#especially given what they've done with other representations of mental health on this

[gentil-minou]

Hi! Thanks for all of your posts about sentiAdrien, it's been enlightening to read. At this point, I'm pretty sure the theory is going to be confirmed and I feel like it's important to be ready to approach discussions like these in a thoughtful way, something you seem to be very good at.

I've seen a lot of people object to the idea of the theory because it takes an abusive scenario some people relate to and have experienced themselves, and gives a 'magical explanation' for it. Some people feel that it the theory being confirmed would mean that Gabriel has some kind of 'justification' for his treatment of Adrien.

My personal thoughts are that the theory might explain some of Gabriel's reasoning without justifying it or making him any less of a shitty parent. But I can see why irl victims might find the idea of 'this abusive situation actually has a magical explanation that adds a whole different dimension to it and that might even give the abuser some semblance of a way to excuse their actions' extremely invalidating.

Do you maybe have any advice on how ml fans can approach the sentiAdrien theory in a thoughtful way without invalidating the experiences of abuse victims who relate to Adrien?

(Sorry if the ask got a bit heavy)

Never apologize for something you are curious about! And I always appreciate hearing what people might be thinking as it gives me insight into real-life concerns.

And certainly, there are a lot of concerns about how this may invalidate or minimize Adrien's abuse or give Gabriel an "easy way out". Abuse victims are already deeply stigmatized and invalidated for their experiences, so I can very much understand the concerns related to how the Sentiadrien theory might make them feel dismissed or their real-world experiences shoved to the side. I completely and totally validate and empathize with those feelings.

I think the best way to explain why I love and advocate for this theory so much is to explain some of my own work. I work with children as young as 6 who have experienced trauma. I have seen cases of both extreme neglect and signs of physical and sexual abuse in kids that age. And let me tell you something, kids that age don't know what abuse is.

It's easy for us adults to be able to see something and identify it as abuse. People caught on to that pretty much from the first episode of the series that Adrien was being abused in some way but his dad. We, who are older and wiser and have the capability to understand the complex situation that is abuse and trauma, can see it and label it for what it is.

In contrast, kids are not developmentally able to. The majority of ML's audience are young kids who are simply not going to pick up on the signs of abuse. And they can't show blatant signs, because they would probably lose their age rating and many of their fanbase because many parents are simply uncomfortable with a topic being shown so blatantly to their children, which is completely understandable to me.

The beauty of the sentiadrien theory is that it provides an example of abuse/trauma without having to explicitly show those themes. The central points, being manipulated and forced to do something, having no free will, being isolated or treated as "other", being neglected by a parent who is literally the villain of the show, are all themes that can be translated to abuse.

Then there's the potential trauma aspect, which I think we have actually yet to go into and most likely won't until after Adrien learns of Hawkmoth's identitiy and his senti-status, that can be addressed through sentiadrien as a metaphor for Adrien. Many traumatized abuse victims, even those who have successfully escaped from their abusers, still sometimes struggle with remaining complex emotions and stress related to the incident itself. Sometimes they even feel like they are still there, like they were never really free or like what little freedom/hope they will have is fleeting.

Here is where I think the sentiadrien theory has the greatest potential for the healing narrative, as getting back his freedom and breaking his chains isn't very different from a trauma survivor being able to overcome their trauma and be free while living their life the way they want to. It certainly doesn't go just how difficult that healing is or the complexities that come with it, but for a kid it gives them hope that the pain and trauma they've experienced won't be forever, that they too can be free.

I want to be able to talk to my younger clients about their trauma and give them that hope in a way that will make them feel like they too are heroes, like their favorite character Adrien/Chat Noir. I want to be able to point out the show and say, "Well this character went through something similar to what you went through. Let's see how he was able to heal."

That's why I love this theory so much. I love that there is an opportunity for a deep and meaningful message I have never seen shown to an audience that young in a way they will be able to understand and apply it to their own tragic situations.

And I love that it gives one of my all time favorite characters the chance to heal and truly be free from his abuse.

I also don't think "justification" fits in this scenario. Are people saying Gabriel is "justified" in manipulating someone against their will, just because they are different from him? I wrote about how we might liken Adrien's experiences to someone who identifies as trans (tw transphobia) and I think that same argument might apply here.

Abuse is never "justified". Are pet owners justified in abusing or harming their pets because they are animals and not human, and belong to them? I would love if someone could explain why they think sentiadrien "justified" Gabriel's abuse towards Adrien. That's not even taking into consideration that Gabriel is very clearly the bad guy. I just have a lot of difficulty understanding how being a senti would justify anything, since sentis in the show are victims just as much as akuma victims are (and in fact they are portrayed that way in cases like Sentibug). If anyone is able to talk about it in a way that they feel comfortable and safe to, I would appreciate seeing the situation from another perspective.

