#of course its fitting that the only character I like so far is gay and named declan

[dykenav]

I am appalled. I’m still reading crescent city for some fucking reason and out of curiosity I tried to browse some fanfiction for like the 2 confirmed gay characters so far and there is seriously like next to NONE. I’ve never been so disappointed in a fandom in my entire life. This is how I know this series has exclusively straight readers

#of course its fitting that the only character I like so far is gay and named declan #and I just wanted to entertain my gay ass with some plotless smut with him but there is NOTHING? #he’s just. barely mentioned in fics about other people #maybe he’s a side character but that shouldn’t fucking matter like #literally if a series has any queer fanbase AT ALL it does not fucking matter how minor a character is if they’re even CODED fruity. #there will be HUNDREDS of fics about them #I know I shouldn’t be shocked like what did I expect from a series that insists on using ‘male’ and ‘female’ instead of man/woman #the lingo in this book literally feels like it came from an incel #I thought the fandom would at least give me some reprieve. I should have known better

[mcskullmun]

What's red valley about

*takes you gently by the shoulder and looks deep into your eyes somewhere vaguely near your face*

Buddy I am so glad you asked.

In the hopes of this essay answer convincing you to listen to Red valley it will be relatively spoiler free and ambiguous. Full disclosure I am incredibly bias towards this show because it currently has a death-grip on my brain, mind and soul.

Broadly, Red Valley is a fiction podcast, similar to tma, spanning two and a third seasons plus three fun little mini series. I say "a third" because season three is split into three parts, and we currently only have the first. The second is due to be released later this year I believe.

The premise behind Red Valley, in a sentence is, "In all the sci-fi shows you see, where people can go into pods and wake up 10,000 years later just fine, how did we get there?" It's about the messy stage of theoretical science being applied in unethical ways, in the hopes of changing the world. Its about the early development (and testing) of cryonic preservation tech.

It follows two main protagonists, Warren Godby and Gordon Porlock (who are widely shipped throughout the fandom, though nothing is canon yet) as they investigate, and eventually endure the Red Valley seed vault. Although, as it becomes rapidly apparent, "There aren't a lot of seeds in the Red Valley Seed Vault". The show deals with themes of isolation, memory loss, distrust and mental deterioration. But also friendship, endurance, and uh... weird cruises.

It's characters include:

Karen Godby. Ngl I hate this bitch. She is Warren's controlling, abusive wife and she deserves everything that's coming to her. She uses concern as a way to guilt Warren, and seems generally dismissive of his concerns and feelings.

Aubrey Wood. Initially presented solely through tapes, she fits the "mad scientist" archetype. After something goes horribly wrong with her work, we get to see more sides of her. By the end of season three part one, she is an incredibly well fleshed out character with uh... quite the name for herself. She's also in a canon lesbian relationship, which admittedly does not get enough love here on tumblr.

Bryony Halbech. Cunt/aff. She is the mad scientist. She is the driving force behind the Red Valley project and truly the antagonist of the podcast. In so far as this podcast has one, at least. One brilliant thing about her, is that while she presents as your typical, "heartless, mind over emotions, complete control villain" this is a front that she wears, to hide how excited she is about what she does. How much she cares about her work. She is a "truly evil" villain who still maintains layers and depth.

Clive Schill. Now, if your asking me about Red Valley it's more than likely because you've seen the truly embarrassing affect Mr. Schill has had on me. If you want an in depth character analysis feel free to scroll back on my blog or look for asks I have sent to other fans, there's a LOT. In short, he is an irritating embodiment of capitalism with a flair for creative insults. He's like if Elias Bouchard was a fortnight adult/pos. But his character has so much more to it than that! He loves his family, he is deathly afraid of being forgotten, ect. ect. I'll spare you the essay. He's a morally fucked, incredibly likeable man. He's also responsible for the piece of official Redval merch named "Piss Mug" and Red Valley's sugar daddy.

And for the main events,

Warren Godby: He's just a Guy. Real wet cat of a man. Bitter about his place in the world with no idea how he got there. Of course that's not uh entirely true but just... just listen to the podcast.

Gordon Porlock: Fucking insane/pos. I mean not insane insane, but he is a conspiracy theory, nerdy redditor who canonically has no friends. He's also gay for Warren. He is a very interesting character in that he is Obsessed with cryonic preservation, and seems entirely unfazed by the more gory aspects. He is on the "good team", but isn't vastly different to the Redval scientists.

The podcast itself mostly takes place within Red Valley, a remote and seemingly abandoned research facility in The Middle Of Nowhere, Scotland. This is where some of season 1 and almost all of season 2 takes place, and where isolation is a heavy theme. I personally love it, its got great Vibes and possesses the perfect spooky atmosphere.

Season three is all over the place and follows (Soft, slightly irritated sigh) Clive Schill. It's a wonderful dive into his character, and the attitudes of the common man and the rich towards cryonic preservation. 10/10, no notes. The frogs are great.

Overall the voice acting and writing is amazing. At no point did I feel it dragged, and while I was initially confused when Warren and Gordon were talking (similar accents) they got easier to distinguish real fast. It's funny and sad, perfect combo. There's also some... gnarly sound affects.

Pay Attention To The Content Warnings. For The Love Of Schill Pay Attention To The Content Warnings. Please. There are some pretty heavy moments that took me completely off guard, big mistake.

Final notes, you will see me shipping Clive Schill and Warren Godby a lot. THIS WILL NOT MAKE SENSE WHEN (if) YOU LISTEN TO RED VALLEY. They are, at first glance, the two least shippable characters. I don't mean like Lonelyeyes crackship where it kinda makes sense, I mean AWFUL. TRULY DISGUSTING. My fic, "And I think we're all glad it wasn't me" explains everything, but contains just so many major spoilers for season 1. Just trust me, I'm not mad. The fic explains everything. I promise.

Anyway uh feel free to ask more or talk about it if you decide to listen. I uh. am normal about this podcast. As you can probably tell.

~ Peter

#red valley #long post #cult imma be honest you do not want to know how excited i was when i saw this ask #answered asks

[ngardgni]

...So, we've been reading a few posts about how "Warrior Nun" is the best because it isn't like all the other queer shows, where apparently the queer couples have sex right away or non-queer shows that queer bait viewers, etc.

Let's just get something straight:

The original L-Word came out in 2004. That show was criticized for being too white, too narrow, too limiting in its depiction of gay women. In fact, it was mostly lesbians, and one bi woman (Tina) and most were femmes. Over the years, the show tried to course correct with the addition of other characters, most notably Max (Daniela Sea) and even that was fraught with controversy. At the time, Daniela Sea was interviewed about this and she had said (and we're paraphrasing here, that was a long time ago), that L-Word doesn't claim to represent all gay women, and she had hoped that there would be more representation of gay women, more movies, more tv shows to show the diversity, the variety, the spectrum of the gay experience.

At the time, pre-L-Word, there were only a handful of les/bi movies, mostly indie, some of questionable quality (there were a lot, we're not going to name names), some good (our favorite being "When Night is Falling" and "Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love"). On TV, we had "Ellen" which was groundbreaking and promptly cancelled, and there was "Carol the Lesbian" on "Friends", who was treated more as a joke, along with Chandler's trans-mom.

