#cw racial tension

[the-sun-and-the-craftsman]

The Sun and the Craftsman - Chapter 4

Content warnings for this chapter are at the bottom and tagged!

For more info, read the pinned post here.

It’s been two days since Ashur’s had to deal with humans, and that’s been a welcome relief. 

He sits in the kitchen, watching the oven in front of him. He can hear the sound of sand trickling through the hourglass on top of the counter, but he doesn’t look at it—he'll know it’s done when the sound stops. The scent of fresh-baked cake fills the area around him, only serving to make him hungrier. 

Slowly, he lifts his arm to his parted jaws and sets it inside. His jaws move like molasses as he gradually sinks his teeth into his own flesh. A sting of pain reminds him that he’s not supposed to do that—he silences it with a quick magical flick to the nerves in his arm, cutting all of them off. 

His own ichor tastes sharp and vibrant. 

He’s done this kind of thing—cleaving his own flesh, that is—plenty of times before, even in front of that particular batch of humans. There’s no reason a little head injury should’ve fooled them, but, by himself, it did. They actually thought he lost his memory, and they actually trusted him to toss their sorry asses back to where they came from. 

He chews slowly and methodically, extracting every bit of flavor from the chunk of his arm before sending it to his stomach, which reacts with a hungry pang. Sand continues to pour. 

The kitchen’s a mess. Ashur doesn’t need to look to know that he’s left all of his supplies out, from the mixing bowls and baking trays to the dashes of flour across the counter and the stained cutting boards dripping with juices of fruit that didn’t even make it into the recipe before Ashur had devoured it. But it doesn’t matter, there’s no one to judge him for his hunger anymore. 

He takes another bite, feeling his teeth scuff against the bone in his arm. 

This has been all of today and yesterday. Yesterday he had cooked a few new types of pizza that he had been aching to try, and today it’s all been cakes and other sweets.  Tomorrow, he thinks, maybe he’ll go to some other world and try some new restaurants, have someone else cook for him for once. It’s been a long time since he’s established himself as the bane of buffets. 

A flash of magic catches his attention—there's a new presence on Ana. He quickly heals his arm, flesh growing over the missing pieces. Standing up, he grabs a nearby towel to wipe the ichor off and, feeling nothing on the arm he grew back, reactivates the nerves threading through it. After tossing the towel on top of one of the nearby piles, he heads over to the balcony connected to the kitchen, his mind whirling with possibilities. Was this something he had planned and then forgotten about? Was it somebody forcing their way in? They got past the shield without breaking it, and normally, only his magic can do that—is it another apotheon somehow forcing their way in?! 

He steps out onto the wooden balcony and peers down, looking toward the direction where the magic came from. And he sees a familiar tall figure wrapped in a long, dark brown duster. 

Oh. Right. He gave Darius his portal rune. Well, he didn’t think the little bastard would actually come back. 

Sighing, he darts back inside and through the winding depths of his tree, heading down to the root system where his exits are. Climbing out of one of the basements and into the small field surrounding his tree before it turns to his orchards, he stands up and approaches Darius. 

“Two days,” he says with a wry chuckle. “You couldn’t even stay away from me for two days!” He grins as he trots toward the haggard-looking figure. Darius is always looking like he has something to complain about, but now, looking at him from behind, Ashur can see how much pain he’s in, can see the dirt caked on him, matting his hair—he can sense Darius’ nerves firing off pain and panic and a whole cocktail of desperate human emotions. 

Darius turns around, shooting Ashur a glare with those deep brown eyes. And glancing Darius’ body up and down makes Ashur stop in his tracks. 

The noose around his neck is new. 

The two of them lock eyes for a few moments. Ashur’s gaze follows the rope as it trails down Darius’ body and along the ground, ending in a tight knot around a snapped branch. 

Darius wrenches the noose from his neck, struggling to loosen it and pull it over his head before whipping it at the ground. Ashur steps back, looking down at the branch. It must’ve come from a tree on Earth—he just hopes it doesn’t have one of those messed up Earth blights. He gingerly traces a path around Darius and picks up the branch, letting fire spring from his hand to set it ablaze. 

“You’re...so...” Darius pants, latent rage in his tone, but words seem to fail him as his glazed-over eyes wander from Ashur’s position. 

“I didn’t do this,” Ashur scoffs, taking the branch in his other hand and cracking it in half. Both pieces soon crumble to nothing but embers, and he drops them in the dew-soaked grass at his feet. “I can get a lot more creative than just hanging you.” 

“You sent me back!” Darius says lowly. 

“You never told me you’d get hanged,” Ashur says with a shrug. “In fact, you never really told me anything about where you came from.” 

Darius shakes his head, then does a double-take at Ashur. 

"Right,” he says. “You have your memory.” 

Ashur sighs. 

“I never lost it,” he says. 

Darius blinks. 

“Dirty liar,” he growls under his breath, and Ashur feels a sting course through him. 

“I am not!” he snaps, looking Darius in the eyes. 

“You lied to us! You said you lost your memory!” 

“Did I say it?” Ashur asks. “Or did you and the others just assume it?” 

Darius opens his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. Ashur watches the memories pass Darius by as the human clearly tries to come up with some example where Ashur had been blatantly lying. Eventually, he settles on the best he can come up with. 

“You never denied it,” he whines. “You just let us think that you’d lost your memory, which is a form of lying!” 

“Is it, though?” Ashur asks coyly. He strides to the discarded noose and reaches down to lift it with one finger, feeling its rough, frayed edges as he toys with it. “All I did was walk around with a wound on my head asking people who they were. If that counted as lying, then I guess you also lied to me about your criminal past, walking around acting like you were innocent.” 

“I’m not a criminal!” Darius says with a force that makes Ashur flinch back—he's never heard Darius’ voice so loud. “It’s not a crime if nobody would bring him to justice!” 

Ashur likes this feeling. Finally, after months of messing with this guy just to have him shut himself up in his house for years afterward, he’s got him right where he wants him. 

“Ah,” he says. “A crime of passion!” 

He swears he can feel the heat radiating from Darius’ body. 

“I’m not a criminal!” Darius repeats, taking a step toward Ashur, then very quickly backing off as he remembers who he’s talking to. “You would do the same thing in my shoes!” 

Ashur, in turn, closes the distance between them. “And what would that be?” he asks, fiddling with the rope in his hands, stretching up on his toes until the tips of their noses are almost touching. 

Darius hesitates, glancing away from Ashur, as if there’s someone else who could intervene. Finally, he sighs through his nose and closes his eyes. 

“The man killed my parents,” he says in a steady, even tone. 

Ashur’s eyes widen. He lets the rope fall from his hands. Darius continues. 

“Right in front of me,” he says, his voice betraying some of his pain. “Didn’t know I was there. If he did, he would’ve killed me too.” 

The two of them stand there for a moment, face to face. Darius closes his eyes. 

Ashur can’t help but feel a twinge of that kind of pain too, even if his own parents are only an idea in his mind. 

“They tried to kill you for killing your parents’ murderer?” Ashur asks, gesturing down to the rope on the ground. 

“Yes,” Darius says. “But, I was expecting it. He was a nice, upstanding white man with no qualms. And I was a rough colored boy with an axe to grind. I wouldn’t expect you to understand.” 

“Why?” Ashur asks. 

“You’re white, too,” Darius says. 

Ashur laughs. “I’m not white,” he says. 

Darius frowns. “You’re white with a tan.” 

“Whatever.” Ashur shakes his head. He’s not gonna fight this battle right now. “So, they tried to kill you for a stupid reason. And I’ve gone after you for stupider reasons.” 

“But you’ve never actually tried to kill me,” Darius says. “So it made sense to come back here.” 

Ashur sighs. Looks like he’s gonna have to get creative. 

