#its still about The Gays™

[helpimtrappedinthetextbox]

A JL Batman identity reveal fic where Bruce Wayne is openly dating Superman

Some of the Justice League walk into a lesser used room to find Batman and Superman making out

The members that walked in are like "Superman TF are you doing you got a boyfriend?!?"

And before they can say anything about Batman being a homewrecker, Batman turns his attention from the Leaguers back to Superman, now acting like a scandalized Brucie Wayne(like turning his head and putting the back of his hand to his head), being like "Gasp! Superman how could you! You told me you cut that Wayne Himbo off! Did you dare to try to have us both at the same time?!?" Clark, for his part, is caught between a look of embarrassed horror and laughing really, really hard.

Diana is probably there, in the know, laughing her ass off as she should, the absolute QUEEN.

Eventually Bruce starts laughing almost has hard as Diana, the rest of the Leaguers there are Traumatized™ for life.

Bruce then calls a full League meet, explaining vaguely how the circumstances of getting walked in on happened, some of the people who weren't there start to say something about how Batman could come between Superman and Bruce

He quickly shuts them up by mentioning that he is, in fact, Bruce Wayne

Then we get chaos as it fades to black

#the justice league #justice league #batman #superman #superman x batman #batman x superman #superbat #batman identity reveal #theres also a bonus scene of weeks prior where bruce says if the JL find out that Batman is with Superman but doesnt figure out his identit #solely from that. then hes gonna pull out the Brucie Personality #it was originally gonna be talking as Brucie but Clark suggested talking as batman with the brucie personality for max emotional damage #suprise its not just roll with it #but dont worry #its still about The Gays™

[yonpote]

ok heres how i split up the dnp eras (loosely based on dan's timeline in his interview w anthony)

2009-2011: the Sillies era :3 dan refered to it as being a dumb teen just posting cuz he was bored, which is like, thats what all of youtube culture was at this time. they met and like fell in love or whatever you know the lore dont you. phil moved from his parents home to his first apartment in manchester, and dan technically moved to uni but really he moved into phil's apartment to take advantage of his washing machine and ps1 and. yknow. other stuff. they officially moved in together in 2011 yippee hooray, the phanchester apartment holds a special place in my heart

2012-2013: THE SHIFT. they started getting Serious about youtube as a career, doing more stuff w the radio, superamazingproject started in 2011 but THE SHIFT is very easy to observe when you compare the first season of sap to the last season. ALSO. they were NOT A DOUBLE ACT AND NOT GAY 🙄. it could also be called the No Homo era lmao idk this is when a lot of shitty things were happening wrt leaked information, harassment of their families, and just generally becoming more in the spotlight especially while still in the closet being a horrible experience. but also, they moved to london and got cool opportunities with radio stuff and were starting to actually make a living on this shit.

2014-2016: Peak Dan And Phil™ Era. at the height of their popularity. they realized oh shit, we ARE a double act and not only does everyone enjoy us best as a double act, WE enjoy working together. tabinof, tatinof, dapgo, still doing the radio every month up until they start touring, 7 second challenge app, gamingmas, what the hell DIDNT they do during this time period (what they didnt do was uhh take care of themselves and not overwork and not blur their work and personal lives so much to the point where they felt like the whole apartment was a film set.)

2017-2018: Gay Softlaunch Era (aka post-baking aka glass closet) the baby steps toward authenticity, moved to the double apartment to separate work and life, ii's whole theme, dan talking abt depression, phil getting the quiff, both of them being gay as hell in every way other than saying it explicitly. important things of note: TRUTH BOMBS dropped, Interactive Introverts happened, still uploading gaming vids and honestly by the end you could feel their fatigue. and then they hiatused dapg.

2019-2022: ok these four years each feel like whole eras in themselves, but also theres an overarching theme. THE GAY ERA.

2019: im gonna futher split this year in half. first half- dad left to buy milk so other dad is taking care of us. rough six months for dannies im sure. important phil thing of note- he changed his film set from his "bedroom" to a fairly basic but cute shelf backdrop. honestly prob didnt wanna keep pretending that was his bedroom considering.... second half- DAN AND PHIL GAY. dan uploads his magnum opus. phil comes out via tweet. they go to japan and its really gay and it's The Trip to japan for them like yes they first went in 2015 and again in 2023, but Japhan 2.0 Was The One. what does this mean? proposal? anniversary? idk exactly but it was gay as hell dude and theyve talked about that trip with such love in their hearts.

2020: Phandemic (sorry that was bad) but also where tf is dan again? even with the big C-word happening, it was business as usual for phil, regular vids but make em gayer, caught a pigeon nbd, and end of the year introduces the Stereo app show Phil and Phriends where he's had chats with pj, louise, his brother, seth everman?????, and finally. dan reappears. they reveal that they bought and FULLY PLANNED a house together and are ready to move!

2021: they don't move house for another like six months! basically their house was (and is??) still being worked on AND they were in lockdown AND turns out at the end of last year, they were kicked from their Life apartment and were now living in the Work apartment so you can imagine what all of this can do to their psyche and lowkey they were getting sick of each other like it wasnt just bordering on phivorce it was nearly Phurder. Phidow. but to fill the time so that DOESNT happen, my favorite fucking thing ever happens: Lockdown Lads (and all the other names). the first taste of what a dnp podcast would sound like, with the added bonus of chaotic listener interaction. oh yeah also dan wrote a mental health guide book whatever (IM KIDDING I REALLY LIKE YWGTTN I WROTE LIKE TWO REVIEWS ON IT NOW) and they finally become Homosexual Homeowners. theres quite a bit more dnp content this year, dan being on phils channel a bit more, the phodcasts, dan's gay and not proud special.... oh yeah and hometown showdown i guess AND TEXT VIDEO 2!!! my favorite and my namesake!!!!!!!

2022: Prophecy Year..... but they didnt get married. dan returns with another longass video to say: hey i hate being a youtuber and also youtube majorly fucked me over. but also fuck that im gonna do a weird talk show and ALSO GO ON TOUR WITH THIS APOCALYPSE THEME! phil actually... slows down this year. more dan uploads than phil somehow??? but also Dan Is Leaving me is posted and i go completely insane and become the deranged individual you see today. WHICH FINALLY LEADS US TOOOOOO

2023-present: The Unhinged Era. dan's tour was a huge Emotional success for him but uh not without its hiccups due to management and all that and i think he and phil finally realize. Fuck It Who Cares. dan flies back to england FROM AUSTRALIA to make sure he can be with his future ex-husband on his birthday. CAKE HEART EMOJI. YELLOW PLAID SHACKET. they go on a gamer date and post a picture of playing footsies in a cab. THE PHUDE HAPPENS. they go to japan again and while this one will never be The One it was still a well earned holiday this time with bryony! and they took a bunch of very cute film camera pictures.... THIS IS ALL JUST THE FIRST HALF OF 2023 BTW. in phil news, he talks about going to therapy and figuring out how to manage his anxiety!!!! he changes his hair again!! he hires an editor, phan is his otp, he teases about the gaming channel a couple of times but so many of us already dropped any hope of that returning- OH WAIT WHAT THE FUCK?!!!? HUH!??!? they returned, and more chaotic than ever before. the gayness upped to the max, the Weirdness on full speed, the Horniness at Very Scary Levels Oh God Stop Talking About Dogging, phil can swear uncensored now???? and this energy has continued into today...

#the shift #softlaunch #myrambles #phan

[kirbyluvr69]

Some Thoughts™

About art, desire and John Lennon

If you're active on the Twitter side of The Beatles fandom you'd know that just yesterday a collage John made for Paul titled "I Only Have Eyes For You" made the rounds and scared people whom, I guess, don't think about visual arts very often. Unfortunately I don't use the word "scared" lightly. People really used the words "disturbing" and "concerning" to describe this piece, with a hint of a "What was Lennon thinking about our poor Paul to make this with him in mind" sentiment that I don't think it's quite fair.

I tried to search more about this collage´s context, but all I could find (without having to buy Julian Lennon's book in which the image was featured) was that it was made in the 50s, while John was still at art college, but to be quite frank, I don't think the exact date matters too much.

What I see in this image first and foremost is desire, plain and simple. Red is a sexual colour, we have naked women sprawled, the head with its mouth open in a orgasm-like fashion, the eyes symbolizing voyeurism. If anything, as a friend of mine also pointed out while we discussed it, this collage is proof of the way John and Paul were so close they were even free to be honest about their sexual desires to one another. Even if the collage was made for another purpose and gifted to Paul later, this sentiment still stands, because Paul was the person he thought would receive this part of himself with open arms.

Is the collage "disturbing"? I guess, in a way. The same way I think growing up in the 40s and 50s in a hyper-convervative protestant society like England and discovering yourself would be disturbing. Even more if you're not entirely straight as an arrow. But I don't think John's talking about this here. This is about his feelings for the opposite sex, and they weren't always nice. Red is also the colour of blood and guts, John was also known for having violent outbursts. Would it not disturb you that the object of your desire also brings up in you violence? I don't think we'll ever know why he felt that way, but here we see that he's aware of it. At least I think so.

