i identified as a butch for a bit! I changed my mind because in my case it was me trying to avoid wanting to be something I wasn't sure I COULD be! did you "lose" something when I, a trans woman, decided to present more femme?
if every cis butch woman in the world became a trans man right now, that would be an unambiguously, inarguably good and positive thing, because that would be people choosing to live the lives they wanted as the kinds of people they wanted to be, end of statement. personal autonomy isn't something to bitch over!
happy pride! remember that being a transgender is everything but fiction. there are so many real historical figures from every century about whose transgenderism we aren't even aware of
on this picture i drew Alexandr Andreevich Alexandrov - cavalry officer of the russian imperial army that participated in napoleonic wars. people persistently keep on misgendering mispronounsing deadnaming and calling him a crossdresser although alexandrov clearly stated that he didn't want to be called by his deadname and being treated like anything but a man. that's an interesting historical figure and i wanted to draw attention to his person. i can't tell everything about him in only one post so i recomend you to read about alexandrov by yourself
also be proud of yourself and remember that you're valid! š³ļøāšš³ļøāā§ļø
okay last backrooms post because i genuinely want people's thoughts and also because i want to encourage media literacy. so here's some backrooms questions, spoilers under the read more.
when i ask "why" i am not asking in the literal sense, i want you to instead substitute every why with "what did the director mean when he did this;". this is not meant to be condescending - i genuinely am asking these because i loved this movie because of how just absolutely choked with denseness it is, it is laser focused, and i want other people to be able to enjoy it the same way i do.
so without further ado;
why is clark dressed as a pirate when he runs a furniture store?
what were non-fictional pirates actually like?
as the owner-manager of a furniture store, where do clark's class interests lie? is he a laborer?
what about all the other characters in the movie that show up for more than a single scene? what are their class interests?
what are the genders of all the characters that react with fear to the backrooms? what are the genders of all the characters that react with awe/i-want-to-know-more of the backrooms? if there is a pattern, why would the director make there be one?
what is meant by the store title "captain clark's ottoman empire"? what was the ottoman empire, and, outside bad furniture pun, does it have any relevance to the story?
why do they mark the entrances off the wall in blue tape in particular? what might that mean?
spoiler questions;
does it seem meaningful that the three still lives that clark has at his disposal are, respectively, a disabled person in a wheelchair, a blue collar worker, and a representative of His Wife?
why does he scalp still-life-wife-standin? does it mean anything that he *scalped* her, as the specific attack action?
what does it mean that captain clark is, well, specifically captain clark, and not any other memory of clark?
why does captain clark eat clark when he does and not a moment before or after? does the dialogue at the moment mean anything?
what does it mean that mary's childhood home full of furniture is demolished for a condo?
how much furniture is visible in the flashback with mary's mom in the mental home?
who do you think drew the captain clark drawings and why? (consider; motive, materials, and time)
why is/was async an mri company and not any other kind of company? do mris mean anything, or was it a hospital technology picked at random?
why is clark stealing furniture from the backrooms?
is it important that clark is a failed architect, or could that have been excised from the story? why or why not?
is it important that clark is a furniture salesman specifically, or was it arbitrary?
is it important that clark went from failed architect to failing furniture salesman?
what does captain clark represent to clark?
what does captain clark represent to everyone else?
what does it mean that clark used his position as the manager of a female worker to pressure her and her boyfriend to perform ultimately lethal off-the-clock labor for him?
why did a bed, specifically, be the object that knocked clark and the other two whose names escape me into the deeper part of the backrooms?
why does the sky look so weird every time we see it ("they are secretly in a higher up level of the backrooms the entire time" is not a valid answer)
what is mary's relationship to furniture?
how might mary's relationship to furniture differ from clark's relationship to furniture?
do you think mary liked clark before clark had his whole... thing?
is the backrooms uninhabited land that is free to take? why or why not?
should you be allowed to use rooms that nobody else is using?
what is a privateer? how might that relate to captain clark's pirate imagery?
why does the wife-standin still life run when captain clark shows up?
why is the girl worker's head in clark's fridge?
what do the caveman cardboards mean?
why, exactly, is it "scary" that the backrooms might have things in it walking around that aren't you? what prompts the fear?
why is clark excited that he doesn't have to change?
is it relevant that the story comments on how people are "neurologically wired", and also, async started as an MRI company?
why, specifically, does clark assume still lives can't feel pain? or at least, why does he say this to someone else?
outside of the movie, what is a "still life"? why might the movie call the people-like organisms in the backrooms a "still life"?
define "terra nullius". how do you think it might relate to the backrooms?
Scrolling through the backrooms tag trying to Understand because I'm a little bit slow the first time I watch a movie and all I have to say is 1. I think I get it now, and 2. Why the fuck is everyone thirsting over the white guy with 10 minutes of screen time guys what are we doing are you serious
Special shoutout to all the queer, intersex, and trans het folks. Sorry for all the āitās illegal to be straight this monthā jokes youāll have to endure. Yāall are still very much part of the community.
