#carlos marriage plot was not resolved onscreen

[trkstrnd]

in my humble opinion there is no reason to continue to complain about a plot that has been resolved poorly. it takes so much energy to sit there and be negative and talk about why it bothers you about the thing you’re supposed to enjoy. that’s the thing with this show. as a fandom, we collectively understand that the writers aren’t always going to write what we like, and we can give or take anything to or from the show that we like or dislike, so why are we spending so much time on the dislike? it’s fiction, at the end of the day, no matter how much the actors or writers are adamant that it’s real to them. they’re taking what they get and playing it in stride, and we are watching it. we have the power, as a human being, to take what we need and leave the rest, and yet every time i log in i see people continuing to complain about things that we should simply move past, because no matter how much we hate it, it will not change. canon is canon.

i recently did a project for my film and television analysis class about audience reception, and we talked a bit about how, many times, fandoms can see or create things that aren’t there, or latch onto things that they think they can do better (which, let’s be honest, we can, but we don’t have a job in the writers room and even if we did we would be getting abused by higher ups (im so proud of the writers guild okay)). We talked about how it can almost become an obsession within and obsession. we watched a documentary in fandom and how some people incorporate it into their lives in a healthy way, and some people, not so much, and i think, especially in this fandom (which i am keeping vague so other fandoms can use this post to convey their feelings if they like), the line is incredibly blurred.

in this class, we also watched Paris Is Burning, which is representative of queer movements in the twentieth century, and we talked about backlash the film got, because the representation wasn’t quite positive with everyone exhibited in the doc. We had a lengthy discussion about how oftentimes, queer theory in media isn’t necessarily pretty, and when queer filmmakers came out of the gate, they showed these ugly, messy, real stories so they could exhibit the humanity and progress that these stories made.

Sometimes people make mistakes; a lot of times, things and conversations happen offscreen, and if you’re going to latch on to one storyline and let it ruin your overall view of the season or piece of media as a whole (when you previously lived it), im not going to tell you what to do, but i will say to try looking at it through a less critical eye.

throughout the season, progress was made. it’s exhibited later in the season, which means there is still a lot we don’t see, to have such a shift like that.

that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. it means there’s a set amount of time in each episode and there are other storylines going on. we are privileged enough to get the ones we do get (even if they’re not great), so use your imagination! bridge the gap! understand that not everything is sunshine and roses all the time and when it is, it doesn’t necessarily make good prime time tv.

tl; dr: please stop using canon as ur only source of material because there is so much more that we didn’t see!!! tv embraces fandom creativity! and shitting on it all the time isn’t healthy! plus, it makes those of us who moved on and feel okay about it feel really fucking shitty <3