#which would take representation away from lesbians

[wizardsteeb]

personally really hate the "devs should just make all characters bi so nobody feels excluded" take.

[lgbtpopcult]

What cool WLW projects do we know are coming in 2024?

Drive-Away Dolls

Arguably the most important representation of the year comes from a movie directed by one of the Coen brothers. Ethan Coen directs this wacky comedy that is very much in style for him.

Synopsis:

This comedy caper follows Jamie, an uninhibited free spirit bemoaning yet another breakup with a girlfriend, and her demure friend Marian who desperately needs to loosen up. In search of a fresh start, the two embark on an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee, but things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals along the way.

Lost Records: Bloom and Rage

A game had to be added to this list and here it is, the best one. From the creators who gave us Life is strange. Lost Records: Bloom and Rage tells the story of four friends who experience a transformative summer in 1995. After 27 years of no contact, Nora, Swann, Autumn, and Kat are reunited by fate and forced to confront the long-buried secret that made them agree to never speak again all those years ago. From the teaser alone it is obvious at least two of them dated.

Pluto

A Thai gl from GMMTV, known for its successful Thai dramas. The story is the telenovela cliche we've always wanted. Two girls in love. One gets in an accident and her twin takes her place to find out who was behind her accident, the other girl is blind. The twin has to fake being the real one so has to be in a relationship with the blind girl and of course falls in love with her. Match made in fanfic heaven.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

It was announced so long ago people are getting frustrated. However, with both a writer and a director now attached to the project, and the strikes over, we have every reason to believe we will finally get to see the hit novel, that centers the love story between two closeted Hollywood actresses, come to life. Whether you loved the novel or were indifferent and didn't see what the fuss was about, it is a very successful wlw romance and we want to see it on screen!

The Paying Guests

The director that brought us Carol adapting a book by the author of Fingersmith? Yes please!

Speaking to Indiewire, Haynes revealed he’s developing an adaptation of Sarah Waters’ 2014 novel The Paying Guests. “It’s a three-part limited series that would need to be a British production, but it’s a really great novel.” Set in post-WWI London, the drama is part lesbian love story and part murder mystery following a down-and-out widow and her daughter, the latter taking up a relationship with one of their lodgers. Waters also wrote Fingersmith, which was adapted into The Handmaiden by Park Chan-wook.

NCIS Hawaii season 3

One of our favorite pairings of last year, Kate and Lucy are the main couple of their show and they carry it well. They look good together, have progress and evolution in their relationship and have fun working together.

The Secret of Us

Thai channel CH3 is expected to hit us strong with this Thai gl. CH3 is big in Thailand so this one is a big deal. The story is the typical exes meet again trope and it's magnificent. It centers Doctor Fahlada, nicknamed Doctor Angel. She is trying to hide the pain after being abandoned by the woman she loved. But then...by chance that woman comes back into her life.

Whisper Me a Love Song

Our resident anime entry has to be Whisper me a love song. Based on a manga it is the story of Himari Kino. On the first day of entering high school, Himari Kino "falls" for her senior, Yori Asanagi, whom she watched singing with a band at the welcome party for new students. When Himari confesses her admiration to Yori, Yori misinterprets Himari's feelings as romantic love. However, before Yori realizes, she comes to fall for Himari anyway, and promises to win her affections for real.

Bad Sisters season 2

Bad Sisters is one of the best reviewed and hilarious shows on this list. Coming back for a season 2 was inevitable. Bibi, the lesbian sister, will keep entertaining us in 2024.

Station 19 season 7

One of the most enduring shows and wlw couples on TV are coming back for a season 7! That is a lot of seasons but Maya and Carina do still have that spark.

About Galaxy The Series

Part of the gl renaissance that is expected to go full force next year, this series is already hugely popular among Asian romance fans.

Synopsis:

‘About Galaxy’ is based on author Zezeho’s yuri of the same name, with a Thai title of “มูลค่าดาวล้านดวง”. The story revolves around Hong Yok, a designer who has a big scar on her face which led her to hide away from the public due to her inferiority complex. But something changed in her life when she met Note, a woman she was measuring clothes, and realized she is the same person who gave her that huge scar! However, despite the incident, she doesn’t outright despise her, and instead… feels safe. What will happen to the two women?

My Ex-Friend's Wedding

Kay Cannon ("Blockers") will direct from a script co-written by Taylor Jenkins Reid? Staring a group of friends trying to stop their friend from getting married? And one of them is queer? We're all in!

Arcane (Season 2)

It seems like forever since we first watched Arcane but we're definitely looking forward to season 2. Needs no introduction.

Dream the Series

We already have enough Asian dramas in this list but we couldn't leave out one of the most anticipated gl, Dream. The story is that of a woman that sees a girl in her dreams every night only to meet her in real life. While in real life they are friends in her dreams they do much more. She thinks her friend doesn't know about that what she doesn't know is that she also remembers everything they do in their dreams.

Harley Quinn the Animated Series season 5

Another season of our favorite criminal duo Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy? Yes please and thank you. These two, and this particular iteration of them, might be the best representation American television has ever given us.

Chaser Game W

Chaser Game W is the first gl produced by TV Tokyo so it has a historic significance for the advancement of representation for queer women in Japan. First episode airs January 8. Based on manga series "Chaser Game" written by Hiroshi Matsuyama & illustrated by Yukitaro Matsuyama

The story:

synopsis: Itsuki has been working in the "Dynamic Dream" game company for five years and is now appointed as the lead for a big Japanese-Chinese collaboration project, which she is fully motivated to work on. However, it turns out the Chinese company team is led by her ex, Fuyu, whom she one-sidedly broke up with back in university! After breaking up with Fuyu, Itsuki never dated anyone else and chose to focus on her work, all while not coming out to her family and coworkers... But when her ex-girlfriend suddenly appeared in front of her, her feelings immediately started to sway. Meanwhile, Fuyu always resented Itsuki for breaking up with her without saying why. She takes charge of the project and pushes impossible tasks onto Itsuki. While Fuyu plots her revenge, Itsuki is rekindling her unrequited love. What will the outcome be for these two opposites?

Vigil season 2

The first couple of episodes of Vigil season 2 will technically be shown in December 2023 (in the UK only) but we'll basically be able to watch it beginning 2024 and we're looking forward to it!

Several upcoming TV shows and movies have cast actors that make it obvious they'll have lesbian and bi characters but until we know whether the representation will be enough to be worth watching we're holding off on making that other, more elaborate, list.

[thunderstomm]

I was originally not going to make a post about this, but after seeing a few other posts about it, I wanted to make my own. I have a LOT to talk about.

TW: Transphobia, Homophobia, Ableism

If you don’t know what I’m taking about- there was a post made by a user, who’s name I will not disclose or share, who discussed how they would rewrite the new Monster High G3 Cartoon. While some of the points were mundane, or points of preference, others made me very uncomfortable, as they got rid of much of the diversity that G3 has brought into the Monster High Universe. I want to quickly go through three of the points that I felt were erasing these steps in diversity, and my thoughts on each one, and why I think that it’s iffy, to say the least.

First is the statement “all of the couples from G1 will stay together”. While this may read to some as a preference for the old couples, in the context of rewriting G3- it comes across as the erasure of both couples involving a neurodivergent character being the subject of a crush, and being seen as desirable and loved (Manny x Twyla), and what probably was the intended couples they wanted to seperate, the canonically queer ships. In particular, this is most likely against Clankie (and POSSIBLY an s2 ship which I won’t say by name because some people want to go in blind. Instead I will refer to it as 🧡💚.). In this rewrite context, wanting to take away queer relationships which many writers and designers for Monster High have fought for in many shapes and forms. G1 never had explicit queer characters, the closest things being a scrapped SDCC diary entry (Valentine x Spelldon), Post-Ending 3rd party statements (Clawdeen is a Lesbian, Rebecca x Venus, etc.) and implied characters (Kiyomi). While these are okay, they are NOT the same as explicit queer couples, which are arguably more important to push forward in the talk and scope of present and future representation.

