Posted on 13. June 2026. (technically the 14th but i just barely did it over midnight give me a break :P )
Originally posted on 13. June 2026 on Discord.
hello and welcome ladies, gentlemen, neithers, boths, and inbetweens to day 7 of milkas' expression corner !!
for today's topic, most of you fellas reading this in the early discord draft probably know all about it, but i wanted touch on it anyways (mostly for my website-reader audience), so i'm gonna be talking about the blatant queer pandering in the angry birds franchise!!
the first instance of this was on june 15th of 2022, when rovio used a one-off bird to make a pride-related comic. the comic was very vague and depicted some sort of transgender experience, though not much was detailed on. this would not be referenced again for a while and the bird would go unnamed until 2024, when they finally got the name "Dusk".
dusk is the first non-binary angry bird in the franchise, and would go on to be practically forgotten from this point onwards, never getting a speaking role or any lines in anything whatsoever, not being featured in any games, comics, or anything past a couple other social media posts that amounted to nothing but clear pandering.
the second non-binary bird to be created is called "Jo".
jo was first teased on june 3rd of 2023, with their full design being revealed the next day, made by a guest artist, Giorgio Giussani. they were used in a few social media posts, not really amounting to anything, just like dusk. they would eventually get a poorly made comic of their own called "Jo's Stage Flight", which was... marginally better than dusk's comic, though still very clearly poorly made with the intention of hanging onto pride as a "trend". they would also soon seemingly get an event in angry birds 2, though this simply turned out to be a reskin of the "Golden Duck" spell, which did not fit them at all and is also the spell that constantly gets reskinned for basic events.
their first proper appearance in a game was in 2025, in angry birds bounce, a game with a relatively bloated cast at launch.
their abilities include making pigs catch on fire, as well as making them dance, to eventually also catch on fire.
their personality in the little speaking roles that the birds have in that game includes being overly cheerful, supportive and team-oriented (oddly enough despite the game having nothing to do with groups of people in any sense?), constantly saying things like "Great, everyone!" and "Go team!", clearly being a sign of jo still being defined by them being a queer character and nothing else past that, making them very shallow and their only reason for existence being to be blatant forced queer representation.
jo would once again be featured in a comic, though they have no other notable appearances.
another noteworthy thing to mention is 2024's pride month social media posts, as they are known for pairing very random flags with very random characters, such as chuck being a straight ally, or their pick for the "bear" being... tony of all characters, the one-off from angry birds seasons' episode "On Finn Ice". the tagline "we belong together" would be used for this line, and it was pretty much universally hated due to being yet again obvious queer pandering.
that's about all that comes to mind regarding the topic right now, and i feel like i've written enough for now. if you have any questions or comments, feel free to ask !!
