#I’m not even necessarily making romantic commentary

[crookedfivefingers]

via @rosessmile

Thank you. For everything. It was my pleasure.

[girl4music]

Now this is a very interesting piece of commentary from Lucy and Renee. Even though they knew their characters were in love with each other, through the whole show - until these last episodes - they did not ever play their characters as romantically attracted to one another but just always kept it about the unconditional love in their friendship - which I appreciated, of course. But Lucy says here that suddenly their characters in the script are written as explicitly out of the closet. Which they are. But then Renee says that she was still playing her character as straight because she just wanted to focus on the pain Xena was in rather than focus on any jealous feeling she had towards Akemi. So Renee wasn't playing Gabrielle in those moments as if she was jealous because she thought Gabrielle wouldn't put that over her love for Xena. Which we knew she wouldn’t anyway because all that’s happened in the past. There’d be no reason to be jealous now.

But then why the bloody hell was her reaction in 'The Debt'/'Forget Me Not' one so full of pettiness and vinctinctivness? Is she saying that Gabrielle learned from that experience so much that no matter what information was revealed about the past female lovers in Xena's life, she wouldn't make it about jealousy anymore because she knew what it would lead to would be something that she'd never ever want? It's just such an interesting conversation about their characters and the nature of their relationship going on here in regards to who Akemi was to Xena and that Gabrielle never made it about jealousy so Renee never played it as if Gabrielle was jealous but instead sharing Xena's pain at the loss of someone who she finds out was more than just a friend.

It's just so funny to me that as the episodes go on, Lucy and Renee become a little more aware that there's more that's going on there but everybody else - clearly the writers and directors - already play it like that because, yes, Season 6 especially is written as maintext but it's not necessarily portrayed as maintext. Well, now it makes sense why it isn’t. It's because Lucy and Renee chose not to play it like that. They just let their natural chemistry do its thing and translate to the screen as romance instead. I've always personally interpreted that in their portrayal of the characters but I NEVER knew that it was intentional. That's really interesting to me because regardless what you see on the screen here, if you read the script for that specific episode - it’s intentionally written as romantic. It's written as a queer love story.

That's honestly thrown me for a loop that Lucy and Renee did that because I never knew that at all. In all my years of being a fan I never knew that Lucy and Renee intentionally played straight characters even when the script was written as queer or "gay" as Lucy puts it. I knew that they didn't want to make a joke out of the relationship so never went too far with the lesbian subtext. I knew that they refused to water it down as some pandering kind of thing. But I never knew at all that even when they were aware that their characters were queer or "gay" that they played them as straight instead.

I'm not too sure how I feel about learning this new information. 🫤 I mean why would they ever need to play their characters as straight when they’re written as not? Especially in these last two episodes. And under the guise of a water transfer or not - these character kiss romantically. How can that be played as straight? I feel like I’m really misinterpreting this. What they’re saying here. What exactly do they mean?

Weigh in anyone - please. This will drive me insane.

[dekusleftsock]

-

I’m obsessed with the new mitski album… and this song specifically. I mean cmon, it’s the one with the most hype around it for a reason.

I think what makes this album and specifically this song so “them” isn’t even necessarily the romantic subplot they have, but rather the realization that the love they have is truly beautiful, and that it’s something of value. It’s the only thing they truly have for the rest of their lives; the ability to love someone so deeply.

And that’s kind of what this entire album is about right? Love and loss, mitski herself literally saying that this album is about her realization that her greatest accomplishment was no material item or physical action, but rather the ability and the action to love someone.

And to be honest, Ochako’s unrequited love of Izuku and then required love of Himiko shows this. All of her heroics matter, and she will always be more than just another man’s wife (a title she would honestly be stuck with were her and Izuku to get together), but the fact that her feelings were able to change the entire world is astounding.

The title of the album “The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We” is actually a joke, referencing those welcome signs between states on highways and such. Things like “Welcome to Delaware the first state” or “Welcome to Pennsylvania the keystone state”. And through this reference this album also becomes a commentary on the political hellscape that the US has become.

I just love it. I can’t stop thinking about it.

Oh and also here’s a version with a SH warning bc her wrist is cut

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[charmac]

curious - do you think rcg may have had any notion that they may seriously explore the possibility of mac being gay in s6 era? s5 functionally lays the majority of groundwork for the subtext that they evolved into canonical text and s6 opens with mac fights gay marriage and imo mac is pretty heavily gay coded throughout that season. however, s7 totally makes me believe they hadn’t really considered it, because mac’s gay subtext is almost completely nonexistent, bar the flashback from s6 in 7x10. he is overtly “straight” that season. clearly by s8 it’s fully canon and one of the most logical next steps they could’ve taken with his character in retrospect, but i have always wondered if many of the choices in s6 wrt mac’s sexuality becoming increasingly more ambiguous were deliberate and i’m curious about your perspective.

I do 100%! I've definitely spoken about this before... I'm not sure if it was here or a Discord or maybe even an in-person conversation, but I've always thought it was so insane how they tell you Mac and Dennis Break Up is romantic in some sense. They are realising that their codependency is more than some "bromance" and it spooks them (obviously, really more-so Dennis).

I think acknowledging it on TASP isn't a surprise, but the fact that it's stated in the DVD commentary, before they even filmed S6, makes it clear that this was intentional foundation they intended to work off of. When Dee shatters the glass closet by stating Dennis' codependency with Mac is viewed as an "old married couple" situation, it fucks Dennis up way more than Mac, because Mac is unable to recognise the queerness of their relationship while Dennis can.

Once they make up, they've established something in the writers room going forward for Mac & Dennis that they clearly want to keep a part of their dynamic (again, as reaffirmed on the MADBU TASP episode): they are gay for each other. But they're not going to (mutually) recognise or accept it, because that ruins the joke.

So, in my opinion, they go into Season 6 really digging into that dynamic and playing on the joke by pushing against it: Dennis recognises the issue of being into Mac internally so he needs a wife; Mac recognises the issue of being gay externally so he needs to fight the gays. No doubt in my mind that throughout S6 they were writing and acting with this idea - though probably with no firm idea of where they wanted it to end up.

So we get to Season 7, and your point is the reason why Season 7 is one of my least favourite Seasons as a coherent part of Sunny (keeping in mind the flashbacks in How Mac Got Fat are just a scrapped S6 episode, reworked) - it seems to ignore a lot of the build up in order to make funny stand-alone episodes of the show. Was it because of Fat Mac? (Only one identity at a time for Mac, pls!) Is it because they had a chunk of guest writers? Is it because they thought there was a large chance it was the final season of the show? (They've talked about how when they shot the final scene for S7 (HS Reunion) it was under the idea that they might not get renewed)

Probably only RCG truly know (and maybe they don't even remember). As for me, while I don't think it was necessarily deliberate, like they sat down and said "actually lets roll back the gay [Mac] stuff here..." my idea is that going into S7 they hadn't yet figured out (or couldn't agree) if/how they wanted to make Mac's homosexuality crystal clear.

Maybe they dropped it for a season before deciding... or maybe this downtime served a purpose, because the reveals on Sunny serve one main goal: Subvert expectations.

Going from S5/6 to 8 is very obvious. That is a closeted gay guy. BUT when you have S7 cut in there in the middle, this working-season where they kind of play hard into Mac's aggressive temper and his stupidity and the fact that he's a voyeur, it's a little less-so. You're hit with Season 8 and that attempted kiss kind of comes out of nowhere and then every episode following has some kind of Mac is GAY moment and it's just extremely funny... Like, oh holy shit he's gay and he can't even recognise it.

But that gap does kinda throw you off like, was this a decision once they got renewed going forward that they needed one of them to be obviously gay based on their history? I really don’t think so, the foundation seems too intentional and the evidence we have that RCG acknowledged the character’s queerness (of all them) back then is enough to have me firmly believe the S6 stuff was just further groundwork for Mac’s character and his and Dennis’ opposing relationship

[extasiswings]

As someone who never watched bones, the bones blueprint???

