#and there's a very fine line between that and queerbaiting

[stimmingandstruggling]

my dream for a modern live action death note:

- it takes itself completely seriously. i want ZERO irony/making fun of itself. i need some actor man to take a potato chip and eat it with total seriousness.

- light and L have an insane amount of tension, i’m talking destiel levels of eye sex and queerbaiting, but they are never allowed to kiss. maybe when L dies they get one ambiguously queer line. but it’s gotta stay at least a little bit ambiguous

- misa isn’t explicitly homophobic anymore but she is like That #ally (just more subtly homophobic) (obviously shes gay but she doesn’t know that yet). instead of “are you on THAT side of the fence ryuzaki” she’s like “it’s FINE if you’re gay but light is MY boyfriends and i just don’t think it’s APPROPRIATE” and L just ignores her completely. she claims L as her Gay Best Friend despite him never confirming if he’s queer and her not really liking him. for Diversity

- she’s like i can’t be homophobic i do a pride month photoshoot and L is like okay. i don’t care

- focus on how the 24 hour news cycle, overwhelming access to information, and constant fearmongering and doomscrolling drives light fucking crazy (sorry i have to be weird about light here)

- instead of a magazine light very blandly watches porn on his laptop. looking actively bored. L doesn’t say explicitly “your son is gay” but he looks over at soichiro and says something like “hm. he’s popular with girls, you said? okay.”

- some awful misa and light sex scene but it cuts between that and light at L’s grave, their months handcuffed together, etc. hannibal style or something idk i’ve never seen it i just got a play by play from a friend

- naomi gets a bigger part because she’s awesome

- light and L are stuck in ambiguously queer purgatory but rem is very explicitly in love with misa. they kiss once before she dies and from then on misa seems a little more subdued with light. like she’s not so sure she really wants him

- when the detectives are talking about L someone mentions how he’s “on the spectrum” and everyone nods seriously. later it’s mentioned again and L overhears and he’s like you can just say autistic. everyone apologizes profusely but he does not give a shit

[certifiablyinsanez]

I am immensely enjoying the attitude I’m seeing from the fans of Dead Boy Detectives. Because the fan base is full of queer people who likely grew up in a world with zero representation aside from queer-coded villains or queerbaiting. As a natural side effect of that, people tended to go feral if a ship didn’t turn out a certain way. It was torture, because it felt like a bunch of hurt kids were trying to hold the hands of those making media; like toddlers trying to steer a giant to just listen to them for once. And it didn’t work for a very long time. The lines between queerbaiting, canon relationships, and all the messes of human interaction in general blurred. It causes some to have knee jerk reactions when it comes to queer media.

But with DBD, everyone seems to be in agreement that it would not only be fine, but still a good show, if Edwin and Charles didn’t end up together. Because after enough years, queer people grew up and started making things themselves, producing, acting, etc. We don’t have to yank and pull. We’ve finally been seen. Sure we love the get togethers and love but in real life things can be messy. Many queer people experience unrequited feelings, something that would usually be painful to watch but DBD handled it so gracefully that we’re all pleased with the outcome. Glorious.

[roo-bastmoon]

So privacy has been violated OR...

... a smear campaign has begun.

Let's just get this new dating scandal out of the way so we can get back to buying and streaming...

Listen, I don't share unofficial content, but by now everyone in this tag knows there's a video going around that's supposed to be of JK in his apartment with Bam, walking around back-hugging and perhaps kissing a girl. Folks say there's the same couch, same wall panel, and a mood lamp.

I'm side-eyeing this because it's super grainy footage, the windows are different, the wall panel seems to be in different places in the two videos, the guy is shorter than the girl, and he's wearing a mask indoors. Plus, the account that dropped the videos supposedly posted then promptly closed up shop, which seems like they had the intention for deliberate sabotage instead of clout chasing as a sasaeng.

But people say the apartment set up seems really similar and the man has a similar hairstyle to what JK had in the beginning of 2023. So I guess it's Schrodinger's cat at this point.

(Isn't it curious that apartment-related scandals seem to happen on the day new content drops? Hmm... I digress.)

Look... If Jungkook (or Jimin) ends up dating someone else, I'm still going to support them as individuals. I'll be sad of course, because Jikook had AMAZING chemistry and I was really rooting for them to be together forever and all... but, I want them to be happy and fulfilled more than I want them to fit into any fantasy or ideas of my own.

That being said: at this very moment, half of Jimin's insta feed is about Jungkook. Most of Jungkook's lives for 2023 have JK mentioning Jimin, or even being totally focused on Jimin. There's years of super duper sus history between them. Right up to and including yesterday, where Jimin very heavily implied they are sharing Chuseok together.

