#part of the reason perhaps is Ashley's absence but now that shes truly here.

[fiovske]

plus, in my opinion, I feel like ever since the hiatus, every beauyasha interaction has been... idk, moments like carrying beau; and yasha taking her on a maiden flight... feels like rushing to the climax to something that is absent space, something that wasn't set up quite as well as it should have been, it doesn't feel earned in the sense that "transferrable" isn't really what feels "the non-comparable, nothing like beau's ever felt before" loving your best friend to loving a completely different woman in almost every aspect should feel like. it feels like an insult to both jes and yasha as characters, as if they are just... interchangeable? which is Not A Good Look To Have.

as a lesbian beau is often seen as this predatory by fandom which just Wants Her Out Of The Way so they can pair off Jes with either of the other two men who are romantically interested in her and use beauyasha even as a background/underdeveloped relationship to Pair Off The Lesbians so neither of them are a threat to their m/f pairing. I would even argue that Yasha and Jester are emotionally closer than Beau and Yasha are, and Yasha catching a falling Jes and taking her on a maiden flight or Yasha carrying an exhausted Jes would've felt more satisfying, a better payoff because there is depth to the relationship already built there through character interactions.. which isn't just fanon-interpretation of their relationship but closeness that exists in acts of love both jes and yasha perform for each other, see it as platonic or romantic, however you will.

whereas, with the comments of "she is sparkly and shiny" and "easy to lust", I imagine some thought was put into how beau would move on, since I speculate the cast would have had a conversation w which romance to advance w and ashley and marisha decided to go forward w beauyasha which is completely fine and all good, but the closere to beaujes could have been, "I had never experienced a strong platonic relationship w women before... so it was hard for me to distinguish where that line was. I still love jes, I do. but... maybe not in the way I thought I did. love can come in all forms and the idea that my feelings have a chance to be reciprocated actually make me want to pursue yasha, but this doesn't mean I love jes any less. I just love her differently. and will always want what's best for her, she's my best friend. I still care tons for her, even if I initially let myself into thinking the love I have for her is... not the same kind of love... as what I feel for yasha." that way I feel it wouldn't have felt as invalidating as it did with the "easy to lust" comment? as a brown wlw south-east asian woc, I have to admit, I have quite an attachment to beau, since beau is also a brown wlw with south-east asian features, the comment plays into harmful stereotypes of not only how lesbians are portrayed as predatory in media, but also how not only brown women but woc in general are caricaturized as more sexual and predatory too... so. it's like taking double damage on a personal level.

and I admit while the dialogue I suggested, still pulls away from beaujester, I also feel like its less... disrespectful? to both yasha and jes? and I won't send any of the cast any kind of commentary on it (and no beaujes shipper has to my knowledge, we're just sad on our own blogs and no self-respecting celebrity is gonna have a Tumblr account dude) bc parasocialness can exist as a two-way street and I refuse to submit to that kind of relationship w the content creators of a show that I watch + the show exists to be criticized/analysed in fandom spaces.

don't we as wlw deserve better? don't we deserve a growing budding relationship between beau and yasha where calling each other "girlfriends" feels... earned more than just playing it off as a joke that I am not even sure was in character? shouldn't beau talk to yasha about trying to get to know her? comment on her harp-playing skills or even talk about how the Hag scene impacted her, or even how Yasha was the first one who walked unflinchingly into the hut at the merest suggestion that Beau might leave. How Yasha has been having these dreams and I feel like there is a lot they can talk about, connect on in a emotional level explicitly instead of constantly passing off the awkwardness they have as "🤷y'know... disaster lesbians🤷". like... sit down. have a conversation in a while. connect.