What is the Bones blueprint? WELL, LET ME TELL YOU. So Bones is the show with one of, if not THE hetero slow burn ship of classic Fox procedural shows in the mid-2000s-early 2010s. (Pretty much every main network had at least one major procedural slow burn at a time. Fox had X-files, then Bones. ABC had Castle. CBS had NCIS and The Mentalist…you get it). So, let me set the stage with our characters:

Seeley Booth, played by David Boreanaz. Booth is an FBI Agent and former Army Ranger (with a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart and a certain amount of PTSD that he doesn’t like to discuss). Catholic. Complicated relationship with his family. More than a little repressed. Definitely needs therapy (and gets it eventually—at first when he’s required to go, and voluntarily in later seasons). Good at and devoted to his job. Single Dad who feels like he missed out on a lot of the early years of his son’s life and worries about being a good father (he asked his ex to marry him when she got pregnant, but she turned him down even though she loved him—at least early on in the series even though they aren’t together it’s discussed that they have a tendency to fall into bed not infrequently) [I swear I’m not making this up]. Anyway, you get the picture.

And behind Curtain No. 2, we have:

Temperance Brennan (Bones), played by Emily Deschanel. Brennan is a forensic anthropologist. Super smart, super scientific, doesn’t have great social skills, but definitely has the whole “perceived as cold but actually feels things very deeply” thing going on. Tragic backstory. She’s also a novelist.

So! Booth and Brennan. They work together, they’re partners, they solve murders. And, naturally, they have the whole opposites thing that works for them—she’s very book smart, he’s very street smart, she believes in facts and science and logic, he believes in intuition and gut feelings and faith, etc. etc. As is often the case with the aesthetic of the crime procedural slowburn ship, they start out sort of reluctantly working together, but eventually develop a real partnership built on trust and friendship (and love!).

Early on, she has some things in her past with her family that she asks for his help investigating so that she can get answers. There’s also a time in the second season where Brennan gets kidnapped by a serial killer and buried alive while Booth is stuck trying to find her, which in addition to still being just An Episode(™) remains one of the great, classic, early-in-the-slowburn “I almost lost you and it made me feel Some Kinda Way, but no no we’re just friends really, nothing to see here” defining arcs, especially since Brennan starts dating someone not too long after. The same serial killer returns in season four and snatches Booth that time, and then it’s Brennan’s turn to find him (with the help of Booth’s younger brother). Anyway, classic slow burn—there’s a lot of Implication that you could read into if you wanted throughout the first several seasons, but not necessarily super concrete (although they get caught under the mistletoe once), and there are several rounds of saving each other in various ways as over the years they just become closer and closer until they’re Partners(™) in every way (even when they’re dating other people).

What’s making me yell and scream today though, is: the S4 finale and S5. In the S4 finale, Booth is in a coma after having brain surgery. He has a wild coma dream where he and Brennan are married and they run a nightclub, but there still ends up being a murder—ANYWAY, irl Brennan basically spends the whole time he’s in a coma at his bedside, but then he wakes up and he has no memory of who she is. Pivot to S5, Booth remembers her again, and also feels like he might have romantic feelings for her, but (in part because of some third party commentary) questions whether they’re real or just a side-effect of the surgery. He sort of tells her anyway, but flubs it massively. Later in the season, we get Booth’s son being concerned that his dad doesn’t have a girlfriend, both Booth and Brennan separately getting relationship advice from third parties, and Brennan getting asked out by a new guy. And then! The 100th episode.

The 100th episode, which reveals the start of the series wasn’t their first case, they worked together once before and kissed and almost slept together, but hadn’t ended up going all the way. And after they’re done telling their story, Booth finally stops and kisses her and gets to give his big damn love confession, lays it all on the line, tells her he’s always known she was the one and wants to really try…and she freaks out and cries and turns him down, and he accepts it but says he has to move on. And then they both date other people before fully running away from each other for many months (Brennan on an anthropological dig, Booth back to Afghanistan for the military). (And then, when they come back, she’s ready to put on her big girl pants and give it a shot, except that he went and got a girlfriend who he seems happy with so we all get to suffer through a season of angst and pining while he proposes to someone who isn’t Brennan etc while everyone else is like “you’re still in love with her though” but they do sleep together by the end of S6 and ultimately get married and have two more kids (not in that order)).

So, yeah—the blueprint! Making me especially crazy because here we are with Buddie on a Fox procedural, 4 seasons since they really started trying it seems to make Buddie something potentially real, and Buck is heading into a coma where he's about to hallucinate another life, and the 100th episode is coming up near the beginning of next season (and I really hope Fox learned from Bones that there's such a thing as dragging out the slow burn too much and just lets them be happy after the big damn feelings reveal but XD).

[jewishrizahawkeye]

hello fellow members of the tortured poets department. thank you for being patient as i work through and analyze these tracks. today we’re going to discuss one of my favorite songs i hate it here

previous day's here:

standard tracks: masterpost

anthology tracks: the black dog, imgonnagetyouback, the albatross, chloe or sam or sofia or marcus, how did it end?, so high school

this is one of the songs on the album that is very straight forward in its meaning and narration. though that doesn’t stop it from people intentionally pulling quotes out of context and deriving a different meaning of it.

but simply the song is about hating the world/situation you are in. whether it be relationships or work of something else. and you escape into your mind where things are better, you can control it. it’s gentle and kind there. it’s safe.

i find this to be one of the most relatable songs on the album because of the desire to retreat from the world, which we saw her doing with folklore and evermore. she also discusses how the real world impacts her and makes her want to escape. saying things like “im lonely but im good/im bitter but i swear i’m fine”. or that she dreamed of a place where only the gentle survived “the night (she) felt like (she) might die”.

this is one of taylor’s most honest songs about her mental health struggles. because despite people debating taylor’s mental health status and her using certain terminology in songs because she hasn’t formally come forward and said “i was suicidal and depressed” it describes a very real situation a lot of us use to cope when things are to bad. because at one point in time we’ve all escaped into our minds to alleviate the pain. with her acknowledging that she hates her life at times and escapes into her mind to be free, it allows her to make an interesting commentary about herself. this can be seen with, “i used to be a debutant but now i seem to be scared to go outside”, and calling back to her feeling like she needed to escape the world (described in the times person on the year interview and her documentary) because of the events of 2016. this is an important part of the song if you want to understand taylor herself. (ill do a seperste dissection for just the song on its own in a bit.)

taylor has talked about running away and hiding from the world with, most importantly, her muse she felt saved her and “blew in with the winds of fate” and helped her relearn things about herself and the luxury of privacy. she said it was the happiest she’d been up to that point. but an important lyric in the song (that yes follows the 1830’s line you all love to misquote) is “nostalgia is a mind trick/if i’d been there i’d hate it.” which means that we look more fondly on the past, but it’s not real. when things are bad we romantize a time we view as easier because we weren’t dealing with some things then. but we’d still be miserable. which brings into light the times person of the year article and her talking about dodging calls and disguising herself to go outside. which puts a new perspective onto that point. because even at this moment where she -at the time- thought she found a person who really loved her, she was still miserable. she still hated the world. though you can’t necessarily blame her for that in my opinion.

this turned into a big tangent, but the point i wanted to make is that i think this song is about taylor really acknowledging and telling us how she feels. how she copes with her life and her struggles. it’s a very personal song as i think she really wants to be transparent on certain things in her life. this also ties into my explanation of the standard tracks being an autopsy of her public image and the anthology tracks being an autopsy of her private image/herself.

but for a discussion on the song being unrelated to taylor, i still draw a similar conclusion. it’s about a person who’s miserable in life and copes with their imagination. they cope by day dreaming, which is something i relate to as i maladaptive day dream constantly. to me it describes being stuck in a depressive episode and escaping the world and everything to alleviate the pain. you turn to a non existent place to escape from your dark thoughts. because there it’s safe and controlled.

i don’t have much more to say besides i think this is one of the best songs on the album. and i’m also constantly annoyed people take the 1830’s line out of context and use that to justify not liking taylor of her music. like i personally don’t care why you hate shit but if you’re going to do it at least hate if properly with all the information. jfc

[shipcestuous]

There has been some ongoing discussion about Chris and Cathy’s relationship in the books. (All posts with commentary about their relationship are in this tag.) The relationship is controversial and we’re not all going to agree and that’s OK. I don’t want to participate in or facilitate a debate because that’s not what I want to focus on, but I recognize there aren’t really any other great places for that to happen, so I apologize that I can’t be a better host for that. I appreciate the interest and the participation. I’m going to answer the most recent asks I received on the topic, and if anything else comes in, it will be added to this post instead of posted as a new post. Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts.

