#a lot of show make it a point of their marketing that the show it’s queer

[earlycuntsets]

“I CONSIDERED MYSELF TO BE MORE OF A GIRL”

A CONVERSATION WITH GERARD WAY from theboyzine.com 1/18/2015

"Gerard way is the renaissance-type singer songwriter // Goth prince frontman // comic book artist // proud father best known for both his solo music and his band My Chemical Romance. We got a chance to ask him a few questions in early January. Enjoy!

What is your favorite animal?

I would have to say an ape; for a long time I didn’t take the time to know the difference between primates, but my wife and I have been really into animals—apes are just very gentle creatures.

As an emotional professional, how do you feel when people tell you to man up?

You know, growing up as a boy you are always told not to show your emotions, that it is a sign of weakness. I have been lucky enough to lead a life where I can celebrate how I really feel—but there is still negative attention towards it and it is still considered weakness.

Is there a point, then, where one does need to (for lack of a better word) man up?

You know I really don’t like that phrase. “man up”, because it implies that emotional strength in rough times is a masculine trait, when in reality some of the strongest people I know are women. But yes, there are a lot of times when you should control your emotions–  times of crisis and need where you really can’t let them get involved. I have learned to pull my emotions out of a lot of big decisions.

You often make it a point to spread the message of gender equality in your shows. Could you describe that a little bit?

It is something I have been lucky enough to be educated about. I generally try to pay attention to it, make sure I get my facts from the best sources and whatnot, and I really relate to it. I never really subscribed to the archetype masculinity growing up, I had no interest in sports or anything like that. There was a time where I was called a girl so often that when I discovered the idea of transgenderism I considered myself to be more of a girl. So I identify with trans people and women a lot because I was a girl to a lot of people growing up. When I was doing MCR I think I finally got to display my femininity through the glam theatrical aspects of the band. It made me feel more hopeful, that I was allowed to be flamboyant. I want to make sure women and men and everyone in between feel safe and empowered.

Was there a person or thing that first sparked your interest in feminism?

When I was around 16 I became friends with these really cool girls, and that’s how I got exposed to Bikini Kill, Helium, Bratmobile—that was the real punk. All the other hardcore scenes at the time were a little bit hypermasculine and violent, which was totally unappealing to me. But here are these bands—Bikini Kill, et cetera that were actually talking about important things. That was real punk. Great bands.

What sort of advice can you offer to all of us boyz reading?

You have to surround yourself with ‘the others’. Whether they’re the creatives that you know or whatever it is. Because you guys will feed each other, that’s the nature of people. Find companions who will push you in the field you are in.

Do you hang onto traces of boyishness? Comics and digging up worms?

Well first off I don’t consider those things boyish. I am really happy that things like comics have become less marketed specifically toward boys—did you know that 50 percent of comic book readers are girls now? There is a really great picture I saw one time of a little girl with all the spiderman toys in a toy store clearly angry that they were in the ‘boys’ section. We need to let kids have more freedom of choice in who they want to be.

But answering your question, I have always been super into comic books. I didn’t really ever like sports, so I played dungeons and dragons a lot. That was a really important creative outlet for me. Of course I still love Star wars, and biking.

How do you find ways to stay positive?

Society is so interconnected these days, there is so much noise. It is really important I think to turn the noise down, to find ways to do so. Whether you’re in a creative field or not, you need to find a way to follow what is in your gut because that noise that is so obstructive is   creeping. Think about the art you make, the people you love.

My routine is really simple but important to me. I wake up every morning and my wife and I get our daughter ready for school and I drive her there. And that’s when work begins for me. I am lucky that one day I can be recording a new song and the next I am putting all of my energy into a comic.

Do you consider your marriage to be a partnership?

I am very glad you asked. I consider my whole family dynamic a three way partnership actually. My wife and I have been partners since day one, and now our daughter is the newest addition to the mix. Of course we have different duties to each other—my wife and my job is to educate my daughter  and make her feel great and teach her how to work hard, to let her choose what she loves. That’s very important to us. It is great coming home from the road because Lindsay (my wife) and I get to work together more.

Thank you so much for doing this interview, is there anything we haven’t touched that you want to say?

Don’t chase your dreams, let your dreams chase you

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #6553:

When a showrunner/company only ever makes their LGBT representation wlw. Which, of course, lesbians and bisexual women need to be represented too (especially bisexual women) . But gay men are always given a backseat and are rarely ever considered, so there's seriously a lot less representation for us.

