#i had no idea it had wlw until i saw a spoiler

[lunalivvy]

when i found out xo kitty had wlw i thought it would just be for like an epsiode or two, but the fact that half of the show was kitty having a crush on yuri??? this was sm better than i expected 😭

#i had no idea it had wlw until i saw a spoiler #and then i decided to actually watch the show thinking it would be a minor plotpoint #but half the show was her having a crush on yuri #i’m winning #it’s netflix so i know she’ll prob end up with minho but a girl can dream #xo kitty #kitty x yuri

[fantasydreamland]

Handmaiden

margaery tyrell x fem reader

Summary: Margaery is currently engaged to Renly Baratheon. You are Margaerys new hand maiden. You figure Margaery just has a flirty personality until one night it becomes more.

Warnings: 18+ ONLY!!! This is my first time ever writing smut, wlw, lots of tension, possible spoilers

“Ah you must be my new hand maiden!” Margaery greets you with a warm smile as you walk into her chambers.

“Yes my lady. My name is (y/n). Whatever you need I’m here.” You give a shy curtsy.

“I was just getting ready to leave for tea with my grandmother. Come along then.” She waves to you as she walks out the door.

You follow along behind her to the gardens. She stops for a moment so she can walk beside you.

“So tell me about yourself.” She smiles.

“Uh… yes of course. What do you want to know my lady?”

“Everything! For starters tell me about where you are from.”

As you two walk side by side you tell her about the small city in the North you grew up in and the lady you served until her very recent death.

“How awful…” She frowns and shakes her head.

“Yes, her death was a bit unexpected. I didn’t have many options, so I ended up here.”

“Well I’m very glad for that.” She smiles.

You chuckle and look down awkwardly.

“Ah grandmother!” Margaery rushes ahead to greet her grandmother with a quick hug. They sit down to tea and the servants bring out trays of pastries and fruit.

“Lady Olenna” You curtsy before walking past her at the table. She gives you a small smile and a nod.

You stand quietly off to the side listening them chat away. Margaery would make occasional eye contact and you give a small smile before shyly looking away each time.

You helped tidy up as the evening ended feeling her eyes on you the entire time.

Both of you walk back to the castle in an oddly comfortable silence as the sun starts to set.

“Will you please draw me a bath?” She says once you reach the castle. She lightly touches your arm and your face gets hot. “I have some affairs to attend to.”

“Of course my lady.” You nod before heading to her chambers and drawing a hot bath.

Shortly after the bath is drawn she reappears.

“Oh lovely, is it ready?” She asks as she starts to undress.

You try to hide your surprise when she takes off all her clothing, tossing her dress onto a chair.

She walks right past you and gets into the tub. She sighs with her eyes closed and sinks into the water before looking at you.

She smirks. “Help me with my hair?” She lifts her hair to hang over the back of the tub.

You nod, unable to get words out. You pull a chair behind the tub and grab the jug next to it before putting it in the tub to get some water. The jug lightly brushes Margaerys stomach and she gives a small chuckle and smirk. Surely she saw your flushed cheeks. You didn’t understand the heat in your face or why your heart was racing. You’ve helped with plenty of baths with the last lady you served. But this felt different.

You pour the water onto her hair as it drips into the bucket below. You softly work your fingers through her hair to wash it. Trying your best not to stare at her perfect body you take another careful scoop of water. Then you slowly rinse her hair as she lets out a content sigh.

“You have no idea the stress I have had lately.” She suddenly speaks.

“I’m sorry to hear that my lady.”

“You would think I would be looking forward to my wedding but…” She trails off.

“You do not love Lord Renly?” The question slips out. “Forgive me, my lady. I don’t mean to pry.”

“There is nothing to forgive (y/n).” She smirks up at you. “But no…” Her expression softens. “We certainly are not in love.”

“You don’t think he loves you?” You ask.

She chuckles softly and shakes her head. “I am not his type.”

You scoff. “That’s not possible. You’re so beautiful.” Your face quickly turns more red, embarrassed.

She sits up in the tub and slightly turns around to face you.

“I’m glad you think so.” She smirks. “I know Renly agrees, only… He seems to be more interested in my brother, if you understand my meaning.” She tilts her head.

“Oh”

She says nothing else just continues looking at you. You hold eye contact for a long moment until she suddenly shakes her head like she was lost in thought.

“Right. Well, I best get ready for bed.”

She stands up from the tub and steps out, water dripping on the floor. You grab a robe for her and find it nearly impossible to keep your eyes off her wet naked body. The air feels heavier and you find it difficult to breathe. She smiles warmly at you when you wrap her in the robe.

“Goodnight then.” She says sweetly.

“Goodnight my lady.” You curtsy before leaving her chambers.

Once you step into the hallway and close the door you let out a very deep breath. That night you toss and turn finding it hard to remove Margaery from your thoughts.

-

The next day is slow and normal. You do your chores and follow Margaery while she goes about her day. She would start small chats with you while you were walking, seeming very happy to talk to you. She asked about your love life which you found amusing because it’s very dull. You’ve only been with one man in your life and you didn’t find it enjoyable.

Later you help her prepare for supper as she changes her dress to a lovely but simple red gown. She slips off her dress standing in only her under garments. She holds your hand and smiles at you as you help her step into the gown and pull it up. You lightly move her hair from the back and your fingers brush against her soft skin causing some electricity. Your hands shake a bit as you pull the corset strings in the back of her gown. There is a silent tension in the air.

“Thank you.” She says as she moves her hair back into place giving a shy smile. “Well I don’t want to be late for supper, I’ll see you later on.” She hurries out the door before you have a chance to respond.

You enjoy your own small supper before returning to your tasks. As you finish tidying up her chambers she appears. She doesn’t even look at you, just storms over to her bad and sits down.

“Are you alright my lady?” You asked, concerned.

She looks up at you as if she didn’t realize you were there. “Yes, I’m alright. It’s fine.” She huffs, clearly not alright.

“It’s just-“ she continues before you respond. “Renly and Loras can be so thick headed.”

You walk closer as you listen to her vent.

“I understand they’re in love. And I’m completely fine with that. Happy for them even!” She shakes her head. “But we are engaged to be wed. You’d think he would at least TRY to be discreet when they’re running around with one another.”

She looks at you listening to her and pats the space beside her on the bed to gesture you to sit down, so you sit next to her keeping an appropriate distance.

“I’m still to be his wife. There should just be a certain level of respect, you know?” She continues ranting, moving closer to you as she does. You nod.

“I’ve been more than respectful to his wishes, wanting to be with Loras. I do not blame him for that. We do not really get to choose who we love.” She looks up at you, her blue eyes piercing through you.

“I completely agree with you my lady. They should be acting discreetly. I think it’s very noble that you allow him to even pursue that.” You reply warmly. “But as you said, we cannot choose who we love.”

“Thank you (y/n).” She says softly and places her hand on yours.

Her touch makes your heart race and cheeks flush. “Of course my lady.”

She leaves her hand there for a long moment as she studies your face to try to figure out what you’re thinking. You sit there quietly looking back at her, wondering about her thoughts too.

The seemingly long moment ends when she moves her hand from yours and reaches up to brush your hair from your face. You continue staring in eachothers eyes. The whole moment making you feel light headed. Her eyes slowly flicker from your lips back to your eyes. You couldn’t help but do the same.

She leans towards you agonizingly slow until your lips finally touch.

“Oh gods, I am so sorry.” She suddenly pulls away and gets off the bed.

“No, no. It’s alright.” You also stand. “I didn’t- You just-“ you stutter unable to get words out.

She looks back at you clearly embarrassed. She looks like she’s waiting for you to speak but your brain is fogging all your thoughts and words. Instead you walk closer before taking her hand in yours and looking back up at her.

Suddenly her lips are back on yours as she pulls you into a deep passionate kiss, moving her other hand to your cheek. You push your bodies against eachother as the kiss continues. Your body feels like it was set on fire as your skin burns from the excitement.

For a moment she pulls away, keeping your hand in hers she leads you to her bed. She lets go of your hand and unties the top of her dress, exposing her breasts. You can’t tell if you’re even breathing as the whole world feels still. She smirks at you and turns around.

“Help me with the back?” She asks.

You nod and start untying her gown and corset as your mind races thinking of what’s to come.

Once everything is loose enough she lifts all her clothing over her head. You try to swallow but there’s a knot in your throat as she stands naked in front of you. She pushes your hair back and lightly touches your shoulder, gesturing you to take off your dress. You follow her silent instructions and pull your sleeves downs off your arms, exposing your chest. She looks at you for a moment before leaning into another kiss. The kiss is slow and gentle, your chests pressed against one another. She brushes your arm before moving her hand between your bodies and grabbing your breast. She helps you pull the rest of your dress off before the kiss breaks and you both get into the bed.

Once you’ve slipped under the sheets you look into eachothers eyes for a silent moment, taking in eachothers beauty.

She places her hand on your cheek. “Are you sure?” Her face full of worry that you may change your mind in wanting her.

You quickly nod, having no doubts this is what you want. She smirks before crashing her mouth onto yours. The kiss is strong and heated, full of pent up lust. You pull eachother closer, legs intertwined. Both your hands wander all over, exploring every inch eachothers bodies. She moans once your fingers find her most intimate place. The beautiful sounds coming out of her light a fire in your stomach. Her hand quickly reaches the same place on your body. You whimper into eachothers mouths as the tension below your stomach builds and builds. Nearly in unison you hit the peak. The kiss breaks as you both cry out loudly, foreheads pressed together.

You both lay back and pant as you catch your breath. You try to bring your mind back to earth as it continues to race at what just happened. She turns her head and smiles at you. You give a shy smile back.

“Well…” She huffs, still breathless. “That was…”

“Wonderful?” You smirk.

She nods and giggles. “Yes, very wonderful.”

“I’ve never…” You hesitate. “Been with… a woman.”

“Neither have I.” She admits and you both giggle.

You look out to the now dark night sky. Margaery notices.

“Would you like to stay?” She asks. “There’s plenty of room to sleep.”

“I would but… I’m not sure it would be proper.”

“What we just did would also not seem proper.” She teases.

“Alright then.” You give a soft smile.

You lightly place your hand on her cheek and she leans into your touch.

“Goodnight my lady.”

“Goodnight (y/n).” She sighs.

She snuggles up closer to you. She gives your shoulder a soft kiss before resting her head. You smile and fall into a peaceful sleep.

-

The next morning you let out a soft moan to Margaery kissing your neck. She looks at you when she sees you’re awake. She has a firey look in her blue eyes as she gives you a longing stare before moving her lips back to your neck. She kisses an agonizingly slow trail as she moves down and down your stomach. She begins kissing on your inner thigh. You whine in frustration. Suddenly her mouth is on you and you gasp. Your hands reach for her hair as she teases you with her tongue. You gasp and let out small moans as she holds your hips still. Your sweet sounds make her moan onto you only sending more electricity through your body. You start to lose control when she enters two of her fingers, keeping in rhythm with her tongue. Your pants eventually turn into a silent scream and you arch your hips against her face as you see stars.

You let out a final moan before a heavy sigh as your body relaxes. Margaery wipes her face and moves back up the bed to lay beside you. You pull her in for a strong kiss tasting yourself on her mouth.

“Good morning (y/n).” She smirks.

“Good morning.” You give a shy laugh.

Before you can lean over to kiss her again she gets out of bed and begins to get dressed. You sit up holding the covers and watch her.

She notices you looking at her. “My apologies love, I have many things I must attend to today.”

You try to hide your disappointment, badly wanting to return the favour and to taste her on your tongue. She walks back over to you and asks you to help with her dress. You shuffle to the end of the bed and tie the laces. She turns to you noticing your mood. She leans down and brushes your hair aside.

“But I will return later. We will be together again very soon.” She kisses you with her soft lips.

Once she’s gone you get out of bed and begin to dress. You spend your entire day in a daze, all the memories of her clouding your mind. You count down the hours until you have her alone again.

#margaery tyrell #margaery #margaery x reader #margaery smut #margaery tyrell x reader #game of thrones #game of thrones smut #GOT #Margaery GOT #sansa x margaery #fanfic #game of thrones fanfic #wlw #lgbt #wlw smut #wlw fanfic

[lostalienchild]

Makima x Fem reader headcannons cuz I can

Warnings: Spoilers, mentions of intoxication, NSFW themes, yandere ideas cuz it's makima

Minors dni

First of all, makima is a straight woman, but like most people there is some flexibility there. I only write wlw so I'll be discussing wlw dynamics and headcannons based on that. Makima may at most be an unknowing heteroflexible.

At the time of y/n's arrival into her life (devil hunter, or chance encounter) she probably saw you as another pawn or at best (worst) a nobody. Especially if y/n was not particularly close to denji

Makima sees humans as dogs, (which is also curious considering that most humans would die for their dogs) although you may be useful in general, you may not be useful for her original goal.

The key with makima is patterns, aloofness, and idiosyncrasies. makima will not notice you otherwise. You annoy her. Always asking why. Asking why and questioning her logic gets you put on her shit list. Which is in fact a good thing. It may make her even wonder why she is doing what she is doing. If she even wants what she wants?

For instance, when you heard power was put with aki and denji, you argued about how that wasn't fair for aki. About how he was only one person and had to look after 2 fiends. How it was short notice and how she wasn't being considerate. When makima retorted that aki was more than capable of watching after them both, you asked whether or not she even respected him enough to ask him first. It made her pause. On one hand you were a nuisance, on the other hand you were on to something. Especially considering her true goal when it came to aki and the others.

"if you give into people, others will give into you," was your response when she tries to manipulate you once. Without ties to the gun devil you needed more motivation. After another company party and after a round of drinks you were a bit tipsy, but sober enough to function fine. Makima offered to order another round and you refused, being at your limit. Himeno, the bad influence she is, urged you for one more drink before aki reprimanded her. Makima insisted as well saying that parties were rare and should be enjoyed while they lasted. She really dug in, "many people don't stay in section 4 for long, these memories are precious." she got you with that one. You ended up accepting the drink.

After that you weren't in the best of states and makima accompionied you outside, allowing you to lean on her shoulder for support as you stood. She offered to walk you home. With the added liquor you were more sociable than usual. You weren't dumb though. You knew makima wasn't completely trustworthy, but you couldn't put your finger on as to why or what it was. Everyone around loved miss makima. Miss makima was always polite, pristine, and pretty. Her office was bare and housed no personal affects. No pictures or trinkets. She never spoke about herself. Someone like her was off putting. But.. Where was the danger exactly? So you ignore it until that night.

When she offered you a deal you didn't fall for it.

"Kill the gun devil and I'll grant you any request 🧚‍♀"

"??? You don't have to? I'll just do it?"

"Eh?👁👁"

Finishes the rest of the walk in mostly silence. You mean that if people love you they'll just do whatever? No give and take? She thinks she caught any easy break at first, but your way of thinking has a profound affect on her. "Your way of thinking is very profound" "no it's not" "?"

Low-key starts asking some of the other section members questions including you. "y/n why do you work for section 4? Do you trust my leadership?" "Leadership can only be good if it improved, and it can only improve through questioning." Ah, at this point you should be a pain in her side. But you're intriguing, beautiful, and genuine. And she's the control devil, so she does what she does best.

