#I got plenty of queer characters it wouldn’t hurt to keep her straight

[theamazingannie]

Idk if I’m just incapable of writing straight characters or if the gods have just spoken through me but I’ve been writing one of my few straight girl characters and realizing more and more that this girl is gay af and it’s a problem cuz I’ve already got her whole arc planned out of the different guys she dates and her endgame guy and there’s really no room for a sensible gay awakening but I’m worried she might be a lesbian lmao

[merrock]

CHARACTER INFORMATION

face claim: Peter Gadiot

full name: Vitus Aydin

nickname(s) / goes by: Vitus

pronouns & gender: cis man, he/him

sexuality: bisexual

birth date: September 30, 1983

birth place: Brooklyn, NY

arrival to merrock: I imagine he moved at the end of summer last year, August 2022.

housing: Renting a condo downtown until he figures out where exactly he wants to live.

occupation: bartender

work place: Vibrations

family: mother, Ava; father, Demir. They didn’t move with him so they keep in touch via phone and every-once-in-a-while visits.

relationship status: single

PERSONALITY

+ Friendly / Optimistic / Selfless / Openminded

— Passive / Sensitive / Insecure / Messy

Vitus is friendly and outgoing. He’s an open book who loves getting to know new people and isn’t one to judge. He tends to look on the bright side of situations.

He’s also a hopeless romantic, in both platonic and more intimate senses. He’s very much the type to romanticize his whole life and latch on to good memories. He wears his heart on his sleeve, sometimes to a fault—he‘s often too trusting and has had issues developing healthy attachments to people. When he does get hurt, he hurts hard. He often takes things too personally and has trouble communicating when he feels vulnerable.

WRITTEN BY: Maria (she/her), est.

BACKGROUND

(Themes include: sex work, queer trauma, abusive relationship)

Vitus has always felt a bit out of place, ever since he was a boy. The queer son of an immigrant, he spent the bulk of his most formative years wrestling with his identity: American but not, neither straight nor gay, religious but only to a certain extent. In his early teens, he found no stability within himself as he struggled to reconcile who he was becoming and who he was expected to be.

So he began looking for an anchor in other people. In a city of millions, Vitus seized every opportunity to stumble into people’s lives.

He fell in love for the first time when he was fifteen—and again, and again, and again, migrating from one home to another as he became a man, leaving a trail of ex lovers in his wake.

He surrounded himself with friends. It didn’t matter what the faces looked like or to whom they belonged. He needed the noise, needed to know he could reach and feel someone at the end of his fingertips whenever his thoughts became too loud.

Much to his parents’ chagrin, Vitus was too antsy to consider committing to four years of college. Instead, he took bartending classes in Midtown Manhattan and got his first gig at a dive bar shortly after. He loved it—loved crafting unique drinks for people, loved listening to people’s stories, loved meeting people from all over the world who wandered into the Big Apple and fell into one of his barstools. Everyone had a different story, and he genuinely enjoyed hearing each one. 

But it wouldn’t last. Just after Vitus’s 22nd birthday, his baba discovered his son was queer thanks to a phone call from a nosy neighbor. In a blink, Vitus’s life turned upside down. A handful of explosive fights and slammed doors later, Vitus found himself on the street with a single packed bag, unable to live at home until things settled down.

The bartending gig wasn’t steady or financially sound enough to find his own place to live. He’d spent months hunting for better work, couch-surfing at friends’ houses all the while, when he met Daniyah. She was a few years older than him, and she and her friends had spent the bulk of their young adult lives doing sex work. Vitus had met plenty of sex workers in passing—people slinking into the dark corners of the bar where he worked, sharing their stories with him; people engaging in survival sex work at some of the clubs he frequented. He’d always approached sex workers with curiosity and intrigue rather than revulsion or suspicion, like most other people did. So it wasn’t a difficult decision for him to make, when Daniyah offered to show him the ropes.

Vitus spent several years as an escort. Some of the people he worked with solely did the work out of need, but not Vitus. Sex work was another means of connecting with people, fostering intimacy with the people who needed it most. His talent for making space for people to lay down their troubles served him well, and he ended up with as many regulars in bed as he had in the bar. He kept at both gigs until he had enough money to rent a decent apartment in Brooklyn with a friend. 

He hoped beyond hope his parents would find the number of his place. He fell asleep most nights imagining it: running to the phone, picking it up, hearing his mama’s voice on the line. But the phone call he yearned for didn’t come for years. It was when he was in his late 20s, gearing up to move for the first time, that his parents finally contacted him.

They’ve worked to rebuild their relationship ever since. The biggest strain, to Vitus’s un-surprise, came from his baba’s side, the parts of their family where masculinity ran deepest. Vitus refused to fit himself into a box, and his baba had no shortage of trouble trying to accept it. But Vitus was patient, and eventually they reached a point where they could interact without his queerness looming like a rippling storm cloud overhead. 

Vitus went through with his plans to move. He quit being an escort in his 30s, not because his feelings about it changed, but because he’d grown tired of the stigma associated with it—the way people’s faces would change when they found out, the assumptions they would make about him. He’s bumped around a few different jobs and places since, always sticking to things where he can interact with a lot of different folks. 

He moved to Merrock in August 2022 after his relationship with a woman named Nina ended. With his tendency to throw caution to the wind and wear his heart on his sleeve, Vitus is prone to falling into unhealthy relationships, and his time with Nina was no exception. She was an emotional steamroller, and for over 2 years, Vitus was too consumed with pleasing her, apologizing for things that weren’t his fault, and bending to her will to realize it. She left him without warning earlier that summer, and Vitus needed a change of scenery. 

Vitus is no stranger to starting over. He’s learned to be comfortable in the in-between, moving on a dime when he needs to. But his arrival in Merrock marked a new beginning—a real new beginning, one where he vowed to put down roots, devote time and energy to his own growth, and seek what he wants most in life. 

Misc. Headcanons

Vitus’s father is a first-generation immigrant from Turkiye. He still has a bunch of family overseas, and they often fly to meet up for holidays and whatnot.

His parents have not the slightest idea he was a sex worker, and he wants to keep it that way.

Vitus loves activities where he can stay active, whether it’s dancing, jet-skiing, biking, you name it.

He’s always wanted a dog but has never found the time to keep one.

