters reflect on themselves, on their choices. They analyze their mistakes and learn from them - the characters TALK TO EACH OTHER, they tell each other about their feelings, they argue and make up. They have conversations with each other, sometimes not very pleasant, sometimes they yell at each other, they get offended, but then they always come back to each other to try to talk again - all misunderstandings are resolved immediately - very nice, emotional, thoughtful and romantic declarations of love. after which MLs don't become a couple (!!!) and something interesting still happens in their relationship. and which are still one of the loveliest and best suited to the plot confessions of love I've seen. Confession of love doesn't have to be the goal of the romance, there are still a lot of things about the relationship between two people going on and BMF shows it great - they go on a cute little date where they have fun, nothing feels forced - also, the series addresses interference in the private lives of celebrities, how rumors affect celebrities' relationships with their friends in and outside the industry. the pressure and paranoia that comes with it - addressing the rights of LGBT people. scenes and conversations on the topic that are NOT ABOUT MAIN COUPLE AND THEIR ROMANCE

"You've become an important part of my life. It's the part that I can't lose ever again. When I didn't have you by my side, I knew right away, that it was the biggest mistake of my life" 🥺🥺🥺

[cut-content-contest]

Yosuke Hanamura's romance route

persona 4 has got this friendship/romance mechanic called "social links" which is basically just 10 events that you can choose to gradually level up for each sociable character in the game where you raise your relationships with said characters, which gives you various in-game boosts. most of the women in the game are able to be romanced. however, there is cut dialogue which implies that at some point, one of the male characters was meant to be a romance option as well! yosuke hanamura, the main character's best friend, has cut dialogue for his social link rank 10 event which is voiced (VOICED!! IN ENGLISH AND JAPANESE!! WHILE PEOPLE HAVE DENIED THIS SINCE THE ENGLISH VOICE LINES HAVE HIM SAYING "I LIKE YOU," IN THE JAPANESE VOICE LINES, HE IS EXPLICITLY CONFESSING TO YOU I'M PRETTY SURE!!) that implies that there was at some point going to be an option to romance him. it's assumed that this was cut somewhere later in development due to the lines being voice acted, though i believe that the reason this was cut has not been confirmed yet (though, seeing as how persona 4 was made in the 2000s....... you can probably just guess why lol)

there were unreleased voice lines that showed what was supposed to be a gay route for Persona 4 (there ARE Japanese lines for this as well, and the way in which the "I like you" part is said is the Japanese version of confessing to someone you have a crush on) and a lot of fans do agree that the protagonist is best paired with Yosuke for character development purposes, but it was probably scrapped because of homophobia 😭

Exactly what it says. Was likely scrapped because Atlus are COWARDS who didn't wanna give us the gay romance we deserved. It would have been so cute though I'm forever pissed it was scrapped...

We know it was programmed it. Yosuke is the only male character with dialogue flags, meaning you can fail his social link. The only other characters with these flags are the female love interests. Yosuke also has recorded, in both English and Japanese, final confession lines, something unique to max rank romance social links. This means it was likely scrapped very late in development. As the game also covers (badly) gender and sexuality, we can hypothesize that Yosuke's character arc was supposed to be overcoming internalized homophobia. Instead he just kinda stays "jokingly" homophobic and never grows past it.

The player would have been able to enter a romantic relationship with the character Yosuke Hanamura— text and voice lines for this option still exist within the game, and can be activated via modding. They even have proper translations, and the English versions of the lines are voiced as well, implying that the cut was made rather far into development. While this is a sad loss in its own right, it also has devastating implications in regards to the original state of other pieces of LGBT+ representation which may have also been scrapped and/or heavily modified to appear. For example, Kanji’s attraction to men and Naoto’s gender situation were both downplayed and/or walked back in the final version of the game, but it’s highly likely that Yukiko’s arc was originally intended to include more bisexual overtones, and arguments can be made for Rise’s arc being meant to center on the struggle to come to some sort of terms with her own sexuality and presentation in an industry that keeps such a tight hold on those aspects of its workers lives.