It feels really weird to me that Jimin would want to tie JK's hair back neatly, call JK baby, beg JK to stay longer at his rehearsal, and joke that he can handle seeing JK naked -- but JK can't come over to shower and visit b/c Jimin says he just isn't that easy... if JK were in a relationship with someone else.

It also feels really weird to me that JK would light up like a super nova any time Jimin commented on his lives, would beg Jimin to hang out, would sing all of Jimin's songs and memorize Jimin's interview content, would travel with Jimin for his debut, then roll around naked in bed grinning and blushing while flirting with Jimin on live... if JK were in a relationship with someone else.

That would make Jungkook kind of a shitty boyfriend and Jimin kind of a shitty friend.

I know Jungkook is cultivating this cool guy/ladies man image right now and that is kinda baffling. I know friends can play-flirt, too... but to do all that on lives, after all their history together, knowing what half of Korea and ARMY thinks? Hm.

That's not "fanservice;" that's really toeing the line of queerbaiting. And it's really hard for me to imagine Jimin or Jungkook doing something like that. Jimin said he hates fake bromance stuff. (I guess anything is possible. It's a new chapter, after all. Maybe it's par for the course in idol-world.)

Hey, maybe Jikook had an amicable break up but are still really close and are fine teasing each other? Maybe they always liked to flirt but never were together? Maybe I've been reading it all wrong this whole time? Or maybe this is a bullshit video?

Whatever the reality is, I'm prepared to acknowledge it. At any time.

I'm not in a cult. I don't have to convince myself of anything. Jikook's behavior had made me think Jikook were in a relationship. If JK is dating someone else now? Okay then. I will just stop posting Jikook content and continue to help OT7 and celebrate my bias with all my heart.

No need for elaborate conspiracy theories or coping histrionics. If JK is in his Loving Women Era, good for him. Go with god, my brother. (Personally, I'd never recover from losing my chance to be with Thee Park Jimin, but that's me!)

But something about this just doesn't quite feel right. I wonder if he'll address it at all, like he did when folks filmed him in his gym or sent food to his home? Because if this is somehow real, it's a HORRIBLE invasion of privacy; home is supposed to be a safe place, and stalkers are scary.

And if it's not real, then someone is going to an AWFUL lot of trouble to overshadow Jungkook's release and upcoming album and that is unhinged. The kind of trouble that reminds me of apartment break-ins and tampered mail.

In any case, like I said: I'm ready to accept whatever the reality is, once the reality becomes clear.

I really love Jungkook. I really love Jimin. I really love BTS. They were there for me at the darkest, lowest point in my life. So whether I was right or wrong about Jikook, it doesn't really matter. In the end, I support them as far as I can.

But also, I sorta think this video may just be bullshit. So let's let them have their privacy, and focus instead on voting for Jimin and buying and streaming for JK instead, hmm? Eventually the truth will come to light.

No matter what happens, let's behave in a way that would make Jimin and Jungkook proud.

Love, Roo

[jewishdainix]

"Realm of the elderlings is queerbaiting"

Fitz and the Fool literally confessed their love for eachother and merged their souls for eternity after their biological daughter told the Fool that Fitz loved him more than he ever loved anyone else. It's fine.

"But robin hobb said -"

I'm pretty sure she spoke against the homoerotic interpitation of fitzloved was more than a decade ago.

Neil Gaiman too said at one point that he doesn't see Aziraphale and Crowly as a couple and look at Good Omens now.

I think that we as a fandom tend subotage our own experience and analysis (and honestly, our fun) by focusing too much on an opinion that was expressed a long time ago, and never really applied to the text itself. (Which, the thing that happen in the actual place are what matters. Hobb saying Fitz is straight is no different than jk r*wling saying that dumbldore is gay.

(She also wrote a line in AF where after meeting Carson Fitz drops the fact that upon meeting men he sometimes gets a feelling of an "instant connection" of a "deep friendship that could have been" which sounds like the description of attraction/a crush/whatever you'd call this (Idk the difference between these Im aro) by someone who wouldn't know to call it what it.)

"They didn't kiss"

1) By the end Fitz had Jane Prentiss levels of worm infection and was very very weak. Non of them initiating a kiss at that point makes a LOT of sense from a watsonian perspective.

2) Did "I said into his panting mouth" mean NOTHING to you???

3)

[ok-sims]

Good Omens 2 and playing with expectations

so I watched good omens for the first time in like 2020, had a blast but didnt really think about it again until s2 came out.

and now i realize that one of the things that caused me this obssession brain rot this time around is just how the whole season, but specially the ending, completely subverted my expectations, yet everything that happened is extremely coherent with season 1.

crowley has been asking aziraphale to run away with him for quite some time now. and aziraphale has been "choosing" heaven over him.

smaller things are very coherent too. crowley and taking part in nebula/planet/starmaking. aziraphale and forgiveness. crowley being "unforgivable". alpha centauri.

how can such a coherent finale surprise and smite me so much?

