#i just think we should balance out all the trans man headcanons with some trans women headcanons as well
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I have decided that percy and annabeth are t4t
#percabeth#percy jackson#annabeth chase#i just think we should balance out all the trans man headcanons with some trans women headcanons as well#pjo
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Heloo could I request some general slasher headcanons? Anything ranging from fav food to hobbies- Anything is fine :D (for the characters, Anyone is fine but please include leslie I love sm and there's not much leslie content)
Of course! These were fun to write! I ended up going with Leslie, Asa, and Freddy, hope that’s okay.
Content: General slasher things, bug mentions, suggestive text because Freddy.
General Headcanons
Leslie Vernon:
Lemme start off with my gender/sexuality hcs, he’s a bisexual trans man.
Leslie was most definitely a theater kid. He got quite good at it, both as the lead role or multiple side parts. It’s part of why he was able to be so convincing about his story, and it’s where he was able to learn a lot of the archetypes that he relies on for his victims.
He’s always considered getting a dog, but he knows he wouldn’t be able to take care of it. He still thinks about it though, he wanted to have a trained attack dog to help him with his hunts.
He could probably recite to you some of Grimm’s fairy-tales, they were his favorite growing up and even now he has a soft spot for them.
He’s not one to cook for himself, his house is full of instant meals and protein shakes. He has more important things to do.
When he does want to indulge, though, he’ll find himself a competent butcher and he’ll get a blue steak. He can’t really explain why, but he likes it a lot more than preparing any other way.
For less special meals, he just really enjoys eating with Eugene and Jamie (hehe that’s my name), their cooking isn’t anything spectacular, but it’s better than what he’s got at home, and he’ll never pass up an opportunity to get some advice from his mentor.
For hobbies, he always says that he doesn’t have time for them, he’s preparing for his next hunt and all, and he has to keep in shape. If he ever does let himself have free time, he’ll listen to podcasts or audiobooks while he writes horror stories.
Kind of a side note to the last one, he’s insanely good at multitasking, to the point where he can be writing while skimming through a book and listening to music.
Asa Emory:
Asa is a masculine non-binary, using any pronouns except she/her. He’s androsexual.
Of course, some of his hobbies we already know about, like taxidermy, kidnapping, etc…
he also enjoys sculpting! He’s not very fond of other mediums, but he likes working with clays a lot.
He spends the little free time he has enjoying sculpting whatever comes to mind.
He’s got a more expensive taste than he should on the budget of a college professor. He goes to fancier restaurants sometimes, when he can afford it, eavesdropping on the other patrons while he waits for his food. He always ends up getting some type of “strange” delicacy like tripe, cow tongue, or escargot. He’s definitely up to eating bugs, and he insists that animal parts shouldn’t be wasted.
When he can’t afford to spend that much, he goes for a more balanced homemade meal, usually something spicy.
His dogs are mostly strays that he’s found and their offspring. He takes very good care of them!
He had a lot of respect for Arkin, seeing his skill and potential. If he hadn’t already planned on collecting someone, he would’ve definitely taken him.
He’s very proud of those that make it into his collection, especially Abby. He always introduces his bait to them, taking pride in how far they’ve come under his guidance.
He only does this because his bait isn’t intended to live to tell the tale, he’d like to show more people, like a museum. He’s a little upset that he can’t show the world his collection, but he’s smarter than that.
Freddy Krueger:
He’s a cisgender man, and he’s bisexual with a male lean.
He’s the type to sit there and debate the pros and cons of dating someone with every type of body shape, but his conclusion is always that he doesn’t really care.
In his life, when he was bored, he’d go out and loudly judge people in public. He always liked to see them get upset, especially when it was parents trying to keep their cool around their kids. It’s just incredibly amusing to him.
He can’t really eat actual food anymore, but when he was alive, he was a fan of barbecue. Yes, he sees the irony in that now.
He gets bored easily if he’s not scaring or harassing people in their dreams. During the day, he likes to do wood carving, which he always liked, and now he has the benefit that he can’t slice up his hand in the dream world.
Sometimes he’ll watch people's dreams for fun, particularly the ones where the person is super embarrassed. He thinks it’s funny to watch a middle aged man panic because he needs to use the bathroom, but the only toilet is in the center of a giant crowd. To be fair, I think that’d be pretty funny, too. He also, unsurprisingly, enjoys watching people’s more risqué dreams. He hasn’t seen or touched a swimsuit magazine in like 53 years, give him a break.
He adamantly refuses that he’d ever have a romantic relationship. He is wrong.
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i said in this post that i have original characters and backstories for neil's extended family. it took me,, a really long time to write it all down. it's been a full month since the original post, and this is still just a run through of things, not full prose, which i might be interested in doing one day but not anytime soon
now, some things to note about what i'm writing, why, and how. methodology, basically. this might not have come through yet in my posts, because i just don't post about my half-finished ideas, but i research a LOT. i like to base what i write about on real life, even if it's just headcanons and fanfic
also, i love helping people with research, so if anyone wants help with research for a fic or just their personal headcanons or anything hit me up!!
as a white person who wants to write characters from different ethnic backgrounds, i feel i have a responsibility to really do my due diligence and research as much as possible to consider things from every angle. and part of that for me is making sure that every character of color has a backstory. they don't just appear somewhere, i have to give them a reason for being there and a story for how they got there, even if that's not what i write their STORY about. people, come from places, basically. i follow a lot of demographic census information and population averages, as well as a lot of history, from as general as transatlantic trade in the last 500 years to as specific as the changes in a single city in a certain year
talking to other writers in the fandom i know i'm a little overzealous, but this is what gives me peace of mind to feel like i am putting the effort in to get things right
so anyway, as for what that means here:
i like writing neil as mixed black/jewish. it works well thematically for his character, as well as just what FEELS right for how i visualize him in my head
only, that can't simply come from nowhere. we know who his parents are. they need to also be poc for neil to be one, and they're a complicated pair to handle in that lens
one choice i made about that, for multiple reasons, is that everything about neil's parents' backgrounds should mirror each other. it can't simply be that one if them is black and one is jewish, or even that mary is both and nathan is white, because that says something i don't want to say any way you slice it. additionally, i want both facets of his ethnicity to be important to neil, and i feel as though he would want to ignore the half of himself from his father.
so: they both have to be mixed, giving them a sort of,, ideological equal footing, as it were. that way, i can also write three different experiences, rather than accidentally implying that This is what being black is, or This is what being jewish is, or This is what being mixed is. and that's also important to me, even if it's just in my head or not even directly addressed. it's still a big consideration of mine anytime i write about any of them
now, finally, onto mary and nathan! i'll put it below a cut because this is already long enough, the under-the-cut is much longer, and i don't want to wear out your thumbs if you don't care
mary hatford
canon timeline, neil was born in 1988. as a tentative number let's say mary was around 30 when he was born, meaning she would be born in the 50s. say her parents were roughly the same age, so they were born around the 20s
like i said, what's happening where in history is very important to me for building these backstories, and major historical events tend to have a lot of influence on population shifts. and well,, jews and europeans in the early-to-mid 20th century? there's no getting around involving world war II. nothing explicit, but it is mentioned and part of the story
mary’s paternal family are the hatfords. they're from the british west indies, largely jamaica, but they've been involved with shipping and trade all over the trans-atlantic region for generations.
they have a complicated relationship with the british empire, having both worked for them and against them at various points, sometimes both at once. similarly, they've tried multiple times through the generations to relocate the family to england permanently, but have been turned away or pressured out
they associate england and the british empire with power, and they both disagree with and desire that power in degrees which vary person to person. they do have a general idea between them though that living in england is a sign of status and authenticity, and while they don't want to leave jamaica permanently they do want their center of power to be in england, and there is a deep resentment against the anglos for not allowing them to stay permanently despite their wealth and influence, the fact that their work will always be looked down on and seen as lesser
i did come into building the hatfords with the primary idea of them being black british, and looking into the organized crime connection second. them being jamaican/west indies is a reference to the jamaican posse, who have a large presence in the london crime scene, although that's really the only connection. the hatfords aren't really yardies in any sense
the hatfords' status as organized crime is a little iffy. mostly they skirt the line between legal and illegal, owning legal trading companies and doing plenty of legal shipping. their main business in the criminal underworld is being middlemen moving supplies for other groups. they have a lot of contacts, and they serve an invaluable role in international smuggling, but they rarely get their own hands dirty. they move things from one place to the other and don't question too much what it is, though they don't deal in people
mary's father is named samuel hatford (first name in reference to samuel bellamy, the gentleman pirate king of the early 18th century). he was born in England, raised largely in Jamaica, then moved back to England as a teenager/young man. he's light-hearted and a bit idealistic for someone from a crime family, seeing the best in people even when they're cold and often believing in principle over profit, which at times put him in conflict with what's best for business
he almost enlisted in world war II, but instead convinced the family to work as weapons and supplies runners supporting the Allies and guerilla resistance groups
mary's mother is named cima ben nahman (ladino/judeo-spanish/sephardic names, doesn't really reference anything or anyone in particular). She's is an algerian jew. Born in algeria (city undecided, though algiers had the largest jewish community at the time), she moved to france for a few years as a young woman, probably for education. she joined anti-fascist organizations which became resistance groups once germany invaded
she's stoic, and has a ruthless mind for strategy. like most algerian jews, she's caught between her home country and its colonizer. the french empire played the algerian muslim majority against the jewish minority as a way to create infighting and distract the algerians from uniting and turning against them, but the algerian jews also then became reliant on the french for protection. (it's a really, really complicated situation)
cima sort of hates them both, both algeria and france. her only allegiance is to being jewish
(contrast this to samuel, who feels that he is BOTH british and caribbean, even when those two identities may be in conflict)
cima and samuel met when samuel provided weapons and supplies to cima's militia group. he took particular interest in them and went out of his way to help, above and beyond the other groups the hatfords were supplying
in the waning period of the war, cima was seriously injured, i'm currently thinking a land mine accident. she survived, but her recovery was slow. she lost an arm and had burns across half her torso, neck, and face. samuel brought her to england supported her through her recovery. in the hospital, they spoke a lot about why they each chose to fight, and the ways they did because neither were formal soldiers fighting for a country. samuel was in many ways fighting for an ideal, while cima was fighting for her people. cima also talked to him a lot about judaism and religion during this time, which samuel took an interest in. eventually, cima decided to stay
they got married. samuel converted, which was somewhat controversial with his family. however, cima agreed to join the family business, where she became an integral but sometimes ruthless member. after algerian independence, she brought some of her trusted family and community into the fold as well, some moving to england and others to france
both cima and samuel believed very heavily in responsibility, though what it meant for each of them was different. cima believed in preparedness and follow-through, samuel believed in family and protection, doing what's right outside of the bounds of the law. this contributed a lot to how they raised their children
when they were born, mary and stuart were raised in england (and i like to think they have an oldest brother). the hatfords were a big family, and influential, although careful about balancing the legal and less-legal sides of their business. the ben nahmans were smaller, and most of them were in france so mary and her brothers saw them less often. they were raised very religiously and culturally jewish, though close with the caribbean side of their family too, as well as being the first generation who were born and raised in england. this put them at a cross-section of three very different cultures, and was where mary first learned about changing and blending in with different groups
mary was the youngest and a little bit spoiled by her father, aunties, and uncles. her mother however was much less tolerant of her. clearly very affected by her time in the war, cima became extremely distrustful and suspicious, and tried to instill in her children a similar sentiment of secrecy and self-sufficiency, avoiding attention and casual relationships. she could be harsh on them, especially mary, who was the most resistant to this
growing up, mary was irresponsible and fun-loving, goading her brothers and cousins, getting in trouble, and starting fights. she didn't understand the tenuous balance of being organized crime, and at times put the whole family at risk by overestimating their sway. her mistakes affected the whole family but it was usually her mother who confronted her about them first and most harshly
she resented her mother's control, and didn't understand the reasons behind it. she also couldn't differentiate between the boundaries her mother sets as a result of her own trauma, and the necessary boundaries she set for the safety of the family, viewing them as one and the same, and leading her to hate any kind of control exerted over her
really, a lot of cima's character is just who mary ends up becoming after being married to nathan and being on the run. i like the story of a child becoming the parent they once hated. rather than learn from her mother, both her failures and her successes, mary becomes her, doomed to make the same mistakes. this is also why cima is wounded by a landmine, because mary dies in fire
---
nathan wesninski
nathan was HARD to come up with a story for, mostly because,,, WHY THE FUCK DOES THIS GUY WORK FOR THE JAPANESE YAKUZA
wesninski is a VERY polish name. the japanese-polish connection is,, not super strong
so anyway, working off the idea of the wesninski family being a polish jewish one, WHERE is he going to meet a japanese crimelord to get into a multi-generation debt/business arrangement with?
