#how much they know a queer Spock would mean to people at this point

[boldlyexplorational]

I know you all know this scene, but what if I told you: It's not as gay as it looks?

But wait! It still makes a great point for Spirk, the episode and Kirk's character. Ok hear me out:

When Spock enters the room he's surprised and confused. Some (me included), watching this for the first time, immediately identified his reaction as Gay Panic. Which is not all wrong. Then the whole exchange sounds like the incipit of an adult movie ... But then I thought about it, tried to contextualize the scene.

Imagine a colleague calls you at work to tell you your boss is acting really strange, drinking on the job, even. They ask you to go check on them and you go to your boss' office to find them there, half naked. This is the first time you see their nipples. And he's talking all low and acting gentle while they're usually loud and commending. You would probably register this as strange behavior as well.

This is what is happening to Spock here.

So I think his actual main sentiment there is surprise because the Captain is showing himself in a very vulnerable state. Even if Kirk and Spock consider each close friends, Spock makes a point of reminding Kirk how important it is that he appears as flawless, strong and decisive as possible in front of the crew to maintain control. And Spock doesn't feel exempted from this. But apparently suddenly he is? Something is wrong.

Of course we know that that shirtless guy is Soft Kirk (as opposed to Feral Kirk) the most gentle and vulnerable version of the Captain, that's the reason why he didn't think he needed to put his shirt back on to receive his first officer in his room.

To the audience this scene should be the equivalent of the violent scene with Janice. The one with Janice shows us the true dangers of Feral Kirk, the one with Spock is meant to make us understand that the other Kirk is not just "real Kirk" but "Soft Kirk". We should also be surprised that Kirk is letting someone see him in such a casual, informal state. Kirk would never.

But we're not, surprised, because we're biased by our own idea of Spock and Kirk being very close, and even the scene being slightly sexually charged because of nudity. In 2024 we see a lot of naked man chests every day, and if we are open minded enough we can see homoerotic subtext in a man being exposed to the sight of another man's bare chest. But at that time I have to assume it was much more unusual, so it carried a completely different meaning in context: it's not one of those times where one may say "if Spock were a woman in that scene, there would be no doubt about the implied attraction in there"

A woman would never be put in that situation, it would have been improper exactly because if it's a woman it implies sexual tension (which is not the point, because Soft Kirk is not sexual, Feral Kirk is). But this scene between men is, by society perception at the time, devoid of sexual undertones because two men could never be implied to be attracted to each other in that circumstances. Because gay isn't an option to begin with.

It's pretty ironic of course how a lot of people weren't actually thinking like that and went like "these guys are about to kiss on the mouth". Because proper society said "no homo" but the fangirlies had other ideas. And it's fascinating how on the end this appeared to be a revelatory experience for Kirk, who then must have discovered he actually had no problem being half naked in front of Spock. So much so that he seems to punctually wait to be shirtless before calling Spock on the videophone.

So in the end this scene, which I believe had a totally different purpose than the way it is perceived today, actually triggered a new level of intimacy between Kirk and Spock, which led to that landslide that's their peculiar... one might say queer, lifelong bond

[walkingstackofbooks]

SNW 2x2 'Ad Astra per Aspera' thought-stream

Obviously this has spoilers, so I’ve put it under the cut :)

My mind is far too DS9. First thought on seeing little Una's parents argue? 'I wonder if this was ever a problem for Julian'. 😅

But also, poor Una, how scary that would be? Her parents aren't even hiding this argument from her!

"Two year prison sentence minimum" oooh like Richard Bashir got

"I can wait" I love Pike's stubbornness. He's a Very Good Egg

Genetic engineering as a metaphor for queerness is something I cannot unsee

Gosh I need to rewatch the last series

"Congratulations, you discovered empathy." Ohh I like her.

"You're a piece of work, Pike." "Yeah, but you still haven't said no..." His grin.

"After 25 years..." - if Neera and Una have been fallen out for so long, how come Pike appears to know her?

"Until two months ago my record with Starfleet was spotless. When they didn't know, they didn't care. The only thing that's changed is that they know the truth." ... "And now Starfleet are asking me to hide again so that no-one has to know an Illyrian climbed the ranks of Starfleet." ... "I shouldn't have to hide anymore. None of us should."... "I'm doing this for me. And for all the Illyrians who can't or just won't pretend to not be who they really are." (GENETIC ENGINEERING AS QUEER METAPHOR I CANNOT)

Pike in his apron!

I just don't see how this can work out for Una, knowing what we do about augmentation laws in the 2300s. Unless it's an Illyrian-only exception I guess?

20 YEARS?!!!!! Fuuuuu-

I really love Neera. She's unapologetically herself and she doesn't lessen herself or force herself to be nice just for people to accept her.

Neera's "Lieutenant Noonien-Singh." is SO pointed

Erica's Spock impression XD

Interesting to see Erica being a little Vulcan-racist, that makes future-her in 1x10 make more sense... Not a great look, but we know the Federation aren't always the best and I like the way this has been put in

"I regret you had to witness that outburst" -oh, Spock. That was very Spock of you.

If La'an obtains her evidence that the evidence about Una was gained illegally by her acting illegally, won't her evidence get turned down by the same rules?

YES UHURA. I mean I want Una freed but standing up for what you think is right against your mentor is pretty damn awesome

"My client is only here because of who she is and because she felt she had no other choice than to hide that fact, just like the millions before her who were forced to hide how they worshipped, how they loved, what they truly looked like, because it made others uncomfortable. Because it made others afraid." I am crying. Damn, Star Trek. You do good.

Frick. That didn't work. I thought her line of questioning was great, but I thought it would come to a point - maybe to make April say he would have liked to sponsor her, if he had known, or that he thought it wasn't a just law?

I still really love Neera, even if Una is probably right that this isn't going to help *specifically* Una

The hate in La'an's eyes when she's asked "Do you have any relation to Khan Noonien Singh?"

I do love their dress uniforms. They just fit in so well.

"An affinity for Gilbert and Sullivan musicals." On one hand I agree it feels weird when Spock is the comic relief but on the other hand I love this and I think it is actually a precursor of Spock's more subtle humour in TOS

"Would it be fair to say that you would not have joined Starfleet if not for Commander Chin-Riley?" "Counsellor, I wouldn't be alive if it weren't for Una." Una's unsteady breath <3

"I think it is illogical for Starfleet to punish itself." SPOCK IS AWESOME PLS OUTLOGIC THAT OTHER VULCAN

TOS music underneath their who is Una to mes!!!

If La'an thinks it was *her* personal log can't she see where that went?

"There is nothing wrong with you, Lieutenant. No hidden monster inside." Boy I love this plotline so so much (and wish we could have seen more of this for Julian shhh...)

"They look down at us for so long that we begin to to look down at ourselves." Damn.

Is La'an genetically modified or just has legacy DNA 200 years later?

Would it make sense for Una to have turned herself in? I feel like she's the only person we *know* who could have done it, and I feel this is leading up to the reveal of someone we *know*. But why wouldn't she have told Pike? And why so angry at Neera for putting the Illyrian cause first?

I'd... always though aspera meant hope XD Welp. It's not like I did ten years of Latin and have a degree in it right? 😅😅

(I looked it up - I'd got confused with "sperare" which means "to hope". Feel less bad :P)

"So many people from so many planets" pans to the mostly human command crew of Enterprise XD

"On what date did Captain Christopher Pike..." OH NO OH NO OH NO

Well, fuck.

He is a Very Odious Vulcan. Ugh. "She is clearly toxic" NO YOU ARE SHUT UP

Oh gosh, Una's going to be so guilty if Chris goes down with her

"All this tribunal needs to do now is confirm that status to absolve them both." I said I loved this woman.

"A law is not a mirror to society a law is an ideal a beacon to remind us how to be our better selves."

Yay!!!! She's free!

The communication whistle! phWEEE-oooo! I'd missed that <3

"But I am looking at a Starfleet crew who proudly serve under an Illyrian Commander." Idk why but this made me tear up again.

"If you're all here, who's flying the ship?" XD XD XD

HUUUUUG, Chris' face of scared upset relief 💔

YAY WE GOT UNA BACK, NOW THE WHOLE GANG CAN GO ADVENTURE!

Just realised we never got Chris' response to Spock stealing the Enterprise - more important things, I know, but man I wanted to be a fly on the wall there!

[ichayalovesyou]

Kurtzman Trek is The First Time I Have Hope They’ll Confirm Queer Spock. (GASP!)

It continues to boggle my mind that people are accusing Spock of being written like a ‘typical horny straight guy’ in SNW

When literally all he’s tried to do

Is have a decent relationship

With his fiancé

And pretty much only his fiancé!

And yet, and yet, people are acting like Spock is some kind of, woman of the week tomcat everytime he talks to a woman, Uhura, Chapel, or T’Pring. He says something nice to a female character and it’s like “HETERO ALERT OMFG IM GONNA THROW UP” Ugggggh.

Which honestly actually pisses me off. And not just because of the entitlement and biphobia baked into it. Although that part does make my blood boil.

Like, what happened to Geordi and Data, Bashir and Garak, Malcom Reed, all that Rick Berman fueled sexist queer rep smothering bullshit, is NOT what’s happening, at all.

This isn’t trying to hook up Garak with 18 year old Ziyal, or trashing the Dax/Bashir friendship arc in favor of having him hook up with Ezri, or Reed being really gross about T’Pol, or deciding Chakotay & 7 of 9 would be hot because Jeri Ryan, established romantic subplot and wlw Janeway energy be damned.

Spock is trying to make things work with his fiancé that is literally it.

Honestly, I’m not exaggerating when I say if we are gonna get any kind of non-subtextual non-book confirmation on queer Spock it’s gonna be NOW.