I guess part of it is the queerbait that many fandoms have been subjected to, historically (I was very much into sherlock back in 2014-2017, so you can see where I am coming from...)

but another part is how the final fifteen have a very different tone to the rest of the series. of course, there are some heavy moments in both seasons (the Golgotha being the main one), but those were taken from the biblical lore and not directed to aziraphale and crowley. while there is some drama between them in s1, it is never really serious .crowley was devastated when he thought aziraphale was dead, but we (the audience) knew he was fine. soon, they reunited and faced the end of the world together. there was the fight over holy water in the flashbacks, but we see then make up in the very next scene. so our expectations were set to having crowley and aziraphale have their conflits to be: silly and/or quickly resolved.

I guess that, along the fact that their feelings now have an undeniable romantic nuance confirmed to them, was my fall down the rabbit hole.

I did not expect the series to acknowledge so clearly, very much on screen, the romantic connection between them. before that, this was really heavy subtext, but the leap to text is still pretty uncommom in similar works. even more rare is having the characters kiss, because it leaves no room for subtext anymore. it changes the dinamic between the characters, as well as the perspective of the audience. tv often runs from this sort of change, because it is a risk, but I'm very glad the show took that risk and went with it without looking back.

the risk of changing the tone (even if just for the final fifteen) is also often avoided. "is this show not a comedy?" "isnt everything fine at the end?" so we were left with our expectations completly subverted in both aspects. and yet it all makes sense with everything good omens has showed us before. we were blindsided by the expectations that were firmly constructed for us, the audience, but the ending played out in consonance with the narrative built all through seasons 1 and 2. aziraphale creates situations just to have an excuse to see crowley. crowley is always coming to aziraphale's rescue, no matter what trouble this may give him in hell. btw, crowley could not care less for hell or heaven. "we can go off together, angel". "listen to yourself".

s1 and s2 are so very much in line. I'm glad good omens had the courage to take the leap and subvert everything we were expecting: be it subtext to remain subtext, or a comedy to have its conflit being easily resolved in time for the credits to roll in. and it did it all while making perfect sense for the narrative, with no last minute ill-planned plot twists. it's no wonder we haven't been normal about it since july: when was the last time you watched something like this?

[iwanthermidnightz]

But we all know Taylor is indeed queer baiting, right? I used to think she was part of the LGBTQ+ community, but I've seen things, I've been here for too long and, even though I really wanted to believed she was with Karlie, every clue pointed out to be just queer baiting, which is sad, you know.

I’m sorry you feel that way but I very much disagree with the queerbaiting argument, and since you’ve been here for too long, you know why most of us feel this way. I don’t want to get into this neverending debate again, respectfully.

I just think there’s a difference between wanting to be seen through art and not wanting to make an official statement. It’s clear she wants to exist between those blurred lines, at least for now. And that’s fine.

It seems a lot of patience has run out for Taylor, waiting for her to make a big move and *some* get fed up with the stunts (which I get) and decide to throw all the other stuff out the window as if it’s not true, but that’s just not how it works.

​The last few months have really done a number on people, I’ll say that. The turning tables has been wild to witness.

[kit-middleton]

Started watching Teen Wolf...

I was between obsessions, digging through what I could watch and wondering if it was worth getting upset at the queerbaiting of Teen Wolf. Then I realized that JR Bourne, who I’d had a crush on since perhaps Stargate SG1, wasn’t just a 2 or 3-episode guest star, but actually part of the main cast? So, yeah I decided to watch it. 

(Btw, anyone remember the television ad for Canadian beer where JR Bourne played up the whole “Canadians are nice” stereotype but every single “nice guy” thing he did was specifically to get laid? My man, you have that face and that voice, scheming is... not necessary. But it was a good ad. And he’s really hot.)

I’m stil on season one and I am too (and too ace) old for high school shenanigans (for fuck’s sake, there is a monster killing people, can you stop thinking “but I can’t be with Allison” for five minute, Scott?!?) but I like it.

As expected, I am seriously crushing on Chris Argent. I feel like I’ll be very into Derek in a season or two when he’s just a bit older. But guys, seriously, both of them need to stop being so inappropriate with the characters who are supposed to be teenage boys. 

Derek practically lives in the high school’s boys locker room. Not to mention the constant appearance in Scott’s or Sriles’ bedrooms. I know you don’t mean anything by it, but that makes you look super creepy, Derek. 

