#i can't not have faith in all the queer people making ofmd

[areyoudoingthis]

I feel so ancient with this sex on screen conversation floating around because I've been through most stages of the evolution of queer representation on tv (minus the very early ones when i was a baby) and I know beyond a doubt where we're at with ofmd but what am I gonna do, draw a diagram of every battle I've been through that has led me here?

[paleoleigh]

thank you for saying you feel a bit guilty because I’ve also been feeling it and didn’t know if anyone felt the same.

realistically, I should know that some zoomer on the internet calling me a zionist racist genocide apologist does not make me one, especially since those people don’t know jackshit about me as a person. like sorry I’m not constantly posting definitive proof of my irl activism for palestine on my fandom account??

but I’m embarrassed to admit that it gets to me. it really does. getting accused of being all these monstrous things while having extremely poor self-image does not mix well. I’m very stede-coded in that way I guess. I just wish I had more faith in myself to ignore these people and remind myself that yes, I can care about multiple things at once and no, random people on the internet making absolute, final judgments about a person’s moral integrity are not the arbiters of truth

I understand 💕 it's hard not to feel guilty and upset when people are essentially saying you're a bad person. And they're real people, even if they're trolls, so it feels bad! But the fact that you sometimes feel that way means you DO care about the tougher issues.

I think something that's hard for people to understand is how much OFMD means to us in terms of representation. Not just queer rep, but rep of hope, kindness, acceptance, community, and finding yourself at any age. I'll be real for a second - I've considered myself pretty unlovable for most of my adult life. And I see myself in Stede, a weird, goofy, sometimes misguided but earnest person who feels unlovable. And seeing him be loved by basically the coolest guy on the planet so earnestly in return? I can't tell you what that means to me.

So I'm going to fight for the pirate show. Because it's more than a show to so many of us - it's a community. It's representation. It's hope. And it's not just this show we're fighting for! It's almost this wider area of pushing back against ALL terrible CEO decisions made for pure evil profit purposes. I'm pissed at capitalism and corporate greed ruining everything and it's cathartic to scream at the executives about it.

Keep doing what you're doing, and if you need to talk about it more my inbox is always open 💕💕💕

[rocco-ko]

Good omens S2 finale reaction (SPOILERS)

TW: suicide attempt, alcohol addiction (This one is quite triggering, people, read at your own risk)

Tell me, why did humans created fairy tales? You see, it is much more than just an entertainment. At all times we need some gentle little stories to tell us that whatever happens, there's something good in this world left, something which is worth fighting for and worth putting your faith in... We believe in fairy tales because reality sucks.

My reality sucked a great deal when I first discovered GO 4 years ago. After a suicide attempt I went to explore the world just to discover that I was way more broken than I thought. So I came back to my parents house just to became a full time alcoholic. That is when I watched Good omens for the first time. And you know, it would be a lie to say that it changed my life right away. No, at first, I couldn't even finish the first episode. I watched it few weeks later. Realization came afterwards. I discovered that I am queer and autistic, started learning how to draw, went to therapy, got accepted to another university, learned new language, started my first job and made friends for the first time at the age of 23.

When the most important person in my life died, I just kept watching fan made GO animation, that was the only thing which kept me going.

That tale consumed my life. I wanted to draw just to be able to draw GO fan art and I wanted a friend just to talk to somebody about that stupid ineffable love story. And that felt terrific.

The last 4 years weren't easy for me. Although, just like my wretched wonderful puppy Crowley in their burning Bentley - I knew that I had to finish my ride because it was my only option.

Yesterday, before watching s2, I wrote in my notebook "I won't be the same person I was before...".

I loved the second season... a lot. It was beautifully written and filmed, and it was one level above the first season (which was amazing). I don't think I have ever felt happier than seeing Crowley creating galaxies or have a smile so sincere as I had watching Aziraphale trying food for the first time. For me, they are not fictional characters. They are real. I live in their world and I have no intention of coming back.

So I finished Good omens S2 and... stayed up until 4 am... deleting their pictures, fan arts and all of the bookmarks with fanfics...

What I don't understand, is why doeseverybody now try to make relationship look clever, love – practical and fantasy.. well... real? What's up with this kind of toxic unhealthy trend among modern comedies (Ted Lasso and OFMD fans will surely understand what I mean)? We don't want brilliantly written angst. We want magic. Maybe stupid. Maybe naive. But honest and beautiful. We want to believe in angels and true love again.

That kindness, dorkiness, sweetness and faith – faith that there is going to be a new day, even after the end of the world – that is what made GO so special. I know, people try to reassure themselves that there's going to be the 3rd season, but you know what? I don't have another 4? 3? 2? years, I don't have faith anymore. I lost my best friend. I can't hear nightingales.

P.S. I didn't mean to upset anybody with my post. I wrote this only because I am badly traumatized and if somebody's got affected by this finale in a similar way... please... lets try and process this together because I am not sure I can handle it on my own.