While it is okay to prefer the G1 ships, in the context of bringing them back for G3, it erases these queer couples, and ignores the lore and universe of G3. In G3, Cleo and Deuce are exes. And if you don’t like that, you can still watch G1!! It’s not magically disappeared, the movies and shows and music is all still out there, and most of it is free! But, erasing Clankie, 🧡💚, and other potential queer ships in G3, for the preservation of a m/f ship isn’t okay.

On the subject of erasure, there is the statement “Frankie is still non-binary, but now uses she/they pronouns”. A character canonically using they/them in cartoons, especially ones made for kids, are uncommon. Honestly, I don’t even know if I could name 10, and that says more about the state of non-binary representation than it does about me. While changing the pronouns of a cisgender character to gender neutral ones is often done in fandom, and often not a point of issue, taking a character who is canonically non-binary and solely uses they/them and giving them typically gendered pronouns erases that under represented group, and allows for transphobes to ignore the “they” in “she/they”, and only use “she” for the character. This is an issue in real life too, for many who use multiple sets of pronouns, including myself (they (preferred) / he) ! We deserve both of their sets of pronouns to be used, and people who only use they/them deserve to be referred to by and as they/them. These changes hurt everyone.

Then, we come to the one I see the most talk about, and the one that made me audibly yell “what the f-?!”- taking away Twyla’s canon autism diagnosis, and symptoms & traits, and replacing it with autism coding, so that she is easier to identify with. First of all- easier for who??? Neurotypicals ?? It is incredibly rare to see a character on kids TV outright say “I am autistic”, and Twyla is wonderful as representation. Twyla will not resonate or be relatable to every person- but that is true for all characters, not just autistic ones. Autistic people are not a monolith, it is a spectrum, with many different ways to present itself. Also… taking away all of her traits and symptoms to make her more relatable? These traits and symptoms are what would have made her “autistic coded”, and without them, you have a character who is NT.

Autism isn’t a quirky word you can use to describe anyone, it is a disability, that myself and many others have, and see misrepresented time and time again. And to say that a good example of it is not good, and would be better off to be erased and replaced with coding is insane. Coding is okay, but that’s all it is. Real spoken representation matters so much to me, and so many other people, even if the characters we see are not identical to us in those symptoms and traits they exhibit. These characters should not be changed, but rather, more autistic characters, with different presenting symptoms and traits, should be introduced !

You can like G1, you can prefer G1, but that does not mean that you have to make a sanitised version of G3, that makes it identical to G1. In terms of representation, there is no arguing that G3 has G1 beat. The poster said on their post that “any new characters would be made more relatable”, but… to who? Because I relate to a lot of the G3 characters more than the G1 ones, and I grew up loving G1! It’s not been wiped, all of the media still exists for you to watch, and make headcanons for ! If you like G1- good for you! But please, stop trying to make G3 exactly like it. Because change is inevitable in these kinds of reboots, and it allows for the representation some want to take away.

Thank-You for those who read all the way!

[odiledemonicat]

So...is it just me or were the extreme flaws in Arcane season 2 basically the inevitable result of the both-sides politics and general too-enlightened-and-smart-and-cool-to-have-strong-opinions attitude of the first season?

The whole "Suuuure Piltover oppressed Zaun for years through wealth inequality, police violence and ecocide buuut the Zaunites are jerks too! Look! Drugs! Prostitution! Terrorism! (gee I wonder what drove them to do all those things?) in season one became:

"and all of it is just a cycle of pointless violence that will never solve anything and that's why the Zaunites should pretty much just accept their position and patiently wait for Piltover to be nice and grant them basic respect by resolving things peacefully.

See? You can even get one seat at the council which overwhelmingly outnumbers you and still represents your oppressors. Smiles all around! I guess the Zaunites just needed to believe in themselves and be the bigger person in this fight that Piltover started. Because, as we all know, violence has never had a historical record of changing things."

(all of this right in the aftermath of the Gaza war and also Vi's voice actor Hailee Steinfield posed for pics with the actual IDF btw)

The "we support gay rights, as long as one of them's a cop so the audience knows they're not, y'know, one of THOSE gays" became:

"and that's why it's fine that Caitlyn basically coerced Vi into becoming a cop too and then struck her for not letting her endanger a child. CaitVi 5evah! Jinx just needs to grow up and stop being so selfish and jealous and possessive! This kind of volatile highs and lows and emotional turmoil are normal for lesbians, right?"

(like I've seen the whole "7 years in prison vs one month in a lesbian relationship" meme and I get the joke is supposed to be all "haha relationships toxic" but like...is that not literally just lesbophobia?)

The "yeah, we condemn police brutality, IF it's coming from nameless faceless cops who you have no personal connection to whatsoever. If it comes from a main character you're supposed to like, we'll just excuse it away bc they're hot" became:

"and so now all the blame for cops' evil actions, including said main character, will be placed on one generic evil dictator with no exploration of their complicity or the inherent flaws to policing as a system."

"We support mental health awareness! As long as the mental illness leaves you as a hardened badass with cool marketable fight scenes. Deeply rooted emotional scars and unhealthy coping mechanisms are sexy and make you look gritty and tough!" became:

"and that's why all the misery(heheh) from the first season has been ramped up to 11 to the point of feeling gratuitous so we can keep seeing characters constantly sad at all times. And also why now all the fight scenes just basically look like the characters have superspeed instead of at least somewhat believable heightened reflexes from a lifetime of constant violence, leaving them without any of the grounded realism and weight that made them look incredible before"

"Disability deserves representation! Viktor's just such a heckin' valid cool smol bean! As long as it's just basically shown as a reason to feel sad for him and little to nothing else and also he's forced by the plot to be looking for a way to get rid of it."

became

"and now he's looking for a way to solve ALL problems and inequality which has to be a bad thing for some reason and his goal is kind of turned into a suicide metaphor. Also to do it he has to take over the world because we have to keep in line with the original game (even though we already departed from it greatly anyway) and we just made it so it's out of heartbreak over Jayce. Goodness knows we can't just have him actually achieve his original intention of using science and medicine to radically improve society, that would mean fundamentally changing the system!"

[the-heart-of-leo]

Nick's so far under the bus that they might as well change the oil while they're under there.

Okay, because I'm a bit of a masochist and I have adblockers...

I'm going to count how many times James throws Nick under the bus:

@2:40 – 'This fell upon Nick as well, as a non-binary person on the ace spectrum, they wanted to include asexuality and non-binary representation to our videos. But because Nick's experience is not universal – There is no universal experience – people felt that we were delegitimizing their own experiences because we focused on Nick's.' (The reason we were acephobic was because we (meaning Nick) didn't think other ace people had problems and when it was pointed out to us by The Ace Couple that ace people did, in fact, face discrimination and conversion therapy, we (meaning James) accused them of homophobia and sicced their followers on them.)

@6:38 – 'The work Nick and I were doing on the channel...' (Because Nick was here too! Not just me!)

@10:46 – 'I was much more interested in the production of the videos than the writing of them, at this point. So after three or four videos, I brought Nick on as a main writer for the channel. The idea is that they would write the vast majority of the scripts. I would film, voice, and edit the videos and we'd split the money that came in.'(Nick was the main writer for the channel! In case you forgot...)

@14:40 – 'And then my mom died... and I became completely useless. I couldn't think straight, at all, so Nick had to completely take over writing duties.'(DID I MENTION NICK WAS THE MAIN WRITER. ALSO MY MOM DIED; FEEL SORRY FOR ME)

@19:44 – 'When Nick got back, he believed the script needed a first page rework. This was also when he told me he was going to be moving back to Ontario permanently soon as he wanted to live closer to family and live in a bigger city with more opportunities. This was a punch to the gut for me. We'd been living together since 2015 and had become quite dependent on each other. I felt like there was no way I could make this movie without him.'(We couldn't make the movie we promised because SOMEONE DECIDED TO MOVE and since I'm co-dependent on him, I moved with him and screwed up everything. Oopsie.)

