Misty Quigley, Weird Al Yankovic, Pill Bugs, Mistynat, the boys / gen v, iwtv
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Do not interact if you are:
Pro-Life, Right wing, a TERF, if you support non-consent or incest/stepincest (“darkships” in general), generally bigoted, Anti -Palestine, a pedophile or Anti-Feminist. (tldr: we are woke in this household)
Regarding the transgender and autistic coding of Octodad: Dadliest Catch.
To preface: this essay will be in two parts. One with spoilers, and one without. The spoilers will be hidden under a cut, and optional.
Octodad: Dadliest Catch is a 2014 action/adventure game in which the protagonist, known only as “Octodad”, is an octopus masquerading as a human man. If it sounds ridiculously goofy, that’s because it is. Octodad rarely takes itself seriously, and that works to its credit.
Now, before going any further, I want to take a moment to lay some groundwork for the premise of the game and how it relates to otherness. Octodad, being an octopus, is fundamentally Other. He is a nonhuman in disguise, he is living a lie, et cetera. The concept of beings that disguise themselves as human is an old one, from Greek gods seeking hospitality to changelings left behind as supernatural brood parasites. They are shapeshifters and deceivers, whose stories are born from the fear of Otherness. And more often than not, these beings have malicious intent.
But Octodad, fundamentally, does not. He is a loving father and husband who hides his identity out of fear. He is Other, and this otherness isn’t portrayed as predatory or evil in any way. And viewing this story through the lens of Octodad, controlling his actions, the player gets to know a little bit about him.
Back to the trailer— Octodad’s gameplay is showcased, and it’s immediately obvious that the control scheme isn’t exactly typical. Players must control each limb individually, resulting in sloppy, uncoordinated movements. Octodad stumbles through the grocery store, across a play set, leaving destruction in his wake. He isn’t trying to make a mess, unlike a certain goose, but rather, this is the natural result of what he is. He’s literally a fish out of water— and yes, he is a fish if you’re pedantic enough about cladistics, which I am going to be for the sake of this metaphor.
The control scheme is deliberately messy, a stylistic choice that forces the player to constantly remember that Octodad is something Other, and the resulting mistakes have consequences. The levels are designed in such a way that even an experienced player will have to make a mess at times, and it comes with a sense of shame— after all, a normal protagonist could do this. Mario could platform his way through this grocery store with no problem! But Octodad can’t. He slips on banana peels and breaks open crates and spills fruit all over the linoleum. And the UI forces you to be constantly aware of when others are watching, furthering that sense of shame.
The game won’t punish you for slipping up sometimes. But the mess you’ve made, the judgmental gazes of the NPCs, will. You are an imposter, facing a constant uphill battle to perform difficult and unnatural tasks that are effortless for the humans around you. They cannot see that you’re an octopus. They do not know that you’re an octopus. So long as you are wearing your suit, no one can tell, even with the tentacles and bulbous head and suckers on your limbs. But they can see your mistakes, and your failures.
How does that relate to autism and transgenderism? Well, let’s start with autism, since the transgender coding is mostly in story spoiler territory, while the autism is largely in the gameplay mechanics. Autism is a pretty broad spectrum, and it’s difficult to point at something and definitively call it autistic-coded when the autistic experience varies so drastically from person to person. But Octodad and his Otherness, even as a silly octopus, strongly parallels autistic masking.
Octodad’s enforced sense of shame strongly resonates with the autistic experience— constantly aware of eyes on you, always messing up because no one explained the rules to you properly, or struggling with sensory issues or executive dysfunction when everyone is trying to convince you that your experiences are normal and you’re just being dramatic. And in that sense, it’s cathartic to see Octodad, because he is unmistakably and undeniably Other. You cannot say “Oh, honey, everyone’s a little octopus, you’re just not trying hard enough,” to an octopus the way that neurotypicals often do with autistic people. You cannot deny him his Otherness which causes his struggles.
Remember the changeling story I mentioned earlier? Changeling myths and autism are inextricably connected, and far too often, they demonize autism. The problem with trying to define humanity in a way that excludes imposters that pretend to be human is that you will inevitably end up excluding and hurting people, particularly those who are neurodivergent, queer, disabled, or otherwise in a minority. So, if you cannot define humanity without excluding humans from the definition, then it serves to reason that broadening your scope will include non-humans. And this is portrayed as an unambiguously good thing, to acknowledge the humanity of an octopus.
