#I've been wanting to make pearl fanart/work on a design for her for a while and. and harrow. harrow??? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sage-nebula · 2 months

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A trend I've noticed cropping up into Pearlina works that has started bugging me a little is the tendency to make Pearl masc/butch while Marina is femme. Which, on the one hand, at least people aren't making Marina butch just because she's Black, which is something a lot of fandoms do to Black women due to racism. But on the other hand, it's still not true at all to Pearl's character and, more to the point, I think it's bugging me because I feel like it's heteronormativity applied to a queer couple.

I mean, these are fictional characters so at the end of the day it's not a big deal. But this is something we (i.e. queer people) face all the time. Like as a lesbian, I've had to have the "well one of you would have to be the man" talk with my father multiple times because although he understands on some level that we're both women, there's a part of him that's like, well, one person still fulfills the Masc Role and one person still fulfills the Femme Role. And it doesn't help that I'm gender nonconforming and always have been (to the point where, even as a child, I would get my older relatives to purchase my clothes from the boys' department because I, an otherwise extremely well-behaved child, would pitch fits if made to wear feminine clothing). So like in his mind I'm the Masc Role, which I mean, true, but that still doesn't make me "the man," I'm still a woman, and a cis woman at that. But this is sort of veering away from the point.

The point is, in a wlw relationship, sure, sometimes one of the women involved is butch and the other is femme. But also, sometimes both women are butches. And sometimes both women are femmes. And being butch or femme isn't always about how you dress anyway. And sometimes people like to change up how they dress depending on the day, and so on and so forth. But I feel like, at least in fandom, sometimes fandoms take queer couples in fiction and they still subconsciously box them into Masc and Femme roles. This happens both with wlw couples and mlm couples. Because we're raised in a very heterocentric society, we'll often subconsciously apply the heteronormative relationship patterns onto these queer couples in our art and fiction without even realizing we're doing it.

And I think it's happening here because Pearl's personality is very rough-and-tumble. Pearl is loud, she's assertive and can be aggressive when she's protecting those she cares about, she's not afraid to fight and get messy, she's reckless and brave and has a stereotypical "masculine" personality. This contrasts with Marina (intentionally), who is sweeter, more gentle, more openly affectionate, more cautious, et cetera, and overall has a more stereotypically "feminine" personality. So people are like, okay, Pearl has the more stereotypical "masculine" personality, so we'll make her the Masc/Butch one, and Marina the Femme one. Which, again, at least they're not going the racist route with Marina. I do appreciate that.

But it's still is a stereotype that doesn't really fit Pearl, and when I look at some of the fanart, it still doesn't square. Of course people can draw what they want, and I have reblogged some of it, and I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad. But I am just saying, Pearl is VERY feminine in her dress and presentation. Yes, Pearl has a brash personality, but actually take a moment to look at her, in both Splatoon 2 and Splatoon 3. Here are hallmarks of Pearl's wardrobe and design:

Traditionally feminine colors in pastel shades: pinks, creams, and yellows/golds

Shiny jewelry, such as rings, necklaces, and most notably jewel encrusted crowns

She wears dresses; her main outfit in Splatoon 2 is a dress, she wears her baggy hoodie in OE like a dress, and she has a gold sparkly dress under Marina's her jacket in Side Order

Pearl is princess themed all over (hence her stage name of MC Princess), and it shows! She's very feminine. She loves being pretty. Yes she has short hair, but it's a cute, feminine bob. Yes, she has a rough-and-tumble personality, but that doesn't have anything to do with how she loves to dress up in girly pastel dresses (or hoodies that she can wear in such a way that they look like dresses) to look pretty. This squid contains multitudes. (And if you're like, "But what if she ruined her pretty dresses?" well, she's filthy rich, so what does she care? She'll just buy a new one lmao.)

