#with a character that can be easily read as both autistic and trans

[crypticpuffin]

I know this is an important statistic to repeat to keep people informed of the movie's dramatic negative consequences on shark populations in the wild, but I feel like this is often repeated without further context. people don't seem to realize that that had not been the intention of the movie at all-- it's hard to predict the impact a work of fiction will have on the general public, and the movie itself is not really anti-shark at all. most people, however, simply assume that it is, when this is very far from the truth.

very long rant continues below the cut, TL;DR at the bottom.

the fact remains, not only was it not the intention of the movie's creators to contribute to anti-shark stigma, the movie itself does not promote this message: the first half of the movie is focused entirely on not necessarily the shark at all (very little of it is seen in the first half at least), but on the selfish and irresponsible reaction of the town's council members that prioritize profit over the lives of beachgoers. I've seen this movie too many times to count, and I can't place any moment at all where the shark is directly blamed for its behaviour in this first half, only shown as a terrifying force of nature that, yes, is inaccurate to real life sharks. but it's a horror movie meant to frighten viewers, so it makes sense that they went down that path. they didn't predict the impact it would end up having on real sharks-- perhaps they assumed most people could tell the difference between a movie and reality, a common mistake.

(also want to mention that one of the main cast of the film, the character matt hooper, played by richard dreyfuss, is an oceanographer with a passion for studying sharks and even tells the story of how his boat getting eaten by a juvenile shark sparked his interested into his current field. again, very much not anti-shark.)

the second half of the movie is a bit different in the sense that it takes place entirely at sea with the three crew members of the boat tasked with finding and killing the shark-- they're doing this, again. because in the fictional world of the movie, highly influenced by a lack of available research on shark behaviour at the time, it was presumed that once a shark found a food source in a beachside community, it would not leave until said food source was depleted. in the movie, they do not set out to kill the shark out of anything but pure necessity to ensure no more deaths take place.

(also notable is that everyone seems to joke about the shark eating people and how that's the whole movie, which is evidently not true to anyone who's seen it and has any media literacy skills, and also fail to mention that the second victim of the shark attacks was a child. one of the most emotionally resonant scenes in the movie is the grieving mother of said child placing the blame on the town's police chief for not warning anyone of the threat he knew was present. yes, she does offer a bounty to kill the shark which turns into a veritable circus of amateur shark hunters trying to win it for themselves-- but this is only because she doesn't trust the authorities of the town itself to deal with the situation. the amateur shark hunters are also explicitly portrayed as inexperienced, careless, and insensitive, merely in it for the money and not even caring about the young boy's death that led to this situation. famously, the hunters that kill the wrong shark at first are shown to have no idea what kind of shark it is, simply assuming it's the one they're looking for.)

I think most of the criticism of the movie's attitude towards sharks probably comes from quint's character, the captain of the boat tasked with killing the shark-- especially concerning his one famous monologue about the tragedy of the USS Indianapolis (a real event that was only slightly altered for the purposes of the film). yes, he describes the sharks as terrifying and relentless, but that not the point of the story at all. awfully convenient how everyone remembers him comparing sharks' eyes to doll eyes, but not the part where he says the government failed to mark their mission as overdue for a full week after the ship had sunk, due to its secrecy, resulting in no distress signal having been sent during that entire time. the fact that the survivors were even rescued was more sheer luck than anything.

the point of the story he tells, if you actually pay attention to it, isn't that he was frightened of the sharks that killed much of the ship's crew-- anyone would be frightened in such a situation, and sharks are predators, after all (not evil, just animals that survive by feeding on others, but most people seem unable to see the distinction). no, the point was that that was the ship that delivered the hiroshima bomb at the end of WWII under the orders of the U.S. government. "anyway... we delivered the bomb." being the end of the story he tells means a great deal: the way I see it, he's saying "anyway... all that suffering, all that indifference towards the loss of human life... for the sake of more indifference and more death." the sharks are not the villains here-- the american government is, just as the town council, mainly the mayor, are the antagonists in the first half of the film.

oh, and, no one ever seems to mention: peter benchley, the author of the frankly, yes, very dated and problematic original jaws novel that nevertheless does make the point of anti-capitalism clearer despite all the novel's many problems... he spent the better part of his life after the movie came out trying to make up for the negative impact it had had on the perception of sharks worldwide. something like 40 years, he spent working closely with marine conservation organizations and educating people on the truth about sharks and the urgent need for their conservation. in the introduction included in a later edition of his novel, he not only says he could never have written jaws after learning what he knows now, but that he felt compelled to help sharks and to give back to them after they'd given him so much in life.

in conclusion, yes, the shark in the film is portrayed as fearsome and unprecedented. again, it's a horror movie meant to terrify, and again, benchley believed the incidents of shark attacks he portrayed in his novel were based in reality, due to the lack of available research at the time. it's hardly unique as a creature feature portraying real animals as frightening though-- like Stephen King's novel, Cujo, that was soon after adapted into a movie, portrays the titular dog as vicious and relentless. sure, this is shown to be the result of something else-- namely, having been bitten by a bat. which, yeah, also spreads misinformation about the likeliness of bat bites and rabies infection. btw. sure, saint bernards were not killed in real life as a result of the book or the movie, as far as I know-- again, audience reaction is difficult to predict.

but the fact still remains that what happened to sharks as a result was unintentional and horrifying to everyone involved in both the movie and the book. blaming the movie, (not necessarily what OP was doing, I just think they left out some crucial context that I have now tried to provide) to me, is just blaming a very good work of cinema (that I think is extremely worthwhile to watch, pirated preferably so as not to give spielberg any money, especially for the stellar screenplay and very obvious queer undertones) for being misinterpreted by its viewers and as a result, in pop culture as a whole. it had heavily negative impacts, certainly-- though it also inspired many people to get into shark conservation and marine biology, btw-- but to entirely blame the work itself for this seems to me a very uninformed and simplistic view of the situation surrounding it.

TL;DR: Jaws is not anti-shark as a movie and its negative effect on the perception of sharks in the public consciousness was completely unintentional and can be chalked up mostly to lack of media literacy and subsequent mass misinterpretation of the movie. the author of the novel it was based on spent the rest of his life trying to make up for this by working towards shark conservation nevertheless.

btw even spielberg (who has used his success as a platform for his zionist and therefore highly prejudiced and destructive views, so please don't support him) has expressed guilt and remorse at the impact the film had on sharks.

again, not saying OP was dunking on the movie, just trying to provide additional context to clarify that the impact Jaws had on the marine environment was not nearly as simple and straightforward as most people seem to think.

and yeah. it's annoying to me when people go on social media or anywhere to say negative things about Jaws in this regard-- as a fan of the movie myself, I keep having to justify my enthusiasm for it-- when most of these critics have not even watched the movie they are criticizing. so all that I want to say really is to think twice before even jokingly accusing a work of fiction of something so serious, that's all (not what I'm saying OP is doing, just what I've seen previously on the internet and from people I've spoken to). and yeah, fiction affects real life, that's the idea. and especially due to the lack of media literacy, which is very noticeable today, this can lead to negative consequences that the creators of the media in question did not foresee.

‘’It’s just fictional! It doesn’t hurt anyone!’’ The Jaws movies sparked a shark-hunting trend that resulted in a decline of shark species up to as high as 90% But sure! Yeah! Fiction has no bearing on real life and human actions what so ever!

[gay-disabled-characters-showdown]

LGBTQ+ Disabled Characters Showdown Round 4, Wave 2, Poll 5

A character being totally canon LGBTQ+ and disabled was not required to be in this competition. Please check qualifications and propaganda before asking why a character is included.

Check out the other polls in this wave and round here.

Ballister Blackheart-Nimona (Novel)

Qualifications:

He’s gay and an amputee

Propaganda:

He’s a lot more evil and also more established on what he’s doing than the movie. I think he’s neat, he does a lot more scheming and plotting and general shenanigans.

Suletta Mercury-Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury

Qualifications:

While this is something which only became a point in the last episode, in the finale of the show, following the big action parts, Suletta was shown to need mobility aids three years afterwards. Also in this timeskip, it is revealed that she has since gotten married to Miorine, who is another woman. Also I'm not autistic or trans but I have seen many people headcanoning her as both.

Canonically disabled by data storm infection, uses crutches on screen. Is married to her wife.

Canonically LGBTQ, as she is shown to love and later marry Miorine Rembran, a girl. Canonically disabled, as in the last episode, the Permet leads her to “lose control of her body” and even in the epilogue 3 years later, she is still using crutches and has not been able to get her body to the way it used to be before.

Suletta Mercury pushed herself to the limits of human survival at the end of the show, but survived. She's disabled and still uses crutches in the 3-year time skip. Her wife loves her and Suletta is still pursuing her dreams of creating a school.