I saw another analysis of this collage that somewhat agreed with me, but presented this argument as if this was a bad thing? I don't know exactly what made me think this way, maybe the verbiage, but I'll never think a person exploring the nature of their desire, be it disturbing or not, is wrong. Of course domestic violence is bad and I'm in no way excusing it, but if you're willing to engage with The Beatles, you have to bear in mind they were shitty to the women in their lives in varying degrees much like every man ever in general, and specially at that time.

As a self proclaimed John Lennon Scholar i.e. I Wanna Crack Open His Skull And Look At His Brain With A Microscope, I'm happy this exists, and I think I need a little more time with it myself.

All of this to say: I like it, I think John Lennon was a good visual artist and stop being weird about art.

To lighten up the mood, look at the gay as hell collage John made for Elton in 1975! This one deserved its own post with a lot of tin hatting on my part, but whatever! I love them so much (and yes, I WILL find a way to mention their friendship in every post I make, shut up. One day the Lennon/John masterpost will come).

#im psychoanalyzing john lennon thats what im doing #john lennon #paul mccartney #the beatles #meta #can you call real peoples lives meta?

[oh-theatre]

Teacher Hal Au Headcanons

some headcanons cus i have sm brainrot about this au

Barry brings coffee for him and Hal every morning, not for hals sake but for everyone else's sake Hal needs his coffee

Tim sits directly in front of Hals desk and is just the littlest shit of all and barts right there with him, theyre best friends

Kon sits a little ways away, he used to sit in the back but Hal had to move him to next to his desk because he was a problem /aff

Tim tortures Hal everyday but hes actually his favorite teacher, and tim is hals favorite student

Hal and Bruce meet during a parent teacher meeting

Barry and Hal know each others superhero identities

Hal will brag about his students during league times

Bruce is genuinely shocked (and somethinglater when they get together that he loves about Hal) to see how much Hal cares about Tim and his other students

ALL THE KIDS STILL HAVE THEIR SUPERHERO IDENTITIES TOO!!

Dick and Wally and everyone in that era/age range are all seniors/juniors

Dick and Wally are in Barrys classes

Sometimes in class Hal will just start infodumping about planes and flying and thats how he got Kon on his side because Kon found it incredibly fascinating

This habit does carry over to Bruce when they get together and its such a soft look as Bruce listens wholeheartedly because goddamn these bitches gay AND neurodivergent (which means vice versa hal will listen to bruce because bruce nerd)

Dick will sometimes TA for Hal, its great Tim hates it

Sometimes Hal uses his Teacher Voice ™ in the GL uniform during missions

general batlantern thing where they may be at eachothers throats all the time BUT LISTEN!! THEY TRUST EACHOTHER COMPLETELY AND TRULY

Bruce trusts Hal with his family completely over time and its so refwytdgueksychebwdu gheyre so gay

Hal has so many trauma

I HAVE MORE PLEASE ASK ABOUT THIS AU!!!

#batlantern #bruce wayne #hal jordan #teacher hal au #hal teacher au #teacher au #barry allen #tim drake #dc #dc comics #comics #wally west #headcanons #headcanon #au #aus #batman #green lantern

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Sword gays showdown, round 2 of bracket one

Propaganda:

For Zoro:

Literally training to be the greatest swordsman in the world. Has a special three swords technique (one blade in each hand plus one with the handle held in his teeth). I haven't read the manga or watched the anime but the live action adaptation gives me extremely gay vibes and based on the fandom things I've seen I'm not the only one

bro uses three swords. has one in his mouth. dont ask how the HELL he manages that. one day he will be the worlds greatest swordsman....after he beats the current greatest for both the titles of greatest swordsman and fruitiest swordsman. he's dramatic as FUUUCK like bro what the hell. has homoerotic fights with the local twink like everyday. directionally challenged, can and will get lost in a paper bag, doesnt know left from right...he probably cant read, too. hes too silly ngl

First of all, im in like episode 250 and so far he hasnt been shown attracted to any woman at all during the whole show so far, not even when one changed clothes in the same room as him and this is anime so you know there were other characters with bloody noses and shit. With that out of the way he wields three swords at once [two in his hands, one is his goddamn mouth dude. Its cool af trust me.] When he was little he made a promise to his best friend that he'd be the best swordsman in the world. Later she died in a tragic accident and left her sword which he still uses today. He also carries a cursed sword but he overpowers the curse with a combination of skill and sheer luck. He got stuck in a chimney. While his crewmates sail their ship he takes naps. He learned how to cut through metal by fighting a guy who could turn his body into metal blades. That's metal. He refuses to fight this liberal marine officer because she looks like his childhood best friend and its just understandably really awkward for him. He's autistic. He's a he/him bisexual lesbian. He's a gay man. He's ace/aro. He's whatever you want him to be babey!!

he has 3 swords, wields one in his mouth sometimes, his dream is to be the greatest swordsman in the world

three swords and big aroace-spec gay vibes

He not only has a sword he has *three* swords. He's absolutely gay there's no way to see this man as straight. Also one time he licked his sword for no reason and that was really funny to me so I had to mention it

Look, this man thinks about three things: Swords, His Captain, and Booze. He’s on a quest to be the worlds greatest swordsman. The Live action has a scene where he declares his undying, unwavering loyalty to his captain WHILE reaffirming his promise to be the worlds greatest swordsman. At this point His dream and his Captain are so intertwined it’s crazy. Man is so sword-y he’s got three of them. When one of his swords broke he carried its empty scabbard until he was able to give it a SWORD FUNERAL. He hears a sword is cursed and takes that as a challenge. He will literally tell his swords off for “bad behavior” when they “act up” due to being straight up cursed. He tests one by throwing it in the air and sticking his arm out to see if it is so blood thirsty and ill tempered that it will cut him. Even though he’s literally the first mate if you ask him what his role is he’s going to answer Swordsman.

He's dedicated his life to two things: becoming the greatest swordsman in the world and his captain, Luffy. 

He mastered the three sword style. Its his style. It would've been more swords but he could only fit one sword in each hand and one in his mouth. He wants to be the world's greatest swordsman, a deal he made with his childhood best frenemy (before she died falling down the stairs). He thought he was All That at the start and was almost completely decimated by the actual Worlds Greatest Swordsman. Now, after two years forced training with that guy, he's probably in the top tier no-doubt, and honestly could already be the best but we just don't know for sure yet. Also, did I mention: he's got the whole demon/devil imagery going on at times. And he has absolutely no sense of direction! plus is a total softie when it comes to Chopper and all the children who somehow gravitate towards him. And he loves naps!

One of the guy's main goals in life is to be the best sword fighter and he fights with three swords which I think is telling enough of his skill.

For Sayaka Miki:

my favourite scene is the one where Sayaka turns off all her pain receptors to battle the shadow witch, uncaring of the damage dealt to her body, because what is a body but a decaying vessel you must eventually abandon anyway? that was very depression of her <3 Also there’s that one time (in the rebellion movie) where Sayaka stabs herself on her own sword to release the witch that dwells within her. and then she immediately gets up to fight back to back with her girlfriend. that moment lives rent free in my head. Sayaka is so depression and I love her for it:)

SHES SO GAY ITS NOT EVEN FUNNY SHE FLIRTS W THE MAIN CHARACTER HER NARRATIVE FOIL IS ANOTHER GIRL W TBE OPPOSITE COLOR SCHEME THEYRE RED BLUE LESBIAN MOMENT YOU WANNA KNOW WHAT ELSE ??? SHE COMES TO THIS FALSE REALITY LITERALLY JUST TO SEE HER GIRLFRIEND ALIVE THEY LIVE TOGETHER AND THERES A WHOLE OUTRO SEQUENCE JUST W THE TWO OF THEM SHE STUDIED THE GAY BLADE I STG also she uses a sword 🗡️ love u sayaka

#sword gays showdown #roronoa zoro #sayaka miki #pmmm sayaka #pmmm #one piece #madoka magica #one piece zoro #puella magi madoka magica

[spectrumspace]

the Thing about Mid-2010s Ace Discourse that gets me is that even if you weren't really someone who kept their pulse on the latest news in the lgbt+ community or queer theory or whatever, it'd still make its way onto your dash in a more subtle way as "cringe"

like i think a lot of funny posts at the time being made by the Big Guys were like "34yo 'fandom moms' about to doxx a preteen for not shipping rey-lo" followed by an image of peter griffin photoshopped to have dyed hair, piercings, heavy makeup, and a shirt in the ace flag colors using a laptop with fandom stickers on it. like very much a "gay people i do not respect" strawman but with the label scribbled out and a new one slapped on. and no one really read into it critically

and if someone did actually go "hey what does asexuality have to do with it" they were put on blast by op and their friends for "reading too much into it" and the post would immediately devolve into bullying whoever decided to speak out -- often someone very young and/or with trouble picking up on social cues -- until they wrote up a long emotional thesis trying to stand their ground where inevitably they said something wrong and op got to say something like "ummmm 😳 did you just say lesbianism is aphobic??? 😂" and everyone would reblog the whole miles-long thread going "LMAOOO CRINGE" with the subtle insinuation that All Ace People Are Like This.