And yes, I am aware that when Pearl was in her heavy metal phase before meeting Marina, she did dress in a black punk outfit, complete with pants. She is also wearing a black version of her OE hoodie in my icon, which comes from a Famitsu render. (At least I believe it was a Famitsu render.) But as I mentioned before, people can change their styles every now and again, and at least for the past 5+ in-game years, Pearl has not only been doing hip-hop instead of heavy metal, but has also been dressing a lot more feminine and in much brighter colors. Who knows? Maybe meeting Marina brightened up her outlook, and that inspired her to brighten up her wardrobe :)

And none of this is to say that Marina should be depicted as butch, because she absolutely should not! Marina is ALSO very feminine! Yes, Marina likes to wear pants, but pants aren't automatically masc, and she still wears a lot of feminine tops, pumps, et cetera. Both Pearl and Marina are feminine.

Again, I'm not trying to police what anyone can or can't draw or depict, but it just started to bug me a little in a, "This is the same heteronormative pattern I often see" kind of way, and also a, "This is not true to her character" kind of way as well. Especially as a lesbian woman who, again, is GNC and not feminine at all. Trust, I would love more honest representation of women like me, but Pearl is just not that. She's a sparkly, high-femme, rowdy little princess. And I love her just the way she is.

#idk if i should tag this since it might be seen as causing wank or drama #but i just wanted to get it off my chest yknow

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spectrumscribe · 7 years

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Can you tell me more about your tmnt crystal gems au? Like gem placement, headcanons, just whatever you feel like sharing! I really loved the fusion posts and I've been thinking about the AU a lot I lowkey (highkey) want to draw some fan art whenever you get around to telling us about the designs a bit! You're super talented keep up the awesome work!!

Hello! It took a while to get back to this bc I hadn’t quiteworked out the gems for everyone. I have now, though! Because you reminded meto, lmao. also if anyone wants to get technical about the meanings or whateverof the gems I picked please don’t, I’m a lowly fic writer and did minimalresearch and don’t care to get super deep about things, thanks.

Alright, so I wrote that one ficlet a while back about Donnieand April, and they were the only two I had for sure down with what gems theywere. (I’ll recap them tho, in case folks missed it.)

Donnie = Purple Pearl.(because of reasons.) Gem placement is his forehead.

April = Yellow(or was it gold?) Tourmaline. Gem placement is her hip.

Raph = Pyrope.Gem placement is the back of his right hand.

Leo = Blue Iolite.Gem placement is between his shoulder blades.

Mikey = Jasper.(like, similar to canon Jasper, but smol like Amethyst ended up.) Gem placementis his chest, also like Amethyst.

Casey =(tentatively, may change if I feel like it) Onyx. Gem placement is his leftpalm.

Splinter = Fireagate. Gem placement is the same as Mikey’s.

They essentially move from planet to planet once the whole crew is together and have interstellar travel once again, staying outside the range of the crumbling empire’s reach, but mostly hang out on one specific planet that’s got very little sentient life on it. Very relaxing for a collection of people who really need to calm down sometimes. except Casey who is raring to go any time all the time and needs to be stopped

And here’s some descriptions and stuff, because hell yes I’d love fanart pls and thank you:

Donnie: He is thelankiest fuckin Pearl you will ever meet, tall as hell and kind of maybeashamed of that. Like, garnet type tall or something. Red eyes, which stand outweirdly against his color scheme. He’s this pastel purple nightmare, and has along gauzy see-through skirt type deal with shorts underneath; you know, pearltype chic. Long hair, usually in a braid that goes to his midback. Coloring….Uh, probably pale purple for the shorts and shirt, lavender purple for theskirt, and dark purple for his shoes. They are ballet shoes. He will break yournose with said shoes if you antagonize him.

April: On theshort side, not overly big but pretty thick regardless. She was designed for war after all, not forcourt regality. Standard pants plus sleeveless shirt dealio. Something close toJasper’s in SU canon, but more yellow/orange color scheme. Her hair is likeTMNT canon, and her eyes are blue. (which has ~significance~ for reasons.)

Raph: short,stocky, power house build. Taller than Mikey by a small margin. Light reds anddark reds are his color scheme, with black boots. Hair is short and dark andspiky on top, p close to being a mohawk. Green eyes, bc it’s my AU I can dowhat I want. (his reason for being ‘wrong’ or whatever shall be revealedlater.)