Anon:  No hate to the anti-chris anon, i also appreciate the respectful way they disagreed, and i have no dog in the fight personally, but i thought it brings up a bit of a funny concept to me that an incestuous pairing needs to be declared as toxic when most people would consider the fact it is incestuous to be toxic enough, like, we kind of have to grade on a curve here, lol. In most cases, especially with canon incestuous couples, it is going to have some aspect of their relationship be "toxic", because the people that are making this content are afraid to show a loving, happy and healthy romantic relationship between relatives, that doesnt have a tragic backstory, like being abused and neglected, that as a result, encourages their forbidden love. Or at least it makes normies feel better about the fact that it could never happen in real life, except in these super specific dysfunctional situations. Its very rare for these characters not to have toxic traits, such as being controlling, jealous, violent, or straight up criminals if the pairing is canon and not just imagined, but we take what we can get in that department. And i personally enjoy some angst, its part of the appeal to me, but the darker parts (i.e m*rder and r*pe) i am able to dissect from a pairing i like and just pretend it doesnt exist in my head canon, especially in the cases where there is a tragic ending, because otherwise it'd hamper my enjoyment severely. Not to mention, these are fictional characters, i dont necessarily think we need to apply real life judgement on them, yes they are toxic by real world standards, but thats why they end up together, if they werent abused and neglected, they probably would have ended up with "normal" lives, and the ship wouldnt even exist, its just the nature of how incest shipping goes. 

You’re very right that most content creators are afraid to show loving, happy, and healthy romantic relationship between relatives. Even independent content creators are reluctant. Even if they’re not afraid of backlash, it’s like there’s this fear that it’s inferior because it’s unrealistic or something like that. Ironically, it’s the edgiest thing you could do. 

There are going to be two different kinds of fans - those who are willing to “grade on a curve” (I like that analogy a lot) and those who aren’t. I have nothing against those who have to approach it objectively, but as someone who has suffered through so many ships that have gone sour or ended in ways beyond saving, I’m definitely prone towards being forgiving to the few that aren’t as bad as the others or taking what I can get. 

I also think it’s OK to ship something as if some event or whatever had never happened. It’s basically just an AU fanfic in your head. 

@sassybisquit:  So, I have to say something in response to the anti-Chris anon. These books are not romances. They are, all the way through the fourth book, primarily about how victims become villains (while still remaining victims) and various consequences of that and trying to work off the bad you've done and not pass on the bad way you've been treated. And still failing. That's the plainest way I can say it, and I'm annoyed I have to. That's all I'm going to say, besides the fact that I don't think Chris was bad for Cathy or treated her badly (besides the very important plot-wise, but not romantic, rape). But everybody can have different opinions, which is great.

FITA gets marketed as a romance sometimes, but in my mind, it’s in the horror genre. 

I do think that VC Andrews - and as a result, Cathy - puts the blame for the sexual assault on what was done to Chris and not as much on Chris himself. And readers are going to approach that differently. Authorial intent is a whole debate unto itself. 

[harmonichaunt]

On Repeat- 11/8/2024

Either/Or, Elliott Smith (1997)

After a rather dismal week, Elliott Smith’s third studio album, Either/Or, has been on heavy rotation for me. Known for his melancholic indie folk rock, Smith gained significant traction with this album when “Between the Bars”, “Say Yes”, and “Angeles” were used in the soundtrack for Good Will Hunting. (Most notably used was "Miss Misery".) Unsurprisingly, these three tracks are the most popular off the album, “Between the Bars” being Smith’s most popular song overall (at least on Spotify). It can’t be denied– it’s a beautiful song with a clear focus on alcoholism and its mental effects.

Drink up one more time and I'll make you mine Keep you apart, deep in my heart  Separate from the rest, where I like you the best  And keep the things you forgot

Clever and romantic whisper-like lyrics over slow, deliberate guitar strums make for a siren song lullaby that pulls you straight into Smith’s mindset. There isn’t much to say that hasn’t already been said about this track, but I agree that it is worth the hype that it gets. “Between the Bars” gives you the perfect taste of the gloomy guitar and lyrics that make Elliott Smith, Elliott Smith.

“Speed Trials”, Either/Or’s opening track and first single sets the tone for the album with warm guitar strumming mixed with slightly more intricate picking throughout, doubled vocals, and a soft percussion set. The song sounds happy tonally, but not necessarily lyrically. This is a semi-common theme with Smith, though he definitely does have a great number of songs that sound equally as grim as they read. Rob Schultz wrote more on this topic in an article for the Society for Music Theory, which is linked here. It’s really fascinating, especially if music theory is your jam!

Another great play from the album is “Pictures of Me”, one that is very blatantly a commentary on fame and celebrity. The song is significantly upbeat while the lyrics focus on Smith’s hatred for his representation in the media. The chorus explores this theme very well, but my personal favorite lyrics come in the second verse, “Who'd like to see me down on my fucking knees? / Everybody's dying just to get the disease”.

My personal favorite off Either/Or is “Say Yes”. It’s the most hopeful and romantic song on the album, which probably factors into why I like it so much. I love the soft and slightly high melody of this track, especially in the opening (and repeated ending lyrics) of “I'm in love with the world / Through the eyes of a girl / Who's still around the morning after”. My favorite part of this song, though, comes at the end of the chorus (as designated on Genius). This is the most pine-y set of lyrics in the song, which I can always personally relate to. “They want you or they don't / Say yes,” Smith trails off, pleading with the girl that he loves to love him back. Ugh. It’s just so sweet, I love Elliott Smith so much.

I think overall, Either/Or is a spectacular album, and I’m not the only one. Pitchfork has given it both an 8.8 and a 10 out of 10, Allmusic gives it 4.5 stars, and I’ve listened to it on repeat all week, so if you find some girl’s opinion important, then there’s that. 

Elliott Smith is definitely a current favorite of mine, and Either/Or doesn’t even hold my favorite tracks of his. I’m sure I’ll get into XO and From a Basement on the Hill another time. What are your thoughts on Elliott Smith? Any similar recommendations? Let me know.

Thanks for reading!

LT

[bonnielass23]

I was tagged the lovely @astarkey to list 5 unpopular opinions from 5 fandoms! Thank you for the tag! And I’m copying 2 fandoms, but different takes

1. From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series

First, jumping on Astarkey’s take, I love the idea of Kisa and Kate being best friends because they dealt with two sides of the same coin of patriarchal bullshit. Literally all I want is them to tear down the patriarchy with their bare hands together.

Other unpopular opinion. In some ways I’m glad they didn’t do a season 4. The ending of season 3 pretty much made SethKate canon, or at least confirmed their love for each other. I worry that given the age gap of both the characters and the larger age gap between DJ and Madison, that they would have rolled rolled back the development, or even potentially given Seth a different, more age appropriate temporary love interest, out of fear of backlash. I know the majority of the fandom was rooting for SethKate, but it’s one thing to tease it and drop hints to appease the fans, and it’s another to openly display it in the show and open themselves up for backlash beyond the fandom. The potential of people hearing about the age gap relationship and jumping on the “let’s cancel fdtd” bandwagon without watching the show. Community and the actors got so much backlash over Jeff and Annie, calling Jeff a pedo, and other than the goodbye kiss in the last episode they didn’t make that ship canon. That show was airing pretty much at the same time as fdtd. I think SethKate could have been safely portrayed in comics or novels though which I’m sad they didn’t do and wish they would. I am also kinda hoping for them to finally do a season 4 with an actual time skip, like it’s 2023, or later, because I think with Madison/Kate being older and them really defining the age gap (other than the one line on the radio that the Gecko brothers are in their late 20′s) that they could more safely develop the relationship.

