#wlw + mlm animosity vibe

[ectopuppy]

its the boyyyyyyy (and shoko)

brain fell out so i drawed my sonic ocs uwu

[stxrmnight]

Tentative Rewrite of the Void Patches

So, I alluded in my Void patch posts that I didn't vibe with some decisions. But can it be any better!

Surely! I feel they just forced some areas cause they wanted one dungeon per endwalker era (with the last one being, space in a way). The one that sticks out like a sore thumb is the Aetherfont, cute as it may be at points. Even with that, I feel swapping the order around can do a lot for fixing the most jarring things

Endwalker Patch Spoilers of course

First of all, all of 6.3 should be in Radz-at-han. It should center around passing time with Zero as she tries to explore the town and the outside nature, all while the brains are trying to improve Alzdaal's Legacy portal for Vrtra's draconic form, or seeing if they could make it go to other places in the Void

Thanks to that, we spend more time with Zero causing troubles and miscommunication around town, still insisting to interact thru barter even when many aspects of the town feel familiar. This is why she is wandering in the first place: chasing the memories repressed of being the protector of a village. Since reparting bread felt familiar, she must have done other active community things. By going through the town and villages this way, her comments would indirectly tell us about life in the Thirteenth building up to that eventual instance later.

But, is it totally implied her memories are repressed rather than back end? I argue being twisted by Fandaniel likely caused mental trauma, and she talks about the bread in Garlemald like something new but familiar, not something she knew of before. Her seeking these memories actively would lead her to get out of the barter logic herself than be therapy add libbed by others, which would be much more satisfying to see happening!

But the shift to oppenness wouldn't be instsnt of course. Zero has done all this exploration, but she has not recovered her memories. She might still be apprehensive of WoL pointing her actions are out of barter ways, justifying as simple adapting to the logic of "those who don't toil in the wheel. Just because I understand it doesn't mean I will be blindly trustful. I'm still in debt to you at the end of the way." The WoL could then ask, does she really want to leave them? Cause they don't intend to hold her captive. They only brought her here to heal her

Suddenly, there is a distant explosion: Rubicante has broken through Vrtra's voidgate, so him and Ysthola have no choice but to shield everyone as Rubicante launches destructive flames instantly. Y'sthola linkshells to warn of the oncoming danger, but Rubicante arrives to the hill just to contemplate and await for a peaceful death

To make Golbez' plan less on the nose, I would have Rubicante say Azdaja is trapped on the Moon, and react to Zero talking of the First. I found it odd she didn't mention it. I also would make her speech not suddenly judge her own kind for trying to survive, but find value in the logic of this world with life, which the Void lost way before the flood and being corrupted. That would be a more satisfying development that is halfway there (no fire in chest yet, just more logical perception autism style)

Because of the loss of the Voidgate, we go to the Aetherfont this patch to prepare to make a portal to the moon, and the brains go back to work while the aether transport takes a LOT of time. It's only the first step in getting it done after all. Urianger wouldn't do his weird condescending dialogue, but only call for Thancred for support. I do think he could have been a fun opportunity for banted and clash as the more socially going person in the cast. MLM WLW animosity

So what does this imply? Yes, putting 6.3 Garlemald plot in 6.4 before Golbez instead.

We go to Garlemald straight to prepare the tower, which by rolequests have stablished, is still used by Garleans themselves to go to the moon and back from research!!! So it has been used before, and there is no reason to fear any transmission really. The aether storage could actually be teleported and used directly on the moon by the loporrits. Why did they make it beam like the Crystal Tower lol

So yes, it's cutting the whole deal with the bigoted politician cause it's a waste of time

In helping the twins while the others make arrangements, Zero and Alisae interact more and we get more funny bite out of Zero and her foodie tendencies almost doing anything for food, which the WoL has to put a stop to before she reaches her own limits.

The leadup for the voidsent instance can still happen. Zero is still operating on barter logic while trying hard to stick to selfishness, and so her deja vu hits harder as we realize her cover was a cover to her frustration at failing to protect others in the past, reflecting her dismissal of friendship and trust to be a mistake... and then the rescue happens as usual :)

We go to Lapis Manalis to find the source of the sudden voidsent uptick, not knowing Cagnazzo is there. He pretends to be a coward, and doesn't say the taunt he does nor, spell Golbez' plan as he dies. He wails moreso that at least he's free and unbound, and from his corpse falls Azdaja's eye. This leads the gang to think that he used the Eye to escape... and ah, Vrtra's feelings are not dismissed.

When we take everything back to Lapis Manalis, we find Y'sthola has finished the preparations on the moon with Urianger. The Golbez trial proceeds as usual, and hopefully coming off less as a painfully foreseable trap now. It feels like we genuinely got duped good than, being kind of silly.

