#Agatha x Billy

[learningfromlosing]

Do not taunt the spirits. I repeat, DO NOT. TAUNT. THE SPIRITS.

Agatha, moments later:

[aaasource]

AGATHA ALL ALONG 1.02

[bestwitchsam]

New picture of Kathryn Hahn and director Gandja Monteiro behind the scenes of #AgathaAllAlong .

[evankinkley]

"Knowing that [billy created the road] while we were filming the Road scenes, being able to be a like see where Jac and her amazing writers laid the seeds of Agatha being like 'Oh, it's trials.' and then next thing we know trials pop up. You notice all of these things happen because Agatha suggests them to Billy and then it happens and it appears. It's just so clever." - Joe Locke

Confirmation that Billy is a good boy listening to his second mom.

[favorite-characters]

𝔸𝕘𝕒𝕥𝕙𝕒 𝔸𝕝𝕝 𝔸𝕝𝕠𝕟𝕘

Joe Locke as 𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐱𝐢𝐦𝐨𝐟𝐟 × Kathryn Hahn as 𝐀𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐚 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 (S01.E01-09 • 2024)

[jennytallent]

Yes you see your nose 👃🐽 is pucky

[itberice]

Agatha All Along I Death's Hand in Mine

[livingfandomly]

Shocking that when you focus on quality and give the story to actual writers they can successfully cement a character, give you her entire backstory, make you fall in love with her and make you cry when they kill her off, all in a span of 30mins.

[florida3exclamationpoints]

[lenalvthor]

okay im back 5 mins later but not to talk more about fandoms being silly but this time to rattle the bars of my cage about media analysis (if u want my qualifications go read my masters thesis idk)

i saw a post where someone was complaining about why we had a billy centric episode when it's agatha's show and i know i touched on the whole wiccan origin thing up there but i feel like i need to maniacally draw circles around photos on my conspiracy theory board and tell you that it's because billy is arguably The Most important character in agatha's story over these 9 episodes because he's symbolically standing in for nicholas

the importance of agatha losing her son is perhaps the Most crucial aspect of her characterisation that we are getting insight into in this show (followed closely by, I think, the glimpse of her mother's cruelty that we saw in her trial in ep 5). the grief and guilt agatha feels over the loss of her son is embedded so deeply into her psyche, that it was a part of agnes's backstory in the hex, even when agnes had no context for this loss at all. agatha, who as far as we know currently, sacrificed or lost nicholas as the price for obtaining the darkhold, only to then lose the darkhold to wanda, who died after being corrupted by it as she desperately searched for her sons after losing them when the hex went down. billy is intrinsically tied to agatha in this cyclical loop of motherhood and power and sacrifice and consequence.

though we knew it wouldn't be the case because it was too narratively obvious, there was clearly a point at which both agatha and teen wondered whether he was actually nicholas, and though they both realised otherwise at some stage, that doesn't mean that maybe isn't important. because we saw agatha was soft on him long before she had any certainty of who he was, he reminded her of her son or of who her son could have been, and even in episode 6 when his identity is revealed and they discuss what that means, she's proud and imploringly tells him not to feel guilty for his power and ambition. she's agatha, so she's a little psychotic, and there's an abundant lack of trust between them, but it's very obviously maternal.

the core theme of wandavision was the intertwined experience of love and grief and that's spilled into the heart of agatha all along too; agatha has learned not to regret much of the cruelty she's enacted through the centuries out of necessity and, again, the fact that she is, in some ways, a villain. but it's so obvious that nicholas is a weight of grief and guilt and regret, so to have billy here, the son wanda thought she'd lost but didn't, who so easily could be the son agatha lost but isn't - it's the most interconnected relationship and reciprocally symbolic character duo on the show.

this isn't to say that rio isn't tied to it, of course - if all our theories are correct and rio is death, then assumedly, the tension and animosity between the two is rooted in rio's inevitable part she played in agatha losing nicholas, but like i said in my earlier rant, rio is very clearly fleshing out a part of agatha's past because they seem to have not seen each other in a While. i don't mean this to say that rio and agatha might not have a reconciliation in the show, or that rio can't be a part of agatha's future, but more to emphasise that the story the show is telling is through the thematic entanglement between agatha and billy more than anything else

(also worth noting: the relationship between parents and children feels like the recurring theme between jac schaeffer's wandavision/agatha all along world - wanda creates the hex as an echo of the safe space her parents carved out for her and pietro through the sitcoms they watched in the war; out of her grief for vision, wanda created billy and tommy and her love for them would as good as cement them into existence even after the hex vanished; monica's whole journey in wandavision to awakening her powers is in the wake of her grief over coming back from the blip and her mom being gone; agatha and nicholas; jen being a midwife; alice and her mother; the maternal nature and vibe we get from lillia; all of the coven towards teen; agatha and her trauma over her mother's cruelty - i.e., this is not a show where romantic relationships are or should be the focus, and while there's nothing wrong with loving and appreciating a ship in a show, it's important to not start viewing the show through shipping lenses because that's not how storytelling works!)

