#you know… I think tragic WLW stories might be a Thing

[foibles-fables]

I have a question, and I’d love your insight as a fellow wlw who loves Horizon as much as I do!

Why do you think the writers made Avad fall for Aloy in the first place? Ignoring the arguably cringe convo at the start of HFW, did him dirty there after the end of HZD lol, but think about it, we know he’s a bit of a romantic yes, but why make him fall for Aloy at all if the intention wasn’t romance? In HFW there’s even the heart option where you give him hope almost. Do you think it was originally to give him conflict because of the whole Ersa thing, or something else?

I just can’t figure it out. Like, they could have had him be really grateful to Aloy for her assistance in HZD and left it at that so that Aloy has a powerful ally, but they purposefully put the romantic aspect in there and the subsequent rejection of it in HZD. I just hope it isn’t a running joke or something because his character is really interesting outside of the puppy love they keep focusing on. He does some awesome stuff and it’s a shame they’ve reduced him to a one dimensional character.

(And of course I’m removing all “ship” aspects from this discussion, I’m genuinely curious to what you think the writers approach is and I wish we could ask them cause I’m dying to know!)

Thanks for listening, hope you have a fab day <3

Oh, this is a fantastic question. I'm very much an Avad apologist--he's genuinely one of the most compelling and tragic side characters in the series--so I've definitely thought about this a lot myself. You're right that he could/should have more interesting contributions and I do hope that's the case in HZ3.

For their exchanges in HZD, I think the answer is manifold. For one, I think his proposition was intended as a character moment for Aloy--it leads to a moment in which the player can examine her in the context of romance/romantic gestures, perhaps for the first time. Just as Aloy might not have been thinking about it until that point in the game, the player might not have, either. So another facet that considers her contrasting context with her companions, and an opportunity for the player to choose how to express her emotionality surrounding it.

But I also do want to point out that so many of the ally side quests in HZD (Varl/the Nora, Erend, Talanah, Namman, Elida, Nakoa, I can go on) center around the idea of grief and all of the forms it can take. Avad is no different! I think it's compelling to examine his proposition to Aloy through this lens. Especially considering the way he apologizes sincerely for his blunder before the final battle, no matter which option you chose at the flashpoint. So I do think it was deliberate, and not to be treated as a joke!

As far as Proposition 2: Sunshine Boogaloo in HFW...sad to say, but Avad suffered from the same writing issues as the other returning companions. This is especially magnified by the fact that his appearance in the story was so small. I'll forever be salty that his character was reduced to "hey, remember when this guy hit on Aloy?" and also "let's reintroduce the flashpoint mechanic" and "hey players: there's not gonna be romance yet" in early-game. He deserved better.

In the scope of new material, it's definitely interesting that choosing heart is always a "not yet" re: Aloy's character. Certainly something to consider as we move forward to the next game 🤡🤡🤡

[trans-queen-administrator]

oh i have been tagged in a thing. ty @yugonostalgia2019. time to overshare

3 ships: Hmmmm ok I gotta list Taylor x Lisa, their dynamic makes me go absolutely feral without fail. Honestly I don't even need them as a ship I just love how horrible and amazing they are for each other. I am limiting myself to one Worm ship here, despite how much it pains me, but I shall provide brief descriptions for the other ships for the people who don't know the non-worm stuff here. Marina x Pearl from Splatoon are so damn cute and I adore them. Nepotism baby punk soundcloud rapper x runaway genius former child soldier military engineer is honestly just 10/10, and they're just so good! I swear to god if the DLC doesn't have a 20 minute cutscene of lesbian cephalopod kissing I'll riot. Splatoon is my biggest fandom besides Worm which is kind of hilarious to me considering the sharp difference in tone. Third ship... hmmm, The Doctor x River Song. I just think it's genuinely such a sweet concept and wonderfully executed, two time travelers who are in love but keep meeting each other in the wrong order so their experiences and knowledge of the other don't match up is tragic and great and I nearly cried at their final episode. Honestly just been a River Song fan forever too, she's eternally my transition goals.

First ever ship: Ohhhhh gosh this one is lame. Back when I was a wee lass in middle school browsing FF.net endlessly, my main fandoms were Pokemon and Super Smash Bros. I flat out didn't realize that you could ship anything except a man and a woman because like, no one told me, and I kinda was just not a fan of romance because I thought it was always forced in stories (I was right about that tho). But then I read a Smash Bros fanfic that had Lucina and Palutena shipped and I was just like... damn, women can kiss? That sounds so cool. Shame I can never do that. And so I read the shockingly large number of fics shipping those two because it was the only wlw ship I knew existed.

Last song: I don't actually listen to music that much. Last song is uhhh... the Monster Sanctuary PVP Theme I guess due to playing Monster Sanctuary PVP. If we're talking actual music, I think my sister forced me to listen to some Taylor Swift song recently? Idk what it was but I think the album was called 1984.

Last movie: I also don't watch movies much! Uhhhhhhhhh I think it was Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No. Might have been a different one? The Sharknado movie that ends with them crashing down to Earth inside of a shark after fighting them off from a satellite and one of the characters gives birth while coming down inside the shark and the baby cuts its way out with a chainsaw before the mom gets crushed by falling debris. Sorry for spoiling, I know everyone was really looking forward to watching Sharknado 3.

Currently reading: Making my way through the Snapshots series of Splatoon fics which are so fucking good. For published stories though, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight for a class. Thinking about rereading Worm and posting about it but I gotta beat the Lakesbian copy allegations.

Currently watching: I'm don't really watch anything when I'm on my own, I prefer to read in almost all situations. When I go home though, I watch One Piece with my sister because it is nice to spend time with her and she's very passionate about the show.

Currently consuming: Nerds Gummy Clusters. I regret every bite but I bought this shitty bag of candy so I gotta finish it. Fuck these are terrible.

Currently craving: Mini Chewy Sweettarts. They're my favorite candy and I have a massive sweet tooth so I've been craving them, but I swear every single damn store in a mile radius stopped stocking them and is now selling "Sweettart gummies" or "Sweettart chewy fusions" or "Sweettart ropes" or "Sweettart rope bites" and that is not what I desire! Where is my delicious mouth hurting candy ;-;

[extant-exhaustion]

Hi.....Do you mind if I ask you some random thing? I used to love shounen and shoujo manga equally....But ever since I found BL manga 3 years ago, my interest in shoujosei (especially het romance) decrese a lot, and what I search for is just the dynamic between mc (male) and male lead...I don't want to read mc (female) and male lead or mc (male) and female lead...And I just want to read mlm or wlw stories....

What do you think is happening to me? Is it really weird?

Hi there,

I don’t mind at all! So, I would start by saying that there’s definitely nothing “weird” about what you’re describing. I don’t know you, of course, so I won’t presume your age, gender, or sexuality, but for myself, I’m a 30-year-old bi woman. I like anime whose demographics fall into shonen, shoujo, BL, and a variety of others. When I read fanfics, I always read stories about ships I like though, and those are almost guaranteed not to be canon—which almost always means they’re mlm or wlw.

So, the first part of your question was why you might like reading mlm or wlw stories more than mlw. For me, I’m most drawn to the dynamics between the most interesting characters, and oftentimes those happen to be characters of the same sex for whatever reason. (Sometimes it’s because certain writers cannot write women and it is absolutely tragic, but that’s a topic for a different day.) So, if the most interesting characters are two men, that’s not a problem, ’cause I’m a queer person so my brain and heart are happy to fill in the blanks where the writers wouldn’t, haha.

Building off of that is the second part of your question. You asked what I think is “happening to you.” Dear anon, I want to give you a hug. I can tell you’re worried, and maybe you’re questioning your sexuality or going through a phase of learning who you are or what you like—and that’s fine! That’s good! As I said, I’m a bi woman. My partner is a straight man. When I seek out BL manga to read or find “given” or “Promare” fanfics with mlm ships, it’s not necessarily about the smut (though there’s nothing to be ashamed of if you enjoy reading smut! I do too!). I just like to read about characters I love getting to be together and be happy.

So, what’s happening to you? You’re finding what you like. It doesn’t have to “mean” anything if you don’t want it to. But it can also open doors for you to learn more about yourself if that’s what you want. Nothing is weird about it. I promise.

