there is a lot of praise that can and should be given to Witch Hat Atelier's artwork, but something that should not go underappreciated is how FUCKING good Shimahama is at physical gesture. look how well they READ!!!! look how much you understand the scene just from POSE and POSTURE!!!!!!!
The Amazing Digital Circus episode 9 spoilers under the cut
"this story about a trans girl should have been about a man instead" is already beyond parody but to confidently follow it up with "the episode gave us hints but no direct confirmation" i am going to build an aeroplane from my hate and crash it into your house on 9/11
Arcane season 2 makes a lot of very big things happen, and some of you may be wondering if all of this is canon to the main League of Legends universe.
Well, yes and no. Riot Games has insisted that Arcane is the main canon, and have said that they are going to change the broader League of Legends universe to fit it, so that people who watched Arcane can play League of Legends and not be confused by different versions of the character running around.
So in that sense, yes, Arcane is canon.
Now, Riot has said they're going to do that, but also… they haven't actually done that yet. To be fair, it's not something you can just do overnight, I'm sure it'll take a while, but for the moment, the reality is that the overwhelming majority of published story that actually exists… contradicts Arcane, almost entirely. And despite having three entire years since season 1 to start making things fit… even the champions of just Piltover and Zaun have not yet had new material published that would make them fit with the story of Arcane.
So, is Arcane canon? Technically, yes. Practically? Absolutely not. And don't hold your breath for that to change anytime soon, last time Riot did a big lore retcon was over a decade ago and they still haven't finished that one either.
It's June, motherfuckers, and you know what that means! Apart from firing a few rent-lowering shots to filter out the chuds from my following, it's probably also a good time to post a reminder that there are many strange ways to be queer, and this is one of them.
video transcript below the cut, may be slightly inaccurate, I tend to ad-lib when reading my scripts into voiceover
It's Pride Month, so if you'll forgive me I'm taking a two minute break from the One Piece, League of Legends, Marvel Rivals, Final Fantasy and Pokémon shorts to tell you… Sylveon is trans, Taliyah is trans, everyone on the Straw Hats is queer, there are no words to describe how queer superheroes are as a concept let alone how queer they all are individually, and here's a fun fact for you: Cloud Strife's story gets ten times better when you understand it as an allegory for a trans coming out experience.
As for me, well, I'm not trans, but I do occupy my own little space in the rainbow flags which looks like this. I am aromantic.
We are generally not as visible as many of our queer siblings, probably at least partly because it's kind of a difficult identity to even discover in yourself, you basically have to prove a negative.
But what is this thing, "aromantic"? Well… okay, let's say you're a straight guy, right. You know the way you feel romantically about other men? I feel exactly the same way, and then I also feel that way about women, and then also the same way about all of the other genders.
Now, aromantic often goes along with asexual, there's a lot of co-occurrence of the two, but not always, and that is my situation. Yes to sex, no to romance, which being a man, yes, I know, that just makes me the same as 90% of the men you match on Hinge. "Ha ha ha didn't realize "fuccboi" was an orientation now," I know. I get it. I understand. I have had all the same thoughts myself, especially when I was questioning.
Which is the difficulty with being aromantic, because in order to figure out that that's what you are, you have to prove a negative. I have never been in love, and I have no reason to think I ever will be… but what if someday I meet The One??? What if there's a special divinely designated perfect soulmate out there, just waiting for me, and one day our eyes will meet across the room and it will be love at first sight forever?
And like. I can't prove that won't happen, anymore than I can prove that there isn't a flowery pink teapot currently hiding somewhere in the orbit of Saturn. And frankly, if it did happen, I wouldn't be mad. Why would I be? I would have a soulmate! That's a pretty big W, I think.
But… I've had over thirty years to encounter someone—anyone—who can spark my romantic interest, and thus far, every challenger of every gender has failed. So either I am aromantic, or else you people have a skill issue.
Anyway, like anything to do with queerness, aromantic is a sprawling and diverse spectrum. You got your aroaces, aroallos, aroflux, arospikes, demiromantics, frayromantics, grayromantics, cupioromantics, there's a whole world of different experiences present under this umbrella. For me, though, just "aromantic" is fine. That's the broad label, that's the one I fall under, that's the identity I take pride in. Happy June!