like i never saw anyone share around straight up Discourse™ discourse on my dash specifically, even if i knew it was out there/saw it in the wild outside my personal bubble sometimes, but this kinda stuff was Everywhere thanks to the rise of "cringe culture", and i think that was more fundamentally damaging than any 10k word google doc essay with sources trying to make an "intelligent point" for ace exclusion

#ada weblog tag

[lloydfrontera]

I am sooo tempted to read the novel just so I can write a fic with Lloyd and Javier in a happy relationship with a mutual benefits agreement with Alicia and Silluria (who are of course also in a happy relationship) with the right characterizations.

honestly. that's such a fun dynamic. putting all of them in a happy polycule resolves so many issues at once and gives us such insane possibilities. i am now obsessed with this concept.

but also i'm bi so like. in my head. this is their arrangement.

lloyd and alicia get married so he can have the tax benefits of being the royal consort and she can get rid of the annoying people she needs to be married and have someone to make an heir with, but he still lives in the frontera estate and they see each other every weekend when alicia gets visitation rights to yongyong because they share custody of him. once charlotte is born, she alternates between spending two weeks in the palace, one with only alicia and the other with both alicia and lloyd, and then one at the frontera estate with only lloyd.

as for why javier and silurian get married it's mostly so she can also get rid of the people who think that if she's her father's heir then she should at least be married so she can have an heir of her own. and well they spend a reasonable amount of time together, when they meet in the capital while accompanying their respective lovers so. yeah why not. they have two babies, the eldest a namaran and the youngest an asrahan, who spent two weeks at the palace, one at the frontera estate and then visit their grandfather at namaran one week every two months.

all four of them are Stressing™ about all those trips and poor yongyong and ggoming get so much work out but they're committed to giving their kids the chance to get to experience everything they have to offer them. but also they run a tight schedule and trying to organize anything is a nightmare, they get the hang of it eventually but the first couple years were An Ordeal.

everyone in court pretends not to know about their arrangement but it's really hard when the royal consort only spends two weeks out of three at the palace, bringing and taking with him lady namaran's husband, while lady namaran lives almost permanently in the capital with the queen.

that and also all three kids call alicia 'mom', silurian 'mama', lloyd 'appa' and javier 'papa'. so like. it's an open secret.

the facts its rumored that more often than not lord frontera and sir asrahan will share a room, while the queen and lady namaran have rooms next to one another, that may or may not have a secret passage between them and that more than once all four of them have been seen going in and out of the royal chamber is really not anyone's business either.

i do want to say this does not solve the fact that lloyd emphatically did not want to marry into a position of power and that silurian had a whole arc about not needing to marry, but. it is much funnier and gayer than the original ending so i'm a lot happier ajksdhjkahfkjds

of course this is just. what came out of my brain once you oppened that possibility ajskdhjkafds

please do try it out your own way, i'm sure you have some truly wonderful ideas!!! please. give us gays everything we want <333

#hey i got an ask #Anonymous #tged #the greatest estate developer #tged spoilers #lloyd frontera #javier asrahan #alicia magentano #silurian namaran #llojavi #alloyd #alisiluria #god. what's javier and silurian's ship name. #silavier?? javiluria?? #also. in the more insane version of this post alicia absolutely does go 'i want a baby from you. gimme' to javier and he does because. sure #why not. and then either as an accident or because they are a little competitive silurian and lloyd also have a baby of their own #who gets to be a frontera unlike charlotte and the javiali baby who are magentanos because royalty supersedes the patriarchy #but those were far too many babies so. let's keep it at three. just now that those babies exists in some part of my brain and i love them s

[olderthannetfic]

You're so right about the whole very interesting way that BL relates to gender. I always found it interesting the way that these stories invite women to project emotionally onto a male characters. I've heard it said that there is a major intersection between anti-fujoshi rhetoric and transphobia because gay trans men sometimes discover their feelings via consumption of BL, and finding that the reason they're so attached to the fantasy of being a man seduced by another man is that they themselves are a gay man. TERFs love to claim that these people only transition because of their "fetish" and shit. It's basically the genderswapped version of autogynephilia accusations.

--

Yup. There's also a lot of discomfort around nb or simply gnc AFABs who have some kind of Gender Feelings™ about BL and its mushy categories.

(Man... if I had a nickle for every time some oldschool slasher told me she "Doesn't feel like a woman" despite still identifying as a cis woman and possibly even a cishet woman...)

A lot of the objections boil down to:

How Dare You Not Stay In Your Box, Your Identity Is Messy, Oh No

[thegirlwhorideslikeasamurai]

Cherry Magic has graced anime fans with the first gay marriage in anime history. That coming from a country where same-sex marriage is still quite some lightyears away from becoming legal, is huge. The first spirtually recognised same-sex marriage in Japan dates back to 2016. Although society has becoming more accepting over the past few years and queer activists keep fighting for equal rights, queer people in Japan are still being discriminated (this Wikipedia article on LGBT rights in Japan is quite comprehensive about the legal situation). If you want to know what that's like, read Ryousuke Nanasaki's honest and down-to-earth biography Until I Meed My Husband--he's an LGBTQ+ activist and the lucky guy who, together with his partner, made history as the first gay couple getting married at a shrine.

At present, Japan is the only G7 nation that neither recognises same-sex marriage nor has a law to protect queer minorities. As of 2023, the current ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), regards homosexuality as a disorder and claims it can be healed with spiritual practices and therapy, and that same-sex unions should be discouraged because they destroy the traditional image of family and society.

Please let that sink in for a moment.

But then I see people (mostly on the bird site, I think) screaming "But my favourite gay anime should have been the first to have a gay marriage!!! LOOK WHAT THEY TOOK FROM US!!1!!111!!!1"™

Embarrassingly, most of these people are from my own fandom. And I'm seriously wondering whether these people are okay if this is all they care about.

YOI was very progressive for the time it was made in (it aired in the same year Ryousuke Nanasaki married his partner in a shrine). But when you start digging and read the interviews with the creators and put them into context with the reactions from Japanese anime fans, the reality of queers living there, and the obstacles the director had to overcome to make her vision reality, you can't unsee that YOI was too progressive for it's time.

Sometimes I wonder if growing up in a country that has estabilshed marriage equality years ago, makes people blind to overlook the systematic queerphobia queer people face in countries with a still mostly conservative collective mindset, even more so as seeing a country through the lens of fiction doesn't give a realistic picture of its society and the struggles its marginalised groups face (especially when these struggles aren't portrayed realistically in those works). And this is such a weird ironic since the queer stories we love with all our heart because they paint a the picture of a queer utopia are born from this society.

Progress isn't a linear process and it doesn't happen overnight. Two steps forward can mean one step back. If you push too far before society is ready for it, brace yourself for the backlash. No groundbreaking achievement has the power to tear down the walls of conservative stubbornness, it rather antagonises the people who have the means to thwart you.

If you struggle with accepting this, if you think that your selfish desire to get more of your favourite anime is more important than queer rights, if you are convinced that some animation studio owes you and make it the fulcrum of your very existence, I ask you politely and in all seriousness to please go touch some grass, educate yourself, and come back when you've found the plot again.

Disclaimer: I'm not a Japanese citizen and I don't live in Japan. I gathered these information from people living there (expats and natives), the Japan Times, Wikipedia, translations of interviews with the YOI staff, and my own research.

#jen's mind vomit #anime #lgbtq rights #marriage equality #japan #media literacy #watch Cherry Magic read the manga watch the live action #read until I meed my husband #please please educate yourself on the culture your favourite media come from #celebrate progress and support queer people everywhere #“BUT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND YOU WEREN'T THERE WHEN YOI AIRED!1!!!!1” #I don't need to understand I get it completely #please look at the whole picture ffs

[controversial-blorbo-bracket]

Controversial Character Tournament Round 2: Light Yagami from Death Note vs Edelgard von Hresvelg from Fire Emblem: Three Houses

(remember that these characters are fictional and your fellow tumblr users are real. please be normal in the notes, i will not hesitate to block if you harass people)

Propaganda under the cut, may contain spoilers:

Light Yagami:

LOVE: - "He does some messed up things but have you considered: fucked up protagonists rock :)" HATE: - "this man makes me sick. ive genuinely had manic episodes over hating him. i have trauma from his existence in general. not even because of the murder. because hes a sexist cheater :(" - "My cousin and I frequently debate this. I think despite his 'intentions' he's ultimately a despicable character who cares for nobody but himself. She disagrees and says that he is just trying to do the right thing and making a difference in the world (she still thinks his actions are wrong, but she doesn't think he himself is despicable)" BOTH: - "I mean cmon man"

Edelgard Von Hresvelg:

LOVE: "People either claim she's the hero or the irredeemable villain with no in between. She's also my lovely wife who has never done anything wrong in her life." "I never even finished her route and remember nothing of what happens in that game but I DO remember the absolute warzone the fandom turned into because of her. She staged a coup and overthrew the head of the government/church and I think that's pretty cool of her. "But she committed war crimes!" God forbid women do anything." "I lied in the previous question. I don't hate her or love her in fact I have never even played this game. But I keep finding people making up Discourse™ featuring wild accusations of bigotry towards both Edelgard fans and Edelgard haters so I feel that she belongs here. (Also my friend hates her. but HER friend loves Edelgard. So even in my small social circle there is a clear polarization.)" "ok I don't have any solid propaganda because my opinion of her is more positive-neutral, but. she fits the spirit of this poll. trust me." "[three houses spoilers] Yes she started a war but it was the only apparent way to break the chokehold the church had over everyone in Fodlan. Also she’s the only lord you can gay marry so I’m hopelessly biased" "every time i go into the tag its either "edelgard is perfect no notes!!" or "edelgard is literally a fascist!!!". ive never seen someone with a neutral opinion of her. i yearn for battle." "I know very little about her to be quite honest! But good god. As a fire emblem fan for the GBA and engage. I have NEVER seen such a decisive character like Edelgard. Jesus Christ. I still find stuff in those tags. What the hell!!!" "I don’t even go to Fire Emblem but even I know that Edelgard has never done anything wrong, ever, in her entire life, and that if she did any war crimes they were a SUPER effective use of girl power. source: I am a lesbian. (realtalk I genuinely love a noble-minded extremist revolutionary and think Edelgard is a great character, so it’s kind of a shame that opinion on her seems to simply split down the line of “whether the person wants to kiss Edelgard or Dimitri more.”)"