I hope this helped. My ask box is always open. Take care of yourself, anon! Happy Pride! 🏳️‍🌈

[nikkywrites]

Thanks for the mention, Moon 🥺🥰

I’m Nikky, I have way too many wips at any given moment and I write myth retellings and fantasy. Lately (like for the last year aggjkl) I’ve been a little obsessed with my take on Calypso. She’s a mesh of Greek Odyssey Calypso and old sailor tale Davy Jones Calypso and I love her. She’s a very cruel person but can also be super sweet depending on her mood and who she’s around. She is also the Kraken and it’s not uncommon for her to just go around with sharp teeth or with her Kraken eyes (the whites blacked out). She’s aware that she’s a monster and is unbothered by it and what others think of her (beside the very exclusive Inner Circle. She cares a little about them).

She’s the star of three wips but my focus of them at the moment is Maidens and Monsters. It’s a tragic WLW romance retelling the myth of Scylla’s transformation from nymph to beast.

You shouldn’t have to worry too much if you’re not that familiar with the original myths, though. I put my own spin on all the characters and take liberties. They can still be enjoyed as their own thing.

You can tag me in games! I’m kind of awful at doing them in a timely manner but I will get around to it.

So since I’m trying to get back into writing again, and I’ve just realized how out of the loop I am on Writeblr while trying (and failing) to figure out who to tag in that tag game!

Writeblrs! Reblog this and tell me:

•A little about your main wip(s) and /or characters. If you want and you have one, you can just send me your wip intro, or you can thpe out a big long rant about it, or you can just type a couple of sentences. Whatever works for you!

•Whether or not you like to be tagged in tag games

•Any other writeblrs you would recommend if you can think of any!! I’m specifically looking for people who write fantasy and romance, and I sometimes like interesting science fiction stuff too!!

[theowlsarequeer]

Ok so i binged Q-Force today because I needed something to kill a few hours on a long weekend so HERE'S A WHOLE LONG POST ABOUT IT.

Overall, I actually really liked it. There were definitely some things I'd change or didn't like, which I'll also being including bc criticizing media while still enjoying it is a GOOD THING btw.

First off and most importantly: IGNORE THE TRAILERS. THE TRAILERS ARE SHIT. They legitimately chose the worst possible clips with no context and while I don't necessarily agree with some of the backlash the trailers got they just aren't indicative of what the show's actually like.

This isn't a criticism necessarily, but before you consider watching the show, please know that Q-FORCE IS DEFINITELY AN ADULT SHOW. There's a lot of sex, sex jokes (which were pretty funny ngl,) and both boobs and dicks (both in a nonsexual context, but there nonetheless.) This was totally on me for not, yknow, looking up what was in the show before I watched it, and it does say that it's rated TV-MA for nuditity and sex, etc, and I was fine with it and none of it was THAT bad but I was a little surprised. Just giving everyone a little heads-up. I might post timestamps later so people can skip it.

Anyways let's start with what I DID like about the show.

First off, the elephant in the room: the stereotypes.

Yes, a lot of the queer representation in Q-Force is pretty stereotypical. But I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, per se. You can tell that the creators of the show are queer, and queer people and the stereotypes the characters fall into aren't the butt off the joke. In fact, a lot of the stereotypes work for the team's advantages. Twink (a drag queen) and his disguises are invaluable to the team on numerous missions, the sapphics at Deb and Pam's barbeque and their slightly stereotypical lesbian knowledge helped Stat with her trivia and saved the team's butts, and the drag community is used as a resource for gathering intel more than once. I felt like you could tell the show was made by people in the community, and even when they DID make fun of certain aspects of the characters' personalities, it felt more like a lighthearted inside joke than a dig at queer people.

To be perfectly honest, a lot of the hate Q-Force initially got doesn't sit right with me. Yes, the trailers were a dumpster fire, but people being visibly queer is not a bad thing, and I've heard that most of the characters are based on real people.

Also, I absolutely loved the way the community as, well, a community was portrayed. I loved that they all had connections in the queer community that came in handy, I loved the wlw barbeque, and OLDER BUTCH LESBIANS??? That means so much to me as a baby butch lesbian.

Second, it was actually pretty funny. There were a lot of digs on corporate pride (some of my favorites were the repeated citibank jokes and the 'fossil fuels' float in the pride parade. The fact that the literal princess from Princess Diaries was a reoccurring character? And yes, the sex jokes were funny. I am a teenager.

All of the characters were really endearing, and I was rooting for the main cast, even the ones that I either hated initially or just didn't find as endearing as my favorites.

I also LOVED LOVED LOVED the way that they showed the struggles of being queer without making it endless queer pain. Don't get me wrong, I love stories where homophobia isn't a plot point, but it was really nice to see issues I struggle with and people in the community struggle with portrayed on screen, because they're real. None of the queer character got horrible tragic endings, and they're all secure in their queerness (unless we're counting buck lol) but they all were underestimated because of their sexuality, gender, or presentation, and Mary got everything he'd worked for ripped away because he's gay. I felt like it did a good job showing queer struggles without it being punch after punch after punch.

Now, onto things that I didn't like as much.

I would've loved if there'd been more open trans and nby rep. Stat means the world to me, but I had no idea she was trans until I saw it on Tumblr. Which is also cool, considering that everyone onscreen accepted her identity without question, but if there's a season two I'd love to see a prominent character who uses multiple sets of pronouns or smth. I've also seen people call out for bi/pan/etc and aspec rep, which would also be very cool to see.

I've also seen a lot of people talking about how they'd want more representation of people of color in a season 2, and while that's not really something I can speak on, I definitely agree. There are some great posts about this BY poc in the q-force tag if you're interested.

This one might be a personal preference, because a lot of Twink's weight-related jokes were pretty uncomfortable to me. It didn't ruin the show for me, but I definitely could've done without them. HOWEVER there were characters of a lot of different body types, and there was never a joke about weight at a fat character's expense, which was pretty refreshing. Also both Mary (muscular Captain America-type body) and Deb (plus size) kicked absolute ass which was awesome.

I've seen some criticism about it saying that it's military propoganda and... I feel like those people didn't watch past episode 3. The AIA is pretty explicitly painted as corrupt and homophobic.

Anyway, TLDR: Q-Force is definitely not for everyone, and MAKE SURE YOU LOOK UP CONTENT WARNINGS, but it's not as bad as the trailers/Tumblr says it is.

[aparticularbandit]

3, 17, 19 please!

DEEP FIC WRITER ASKS

3) what fic are you emotionally attached to?

Luisa and the Fox. ...I feel this one might be expected at this point, so I went through and looked at all my other fic and like. Of them all, this is still the one to which I'm the most emotionally attached. >.>;;

17) What’s the best engagement/interaction/feedback you’ve received from someone who’s read your work?

I was actually afraid of getting this question because like. How do you quantify best engagement/interaction/feedback? SO OBVIOUSLY ALL OF YOUR COMMENTS I NEED YOU TO KNOW. FIRST OFF. But actually, I honestly think it is less the comments/etc. than it is, like, getting to know other writers in the different communities and making friends? Which is...the interaction bit? So becoming friends with you and Belle and Cait through Roisa stuff (or Skylar through Agatha stuff) - and like getting to pop into people's DMs or discord or whatever and just rant and ramble about ships AND CAUSE EACH OTHER PAIN is. the best interaction I get from people who have read my stuff. ^^

19) If you could write an ideal fic, what would it include?

Pain, obviously. ;) No, it would - I've reblogged a thing about narrative distance recently, I think - yeah, this post - and my ideal fic would play with the concept of narrator as distinct from character POV so that you've got the narrator who's telling the story to you who can occasionally comment on things or speak directly to you, the reader, without it feeling weird, in a comforting sort of way. But also the ideal fic would employ second person (kind of like in What Dreams May Come with Viola or in Finding Family with Agatha (when she was stuck in Agnes)), which I'm not sure is compatible with that sort of narrative voice.... It would probably include some super in-depth world-building but not, like, Tolkein world-building, but taking our world and making one difference and then extrapolating from there (like with the soulmate timer stuff). It would be queer, but not necessarily lesbians queer (although there would probably be wlw stuff in it, tbh). A lot of angst. A snarky anti-villain turned anti-hero. A woobie destroyer of worlds. Someone who has turned evil because of tragic past reasons. One character could potentially be ALL OF THE ABOVE. Like I have a character type and I acknowledge this. But also you're gonna have the mom friend. Not the happy perky sunspot but the, like. LET ME USE MADOKA AS AN EXAMPLE. THERE WOULD BE A MAMI, THERE WOULD BE A KYOKO, AND THERE WOULD BE A HOMURA. :D ...okay, in ouat terms. There would be a Mary-Margaret Blanchard (but not necessarily Snow; I will maintain they are separate characters and I like MMB better) and there would be a Regina. ...uh, that's missing a character. There would be a Dottie Underwood. She's the closest to a Kyoko parallel. xD Lots of discussions of mental illness. ...potentially different versions of the same character - whether that's multiverse or time travel or clones or etc. (Or it would be a fairytale. Actually, the ideal fic would be a fairytale.) ...I'm gonna stop there. XD

[masterthespianduchovny]

As much as I understand the need for queer representation, queer shipping around mlm ships tend to be misogynistic as fuck. Doubly so if one of the male characters has a canon female love interest. They have to shit on her and "punish" her for interfering with a ship that isn't canon and was never going to be canon.

