A very useful tidbit I picked up ages ago is that when you see a cover like this, if the girls are looking at each other, it’s probably actual yuri; if the girls are looking at YOU, it’s het porn
Ok I’m reading SOME replies because they’re so funny but I want to assure you that I, a queer lesbian who routinely enjoys copious amounts of the most stereotypical, male-oriented eromanga out there, will never condemn either genre. Let’s not pit queens against each other.
@yungpachirisu
I completely agree with both of these points, so I get the feeling you may have read additional meaning into my tweet! Both are absolutely porn. :)
Ok I wanna talk a little bit about the differences between headcanons and textual interpretation because the distinction has been kind of lost in modern fandom and it’s actually very important for queer theory and LGBTQ fans
(I Am Talking About Trans Cloud)
#MakeAbleistsUncomfortable
You’re not an ally to autistic people if you jump ship the minute they display any autism traits that make you uncomfortable 😇
Wow it’s almost like we should never rely on corporations to dictate what counts as queer representation and we should instead put stock and legitimacy in all depictions of queerness even if they don’t align with heteronormative ideals
So anyway, what I really want to say is: trans Cloud is not a headcanon, it’s an interpretation.
The distinction might seem purely semantic, but it’s actually of significant consequence for LGBTQ fans and theorists.
To keep it as brief as possible: FFVII is a game about identity. It’s about outcasts and weirdos and psychological manipulation and the self you create yourself vs. the self others create for you vs. the self you choose to present to the world.
When you see your lived experience reflected in a piece of media, it’s a very special thing. It doesn’t matter if it was intentional on the part of the creators or not. If you see your experience in a text, don’t be afraid to say “Hey, that’s mine.”
Which is absolutely true!! But i hate seeing the word “headcanon” mixed up with “interpretation”.
A headcanon is an idea about a character that has little to no basis in canon.
!!! ATTENTION ALL LAURANTS !!! (THREAD)
So some of you know that I’m friends with Ike Nelson on Facebook. As of late, he’s been in the hospital and posting updates on his condition almost every day. Unfortunately, the update he posted today does not bode well.
Cloud spends a large portion of the game aspiring to different roles and identities that are patently Not Him. His true strength shines when he’s finally able to shed those facades and embrace his true sense of self.
That narrative is familiar to lots of LGBTQ people.
Cloud having a chocobo farm post-game is a popular headcanon. It’s a headcanon because there’s absolutely nothing in the Final Fantasy VII canon that suggests that Cloud established a chocobo farm post-game. But it’s fitting and fun and people like the idea. So it’s a headcanon.
saying. But all of our individual interpretations are based on a the core, canon text.
It is not a headcanon that Dracula was born of rampant xenophobia and homophobia. It is an interpretation of the text. The themes are laid out in the text and many people have recognized
Under the broad thematic umbrella of “identity,” we find numerous cues and clues in FFVII suggesting, specifically, the creation of queer identity.
Sephiroth changes his pronouns after learning the truth about himself. The identity-melding of Cloud and Zack.
These are vastly different from interpretations of the text (Final Fantasy VII, the compilation, etc).
An interpretation happens when you look at the text and perceive it in a certain way. We all interpret media every day. We all decide individually what a piece of media is
masculinity that never quite pan out for him, because it isn’t who he is at his core.
Lots of people, including myself, see a trans narrative reflected in that. Whether it’s transfemme, transmasc, purely non-binary, whatever. It’s very easy to read it any of those ways.
“That’s my story. That’s how it feels to be gay in a small town. That’s the trans experience. That’s how I look and feel as an autistic person. I see it right there unfolding in front of my eyes through these characters. I’ve seen it for myself. I exist.”
I’m sure I don’t need to go into depth explaining how the Honey Bee Inn crossdressing scene exemplifies a lot of those themes. Particularly because Cloud is, at his truest, a weird, awkward, VERY non-masculine character. He spends half the game aspiring to concepts of
You can have a headcanon that Aerith’s favorite breakfast is oatmeal with blueberries in it. You can have a headcanon that Cloud’s father was a traveling merchant who died in a tragic chocobo stampede. Neither of these ideas have any basis in canon. They’re headcanons.
The “living legacy” concept in general, and the passing of the Buster Sword from hand to hand. All of these ideas have been explicitly founded as tenets of queer experience and theory for decades now.
And of course, the Honey Bee Inn!
established in the FFVII canon. You can disagree if you want, but it is impossible to truthfully say that FFVII does NOT contain those themes, especially as they’re seen by LGBTQ fans.
I think it’s especially important to understand this distinction for LGBTQ fans.
In fact, I probably revealed some of my personal interpretation in the way I described Cloud just now!
Anyway. Bringing this full circle now. I hope that this shows how interpretation is different from headcanon. Reading Cloud as trans is an interpretation of themes and ideas
Wow this got really long hoo boy. Anyway I hope that made an ounce of sense. 2020 we are INTERPRETING texts and not relegating our thoughts to easily-denied headcanons. These experiences are real and so are we!!!!
Since yesterday people have been talking a lot about “trans Cloud headcanons.” People are getting steamed at LGBTQ fans for positing that Cloud could be trans or GNC in any way. People fire back with “just let people have their headcanons, they aren’t hurting anyone!”
