#also me: but the ~subtext~

[gas-station-trackphone]

ftm trans Eddie Munson gets turned into a chew toy for hell bats and rescued in the 11th hour by his friends who don't know he's trans, who have to run some triage first aid and can hardly make sense of the blood and gore that used to be his body as they cut off his shirt and pants to get access to the worst of the wounds, who definitely aren't in their right minds well enough anyway to think of anything other than stopping the bleeding and getting him to a hospital, which they do, and miraculously Eddie finds himself blinking awake in a bright, fluorescent room feeling exactly like he imagines a chew toy for hell bats would feel in the aftermath which is to say: like shit. Even more miraculously, he finds hometown hero Steve Harrington posted up at his bedside with greasy hair (!!! Eddie never thought he'd see the day) and bags under his eyes.

The overwhelming relief on Steve's face when he sees Eddie is awake is touching, the misty eyes and cracking voice when he says god, i thought you were toast, man are downright flattering and, let's face it, giving Eddie all the wrong ideas that he figures he has an I-almost-died pass for at the moment so he rocks with it, let's himself indulge in the fantasy for a moment. Then, gradually, Steve's relief becomes more and more obviously some brand of deeply felt pity (or sympathy, but Eddie's never been good at distinguishing the two), which bursts his bubble enough to call him out.

"I know I look like what comes out the business end of a meat grinder, but I swear I'm good, dude. They definitely have me on the good shit, I hardly feel it. I'll be good as new in no time." Big fat fucking lie, by the way, but he'll say whatever if it gets that wounded puppy look out of Harrington's eyes.

"I...yeah, Eddie, I'm glad." And whatever it is he doesn't want to say, whatever is putting that you poor motherfucker look on his face, he's absolutely the opposite of subtle about it.

Eddie can hear the manifestation of his panic on the heart monitor.

"What? What is it? Is everyone- is Dustin-?" He can't say it, can't even think it, would rather be slowly torn to shreds all over again than know he failed at his one fucking task to keep the kid safe.

"No! I mean, yes, he's fine, they're all fine. Henderson's got a broken ankle and both of Max's arms are broken but the docs say they'll be fine in a few months with physical therapy."

The release of tension in Eddie's body hurts almost as much as the relief soothes him. "Okay then, what the fuck are you not telling me? It's fine, I'm a big boy, Harrington, I can take it."

He sighs, looking sick with it. "Eds...I don't know how to tell you this."

Oh god, what the fuck. Eddie's right back to freaking out because Steve looks inexplicably guilty, pained in the face like he's about to deliver the worst news he could imagine but if everyone's fine then-

"It's your dick, man. It's- it's gone. The bats-"

And Eddie laughs so hard he tears about a dozen stitches, immediately stops laughing, and throws up over the side of the bed and thankfully not all over his freshly reopened wounds as Steve shouts for help.

Eventually, when he's all stitched up again and barely hanging on to his hard earned lesson to not literally bust his gut laughing about the look on Steve's face (he has to force himself not to tell Wayne the specifics of how he ended up back in the OR, because he's absolutely gonna crack up and Eddie will definitely be unable to help himself from laughing with him), he realizes he's going to come out to all his friends in the very near future because holy shit, he has to tell everyone about Steve's utterly devastated expression at the news of Eddie's Ken doll-ification by way of demobat.

#I've been laughing about this in my head for WEEKS #the idea that steve feels so bad eddie got his dick eaten by demobats that he literally can't hide it and tells him immediately kills me #as always please read into the gay subtext here bc yes eddie also tells this story at their wedding many years down the line #eddie munson #steve harrington #steddie

[ingravinoveritas]

Michael and David are "so strong and so real and true." This is fine. I'm fine...

#good omens #michael sheen #welsh seduction machine #david tennant #soft scottish hipster gigolo #gavin finney #is now right up there with rob wilkins #'so strong and so real and true' #i can't #that thing where two people are in love and meant to be together #also art imitating life #or vice versa #or both #tell me again that they're not a couple #at this point the subtext might as well be a billboard #ineffable lovers #i need to lie down now

[booasaur]

Special Ops: Lioness

#specialopslionessedit #special ops lioness #special ops: lioness #aaliyah amrohi #cruz manuelos #stephanie nur #laysla de oliveira #special ops lioness 1x06 #special ops lioness spoilers #aaliyah x cruz #femslash related stuff #muslim lgbt #lol putting this together made me realize three things #they keep being vague and wrong about the date and time of the wedding #there are so many things that seem to be pointing to aaliyah not making it out of this :< #and that aaliyah is actually just so very lovely and kind and stephanie nur really is doing so well with all her different layers #but man this is one of those ships that has what people love about popular subtext f/f pairings but is also canon #a central transformative dynamic the whole show hinges on #a connection unlike any either has with anybody else #let's see now that they've set it up where they take it #lol I mean we'e all absolutely expecting a bad end but can at least they both survive...

