#I was tempted by homoeroticism

[wovenstarlight]

character opinion bingo sung hyunjae pls homie

notes:

he does have a cool design. i gotta admit. the coat and the chains and the sunset palette in general

everyone but me is wrong about them <3/they got done DIRTY by fans/they're deeper than they seem: I STILL GET ROUTINELY PISSED OFF THINKING ABOUT THE REVIEWS AND POSTS GOING UGH SHJ IS SUCH AN ABUSIVE ASSHOLE WHY DO YOU ALL LIKE HIM SO MUCH. WELL MAYBE IF YOU KEPT READING YOU WOULD KNOW HE ACTUALLY IMPROVES AS PART OF HIS CHARACTER ARC. ASSHOLE

wow! he is a horrible person ^_^ if he was real i would attack him <3

yes i know. i contain multitudes.

i would've put down the handbag/technically canon squares except he really is doting housewifey in canon and also he would not go in my handbag because he would be carrying my bags for me with this expression -> ^^ (in a hypothetical scenario where i am hyj or stw and do not get immediately blown up and killed for this behaviour, naturally)

speaking of hyj and stw shj really is better when he's playing off them. they make him a better person. and also a funnier person

(send me a character to do bingo with!)

[lizardsfromspace]

Wild that Schumacher Batman was criticized in its day for being a soulless commercial product designed to sell toys when like. Can you imagine even one shot in a MCU movie this colorful and bold? Bc his movies are all like this, from start to finish

(it's tempting to say "they don't make it like this anymore", but they weren't making it like this at the time, either; this was very much going against the dominant trend towards being more Gritty and Realistic)

(WOW do I miss art deco nightmarescape Gotham, bring it back)

Also it's just so uniquely weird? Schumacher was under orders to lighten the tone after parents complained about the "darkness" of Batman Returns (a dark, gritty film with an army of penguins with rockets). That did not mean he had to run in the direction of "Adam West, but with a 90s blockbuster budget". One of the last big budget films that's legitimately camp instead of faux camp.

Also the overt, exceptionally horny homoeroticism that's given us three decades of straight critics trying to find ways to say they hate it for being gay that aren't just that they hate it for being gay (though they do)

[skippiefritz]

reqs from @idanit and @beetle-goth (sorry for tags I'll untag if asked ^^;)

long rambly post ahead! Unlike what I normally post but its my account so I can do what I want lol

(This probably isn't the most historical thing I’ve ever written but! I will fix as I work on it more lol)

the implications of Bertie's bachelorhood if he were a bachelorette fascinate me endlessly

I read this post and it gave me brain worms and I've been designing an au around it ever since

In this au it's a complete genderswap with all characters, uncle Alistair (aunt Agatha) becomes more old fashioned sexist to Bertie, not thinking she can take care of herself. (sorry Agatha stans)

Which like. She can't. But it's nothing to do with her being a woman.

Bertie keeps her core character traits, but by merely being a woman living alone in 1920s London, she inherently becomes more independent and rebellious.

She's sneakier about her escapades, still stealing hats off bobby's and the like, but tries to be subtle about it. Emphasis on tries, she's still a Wooster at her core, and thus a very

big klutz.

Bertie is just completely and unapologetically her/himself regardless of gender, for better or for worse.

If humble pie is being served, she will surely go back for seconds every time.

I can picture her leaning very hard into the roaring twenties flapper persona, but still being a homebody at heart. Big of heart, dumb of ass.

The biggest issue of course is the engagements, it’s a lot harder for a woman (particularly one whose family wants her to get married) to get out of engagements. THIS is where the fun new plots come in

Obviously there’s the classic setting up her fiances with other women, so they call it off and marry their true loves. And the occasional making herself seem unsuitable to be married. (though, this would usually backfire, that would make it seem like she needed to be married more, so she had a man to take care of her and make her settle down)

Instead of focusing on making it seem she herself is un-weddable, she (and by she I mean Jeeves) concocts byzantine schemes to paint her potential suitors in the worst light possible, or to make them seem negligible so one family or the other would call it off.

I’ve been working on one such story, I haven't ironed out all the details but it ends with Gussie pushing Bertie into a lake. Of course. (I may make  a comic abt it when done)

Jeeves’ character is fascinating too, I see her being the classic “quiet competent woman who gets shit done”. She would be less respected than m!jeeves, but still far more respected than the average maidservant of her time.