“Why don’t you come inside?” he asks. He picks up the rope and winds it up, working to untie the slipknot at the end. “We can talk about your options now that you’re here.” 

Nodding, giving a shuddering sigh, Darius follows Ashur as he heads inside.

CW: mentions of head injury, lynching, deceit, persecution, death of a parent or guardian, murder, and racial tension descriptions of auto-cannibalism and fire. 

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[comicbookhyperfixationtime]

Uncanny X-men #196- What Was That?!!

CW: racial slurs

Last Issue Recap: The Power Pack made a cameo and Wolverine did not disembowel a child. Callisto in the Morlocks did show up and they are as skrungly and terrible as ever. And then there was Secret Wars 2 which I have mentally blocked out of my brain because it's too pointless and annoying to take up important Nightcrawler Obsessing Space.

Anyway, HOLY HELL, how did this cover make it to print?! Its literally a woman in a gimp suit! Have I talked about Rachel's Mutant Hunter gimpsuit before? I feel like I have, but I would once again like to say, what the actual fuck.

It's Chris Claremont so I expect to be using this a lot in the near future. Also, in this cover there are spikes around her crotch that form a thong/triangle shape (super umcomfy 😬) which (spoilers) are not there when she wears the suit in-issue. Which just makes this worse.

Gimpsuit aside I don't like this cover. The composition is meh, and its the same sort of misdirection we saw in the last issue. Is Rachel going to beat the shit out of the X-men and get stabbed by Wolverine? Of course she's not. The splash panel on the first page is pretty striking though.

The title is uncreative, but I do adore when writers try to work their issue title into the first page's dialogue or onomatopoeia or something (Thor #366 is my absolute favorite example of this). This is a fantastic first page, not only does it immediately set up tension, mystery and stakes while quickly delivering exposition, but it cleverly uses the in-universe curtain behind Professor X as a tool for adding motion and energy, whilst directing the reader's eye around the page.

I half forgot that Professor X is actually a professor and that he didn't just make that title up to sound cool. Hell, since he has a PhD it should actually be Dr X but that sounds a little too much like a porn knockoff of Dr Strange for my and Marvel's liking. Jesus Christ I bet he's the sort of proff who never ever grades essays in time because he's too busy fucking off fighting Godlike entities in space. I'd give him a 2 on Rate My Professor so fast.

Several students in this packed classroom are smoking. Oh 1985, how the times have changed!

As his students leave, Professor X laments that he cannot simply read their minds and figure out who's thought this was. Not because this would be highly unethical, but because his mind and body has been weakened ever since he got the shit kicked out of him by anti-mutant muggers a few issues back.

Meanwhile, Storm is home in Africa on her self discovery tour, where she is- shot in the head and left for dead by the racist poachers she'd fought before?!

I know logically this is just a fakeout but I'll be damned if it isn't some good tension! Also; the racist poachers are a brother-sister pair named Andreas and Andrea. Their parents must have hated them even more than I do.

We immediately cut to Kitty talking about Ororo's letters at a team meeting just to hammer the stake further into my goddamn heart. The Gang has gathered in a deli to discuss Professor X's mystery, including Magneto (whose presence goes undiscussed, probably because it was explained in Secret Wars 2) and some blonde lady named Aleytys who I have no idea who she is. (Edit: I know who she is- Lee Forrester, Scott Summers ex-girlfriend who apparently hooked up with Magneto in New Mutants. What an absolute power move.) Something I haven't mentioned yet because it hasn't come up is that Chuck has been hiding his growing frailty and power loss from his friends and teammates for some reason I've forgotten but which is probably stupid. Also he can walk at this point in continuity but that's not important.

Rachel sees the Beyonder shows up for his editor mandated plot interruption for a few pages and I'm not going to discuss it because I Don't Care.

My thoughts exactly Kitty.

Speaking of the best boy, he is off at his parish, talking to the priest about his crisis of faith.

I cannot imagine what it must be like to go into confessional with a superhero he has heard some shit someone redraw this man in that one stock photo of the priest.

The monster Kurt is talking about his the Beyonder because goddamnit I guess I can't just ignore that motherfucker. TLDR, he was the ultra-powerful being who started the excuse plot for the original Secret Wars. In Secret Wars 2 he comes to Earth to learn the meaning of life or some bullshit and wanders around causing problems before turning himself into a baby (probably, idk I never finished it, Jim Shooter did that before so he'd probably do it again.) Kurt's faith has been completely destroyed by the Beyonder's sheer power which is like no being he's ever seen before- oh please.

This whole scene sort of pisses me off. First off, its more wanking off about the Beyonder and I really don't want to hear about this guy. Second, its another reason to leave Kurt out of this weeks plot and that pisses me off, give my boy more screentime! Third, this really doesn't feel justified by the Beyonder. Nightcrawler saw Dr Doom hand him his ass in Secret Wars, he knows he's not omnipotent. Nightcrawler having a breakdown is fine but there's way more interesting stuff for him to break down over.

Back on the main plot, a group of shadowy figures sneak into Professor X's office and plant a bomb under his desk! I see someone has been reading Hitchcock's quotes on suspense.

Rogue and Rachel are flying over Columbia U having a dramatic irony-laden conversation about how much less nasty this current timeline is than Rachel's home time whilst she mind-scans for the culprits. They don't find them, but they do find a mugging in progress and stop it.

I'll tell you what else is a crime, that hairdo! Yeesh.

It turns out the civilian they saved is a anti-mutant jackass who was grafitti-ing the words "Muties die!" when he got jumped, because Marvel civilians are assholes. Kitty and Wolvie take a quick break from crimefighting and have an conversation that's too cute for me not to share.

Kitty phases into a building because she sees a light on in a lab after hours. She finds some of her student acquaintances skulking about and, despite having doubts that any of them could be murderers, is immediately suspicious. I personally think the fact they ordered pizza with anchovies on it would be enough to peg them as supervillains on the spot, but Kitty is more of an optimist than me. The terrorists realize Kitty is a mutant and confront her about it.

Kitty Pryde just said the N-word. This isn't ok. I don't know how the editors at Marvel ever thought it was ok, and it speaks volumes that they did. "Mutie" isn't a real swear. "N-----" is. That word is hateful and terrible and affects real people and it is not ok at all to equate it to a made-up slur. The X-men are supposed to be an allegory for suffering that empowers minority groups. This just hurts them more. Hell no to all of this.

I took a hot minute to absorb what I just fucking read and then moved on with the issue. The terrorist kids get the jump on Kitty and chloroform her before she can phase out, with intent to kill her. Meanwhile, Magneto, Professor X and Rachel Summers are in the Prof's office, discussing the case and the Beyonder's continued presence because he's been stalking them like a weirdo. Rachel tries to psychically link the three so they can sense the Beyonder like she can, but using her psi-powers sets off the bomb, which is actually not a bomb but a "psi-scream," a device that amplifies and reflects psychic energy back to its source. This is a massive plot-hole; how did they know Xavier was psychic?! As far as I'm aware its not common knowledge Professor X is a mutant at all, let alone what his powers are! And these are just normal Columbia U college students with no connection to any supervillains or secret organizations whatsoever, there's no way they'd have access to this info!

The bomb overloads Rachel and she accidentally destroys the office, sending out a shockwave of energy that sends Professor X and Maggie flying. Rogue has to catch them both which I find sort of curious because its always so inconsistent whether Magneto can fly or not (my personal headcanon is that his costume has metal soles and he levitates them). Rachel senses Kitty's distress through their psychic link and freaks out so bad she manifests her BDSM Mutant Hunter costume. She flies over to the lab, explodes the anti-mutant students and rescues Kitty in a very hetero way.

Cannot imagine what goes on in Kitty Pryde's head. Must a beautiful and terrifying place to visit.