[alicentsgf]

nothing is more subtle or more heartbreaking to me than alicent in the wedding feast scene. and half these shots dont even follow her, they follow viserys shes just in the background, (which just perfectly sums up the way alicent and her desires are stifled by viserys/his wants just btw)

so shes just watched whatever it was that was happening between daemon and rhaenyra. salt in a very fresh wound. and as far as i can work out was literally tearing up over it (if we look at the screenshot above). but then people are screaming and pushing and shoving and alicent instinctively gets up before anyone else at the table even does, still looking like shes about to cry the whole time, right up until the moment she realises its not just pushing and shoving - theres a fight happening exactly where rhaenyra was just a moment before, and suddenly her expression changes to this shot of her blatantly worrying about rhaenyra:

"but lydia, how do you know shes worried about rhaenyra? she could just be in shock at seeing the fight and concerned in general."

because its spelled out for us the next time we see her:

this shows us pretty obviously alicents only really interested in where rhaenyra is. this is a tv show, they don't show someone's reaction to something just for the sake of it and alicent is the only person we see react to rhaenyra being safe. she even appears to relax at the end, as if relieved.

this very clearly sets the stage for alicent's refusal to accept any physical harm to rhaenyra - so we can understand why she feels so much guilt and self-loathing over slicing open rhaenyra's arm, and why she is so adamant about protecting rhaenyra in episode 9 even after everything she and rhaenyra have put each other through. just as rhaenyra has a desire to reconcile with alicent she cant shake, reaching out for her even in moments when shes been given no reason to hope (like at the council in episode 6 and dinner in episode 8), alicent has this desperate need to make sure rhaenyra's safe, even at times when she has no intention of reconciling with her. even when shes at her most hostile, harbouring enough resentment to show up to rhaenyras wedding wearing a declaration of war, alicent still cant stomach the thought of rhaenyra being physically harmed. and it doesn't seem to be an aspect of her characterisation thats going anywhere anytime soon.

#the subtext is subtexting ! #thats a useless lesbian if i ever saw one #hotd #alicent hightower #rhaenicent #rhaenyra targaryen #hotd meta #hotd thoughts #just look at her face #fuck #i have tried to make this post 10 times. its been gathering dust in my drafts #because i literally cant express how insane alicent in this scene makes me #also i feel this explains why i have such an issue with the post-birth scene. it goes against alicents #characterisation as we've been led to understand it otherwise #for her to be largely unaffected by rhaenyras pain

[sunny-lesbian]

when you're showing someone sunny for the first time and they ask if dennis is gay

#how do i answer that question without spoiling the next 16 seasons and also revealing how delusional i am #the way the gay subtext starts episode 1 has me insane #iasip #it's always sunny in philadelphia #dennis reynolds #glenn howerton #video

[project-sekai-facts]

How are we feeling about ensekai’s emu3 translation!!! (I’m mad)

(if you remember the 3 whole posts i made when asahi got de-gayed on EN you'll know i am mad too and that this is probably going to get long)

i don't like to be too cynical but it was so obvious that they were going to change that line, i had a feeling since the event first released on JP and after the incident with Asahi where I went through and tracked down multiple other examples of EN removing queer subtext it became clear to me that in no way shape or form was "emu-chan really loves nene-chan" making it to EN without getting changed. what i didn't expect was them changing Nene's line after Luka's comment, which actually makes this whole situation far worse than many of their other instances of toning down queer subtext.

for anyone who isn't aware of what happened, in chapter 5 of the current Emu event, there's a scene where Nene, Rui and the Virtual Singers are talking about what would cheer Emu up. The vsingers all talk about how much Emu loves spending time with Nene, leading to the following exchange

If you look for them, any fan TL of this scene will be something similar to this:

Luka: ...Fufu. Emu-chan really loves Nene-chan, doesn't she? Nene: Th-that's nothing special...

EN's official translation is this:

So what's the issue? I'll start with Luka's part. In the original text, she uses the word daisuki, which can mean to "like a lot" or "love". It's a word you will see frequently in the idol/idol-adjacent genre of games, due to its ambiguity in that it can be read as either platonic or romantic when used towards a person, and often will be used in ambiguous situations so that it's harder to confirm the writers' intentions either way. so here, fans of the emu/nene ship could view the fact that emu loves spending her time with nene as more on the romantic side, but people who don't like the ship could view it as platonic and move on.

while they didn't translate daisuki directly, Luka's line still works, and still contains the ambiguity that works as ship tease in the original text. it's a perfectly fine localisation that still conveys the original intent. despite that, there is something to be said about EN's consistent refusal to translate daisuki as love in most instances when it's not used on An/Kohane (but then again, EN has literally teased An/Kohane on their twitter account so is it all that surprising?).