With this, 6.3 would hopefully have more time for Void information and lore, maybe even discussing the Fell Court of Troia in 6.4 when Zero recovers her memories.

With this and 6.5 going as it is, we lose no trials or dungeons.

I rest my case

[adhdnojutsu]

Most people who commission gay Naruto art from me identify as any degree of male and any degree of male-attracted. Why do I get the feeling that gay men are not typically the folks complaining about "gay fetishization"?

KakaIru have no more and no less chemistry than some CANON het ships. Shipping characters for their animosity or rivalry is a tradition as old as shipping itself, and KakaIru started when Iruka started a fight with Kakashi for enrolling Team 7 in the Chunin exam and they hijacked the whole meeting until the Hokage himself had to intervene, because you could totally get a "get a room" vibe from that scene. And I don't know if it's filler or canon, but another typical "shipping catalyst" was Kakashi's therapy speech about Iruka's dead eyes following the latter's outburst at Naruto.

Neither are inherently romantic, but arguing a lot or disregarding rank and etiquette for each other are typical bases for shipping and always have been. And I hardly ever see people bitching about fetishizing lesbians. I haven't seen any bitching about InoSaku or TsunaSaku or SakuHina on this blog, it's all about KakaIru and SNS. Men fetishizing wlw is so socially accepted that they'll harass female couples in public with impunity, but when it comes to fiction, people mostly take issue with fetishizing homosexuality when it's mlm, and that's STRANGE. Almost as if the real problem here is that women are objectified with impunity like it's the most normal thing in the world, while men enjoy some degree of advocacy for their sexual autonomy.

There may be little chemistry between the two, but look at some real life (het) couples and you'll find chemistry is overrated. People will enter and/or stay in relationships for fiscal reasons, green cards, status, convenience, coping, daddy issues, social pressure, religion, accidental pregnancy, money... But shipping two men who lack chemistry solely based on their inappropriate display of familiarity both by Japanese standards and those of a very hierarchy-heavy job such as anything military-adjacent, is "fetishizing gay men"? Give me a break.

And the comparison with SasuHina is absurd. Those two never interacted. I'm not sure they even spoke of each other (Boruto doesn't count). "I'm not sure you can fetishize a het ship" sums up the problem with y'all. YOU are the ones viewing gay ships as "potentially fetishist" while taking het ships as the most natural, face value thing in the world. You're clearly projecting if a het ship is inherently less fetishist to you than an equally based or baseless gay one.

Lastly, Iruka isn't that good-looking by anime standards. He's just handsome enough for the audience to spot him in a crowd. Vibration Stars is about to release the umpteenth Minato figure, but still not a single Iruka. Iruka is consistently bypassed in merch and official artwork despite his impact on the MC. Even the walking irrelevance that is Sasori is a much more common choice for all things profit-oriented, because Iruka's character design only slightly elevates him above what the industry calls "mob".

[all-drarry-to-me]

Queer book recommendations 📚

Okay, so I received this super nice ask, kindly requesting another list of book recommendations, but when I finally got around to answering it, Tumblr (being the hellsite that it is) ate the ask. Emi, I hope you know how thrilled I was to see that in my inbox — not only have you read some of my favorite books based on my recommendation, but you liked them enough to ask for more! I’m happy to put together another list, and please feel free to message me at any time to talk about books!

Without further ado (and in no particular order), here’s part two of some of my favorite queer books:

1. All for the Game trilogy by Nora Sakavic: I could talk about this series for ages. Listen, I know it’s problematic: they’re not the most well-written books, the plot is insane and there’s a whole host of trigger warnings that go with the series. It focuses on college athletes, who come together through Exy, a made-up sport that the mafia is involved in. Somehow, despite all of that, I managed to fall in love with the series quite quickly. It’s like nothing I’ve ever read before, and the characters — even with their numerous flaws — really drew me in. The found family trope is so well executed (I couldn’t help but root for the Foxes throughout the series), then I absolutely love the way they handle consent. Of the core characters, there’s two who are gay and one who’s definitely on the ace spectrum, though it’s not outright stated in the book. And while I said they’re not the most well-written series, which I do stand by, there’s also a handful of BEAUTIFUL lines from the books.

2. “Running with Lions” by Julien Winters: This is the only other sports-themed book on the list, I promise! Some of my love for this book likely stems from my own years running around the soccer field — this takes place at a summer training camp, but that’s definitely not the only reason it’s on this list. I’m a big fan of enemies to lovers, and while this is more ex-friends to lovers, there’s definitely some animosity to be worked through when Emir unexpectedly shows up at the soccer camp. I love the way he and Sebastian bond, and the way their friendship evolves before becoming a more romantic relationship. There’s some standard coming-of-age vibes within the book, but the plot and the characters are interesting enough to help set it apart from others in the genre.

