Saiouma Week 2023 - Mastermind/Bandages

A Diamond in the Rough

BOOB DAYS SINCE MCR WAS FORMED

I have no explanation for this, they're just my favourite characters

In "Turnabout Sisters" of "Ace Attorney", there's a moment where Redd White punches Phoenix in the face as a "I can hit you for no reason and you can't do anything to me" thing, and then they both show up to court the next day.

And... look, maybe it was a really shitty punch, but I prefer to imagine that this did leave at least a serious bruise on Phoenix's face. The screen temporarily goes black, White is wearing a bunch of heavy rings on every finger of both hands, and White is a murderer and a blackmailer whose crimes are on the edge of coming to light. White has Phoenix arrested for the murder immediately afterwards, so Phoenix would not have had any opportunity to cover up the injury, leaving the entire court to see what should at least be some really ugly bruising.

Phoenix is having the worst time here, but Edgeworth must be GOING THROUGH IT. Because now he has to prosecute Phoenix Wright of all people for Mia Fey's murder, when he's already been an ass throughout this trial and he knows it, and everything about his key witnesses here is incredibly suspicious (especially if he is at all aware of just how influential and corrupt White is). I would love to be in Miles' head the moment he mentally matches Redd White's smug expression and gaudy rings to the ugly bruises across Phoenix's face.

Now THAT'S an "oh" moment. Not a romantic one, in my opinion, because it's too early. But definitely something that could have unconsciously or consciously flipped a "oh, this is the part where I tear you to pieces" switch regarding Redd White.

My favourite idea in modern fantasy is potion candy.

For example in Bayonetta, alchemical recipes are turned into lollipops. They’re tastier, easier to carry around than bottles, and modern crafting techniques means they’re more potent than traditional potions.

markiplier lore is queer: an essay by me.

dedicated to @system32-cleanmgr <2

so, to start things off, i wanna talk about the gender of it all. because of the gender ambiguity of the viewer insert in almost every markiplier lore video, the universe now has at least three canonical non-binary characters who go by they/them pronouns (wether these characters are all the same character, different characters, or kind of the same character is unknown).

but that's not where the gender fuckery of the better mcu ends. you see, there's also the (subtextual and mostly ignored, yes, but still relevant) overall gender fuckery of darkiplier's character. because, while they present male, they are still in some ways a combination of celine and damien, two people of opposite genders (not to mention the fact that they exist inside the body of the viewer from who killed markiplier, who's one of the formerly mentioned non-binary characters). so, while not explicit representation, i personally like to think of darkiplier as some flavor of genderfluid.

i also feel like damien and celine's specific gender expressions themselves affect darkiplier in some ways: while they're both (presumably) cis, the two still have very distinct ways of performing their respective gender identities. damien portrays a softer version of masculinity, whereas celine shows a slightly harsher femininity than what we're used to seeing in media. he's a bit clueless and sees things from an emotional, human perspective, and she's clearly used to being the rational, fast-paced one, always trying to find solutions. this dynamic might have something to do with them being siblings (and i'm assuming celine's the older of the two, purely because of all the talk of 'keeping damien safe'), and it's not inherently queer, but it is interesting to me that these characters have such specific ways of acting out their genders.

now, this one's not as important, but i would also like to mention the casual usage of they/them pronouns for other characters as well. in in space with markiplier: part 2, mark explicitly refers to the character of lady by they/them pronouns multiple times (this could also be either because they're an alien and mark doesn't know how they identify, or because their actor, lio tipton, is non-binary, but to me, that reads as somewhat solid confirmation that the character goes by they/them pronouns), and mark himself is referred to as "they" by the narrator at least once.

this isn't really a gender identity thing, but rather a gender expression thing, but i do also wanna talk about wilford warfstache and his gender non-conformativity. i do think he identifies as male, all things considered, but he doesn't seem the least bit interested in masculinity as a concept, favouring traditionally (i say traditionally, but i do mean societally, since pink used to be considered a boy color) feminine colors like pink and yellow, and being more than open to expressing his feelings and encouraging other characters to do the same.

now i'm gonna get into the sexualities. how are queer sexualities portrayed in markiplier lore?

well, that's a hard question to answer; no character has ever been (as far as i know) specifically stated to be of any sexual orientation. although there is a high possibility that wilford is pansexual, since he was clearly in love with celine, but it's implied he doesn't really care about the gender of whomever he happens to be romantically or sexually involved with at the time (i.e. him casually asking abe if they used to date, because that really is a possibility).

aside from wilford, because of the ambiguous gender of the viewer insert, a lot of characters end up being inadvertedly queer because of their attraction to them, most of them most likely falling on the m-spec.

there's also something to be said about abe the detective. is he gay or not? well, again, nothing's canon, but i think it's safe to assume he isn't straight. the "accidental" homoerotic innuendos he makes constantly seem less like a joke about being gay, and more like a joke about having repressed, sexual thoughts about someone, and having those thoughts emerge as those kinds of comments.

the "would anyone like to join me?" comment might just be will making fun of him, but i can't find it in myself to think actor mark is straight either. i guess it's just a headcanon, but let's be honest, he's every 'subtly' queer-coded old cartoon villain ever. he's rich, dramatic, petty, and vain, and frankly sometimes being evil and queer is just a fact of life.

but i'm not gonna go further into my headcanons on here, lest this post turn into a list instead of an essay, so i'll just wrap it up here. thanks for listening to my ramble.

not ignoring canon nor strictly adhering to it, but a secret third thing (taking the small bits and crumbs canon barely spent time developing and running absolutely hogwild)

controversial writing tip

open a document and start writing

we should hype up bottom surgery more i think. both twitter transphobes and chronically online trans people really like to be disgusted at phalloplasty, vaginoplasty, ext. and i really think we should treat them as cool and sexy and neutral like top surgery scars or whatever

Something came over me