The guy in the pink jacket from before regains consciousness and tries to shoot Rachel, but its a bit like trying to stab a rhinoceros with a butter knife. She's about to kill him, when Magneto shows up to stop her from making the same mistakes he has.

I don't know bout you but if Magneto in a suit told me to do anything I'd drop whatever I was doing immediately. I love reformed Magneto, such a richer and more interesting character than racist whiny asshole villain Magneto. I sure hope Marvel lets him continue to grow as a person and don't constantly regress his character for the stake of a stupid status quo! Haha. I hate the Endless Wheel of Comic Book Samsara.

The conversation between Magneto and Rachel is honestly really beautiful. Two people who've never interacted before, but understand each other's pain better than anyone else can. Its a fantastic scene only slightly marred by the final panels being of the Beyonder observing the scene and giving some pointless, longwinded commentary. Its too long for me to screenshot and post here so I super recommend you check this out for yourself!

On the plus side, next issue is Dr Doom!

Final Thoughts: This issue had some really high highs and some really low lows. I'm honestly super shocked the panel of Kitty Pryde saying the N-word isn't more infamous than it is, because holy fuck that was awful.

[peridot-tears]

I was chatting with my 弟弟 from China who's been in NYC for less than a year, and manz was talking about how he's afraid of taking the subway. I was damn shook, because that means he's been walking to our gym and hasn't seen much of the city.

He explained that people would push him, and just walking on the street people would try to shove or fuck with him and make racist remarks.

I was just like, "说出难听话，这些事我早习惯了。”

His response was, “我知道我该习惯上，但是我不想。”

[bella-vida-bellarke]

The 100 and Race

So I've been reading some criticism of The Handmaid's Tale and their shrugging off addressing the role race plays in Gilead's society because it's "post racial". So that got me thinking about The 100 (another show I love) and the current themes around Hitler, the Holocaust, and eugenics.

It would be nice for the writers to address race in a conversation or two because the shows storyline opens that door. However, I don't have much faith that they will. Based on some actors of color treatment in the show and the white savior narratives they have already spearheaded.

I mean original sky crew (arkadians) learned about history on the ark and so they must know all about slavery and the civil war and what caused it and Jim Crow etc etc maybe even mass incarceration?? Idk. I can't remember if Pike actually mentioned anything about that??

Also, I haven't read anything on this, but jroth has said that the 100 takes place in a world that doesn't care about peoples sexual identities, so I can imagine that it would be easy for them to shrug off questions about racial tensions.

I don't know it's late and this is ranty, a bit, but let me know thoughts or if the cast or writers have talked about the subject?

[wanderingcas]

(omg- love the name of the asks thing- its >>>) but anywho- can i ask what with the whole *whispers* w*lker *normal voice* thing- like why are people not gonna watch it? cause i know im not watching it because *whispers* j*red *normal voice* lowkey moved on like nothing happened with the finale- and am lowkey confused

well.... *slips a cup of steaming tea into your hand as we bend our heads over a table* there's a few components to this

general anger over the cw as a network as a whole. some shows (spn and the 100 to name a few) have had endings (and general things too) that did verrrry uncool things like glorify death as an escape from trauma, the good old bury your gays trope, and fridging women. (not to mention just the horrible overall treatment of BIPOC)

jared's interview about the spn ending and dean's death being a "success" and eileen being compared to ruby did NOT go over well so anyone who would have watched for jared who didn't like the spn ending now aren't

the fact that it's a show that's deeefinitely leaning towards cop propaganda because a) it's descended from a very conservative very manly man show and no matter how woke the writers try to make it, it has those roots (also it fridges walker's wife within 5 min of the pilot so how woke can it be) b) the recent interviews about caging children at the border being a legally and morally grey area (????) and c) recent critics reviews on the pilot show point out that any attempt to be liberal minded come off really hokey and disingenuous

and finally: given all the tensions with cops and racial issues and immigration and just in general the huge shit show in the united states right now, watching a show about a white texas ranger doing his best by the laws of the united states that in fact actively oppresses people of color every day may not put the best taste in people's mouths.

*sips tea* but that's just my opinion on the matter

[gra-sonas]

EXCLUSIVE: Bones alum Michael Grant Terry and Gillian Vigman (Life Sentence) are set for recurring roles on the upcoming third season of the CW’s Roswell, New Mexico.

Written by Carina Adly MacKenzie and directed by Julie Plec, the reimagined Roswell, like the original, is based on the Roswell High book series by Melinda Metz.

Terry will play Jordan, the son of Roswell’s Mayor Bernhardt, a privileged young man who blames his failure to measure up to his parents’ high expectations on the influx of immigrants and people of color in his community. As the leader of a grassroots group dedicated to preserving the status quo in Roswell, Jordan will go toe to toe with our heroes as racial tensions in town bubble to the surface.

Vigman will play Roswell’s diligent new Sheriff Brooke Taylor, a tough yet charismatic officer elected on a mandate of law and order. A politician with years of experience navigating the divisive landscape amid rising tensions, she uses a disarming façade to appease both her constituents and the forces who put her in power, causing Max to question whether she’s truly for the people – or her own agenda.

They join cast members Jeanine Mason, Nathan Parsons, Michael Vlamis, Lily Cowles, Tyler Blackburn, Heather Hemmens, Michael Trevino, Trevor St. John and Amber Midthunder.

Roswell, New Mexico hails from Amblin TV, Bender Brown Prods, Warner Bros. TV and CBS Studios.

Terry played Wendell Bray for nine seasons on Fox’s Bones. He also recurred on NBC’s Grimm. Other film and television credits include Criminal Minds, NCIS and the indie film, The Archer. He is also one of the producers of the hit podcast, SmartLess, with Jason Bateman, Will Arnett & Sean Hayes.

Gillian was a series regular on the CW’s drama Life Sentence, opposite Lucy Hale. She recurred on HBO’s Divorce opposite Thomas Hayden Church and Fox’s New Girl. Vigman currently voices the series regular role of Dr. T’Ana in CBS All Access’ animated comedy Star Trek: Lower Decks. In film, Vigman is perhaps best known for her role in the Hangover trilogy playing Bradley Cooper’s wife, Stephanie. Vigman is repped by Trademark Talent.

[deancasbigbang]

Somewhere

Author: foolondahill17

Artist: vulfmert

Rating: Explicit

Pairings: Dean/Castiel

Length: 54119

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply CW: show-level violence, mild nonconsensual contact (a kiss), the threat of sexual violence, mentions of past child abuse (nonexplicit), and strong language, including period-typical racial, ethnic, homophobic, and gender-based slurs. Specific warnings will be noted at the beginning of chapters.

Tags: West Side Story AU; Prior West Side Story knowledge unnecessary; Alternate Universe - 1950s; first-generation immigrant themes; Queer Themes; spoilers for A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway; as many song lyrics as I can plausibly smush into dialog

Summary: It’s 1957, and an Upper West Side neighborhood in New York City is split down the middle between two rival street gangs: the Angels and the Hunters. Dean Winchester left the Hunters four months ago to work at Singer’s Auto, hoping to earn his little brother a chance at a future he never had, but he remains best friends with the gang’s leader, Benny. Castiel Nova is a member of a large, first-generation Italian American family and the younger brother of the Angels’ two leaders, Michael and Luca. Castiel, however, doesn’t want to be sucked into the city’s violence, despite his family’s pressure to join ranks with the Angels. When Castiel and Dean meet by chance at a neighborhood dance, they are inadvertently but undeniably attracted to each other. Their budding romance, however, not only risks being torn apart by the tension between the two gangs, but also by the ethnic and sexual prejudices of the day.

Link to Fic | Link to Art

[foramomentonly]

Your meet ugly fics are sooooo amazing!!! Can I please request Malex for 55..?

