#subtextual reading

[emillungs]

devotion

#my art #wot #the wheel of time #wheel of time #siuanraine #moiraine damodred #siuan sanche #digital art #artists on tumblr #digital painting #maybe (most likely) its the shows impact on me but. its crazy how their first interaction on book 2 reads as subtextually gay #there is still Much to fix in this but wtv im setting it free before i go insane 🕊

[echo-stimmingrose]

Exaggeration of that One Scene in EP 6

Percy and Annabeth: We know who the lightning thief is.

Luke *panicking*: How could you possibly know that?????

Annabeth: Well we spoke to Ares-

Luke: It's Clarisse yes! You are absolutely correct! She makes the most sense! Wow, I can't believe it!

Percy and Annabeth: um-

Luke: Don't think about it too much! You're right! You did great, I'm so proud of you, kids good job! I gotta go and uh make sure Chiron knows it's her! Bye! *Ends I.M.*

Percy:

Annabeth:

Percy:

Zebra:

Annabeth:

Percy: Great, now they might be able to get some information out of Clarisse.

Annabeth: Yeah, I wanna know how she stole it.

#the subtextual zebra in the backs like: Are yall for real? that fuckers lying. #percy jackson and the olympians #percy jackson #annabeth chase #luke castellan #pjo tv #pjo tv show #pjo tv series #pjo tv spoilers #pjo spoilers #bestie don't read

[needle-thread-thimble-spear]

Dungeon Meshi is the all time series for me, because it demonstrates and actively degrades the boundaries between the natural and the artificial. The dungeon as an act of creation. The need for all people to eat and breathe and drink, and the vulnerability inherent to being a living thing. The banality of death. The way life bends, breaks, and evolves under artificial pressures.

And it bothers me how people will say that Falin isn't much of a character, or is secondary to the main cast. Because she embodies the themes of the manga so clearly! Her character exists beyond herself! She IS the blurring between human and natural when she is revived, and transformed, and revived and transformed again! When she is figuratively and literally eaten by the other main characters, when she comes back changed by all of that! The way the others at first refuse to accept her death, but come to accept who she is become! That their love for her can extend her being crashed through all of those boundaries, even death. Its delightful, delicious even! I really admire speculative fiction where the setting is basically a character on its own, re the Otherside in Otherside Picnic, Ohtori in Revolutionary Girl Utena, Gethen in Left Hand of Darkness, etc. And in Dungeon Meshi, Falin blurs the boundary between setting and character even further. She is Dungeon Meshi.

And also like. She is literally me fr.

#as in #a fat trans lesbian #but others have written plenty on how that headcanon is a good reading or barely subtextual #anyway #dungeon meshi #farlyn thorden #falin touden #falin #spinning #this post is sort of off the cuff ill likely return to it later with more

[throttlegainwell]

Okay, I finally saw New Mutants. The true horror was NOT the horror genre-ish aspects, but instead: five teenagers being spirited away without a trace to a secret facility to be imprisoned for an undetermined length of time, manipulated and lied to, forced to submit to medical procedures and drugged without their consent by an inviolable authority (the "doctor"), and arbitrarily punished with solitary confinement, and no one being like "hey where are these kids?" (But, like, Essex, so of course.)

So 100% psychologically chilling in that respect. And that was definitely well-done.

Totally scratched an itch of mine in that I can't resist a good "hey you know those worst fears and deepest darkest secrets you've got tucked way down there? here they are!" type of psychic plot. But furthermore, what I always want to see and never really do is when those psychic terrors manifest and other characters help fight them. I've always thought it's so much more interesting seeing other people's damage and taking it on for/with them than it is when everyone is just squaring off with their own fears and demons one-on-one. (I feel similarly about the rogues galleries--it always feels like a missed opportunity when someone is in a position to face off with someone else's bad guy and then doesn't.) Like, yes, help shoulder the burden! No one is an island; come together for each other! Learn their deepest fears in an unbearably exposed way!

And it's so rare.

But not this time! So that was very special to me.