HATE: "So on the one hand, she's fully willing to kill and burn and murder her way to a "better future" at the expense of the present, but on the other hand she's pretty cool and #girlboss. She's also a canon gay romance option, but idk if that makes her more or less problematic." "I just. I understand why people like her. I really do. And I don't have anything new to say for why I dislike her. Edelgard fans and stans have heard everything. She has great points and motivation, but her methods are wrong. She hitches her ideals to the first good opportunity and never reconsiders her allegiance when things go off the rails. She hates the church for "lying to people" and proceeds to lie to her own populace herself in her own route. She gives Claude an opportunity to live because she knows he believes in her goals. But Dimitri and his Kingdom are too beholden to the church to ever be offered such mercy. She herself acknowledges that the change she wants to see is more quickly enacted through war than subtle and slow societal change. She recognizes the human toll of her actions, but she justifies it through flowery language and an insistence that the change needs to happen now or it never will. I honestly find her so interesting, and I agree with a lot of her thoughts about the need for societal change in the world of FE:3H. But people latched onto her and propped her up as someone who can do no wrong. And that just never sat right with me. I just think she’s a hypocrite who got put in front of a shiny means to her end and was immediately blind to every other opportunity around her." BOTH: - "I dont even play fire emblem but I cant escape people not shutting up about how much they love or hate her" - "You said there were no hate answers for her...and I don't really hate her so it wouldn't be right but I wanted to balance things out some. She's the perfect storm of a character who sounds right and progressive and has a route all to herself that doesn't contradict that...but once you play other routes, it becomes clear she's kind of. full of misinformation. And attacking people who don't deserve it. Also a LOT of the divisiveness I'm willing to blame on the writers rather than her, for having her both be Evil Tyrant we NEED to take down and Sad Uwu Baby who just wants to eat cake and laze around and loves You the Player SO MUCH."

#poll #4 submissions #12 submissions #round 2 #yagami light #light death note #light yagami #death note #edelgard von hresvelg #fe3h edelgard #edelgard fire emblem #fe3h #fire emblem #fire emblem three houses #fire emblem 3 houses

[naminethewriter]

On the Road, Just the Two of Us

Chapter Two: A Game for Just the Two of Us

Masterpost | First | Next | Ao3

Summary: This was written for @dukeceit-week-2024, @dukeceitweek

Janus and Remus are living in a campervan at the moment. Are they going somewhere? Who knows. The only thing that’s important is that they’re together.

Content Warnings: Innuendos, Food, Gross Food Combinations

🌻🌻🌻🌻

“Remus, keep your eyes on the road.”

“There’s no other car in sight though!”

“Right, and that can’t change any second. Or you drive off the road and we get stuck in the mud,” Janus scoffed.

Remus whined, “But I’m bored!”

“Then stop and I’ll drive.”

“No! You drove most of yesterday, you need rest!”

“Then stop complaining.”

Remus grumbled but kept quiet. Instead, he started shifting in his seat, trying to get the energy out. Janus watched him worriedly. There must be something to keep him occupied while still focusing on the road, right? He let his eyes wander around what he kept at the front of the camping van, looking for any inspiration.

He found it when his eyes fell on their food supply.

“I have an offer for you,” he announced to Remus, whose eyes flickered to him instantly, though he directed them back to the road just as quick.

“What?”

“We’ll play a game. I’ll mix some of our food in unusual combinations and you try to guess what it is. No peeking, so keep your eyes on the road. If you can’t we’ll stop playing.”

Remus practically vibed in his seat from the excitement and he nodded.

“Gimme, gimme, gimme!”

“Let me have a moment to prepare, you child,” Janus laughed, glad that his idea was well received. He started sorting through the basket of stuff they kept up front for mid-drive snacks and placed them around himself for better reach. Then he considered what to combine first.

“Alright, open your mouth. And remember, eyes on the road the entire time.”

With a little whoop, Remus followed his instructions and Janus popped the first thing in his mouth, impaled on a toothpick.

“Close and guess.”

Remus chewed excitedly but his expression soon shifted to disappointment.

“Oh, c’mon, Janny! Peanut butter and apple? That’s too easy!”

“Is it now?”

“Yes! I can’t really taste the apple but its crunch gives it away.”

“Does it?”

Remus furrowed his brows. He was pretty certain, but Janus’ smug tone gave him pause.

“Yes?” he replied, more unsure.

“You don’t sound as convinced anymore.”

Remus whined loudly.

“Don’t play mind games with me right now, Janny! That’s unfair! Tease me when we’re in bed together, not now!”

“Fine, fine, fine. It was a pear, not an apple.”

“…You hate crunchy pears.”

“I do.”

“Then why do we have some?”

“Because we’re living in a campervan and don’t go shopping as regularly as we usually do. So I bought some harder pears so that they can soften over a few days,” Janus explained, already putting together the next combination.

“You’re so smart, Jan.”

“Thank you. Now open your mouth.”

🌻🌻🌻🌻

They continued playing like that for another twenty minutes or so. Then Janus announced he had the final thing prepared.

“Awww, do we have to stop already?” Remus complained. Amazingly, he really had been able to keep his eyes gay forward the entire time.

“Yes. I don’t want to waste all our supplies on one game. And while I do know you have a stomach made of iron; I really don’t want you to get diarrhea while we’re in the middle of nowhere.” They did have an on-board toilet, but it was quite small and needed regular emptying. It would not be able to handle what Remus loved to call ‘The Shits™’.

“I guess that makes sense,” Remus agreed, though he still sounded unhappy about it. “Give me the goods.” He hung his mouth wide open and Janus put the last combo on his tongue. Remus chewed for a long moment.

“Pickle water definitely.”

“Yes.”

“It’s really chewy. But all I can taste is the pickles.”

“I might have put this in the jar as soon as we started playing the game.”

“So it’s been sitting in there for like half an hour?! No wonder only the pickles remain!”

“Closer to twenty than thirty minutes but I guess that makes little difference.”

“Smartass.”

“You’re so right, my ass is really smart.”

Remus cackled for a moment before he concentrated back on what he’d just eaten.

“You actually stumped me, fucking shit,” he mumbled a full minute later. Janus smirked.

“It was a sour snake.”

“You smart fucker!”

“Thank you.”

“We’re so playing this again. With a full kitchen. You have to feed me more weird shit.”

“Sure, Remus. I totally don’t regret making this game up now.”

Remus laughed again, bright and cheerful. Janus smiled. Yes, that’s how his boyfriend should always look.

#namiswriting #On the Road Just the Two of Us #Chapter 2: A Game for Just the Two of Us #dukeceitweek2024 #Day 2: Roadtrip #dukeceit #ts janus #janus sanders #ts remus #remus sanders #human au #fluff #innuendo #food #gross food combinations #multichapter fic #sanders sides #fanfiction #reblogs are appreciated

[enaspaces]

my shuri headcanons 𓃠

a dump of my thoughts because i love her and she’s taken over my mind

• on the trans/nonbinary spectrum. more specifically a demigirl and doesn’t care what pronouns you use on him. owns a binder for specific days that she wants her chest to look flat.

• very lesbian. her heart is for women and non-men 🏳️‍🌈

• i view her as a stud or a stem. it depends on how i’m feeling atm.

• she’s not just a nerd in the science sense she’s a huge fandom geek and has a stan twitter account to talk about her interests.

• also has fan edits of her favorite characters and interests saved on her phone. probably makes her own edits too.

• average minecraft enjoyer (she’s obsessed)

• reads a lot of wlw comics, novels, and other media bc they’re a gay ass.

• has AuDHD, argue with ur mama.

• is almost always seen wearing noise cancelling headphones or earbuds because she gets overstimulated at times. when she visits riri in chicago for the first time, the constant loud city noise is something he’s not used to. he had forgot to pack the headphones he made for himself so riri makes him a custom made pair to help him relax. they end up using riri’s more than their own. (riri indulgently put small cat ears on the top of them and shuri almost cried at the sight).