He loves earth tones like grays and greens and browns, and his condo and wardrobe reflect that.

He wants kids but hasn’t found the right partner to have them with.

Vitus loves to travel. He’s lived in a bunch of different places in the US over the course of his life—New York, California, North Carolina, Colorado, the list goes on.

He’s still figuring out his relationship style, but he tends to lean more toward polyamory and sometimes gets antsy if he’s been with only one person for huge stretches of time.

[dontbipanicjonsa]

Can't believe they Pol!Jon-baited us (I finished the show, unfortunately)

Like queer-baiting, yes.

Lucky for me I'm used to being baited.

No but really. I cannot believe how they utterly ruined Jon's character by the end.

Sure, I can still say Pol!Jon was happening. I can say that Jon told Varys his, "she is my Queen" because he didn't trust that Varys wouldn't betray him to Dany. Kind of like how Sansa would call Joffrey her King and renounce her family while she was stuck in KL.

I can say that Jon was clearly trying to talk down/calm Dany when he said "I love you" and then immediately followed it with "you are my Queen" (again) because he knew that was what really mattered to Dany.

I can say plenty of his actions were driven by fear.

I can say that his "love is the death of duty" can be interpreted as his love for his family and his need to protect them which led him down the Pol!Jon path that proceeded to grow utterly out of his control (death of his duty to the realm of men etc)

But that still doesn't cut it.

At some point his actions cross from Pol!Jon to nonsensical. Is he really the kind of guy who would follow an obvious tyrant because he "loves" her? Does he love her??? HOW

Is he so deeply in love that his vocabulary has been cut down to only "you are my Queen" and "I don't want it"? Very romantic.

Basically, I can't believe that he loved her, I also can't believe he would hesitate to try to stop her unless he did love her. So basically......idk. It doesn't make sense. Why did he need to be convinced that Dany has to be removed from power??

On a lighter note- wtf are we all still debating about???? Last episode made it clear that Jon and Sansa love each other.

I mean....

When Danaerys and Jon talk about the "others" that Dany says "won't get to choose", who are they really talking about? Who is "they"?

Let's see, Edmure from the Riverlands ? Nah, dude has too strong self preservation skills.

Who's at Highgarden? Sam? Some rando? The Unsullied? They're not gonna wage war on Dany alone. So no.

The Westerlands? Well, the Lannisters just died, besides Tyrion who's imprisoned. Dany would have probably elected somebody to take over that place.

The Vale? Right. Sweetrobin would utterly destroy Dany with his smirky face, but it's unlikely he'd try.

The Pyke? Last we checked, Yara took it back in Dany's name.

The Stormlands? Why would Gendry do that ? To avenge KL? Unlikely.

Dorne? We don't even know the freaking name of that supposed Prince.

The wildlings? Why??

That's right. Neither Jon nor Dany have reason to believe that anybody else will rebel in Westeros....except the North. Except Sansa.

"They" is Sansa. Jon killed Dany for Sansa.

Not to mention, Sansa is repeatedly brought up in the scenes leading up to Jon killing Dany, because she is the point of conflict between them. Besides his parentage, of course.

And Sansa. My girl brought a whole ass army to the capital just for Jon. Straight up said she'd declare war if anyone hurt him. Honestly, she can declare war on me anytime she wants.

Actually it's pretty hilarious-

Sansa to Bran: you ain't my king

Sansa to Jon: but you're my king :/

And also-

Sansa to Jon: can you forgive me

Jon to Sansa: dammit let me stay angry for a moment :(

Dorks.

I will say, if the show had actually been consistent till the end, I would believe that Sansa being seemingly not angry at Jon is a sign that Pol!Jon was a thing. Because otherwise he would have given away the North to a foreign queen simply because he was in love with her, and put his entire Kingdom and family at a huge risk of being burnt alive, as KL was. Not sure if Sansa would still say things like "but we lost our king" then.

But the show ISN'T consistent so what's the point anymore?

Another thing-

Dany is a tragic figure ultimately. She needs the love of her subjects, but fails to realise that conquering a continent with fire breathing dragons and the "love of the people"....do not go hand in hand.

Jon's "I love you" was calculated, but he failed to follow through on it the way she wanted.

Now, I'm going to list three ways in which Jonerys stagnated the story and generally sucked, because I'm petty like that.

1) Sansa says- you have to be smarter than Father.

Say Jon did fall in love with Dany, and he really was honorable the entire time....even at the Dragon Pit where he refused to lie to Cersei. A true Northern Fool. What was the point of that line then? He didn't learn shit. No, he got worse. Because we know Jon has lied in the previous seasons.

Actually, this lends more to making me believe Pol!Jon was real. Jon mentions his Father quite a bit in S7, and it is always about how honorable his father was. Seriously, we know Ned was honorable. You don't have to keep telling us. Unless.....?

Arya and Sansa talk about Ned too, but their conversation is not about honor.

So seriously Jon, don't you have anything else to say about your dad? Or are you trying to convince everyone of your own supposed honor by connecting yourself so strongly to your Father's honorable-ness.

We really didn't need that many reminders. It's sus.

2) Sansa says- you have to be smarter than Robb.

And then what did Jon do? Went South, fell for a foreigner, lost his crown, lost some of his standing in the North, and eventually the story ended tragically and a whole lot of people died.

Once again, what was the point? Why have Sansa specifically tell Jon not to make the same mistakes as his father and brother only to have him go and make those same mistakes? That's not how stories move forward.

If Jon really pulled a Robb, then Sansa and the North are perfectly justified in their anger.

3) Jon and Ygritte.

So....Jon goes to place where he's essentially a prisoner, meets woman who's into him, falls into Stockholm Syndrome with her, puts his duty and honor on hold to enter an abusive relationship with her, wilfully blinds himself to her flaws to cope, and then eventually (directly or indirectly) leads to her death.

Ygritte and Dany are....the same. Dany is Ygritte with dragons. Once again, what was the point?

Did Jon's story really just repeat itself, beat for beat? Is this like some loop he's cursed to live in?

Pol!Jon is the only way we can respect Jon's character growth from the time he was with Ygritte till the end of S6. Jon from S6 would not fall in love with Dany.

Side note- how do you put that "read more" cut in these posts? I feel like this one got too long.