@26:32 – 'But by accepting as many sponsors as we did, which became very important when Nick and I started living apart and suddenly had two rents to pay, we ended up needing to produce even more videos. Which, along with the work on Telos and making sure everything was okay with my dad while living thousands of kilometers away meant I had even less time for writing – putting more stress on Nick and leading to even more copy and pasting from me.' (See what you did, Nick?! We have to pay TWO rents now and we need to make even MORE videos. I'm not creepily co-dependent on my asexual ex-roommate at all!)

@32:50 – 'I know what misinformation had made its way into our past videos. That was not something we intended; in some cases it was information I was told by people I considered experts. In other cases it was information that we had researched. In other cases it was things that Nick had learned in university.'(Nick told me some of this stuff! ((which is fair because NICK ADMITTED HE DOESN'T DO RESEARCH)) In other cases it was because I assumed I knew what happened because I'm the smartest person I know so of course Lesbians had it easier! I just forgot that Radcliffe Hall's books were banned and destroyed because of that head injury I talked about earlier.)

And here's an honorable mention where the smug “I'm smarter than you” BS comes to visit:

'To those who say I plagiarized the plot from the novel Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix – Read the book. It's nothing like the plot of the movie. And 'The Final Girl' is a trope in horror movies so if using the Final Girl trope is plagiarism then basically everyone who's made a slasher movie since Texas Chainsaw Massacre owes the Toby Hooper estate some money.'

So, much like how James doesn't understand why people aren't upset at him because of citation issues, he doesn't understand that it's not the fact that he's using the 'Final Girl' trope... it's the fact that he stated the book as a favorite of his and then... suddenly he's writing a movie about the aftermath of the Final Girl. And given the plagiarism, it can not be taken in good faith.

First off, if you just google 'First Final Girl', it just says Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the earliest examples. Another possibility for the 'First Final Girl' was actually Black Christmas which was released the same day in Canada so it is literally tied.

Secondly; the final girl trope is not required for slasher movies. One of the first 'proto-slasher' movies was actually Psycho so there were a few good decades between that and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. (I could try and make a case that Lila Crane should count as a Final Girl; maybe even Mrs. Bates/Norman as a subversion... but I'm not that invested or interested.)

So... James was true to form, he just wanted to be a smug asshat and try and seem smart over something easily googled.

[alexissara]

The Very Best Characters Of 2024

I’m a character focused writer always aiming to make the best characters I can to tell the best stories I can so I love to look back at all the media I took in and think of which characters really blew me away that year, who am I taking with me as I go on making new characters and new art in the world. I will not be counting any of my own characters this year despite the fact you can in fact go to Patreon.com/alexissara right now and read the rough draft of Love Beyond The Holy Light volume 1. Being 100% honest, this list would be mostly Love Beyond The Light characters if I did that and the stories not officially published yet so here we go, my favorite characters that weren’t by me.  I did have a 2023 list you can check out here if you like since there will be no repeats from last year's list. 

10. Harleen and Harley [The Stage Case Of Harley and Harleen]

While Harley is at the bottom of this list it’s not that she is at least place but that my love for Harleen in this book can’t be detached from my love of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy more generally so I think it’s fair to put her at the bottom here even if this version of Harley may just be my favorite character on this list. In this book Harleen and Harley are both fantastic characters and their work as a plural system together makes for a fantastic set of interactions between the characters giving different dynamics that are fun and in general their unity is just great. I love these two and I couldn’t ask for more from my iconic bisexual clown girls. This might be the best version of the character which even with a ton of awful Harley’s out there is extremely high praise for all the fantastic ones out there. This Harley still feels really real but she also feels like she could grow into any of the great independent Harlies who end up with an Ivy [in this case they would be together from childhood but that would be the only major difference]. 

9. Neve Gallus [Dragon Age: The Veilguard]

While Veilguard’s characters are mostly just kinda saying their gimmicks and traits, I still loved Neve a whole lot. Neve just has a kind of body you simply don’t get to see in games and has the hard boiled detective persona which is still very rare to see in women, she is so many flavors of refreshing to see and engage with and I love her for it. 

8. Magilou [Tales Of Berseria]

She’s just so goofy, I love my silly goofy girl. I love her so much she is always up to some trouble, she’s causing problems on purpose and she is just overall a blast. Her subtle arc over the game is really nice too it’s great seeing her develop while maintaining her persona she developed for himself. A lot about Magilou is spoilers but she really is just a delight and certainly among the very best characters the Tales of Series has ever produced and perhaps among the top characters in action RPGs. 

7. Saffron [Potionomics] 

Potonomics is a game jam packed with great characters but I only wanted to pick one to show up on this list and well Saffron is my favorite of the bunch. Saffron's past is really great and while the rest of the game sadly fails to follow up on the questions her storyline provides she actually makes The world way more interesting along with being sexy.  She's also really fun romantically and dating her is just a blast, I love her so much.

6. Yako [She Loves to Cook and She Loves To Eat]

An extremely rare case of explicitly canon asexual lesbian existing in media. Representation is nice but then add to that that she’s fucking funny, a great friend, allowed to have depth and trauma too and seems to be in the starts of a background romance while the main couple is finally getting together and well you have a recipe for a really perfect character. She Loves to Cook and She Loves To Eat is a masterpiece and Yako is an important piece of that puzzle. 

5. Olive [My Dragon Girlfriend]

Trans Lesbian Vampire, let’s go!  Olive is one of the characters who basically every year could be on these lists. Olive gets a ton of love in My Dragon Girlfriend which means we are graced with more of this anxious ball of lesbian energy from bonus smut comics on Patreon to little scenes in the comic to full focus. She is just great, you cannot underestimate the power of a cute transbian. 

4. Sylvia [Mice Tea]

Trans Rich, demisexual, sapphic sometimes snake girl, I love you.   I haven't even finished all her endings yet in the game so I actually have more Sylvia to engage but I figured I had to he honest without even seeing everything of her on offer. She was just top rated. I really think she's basically only likely to go higher. Who knows maybe in the 2025 list she'll be number one. 

3. Valentine [Sunset Phoenix]

Lesbian Mob Boss!  Valentine is a fucking mess, she wants to die so bad and she punishes herself. While her self harm is over the top anime styles played with some comedy it is a woman who ultimately is self harming as a weapon to fight because the guilt in her tells her she had to fight, that she has to keep moving forward.  She’s intense, sexy and a whole lot of fucking fun, she is among the coolest characters ever made. 

2. Tama [Sword Of The Necromancer]

A plucky bandit girl who ends up finding the one thing worth giving up herself, treasure and anything else for, the woman she loves. Tama is brash, She's hot headed, she's passionate and she's really just perfect. I was so captivated by her right away. Her voice performance in the game is great and while the little bits of art in game are limited they are used well to captivate her emotion at different times really making a spectacular character who I can’t help but want to see more and more of. 

1. Claire François [I’m in Love With The Villainess]

I am already weak to Clair’s type of character but in Volume 2 Clair goes from a trope I like to a character I love and Volume 3 further Highlights Clair as a standout fictional character. This bisexual legend gets to genuinely grow as a person, realize her class position and the corruption of her class then try to do things about it and struggle with it ultimately leaving her life of wealth to live as a commoner with her girlfriend and raise 2 adopted kids. She has such a great arc, one of the best character arcs around in the ways she grows but keeps core attributes and she is flawed still the whole way through doing awfully dumb shit. 

