#but since its queerbait? in 2023???

[3rdsday]

Lokius is obviously queerbait and boy am I falling for it

[grimmgrinningghouls]

I LOVE THEM ALREADY

[diamondcitydarlin]

I still stand by this like I have no hope they'll actually be canon but come on Marvel if they're 'not gay' there's nothing wrong with Loki giving him a little kiss on the forehead as a treat, bc they're such GOOD HETEROPLATONIC FRIENDS so it shouldn't matter rite just homies kissing homies lmaoooo

listen i love the lokius hug on the hill more than anyone, but if you look closely you'll see the incline of the hill allows Tom and Owen to stagger their heights so they're more at eye-level. The height difference is actually much more vast than that and I'm just saying I need a Lokius hug where they are both standing at their full heights respective to each other bc then Loki can give him a smooch on the forehead <3

[iwishiwasfictionalblogs]

So I finished good omens season 2 last night at like 4am and idk if its cause of tiredness or cause I acc dodged every spoiler like an expert acrobats but...the final scene. I didnt see it coming. Not from a mile away.

Look I don't care that we got Nina and Maggie who are basically a mirror of Azi and Crowley. (Also so much to say how Ninas abusive relationship is basically Azi with heaven but anyway)

I also don't care that Azi and Crowley have basically been married since Eden. Nothing...and I mean nothing, physically prepared me for that finale.

Years of queerbaiting have desensitised me to hope of any kind. Genuinely even when all the signs were pointing to a confession, as soon as Azi went first and started talking bout heaven I thought that was it. Crowely is gonna crawl back into his shell.

BUT NO HE HE DIDNT. HE STILL SAID IT. and god can I say how incredibly brave that is. Like I'm so proud of him for saying ANYTHING. Like I get us as an audience think it's obvious and woulda been frustrated if he didn't and we are frustrated with how it went but. Honestly with the set up the boy was given I don't think HE for one second even remotely thought this confession was gonna go well. He had like the tiniest smidge of hope that was...of course crushed and burned. But. God I'm proud of him for saying something. And then standing his ground and not going with the man he loves even though it hurts cause going back to heaven would hurt more.

Anyway needless to say my jaw was ON THE GROUND for the kiss. Absolutely unhinged. My jaw hurt but I was so flabbergasted. I didnt know what to do with myself. It came outta nowhere in my mind even tho in traditional media it had obviously been building up to that I was still so...wow. This show. 2023. I love you.

Given this after the gift that was our flag means death. I dont know if I'll ever emotionally recover. Also I'm so not used to this idk what to do now. Do I go read fanfic? I mean..yes always but. Its canon. I almost wanna save myself for canon even though season 3 isn't confirmed. Idk if I have enough patience for that tho.

[tearitar]

I finished Rebels AND Ahsoka. I have not seen Rebels before.

i've been watching Rebels at a steady pace since September. GREAT PROGRESS then full stop on Oct 23, 2023 i get to the part where [REDACTED] dies my homeboy my mans my coolguy and I could not bear to finish the literal last 2 episodes for over 2 weeks. nov 11 i finished.

ezra haters yall are lying he's my little guy, my birthday boy. he's great. i love him actually. he just suffers from early 00 cheeky kid syndrome (THAT HE GROWS OUT OF!!). admittedly i thought the first 3 eps were, like, the show trying to gain some footing on its tone and plot.

i love them rebels. cried my way through the last three eps.

god AND the catboy yaoi was tremendous. i was dumbfounded. zeb and kallus got married and zeb got his new husband a greencard to live with him on the secret homeworld planet and "aw buddy, you DIDN'T do the whole genocide after all!" if that aint a romance then

Ahsoka (the show)

extremely mid. if you want to find out what happens as a post-rebels ending then watch the last 2 eps

i DID like the overall.... plot? just not the execution of... well. any of it

ep1 really queerbaited me with sabine/shin and i can respect them for that. they should've queerbaited me more tho

music was good, love the music

ep 5 was good :(

that's all. just had to get it off my chest.

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

Can't believe this got 89k likes. Harry getting accused of being straight again because he put on a trench coat. Its got to be so frustrating for him to keep getting accused of queerbaiting. Or I don't know how he feels about being so misunderstood but it's frustrating to watch.

https://twitter.com/newgamertag/status/1759467672276816254?t=xC2TkifCVjKLL4nlr213AQ&s=19

Obviously I disagree with this from every single angle (starting with the fact that he's there with Rob Stringer - of course he's selling something).