throughout the entirety of persona 4 (+golden), yosuke is portrayed to be the best friend of the protag, but also extremely homophobic towards another male character who was hinted at being gay (before atlus fucked that narrative up too). his social link hints at him having a crush on the protag, and he was intended to have a romantic route just like the female characters, but that was cut (not sure why). the whole game is about embracing the truth, including your hidden sides that you are ashamed to show to others, and having yosuke come to terms with his repressed homosexuality (& realizing that he has internalized homophobia) would have fit perfectly within that theme, but atlus said fuck that shit and cut that entire romance out. the cut dialogue can easily be found on youtube. the thing with this being cut out is that without the romance and coming to terms with his homosexuality, the only thing left of yosuke is being very homophobic. no one condems yosuke for what he says to the other male character, and it is never addressed beyond mere gags or jokes. it's horrible to sit through and honestly it was such a missed opportunity. it's such an issue that people have made a mod implementing a romantic route for yosuke just because of this. every day i mourn thinking of what could have been

This game explores many queer themes, but lacks any explicit queer relationships. The fact that file scrapers and modders discovered an unused voice line for one of the male characters that implies a romance option for him was cut from the final game makes queer fans feel let down, regardless of how groundbreaking the other queer plot points were at the time of release. It's speculated that it was cut because devs or localizers thought that it would be too much queer content in one game, and that it would affect sales and create too much controversy. I, however, believe that anyone who manages to get through the mandatory gay sauna dungeon would have had no stones to throw about an optional mlm romance.

The first party member in Persona 4, Yosuke Hanamura, was originally going to be a viable romantic partner once the player got far enough into his Social Link. This was removed rather late in development, as voiced lines for a scene where he and the protagonist begin dating were recorded in both Japanese and English. To this day, Persona 2: Innocent Sin remains the only Persona game where the protagonist can enter a gay relationship with another boy.

In this game you can choose to romance several people. There is cut voiced dialogue for a romance route for Yosuke, the main character's best friend, but in the final game he is not a romanceable character. Some are of the opinion that taking out the romance option for Yosuke removes the complexity from his character.

article: https://gamerant.com/persona-4-golden-mod-yosuke-romance/

Devil Joker boss fight

In Persona 2, an important story/game mechanic is that rumors are becoming reality in the setting. You would have been able to spread a rumor that Joker, the leader of the Masked Circle cult, was an angelic or demonic figure, and that would have determined the corresponding boss fight when you reached a key point in the game. The ability to spread that rumor was never implemented (probably due to time constraints? or maybe because Devil Joker ripping himself in half was determined to be Too Much), and so the citizens of the city default to Joker being "as beautiful as an angel", leading to the Angel Joker boss fight instead.

recreation of the boss fight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uz24UqZfYk Angel Joker for comparison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UPtkrsvI20&t=1227s

[softboynick]

Was it good? Or was it just good because Nick was in it?

ok i was waiting until the morning to answer this because i certainly do have a lot of Thoughts. with that said, spoilers under the cut so read at your own risk!!!

the movie feels like your typical romantic comedy. the level of sincerity borderlines cringy, which is perfect for a romantic comedy for this caliber. i had a lot of apprehensions about this movie because of its reputation and what its based on, but knowing the movie came from the guy (michael showalter) from wet hot american summer kind of gave me a sense of ease going into this movie.

of course i love nick's acting, don't get me wrong, but anne hathaway really carried the entire thing. it was basically a coming-of-age story but in the sense that it was solene coming to terms with her age and understanding that happiness doesn't need to stop when you reach 40.

some of the lines were so bad that i wondered why i was watching in the first place ("Why would you break up with a talented, kind feminist?") but the sincerity in the characters holds so much weight and i truly loved how they handled the whole older woman/younger man romance that didn't make it feel so predatory.

