Luca is basically a kind of loosely based on a director's childhood slightly. That’s the inspiration.
It’s because it’s kids for kids and on top of it Disney is what makes all of this.
I really doubt Disney would be fine with queer content nowadays. They’re fine with the fanfare of first gays and shots of gay kisses but not actual exploration or just having good stories with queer characters but their queerness doesn’t define them entirely; Owl House, Heartstopper, and OFMD are some of the recent examples here. Except Owl House got canceled and the new animated film Strange World has a gay protagonist yet there is no promotion in the likes of the previous Disney films, particularly the white ones or the Lin-Manuel ones. Raya is just there and my Vietnamese is really hearing many things about beautiful leaf or shoes; Vietnamese is a tonal language and I’m better at listening so I’m just…what are they saying because it sounds like it could mean many things?! I’m sorry but as much as I am a queer Viet, I’m just unable to let go of the tonal use in that pet name I guess.
It just happens that the LGBT community sees their queer experiences.
That’s understandable and allowed. When the LGBT community doesn’t have enough mainstream material for themselves to see in, they have queer readings and that’s all they got. In the west, it often leads to backlash because ‘kids can’t be queer!’.
Queer readings are allowed. To disallow and worse demonize such readings is homophobic.
A queer reading does not take away from the story and its themes. The LGBT knows that.
Intersectionality is there. For fuck's sake, to deny queer people don't exist everywhere else that is not white makes me question your sanity.
For the love of Godoka, I am an autistic Demi Bi naturalized Vietnamese American citizen.
Queer non-neurotypical people of color do exist.
This isn't fucking sexualizing these kids. Not only does it reinforce that kids are 'too young' for queerness but also queerness equates to sex.
No, just no.
Kids are allowed to be queer. They should allow to be themselves.
The LGBT is not just sexual but also includes kids just discovering themselves. Because even when the LGBT community isn't all rainbows and unicorns on its own, it's about allowing kids to discover themselves.
Just because the LGBT pride events are sex-positive doesn't mean that we would force other people to participate like that. Asexuality and the gray spectrum exist! Ace people do have sex! It just depends on the person.
Sexuality is not inherently about sex. Spectrum and it’s not like people wear the same flags throughout their whole life.
Let me tell you what happened to me.
When I was in elementary school where I met my childhood friends, whether or not I realized it, I started to crush on some of my friends. Just a crush, not a sexual thought ever entered my mind just to be clear because I was just a kid. I just thought 'she's so smart! She looks cute...'.
I didn't know what to think about why I thought my friends were cute. From 4-6th grades, I definitely knew there was something I couldn't land a finger on.
When I was 12 or 13 but definitely leaning toward 12, I discovered fanfiction on FF.Net and it was like a pandora's box for me. I was smart enough to see lemon and lime are things that just aren't on my radar. I remember leaning toward the mxm ships but not quite as much as I did once I dove into fandom.
Fandom was definitely a safe place for me to explore. Anime definitely helped me as I was discovering that I can like girls and it’s okay.
In middle school, I started to have concrete reasoning for why I felt this way. I met more people and definitely think more girls and guys are cute. When my parents signed me up for an after-school tutoring center, there I met more people. Around this time, I had begun to read mature fics but not quite smut. I was in FF.Net then still but won't move to AO3 until the tail end of high school.
It was in high school that I started to define myself as bisexual. There was this one guy and several girls that I found attractive at my after-school tutoring. I went full smut fanfiction once I hit high school. Actually, now that I think about it, Risa Niigaki who played the Prince in the Morning Musume and Takarazuka Revue had a part too.
I didn’t discover myself to be Demi until college. When I looked back on everything when paired with my bisexuality, it was like a lightbulb. I felt comfortable saying I’m Demi because I feel it makes the most sense.
See, even as young as elementary school age, I was discovering who I like. I remember not being into that many people so it was enough for me to look back and see myself as a demi. Especially considering I developed crushes on people I know rather than having a dreamy crush on someone out of reach. I can see they are attractive but it's not enough for me to develop stronger feelings.
Queer headcanons are fine. It does little to hurt the story; what does hurt if it has stereotypes. The best I have seen from queer headcanons that don’t stereotype is whether or not it’s a heterosexual explanation for that. Seriously for friendship-based stories, it’s all fine.
For the love of Godoka, it’s fine if you don’t ship Luca x Alberto. For queer kids, it’s great to be seen. Perhaps if I was younger, I would’ve connected to the ship better as I did slowly discover myself. Shipping is not activism; you are not homophobic for not shipping something gay or for not seeing the subtext. I’m mostly eh with this ship in particular but that does not negate me, especially as a Demi bi.
All the LGBT fanbase wants to have their queer reading seen alongside the male friendship that others see. While the LGBT fanbase can be pushy though not with good reason considering that just nowadays western homophobia is refused to be acknowledged with a queer content cut left and right in streaming services, at the end of the day, they just want their queer kids and the queer reading to be seen.
It’s not horrible. What is harmful is if a headcanon overtakes the text.
I have seen this even in innocuous textual readings. Just don’t let headcanons overtake the text instead layer the headcanon onto the text if it doesn’t oppose the text. It can coexist that way. A headcanon is a coexisting layer of canon that is not denied in canon; going against canon is not what a headcanon is supposed to be.