[billy-crudup]

why do you want bradley to be with the guy who not only outed her but invited her girlfriend to cohost knowing damn well news were gonna break while they were on air?

ahhhhh, this is the ask i’ve been waiting for. buckle up, bc i have A LOT of thoughts, and there’s much to unpack here.

let me just begin with saying that i ship bradley and cory from season 1. since i haven’t trusted anyone in the show when i started watching, it happened gradually, and by the end i was fully shipping them. even then, i already saw a few people being negative about the ship on twitter, but i kinda just ignored it. it was mostly about how they shouldn’t be together since cory is bradley’s boss, and it’s an unhealthy dynamic, which goes against everything the show stands for. i completely disagree with the last bit here, since the show IS about complicated workplace dynamics and NAVIGATING them, healthy or not. despite that, i can’t really imagine them together while they both still work at UBA. so in order for that to work out, one or both should leave.

when it comes to the outing itself, let me note that i do not excuse or approve of cory’s decisions. it’s very important to keep in mind while reading my whole rant. i really hate what he did, i truly do, and i wish it didn’t happen. he literally took her own right to come out and it’s very upsetting. yet, the betrayal had to take place, in order for his character to develop and have a proper arc, but i wish it was something else. at this point, i just hope that cory owns up to what he did, and learns from it. and tells bradley about it, of course. he still has a long way to go before he can be with her anyways.

all the accusations of bradley/cory shippers ‘hurting the gay community’ are crazy to say the least. i do understand why some people hate the ship and can be triggered by what cory did, it makes a lot of sense. outing someone is a very harmful thing to do, and can literally fuck up their whole lives (but lets remember though, that this is a tv show we’re talking about, and a couple of fictional characters, not the lgbt community overall). it’s important to note that I’m am straight woman, who has plenty of lgbt friends and did a course of gender and sexuality studies in university, as it’s something that i find very interesting. speaking of lgbt people in my life who have watched the show, a few can’t forgive cory for what he did, and are against him being with bradley, but many of them still ship them. because of my sexuality, i don’t think it’s my place to tell whether bradley should forgive him or not. there are a lot of opinions out there, and i just think you can’t generalize by saying we as a whole are ‘hurting’ the gay community, since, there are lgbt people out there who ship cory/bradley too. what i’m saying is, if all lgbt people ik in my life/saw online would hate bradley/cory i would look at it very differently. but it’s just not the case here. just bc you wouldn’t be able to forgive cory, doesn’t mean that no queer person would. the story the writers tell us doesn’t have to fit any specific set of morals. and also people are literally saying, omg cory destroyed her life blah blah blah, but did he, really? i mean, of course, it is extremely traumatizing to be outed and it’s a very sensitive topic. it can turn people’s lives upside down. but tms didn’t really explore that. they didn’t show enough consequences for bradley. her brother already knew, and she doesn’t seem to care about her mom at all. bradley seemed so upset and embarrassed, i genuinely felt horrible watching those scenes in ep6 and just wanted to hug her. but later i asked myself, how would these scenes be any different if some other information about her private life would be leaked? just smth to think about. i wish the writers would have touched on the consequences of the outing more, but they didn’t - they didn’t explore how bradley got traumatized by this whole experience at all. and the outing itself wasn’t even mentioned in the last 4 eps (apart from cory trying to confess), it’s like everyone has forgot it even happened.... still shocked that alex never found out tbh. one of the most important things for me in people are their intentions. that’s how i judge them, both in fiction and irl. cory wanted to keep hannah’s name clean first and foremost, not to out bradley. it doesn’t make it okay or the right decision, but he was stuck. if cory didn’t keep his promise about hannah, bradley would probably never forgive him. but he also genuinely wanted to do right by hannah. cory felt a very strong responsibility for her without even knowing her, because her dad was not able to protect her. one of tms’ writers scott troy confirmed in a tweet that the hannah situation was personal for cory because his dad was never there for him too. cory did not wish to purposefully harm bradley. the decision he made didn’t come from a malicious place. he is neither abusive nor predatory. did he fuck up big time while having ‘good’ intentions? he sure did, and it’s clearly bothering him. but also he doesn’t expect anything from bradley, he doesn’t expect her to forgive him, or to return his feelings. he just wants to be there for her and cares about her deeply, despite what he did earlier.  here is where i’m pulling all my receipts, since a lot of people for some reason think cory outed bradley bc he’s jealous of laura and wants to destroy their relationship or whatever. here’s what billy crudup said in THR interviews: «But what [Cory] did guess was that the preservation of Hannah’s legacy, as far as he could tell, was most ensured by something salacious. And he didn’t suspect that there would be any lasting consequences for anybody who was involved in this salacious information, and so he made a guess.» this pretty much confirms that cory has 0 brain cells, it’s very unfortunate that he at the time did not understand how much it can hurt bradley. this clown literally had no idea what he was doing.... also there’s this bit in another newer THR article: «[Cory has] been a caretaker in a way. What he was really concerned about was the well-being of this precious person to him and being able to articulate that that was also him being in love with her, it would have been impossible until that moment. I don’t think that was the motivation for him trying to undermine her relationship with Laura.” i think billy said it all tbh. this confirms that he wants what’s best for bradley, despite what he did. sometimes we do terrible things to the people we love, and we later regret it. again, let me clarify, that i’m not defending what cory did, but merely explaining. i’ve seen so many people see cory in a completely different light, and if i saw him that way too, i would never ship him with bradley.

also can i just say that i don’t hate laura (bc some twitter stans are convinced that cory/bradley shippers hate her???). i actually think she’s pretty cool and is good for bradley at the given moment. bradley needed her in order to develop as a character, and i’m happy laura could provide that for her. i don’t really see them ending up together for many reasons. i just think that laura needs someone as emotionally mature as her, and not as chaotic as bradley. and that she can offer so much to bradley and guide her, but bradley can’t give much back in return. and also bc laura wants bradley to be a certain way (confirmed by reese in an interview), as opposed to cory, who accepts her and loves her (unconditionally) the way she is. again, this is just my opinion. and also tms is about morally gray characters, and i find it hilarious every time i see someone call laura ‘perfect’ or ‘the best character on tv right now’. none of them are perfect guys, they all have flaws, and thats the whole point.