Cut to now - where we have so much more to choose from: we have period dramas with A-List directors and actors ("Carol", "Tell it to the Bees", "Portrait of a Lady on Fire"), we have shows on TV networks and online streaming platforms (tho the line between those are blurring). So we can watch Cyrano de Bergerac style movies ("The Half of It") or Asian American ones ("Saving Face") or pretty straightforward ones, really ("Imagine Me and You"), and though some, if not half or most series/shows have been cancelled ("Teenage Bounty Hunters", "I Am Not Okay with This", etc.), we still have more shows/series now that tell our queer stories than ever before ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "The 100", "Glee", etc.) and we still think that's better than the time the only thing we had was stories with only subtext to keep us company ("Fried Green Tomatoes", "Thelma and Louise", "A League of their Own").

So, whenever we feel like it's getting bad, let's also remember the time when queer stories weren't even mainstream, when directors and actors wouldn't even touch or go near our stories, when we didn't have as many allies in the industry willing to put our stories out there. A lot of our queer stories from before, though far from perfect, paved the way for stories like "Warrior Nun"to see the light of day. And we love that yeah, "Warrior Nun" is about a friends-to-lovers queer story, but that isn't just the one queer story that can be told. The diversity and complexity of the queer experience can hardly be encompassed by just one series and it's not fair to ignore or put the others down just because they don't fit what you like. We like that we have the more adult, they-had-a-one-night-stand-right-away-and-fell-in-love story of Kacy on NCIS Hawai'i, the sex-positive one of Leighton on "The Sex Lives of College Girls", the stranded-on-an-island one of "The Wilds", the vampire-and-vampire-slayer-falling-in-love narrative of "First Kill", etc.

So, let's keep celebrating the diversity and complexity of the queer female experience onscreen but still honor the stories that came before them. They may not have been perfect, hell, they were even problematic, but, again, at least we got these stories and our lives are better for it.

And let's keep pushing for "Warrior Nun"and other stories to keep getting made and renewed.

Like and reblog if you agree.

Drop your favorite queer women story (movie, series, show) below.

#alba baptista #ava silva #avatrice #kristina tonteri young #warrior nun season 2 #warrior nun #buffy the vampire slayer #lword(original) #the half of it #imagine me and you #saving face #when night is falling #incredibly true adventure of 2 girls in love #portrait of a lady on fire

[changingplumbob]

5 and 23 for the storytelling ask please :)

How do you choose your characters’ names? Choose your least favourite character so far.

Strap in because I'm going to happily ramble about my named sims, and gossip about those I despise! Content warning for sim death.

How do you choose your characters’ names? oh my gosh I have wanted to talk about this for ages Amy HOW DID YOU KNOW! It could almost be its own post. So when I started most of my characters had pre existing names because they were premades or from the gallery. I'll talk about the sims I have named.

Devin, Deanna, Silas and Milton were randomised names that I liked. Alexander's cats Hamlet and Gertrude come from the play Hamlet. Clover and Ginger are just dog names I liked.

Joey was actually named after this sea otter at Vancouver Aquarium! During the pandemic he was found orphaned and they livestreamed him in his nursery and meeting the older otters.

Kelly was named before he was born, I wanted a unisex name that could fit a boy or a girl. The boy Kelly I named him after is from Chicago Fire. He is not my favourite character but I do love the complex ones, so him being a jerk and Kelly being evil is one big coincidence.

Fergus and Carson were named with the randomise button, but I know of characters with their names so I kept them.

I wanted all of the Chopra kids to be named after wonderful black characters or persons of renown. The eldest Chopra twin was named after the actress Mercedes Varnardo who plays Koska Reeves on The Mandalorian. I love the spirit of Koska who is dedicated and loyal.

The youngest Chopra twin was named after the character Savannah from Criminal minds who married the main character Derek Morgan. She is an intelligent woman with a big heart.

And the smallest Chopra is of course named after Viola Davis. I wanted an old fashioned sounding name and Viola Davis is amazing.

Pollock Knightstone is named after painter Jackson Pollock. His father Adam is an art critic so I figured he'd name him for an out there artist.

Alfred and Rilian Villareal get their names from the areas of culture their mama and mummy love. Alfred is named for famous director Alfred Hitchcock (that's why he has a thing about birds)

Rilian is named for Prince Rilian from the Narnia books. Specifically Prince Rilian, who is the son of Prince Caspian, is a character in the Silver Chair (a movie I saw several times growing up).

I found Marta's name by looking at a list of popular Latina names. But her surname, Romero, absolutely comes from Romeo and Juliet. If you are attracted to pretty males and haven't seen Douglas Booth playing Romeo you are missing out!

Choose your least favourite character so far

I have several and thankfully they are all dead! It's hard to pick between these two though. Mortimer might beat Ophelia by a smidgeon.

Ophelia Ryan was James Goth's first wife. I hated her on principal because between rotations MCCC married them because James may have had a romance bar with Alexander but they weren't an official couple. Storywise I had her being a snob who only married James for his family status (James had the closeted trait when Alexander started flirting with him). Anyway she refused to believe James was gay, claiming no one actually enjoys woohoo, and was not going to let him divorce her so he could marry his boy toy. Then she had a cardiac explosion and died because she was a COW.

Mortimer Goth became a self obsessed mean man. First off he started blaming Bella for all their troubles, and called her a gold digger repeatedly. He was far more interested in writing his precious bestsellers than caring about his kids or wife. He only saw Cassandra and Alexander as their achievements, and let Milton lie in a diaper blowout for hours because he was writing. Oh and then he slept with their maid. Then he hired Dina to be a live in maid and slept with her before Bella disappeared. Then he was CRUSHED by a meteor made of karma.

#dag dag or tag tag #My sims have name origins #I do actually think about it most of the time #I need to go watch Romeo Douglas Booth again

[lpgarbo]

Raphael:

You come into MY HOUSE

free MY PRISONER

suck MY HARLEEP'S DICK

CALL ME GAY!

But yeah the house of hope is almost exactly what you'd expect from a devils house. A bunch of really fucked up people, portals, a prisoner of good alignment somewhere. I did get the impression his collection was more than the 3 magic items he had, but they are still pretty dope magic items. Plus his backroom storage.

The Harleep thing is really fun, because OF COURSE Raph only wants to bang himself. Which is even more funny they went super hard into the 'no homo' if your playing a character who's attracted to women. It's inclusive, but part of me thought it would have been funnier if they just let it rock. Bang Raph's gay clone or bust.

The fight with him was also really fun and intense when in a few actions he could cause so much damage. Though most of the challenge comes from his adds more than anything, thank you Shadowheart and your big devastating AOEs.

And then just convincing his general you'd win so he's like "yeah I'm down let's go" lmao. Real cherry on the cake. Its that good CRPG feeling of 'yes you are rewarded for trying to persuade and explore alternate options.'

PLUS Raph sings his own boss theme? It's, so goood. It fits the kind of overly ambitions narcissistic asshole devil he is.

Larian really knocked it out of the park with this.

Very good stuff. It's a shame most people never get that far into the house of hope because it's so late in the game and requires some real high level gear.

