#it’s not bad queer rep I just want it to be better

[screenshotsonpinterest]

Correct me if I’m wrong but Piper and Reyna are the two most notable queer women in the riordanverse and they both feel like after thoughts?

It’s NOT that their identities aren’t valid because they are valid and cannon and representation I just wish they were fleshed properly, as thoughtful parts of the characters, not just plot points

Maybe it’s just because I haven’t read toa in a while but will and Nico got a whole book(and it’s AMAZING that they did) and these women got what? A combined 10 pages?

Obviously a character stories doesn’t need to be about their queerness but something about Rick putting piper in the tsats dedication hasn’t ever sat right with me because I feel like all her depth has come from the fandom and headcannons

#I’m serious tho correct me if I’m wrong #I don’t mean to put mlm and wlw against each other it’s just the first thing I noticed #and don’t even get me started on those lesbians from the dark prophecy #it’s not bad queer rep I just want it to be better #percy jackson #pjo #pjo hoo toa #pjo hoo toa tsats #piper mclean #reyna avila ramirez arellano #queer rep #wlw representation #aromatic #asexual #reyna pjo #lesbian piper mclean #ace Reyna

[dervampireprince]

you have absolutely no business giving me a new dilf to obsess over right now /pos

but if i'm not giving you all new dilfs to obsess over then i'm not doing my job right

#also i just need other people to understand me #this better be about izzy hands #im literally making izzy gifs right now for my main blog like this is how bad its gotten im making gifs again what #the vampire answers #anyway every watch our flag means death. #i see so many people complaining about other shows not having enough queer rep and then not watch ofmd?? the rep you want is right hereeee

[abluescarfonwaston]

I think Edgeworth should see the reboot of the Steel Samurai where the Magistrate and the Samurai come together at the end and kiss and get there happy ever after and sit in uncomprehending calm as Maya screams and cheers next to him. It is the first piece of happy ending queer media he has consumed with his whole heart. Years of internalized homophobia and Manfred, (as well as the death of Neil Marshall, his fiance) taught him that happy endings were not for people like him.

But now, now he sees they are. Stands up and goes to Wright at 930 at night and requests a date immediately. Or... The earliest convenience. Because he has decided he is done being miserable. He would like to be happy and loved and all the things the world told him he could not be because of who he was.

The man makes a list of everything he wanted to try, or has been told to try and didn’t.

He tours the coast with Maya trying out tea and ramen shops. Takes a comedy class (that he drops after the first day) with Larry. Enrolls in a tango class with Wright. (who immediately hurts his back and Lang is called in to replace him after soothing a bout of worry/jealousy for Wright) He calls Gumshoe up and they go to a shelter and pick him up a dog. Raymond and Sebastian help him collect and frame dozens of pictures to decorate his apartment. Kay takes him around an amusement park and rafting and one evening they quietly hold hands and visit their father’s graves together.

He also enrolls in therapy because “Many people have told me i should try it over the years.” (Yeah i don’t think they probably phrased it that way Miles)

He gets better. Turns out taking daily walks in the sun with Pess and vacations with Wright and hiring a few extra hands around the office Drastically improves his quality of life. Especially once the medications start working.

It’s not all good. There are days he curls up on the floor, overwhelmed by guilt. Guilt that he waited all this time to do this. Guilt that he feels happy. Guilt that he Doesn’t feel happy after deciding to be better. And Wright comes and offers him a hug. Which doesn’t fix the problem but takes a little of the weight off his shoulders for a moment. He updates the list. More hugs.

Sits in front of a camera. There is a banner behind him that says ‘its gets better’ that he is trying very hard to not say looks tacky. Adjusts his wedding ring and mentally rehearses his speech. About how:

“At age nine my father was killed in front of me and i thought the world had ended. I didn’t sleep soundly again until I was 25.” About how, “At 16 I thought i wouldn’t make it to 17 because I’d failed an exam and I thought my guardian was going to murder me. And I thought if he did, that would have been fair. And at 22 my fiance was murdered and we had kept it so secret that I wasn’t invited to his funeral and I swore off love forever.”

“And when I was 24 I attempted suicide because I believed with absolute certainty that I had ruined and wasted my entire life and could imagine no future where I was happy and deserved to be so. Happy endings do not belong to people like me.”

“And now I am 36 and married. Quite happily. So I hope you will believe me when I say that your life is not over. It need not be. You have not ‘missed your chance’ and you are never too old to start feeling better. It does... Get better.

#miles edgeworth #suicide mention #it gets better au #look we looked up brokeback mountain and 'gay man in love with another but who spends his whole life running from it out of fear' #and then holds his loves jacket and cries after he died #feels like the bad end for edgeworth #and i think some queer rep kids media would fix him #or rather inspire himself to fix him #Neil showing Miles brokeback mountain a queer movie he only knows gifs of #Miles who grew up on documentaries like Matthew shepard because manfred was a git who wanted him miserable: Why would you think id like this #Neil: ... maybe i was just hoping you would #Miles yeeting himself out the building before he can see the end: NOPE #Neil spent the next year making up how the story ended (cause he also didnt finish it) about their happy end #Miles; I know you're lying but your arms are warm and i would actually quite like a happy end. Preferably with not horse back riding #gotta outline this just incase i ever decide to sit down for four hours and write this all at once #as i feel in my bones would happen