I can see her need for fashion clashing with the maidservant outfits of the time, part of me is tempted to keep her design the exact same and make her a big beautiful butch, but…I know that's probably not how it would go.

Jeeves would wear the classic Maidservant outfit of the time, though I can see her styling it subtly to suit her more.

Her control over Bertie’s wardrobe, while still being “God this bitch has no fashion”, also has an undercurrent of internalized sexism. She’s discomforted by the more risque (by those times) outfits Bertie enjoys wearing, like her flashy flapper dresses and the like.

Of course, she’s also uncomfortable by how attractive she finds her in said risque clothes. (drama!!)

And they end up compromising !!! and Jeeves has a lil arc in learning to accept the new fashion wave and embracing bodies and whatnot.

Their dynamic would essentially be the same, homoeroticism, Jeeves being morosexual, Bertie being endlessly impressed by her.

also because of the ridiculous british nicknames most the characters are referred to the same, they just have diff first names, here's a quick cheat sheet

(I tried to keep them similar and also extremely english)

Reginald Jeeves = Regina Jeeves

Bertam "Bertie" Wooster = Bertha "Bertie" Wooster

Reginald Jeeves = Regina Jeeves

Aunt Agatha/Dahlia = uncle Alistor/Dahl

Augustus "Gussie" Fink-Nottle = August "Gussie" Fink-Nottle

Charles "Biffy" Biffen = Charlotte "Biffy" Biffen

Marmaduke "Chuffy" Chuffnell = Marigold "Chuffy" Chuffnell

Stephanie "Stiffy" Byng = Stewart "Stiffy" Byng (the implications of a man being named Stiffy are. different but Wodehouse had to know what he was doing with that name)

Richard "Bingo" little = Richenda "Bingo" Little

and so on and so forth!

Anyway uh, this went on for a while lol

I’m working on designs for them and will gladly share if asked! But they’re nowhere near done dhjdsh thanks for coming to my ted talk.

I don't know if any of this made sense, sorry if it doesn’t.

also for a bonus here's a quick messy collage I made of f!Bertie

[br1ghtestlight]

if bob was a single dad and linda wasn't in the picture enemies to lovers jimmy pesto and bob would be incredibly tempting. but that would also make tina and jimmy jr step siblings which isnt what i want for either of them 😭 having ur first kiss with your future step sibling. man. but I love the homoeroticism of it all. love pathetic middle aged men who hate each other

[fanbutnotfanatic]

the homoeroticism of middle earth is BONKERS like i just rewatched the scene where faramir is tempted by the one ring and why was that hot?? sam, faramir, frodo, and some tension having nothing to do with the power of sauron

[goldfishgrahamcracker]

The use of cannibalism in Ravenous (1999) as a metaphor for a variety of things intrigues me. On the one hand, it's clearly a metaphor for colonialism as a destructive force that never stops consuming, but the way Boyd and Ives connect with one another, with Ives urging Boyd to join him, makes the cannibalism work as a metaphor for gay desire as well.

Now, I highly doubt that the film means to say that queerness is negative and destructive like colonialism, but it's interesting to see both conveyed through the same device. Certainly one could argue that it reflects period-typical attitudes towards homosexuality, but at the same time the film doesn't make much textual reference, if any, to this topic.

Probably, the homoeroticism was intended to inject pathos, heighten the tension (all sorts) between Boyd and Ives. Atun-Shei Films mentions in one of his Ravenous videos that it makes Ives more unpredictable. Personally, I think there's an extra touch of tragedy in the way Ives uses the language of a desire ostracised by society to tempt Boyd into the political mandate of Manifest Destiny, as though colonialism has infiltrated even this potential for human connection.

In the end, the homoerotic aspect of the cannibalism is hardly the main focus of the film, but it really enhances the emotion. Not only do you mourn Boyd at the end of the film and admire his noble sacrifice, a tiny victory though it is against the inevitability of westward expansion as represented by Slauson eating the stew, the subtextual intimacy between Boyd and Ives makes you wonder what could have been.

[cto10121]

Twilight Clown Takes Special Edition—Kristen Stewart & the Migratory Slash Fandom

99% sure this is headline bait from Variety, but regardless, the clownery is too tempting to resist, even if it leads to my ultimate destruction. Gasp! Maybe I am queer-coded?

1) Yes, obviously, but also 2) Tell me you only saw the films without telling me you only saw the films.

Because in the books, it’s abundantly clear which of these boys has Bella’s V in a vice hold. And it ain’t the friendly neighborhood werewolf.