And that's important to note because, within the last few years, fans of these ships frame these relationships as barriers to their preferred ship or they get mad that there isn't an open ended to pretend these two characters ended up together.

As if this is somehow the fault of the female characters and not the writers. Most importantly, it overlooks the fact that, more times than not, these character sexualities were considered and there is a vague outline of where they might end up. It's unfortunate that queerness isn't often considered, actually very little, but it's not okay to engage in misogynistic rhetoric all because your mlm ship didn't happen.

From my own personal experience, a prime example is Steggy.

Steve is framed as straight. Maybe there's a chance that his bi--idk. But the MCU has always positioned him as being into women with the subtext that he'll end up with a woman. Yet, because he ended up with Peggy, she's constantly attacked and doesn't "deserve" him because she didn't know him as long as Bucky. She's been called all sorts of derogatory things, slandered, criticized for random bullshit, etc. Reduced to just her reproductive parts, having ageist remarks leveled at her, and so forth.

Most of this didn't exist before Endgame, but after Endgame, the attacks are non stop. People are triggered whenever she comes her. All because Cap chose her over someone he wasn't even interested in. All because fans shipped him and Bucky together and the MCU didn't bend to their will.

Another example: Darvey. Harvey and Donna from Suits.

No one has to like a character, but usually, the way certain fans rip into Donna usually ends up with it being a Marvey shipper. They'll contort truth, ignore details, and color her in the worst possible light to prove how she's bad for Harvey, yet ignore all of Harvey's bullshit to prove how he and Mike are MFEO.

Let's be clear: I don't fucking care if people ship non canon ships or think two other characters, whether or not they're the same gender, are better together. However, When you're being misogynistic and sexist to upload your OTP, you can rightly fuck off. It's so easy to ship what you like without bringing that bullshit into it.

Tragically, many of these critics are women who have massive internalized misogyny, but believe they are being progressive, inclusive, and ship without prejudice. If you're tearing women down to uplift any ship, even if it's queer, that's not progressive and feeds into the patriarchy.

It's okay to prefer something else, it's not okay to feed into a pre-existing, harmful, and sexist narrative.

And it's really bothersome because these same people call themselves trying to validate the LBGTQ community, many of these shippers are straight (which this opinion is based on various discourses and criticisms of how gay characters are written in these stories and dialogue surrounding them) and ironically end up invalidating Bi, Pan, and NB people.

Some of these ships are due to these characters being hot, which is fine.

Other times it's due to chemistry, which is also fine.

But as another person argued years ago, one of the reasons why mlm shipping is so popular and prevalent is because male dynamics are actually fleshed out and explored meaningfully. This leads to wanting to ship characters who have real relationships, conflicts, and history with each other no matter how small or large.

However, the issue comes in for some because it's not canon. These meaningful relationships aren't romantic and many women tend to want some romance included, which isn't a bad thing. But when you know the romance will never happen, it's easy to get upset about that. And they know people who ship canon pairings have that over them, which is infuriating.

Which is understandable.

Regardless, diminishing, trivializing, and insulting women is not okay, esp when some of these women have the relationships with men that are usually reserved for male dynamics.

Donna and Harvey have a long, complicated relationship that is based on a professional dynamic, friendship, and romantic yearning. This was established in the first season and didn't come out of nowhere, yet people either ignore that, play it as one sided, go on and on about why they couldn't be just friends (they never were), and hilariously, refer to it as fan service.

Peggy and Steve develop a friendship of sorts, are supportive of one another, genuinely are in love with each other, and have worked alongside each other is criticized because Peggy didn't know Steve as long as Bucky. Appalling things are said about her.

Thing is: these aren't the only fandoms that do this. Trust and believe, whenever there is a major male pairing, if any woman is canonically paired with ether one of them, she's being attacked and called gross things. That's not okay even in the name of representation. If you genuinely hate this female character because of who she is and not because of her gender, I get that. However, a lot of it is gender based and it's quite obvious when reading these criticisms.

Wanting better and more representation doesn't excuse or justify shitty behavior.

Lastly, people factor in compulsive heterosexuality regarding their criticisms of various straight pairings. That's a validate take, however, we need to be honest about our issues with certain pairings rather than piling on undeserved hate towards female characters, and then have nuanced conversations about what this means in context to that specific series.

No. You're not going to have these conversations with show runners, writers, and actors. I get this. But some of you need to stop harassing others and acting like assholes because they don't support your pairing (which they don't have to). If you believe Steve is bisexual, then stop fucking harassing people who ship him with Peggy. If deep, meaningful relationships are important, then stop undermining them to push a ship. And stop turning women into fucking mascots in your fanfic and fan art to prop up your ship--that shit is so dehumanizing. Often times, when these shippers don't hate the women, they only exist to say, "when will these two silly kids get together?" OR "I'mg lad you two silly kids finally got together."

Turning a woman into a mascot isn't any better than harming her or killing her to fuel a man's story--even if the man is gay.

Ironically, I'm less likely to see this from wlw ships or ships that has more queer support and than het support.

Quite interesting.

[lesetoilesfous]

I was reading on of your stories and I got curious what makes it so f!hawke is in your story or m!hawke? Just cause? Please share your wisdom how you choose which hawke

Oooh interesting question. Hmmmm - sometimes it depends on the group dynamic I want, and whether I want Hawke to be romancing anyone. I really, really prefer f!HawkeBela to m!HawkeBela, so if I want Hawke and Isabela in a romance, it'll be f!Hawke. For some reason also (probably the wlw of it all), if Isabela and Merrill are in a romance I really prefer an f!Hawke over an m!Hawke.

I think in general I'm conscious that I write a lot of stuff about cis dude characters, and as a woman I find it depressing when I don't see any women in fiction. So if the story feels too male-heavy, I'll make Hawke a woman to try and balance the scales a bit (same logic with the HoF).

If I'm writing a villain - depends on the kind of villain. Writing women who are physically/sexually abusive squicks me out - obviously, tragically, they're very capable of it. But it's not something I feel comfortable writing, and fanfic is my happy place, so. If I'm writing a Hawke who's abusive in that way, I'll write a man. I tend to lean towards m!Hawke for general bigotry/power/control/violence focused characters, probably because in my life so far people like that have generally been cis white dudes.

But hey, the homophobic white woman is a hell of a thing too. I think I would write a radically anti-mage, holier-than-thou, BFFs with Meredith villain f!Hawke. But I haven't yet.

Finally, I know you didn't ask but I adore NB!Hawke. If my Hawke is emotionally well-adjusted, or traumatised but getting through it, someone who's comfortable with their friendship group and adored by them, I might write them NB. With this it's generally that as a cis woman I'm not interested in villifying trans characters. If trans folk want to write trans villains, amazing - I'll read them. But I don't feel like that's my place, so I won't do it. Morally neutral thieves however? Fuck yes.

[wickedwitchoftheemidwest]

Happy New Year, everybody! I know that Literally no one cares or will read this, but I have to rate and talk about what I’ve read this year and this is my page, so deal with it.

2020 may have been a dumpster fire of a year, but I did read so me pretty good books. I didn’t get to read as many books as I wanted (like always), but that’s life. If you couldn’t tell, I do have a preference for romance novels, and these selections are very... 🌈 and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Here we go:

- Lies we Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley (4/10)

- I think I could write a dissertation about why I have a problem with this book, but I think I can just stop with “a white lady writing an interracial queer romance in the 1960s where the lead white character is literally a racist” should about cover it. Absolutely disappointed.

- Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (10/10)

- Oh my god does Casey McQuiston know how to write a book. Classic enemies to lovers, my favorite trope. This is my comfort novel that I use as a form of escapism, and probably the reason I didn’t read many new books, as I reread it about five times. It’s my comfort novel, and I come back to it every time I need to feel happy. I’ve made three of my friends read this book, and I recommend it to everyone

- These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling (8/10)

- It’s sapphic, it has witches, and it’s adorable; what more could you possibly want? The ending left me wanting more. I was finally able to buy the sequel and I can’t wait to get into it.

- Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan (7/10)

- I think this book is sort of a classic when it comes to gay YA. This was a pretty good book, but it took me awhile to get into it.

- Her Royal Highness by Rachel Hawkins (9/10)

- What did I say about enemies to lovers? HRH was regarded as sapphic Red, White, and Royal Blue, which I think is all you need to know to be interested. This book and short, sweet, and to the point. It’s an easy read (I read it twice, both times in one day). I think there could’ve been some more character building, but it’s so adorable I literally do not care. When I say I want more cute gay romcoms, they should use HRH as the blueprint.

- It’s Not Like It’s a Secret by Misa Sugiura (7/10)

- A cute, interracial sapphic love story where no white people are involved (the main character is Japanese American and her love interest is Mexican American). This coming of age story deals with acceptance, cultural differences, racism, and coming out. I think some of the points it was trying to delve into were too much on the nose at some times, but I really enjoyed this book.

- The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue and The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee (9/10)

- A fun romp set some time in the 1700s with a chaotic bi as the main lead? Count me in! I read this whole series this year, including the novella (the gentleman’s guide to getting lucky), and I loved every second of it. It’s an adventure series with some romance sprinkled in (a hella slow burn, but definitely worth it). The whole series has gay, bi, lesbian, and ace aro representation, and I was in love the entire time.

- You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson (8/10)

- The black sapphic book I needed. Liz Lighty decides she wants to leave her hometown and go to college, but after losing the financial aid she was counting on, she remembers the scholarship that prom queen gets every year, and decides to run. Sprinkle in a cute love story, and I’m hooked.

- The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (10/10)

- I... cannot put into words how this book made me feel. When I finished TSOA, I cried all night trying to recover. Beautifully written, and I still can’t get over Achilles and Patroclus. One of my favorite books this year.

- Sorry Not Sorry by Naya Rivera

- After Naya’s tragic passing in July, I struggled to find her autobiography anywhere. However, I was finally able to get my hands on it, and am so glad that I did. Naya Rivera was just as genuinely funny and carefree as her previous costars have said, and I wish the world could’ve gotten more of her.

Not pictured:

- Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst (9/10)

- Sapphic love story about a princess who has been betrothed to a prince from a nearby country her whole life who instead falls in love with his sister. The main character, Denna, also possesses magical powers, which is forbidden in their land. One of my favorite things about this book is that it’s set in medieval times, but no one cares about queer relationships. The only problem with Denna falling in love with the princess is that she’s betrothed to her brother and nothing else. I recently bought the sequel to this book as well, and I’m excited to read it

- The After Series (books 1-2) by Anna Todd (-400/10)

- I was curious about this series because of how terrible the movies are, and needed to read them myself. I apologize to myself every day that I every even wasted my time on these two books. If I ever see Anna Todd, it’s on sight immediately. Not only is the writing terrible, but the romanticization of abusive relationships is absolutely unacceptable. I think I could take less issue with these books if the author wrote them as a “what to look for in men you should never date” rule book, but it isn’t. I could actually write an essay on why these books are more harmful than entertaining and how I genuinely think this series should have never been published. Also, Harry Styles did not deserve this.

I also discovered WEBTOON this year, and here are some of my favorites that I have read:

- Always Human by creator walkingnorth, a finished WLW story which was absolutely beautiful to look at and delightful to read.

- Lore Olympus by creator Rachel Smythe. I don’t think you can find too many people who haven’t heard of this story, but it’s a retelling of the Hades and Persephone mythology, and I adore it.

- Novae by creators KaixJu. A historical, queer and paranormal romance about a necromancer who falls for an astronomer.

- My Lady Artemisia by creator rimarza. This WEBTOON is a little bit newer with fewer episodes, about a knight tasked with guarding the princess, which starts to prove difficult once she starts to gain feelings for the princess, and an impending threat might cause her to past to come to the surface.

Of course, I’ve also spent a lot of my time on A03. I know I’ve read more, but here are the ones I bookmarked and have come back to this year:

- kiss me (if you mean it) by nerdybutpunk

- Carry On fanfic, short but sweet, absolute fluff

- Camp Llwynywermod by bleedingballroomfloor

- Red, White, and Royal Blue AUwhere Henry and Alex are camp counselors. It’s so good and I find myself waiting every wed and sat for the updates.

I read more this year than I have in a long time, and I enjoyed it most of the time. My goal for 2021 is to read at least two books a month and to expand my horizons to something that isn’t YA and isn’t romance. Also to find Anna Todd and tell her off. Hopefully we can accomplish some of that.

[voidofwords]

hopelessly devoted

here’s a short wlw story i wrote! ngl i came up with everything, including the characters, as i went, but i ended up pretty happy with it!

Her grin is so bright when she looks at me. “Syd,” she says, beaming. “You won’t believe it!”

He said yes. I smile at her and tell the sinking feeling in my stomach to fuck off. “What?” I ask, with as much excitement as I can muster. 

Jasmine turns her phone screen towards me so I can see the messages between her and Brandon, but she’s waving the phone around excitedly and it’s impossible to even get a glimpse of what the messages say. Fortunately for me, and I would like my sarcasm here to be noted, she is kind enough to also tell me the news herself:

“He said yes!” She squeals, grabbing me by the arm and shaking my whole body. “Brandon said yes to go on a date with me! I’m going on a date with Brandon.”

For a moment, my brain is so fixated on the fact that Jasmine is touching my arm, it forgets how to do anything else. But I manage to kick it back into action and plaster on my most convincing I’m-so-happy-for-you-and-not-at-all-screaming-inside smile. “Jas, that’s great! That’s amazing!”

She nods eagerly, her deep brown eyes looking into mine. “You have to help me prepare for the date. I don’t even know what to wear!”

That actually makes me grin for real. “Come on, Jas, we both know you have way better style than me.”

She giggles and shakes her head. “Shut up, I love your whole, like, tomboy thing. Your style is amazing. But I just meant I want you there for emotional support.”

“Oh. Right.” Did Jasmine just tell me she loves my style? I am fighting so fucking hard to keep my brain from going into overdrive. I try to smile, but I think it’s more of a grimace. “Of course I’ll be there,” I tell her. “That’s what friends are for.” 

-

I don’t want to move. I don't want to get up. The alarm on my phone went off five minutes ago to let me know it was time to go to Jasmine’s house, but I think I might just lie here forever. What’s the point? She probably won’t even care if I come. She’ll be too fixated on her date with Brandon later to even notice if I’m there or not. 

Brandon is popular and has abs and is apparently super hot and charming - I don’t get it, but sure - and I’m just Syd, the tragic gay idiot, in love with my best friend. If this was a movie, Jasmine would be the main character. Of course she would. And I’d be the edgy queer-coded friend who’s mostly there for comic relief and emotional support. My life is a fucking joke. 

Because I might as well give the merciless gods watching my tragedy unfold something to laugh about, and because I’d be an asshole if I stood up my best friend right before her big date, I get up. There’s no point wallowing in my self-pity any more than necessary. 

Jasmine’s arms are around me the second she opens the door. It’s a signature Jasmine hug, tight and squeezy and enthusiastic, the kind that leaves me out of breath for more than one reason. 

“Syd! I was starting to worry you wouldn’t come.” She takes a step back and looks at me with her puppy-like eyes and I ask myself how the hell I’m going to get through today.

I shoot her what I hope looks like an apologetic smile. “Sorry. But I’m here!” I take in her worn-in sweatpants and oversized Mickey Mouse t-shirt. She still looks fucking amazing - this girl could literally wear anything and still look like a goddess - but I highly doubt this is what she’s planning on wearing for her date with Brandon. 

“I take it you haven’t found out what to wear yet,” I say. “Or is the date more of a Disney-themed pyjama party?” 

That makes her laugh. “No you silly goose! Brandon is taking me to dinner, and then to see a movie.” She takes my hand, and I freeze up as she pulls me inside the house and toward her room. “I need your input on what to wear.”

“You’d probably be better off without it, you know.” I smile as I imagine Brandon’s face if Jasmine showed up to their date in my battered jeans and too-big flannel. But I quickly chase the image away, because the thought of Jasmine wearing my clothes is too much to handle right now. 

Jasmine picks up two dresses from her bed and holds them both out to me. “Which one do you like the best?”

I have seen her in both of them before, but they’re usually what she wears around her older conservative family members, not when she is out having fun. Both of them are very modest, while still being pretty. 

“What happened to the other ones?” I ask, because I know her favourite dress is either the sleeveless floral one or the cute flowy one. 