[lightningfilledsaber]

yeah fuck it i'll watch steven universe again

#mud rambles #couldn't watch it anymore bc all the shit surrounding it made me upset any time I'd try #and i really. really. dislike the treatment of the diamonds #i understand they are supposed to serve as a metaphor for family and generational trauma but also? #using a literal dictatorship as a vehicle for that metaphor is Fucking Weird #steg is also so fucking weird. SO fucking weird. #no fusion is not a metaphor for sex it's a complex metaphor for ALL different kinds of relationships but. the way steg was acting toward #pearl. was so. so fucking weird. #and it just left a bad taste in my mouth. i have a hard time watching things i have issues with #this is not all the issues i have just. the big ones #but god. the queer rep at the time of its release. the way i was OBSESSED with it as a kid #ive been wanting to go back to it #and i've been getting better at accepting that no media is perfect in a way where i can continue to Consume the media without feeling #INTENSELY uncomfortable. so #like yeah of course i recognized not all media is perfect but i just couldnt. NOT think about the bad shit while consuming it #thanks to intrusive thoughts #anyway yeah

[ziracona]

At the very least I'm hoping that more people come to their senses because Bioware is really not worth defending. There's way too many folks on Twitter that still defend them even when they fuck up when I think that as fans we deserve better than scraps and half measures. Granted alot of the Twitter side is home to a lot of faux progressive suckups who worship the ground BW walk on and keep giving them way too many chances.

It’s not just on Twitter, but yeah, mood. Too much of that in almost all areas of pop culture tbh. Human fuckin’ beings. 🙄

#ask #anonymous #I feel you bro #bioware ciritcal #dragon age #idk why people are fucking allergic to criticism like you CAN like a thing and criticize it and if it keeps getting worse & you don’t it’ll #become utterly without value eventually or you’ll lose your own ability to think critically by forcing yourself to defend things you know #are bad until your own abilities are ruined. : / ‘if doesn’t matter’ yes it does??? boycotts are a thing? also like criticism alone works? #UD fandom was obsessed with a not canon queer couple in a game w only gets & the devs in their next big release made a canon queer pair #everyone went @ Watch Dogs for having a white man pain lead and killing off the woc for his story & in their sequel the MC is a black guy #and 3/4 supporting cast are also pov & that was a tripple A title. it /absolutely/ matters. fundamentally even #say what you will about Qunatic Dream every time a game comes out people complain about the race rep and the women and every game they do #more and better race rep and women like are they perfect? no. but compare DBH to Indigo Prophecy and tell me criticism did nothing #like it’s so simple. if you demand they do better if they keep wanting money from you? they will #if you do not? they will keep getting worse bc worse is what /they/ want and are and unless acted upon by an outside force that will not #change. how do you think game studio staff get diverse writing rooms? mostly they don’t pick them out of a personal desire!! it’s when they #get raked over the coals for their failures of being /not/ diverse and are under scrutiny and pressure to do better #this is /literally/ how it works. some of you act like you have no fucking idea how hard the people older than you have faught for what we #have now. do you think queer couples on TV just happened? do you think the poc leads were just studios fucking??? getting nicer? NO. people #faught for this! they suffered and struggled and came out victorious! and if we do not keep pushing? we lose ground. this is not a battle #that is over bitch. an improved situation is not an end to the war. have the people in /power/ improved? no. and that means the only thing #between representation in media and a hellscape is us. is the people. creators. fans. staff. all of us #fighting and keeping the pressure on. demanding action matters. /not/ giving shit media money of views or buzz? matters #people in power care about money and control. hit them where it hurts

[griancraft]

Hi guys, this is sort of my official "please, for the love of god, listen to Skyjacks with me” post because I’m losing my mind and all the content I can find is from the latest stuff right now, and I don’t want to spoil myself. I want to be able to talk about this with people!!!! I will make a watch (listen) party discord if there is enough interest. Just give it a chance; you won’t regret it. Also, some information may be wrong or outdated. I’m on episode 11 out of over 200.

Skyjacks is a ttrpg podcast about sky pirates in a world where there was a catastrophe about 200 years ago that left the sea unsafe to sail and maybe even damaged the entire world to the point where civilization is scattered and in small groups. There is very casual queer rep, and it’s casual to the point where it really just fits into the world perfectly.

A brief summary of the premise of the first episode will hopefully get you hooked. I’m really bad at summaries, but I promise it’s a billion times better than how I talked about it here:

Captain Orimar Vale is dead, and a mutiny will be on Gable, Jonnit, Travis, and Dref’s hands if they are unable to keep up the ruse of him being alive. To do this, necromancy (deeply forbidden magic) is performed by the Dref, the ship's doctor, to turn him into a semi-functional zombie. Captain Orimar is famous for his abilities as a captain; to replicate this will take great skill.

As they run out of supplies, they make a desperate decision: port on the land of one of Orimar’s scorned lovers or deal with the growing uneasiness of the rest of the crew. They haven’t seen their captain healthy in months, and whispers about his health are starting. However, greater danger will await them when they take to the skies again, lurking just beyond the clouds…

And more propaganda as to why I think you guys will like it:

There are unique and interesting gameplay mechanics they use to tell a really cool story, and if you like Hermitcraft or any other sorta storytelling-based SMP, I promise you’ll like it. Like. If you liked Boatem from Hermitcraft 8, you’ll love the characters in Skyjacks. The players are exceptionally good at playing their characters, their humour is unmatched by anything similar I’ve had the pleasure of seeing, and the story is prioritized, which I think is an amazing choice.