Spoilers probably for the series. She is canonically engaged, later married to a woman, Miorine Rembran, and at the end of the series is shown to be physically disabled, with her both speaking on her physical therapy and her crutches being in several shots. Also she is written in a way that can be read as neurodivergent.

Partially paralyzed

Propaganda:

I love this character so much and I need everybody to as well. First of all, to get the biggest notes out of the way to establish why she qualifies (with major spoilers for episode 24), Suletta, after a three years timeskip, is shown to need crutches to get around a lot of the time. This fact is ultimately treated as an accomplishment on her part (/is never treated as a bad thing, just because I like clarifying this when it comes to any form of rep), since it took her some time to get to the point where she could move around at all. Also in this timeskip, the girl Suletta has been engaged to throughout most of the series, Miorine, has since become her wife, shown largely by the two of them having matching rings and Suletta's relatives being referred to as Miorine's in-laws. This makes Suletta the very first sapphic protagonist in Gundam. I've also seen headcanons or her such as her being autistic or transfem get popular. Getting to what makes me love her, Suletta, early on, is very easily intimidated in a lot of regards, largely because this is her first time actually being around anybody her age, but she's always been trying her best! She generally tries very hard to be positive and cares about those around her very much but can easily question her worth and is sometimes deterred. She is very willing to stand up and fight (usually in a literal way because she has won many mobile suit duels) when it most matters, a trait which remained consistent throughout the series, whether it's in regards to her role as a rescue piolet in the Cradle Planet short story, the drive which ultimately caused her to win the duel which initially got her engaged to Miorine in her first in-series appearance or the finale of the whole show. Suletta is somebody who has gone through a lot of hurt (especially in the series. Eps 17 and 18 put this girl through the wringer), and ultimately wasn't really raised to have too much autonomy. But despite everything, she keeps going. She's a very strong person who cares about those around her and I love her for it.

She is just the most joyful person ever who loves her wife.

Above, and: Vote for the newlyweds!

Everything above applies here. Suletta is shown to still not fully able to walk well without her crutches in the shot we get of her walking in the finale, her crutches are explicitly shown in several shots, and she openly talks about how her physical therapy is going to her, now wife, Miorine. On the topic of her and Miorine, they were engaged as of episode 1 with an iconic line from Miorine of "I guess Mercury is rather conservative. That sort of thing is commonplace here." in response to Suletta responding that she was a woman as a rebuttal about being Miorine's fiancée. Lots happens, and it's not uncommon to see either one of them yearning for each other, with a genuinely well written romance that leads to a happy ending with them explicitly married.

In the final battle of the series, Suletta highly exerts herself piloting a dangerous Gundam and significantly damages her body to save her family and fiancée. It's described that she was left mostly paralyzed from the neurological overload. Three years later, she still has significant scarring and needs to use crutches as a mobility aid, and talks about how her dexterity is "recovering." This means she was also disabled during her wedding with her wife, and they're shown with matching wedding bands as they discuss her health.

Anything Else?:

There's a whole lot more in terms of their relationship, and i've basically given a seriously lightened, budget sparksnotes version of it. Also, Suletta became disabled from a crazy battle for the finale, where she unleashed a giant rainbow data storm with a rainbow glowing Gundam. (Submitter 4)

The qualifications and propaganda paragraphs correspond, @insertbrowsinghere is the first submitter.

[sharpth1ng]

Hi!!! First of all, I binged all of Debaser + Wave of Mutilation (switching between both the trans and cis versions every now and then) in three days and the writing is phenomenal!! Absolutely OBSESSED with the way you fleshed out Billy and Stu— it’s very refreshing to see when a lot of the fan content I consume of them are very mischaracterized versions of the boys (nothing wrong with that, just not my cup of tea). I have two questions, and you can answer one or both!

1. Would you be willing to talk more about the dog imagery you used throughout the fic for Stu? I love how he’s both so loyal but can bite so badly when pushed hard enough— and by the end I was like ‘He really is just a kicked hunting dog, isn’t he?’

2. You mentioned before that Billy is autistic in this version, and as an autistic person myself, it was SO easy to pick up for me and I got insanely giddy about it. What made you want to write Billy as an autistic character? And would you say his fascination for gore/harm/horror is a special interest of his, or a product of something more disturbed?

Thank you so much for the awesome content!! Definitely the best fic I’ve read on ao3 in YEARS, and I’m about to go back and read even more. (Also, love love LOVE Tammy. She’s easily my favorite side character).

Hi thank you so so much this is a lovely comment!

To answer your questions:

1. I really took the lapdog line and ran with it huh?

I think both metaphorically and also in terms of a kink dynamic, Dog-Stu works well. I see him as extremely present (like he exists in the moment), loyal, and simultaneously viscious. You nail it saying he's a kicked hunting dog- he does well when he's given his purpose, when he knows his place in the pack.

The movie tells us pretty clearly that his parents are neglectful, I think he feels adrift, pack-less especially when his sister moves out and he's alone a lot. He's a social being, he doesn't do well on his own and he doesn't particularly like having to take charge, it stresses him out.

Untrained dogs often do dominance behaviours out of stress. If someone else isn't clearly in charge, the dog thinks they have to be the boss and they get aggressive, they start barking all the time and pissing on stuff, but they aren't having fun doing it. They're confused about an unclear social structure, they're scared, and they feel unsafe until someone starts taking charge in a consistent way.

That's Billy. Sure, he's bossy, but Stu doesn't just do what he says because of peer pressure, he does it because it makes him feel safe. He likes to be trained, directed, to be useful. To him there's no degradation in following Billy's orders, it's his greatest purpose.

At the same time I think one of Stu's other defining traits is this wild, feral thing. He's capable of extreme violence, he delights in it, and we know he hunts. When he's ghostface (by my interpretation, I maintain there's no way for us to know who was behind the mask in any particular scene) we can see that play out.

It's his playfulness. Like theres something about the combination of playfulness and raw violence that just says canine to me.

Stu's dogness characterizes so much of his relationship with Billy, like he's a support animal. He's better at reading Billy than Billy is, and a lot of the time he's able to prevent him from freaking out, help stabilize him, make him feel secure. He often knows what Billy needs before Billy does.

So it's all of this, he's this creature that's built to be a predator, only partly domesticated and fiercely protective of his owner.

2. I actually didn't intend to write Billy autistic, it just happened.

I put a lot more of myself into Billy than into Stu, to be honest I relate to him a lot for things that are also autistic traits. I wasn't really thinking about it like that when I started writing, like I just didn't put two and two together and realize that the way I understand his character is fundamentally autistic.

I got a lot of people asking if I was writing him autistic early on, and once I thought about it I realized I super was.

After that I just let myself lean into it, gave him some of my stims, my sensory stuff ect. It's kind of so much more than that though, and I think that's what people were reacting too more initially. It's definitely the horror obsession, the way he uses movies to process and interpret the world.

I think a lot of autistic folks have some experience with this, but I very much used movies as a replacement for social interactions I wasn't having. They became a way for me to learn about other people, to learn what to expect from them and how I was supposed to act. This had its pros and cons, it gave me a lot of unrealistic understandings and expectations but also it gave me comfort and a place to start in terms of figuring out how to act like a 'person' (eg to mask, which I think helped me get through some stuff but also masking sucks and burns you out).

This is very much something I see Billy doing. Its in the way he quotes movies, the way he speaks like he's got a transatlantic accent for most of the movie (it disappears a bit when he sort of unmasks at the end of the movie after the reveal). It's also in little things, like the focus on having sex with Sid despite (in my opinion) the fact that he doesn't seem to want to. He knows that virginity protects you in a slasher movie and he wants his plan to work so he needs to get that out of the way.

I think the language of movies and horror in particular are comforting to him. It's why he refers to real life situations as "scenes" and imagines how he would shoot them if he was filming them. It organizes life, turns it into something he can process.

So yeah I would say that horror and gore are a special interest, but where he takes that special interest is something more disturbed. I want to be clear I'm in no way connecting Billy's autism to the murder.

The other big part of this interpretation is the stark difference between his behaviour in the bulk of the movie vs his behaviour after the reveal, when he unmasks. He becomes so much more animated, expressive and physical once he no longer needs to be acting. He's smiling, laughing, loud, his hands are moving, his wrists are limp, and its such a massive change from his extremely controlled expression and the tense way he holds himself for a lot of the movie.

And then when things start to go wrong he has what I see as a meltdown. The plan is failing and suddenly the lights in the kitchen are too much and he can't think anymore. He starts pacing, nonsensically stabbing pillows, he no longer feels in control of himself at all.

So yeah, autistic Billy! Theres probably more I could say about this, it's also a big part of the way I write his sensory experiences and sexuality, but this is already long enough.