Somehow you lost your housing, oh you poor thing. And now somehow you've gotten yourself into trouble at HQ. Makima said she would do her best but did she really? You were let go, a devastating and confusing occurrence. Makima took pity and allowed you to move in with her and her huskies. She said you could stay with her as her dog.

"Well? Will you just do it this time?"

Her tone makes it sound like an honest question, but you know it's a dig from the previous night where she walked you home. This is an offer that can't be refused. Not if you wanted to live. When you do move in you're overwhelmed by the amount of dogs. Especially if you're a cat person. After a while makima does eventually warm up to the idea of having a cat after a few months.

When you first get to her apartment she doesn't really know what to do with you Other than the usual, which is control you. She gives you a strict schedule and expects you to follow it. In this case you can't question her.

Wake up at 5am

Get breakfast ready by 6:00am

Eat breakfast And feed the dogs

Morning walk with the dogs at 6:30am

Return by 7:15am

Makima leaves by 7:20am

The rest of the day is spent doing house work and running errands which it's self is not easy. High key her tone Changes, goes from manipulative and cunning, to sarcastic and demanding. Missing a chore or doing one incorrectly leads to punishment. She'll give you the idea that everything is fine before bringing up the mistake calmly. Shell tell you to get on your knees.

Treats you like a dog for fun but also for punishment. Has a dog cage for those occasions. Makes you sleep in it. Makes you wear a collar. Calls you a dog, but sometimes a cat depending on your temperament. Has you beg on your knees despite your pride, and even feeds you small treats when you behave. Will sic her dogs on you if you misbehave again. They won't hurt you, but they will restrain you. Her moods are particularly worse on rainy days or days when she meets with the "big wigs". She becomes more silent and short with you. Sometimes you may trigger her, other times there is no trigger. It just happens, she'll come home and place the collar on you and you know makima is in a bad mood

Cooking, baking, and movie nights Are a nightly routine. You're expected to watch her movies and sit through the whole thing, no matter how bad it is. Makima will always watch it all the way through. She prefers happy feel good and dramatic movies like titanic or the note book. She also has her favorites that she revisits every now and again. If a sex scene appears she doesn't even flinch, meanwhile you may be shifting uncomfortably. And looking away. Occasionally watches horror and action movies. Will let you choose a movie every now and then if she's in a good mood.

Cooking and baking with makima is the softest you'll see her. She always looks for new recipes to try and is meticulous about measurements. She loves to meal prep as well. Her kitchen looks like a chefs kitchen. Each spice is weighted and places in its own bowl. Everything is thawed out. The chicken is washed. The knives are sharpened. She has a whole arsenal of cooking utensils. She makes sure both of you are following the recipe to a T.

Makima loves taking walks with you. She's a morning person but often stays up late ish, the latest being 10 pm, before she orders you and the dogs to bed. Walks with her are uncomfortably cordial. She'll ask you about your day as if you haven't spent all day playing house. She'll talk about her day nonchalantly as well without giving too much away. It hurts when she talks about power and the others. She senses that and depending on what she needs she may either change the subject or talk about it more.

Makima has you sleeping in the dog cage at first, but on one particular night, after sobbing over one of her classics you comfort her and she decides to allow you into her bedroom.

That night she gets a bit curious. She calmly demans that you remove your clothes. She tentatively explores your body, as well as her own desires and need for touch. She finds that it's still pleasurable, but you were still Just a place holder. Something to satiate her until she reches her goal.

Will add onto this if I think of something more

#makima smut #makima #makima csm #makima headcannons #csm headcanons #makima x reader

[neonnoir-ao3]

Some Words of Comfort.

Recently, I’ve seen a lot of people (especially those who have read spoilers/are actively searching for leaked content) lament about their future reactions to the deaths of our beloved characters in-game.

We all knew this was inevitable, and that them living was not an option for the plot of the game, but the time has finally come to face it head-on.

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I understand that someone outside this community might be like “it’s just a game”, but I know it’s way more than that to many: the concept of a female villain that, to many, can be seen as sympathizable and even endearing, is a bit of a new concept— especially on such a large scale as this instance.

In addition, Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters have become a bit of a comfort item for some (with an emphasis on sapphics/wlw, from what I’ve seen personally) in the form of a large, protective, and caring hypothetical partner, or even just a maternal character one can appreciate simply because of her love for her children. Regardless, most of us are here due to some desire for comfort.

Take my own story with this community, for example:

(tws for death, covid, suicide, and general medical emergencies)

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Frankly, 2020 and the beginning of 2021 have ruined me. I lost two men who were the only two positive father figures I’ve ever had. The last of the two tested positive for covid and deteriorated within days, to the point where less than a week after testing positive, my family was making the choice to pull the plug. This all occurred days before Christmas and my birthday. On the first day of the spring semester, having not had the time to properly mourn my grandfather, my mother is in the ER for multiple days with an internal infection that doctors said likely would have turned septic if she had waited to come in any longer. This led to three surgeries throughout the next few months. (Oh, and one of my relatives quite literally dropped dead on that first day of class, too). I am also estranged from one of my parents, and they have been trying to contact my family: they have multiple untreated mental illnesses (severe NPD, bipolar, and more) and they are extremely aggressive in that state of mind and they are agitated extremely easily. That only brings more stress, along with resurfacing trauma and related emotions. Every moment of every day has been a struggle. So much so that I failed half of my classes voluntarily simply because I couldn't do them anymore.

To be perfectly honest with you, I didn’t expect to be here right now. I expected that the pain of simply moving forward would have finally overridden my fears of death and that I would have already ended my suffering by now.

Then, in late January, I saw something trending on Twitter. About a new female villain in an upcoming horror game. And it went from there.

As cheesy as it sounds, this fandom and its content seriously saved my life. In the darkest of days, I’ve come to this tag for comfort. The oddest way I found said comfort was through those who were attracted to Alcina aesthetically. I have extremely long-term trauma related to being bullied and being the victim of a hybrid catfishing/'Oreo Game' on early social media by peers in middle school to the point where I do not think of myself as being able to be loved, let alone being worthy of it. Finding this community not only provided a great form of escapism (and opened a door into a fantasy world where I could imagine my own person vampire milf gf), but also gained a little bit of self-esteem (as many of you know, I share a lot of visual qualities with Alcina. -yes, I'm still kinda freaked out about it-) via seeing people where features/attributes like mine were actively praised and desired rather than insulted and pushed away like they have been until now.

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(okay sorry that kinda turned into a trauma dump but I needed to emphasize the fact that this community has seriously helped me during a really dark point in my life, and I know I can't be the only one with that sort of experience)

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What I’m trying to get across here is that, like many others, this community and its content have been comforting and therapeutic, and it really is more than just a game to us. It’s entertaining and even a form of escapism in these extremely trying times. We all have some degree of PTSD from surviving a literal mass plague— and this is something we're using as a method of coping. a distraction. a coping mechanism.

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With that being said, here are some ways to hopefully assist in lessening the emotional stress:

(please note that I am not a mental health professional and these may not be healthy coping mechanisms for everyone.)

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Understand that it’s just a game.

I know, this sounds completely counterintuitive, but it’s more or less about keeping your level of immersion down. Personally, I can’t do scary shit in general: I have to listen to music on low volume while watching dark ARG vids at night or when I’m alone because I get too into it, and then my paranoia kicks in. Sometimes just pausing for a moment and grounding yourself/reminding yourself that this is a video game: a jumble of code and 3D rendering that doesn’t have to affect your views/headcanons if you don’t want it to. Did your favorite character just get slaughtered? Nope, that 3D rendering of them just got un-alived, that’s all.

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Ignorance is Bliss/We are the Captain Now

Simple: Capcom can’t even pronounce Dimitrescu right, or even acknowledge the way it’s correctly said in Romanian culture itself. How can you trust them to give you a perfect canon? That’s the thing: with that logic, you can’t. What they say is true means little (if anything, for that matter) to your headcanons and preexisting ideas of the Dimitrescus. In short: fuck ‘em.

I’m currently seeking a double major in pop culture, and one of the cool things I’ve learned so far is affirmational vs transformational fandom. Affirmational is where official canon is seen as the law of the land, and followed to a T. Transformational is seen as much more inviting for audiences, allowing them to bend canon as they wish to fit their own creations. This fandom is obviously transformational, so take that game canon, rip it up, and get back to whatever you were doing.

Capcom’s canon is not the end-all, be-all. Far from it, actually.

Want to still acknowledge canon? Godmod your way out of it.

Character A died? It’d be a shame if they emerged from the rubble they 'died in' a few hours later, very beaten but alive nonetheless... how awful would it be if they sulked away, nursed their wounds, and continued to live... (/s)

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Ignore it completely.

Remember: give it time. Once the game drops, there w be a wave of grief, but eventually, we as a community will recover, and get back to business as usual. Think about it like the in any way. Stay with the version in your head that makes you happy.

Get Creative!

If you're into creating fanart, writing fics, or even just posting a list of headcanons, take some advice from the late Carrie Fisher: "Take your broken heart, and make it into art". Make the fluff oneshot of your dreams! Draw the fanart you've been wanting to! dump lighthearted headcanons into the tags! Not only will it cheer you up, but sharing it with the community will spread the love!

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I know a lot of people are struggling with this emotionally (especially with the pandemic making entertainment like this even more important sources of escapism and coping mechanisms) and I hope that, at the very least, I was able to help comfort one person who reads this.

Remember: give it time. Once the game drops, there will be a wave of grief, but eventually, we as a community will recover, and get back to business as usual. Think about it like the flowers that bloom after major wildfires: after a period of loss, some beautiful can still come of it.

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💙

#tall vampire lady #lady alcina #lady dimitrescu #daniela dimitrescu #castle dimitrescu #alcina dimitrescu #dimitrescu daughters #dimitrescu family #dimitrescu sisters #cassandra dimitrescu #countess dimitrescu #house dimitrescu #resident evil #re: village #resident evil village #resident evil: village

[pumpkinspice-prouvaire]

(i have no idea what killing eve is but no less than 5 of my favorite people genuinely seemed moved to commit crimes over it?? what. happened???? what did they do to you all???)

ohohoho hope you're ready for a rant. I know very little about screenwriting but what I do know is that I am a n g r y. 

answer under the cut for major spoilers for the killing eve season 4 finale

the short answer is they buried their gays

the long answer is that they spent four seasons building up an incredible wlw relationship with two actors who have some of the best chemistry I have ever seen. In the last episode of the series, they finally gave us what they wanted and had Villanelle and Eve start a relationship, with one of the most tender first kisses I have ever seen (this scene makes me insane I only saw it for the first time last night but it has been on a constant loop in my brain ever since). They also managed to wrap up all their storylines, the big bad was kiled off, all the characters had their arcs completed, all good. 

And then, literally in the last thirty seconds of the episode, they bury their gays by killing off Villanelle

And I’m just like?????????????? What does this achieve????????? It doesn’t add anything??????? The story is finished, so it’s not going to have any impact on wrapping up anyone’s arcs, and doesn’t tie up any loose ends. It’s the last thirty seconds of the entire show, so there’s no time for any sort of character work, we’re not going to see how Eve copes without having Villanelle in her life anymore, or how losing the woman she loves after finally getting her will impact her and her future, because again, IT HAPPENED IN THE LAST THIRTY SECONDS. It tells us nothing, it adds nothing, it was so obviously done purely for shock value, and as well as being insulting to the audience, it speaks to a lack of confidence in your own writing, because do you think the episode isn’t good enough on its own without having this wild ‘twist’ at the end? 

What makes it worse is that it didn’t need a twist. Like, I cannot express enough that having Eve and Villanelle escape from the big bad and run away together, which is what was implied would happen, is exactly what I wanted from the ending. Like, having it right there and then having it taken away in the LAST THIRTY SECONDS FOR SHOCK VALUE, is just............A really shitty way to end my favourite tv show of all time. As my roommate said when we watched it, why are writers today so against giving anything a happy ending? There is absolutely nothing wrong with the final episode until the last 10 minutes, and when I rewatch it I will be turning off at the 30 minute mark. It’s insulting to the audience, it’s insulting to Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer (and from what I’ve heard they’ve made in subtly clear that they’re not happy with the ending), it’s insulting to all the writers who worked so hard to subtly build this relationship in the previous 3 series. 

TLDR it was an unnecessary sucky ending, thanks, I hate it.

this absolutely does not explain in any way what Killing Eve is lol, but even with all that said, I cannot recommend this show enough, it is my favourite tv show of all time and it’s an incredible watch. Just for the love of God when you get to series 4 episode 8 turn off at 35 minutes

#answered #uh #WOW SIS GO OFF #i am ready to commit crimes it seems

[chlorine-tangerine]

Ride or Die (Netflix) Review (1?)

First off: If you don’t know, this movie was based off the manga named Gunjou by Nakamura Ching. It’s one of my favorite lesbian mangas I have ever read. It’s a painful, gruesome, violent, complicated fine line between love and hate. I had doubts about it having such a special place in my heart but I started rereading and it’s just great. 

I really really really REALLY wanted to like the movie, since I freaked out in joy when I knew that a movie adaptation was being made and almost cried when I saw the trailer. I went in with anticipation but also told myself that it won’t be as good as the manga. These are my thoughts not even halfway through the movie. 

TW for violence and murder

***spoilers for both Gunjou and Ride or Die below!!! ***

1. They start off with Rei (her name wasn’t revealed in the original until the end) in the bar seducing Nanae’s husband, then to an agonizingly long sex scene, then the actual murder. The manga starts out after the deed was done and a phone call between the two because it’s the story about these two women, not Rei and Nanae’s husband. A lot of the scenes are one-shots which was cool but it definitely went on for too long.

(Not gonna show that one cause yeah I hated that scene tbh)

2. The “returning money” scene was placed before the longer high school flashback. Why? We had no idea why Nanae was paying back such a big sum and when we learn about it later it holds less weight. Not to mention the “I’ll buy the rest of your high school life” line isn’t as powerful and insulting as I wanted it to be (but that’s just personal opinion). 

3. It’s interesting that there’s such a big change in tone when comparing this to the manga. The manga was gloomy and they were always on edge since she just killed a man, and all the violence kind of make sense with the tone. However, the movie is making it a fun road trip where they laugh, get McDonalds, play some games, and then suddenly Rei is on the verge of beating Nanae up. I’m not saying that they can’t have fun moments, but that big of a shift is very jarring and confusing, unlike the original where they know this isn’t the time to have fun. 

4. Nanae was written as a character who didn’t feel remorse for what she asked Rei to do (or at least we weren’t shown), which is really weird because she ruined Rei’s entire life. The manga Nanae was at least up front about it and says “yeah she’s so stupid she’d do anything for me” which is what makes her so interesting because she’s desperately calling for help yet she acts cold towards Rei. Nanae in the movie acts like she’s also been in love with Rei for the past 10 years which isn’t true. 

5. There were some one-time characters that I really loved, such as the gyaru they met on the road (there’s also the mother later as well). Though their appearances were short, they felt really important to the story and Nakamura-sensei was able to make the unnamed Gyaru girl one of my favorites in a short amount of time. They do a lot to set the mood and removing them from the story made me a little disappointed. 