Best part? It’s still ongoing after, like, 5 years. Some people have left, but a good chunk of the OG cast has stayed. Not that leaving is bad, because holy crap, 5 years is a long time, and stories have to end at some point! It’s a good way of getting into something and knowing there is still a shit ton of content to be explored.

The music is good. The story is good. The characters and humour are amazing. The lore of the world is sprinkled throughout, and as you learn more about the world, the more excited you get. It’s incredible so far, and if you decide to listen to it, I will actually love you forever and ever. My boyfriend is on episode 190, and he finds it so funny every time I go. Oh my god, this is so cool.

Link to the podcast, but in a playlist (up to 180). So it’s in order and easy to find, since it’s a part of something else from the oneshot network:

#I need you guys to get into skyjacks I cannot do this alone #Can’t even look in the skyjacks tag for fan art to loose my mind about because I am literally over 200 1hr+ episodes BEHIND #I promise it is so worth it #I’m almost done episode 11 : #which is so so early so it would be very easy to catch up to me #I’m going to reblog this once a day or so I think #collapses in a heap of dust this post was never supposed to be this long #also please don’t spoil me if you’re ahead or get ahead guys istg i will kill you with my bare hands I’ll put my episode number in my pinne #ack tags too long #me when I infodump for 45 minutes straight when I should be working on my final essay #I’m dragging you fuckers kicking and screaming. Please guys. #I realize now this will like definitely show up in the tags but honestly I don’t know if that matters

[transhuman-priestess]

The single worst aspect of "good rep/bad rep" as a method of media criticism is that it's perfectly tailored to dovetail with the popular conception of "death of the author" in the absolute worst way.

A trans woman villain written by a trans woman is no longer a way of the author exploring morality and the human condition through a familiar lens, it's "bad rep" and therefore can be discarded out-of-hand without any critical examination.

Meanwhile, a trans woman written by a cis person, who is ancillary to the plot, but without agency, such as a shopkeeper or a bystander, can be considered "good rep" simply by not doing anything. If "representation" is all that matters, then the most moral inclusion of a marginalized identity is one in which that character functions, not as an actual character, but as a prop, an object that exists solely to make the author and the audience feel better about the story being told.

I don't want to write stories with cishet villains and vaguely trans minor characters. I want to write stories about queer people. I don't write every character with the intention of them being trans, but every character I write could be, and when that is the baseline for a story, sometimes characters who are part of my in-group are going to do things which are morally repugnant.

I get it, it's uncomfortable to think of your in-group as containing anything other than "good people", but the world isn't cleanly separated into the morally pure marginalized blorbos and the evil 100% privileged evildoers. But I'm just so tired of every queer character having to be a paragon of pure incorruptible pureness. It's boring, and worse, it's a terrible way to tell a story.

#writing about writing #queer representation #ivy michaels

[kdinjenzen]

I love Tumblr a lot, but every time I see a bunch of art or posts about a “new trans character” in a show or game or book or whatever, one of three things happen:

1. It’s just a community driven headcanon, not a bad thing at all mind you, but no shreds of it being canon are there.

2. About a week later the creator/company of said series turns out to be one of the biggest haters of queer and BIPOC people ever and currently actively does harm to marginalized communities.

3. It’s an anime character who either looks like or actually is a little girl and googling the character's name brings up the worst shit imaginable and you'll want to bleach your eyeballs after being subjected to it.

And while I said "Tumblr" this really is just "the internet in general" that does this all the time.

Look, I love a good trans headcanon as much as the next "90's kid who grew up in an age where seeing trans people (both irl and in fiction) meant they were subjected to the worst things ever and subsequently made us search for any way to cope with the idea that people in general may not want people like us around" - because heaven knows those got me through some really dark times but...

Y'all...

There's actual trans people making actual trans characters right now. They are out there. Existing. Right now. Creating worlds and characters and desperately hoping you, other trans people, will find their stuff and be happy to see actual trans works by trans people.

And don't tell me "well it's hard to find indie stuff" - because every day I see the most obscure thing or project being found on this website and passed around until it's got a whole culture and language of its own a week later.

Something something "the army has queer rep you gotta do better than that, honey."

[always---wrong]

Okay, so I wanted to discuss the situation with Alastor, his canonical sexuality, and fans.

I have seen the two sides alot.

So one side ships Al with numerous characters and sees this as casual fun.

And the other thinks this is disrespectful cause he is ace, or Aroace.

(I believe that he is Aroace. His va said so, his character has shown no interest in romance, and Viv may have confirmed it at some point)

Now, I am sex repulsed ace and I'm aro. And I have strong opinions. Alastor is my favorite character in Hazbin Hotel, he is also the FIRST confirmed ace character I've seen. (This doesn't include subtly implied characters) Because Al is the first and I care for him he is very important to me.

My opinion is really mixed because on one side it's; yeah, it is a fandom, and fandoms ship. It's what they do. Its also kind a rude to judge someone for their favorite pairings and stuff, in my opinion.

On the other side though I'm hurt. I am a queer person with basically no rep. And I hadn't realized how upset I was by this until I saw discourse over this character. I had FORGOTTEN that it was possible to have confirmed canonical ace characters. I had gotten so used to that just being a head cannon. And not only just an ace character but also an Aroace character. And not just that but a seemingly non sex favorable ace character. I would even argue he is sex repulsed.