[buddha-in-disguise]

Will this ever end?

Well I woke up to a shitstorm on Twitter and the Supergirl fandom, with David Harewood.

I can't say exactly what was said to cause David to post what he did as I haven't seen posts he might have done - but his subsequent reactions have unfortunately merely seemed to have exacerbated the issue and inflamed it.

My thoughts though before I go further into this. Also remember these are my own thoughts, I don't expect everyone to agree with me. However I hope I can make some kind of sense with what I'm trying to write down here.

Supergirl this season has one character I'm finding hard to relate to. This has absolutely nothing to do with potential storylines and relationship possibilty, but everything to do with what they have tried to do with William Dey as a whole.

I get the reason he came along in regards Russell and so the Andrea connection. That story made some sense.

What hasn't made sense - William being used as a journalist, when Nia is right there! Nia has barely had any screen time, and virtually none as a journalist; you know - her actual job. I'm not sure what the minutes on screen ratio has been this season between the two, but it has felt completely slanted towards William as a viewer.

First instead of Kara and Nia investigating Leviathan after William was 'exposed' in the earlier episodes, now Nia is sidelined again, because they want Kara to team up with William to investigate Lex.

Why? Why do they need that journalistic pairing, when Nia - who as a Superhero, is better placed if danger from Lex occurs. But no, they're making it about Kara having to work with William because Lex threatened to kill him.

They have a Superhero who is also a journalist right there!

Right. There.

Personally this simply makes no sense to me. Plus if I am being honest, William as a character is bringing nothing to the table for me. He feels more like a token male character because James has left.

That brings me to Dansen. While we had some scenes before Crisis, considering at SDCC we were being told how Dansen would strengthen after those events, again we have seen seconds worth of screen time of Kelly, let alone the lack of Dansen.

We accept it isn't the Dansen show and this isn't about that, but again it feels as if it is being pushed way into the background & Kelly is being underutilised. She works for Obsidian North, yet was nowhere to be seen at the launch of the new tech. Sure, it isn't her area of expertise within the company, but you would expect senior employees to have been at such an important launch.

Plus, she is ex-military, but again nothing has been utilised about that part of her character.

The problems with both these issues is these characters are LGBTQ rep on the show. Representation that is already severely underrepresented on TV. Even allowing for the LGBTQ rep on SG (which is above average), it is still well below the ratio percentages that GLAAD show as being the main demographic of viewers.

So LGBTQ fans also look at non-canon representation as well. They have to, because LGBTQ on screen numbers simply don't reflect what the viewer numbers are. I made a post about it to try & highlight this, which I will link to.

But needless to say, LGBTQ fans also generally have difficulties that a lot of people don't have to face.

This brings me back to David and his lack of understanding that many fans were (looking through the comments), trying to explain to him. That criticism wasn't aimed at him per se (at least that I saw), or his directing or acting of that episode. If criticism was aimed at him, that was and is wrong.

The main criticism I saw was being aimed about elements that the writers and producers had done (Winn's wife being another aspect that was problematic). It was unfortunate that it has coincided with David's directorial episode.

Look, David can direct an episode wonderfully, it can have some great aspects to it, but it can also be highly problematic to some fans, & receive valid criticism for it.

For example, the latest episode of Batwoman. The Alice/Beth story was great. The acting superb. What I found worrying was the way they made Sophie feel guilty for legitimate reasons why she had led a closeted lifestyle. That lifestyle is valid, for Sophie and many LGBTQ people, and for good reason, including keeping some people safe from harm. I felt it was a clumsy attempt for Alice to get into Sophie's mind; it could've been tackled other ways, so it felt wrong they used her sexuality as a way to achieve that. Being closeted for many literally keeps them alive. So that was one hell of a poor choice in my opinion. So, great episode, valid criticism.

I personally find it sad that David hasn't seemed to understand this. Especially considering he only recently tweeted about the lack of diversity on TV for black actors. His argument there applies to what the LGBTQ audience have been trying to explain so many times, both with Supergirl and beyond that.

Except for LGBTQ it goes further, as not only are there LGBTQ, there is further intersectionality that runs through us as a group.

So for example, Kelly is LGBTQ, but Black. She is also a woman. All areas that struggle in their own sphere and marginalised in their own right. Added together, and it makes her representation even more important.

Nia Nal is Transgender. And a woman. Also two areas of intersectionality. If we don't listen to all marginalised people, especially when that intersectionality comes into play, we fail.

David is Black.