[prfctplcs]

I'm gonna preface this by saying I have no problem with representation. I love queer stories, especially when they're organic and natural. I'm bi, and I've had fulfilling relationships with women as well as men. Honestly, I would love a spin-off on Brimsley and Reynolds. It didn't feel.....forced. the characters were new and their story grew organically. Michaela? No. I'm trying to articulate how I feel without sounding like I hate the queer community because I genuinely don't. I appreciated Benedict's story line even if it was a little jarring. He's exploring, experimenting and that's fine. It still doesn't take away from his story. But the introduction of Michaela felt like a guy punch. It felt wrong. I've never particularly like gender swapping in stories based on an original IP, because it changes a lot of dynamics. It changes a lot of story lines. And yes, it's fiction, but I'm sorry I cannot get over it, especially when it's such a blatant case of pandering. It makes me feel as if I'm wrong to question this change and I've somehow internalised homophobia. If so, then why wouldn't I hate other queer characters or be similarly uncomfortable?

Okay I think I can make my argument clear with an example. If anyone has seen the movie Love Lies Bleeding, I think they'll get it. The sexual orientation of the characters didn't matter. It felt right. And it was not important to the story. It was just an established dynamic and we could enjoy the plot easily. It wouldn't have mattered if it was a heterosexual couple or a homosexual couple, the story is largely unchanged. If Michael becomes Michaela, here's the issues I see. Who inherits Kilmartin. We've already established an estate will go to the next male heir if the current owner dies. A major part of Michael's story was his guilt over his inheritance and his imposter syndrome. His story arc taking his place in parliament. It's all gone. I mean, I know the show isn't interested in the plots other than the main character pairing but this felt so wrong. If they wanted a lesbian lead, the just make another show with original characters why force this? I'm not looking forward to Francescas season at all. I'm sure a lot of people will like it and that's their prerogative but for me, personally, the only thing keeping the story moving forward is Benedict. Maybe Eloise. But I feel like the story of the show has lost its charm and has dug itself into a hole like Disney or marvel

warning, this reply is SO long but I just had so much to say!

We’re in the same thought process! I think you worded it perfectly when saying that it just doesn’t feel organic. I have a feeling that the shock factor of a character being lgbt that we didn’t necessarily expect to be so is what they were going for, perhaps to try and drive up views?

In my opinion, Benedict has had major bi vibes since the very first season, so nothing about that is shocking and it feels right for his added on experimentation. I also personally think that Eloise gives off major bi or lesbian vibes, and I think it would’ve been even better if they changed her story so that she ends up with Cressida in the end— seeing as (in the books) she ends up with a guy that is really only interested in having a wife to take care of his children (which is so far away from what show Eloise would go for and I’ll die on this hill). I think it would interesting if, rather than have Eloise write to Phillip, they have her write to Cressida, and they begin to form a romantic interest in each other in the same way Eloise does with Phillip in the books, and then they eventually run off together and live away from society where they’ll be accepted.

Francesca story, on the other hand, doesn’t flow so well with this massive change (in my opinion!). People can say what they want about how the show already doesn’t follow all of the societal norms that people actually did during the time period, and while that’s true, it’s already been established in the show that it’s still the closest MALE relative to inherit everything (often including wives) once the male head of a household passes (ex. Jack Featherington and Phillip Crane). So are they just gonna suddenly change all of that for John and Michaela? Also, another huge reason that Francesca wants to marry after John’s death is because she also has a miscarriage and longs to have children (which she struggles to do so for YEARS even after her and Michael are married and try). Will they eliminate that as well?

Not to mention the fact that it takes Francesca and Michael so long to get together in the book is because:

1. Francesca LOVES John. there is no questioning there, no wondering if she made the right choice. She fully expected to live an entire life married and in love with him, and the scene where she finds him dead is one of the most heart and for wrenching things I’ve ever read. She goes through years of grief and mourning for him because of how deeply and truly in love she was. And that is a way that she also learns to further bond with Violet, since both of them are widowed.

2. Michael feels as if people see him as someone who is trying to replace John, even though that’s never something he wanted, only Francesca, but he was still so respectful of her and keeping boundaries when she was with John. Those two weren’t just cousins, they were like literal brothers.

So again! It is absolutely no hate towards the LGBT community in any way. I would love even more representation in Bridgerton, but like you said, this change does not feel organic to Francesca’s character or storyline in any way, but more like a Marvel/Disney move to gain more views and therefore more money for the show without doing any actual good writing or plotting.

[noodle-shenaniganery]

I wish we had more schizo-spec representation that was just, y’know. A Guy. A Chill Dude, if you will. A Man In A Situation.

So often, schizo-spec characters are either The Crazy One In The Corner or The Insane Killer, and I think those are just really ridiculous ways of portraying such mental illnesses, y’know? Can’t we have more characters where their mental illness isn’t all there is to them? Like, “Meet Hannah. She’s a lesbian with two cats, a barista girlfriend, and she was diagnosed with schizoaffecfive disorder two years ago. She really likes chocolate muffins.”

To be clear, I don’t want to take away from the fact that some of these conditions can be life-ruining and truly devastating in some cases. These are serious mental illnesses, after all. I’d just like more representation of those who aren’t fully encompassed by that one, singular aspect of their identity.

One idea I had in specific was a sitcom (situational comedy) about a schizophrenic man in his late twenties who moves into a new house. It’s small, but surprisingly cheap, so he decides to take the deal. However, the twist would be that the house is haunted by several spirits which do not want people living in the residence. They try to scare him with all the classic horror movie tricks—but none of them work. He assumes that they’re simply hallucinations, and, honestly, he’s seen far worse. He just jots them down in his mental list of “I should talk to my friends (or therapist) about this” things and moves on. And his friends, most of whom also have stigmatized mental illnesses like BPD, DID, HPD, BIID, etc., are a big help in his life and would be the main side characters. I know that such an idea would have to be handled exceedingly carefully, but, I dunno… I’d like to see it.

Would anyone else? I’d honestly love to know.

[overheard-at-camp-half-blood]

(Unpopular? ) pj opinion, the possibility to join the Hunters of Artemis should have been open to not girls and older people too. Lesbian relationships are forbidden, too, so why would she care if there are other genders? And, if the goal was aroace rappresentation, why limit it to young girls, risking to reinforce the stereotype that only young and immature people can be aroace and taking away rappresentation from aroace males, whom already don't have a lot of it?

What do you think?

Somewhat disagree, but I do think there are many flaws with the writing of the Hunters, but I also don’t think it’s “taking away representation away from aroace men” because aroace people can exist outside of the Hunters.

My issue is that Rick only wrote aroace people in the Hunters, or if a character became aroace, they immediately got shoved in the Hunters.

Full disclosure, the Hunters of Artemis did not exist in the myths, at least not as they exist in PJO, but she did have people who followed her around, and while there were some men, most, I believe were women.

That being said, one thing about Artemis in the myths is that she is a protector of women, especially unmarried girls, which in Ancient Greece, was a big thing, because there weren’t many Gods that protected unmarried women and girls specifically.

So in a way, yeah, it does make sense that Artemis would have a group of young girls that she would protect, and would choose to protect women specifically, especially from men.

I just hate how Artemis was framed as a man-hater rather than someone who protected young girls.

[holyblanchett]

I have mixed feelings about Aubrey Plaza but that’s a discussion I am keeping off your account for both of our sanities sake :) agreed tho, if Lady Death ever returns, i dont think it’ll be Aubrey, unless we do get aaa s2 somehow.

I also agree with you that the casting of Aubrey and Kathryn and the fact they just both did really damn good with their characters and dynamic is the main reason people are so okay with letting Disney get away with lacklustre representation. Hell, they still somehow get flowers for it as if the homosexual tension all season to lead to a single kiss (if at all) to lead to one of them dying storyline isn’t a tale as old as time. It’s not that revolutionary and it plays into doomed Yuri and bury your gays and its just straight up not enough anymore in this day and age. Especially in this day and age. But i said I wouldn’t get political here.

Overall im super happy Wandavision and now AAA have made me notice and get into Kathryn Hahn, she is such a joy and i do love an unproblematic fave to get into, I am but a simple faggot after all.