i’m going to end this rant of mine by saying how disappointed i am by this fandom overall. tms is by far the most toxic fandom i’ve ever been in. and here, i’m mostly talking about twitter people. tumblr is a safe space for me, i have a lot of friends and mutuals here who support me, and we developed our own community. i sometimes go on reddit to read all the discussions too, people are also keeping it respectful there. but hell is empty, and all the demons are on twitter!  i really don’t get how can someone possibly attack and cancel another person online bc of a ship/smth fictional??? and without knowing anything about them? like some random people said that i ‘excuse’ cory or whatever bc i stan billy crudup fghdjksfg like IM NOT MAKING THIS UP…… or that i am disgusting, homophobic, hurting the gay community, hate women, should be in jail etc etc…… people who know me, who truly know me, are certain that i am none of those things, and so am i. since i try to treat everyone with kindness and compassion, this is smth that i truly can’t wrap my head around. i’ve been minding my own business and trying to have a good time, making gifs and videos, but i still get plenty of hate bc of a ship. A SHIP!!! AND the fact that the writers and the smm had to deal with all the bullying and death threats is insane, i feel so incredibly sorry for them. like their smm hasn’t posted anything about cory in over a month bc of this. look, there are plenty of fictional characters i can’t stand too, but you don’t see me tweeting about it, or making posts, or commenting about it under someone else’s work. if you’re that obsessed with a fictional character/ship that you resort to harassing people online, including the writers, then you need to get a life and go to therapy. i acknowledge that what cory did is highly problematic bc of what he did, BUT THIS IS FICTION. and just like real people, fictional characters fuck up, and it doesn’t make them unforgivable or unlovable. you can disagree and disapprove of stuff a character has done, and still find them compelling. and i should be able to enjoy fiction without being told that i’m an awful human being because of who i like and what i ship. and this whole purity culture is very messed up, so many people don’t understand that a lot of things are not as black and white as they seem. especially in tms, where there is so much moral ambiguity. at the end, i really think that it doesn’t matter if you agree with me or not, or what you think about the ship. what important is understanding why certain people think the way you do, and simply respecting them. if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all. it’s not too much to ask.

[gra-sonas]

malex and echo were written in the pilot. throughout the fabric of the show malex are a love story too. I guarantee if malex were a straight couple there would be no questions about it. no one questions echo at all, people just know they are endgame.

I guarantee if malex were a straight couple there would be no questions about it.

No, there wouldn't, but they're a queer couple, and the only certainty we have, is uncertainty.

They are woven into the fabric of the show, absolutely, but

there's still a difference between how straight and queer couples are treated: queer couples are rarely treated as an obvious endgame (Wynonna Earp and Schitt's Creek did it, and Emily Andras and Dan Levy made it clear in every interview that their queer couples were endgame, but these shows really are an exception, we're not usually that lucky and get this kind of reassurance), and even when there's a set-up like Malex (high school sweethearts, mentions of cosmic, and so on), there's no certainty or guarantee (bc it's never been CONFIRMED by TPTB).

With Echo, there's never been a shred of doubt that they are endgame (it was clear from the opening scene of the pilot when they looked at each other and said each others' names), bc that's what every story in every book, show, or movie's been telling us for centuries (and longer). The princess gets her prince in the end. Fairytale. Happy ending guaranteed. The Hallmark Channel and every romantic comedy ever's built on that straight HEA formula.

With queer couples, it's often still something completely different. More often than not, we don't get a happy ending, instead, we're served misery, uncertainty, breakups, and whatnot. If we're even so lucky to get a canon queer couple, that is.

In that regard, we already got super lucky bc we got a queer couple in canon. Like, we didn't have to make this up in fandom spaces bc we saw the potential and chemistry between the characters, we know for a fact that Alex and Michael have a decade-long history, and that they love each other bc we saw it on screen! What a gift!

But whenever a queer couple happens in canon - and it doesn't happen nearly often enough (I won't even get into this thing where a mlm couple is okay-ish, but wlw couples are so rare, they barely exists, let alone any other kind of queer couple), it's pretty much guaranteed that something overly dramatic will happen to them, and it's certainly not guaranteed, that they'll get a HEA. Bury your gays is still a trope that gets (ab)used too often...

As for RNM, with Michael being bisexual, and M/M being the OTP of the OG show, fans have always worried about RNM potentially going back to that pairing. I highly doubt they'll ever touch it again (LOL, can you imagine the backlash?), but casual viewers (who might also be familiar with the OG show and somehow expect M/M to be repeated) wouldn't necessarily be aware of that. "It's a TV show," is what everyone keeps saying - because it's happened time and time again on TV shows, and somehow it's to be expected, that an endgame couple breaks up at least once. Also, straight usually trumps queer.

As fans of a queer couple, we rarely have the luxury of being as certain about the endgame status of our OTP as fans of a straight couple usually can be. And RNM's no exception.

I mean, just look at all the interviews with Nathan and Jeanine ahead of S3. There was so much reassurance that Echo will figure things out, soothing any worries fans might have, making it also pretty clear that Heath is going to be nothing but a mild inconvenience, and certainly not a threat.

All the while we had to go through 1 1/2 seasons of triangle misery (and worse) without knowing for sure whether there'd ever be another chance for Malex. Malex was deemed "too complicated" and "it just hurts" in canon, and regardless of Tyler and Vlamis advocating for Malex, all they could ever express was some nebulous "hope" that they'll find a way back to each other.

Insofar I'm eternally grateful that they ended things with Forrest so quickly and clearly in 3x01 - clarifying with one sentence that they never even were exclusive, and then Forrest left town at the end of 3x01, possibly for good.

This means that going into S3, there are no lingering feelings from a long-term relationship that could potentially threaten Malex, and there's no "ex-boyfriend" hanging around either. Even Maria's already in the process of being paired up with someone else (i.e. eliminated as a potential triangle option once again). We may not have gotten much reassurance in interviews, but the show's set things up in our queer couple's favor.

Still, Echo fans got plenty of reassurance that Echo will figure things out (basically telling everyone it's really just a matter of when, not if they'll get together), while all we've gotten so far is "there's hope", and "they'll become friends". Yay. -_-

They probably don't even realize how unbelievably frustrating that is, how much we fret, and how hard it is to be a fan of a queer couple. All this tired BS of "you'll see" or "you'll have to watch and find out", while the actors of the straight couple are free to tease positive and hopeful things.

