#Simon Vs

[shifting-worlds]

I don’t know what y’all expected to happen to kit connor when you couldn’t even apologize to becky albertalli

[arowanaprincess]

Renée Elise Goldsberry, Satisfied / Mara Page / William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet / Panic! At The Disco & fun., C'mon / Becky Albertalli, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda / Annie Spratt / Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese

[heyitsbramgreenfeld]

So, I rewatched Love, Simon after not seeing it for a while last night. And I have some thoughts. They changed a ton of stuff from the book, which, okay, some changes are fine. You can’t fit hundreds of pages into 2 hours. But a lot of the stuff they changed didn’t make much sense, and didn’t impact the running time. Here are just a few:

1. Blue’s personality. In Simon vs., Blue is shy, and takes a while to open up. He’s quiet and nervous, and isn’t super outgoing. But in the movie, Blue is super popular, super outgoing, and not nervous at all. There’s nothing wrong with this at all, but I did miss the quiet, nerdy Bram that we were blessed with in the books. Although movie Bram was cool, and absolutely slayed with his halloween costume.

2. Martin’s Tumblr post. In the book, Martin did have screenshots of Simon’s emails, just like in the movie. However, he didn’t post them. He just posted the blurb that was like “Simon’s gay, contact him for gay sex” or whatever. He made a slight mention of Blue (he said something about blue balls), but he didn’t post the screenshots, so no one found out about Blue. And Blue didn’t even find out who Simon was until a while later, because he didn’t look at the Tumblr. But in the movie, Martin posted the screenshots, which made everyone aware of Blue. This led to Blue deleting his email. In the book, Blue didn’t, but they just sort of stopped emailing for a while.

3. Simon and Blue’s meet up. In the movie, like I mentioned, Blue deleted his email. So to reach him, Simon made a public Tumblr post, asking Blue to meet him in a public place. Honestly, I hated that. Simon put Blue in a position where, in order to talk to Simon, he had to out himself. I mean, Simon didn’t have much of a choice in reaching out to him publicly, but he didn’t have to ask Blue to meet him in a place where everyone would watch them. In the book, Simon emails Blue privately, and they meet and figure things out on their own.

4. Simon’s friends reactions. Simon’s friends, in the book, are super supportive of Simon. Abby does find out about Simon trying to set Martin and her up, but she’s much more forgiving. She takes a couple days to process, but ultimately decides Simon was in a tough spot and he didn’t really have a choice. In the movie, his friends give him no chance to explain, never try to understand him, and ditch him even after he got outed.

5. Simon guessing who Blue is. In the movie, Simon guesses it’s Bram, then Lyle, then Cal. In the book, for the entire time, Simon thinks it’s Cal. He makes mentions of Bram, so we know who he is, and we know Simon thinks he’s cute, but he doesn’t guess it’s him. I kind of loved this, because Simon is canonically very clueless, and the love of his life was right in front of him. I didn’t love how, in the movie, Bram was caught making out with a girl. It just doesn’t seem like him.

6. Judaism. Bram and Nick are canonically Jewish, and it’s mentioned a lot. It’s not exactly problematic that they didn’t talk about it in the movie (except for the one mention that Blue spends Hanukkah with his dad), because that may take too much time, but I love how Simon becomes sort of interested in Judaism because of Blue. Idk, maybe it’s just because I’m Jewish and crave Jewish characters, but I really missed that aspect.

7. Leah’s crush. All throughout Simon vs, we think Leah likes Nick. It’s never resolved, but she definitely doesn’t like Simon. As we find out in the sequel, Leah on the Offbeat, Leah actually likes Abby, and she doesn’t know what to do with those feelings, so she’s sort of surly towards Abby through the whole book. In Love, Simon, we find out she actually loves Simon, and she and Abby are besties with no drama.