Here's some examples:

Aibou no koto ga daisuki de / he loves his partner -> he cares about his partner very much (The Power of Unity chapter 7 when Kaito is comparing Arata to Akito and Toya)

HARUKA-CHAN, DAISUKI DAYOOOO!!! / HARUKA-CHAN, I LOOOOOVEEE YOU!!! -> You're the best!!! (Dear Me, As I Was Back Then chapter 4 when minori is at an ASRUN concert. this one isn't actually that great of a localisation)

Honachan no koto daisuki dakara. Kore de iinda yo. / I love Honachan, so this is fine. -> I want what's best for her. And this is it. (Leo/need main story chapter 14 after Saki tells Honami she won't bother her anymore)

Minna daisuki de - taisetsuna tomodachi na no / I love them all - they're my dearest friends -> They're all amazing, and very dear to me. (Leo/need main story chapter 17. this isn't good either)

What's particularly amusing about that last one is that there's a second official translation for it that I assume was done by JP staff (since EN never promoted doing the Journey to Bloom subs like they did back when they provided subs for Petit SEKAI) that actually keeps the word daisuki as love.

Yeah. I love all my friends - and they mean the world to me.

It's a better localisation than the official EN team one.

Questionable localisation choices aside, Luka's line is fine and is actually in line with the original. The issue with this localisation very much lies with Nene's part, because that is an entirely new line.

In the original text, Nene's "that's just normal" or "that's nothing special" or however you choose to TL it, is meant to be her questioning Luka's statement, since all the things that the other vsingers said that Emu liked were pretty normal things like going shopping and playing video games with nene. To Nene, these things are normal activities for them to do together, so she gets embarrassed by the fact that Luka concludes from that information that Emu loves Nene. When I dissect it like that I think you can really tell what the writers were going for here lol.

"That's just us being friends" does still convey the idea that Nene thinks these activities aren't anything out of the ordinary and she isn't sure why the vsingers are picking these out as some of Emu's favorite things to do, but it's very different from the original line. "But those are just normal things we do together" is something I just came up with on the spot, but it's a lot closer to the original text and still conveys the same meaning. The fact they changed the line to "that's just us being friends" is, honestly, not even subtle that they're covering up queer subtext. The original scene was very clearly written in as ship tease, and EN mentioning "friends" for no reason, especially since the word nor anything close to it was not used in the original, is instantly a red flag because it's like the go-to for queerbaiting and censorship. This was intentional. There was no need for them to specify that the relationship is platonic, Luka's part is ambiguous for a reason so that fans can view it how they like.

Just to top all this off, here's Rin's original line just before that Luka+Nene interaction:

Oh, and! And! She said that playing games with Nene-chan is also super fun!

And here's Rin's line from the official EN translation:

That's not the same thing, but even more weirdly, the incorrect part (super fun->really loves) is a correct translation for the part changed in Luka's line. So, they can do it, they are willing to say "really loves", just not in the right places. Maybe because Rin's part is less personal than Luka's part? It's strange actually, this isn't the first time they've done this either. Off the top of my head I can think of an example from Shiho's Varied Kindness 2* story where they translated the word "suki" as really loves, despite that being much stronger than the original word used (and the fact that daisuki is used a lot in the Leo/need stories and it's incredibly rare if not entirely unknown for them to translate it correctly).

It's not subtle that they're trying to remove implications of the characters possibly being queer, they did it in curtain call and they did it in walk on and on, and multiple times before then too. And considering some of the content in this year's events and the amount of times they say daisuki alone, it's gonna keep happening. honestly i hate the fact that i keep trying to justify the translations in these posts. these translations are intentional. what happened in the curtain call translation back in october says enough. when a character who uses explicitly romantic language towards another guy passes as a straight character in the translation you know they're doing it on purpose.

oh and once again, it's only the EN server that has this issue. The scene in question was translated almost word-for-word on the TW and KR servers.

read fan translations. they're better than what EN gives us and people put a lot of effort into them.