But, and this is also about fandom culture overall, I do see a surprising lack of productive discussion on AAAs problems. People were really mad and then everyone just shut up and was fine because the showrunner said something about cottagecore on a podcast(or article i am not looking that up rn lol).

When we could very well be like No Jac, they didn’t actually live in a cottage because you didn’t write that in your script when you might as well could have. Own up to that Queen. It’s not 2015 anymore, if your queer rep sucks then you gotta take accountability. We deserve better. Always have.

I dunno, I dont like queers as a money maker in media, even tho its actually such an interesting topic too, i could go on forever (clearly). Look guys were so woke! Kind of! A little bit! Don’t look too close and by god, be grateful!

Long Story Short, the more Schaefer tries to sell us this lesbian wives love story epos the less I buy it. Still hoping for season 2 but not optimistic thats actually gonna happen.

Remember kids, Big Corp just wants your money, they dont care about your feeling at the end of the day. Do with that what you will.

- 🐇

Thank you for sparing us both the future discourse her fans are insane lmao. At the time, it honestly felt like I was the only one upset after the episode aired. If you followed me during that time -- I apologize, I think my crash out lasted like three days 😭 I still refuse to rewatch the show because of the way Jac/Marvel treated their relationship. It is by far one of the worst things I've seen in a long time. And before people come for me, yeah you can cry in my comments about censoring all you want. Jac literally said the reason there wasn't more Agathario was because she didn't think people would actually care. So if you're easily triggered, I would suggest you skip this post cus I'm not arguing with yall in the comments today.

Now back to your point. The bury your gays trope, particularly involving wlw ships plays into decades of exploitation of the queer community. Also let's be real, it's such a cliché and for someone that had queer writers (allegedly) on the show idkw no one told her how detrimental and insulting it is. I honestly wouldn't have been as upset if Agatha had died any other way. But killing her while she's essentially vulnerable and in the arms of the woman she has so much unresolved conflict/feelings with is just nasty work. Jac knew Agatha was supposed to die from the beginning. Which means she could have written it any other way. Hell, the final battle should have been against the Salem Seven and I stand by this.

There's going to come a time when playing both sides isn't going to work. I can only hope that in the future Marvel gets with the times and puts more care into their queer ships. It's what we deserve and we shouldn't settle for anything less.

[garaks-huge-naturals]

the frustrating aromantic representation of chuck tingle's "bury your gays"

i feel like i should preface this by saying that i'm a huge chuck tingle fan and, representation aside, i greatly enjoyed his book. so this is not like, a hate take down. this will contain spoilers for bury your gays, you are warned.

the parts i have issues with will be more towards the end and are marked.

a quick synopsis: misha is a queer horror writer who is told to either kill off his gay characters after getting them together, or let them live and be straight (for the algorithm, ratings, etc). while he is reeling from this he begins being stalked by the monsters/villains of his past works. plot happens and these monsters are really nanobot contractions from his studio's fx company. misha survives these attempts on his life (and his boyfriend's and best friend's), eventually giving a heartfelt award speech about the need for a shift towards queer joy. when he comes back to work the entire studio is like decked out in pride flags and the now stereotypically gay management tells him that queer is IN! even better, it's profitable (according to the algorithm). but these nanobots are still out there. so they go to the fx studio to insert a virus that takes them down, the best friend, tara, being an unprecedented aroace that the algorithm has no information on due to a lack of content, is able to circumvent the nanobots and take them down!! happy ending!! yippee!!

i'll be going in order of the book, touching on the times where tara's identity is relevant

tara's aspecness is established almost immediately when she says "you know i don't swing that way...i don't swing any way, baby." classic aspec joke, i have no issue with this.

its first explicit mention is on page 42, "tara is aromantic and asexual, which has always made me appreciate her take on relationship advice." ok this part is so real. we are so good at that.

ok now we get into the main stuff. Tara says, "do you realize how hard it is to tell your parents you're asexual?" this part is true, and in comparison to misha coming out as gay. and i really appreciate it highlights the strange societal position aspecs are in!! it's hard to affirm an identity defined by a lack. and even harder for baby wanting parents to accept an identity that is largely incompatible with the nuclear family model. as this is in reference to like sex -> having a child, mentioning just the asexuality makes sense. but it is still weird to not mention how hard explaining aromanticism would be considering aces can more easily have straight passing relationships. let's begin a tally: ace mentions: 2, aro mentions: 1.

(!) time skip we are now towards the end. misha is giving his heartfelt speech, "i call on all of you to usher in a new era of stories where the gay, or bi, or lesbian, or asexual, or pansexual, or trans character lives happily ever after. buy those stories. make those stories profitable." we are now entering the territory here i begin to get a little angry. fandoms and drama in shows are so closely tied with romance. they are profitable. they are like, the lifeblood of ao3, etc. people also have this notion that you need a partner to be happy, and that this is a universal goal. so characters and story arcs that stray away from this tend to be, y'know, less profitable. and since this is extremely relevant to aromanticism as an identity and important to debunk, the lack of a mention of aromanticism is frankly stunning. our stories are not wanted, we have no characters to live happily ever after. because we are not profitable. we don't get that joy. so where are we? this is a nitpick but i find it strange that misha would forget to mention like, entirely half of his friend's identity. ace mentions: 3, aro mentions: 1

(!!!) this is the most egregious part to me. when i read this part i was genuinely so stunned that i started crying. ok so i've established that aros have very little representation. it is a fact that there is less aro representation than ace representation. especially in regards to non-ace aros. "there's a hero clad in pink, purple, and blue, the bi one...this continues on and on until every aspect of the community has been covered...tara steps up next to me, her eyes locked on the poster. "there' no asexual hero...they've got everyone up there besides an ace character...every fucking time." ok. so. a lack of representation for aspecs is like a Thing That We All Know. as also established, aros are not algorithm friendly, so i just see no plausible way that there is aro representation but not ace representation. and there's just this like, poetic irony to this. that aros are so forgotten, so uncared for, that the author of the fucking book forgot to even mention them. because there are three ways this shakes out here. either there is an aro in the line up and dr. tingle deprived us of the validation we need to justify our anger for a lack of representation (which effects us all but aros more). or he just straight up forgot to include us. or he's grossly conflating the two identities. there's no good option. anyway. ace mentions: 5, aro mentions: 1

here we have yet another mention of tara being ace, yet not aro, "my name's tara. i'm the asexual in the corner everyone's been ignoring." would be funny if aromanticism hadn't been grossly ignored once again. ace mentions: 6, aro mentions: 1

(!!!) time for tara to save the day (girlboss). "just pull up all the information you have on asexual and aromantic heroes...oh wait, that's gonna be pretty fucking difficult because there are almost no human asexual heroes represented in popular media, are there." like actually like the fuck. what the fuck. there are so little aro heroes that the author forgot about the one he had!! there are so little aro heroes that the author fucking forgot to mention how few there are. incredible. ace mentions: 10, aro mentions: 2 (ace mentions not quoted here but part of the rant)

so. thats the end of the book. it seems to me that dr. tingle might be a little confused. he's been a great supporter in the past of the aspec community. but there is a pattern of aro erasure in this book that frankly, pisses me off! but wait, there is more!

dr. tingle. babygirl. bestie. what the fuck is this? op explicitly said aroace character. and what do you do? you reblog with only an ace flag. do you not remember your character's own identity? or do you not acknowledge aros outside or aces? let's look at some more quotes from this post.

wow thanks for the solidarity dr. tingle (like, actually)!

what is this? whoopty fucking doo! aros totally dropped after their initial mention? again! but there is simply no precedent for this!!

i'd like to end this with a quote by dr. tingle.

glad you remembered the aces. maybe next time, remember the marginalized people you leave behind.

[annimator]

AIGHT SO CARNIVAL OF CHAOS IS ONLY NINE DAYS AWAY, I’M GETTING IMPATIENT, AND ALL THE AUDITIONS AND CHARACTER INTROS ARE NOT HELPING OMG IM SO EXCITED FR FR.

