#water reps

[tinygryphon-58570]

Hugs for the Undertides too!! <3

#flight rising #fr #fr art #flight rising art #wavecrest saturnalia #undertide #beastclans #maren #water reps #fisk #tarni #my art

[crabgirlfriend]

“WTNV walked so [insert whatever media] could run” no. WTNV did not walk, it was fucking running marathons while other media was crawling on the ground gasping for air. it’s still running and the world needs to catch up

#welcome to night vale #astrid speaks #i resent the implication that this podcast with a beautifully written m/m couple at its heart was like. a stepping stone #instead of something that can still blow most other ‘rep’ out of the water #does this make sense? probably not #wtnv > your fave any day

[muffinlance]

Wait, what’s going on with Embers???? That fic has been on my read later list since 2021, what’s happened with it???

Brief overview, then I'm likely never touching this topic again, because this is not a Drama Blog:

Context: Embers is a super old AtLA fic that was written during the early fandom days, read widely at the time, and was the origin of the widely-used fanon name of "Wani" for Zuko's ship (kind of by default that it was one of the first popular fics to give his ship a name, I think?), even though most fic writers don't seem to realize it's from there anymore.

"What's Going On": I used to include a link in all my stories to it, because I believe in crediting other writers for borrowed elements, and I was using "Wani" in all my fics. But BOY did I not want to be sending readers that way anymore, so I've adopted a new name for Zuko's ship, and removed all Embers links.

None of the criticisms about Embers itself are new; I'm assuming they date back to when the fic was being written, because this isn't an "it aged badly" thing, this is an "actually yeah this gets worse the longer you think about it and I shouldn't have ignored my bad feelings just because some of the worldbuilding was interesting" thing.

An Incomplete List of Why I Made the Change:

I don't actually like the story that much anymore, and don't want to rec it

I tried to re-read it recently to see if some things were as bad as I remembered and it turns out they were So Much Worse Oh Yikes. More specifically, the treatment of Katara and Aang and their respective cultures has... rather a lot going on. One example: The Fire Nation and Air Nomads are both given multiple backstory elements in an attempt to make the average Fire Nation soldier's participation in the genocide/war in large part the fault of the Avatar and the Air Nomads themselves, and also fully justified from the Fire Nation perspective. And I do mean fully. One of its core tenants is "People from the Fire Nation (and only people from the Fire Nation) who don't follow orders Literally Die, therefore murdering pacifists and babies and continuing the war (and their regularly scheduled war crimes) is the only thing it is physically possible for them to do". I cannot emphasize enough how literal that is.

Also the name "Wani" means "Alligator" and is... objectively a pretty lame name for Zuko's ship? Where's the personality, where's the deeper meaning, where's the resonance with Zuko's themes? @tuktukpodfics initially thought I was calling the ship "Wanyi", and that's what I've switched to, because it is Objectively So Much Better. In their words: “Wànyī (萬一): Literally ‘one in ten thousand,’ ‘perchance.’ Used grammatically in Chinese to mean ‘what if’ or ‘just in case.’ I think a ship called ‘The Perchance’ is perfect for a boy clinging to false hope.”

TL:DR; I don't rec Embers anymore, because I don't actually like the story anymore, and there are things about it that get worse the more I think on them. I've removed links to it and renamed Zuko's ship to "Wanyi" ("The Perchance") because our boy deserves a ship name that reflects his character arc.

#for the record if you ever find something kind of rancid in my fics #do please let me know #EX: I've rewritten scenes to be better Actual Blind Rep for Toph based on blind reader feedback #and I'm debating how hard it would be to ignore/re-write the canon issues of Water Tribe sexism (for the Southern Tribe at the least) #because that is a common complaint I see from the people who's RL cultures the Water Tribes was based on #probably I can do more interesting things with that going forward #in other words justice for Hama and Hahn #at least the show itself made Hama excellently complex #anyways back to doing actual writing #please no follow up questions #though I will say anyone who wants to update their own fics to use Wanyi (or any other name): go for it! #all you need to do is plop your chapters in a word editor and find/replace the ship name! it took about 40 minutes to do literally #all of my fics and I had some other editing to do besides! it'll be even quicker for you! #let's sink the Wani #avatar the last airbender #atla #Zuko

[turtleblogatlast]

Thinking about the Don Suave scene and what it means in terms of LGBTQ+ representation because my brain does nothing if not torment me with random topics to ramble about on the regular.