Real life isn’t like Among Us, where the imposters are murderous freaks who unhinge their jaws and chomp off the top half of their fellow crewmates before hopping into the vents. Sometimes, they’re scared people who go through life hurting because they tried to be normal until they forgot who they were.
And now, let’s examine the story and talk about the further coding it contains. The first thing that catches my attention is Octodad’s morning routine— coffee. It seems innocuous at first, but it’s later revealed that this is the only reason Octodad has the ability to walk upright, because he’s constantly self-medicating with caffeine.
There’s a very domestic portion of the game where you see just how much Octodad adores his family, he does the chores for his wife whom he loves a lot, and then— he survives a couple murder attempts. His neighbor knows he’s an octopus, is a chef at the local grocery store, and is the main antagonist of the game. He breaks down the fence between their yards with some sort of nightmarish combine-harvester machine that nearly sucks in Octodad, but the situation is resolved quickly enough. Then, just a little later in the day, he goes out to the grocery store, where the chef finds him and chases him with a knife, threatening to turn him into moderately priced sushi. Interestingly, though, is the fact that Octodad seems more worried about his wife finding out than the fact that he’s an octopus than the threats on his life. We don’t know how often these happen, but he just brushes this off and hopes to keep up the masquerade a little longer. He has to be human, he has to be normal in order to be loved, and nearly dying alone to his murderous neighbor is a small price to pay. And… it’s sad, honestly.
The real meat of the game, though, is at the aquarium. Octodad is frankly terrified of this place, but he can’t tell his wife why. There was a scene that stuck with me— it’s meant to introduce you to the fact that the Biologist enemies are a threat who will recognize and out you, but it made me think about TERFs. They always claim they can spot trans people, as if there’s some secret sense for it, as if a world in which women are subject to random and invasive genital inspections is somehow better than a world where the lady in the bathroom stall next to you is standing up to pee.
After getting through the first part of the museum, Octodad has to find each member of his family and do some minigame puzzles. The kids are absolutely adorable, but what struck me was the conversation with Scarlet, as she grows frustrated with Octodad’s secrecy. He sleeps downstairs, he somehow “made more” when the printer ran out of ink, he lost a limb in a plumbing accident but it somehow grew back, and he’s keeping things from her. He won’t have an honest conversation, and she’s getting frustrated.
Take a moment to imagine the veneer of metaphor peeled away. Imagine you have been married to a man you love for ten years, but you know he’s hiding something from you. He doesn’t sleep in the same bed as you, never wanted to consummate things, and you’ve respected his privacy and consent, but he won’t explain why. He’s ecstatic about raising kids together, but he doesn’t want biological ones. There are these instances you can’t explain, like his sudden insistence on buying a shark plushie from IKEA, or the time you caught him mailing a tank top (was it a tank top, really, because you never got a good look at it) to someone and he looked guilty. You find a list of names, some of them crossed out, and wonder who these women are. He never wants to look in the mirror or have pictures taken. You love him and you want to respect his privacy, but the secrets are driving a rift between you.
Imagine it from the other side, now. You have been married to the woman you love for ten years. She doesn’t know you’re trans, and you’re terrified she’ll leave you if she finds out.. She didn’t seem to mind when you told her you didn’t want to get horizontal, but she doesn’t know it’s because sex in this body makes you dysphoric. You love your children so much, they’re the light and joy of your life, but you can’t help but wonder if your wife wanted to have them the old-fashioned way. You try to escape what you are but it’s getting harder to repress. You know she suspects something. You ended up with a binder, and sent it to someone you met online. You bought yourself a Blåhaj and you don’t know why it was that desperation had seized up in your chest when you saw it. You spent ages on name websites, looking for the perfect one, writing them down to see how they felt. You have the most amazing wife in the world and she is slipping away because you couldn’t keep pretending.
Scarlet asks Octodad to meet her at the shark tank when he’s ready to have a real conversation. And the shark tank is where things get interesting— the chef is there, waiting. He cuts off Octodad’s clothes with a cleaver, and tosses him into the tank, yelling, “Go back where you belong!”