(Spoilers below or smth idk)

• Tristan & Hannah were already 2 of the characters I was most excited about when the Carnival of Chaos cast photo was released, BUT THEN AS IT TURNS OUT, HANNAH’S A BISEXUAL FILIPINO-CANADIAN, AND TRISTAN’S NON-BINARY. THIS TYPE OF REPRESENTATION MAKES ME SO HAPPYYYYYYYYYYYY

• I SHIP THOSE TWO SO MUCH BTW, THEY’RE MY OTP FOR THIS SEASON

• Isabel’s gonna be an interesting character considering her whole influencer nun thing. Last I checked, James has more followers than her lmao

• Natalia’s audition is the best audition, argue with the wall. We appreciate Riya slander in this household and her talking about how the show needs her with all the twinks they nearly killed made me laugh my ass off (I DON’T DISLIKE RIYA BTW, I’M JUST VERY CONFLICTED ABOUT HER BECAUSE SHE’S AN INTERESTING BITCH OF A CHARACTER BECAUSE OF HER ARC THROUGHOUT S2 & ALL STARS)

• I saw a post on twt predicting that Benji’s gonna become a twist villain because of his perfectionist nature & the fact that he needs college funds or smth, and I’m honestly on that train that would be so interesting for his character.

• ALSO HE’S SUCH A FUCKING DORK, I LOVE HIM

• Literally all the VAs sound like they enjoy voicing their characters and that makes me rlly happy :D

• I was immediately intrigued by Alessio’s character as an artist myself. His design’s fucking awesome too, and him saying that he doesn’t have the best time connecting to others was so relatable HE’S JUST LIKE ME FR

• AWWW JADE HAS TWO MOMS :D Love how she made peace with her vitiligo and to use the winning money to give back to sea life and pursue marine biology

• Zaid’s gonna be an interesting character considering the fact that he’s a chef. Also he wants to give the money to his mom, that’s so fucking wholesome bro wtf-

• I’m mainly rooting for everyone that I just listed, but I genuinely like (or love in Hannah, Tristan, & Isabel’s case) every single character from this cast, until the actual season proves otherwise

• I wasn’t really rooting for Ted or Logan until the auditions dropped, but they seem pretty intriguing! Also Ted’s probably gonna be the villain of the season because of the whole poker player thing he has goin on

• Spencer’s gonna crush on Diego so hard lmao. Him saying that there isn’t gonna be a twist in the game that’ll throw him off course sealed his fate

• SPEAKING OF WHICH, Diego being so excited about meeting new friends and saying that Disventure Camp is gonna be the next journey of his life was so wholesome

• I’m also a lesbian Anastasia truther lol. Her and Marissa would be a great couple >:D

• I love women with abs and Marissa is no different

• I mean what who said that

• Richard’s canonically gay, happily married to his husband, and has a daughter, good for him

• Lynda has the same VA as best girl Lucia, I’m sold

• IVY’S SO SILLY AND AWKWARD. I LOVE HER

• Amelie’s intriguing ig :p

• Trevek better be gay & happy during this season btw, it’s what they deserve. The staff plot for this season’s gonna be interesting considering that Emily’s an intern, and will probably be third-wheeling them lmao.

• Also saw some people on twt complaining about all the gay pairings, and I just wanna say THIS IS DISVENTURE CAMP BITCH. WE LOVE GAY SHIPS IN THIS MOTHERFUCKER. TAKE YOUR HETERO ASS BACK TO TOTAL DRAMA- (/j btw. I saw the reboot seasons, mkulia and rajbow are adorable together)

• So yeah, I’m totally normal about the upcoming season :)

[couldlesbiansavethem]

Talia, Princess of Xeris from LoliRock

Reasoning: "From the showrunners’ own admission: “As a lot of you already guessed, we were asked to give each of our girl “an official boyfriend.” Iris has Nathaniel from the start, Auriana was written to have many & none at the same time, but nothing was written for Talia in the serie’s bible. And so, Kyle was created... but now it feels that we rushed it. We weren’t ready to give Talia a boyfriend, and we made a lot of early mistakes. :) No shame to admit it though, as long as we learn from it. Kyle was thought to be a nice and patient boy, able to “melt” Talia’s sense of duty and help her relax and enjoy life too. It was “Talia’s issue” in this episode, and Iris was supposed to help her solve it. It could have been good this way, but truth is : Talia didn’t need Kyle for that, and it made this relationship kind of artificial and forced. The twins’s evil plot was kinda confusing, I admit it too. Now, I think a better way to finish this episode would have been to have Talia realizing that focusing only on the mission all the time wasn’t healthy for her, politely telling Kyle “thanks, you’re cute, but let’s just be friends... at least for now”, and telling Iris & Auriana “thanks girls, you’re the best, and you’re right : I should relax more, but right now I don’t need or want a boy for that. Let’s play music instead !” or something like that. https://www.tumblr.com/teamlolirock/158961249748/s01e08-talia-and-kyle-sitting-in-a-tree?source=share It is clear that the writers struggled to write a convincing narrative for Talia having a boyfriend, but were constrained into song so because of the execs’ heteronormativity. So because of that I just thought that it would be cool if Talia had had a girlfriend instead! I mean, it makes so much sense! We don’t see her fawning over any boys besides Kyle(which the writers themselves even admit was shallow and forced and that Kyle was an unnecessary character who didn’t need to exist), and she doesn’t really have any romantic chemistry with any male characters like Iris or Auriana do. In fact, she even says herself that she doesn’t have time for boys. She just doesn’t really seem to give a shit about boys at all. And even Mephisto gets to have some romantic chemistry/ship tease moments with Iris and Auriana(he falls in love with Iris due to being under a love spell and acts super cheesy and romantic, and also later says that he would serve Iris as Queen if he weren’t working for Gramorr, and he also shows multiple times that he had a crush on Auriana), but none with Talia. In contrast, she has a lot of close and affectionate moments with female characters such as Iris and Auriana, and is shown warming up to them over time. It is easy to see how one could ship her with the two, especially Auriana because of the opposites attract trope. Because of this, I think that Talia being a lesbian could be a great course of action for her character to take, as it wouldn’t detract from canon in any way(they could easily dismiss Kyle as computer, something that she thought she wanted, but didn’t, and call it a day). And she could end up in a relationship with a princess such as Carissa or Lyna. While I don’t think the writers intended to make her a lesbian and that they rather just didn’t want her to have a boyfriend yet/be boy-crazy(similar to Clawdeen Wolf, another Black female character in a girly kids’ cartoon who wasn’t boy-crazy like her female friends which led to the fandom head smoking her as a lesbian and her creator wholeheartedly supporting it), I do think that her being one is the most natural direction of her character and would serve as a cool way to do away with the heteronormativity in the show. And also give Black girls like me some femme lesbian representation. It would certainly make me see myself in her more. And love her more. So there. 🩵" ( @justanisabelakinnie )

[1moreff-creator]

Thank you DRDT crew!

Even though I’ve only been a fan for a short time compared to others, the amount of love I have for this series is hard to put into words. It has slowly grown to be my favorite DR-related media of all time, for a multitude of reasons. Everything about it is remarkably impressive, and I just wanted to say thank you for bringing us such an amazing experience.

I got into DRDT through Weeby Newz’ streams. I had just finished binge watching her SDRA2 streams, but this “Danganronpa Despair Time” one looked interesting. Especially because I kept seeing a video by Ocean Unknown popping up in my recommended, which said something about “David’s reveal”. So I decided to watch those vods too.

Fast-forward a binge watch, and… I was in love. It didn’t even register how attached I’d gotten to every single character, and how intrigued I was to see how everything would play out.

I absolutely wouldn’t have started a Tumblr blog without DRDT. But now I have, and it’s been one of the most fun experiences I’ve had in fandom. So, from the bottom of my heart:

Thank You!