Kurtzman Trek is responsible for pretty much all the not one-shot outright queer rep that we have in the franchise! Stamets and Culber! Adira and Gray! Beckett and Jill! Heck, this era has proved it isn’t afraid of making preestablished characters canonically queer thanks to Raffi and Seven in Picard! Lower Decks is where we got the Spirk engraving at the space station bar!!

Check your perspective. Damn.

[chikabika]

So like. I was on tumblr in 2012. Earlier, even.

I watched Supernatural, and BBC Sherlock, and Teen Wolf. In fact, I finally gave SPN a shot after three tries because the way tumblr talked about Destiel had me thinking they were actually dating. I asked google "when does Dean's boyfriend show up" and google said "Castiel shows up in Season 4" and I was like, great, let's watch 8 seasons in 3 weeks.

I've watched plenty of other things, but I think SPN, Sherlock, and Teen Wolf are the most relevant, because I remember fan spaces, I remember shipping, and I remember how show runners, writers, and actors treated fans and shipper fans. Teen Wolf capitalized on the Sterek ship, used it to win awards. BBC Sherlock teased a queer romance in the text of the show and then derided fans for thinking there could be anything between Sherlock and John Watson (nevermind that that ship is even older than Kirk/Spock). I know I was deep in the sauce, but before I stopped watching Supernatural, it felt like, yeah, maybe, in the last episode, there could be a confession. Or something. And I guess there was a confession, but we all know how Supernatural ended.

As a queer person, it has felt like, as each year has passed, it'll be this year that queer stories get told in a major show. There have been incredible strides in children's media, and of course there are queer characters in other tv and movies.

But something about Our Flag Means Death just. I don't know, it was hitting the same beats that I have seen in stuff like the shows above, and because I have seen the potential for queer romance in them, and been disappointed, I couldn't quite trust it. I have seen the same looks between two men, the intimacy, that Stede and Ed share, and been told "oh, but they're just friends, you're reading too much into it." And yes, obligatory disclaimer that friendships can change your life and caring looks and intimacy between friends should and does exist. If you knew me in person you'd know I invest strongly in my friendships.

The point is that I have seen "friend" used to cover up or deny queer relationships. I mean damn, we've all seen it, in media and history and modern tabloids. "Kristen Stewart and gal pal spend day on friendly outing". THEY'RE GAY! Star Trek TOS came out in the 60s, when homosexuality was illegal. Of course they weren't going to say anything about a queer romance between the two. But there are plenty of lines about their friendship. Spock says "Jim when I feel friendship for you, I feel ashamed." They are close, they touch, there are long gazes and heart eyes and held hands.

These are all things I was seeing and hearing in Our Flag Means Death, and it is why I was on the edge of my seat, unsure, untrusting, despite being reasonably sure that the shipping on tumblr was not just people latching on to some great "subtext".

In BBC Sherlock, there are plenty of characters who assume or insinuate or straight out claim a romantic relationship between Sherlock and John Watson. In a straight romance, those would be signs that there is something going on, and any denial from the characters comes with a wink-wink, nudge-nudge. There is a scene in OFMD in which Stede is asked/accused of sleeping with Ed. I could see it for what it was supposed to be-introducing the idea of a sexual component to their relationship in Stede's mind, making him ask himself if that's what he wants-and still the spectre of Sherlock, and Supernatural hung over me.

Teen Wolf even had queer characters, it felt that much more possible for two characters whose sexuality hadn't been established at the beginning to realize they had feelings for someone of the same gender. OFMD does not state Stede or Ed's sexuality from the get-go, we do not learn about relationships they might have had with other men, until the scene I just mentioned. And of course I know about matelotage and how queer pirates were, but does a showrunner? Do they even care?

And yes. They do. And it is a balm on an old wound.

Older men, falling in love, surrounded by other queers. Wow.

I have to rewatch this show, because I had my heart guarded the whole time. When Fleetwood Mac came on and Ed reached out with his boot, this show reached through the screen and punched me in the heart. I felt that excitement and longing, and delighted when the music and camera treated the delicate vulnerable awkward kiss with the moment it deserved.

I just.

This show means a lot to me, for these reasons, and it's also just a good show.

[i-dreamed-i-had-a-son]

Yes or no on Star Trek AoS?

Ooh thanks for asking!

I'm kind of in the middle on it--I don't hate it, but I don't love it as much as I love the original Treks. As a reboot, it did its job and got a younger generation interested in Star Trek, but as a piece of Star Trek media it left some things to be desired, mostly because it wasn't telling any truly new stories. (That's the issue I have with Abrams as a director: he tends to just recycle stories that have already been told and spit them back out with a shiny lens flare or twelve.)

Starting with some positives: I think the goal of AoS was different than that of TOS, and it accomplished it well enough. The original series spoke to a lot of specific ideas and themes and really tried to explore different concepts in depth; AoS took a much more general approach, focusing on the hopeful core of Star Trek--how connection transcends the boundaries we put between us, and how there is always a way to move forward and overcome. I think the decision to focus on this more universal aspect of Trek helped AoS reach a wider audience and makes it an effective introduction to Star Trek. I started with those movies, and while they didn't give me a good sense of what TOS would be like, they (and especially Leonard Nimoy's Spock) did get me invested in the universe and eager to learn more.

I also do love how they involved Nimoy's Spock across all three movies (really the first and third). I felt that they were trying to be respectful of the original material in that way, and the fact that Leonard signed off on Zachary Quinto's Spock means a lot given how vigorously Nimoy defended Spock's characterization when he was playing him. And, in bringing him in as Spock Prime, they were able to more clearly differentiate their alternate interpretation of Spock from the original (which is an important distinction for people who never watched TOS to understand), while drawing connections between them that help the fans of the original content accept this new interpretation.

That being said, I think essentially rehashing the older Star Trek movies but with new actors didn't really help the audience feel that the other characters are truly their own unique individuals and connect to them on that basis. There are significant divergences from how they were written in TOS, but new Trekkies may not know that (leading to misunderstandings about who these characters really are), and older Trekkies may feel that this is simply a bungled attempt at adapting Trek for a new generation (because they didn't represent the characters authentically). Even with Spock, who does have a more distinct foil in Spock Prime, there's something about him that feels shallower than the original: the films rely on the prior depth of characterization the originals had to fill in the gaps in the newer versions, but that makes it harder for the audience to emotionally resonate with them. This particularly bothers fans of the originals, because the new films seem to lack the heart of the older content; really, it's because they're trying to borrow that heart instead of making their own (which they can only do because of how similar the storylines are).

Also, I think the AoS films did a disservice to the connection between Jim and Spock because they were worried about fans interpreting them as queer (insert bitter comment about the cut amulet dialogue here...). Regardless of what the specifics of the relationship between those two characters were, their bond was a crux point of the original series and is what drew many people to the Star Trek universe. Minimizing that caused the films to lack a lot of the emotional aspects that the original Trek had, and dampened the effects of scenes like Kirk's death somewhat, since the connection between these two characters was nowhere near as established as it was in Wrath of Khan or other original material. (The scene was still emotional, but as mentioned above it had a more general focus--it portrayed the human experience of fear and bravery well, but without the strong bond between Jim and Spock, the specific terror and grief and rage of losing someone you love was lost. That's why the original "Khaaaaaan!!!" feels much more earned, whereas the AoS one is really just referential.)

All of this I think could have been resolved if, instead of redoing what was already done, Abrams and the writers had "boldly gone where no one has gone before" and given us a new story, with characters that got their own development, instead of relying so heavily on the original series' exploration of the characters to fill in those gaps. Because it didn't do that, it felt like a missed opportunity for something truly remarkable--not that it was bad, because it was enjoyable and exciting and the new versions of the characters weren't completely soulless or unrecognizable, but that it wasn't as good as it could have been.

All that to say, AoS can be a fun watch and I don't hate it by any means, but I personally didn't have as much of a connection with it as I did with the original series. It's a fine starting point, but when I want to be reminded of why I love Trek, TOS is where I go.

That was probably a bit more than you bargained for, but I'd love to hear your thoughts!

[tothatmanonthebridge]

Review: Star Trek TOS - Space Seed (S1 Ep22)

Well this episode was way less gross than I expected considering it's called SPACE SEED.

And that’s saying something because this episode features eugenics and domestic abuse. Still, I know my sci-fi, and alien sperm is never off the writer’s table.

Never.

Ok so I knew ‘Khan’ was a thing in Star Trek so I had that ‘oh damn’ moment when he was introduced. I can say that he was not at all what I was expecting – and that’s a good thing. Khan is a great villain, and there was not a second he was on screen that I did not want to punch him in his smug face. Khan’s control and abuse of McGivers was... disturbing to watch to say the least. The episode built the tension really well and I am dreading Khan’s return (in a good way).

Also, Uhura was absolutely amazing in this episode and I need more of her in this show already! 

The ending of this episode just baffles me though. I mean sure Khan and his ‘supermen’ do not seem like the type of people who can be rehabilitated but come on, letting them go?

Yes, I’m sure we’ll never see them again.

I am Australian, and the references to Australia here weren’t great IMO and here’s why. First off, there’s this idea that Australia was a barren and inhospitable wasteland when the British invaders arrived, this idea is called ‘terra nullius’. This is a lie. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have lived here for tens of thousands of years and had agriculture, aquaculture, architecture, hundreds of languages, arts, medecine etc. well before the arrival of Europeans. Terra nullius was the unquestioned colonial mythology at the time this episode was written so it makes sense that Kirk would compare that ‘primitive’ unpopulated world he leaves Khan on to Botany bay, but this has obviously aged very poorly. Moreover, the fact that this is a eugenics episode when ‘selective breeding’ practices were actually in place in this country for so long, just makes the whole association uncomfortable for me.

I mean it’s great that this episode is taking an anti-eugenics stance but it really doesn’t seem to understand what eugenics is and that really undermines its message.

1) Eugenics is rooted in racism, which is an entirely emotional and irrational approach to science, not the cold genius described by Plum.

