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senanatheskenana · 6 months

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Sorry if this is weird but I haven't seen anything like this before but could you maybe do some sort of headcanon for genshin characters with a s/o that had a cryptic pregnancy. Like they leave for one day or come home after a couple hours and s/o is just like "yeah I didn't know" while holding a newborn. Again sorry if it's weird

Sure, this sounds super interesting! Also sorry if this took a while i haven't been as active recently but ill try to get more into the fandom soon <3

(Ill only be doing the male character since the nature of this would be a little hard to plan out for the female characters, hope that's ok)

Genshin Men Reacting to Cryptic Pregnancies

Kaeya

Kaeya looks at you like you're crazy. He legitimately believes that you've just picked up some newborn orphan to baby-trap him without getting pregnant.

Well, at least that's what he believed until he saw what the tiny child looked like up close.

There was no room to deny that the child looked strikingly similar to him; dark blue hair and tan skin. The only difference between them was that this tiny baby had your eyes.

And as his tiny fingers grab the air in front of Kaeya, he becomes increasingly aware of what has happened.

You were pregnant for nine months. You gave birth.

And he wasn't even there when you did- he was drinking like his social life depended on it at the tavern.

"I'm a terrible husband," he laughs, incredulous of himself.

He couldn't turn such a child away, even if he wanted no children. It would be obvious who had fathered one of the two blue-haired people in Mondstadt.

Diluc

Diluc is at a loss for words.

He doesn't doubt you, he's known you so deeply that he can see in your eyes and in your body that you've been through something.

So when you hold the tiny infant out towards him, he carefully takes her into his arms as if she were a treasure so valuable he could not bear the idea of tarnishing it.

He presses her warmly against his chest and looks at you in such a way that you know he is not at all upset with you. In fact, he then looks away and places a triad of light pecks on her short red hair.

"I wish i had known" he says ruefully- and for a moment your heart sinks as though you think he was disappointed in such an outcome.

"If i had known sooner, we could have prepared a nursery"

Venti

Venti isn't quite sure whether he wants to run away from you or towards you.

It wasn't that he didn't like you anymore, or that he didn't want children.

He simply worried that he would not be a good parent, staying late into the night in bars playing music and over-drinking. He could see those days flying away from him in the eyes of the child.

But still, he could not harbour resentment for such a young, uncomprehending thing. Something that depended on him so greatly- far greater than any normal mortal had ever depended on him as an archon.

No, to him this was special.

He thought about it. Yes, his days of drinking every day were behind him. But something new would soon replace them. He traded wine for a son who loved him like no other would.

Venti surely had never planned on this, had he known you were pregnant he would have tried harder to break his ugly habit of day drinking.

But what is done is done, he thinks.

Now he just had to raise a child. How hard could it be?

Albedo

He sums it up as a curiosity, rather than sentimentality. He admits that yes he loves you, but this thing, surely he was only keeping it alive- feeding it, burping it, changing it- to satiate his curiosity of how it came to be in the first place.

Firstly, he was under the impression that he was infertile, let alone thinking you were pregnant. It simply wasn't something he accounted for.

But you see it differently to him. You can see that what Albedo is denying as intrigue was really paternal love. You weren't quite sure whether he was trying to deny it, to keep the child at arm's length, or whether he was just dense. That wasn't something anyone had really associated with Albedo.

He supposes that, in a way, the baby was rather cute. It abstained from taking on many of his attributes, which he found himself thankful for. If he was honest, the baby was more similar to you in appearance. The only thing he theorised may be a piece of him showing was the fact that the child seemingly could not take their eyes off of their surroundings.

Its a gradually thing, a feeling that develops over weeks of caring for it. What started out as wonder at how it happened slowly melded into the realisation that he no longer cared, and the point was that it did happen, and he was content with that answer for once.

Xiao

Xiao very nearly drops off the earth after you show him the child. It could not be his- or yours- he's sure he would have been able to sense the pregnancy if you were.

The weeks after are filled with worry and Xiao's absence. He sits atop the roof of Wangshu Inn, looking out at the city in the distance, wondering if you and, by extension, 'your' child is still there.

He's desperate to take another glance, to put his guilt to bed, to prove to himself that the child could not be his. He's also terrified it could prove the opposite, leaving Xiao in more guilt than before and with more responsibilities.

Xiao may have never seen you again had it not been for Zhongl's insistence that he appear to him. With you sat beside him.

At first glance, he comes to realise that it is undeniable that the child is his. He could feel it, stronger than any feeling he had ever felt before. He felt his heart clench painfully inside of his chest as though it were crying for the moments they had wasted.

But he still can't bring himself to touch his child, too afraid to stain it with his sins.

He cries against you that night, sobbing apologies into your shoulder and muttering promises to his son.

Tartaglia

Bro straight up does not even question it. He's heard of such things before and he's so sure and secure in your relationship that the idea that it isn't his or yours doesn't even cross his mind.

If he's honest, its obviously his. The ginger hair was a big hint.

Ajax is honestly incredibly happy- he's always wanted a family of his own and he feels as if this was a gift from the archons. A child that no one outside of him and you know exists yet. He's aware of how good a position that is given how high his place in the fatui is.

He cannot resist telling his family, asking them to keep if close to their chest for the baby's sake.

He didn't get the chance to look after you during the pregnancy, so he's making up for it now. He won't let you do anything in the first few months.

"Stay here gorgeous, I'll feed her!", "You worked so hard you deserve an hour where you aren't looking after our child", and "I just found the CUTEST little outfit in the boutique- look!" are all common things to hear now.

He hasn't brought it up yet, but he really, really wants another one. One that he can help you with during the pregnancy and anticipate.

Zhongli

I feel as though there is no way for you to be pregnant and have him not know at some point.

In fact, he tries to hint it to you in the beginning and later outright asks you if you're pregnant. When you deny it, he's astoundingly patient, waiting for you to realise it yourself.

He understands that it must be absurd to hear that you were pregnant when you have no symptoms of it.

So he makes it a point to always be close by, or to have someone (usually Xiao) keep an eye on you.

It's just an average walk through Liyue Harbour when you drop to the floor and groan in pain. Your husband is immediately there to steady you, offering his strong hand for you to crush.

People gather around you both in concern, encircling you like you were some spectacle. Zhongli tells them to step away, and as people start to realise the gravity a green-haired doctor slips past the crowd.

You give birth in the street, never realising you were pregnant before leaving the house.

Kaedehara Kazuha

Kazuha has always been fairly good at going with the flow and this was no exception.

If he was honest, he knows that even if it wasn't related to you both, and you just picked it up off the street he would never refuse it.

He does his best to accept things and help you with things after, to make sure you heal well.

He's never cared for a child, let alone his own but he's willing to try his best in doing so.

And he's an outrageously good father given he had no time to prepare.

He fashions a baby bed on the crux, sleeping with the baby on his chest every night before finishing it.

It's you who finds out that your child will only sleep when sung to, after Kazuha has been doing so for the first few weeks.

Kazuha hadn't expected this but he has to admit that having a child has made him feel at home in every place as long as it is with you.

Thoma

Immediately Thoma panics. Though not for the reason you expect.

"Now I have to give short notice when asking for paternity leave"

Of course, he doesn't make it your fault, he's aware it's half of both of you.

When the Kamisato siblings find out, Ayaka is extremely excited. Thoma is given paid paternity leave, and Ayaka gets to coo at your tiny baby, marvelling at how it managed to occur.

Thoma is a wonderful father and he always volunteers to get up in the night for feeds and changes.

Fatherhood suits him well <3

He may have one moment of apprehension about the pregnancy, briefly questioning whether you had really given birth.

Before he reigns himself back in and realises that he knows you would never do something like that.

Arrataki Itto

Cue five minutes of pure silence while he tries to understand what you just said <3.

Bro didn't even know that was possible, like no way.

But at the same time, he understands that you wouldn't joke about this sort of thing. Plus the baby has horns just like her father.

He's in a state of shock for a few hours, a dumb expression painted on as he sits down cradling the baby oni.

And then finally he responds.

"Wait so this is like mine? I have to keep it and like look after it and stuff?"

Gorou

Gorou could smell something different with you from the beginning but with nothing to go on he didn't press it.

And at some point he just stopped noticing it, there was no reason to assume when he saw no real change in your behaviour.

Until he sees two resistance members charging towards him and beckoning him to follow them as they run off once more.

And that's when he finds you, sat low against the wall of a hut, sweaty and tearstained.

And then he hones in on the babe tucked between your arms and chest.

And then the guilt hits him. He could have known this might be the case, surely he should have made you leave just until he was sure of the outcome.

"I- I forced you into battle... And-and you were pregnant."

Kamisato Ayato

Ayato is very sure that you would never lie to him but he knows that the circumstances will be suspicious to many and that those who doubt may spread rumours given your unmarried status.

He loves you and he'd sooner die than have people spread vicious lies about you like you were some harlot.

But he really can't bear the idea of giving up your son.

So he bites the bullet and he, you, and Ayaka make a public appearance when you both introduce your child and the godmother, Ayaka <3.

People talked about you both but he couldn't care less when he had something so beautiful to look forward to now.

Tighnari

Tighnari is also there to watch you suddenly give birth. However he remains calm, easing your pain with herbs and scents.

He kisses your forehead and squeezes your hand to reassure you of how well you're doing.

He has never had experience with one in person but he knows of them, and he takes the subsequent weeks observing you and the baby, all while caring for you both.

He hadn't expected a child so soon but he had desire for a whole family someday so he took it in stride.

He takes great pleasure telling Collei, knowing how excited she would be.

Cyno

Cyno feels his whole heart thump when he comes home from a week of work away from you to see you in a chair, rocking a baby back and forth.

"Are you babysitting for a friend, sweetheart?"

You jump as if you didn't hear him enter and then relax when your eyes find him in the doorway.

"Not quite," you murmur as you play with the baby's tiny hand/

He grows curious and gingerly steps closer until he is beside you, looking down at the child.

He'd recognise that hair anywhere. And those eyes.

He felt as though he was looking back at himself from his past.

Instinctively he reaches out to gently caress the small face that peers up at him.

And then he looks back at you as if asking for an explanation. How did this happen? Surely, he would have realised you were pregnant.

Scaramouche

No. He's unwilling to even entertain the idea that you were pregnant with his child, to begin with. He was sure he was infertile. there was no way this thing was his.

And its that simple to him, you think. He leaves and you never meet again.

What you don't know is that Scaramouche, now Wanderer, is none the wiser to your existence, and the child you share.

Sorry, that's quite a sombre ending. I would like to mention that with Scara, he would ultimately return to you if he knew you <3

#xreader #genshin impact #genshin zhongli #genshin impact xiao #genshin headcanons #genshin imagines #genshin impact angst #genshin impact imagines #genshin impact fluff #genshin impact x reader

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ineffablydaydreaming · 9 months

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Okay i might be a little pissed off. Expect typos, im on my phone.

A character does not need a specific label, have a gender, nor have sex/romantic physical gestures in order to be queer rep

Aziraphale and Crowley are not gay men.

They are played by male actors. They present male most of the time. But that means nothing, because gender presentation =/= gender identity or sex.

Neil has said multiple times that angels and demons are sexless. It's on the book. It's on several of his tweets and answers to asks. This implies that angels and demons are non-binary by default. Gabriel isn't a man, Michael isn't a woman, Beelzebub isn't a woman, Furfur isn't a man.

And now, you could argue that a genderless creature isn't necessarily queer and I agree! Several animals are genderless irl.

But here's what makes them queer: it's not that they don't have a gender, it's that they don't give a fuck about it. Crowley presents female i believe up to three times in the show, Neil was planning a minisode where both he and Aziraphale are fem-presenting in the 60s; Michael is a male angel name and he's played by an actress and (At least in the portuguese dub? Correct me if im wrong) still called "he". Same for Beelzebub, who I think is also reffered to with they/them in english. Hell, God has a female voice and is still called God (the male version of the word!!!) and even Her pronouns are a bit flexible in certain dubs.

What makes them queer is that their genderless aspect isn't just biological, it's their identity, too. These characters are all non-binary, they know it, and they don't mind it.

"But they present male and call each other 'he'!"

As I said, gender presentation does not equal identity and neither does pronouns. It's words: words that get often associated with a certain gender but are, in the end, just words.

Not only that, but this argument also comes from the expectation that non-binary people cannot present themselves in a binary way, which is an absurd thing to expect. People irl have all kinds of different hormonal balances and many enby folk may be hypermasculine or hyperfeminine due to high testosterone or estrogen respectively. And you know what? They might not want to change that, and that is completely fine.

Non binary people do not owe you androginy.

Being trans isn't about appearances, isn't about transitioning, it's about identity. Thinking otherwise is borderline transmedicalist ideology.

Good Omens breaks gender norms all the fucking time in both seasons, something many shows are afraid to do, and it's not just for comedy reasons, which tends to be the norm when shows do it. They do it because it's fun, it's fine, and because they acknowledge that gender norms are stupid.

That's queer as hell.

My second point, no need for labels. Just like angels and demons don't need gender labels, they don't need sexuality labels. At all. Especially since they're often intertwined.

Just because two characters don't have their specific labels revealed doens't mean they aren't queer or, fuck's sake, don't love each other.

In A League Of Their Own, no characters get specific labels, what they are is simply implied. Greta is very implied to be lesbian but they never say the exact word. Does that mean she isn't queer?

In The Song Of Achilles, no characters get specific labels because hell, the labels didn't exist at the time the story takes place in. Both main characters are implied to be bi/pansexual but it's obviously never told in the text. Does that mean they aren't queer?

In Undertale and Deltarune, no characters get specific labels, but in both games the main protagonist is nonbinary (and is in both cases a human being!) and both games have several mlm and wlw couples and several more nonbinary characters across the storyline, but it's never specifically labeled. Does that mean it doesn't have queer rep?

Neil has said several times that Good Omens is a love story, that Aziraphale and Crowley love each other, that even if they're not 'gay male humans' they still feel love for one another. That's the entire point of season two.

