Over the years I've seen a lot of comments here and there whenever the Venture Bros comes up, people coyly lampshading it as a product of its time when recommending it, or just remembering it as homophobic and transphobic outright. Apparently the creators have publicly apologized for some of the show's dicier jokes in this area.

But here's the thing... I've been rewatching from the beginning recently, and... it's all really good? The worst thing I think is probably the way people call things "gay" and "retarded" sometimes, since we don't really use those words so casually anymore, but it's never that bad and usually it's Rusty saying something like that and we're meant to laugh at him for his abrasive tone about everything. Usually those moments end up working for a bit of funny.

And then there's Hunter Gathers, who is just, in my opinion, the best the-joke-is-they're-trans character ever written. Every single Hunter Gathers wants to be a woman moment is like, it could've been written with a trans consultant in the room. It's all very real to the trans experience, Hunter's feelings are serious and portrayed realistically. But somehow they also squeeze endless jokes out of Hunter's combined experience of dysphoria and devotion to manly spywork, and it just works.

I think maybe the best example of how well they threaded this needle is in the first Hunter episode, Assassinanny 911. Brock has the typical gross-out reaction TV shows do for a trans reveal, except he's actually just reacting to the fresh scars all over Hunter from recent invasive surgery, not to the trans thing. The doctor says it's what she wants, and Brock reflects on the OSI code of "no women no children," and respects Hunter as a woman by letting her live. Then he checks on the bottom surgery (which is a mess of blood and bandages right after an operation) for another subversion of the gross-out cliche and a "just had to be sure." It's all hilarious in a way that's drawn directly out of the body horror of having to go through gender reassignment surgery and that instantly has Brock respecting the transition, with Hunter's transness not actually being the butt of the joke.

Brock: WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM???

Dr Vulcano: Only what she asked!

There's good dramatic representation, which is what everyone wants most of the time. But it's so rare to find good representation of LGBT issues that is also comedic. Venture Bros hit that nail right on the head and I am glad they went there. Trans people deserve jokes about us that aren't mean, and this show has them in spades.

"let's try to keep a little dignity"

With "Guys", Mike.

I always wished Hunter Gathers got to transition again and more nerdily i wish we. got a domestic episode of The Monarch and Rusty

I wonder how many times they rebuilt him

“You’re a bum, Rock!”

Shirts:

- Radiant is the Blood

- Follow That Bikini

- Four Hanks

- Jefferson Twilight

I haven't seen this discussed anywhere but in blood of the baboon heart when Dean accidentally touches hank and gets transported to Coma Town, he is wearing the same costume that he was in showdown at cremation creek part II. In that Dr. Orpheus says he is trapped between worlds, which was obviously meant to be a joke as he was clearly high on engine fumes. But know maybe it wasn't maybe Dean was so close to death he was breaking in purgatory or he was having an incredible identity crisis that manifested itself into a mental portal to purgatory the old dean dying in the process. What does this tell us about purgatory in the venture universe? if hank can manifest his alternate personalities and is able to abandon him know that he has grown up, maybe like hank the alternate versions of venture characters in Deans "Dream" are the preconceptions about his hero's he is abandoning as he is finally able to see his dad and the other adults for the complete ass hats they are. Or maybe more likely its just supposed to be a coooool reference.

I included my most recent picture of myself just as a comparison.

Her voice doesn't bother me. It adds to the mystic😏❤️‍🔥

From time to time I see the Hank will end up being ng an Arch theory come up. I understand the logic but I think it's is totally the other way round.

Dean would end up being Hanks Arch.

The way I read it Dean is so much more likely to be a Super Villain. He was naive, well natured, smart idealist who was crushed traumatically in a short period of time.

He fell foolishly in love with a girl who was never go to like him in any romantic way. He found out he was a clone and took it very hard. He started wearing only black and burning all the things he loved. His father constantly pushed him a direction that Dean in his heart didn't want to do. And when his brother found a REAL girlfriend he slept with her.

And yes we saw charter growth and trying to make amends. But the story is not over

Hank on the other hand while....Hank....shows incredible ability to roll with the punches. He loves life. Early on in Tag Sale you're It, he starts Hankco and while silly, shows exactly what to do. He talks about unions and the sandwich is there to sell Lemonade. He finds a hat and becomes so cool he sleeps with an older woman. Hank is totally Batman as he proved in Abomination.

Dean however is kinda tragic. I can totally see Dean hate Hank and living a life like The Mighty Monarch.

But that is just how I read it.

Jonas Venture says this to Vendata/Venturion/ The Blue Morpho/ Don Fitzcorraldo, not only is this a reference to his robocop, cyborg body, but also a dig at his fertility problem, Jonas is a dick

Do you guys think that moe rusty should be canon?