6. some comparisons because I like that some lines and scenes are kept the same, but the context they’re in and the delivery are completely changed:

(Here the manga feels a lot more subtle and used for the opening scene, as if she’s laughing at herself for how stupid she is. The movie changed it to the bathtub scene which is fine, but meh)

(The “dead end” map was found by the gyaru side charater in chapter 1, and the black panel portrayed it as a striking, unsettling thing. The movie made it a fun little game as if they aren’t ON THE RUN????)

I’ll finish it and come back since Rei’s brother and sister-in-law are characters I like. I’m told there’s a wlw sex scene later on that’s filmed from the male gaze but we’ll see. So far it’s... mediocre.

rachel

#gunjou #ride or die netflix #ching nakamura #lesbian #wlw #netflix #review #lesbian manga #yuri manga #wlw movie #rachel writes things

[bowie-boy]

Favorite LGBT+ headcanons for X-Files characters? Mine is that pretty much every main F.B.I. agent(including Krycek) is either bisexual or asexual(or both)! :)

This has been in my inbox for months and I keep forgetting about it I’m so sorry but TODAY IS THE DAY!!!! Happy TDOV Fox and @himbo-mulder (this is my response to your ask too)

LGBTQ X-Files Headcanons Because Someone Asked

Fox Mulder:

Bi and trans icon

The first person he told was Samantha

She accepted him immediately as her big brother and told him he should name himself Fox (it was her favorite animal at the time)

He was going to make his name William Mulder Jr. up until she disappeared, in which he actually decided to make his first name Fox (he misses her 🥺)

Came out to his parents sometime in high school, both took it badly

Bill was hella transphobic—he was already pretty shitty to Mulder but this added a whole new layer to it

Teena was more passive aggressive about it but still made withering comments about how she “lost two daughters now”

Some high school friends (*chants* PHOEBE AND GIMBLE PHOEBE AND GIMBLE) helped Mulder start T and change his legal name on government documents before he left for Oxford

Mulder wanted to go stealth while he was there but came out to Phoebe

When they broke up, she outed him to everyone

Things got so bad that he almost dropped out

Mulder joined the FBI, excited at the prospect of knowing no one and being able to go exclusively by his last name

He was somewhat happy of his solitude in the basement—no one really looked into him past his spooky nature, so no one could find out he was trans

Since Samantha, Scully was the first person who was truly accepting of who he really was

Got top surgery sometime before Colony

Definitely fell in love with Scully right after reading her profile skrjnwkdjwka

Mulder and Krycek were definitely an item for a hot sec until Krycek went evil

Mulder is 500% faithful to Scully but kinda had a crush on Doggett for a little bit

Mulder just wants to be a better dad than Bill 🥺🥺🥺

Mulder helped Byers realize he was trans!!! More on that later though

Dana Scully:

A bi queen

Definitely experimented in college and had a couple girlfriends there and through med school

Ending up breaking up with a girl she was really close with because Scully’s job was just putting too much strain on their relationship

It was really hard on her and made her swear off serious relationships for a long time

She thought Mulder was adorable from the moment she saw him but was really scared of actually developing feelings for him so she pushed it down

And kept pushing it down until she finally realized Mulder was never going to hurt her and actually let him in

I’m just ranting about MSR now oops

100% faithful to Mulder but thought Reyes was super hot

Scully is just a distinguished bi idk what else to say

Walter Skinner:

You can’t adopt THAT MANY LGBT agents if you’re not LGBT yourself, right?

Definitely bisexual

Grew up in a really conservative family and didn’t even consider it an option until he moved out

Skinner was attracted to a lot of guys in his squad in Vietnam but he thought it was just because there were no women around

(Spoiler alert: it wasn’t)

Skinner fell in love with John “Kitten” James and he fell hard

Absolutely did everything possible to protect that man

He was terrified of his feelings though and pushed them down, eventually starting to resent his best friend for making him feel things he couldn’t understand

When Kitten got infected by that gas, Skinner put his values over the man he loved, not just because he thought it was the right thing to do, but because he was terrified that he might be bi

He has regretted it ever since

Married his wife after the war and had a pretty good relationship until he became too consumed with his work

Their breakup was really hard on him and he delved even more into his work

Sometime after Avatar (maybe by season 5 or 6), Skinner meets a really lovely man and that man becomes his boyfriend

It’s really hard at first, but the guy helps Skinner to open up and allow himself to be okay with who he really is

They make time for each other outside of work and are really happy together!

Skinner’s boyfriend is 100% okay with the fact that Skinner has basically adopted all these agents

Skinner is everyone’s dad!!! No exceptions

John Byers:

Trans man!!!!

Discovered it pretty late in life, like he knew earlier but he Repressed it

First person he ever came out to was Mulder (as in my fic 😌)

Lots of internalized transphobia in this man but Mulder and the Lone Gunmen really helped him break out of that

Langly and Frohike obviously went with him to get his first T shot and chanted “MAN JUICE” while it happened (scaring a lot of the nurses)

Met Susanne before he transitioned so seeing her again in Three of a Kind was a little terrifying for him

She accepts him though and is a bi icon herself

Byers wears suits so much because they make him feel really validated

Ringo Langly:

Non-binary and gay!! Langly uses any pronouns (gonna stick to he/him for this list to keep things simple though)

Grew up pretty unaware about gender as a whole, just living his life

Moving away from home to a city was huge for him, he started going to gay bars and really realized that he was gay

Eventually started to experiment with his gender, using different pronouns etc., and found out he was non-binary!

Came out to Frohike shortly after learning Frohike was bi (more on that later)

Goes by Ringo because it’s somewhat gender neutral

He isn’t dysphoric very often but when he is it’s very hard for him to cope, Byers and Frohike are always there to support him and help however possible though

Langly gets way more dates than Frohike and loves to brag about it

Melvin Frohike:

We stan one funky little bi king

HE WAS AT STONEWALL I’LL DIE ON THIS HILL

Frohike had a mega crush on Mulder when he first met him and it persisted all the way until he met Scully

And then when he met Doggett he crushed on him too

Frohike is just kind of a hopeless romantic okay I love him

Absolutely bonds with Scully and they always debate which celebrity is hotter while they get more and more drunk

John Doggett

GAY MAN

Doggett was really repressed for a lot of his life, not because he thought his family would hate him for being gay but mostly because of his environment

(He was a drama kid though)

The military REALLY repressed him and thoroughly fucked him up

It wasn’t until he met Reyes that he started to accept himself more

At first Reyes being a lesbian totally freaked him out and he was really upset, leading to a huge strain on their friendship, but one night he broke down and told her he was pretty sure he was gay

Reyes really helped him through everything, especially his divorce from his wife and the loss of his son

Doggett eventually came out to his dad, who was super accepting

It took Doggett a long time to be comfortable enough to date but he started and met a really great guy, one who he’s now married to

One day he mentioned his boyfriend in passing and the rest of the Spooky Squad totally flipped out because they had no idea he was gay

Doggett just straight-faced “I didn’t think it was relevant?”

Sings musical theater songs in the office when no one else is there

Monica Reyes:

A lesbian

There isn’t a straight bone in her body have you SEEN her???

Absolutely crushed on Scully for the longest time at first, totally backed off when she realized she was involved with Mulder

Total mlm/wlw solidarity with Doggett

Reyes is super comfortable with her sexuality

I’m convinced that she’s married and she and her wife live in the same neighborhood as Doggett and his husband

Running out of brain power at this point but I just love her so much??? Mwah

Alex Krycek:

Gay rat

Everything he did against Mulder and Scully was fueled by spite at his ex-boyfriend Mulder

Daddy issues

Sometimes he breaks into TLG’s base and vibes with them for a few days

Rat (affectionate)

Deep Throat:

Gay :)

Bonus: Melissa Scully is a trans lesbian and Samantha Mulder is bisexual and they’re dating

#jack’s posts #the x files #txf #x files #fox mulder #trans fox mulder #bi fox mulder #dana scully #walter skinner #alex krycek #john byers #ringo langly #richard langly #melvin frohike #john doggett #monica reyes #melissa scully #samantha mulder #long post

[magicmoon65]

The Politician Season 2 and why I didn’t like it as much as Season 1

Some Spoilers

Usually I wait a little while before I figure out what I thought of something. But the politician season 2 disappointed me a lot, I just finished watching it and... I’m disappointed.

Because it’s fine on its own. it’s even good on its own. But the first season is really good. And season 2 doesn’t just not hold up.. it almost undermines season 1. Makes fun of it.

Season one had really good character development and that’s why I loved it. Sure, a lot of really extreme things happened. But all of it propelled the plot and Peyton’s character development. Every twist in the election was cosely tied to his arc. Every out there crazy plot point impacted him, challenged him.

Peyton Hobart is an ambitious guy who wants to win. He cares about things for his image and to gain support. Until he meets River, which is the big turning point, because he loved him, and River loves him, and River makes him feel things. River brings out the best in him, makes him more than a slimey politician and into a real perosn that he’s afraid he isn’t.

Somewhat of a sidenote, but the queer rep also did a 360. In season 2 Peyton is in love with Alice, which is fine if he’s bi, but they seem to drop the idea that he was at all attracted to guys except for in a flashback to a threesome he had with Astrid. In talking about River they determine that he wasn’t even bi, he just loved them a lot and wanted them to feel loved. Plus, though McAfee is seen going on dates with girls in a breif montage and then has a date, sex with, and then in the end marries a guy, like any wlw attraction was a teenage/college phase rather than a real part of her. Skye was hardly mentioned to be queer. The Voter mom character I think was gay, but that was in one sentene, not even seeing her (wife? girlfreind?) or mentioning where she was. This was a strongly diverse show in s1, but s2 seemed to try to remove or ignore any queernes sof any of the characters. 

Peyton’s arc in s1 is incredibly well written and complex. He’s also a very different character than we usually see. He fucks up a lot in the name of getting elected, and that is exactly what screws him over. And then you know what happens? He goes completely to the opposite extreme. I love that. He drops the ambition and feels everything. And he can’t do that either, because his ambition is a part of him, but he has to learn to follow that while also being true to himself and letting himself feel things. Whih, by the way, is a very important messege. 

But season 2? I hardly know what’s going on in Peyton’s head for most of it. He’s all about controlling all of his staffers and there’s a bit of should I play dirty? But he only cares about not playing dirty if it might look bad because apparently that’s all he took from his school election? We have one significant challenge for him and that’s when Alice says she’s leaving him. But she comes back without him really having to do much, and he just says “hey I’ll stop writing my speech to spend the evening with you.” His talk with his mom solidifies and idea that he will play dirty and do anything to win.

There was a scene where Dede, his competitor, found him singing at a bar, and he said some things about the election that really solidified who he was. He didn’t care about anything he was doing. He was going to do it because it would ensure more votes. Watchign that I was thinking, dang, he really is just a rich kid who wants to win and that’s all. He wants the campaign, Dede wants the job. I thought Dede realized that too... but then she gives him the election, and then two years later, offers him to be VP with her. So maybe she didn’t realize it. 

And want to know what super sucks? He wins the election as this entitled guy who will cheat and play dirty to win. Someone who isn’t ready for the real job of winning. Which would be fine if I saw him get to Albany and realize how hard it was. Realize there that the job is more than power and winning. Learn something. Finally get the development he started and come out better and stronger. I was ready for that.

But no. They skip ahead and he’s done a great job, he’s a family man, he’s confident in winning, he doesn’t care about the camapign as much until the VP offer comes up. 

I would watch a season of this show that was him facing being in office. I don’t particularly care about the drama of the lives of actual politicaians. But what I liked about The Politician was the character arc. But the show sacrificed any character arc for the drama and the race of an election, the flashy stuff like threesomes and Geronimo costumes and lies and blackmail and tricks. I only care about that when it’s tied to character arcs, and it wasn’t, it was just there for fun. And instead of seeing him face what he needs to, they cut out Peyton’s character development becaus eit didn’t happen during a race. So they skip tp another race, if they get another season.

That’s my main problem, but also, I feel like Netflix’s been on an environmentalist kick lately. Which is okay, though I don’t know if Netflix is practicing what they preach. But they also seemed to exaggerate it weirdly. Like Infinity’s waste-free life sounded interesting, I was actually thinking about it, but then they pull out an extreme that most people would never do no matter how much they care about the environment (That by the way I don’t think is that essential? If you’re not using any harsh chemicals, and maybe you have to control where it goes, but water is water. you don’t have to boil your bathwater to be eco-freindly), and it almost makes me go “nevermind.” If no one is going to do it, and INfinity seems to think it’s all or nothing, it gives power to the “nothing” side if you don’t want to do all. A middle ground is acceptable, but for The Politician, I feel like environmentalism was jsut what it was for Peyton— a talking point to look good. 

#the politician #the politican netflix #the politican spoilers #the politician season 2 #Analysis #review

[sovonight]

Hello! KOTOR 1 and 2 are on sale today, and I know nothing about them except through your posts/beautiful art. Considering that, which one should I get? I know you play KOTOR 2, but I don't know where a complete newbie like me should start. Also, do you have any starting advice? Thanks! And May the 4th be with you!

i'd say get kotor! it's lighter, more approachable, and i'm a big fan of playing games in order.

i like kotor 2 much more, ofc, but if i hadn't played kotor first, i don't know if kotor 2 would've had the same effect when i first played it? not really story-wise, but gameplay-wise i think it helped that i was already used to playing kotor with its weird combat system, so that when i started kotor 2 i didn’t have to listen to the story AND adjust to the gameplay at the same time

starting advice:

check with companions for new conversation options often! things that unlock new options are: leveling up, enter/exiting the hideout/ship, and progressing in the story. at some point in the story, if you haven't cleared all the conversations by then, they're locked to you forever-- and if you're trying to do a romance, it locks you out of the romance. so it's a good idea to clear those when you can!

there are restored content mods for both games, but only the one for kotor 2 matters! i've never tried the one for kotor, but i get the feeling that people don't think adds anything good at all

you can use medpacs (and a bunch of other stuff) during combat even when the game is paused, without it taking up your turn! just access them from the menu. i didn’t even know this was allowed until i saw it in a game guide-- i guess i was habitually playing by rules for other turn-based games haha

oh and generally the first time i play a game i try to play it without mods to get the original intended experience, buuut here’s a list of bi mods (as well as a romance enhancement for the one canon wlw)! there are spoilers in even just looking at the list, but if you’re like me and look up romanceable characters before even buying a game, they're minor! just try not to read through the mod descriptions though, they’ll definitely give away plot points

#sovo answers #k2 mods

[the-irish-mayhem]

It’s been a minute since I’ve done one of these but...

I saw WW84.

Spoiler-free reaction:

Spoiler reaction under the cut.

+ positives, +/- mixed reaction, -negatives

+We’re all in agreement that Barbara and Diana were 1000% on a date, right? They were on a date.

+I bought the HELL out of Pedro Pascal’s descent into madness.

+STEVE’S MAKEOVER MONTAGE TO MATCH DIANA’S

+Steve discovering the modern world with Diana! Peak adorable! I loved the role reversal.