Thanks again for the lovely comments!

[feralshadowdemon]

HELLO

ivan, chuuya, fukuchi, tetchou, AAAAND

yosano

HELLO!!!!!!!!! THIS IS GOING TO BE LONG ivan goncharov first impression: oh how did fyodor fuck you up (did not know/realize he was lobotomized either) impression now: ohh he's my silly. his english dub voice gives me gender envy. i like his eyes. he is weirdly a well-written lobotomized guy. i looked into actual lobotomy for you favorite moment: his entire fight scene was good and more people should talk about it. signed yours truly me idea for a story: primarily? a general character study, however, - bubble bath. it is a character study with him and shibusawa. not set in canon - highschool au. he deserves to be a normal highschool student. he would swear a sweater vest. i will die on this hill unpopular opinion: his character is really fucking good and yes his ability's name is on the nose but i hope we see him again. i don't like shipping him in canon though bc he can't. Consent. Fyovan should not exist. also i think more people should be paying attention to the bsd side characters favorite relationship: shibuvan/shibusawa x ivan and you know it. my #1 comfort ship in my heart. they are so cute <3 favorite headcanon: he has tics and freckles. also sometimes i like making him trans the others are below v

chuuya nakahara first impression: oh he's cool impression now: I WANT TO BE YOU YOUR CHARACTER IS SO COOL GIVE ME YOUR GENDER YOUR CHARACTER SCRATCHES MY BRAIN YOUR ABILITY IS SO COOL. I AM NOT NORMAL. favorite moment: THE HELICOPTER SCENE OH MY GODD idea for a story: i have many! - hirotsu visits him during a stormy night and he's suffering w chronic pains but hirotsu gets him his meds. they get to talk a little. they are silly to me - summer camp au w dazai they are at war constantly - i have too many, but to briefly summarize the rest: fan dancer and kitsune au, meiji era/period au, chuuya and kouyou fic/character study, there will be more after i read stormbringer unpopular opinion: he probably doesn't have anger issues. might just be agitated easily or because of dazai. also people need to stop getting his character soo wrong because the amount of mischaracterization that surrounds that man is NOT funny favorite relationship: people sleep on his and hirotsu's possible dynamic. next one is well. okay. it's obvious, but soukoku, i just like their dynamic whether it's romantic or not. absolute menaces. shoutout to kunichuuzai also, but i honestly cannot ship that man all the time. bonus platonic relationships i really like is the idea of tetchou and chuuya becoming good fucking friends. let chuuya have so many friends to make up for the ones he's lost favorite headcanon(s): freckles chuuya, lightning scars chuuya, nonbinary chuuya (i dont use they/them for them all the time but i am a believer in it), chronic pains, autistic, metal/rock (the song genre) lover, sanrio and ocean life special interest, also demisexual/demiromantic !! sorry they have the most. favoritism is showing fukuchi ochi

first impression: oh doesn't he kill everybody's faves. meh impression now: YOUR CHARACTER AND WRITING IS SO OVERLOOKED. YOU ARE DAD MATERIAL AND THAT SCARES ME BUT IM ALSO :D ABOUT IT favorite moment: the entire fucking fight he has with atsushi and akutagawa. you don't understand he was both terrifying and also that gave me an actual adrenaline rush once i watched it in the anime. the music was so good. also the scene w aya !! idea for a story: the main one is a fukufuku fic where it goes through how overtime, fukuzawa in fukuchi's eyes is more like a wolf than a human being. it's his way of making it hurt less when he has to hurt him. i cant remember any others, but i hope there will be more unpopular opinion: can the fandom not hate on him so much lmao i dont mind seeing people dislike him that's valid but like. give him a chance i swear. he also can be trusted with children favorite relationship: him and fukuzawa's (romantically or platonically idrc). holy shit. holy shit. holy shi- also bonus shoutout to him and ranpo's!! it is not shown a lot but augh. of course i love his relationship with the hunting dogs too but fukufuku sits at the top favorite headcanon: hm. i can't think of any rn tetchou suehiro

first impression: AUTISTIC impression now: AUTISTIC favorite moment: them and kenji's fight >>>>> idea for a story: they are a samurai and they meet jouno along the way. they stay with fukuchi after having a rough run-in with an innkeeper and some people who are after them. they smell like blossoms unpopular opinion: i wish people wrote them beating up people more they're literally one of the strongest characters (physically specifically) of bsd favorite relationship: them and jouno's is peak favorite headcanon: asexual and nonbinary tetchou for the win. my most favorite one of all time though is them being half-taiwanese :] akiko yosano (surprise???)

first impression: please be well written. impression now: she is so cool!! i wish she had more screentime but oh my god she is so cool <33333 she is fun in the manga and i love her so much favorite moment: her backstory i wanna say. we don't get too much content of her but damn her backstory hits hard. it adds so much to her character and i love her a lot idea for a story: she and fukuzawa go shopping together. i think she also deserves some fics w fukuzawa. they have a fun time !! unpopular opinion: not a fan of kousano favorite relationship: her and ranpo's. siblings your honor, absolute siblings, ALSO THAT ONE SCENE IN HER BACKSTORY WHERE HE KNEELS DOWN TO HER AND SHES CRYING AND SJJSDHHFBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA favorite headcanon: aro/ace yosano is cool. very cool. aro/ace yosano.? holds her out to you. Consider

[splatoon-edits]

I'm of the assumption that you're a Shiver fan do you wanna explain some HCs or reasons you like her?👂👂 I'm interested (I like her too 😋)

oh boy. do you even know what you've done? I am going to talk about this blue creature SO MUCH!!!!! (no but fr thank you for enabling me to talk about one of my fav characters!!!)

I'm just gonna be rambling with no general direction, so i apologize if this gets a smidge confusing..... Everything else will be under a read more since i don't want this post to make it hard to scroll through my blog if it gets too long.

so.. Splat 3 was my first game in the series. I knew about the other splatoon games obviously, and i was eagerly awaiting splatoon 3 since by the time i got a switch it would have been a waste to buy splat 2. So i went into splatoon 3 with very minimal knowledge of the characters/setting.

But when i saw Shiver in the Deep Cut announcement trailer??? It was love at first sight. Blue is my favorite color and the swag Shiver has is off the charts. Plus the hype around a potentially nonbinary character?? And imma be honest, i'm a sucker for smug characters. Especially the ones who are secretly failures. It's just one of my fav tropes.

So in short: Shiver was a character who had a lot of appeal for me in the beginning. But slowly over time as i came to learn more about her and the rest of Deep Cut, i came to appreciate them even more in new ways. Shiver is smug, sarcastic, and can come off as mean or over the top. But she is also silly, quirky, and has a lot of love in her heart for others. She cares about Frye, Bug Man, and all of Splatsville. She says silly things that don't make sense. She likes puns. She takes the time to listen to Sheldon's rambles. She is so much more than what you see on the surface. And it can be so easy to see her teasing her bandmates and assume she is mean or cold hearted. But she genuinely is such a fun character!!!!

Her grace, her gnc swag, her cringefail aura, everything about her makes her an amazing character.

And now, for some headcanons in no particular order:

I kinda see Shivers gender as "whatever is funniest/best in the moment. Commit to the bit of genders. But if i had to pick one thing to headcanon them as it would be pangender or maybe genderfluid. Uses all pronouns plus some shark themed neos like bite/biteself and fin/finself and anything else like that. Im gonna be mostly sticking to she/her and they/them for this post just cuz i think that's what people will be most used to. But really any gender hc for Shiver is correct in my head. MTF? Correct. Nonbinary? Correct. FTM? Correct. Genderfluid? Correct/ Bigender? Correct. Anything and anything goes an i love seeing everyone's takes on it!

I'm gonna go ahead and say trans woman Shiver has a special place in my heart. I just feel like i never see anyone hc this but i also feel like it works?? Idk... The same can be said for genderfluid Shiver. I myself am genderfluid so i rlly like that hc!

Mayhaps has a touch of the tism. (me too) I just feel like she doesn't read social cues well. Can mask really well but doesn't do it around Frye and Big Man for the most part. I think all of Deep Cut is autistic tbh. With Frye having ADHD as well. (ME TOO)

I'm caught between the headcanons of "secretly rlly strong cuz of archery" and "lowkey weak cuz it would be funny to contrast w Frye being strong". But i lean more on the side of both of them being strong. Just Frye having more obvious muscles. But if you look at Shiver she def if strong. And graceful. Like a predator built for ambush or stalking. She moves with purpose. Ya know what i mean? Like she seems very graceful and delicate at first but that is NOT the case.

I gotta be careful or this will turn into general Deep Cut hcs cuz i wanna talk about Big Man and Frye as well lol

Loses her temper easily. Can be petty when things don't go her way.

