I am actually very disappointed in finding out about the focus for trans!Junkrat. Spoiler: I'm not sure how cool people will be with this so a courtesy censor for a period joke If there was a character who would go pure L7 and fling a used tampon into the field of battle for his own amusement and for a battle advantage to himself and Roadhog, it would probably be Junkrat. And finding out Junkrat gets reams of angst instead of period grossness on top of all of the grease and garbage and filth and fire is just a disappointment. Let Junkrat be the angryhappy garbage goblin man he is. Let him take out his dysphoria with anger and spit and fire, and celebrate his gender euphoria with chaos.
Y'know, I have an OC I've not shared online who is a trans dude and actually isn't all that dissimilar to Junkrat. His trans status has been involved in a fuckton of his life's problems, but he doesn't angst about being trans. Now I think I want to write him doing that very thing.
One time I had a dream that the author Garry Kilworth had a thriving AO3 section. God, was waking up disappointing that morning.
Really specific gripe but: Steve Rogers has trauma too, not just Bucky Barnes. At least this one doesn't have them doing ritualistic LSD holy shit
Have I mentioned queerphobic Dad Egbert/Crocker? Because that is, for some fucking reason, a thing. It is a thing I despise because it is OOC and is just used for cheap angst. (I may or may not have written a one-shot about Jane coming out as bi to Dad and him being completely supportive and loving, mostly because I wanted to counteract that bullshit.)
I think queerphobia is overdone with even bad parent characters. I commented once in a discussion about a crappy family member in a TV show that I could more easily see him not paying enough attention to the kid to notice or remember than actually being mad about it, and that would be just as hurtful and far less melodramatic.
When canon has JUST given you an episode that ends with a big blinky sign about how messed up a character's headspace is, why would you write followup fic where they are 100% calm and thinking rationally and using appropriate language (guess what most people have trouble thinking of bullying as abuse, for a while, the ten year old is not going to figure that out immediately, especially when canon had her blaming herself for being the cause of her bullying.) I mean, canon gave a great background for psychological issues, why would you just ignore that?
Hell, even parents who are mouthpieces for being supportive can be worse than outright abusive in some circumstances. It hurts a hell of a lot more when your parents talk about the sweet lesbians who keep helping with the lawn before turning around and aggressively misgendering you/your partner, because they can support the gays without wanting one in their family. For a character that's capable of rolling with every punch and fighting back, a family that won't even throw a punch, just look at them sadly for even dreaming of punching back, can be worse.
Actually I just reread the fic, to make sure (I'd only skimmed it because I thought it'd just make me mad) and it wasn't... as bad as I thought it would be. It's not great but it's not bad either. So, that's my bad. Still, though, in general.
:D OK there's only four episodes of Strike so far but! But! There are 52 episodes of anime (two twelve-episode seasons, one 26-episode season) before that, two movies (adapting the first two seasons - honestly I love the first anime season, but the movie has way better pacing and animation, so you'd be ok watching THAT in lieu of the anime, but for Reasons you should not watch the second movie until you've seen the second anime.*) The first season starts as traditional magical girl gotta-collect-macguffins fare, but about 2/3 through switches gears because the Space Police are here. The pacing's a bit off, because they were still finding their footing, but there's some good stuff in there (and a lot of headscratching, but w/e.) The second season is IMO the strongest, it will make your heart hurt, and it is what we're watching in Kintsugi Club Activities now. It has the best 'villains,' it has a good plot, and yeah. The third season more or less completely drops the magical girl on Earth aspect, as it has Nanoha and her friends as adults, working in the space police, and their new unit. Some people don't like it because it brings in some new characters and has a ten year timeskip, but I've always liked it. Then there's the ViVid anime, which comes before Strike. However, I'm not sure if I'd recommend watching it yet - see, it's adapted off the ongoing ViVid manga, and the anime only adapted a little less than 40 chapters, while ViVid Strike is set AFTER where the manga is currently. So going from ViVid anime to ViVid strike will leave you with a lot of 'wait who's this guy.' It's a little better if you read the manga, but yeah. (*the Reasons are that the Nanoha movies are made in-universe. After the events of the third season, Nanoha and co become mildly famous, so some space movie studio decides to make a pair of bio-pics about their lives. There's supplemental work where Nanoha and her friends reference advising the moviemakers, and the DVDs have commentaries by Nanoha and her friends in-universe. However, this means that there's certain aspects of the plot that couldn't be carried over to the movie, since it would be SUPER bad publicity for certain things to become widely known. So those don't appear in the movie. They're glossed over in a pretty good way, but I still think the original plot is the best, so it'd be better to watch the anime first.) Extra Credit: the Triangle Heart OVA. It's BARELY relevant to the main series in the first season, though it does clarify a few confusing lines, but the OVA is fun to watch with friends because it was made on a budget of 2 dollars and a shoestring and is pretty silly. At one point one of Nanoha's siblings gets menaced by the Joker. Extra Extra Credit: Nanoha Innocent. A manga taking place in a ridiculous, cheesy, absolutely wonderful AU, where everyone is alive, happy, having healthy relationships, and all the magic battles are a Serious Business VR game. It's amazingly fun and I hope to god it gets an anime release. Anyways, if you're interested in material for fic, there is PLENTY to be had, and since our fandom is so small we love new fanfic.
Oh, and because I forgot Extra Credit Hard Mode: The video games. There are two of them, set after the second season in a what-if AU 'what happens if this person doesn't die.' They have never been translated, in any form. The closest I know of is a series of posts summarizing each part of the game. Please do! And then put your thoughts in the fan town thread. Live blogs are great.
