#but i also have trust issues. and i KNOW it’s not queerbait because i do have media literacy

[annarubys]

i was vaguely aware of nandermo before starting wwdits but i figured it was going to be like every other queer ship people go nuts about where it’s literal bread crumbs on screen. i was thinking this all the way until the last episode of season three and now i’m just resigned to the fact that everyone was right and that i’m invested in them now

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

"We do want Buddie to be canon, nonny, and in my opinion we are going to get it. All this recent PR supports that, (again: in my opinion)"

Can you go into this if you don't mind, honestly I think Ryan at the premiere all but confirmed it and even now he says so much without saying anything at all. His expressions give away so much lol. He has a terrible poker face. But i would love to hear your thoughts on this if possible.

I'm gonna be honest nonny you really answered your own question there: Ryan's behavior and the fact that they're continuing to let him do press.

As I discussed previously, it's very difficult to promote a couple of characters that fandom ships without falling into queerbaiting. Because of this it would be the smart thing for ABC to keep Ryan and Oliver separate, disallow Buddie or Buddie-related questions, and so on.

Instead they are allowing Ryan to do press, Ryan to do press with Oliver, and are allowing these questions while trusting Oliver and Ryan (on a leash) to handle them. Now, part of it is probably the Barbra Streisand effect i.e. the more attempts you make to hide something the more people notice the very thing you don't want them to notice, but given the sheer AMOUNT that Buck and Eddie's relationship has been put front and center and the fact that Oliver and Ryan have been doing all these interviews together, I am hopeful and see that as a positive sign for Buddie because I trust ABC not to want to shit the bed by being accused of queerbaiting.

I think also as I've mentioned in another ask I answered a week or so ago, Ryan being in PR jail was a joke for a reason. Now, please note, EVERYONE except Oliver was pushed to the side in PR by FOX. FOX seriously pushed Oliver to do all the promo and be the "face" of the show, something nobody in the cast appreciated (including Oliver). So Ryan not doing interviews nearly as much was, in part, this issue by FOX.

However, Ryan also historically is... bad at keeping his mouth shut. He never quite spills the beans but he tends to throw his personal opinion out and hint/tease at stuff he shouldn't be hinting/teasing at. He likes to be goofy, to tease fans, to have fun. Which not only gives public relations managers migraines and anxiety, but in the case of a queer ship can land the show in trouble if Ryan's saying stuff that fans think is hinting at Buddie and then Buddie doesn't happen.

As we have all seen, the second they let Ryan open his mouth on live camera, his cute tipsy little puppy face word vomited all over the carpet. I suspect the fear of god was put into Oliver that it was his job to Make Ryan Behave.

Now, there are actors who have ignored this and enjoyed teasing about a ship anyway and the network has let them because they only cared about getting people to watch the show, they didn't care about being respectful or not. But nowadays that's not something you can get away with and most networks understand they'll get a lot of backlash that's just not worth it. AND most actors understand that even if they personally want a ship to happen, it's only going to hurt the feelings of fans if they (the actor) try to hint at it and then it doesn't happen.

It's more often that an actor will later say after the fact "yeah I would've liked it if X happened, but the writers chose to go in a different direction." Past-tense. They have a lot more freedom to speak on past things than on present storylines or possible future ones.

ABC is taking a risk in letting Ryan do all these video interviews, and to do video interviews with Oliver because the second those two are doing anything together everyone assumes it hints at Buddie. The latter, that's not really on ABC so much as on the fans, but either way, the solution is to keep 'em separate and keep Ryan locked up. Instead, they're allowing the actors to do things they know will get fans excited over Buddie, without crossing any lines into disrespect.

[kaypeace21]

i think with noah's interview and confirming that will's gay and in love with mike; and that the duffer brothers have been building it up since season 1, i'll be anticipating for a big payoff in s5. they can just build up byler and make it unrequited. it doesn't make sense plus it completely deviates from all the subtexts and hints they've given us for four seasons already.

I agree that it wouldn't make sense to not have byler endgame. And to do all this set up just for it to be unrequited. I've been pointing out all the subtext for years. And yes , there is alot of queer subtext in s1. That made it pretty obvious Will was gay and even hinted that mike wasn't straight either. Which my followers know I've talked about extensively. I also pointed out how most of the byler scenes were initiated by mike in s1-2. And how s1, 2, 3 and 4 still had a bunch of byler subtext for both Will and Mike. One of the positive aspects about s4 byler is that they showed it's not simply mike always taking care of Will. But that it's mutual: Will also takes care of and checks on mike's emotions too. The best part of their relationship: is that they actually talk to eachother about their feelings . And s4 pretty much confirmed Will is gay and in love with Mike (to the oblivious fans who missed all the prior hints in past seasons- but hilariously there were still "gay- Will" deniers after s4).

Which is why I need byler to not just be subtext anymore (because alot of queerbaits are subtext). Byler may be endgame in s5. But it's tiring that we only get subtext,and m*leven gets a whole love confession (even if behind the subtext we know mike didn't fall in love right after seeing her, the vines tightening around El as mike spoke, the fact some of mike's line were literally identical to brenner's speech to el , not even getting into the superhero line again, or how awkward the 2's dynamic is after the confession .) Plus, in s4 (and prior seasons) they constantly show Elmike parallel familial dynamics - probably to hint it's familial love (not romantic love). But, in spite of that, plenty of people will take the romantic confession as straight forward confirmation for m*leven.

Right now if they wanted they could theoretically still sell out- and go the cliche route (with m*leven etc). They retcon all the time anyways. And alot of the general audience wouldn't question how it contradicts - the narrative, character arcs ,the background details, subtext/dialogue, etc.

So at this point- I really think the love confession was a poor choice. Even if it's meant to subvert expectations . They just lost a lot of queer fans' trust and m*levens would have some right to be upset in s5 (if byler is canon.)

And yeah the fact El (originally) In s1 was supposed to die and be 2 years younger than mike .Doesn't scream romantic endgame. Not to mention how unhealthy they are as a couple - but I can't always expect people not to sell out. Or even write healthy romances.

I'm hoping for the best... but they still lost my trust a lot (given certain elements in s4). The way they handled certain story beats besides byler /m*leven (but also the whole lucas /erica fights + how they planned on k*lling max originally- going against the whole vecna allegory of max "running up that hill" to overcome her su*cidal thoughts). It just made me question their writing. Did s4 have alot of positive elements though- yeah, it would be a lie to say otherwise.

Do I still think byler was the original plan, and could possibly still be endgame- yes. Alot of evidence points to byler being endgame: the byler subtext in literal every season (even making direct contrasts/parallels of byler to m*leven).While m*leven has relationahip issues every season they date. And mike/el dating brings out the worst in eachother, and literally every season when they get back together they undo all their past character arcs/lessons. They don't improve. M*even in s3 and 4: they ignore their friends for eachother, lie to eachother, fight, say I love you. Wash and repeat. Mike in the beginning of s4 is hero worshiping el- is it solved in s4 , nope. Just double downed on that mike hero worships rather than sees her as his gf. And even before dating it was hinted it wouldn't be healthy (el's spying , jealousy,etc)- so I'm not surprised. Plus, how s4 ended, and how alot of the films that inspired s4 -have couples that parallel byler. And also because Will in s5 is "supposedly" a primary focus again. But do I 100% trust the duffers to actually give us endgame byler like I used to - no.