The Migratory Slash Fandom Appears

I literally don’t know where to start with this. With the obviously queer-coded characters? Even the dumb anti fandom usually stick to Queer!Alice and Rosalie, and that’s mostly because they hate Edward (and Jacob) with Bella. Their backstories are gay? Only if you believe that writing about trauma is inherently gay, which 😬

Someday I will sit down and make a serious study on this fan tendency to queering het romance even heteros have trouble stomaching (past the obvious resonance of “forbidden love” as a theme). But that day is not today.

Literary Analysis!1!!1!

Because forbidden love trope = queer every time. And I mean every time!!!

Look, Dracula and Carmilla’s queer undertones are more than just the fact that they are Gothic. They literally must have implied queer desire (haven’t read Carmilla, but Dracula at least has the “Leave him! He’s mine!”). There must actually be a current of homoeroticism, symbolic and textual, in the work. If a Gothic novel doesn’t have that, then it’s really not queer (Wuthering Heights would be a prime example). Genres and their conventions are not inherently queer or straight.

One Based Reply

Preach.

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

What you said about Holiest Love made me realize that exactly zero (0) adaptations have incorporated such an unadulterated gothic romance scene into their gothic story. Like. It's right there, being a line that hits like a semi-truck, and you are just gonna not use it. Well okay then.

it's so fucking good and so fucking sexy and just LYING THERE WITHOUT ACCLAIM in the middle of this incredibly influential novel! like again i think any given adaptation wanting to do whatever thing they want is fine for them on principle (adaptations may be bad of course but it's not inherently wrong to change things up and do your own thing) but the fact that noooo ooooone has shown any interest in it at all really is insane to me. and, like, i really can't tell how insane i'm being about this at this point, but i've sort of half-convinced myself that it is partly about the gender of it all, and that on some deep level, people just see the human woman tempted by vampire dude as sense-making and intuitively coherent in a way that a human man being theoretically tempted by his potential vampire wife is not. like i'm not liiiiiiiiterally saying "the reason no adaptations incorporate this line is because it's too gay to let jonathan entertain the thought of being penetrated by his wife" but like, well, it is funny that so many people look at a book where (1) the vampire is more erotically interested in jonathan than in his wife and (2) the vampire bites a woman in a scene that reeeeeallyyyyyyy reads as being a kind of sexual assault (3) jonathan is like "i mean i would let my wife bite me over the alternative," and then think, like, "now, wait a minute: what if actually, the vampire wants to penetrate the lady, and the lady kinda wants to be penetrated by the vampire? doesn't that seem like a better story to everyone, for reasons we don't need to get into?" like people look at a book about sublimated (or... not totally sublimated) homoeroticism and sexual assault and are like, what if this is actually about how hot and tempting heterosexual sex is. like. ok. sure.

[hesgomorrah]

9, 15 for the unwritten fic asks

9. Is there anything in the fic you're not so excited about writing?

I did once get a couple hundred words into a Hawnk fic after getting a burst of inspiration before realizing that I'd have to actually... write a whole fic worth of Frank, buuuut that one is pretty well abandoned at this point, I doubt I'll ever pick it back up.

The more serious answer is that I'm not sure if not excited is the right word for it, but I am... trepidatious, I guess, about portraying Mulcahy's loss of hearing in a post-war longfic I'm currently planning, as a hearing person. A HoH friend of mine has very graciously agreed to sensitivity read for me (hi Iggy 👋), but I know I'm gonna end up putting a lot of pressure on myself to get it right when there are other themes that I might wish I could invest more time in. But it's a story I really want to tell, so I guess I'll have to figure it out 🤷‍♂️

15. Do you have any unwritten scene that you think about a lot?

I mostly write oneshots so I don't often think in terms of individual scenes, just whole fics, but to stretch the question a bit: I haven't got anything on paper for it yet, but one idea I've been toying with a lot lately is a missing scene between Margaret and Margie in Requiem for a Lightweight, heavy on the homoeroticism.

We don't actually see the conversation where Margaret tells her she's being transferred, and I'd love to try to fill in that gap. Partly simply because I love Margie's personality and think it would be fun to pit them against each other, but also because if you think about it, that's kind of a weird choice for Margaret to make in-universe when she just transferred in, which got me thinking that she might have initially tried to discipline her in some other way and things escalated from there.