hey i have a fucking bone to pick with sapphic fandoms

like, i get it okay. i've been on tumblr since 2011, i was in the trenches during the bury your gays nightmare, i grew up on buffy, i watched the 100, i've been through the furious and devastating queerbaits, and i've watched helplessly as the boom of proper progress with sapphic rep has burned and disappeared with the faults of the industry as it is rn and the resurgence of bury your gays in the form of tv cancellations

i even did a fucking guest lecture for a film & tv university course a couple years ago on all of this

we joke about the fact that queer (specifically sapphic) fans flock to any show with the barest hint of rep in it because we're so starved for it, and we talk about the fact that if nothing else, that proves that there's a market and an audience and it usually creates a huge wave of viewership and attention for the show

but i need to fucking point out: acting as though a show exists for the sole purpose of the sapphic relationship you've started watching it for is fucking detrimental to how you'll perceive the show, how it'll get talked about in fandom spaces and then beyond that (bc the line between fandom spaces and wider online discussion of media is a lot thinner than it was ten years ago) and isn't actually going to do any good for sapphic rep! like, at all! because guess what! unless you're watching a show where the entire storyline revolves around romance, this couple you're watching for ISN'T going to be the centre of the story! it's a part of it! and there's such a weird fucking entitled toxicity to how fans act around brilliant storytelling and worldbuilding and writing and characters throwing tantrums about not getting more screentime for the relationship they like because they don't actually care about any other part of the story. and the thing about people who watch something solely for a ship rather than the wider story it exists in, is that a lot of the time, you'll fundamentally misinterpret the characters and their dynamic because you're not taking any of the wider context of the world and story into account at all.

and yes, of course i'm talking about agatha all along in the immediacy. because we knew a long, long time ago that billy maximoff was gonna be an integral part of this story, long before we knew anything about what the vibe of this show was gonna be, long before anyone even had the tiniest whisper of rio's existence. the same way wandavision was monica rambeau's origin story even though the show was wanda's, we suspected that agatha all along would be billy's/wiccan's origin story even if the show focused on agatha. and you know fucking what. that's good fucking storytelling. this show is smart, it's funny, it's curious, it's campy, it's queer, and it's ensemble. that's always been the point. agatha and rio were a delightfully unexpected part of it that added such delicious tension and phenomenal sapphic rep, but you know what else! the point of that dynamic is to flesh out agatha's character! this show isn't about agatha and rio! it's about agatha and billy, who they are, how their pasts and their magic are connected, their traumas and their power and how the road shapes their futures! rio is a part of exploring agatha's past, and it's phenomenal, but i am so fucking bewildered by the ridiculousness of people's reactions to billy now having a bigger part in the story and there being less focus on agatha and rio. you do know that you write scenes and characters and stories in a way that makes sense right? that because of the nature of this show, even if we don't get more than a handful agatha and rio scenes for the rest of the episodes, they're both still sapphic characters, this is still wonderful sapphic rep, and this show is still very, very queer?

like, it's obviously not fair that we have to beg for scraps to have queer shows to watch. but that doesn't mean that any of us get to do such a fucking disservice to the people who make amazing shows and fight to put sapphic rep in them within the contexts of the stories they're telling by whining that it's not enough. what we're getting with agatha all along, what kathryn han and aubrey plaza and jac schaeffer have said with such grace and nuance and intrigue and depth about agatha and rio's relationship, is so fucking rare! and it's nestled within a story that's got so much other intricate storytelling that makes agatha and rio richer characters when you actually pay some fucking attention and care about who they are outside of their sexual tension!

and i'm saying this because this is an issue i see with So many other shows, where the worth of a show gets boiled down to fandoms wanting content of their ship and nothing else and then poisoning the conversation and reception around what else it is that show is doing with its story. idk get some fucking media literacy, grow up and respect artists and creatives.

[saneperfectdoller]

He looks like he discovered lesbianism

[agathasstrap]

My favorite thing about the AAA fandom is that any time one of us talks about the coven, we always use the character names in the show UNLESS it's patti lupone or billy.

It's always some shit like "gay witches plus patti lupone and a twink"

Or, "sometimes your family is made up of witches with mommy issues, a gay adoptive son, and patti lupone"

[sapphosclosefriend]

This is the outfit of a lesbian who made so many women realize they were gay back then

[bestwitchsam]

agatha all along wandavision

[evankinkley]

something something about agatha seeing so much of nicholas in billy from the beginning and not wanting to get him involved in her scheme.

flat out saying the road doesn't exist, making sure it's clear he's not part of the coven, sending him away when they're actually doing the ballad to "open the road"...

[tremordusk]

Billy: So if you were the mother…who was Nicky’s Dad?

Agatha: He didn’t have one. I made him myself, similar to how your mother made you.

Billy: Oh…with magic?

Agatha: Yes

Rio: Actually I’m Nicky’s Father

Agatha: No you’re not

Rio: I was there

Billy: How?

Agatha: DON’T—

Rio: WHEN AGATHA AND I REALLY LOVE EACH OTHER—