#new mutants #new mutants spoilers #i never read the really early new mutants stuff #but oh wow my new mutants feeling are bubbling up again #also every inch of that movie was queer and i've gotta be honest with you #berto's half-hearted comments about illyana come off very over-compensating #perhaps because he spent half the movie eye-fucking sam #but who has time for that subtextual bisexuality when i got to see two girls kiss and then romantically save each other

[surrexi]

trying to find father brown peeps on tumblr and i am seeing people complaining about sullivan being "made hetero" in series ten and my siblings in christ y'all need to rewatch episode five you can't tell me sullivan's reactions to flambeau and mrs devine weren't pure disaster bisexual panic!

also remember fam you can still write fanfic where he's bisexual or gay or ace or anything no matter what they do in canon (i have only watched the first six eps so idk what happens in the last four, but even if he and isobel have a full-on romance that doesn't even actually mean he couldn't be *canonically* bisexual, let alone affect one's ability to headcanon him that way). in my heart of hearts, lady felicia ran away with flambeau at the end of series nine and canon can never take that away from me, lmao. i have no intention of letting anything in the canon dissuade me from the position that inspector sullivan is 110% a disaster bi.

#father brown #inspector sullivan #father brown spoilers #sort of #char: inspector sullivan #tv: father brown #idk why anyone who's already reading subtextual queerness onto a male character who has never actually had a romantic subplot #would respond to that character getting a female love interest by immediately going 'how dare they make him straight' #bisexuality is right there! so is asexuality with an alloromantic orientation that includes at least men and women! #to say nothing of other orientations they might not have had the same words for in the late 40s/early 50s that we do now! #there's so much more to queerness than just gay or straight! #take it from me #your friendly local asexual

[orionis13]

Me when I have to write an essay about a specific prompt and not an essay about the queer themes ive fully outlined in my head for class

#/j i actually really loved the book im writing about but hoooly shit #i have and will again go on a tangent about queer love and obsession and toxicity in this book because holy shit #it’s v good without the queer reading of it but it’s also not just subtextual like there are in book references to it and AUGH #I FEEL ILL ABOUT THEMES AND SYMBOLISM RAAAHHHH #gonna become a youtube video essayist just so i can talk about toxic obsessive ‘romance’ in the talented mr ripley and subsequently saltburn #which after reading i am almost certain was inspired by this book in some way shape or form #anyway i gotta lock in bc this essay is due Tonight oops

[professorsta]

Hate when people do the talking point that men should be allowed to be friends and not shipped all the time and not understanding that you can be in love with your friend and knowing you can’t be together. Or not wanting to be. Being in love doesn’t stop you from being friends.

#or not getting that like before gay marriage was legalized and everyone loved having a GBF #authors would have to subtextually write relationships or messages #such as Frodo and Sam not being allowed to be together in their time when the book was published #but considering Tolkien had queer friends and sent them the book the read #I’m sure he understood and was okay if you read sam and Frodo as people in love #who can’t be together until much later in their lives #but until their are still great friends #lord of the rings #frodo baggins #samwise gamgee #frodo x sam #aromantic #asexuel

[velkyr]

you know what I really love. when the capital L Loneliness applies a constantly ticking poison damage debuff but also the social battery is at a solid 0% and on top of that the ease of triggering RSD is off the charts for some reason. that's a really cool venn diagram you've got right there babey

#'love' here could subtextually be read as 'fucking loathe' but you know I'm not your dad you can interpret it how you'd like really #sorry to whine on main I'm just beyond tired and the Everything Else is getting to me today I'll be fine #z posting

[callixton]

i think one of the core things abt broadway chess i struggle to get on board w is how much of freddie’s characterization is dependent on him feeling like chess isn’t enough alone and he needs money to make up for it. not bc i don’t think that chess Isn’t enough but bc i think i’ve always seen freddie throwing himself into it bc he doesn’t have a different outlet and finding more emptiness and pushing harder anyway (in parallel/mirror to anatoly who is doing the same thing until he chooses to pursue florence as an alternative) (it’s also why he reacts so harshly to anatoly’s ‘cheating’) UNTIL one night in bangkok where the impact of losing florence makes him realize he lost the only person who did impact that and has stage 1 of his second arc breakdown. which is why i can then see him buying into working with walter after he already feels lost

all this to say i don’t actually think broadway chess tells a worse story w freddie’s arc it’s just one i find personally less interesting