Jasmine shrugs and smiles a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “Brandon texted me saying he doesn’t want me wearing anything too revealing, since we’ll be out in public.” 

What the fuck. “Brandon is telling you what to wear?” 

“No. He’s just giving me some pointers on what not to wear!”

I stare at Jasmine, who is still smiling like she actually thinks this is fine. “Jasmine, that’s still shitty behavior. He doesn’t have the right to do that!” 

She shrugs again. “It’s fine. I don’t mind! It narrows down my choices, and you know it’s hard for me to decide what to wear. Besides, I like these dresses too!” 

“Jas.” I sigh. “Are you sure you wanna go out with this guy?”

Jasmine laughs, as if in disbelief. “What? Of course I do! It’s Brandon.” 

“I just…” I’m definitely overstepping here, but I can’t stop myself. “I don’t get what you see in him.” 

“Oh, well, you know. He’s handsome and funny and… popular and…” She trails off for a second before looking up at me. For once she isn’t smiling. “I just like him, okay? I’m sorry your standards are so impossibly high. I’ve never even seen you express interest in a guy!” 

Is she kidding me right now? “I don’t…” Now it’s my turn to be speechless. 

Jasmine sighs, like she is giving up on me, and picks up one of the dresses again. “I’ll just go with this one.”

I’m worried she will change in front of me like we did when we were younger, but she goes to the bathroom to change. Thank fuck; there’s only so much I can handle in one day. 

When she comes back out, her brilliant smile is back. Her eyes look a little red, but it’s impossible to tell if it’s because she has been crying. I open my mouth to say something but before I can, she spins around to show off her dress. 

“What do you think?”

“It’s nice.” It is nice, of course it is, that’s not the problem. The problem is, it isn’t the kind of thing I know Jasmine likes to wear. But this time, I don’t say anything.

She grabs a box of her nicest makeup stuff and sits on the bed. “Will you help me with my makeup?”

“You want my help with your makeup?” I let out a laugh. “Jas.” I know how to do makeup decently, but I never wear it, so I don’t have anything close to the kind of practice she has. 

“Syd.” She laughs too. “It’ll be fun! Just like old times!”

That is true. When we were kids, Jasmine used to “borrow” her mom’s makeup, and we would take turns making each other look “beautiful”. It was a disaster, but the best kind. 

“Alright,” I say. “But I hope Brandon won’t be upset when you show up to the date with lipstick smeared across your face like a clown.” 

I sit down on the bed with her and help her pick out what I think would look good with her dress. 

It goes smoothly, until I have to do her eyeliner.

“This is a bit tricky,” I say, moving closer. “Please don’t be mad if I do a bad job.”

“I’m sure you’re doing a great job, Syd.” She smiles with her eyes still closed. 

“Stop talking, I’m trying to concentrate.” 

By some miracle, I manage to make it look good and symmetrical. I’m actually kind of proud of myself. “Okay, you can open your eyes now.”

But I’m not prepared for when she actually does, and I realize how little space there suddenly is between us. 

Our faces are so close I can smell her minty breath. Her eyes are locked with mine, and I have officially forgotten how to breathe. I think time might have stopped, just for us. And then, she fucking looks at my lips. There’s no mistaking it. She is looking right at my lips, with her own slightly parted. 

And that’s when I make the stupid, idiotic, wonderful mistake of kissing her. Fucking hell, it may be a mistake but it’s the best one I’ve ever made. Her lips are so, so soft. Holy shit. Is this how I die? Am I actually going to die kissing Jasmine? I think I’m okay with that. I think that is how I want to go. 

But before I even have time to register what a bad idea this is, she breaks the kiss and moves away from me on the bed. She is staring at me with a mix of shock and betrayal. Well, shit. She reaches up to touch her lips, like she can’t quite believe they were actually touching mine just a moment before. “Why would you do that?” she whispers, her brown eyes as puppy-like as ever. Though this time, it’s more like a puppy that has been kicked by its owner. 

“I… I don’t know,” I choke out. “Fuck. Jasmine-”

She shakes her head and stands up abruptly. “I have to go.” Her voice is shaky. “My date is waiting.” 

-

Fuck this shit. Fuck the universe and fuck Brandon and most of all, fuck me and my lack of impulse control.

I have successfully ruined everything. Yay. Not only have i completely screwed up my relationship with my only real friend, I have also probably ruined her date with the guy she likes.

At this point, all I can do about it is go outside and touch some grass. There is an old park in our neighborhood that no one visits anymore, and it’s the perfect place if you want to be alone with your misery and self-loathing. I guess you could say I come here often. 

I sit down against the trunk of a tree and look up at the sky. It’s cloudy, but the kind of cloudy where the clouds look like bunnies and hearts and shit. I guess looking at clouds is a better use of my time than replaying the events of today over and over and hating myself more with every passing second. 

I don’t even know how much time passes but suddenly, I feel another person close to me. I start, convinced I’m about to be murdered or kidnapped, but when I turn, I see Jasmine. 

She sits down next to me and offers me a shaky smile. This time she definitely has been crying. She kinda still is. 

I don’t know whether I should say something, so I just sit there and look at her. She looks down at her own hands, and doesn’t speak for a long time. I’m about to open my own cursed mouth, when she finally speaks. 

“I’m so sorry, Syd.”

I stare at her, my brain not computing. “You’re sorry? What the hell do you have to be sorry for?”

“I was a total… a total dingus earlier!” If I didn’t feel so fucked right now, I would have smiled at Jasmine’s adorable inability to swear, maybe even gently teased her about it. But I don’t. I sit quietly as she continues: “I have been for years, haven’t I? Completely clueless.”

“What?” I don’t know what she is on about, but if she means clueless about my embarrassing crush on her, then yes, she has been. I can’t blame her, though. I mean, I did try to hide it, and for good reason. 

“I left the date with Brandon early.”

I feel like an ass for it, but I’m happy to hear that. Not because I’m naive enough to think it means anything for me, but because Brandon is such a punchable fucking idiot, and definitely not good enough for Jasmine. “Oh,” is what I say. “Did you not have a good time?”

She finally looks at me. “I left because of you, Syd.” 

Fuck. “Jasmine, I’m so fucking sorry. I never should’ve-”

“Stop,” she says, and I do. “I left because I realized you were right. I don’t like Brandon.” She lets out a shaky laugh. Her eyes are brimming with tears. “It probably shouldn’t have taken you kissing me to realize it, but… Yeah, well, I’m an idiot.”

My heart and brain seem to have made a collective decision to stop functioning. I stare at her, not sure if any of this is really happening. Maybe I’m misinterpreting what she is saying. Yeah, that seems like the only logical-

My half-panicked thoughts are cut off by Jasmine leaning forward and pressing a soft kiss to my lips. She is still teary-eyed, but she is also smiling softly as she moves close enough that our shoulders are touching. “I don’t think I even like guys at all,” she whispers. “And… well. I’m pretty sure I like you. A lot.”

She is looking at me expectantly, but I am stunned into silence. My brain short-circuited long ago and left me useless and unable to do anything other than stare at her in disbelief. 

“Syd.” She nudges me with her shoulder. “Please say something, I am freaking out over here!”

“Shit. Yeah. Sorry.” I shake my head, slowly kicking myself back into action. “I like you a lot too. But I probably made that pretty obvious earlier, didn’t I?” I chuckle nervously, meeting her eyes. My heart is still going haywire, has been since she fucking kissed me. I don’t think I’ve fully processed that yet. “Sorry, this is… a lot.”

Jasmine grins. “Yeah, tell me about it. Twelve hours ago I thought I was the straightest person ever and that I liked Brandon? And now it turns out I’ve been a lesbian the whole time! God, that feels weird to say, but… Also like such a relief? Like part of me has known for way longer.” 

I almost don’t have the courage to do it, but I reach out and take her hand. Our fingers interlock. When she puts her head on my shoulder, I almost start to tense up, out of habit I guess, but I tell myself to relax. 

The moment feels so precious, so uniquely ours, that I’m afraid I’ll ruin it if I speak. So I close my eyes and savour the way Jasmine’s soft body is pressed against mine, and I pray that this moment never ends. 

[sometimesrosy]

There are a lot of popular female antiheroes though? Blair Waldorf, Amy Dunne, Santana Lopez, Madison Montgomery, Villanelle, Harley Quinn, etc. even Lexa... Characters that are introduced as "bad" are just more attractive and interesting in general, it's why Blair will always be infinitely more popular than Serena, or Katherine than Elena or Santana than Rachel

This is one of the things that I meant when I said there was more to talk about. I was specifically thinking of Villanelle, but I thought that would lead into a different discussion. Now this is just me thinking, not absolutes. I'm also talking about trends. There can be exceptions. Maybe we need to have a larger sample size to really analyze. That might be an interesting examination. What are the tropes and archetypes for females vs males, villains vs heroes vs whatever is in the middle?