My real problem with all this is:

Yes, I KNOW ace characters can have sex. But do you know who else can? Literally every single allosexual character. I KNOW aros can date. But you know who else can? Everyone else. The appeal of ACTUALLY having characters with the same sexuality as me is that they would be like me. Cause I and other aces like me never, ever get stories like that. So many times in media I would be enjoying a character who had shown NO interest in sex/romance and would suddenly be partnered up with another just for the heck of it. This has happened SO many times it's not even funny. It's incredibly frustrating.

So, the point I'm trying to make is that; YES, there are aces who have sex. HOWEVER, a large number of us do not. And it's like everyone forgets that. Your not writing Alastor having sex with Angel cause your showing the vast spectrum of asexuality. Your most likely writing it cause it's sex between two hot characters. It's simply maddening.

(One thing I wanted to say was, despite the fact that Al is ace i don't think it's bad to find him attractive. He is very pleasing to look at so I understand allos finding him hot. However I'm not sure where I stand with people sexualizing him. I think I'm leaning towards, 'please don't do it'.)

Now, the worst thing though is when I'm looking for content to enjoy. When I found out Al was canonically ace I was so happy and excited. I'm pretty sure this situation wouldn't make me nearly as frustrated if it weren't for the overwhelming amount of sexual content for Al. Some would be fine. I could just scroll past it if this were the case. But it is not. Content for Al is MOSTLY sexual. That's why I don't believe people when they keep saying they aren't invalidating aces because almost every time I go looking for a fic I have to scroll for HOURS just to find few non ship fics.

I can't even use the Asexual Alastor tag because all that does is bring me to a bunch of fics where the author is like 'he's ace trust me,' then proceeds to write smut.

Why can't I even use a tag made for aces without being drowned in smut. It's so frustrating! Like I'm getting to a point where I wish the authors would stop using the tag and openly admit they made him not ace for the story. Like I know your trying to not throw away his canonical sexuality but I mean at this point I think it'd be better if you did. And if someone is going to write sex favorable ace Al then please leave it to the aces. I trust us to at least weave it into his character instead of stating it and acting like it's there when it's not.

So basically: I don't mind if you ship him, just don't say he's ace or Aroace if your neither of those in ship/smut content. I'm sick of trying to find content that isn't sex/romance in Aroace tags!

I don't want to judge people for liking a ship. But I'm really tired.

ON A DIFFERENT NOTE, I would love to see content with Al and Lucifer. Like them hating each other to like frenemies. It would be so funny.

Anyone have any platonic content with Al and the rest of the cast???

#aroace #alastor #hazbin hotel #asexual #aromantic #fandom

[palehottubchild]

i know we all joke about the best ace rep and our favourite character being an eshay (and tbf im european that word means nothing to me) but imo thats one of my favourite things about his characterisation: the fact that he is not something an allo audience would mecessarily expect or imagine to be ace.

small disclaimer, im happy with any ace rep we get in the first place and if you do like what im about to describe more power to you, this is just my personal opinion.

That being said, i love that cash is kind of an 'unconventional' ace character, for lack of a better word. all too often ace characters fall into one of two stereotypes, either the heartless cold robot that is already kind of weird or other in itself and does not care about your or anyone elses feelings (this also includes nd coded characters), or the innocent sweetheart who is so pure and cute and has (most likely) one singular character trait (somehow almost always books). again, there is nothing inherently wrong with this since these people exist in real life, but they do push yhe aspec community further into the little boxes that allos have already put us in.

Now what i love so much about cash is that he is one of the most clearly genuinely kind people in the show. Despite him being surrounded by bad company, he is constantly shown to be gentle and sweet with his grandma and is obviously uncomfortable with the whole harper situation the entire time (not saying he handled this perfectly but thats not what this post is about). He is shown to clearly care about people deeply and he is not afraid to show this, except for when he is in bad company.

However, him having and showing emotions does not push him into the pure innocent cinnamon roll part either. He goes out to parties, does engage in enough sexual activities to end up the map, openly flirts with darren and is totally rocking his mardi gras outfit (including thong on head) without hesitating once. He is also stereotypically a 'tough guy', which is also not a type of guy too often represented as any sort of queer in popular media afaik. all in all the way cash is portrayed as an eshay to me makes him being aspec so much more valuable to me and while i understand the eshay posts are mostly jokes i did want to talk about it

#heartbreak high #jeez im rambling #sorry guys #i couldve gone on for ages about this but i feel like this is already too much #but also the portrayal of his queerness and his arc being ace and personal growth centered rather than yet another 'tough boy turns gay' #it would be hard to get me to shut up but i will spare you for now #anyways i love cash and darren with my whole heart and i have so many thoughts about them #ca$h piggott #darren rivers #asexual #ace

[gabrielsbubblegumbitch]

do you have any opinions on the hazbin critical and vivziepop critical tags?

tw // mentions of sexual abuse and sucide

I have a personal beef with them. And not because I love Hazbin and Vivzie so much but for more presonal reasons so the following opinion won't be measured at all.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are some legit criticisms out there. Like, the show could definitely do better with body diversity and giving us more varied sapphic relationships instead of just throwing a ton of male/male couples at us. And, yeah, Vivzie's response to some of the criticism has been... questionable. (I still cringe when I think about that one time she explained that Raphielle can ship ValAngel because they are sa survivor, but Raphielle explicitly admitted to not be one).