show, not tell. I argue that the show has felt predominantly different since the hiatus bc suddenly overnight beau's feelings for jes transferred onto yasha the moment they landed on rumblecusp and I just feel like as wlw in media we shouldn't settle for so little as "transferable feelings". wlw rep is not interchangeable. we shouldn't be "grateful" for the scraps we get but ask content creators, who pride themselves on being lgbtq allies, to do better. I think we deserve more, I believe we deserve a better fleshed out romance arc (hey, there's still time) but like I said, all those big events of yasha carrying beau, taking her on a maiden flight... feels it it should be a climax to something.... to absent space, something that isn't sown yet, that isn't really quite there yet. which is part of the reason its... underwhelming. there's a narrative gap there, and using the excuse of "d&d is improv!!! can't expect it all to make sense!!!" undermines how intricately d&d/ttrpgs is a strong method of storytelling.

and beauyashas, this isn't something petty as ship-wars. you also deserves better.

I’m honestly a little baffled as to why WLW Beauyasha shippers aren’t also upset over the handling of Beau’s crush on Jester. I get that they’re probably excited that their ship is looking much more likely to happen, but...

Don’t you love Beau and care about her feelings? Do you really want Beau to just “turn off” her previously established deep feelings without actually resolving them so that she can be with someone else? Doesn’t the “transferable feelings” comment make Beauyasha feel a bit cheap and forced? Aren’t you, as WLW, uncomfortable with a straight woman having her lesbian character brush off her “incomparable” love for Jester as lust?

I love Beaujester, but I will happily enjoy watching Beau and Yasha form the first PC gay relationship in CR—IF it gets the same care and buildup as Beaujester. I want to see Beau drunkenly ramble off a list of things she loves about Yasha with a cheesy line like being her beacon, not struggle to come up with anything more than “there’s something there.”

I want to see Beau and Yasha together because they develop a deep relationship, not just to pair the lesbians. I would think people who actually prefer their relationship to Beaujester would want that too, but instead there’s this pointless ship war going on.

We should really be standing in solidarity of wanting to see well-handled lesbian romance, regardless of which characters end up together. Let’s focus our criticisms on how the cast treat these WLW relationships in comparison to their straight ones, instead of on each other being more invested in different romance tropes.

(Which, by the way, is not the same thing as attacking the cast. No one to my knowledge has actually harassed Marisha over this, and people are allowed to analyze and criticize within fandom spaces—that’s what they’re for.)

We’re used to fighting over table scraps for gay rep. Having another ship block yours usually means that a straight ship is blocking a gay one, so we’re used to being on the defensive. But that’s not what’s happening here. Beau is a lesbian, and no one can take that away. We all love our buff blue girls, so let’s support each other in that love, yeah?

((PS. bashter ftw))

[nerdylittleshit]

Thoughts about Spn 15x05

BEWARE! SPOILERS AHEAD!

What an episode. This truly will be the most meta-season ever, that really made me wonder how casual viewers might experience these episodes.  There might be small references, like the fake ID’s they use who we last saw in 1x02, that don’t matter for the plot, and are Easter Eggs for the fans. But take a character like Lilith: though she has been mentioned here and then over the years (last in 15x03) the last time we saw her was in season 4, which is over 11 years ago. People who never rewatched the show and analysed it to death might simply have forgot about her (and the same goes to Becky). At this point we are so far down the rabbit hole you are lost if you haven’t paid attention. Personally I like how self-referential the season is, but I’m curious to know how the general audience receives it.

Just like last week we have a commentary on the episode itself within the episode, with the only difference that by now Sam and Dean are part of the conversation and are now aware that Chuck still writes about them. Like Becky before we have now Lilith who talks about the episode in pretty much the same way the fans do: she analyses the story, draws parallels, talks about “foreshadowing” etc. But while Becky was/is a fan and has seen ‘Supernatural’  always mostly as a story (she realized she loves Sam as a character, not as an actual person etc), Lilith on the other hand has been a character in said story, though she had always been aware that she had a role to play within a story. And in fact Sam and Dean not playing along and expressing free will ruined that story from her perspective. So in a way it makes sense that Chuck would resurrect Lilith, because unlike Sam and Dean she is used to play her part in any given story.