Leo: a slimmerbuild than Raph, more appealing to the upper castes to look at and be around. (It’sall about appearances with court gems)He’s designed for both combat andaesthetic, would’ve been a high class guard, maybe even captain of said guard.(except the whole desolation of the empire happened and that didn’t work out) Darkblue and darker blue for his hair and skin, and purpley toned light blue forhis clothing; plus black shoes. Navy blueeyes obvs speaking, and I imagine his hair to be very short. Close croppeddealio. (similarly to Raph, his reason for ‘wrongness’ will be revealed later)

Mikey: evenshorter than Raph, and the same type of power house build. Basically has thesame color scheme and Jasper in SU canon, though his hair is less flowy andmore curly. Kind of coily? If that makes sense. Blue eyes obvs, but other thanthat he resembles canon Jasper/Amethyst strongly. (y’all can probably guess hisbackstory already)

Splinter: tol. Holyfuck so tol. He was a general of sorts in the empire, and a very high rankingone at that. Body type is like his canon ratdad self, and his robe dealtranslates into this AU too. Honestly he just looks a lot like Hamato Yoshi didas a human. Same sort of dark red color scheme too. (bleh, boring, on to thenext one who is not)

Casey: skinnymotherfucker, about the same height as Donnie, and the most ‘metal’ gem to haveever come into existence. His clothing is a mess of whites and greys and black,mostly because he ended up coming out of the ground… kind of wrong? His gem hasa shard of foreign material in it, so while he’s still perfectly good in afight, he’s not entirely a gem and thus didn’t stick to the physical design hewas supposed to. He also popped out of the ground without a lick of knowledgeabout the empire, or gems, or even who the hell he was, so he never took thename Onyx. He’s always just been Casey, and he was raised up with verydifferent ideals than what other gems got.

Anyways. Bandanna boy looks like this scruffy skinny thing, andtends to change his outfit every time he regenerates. (which is often. because he’sCasey and he is always getting intotrouble.) dark grey skin, and black hair, etc. Canon him, but worse, because he can regenerate himselfand his weapons as many times as hewants. Cue endless chaos.

—-

Uh, as for headcanons, I guess I’ll give an assortment ofrandom things I have in my head about this AU:

-Donnie doesn’t like sleeping. He says it feels weird and isuncomfortable with being unaware of his surroundings.

-Casey and Mikey are the only ones who eat food regularly. Everyoneelse either partakes on few occasions, or outright refuses because it’s gross.

-Leo has a vintage collection of sci-fi comics and books,and adores them, despite having… actually lived a sci-fi adventure… literallyhis whole life…

-how each of the boys, and then April, took their new nameshad to do with the books and bizarre timekeeping policies that came from adistant planet that Splinter found at one point and became taken with.

-Raph keeps pets, but not often, since he outlives them alland it feels like they die too quickly to make the pain worth it.

-when they found him, Mikey hadn’t ever met another gem. It was…an experience. For everyone involved.

-the first time Donnie met Leo and Raph, he kicked Raph hardenough he fell down a cliff. Then Leo too. That was also an experience foreveryone involved.

-gardening is a hobby everyone eventually gets involved in.Since the planet they spend the most time on is mostly uninhabited, they cancreate enormous gardens and come back in a few years to see how things haveprogressed. The perks of living extremely long lives, am I right?

-fusion is an iffy subject at first, because everyone isstill shaking off the old social ideals of the empire, but eventually itbecomes a very regular occurrence. The first ones to fuse are Leo and Mikey,because of a dire situation. I haven’t decided their fusion gem quite yet, but I’llget to it.

-no one is sure why Casey’s weapon is a hockey stick, or… all that clear on what that really is… but thatdoesn’t stop Casey from using it in battle. And during their down time. Andpretty much constantly.

-Donnie gets reunited with an old, dear friend at somepoint. It’s an important reunion, since this person helped him find theconfidence to own himself, and belong to no one.

-April’s past is something she keeps hidden for a longwhile, until they find a ship that has information in its mainframe about her,and what she was designed to do…

-sleeping piles happen multiple times, okay? Even if somemembers of the pile don’t actually sleep during it.

—-

That’s about it for now. I should get back to this AU, sincea lot of it is really wholesome and full of friendship things, and a lot moreof it is about insecurities and hidden pasts and self-image issues. All things Iadore. :3c

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