But then, there's stuff that's just... pulled out of nowhere. Like the whole thing about Valentino being a "fetish character." Come on, the world of villains is filled with queer, flamboyant baddies. What sets Valentino apart is how his abusive behavior is shown in the open, making us rethink our love for villains. If it weren't for Mascarade, people would worship this moth daddy gangster in a dress, much like they are with Vox now. It's hard to root for the bad guy when you see the fallout of their actions. Like, Loki committed war crimes and no one was outraged when he got his own TV series and dragged creators for supporting atrocities.

Constant Valentino/Angel Dust discourse actually leads to the more serious issues I have with this "community", more harmful than just "bad media literacy" like the way they handle the topic of sexual abuse and weaponize it, without ever listening to victims. There is this constant shitstorm about Angel being a "bad sa survivor rep," that the way he's written is insensitive because "he shouldn't be horny, he's sexually traumatized." Like, do these people not understand that making Angel unable to enjoy his sexuality the way he wants would essentially mean acknowledging that it's no longer his but belongs to his abuser now? Also, the argument I keep seeing that drives me BAT SHIT CRAZY aka "I can enjoy this media that is centered around murderer, you cannot enjoy the media that treats rapist as a nuanced character because rape is objectively worse than murder." WHO THE FUCK TOLD YOU THAT? Reading this makes me feel so angry and sad and guilty because frankly, I was raped, and of course, it was horrible but still I'd choose it any time over being murdered. Because I have my life, I'm loved, and I love, I pursue my dreams, and I can still experience so many good things in my life. Painting sexual assault as this worse-than-death experience is not the feminist take they think it is and does not do victims any good.

Or accusations that Vivzie's support of fandom bullying led to someone taking their life. It's such a ridiculous and harmful claim. Honestly, this thing always makes me heated because suicide is not an easy decision, ask any person who ever faced it. It's not like "ah, this stranger told me to kms, I guess I gotta do it now." Of course, any kind of bullying and abuse adds to the suffering and can be the final trigger, but to me, it's just so disrespectful and harmful that someone could have experienced prolonged, intense suffering and all of this is omitted, their death labeled as a result of "fandom bullying" and weaponized in fandom drama. Also, it's simply cruel to put the blame for it on one, uninvolved person.

Also, it always annoys me when people hold small creators to immensely high standards while not doing the same with others. If we keep lynching and canceling every media that is not objectively morally pure, we won't be left with only perfect media. We will be left with media produced by white, privileged billionaires who might be real-life rapists, abusers, and thieves but are too powerful to be taken down by social media outrage. Hazbin's success is a major W for the underappreciated medium of animation (we saw what WB did to 90% of their animated shows), unpopular genres like musicals (Wonka creators were literally too ashamed to market it as one??), and unapologetic queer narratives that are not written for a heteronormative audience or centered around queer oppression (ofmd, the other medium I can think of in that realm has just been canceled). I can't stand people so desperate to put it down driven by their black-or-white sense of morality. Kant won't be patting your back for being the Moraliest Person because you bullied an indie creator and her fans.

Also everyone who feels the need to explain me hazbin critical agenda - save your breath. I'm very emotional about it and I frankly don't fucking care why you think you are right.

#hazbin hotel #ask #tw sui #tw sa #vivziepop

[idolomantises]

talking abt that one thing in velma thats on my mind a lot for the past few days (that turned into a big incoherent rambling about gay rep in media)

i'm seeing jokes about how the queer representation in mystery inc being so much better than the queer representation in velma and honestly it makes me want to go on a whole tangent about my thoughts on queer representation nowadays vs the more subtle examples decades prior.

There's this weird debate that goes on online about what is "good" queer representation, and one of the most notable and honestly annoying examples is that queer representation has to be so subtle that you could easily miss it/ignore it. i've always hated that take because its a claim mostly said by straight people who are uncomfortable with seeing characters who are openly queer and/or state their identity, but they present it as some sort of push for subtle and nuanced writing. personally i do prefer it when a character just, identifies as how they are without explaining their identity, but that doesn't mean flat out explaining your orientation is inherently bad representation. its why i will always defend the very clunky and awkward high guardian spice scene. it is absolutely poorly directed and written, but that doesn't make it "bad representation". however, I do consider the character who explains that he's trans bad representation because he is flat, uninteresting and very clearly a creator self insert. he doesn't feel like a well rounded character who's also a trans man, but just an incredibly sanitized example of trans representation.

i have many, many issues with helluva boss/hazbin hotel and i do genuinely find some depictions of queer characters just flat out offensive (you can argue with me about how angel dust being written like your average 90s gay stereotype is woke actually because he has trauma, i dont care), but i do admire and appreciate that the series doesn't want to sanitize its queer characters, even if its done poorly. though i could go into a whole rant about how i find it very telling that female characters that are queer are far less sexualized or allowed to be problematic compared to their queer male counterparts.

anyways back to velma. that show does something that i've always found pretty irritating in queer representation which is just this weird lack of faith in its audience. characters can't have a slow burn anymore. internalized thoughts, anger, frustration, longing. you have to immediately know that two characters are gay for each other, even if they're lifelong enemies. its like when modern horror movies open with the gore because they're scared people are going to be bored or leave early. there's no subtlety or chemistry between daphne and velma, they're just lovers because idk, its two girls who hate each other and who doesn't love that.