Thank you for the dedication to do such a long and arduous project!

Thank you for the beautiful art! I’ve always been a fan of DRDT’s unique style, and those animations always take my breath away, no matter how many times I see them.

Thank you for all the amazing characters you’ve brought to life! I love them all so much, I could thank you for each one individually.

… So I will.

•Thank you for Teruko! Because she’s one of my favorite protagonists from anything ever, as her intriguing and complex personality is always a joy to analyze.

Also, uh, thank you for the prosopagnosia rep. I probably have that too, but I would have never found out without DRDT. It really explained a lot about my life, so it can be said this series has changed me forever :D

•Thank you for Xander! It’s refreshing to see a character like him being so important to the story, with so many mysteries still surrounding him!

•Thank you for Charles! Because this nerd is one of the most likable and enjoyable characters I’ve seen in any fangan.

•Thank you for Ace! Because he manages to be both very funny and very interesting and complex whenever needed.

•Thank you for Arei! It’s always nice to see a ‘mean’ character with such well thought out motivations and such drive to change.

•Thank you for Rose! Her attitude always makes me feel calm when I think about her, and I’m really interested in seeing where her character and themes are going to go.

•Thank you for Hu! Another one I’m really intrigued by, I can’t wait to know more about her!

•Thank you for Eden! For showing that even “the nice one” characters can have depth and complexity. Also representation win, the nicest girl ever is a lesbian!

•Thank you for Nico! They are so, so interesting. I feel like I’m overusing the word “intriguing”, but they really are so fun to think about. Also representation win for the enbies! Love to see it.

•Thank you for Whit! Because he’s funny, and interesting, and there’s definitely something wrong with him it’s nice to have a character that doesn’t have any big issues :D

Just kidding! The reason I love DRDT so much is that everyone gets to be a little fucked up, as a treat!

And representation win! The coolest guy ever is bisexual!

•Thank you for J! She’s funny and cool and- you guessed it, intriguing. I am running that word to the ground, but it’s true for everyone!

•Thank you thank you thank you for Veronika!!! She’s so great. She’s fantastic. She always brings a smile to my face, she’s so perfect in every way shape and form. God I love her so much, I want her to go as insane as her crazy little heart desires. And more representation! Sorta jealous of the pansexuals who got this freak (affectionate).

•Thank you for David! How can a character be so complex, that you look at Literature Girl Insane and decide it needs more literary references to properly convey them? Well, David’s the answer, and geez. He’s just so fantastically written, it’s incredible. Another big win for the bisexual community imo.

•Thank you for Levi! He’s really cool, and everything about him is interesting.

•Thank you for Arturo! Because as much of a weirdo as he can be, his entire character is just really, really interesting.

•Thank you for MonoTV! Because it’s funny and its personality has to be one of the most unique I’ve ever seen for mascot characters.

•Thank you for Mai! I mean, who?

•Thank you for Unnamed Classmate! Because they’re really nice and I can’t wait to see where they go.

And of course…

•Thank you, so much, for Min! She may very well be my favorite character from anything ever. Everything about how she’s written is phenomenal, her personality and struggles are so well developed, I could gush about her for hours! She means so much to me, I can’t properly describe how in love I am with her.

Thank you for the laughs! From the arm wrestling scene, Charles getting obliterated by MonoCredits, “milk tastes good”, Teruko tripping over Nico… Not to mention the greatest joke ever conceived: the bathroom investigation. I laughed for a solid minute or two when I first watched it, just replaying the funniest thing ever on loop.

The Q&As were also really funny, and I never really had an issue with the way the were written. I fully understand and support if you decide not to do them ever again, but they were fun while they lasted. From Nico’s favorite ice cream flavor being “the flavor”, to us forgetting people can have friends aside from Mai I mean who, all the way to that time you directed us to inform ourselves on what a pant pocket is.

Thank you for the tears! Because I still can’t watch Min’s final hug without my chest hurting, a lot. Even some of the frames from the Sleepy MV, that beautiful piece of art, get me to tear up just looking at them.

Thank you for the mysteries! From the murders which are really fun to theorize about, to everything related to Mai Akasaki and the multiple source code secrets. And don’t even get me started on the LGI MV, that insanity (affectionate) has been eating at my brain ever since it released. Everything about it is fantastic, even the things we still haven’t solved.

Where’s footnote 8, dev?! Did you put it in your pant pockets?! (/j)

Also, tangentially, thanks for introducing me to the LGI album. It’s a really good album ^^

Thank you for the research you’ve put into everything! Things like Ace’s talent causing his eating disorder are really appreciated, they show a genuine care and love for the project.

Thank you for all the little details you might think no one notices, but that we love to see! Things like the first Nonstop Debate ending in perjury, Teruko listing Xander as one of the people whose secret was unrevealed, David’s eyes being different in his genuine breakdowns to his little thing in Ep 11, strychnine not being listed with the other custom weapons because Charles made the list, the note Xander received having a proper full message which has been obscured (I can only make out “it is” at the bottom, but it’s clear the message is there), the charm on Teruko’s thing-that’s-probably-a-MonoPad-but-may-be-something-else being the same as Unnamed Classmate’s phone charm, all the interesting details in the character profiles, among so many other things.

This also includes details revealed on Q&As. Arei being ambidextrous, Teruko liking “girly” clothing, Xander having a weak sense of taste, Ace having 9 siblings, Veronika’s earring being related to a friend, all the favorite and least favorite colors and ice cream flavors. As well as the few things we know about people like Felicity and Elliot that made the community fall in love with them for no apparent reason. It just makes them all seem so human!

Thank you to the voice actors, as well! They’ve all done such an amazing job, no exceptions! In particular, Veronika’s unhinged laughter, the dialogue after Ace’s almost murder, Min’s last words, David’s speech post the “guilty as charged” incident… but it’s all fantastic, all the characters are voiced really well.

And thank you for so much more! If I kept going, this post would never end. DRDT just means more to me than any finite number of words could ever convey. Without your work, the days pass by tastelessly /ref. So, one last time for the road:

Thank you for everything!

(God I love the Sleepy MV so much. It’s so pretty!!!)

[honey-doggo]

Let's Talk Dionysus and Melinoe

A question I will say right now and to keep in mind for this is "What is the purpose of Dionysus and Melinoe to the story?", I ask this because I can't think of any answer besides RS just wanted them there. Which in my opinion sucks because of how RS portrayed the two. I really do believe the two could have a bit more narrative weight (mainly Melinoe) and since RS won't do it, I might as well make my own au sorts to give my thoughts an outlet. However, that's a post for another day. I want to focus on Lore Olympus for this post. This is going to be way longer than my other post.

Random Disclaimer: This mainly targets the entirety of Melinoe and Dionysus' portrayal concerning Orphic myths. Due to my unfamiliarity with Orphic myths, anything I do say about Orphic myths is from surface-level research. I will acknowledge that throughout the post, I'm not a professional, and I will never pretend I am.

Let's start with Dionysus first since I'm a bit more knowledgeable about him. So as some may know Dionysus is the Greek god of wine, vegetation, festivities, and madness. His portrayal in LO is simply the god of wine. A lot of people (including me) have some issues with his character in Lore Olympus for many reasons. I can't speak for others, but I will give some of my reasons for my dislike of his character. I'm doing this to give context to why I think his portrayal is disappointing.

The existence of alcohol: One of Dionysus's most important moments in his myths is the creation of wine. He makes wine and shares it with people around the world. So, the fact that alcohol (which includes wine) existed before Dionysus was born is a bit of a problem. Mainly due to the fact it takes away something integral to Dionysus.

The purpose of Dionysus being a baby: this combines with the first point a bit, not a lot to put it in the first point. Dionysus has no reason to be a baby. He's essentially a background character that is in the frame more often. Due to Dionysus not providing much to the story, RS might as well have not added him or made him an adult. The cast itself is pretty bloated due to RS wanting to tackle multiple myths. So, Dionysus not being there or an adult in the background would make more sense.