+the soft, soft, soft, soft, soft, soft, SOFT wondertrev

+Max Lord, imo, ended up becoming a huge critique of capitalism. He quite literally went insane with his quest for more, and more, and more, and MORE, and you realize at the end that no matter how much more he got, A) he’s still empty and B) it makes you ask at what point do you stop saying more? The continual quest for more is utter madness.

+the invisible jet! they did it!!! It felt a little more like an earned extension of Diana’s power rather than something shoehorned. The pressure of the moment and Diana saying that she’d only made a coffee cup disappear once made the stakes high so that when she accomplished it, you actually felt relief and excitement.

+THE LYNDA CARTER CAMEO WAS PERFECT.

+I didn’t know how much I needed a bleeding Diana in my life until now. It really highlighted just how good she is that she’s still willing to sacrifice her body and life to save people and do the right thing.

+Gal Gadot was still great. I still wish she was beefier, but it drove home again that they really did cast Diana pretty dang well. Chris Pine, also fabulous! Kristin Wiig, really awesome! I questioned her casting a lot but I enjoyed her portrayal of Barbara. PEDRO PASCAL WAS AMAZING!

+Diana saving Barbara from the creep and literally THROWING HIM ACROSS THE ROAD AND SAYING ‘oh it’s just about using his momentum against him, super easy, I’ll teach you’

+/- the expansion of Diana’s powers. She was already flying in the last movie in her face off with Ares, but in this movie, they treated it as though she was just learning how to do it. Expanding the lasso’s powers seemed dicey because the climax of the movie ended up depending on a magical MacGuffin to make people see ‘the truth.’ It also made the last face off with Barbara and Max a little wonky because you didn’t really have a fully formed idea of what Diana could do. I love an OP!Diana, but I didn’t even know what crazy powers to get excited about.

+/- Identifying Steve Trevor only as a pilot when in the first movie his identity was almost exclusively as a spy. It seems like a little bit of an idealization of him as a person and ignores some of the morally questionable things he definitely did as a spy during the war. I love Pilot Steve and I love emphasizing his piloting skills, but it seemed just a little disingenuous to talk about him as just being a pilot when the truth was a lot more complex.

+/- Speaking of Barbara and Diana absolutely being on a date, they won’t ever confirm a WLW relationship in the Wonder Woman cinematic universe. (There’s no DC cinematic universe. It’s the WWCU as far as I’m concerned.) So as much as I enjoyed their date, it also made me kind of angry because it’s yet another tantalizing morsel of ‘maybe she’s queer but we won’t confirm it ever.’

+/- The Golden Eagle armor. I wish she would’ve donned it sooner, and I wish that finding it had been a bigger plot point that just Steve noticing it in Diana’s office.

+/- The craziness of the movie partnered with Magical MacGuffins and more plot holes than I care to think about made it feel a lot like the chaos that has dogged other modern DC superhero movies. It did have some more coherent focus and character moments compared to, say, the Justice League movie, and a lot of more hopeful and nice moments, but it was still... chaotic. Hence the spoiler-free gif being the whiplash between crazy and nice.

+/- I don’t entirely understand the fate of the villains. Are they getting off scot free? Did Barbara’s powers get taken away after Max renounced his wish?

+/- Alastair gave Max some nice character motivation, but that is the ONLY reason that kid existed. To make Max more human and to look cute.

-yo, what was the point of setting the movie in the 80s and having that POPPIN song in the trailer and proceed to NOT have Diana beat guys up while a sick 80s beat goes off in the background

-that being said, the music in this movie was not nearly as on point as it was in the first WW. I was thirsting for the original Wonder Woman’s Theme but only got some brief, remixed versions of it.

-I felt that Diana didn’t really have much of a defined character arc in this one compared to the last. In the first movie, we see her grow from naive and idealistic, to realizing humankind’s downfalls, to her choosing to still be an optimist and fight for the world in spite of it all. In this one she..... is an optimist still and is willing to fight no matter what? It felt like we didn’t really learn anything new about her.

-The world around Diana was really lackluster compared to the first WW. In the first movie, you had a whole assemblage of side characters who made the world feel very real and expansive. In WW84, the character web is extremely insular and limited. It really made the story feel quite strange, because this was supposedly a worldwide crisis, but we truly only see it affecting a handful of people.

-the number of plot holes was just... crazy.

-As much as it pains me to acknowledge them, DC does still consider the Superman movies, Justice League, etc. all canon at this point... in those, Diana is painted as a ghost, someone who’s very difficult to find/track, and some of the only hard evidence of her existence is the old photo from WWI. Yet in WW84, Diana is literally fighting in the White House with nary a care for who sees her. She’s running through the streets in her full Wonder Woman regalia. She’s storming through a shopping mall where literally anyone can see her. Sure, she takes out the surveillance cameras, but there are hundreds of people in that mall. Not all of them are going to keep that secret. It makes for a bit of a mess considering what she’s supposed to be like in the future movies.

-also.... how does Barbara even find them at the White House?

-Speaking of Barbara.... how does she not die when Diana electrocutes her? That whole last fight between the two of them took some LIBERTIES. I do wonder what the reaction would’ve been if Diana had actually killed her. Would it be a rehash of the Man of Steel debate, or could it have revealed some interesting stuff about Diana compared to Clark? I guess we’ll never know.

-The last showdown with all the villains was kinda just pure chaos. I barely followed what was going down, and Diana’s speech was lovely, but pretty corny. The resolution was also just a little too tidy if you ask me.

-I do wish they’d addressed some of the really creepy implications of Steve stepping into another guy’s body and life, but they never do. They could’ve very easily used Magical MacGuffin #1 to bring him back in a much less weird fashion, but instead, they CHOSE to have Steve ride around in another guy’s skin for the duration of the movie without addressing it AT ALL.

-THERE SHOULD’VE BEEN MORE SICK 80S BEATS DURING THE FIGHT SCENES I’M STILL SALTY OK

-SICK 80S BEATS THAT EVENTUALLY MELTED INTO THE OG WONDER WOMAN THEME IN THE LAST FIGHT. That is all.

#ww84 #ww84 spoilers #wonder woman spoilers #wonder woman 1984 spoilers #spoilers #wonder woman #dc #molly reviews

[theaussietimelord]

Saw The Rise Of Skywalker today and I’ve never felt more let down by a series. 

I have some things to say about it, so major spoilers ahead for those who haven’t seen it yet.

Ok so here are my thoughts on TROS

after all we learned about Ren being manipulated through his childhood and Palpatine/Snoke grooming him he did deserve a redemption but not at the expense of his mother or Rey. 

After all the shit that Ren put Rey through she should not have kissed him. Stalking her, abusing her, you don’t just get over that. It would have made WAY more sense for him to save her life and then for her to thank him or to acknowledge that he was no longer Ren. Something that was able to show that she was grateful for being saved but didn’t wash over the fact that he ABUSED HER! 

Ben shouldn’t have died tho. It was a massive cop-out. He should have been shown trying to reconcile all his wrongdoings and help rebuild the new republic or whatever new government system they put in place or at least some community service ffs.

Rose Tico was done dirty she should have been with the main group or more active involvement on screen at the resistance base. They completely wrote her off as a character.

Lando did nothing for the plot he was literally there for no reason.

Hux being the mole was dumb but I could understand him wanting to get back at Ren. Still, it was the wrong way to go about it. He literally had to explain why he did it.

To the people that are saying that Rey went to Tatooine to isolate herself from her friends and to mourn Ben’s death need to stfu. She had no real reason to mourn him for an extended period of time, no more than you would an acquaintance really. Yeah, they had the force bond but Ren really only used it to manipulate her or fight her up until the very last moment when he was redeemed. And she takes the Skywalker name to honour Luke and Leia, not him. It’s her way of saying the family she found was more important to her than the one she’d been born into. 

But making Rey a Palpatine was a major weak point in this movie. She was nobody. We were cool with that. It showed that anyone could be great no matter what your lineage is. Palpatine shouldn’t have been brought back either. He was dead. Anakin killed him and fulfilled the prophecy. Cool. Leave it be. The only thing that served to do was to erase Anakin’s legacy and basically show that he failed and changed nothing in the long run. 

Rey has a vision about sitting on the sith throne but we don’t see that at all and we have to be told twice that she saw it?? When did she have this vision?? Was it in the milliseconds of flickering memories mixed with whatever the f the other stuff was? Idek but it just came out of nowhere.

So many things were said and not showed which kinda made the storyline seem really forced. Like they took out too many scenes that would have aided the story immensely.

Also their idea of LGBT+ content being a random couple that kiss at the end of the film for like .2 seconds?? 

All these big corporations care about is the money they rake in. They try to please everyone so they can get the most box office sales but they just end up disappointing everyone. in other words Disney fucking sucks.

In all, it was really a letdown and could have done soooooooooooooooo much better in terms of storyline but it just didn’t deliver. 

I’ll try to end on some positives because there are some things that weren’t terrible

The visual effects were stunning as always though so I can appreciate that at least, the sfx team do amazing work. 

The fight scenes, especially the one on the old empire ship, were fantastically choreographed. They were so intense and captivating. I loved the storm and sea raging around them. It really reflected the energy of the fight. 

The acting in the film considering what they had to work with was really a credit to the cast. They did an incredible job.

Dark!Rey from the vision was really interesting to see, a physical embodiment of Rey’s fight against her darkness. And that growl.... was... hot. ngl (I’m a hopeless wlw who is a sucker for hot villains/dark/morally grey characters)

I loved the banter between Rey, Finn and Poe. That sort of interaction between the main group was quite prominent in the first six films but we haven’t seen heaps of it in this trilogy before now. The dynamic between them is just so pure and for me, it was far more satisfying to watch them interact and see their strengthening relationships than *That Scene*. 

I really like that Rey ends up with a yellow lightsaber it’s very fitting of her character, especially since in the eu yellow was mainly a grey Jedi colour or someone who was not completely light. 

There’s really not much else I can say. I’m going to try and recover from this nightmare by getting back into some of the eu content and actually maybe finishing the clone wars. 

#star wars #tros #tros spoilers #the rise of skywalker #star wars the rise of skywalker #rey #finn #poe dameron #kylo ren #ben solo #rose tico #general hux #palpatine #sheev palpatine

[coredrill]

alright, here are my thoughts on the unstoppable wasp novel! i’ve put the majority of my thoughts, and LOTS of spoilers, below the cut. short summary is that . . . i didn’t really like it at all :/

so, i’m gonna preface this by saying that i wanted to absolutely LOVE this book. it’s all about nadia and she is one of my all-time favorite characters and it’s so great that she got the spotlight in this way! i just really really wish i could, in good faith, say that the book was good, but i just can’t. and admittedly, i consider the unstoppable wasp comics to be nearly perfect, which is a high bar to hit, but there was just so much about this book that left a bad taste in my mouth.

first thing i want to mention is the role of the rest of the g.i.r.l.s. and when i say that, i mean that they had virtually no role. i genuinely wasn’t sure if i (the reader) was expected to have read the comics before the novel. on one hand, the first few chapters were spent pretty much summing up the comics, which is fine, especially because some readers may not have read the comics. on the other hand, if i hadn’t read the comics, there’s NO WAY i would’ve known anything about the other g.i.r.l.s!! they’re barely present in the plot of the book! they are present in one scene in the beginning, taina has a few lines throughout, and they’re more involved at the end, but a lot of the times they seemed more like wallpaper than actual characters. especially because of the frequency with which the author would throw in lines such as “that ethiopian place that shay likes” or “priya’s on-trend jeans” and just name-drop them without really giving them any substance. since i know the comics, i already know these characters--but if i was just reading the novel with no background? there’s no way i’d be able to keep them straight.

building off of what i said in that last point, i also wanted to mention that i listened to the women of marvel podcast interview with the author. something that i noticed is that she would always refer to the g.i.r.l.s as the “g.i.r.l. squad.” and that, i think, is the root of why i didn’t like how they were handled. it’s obviously pretty simple to explain their absence in the story by just noting that the whole point was that nadia was feeling alone and isolated from them. HOWEVER, in my opinion as a woman who has been in engineering . . . that doesn’t happen? nadia and the g.i.r.l.s are labmates--it’s right there in the title. they ARE the genius in action research labs. the “lab” isn’t just the location, it’s the people who make it up. by referring to them as “g.i.r.l. squad” instead of just “g.i.r.l.,” the author is changing the dynamics from “being a cohesive unit of girls who make up this incredible group and support each other in their science and goals” to “friend group who all happen to do science.” and as i mentioned, the random falling-out that happens in the book doesn’t happen to groups of the first type. being a girl in stem SUCKS. being in a stem class means that you’re automatically friends with the 1-2 other girls in there with you. and the people you work on projects with in a lab? the other girls who take the time to support you and have your back even though the odds are stacked against you? those are a whole different kind of friendships and i PROMISE they’re not wrecked by just forgetting to talk to each other. the girls that i worked with in college--the girls that i worked with now--it’s for survival. you don’t just fall apart like nadia apparently did from the g.i.r.l.s in this book.

okay. final bullet point on this topic. but in the women of marvel interview, the author said that she wanted to explore what could break apart the bonds that the g.i.r.l.s had formed. but on page 263, there’s the line “and if they had all just been a little better at communicating, maybe it wouldn’t have been so long before one of them realized that nadia was relying a little too closely on that little gold device.” so this deep dive into splitting the g.i.r.l.s apart, and barely giving shay, taina, ying, and priya a role in the story--was caused by MISCOMMUNICATION??? no freaking thanks LMAO. even without everything i’ve already mentioned, that trope is so lazy.

the writing style kinda bothered me at some points--i remember the discharge being described as “carbon dioxide” at one point, but like, just call it white foam. it’s so much easier and saying carbon dioxide pulled me out of what was happening. obviously this is a personal thing, not something objectively bad, but i still thought i’d mention it.

there seemed to be this point, around page 260, where it seems like the book flipped a switch. obviously, this is where the climax hit, but so many other things seemed to just randomly get pushed into place because the plot necessitated it? like, for example, nadia and the g.i.r.l.s are suddenly bffs again. even though, in nadia’s interior monologue, we’ve been hearing her resentment for them, it seemed like once the plot needed them to work together that they were able to do so without problem. and not only that, but it didn’t even feel earned? the book NEVER showed nadia and the g.i.r.l.s as actually like. being friends. (as i mentioned, not a choice i agree with, but still a fact.) so to have them all suddenly team up for the Big Boss Battle just felt weird and disengenuous to all of them. additionally, nadia went from defending margaret at all costs to suddenly thinking “oh yeah, she’s probably super evil. no big deal.” like WHAT??? the whole point of the first 250 pages was to show that nadia feels like margaret is the only person she can trust. all of a sudden she’s cool with her being evil??? make it make sense! you could see throughout the rest of the book that nadia was building up her Wrong Thoughts. sooooo much time was spent on it and we actually saw the development of how nadia felt. but to have her switch all that on a dime so that she can have her Right Thoughts now??? just in time for the Boss Battle? it just feels so unearned, since there’s nothing building to it. she just . . . changes her mind.

i also feel like writing a book where the protagonist, where the person whose perspective we’re following, is being MIND-CONTROLLED, but not revealing that mind control until the 11th hour (to validate the sudden switch from Wrong Thoughts to Right Thoughts) was just. a bit weird. i’m 22, but if i was reading this as a teenager, i’m not sure i would’ve quite gotten that the WHOLE BOOK was now being told by an unreliable narrator, with absolutely zero reliable information as a base (except the comics, of course).