#raphael #baldurs gate 3 #video games #bg3 #fantasy #meme #tuck gunderson #haleep

[deltaruminations]

here’s a loosely speculative and rambly queer reading of dess that i sort of accidentally wrote just now. enjoy ?? ?

the more i think on it the more i think like. yeah noelle might very well be canonically a transgirl. as a lot of people have speculated, we might get the subtext when the mayor and dess are revealed to be does without antlers — we have the “horned girl and her sister” line, and it does seem a little odd that the story is so far withholding information on the mayor or dess’s appearances. and aside from the confirmation just being dope as hell on its own merits, i also think it might matter in relation to dess’s possible conflicts as a metaphorically queer person in a small town, maybe specifically with her mother

because the thing is, queerphobia literally doesn’t exist in utdr’s universes as far as we can tell. it doesn’t make sense for their mom to be angry with dess for being trans, gay, or GNC, because being those things isn’t considered rebellious or deviant in this world — it’s perfectly within the range of normal. it fits within her mother’s worldview. noelle is a trans lesbian and as far as we can tell it’s perfectly fine; their mom probably wouldn’t be upset either way if dess continued to be her daughter or came out as her son or as her nonbinary child. the mayor herself is gender-nonconforming — a tough, powerful woman in a position of high authority who can punch a man so hard that he blacks out.

but that doesn’t mean there can’t still be queer-flavored conflicts — perhaps a parent upset with her child for pursuing hobbies and passions that she thinks are inappropriate for her, that aren’t in line with what she understands or respects; for not dressing or behaving or growing up in the ways she thinks her children should. a parent angry with her child for not following rules that, in her mind, are in the child’s best interests to follow — rules that she thinks should protect dess from a world that just Wouldn’t Be Kind To Someone Like Her. a parent feeling personally attacked when her child chooses a new name for herself, rejecting the one she gave to her. a parent feeling hurt and abandoned when the person her child chooses to be in the world isn’t the person she expected or wanted.

to very briefly speculate on specifics: consider the possibility that, while rudy and noelle only ever refer to dess by her chosen name, the mayor may insist on calling her “december.” and, while it does make sense in-universe for someone to suspect the worst from dess’s vanishing, consider the imagery of a parent possibly considering her young adult child “dead” after that person made choices for herself that she found frightening and confusing.

noelle, while arguably just as “queer” as dess (see her quiet fascination with the weird and strange, and her desire to be closer with both susie and kris, both characters who, aside from being literally queer, are also very metaphorically queer in their own rights) might be avoiding this conflict by essentially “closeting” herself around her mom — minimizing herself as a form of self-preservation (for example, stifling her emotional outbursts while playing video games so her mom doesn’t know she’s playing them). this is of course oppressive to her, as well — it’s simply that noelle has traditionally prioritized her safety, while dess may have prioritized her liberty. dess, while perhaps not literally queer like noelle, is metaphorically “out,” and while being out has its own rewards, it may have cost her their mom’s sympathy and respect.

none of this is to preemptively demonize the mayor — we haven’t even met her yet — but to speculate on a possible character flaw that could reasonably have driven dess away, and may be redeemed over the course of the story. the mayor may need to redeem herself before dess can, or is willing to, return.

and i don’t think it’s just her mom. i think her mom, as the town’s mayor, might be in part representative of dess’s relationship to the town itself — a small, insular community that dess feels limits her choices and opportunities, especially as a young adult with big dreams. we know she dreamed of taking noelle to the big city someday.

…something i think about a lot is the line about dess wearing asriel’s jacket — how classically Straight and heteronormative that imagery is. to be clear, that’s not in any way meant as a knock on the legitimacy of dess and asriel’s relationship itself (i have some more nuanced thoughts on dessriel, and the value it has thematically or whatever, that i don’t really think are really relevant here. but i don’t think dessriel is in any way bad LOL), nor does it mean that i think asriel or their relationship is necessarily heteronormative in the literal sense (asriel himself is arguably GNC from the little bit we currently know about him).

it’s more that the framing here seems to emphasize how traditional and exceedingly “normal” the relationship was considered to be, something that may have been at odds with dess’s interests and ambitions as a young, “queer” person. asriel is quite literally the boy next door — sweet, nice, non-threatening. they grew up together; their parents and little siblings are close friends. they’re a boy and a girl in a perfect narrative position to date — hiro and mari — so of course they did. who else would she have dated? pizzapants? meangirl bratty? i could see her feeling boxed in to that option, among so many other options she felt she never had a real say in. asriel may be a great boyfriend, healthy and stable and exceedingly normal, but who’s to say she wanted “normal”? what if she wanted something queer?

if we think about why dess might have run away, why she would have wanted to escape, and why she might have found the fantasy of the dark worlds so captivating that she lost herself to them, i think this could be one way to read into it. dess is — at least metaphorically — a young, queer person, lonely and existentially bored in a small town that cares about her but, from her perspective, doesn’t seem to really understand her, doesn’t give her the option to really be who she wants to be. maybe she just wanted to find another queer person like her. and, who knows — maybe she did.

#does this? count as analysis? idk lol #i’ll just. headcanon zone this to be safe. #headcanon zone

[gascon-en-exil]

Anon says as if FEH isn't using the few Male OCS to sell muscle. Bruno literaly became a meme and then there is the deer men of book VIII

Those are not remotely equivalent. Bruno hasn't been consistently relevant for years, and despite having been in the game since 2017 has all of two alts - neither of which are particularly sexy. The new deer guy is currently just background art; the internet only started thirsting after him so hard because we've been so starved of male OCs, especially after Book VII.

Further, the attempt to deflect from how female characters are objectified in FEH and similar properties by pointing out overly muscled male designs has always been a deeply flawed one. One exists for straight male titillation; the other exists as a straight male power fantasy. There is absolutely a point to be made about how hypermuscular bodies in media promote unhealthy ideas about what men should look like, but that's an entirely separate conversation from the one that frames characters as sex objects. Gay/bi men are best in a position to appreciate the issue from both sides, and the solution we most often pose when discussing such things is to show a wider variety of male bodies in states of (potentially eroticized) undress - a solution that I imagine would not go over well with the sorts of straight men who like to bring up muscular male characters as a gotcha.

The shirtless muscular guys of most media are never framed or positioned in the same way that even more modestly-dressed female characters often are when they're being marketed based on some kind of sex appeal. Gay porn games are the only type of animated media I've seen that treats male characters at all in the same way as female characters are handled on most of FEH's seasonal banners. As an example, let me revisit a point I made about a week ago, in reference to the new winter banner.

Here is Claude, wearing a reindeer-themed holiday outfit.

Now here is another character wearing a reindeer-themed holiday outfit, this time from the gay dating sim Camp Buddy: Scoutmaster Season.

A bit excessive? Yes, but I've got a point to make here. Let's talk about the differences. We've got

a crotch bulge, as well as a small treasure trail. Contrast summer Lorenz and his speedo with Ken doll anatomy.

extensive muscle definition, including pronounced tits pecs. Contrast summer Ephraim, summer Dimitri, and others.

visible nipples, something the internet also went crazy over when they randomly appeared on Fargus back in November. This isn't merely about being anatomically correct; nipples are an erogenous zone for some men, and to include them in a bare-chested design indicates that this character is not just a slab of muscle (as the power fantasy angle would prefer) but has potential erotic vulnerabilities.

a harness that greatly resembles bondage gear, and is in fact used in that way later on.

most obviously, about as much skin on display as the average female unit on summer banners

and while not apparent here, a willingness to commit to the inherent silliness of the bit in the subsequent sex scenes, which employ a flurry of intentionally bad holiday-themed puns and have the characters act out a reindeer-flavored variety of pony play.