And this keeps happening:

Chris Argent keeps stepping into the boys’ personal space. Chris, buddy, there is a fine line between intimidation and... the opening scenes of a bad porno. And the scene where he traps Jackson with car problems in an empty parking lot, then cross behind him and touches his neck? You’re being weird, Chris.

So far, I’m getting pretty much what I expected from years of gifs. What I did NOT expect was to find evil Peter Hale so fun. He keeps commenting on women’s skin as if he wants to wear it and it’s as hilarious as is it terrifying. 

I haven’t gotten to this yet, whatever it is:

All this to say: wow, you weren’t kidding.  

[wrongcaitlyn]

hi hi! first off I AM SUCH A HUGE FAN LIKE YOU HAVE NO CLUE. I literally shake every time you release a new chapter it’s insane. i’ve been following since… maybe chapter 14 of talk your talk and go viral (i just need this love spiral)? and i have been reading them as soon as they come out and wow. just read the new chapter shaking screaming crying throwing up. But to get to the actual ask i swear on my life that sometime in the og fic will said that he was going to make a solangelo ship account and become the biggest solangelo shipper lol. i just looked and it’s in chapter 21! “Which is a strange concept to think of, obviously, but he’s going to move past that. The only thing that really matters is that he wakes up in Will’s arms, and Will, somehow, finds it all hilarious. He is, however, going undercover on his Kanye West hate account to become the number one Will Solace x Nico di Angelo shipper, and to most of stan twitter, he’s probably coming off as insane and delusional.”

please tell me if will actually went through with that account. cause i was kinda confused in the new chapter when will said the solangelo rumors were getting annoying. since yk. he was egging it on.

sorry for such a long ask but i’ve just been wondering and AAHHHH IM SUCH A HUGE FAN YOU HAVE NO IDEAAAAAA I also made a playlist for this fic that’s probably over 10 hours long at this point most of it consists of songs i think nico would make because i’m insane.

HI omg literally thank u so much😭😭💔💔 it makes me so happy that you like the fic that much!!!

to answer the question, he definitely did, at the beginning - but that was still very early on in nico’s career, and his fan base was pretty small (at least compared to how it skyrocketed later that year). i think there’s a very fine line between joking that “haha these friends would make such a cute couple i ship!” (what will was doing) compared to certain “fans” who will insist on nico coming out and them having a public relationship/trying to find “hints” and “clues” that aren’t there/theorizing abt them having broken up, or them pining, or basically just invading nico (and will’s) privacy (what will is annoyed by/what other ppl are doing).

will ended up abandoning that acc when he got to college (1 bc he didn’t have time and 2 bc of people becoming too invasive). will def was egging it on back in hs, mainly just to counter the piper x nico rumors and bc he thought it’d be funny, but it became clear at some point that people weren’t seeing the joke aspect of the ship, and taking it way too seriously (bc even tho will thought it’d be funny, he didn’t actually want to out either of them).

plus, yk what happened at the grammys. having ppl try to out nico or accuse him of queerbaiting is really not what will wants to encourage! he made a mistake bc he was a teenager and he is not perfect! (tho tbf, nico thought it was funny at first too, and then just kinda forgot abt it when he became less active on social media)

DROP THE PLAYLIST💳💥💳💥 (i literally have 20+ playlists for this fic and will never turn down some more. i have an obsession.)

tysm for the ask!!! this ended up being a very long response lmao but i have way too many thoughts abt this au😭

[alarrytale]

Genuinely asking what’s the fine line between being fame and attention hungry and being obliged to stunt? The more he participates in stunting the less sorry I feel for him and his situation, it seems that it’s his choice and hes fine with it and doesn’t want to change it and cares currently only about his fame and money. I love hl so much but it’s so difficult to accept their priorities and the way they manipulate the fandom

I think you've got to draw your own lines. What you are comfortable with and not, based on how much agency you think they have or not have. Only you can make that decision.

I agree that Harry the last couple of years have seemed very Hollywood oriented, yachting, living the life of the rich and famous and just generally taking advantage of all his privileges. Hanging around people with questionable morals, making fake friends and helping others with their image rehabs. Launching Pleasing off of his own brand at blood prices for a quick buck. Pricing his tour at ridicous levels during a cost of living crisis. All of this are examples of things that makes it harder to give him any sympathy at all. His current image is a rich, privileged white dude who's faking his way to the top while also trying to make money. He's queerbaiting enough to get that queer dollar, but presenting straight to get the parent dollar too. We thought he was different, had morals and lines he wouldn't cross. I wish he had someone around reminding him of his ankle screw tattoos. He might have, and this is all an image he's selling. Everything he does off stage is such a turn off though. So much of what he's preaching and saying seems hollow. There's become a discrepancy between what he's saying and how he's acting. He's trying to be everything to everyone all at once and nothing seems authentic anymore. I think his current behaviour is pushing people away. At least it should be.