I'm still very confident that Malex will happen this season, but man, the lingering fear of "what if not" is still there. It probably won't ever go away, bc we've been fucked over by so many shows over the years...

[dgcatanisiri]

I won’t say this is my last word on the subject of Legendary Edition bullshit, because... Well, I know myself enough to be able to say that I NEVER have a last word, I’ll always want to rant again later on. But let’s just make this a sort of master post of the issues overall.

So... Is it fair to hold a game that is a good roughly fifteen years old to the standards of the present? Not inherently. So if the games were being produced in any sort of unedited format, that it was a strict translation, 1:1 ratio, of the original to the remaster... Honestly, I’d still be bitter as all get out, for reasons I’ll expound on in a minute. But it could at least SEEM justified. I could consider it the kind of thing that would be expected - if KOTOR got a remaster today, I would not expect that Carth and Bastila would be made into bi love interests, or Juhani would have her romance patched up so that it has the same level of detail and attention as the het romances. If Jade Empire were remastered, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sky or Silk Fox’s same sex romances adapted so that the straight romances had to be closed out first. That is the kind of thing that, on a functional, practical level, I could understand. Doing a translation from old hardware, the old engine, I get the PRACTICAL reasoning for not making things better. I still object to this on the moral level, to say nothing of the representational one. But PRACTICALLY, I see why - y’know, there’s only so much financial resources going in, and changing things like romances, even if justified, means doing new writing and getting the voice cast back in, which has complications the longer since a game’s original release - actors retire or even die, the passage of time changes voices (like listen to the difference of the exact same lines by James Earl Jones between both versions of the Lion King). Even without those complications, that means paying them, which, in the production of video games, for everything that goes in, something else must go out. So that is the practical argument.

BUT!

But.

But, the thing is, even apart from everything else that I’ll get in to shortly, is that there have been a lot of claims from BioWare about inclusion. There have also been A LOT. of homophobic bullshit from BioWare and Mass Effect. And yes, I’m calling it like I see it.

Because we had the game that followed Jade Empire, with a M/M romance option, be Mass Effect, with NO M/M romance option (but FemShep and Liara could bang - the writing obviously favored the MaleShep portrayal, given that there was no marketing use of FemShep until ME3, and we had ME2 give priority to having loyalty conflicts between MALE Shepard’s romances, but not Female Shepard’s, and we even had BioWare hem and haw about how “well, the asari are monogender, so they’re not TECHNICALLY women, so it’s not REALLY lesbians...”). Because the official claim is that they just “didn’t think about it” in time to have these options included in Mass Effect 1. Because we’ve had writers now come out that Jacob Taylor was originally written as a gay man, but in the game itself was a straight man. Because there are plenty of women who throw themselves at Male Shepard, and Shepard is animated with having Significant Looks™ with these women, but not a single man who expresses any interest in him, until ME3 finally offers SOMETHING, which came to just Kaidan and Cortez.

Because we had one of BioWare’s heads, one of BioWare’s founders, say in an interview right around the release of Mass Effect 2 say “Shepard is too predefined a character to be gay.”

That is what I mean by homophobic bullshit.

And I haven’t even started on Mass Effect Andromeda.

And I’m gonna start on Mass Effect Andromeda now.

So after ME3, after Kaidan and Cortez were actually romances, we honestly gave them a lot of faith - they got the message, we said. They understood that they couldn’t just cut out M/M romance in the game, we said. They didn’t need to have the constant observation that demanded they provide good representation, we said.

And then they cut Jaal’s bisexuality, leaving him straight on release, without even a chance to flirt and be turned down, the bisexual male character who did remain not only was planet bound, he also is a character who a solid argument can be made that he falls into the trope of the Depraved Bisexual, a trope that over in Dragon Age, Patrick Weekes specifically said that they wanted to avoid and so didn’t make a character bisexual because of that. And the gay man is not only almost totally disconnected from the game (aside from one point in the plot, he can be avoided entirely and is not included in almost any other group setting among the Tempest crew), he is also an accessory in his own plot line, which was also heavily criticized for being intensely homophobic. And of these, the only thing BioWare deigned to change was Jaal’s bisexuality. (Which, personal note, I’m uncomfortable with personally, because as it’s implemented, it just feels kind of afterthought-y. Much like Kaidan’s in ME3, being unchanged from a new FemShep romance, despite the active inability to romance him in ME1.)

So it is not just a matter of “you have the ability, you’re changing other things, you should do this.” I mean, that is absolutely there - the mods exist for the original game, to the point of being able to even get the romance scene to fire right without Shepard’s gender magically changing once the clothes come off. (I have a vague memory of, at some point, probably around the “too predefined” comment, that being another excuse, that there was difficulty with having the models play nice with one another in that scene.)

But this is about addressing a pattern of behavior on the part of BioWare, that they have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to the bare minimum that their own statements on matters of representation and inclusion claim they aspire to. That if the fans are not actively holding their feet to the fire, they are GOING to take their fans for granted - “you don’t get better quality content elsewhere, we’re your only choice!” But “only” choice is not a “good” choice. It’s not a choice with quality.

So if we don’t make a big damn deal about this now, when they have a chance - when they have a CHOICE - to make things better, to provide better representation, to correct the mistakes of the past... What will we get in the future? How will they backtrack on this in the future? How will they exclude us in the game they just announced a few months back? How will they continue to tell us that they don’t want gay people in this setting?

Look, I don’t use these words lightly. But that is, whether it’s a conscious attitude at all or not, what they are telling us. By not including us, by making us optionally involved, by making us disposable within our own stories, by cutting out our content, they are saying that they do not envision a world, a future, that includes queer men.

And anyone who does not speak up, does not condemn this, does not demand that they DO. BETTER... That is tacit approval and agreement. Because you’re saying that things as they are now - the removal and undermining of our content, of our EXISTENCE in these games - are perfectly fine and acceptable.

And yeah, I’m sure that reading that has probably made some people mad, believe I’m being unfair by saying that, because it’s going to push away allies. Thing is, and this is one of the things that always comes up in anything even tangentially activism related... THIS ISN’T ABOUT THE FEELINGS OF THE ALLIES. This is about listening to the people who are being hurt and saying “you don’t deserve to be hurt this way, things need to change.”