also i gotta say, the music is so good. i am a moonhead first and a human second.

ok moving onto standout scenes:

yes straight sex scenes are so overdone and can be incredibly vanilla, but i honestly loved the way the colors would change to signify solene feeling everything - a callback to the painting that she shows hayes. and hayes acquiring that painting to show how much he loves her is so adlkflkdajf

the scene where nick channels tom cruise in risky business also had to be the hottest scene i have ever seen. even hotter than the sex.

the scene where daniel and solene fight really makes me wonder if hayes only left (with the excuse that oliver got in trouble) because his trauma about his own parents splitting up was forced back to the surface. i wished they unpacked that more because i know this was solene's story.

i am a sucker for two pretty bitches crying, so all the emotional scenes between hayes and solene made my heart hurt (and i actually did shed a few tears). i saw a lot of prince henry in these scenes especially when nick's lgbt eyes made an appearance. those eyes of his deserve an emmy on their own.

the five years later epilogue is cute but so silly because i cannot stand nick's beard/goatee.

BUT OVERALL

yes i loved this movie. yes it mostly had to do with nick. but i love romcoms and silly, fun movies. nick took me in, but hayes and solene made me stay. thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[eemamminy-art]

transfem!Abby + samseb + marupenny is so real

i was wondering if u saw that r/StardewValley poll where Abby was overwhelming popular with transgender women

google > "bluejazzhoney" no spaces

I was not aware of this, no!! But looking at the results are fascinating!! I did after playing the game for a couple weeks check ao3 out of curiosity and I saw Sebastian and Haley were the romance options with the most fics (though I think Leah was close behind Haley)

I think it totally makes sense for Abby to be transfem though, her storyline is definitely giving LGBT+ of some variety and I feel like with how her parents put some pressure on her to change her appearance and how she behaves it really suits that vibe!! Plus I mean, she does wear a choker 🤭

I was talking with my friend about it and how like, she'd probably make such a huge deal of coming out to Sam and Sebastian and she'd be so worried it would hurt the dynamic between the three of them but then they are super casual and supportive about it, the total opposite of how her parents fret and bicker with her constantly 🥺 I think it'd be cute for the three of them to be together, I feel like they all bring out the best in each other!!

As for Maru/Penny, I jotted down some notes for a doodle page I wanna make of them 👀 They are physically always so close in game but I haven't really seen any dialog between the two of them or about each other so I'm trying to work out just how their relationship dynamic is! Mostly I'm thinking of Maru being the one to approach Penny first, and being assertive about wanting to spend time with her. Imagining Penny's whirlwind of self discovery as she realizes not only does she like girls but that she might be a service top also ahaha

[artiststarme]

My Happy Fics

Here is my ever-growing list of humorous/fluff/happy fics. These should make you laugh and cry happy tears, ideally. Please leave your thoughts in the comments!

-"Get in the van, Steve."

A short, one shot fic about Steve getting accidentally kidnapped. No harm, no foul, am I right?

-"A Little Fruity"

A short, one shot fic about Eddie coming out to Uncle Wayne by accident. (Everything turns out fine).

-Ex-fucking-cuse You

Steve has a hard time vocalizing his thoughts and feelings. But all of that changes when Eddie enters his life. He makes him try and do better.

-It's Fucking Cold

Eddie loves traveling with Steve but the one thing that he can't get behind are the cold-ass hotel rooms.

-Wayne's Unspoken Shovel Talk

Wayne didn't think he needed to give Steve the shovel talk on behalf of his nephew. It was implied and he meant what he meant.

-Van Vandalism

When the people of Hawkins keep vandalizing Eddie's van after Spring Break, Steve takes matters into his own hands.

-A cute little addition/ending to the story (Part 2)

-Oblivious Eddie

Steve realizes that he's bi and immediately starts flirting with Eddie. Now if only Eddie could be more observant and start flirting back!