[zahri-melitor]

Newish Comics, Regular Edition (thank you extremely early spoilers meaning I spent yesterday on the Gotham War stuff, this is a big edition and I’ve been holding myself back from touching these for FOUR WHOLE WEEKS):

Birds of Prey #1: Righto so as I read this my levels of trust are building just slightly. There is at least reasoning being built into this scenario. Also I note the note that this is post Green Arrow #6

The list!!! I’ve already ranted about this but I want to note how IMMACULATE the order of “Shiva, Selina, Talia?, Cheshire?” is. Shiva’s the obvious starting point. She’s heavily associated with Sin, she’s an actual Bird of Prey from several team lineups, there’s the whole Dinah and Shiva relationship… Dinah would consider this. Jumping to Selina next, as someone who again has had multiple BoP appearances, is known to ally up if asked, exists in the antihero spectrum, Dinah’s probably also now aware she’s been looking after Lian. Then Talia. I am unaware of Talia being associated with any BoP team lineup ever but she’s an obvious next place for thoughts to go. Talia has Views and if you’re looking at dangerous people who can help with an extraction rescue she’s an option. Then finally, Cheshire. Who Dinah full well knows would cause ALL LEVELS of drama if Dinah asked her to go after Sin given everything around Lian, but is willing to consider it anyway for a moment there.

I do adore the art style in this, DC’s really putting out some stunning LOOKING books at the moment, also the old fashioned comics style and colour here are giving me vibes of the Black Canary 1991 run.

“What’s more important than a sister” remains excellent, Barda and Cass together is just amazing, and I’m interested in what happens with Zealot and Meridian. I understand why Harley’s there even if I don’t like it, and it’s largely approached better than I expected (I just can’t summon the energy to care about that fight scene, it’s establishing stuff to jury rig a reason for Harley to be here at all, I just don’t care about Harley enough, though does Harley have a secret past with the Dava Sborsc ‘collect all the single punches’ form of martial arts?)

My actual big question is: Sin is SIXTEEN? I mean I know we’ve had 2.5 reboots since the last time she was on page in comics, but she was approximately 10 years old after One Year Later. She was in PRIMARY SCHOOL. That’s even faster aging than Damian! (I guess we could stretch the point to her being 11-12, but it feels older than she was depicted)

Blue Beetle #1: The thing I MOST adore about using that JLI picture for Ted is that even with this comic set in the current present, Ted was on the team with a proper USSR Red Rocket. Ted you were a superhero 32 years ago?

Also amused we got a zany Charlton Comics era villain back.

RED BEETLE IS BACK!!! Oh no. Also almost impossible for it to be Paco given various reboots, so… (I’m sure Ted is fine. They’re not killing him off permanently in the first issue of this)

Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville #1: BEA! TORA! “Each day is a gift, and I get to share it with my best friend!” (Howling. I’m howling. They’re going to spend this entire mini baiting us all aren’t they)

…Martha immediately starts comparing Fire & Ice to her and Jonathan. “Gorilla Grodd’s little sister” (whose name appears to be Linka Grodd? And who is queer).

NOOOO THEY’RE BREAKING UP! AND THEY WEREN’T EVEN TOGETHER! YOU TWO JUST LESBIANED YOURSELVES INTO A BUSINESS TOGETHER! AND A TWELVE MONTH LEASE!

“Abandoned by my best friend, maybe the only true friend I’ve known.” (Get a room together)

AWW YEAH AMBUSH BUG!!

I am going to thoroughly enjoy this BECAUSE the entire run will be queerbait and hopefully Bea and Tora might finally get to kiss or something in issue 6. I am ready for this. Just gals being pals.

City Boy #4: this remains outstanding in my opinion. I really like what they’re doing with Cameron, and they’re making using Darkseid actually make sense. Also Chemo blowing up Bludhaven has been recanonised!

Shazam! #3: “Dan Mora an alien?” bookmark ahhahahaha. The background details are where Mora really has fun.

NOT THE AUDITORS.

This just remains silly fun (the Moon Emperor?) so I’m enjoying it.

Warlord #18: this week in the land of Skartaris we apparently DID manage to get out of 500km of desert in a single issue. Amazing work, Grell.

Travis once again using his gun. How many bullets left, Travis, how many. Can you make more?

Then they get attacked by the BLOODMOON and kidnapped by space aliens for breeding purposes. After running away from a T-rex.

And then…TRAVIS MORGAN BONDAGE SCENE. I’ve missed these, Grell, how have you been coping?

Travis gets transmuted into a minotaur. This will clearly only go well. (Sadly it gets fixed like three pages later)

Tara saves the day twice because Tara’s actually more competent than Travis.

[dreamsweb]

Dream and his queerness.

Even if it were true that dream /does/ queerbait the way people take it it's a mockery of what they stand/defend, they ask for proof from someone who doesn't owe it to them cause his private life has nothing to do with his public self, what he does doesn't need a deeper look into his life, he just needs to put his ass in a chair and play games until he gets bored and turns off the stream.

This is not just a dream and antis issue, because even if hating him gives impetus to the questioning they have for him this is an issue that goes beyond that cause people see by binarisms and only accept other things when the person who "doesn't follow the norm" is towards a direction that they decide that it's okat and that they can fit with them.

Dream doesn't have to explain himself just because he looks the way he looks, he doesn't have to expose himself just because he is a 6'3 man who is not physically feminine and he doesn't have to tell his life story just because some people want to create their own movie in their heads.

If you believe something isn't how it is then it is from you and /for/ you, if for you the way dream is doesn't match it's because you are not him and you can't speak for him when you are going by /your own/ experiences and perceptions.

Dream doesn't even have to say "trust me" because he doesn't have to swear to anything that has to do with his own personal perception and the way he himself is developing as he goes along.

People are born to learn and we keep learning as we go through our life and this can be seen in any kind of learning and learning also develops in different ways.

Dream could be "faking it" but that doesn't make sense, not to me, because I don't see his life based on a straight binary line, but i dont reflect myself on his own development neither, I just understand that everyone is different and evry1 has different points of view throughout their life's.

And honestly it is evident that dream has and had a lot of internalized homophobia/biphobia/queerphobia that he has worked through these past few years to get to where he is at this moment.

The lgbt community is an unsafe and untrustworthy space when you understand that binary identities and orientations are the ones that "matters" and are "defended" within the same community.

Non-binary perceptions are erased and binaries are raised with things as common as a lesbian woman seeing a cute man and deciding to say she is now "straight", these are subtle forms of biphobia and it is present within all people with binary orientations.

The lgbt community is not a safe space for dream, it is not a safe space for me, it is not a safe space for people who cannot "fit" in and are displaced and questioned.

Dream is hated, dream has done problematic things in the past and it's understandable that they don't want comparisons to be generated between him and other public figures but that's not the issue; the issue is that he and other people like kit connor have been questioned and stripped of their own identities just because they ain't like they want them to be.

It is biphobia and queerphobia because dream is a man who has dated and /liked/ women and that is what generates the doubt.

It is true that dream could be lying (which is not true and should not be discussed) but even if it was all a lie that does /not/ erase the fact that in this context dream is a non-straight man who is questioned for liking women, completely erasing his present and the reality in which he has always lived.

Dream is a queer man who is accused of queerbait because people are queerphobic and biphobic.

Dream is a man who likes women.

Dream is a man who owes no one any kind of explanation because no one knows what he really feels.

No one can say that everything is too easy for him or that "anything makes sense" because no one knows all he could be going through or all he already went through.

No one knows how his own discovery was or how long it really took him to find himself but people judge him as if they know everything about his process.

A process that only he knows and only he understands.

[deanismysavior]

Your blog is really making me hopeful that Byler will happen, although unfortunately I still don't really trust the chreators to make it happen... I mean, I've been mislead and disappointed so many times - but that wasn't the point of my ask. I sorta wanted to rant, but I am lowkey too scared to make my own post. Here we go: it really REALLY bothers me how so many of the milkvan shippers are super homophobic while "defending" their ship/attacking byler and/or byler shippers. You can really see this while scrolling the milkvan tag (biggest mistake I made, ever).