BioWare needs to change its approach. And, as we have seen, it does not come just because of a handful of angry queers, demanding to be represented in their games. It comes because of the community at large calling them out and saying “this isn’t right. What you have done is not right, and we are calling on you to fix it. To do better.”

Don’t just stand there and shrug this off. Because evidence tells us that if they aren’t called out on this now, the next game will not be better. And we will be in this exact same place, having this exact same argument, all over again, in a few years when the next Mass Effect game comes out. When the queer men are given the shortest end of the stick again, and people who are right now saying “what do you expect from a remaster?” will either suddenly turn around and go “I don’t know why BioWare would do something so homophobic” or, worse, “well, it’s something, I don’t see why you’re upset.”

We’re upset because we keep having this argument. And we are going to keep having this argument until people are willing to actually DEMAND that things be better. This is the chance to make things better now.

At this point, a post-release patch that includes a Male Shepard/Kaidan romance in ME1 that is tracked through to the following games is a bare minimum fix, a change done to make it clear that BioWare understands their mistakes in the past and want to make things BETTER.

It may not be easy, but genuinely fixing problems never is. But it’s work that needs to be done.

[ambthecreative]

DESTIEL RANT! Unpopular Opinion Time - The Scene was NOT Homophobic

Wow. It’s BEEN YEARS! And yet here I am again! I have returned to my Tumblr roots, rambling about Supernatural again! I have come full circle! Summoned by three words spoken by the Angel of the Lord we all knew and loved. But lets get down to business.  Everyone’s going crazy. They either loved it, hated it, loved/hated it, hated/loved it, etc.  Even people who never watched an episode felt the need to add their two cents without any context or with extreme bias.  So here’s the observations from a former Supernatural Fan and intense DESTIEL SHIPPER, but also one who has stopped watching it cause omfg it sucks so bad now. My bias comes from both angles and thus neutralizes each other out xD Obviously, spoilers for Episode 18 of Season 15 of Supernatural lay ahead.  ~~~

(TL;DR: The scene wasn’t bad because it was forced or homophobic. It was neither.  The scene was bad because of long term poor plotting, repetitive character arcs and horrendous timing and execution. That said, my shipping heart is just happy that it happened at all. <3 ) ONWARDS! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lets just get to the point. At first glance, that scene looks extremely homophobic and when it was first described to me (I haven’t watched the show since Season 9), it appears that is indeed the case.  And you can make a STRONG case for it to, if you watched that scene and knew of all the fucking queer bait we had to live through before getting here.  But I watched the entire episode. And I think this is key.  Cause while it’s easy to say its all homophobic, that’s not actually what was happening.  The truth is, the episode is a set up for the ending.  Sure it seems to be framed that Castiel is sent to the Empty for being gay, but that’s the bias talking.  Contextually, Castiel is sent to the Empty for being Truly Happy.  Also EVERYONE dies.  Funny how no one is up in arms that Charlie’s GF got poofed at the very start of the episode.  Not gay enough for it to count? Like she literally made her girlfriend breakfast and they were flirting, and boom she was gone FOREVER, not sent to a place where people have come back from before, but with NO EVIDENCE of them being alive at all.  Dead. Gone.  But no one says a damn thing.  And then EVERYONE died.  THEN Cas died.  And yet everyone got like temporary amnesia and its like, “CASTIEL WAS KILLED FOR BEING GAY!!!” That’s...not what happened tho.  What’s really sad is the moment with Castiel was actually a GREAT plot point/twist, if only they had done it better.  NO ONE would be saying SHIT if Castiel had been a woman. NO ONE.  Or at least, they would mostly see it as tragic than anything else.  But because Castiel is making a homosexual love confession, it must BE because he’s GAY! It’s really ironic.  Judging that scene as homophobic is ACTUALLY homophobic* (not really, but i can’t think of a better word).  Or at least you’re judging the scene by their sexuality and not by what is actually going on.  Now I remembered something after thinking about this scene for a while.  THIS PLOT POINT HAS HAPPENED BEFORE IN ANOTHER EVEN MORE ICONIC SHOW!!! Now bear with me cause I never watched the whole thing, only the bits and pieces my roommate shared with me.  But the whole “I am cursed to suffer a terrible fate if I ever experience true happiness” has been done before.  And where was that?

Spoilers for Buffy by the way.  SO! To all those who are still trying to spin this as platonic, you need to watch more shitty afterschool 90s supernatural TV shows.  In season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Buffy’s good vampire boyfriend, wakes up evil because he had a moment of true happiness.  And this dooms the couple.  NOW. Do you call this...heterophobia???? Oh I hear you! “But Angel didn’t die and he and Buffy got to be romantic and actually have sex before that shit went down! Not the same thing!” TRUE. I didn’t really bring this up to make an argument that the scene/show isn’t homophobic (or at least they are very uncomfortable with it), but rather I wanted to make a point that the PLOT POINT is not at all homophobic and is actually really awesome.  The issue with the scene is the execution.  That moment between Cas and Dean should have happened SEASONS ago or at the VERY LEAST earlier in this FINAL season, and not right at the very end. The other reason why it worked so well with Buffy is that they had plenty of episodes afterwards to go into it, have Buffy react to it, and deal with it and such.  Meanwhile SPN, still BLATANTLY uncomfortable with handling this sort of thing, decided to put Castiel away in a dark closet and then put forth an end the world plotline by killing EVERYONE so Dean is too busy to actually think and talk about it for any real length of time XD.  I wouldn’t use the word homophobic for it, because it wasn’t used as a joke, it wasn’t used to demean gay people, it wasn’t meant to say “if you are homosexual, you go to hell.”

That’s not it at all. The only reason people think that is because they’ve been hurt in the past so many times, by religion and government and truly homophobic media,  and this scene triggers that hurt.  HOWEVER, if you look at that scene without that lens, it’s more cowardly and insecure, than homophobic.  Cause at the end of the day, that’s the whole problem with Supernatural.  They never commit.  Their writing is lazy and weak because they don’t have the writing chops to actually GO FOR IT. 

