I'm not sure if the problem is with Android or non-iPhones, but I can press the empty blank square and it automatically redirects me to a tumblr page with a picture of Pearl on it.
You’re a Gem, Taylor Hebert (SU Crossover/Alt!Power Taylor)
- Thread starter Mixter E
- Start date
- Crossover
I'm not sure if the problem is with Android or non-iPhones, but I can press the empty blank square and it automatically redirects me to a tumblr page with a picture of Pearl on it.
- Location
- Neptune
There is no empty blank square. There are three line breaks and that's it.
Pearl’s First Form
Ok, if there's no square for the image bb thing, than here's a URL link that hopefully works. I've thought of putting up a Imgur image link but Imgur really messes up the quality from adequate to terrible.
EDIT: what the heck!? Why does the IMG thing not work but the URL link one does??? This is so confusing.
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- Location
- new york
very stylish but approachable
- Location
- Australia
Presumably some kind of filter to prevent hotlinking.
about her being trans...
one thing that should always be a consideration when you make any kind of au or fanfiction of an established character, and start to touch their established sexuality is this :
Why am i doing this?
Does it add anything for the story, as in, why does it actually matter? if you make them gay to explore a relationship with another char that you couldn't with the original alignment, awesome. is this a change by shard mindfuckery by the alt power? go wild. wan't to explore how the cape community would deal and react to a trans cape? great! Is it because you want to add a tag to the story, or be PC? don't, it detrackts from both trans problems and more importantly, the story.
in fact, all sexuality even in standard, original works, should follow these guidelines. by all means, make straight, trans and gay people in your story. they are a real and important part of any world, and sexuality is a big deal in human interactions.
but don't make a fuss about it. the female general goes home to her wife and children is fine, treat it like you would a straight couple. you WOULDN'T drag up that the male general was straight. he just has a wife an child. so don't do that to the trans general, he/she deserves same treatment as a straight general and not being turned into a buzzword tag for your story. well, unless you want to make a short part about the extra troubles a trans char would face in said society due to it's alignment...but never touch sexuality without a reason, it's a can of worms
one thing that should always be a consideration when you make any kind of au or fanfiction of an established character, and start to touch their established sexuality is this :
Why am i doing this?
Does it add anything for the story, as in, why does it actually matter? if you make them gay to explore a relationship with another char that you couldn't with the original alignment, awesome. is this a change by shard mindfuckery by the alt power? go wild. wan't to explore how the cape community would deal and react to a trans cape? great! Is it because you want to add a tag to the story, or be PC? don't, it detrackts from both trans problems and more importantly, the story.
in fact, all sexuality even in standard, original works, should follow these guidelines. by all means, make straight, trans and gay people in your story. they are a real and important part of any world, and sexuality is a big deal in human interactions.
but don't make a fuss about it. the female general goes home to her wife and children is fine, treat it like you would a straight couple. you WOULDN'T drag up that the male general was straight. he just has a wife an child. so don't do that to the trans general, he/she deserves same treatment as a straight general and not being turned into a buzzword tag for your story. well, unless you want to make a short part about the extra troubles a trans char would face in said society due to it's alignment...but never touch sexuality without a reason, it's a can of worms
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Comments
I just want to start by stating this isn't a new chapter, I just wanted to provide an answer to this quote.
Can we agree to disagree then?
For one, I don't believe that I need a reason to write my trans character, just like how trans people in real life don't need a reason to exist.
You say this "detracts from real trans problems," but I say someone with your sort of opinion harms people for real. It's that sort of opinion why LGBT+ writers are so hesitant to write characters that represent their identity, because they're afraid of this kind of clap back.
Why despite the fact that a majority of Worm fan fiction depicts Taylor dating a girl, doesn't use the L(esbian) word. Why none of them are labeled LGTBQ in the tags. Why Legend is rarely ever mentioned in almost any Fanfiction about Worm. Because I've wondered before if it's because he's a character that's already been canonically labeled as gay? And no one wants to write him, because people are afraid of using the G(ay) word that would inevitably come up since Legend's legitimately - happily - married to his husband.
What's up with all of this dancing around an important part of a character's identity? What if I just decided to skim over a character racial identity? That's like saying I shouldn't write about the color of my characters' skin, because their race "detracts" from the story. Instead of, y'know, an important part of the story?
Except for a brief sample of Taylor being bullied, I haven't even added anything in story about Taylor being trans yet. And yet you're telling me how I should write my story? Who are you to tell me it's wrong to write trans characters a certain way? Who are you to tell me what's wrong with the way I write a story I feel is interesting, and makes me happy?