But also heterosexual, and male, and honestly, seeing his reaction I felt the heterosexual male with no understanding what the LGBTQ audience was trying to explain come through far more than I imagined I would.

Now of course, it could be David had no intention of coming across in that way. Yet the way he liked certain posts also felt as a complete dismissal of the LGBTQ community as a whole. It felt like the reactions from SDCC 2017 all over again.

Without a doubt some fans were taking it too far. I get that. I don't know how often I have written about fandoms and the way some can behave. However, if David is putting everyone in a fandom as all being problematic (as his liking of Tweets seem to suggest), then that is a very poor take indeed by him, and one I hope he considers.

By taking those steps, he has angered some fans more than was necessary in my view. Like Staz the other day, I know we are all human and sometimes react emotionally. Unlike Staz, who tried to clarify his words and apologised for any upset he might've caused, David seems to have gone the other way and doubled down against fans, blocking even respectful tweets to him that were trying to explain a point of view.

Now before anyone thinks I am hating on David, I'm not. I have supported much of his work.

I am though disappointed that for someone who is marginalised himself, has had mental health struggles, he has seemingly failed to understand that LGBTQ are just as marginalised (if not more so) than he is, & that because of the issues LGBTQ people face, mental health problems are extremely high versus the general population. That some of his wording and liking of tweets have felt like a complete slap in the face for many, who have legitimate concerns about Supergirl at the moment.

As I say, I get some fans take it too far, in all areas of the Supergirl fandom. Outright hate towards anyone is absolutely unacceptable. I also understand that we all react at times that is instinctual because we feel hurt, and that reaction is not as good as it could be.

I just hope that rather than it implode more on us, that everyone takes a step back to try and calm down.

As for the issues of queerbaiting that has risen as a result of the teaser for the next episode of SG. Supergirl in earlier episodes of the season, used parallels to show Lena and Kara alongside canon relationships on the show. To then have other people call fans delusional for seeing those scenes as romantically formulated is not okay! It really isn't. That's hateful, because like it or not, those elements are there.

When I have people who don't watch the show asking if Lena and Kara are together because of clips they might see (straight people at that), that isn't delusional.

But, that isn't an issue the cast should address or make judgement on, or fans to insist they do.

It should though be something asked of the producers and showrunners, because if they have no plans to go through with it - it has been outright queerbaiting this season. Up until this year, they've not done things with notable intent to parallel other relationships. This season they have. The shift felt deliberate.

I know ultimately that this show is about Supergirl, but it is also about those around her as family & friends. I understand there are only so many minutes in one episode. What I don't understand is why those precious minutes are going to a character, when they have one perfectly placed to do the same role. Why they have to potentially explore another relationship, when we have one canon relationship & one relationship that while isn't canon in terms of romantic, it is a big story in terms of best friends, both seemingly sidelined. Which brings me to the Kara fighting for Lena's soul aspect. Again, I am not seeing a lot of fighting for anything, except more and more fans fighting themselves and cast.

I will be honest, I had high hopes for this season. I also knew it was likely going to be pretty confusing at times since it was given as 'our Black mirror season' and 'nothing is as it seems.' I accepted that.

However, all it seems at the moment is a jumbled mess from pre and post Crisis. They just doesn't appear to be any cohesion at all, which is making it really difficult as a viewer. Add in the changes post Crisis and it feels even more of a mess.

Of course, they could bring in more cohesive elements soon, but considering that we know episode 13 is 'It's a wonderful life,' and Alex Danvers in a later episode is wearing a Super suit - I just sense this whole 'nothing is as it seems' side we appear to be getting isn't changing any time soon, & with episodes running out, with so many strings running through at the moment, it feels really discombomulated. If by seasons end, they pull it off and you can look back and see how it's played out as a whole, I will be the first to say well done for that part.

I get that as more characters are added to a show, it can make shuffling screen time for those already established characters harder to achieve that will please everyone, especially when we get invested in those characters.

I do though think right now Supergirl feels chaotic beyond expectation, and no end in sight. I feel there have been too many character additions this season (particularly Andrea & William) that is taking screen time away from Kara, Alex, Nia, Lena, Kelly et al.

That is causing confusion for fans, that is also beginning to become frustration. That frustration is spilling over. Add in the genuine and legitimate concerns over the LGBTQ issues that have arisen, and the frustration has built even more.

Again though, that is something we need to be asking of the producers and show runners, and not pulling the cast into it.

Let's all try less to score points against each other, or make generalisations, as none of that is helpful.

If you can't do that, you will get other fans calling you out.

Let's all learn to step away a bit more when it is obviously getting to the point rational discussion isn't working, to let things calm down.

We all need to try and do better.