2) The fact that a point is made about the ‘supermen’ having diverse ethnicities... Again, see my point about racism. And yes, eugenics doesn’t always have a racist goal, as it targets people with disabilities and neurodivergent people as well, but again it just makes this representation feel like its missing the point. At the same time, having all the supermen be white (I think I saw somewhere that the original intent for Khan was a Nordic Thor-like figure) would probably not be better.

3) The constant emphasis on just how amazing these supermen are physically just felt gross. It makes it seem like they are actually ‘objectively’ better humans. Whether you think ‘superhumans’ is even a desired goal for us as a species (I don’t), this legitimises eugenics as a practice by saying it works. I know this is ‘science fiction’ and exploring what would happen if eugenics were successful is interesting, however, added together with the other faulty aspects of the representation of eugenics here, it just seems like the episode gives too much credit to the side of eugenicists.

4) And then there’s the fact that Kirk, Plum, and Scotty actually admire the genocidal tyrant.

wat?

This brings me to the main point I want to make about this episode, which is this: SPOCK IS AN ABSOLUTE ANGEL AND HE DESERVES BETTER.

Seriously, it enrages me any time Spock’s ‘humanity’ is questioned by the other characters, but never more than in this episode when they are literally defending a eugenicist dictator and laughing about it. My poor confused baby is right to be confused, I have never felt his ‘illogical’ more than I did then.

So yeah, great episode, but what I’m guessing was a good take-down of eugenics for the time just left me a bit ambivalent.

Queer Trek Corner:

Hmm doesn’t look like there’s much here this episode which makes sense given its topic so let’s move on –

I LIEEEE!!!!

Spirk content is an everlasting light even in the darkest of times.

Kirk poking fun at Spock for making an error at the beginning of the episode is adorable as always. Stop flirting Kirk, there’s a situation.

Spock pretending not to be overwhelmed with relief to see Kirk alive is adorable as always. I know there’s a situation, but you can take one second to flirt a little, Spock.

Next up: A Taste of Armageddon

[nellie-elizabeth]

Fic Writer Questions

tagged by: @lizardkingeliot

How many works do you have on AO3?

36

What’s your total AO3 wordcount?

975,182 words!! I am rounding in on that one mil so soon... the vast majority of this is Magicians fic.

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

1. Magicians (26) 2. Queer as Folk (4) 3. Shadowhunters (3) 4. Good Omens (1) 5. Thor (1) 6. Harry Potter (1)

I have older fic on ff.net, a lot of it is Merlin fanfic, that used to be my main squeeze back in the day. ;)

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? These are all five from the Magicians, and three of them (1, 4, & 5) are from the same series!

1. Lover's Touch 2. Maybe This Time 3. Promises 4. Fragments 5. Identity Theft

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Yes! I don't think I can overstate how important comments are... if you're someone who doesn't leave comments, I really encourage you to give it a try, it means SO MUCH to writers. I always want to talk to the people who are kind enough to leave a note!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don't really do angsty endings because I have a happy ending guarantee on all my fics, so the closest is probably the gapfiller Bottle Episode which takes place in season two and is kind of about Quentin and Eliot not being on the same page... there's nothing in the fic that explicitly indicates that the canon story will change in any way, so I guess it implies the shitty-ness of what happens in the show. Which is. Pretty damn angsty.

(I've written major character death in other fandoms but NOT for The Magicians! Not permanent, anyway!)

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve ever written?

A Comet Pulled From Orbit and its accompanying series... it's an Old Guard and Magicians AU and I am BONKERS proud of it! Magicians characters, but they're all immortal and sleeping with each other now... go check it out.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Hmm yeah. Not really in this fandom, just a few borderline critical things here or there. In an old fandom I received quite a bit of anon hate for something really stupid that doesn't even bear repeating. People suck lol.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Yep! Fun fact: my highest kudos'd fic, Lover's Touch, was also my VERY FIRST smut scene! It's so funny to read it now because I think it's pretty clear that I'm a little nervous about it and I'm avoiding using certain words lol. I got over that pretty quickly. :)

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, not to my knowledge!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not recently, but yes!!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No! I would love to give it a try but I'm nervous about how I'd do with it, honestly.

What’s your all time favorite ship?

I feel like I have to say Queliot just because of sheer amount of time and tears and energy I've devoted to them. I will say that Kirk/Spock and Brian/Justin are like... my formative slash ships and I think shipping them and reading fic for them is what made me appreciate fandom, so I have to give them shout-outs for that reason.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Honestly I'm not ruling anything out at this point! I do have a post season-4 fix-it that had some promise but I'll never get around to spiffing it up... so many other people have already done the exact same story and done it better. It's confined to drafts forever more.

What are your writing strengths?

Big long emotional conversations.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Mundane details. What people are wearing. What they're eating. What music they listen to. Geography. Atmosphere.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I like it if not overdone! I did a tiny bit of that in the Comet 'verse because all of the immortal characters are polyglots and you KNOW they're constantly slipping in and out of languages with each other... but I never did a lot of it because I don't want to rely on google translate for that kind of thing. I'm more likely to say "so-and-so said in [language]" instead of writing it all out.

What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

Twilight, friends. It was Twilight.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I think honestly... A Comet Pulled From Orbit, or my recent one-shot Regrets, or the Absence Thereof. They are about as different as can be, but they both show different strengths of mine.

tagging @hmgfanfic, @ameliajessica, @honeybabydichotomy, @allegria23, and whoever else hasn't been tagged!

[artellip]

Representation Matters?

I'm kinda tired now, but hear me out.

Growing up, I've always been surrounded by books. Movies. Narratives. Stories. And while they took me to far-off worlds and show me unrealistic but kind of cute relationships between characters, I've known, or felt, that there was always something missing even though I didn't know what it was. I had only realized it when I watched a sports anime back in high school and started wondering about how intricate and deep these two characters' relationship were and imagined what if there was something more? Of course this started the shipping phase, seeing the potential of relationships going a level deeper, more complicated. At first platonically, and then romantically. Because both were delicate and very much valid. But this was different, because I was wondering about two boys, rather than a girl and a boy, which I very much grew up with.

And then I started reading fanfiction, ones that had two canonically platonic, even queerplatonic, same sex characters getting together or realizing how much they meant to each other that they couldn't really stay as friends, because they were in love . Those kind. I started reading BL and GL Manga because they had that kind of dynamic I was starting to look for. But almost all of them were romance focused, there was always sex, and had all that love story shenanigans, even the problematic ones. At this point I was getting tired of romance centered plotlines, but I devoured them because I was searching for that one thing I never knew I needed: queer stories. Why?

At first, I thought it was because by then I had already talked to queer people, heard their stories; their struggles. By the time I entered college, I started fighting for them, with them. I wanted queer stories for the LGBTQ+ community because they deserved to be represented and heard. It was my only reason for some time, until it just wasn't.

I searched for queer stories because I was in the closet.

I was in the midst of an identity crisis, and I guess, subconsciously, I was looking for comfort, perhaps solace, a pat on the back, some words of encouragement.. not just for them, but for me.

But I realized there was not much to see especially in TV series and books. I realized I'd have to spend my time searching for queer stories that weren't so sexualized, mocked or even made fun of. And in the midst of all that, I realized those stories weren't so much told because they were considered taboo and abnormal in the real world. And it hurt. It hurt because I realized I was queer, and our existence didn't matter so much that it wouldn't warrant any good representation, and even if there were, there were only scraps of it, buried deep into ink blotted papers of forgotten books or even passing dialogues in television series and movies. And there were so little I was even already happy with mere passing comments of actors and directors and authors confirming queer coded characters and plot lines.

And then, I came to know queerbaiting. It was different from shipping characters together, at least for me. It gave me false hopes, and then it made me feel bad about it because I tried to see past the platonic due to the subtext. Don't get me wrong. I love platonic and queerplatonic relationships, even moreso between a girl and a boy (more on that matter some time) but I always feel robbed despite it because I've always been surrounded by that kind of relationship especially between two girls or two boys. Merlin and Arthur? John and Sherlock? Spock and Kirk? Hell, animes are full of them. Naruto and Sasuke, most sports anime (really, all those tension? You expect me not to ship them as more than friends?). They were lovely platonic and queerplatonic ships that I cared so much about. But was it too much to ask for some romantic queer relationships that were built on trust and friendship? I guess it was.

(I'd always wanted to point out that romantic ships between two men or women don't invalidate platonic and even queerplatonic ships, especially canon ones, and hoping a romantic one over a platonic one doesn't necessarily mean one is inferior over the other, and I know that it applies vice versa as well.)

Then Yuri On Ice came, and I thought it was just another queerbaited sports anime, but it proved me wrong. I remember crying in the bathroom after one scene that confirmed queerness and a queer romantic relationship which wasn't even sexualized or mocked. It felt like as if my heart would burst because after all those years, i felt so validated. I felt so alive. I realized how ashamed I was for who I am, and someone, something, telling me in the most profound way that I existed, that I mattered enough to be represented, that I matter , was a defining moment of my growth: I am queer and I am here.

Books with queer characters made its way to my local bookstore (Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda, the Proxy series, The Red Queen Series, The Song of Achilles, there were so many I was moved when I saw them in the stands, not hidden, but there for the world to see). It became clear to me just how much I was deprived. More and more TV series came forward with their own queer characters and stories . Person of Interest's, Root and Shaw was one of my favorites. Connor and Oliver from How to Get Away with Murder, Grey's Anatomy handling of queer characters, Korra and Asami from Legend of Korra, even Steven Universe and games like Stardew Valley where we can make our own narrative. I even watch Thai BL now. There were so much content now that my younger self would have loved and accepted, and I know, from my soul, they would have felt like they belonged.

For the first time in a long time, I am a bit hopeful, even just a little bit.