turns out, the answer is brazil
brazil actually has a large jewish population (roughly 10th largest in the world). it began with its colonization by the portuguese, but the 19th century to modern population largely comes from central and eastern europe. brazil ALSO has the largest japanese population outside of japan
also this story ended up being WAY more detailed and prosaic than samuel&cima's story, which is basically just bullet points. there's no reason for this i love both stories very much just for some reason the words flowed for me here and not there
to avoid having a second jewish story where wwII is prominent, the wesninskis get a page out of my own family's book: nathan's grandfather (neil's great grandfather) came to the americas fleeing the russian pograms around the turn of the 20th century
so
Wesninski came to brazil (city undecided, have a lot more research to do about individual cities in brazil). he had waardenburg syndrome(a hereditary genetic condition that can affect eyes and hearing) which runs very strongly in his family (his son, nathan, and neil will all inherit it), and he is completely Deaf. while he came to brazil alone, in his new home he connected both with the local jewish community and the local deaf community, and eventually marries another Deaf Jewish woman
eventually they were able to establish a kosher deli and restaurant in the city, one which became a common hangout for the Deaf community. then one day (probably around 1915), a group of japanese men came in, and kept returning
these were the moriyamas, recently arrived from japan, in a place with very few japanese people and businesses. they liked the wesninski deli because they didn't share a language with anyone in there, couldn't even be heard by most of them, and it would also be difficult for the authorities to question them. two layers of protection for a crime family in a vulnerable place
wesninski and the moriyamas were amicable to each other, but as they didn't actually have a way to communicate that was the extent of it. but the moriyamas were polite and payed well and didn't bother the other customers. als, as a jewish establishment, they had a lot of education resources, which were helpful to the moriyamas in learning about brazilian society, including beginning to understand portuguese
now, in japan, the moriyamas were a small yakuza family. they got driven out by their bigger and stronger and more established competition around the time when japanese immigration to brazil was just starting, so that was where they went. though they had little option in where they ended up, they also had little competition in establishing their business
i still have a lot of research to do about the moriyamas. about both how the yakuza operate and about how brazilian organized crime works, and about life in brazil for early japanese immigrants. so a lot of the moriyama details are pretty vague
now the wesninskis had a son, meyer (nathan's father. name in reference to meyer lansky, famous american jewish mobster of polish descent) who was around 14 when the moriyamas arrived. he himself was not fully deaf like his parents, though was hard of hearing and raised in the Deaf community. as he goes through his rebellious teenage years, well, the gangsters are right there
in the early days the moriyamas were still more concerned with mostly the japanese enclaves, but they had aspirations of expanding. meyer wasn't japanese, but he was helpful to the moriyamas who came into the deli to study. he was perceptive and bold, could keep a secret, knew his way around knives from working in the deli, and knew the city. he was a good asset to them, and he was interested in causing some trouble
over the next ten years or so, meyer got increasingly more involved, alongside the moriyamas becoming increasingly more established throughout the city. he goes from someone who helps out occasionally and relays information beyween parties to getting involved with minor shakedowns, bribery, evidence disposal. by the time he's in his 20s he's thoroughly enmeshed
his parents were older when they had him, and his father died relatively young, leaving meyer the store and his mother to take care of. they were vaguely aware of his connections to the moriyamas and didn't approve of what he did with them but he also kept the worst from them, and was always a diligent son, and the only one they had. he assured them no matter how far he went that he wasn't "really" part of the gang
"yakuza have tattoos, and see, ima? no tattoos. i'm still a good jewish son, not a gangster"
now the problem arises when meyer falls for camara da machado, a young Deaf woman who frequents the store
(based on/inspired by/FC yaya dacosta (where the name comes from) and rutina wesley)
she was a Deaf girl born to a hearing family who struggled to give her the support she needed, maybe even just a single mother, and she'd spent a lot of time alone at the deli from a young age (12-ish?). she was shy and quiet and a little bit of a shrinking violet, but the wesninskis became very fond of her. she started tentatively helping them out around the store which became a job. she was often included in family meals and holidays, and always had a bed in their apartment above the deli if she needed one, and more than once had helped patch meyer up after he got in trouble to hide the extent of it from his parents
she was a couple years younger than him but he'd always been sweet on her. and she'd had a crush on him from basically the moment she'd layed eyes on him. they'd known each for years and camara was basically family, and then one day when they were both in their 20s it just suddenly clicked for them
so meyer and camara fell in love. meyer was head of the house, had to keep the deli running, and had his mother, camara, and possibly camara's mother (undecided at this juncture) to worry about and he decided he didn't want to continue working with the moriyamas in case it dragged his family into danger. being a gangster was a fling of youth and he was ready to grow up
when he informed the moriyamas of this though, they,,, did not agree.
while MEYER might not have considered himself part of the gang, THEY didn't think he just got to walk away. he'd worked with them for too long and knew too much. there might even have been a desire to tie him to the family permanently through marriage. and well,, one man against a growing criminal empire can't do much
it was a huge shock to him, and made him truly realize how naive and reckless he'd been. he'd been a dumb kid who wanted to start some trouble, the moriyamas were career criminals. they expected that once you were in, you were in for life, and they did not take kindly to meyer disagreeing with this
he didn't know how to explain this to his family... so he didn't. they'd all told him they wanted him to stop, but he'd meant for the announcement to be a surprise. after learning that he would not be permitted to walk away, he chose to just hide it and continue with business as usual
it worked for a while, maybe a few years, a time during which the moriyamas were getting a lot more brutal as they got more established and increasingly looked to expand, putting them in competition with other gangs and greater law enforcement, until they were a true crime empire spread across whole regions of the country. meyer had lost a lot of esteem in their eyes by asking to leave, leading them to put him under increasing scrutiny and giving him more incriminating tasks, to ensure that he would be incriminated if he ever tried to turn them in. it's during this time that he first had to kill for them
then camara got pregnant
and meyer was terrified. he didn't know how the moriyamas would deal with a kid. the only marriages and children he knew of within the family were endorsed by the boss, many arranged by him, and he knew his wouldn't be approved. yakuza wives were heavily involved with the business too, and he absolutely did not want that for camara
he broke down and told her everything. she's horrified, and furious that he kept it from her, but she didn't want to give up her baby. it would be hard, but she believed they can keep it hidden, and if the moriyamas found out, maybe it wouln't be so bad?
(spoiler: it would)
they have a son, born natan da machado, under his mother's name
meyer and camara never got married. meyer was going to propose after he left the moriyamas but that obviously didn't happen. marriages were supposed to be blessed by the boss, and meyer never dared to ask. they already lived together, anyway
but with natan, they decided that meyer couldn't acknowledge him as his own. in the deli or in the streets, he didn't acknowledge natan. he was camara's bastard son, and meyer didn't want anything to do with him
it was a flimsy disguise at best. natan was mixed, but there was a strong enough resemblance to his father. even if his hair was a darker red or he had brown skin, they had the same eyes
they tried to keep him away from the moriyamas as he grew up, hoping they wouldn't see him and make the connection, but they also kept him very hidden in general, just in case. he spent a lot of time inside, with his grandmothers
and that was how natan grew up, feeling like a secret, his father cold and distant, only acknowledging him in their apartment. cut off from other kids his age. a hearing boy in a Deaf family (natan himself was HoH but still had most of his hearing. meyer and his maternal grandmother could both hear, but they had gotten out of the habit of it and mostly communicated through sign)
natan developed a deep feeling of resentment towards his father and shame about himself from a young age. he felt like a mistake, defective somehow. so wrong he had to be hidden away from everyone
there's only so long that you can hide a child, though, and when natan was around ten the moriyamas found out about him, and they were not happy.
they didn't like split attention or loyalty. they kept children and family under very tight wraps. they should be one hundred percent enmeshed in the moriyama empire, raised to be loyal and helpful in whatever way they were needed. the fact that meyer wanted and was willing to leave for this family, and then hid his son, was a huge betrayal
still, they gave him an opportunity to prove his loyalty: kill camara or the moriyamas would kill them all: her, natan, meyer, and both their mothers
but meyer couldn't do it, and instead he told camara to run and hope they didn't actually care enough to chase her down. and she did. and she couldn't take natan with her. (i haven't fully fleshed out why yet, currently thinking that meyer was given this ultimatium when they already had natan)
so camara left her son, and got away
i built the story of mary's mother as a reflection of mary's story if something had been different, and i built nathan's story the same way. his wife takes her son and runs away with him when the moriyamas try to take him from her. nathan's mother was in the same situation and left him behind
over the next forty years of his belonging to the moriyamas he gets to marinate in that resentment. from the father that ignored to the mother who ran away from him, he internalizes it as being something wrong with him, not the circumstances. the more he's taught to torture and kill and the more he excels at it, the more this belief gets cemented. he's good at killing, he was meant to kill. he's twisted and broken and wrong inside and he always was and his parents always knew
and then when it happens again but differently this time he throws away a decade and millions of dollars and his standing with his boss to hunt down his son and his wife because he didn't get to run away so why should they? why does mary love nathaniel more than camara loved natan?