And don't talk to me about how you mentioned that I could write about whatever I want, because I already knew that, just like how I know how to read in between the lines. No one mentions that the general, who's married with kids, is straight, because he's assumed to be straight. LGBTQA characters don't have that same insurance. They're not automatically associated with their identity, so.
You can't stay silent to tell their story.
I don't want to see another LGBTQA+ character who's only reason to exist is as a plot point, so I made my own.
Can we agree to disagree then?
For one, I don't believe that I need a reason to write my trans character, just like how trans people in real life don't need a reason to exist.
You say this "detracts from real trans problems," but I say someone with your sort of opinion harms people for real. It's that sort of opinion why LGBT+ writers are so hesitant to write characters that represent their identity, because they're afraid of this kind of clap back.
Why despite the fact that a majority of Worm fan fiction depicts Taylor dating a girl, doesn't use the L(esbian) word. Why none of them are labeled LGTBQ in the tags. Why Legend is rarely ever mentioned in almost any Fanfiction about Worm. Because I've wondered before if it's because he's a character that's already been canonically labeled as gay? And no one wants to write him, because people are afraid of using the G(ay) word that would inevitably come up since Legend's legitimately - happily - married to his husband.
What's up with all of this dancing around an important part of a character's identity? What if I just decided to skim over a character racial identity? That's like saying I shouldn't write about the color of my characters' skin, because their race "detracts" from the story. Instead of, y'know, an important part of the story?
Except for a brief sample of Taylor being bullied, I haven't even added anything in story about Taylor being trans yet. And yet you're telling me how I should write my story? Who are you to tell me it's wrong to write trans characters a certain way? Who are you to tell me what's wrong with the way I write a story I feel is interesting, and makes me happy?
And don't talk to me about how you mentioned that I could write about whatever I want, because I already knew that, just like how I know how to read in between the lines. No one mentions that the general, who's married with kids, is straight, because he's assumed to be straight. LGBTQA characters don't have that same insurance. They're not automatically associated with their identity, so.
You can't stay silent to tell their story.
I don't want to see another LGBTQA+ character who's only reason to exist is as a plot point, so I made my own.
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Aurora Moon
Verfied Insomniac with too much time on her hands
- Location
- USA, Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
you can change the threadmarks to "informational", just so you know.
As for the trans issue... I can truly see both sides here. It's true that people don't need a reason to exist in real life... they just are. People being who they are doesn't need justification at all, just like how straight people don't need to justify their entire existence because they've never had to. So I'm down with ya when you say "fuck that noise".
But I've also seen instances of bad writing where somebody's said to be gay in one line and then never mentioned again, and you wouldn't even know that they were gay to start with because they aren't in a relationship with anybody at all. Then it feels like they were created to be a token character who's just there or something like that. like the author wanted to seem progressive, but not really go into too much detail about the gay person's life because they want the story to be accessible to "everyone", even the people who would be uncomfortable with a gay person in the story. Heck, even JK Rowling was guilty of that with Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series. Her WOG states that he's gay, but you never even see any indication of that ever in the books other than alluding to the fact that he had a close relationship with one of the off-screen villains before he went bad, etc. which we never see.
So is it any wonder why gay fans mock her for wanting to seem progressive without actually being progressive at all?
I also see this with black people, etc... I even saw this all the time on "progressive" TV shows, etc. Where if you edited out the supporting POC people out of a TV show that was mostly about white people, it still wouldn't affect the story at all... that's when you realize that they had no relevancy other than to make the TV show seem progressive, etc.
Sadly, at times you have to preface that you're not gonna justify a trans character's existence because trans people don't need to have their entire existence justified to others. because there have been way too many shitty writers in the past who used people as token characters, etc... and so on forth. so ironically you're gonna end up justifying why you didn't justify a trans character's existence.
As for the trans issue... I can truly see both sides here. It's true that people don't need a reason to exist in real life... they just are. People being who they are doesn't need justification at all, just like how straight people don't need to justify their entire existence because they've never had to. So I'm down with ya when you say "fuck that noise".
But I've also seen instances of bad writing where somebody's said to be gay in one line and then never mentioned again, and you wouldn't even know that they were gay to start with because they aren't in a relationship with anybody at all. Then it feels like they were created to be a token character who's just there or something like that. like the author wanted to seem progressive, but not really go into too much detail about the gay person's life because they want the story to be accessible to "everyone", even the people who would be uncomfortable with a gay person in the story. Heck, even JK Rowling was guilty of that with Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series. Her WOG states that he's gay, but you never even see any indication of that ever in the books other than alluding to the fact that he had a close relationship with one of the off-screen villains before he went bad, etc. which we never see.