A show could brag about its LGBT representation, and the only rep on there is lesbians. Where's the GBT? I'll be honest, at some point it starts to feel less like rep and more like fetishist marketing.

[mouthpoisons]

im still here and im still mad and feel like supplementing the stuff i said by talking about one of my favourite shows of all time, black sails. it's a show that markets itself as a prequel to fucking treasure island, and it has several beautifully handled examples of ''messy'' queer people and various flavours of Actual queerplatonicism/soulmateship, and i want to parade them around in service of saying Get Fucked to That Man a little more.

like i seriously feel like its my messy-nebulous-identity-queer-man oligation to hammer it in that he is gaslighting everyone, and that what he's trying to make you give up and just accept that he Apparently wrote genuinely exists in incredible capacities in infinitely better more big-brained pieces of media. the jayvik narrative was just straight up ''they want eachother but they have to battle the comphet demons first''. the queerplatonic/soulmate characters you deserve are out there (and by extension in this scenario, actual nuanced pieces of media about ostracised people revolting against their oppressors). lemme put you on.

black sails includes:

captain james flint, a former british navy officer, who was exiled from england because he's outed having slept with a nobleman called thomas hamilton. thomas's wife miranda was in on it the whole time, there's definitely a sense of loss and grief coming from her surrounding the situation but she remains fully supportive of them both, and she loves them both dearly. thomas is thrown into a psyche ward offscreen and flint and miranda flee england to the caribbean, where james becomes a seething vengeful pirate captain and miranda tries her best to make a comfortable home and a life for herself in exile. these two characters are deeply in love with eachother and the exact nature of their love is never spelled out to us. they are intimate with eachother, they fully have sex on screen, however they make a point of making it feel stilted and awkward with james just kinda lying there. miranda will later go on to desperately pursue a pastor who starts frequently visiting her for tea and company.

the way this show beautifully frames the relationship between these two characters honest to fucking god made me land on the reading that james is gay specifically, not bi

my reading of them is that they are a secret third thing, they are some form of queerplatonic partners who are bound together by their grief and the loss of their shared romantic partner. that james, who has gone back to burying his attraction to men under a million layers of shame, is only comfortable having sex with miranda, because shes the only person who fully knows who he is and loves him unconditionally. and in turn for a while she's only comfortable having sex with him, eventhough the relationship leaves her unfulfilled. a piece of fiction being able to ilicit that reading from me, that the man i just described isnt into women but has this relationship with one anyway, is fully fucking insane but they managed it flawlessly. a lot of people share my opinion and a lot of others see the situation as a doomed bi polycule, james as a bisexual man, and him and miranda just straight up being eacothers trauma-bound situationship, etc. which is an equally valid reading. it really could go either way

jack rackham and anne bonny From Real Life are also portrayed in this show, and they are set up as longtime sexual/romantic partners, practically joined at the hip, before shenanigans ensue and anne has her first ever non-hetero sex with a sex worker called max, which leads her to eventually figure out shes a lesbian, and her and max are endgame. i cant quite remember the jack/anne backstory off the top of my head but it goes something along the lines of; anne was the young teenage wife of an extremely abusive husband, and one day jack found himself in their tavern, and he kills the husband and runs away with anne. hes the only compassionate love shes ever known and her arc is built around her realising that shes unintentionally been in jacks shadow this whole time, and that she barely has any idea who she is outside of being his partner.

her lesbian acceptance arc includes her trying desperately to cling onto the initial state of her love for jack by inviting him to a threeway, and it very literally reads as ''i need my boyfriend here for comfort so i dont get scared doing the lesbian sex that actually makes me feel something''.

eventually however, anne comes to accept that she simply loves jack in a different way now, and jack, who loves her more than anything, wants her to be her own person, and is fully supportive of her, is willing to ''let her go''. anne has an amazing scene where she tells him ''i cant be your wife, jack, but we'll be partners until they put us in the fucking ground.'' and when anne uses that word, partners, in that context, you know exactly what she means. they remain intimate with eachother for the rest of the show, they are still eachothers best friends, eachothers soulmates, theyre 2 sides of the same coin, they kiss on the mouth like twice after this revelation for gods sake, but it's extremely clear that what she means by that is she's no longer his sexual/romantic partner. they're a secret third thing now. they are partners in the way That Man tried to retroactively convince you jayvik are.