Anyway, I just wanted to ramble about why I like the scene but to get it out of the way - the scene can very easily be interpreted in so many different ways, and all of them are valid. I personally see it as Leo having at least some attraction to a man. And the following is an explanation of my own interpretation and thoughts on it and what it means especially for Leo’s portrayal in the grand scheme of things.

Long-winded interpretation under the cut!

Now, to start with, it’s important to me that in the scene Leo looks at Don Suave in the very beginning and then for the entirety of the rest of the time the man is on screen, Leo’s eyes are closed. Yet, in the end, he is still visibly enamored with Don Suave, happily cuddling up to him as he’s being carried away.

You can very easily interpret this as Leo being spellbound and that’s honestly super valid and I believe he likely was at least somewhat in the beginning, but considering how fast he looked away and how he never looked again, I personally think it makes more sense to read it as Leo just finding the man attractive, at least somewhat. (For the record, I personally headcanon Rise Leo as bisexual with a heavy preference for men, but I want to be blunt when I say that any interpretation is valid. Literally any. Ace, pan, gay, bi, none of the above or a mixture of something new literally all of it is more than okay and fair. Hell you could even interpret this entire scene as more romantic attraction than physical and it would still work. Anything goes!! Don’t bother people, guys, really.)

The main reason I take this scene to be at the very least LGBTQ+ adjacent isn’t just because of how it’s portrayed, but because of who Leonardo is. Not in terms of Rise of the TMNT, but in terms of the entire Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles™️ franchise.

Leo’s a character who, while changing with each iteration, has still at his core been around for decades upon decades as “the blue one”. One fourth of the team. He’s the one most are going to look at as the Leader, and oftentimes he is the one closest to having the title of Main Character. Not to say the others aren’t just as important, but Leo’s presence in the A plots of basically all TMNT media is often something very main character-esque.

And that’s very, very important to note. Here we have a Main Character of a prolific and decades long-running franchise distributed by a children’s television network. You can play around with his and his brothers’ characters all you like, but there is always going to be challenges to dodge around, especially since this was still in 2018-2019.

For example, you can play around with their designs so long as they’re color coded turtles, but their sexualities? Now that’s tricky.

“But what about Hypno and Warren?” Not main characters and also they’re Rise originals. They have a lot more room to play around with than a character like Leo does. But even talking about main characters in the franchise, you could arguably have an easier time playing around with Donnie or Mikey’s sexualities than Leo or even Raph, as (unfortunately) the former two tend to get more B plots, so they’d likely have had a little more leeway (still not a lot though.)

So, where does this leave us?

It leaves us in a place where outright stating and/or showing undeniable proof of Leo’s attraction to men is very, very difficult. So, workarounds!

Workarounds like the entire Don Suave situation.

To be honest, as left up to interpretation and lowkey and deniable as it is, this whole scene means a lot to me because of who Leo is as a character. It’s just nice when we get so see even the bare bones of representation with characters that have been such a large part of pop culture for decades, y’know? Even if more would be so much nicer, this is better than I thought we’d ever get for these boys.

And, again, literally nothing I’ve said is the only way to interpret it, I’m more than happy when people interpret media on their own honestly, it’s just something I’ve been thinking of lately and I was wondering if others felt the same way.

Whatever you think when you interpret this scene or Rise Leo as a whole, I just thought this would be interesting to think about, even if it was ramble-y, haha.

#rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt headcanons #rottmnt leo #rise leo #rise don suave #rottmnt don suave #I lied I’m back to ramble because I’m just #so bad at keeping my mouth shut #or uh #not typing word vomit #anyway- yeah this is my personal interpretation #I believe Leo was legitimately mesmerized by Don Suave’s powers…in the beginning #but even the series’ creator says it was ‘at least PART of what was going on with Leo’ so #idk it’s something that’s been on my mind and I was wondering if anyone else felt the same?? #may delete this later who knowssss #pleaaaase feel free to disagree I just like to talk lol #but yeah sometimes I look around at how much media has LGBTQ+ rep in it now and it honestly makes me emotional?? #(we always always ALWAYS could use more but) #we did not have even a crumb of this as kids #but also like most of that rep is new properties #and I just was thinking about what that could mean #idk man idk #once again please don’t take this as facts it is VERY MUCH NOT #man I was looking around for good images to use and found jack all #anyway tho did you know Donnie often has bi colors around him and Leo is often dressed in the colors of the trans flag- #okay anyway back to the caves I go this comic won’t draw itself #I gotta spray myself with water any time I go to type long winded essays because they’re not great for the mental health fr

[heaven-zent]

thinkin’ bout buying land for a farm

#toontown corporate clash #land acquisition architect #alton s crow #adam art #i used my bad water based markers for this and it makes me feel gross to stare at #He’s the southern representation i NEED though #the southern rep i DESERVE #as a current resident of the south #he goes y’all and i point at the screen and say Omg! Me

[imgonnagetkilledbynutstink]

Canonically disabled characters in podcasts cause I feel like it

- Juno Steel - The Penumbra Podcast (visually impaired)

- Rudyard Funn - Wooden Overcoats (technically not canon but basically has every symptom of autism)

- Arthur Lester - Malevolent (visually impaired)

- Brain Jeeter - The Strange Case Of Starship Iris ( has a disability that gives him trouble breathing though I don't remember if they specify exactly what)

- Lucille Kensington - Where The Stars Fell (I believe chronic pain though I admit I haven't listened to the show. She uses a cane)

- Nicholas Waters - Archive 81 (chronic pain. He uses a cane)

- Sydney Sargent - Camp Here And There (psychosis, autism and chronic pain)

(extra fun fact all these characters are canonically queer accept Arthur though ppl are still holding out hope for him)

#no one come at me for not adding marc and vespa I've heard multiple times that they are not good disability rep #the penumbra podcast #tpp #juno steel #wooden overcoats #wo #rudayrd funn #malevolent #arthur lester #the strange case of starship iris #tscosi #brian jeeter #where the stars fell #wtsf #lucille kensington #archive 81 #a81 #nicholas waters #camp here and there #chnt #sydney sargent

[panikkar]

see okay on one hand i was not expecting buck to go bi tonight but on the other hand i was thinking that abc was gonna add some queerness to 911!!! maybe i’m biased bc i watched greys anatomy but especially in that show they’ve never been shy about writing queer stories! they literally introduced a bi character back in 2009. and not in like a “she’s bi and she’s gonna date one (1) woman and then never talk about it again” way it was straight up like “hey this character is gonna have serious queer relationships and then they’ll both have their own storylines and identities and then we’re gonna create a web of fictional queer doctors in this show and even have several different queer relationships at once and not just a few that all date each other” when literally the bar for the time wasn’t just low it literally didn’t exist. idk. anyways abc shows are for the queers!!!

#btw sara ramirez i love you <3 #(they literally jump started it all by suggesting to the showrunner that their character be bi and i will forever love them for that) #listen i could write an essay about how queer greys anatomy is and how they just fuckin blew expectations for queer rep out of the water #and way past that and how they’ve actually used their platform as a literal tv icon to show tons of different representations but i’ve found #that most ppls eyes glaze over real quick #911 #911 abc #buddie #911 spoilers

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

The closer we get to TTPD the more I wonder if the eventuality of releasing rep tv down the line kinda gives her the ick lol

#first of all: I am not saying rep tv is imminent #I’m just saying the thought of singing love songs about that person probably feel really gross lol #and I know she’s a pro and she’s done it before #like red tv and jake and 1989 tv and harry #but she was nearly a decade removed from those relationships when she released the TVs and time had tempered a lot #and there was a lot of water under the bridge #I don’t think the same will be said about this one anytime soon lol