There's still prejudice, homophobia and fear lurking in the storytelling industry - whether that be books, games, movies, comics, or series. I doubt that would even go away. Hell, I still see some people invalidate romantic ships when it's canonically platonic. I still see queerbaiting. I still feel hopeless in terms of representation. Sometimes I still even invalidate myself. It's hard, to be frank. It's a heavy thing to carry. Wanting to feel alive, wanting to be reminded that I am valid despite my own queerness and in spite of it, wanting for at least a little comfort, for a little representation.

I'm into Supernatural now. And while the meta writers have spent years trying to predict or at least understand the text and subtext between Cas and Dean, and then seeing that maybe, just maybe, there was a chance it might be different this time, that perhaps they can be endgame after all, I'm 99% sure that probably won't happen. Perhaps platonically it will soar, and it will be added to the long list of deep platonic relationships with genius subtext. And while I'll be glad with it, I'll even probably devour it, I know a part of me will be disappointed, a sinking feeling rising in my gut as my lips move and Ill say, "Oh. It was an almost".

I'm used to being deprived, and the worst part of it? It isn't fine, but I have to suck up and be okay with it.

But perhaps, one day I'll stop apologizing for wanting a bit more good representation and respect.

Perhaps one day I'll stop apologizing for who I am.

And maybe, just maybe, one day, we wouldn't have to debate whether we should exist or not

- in creative spaces, narratives and other alternate worlds that stemmed from our ability to recreate stories and mirror human life.

Maybe one day we'll even be able to exist without question.

Maybe one day.

[kinetic-elaboration]

November 13: 1x23 A Taste of Armageddon

Feeling pretty tired now, and it’s been a rough day, but I did rally to watch, and enjoy, an episode of Star Trek.

A diplomatic mission today. The Enterprise comes with friendly intentions!

I don’t entirely get this Ambassador or the back story here. They want to set up diplomatic relations with this solar system, because Federation members somehow get killed there a lot. But the Eminians don’t ever leave their solar system, so if the Federation is having problems with them it must be because the Federation is messing around in their space. So perhaps you could just no go there?

Mmm love Kirk being A Captain. “I’m thinking about this ship, my crew.” He’s not a fan of Ambassadors or people usurping his power.

And Spock seems very interested in all of this.

Aw yeah another cool 50s sci fi background! There are more of these than I remembered.

All of the interior hallways, as well as the exterior painting, are all nice and bright and multi-colored for those new color TVs.

It’s hard to pinpoint why, but I feel like this is an effectively Alien culture. Like maybe it’s the weird hats or the colorful hallways or the initial mysterious nature of them, but they just feel very not human, in a way ST alien guest stars don’t always manage imo.

Those annoying colonists lol. Sent them to a new planet and now they’re attacking us.

“If this is an attack... where’s the attack?”

Everyone in Star Trek does a lot of scanning and surveillance.

“Our civilization lives--the people die--but our culture goes on.” Literally America’s COG plans.

“I do not approve. I understand.” I love Spock so much.

The target has been “classified destroyed.” Kirk is confused and rightfully so.

Hmm, is Spock meditating?

Oh, there’s McCoy! Guess he didn’t get the memo yet that he and everyone else is dead.

Scotty know when Kirk’s voice isn’t Kirk’s voice. I love Scotty also and appreciate that he’s getting a bigger role at this point in the series.

I guess Spock is still a “Vulcanian.” Ngl... kind of wish they’d stuck with that. It has a certain ring. I feel like this is the first mention of their telepathic abilities--aside from the mind meld specifically. And they’re “limited” abilities. But not so limited that he can’t control that dude’s mind without touching him--and through a door. Mom suggested the ability is stronger with touch, which makes sense, especially as they do have psychic bonds with each other. But still. That looked pretty powerful to me.

Kirk is so apologetic about possibly being forced to kill.

“I’ll cover you.” It’s probably because of STXI that that affects me so much lol.

I can’t believe “there’s a multi-legged creature on your shoulder” worked! I remember seeing this ep for the first time and just completely losing it at that.

No one’s even gonna talk about the Prime Directive today, I guess.

So it’s already escalating as Anan said: real weapons used to destroy their weird suicide machines, now real weapons to attack the Enterprise.

Scotty’s not impressed by their fire power though.

If only Spock were here to be reminded of his father.

“The best diplomat I know is a fully activated phaser bank.” But they’re not military lmao.

Kirk is so turning up the charm again with Mea. But she’s not very susceptible to it and he’s getting kind of impatient, so it’s like Aggressive Charm.

I feel like this ambassador isn’t very smart. He’s too trusting, doesn’t seem to have great instincts. As opposed to Scotty, who is also Brave and Good, taking a stand.

“The haggis has hit the fan.” Please tell me that is not a real Scottish saying.

I know Kirk and Anan are supposed to be, like, tense and dangerous and threatening in this scene, but it’s reading almost flirty. “Would you...like a drink?” Kirk’s little finger crook thing.

You can tell he already has a plan at this point, which is kind of unusual in terms of Star Trek structure imo. Like usually you’re more with Kirk as he develops a plan, and here you’re watching him hint at the plan. “I don’t need my ship to destroy your whole planet” and so on.

“A man like that would have preferred to die fighting.”

How’d the diplomats get down to the planet? I thought the shields were still up.

They’re really giving Fox the Cliff’s Notes version of their society, huh? “Nice to meet you, you’re off to die now, sorry, really.”

Spock’s like “Oh, no, an Ambassador being killed?? How terrible...”

“Keep her from leaving. Sit on her if you have to.” Unexpectedly hilarious like wtf kind of order is that. And then the Yeoman like trying to look all fierce and Mea’s like “Yeah, okay,” eye roll.

“I’m practicing a peculiar variety of diplomacy.” Spock is such a bad ass. And he’s having a good time being action hero.This is why Vulcans think he’s weird.

Now he needs to find the Captain!

Kirk and Spock both using schoolyard tactics to win fights: tripping someone, the old spider trick. And they’re effective!

Quite possible even better than the spider scene is this ‘Spock comes to rescue his boyfriend and Kirk already has two guns trained on the room’ scene. “I thought you needed help.” / “Oh, I need the help.”

“We’re not going to kill today.” Honestly this one speech is deeper than all 7 seasons of the 100. Also more optimistic and nicer.

Kirk versus the computer again lol. This time, with firearms!

“A feeling is not much to go on.” IT IS IF IT’S A SIMPLE FEELING AMIRITE FELLAS?

“You almost make me believe in luck.” / “You almost make me believe in miracles.”

Honestly where the fuck is EITHER of those things coming from? Like no one was talking about luck and they definitely weren’t talking about miracles!! No one mentioned any miracles, Jim!!

He always gets so flirty after the danger is over, though. Every single time. “Ah, yes, all is well, now time to say something romantic or suggestive. As a treat.”

And then they play that weird comical music over Spock’s confused face as if that made it less queer.

So anyway this isn’t the official Vietnam War Episode but it’s kinda giving me Vietnam vibes. (According to the amazon trivia, I’m right: the computer tallies of the war dead was inspired by Vietnam causalities being shown on tv at night.) From an American perspective, it’s far away, it’s largely invisible, but it’s also long, it seems to exist for its own sake.

Also interesting that no one ever mentions why the two sides are fighting--probably because after 500 years, they don’t know. They just continue on in this mechanized, unceasing way.

That was a really good episode, and even though the actual danger of computer isn’t really what they predicted, I think it holds up regardless, in a different way.

I mean first of all technology has done a fair bit to sanitize war--the use of drones, for example, that allow the aggressors not to see their damage.

But also, and this is like only a half-thought really, but... One thing I think about a lot that the show didn't predict is that the internet allows us to see so much more than any other group of people in history. everything is very close, and there are pictures and videos and so on, from all over the world, available to you at any given time. I think this is very hard to deal with psychologically. So thinking about that in relation to this...it's a different balance but for the Eminians, war was both very real and close--it's constant, and people die all the time in huge numbers--but also very far away, because it's happening essentially hypothetically. So the dichotomy doesn’t line up in the same way but it still exists, imo.

And wow, that “we’re not going to kill today” speech. That was an interesting little wrinkle: that part of why the Eminians continued warring was because they felt like it was just inherently who they were. Their nature. Same philosophy espoused by all the grimdark showrunners of today. “I’m smart and brave and deep because I’m showing a mirror to humanity!! A MIRROR!”

And then here's Kirk, a Classic Hero, coming in and saying, "Yeah, wow, deep, you've determined that your species has a violent history. That's cool and all but have you considered that every single day you can consciously choose to make different, better choices?"

This was a good Kirk ep, a good Spock ep, and a good Scotty ep. It bums me out that he’s seen as comic relief now I guess... as my mom said, Scotty liked a joke but he was never comic relief.

I think it would be interesting to hear more of Spock’s thoughts in this ep, though. He’s the son of an ambassador and his people also had a warlike history that they dealt with in a way different to how humans do. But the method of problem solving of the Enterprise Captain and crew today was very martial, much more about brute force, and strategy as well, than peaceful talking--an overall plan I doubt many Vulcans would like. It would be interesting to hear how he thought of it all to himself.

Anyway, it’s getting late! Next up is a very decidedly good Spock ep, This Side of Paradise. Might be watching it on Wednesday so..not too long to wait!

[orionsangel86]

About Shipping

I was thinking this morning about why I so avidly "ship" Destiel. Why it means so much to me and why it's main texting is something I focus on even with the persistent hate and nastiness from people who are against it.

In our culture there have always been shippers. People have been shipping characters since long before I was born and probably will be long after I'm gone. Slash shipping is a huge part of that. People will generally ship anyone if they think the two characters have good enough chemistry.

The thing is, I DON'T ship. I never have. Not in the way that shippers are known for. I certainly don't multiship. That's not to say that those who do ship characters because "they are hot" or "they have chemistry" are wrong. They arent. Ship and let ship and all that. It's just not for me. I can't watch a show and just pick two characters or especially two characters who are supposed to be best friends and force my mind to see them in a romantic or sexual way.