Also what I saw was so many of them claiming bylers don't care about Mike, or if Eleven gets her heart broken, etc. etc., that bylers only care about "their gay noncanon ship". It's so ridiculous that it almost makes me laugh because a LOT of the milkvan shippers (before anyone gets mad, of course not all of them) are the ones who don't give a shit about the plot, the individual characters or really any other aspect of the show that doesn't have to do with milkvan. So many of them reduce El and Mike only to each other's love interests, as if there is nothing else there. A lot of the byler shippers get these characters as individuals and think of them individually. I also saw many ppl on the milkvan tag claim bylers don't care specifically about Mike AT ALL, only as Will's love interest. What??? I really haven't seen many of these byler shippers around. And... as if many of the milkvans don't do the same exact thing. They literally do not care about Mike, or El, or anyone. Or anything that happens in the show. It's so hypocritical.

Sorry this is so incoherent, I am tired and having trouble gathering my thoughts together. Also, absolutely no pressure to answer this! I am sure many of these things have been said before.

Hi! I'm so happy that my blog has been a positive experience for you! That being said, I completely understand not having full confidence, because I know that queerbaiting is a huge issue in media, and I've experienced that pain as well *coughs* destiel *coughs*

It really is a problem that people have started to use their ship as an excuse to be homophobic. I've seen it happen a few times in my ask box and it's always really disturbing to me how much hatred these people have towards Will just because he's "getting in the way" of their ship. Like weird ass, did you even watch this season? He single-handedly saved the bones of Mordecai and the Rigbys that remains after all the lies and gaslighting. If anything, they should be thanking Will.

I also think it's super weird that people assume that we hate Mike, because personally, Mike is my favorite character. I love how layered he is and there's something about the progression of his character that really resonates with me. But seriously, why would we ship Mike with Will if we didn't like Mike? I think some people are under the impression that we only ship Byler because the ship itself is gay, which I take a bit of issue with because they make it seem like we're making shit up just to make it gay. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy ships like Steddie or Ronance, and I think they're cute and have a certain amount of chemistry, but those ships, while fun, don't hold the same weight as Byler, and I feel like people are kind of lumping Byler in with that category even though we have much more substantial evidence that something could really happen here. But Byler aside for a second, even if I wasn't for Byler, at this point, I still wouldn't be for Monstrosity because their relationship is plain unhealthy and imbalanced.

I would agree though, I've seen a lot more Mannequin shippers say stuff about them hating Mike and loving El than I've seen Byler shippers say anything negative about Mike (other than in an affectionate or joking way). It's honestly weird bc why would you want El with Mike if you don't like Mike?? Make it make sense.

[aromanticbuck]

hey hey, so im all caught up on chicago pd atm and im looking for a new show to watch.....

all i know about 911/ls is from your blog and the way you talk about it it seems like an awesome show.......maybe convince me to start watching it ? i trust your recommendation (no pressure though !! )

(also is lone star a reboot of 911? a sequel? a same-universe-same-time crossover show ?? i tried to look it up but it didnt really make sense-)

⚡

Hi, anon!

I did see this ask this morning when I woke up, but I didn't want to deal with fighting formatting on my phone at work, or my phone autocorrecting "Lone Star" to "alone Star" every single time (the number of times I've had to correct it is literally.... 100% of the times I've typed it), so I'm finally getting around to it now!

911, the original show, is set in Los Angeles. 911 Lone Star is a spin off show set in the same universe but in Austin, Texas. There are a few nods back and forth between the two, but only one real crossover episode (on Lone Star) that you don't really have to know much about the original for (I watched Lone Star first and I wasn't that confused, but I was already semi-familiar with the OG characters, too, so I might not be the best person to ask on that front)

I'm... still mad about last night's episode of 911. I'm trying to be optimistic that the storyline will play out better than it looks like right now. But as of 6x11, I'm not a huge fan of the original show. Everything up until this point has been really enjoyable, though. I think season 4 was my favorite for a while. Season 6a was really good! The first 9 episodes of season 6? I have very few complaints. Even 6x10, fantastic. I just...

Lone Star is really good, though.

There's a lot of great representation in it - my heart loves Tarlos (if you're following me you like Moustead, right? there's another gay police officer/former drug addict ship! and this one's canon! and getting married!) , and Paul (a black, trans firefighter), and a confirmed(?) bisexual character, too. It's a lot of fun. It's definitely the funnier show of the two, if you want to start with something lighter and see if you enjoy the universe before you get any further into it! (if you do watch Lone Star, and you're as observant as I am, Knox will jump scare you in season 1. just prepare for that. because it startled me)

Honestly, even with my issues with 911 OG right now, it's a lot of fun, too. I know I post a lot about Buck and Eddie and their relationship (not canon! it's not canon! it's queerbait and it's actually a lot of fun to enjoy the crumbs they give us if you acknowledge that! just keep your expectations reasonable and it's fun, I promise), but I love.... literally every character and every ship I've seen so far, besides the Parents? Most of the parents suck.

and Doug Kendall. fuck Doug Kendall. all my homies hate Doug Kendall.

Give it a shot! Even if you only watch a few episodes to get a feel for it, you might have some fun with it! I'm trying not to take it too seriously, because it is just a TV show. Even if it's not 100% perfect, it's something to look forward to every week during long shifts at work!

[jawsofbalmung]

1, 2, 13, 14, 17

1. What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?

Honestly? Blackmadhi. They barely interact, it just feels like ppl trying to force a ship that's not there. I have. Other reasons for hating it too but at its base it just doesn't make much sense to me.

2. Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?

I think the person I rbed the meme from said the same thing, but benbaro. And gumworth. Also idk if it counts but I see vanlock as strictly fwb. Some dynamics are better platonic I think. -Most predictable thing for an aromantic to say.

13. Unpopular opinion about XXX character?

I think this question is supposed to come w a character on it but since aai2 is fresh on the brain I'm gonna say that Sebastian Debeste is a perfect precious darling boy and everyone better be nice to him immediately or I'm gonna start breaking things. Also idk how unpopular this is I just wanna say that I hc him changing his last name to Courtney post-canon. He deserves it.

14. Unpopular opinion about your fandom?

I am a wrightworth shipper, I am, you all know I am, but speaking also as an aro, y'all need to calm down so much. Miles is extremely aro-coded. Miles specifically also has a lot of trauma and trust issues baked into his character arc. Is there a lot of lines that can be read as romantic? Absolutely. Do I personally think they're in love? For sure. But I think y'all need to also consider/respect other readings. No, "unnecessary feelings" isn't ~exclusively~ romantic, like that's literally not the context of the line. Fandoms in general, especially ones with a major, near-universal ship like this, tend to flatten interesting dialogue and character arcs down to plain romance and I feel like it's a massive disservice to the story that the creators are trying to tell. Also it always turns into overzealous amatonormative fans accusing creators of queerbaiting because they do not know the meaning of that word. I'm a hypocrite tho, I also talk about how canonically married they are, but like. Idk I feel like that's just another huge dose of reading comprehension that all fandom people need in general.

17. Instead of XYZ happening, I would have made ABC happen…

Honestly nothing so concrete comes to mind but there are a few cases that I would have liked to rewrite. The very end of turnabout revolution, for example, or all of dual destinies, or maybe exploring some interesting avenues like what if Justine really was the culprit at the end of aai2 (tho I do adore who the culprit ends up being, I just want Shi-Long to be right for once), but while it's straying away from the original prompt a bit, I think the biggest thing I would change about aa is to give Klavier more depth of character, explore his feelings relating to his brother and how he handles the fallout, and for the love of god have him come back more. There is so much potential for tragedy in a character like him, but I feel like they rush any angst he may have and it's a major disappointment. I lie awake at night thinking about what he could have been.