from here, the exact detail's of nathan's story aren't quite solidified. whether he was raised by his father from then on or by his grandmothers (or whether his grandmothers left with his mother) or whether the moriyamas put him somewhere else entirely, but from then on he lived under the moriyamas' direct supervision, and they taught him how to turn a knife on a man
they took his mother's name from him, though, so he's natan wesninski, not natan da machado, because they own the wesninskis now
and when the moriyamas decided to expand beyond brazil when natan was a young man instead of a child, and settled on the east coast of the US, they renamed him nathan, because it sounded more "american"
---
so that's it. obviously there are still a lot of unfinished details in both stories, but they're strong enough at this point to stand on their own and i haven't changed or rethought a lot of the major details in a long time
i've become extremely attached to these OCs and their stories, and i hope they interest other people too. some day i'd like to write them out in prose properly, along with the story of nathan and mary meeting, but that'll be a while away considering the pace i move at
so until then i just wanted to put this out there
#aftg#tfc#neil josten#nathaniel wesninski#mary hatford#nathan wesninski#txt#my fics#my writing#my posts#black neil josten#jewish neil josten#cw gangs#cw organized crime#cw ww11#cw wwII#long form post
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And for the characters, peril wingsoffire, orsino twelfthnight, ippolit warandpeace and uhhhhh firestar warriorcats
PERIL WINGSOFFIRE (yes i run a shakespeare blog yes im about to encourage you all to read wings of fire the children's books about dragons because they genuinely hold up and still slap)
Sexuality Headcanon: i think peril is bi i think that's her right
Gender Headcanon: on the one hand i'm hesitant to hc peril as a trans woman because she's. a walking weapon and i feel like that could get dicey. however it could also be interesting as a reason why kestrel might not recognize her as an adult. + in the sense of... scarlet supporting her gender as long as peril does shit for her as another form of manipulation
A ship I have with said character: peril/sunny maybe? i can't think of a reason why that one would be bad and i think they both have so much bright energy just in different directions yknow... like sunny is so sweet in a way most people (dragons) aren't to peril, and also i'm envisioning sunny curling up to sleep near peril because her heat reminds her of the desert :)
A BROTP I have with said character: i don't really ship clay and peril romantically because i feel like peril really needs to sort out her own self-worth with regard to clay (and i'm glad that, at least as far as i've read, the books haven't shoved them together + have put an emphasis on giving them time to figure it out! we stan actually well-written het romance). however i DO think they are buddies and character foils and he's the only one who can hug her so he should
A NOTP I have with said character: i guess peril and scarlet?? because of the obvious reasons?? maybe peril and turtle as well because idk i just like them as friends
A random headcanon: i know most jewelry melts when it touches her, but turtle's an animus, right. i think he enchants her some jewelry that won't melt & she's so incredibly touched because she's never been able to wear bracelets before (bonus points if it's ugly as fuck but she's enthralled anyway)
General Opinion over said character: peril my bestie my beloved. i had mixed feelings on her until her POV and now she's my best friend she's so much fun and her arc is so good
ORSINO TWELFTHNIGHT
Sexuality Headcanon: one of the most bisexual characters ever, actually
Gender Headcanon: generally i think of orsino as a cis man (and presumed straight until he meets viola and Figures Some Things Out), but i also once read a fic where orsino is a trans bear and that concept is so god tier
A ship I have with said character: orsino and violacesario :)
A BROTP I have with said character: i think orsino and olivia become friends after the events of canon! i'd like to imagine he apologizes for being The Way He Was and they get to bond over being... very lonely people figuring out their relationships to love
A NOTP I have with said character: orsino/olivia. dude she said to fuck off stop showing up at her HOUSE
A random headcanon: he plays like five instruments very well but when it comes to singing he's tone fucking deaf. at first viola is like "why do you have other people make music for you" and then they hear him sing and they're like.... ah
General Opinion over said character: i'll admit of TN characters i probably think about him the least? but i think his character arc is really interesting (and can be played in a very dark direction but i'm ignoring that because i'm in nice-headcanon-land)
IPPOLIT WARANDPEACE
Sexuality Headcanon: we know this man is gay
Gender Headcanon: i haven't thought in depth about ippolit's gender but an agender ippolit could be cool. to balance out his siblings. the kuragins got one of each /s
A ship I have with said character: ishpolit ofc <3 (the fact that this fic is unironically good. shakes my fist)
A BROTP I have with said character: the obvious answer here is ippolit and lise but for whatever reason i read this and "ippolit and dolokhov" popped into my head. can you imagine dolokhov leaving either kuragin's bedroom in the middle of the night and ippolit is still awake doing weird shit downstairs and he's like "hi!!!" [waving] and dolokhov is like. hi?
A NOTP I have with said character: ippolit and lise... he's a gay man and he wouldn't know how to have an affair if it bit him anyway
A random headcanon: i'm partial to a neurodivergent ippolit but that's because i like to look at comic relief characters and go "oh me?"
General Opinion over said character: i fucking love him im obsessed with him my war and peace blog url is literally lesbians4ippolit what else do i have to say
FIRESTAR WARRIORCATAS
Sexuality Headcanon: am i allowed to stand here and be like "firestar is a lesbian because he's my oldest comfort character and i'm a lesbian"
Gender Headcanon: see above.
A ship I have with said character: firestar/sandstorm i know it's basic and canon but literally who is doing it like them. WHO is doing it like them! shoutout to the post that's like "firesand walked so hiccup/astrid in HTTYD could run" like fucking say that
A BROTP I have with said character: i know the obvious answer here is firestar and graystripe and i do adore them but i feel so much more passionately about firestar and cinderpelt like. ;-;
A NOTP I have with said character: firecinder there is literally no reason to be like "actually cinderpelt loved him!" let them be friends. i also have a seething hatred for firestar/spottedleaf, kept burning in my body from when i was ten apparently. he's a married man why is he getting homewrecked by a fucking ghost and why does this keep happening for like... sixty books
A random headcanon: he and bramblestar never said so in as many words, but they both considered him bramblestar's real father. (and they both knew it; they didn't have to talk about it to feel it.)
General Opinion over said character: . this is so embarrassing. hopping on my shakespeare blog to admit that my oldest and deepest and #1 comfort character ever in my life is cat jesus from cat game of thrones for children
#if i had to pick one character in the world to kin-[gunshot]#max.txt#TY WREN KSDHFKDSBFKDSNF#asks#twelfth night#+ other works but shh.
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Gushing time.
Rune Factory 4 Special arrived a day early, so my entire day has been consumed in nostalgia. The original Rune Factory 4 was the first video game I ever bought on release day - I remember saving up all my money and making my mum drive me to like three different shops trying to find one that had it. I was already a fan of the franchise - before then, Rune Factory 3 had been my favourite video game, across the board. Aside from a playthrough of the first game last year, I haven’t played a Rune Factory game in a long time, certainly not RF4. But just starting up the game and hearing the music again, it was like it was suddenly seven years ago. Running around Selphia and seeing all the characters again - I love JRPGs, have played a lot of them, and I can think of very few that have characters that have stuck with me this long. And the aesthetics - the best thing about the Rune Factory franchise has always been the aesthetics, the music, the scenic and character design, just the general world. It’s a beautifully whimsical balance of urban and fantasy, and it’s the only JRPG world I think I’ve ever come across that I would genuinely want to live in. Rune Factory may no longer be my favourite game franchise - but I don’t think there has ever been another series that has felt so much like home to me.
Here’s a very long selection of personal highlights from the art book (by which I mean photos of the art followed by my rambling opinions):
Yeah, see, here’s the thing - Rune Factory 1 is not a good game. I could write an entire essay on why it’s bad (I actually started and got pretty damn far before realising no one’s interested in my two thousand word review of a game that came out over a decade ago - the short version is ‘Misty Bloom-fucking-Cave’. Anyone who’s played RF1 knows exactly what I mean). Don’t get me wrong, it has good qualities - excellent boss fights, for one, and also, as with the rest of the franchise, it is aesthetically wonderful. But ultimately, it feels less like playing a video game, and more like playing a proof of concept for a game. Which I guess it kind of was - and I can’t hate it because we wouldn’t have the rest of the series without it.
But it literally ends with a dragon spewing plant breath on a tank to make a turnip grow out of the gun. ‘Profound’, my arse.
It’s Raguna! The “master sowrdsman!” (that is not a typo on my part that is a direct quote from the ending of Rune Factory 1 this game’s script had so many issues-). And Mist! My favourite of the ‘canon’ love interests!
Best girl! When I was a kid, my favourite love interest in RF1 was Rosetta. As an adult, it is Tabatha. I don’t know what it is about her that I find so likeable (she’s as lacking in personality as any other RF1 character), but... idk, I just like her a lot.
Camus’s big ambition is to leave town like even once. He will never achieve it
Fun fact about Melody is that she’s extremely depressed, a fact that comes up once in an optional side quest and is never addressed again. It’s incredibly dark for an RF game
Fun fact about Lukas is that he sucks (he’s one of those ‘obsessed with talking about how hot all the girls are’ characters, an archetype that thankfully doesn’t show up again in these games). But also, interestingly enough, thanks to one of RF1′s many, many script errors, if you marry Rosetta (the girl Lukas is the most obsessed with), he’s supposed to express disappointment that he lost her to Raguna - but instead, he implies that he’s disappointed to have lost Raguna to her. The translators typoed their way into giving him a sexuality change. Which is honestly kind of amazing.
LOOK AT THIS SLIME THIS IS SUCH A COOL SLIME LITERALLY EVERY OTHER JPRG SLIME GO HOME DRAGON QUEST GET FUCKED (jk I like Dragon Quest a lot and its slimes are cool too). Wish you could see in-game that this is what they’re meant to be like.
I just generally love the monster designs, they’re really charming
Rune Factory 2! The RF game with the most weirdly mundane protagonist name (Kyle. In the main four games of this franchise we’ve got Raguna, Micah, Lest, Frey... and Kyle). The two generations thing was actually very cool, but when they say ‘each chapter captures a different lifestyle’, what they really mean is ‘the first half is a weak Harvest Moon I’m sorry, STORY OF SEASONS game, and the second half is a pretty good Rune Factory game’
lookit this little fuck
Yue Yue Yue! I love Yue so much, she’s great. She’s kind of like a much chiller version of Anna from Fire Emblem.
It’s really cool that we got to see grown up Cecilia (she was in RF1). I have this silly headcanon that if Kyle doesn’t marry Mana, Nicholas (her friend in 1) comes to visit Cecilia one day in the hazy-post game future, and meets Mana, and they get together. While Yue is my favourite, I do genuinely like Mana a lot, and I just want her to find love, I guess.
Here’s original Barrett! There’s a reason he was popular enough to make a reappearance (well, aside from the whole grumpy pretty boy thing he’s got going on) - he was a great character in this game. His and Dorothy’s relationship is also definitely the most compelling of the rival romances. Bonus Max, who also has a little shout-out in RF4 (check the diary in what will become Dylas’s bedroom at the start of the game)
Ray is male, but apparently he was originally going to be a female character, as he has an unused portrait in a wedding dress. My friend and I agree that this makes him a Trans Icon
Monster designs remain excellent. Especially the goblins
Skipping over Frontier (and also Oceans later), as I never got to play it growing up due to not having a console, and still haven’t got around to it - might try this summer. Except I do need to point out that these guys should be memes. I don’t know in what way. But they should.
Rune Factory 3! My first RF game. The transformation thing was very cool, even if it was basically useless outside the main story. My friend and I spent hours mucking about in the WiFi dungeon. I loved the desert settlement and all of the dungeon designs in general, and man, RF3 is just great. I hope it gets a remake one day.
Raven Raven Raven! I LOVE Raven (as do most). Her story with Micah is the first time I can remember getting genuinely invested in a video game romance. I’m so glad she cameos in RF4. I love her. She’s wonderful.