But the fact that a significant number of people are this wrong (and I do think they're wrong, factually, politically and culture) - is a reality that Harry is going to have to navigate. For me the question of what the options are and what he's going to do is one of the most interesting questions of the moment.

One of the reasons that it feels particularly unknown - is that Harry hasn't really presented himself to the public since BRITS last year. He's been seen - but it's been show outfits (which were continuity of the previous show outfits) and street clothes.

And a lot has happened. The idea that there's something wrong with how he dresses and talks about his sexuality has been brewing for a while - and was already at the point where interviewers were really pushing the line when he released Harry's House and it's only grown since then. Then there's the movie/relationship drama that peaked in September of 2023.

We haven't really seen how Harry is going to present himself post all that (the Brits looks were clearly a a continuity of what he had done previously).

I think the most immediate question (and the soonest answered) is is there still space for him to wear really interesting and iconic looks in an album release campaign. And if there's not what impact will it have on his image and his stardom? I really do think that the iconic looks and their implications, are part of his value proposition

[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.

[wellthatwasaletdown]

This new one from the Guardian is funny because it's defending his speech by saying, it's not that deep and Harry's not that deep LOL. But this quote is interesting. It's saying he can't be accused of queerbaiting because he just likes flamboyant clothes, which aren't a marker of being LGBT+ in any way. So basically that means he IS profiting off queer aesthetics.

Speaking of spectrums, I also think it’s unfair that Styles is accused routinely of “queerbaiting”, or pretending to be LGBTQ+ in order to get attention (a debate that has resurfaced since the Grammys controversy). He likes experimenting with flamboyant clothes! That’s it! It’s weird and regressive to think that means he is making a statement about his sexual orientation or gender identity. Let the man wear his “clowncore” jumpsuits in peace. There are far more deserving targets for people’s anger.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/07/harry-styles-thinks-people-like-him-dont-get-awards-thats-daft-but-its-not-evil

.

[rebeccadumaurier]

May 2023 Reading Review

yay it's that time of month again! i love writing these hehe. read a lot of good stuff this month <3

books read this month

Tokyo Ueno Station, Miri Yu (trans. Morgan Giles): I love the prose style in this, so vivid and imaginative but also easy to read. A sad story, but also so humanizing and sympathetic toward its characters.

Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir: This was a lot of fun! Andy Weir has clearly improved since The Martian (pretty good) and Artemis (terrible). I really liked the ending—The Martian was ultimately a fight to return to normalcy, and I liked that this book dared to imagine something new instead.

The Pachinko Parlor, Elisa Shua Dusapin (trans. Aneesa Abbas Higgins): A short, atmospheric read. Mixed feelings about the “introspective sad girl fiction” genre, but as an international school alum, I'm desperate for stories about members of the Asian diaspora that aren’t just “I’m a middle/upper-class Chinese person who grew up in America wishing I was white,” so I enjoyed Dusapin’s perspective as a Swiss-Korean writer writing about Koreans in Japan.

Fugitive Telemetry, Martha Wells (Murderbot #6): 10/10 no notes. Every Murderbot book, I’m like, “Murderbot is so good at being Murderbot. The platonic ideal of itself.” Sitting here waiting for System Collapse and thinking about Murderbot and ART every day.

Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, Kim Fu: I need to read more short story collections! This was excellent. If you liked Her Body and Other Parties, you’d probably like this book.

The Monster Baru Cormorant, Seth Dickinson (Baru Cormorant #2): Kind of a slog for me. The cast expands dramatically and Baru has a lot less agency. It’s well-written, just not my cup of tea. Will pick up book 3 if I have time.

How to Read Now, Elaine Castillo: A good book of essays to read if you’re interested in media literacy and reading culture. I enjoyed this! Very accessible, great sense of voice.

Under the Pendulum Sun, Jeannette Ng (favorite of the month): Pachinko is the best written book I read this month, but this book is very near and dear to my heart, even though it’s not a book for everyone. Gothic fantasy. Missionaries trying to convert faeries to Christianity. Questions about identity and borders and what makes you human and what makes you all equal in the eyes of God and what does God even mean to you. YESSSS.

Carrie Soto Is Back, Taylor Jenkins Reid: I don’t expect TJR books to be high art or anything, but I’m outraged about the queerbait. Otherwise a quick fun read, but I cannot overlook that and I never will.

Pachinko, Min Jin Lee: Lives up to the hype and more. No skips no duds absolutely incredible from start to finish. Spent a lot of the book in tears.