So is it any wonder why gay fans mock her for wanting to seem progressive without actually being progressive at all?
I also see this with black people, etc... I even saw this all the time on "progressive" TV shows, etc. Where if you edited out the supporting POC people out of a TV show that was mostly about white people, it still wouldn't affect the story at all... that's when you realize that they had no relevancy other than to make the TV show seem progressive, etc.
Sadly, at times you have to preface that you're not gonna justify a trans character's existence because trans people don't need to have their entire existence justified to others. because there have been way too many shitty writers in the past who used people as token characters, etc... and so on forth. so ironically you're gonna end up justifying why you didn't justify a trans character's existence.
Bailey Matutine
(Verified Pooka)
- Location
- Pelican Town
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Thank you for this advice. I will never write any character as straight or cis ever again because I can't think of any ways that a character being straight or cis can add to the plot.
Aurora Moon
Verfied Insomniac with too much time on her hands
- Location
- USA, Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I've always wanted to read a story where literally everyone was gay, bi, etc expect for this one token straight person who felt the need to justify why they were straight to the other characters. New people in the story keep on assuming they're queer because everyone else is, so they're like: "No, I'm actually straight."
so it becomes the inverse where being gay is just the default assumption and being straight isn't.
So it becomes the case of the straight having to justify why they're straight, in a world where everyone else seems to be gay, bi, etc.
- Location
- Neptune
See all the faff around your image? That's why.
And honestly, that's all the justification anyone needs to write anything.
it's actually one of the tips they give at literary school. Untill you decide to finalize a characters relationship (and not even then, a shakeup of established connections can ad to a story): Write as if they are all Bi. Transexual Bi untill you take of some of the clothing. you can make them fall in love with anyone you want. untill you have had a reason to have them less than fully dressed, no one can tell what gender they received biologically.
And this way, you can find out yourself that, hey, these two, they fit together. same sex and have both dated guys before, but hey, they are all bi anyway, so whatever. in the sequel they have biological kids, because one of them was a transexual bi. no, we are not telling you whom.
but yeah, you are right about the whole: token minority sadly making some of us vary enough to varant needing a preface. doesn't need to be mutch, just yeah, no, i have a reason.
don't use token minority. it's bad, and those thay use it should feel bad. by all means, add LBTQ+ traits, religion, race and species traits, but not as a token minoritys. (unless you add them as FALSE token minority where it turn out to be super relevant down the line... twists can be nice)
Mixter:
if you ad character traits to an established character, you need to have a better reason than token minority. witch, if left unexplored, is what they turn into. now, that doesn't mean you need to go deep into them, or make it an important part of the plot...just not unexplored. Telling the story of a lbtq+ person is an excellent reason. but be vary about using an established character for such a thing, because you will be asked to motivate why any change but the alt power is due to, and if you want it to be "she is just lbtq+, deal with it" is counterproductive. All but the most basic changes will be questioned. Hero lives in the au: what changed to allow him to live? Rune is taylors cusin: does this change how taylor deals with sofia? Taylor is now lbtq+: Why? (homo is easier as we have been conditioned to just assume that you wanted to have a sexual component with to chars that other-vice wouldn't kiss)
Now, an OC, you are freer as you will not be asked about why you made that change. it is just a part of whom they are, they are trans. ok, could be least interesting about them unless it is important to them. ( i mentioned the general because in mallasans books of the fallen, that is one of the more influential characters. she is important gay character because she is an important character whom just so happens to be gay. it's like the least important thing about her. it was also written before having a token lbtq+ was realy an established thing)
about DD... yeah, during the first 7 books he was turned into a token minority by rowling. it wasn't untill much later that she did ANY exploration about it, or it mattered in any way. afterl all, it's not like his or any of the teachers exept snapes sexuality matted in those books.
you can't think of a way to have a romantic subplot can add to the plot? as i tried to say, sexuality doesn't matter untill it's a part of character interactions or world view. in witch case, it suddenly does matter. it can be as much a part of personal interactions as trying to match humor between characters, and having one of them being trans is definitely a way to ad even more layers to an interaction. does this character like this kind of jokes? does he like... vanila jokes? is he ok with this kind of joke, even if it's not... the generally accepted norm. what would her parents say if they knew she liked PUNS. what i they knew she especialialy liked Puns that are wraped in a limerick?
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