2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel

I have a lot of opinions but these are probably my most unpopular. I used to be a hard core spuffy shipper when I was watching in middle and high school. I think that was because I liked Spike more than Angel (his snark speaks to my soul). I’m currently doing a rewatch, almost through season 5, and maybe my view will change in season 6 and 7, but right now I’m not a fan of either spuffy or bangel, or honestly any of Buffy’s romantic relationships. Actually currently questioning my younger self’s judgement.

My actual otps currently are Xander and Anya, and Angel and Cordelia, and I will forever be pissed that they never got Xander and Anya back together and killed her off, and that they killed Cordelia. 

Also as a note, I have not read any of the comics or continuing story, so there could have been developments with Buffy’s relationships with Spike and Angel that could sway me, but I’m going entirely off the two television series.

3. Doctor Who

I loved RTD and hated Moffat, which I know isn’t that unpopular, but I actually loved Chibnall’s era. I really appreciated the social commentary and thought he and Jody did an amazing job. Also I’m not sure how unpopular this is anymore, but I loved Rose and Tentoo’s ending. I think given that this is a live action series with actors who want to move on to different projects it was the best ending we could get for The Doctor and Rose. Also Tentoo IS The Doctor.

4. Fairy Tail

Gray and Lucy work better together than Gru//via and Na////Lu. I stand by my statement and will not budge. 

I think Gru//via is actually harmful. I don’t think there’s anything necessarily wrong about toxic or abusive relationships being portrayed in media, but I think it needs to be recognized in the series that it is toxic and abusive behavior. That’s not the case with Gru///via. No character is calling out Ju///via’s behavior towards Gray as abusive, it’s played off as comedy or that Gray is the bad guy for not returning her feelings, and as far as I know Mashima hasn’t said anything publicly about it being problematic behavior either. I know someone who has used that as a model for how to get a guy and is in a very messed up situation where he is taking advantage of her.

Also not exactly unpopular as in controversial, but super rare pair ship, Loke and Cana is my OTP for the series. I only actually ship and have strong feelings about GrayLu and and Lokana, all the other ships range from NOTP to I have no issue with it existing.

5. Big Bang Theory

Not a huge fandom of mine but something that just irks me to no end, and I know has been done in other media. I HATE that they had Penny backtrack on being childfree. I get wanting to have this happily ever after for two characters, but it doesn’t have to be children. Having Penny change her mind because Leonard and her dad is so problematic though. It delegitimizes actual women who have this stance (including me). It perpetuates the idea of this is just a phase and we’ll change our minds, which has real world consequences of employers looking at all women as not as serious because as soon as they have that baby that we all KNOW they will, they’ll be taking a step back to be a mom so why give them a promotion. And bodily autonomy. I understand not tying an 18 year old’s tubes, but the fact the so many adult women are denied sterilization procedures because “you’ll change your mind” or “what if your future husband wants kids?” like the wants of a hypothetical partner takes precedence  over what the woman wants to do with her own body. It’s just such bullshit when this happens.

The ONLY time I’ve witnessed this happen that I’ve been okay with is Elliot in Scrubs, it was part of a long character arch, and her not wanting kids seemed to be rooted almost entirely of her fear of it affecting her career. It wasn’t just a snap decision of omg after years of not wanting to procreate I suddenly want children.

Definitely did some rambling and got political up in here, but I think these are probably some of my most unpopular opinions. Depending on the fandom my opinions can fall into more popular or mostly controversial

Some of my fdtd mutuals have already been tagged, so not gonna double tag them: @darth-tella @sunniebelle @kelkat9 @yourundead @fortysevenswrites @scrumptiousperfectionwizard @milkshakemicrowave @elialys @gralunaisland (Although I feel yours should be 5 unpopular opinions on gru//via lol) and of course anyone else who’d like to do this!

[ghostaholics]

Hal I’m it’s almost 11 and I’m drunk rn and I thought ‘how fucking funny would it be for me to leave a comment after 5 shots’ so I’m here to offer you my unfiltered stream of consciousness in regards to this entire piece of work that I read this morning and am just now deciding to leave commentary on.

So anyways, the most hilarious thing is seeing you post a fic that’s like fucking 20k words and I’m like how the fuck do you write that much but then I swear to god like 12k words in I’m like no it was definitely necessary. I’m pretty sure I’m only willing to say this because I’ve pumped myself full of tequila but you’re one of the few writers where I can genuinely see myself enjoying a huge word count without feeling like it’s dragging on. But yeah I read each paragraph where you provided backstory and characterization and everything and it doesn’t feel as though you wasted any text. I thought it was absolutely vital to the plot and helped me understand the reader’s perspective and relationship with Price – especially as she was torn between staying with Leon who is an absolute bitch versus the tall glass of water that is the Captain.

Okay before I forget let me stay on the subject of Leon because I totally understand why reader was wanting to be with him and try to make it work even though everything was falling apart because they have history so no matter how much she was trying to stamp down and lock up her feelings about John who was literally everything she could ever want she was like no I can’t just give up on this relationship that I’ve had with him for years; so honestly, that felt very realistic. Also, props to her for being strong because if John Price actually existed in real life I’m 100% certain that I would fold like a house of cards in hurricane conditions whether I was in a relationship or not. So thumbs up for her staying true ever since Madagascar and double thumbs up for having unwavering faith with the piece of shit that is Leon because I know that I would not have the same kind of will power as her.

I’m just going to jump around right now and come back when I need to but this has been my first thought since starting this fic and it’s the friendship between Soap and reader?? I love it so much??? Suds??! That’s fucking cute as hell and I love that they can joke around with each other about different things because what I enjoy about your writing is that not only do you develop the relationship with the reader and the main love interest, but also other characters as well, which in this case would include, for instance, Leon, Soap, etc. It gives a lot more dimension to the story; this is also extremely important I’ve noticed as it provided evidence that the reader does in fact have relationships with the individuals of task force that Leon may not be able to understand as her and Soap are very close, which would also in turn, make it believable that she would also be equally as close to Captain Price, and I don’t think it would’ve mattered if it was romantic or platonic but it’s feasible that they, or her and any other TF-141 member would basically be attached at the hip, as we kind of saw from the interactions between everyone when she finally showed up at the bar.

Alright cool now I can talk about the reader’s relationship with Price. So I am just the biggest slut for forbidden things and it was neat to see a new spin on that trope where it wasn’t necessarily ‘I’m your superior’ which I can’t recall if there really was any mentioned in the fic bc like I said I am drunk off my ass rn but it was moreso, no we can’t be together because you’re in a committed relationship and not only does John motherfucking Price have more honor/integrity than that, but also he’s basically saying hey I know that this guy is who you’re choosing to be with, and I’m willing to back off because it’s not my place to get in the middle of that. BUT THEN omfg my favorite trope, and cue the yearning and glances of absolute longing because. Hold on let me interrupt that sentence. It’s a very long run-on sentence. Great, back to what I was trying to say, the mutual pining. UGH. FUCK. LOVE IT.

Wait let me talk about the title because when I saw that it was names Cheating Hearts I was honestly low key worried for a second and I tried to start reading it at the ass crack of dawn when I first woke up so imagine me trying to read the summary when I was still groggy and being like, wait, is this about Price cheating in some way shape or form, either as cheating in the reader or cheating with the reader. And I was thinking omfg that’s WILD but trust your writing so much and I would quite honestly do anything for John Price and I thought to myself you know what I think I will enjoy this either way but it’s nice to know that that’s not how the story ended up unfolding. HUGE RELIEF. LMFAO. But Leon made that point about how the reader cheated emotionally and not physically (which he is such a big fucking bitch for saying considering the fact that he’s been fucking some other bitch) – but honestly I was like I’m a reader apologist 😎🤭 she could’ve been fucking Price six ways to Sunday and I would’ve defended her until the end like idk Leon maybe you deserved it lmao.

I can’t quite remember the smut and this has nothing to do with you but solely based on the fact that the room is spinning and I have very little recollection of many things rn. But I know that the the reader and Price were desperate for each other and yeah if I had the chance to jump at him too I would waste 0 time ripping my clothes off for him: I know the smut was good and it was hot and that’s all that matters. Also Soap walking in at the end was a fabulous touch and very on-brand for him. I just love how you said this was supposed to be a study on smut and it ended up being a novel and so fucking funny.