[historyhermann]

What the World Thinks of "Wednesday"

A compilation of some headlines about Wednesday from various publications since the series debuted in November 2022, showing different views of the series.

Since it's debut on Netflix on November 23, 2022, Wednesday, a live-action supernatural coming-of-age comedy horror series, has been all the rage online. Thanks to its unprecedented popularity, those on social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Tik Tok, and Tumblr, in thinkpieces, and elsewhere, have reviewed the series, providing their own views and perspectives. This reception often focuses on potential queerbaiting, anti-Black undertones, or something else entirely.

Reprinted from Pop Culture Maniacs and Wayback Machine. This was the nineteenth article I wrote for Pop Culture Maniacs. This post was originally published on January 9, 2023.

A major point of contention for reviewers has been the lack of LGBTQ representation, especially when it comes to the protagonist, Wednesday Addams (played by Jenna Ortega). For example, Petrana Rudolvic of Polygon argued that "Wednesday doesn’t need a love triangle, she needs a werewolf girlfriend", referring to Wednesday's roommate, Enid Sinclair. Their romantic ship, popular in the show's fandom and in fanfictions, has been dubbed "Wenclair" by fans which embrace it. This ship has been embraced by Ortega herself, something which some LGBTQ newsletters have pointed out.

Others, like Abby Monteil of Them magazine, have declared "Let Wednesday Addams Be Gay". Monteil added that Wednesday is a "queer icon" due to her close friendship with Enid. These views are reinforced by those fans who believe that the series is queerbaiting because their Wenclair headcanon did not happen.

However, such claims are tricky. This is because, as David Opie of Digital Spy admitted, the show "never really promised anything queer outright", at least not the way that Wenclair fans had hoped for. Additional fans pointed to chemistry between Wednesday and Bianca during the scenes where they act side-by-side.

There is undoubtedly chemistry between Enid and Wednesday, and nice scenes of them together, including when they hug each other, or when Enid saves Wednesday from the monster. However, it is clear that both characters were intended to only be friends in this story, and nothing more. Furthermore, Enid and Wednesday have romances with men. Enid has a short-lived relationship with Lucas and off-and-on relationship with Ajax Petropolus (played by Georgie Farmer). Wednesday has a relationship with Tyler Galpin (played by Hunter Doohan), who is the the son of Sheriff Galpin. The latter falls apart when Wednesday learns that Tyler is the monster, the hyde, who has been haunting the school and killing people.

On the other hand, some fans believed that there were clear asexual, or even aromantic, vibes from Wednesday, citing that she detested friendship and connecting with people. Wednesday prefers solitude, even though her burgeoning friendships with Enid, Eugene, and Xavier indicate that invisible walls she erected around herself are coming down. It is possible that Wednesday will have a LGBTQ storyline in a second season, exploring her possible asexual, lesbian, or bisexual identity.

The series has also been hit with accusations it is racist, and with anti-Black undertones, on Twitter and elsewhere. The latter is reinforced, in the minds of some, by previous comments from Tim Burton defending his casting choices in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, which had a cast with little diversity. Some went further, claiming that his previous films featured token characters of color, downplayed Jewish cultural elements, or had stereotypes of overweight people.

Various social media users have criticized portrayal of Black characters as "villains and bullies" of Wednesday. This includes a focus on Bianca as a mean girl and Lucas Walker (portrayed by Iman Marson) as a bully. The latter is the son of a corrupt mayor of Jericho, Noble Walker (portrayed by Tommie Earl Jenkins) who owns Pilgrim Land. As a result, the strong Latine representation in the series is offset by the Black characters painted as a villain.

While the criticisms of racism in Wednesday is well-intentioned, they distort the reality. For one, Bianca and Lucas are redeemed by the end of the series, which is only eight episodes long. Both help Wednesday fight off Joseph Crackstone and capture the suspected hyde. Crackstone is many times worse than Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas, a film by Burton, a character which some have described as a colonizer.

Also, the deputy of Sheriff Galpin, Ritchie Santiago (portrayed by Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo), is a Black woman. Bianca has more depth in her character Callie, a mean girl in Cleopatra in Space. For one, viewers learn about how Bianca fell out her mother, changed her name to distance herself from the Morning Song cult which her mother is a part of, and joined the Nightshades. She is integral to the story because she is Xavier's ex-girlfriend. Lucas assists Wednesday by providing information which helps her recognize who the monster really is, and he connects with Bianca.