[glittergradient]

I can say with at least 99% confidence that Harry Styles is not straight, and I can't believe how many people forget closeting exists. (It has been like this since the early days of One Direction.) That and the marketing of his career (and esp. the gay role) have literally painted him in a corner and idk how long he can try playing both sides because it clearly is making people angry! People either believe he is gaybaiting or are angry of closeting/him not coming out (or just tired of the fuckery and gaslighting the fandom has been put through for YEARS.) That is just a no win situation. I know not everyone has been following him and 1D for years like many of us here but the dude has literally complimentary tattoos with his bro. Lay it off already.

No need to post this btw, I just wanted to say it's not always how it looks in the media and to maybe be critical of what you read, and especially look at the stories of closeted celebrities (like Elton John who married a woman once, lol)! Surprise, it is still happening. So guess I am just begging people to look beyond the headlines _before_ posting hate?

(1D is a rabbit hole in itself to go in if you are interested & don't buy everything face value, and crazier than any other fandom I've been with how much lying and fakery there is.)

Cheers :)

I barely even use this blog anymore, I reblog one (1) thing and I get this.

look, you don't need to tell me all this, I was in the 1d fandom, trust me, I know my herstory (though I will ignore the l*rry part of this ask because we are NOT doing this in 2022, LET IT GO).

all I'll say is that even IF harry isn't straight, his comment is still 1. untrue 2. idiotic 3. borderline homophobic. this has nothing to do with his sexuality. also I never said he's queerbaiting, I know there is discourse about this, personally I think it's more complicated than that, but anyway that's not my issue with him. I just think he's annoying.

cheers!

[alarrytale]

Hi marte, so I was thinking about what you said about how it's too late for Harry to become an lgbt activist and gain the lgbtqia community's trust back and I think you're right, there is nothing he can do now except come out. Anything he does they will see as queerbaiting and damage control. I can't blame them really. He's done very little activism but uses gay aesthetics and it seems performative because he only uses them on stage. It's all too late now so until he comes out he'll have to deal with any backlash. I however hope that he doesn't stop expressing his sexuality as it will look like guilt, like he knows he has done wrong and is backing down. That'll be even worse imo. So I hope he continues as he is and neverminds the backlash. They'll still listen to his music.

Hi, anon!

I think you need to fight Harry tooth and nail for him to stop expressing his queerness. He's fought long and hard with his label and management to be allowed to act on his queerness, express himself like he wants to and show fellow queer people that he's gay. So he won't dial back under no circumstances, not willingly anyway. So he will just have to deal with the queerbaiting accusations, or push his label and management to be allowed to act, behave and dress more stereotypically queer off stage too. As to look more consistent and not like he's only gay for pay. But that may lead to the gp thinking he's gay.

As long as he's managing the queerbaiting accusations and the voices don't get louder to the point where he gets cancelled by the community leaders and social media, he'll be fine. I also am not sure if staying silent on the issue or speaking about it is the right way to handle it. I would think addressing it would be the best course of action to appease people, but seeing how often he puts his foot in his mouth and don't have good answers to provide, i'd stay silent. Silence leads to speculation running wild though (you see how well that worked for Kate...) so it's something they'll have to keep a close eye on. I'm afraid neither H nor his team is taking this seriously enough, or have a good enough understanding of the issue and the way people feel about it to know how to approach and handle it. We'll have to see who things are developing when his new era starts.

[dykeyote]

This might be more specific of an ask than you are looking for, so if it is, feel free to talk about just Seddie in general, but one thing I’d love to hear someone else’s thoughts on is how Sydney and Jedediah’s history will affect their romantic relationship. Like, they both have so so much trauma, and so so many issues (please, put these kids in therapy) and while that stands as a testament to all that they’ve been through together, I think it could also have a pretty negative repercussion on their relationship. I mean, heck, it already has in the first season! I feel their situation is just vastly different from the typical romances written in media. Personally, I actually really love that and am glad this kind of dynamic is being explored, but what do you think? Do you have predictions, thoughts, or opinions on “Toxic Cecil and Carlos” or Blue’s decision to write a relationship like theirs?

OH MY GOD NO I LOVE SPECIFIC QUESTIONS THIS IS SO GREAT im probably gonna have this be the last one i reply to before i go to bed bc i just think its such a fun question ...... will talk abt the rest tmr ........ BUT i absolutely think its going to affect their relationship no for certain . mainly because i think they havent worked out their issues at All before diving into dating each other and i think thats really gonna come back to bite them, how can you go from years of ignoring someone to dating them straight away? and we already kinda see that this isnt gonna go well, seeing as adams apparently a couples therapist - i wouldnt be surprised if we see them either break up or almost break up at some point, i Really think things are gonna be rough for them. mainly i think itll be difficult for jedidiah to be able to provide sydney with the attention and love that a growing relationship needs due to his Completely unresolved guilt and trauma surrounding sydney's reanimation, and i think sydney will have a difficult time trusting him and being comfortable around him with the fear we know he has for him. not to mention jedidiahs feelings of undue responsibility and his underlying ableism that seems to still be incredibly unresolved - i really think theres a Lot of issues theyre gonna need to work through and i think things will probably get worse before they get better. and you know what? i think thats AMAZING. i love that their relationship is so complex!! normally im not a huge fan of couples getting together early in shows because i feel like their dynamic becomes less interesting the moment after they get together. but they still have so much to work through!! theres gonna be so many problems!! im honestly unsure if theyre going to remain together in the end and while obviously as a sydidiah enjoyer to the grave thats sad 4 me . but its so good narratively because it means theres still uncertainty!! sydney and jedidiah dating does not mean that theyve stopped being flawed and interesting characters and i actually think its going to exacerbate things!! i hope theyre able to work through it and be able to be together healthily obviously but the fact that i Have to hope is really good narratively because it means that their dynamic hasnt lost what was so compelling and tragic in the first season. also from a representation standpoint i think its great because i think gay people need the messy rep that straight people get that doesnt take "messy" and turn it into "homophobic" or "queerbaiting". and thats what they are!!!! delightful!!!!!! i want to study these freaks in a lab

(also every time theyre called toxic cecilos it makes me giggle because it just makes me think of 70a bc kevin and carlos r the closest thing to toxic cecilos in the show which i find funny bc there the avoidant scientist is the one in the right but i digress . i like wtnv and calling them that makes me laugh)

[musclesandhammering]

Every Single Issue I Have With S*lki (It’s Not Just The Selfcest)

Here goes. I threatened to post this a few days ago and never did, but I just saw a s*lki stan Twitter account claim that Loki caring about Sylvie more than the whole multiverse was a Good And Romantic thing and it pushed me over the fucking edge, so now you all have to read this. I’ve divided it into categories cause there’s just THAT much.

OOC Bullshit

• First and foremost, no amount of mental gymnastics you do will ever make me believe that this specific Loki- the one that just invaded New York, that just came off a year of Thanos Torture, that just got done being influenced by the sceptre, that was literally in the middle of a crisis already, and then on top of that went through all the trauma of Ep 1- would even be worried about a romantic relationship. That would be the furthest thing from his mind. Go back and watch how he acted in Avengers- you think that guy would abandon his previous mission to become a snivelling simp for a girl he’d just met 3 days prior? Yeah, there’s no universe in which that makes sense.

• “It’s very in character for Loki to fall in love with himself lololol-“ NO, it’s literally not. Out of all the characters in the mcu, I don’t think I can think of anyone that genuinely hates themselves more than Loki. He even referred to all his other male variants as “monsters” and said meeting them was “a nightmare” in this series. He’s got so much self-loathing, plus the fact that he genuinely thinks himself to be an evil backstabbing scourge- so there’s no evidence at all suggesting that he would ever develop a fondness for, or even be inclined to trust, another version of himself, after only knowing them for 3 days.