It's all generally worse when he's off tour. It has always been like that. This stunt in particular seems not so bad actually. I just think we all have major stunt fatigue and we are tired of his face. It's also worse for us fans when he looks happy and not miserable. He's majorly overexposed and he's gonna end up like TS, needing an image overhaul if he's not careful.

If you don’t agree with their priorities and manipulation the best thing (and only thing) you can do is to call them out on it and don't buy the things they are selling you. Don't feed the monster.

[psychewritesbs]

Thanks so much for sharing your metas @theanimepsychologist , I learn a lot of things from you...

Sorry for just realizing it now, that you are the writer of one of my favorite 'Soul Eater' meta ever from a few years ago (love it so much).

Now I found your blog again through your JJK metas (new fan here, just got to JJK fandom last year)....

Can I ask something, do you think SatoSugu is queerbaiting? What do you think about Gojo and Geto's relationship as romantic subtext?

(Sorry if you don't ship them, it's just, I want to know objective pov like you that neither love nor hate Gojo and Geto as characters).

If I ask these questions to SatoSugu shipper or anti SatoSugu (Gojo/Geto hater) both of those groups are subjective to their likes and dislikes...

But if you don't want to talk about it, I understand, sorry if I ask too much.

Also, just want to tell you, one of the main reason why I entered the fandom, is because of stsg. The fan arts and fan fictions for SatoSugu are amazing....But I love JJK more and understand more about the story & characters are thanks to you @theanimepsychologist (Sorry again if my main reason for entering JJK fandom is because of shipping).

Well this is awkward... I've since changed my username and perplexed moots and followers alike because of it.

Anyways, is stsg queerbaiting???? HMMMMM let's taco'bout it under the cut.

I think the ship in the manga walks a very fine line between queerbaiting and whatever the opposite is, but imo, it is ultimately not queerbaiting. More about this in a little bit.

If I'm honest though, if we go by the strict definition of queerbaiting as a "marketing technique for fiction and entertainment in which creators hint at, but do not depict, same-sex romance or other LGBTQ+ representation," the anime feels by contrast queerbaity.

I say this because MAPPA seems to be very aware it is catering to a very specific target audience...

Like... did they have to go this hard with Nanami?

Similarly, they took creative decisions that were very openly supportive of stsg as a ship while still remaining somewhat ambiguous to all of the people who do not see the romantic undertones.

In other words, MAPPA goes out of their way to make certain aspects of the story more obvious, which can feel like it is very intentionally speaking to an audience that would enjoy such changes.

Honestly tho, I LOVED the creative liberties that the anime took in general.

ANYWAYS.

My thoughts on stsg... I've actually talked about how I do like this ship before. I used to be on camp "they're just friends" and came around because I saw the vision and now I can't unsee it. But the fact that I had to be shown the vision in order to "get it" makes me feel like you have to see the ship through a certain lens in order to appreciate it romantically.

Thing is that I personally find it dissatisfying that a ship is presented to me in little "hints" and "clues" rather than through the dynamic itself. Which is where the queerbaiting allegations come in.

HOWEVER, to me, knowing how Gege writes by subverting tropes, the "queerbaiting" hints are very intentionally placed in the manga to say "these two were lovers" as opposed to doing it for "marketing purposes".

Personally, I much prefer Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle's kurofai because the clues are hidden in the dynamic and their emotional behavior to one another.

Compared to stsg, I can only read romantic subtext in two or three canon stsg panels, but I'm also not sure if it's because of Gege's skill level, lesser focus on emotional intimacy, idk...

That's how I see it at least. And I honestly respect anyone who doesn't think of them as lovers because, again, the ship is somewhat hidden in clues, not in the dynamic. And say a stsg fan reads this, they could very well think "is she blind?!"

And this is where we get into post-modernism and jjk's main theme: no one owns the objective truth. You are reading jjk through your very own unique lens, and any meaning you make out of jjk is always filtered through that lens. Trying to say your truth is absolute is basically power scaling.

At one point or another someone has to agree to disagree.

So yeah, you'll hear me say this bit about not owning the ultimate truth a lot.

Anon, thank you so much for the kind comments 🥲. I am so happy to hear you loved my Soul Eater write up and that you've ran into my jjk rambles too.

Honestly, I love writing about my favorite ships and nothing makes me sadder than the state of shipping in jjk fandom because people won't just mind their own business about who should be shipped with whom.

As a side note, I've been brainrotting about atsumei recently. Might actually write about the breadcrumbs because these two move me the way some of my absolute favorite ships, soma, asucaga, and kurofai move me.

