#Not even subtext

[blazeeblake]

I’m not explicitly trying to be that guy, but when someone describes a love interest whose [objectively small total amount of] screen time has largely featured them being kind of insensitive and disinterested in/dismissive of the character they’re paired up with as a “partner that prioritizes and cares so much [for said character]” I can’t help but be curious of what string theory gymnastics led to such a conclusion.

Like, my own shipping goggles aside, I’m legitimately wondering where those descriptors can be found in the actual narrative?? No hate, just pure confusion, fam.

[miriam-heddy]

Not-So-Butch-Cassidy and the Sonny Kid: Zachariah (1971)

If you’re in the mood for some retro queer subtextual loveliness with an anti-toxic-masculinity message, watch this film trailer and then run and get yourself a copy of Zachariah (1971), starring a very pretty Don Johnson and a very pretty John Rubinstein being very pretty together, on horses. It’s a slasher chick’s wet dream.

ETA: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220302-zachariah-the-1971-western-that-celebrated-male-intimacy

[cherryjuicegf]

this show is way too straight

[drulalovescas]

They really pulled no punches

And Missouri was a psychic. She KNEW

[suzu-kun22]

House MD really is better if you just watch it under the assumption that House and Wilson are secretly making out literally every single time the two of them are both off screen at the same time.

[rocketbirdie]

i like the way this guy is shaped. i also approve of his unnecessarily belligerent personality

[lucabyte]

ghost

[potatosaresweet]

the funniest thing about donna tart saying she didn't want to write a female mc for the secret history because people would wonder if she's doing all this because she's in love with henry is that it made no difference whatsoever. the secret history mc is a man and still we're all wondering if he was in love with henry

[saltedbirdcat]

The way the costume department deliberately gave Elphaba this style so it looks like Glinda did her hair so they’d match I’m going to combust

[vaguely-concerned]

I still can't believe that bioware has morrigan tell you a whole story about how as a kid she came upon a girl she thought was so beautiful that it rocked her entire world and awakened new and bewildering longings in her (longings which by their very existence angered and perturbed her mother)... and then they have the temerity to ask me to believe she's straight

[sunderwight]

It's actually kind of hilarious to contemplate the prospect that the genre shift in SV means that Luo Binghe's harem go the queer route as well and start largely pairing off into lesbian ships with one another.

Mostly because of the sheer scale of Bingge's harem, and the fact that a lot of it was comprised of the members of politically influential families.

Can you imagine the freak-outs that various lords and kings are probably having over the fact that their daughters keep eloping with one another? The practical ones are probably going to be like, well, a political alliance is an alliance, welcome to the family Random Demon Princess! But a lot of them are probably going to be pissed that their bloodline's liable to die out, and that the perfectly suitable match (read: asshole cannon fodder Bingge did away with in PIDW) they arranged for their daughter got interrupted by some lady cultivator kidnapping her from her wedding instead. Imagining several prominent nobles in various realms furrowing their brows together and just being like, is it something in the water? Did some plant do this? Is it like it a cultural ripple effect, the Demon King is gay so now all the youngsters are too?

[clumsypuppy]

act 4 :(

@chipper-smol and i came to a realization

[sadhorsegirl]

not only do glinda and elphaba participate in an array of romantic courting gestures (the constant hand holding, dancing together at the ozdust ballroom, the enemies to lovers/"loathing" of it all, etc etc), glinda also mirrors specific gestures fiyero makes towards her and uses them on elphaba (giving elphaba the flower fiyero gives her, when they first meet fiyero says "our first fight" then in the popular sequence glinda says "let's not quarrel" to elphaba)..............like.........................

[professional-rat-eater]

Kinda insane that in the show that is rooted firmly in its use of the unreliable narrator trope, it seems all too common that:

1. People believe Armand had to have turned Daniel out of spite just because Louis said so.

2. Armand was lying about Lestat being attracted to him, a character who is known for being alluring and attractive.

I wonder what the common denominator between those two things are? So anything anyone says about Armand is true, but everything Armand says is automatically a lie? Okay, sure.

I guess it bothers me because Assad is so beautiful and he nails how charming and seductive Armand is meant to be. Why are people so determined to deny that characters in-universe might find him attractive? No one had an issue believing it in the books. He also captured the fragility and very real vulnerability Armand exhibits in fleeting moments. He’s such a gorgeous character and it sucks to see people overlook Assad’s work.

If you came away from season 2 thinking Armand is a “moustache-twirling villain” as I believe Assad(?) put it, whose every action is rooted in callousness and pure evil, you are watching the wrong show. There are much worse characters than him and even they are layered and complex.

Yes, Armand is evil. Yes, he did terrible things. Yes, he lies often. But he is not the Big Bad a lot of people pretend he is and not every word out of his mouth is a lie. There is so much more to him and why he acts the way he does. The actors have said so, the show-runner said so, the writers said so, the books said so, the show itself said so. Read between the lines please. Or just read the actual lines. It’s not even subtext.

He’s morally grey like everyone else and he’s going to have a lot more screen time so if you insist on hating him, I’d prepare yourself for that. He and Lestat have a very real history. It’s just a little weird how people purposely mischaracterise him (and all the other characters in the process). He’d be so boring if he was the one-note villain many seem to believe he is.

[lizardson]

I understand people who hate lirin (he is a very frustrating character) but I also think they tend to ignore that he spent years believing he killed both his sons because he refused to give in to roshone. The way he treats kaladin is awful, but it comes from a place of intense shame and regret, not a place of judgement. When he tells kal that he should've obeyed and proven himself to his masters instead of fighting against them, he says it because that's what he wished he had done. Lirin in RoW is not the same person from the WoK flashbacks and his extreme and irrational moral rigidity is the result of trauma and grief, not just "he's a surgeon so he thinks killing is bad."

TLDR lirin is more complex than people give him credit for and also your son miraculously returning from the dead doesn't negate believing for years that you killed him by having the audacity to fight against your oppressors. thank you for coming to my ted talk

[osinthewhite]

you cannot get more clear than this cmon