this is just 2 examples, but ive left out the big one. if i analysed the actual main ''are they like brothers/do they have crushes on eachother/are they soulmates/are they queerplatonic/whatever the hell else is going on here'' relationship the 2 main characters have, id be here a while, and i kind of wanna leave them (and the incredible madi who joins them in their madness later in the story) under wraps incase ive managed to advertise the show to you. theyre amazing and tragic and beautiful and theyre best experienced firsthand. i promise you the authorial intent of portraying a close relationship between 2 men that defies clear-cut labels and explanations is crystal fucking clear in black sails, and it's not just a full ass Gay Guys With Comphet narrative that was word-of-god rolled back on at the last moment. the writers even went on record explaining that they specifically wanted to do a secret third thing with them. i wouldnt know where to dig it up again, but when these guys say it, you believe it. they are Not talking out their asses and they dont think youre stupid.

if you wanna watch a story about vilified downtrodden people who plan to revolt against an imperialist regime, which actually handles that setup amazingly and with proper tact and complexity, that's full of beautiful messy characters and relationships, which ends in a way that's earth shatteringly devastating, but in a way that makes perfect sense and leaves you depressed forever but satisfied, and is 50 billion times better than what arcane turned itself into in that horseshit second season, try black sails. this unabashedly revolutionary anti-imperialist tragedy will continue to surprise you in the best way and i genuinely think that if youre malding over arcane fumbling literally fucking every topic it touched, this should be your next stop. you deserve good food. this is the kind of shit arcane wishes it was.

also another point that i couldnt really fit in anywhere else; they turned fucking long john silver into one of The Most Fictional Characters Of All Time. this show is treasure island fanfiction and they managed to turn the original text into a dubious sequel, and i cant even begin to explain what i mean by that, but john might actually be an entirely new genre of guy now and it's fucking incredible what they did with him specifically. hes fictional character squared. im obsessed with him and they make that feel like a deep unforgivable violation of his privacy. go and experience that man's Narrative

and lastly a big ass disclaimer: the first season is the worst one and you have to go into it with the context that this was originally developed as a Historical Drama For Bros, and it has the vibe of a game of thrones ripoff until the creators are given due control from s2 onwards. theres uh. a lot of Cringe in season 1, i wont lie. the women and wlw characters have some very stupid male-gazey characterisation, theres an extremely uncomfortable arc where a woman is repeatedly sexually assaulted, theres some shock-valuey depictions of slavery, but i promise when the creators are allowed the chance to lock in, they lock the fuck in. they make something amazing out of every topic that's treated in a weird shallow way in the first season and you can tell when they start putting their entire backs into it

someone even did a ''what couldve been'' amv if you dont mind more potential spoilers via out of context visuals

[youcanautogeneratethese]

This isn't the way to build a cinematic universe

So, at this point it's pretty clear to me that Arcane was sacrificed for the sake of a greater cinematic universe. It's everywhere in the way they rushed to the show to its ending while keeping (probably) its most iconic characters alive, conveniently shipping them off to the next destination so they can used as marketing material in the next show to come.

The issue that this isn't how you build good cinematic universes. I always expected them to do more shows since League of Legends is such a big place, but if you want to build the loyal fanbase necessary for a universe like this... you can't give them rushed, pie chart driven writing.

"Alright, wrap it up! We got to get to the next destination! But make sure our money makers are shipped off to be in it, that'll draw the crowds. Heh."

To build a universe like Marvel (I'm assuming that's what they're going for) you have to respect and properly write each individual story as it comes. Now, S2 wasn't so bad that their next show won't still draw a big audience but it's safe to assume that at least some people will check out after this, or simply lose a lot of good will towards the project. That and the fandom division, which is never good for growth.

Which you want to keep very high if you're going to dump this much money into multiple shows.