LGBTQ Representation: So, RS is pretty bad at making LGBTQ rep. I say this because I have a lot of issues with Hestia and Athena (speaking as someone who's an Ace Lesbian). This post is not about those two and the wider issue with the LGBTQ rep in LO. However, I do feel it's necessary to bring up Dionysus regarding LGBTQ rep. Dionysus is a baby and staying in the underworld it's highly unlikely Dionysus would stay in the mortal realm for a long time. Also, since wine does already exist it does leave out a myth that mentions a male lover of Dionysus. Another part to consider that rubs me the wrong way is the fact RS used the name of said male lover as the name of Psyche's "nymph form". This has led me to be worried that if LO had more seasons RS would have ignored Ampelos (Dionysus's male lover) in favor of only acknowledging Ariadne. Keep in mind I said also "only" and not just "acknowledging Ariadne". This is due to the fact that Dionysus had many lovers outside of Ariadne. However, a part of me knows that I can't verify if RS wants to end at season 3 or not. Either way, Dionysus and LGBTIQ rep is a symptom of a much greater problem.

RS focusing on the god of wine: I don't know if RS knows Dionysus is more than the god of wine, or if she only focused on that to not overlap with Melinoe on the Madness part. Either way, just like with a lot of gods in Greek mythology they are more than the thing they are most known for. Not acknowledging some of these other things makes Dionysus feel bland.

TLDR: Dionysus is very interesting and LO from a timeline and story perspective robs Dionysus of anything interesting. Like a lot of other gods.

RS has a lot of material to work with if she wanted to make Dionysus a part of the main cast in some way. Which I am a bit inclined to believe she kind of wants to due to using a specific myth related to Dionysus. So, let's touch on Orphic myths for a bit, since it focuses on Dionysus and Persephone a bit more. From what I can find it's believed that Dionysus was an incarnation of Zeus and Persephone's son Zagreus (who was killed and later reborn into Dionysus). The Orphic myths are the only myths I can find that say Persephone is Dionysus' mother. So, I think it's safe to say that RS has taken some bits and pieces from the Orphic myth. Another reason I feel comfortable saying that, is the existence of Hydros. Hydros is mentioned in the Orphic theogonies, and RS made him a character in LO.

[Gaia and Hydros: Episode 229]

So, RS wanted to include Dionysus in the way that she did. Having Persephone be Dionysus' mother. However, I think this was a bad move because 1. this happened not so long after the H x P marriage (chapter-wise I'm not sure about the timeline) and 2. this does absolutely nothing for Persephone and Dionysus. Take Dionysus out of the story and nothing will change that's how insignificant Dionysus is to the plot. I guess at the moment since RS decided the Grape with legs can speak (not well but noises are coming from his mouth). Regardless of whether Dionysus becomes important or not, he wouldn't matter to the plot. Any importance he might get in the future could be given to another character. Speaking of another character, let's talk about Melinoe.

Melinoe is considered a goddess/chthonic nymph of Madness and of the dead ghost may be included as well), daughter of Persephone, and/or an Orphic title for Hecate. Her birth parallels Zagreus' birth in some ways. Mainly the fact that Zeus is both of their fathers and he disguised himself to sleep with Persephone. A major difference I noticed in my research is that in the Hymn to Melinoe, it states that she was born in the underworld on the mouth of the Kokytos River.

Now from what I can find Hades might have been a facet of Zeus rather than his own person. While I can't verify if that is 100% true, I will touch on Hades not being the father. Either way, there is more emphasis on Melinoe being Persephone's Daughter. So, I find it odd that RS made her more associated with Hades rather than Persephone. Ignoring the fact, the story forgets about Melinoe too often. I think Melinoe would have worked fine as a replacement for LO Dionysus. Maybe Persephone could have done a similar process to her own creation and made Melinoe. I pictured this happening before she eats the pomegranate seeds or maybe we can find some to bs Melinoe into existence. I just want Melinoe to have more of a connection with Persephone than Hades.

In my honest opinion, neither of these two should be in Lore Olympus. Mainly due to the fact the plot doesn't really care for these two. If these two had to be in the story, I think making these two parallels in some way would be pretty interesting. Mainly due to the fact they both deal with madness in some way. I'm just disappointed with how RS handled them. They could have been cool, same with everyone in LO.

That's all I got for now, I'm physically in pain, and the pain is making it hard to think clearly. If I missed something, please let me know.

[adventurermari]

Feel like I need to give Steven universe another chance, I feel like I was too harsh on it for many years.

I'll be honest, I never really got into Steven universe, during the time it started airing, I was growing into my "all modern cartoons are dumb" phase due to me beginning to leech of other people's opinions on the internet and thinking what they said was right. Along with me having a very skewed perception of queer people due to being exposed to a lot of really edgy memes as a teenager, although I would be there would be some instances where I've given some shows a chance like star vs., the loud house, and some others that I'm probably not thinking about although I do know that I fell out of watching modern cartoons again out fear of being judged.

that phase of my life would finally go away when I hit my early 20's and overtime I would begin re watching many cartoons I haven't seen in years, from classic cartoons from the 1930's to 1940's and even watching one show in particular that I never saw, that being the 2018 She Ra reboot, A year before watching she ra I began learning a lot and becoming more aware about various issues that queer and other marginalized groups of people were facing and learned to take them much more seriously, I was also trying to heal from a lot of bad personal experiences that I would prefer to not speak about here. watching She Ra was a massive part of my egg cracking phase, it was one of those things that made me realize that I was very fascinated with lesbian/wlw relationships, quite literally cheering for catra and adora to kiss in the lips, which is another thing I did when I first saw princess bubblegum and marceline kiss in the series finale for adventure time back when it came out. The show would inspire me to have a lesbian relationship between two of my original characters, Melanie and Grizzly, something that has stuck to this day.

While writing those two characters, I had a bit of a panic in terms of what my true gender identity was, especially because I began to realize I felt a similar way about myself in a similar way that Grizzly felt about her self, for context, Grizzly is a trans woman, so I ended up spending a couple of months trying to unpack my own identity and trying plenty of labels and rethinking my entire sense of fashion. Thus leading me figure out who I truly am, a non binary trans woman and also a pan lesbian. Which was around 2 years ago. and even with in the span of those two years and even this year, I have changed so much as a person, I've gotten back into so many things that I have suppressed for so many years (examples: Minions and ugly dolls, specifically the original toy line, not the movie) thanks to the encouragement of my own partner who I have happily been in a T4T relationship in for the past year, and within the span of that year, I feel like I've grown so much more rapidly and healed from my past experiences much better since we both fell in love. (also dear if you're reading this I love you so much and I'm going to love you for the rest of my life, you are the best human being I've ever met)

Now you must be wondering what the hell this has to do with Steven universe, basically, what I am trying to say is that with the immense amount of personal growth I've gone through, and how much I've become more comfortable with liking things I was a afraid to for so many years, I feel like Steven universe would be symbolic of that growth I've gone through in a way, that and of course I want to give the show another chance in general, now of course, I am aware that it is far from perfect, but it is something that I've grown to respect for how much it paved to way for LGBT+ representation in animation and just having an overall impact on cartoons that we are still seeing today. That show is basically has the same level of impact that shows like Adventure Time, G4 My Little Pony, and Gravity Falls for how influential it is to the current landscape of cartoons and the community that we see today. Also from what little songs that I've heard from the show, they are really good, especially stronger than you, not only that song is really good, but also it just brings me back to my undertale phase when that game was at the peak of it's popularity.

Okay, I feel like I've said everything I've had to say about steven universe, I not really sure how much the show is going to fully pull me into it, but I still think it's worth a try. Although I do have one more question to ask to those that see this post, has anyone else gone through a similar phase of hating steven universe like I did?