At this point the only question is if I want to turn it into full-blown smut (always extremely tempting) or be a bit more literal about the term 'missing scene' and try to keep it close enough to the tone of the show to actually be plausible, aside from maybe being a bit more overtly gay. Either way I wanna try my hand at writing that very early Margaret with some internalized homophobia going on, with the implication that she has room to grow out of it as she mellows later in the series.

ask about my unwritten/unpublished fics!

[tai-vas]

Mina talks about Lucy almost as much as she does about Jonathan. And every time she even mentions Lucy, she starts randomly complementing her.

My 21st century brain is tempted to read it as homoeroticism, but I've honestly started wondering: is it a thing people do that I and my friends do not? Or, more specifically, is it a thing that women in the 19th century did? Was it normal then? Or is Mina's derisive approach to New Woman sign of her living in denial and repressing parts of herself? Tumblr, how do we actually read Mina?

[todayisafridaynight]

Yakuza live action but they really lean into the homoeroticism and queer coding and go balls to the wall with it. I’m only saying this because one of the production companies and a script writer have been involved with some real fruity shit. When will I have my fruity shit ;-;

i hope we get to see daigo and mine during their bar date and mine says something that makes daigo do a little laugh and after hes done laughing he and mine just stare into each others eyes and its obvious they both want to lean in for a kiss with the low lighting of the bar and the bartender having long since moved away from them and daigos smiling at him hoping he gets the hint and lets him give him a lil smooch but mine's too apprehensive and cant believe daigo would really love him like that so he looks away because daigo's really tempting him with his handsome face and lovely smile and so he clears his throat and tries to move the conversation forward all the while what he really wants is to suck daigo silly under the bar

[judesstfrancis]

the thing about people not understanding that queer themes have been evident in the horror genre since its very invention and about them assuming that queerness being so prevalent in horror is a new phenomenon, that it only happened recently, is that I don't think a lot of them don't understand that like. explicit queerness actually being portrayed onscreen is still a very recent thing. and when we're talking about queer themes in horror we're talking about subtext mainly and even then it's not the subtext you're used to it's not the "haha men stabbing each other is a metaphor for penetration" kinda deal it's like. u genuinely have to dig for it. and that's for the more positive portrayals, ofc there's easy to spot depictions of queerness in horror, and here I'm thinking about the original carmilla, but those are often done as a cautionary way. like oh hey look how scary and mean the homosexuals are stay away from them! be careful! don't let them tempt u and turn u evil!! and that of course is a big part of why queerness is still so prevalent in horror, bc for a lot of queer people for a very long time the depictions of themselves that they would most often see in popular media was of that nature. and like of course you're gonna latch onto that and make your own thing out of it bc u deserve to. on a bigger scale, I think, it's also always been a little easier to put queerness into horror and get away with it than it is with anything else, bc horror has largely been seen for a very long time as non-intellectual and lazy and a cheap way to break into storytelling. so if people aren't paying attention and the genre is for "freaks" to begin with then hey u might as well sprinkle a bit of homoeroticism in there somewhere.

anyway this is all to say that if u truly need a big blazing neon sign that says "there's gay things in here" to understand that there are queer themes in horror, maybe u should try paying attention while you're watching/reading/listening to horror. bc it has literally always been there I am not joking

[bloodyentrails]

the inspection was so beautiful to me. it's very much a movie that makes the homoeroticism in the military, or similar spaces, text and it was so refreshing to see.

it is also a movie very much in communication with movies about the military (and the USMC) that you might have seen before, full metal jacket, jarhead is mentioned explicitly, but it seeks to show us a different side to them.

(there is in fact a scene of the protagonist sitting on the toilet that is very reminiscent of full metal jacket, but what he's about the swallow is not his gun XD )

there is a poetry to the images and i loved the emotional pitch of each scene, i'm so in awe of how precisely you feel them but also in how subtle they are. it's a huge achievement.

i don't think the movie subverts the genre as such but it queers it and gives you small bits of insight into this life from the perspective of someone who experienced it. there was a post about past lives the other day, about how pragmatic it is, and i think the inspection is similarly pragmatic and not tempted by melodrama. it's a very refreshing mood to witness.

it's a hugely impressive film to me and i'm really glad i caught it. top notch acting, top notch cinematography and just a beautifully conveyed story.