#this might not be too coherent i’m sort of figuring it out as i write #tbf . this is maybe based on no existing concrete version #but if every single production gets to make up their own characterization and plot so do i #this is also not to say that i’m not greatly enjoying long beach it’s just not quite my freddie so far #it IS my florence tho. by far fave characterization i’ve seen for her so get #i just think that the fame and money thing is such a presentational thing for freddie and like. maybe that is still subtextually true here #but i don’t believe that freddie believes that w broadway. and i think it’s more interesting if he’s very aware of it #idk i’ve only seen one broadway version and read a few plot summaries tho so maybe i’m misinterpreting #ted talks #chess

[wallbeatjournal]

ngl this s5e7 scene reworked my brain chemistry and fully convinced me for a time that eric jackson was a #fightclubcore manifestation of archie's repressed anger and trauma and i still think about it a lot. istg it's a good reading. istg it has legs. istg it works GREAT in the character arc/subtext no question but it also works NEARLY in the literal text to the point that it's magical to me, plus/minus a couple of interactions with real people that can't fully be worked around

i mean s5 had the nerve to move on from this and have eric continue to visibly struggle and suffer under the weight of his rage and grief while (outwardly) functional/coping archie only begins addressing his own ptsd by first witnessing one of eric's ptsd breakdowns and fighting to get ERIC some ptsd support

and then they reveal that archie DOES have trauma manifestation hallucinations haunting him

and then after archie experienced catharsis eric just..."moves away" offscreen alongside all the other war ghosts

it's near-perfect i'm saying. eric could just be archie i'm saying

#i'm telling u it has legs #even during the key party ep jackson gets paired off with minerva who also kind of reads like a manifestation of cheryl's...psychology #dropping the literal reading the subtextual reading is themes on themes. archie can't engage with his trauma. he has work #s5 archie really thinks admitting he's wounded would fuck up his life. he's not at that stage of healing yet #s6 brought him closer - he gets to a point of realizing that being (heavy. dense.) emotionally invulnerable is pure COPE #a power but also a weakness because it relies on perfect control and avoidance (of palladium. of triggers) #and realizing the walls (around himself. around the city of riverdale) were there didn't bring them down. brute forcing it doesn't work #community helps though. which is of course where we left off #(so ideally s7 will take him further along that journey pls pls) #but anyway ~i digress~ this is about s5 jackson being archie. carrying his traumas in loud obvious ways that archie himself can't #bc he isn't gonna ruin his life over hiram lodge (or grundy. or the army. or whatever else) #riverdale #archie andrews #eric jackson #oc

[mymp3]

istg people dont know what narrative and foil even mean at this point

#compendiumnotebook #ppl just be saying things #something that's subtextual and something that's textual are two different things #also people not giving weight to overarching narrative themes because its not always textual gets me so annoyed #like sometimes the text lies and sometimes the text is written because it has an expectation of you understanding it after the fact #like #i saw someone say im regards to minatos awakening that 'thanatos breaking out of orpheus was never explained again' #like i feel like some things are so obvious that when people say this kind of stuff it boggles my mind #'it was never explained again' (proceeds to complete fes) #like. hes a representation of the very thing stealing the life he could of had. #thanatos represents so many things to minato #you could say what actually happened (him awakening after 10 years. being brought back to his home) #or the more emotional reading/character driven take of (orpheus was the life he could of had but never would have gotten the chance to live #a life stolen away from him though he takes it in turn and in kind because thats the kind of person he is #someone inflicted with such troubles and nobody knows but he continues on with life regardless #whatttttever bro #whatever #i think this is why people also dont talk about ryoji as much and it makes me lose my mind because ryoji is literally the perfect summary #for the game and its themes and messaging #and because people dont understand what these things were intended to be they downplay his involvement of being the most integral bit #ahhhhh im going crazy #idk what spurred this on i think im just #hm #anyways im 2 for 2 with awesome persona thoughts today so thats nice #at least i get smth out of my craziness