And now, I get it, okay? I don't like authors tip-toeing around labeling their characters either, especially since in most places we are past the age of having to code characters instead of just make them openly queer. I get the fear and uncertainty that often came from some sort of trauma from bbc's Sherlock, I felt it too. I get that for some it may seem as if it's queerbaiting, or pink money, or simply being too scared to say a character is queer.

But that's just not the case with Good Omens. The point is not to avoid labels because they're scary. The point is that, for Good Omens, and aziracrow, labels are useless. They're not humans, they don't have a gender, they don't need the labels.

And you know what?

That's also queer as hell.

Society has to put people into boxes, has to separate folk, has to label everyone. No one can be different, and id you are you need to fit this specific box of different. If you go out, you're too much, you're too rebellious, you're a freak. If they just let people do whatever they wanted it would be hard to marginalize them and keep the system going.

A quote I once heard feels important for this occasion:

"To define yourself is to restrain yourself."

When you define something in strict terms you're putting rules to it. Rules that can be broken. Rules that should be broken. And the rulebreakers get insulted, hated, violated, killed.

Aziraphale and Crowley are breaking these rules by 'existing' as who they are. They're not gay men, they're not lesbian women, they're not bisexual agenders, but at the same time they are all of those things at the same time, whenever they want to, whenever YOU want them to, as Neil himself put it. Because fuck labels. And you're hating them for it, hating them because they're refusing to enter those boxes.

Humans are weird and complex. Let the angels and demons be weird and complex too.

Lastly, queer relationships don't need sex - nor kisses.

There's this expectation that romantic love is only true love if they kiss, if they live together, if they sleep on the same bed, if they go on dates, if they marry, if they have kids, if they have sex. Break one of these and people will raise an eyebrow. Break two and they look at you weird. Break three and everyone judges you. Break all of them and, suddenly, you and your partner have been declared "just friends" by outsiders who don't know you in the slightest.

Welcome to amatonormativity.

Or, better saying, another stupid box, another set of rules.

There's this headcanon that Crowley kisses Aziraphale as a last resort not because it's a gesture if love (even Neil said it wasn't out of love) but because he's seen it in human movies and, in movies, kissing someone in despair is a cliché that often ends in the other person not leaving.

This wasn't a love kiss. But Crowley still loves Aziraphale. Do you know why?

Because angels and demons, most likely, do not need human gestures to show love. They, most likely, comprehend love in an entirely different light.

Maybe Aziraphale is touchy with Crowley because he likes it and that is a good enough reason, but it's an individual reason, just like a person irl might be more fond of hugging their partner than kissing them, and that's fine. Nothing wrong with it. There's no right or wrong way to have a relationship. Acting like there is is reinforcing the rules set by amatonormativity, and it is also completely disregarding the experiences of asexual and aromantic folk. The entire spectrums btw.

Now think about the rules I mentioned earlier. Must kiss, must fuck, must marry etc.

Aziracrow also breaks almost all of them.

That's also queer as hell!!!

Being queer and celebrating pride isn't about having labels. It's about breaking societal norms: heteronormativity, cisnormativity, mononormativity, amatonormativity, etc. Norms that are used to opress us, to put us in boxes, to separate us, to marginalize us, and to kill us.

A show that gives the middle finger to all of these and just tells its story however way it likes, not caring about labeling the characters or having a long monologue about homophobia or showing a explicit sex scene between the two characters or following any of those stupid rules imposed by society, a society ran by cishet folk, is as queer as a show can ever be.

To deny that is to reinforce a narrative that is literally used to opress us.

That's all, bye.

Also, some of you guys are giving "I call beez she/her because of the actress" and that's cringe, but not surprising, ngl.

#hissing around #go2 #gomens #gomens 2 #good omens #good omens 2 #good omens season 2 #good omens season two #crowley #good omens tv #ineffable husbands #good omens spoilers #good omens s2 #aziraphale #rant

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tocomplainfriend · 3 months

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It feels less like you want to address a real life problem to characters, but more like you want to have another of your characters you constantly baby and want others to fangirl over.

TW: Rape, SA, Racism, Stereotyping, Homophobia, Acephobia, Arophobia.

The representations of topics in media DOES affect real people.

Fiction can affect reality.

Let's start easy, Jaws. This goes back to Hazbin I promise.

"Since the release of Jaws in 1975, the world has witnessed a staggering decline of 71% in shark and ray populations, and around 100 million sharks are killed each year." (including multiple practices of mass hunting sharks in competition)

Both Steven Spielberg and the original writer Peter Benchley regret the movie and book. It's a big reason of the shark treatment, when it started by old fishermen worrying about shark biting people in the beaches they made money of.

Even if you aren't a shark killer yourself, a lot of things you believe of sharks are untrue myths that come from making sharks "evil" human killer animals. Sharks cannot smell blood from miles away, that's not even how water works, the particles of blood need to enter their nostrils. Sharks are not man eaters, they attack other prey animals before human. Shark attacks are extremely rare, even if they happen they are not justifiable to kill all sharks.

Sharks actually have personalities they can fit in, they are smart and recognize people and boats- and form positive relationships with people. They can even like getting pet by people.

youtube

Other level to represent other thing sin media that affects reality we can address Queer, representation as a topic.

I hope it is not a surprise for you... possible non-straight, non-cis person reading this. That the constant representation of gay man as kid predator is a problem. They used old commercial (PSA) to spread negative views of gay man. Media is used to spread messages and affect its viewer. This is, there are cartoons created by Jehovah witness (or similar religions) to spread their beliefs and teach to their children in an easy, digestible way.

Same with the amount of straight woman that went off to read shitty yaoi manga and fetishy gay wattpad stories, and went to sexualize and diminish queer men. Constantly making gay man's personality into bottom or top (uke and seme shit). I witness this irl, others have too.

Same with shitty men that view Lesbians as a porn machine for men, cause "monkey brain like woman, lesbian = two women". Which happens in general and adult media. All of these are EASY examples.

Another one which turns out many people don't think about. Having your representation of an AroAce character (on purpose or not) be the psychopath with no feelings. Associating the not being romantically or sexually to means you have no heart, to be abnormal, by then a psychopath. An abuse or serial killer.

Fiction does affect reality-

A racist film, 'Birth of the nation' Revived the KKK and let to all the discrimination, and the homicide of black people of centuries ahead.

youtube

Coming back around, how you treat the topic of SA, and r-pe- affects the real world. You would think someone who wrote that, had in mind on how that affects people in real life. Didn't you want to represent victims of SA/R-pe that are sex workers and male?

Reducing the r-pist, pimp, trafficker character to an air head to treat as silly is crazy to do. Specially as... oh idk... the creator? Both this and the tweet of the voice actor calling Val "Bubbles Coded" is so crazy. The character is also not deep enough by itself, it's pretty much Stupid and a R-pist sex trafficker. The tweet below Viv's fucking kills me too.

The fact Val is shown to be air head stupid doesn't delete he backed Angel (and by being a sex trafficker and a pimp, and him licking charlie that means he has multiple victims) into a corner and under his control. Too then abuse of him in many different ways. Manipulations are not only done by Super mastermind people, and representing it in such way diminished, affects people who have being manipulated and actually try to question if they have being or not. Manipulators can be normal, average people, they usually are not obvious. Even if Val is openly a shitty person that's really obvious, it doesn't detract from him being manipulative to people. The scene where Val threatens him in chains that is manipulation, his text messages are manipulation (even if you think it is too obvious to be successful).

How you represent SA/R-PE, and its perpetrators, do affect real life.

Going around and having your "serious R-pe episode", to then go in other episodes or the other series you are writing to make r-pe/sa jokes is terrible. For the person that directed the whole scene of poison to NOT be r-pe/sa victim (said by themselves) with a r-pe fetish with this character's in specific, to directed in the most graphic way possible is awful. To go around babying your r-pist character is crazy.

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Hope you understand that this doesn't mean not treating any topic at all. Creators should be awere on how they treat topics and the scenarios they create with them, too. People and viewers need to also put their brain to understand the media they consume. But you can't always put all blame only on the viewers of a series, if media is messy is a fault of the media. You can criticize both.

You need to acknowledge Valentino is indeed a terrible person, You don't need to delete his actions or the weight of them.

I also just know that a lot of Val fans just like him to draw him in r-pe art and get their fetishized gay ship. Cause that's what they are into. You won't even do that with a woman, because you are into your fucked up fetishized gay porn from wattpad you never left behind.

If you like him, FUCK IT, just please take his abuse seriously. Don't default your entire usage, and view of the character to be 'uwufied' fandom stuff, please.

I hate how the topic has being treated, in and out of the show. I'm a victim, and I'm hurt by how these things are treated and knowing how it affects others. Even in things I haven't watched! Don't make the argument don't like it? Just don't watch it. The movies from the video of SA of men being a joke, many I haven't watch- that still affects over all. It's still a problem and it's disheartening.

Also have this:

#hazbin critical #hazbin hotel criticism #hazbin hotel critical #hazbin hotel critique #vivziepop critical #vivziepop criticism #vivziepop critique #tw sa #tw rape #tw homophobia #tw racsim #tw acephobia #tw arophobia

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princepotatosack · 4 months

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What If Choices' Race-customizable LIs Had Surnames Reflective Of Their Ethnicity?: An Experiment Just For FUn (Part 1/3)

As we're probably all aware, Choices has been going ham on their formula of "one LI whose appearance is choosable" for the past few years (ever since they started drawing criticism for narratively favoring white male LIs, i.e., when the Ramsey bubble finally burst; draw your own conclusions), and these LIs almost always have canon names or default names associated with white Anglo Americans. This is one of several reasons these LIs are described by players as "white-coded", or written as if they are white men with any changes reduced to a one-line afterthought, which kind of nullifies the point of romancing an LI of color.

Getaway Girls impressed me with branching that gave two of the six Jordan appearance options (the ones described in the asset files as "Indian") the surname Paudwal, as opposed to the other options that had the surname Parker. And then they NEVER DID IT AGAIN (ingnoring Kiss of Death cause it was a weird case I don't know how to categorize)!!

So here's me assigning surnames to race-custom LIs of other books because it's fun for me:

DISCLAIMER: The Choices single LI formula has for the most part consisted of a white LI, a Black LI, and one or occasionally two other option(s) of varying races. Framing it as white, Black, and "wildcard" raises a lot of questions about racial dynamics and percieved binaries in the United States which are NOT the point of this post but I didn't want to not address it. Also have to address that I will not be assigning new surnames to the Black LI options since most of them are American and a lot of Black Americans have Anglo surnames due to the community's history with enslavement and enslavers, and Choices has simply not given us enough lore to determine if each of the custom race LI Black options are African (or another background) and which languages are a part of their heritages. Would really appreciate if they started writing more African LIs though. Also, similar reasoning applies to face options described as "Native American" in the files re: American colonization.

ALPHA

Channing Luna

These face options are described in the files as "Hispanic". Luna was a Spanish-language surname sound match for Lowe, and plus it also means "moon"!! Yippee werewolf theme!!!!!

Channing Liu

These face options are described in the files as "Asian". The Chinese surname Liu was just the closest sound match to "Lowe" tbh.

BABY BUMP

Clint Kao

This face option is described in the asset files as "Asian". He reminds me a little of the Taiwanese actor Godfrey Gao (rip) so in my head he's Taiwanese like meeee!!! Which sucks cause I didn't like this LI that much lmao. Anyway Kao is the Taiwanese spelling of the surname that is Anglicized as Gao in Chinese Pinyin so I gave it to him cause he reminds me of Godfrey Gao (rip). Not a spelling match but then again there aren't any Chinese surnames that start with the same letter and sound as Covington (e.g., Chang and Cai both start with the letter C but start with the sounds "ch" and "ts" respectively.).

DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS

Charles Quiñones / Charlotte Quiñones

These face options are described in the asset files as "Hispanic". Went with sound matches since there aren't many (any?) Spanish-language surnames that start with K like King.

Charles Kim / Charlotte Kim

These face options are described in the asset files as "Asian". I thought Kim was a pretty good sound and spelling match for King. But it did make me realize that although Kim is the most common surname in Korea by a lot, a Choices Wiki search revealed to me that there's only one character in the entire Choicesverse with that surname and it's the FBI guy from Veil of Secrets?

DISTANT SHORES

Edward Mao

This face option is described in the asset files as "Asian". I originally chose the Japanese surname Morishima because it was an initial spelling match, multisyllabic, and had the ending "ma/mer" sound, but I wanted to honor the great Ming Dynasty Chinese tradition of piracy and its far-reaching legacy. So I went with the Chinese Mao.

Also I know he's canonically from like England which would explain why he's an 18th-century Asian man with an English first name but just for fun if he was from China I think he would be called Mao Aiwei. Or Morishima Eiji if he was from Japan.

Edward Montoya

This face option is described in the asset files as "Hispanic". Montoya was a relatively close Spanish-language sound match.

And if he had a Spanish first name too he would be Eduardo Montoya ovb.

THE DUCHESS AFFAIR

Nathaniel Pandit / Natalie Pandit

These face options are described in the asset files as "Indian". Not a lot of sound matches for Pippin but the Sanskrit surname Pandit has the intial "P" and the ending "i" sound, plus it means "scholar" and fun fact, this word is also the origin of the English term "pundit".

Also since in my research I learned that the vast majority of Indian immigrants to England in this time period adopted English language aliases for use in English society, I came up with some potential real names for these face options: Nathuram for Nathaniel and Nalini for Natalie.

FIRST COMES LOVE

Blake Mai

These face options are described in the asset files as "Asian". I decided on Mai since it could be Vietnamese or broadly Sinophone.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Blaine Juárez

These face options are described in the asset files as "Hispanic". Not any Spanish-language surnames that start with the letters "Ha" as far as I know so I went with a sound match.