I have an odd fondness for Marian. When I was about twelve, I decided to do a playthrough where I deliberately romanced the least popular bachelorette. After poking around on forums, I determined that character to be Marian, and did a run with her. And... I actually came to really like her. I find her endearing. I get that people find her annoying and don’t like her... unethical medical practices, but doing that run has still made me a pretty protective of her. It’s been a long time since I played RF3, so maybe I’d change my mind if I replayed now, but currently, as far as I’m concerned, Marian’s a good’un.
I think I also used to low key ship her with Collette lol
Pia’s official art has always been super weird to me because it’s so not what her character is like in-game. She’s a ditzy airhead. This makes her look so serious
RAINBOW! Another character whose art makes them look way more serious than they actually are. Daria is great and would be a meme if this game was more popular. I think she’s also implied to be a relative of Margaret.
I’ve always been super confused about what Kuruna’s skirt is meant to be. Is it fur? Is it part of her shirt? Is it even a skirt at all?
Check it out, it’s the guy everyone would ship Micah with if this game was more popular
I want Zaid to make a reappearance and interact with Doug. Pretty sure it’s canon that they’re from the same clan? Think it would be very interesting.
RF3 definitely had the coolest farm. Also, still love the desert settlement.
This is from Oceans, so I have no context, but it’s just so cool that I had to share
Rune Factory 4. Culmination of the series is right - when I was playing it for the first time, I remember being blown away by just how much it is a true love letter to the franchise. I have never come across another game series that so consistently grew and improved from entry to entry. RF4 was a perfect ending.
Not that I’m complaining about getting RF5. Quite the opposite.
But if it had been the end (as we all thought it was until about a year ago), well, like I say. Perfect.
Well. Aside from soda can nipples. Can’t believe they didn’t fix those. Though in some ways, that would have made me sad too
Dolce has such a cool design, in both human and monster form. I’ve always kind of crack-shipped her with Margaret, for no real reason at all
Vishnal! I love Vishnal. Vishnal is pure as heck. Marrying him this time around.
Doug! My choice from last time around. Another character who looks more serious in his official art than he is in-game (well... most of the time)
And then there’s Dylas, who looks much happier here than he does most of the time. Kind of looks like he and Doug swapped bodies, actually. There’s a fanfic prompt for you.
Their ship name is Dyldo. I love them
Leon is nostalgic for me mostly because my friend and I used to get into a lot of arguments about whether or not he’s the hottest character in the game. She maintains that he is, because muscles. I maintain that muscles aren’t actually that attractive. It is a rift that divides us to this day
(He looks oddly... younger in this art though? Weird)
Sechs Empire is such an unfortunate name. Seriously. How rushed was RF1′s localisation team? All those script errors, and then this (the Sechs were the antagonists in the first game, and were only referenced in passing in the rest until RF4 - so it was a bit of a ‘sins of the father’ situation by then).
Seriously, try saying ‘Sechs Emperor’ out loud and tell me you can take this man seriously
I??? Love??? Them???
I??? LOVE??? THEM???
Still confused as to why Kiel, Xiao Pai, Arthur and Margaret are on the cover now. Don’t get me wrong, I like them, but... Amber, Dylas, Dolce and Leon made way more sense? Even the Archival Cover makes more sense (Vishnal, Clorica, Forte), as those three are all kind of Lest/Frey’s servants (well, Forte for the whole town, but still). Of those first four, all but Arthur basically lift right out of the game with little-to-no impact on the story
NO HAT TABATHA NO HAT TABATHA
I’ve always really loved this Raven picture
And I am thankful for you <3
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“After the disappointment of the Andrew Garfield-led Amazing Spider-Man movies, everyone’s favorite wallcrawler has been having a renaissance. Entering the Marvel cinematic universe in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, the webslinger fully redeemed himself with well-crafted live-action film in Spider-Man: Homecoming.”
Yes...okay...that was definitely what Homecoming was....
“and a wildly successful spin-off film Venom, ”
I mean financially successful sure...
“In the midst of all his success, Spider-Man has quietly become one of the most inclusive and socially conscious superheroes of today.”
*raises eyebrow*
Okay...go on...
“Last week, it was announced that Spider-Man: Far From Home would feature two out transgender actors playing trans characters, the first big-budget superhero film to do so. Spider-Man: Homecoming also featured a queer character, as well as numerous people of color.”
Wait who was the queer character in Homecoming?
“It’s also worth mentioning that Spiderverse included a Jewish version of Peter Parker, who is typically portrayed as either secular or Christian.”
....ehhhhhhhhh....yes and no.
In media adaptations barring maybe one (the 1994 show cos I do not remember where he got married) Spider-Man is portrayed as...I guess secular but really it’s more that they just don’t say anything.
It’s not that the character is not a believer in a faith per se, especially if you go by older adaptations during times when hardly anyone was secular. It’s just that they, understandably, aren’t saying anything.
In the comics Peter is some kind of Christian but probably a Protestant (unless you go by Amazing Grace where he is an atheist but that’s hot trash we don’t talk about) but we don’t really talk about it that specifically.
We just know that he and his family celebrate Christmas and very, very occasionally Aunt May references going to church and that she, Peter and MJ believe in a monothetistic deity they refer to as ‘God’.
And really apart from the Church thing there is no clue to Peter’s religion and Marvel probably (wisely) would rather keep it that way. He even got married in a civil ceremony!
However in the SUBTEXT...he’s Jewish. And it’s basically an open secret that he is and always has been Jewish.
“The Spider-Man video game also featured a wonderful easter egg for queer fans by having a giant rainbow flag, as well as several smaller ones, scattered around the game’s fictionalized New York City map. ”
I mean that’s wonderful but I wouldn’t call that an Easter Egg so much as...it’s just what you’d find in modern NYC.
“Even the Venom film got in on the fun, with fans shipping Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock and the titular male alien-symbiote after the two kissed in the film. Sony even encouraged the pairing, releasing a romantic comedy-esque trailer for the film to promote the home release. While some complained of queer-baiting, most felt that it was all in good fun and included queer people in on the joke, instead of making us the target.”
Again, good for them but I don’t think that was the movie actively trying to be positive towards queer people.
Brock and Venom kissed when Venom was bonded to Brock’s ex-fiance and had a pronounced female form, being an adaptation of a character literally called She-Venom.
And it was based upon a script written in the 1990s so really it was more the movie did it and then people took it as a thing that was shipping Venom and Brock (even though Venom is sexless). Brock and the symbiote have been shipped numerous times in the comics but the subtext has always been that the symbiote, if any sex, is female. In the Spec cartoon it is referred to as Symbi (a pun on Cyndi) and in the Spider-Girl comics it is marked out as female (granted this happens after it’s bonded to a woman).
And again, headcanon away but like...that probably wasn’t intentional at all Sony were just being goofy or unintionally made something people took a certain way.
“Indeed, even in the comics, Spider-Man has always been a fairly inclusive hero. Miles Morales was introduced in the early-2000s, taking over the mantel from Peter Parker for several years. ”
Okay, this is so weird for me to be correcting such a praising point but lets really look at this.
First of all Miles didn’t take over Peter’s role for several years he did it permanently.
Second of all Miles is from 2011 so that’s not the early 2000s, that’s the early 2010s, but okay maybe that was a typo.
Third of all, is it really all that logical to say this franchise that began in 1962 has always been fairly inclusive and then cite a character from 2011 as proof of this? Wouldn’t examples from during the FIRST quarter century have been more apt?
Fourth of all...eh. Has Spider-Man been fairly inclusive from the start? Yes, no, its complicated.
Look there were exactly 0 LGBTQ+ characters in Spider-Man until maybe the 1990s and even then I couldn’t off my head tell you who they were. Felicia Hardy is bisexual but we didn’t find out until the 2000s and it was most prominent in an AU. Really the most significant LGBTQ+ character who’s had the fact that they are queer be more than a one off reference was Max Modell and he debuted 2011 and IIRC wasn’t established as queer until 2012. In defence of Spider-Man the Comics Code literally FORBID any character be anything other than straight until the 1990s and even then it was relatively rare, even in X-Men which you’d think it wouldn’t be.
If we’re talking POC again this one is a bit complicated Glori Grant, Joe Robertson, Randy Robertson are frequently appearing POC characters but not in every run and they aren’t usually as prominent as like Jameson, Aunt May, Harry Osborn, MJ, etc. Characters of other ethnicities are even less frequent and I don’t even know what we should make of Puma/Thomas Fireheart. I mean A for effort, they wanted a Native American character who wasn’t really a villain and wasn’t exactly a sterotype so there is that I guess.
Again though...most other Marvel franchises decade by decade weren’t much better with this and we should give credit where credit is due to the same guy who created Black Panther writing a nuanced scene where 2 black people in the 60s separated by age discuss different approaches to civil rights with neither being proven right or wrong.
When it comes to disabled people, outside of evil insane villains, forget it, there is nothing before Flash Thompson in 2008 unless you count Aunt May’s chronically poor health.
“Spider-Gwen quickly became one of the highest-selling female superhero comics. Spider-Woman was a prominently featured bisexual character, and the female Asian-American hero Silk also had LGBT supporting characters, Rafferty and Lola, who were in a healthy relationship. Additionally, many view vampire villain Morbius, who is getting a spin-off film starring Jared Leto next year, as a metaphor for those suffering during the HIV crisis of the '80s. ”
Again...Spider-Gwen and Silk are 2010s characters so that’s not ‘always fairly inclusive’.
I don’t even know if Jessica Drew is bisexual, I’ve never heard that but I don’t think she is.
Morbius as a metaphor for HIV...MIGHT be true if we are specifically talking about his 1990s solo-book which I’ve never read. But the character as originally created 100% was never about that because he was created in the 1970s before HIV was known about.
“Unlike his Marvel counterparts Thor, Iron Man and Captain America, Spider-Man’s world has accurately reflected real world diversity for years.”
....Not really.
I’m not even saying Spidey maybe haven’t been comparatively better at it than those guys but he’s deffo not been accurate.
Plus to be fair to the other guys, Captain America and Iron Man have had at least one major black supporting cast member and in Cap’s case he was fairly candid about social strife and issues.
And with Thor it’s not that fair to throw shade at him for not reflecting the real world given that 90% of this characters and stories are literally pulled from fantasy and myth. I don’t even know if there are any queer figures in Norse myth let alone poc.
“While it’s a seemingly simple idea that any of us can be a superhero, it’s sadly still a radical concept in a endlessly growing film genre that has predominetly centers straight cisgender white men. ”
Well that’s mostly because the comics the movies adapt are about those types of people.
“That is because relatability and inclusion has always been core to Spider-Man’s appeal and message. It’s why the late Stan Lee decided that, unlike other superheroes who expose parts of their faces, Spider-Man had to wear a full-face mask.”
Stan Lee only speculated that that was part of Spider-Man’s appeal, he never had any input on that design choice it was all Steve Ditko...who frankly was unlikely to have been thinking about that...
“Even further, Spider-Man isn’t the king of a country, a billionaire, a woman out of a Greek myth, or a brilliant scientist. He’s just an average high-school kid from Brooklyn who always strives to do the right thing even while struggling to balance his everyday life and hiding a secret identity.”
WHOA there buddy...Spider-Man isn’t routinely ‘a kid’ nor is he from Brooklyn.
MILES is from Brooklyn but Peter, as evidenced by that great big caption in Captain America: Civil War, is from QUEENS.
“And it’s the idea of balancing a secret identity with everyday life that has always allowed Spider-Man to connect with queer audiences long before comic writers were allowed to explicitly include LGBT characters.”