-Sunflowers

A soft fic about Eddie not thinking he's a good boyfriend and Steve not thinking he deserves Eddie but then they both realize that they're perfect for each other.

-Eddie Hates Drinking Water

Eddie doesn't hate a lot of things but he's never been able to get behind drinking water. Until Steve tricks him into liking it when they start dating.

-When Life Gives You Lemons...

Eddie has a unique way of dealing with anxiety but you know what they say, when life gives you lemons....

-... You Make Lemonade

Part 2 of the series where Eddie makes up his own idioms and accidentally comes out to Steve in a play on words.

-April Fool's

Just a short story on how I think Steve and Eddie would handle April Fool's Day. Chaos, Romance, and Misunderstandings, oh my!

-Intrusive Thoughts

Eddie is prone to voicing his intrusive thoughts and he accidentally gaslights Steve into thinking they're his when he doesn't remember. Cue panic, protective best friends, and name-calling!

-No Steves Allowed!

Eddie has one firm rule in Hellfire; Steve Harrington is not to be mentioned under any circumstances. It works until it doesn't.

-Steve Has a Minor Fear of Spiders

Everyone is afraid of something. It just so happens that Steve has a debilitating fear of spiders and Eddie has to find out the hard way.

-College is for me but only if it’s us

Eddie and Steve make plans to go to college together. The Party learns some surprising news.

-Strike!

Hopper goes to pick up Steve for a family bowling outing and gets more than he bargained for.

-Goddamn Wheelers!

Hopper is the biggest supporter of LGBT+ as long as it keeps the Wheeler family out of his life. Steve dating Eddie Munson? Fine. El breaking up with Mike Wheeler? Absolutely fantastic! Will dating Mike instead? WHY???

-A Date Gone Wrong

Eddie was never going to let Steve plan an outing for their date again. First hiking, now squirrels? Absolutely not.

-Utter Chaos

Steve would do anything to protect his Platonic with a capital P soulmate... Like outing himself to cover for her.

-Highway to Hell

Steve is a really bad driver in actuality and when Eddie tries to tell people, no one will believe him!

-A Sleepwalking Surprise

A sleepy Steve outs him and Eddie to the kids. Luckily for them, they escape the ensuing chaos.

-Interested or Not?

It takes Steve way longer to realize Eddie is into him than it should. Luckily for him, it all works out.

-Wayne Deserves Way More Credit

Wayne loves Steve for his nephew and he'll do his best to keep them together despite Eddie's stupid decisions.

-A Zoom Call Gone Wrong...

A modern Steddie AU where Eddie interrupts Steve's college course zoom call in the worst way possible.

-Shakespeare? Gay as Hell

The reason Eddie keeps failing English is because he keeps making his essays gay. Wayne approves and Mrs. O'Donnell definitely does not. Based on this post!

-Hellfire Adopts Steve

Hellfire adopts Steve in high school after the fall of King Steve.

-From Alibi to Reality

Steve acts as Eddie's alibi for the cops to clear his name. It only escalates from there.

-Happy Halloween!

Halloween of 1986 is the best day of Eddie Munson's life and he attributes most of that to Steve.

-Baby, it's cold outside

Eddie only likes Winter when he has Steve there to warm him up.

-Unnamed thus far

Will comes out to Steve and Steve just can't figure out why. Things become clearer with time.

[saezurumurmurs]

Hey!!...how are you??. I just wanted to ask you about what do you think about Alice Osman words about bl/yaoi. From my point of view, she sounds quite pretencious, because I dont feel "heartstoppers" is that great , and she just from be british she has the opprtunity a big plattaform as netflix oppen their doors, so she cant imagine what is been an asian author and how actually his work is BL.

Taking Advantage of A Fandom

I watched the show, and haven’t read the comic. However @absolutebl posted a terrific commentary on this issue a while back:

From my perspective, BL and by extension, yaoi, is a uniquely Asian sub genre of erotic romance.