Master Mega is very special to them. She spent a lot of time with him when she was younger and her parents were busy.

Shiver whistles a lot as a stim/just for fun.

Big Man and Frye are the best hype men ever for Shiver. There are certain points in the game where she says absolute nonsense but those two are right there to back her up. They also don't understand what he's saying, but they are gonna act as if it's the smartest thing ever. Shiver thinks she is the coolest thing ever and those two only enable her. (dw. every once in a while they knock her down a peg by returning her teasing)

Shiver is the type of person to spend 30 minutes making her food look pretty before she serves it. It has to look good or else.

Is a decent cook. Frye likes to steal bits of food from whatever she is working on so Shiver will playfully smack her with her fan and shoo her out of the kitchen.

Is very proud of her singing. She worked very hard to get it as perfect as it is.

Probably used to have a violent streak in middle school, would bite people. Has since learned to control her anger better.

Very confident. Isn't afraid of things like public speaking.

Gets annoyed easily when overstimulated. Sometimes snaps at people when the environment is too noisy/bright or if she is tired. Tries to apologizes afterwards.

Speaking of apologies, she is the type of person to do something nice for you or get you food/a present for you rather tha admit she is wrong. Is embarrassed easily and instead prefers wordless apologies.

Is flustered easily. One of the ways to easily make her lose her cool is to do anything remotely flirty or to bring up something embarrassing she did in the past.

I could probably ramble more but it's LATE and i should head to bed. Thank you so much for the ask!!!! I had a fun time talking about my favorite blue goofball. <3

[alvoskia]

Welcome!

FAQ:

1) What is Alvoskia?

Pitched as TDP x ATLA x Six of Crows, Alvoskia is the over arching name for the planned series. In-universe, it’s a fictional country in the West of Vita’s Land, ruled by a democratic monarchy and boasting variety of kingdoms and independent states. It is very socialist in its structure and shares its borders with just about every other people, including elves, wolf-human shapeshifters, giants, and their primary rival / long time enemy, Kilvoskia, the two countries largely splitting the continent in two. It is, therefore, also the main setting, loosely, for most of the book(s).

2) What is an Infran?

One of eight reincarnated protectors, each bound to their own cycle and with their own unique power set consisting of 3-4 abilities. The Infrans are as follows: Life, Death, Water, the Moon, Fire, Knowledge, Time, and Blood. Their abilities include but are not limited to shapeshifting, elemental manipulation, death and shadow magic, dream sharing, telekinesis, and healing.

3) Who are the main characters?

All of the main core cast (seven in total) are important, but the main protagonist throughout is Ally, a resourceful if insecure Infran of Life who has lost access to her abilities and is trying to get them back (an ‘unchosen’ one if you will). The other two leads of the first book is her twin sister Jamie, the Infran of Death and an asshole with a heart of gold (think if Kaz and Inej from Six of Crows were one person) and their mutual friend, Flames, a prodigal Infran of Fire with an equally sunny personality and a dark past to run from. Things take a turn when Alvoskia is threatened with war/invasion, but with hope that the peace treaty can still be renewed.

4) What inspired the premise?

A lot of things, but growing up as a very ATLA obsessed kid, I always wondered how people in the Avatar-verse knew that the Avatar would, without a doubt, be a good person, as well was what it would be like if there was more than one Avatar running around, and they could disagree with each other. Thus, Infrans was born with a strong mythic foundation as well as a desire to subvert typical fantasy tropes over how certain tropes like elves, dragons, unicorns, and indeed chosen ones, are typically portrayed. 

5) Themes?

A focus on the complications of friendship (jealousy, resentment, trauma, found family), religion (religious trauma and reclamation, chosen one status), war (what is worth fighting for vs knowing when to yield), and trauma (acceptance, grief, healing). 

6) Representation?

Everyone in the main cast is a person of colour except for Bill, the resident healer. Everyone in the main cast is canonically queer (featuring bi-ace, bi, pan, genderfluid / nb, trans, aspec characters) except for Isuri, who I picture as cishet but can honestly easily be read as arospec. She is Islamic coded as well and wears a hijab equivalent. Ally’s journey with her abilities is allegorical for growing up ND in a lot of ways; she and Jamie belong to an in-universe minority religion somewhat reminiscent of Yazidism. Flames is canonically Autistic and uses both she/her and he/him. One of their main instructors is an amputee and more characters become disabled over the course of the series.

7) Triggers?

TW: death, some mild gore and blood, mentions of abuse and indoctrination, body horror, and very minimal mentions of animal abuse/death. If you read The Hunger Games or Six of Crows, you’re probably good here. There are is no SA, racism, homo/transphobia, or religious discrimination, although the series does touch on xenophobia sometimes (think TDP). 

8) Where am I publishing wise?

In late March 2023, I received an offer of publication from an indie press I had queried the previous year. I have accepted this offer as of September 2023 and signed paperwork as of October 2023, with an expected March 2026 release date. More details will follow and some of the journey will be blogged about here under “dragons’ publishing adventures”!

Thank you for checking out this blog, reading this post, and potentially following this blog. I’ll probably post here a few times a week with word counts for revisions I’m making in my own time, playlists, some edits/moodboards, and small snippets of writing. I’m still working on the characters page but the ‘about’ and ‘writing’ is done for now. Feel free to send in any questions or DMs, I would love to hear your thoughts!

[kledface]

Idk i guess i should consider an intro post or something?

Name:

Hi, im kledface, but you can call me kled. No, i have no association with league of legends and have been entirely turned off from playing it due to people asking if my name is because of the character. There is an origin story though!

Content:

I like sharing cute animals, pretty things, memes, and trans shit, cause i am a trans shit, people should be nicer/more normal about trans folks, especially those who are trans-fem and gender nonconforming. I also enjoy sharing art, both my own and others, because art is amazing. Sometimes i will post my weird little rambles here. Sometimes theyre serious, sometimes theyre just pissing in the wind. Life is full of wonder or some schist idk

Identity:

Im trans, genderfaun, my pronouns do change sometimes, but for the most part, he, they, and it are all fine for me. Go ahead and dabble in neos if you want, im not 100% sure what works and what doesnt there. Im also kinda coming to terms with being demi-aroace, or demian. This is a newer label for me, but i think its the right one. Im a pretty proud furry, and also an otherkin; hi, dragon speaking. My fursona is a dragon, but i have plenty of characters; some are even not dragons! I love dragons more than anything. I am mentally ill, with severe depression, social anxiety, schizophrenia, and a very troubled past that has caused splitting, and most likely either ADHD, autistic, or both, but nothing is confirmed yet besides being dyslexic. Currently am 19, though on the kalends of april i will be 20. This makes me nervous. I do not enjoy celebrating my birthday.

Likes and dislikes:

I love dragons, pineapple, rain and snow, fire, lightning, warhammers, birds, cats, the colours orange and blue, food, flowers, shiny rocks, dnd, mtg, drawing, reading, video games, a wide variety of music, the forest, and helping others, especially those im closer to. I hate conspiracy theories, aliens, bell pepper, chartreuse, intense heat, being short, bigots, and being treated like a demon. Some of these things are because of my past, others are just general hates

Personality:

Because of the splitting, sometimes its not just one person talking; there are eleven of us with different personalities. I, as the host, am the person you are most likely to catch though. I like to consider myself fun loving, though protective. Compassionate and easily scared. Some of us are much more grumpy, and cynical, while others are literal children. Please have patience with us, we are trying.

Other socials:

I do have some other platforms. This is the one im on second most often.

Discord: kledface [active]

Instagram: kartoffelzauberer [semi-active]

Twitter: kledface [inactive]

I have a reddit but i dont remember it

Technically i can invest in others but i dont really want to unless i have to, and there are some i havent listed but dont even worry about those, i dont want to be found

DNI:

Listen. Im a generally accepting person. But some people arent welcome here. No homophobes or transphobes, no terfs, no racists, no xenophobes, no ablists, no sexists, no ageists; If you hate someone for a fundamental aspect of their being, get the fuck out. Also, no anti-furs. This isnt the same, cause its more of a fandom thing, but if you hate someone for their fandom, i dont want to hear about it. Leave. Bye felicia. I will likely block you if you are a pro-shipper, because ew. And if you are any kind of pedophile, zoophile, or rapist, i would hunt you down and kill you myself if i could, i don't care how you excuse yourself, youre a disgraceful piece of shit who doesn't deserve to live, literally kill yourself. I hate saying and hearing that, but youre the kind of person who deserves it.