GUARDED

Ash Harada

These face options are described in the asset files as "Asian". The Japanese surname Harada is a sound and spelling match and also one of the most common surnames in Japan! EASAYY!!! Though headcanoning them as Japanese brings the total number of Choicesverse Japanese-Americans Named Ash to three. Laugh out loud.......

Part 2

Part 3

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becomingpart2 · 7 months

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It really bothers me how people inadvertently end up shitting on Skyler when the praise they send Kim's direction seems to rely on how good of a female character she is and by extension how relieved they are that we finally have a good one on the same level of the male characters. There's always this underlying tone that this universe finally has a complex female character worth talking about and getting invested into. And yes I agree that she is an interesting character but the underlying tone that seems to accompany that praise is a sense of putting down Skyler for being just "the wife" or, mostly, the battered housewife. It seems people are only ever interested in talking about her when they want to (rightfully) defend her from the misogynistic attacks she's suffered over the years or to talk about how much she suffered in universe. Not much about her as a character on her own, not much about how she's complex and interesting on her own.

I understand the need to highlight her suffering and how she was victim in all of Walt's bullshit (and unfortunately that is still needed) but I also think it's hypocritical and condescending (and a touch misogynistic on its own) to only ever see her as a victim and thus less of a character than someone like kim, that gets to be maker of her own ruin.

Skyler is not just the good loving mother that wants to protect her children from their father and the criminal world he inserted them into. She's also smart and funny and quick on her feet. She's able navigate and adapt to different environments and she does it well. She's proactive, she comes up with plans on her own; sometimes against Walt (ted, the pool incident), sometimes to help him and them (the carwash) and sometimes to help herself (the IRS thing or when she evades police by pretending to be in labor). She's also flawed like all good characters are.

There's a lof of the talk about how Kim has more agency, and while I think that's true and good on its own, it can often fall prey to the point of view that the only way for a female character to be a good character is if she dominates predominantly male spaces and make those her own. As if the only way to be interesting is if you do it in the same way men do. It's a little diminishing towards women that don't do that or aren't interested in doing that (I'd also call into question how effective is that agency when It's conveniently one that doesn't go against what the male partner wants).

It's interesting how I have seen people say that the reason some might not like Kim is because she's a woman that exhibits traits usually associated with men and how she's the one who "wears the pants" in her relationship with Jimmy. That's true but I think it's important to remember that misogyny doesn't make those kind of distinctions and while she might be hated because of that, more "traditional" female characters are hated just the same, if not more.

In fact, I'd argue that Kim is hated significantly less than Skyler ever was. A lot of the male viewers like her and most of the analysis you see of the show regards her as one of the best characters in television history.

It's also funny because that comment seems to imply that Skyler is the "traditional female character" archetype, the housewife that's only there to take the abuse and that's not true at all to Skyler or how she was received by audiences. A lot of the reason she was hated as much as she was (is?) is precisely because she didn't fit into the expectations of what a "good wife" should be like. Because she didn't bow down and take Walter's side, because she was too independent and didn't support "her man" when he needed, because she couldn't see where he was coming from (which, strangely enough, it's something Kim always does, regardless of why you think she does it, the fact is that she's always by Jimmy's side).

This is not an attempt to shit on Kim but rather to highlight how often the conversation surrounding her character seems to veer in the direction of inadvertantly putting down Skyler as "less" of a good female character when I would say both have strengths and weaknesses from a feminist standpoint.

#breaking bad #skyler white #better call saul #bcs #kim wexler

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pearlcigs · 6 months

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⋆ mutuals

idea credit @valsthea

what color and song i associate with each of my moots + cute little messages (pls lmk if you want me to delete you off this list for any reason)

dm me if you wanna know why i associate you with your color and / or song ! :)) most songs only have 1 or 2 specific lyrics that i associate with a moot or just the melody but its okay

i only included moots from this acc incase the moots from @poionsedprose want nothing to do with me LMAO i didn't realize i had so many mutuals

ALPHABETICAL ORDER

𝐉𝐎 ( @abbysribbon ) : we've only just become moots but your art is so incredible ??!?! like you draw the characters so perfectly ?!?! im obsessed with your art !??!? i can't wait to get to know you more !!

𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍 ( @ali3n00 ) : i guess i have to include you on this list ...

𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 ( @baumbii ) : we haven't really talked much but you seem so nice and cool ! your blog is so cute and you are also so gorg omg , your writing is also literally so good i love it sm , esppp your ellie fic ! wish we could talk more !!

𝐋𝐎𝐋𝐀 ( @coqvttes ) : i loveeee everything that you write sm and your blog aesthetic is acc so pretty ! i really really hope that you're doing better now , i'm so sorry that men are so gross to you , im so glad we're moots , we should def talk more !!

𝐌𝐀𝐗𝐈𝐍𝐄 ( @dizzyntrr ) : max my loveee, i love when your posts pop up on my dash, esp your mood boards !! your themes always eat, i love coming onto tumblr after waking up and seeing if you changed it yet :3 i also love your writing smm, i always reread your works

𝐄𝐃𝐄𝐍 ( @edensdahlia ) : love love love your account theme and your writing, your fics are so comfy like their vibe is just so good ! i love that you include both male reader and a female reader as a genderfluid fanfic consumer :))

𝐅𝐋𝐄𝐔𝐑 ( @fawnpires ) : first of all im so obsessed with your user, literal username genius, second i loveee your aesthetic it's so cool?? and also your writing oh my goddd , guilty pleasure fr ! i wish we talked more but you intimidate me (bc you're so cool)

𝐇𝐀𝐙𝐄𝐋 ( @fxllfaiiry ) : you were one of my first mutuals and i was so excited when you followed me back bc your writing is so good?!? we haven't really talked much but trust your blog means a lot to me + your themes always eat !

𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐒 ( @heartmorgue ) : your reblogs are always so real , i have to fight the urge to reblog everything that you reblog LOL you seem so fun to just hang out to do nothing (does that make sense ???) like just watch a movie in silence or smth if yk?

𝐌𝐈𝐙 ( @hermizery ) : your blog theme is so cool / navigation , it's one of the reasons i followed you in the first place ! i love your leon fic sm you should def write more if you want to obvi but you're gen so talented

𝐋𝐔𝐍𝐀 ( @killuintense ) : i don't interact with a lot of your posts cause most of them are nsfw but i love your sfw work ! also your blog theme is super cool i love it , i love ada >.<

𝐊𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐒𝐋𝐔𝐕𝐑 ( @konigsluvr ) : you write konig so well ! your headcanons are always fun to read and i hope you post more in the future !! i like seeing your reblogs pop up on my dash cause some of your responses are so out of pocket they make me laugh

𝐀𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 ( @kxjbr ) : i wish we interacted more ! i loved the comments you would always leave on my tatta fics , they would always make me smile and it was one of the reasons why i kept witting for alice in borderland for so long :)) also i love your fics you deserve way more recognition

𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐀 ( @leemonsblog ) : maliaaa we don't really talk anymore but i cherish every one of the conversations we had , i love talking to you and although you don't know it , you helped me through some tough times and i appreciate you sm for that + your fics were peak and i love them sm still , i miss you 'n i hope you're doing well ml !!

𝐒𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐒 ( @lovers-rck ) : we're fairly new to being mutuals but i love your content sm ! your art is so good first of all , and second of all , your fics are so entertaining ! i can't wait to get to know you more !

𝐃𝐄𝐕 ( @loveheartarthur ) : im so fr you and your blog alone have convinced me to watch rdr , its on my list of games to watch :3 your blog is so pleasing to look at and i love the farmer's daughter aesthetic !! i wish we could talk more , you seem so cool

𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐍𝐍 ( @meravalemoi ) : i love your reblogs ! sometimes i'll just scroll through your blog at the end of the day when im super sleepy and just see what funny posts you reblogged :)

𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐈 ( @nadiasgf ) : we haven't really talked much but im glad we've had the few convos that we've had bc you're so easy to talk to (im just socially awkward) i'm so glad we became moots !!

𝐆𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐋 ( @naivegh0ul ) : your ghosts fic feed me like im starving victorian child , everything you write absolutely slaps and i love reading it i would read your fics / blurbs all day if i could !

𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐔𝐒 ( @ouchvns ) : venus ml , you are such a big inspiration for me and i remember following you and being totally shocked when you followed me back , i thought you were so cool (still do) and im so glad that we're moots !! :3 you're so talented and i love talking to you + themes always devour

𝐑𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐘𝐒𝐋𝐔𝐕𝐑 ( @rileysluvr ) : reading your fics n' stuff is like a little treat for me , i will read everything you write and lowkey your stuff's got me kicking my feet and giggling while i read it

𝐑𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐍 ( @saintlulls ) : your cod ficsss bro , literally one of the reasons i decided to start writing for cod characters ! you're so talented and i wish nothing but the best for you , would love to interact more with you :)

𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐀 ( @solutopia ) : i love the fact that we both have guts series (obvi on my other acc) and though i have absolutely no clue who the character you write for is, your writing is so good so it doesn't even matter

𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐄 ( @spiderst4rgirl ) : first of all you're genuinely so pretty likeee , second you seem so chill to talk to , i feel like we could have like a good movie marathon if yk what i mean

𝐑𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍 ( @starryririn ) : i love reading your poems !! you're such a talented poet i really enjoying reading them :)) im so thankful that you included me on your fic recs , it really means a lot and im glad that we're moots !

𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐁𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐌 ( @the-verbatim ) : i love talking about cod characters with you and listening to you ramble about your hcs n' stuff , it makes me so happy to read :)) i can't wait to talk to you more !!

#🏷️ ⋆ mutuals #🧺 ⋆ to the moon and to saturn

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gaydragontournament · 3 months

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ROUND 1: PART 1

Propaganda under cut

Qibli

● Qibli is queer, due to the fact that he has a crush on a female dragon, Moonwatcher, and eventually becomes her Boyfriend, while also thinking that a male dragon, Winter, is “handsome” and looks “gorgeous”, even joking about marrying Winter one day within his own book. The author, Tui., also stated that the love triangle between Qibli, Moonwatcher, and Winter could go either way, implying that Qibli is Queer and/or could possibly be Bi, Pan, Poly, or Omni.

Dan Heng/Dan Feng

● (Former)High Elder of a race of Dragon people. Closely associated with another man, sharing a pair of telepathic bracers with him, commiting a grave sin with his help, dreaming of him, being described as once being closest to him, destined for reunion with him, and both having inverted colour palettes. The original Chinese text has a 'typo' that hasn't been fixed implying they were engaged, and mentions Dan Feng fantasising about this other man sweating mid battle. Theres also something about them doing stuff in a boat I think. Dan Heng only has faint memories of their past, but seems to care for these memories, even going so far as to pull the classic 'what did you do to him' after finding he was hurt. Another character claims he stares longingly at the spear made for him by this man. Even if their relationship went to complete hell the game is pretty clear about them being important to each other.

Also the CPR scene at the start of the game., wherein Dan Heng attempts to give the player chatacter CPR incorrectly. I guess he heard kiss of life and didn't question it? He also has a Fan Club and many men find him beautiful.

●About how he's a dragon:

Imbibitor Lunae is the title used by the Vidyadhara High Elder, successor of the Azure Dragon (Vidyadhara are long-life humanoid species with draconic features)

About why he's gay/gay-coded:

In his past life as Dan Feng he would often drink together with Yingxing (now known as Blade) under the moon and they even shared a pair of matching bracers made from flowing coral gold and the leather of unknown beasts. The bracers are told to share a telepathic connection and be able to feel each other's warmth. The two have also been depicted (in official artworks) wearing these bracers many times along with a matching pair of red earrings on opposite ears and matching teal jade clasps that have been said in game texts to be given between lovers to find in their next lives.

Currently, the two are enemies. Blade used to chase Dan Heng across spaceships and annihilate each one he boards on, and each time they fought Dan Heng would stab Blade with the Cloud Piercer to kill him knowing he cannot die.

Even though Dan Heng wants nothing to do with his past self (Dan Feng), he still carries items that are associated with Blade (Yingxing) on him, such as the bracer, Cloud Piercer (the weapon Blade made for him), and his jade pendant.

#gaydragontournament #ask #polls #tournament poll #dragons #dragon #qibli wof #qibli wings of fire #wings of fire #dan heng #dan feng #imbibitor lunae #hsr dan heng #hsr dan feng #honkai star rail #hsr imbibitor lunae

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animekpopsimp · 2 years

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Brother's Blessing (GI x younger sister reader)

(Someone wants to date you, so they decided to go to your older brother to try and get your blessing.)

Diluc

(Who: Albedo)

Diluc knew who Albedo was, he also knew that he was friends with you. Being your older brother, he was weary of the boy, partly due to his affiliation with the Knights of Favonious. So to say the redhead was surprised when Albedo walked into the bar while he was there would be an understatement. He didn't seem like the type to drink, and it was rare for him to leave his lab in Dragonspine. It started off normal, that is until Albedo asked what he had wanted to ask for a long time, in the bluntest manner Diluc could have imagined.

"I would like your blessing to date (Y/N)." Those words made Diluc pause whatever he had been doing and stare at Albedo wide-eyed. After taking a moment to process what he had just heard, he finally spoke.

"What?" he asked, part of his brain convincing him that he had simply misheard the male. Albedo simply looked up at him, calm as ever as he repeated himself.

"I would like your blessing to date (Y/N)." Albedo's words, finally sunk in as Diluc placed the glass he had been cleaning down on the bar. He was quiet, deep in thought. While he was protective of you as your older brother, he never wanted to seem controlling. And while he wasn't the biggest fan of anyone who was associated with the Knights of Favonious, Diluc would ultimately leave the choice of who you date up to you.

"That's not my decision to make, it's hers." He stated, cleaning another glass.

"But I'm glad you came to me." He finished, Diluc then watched as Albedo left, only hoping you would be happy.