...I’m not denying this necesarrilly but whilst i’ve heard stories from poc who connected with Spider-Man I’ve never heard this about LGBTQ+ fans of Spider-Man.
“Indeed, perhaps the strongest part of Spider-Man’s inclusivity is the subtlety to which it has been done. While Black Panther, Black Lightning, and Wonder Woman rightly put issues of identity front and center, Spider-Man’s quiet diversity allows audiences who typically cry “SJWs are ruining my favorite characters” to actually see diversity showcased without it being overt.”
Errrrrrr...sure....*represses memories of when Miles Morales was first announced*
Lets um...wait and see what happens when those trans characters show up in the movie this year okay.
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LGBT representation in Voltron
UPDATED: I realized I wasn’t coming off as neutrally as I’d like and there were hints of shipping peeking through. I also didn’t feel I had expanded properly on certain aspects. I’d like this particular post to be as neutral as possible so that it’s accessible to people from all ships and headcanons.
I’ve seen a lot of discussion lately about LGBT representation in Voltron. From shipping wars to insistent demands that headcanons be fulfilled, it’s all getting a little bonkers. I wanted to step back, encourage everyone to take a breather, and discuss the potential of any LGBT on the show, including and excluding popular expectations. So here we go, a post on LGBT representation in Voltron and in cartoons, and why it's not as simple as we'd like it to be. It’s a little long but don’t worry, there are pictures! AND A COMIC!
DISCLAIMER: I do not work on Voltron, nor do I work for Dreamworks or any of its properties. I'm just an animator who's worked on dozens of cartoons for a number of studios and the following is based on my experience in this industry. This post is NOT meant to indict any of the parties involved in the creation of Voltron or other cartoons. Making cartoons is a complicated, collaborative process and no one is a villain.
Here we go:
Before we can talk about LGBT rep & Voltron, we should probably talk about LGBT representation in cartoons in general. In case it isn't clear, I'm speaking specifically about Western cartoons that primarily air in Canada/US. Anime is a whole other category and one that Voltron does not fall under. I'm also removing cartoons that were made explicitly for adults.
LGBT in cartoons is a really recent development. If we include adult cartoons it can date back as far as 20 years (South Park showcasing some SUPER GREAT gay stereotypes :|) but if we're including cartoons geared towards kids (age 5-17)... we're talking this being a thing in the last FOUR years. And the number of times it's been done is so minimal, it can be summed up in these few images:
(left to right, top to bottom)
6Teen, 2010 CANADA ONLY - An incidental female character revealed she liked women. I don’t think this show ever aired in the States but it ran on Teletoon for years. The show also had an episode with an incidental gay character in 2008.
Gravity Falls, 2013 - The sheriff and deputy are repeatedly hinted at being in a relationship. I believe in the series finale their relationship is more clearly identified. It was later confirmed by the show’s creator.
Legend of Korra, 2014 - The two female leads, after having previously dated the same male character, are strongly implied to now be dating each other as they hold hands and walk into the Spirit World together. This was as explicit as they were allowed to get with their relationship. The comics continue their relationship romantically and also highlight other characters from both series who are (or were) LGBT).
Steven Universe, 2013 - The show doesn’t shy away from its LGBT romances, in particular Ruby and Sapphire and Pearl and Rose.
Star vs The Forces of Evil, 2017 - in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it panning shot, two background male characters are seen kissing.
Clarence, 2013 - The main character has two moms. In one episode, a handsome male background character is shown greeting another man for a date by kissing him on the cheek. Initially they were supposed to peck on the lips until other countries’ censors demanded the change.
Loud House, 2016 - The main character’s best friend, Clyde, has two dads.
I’m also going to toss out an Honourable Mention to Adventure Time for Princess Bubblegum & Marceline, whose past romantic relationship was sort of hinted at in the show but only confirmed outside of it.
If we take that list and cut it down to just (broadcast TV) primary or recurring characters, we're left with this:
Korra, Steven Universe, Clarence
I should also mention that while I repeatedly use the term LGBT, what I’m really referring to is more LGB. I would love to see a trans character in a broadcast cartoon. I’ve heard Amazon’s Danger & Eggs has a trans character, which is AMAZING and a solid start. However progressively speaking, broadcast cartoons tend to lag a little behind live action TV and movies aimed at older teens and adults, and those genres are still struggling to feature trans characters.
So why is this?
Firstly, and more importantly, a lot of these shows air in countries that aren't nearly as open about LGBT as USA/Canada are. To say "screw those guys! They should keep up with the times!!" is to cut out a major consumer base and most companies are unwilling or unable to take that financial hit. This doesn't make them evil. Animation, just like filmmaking, may be an artform but it is first and foremost a BUSINESS. Major companies like Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network won’t lose money, but the production studios they hire to do their shows will suffer the brunt of it and could lose the business of these powerful corporations. It’s happened time and time again that a show initially animated in the US or Canada has been taken away from that studio in favor of a cheaper, overseas option. In some cases they’ve closed.
Second, even in 2018 there is still a lot of pushback from homophobic or “family-oriented” groups with decent clout and numbers. Also, there is a strange pervasive idea that LGBT is something that is Not For Children, likely because too many foolish people still associate heteronormativity with love and everything outside of that with sex.
Additionally, you may have noticed that on the list of the three shows showcasing LGBT relationships in a primary or recurring character way... ALL of them feature women. The social discussion about why that is honestly merits an entire other post (or 5) so to put it plainly, broadly speaking, people tend to be more comfortable with female queerness over male queerness. We have yet to see a m/m relationship that has any iota of history or character development behind it, or a recurring queer male character.
With this in mind, Voltron, which features a primarily male cast, and thus has more chances of featuring a male LGBT character, has its work cut out for it.
___________________________________________________
Fresh off the heels of Korra, a series that in the 11th hour featured the two female leads ending up with each other, it's no surprise that showrunners Lauren Montgomery and Joaquin Dos Santos( along with other cast and crew) have fielded a barrage of questions about their intention to depict LGBT on the show. At NYCC when asked about it, this was JDS & LM's response:
"It's very important to us... we’re fighting to create as open and as broad a spectrum of characters as we can."
Which is a pretty interesting way of putting it, and a pretty understandably CAREFUL way of putting it. Again, I want to reiterate, I don’t work for any studio involved in the production of Voltron so this is largely conjecture.
So here's how the hierarchy works, as far as I can tell.
I'm not sure who approached who to get a new Voltron made, but primary creative decisions would fall to JDS and LM, who are in charge of things like major plot points, characters, and arcs. When they've figured this stuff out, they pitch it in a multitude of sessions with Dreamworks People... and that's when the battle begins. Pitching a show is always a tug-of-war. Let's be clear: No creator has ever gone in with a show and walked away with every single aspect that they wanted. Compromises and concessions are made because while the Creatives are focused on their story and character, their client is concerning themselves with budget, timelines, audience targets and $$marketing$$. Before they even got to the matter of LGBT, JDS/LM had lost and won battles over some plot and character decisions. You can actually feel it sometimes when you watch the show; key emotional moments that never happen, or character stuff that gets shaved in favor of action or the reuse animation of the lions forming Voltron.
This show is still aimed at a young, male, market Dreamworks wants to believe is going to buy their incredibly limited line of related toys, and that is a market that is difficult for executives to see as being interested in romance, let alone a queer one.
The point is, as much as JDS/LM seem to want LGBT in their show, it is a negotiation that I'm sure has been on the table since Day 1 and probably one that is ongoing. Here's a vague idea of what MAY have gone down:
Dreamworks: We will consider the idea of two of them in a relationship, but the third has got to go.
JDS/LM: .....we appreciate you considering the relationship aspect.
Dreamworks: In addition, we feel that to balance the scales so to speak, at least one character needs to be overtly heterosexual. You know, hit on a lot of female characters, maybe even fall for one of them.
(sorry would have finished the comic but I sprained my wrist and I’m not supposed to draw rn but I cheated a little, also can you tell I love Saga)
This is very probably not what happened, but it is an example of what could have. I know there is a lot of support for a certain character in Voltron being bi, not least of all because of something LM drew.
I think the placement of the characters holding the signs were less about associating the character with the header and more about making sure neither of the two warring ships were represented; it would have incited a new level on the shipping wars and the message and intent behind this art would have been lost.
There is a weird association with relationships and how they define a show if they aren’t hetero. Have only one relationship on a show about space battles and if it’s LGBT, people will start associating Voltron with being “the gay space battle show”. I don’t want to get into Discourse about This Thing because debate gets lost quickly in favor of toxic insults, but I think it’s important to touch on Bi!Lance. To be entirely neutral about it, it is possible that Lance was originally intended to be bi. But if there was the potential for other characters to be LGBT, the showrunners might have been asked to “strike a balance” so to speak, so that Voltron wouldn’t just be “the gay space battle” show since its hetero relationships would outnumber the queer ones. I don’t think Lance’s character has changed at all since his inception; the show needs a funnyman for levity and ridiculousness, and he is absolutely the charmer of the Paladins. He may have been intended to hit on just about any attractive being in his orbit (there are shades of what one might call a “man-crush” in regards to his Shiro hero-worship). While it would have been awesome to have a bi male character in a cartoon, changing his attraction dial from “all” to “female” doesn’t really affect his storyline, especially since it’s hard to contest that the show has been angling in potential for endgame Allurance in seasons 3&4. I realize that sounds dismissive of the bi experience, that’s really not what I’m trying to get at. I’m saying that in the grand scheme of things, it may have been easier to sacrifice an LGBT Lance in order to win another LGBT representation battle. Like I said, making cartoons that maintain the creative, storyline, and character goals you walk in with is a tug-of-war, and you’re going to lose something along the way.
But it’s not all about Lance, and again, that’s all theoretical. It’s also possible that Pidge was at one point NB or even trans. There are hints of Coran having a close friendship with Alfor. The original blue paladin is hinted at flirting with a fellow male character in a “did he just--” moment that most people missed. Lotor surrounds himself with female generals but never seems particularly attracted to them. Keith’s undying devotion to Shiro could be interpreted as romantic. There are a dozen main characters whose orientations are nebulous at best and thus have potential to be queer.
So what does this mean for the future of LGBT on Voltron?
The short version is: I'm actually, really, really hopeful. For a number of reasons.
1) JDS/LM as they've said, are fighting really hard for this to be a thing. Jeremy Shada has said "You'll be really happy" when asked about LGBT on the show. People may feel he’s referring to his character Lance, but I think he’s just hoping that people will be happy with any character who could be explicitly stated to be LGBT.
2) Netflix isn't a TV broadcaster, which means they can operate under somewhat different rules. Sort of. They certainly don't shy away from LGBT content but they may be regulated under rules of "what is appropriate for children in certain age groups" which frustratingly, for kids 12 and under, does not often include LGBT content. Netflix notoriously doesn't release their viewership data so this is just speculation; but I wonder if the biggest audience taking in this show is actually people, primarily women, aged 14+. Taking this into account won't influence the plot, but the bumped up age could show an increased likelihood of LGBT rep as it pushes the show outside of the "content too sensitive for young children" zone.