Alice Osman is a British creator who wrote a young adult LGBT+ romance comic. So the comparisons made seem ‘convenient’ for ‘marketing purposes’.

I personally resent the accusations lobbed against fujoshi of fetishisation, because it’s rooted in anti-woman rhetoric and I won’t have my tastes dictated to me. Everybody has opinions, but not all of them are valid.

BL is full of problematic tropes, just like regular M/F romance… and I’ve been reading romance and erotica for forty odd years. But these tropes are part of romance as a genre, and these tropes reflect our lived context. To single out BL/Yaoi as unique is nonsense. The tropes exist because the reality exists. Storytelling exists to allow us to find empathy for one another.

There are some good academic pieces out there, that debate this far better than I can. What I can tell you is that the internalised and externalised misogyny regarding BL content, is quite painful to me. Somebody always gotta rush on to tell women what they can and cannot enjoy. Dictate their sexuality and shame them for their pleasures.

We literally can’t have a damn thing nice, without some bozo trying to make us feel bad because we like it. Chile, I’m too old for that shit. We are allowed to like what we like, and enjoy problematic media just like anyone else. We are people too!

And lest you think otherwise: homophobia and transphobia’s roots are in anti-woman thinking and policies. That women do it to other women… well, it’s nice to be somebody’s favourite pet isn’t it. You get a padded cage, and the best kibble.

Osman benefits from the BL label, even though her story isn’t in my opinion BL. But criticising and alienating potential readers within the BL fandom seems to be a bit of a sport across ‘BL’ as it’s being broadly defined here. Because throwing shade on fans happens too much… by too many creators both Asian and Western.

Which is interesting, because the global market consuming this content is HUGE. You don’t understand the numbers of people reading Painter of The Night. I believe last year, it was more than all the people who bought romance novels in the West COMBINED. So if you think the Western authors don’t know the market for their stories are pale compared to what BL is doing on a global level, I should encourage you all to get interested in the business of BL. There is a lot of money and soft power in it.

But because it’s a FEMALE audience interested in SMUTTY stories, well… it’s a PROBLEM. Even in the countries of origin.

I get that we should analyze the problematic tropes in BL/Yaoi, but that’s what storytelling is for. I’m not for false equivalencies, because I personally disdain most Western content… and where do you see these types of stories in profusion from Western creators? No place. That’s where.

Maybe Osman has feelings because her story is no Painter of The Night. Maybe somebody asked her one too many times about our smutty stories… and what we got was shade and salt.

I did watch Heartbreaker on Netflix, and it was cute but I don’t feel compelled to rewatch it, the way I do say KinnPorsche or Love In The Air. I haven’t been moved to hunt down the comic to find out what happens next, the way I did when I watched that last scene of Twittering Birds Never Fly: The Clouds Gather.

Chile… Osman could NEVA.

[semper-legens]

66. Proud, ed. by Juno Dawson

Owned?: No, library Page count: 336 My summary: A girl and her phoenix ponder their marriage prospects. A trans boy on a LGBT+ football team face trials on and off the pitch. A choir sings Firework and finds their voice. A pair of girls find love among the graffiti. Tales of young people, tales of LGBT+ people, tales of hope. And above all, tales of pride. My rating: 4/5 My commentary:

This is not my first time reading this collection. The last time was on a train home from seeing my brother, who lived in Birmingham at the time - the trains were cancelled and delayed and cancelled again, and it was a very unexpectedly long journey. I remember that I pulled this out of my bag while on a rail replacement bus for the last leg of the journey, and got weirdly emotional about it at like midnight on a dark road in the middle of nowhere. This reading…made me far less emotional, let's put it that way. While I liked it overall, with a bit more clarity I can see some of its flaws a bit more clearly, which I'll talk about under the cut.