• catgirl energy. riri may make her look tall but that’s still a 5’5 girl twink that stopped growing at age 13. she’s small and likes to sit on counters, lab tables, the floor and any other weird place that’s not meant to be sat on. she curls up in a ball when she sleeps alone, and if she’s in the bed with someone else her limbs are all over their body. has cute sounding sneezes that m’baku makes fun of her for. one of the lab workers once found her asleep in a random corner of the room. naturally very light-footed and basically has human toe beans, making it very easy to sneak up on people without them hearing.

• has quite a few fidget toys to help her focus on work in the lab and ease her anxiety. a rubik’s cube, fidget spinners, stress ball, pop its, etc.

• she stims. so much. especially after she successfully completes a task or experiment and she’ll do a dance or do the lil hand flapping thing. her vocal stims are always random song lyrics or tiktok meme audios lol.

• has a sweet tooth. when okoye was a dora she’d occasionally bring candy or other sweets for her to snack on. riri goes to the store and buys him all the popular american snacks for him to try. nakia always has a mini stash prepared for when they visit her and toussaint in haiti.

• favorite color is purple. it just suits her.

• a GAMER™. she plays all genres but her favs are probably minecraft, puzzle, or rhythm games. did i mention minecraft? she loves it. riri loves rpgs and pvp games the most and has her play smash bros ultimate pretty often. they’re super competitive with each other and both sore losers lmao. shuri got her to play minecraft once and riri kept getting blown up by creepers.

• ↑ she becomes super close with mj, ned, and vivian through riri. they’re always on discord vc together playing games and doing many other things and it’s the most chaotic shit you’ve ever seen.

• if the word ticklish was personified. simply elbowing her in the stomach on accident would get a giggle outta her. every ticklish spot she has is extremely sensitive and you could have her curled up cackling in tears with ease.

• funny as hell for no reason. life of the party fr. she takes her jokester persona very seriously but sometimes she’s hilarious without even trying. the first time she ever smoked weed was with riri in her dorm and riri never laughed so hard in her life that day. shuri was literally all over the place. she’s definitely a lightweight too, just as goofy, giggly, and clingy in her drunken state.

• definitely likes kpop girl groups. I can’t prove it but they love loona you just have to trust me.

• also loves vocaloid and has a hatsune miku figure in her room somewhere. trust me on that.

• has a list of favorite black american artists. riri definitely put her on some r&b classics and less mainstream artists. has a massive celebrity crush on black women rappers.

• music taste is very versatile. her playlist has almost everything. she just can’t listen to one genre only, she’s too open minded and exploratory for that.

• he’s not one to fall in love easily, but when he does he falls hard. riri was the first person he ever fell for and it changed the trajectory of his life, poor thing had no idea what to do with that information.

• a romantic, lovesick loser. cannot flirt to save his life. flustering him is so fucking easy lmao. riri once called him shawty and he malfunctioned for 5 minutes. whenever he’s on the phone with riri his crush is genuinely so obvious to everyone around him. he be giggling and cheesing real hard 😭. kicking his feet squealing on the bed when he’s alone thinking about the cute nickname riri called him.

• her love language is acts of service and gift giving. she’s not always good with words or emotions so she expresses her appreciation towards her loved ones by distributing her wealth in many ways. buying riri things she might need for college, fixing stuff that breaks in nakia’s home. things like that.

• has trouble being vulnerable with those close to her. she’s lost so much, so opening up to new people is always a scary, big step. it took a while for her to let mj, ned, and viv into her heart because the closer she becomes with them, the more it’ll hurt if she loses them. they take her in with open arms regardless, because having a support system with people her age is something she needs. they take her seriously in ways that the elders don’t. they see her for who she is outside of being a royal figure to her country and allows her to be her full, authentic, geeky self. she’s able to grasp onto the youth that she almost lost when her family was taken away.

• very talkative. can infodump about an interest for hours and completely lose track of time if you let them. they cannot stay still when excited, nor can they keep eye contact, pacing around the room and darting their eyes everywhere while rambling about the history of vibrainium or something.

• maladaptive daydreaming. will lose herself in a song and start imagining scenarios in her head. t’challa once caught her in the act and refused to delete the video footage. sometimes, she pulls up the video her brother recorded just to hear his laughter in the background.

#shuri #shuri udaku #ven’s headcanons #shuriri #black panther #wakanda forever #shuri imagine

[supercantaloupe]

The Rent Post™

aka, a lengthy screed on how rent the musical goes about adapting la boheme, where it fails, and what can be done about it

so i’m admittedly a reformed Theater Kid™. and tbh i still very much am a Theater Person, even a Musical Theater Person, i’m just in my 20s now and my taste has shifted away from what’s mainstream on broadway right now and closer to the world of opera. but there absolutely was a time in my early teens when i was Really Into Rent, as many Theater Kids™ were…and there was also a time in my later teens when i thought about it and realized that rent was not only just not my thing, but that there were some significant Problems with it, as its own work and as an adaptation. now, having finally seen boheme for myself, i feel like i’m really in a place to piece together how the two works compare to one another, and why/how i think rent falls short of success (as a piece of theater anyway. obviously rent is not lacking in commercial and popular audience success, for better or worse).

i knew years ago that rent is a direct adaptation of la boheme, but wow, only after seeing the opera did i come to realize just how closely rent follows boheme: in plot beats, in character names, even borrowing a couple of lyrics and musical motifs here and there. 

but it also changes things from the original opera -- namely, it adds things -- and i think this is the first place where rent runs into trouble. now i am by no means such a purist that i think no work should ever be adapted unchanged (more on this later...what’s the point of adaptation if not to change things to make the work resonate with a new audience anyway?). however, any and every change made to an existing work in adaptation should be thoughtfully made and motivated, because every single change has an effect on the whole product in some way, and many small changes can add up to create a rather different final product than a creator might realize. 

(and this goes both ways, i think -- both in a work where a more flawed source material is adapted into something new and better, and when a superior original work is adapted into a worse new creation.)

definitely some of the changes made in rent while adapting la boheme are due to the change in medium. opera and musicals are both theater, sure, and more similar in many ways to each other than either is to straight play or film perhaps, but it’s still like a spanish speaker and an italian speaker trying to have a conversation with one another. the languages are similar and there might even be a bit of crossover in mutual intelligibility but they are still ultimately two different languages with different grammars and vocabulary. opera in general tends to have slower pacing than book musicals, fewer plot threads of equal importance. that rent is specifically a musical adaptation of la boheme, rather than a true rock opera, demonstrates this well. the mimi/rodolfo relationship is still front and center (americanized of course as mimi and roger), with marcello and musetta close behind (though expanded in rent as more of a love triangle among mark, maureen, and joanne, the latter being an invented character for the musical who i think embodies the original marcello as much as mark does). but rent adds a lot of stage time and focus to a new couple, collins and angel, who are directly lifted from colline and schaunard, who are essentially secondary comic relief characters, whereas collins/angel are arguably as important plot wise to mimi/roger and mark/maureen/joanne. 

(and i’m not gonna get into the level of #problematic there is to the depiction of maureen as an overly promiscuous bisexual or discuss why colline and schaunard can’t have been a gay couple the whole time or whatever because. wow i do not care. there are more important things to complain about here c’mon)

first big addition to rent that wasn’t original to boheme is that increased stage presence/focus for collins and angel. it's not inherently a bad addition, and for its time the open depiction of multiple queer romances onstage was still kind of groundbreaking. and yes, rent having a longer runtime than boheme should give it the opportunity to flesh this relationship out more as well as the other two to make sure they all have an equal chance to develop and end in a satisfying way. hell, they don’t even all have to be equal in stage presence/focus/importance to be a positive addition to the show (and how can it be when angel dies halfway through act ii? then again, the character dying doesn’t exactly mean the relationship loses its importance in the plot…) but despite the extra runtime and faster storytelling pace, rent doesn’t actually develop angel and collins all that much, especially not before angel dies. this isn’t an issue with colline and schaunard, of course, cause it’s obvious they’re not important characters in boheme. but collins and angel are arguably more important in rent than even mark/maureen/joanne. and angel dies halfway through act ii…meanwhile, mimi survives the end of rent, when she very pointedly does not in boheme.

and…oh, mimi. she is probably the biggest and most problematic adaptational change in rent as compared to la boheme. on the surface she (and roger/rodolfo) seems the least changed of all the opera’s characters, her name not even undergoing the same americanization treatment as the others. but there are just so many small details that add up and up until she’s a fundamentally different character in rent. i don’t even begrudge the change in occupation: her becoming a stripper/exotic dancer/possible sex worker(?) rather than a seamstress does bring with it some cultural baggage, but i am not personally interested in reading any morality into her choice of occupation, and i choose not to read her line of work as having any implications for her “innocence” or moral value as a character. nor will i read her addiction or disease as being moral qualities either. however: there is a big difference between tuberculosis in the 1840s and both AIDS and drug addiction in the 1980s. neither boheme’s mimi nor rent’s are morally responsible for their illnesses. but there is absolutely nothing mimi could do about her tuberculosis in boheme except die, because it was france in the 1840s and nobody knew what an antibiotic was. in new york in 1989, there were rehab clinics and there were medications for HIV. these things were expensive and hard to access, yes, but rent really goes out of its way to show us that mimi had the resources to access these things -- she is able to afford AZT in act i on her own (and the fact that she’s on AZT is used as shorthand for her HIV+ status, as opposed to other characters about whom we are told outright)...