I could never ship Spock/Kirk or Johnlock for instance. Even with the queer coding I won't see it unless I see it as part of a love story playing out in the text. Because queer coding does not make a love story.

This is the big difference that I find when I talk to other destiel "shippers" like myself. I know many people like me who have never been part of "shipping" culture, who've never been in fandom or read fanfiction before Destiel.

Destiel is different. I'm not saying it's better than those other ships, just that it's different. It doesn't work the same way.

Like how when we are young we consume fairy tales until they are ingrained in our subconscious to the extent that generally we can recognise an intended romantic pairing within the first 5 minutes of the story. No one is gonna watch the Princess Bride for the first time and not inherently KNOW that Princess Buttercup and Wesley are meant to be, even when he is "mostly dead".

I didn't "ship" Buffy and Spike. Their story resonated with me in the same frequency as the fairy tales of my youth. It was as clear as can be after a certain point in the show that their story was a romantic one. (Sorry Bangel shippers).

It's easier with het pairings. Most people are conditioned to see romance first between characters of different genders. It's why When Harry Met Sally asked that infuriating and misguided question "can men and women ever JUST be friends?" It's why after watching the first few minutes of the first episode of Big Bang Theory I rolled my eyes and turned to my mum and said "well obviously Leonard's gonna end up with Penny". But in that case I didn't ship them, because whilst I recognised the intended love story, I tend to rebel against it when it's so obvious it's boring. (Big Bang Theory then went on to be the most problematic piece if bullshit still airing on TV INCLUDING Supernatural.)

So I don't ship characters. I DO recognise romantic tropes and love stories being built into a piece of media. Destiel pulled me in not because these two guys are hot, not because the actors have good chemistry, and even because they are heavily queer coded. None of those things alone indicate a love story. Destiel pulled me in because it so clearly WAS a love story.

Baring in mind before Destiel I had never even considered a queer ship. I was stubbornly heteronormative and had no fandom interaction. I know many other Destiel shippers who say the same thing.

When I look at season 4 DeanCas now for instance, I can see the sexual tension clearly. It's painfully obvious once you are tuned in. I remember picking up on it and wondering if Cas was gay, but brushed it off pretty quickly. In seasons 5 and 6 I picked up on the gay jokes, the standard homoerotic flirtations which SPN had already been doing much to my own discomfort with Sam and Dean since season 1. So I ignored it.

6x20 was the first time something changed. The first time it was written with a slight romantic lense. It made me sit up and pay attention and by that point I was convinced that Cas's love for Dean was more than platonic but still my heteronormativity denied me from really considering it.

(As an aside, I recognised Dean's bisexuality quite early on but didn't think about it too much. For me it was just a thing that was unspoken but pretty much fact.)

From season 8 onwards I sat up and paid attention. After watching 8 seasons worth of this show it had chipped away at my heteronormativity until it was practically non existent. I can't remember exactly when I had that lightbulb moment, but it was during season 8 when I said "shit this is actually a love story".

After that, yes I saw it, i bought into it, and i adamantly supported it. It still took me another few months and binge watching through to the end of season 9 before I even thought about getting online. This was in the summer between s9 and s10 and for the first time ever I was watching a queer love story play out on front of me. For the first time in a long time I was watching a love story that wasn't a boring repeat of every other dumb het love story going. I was captivated.

I don't "ship" and I'm not just "another shipper". There is a reason a huge portion of Destiel fandom sees the canon potential and calls out for this to happen in the show. There is a reason why practically every day new people fall down the Destiel rabbit hole and find us online, especially when the majority of those people are like me in that they have never "shipped" or been in fandom before. Even the ones that have, the ones that have interacted with fandom for years and had many other ships and slash ships in their lifetimes have admitted to me that Destiel is different.

Destiel isn't like other ships, because it's not a "ship" as such. It's a canon slow burn love story being played mainly in subtext but with many textual nods and implications. You can't compare it to any other non canon fandom ships of the day. The only ones that come close are canon love stories.

My point to this long rambly post is to stress that those claiming that Destiel is nothing more than a fetish ship, or a fanon based delusion with no canon material to back it up, those who dismiss Destiel as just another fanon slash ship, and claim that we are entitled for daring to wish it to be brought to main text. Those people are wrong. They are wrong because all we, as destiel supporters need to do to see proof of how wrong they are, is to look at ourselves and ask the question WHY do I "ship" it?

You "ship" it because it's there in the show and you are recognising the love story being told. If you don't see it that way, but still ship it, fine. Though I guarantee you are in the minority.

We have been conditioned since children to recognise love stories when presented to us. Destiel is a love story that you are noticing. That is all. That is why it isn't just another slash ship reliant solely on attractive actors, actor chemistry and a touch of homoerotic tension. It's so much more than that, and when people reduce it to that and claim it's no different to Johnlock, to Spirk, to Sterek or one of the many other fanon slash ships out there it makes my blood boil.

I'm not a shipper, I've never been interested in shipping. But I do know a love story when I see one and nothing anyone could say would change my mind about that.

[words-writ-in-starlight]

Okay but if Michael and Saru are 2/3 of a triad, who is their 3rd? I can see lots of possibilities, some more reasonable than others, but I always come back to Tilly. I think my poor queer heart just really wants to know how the dynamics of a woman + woman + male (of prey species) triad play out.

OKAY, I think there’s been a small misconception here in that when I say “Michael and Saru are two thirds of a triumvirate,” I mean something distinctly different from “I think their relationship would work better with a third party involved.”  In fact I generally think it...wouldn’t?  Largely because so much of Michael and Saru’s dynamic is About their history, and there’s just no way for a third person to step in and not be on an uneven footing because they didn’t spend years bickering on the Shenzhou and they didn’t know the feeling of finding the Ship of the Dead and they never stood on the deck during that moment when Georgiou stepped out and held a phaser on her first officer.  Could they add a third person into a pre-existing dynamic like that?  Yeah sure.  Do I necessarily think either of them are emotionally mature enough to do the necessary work to ensure they weren’t leaving someone on the outside?  Not really.

What I mean by Michael and Saru being two thirds of a triumvirate is that, clearly, they were the Big Three on their ship with Captain Georgiou.  A triumvirate in the sense of three people who hold power and sway over those they lead, like Kirk-Bones-Spock or Superman-Wonder Woman-Batman or Zeus-Poseidon-Hades.  Three people who are the center that must hold, in order to their world to spin on, three people who are thought of as a unit and spoken of in the same breath, regardless of how much they might argue.  Georgiou, Michael, and Saru were the core of the Shenzhou, certainly, but more than they they spent all their time together, worked together constantly, knew the pace of their banter and the positions they were expected to take in arguments.

And then Michael turned on them in a moment of desperation, and Georgiou pointed a phaser at her, and Saru denounced her as a mutineer, and they went to war.  And then Georgiou died with Michael inches away and Saru alone in command of a ruined ship, before any of them could piece the destruction of their triumvirate back together, and--

And Georgiou was gone forever, and Saru blamed Michael, and Michael blamed Michael, and the galaxy entire blamed Michael, so it was easy to go on blaming her.

Until Michael came back, of course.  Determined to do anything, even waste away in prison, even sacrifice herself, to repay a fraction of what she believed she’d done wrong.  It’s harder to blame her when she’s standing there convinced of her own guilt, Saru discovers quickly.

They start to feel their way back to their old relationship, their old dynamic of opposition-but-trust, but their old dynamic was a triumvirate.

So...Lorca.  Of course they trust him.  He’s their captain.  He’s their leader.  He’s their third person, the thing that makes the center solid enough to hold, the third leg of the three-legged stool, he’s--

He’s a traitor.

They’re not so quick to seek a triumvirate, with the Emperor or with Pike, and in the meantime they’ve blundered into the idea that they might even have a dynamic without one.  Three was always company, while two was a crowd, when it came to Michael and Saru on the Shenzhou, but...

Different universe, these days.  Not literally, anymore, but a taste of the literal truth was enough for a lifetime.

Michael and Saru eat together sometimes, these days, without looking aside for someone who isn’t there, and it’s--it’s not what they had before, but it sure is something.

[republictrooper]

Star Trek Discovery Season 2 Finale Thoughts.

Ok, so like. I finally got to watch the last episode since I was on Vaycay last Thursday.

I like the ending. It was 90% explosions and 10% plot, but I liked it, a lot, some reservations aside.

I mean, I always felt like we needed a new Trek series set in the future instead of all these prequels (one reason I’m not on the “Pike Miniseries” train), but sending the prequel series into the future to BE that series was... actually a pretty smooth move.

On one hand, it’s a little ingenious how many holes it plugs up from the timeline perspective - Spock never talks about his sister because it’s a matter of temporal security, the Spore Drive never sees wide use because both ships that used it met a grisly,grisly end, Cornwall never showed up in TOS because she was KIA in a battle that was at least partially classified, etc.

On the other hand, I found that most of the people concerned about that stuff were of the whiny fanboy brigade angry that the SJWs were taking over their beloved trek, and honestly, screw those guys. Retcons are a standard of most longrunning series, so just retcon that Michael took her wife Tilly to the Enterprise for regular visits with Spock and constantly teased him about how he was obviously smitten with Jim, and that Hugh and Bones constantly traded tips about how to be gay doctors in space and the Red Lizard alien bridge crew member actually always existed on the bridge even during the TOS era and was Uhura’s beloved wife and helped Spock spirit Pike away to Talos after his injury and etc, etc, etc... Cuz retcons can be ok in a lot of cases and the fanboys could learn some humility.

So it’s comme-ci, comme-ca, I guess. Overall, I do think releasing the series from the shackles of being a lore-friendly prequel was a GOOD thing for sure.

Other thoughts:

We finally got the promised Paul/Hugh reconciliation and it was everything I hoped for and more.

