#sherlock season three

[noirsloth]

My “favourite” thing to see - annoyed creators that made incredible queer coded couples of “friends, partners, colleagues”, but don’t want to admit them as gay because of their stubbornness and “it was not where they were going”.

Meanwhile the fandom is creating the most heart wrenching arts, edits, fics about them. And even non-shippers are raising their brows and joining the chat.

[buckingham-ashtray]

Your Little Pirate Ship.

- A BBC Sherlock fanart by 梨塔寐里

This is one of the most stunning piece of fan arts I've ever laid eyes on, not just because of the absolutely extraordinary techniques and aesthetics but the details and conception design behind it. Take a moment to truly look at the symbols, the intricacies, and the sheer conceptual genius of this unbelievable creation.

*Disclaimer: This fanart belongs to 梨塔寐里 and her only, please do not repost or commercialize without her direct consent. Support provided directly to her by using the source link below is much appreciated.

[a-m-a-r-g-o]

out of curiosity

[morganasmissus]

[WWDITS FINALE SPOILERS]

okay so i just finished the wwdits finale and i have to say-

i really did enjoy it. i think it was a fun ending that fit the vibes of the show. and it nestled in the knowledge that hey, they’re all still together, we just aren’t seeing it (cough cough great ending for fic writers to build off of)

did i want quite literally everything guillermo was freaking out about? yes, but i think like that’s the point of the vampires. they aren’t normal characters- they aren’t here to grow and change and be better by the end. they’re just who they are

and ik nandermo didn’t go canon (and that i Did feel like a fool during nadja’s hypnosis) but i stopped wanted them to be canon a while ago. them never being able to be together was part of their intrigue.

but i do wish we got confirmation of feelings. textual acknowledgement that there is yearning there, doomed as it may be.

my long-winded end to this is to say, in my opinion this wasn’t queerbait. we have queer characters, we had a push and pull of a relationship, but they didn’t not go canon just because they were gay. their characters just are fated to not be together.

[sillygirlsmindpalace]

does your brain ever go:

"Billy Kincaid, the Camden Garrotter, best man I ever knew. Vast contributions to charity, never disclosed. Personally managed to save three hospitals from closure and ran the best and safest children's homes in north England. Yes, every now and again there'd be some garrotings, but stacking up the lives saved against the garrotings, on balance I'd say he-"

"For my wedding!"

[gregorovitch-adler]

The Sign of Three: A wedding in which at least three people are in love with John.

[inexpressiblybeautiful]

Wait. Isn't today(18th of May 2024) the 10th(18th of May 2014-18th of May 2024) anniversary of John and Mary's wedding?

Anyway, happy 10th anniversary!!!

(Well, not exactly happy but you get the gist.)

[thirddagger]

I forgot to mention that while watching an X Files episode a while back I got a huge ad for BBC Sherlock. Like a full minute and a half of a Sherlock ad, it was the only thing in the commercial break. Emotional whiplash and the most bewildering combination of emotions and media I have ever experienced

[transannabeth]

the other week i saw a bunch of tweets about how ridiculous it was to wait 2 years for 8 episodes or something—i think they may been about bridgerton—and i was like

oh ok. none of you watched bbc sherlock

[jamiesfootball]

Another snippet:

Half of them showed one moppet, a normal-looking child with a generic kid face, running through the standard lineup of childhood moments: baby Jamie, sitting in a booster seat; rugrat Jamie, running through some dirt; pocket-sized Jamie, buttoned up fancy in a little suit and bowtie, proving at some point in his life he'd known how to wear a suit correctly. The baby pictures could stand to be a little more embarrassing. God knew that Roy’s own camera roll was curated with photos designed to make Phoebe throw a fit when she was sixteen and over him. With Phoebe on his mind, a pattern emerged: dozens of photos, one subject. All kid; no mum. The kind of photos his sister sent him on her rare days off, bombarding Roy with message after message of Phoebe performing the most mundane tasks that only a person full of love would bother documenting. Roy, also full of love for his niece, saved every single one. With cherubic cheeks and fluffy hair, the kid photos were proper adorable. The kind of thing Roy would have gladly made fun of, if they didn't come to a sudden stop. At some point in the lineup, the mum-photos get traded up for professional photography. Glossy, cut straight from the mags, portfolio heads and action shots. There's no indication at all that Georgie has one photo of her grown son that he wasn’t paid thousands of pounds for. In fact there's not a sign that Jamie had ever lived through gangly, teenage awkwardness. No ill-fitted secondary school uniforms, no pictures of him as a lad at the academy. More than a decade missing from that wall.