… and her relationship with benny (the much-expanded counterpart to boheme’s benoit the landlord character) in act ii, who verbally offers to pay for her admittance to a rehab program.

yet the next time we see or hear anything of her, her loving mother is calling to ask where she is as she’s presumably gone missing…

…and then discover she has been living on the street, dying from exposure/disease/addiction. 

did she do this willingly? did benny refuse to continue supporting her? we don’t really get an answer to any of this; rent isn’t really concerned with why mimi is in the position she’s in, but is rather entirely preoccupied with staying true to boheme -- up until mimi’s death, anyway. because mimi doesn’t die in rent, she is saved, and says that angel told her to keep on living (as though it were a choice). why? we can only speculate. really, if any character embodies the same “dying tragically in a world too cruel for them to survive” theme as mimi in boheme does, it’s angel. and her death is honestly used as a tool throughout the rest of the show: a purpose for kindness, community, life.

is this a bad “bury your gays” kind of thing? i don’t really know, i’m inclined to believe not. but i do think angel’s death is more thematically akin to mimi’s death in boheme than the actual (near-)death of mimi in rent. 

and this is the biggest difference between rent and boheme: boheme is not about hope. boheme is a tragic romance about how important relationships are among people in disadvantaged communities/situations, but it does not say that love will transcend or materially improve those conditions. rent, by contrast, does. rent suggests that the love of partners and community (even if filled with complications and tensions) is lifesaving. 

(and i know rent’s stated thesis is “no day but today,” i.e. live and enjoy every day as though it could be your last, but i think thematically all the characters and their interactions overall suggest a theme of community just as if not more strongly, whereas “no day but today” is more limited to the HIV+ characters and has little to do with the mark/maureen/joanne subplot. mimi's outlook on "no day but today" changes when she chooses to stay alive on the urging of angel from the other side.) 

now i don’t think this is altogether a bad moral to have in your theater piece. especially in one of the first major pieces of theater centered on marginalized queer characters. i will not deny how important and cathartic it can be, both now and especially thirty years ago when rent premiered, to end on a hopeful note rather than a tragic one. but i have a couple of issues with how rent goes about making this its central theme. for one thing, mimi has frankly too many Things affecting her health in the end for her survival to be realistic, and absolutely nothing up to this point in the show has suggested a setting of magical realism or pseudofantasy; everything has been as grounded in real life as possible, until finale b, when mimi suddenly and near-inexplicably survives. it feels like it comes out of nowhere tonally and thus isn’t very satisfying an ending when put to scrutiny. for another, angel has already died, and angel is, compared to mimi, a much more beloved and uncomplicatedly positive force in their community and relationships. angel’s entire stage presence (while she’s alive and when her character is invoked or referenced after her death) is a positive one: caring for collins when he’s injured, providing food and funds to the group, placating arguments, etc.

and the fact that angel has no concerned parents leaving her voicemails, unlike mark, roger, and mimi, underscores that she has no one else to lean on for support except her community of bohemians. and we’re not given a reason to believe one way or the other about her home life or financial stability outside of today 4 u when she got a sudden windfall for killing a dog (whatever; schaunard did the same thing to the parrot in boheme). in contrast to mimi, roger, and especially mark, who are clearly shown to have family who care about them and want to support them, yet they choose to live in romanticized poverty anyway. mark even gets a good job in filming and still finds a way to complain about it.

really, except for angel (and arguably collins, too), it’s difficult to totally sympathize with the characters in rent and care fully about their plight because they’re just…not depicted as particularly likable people. maureen is an unfaithful and kind of manipulative partner, and her approach to “protest” is really just bad self-absorbed performance art. roger just kind of sucks at songwriting (how is your eyes the song that he’s spent the whole show writing? it’s the worst number in the musical lol), and he’s quick to anger…his decision to leave mimi makes even less sense here than rodolfo’s decision to leave her in boheme, where at least he did so out of genuine concern for her health (also why does he leave mark? rodolfo embraces marcello as a friend still after mimi leaves in boheme...act iii of boheme is the least closely adapted in rent by far.). wheras in rent roger seems to be both genuinely jealous of mimi interacting with other men and upset by her continued drug use. although this last one i don’t begrudge him for, since it’s made clear he’s a recovering addict himself…although it does make mimi’s relationship with him all the worse, considering that mimi’s take on the whole “no day but today” theme is to throw caution to the wind with her actions and not worry about the future at all, and her interacting with roger is directly tempting him back into addiction which he clearly does not want. (and roger’s rejection of her in another day is framed as him being in the wrong with mimi being backed up by the life support chorus…)

while mimi as we’ve seen is reckless and throws her life away even when people try to help her (very very different from boheme’s mimi, who makes no particularly reckless choices, and accepts help when it's offered). and mark is entitled and uses his film as an excuse to disengage with the real world, even exploit it (see: the way he films the life support meeting without permission, or the homeless woman, which is never really confronted elsewhere in the show…)

the inclusion of a homelessness subplot in rent is particularly strange to me. it shows up a lot, especially in act i: the threat of homelessness for the main characters should they not pay their rent or come to some kind of agreement with their landlord; the vague future threat of benny’s “cyberarts studio” getting built which is implied would evict those living in tents on the lot; mimi being found living on the street in the finale; and the chorus/ensemble who show up periodically, as above. homelessness is an ever present element of set dressing/conflict in rent but it’s never really addressed, no points are ever made about it, which is in my opinion kind of wild and very unsatisfying. the above scene especially, considering how direct of a callout it is towards the show’s own characters and writing, yet it is never addressed afterwards, and this conflict is never really resolved. 

one could take similar issue with the choice to swap tuberculosis in boheme with AIDS in rent. though in my opinion i think addiction is as much as if not more rent’s analogue to boheme’s TB, since that is a much more acutely seen disease for mimi and only mimi while there are multiple characters (main and chorus) living with HIV…then again, angel is the character who gets the real tragic death analogous to mimi’s in boheme, and angel dies of complications from AIDS, so i suppose it’s open to debate. regardless, there’s a significant contextual difference between TB in the 1840s and HIV and addiction in the 1980s: there was no system, political, social, or medical, that could truly heal someone of tuberculosis in boheme’s setting. but there very much was a medical and social system in place to help people with HIV and addiction in the 1980s; systems which were aggressively denied to those who were suffering by the political system. and for as much as the characters in rent like to sing about revolution, protest, and activism, not a single one actually challenges the powers that be or call out by name those responsible for the systematic denial of healthcare to the marginalized. activism and artistic revolution is hollow and meaningless in rent, they never name a real enemy, just a vague sense of “the man.” but it’s a story set in a real and still recent historical time period, the effects of which we still deal with today (and i’m sure even more acutely so back in 1996); it just feels disrespectful to me to use those crises as such important set dressing for your musical which positions itself as a “fuck the man” revolutionary kind of piece of theater and yet do or say absolutely nothing about the real world issues it is appropriating. for more information i highly recommend checking out lindsay ellis’ video on the topic. 

so is all this to say i think rent is an irredeemable, fundamentally broken work? actually, no; i think it has a decent foundation and some solid music. i understand the reasoning behind and appeal of updating an old work to a new time period/setting for a new audience, and i think trading 1840s paris for 1980s nyc is an interesting and workable substitution. but when i look at rent as it is now, i just do not see a finished product. 

and i think this is the most frustrating and disappointing thing about rent to me: rent is, quite literally, an unfinished show. its composer and librettist, jonathan larson, died suddenly the day of its first preview performance. and for so many developing (off-)broadway shows, previews are when the actual finished product is crafted, as the show is revised based on audience reactions. of course audience and critical reception to rent from the very beginning was positive, but i can’t help but speculate how much of that is influenced by the mere fact of its creator’s untimely death. and i wonder what changes larson would have made to his show if he had lived, and been able to hear the audience’s reactions, and revise the show accordingly. i wonder if he would have thought it worked. i wonder if he would have seen the same cracks that i see in it. i don’t think rent is inherently unsalvageable, but it is so far unsalvaged. 

and frankly i don’t know that it ever will be salvaged; not for many years, at least. not until copyright and licensing in musical theater changes, and not until broadway audiences get more comfortable with the idea of altering beloved and familiar classics (the 2019 revival of oklahoma! was, in my opinion, a work of genius, but i’m well aware my opinion is not universal, and especially during its national tour the show’s entire concept has been extremely controversial). do to rent what bartlett sher and aaron sorkin are doing to camelot right now: keep the heart and soul of the piece intact, but rewrite what doesn’t work. or do something even more drastic, cut subplots and change character traits, i don’t know. maybe mimi should die; maybe it really is important that she survive! maybe rent shouldn’t have been based on boheme at all; hell, what would rent look like if it was based on la traviata instead? (well the answer to this one is “a different show entirely,” most likely, but if you want to write a poignant and tragic love story based on a romantic opera and set in 1980s nyc featuring queer and/or HIV+ characters, well…it could work and i’ll leave it there.) maybe that’s going too far, i don’t know, but the point is, i want to see directors and writers have the freedom to try that stuff out. because i don’t think rent is unsalvageable; i think it’s unfinished. 