This new reveal will make things very interesting for the next episodes, because once again Sam and Dean have to start questioning everything happening to them and if their choices are really their own. But before we go there, let’s have a closer look at this week’s episode.

“Easy’s good. I like easy.”

Let’s start with Cas, or rather Cas’s absence, because it kinda frames the episodes. After the cold open we see Sam texting Cas, and from his messages it seems like Dean hadn’t told him the exact reason why Cas left (“Didn't realize you were taking off”). So their break up (because that is what the narrative made it look like) is something Dean didn’t feel comfortable enough to share with Sam, indicating that perhaps he does feel guilty about the harsh words he had used and the way he had treated Cas ever since Mary’s death. Still, there is no sign that Dean himself has communicated in any way with Cas. We end the episode with Sam calling Cas, leaving him a message on his mailbox. Not one, but two times the show reminded us that Cas is not around, that something is clearly missing and their little family is not complete.

The case of the week, as Sam at some point realizes, is a bit too easy. There is an eye-witness, who can also name the man who attacked her. It is uber-obvious that werewolves are responsible for the attacks and they are easy to find. In the end the Winchesters didn’t even had to kill them, they did it themselves. Just as easy as the actual case is the meta layer. The werewolves are two brothers, one of them the good son, trying to follow the rules of their late father, not wanting to hurt or kill anyone, the other one a monster, incapable of change. One kills the other, before killing himself. The parallels to Sam and Dean are obvious, as is the foreshadowing. It’s not clever or deep or multi-layered and well… it’s not supposed to. It’s bad on purpose, wanting us to question what is going, with Sam even pointing out that something feels weird. The big reveal – that Chuck is still writing their story – comes shortly after, giving the audience a manual as how we have to perceive the next episodes: with precaution, always aware that what we see is Chuck’s writing.

“He is not exactly Shakespeare”

The thing about Chuck’s writing is that there are some obvious mistakes in it. How is it possible that God had the power to resurrect Lilith from the Empty, when the Empty itself once told us that God has no power over there? Who is lying here and why? Why bringing back Lilith of all people (or rather demons) in the first place? Does Chuck need her for one of his endings? Clearly she has her own agenda and does not like to follow Chuck’s script, just as Sam and Dean.

And again it is obvious that Chuck doesn’t know his own characters. He gave Lilith the order to seduce Dean (why?), oblivious to the fact that that wouldn’t happen for several reasons. Then of course we have Ashley/Lilith telling Dean how great it would be if everything was planned for you, everything in your life already decided. Free will and found family are the two main themes of the series and Chuck ignores both, with dismissing/ignoring Cas and actually thinking he could force Sam and Dean into accepting the roles he had written for them.

We learn what Chuck’s preferred ending for the series is: one brother has to kill the other, after he turned dark side. It is clear by now that what Sam sees in his dreams are not visions of the future but instead visions of Chuck’s possible endings (as many had suspected). We have now seen three visions: in one Sam had been drinking demon blood again and killed Dean (in which Benny was present); in another Sam had become Lucifer’s vessel, with Dean trying to kill him, resulting in Dean’s death; and in the last one we saw Dean once again with the Mark of Cain, killing Sam. We know that Chuck had stopped writing after season 5, so the Mark of Cain storyline isn’t official canon of the books, as far as we know (and neither is Benny). Chuck would know about it, but his readers would not. And it is not just that a character like Benny isn’t official book canon, he is also pretty much dead. Just as Lucifer, which would make it impossible for Sam to become his vessel again (also we only saw Lucifer!Sam wearing a white suit once, which was in the endverse, something Dean had witnessed but not Sam). Then again with the reappearance of Lilith it is possible Chuck might bring back every character from the dead, simply because he wants to. It is obvious that Chuck plays with his greatest hits, but none of the visions Sam has seen so far seems realistic/like something that might actually happen. Then again we shouldn’t trust Chuck as a writer.