But that's far too horny for a winter banner, you say? Don't tell that to Edelgard's thigh-highs and upskirt. Isn't that specific combination a fetish in its own right?

Or Yunaka with her cleavage and camel toe and strategically-placed bits of bare skin.

Or just look at the Byleths side-by-side. Only the female version is baring her shoulders and midriff in a form-fitting top...surely that's for entirely innocent reasons.

And again, check out any given summer banner and see just how far FEH will push its rating with its female cast.

Of course this is all from a gay male perspective; I can't speak to what women find attractive in animated male characters. Anecdotally the most popular options are characters who are already prominent and popular (so...not Bruno or the unnamed deer guy). Also, there are times when women in the fandom pick up on stuff about these guys' bodies that I wouldn't have even thought to eroticize at first, like Dimitri's proportionally small waist. Others can feel free to add onto this if they like.

TL;DR, if FEH truly wants to sell itself on sleaze (which of course it does, and already is), it seriously needs to step up its game with its male cast.

#Fire Emblem #FEH #Fire Emblem Heroes

[practically-an-x-man]

1, 4, 6, 10 for Heart in Your Hands and/or Catch and Release?

Ooh thank you!!!

Answers under the cut for space :D

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

HIYH: We're really just getting started so that's hard to answer at the moment... I guess I wanted to play with perspectives a little more, contrasting Lars' modern and scientific worldview with Jimmy's more historic but curious perspective. And I wanted to take a few tropes, like the "true love's kiss" trope, and revamp them in a way that I found more appealing.

C&R: Hm... I think my main goal in this one was themes of grief and family, which I think I accomplished, but I also wanted to play around with this grief-stricken, somewhat guarded antihero character since that was a perspective I hadn't touched quite as much with my other characters. And I had just seen No Way Home three times in theaters and I wanted desperately to try and fit my own character into that world to the point that people would start to forget she wasn't really there in the movie.

4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

HIYH: Again, not much of a pool to pick from yet, but... this interaction was one of the first that popped into my head, and I just think it's so funny:

“You’re… shockingly normal.” Lars blurted, unable to help himself.  “You’re shockingly British.” the spirit responded, baring him another of those little half-smiles, “Where’ve you taken me, stranger?”

C&R: Oooh, there are a lot of lines to pick from here, I really love Olly's sharp wit. I could write a whole essay on her entrance into the battle with Charybdis, but instead I'm gonna go with this line from the fight on Lady Liberty:

“You like hip-hop? Or is jazz more your style?” Max taunted, lifting his hands. Argonaut kept her eyes on his palms, waiting for a spark. Even as she did, her mouth was running. “I prefer tango.” she said calmly, the only warning before her actuators came flying out at him. One claw slammed him mercilessly into the scaffolding, the resulting screech of metal on metal almost enough to make her wince. With two claws still anchoring her, the fourth and final spiraled outwards, reaching for the reactor glued to his chest. Argonaut grinned. “You had it coming.”

It's the combination of her mouth running on its own, automatically firing off these sharp quips about fighting-as-dancing and all that, while inwardly she's distracted by Peter's good-luck kiss and promise to take her to a Broadway show when everything's over (the "you had it coming" is a reference to the Cell Block Tango from Chicago)

6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

HIYH: It's got a lighter overall tone than my other fics, and it's going to stay there. The darkest this one will get is the canon events in Frozen Empire, and even that's brief. Currently Heartstrings is a little fluffier than this one overall, but Heartstrings is gonna have some killer angst once we get to it.

C&R: It's the closest I get to a crossover fic. Usually I stick to one canon or universe, and I am still sticking to the general world of Spider-Man in this one, but we get surprise appearances from Hobie, references to Spiderverse's LYLA, and of course all the multiverse-jumping in No Way Home itself. I have to say, it's a BEAST to keep track of, but I think it's paid off.

10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

HIYH: I knew I wanted to write for Lars since he seemed like a really neat character (and he's kinda cute ngl), and while his sexuality isn't ever stated or even hinted at in the movie as far as I could tell, I think his character works well as a gay man and I really wanted to explore the dynamic between his modern view on queerness compared to Jimmy's hidden-in-life/brave-in-death approach.

C&R: I've been a longtime fan of Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker, and I wanted to look at this, like... "two ships passing in the night" sort of romance as brought on by the multiverse. And he's super super bi, so I wanted to give him a partner who is equally bi and have them both be open about those past relationships.

In general, I tend to build my OCs to complement the canon characters, so I can explore some really neat character dynamics and relationships. That's also why I like writing OC x Canon rather than fully canon-character or fully OC ships most of the time, it allows me to build one character as a tool to explore whatever dynamic I want to capture with the other, like an extended character study. It's the challenge of keeping the canon character(s) reasonably accurate to their source material, while putting them into situations where they're interacting with someone completely new.

#my friends!!! #answered asks #my writing #heart in your hands fic #catch and release fic #ask game

[denimbex1986]

'Move over Matt Damon, Andrew Scott is stepping in as Tom Ripley in a new eight-episode TV adaptation of The Talented Mr Ripley. Now, we know reboots are everywhere but, come on, it's Andrew Scott! Anthony Minghella helmed the sublime 1999 adaptation to sun-dappled perfection, but who's to say another version on the small screen can't be just as seductive?

Here's everything we know about Ripley so far.

Is there a trailer for Ripley?

Unfortunately, Netflix is keeping with the show's namesake and being somewhat cagey with the details. They have, however, released a few first-look images of Andrew Scott looking suitably pensive and mysterious as Tom Ripley as he broods in black and white across Italy.

Considering Netflix has ominously said that the series will come out sometime later this year, there's a chance a trailer won't be far off.

When is Ripley coming out?

It's been a long and winding road to get the story of Tom Ripley to the small screen. Having first been announced in 2021 and filming in Italy that same year, it's since bounced around from Showtime to Netflix. At a certain point, Andrew Scott didn't even know when it would come out.

Now, Netflix has given its first hint of release, saying that the show will land sometime in 2024 alongside a new still from the series. When that ‘sometime’ is, only Tom Ripley knows – like a lot of things.

There's also no word yet on whether Ripley is a mini-series or planning a multi-season run, but let's just hope that if it is moving over to Netflix, there are no cliffhangers (although we already know everything that happens).

What’s Ripley about?

Based on Patricia Highsmith's novel, The Talented Mr Ripley, the series follows “Tom Ripley, a grifter scraping by in early 1960s New York” who “is hired by a wealthy man to travel to Italy to try to convince his vagabond son to return home.” That son is Dickie Greenleaf, and their odd friendship spirals into, among other things, incidents of deceit and murder. All set against the stunning backdrop of the Italian Riviera, of course. No wonder the book has been adapted so many times.