Jet Reno has seen the future, and says she has “at least” 5 lives left? 

Did she see herself almost die 5 more times? 

Did she see herself DIE?

Or was she just using a colloquialism and I’m reading too much into it?

Nhan definitely likes ladies, I’m pretty much convinced of it given how she and Phillipa were basically flirting while they pursued Leland. Hopefully she gets with a nice girl who’s not a backstabbing evil bisexual empress from an alternate dimension, though, tbqh. I could see her and Jett or even her and Michael making a great team, tbqh. I’m pretty sure she survived the fight with Leland, at least.

Speaking of the fight with Leland, the fact that he WAS Control in the end (enough such that his fleet couldn’t keep fighting once he was magnetized) makes me a little nervous that he went to the future with everyone else. I don’t trust those magnets to completely stop him. Or even if they did, what if he reconstitutes in the future and keeps the apocalypse going? Frick, I hope they manage to completely erase and dispose of EVERY SINGLE NANITE. Or do future nanites get their data erased by magnets like old school floppies?

On the other hand, maybe Zora evolves in part because she IS the remnants of control. Which uh. might explain why she was abandoned. Control starts reconstituting again, gets full sapience via the sphere data on Discovery’s computers, so they have to leave her in a space storm in the past in hopes it prevents her from going full Borg again?

Man, I really hope Control isn’t somehow the protoBorg. THE BORG ARE ALWAYS AT THEIR BEST WHEN THEY’RE MYSTERIOUS DAMMIT.

I like to think that shot of Detmer getting back to her chair after Leland left the bridge was because she was making sure her girlfriend was alright. I am glad Owosekun looks alright, when she got hit I was bracing for the worst.

Still not sure I get the whole Ash Tyler situation. This is one of the biggest weaknesses of prequels, at least for me, and one of the few loose ends they didn’t actually tie up with the time jump, oddly enough. You can talk about Ash reforming Section 31 into something better and more transparent, but we already KNOW he fails. At some point in the future, Section 31 will be the horrific secret police of the DS9 era, even grimmer, more nihilistic, and less transparent than pre-Control Leland. I was never an Ashburn fan, and I’m still a little sore at him for killing Hugh, so I’m not especially mourning the fact he stayed in the past, but frick, at least let him go back to Earth and sail boats for the rest of his days. He deserves that more than vainly struggling to reform an organization we already know will fail to live up to the goals he has. 

Anyway, Section 31 was a mistake and Ash Tyler was too good of a character to waste on that. Given they sent Phillipa into the future, I was hopeful they had cancelled the S31 series in favor of keeping her on the main series cast and the concept of S31 as anything other than the clear villains could die a quiet, peaceful death, but I GUESS NOT.

Also, still a little weird that the Klingons are gonna be cold war enemies for the next few decades/centuries. I guess at some point L’Rell is no longer able to hold the Chancellorship solely on strength of threatening the other clans with blowing up Quo’noS and/or doing the whole “Mother knows best” thing? Or then again, they never quite established how or why she gave up the whole Klingon supremacy movement, so maybe she just goes ahead and gets back on that now that most of the Starfleet-aligned people keeping her in check on that are either dead or 900+ years in the future.

Anyway, the biggest question is, what happens in the future?

Do we have a weird Voyager-like situation in which they are so far in the beta quadrant and in time they have to work with limited primitive resources and/or try to make it to federation space despite a travel time of multiple decades, whether because Paul can’t jump anymore due to his injuries, or Phillipa fried the spore drive when she killed Leland?

Or are we gonna have a full on Federation that’s spread between Quadrants, and if so, how does Discovery slot into that? Do they just get reintroduced and get the Discovery retrofitted to full futurosity? Does Tilly get to fulfill her dreams of captaincy in the future Federation, or does she just have to hope Saru or Michael passes the captaincy on to her when they die or retire? Or does she give it up because everything’s gone sideways and instead stays on the Discovery (possibly as chief science officer, while her wife moves up to 1st Officer)?

I mean, I have always loved Trek for its optimistic view of the future, so I hope the Federation is around and basically a forward-looking, peaceful organization, but given the brief glimpse we got from Calypso was of a warn-torn future, I’m a little iffy. S2 was great in part because it dared pull away from the overly darkness-filled S1, I hope we don’t plunged back into a grimdark future. I guess there could also be a plot twist with Zora and Craft. Maybe the Alcor IV folk are human separatists and the V’draysh are the peace-loving forwarding thinking Federation.

The spirk nod was amazing and gdi, I would pay like a million bucks for a retcon somewhere down the line that establishes Kirk and Spock got married at some point and settled down somewhere, where Kirk died peacefully of old age (and not on some dusty distant planet after being swallowed by the metaphysical concept of heaven then spit back out to get unceremoniously bodied by Malcolm McDowell) sorry Generations) before Spock went back to being an ambassador and doing all the stuff in the TNG-era shows/movies/novels/etc.

I don’t even necessarily ship Spirk that hard, Spock is just undeniably queer as hell and we deserve that reading of him finally being canonized. 

Anyway, I liked Season 2 overall. I look forward to season 3!

[jaimistoryteller]

OC/Author PrideFest Question Mess Part 3

Thanks for the tag @raevenlywrites​​ ! Ended up sleeping longer than expected, here’s the last part of the set of questions.

Rules I am going with: answer the questions you know or are comfortable sharing, tag others, add a question if you feel like something is missing.

Note: I will be answering in three different posts, one per section, rather than all together because of how many questions there are.

Questions for you:

Introduce yourself! Tell us a little bit about you and what you write

Why do you write LGBT+ characters?

Have you always written LGBT+ characters? If no, what inspired you to start? Is it a deliberate representational choice?

Do you use modern labels in your work? Why or why not?

World builders: do you have any neat societal twists? (unique names for IDs, different marriage practices, etc.)

Do you write outside your own experiences? (cis writing trans, wlw writing mlm, etc.) If yes, how confident do you feel about it?

Tell us about a favorite book/character someone else wrote that inspired you (or just plain gave you a warm and fuzzy)

Any advice for someone else writing LGBT+ characters?

Would you like people to ask you more questions when this is over?

Free space! Wax poetic about something near and dear to your heart.

Questions for your Ocs (in character or out, dealer’s choice):

Say hi! Let us get to know you, you big beautiful person, you!

How do you feel about the world your author has created for you?

Are you out? To whom, why or why not, etc?

Tell us a little about your journey. Have you always IDed the way you do now? Are there parts of you you’re still figuring out?

Do you feel settled in your ID, or do you think it might change as you and your author go on?

Did your author always know you were [blank], or did you have to tell them? If yes, oh please, please tell us how! :3

Is being [blank] particularly hard in your world? How does your society treat you differently than ours might?

Tell us a little about your unique experiences with your ID. Do you experience dysphoria? Is it impossible to find a date? Just want to find that special someone for snuggles but everyone expects sex? Unload for a minute, it’s okay to struggle sometimes.

What’s the best part about being [blank] in your world?

Do you like getting fan-mail? Would you like people to ask you more questions when this is over?

Grab that mic! Drop some truth on us, something you’ve just been dying to share! Shout out to your besties!

Questions for either you or your OCs:

Going to answer these like I would a Q&A post, with the first three characters that comes to mind for each question.

What’s your orientation and gender? Wave that flag!!!

Tichina - female and pan. I’m proud of both. While I have not yet met my soulmates, I have had a variety of partners over the year that covers the spectrum of genders and sexualities. 

Quin - agender and queer. I am much more comfortable with my gender then I am my orientation. 

Stepan - male, demisexual, pan or poly romantic, never quite sure which is a better fit. I’m good with my alignments and try to always be respectful of other peoples. If my patient has one I am unfamiliar with, then I make sure to do research so I can help my patient to the best of my abilities. 

When did you realize you were LGBT+?

Jon - as a preteen. The others on the gymnastics team were talking about how cute people were and I didn’t see it.

Isa - in my mid-twenties. I’m older than I look.

Nazreen - after meeting my soulmates in my mid-twenties, prior to that I just thought there was something wrong with me.

What makes your heart melt?

Nazreen - not technically related to my orientation, but seeing Akaal with the children, particularly the smaller ones. He’s so big and yet I know he’s never going to harm them. 

Sitara *chuckles* Nazreen beat me to that one, *thoughtful look* I’m going with the way acceptance is the norm and not the unusual within the Balakhnov Building.

Tichina - any time I am able to get one of my high risk kids off the street, bonus points for the ones who find themselves and do so proudly. 

Do you have a favorite LGBT+ song? Movie? Book? Artist? (comic?)

Marie - too many books to list them all, the beauty of being an editor. I’ve always enjoyed All the Things She Said by t.A.T.u

Ioanna - Father would have been horrified if still alive to know I play games like Saints Row 2. I think that Gat, Aisha, and the main character are a triad. Since the main character can be anything the player ones, I take them to be genderfluid, so no matter how the relationship unfolds it’s bi

Sparks - Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman. You know she keeps them in line and makes Bruce stop brooding so damned much. 

Do you have a secret crush outside of your own work? Some wild crossover OTP?

Aither - I spent my teenage years shipping myself with Buffy and Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and there was that one time I wondered what it would be like to be an Aither sandwich with Squall and Seifer from FFVIII. . Of course, as an adult I have also shipped myself with Sam and Gabriel from Supernatural. 

Aaron *tries not to fidget* Q from the Craig!Bond movies is quiet adorable and I wouldn’t mind a good snuggle with him. 

Diego - I don’t know if I’d like anything more than friendship, but I’d love to get to know Stiles and Lydia from Teen Wolf. Maybe Even Scott if he could get his head out of his rump long enough to actually act like the friend he’s supposed to be. 

Tell us about your LGTB+ headcannons (I’d really love to see someone’s character answer this)

Karl - I always thought that William and Geoffrey from A Knight’s Tale were boyfriends. When Jocelyn joins them, they form a proper triad. 