Author’s Note: Yay, I finished another one! Thank you for the prompt, anon, and I’m sorry for the ridiculously long wait.

CW: Michael exhibits some unconscious racial bias here that leads to mistaken identity. I want to be transparent in case that isn’t what someone wants to read right now or ever.

my twin clearly did something to piss you off, but you obviously don’t know I’m a twin so I’m listening to you tell me how much of an asshole I am and am very amused and it’s making you angrier

“Hey, Manes!” 

Alex turns at the familiar, but unexpected voice and freezes. Michael Guerin is coming towards him, striding across the parking lot. Michael Guerin, with his wild curls and scoop neck tee shirts, his letterman jacket heavy on his broad shoulders and a pencil perpetually stuck behind his ear. Michael Guerin, who Alex has been hopelessly, laughably in love with for at least two years; probably since middle school, if he’s being honest with himself in a way he definitely wasn’t ready to be in middle school.

Alex is so caught up in the miracle that is Michael Guerin wanting his attention that he doesn’t register Michael’s anger until he’s being crowded against the Manes family vehicle, a shabby behemoth of a Ford Explorer, with Michael bearing down on him. He doesn’t touch Alex, but stands obstinately before him, denying Alex the space to open the driver’s side door and escape into the car and blocking his path forward into the open expanse of the lot. A few groups of students are lingering, jangling keys in hand while they make plans and wrap up conversations, but no one is close enough to notice them, and Alex is grateful not to have an audience to whatever is about to go down between the skinny, emo kid and the genius, varsity football captain.

“What the fuck, Manes?” Michael demands, hazel eyes blazing gold in the bright, afternoon light, nose and brow wrinkled in a sort of grumpy way Alex can’t help but be charmed by. “What did you do to my sister?”

Alex blinks, tries to take a step back, but he’s already pressed against the door of the car and he succeeds only in kicking up dust and a small collection of pebbles onto Michael’s sneakers.

“What?” he asks. “Your sister?”

“Yeah, my sister, asshole,” Michael parrots. “You broke her fucking heart!”

Alex takes a deep breath and bursts out laughing, doubling over and nearly headbutting Michael in the process.

"You think this is funny?" Michael hisses, jaw tense and teeth bared.

“I do, actually,” Alex manages between breathless giggles, wiping tears from his eyes with the cuff of his sweatshirt.

Michael growls in frustration, but he doesn’t move, his hands flexing impotently into fists at his side.

“You really think you can dump Isobel a week before prom, call her a ‘frigid bitch,’ and I’m not gonna have anything to say about it?”

Isobel?

Isobel Evans. 

Alex connects the dots quickly, ties noticing Isobel Evans’ puffy eyes in class together with Michael and Isobel’s apparent relationship and his own brother Flint’s posturing comments at the dinner table earlier in the week and reaches an easy conclusion that wipes the amused smile off his face.

“Sorry, wrong guy,” Alex says, and lurches forward, knocking Michael back with his shoulder and pulling open the car door. 

“Bullshit!” Michael replies, stepping forward again and holding the door open with one hand, gesturing to the Explorer with the other. “This is the car that always picked her up and you’re the fucker who was in it.”

Alex whirls around so fast his backpack falls off his shoulder, and he leaves it in the dirt as he advances on Michael, poking a vicious finger into his own chest.

“I’m Alex Manes, I’m a junior, and I’m gay,” he spits. “My brother, Flint, is a senior and, apparently, as shitty of a boyfriend as he is a person. We both use this piece of shit to get around, but we’re definitely two entirely different people.”

“B-brother?” Michael stammers, taking an uncertain step back and staring at Alex in confusion.

“Yeah, man. Brother,” Alex says with a snarl. “Believe it or not, there are two Indigenous guys in this shithole of a school. But I guess I can give you a pass since we’re actually related.”

Michael deflates, shoulders slumping and head falling forward into his waiting palms.

“Fuck,” he mumbles, dragging both hands roughly down his face and raising his chin to meet Alex’s gaze directly. “I’m so sorry. I never really met the guy or saw him up close and I—Yeah, there’s no excuse. I’m sorry.”

Alex rolls his eyes; he’s still offended, but Michael’s apology seems sincere and in Roswell that’s a lot more than he’s come to expect.

“Yeah, well,” Alex mumbles, picking his backpack up off the ground and knocking it against the body of the Explorer to shake loose the dust clinging to the bottom, “whatever. Flint’s at some ROTC thing. He’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Wait,” Michael says, stepping forward to grip Alex’s arm before he climbs into the car. Alex glares at him and Michael rescinds his touch quickly, but Alex’s heart still flutters at the momentary feel of Michael’s strong, calloused fingers wrapped around his bicep. “Can I ask you something?”

“Why not,” Alex sighs, tossing his backpack into the back seat and leaning against the door he just slammed shut, arms crossed.

“Why weren’t you afraid of me?”

Alex scoffs.

“What?”

“You didn’t even flinch when I was comin’ at you and,” Michael puffs out his chest and shakes out his shoulders, presenting himself to Alex exaggeratedly, “I’m pretty intimidating.”

Alex laughs despite himself, shaking his head, and Michael grins as the tension in the air dissipates just enough for Alex to admit he still isn’t impervious to Michael Guerin’s charm.

“You might be hot shit now,” Alex says, and Michael raises an eyebrow in interest, “but I remember scrawny Michael Guerin who had to leave the room every time Ms.Turcios fed her snake a live mouse in middle school.”

“So, what I’m hearing is you think I’m hot,” Michael says, smiling slow and suggestive, and if Alex didn’t know better, he’d think Michael Guerin was flirting with him.

“Even if you don’t know who I am,” Alex continues, and Michael winces, “I know you, Guerin. And you’re not a guy to throw a punch unless you have to.”

Alex watches Michael’s expression shift, the corners of his mouth dropping as his smile softens, his eyes growing wider and his brows raising as though in surprise. He looks younger, open and vulnerable and hopeful; he looks every bit like that goofy kid from middle school whose good-natured showboating in class always made Alex laugh and whose innate intelligence took his breath away. And Alex realizes he hasn’t seen Michael look like that kid since the head football coach recruited him out of gym class freshman year, moved him into his basement (if the rumors are true), and dumped the weight of a lackluster team on Michael’s shoulders, reviving his own career in the process.

“All right, Alex Manes,” Michael all but whispers to himself, stepping close enough for Alex to smell his refreshingly subtle body spray, to catalog the highlights in his curls brought out by the sun and the flecks of green in his eyes, “prepare to be known.”

Alex laughs breathlessly.

“What does that mean?”

“It means what are you doing right now?” Michael flicks his eyes toward the Explorer, a bit of swagger creeping back into his smile. “Wanna give me a ride?”

A drive into the desert, a long, intimate conversation, and an impromptu blow job later, Alex thinks Michael might just have been flirting with him after all. He also thinks, for the first time in his life, he owes Flint one for being a dick and for hogging the car.

[roswellnmsource]

‘Roswell, New Mexico’: Michael Grant Terry & Gillian Vigman To Recur On Season 3

Michael Grant Terry and Gillian Vigman are set for recurring roles on the upcoming third season of the CW’s Roswell, New Mexico.

Terry will play Jordan, the son of Roswell’s Mayor Bernhardt, a privileged young man who blames his failure to measure up to his parents’ high expectations on the influx of immigrants and people of color in his community. As the leader of a grassroots group dedicated to preserving the status quo in Roswell, Jordan will go toe to toe with our heroes as racial tensions in town bubble to the surface.

Vigman will play Roswell’s diligent new Sheriff Brooke Taylor, a tough yet charismatic officer elected on a mandate of law and order. A politician with years of experience navigating the divisive landscape amid rising tensions, she uses a disarming façade to appease both her constituents and the forces who put her in power, causing Max to question whether she’s truly for the people – or her own agenda.