Mayor Walker, a Black man, stands out as a negative character. He is easily manipulated and propped up by Principal Weems, who keeps him in power to hide the reality of Nevermore Academy. Near the end of the series, he is killed by the hyde because he was about to meet with Sheriff Galpin. An interview with his actor, Jenkins, could shed more light on his character.

Beyond possible anti-Black undertones and lack of queer representation in Wednesday criticized by reviewers and fans, some have said the series was two-dimensional, similar to CW dramas, and noted its appeal to Generation Z. There is a case to be made that Wednesday uses elements employed in the Harry Potter films, based on the Harry Potter books by transphobic author J.K. Rowling.

Such criticisms were reflected on Rotten Tomatoes, New York Times, The Wrap, The Independent, and elsewhere. In contrast, some reviewers described the series in generally favorable terms, calling it as a "rococo romp" that is delightful, visually appealing, and praised the deadpan humor of Ortega. This is in line with those who argue that Wednesday's eyes convey emotional truth as she is never shown blinking, not even once, in the series.

However, Wednesday's appearance is not unique. Characters such as Kaisa in Hilda and Amity Blight in The Owl House are likely shown in black-colored clothes with for the same reasons. Furthermore, Wednesday's demeanor has caused her to become an icon, especially to those in the LGBTQ community. The franchise itself has been popular enough to influence series such as Dead End: Paranormal Park, and designs of characters in The Flintsones and The Simpsons.

The series, listed as one of the best TV shows of 2022, garnered various award nominations, and certain scenes became a viral sensation. This included Wednesday's dance scene, shared on TikTok by celebrities, and as a song on Spotify.

Songs used in Wednesday, like the 1981 song "Goo Goo Muck" by the Cramps, surged in popularity. The Guardian argued that the viral dance trend, which mainly spread on Tik Tok, "may have single-handedly revived Gothic subculture for Gen Z", causing the show to become a "pop culture phenomenon".

On the whole, despite the fact that Wednesday has achieved immense popularity, its reception is varied. It is hard to know how if this popularity will last or whether it will become passing fad like The Queen's Gambit and Mrs. America in 2020 or Maid in 2021. With a second season now ordered by Netflix, we shall see if it’s popularity can endure.

© 2022-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[theymadeitlh28]

I decided to rewatch a comfort show of mine aka Sherlock (BBC) and as I fell in love with podcasts about shows thanks to “carrying wayward”, “on the road with supernatural” and “spn then and now” I thought why not find one about SHERLOCK. Long story short there were only episodes on Johnlock on podcasts about queerbaiting.

And it was always the same always. Getting annoyed at Gatiss and Co for not making it Canon. Always making sure to state that they don’t know the original and only the adaptations and how no one really makes Johnlock Canon and how Sherlock is always an asshole. And I haven’t read more then the first chapter of A study in Scarlet myself, so I said why not give it a go. I do have most of them as a kindl book, downloaded it about 5-6 years ago.

Then I found out that Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are in the public domain since the first of January 2023, so I searched for the audiobook on spotify and found it. I am now at chapter 6 and I have to say Gatiss did an implacable job of taking the story with all its elements in to the modern setting. Yes, the added date as well as the infamous “there’s another bedroom upstairs in case you’ll be needing to bedrooms” can be seen as queerbaiting. Or it can be read as the same implications Sir Arthur Canon Doyle gave by making Mr Holmes seduce/impress Dr Watson by playing Watson’s favourite violin pieces by heart after stating that the knowledge that the earth spins around the sun is not of necessity to him.

The books are as queerbaiting as the BBC show and they didn’t have queerbaiting yet at this time.

The greatest difference I found up to this point is that Mr Holmes is not as enthusiastic as Sherlock and loves to play dress up. Oh and that they can’t actually be older then 30, if not younger as Sherlock has not yet finished studying and Dr Watson graduated maybe 1 or 2 years ago.

So yes, I agree that Sherlock and John are written in a way that heavily implies that they have no platonic feelings for each other, but so are Mr Holmes and Dr Watson.

[orionsangel86]

I love this post because this is a topic ive been grappling with since I wrote my Dreamling Meta (sorry for the shameless self plug). Because I kept asking myself, why in 2022 would you lay on the queer coding and romantic subtext that thick unless you were going somewhere with it?

I feel pretty confident claiming that queerbaiting has been left in the 2010s where it belongs. Modern shows arent doing it like Supernatural or Sherlock nowadays, not with Good Omens, not with OFMD, not with canonically queer shows proving just how popular they can be.