8. Leah and her situation. So, I know that Leah on the Offbeat was written while Love, Simon was being filmed, so they couldn’t really have a super accurate Leah in the movie, but in the book, she’s seen to be a bit moody sometimes, and in the movie, she’s very calm. It’s not too much of a difference, though. The bigger difference is Leah’s financial status. In Leah on the Offbeat, it’s made known that she has a single mom and lives in a smallish house, and feels off with everyone because she’s not as rich as most people in Shady Creek. In the movie, it’s shown that she has a giant house right next to Simon and Nick, who we know have rich parents. Again, I know that this was only mentioned in Leah on the Offbeat, and so they couldn’t have really done that, but I would’ve loved to see the characters not living in almost-mansions (seriously. the house that was used to film simon’s house recently sold for over 2 million dollars).

9. Privilege. Yes, in the book, Simon is still privileged. But he acknowledges it. He knows. I feel like in the movie, Simon has a sort of “I’m not privileged because I’m gay, and anyone who acts more gay than me (like Ethan) is asking for whatever harassment happens to them”. I just didn’t love that non-self-awareness.

Comment if I missed anything!

[stardustandrockets]

This is my last post in my series of rainbow recs. If you've enjoyed my content and can donate, my ko-fi is linked in my bio and my stories.

Thank you to everyone who has read my posts, saved them, shared them, and commented. It really means a lot that so many people have said they resonate with what I’ve said. It hasn’t been easy sharing some of this stuff as it’s not something I always like talking about. But with the #JesusJune reading challenge that was created by Christian bigots, I felt it was an opportune time to let my fellow religiously traumatized queers know that you’re not alone.

It’s been a hard journey to get to where I am today, and I don’t think I could have done that if it weren’t for my partner and queer representation in books. Before joining booksta back in 2017, I can think of only two queer books I’d really read, M or F? by Lisa Papademetriou and Chris Tebbetts and Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan. I read them both in high school and then fell off the reading wagon because college was a lot and I was too busy surviving to leisurely read. But it was the first time that I had read books with explicitly queer characters.

I am so very thankful that queer books exist at the capacity they do now. Even though scared adults are trying to ban queer content, it’s there for kids that need it and I greatly hope the ones that do need it are able to get it. If I had books like Loveless by Alice Oseman or known of any out and proud asexual authors, I might have discovered my asexuality sooner. That being said, I’m so glad that kids these days have better access to information that I did growing up (despite what some people want) and seem to know who they are at an earlier age. I think they’ll turn out okay, all things considered.

Remember: whether you are out or not, know you are greatly loved and my account is a safe space. 🌈 Bigots can't and won't win.

[hewasnumberjuan]

Nick Robinson, via Instagram Stories, 09/19/2023

https://instagram.com/therealnickrobinson?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

[asexual-juliet]

we all give love simon a lot of a shit and i’m not saying it’s all unearned but there was just something about being thirteen and queer in that movie theater when jennifer garner said “you get to exhale now” …there was just something about it

[i-will-sing-no-requiem]

Pride Edit 3/?

Pairing: Leah Burke & Abby Suso Song: Counting Paths by Matthew and the Atlas Media: Simon vs. the Homo Sapien's Agenda / Leah on the Offbeat / Love, Simon

(fanart in the first couple shots by @kidovna and @allarica)

[tojisun]

imagine travelling for your job and coming home to simon (big and beautiful and mia-for-two-months simon) holding your cat up like one would carry a baby. they’re standing by the balcony door in your living room, watching the people who are walking by.

“uhm,” you begin, shocked and exhausted. “what…”

simon turns just enough to meet your eyes. “m’teaching sasha how to be observant. little girl didn’t even blink when i walked in.”

“you don’t have keys to my place.” you lick at your chapped lips. “you shouldn’t have keys to my place.”

“i know,” he grunts, adjusting his hold on her. sasha just plops her head on his chest again, her tail slowly swaying behind her and her big eyes slow blinking at you.

you give her your own slow blink and you wish you could pick her up from simon’s arms but—and here’s the issue—you still don’t understand why he is here. why is he back?

“did you break into my home?” you finally ask, quiet and anxious.

simon just sniffs, patting sasha’s rear, and looks away. sasha lets out a purr.

“simon—!?”

[aletterinthenameofsanity]

Y'know, there's this gripe I've had for years that really frustrates me, and it has to do with Love, Simon and people joking about it and calling it too-pg and designed-for-straight-people and all the like. (A similar thing has happened to Heartstopper, but that's another conversation.)