Anyways I'VE RAMBLED WHY DID NO ONE STOP ME?, it looks like you are feeling worried about my thoughts on you starting to read jjk because of stsg. I say it is a wonderful thing that you started reading it and found enjoyment in it.

Thanks for reaching out, and as per usual I apologize on taking forever to answer asks... I have like 50 and I do try to answer most of them.

[pearwaldorf]

"The Best Revenge is Dressing Well" is still such a good episode. I remain eternally angry there wasn't any room in S2 for Frenchie and Olu grifts. It would have been so! good!

I'm kind of glad I started watching after all the episodes were out, because if I'd ended on "You wear fine things well" I probably would have lost my entire fucking mind. It still feels a little surreal, even on the second rewatch, and that is how I know decades of queerbaiting fucked me up.

The "night night!" awkward slap thing is hilarious and so very them. But the mutual look back!! Oh my god. Is it possible to have a fast burn and pining at the same time?

--

I'm sad there wasn't really time for fuckery in S2, because episode 6 is pure theater kid gone wild. Both Ed and Stede are overdramatic bitches and they didn't really have a chance for pageantry in S2, and that fucking sucks.

Jenks said the bathtub scene was filmed early on, and the rapport between Rhys and Taika made him think a romance could work. I remain absolutely floored it wasn't written in from the beginning, because it feels like an inevitability. Is that what craft* is, making something that feels like it was always meant to be that way?

--

I feel Ed deeply in episode 7 because I too hate nature and become absolutely intractable when I'm hangry.

"Coming Nana, I'm coming for some caaaake!" still hits as hard as the first time.

The problem with extended bits is you have to dance the line of prolonging it just long enough to be funny but also ending it before it gets driven into the ground. (Family Guy never understood this.)

--

I still think Jim/Jackie would have been a super great ship. Two bad bitches (gn) setting aside their differences to have a drink, talk about life and maybe bone? Here for it.

Throwing Calico Jack into the mix is such a great way to highlight the usual state of things on the Revenge. I don't think it's a matter of violence (they're pirates) but rather cruelty and disregard. Whippies. The turtle and crab fight. Karl.

I think the first thing I ever heard about OFMD was the foot touch. I watched the whole "The Chain" sequence before I knew anything about the show. I was intrigued enough to give it a shot, even though I was still suspicious it wasn't a queerbait. (Despite having been informed by multiple trusted people it was canon. That's trauma, baybee!)

Honestly, I still think the most remarkable thing about the show is it gave me feelings about a Fleetwood Mac song**.

--

* There are very few perfect first seasons of television. The ones I can think of are Veronica Mars, OFMD, and IWTV.

** Landslide doesn't count, because everybody has feelings about Landslide.

[hraugur]

shit, buddy

you ever get into something that isn’t, like. that good. like, it’s alright, the plot is serviceable and has its moments here and there, ups and downs, highs and lows. but the characters are really fun and the dynamics have a lot of potential and a lot of the people making it are obviously skilled.

and there’s a lot of good shit that could hypothetically happen if all that potential is used to its full capacity but it probably won’t because why would good things ever happen. so it’s carried almost entirely by the fandom and the headcanons the fandom builds around it. because that has happened to me twice now.