[mozillavulpix]

okay i need to go to work and i don't have tumblr on my phone, but lemme just give the dot point synopsis of my thoughts about the new precure trademark and elaborate later

they couldn't possibly do idols straight in the year 2025. you listen to people like Washio talk and you can tell they care a lot about trying to keep Precure contemporary and relevant to social issues. Would parents let their kids watch an idol Precure? when they know what the reality of idols are like?

also like the most popular idol show at the moment probably is oshi no ko, where it says your oshi is a lie and what if you wanted to be an idol to murder a guy

the black and white hearts in the precure logo are making me think this could very much be a nostalgia season

after all, it's 'you and idol', not like 'shining idol' or 'brilliant idol' or whatever they could have written it is as. almost implying the 'you' is not the idol.

what if it's a kamen rider decade/zio-like season where they use the power of past precure? that the previous precure themselves are the 'idols' by being precure, not by singing and dancing

okay this shit is the least likely but what if they did a character like satoru but instead of being a teenage boy it's like, an adult woman. who is a precure otaku. so she has the knowledge of past precure that she can use to help out the girls

there was an article written by kasumi (the japanese Sales Numbers guy from twitter) just yesterday saying the reason wonderful has been successful is it's still managed to appeal to adults and older audiences and otaku

and they mentioned an interview with someone from bandai saying the adult market is something they're going to try and sell for going forward

so tl;dr what if this isn't idol precure but nostalgia precure

[jesncin]

These are such great additions!

I think another thing to consider is that bigger stage productions are insanely expensive investments. And because of that, a lot of humbler productions who make their way to larger venues often have their edge and bite sanitized off for mainstream. Coupled with how Broadway is in-accessible to a majority of people in the world through price and lack of pro-shoot recordings for international viewers- theater has its own hierarchy problems.

The Wait in the Wings documentary goes over this, but part of Ride the Cyclone's struggle was that it covered a taboo subject, and that it was born out of a punk, counterculture environment. While the show was gaining prominence and publicity, people recognized Ride the Cyclone's value. But by the time it was getting close to entering mainstream, all people could talk about was how incompatible it was with Broadway. Which to me, is like criticizing an indie comic because it would never fit in traditional publishing. That's a terrible metric for quality and resonance.

It wasn't until Gen Z got a hold of Ride the Cyclone through slime tutorial recordings, did Ride the Cyclone find the audience it truly resonated with; one that was constantly exposed to death through growing up with a pandemic and exposure to news via social media. The humor and out-of-the box music just clicked with younger people.

American Superhero comics has suffered from a history of self censorship, and the changing attitudes of who they're for. They're constantly struggling between broadening their audience or relying on the same old white guy readership to get by. For DC, The New 52 was all about edge, so Rebirth is meant to be a return to form. But for the most part, we've entered a performative era.

Cape comics want to be more inclusive, but not to the point it would deter its conservative readership and lose money from that audience, so they'll never commit to consistently go that far. There's outliers (SSTK, Alan Scott Green Lantern, etc.) but for the most part they play it frustratingly safe and market it as groundbreaking.

Vertigo comics began as an imprint of DC comics so the creators could explore more mature topics with adult content that would've been restricted under DC comics. That's how we got so much social commentary and politics out of works like og Hellblazer. It only makes sense that when John Constantine is assimilated into the bigger, restrictive world of DC comics that his radical roots end up sanitized to fit a superhero mold- walking pride ad and quippy MCU style remarks galore.

Yet even modern stories that feel like a return to form such as Spurrier's run and Dead In America have that layer of respectability on top of everything. Sure Spurrier's Hellblazer will talk about racism, but he'll portray Rural Country Bumkin White People as the racists because that's the most comfortable people to portray as racists. And American cops. Only them though. The British cops are noble people of color. They'll include Noah, a Black disabled character who communicates through BSL, but not include nuances specific to Deaf/HOH culture and how that intersects with Blackness. They can't even draw people facing him when he's signing.

Whenever I read stories with John Constantine in them and they feel lackluster I always outwardly ask myself "are we really going to be outdone by a bunch of white guys writing Hellblazer in the 80s??" because come on. There's so much more diverse talent and perspectives in the industry since then but they can't shine because it still has to sell to a mainstream audience in the end.

I'm pretty sure your experience with Spirit World and Xanthe Zhou is reflective of most people's experience with the character. At first people are impressed by the novelty of the representation, but then they move on and forget about it. Xanthe's tag hasn't been active since their debut year with Spirit World. I finally got into Spirit World because I'm friends with a Xanthe superfan haha.

It's easy for the comics community to dunk on whatever new thing Tom King is writing, or talk up a fantastic comic! But stuff like Spirit World burns bright for a second and withers away because it really was lots of theatrics and little substance. At the end of the day, loving or hating something means you care about it. Something that is mid though? Even if you enjoyed it, it doesn't stay with you.

