Leo / Aug 6 / Fem / Bi / Emmy-Emmer-Em/ My Ao3 is Emers_Writes / Voltron / Klance / Star vs The Forces of Evil / Sonic / #sth / #svtfoe / Legend of Zelda / #botw / Miraculous Ladybug / #mlb / and just... a lot more / requests are open for art / To see my art, tag is #mine or #my art
ok this is “earring magic ken” who was introduced in 1992 (and discontinued shortly thereafter)
basically mattel had done a survey and discovered that girls didn’t think ken was “cool” enough
SO someone had the bright idea to research coolness by sending people to raves which, at the time, were mostly hosted & attended by gay men. so they went to these raves and took notes on what the fashions were and finally landed on this outfit, mesh shirt & all
this doll became the best selling ken doll in history, mostly because gay men bought it in droves. (many of them said his necklace was supposed to be a cockring) but mattel and a number of parents weren’t very amused and discontinued the doll
MAGIC EARRING KEN. This bitch gay as HELL. supposedly the aforementioned rings on him are for “magic earrings” and clip on charms. These charms are advertised as totally COMPLETELY heterosexual, not gay at ALL, see there’s a Barbie that also has Magic Earring Action with clip on charms! Ken wears them to match, because he’s STRAIGHT
Here’s the issue: THERE IS NO MATCHING BARBIE. Magic Earring Ken is out here straight up wearing cock rings on his jacket with a thinly devised advertising ploy to make it SEEM not-gay. But it’s DEFINITELY GAY. (And if you’re thinking, why cock rings? Well way back in 1992 gay culture was HUGE on wearing cock rings, it was the in-style. Everyone who was gay wore one, even women; you sewed them to your leather jacket, and the placement indicated some of your sexual preference. In case you were wondering, Ken is a Bottom.)
AND IT GETS BETTER. Magic Earring Ken was on the shelves for six weeks before they pulled him. In that short amount of time? Magic Earring Ken became the BEST SELLING Barbie Doll Mattel has EVER SOLD. LET THAT SINK IN. SIX WEEKS. And now every time these wheezy old hetero windbag execs go to look at their sales board, they’re forever haunted by Magic Earring Ken at the top of their charts.
Gay as hell, Cock Ring Bottom Ken, the Best Selling Mattel Doll. Pride.
Now, one could say he was surprised at the situation since the jury is still out on whether or not the kwami are aware of their kiddos actions when they’re in the suits…but, honestly, I think that was him reacting to Marinette. Because Tikki doesn’t have the same reaction–which makes me wonder if she somehow knew who Adrien was already.
Look at his face, he recognizes Marinette.
And oh doesn’t this just beat all? He’s teased Adrien about Marinette from the first. (In Origins he refers to Marinette as Adrien’s new girlfriend.) And no doubt he’s noticed Marinette’s behavior at some point even if he never really cared enough to give a damn. (We know in an upcoming episode Plagg is gonna be like “Woooow she must really like you ;3″ or something to that effect to Adrien…which holy shit takes on a whole new depth all of a sudden…!!!!) And now…she’s LADYBUG. Ladybug, who Adrien is absolutely head over heals for, is the girl with a crush on him in his class.
Look what I’m saying is…Plagg is probably about to board the good ship Adrientte and try to get that shit sailing.
also i’d just like to say im disappointed there were no kwami hugs
First, I just want to say that I know a lot of people did their versions of Lance’s meta and insecurities, but I wanted to do one for my point of view of things and how I think it’s going to be handle over the series. Oh, and that my original language isn’t english, so sorry for any mistakes! Thank you :)
So, @honestlyprettychill did a post that shows a scene of the official comics that really got me thinking of doing my own character analysis on Lance… So thanks to them I’m here typing all of this, lol.
Anyway, let’s start this. Lance says:
“Trust me. I’ve had a lot of practice… A lot.”
This single part of the sentence says a lot about Lance’s character, if you ask me.
According to the quote, Lance had crushes before, and probably 95% of them rejected him. And, my dudes, that can hurt someone’s confidence really hard.
Imagine yourself liking someone enough to end up at a point where you want to hug, kiss, cuddle, hold hands with them, but they don’t like you the same way and reject you saying, probably, “you’re not my type” or something like that. It hurts, my dudes.
And Lance says that he went through
this a lot. My poor sharpshooter ;^;
And following this line of
thought, that can explain why Lance has the need to be the best at everything and why he is so jealous of Keith since the start as well.
Here we have Iverson saying to Lance to not follow Keith’s footsteps, because Keith was kicked out because of his bad discipline. And right before this, Iverson says:
Since the start Lance was the “second best” or “the one after someone else”, and that stayed on his mind. He was being compared all the time with someone else, and trust me, being compared with someone “better” than you is pretty quiznaked up.
He, at this time, probably already has the trust-issues on himself, because he was rejected before the Garrison, as said by the comics, so Iverson wasn’t much of a help to him on that matter.
And we all know that he thinks he’s a seventh wheel on the team:
This boy doesn’t believe in himself because of all the things he has been
through and all the times he has been compared before. And the rejections he has passed totally had a big part in this as well.
He probably thinks he isn’t good enough to anyone, and that’s why he got rejected a lot in the past. Because “he isn’t good enough”.
That’s something that crosses his mind on a daily basis, if you ask me.
There’s nothing concrete to support that he thinks this, but it’s pretty clear to me that he does.