but rent is far too popular and beloved for anyone to dare touch its libretto with new ink. the memory of jonathan larson is held far too preciously for anyone to allow such debasement of his work. when searching online for libretti to reference when writing this essay, i found one transcribed script with this at its heading:

and i think that about sums it up for me. “may he be friggen worshiped!” him and all his creations, holy and untouchable.  it’d be tantamount to theater sacrilege at this point to try and change it. how dare you sully larson’s good name by thinking you could “fix” his masterpiece…the masterpiece no one wants to admit he never got to actually finish. well, i don’t know, maybe it’s me being jewish and sentimental here, but if i have enough respect for a piece of work i want to be able to engage with it and question it and interpret it as i think it best ought to be. (jonathan larson was also jewish. would he agree with me? i don’t know. but i think he’d want to see the best of his work, just like i do.) live theater is inherently participatory and dialectical. and it ought to be alive, not carved into stone. neither immovable nor under threat of utter annihilation should someone come too close with a chisel. rent has potential. la boheme is still as affecting today as it was a hundred thirty years ago (did you know rent premiered almost exactly a hundred years after la boheme?). rent could be the same. and it does have emotionality behind it as it is now, credit where credit’s due. but it could be more than just that. if we could just let someone finish the thing already, even if larson himself couldn’t.

#sasha reviews #rent #<- afraid of putting this in the tag. rent fans please be cool. just scroll past this if you don't wanna see me being critical ;; #la boheme #this took so long to write. please enjoy #tldr; rent isn't irredeemable or unworkable but it is unfinished #i think it ought to either just let itself be closer to boheme (the 'keep it simple stupid' approach) #or let itself stray from that source material more and give each of its subplots the full attention it deserves (and needs) #(and maybe cut one or two of them...) #and be more of its own thing already #i don't know. who knows what would work best? no one does. cause no one's tried it yet. that's the bottom line i guess

[as-i-watch]

Straw Hats as Fashion Trends that makes me go insane*

*you can wear whatever want to express yourself or whatever you like idc. What i hate if when brands™ overprice shit bc is "trendy" or set stupid trends like these. Seriously, dont look up the price of some of these

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Enjoy!

Detachable Shorts

Of course this feature was a need in the trouser world, think about the people with hot knees

I think it would be funny if Luffy wore this and undo the buckles to get into fight mode. The trouser equivalent of putting down the straps in your crocs.

Tits Out. [period]

Your arms are always cold? Hate vests? Well this is for you!

Still, i think this is so fitting for Zoro, we respect our tits out king and adds a little bit of himbo energy i appreciate.

Oda draws weird shit like this all the time

Yes this item was for sale and not on etsy. Why? beats me but here we are

I think its a nice refference to pre timeskip Nami outfits, but it actually fits into the post timeskip fanservice theme. I seriously see Nami wearing that.

Cool but why

Its a cool recycling project but im not even going to talk why brands selling these upset me.

I think i would be a fitting addition to Usopp's funky hats collection. Not only he would pull it off, he would steal the desing and make one himself like the king he is.

Pretty but WHYYY

I really like the effect and sawing this fabric is hard af but is more of a texture thing for me. Also my little practical self is screaming at this gloves but i see the aesthetic pleasing side i guess

So naturally i gave the gay gloves to Sanji. Tell you you cant picture him wearing these with his WCI white suit, come on do it, lie to me.

A classic we love to hate

Not you Chopper you are a delight. Im talking about the clear plastic backpacks. In case you missed thia trend, the issues with this are as clear as the bag itself.

So naturally, bc he always carries one, i gave the backpack to Chopper. Hope he fills it with colorful candy

I have vivid memories of this being a thing at some point

This are more of a pre timeskip item since they are from mis 2000's but yeah. They are useless, impractical and they offend me

Yet, i think Robin could've feature a look in a filler or something with these...anklets? I guess? Not the most far fetched imo

Cut and pin.

Not an issue of looks but of pricing. This are cute little tops but overpriced af, they just cut it and pin it.

Nevertheless, they scream Franky to me. They even kinda follow Franky's own stiches on his chest lmao

At a lost for words

I just dont get it. This is not a price thing, just a ok but why? thing.

If someone can do weird shit and get away with it is Brook and i love him for it. He could show up one day at Sunny wearing his coat backward and i wouldnt question it. I imagine him wearing that as a fancy look in a movie. He already wears high heels on the reg, and idk why but i know he has a pair of fishnets.

This fuck me up to this day

I dont mind the ilusion drawing idea, but seeing a whole rack of these in a sleep deprived state kinda fucks up your mind. I dont think it was a clever trend for clothes tho and im glad it died away.

I dont think Jinbe would wear the shirt, but hear me out. His kimono but in that stile, custom made. One day Usopp, Chopper and Luffy will paint it in and is going to be hilarious to see Jinbe walking around like a Father that let his kids do his hair and nails.

You can find more idiot post like this in my tag #straw hats as i make no promise of quality but i have fun

#one piece #straw hats as #fashion trends #luffydmonkey #luffy d monkey #monkey d luffy #one piece zoro #roronoa zoro #one piece sanji #black leg sanji #one piece nami #one piece usopp #chopper #tony tony chopper #one piece robin #nico robin #one piece franky #soul king brook #one piece brook #knight of the sea jinbe #one piece jinbe #straw hat crew #straw hat pirates

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Sword gays showdown preliminaries

Propaganda:

For Kazuma Asogi:

ok so he’s not CANONICALLY queer but it’s ace attorney. so… he does, however, canonically have a katana! a sword so integral to the plot it gives me shivers just thinking about it. the sword also has a name, it’s karuma (translates roughly to karma) and it gets passed onto the main character, ryunosuke naruhodo (who he calls partner), after kazuma (spoiler alert) dies in case 1-2. except (SUPER spoiler alert!) he isn’t dead! he comes back in case 2-3 and would you look at that he has ANOTHER SWORD, a more european sword (cause he ended up in england after his amnesia brain said he REALLY had to go to england). once he gets his memories back, ryunosuke gives karuma back to him and proceeds to use it to destroy the wax figure of his dead presumed serial killer dad (long story), and now he has, you guessed it, TWO SWORDS! for the next two cases he wears both swords at his sides, and also he broke the tip off of karuma attempting to murder someone (he didn’t actually murder anyone but still) and then turns out karuma’s hilt has the REAL serial killer’s will in it. very VERY important sword. in the end, kazuma gives karuma back to ryunosuke which is really symbolic but that’s besides the point, and they cross swords and it’s a whole big thing. 10/10 gay sword guy.

For Raiden:

Man catches knives with his heels and uses a sword to cut through robots 20 times his size

He's such a tragic character! Raised to be a super soldier from birth and is constantly being exploited by the government. As for the lgbt part him and his rival in the latest game he's in have so much tension it's unreal (gay). I headcanon him as trans too because he has a feminine figure, his voice gets more masculine as the series goes on (testosterone) and his entire body gets replaced with cybernetics (trans allegory...)

For Claudine Saijou:

Fights with a longsword! Should be number 1 for this line alone: “For heroes, there are trials. For saints, there are temptations. For me, there is you”, said to def not her girl crush but rival btw (stream Revue of Soul) Vote for my disaster theatre kid its what she deserves!

Her gay levels are off the charts. She has a homoerotic rivalry with another classmate (Maya Tendo/Tendou Maya) that is integral to her character, as she was always first until she met Maya. She’s also half-French, but that’ll be important later. When she’s looking at pictures of Maya stretching (to study her form of course) and another character asks her what she’s looking at, she panics, blushes, and says none of your business. Her and Maya have a heartfelt conversation while stretching with Claudine’s face pressed into Maya’s chest (between her stomach and breasts). Some art from a magazine has Maya pushing Claudine into a deep stretch, but it looks like something a lot different (Claudine blushing doesn’t help. Also I realized that there’s a lot of gay stuff related to stretching with these two).

During a two on two duel (I know it’s not a duel), they fight together. Not only that, but at one point they hold hands and take a pose typical of romantic partners in dancing. For no reason. They just pause and do it to show off. They aren’t even fighting. Anyways, when they lose, Claudine starts crying, not because she lost, but because Maya lost. So, of course, Maya starts speaking to her in French, with one of the things she says being “You’re cute even when you cry, my Claudine.” All of this is stuff that’s happened in the series (except the magazine thing).

Now for the gay stuff in the movie. Their duel with each other is so dense with sapphic undertones they can hardly be called undertones. For starters, the song that accompanies this revue is called “A Beautiful Person, or Perhaps it is.” While this title is incomplete, the director states that he wanted the watcher to fill it in and this removed the end of the original title. That title is “A Beautiful Person, or Perhaps it is a Love Song.” The duel is framed as a fight between a hero (Maya) and a devil (Claudine). Maya is in an outfit reminiscent of Renaissance Italy and Claudine is in a suit. Thus, Maya signs a contract giving her soul over to Claudine, as is the case with marriage. With her own blood, in the shape of Position Zero (an important symbol in the show), which happens to look like a T, for Tendou. After a few minutes of fighting, Maya disappears and monologues, appearing in a white dress. This means that Maya has signed her soul over to Claudine, and they are now both wearing a white dress and suit. Not beating the gay marriage allegations. Maya finished her monologue with “For heroes, there are trials. For saints, there are temptations. For me, there is a devil.” They continue to fight, Maya proclaiming herself emotionless and empty. Maya then cuts the medallion from Claudine’s chest (they wear medallions and you lose the duel if it gets cut off).