Kaeya

(Who: Venti)

It was a usual night for Kaeya, sitting in Angle's share, sharing passive-aggressive looks with DIluc as he enjoyed a drink. Then venti walked in, taking a seat right next to him. It wasn't uncommon for the bard to visit the tavern, in fact, it's where he would spend most of his nights. But, something was different, for once, he wasn't smiling. When Venti looked over at Kaeya, a nervous expression on his face. This caught both his and Diluc's attention, both men looked at each other confused, but neither of them spoke. Kaeya turned back to Venti, who was looking up at him.

"What's got you so nervous all of a sudden?" Kaeya asked, trying to lighten the mood. There was a brief pause before venti spoke, and what he asked was something neither Kaeya nor Diluc could have expected to leave his lips.

"Can I date (Y/N)?" His question was sudden and left Kaeya stunned. The blue-haired male simply looked at Venti, his one visible eye never leaving the shorter male's frame. He knew you had a close friendship with Venti, but Kaeya would have never guessed that the bard had taken interest in you. Now, he wasn't totally against the idea, but there was a small part of him that never wanted you to date. But he knew that would just make him seem overbearing,

"Well, that was unexpected," he said, laughing to hide his shock.

"You want to date my sister?" He asked, keeping a smile on his face. Venti nodded as Kaeya watched him. He liked Venti, but the bard had a bad habit, his drinking. He would always leave Angle's share almost too drunk to walk. And why he didn't hate Venti because of it, it was something that concerned him when it came to the idea of him dating you, his precious sister. However, another part of his brain told him that he should let you decide. After all, you were a good judge of character, and if Venti did end up hurting you, then he would handle it.

"I don't see why not, just make sure to treat her right." He said with a smile still on his face, though there was a hint of seriousness in his tone.

Albedo

(Who: Aether)

Albedo hadn't been expecting to see Aether again after their first meeting, but one day the blond traveler made his way up the mountain and to his lap where he was currently working on one of his experiments.

"Hello again, what can I help you with?" He asked as the blond made his way inside the cave, Paimon following close behind him as the two stayed near the fire to fight off the bitter cold of Dragonspine. Aether was quiet as if he was considering something, but before he could speak, Paimon beat him to it.

"Aether wants to ask you something really important," the small girl told him, nudging her companion. Aether finally gathered his thoughts as he took a deep breath,

"I wanted to get your permission to date (Y/N)" he didn't beat around the bush. Albedo stopped for a moment, looking at the blond boy.

"Ah, I see" he replied, the two making eye contact. You had told him that you and Aether had become good friends, having seen each other during your frequent trips to Mondstat. But he never considered that the two of you were that close. A smile appeared on Albedo's face, which seemed to put Aether a bit more at ease.

"I don't mind, you should go ask her." He said ushering the boy to go find you. He waved goodbye to the two as they disappeared back down the mountain before returning to his work.

Xiao

(Who: Ganyu)

Both of them being adepti, Xiao was close with Ganyu. She was a sweet girl and he liked her, despite his seemingly cold attitude. So it wasn't odd for her to approach him, but what she asked managed to catch Xiao completely off guard.

"I wanted to ask (Y/N) to date me," the girl asked, rubbing the back of her neck nervously. There was a pause as Xiao processed her question. He didn't even think adepti could experience such a human emotion as love. But now, he could see the emotional look in Ganyu's eyes, and he could tell you felt the same about her whenever you spent time with Ganyu. Xiao was protective when it came to you, but he was never really bothered by the thought of you dating someone, mostly because he didn't think you would find someone you were interested in. Xiao nodded,

"then do it" he simply stated, and then, he was gone.

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see-arcane · 3 months

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I think you came close to real issue. Adaptations do not center on Jonathan and always somehow misrepresent him is because majority of male directors-screenwriters, adapting Dracula, associate themselves more not with Jonathan but with Dracula or Van Helsing. And it didn't begin with Coppola. It began with Murnau where his Hutter doesn't kill vampire and can't save his wife but instead it's his wife Ellen who dies to kill vampire. Then it's Browning who made Van Helsing into cool main hero who kills Dracula, while Jonathan is again useless in the movie. It's Fisher who kills Jonathan off at the start of the movie and again makes Van Helsing into cool main hero, who kills Dracula. So by the time 1970s rolled out and romantic versions of Dracula began to heavily pop up, Jonathan as character on screen was already heavily downgraded.

This honestly hits on something that unhappily fascinates me about the whole pattern. Unlike other stories that see adaptation, however classic or modern, I think the Dracula issue is the only one I can think of where a male main character--one of the two married protagonists! the guy who actually opens and closes the entire story! including beheading Dracula himself!--gets so thoroughly watered down, warped, or often just thrown out of the story entirely. Mina's treatment is unfortunately very much expected.

She is LAST GIRL STANDING. She is NOT ICKY SLUT-LUCY WHO LEADS THREE MEN ON EWWW. She is SO INTO HUNKY HE-MAN DARK PRINCE COUNT FUCKULA and doesn't mind the castle harem or the best friend assault or terrorized/deadified husband whatever who cares.

Mina's character-butchering hell is sadly a running theme in a lot of Classics! Now with (Off-Brand Hollywoodified) Feminism (tm)*!

*She is now simultaneously Mom to a bunch of rowdy dumb-boys and the hot anti-villain wants to do the sex with her so bad and it's sooo tempting because hot anti-villain is sooo much more forward-thinking than these icky Victorian guys ha ha

But Jonathan's situation is unique.

Because Jonathan is broken down for parts.

His sweet ingenue gothic heroine time in Castle Dracula is routinely handed over either to a stand-in (Renfield ala the original Dracula movie) or Random Damsel seen on every book and movie and comic book cover. Because you can't have a man in that situation. And if you do, shovel him out of the story immediately once the hetero-sexy part is over with, ala the Brides closing in. Maybe make him an unfaithful piece of shit who is SO down to ditch boring old Mina for the undead harem.

His stamp as a rightful nemesis-turned-badass vampire hunter is stolen and given to Van Helsing, including his kukri, including the defeat and beheading of Dracula.

His devotion and love for Mina to the point of blasphemy and inhumanity is ripped away and given to Dracula to romanticize and sexify him, which in turn defangs the Count himself. 'Ohhh I just did all this evil because I was depressed and looking for my Love~ :'c' rather than him being one of the most insidiously engaging and chilling villains in classic storytelling.

And all of that implies that writers and directors do like the character of Jonathan Harker...so long as he's split into pieces with the husk that once contained all those facets quickly discarded.

Because if they have to portray Jonathan Harker in his totality, with all his kindness, his femininely coded introduction, his trauma after assault, his adoration of Mina beyond human measure, and his ultimate conquering of Dracula the Monster/Abuser (their idolized macho surrogate) then that does something unthinkable.

That portrays men like Jonathan Harker in a heroic light. In a positive light, period. This milksop! This sweet, loving, bookish, preyed-upon, afraid-then-fierce, walking talking knife-swinging wall-crawling middle finger to the whole idea of the fantasy people project onto Dracula (read: Megabadass Immortal Vampire Man who gets Allll the Ladies Who Totally Wanted It/Had that Victorian Slave Leia routine coming~)! We can't put that on screen!

So what happens, happens.

And Jonathan Harker continues to be harvested for parts without ever, ever getting to be all of himself in a retelling. If he shows up at all.

#sad about Jonathan Harker hours #sigh #jonathan harker #mina harker #dracula #adaptation #bastardization

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andreal831 · 3 months

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TVDU needs a more diverse representation of feminine strength

Can we leave behind this idea that woman have to exhibit stereotypical masculine traits to be "badass"?

We see this with nearly ever female character in TVDU. While, yes, there are women who have these traits naturally, TVDU forces this idea that femininity is bad and every woman responds to trauma or grows as a character by adopting masculine traits. This is referred to as the "tomboy" trope. We often see the feminine characters portrayed as naïve or ditzy and the masculine characters as strong and brave.

We have these characters in the beginning of the show that are nice, gentle, caring, all these things that we associate with femininity. But when they "grow" as a character, the become cruel, harsh, and selfish. They become their male counterparts.

Again, this isn't saying that woman are not just as capable of these traits as the men, they are. It's also not saying that all men behave this way. And there is nothing wrong with mixing and matching traits and characters, however, we need to see more diversity shown in a positive light. I wanted to see the show glorify more strong "girly" female characters or even strong, feminine men. We see Stefan tend to exhibit more compassionate traits, but he is often mocked for it or it is shown as a reaction to his addiction, rather than a natural way for men to behave.

Katherine is a great example of women taking on more "masculine" tendencies. While she may have started out exhibiting strong feminine qualities when she was human, her fighting to survive made her leave behind her feminine qualities and adopt more masculine ones. We also have to acknowledge how naïve they portrayed Katherine as a human. She was not only kind and compassionate, but easily manipulated by Klaus. We don't see the cunning woman that we see in present time. But this can make sense since she had five hundred years to harden. We don't see her go through it all, but the way she talks about her life, the audience can understand how she changed. The writers saw how much people loved Katherine and really just said copy/paste. All of the women go through so much that they just keep applying this same formula to each of them.

Elena essentially becomes Katherine for a few seasons. I love early seasons of Elena and then the very end when she turns human again. But as a vampire, she loses, ironically, so much of her humanity. The thing that made her character special. She was a caring person and her friends and family were her whole world. She wanted to be a doctor and save people and help those around her. She didn't want to harm anyone or be cruel. But as a vampire, she becomes so wrapped up in her personal life that she neglects everything else. She compromises her morals over and over again and you see her becoming Katherine at a much quicker rate. It's also worth noting how often Elena's autonomy is stripped away from her as a human versus the independence she can only seem to get by being a stereotypical vampire.

I know the writer's racism is the reason we didn't see Bonnie go down this path because they didn't want to give her a main storylines. If they had, they likely would have done the exact same thing, because it was all they knew how to do with women. But I love that Bonnie was always a caring person. Yes, it was frustrating to watch people take advantage of her, which they often do with caring characters. But it was refreshing to see her fight against the stereotype of needing to be a selfish, angry person in order to be a badass. She was an amazing, strong character and it was rooted in her compassion. Most of the women, in TVD specifically, have periods where I just don't like the characters, but Bonnie never does. And she isn't given enough credit for actually standing up for herself. But because she does it in a compassionate way, it is overlooked. Bonnie set healthy boundaries, rather than cutting people off or trying to kill them. She was the humanity of the entire show.

Bonnie and Cami to me play the same role in the show. They are the moral compass for the audience. They help remind the audience that the vampires are still the bad guys even if they are the main characters. While I understand Cami's vampire era, I hated that they made her go "dark." We've already seen this way of dealing with trauma. I would have loved to see someone handle their trauma in a healthy way. The show seemed to think the only way to handle life was to get angry and hard. They essentially try to push Cami to be more like Klaus. Whether this is because they felt like she needed to be more "badass" to be with Klaus or because they were attempting to turn the audience against her, I don't know. But they took a character who's strength came from her hope in humanity and twisted her to be just another angry vampire.

I also find it interesting that no one says Klaus or Vincent were trying to "change" Cami by reminding her of who she was before like they do with Stefan and Elijah. But that's another post.

A woman doesn't need to shed her femininity in order to be strong and independent. Masculine traits should not be the only ones we value. (I could write another post on how the men are seen as lesser when they exhibit more feminine traits)

We see bits of this with Rebekah in TO. We start seeing more of a compassionate side of her come out. But a lot of it is shown as her being naïve. They belittle her for still fighting for love after all of this time instead of showing the strength it takes to still be able to want to find love after being hurt so many times. She is vulnerable with Marcel and he uses it to figure out where her family is. Anytime she is respected by the other characters, and even the fandom, it's when she is ripping people' hearts out. We also can't talk about Rebekah without talking about how, when women turn into vampires, they are concerned about having children, but we don't see the same conversation with men.

And don't even get me started on the "crazy ex-girlfriend" trope that they reduce even the strongest women down to (Katherine, Qetsiyah, Rebekah, Aurora, Celeste, etc.)

Hayley is a little different because she is introduced in the show and "she's not like other girls." I think a bit of it is she is older and not into the "teen drama." But either way, she was introduced as a tomboy. I do like that they bring out her more feminine sides at times, but it is usually followed up with someone taking advantage of her. I've talked about it a lot, but her autonomy is constantly being stripped away. Anytime she shows any kind of vulnerability, she is immediately stripped of her own rights.

I haven't watched Legacies, but I did watch a few episodes of season 1. I thought they had done a better job of diverse femininity. Hope seems gentle and kind, Josie really plays into her femininity, while Lizzie was feminine but had strong "masculine" traits. But based on the edits/clips I've seen, Josie leaves the show and Lizzie and Hope both just become mini Klauses.

I would have loved to just see a strong woman who never had to compromise who they are and still survive. I really think Bonnie is the only one. This isn't to say there aren't problems with how Bonnie's character is depicted. There are many. The amount of times women in the show, specifically Bonnie, has to sacrifice their very lives for men to survive is ridiculous. I just love that she never had to adopt stereotypically masculine traits in order to survive or be seen as strong. She gained respect because of her love and compassion.

I also purposefully didn't talk about Caroline because I think she is a difficult character to nail down on what her underlying personality is. She is similar to Lizzie where she appears very feminine with strong "masculine" traits. I think a lot of this gets lost in the writing. She tends to be used as plot devises for the men, rather than being her own character in her own storylines. But just the fact that the fandom hates "insecure, human" Caroline and say it's a good thing Katherine killed her says enough about how the fandom views teenage girls and women.