[theabyssgazesalsointoyou]

for the little ship ranking, christine x jenna, kleinsen, and ivy x nadia

christine x jenna would be a C?? i don't really see it but i'm salty about how nobody actually cared about them so i'm half-tempted to ship them out of spite. don't really ship them though.

kleinsen is an A. aroace jared my beloved but also kleinsen my beloved

ivy x nadia oooh... A. the parallels the hatred the inherent homoeroticism of being roommates in a dark academia-esque catholic boarding school. (to be honest though i never really considered it until i went down the bare: a pop opera tag rabbit hole)

[fzzr]

Why Do I Only Like Sports Anime When They're Weird?

In general I am not a fan of sports anime. If the show is about getting the team together to show skill matters more than expensive gear, or we're unbeatable if we just work together, etc. I usually don't even bother to sample it anymore. However, my list of anime watched and rated highly is not bereft of things that happen on courses, tracks, and unconventional fields of play. So let's talk about lesbian golfers, horse girls, and beating the shit out of people for discount lunches.

Reviews

Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story is a 2022 anime about the most unethical sport that doesn't involve non-human animals. Now, I wouldn't watch golf even if it wasn't boring as shit, just in protest of the amount of land and water it wastes. I will admit that if real golf was like the sport of the same name in Birdie Wing, I would be more sorely tempted. You see, the protagonist of Birdie Wing isn't just a golfer, she's a golfer who plays underground matches for money, and the mob. Yes, in this setting gangsters work out their differences using golf duels (also sometimes regular violence, but golf first). Mobsters not being overburdened with an abundance of principles, they obviously cheat a whole lot, and our protagonist, Eve, just wants a good clean game.

Her world changes when she falls in rivalry with aspiring professional golfer Aoi. From here Eve works to escape from her crime-adjacent life and follow Aoi into the world of "real" golf. Along the way she faces off with such characters as "definitely not a vampire" and "don't worry at all about how mechanically perfect my play is". Birdie Wing has everything you would expect from a sports anime. There are our two leads with their different philosophical approaches to the game as they clash and cooperate. There's the example of how two good players don't just make a good team. There are the characters who will do anything to win, and those who just want to play.

This show has some absolutely wild moments, both of comedy and of emotional impact. Homoeroticism between rivals in a sports anime is by no means innovative, but the way Birdie Wing goes about it is distinct. I don't want to spoil how it happens, but I was so invested in their relationship by episode 4 that a particular moment hit me like a sack of bricks.

Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story is 8/10. It's just a little violent and just a little lewd, but there are sports anime that go further. I bet they're not this funny. Give it a try, especially if you want something wacky to watch while a little drunk.

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby is a 2018 anime about an unethical sport that does involve non-human animals. Specifically, each season of Uma Musume follows the actual career of a real life Japanese race horse... except instead of a horse it's about a horse girl with the same name. Also they're idols sometimes. Don't worry about it, it only comes up a few times. Given that it's built on a substrate of real life events, it really is crazy how much they manage to squeeze out of the plotlines. Most of the charm comes from the titular horse girls, of course. They're all fun characters, and even though the themes of hard work and believing in yourself are conventional the execution is solid all around.

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby (both seasons) is 8/10. It's wholesome as hell, pretty much a show for everyone.

Ben-To is a 2011 anime about the highly ethical sport of beating people up in supermarkets. The titular bento are pre-made lunches made and sold daily by markets and convenience stores. Come dinner time, the stores need to clear out stock, so everything goes on sale. As soon as the discount stickers are applied and the staff are safely out of the way, the game starts. The rules are simple: If you get your hands on a bento, it's yours. Take only one. Speed, subterfuge, or brute force - use whatever you want to get that half-price lunch.

Given the... unconventional... premise, it takes a bit of extra work to make it clear that this IS a sports anime. The freeform nature of the brawls means no single collection of sports tropes applies. It's not martial arts, but there is an emphasis on the value of personal excellence and motivation. The protagonists are solo players, "wolves", who fight for honor and always go for the most premium bento on the shelf. There are "dogs" who work as a team, and "boars" who break the social contract, so shifting alliances form even among those who normally square off. There are cross-town rivalries and places where bad blood from past events impacts the tenor of the sport. Retired players give the newcomers advice and instruct them on the philosophy of the game.

Ben-To is 8/10. (It would have been 9/10 if it didn't get distracted by anime tiddy for a few episodes). The concept is wild, the action is great, and it's just a fun time all around. It has some parts that require an elevated power level (if you know what a "fujoshi" is you have the prerequisites) so you can't show it to just anyone, but I think almost anyone can have fun with it.

