rhubarb

Ho-tan

Ho-tan (aka Scribe Elder Ho-tan) is a character from Yonderland! She is canonically transgender and uses she/her pronouns.

When Ho-Tan ate the wishing fruit, right away she wished for longer eyelashes. But in a heartbeat she picked another fruit, wished to be a woman, and chomped before anybody might stop her.

Why would her first wish be eyelashes? Why not wish for a gender affirming shape right away?

I have been thinking a lot about this character and the way the Six Idiots wrote her. All the elders accept her already, from her braids to her flowy nightgown. And yet when it comes time to wish, she starts small and hesitant. And this is how you know that they are writing Ho-Tan to be the most realistic gender questioning character they could put on screen.

When you suddenly realize that the fight you've been putting up against assigned gender roles does not have to continue, it's a tiny step into the "what-if" you've kept in the forbidden part of your heart. You're told that this lake you've always wanted to skate on is safe. But you've spent so long being overly safe that you are cautious with your first step. We want to trust, but we want to see if the lake will hold. So we start with something small. A pair of dad shorts instead of lady leggings. A haircut that is just a little more androgynous than before. A wish for a pair of longer eyelashes.

And then you feel the freedom. The realization that you really can stand on that ice. You step forward into the unknown, and all you've got is hope as the things that pulls you forward. And Ho-Tan, she mentally checks. Is my location safe? Are my surroundings safe? Are my people safe people? And then she skates straight for the middle of the lake and dances. "OhandIwishIwereawoman" *big chomp*

If this character and scene had been written by someone who had no insight or empathy for gender envy or experimentation, she would have wished to be a woman and then groped her tits. The transformation would have been the joke. And when rhe wishes were reversed, male Ho-Tan would have acted comically sad that he couldn't squeeze boobs anymore.

But what do we see? Ho-Tan gets the body she's always wished for and she tosses her hair. Confidence. Happiness. Sassiness and strength. And when the wish is reversed, what do we see? A turning in of the shoulders, indicating a lack of confidence, sadness, wanting to curl up and protect herself again.

This is how you write queer characters as funny, but not as the punch-down punchline. Ho-Tan's literal wish fulfillment made her more her true self, and that true self then delivered support for the next joke ("Who made YOU king of the elders?") and off we go again. Not one single elder blinked an eye at her transformation because they knew that's who she was all along. The only injustice was equal wish power.

There's more to the Six Idiots than just being funny. This is what good queer media is! It's not necessarily making queer issues the center of the story. This type builds up a tapestry against which queer revelations can come about, and they fit right in. They are showing us what a safe, queer-friendly support network looks like and embedding it so fully that is normalized without being the first or even second thing you know about this world. They are showing us what it looks like for queer people to be part of society, and then they ask us, don't you think it looks like fun to be here?

Hello! It has been awhile, but I am happy to type to you again! Since I’ve ended our Ko-fi and returned to work on Welcome Home, I was trying to think of a way to provide public updates on where we are in between updates for fun! So we created a segment called “A Minute with Wally.”  Please read below for more information on what's going on!

Hello! It feels as though so much has happened recently! I would like to say that I hope everyone enjoyed the Julie Joyful Update and Welcome Home's first merchandise store! I'm very proud of how both arrived and I am hopeful and thankful to continue to do more! There are a few things I would like to write down!

Firstly, I intend to consistently update Ko-fi monthly as we prepare and complete our next update! I have a silly means of doing so, so I hope the first preview will be sweet! Next, I am so happy to say, the Welcome Home Web Shop will be returning! Although product is presently sold out, the shop should be re-opened in the summer of this year and hopefully alongside new products! (And of course, the rest of the cast to come following our next update!)

Smart.  Talented.  Beautiful.  Strong.  Funny. Trans.

Ho-Tan and Gabriel!

Oh no …… it fell off ( • ᴖ • )