Claudine falls. Maya attempts to claim victory by stabbing her sword into Position Zero, which is then covered by steel doors. Claudine sits up and reveals she has another medallion in her mouth, which she does by sticking out her tongue in a uhhhh. Anyways, after a bit of back and forth, Claudine tells Maya that she’s full of arrogance and pride and envy and longing. She then says that “No matter how many times I die, I will revive! Tendou Maya! To beat you, my rival, into submission!” She then makes her stage entrance, taking Maya’s usual entrance speech and mocking it. She also says “I fill myself with exploding passion, now, and bash it into your heart!” After some talking, Maya makes her stage entrance, taking Claudine’s usual entrance speech and mocking it. Up until now, they have been playing characters, but still letting their own emotions shine through. Now, they are entirely themselves.

They begin to fight again, running downs white aisle before clashing swords, with Maya saying “Such an ugly, emotion drenched appearance-“ and is cut off by Claudine, who says “Show me more, Tendou Maya! Right now, you’re the cutest you’ve ever been!” To which Maya responds “I’m always cute!”  The song starts up again (duels are accompanied by songs), with Maya singing “With a grin of deception I’ll tear this piece of cloth.” Deception in Japanese is mayakashi, a reference to Maya’s name. Maya then sings “I want to show you my feelings becoming dyed in black.” Black is Kuro in Japanese. Claudine, in Katakana, is Kurodine, with her nickname being Kuro, so that line could also be interpreted “I want to show you my feelings becoming dyed in you.” Claudine then sings “Only me, always, forever,” before they sing in unison “You only need to look at me,” as they lock blades. Some fighting happens and they’re falling through the sky, holding onto each others clothes and Claudine says “Only I can make you lay everything bare!” To which Maya responds “I’ll expose my everything, on the stage!” Claudine shoots back with “There’s a partner you can expose everything to, on the stage!” At this point, there’s a short time with independent vocals for Maya and Claudine in addition to their talking. Maya has been singing “If I’m on the stage, if I’m in front of you,” for the last two lines of dialogue. Claudine sings “Be it ugly or beautiful,” as Maya sings “I will expose, anything and everything, all of me, all of me.” As this happens, Maya is saying “We love the stage,” which is continued by Claudine saying “And we can’t part from the stage!” Maya calls them both “Pathetic clowns!” To which Claudine corrects “No, rivals!” Maya says “If you’re there, I have to strive higher!” Claudine says “You make me even more beautiful! Maya!” Maya then yells “Claudine!” Claudine yells “For heroes, there are trials!” Maya continues “For saints, there are temptations!” Then, as one, their swords crossed, faces inches from each other, yell “For me, there is you!” Over top of this, their voices sing a line in unison: “Forever and ever, I’d like to cross swords with you.”

Claudine’s sword stabs through the contract, through the Position Zero in blood, which may be Maya’s family name, and Maya says as an aside “Saijou Claudine… You are beautiful.” Claudine cuts the medallion from Maya’s chest, finally beating her rival.

#sword gays showdown #claudine saijou #raiden #revue starlight #metal gear solid #kazuma asogi #the great ace attorney #shojo kageki revue starlight #mgs #ace attorney

[hutaoscoffinn]

Hi! Do you have any relationship hcs for Rika? :) I love that woman sm AAAAA

BLESSED YES I FUCKIN DO. I HAVE SO MANY HEADCANONS FOR MISS RIKA ITS INSANE AHHHHH omgomgomg okay take food. I give nourishment in form of Rika

Warnings: SFW, fluffy fluffy fluffy, so much floof, Rika is a teasing cunt what can I say, Rika is also incredibly hot, gn! Reader. Arguments so slight angst. Lets get it boissss. This was also not beta read so aha if theres errors WHOOPSIES

Character: Rika of the Elite 4

Requests: OPEN

You and Rika most likely met because of your gym circuit that you completed

Along with Nemona and her many random challenges of battle of course

This lead you two to constantly run into each other as Rika was quite curious about the person who was completing the gym challenges with ease and who caught even Geeta’s eye

Safe to say Rika was intrigued by you

The more you two met via Rika “just so happening to be in the area of your gym challenges and deciding to watch

That shit was on purpose do not believe her when she says its a coincidence

The more she slowly began to fall for you

By the time you finally arrived at the Elite 4 to take her on, she had admitted to herself that she had feelings for you

You kicking her ass in battle was the icing on the cake and lead to your relationship with the ground type user

As far as how Rika confessed, well lets just say her staring wide eyed at you, flushed red after you beat Geeta has Hassel shoving her forward to speak up

Thanks old man she needed a good ol push in the right direction

Safe to say Rika isnt always the confident gay she claims she is

She does indeed get flustered from time to time by you and while those times are few and far between they still happen

Usually, Rika is exactly the confident gay she says she is

She lives to tease you, loving your reactions to her touches and teasing words as she pushes every button to get you all flustered

Her favorite way to get you flustered is to sneak up behind you, wrapping her arms around your body and tugging you up against her

She relishes the way your face heats up and she will press a kiss to your forehead with a smirk

“You feelin’ okay baby? You feel really warm.”

Yeah thats your fault YOU LITTLE SHIT—

Ahem, moving on

As far as PDA goes, Rika usually keeps things on the down low

She has to keep up her professional appearances as a member of the pokemon league and the Elite 4

So typically when you two are in public she prefers to just hold your hand, have you hold her arm, or she will have an arm loosely wrapped around your shoulder or waist

Subtle things that aren’t too obviously affectionate but still get off a clear message: you are hers

So yeah surprise surprise Rika is a tad bit possessive

You are easily the most precious thing she has and she’s going to protect you and do what she can to keep you by her side

All within your consent and boundaries of course

If there are ever moments where you feel like Rika is being a touch too much, ask her to tone it down and she will

She loves you deeply and would never want to make you uncomfortable or push a boundary you set

Rika is a certified gentleman™

She always opens doors for you, opens car doors and buckles you in, pulls out your chair, offers you her arm, holds the umbrella over your head, offers you her coat when you are cold, ect

One thing Rika will never be shy about is showing you how much she loves and cares for you

She’s always using acts of service and small gifts to spoil you when she can

Like buying you your favorite drink from a cafe, getting you a sandwich exactly how you like it made, giving you flowers randomly throughout the week and months

She knows your bra size if you wear bras, she knows your clothing sizes, she knows your ring size, what length you like necklaces or bracelets to be, she knows what colors look best on you, what makeup brands you use if you wear makeup

Rika knows your allergies if you have any, what medications you take if you take any medication

She knows your favorite restaurant, favorite cafe, favorite store, what your favorite flowers are, your hobbies

Rika is incredibly observant with anything that relates to you because she loves you so deeply and wants to show you how much she cares

This level of care even bleeds into your social life as she remembers what the birthdays of your friends are so she can help you shop for gifts for them

She knows your pokemon’s favorite treats and sandwiches so she can help you care for them

Rika doesn’t date for fun, she dates to find her lifelong partner and she shows that

Rika is actively involved in any aspect of your life that you are comfortable with her being in and she will wholeheartedly support you through anything

Now this does not mean you are safe from her scoldings because she will worry about you and scold you if you do something dangerous

Such as dive head first into the crater of Paldea with your Miraidon or Koraidon because we have all done it I know we have and if you havent, you’re missing out

So safe to say, like all relationships, arguments happen

But Rika is not one to let said arguments simmer for a while

If there is something wrong in your relationship or something she feels that needs to be addressed, she tells you

Rika heavily values communication and will want you to do the same for her and if you do have so concerns she will listen intently, looking into your eyes as you speak and waiting for you to finish before she responds

So big arguments dont happen often between you both

But when they do, Rika doesn’t like to let it sit unaddressed for more than a day

She will give you any space you need but before the day ends, she will want to talk to you about it

She hates going to bed with you angry at her, and if you are still mad at her by bedtime she will offer to sleep on the couch depending on how angry you are with her

Usually though, she prefers to hold you close and cuddle you in bed even if you two were arguing

She values your time together and doesn’t want to lose out on it because of an argument and whatever discussion you two need to have will happen in the morning

Rika will not even leave for work at the league without talking to you, and if she has to, she will send you constant texts and will call you to remind you how much she loves you

Because she does, she loves you more than anything in the world

You are her angel, her baby, and she will always cherish you

Reblogs are always appreciated <3

#coffinn.writes #coffinn.requests #elite four rika x reader #rika x reader #pokemon rika x reader #pokemon rika #rike elite 4 #elite four rika #rika headcanon #pokemon rika headcanon #i love this woman so much #rika is a godsend #rika is love shaped