then i think about how mystery inc handled velma and her sexuality, how she was allowed to be well rounded and nuanced before you slowly realize that "oh, she doesn't like boys". i know her whole thing with shaggy is controversial among fans but i always loved how she does do something pretty unlikable but not immoral. yeah, it is shitty to force shaggy to choose between her and his dog, but i can understand her line of thinking and empathize with her. and i do like how they become friends in the end despite their awkward break up. It's always fun rewatching it and realizing that their incredibly awkward and cringe relationship was meant to be awkward and cringe. it was supposed to be weird and difficult to watch, because those two weren't meant to date each other. you could see how hard velma was trying to make the relationship work despite the fact that you never get the vibe that either character was full invested in it, unlike daphne and fred's relationship.

then you had velma and her relationship with marcie, which started off as sort of a catty rivalry (not full on attempted murder, i mean holy shit hbo velma) that slowly grows to where you're completely convinced that these two did gradually like each other. and i do really enjoy stuff like that, more subtle writing like that. which doesn't just apply to queer rep btw, my favorite ships are relationships that feel understated, something you have to really dig for and pay attention to. its why i consider bubbline the best f/f representation in cartoon. because its subtle, but not too subtle where it feels out of no where when they kiss, and nuanced in ways that enhances the relationship AND characters.

there's a good amount of relationships i see in cartoons where the creator, who is usually queer themselves, often wants to depict queer relationships, but is weirdly adverse to depicting the uglier aspects of that character, and refuses to add subtlety to it. steven universe is a show i've always felt conflicted on its handling of queer representation because on the one hand i appreciate writing lesbians that are messy, traumatized and make constant mistakes. but on the other hand, the show goes out of its way to ignore these issues and/or make excuses for it, making the decision to make these characters messy and complicated genuinely baffling (this is also one of the big issues i have with catradora and stolitz).

it makes me think back to my own work too. i really enjoy making fluffy, easily digestible gay content for my followers and myself because it puts me in a good headspace. But even now and then i like exploring those little nuances too, because i don't really enjoy stories with little conflict. Because of that acknowledgement of how satisfying it is to write fluffy, queer rep, you end up putting yourself in other creator's shoes. you're so used to media that either dehumanizes gay people or tells people that they don't exist that you push yourself to make the most in your face queer rep you can but its at the cost of an interesting and subtle characters. characters that don't really have arcs or places to learn and grow.

With bugtopia i made a joke about how i want some of my queer rep to feel like you're being queerbaited. It's not literal, obviously, but mixed in with characters who are already married and in same gender relationships, i really want to write dynamics that feel subtle enough for a bit of a slow burn. even if you know they're going to end up together, to at least value the characters on their own before centering them on their relationships. queerbaiting is something that deserves all the criticism it can get, but it is embarrassing when queerbaiting feels genuinely more interesting than actual queer rep because queerbaiting has that factor of "maybe they won't get together" that adds that bit of intrigue, vs so many shows that repeatedly hammer in your head "don't worry guys, they're gonna be lesbian lovers".

mystery inc (and many other shows) being forced to keep a relationship obvious while subtle to get through censorship really forced creators to be creative with their storytelling and not center characters around their relationship and identity. but nowadays i think shows like to take the easy way out. for me, i always thought the most impactful example of queer representation in steven universe is "Rose's Scabbard". I genuinely don't enjoy that episode because it's a good example of the show thinking that trauma is an excuse for shitty behavior, but i cant deny that an entire episode of pearl breaking down and finally accepting that she wasn't the center of rose's world. it's the crew being forced to be creative and push through censors to telling a compelling story about a traumatized lesbian slowly realizing that she basically deluded herself into thinking she was someone's savior.

I think it's silly to try to place good queer representation in one box. like subtle queer rep is good, but also queer rep where a character flat out states that their gay. where I think it falls apart is when it either reinforces stereotypes without properly deconstructing or expanding on them, makes the characters so overly kind and non-controversial that the relationship is just boring, or try to make your messy and complicated characters but the narrative refuses to hold them accountable or at least acknowledge that they're doing something wrong. and to clarify on that last part, i'm not asking for some hays code nonsense where every bad person goes to prison and/or promises to stop being a bad person again. i mean the narrative doesnt just fucking sugarcoat their behavior. i don't want to see helluva boss ignore the fact that stolas made blitzo call him out for only using him for sex and then pathetically rush to justify their relationship by giving them a bizarrely sanitized and sweet backstory. and i don't want to see catra literally end the fucking universe and only do something good because she's straight up out of options and the show just decides that that was her redemption and she doesn't need to do anything to atone for what she did (including repeatedly abusing and verbally berating adora).

anyways velma has none of those interesting qualities and i'm pretty sure daphne and velma kissed because the creator is a weird pervert who thinks two girls kissing is hot.

