Honestly, I know I’m probably thinking too much about this, but HDG and Mechsplo stuff just make me like… sad?
They’re both depictions of oppressive, imperialist/fascist empires that *win*. But at least in them winning, the transfem characters don’t have to fight anymore.
They just feel like declarations of surrender, a bone-deep exhaustion and a wish to stop fighting.
And fuck, man, it makes me depressed.
I know the want to stop fighting. God, I know it. But I’ve lived as long as I have because I kept fighting, and because I’m gonna keep fighting. I’m not gonna give up to myself, I’m not gonna give up to my oppressors, even if maybe it would even feel good.
Idk. They just ring to me of abuse and imperialism, and while by no means should those things not be allowed to be depicted, (and to be clear even if I dislike the writing I still think folks are well in their lane to write it and enjoy it, I’m just tryna think philosophy here I guess) I am put off by the like…
People *want* to be made into florets. They *want* to be made into hounds. The media of HDG encourages this, and while I don’t know as much about WARHOUND’s actual text, I don’t think it discourages it per se. So, with my perspective, that just reads as a lot of people, a lot of my community, desperately wishing they could give up.
And the reason it reads to me as giving up rather than simply not *having* to fight, or *winning*
Is because the Affini always win. The Empire in WARHOUND wins. The antagonists, the empire, they *win*.
I’m not going to let that happen. I’m not going to stop fighting. Not until we win. Not until all my sisters win. Every one of us, across the world, fucking wins. I’m not going to stop fighting.
I’m not a floret. I’m not a hound. I’m a fucking fighter. And I swear to you, we will win. We will win one day.
I think I’d just like to see some more kink fantasies about that, maybe.
