I usually feel like it's an unnecessary and possibly rude detail to mention I picture Phoenix chubby and Miles fat, but I assure you when I talk about them that is how they look. I am beaming it directly into your head. You can visualize them however you want otherwise, but for at least as long as it takes you to read my writing they are fat, and you don't get a say in this
I'm half joking but like. At the same time I'm dead serious about this and I'm not entirely sure why I'm so defensive. This is just Very Important to me as a fat person
The eternal struggle of "if I mention this it'll throw people off since it's just a headcanon" versus "I need people to understand my interpretation of these characters EXACTLY"
And like, it's usually fine if it's something widely accepted, or a fic centering around the headcanon, but you can't really off-handedly mention chronic pain, or a mental disability, or a body type that directly contradicts canon, without worrying about people being caught off guard and asking questions
...did this just accidentally turn into a commentary on ableism and fatphobia in fandom. i don't know enough about that to pick a fight or something fuck go back
Unfortunately I tend to assume people are gonna be obtuse, because more often than not there's at least one or two people that demand to know why I've made this character neurodivergent or fat or trans. And it's just... why shouldn't I. If that seriously ruins the experience for you, then I think you might need to reexamine yourself, because these people do exist in everyday life, believe it or not
I think it's important to have casual representation, but I still have internalized ableism and fatphobia and transphobia I struggle with, and that hinders me from adding things without justification because I've needed to go my whole life justifying my not being skinny and cis and neurotypical. But the thing is I don't have to justify the existence of those things, in myself or the characters I write about. They're just things that happen, conditions that exist, and more people need to get that through their heads