[travelleryanii]

“Do people like me?”

“No. You tend to rub them in the wrong way.”

[katierosefun]

idk this is definitely because i had an interesting 2024, but something i adore about elementary’s sherlock holmes is that he really goes from hating group meetings and therapy to realizing hm actually there is a real place for it in his recovery. like. he went from actively hypnotizing himself during meetings to going to them and sharing his insecurities and his fears about his sobriety. he becomes a sponsor. he gets quite aggressive when he becomes a sponsor, even. he encourages his new protégée to go to group meetings. sherlock holmes went from being arrogant (“i’m better than everyone, so these programs won’t work on me”) to openly admitting that just like anyone else, he needs a support system, and that makes me so teary every time

[griseldabanks]

"I trust you with my life." for John and Sherlock

Let Me Count the Ways ask game

It had been a lousy day. Back-to-back patients that left him only fifteen minutes for lunch, someone had bumped into him on the way to work and he'd dropped his phone on the sidewalk and cracked the screen, and on top of everything else, it was pouring rain. As he hurried down Baker Street, all he could think about was sitting in his chair with a nice cup of tea. At the moment, he didn't even care if Sherlock was still stuck in the same cloud of gloom he'd been in all week. At least this latest bit of doldrums in their caseload had left Sherlock quiet, rather than bouncing off the walls and shrieking away on his violin.

Yes. Some quiet and warmth, that was all he needed.

As soon as John stepped through the front door and hung up his dripping raincoat, he realized it wasn't going to be as quiet as he'd hoped. The sound of the violin echoed down the stairwell to him, but at least it was an actual song this time, instead of erratic notes that belonged in the soundtrack of a horror movie.

Sherlock stood in front of the window in his dressing gown, playing what seemed like a complicated piece as he watched the rain fall. John thought he was beginning to get a sense of Sherlock's moods from what he chose to play. When he was really thinking hard, he would often play something from Bach or Vivaldi, as if its steady rhythm kept his mind focused. John didn't know much about music, but whatever Sherlock was playing right now sounded complex enough that it probably required more of his attention. Something to keep his mind occupied when there was nothing else at hand.

John made a beeline for the kettle. While he waited for the water to boil, he crossed over to the fridge to grab the milk.

Only to discover they were out of milk.

And bread.

And eggs.

“Sherlock.” He ran his hand down his face, wiping off the last bits of rainwater. “You didn't go to the store, did you?”

Sherlock kept playing, fingers flying over his instrument with flawless precision.

“Sherlock!”

“What?” Sherlock snapped, stopping abruptly and whirling around to face him.

“I told you we were out of milk,” John said, trying and failing to keep his voice down. “I asked you to go to the store, and you said you would.”

“What? No, I didn't.”

“Yes, you did.”

“No, I didn't.”

“Yes, you did!” In the back of his mind, John was aware that they were starting to sound like children, but he couldn't stop. “I left you a list and everything!” He picked up the slip of paper on the kitchen table. It didn't seem to have moved since he'd left it there that morning.

“I doubt it,” Sherlock snapped, tucking his bow under his arm and stalking across the room. “I would have remembered something as simple as that.”

“Yeah, unless you 'deleted' it from your 'hard drive,'” John said, rolling his eyes as he passed the shopping list over. He'd even gone to the trouble of spelling out exactly which brands to get, to make it as simple and straightforward as possible so Sherlock wouldn't somehow end up getting shampoo instead of milk again.

The kettle switched off, and John turned to the cupboard where they kept the tea. With a sigh, he shuffled through the various options of herbal tea that wouldn't require milk. “I trust you with my life, but I can't even trust you to do the shopping....”

Sherlock didn't reply as John put the teabag in his mug and poured water over it. When he turned around to head for his chair, he found Sherlock standing stock-still in the doorway, staring blankly at him.

“Sherlock? You okay?”

He just continued to stare, one hand holding his violin in a precarious grip, one clutching the shopping list.

John waved his hand in front of Sherlock's eyes to get his attention. “Hello? Earth to Sherlock!”

Finally, Sherlock blinked and seemed to snap out of his reverie. “You...trust me with your life?”

John frowned. “Yes?” He waited for the punchline, the moment Sherlock would somehow turn it all around and end up mocking him.

Instead, Sherlock just blinked rapidly, as if the thought baffled him. “Really?”

