Watashi is gender neutral, yeah. And it is used far more commonly than the others as well I also believe? I'm not entirely too certain, all I know is that someone had that take and I remember reading in the forward of this book that the author using watashi to refer to himself was considered strange when the book was written in the 40's.
It's at a pretty neutral politeness level too, hence it being used more than the more formal watakushi or the more casual forms like ore. Using them at all can be seen as rather annoying in spoken Japanese, I know. The way my professor explained it to me is...we already know you're talking about yourself. If you keep using watashi over and over what are you saying? That we're stupid? Or that it is all about you, you, you? That is, at least, how he explained it to me and seems to match with some other things I've heard from native speakers. Pronouns in Japan are weird things. Like how Kansai-ben can use the reflexive jibun to function as similarly to watashi grammatically.
It can also end up giving them too much credit in some areas and then not enough in others. The Persona 4 example comes to mind again- Western players who read Naoto as a trans guy (which is pretty common) tend to subsequently be confused and angry with the direction her character and role in the plot go, because it seems weird and mean-spirited and like the game is introducing a trans character just to randomly backpedal on it later. But with the authorially intended interpretation, her story makes much more sense both as a stand-alone thing and within the game's overall themes, and yeah, it's a lot more cisnormative and heteronormative and it's still pretty damn flawed (Persona in general has some major problems with wanting to talk about Big Issues without actually challenging the beliefs of anyone in the audience, and tends to wave off bigotry and bullying as just a thing that happens, what are you gonna do), but it has something to say about gender roles and misogyny in Japan that gets totally lost if that interpretation is ignored.
I don't trust most people who do Reigen is Canonical Gay discourse because I've mostly seen it as a reaction to people reading Reigen as ace due to the 'does romantic love have to be sexual' line. Of course, a character can be both, but people are using 'Reigen Being Canon Gay' as a whole 'so calling him ace is problematic' deal. I think it's valid to interpret him as either, I'm just not very trusting of essays regarding sexuality in Mob Psycho fandoma s a whole. That said, some of Serizawa and Teru's lines and implicated panels makes it really really hard for me to read them as anything but gay/mlm. ONE's history with gay characters makes this really hard for me to take seriously, but at the same time... I find I cannot explain these characters internally otherwise, especially Teru.
I personally like Reigen as some kind of aroace just because of the fact that he never bemoans his lack of a romantic life, even during That One Arc when he does all his other bemoaning. And I don't headcanon him as trans just because I hesitate to do anything that could give him even a hint of an angsty backstory. no angst for you, saltboy, only sports day that said I could see him as pretty much any sexuality/gender ID given a persuasive enough fanfic probably
Damara's comments being taken as canonically being sincere requests. If she actually wanted people to fuck her, it's more than easy to demonstrate that without using utterly deadpan words.
I really am okay with the incest plotline in Umbrella Academy and I think it's fine to ship (I think I ship it myself even???) But all the people coming out to say "NO IT'S NOT INCEST" is really annoying. I mean. It really IS incest. Just deal with that fact?
Spoiler: rude, uncharitable "canon m/f ship actually just comp het term coined by a terf who hated gay men and mentioned bisexuality exactly once in that work to dunk on the "everyone is a little bisexual" argument jsyk between two gays :)" is the most boring shit made by and for the most boring ppl also the venn diagram of them and ppl who rag on m/m ships at every opportunity and go apeshit at the sole notion of bisexual female characters is a circle so thats very :thinking man emoji:
Spoiler: critrole 2, vague ep 48 spoilers i wish i didn't have to see people framing the whole "well fuck him" thing like it's nott committing this huge fucking. breech of trust that she needs to fuckin grovel for forgiveness for, like she doesn't have a right to be miffed at caleb for completely failing to help her out in a moment of crisis. like, caleb's specifically told her he'd do anything to help her. he's promised to support her, even if it hurts or costs him something, because he's her friend and she's worth it, and the very first time she pushes that and needs him to maybe sacrifice something for her sake he fucking crumbles. nott has every right to be mad, especially considering the circumstances. i swear to god, caleb's like a fucking empathy black hole for some people in this fandom. literally the only thing that matters is how caleb's feeling, and everyone else better damn well drop what they're doing and comfort him when he's sad, no matter what they're going through.
Not every villain you don't like is a fascist! Words have meanings! Like there are super obviously some villains who are direct allegories and others who have significant similarities but fascism is, like, a whole system with its own inherent traits, even if it is still a less solidly defined term then, say, monarchy. Like I would say that not even the Gempire is actually *fascist*, but totalitarian- and that aint good but words! Mean! Things!
i have elaborate headcanons for a specific character. i have a song that fits the character well...if you have those headcanons. without the headcanons the song has nothing at all to do with the character (the fandom is pokemon. the song is Oh Hellos' Constellations.)
Real kind of irritated at the lack of any nuance regarding Dany's relationship with her husband and brother, honestly. Like I've got things I'd like to say on that front but you can't really because you got to draw a line in the sand and be very adamant about being on one side of it and how your side's the right one. Dany discourse is fucking cursed and we're going to leap into the fires of hell all to figure out why I hate these books so much. And this fucking character is at the center of so much of that gods dammit because she's one of the ones I genuinely like. i want to talk about the things with people who know the things but there is seemingly no way to do so without being on one side of these matters
Could someone explain to me why so many people in the furry fandom are being really creepy towards minors? There's that one guy on a server I'm on who's still trying to justify sending porn to a 15-year-old, whose age he knew, by saying stuff like "it was just random fun, I was just not thinking about it well enough! Minors should have more rights anyway, she's clearly mature enough" Except, you know... In the creepy-kind-of-furry phrasing. "Ish random uwu" and all that.
Spoiler: i guess critrole 2 spoilers sometimes folks frame nott's whole backstory deal as, like, a karmic punishment for prejudice against goblins, and it's like. no. like, for real, as far as we know, nott disliking goblins came about entirely because of the thing what where she got kidnapped and murdered, treating that like a punishment for fantastic racism is just kinda. and, like, i read this thing today where someone hoped that her dealie was the result of a literal curse that would literally be entirely undone once she "accepts herself and other goblins" and jesus christ how fucked would that be, tho. also, nott.... has accepted that goblins aren't universally bad. all it took was, like. meeting some goblins who weren't the ones what literally kidnapped and murdered her. she's been pretty cool to the goblins she's had to interact with, asked cad to do a funeral for one caleb killed accidentally... she's done some fucking growth on that level, like. it's a bad take on so many levels, and i'm super pissy about it.