I love you and I love Price and those are two things that should always go together.

Cheating Heart

Pairing: John Price x F!Reader

Synopsis: Your feeling for John were wrong – horribly wrong – but when you see your current boyfriend in bed with another woman, what’s to hold you back anymore? (18+)

Word Count: 20.8k

Warnings: Cheating, toxic relationship, angst, fluff, depictions of violence and gore in flashbacks, unhealthy coping mechanisms, smut, breeding kink, praise kink, Protective!Price, vulgar language, porn with an incredible amount of plot

A/N: Literally just supposed to be smut practice and I turned it into a novel lmfao. I should be getting back to requests after this.

Keep reading

[herinsectreflection]

The hilarious part about Faith and how incredibly gay she comes across is that it's all a natural side-effect of her intended narrative role. According to Whedon she wasn't intentionally written to be a queer or even queer-coded character, but the way she is written and her metaphorical function necessarily meant she came across as queer-coded. I'll explain what I mean:

1) As Buffy's shadow, Faith is meant to be symbolic of Buffy's repressed desires, and specifically her frustrated sexuality. Buffy is dealing with imposed chastity throughout S3, first with her trauma over Angel getting in the way of a relationship with Scott, and then the curse preventing her from being physical with Angel. It's the centre point of Enemies, its touched on in Amends, and is one of the reasons they break up. There's a reason the season climaxes with Angel and Buffy in a passionate embrace, making orgasm faces as he 'penetrates' her. It's a whole season of sexual frustration for Buffy.

Faith needs to be constantly reminding Buffy of the thing she can't have - sex. She needs to talk about sex to Buffy - and she does, extensively. Faith is written as a very sexual person in general, but it's specifically and disproportionately aimed towards Buffy, because that's her narrative role. So you end up with this character who is constantly going around like "hey Buffy do you like sex? you should think about sex now. sex. when I'm on screen the main thing on your mind should be sex and having it". Which begs the question - why does Faith want Buffy to have sex? Symbolically, it's because she represents part of Buffy, and Buffy wants to have sex. But on a pure character level... what is the explanation? What is motivating Faith to constantly talk about sex to Buffy? A few instances you can write off as her making Buffy uncomfortable for jokes, but not all of them. How it comes across is that Faith has some sexual interest in Buffy, and is probing for her feelings.

2) Faith is a Seductress. That's not a comment about her character, that's her function in the story. She is the version of Buffy who goes down a darker path, and is trying to seduce her into doing the same thing. Part of Buffy's arc in S3 is resisting this temptation, and the symbol of what she is resisting is Faith. So Faith must be an enticing, seductive figure. To quote Passion of the Nerd's review, if Faith is there to to tempt Buffy into a moral dark side, it only makes sense that she is, well, tempting. The seduction is happening on many levels.

Faith is more or less filling the Femme Fatale archetype: the seductive, sexual figure who leads the Hero off their path. It's a trope you see all the time in male-led stories, going back to goddamn The Odyssey. Buffy as a character was invented as a simple gender-swap of an old horror trope, and part of the appeal of the show is that she gets to fill the role of The Hero as a woman. So what happens when you gender-swap The Hero and don't gender-swap the Femme Fatale? You get a gay story, that's what.

3) The Faith arc of S3 is a recreation of the Angel arc of S2. It is structured in the exact same way, with the two having a push-and-pull in the early parts of the season, a setback in their relationship in episode 7, getting closest again mid-season before a night of passion that ends in sudden tragedy. Angel/Faith then turn to the dark side, become the Big Bad, and show that they are beyond saving in episode 17. The season ends with Buffy having to fight and the kill them in order to save others. This is all an intentional recycling, as part of the show building up the Trolley Problem and the idea of Buffy being a killer, repeatedly escalating it to get us to The Gift. What this means is that Faith steps into the role that Buffy's love interest played in the previous season. This is the story that we have just had told to us as a tragic love story. We see it again, and guess what? It's still a tragic love story. Only now Faith is in the role of the love interest.

4) Part of the conflict surrounding Buffy and Faith is Buffy's fear of being "Single White Female'd". She fears Faith might steal her loved ones, and Faith does threaten that. She gets along with her mother, her friends... but most of all, her love interests. Buffy's fear of being replaced manifests as Faith trying to literally seduce away anyone romantically linked to Buffy. Angel, Scott Hope, Xander, later Riley, Spike, Robin Wood... Faith is comprehensively and exclusively attracted to men that Buffy dated. I'm honestly surprised she didn't find Owen and Parker from somewhere for a night in the sack. Again, this makes perfect heterosexual sense from a symbolic point it view - she threatens to take Buffy's place in the narrative, so she takes her place in relationships - but on a character level it becomes ambiguous. Is she actively trying to replace Buffy? Or is she trying to stop Buffy dating anyone for another reason? The simple fact is, there is exactly one common denominator with all of Faith's romantic entanglements: Buffy.

It's a canonical aspect of Faith's character that she is jealous of Buffy. We see that made explicit in Enemies - she's jealous of everything Buffy has: her family, her comfortable home life, her friends, her narrative standing, and of course her loving partners. So of course Faith displays jealousy whenever Buffy is involved with a guy. It's a necessary part of building Faith as this figure of Want and Envy. But how it plays out on screen isn't that Faith is jealous of Buffy because she wants these other guys - of course not, because we see her look jealously through the window at Buffy and Riley in This Year's Girl and Riley obviously means nothing to her. Rather, it very much appears that she is jealous of these other guys, because she wants Buffy.

There's also the added bonuses that come from the show playing with so many metaphors, that sometimes they cross in interesting ways. One of Faith's main purposes is to celebrate being a Slayer, and to encourage the same in Buffy. She wants Buffy to accept and embrace being a Slayer. Here, Slayerhood is standing in for independence and hedonism and making your own rules, all the things that Faith is encouraging. But one of the many other metaphors used is the 'coming out' metaphor. "Have your tried not being a slayer?" "It's because you didn't have a strong father figure isn't it." "I've tried to march in the Slayer Pride parade." It's a note that's hit really hard specifically around the time in the show that Faith is introduced. So if you carry this metaphor on, then Faith becomes an out-and-proud lesbianSlayer, trying to convince Buffy to accept and embrace her sexuality.

And it has a recursive effect too. All this stuff contributes towards Faith feeling like a very queer character. And Faith, of course, is Buffy's shadow self, meant to represent her unconscious desires. So when the symbol of your unconscious desires is so lesbian-coded, then the implication becomes that one of your unconscious desires is lesbian desire. Faith's existence as a part of Buffy implies the existence of Buffy's bisexuality. Which contributes to the relationship feeling ever more queer, which makes Faith even gayer.

I find this absolutely hilarious, because the queer subtext was never intended. Joss Whedon apparently was annoyed that people read this into their relationship, and the commentary from the other writers that does address it tends to point to Dushku's performance. And yeah, she is definitely leaning into that in her portrayal. But the main reasons that so many people have this reading all come from the writing. It's all stuff that is integral to the point of her character. Every metaphor and function in the narrative, every symbolic purpose she has, none of it was meant to be gay and yet it all leads directly to Faith appearing to be totally and completely gay. The queerness is accidental and unavoidable. And I just find that really fucking funny.

[writingwithcolor]

Desexualized Mammy & Strong Black Woman, too busy for “frivolous love”

“Alyse” (Anon Submission) asked:

My science fiction story includes a black woman (Talia) who raises two children that aren’t her own and takes on two young adults as apprentices. One of the children she is raises has Arabic background and was taken into her home upon his father’s death (his mother’s whereabouts are unknown). She was a close friend of his father and the closest thing he had to a relative. The second child has mixed French-Latinx background and was taken in after becoming shipwrecked with no means by which to contact her people. Talia was the first non-hostile individual she encountered and one of the few who would so openly embrace a stranger. Since Talia is Master Medic (the highest medical authority in her community) she is training two apprentices (think residency) and eventually mentors the second child as well. She was once married and passionately in love but lost her husband to illness. In this setting, some technology we take for granted is inaccessible and violence against their people is commonplace. Most have experienced sudden loss. This particular loss was the catalyst that drove Talia into medicine- a desire to protect her loved ones and prevent others from experiencing similar tragedy. She is usually kind (though businesslike) but sometimes succumbs to a frigid, furious depression when, despite all her knowledge and determination, she can’t save someone. 