So, to hide his trust issues, Lance flirts with all the girls possible, and never tries to do more than flirting and having a fun time with them. And it’s confirmed that he is afraid of being in a relationship with someone (Lance’s Paladin vlog).
The boy literally tried to flirt with noodle people, I can’t
He uses this “over-confident” Lance to act around everyone. Lance doesn’t want to show his insecurities to anyone, because he’s probably scared of being rejected again and being seen as a “weak link” for the others.
The only times he showed his insecurities was when he was with Laika in s1, Coran in s1as well, and Keith in s3. And at the end of two of this times, I can say for sure that Lance ended better, and Lance actually got a positive answer and (maybe) helped even if a little bit to get over his insecurities and become someone stronger.
Lance can be confident the way he wants to be. Lance can be the strong hero he oh so sees himself being. But for that to happen he’ll need help from the team and from himself.
He’s starting to have some hints that his character arc will be mostly about him learning more about himself and that he isn’t just a “seventh wheel” or “the second best” at everything. He can be so much more, and with the help of his friends, I’m sure he’ll be able to do it without doubt.
And add up, Lance wanted to pilot Black not because he wanted to help everyone and save the universe. It was because he wanted to prove himself and show everyone that he’s the best, that he’s the leader, that he is the most capable of the team.
But again, he got rejected.
The scene at the start was very serious and showed how much Lance wanted to pilot Black so that could “be his moment”.
But, of course, it became a comic relief with Lance’s anger being showed as something to laugh (let’s admit, we all laughed even if a little bit at this).
The scene had so much meaning at the start, and to be honest, they should have maintained the seriousness until Keith entered Black.
But that wouldn’t look like Lance at all.
Lance wouldn’t show his sadness to the team so openly serious, of course he would act like he is upset but in a funny way. It’s exactly what he would do.
And that’s the sad part of this scene.
Lance is disappointed at himself for not being good enough for Black, and Keith being Black’s paladin in the end hurt Lance a lot as well.
He lost once more to someone that was always better than him.
Rejected again by something that he really wanted.
Edit; @schoolgirl5635 mentioned that Blue “rejected” him back in s3 as well, and I want to add this because it helps the idea as well.
Blue was Lance’s big comfort during the series, Lance and her were the firsts to bond in the team and Lance had a deep connection with her.
But again, she didn’t let him stay for long.
We all know that Blue only did that because it was the time for Lance to move on and grow up by piloting Red, but I think Lance doesn’t knows that.
Lance thinks that Blue hates him now, and probably he thinks that Blue chooses Allura because she’s better than him.
Nothing concrete to this, but I think it’s plausible to think this. Well, at least with Allura Lance wasn’t that disappointed for losing Blue.
But we know as well that he still thinks Allura is better than him, as he said when he was talking to Keith in the same season.
He knows that Allura is better than him, and that blue chose her because she will be a “better paladin” for her than Lance.
Rejected once more by something he loved, because someone was better than him… Once more.
That hurts him deeply and brought his insecurities one more time. And this time he was so insecure that he actually talked with someone about it, something that he never did before. (What I mean by never did before it’s because with Laika and Coran he didn’t go to them to talk about it, it was something from the moment of the scene that made him talk.)
The boy had and has a lot of rejections, and I’m afraid that maybe his feelings for Allura will hurt him in the future.
And no, I’m not saying “Oh, Allurance is going to be bad for Lance because it isn’t another ship and blah blah blah blah”. I am an Allurance shipper, it’s not my main ship but I still like their dynamics and their relationship.
But, to be honest, I’m scared that Allura doesn’t see Lance in any sort of romantic way yet. (And maybe not even yet, she’ll probably never like him like he likes her)
And I fear that if Lance gets rejected one more time, he’ll probably need a lot of reassurance to make sure that he is good enough. He’s having so much progress with everything going on. He’s becoming someone that has more honest confidence in himself.
I just hope that in the next few seasons Lance will have his so deserved character development that will show his insecurities and how he’ll get over them and finally be the one he wants to be, but not because he needs to be this someone.
Maybe it will involve Allura and Lance’s crush on her and how he’ll move on from her or even starts to have a deeper relationship with her (platonically or romantically, it’s up to you now). Maybe he’ll discover that he can be strong and trust himself more because of Hunk and Pidge helping him with his trust issues, because he’ll finally open up to them like he should have done since s1. Maybe he’ll move on from his and Keith’s rivalry and see that he doesn’t need to compare himself with anyone anymore to prove that he is the best.
Only time will tell.
But, one thing that I truly hope that happens it that Lance will finally be happy with who he is and that he doesn’t think that he is a seventh wheel to the team.
After all, everyone on the team loves Lance dearly, and that’s a fact.
(Adding to this, I love this scene because it’s almost like Lance and Pidge had a space mall date as sibs or bfs, you decide again ;) )
He is loved by his team, and I’m sure he’ll notice how much he is loved with time and will finally realize that he isn’t a seventh wheel. Lance will see that he is part of a new family.
In this time of term papers I wanted to draw my patron deity, Bullshitticus, god of students and general last minute fudgery, sitting upon his Golden Futon, attended by the muses Caffeina and Thesaurae, whose powers of artificial energy and pretentious vocabulary can be invoked in case of the all-nighter.
I like to think he’s Dionysus’s second cousin or something.
ruinedchildhood