[pop-roxs]

fuck all of you im forcing you to look at bedhead nao

#I LOVE HER OS MUCH #literally only watching skip and loafer for her #all cuz i saw a post briefly talking abt how shes good trans rep #and she is!!! #shes my fav #and barely shows up </3 #nao chan #skip and loafer #water posts

[reploidbuddy]

Didn’t feel like waiting for April 2nd to post so here's a new chapter B)

#espilver #espio the chameleon #silver the hedgehog #rep writes #Where the Water Narrows #silvespio

[enconfess]

spoilers warning for Requiem

i'm so so tired of arashi gender discourse. Completely ignoring all interpretations, why does she only ever get reduced to that? Every. Single. Side of this discourse only seems like "i refuse to interact with this character UNLESS i understand their gender. i MUST have a Correct Gendering™️ of them before i get into anything else about this character." It's so effing weird. No one talks about how much she cares and looks after mika's wellbeing, how sensitive and considerate she is to ritsu, how comfortable she gets around anzu, how bickery she is with her childhood friend sena. The whole kunugi sensei thing and how her "cute lil crush" on her teacher is actually due to the fact that kunugi was the only adult figure she was ever able to rely on. Just. The fact that she fought tooth and nail to win the crown at Requiem JUST to hand it over to tsukasa, because she knows how much tsukasa cares about knights.

Being a knightsp it's kinda sad seeing how many people avoid her because they're scared of "getting her gender wrong". Man. I just want more arashi content that isn't just simping for arashi, but that actually goes deeper into her character. Like all the people who write endless paragraphs of interpretations for their faves. I never see that for her. Like people refuse to see all the depth she has all because of gender and i'm tired. I get it's important for people but if it's so important to the point where it overshadows everything else about that character, you don't actually care about that chara as much as you think, you only care about yourself and your political beliefs being reflected in fiction.

.

#ec.sub #enstars #ensemble stars #arashi narukami #EXACTLY. gender is important to her story but it's definitely not the most important! #doesn't she also. literally say that herself? that she doesn't want her gender to be the focus #i get ppl are eager for rep but they're missing the point of representation when they water down trans charas to just. their gender identity

[tinygryphon-58570]

Make sure you appreciate your Water friends this week! \o3o/

#flight rising #fr #fr art #flight rising art #wavecrest saturnalia #guardian #beastclans #maren #water reps #benthos #tarni #my art

[baleeeeee]

I just finished my all my flight reps and i am very happy

(there are two nature reps because they're the same person in lore)

#flight rising #dragon share #flightrising #if someone were to dress my water rep for me thatd be great #i could not find anything i liked

[fansonfansonfansonfans]

AOAOAOA Ep #69: Miley Cyrus. Oscar Isaacs. Idris Elba. Cher. What do these people all have in common? They all have personal assistants. You don't know them and you don't love them, but every famous celebrity ever has had a an assistant by their side doing everything they don't want to do for them.

#part 2 to the last gifset i posted because i was reminded of the ending where angela throws water all over herself and comes back #i had to cut it a little bit (especially kylie's) to fit it in a sensible length so i definitely recommend watching the whole ep #especially because then you can see angela dripping wet lol #and everyone breaking at each other constantly #aoaoaoa gifs #aoaoaoa #angela giarratana #kylie brakeman #patrick mcdonald #jeremy culhane #how do queue know that my reps aren't good? back off!

[xmaveria]

My Venezuelan spiderwoman oc :> She is very busy girlbossing

#spiderverse oc #spidersona #my art #dayana duay #coming full circle as a kid I loved spiderman sm top superheros #now a spiderwoman :') to rep yes she got her work cut out for her but loves to invent gadgets like water filters and such to help her peopl #she had to learn english in school but yknow its her choice if she wants to speak it

[zodiacsea]

going to the zooooooooooo

#i love the zoo :) and it’s supposed to Not be rainy the rest of the day which rules #hilariously the only bag i have that’s the right size to bring my jackey and a water bottle is… my mgs itabag #so i guess i am repping homosexuality for the animals today #(says the guy in extremely bright leopard print pants. as if he wasn’t already$ #)* #漫言