[ladymazzy]

One year on: the BLM event that divided a Gloucestershire town

I'm beyond furious and exasperated with the perpetuation of the lie that racism is a thing of the past. This woman is only 25, and her recounting her experiences of going to school as a Black girl in the West Country only around a decade ago speaks volumes

Some highlights from the article. (CW for racism and White Fragility™️):

Growing up, Khady Gueye was one of just a handful of black pupils at her school in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. By the time she was a teenager, she was desperate to fit in and conform. And so when her nickname became “Nigs” – short for the N-word – Gueye didn’t challenge it.

Here, in the rural west of England, where she had been fed racist stereotypes of black people her whole life, she didn’t want to be labelled “the angry black girl” or the self-pitying minority who “couldn’t take a joke” or what was considered a “bit of light banter”.

And so it was, that on the last day of school where it is tradition for year 11s to scrawl goodbye messages on one another’s school shirts, Gueye took home a shirt covered with the N-word in giant block capital letters across the front. “Gonna Miss You Nigs” was written on the back next to jokes about golliwogs and messages of good luck.

Gueye was supposed to consider it an affectionate send-off; it was written by her own friends. It was 2012, the year Britain proudly celebrated its optimistic and diverse Olympic Games opening ceremony, or as Conservative MP Aidan Burley would call it, “multicultural crap”.

“I became complicit in allowing it to continue, by being ‘Ha ha! Good joke guys,’” says Gueye, flatly. “But when you grow up in an area that is so predominantly white and are already made to feel different, you just do your best to fit in. The ideal is don’t call out racism. Let it slide. You become so accustomed to it, it becomes your norm.”

Now 25 and on the verge of finishing her English degree at Manchester University, Gueye has become a local community organiser and is more visible than ever in the town where she was born and grew up.

“I don’t want my daughter to grow up with the same experience I did,” she says emphatically, over lunch at her local pub. “This is my home and it’s a lovely area to bring up a family in. I want my daughter to have a life where she is celebrated for who she is, not feel attacked or unwelcome because of her skin colour.”

But Gueye’s attempts to hold a small “celebration of BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) culture” sparked a furious backlash that, one year on, still reverberates throughout the small Gloucestershire town of Lydney.

...an online petition was set up to stop the event going ahead on the grounds that it was unsafe and high risk in the middle of a pandemic. Organiser Natasha Saunders wrote: “A mass gathering is a slap in the face to people who have been tirelessly shielding themselves, the elderly and loved ones from this virus.”

Anger, tension and outright abuse boiled over online as a counter-petition to support the event was organised. It got twice the number of signatures, leading Saunders to say that hers was more valid by claiming “90% of [signatories] are from Lydney, can you say yours was?” Later, she would make Eldridge-Tull gasp by posting: “He couldn’t breathe, now we can’t speak”, in a reference to Floyd’s murder by a police officer.

“We’re a happy community, we don’t really have an issue with racism,” said one middle-aged man, who didn’t want his name published, as he nursed a pint outside a local pub. “Outsiders bring their problems, but there’s not a lot of them here,” he said, echoing in politer terms a point that was made repeatedly to the Observer last week.

Last year, Gueye and Eldridge-Tull spent hours patiently replying to comments online in an attempt to explain the event and reassure people about it, but still received threats. Hundreds of screenshots of the abuse have been shared with the Observer. A typical missive read: “Fuck off. Not everyone agrees with black lives. I can’t say what I want on here coz I’ll be reported for racism. But I would bring back black slavery.” Gueye was repeatedly told to go back to where she came from if she didn’t like it and that she would be responsible for bringing harm to Lydney residents.

The pair’s standard response to those with genuine concerns about mass gatherings in a health pandemic, during a lockdown, was to keep explaining that social distancing was being strictly adhered to – two-metre grids were hand-chalked by Gueye and Eldridge-Tull on the site – and that PPE was being provided to anyone who didn’t have any.

“I think it speaks volumes that BAME people are still willing to protest for their human rights even though they are disproportionately affected by the pandemic,” wrote Gueye. “Maybe this should highlight the severity of the inequality in our society”.

....

When asked if she [deputy mayor, Tess Tremlett] accepted there were a lot of racist aspects to the abuse the organisers had endured, Tremlett replied: “I think some of the comments coming from supporters of the event were actually racist in themselves. They were called ‘white trash’, they were called Nazis and all sorts.”

But as anti-racist activists have spent the last year explaining, racism isn’t simply prejudice based on how one looks, but a system...[based] around a specific set of ideas – in this case, racist ones.

It is useful to explain why it is possible for white people to experience individual prejudice and unpleasant behaviour simply based on the colour of their skin but why it is inaccurate to call that “racism”. Being white does not mean one is more likely to be criminalised by the police, or that one is more likely to work in lower-paid frontline work or that one is more likely to be exposed to and die of Covid as a result.

In Gloucestershire, for instance, police statistics show that being black means you are nine times more likely to be stopped and searched by the police than you would if you were white.

The numbers are blankly disproportionate; there are just over 5,000 black people resident in the county compared with 570,000 white people. Last year, Gloucestershire council published evidence that jobseekers from minority ethnic groups had to send an average of 60% more applications to receive the same level of interest as white candidates. It’s not a conversation that Lydney, like much of the country, appears to have much interest in yet.

Tremlett, who has two decades of experience working in community engagement, explained that her sole reason for opposing the event was to be lawful. “Racism is the biggest insult anyone can say to me and I was called a racist by Khady’s team, whoever they are.” Was being called a racist worse than the actual racism that Gueye was continually facing in her everyday life? At this, Tremlett began to cry.

”You don’t understand,” she said, explaining that her daughter had been to three Indian weddings, that her builder was black, and that she had run an equalities panel for years as a councillor. Her experience – being called a racist, being abused online – when she felt she was doing the right thing, understandably made her defensive and upset. But it’s a difficult position for Gueye and Eldridge-Tull to deal with. Especially as she described Gueye as “aggressive and confrontational”.

Last year, Tremlett took the matter of the Forest of Dean’s BLM movement to local Conservative MP Mark Harper, who raised the matter in the House of Commons.

On 17 June, Harper, who may be best known as the immigration minister responsible for sending vans encouraging illegal immigrants to “go home” around parts of London, appeared to encourage an online pile-on against Eldridge-Tull, who had a tenth of his 30,000 followers, and demanded she apologise to the local community for tweeting: “The reaction to the BLM protest in Lydney has brought to light so much support, but so much hate. I love where I live, but I’m ashamed of my neighbours, and ashamed to be part of a community that has so widely endorsed and exacerbated racial hatred.”

....

When Gueye posted a picture of her school-leaver’s shirt on Instagram last year, one of her schoolfriends wrote that it was outrageous, and that she was impressed with everything Gueye was doing. “I was really happy she felt that but it was awkward,” says Gueye. “I messaged her back to say that she was one of the people who wrote those messages.” An embarrassed silence followed, but Gueye is hopeful and optimistic. “It’s still a positive sign.”

[blackgirlsreadromance]

Review: Rebel

Rebel by Beverly Jenkins

*Warning: This review contains mild spoilers*

CW: racialized violence, murder, sexism

Categories: M/F, historical romance, virgin heroine, arranged marriage

A note: I don’t read a ton of historical romance involving POC, mostly because I just haven’t found the right ones yet. I don’t want to read stories about slaves suffering for their love, I definitely don’t want any slave-falls-in-love-with-master BS...in general, I don’t want to read love stories set during U.S. slavery. But there is one huge exception, and that is Beverly Jenkins (Lydia San Andreas is another exception, but I haven’t read much of her yet). Ms. Jenkins writes the most thorough, well-researched, non-problematic, historical romances I’ve ever read. It’s not just a romance, it’s a history lesson. Some take place before the Civil War, some just after, and they’re set all over the U.S. -- out west, up north, and across the south. Every time I read one of her historical romances, I learn something about the history of Black people in this country, and I love it.