Happy Pride Month!! I don’t see nearly enough people talking about the fact that Sam Porter Bridges of Death Stranding fame is canonically demisexual. Excerpt is from Lucy’s Report
#5
found in game.
🏳️🌈💜🤍🖤🏳️🌈
There are innumerable English xiv-isms I could mention (esp with Haurchefant), but I'd like to specifically shout out the line about Haurche's homosexual desire that they changed into....some bullshit about Ishgardian patriotism
It can be difficult for marginalized people of any kind to assert their existence, whether it’s in real life or in media. It doesn’t feel real. But that’s only because we haven’t established the same canonical mythos that cishets/neurotypicals/whatever have. We’re working on it.
these ideas being conveyed in it.
One can interpret Mobey Dick in any number of ways based on the evidence they find in the text. None of them are incorrect, so long as you have textual material to back it up.
We’ll be working on it for a long time. For now, it can be an act of courage simply to look at a text and acknowledge your existence and reflection in it. That’s the power, I think, in calling that experience an interpretation over a headcanon.
“The flow of time keeps moving... No night endures forever.”
This was something of a dream shoot✨ Endless thanks to these three for letting me shoot their beautiful cosplays!
Sothis:
@shado_craft
Rhea:
@rufflebanger
Byleth:
@cannolicat31
📸: Me // Sopheria Studios @ IG & FB
@thegoodcatboy
We’re getting lesbian married today Bilbo, any chance we could get a blessing from the good cat boy himself? 🥺 (Just us, so no covid risk!)
Don’t have anything particularly special to share for dod’s 18th anni, so I am once again posting my One siblings/Watchers tattoo, several months healed ✨ Who watches them? ⛪️🕊👁
#DOD18th
Not a huge fan of how the meaning of fridging has drifted from “woman dies just to give a man emotional pain and has little significance to the plot beyond that” to “woman dies”
Wild how weirdos try to bill Nier as an anti-sjw series when the first game’s main party consists of a bi dude, a gay skeleton, an intersex woman, and, scariest of all to those weirdos, a book
I get that a lot of people are glad there’s a gay kiss on screen and all because it means homophobes can’t argue or handwave their way out of it, but consider this: as queer people, it is not our responsibility to bend to heterosexual perceptions and expectations.
It’s really fun being alive in 2023 and watching grown adult mass media professionals systematically cull even the vaguest semblance of critical thinking from American youths. Surely this will end well
Anyway me n my soon-wife have a podcast called The Ebony Dutch where we talk about this kind of shit A LOT esp in relation to FFVII so give it a listen on Apple or Spotify or something if you want WHOO
This is so funny when one of the big themes throughout the game is that the androids aren’t male or female and yet are forced to grapple with the devastating residual effects of human gender roles 🥴
🌙 Losing feet weren’t the rabbit’s good luck 🐇
I commissioned the lovely
@VitaDivata0
a little while ago for an illustration of this scene from ch4 of Fireproof and they knocked it out of the park ;w; !!!
#tigerandbunny
🌙⛩Sound Horizon GIVEAWAY!⛩🌟
Since IdoIdo, I’ve had a tradition of giving away a copy of each new Sound Horizon release ✨ Let’s keep it going!
🌹Winner will get one (1) copy of “Ema ni Negai wo!”
🕶 Like + retweet this tweet to enter!
#soundhorizon
#サンホラ
Kris: Anyone can commit murder under the right circumstances
Me: Remember when I took a video of you in your Nier cosplay at Ohayocon last year saying that
Kris: You what
🌬O the wind is blowing, it hurts your skin
As you climb up hillside, forest and fen
Your arms full of lullabies, orchids and wine
Your memories wrapped within paper and twine🐉
Sothis:
@shado_craft
Rhea:
@rufflebanger
Byleth:
@cannolicat31
📸 : Me
🩸Don’t look at me…🩸
Couldn’t be happier with my Furiae tattoo!! ;w; I’ll have to get some better pics tomorrow, but it overlaps really beautifully with my tattoo of the One siblings on the other side of my wrist!
Artist is, as always, wowie.zow on insta!
#drakengard
I ordered these INCREDIBLE custom Riverdale cookies from
@unclekellie
(kelliebakesandco on insta) for Kris’s birthday ✨ I knew these would look great as cookies (esp the Pop’s sign) but she really knocked it out of the park as usual!!!
“I like my autistic friend except when they do weird stims in public, are too loud or too quiet, say something awkward, or inconvenience me by needing quiet time in public” Congratulations! You don’t like autistic people. Please don’t try to befriend any, they don’t need you! 😇
Don’t worry about potentially upsetting people by expressing your harmless passion. People have my CAT’s Twitter blocked. No matter what you do, someone will hate you for it, so you might as well go buck-wild and find friends who respect you for it 😂
My humble take is we should prioritize targeting the actual societal structures, institutions, and industries upholding patriarchal ideals instead of your fellow fans who just wanna relax with a little suzalulu fic before bed
Infinite thanks to Aubri at Rat King Tattoo (wowie.zow on insta) for once again indulging my insane ideas — in this case, a crossover between Haurchefant and Saint Sebastian. 😊
Well. I’m losing my mind a little bit bc one of my favorite little Hien moments straight up doesn’t exist in the english version? They removed the nervous swallow he does right before he stands up? Left is JP, right is ENG 🫠