OK but why though

So, why is it that I find the WE GOTTA DO IT FOR THE SENPAIS and IF WE BELIEVE IN EACH OTHER WE CAN BEAT ANYONE of conventional sports anime boring, but these all do it for me? One thing they have in common is that they're not depicting a real game being played in a real way - the unfamiliarity clearly adds something to the experience. I do think each of them shows how to make sports anime good in a different way, though.

Birdie Wing takes golf as a stepping off point, but chooses not to limit itself by the rules of reality. The tools and terms are what you have overheard people talk about when clubball is in the news for some reason, but also Eve calls out special move names and a mob boss spent millions of dollars on a reconfigurable subterranean golf course. In essence, this is a sports anime that chooses to indulge in what you might call "anime bullshit" and does it well.

Uma Musume is about running. It's truly impressive where the strategic complexity is found - different turf, different training patterns - but the sport itself isn't the source of the hyperreality. Instead, it's everything else. The characters use the actual names of the horses they're based on, so you have Special Week looking up to senpai Silence Suzuka. The designs and personalities are strong and distinct. There's nothing revolutionary about wanting to get a sports scholarship to a school in the big city because you want to play, with the school being secondary. It's just that there's this whole unstated bit of worldbuilding where oh yeah, these are horse girls who dream of growing up to be like their role model horse girls and be famous horse girl idols and horse girl champions.

Ben-To is the Chaotic Good of sports anime. It doesn't go off the rails, because it's too busy assuming you understand that of course grocery stores keep first aid stations in the back in case of concussions during the nightly refrigerator section brawls to be on rails in the first place. The freedom granted by the premise lets it pick and choose the best parts of sports anime without being beholden to the mundane things that hold the genre back. It doesn't have to deal with the heartbeat of a school year or tournament season schedule. All it takes to introduce a new twist is to brawl at a different market or have someone new show up to yours.

No seriously, why?

After stepping through all that, I think the answer is simple and a bit unsatisfying. I like weird sports anime because of the weird, not because of the sports. Weird anime are just fun, and taking something I find less fun and weirding it up means I get a bit of extra unfamiliarity from the weirdness.

[filmnoirsbian]

Bestie at this point my blog is feature for your writing as much mine. Save some talent 😭😭😭

HAND STITCHKNG GUNFIGHTS INTO CONFESSIONS!!!!! Sorry I just. I just need a minute. Hold on a second. Isnt that the why we write for our respective schlock genres. To instill love where there is only lingering maybes? Because that why I write action. To make everyone gay and everyone sincere. Writing in the lines I used to have to read between. Sorry for being inconsolable on your ask box but I am. I am thinking. Head full.

I have complicated feelings about Bryan Fuller these days, but learning that he wrote Hannibal the way he did because he grew up watching movies like Fright Night (1985) and The Lost Boys and the like--which feature heavily queer-coded villains and homoeroticism which the protagonist must be tempted by but overcome as part of his journey towards triumph--and Fuller, a gay man, watched those movies and movies similar to them, and loved them because he saw himself in them, but of course was hurt by them also because homosexuality was the demon that had to be faced and destroyed. And even while watching the original Red Dragon film, which I don't remember really being homoerotic at all, Fuller watched the short scene between Hannibal and Will where Hannibal says "Remarkable boy. I do admire your courage. I think I'll eat your heart." and he internalized that and decided that as an adult, with the platform and chance NBC had given him, Fuller was going to make Hannibal the same flavor of homoerotic horror, but this time the protagonist doesn't destroy his homosexual impulses; he embraces them. (That those impulses are inextricably tied with murderous impulses is simply a facet of the genre/story. The reason Hannibal is able to make the cannibal serial killer queer without demonizing homosexuality lies in the fact that from the first episode it's clear that Hannibal being queer is not evidence of his moral corruption; everything else is.)

Carmen Maria Machado, a gay horror writer, says about horror as a genre: "The Gothic can be conducive to suppressed voices emerging, like in a haunted house. At its core, the Gothic drama is fundamentally about voiceless things—the dead, the past, the marginalized—gaining voices that cannot be ignored."

I think, as lgbt people who have grown up desperate to see ourselves represented however we could, which sometimes meant consuming media that demonized queerness and often resulted in the deaths (or heterosexual "curing") of any queer-coded characters, it became reflexive to dream up an alternate ending to those stories, in which the people like us could be alive and loved and happy. And now that we're creating stories ourselves, we can make these alternate endings a reality. There's something very cathartic about that.