And it's a shame because I think characters like Xanthe should have critical discussion! At least for representation alone, I don't want a Chinese non binary character to (ironically) be forgotten and sidelined. Yet I also don't want this character to stagnate the way they're written right now (and just have fandom say "read it! It's important! Because representation!"). The beauty of these characters is the potential for another writer to come along and do something great with them. But with the state of comics being nothing burger now? Those chances are slim.

It's why I think Ride the Cyclone has a big piece of what Xanthe's missing. It may not have the backing of mainstream musicals, but something about it resonated in the younger generation especially. It was willing to have an uncomfortable conversation about death and dying at a young age, when a generation was exposed to death on the regular. Meanwhile Spirit World is a weird comic about death that wants to talk about death as little as possible. Outside of saying "you take nothing with you when you die, so you better remember people!" it's squeamish about the subject. So all we get is just "you should read Spirit World because representation, some popular characters cameo in it and uh, yeah that's it." That's a story for no one.

Spirit World, Ride the Cyclone and Death. A weird comparative analysis

Gonna combine my musical nerd and cape comics fixation together for a rambling meta thought. I've been reflecting on how taboo the topic of death is in media after getting into Ride The Cyclone (highly recommend watching the slime tutorial and Waiting in the Wings' documentary on it) but also contrasting that musical with how Spirit World handled similar topics.

Both stories cover characters whose lives were cut short from a tragic circumstance, but while Cyclone directly talks frankly about how each character uniquely grieves over their lost life (and eventually accepts death)- Spirit World uses death as largely an aesthetic to a generic fantasy superhero adventure.

[spoilers for Ride the Cyclone and Spirit World]

Spirit World is about non-binary, half dead half living Envoy Xanthe Zhou, as they go into the Spirit World with John Constantine to rescue Cassandra Cain Batgirl. They eventually go toe to toe with the spirit of a bitter dead poet.

Ride the Cyclone is about 6 choir teenagers who die in a roller coaster accident in their small town. In the afterlife, they are given the chance to vote which one of them they believe should be resurrected.

For Spirit World, do we even know how Xanthe feels about being "half dead"? What does that even mean? They died as (what looks like) a 3 year old, and have clearly aged 15 more years since then. So they can age? Do they need to eat or drink (they're seen with a drink in a Pride comic)? Xanthe keeps mentioning they're half dead and half living, but the comic doesn't seem to want to discuss what that means. How would Xanthe feel that they were essentially given a job as an Envoy the minute they died as a very young child? Was this even a choice?

We've already covered the numerous plot holes in Xanthe Zhou's poorly thought out backstory so I won't go over that again. But honestly apart from the thematically loose "the dead shouldn't be forgotten" moral, a lot of how death is presented in Spirit World feels so superficial. When Xanthe is formally introduced as this cool character with a giant sword hanging around a gravesite, fighting all these hopping vampire creatures... this scene would play out the same if you swapped the setting with a forest and zombies as bad guys.

The Spirit World is less an afterlife for the spirits to move onto and more an MMORPG setting for our superheroes to travel across and fight generic evil beings and encounter eviler, bigger, boss battles at the end. Then there's the poet clout villain whose problems are just easily solved by Xanthe promising to remember her. I've already covered what a lost opportunity thematically this character was in my last Xanthe essay, but this time I want to contrast her with Ride the Cyclone's Jane Doe. I also want to compare Xanthe with Noel Gruber afterwards.

Ride the Cyclone's musical numbers follow each character performing a song reflecting their wishes, and musings on life (this sounds depressing but the musical handles all this with comedy and wit), hoping to prove themselves as worthy of a second chance at life. Of the characters, Jane Doe is the mysterious odd one out. The accident decapitated her, leaving her to enter the after life with no memories and the people of the living unable to identify her.

You might see where I'm going with this. So in Spirit World, Wan Yujing was this famous poet mourned by an entire empire. She only goes monster mode when a handwave-y "time erodes all" happens in the Spirit World and she is eventually forgotten- so she becomes desperate to demand to be reincarnated by the Jade Court. Because her clout ran out. Again, I already made the critique in my previous essay that this villain would better link to our protagonist if she was a queer poet whose poetry was being purposefully straight washed as an act of queer historical erasure. But I want to bring up how truly unsympathetic this villain is. She gets Shakespeare levels of clout but still demands more because she isn't getting reincarnated fast enough. Xanthe promises that as an immortal "half dead half living" person that they will remember Wan Yujing, so she too can be immortal in some way.