3) It would be really nice to see explicit, unambiguous affection between two same-sex characters. However there can still be canonical queer romance without it, shades enough of “just friendship” that they can get past the censors and bigots while those who are more aware of what’s going on can recognize the relationship for what it is. Remember, some people still refuse to believe that Victor and Yuuri kissed in Yuuri on Ice, all thanks to the clever placement of an arm. Furthermore, LGBT doesn’t have to be portrayed through relationships but just the character itself. A character could make a passing comment that alludes to their sexuality. It’s not quite as satisfying as having it out in the open, but DW’s hands may be tied by the stipulations of the contract outlined by Netflix.
4) Despite what certain world events would have you believe, people are becoming more progressive and supportive of LGBT rights and content. We've seen it happen in movies and live-action television. More and more cartoons are going to be including LGBT content, in broader and more overt ways. There will be other cartoons who feature main characters who identify as LGBT, recurring characters in LGBT relationships who are allowed to be affectionate and cutesy with their partners, who are represented no differently or reverently than hetero cartoon romances. Voltron will likely end within the next two years, and within those next two years more and more cartoons will be taking "risks" and more and more broadcasters will feel emboldened to allow them to do so. If Dreamworks keeps its content steadfastly heterosexual while fellow producers embrace LGBT, it's going to reflect badly on them.
People are desperate for representation in this show and it’s not hard to see why. It is not only one of the few serial cartoons out there, but one that deals with surprisingly adult themes considering it’s aimed at elementary schoolers. I think it’s really neat that people have so many headcanons about the LGBT rep in this show, and I think it’s great that it’s an element that has sparked a lot of passion in people. However, everything is still conjecture, the series is but half over, and putting all your LGBT demands onto one character or one relationship is unhealthy. It’s also pretty insidious to attack or harass crew, cast, or fellow fans whose views on how the LGBT should happen don’t align with your own. The show’s arcs and plot points have been written, the characters decided, but the internal fight over LGBT rep could still be going on. The creators aren’t going to cave to pressure from people who really want their ship or their character to be the sacred cow. Ship what you want to ship but recognize that while LGBT on the show may not happen the way you’d like it to, it’s still important to support its existence no matter what form it comes in.
In the next part I’m going to cover one relationship in particular as neutrally as possible and whether or not it has potential to become canonically romantic.
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meta post: lili and her gender
let me go on the record to say that i fucking love lilian eyler with my whole heart, like, i typed all this out and im so fucking emotional about her! in the past, i've written things about hello charlotte and how the lgbt representation is... lacking, let's call it, and i've also made a few headcanon posts here and there about lilian's transition and her relationship with gender. so i thought, you know, let's actually write a whole ass thing about it. so here it is.
content warnings: gender dysphoria, suicide attempts, homophobia/transphobia in the original source material
PART 1: ETHERANE'S BAD TAKES
so... etherane did not handle lgbt stuff well, like, in the slightest. lili is canonically genderfluid, as seen in one of those little profile things that etherane drew that doesn't actually show up in any of the games. but her genderfluid identity isn't handled well at all in the actual source material. actually, in general, hello charlotte is pretty transphobic. to cite one example, there’s this journal entry in hello charlotte 3 talking about “defective” charlotte vessels, and one of the things that can make a charlotte vessel “defective” is for them to be born amab or intersex. this already has some really bad vibes, but then we remember also that one of the big functions of charlottes is apparently for them to be sexualized (yikes!!!!!) and so we also get this weird kind of like, “trans people aren’t hot” kind of take?
but anyway. when it comes to lilian specifically, she never actually states in canon that she’s genderfluid or otherwise trans, not even in the spinoff visual novel, which, by the way, would have been the perfect place to address her gender identity, and she consistently uses he/him pronouns. we don’t actually get to see any of her thought processes about her gender at all — like at this point, i can’t even say it’s a non-issue because that would imply that they even mentioned her gender in canon. the only time we can potentially extrapolate from canon that lili might not be cis is when anri mentions that charlotte is lili’s self-insert oc. that’s kind of heavy-handed with the whole “charlotte being the female name for charles”, but that’s another matter. the point is, with the lack of any canon basis that lilian’s even vaguely questioned her gender, the reveal that she’s actually genderfluid with like, two pieces of artwork that are detached from the actual game feels very pxrfxrmxtxvxly xnclxsxvx (performatively inclusive) especially considering how.... etherane talked about lilian’s gender in particular within the actual canon material.
after all, the story behind lilian is effectively that, after she was born, her mother was forced to abort her second child, a daughter that she would name scarlett. doing so plunged her into a really deep depression that eventually took on delusional qualities. so ever since lilian was about three years old, her mother has been referring to her exclusively as scarlett, asking her to ‘ be a good girl ’ and similarly raising her as a girl. we can see here that etherane seems to have implied that genderfluidity is something that happens because other people make it so, and isn’t an identity and lived experience. (bad take!)
although, albeit unintentionally, i think etherane did lay some groundwork to talk about lilian’s relationship with her gender, specifically with regards to her projection onto her oc, charlotte. in high school, when she’s more active on the internet, we see that she’s going by charlotte and using she/her pronouns. anri, her irl friend, is pretty openly critical of that, but she sort of brushes off anri’s complaints and continues to present as feminine online. now, there’s this fanfic writer who goes by the pseudonym “c”, and lilian very quickly takes an interest in him. the way she talks to c, who doesn’t know her irl, compared anri, who does, is just like flat-out like they’re completely different people.
compare, her with c:
to her with anri:
i also wanted to mention that lili does occasionally act more “femininely” with anri, but it’s never to the extent that she does with c, and in general, affectionate banter is sort of... outright ridiculed in their friendship both ways. see this one exchange:
anri: >:) always up for some roasting
lili: right? <3 <3
anri: now you’re the one being gross
unrelated but it fucking kills me that anri was like “ily <3” and lili went “gross” so she went “kys” and lili deadass goes “that’s better” like that’s what anri is referencing when she says “now you’re the one being gross” and im like... please just be healthy friends who don’t wish death on each other???
it’s also worth noting that c doesn’t know that she’s not “actually” a girl, and literally when they meet, she goes like, “it’s you who should be disappointed in me. charlotte turned out to be charles, whoops! i bet you were hoping that i’d be a cute girl.” and that’s... really depressing, like, she ended up really leaning into that cutesy side of her when she was talking to c and now she feels the need to be a lot more... sarcastic and bitter, like how she is with anri, because now c “knows the truth about her”, that she’s “actually been a guy all along”.
in any case, i think the intent that etherane was going for with this was kind of like... “lilian’s actually a repressed cis gay man!” which is . not great. it gives off this really gross vibes where it’s implied that since lili was raised as a girl and is into men, she got “confused” and started going by she/her online because she couldn’t come to terms with her sexuality or whatever. and that’s just such a bad take!!!
not to mention that a really important part of lili’s backstory is... her germaphobia. she has persistent delusions accompanied by visual hallucinations where she sees people as “parasites”, which visually manifests as them rotting or decomposing. because of that, she wears gloves all the time and is repulsed by physical touch. but when she meets c (whose real name is vincent) in person, she pretty much instantly goes for skin-to-skin contact with him, where she takes off her glove and holds his hand. and like, sure, that’s sweet, but that’s really not how mental illness... works. in the slightest. she doesn’t react at all when his hand touches hers, despite the fact that she has literally had panic attacks in canon from touching things without her gloves. and it gives off this implication that mental illness can be cured with romance somehow, and that’s a really bad take!
this feeds into fandom understanding that like, well, if lilian sees vincent as pure and allows him to touch her, then Obviously she’d let him kiss her, they could probably have sex, etc. and like... she’s canonically asexual though! and that brings us to the other implication, that asexuality is somehow... caused by something. like, there’s nothing in canon to state that lilian experiences sexual attraction (or even really romantic attraction, like i know etherane went off in heaven’s gate and did a lot of ship tease, but she never really outright says she’s crushing on anyone), but judging from the way etherane handled lilian’s gender identity, i have a sneaking suspicion that she established lilian’s asexuality with her mental illnesses specifically in mind. lilian’s autistic, germaphobic, has severe ocd, and she’s been sexually assaulted in the past. therefore, she must be asexual! that’s the sort of vibes i get from the game, and im not here for it. similarly to how her genderfluidity was handled, she makes no actual statement in canon that she doesn’t experience sexual attraction. the closest she’s ever come to this is when she says to anri in heaven’s gate that she is just straight up not interested in kissing (to which anri is like, “well what if it were vincent owo??” which. ugh. anyway). it just seems really strange to me to design a character with severe mental health issues with regards to physical touch and then just sort of treat it as a given that she’s asexual. it’s another example of etherane implying that lgbt identities are results of traumatic experiences or symptoms of mental illness and not an identity or lived experience. you can be sex-repulsed and not be asexual, and while i understand that many people do identify as ace due to trauma and other such things, it still feels like really bad rep when taken with the way lilian’s genderfluidity was portrayed.
PART 2: HOW “CHARLES” IS DIFFERENT FROM “LILIAN”
throughout hello charlotte, lilian identifies herself as a passive observer, someone who doesn’t directly interfere in events. this applies mostly to her existence in false realm, where she’s like... a god, and doesn’t want to interfere in the balance of the world. but i believe she also has always seen herself as an observer. in her very first scene, the one where she and anri are watching someone get bullied, she’s the one who tells anri that there’s no point in getting help. because her role is just to observe. to take pictures for anri, to be a good girl, to say yes to everything and to never express her opinions, feelings, thoughts.
and honestly, i think the main reason for that is that she’s dysphoric. whenever she talks about herself, she’s really self-deprecating, especially compared to when she talks about charlotte. i feel like the main reason why lilian detaches herself from the world and refuses to really perceive herself is because she’s fundamentally disgusted with her gender presentation. and like, we can see in the two times that she’s presented femininely (with c and in that one comic) that lili is just so much happier and more bubbly when she’s presenting as feminine. you can literally see her stop dissociating and becoming more present in the moment because she’s just. so much more comfortable in her skin. compare:
these pictures with this one:
it’s funny i was going to say that there is a picture where she’s presenting as masculine and actually smiles like a person, but guess what! she’s texting c! so she’s actually performing femininity!
but the point is, like... when she’s presenting as masculine, especially in the canon pictures rather than etherane’s art, she just doesn’t look... happy. and then we compare that to how much more present she seems when she’s presenting as feminine, and how much more comfortable she seems in being, like, happy! and cute! but there is a downside to this. and that is...