ON PAGE 274. THERE IS ONE MENTION OF SHAY MAKING HER TELEPORTER PORTABLE. THIS IS AN INCREDIBLE FEAT OF SCIENCE AND SO GREAT FOR SHAY WHY WAS THIS NOT EXPANDED ON IN THE SLIGHTEST????

alright, time to talk about the nadia-being-ace thing. so, ever since i started reading unstoppable wasp, i’ve interpreted nadia as aroace. her version of friendships, her attempts to change the topic when romance for herself is brought up--these are all very authentically ace experiences. and that was okay for me to just have her coded that way! the writer of the comics, jeremy whitley, has included TWO (2!!!) ace characters in his raven pirate princess series so i definitely allowed myself to entertain the idea that the ace aspects of nadia were intentional. i was also okay with it not being explicitly mentioned in the comics--sure it would’ve been cool, but i understand that there are 18 issues TOTAL and it would be hard to fit the entirety of nadia’s story in there. BUT, when the author of this book mentioned that nadia was ace, and jeremy whitley confirmed that he’d been writing her as ace, it was awesome and super validating!! first of all, nadia being the first canonically ace marvel character--even just by word of god--is so freaking incredible and just adds to my enjoyment of the story. i’m very glad that we got confirmation and that i can continue reading the comics knowing, at the very least, that my ace reading of them is backed up by the canon (!!!!!). however, the author of this novel 100% used it as a marketing tactic which is super shitty. i was obviously going to read it anyway, since it was about nadia, but i do know people who bought it specifically because the author mentioned nadia being ace. and there was maybe one throwaway line in the novel about how nadia was only interested in romance ~theoretically.~ that’s not rep. in fact, it’s even less rep than the comics, which represented nadia being ace (at least in my opinion) far more authentically than this novel did. i’d honestly even go so far as to say it was riiiight up against the line of queerbaiting--yes nadia is canonically queer, but only by word of mouth, and it’s not mentioned even once in the story. that’s bad. using ace people for marketing--baiting them into buying your book on the promise of rep which we already have so little of--is so so shitty. yes, i am glad that we got that confirmation from jeremy whitley who never used this to promote the comics and didn’t even mention it until now, but i genuinely cannot believe that this author (who is bi! i checked her twitter!) effectively used it to market her awful book. honestly if the book weren’t bad enough already, to add this on top of it is even WORSE.

in the same vein, the author mentioned ying and shay being in a wlw relationship in the same interview where she mentioned nadia being ace. ying and shay are barely in the novel and EVEN WORSE, their relationship is kind of treated as an “obstacle” that nadia and the other g.i.r.l.s have to overcome in order to start working as a unit again. also bad!!!!!

okay. i think i’ve got this and one more bullet point, so we’ll see how it goes. but the way that the science in this book was handled was atrocious. sure, we had the cute science facts, but there is one (1) paragraph on page 311 about the g.i.r.l.s doing science for the sake of doing science and helping their community. IN THE WHOLE BOOK. you know a great way to demonstrate to women that they shouldn’t go into stem fields? write a cautionary book about the ~dangers of ai and data collection~ AS IF ANYONE LIVING IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW DOESN’T KNOW THAT SHIT. jesus fucking christ. the comics showed all of this great science by the way of the g.i.r.l.s papers, shay making her teleporter at home, defusing the bomb in ying’s head, recreating the vision gloves, tai’s sports robots . . . this book had NONE of that. it literally just had the evils that we see in the news EVERY DAY. that’s not what you show people to get them excited, and i find it really fucking weird that ANYONE greenlit a book about characters who support and encourage women to go into stem fields with the overall message of “science bad!” like. how the fuck was this plot approved. in the women of marvel interview, the author claims that she’s written about women in science before--and i believe her. i just don’t think that she’s ever actually spoken to a woman in science.

and lastly, i have a huge issue with the role of hope in the book. by that, i mean that the novel is called “built on hope” but hope is literally never a theme throughout the book? so yet another instance of the book building off the comics without any form of payoff. the unstoppable wasp comics are kind, and loving, and hopeful. this book is callous and condescending and seems more concerned with its sassy one-liners about white dudes and ham-fisted pop culture references than LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE, including hope. nadia claims to love her friends but spends the majority of the book shitting on them. nadia lies to janet to “avoid hurting her” but the end of unstoppable wasp 10 showed the flip side of the situation where nadia and jan realize that although janet was hiding the truth about hank from nadia, nadia wanted to hear the information anyway!! and i just--WHY would you take a character who has been explicitly used in the past to introduce girls to women in stem (the interviews with real people in the back of the comics!) AND THEN WRITE HER INTO A FUCKING CAUTIONARY “TECHNOLOGY BAD” STORY??? it’s SO discordant with the comics and i genuinely hope that anyone reading this book goes and read the comics themselves, which are incredible and a bajillion times better than this book in all aspects. i’m finishing this “review” a lot more fired up then when i started typing it but i honestly can’t believe that marvel greenlit THIS and not like. 2 more comics.

so, yeah, those are my thoughts. kudos to anyone who actually made it through the whole thing (if anyone does), it’s egregiously long but i needed to put my thoughts somewhere! tldr: i will not be recommending this to my mom.

#ugh this took way longer to type than i expected LMAO #anyways #f: marvel #marvel: novels #n: built on hope #t.txt

[buttsonthebeach]

PROMPT: penelope + leah, "licking your fingers clean of her."

AT LAST. We shall be a fandom of two (2) people with WLW farmers in Stardew Valley.

Obviously not Dragon Age. I do love Stardew Valley for those who didn’t know that! This will be on AO3 very very soon.

Pairing: Female Player x Leah / Penelope x Leah, Stardew Valley

Rating: Explicit! Sexy times and also cursing.

Note: Bit of a character study, some spoilers for Leah’s romance.

**************

Penelope liked facts and figures. She made a mean spreadsheet. It was what Joja Corporation hired her for. Her degree in biology was uninteresting to them. Her minute attention to detail and near obsessive need for planners and organization? That they could use. For eight hours a day. In a dimly lit cubicle. She could plan the shit out of their payroll and organize their files for new hires and -

Fuck. Just thinking about it made her feel claustrophobic all over again.

So the whole point of coming to Stardew Valley, to Grandpa’s farm, was to get away from all that.

And now she found herself sitting on the porch of her newly renovated farmhouse, her cat Jin rolling around in a sunbeam on the porch, staring at a spreadsheet of her expected yields and profits from her last fall harvest, and projections of how much she would need to mine over the winter if she wanted to a) eat b) renovate the house again and c) buy more animals to sell more animal products so she wouldn’t have to break her back all winter in the mine.

Fuck.

It was then that she heard the heavy drag of footsteps coming up the gravel path she’d laid down - the one that ran between her young cherry saplings, past the small pond, and towards Cindersnap Forest. She looked up from her laptop and shaded her eyes against the early morning sunshine. Someone was coming towards her - red hair - Leah?

Leah, who’d barely spoken a word to her at first, who she only met by chance one Friday in the Stardrop Saloon in late spring because she rarely left her cabin. Leah who tucked her hair behind her ears over and over again when she was nervous and let it fall out of its braid when she waved her hands excitedly, discussing her latest sculpture and how it conveyed the utter isolation of a crowded subway platform in Zuzu City.

Leah who seemed so unflappable until she got on the phone with Kel, her ex-girlfriend.

Leah who was scared to show off her sculptures to anyone but Penelope.

Leah.

Fuck.

Leah made Penelope’s heart speed up the way only one other person had before - Marie, her college sweetheart, the woman who abruptly broke her heart the night before they were supposed to move into their first apartment together. Which led to her taking the job at Joja to afford the place since she couldn’t get out of the lease, instead of getting her masters in microbiology the way she’d planned. Which led to her gaining twenty pounds as she binge-watched Wynonna Earp and sampled every single Ben and Jerry’s flavor they sold at her local (you guessed it) Joja Mart.

Which ultimately led to her sitting on this sunny porch worrying about eggplants and why on earth it was she wasn’t allowed to use a goddamn gun to kill the monsters in the mine (she was shit at the slingshot).

Which ultimately led to Leah, walking up the gravel path, making her heart beat the way she thought it never would again.

Leah had a statue behind her. She was dragging it on some kind of dolley behind her. It was at least as tall as she was, and brown as the corduroy pants she wore no matter the season (brown as her kind eyes). Her face was flushed with effort but she was beaming as she made her way to the house.

“I’ve got it, I’ve got it,” she assured Penelope, waving off her offer of assistance. On the porch, Jin stood and arched her back and meowed plaintively at Leah, as if she hadn’t already been pet and coddled for half an hour that morning while Penelope lay in bed.

“It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?” Leah said when she reached the farmhouse, beaming despite her sweat.

“Sure is,” Penelope replied, her heart speeding up again. Leah kept right on beaming.

“I’ve got a gift for you. It’s a sculpture I’ve been working on just for you. Well, you probably figured that out. Ta-da!” She waved to the sculpture with a flourish. It was mahogany, and nearly as tall as Penelope herself. It looked like it was made of a series of loops rising organically out of the earth.

“It’s called How I Feel About Penelope,” Leah said. There she went with the tucking-the-hair-behind-the-ears. How I feel about Penelope. Leah who was so shy she had to speak through wood to make herself heard.

So what was this sculpture saying?

Penelope knew she should have taken that art history elective.

“It’s amazing,” Penelope said. “And I know exactly where it’s going to go.”

“Here, let me help!”

“Oh, it’s fine - the bedroom’s a mess -”

“Nonsense.”

The truth was that the bedroom was fine, but Penelope wasn’t sure she wanted Leah to know that that’s where she wanted the statue to go - right where she would always be able to see it when she woke. But in the end Leah didn’t seem to mind the placement at all. She praised Penelope’s choice, her feng shui, the way it went with the deep green wallpaper she’d just ordered from a catalogue.

“I like it,” Leah said just as she was getting ready to leave. “I like how you bring nature inside.”

I like you, Penelope thought, but the words wouldn’t come.

Leah left, and Penelope went back into the bedroom and stood looking at the statue - its curving, arching arms, its strength, its flexibility. How I feel about Penelope.

She went back out on the porch and closed the laptop, pushing the spreadsheet from her mind. She would be flexible. She would walk the farm and smell the soil and not stress over every cent. She would just be. Like Leah and her sculpture.

*

It wasn’t the last sculpture Leah would show her. Not by a long shot. They spent the rest of that fall and then a good part of the winter that followed working on sculptures for her art show, which Penelope had finally persuaded her to move forward with. It was a good distraction from the nagging feeling in the back of Penelope’s mind - that no matter how hard she worked, how many times she counted up how much food she had saved up for her livestock and frozen in the fridge for herself, she wasn’t doing enough.

“Winter is when all of nature rests and resets,” Leah told her. “You should rest and reset, too.”

But sitting around her own farmhouse only led to fidgeting and spreadsheets (what was wrong with her) and watching too many cooking shows on her TV, or taking too many pictures of Jin lolling about cutely on the floor while secretly counting and recounting how much more lumber she needed to have Robin build another barn and how quickly she could reasonably afford it because if she had another barn she could get more goats and then -

So resting and resetting became going to Leah’s house with some freshly gathered hazelnuts to roast over her fireplace, or maybe some poppyseed muffins - and then, finally, her very first batch of homemade raspberry wine. And then they’d sit there by the fire and Leah would wax poetic about the sculptures she was considering for the show, how they challenged personhood and celebrated her favorite mediums and how she left things intentionally unclear for the viewer to provoke thought. It was exactly the sort of thing Penelope used to overhear in the quad in her college days, and scoff at. How could people spend their whole lives overthinking about art to that degree?

But now she was starting to get it. Leah shaved away seemingly random scraps of wood from a large block and beauty and meaning emerged. And Penelope forgot about the exact alkalinity of her soil and whether she should plant three fields of cauliflower next season or do kale instead and get more harvests out of it or if that would deplete the nutrients -

Okay, so it didn’t make her forget completely. But Leah’s little cabin was still an oasis, and Leah was still so beautiful and smart and kind, and Penelope was hopelessly in love.

It was the kind of realization that dawned slowly over the course of their daily conversations, not something that hit her like a thunderclap. When Penelope thought back over it later, she thought the exact moment might have been when she came out of the bathroom and saw Leah looking at the window at the drifting snow, a content smile on her face. She loved Leah. She hadn’t even held her hand, and she loved her. She felt safe with her. She understood more of the world through her eyes. She loved her.

So she went to Pierre’s store and bought a bouquet of flowers - the biggest and most beautiful he had in the dead of winter - and she carried them over to Leah’s house. And she stood there on the step, holding them with trembling hands, because nothing had ever been as scary as this. Not coming out to her parents. Not sitting alone in that empty apartment after Marie left. Not quitting Joja and getting on the bus to Pelican Town. Nothing scared her as much as the idea that she, with all her facts and figures and anxieties, wouldn’t be good enough for the woman she loved.

Leah’s eyes lit up like the lights in the town square when she saw Penelope standing there.

“Are these - are these what I think they are?” she asked.

“Well - if you think they’re special flowers that are saying I want you to be my girlfriend then - yes?”

Leah laughed and laughed, and then she kissed her, and it was suddenly the warmest winter Penelope had ever known.

**

Penelope hadn’t doubted she was gay since the sixth grade and her first crush ever (Mimi Marquez from Rent). But damn, did Leah manage to remind her every day.

Leah would be covered in sweat from working hard on a large sculpture and Penelope would look at her and think damn, I’m gay.

Leah would show up with ingredients to make dinner one evening, knowing Penelope would be exhausted from working in the mine, and she would hear her gentle laughter in the kitchen while she iced her back in the other room and think damn, I’m gay.

Leah would kiss her hard and fast, pressed up against the kitchen counter, and then Penelope would hardly be able to think at all, but if she was, the only real thought that would come would be I am so, so, so gay.

And also that she was so, so in love.

Leah wanted to take things slow after everything that happened with Kel, which suited Penelope fine. There were plenty of long make-out sessions on one of their couches, and many long walks in the snow, hand in hand. And then there was one night, towards the end of winter, when a late snowstorm kicked up and make it hard to see even a foot past the windows of the farmhouse.

“You know, I try not to make a habit of quoting carols - but it really is cold outside. You could stay,” Penelope offered, tentatively.

Leah beamed with quiet warmth, her nose scrunching, as she hid her face behind her mug of hot chocolate.

“I was hoping you’d say that.”

When they got to the bedroom, Leah undressed before Penelope could offer to give her some privacy. She got to watch the arch of her back as she pulled the sweater over her head, see the gentle pudge of her stomach sticking out over the band of her cotton underwear, the freckles on her legs and the red hair that covered them, fuck -

“Ooh, this looks cozy. Can I borrow it?” Leah held up a big, ratty pink sweater.