#the tomboy trope #feminine women are just as strong #feminism isn't making everyone behave like men #I could talk forever about the issues of how feminism/femininity is depicted in tvdu #tvdu #the originals #the vampire diaries #tvd #women in tvdu #tvdu metas #metas

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mikesbasementbeets · 2 years

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i’ve been thinking a lot about elmax recently and how it seems like the show is genuinely setting them up romantically, while also consistently establishing max and lucas as a romantic pair

keep in mind, this is the show that has been setting up byler since season 1. they seem to know what they’re doing when it comes to queer coding, so i refuse (for the purposes of this analysis at least) to believe they’re unaware of what they’ve been doing so heavily and blatantly with elmax, and also with max in particular (el too, but i’m focusing on max).

i've talked about why i think mike wheeler is gay. this is why i think max mayfield is bi. and elumax should be endgame.

queer coding of max mayfield

right off the bat: her name. max. just like el was at first, due to her shaved head, max is mistaken for a boy by those who don't know her. first the party, who see the name madmax at the arcade, and later dr. owens in season 4 (he might even assume that she's el's boyfriend). when she's first introduced by mr. clarke using her full name, maxine, she quickly corrects him. it's max.

this leads into the larger point of queer coding around max. her androgynous fashion sense, the way she carries herself, distancing herself from performative femininity, ie, playing video games ("girls don't play video games,"), skateboarding, making friends with an all male friend group, her general "tomboyish" presentation and attitude - all of it reads as heavily queer coded to me. i'm not saying that any of these things is necessarily queer, or mean that a person in real life is queer, but the way it all comes together in max feels like a purposeful character choice.

i'm not an expert in queer coding so there's probably a lot i'm missing, but one of the biggest signs for me is max's constant association with rainbows. the other characters have their color palettes, and max has rainbows. literally. as many times as mike and will have been coded with rainbow imagery, max is drowning in it.

and then there's the most important piece of queer coding... her relationship with el. i'll come back around to that though, because i want to talk about boys first. because clearly, max does like boys.

this shot is largely played for comedic relief, but it actually does something important for the narrative i think. it establishes again, with a max that has (once again) broken up with lucas for reasons she doesn't seem to have really explained, that max is attracted to men. my optimistic reading of it is honestly, "hey, we know what we've been doing here with max, so just in case you were thinking she's a lesbian... she's not." ...or if you want a different fun read of it... max realized she likes girls recently (i'll get to that) and is just making sure she still likes boys. ladies dig it? do they steve? oh, wait, yeah.

she's also talked about other boys with el in the past, showing pretty unambiguous interest in them

(these scenes are still so gay though seriously... "you must be an angel".... contrasting milven's scene where el didn't like mike's singing... rainbowsrainbowsrainbows... talking about kissing and then emulating a spin the bottle game, later introducing el to wonder woman while they're in bed together, waking up together always rainbows come ON)

and of course, the other most important part of this, her relationship with lucas, which is shown continuously to be one of real, romantic attraction. in season 2, this was mostly established through contrast with her relationship with dustin, who also had a crush on her. max and lucas start off by becoming close as friends, and then begin to develop a romantic connection. max and dustin, meanwhile, are established several times as not clicking in the same way that max and lucas do. they have heart-to-hearts that feel intimate and genuine, and, as steve and dustin discuss, are layered with the kind of "electricity" that denotes mutual attraction.

at the same time though, while we understand that it's genuine on both sides, we're shown that max and lucas' relationship is far from perfect.

for a couple that reads as endgame and has parallels with several of the other endgame couples, they also parallel a lot of the obviously not endgame couples. i'm gonna come back around to that too. first, the other thing.

romantic coding of elmax

elmax. honestly, i can't even get into everything i want to, because it's literally everything about them.

first of all, the start of their friendship is byler romantic coded

"i just walked up to you and i asked... it was the best thing i've ever done."

this sequence in particular though. this is. so bi coded i'm going insane. (also rainbows rainbows rainbows)

not hopper, not mike. you. (there's more to life than stupid boys. *HOLDS HER HAND*)

the next sequence is also pretty gay imo but is also kinda just gals being pals, so i'm gonna focus on the song, Material Girl by Madonna. this is definitely meant to be about eleven here, finding herself, away from mike (and it's also just a great shopping montage song), but the shot layout also subtly indicates that it applies to max and lucas too.

"some boys hug me, some boys kiss me, i think they're okay." and what about girls, max? what do you think of them? el? opinions?

(the clothes are emulating a literal rainbow flag behind her ok red yellow blue green purple and max is the orange she's part of the flag like shut UP i can't do this anymore)

and. okay. look, i'm not going to fully explain this one but i need to point it out.

getting back at the straight girl bullies (shown flirting with a boy) in front of a burger king. max taking off her sunglasses (we've talked about the symbolism of mike's shades in season 4) as they run away holding hands. taco bell coming soon. "there's more to life than stupid boys." like. am i reading way too much into this? (yes)

even back to their first meeting though, i'm seeing the seeds being planted. go ahead and read this as purely platonic admiration if you want, i don't care, but there's no way in my mind, especially after seeing seasons 3 and 4. like imagine you're a young bi teenage girl who's been hearing stories about this awesome girl with superpowers who saved everyone's life and then mysteriously disappeared, and then she suddenly mysteriously reappears, saves your life too, and walks in looking like this

personally, my tiny gay heart would stop.

yeah

but let's actually move on to season 4 for a minute.

season 4 was setting up canon bisexual max

i'm going to argue something here that i don't have a ton of actual evidence for: i think one of the reasons max broke up with lucas after season 3 is that she realized her feelings for el. max's arc in season 4 is all about her dealing with the trauma of last season, and guilt for her role in what happened. the guilt is extremely important to this. it's a big part in why vecna chooses his victims: not just kids with trauma, but kids who feel shame surrounding their trauma. most of that for max obviously has to do with billy's death. but i think there's something else that max is dealing with too.

as soon as i started season 4 i was struck with strong “queer max” vibes. first of all, her more feminine and rainbow splashed outfits from season 3 have been replaced again with the more tomboyish, androgynous style of season 2. and then there's the first sequence we get to running up that hill (which starts, funnily enough, on a scene of el walking down the hall at school, upset). the first time i watched this i was literally shocked because it read so explicitly queer to me.

first, max looks at group of girls (thinking about el, most likely)

her gaze trails after them, and then, next shot, max looks at a couple kissing

and then max looks at lucas

only after watching it again did i realize it didn't necessarily have to be queer coding (if you take it as max missing her friend and then, separately, her ex-boyfriend) but holy shit, if that's what they meant, they did NOT have to put the couple making out in between those two shots, with further shots of max looking away almost guiltily. we all know that lucas was max's boyfriend. they didn't have to precede that shot of him with the shot of the couple. that's already their established dynamic (and we haven't even learned at this point that they've broken up).

what's not been established yet though, is the idea of max and el as a couple. and i think..... that's possibly what's being hinted at here through max's perspective. the sequence of shots is so telling: 1. girl friends, 2. couple kissing, 3. ex-boyfriend. guilt. what i'm getting from this sequence of shots is that max's friendship with el is something she's thought about in a romantic light. max is making this association. and feeling guilty about it when she looks at lucas. whom, despite their closeness still at the very end of season 3, months after starcourt, she has since broken up with. the reason the show establishes for this is that max has been pulling away from everyone since billy's death, dealing with the fallout in her family, her mother's emotional absence and alcoholism, etc, and her own grief, guilt, and trauma around it. that makes perfect sense, and i'm not saying it's not true. but i think el moving away was also a factor.

it wasn't until season 4 that max was shown to have really pulled away, after el moved to california. maybe it's a reach, maybe it's nothing, but max as a character is so similar to mike, who was shown to have exactly this response to the byers' moving away: isolating himself and pushing away his friends, suffering his depression alone, and talking to no one about it. meeting el in season 3 showed us a new, bubbly happy side to max (that, yes, probably also came from the rest of her friendships and lucas, but el's is the one we were shown). max and el spend almost the entire season together, and max is undoubtedly going to be affected by her best friend moving away. especially if, like mike, it feels like she's losing more than a friend.

it's not just those shots though. when lucas tries to talk to her later, telling her he knows something's wrong... as soon as she turns around, there's a rainbow.

"right, yeah, there must be something wrong with me because i broke up with you."

then in dear billy, lucas confronts her again. and the language reminds me of karen's speech to mike in season 1. and jonathan's to will in season 4. "you know you can talk to me, right? i'm here for you."

guilt and shame are a big part of max's plot this season. the two characters most associated with that for max are billy and vecna - max feeling guilt over billy, and vecna using that guilt against her.

and those scenes also feel intentionally queer coded to me.

and then there's the dear billy flashback sequence.

while she's trying to escape vecna using her happiest memories, max is also comparing her relationships with lucas and el. they are both friendships. and they are both romantic. she thinks of them in alternating flashbacks. lucas, then el, then lucas and dustin, then el, then max's face, then lucas and dustin, then el, then max's face, and then this particular sequence: lucas, el, mike.

this may a reach, but... if she has feelings for el, she's probably feeling guilty around mike, too. this is the only shot of mike in the sequence. after this, in quick succession, it's lucas, then lucas, then lucas, and then el.

then lucas, then lumix snowball kiss, then max's face, then high fiving el, then her eyes open, and she breaks free

there are more shots of lucas than of el, but that's just the thing: max keeps trying to just think of lucas (because, as shown by the shot of mike, the way she's thinking about el makes her feel guilty, which is the opposite of what she wants), but el keeps coming back in. she thinks of her first kiss with lucas, and then thinks of high fiving el after they "dumped their asses." and that's the shot that breaks her out.

(and the song itself? 1. birthdaygate coded, 2. ROMANTIC. baby, darling, angel. you must be an angel. the voice of an angel saving victor creel from henry, el saving max. i'm reaching again. but. seriously.)

and then the flashbacks in episode 9 (and i'm not even touching el's flashback montage here). it's so difficult to be brief about this because they're literally doing SO MUCH here. i'm might have to make a separate post with every shot in this sequence because it's so good. (edit: here)

literally just. go back and watch the entire thing if you need to, but i need to go through this. elmax is unbelievably romantic coded this episode. there is no getting around it.

max chose the snow ball as her happy memory to hide from vecna in, but it didn't work. when vecna finds her, he says, "you can't hide from me, max." max turns around and, with a determined look, closes her eyes. closing her eyes almost seems like she's trying to keep hiding, but facing the door where venca is feels more like defiance. she's not going to try to hide anymore...

in the first shot, she spins the bottle in her mind, and her memories flicker from her first time meeting lucas, to the movies with lucas, to the start of her friendship with el, back to the spinning bottle, and then. the last two shots repeat. movie date with lucas, el approaching her in the street. but the lucas shot flickers shorter, and the el shot lingers, and then it's max's mom tying her hair too tight for the snow ball.

like maybe... this wasn't her at her happiest. forced conformity is killing the kids, right?

and the bottle flickers in again and it's el. it's max dancing in el's room, you must be an angel...

and then we come back to max's face and there are rainbows reflecting in the light

"is mike a good kisser?" el laughing, more rainbows

after that, she gets distracted by vecna and broken out of her memories, and when el shows up, max asks,

"are you real? did i make you?" she was thinking so strongly of her memories with el, she thought that it had worked.... and everything is romantic coded, there's nothing even to argue for here, it's just. there. seriously, like. just watch the episode. it's elmax.

after this the focus goes back to el mostly and it's still extremely romantic but i can't get into it anymore, i need to focus on max.

the way it all ends brings me back to the elumax question again. because right here, i'm clearly seeing elmax/byler vs. lumix/milven. paralleling mike's love monologue failing to help el, lucas' protection, both physically and in her mind, was not enough to save max.

that was el. that was el that saved her. (of course, she saves your life because of "friendship")

el's love for max is what saved her. not mike. not lucas. elmax.

going back to the latter half of season 3... el and max's relationship progressed very quickly through shared trauma, and max is the one there for el all season... and when billy dies, el is the one who holds her.

season 3 also made it clear that max's relationship with lucas wasn't without flaws.

all of the romantically inept things that mike was doing with el? lucas was doing them first, max was breaking up with him, and lucas was later advising mike on how to fix it. and especially by the end of the season, max seems much more like she's in el's corner than lucas'.

why i think it's possible max and lucas might end up as friends

after she's broken up with him in season 4, lucas spends most of the time just trying to be her friend again. he doesn't even seem bothered by their breakup (although we don't know how long ago it was), he seems to really just want her in his life again, to talk to him.

and, yes, they spend season 4 rebuilding the relationship in a way i think would be beautiful to see work out romantically. but i don't think it's inevitable. (remember that they also rebuilt stency this season.... as much as they might like each other, we've been shown in past seasons that their romantic relationship was flawed.)

i wish i could get into all the parallels, because they're the biggest part of what confuses me on the show's endgame goals but i really can't because it would take up an entire post. the duffers love parallels, obviously, it's one of their main narrative techniques at this point. and i think they usually work really well, because they're not trying to show that each of these characters or couples is exactly the same. they use parallel situations to exemplify the small details that make each character and relationship unique.

for example, milven and stency often parallel each other, but they're not quite the same. i don't think mike ever had genuine romantic feelings for el. he thought he liked her, but ultimately he's gay. nancy, on the other hand, did genuinely have a crush on steve (hc her as a lesbian if you want, i fully support that, but i think the show thinks she likes boys). that is the show's example of a teenage crush that sparks and then fizzles, not turning into deeper love.

whereas lumix, which also sometimes parallels these two ships (for example, their habit of sitting across from each other rather than beside. not always though... they're inconsistent), i believe is an example of a love that is real and genuine... but might not be meant to last forever. because in addition to those other two, they also parallel byler, jopper, and jancy, which i believe are endgame ships.

to be honest... all of this makes me believe even more firmly in gay mike too. because unlike mike’s complete lack of romantic feeling for el, or nancy's naive crush on steve, this is a narrative that sets up genuine, but possibly not everlasting love. a bi character discovering her sexuality by falling for her best girl friend while she’s dating a guy she also really likes. i think lucas is max’s first love, but not her only.

however

all this said, i also think it's very likely that lucas and max will end up together, and el might end the show on her own. lucas and max are NOT milven or stency, and whatever flaws they have don't necessarily spell out a doomed relationship. there's a lot of good there too, i just didn't get into it here.