PART 3: DIFFICULTIES IN LILI’S TRANSITION
in my sort of... “main verse” for lili, i have it so that her suicide attempt failed and that she was somehow... saved from drowning. mother passes away and she starts to... soul search a little bit and find a reason to live, and somewhere along the line she starts to transition socially. that means she starts transitioning at a pretty... extremely vulnerable point in her life. in the year between 18-19 years old, she’d be a wreck. she’s growing her hair out, but she feels insecure about it. she starts to wear skirts, but only at home. she buys makeup and never wears it. it’s a long process for her, because it’s one thing to go by she/her online or to claim she’s just a gender-confused gay boy and a completely different thing to come out as a trans woman and to actually see herself as a woman and not some kind of imposter. considering that she was raised as a girl, she would have a large amount of guilt over transitioning, feeling like she’s going to be seen as confused, or that her gender identity is a direct result of her childhood trauma. but she’s not just worried that others will see her that way: she’s worried that she’s going to see herself that way.
and for a long time, she probably does see herself that way. for a long time, scarlett would probably treat her transition as some kind of attempt to personify her unborn sister and comply with perceived expectations rather than an attempt to feel comfortable in her own skin. she’d get nervous that she’s somehow becoming scarlett, because though she’s always thought it would be easier if she’d just been her sister, she’s never really wanted to be scarlett. she’d be scared to wear mid-length skirts, scared to put her hair up in a bun, probably even scared to wear red for a time, all because she’s scared of somehow losing herself and becoming her alter.
because of her caution and concern with identifying as a trans woman and not as the “safer“ gender identity of genderfluidity (where she can say she’s trans but never actually have to “push boundaries” by wearing feminine clothing or using any pronouns besides he/him), it would likely take her a very long time to take the step to medically transition. she’d likely never get any gender affirmation surgeries just because of how invasive the procedure is, but hormones would probably be something she’d look into once she’s much older and has a more stable income.
i mentioned before that before her transition, she uses dissociation and observation as a way to cope with her gender dysphoria. she saw herself as someone who didn’t really participate in the world, was a class ghost, invisible to everyone and a minuscule part of a vast universe. but upon transitioning, she’d feel much more actively self-conscious. once she starts to present in a feminine way, she’d feel like she’s being seen, like she’s actually participating in the world, and that’s both a blessing and a curse.
she’d be much more prone to stammering, especially when saying her name, and would blush far more often. she’d be afraid of saying the wrong thing or messing up somehow. and on top of that, she’d likely feel predatory for talking to others, always wondering if others find her cute or repulsive, always wondering if someone will perceive her and harm her in some way.
she’d very likely also feel really guilty about her own emotional experience. because she’s so used to being a passive observer, a puppet that only does what others want, she would feel like it’s selfish to be just... content. she’s so actively disgusted with herself before she transitions that she’s never allowed herself to be mentally present for a happy moment in her entire life. she always second-guesses, always dismisses positive things as a mere coincidence, and after she transitions, when she starts being more present in her life, she’d feel so guilty for just allowing herself to be happy.
because of that, she has some trouble with presenting as feminine consistently — she’d vary the “level” of her feminine presentation from day-to-day, where she might go full femme one day and another day stick with a beanie and a pair of slacks. she’s much more comfortable with presenting as more traditionally feminine when she’s at home or with trusted friends in a private space, but around 19 years old, she makes a vested effort to remain in public spaces. she’d time herself, saying, “for one hour, i’ll stay in this café while wearing a skirt, and then i can leave,” and she’d gradually increase the amount of time she spends in public spaces. and eventually, eventually she does end up feeling really comfortable with her gender presentation and falls into a more static sense of style. she really likes clothing design, so she ends up wearing a lot more dynamic outfits when she’s more comfortable with herself, and she probably also mildly gets into cosplay.
i also like to think that she reconnects with anri during her young adult years. either it’s like, right after her suicide attempt (i’ve written before that she’d had anri listed as her emergency contact and forgot to change it when she moved), or it’s at some point after she starts transitioning socially. i think it’d be really sweet for them to be friends in a more real way, and the sheer concept of anri teaching lili how to properly apply makeup and to set her hair is just so fucking sweet i might die. they both deserve to have friends so i think this is just a step up from hello charlotte canon.
#long post //#lilian eyler: study.#ive been working on this post for days. im fuckign emotional about her
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I honestly want to read all of your answer for those asks. 1-40? Or those you like the most c:
UHM HONESTLY THIS IS MY FAVOURITE ASK EVER !!!!!
Because I don’t have time to answer all 40, I’m going to give you TEN randomly picked questions from the list and answer below ~!
(thank you random number picker!!!!)
AND BE WARNED – THIS WILL PROBABLY GET LENGTHY.
40. Do you think the movies did the books justice?
Yes and no. I will stand forever and die on the Catherine-Hardwicke-Did-It-Best hill. Above them all, I’d say that Catherine captured the essence of the books the most accurately. Maybe it’s the blue filter, I don’t know, but she got that creepy/sad/romantic Forks vibe that drew me into the series in the first place. She really got the perfect balance of romance, action, fantasy, high school, the whole thing. So yeah, I think she did a great job with the books. Chris Weitz did alright with New Moon – I love the brownish, jacob-y vibe, I think they adapted the script well and did a fan-fucking-tastic job on the soundtrack too, so that one would be my second favourite book-to-movie. The other two? Eh. I think they lost something that the books had. Eclipse WAS my favourite when it first came out but watching them now, I feel like the last three movies are just missing something wonderful that the first two movies and the first three books (sorry bd) had.
28. How would you personally rewrite Twilight?
For those of you who haven’t seen it, I have a bit up on my personal twilight rewrite idea up here! It’s a little bare bones in terms of what I’d do with breaking dawn, but I can elaborate on that here!
Going with the rest of my switch-new-moon-and-eclipse-au, I’d have Bella changed and conflicted starting in BD. I think it would be SUPER interesting to have the main conflict be something to do with the volturi and the shape shifters. Maybe the clan and the pack finally join forces bc Bella is changed but still loves her Jake, but out in the world shapeshifters are showing up dead at the volturi’s hand or something ??????? and they need to band together to save the wolves and Jake before the volturi eliminate the species altogether.
Could be interesting, IDK. There’s a lot less renesmess and an opportunity still for Jake to meet Benjamin so I’m all for it.
37. What’s your perspective on Twilight now compared to when you first read it?
I think about this all the fucking time.When I first read Twilight, it was just before the first movie came out in 2008. I was almost twelve years old, and dumber than most twelve year olds, lbr. I didn’t see any issues in the book. I thought it was novel (pun intended), and romantic, and Hell, come Breaking Dawn I was even all aboard the Nessie train. I was SM brainwashed, kind of. I trusted our author. Coming back to Twilight in 2019 was a literal fucking shock to the system. I watched the movies for the first time in like five years, and was utterly shocked by the ample fucking problematic shit I noticed in every fucking scene. What hurt the most? Realizing my favourite character was the worst fucking show of racist propaganda in the entire goddamn series. I got angry when I watched the series again for the first time. I didn’t want anything to do with it. I felt ashamed, honestly. I felt bad looking at the piece of media, and seeing how twisted and disgusting and wrong so many parts of it were. But then I went online. I knew Twilight was becoming a thing again, and I didnt understand how such problematic media worked in this day in age, so I was curious to see what the discourse was like. Guys, I’m so fucking glad I did. There’s something so nice about being able to clearly see and discuss issues in this saga, while still appreciating that it digs into your nostalgia and has the opportunity to be so much bigger and better than SM ever intended. I love signing on here and seeing someone discuss our HCs – seeing how people take these characters and stretch and shift and mold them to embody what the world looks like today. I love coming here to read about favourites portrayed as characters of colour, or how said characters could be portrayed as trans, or nb, or gay, or how this character could be better shown as A, B, C – you catch my drift. It’s not just that, either. It’s not just the changes that I appreciate, either.
There’s something about acknowledging the things that can’t be changed within the original text – starting conversations about the treatment of native characters, discussing the portrayal of females presenting characters, working through SM’s religious biases – that not only helps me appreciate what this text should have been / can be now, but seriously, has helped me learn a lot along the way. I’m a very faulty white girl. Coming here and learning new perspectives from people who are impacted by specific biases / choices made in this series has been one of the most eye opening experiences I’ve had online. And that’s another thing – I’ve never once been criticized for still having so much to learn, un-learn, or understand from a different perspective. The people in this fandom (so far – I feel very lucky) have been more than open in discussing their criticisms, concerns, and understandings in a way that makes me feel welcome, and encouraged to learn/understand more. It’s a super inclusive fandom – freakin’ rare to see – but it’s also the kind of fandom that isn’t afraid to see its own faults – that’s even more rare. We’re all aware of our fandom’s problems, and we aren’t afraid to talk about them, or acknowledge the fact that SM’s beliefs aren’t a reflection of US. It’s special. It’s amazing. It’s why I’ve stuck around for almost a year now.
3. Fave headcanon brotps?
Oh, dude. Seth / Edward Jake / Emmett Emmett / Paul Charlie / Billy Bella / Emmett Rose / Leah Carlisle / Sam Alice / Jake
30. Which characters do you wish had their own spinoffs?
Oof. I think it would be SUPER interesting to have a whole spin-off series just on the wolves, actually! Not one in particular, but I think the whole world of shapeshifters could and SHOULD be explored more deeply!!!!!In terms of specific characters: Alice (duh), Carlisle (take me back to the 1800s or some shit show me his life in the volturi!!!!!), Leah Clearwater (she’d be my wolf-pack-spin-off main character).
15. Top 5 fave vampires?
IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER:
Alice, Jasper, Esme, Emmett, Rose.Yeah, they’re all Cullens. Suck my Olympic-sized dick.
9. Astrology sign headcanons for the Cullens?
YEEEEEEEES. I am very stuck in my opinions for these, and I’m not sure why. It’s pointless, but I care VERY DEEPLY. Carlisle: Capricorn Esme: Pisces Edward: Gemini / Cancer cusp is perfect for this S.O.B.Bella: VirgoRosalie: ScorpioEmmett: Sagittarius Alice: Aries Jasper: Taurus (but I go back and forth on Jasper daily so ask me again tomorrow)
13. Hogwarts house sorting headcanons for the wolf pack?
I’ve never considered this before, so this is first-instinct. Sam: Slytherin Paul: SlytherinEmbry: Gryffindor Quil: GryffindorJake: Gryffinpuff?? the man is brave, but he’s loyal to a GD fault. I think that might just be the wolfy traits comin’ through though. Leah: RavenclawSeth: Hufflepuff(just doin’ these guys to keep it simple)
20. Pick a character you wish deserved a better fate (that wasn’t death).
Bree. Fucking. Tanner.
Any chance I get to write something, I add in a redemptive arc for Bree Tanner because I can’t for the life of me understand out of all the characters why fucking SM decided to kill the one that DEFINITELY deserved a fucking soft and perfect life.
Fuck you SM, Bree is alive and well.
1. Fave wlw ships?
!!! YAY !!! Leah / Angela Bella / Rosalie Carmen / Esme AND THEN JUST BECAUSE I CAN: Edythe / Bella Jessamine / Alice Carmine / Esme Julie / Leah Julie / Bella
#holy shit anon this was SOMETHING#honestly I love you ????/#please strangers come read and comment on my personal opinions tell me I'm right#bETTER TELL ME I'm WRONG LET'S DISCUSS IT#answered#twi asks#Anonymous
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strikercorbie replied to your photoset
What the flying fuck is this??
I’m assuming you read the tags, so lets start from the beginning. This got long fast so under a read more it goes~
A coworker “E” invited me to join her husband, sister, and son on a new dnd campaign. They’ve played dnd for years, gone through multiple campaigns, most of them with her husband “R” being the dm. I chose a Firbolg as my first character, a giant soft boy named Fig raised by dwarven monks in a brewery. He was scared and not born to fighting. He was also trans, which I didn’t tell R.
(I was going to work actual white into his outfit later, but it should be obvious his color scheme is based on the trans flag)
Right out the gate (literally less than 5 minutes into the campaign) R makes a quip about how one of the female player characters was extremely hot and that the two men of the part (Fig and a dwarven cleric) are showing obvious interest. in their pants.