I saw Love, Simon in theaters when it came out my senior year in high school. I saw it three times, once with my friends/parents on opening night, once with my brother over spring break, and once with my grandparents.

On opening night, the air in the room was electric. It was palpable. Half the heads in there were dyed various colors. Queer kids were holding hands. We were all crying and laughing and cheering as a group. My friends grabbed my hands at the part where Simon was outed and didn't let go until his parents were saying that they accepted him. My friend came out to me as non-binary. Another person in our group admitted that she had feelings for girls. It was incredible. I left shaking. This was the first mainstream queer romance movie that had ever been produced by one of the main five studios, and I know that sounds like another "first queer character from Disney" bit but you have to understand that even in 2018 this was groundbreaking. Getting to have a sweet queer rom-com where the main character was told that he got "to breathe now" after coming out meant so much to me and my friends.

But also, from a designed-for-straight-people POV (which, to be frank, it was written by a bisexual author and directed by a gay man, this was not designed for straight audiences), why is it a bad thing that it appealed to the widest possible audience? That it could make my parents and grandparents see things in a new light? My stepdad wasn't at all interested in rom-coms but he saw it with me because it was something I cared about and he hugged me when we came out of the theater. My very Catholic grandparents watched it with me and though my grandpa said he still didn't quite understand the whole 'gay thing,' all he wanted was for me to be happy and to have a happy ending like Simon did. My Nana actually cried when Simon came out and squeeze my hand when his mother told him he could breathe.

And when Martin blackmailed Simon, my mom, badass ally that she is, literally hissed "Dropkick him. Dropkick him in the balls" leading to multiple queer kids in the audience to laugh or smile. Having my parents there- the only parents, by the way, out of my group of queer and questioning friends- made multiple people realize that supportive adults were out there. That parents like those in Love, Simon do exist in real life.

When people complain about Heartstopper not being realistic or Love, Simon being too cutesy, I remember seeing Love, Simon on opening night. I remember my friend coming out and my stepdad hugging me and my mom defending us through this character. I remember the cheers that went through the audience when Bram and Simon kissed and the chatter in the foyer after the movie was over and the way that this movie made me understand that happy endings do exist.

Queer kids need happy endings. Straight people need entry points to becoming allies. Both of these things can come together in beautiful ways. They can find out about more queer culture later, but for now, let them have this. Let them all have a glimpse at a better, happier world. Let them have queer joy.

[brw]

When people talk about my favourite minor character: omg Hiiiii do you like Blorbo Dongus too? That's soo cool! I love talking about them! Doesn't matter that your interpretation is different than mine, isn't it so cool that such a minor character can still have such varied interpretations?

When people talk about my favourite popular character: Everyone But Me Is Wrong, This Place Is A Freakshow And I Respect None Of You, Next Person To Misinterpret The Source Material Gets Executed On Sight, You'll All So Fucking Stupid–

[soranatus]

NIGHTWING/DICK GRAYSON By Simone Di Meo

[maajul444]

[ramvur]

[for people with screen readers u can find the alt text in each image description]

3 times gaz was the rizz master vs 1 time he was the puppy-eyes king

[arowanaprincess]

feelings.

Ed Sheeran, Celestial

Becky Albertalli, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Saiph Muhammad

Saint Motel, Happy Accidents

Marilyn Monroe

Waithamai

He is We, All About Us

[soaqrudyz]

soap who knew the moment he saw all 6 feet 4 inches of ghost’s northern british emoness that he was gonna fuck him, sets his sights on seducing the giant and gets completely blindsided by how fucking Charming ghost actually is. he’s funny and sarcastic and a huge pain in the ass and suddenly soap doesn’t just want to be in his bed.

ghost who knew the second soap looked through the mask and treated him like a human instead of a machine that night on the tarmac that he wouldn’t be able to stop the man from making a home in his heart. so he sets about becoming the scot’s friend, silently hoping he’ll fall as hard as ghost himself did.

[emmster]

It’s 3am but look I coloured it