and el's whole character arc has been about family, friends, and finding herself outside of other peoples' influence. i think this could still work if she were with max, since max has always been the most supportive of el's independence and self-fulfillment, but i can really see the show ending with el on her own, and it being a natural and positive conclusion to her journey

either way though, i think with everything they've been doing, they might actually confirm in canon that max and el have romantic feelings for each other (...or indicate it so obviously that they think it’s undeniable and then later confirm in interviews when most viewers don’t get it because they’re too subtle for their own good)

anyway, here's how elumax can still happen

look, i don't really trust the show to be able to pull this off, mostly because it just. isn't something that's done. not in popular media like this. but honestly, it's hard for me to grasp all of this because it feels like the show is telling me that max belongs with both el and lucas. i think most people assume she will end up with lucas after the way their relationship was rebuilt in season 4, and i think that absolutely makes sense. but i truly think elmax has been built up just as much, just a lot more subtextually. it's just that no one expects it to actually happen. 1, because lumix not ending up together would feel pretty disappointing after all this build up, and we don't want to see lucas, who truly loves max, end up alone. especially when max loves him too. and 2, because of heteronormativity - most people assume elmax are only being set us as friends, regardless of whether they're picking up on the romantic coding. and the "norm" is one romantic partner per person. but max needs el just as much as she needs lucas, and the ending season 4 proved that. lucas holding max in his arms, thinking he's alone with her, but then we see that el is actually there too. right alongside lucas. el saved max's life after she died in lucas's arms.

i could just give up and assume that elmax is platonic and they're giving max both a romantic and a platonic love story, but as i've already talked about, max is queer, and her dynamic with el is romantic. (theres so much evidence of this from el's side too that i just didn't get into)

going into season 5, max is in a coma. we already know that lucas is spending his time at her bedside. and i think it's fair to assume, based on el's priorities after the pizza dough freezer, ignoring mike completely to stay with max and lucas, and to revive max, she's going to be very focused on max too.

this is already way too long but i'm almost done, i want to briefly talk about lucas and el's dynamic from season 1. of all the party members, lucas was the most skeptical and deeply wary of eleven. he didn't trust her, and she ended up inadvertently hurting him when he fought with mike. but over the course of the season, they both learned to trust each other, having moments together than felt just as important as el's friendship with mike.

if season 5 is a return to season 1 dynamics, especially seeing the way season 4 left these two characters (sharing the same priority - max), i think lucas and el will spend a decent amount of time in season 5 together, or at least share a plotline (around max?). now that they're finally being given the chance to actually spend time together, i can see them growing much closer next season, maybe even leading to a mutual understanding and acceptance of both of their feelings towards max (maybe even falling in love?). and if max wakes from her coma to discover that the guilt and shame she's been suffering around her feelings for these two people is actually unnecessary, and that they can all be happy with each other, in whatever way they decide, even if other people might not understand?

*slides the duffers $5*

that would be an absolutely iconic ending.

#elmax #max mayfield #byler #honestly though i would sell my soul for canon elumax #if they could pull that off in season 5 i could die happy #also i'm giving the duffers a LOT of credit here i'm just choosing to give them the benefit of the doubt #this got SO LONG i'm sorry #mikesbasementbeets posts

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theangelshavethephonebox · 1 month

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RTD: yeah, we had to have 14 regenerate with new clothes because we can't put a tall Scottish man in girls clothes

Us: you could if you weren't a coward

RTD:

(actually that might be a kilt, idk- anyone able to tell? It's a pretty quick moment but the gif might make it easier to see it. I can't see shit and I also know nothing about kilts)

EDIT: thanks to the people who have confirmed that it is a kilt 👍 though, that was just one example- like, 15 has done a lot of things which are associated with "femininity", and some of his outfits have definitely not been things which would have been worn by other male Doctors (thinking of that absolutely gorgeous striped cropped zip shirt).

I think it's pretty clear that he's *allowed* to have a more varied gender expression because he's being allowed to be more explicitly queer. Times have changed since the early 2000s- RTD can get away with more queerness, and I think he's taking great advantage of that. Good on him! I love seeing queer culture more in doctor who!!! I can't help but wonder- did RTD mean that he didn't want to put a guy in girl's clothes, or did he mean he didn't want to put a *straight* guy in girl's clothes? Because ngl I can definitely understand where he's coming from if it's the latter- there is a history of cishet men mocking drag, of men put in girl's clothing for a laugh on TV. With a straight man it is homophobia; with a queer man, it is revolutionary. It is allowing queerness to reign on our TVs unfettered. It's the difference between having a gay character and *having a queer character*. But RTD, babes, why didn't you just *say* that if that is what you meant. (Not to mention 13s clothes were very much chosen to be gender neutral, but I'm talking more in terms of reasons/thought process behind this decision than what happened in practice).

Sorry for kinda going on a rant there, and I don't want to rehash the drama over the clothes choices- this is a conversation this fandom has had to hell and back over the last 6 months. But I still wanted to put my thoughts down somewhere, yano?

#gif #doctor who #the fifteenth doctor

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aspoonofsugar · 1 year

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Been enjoying your analyses and meta commentary, very insightful as someone who isn't knowledgeable of all the lore potential. I was curious about the idea of Jaune being a "damsel in distress" because I totally get his allusion to Joan of Arc and how he's (thankfully) not a typical male hero type, but I'm wondering what exactly that part about being a damsel might mean for him moving forward.

Hi!

As promised, here I come after the ending of the volume :D

So, the truth is that this volume didn't change many things when it comes to Jaune's arc, but it strenghtens some ideas I have had for a while.

Before starting, I am linking 3 metas:

A meta on Jaune's arc in general up until volume 9

A meta on Jaune's allusion and what I think it means symbolically for the narrative

A meta written by @hamliet on how Jaune and Weiss fit the anima/animus archetype, which is important for both their arcs regardless to shipping

MAIDENS, KNIGHTS AND METALS

In general, Jaune's arc is defined by the dychotomy Knight/Maiden (the same one Wiess has > Knight/Queen). This dychotomy has its root in Jaune's allusion aka Jeanne D'Arc.

She was both:

The Maid of Orleans

A Knigth leading her people

Moreover, the crux of Jeanne is that she was able to be a valent Knight because of her inner strength, rather than her physical one. She was a Knight because she was a Maid.

Well, Jaune should become the same. He can never be the man he wants to be if he doesn't accept he is a maiden, as well. What's more, it is precisely his inner maiden that can lead him to become a hero. In other words, he should integrate his feminine parts in order to become fully whole. He needs to integrate with his anima, which is represented by Pyrrha:

What is the anima exactly?

In short, it is an archetype defined by Carl Jung as the feminine part of a man. It is that mix of traits culturally associated with the feminine that several men repress and need to develop. In stories, the anima is usually integrated through a relationship with another person. Basically, it is the idea behind opposites attract: a person projects traits he feels he lacks on another person and acquires them in order to grow closer to that person.

As you can see, this is Jaune and Pyrrha in a nutshell > Jaune wants to become like Pyrrha, so he grows closer to her and integrates what he lacks through her. Basically his arc is to grow more and more like Pyrrha by facing similar challenges.

This process of refinement is conveyed through a metal motif. To be specific, Jaune's story is commented perfectly by the 7 metals of alchemy.

What are the 7 metals of alchemy?

The 7 metals of alchemy are lead, tin, iron, copper, mercury, silver and gold. They are 7 substances wich were thought to have special properties and that alchemists linked to planets. Lead was considered the least pure, while gold was considered the most perfect. The goal of alchemy was to turn the lead into gold.

In short, the 7 metals can be put in a scale that goes from the least refined to the most refined. RWBY uses this scale to comment on characters' arcs. Jaune is the main example of this. His story is the journey of an immature boy, who goes from lead to gold.

JAUNEDICE

Cardin: Let's see how much of a man you really are…

Cardin alludes to the Cardinal of Winchester, who was in charge of Jeanne's trial and condemned her to death. The point of the trial was to establish if Jeanne was really a saint or just a fraud. This idea is taken and applied to Jaune and Cardin's relationship in 2 different ways:

Cardin discovers Jaune cheated in order to enter Beacon, so he is indeed an "impostor". Cardin takes advantage of this and threathens Jaune to have him expelled. He can really have him "executed" metaphorically, since he can force Jaune to leave the school.

Cardin judges Jaune because he doesn't fit the typical male stereotype. He is weak and clumsy and looks like a loser. He is not "a real man" in Cardin's eyes. Just like Jeanne was not a "real maid" or a "real saint", according to the Cardinal of Winchester.

These 2 ideas bring up 2 key-themes in Jaune's arc. On the one hand his journey is one of growing to like himself for who he is. On the other hand this process of self-affirmation and maturation can only happen if Jaune gives up his internalized toxic masculinity. Again, in order to stop being a fraud and to become a true hero, he needs to accept he is a maiden at heart. He is Jaune, but he is also Jaunedice and this is not an insult.

Here is where his path diverges from Jeanne, though. Jeanne drew her strength from her virginity, while Jaune's growth lies in romantic love. Specifically, it lies in him struggling with it and in him meeting many many women, who inspire him to be better.

LEAD MAIDEN

Jaune: I don't want help! I don't want to be the damsel in distress! I want to be the hero!

This line encapsulates Jaune's early immaturity. He wants to be a hero, but has no idea of what a hero is and doesn't realize a full fledged individual would not hesitate to ask for help, in order to grow. Luckily for him, Pyrrha is kind, patient and takes her time to care for Jaune. Thanks to her, Jaune is able to let go of his macho-persona a little bit at the end of the Jaunedice mini-arc.

Jaune acts heroically not when he tries to comform to the toxic masculinity gang around him, but when he stands up to them for Pyrrha's sake.

This is why his adventure with Cardin ends with a minor miracle:

(Jaune's proto-semblance activating)

And with Jaune's hand being guided by a "superior force":

(Pyrrha's semblance)

And after this, Jaune finally accepts Pyrrha's help and starts to grow:

Jaune: Wait! I know I don't deserve it after all that happened, but… would you still be willing to help me… to help me become a better fighter?

Jaune's growth can be read through the 2 motifs mentioned above.

He plays the Princess to Pyrrha's Hero:

He is the lead to her gold:

He is raw material, who Pyrrha decides to guide and to refine. Thanks to her, Jaune is able to grow both in body (he becomes a better fighter) and in spirit (he becomes a better person). By the end of the Vale arc, Jaune has grown more mature and tries to step in the role of advisor:

Jaune: I guess… I'm just trying to say that… you've always been there for me… even when I didn't deserve it. And I can tell there's something on your mind, so… I don't know. How can I help?

Still, he is not enough wise, so he fails. This leads to Jaune ending the arc not as a hero, but as a rescued party:

This scene is meaningful for several reasons. It is a call-back to Jaunedice where Cardin closes Jaune in a locker and sends him flying. Despite all his growth, Jaune ends the Beacon arc where he started. Inside a locker, sent away by someone, who is choosing in his stead. At the same time, he is still the damsel in distress. He is not Pyrrha's equal and can't help her. The choice of the metal locker is interesting because it resembles an iron maiden:

So, literally Jaune is still an immature maiden symbolically... not a knight. It is just that he is not even iron by this point. He is still lead, while Pyrrha is gold. So, Pyrrha moves on to self-actualization and completes her arc. Jaune is instead left behind.

TIN KNIGHT

Blacksmith: That was some fine metal you brought me. Accents the white nicely. Where'd you get it from?

Jaune starts Mistral by integrating Pyrrha's metal within his weapon. In the same occasion, he also changes his armor because he has grown bigger:

Jaune: Guess I was going to grow out of it eventually. Ren: A sign of progress. Jaune: Progress.

This marks a shift in his character, both when it comes to the male/female dychotomy and to the scale of metals.

On the one hand he starts growing more "masculine". He is now a stronger fighter and has a more powerful weapon:

He is clearly pursuing his end-goal to be a hero, like Pyrrha was.

On the other hand Pyrrha's metal helps him evolving into tin. It means he is making progress in the definition of his own self-identity, but he is still frail. This association links him to another female character, who just like Jaune is growing more self-assured through summoning her own personal Tin-Man:

Obviously I am talking about Weiss, who in Mistral shares Pyrrha's role as important woman for Jaune's arc TM.

In Mistral, Jaune goes through 2 moments of refinement, linked respectively to Weiss and Pyrrha.

He saves Weiss by activating his semblance.

This awakening marks him growing both in body and spirit. He discovers a new super-power that makes him a more valuable asset, but does so through growing up emotionally. Once again, he is trying to be a hero by clinging to his macho-persona. "I am going on a noble quest for revenge! And I am dying for others! Look how heroic I am!". His actions only mess everything up for his group and put Weiss in danger, though. So, he changes approach and discovers what really matters is not for him to fight the enemy, but rather that he is there for others. He becomes more of a Knight by embracing a feminine trait (healing).

At the same time, you can really see this moment as a parallel to Jaunedice. There Jaune adheres to toxic masculinity embodied by Cardin. Here Jaune gives in to toxic masculinity to fight Cinder. There he breaks free to protect Pyrrha. Here he comes to his senses for Weiss's sake. There he activates a proto-version of his semblance to heal himself. Here he awakens the whole thing to save Weiss. Both times, the moment he integrates his most feminine traits, he is able to perform a miracle. After all, reviving someone is THE miracle par excellance and to make it even more obvious it happens at Haven. Obvious religious symbolism is obvious.

He meets a mysterious Red Haired Woman, who guides him

This meeting is highly important symbolically because obviously the Red Haired Woman is a stand-in for Pyrrha. It doesn't really matter if she is Pyrrha's spirit, Pyrrha's mother or Jaune's own vision. What matters is that once again Pyrrha is stepping into the role of anima to guide Jaune in a moment of pain and self-doubt. She shows him the way:

Red-Haired Woman: She understood that she had a responsibility… to try. I don't think she would regret her choice, because a Huntress would understand that there really wasn't a choice to make. And a Huntress is what she always wanted to be.

She conveys to him Pyrrha will always be a part of Jaune himself and will live through him. This is why it is important Jaune keeps on living and keeps on trying. If he does, he will be keeping Pyrrha alive, as well.