The thing about the coding of Octodad is that it’s never a consistent one-to-one. That particular line? Could be read as immigrant coding, out of context. But then, looking at how easily he moves in the water compared to the flopping rag doll movements on land. He no longer has to mask, he no longer has to hide himself and navigate a world that is hostile and judgmental to him.
And he’s miserable. He misses his family. And he’s determined to find them, and save them from the chef. So he sets off to do exactly that.
There’s a series of objectives to complete to get there, but the one that stuck with me? Sneaking into the women’s bathroom. Granted, it’s for the purpose of going through the vents and causing a diversion in the break room, but it still strikes me that Octodad, who presents as a male human, has to sneak into the women’s restroom. And this is presented not as some scandalous affair of a peeping Tom, not a forbidden thing, but just an objective. That’s where the proper vents are, after all.
On a sillier note? You walk into the aquarium in a shark suit, and you have to cause a diversion. So now, rather than Octodad’s clumsiness being a source of shame, it’s his strength, and it’s a point of pride. He’s an octopus! He’s excellent at making messes!
And then there’s the grand finale— it’s corny and dramatic and there’s a cafeteria on fire, and the truth is out. He’s an octopus.
And Scarlet? She says she was expecting so much worse. She loves her octopus husband exactly as he is, and no matter what adjustments she has to make, she knows her family will be stronger for it. Because now, she has the chance to love her husband in his entirety, in his Otherness, and she takes it.
Octodad is a story about an octopus walking around in a suit and pretending to be a normal human man, but it’s also a story about being closeted, masking, living in fear, and finally realizing that the love remains. That there are people who will love you as you are, genuinely and truly, tentacles and all.
Okay, coming in with a Blorbo from another fandom: Misty Quigley of Yellowjackets.
(I'll try to keep my phrasing of things she does pretty tame, don't worry. Still, you know the premise of Yellowjackets, so uh, content warning ahead).
MISTY IS SUCH A FASCINATING SPECIMEN. Oh my gosh. Like, save for Lottie (and maybe even including Lottie, since she was off her meds and encouraged to believe by the deeply religious Laura Lee that she actually was having visions from God or a higher being) Misty is the only one who got on the plane deeply fucked up. In the montage of all the girls getting ready to leave for their flight, she's watching an animal in an unfortunate situation that she could help out but doesn't. The plane crashes, she ends up being incredibly useful and is likely the reason so many girls that survived the crash lived to see another day, and that is enough of a reason for her to destroy the black box so no one will find them and rescue them. Feeling wanted and needed and appreciated was enough of a reason to force herself and all of her teammates into a dire situation because they might continue to see her as useful instead of a freak.
It's that kind of thinking from a character that makes the little twinkly lights in my brain start flashing. Misty Quigley, you absolute freak, I never want her to change.
And her inexplicable love of show tunes as an adult, road tripping with Nat and listening to Phantom of the Opera and Cats the whole time??? Absolute bonkers behavior. And it just feels so in line with who this weirdo character is that no one questions why she would only want to listen to show tunes until we realize a season later it's because the one girl she started getting really close to and bond with who Misty inadvertently killed was deeply invested in musical theater. So 30 years later, Misty is still listening to show tunes to feel close to a friend she probably barely remembers due to how good the adult survivors are at compartmentalizing forgetting what they've been through.
She's so fascinating. She has a bird named Caligula. She held a woman hostage in her basement. She didn't want Nat to relapse so she snorted all her coke so that Nat couldn't. She got a cookie cake to remind Shauna not to talk to the police. She has Elijah Wood simping for her.
Misty Quigley is the strangest, most wonderfully delightful and unhinged character I've ever come across, and I adore her for it.
100% of what I know about this show comes from you. This character sounds bizarre and fascinating, and I'm glad to learn more about her and how much you appreciate that.