“Yes. I think you've saved it enough times by now to have earned that, at least.”

Sherlock still looked flummoxed. “No, but you...truly? You really, honestly trust me with your life?”

“Yes. Now can I sit down, or are you going to make me stand here to drink my tea?”

With a start, Sherlock stepped aside and let John pass. John sat down in his comfortable chair with a sigh of relief and took his first sip. Chamomile hadn't been what he'd been craving all day, but it wasn't unpleasant. Maybe if the rain let up a little, he'd pop down to the corner store once he'd finished his tea and....

John followed Sherlock with his eyes as he slowly walked over to his chair and sat down, moving as gingerly as a bird-watcher trying not to frighten away a rare bird. He watched John as if he were the most fascinating specimen he'd ever seen.

Continuing to sip his tea, John determined not to let the staring faze him. He'd endured much worse from Sherlock, after all. He hadn't intended his words to have such an impact on Sherlock, but he supposed it wasn't a normal sort of thing for people to say in this day and age.

But then, nothing around Sherlock was ever 'normal.'

[applestorms]

morality in the world of good omens

so i wrote another (admittedly very messy) essay on good omens not long ago right after watching season 2 but after finishing that, rewatching all of both seasons multiple times, and reading through the book, i have a couple more distinct ideas to get out...somewhere...if only for my own sanity. this is me throwing my thoughts into the internet before i pop, if you will. just 3 sections, below the cut.

1. environment, characters, & transformative fandom creations

to start this post off a bit more broadly, i've been thinking a lot recently about transformative fandom and the reasons why we write fanfiction/create semi-original works in the first place, as well as why certain aspects of fandom (writing, art, analysis, etc.) will be more appealing to me for certain shows/series than others. correct me if you have a totally different view of this, but in my experience i've found that i tend to naturally gravitate towards different parts of fandom depending on what the original medium of the story was- podcasts tend to lead to some of the most interesting art trends, for example, since there's more room for interpretation and character design tends to be more of an ongoing community project than something set in stone like for a tv show with live human actors.

in my own observation, i've noticed that a lot of the really big & excitable fandoms, the ones that generate tons & tons of fanworks more naturally (a.k.a. just because of the story itself & not other factors like a pre-existing franchise or hype about new great gay representation, etc.) tend to surround stories that fall into a kind of "sweet spot" that makes the creation of fanworks really appealing. if you've ever wondered why there are so many ravenous artists bending over backwards to draw gorgeous fanart for stuff like homestuck or south park or even minecraft youtubers, it's likely because those stories all fall into a sweet spot for drawing, with character designs that are recognizable at a glance and yet still simple enough that there is plenty of room for personal creative touches. (think also, if you're familiar with such kinds of homestuck terms: hyperflexible mythologies, A4:1524, and/or this archive link cause the official thing is down now for some reason)

the conclusion i've come to is thus that even something as basic as the original medium of a story can dictate a lot about what kinds of fan activities are more common or popular within said story's fandom.

so, back to good omens- for me, this all relates back because of a question i've been messing with in my head recently, about why i've been less interested in fanfiction for good omens than i have been for the last few fandoms i've been, almost all of which have basically broken my ao3 bookmarks.

this question has been fucking with me for a while now, largely because i'm not entirely sure what's motivating it. a lot of times i can figure out pretty easily why i might personally not be interested in some parts of fandom, but that's not really the case here. from what i've seen this fandom seems to be pretty mixed in terms of age, & the writing that i have read is certainly no worse than i've seen elsewhere, perhaps even better in some places- and yet, i can't seem to get entirely into it, even getting frustrated as i can't find something to my tastes for an ao3 bedtime story as i've grown so accustomed. what caught me off guard is that this was an issue that i ran into while watching season 1 as well, back when the series was still quite popular but not blowing up like it is right now.

a lot of this may seem like (and likely is, at least in part) basic overthinking, but i mentioned it all here because the answer i eventually came to is reminiscent of my previous reflections above on the nature of fandom & how/why fanworks are created.

a couple paragraphs above, i used the example of art as an example of how fandoms that generate a lot of original artwork will often do the most when the original story falls into a sweet spot of character design, but notably i think that this sentiment applies to a lot more than just art. if you've ever seen the copious amounts of kpop & hockey rpf fanfiction that lives on ao3, it should be clear that this applies to writing too.