“Uh huh.” Penelope hoped she didn’t look as dazed as she sounded. Leah pulled on the sweater. It brushed the tops of her thighs and swayed against her butt as she walked over to the bathroom, and Penelope felt delicious, wet heat sinking into the space between her legs. She knew what she was thinking about the next time she pulled her beloved vibrator out of the bedside table and teased herself all over before sliding it home so it pulsed against her G-spot and buzzed against her clit at the same time - those legs.

Maybe she’d think about those legs brushing against her face as she licked her -

“Hey, honey - do you mind if I use the last of this lotion you’ve got here? It smells amazing.”

“Go ahead,” Penelope said after she cleared her throat. “I, uh, made it myself. With those crocuses I gathered the other day.”

“Mm. Nice.”

She wasn’t staring.

She was not staring at Leah as she spread the lotion between her hands, propped a leg up on the bed, and began smoothing it over her freckled skin. She was definitely not staring at the way the sweater rode up and gave her a view of that white cotton underwear -

“Uh, I should get ready for bed too I guess,” she said at last.

“Yeah,” Leah laughed, scooping up more lotion. “I’m definitely not sleeping next to you in your dirty mining clothes.”

Oh god, she probably smelled like goat and cow and chicken and sheep and clay and granite dust from the quarry. She hadn’t thought of that.

“Shit, sorry. I should probably shower.”

“I didn’t say that,” Leah said. Her smile as she capped the lotion was more sultry. “I happen to like the way you smell, you know.”

She was staring again.

At the pink bow ofLeah’s lips, at the end of her braid where it swung over her shoulder.

She was aching between her legs at the thought of running her fingers through that hair. Of sliding her fingers in somewhere else.

“Penelope?”

Leah looked both confused and amused. She’d been staring again.

“Shit, fuck, sorry, I - I’m just, like, really, really turned on right now.”

The only way to describe the smile that Leah gave her then was catlike. It was sly and full of promise and doing absolutely nothing to make Penelope less turned on.

“Oh good. I was wondering about that. Because I’m pretty turned on right now, too.”

Yes.

Leah was as slow and gentle as Penelope had imagined. Her kisses were long and sweet. Her skin was soft and warm. She liked it when Penelope sucked her nipples into hard points and when she bit down on the side of her neck - and she liked it best of all when Penelope pulled down her underwear and ran her fingers along her wet, swollen cunt.

“Yes, I want you just like that,” she murmured. No shyness here, not naked and spread out on the quilt under the winter starlight.

“Just like this?” Penelope asked, her voice barely a whisper. This all felt like a mirage that could slip away at any moment. No matter how real and slick and perfect the flesh under her fingers was.

“Yeah - now kiss me -”

No one had to tell her twice to kiss Leah.

She kissed her as she slid one finger and then another inside her. She kissed her as she rubbed the pad of her thumb in a slow, wide circle around her clit. She stopped kissing her only to make sure that that was good. (“Yeah, slow like that, slow like that is good.”) She kissed her again until the sweet pressure of Leah’s thigh between her legs was becoming too much, when she had to rock against it over and over and over because it just felt so good on her own clit. She kissed her until Leah kept saying more, more, more and all her focus had to be on fucking her with her fingers and thumbing her clit now and then, until a beautiful pink flush spread all over Leah’s skin and her eyes screwed shut with ecstasy and she came, cunt squeezing tight around Penelope’s fingers, and the sight was so beautiful that it had Penelope rubbing frantically against Leah’s thigh - and then Leah recovered enough to slide her own fingers in-between them, and it was just enough pressure, just enough friction, and Penelope felt her own clit swell and twitch and then throb with pleasure as she came, too.

Then there was time to kiss again.

Time to lick the taste of Leah from her fingers.

“You’re kind of perfect, you know,” Leah said, lying there warm and pink and satisfied beneath her. Penelope felt herself glow from the inside out. She was perfect to the woman she loved - anxieties, insecurities, spreadsheets and all

***

The day they got married was kind of perfect, too. It was nearly a year to the day since they first met in the Stardrop Saloon - a late spring day filled with drifting blossoms and the smell of fresh earth. The Community Center wasn’t rebuilt, not completely, and the cherry saplings weren’t coming in as fast as Penelope would have liked, and yields on the kale had been low so far, and one of the goats might be sick and she was behind on collecting lumber for the new coop -

But it was perfect.

It was perfect because Leah was her wife.

Because after the heartache of Marie and the soul-sucking boredom of Joja and the terrifying risk of coming to Stardew Valley - it was all worth it.

Waking the morning after to their little farmhouse and Jin meowing for more food and Leah already in the kitchen, making coffee, humming a song - it was all worth it. The kind of thing you couldn’t plan for in a spreadsheet. The kind of thing she hadn’t dared to hope for in a long time.

Penelope rose, ready to tackle the day.

#beach writes #stardew valley #leah from stardew valley #female player x leah #idk what the fandom tags are #whoops #not da

[sattickate]

Heathers: The Television Pilot

So I watched the pilot for the Heathers show yesterday. It's not faithful to the original film at all. like it goes in a completely different direction - more SJW than maintaining the "status quo" like in the film, that said, I didn't hate it.

I won't be watching the rest of the series because it's not my thing. It's Heathers in concept only, not plot. It does make some references to the original (quoting famous lines, big fun is a chip brand, the new happiness posters, the original score), but it very much is a departure from the film. And it is for that reason that I can't place it on the same level as the film or even the musical. 

Though it's not outright terrible, it's not a cult classic from and set in the late 80s. This show may be "just" but it is so not "very".

(via my facebook page)

Naturally, I have a lot of opinions on Heathers, the television show. I say naturally because the film is my favourite movie of all-time. And, although I recorded a video commentary/analysis/comparison of the show in relation to the film and musical, I have no idea when I’ll get around to editing that or exactly how clear and concise my opinions will be.  So, going back to the medium at which I’m best, let me take the time to go into more detail about the show so far, my opinions on it in relation to the source material and the musical and how it would be as a stand-alone show. Future Katey coming to tell you that I did edit the video and here’s the link to watch it. 

Spoiler alert below the cut as I will be going into detail of the events of the entire pilot (as well as the film and music as a whole but if you haven’t seen those where have you been?). 

If you’d like a plot summary but don’t actually want to watch the episode.

TL;DR: below the cut, my analysis may be quite long so be prepared to read a lot.

Let’s just clarify some things right off the bat, the show is set in 2017/2018, not in 1988 as was the film (or in ‘89 like the musical). The slang has been updated to fit the time, for example, ‘very’ becomes ‘just’. References are made to the original film: big fun is now a brand of chips, there are “the New Happiness” posters hung on the walls of the school, some dialogue from the film is recycled or repurposed for the show, and (my favourite nod to the film) some of the original film score has been used (or slightly updated) for the show. [This last thing is a very minute detail, but I am such a sucker for the film’s score, so I appreciated that little touch.]

The opening is a bit graphic, to say the least.

Eight years prior to the main events of the episode, we are introduced to an adult woman in a red scrunchie. She has just doused her house in gasoline and lit the match when her husband and son come home. The father quickly runs into the house while the son stays in the car as the mother waves at him from her bedroom window then shoots herself from (under her chin/jaw) as her son is left watching the entire thing. It’s safe to assume the boy in the car is JD because, by the episode’s end, that assumption proves to be true.

So how similar is it to the film, really?

Not very. Not very at all. OK despite my ass clinging to the use of the word very for dear life now, the show honestly has very little to do with the source material. One could speculate that Shannen Doherty’s character (JD’s mother who commits suicide in the show’s cold open) might be someone from the original film and that’s how they could be linked. Otherwise, there’s not much similarity to the original beyond the basic concept and shared character names. And the references. There are loads of references to the source material - not so much to the musical - but you’d be hardpressed to forget this is a reboot with all the allusions to the original.

Why are the diverse characters the villains?

I have no fucking clue. In the narrative, it’s because people who are different are now popular. 

Heather Chandler (HC) is fat (or as the show calls it “body positive” as if to say fat is a bad word and only overweight people can be body positive) and she appears to be into a more blackmail centred version of social justice. And she’ll continue to blackmail people even after her “death” it seems - if the sneak peek at the end of the episode’s any indication. 

Heather Duke (HD) is our genderqueer character, and we see she/her pronouns being used (I can’t recall if other pronouns were also used for Duke). She basically copies HC in that blackmail approach to social justice and she’s secretly very envious of HC

Heather McNamara (HM) is our biracial Heather, she is also supposedly a lesbian, but we see her making out with one of her male teachers in the parking lot of Snappy’s Snack Shack. HD catches her in this act and claims that HM is not actually LGBTQ+ (sexuality is fluid though so maybe HM is another type of WLW. Though, by the way, this show is going HD seems correct in her assumption that HM is straight).

Outside of this narrative though it doesn’t make any sense. We could have gotten a POC Veronica and/or JD (who they seem to be making more of an antihero than outright psychopath), or they could have gender-bent JD and made Veronica WLW to provide diversity in a way that doesn’t villainise the diverse.

Trying to Flip the Script

As I said above, they seem to want to make JD more of an antihero than the psychopathic killer he was in the film. And I noticed this was something they tried to do in the musical too. They may not have gone as far as making him an anti-hero in the musical, but they were definitely trying to make him a more sympathetic character.

In the film, there’s this element of mystery to him. What was his past? When did he start killing? Was HC his first or was framing murders as suicides always his M.O.? The film alludes to his mother’s presumed suicide as the catalyst for his strange fascination with death but it never comes out an says it. Maybe I like that because it’s also left a little ambiguous to how JD’s mother died. We all know he said it was a suicide - “she walked into a building right before my dad blew it up.” - but was that the whole truth? Did she really decide to die in such a way? Was she lured into the building under false pretences (every time I watch the film, I’m very suspicious of JD’s dad, and I get the feeling that he may have murdered his wife)?

I suspect that if this show continues, and based on reviews, it’s not looking good, we’ll see more of that: how his mother died and why he is the way he is.

I also wonder how much of the other characters they plan to change. In the show, Veronica’s only label seems to be that she thinks of herself to be a “good person”. In the film, she was bored with where she was in the school’s social hierarchy. JD provided her with adventure that she wasn’t finding at school or with her friends. JD disrupted that status quo, and that’s what was so intriguing to her. In this show, though, the status quo has already been disrupted. The outsiders are insiders now.So what could JD possibly offer than changes her whole perspective?

Betty or Martha

Just as in the musical, it seems as though these two characters get combined. Unless they intend to introduce or make mention of Martha “dumptruck” Dunnstock later, it seems as though she’s been combined with Betty Finn.

As for Betty, she’s not the innocent one you loved from the film. This one seems to be quite envious of Veronica. She’s got a chip on her shoulder, and after HC’s not-really-death she delivers a eulogy on campus which seems to be setting her up as the next Heather - the new sheriff in town, as it were. Though HD and HM are fighting to claim the void that HC left as the school’s ruler, it seems by the next day, Betty would take it upon herself to claim this role. And I really don’t know how I feel about that.

In the film, Betty was Veronica’s past and a place she to which she longed to return. Betty was her life before the Heathers. And she longed for that simpler time. She was a pleasant reminder of what Veronica used to have and what she was trying to get back. Similarly, Martha was Veronica’s future. After dethroning HD, Veronica befriends Martha, and they plan to spend prom together watching movies and eating popcorn. The chaos is out of her life, and Martha offers her a chance of normality.

Having said that, my next question is, what will be Veronica’s relationship with HM? In the film, HM was the quietest of the Heathers and only really partook in events because the rest of the group was. After HD mocked her for her troubles [Poor Little Heather], she attempted suicide - which was quickly stopped by Veronica who spotted the signs. Their relationship grew in the film because of this event. There was genuine caring and support that Veronica had with HM that she didn’t have with the other Heathers and I wonder if that will ever be explored in the show. I would love to see Veronica being friends with HM and Martha in the show, if the show doesn’t die a quick death, because those were the relationships that were being created at the end of the film so we didn’t get the chance to explore them further. Veronica saw the pain these women were having and made an effort to befriend and help them after they had both attempted suicide. That is something that would be really cool to explore, but I doubt they ever will.

Wait, so Heather Chandler didn’t die?

She did not. The final moments of the episode flashback to earlier that day where HC wakes up in the morning after having smashed through her table and seemingly died the previous night. At first, she’s pissed and is prepared to make Veronica and JD’s lives a living hell, that is, until she checks her phone and realises just how much more popular she has become now that people believe her to be dead. 

And that’s where we leave things. We get a little sneak peek of episodes to come. HC will seemingly blackmail Veronica and JD to help bring about “justice” for her. Which appears to take the form of killing other students and framing them as suicides at HC’s request.

Final Thoughts

I think this could have been a really cool show had certain monikers not been attached. This show is both trying to pay homage to the film and be its own thing, and I feel like that could lead to its downfall. If the character had different names, this could be a really cool stand-alone show. The plot of the show will obviously have to deviate from the film to allow for multiple episodes, so it’s really only similar in a general concept and sporting characters with identical names to the film and musical.

Had this show been a looser adaptation/reboot or had it only been inspired by the film I could see it having a much longer life than it probably will. While I love the allusions to the film, this show is a drastic departure, and although I don’t hate it and could admire it as it’s owe thing (had the title been different and the characters’ names changed), I won’t be watching it any further.

If I’m a “stan” for anything, it would be the 1988 cult classic on which this show is based. But I just feel that the show is both trying really hard to be it’s own unique thing while also trying to be a love-letter to the film and I think that’s where it’s going to struggle.

#triggers: #child witnessing parent's death #suicide #murder #heathers tv show #heathers tv series #heathers pilot #heathers the musical #heathers film #heathers movie #heathers film reference #personal #analysis

[shaydixons]

wlw queerbaiting survey results!

thank you to every wlw skam fan who took mine and @aliciqvikander ‘s survey! we ended up with 313 responses! below is a summary of each question.

disclaimer: though it was explicitly stated that the survey was for wlw, there were several straight people that decided to take the survey and give disrespectful/homophobic answers, and they were deleted from the survey pool. this survey is by and for wlw skam fans, and the below statistics will reflect that. the point of this survey was to give wlw skam fans a place to share their thoughts, not for straight people to spout homophobic rhetoric.

part 1: demographics

what is your sexuality?

the survey consisted of 121 bisexuals, 109 lesbians, and 29 pansexuals; other identities included queer (17), sapphic (11), asexual (11), gay (5), questioning (4), and several other sexualities including demibisexual (1), bi ace (1), ace lesbian (2), and aromantic pansexual (1).

where are you from?

there were many different answers for this, the most common being sweden, usa, uk, germany, finland, norway, spain, canada, and australia.

how old are you?

the most common answer was 17-19 (138), then 14-16 (97), then 20-24 (63), then 25-30 (7), then under 14 (4), then 31+ (2)

part 2: opinions

who are your favorite characters?

the most common answers in order are: sana (240), isak (157), eva (139), even (127), noora (78), vilde (71), jonas (45), chris (35), eskild (21), elias (15), yousef (11), linn (7), magnus (2), and mahdi (1). there were a few people who specified that noora from season 1 is their favorite, not noora from the later seasons. there was also one vote for dr. skrulle. no one voted for william.

who is your favorite canon ship?

evak was the clear winner (237) the rest of the answers in order were yousana (55,) none (11), and joneva (8). there was also one vote for noorhelm, though it’s worth noting that this person also put noora down as a lesbian so it’s possible it was a mistake. no one voted for vagnus.

who are your favorite non-canon ships?