I think about all the Jane Doe-s in the Spirit World who don't get to be famous poets that have Empires remembering who they were. People who died anonymously without a past. In Cyclone, the main character chooses Jane Doe as the person who should be brought back to life. Our cast of teens come to terms with the fact that while it's tragic that their lives ended shortly, they conclude "to say that if one dies young, they die needlessly... that is to discount the years we had. We had a life, she didn't. That's my vote." Since Jane Doe has no memory of who she is, it's only fair that she is given that second chance.

I get that Spirit World is choosing these "larger than life" characters as villains, but it's at the expense of their own supposed themes. Of all the people to die and face off our hero as the villain, a character who's essentially an influencer but somehow has an entire empire forget about her anyway feels thematically hollow.

Modern Superhero comics are suffering from a specific problem right now; they're not really about anything. Characters don't feel like people with interior lives informed by the context of who they are. Class, race and bigotry are only touched upon as lightly as possible. Queer characters are now Pride ads with no personhood or flaws. They punch gentrified crime and fight for no one in particular. Even recent adapted media such as My Adventures with Superman and Caped Crusader follow this. Superman fights white-washed xenophobia, while Batman fights gentrified, white-washed classicism. It's why comics like Superman Smashes the Klan, Catwoman Lonely City and Alan Scott Green Lantern stand out so much. It's been a while since these characters talked about anything that matters. Don't get me wrong, slop that's about nothing exists in every industry. But when these characters and worlds historically used to have more bite- it's especially obvious.

If I could be playfully conspiracy theory-like for a second; I believe Xanthe Zhou was pitched so that DC Comics can buff out their Pride Anthology or AAPI anthology with a new younger character. The company will give this character one limited series, but that's it. Xanthe will appear in the larger DC universe whenever big magic plots happen, but that's it. Maybe they'll get a YA graphic novel. I would love to be proven wrong, but the problems with Xanthe are baked in the dough.

Because they don't feel like a person, Xanthe feels more like an industry planted Pride ad. They're designed to be the most palatable and marketable image of Asian androgyny. They literally have no flaws to grow out of, and their backstory makes no sense. They weren't built to be a sustainable solo character.

So I want to contrast Xanthe Zhou against Noel Gruber from Ride the Cyclone. Because they're both queer characters whose lives were cut short at a young age.

In a dramatic lament, Noel Gruber expresses how if he had a chance to live, he'd want to live the horrible cinematic messy life of a French sex worker woman in post-war France. He struggled as the only gay boy in a small town and never got to kiss a boy before he died. It's a look into a queer life that could've been lived, one with all the messy texture and self destruction Noel couldn't have but desires. We get to see how death and queerness intersect into rich, unflattering, gender-messy themes. "I want to be that fucked up girl." Noel sings.

But what's Xanthe's deal? They died as a 3 year old, got brought back, avoided their family at all costs for 15 years, and then had a transphobic confrontation with their family when they're invited to dinner way later. If Xanthe grew up in a transphobic household, how did they ever figure out they were non-binary when they were 3? Could they even verbalize it? Or did they instead figure out their queerness after they died? But how is that possible when they already held a level of familiar resentment towards their family's transphobia as if they've had several fights about it? It's hard to picture a 3 year old having multiple heated debates about gender with their parents for this level of resentment to make any sense.

Details aside, how does Xanthe's queerness intersect with themes of death and grief? Well, it just doesn't. This scene ends with Xanthe's sister telling them that she bothered remembering them even though their parents moved on from their death (which makes no sense since the parents wanted to have dinner with a random 18 year old they correctly assumed was their long dead "daughter" but whatever). Honestly, the only reason queerness exists in this family drama is so that Xanthe has a tense relationship with their family. The story would be exactly the same if Xanthe was a troublemaker that brought shame to their family. Who they are isn't specific to whatever grief exists in the comic.

When people give the critique that modern Superhero comics aren't about anything anymore, we usually think of these comics as "lacking political bite and commentary". We don't often think of something like Death to be political. And even though it is in many ways, it's also a social taboo to talk about. Death is an uncomfortable thing to confront, even in the safety of fiction. It's what made Ride the Cyclone such a difficult stage musical to market.