Lastly something Lilith told the brothers was quite interesting: that she had only died because she had let herself killed; it was part of her story. Sam and Dean weren’t cleverer than her, she died because she needed to in order for her plan to work. And according to the writers this is something we will see in the next episodes: that so far Sam and Dean had been the heroes because Chuck wrote them that way, but now that will be over. Which will be such an interesting concept. Because over the last years we were so sure that Sam and Dean would always win, always come back from the dead etc, because that is what the story demanded, right? This is what we expect as an audience, so I’m curious to see those character interact without this confidence.

Until then <3

[yasbxxgie]

'BLACK' Imagines a World Where Only Black People Have Superpowers

When it comes to people of color taking ownership of their own narratives, the fight for sovereignty has been long and ongoing. In 2013, Steve McQueen became the first black filmmaker to win Best Picture for historical drama 12 Years A Slave, after decades of white filmmakers receiving accolades for their own work on black narratives. The struggle has been similar within the comic-book world: While comic-book companies have recently seemed more eager to put more people of color on the page, they've also showed a reluctance to actually hire them to write, draw, or letter the comics in question. More than ever, though, creators of color are taking matters into their own hands—which is how BLACK came to be. The new comic asks the question, "What would happen if superpowers were real? And what if they were only given to black people?"

Recently, I exchanged emails with Jamal Igle, Kwanza Osajyefo, Khary Randolph, and Tim Smith 3—the creators of BLACK—to hear more about the ideas, production, and challenges surrounding a work that presents such a potentially dangerous question.

VICE: The premise of BLACK is that blackness imbues superhumanity and thereby justifies extreme violence against us—something seen all too frequently in the real world. What were the conversations you had with one another around that? What were you worried about? Jamal Igle: I wasn't worried, particularly because even discussing the base premise would be (and was) considered in some corners as controversial. I walked into the project from the outset with that in mind, so I had no reservations about it. Kwanza, Tim, Sarah [Litt, the editor], and I had a conversation over dinner where we talked about the project in the abstract, and Kwanza and I lined up perfectly on the concept of race, representation, and superpowers.

One of the problems I've had as a comic-book reader and being a casual fan of the X-Men was the idea that the only thing that set mutants apart from characters like the Thing, the Hulk, and the Morlocks was how they were marketed to the public. If Warren Worthington didn't run around in a costume with giant x's all over it, he had enough resources to have the people believe he was an alien—or an actual angelic being. The "First Class" of X-Men were all pretty white kids going to an exclusive private school in Westchester. It's not exactly a bastion of individuality or fear for one's safety, unless you're ginger.

The first cover—a kid in a red hoodie, standing in "hands up, don't shoot" position—is immediately evocative and directly confrontational with white supremacy.  I'm curious about what led you and the rest of the team to take such a brute force technique with the covers. Khary Randolph: We don't pull any punches on these covers. They're brutally honest and don't hold back on what they are about, and I think that's necessary when you're dealing with subject matter that's this serious.

My normal day-to-day comic-book work looks nothing like this. It's much more colorful and pop art. I don't normally do political work, but this was personal—to all of us. We knew we had something to say with this book, so from the moment Kwanza and I first discussed what the book would be about, I knew I had to approach things differently. The very limited color palette, the street art feel, the compositions, and the themes are all very deliberate. On a purely emotional level, this was by far the hardest illustration job I've ever had to do, and I'm very proud of how it's come out.

BLACK is monochromatic—black and white—which isn't the absence of color per se, but is definitely in defiance of the color palette of most modern Western comics. What do you feel like you gained from this technique? Kwanza Osajyefo: I felt that BLACK is a story that readers bring their own experiences to. It won't be the same read for everyone. I thought adding color would, in some regard, distract readers and entertain their imagination less. You could read into it as a metatextual absence of color as a reflection of blacks absence in comics.