i wrote this essay a while back responding to an observation about the lack of a more extensive symbolic language in fanfiction & i've toyed around with the idea more since, particularly in considering the question of why a lot of what we see as the staples of fanfiction exist in the first place. in that post, my response largely revolved around an argument of why we create fanfiction- namely, that fanfiction is created as in tandem with deeper analysis of the original story/series, as a way of trying to practically apply character analysis to a new context.

the key part of that last sentence to me is how a lot of this revolves around character analysis (and shipping, but really it's the characters that motivate the shipping in most cases so. same difference).

i tend to instinctively separate fanfiction into two separate categories: fanfiction that is based out of the original world/canon of the story (including but not limited to fix-its, deeper analysis fics that take a scene & extrapolate from it, continuations, etc.) and fanfiction that takes the characters from the original story & plops them in an alternate universe/AU. while i separate these out as two distinct categories of fanfiction, i should also clarify that i don't think these two groups are necessarily equal in terms of number of fics- rather, the vast majority of fanfiction tends to be AUs, keeping the original characters & changing any & all aspects of the world around them. again, this may vary depending on the story & Vibe of the fandom at the time, stories like game of thrones or harry potter or homestuck might have a lot more in the canon category by nature of any major dissatisfactions the fandom has with how the original story was told, but in most cases AUs are more popular. this was a lot of the basis behind my argument that fanfiction is created as character analysis in fact, since the characters are the most important part that carries over from original story to fanwork, as well as can end up being one of the most debated/scorned parts when it comes to fandom drift (i.e. "that's out of character"/"he wouldn't do that"/and all other such arguments about fanon vs. canon characterization).

basically, my conclusion in this case was that i was a lot less interested in gomens fic largely because i have a really hard time separating the characters from the world in the case of this particular story. aziraphale & crowley being an angel & a demon and dealing with all of the bullshit of their world when it comes to heaven & hell are such integral parts of their characters in my mind that i have a much harder time getting behind AU fanfiction that plops them in a totally different context. it's just a much harder sell for keeping the characters in character for me. (i also tend to not like s2 fix-its just cause, idk they're just not my style, which is where a lot of the recent blast of energy has led us.) to clarify, this is not a judgement, just a matter of personal preference and a reflection of why, even if a lot of fandoms will look the same from the outside/involve the same things like art, fic, etc., an individual's mileage can vary wildly when it comes to how they interact with different things online.

*additional note, also for clarification: i do want to acknowledge that a lot of this depends on pure popularity as well, popular fandoms will often end up with basically everything in terms of fanworks just by nature of how many people are interacting with & thinking deeply about the story. my point here is more along the lines of the fact that even within the more well-populated fandoms, certain types of fanwork will often Stick Out more to me than others, or even be visibly much more common than in other fandoms, due largely to the original medium/structure of how the story.

so, speaking of aziraphale & crowley in more depth now- why does the world of good omens feel like such an integral part of their personalities when it comes to characterization? up next, let's talk about morality within the context of good omens' perhaps surprisingly secular take on heaven & hell.

2. the amorality of heaven & hell (ft. the crowley quote apples you know the one)

(warning in advance that this section may be a bit limited since i'm not going to get super far (or very far at all, really) into the whole religious-analysis aspect of good omens.)

i've been binge-reading the original pterry & gaiman book for good omens over the last few days and it's been very fun seeing all the slight changes between the tv show & the original. you can really see the hand of the original creators in how the tv show was translated, even just by looking at which parts made it and which parts were deemed worth cutting out. i suppose having one of the original creators right there helping build everything really helps make a book -> show translation work, since the ASOUE tv series was also pretty well received- something about knowing what's the core of the series & truly important to keep in, and having more time to tell the story itself?

anyways, i have a short list of notes that i've been taking as i read, conversations that stand out to me or footnotes that particularly amused me, but i keep coming back to one line that stood out to me quite early on. in context, this line comes from crowley during the conversation where he is first attempting to fully convince aziraphale about stopping armageddon, specifically when they're talking about exerting equal forces on warlock to make him normal:

"You're saying the child isn't evil of itself?" [Aziraphale] said slowly. "Potentially evil. Potentially good, too, I suppose. Just this huge powerful potentiality, waiting to be shaped," said Crowley. He shrugged. "Anyway, why're we talking about this good and evil? They're just names for sides. We know that."