They are constantly at war with the writing, the ratings/money, and the general public views.  They constantly add poc and homosexual characters, but are too afraid to actually do anything with them in fear of doing it poorly and upsetting people (and honestly, it’s a valid fear XD).  I stopped watching Supernatural cause the writing is HORRIBLE.  It has nothing to do with homophobia and everything to do with the fact its all over the place, there’s no stakes, the power escalation is shot to hell, they keep saying SIKE when they do kill people, no changes last forever, and it should have ended SEASONS ago.  Its BAD. But in regards to homosexuality, the fact that they used a plot point that the legendary Buffy the Vampire Slayer used but used it on two characters of the same sex is actually AMAZING.  YES it was CRINGY. The handprint was cringy! They were trying WAY too hard to make it different than the other 1000000 times Castiel died for Dean. But it was their poor plotting, their overuse of killing and bringing back people, the fact Dean and Cas never actually even toyed with the idea of romance openly in the entire show, that caused this scene to not shine as brightly as it could have. 

THAT SAID.

HOLY SHIT CASTIEL LOVES DEAN! THATS AMAZING!!!! Ahem. Another reason why people get this scene so wrong is because they think writers are actual Gods.  We are not.  They are flawed and they are many and this show had WAY too many showrunners.  AND IT SHOWS.  But you know whos constant? The actors.  Dean has never really changed. Jensen played him exactly as he’s  always played him. ALWAYS.  Any person who got mad that Dean didn’t sob or kiss Castiel needs to take off their gay fucking glasses and respect the fact that THAT ISN’T DEAN.  HE’S NEVER BEEN THAT WAY.  EVEN IF CASTIEL WAS A WOMAN HE WOULDNT HAVE ACTED THAT WAY. 

Also Dean has been so BLATANTLY straight this WHOLE time.  Now I’m not saying that the romantic feelings were not reciprocal.  I’m saying we don’t fucking know XD Hell DEAN might not know, and honestly that would be the most realistic and best way to handle that.  Do you know how FUCKED UP it would have been if Dean broke character and suddenly came out as Gay and totally fine with that and just acted like he’s been gay this WHOLE time even when it’s so obvious that he was not?!! Its like - Respect Homosexuality, but Disrespect all other sexualities.  You can’t just force Dean to be Gay and Comfortable With That Fact (tm). 

You can’t.  And to expect and force Jensen Ackles to play his character, that he’s played for years that way, to tell him to fuck off how he’s BEEN playing him cause it’s not good enough anymore even though everyone ATE IT UP before Castiel came on screen,  is an INSULT to him.  I do think he can realize it. I think he can lean into it. I really do think it’s possible to do it in a way that’s realistic and still in character with how Jensen has played him all these years.  But now, you’re all fucking entitled little nutcases if you think that Dean should bend to your fanfic fantasy as being head over heels in love with a man without any issue at all when there’s absolutely nothing in his backstory, childhood, or ANYTHING that would explain why he would be that way.  I’m old as fuck, but you know how Dean SHOULD play it? Like Heath Ledger’s character in Brokeback Mountain.  He didn’t exactly showed his emotions regarding the love of his fucking life immediately, now did he?  BUT THAT SAID THIS ISNT BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN YOU HORNY FUCKS XDD Ahem. That’s also a reminder for myself XD ANYWAYS!!!

TL;DR: The scene wasn’t bad because it was forced or homophobic.

It was neither. 

The scene was bad because of long term poor plotting, repetitive character arcs and horrendous timing and execution. 

That said, my shipping heart is just happy that it happened at all. <3   The End.  That is all

[maiassensibleblog]

On ship wars and heteronormativity (particularly in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child)

*HPCC spoilers*

I don’t think extreme shipping on any side of this debate is healthy. It is always wrong to suggest that actors have any sort of a ship motive. In the end, shipping should just be fun but I think that ships can carry a lot of weight.

Lets first be absolutely clear of what I mean by heteronormativity:

heteronormativeˌhɛt(ə)rə(ʊ)ˈnɔːmətɪv/ adjective denoting or relating to a world view that promotes heterosexuality as the normal or preferred sexual orientation.“the heteronormative codes of twentieth-century mainstream Western cinema”

This is also a great blog (from a straight woman who is doing a FAB job as an ally): https://hannahwitton.wordpress.com/2015/09/13/heteronormativity-in-everyday-life-heteronorms/

The main thing about Cursed Child which I absolutely love is that the romantic situation is so open and ambiguous and could really go either way and that shouldn’t be taken away from anyone. It could go either way at the end. And I understand how somebody who hasn’t really questioned their sexual orientation could see act 4, scene 14 as an indication that Scorose is cannon. I, personally, see it as pre-coming out with some internal questioning but you can’t expect people who haven’t been there to see that.

I do however expect my straight allies to listen and understand why queer voices are more important in this conversation because Scorbus represents a massive missed opportunity. And that’s what it is, not queer-baiting, but a missed opportunity. This is a big issue in the Potterverse and that’s the conversation we need to be having.

There are a couple of points I would like to address:

1) Cursed Child fits some definitions of queer-baiting, but not others. And it isn’t in itself homophobic, however the story is heteronormative and that’s problematic.

According to the urban dictionary (apparently the actual dictionary hasn’t picked this one up yet!), queer-baiting is:

queer baiting When a politician, pundit, or other public figure brings up the completely irrelevant detail about a person’s sexuality, true or untrue, as a way of subtly channeling homophobia to attack them.

OR

queer baiting When an author/director/etc. gives hints, and clever twists to paint a character as possibly being queer, to satisfy queer audiences, but never outright says they are so they can keep their heterosexual audience.

It’s fairly obvious that the second definition fits Cursed Child, but we can’t really talk about homophobia from the actual story. Especially not from watching the play, where it is so open ended. I’m not sure that making Scorbus more cannon would really lose hetero audiences but it would take away a lot of imagination from what happens after the events in the cannon. All the best fanfic are getting together fics. When Romione got together the fanfic went downhill. That’s never going to happen with the next-gen, and that’s a serious positive to the open-endedness (Thanks to @mayhemtothenthdegree for that argument!). Its a real shame that they decided to make Scorpius ask Rose out to achieve this and other ways would’ve been better for the little queers who need looking out for.

Although I don’t think the queer-baiting argument is productive or helpful (sorrynotsorry), the fact that a lot of Scorose shippers are so dismissive of something that is very nearly cannon (especially if you’ve seen it), shows that this story enhances heteronormativity.

2) Cursed Child is pretty heteronormative, not just with act 4, scene 14, but throughout.