Oh, I have queer headcanons then and I still do now.
Dabihawks, my OTP of MHA, is demi homo. Demi for each other only while homo as they previously have sex with other men prior to meeting each other.
Spinneraki, my second big ship of MHA, is demi for each other. Spinner made a convincing argument for himself in the MVA arc.
The Todosibs are queer and funnily enough furries. Fuyumi is a lesbian who dates and later marries Rumi AKA Miruko. Natsuo is bisexual and dates his mouse girlfriend. Shouto is poly and dating two men including having other people in the poly.
If you want Disney hcs, let's go!
I see Bruno Madrigal as an ace demi. Barring his powers that destroyed his romantic prospects within the town, I just don't see him as a gay man. He seems more ace to me. I repeat this is just me. You can have your gay Bruno, ya know, heck I read gay Bruno. This is just a hc. I don't mind seeing older gays because OFMD means everything to me. It's just how I see it and it's fine. It's a headcanon that coexists with canon.
I do see Isabella as a lesbian though. She's definitely a lesbian in my mind. I enjoy reading lesbian Isabella.
I do love queer hcs, especially in the ace spectrum and pan. Very rare I see demi characters because I’m Demi and I want rep damn it.
Let’s go to sports animanga hcs.
Kageyama Tobio is Demi ace. He doesn’t mind sex but he doesn’t think much of it either.
Hinata Shouyo is ace pan. Sex isn’t in his mind either but he can have sexual thoughts and get off on it. Volleyball is still on his mind but at least he knows sex intimately more than Kageyama.
Reki is Demi bi. He’s attracted to women certainly but with Langa, it’s like everything though his self-esteem issues don’t help.
Langa is Demi homo. Like Dabihawks who are Demi for each other only, Langa is attracted to Reki exclusively. Langa is not straight which I’m pretty sure everyone agreed on. He definitely thinks of sex with Reki only; he’s definitely the horny one of the two while Reki is the dominant one in the bed.
See, everything’s fine.
These sexuality headcanons are headcanons. They coexist alongside canon.
Saying these LGBT headcanons shouldn’t exist is bad, especially for working with BIPOC characters.
That is… I’m beyond angry because I’m a queer Vietnamese American and I know Vietnam has a large LGBT community. To say they don’t exist is making me see red. I know there are queer people in SEA and the global south and East Asia.
Because Japan has queer and BIPOC characters appear in their works are seen as some instead of seeing it as trying to tell a story as opposed to the mixed things we get here in the West. It’s as if Japan doesn’t have its own issues with LGBT and feminism; just to be clear, Japanese feminism is different from western feminism.
It’s not as if Korea doesn’t have a backlash against feminism right now with the incels. Oh, it’s not like antiblackness doesn’t exist considering Krap and Kpop appropriate black music all the time without giving them due credit.
Western homophobia exists. As it always does. Stop using Asia as a shield when fucking Disney nowadays kowtowed to laws that hurt queer people. Transphobia is overt but homophobia still exists obviously.
Oh, how backward the East is when the West is so forward.
Wow, I thought people wouldn’t care about the Disney live-action remakes considering the track record. Yet here we are now with the first peek of the movie. Bashing a black mermaid as if they can’t possibly exist is racist; that’s all there to it. A black mermaid is the least of the worries.
I honestly worry about what they are gonna do. Lots of the live action are turning out like the Disney DTD sequels but at least those know what they are. The live-action spent too much time correcting than actually telling a good story. The ones that survived are Cinderella and maybe 101 Dalmatians and maybe Cruella. Lion King and Beauty and the Beast do not count as they only won by name power, not of their own merit. The latter’s director is in charge of the TLM live-action so it’s obvious he was given the job because of BATB’s success.
Like, even though the live-action TLM has been in development for some time now, Pinnochio was a rushed affair with no understanding of the source material just as bad as the Lion King and Mulan were. Those were bad like stinker bad. I’m not looking forward to the Mufasa prequel at all. Again, Beyoncé’s Black is King is a hell of a lot better than the TLK live-action.
At least we won’t see black pain in the TLM remake.
Black pain is already enough in media, we need black joy; we can acknowledge the generational trauma nor should we forget but there’s so much black pain that I want to see happiness. No historical revisionism can be malicious. Acknowledging the heroes and victims and telling their stories are one thing but it shouldn’t be the consistent thing I see in mainstream Black films. I want fun and I know good films are bubbling. Nope is great as per usual from Peele. Like, you can do social commentary intelligently but it shouldn’t just be slaves and lynching. I want romcoms and other good movies.
The West with the GOP’s regressive and power-hungry selfish fascist ways is obvious with a few sane republicans. I’m none too happy to see my brother listen to Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson; I listened to them a few times and the feelings I get were uneasiness and not wanting to listen to them for any longer than I should have to. If I were to listen to them, I’ll rather have someone suffer through them and deconstruct them.
It’s not as if Disney would raise a voice now to help the queer community even though they’ll happily up the prices of rainbow merch. I'm not buying LGBT shit from them, only from LGBT creators.
I'm going to stop talking about this now. I'm getting way off-topic.
But you get the point, don't you? About what was said before the rant?
