Areori Birthday Arts Batch

the most fun a girl can have is finding parallels, noticing patterns, making connections, contemplating

Discussions of what "counts" as "canon" queer representation fall apart the second you start talking about media older than about five years or so. If your only metric for "canon queerness" is a character looking directly into the camera and explaining their identity in specific, modern, US-American-English terminology, you're not going to get a good picture of what queer media looks like. If your barometer for what counts as "canon" requires two characters of the same gender to kiss on-screen, you're not going to get a good picture of what queer media looks like.

Dr. Septimus Pretorius (portrayed by Ernest Thesiger in 1935's Bride of Frankenstein) was never going to look directly into the camera and explain his sexuality in 2024 terms, but he remains an icon in queer media history. You cannot look at that character (blatantly queer-coded in the manner of the time, played by a queer man in a film directed by another queer man) and tell me that he isn't a part of queer media history.

To be honest, even when discussing modern queer media, I would argue that the popular idea of what "counts" as "canon" is very narrow and flawed. I've seen multiple posts in the past few days that say the Nimona movie is "implied" trans representation, and I just...no, y'all, it's not "implied," it's an allegory. The entire damn movie is about transgender struggle, and the original comic is deeply tied into N.D. Stevenson's own queer journey. It isn't subtle. You cannot look at that movie and pretend that it isn't about trans struggle. It's blatant, and to say that Nimona "isn't canonically trans" is a take that misses the story's entire message, and the blatant queerphobia that almost kept the movie from happening. (I wrote a five thousand word essay about the topic.)

Queer themes, queer coding, queer exploration, and queer representation can all exist in a piece of media that doesn't seem to have "canon queer characters" on the surface. Most queer characters are never going to be able to explicitly state their specific identity labels, be it due to censorship or just due to the fact that scenes like that don't fit in some narratives. Some stories aren't conducive to a big "so what's your identity?" scene.

Explicit, undeniable, "this is my identity in no uncertain terms" scenes are very important and radical, and I'm not saying they shouldn't ever exist. I am saying that you can't consider those scenes the only way for queerness in a piece of media to be "canon."

Sakuma telling Kidou he has better freedom as a part of Raimon and that he knows just by looking at Kidou can be a throwback of Sakuma's lines in Shin Teikoku arc. Sakuma said that "he can't see Kidou's world," but in the ending, it became "I've opened my eyes". Sakuma is the one to reassure Kidou in episode 56, as at that point Sakuma is able to look at Kidou with a clear vision.....

in middle of writing my analysis post, it's gonna be pretty long because i want to tackle as many topics in my to-do as i could in a single post than making short post for each. but honestly the reason why am i not finishing it sooner is because i'm not feeling well lmaooo

currently i'm thinking that sakuma is kind of an unreliable narrator in terms of his insecurity towards kidou. episode 38 and everyday frame it as him feeling like he's not as good as kidou is because sakuma himself mistook it as such. he thought that what he's insecure of is his own ability when it's actually of his place as kidou's friend

but it becomes double unreliable narrator in shin teikoku arc as yes, sakuma's (and genda + fudou but this is not about them) judgement is clouded by meteorite brainwashing but because the emotion he displays is very raw it reveals his Real feelings at the same time. "i can't see your world" = i can't understand you As A Person

even then "sakuma is jealous of kidou's abilities" isn't inherently wrong because he is.. because sakuma's insecurity is deep rooted that he feels bad about every single thing at once, and in ares' timeline where shin teikoku arc doesn't happen you can watch sakuma being left in his issues for a year

My favorite game vs anime difference of S3 so far is how Kidou is the one beefing against Fudou and everyone has to stop him before he punch Fudou's face

Bonus: This scene below happens after Kidou scolds Fudou for making fun of Toramaru saying he can't sleep if not at his home. Hiroto's response is sweet and funny

The T-Shirt

Apparently I haven’t posted this old doodle here, gotta change that.

The T-Shirt

Shirou talks about looking into one's own self and Kidou and Sakuma's gay asses choose to look at each other

snoozing

Endou and Kazemaru in those outfits and chibis everyone and their mom poked fun at

(wonky quality because my hand started aching mid drawing, sorry)