(apologies for the way this one looks)

the most common non-canon ships in order were nooreva (285), evilde (252), sanoora (104), evana (86), noorvilde (63), chrisana (52), jonas x mikael (41), noorevilde (35), chrilde (34), youkael (32), sonja x emma (31), sana x vilde (29), johdi (29), yousef x elias (25), iben x eva (20), noora x mari (14), joora (13), iben x mari (10), sonja x linn (7), chriseva (8), elias x eskild (5), and various others including mikael x adam, the whole girl squad in a polyamorous relationship, and noora x literally any woman.

do you like any of the following canon straight pairings? check off as many as you like.

yousana had the most votes by far (274), followed by joneva (190), then chris x kasper (64), then vagnus (22), then mohnstad (20), then noorhelm (11), then pchris x emma (8), then jonas x isabell (6), then jonas x emma (4). there was also one person who wrote “none bc julie cant write het ships to save her life”. it’s also worth noting that the majority of people who put vagnus also put vilde down as a lesbian. 

Do you think that Vilde is a lesbian?

the overwhelmingly popular answer was yes (286 responses). there was one vote for no, about 10 people thought she is bi/pan/queer, and several other people were undecided.

did you think lesbian vilde was going to be canon?

the most common answer was, “i had confidence it would happen after all the hints but wasn't 100% sure” (148), then the rest in order were “i didn’t think it was gonna happen but i had hope” (82), “after julie andem hinted at in that interview i was 100% sure it would happen” (55), “i had confidence lesbian vilde would not become canon” (6), and also several type-in responses about how people think she’s a lesbian or didn’t see it until people pointed it out but now they do, and my favourite one, “She was lesbian-coded and I strongly believe she is a lesbian, but I don't think Julie knew that because she probably hasn't talked to a lesbian in her life.”

in an interview with DR, julie andem was asked if vilde was a lesbian, to which she responded "no comment". do you feel that this is baiting?

the most common answer was “Yes, because she gave wlw fans hope while she wasn't planning to follow through” with 194 votes, followed by “Yes, though I think she was originally planning to follow through but couldn’t find time to include it” with 79 votes, only 7 people thought this wasn’t baiting at all. some of the write-in answers included “i actually took that as her treating lesbianism like it was inappropriate to talk about in a way”, “I don't think THIS was baiting this was just Julie being an asshole and dismissing wlw fans. Like even the idea of Vilde being gay is just so ridiculous that she's not even gonna make a comment. The queerbaiting was literally lesbian coding Vilde throughout the entire show and throwing so many hints but not going through with it.” and “I feel like she thought saying no comment was funny bc the idea of vilde being gay is sOOoOoo ridiculous to her and the idea of a canon wlw character hadn't crossed her mind in a serious way. she wasn't thinking.” regardless, the overall response by wlw fans is negative.

do you feel like the way eva and vilde's relationship was built up was paving the way for evilde to become a canon couple in the end?

the most common answer was yes (125) but the opinion on this one was pretty split as a total of 138 people said no, 112 of them still had hope though but 26 people thought evilde was strictly friendly. many people also typed in saying that they think that evilde could have been a plot point for a sexual discovery for vilde but not have been endgame.

do you think that noora is a lesbian?

the most common answer is yes (178), there were also 56 people who voted no, and most of the write-in answers either said that they think she’s bi, or that they think season 1 noora in particular is a lesbian, and in later seasons she’s either bi or straight.

when noora was first introduced, did you think she was a love interest?

a majority of people said yes (232), 48 people said no and most of the type in responses were people saying they had watched season 3 first and therefore couldn’t say since they already knew noorhelm was going to be canon. several people also mentioned how eva looking noora up on facebook mirrored the way evak and yousana stalked each other on facebook and that if noora had been a guy her introduction would most certainly have been romantic.

please watch the season 2 trailer if you haven't. do you feel this is an example of queerbaiting?

the most common answer was “Yes, this is explicit queerbaiting” (145), followed by “No, but I do find it disrespectful to wlw to act as though sleeping with a woman is a scandalous thing” (84), then “Yes, this is accidental queerbaiting”, and only 3 votes for “No, this isn’t queerbaiting and doesn’t bother me.”The write-in answers included: “can i just say how gross it is that they took noora possibly sleeping with another girl as something for willhell to get off on??? anyway yes this is queerbaiting bc the entire season was abt noorhell”, and “WTF WTF WTF I JUST WATCHED IT FOR THE FIRST TIME AND WHAT.THE.FUCK. LIKE WHY WOULD SOMEONE DO THAT WHY WOULD YOU BAIT THE GAYS KNOWING THEY WOULD HATE YOU LIKE IF YOUR MAKING A SEASON THATS BASICALLY A LOVE LETTER TO ABUSIVE STRAIGHT MEN WHY WOULD YOU NOT MAKE THE TRAILER SOMETHING GROSS AND STARIGHT LIKE THE SEASON SO AT LEAST THE STRAIGHTE ARE HAPPY LIKE ASIDE FROM HOW CRUEL AND IRRESPONSIBLE THAT WAS TO QUEER FANS IT JUST MAKES NO SENSE ON A ADVERTISEMENT LEVEL LIKE IDK A LOT OF STRAIGHT PEOPLE WHO ENJOYED THE SEASON WOULD WANT TO WATCH IT AFTER THAT TRAILER??? I AM SO UPSET AND I CANT BELIEVE HOW STUPID PEOPLE ARE WTF !!!!!!!!”

in addition, I had someone message me after they took the survey with new thoughts about the trailer and I quite like what they said so I’m going to include it here:

okay so i answered this in the survey, but i had new thoughts abt the s2 trailer. the more i think abt it the more pissed off i get b/c: okay, from what i heard, fans from s1 were interpreting noora as a lesbian right? (if s1 fans could weigh in that'd be gr8) & that makes sense since fans interpreting noora as gay is brought up p early in s2 in the form of vilde, so we know that they were aware of these theories. so, when deciding on the s2 trailer, when deciding to present a scene in which noora wakes up naked w/a man & a woman, knowing the theories abt noora being gay (& since scripts are finalised only slightly before filming, they had time to change it after hearing what fans were saying) they decided to only show her w/the woman??? despite the man being much more important to the story? (& like it wouldn't've been a spoiler to see nico. u don't see mari's face, it could've easily been hidden) they had to have known how that would be interpreted!! they had to!!! they absolutely had to have known that showing that would be baiting fans w/the promise of lgbt+ content w/no follow up. i did say in the survey that i saw the trailer as explicit queerbaiting but. when i put more thought into it, it was actually even worse than i thought? i mean, s2 trailer is gayer than s3's & SEASON 3 ACTUALLY HAS GAY CHARACTERS. i can believe that the lesbian coding of noora in s1 was an accident, but the s2 trailer was absolutely intentional & it pisses me off so much.

please watch the season 1 trailer if you haven't. do you feel this is an example of queerbaiting?

this question had no type in answers and most people agreed it was queerbaiting, “yes, this is explicit queerbaiting” was the most popular answer with 165, “no, but i find it disrespectful how kissing girls is treated as something dramatic and surprising” was the runner up with 85 and “yes, this is accidental queerbaiting” was third with 48 and last came, “no, i don’t think it’s queerbaiting and don’t find it disrespectful” with 12.

opinion on queerbaiting & skam?

the overwhelmingly popular choice was that there was explicit queerbaiting, with 200 votes, there were also 88 votes for “they originally meant to have a canon wlw character but decided not to follow through”. there were NO votes for “there was no queerbaiting”. There were many type-in answers, including “who honestly makes a character say they get horny when kissing a girl and then make her straight? if that is not the biggest fkn queerbaiting idk what is”, “I honestly don't think they intentionally queerbaited at the start, but when it's been explicitly stated multiple times that they took audience response into account when writing the show they should have looked at how much wlw were identifying with some of the things vilde has said/done and taken that opportunity to represent wlw in the show. We know they see what people say about Skam on social media so there's no way they didn't see all the posts about lesbian Vilde or bisexual Eva, etc. They just chose to ignore it.” and “skam continuously brought up the concept of two women being in a relationship but never took the time to explore it; it feels like julie thought she'd done enough by simply acknowledging that wlw exist”

part 3: long answer questions

i just want to say that there were so many beautiful responses to these questions and I wish we could include them all! So many of you are so insightful. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and I’m sorry we can’t include all the ones we like!

what moments did you feel most baited by?

the most common responses were the evilde kisses; the entirety of noora and eva’s interactions in season 1, in particular the first meeting; and when vilde said “I made out with Eva, the feelings that arise don’t necessarily mean you’re a lesbian.” Here are some of the responses:

The evilde kiss in season 4 cuz like at that point, they knew exactly what they were doing, they knew they weren't gonna follow through, and it gave wlw false hope when in the end both of them were shoehorned into forced straight relationships.

u g h. 1. all those extremely Gay looks between noora and eva in s1 were absolutely unreal. they had so much chemistry and were always looking at each other so appreciatively. 2. vilde going on and on about how cozy a lesbian couple would be, her getting turned on by kissing eva when she couldn't get turned on by boys, her and eva actually kissing - passionately - which was unlike something ive seen before tbh. they had this sort of fiery passion but at the same time there was a gentleness and familiarity to the kiss and the way their bodies just meld together. that's what really made me feel baited. also, all the social media updates from vilde.

When I first watched vilde commenting on Nora's sexuality and making out with Eva I thought they were explicit hints at her being lesbian, but watching them again in context they definitely feel like Julie making fun of the fandom thinking nooreva would happen and then acting like women kissing is scandalous or a joke

the way noora was portrayed in the first season came across to me as if she would be a love interest and showed interest in eva that seemed to go beyond just friendship. the repeated kisses between eva and vilde and the whole "feelings that arise" thing that followed.

if you think vilde is a lesbian, why?

this question had many answers but most of them touched up on vilde and evas constant making out at parties and the way vilde talks about men. Many people pointed out that vilde is obsessed with being popular and liked and that she picks the men that will fit that image and doesn’t actually feel attraction to them. there were also very many people who said that they can relate to vilde’s experiences. here are some good responses:

(I've spent way too much time pondering this but: shortened version). The main thing that almost convinces me that lesbian!Vilde would've been canon if she'd gotten a season is the contrast between how she talks about her "crush" Willhelm, & Eva. Like having her basically say "guys don't turn me on, thinking about feminine-coded objects does" & "making out w/my female friend makes me happy & horny but the prospect having sex w/my One True Male Love makes me nervous & uncomfortable & drives me to drink" (WHICH ISAK DOES WHEN TRYING TO HOOK UP W/EMMA)  & how upset she looks when she sees Eva kissing PChris instead of her! I mean, w/o lesbian!Vilde what's the point of those scenes????? & "my orgasm felt like a sneeze down there" r e a l l y. & then there's how she doesn't want to hang out w/her bf magnus, how she seems to choose either a guy who's already explicitly into her (magnus) or the "hottest guy in all of third year" (william) as crushes, the former after her friend points out that she's not hooking up w/guys!!!!! & then there's her obsession w/noora being gay (like straight girls fetishize gay guys sometimes, yea, but they don't react like that to gay girls). And I mean, w/her desperation to be popular & fit in, it'd make perfect sense for her to bury her sexuality b/c she feels (perhaps subconsciously) that it'd ostracize her from her peers more than she already is. There's just!!!!!! So! Much! Evidence! (Eva-dence 🌚🌚🌚)

Okay, so I'm ace, I don't feel sexual attraction towards anyone and I'm positive Vilde feels the exact same way about men. I do however think she does feel attraction towards women ('the feelings that arise'?? Hello??). But I do recognize myself SO MUCH in how she is towards men. The way she forces herself onto men and over compensate, how she sexulizes herself because she doesn't feel it so she tries so hard to act like she thinks it should be, talk about what she should feel, what she should like. Because isn't that what everyone does? I did that shit for years before I figured it out.

have u heard her talk ever

well yes everything about her screams closeted lesbian/struggling with compulsory heterosexuality. not being turned on by men, describing stereotypical girls clothes when saying what makes her horny, admitting she was turned on while kissing eva, her obsession with noora being a lesbian, claiming she's so in love with a boy but being "relieved" when he doesn't want her, having to get drunk to have sex with a boy, also "feeling relieved" if said boy doesn't have sex with her. the entirety of s3 she didn't hook up with anyone but the moment the girls joked about her not getting dick she hooked up with the first that showed interest. her relationship with magnus didn't even feel genuine on her part or even healthy up until like the last clip that they tried to make the audience sympathize with them together lol.

she obviously cares a lot about what other people, particularily girls, think of her, so she would struggle with coming to terms with her sexuality. her crush was the most generic popular older boy because he's who she was supposed to be into, she wanted to sleep with him so that her first time would be with a popular guy (also to help out her bus friends) (if wanting to hook up with guys to impress other girls isnt lesbian culture i dont know what is) yet when she finds out he and noora are a thing she feels relief (she also expressed that she'd feel relieved if he never called for sex and while that could mean she just had butterflies the fact that he didnt turn her on at all makes it v questionable), she felt feelings for eva after making out with her, she is turned on by traditionally feminine things... The way she behaves around magnus reminded me of my romantic/sexual interactions with men which only appealed to me when i could discuss them with girls or go on double dates with other girls or show off to other girls (it was always about girls!!!) and just julie why do you hate us

many lgbt people got into the show because of the gay representation. was this the case for you, and, if so, do you feel disappointed in the lgbt representation as a whole?

the response to this answer was mixed. most people said they got into the show for the gay representation, though many say they got into it because of the girl squad, or sana in particular. the general consensus is that people are very happy with evak and the portrayal of mental illness, but that there are no wlw characters and no trans characters, so the lgbt representation as a whole is lacking. here are some responses:

I had high hopes when Vilde talked about how cosy a lesbian couple at the cabin would be but I don't think the show creators ever took their responsibility to queer women seriously. What little respect there was in the few comments like Vilde's was eroded by their queer bating. Looking back I wonder if they thought Vilde acknowledging the existence of lesbians and making statements about lesbians not being weird WAS positive representation.

I did! Skam actually helped me figure out I liked girls, watching season 3 first then circling around and watching all of vildes "gay" scenes kind of made it click and I lived season 3 but when I look at the rep as a whole, it seems Julie only recognizes gay/pan white men as worthy of exploration or mention outside of humor and it's so strange for me because I know vastly more wlw than I do mlm so for there to be 0 cannon wlw characters is almost mind blowing

Yes and yes. Fuck that lesbophobe honestly I'm done with this whole cute gayboy trope if it means it's only meant for the straight fetish af gaze

yes, part of the lure of the show was the gay rep and the fact that there were no gay girls is a let down, mainly bc andem has said that the show was made for teenage girls. if so, why are there no gay girls as part of this teenage experience??? why would a sexuality struggle or a picture of finding urself not include them??? but the worst of all is the disappointment in the fact that andem EXPLICITLY said "no comment" about vilde. she should've said outright no, that was rlly irresponsible and almost mean bc it gave people hope. honestly until then i liked gay hcs but i didn't have much hope it would be canon and didn't mind too much if it wasn't but it was specifically that comment which made me think "ok, vilde is going to be lesbian in canon for sure!!! that's exciting".. like i wouldn't have expected any more from the show than evak if she hadn't sent that expectation??? it's like,, ok, if u only want to show a limited part of the lgbt community in ur rep, make that clear from the outset and i'll take it for what it is, but to keep up this pretence and bait fans and then for canon to fall short and not deliver is truly so embittering and disappointing, or it was for me at least

how do you feel about the way lesbians are represented on skam? do you feel they are treated respectfully?

most people here answered either: which lesbians?, or talked about all the lesbian jokes in season 2. so the overall answer was no, two girls making out is a joke and something for penetrator chris to stare at.