So how does a modern mainstream comic like Spirit World fit into that? It just sits there in this non-committal way. Yes, this is a story about a trans teenager who died, but only in a cool Superhero Origin Way, not in any way that would make readers uncomfortable. Bury Your Gays is a stereotype after all, so we can't talk about how queer people feel about death. We don't get to know how Xanthe feels about death as a non-binary Asian American. Especially if it's messy. It's the reason why Wan Yujing's character can never commentate on themes of historical queer erasure. God forbid superhero comics be about something.

I think about how, in the original Hellblazer run from the 80s, John Constantine had an elderly gay friend who was diagnosed with AIDS but was killed by a homophobic hate group. The comic openly talks about the sheer amount of gay people dying of the epidemic, a looming threat that informs John's queer life. It's such a culture shock, to contrast these early comics with how John Constantine is written in Spirit World. A character stripped of his own queer history and is at the mercy of incessant slutty bi jokes. Where is the desire to talk about how death informs a queer person's life? The mourning of a lost generation to the AIDS crisis? Something John lived through?

How about how any of this intersects with being an Asian American queer person? Queer people of color are often erased or purposefully excluded from queer history and communities. As a Queer Asian American, what does it mean to have identities that are often perceived to be in conflict with each other? Would your queer Asian ancestors even be remembered? Cultural differences with how you'd mourn your communities? But answering any of these questions means an uncomfortable conversation for Spirit World. For Xanthe. It threatens to be about something.

Which makes it all the more silly that, of the two stories, a musical about teenagers dying from a rollercoaster malfunction is more willing to have that uncomfortable conversation. You should ride the Cyclone.

[in-kyblogs]

This interview has the obligatory “so you made it gay” question but with the twist that here is Rolin that goes “it’s in the fucking books, we can read so” and I think it’s iconic

[fvckw4d]

The concept of queerbaiting annoys me. I was told that it refers to a work of fiction pretending to cater to a queer audience but then pulling back from it to avoid alienating homophobes, which is an incredibly specific thing. But a lot of people seem to think that it instead means "any time there's any gay subtex, metaphor, or ambiguity" or "whenever something from 1995-2012 was being a normal amount of homophobic for the era."

[caswlw]

the idea that they’re writing the season as they go so they’re seeing the reaction the audience has and that it (even in the smallest way possible) could have an impact on what happens this season (and in future seasons) is so wild to me. not saying that they’re seeing our response and saying “oh that sounds good, totally writing that in,” but it’s not impossible to say that they will see what the people want, realize the best way to generate buzz and excitement and increased viewership is to keep your fans happy, and then actually do something about it instead of killing characters/storylines just for kicks

911 has the opportunity to be that bitch even more than it already is and they shouldn’t squander it while they’re on top

[lemon-wedges]

....

[mybrainproblems]

brain is just mii waiting room music as i consider where i've ended up in my supernatural fandom journey

[bimbinis]

I think you might be having your perspective distorted by survivorship bias. a lot of the cringy YA that "had heart" that we remember from the late 2000's/early 2010's (I'm assuming that's the timeframe you're referring to) was, to be blunt, the shit that was worth remembering in the first place. a lot of the forgotten, and even much of the still remembered stuff, was very cynically tailored to hit all the right buzzwords to make a teen girl buy it.

lest we forget, teen dystopia('s mainstream relevance) didn't die a peaceful death. it went out mercilessly ragged on for the growing number of new releases with increasingly ludicrous and repetitive premises of unremarkable brunettes living in a world where no one feels hunger who has to choose between two hot boys. that's to say nothing of the progression of supernatural romance. i sincerely doubt your Fourth Wings and Lightlarks have much less passion or "heart" infused into them than your Fallens and House of Night's. YA fiction was not inherently any more soulful when Harper Collins commissioned Alloy Entertainment for a teen supernatural romance they could sell and Alloy hired L. J. Smith to pump out 7 Vampire Diaries books and then booted her and hired a ghostwriter to pump out 5 more (and that was one of the earliest examples, mind you).

I'm very willing to concede the nature of the shittiness has changed over the years in a way that makes it feel like a different thing (the priorities of getting a book to go tiktok viral are clearly different from just whatever the hell was going on before that. i guess just advertising them normally on television), but I'm not convinced that it was enough to constitute a moral difference. it's not a new thing to feel that the most recent literature is worthless trash and things used to be better when you were younger, in fact people do that a lot to a lot more than literature. i think sometimes we really need to take a step back and recognize that just bc we find tiktok more aggravating than the advertising methods we found permissible in our youth does not mean our precious teen cringe was any less of a worthless slop made to make people money

a lot of YA and fantasy stuff has always been a little cringe and silly but at least it used to be cringe from the heart instead of designed in a lab to get teens on tiktok to use a certain sentence from it

[vivalasthedas]

latest thing that is genuinely so funny and delightful from sims 4 fans.