Randolph: For the record, I love color. But with this project, not having it lends to the gravitas of the themes that we tackle—and it helps us stand out in a marketplace that's full of oversaturated color. It's a point of pride for us that this is the kind of book and story that really can't be told at the major publishers. We're striving to do something different, and that extends even to the lack of color.

There's some pressure, but also some freedom, in drawing, writing, or creating a black body. How does it feel, emotionally, to work on a project like this? What's the work like? What does it bring to your day-to-day life? Tim Smith 3: If you want to break into mainstream comics, you better know how to draw all kinds of people—but you'll be drawing Caucasians the most. But when you work on a book that's mostly black faces, it will make you slow down and get it right because it's not in the norm of comics. Not every black person looks alike, nor does any other person of any other race. But working on this makes me stop and think about making them look like people. And a part of that is to give each of them a look that unifies and separates them from one another.

I talked to a woman who said she hadn't drawn in years, so when she did draw something, she drew the face of a black woman. Now mind you, she herself was black, but she found it difficult to get some of the facial features to her liking. Looking in a mirror her whole life didn't seem to bridge the gap, nor did looking at her family and friends and TV and books—yet she seemed very comfortable drawing a white face. It's ingrained in our culture: the image of what is to be considered the norm. Artists should break out of the bubble and draw all kinds of people. Test your limits, and don't be told what to draw or settle for what everyone has been drawing. For me, drawing BLACK is a fulfilling means to being an artist and an artist of color.

All of you are men, and while the comic definitely makes strides toward inclusion, the voice and perspective is also rather definitively cisgender male. What conversations did you guys have among yourselves about the absence of women from your creative team? Osajyefo: We're all painfully aware, and it's never lost on me that I need to make extra effort on my contacts list. If black men in comics are unicorns, black women are pegacorns. Fortunately, that's quickly changing.

We were able to have Ashley Woods draw an alternate cover for Chapter One of BLACK that has a Harriet Tubman homage on the cover. I would love work with more sisters on future stories in BLACK, but I'll admit I'm only now just introducing myself.

In one of the issues, a Jamaican man uses the term "batty boy"—a Jamaican pejorative generally meant to target queer men. Could you describe your intent with the phrase and how it fits in with the narrative? That character is SAVAGE, and he's not a good person. He's a hardcore gangster and murderer. I like to write villains who do bad things, so it stands to reason that they also say bad things. Considering he eviscerates people in the chapter that he appears in, why is name calling the focus? Are we that desensitized to violence?

Black characters are not just these one-dimensional tokens to assuage publishers obilivity and pacify readers of color. All that stated, I also know thatIdon't know all the deep roots of all these aspects in blackness, but I wanted readers to have these characters exist.

You guys made a point to have AAVE as a clear part of BLACK's vernacular, which is, as is everything, a clearly political choice. Am I right in thinking you're big believers in showing multitudes to counteract stereotypes? A lot of writers don't use the vernacular, pidgin, etc. Maybe that's a fear of making black characters sound ignorant—or perhaps the issue is that there is not enough diversity to allow for it. Name the last black supervillain from a mainstream publisher. They want black faces on their characters but don't have the internal depth (black people on staff) to show our humanity—good and bad. The fears is backlash of presenting us in a bad light, but they also aren't hiring us in positions to influence that content.

In BLACK, we're attempting to show the spectrum of blackness—on our own terms. I love accents, and black people have them. To me, it would be a disservice to gloss over that for pretense.

What are the elements each of you are hoping readers take from your work on BLACK? What's the one thing you'd like us to pay attention to or notice? Smith 3: This project started as a Kickstarter. I don't know what or where it would have gone if not for that. But we did it there. We were committed in doing it one way or another. But the people wanted it as it was funded so here we are! (Thank you KS and all those helped make this happen!) I want folks to understand that there are no rules to making comics. Whatever you think of the book, know that we got up, did it, and it was accepted and wanted. Now I hope you enjoy something that truly breaks the norm.