Scott has also hinted that the series will cover some of the subtextual queer themes of Highsmith's text. In a conversation with Ben Whishaw, he said:

“If Tom Ripley was in a gay bar, I’m not sure that he would fit in there. Nor do I think he’s a straight character. I think he’s a queer character, in the sense that he’s very ‘other.’ What’s his relationship with sex, or death, or with family or friends? It’s interesting that a character is the sum of the parts that you don’t have to play.”

Should this show get greenlit for more seasons though, we could potentially see adaptations of the other novels in the Ripley series. The second book, Ripley Under Ground had a film version with Willem Dafoe and Alan Cumming that, apparently, no one saw. And Dennis Hopper and John Malkovich played Tom Ripley in two film adaptations of the third novel, Ripley's Game.

Who stars in Ripley?

First, of course, we have Andrew Scott as Tom Ripley. Considering his past roles in Fleabag and the Oscar-buzzy All of Us Strangers, the actor certainly has the charisma for the part. Is the Hot Priest becoming a Hot Scammer?

He’ll be joined by Johnny Flynn as Dickie Greenleaf, the playboy heir Ripley swindles, and Dakota Fanning as Dickie’s girlfriend, Marge Sherwood. Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow played those characters in the 1999 film version. Funnily enough, another former Ripley, John Malkovich, was also spotted on set, opening up the Highsmith-verse.'

#Ripley #Matt Damon #The Talented Mr Ripley #Patricia Highsmith #Andrew Scott #Netflix #All of Us Strangers #Fleabag #Johnny Flynn #Dickie Greenleaf #Dakota Fanning #Marge Sherwood #Jude Law #Gwyneth Paltrow #John Malkovich #Tom Ripley #Ben Whishaw #Ripley Under Ground #Alan Cumming #Willem Dafoe #Ripley's Game #Dennis Hopper

[houkagokappa]

There are few things I hate more than when an anime gets condensed into whether or not it’s yuribait. I was looking up comments on the upcoming Hibike! Euphonium projects and so many of them focused on the series ending up a failure somehow because it was just bait, or that those who shipped KumiRei must be mad because their ship sunk (and these commenters found joy in it because shippers are delusional).

First of all, these commenters don’t understand shipping at all. Shipping is about fun or interesting what-if’s, not collecting proof of what must happen. It’s supposed to be lighthearted and not that serious. It can be brainrot inducing, but there’s a degree of separation between what’s canon or a headcanon and things you simply dream of seeing without believing or demanding that they’ll happen in the series itself. And yes, representation is important too, but it’s separate to shipping, especially depending on the series and what sort of realistic expectations you can have for it.

Second, those who mock shippers for reading into things too much tend to be very quick with their own assumptions. You can’t presume that a character is straight just because they haven’t shown signs of being gay. If they’re “too young to know” it extends to ALL identities, including heterosexuality. Sexuality can be fluid and there’s a lot more to it than two opposites - bisexuality or asexuality are almost always conveniently forgotten as other possibilities, along with all other romantic and sexual identities. Not to mention how difficult it can be to realize your own sexuality and be open about it thanks to heteronormativity and societal pressure to fit in.

It’s such a shame when the canon status of a ship seems to be the only thing some people get out of a series or think is what others watch or read it for. Of course it’s fine to watch or read something for a ship and it’s not like I haven’t done it myself, but when you equate the value of something to whether or not a ship in the series becomes canon it’s quite sad and disrespectful towards the creators and fans. I love Hibike for its portrayal of finding a passion, working hard towards a goal and all the complex feelings that come with it. Kumiko’s extremely relatable for me and it’s interesting how untypical she is as a protagonist. Her relationship (as it’s shown) to Reina is important to me, but it’s more of an additional treat than the sole purpose for my love towards the series.

I do read their relationship and their feelings towards each other having a romantic undertone. I don’t think it’s far-fetched or impossible even when they’ve shown interest towards male characters. You can love multiple people and you can love them simultaneously in different ways. I don’t need to see them enter a romantic relationship for their feelings or this reading of them to be valid and true, or for me to find enjoyment and meaning from it. It’s sad that those who claim it’s bait can’t comprehend that queer readings are possible even without explicit hand-holding* confessions** kisses and sex (whether it’s a more serious interpretation or just for some fun shipping) and that some yuri fans can’t be happy with what we got, but demand more from a series that never intended to cater to those demands. There are plenty of yuri works to watch and read for those explicit moments, and there are plenty of other things to love about the series in addition to the relationships.

*no wait they’ve done this **they’ve done this too

#my nonsense #hibike! euphonium #yuri #yuribait #besides hibike i've been seeing similar comments about lycoreco and suisei no majo these past few days #also jojo lmao #along with the hundreds of shows that center around girls with close relationships to other girls #that get called yuribait as soon as the poster is revealed and they're posed together #the threshold to call something yuribait is incredibly low #i should've probably criticized the term too #since actual bait is pretty rare to come by? #altho i guess it's mostly used to specify a targeted audience #altho then again i believe some people truly believe others will get baited #and it's not like those people don't exist... #sigh

[belizedeservesbetter]

A Man of No Importance is Really Important to Me

John Doyle really said “Let me show you how it’s done” 

In an age of musicals where Big Belting and screaming high notes are all the rage, I am so completely thrilled that the smaller and more modest A Man of No Importance gets a chance to shine - and shine it does over in Union Square at Classic Stage Company.

The shows tells the tale of Alfie Byrne (played by Jim Parsons but more on him later) who is a part time bus driver and full time leader of a small amateur theatre troupe in Dublin. Alfie is determined to stage Oscar Wilde’s Salome, despite objections from the church all the while straining against the homophobic society that has held him down for so long. The show is very charming on its surface but packs a real punch as well.

The show really made me remember just how good of a writer Terrence McNally was. The book is absolutely phenomenal. There are so many characters in this show and yet each feels fully realized. Alfie himself is such a wonderful character and his desperation to stage this play and how deeply in love he’s in with his best friend is so gorgeously written. Everything is so subtle and so perfectly heart breaking at just the right moments and really made me remember how good a musical can be. 

Of course the music is excellent, but I was also really blown away by the orchestrations. I know people are hit or miss about John Doyle’s having the actors also play instruments, but it worked so perfectly here. Bruce Coughlin’s orchestrations were so beautiful and brought out so many layers to the already beautiful score. 

Truly, this is a show about art and love and deep love for art and deep love for theatre and being gay and what you cling to when the world you live in won’t let you be who you are or love who you love. 

John Doyle’s direction perfectly highlights all of these themes and his style is so perfectly suited for this show. Stripping the show down to its bare essentials highlighted the raw emotion of the show and the feeling of Alfie being trapped but desperately trying to find his way out. Doyle also staged a lot of scenes in a way that I can only describe as like a near and far effect? It was really lovely and really captured Alfie’s loneliness and how often he is seen as an outsider. 

There was also such a deep theatricality to it that I found so beautiful. Doyle made the show feel like the poems Alfie loves. He created such beautiful stage pictures that will stick with me for a long time. 

Between this, last year’s Assassins and of course The Color Purple, I’m reminded that John Doyle is one of our most iconic directors for a reason. He’s able to get to the heart of the show and put it on full display. He pulls phenomenal performances from his actors and knows how to tell a damn good story.