Pottery sounds terrifying to me. Every post I see is like "Here's this awesome art I made!! Pray for me that it survives The Kilnā¢ :')" I don't think I could cope with making art that could quite easily blow up and I have no way of controlling that. You guys are true heroes.
a non definitive guide to markiplier x ryan gosling ships
with both of these coming from very different spheres of the internet, there are a lot of people who are only familiar with one of their respective filmographies, or even not familiar at all barring recent releases. if you've been seeing different markiplier characters get shipped with different ryan gosling characters, and wanted to know what that was all about, here is a list with everything I have seen so far and as many links as possible. a lot will be links to the one or two posts that make up the entire content for that fandom since none of these are anywhere near as big as bloodymary.
bloodymary - simon/ryland grace
-> simon (also known as the convict or the butcher) from the movie iron lung (2026)
-> ryland grace from the movie project hail mary (2026)
#bloodymary on tumblr - one of the earliest tumblr posts made about it - ao3 tag
discodoll - warfstache/ken
-> wilford warfstache from who killed markiplier? (2017)
-> ken from the movie barbie (2023)
#discodoll on tumblr - the first/most popular/only (so far) tiktok post about them
stuntstar - actor mark/colt seavers
-> actor mark from who killed markiplier? (2017) (and more)
-> colt seavers from the movie the fall guy (2024)
#stuntstar on tumblr - the first tiktok edit - another one
spacestunt - head engineer mark/colt seavers
-> head engineer mark from in space with markiplier (2022)
-> colt seavers from the movie the fall guy (2024)
#spacestunt on tumblr
projectspace - head engineer mark/ryland grace
-> head engineer mark from in space with markiplier (2022)
-> ryland grace from the movie project hail mary (2026)
one edit - second edit - third edit - ao3 tag
heistdrive / drivebyheist - yancy/"the driver"
-> yancy from a heist with markiplier (2019)
-> "the driver" from the movie drive (2011)
#drivebyheist on tumblr - the only edit (here they're heistdrive, ship too small for an established name #dope)
[name still undecided] - yancy/sebastian wilder
-> yancy from a heist with markiplier (2019)
-> sebastian "seb" wilder from the movie la la land (2016)
the edit (based on comments suggesting it) - some proposed names are jazzheist, jazzjail, jailhouse jazz
other proposed ships without names/posts:
illinois from a heist with markiplier (2019) and
holland march from the movie the nice guys (2016)
-> proposed as a ship here
darkiplier from who killed markiplier? (2017) (and more) and
henry letham from the movie stay (2005)
-> proposed as a ship here
darkiplier from who killed markiplier? (2017) (and more) and
officer k from the movie blade runner 2049 (2017)
-> proposed in the bloodymary discord and here (in the comments)
actor mark from who killed markiplier? (2017) (and more) and
ken from the movie barbie (2023)
-> proposed as a ship here
So since some people are deciding to be obtuse and misinterpret me, Iām going to be more specific:
If Clark was White, his fate would have been the same.
If Clark was Latino, his fate would have been the same.
If Clark was Asian, his fate would have been the same
So on and so forth.
Neither Clarkās race, nor the race of any other character, had any actual impact on the plot. The subject of race is never brought up in the movie, and is never a plot point. It does not influence the narrative. Chiwetel Ejiofor was not cast as Clark specifically because he was black, but rather because he was a talented actor who could play the role well and understood the material. I canāt pretend to know inner workings of this filmās production, but I highly doubt Clarkās role was written specifically with a black actor in mind. Anyone could have hypothetically played Clark, and it just so happened to be Chiwetel.
So just because Clarkās actor just so happened to be black, that does not suddenly make the movie a political commentary about black people, and neither do his actions or fate reflect on black people. Yes, Clark has clear problems, and is definitely in the wrong in several situations, but the film establishes is a clear cause and effect for the state that he ends up in by the end, none of which has to do with his race.
And on another note, the still lives are not humans, they only look kinda human on the outside and have fluffy stuffing on the inside. They are literally described as āliving furnitureā, and they are the only known accessible source of nutritional value in the Backrooms. So no, Clark is not a cannibal for eating them. Kane even alluded to this years ago in an interview where someone asked him if food existed in the Backrooms, and Kane replied with āone a scale of soup to table, how close are you willing to get to table?ā
All of this to say, just because Clark is black, that does not automatically mean his role is intended to be a portrayal of black people, and therefore it is not a problematic nor harmful portrayal. Normal people are not going to watch this film and then assume that, based on Clarkās actions and fate, all black people must be insane savage cannibals. Racial commentary in this movie is a completely fabricated and projected subtext.
This all misses the point of what the Backrooms movie is REALLY about: mental health. The theme is literally established in the scene that introduces the main characters. Everyone is stuck in their own loops and patterns, some of which can be self-destructive vices. And even if you can recognize them, you still must make an effort choose to break free of them. Some people may succeed, some may try and fail, and some may simply choose not to change their ways because they prefer to remain wired the way they are. And even those supposed to guide others through this process, such as therapists, are also humans at the end of the day, with loops of their own.
tangentwithtanner
janainaart
blakekathryn
ellievsbear
gummygunk