I worry that her maternal association with the two children (one of whom is an outsider) mires her in the mammy trope. On top of that, she hasn’t pursued romance since the death of her husband. I’ve considered giving her a romantic subplot but there are already so many characters to keep track of. Furthermore, I just can’t see her engaging in the frivolous pursuits of new love when she’s dealing with kids, students, and an extremely taxing career. 

In terms of race and culture in this story, practically every character can trace their ancestry back to populations displaced through war. Even Talia’s second child was shipwrecked during a botched evacuation from a military science lab. The people who live here have been isolated for generations and no longer have a real concept of their ancestry. Cultures have blended, new religions have formed, and many of our familiar racial/ethnic issues are forgotten. However, new and different but equally toxic ones have replaced them. In this way, Talia’s blackness doesn’t carry the same associations in her world as it would in ours. However, readers may still make these associations. Do you see any issues with her character that I could amend? 

So! You have:

A highly educated Black-coded woman (the highest medical authority in the community)

She raises two kids alone 

She also looks after two apprentices

She is widowed (not sure the race of the husband, was he Black?)

Having experienced heartbreaking love, Talia's drive to look after, protect and save people through medicine is a great motivation for the way she is. Her experiencing depression and taking losses seriously is also very human and is dynamic characterization. 

However, such characterization with Black women is prone to brush across several tropes. You have a Black woman who gives and protects, but what does she get in return? Who cares for her? 

Prioritize your Black character’s happiness

"I’ve considered giving her a romantic subplot but there are already so many characters to keep track of. Furthermore, I just can’t see her engaging in the frivolous pursuits of new love when she’s dealing with kids, students, and an extremely taxing career." 

Priorities, priorities. Is love a frivolous pursuit in her eyes, or yours? Because I strongly disagree. You probably don't mean to but you, as the author, having an excuse to NOT give the Black woman romance is showing that you do not think she's worth being loved. TV viewers and stans who are uncomfortable when Black women characters have relationships find similar excuses to explain away not wanting BW in relationships.

"She's too strong and independent for a man/relationship" 

"I liked her better alone." 

"It'll take away from her character."

“A romance doesn’t feel right for her”

These sorts of statements above are grounded in racialized misogyny. 

Relationships do not lessen the woman.

Relationships does not lessen Black women. 

Love

Whether that love is romantic, familial, or friendship, it can come in many forms. Give Talia love. Because Black women characters deserve it! Either one or all! 

Let her have a loyal best friend, a cat, and a girlfriend. Because why not? And not to downplay the love of children to parents, but please provide her love beyond what she gets on a maternal level from the children she looks after. 

The stories that Black women are in today severely lack love for us, so why add to the narrative of Black women being all work and no play, and too [insert excuse here] to be loved? 

Of course, you didn't provide all the details from your story, but I'm not seeing much of a balance from the struggle. She is a caretaker, teacher, doctor (or doctor-like figure). 

Her position and background in itself is okay. It's the Strong Black Woman being presented with seemingly no commentary that strikes me. 

Where is her team to help balance the weight of the world? 

Who takes care of her when she's depressed from another loss? 

What does she get in return from taking an emotional and physical toll to heal her community? 

Do those around her recognize all she does for them and offer their friendship? 

When does she get to relax and turn off the need to be everything for everybody?

Fitting love into a book with many characters

There are many books with several characters to keep track of. People tend to manage. Also, I'm sure some of those characters are in and/or out of relationships. Even stories that couldn’t be classified as romances have relationships of some sort. It’s unrealistic to have a ton of characters and none of them be in relationship(s) of some sort. Not when there’s so many forms of it and many sexualities. 

Friends, frenemies, enemies, romance, affairs.. Relationships make stories (and life) interesting. By no means do I think adding these dynamics harm your tale. And what’s one more for a hard-working Black woman who sacrifices a lot and clearly deserves a shoulder to lean on? And, if you use an existing character to be that friend, family, or lover, then you won’t need to pencil in another character.

For romance specifically - I think a misconception when it comes to including romance in stories is that they have to somehow take over the story. Romance does not have to bombard the plot nor be described in lavish detail. Not every story is a romance and those sort of details aren’t everyone’s style or things they’re comfortable with. A sentence or two establishing relationships does not take away from the story.And how those relationships look and affections expressed will vary based on the characters, sexuality, etc.

Not every character needs to have a deep level of detail. 

“Katie and Lisa, a newly engaged couple, walked into the meeting.”

“Jack and Jamie are a married couple in their 40s.” 

“The two met in college. After two months of blissful courtship, they eloped, eager to start their happily ever afters. Twenty years together, they were still blissfully in love and never too far from one another.”

Sentences like the above are enough for some characters. You don’t always need to put in paragraphs worth of relationship-establishing details or plot. 

When it comes to the characters whose love you would like to highlight, at least a bit, you still don’t have to go over the top.

Use subtle details. 

“As soon as Talia’s back was turned, he gave her a longing look before shaking his head and getting back to the patient.”

“He squeezed her hand before taking hold of the stethoscope.”

“She kissed her wife goodbye before racing out the door.”

“You mean the world to me.” he had said, holding her face. Those words stayed with her all day, making her heavy load light as a sack of feathers.

“She soaked his shirt with her tears and he just held her tight, saying nothing, silently holding her together.”

As for Talia specifically…

Talia having the mindset you described, as love being frivolous and not a priority, is understandable knowing her background (I just don't agree with you as the creator using this as a means to keep her alone. Whether she’s romantically alone or without close friendships). She has lost so much, and continues to experience loss with patients. This can be extremely traumatizing. I gave some examples of being subtle, so perhaps that will help with the burden of feeling a thick subplot of romance doesn’t fit in your story. 

And as Talia doesn’t strike me as someone who would go looking for companionship, what if she stumbles upon it without trying? Is there someone on the medical team that can offer her friendship? Someone who admires her and feels the urge to care for her that she feels the same for, or has pushed feelings down for? What happens when she can’t hold those feelings down anymore?

Takeaway

Talia deserves healthy love, even if she doesn’t believe it or feel she has time for it. That love can come in any and many forms, not necessarily romantically required, although it is a plus. A struggle-ridden novel is balanced by love, support and rest for characters that hold the weight of the world. If you do not, evaluate why you want to write Black characters in these struggle roles without at least a social commentary. 

~Mod Colette

[ohtobealady]

Thank you ALL for those amazing analyses of the past couple of days! I vote they should get a masterpost. In addition, I've noticed that in the S1 script book Julian says in a footnote that the reason why Robert's dad (Patrick?) made Cora sign her fortune into the estate was not so much just ensuring Downton had a future in general but specifically "protecting the family from Cora's running off and taking her money with her" (p.22). Could it be that she faced hostily from him as well as Violet?

Anon!!!!! I saw this too!!! For those that are interested:

I love speculating what exactly Cora’s relationship was to Robert’s father. Julian insinuates that Cora was only 18-19 when she was married, and we know that she was in love. I also get the feeling that Robert’s father wasn’t very aggressive as a personality. He was probably very stoic.

I think I feel that he very likely was kind enough to Cora for he saw the whole transactional marriage as any experienced adult would see it: a very young, starry-eyed girl marrying a man five or six years older than her because she fancied herself in love (Robert’s father and mother, I’m sure, would’ve thought it was purely just infatuation), and had romantic ideas about being called Lady and living in a castle and making her parents proud she’d made a good match. They also would have noted Robert’s lack of love for her and the juxtaposition of Cora’s expectation versus what they knew her reality would be.

I suspect it took very little coercion to have Cora sign the entail. I don’t think anyone thought she’d not have a son. I think Cora was also smart enough to know what she was signing and very likely thought it would be inconsequential. Of course she’d give Robert a son!