(pg. 67)

"They're just names for sides." if i had to pick one line to sum up the view on religious morality of this series, this would likely be it.

on the one hand, i tend to interpret a lot gomens' take on heaven & hell within the context of its political stance, something that is particularly obvious through a line from gabriel in s2e2 where he tries to clarify to aziraphale that heaven isn't trying to hurt job directly, but instead is just not stopping hell from doing horrible things to him. while there may be some additional nuance to add to this take within the context of british politics that i don't really know well enough to add about, i'm inclined to see this from the side of my own familiar american politics, which might hold some weight considering how long mr. gaiman's lived around here. point is, my current interpretation of that line is that it helps in more clearly establishing the analogy of heaven & hell as the story moves forward into newer seasons and thus more contemporary politics, equating heaven with mainstream liberal politics & politicians and hell with conservatives.

this stance seems to be emphasized even more in the tv show than the book which makes sense considering its been coming out more recently, and especially in season 2 which is still quite caught up in a lot of quarantine-based reflection. (the tv show puts a lot more emphasis on heaven & hell in general, actually, perhaps initially a byproduct of actually being able to see those environments in their entirety and all the angels & demons that populate them- but we'll get to that.)

the book takes a slightly different stance that, fittingly, seems more reflective of the time it came out. in particular, i was struck a lot more when reading the book by adam's rise (fall?) to power, and how much of it was motivated by a burgeoning nervousness/pessimism about climate change and the anxieties of younger generations that comes with inheriting an earth that feels so fucked up. honestly if anything it's only gotten more relevant in that respect, what with the current vibe on the internet & the hopelessness of the doomer gen z gang, but it also has a distinctly different flavor to me from the tv show, which i think is largely because it's less connected to Formal politics since again we see a whole lot less of heaven & hell as such distinct, bureaucratic entities.

instead, there is a very distinctly amoral aspect to heaven & hell that we get through lines like the one above and especially from characters like crowley. this is why i argue that good omens, despite having so many religious elements, is such a deeply secular take, especially when it comes to its ethics & morality- Good and Evil, notably with the capital letters in this case, has very little to do with actual actions and much more to do with the name that you stamp on top of said actions. heaven & hell and the angels & demons that we see directing and watching and generally fucking with aziraphale & crowley throughout the story are distinctly separate from humanity, and as we see even more as the story progresses, distinctly unaware about what it even means to be a human, in both a deeper philosophical & very basic and literal sense. Good and Evil is simply another name for the sides- and thus the true ethics is something separate, and based in a deeply human experience.

in my opinion this is also why aziraphale & crowley, lovers of humanity and also to some degree spokespersons of it from how much they've "gone native," tend to be so deeply at odds with both heaven & hell and always end up agreeing with each other over their own supposed sides. what makes aziraphale & crowley so distinctly different is that they ascribe to the same ethics & morality that humanity does, or at the very least are trying to figure out ethics & morality & How to Be a Good Person in the same horribly messy way that humans do, separating them from the black & white "this side Good & this side Bad," logic that the rest of heaven & hell instinctively ascribe to.

there's a lot of nuance here, which is also why i think there is such an emphasis on moral ambiguity (and love, but we'll get to that) throughout season 2. the story of job, grave robbing, & questionable attempts at matchmaking- aziraphale is working through a lot of Shit right now when it comes to trying to figure out what the Good thing actually fucking is, and i think it's key that a lot of that is motivated by crowley himself. crowley might'e been cast out of heaven for asking too many questions, but aziraphale is there & listening to them & giving them the serious thought they deserve, and that can't be overlooked.

sidenote: i couldn't figure out a place to shove this in, but i also wanna point out that a lot of this is tied to the idea of growing over time too. on the same page as the quote transcribed above is another line from crowley leading up to aziraphale's question that puts a lot of emphasis on the fact that warlock is going to be a product of nurture, not nature. again, this is an argument against basic black & white assigned-at-birth morality for the ability of humans to grow & change over time and be influenced by the people around them.

it's notable that despite adam's supposed origin as a Son of Satan, what really gets him to stop the apocalypse in the end is the fact that he doesn't really give a shit about all this big plans but instead just wants to hang around his friends. there's a lot of emphasis in the book placed on how beautiful & nice tadfield is as a place for a young kid to grow up, how well loved & fiercely protected it as as something beloved to adam. while he might be overwhelmed when faced with the full picture of how horrible the world can be, ultimately what he cares about is loving & taking care of the people & places that he grew up learning were precious, and the only way to do that is to keep growing & changing yourself within that world and trying to help it also grow into something better, not throw it all away just for the slightest chance that you could restart. a message worth taking the time to think about, at the absolute very least.