• Building on that, the whole concept of Loki falling in love with a version of himself just feeds into the annoying ass misconception that he’s a narcissist. No matter which way you stack it, he’s not. If you’re referring to NPD, he doesn’t fit the criteria, and if you’re saying “narcissist” just as a slang term meaning “selfish and arrogant”, that still doesn’t accurately describe him. But when creators like Waldron and Herron do things like having him fall in love with himself, it makes it so much easier for casual viewers to think that he is.

Shitty LGBT Rep

• It’s kinda sus that Loki’s are allegedly genderfluid and yet the only female-presenting variant we see (and apparently the only female-presenting variant there is, cause the male Loki’s all seemed unfamiliar with the concept) is treated as some kind of mind-bogglingly special paradox. Also very sus that, out of all the Loki variants, the one our Loki falls in love with just so happens to be the only female one. What a coincidence.

• The fact that the creators of the show went around bragging about Loki’s bisexuality and Marvel purposefully (lbr) allowed stories about Loki possibly having a male love interest to circulate, specifically enticing queer viewers to watch the show (you know, the definition of queerbaiting), and then instead of having a male love interest (Loki was the first queer main character, so it was the perfect opportunity) they gave us *gestures to this dumpster fire* this… it’s just a middle finger to LGBT fans. The fact that they would rather have this relationship with all its myriad of problems than have a gay relationship is just……. Very telling.

• While him being with a woman obviously doesn’t refute his bisexuality, the fact that they showed/talked about him being interested in 3 different women (flight attendant, Sylvie, Sif) and never even hinted at him being attracted to a man, definitely makes it seem like they were trying to cover up his bisexuality to smooth things over with the more homophobic viewers. You know? It’s like “I know you’re pissed that we sorta confirmed Loki as bi, so we promise we’ll never mention it again! Or even hint at it! As a matter of fact, we’ll give him lots of female lovies and make him seem as straight as possible! That’ll take your mind off of that horrible crumb of queer rep, right? Please please please keep giving us your money!!!”

• Aside from all the other issues, at its core, the biggest reason why I think I’m so irritated with s*lki is that it took one of the most interesting, complex, and diverse characters in cinema atm and squished him into a tired ass unnecessary heteronormative subplot…. Like literally every. single. other. protagonist. ever. Loki is such a unique character, and it’s so so so incredibly disappointing that they stuck him into that same boring cookie cutter romance that happens to every other character in every other movie I’ve ever seen. It’s a disservice, and it’s honestly just not compelling or entertaining at all.

Thematic Issues Galore

• His arc didn’t need a romance. With anyone. It was unnecessary and it didn’t make sense plot-wise. In fact, one of the reasons he was my fav prior to this was because he was the only big-name mcu character whose story wasn’t muddied-up by a romance that didn’t need to be there. So much for that.

• He wasn’t emotionally ready for a romantic relationship with anyone. Hell, just a genuine friendship would’ve been pushing it for him at this point. He was in such a bad state that any relationship he got into would’ve been toxic and unhealthy for both him and the other person, and it doesn’t make sense why the writers would want to put him in one when there were so many cons and essentially no pros (other than “Uwu aren’t they cute together”).

• Sylvie’s character in general was unnecessary and Loki’s character was robbed just by her being there. The whole show became about her post-Ep 2. They spent most of the time giving her backstory, building her up, telling us how awesome she is, trying to convince us to like her, etc when what they really needed to be doing was building Loki up- cause I gotta say, if I had to describe TVA!Loki in a few words, they would be Flat, Boring, and Weak.

• The romance overtakes the plot. They spend time portraying their supposed connection that could’ve been spent adding depth and complexity to literally any of the characters. They make the big Nexus Event them giving each other googly eyes on Lamentis when it could’ve been so many other way more profound things that speak to the fundamental nature of Loki’s. They have the climax of the finale be “oh no she betrayed him to kill He Who Remains” when it could’ve been something way more compelling (Loki having a moral crisis over whether or not to kill HWR, Loki contemplating the state of the multiverse and weighing the pros and cons of freedom vs order, Loki looking into some What If situations and getting emotional about what could’ve been regarding his family, Loki realising the gravity of HWR’s offer and finally coming to terms with how important he is to the universal cycle, etc etc). The entire plot suffered in favour of a romance that half of us didn’t even want.

• It essentially reduced all of Loki’s potential character growth down to “He did it for his crush.” He seemed to at least have some motivations of his own in Ep 1-2 (feeble as they were) but after Sylvie showed up in Ep 3, literally every action he took was just him being a simp for her. Why did he lie in the interrogation? To try to protect Sylvie. Why did he fight the minutemen and Timekeepers? To survive kinda, but mostly cause it was important to Sylvie. Why did he get pruned? Cause he got distracted trying to confess his crush to Sylvie. Why did he try to get out of The Void? Cause he thought Sylvie needed him. Why did he stay in The Void? Cause Sylvie was staying. Why did he try to enchant Alioth? Cause Sylvie told him to. Why did the multiverse get cracked open, leading to an infinite number of Kangs waging war on all of existence? Cause Loki didn’t wanna hurt Sylvie in their fight at the Citadel and then get distracted by her kissing him. It’s uninteresting and honestly pretty embarrassing.

• Throughout their “relationship arc” the writers do their absolute damndest to convince us that we should like Sylvie more than Loki. And you know what? It’s the most hypocritical shit I’ve ever seen. They preach and preach about how Sylvie’s life has been so difficult/we should feel bad for her/she had it so bad/poor poor sylvie/she had it SO much worse than pampered prince Loki…. But then they never even touch on any of Loki’s trauma of hardships (the ones that have been ignored for literally 3 movies now). They frame Sylvie as a good person and a Freedom Fighter after she spent literal decades/centuries mass-murdering brainwashed TVA agents and showing exactly zero remorse for it….. but then they make it their mission to constantly remind us that Loki is a terrible person and constantly put him in situations where he’s forced to acknowledge his wrongdoings/show remorse/admit to how “evil” he is for being a mass murderer for like 2 years. They show him on-screen having a wider range of powers than her, and perpetuate his whole shtick of being a “master manipulator” or whatever….. But then they make Sylvie “the brawn” more competent, intelligent, and physically capable than him. Tell me how it’s a good thing for a ship to be so narratively biased toward one character.

Missed Opportunities

• If they absolutely had to have a romance subplot, then they could’ve paired Loki with one of the characters that have already been established OR one of the characters that were a big part of the whole TVA storyline anyway. It would’ve been so interesting if they’d revealed that Loki had a history with some of the players from previous films (Sif and Fandral both come to mind). It also would’ve been really interesting if they’d given Loki a love interest that actually had some allegiance to the TVA as a whole (Mobius maybe, but not necessarily. It also could’ve been Renslayer or B-15). Hell, imo it would’ve been cool if they’d followed through with that “See you again someday” line that he said to the flight attendant in Ep 1. ALL of these characters have way more chemistry with him than Sylvie, and they were also already relevant to the plot without wasting half the show to give background info on them.

• If they absolutely had to have a hetero-presenting love story involving an enchantress-type figure, then there’s a whole Enchantress (Amora) that was actually Loki’s love interest in the comics. Plus, fans have been screaming for Amora to appear in the mcu for years. Plus, Tom literally pitched an Amora/Loki storyline way back in 2012-13. Also, Lorelei (another enchantress) is also one of Loki’s love interests in the comics, and she already exists in the mcu (she was on Agents of SHIELD). There were several different established characters for them to choose from. Creating a whole knew amalgamation of a character and going with the “she’s a Loki variant” storyline was just completely unnecessary and made no sense.

• They completely robbed us of a Chaos Twins dynamic. Had they handled Sylvie better and not forced her and Loki to smooch, the two of them could’ve had a really really complex and interesting sibling relationship. Loki could’ve stepped into Thor’s shoes and sort of used that new role to gain some self importance, and Sylvie could’ve finally had somebody to look out for her/teach her magic/be there for her. It would’ve been very aesthetically pleasing, the vibes would’ve been out of this world, it would’ve been way more profound than this bs, and frankly it would’ve been much more entertaining to watch.