Your list, in particular makes me wonder about something. How many of those "popular female antiheroes" are lesbian or bisexual?? Of the four that I know, it's all four. (I never watched TVD or any of the others.)

Don't you find that curious? Why the female antiheroes, murderers, tyrants, psychopaths and bullies are... queer? I'm not saying that cool characters shouldn't be queer. I'm asking WHY we create or read this type of character a queer?

And in the last post, before I didn't go into this, I actually had to wonder if part of this attractive toxic masculinity is about what women will submit themselves to?

Is part of this colonizing villainy about "taking" women? Whether they want to be taken or not? Seducing them?

I don't think this is a necessary component of relationships, m/f or wlw. And yet, I think it's something that we keep seeing. I don't know if it's an innocent thing, either. I don't know if the preference for toxic characters came first, or if the audience has been groomed to see a toxic murderer and read it as a romantic love interest. And this, as an abuse survivor, disturbs me. Whether a viewer identifies with the love interest or the romantic villain, are we creating a tolerance for a dynamic that certainly looks sexy, but irl has a damaging result not often seen on tv shows and movies?

I'm not telling anyone what to like. I'm not saying they SHOULDN'T like their fave mass murderer or bully. There are lots of reasons to ship what you ship or to be drawn to dark characters. And there's also a reason to explore the complex humanity of people we call villains. But I am saying there are things to question in this phenomenon that can have a negative affect on people irl.

I also have to disagree with you about characters that are bullies or murderers being more interesting than characters that are not. You may think they are ALWAYS more interesting, but I don't find it intriguing when a person who has suffered decides to spread that suffering around. I would rather see a story of a person who has suffered and then stands up to the abusers and stops the abuse and grows from the suffering.

You think "good" characters are simplistic and only villainous ones are interesting?

I think we're back to the whole "women aren't allowed to have flaws." Certainly Rachel was annoying. But then again, do we find a woman who is proud of herself always annoying? Yeah, we kind of do. While a man with an ego is considered attractive.

Maybe part of the problem we have is that most female characters, especially the ones who are "good," aren't allowed to have complex traits before we start to call them selfish and annoying and how we 'just don't like them." Or, like, when they are just like any other male hero, we call them Mary Sues. As in Rey vs Luke.

I know that fandom gets mad at me when I point out toxic traits in their romantic ships. I'm sorry. I just can't like that kind of relationship. And I am not going to consider them attractive or healthy, no matter what excuses people have for it.

I am personally sick and tired of people turning villains into heroes. You may not be, but I am and I have that right. All the fascination with people who lust for power, who hurt people, who kill or maim. Or for a less fantastical story, bully and abuse. To speak of Glee again. Yes, I could have empathy for Santana (the only none white character on your list I think?) and she did grow as time went on, I still thought she was a bully and I didn't care for how she treated Britney. I just don't think love or some minor sympathetic traits or a tragic backstory makes up for someone being a toxic abuser.

And yet, if you give a good guy or a woman or a POC a minor negative trait, they fall from grace. They become annoying or selfish or irredeemable. But without that complexity, you think they're boring. Maybe it's about CERTAIN negative traits. Like Clarke Griffin was constantly being called selfish for various flaws and mistakes, despite all her efforts to do the right thing, and sometimes failing. And was turned into the only human not worthy of heaven. Or Daenerys, who tried to free slaves and stop madmen and tyrants, and ended the story as a lunatic deserving to be killed by her love.

WHAT are the negative qualities a woman is allowed to have and still be seen as sympathetic?

[sunnys-rewatch-blog]

S1 Wrap Up

Part 2

Moving on to some other notes:

I already said this, but I would have liked to explore LuHanna (Lucas x Hanna; not sure if this is the official name but I'm using it and you can't stop me) or even MoHanna (Mona x Hanna). I do love Haleb and I'm not disappointed that it happened, but I still feel like it could have added something to the story if they'd explored one of those some. It might at least have been cool to see Mona try to come out to Emily as bi. For that matter, it would be nice for these shows not to treat "bi" like a bad word.

Emily does not need so many romantic subplots. I understand that having your only wlw protagonist (*at the moment) come out but never have any love interests wouldn't have felt like representation, but towards the end of S1 she literally has three romantic subplots going on- four if you count the dead girl (mourning Alison, Maya's plotline isn't officially over, Paige, and Samara). Some of the scenes are fun and nice to watch, but by the time Samara's introduced, there's just too much and it's distracting. There's a lot more to being LGBTQ+ than dating. Emily could have started a GSA, and queers crave other queers' friendships. She doesn't need to be in a relationship every second she's in the show to be valid.

That said, if they had made Samara relevant to the rest of the story, that would have been cool. They could have given us confirmation early on that Alison was bi/M-spec and that she had feelings for Emily, and that would make her loss all the more tragic and devastating. Information like that could have given us an Emily Fields meltdown.

In general, I would have liked more tender, humanizing scenes with Alison. They do well at giving us a sense that she was powerful and a bully, they show us that she hurt people- including her own friends- but I wanted to see more of what they liked about her. What it was about her that made them feel like they were part of something special. They have a few scenes, I just want more.

Spencer and Emily have a criminally underutilized dynamic. I would have loved to see their friendship help them both grow as people. Both are highly intelligent and athletic, but Spencer overextends herself to feed the blind ambition she inherited from her family and Emily short-changes herself and passes up opportunities to develop skills in her passion. She didn't even want to take the swim team lead opportunity, which Spencer would have taken in a heartbeat. We don't even see that Spencer finds any joy in what she does, while Emily only does what she's passionate about.

I don't know if it would have been better or worse to have the kids' parents more realistically invested; usually, I hate shows that focus on both kids and their parents because of all the tension they create between those two groups. However, there are a lot of places where the tension could have been avoided or minimized if the adults acted like normal humans. It's kind of disturbing how little they care that Alison was murdered. It's like they knew what happened. At the very least they should have their kids in therapy.

I wish they had started the show in chronological order instead of using these flashbacks to put things in context. There are enough flashbacks in this show to make up their own season.

I also have a small gripe with the legal system in this story working like how an 8-year-old would think it works. I get that it's not a police procedural and I don't want to see the story get bogged down in police technicalities, but they could have at least had their terms right. None of us really want to watch a show where the legal system does it right, we want to watch the main characters figure it out- I get that- but could you just...learn the difference between "suspect" and "person of interest?" A Google search should be sufficient.

I would talk a little more about the ED stuff, but I said so much already. It's really something that needs to be portrayed accurately if you want to claim you're bringing awareness to it; doing it wrong only causes more harm and furthers the stigma. We need more well-informed, culture-shifting representation. Not more of...whatever this is.

Can we stop making "I would love you even if you were fat" synonymous with true love? It's like saying "Wow, 'fat' is worst thing you could possibly be and he would love you even then!!" No, bitch. The bar is in hell. Raise it.

[witch-apologist]

So I watched Jennifer’s body tonight and I have so many conflicting feelings. I’m a nonbinary lesbian and I know Needy & Jen deal with repression, trauma, insecurities, and internalized homophobia, and I’m not demonizing them for those things. But Jen was pretty consistently emotionally abusive to Needy and seeing people woobify their relationship and treat it like this perfect love story makes me super uncomfortable. I normally hate male characters & I actually felt bad for Colin & Chip! Jen

Oh yeah I make no bones about how awful and tragic Jennifer and Needy are. I've said before but its really the worst case scenario of that wlw experience of having a friendship fall to pieces because it was almost more than a friendship. People forget that most of the people Jennifer killed when she was turned into a demon were relatively innocent and I think that's part of the point. Jennifers body is not a story about a sexy woman killing evil men. Its about a young girl experiencing an act of violence so horrible that it changes her to the point where the worst parts of her are now amplified by 1000. People forget its not a horror movie because of the violence its a horror movie because its the worst case scenario, its our worst fears brought to life. A close bond severed by an insurmountable obstacle, two young girls permanently fucked up because of the trauma they went through, nice people who are caught in the crossfire of these ugly trauma responses. Etc etc.