Isaak - no one can convince me that Bones, Spock and Jim weren’t a space-husband triad!

Vara - I’d like to think that Nathan, Audrey, and Duke in Haven are a triad. Most of Nathan and Duke’s conflict coming from the fact neither of them wants to admit it for whatever silly reason.

What’s your favorite thing about being LGBT+?

Vasilia - I’m myself and able to accept that I am myself, rather than trying to be someone I am not because I hadn’t accepted being transgender.

Isa - there is a community of people like me.

Keywon - pride in my friends and community. 

Is there a cool place you like to hang out with your squad? Maybe an LGBT+ meet up?

Keywon - well, our team hangs out at the basketball court a lot, we also spend time in the community center where we are able to get help with any school work we need. We’re encouraged to bring others our age or orientation to hang out and what not. 

Quin - before meeting Aither, I spent a lot of my time at the queer book store, I didn’t really have a squad, but at least it was somewhere safe for me in public. Not that I like being in public too often. 

Molon - while I do spend a lot of time at the community center and at the basketball court, I also spend a lot of time at the nomyn san (Mongolian Library) where a lot of people of a similar descent hang out to share culture.

What are some things you do to keep positive?

Tichina - I help those in my community and the communities around mine. Every time I do so, I know I am helping someone else avoid the hardships that I and others before me went through. They’ll have a chance at a better life. 

Tzvia - prayer and regular worship, I am active in the both my faith and sports. 

Isaak - studying helps me keep positive because it means I can reach for the stars (literally)

Do you have any advice for young LGBT+ people?

Jon - you’re not broken, wrong, or otherwise odd. No matter what some people might claim, they’re idiots. 

Aither - own whatever space you are in, most won’t know how to take it.

Jamie - be yourself, it might require leaving what you know, but in the long run it’ll be far better for you. 

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Isaak - hopefully on the moon, it’s going to take a lot of hard work and study, but my Uncle and Aunt are making it possible so I’m not letting them or myself down.

Falco - retiring, I hope. I sometimes feel far too old for position within the Network that I hold. 

Ioanna - I happier and healthier me, preferably. 

Welp, that took way longer than planned because of a host of reasons. Still, have some more information on my massive world.

Tagging some peeps I am getting to know off the writer peeps spreadsheet so they can see my answers or do them as they feel fit.

@authordai @forlornraven @lagamerita @writing-at-dusk and @wordsbysarah

 Part 1 and  Part 2

[jemariel]

Sherlock, Supernatural, and How I Am Trying to Take Shipping Less Seriously

I want to tell my story. 

(tl;dr: I have a lot more fun with shipping when I don’t worry about whether or not it will ever be canon. OR: Never put that much faith in the hands of showrunners. It always ends BAD.gif)

I wrote most of this post months ago and it’s been rotting away in my drafts since maybe March? It seemed like a good time to actually post it. This is my own personal perspective, where I’m coming from on this. Obviously everyone’s feelings and opinions are 100% their own and I respect that. We’re all coming from somewhere.

Soooo. I’ve been lurking in various fandoms for a long time. I started in 2001, when I was 14. I’ve seen a lot of changes in fandom and the internet and how we interact with our favorite media. Now seemed like a good time for me to sort through this.

My first OTP was in Highlander. It was, for all intents and purposes, a dead fandom when I arrived. The show had been cancelled 5 years before I even discovered that other people wrote and posted their fanfiction, and one half of my pairing was dead for the final series. The pair I read about maybe shared half an hour of screen time through the whole three seasons they were both in the show? They had very little plot interaction at least.

I didn’t care. It didn’t stop me from reading about them. Didn’t stop me from wanting to put them in the same room and see what happened – usually them getting on like a house on fire.

The point is that we were under absolutely no impression that they would ever become canon. There was literally no possibility for it. But that didn’t matter. We could do what we wanted. We were just having fun.

After Highlander came Harry Potter. Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. I don’t remember if I started shipping them before or after the 4th book but it was definitely long before the 5th book. This was the first time I had the inkling that maybe, possibly, JK Rowling might have actually intended them to be read that way. This is where I read my first meta, before it was called that – someone who went through the books and pulled out excerpts that made a person think. Wow that eye contact really did linger, I thought. Maybe that embrace wasn’t strictly brotherly, I said to myself.

At the time, queerbaiting was not even a word in the vernacular. So when the 6th book came out and Tonks and Remus became the most eyebrow-raising pairing I’ve ever encountered, I just shrugged and went on with my life. Sirius was dead anyway so this really changed nothing. I liked Remus the gay uncle werewolf, but bisexual was fine too. I mostly wrote and read about them during their school days anyway. So this was fine.

Eventually I moved on, and where I landed after that was in the grand daddy of all slash pairings, the first fandom in our current fanfiction zeitgeist: Star Trek, the Original Series. Kirk and Spock. This was still a couple of years before the 2009 reboot movies, so all I had was a cheesy 60s TV show with a venerable back catalogue of fanfic. What’s better, this ship could never be sunk! Of course they couldn’t ever be canon, it was the 60s. Times were different. I could ship them with fervor and never be disappointed because of course it was just our interpretation. … Wasn’t it?

Oh, Gene Roddenberry. You idealistic sonuvabitch. You created the Vulcan word “t’hy’la” specifically for Spock to use for Kirk, and you made it mean friend, brother, and lover? Was that really necessary or were you trying to tell us something?

Here I found more fledgling meta, and I went through the novelizations of the movies with a highlighter devouring every piece of evidence I could find. But while this ship was unsinkable, it would also never fly. Even if Roddenberry had intended this, or supported it after the fact, prejudice surely had kept his intentions in the background. Subtext was our friend. We could work with subtext. The subtext wove a gay love story the likes of which we haven’t seen since the ancient Greeks. I was happy with that.

But then.

2010. Sherlock.

I knew going into it that Holmes and Watson were the greatest love story never told. I figured it would be a fun pairing for a while. But oh. I was not prepared. And oh, be still my beating heart, the Angelo’s scene! If I recall correctly I actually sat up straighter in my chair at “so you’ve got a boyfriend then”/”No.” Could they… could he? Did they actually…? Was this written for… me? For us? Could we, the weird little corner of the fandom be right for once?? The slash shippers, the queer kids, the ones who had been peering between the lines for decades to try and catch glimpses of ourselves in our favorite stories?

I buried the thought for a few years, devouring Johnlock fanfic like it was my job, my civic duty, my vocation. I waited patiently for each new series. But I never actually expected anything to come of my hopes until after season 3.

Bet you guessed it. TJLC had caught me like a spark in dry grass. The few analyses I’d read before were NOTHING compared to this. Suddenly it all seemed so possible. So real. After The Abominable Bride it seemed like there was nowhere else to go, nowhere to go but up. We were right. WE WERE RIGHT! For a whole year, we got to relish the thought that it might actually happen.

…………….. Season 4 was… tough. It felt like a slap in the face, all of our hopes thrown back at us with ignorance at best, cruelty and direct malice at worst. If it had been a good season on its own without canon Johnlock I might have been okay, but as it is….. It was not the first time I’ve had my heart broken by a TV show, and probably only seems like the worst by virtue of being recent. But I would very much like it to be the last.

A few months before diving head-first into the pre season-4 gear-up, I watched a few seasons of Supernatural. Just enough to meet Castiel and lay the groundwork for a Destiel obsession as a contingency plan for if season 4 of Sherlock went all pear shaped. I’m glad I did or I don’t know where I would have found my refuge.

But I started to notice something. From my earliest wading in the Destiel end of the tumblr pond, I shied away quickly from any discussion of evidence, subtextual clues used to make predictions, or whether or not Destiel could or should or will be canon. I still take all meta and spec I read with a healthy pinch of salt. I am trying very hard not to care about whether or not it becomes canon, because honestly? I miss the days when whether or not a ship was canon or had a snowball’s chance of ever becoming so had absolutely nothing to do with whether or not I shipped it.

Fandom is just one of many echo chambers that the internet has molded around every one of us. It is so easy to become convinced that our way is right and everyone else’s way is wrong, because we only hear our own voices and those of people we agree with reflected back at us.

We are not the arbiters of what happens in canon. The showrunners are NOT obligated to listen to us. Not everyone can be right, and the showrunners cannot listen to everyone. Nor should they. They are, for better or for worse, creating their own story. Not ours.

We can always write the story the way we want to, over and over in countless different ways. These days I see a show almost more as a set of toys to play with than as its own impermeable whole. I can believe that Dean and Castiel have been slowly falling in love over the course of the last decade. I can decide when and where I want them to have first admitted it, to themselves or each other. What’s more – I can change my mind. Some days I like believing that they’ve been together since Cas’s hand print was still fresh on Dean’s shoulder. Some days I’d rather believe that they’re still pining and in various states of denial. Or anything in between – it’s all equally valid. Once it’s said and stated in canon, that’s it. That’s the show. That’s how it happened. I like the freedom I have when my ship is not explicitly canon. The best is when they are clearly aware of it and give us moments like the mixtape or the Fanfiction Gap of 9x06 – new toys to play with – but let us shape what’s actually going on. As I say in my tags sometimes: They clearly love us and want us to have nice things.

All of this is NOT to say that up-and-coming queer kids do not richly need and deserve representation. God, not at all. I beat myself up about this a lot, for what feels like a terribly selfish desire to just enjoy it and not worry about whether or not the up and coming queer youth could have it better than I did. They can and they should and I still believe that season 4 of Sherlock was the biggest missed opportunity in queer cinema history.

I just can’t take it so personally anymore. For the sake of my favorite hobby, I cannot stake my enjoyment of a pairing and a show on whether or not the showrunners want to take the risk. I cannot let them dangle me on that particular string. I cannot give them that power over me. 