i thought wednesday was fine. not great, not terrible, just fine. the plot was a pretty standard YA supernatural crime thing and it was serviceable and like, not too bad, all things considered. but the characters were really great, i thought. especially the dynamic between enid and wednesday was really good. or, well, not even good, it just had a lot of potential, which i think is mostly owed to how well the actresses mesh and get along because the plot and the writing sure as shit was not doing them any favors. like it had enough potential for me to immediately go look for fanfics back when i watched it in fuckin november, and i’m *still* reading fanfics about them routinely and it’s almost february. i havent been this into a ship in AGES, dude. and it’s just like. i dunno, it’s so clear to me that that is literally all thanks to the chemistry between jenna ortega and emma myers. and it’s just so disappointing to see yet another example of very clear queerbaiting, like, you cannot deny how romantic that final hug was between them, wayyyy wayyyyy more so than anything involving any of the fuckin stale piece of bread white boys in the cast. not to imply that those actors didn’t do a good job or anything but it was just like. there is nothing here. there is absolutely no chemistry between these characters. what fucking signals, tyler. and it’s fuckin weird cause it wasn’t even built up all that well or anything, all things considered. and it was STILL leagues beyond anything else in the show in terms of emotional impact and potential for romance. BANG. enid transforms to protect wednesday. BANG. violence committed. BANG. stumble through the woods covered in blood. BANG. oh hi ajax. BANG. is that wednesday? get the fuck out of my way snakeboy i gotta go hug my GIRL cause we’ve been through the fuckin MEATGRINDER together dude. and it’s just so fuckin lame that john netflix is afraid of taking a fucking risk. or not even a risk, like, dude, it’s 2023, wake the fuck up. because, i dunno. i guess i’m conflicted when i see people tear into the show and call the writing terrible because, i mean, yeah, it wasn’t anything special, but the characters have so much potential and again, dude, there was a shitton of CHEMISTRY happening. and obviously i’m just some clown on the internet, i know nothing about what it’s like to be famous or in the spotlight, but i can’t imagine that being basically just a kid at 20 and seeing grown ass adults talk shit at something you worked hard on feels even remotely good. it’s conflicting. i liked parts of it, but most of what i liked has since been expanded on by the fandom and made better and more interesting, so my view on things is probably bit skewed by now and i’m not fuckin joking when i say i have read several books worth of fanfics in the last two months LMFAO. like, i dunno, take yoko for example. actually not even a character in the show. fanon, though? brilliant. oscar worthy. perfect. i love her. canonically she might as well not exist but she has been utilized to such perfection in fanon that i’m honestly sitting here just going, dude, how did they fuck that up? there is a perfectly good shithead-vampire-induced series of comedy moments LINED UP and nobody in the writers room even considered it. it’s just so LAME to see these loser corporations drop the ball on something that could have so EASILY been great or at LEAST good. like there are a shitton of really good ideas floating around on ao3 and i’m just sitting here like, how the fuck didn’t these professional writers think of this? i’m pretty sure i have more stuff i want to say about it but i tend to start talking in circles and repeating myself when i need to express something that causes conflict in my brain. blagh. i dunno. i’m not sure where i’m going with this. i saw a post where some guy tore into the show pretty harshly. and because i enjoyed parts of it, liked the performances of most of the cast despite the flaws in the plot and am really into a ship from the show, some part of me became defensive but like, phrasing aside, nothing the dude said was anything i particularly disagreed with. and that’s kind of a weird headspace to be in, i guess. the other example of this is obviously homestuck, the epilogues and homestuck 2 and i’m not even going to get into that fuckin total shitshow.

[awkwardanxiousasexual]

Soooooo I finally watched the Teen Wolf Movie and I have a couple thoughts that I need to write down....

- First off, I don’t really get Hakari as a character? Is she supposed to be Liams girlfriend? Just a friend? I got the impression that she and Scott had met before and knew each other but I have no clue how they met or how well they knew each other. I felt like we got to know nothing about her other then that she is a Kitsune. I suspect that this is a result of Arden Cho declining to be in the movie. They needed a Kitsune in the main cast because the villain was the Nogitsune but couldn’t use Kira. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of her lines were originally Kira’s and they just changed the name. 

-I don’t like that Allison came back. It’s fine and all but it’s just not my vibe. I kinda assumed that once all the villains were gone she would disappear? I thought that she was more a projection or a spell and wouldn’t stay alive so now that she is real (I’m assuming) I feel kinda weird about it.

-You can always count on Teen Wolf to have queerbait. Eli really does come across as a Sterek child. Like he very much had Stiles energy (clumsy, bad at lacrosse, sarcastic, obsessed with the jeep) while being Dereks son. There is no way that the writers had no idea what they were doing with this. Coming from someone who doesn’t even ship Sterek, it’s so obvious that they wanted Sterek shippers to draw those parallel even though it’s not canon

-I HATE Malia and Parrish together. It doesn’t make any sense at ALL. Why do they keep trying to pair Parrish with these younger women??? Like I get that they are both adults but when you remember that he had that weird flirting thing with Lydia in season 6 and now this? Plus Malia was with Stiles, then Scott, now Parrish? Can’t she just exist without a relationship for a bit please?

-The chemistry teacher was not a good villain. I literally forgot about him lmao he was not a memorable enough character (imo) to have the dramatic face reveal and need the hood the whole time. 

- I feel like the idea of Eli being scared of being a Werewolf because he saw his dad as a monster was a really interesting idea that went terribly. It could have been fleshed out a lot more. It just felt like a really fast jump from Eli cant transform to Eli is a werewolf. 

-Overall, I feel like there weren’t enough meaningful interactions between characters? Why didn’t we get to see Liam and Mason talk? They are best friends!! Or Liam interacting with Scott more given that he was Scotts beta? I saw this on tumblr earlier (sorry I don’t remember from who) but Eli and Malia are literally related and it’s hard to tell. It’s implied that Malia was somewhat involved in his life since she knows that he has issues transforming but it’s not obvious from their interactions. A lot of this movie just felt awkward because these characters have pre-existing relationships that went ignored. It doesn’t help that the cast was just whoever was willing to show up and not who was needed for the story

-Derek dying is a terrible ending to his character especially since he burned like the rest of his family. I don’t think that he would just abandon his son. I get that he was dying to protect him but there had to have been other ways to kill the Nogitsune