There’s a couple of examples of this. For example, Scorpius and pretty Polly and then Albus assuming that Scorpius liked that, Ron assuming that Delphi was Albus’s girlfriend, even to the assumption that Rose is into boys (even though this is never confirmed by her). As I mentioned before, this really is a Potterverse problem and I’m sad that it didn’t get better in Cursed Child, since its 2017 and everyone should have learnt.

3) There are plenty of male friendships within plays/film/tv but there are so few accurate accounts of same sex relationships.

The argument that it’s nice to see close male friendships is the only one that really bothers me. If you’re a straight male looking for media representation and are annoyed that this might’ve been taken away from you in one of the many situations this was possible, you need to check your privilege. Harry and Ron, Joey and Chandler, the guys from The Hangover and SO MANY MORE . Yes. one of those links is a list of 20 movies about male friendships. There aren’t a lack of examples.

Cursed Child was an opportunity to end a story with two mates just being queer and that being ok. That wouldn’t be the focus of the story, it would just be part of it. This is the experience that most people have in the Western world in 2017. Its cool and it just is, so why isn’t that represented in media? I always say that I’ve never seen an accurate coming out story that vaguely represents what I went through. And Cursed Child so nearly was. And it kinda still is, because its open and they’re super young so that’s how it would be. So the fact that people feel the need to bash that is sad.

4) You can ship scorose as much as you want, the idea behind it is super cute, but you don’t have the right to bash scorbus.

And in this situation, the voices of queer people should be more important than the voices of straight people because that’s what being an ally is about.

Heteronormativity is a constant reminder that we are not normal.

And whenever it happens to me it feels like I’m being stabbed in the stomach. And I’m not exaggerating. It really hurts. Scorbus is an opportunity to show the very confused young queer kids that they can be normal and mainstream. It was easy for me to come out, but Cursed Child is read all over the world- some kids will have it a lot harder and allowing them to ship this without telling them they’re wrong is an opportunity to show them that they can be ok. I hope that makes sense and I know it may seem dramatic to people who didn’t go through this, but seeing yourself represented, even in fanfic, is a really big deal if you’re coming out. So just let people do it. Scorose is sweet but it doesn’t represent something bigger than itself like Scorbus does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXDfaLzzoo8 (please watch this.)

[uncomplies]

long time no rant

I seriously don’t know why I get so upset about people having negative opinions of fictional characters I like. Except I kind of do, because I project so heavily onto fictional characters that I like. So basically it’s like, when I see someone claim that my fav has a personality that’s shit, it reads to me like the person telling me that I have a personality that’s shit too. Especially when people are fully aware of how much I project.

Figuring out the psychological reasoning behind the other person thinking that helps a little, in the abstract, but I’m still weirdly hurt. Especially since the person who has that opinion has, somewhat around the same time as the time they developed that opinion, more or less stopped interacting with me even though they used to and we like a lot of the same shit. And it’s so stupid because, like, this is a person I only know via the internet, who would have been in kindergarten when I was in fifth grade, so like, why do I care about a kindergartener’s opinion?

It’s because they represent something. They represent fandom (do people not engage with me in fandom because my opinions are so abhorrent? Which is ridiculous because people do engage with me, but not as many as I’d like sometimes) and they represent culture (are they cooler than me? We’re both queer, but they somehow get more cache from it and I’m not sure why, because they’re not more queer than me, that’s ridiculous and not how it works, unless you’re saying they are because I’m bi and they’re all the way) and they represent society (well of course they get more attention than me, they’re prettier and younger and thinner than me,and that’s horrible to think but it’s crossed my mind more than once) and they represent something I don’t even know.

And it’s weird because I don’t know why this person specifically gets under my skin so much. (Except the part where I’ve literally told them before how much I project onto the character they keep dragging and they told me they totally understood, did the same with other characters, and actually expressed sympathy for my character sometimes having a rough go of it. Either they forgot about that discussion - which I wouldn’t blame them it was years ago and I’m sure they talk to people about things all the time, not like me who’s a social disaster - or they didn’t and they do it anyway, despite still being talking buddies with my wife on the regular.) But like, there are plenty of cool tiny queer fandom girls I could be fixating about the approval of, right? This person is just a perfect storm of representations of my anxieties. If they can’t like me (but they like my wife) then it’s a wonder that anyone can.

Also there’s the nitpicky reasons of why they keep dragging my character. I’ve seen virtually no concrete reasons more significant than “one time she was sort of snotty to a character they relate to.” Or maybe that she’s boring, or maybe that she’s a white girl on a show that’s otherwise full of badass WOC who do deserve more attention and that’s definitely something I personally advocate for too but it’s not my fault this character just hit all my buttons for loving and also it’s not like the person I’m worrying about isn’t... also... a white person (as am I) so that’s kind of confusing as a reason, or maybe (this is my recent theory) that they project that character onto the ex they had a messy breakup with, or maybe or maybe.

But the character tries to be a good person. She really does. She’s been through different kinds of hell than everyone else, maybe less significant some of them, but she has. She’s visibly anxious and she’s not, no matter how hard she wants to be, a fighter like the others, but she tries and she compensates and she helps and she’s good. She’s sweet. She’s occasionally got an attitude, but literally so does everyone else. She’s said a couple of things in anger, but literally so has everyone else. All she really wants is for her people to be happy and safe, and maybe a little of that for herself but she’d gladly sacrifice hers if they could be guaranteed it. It’s not like she’s the kind of character that you go “oh geez, they’re kind of bad but I love them anyway.” By no stretch of the imagination is this character a bad person, and the worst aspect of her personality is the compulsory heterosexuality forced on her by the writers. And she’s not even trying to take the attention from the other characters! She just wants to help.

This is why it bothers me. I, too, don’t ask much but small happiness. I, too, just want to help.

And I also find it really passive-aggressive to reblog other people’s gifsets of characters that they clearly like because they made a positive gifset and then in the tags write something snippy about your negative opinions of the character. There are certain villains that I could argue that was okay for, but as a rule - people check the tags on reblogs. That’s straight-up just mean and when people reblog your gifsets with snooty tags you call them out in anger on your blog, person I still desperately want to impress (oh, and it’s maybe also because they’re friends with my wife and I feel like by not liking my character and therefore not liking me they think I’m not good enough for my wife, who is arguably better than me and definitely more well-liked by more people and I’m a little sensitive about it but still).