(please imagine the literal pain I caused myself trying NOT to eyeroll in front of R at this)
I didn’t follow through with this idea of his, and tried to vaguely insinuate that Fig wasn’t attracted to anyone. Like me, who is ace. R obviously wasn’t happy about me not continuing his “funny” joke, but the subject was dropped. The same sort of joke came up again with the main antagonist in our story, a YOUNG, UNDERAGE GIRL. Again I didn’t take the bait, and thankfully after that he stopped trying that sort of “joke”.
However this campaign was broken into chapters, and R wanted to play a character in the next chapter and handed dming off to his son, J.
We only played a single session with J dming, because he never planned ahead, and R spent the whole time belittling him. (this wasn’t new, every session R was doing this to his own son)
Because that campaign essentially fell through, and with the release of the Ravnica expansion, R began a new campaign, and @gettinziggywithit was invited to join in place of my coworkers sister. (who had stopped coming because of bs reasons all her own, and so R just killed off her character. No one was sad about this)
R has a... passion? for writing up characters, so he wrote up a dwarven bard for Katie, which she decided to give an apprehension engine instrument. (which is such a fun idea and played well with her characters personality, but I think R forgot this or just decided to veto it outright) (this isn’t important to post but it was important to me)
In this I made a female human rogue (as R had made a small comment prior in direct relation to the “joke” from before about how I played a male character) named Nora, who was basically Dexter (from same named show). E also made a female character (ranger gnome? I cant remember), and their son J was to join later.
Our first session, we are trying to leave this bog area, and we get ambushed by...Sucker Eels! A creature of R’s own creation!
What do sucker eels do you ask? They jump into your mouth, lock themselves in, and proceed to lay tons of eggs inside you that unless you get to a healer in time, will devour you from within. That is if you don’t suffocate during the process, as trying to dislodge them make them burrow DEEPER.
Both Katie and my characters fucking deep throat some eels, all to the amusement of R. Our characters get healed up, but we only do 2 sessions.
At the same time of these sessions, R starts talking to a coworker about doing a game with them as well, which this coworkers wife would DM as R wanted to actually play for once. So, I write up a new character, a dwarven female rogue named Ira Octava. Who is my Dragon Age: Inquisition character. Who was based on my fantroll.
(don’t talk to me about ASLOD feels I will ALWAYS have ASLOD feels dude)
I headcanon that dwarven women also grow beards, Ira just likes to shave. Also she’s 19. Also she’s trans. Still didn’t tell anyone.
This campaign started out well enough, but it quickly devolved as R kept redirecting the focus. Also I should note, he makes pretty well balanced and fun characters for others, but his own characters are min/maxed to hell. which really isn’t fun to play against.
This campaign also only lasted 2 sessions. Not because of R, but because we had to drive 2 HOURS (because R and E refuse to use toll roads, which would have made the trip 45 minutes) to the coworkers apartment, where a 5 year old treated us like a jungle gym, stole our dice, and tried to get into every bag/purse we’d brought. Which the parents really didn’t give a crap about.
NOW
R suggested, because of the drive and the time restrictions, that we should try a session over discord. He would gm this one, and we’d be moving away from dnd and working with the mutant and masterminds set up. Superheroes and the like kind of game. Right off the bat I new I wanted to play a character I already had. Dude McMarrs.
Dude’s story came to me in horror packed dream filled with space crafts, aliens, body horror, death and humor. Also you know, Venom was still fresh in my mind, and I literally already had a symbiote character so it was an easy choice.
The thing is, Dude is also trans male. That was part of the dream, and I refused to remove this from his character. Again, I wasn’t going to tell anyone in the game, as I knew it would be made into “a thing” somehow, which I hate.
Except, I was already getting tired of R’s bs attitude, humor, and opinions. So when on the one trip we made to go talk about the game and characters in person, he makes the remark “You don’t play male characters well”, I make the dumbest statement alive. I say “well he’s trans.” like that’s different somehow. Not my best moment, but I was getting frustrated. I felt dread immediately.
R is questioning it at first, kind of like “why?”, and then tries to science against it with “no trans individuals in space because of taking hormones”, and I actually make a stand and shut him down. We’re doing a superhero setting, which is a fantasy world, WITH SPECIFICALLY HIGHER ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES AND MEDICINE, and you’re going to try and be “realistic” about a trans dude in space? I didn’t back down, and it payed off. I actually win, I get to have this character be themselves openly instead of once again hiding it.
This happened 2 months ago, and I kept making it a point to be firm about Dude being trans. And R actually seemed to be okay with it. I was filled with confidence about this game, and being relaxed with a character I knew. I was starting to think maybe R just had a crap sense of humor, but was actually a decent human being.
Now, I don’t know.
The post came from an email he sent to everyone, basically asking for background info and basic character info. WHICH HE HAS ALREADY FROM ME. On that info, Dude is labeled male, because he is male. He’s a trans man, he is male. period.
But the thing is, he could have just left it at “are you a boy or a girl?” and there would be no hurt. That’s standard questionnaire stuff and it doesn’t bother me. Instead, he typed out the additional “(there is no third answer)”. That was unnecessary. That was intentional.
And ya, I may be taking this overboard for a character, but this statement also invalidates my identity. I’m agender. I’m still working through my own social concepts of gender and gender roles, but everyday I accept who I am and that I am agender. So seeing this, honestly hurt. Does R know I’m agender? No. and I had no intentions of telling him before this. Now I just really don’t want to be a part of this group. Even though I was excited for this game. But whatever, it’ll either never even start as other people are dragging their feet, or it will be abandoned pretty quick.
END OF RANT BONUS: Your standard instagram bathroom mirror photo of Dude before the shuttle mission.
A guy happy and comfortable in his own body. Thanks for reading.
#long post#sorry this is so long and exposition-y#I'm just very done at this point#I'm done with people not even trying to be decent human beings#This also comes after yesterday where I tried to have an open discussion about gender and sexuality#with my mom#and she kept trying to talk over me and derail the subject#and for once I kept pushing it#but it's still very clear that she refuses to even consider anything on the gender subject#I don't know what to tag this honestly#rant#my art
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this became a long ass post so going to give you the bullet points and then cut. (One quick thing I can't find a place for, I paused the episode to read the article on liv's iPad and it mentioned baracas was still in the hospital, how much work do you think Phil margraves put in to keep his zombiism quiet???) ▪︎why is Weckler's daughter a zombie? ▪︎please stop making mental illness a joke or an annoyance thank ▪︎did u really have to make liv's heterosexuality explicit? rly? ▪︎is baracas's kid a zombie? ▪︎did wecker steal the card for Baracas or Fillmore Graves? ▪︎when did weckler's wife die and did he know of fillmore graves then? ▪︎why? a threat to Tatum or something else for her? ▪︎is he basically FG's major? ▪︎speaking of, i don't know where shawna came from, but she sure as hell didnt go to that camp ▪︎even if weckler worked for FG from the start why steal for them? also why not zombie? speculation and a few more thoughts and theories: i liked this episode for it's weaving of plots, continuity nods, and because i like getting to see Liv's visions from the outside every once in a while. it also made me realize that we haven't had much voiceover lately, and I missed it. The return of AJ was cool--i love that we always know prisoners brought in as witnesses--and the reveal that not only are Tatum and her friend a zombie, they're somehow connected to Filmore Graves. I do wish the show would stop putting hallucinations in for laughs. they could at least balance it out with one episode that really delves into taking on a typical psyche, because even the agoraphobia one was fairly late. Also all the PTSD brains have been soldiers and aside from there being tons of other types of people who develop it, their military bearing has always overshadowed the ptsd. finally, I could do without the unnecessary assertion of liv's heterosexuality, especially in a statement that evokes the awful trope of "straight girl really wishes she could be in love with her bestie, but she's too thirsty for peen." unnecessary, especially in a show that could have kept blaming the brains whenever she shows interest in ladies, but leaving the question of if Liv truly swings both ways ambiguous. (plus, frankly 'sorry, Peyton i'm not attracted to you,' doesn't HAVE to be followed up by, 'because you're not a man." i really think they straight up made a choice to annihilate all "liv isnt totally straight!" headcanons--though at least she said "men" not "dicks." thank you standards and practices, here's my petition to make Revolving Door Boyfriend #4 trans* fwiw, I think James Weckler killed Roxanne on behalf of Baracas. I'm not sure how they connected, but I bet that his employer--be it Filmore Graves or Baracas directly--turnes Tatum in return. What wouldn't a man who feels that guilty over his wife's death do for his daughter? Between the prison psychiatrist saying he couldn't afford Rozanne and the speed of his confession--like he'd been told to do so--maybe his employer said they'd get him out, but I bet he knew he'd be eliminated. Also, this scenario makes me thing Baracas had some influence on the plan, b/c he knows the lengths a parent will go to for their kid. i do wonder if Weckler's self-blame is survivor's guilt, if someone forced him to cause his wife's death, or if he found out later FG or another entity caused the accident because of something he did or to show they were a threat. do we know how long ago the wife died? if it was a while ago I might think he wa connected to Filmore Graves long before the zombie stuff--before he had a family maybe?--and either went to them after she died or they found him. (would they have any reason to need a human? did they plan to leave Roxanne alive/l not infected?). if a former FG employee thought his daughter was in danger, i could see him approaching them for protection. i could even see her having cancer or something--or injured when her mom died?-- and him hoping FG could pull strings to get her better care and discovering they could do more than that. a kid's health is a particularly intense motivator. it would definitely explain things since he wasn't infected, but Tatum knew about a "they." maybe some of her discomfort is guilt. if he wasn't affiliated with FG, i could see them seeking out a pawn who could be so easily manipulated. if he was working for FG not just Baracas, i wonder if he "took care" of anything else and wasn't caught. i'm not sure if i believe FG had anything to do with Wally's death, but if they did I could see them manipulating Wecker or some other desperate person who wouldn't be immediately connected to them. i also think the his relationship to his employee will parallel Major's & Max Rager especially because of how many references we've been getting to the chaos killer and the Max Rager kidnapping victims. shawna may fit into that somehow, too. I wish we knew how long ago her letter had been sent, because that would help determine if she is affiliated with Fillmore graves or someone else. or maybe they got to him through Tatum. maybe that friend or someone else affiliated w/FG infected her and made Weckler work for them in return for keeping her in brain yogurt or Occam's razor, he worked tor FG (most likely in one of the non-combat positions), took on a new position post infection. maybe even before--they could have needed a clean-up grunt long before being zombies. FG takes care of Tatum b/c she's still one of them--which is complicated if they killed Wally--her discomfort with Clive and Liv could be b/c she wants to lash out at the "them" her father died for but the risk is too high--again especially if they orchestrated Wally's death, or even if she thinks they did. there is one more detail that complicates things: why do these girls know Liv is a zombie, but not that she's with the police. if they saw her before due to Fillmore Graves they'd be more likely to know that before knowing she was infected, right? *do zombie kids age? this affects my theory, and since they introduced a teen zombie in the same episode that opens with a mention of Buck, and had truther wonder if zombies aged suggests to me that we should also ask that question. **fwiw i don't think they'll kill Justin, b/c they're a bit more savvy than some shows/doing that would be really repetitive, but I could see him riding off into the sunset...
#izombie#my life is zombies#thinking too much about tv shows#fillmore graves#liv moore#floyd baracas#major lilywhite
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