Finale:

I think that's it. Hit me up if you have questions or wanna talk, my askbox and messages are open. Thank you for coming to my KLEDtalk

[Kountenance, Lecturing, Education, Dick]

[wahlpaper]

Cleat Cute Review

Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner

CW: Internalized Ableism, Vomit, Described Sex, Drinking in Excess, Swearing, Injury Recovery, Money Problems, Sports Violence, Panic Attacks, Medical Transphobia

5/5

Put a red-haired woman on the cover of a queer book and I'm so there. The cover of Meryl Wilsner's Cleat Cute was all I needed to ask my library to get the audiobook. In middle school, I played midfield in soccer. I don't remember much beyond the basics of the sport and haven't picked up much since. I have enjoyed soccer romance stories like Bend it Like Beckham, but it's no longer the special interest it was in middle school. Essentially, I wasn't looking for a romance in it. This novel appeared on some list I saw about upcoming books and it caught my eye. I could tell it would be a romcom that was sweet and light in tone, the kind of story I struggle to put down. 

Phoebe Matthews is a rookie in professional soccer, but she gets drafted to the best team in the country right out of college. She has her sights set on joining the National Team Roster next. It's a World Cup year, and Phoebe's team captain, Grace Henderson, is doing her best to look forward to it. It's hard for her to do when she's lost her excitement for the whole profession. Phoebe is full of energy and passion, but not just for soccer. She feels this way about Grace too. Will the women getting close to each other be enough to change their lives for the better? Or will they find out they aren't being honest with themselves? 

At first, I thought the writing was a bit simple, but I was quickly sucked in by the characters, the plot, and the setting. Some issues were resolved a little too easily, and I felt that the POV broke its unofficial rules sometimes. These issues were minor when looking at the book as a whole. Wilsner is great at world-building, having created a fully-realized version of Women's Soccer that works as a nice alternative to what we have in real life. I don't get visual thoughts, but I understood the physical settings being used in the books. While there are two MCs, Cleat Cute utilizes a full cast of characters. All of them felt fleshed-out, interesting, and distinguishable from each other. I will absolutely be reading more of Wilsner's books if they're anything like this one. 

One thing that surprised me in Cleat Cute was the neurodivergent representation. I didn't find this book on a list of autistic books or ADHD books, so I had no idea it would be a central part of the story. Phoebe has undiagnosed ADHD, which is an important part of her arc. Grace's sister has it, which means that Grace is coming from an understanding and respectful place when she talks about the disorder with Phoebe. As for Grace, it is mostly suggested through traits that she is autistic but undiagnosed. It's only directly referenced in her thoughts once, though. I do wish the narrative had spent as much time on Grace's neurodivergence as it did with Phoebe’s, but I do have other books for that. Either way, I felt autistic joy reading about both Phoebe and Grace living their queer soccer star lives while also getting to be their full selves by the end. 

Being realistic to the sport, Cleat Cute has a lot of queer characters in it. Lesbians, a bi woman, a non-binary goalie, and Phoebe's trans brother are all featured in the story. The author, Wilsner, is non-binary and writes their characters from an experienced and loving place. Being a professional soccer player can come with a bit of time in the spotlight. While this makes Grace uncomfortable, she wonders if she should use it to be there for other lesbians. Cleat Cute does a great job of expressing why it's important for famous people to come out while also reminding everyone that consent is necessary. Every celebrity that comes out makes the world a little safer, but it'll never be worth it for them to do something they aren't comfortable with.

Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner is a great queer sports book for those who want that in a New Adult novel. It's a light and easy read with great representation. If you're a foodie, into soccer, or a fan of New Orleans, this book will be especially enjoyable for you! Join Phoebe and Grace as they prepare for the soccer season and try to navigate their feelings!

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

In some cultures at certain times, queer relationships very commonly involved some sort of familial adoption, because that’s the only way partners were able to legally be recognised as family. Even outside of that, family as a concept has never been exactly the same everywhere for everyone culturally. And I’m not even saying that in a shipping context like just in a. History of humanity context.

In general I think the idea of shipping- at least as, like, this special thing that is solely about wish fulfilment and not just, relationships in fiction that can serve a variety of narrative and thematic purposes the same as any element of fiction- leads to really bizarre takes on both fiction and reality that don’t take into account both the fact relationships in fiction exist for a variety of purposes and the vast majority of those aren’t wish fulfilment or to portray an ideal and that relationships irl can be extremely complicated and messy (both romantic and non-romantic) but the fact it’s lead to the phrase sibling coded existing is probably the most baffling tbh. Like, coding is usually done either to get past censors or like. Because a certain concept wouldn’t exist in the same way it does to us for the characters. Which isn’t going to be a common scenario with siblings! Same with “child coded”. Coded doesn’t mean that you personally see them a certain way, it’s an intentional artistic tool. Even if reading characters as siblings is a reading of the text that can be heavily supported, it doesn’t mean coding took place. (This is also true for other things- there’s characters I think are very easily and plausibly readable as trans/gay/autistic/ect that weren’t coded such- but it’s misused less there).

Sorry, I am just a Nerd who likes Media Analysis and this is something that bugs me a lot I got the opportunity to rant about.

Every now and then some discourse pops up around a queer ship consisting of a pair of fictional characters who are not blood related, but refer to themselves as "brothers" or "sisters," or are in some way, according to the fandom, "sibling-coded."

Every time I see that discourse, all I can think about are the very real queer men I once knew, who, before their deaths, lived their lives posing as "stepbrothers." The only way to avoid suspicion for being two older unmarried men living together in a rural conservative area was to pretend they were from the same family, even though the truth was that they were lovers.

They were never out in life. Their relationship was a strict secret to nearly everyone. They never knew that I knew, and sometimes it fucks me up inside that they never got to come out to me. It fucks me up that they had to hide behind a fake "brotherly" relationship for their own safety. It fucks me up to look at a gravestone that reads "beloved brother" and know what it really means, and what it could have said if they'd lived under different circumstances.

In another world, they could have been husbands, but they never had the opportunity. The world will remember them as brothers, because, even in death, that is what was safest.

The freedom to declare queer love openly is something that not everyone has. And I think more people could stand to remember that.

[gay-disabled-characters-showdown]

LGBTQ+ Disabled Characters Showdown Round 1, Wave 4, Poll 10

A character being totally canon LGBTQ+ and disabled was not required to be in this competition. Please check qualifications and propaganda before asking why a character is included.

Check out the other polls in this wave and prior here.

Suletta Mercury-Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury

Qualifications:

While this is something which only became a point in the last episode, in the finale of the show, following the big action parts, Suletta was shown to need mobility aids three years afterwards. Also in this timeskip, it is revealed that she has since gotten married to Miorine, who is another woman. Also I'm not autistic or trans but I have seen many people headcanoning her as both.

Canonically disabled by data storm infection, uses crutches on screen. Is married to her wife.

Canonically LGBTQ, as she is shown to love and later marry Miorine Rembran, a girl. Canonically disabled, as in the last episode, the Permet leads her to “lose control of her body” and even in the epilogue 3 years later, she is still using crutches and has not been able to get her body to the way it used to be before.

Suletta Mercury pushed herself to the limits of human survival at the end of the show, but survived. She's disabled and still uses crutches in the 3-year time skip. Her wife loves her and Suletta is still pursuing her dreams of creating a school.

Spoilers probably for the series. She is canonically engaged, later married to a woman, Miorine Rembran, and at the end of the series is shown to be physically disabled, with her both speaking on her physical therapy and her crutches being in several shots. Also she is written in a way that can be read as neurodivergent.

Partially paralyzed

Propaganda:

I love this character so much and I need everybody to as well. First of all, to get the biggest notes out of the way to establish why she qualifies (with major spoilers for episode 24), Suletta, after a three years timeskip, is shown to need crutches to get around a lot of the time. This fact is ultimately treated as an accomplishment on her part (/is never treated as a bad thing, just because I like clarifying this when it comes to any form of rep), since it took her some time to get to the point where she could move around at all. Also in this timeskip, the girl Suletta has been engaged to throughout most of the series, Miorine, has since become her wife, shown largely by the two of them having matching rings and Suletta's relatives being referred to as Miorine's in-laws. This makes Suletta the very first sapphic protagonist in Gundam. I've also seen headcanons or her such as her being autistic or transfem get popular. Getting to what makes me love her, Suletta, early on, is very easily intimidated in a lot of regards, largely because this is her first time actually being around anybody her age, but she's always been trying her best! She generally tries very hard to be positive and cares about those around her very much but can easily question her worth and is sometimes deterred. She is very willing to stand up and fight (usually in a literal way because she has won many mobile suit duels) when it most matters, a trait which remained consistent throughout the series, whether it's in regards to her role as a rescue piolet in the Cradle Planet short story, the drive which ultimately caused her to win the duel which initially got her engaged to Miorine in her first in-series appearance or the finale of the whole show. Suletta is somebody who has gone through a lot of hurt (especially in the series. Eps 17 and 18 put this girl through the wringer), and ultimately wasn't really raised to have too much autonomy. But despite everything, she keeps going. She's a very strong person who cares about those around her and I love her for it.