• Loki’s relationship (read: obsession) with Sylvie completely overshadows all Loki’s other relationships in the show. Loki and Mobius were literally the focal point of the series in Ep 1-2, but after Sylvie showed up in Ep 3, they barely had any interactions with each other, and Mobius pretty much faded to the background entirely. Loki had the beginnings of a pretty interesting antagonistic relationship with Renslayer (with her wanting him pruned, then arguing with Mobius that he couldn’t be trusted), but after Sylvie showed up the dynamic shifted to focus on the history between her and Ravonna. Loki and B-15 started off very badly and openly disliked each other throughout Ep 1-2, and then in the end of Ep 2, Loki showed a little bit of concern for her when she was possessed, hinting that they might be inching toward a reconciliation- especially considering how obvious it was that Loki was gonna uncover the TVA’s sins eventually. There was so much potential for him to be the one to give her her memories back and convince her to change sides, but no, of course that honor went to Sylvie. In fact, after Sylvie showed up, Loki and B-15 never even spoke to each other again.

Various S*lki Fails

• If they were trying to convince us that this affection was mutual, they completely failed. There’s nothing I’ve seen that even hints at Sylvie feeling the same way about Loki that he does about her. At most, I’d say she has a slight endearment to him. She finds him likeable and she’s grudgingly fond of him, but she definitely isn’t in love with the guy. Maybe she thinks he’s cute and hopes that he gets out of this mess alright, but her mission obviously comes before him- whereas, it’s been confirmed multiple times that Loki cares about her above anything else. She doesn’t trust him, she looks at him like he’s an incompetent fool half the time, she shows little to no reaction during most of his confession moments, and she kissed him as a means to distract him so that she could get him out of her way. Look, all I’m saying is, when you get into a relationship where one of you is way more invested than the other, it never ends well.

• This goes without saying for a lot of us, but the selfcest is just straight up odd and cringey. If you’re cool with that sort of thing, fine! People can ship what they want! But don’t pretend it’s not at least a little bit uncomfortable. Yes, I know they’re not technically siblings so it’s not technically incest, and they’re also not technically the exact same person, but they’re similar enough that it makes things weird. And yes I know selfcest can’t happen in real life, so there’s no way to judge it morally, but neither can most of the other stuff that happens in these shows/movies (the Snap, Loki destroying jotunheim, superhero with powers being held accountable, mind control) and yet we still find ways to judge their morality, because they all mirror real-world events. (The snap= genocide; Loki destroying Jotunheim= bombing other countries; superhero accountability= weapons accountability; mind control= grooming and coercion). And lbr the closest real-world mirror to two versions of the same person (who may or may not share DNA, family, backgrounds, physical and emotion characteristics) being romantically involved with one another is incest. And you can be ok with that if you want- that’s your prerogative- but don’t get pissy just cause a lot of us are squicked out by it.

• The whole mirror metaphor (learning self love via each other) thing just fell completely flat. First of all, having Loki learn to love himself by looking at someone who mirrors him did not, in any way shape or form, require them to be romantically involved. But they were. Of course. Secondly, the creators have contradicted themselves so many times on whether Loki and Sylvie are the same or not, that it doesn’t even really register to the viewer that the mirroring thing was what they were going for. Finally, Loki and Sylvie are shown to have so little in common- and to have only the most bare minimum of similarities personality-wise- that it doesn’t even make sense that Loki would “learn to love himself through loving her”. Like? They’re nothing alike. So how would he make the connection that he himself is actually pretty cool, based on her alone? There’s virtually nothing in her that reflects him.

• I know the objective of the entire show was to convince us of how awesome and unique Sylvie is, but honestly her relationship with Loki just did the opposite. A hallmark of a Mary Sue is having her constantly upstage the male lead, and then having him instantly fall madly in love with her anyway. And that’s.. exactly what happened here. Everything they’re doing to try to force her character to be more stan-able is really just forcing her to look more like their self-insert OC. Which is exactly what she is. It would’ve been so much more satisfying if she didn’t have to try so hard to look cool, if they didn’t have to try so hard to make her backstory tear-inducing, if they didn’t have to turn our protagonist into a snivelling simp just to prove how incredible she supposedly is. Very much #GirlBoss energy and we all know how performative and cheap that is.

• The entire thing was too rushed, there was too little build-up, and it was nowhere near believable. As stated above, it’s ridiculously unlikely that Loki would canonically even be interested in Sylvie, and this show did nothing to explain why he was. He just suddenly was. There was nothing they showed us as viewers that would justify a guy as closed-off and preoccupied as Loki falling head-over-heels for a girl he just met. Their was no explanation, no big revelation, no reasoning, it just… kinda happened. And I’m also severely skeptical of any love story that has the characters go in this deep after only 3 45-minute episodes of exposition.

I’m sure there’s other stuff, so if anyone thinks of anything, let me know and I’ll be more than happy to add it. Tagging @janetsnakehole02 @raifenlf @natures-marvel and @brightredsunset800 for expressing interest. This is all your faults.

[sophiapathic]

Sk8: The Infinity - A Take on Love

Because my six unfinished assignments can wait until I throw this into the void, scream for five hours and after my voice gets hoarse, I resort to watching the beach episode on loop until next Saturday.

This was entirely sparked by the recap episode, which really pressed the reak havoc and theorize button in my brain. I am truly losing my grip on reality. Help. I apologize in advance, creatures of Tumblr. 

Me right now:

Anyways... 

I saw people mention here and there screaming that “we need canon relationships and they will get trust issues if a romance isn’t confirmed by the end of the series”. I think that mindset is harmful to have in this case. You can’t really avoid being disappointed if you get into the series expecting it to deliver on your wishes of gay romances. So, this might be controversial, but stay with me please. The anime and manga are both confirmed to be based primarily about the characters themselves and of course the sport -skating. I was hoping to take a closer look at what the series intends to do with certain dynamics and relationships according to yours truly. I also want explain my reasoning behind it not being queerbaiting, though it being inherently queer-coded, through the current lense of the canon.

Sk8: The Infinity is unquestionably a love story.

We need to state the genres this series is in, because some of us tend to forget. It is in fact not a shounen-ai, not a yaoi, not a romance, not even a josei. Say it with me it is a series in: COMEDY and SPORTS.

(Source is the official US Sk8 website.) The spotlight is udoubtedly on skating and what it means. Another important highlight of the show is how the definition of the sport relates to the characters, and how vastly different they are from what we expect. For example, when we see Shadow first, we pigeonhole him into this vulgar indecent rock and roll persona, only to find out later that he is actually a stweetheart at a flower shop. Joe is another very good case study. When we first see him we think of him as a womanizer muscle-head, later we find out he has a heart of gold and is very emotionally intelligent. We’re also quick to judge Miya as the cold, unfeeling prodigy then we discover how lonely and normal he is on the inside. And so on and so on. 

The show continues to defy our expectations of what each character should be like. In a way it is about breaking the conventional stereotypical roles we subconsciously assign to certain looks. We see that even in anime, multifaceted characters can exist without distrupting or damaging the delicate dynamics of a traditional sports anime. We successfully established the second focal point of the series as disproving stereotypes and presenting strong, diverse and unexpected personalities.

How about the defition of skating? What does it mean in the context of Sk8: The Infinity then? Where does a love story come into the picture? Skating is repeatedly described as a ritual of love within the anime, an idea that our villian, Ad*m, is obessed with. In a sense skating is a language of love canonically.

Then skating itself is love. Throughout the series we see varied styles of skating therefore different ways of expressing love, affection. We get to experience several metaphorical ways of “being in love” through characters skating with each other. Each dynamic shows us a type of love. Healthy, disfunctional, outright abusive. 