Rebel was no exception. Rebel is set during the Reconstruction Era, after the Civil War, and our heroine, Valinda Lacy has moved to New Orleans from New York to help teach freedmen to read. Val is the kind of woman the term spitfire was made for. She’s sheltered and innocent, but super feisty and a big believer that women can do anything men can do. When we first meet Val, she is talking her way out of some trouble with white supremacists who have come to terrorize her school, and the way she handles that situation shows us how bold she’ll continue to be throughout the book.

Our hero is Drake LeVeq. Drake is tall and muscular with dark brown skin and a beard, i.e., sexy as hell. He’s got four brothers and is super close with his mother, who definitely taught him to respect strong women. Side note -- one of my favorite things about Beverly Jenkins is she is one of few authors I read who regularly write BWBM romance. So many authors write interracial relationships with Black women and men of different races, which are fine, too. But I love Black men as romantic leads. And I know others write them, so it’s on me to expand my horizons and find some more good ones. 

Anyway, Drake is sexy, a fact that Val realizes immediately because she is neither blind nor dead. They get to know each other quickly after Valinda loses her room in a boarding house and Drake’s mother agrees to let the young teacher stay with her. The tension between Val and Drake builds beautifully through the story, with lots of flirting and pushing boundaries, but it’s clear that Drake is willing to take the relationship to whatever level Val will let him. And Val, free-thinking woman that she is, makes a choice to have some experiences with Drake that she knows she won’t have in the marriage of convenience she’s planning with a friend.

That marriage of convenience is the first obstacle to Val and Drake’s relationship (well, not the first -- the first is that she doesn’t believe in love at first, but you know she’ll get over that!). Val’s plan is that when her fiance returns from France with his business partner, he and Val will go back to New York to get married. But after meeting the LeVeq family, when the fiance arrives in New Orleans sort of unexpectedly, Val has to confront her feelings and make some tough decisions about what she wants out of life.

The second obstacle is Val’s overbearing father, who doesn’t believe women should be allowed to do anything without the permission of a man. He’s not too pleased with her choice of husband, nor her desire to be independent. But if you know anything about Valinda by now, you know she ain’t tryin’ to hear that. The resolution of that storyline is extremely satisfying, and left me proud of more than one character in the book.

There’s also so much history naturally woven throughout this story. We learn about the Freedmen’s Bureau, established to help recently-freed slaves find work, education, and other things they’d need for their new lives but hamstrung by politics and finances and other concerns. There are incidents of racial violence and fear-mongering, and shows of strength where the Black people in this story don’t allow themselves to be beaten down by that violence, but face it head-on (and dole out some violence of their own). There are lovely little touches of New Orleans culture, including discussion of some of the tension between former slaves and the free Creole community, and descriptions of gumbo or the celebratory-yet-mournful music accompanying a funeral procession.

I really enjoyed this story. Our hero and heroine have great chemistry, and Val builds strong female relationships during the story, too. The sex scenes are hot but sweet. I cared as much as about the overall storyline -- will Val get to stay in New Orleans and teach? -- as I did about the romance. Overall, just a sweet, fun, educational read that had me cheering for our heroine the whole time.

Review: 4 kisses 💋💋💋💋

[autolenaphilia]

The Cybersix comics

So now i’ve read most Cybersix comics that are available in English scanlations. Mainly Pharmadan’s stuff. 

And it is very different from the cartoon adaptation previously reviewed here, very different indeed.

Anyway, the comics were created by Argentinian creators Carlos Trillo (scripts) and Carlos Meglia (art), in the early 1990s. And yes, i do think of them as Carlos & Carlos or the the two Carloses.

The premise is one i recognize from the cartoon adaptation. It is about the superhero Cybersix, a product of genetic engineering that has rebelled against her evil creator and fights the other products of his mad science, led by his clone son José.Her cover as a male literature school teacher named Adrian. She finds a friend in Lucas, the school’s biology teacher, with who she also sexual/romantic tension. Her allies include another product of the villain’s mad science, Data-7, who has the body of a panther and Julian, a street urchin she adopted.

But the approach the comic book source material took to this is very different. The cartoon tv show is meant for children, even if it is on the darker side for such things. The comic is clearly meant for adults, and has a transgressive attitude with lots of violence and sex. And it is still almost 30 years later very shocking and offensive, it certainly was to me and I still kinda liked it. The word “problematic” has been much abused, but it still applies.

You could compare it to something out of the 90s “dark age” of American super hero comics, but to me the tone reminded me of artistic, provocative and very sexualized European comics, like something out of Métal Hurlant.

I’m therefore going to leave the rest of this review under a cut. Also it is getting kinda long. This might be a good point to put out some content warnings, ignore them at your own risk.

Content warning:: Discussions of: violence, racism, nazism, racist caricatures, sexualization of women, prostitution mention and (most disturbingly) sexual themes involving underage people (ick)

(most of this applies to the comic if you decide to read it, it can be worth checking out, but replace “discussion” and “mention” with just depiction, so be prepared for that.)

For one thing, the villain is clearly a nazi scientist who escaped from Germany to South America after the war. He is even named Von Reichter (the cartoon goes with Von Richter). This gives the comic a strong political edge. I don’t know exactly how controversial Argentina’s former status as a haven for escaped Nazis is in that country. But it probably is very controversial. Taking that subject in a critical manner might very well have been a genuinely brave move on part of the creators.

There is also the violence you might expect from a superhero comic. José is a particularly brutal villain this time around. Although Cybersix is remarkably non-violent. When she draws the sustenance she needs vampire-like from Von Reichter’s creations, she avoids killing them.

Concerning Cybersix’s gender, the comic doesn’t have the ambiguity of the cartoon. This time, it’s clear what her gender identity is, Cybersix is a woman.

Her male identity is merely a disguise. Adrian Seidelman is a person who dies in a car accident who looks kinda like Cybersix, who has no legal status, and therefore she decides to steal his identity.

Cybersix remains an interesting character, but i frankly prefer the ambiguity of the cartoon.

Her questioning of her own humanity due to her origins was also in the comic and is a strong theme in her internal monologue here.

Interestingly from a gender perspective, she has this need to prove to herself that she is not just human, but specifically a woman.

II is hard to avoid the subject of sexuality when talking about this comic, for it is almost omnipresent here. Cybersix is a very sexualized character. Her costume design is far from the worst example in comics, but like so many superheroines still designed with titillation in mind.

I found it hilarious that the comic’s actual explanation for the costume is that Cybersix stole it from the wardrobe of a literal sex worker. (the reason Cybersix broke into her home is that she was actually a Von Reichter creation that had infiltrated human society).

But this comic goes beyond most american comics and actually shows Cybersix naked surprisingly often. Her relationship with Lucas gets fairly explicit. If you find the crop of these panels odd sometimes, it’s because I’m trying to avoid showing something that breaks tumblr guidelines.

But the sexualization of Cybersix is actually a minor problem. The nude panels of her are almost quaint, like watching an old movie from the 70s which doesn’t bother to cutaway when a couple gets undressed. It isn’t really that disturbing, especially compared to the creepy sexuality in the rest of the comic.

I didn’t mention Lori in my review of the cartoon. She is one of Adrian’s students who in the cartoon has a crush on him. That is kinda a disturbing theme in itself, but in the cartoon it is no big deal, because it is fairly toned down. In the comic, she is much, much worse.

She is obsessed with Adrian and very explicitly wants to have sex with him. Remember, Lori is a teenage schoolgirl. She also doesn’t care much for the concept of consent. For example, she mails Adrian her nudes unsolicited, and that is about the least worst thing she does. I’m not saying that isn’t terrible in itself, it is just that Lori does way worse things in this comic. You can understand this gets very uncomfortable to read about very quickly.