I do feel bad for Chip. I don't think he's entirely innocent tho. He didn't deserve to die but he wasn't a good boyfriend to Needy. Now you could argue that it might be (if you read Needy as a repressed lesbian and not a repressed bisexual) because Chip was subconsciously picking up on the fact that Needy wasn't actually attracted to him. But yeah, he was kind of a shit boyfriend (Needy was not a very good girlfriend either tho but I feel like the things chip did were a little worse) Needy was having a full blown panic attack for like a full minute while they were having sex and he didn't even notice until last minute. Needy tried to tell him about Jennifer turning into a demon and he blew her off, even if you think someone's crazy and spouting nonsense if someone is important to you and they come to you with a genuine fear you should treat the fear seriously even if you think they're wrong about the cause. And then he cheated on Needy bc of Jennifer's lies. Jennifer who he has hated and called "evil" the entire movie, he throws himself at the moment she gives him an excuse to cheat. I don't necessarily thing thats a "get eaten by a demon" level of offense but it is shitty.

Jennifer's body also has some issues with racism and ableism that the fandom should really talk about more. Jennifer's comments about the Indian student are 🤢🤢🤢 and then she kills him. Needy kicks a black woman in the face for like very little reason when she's in the mental hospital/jail. IIRC there's use of the R slur. Its stuff that was common when it came out but that does not make it exempt from criticism. Criticism is how you get future content to be better.

[thebooksaidthat]

5 Contemporary Book Recommendations with WLW relationships!

As promised, this is my list of 5 book recs with FF centered relationships! They’re in no particular order and I hope it’ll motivate you to read some good queer works of art! 

1. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid Link to book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32620332-the-seven-husbands-of-evelyn-hugo

Synopsis: Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. When she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one in the journalism community is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband, David, has left her, and her career has stagnated. Regardless of why Evelyn has chosen her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career. Summoned to Evelyn’s Upper East Side apartment, Monique listens as Evelyn unfurls her story: from making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the late 80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way. As Evelyn’s life unfolds—revealing a ruthless ambition, an unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love—Monique begins to feel a very a real connection to the actress. But as Evelyn’s story catches up with the present, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways. --> I read this a few months ago and I remembered myself just putting my Kindle down onto the bed and looked into my imaginary camera man’s face thinking about the ending. I loved everything about this book, the friendship, the romance and the style of writing tied them up nicely. Also, apparently there’s going to be a TV series coming soon in the future so yes I’m 110% confident I’ll be crying with a bag of chips at the end too ;’) Seriously though, do yourself a favor and read this! 2. The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth Link to book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53066661-the-falling-in-love-montage

Synopsis: Saoirse doesn’t believe in love at first sight or happy endings. If they were real, her mother would still be able to remember her name and not in a care home with early onset dementia. A condition that Saoirse may one day turn out to have inherited. So she’s not looking for a relationship. She doesn’t see the point in igniting any romantic sparks if she’s bound to burn out. But after a chance encounter at an end-of-term house party, Saoirse is about to break her own rules. For a girl with one blue freckle, an irresistible sense of mischief, and a passion for rom-coms. Unbothered by Saoirse’s no-relationships rulebook, Ruby proposes a loophole: They don’t need true love to have one summer of fun, complete with every cliché, rom-com montage-worthy date they can dream up—and a binding agreement to end their romance come fall. It would be the perfect plan, if they weren’t forgetting one thing about the Falling in Love Montage: when it’s over, the characters actually fall in love… for real. --> The Falling in Love Montage is one of favorite FF books because I couldn’t not relate myself with the main character, Saoirse. I loved her humor throughout the book. She came off a little strong at first and it did seem like she was annoying but there’s a reason why she’s so sarcastic and cynical and I loved that the book wasn’t all 100% about the romance (although that is one of the best parts of it). I binged this within two days and I was fairly satisfied at the end and I can’t not recommend this enough for those who want to read a happy queer romance book! ALSO I LOVE THE COVER SO MUCH 3. The Weight of the Stars by K. Ancrum Link to book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36952571-the-weight-of-the-stars

Synopsis: Ryann Bird dreams of traveling across the stars. But a career in space isn’t an option for a girl who lives in a trailer park on the wrong side of town. So Ryann becomes her circumstances and settles for acting out and skipping school to hang out with her delinquent friends. One day she meets Alexandria: a furious loner who spurns Ryann’s offer of friendship. After a horrific accident leaves Alexandria with a broken arm, the two misfits are brought together despite themselves—and Ryann learns her secret: Alexandria’s mother is an astronaut who volunteered for a one-way trip to the edge of the solar system. Every night without fail, Alexandria waits to catch radio signals from her mother. And its up to Ryann to lift her onto the roof day after day until the silence between them grows into friendship, and eventually something more . . . In K. Ancrum’s signature poetic style, this slow-burn romance will have you savoring every page. --> The Weight of The Stars is mostly a quiet read, and when they say slow-burn, they really mean it. I loved this one a lot even thought it’s mostly a character-driven type of book. This is sort of an enemies-to-lovers type of book, though it went fairly quickly from enemies to friends. This book feels like something you should read slowly, just to savor it all and process everything on the pages.  4. Her Name in The Sky by Kelly Quindlen Link to book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20886492-her-name-in-the-sky

Synopsis: Hannah wants to spend her senior year of high school going to football games and Mardi Gras parties with her tight-knit group of friends. The last thing she wants is to fall in love with a girl--especially when that girl is her best friend, Baker. Hannah knows she should like Wally, the kind, earnest boy who asks her to prom. She should cheer on her friend Clay when he asks Baker to be his girlfriend. She should follow the rules of her conservative Louisiana community--the rules that have been ingrained in her since she was a child. But Hannah longs to be with Baker, who cooks macaroni and cheese with Hannah late at night, who believes in the magic of books as much as Hannah does, and who challenges Hannah to be the best version of herself. And Baker might want to be with Hannah, too--if both girls can embrace that world-shaking, yet wondrous, possibility.  --> Her Name in The Sky is a beautiful coming age story between two girls in a conservative town. I did find this one slightly harder to read because I usually stray away from books like these but I think it’s good to pick something up like this from time to time. Don’t be scared away though because this has a good and happy ending to it. 5. Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner Link to book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52915426-something-to-talk-about

Synopsis: A showrunner and her assistant give the world something to talk about when they accidentally fuel a ridiculous rumor in this debut romance. Hollywood powerhouse Jo is photographed making her assistant Emma laugh on the red carpet, and just like that, the tabloids declare them a couple. The so-called scandal couldn't come at a worse time--threatening Emma's promotion and Jo's new movie. As the gossip spreads, it starts to affect all areas of their lives. Paparazzi are following them outside the office, coworkers are treating them differently, and a "source" is feeding information to the media. But their only comment is "no comment". With the launch of Jo's film project fast approaching, the two women begin to spend even more time together, getting along famously. Emma seems to have a sixth sense for knowing what Jo needs. And Jo, known for being aloof and outwardly cold, opens up to Emma in a way neither of them expects. They begin to realize the rumor might not be so off base after all...but is acting on the spark between them worth fanning the gossip flames? --> Another queer rom-com heading your way with this final rec! This was a fun and cute read about the romance between Jo, who is a Chinese Hollywood star and her assistant, Emma. I read this in a book slump and I loved it, its sort of a fake-dating trope like book and I’ve never read something like this outside of fanfiction so it was an enjoyable experience all the way! Also, when the author described Jo at one of the red carpets with her dress with pockets, my mind automatically imagined Gemma Chan from Crazy Rich Asians as her.

[nomattertheoceans]

I feel like I picked up on most of the racist tropes in Maas’ books but I’d love to hear your thoughts on the homophobia in them

Hi Non!! Thanks for the ask :) 

Just an fyi if people didn’t see it, Anon is referring to my tags on this post about death of the author and the importance of criticizing media without taking into account the creator’s intent.

So yeah, regarding Maas. There’s a lot of ways in which I find her writing homophobic, I’ll divide them in different categories to try and make it clearer because my mind works in twisted ways x)

You should also know that I haven’t read Crescent City past the first few chapters so I can’t talk about this book (what I heard isn’t great regarding this issue but I haven’t read it so I won’t comment on it)

(this got long so I’m gonna use a read more)

worldbuilding

I think her worldbuilding tends to reflect a homophobia that she might not be aware of. Her entire world is built on heteronormative ... norms (lmao sorry I don’t have a better word I haven’t slept in more than 20 hours) that don’t leave any space for queer people to thrive in.

Throne of Glass actually got the less awful bit on this one, we’re shown that Hasar’s girlfriend Renia would become Empress if Hasar was crowned, and Aelin’s uncle was openly gay, so I guess compared to ACOTAR it’s better.