Gush about why you love your blorbo or ship in my inbox
being a misty quigley stan is so perpetually silly because on one hand i could write multiple multi-page character essays dissecting her character, dynamics with other characters and the many ways that her whole life has been built around loneliness despite her spending all of it looking for connection and how she makes me so, so sad because as an autistic person i understand how horribly painful it is to understand that people are almost repulsed by you but you can't for the life of you figure out why-
and on the other hand OH MY GAWWWSHHHH 😞 LOOK AT HER SHES SO PRINCESSSSSS ☺️ HOW COULD ANYONE EVER HATE THIS SILLY LITTLE GUY THE PRESIDENT OF SILLY ISLAND WHO HAS NEVER DONE ANYTHING WRONG IN HER LIFE I WANNA PUT HER IN MY POCKETTTT 🎀
One of my first time’s making actual MLP edits, my childhood dream has been accomplished. Earth pony Nat cause she’s a bum (no shade to earth ponies) and Unicorn Misty cause shes sooo magical
( And Blank Flank Misty because I honestly think she would’ve gotten her cutie mark after the crash, dont ask what the syringe is full of )
Favorite color: GREEEN !!! The same green as my blog color
Currently reading: Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman ! It caught my eye at the library because of it bright pink cover with green accents. I'm about halfway through and I'm enjoying it :) it's a near future sci-fi
Last song: Love buzz by Nirvana
Last film: Saw 3D !! I've been watching all of the Saw movies for the first time because of the Hot Saw Summer thing the Dead Meat podcast is doing and I have been LOVING IT !! Amanda, Lynn, and Jill are my favs ofc and now my gfs <3
Last series: Technically Severance cause I rewatched a few episodes when I was on a plane ride... but now that I think about it I have mostly been rewatching things (which is very unusual for me) like Parks & Rec, House of the Dragon, Gen V... I've been thinking about starting Interview with the vampire though. And I'm super excited for the new season of Wednesday and Gen V !!
Sweet/salty/savory: How am I to choose (savory)
Tea or coffee: Tea !! I love milk tea it's my fav
Working on: that B12 animation meme with 12 of my fav characters :D I don't usually post videos here but I might post that one
no pressure tags !! @rougeclasslover @mirrorcowby @laymedowninsheetsoflinen @woefulwarwidow and anyone else who'd like to join!
Favorite Color: ORANGE 100%. I am obsessed with orange, if I could turn orange I would.
Currently Reading: Century of the Typewriter by Wilfred A. Beeching! I am SUPER obsessed with typewriters at the moment and I will consume any media about them within a state wide range!! Also have been trying to get my hands on more entomology stuff for my precious pill bugs
Last Song: Hardware Store by the lovely amazing spectacular sir Weird Al, very proud to be in the top 0.1% of his audience!! 😋
Last Series: Ive been watching Paddington WAY too many times while waiting for Wednesday
Sweet/Salty/Savory: sour is always my ultimate choice but if I had to pick it would be sweet
Tea or coffee: I refuse to partake in leaf juice or bean brew
Working on: MORE MISTYNAT ^^ I think I’ve drawn them every day for a week straight and I do not regret a second of it
Hello I decided to pick up a fun hobby and made what can maybe count as a filler ep for Yellowjackets between the end of season 1 and the beginning of season 2. Guide Natalie on a random day in the wilderness! Talk to people, trap animals, collect stuff, walk around.
It's all possible in browser, for free, so have fun!
Screenshots below for an impression
I made the character portraits and the more "drawn" backgrounds myself, but otherwise used resources listed in the credits both on itch and in the game.
it's INSANE to me that misty started taking off her acrylic nails as soon as she tells natalie to have a drink with her to talk about the postcard... what kind of invitation was that...
The Misty Quigley brain rot is getting to a point where I only really care about Misty now… My sweet sweet Misty. After season 3 I don’t really trust the show to go in a direction in the adult timeline I find compelling anymore. To me it seems as if they did not think out the adult timeline and how things would work past season 1. (and ik I remember seeing somewhere that they said they planned out like 5 seasons or whatever when they started… but I don’t believe that they did that for the adult timeline, not for one second). And ik I’m in the minority of people who actually give a fuck about the adults,, but I care WAYYY MORE about the adults than I do the teens. I still like the teen storyline, I am just way more attached to the adult versions of the characters… but with how things have been going… I fear that I will hate whatever they do with the season 4 adult timeline,,, they better not fuck up Misty’s character though please I’m begging