To be fair, while the trope of the sex-obsessed woman is often a male fantasy, it is very possible that Lori is supposed to be disturbing, rather than sexy. She is even drawn in a rather grotesque manner.

José is even worse. He has only the body of a child, but the mind of a man, including sexually. It isn’t nearly as prominent part of his character as it is with Lori, but this also becomes disgusting rather quickly, for obvious reasons. And then Lori and José meet and do it, oh my god. Although José’s sexuality is almost certainly meant to be creepy.

(because the world is full of people who can’t read properly I probably need to say: no, i don’t support pedophilia even if I think this comic also has its positive sides. Also, even though I can’t really speak for them and they have both passed away long ago, I’m pretty sure Carlos & Carlos didn’t support pedophilia either, if you can even call what horrors that go on in this comic that. Depiction in fiction doesn’t equal endorsement and all that.

This might be obvious from everything I written, but i have seen bad misreadings of what people write and the resulting misinformation spread so quickly on the internet, that writing out the obvious might be necessary. )

I must also talk about the depiction of race in this comic, which is odd. There are two important characters here, who are for lack of a better word, racialized.

One is a black man who saves Cybersix from Von Reichter when she was a child. She regards him as her father. The other is Miao Yashimoto, a Japanese private detective. His sister is kidnapped by Von Reichter, who forces Yashimoto to act against Cybersix, but he eventually becomes her ally.

Now describing them here, it doesn’t sound bad at all. That’s because their personality and role in the story isn’t the problem, it is how they are drawn. They, especially Yashimoto are very much racist caricatures. Yashimoto even has the stereotypical buckteeth. I won’t show you for obvious reasons, but you can always look up this comic yourself.

What is odd about this is that the intent clearly isn’t hateful. These are both heroic characters and the comic has a more or less explicit anti-racist message. A nazi is the villain for a reason. It is just that the creators clearly don’t realize the way Meglia drew these characters is not appropriate.

What is even weirder that Yashimoto was adapted into the cartoon, complete with buckteeth. And that was a show was made in Canada in 1999. Very strange.

Overall, the comic is very different from the cartoon and I have no idea why they picked this edgy adult comic as source material for.a tv show for children, but they did. It is surprisingly faithful to the comic in many ways. The premise is pretty much the same, only it is executed in a very different, child-friendly manner. I would argue that the cartoon is in many ways more enjoyable and accessible than the comic. The attempts of the comic to provoke its audience are often not successful, or maybe rather too successful.

As you can probably tell, my feelings on this comic are complex. I care not for the creepy sexuality or the hamfisted attempts to handle race. So I don’t know if I can recommend this comic. You do need a strong stomach for all this.  But despite all that, there is still much to like about this comic  The art is great; very evocative and atmospheric.

And the writing can be that too. Cybersix is still a great character. Her origin story, her existential angst and her difficult love story with Lucas are just as compelling if not more than in the cartoon.

Sadly, this comic is not widely available in English.The scanlations made or collected by Pharmadan is the most extensive and what I read so far. There is a person here on tumblr, who tried to continue scanlating them  but they seem to have fallen prey to tumblr’s asinine content rules.and doesn’t seem to have been able to go elsewhere yet.

I’ll leave you with my favourite panel from the comic:

[doctorbass97]

(CW: Child Abuse, PTSD, Racial tension, Mock Racism, Mutilation, Graphic behavior, Violence)

Having collected a variety of supplies and abilities, our four hooligans attempt to retrieve a Power Cell. While trying to escape the bottom of a massive cavern, Horace struggles with the lingering side-effects of his newly-repaired horn. Xerces tries his hand at a skill he isn't very good at.

[slytherintomygoodgraces]

Man nothing gets as steamed as when my english professor said that there was “nothing to indicate that Heathcliff is non-white” when I said that I wanted to talk about the racial implications in Wuthering Heights. Like, they talk shit on his dark skin??? And call him a gypsy???

[ober-affen-geil]

I know I throw the word "extraordinary" around a lot when I talk about how Roswell is written and structured, but it's because this show has consistent examples, across the board, of so many different things that makes it stand out in my opinion. So if you'll indulge me, here's another. (CW for mentions of abuse of all kinds; specifically racial, homophobic, and domestic.)

What I’m talking about here is that a lot of terrible things happen to the characters in Roswell. But the show manages to avoid swerving into “abuse porn” territory. Every time we see a character experiencing violence it’s not “pretty”. But it’s not over the top dramatic either, it’s realistically ugly.

When the shooting at the Crashdown happens and Liz is caught in the crossfire it is short and brutally violent. Same for when Arturo is beaten the following episode. There is no slow motion, no dramatic music, and we see the attacks from the viewpoint of the victims.

When Isobel is held captive mentally by Noah at the dance and he leans in to kiss her, there is nothing “sexy” about it. There is no romance in that scene, no indication at all that this is an act of love (because it’s not). It is a terrifying violation of Isobel’s consent and it is presented as such. The same applies to Rosa’s murder; there is nothing pretty about her death.

And frankly I still have trouble watching the scene in the toolshed when Jesse takes a hammer to Michael because it’s so horrifyingly raw. The palpable terror from Alex when the door opens is enough to turn my stomach.

But here’s the other thing. We see these acts of violence because narratively we have to. We need to see Rosa’s murder because that is the event that drives the plot in several different ways. We need to see Michael being maimed because that moment plays such a major role in his and Alex’s relationship. We need to see Noah violating Isobel’s consent like that because it’s a reintroduction to his character and an establishment of him as an antagonist. And we need to see the violence against Liz and Arturo because it shows us the stakes they are up against. (Also Liz being shot sets the plot in motion.)

There are many, many other instances where the audience is visually sheltered from the violence done to characters, because it’s not crucial that we watch it happen. With the other aliens, we do not see the massacre immediately after the crash. Off-screen screams and Noah’s voice over are enough. At Caulfield, we get Kyle’s diagnosis instead of torture scenes and an exterior shot of the building going up in flames instead of a death scene. 

Alex talking about the homophobic abuse he suffered from his father suffices for informing us of it, and the same goes for Michael’s abuse in foster care. We don’t need to see Alex losing his leg to know that it happened, so we don’t get that flashback. We are not shown the moment the two other girls Isobel killed die, nor are we shown Grant Green being shot.

If we don’t have to see it, we are not forced to.

Which leads to the thing that I actually wanted to talk about typical that sums up my whole point: the fight between Alex and Kyle at prom in 1x06. It is obvious, from context, that Kyle called Alex a homophobic slur. But the dialog is structured in such a way that we the audience don’t hear it. 

Everything in the exchange is built specifically to create tension while talking around the word itself. (Say it again./That’s not what you said./What did I say?) We know that Kyle called Alex something, and let’s be real we know exactly what it was too, but we are not forced to hear it ourselves. The audience isn’t exposed to it; we don’t have to hear it to know what it was or to see the impact it has. The aftermath of the word is more important than the word itself; us hearing it is unnecessary so we are saved the pain.

I bring all this up because it is deliberate. This is not an accident, the show is being written this way on purpose. We live in a media environment where “grimdark” is somehow the only way to make something interesting or dramatic. What Roswell has done is taken a concept that should be horrifically dark and tortured and made it palatable. 

By only showing us the violence we need to see we are saved from being mentally and emotionally exhausted by the characters’ pain. And that, in my opinion, is something that absolutely should be applauded.

[salvatoreschool]

5 Reasons You Should Be Watching Legacies

October is, just objectively, the best month of the year. Exhibit A: Golden autumn leaves. Exhibit B: All things apple. Exhibit C: This gif. Exhibit D: Witches. Like, it’s just science.

