IDK, I'm still trying to convince my two closest friend, both of whom watch Steven Universe, that murdering people is bad. ... Nah, just kidding, I regularly talk with them about firebombing puppy mills and whether poison is better than a sniper bullet through the head.
There were also some really odd choices among the most popular fanon names. I mean, Mathias is a perfectly fine name for a regular Danish guy, but it makes absolutely no sense as a name for the personification of a former viking country. Another annoying thing (which was particularly common in Hetalia): painfully obvious Google translations. I always giggle a bit when a character addresses someone they've been fucking/dating/married to with the incredibly formal German "Sie". It's sorta like non-jokingly calling your wife "ma'am". Spoiler: nsfw discussion I actually feel bad about having such a visceral reaction to the "trans dudes as ultimate smol (hole: +1) bottom twinks" thing because a lot of the people who are into it are trans dudes themselves. It does make sense, in a way. In my experience, most people tend to prefer their fave (or just the character they relate to the most) to be the bottom when it comes to sex, and fanart/fanfic that features penetration usually focuses more on the receiving partner (regardless of the gender combination). I noticed that bottoms (and subs) generally seem to be more numerous - or at least more vocal - in internet communities, so I guess the content just reflects that. Bleh. It sucks, because there is nothing inherently wrong with twinky bottom trans guys, and many of them find that kind of fic/art validating and uplifting, so I feel like those "people are problematic for not writing what I like" discoursers for disliking it :c Basically, we need more trans guy tops who can write/draw. On a positive note, the discussion about trans Dave reminded me of these cute (and very nsfw) trans!Dave/trans!Jade drawings. Dave tops! Thank you, based Spacey.
...so just to go back to that anime discussion from a week ago: the very next episode picks up with the character very much not getting off scot-free and I am now resisting the urge to go back to that forum to do the I-Told-You-So dance.
Nah, I don't think I will, it's better to just stay out of it. edit: even if I did, the general atmosphere there was Unfun. Better to just drop it entirely.
Given that Hetalia canon involves them using Google in 1942, anachronistic names don't really strike me as a problem, but YMMV. Maybe I just favour "Mathias" because my special interest is showing (and that guy not only spelled it differently but was a Crystal Dragon Jesus saint figure battling an obvious analogue of the Viking invasion of Lindesfarne).
@WinkWonk -raises hand sheepishly- I'm one that greatly prefers drawing/writing OCs and my canon faves as tops. I don't really identify with submissiveness except in incredibly specific, rare and personal circumstances. i don't have any transguy headcanons or OCs tho...which makes me feel a bit traitory and guilty sometimes.. Spoiler: genitals & dysphoria talk I..do have characters that have pecs & vaginas, as a seperate kind of gender in my universe, but the word i use for em would get me the transphobic label. But actual trans guy headcanons set off my dysphoria like crazy. I welcome other ppl's! I just don't like doing it myself.. Makes me feel worse instead of better (which is why i think i have my p-boy OCs...they DO make me feel better. I'm a bad trans. I do have a few transwomen heafcanons tho, my badass transgirl Aradia is my bae
That's true regarding Hetalia's anachronisms. You rock on with your Mathias/Matthias appreciation, friend! Personally, I'm partial to either Bjørn or Erik as a name for Denmark. And Iceland is such a Sveinn. I still don't have a name for Norway, though :c Also, you're not traitory at all. I mean, unless you're a hugely powerful mainstream media creator (in which case: damn! grats, dude) you presumably don't exactly have a lot of influence on transmen representation (or lack thereof) in the media. With the discourse being the way it is, fucked up priorities and all, I understand why it can feel that way sometimes, but your feelings as an Actual RL Trans Person™ are more important than filling some "must have at least 1 (one) trans male OC" quota. Spoiler: nsfw + dysphoria discussion Oh man, I feel you so hard. It's also why porn written/drawn by people who share my faves often doesn't quite work for me - which has to be the most trivial First World Problem to date: Gendershit is weird for me, but transmasculine seems to be the closest thing. Basically, I am also totally fine with people having trans guy headcanons, but seeing obvious/explicit trans![my male fave/male character I identify with] makes me want to [redacted for suicidal ideation]. I want to like it because hey, solidarity, right? But honestly, it just makes me miserable. It's the wish fulfilment equivalent of a cockblock. For me, it's like playing sword fight as a kid and imagining that the wobbly old plastic sword is a marginally newer, less wobbly plastic