No, not at all? Eva kissing girls at parties is treated as frivolous (which it often is irl, but I would hope that fictional media would give a purpose to that plotline?), & despite her bf obviously freaking when she kisses a guy at a party, his ex making out w/eva & ingrid at parties apparently didn't bother him at all, b/c it's not cheating if it's two girls!!!! And the jokes about how Noora can't possibly be gay in s2, which I didn't mind at all when I thought that they were set-up for Vilde's coming out arc, but now that that's gone nowhere, it's genuinely upsetting. & for a show that was apparently created in order to represent teenage girls, the fact that they had an entire season about male lgbt+ characters, & yet never delivered on making any female ones? That's ridiculous. If they wanted to represent the underrepresented, as they claim, maybe they shouldn't have focused on the adventures of the white cishets?

No in no way it was like there was no possibility that there could be lesbians so fuck you julie andem for this

Lesbians are as a punchile of a joke like girls making out it's not and it should not be as real as boys kissing boys or girls kissing boys. Skam actually enforces compulsory heterosexuality and laughs so while doing so. Whenever lesbians are mentioned, it's never seen as valid but more as a funny joke.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA- ahem. On a serious note. I think the writers used specific themes and close female friendships to bait wlw viewers. So many of the storylines are explicitly coming out / questioning / discovering yourself storylines and yet they were all wrapped up with random-ass "men! *heart eyes*" conclusions. ESPECIALLY Vilde x Magnus.

i feel HORRIBLE and betrayed. it feels as though julie decided that teen lesbians don't exist? don't matter? are disgusting? don't deserve representation? are only there for the purpose of straight guys or as a punchline? the answer is all of the above. this hurts even more cos this show was targeted towards teenage girls. i;ve (unfortunately) grown used to this sort of lesbian queerbaiting/fetishization in shows targeted for men/teenage boys, or as distasteful and hurtful jokes in comedy, but in a show that i thought i would see myself represented in it stung even more. there are also 3 queer boys, but no girls? julie took it upon herself to write a whole season dealing with coming out and dealing with homophobia as a boy, but she couldn't even just make one of the characters a lesbian? thanks???

do you feel that the lack of wlw representation on the show is just a coincidence, or do you think it's intentional? is it part of a wider trend of lesbian erasure and lesbophobia in media?

This question in particular had so many insightful responses. The consensus is that with all the care that is put into Skam, it’s either intentional or completely careless. It’s incredibly disheartening to have so little lesbian rep in media, and the little rep we do have is often stereotypical, morbid, or, as in Skam, the lesbians are treated as jokes. The reason the lack of wlw representation in Skam hurts so much is for two reasons; first, we were baited very hard (see the previous responses); and, two, there is SO much care put into Skam, they interviewed 1000 teenagers, they read social media reactions, they put a ton of care and effort into the show and incorporate fan reactions, so to not include wlw characters despite knowledge that many wlw saw themselves in vilde, noora, and eva; feels incredibly intentional and disrespectful. here are a few great answers:

I think Skam is such good at showing diversity and realness in young women in every aspect but sexuality. It seems like Julie Andem has drawn on personal experience without much filter which makes the show authentic and relatable, as we all know. But with that said, the way sexuality was treated feels not so much like a personal experience as it does a personal fantasy - and in general, season 3 seems like a fantasy with the Baz Luhrmann theme and big, romantic gestures. Somehow it felt lazy? At least in terms of breaking boundaries, because it definitely would have been more groundbreaking to show a lesbian main character, defy lesbian erasure and talk about the lesbophobia in teenage girls. I think somehow that would have been too much for the show to handle? Too controversial? The same way that they never really dug into Islam or islamophobia in season 4 - it hits too close to home. So, I think the lack of wlw representation is partly because of the mystification of LGBT people which led to this big, fantasy-like season 3 (also a representation of straight, teenage girls' fantasy), and partly because it would be too difficult or controversial to have one of the mains be a lesbian, be forced to tell her story and make people examine their much more subtle lesbophobia. This also makes it a lot easier for the creators to queerbait because they can show that they know wlw exist but at the same time feel no obligation to actually tell the stories of wlw. So, it is not only lesbophobia in the media, but lesbophobia in society.

I don't think it's intentional in the sense that Julie thought to herself, "oh, let's see, hmm, no lesbians on this show", but I also do believe that the decision to leave the girls' sexualities unaddressed is intentional and lesbophobic; we all know that Julie and the crew spent time reading fan theories and shit. They knew we wanted it and cared jackass about it. Even in Vilde's clip, it could've been confirmed just by her mum asking if she's met any cute girl. Or that Magnus and her exchanged a text message that left us knowing their "relationship" is bearded. Or that even Eva is confirmed bi. They could've continued that storyline off show and on social media, with just slightly addressed (for the casual viewers), because they knew that the fans following the show religiously were expecting the rep. The decision to leave wlw rep out in the final season is complete lesbophobia and awfully disgusting of them.

for sure its lesbian erasure and lesbophobia in the media. 100%. theres no way julie can have isak, even, eskild, have her lesbian coded character say the word lesbian several times, exhibit lesbian behaviour and compulsory heterosexuality throughout a whole series - and then randomly and coincidently forget to include an actual lesbian character. nope. there was all the time in the world, she just choose not to - whether by her own prejudice or total disregard for lesbians, i dont know.

I think it's intentional. I think this is why, even when the original plan for the show was to have each of the girl squad have their own season plus isak, the season with the big coming/LGBT storyline featured a gay boy and a m/m couple, because that content is more palatable to an audience of mostly straight girls, and also non-straight sexuality in younger girls is almost never taken seriously. And I think apart from the queerbaiting, Julie was straight up lesbophobic in how she treated the concept of girls loving girls as a literal joke and something to laugh about that couldn't possibly be real; you know, the feelings that arise /can't/ mean you're a lesbian because that's just preposterous, apparently. And this is definitely a wider problem in media, because people cannot fathom girls liking each other romantically and wanting to be with other girls and whatnot, and then there's the whole thing about (straight) girls being sooo comfortable with their friends that they can kiss each other at parties and cuddle and all that but God forbid one of them isn't actually straight.

PART OF A WIDER TREND OF LESBIAN ERASURE IN MEDIA AND SHE SHOULD GET BACKLASH FOR IT IN THE NORWEGIAN PRESS AND BY NORWEGIAN LGBT ORGANIZATIONS BUT INSTEAD SHE IS TREATED LIKE THE PERFECT ALLY AND WINNNS LGBT AWARDS AT OSLO PRIDE

Wider trend. I think creators acknowledge the need for queer community representation, but then go with the easy option of two cis white boys kissing and think that's ticked the box. And I get it, because the two boys option will be popular, there's plenty of evidence to show it. But if you're not giving us the option to root for two girls written with the same care and depth and multi layered story, you're never giving us the chance to show how hard we would support a wlw relationship and create actual change across the media. We as wlw viewers would've defended the show creators if they copped flack for representing wlw or torpedoing a popular straight ship, and a lot of us have done stuff like vote in polls for Evak to show our support for that. We have their back. But they don't have ours.

it's not a coincidence. it cannot be coincidence when while having a mlm relationship on the show there isn't any wlw relationship or even just a lesbian/bisexual/pansexual girl. and there where plenty of time to make a wlw on the show. (they could have made eva bisexual and make season two about nooreva with a strong and self-confident lesbian noora, but okay, whatever) why couldn't they make sana's muslim friend a wlw?? it would mean so much not only to wlw fans but also to muslim wlw fans??? or give sana a wlw sister?? it wouldn't hurt the plot but would give at least some wlw representation. the conclusion is while having more and more gay representation (and i respect that, i do realise that is just as much important as wlw representation) a lot of shows just want to get attention and only give a gay couple so that young straight girls could fetishize them and don't give them proper storylines. and most of the shows that have a gay couple do not have a lesbian couple because i suppose they think there is "limit" on the lgbtq+ characters. and skam isn't the exeption. wlw fans have been queerbaited and humiliated by julie and skam multiple times and i fucking hate it. i also hate julie since hates lesbians.

conclusion: queerbaiting is very common in media and gay people are naturally more in tune to it. the majority of wlw skam fans who took this survey feel that there was queerbaiting on skam, specifically with vilde and season 1 noora. the majority of people who took this survey are incredibly disappointed, and got their hopes up during seasons 3 and 4, only to have their hopes dashed. it would have meant so much to many wlw skam fans to have a wlw character, but instead many feel disheartened, disappointed, and even hurt at their existence being treated like a joke on the show. vilde and noora were both explicitly lesbian-coded, so to make jokes around their sexuality feels like adding insult to injury.

bonus: some nicknames for william we saw: willfurry, mr. dicky, limpdick, richdick, dickface, trashelm, willphlegm, willdemort, willtwat, shitdick, dickface, and one person called him a naked mole rat.

THANK YOU again to everyone who participated!

#skam #skam survey #warning this is really long #ily guys thanks so much for giving such great answers

[culturepopper]

Rules: List 5 OTP’s from 5 fandoms and tag 10 people to pass it on to

I was tagged by sweet Birdie, @kitscaboodle!

Brace yourselves, y’all. It’s about to get REAL AF.

1. Mirandy - Yee, OTP of DWP {The Devil Wears Prada} It all started with Andy and Miranda. When I say all... I mean ALL. Picture it, 2009 or so, I was sitting in my graduate teaching assistant shared office writing my comps for my masters. In a book called “Cyberspaces of their own: Female fandoms online” by Rhiannon Bury, I read about femslash for the first time. Actually, I read about slash, Kirk and Spock fucking in stories written by women online. Then there was a line about femslash. I took to the Googles to learn more about femslash and I think I landed on Passion and Perfection. That pretty much ruined me. I saw some Law & Order: SVU fic and some other bits and pieces then my eye noticed one of my favorite movies ever, The Devil Wears Prada. Once I clicked on that link it really changed my life. I had never heard of fanfiction or femslash before that day and I had no idea what kind of effect it would have on my future. I don’t mean for this to read so dramatically, but fanfic really helped make my life what it is today. You see, that day I discovered fanfic I read some hot as fuck Mirandy and flipped the switch in my brain that I needed to take me from straight/bi to bi/lesbian. I would later realize I was never straight and social norms combined with a heavy dosage of patriarchy and homophobia scared my gay ass into straightness. I ran to my best friend at the time @subcutaneous7 and told her what I found and she started to read some too. Turns out, she grew up reading and writing Seven/Janeway and Seven/Doctor in her teens and once she started reading Mirandy it reignited her fanfic love. Also... we would read these stories next to each other, getting more and more hot and bothered, and continue to “just be friends”. Spoiler alert, I’m marrying the fuck out of her in August. So when I say Mirandy started it all. I mean my whole amazing life and future wife.

2. Supercat {Supergirl} In the beginning I was getting Mirandy feels for Cat Grant and Kara Danvers when I’d see posts on Tumblr. @subcutaneous7 and I started watching it together last year and then it took over. Now she’s a prolific writer in the fandom and we met one of our closest friend couples too! Can I also just say, not to brag, but bae writes the best fic I’ve ever read. It’s sexual. 

3. Berena {Holby City} Jesus. Where does one start? Last August/September I noticed some people posting “the kiss” between Bernie and Serena on Holby City. Two early to mid 50′s women sitting in scrubs on the floor of an operating room (which I then learned was called theatre), breath mingling, sharing a very scary moment. Then boom. Like a sack of bricks dropped from above, they kissed and shook the internet. What happened after that kiss is a literal mystery. All I know is @kitscaboodle and I became besties, there was another Berena kiss on the show, I binged seasons 14 - 19 so I could watch every scene with Serena in it, then Bernie was off the show for a desperate amount of time, then she came back and they kissed again... then they killed Serena’s daughter. Before that I wrote a bunch of shit about my feelings on the show and this pairing. Most people don’t agree, but some do. TLDR; After the shit of 2016, I don’t want to put myself through any unnecessary lesbian trauma. I’m not cut out for it. If you are, cool, do you. I’m gonna do me. I’ll still watch when I can, and of course keep up on Tumblr, and I’m still reading fic (which is damn good) and loving the artists and vid makers, but I’m watching with an arms length in front of me.  

4. Patty/Ellen {Damages} The old throwback. It was a little sadistic, it was rife with tight skirts and high heels and brown liquor. Patty Hughes and her personality issues. Sociopathic at times, but good at her job. Family issues. Dreams. Power plays. And how she looked at Ellen Parsons. Imagine laying on a soft bed with your arms and legs tied comfortably, but just so you couldn’t move. Now imagine you’re on that bed and a gorgeous woman walks up to the bed and holds a chocolate (oh, you have to like chocolate in this scenario, but if you don’t imagine your favorite food) just above your mouth. She whispers things to you. The chocolate is still just out of reach. Then everything disappears. The woman, the chocolate, the ties. You’re just alone on a bed. That’s Damages.

5. M/James Bond {James Bond} Don’t ask. I don’t know why either. They are one of two straight ships I can get behind. The other is Chelsie (Charles Carson and Elsie Hughes from Downton Abby). If you learn anything at all about me from this, it’s that there’s something about strong, powerful older women that really does it for me. Can change a zebra’s stripes, and you can’t make older women anything but attractive to me.

Honorable Mention: Seven of Nine/Captain Janeway {Star Trek Voyager} They were my second OTP. The (future) wife and I watched every episode together. We have figurines, commemorative plates, action figures, posters, and memorabilia all over our apartment. Honestly, I could have put J/7 above M/James Bond but it didn’t naturally happen that way. I didn’t remember until I scrolled through my feed. I would also like to mention Captain Janeway/Admiral Janeway here... what an amazing mind fuck of temporal mechanics. It’s interesting and titillating to me to think of a person and their future selves getting together. I’ll just leave that there.

Honorable Mention: Carol/Therese {Carol} How did I forget to mention Carol?! I’m into Carol on a spiritual level, but Therese... not so much. I liked looking through Therese’s eye at Carol. I like what she saw. I still love to watch wlw. LOVE IT.

Tag 10: @vivinicorn @subcutaneous7 @theresacullens @catgranting @superkartoffel @badassbettyrizzo @xvnot15 @missolitude @chaotik @gaycarolaird

#OTP #my 5 otps #tmi #mirandy #berena #supercat #patty/ellen #m/james bond #carol #j/seven #janeway #Seven of Nine