She is just the most joyful person ever who loves her wife.

Above, and: Vote for the newlyweds!

Everything above applies here. Suletta is shown to still not fully able to walk well without her crutches in the shot we get of her walking in the finale, her crutches are explicitly shown in several shots, and she openly talks about how her physical therapy is going to her, now wife, Miorine. On the topic of her and Miorine, they were engaged as of episode 1 with an iconic line from Miorine of "I guess Mercury is rather conservative. That sort of thing is commonplace here." in response to Suletta responding that she was a woman as a rebuttal about being Miorine's fiancée. Lots happens, and it's not uncommon to see either one of them yearning for each other, with a genuinely well written romance that leads to a happy ending with them explicitly married.

In the final battle of the series, Suletta highly exerts herself piloting a dangerous Gundam and significantly damages her body to save her family and fiancée. It's described that she was left mostly paralyzed from the neurological overload. Three years later, she still has significant scarring and needs to use crutches as a mobility aid, and talks about how her dexterity is "recovering." This means she was also disabled during her wedding with her wife, and they're shown with matching wedding bands as they discuss her health.

Anything Else?:

There's a whole lot more in terms of their relationship, and i've basically given a seriously lightened, budget sparksnotes version of it. Also, Suletta became disabled from a crazy battle for the finale, where she unleashed a giant rainbow data storm with a rainbow glowing Gundam.

The qualifications and propaganda paragraphs correspond, @insertbrowsinghere is the first submitter. The anything else section is the fourth submitter.

Merle Highchurch-The Adventure Zone: Balance

Qualifications:

- over course of story loses a hand and an eye (hand replaced with prosthetic)

- I don't think it's proper canon (might've been mentioned in the show?) but he's very commonly headcanoned as pansexual which is also a pun because he's a follower of Pan

Propaganda:

let beach dad win

[davenweenie]

I’ve spiralled into a Lab Rats hyperfixation recently and now all of you have to deal with it. I haven’t watched Mighty Med yet so some stuff about Elite Force may be wrong since I don’t know the MM characters that well yet. Most will be Chase-centric. Anyway, here are my HCs.

-Chase is trans, he is the most trans character I have ever seen you cannot change my mind.

-Adam acts like a d!ck to Chase but he actually loves him a lot and would actually kill someone for him (I stand by Adam being the cuddliest sibling)

-to reiterate the above, Adam loves hugs. He will hug anyone and any given point (Tasha is usually the victim of his super strong hugs)

-Bree loves girly stuff but when it comes down to it she can act like a classic brother (pranks, punching people in a friendly manner, bro hugging people, loogie contests, arm wrestles to prove who’s stronger etc) (THIS IS NOT ME SAYING GIRLS CANT DO THIS, it’s just that traditionally brothers do this more than sisters. This is coming from someone who has a sister and a brother)

-Bree can pick Chase up and used to always attempt to throw him like Adam does. She has not yet succeeded in throwing him farther than about a foot. Adam thinks it’s cute and hilarious.

-Leo gets along with Chase more than everyone else because they’re both autistic and they stim dance together all the time after Leo introduced it to Chase.

-Chase was forced to suppress his stims as a child because Mr Davenport wasn’t educated on autism/neurodivergence enough to realise it was helpful to Chase.

-Chase was not diagnosed with autism until Leo came along and both him and Tasha pointed it out that he is most definitely on the autism spectrum.

-Adam isn’t stupid. He just acts stupid and like he doesn’t know things just to annoy Chase and he thinks it’s funny.

-Adam has ADHD and struggles with retaining information that doesn’t interest him.

-Adam is also dyslexic and has dyscalculia (number dyslexia basically)

-Leo and Bree love reading comics together. Bree fangirls over Skylar Storm (since this is based on the seasons before Bionic Island and Elite Force. She pretends to not know Skylar when she sees her because she’s been bullied at school for liking comics before and she doesn’t want Oliver, since she had a crush on him, to know she reads comics)

-Adam and Chase can’t read comics. The colours and fonts make it hard for Adam to focus and Chase gets overwhelmed by all the bright colours with his super senses. The pages also feel very icky to him.

-Chase leans against Adam when he feels overwhelmed (this is kinda canon since we see this in the scene where Chase gets overwhelmed by the sound of the school bell in Crush, Chop and Burn)

-All the siblings play Minecraft. Chase and Leo have an amazing world together where they’ve built a whole city with really cool features. It’s their pride and joy.

-Spike doesn’t know he’s bionic and god forbid he ever finds out.

-Spike stems from Chase’s deep rooted dysphoria. Spike is everything he thinks he is not. This is why we see Spike portrayed as having a really deep voice and constantly flexes his muscles as a result of toxic masculinity.

-Chase can communicate with Spike in his head if he wants to, he just hasn’t discovered it yet because he still hates the idea of Spike taking over his body

-Chase and Sebastian definitely dated.

-TW for this one: Sebastian was abusive to Chase towards the end of their relationship, after Sebastian found out about the destruction of Krane.

-Chase falls for people easily and tends to blindly trust people because of his autism. He isn’t aware when people have ulterior motives as he’s not good at reading between the lines. (This is totally not based on me /s)

-And on that note, Chase uses tone tags all the time after Leo showed him what they were. Leo loves it. Adam is confused on what they mean and forgets the meaning so has a screenshot of what they all mean saved to his phone. Bree forgets to use them a lot because she speed types and makes a lot of mistakes but she tries her best.

-Adam is gay, he definitely went out with Owen but had to break up with him when they moved to the bionic island. They get back together once Adam realises that Owen can come to the island whenever he wants to. (I imagine this happens after the team is split up when Bree and Chase join the EF)

-Bree is lesbian. When she started school she realised all of the girls always talked about boys and dated boys, she was desperate to fit in so she tried to force herself to go out with guys. That’s why she never had a long lasting relationship. None of them ever worked out. She’s dating Skylar now (I will get more into detail about that in future posts)

-Chase is bisexual. I absolutely love this hc. He thinks girls are really pretty, and blushes every time a girl has complimented him. But he thinks boys are very pretty too. He only really realised he likes boys too when he had to pretend to be Bree at that school dance with Bree’s boyfriend (?) at the time. I stand by Chaz (Chase and Kaz) being real. They were so in love.

-Leo is pan. He’s gender blind and doesn’t care about the gender of the person he is dating. It took him a while to find a label that fits but when he finally found one (after hours of research with Chase) he was ecstatic. He asked Taylor out when he realised how much he liked her but it turned out she was dating one of the female students in secret. Leo now has a crush on Logan but is still trying to figure out how to ask him out since he’s never been with a guy before and he has a lot of past internal homophobia he’s trying to work through.

-Last one for this post, there will be a lot more. Leo’s dad was abusive which is why Tasha left him. She was a single mother for a few years before deciding to start looking for another partner which is when she met Mr Davenport. She was very picky because she didn’t want the same thing to happen to her and Leo again.

So sorry for the extremely long post. I just have so much to talk about.

[fizhingtrawl]

I rlly rlly wanna talk about. a lot of my spookymonth head canons so I’ll list em off

This might be long so here’s a read more thing. This is only like 4 people but it’s. A lot.

you can send me asks if ur curious abt em doe (@krill-does-art helped me with a lot of these!!!)

JACK

He’s polyamorous, and johns fiancé at the moment.