This moment too parallels Jaunedice. There Pyrrha uses her semblance to move Jaune's hand. Here, Pyrrha's memory and ideal inspire Jaune to move forward. Both times, it is as if a "superior force" (God/Goddess) assists Jaune.

So, both scenes reference Jaunedice and Jeanne d'Arc. At the same time, they are 2 moments, where Jaune makes progress both into grieving Pyrrha and into becoming more like her.

At Haven, Jaune tries to imitate Pyrrha by going after Cinder to sacrifice himself, like she did. Still, he misses the contexts are different. It is only when he saves Weiss that he acts as Pyrrha would have:

Jaune: Pyrrha once told me I've got a lot of it (aura). I still believe her.

(Again, notice the religious symbolism > I still believe her > I have faith > it is Jaune's faith in Pyrrha who gives him strength, like Jeanne's faith in God made her powerful)

And in this way, he starts properly grieving. He could not save Pyrrha, but he can save Weiss and protect his friends.

At Argus, Jaune chooses to do what Pyrrha did at Beacon. Like her, he knows he might die, but decides to push forward because he wants to be a Huntsman, like Pyrrha was a Huntress.

Nora: Pyrrha may not be by our side anymore, but we can fight like she is. Jaune: And in a way… she will be.

He can keep Pyrrha's legacy alive, so that Pyrrha will never truly be gone.

Through these 2 important improvements, Jaune evolves once again. He solidifies his sense of self and steps into Atlas as a real Knight this time. And this is what he is throughout the whole arc:

IRON KNIGHT CAN'T SAVE COPPER GIRL

Ren: Jaune on the other hand… There's no fear at all. I can see it, he believes we're going to get this done.

This is Atlas Jaune in a nutshell. He is a proper Knight in Shining Armor. He has no fear, his faith keeps burning bright even when everyone else loses it and his mental strength is unparalleled. Throughout the whole arc Jaune acts very maturely. He is there for others and can keep a level-head. In other words, he is already very similar to how Pyrrha was.

He is

A Knight

Iron

The passage from tin to iron marks his sense of self growing stronger. It is also fitting because Atlas is the Kingdom of a certain general.

Ironwood embodies the metal iron (which then degenerates into the tin of the Tin-Man), so of course he is a foil to Jaune. Whereas Ironwood loses faith in others and is undone, Jaune keeps on believing and blossoms into a hero.

And yet, both iron-men have to deal with a girl made of copper, who challenges them:

Penny represents the metal copper. She is green and her name and allusion both reference the metal. Pennies are made of copper and, at the end of the novel, Pinocchio's 30 pennies are transformed into 30 golden coins. Just like our real girl's arc finishes with her becoming gold <3

Copper is more perfected than iron, so both Ironwood and Jaune should aspire to be like Penny. They should grow through her. However, both have problems to do so. Ironwood straighout fails, whereas Jaune chooses to trust Penny at the cost of a strong personal sacrifice:

By choosing to kill her, Jaune sacrifices his new found sense of self, which was built on the idea he is the one who saves. He is the one who heals. He is the self born by wanting to emulate Pyrrha. And yet, he wasn't enough. Just like Pyrrha wasn't.

I am bringing Pyrrha up because Jaune's 2 big set-backs in volume 8 are Pyrrha's 2 failures in volume 3.

Both Pyrrha and Jaune are forced to kill Penny

Both Pyrrha and Jaune stay behind to fight Cinder and "die" as a result

So Jaune is growing more like Pyrrha not only when it comes to her positive traits, but also when it comes to her struggles and traumas. He is integrating everything of her. Both the positive parts and the painful ones.

Differently from Pyrrha, Jaune doesn't really die, but his fall counts as a metaphorical death, especially because Jaune ends up spending a whole life in grief and stagnation. His Knight in Shining Armor self fails, but he can't really let go of it. He is stuck in iron and this is why he becomes the Rusted Knight:

RUSTED KNIGHT IS SAVED BY MERCURY GIRL

Jaune: Afterans are all either too clever, too stupid, or too crazy to trust!

Jaune's final choice in Atlas is to trust Penny, while Jaune's mindset in the Ever After is to distrust everyone. He distrusts the Cat, the Paper Pleasers, the Tree and Alyx (he assumes she lied about everything and killed Lewis). At the same time, he keeps on believing in Ruby, to the point he idealizes her and dives after her weapon with no hesitation:

Jaune: Hey, there's… something I've been holding onto for you. It was the first thing I saw. (opens the chest) When I was falling. Ruby's eyes widen, seeing the folded form of Crescent Rose inside the chest. Jaune: Years later, when I finally found it…

This is an interesting contradiction. Up until Atlas, Jaune's faith is shown as something positive, but in the Ever After that same faith becomes a shakle that prevents him from evolving. Moreover, that same faith in ideals (Ruby, the ideal of being a Hero) is not supported by trust in people. Doesn't this remind you of anyone?

Yep, in the Ever After Jaune exhibits traits similar to Ironwood because he is stuck in iron. He can't evolve, so what was once something positive becomes a limitation. Just like with the general.

This process is well conveyed through Jaune "eating" the clockwork orange/stopwatch fruit:

The fruit has Jaune:

Go back in time > regression

Stuck in the Ever After to "kill time" > stagnation

The Rusted Knight is a result of this. Not only has Jaune failed to change, but he has unconsciounsly regressed to a framework, which relies on toxic masculinity:

Jaune: Once I started helping them, it didn’t take long for me to figure out I was in her story. I… was the Rusted Knight. But things weren’t always the same as the book. Like Alyx… she wasn’t just a little petulant or inconsiderate. She was selfish… cruel. Like this whole word was simply make-believe and the rules didn’t apply to her.

This whole speech makes it pretty clear. Jaune is the hero, while Alyx is the damsel in distress. Except Alyx doesn't conform to the role and tries to kill Jaune. So, Jaune finds someone else, who can fit the role better. And here we arrive to the Paper Pleasers. They are the perfect damsels because they are kind, but also frail. Except there is one small problem. They don't really want to be saved:

Purple Paper Pleaser: I do not wish to be rude, but our work has been completed for quite some time. Because of us, the land is beautiful, but we have realized that like ourselves, it is also very delicate. We would like to make something that is pleasing, but also resilient. Because of this, we are ready to leave ourselves and merge with the Tree, so that it might return us as something new. But… our hero is displeased by this course of action.

The one between Jaune and the Paper Pleasers is a positive relationship of mutual fondness turned into a limiting one for both parties. On the one hand Jaune is unable to leave the Paper Pleasers out of fear they would hurt themselves. On the other hand Jaune's presence won't let the Paper Pleasers evolve. It is a palliative relationship that helps Jaune cope, but doesn't let him move on.

So, our Rusted Knight may look like a hero, but is really a person trapped in his own pain. This is really no surprising and deep down it is all a reaction to Penny's death:

Jaune: I’m sorry, I… I know I’m not okay. I- I’m not right, but… Who am I supposed to be…? I’ve been alone… for SO… LONG! Here… On that bridge… I was the only one that could do it! I was the ONLY ONE!

Which in turn is nothing, but a repetition of Jaune's original trauma:

Pyrrha's death is the crux of Jaune's arc. So far he has managed to find resolve and motivation in it. Still, this unsolved pain is now clearly eating him alive. This leads to 2 consequences:

In the Ever After Jaune's weapon is broken and he never uses his semblance. This could very well be he has no reason to, but it is still interesting. Jaune's weapon and semblance are attributes he metaphorically receives from Pyrrha. He uses her metal and believes/imitates her with his semblance. The lack of both in the Ever After is then a symbol of how he has lost not only himself, but also his Goddess. Maybe this is why this time Pyrrha can't really guide Jaune. He is in too much pain and has reached a point, where even his paragon (Pyrrha) can't help him. What to do?

Jaune gets the chance to mend his wounds in a fairy-tale world, where he can re-examine his traumas and find a positive solution to them. This is the point of the Ever After. It is a fantastic simplified world, where you go to heal. Like people find comfort in fiction. Jaune in particular plays a self-insert. He is the Rusted Knight, the great hero of the story. Alyx is his heroine. Thanks to her he can overcome his current block.

And yet, this doesn't really seem the case initially. Alyx betrays Jaune and poisons him, which worsens his mental state, paranoia and hero complex. Still, it is actually important Jaune fails to be a hero. Accepting failure is kind of the point:

Weiss: I think you’re asking too much of yourself. We’ve been telling ourselves that failing means we’re no good. But I can guarantee even the best Huntsmen in history… they’ve all lost. But they were still incredibly brave… and good.

Weiss's speech is what moves Jaune to change and it happens in a scene full of symbolism.

Witnessing a miracle

This time Jaune doesn't perform a miracle, but gets to be a witness to one:

His friends come back as more refined versions of themselves. This wonderful event finally opens Jaune's eyes:

Jaune: In trying so hard to save them… I stopped them from becoming what they needed to be. I was being selfish because I… I wanted the rush of rescuing someone and I got that here.

He lets go of his Knight persona and can finally accept who he is as a person:

Jaune: Maybe that Cat was right… Maybe I just needed to accept it. It’s not a place you go.

This happening thanks to Weiss is important because it is an inversion of Mistral. There he starts to heal by saving her physically. This results into Weiss becoming a Queen (Queen Lancer). Here she starts to heal by guiding him spiritually. This results into Jaune's first step into leaving his Knight persona behind. Alyx helps him with the second.

Guided by a superior force

This time the Goddess guiding Jaune is none other than Alyx, the protagonist of the fairy tale they are all in:

This moment, as per usual, ties with Jaune's allusion, as he gets to see a vision that inspires him and helps him out. The difference is that instead than Pyrrha, he sees Alyx. This happens because Jaune's arc as the Rusted Knight is a condensed version of his story as Jaune Arc. When it comes to his role in RWBY, Pyrrha is his Goddess. When it comes to his role as the Rusted Knight, Alyx is. The Girl Who Fell Through the World is really Jaune's chance to solve some internal issues, so he can go back outside and face bigger challenges.

Here, Alyx symbolizes many things:

She is a person he could not save

She is a person who hurt Jaune

She is Jaune's own child self > she symbolizes all Jaune's childish fantasies to be a hero

For Jaune to take her hand then it means he is accepting who he really is, so that he can change:

Alyx: Maybe it’s time for a change, to be the kind of man you always wanted to be.

At the same time, it means Jaune forgiving and finding in himself the ability to trust again:

Our Jeanne has a new-found inner faith.

After this moment, Jaune shows progress:

He is able to finally save a person (Neo)

He lets go of Juniper, the Rusted Knight partner. This means he is ready to leave his childhood fantasies to someone else (well, in this case Somewhat else :P)

He is finally ready to move on and this is what happens.

Alyx's knife fixes Jaune and our Alice in Wonderland gives Jeanne d'Arc a second chance at living.

Symbolically this means 2 things:

1 - Jaune has finally left iron and become mercury. The color of Alyx's apparition and knife isn't enough bright to be either gold nor silver (the 2 perfect metals), but it is a lighter tone of gray, which fits the metal mercury. Mercury is also supposed to bring wisdom, which is what Jaune's white streak in his hair suggests.

What this means for Jaune's arc in Vacuo is hard to tell. As for now, I think it is obvious he is gonna interact with/foil Mercury:

2 - Alyx saving Jaune starts Jaune's final stage of development. A stage where he becomes a proper maiden. Not the whiny little Jaunedice he is in the beginning, but a wise Jaunedice able to guide and inspire others. Why is that so?

Well, to begin with Alyx saving Jaune is an inversion of gender roles:

Jaune is supposed to be the tragic hero who drinks the poison in Alyx's stead. Still, what really happens is that Alyx dies tragically, but her last redemptive wish saves Jaune. Jaune starts the volume as the Rusted Knight, but ends it as a Mercurial Maiden saved by Alyx, the real protagonist of her own story.

Alyx is such a wonderful character specifically because of this. She introduces Jaune and the others to a world which is gray. She herself is gray. She is the poison and the medicine (again mercury). She is a maiden, but doesn't fit her role for 2 opposite reasons:

She is not a good person TM

She is not saved, but saves

Her presence in the Ever After helps Jaune make some progress when it comes to Pyrrha and Penny's deaths. Still, she also prepares him for the final Maiden he will have to help:

GOLDEN MAIDEN

Pyrrha: Do you believe in destiny?

Pyrrha's question sets up Jaune and Cinder's foiling and intertwines their arcs. They both are looking for their destinies, after all. For a final goal worth dedicating their lives to. There is a differnce though.

Jaune gets the chance to hear Pyrrha's explanation about what destiny is, while Cinder kills Pyrrha before she can speak.

In short, Jaune knows what destiny is:

When I think of destiny, I don't think of a predetermined fate you can't escape. But rather… some sort of final goal, something you work towards your entire life.

However, Cinder doesn't. If she wants to self-actualize she needs to learn Pyrrha's lesson and so far Jaune is the only one left to teach her. This would also make much sense for Jaune's arc itself. I mean, isn't Jaune purpose to integrate with Pyrrha and fulfill her legacy? Well, teaching Cinder about Choice is what Pyrrha has left behind for someone else to do. For someone else to succeed where she failed.

This role is also a role only a Maiden at Heart can fulfill. I mean, this is literally what the text says. So far, each maiden with flaming eyes has had a maiden at heart explaining the theme to her. Raven is taught by Yang and Winter by Penny. Obviously Pyrrha was supposed to teach Cinder, but got no chance. So, for Jaune to succeed he has to symbolically become a Golden Maiden.

Golden > like Pyrrha was

Maiden > like his allusion suggests he deep down is

This resolution also ties with Jaune's foiling with both Ruby and Weiss.

Ruby and Jaune's parallel arcs are clearly about growing together in different ways, so that they can successfully help Cinder. Once they do Cinder will probably save the world. Like Alyx saved Jaune.