sword, instead of, you know, an actual sword. ...woooow, that comparison turned out distinctly phallic. I swear that wasn't on purpose :I And that you're fine with p-boys (pussyboys?) is actually really interesting. Can you explain why they are less dysphoria inducing to you? You don't have to if it causes any Bad Feels, though! I wonder if me being totally fine with male trolls and alien robots having vagoo equivalents comes from a similar place. Sometimes, nook-only male trolls can give me the dysphoria NOPEs, but not always. And just in case, a disclaimer: I think it's great that people have fun with trans guy headcanons and OCs and everything, so I hope this didn't make anyone feel bad. Everything I mentioned are just my own personal feelings, and I realize how important those fanworks can be to other people. My hang-ups are my own problem. Basically: gender is complicated and everything hurts. And yeah, I don't have any of these issues at all with transfeminine headcanons. Transgirl Aradia sounds great :D ! Personally, I like trans!Kanaya and/or trans!Porrim, and trans!Roxy. Transgirl r63 versions of male characters are also A+
@WinkWonk Aw thank you for saying that. I know, intellectually, that feeling a way about something in relation to myself is ok, just with the way trans discourse has gotten I forget it emotionally. Hearing validation from others helps me remember tho. (Also I love that movie holy moo) Spoiler: more gender stuff Edit -- So i always second guess my posts and this one's kept me up, probably bc it was the most personal thing I've ever written about myself and I'm balking. So instead of making another 20 revisions, I'm cutting it and just saying this: my pboys (you had the right term) give me trans characters i can relate to without all of the AFAB baggage. It makes transness simple and clear in a way i can't get irl. They just are what they are, they were born with that body and it's male and masculine and has a vagina that isn't linked to womanhood. No matter much testosterone i take I'm going to be tethered to my past as a girl, for lots of personal reasons. Ive struggled with being trans for nearly 20 years, I'm tired... I need my escapism to...let me escape from it. Does that make sense? Ooh trans!Porrim! I can get on board for that. I also headcanon a trans!Rose in my burlesque AU (Rose & Kanaya work for Aradia in a burlesque. V. deep.) edit: ok i think I'm done editing this to clarify what I mean. 10 times should do it
Gasp. More people for trans Porrim. I am also fond of trans kan but oretty much exclidivrly as a trans man in a doomed timeline.
With regards to Hetalia again, I don't like the portrayal of the popular fan-character "Native America". The Native American population wasn't and isn't one big homogenous blob, there should really be something like six hundred tribe-tans, and I say this as a Brit; the majority of English-writing fans are in America and should have no excuse. I can, however, accept her as a continent-tan.
This is a gripe as both a reader and writer: Thing I don't like: Stories where the author's fave has A Lot of Feelings and everything centers around them and their feelings and everyone else is mostly there as accessories and/or enablers for Author's Fave to have feelings. This is most well-documented as the "manpain" phenomenon, when the central character is an emotionally-repressed, brooding dude with a tragic personal history which is the source of his issues. See, e.g., The Dark Knight Rises, and how even the villains are primarily concerned about Batsy's feelings. Thing I've been wanting to write for years: A story digging into the some of the unaddressed-in-canon issues of my fave, an emotionally-repressed, brooding dude with a tragic personal history. You can see why this is a problem.
Do it spitefully and selfishly and then put it up for all to see, practically shouting "THIS IS HOW IT IS DONE MOTHERFUCKERS".
It's not that I feel bad about the concept or anything like that, it's that I'm fighting an uphill battle against my own character biases to write it in a way that isn't "character I like has Feelings and other people are just there to facilitate showing off how many Feelings the character has," 'cause I feel like that would be a disservice to all characters involved. And probably to the Feelings, too.
ALL THE MORE REASON TO DO IT SPITEFULLY. Then again if I had my way there would be all out brutal warfare between authors and audiences and only those who survived would be deemed worthy of opinions so my advice is likely not good to take.
Spite doesn't really work for me because I a) wouldn't enjoy writing it if it wasn't something I'd like to read, and b) have the additional complicating factor that this fandom is 5 people and a shoelace and most of the other 4 have problems getting his voice right, so if I don't write it those Feelings are probably never going to get addressed to my satisfaction. :::PPP
Im reading this fanfic and they describe a character frosting their cake just after taking it out of the oven and I'm over here just your frosting is going to melt