[mossflower]

i’m ‘sibling coded’ and i’m ‘no chemistry’: the shiphater brothers

#do you ever make a post and go like. girl you are wasting your time here. what even is this. thats what im doing here #what the hell does sibling coded even mean. i truly do not understand it. ive only ever seen it used when people are bitching about ships #like compare it to queercoding. i have read so many essays and seen so many videos abt queercoding #never in my LIFE have i seen a 1h30 video essay about how the dynamic between two characters means they’re siblings on a subtextual level

[fanfiction-artist-prototype]

If "dark romance retellings that are cheap attempts to hide the fact you never read/deeply misunderstood the meaning/subtext of the source material" books have a million haters I'm one of them, if they have 100 haters I'm one of them, if they have 10 I'm one of them, if they have 0 haters then I'm dead.

#the phantom is a groomer it is not even subtext people please im going to scream #tonight on proto cant fucking escape this nightmare -someone gave phantom from PotO a breeding kink with aged up mc so its not fbi open up #i used to like the idea of dark romance for what it promised and now life is a fucking nightmare! #rant #proto rant #why can dark romance girlies not understand that just because you go hey this is dark romance #it does not mean when you go and romanticise a character that is grooming the protag in the #source text and read that and thought but what if they DID go through with the relationship #that youre not going to be judged #have a fucking CnC kink for all i care but for thr love of the universe please recognised that finding characters that are subtextually or #sometimes not even fucking subtextually but front and centre creeps to kids and seeing an attractive want to screw you guy is not it

[bearsizedant]

how do you kindly and patiently explain to someone that needing to pay attention to a movie to understand the plot does not automatically make it a bad movie

#okay the main complaints that i have recieved #about every single movie we have watched together #are as follows: #you have to be able to pick up on subtextual clues to get the full depth of the plot #you have to read between the lines to see the full picture #and i dont know how to explain to them that these are like. things you are supposed to do when you watch movies that are not mcu #they hated moulin rouge‚ hmc‚ phantom of the opera‚ ponyo‚ AND ever after. #genuine mental anguish over here. #bearsizedant speaks some words

[chickenswithsocks]

kaze hikaru truly some of the gayest and the most homophobic shinsengumi media of all time

#why is it like that #i could never bring myself to read all of it bc u went from the cutest subtextually gay romance story of all time #to the most homophobic joke you've ever heard

[daisyachain]

The question of when Hanai and Tajima will get together. I’ve seen it put that Hanai is a fairly normal well-mannered person and Tajime is open as a book, so there’s no earthly reason to engage in Abe and Mihashi’s struggle for proximity. I’ve also seen it said that their friendship is too much based on their inferiority complexes and that to meet on even terms they’d have to reboot their friendship and built it independent from the game.

I’d raise the third option of: Hanai’s sensible and Tajima’s empathetic. No way is Hanai going to go out with Tajima without a long term plan. It’s too important a friendship to squander on a few failed dates and it’s also too weird of a friendship to transition without some serious thought to what it’s going to look like being exposed to Tajima 7 days a week forever. No way would he ask him out or accept a date before second-year uni at the earliest. Now, Hanai is restrained in his signals and Tajima often reads him like a book despite that. Just as Hanai wouldn’t date him without serious commitment in mind, I wager that Tajima picks up on the we’ll-cross-that-bridge vibes and maintains a friendly level of flirt. He wouldn’t be too keen on being rejected.

#kelsey liveblogs oofuri #their mutual rivalry thing is fun! what does the man want who has everything? the answer is apparently six inches of height #Abe and Mihashi subtextually implicitly undeniably a romance while Tajima and Hanai still lurk in the grey area #while still having enough bits and pieces that the romance reading isssss the intended one #‘I’ll be the girl’ and ‘I’m glad I’m tall’ and all. #the true endgame is abe and mihashi remain in limbo forever and tajima and hanai understand one another within four months of meeting #but they both start dating around the same time (like. third or fourth year I want to say. maybe later)