#cane toad

Typically media presents cops in 3 ways: heroes whose violence serves to protect others; antiheroes who are violent in an ends justify the means way; and corrupt cops who are brought to justice by the "good" cops. They all posit and celebrate "good violence".

Alex Dempsey fits none of these. He does want to protect others, but his violence isn't in service of that. It arises from the trauma of his inability to protect his mother from his abusive father, which of course wasn't his fault seeing as he was a child, and yet still it fills him with shame. When he becomes violent, it doesn't save anyone. The help he provides Abbie does not come via violence. He gives her a way to communicate, listening and believing, information. He gives her the resources she needs to save herself. His violent acts on the other hand are covered up. They are not celebrated, even by Tall Pines. They use it to control him. Alex tries to be a protector, but continues to fail.

Alex wrestles with whether he can be a good parent and spouse, when his parents relationship and parenting were so terrible. He longs for an idealized marriage and family life. A layer of that longing is connected to him being trans. However those are questions, a journey, that every spouse and parent has to wrestle with, no matter their background or identity.

I read people arguing that he's not good trans representation because he wrestles with violence. But that is part of what is so brilliant about this representation. He is neither valorized nor villainized. We root for Alex even as we are appalled by some of his choices. Actual people are not solely good or bad, they are a mix of beauty and ugliness and trauma and joy and longing and mistakes and pain and hope. Instead of reducing the character to a self-conscious prop of goodness, he is a fully formed complex messy human being.

Leshy is an American dagger moth caterpillar, his little black spiky things and fluffy green appearance all match up with it. Since he’s clearly an adult, but is also stuck as a caterpillar, my headcanon is that his godhood prevented him from fully aging, as he was a caterpillar when being granted his power. He also can read in braille, however he is dyslexic, so he’s not very good at it.

Heket is a Cane Toad. Since Cane Toads are prevalent in Australia and are known for having an incredibly large appetite (and incredibly large size), I’d bet actual money that that’s what she was based off. Also yes, she canonically is a toad she isn’t a frog guys. It’s also incredibly painful for her to speak, even after her being healed, so she chooses to communicate through sign language most of the time.

Narinder is an Egyptian Mau, the first ever species of domestic cat (they also are often black in color). I also dreamt that he’s ambidextrous so that’s now a headcanon I have, idk my subconscious projected it onto him. Maybe it’s bc I myself am ambidextrous, or maybe I’m just weird.

Kallamar is a vampire squid, since vampires are blamed for the spread of disease, plus vampire squids have lil ears + a big ass forehead, it just makes sense to me. Since Kallamar is either partially or entirely deaf, he can communicate through speech but can only receive information through sign language. Him and Heket have the easiest time communing.

Shamura is a regal jumping spider, as seen with their bright coloration and big eyes. They use post-it notes to remind themself of things, however 90% of the time the notes are entirely unhelpful 1-word clues. Sometimes Leshy will intentionally mess with them by leaving fake notes.

A cane toad (Rhinella marina).

Image credit: Shutterstock.