Pardon, but your tie is not symmetrical.

Honestly though re: queer-coded villains, I always thought it was more of an aristocracy thing. In the middle ages (the era the Inkworld seems to take most from), the majority of the aristocracy were deliberately kind of what we'd now class as feminine.

yeah there's some truth to that aspect of it which is why i don't consider characters like firefox or the adderhead queer-coded despite both being rather well-dressed and stylish a lot of the time. the difference i think is that a lot of the details mentioned re: the other villains is that....it doesn't really have anything to do with character building as people who are rich/greedy/noblemen?

like for example, we can theoretically take the line about capricorn's habit of wearing silk dressing gowns as an indicator of his greed and demand to live well-off + how comfortable he is as the leader of this group as well, were it not for the fact that we also have random lines about the fact that capricorn has "full, feminine lips" and such. what does that line have to do with aristocracy and status? how does his supposed natural facial features contribute to his character?

the answer is, it doesn't. it's not a random fact. the line is meant to sow discontent and unease with the reader because he is being uncomfortably feminine. the reader is supposed to fill in the blank. "capricorn is an awful man. he does awful things. and he has feminine features. these are all related."

same goes for the piper. we're told "he has finely stitched gloves like a lady" but what does that actually tell us? if it's to implicitly show us his awful wealth he's gained as the ambitious and scornful figure he is, why tell us it's similar to that of a lady's gloves? why not just "finely stitched"? if we're being shown this male villain's simple character detail of being from the upper classes, why not a like a lord's gloves, which should be...exactly the same? if it's just the aristocracy it should be equal and not necessary to use gendered terms to describe it. it's on purpose.

these male villains are bad and they have feminine (read: not gender-conforming, non-heterosexual) features and character details that don't serve any other purpose except to make us hate them more.

it's....pretty classic queer-coding, imo.

this is without getting into orpheus' portrayal bc he's not even aristocracy plus how aristocracratic backgrounds themself are used as a form of queer-coding for many characters because of the overlap between tropes and/or how they can be used as a smokescreen to cover up queer-coding.

+++ the fact that cornelia has been known apparently to write very homophobic tropes into her writing before, and i'm not sure what the timeline is for when she wrote those vs. when she wrote inkheart, and i don't know what she's like nowadays, but i think it's pretty safe to say that the portrayal of several villains in inkheart is queer-coded actually and not just a coincidence.

Honestly though re: queer-coded villains, I always thought it was more of an aristocracy thing. In the middle ages (the era the Inkworld seems to take most from), the majority of the aristocracy were deliberately kind of what we'd now class as feminine.

yeah there's some truth to that aspect of it which is why i don't consider characters like firefox or the adderhead queer-coded despite both being rather well-dressed and stylish a lot of the time. the difference i think is that a lot of the details mentioned re: the other villains is that....it doesn't really have anything to do with character building as people who are rich/greedy/noblemen?

like for example, we can theoretically take the line about capricorn's habit of wearing silk dressing gowns as an indicator of his greed and demand to live well-off + how comfortable he is as the leader of this group as well, were it not for the fact that we also have random lines about the fact that capricorn has "full, feminine lips" and such. what does that line have to do with aristocracy and status? how does his supposed natural facial features contribute to his character?

the answer is, it doesn't. it's not a random fact. the line is meant to sow discontent and unease with the reader because he is being uncomfortably feminine. the reader is supposed to fill in the blank. "capricorn is an awful man. he does awful things. and he has feminine features. these are all related."

same goes for the piper. we're told "he has finely stitched gloves like a lady" but what does that actually tell us? if it's to implicitly show us his awful wealth he's gained as the ambitious and scornful figure he is, why tell us it's similar to that of a lady's gloves? why not just "finely stitched"? if we're being shown this male villain's simple character detail of being from the upper classes, why not a like a lord's gloves, which should be...exactly the same? if it's just the aristocracy it should be equal and not necessary to use gendered terms to describe it. it's on purpose.

these male villains are bad and they have feminine (read: not gender-conforming, non-heterosexual) features and character details that don't serve any other purpose except to make us hate them more.

it's....pretty classic queer-coding, imo.

this is without getting into orpheus' portrayal bc he's not even aristocracy plus how aristocracratic backgrounds themself are used as a form of queer-coding for many characters because of the overlap between tropes and/or how they can be used as a smokescreen to cover up queer-coding.

+++ the fact that cornelia has been known apparently to write very homophobic tropes into her writing before, and i'm not sure what the timeline is for when she wrote those vs. when she wrote inkheart, and i don't know what she's like nowadays, but i think it's pretty safe to say that the portrayal of several villains in inkheart is queer-coded actually and not just a coincidence.

CONCEPT: inkheart fandom holiday gift exchange. fanart, ficlets, edits, whatever

AAAAAAAAAH!!! i love that idea!!  👀👀👀

i’ve also had thoughts about like, when the inkheart fandom gets to a certain point (perhaps we have passed it?) about those fandom “x week” things, (either generic “inkheart fanfic week” or like specific character or ship ones?? but idk if we’re big enough for smth specific) but,, i personally have none of the knowledge or ability to set smth like that up…