It is just Ruby is set up to be Cinder's Prince. She is the one who "dances" with Cinderella at the dance in volume 2, after all. And she is the one equipped with silver slippers able to save Cinderella. Jaune is instead set up to be Cinder's maiden at heart. Or if you prefer Cinder's fairy, who makes sure she can go to her final dance. (RWBY loves playing with gender roles).

So, in order to succeed Jaune really has to follow into Weiss's footsteps and integrate both his masculine and feminine traits. This is what our Snowhite does. She starts as a spoilt little princess:

She grows into a brave Knight:

And she finally becomes a Generous Queen:

A Queen Lancer to be exact > someone who combines being a queen with being a knight. Someone who has integrated with her anima.

Well, Jaune's arc is the same. He starts as a whiny Jaunedice/a loser knight. He grows into a proper Knight in Shining Armor. He is gonna become a Wise Maiden. A Golden Maiden, who is also a Knight.

JAUNE AS PYRRHA'S GENIAL GEM

Blake: This is them, isn’t it? They’re back. Weiss: It’s just like they said. They came back from the Tree, better. Yang: No flood or fire will ever hurt them again.

The point of the Genial Gems' evolution is that they have the same heart as before, but are right now less frail, which means they won't die as easily anymore.

I think this foreshadows Jaune's arc in relation to Pyrrha:

Jaune: She should be standing here… Red-Haired Woman: She is.

The Mysterious Woman tells Jaune Pyrrha is standing there not because she is Pyrrha, but because Jaune himself is Pyrrha. He represents Pyrrha's legacy and he is bound to become even greater than she was. He will succeed and survive, where Pyrrha failed and died.

In short, he is gonna become a more perfected version of Pyrrha. He is gonna become Pyrrha's Genial Gem. In order to succeed though, it is probable he has to let go of Pyrrha. Just like the Paper Pleasers needed to let go of Jaune. They could not keep relying on him if they wanted to become what they were meant to be. Jaune needs to do the same. Still, this doesn't mean Pyrrha loses her importance. Not at all. The Paper Pleasers new-found selves are probably inspired by Jaune. He taught them the perils of being made of paper. So, they come out with a brand new form. Jaune has had an influence on the Paper Pleasers, just like Ruby has had on Little:

Blacksmith: The five of you have had a greater impact than you know. Just like Alyx and Lewis did before you. Just like others will after you. One small kindness in one small moment would be such a marvelous transformation.

The same goes for Jaune himself and Pyrrha. He needs to let Pyrrha go, so that he can find herself again. He needs to stop relying on her memory, so that he can become his own self. This is why I think that Jaune leaving Juniper behind is also symbolic of him making a little bit of progress when it comes to grieving Pyrrha.

Jaune: Will you look after Juniper? She means the world to me.

Juniper is after all a "she" and has the name of Jaune's old team. The one with Pyrrha in it. Not only that, but she is Jaune's partner throughout his life as the Rusted Knight. Throughout his whole first life. He is right now starting a second one, so he is letting go of his past.

Still, this doesn't mean forgetting Pyrrha. If anything, it is a necessary step to integrate with her more, to eventually become like her and fulfill Pyrrha's destiny. To be a hero. A destiny Pyrrha fulfilled, but that got cut short. Yes, because Pyrrha's destiny was "heroism", but Jaune's destiny is Pyrrha herself. She is his final goal:

Every life is filled with passing moments Like the seasons change, they come and go But this is infinite Nothing, even death Could separate our souls 'Cause you're my final goal

#rwby #rwby meta #rwby volume 9 #jaune arc #once upon an allusion #pyrrha nikos #weiss schnee #alyx #cinder fall #snowqueenofmyheart #asksfullofsugar #my meta

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snowswan-royalehigh · 2 months

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Please, can you talk more about the misogyny in Remarried Empress and shit on the male leads, I love it!

Of course! The whole thing is built in such a pick me girl way, it's so hypocritical! The fandom, doesn't do much to counteract it, (I am slightly fearful for the media literacy right now.)

RE has underlying tones of classism and sexism

In order to try to prevent spoilers, I'm gonna mainly focus on the Webtoon, with 1 Rashta spoiler.

THE ONE GOOD WOMAN THEORY.

Why do I say this? Navier. Navier as a character. I actually like the concept of her. Navier herself however, I feel really perpetrates this sexism as well. She's the designated 'one good woman' which I notice in other historical drama/fantasy webtoons. Had it been Rashta's point of view, I'm sure Navier would have a horrible nickname like 'Trashta' maybe like, 'Nasty-vier' and they would make fun of her appearance like they did Rashta. (I love Rashta, but good lord the Christmas tree wedding dress...)

Personally, I don't have that much beef with Navier. But her stans. Especially people who think Navier had it harder than Rashta.

Navier did suffer, but ultimately, women in this story are treated disposably. Tuania, the most beautiful noblewoman, was cast aside by her husband via rumors. Krista, was easily killed off by her own father, and Rashta who's whole life was misery with one time of false happiness before rotting in a cell, taking her own life. And honestly. Navier would've been just like them too, if she wasn't the main character. However, to my knowledge none of the male leads have had to struggle like this.

People often forget, Navier was petty ASF. She was justified, but I felt as though the whole RE story felt classist too. We don't get to see a 'good commoner.' Lebetti, an actual slaveowner and abuser, got a happier ending than her victim. If you like Lebetti, you just like the spoiled brat version of Rashta. And when we see a 'good commoner' it's highly likely that they'll be a throwaway character, or just fodder to support the plot, such as Delaney's, (the maid who had her tongue cut out) brother, only existing to be another thorn in Rashta's side. Even then, Delaney is unable to get herself justice without a man.

None of the male leads really have to depend on women, as much as the women do. Krista, Delaney, Rashta, Tuania, Krista, and even Navier have had to rely on men.

Navier is a good character, due to her flaws and wants, but honestly, people disregard these very real flaws about her.

Petty and uncalled for actions from Navier, actually aren't that uncommon. Like how Navier treated Rashta's abuser, in the way Rashta wanted to be treated. Rashta didn't start out with bad intentions, at all. She was honestly, somewhat sweet in her initial approach. Navier was justified in disliking her husband's mistress, though.

You can notice a trend: Women not associated with Navier's good graces, don't get happy endings. Their only redemption is Navier.

Navier is a great character. Cool. Cunning. She's rough. She's intelligent. However, she is jealous, petty, and vengeful at times. Navier is flawed. Which is good. But in the RE fandom, people can even dumb down Navier, who's one of the most sharp characters into 'soft'. It feels as the story goes on, they're dulling the once sharp blade that was Navier. Navier is desperate to keep herself on a throne. To remain empress.

People demonize Krista all the time, but her motives for being an antagonist is similar to Navier, if not more wholesome. Krista coveted the throne as well, either for power or love. And honestly, Krista was good. She knew how to operate as queen. Navier was alright to be upset, but notice how Krista was killed. She died. Only as fodder for her own father.

I don't remember any sharp quips, or intelligent phrases said by her, since season 1. Such as the 'But if someone comes at me with a knife, I'm not going to let them stab me just because they're weaker than me.' or 'Are you saying that you only have value while you're loved by the emperor?'

Not to say people can't be softened as time goes on. However, I feel that she could start displaying behavior similar to Rashta, and no one would bat an eye. I also remember them pretty much getting rid of Navier's sharp fox eyes, and making them more doe like, like Rashta's.

TLDR: Navier benefits from what I call 'One good woman' theory. The other women can only support her, or scorn her. Either way, they will fade from existence and be forgotten. Her supporters will have happy endings and go away, and her enemies will die horrible deaths.

#the remarried empress #Navier #media literacy #REwebtoon #webtoon #Krista #Rashta #Theory #Delaney #Tuania

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asha-mage · 4 months

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Lesbian Rand AU?

[Send me a potential AU and I'll answer with five things from that story!]

Oh boy, here we go-

A lot depends on the setup. A big part of Rand's character is reckoning with the failures of his past life and the foundation of a lot the interesting ways Jordan interrogates the gender binary is built on the idea that those mistakes are a remix of Paradise Lost/The Fall. LTT is at both at once Eve and Lucifer. Eve in that he acts without the consent or permission of his other half (Latra Posae Decume- the Adam of this version) and runs of on his own in defiance of her will. Lucifier in that in his pride, he believes he can match or surpass the Creator, by attempting to Seal the Bore with only saidin. As a result, paradise is lost- the AoL is destroyed in the breaking by LTT's sin, an entire Age results where all men take the blame to a greater or lesser extent, for the original sin of one man. Of course, Jordan isn't just running with this premise as simple fact- he's interrogating the idea of original sin, salvation, and redemption and raising inherent and complicating questions. Does it make a difference that LTT's intentions where pure and genuine? That he didn't know and couldn't have predicted the consequences of his actions? How does Rand suffering for LTT's do any justice to those who suffered and died in the Breaking? Is chasing the splendor of an Age that could shatter so even a worthwhile endeavor, or should the focus be on building letting go of the past and building something new? Does that mean forgetting and forgiving and is that fair?

All this to say is that, I think for a Lesbian Rand AU to work the story would probably need a reversed gender dynamic to the one that is present in the books- which I don't know that I could ever write both because it would veer very uncomfortably close to the most misogynistic elements of our own historical societies, and probably have to exceed them in brutality to work (something I'm not very good at, since a lot of my world building energy is usually directed at reshaping and re interpenetrating those historical societies through more queer and equitable lenses), and because a lot of what I connect to in Rand's story has a lot to do with the specifically queer male reading of it. That said if I could or would do that, I think it could also work very effectively as a queer female reading in the same thematic ways.

Rand and male channelers in general in the WoT verse already full fill a lot of the tropes commonly associated with medieval witches- individuals tainted by otherworldly power that is poorly understood and inherently transgressive to the gender roles of their society, as well as threat to the established social order (to put it mildly). It's not hard to translate that to a theoretically tainted saidar and the feelings of a resulting broken world onto a theoretical female Dragon. Rand in this context fulfills a pretty familiar role- Joan of Arc, Himiko of Yamatai, Elizabeth Woodvile, etc- savior and hero to some, witch and monster to others.

My brain of course goes to female Mat to be Rand's love interest in this AU- trickster and guile heroine. Mat's specific brand is easy to imagine transcending into a female character in a strict patriarchy, both because Mat's role in the series is already pretty gender transgressive (as befits a trickster shapeshifting archetype), and because it's easy to imagine again that simmering homoerotic temptation Mat and Rand's relationship inherently invokes, but gender flipped: Mat representing a liberation a refusal of the traditional gender roles that Rand can't quite decide if she truly wants or only wants because she was raised to want them. Rand specifically being homosexual rather then my bisexual head canon means that, I would probably air on the side of it being compulsory heterosexuality/heteronormativity- and genuinely wanting the life of adventure and liberty offered by Mat's promises of running away together.

I could also see Min (again as her Gender Weird makes her surprisingly easy to translate into a traditional patriarchy without loosing core elements of her character) as Rand's love interest- again in largely the same role as the series. Someone who Rand could just be....herself around, who couldn't overawed or terrified or brow beaten into seeing a monster, but rather just a person- a woman sacred and overwhelmed and being crushed by the expectations of a savior, and all the fears of being a monster. Conversely I don't know that either Avihenda or Elayne's relationships would still function the same- not without flipping their genders as well which defeats the idea of the premise. A few extra thoughts (since 1 and 2 are basically just big disclaimers)-

While I find the idea of Lesbian Rand having to learn from Short Gay Ball of Anger Uncle Moiraine very funny conceptually (Moiraine is already a pretty strong riff of mentor characters like Obi Wan and Gandfalf, but genderflipped, and I find the idea flipping that back but keeping the more unique aspects of Moiraine's character to be interesting), I also can't help but find the idea of Moiraine as an older, slightly rattled/mad, female wilder Moiraine with the same motivation as in the series just as intriguing as a mentor figure to Lesbian Rand. It would give the entire series a very different vibe, but that's just a natural outcome of the premise as well. I once said Moiraine is a woman who, if she had be born into a patriarchy would have easily been burned as a witch- but the truth is, the idea of Moiraine as a witch to clever to burn, a witch who is surviving the curse of her power, and struggling to see the savior who may yet be able to reverse that curse and save their world...their is an Appeal There.

It's scary conversely, how easy it is to fit the Aes Sedai in general into a gender flipped Randland, and I think speaks to how effectively Jordan wrote them and their institutionally flaws. Mired in traditions, secure in their power, comfortable in ordering the world to their will- a mix between the Catholic Church and an order of magi, angry and resistant to reform and change that alters the base of their power, presided over by ancient and yet ageless cabals of entrenched elders. The scene, easily one of my favorites, in the series, in Fal Dara, is almost sickeningly easy to imagine with the genders flipped- a young woman still bright eye and scarred of what she is and what she is capable of, with three thousand years of tales of women going mad from power, declaring themselves the Dragon falsely in greed and lust for power and leaving the world to suffer for it, walking into a a room with three ancient wizards who tell her that this is her fate, to be this messiah and destroyer both, it hits sharply and exactly the right way.

Again, I don't know that I would do it, and I find what Jordan is doing with gender and sexuality already int he Wot Books inherently more interesting and....less....I don't know sticky? But it's a fun thought exercise.

#WoT #Wheel of time #WoT fanfic #AU Ask Game #WoT Book Spoilers #AMOL Spoilers #Rand al'thor #min farshaw #mat cauthon #cauthor #randmin #moiraine damodred #cw: sexism #cw: misogyny #discussed anyways #I'm a littttttle hesitant to post this one #As I am very much Not A Woman so it's hard for me to speak to this idea/experience #But it was a exercise that got me thinking pretty heavily and helped me articulate some of my complex thoughts #about the way Jordan writes gender #again I don't know that I could ever write as violently a patriarchal world as this au would necessitate #I struggle just to write in the HoTD world sometimes #but again I think it shows the strength of the world Jordan created that a lot of the core store would survive if you flipped the genders #and in some ways it would be...a lot more familiar to us and our sensibilities #which of course is why is why I think it shines the way it's written #anyways enough rambling

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