Around these parts, though, the best best thing about October is, of course, the television. Yes, I’m talking spooky, kooky Halloween specials—love a good Halloween special—but also I’m talking fall premieres. Specifically, I’m talking The CW’s fall premieres, which have been landing in mid-October (later than most other broadcast networks) since at least the first season of Arrow.

This fall, the teen-skewing network’s biggest draws are, arguably, the series debuts of Batwoman (October 6th) and Nancy Drew (October 9th), and the final season bows of Arrow (October 15th) and Supernatural (October 10th). But while I’m professionally interested in seeing how all those premieres play out, the CW joint I’m most personally invested in getting back on my screen (also October 10th!) is Julie Plec’s supernatural boarding school double-spin-off teen drama series, Legacies.

Friends—you should be watching Legacies. I know there’s a lot of television out there, but really and truly, if you like television that likes being television (more on that in a minute), Legacies is absolutely worth tuning in to. Why? Well, let me just count the reasons:

1. You don’t have to do any television homework to join the fun.

Yes, TECHNICALLY Legacies is a hybrid spin-off of two different long-running Julie Plec series, The Vampire Diaries (eight seasons) and The Originals (five), and sure, technically it was in those series that the mythology driving the character arcs/motivations of Legacies’ most central leads, Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell) and Alaric Saltzman (Matthew Davis), was developed. After spending a cumulative thirteen seasons not just telling stories on television, but telling stories on television from this specific world, Plec’s ability to set efficient narrative groundwork under fast-moving vampire feet is nothing if not masterful. Genuinely, aside from a few single-episode cameos of side characters from Hope and Alaric’s TVD/Originals past, the only thing you need to watch to make sense of Legacies is this official promo for the first season:

…and honestly, most of that soliloquy, plus much more, is folded into the cold open of the series premiere, “This is the Part Where You Run,” which uses new lead Landon Kirby (Aria Shahghasemi) as audience avatar as he gets introduced to this particular supernatural world for the first time.

2. Two words: Julie. Plec.

That said, if you are familiar with Legacies’ double, er, legacy, you’ll get a kick out of how precisely Plec has taken her signature whip-fast storytelling and fitted it to a breezier, more “teen” setting, and how deftly she manages to weave in both key characters and core emotional beats from both her previous series.

The most obvious example of all of this is Matthew Davis’ Alaric Saltzman, who became such a fan favorite during his time as vengeful-vampire-hunter-turned-loyal-teen-vampire guardian-turned-rogue-vampire’s-best-friend on The Vampire Diaries that not only did Plec resurrect him from the (very truly) dead to keep Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) on the straight and narrow, but she then brought him on as co-lead of this series to do the same for every supernatural teen in the contiguous United States. Now, as both father to a pair of Gemini twin witches (Kaylee Bryant and Jenny Boyd) and mentor/father-figure to Hope, the teen witch-vampire-werewolf tribrid with a hero complex, Alaric gets to flex all the emotional muscles TVD fans know and love. Plus, as the Salvatore School’s headmaster, he also gets to take charge of the dramatic supernatural research and heroic (and/or chaotic) supernatural missions that are key to a Plec series’ fast-paced success. Beyond all of that, though, in positioning him as the central human adult foil to a whole pile of supernatural teen protagonists, Plec has also found a way to let him be funny, bringing a uniquely fun dynamic to the fast-moving monster drama of the TVD universe that hasn’t always gotten such pride of place.

In other words: Julie Plec, still running wild supernatural stories turned up way past 11.

3. Three words: Supernatural. Boarding. School.

One more time, in case that didn’t sink it: Supernatural. Boarding. School.

I really shouldn’t have to elaborate on this, but Legacies is set at the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young and Gifted, which is the school for young witches, werewolves, vampires, and Hope that was funded by Hope’s (dead) dad and is located at/on the Salvatore family’s Virginia estate, just outside Mystic Falls. All the moody opulence of Damon and Stefan’s TVD homebase, all the zingy, angsty tropes of great Teen TV.

More than just being a fun setting, though, the Salvatore School gives Legacies a chance to sprawl out and complicate the consequences of being a teenager consigned to eternity as part of the supernatural world. These consequences are still very real and very serious in Legacies, but while The Vampire Diaries mined dramatic tension from supernatural teens (or at least vampires who looked superficially like teens) living in dangerous proximity to human teens, its kid sibling series looks inside for its tension. The teens at the story’s core need, first and foremost, to find a way to come to terms with their own inhumanity, and what it means to be good as they define it. And honestly, after so many years of TVD stories focused on the former, spending time with a bunch of super compelling, super different supernatural kids working through the latter is just a treat.

4. A diverse cast and diverse stories

This leads directly into a key update to the TVD legacy: With such a sprawling cast of teen characters brought to the Salvatore School from all walks of life and corners of the country, Legacies gets to improve on one of the original series’ greatest weaknesses: A lack of diversity. While both Alaric and the three central female characters of Legacies—all carried over from the previous series—are still white, the characters that round out the rest of the new series’ core cast are not. On the adult side, Alaric is joined by faculty members Dorian Williams (Demetrius Bridges) and Emma Tig (Karen David), while on the teen side, Hope, Josie and Lizzie are joined by softie vampire MG (Quincy Fouse), activist vampire Kaleb (Chris Lee), reluctant alpha werewolf Rafael (Peyton “Alex” Smith), ex-alpha werewolf Jed (Ben Levin), bad girl with Penelope (Lulu Antariksa), and the audience avatar/mystery box supernatural mentioned above, Landon Kirby (Aria Shahghasemi). Nor is racial diversity the only benchmark hit with this large cast. In terms of queer representation, Josie is bi, with Penelope her ex/possible future girlfriend; in terms of class representation, Rafael and Landon are foster brothers who both have dark histories with the system.

Importantly, none of these measures of diversity are included just for show. Each character’s identity and background are as key to who they are within the heightened emotional context of the boarding school as their individual supernatural abilities. Kaleb’s experience as a young black man (and vampire) is markedly different from MG’s, which is markedly different from Dorian’s (who, to be fair, is also not a vampire). Josie and Penelope’s relationship is informed by their strengths (and weaknesses) as witches, and further informs how they each approach solving problems both social and magical. Landon and Rafael’s history, as thrown away kids whose only shelter was each other, drives every decision they make. That diverse identities should inform characters in these ways isn’t a surprise; that Legacies is embracing them all now after so many seasons of its parent series falling short is, if not surprising, then at least worth taking note of.

5. Finally: Legacies totally knows it’s a TV show.

This seems self-evident, but as pop culture critic Grace Robertson so sharply observed earlier this year in her essay “Let TV Be TV” (like, literally; the heading above is a direct quote), the best trick Legacies pulls isn’t even a trick. It’s just being good at being entertaining, episodic television.

In an era where a TV show can be anything from thirteen thirty-minute episodes (pick literally any prestige comedy) to dozens upon dozens of bite-sized Facebook posts (SKAM Austin) to an 18-hour art film (Twin Peaks: The Return), defining just what counts as television is practically a professional sport. Well, it’s a sport Legacies isn’t interested in playing. With both its new-to-the-TVD-verse Monster of the Week mode of storytelling and the Salvatore School as its comfortable, “fixed point” setting, Plec is even better at framing episodic stories than she was in her already rollicking previous series. In a television landscape so full of cinematic innovation, the freedom this old school “status quo” television model gives Legacies is, as Robertson notes, a huge relief.

So, yes: Legacies knows it’s a TV show, and it knows it’s a fun one. With the short first season currently streaming on Netflix, there is literally no better time to jump on the Legacies bandwagon than now. And I know it’s one I can’t wait to have back in my weekly rotation. All hail October.

Legacies Season Two premieres Thursday, October 10th on The CW.