The way Reiki teaches Langa to skate can be interpreted as a direct metaphor for someone learning to love again after losing a person close to them. Langa’s father has died and Reiki literally brings him out of his shell again. It can also be interpreted as a queer kid’s experience of a world of romance that feels similar to his previous one, that being snowboarding, yet it still being new and different. Skateboarding. When due to Reiki Langa’s potential is discovered and his hunger for more and more develops, especially next to Ad*m, Reiki’s main frustration stems from them not being well-matched or on equal footing anymore. He feels like he cannot give Langa what he needs anymore. Which would obviously go againts the literal description of a healthy romance. Two people with mutual respect who both bring equal assets to the table. He feels like he needs to catch-up to be with Langa again. The only thing he doesn’t consider is Langa’s deep appreciation of him and the fact that literally he was the one who helped Langa experince the feeling of love again.

Kojiro and Kaoru’s relationships, to me, is very much representative of two people  wanting to be in each other’s presence, but due to their different language of love, miscommunicating horribly. Them bantering and insulting each other is the only way they know what to do with the other. The only way they can ensure the other’s attention and eyes are on them. This has worked so far. They are literal opposites, but both have a very clear definition of their form of love. To Joe skating, or love itself, is about the feeling and going with the flow. Being spontaneous. Whereas for Cherry, every move needs to be calculated and executed perfectly in order to be “efficient”. Their frustration comes from both wanting different things from the other, but not communicating their need properly. Despite this, they stick together due to a magnetic pull they obviously feel towards the other. The attraction is there, the trust is there, they are even well-matched in skill as we see them neck-to-neck constantly. They could give each other what the other wants. Only if they could express themselves well... This is why Joe pushes Reiki towards reconciling with Langa. he wants them to not fall into the same trap of not stating their  needs and thoughts properly.

Now Ad*m and Langa are obviously problematic and I don’t really want to have to explain, honestly guys. I really don’t  (since I have trauma regarding this subject), but I need to go into this a little bit. This is a textbook toxic predatory relationship. Where the older, twisted, damaged person, has an obsession with a young, outstading child. He wants to lead him into “Paradise” and show his “Eve” what love is really about. (Ain’t that disgusting you guys...) His form of love is inflicting pain, so I really can’t imagine a scenario where he and his “Eve” live happily ever after and everything is fine and dandy. He needs someone who he can torture. He literally is looking for someone who can handle his way of expressing affection, his “love hug”, who has the same type of crazy eyes for adrenaline and danger. His Eve. In his distorted mind, this all makes sense and Langa is that someone he was looking for thoughout the years. The problem is, he disregards Langa’s side where the relationship becomes problematic.

Cherry and Ad*m during their younger years seems to be a very innocent infatuation on Kaoru’s end. It is a one-sided relationship where someone is in love with the idea of a person long gone. They were discovering the world of skating, or the world of love together with Ad*m taking the lead. Cherry immediately became infatuated with him, wanted to learn his love language, wanted to be at the same level he was. It probably started very innocent. At first, Ad*m being gentle, because that’s how Tadashi was with him too, then after whatever happened between those two, Ad*m, disappointed in the way of love, or skating, Tadashi showed him, returned to what his aunts taught him. Maybe after injuring Kaoru with the “love hug”, therefore eliminating him from being his potential partner, started looking for his “Eve”, gradually became more agressive in love as in skating. Kaoru was distraught and wanted the Ad*m he originally learned love from back. Holding out some hope even years after. Trained to get used to his “love hug”, to literally condition himself to be able to get close to him. Ad*m, however showed Cherry brutally that he truly cannot handle his way of love.

Ad*m and Tadashi. *sighs* As of this post, I don’t really have enough information to give you a good overview of what I see this relationship representing. As far as I can tell Ad*m was abused horribly and to ease the pain and make him forget, Tadashi showed his another way of expressing affection. Skating or love. Basically a first love gone horrible bad, scarring an already abused child and turning them into a monster. Tadashi himself reinstates this during one of the episodes. It was his fault that Ad*m turned out the way he did. Their love slowly became strongly abusive throughout the years. Tadashi is stuck in it because he feels like he deserves it. This is a metaphor for  dangers of an emotionally and physically abusive relationship, where one person feels responsible and the other is using power. Tadashi’s guilt keeps him next to his master and he even endures abuse, now he is trying to break out and show Ad*m he messed up and I think this could potentially be a good representation of how difficult that process truly is. 

As far as Reiki’s, Miya’s, Shadow’s skating goes. Their main arc relating to love is first and foremost learning to accept themselves and aprecciating their uniqe way and style of skating. Only after can they become people who can truly be accomplished in love/skating (in Miya’s case I’m obviously talking about platonic feelings). Each of them had a preconception of their persona in love/skating, which gets questioned heavily throughout the series. Miya gets defeated, Shadow’s soft side gets discovered, Reiki... well. I get sad. :c Even though he taught someone to love again, to appreciate life again, he ended up discovering how dissatisfied he truly is with himself... These three all need to learn to love every aspect of themselves to reach fulfillment and to really experience healthy human relationships.

Sk8: The Infinity is unquestionably a love story, without explicitly being a romance, meaning that it is a tale about love, both romantic, platonic and everything inbetween through a queer-coded lens, showing both dysfunctional, abusive and healthy relationships, ways to express emotions and even delves into self-love and the idea of nature versus nurture in the villian’s case.

That is why I, personally don’t scream for a canon couple. To me, the show gets its main point about affection and love across, without making any of these relationships explicitly stated. Not to mention that it does justice to both of its assigned genres. Comedy and Sports as well. Yeah sure, I wouldn’t complain, but I think these dynamics are more than satisfying to watch, and much deeper than bishounens wanting to bang each other, which is, in my opinion, inherently sexualized. If they want, yeah they can confirm, make it canon without forcing it to be a center storyline. Hell, I would even be happy about it. I would clap with all of us. BUT, as the series currently is, I really see it taking the other route because of the above. This way audiences who want a yaoi or ikemen going at it, won’t be disappointed with the series when they find doesn’t revolve around that, straight viewers will just find it flamboyant, and people who look for subtext and want to read between the lines will certainly do that with the amount of crumbs and hints the writers gave us. 

We don’t need outright, written in black and white gay representation in Sk8 to experience very real types of love. The queer theme is secondary to me, just like queerness is, in most people’s lives. Yeah sure, it is a big thing, but not the only attribute a person has. My life doesn’t revolve around my queerness. I rarely talk about it. If I was a main character this would be a side-arc. Just like Sk8 doesn’t revolve around the characters coming out. It’s just them living their lives and possibly being queer while doing so. If you look at it this way, it is almost normalizing attraction between same-sex people by just showing it as regular love. If you can, why not interpret it this way, so it can be a liberating experience instead of a disappointing one.

Please don’t attack me! I am fragile and this is only my opinion. c:  *crawls back into her hole*

[grewlikefancyflowers]

Hi, I hope you're having a lovely day/evening!

So, I know you're critical of MDZS adaptations, so this is why I'm coming to you as someone who just finished CQL.

 

I don't understand why people claim that CQL “missed the point” of MDZS or failed to adapt its central themes. I think CQL does a good job of getting addressing themes, such as status and social power infomring actions, public opinion and its changeability as well as how collectice narratives and opinions related to a person become more real and tangible than who the person actually is.