So overall, I liked this collection, but I felt like something was lacking for me. All of the stories felt just a little too 'safe'. Most were about LGBT+ kids who were accepted by their friends and families without fanfare, most were cozy in some way. One that was explicitly about the struggles of coming out acknowledges from the off that the kid's family would not have a problem with it. And I'm not exactly going to be claiming here that all LGBT+ stories have to be all doom and gloom, that there can be no cozy romances for LGBT+ people, because that would be silly. But this collection tended towards the saccharine as a whole, and I think having a few more murky stories among them would have balanced the rest out a lot better. (Then again, I acknowledge that this collection is for LGBT+ teens, and I am 28. So any opinion I have here has to be taken with a grain of salt.) As ever with short stories, I'm only going to talk about some of them in detail, so here we go!

The Courage of Dragons was a rare one set not in the contemporary world but a sort of mythic China, where young women are chosen by phoenixes and the emperor wishes to take one for a bride. The protagonist struggles over this, as she does not want to marry the emperor even though it would represent a great social advancement for herself and for her family. This is resolved when another girl from nearby runs off with her phoenix, which is actually their phoenix, and the two realise their mutual attraction. I liked the playfulness of this story, in particular the silliness of the phoenix's name, as well as the woven-through idea of the two girls' professions, a herbalist and a lantern-maker. It made for some neat imagery, and their story of self-discovery is both interesting and engaging.

The Other Team was a charming story. It's about a trans kid in an LGBT+ football club, full of misfits and outcasts who, on the whole, are pretty bad at football. I liked that aspect of it! The story wasn't a trite heartwarming affair where the scrappy underdogs fought like hell to win the match, it was a more realistic look at a kid playing football for fun with his mates and just wanting to be accepted for who he is. I like that the attitudes of the straight team are changed a little in an understated and subtle manner, and that there is no fairytale ending, but you leave with a sense of satisfaction nonetheless. It was cute, and I liked it.

Love Poems to the City was one of the latter stories in this collection, and to my mind one of the best. It details a girl unsure of herself as many teenagers are who falls for a girl because of the graffiti on the walls telling her to go for it. There was an air of magical realism to it, which I really enjoyed - the graffiti itself goes unexplained, and it's ambiguous as to whether it is actually supernatural or not. It's a cute story which, again, succeeds for having a hint of darkness to it in my mind.

Next…sorry. I swear this is my last bit of FNaF.

[wallywise]

I’m sorry

I tried really I tried really hard to love milven

I tried to find them cute, but I can’t

I just hate to see them together, it just not right

Because if they are endgame I won’t just be okay, it wouldn’t be okay

Because it’s not just a silly ship war

It’s so much than that

Because byler is si much more important than just a bunch of delusional thought

Because ten years ago gay people couldn’t even marry each other in my country (and it’s a progressive country !) because gay people are still killed for who they are all around the world. Because it’s still recent, the normalisation of gay romance and existence. It’s new and it’s not even quite here

Because heteronormativity is everywhere, because we still have to prove that a character might be anything else than cishetero and that’s so sad

Because I know that Byler is just a ship but it could change people mind, it could start something new, an era where famous show wouldn’t be scared of main lgbt+ character that aren’t’ just lgbt+, that have a whole personnality and history, an era with more straightbait with more diversity and good representation because it’s still not the case let’s be honest I don’t know a lot of endgame main gay couple

Because Byler could open some people mind, because it’s just two kids falling in love with each other, making mistake, more it’s 80’s kids falling in love and (hopefully) ending together, happy. Because gay doesn’t mean sad and depressed, even if it’s the 80’s they can be happy, they can end together

I don’t know about everybody else but I NEED this representation

I need to see them and I don’t want to see another hetero couple saving the world with their happy (not so happy considering how their relationship is so bones) straight love

I want, I need to see Will and Mike together because it would be beautiful, it would be perfect, it would just be right