The set, also designed by Doyle, was also very lovely. It set the whole show in the church basement where St. Imelda’s Players rehearses their plays and it fit Classic Stage Company’s space so perfectly. The back wall was covered in antique mirrors, which was a really lovely touch considering Alfie’s big song in Act One. 

Which of course brings us to the performances, which were all wonderful. Everyone was excellent, with Jim Parsons, Mare Winingham, AJ Shively and Mary Beth Peil being the highlights.

Peil is always a delight, and it was wonderful seeing her play an actress who takes her performance way too seriously. Shively was surprisingly very wonderful, though really I shouldn’t be too surprised as I thought he was great in last season’s Paradise Square as well. His Robbie grounded Parson’s Alfie very well and his “Streets of Dublin” was a highlight. 

Mare Winningham is Mare Winningham, which means of course she was excellent. Alfie and his sister Lilly are the emotional core of the show, and she was absolutely wonderful. 

Jim Parsons was also absolutely wonderful, which is no easy feat considering he is on stage for just about the entirety of the show. It is very clear how important this character is to Parsons, and he fills him with so much heart and so much want. He isn’t the best singer, but it somehow works in the show. Alfie isn’t a great artist, so Parsons doesn’t have to be a great singer. Likewise, where he lacks in singing (and occasionally the Irish accent), he makes up in heart and excellent acting. It was an absolute joy to see him on stage. 

All in all this show is so wonderful! If you’re able, definitely head down to Union Square to see this beautiful gem of a show. 

#a man of no importance #john doyle #jim parsons #theatre #review

[gothmoneyswag]

i know you left this as the tags on some old post but im interested in hearing your thoughts on d-vilman crybaby especially as someone who didnt read the original manga ^_^

yo ok so i haven't actually read the manga however. i have seen devilman crybaby and its got Issues imo. i can tend to break down most of my main complaints into 4 or 5 points. it might get a bit long so imma put it beneath the cut :) also because spoilers for specific things perhaps

possesion anime in general is kind of a hit or miss concept to me. imo the only "possession"/gets powers type anime i really care for is parasyte. tokyo ghoul didnt do much for me from what i saw, havent seen csm but it doesnt do much for me either. likewise devilman just... doesnt really do it for me as far as its premise and initial set up goes (side note: does code geass count here? i have so many thoughts on that series it wouldnt fit here but regardless)

i feel bad for saying this but i really do not like devilman crybaby's artstyle. like it just does not look good to me. im okay with different artstyles but this one just looks ugly. sorry

i feel like the story is just. poor. not good. it starts much too slow for how insane the story gets on later. if you take a show it influenced (evangelion), its pretty up front with its premise up front. i know people have made jokes for years about how eva gets weird and its a bait and switch but like.... not really? like at its core it is a mecha show about kids fighting aliens in robots and even with the character study stuff it doesnt veer that far from that initial premise. devilman crybaby has... a nightclub rave where akira gets posssessed so some white boy can play god while akira does good at track? like its not a strong start and it only gets worse from there. again, i know the reason the end of evangelion ends the way it does is BECAUSE of devilman but like. they just did not execute that ending correctly at all the final few episodes feels so constrained and so much happens in such a short period that it feels like the ultimate anticlimax. its hard for me to care about any of what happens because so much happens in so little time. its worthless and makes me feel nothing as a viewer. these bitches gay! good for them. good for them. what's not good for them is the story. cuz it sucks.

this ties in with my general distaste for the story but i also feel the characters are super weak. again, i feel nothing towards them and they all feel like cardboard cut outs with little personality to them at all. it all returns to nothing so i have no reason to care about them when theyre all gonna be killed off screen in the most contrived and terrible battle sequence maybe ever. ryo is the worst offender by far. his character fucking sucks dude. i dont think he even does anything in the story besides ruin akira's life and then sit in his ivory tower and act gay until the narrative decides "actually he was Satan the whole time!!" fuck you. and fuck those rap battle dudes too your bars fucking suck

i think a final point to end this on is that it is just far and away so much worse than everything it influenced. even if i read the manga or watched the original devilman, im pretty sure the story would remain much the same. and as such, there is literally not reason to watch devilman (much less crybaby) in 2023 when literally everything that came after it is better. i realize this is kind of a silly argument given how i listen to music but im standing by it. just watch evangelion. watch parasyte. watch berserk. play shin megami tensei. consume literally anything else that isn't this trite

i think that's all my main points. im sure i had more but i wrote this over the course of my day whenever id think of something else so. if i think of any more criticisms i had and forgot i'll reblog this and amend the post. sorry it's so long i just had way more to say that i originally thought. lol

#my post #asks #devilman #devilman crybaby #akira fudo #fudo akira #ryo asuka #not tagging this with the other anime i mentioned cuz that feels silly #also as i was looking up stuff for this post i remembered that one monogatari ass sequence with track meet and that one girl #like turning into a demon on live tv or something? #idk i just remember it being fucking stupid #nd that while being stupid i didnt think it was signifigant enough of a stupid thing to put into this mass of a post #yea. thats all i got. i think

[https-chaos]

Its 4am and I'm exploring my gender under the cut. I'm conflicted again <3 if any transmascs feel like reading I'd love to hear if you felt similar feelings before realizing you were trans or if I'm reading too much into it lol.

Just autism things

So I don't really have feelings one way or another about my gender normally. I did have a significant breast reduction and would have had them removed if I didn't think it would make wearing clothes a challenge. I have a pretty dramatic waist to hip ratio and don't mind being perceived as feminine.

But. BUT. When I put on that fuckin strap. Ooooooohhhhhhhh that is simply not fair. Im addicted to the insane euphoric head rush I get when I see myself wearing that ridiculous contraption. The POWER. You feel like a ManTM. Every time I fuck a woman the ManTM feeling flows through me with a power I've never felt about being female.

It feels like this:

Having tiddies: eh. Sucks. Uncomfortable. Painful. But they are soooososososo squishy and make me feel sexy and good.

Having a vagina and all the related plumbing: neutral. I think having a dick would be easier for a lot of practical reasons but for sex purposes I have no strong opinions about genitals.

Having a traditionally "feminine" body and being perceived as female, having people who are attracted to women be attracted to me: love it. Desire me @ all lesbians. Men can look too I guess. Only downside is the horrors.

Presenting in a feminine way: neutral. I am really into fashion and makeup and hair, and if I had a different more masculine body I would just wear whatever styles and cuts looked best. I don't actively try to perform femaleness, I think it just happens. I don't have any real connection to feminine clothes or femininity in general and it doesn't make me feel good or bad about my gender. Wearing clothes that fit my body nicely feels amazing but not in a gendery way.

Wearing the strap: I AM A MAN. He him baby. Call me daddy. Grr. I feel the nonexistent testosterone coursing through me. Every time I fuck a woman I come even though it's not even touching my clit or anything. This is by far the strongest and possibly the only sensation or emotion of "gender" I have ever had. It's so overpowering that if I close my eyes I can imagine looking down myself at a male body and loving it. The second I take it off this feeling disappears completely and the whole time I'm never feeling uncomfy about my boobs or anything. Like I imagine having a flat chest and straight torso and it's awesome af but it doesn't make me feel icky about my actual body.