The few modern western shows left still toying with a queer "will they wont they" that I can think of probably will end up in the "they will" category as well. I'm thinking MacDennis from IASIP (albeit in their own fucked up twisted way) and Nandermo from WWDITS specifically, but feel free to point out others that I may be forgetting (im not including any Disney media here because thats a different beast entirely and at least a decade behind other networks on LGBTQ rep as it is (and FinnPoe was MEANT to be canon dammit!)).

A lot of non canon ships I see from modern media are clearly shipped for fun, and not intentionally coded in a queer romantic way in their source material and therefore fans arent interested in discussing their canon potential, because as OP says, whether a ship has canon potential or not is irrelevant really. Shipping is just about exploring dynamics and having fun with it. You can ship 2 characters who have never met if you like, or from entirely different source medias! Its all fair game!

But when the source material clearly shows intent there, in this modern era, it does give me pause.

What is the end goal here? Because adding queer coding in a modern show is surely a dangerous game to play if you have no intention of doing anything else with it? In 2023? I have been contemplating making a post about this for a while even though it is certainly a controversial thing to say... but only because those damn comics end in such a way that it would be so damn easy to do...

Okay so Dreamling. This is like 20-25 minutes worth of television in total. In a show that introduces a huge cast of fantastical characters and certainly a whole bunch of whom can easily be shipped with Dream (our melancholic protagonist). So why is that 25 min sequence so damn compelling?

There is a reason fans went crazy for Dreamling above all other ships. To summarize my 8 part extensive meta series on the topic, it ticks all the boxes, includes all the right tropes, and has put the two characters in ample position to be the best possible solution to each others biggest problems. That all of this was confirmed as intentional by one of the writers, and the very fact that this is a show lead by Neil Gaiman who certainly doesnt shy away from including queer rep as much as possible and only recently finally made Good Omens Ineffable Husbands explicitly, undeniably even by the most dense of heteronormatives, canonically romantic, adds to the support for this ships canonicity.

Then there is the topic of the comics that the show is based on.

Because Sandman is an adaptation, the show will be expected to hit certain story beats even if it does deviate in theme, in tone, and even in characters at times. So anything possibly putting the final nail in the coffin for potentially canon dreamling should be in the comics, but the thing is, there is no nail in the comics.

Ah yes I'm sure you are all itching to point out the very obvious glaring neon sign of a nail that is Dream's death. Except this isnt a nail at all. Because even the comics indicate potential ambiguity in what actually happens to Morpheus once Daniel becomes the new Dream. With the shows lighter, more hopeful tone, the chances are still pretty good that Morpheus' ending may not be so tragic in the series, even if it does hit the same story beats to allow Worlds End and The Wake to take place.

Because who is the last character to see Morpheus in the comic? The last person to converse with him after his supposed death? Hob Gadling. Whilst it is left ambiguous again whether the Morpheus Hob dreams of is actually him or not, the point is that there IS ambiguity there. The point is that if we assume that it IS Morpheus, then the last thing he did before moving on to wherever it is he disappeared to, was visit Hob in his dreams, on a beach, at sunset. They walked together and Hob specifically states the dream had a "happily ever after" feel to it. We don't know exactly how the dream ended before Hob woke up.

Whatever happens next is anyones guess. Hob woke up yes, and Hob is with Gwen at this point in the story (but I do think that will be changed in the show due to the extremely problematic reasons Hob was given a black girlfriend). All I'm suggesting here is that the comics provide no real blocker for Dreamling to be built upon and in fact kinda support a dreamling romantic reading if viewed from the right angle. It would take only a few tweaks to get there.

So with that in mind, I look at the heavy subtext and queer coding in just a mere 25 minutes of television, and I wonder what could possibly be done with more story to tell, and we know there is still plenty more story to tell.

Look I'm not gonna claim that there should be a love declaration and kiss and whatnot, but I think there is a very high possibility that in the show Morpheus survives in some way, and chooses to remain with Hob, however you want to view it. Perhaps he will retire to Earth/the Waking World the way many Dreamling fics like to imagine, or perhaps he will stay in Hobs own dreamscape as a dream entity. Or perhaps in this version of the story, Morpheus will offer Hob the chance to go with him, off to the stars or somewhere beyond the realms of living men, and maybe this time, since its technically not a death, Hob will take it. We can only speculate and imagine, but the potential is there, and that is the entire point.

I'm in no way saying that the shows queer subtext means that they SHOULD make it canon or else they are queer baiting, but I do think that what we have been given provides an interesting foundation to build upon if they choose to, and therefore its a valid topic for discussion and speculation purposes.