Anytime someone mentions how this is previously basegame content from past sims games, or how much more sims 4 is charging for the same content because they're breaking into smaller and more expensive packs etc. etc. (So, you know, talking about EA's awful business practices and the general decline in large video game companies that the sims just highlights really well)

they've taken to like memeing on them with 'yawn, another old person longing for 2009' and its really funny.

Yeah, you're winning. You're young and spending so much money for so much less. Congrats. xD

[zindagood]

Dunno why ppl take what producers n actors say about a show in interviews so srsly, esp when the text seems to hold up on its own so well. Like its p likely they need to tone down their own discussions to be more palatable in the media or whatever sooo idk id rather rely on what im seeing there on screen than if the cast n crew rly think race is involved in the writing or not. It obviously is, i dunno why it matters if the some actors might hedge around that topic during an interview. Them censoring themselves in front of a camera is a different discussion entirely that does deserve to be criticised maybe but ultimately, i dont think it affects what has already gone into the show. Idk i just think ppl should treat all that as supplementary info that can make the text more interesting, not necessarily the entirety of what cast n crew think and feel about it

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Not to be a Negative Nancy... but is anyone else worried that with Kingdom Hearts IV coming out after Final Fantasy XVI and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, it's going to feel so much lesser in comparison?

Because I kind of feel that way... and I know I'm not the only one, in some cases. Like, I remember how in the Key Keepers' spoiler discussion Final Fantasy XVI spoiler cast, Audrey (somewhat jokingly) mentioned how no matter what epic thing they try to do with the boss fights in Kingdom Hearts IV, it wouldn't be on the level of the Eikon fights in Final Fantasy XVI, so it wouldn't have as big an impact on her as those did (paraphrasing here).

And then KHInsider has a thread going on right now, about how Kingdom Hearts IV shouldn't try to take too much from FFVIIR--as they are different games--and user Luminary agreed with that, but brought up how I feel: that if they do take any inspiration from Rebirth, it should be the good character writing and interactions, and cinematography--since they've now shown they know how to do that, and if they don't do that in KHIV, it'll feel like a downgrade.

But I'm just worried that they won't. Especially where the girl characters and interactions are concerned.

I mean, we have new writers on KH now, so maybe they can help make things better than they have been before. But IDK.

[mokeonn]

She actually started doing craft shows, events, and garden shows as a vendor post 2020 after covid shut her gallery down. So no, it's not because she got started before the internet was a big thing.

All of the advice I was personally given and witnessed for myself (find a niche, selling art is all about networking and getting repeat customers, word of mouth is a powerful tool, the words you use when selling or marketing your art matter, etc etc) can all apply to an online space as well, tbh. It's not all about luck, sure luck plays a part in it, but saying that the only way you can make a living off of art is with pure luck, is a pretty surefire way to make you hate art and see it as nothing but a numbers game (speaking from experience).

Also I will add the disclaimer that I AM speaking from an area with a large and thriving art scene and tourism scene. It's far easier to find galleries and shops to sign consignment with or find events you can vendor at in a place like Florida compared to a state like Idaho.

No, I don't think the recent problem with a lack of third places, and people do, in fact, want to pay for handicrafts. I think this mindset is honestly pretty limiting because it's just shoving the reasons why something might not be working to the forefront and getting upset because those things are out of your control, instead of focusing on the things you do have control over and working on improving those. Like you can't control if someone doesn't want to pay for your art, but you shouldn't market to that person, you should market to the person who does. Because that person who doesn't want to pay is probably never going to want to pay.

Like, I am quite literally working for this artist as my job, I have been to shows, I have worked with shows, I have talked to people, and I do plan on starting my own little business! I am very lucky to have a mentor and a friend who has helped me find confidence in myself, my art, and helped me realize there is a career in art! It's a lot of work, but it is doable. There's more to it than luck and there being more places for people to regularly go to, and a lot of it really does come down to you.

Unfortunately, it's not luck. It's worse. It's marketing.

I think at some point in time we need to sit down and start explaining to artist who want to make a career out of art that there are FAR more options than just "living off of commissions" and "posting my art online and praying I get paid for it".