[rjalker]

[ID: A thread of tweets by Stitch @stitchmediamix, from May 12th, 2022, 11:50AM. The text reads:

"It's not enough to simply say '__ fandom isn't for racists' or 'racists GTFO'. If you're in a fandom and you are anti racism and you believe that fans of color deserve escapism without being harassed for what they like and for what they're critical of, you have to show it.

You have to make fandom hostile to racists. I know this will be taken in bad faith as me inciting harassment but please consider the Nazi Bar analogy: if you don't kick Nazis out of your bar, what you now have is a Nazi bar. If you don't make fandom hostile to racists??

You have to learn how to recognize what racism looksl ike in your specific fandom spaces. It's bigger than open slurs or threats but doesn't exclude it. A lot of what I and other fans of color go through gets written off as Not Real Racism, but it's long-term harassment, shunning from fan groups/blacklisting from spaces (including fandom events!), threats of doxxing, insults. But few people will say, 'I am a racist who loves racism and this is why I'm harassing these fans of color talking about racism'. Learn how to decode the coded language PLZ.

You need to act and react. When someone makes a post about how fans of colors are only calling out racism becaus of 'moral superiority', tell them flat out that they're being racist. Call your friends in when they repost or repeat racist lies or make racist headcanons.

When people make and share claims about fans or performers of color that you know aren't true, point that out. Call them out. Tell them you know they're lying or that they're spreading lies to hurt a person of color. Ban these people from your fandom events. Shut them down.

You are capable of recognizing bigotry in fandom and you should be capable of adding your voice to support fans of color under fire. Stop curating your space so effectively that you never see racism in fandom or us fighting against it. Start speaking over and cutting out racists.

Right now in fandom - any fandom - people of color are punished more for speaking out about racism at any level than any racist has ever been. People of color are being repositioned as 'antis/anti fandom/anti shipper' solely for commenting on clear racism in fandom spaces.

People are shunning their friends saying they're 'anti' fandom for talking about racism or supporting people who do. Even if their content otherwise vibes with their parts of fandom.

Fans of color are being harassed, excluded, & alienated because we speak on racism.

You can't just say 'racism doesn't belong in __ fandom' and them walk away, satisfied that you've done your part. Because you haven't.

The racist who you're friends with, who reblog all kinds of coded racist shit onto your timelike, & harass fans of color…are still there.

Too many people write off racism in fandom as drama. Especially if they see some fans of color, fully distraight by the experience in a given moment, not acting 'proper' about what they've experienced. And if they can call it drama, they can ignore it and walk away.

But fans of color don't have that luxery. Racists in queer/feminist fandoms kind of specifically band together. The people who've been harassing me and many others for over 3 years have linked up with racists in the OFMD fandom because the common fannish attraction/element is racism.

Fans of color cannot shut down racism in fandom. Mostly, in part, because fandom chooses to read the worst possible tone and meaning into our words like accusing us of supporting harassment, saying we're abusive, and claiming we're trying to censor fandom & take fans' porn.

If you're going to say 'racists don't have a home in this fandom and they don't belong' you need to actually support us and cut out/shut down racists in your fandom spaces. Anything less is literally worthless."

End ID.]

[diamondcitydarlin]

i know this can't be just me and I know that it isn't JUST the natural result of looking at 'recent' in fandom tags (which is 9 times out of 10 a fucking mistake) bc I've seen it outside of this many times but like...idk. I feel like the fandom communities surrounding sh@dows and 0fmd are far more aggressively negative than they were last time I checked. Mostly I'm talking about the way it feels like people have become possessive over characters from both things and refuse to assume anything but the worst for anyone who depicts their faves (in fanfic or fanart) in a way they don't like or agree with. This isn't anything new in fandom but I'm really disappointed to see it happening here, the same kind of shit we'd see in early 00's HP fandom when someone didn't like a ship or a character 'the right way'.

And ofc I completely understand the frustration of seeing a character or pairing or subplot depicted in a fandom thing in a way one doesn't like or agree with, like ofc I get that, but I'm seeing this new trend of taking anyone doing this in extremely bad faith right off the cuff. publicly and/or DIRECTLY. Like, if a character is depicted in a fanart as too masc or too femme for whoever the viewer is, suddenly the fanartist is a terf confirmed or something and that's not really an exaggeration. Drawing Stede with a fucking beard is now high treason and punishable by death, apparently

And I'm not talking about giving artists, writers notes for how to better depict different cultures, skin types, genders, and so on, because that's completely different. Giving notes implies that you have no reason to assume this person did this for nefarious or selfish reasons just natural human ignorance that just needs to be addressed so they can do better next time, and with most of these artists that IS THE CASE. This isn't that. This is seeing something you don't like and assuming the person who made it did it for the worst possible fucking reason one could come up with and refusing to consider any other possibility bc how else could you punish them for wrongthink??

I guess we...don't care AT ALL how this is going to stifle creativity and gatekeep anyone from attempting to participate in fandom for fear of 'getting something wrong' and being taken as a bigot? A homophobe or terf for drawing or writing something in a tonedeaf but wellmeaning way? For fuck's sake people. But then maybe cruelty and gatekeeping are the point here?