3. “Orlando: A Biography” by Virginia Woolf: This one is a little different than the others on the list, but I wouldn’t recommend it any less. I feel a little in love with Virginia Woolf over the past year and, of her books that I’ve read, this one really stands out. It’s from the 1920s and features a main character who lives for 300+ years — and who’s trans (Orlando is born male, then wakes up one day as female). With the way time works and the plot itself, it’s a bit strange, but I found it captivating, and the whole thing is a love letter to Vita Sackville-West, another writer with whom Woolf was in a relationship with. (Don’t get me started on their relationship — there’s a book of love letters between the two of them that’s achingly beautiful, but the book is hard to find.)

4. “Upside Down” by N. R. Walker: This is trope-y and wonderful and I would highly recommend. It has issues with pacing, but it made me genuinely happy as I was reading it. I finished it in a day, maybe two, because I couldn’t put it down — and I have two of the author’s other books in my Barnes & Noble cart as I’m typing this. In “Upside Down,” both of the main characters are ace; one is sure of his identity and the other is just starting to figure it out, and they work to navigate that together. It’s sweet and a quick read if you’re looking for something fairly fluffy.

5. Iron Breakers trilogy by Zaya Feli: If you take the plot from Captive Prince and mix it with the writing of All for the Game, that’s a close approximation of Iron Breakers. The main character is hard to like at times (he has a lot of growing up to do) and the plot isn’t groundbreaking — there’s a lot of similarities to Captive Prince — but there’s also a lot of positives the series has going for it. The world building is really interesting, the love interest is wonderful and the series has some compelling twists. The first book is free through Nook and I bought the second two immediately after finishing it, then could not put those down until I was done!

6. “Olivia” by Dorothy Strachey: There’s not enough wlw romance on here, which is one of the reasons I wanted to add “Olivia.” It’s another one that’s slightly different than the others on the list; it was originally published in the 1940s and is loosely based on the author’s own life, telling the story of a girl who goes to finishing school and falls in love with her teacher. It’s the story of first love, and forbidden love at that.

7. “Cemetery Boys” by Aiden Thomas: This book absolutely worth a read — Yadriel is trans, and is trying to prove to his family that he’s a “real” man by summoning a ghost to help solve his cousin’s murder. Instead, he summons Julien, then proceeds to fall for the ghost while trying to help Julien figure out how he died. Thomas creates such an interesting world within the book and the three main characters (Yadriel, Julien and Yadriel’s cousin/best friend Maritza) are so much fun together.

8. “Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda” by Becky Albertalli: Look, I think most people have heard of, if not read, this book but I’d be remiss if I didn’t include it on my list. It was actually recommended to me last time I made a queer rec list and it didn’t disappoint. In some ways, it’s a relatively standard coming out novel, but it has some really interesting differences. The way in which Simon is forced to come out makes the plot unique, and I love how supportive Simon’s family is — there are so many books where the character comes out and is subsequently kicked out, and it was nice to see a different take (I may have cried a little at that point, but that’s neither here nor there). If you haven’t read it, I’d definitely recommend.

9. Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo: This is like, “Ocean’s Eleven,” but with teenagers. I liked the first book slightly better than the second, but they’re both great — they focus on a group of six planning an elaborate heist, with Kaz as the leader of their little gang. Each character is really well-developed, and both the plot and the world-building are first class. There’s a mlm romance on the side, so this one’s a bit more subtly queer than some of the other recs, but they’re still great books.

10. “The House in the Cerulean Sea” by T.J. Klune: This book is wonderful in so many ways. It’s focused on Linus Baker, who’s sent on a classified mission to a magical orphanage, where six “dangerous” children live with their caretaker, Arthur Parnassus. The characters — all of them, big and small — are compelling and interesting; they’re well-thought out and unique, which I think is a huge strength of Klune’s, visible in this book and the others I’ve read by him. Linus and Arthur are a bit older (in their 40s) and I love the way that contributes to their relationship and their character development, then the plot is somewhat simple, but the characters and the world are compelling enough that you don’t need any major twists or turns.

Next on my to-read list is “The Mercies” by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, which I’m absolutely psyched about, and I’m counting down the days until “One Last Stop” by Casey McQuiston is released.

(You asked if I've read anything by Seanan McGuire — I haven't; any recs for what to start with?)

Please let me know if you ever want more recs and I’ll be happy to throw some titles out there, and I'd love to know what you think if you end up reading any of these!