So to answer your question, I don’t think there was hostility in getting her to sign it. Robert says she would have never noticed if they’d had a son. Julian’s commentary also says that Robert’s father “would have assumed his healthy, young American daughter-in-law would have a son,” so it could’ve been that whatever guilt he may have felt for getting her to sign it was forgiven because of that. But, at the same time, being the adult and seeing that Cora was probably going to have a huge sugar-crash after the dust settled (and knowing what we know his experience was with Violet LOL), his duty is ultimately to Downton and not her.

I think “Patrick” is a character that can go a lot of different ways. I tend to write him as hard or stoic, but ultimately a good person. Even honorable. I think he’s just in a position as Earl that doesn’t necessarily fit with his disposition as a person, so his personality sometimes gets colored differently in the shadow of the Abbey. I think his younger brother (James’s father) would’ve made a better Earl and it created a huge amount of familial bitterness, especially between James’s mother, James, and Violet. (That’s an enormous tangent.)

Lots of fun to play with!

[thehours2002]

This post just showed up in my activity feed and, reflecting on it, this scene should not have been included in the show if Aniello, Downs, and Statsky were not going to seriously entertain developing Ava and Deborah’s relationship into a romantic one.

These millennial writers are online enough to be aware of the discourse surrounding queerbaiting--and I’m not saying Hacks is queerbaiting because it definitely isn’t--but those charges will arise nevertheless because they planted this seed. Without this scene, they had plausible deniability that their strategy of incorporating romcom tropes into the development of Ava and Deborah’s relationship/mentorship was just that, but this dream sequence clearly harbingers something else. It deceives fans into believing that they are taking a romantic relationship between Ava and Deborah as a serious possibility. Riling the queer girlies up like this was not worth the payoff from the uninspired Carol joke.

I think that AD&S did include this dream sequence because of their limited worldview and did not anticipate an audience to take the idea of a relationship between a 25 year old woman and a 70 year old woman seriously. Why would they incorporate these romcom tropes if they didn’t expect the audience to recognize them as signs of a burgeoning intimacy between Ava and Deborah that is necessarily platonic in nature because of the gap in their ages and because they are both women? They must have thought that because of those double stigmas, it wouldn’t occur to viewers to conceive of their relationship as romantic, and it may not have even occurred to them as a serious possibility/anything more than a punchline until commentary from critics and fans trickled in.

AD&S have rightfully brought queer writers and directors into the fold but the show and its premise is still their brainchild and I guess these straight writers (and I know I shouldn’t make assumptions but I think their queerness would have come up in press tours) didn’t have the queer vision to foresee these possibilities.

i’m sorry how do you have this dream about your boss and dismiss it as you having fucked up intimacy issues

[lorenfangor]

I heard that #40 was super homophobic :/ so I skipped it. But now your fic is making me want to give it a try. How problematic is it? Are the characters worth it?

Okay.

Okay.

Let’s talk about #40.

The plot of The Other (a Marco POV) is that Marco sees an Andalite on a video tape sent in to some Unsolved Mysteries-esque TV show, and he assumes it’s Ax and hauls ass to save him from being captured. Ax, being Ax, has videotaped the show, and they pull it up and Tobias uses his hawk eyes to figure out that it’s not Ax, it’s another Andalite - one without a tailblade. Ax is appalled at the presence of this vecol (an Andalite word for a disabled person) and we find out that he and others of his species have deep ingrained prejudices against at least some kinds of disabled people.

Despite this, Marco and Ax go looking for the Andalite in question because he’s been spotted by national TV, and they meet a second one, named Gafinilan-Estrif-Valad. The vecol is Mertil-Iscar-Elmand, a former fighter pilot with a reputation and Gafinilan’s coded-gay life partner. The two of them have been on Earth since book 1; they crashed their fighters on the planet and have been trapped there thanks to the GalaxyTree going down. Gafinilan has adopted a human cover, a physics professor, and they’ve been living in secret ever since.

Thanks to that tape, Mertil has been captured by Visser Three, and he’s not morph-capable so he can’t escape. Gafinilan wants to trade the leader of the “Andalite Bandits” to the Yeerks to get his boyfriend back; he can’t fight to free Mertil because he’s terminally ill with a genetic disorder that will eventually kill him, and (it’s implied that) the Yeerks aren’t interested in disabled hosts, even disabled Andalite ones. Despite Ax’s ableism, the Animorphs agree to work with Gafinilan and free Mertil, and they’re successful. Marco ends the book talking about how there are all kinds of prejudices you’ll have to face and boxes that people will put you in, and you can’t necessarily escape them even if they’re reductive and inaccurate, but you can still live your life with pride.

So now that I’ve explained the plot, I’m gonna come out the gate saying that I love this book. I love it wholeheartedly, I love Marco’s narration, I love Ax having to deal with Andalite society’s ableism, I love these characters, and as a disabled lesbian I don’t find these disabled gays to be inherently Bad Rep.

that’s of course just my opinion and it doesn’t overshadow other issues that people might have? but at the same time, I don’t like the seemingly-common narrative that this book is all bad all the time, and I want to offer up a different read.To that end, I’m going to go point by point through some of the criticisms and common complaints that I’ve seen across the fandom over the years.

“Mertil and Gafinilan were put on a bus after one appearance because they were gay!”

this is one I’m going to have to disagree with hardcore. I talked about this yesterday, but in Animorphs there are a lot of characters or ideas that only get introduced once or twice and then get written off or dropped - in order off the top of my head, #11 (the Amazon trip), #16 (Fenestre and his cannibalism), #17 (the oatmeal), #18 (the hint of Yeerks doing genetic experiments in the hospital basement), #24/#39/#42 (the Helmacrons’ ability to detect morphing tech), #25 (the Venber), #28 (experiments with limiting brain function through drugs), #34 (the Hork-Bajir homeworld being retaken, the Ixcila procedure), #36 (the Nartec), #41 (Jake’s Bad Future Dream), and #44 (the Aboriginal people Cassie meets in Australia) all feature things that either seem to exist just for the sake of having a particular trope explored Animorphs-style or to feature an idea for One Single Book.

This is a series that’s episodic and has a very limited overall story arc because of how children’s literature in the 90s was structured - these books are closer to The Saddle Club, Sweet Valley High, Animal Ark, or The Baby-Sitters’ Club than they are to Harry Potter or A Series of Unfortunate Events. Mertil and Gafinilan don’t get to be in more than one book because they’re not established in the main cast or the supporting cast, I don’t think that it’s solely got anything to do with their being gay.

“Gafinilan has AIDS, this is a book about AIDS, and that’s homophobic!”

Okay, this is… hard. First, yes, Gafinilan does have a terminal illness. Yes, Gafinilan is gay. No, Soola’s Disease is not AIDS.

I have two responses to this, and I’ll attack them in order of their occurrence in my thought. First, there’s coded AIDS diseases all over genre fiction, especially genre fiction from that era, because the AIDS epidemic made a massive impact on public life and fundamentally changed both how the public perceived illness and queerness and how queer people themselves experienced it. I was too young to live through it, but my dad’s college roommate was out, and my dad himself has a lot of friends who he just ceases to talk about if the conversation gets past 1986 or so - this was devastating and it got examined in art for more reasons than “gay people all have AIDS”, and I dislike the implication that the only reason it could ever appear was as a tired stereotype or a message that Being Queer Means Death. Gafinilan is kind, fond of flowers, and fond of children - he’s multifaceted, and he’s got a terminal illness. Those kinds of people really exist, and they aren’t Bad Rep.

Second off, Soola’s Disease? Really isn’t AIDS. It’s a congenital genetic illness that develops over time, cannot be transmitted, and does not carry a serious stigma the way AIDS did. Gafinilan also has access to a cure - he could become a nothlit and no longer be afflicted by it, even if it’s considered somewhat dishonorable to go nothlit to escape that way. That’s not AIDS, and in fact at no point in my read and rereads did I assume that his having a terminal illness was supposed to be a commentary on homosexuality until I found out that other people were assuming it.

“Mertil losing his tail means he’s lost his masculinity, and that’s bad because he’s gay! That’s homophobic!”

so this is another one I’ve gotta hardcore disagree with, because while Mertil is one of two Very Obviously Queer Characters, he’s not the only character who loses something fundamental about himself, or even loses access to sexual and/or romantic capability in ways he was familiar with.

