tbh we really need two separate terms for what we're currently calling hcs. i suppose you can also say that you read a character as xyz and i do say that but like. interpreting what it is already going on in the text but isn't stated to be a personality disorder or transgenderism or what have you, whether that's bc it wasn't strictly intended by the author or bc they just didn't pin it down and spell it out, is different than making stuff up. and i think making stuff up is awesome but there's no world in which it makes sense to present that kind of hc as #representation bc if someone else picked up that story, they wouldn't see it the way you did except by coincidence. but sometimes it's really obvious where a hc is coming from, like with people saying mob has DID, to the point where it feels equivalent to how some animanga classified as yuri don't have the main characters kiss so there's teeechnically plausible deniability but it's still Right There and it's really a matter of personal preference if you only want to see more explicit representation. i think i might just be saying words rn but you understand what i'm saying hopefully?