But GOD!!! The sensation of MASCULINITY that completely envelops me. Whew. It's so powerful. Let me ENTER you babe. Even imagining it is crazy. Quite possibly I'm just very attracted to women and also slightly a top. Where is the line between being a lesbian, wearing a penis, and being a man having one? Maybe my imagination is just too active.

Another facet of it: I write so much gay fanfic. I've been writing it since I was too young to be writing smut. Over the years I've built a little gay man in my head. He's so so sosososoo attracted to men. He's masculine and hairy and he helps me capture the feelings for my fics. (To be clear, this isn't a hallucination or anything. It's more like a really well fleshed out OC. I just visualize him when I need to write from the perspective of a man attracted to men.)

But then sometimes I'll be doing something and get a little wave of attraction to a man in a very distinct mlm fashion. There's a powerful sensation of not being a woman attracted to a man in a straight way, but of a man being attracted to a man in a gay way. To me, it's always seemed to come from this character I created, like my fanfic character was popping in to point out some guy's abs or ass. I don't have any idea how to tell if that's MY attraction and gender or if I'm just habitually in writing mode. Was that a bit of dialog I just came up with or my own thought? It's hard to tell.

Anyway, when I write I sort of become that detailed character I made. When I'm deep in writing a fic, in my mind, I'm 6' tall, hairy, a little chubby, and could probably lift and throw my real body across the room. I get the ManTM feeling and again it's an abnormally strong gender feeling for me. Again it stops without causing dysphoria as soon as my attention is broken, but I will say it's quite the whiplash to switch in your minds eye like that.

I don't think I'm capable of gender dysphoria. The strongest gender sensation I feel regularly is highly masculine, but I don't have any particular objections to being perceived as a woman. But I have never, ever felt WomanTM in the same way. Why do I connect so strongly to masculinity in specific circumstances? It's not all the time which is why I get confused. Atm I don't feel like a man or a woman.

Also I'm not hip so idk if you're supposed to say you're non-binary when someone asks "are you a man or woman" and you go uhhh,,, neither? Both? But they them feels exactly like she her and he him. They all feel equally neutral. The neos too. I imagine people talking about me on a stage every time I see a new pronoun set and none of them illicit a response.

Except of course when I'm wearing the strap. Infernal contraption. Stop making me confused.

Actually I'm being a little dramatic about the conflict. I'm not sitting here being upset that I have no relationship with my gender. I'm simply autistic and study myself like a lab specimen 24/7 and people always think my observations are complaints. I'm not complaining; in fact, this is great fun to me! That ManTM feeling is so powerful and so intensely pleasant and I enjoy it when it happens.

Anyway it's. 5am now. I barely proofread this let's hope it's coherent <3 goodnight

[sylvanas-girlkisser]

@drowmonk replied to your post “Hnnnngggghhhh I'm haunted by ideas for a Tomb...”:

*Palpatine voice* Do it!

@xhopsalong replied to your post “Hnnnngggghhhh I'm haunted by ideas for a Tomb...”:

if you wanted to be stopped you've come to the wrong place bc you had me at 'Sam'. tomb raider 2013 was everything okay

hnnngghhh maybe, here's my idea so far.

Basically I'm really taken with the concept of "dark mirror" characters, and I feel like both Amanda and the Lara clone kinda fall short at this. At the same time, I do also miss pre-2013 thrillseeker Lara, but that sort of personality just doesn't mix with modern ideals around archaelogy.

The modern trilogy has tried to make Lara come off as a good archaeologist; someone who respects the sovereignty of indigenous cultures, and takes only pictures and what is given to her.

Combined with how bookish new Lara is, I think there could be a very interesting dynamic by putting her up against someone who is just in it for the hell of it. A bored heiress looking for kicks and a few conversation starters for her 17 multimillion bachelorette crash pads.

And like, yeah the story itself is kinda given, Lara and her rival (for now i'm going with Alina) are both after the same "treasure", Lara for its archaeological significance, Alina cause it would look good 169 inch gold plated apple tv. It's all the little things that are missing, to get us to the catfights, the sweaty makeout session, the brawls that ends with one of them left bleeding on a cave floor. How does Sam fit into all of this?

I think one thing that would probably turn away a lot of readers (and yeah you shouldn't write to get readers but i digress) is the fact that the story in my head contains some amount of dubcon. Lara and "Alina" would to me represent two different but equally unhealthy ways of responding to trauma.

Lara like we see in the games, responds to the events of Yamatai, and the media shitstorm that followed it by try to enforce normality in her life - trying to stiff upper lip her way through gestures vaguely, while insisting that she is NOT CRAZY. One of the ways I've always imagined that manifesting is through aggressive denial of her own queerness (as well as any kinks she might have). She's a good christian girl, she's gonna find a brown eyed brown haired mr. right and have 2.3 children and that's that on that.

Alina meanwhile probably went through something similar to Yamatai, but went to the exact opposite extreme. She has stared death in the face and come back laughing, the world is fucked and the best you can hope is leave a pretty crater when you crash and burn. That same attitude is reflected in her queerness, sure being gay is illegal in Russia, but if you have money, everything is legal; and if people try to blackmail you, then you know those old Moscow houses, very weak windows, people fall out of them all the time.

And Alina can of course read Lara like an open book, she sees the way she looks at Sam, and the way she pauses to look at Alina lips while they're beating the shit out of each other. She knows, and because this would all be told from Lara's PoV so does the reader, that Lara's refusal to admit their mutual attraction is a product of internalized homophobia mixing with her steelheaded focus on proving that her and Alina are nothing alike.

At first Alina will try to "provoke" the dyke out of Lara, getting closer than they need to, inviting her on a barcrawl, hooking up with Sam and "accidentally" sending Lara their sex tape. You know, usual homoerotic rival stuff.

But Alina is not used to not getting the things she want, and especially after a very drunk Lara admits that she's actually super subby (justice for sub!Lara), she starts getting real forceful until Lara eventually reveals that yes she absolutely does want Alina to do all sorts of nasty things to her.

What I'm getting at, is that Alina is to some extent meant to be a, for lack of a better word, fetishization of the predatory lesbian trope - and I feel like lady Dimitrescu has proven that we as a society are ready for that, but also I would probably publish the fic under a pseudonym to limit the chance of tiktokkers sending me letterbombs.