#txt #i was thinking abt knocking off some of my longer posts on my tumblr but ya know its tumblr. its made for a blog #twitter isnt really a good place to write think pieces because its not really made for thinkpieces #i really enjoy expressing my thoughts on discourse and media but i don't want to over do it because ya know. you guys followed me for my ar #not my 2434334th post about why i think helluva boss is a bad show #but i've been thinking about sometimes prioritizing what i want to do vs what people want to see from me. so now you're getting #a long ass rant about why i think velma showing two teenagers kissing by episode 2 #encapsulates the overall issue with modern queer rep

[ssaalexblake]

on behalf of all the people who didn't realise they weren't straight until their early 20's (even despite how obvious it may be in hindsight) i wish a very happy Fuck You to all the self absorbed assholes saying Yaz's arc is bad or lacks agency or sucks as gay rep Because she didn't know this till she was 20ish and didn't admit it to herself until EOTD, like honestly, at this point go take a long walk off a short pier.

The people who didn't ~see~ thasmin before it was verbally recognised are merely irritating and exhibiting heterosexual blindness, You lot are out there insulting the experiences of many very Real people because it's not good enough for you.

Literally. What you're peddling is SO awful and said with the assumed moral high ground, and all i have to offer you is one huge 'ew' at that terrible behaviour.

Look, this is not actually about Yaz, but lol, Yaz was a bullied teenager on the verge of or actively suicidal, she is not shown to have One friend and her family are actively shocked she's taken friends home in arachnids because Yaz doesn't Have friends. That Yaz did not immediately clock she was into Thirteen and thought they were just good mates actually makes perfect sense bc she doesn't know what #besties feels like to differentiate the two things. Is that depressing? yeah, but the point is yaz built herself up into the person she is in tpotd in a coming of age type story, she Does have support and friends at the end, she Does know her sexuality better by the end, she Has achieved what she wanted in being able to help people. She grew and learnt! Good for her.

It's also like, personally think that it's a more valid interpretation of the show to say that Yaz was troubled and didn't want to admit this to herself before eotd because of 13's avoidance and behaviour, rather than anything else going on. Yaz is never shown to be repressing this because of the gayness, she's worried because 13 is squirrely and they fight so much and 13 Still doesn't open up to her.

Mostly, in the end, idgaf what you think of Yaz's arc but if it's related to one type of person's discovery of their sexuality being Better than another then honestly, you need to not subject other people to your 'takes', because all you're being is cruel and you don't even have the self awareness to realise.

Watch your damn words. I don't care if somebody realised they're not straight/not cis/not whatever when they're 99 years old. To use an internet cliche, that is Perfectly Valid and a story worth telling in any kind of media out there. If you want to watch the story of a queer character in dw very secure abt their sexuality and Not on a voyage of self discovery/coming of age narrative that happens to include that Discovery, go and watch Bill's episodes and stop saying shitty things about real people not being good enough for you.

#dw shit #suicidal ideation cw #once again the dw fandom is Terrible

[nyxofdemons]

“one day im going to have to make like a three hour long video essay that's just called In Defense of Helluva Boss” Please do. I see more anti videos than I do with defense ones. Like the ones that say season 2 is terrible even though it’s barely completed and the ones that say Stolitz is a bad despite them barely having a relationship.

no literally i am sick of seeing more anti content than actual appreciation videos but the anti talking point i see most that drives me up the fucking walls is that it's "bAd RePrEsEnTaTiOn," as if that is all that queer people are allowed to have; just the vague nebulous concept of "Rep(TM)." the fact that if a straight character is a bad person then it's just that This Character is a bad person, but if a queer character is a bad person then This Is Bad Representation Of The Community And Is Homophobic. can we not just HAVE characters?? vehicles to tell a story??? tools to craft a compelling narrative??? this is part of why Helluva/Hazbin being adult shows is such a THING because i see this get shut down a lot under the guise of "uhh well just because it's an adult show doesn't mean that it can handle whatever topic it wants however it wants" and like. yeah buddy! that's true! and that's not what this is fucking about!! when people say "it's an adult show" what they mean is that it's made to be engaged with under the assumption that you would know better than to take information to shape your worldview and perception of other real life people from a fucking cartoon! the show doesn't NEED to tell you that Um Hey Guys Just So You Know This Isn't Actually Meant To Reflect How All Real Life Gay Relationships Are because you are an adult who should already be able to discern this.

"bad rep" doesn't mean "characters that are nuanced, morally gray, or just bad people." "bad rep" would be if helluva boss was a show that said "the REASON these characters are in toxic relationships / are bad people is BECAUSE they are queer, or at least directly correlated to that fact." which is. you know. very fucking different than "these characters are in toxic relationships / are bad people because they 1) live in a classist society that actively encourages them to be their worst selves and 2) are extremely traumatized."

#btw when i say toxic i DO mean stolitz but not in like. a 'this is romanticizing abuse !!!!1!!!!1!1!!' kind of way #which is. the second stupidest criticism of this show #like babe did you really watch blitz break down sobbing on his couch and see stolas drowning in his depression cereal and absinthe #and some how come to the conclusion that the lesson you are meant to take away from this is that This Is A Good Thing To Aspire To ?????? #their dynamic IS toxic rn!! neither of them are communicating properly and neither of them are getting what they TRULY want #and the whole point of watching this situation (this shituation; if you will) play out #is to be entertained first of all BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY #because you are supposed to go Man This Relationship Status Sucks For Them Right Now I Sure Hope They Can Make It Better #you are supposed to recognize that it is Bad for them right now. because you are a fucking adult who should have a CRUMB of media literacy #god. sorry this is so long #video essay is gonna be four hours at this rate istfg #mine #ask #helluva boss #stolitz #analysis #long post

[ijustthinkhesneat]

I am about to be so real.