#since the EN translation qualifies as a leak i am scheduling this to post when the event drops #asks #mod talks #i'm going to leave this in the tags because i don't want to make the post any longer #but something that's been really annoying to see recently on twt has been the gradual uptick of players saying that there's no queer #characters/subtext/etc in the game outside mizuki being trans. and i do wonder if EN's consistent habit of toning down #or outright removing moments of heavy subtext and other more ambiguous shiptease moments has anything to do with it. #that or people live under a rock because even EN keeps most of An and Kohane's relationship intact and there's still plenty of #moments that were impossible to edit or tone down due to being plot relevant or being part of longer interactions that wouldn't make sense #if part of it was changed. like the An wedding event. #eh maybe people are just ignorant. #but anyway it does bug me immensely that EN-only players are getting a censored version of the game. it's 2024. staff can do better. #also like i mentioned in the part about rin. they /add in/ things occasionally. so why the hell are they removing so much?

[demigods-posts]

percy and annabeth's depature on mount saint helens affected them both very deeply, and i love for the show to capitalize on it. specifically, during percy's return to camp. i loved to see him fixate on annabeth rushing toward him amidst a crowd of campers. i'd love to see annabeth hug percy so hard, he stumbles backward. i'd love to see percy wraps his arms around her waist in tearful relief that she made it out alive. and i'd especially love to see the surrounding campers fall silent at their reunion because something definitely happened between those two.

#logically i know that percy and annabeth's tearful reunion isn't a guarantee of romantic subtext #because friends can miss each other just as intensely #but i do think having the surrounding campers react to their reunion with looks that read 'one of them finally made a move on the other' #further cements the obvious tension between these two as future romantic partners #and i also love this story trope #sue me #percy jackson and the olympians #pjo #pjo text post #pjo headcanon #percy jackson #annabeth chase #percabeth #percabeth headcanon #percabeth angst #percabeth fluff

[lecter-lioncourt]

I COMPLETELY fucking forgot that in her first introductory scene, Missy refers to 12 has her boyfriend. Absolutely fucking insane behaviour

#so many things in this episode make me insane lmao #Missy in general. my 2nd favourite ever Doctor Who character #the doctor translating a sad dinosaur #the doctor in general in this episode fucking everything about him #his vulnerability with clara when they land back in Glasgow. aaaaaaaa #the dubious morality of the doctor. dark!doctor hints. #callback to The Girl in The Fireplace #VICTORIAN COSTUMES. #the doctor getting rid of the horses pet. #so many things. #idgaf Deep Breath is one of my favourite Doctor Who episodes of all time #top 10 for sure. #mine #doctor who #missy #the master #thoschei #look ok Moffat had to make them straight presenting in order to move them from subtext to canon #but thank fuck he did #also I call them straight presenting for a reason lmao #in my heart they're both transfem lesbians ❤️

[sunnykeysmash]

Man of words

#s16 spoilers #iasip #it's always sunny in philadelphia #always sunny #macdennis #analysis #parallels #I didn't exactly know how to name this thread but i had some scattered thoughts on it #dennis is the one mac depends on to define things. he's the man of words. but this situation is very limiting #firstly because mac can't read subtext. and dennis will rarely be open in his words. but he also doesn't know everything. #cant define everything. and by forcing the situation to have dennis speak for both. what actually happens is mac gets silenced #and when mac cant speak. no one besides dennis can ever possibly understand him. and that is very isolating. because den wont be open. cant #but they trust each other. theyre following each other's lead. and they're missing the right words #den defines his own self worth in the relationship by being able to have the right words. mac is the man of action! after all #but if mac learns to speak for himself. if mac doesn't depend on den (chokes). if mac is noticed for his appearance as den becomes insecure #(''what if my shirt falls off?'') what does den have left for mac? but mac will fall for him no matter what. #''make up or not you are the golden god! it's all about what's in here💗'' #maybe words arent necessary anymore. dont ask just do. and mac's the man of action... OR IS HE. #mac doesn't really act now does he. they got it backwards. don't they? mac got a lot better with his words in time... #idk lots to think about let me know what u think lolll #threads

[lefttoesucker]

𝙻𝙴𝚃 𝙼𝙴 𝚂𝙴𝙴 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝚂𝚃𝚁𝙸𝙿𝙿𝙴𝙳 𝙳𝙾𝚆𝙽 𝚃𝙾 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙱𝙾𝙽𝙴

Yeah anyway I finally finished this fuckin sketch so here you go

#the new palay royal cover of stripped has me in a chokehold #also it got me thinking about how #Ghost is the type of guy to give Johnny a MRI scan of his own heart (with homoerotic subtext) #simon ghost riley #call of duty #ghost #ghost cod #ghostsoap #soapghost #ghost call of duty #john soap mactavish #soap cod #ghoap #ghost x soap #call of duty soap #soap mw2 #my art

[reksink]

you know slay the princess ? :0

YEAH YEAH YEAH!! I found out about it from a great friend of mine :} I've only seen walkthroughs so far but only about 2-3. I'm definitely planning on buying it when I get the chance, so I really wanna keep what's under the surface a suprise!