It's really not helpful and it certainly isn't some humanitarian act for fandom rep as I think these people like to pride themselves it is, it's literally just a way for them to narrow down the scope of participation in fandom until its completely under their control and preference, regardless of who they might ostracize in the process (POC artists, for one).

It's nothing new, but man am I pissed to see it coming back here where I really hoped things would be different. Anyway I'm not fucking participating and I really hope whoever reads this thinks hard about not participating in it either, regardless of what motives these 'critics' claim to have. I'm sorry, but it is not fair or logical or kind to jump to these conclusions about each other based on fanart and fanfic. You don't fucking know these people and they don't know you.

And what's more, I'm just going to say it bc it's been coming up GO vs OFMD vs WWDITS debates of which one is queerer (which also makes me want to drive my car off a bridge tbh bc some of these folks are over here debating the queerness of these shows while rooting for Queerbait Het YT Men S2 to finally do the thing when bitch you know damn well); not everything in fandom is going to be made for you. Not everything in a source material is going to be for you. That doesn't inherently make those things bad.

but, apparently, if something is not tailored specifically to MY PREFERENCES of how characters should present (with beards for example) then it's not only invalid, the person who made it is a bad person who should feel bad about themselves? Make it make sense.

Yes, we're coming into an age of openly queer stories and I'm as excited as anyone to see myself reflected. But I'm also going to see other queer people and THEIR experiences reflected and it is not going to be my own and THAT IS NOT ONLY OKAY IT IS HOW IT SHOULD BE BECAUSE 'QUEER' IS AN UMBRELLA TERM THAT ENCOMPASSES A WIDE RANGE OF EXPERIENCES AND IDENTITIES

thanks i hate this <3

[areyoudoingthis]

Saying this fully as a lover of s2 and ride or die fan

It would have been a cool option to open s3 with the lucius/pete matelotage. Maybe it would have lessened the whiplash after Izzy's death. Provide a reason for Stede and Ed to reunite with the crew in s3 (not that there's any shortage of possibilities there). Something to bring full circle at the end of s3 if they do an Ed/Stede matelotage. I do totally get why they put it in s2 especially not knowing if there will be a s3. This is probably just my brain not letting go of thinking we'd see a Lucius/Pete wedding bash lol.

I'm being 100% serious here, I don't think there's anything they could have done to make the reactions any less feral than they were. Even if they'd had the whole 10 episodes they needed, even if Lucius and Pete's wedding had happened on a completely separate episode from Izzy's death and funeral instead of like two minutes later, even if they'd gotten married five episodes earlier, the Izzy stans would still be raging about it as much as they are. They don't care about actual reasons, they're just grasping at any straw they can find to bitch about their blorbo's death because they were watching a whole other show where he was for racist reasons a main character and his death is an unforgivable crime against humanity and queer people everywhere (you have my empathy if you're a sane fan and you're sad about your blorbo's death without harassing anyone about it, I've shed a tear or two for Izzy myself.)

I think it was tonally perfect to close the season on a wedding, showing everyone moving on from the loss of their friend and all the hardships they all (including and especially Lucius) went through during it. It's the promise that no matter how bleak things get, how much you suffer or how much you lose, there's always something good to hold onto, something brighter in your future (the way Ed looks at Stede during the ceremony tells us clearly he's decided to marry Stede at some point, which is such a lovely thing to include there given where he was like two episodes ago. He knows he's loved and capable of love now and he's allowing himself to dream of a future with Stede and I, for one, am still dying about it.)

Everyone deserved a sweet, quiet sendoff after being put through the wringer this season, and I think the wedding followed by Ed and Stede deciding to retire and stay behind watching the crew sail off into the sunset together while they reaffirm their commitment to each other was absolutely perfect.

You cannot write a tv show around the fandom's expectations and potential reactions. Ofmd is incredibly kind in the way they take into account how much the queer community has suffered and try to be mindful of that in their writing (David has said this influenced their decision to end the season on a hopeful note in case we don't get s3, even though Ed and Stede still have a ways to go to get to a place where they can finally settle down together in a truly stable way.) But they are still writing a tv show, creating a story they want to tell in the way they want to tell it, and it's not fair to ask them to take into consideration that there's a whole subsection of the fandom that has been refusing to see the show for what it really is for a year and a half and harassing everyone else about it, or predict how they were going to react to the very necessary and well executed narrative beat of Izzy's death, or, god forbid, change the story to prevent their temper tantrum.

I'd have loved to see more of Lucius and Pete's wedding, finally get to see Ed and Stede dance, maybe, discuss retirement. I firmly blame HBO for slashing their fucking budget for s2 tho, I'm sure they would have loved to write us a lovely wedding party if they'd been given the chance. We did get Calypso's birthday, so I can't really complain. And I have absolute faith we're gonna get to see Ed and Stede's wedding in s3, and hopefully then they'll finally be allowed to dance.