#valk replies #cw: dubcon

[ishhbowl]

tell me about your oc’s they sound cool :3

OKOKOK SO! i have many oc universes but the one i was talking abt is my (eventual. i will make it someday i promise) webcomic Into Orbit!! its about four teenagers in the year 2009 who’s town is getting invaded by aliens and wacky hijinks ensue :)

^^^this is the only piece of (some of) the mcs i have on hand, there are more but im on my phone rn 😔

the one at the bottom is jaz phuong!! she/her bisexual grunge enthusiast who has dreams of owning a motorcycle, but unfortunately she is Fifteen Years Old and cannot drive one. truly a tragedy. however she makes due with wearing a motorcycle helmet roughly 60% of the time (has gotten into detention several times refusing to take it off.) she can come off as gruff and intimidating at first, however she just has autism and social anxiety and doesn’t know how to talk to people. she is the coolest one here by far tho. and also my favorite to draw. i love her <3

going clockwise, the next character is theo rivera!:3 he/him token cishet (however he is ace and gnc!! so still a win for the gays) and jaz’s reluctant friend/bestie/boyfriend depending on where you are in the story. hes a silly goofy mischievous little boy with a bad temper that he tries to keep under wraps. when he’s in a really bad mood, though, he sneaks out into the junkyard next to his house and smashes shit with his trademark Baseball Bat Never Once Used To Play Baseball (tm), which will absolutely not ever get him into trouble what are you talking about. he rides on the bike pegs he insisted jaz attach to her bike and they are so incredibly important to me do you understand

next up is shelley “shel” bloomberg, he/him worlds most cringest boy (its a feature not a bug). he’s grayromantic and gay, but he doesn’t know it yet so shhh!!!! hes a massive alien fan, local believer of every cryptid ever (he WILL show you "proof" if asked), avid xfiles watcher and scifi enjoyer. basically hes a huge nerd and we love him for it. usually he gets made fun of (*COUGH* SYLV *COUGH*) for his interests, but its lucky he knows his stuff, seeing as their town is about to get invaded by real-life actual aliens!! can most likely be found on call with his brother alex, playing his scuffed (absolutely NOT pirated he would never do such a thing stop lying) copy of the sims 2, or looking for extraterrestrial life using his handheld telescope. or just looking at space bc you know. space cool.

finally, we have sylvia mahji, she/her the most beloved of girls in the whole wide world. unlabeled sapphic who is POSSESSED BY AN ALIEN!! UH OH!!! well its really more of an unwilling symbiotic relationship but still UH OH!! dont worry her and her alien parasite become buddies (or more... hmmm.........) as time goes on. and she gets alien superpowers. hell yeah. she often ends up being mean to people in an effort to fit in, however all she really wants is friends :( her and theo used to be besties above all the resties but they started drifting apart at the beginning of the story, something to be discussed over the course of the plot. also she and shel are neighbors and have a rival relationship, like they hate each other so much for literally no reason. can you tell i like rivals to friends relationships. oH YEAH AND SHES FUCKING CRACKED AT BASKETBALL GIRL IS BALLING FR

other characters include: spacegirl!! the aforementioned alien parasite of sylv. she, although her name would make you think otherwise, is not a girl but an alien. i dont have a design settled on for her, but i do know that i want her to be humanoid, and she's got a green and pink color scheme :) when she takes control of sylv's body (because she can do that. forgot to say. eyah) sylv's eyes turn green and other eyes open up all over her body because cool :thumbsup: she came on the same spaceship the invaders coming to earth are from, but she just wants to see earth and have fun!! and maybe prevent her evil tyrant alien leader from taking over another world!! who knows!!

another important character is alex flores-bloomberg, shel's half brother, scene kid, and all around goofy guy :3 transmasc he/him, really just here to cause problems and get myspace followers. shel's father absolutely hates him and that fact is only partly because he stained his entire bathroom with hairdye. he's two years younger than the rest of the cast, a point that will be constantly used to make fun of him. i love him dearly. you get it.

uhh eyah thatsit :3 i could go on about them forever and everr so if anyone wants to know more about a specific character(s) or the plot or whatever pleasepleaseprettyplease ask!! ^_^

#oc tag #sorry this is so long they just occupy so much space in my brain

[historyhermann]

A curmudgeon librarian and superheroes in the library [PART 1]

For this post, I'd like to highlight an episode of DC Super Hero Girls, the 2019 reboot of a series in the earlier 2010s, titled "#SoulSisters Part 2" (s1ep25), that extensively focuses on libraries. This goes far beyond another scene in the same show (noted in an upcoming post on August 20). This is clearly a different library, as this is a city library,  and the one in the episode was the high school library. [1] We begin by seeing the grand library, almost looking like a temple, looming over the landscape, possibly modeled after the main branch of the New York Public Library in New York City.

Below is what that main branch at New York City's fifth avenue, the Schwartzmann Building, looks like, with some similarities. This building has a remarkable facade which has also been mimicked in Futurama with the New New York Public Library shown in a few episodes (especially in the episode "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid") some of which have been This is not to be confused with the hilariously named "pubic library." Of course, there are many differences here, but part of it, like the lions, may have been modeled on the NYPL branch.

This picture is from the NYPL website back in August 2015.

Anyway, on with the episode. We first see the wide expanse of the library.

Then, Diana Prince (Wonder Woman) looks for a book on spells. It is aptly named Ancient Weaponry: Myths & Magic.

As the fandom page on Katana notes, Diana reads this book, finding out information about the Soul Taker, a sword "forged in the 14th century by "the legendary swordsman Urasawa Sengo" and "rumored to steal the souls of its enemies," those which can "only be freed if the wielder says a certain Japanese incantation." That becomes key later in the episode. Anyway, there is a hilarious scene where Diana's phone rings and she can't turn it off, annoying everyone. I had a similar experience once when I didn't know how cell phones worked, so I can completely sympathize.

She finds Katana is sitting nearby, but…

It attracts the attention of the librarian, an older White lady who fits all the stereotypes, which are commonly associated with them. These stereotypes are not unique to this show, as librarians portrayed in Steven Universe, She-Ra: Princess of Power, and Futurama are shown similarly: as people with glasses and occasionally old (as is the case in She-Ra: Princess of Power). Even the character in Gargantia, one of the more positive portrayals of libraries, has the appearance of an elderly White man, while the two gay male librarians, George and Lance, in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, are the only non-white (and Black) librarians in animation I can think of offhand, although there may be others.

Moving back to the episode, we then get the strict rule on the wall, declaring "no cell phones!" which seems a bit absurd, as it is vague on what it means.

Katana jokes with Diana until she figures out that she is the villain who stole the souls of her friends, leading to a fight in the library itself.

Again, the librarian is annoyed, but for a different reason this time. Some librarians have taken this attitude and embraced it, with an ongoing blog called "The Curmudgeonly Librarian" published by a librarian in their late 60s or a "Library Curmudgeon" written by a Canadian librarian. Others have said that library pioneers like Frederick Beecher Perkins, a member of a prominent religious family in the U.S. in the 19th century, was a curmudgeon. Some joked that their work in a library had turned them into a curmudgeon. While librarians are often shown as unpleasant and bespectacled in popular culture, interrupting protagonists and shushing them, as Kevin McElvaney points out, being a "librarian is no career for the lazy curmudgeon" because it takes years of "advanced study even to be considered for a position."

© 2020 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Reprinted from Pop Culture Library Review and Wayback Machine

Notes

[1] It also goes far beyond "Frenemies" where Batgirl/Barbara Gordon says, as an excuse, "O have a library book I... need to write for the library. So people can read it. Because you gotta have books for the library. Otherwise, it's just a big empty building, I guess," which is a bit funny but not true! Other episodes feature a library card ("Ally Cat"), while, the short Taco Tuesday "features the library, where Karen is asked by the librarian to keep quiet when her stomach is growling" while in another short, Kara spends detention "reshelving books in the library while trying to finish in time to get to a concert" while the library is also mentioned in another episode ("Giganta").

#libraries as temples #dc super hero girls #libraries #librarians #white librarians #white women #library patrons #white patrons #black patrons #nypl #futurama #japanese patrons