Jack has had several encounters with the cult, not good ones.

he has horrible nightmares :[

he is ross’ adoptive father along with John!!

he’s in the process of dating an ice cream clerk named beel!! (character belongs to @krill-does-art)

transmasc and autistic u can’t tell me otherwise

LOVES LOVES LOVES cake and pumpkin donuts specifically

favorite icecream flavors are chocolate and rockyroad

dad jokes :]

ROSS

Ross is 17

ross doesn’t admit it but he really loves dogs even though he can’t get one

ross looks up to his adoptive dads!! his biological parents are jaune and Frank (result of a hook up that happened years ago)

Ross’ older brother is Kevin but he isn’t very aware of this, Kevin had a different father then him

Ross and jaune still meet up everyonce n awhile but he’s not much of a fan of it, he’d rather be at home

Ross is very soft spoken sometimes

his favorite ice cream is chocolate!!

he’s gay and polyamorous, currently dating Roy and Robert

he teaches Roy how to skate sometimes

adhd

has sadly encountered a cult member or two

dude is a fucking vampire and is so dramatic abt it

ROBERT

he’s autistic and adhd

He loves cats and feeds stray ones all the time !!

adores painting

looks up to both of his older siblings; tries to be someone to look up to for his little sister as well

loves mittens

currently learning how to knit and crochet. he can’t keep a hobby but tries his best

used to have those sea monkey things and kept them alive for so long

genuinely sobbed when he had to get rid of the tank Cus it stanky

cries easily. will crush u if u hurt his friends n fam tho

stays out really late and gets up pretty early. hates being in his own home

hates watermelon flavored anything. it makes his throat burn and he isn’t aware that it’s a light allergy and just hates the taste either way

Robert knows some German from jaune

very loud once happy

stimstimstim

will eat like three things of chocolate if u give it to him

he wants to go to art school one day

dating Ross and Roy but can get a little jealous if he shows up late and they’re already doin stuff

makes gifts for them. he made Roy some mittens once

trans!! uses he/him and occasional he/she pronouns

KEVIN

transmasc

currently crushing on two fine gentlemen. one definitely isn’t a technical criminal.

really dysphoric sometimes, later on he gets better with this

doesn’t hate his job— he gets small enjoyment out of it

not the biggest fan of kids but he grows onto em

favorite candy is jus milk chocolate and then those spicy ass gumballs

bad sweets intolerance he doesn’t like things with much sugar

pet rat. his name is milk

milk is his best buddy

if Kevin let’s you hold milk he trusts the fuck out of you

has a small bird watching hobby and gives all the birds dumb nicknames like “that red one with the fucking mohawk”

he owns two heated blankets

he’s not a fan of icecream. too cold

lots of sweaters

genuinely just a vibe

ocd + adhd

[zwoelffarben]

There's one point buried in tumblr user tran-girls-who-eat-subway-2016's analysis not addressed, and that's the idea that cop shows don't feature "character vs world" conflict; but, the thing is, they do*. That's a thing that cop shows regularly deal with.

*depending on your definition of "world."

Cop shows, especially procedurals, make a whole deal out of how the noble cops struggle to bring justice to the vile criminals because of the systems which protect the criminal character's diagetic human rights. The most common subgenre of cop show is the autistic character who's not techically a cop but still functions as one within the narrative except for where the rules which restrain cop behavior are concerned and that addition character freedom from 'morality' or accountability regularly aids in the capture and prosectution of the criminals show/movie. (Ya know: Bones, Castle, Psyche, Numb3rs, The Finder, White Collar, Lucifer, Rush Hour, Die Hard, Conair (is autistic: fight me), Air Force One, The Dark Knight...) because it addresses and copes with a specific need within the genre.

And that conflict isn't persay "Character vs World" as you meant it: world as in "Nature". It fits much neater into the Character vs Society box. But, you have to keep in mind that all these boxes are constructed to be useful, and I don't see a meaningful distinction betwixt the two in this case between they both scratch the same functional need in both genres: they're both framed** as extrinsic forces that 'conspire' against the protagonist, thus repainting the character in a position of systemic power as an underdog so that audiences can more easily root for or sympathize with that character: they both, in a classic reading, fall under the unified category of Character vs Setting.

**The critique that native americans really ought to have been treated as members of the dramatis personae rather than features of the setting is valid, and the fact that they weren't during neither production, nor contemporary reading, nor classic analysis, nor tumblr user trans-girls-who-eat-subway-2016's analysis belays a lot of colonial baggage; it does however remain true that within those works they were regularly framed as features of the setting rather than members of the dramatis personae.

I reckon it's very telling how easily the Cop show replaced the Western as like the default US action genre. Both expressions of the same fundamental worldview just in different settings with different signifiers

[queer-character-headcanons]

Naruto (Part 1 - Team 7)

Man, I’ve got strong opinions on some of these *cough* Kakashi *cough*, but some of the others I’m flexible about. It depends on the story you’re telling with the character. These are the ones I have for the canon/near canon of the Naruto show itself (incl. Shippuden, but not Boruto). Here goes... something:

Naruto Uzumaki gives off so much bi energy, with the way he falls hard for both Sakura and later Sasuke as well. He’s a cis boy who uses he/him pronouns, and wouldn’t realise you were talking about him if you used any others. He’s biromantic and demisexual (asexual until he has a deeper emotional connection with someone). He’s also definitely an ADHD kid, and would have been diagnosed rather quickly if he’d tried at any point. His mind jumps from topic to topic, and can’t concentrate on anything if he’s not hyperfixated on it at the moment.

Sasuke Uchiha is very much gay. He is so gay, extremely gay. The gayest. At no point does he show any kind of attraction towards Sakura, or any other woman, but Naruto on the other hand. It’s obvious that he cares, but he doesn’t want to care. He’s probably demiromantic and demisexual, since it took him having an emotional connection with Naruto before he actually fell for him. He’s a cis man who uses he/they pronouns, not really caring which people use more. There is a chance he is autistic or OCD, given his obsessiveness in hunting down Itachi, but I haven’t thought about that one enough to really be sure in any way.

Sakura Haruno is probably bi, with a preference towards men. She seems to be greyromantic bisexual, and fell for Sasuke immediately. It took her a while longer to fall for Naruto, and she didn’t realise that what she felt for Ino was a crush until they were already very close. She could be read as either cis or trans, but honestly I see her as a cis woman most of the time. Definitely she/her pronouns and would get angry at anyone who got it wrong (which probably wouldn’t happen unless she was trans).

Kakashi Hatake. Oh boi do I have a lot to say about Kakashi. He’s my favourite character in the whole show, and the only reason I kept watching in the first place, so there’s definitely some projecting going on here. First and foremost, Kakashi is aromantic and asexual. At no point in the show has he shown romantic or sexual interest in anyone. By the end of it they are one of the few people who doesn’t have a love interest whatsoever, and that is perfect for them. They’re a good example of the fact that aroace people can still enjoy sexual media, although I’m quite certain he reads Icha-Icha for the plot (why else would spoilers bother them so much?). Next up, gender~ Kakashi is transmasc (afab) and bigender, fluctuating between male and agender. They use he/they pronouns, although which they prefer over the other fluctuates between the two depending on which of them he’s feeling at the moment. Kakashi being transmasc is barely disproven by canon (only two filler episodes show him shirtless, other than that he is always wearing his ‘binder’) and some moments definitely feel like they’re feeding the headcanon. Kakashi is autistic. He isn’t good at social interactions, and he’s bad at showing his emotions correctly. The mask is likely to block smells so he doesn’t get overstimulated as easily. Their extremely quick progression through the ranks shows that their special interests are likely fighting-based. A lot of autistic people hold rules in extremely high regard, as we see young Kakashi doing. Him joining the ANBU was likely a way to find strict routine, and it’s once again evident that he’s extremely dedicated to it. Once he found the Icha Icha series, that became one of his special interests. Later we can see that he’s always late, because his routine of visiting the memorial stone is extremely important to him. Also his dogs! They’re his comfort animals, and Pakkun especially seems like he knows how to calm him down when he’s stressed. It’s quite probable that Kakashi is ADHD as well. Their mind works fast, but they often seem to get distracted by their own thoughts, and unless there’s a fight or something going on he always seems to be lost in thought (or Icha-Icha, if he’s reading).

As you can see, long post. I had a lot to say and now I’ve said it, thank you for reading if you bothered at all! 

[self-loving-vampire]

For the fandom meme: B, C, D, L, N, T, W, and Y.

B - A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mind.

Depends on who counts as "someone". I don't actually have much involvement with fandom shipping but the story itself can present interesting relationships. If the writer doesn't count, however, then I can't think of an example right now.

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will (be nice)

I try to keep an open mind in general, but I guess I don't understand Gilgamesh x Saber (Fate/stay night) at all.

D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t (again: be nice)

None that I can think of. I think in general I'm more likely to just not pay that much attention to pairings I don't like.

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves (chars you’re neutral on are fair game, as are chars you dislike)

This is surprisingly difficult because I have a lot of characters I'd consider "faves" and also say so many nice things about even characters outside that category that I don't want to just repeat myself.

The simplest thing might be to just say that I like all Touhou characters I know in at least some way.

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice)

Going to answer this for Tsukihime since it's still consuming my brain months after reading it.

I guess more essays about the characters? I am doing my part since I apparently can't talk about Kohaku without going unhinged.

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending, about anything at all (gender identity, sexual or romantic orientation, extended family, sexual preferences like top/bottom/switch, relationship with poetry, seriously anything)

Well, as said before I try to keep an open mind, formless and adaptable to whatever shape the best available information takes.

So while I have both joke headcanons (Kohaku is an autistic trans girl) and more serious headcanons (Kohaku has some kind of low empathy condition), I still find other perspectives interesting and worth learning from.

W - 5 favorite ships and 5 kinks you like best for said ships

Hm... I don't know that I'm ship-brained enough to even have this many favorite ships easily available in my mental searches.