CQL is doing something different with its own story and as a result, it handles wangxian differently as well. It has a different dynamic, different circumstances, and a different narrative. If it doesn't make sense because the CQL adaptation removed an element from the story, maybe consider that (xyz) isn't actually meant to be their mindset at all? Just because they don’t have the same motivations towards each other as in the novel doesn’t mean those motivations don’t make sense within the world of CQL. The circumstances are so different from MDZS in places that if you’re only looking at CQL through that lens, then of course it’s going to look like a pale and nonsensical imitation! 

just a preface i don't care about cql enough to deliver any sort of meaningful analysis on it, if that's what you're interested in ouyangzizhensdad has made some good posts abt it.

preamble out the way, i watched cql first before i knew anything about mdzs, and i thought it was bad as i watched it back then too. so it's not as if i'm just biased against it as a novel main. anyway, i think its generally fine to analyse an adaption independently of it's source material, but the problem with cql is that it's nonsensical without mdzs, but it's also nonsensical with mdzs.

some examples, wx's relationship (even when looked at platonically) makes no sense at all in cql. one minute they don't even seem to like each other and the next they're calling each other soulmates, despite never seeming to actually trust or understand each other. when i watched cql's version of phoenix mountain i thought what?? they're supposed to be friends now ?? at the time i assumed it must have just been censorship issues but it turns out cql's writers were just incompetent. it was the same with that part in the cloud recesses arc when lwj and wwx end up tied together with the forehead ribbon—they could have used that to imply that wx's relationship is romantic while still getting around censorship, but their relationship didn't change after that. there's so many moments like that in cql that feel like should be meaningful to wx's relationship but end up having no impact on them or the story. it's all just meaningless queerbait.

also, the acting is terrible. i had to pause to laugh at moments that are supposed to be emotional because they were acted so bad (when wwx is thrown into the burial mound, jyl's death).

that aside, cql doesn't adapt the themes of mdzs well at all. which i spoke about here. one of the most important themes in mdzs is how authoritarianism and social hierarchy are inherently corrupt, honestly the final message cql delivers is the exact opposite of that. eg cqlji becomes chief cultivator and also what the fuck is up with that 'you're not qualified to speak to me' line.

so basically, cql did not successfully adapt mdzs—not the story, characters or themes. neither can it hold itself up as an individual work. it's just bad—the costume design is bad, the pacing is bad, the story doesn't make sense, the lore doesn't make sense, the characters have no consistent traits and are for the most part extremely unlikeable. it's just bad and that's all there really is to say on the matter.

[tiredofsilence]

A rant about Buddie from a narrative standpoint that nobody asked for

TLDR: from a narrative standpoint it would not make a lot of sense to not have Buddie become canon if you look at both their current storylines and any possible future storylines. Also if they were a straight pairing wouldn’t be doubting it in the first place.

As much as we like to talk about fictional characters as people with feelings who make decisions, the reality is that them and the things they experience are written by people, and those people usually plan out these storylines to make them interesting for the viewer. I am in no way an expert in any of this, but I have seen a lot of tv series and even more romantic storylines so I have a vague idea of how most of these storylines play out.

I just want to start off by saying that from a narrative standpoint I really don’t see this going anywhere other than a relationship. Nothing else would really make sense. To illustrate this properly I’m going to divide this rant into two sections: their current storylines and future storylines if/when their relationship becomes canon

Their current storylines

Both Buck and Eddie are on a sort of a journey of self-discovery this season. Buck’s is about his identity; who he is and how he fits into the world. Eddie’s is more about starting a new chapter and moving on from his past.

These storylines seem like they run parallel to each other, but they’re actually quite intertwined. A large part of Buck’s identity is his relationship with Eddie and Christopher and the family dynamic that they have created. Similarly, Eddie has found a great support in Buck, and he is a big part in the new chapter that he is entering in his life, and someone he can lean on to help him move on from this past. Both of their storylines can not come to a satisfying and logical conclusion without the other person being a big part of it, simply because that’s how their dynamic has already been established and it wouldn’t make sense for that to change. The only change I see is them actually becoming better at communicating and getting even closer.

To add onto that, if either of them were to get girlfriends (cause if Buddie doesn’t happen the SOs will be female lbr) the relationship they form with those girlfriends would have to exist alongside the relationship they have with each other. Because they are incredibly close and it wouldn’t make sense for either of them to loosen their friendship because we’ve already seen that if they are away from each other even a little too long they both lose their damn minds. So just imagine having a boyfriend that basically co-parents his best friend’s kid and spends most of his time at that best friend’s house or them at his house. It would just be a super weird dynamic, and wouldn’t make any sense from a narrative perspective.

I could go on about this for much longer time but I’ll move on to the second part: future storylines

Simply put, Buddie would be an absolute goldmine for storylines if they were to get into a relationship. There is simply just a lot of potential there and I’ll highlight some of them.

The most obvious one is, of course, their sexualities. There’s already a lot of potential there, for themselves but also for the people around them.

Then there’s the idea of a relationship within the same fire department. How do they separate their personal lives from their professional lives. Maybe they keep their relationship a secret for a while because they’re worried about one of them having to go to another department. Also there’s the fact that they would basically spend all day every day with each other, and how they keep their relationships with other people and make sure they have time for themselves.

Christopher has a lot of potential as well. Buck having to go from just Buck to actually being a parent and having to discipline him and take care of him. And Eddie having to come to terms with the idea of there being another parent in the picture, and basically just them having to figure out how they operate as a family.

There’s also their families/the people around them. Maybe Eddie’s family don’t trust Buck to co-parent Christoper. And, similarly, maybe the people around Buck believe that he’s not responsible enough to be a parent. Or maybe there’s some spicy homophobia.

Then of course there’s the relationship itself. Buck and Eddie both have a shit ton of baggage. They have trauma, abandonment issues, familial problems and a whole lot of other stuff. Them finding how they can work as a couple and dealing with all their problems together would probably bring a lot of angst but also a lot of fluff.

If you’ve made it this far kudos to you. I have plenty of more to say but I think this gets my point across pretty well. I feel like they’d have to make many weird twists and turns narratively for any other outcome to make sense. And of we’re all honest with ourselves if one of them was female it would be 100% certain that they end up together. But since queerbaiting sadly still exists we can never know for sure.

[cottagecoreangryqueer]

Okey, but I'm losing my mind so much over Our Flag Means Death because it's such a game-changer. The queerness of it all. It's mind blowing for someone like me who grew up being a little queer boy in the middle of nowhere, homophobia and transphobia all around me seen as the norm... And the only way out you could find, the only "being seen" was queerbaiting shows that would also most of the time just laugh in your face if you were queer and thought something "must happen, right?" (Supernatural's "fanfiction" episode, Sherlock BBC's episode with the fan theories being mocked, all the homophobic jokes in all the queerbaiting shows...). So even if you were slightly seen, you were still taboo, still *wrong* in your existence, you were just a commodity that made money and was fun to laugh at. But what other choice did the people like me have? Just resign to never even see queer-coding in our lives?

Hear me, my parents were some of the most homophobic and transphobic people I've ever met. The second something queer happened in a show they were watching and it wasn't, I don't know, queers being murdered or being hate-crimed, they would change the channel. Nevermind if they liked the show, they weren't going to even see something that could *slightly* be seen as respectful towards us queers. So two men looking longingly at each other in my computer screen was... Fuck, it felt so good. But then the rug would be pulled out from under my feet, homophobia would be back, and I could do absolutely nothing. Just wait until they would say something slightly queer-coded again while I had to deal with shitty homophobia and internalised it more, because it was coming from my favorite shows.

Now. In this day and age, where I'm 23 and have been living since I was 18 in a queer relationship with a very loving man, where most of my friends are queer and the only cishets we befriend know we won't give them a second if they're homophobic... I've seen how much queerbaiting gave me the trust issues everyone is talking about. And seeing how this show is actually NOT queerbait, just... Queer. It's been mind-blowing. So I got my boyfriend to watch it with me and let me just say. This is a fucking balm on the trust issues towards media, on the homophobia we've seen in every fucking TV show and movie, on the homophobia we experience day to day as queers in this world. So. I might be going insane over this show, yes, but how could I not.