I fucking hate DC comics.

Like have they given us Dick Graysons butt? Yes. Jason Todd’s thunder thighs? Yes. Damian being teeny tiny? Yes. Tim being a bi gremlin? Yes.

But you know the fuck what. I simply cannot get over their aversion to men having problems and like dealing with it in a healthy way. Why is modern Bruce literally the worst person ever?

And I don’t mean in WFA or fanfic or cute little cartoons. Why in the Batman Comic series is Bruce one of the worst people ever? Bruce “I care about kids who were hurt like me and want to try and give them a better life” Wayne has fully morphed into Bruce “Teehee I beat my children and blame them when sociopaths that I enable hurt them” Wayne.

Like literally fuck off. It’s not even just that. The whole Red Robin arc when Dick is just “wow my brother is having a really hard time. I’m gonna call him crazy, take away the thing that’s been helping him to stabilize and give it to someone who tried to kill him multiple times and is consistently verbally abusive towards him. That will be really good for him.”

Literally what the fuck. Don’t even get me started about tarantula or Damian dying or any interaction between Bruce and Jason.

Like I’m just so fucking tired of this company peddling media about how it’s normal and right to forgive people who habitually abuse you. How it normalizes unsafe and unstable relationships between men.

And a huge part of this is because they just write this shit for shock value. Like what horrible thing can we run these characters through and never talk about ever again just so people will talk about it. Remember that like 3 comic long shit show of Dick getting brainwashed by the fucking Joker? Like it’s literally Dick beating the shit out of his brothers and being like I don’t know you and I don’t care and then it’s just like haha back to normal everything is great now.

I fucking hate it. It’s bad writing, it’s an irresponsible narrative about how trauma effects men and I’m just tired.

I really do like the fandom too. I think DC fans have created a lot of safe spaces for queer people, people of color and people with disabilities. But so much of what the fandom runs on is just so far from canon. I know tons of people irl who have never read a release post new 52. And I know some people who have never read a DC comic period cause they saw a glimpse of the toxic waste in there and noped out.

Like I know I’m just some guy on the internet but seriously if your canon comic material is so bad that a very large portion of you fanbase feel they can’t read it or would rather write there own story that just completely changed your characters you need to take a long look at what you are producing. Dick maybe being bi in Gotham Knights is cool. The rep for a character that has been coded as queer for a very long time is cool. But representation is in fact second to writing a good story and having good characters and DC is failing spectacularly at both right now.

#rant post #batfam #bruce wayne #dick grayson #batman #damian wayne #jason todd #tim drake #nightwing #dc batman #Batman sucks #bring back Brucie Wayne now #dc comics #dc comics get your shot together challenge level 1000 #i’m so tired #fuck the joker #red hood #dick graysons butt #foefiction #I will bully them into being good characters fic by fic if I must

[absolutelybifurious]

no one follows me from the 911 fandom so i feel mostly safe in whining to the abyss about this, so like i feel bad for not caring as much about buck's bi rep at face value... i can appreciate that buck - as a stereotypically masculine guy, who is for all intents and purposes the main character of a procedural prime time show - coming out as bi is a big deal, and i appreciated the set up with tommy. it was fun/fine. as a bi person, as someone who wants the world to get better - it makes me happy in an intellectual sense.

but for me, as a viewer of 911 the show - i don't really care. emotionally, in the context of the story it didn't do anything for me. tommy is (mostly) a random guy who showed up and buck realizes he's bi and now they're dating, but there's nothing to draw on earlier - and if it's a stepping stone, then i'll love it wholeheartedly in hindsight but if buddie doesn't happen - i just don't quite know how to feel other than like, detachedly glad we got a queer relationship for someone like buck.

and full disclosure, i wholeheartedly admit to being an eddie girlie, but even if eddie had gotten the storyline with tommy - i don't think i would've had a super strong reaction?

like yeah, i appreciate rep and of course it matters, but what would feel revolutionary for me is to take this relationship thats been implicitly on screen - to basically look at all these queer fans and be like, okay, yeah, you were right. all this subtext you've seen in a dozen other mlm ships over the years is valid. you aren't crazy and it's not gross or weird to make it REAL. you aren't rabid. (not counting the people who send weird hate to women actors just trying to do their jobs) and god - more than that, i'm just here for the fuckin STORY of it. tommy is fine. lou is lovely and i'm plenty interested to see where the buck and tommy train goes, but i don't have investment in it, not significant investment anyway, and i don't think i will? i mean, we're 7 seasons in. i can't get all in with tommy and buck at this point, i've been frothing at the mouth for another ship. and you brought me THIS close just to swerve at the last second.

so while i get that canonizing buck as bi is a big deal - it is always going to feel hollow for me personally because the story is what i'm here for. the relationship. the depth of it. and tbh i just want to see something beautiful and unintentional building in the background and have it fuckin happen for onceeee.

just sometimes i feel like i'm missing something, because i see the like... level of reaction some people have just to the bi-ness of it, and for me - if there's not a satisfying story, then, i don't have many emotions about it. i've gotten plenty of bi characters over the years, and very few of them felt fully actualized in the story being told around them.

#buddie #911 #i don't wanna tag this as too many things bc i feel like ppl would hate it and #i'm not out here trying to ruin anyones good time #but also its kinda something i wonder if other people feel #or if i'm just weird #911 abc