Tobias and Arbron both get ripped out of their ordinary normal lives by going nothlit in bad situations, and while they both wind up finding fulfillment and freedom despite that, it’s still traumatic, even more for Arbron I’d say than for Tobias. And on a psychological level, none of the main cast is left unmarked or free of trauma or free of deep change thanks to the bad things that have happened to them - they’re no less fundamentally altered than Mertil, even if it’s mental rather than physical. And yes, tail loss is equated with castration or emasculation, but that doesn’t automatically mean Mertil suffering it is tied to his homosexuality and therefore the takeaway we’re intended to have is “Being gay is tragic and makes you less of a man”. This is a series where bad shit happens to everyone, and enduring losses that take away things central to one’s self-conception or identity or body is just part of the story.

Also, frankly? Plenty of IRL disabled people have to grapple with a loss of sexual function, and again, they’re not Bad Rep just because they’re messy.

“Andalite society is confusingly written in this book, and the disability aspects are clearly just a coverup for the gay stuff!”

Andalite society is canonically sexist, a bit exceptionalist and prejudiced in their own favor, and pretty contradictory and often challenged internally on its own norms. In essence, it’s a pretty ordinary society, and they’re really realistic as sci-fi races go. It makes sense from that perspective that Andalites would tolerate scarring or a lost stalk eye or a lost skull eye, but not tolerate serious injuries that significantly impact your perceived quality of life. Ableism is like that - it’s not one-size-fits-all. I look at Ax’s reactions and I see a lot of my own family and friends’ behaviors - this vibes with my understanding of prejudice, you know?

“Mertil and Gafinilan have a tragic ending, which means the story is saying that being gay dooms you to tragedy!”

Mertil and Gafinilan have the best possible ending that they could ask for? They are victims of the war, they are suffering because of the war, they get the same cocktail of trauma and damage that every other soldier gets. But unlike Jake and Tobias and Marco, unlike Elfangor, unlike Aximili? Their ending comes in peace, in their own home. Gafinilan isn’t dying alone, he’s got the love of his life with him. Mertil isn’t going to be as isolated anymore, he’s got Marco for a friend. Animorphs is a tragedy, it’s not a happy story, it’s not something that guarantees a beautiful sunshine-and-roses ending for everyone, and I love tragedy, and so I will fight for this story. Yes, it hurts. Yes, it deserved better. But it’s not less meaningful just because it’s sad. Nobody is entitled to anything in this book, and it’s just as true for these two as it is for anyone else.

“It’s not cool that the only canonically gay characters in this series don’t get to be happy and trauma-free and unblemished Good Rep!”

This is one I can kind of understand, and I’ll give some ground to it, because it is sucky. The only thing I’ll say is that I stand by my argument that nothing that happens to Mertil and Gafinilan is unusual compared to what happens to the rest of the cast, and that their ending is way happier than Rachel and Tobias’s, or Jake and Cassie’s. But it’s a legitimate point of frustration, and the one argument I’ll say I agree has validity.

(Though, I also want to point out that I think there are plenty of equally queercoded characters in the story who aren’t Mertil and Gafinilan - Tobias, Rachel, Cassie, and Marco all get at least one or two moments that signal to me that they’re potentially LGBT+, not to mention Mr. Tidwell and Illim in #29 and their long-term domestic partnership. There’s no reason to assume that the only queer people here are those two aliens when Marco’s descriptions of Jake exist.)

“Marco uses slurs and reduces Gafinilan’s whole identity to his illness!”

Technically, yes, this is true, except putting it that way strips the whole passage of its context. Marco is discussing the boxes society puts you into, the ones you don’t have a choice about facing or escaping. He’s talking about negative stereotypes and reductive generalizations, he’s referring to them as bad things that you get inflicted upon you by an outside world or by friends who don’t know the whole story or the real you. The slurs he uses are real slurs that get thrown at people still, and they’re not okay, and the point is that they’re not okay but assholes are going to call you by them anyway. He ends by saying “you just have to learn to live with it”, and since this is coming from a fifteen-year-old Latino kid who we know is picked on by bullies for all sorts of reasons and who faces racism and homophobia? He knows what he’s talking about. He’s bitter about what’s been said and done, he’s not stating it like it’s a good thing.

Yes, absolutely, this speech is a product of its time, but it’s a product of its time that speaks of defiance and says “We aren’t what we’re said to be,” and in the year this was published? That’s a good message.

tl;dr The Other is good, actually, and Mertil and Gafinilan are incredible characters who deserve all the love they could possibly get.

[jokerownsmysoul]

I know everyone's been talking about this over and over and we are tired of hearing about Joker being a musical, but I have thoughts ™ I have to get out of my chest and if I don't I might implode, so here's a long ramble no one asked for :')

When I heard that Joker Folie à Deux might be a musical (assuming that’s true of course) at first I was shocked. It's such a bold move no one's seen it coming and doesn't follow the same steps of Joker 2019. But then I thought it over, and I realized... it’s Arthur we’re talking about. It's Arthur. The same man who gets excited and full of joy just by watching Chaplin, who we finally see smile genuinely and by heart for the first time thanks to none other than the music, who could turn your life in a old romantic musical if only he got the chance, who dances and sings all the time, who dreams of being told he's a good dancer. He’s the one Todd says, and here I quote what he said in the commentary as many people will remember, "I could watch him dance for hours," and again, "he has music in him." 

And what's the better way to combine these two things and to represent Arthur's soul in its purest form? Music of course, it's always been music.

I'm still very worried that they will make a mess, and being something so different from what we thought I find it a little scary, and yet, the more I think about it and the more I realize it’s one of the best ways to stay the truest to Arthur and highlight even more his old fashioned romance we've fell in love with, without taking away the original serious realism of Joker 2019 which makes it such a unique movie. Not the best way, just one of the many, and legit people could agree or not agree with. Personally I think that If they do it right and the way Arthur fucking deserves, something really epic might come out of this musical and Arthur will still be our Arthur.

We could see Arthur do the thing he loves most in the world, we could have a tangible way to taste the music he keeps inside him, we could get to know the deepest part of him in a way that's as close to him as possible. We might get to know Arthur in a way we never did. We could finally get to know the music he plays all the time in his head which no one knows but him, and see it spread all over into the world. It may not be joy and laughter as he first wanted, but will be the purest part of him that I’m sure so many of us love and will keep loving. I could cry if only I think of it for just a second. It could be so wonderful and overwhelming.

Especially considering his mental state I wouldn't be surprised if he heard music anywhere, and just like he did in Joker 2019 if he used music to cope against the raw realism of Gotham where his needs and wants are met with nothing. What if the musical only happened into his head? I would love that if the musical doesn't have to be necessarily everyone's reality. Maybe the musical device is only what Arthur perceive, a way for us to see the world through Arthur’s eyes and heart, that of course create and see music & singing everywhere, which is not so different from what he does in the first movie.

Talking about the stair dance, Todd says in the commentary: "I think, for me, one of my favorite parts, why I like that sequence is, we view it in two ways. One, that’s the objective reality in which his dance movements are shot in 24 frames a second. And so, they’re jerky, they seem out of sync, he’s not really smooth. And then we see it in slow motion and suddenly he appears to be kind of graceful and locked into this movement. And I thought it was a smart way of illustrating the objective reality of what’s happening and the character’s subjective perception of what he’s experiencing. To Joker, he’s graceful and in control. And the reality is something entirely different."

I would love if they walked the same line for a musical. Whether it’s because of his coping, his hallucinations, his daydreams, his mental state or just his creative instinct, music could simply be a way to get inside his mind, made of music and creativity and art, that stands up against a dark, soundless, boring Gotham reality as soon as the musical segment ends.

I was so worried about the idea, and I am still very worried, but again assuming it's true and it's gonna be a thing, the more I think about it, the more I'm excited at the chance to see Arthur do what he loves most for hours on end just like so many of us wished to do. 💙 They really just need to get it right, which is where all my worries and hesitation lay, but for my sake I want to try and be optimistic that they know how to