ACOTAR gets the worst of this: The fae society is painfully mysoginistic and by extend, homophobic. Mor is basically sold into marriage at sixteen, to a man, without regards of how she feels about it, because women are considered a breeding stock. The Illyrian women are viewed in the same light. Even Feyre is expected to be making heirs when she’s about to marry Tamlin. Yes, all these examples are painted as bad things in the books, but it doesn’t take away the fact that there are also considered normal within the society we are presented with. When the entire world is built around cishet dynamics (whether good or bad), it shows us that queer relationships are not the norm here, they’re outsiders from their own society (btw considering women as ‘baby makers’ is also transphobic but I’m not gonna open that can of worms).

The mating bond in itself is the biggest heteronormative concept in her books. As Rhys explains it in ACOMAF, it is literally intended for couples to make the strongest babies. It doesn’t care about love between partners, its primary goal is to perpetuate the species. It’s a natural instinct that we’re shown is basically impossible (or at least very difficult) to fight against. We’re shown that the woman has to make the man a meal to “seal the deal”, we’re shown that men become extremely violent towards other men they consider a threat when they’re influenced by the bond (by the way that’s toxic masculinity but it’s not what this post is about).

I believe that Maas didn’t intend for the mating bond to be a possibility between mlm or wlw couples, but that she retconned it in ACOWAR. Which in a sense is good, I’m all for queer soulmates! But the concept she invented here doesn’t have much room for non heteronormative relationships, and it becomes painfully obvious when you try to apply the mating bond logic to wlw/mlm couples. It brings many questions to mind: if it’s intended to make babies, does it mean that the mated mlm couple has one of the men be a trans man? If that’s the case, why didn’t she tell us? Why didn’t she spend more time on telling us their story? If they’re both cis men, then why would they have a mating bond, something specifically designed to help with species continuity by making babies? To me, it’s proof that she didn’t think it through, she thought it was cute to have two men be mates just like our main couple was, and didn’t stop to consider how the mating bond didn’t allow for this to happen organically because it exists in a vaccum of cishet privilege where she didn’t think about the consequences of including it in her books without elaborating on it. 

We can also see that queer people aren’t expected to be the norm in that society. Feyre is genuinely surprised when Mor tells her that she likes women, as if it was this groundbreaking thing she never even considered. I’m not going to get into details as to why I hate Mor’s coming out (I love Mor being a wlw but really, really, hate that scene), but the fact that she hasn’t felt comfortable enough to come out in five centuries is very telling of how unaccepting the fae society is of queer people. So yeah, there’s a queer bar where she hangs out but like... that doesn’t mean it’s accepted. One of the main reasons why queer bars started existing in the first place was to become a safe space for people to be themselves, so you know, I kinda take it as another proof of how unopen-minded the fae society actually is.

lack of queer characters

Overall, we don’t have a lot of confirmed queer characters. Off the top of my head, I can think about (of course I might forget some so that might not be 100% accurate, I haven’t read the books in a long while):

TOG: Hasar and Renia, Aedion, Orlon and Darrow

ACOTAR: Mor, Helion, Thesan, Andromache, Nephelle

Note that I’m not counting unnamed characters. I don’t consider “x’s lover” as a developped enough character to count as representation, come on.

Out of all these characters, only two of them are in the main cast of their respective series (Aedion and Mor). The others go from “mentioned” to “secondary character” at best. I’m not saying that all of her characters have to be queer, but out of such a big cast of mains, one in each series seems very little.

construction of these characters

On top of not having many characters that aren’t cishet, the characters we do have aren’t very well handled by the story.

Hasar is repeatedly described as being ugly, despite most of the other characters being described over and over as breathtakingly beautiful.

Aedion compares bisexuality to forced prostitution.

Helion is basically shown as sleeping around with everybody.

Mor’s sexuality is kept so ambiguous that there’s debate as to whether she’s actually bi, or rather a closeted lesbian.

Renia barely talks, Darrow is a jerk. Orlon, Andromache and Nephelle are figures of the past that we never meet

This is a problem mainly because of how small in numbers the queer characters are. The more diverse cast you create, the easiest it gets to avoid hurtful tropes. I wouldn’t mind Helion being a bi man sleeping around all the time if he wasn’t the only bi man in ACOTAR. Nor would I mind Mor’s tragic backstory if we had other wlw characters. By reducing her cast to such little numbers, she’s creating problems in her writing. She’s telling us that bi men sleep around and never settle down, she’s telling us that sapphic women will only get tragic stories and never find love again.

In the end, the combination of a heteronormative worldbuilding and the lack of work put into the queer characters we are given makes it impossible for me to not consider her books homophobic.

To be clear,

I don’t think Maas does this out of malice. I don’t think she’s a homophobe who hates queer people or anything. I also don’t dislike her books. They’re a fun read, and there’s a reason why ACOMAF is one of only two audiobooks I always have on my phone! Hell, I even write fanfic with her characters. But I think it’s important to be critical of her books, particularly in regards to issues such as racism, mysoginy, or homophobia.

To go back to the original post from yesterday, this is why ‘death of the author’ is an important point here. I’m not saying that Maas intended to be homophobic or that she built her world expressedly to exclude queer people. But in the end, that’s what happened, and we can’t brush off the critics of queer people and people of color just by saying “well, the author didn’t mean it that way.”

I do think that she includes queer representation only as an afterthought in her books, and it shows. Mor’s coming out was poorly handled because she didn’t consider the ramifications of it, just like the mating bond suddenly applying to queer relationships. Her societies are based on cishet white upper class America and that leaves little to no place for queer people (and people of color) to thrive in her stories. From what I see, she doesn’t seem interested in consulting with sensitivity readers over these issues, and as long as she doesn’t swallow her pride and listen to the people that are affected by it, she’s not going to get better on these points.

[pomrania]

Great AO3 tags XI

(I) (II) (III) (IV) (V) (VI) (VII) (VIII) (IX) (X)

how else do you woo a woman besides saving her from drowning

Someone sets a tent on fire

i'm slowly realising i use the kidnapping tag far too often

i might as well tag Destiny as a character at this point

Elves are Their Own Warning

seriously this whole story is just an excuse to write hurt comfort

Just some lesbian chaos with my favourite wlws

Like the west wing with more stabbings

the original title is -i dont know what the fuck this is-

Guys in case you haven't figured this out this is like straight sin and I have no excuse

vampires like smelling things i guess

i don't control the characters they are the ones who decide what I should write

it stopped being a pwp when this shit turned 10k and they still weren't fucking

Don't set your Prof's car on fire

Lots of me fretting over canon and then realizing I can do whatever I want

Unsafe Taverns In Violation of Established Building Codes

magic being both ironic and bullshit

Did part of this stem from quarantine feels? Yes

very few braincells

he's dumb and that's why we love him

How Could I Read That Paragraph And Not Write A Fluff/Smut Scene for Each One?

It's like accidental baby acquisition but on purpose and with magic

Author is A Poor Sap with little Skill only the Desire to express emotions

there will be pining and yearning bc is that not the universal gay experience

If you think I wrote this sober you are wrong

the intimacy of bandaging up your travelling companion when he passes out on the floor

TAGS CONTAIN LIKE MAJOR SPOILERS SO DON'T READ THEM

the blood and injury and the cooking are not related

is it horny hours yet?

I Tried to Count the Kikimora’s Legs and Somehow Came Up with a Different Number Each Time

I like giving characters vague tragic backstories

it goes torture- comedy - sad - bad time - hopeful ending

I don't know why my brain suddenly decided this is a good idea

no beta no plan no problem?

Oh No A Conveniently Timed Earthquake Has Buried Them In Rubble

it's my fic and I get to decide who gets resurrected

Snowball fights are as close to an action scene as i have written in several years

Canon-Typical idiots

I’m coining a genre I’m calling it Existential Crack

(yes it's a regency au yes I based it on a springsteen song that's my thing)

Gods the tags for their names are so long

ah yes the classic trope of “we’re hiding from guards and making out in an alley”

several times i had to remind myself not to write the word shooketh

but everyone gets a turn on the metaphorical dissection table

Worryingly Enthusiastic Consent

Very thinly veiled anticapitalism and hatred of bureaucracy

so much talk about grains y’all and i’m not even sorry

God came down to me at 4 am and told me to write this

The official timeline is more like guidelines right?

i started this a week ago thinking it would be 2k max and now its 6k and just a pile of whump

they are simply.......too gay to function

perhaps do not try this irl

No Exploding Genitals

ill add the tags as I go lol

humour? Am I funny? I don't know