So this is my manifesto, for me personally. If Destiel becomes canon? I will be over the moon. But I will not go hunting for it. I won’t expect it. I will cherish every gift that the showrunners give to us because they’re not obligated to give us a damn thing, so I can’t take what they do give us for granted. I will live my headcanons, write my fics, and I will love the show for what it is, warts and all. I will ship my ship, enthusiastically and with my whole heart, because it brings me joy to do so. Canon or no canon. @starsinursa @daughter-of-the-rain-and-snow

[transgenderteensurvivalguide]

I read the FAQ, but I don't see anything addressing coming out on social media. I'm planning on coming out on Facebook before my birthday (of which is in two weeks) and I was wondering if any of you have any tips.

Lee says:

Be clear about what you’re coming out as.

Provide an informational link about being trans.

Add an informational link about your specific identity if it isn’t a well-known one.

State that you are changing names if you are doing so, and you’d like everyone to call you by your new name.

State that you are changing pronouns if you are doing so, and you’d like everyone to call you by your new pronoun set.

Add an informational link on your pronoun set if it isn’t he/him or she/her

Give example sentences of how to use your pronouns (especially if they’re neopronouns)

Make it clear who you are now out to; if you are trying to remain closeted in a specific area of your life, tell that. Like if you aren’t coming out at work, say so or people might out you accidentally. If you are now out to everyone, say so, and say you’d like people to correct others if they accidentally misgender you because they didn’t know if you’d like that.

Coming out (general tips and info)

Ally resources (informational links within)

Here’s an example of what it would be like if I came out on social media:

Hi everyone! This is my Official Coming Out™ announcement. 

I’m genderqueer, which is an identity under the transgender umbrella. For me, that means I don’t identify as a man or as a woman, I feel more like a neutral third gender. I also use the term non-binary, which means outside of the male/female binary. 

Explaining Genderqueer To Those Who Are Not

Coming Out as Genderqueer Non-Binary

Too Queer for Your Binary: Everything You Need to Know and More About Non-Binary Identities

Genderqueer/Nonbinary 101

10 myths about non-binary people that it’s time to unlearn

Think you’ve got “trans” down, but still feel confused about “non-binary”?

PFLAG’s guide to being a trans ally

As part of my transition, I’m changing my name from [birthname] to Lee, and I use they/them pronouns (which can be used singularly!) instead of she/her pronouns. My pronouns are going to sound weird for a while before you get used to them, and yeah, slip-ups will happen. I don’t expect that everyone will flawlessly switch to my new name and pronouns and that’s alright- as long as you’re genuinely trying. 

Minus 18 has a pronoun website where you can select they/them pronouns and see how they’re used in sentences.

Tips on learning and practicing pronouns

Explaining why you use they/them pronouns

I’m currently out to everyone except to my coworkers at work, so I’d appreciate if you correct classmates and peers who use the wrong name or pronouns for me- but don’t say anything if I’m at work. 

I didn’t know I was trans as a kid, but now that I’ve figured out my identity I feel much happier and more comfortable being me. I plan on getting top surgery and starting hormones at some point.

Here are some examples of my pronouns:

Subjective: She laughs. -> They laugh.Objective: I hug her. -> I hug them.Prenominal possessive: Her hair grows. -> Their hair grows.Predicative possessive: I use hers. -> I use theirs.Reflexive: She feeds herself. -> They feed themself.

Example of they/them pronouns in paragraph:

Lee bounced excitedly in their chair, gazing up at the TV with unabashed glee. Star Trek time! They reached over, grabbing their bowl of popcorn from the coffee table, and shoved a handful into their mouth. The popcorn wasn’t really theirs, but they were sure Dad wouldn’t notice. “This is the good part, the bit coming up,” they mumbled around their mouthful of popcorn, talking to their cat. On the glowing TV screen, Kirk pulled open a storage hatch. Tribbles poured out, a few cooing in that Tribble way. Lee snorted at the image of Kirk standing up to the waist in tribbles. A few minutes later, Spock’s deadpan reply to Kirk made Lee laugh so hard they knocked their bowl of popcorn on the floor. Whoops. Lee looked around guiltily, and seeing nobody but the cat, they picked the popcorn up off the floor and placed it back in the bowl. They leaned over and confided, “It’s okay to put it back, Sushi, because it hasn’t been five seconds yet,” they said, rationalizing to their cat. Lee settled back into their chair, looking forward to Kirk’s next confrontation with the Klingons. Their cat stared back at them.

[mild-lunacy]

What is Canon? (and other existential questions)

graceebooks replied to your photo: ravenamore: unpretty: unpretty: unpretty: ...

you seem to have a very simple assumed definition of what “canon” even means in the first place… but is it really that easy?

Well, this definitely made me think about what my definition is, at least for the purposes of 'slashy' or homoerotic vs 'canon romance'. I'm not absolutist, in the sense that I need explicit proof and cannot take any implied romantic involvement as canon. Like, I've heard about people who refuse to accept when it's a queer romance even when the intent is clearly there but there's no announcement, or the kiss wasn't public, or there was no kiss and only hand-holding, etc. That's pretty clearly homophobic on some level. Still, part of it seems to be about a sort of split in fandom as far as 'slash goggles' are concerned, where people either see 'canon' or nothing at all. Homoeroticism isn't enough (ie, it isn't queer representation), and so it seems like we've created a bigger umbrella for things that are 'queer'.

I hope it's obvious that I have no intrinsic issue with a queer reading-- and I'm a big fan, specifically of seeing Kirk/Spock in TOS and the Reboot-- but I think I just find it useful to differentiate a queer reading from 'canon', which I feel is on the level of something that's inarguably the text rather than subtext. I do think subtext is also a part of the text-- that is, we're not just making it up, or it's not simply a misreading-- but neither is it factual. It's a grey area. And because I think literary analysis has so *much* in the way of grey areas, I find it important to be specific (and perhaps pedantic) about what I consider the text's core elements. As in, this is what I would teach and expect to see as part of an analysis in a lit class exam, and if you don't see it, you're not reading closely enough or have a bias.

Sometimes what you have is a muddle, because while you can be reasonably sure the intent went one way (either towards or away from the queer interpretation), the actual text doesn't bear up. For example, we know that Billy Wilder meant TPLoSH to have a gay Sherlock, but in my opinion, the actual film doesn't really support this except very indirectly. In that case, it's not that I propose ignoring the queer elements, which are quite real, and I would hope any serious analysis would take them into account. At the same time, there is no queer romance in canon, and to me that is simply a fact. I feel similarly about Star Trek TOS. We know Gene Roddenberry was open to the queer potential between Kirk and Spock, and you can certainly talk about the queer or homoerotic elements in the show, of which there are many. You can do a very easy-- and consistent!-- queer reading. But this reading would be... a reading. And any reading, no matter how good, no matter how fitting or logical and natural, is not the same thing as *canon*.

So what *is* canon?

It's not just the *purely* factual. That's definitely an oversimplification, and I'm not one of the people who thinks like that. But at the same time, calling every aspect of subtext 'canon' can *also* be oversimplification. Naturally, I think the characters' feelings, whether spoken or unspoken (but shown) are definitely part of the canon. At the same time, if the feelings are unspoken and implicit, you have to have some sort of contextual action-- or reaction by other characters-- that makes the relationship canonically romantic. Part of this has to do with talking about the larger focus and/or 'bent' of the narrative, which often coincides with Authorial Intent (given it's a competent writer and censorship can be ruled out; what is 'canon' in censored or altered texts is a whole different kettle of rather confusing fish).

Context is a difficult thing to pin down, and sometimes it's only obvious in retrospect, after a story is done. Nevertheless, it's often necessary to understand some subtler aspects of a given text's character relationships. Where was this relationship going? How long has it been indirectly or directly shown to going there? What are the textual pay-offs for whatever symbolic or subtextual queer/romantic elements that may be seen earlier in the text? It's those explicit emotional pay-offs that I need to consider a relationship 'canon'. Obviously, even an implicit relationship may be more or less subtle, and it may or may not involve any physical expression, but it's got to be shown or experienced romantically in a fairly straightforward way. This is my standard for any emotional development, romantic or not: it has to be connected and integrated into the greater reality of the story. It has to have both roots and consequences which are explicitly shown, even if never verbally confirmed.

For another example, and to prove I'm actually relatively open-ended in terms of what constitutes a 'shown' romantic relationship, I've long said I can see canon Johnlock at the end of TLD. I guess I'd say it walks right up to the edge of canon, but stops short of it. I can see TFP as constituting the 'emotional consequences' for the characters I spoke of, because it can be used to demonstrate the right kind of progression in John and Sherlock's relationship (even though everyone but Ivyblossom seems to disagree on this reading of TFP). My point is really that it *is* a reading, not an inarguable fact of TFP (ask anyone, really, even most people who see canon Johnlock elsewhere). I can squint and see it, but ultimately squinting is not enough. Something like Ronan/Adam in The Raven Cycle is certainly incidental, in that their romantic involvement is not the point of the story or even their overall relationship, and no explicit labels or declarations are present, but it's inarguably canon because it has both roots and consequences. I'd also say it was canon in retrospect even before their becoming boyfriends, because Ronan's attraction and Ronan's (and later Adam's) awareness of it constitutes a romantic interest (just an unrequited one). So 'canon' doesn't actually require requitedness, by any means. But either the character or the narrator must be shown to be aware, on some level.

I'm not necessarily denying that I may be pedantic about this, though. But I suppose I think I'd rather err on the side of caution and hold queer narratives to a higher standard. 'Slash' or homoerotic subtext is also an interesting and valuable thing to study or think about in its own right, even if you may argue the time for it has passed. Still, it's historically more accurate to leave that subtext in the realm of subtext, that which is subjectively present but objectively absent. That was its role and intended nature, and a lot of older texts don't really make sense to me otherwise, at least taken in their own context. And well, I'm enough of a lit nerd to always prefer to take stories in their own context, as far as analysis goes.