[golbrocklovely]

people who ship larry and really anyone who tries to force a certain sexuality on people irk me like no other. and it’s sooooo embarrassing

i’ve seen grown ass women like 60+ who have children and grandchildren trying to convince people that “larry is real” 🫠 do whatever makes you happy but seriously? you have a family and much bigger responsibilities so why are you focusing on two people who have said either that larry wasn’t real or that they weren’t gay. i hate even saying the word larry. if you have to consistently look for “proofs” in between the lines of the things they do than maybe it’s time to let it go.

i have never once thought they were romantically involved. the boys in my highschool class were FAR worse than harry and louis. like you would genuinely believe they were in love or something because that’s what teen boys do, they think stuff like that is funny.

anyways sorry for the long rant i just cannot with people who try to force sexuality on people. if either of them were actually gay and wanted the world to know, they would. it’s 2023 and queer is not a dirty word anymore.

disclaimer: i've noticed that every single time i talk about harry styles on here, i somehow get either asks shitting on him or asks being rude to me bc of some opinion i have of him. i'm letting you know this now - i do not care. idc if you don't like him bc "he queerbaits and his music isn't even that good and he didn't deserve his grammys and blah blah blah" IDC. sorry. i don't want your think pieces. i don't care what you have to say about him, especially if it's negative. if you don't like him, totally fine. but i do, so just move it along then. don't read this ask. why frustrate yourself over someone you don't like.

now about your ask lol

imma be honest with you, i don't really know everything about larry, mostly bc i was never into one direction (jonas brothers fans where you at?) but i did at one point or another watch some videos on them, out of curiosity. and let me tell you, the lengths some of these ppl go to is very interesting to me. bc at some point, you just gotta face facts: they aren't together. and that's okay.

especially when you try to question their sexuality and shit. that's when it gets gross to me, too. you aren't owed an answer to someone's sexuality, and questioning will not make the person more comfortable to come out, if that's something they are considering.

i don't mind the occasional conspiracy theory or kiki about fandom drama - god knows i would be a hypocrite if i said otherwise. but there comes a point where you gotta be honest with yourself and what actual reality is vs what you want it to be. those are very much TWO DIFFERENT THINGS.

like i've seen some ppl go as far as to claim that louis' baby isn't really his and that harry is contractually obligated to appear straight and shit like that and i'm just like…. none of this exhausts you? bc this is such a reach, and borderline insane.

is it possible that maybe, at one point in time, louis and harry could have been a thing? sure. i'll give you that. they were both young boys thrown into fame and needed someone to lean on, so i can believe that maybe they leaned on each other and things could have gotten more than just platonic. but clearly, that just isn't the case anymore. let it be.

if you still believe, you're allowed to. go ahead and do so. but don't expect everyone to agree with you.

[tagapagsalaysay]

I made this poll to poke a bit of paradoxical fun between the ambiguity between the in-character guys, with a distinction between on-screen depiction and press material, as well as just the real guys themselves. I think actors are subject to a level of scrutiny with queerbaiting allegations, so I think it's important to analyze in this case since it's very delicate. The definition of queerbaiting I'm going by is taken more neutrally: a marketing technique where the work is implied to have a non-hetero relationship but never establishing* the relationships.

I'm fine with considering TM to have a benign example of queerbaiting: the narrative is spread out consistently over time, but the 'highly implied' parts are a fraction of the show, while the gigantic subtext with the Taskmaster + assistant relationship is woven into the core philosophy of the show.

It's also really easy to assume that the characters are in a relationship via association, they mimic the frameworks we know about couple dynamics etc. But at the same time, if they explicitly said it out loud that them [or their characters] are in a romantic relationship, would it matter? This is a good argument for it not being queerbaiting.

There is also the ethics of pressuring closeted people to come out, especially actors. On one hand it's great to know that a queer writer is writing an authentic story, but should a person come under scrutiny because they didn't come out? What if their framework of their queer experiences do not necessarily line up with yours? This is probably the tricky part about speculating if a work (OR A PERSON!!!) is queerbaiting, where harm can be done. This is also the part about the ambiguity between on-screen and off-screen, because we can't ever take their word for it!

I disagree that a work can't be queerbaiting just because the characters were not initially inherently queer. Lots of the work I hear getting criticized for being queerbaiting was especially because the author didn't intend it at all, and people were mad they were leading them on/the author was homophobic. I do agree they're not taking a queer role away.

Also I'm not doing this to demand accountability or anything, it's a funny poll where I wanted to see people's thought processes were when it came to this.

i asked this before on priv so i want to ask general audience. is task husband queerbaiting. No nuance here

[girlcatullus]

yes we get it. hannibal is gay and evil