Also sure yes, this is me locking in early, placing my bets for bragging rights alongside OP that if in so many years time when Sandman reaches its final season, Dreamling becomes a canon Thing, I was there in the beginning and I was Right. Lmao!

I'm not too invested in ships Becoming Canon typically, but i am gonna stake my claim here - Dreamling isn't bait. Cynically it doesn't make sense to queerbait in such a basic 101 way anymore, the writers and actors all agree that The Vibe was intentional, and narratively the show seems to be setting up a happier ending - Dreams happy ending is explicitly With Hob. Ineffable husbands Happened, dreamling will as well, and in like 4 years when the final season comes out this post will exist to prove that I was Right

[hellsvestibule]

House created the Holmes o Phobia genre of detective shows the same way Madoka Magica spawned the tragical girl genre sigh

On the other hand, bc of the things you mentioned, i don’t think I’d enjoy House nearly as much in our year of The Lord Satan 2023, and I get where criticisms of it come from. House was what it was bc it arose during a specific political climate where we didn’t simply Talk about things like that with that much open self depreciation and bitchiness. Getting accused of being gay was this really hush hush thing for men, bc like you said it was actually a really severe accusation with connotations of you being predatory and dangerous. wheras House and Wilson were out here turning it into a competitive sport and sort of robbing it of its potency, which I think helped normalize being gay as this sort of thing you could presume of men who are close, without it being accusatory of them being awful people. They were just, awful people incidentally.

The media landscape of the time is sooo important to consider. Before this Bisexuality was mentioned on what, that fucking awful episode of sex and the city where Carrie said it wasn’t even real? Which definately fucked me up and forced me to be closeted for a really long time, so in a way having House and Thirteen around felt like a relief bc even if they were messy about it, it felt real to Me who often couldn’t admit to being bi, bc I saw no cultural basis for it existing, which confused the fuck out of me as a young person who was pretty certain I was equally attracted to men and women but had people telling me left and right it wasn’t a real thing you could experience. There -was- no concept of queerbaiting or homophobic gay detectives and bisexual disaster woman tropes at the time. All we had were fucking, kirkspock fan fiction writers. The fact that we never moved past the tropes House established and instead created a genre of perpetual queerbaiting speaks more to the cultural landscape that came to follow where cheap imitation and nostalgia bait became the status quo. Which is why I think it’s comparable to how Madoka Magica changed the magical girl genre for the worse by doing something interesting and refreshing for it’s time, bc imitators couldn’t see past the trappings of the genre and write an actually compelling and heartfelt narrative. On the other hand, I’d say at least House probably contributed to the raw homo energy of Hannibal wheras what’s the tragical girl genre given us since, uh, (checks notes) magical girl site, bad egg…

BBC Sherlock also just, lacks the sheer raw bitch energy Hugh Laurie and Mads Mikkelsen brought to the table. How much of a good show with a swarmy asshole lead is chalked up to the lead actor actually being able to pull it off I guess. Bc a huge thing for Sherlock was, I don’t think bemmysick has the swag. People acted like he did but for me man I just never found him charming. House came, he saw, he served cunt, it was rotten decrepit fetid cunt, but it was the cunt we needed at the time.

I do think it’s funny that people have more tolerance and patience for the house queerbaiting. Like, don’t get me wrong, i remember there being more discourse about the queer coding of House when it was actually airing, but I feel like a lot of the queer people I know including myself have more reflective fondness for House than the likes of it’s imitators even though House is idk, arguably more meanspirited? But it feels more meanspirited at the expense of the characters than the audience. House and Wilson, do not know how fucking gay they are, and how they are clearly destined to be together, and House is sort of a shit person in a way that gets called out more often than praised. Them being homophobic at each other over a woman actually just makes them come off as more gay and what you’re supposed to find funny and pathetic feels more like, this denial of their bond bc house has gotta be all manly man and drag Wilson into it. Than just ha ha they’re so gay, but it’ll never happen. And on that note the ending of the show from what I remember has like, no heterosexual explanation. These 2 that have been flirting the whole show run away together. But it’s not gay. But also I struggle to think of any straight man finding it relatable and coming up with a heterosexual explanation. It sort of felt like a fever dream at the time which is why I think people didn’t bring it up as that kind of weird territory between queerbaiting and queer rep for so long, even though BBC Sherlock wanted what House had so bad. Which is part of why I didn’t even watch it? Man I’ve seen House I don’t think your Sherlock could get more petty and gay than that even if they fucked on screen.