3. finding morality w/in humanity: crowley & aziraphale and speculation for s3

i have complicated feelings about both aziraphale & crowley throughout a lot of the show and especially in season 2. i think a lot of people, myself included, are inclined to see crowley as the voice of reason in this season, and for good reason- as i mentioned before, a lot of aziraphale's deeper questioning of the status quo and goodness (Goodness) as a whole is motivated by questions from crowley.

i kiiind of mentioned this in my previous essay, but to state it more clearly, my take on crowley is that he's arriving at the right answer for the wrong reasons, and, conversely, aziraphale is arriving at the wrong answer for... kind of also the wrong reasons but also slightly for the right reasons. let me explain.

crowley is clearly much more aware of the flaws in both heaven & hell than aziraphale is, which seems to be the basis behind a lot of his motivation in asking aziraphale so many questions in the first place. he's also, as maggie & nina point out in s2e6, deeply lonely, often running away or getting ready to fight literally anyone that isn't aziraphale (or humans, but that's a little more complicated). from his reaction to beelz & gabriel getting together, i think it's pretty clear that he still hasn't entirely given up on the whole alpha centauri idea, and it makes sense- as i said in that last essay, crowley basically won the argument at the end of the previous season when it comes to aziraphale & crowley, "making [their] own side," so he doesn't have much reason to face any of his personal fears until maggie & nina basically point out that they exist directly to his face. once they do point it out, however, he's very motivated to act & does so almost immediately, even after hearing what aziraphale has to tell him and being pretty thoroughly devastated by it.

my point here is that crowley is correct in seeing the toxicity of both heaven & hell, he's just flawed and largely motivated by fear (up for debate if that's all it is, but i certainly think it's a big part of it) in his desire to run away from it all. it's not quite armageddon, again he's going more flight > fight here, but he's still ultimately giving up and that's not a great conclusion.

on the other hand, as some others on this site have pointed out, aziraphale is certainly showing a lot of strength in his willingness to keep fighting & try to change things for the better, but it's not hard to see how that belief has been twisted. one of aziraphale's biggest flaw in motivation at this point imo is that he doesn't just believe in goodness but Goodness, the kind that's tied to heaven always being right & all actions being morally Good so long as they're done under the name of heaven, and that clearly also isn't great.

thus what i think the both of these two really need ultimately is that deeper connection to humanity, and the ethics born from humans interacting with humans. we can already see how strong these two are when they collaborate, even when they're doing their absolute best to be as subtle as possible, but what i think they need is to once again be grounded by humanity, not to get so caught up in the bullshittery of heaven & hell and Good & Evil, but once again find a goodness defined by the world that they mutually love so much and stick with it.

i keep tossing a question around in my head about whether or not aziraphale & crowley are going to end up human by the end of this series. it feels natural that they would, they're already so at home and in love with earth & around humanity, but i'm also not entirely sure if that would be a happy ending for them considering how long they've watched & loved the world as it's changed. perhaps taking this post into account is another push towards humanity as a happy ending, not running away to a cottage to get away from the world (i just can't see running away to a cottage to be together as as happy ending, sorry- it might work for beelz & gabriel but not for aziraphale & crowley), but choosing to settle down within that world that is so dear.

[bmpmp3]

i consider myself a bit of a connoisseur of besties-turned-lovers stories but one thing that has always bothered me a little is when the besties actually become lovers and then the relationship loses all bestie-itude LIKE correct me if im wrong but i feel like these things aren’t usually mutually exclusive... i see it more often with m/f besties but i see it with same gender, etc besties on occasion too and like. YES its realistic that friendships change their dynamics over time (even without turning into lovers) but i always see this thing where these two besties get together and then are immediately like “but i CANT dick around with my bestie anymore because theyre also my significant other” you could if you werent a coward. can’t u dick around with ur bestie romantically. can’t you dick around with ur partner bestie-ly. what am i not getting here

[mybrainproblems]

the thing is?! they just don't do romances the way they used to! you can't do it when you've only got 1-2 seasons!! and they just don't queerbait/code like they used to either!!

but the fucking thing is! yes. we have actual queer rep now and i just do not give a fuck. where's the heartache of knowing it's never gonna happen? seeing it on your screen in front of your salad and you know it's never gonna be confirmed but god help me, it is compelling. and it's always more compelling than the het romances bc you can't make it explicit. you dare the fuck not to speak it's name for the sake of ratings.

oh i am sick. i am so sick.