It's 100% my kind of game. Wonderful art, every screen feels like a masterpiece in it's own right. It's dark and griddy, but not hopeless, with themes of choice, 'death with purpose', cycles, and so much more. And the dialogue is just beautifully written and the voice acting is just SO GOOD Plus it's a love story, and I'd be lying if I said that also wasn't a major factor in me getting into it, hehe Artwise, I only have roughs, but sooner than later I'd love to really hammer down some designs for such an incredible game Roughs for the eyes:

Mmmm, bird creature with no face my beloved

#slay the princess #my art #ask #liyass #Man I have so many things to draw #With so little focus to draw them sadly #Also my favorite princess so far is The Razor #“But now we can both enjoy a mutual romantic subtext to the murder” #SHE GETS IT #SHE GETS ME SO WELL RAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[ingravinoveritas]

“Who’s the big spoon?”

#michael sheen #welsh seduction machine #david tennant #soft scottish hipster gigolo #staged #or 'Brokeback Mount Him' which is what I am referring to Staged as from here on out #staged 3 #when i tell you that i screamed #i mean at least they're admitting it now #saying the quiet parts OUT LOUD #subtext that is rapidly becoming a text #this entire scene was like watching a session of couples counseling #also do we realize that them answering the big spoon question #heavily implies that they have in fact spooned with each other #i'm just saying #tell me again that they're not a couple #amazing #ineffable lovers #gifs by me

[munchy-k]

im glad that so many others also had the experience of going into ace attorney thinking narumitsu was only a fanon thing only to find out that they are very much in fact canon

#ace attorney #aa #narumitsu #wrightworth #also i like that the abbreviation is aa it makes me feel like im talking about alcoholics #gay subtext at the alcoholics anonymous meeting

[thepunkmuppet]

yeah I relate to these characters no reason no reason

#if you get this we can be friends #if you don’t get this you either haven’t seen these shows/movies you are completely media illiterate or you are cis /j #obviously there are canon trans characters who I love and adore (i mean nimona is canon but yk what I mean) #cal from sex ed barney from dead end and elle from heartstopper to name a few (there only are a few tbf lol) #but it’s about the SUBTEXT my guy #it’s about going “oh my god I don’t know if this was intentional but it speaks to me and if someone else also sees it then I am understood” #iykyk <3 #trans #transgender #transmasc #transfem #non binary #ftm #mtf #transsexual #genderqueer #lgbt #nimona #gwen stacy #spider man into the spiderverse #starkid #team starkid #starkid productions #starship #starship bug #infinity train #infinity train lake #robin scherbatsky #himym #how i met your mother

[jimjimenezzz]

watching 9-1-1 (because i kept seeing it on my tumblr feed and why the hell not, lone star was good so this should be good too) and im on s2, just got hit by "you two have such a cute son" said to eddie and buck. how did it take them 5 seasons to take any steps towards this??? i really thought y'all were delusional like loki/mobius shippers but apparently not

#911 fox #911 abc #buddie #no hate to loki morbius shippers #i love that ship #but there was barely subtext for that #this is Text #im also not saying buddies becoming canon please dont drag me into any fandom wars #i dont even know the context for whatevers going on in s7

[mikoran]

stranger things is a very “show, not tell” type show. were never told explicitly that max is suicidal, or that billy was being racist to lucas, or that nancys problems at work were because she was a woman (although they got veryyyy close). were shown these things and pick up on them instead of the show telling us whats going on

this is especially true with relationships. lumax, jopper, and jancy all never say they love each other, but if you ask anyone out there if lucas loves max, then theyll tell you of course he does, how could he not? everyone can just see how much they care for each other, we dont need them to say it

so why is it that with mileven, they have to have mike have this grand declaration of love to eleven for both her and the audience to believe he loves her? why is it that the only ones who need the verbal confirmation is them, when every other couple follows the “show, not tell” format? why is it that the only other couple that follows the verbal confirmation issue is stancy, who didnt end up together?

this whole “show, not tell” thing almost reminds me of something, what was it… something about not saying it, but not having to?

#byler #anti mileven #mileven thats not very endgame behavior of you #i love the show not tell stuff the theme is so prevalent and i live for it #i also have a passion for regurgitating the same arguments that have been brought up a million times over if you havent noticed #love that for me #yknow one day im gonna make a full five page document for myself as reference of the purely narrative evidence for byler #if i added symbolism and subtext itd have another 20 at least