That said, it is canon that Kohaku is into breastplay and I'm reasonably sure that she's the one who suggested drinking blood from there to Akiha.

Kohaku has also shown a significant interest in roleplay as a general thing and I'm pretty sure that also applies in bed.

Shiki also strikes me as being the calm and submissive type in general, based on the dream scenes.

More controversially, there's the incest.

Y - What are your secondhand fandoms (fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)

I have absorbed some fandom osmosis about Worm, and a lot less about The Locked Tomb and Umineko (which is on my list)...

Other than that I follow a couple of people who are really into a specific thing and post about it a lot but it feels too individual to feel like a secondhand fandom, since they're about the only people I follow who talk about the thing.

Thank you!

[kitkatopinions]

I’m probably over thinking/over complicating things but Ironwood and Penny have been really bothering me. It because prior to the moment that destroyed Penny’s arc the show and Ruby were really pushing that Penny not matter her body was human and that’s a very positive I like that especially when it comes to characters of Penny’s nature.

So my problem kicks in when I think of Ironwood. Namely this part in his song:

“What if it's true as they say

That I don't have a heart

That I'm more a machine than a man?”

Like wtf. I mean I “get it” especially with that dumbass line of Winter. But when it’s talked about Ironwood it was always in reference to the fact that his body is half robotic and there for we are meant to see the correlation between his body and his character.?

Put next to Penny’s message that really bothers me. Even more so since Penny gets a “reward” of becoming human, but the writers push that Ironwood sacrificing his arm to stop Watts and replacing it (a medical decision that could be debated given that he wanted to be up and able immediately to handle things not to mention that fact that nerves and muscle are severely fucked up) with a new (uncharacteristically uncovered) prosthetic means that he’s moving away from humanity. This thought has been driving nuts for a week.

I don’t think you’re overthinking at all. The writers have been pretty blatant about what they think of disabled people.

On the topic of James, 1. They wrote their triple amputee character to be coded as losing his humanity. This is suspect from the get go, but writers imo need to be especially careful and sensitive when they display things like villains with prosthetics. CRWBY is not careful and sensitive. 2. They specifically connected the loss of his limb to the loss of his humanity outside of the show, and as you said, his new prosthetic is uncharacteristically uncovered as well, and there were some pointed shots showcasing his arm and emphasizing it before showing Ironwood doing something wrong as well as a shot that particularly bothered me of them having James fall to Winter when his aura broke and then them immediately flashing to a fallen, broken robotic soldier. Tying the loss of someone’s humanity to them losing a limb / gaining a prosthetic in any way is wrong imo. There are better ways to display someone’s loss of humanity than villainizing the loss of his arm, and I don’t care what justifications people have for ‘they just meant to say that he was too impatient to-’ Idc. Tying the loss of humanity to the gaining of a prosthetic is wrong. 3. They never once treated Ironwood’s clear PTSD, history of mental health problems, and trauma with any sympathy, instead spending their time ragging on him for not wanting to feel his pain anymore and condemning him for... Trying to control his emotions. 4. CRWBY also gave him a semblance and explained how it worked by saying he hyper focused, talking about how James’ passive semblance that he can’t control forces him to focus on one single goal and fixate. I’m not disabled, but I do hyper fixate. It’s not something I can control, and to see it used as a justification for evil (in one of my favorite characters in the series who reminded me of my father lol) and being treated as something bad... It doesn’t feel good. I can’t imagine how other people must feel who are much more affected by this than I am. 5. As you say, the writers go out of their way to reference his metal body as being more ‘machine than man’ and make lines about him being heartless. And yeah, I get that he’s an allegory for the ‘Tin Man’ from Wizard of Oz but ffs the Tin Man had always had a heart and I honestly thought that was what they were going for in V3 with Qrow commenting that sometimes he thought James didn’t have a heart and the audience seeing Ironwood’s actions as questionable, only for the entire show to tell us repeatedly that he actually is a caring and good person who’s willing to destroy all the forces he was proud to show off if it means saving lives and was actually pretty freaking blameless in the Fall of Beacon and was super kind to the kids and when the chips were down, Qrow and Glynda both absolutely knew without even questioning that James would never ever willingly hurt the world or fully betray them and had absolutely no hand in the Beacon attack. Like, I’m sorry, but between Penny and Ironwood, season eight is the season of taking well done character allusions and throwing them out the window for the exact opposite moral done incredibly poorly. And anyway, getting off of that rant, making a ‘more machine than man’ sentiment tied around a triple amputee character is incredibly harmful and hurtful to people with disabilities and only propagates the real world stereotypes against people like James.

So, yes, their treatment of Ironwood, his mental health, and specifically his disabilities was so badly done, harmful, incredibly insensitive, and frankly, appalling that it came from grown adult writers in 2019-2021! But, as you point out, it’s not just Ironwood. And here’s where things really get bad for CRWBY. Because Ironwood alone is enough for me to say they were ableist - unintentionally or otherwise - and ought to apologize for the hurt they’ve caused their fans. But when you get into the rest of their treatment of characters with metal prosthetics or non-flesh elements to their body, it becomes a pattern.

Penny’s entire body is removed from her on threat of death, with the justification that it’s hurting her and that her body is just a machine and not part of who she is, contradicting Penny’s earlier themes of self-acceptance and validating her humanity in the body she already had. She then dies by assisted suicide in a way that feels unneeded, after having asked to be killed earlier in the narrative. So many people have talked about how destructive her story became in V8 and how it personally hurt them, especially non-binary people, trans people, autistic people, or disabled people who saw themselves in Penny or saw in her arc something that they could relate to, only to have Penny’s differences stripped away from her, having her conform to normal body standards and have her previous body type invalidated by her friends, and then they had her killed via assisted suicide in an unbelievable way, insisting as well that she never made a choice before she was a flesh-person and couldn’t feel things right. It’s all horribly done, but it’s important to remember that while Ironwood is accused of losing his humanity as he loses a third limb and gets a third prosthetic, Penny’s earlier validation is taken away and is instead only granted and she is only justified as a person when she loses all her ‘nuts and bolts’ and becomes a flesh person. And then she’s killed anyway.

Yang’s prosthetic is the least ill handled, but it is still dismissed as ‘just extra’ despite her former fairly strong arc of coming to terms with her disability and making it a part of her. She casually justifies what’s happening with Penny despite Penny not being in a position of adequate consent. Yang’s trauma and PTSD also vanished when Adam died at the end of season six and in my opinion, that situation was handled very badly.

Maria and Pietro, two other disabled characters, disappeared, left when Amity fell and were not even mentioned iirc since. Not even when Penny is awake, not even when they’re evacuating, not even when Penny is choosing to die. She never brings up her father. And Ruby’s supposed ‘mentor’ who never had an actual narrative role that couldn’t have been filled by Qrow and has had nothing to do since season six even past that is also forgotten out in the tundra and not mentioned again.

The writers go out of their way to have Winter say that because she was just following orders (a statement that contradicts her previous character imo) and pushing down her emotions, she was the real machine, whereas Penny had been human underneath her apparently easily tossed aside and destructive previous metal body.  And I don’t know if this means anything, but in that scene where she and Penny meet when Penny is dying and transferring the maiden powers to Winter, Winter is in her V7 character design, instead of wearing her assistive brace. Like I said, I don’t know if I’m reading into that, but with everything else, it feels like an iffy choice.

So yeah. In the past season CRWBY specifically cultivated a pattern of disrespect, dismissal, and villainization of any non-flesh attributes in my opinion. It seems pretty intentional and clear to me, but I’m willing to accept that maybe this was just a wildly bad uneducated mistake. Here’s the thing about that, though, after the Faunus/Racism allegory, the CRWBY writers should’ve learned their lesson and not touched on any real world topics that they weren’t willing to do the research on and treat with the sensitivity and care and respect the topics needed. Their Faunus/Racism allegory was harmful and hurtful and frankly could’ve sunk them in the water, they should’ve learned to put much more care and effort into their work or stayed the hell away from anything that could further spread the negative stereotypes surrounding real world people. But they didn’t learn their lesson and they’ve continued to push harmful narratives with no awareness or sensitivity. I don’t think you’re over-reacting at all, I think this is something that - intentionally written or otherwise - the writers should be called out on, or they’re just going to continue writing harmful narratives.

Also, I am not disabled, many of my opinions on the treatment of these characters comes from posts I’ve seen from many disabled or neurodivergent RWBY fans (or former RWBY fans,) or other people more affected by these narratives - minus the thing I said about Winter appearing without her brace when she talks to Penny, as it was something I just noticed while typing out this post. Since I’m not disabled, I’m not the best person to talk about these things, so if I got anything wrong in this, anyone more affected, please know you can let me know and I can edit and fix.