#tdp has my favourite rep thank u very much

[raayllum]

I think the reason TDP is left out of queer rep discussions is because it's not as known as other shows with LGBTQ+ representation, which mainly advertize themselves as that while TDP tends to lean more towards adventure, comedy and drama. It could also be because, from my fandom deep dives, some call Duren's queens' death "bury your gays" trope or think the creators simply wanted to make a "woke" show. But these are just my quesses about the matter.

This might be a very cynical slant to take but: I actually think a lot of it has to do with race. Now, queer rep in live action vs animation is very different. M/M ships / pairings still dominate the live action landscape in terms of rep and in terms of fandom. Western animation is one of the only places - as far as I know of - where femslash is actually more represented. And I'm not going to get into why, because it's long and complex and I don't have all the answers there, but we're gonna put a pin in that point because it's relevant for later.

The fact of the matter is that, in spite of cartoon tumblr's insistences that they care about Intersectionality, they don't actually care about disabled or racial representation. And I know this, largely because of how the VLD and SPOP fandoms treat their disabled and darker skinned characters of colour. I was in the VLD fandom for 2.5 years as a Shiro (disabled, chronically & mentally ill queer man of colour) and Allura (Black woman) fan. For SPOP I dabbled in the fandom alone, but my favourites were always Bow, Scorpia, and Adora.

While I have mixed feelings regarding Sh*ra and adore TOH as a very fun and cute show, there are commonalities between them. Just a quick disclaimer: I don't like Catra/Adora (also never shipped Adora/Glimmer) and I think Luz/Amity is adorable. I am acknowledging my shipping preferences, but they actually have very little to do with the sort of analysis I'm doing here, which is on a structural narrative level. But just to get it out of the way, they're there.

Now, the most popular queer ships of the past 5 years have been Keith/Lance, Sokka/Zuko, Catra/Adora, and Luz/Amity. All four are (technically, in CA's case) interracial, with strong corresponding elements between each m/m and f/f pair.

Keith/Lance and Sokka/Zuko both feature a paler angstier boy who's a bit of a loner paired with a more flirtatiously written (whether that's canon for Sokka is debatable) darker skinned boy. CA and Lumity both feature a character who's mean or cruel at first due to their home life, but is eventually reformed. All four ships are rivals or enemies to lovers.

There's a few key differences between CA, Lumity, and Janaya. The first two both feature at least one protagonist (Catra would likely fall under deuteragonist, Amity is a main side character, same as Janai and Amaya; for the record Keith and Lance would have fallen under this as well). Another main difference is that Janai/Amaya is the only one where the rivalry / enemy status is truly reciprocal and completely impersonal. But I think the biggest differences, honestly, between why CA and Lumity are so much more popular than JA?

It's because CA and Luz/Amity offer more projection fodder for things that young teens in particular are going through in regards to Amity and Catra's characters being very easy to project onto, and that both ships hardcore protect White Femininity somewhat at the expense of their darker skinned ladies of colour.

For example: Amity and Adora are both the more feminine ladies in appearance and disposition in some ways, i.e. being in dresses whereas their ship half is in something more masculine leaning (or in Luz's case, a true mix). Again, put a pin this, cause we'll be back to it in a second.

As for projection, Catra and Amity both struggle with having very controlling mothers. They have hard outer shells as a coping mechanism, with the protagonist being someone who opens and softens them up. As such, the shipping content itself tends to hinge on how Catra and Amity feel, over how Luz and Adora feel. Canon reflects this; Amity blushing episodes before Luz does, catching feelings when they're only really just starting to be friends. We're supposed to believe that Catra has "always loved" Adora - in her own words - even though she brainwashed her in season two (which is what Horde Prime, endgame big bad, did to Catra in season five - and we got to see trauma there addressed, but what Catra did to Adora is never brought up ever again), and accepting their happily ever after means accepting that truth.

TOH does a better job at showing why Luz is interested in Amity, first as a friend and then as a love interest. Catra and Adora's relationship is more sloppily handled.

However, one key thing is still there: in season five, the show presents Catra as Adora's saviour: "It doesn't always have to be you! [...] What do you want, Adora?" Likewise, much of Luz and Amity's relationship hinges on Luz, by proxy, transforming Amity's life and helping to free her from her family. In spite of the way Catra is brutal to Adora in the past, her side of the relationship arc in the show with the final season in mind is ultimately about saving the more feminine, white woman she's fallen in love with. (This is also Netossa's entire character arc, btw; we never see her white wife have to fight for her, either.) Amity has very few arcs that aren't related to Luz / her gayness - whereas as Luz has plenty outside of it, which makes it so much better - but relationship wise, Amity hasn't wrought the big transformative changes out of Luz in the same capacity that Luz has created for Amity.

Now reading Catra as brown is complicated for a few different reasons (she's often specifically seen as Latina, and Catra is by far the most sexualized character in the show as well as being the angriest / more aggressive / literally animalistic), but that doesn’t mean it’s a disingenuous reading. Noelle Stevenson themselves has supported it, in fairly typical “I didn’t think through all the implications” fashion SP*P is riddled with.

Now, how does this relate to Janaya? Well for one, Amaya is significantly more masculine presenting in comparison to Janai. Neither deal with parental issues that can be projected onto; Khessa disapproves, but she arguably brings Janai and Amaya together instead, and Janai has her own authority as a political figure. Janaya has a very reciprocal relationship, both taking steps towards the other. The relationship doesn't hinge on one having strong feelings far sooner than the other to justify their redemption arc or their cruelty towards the other. Neither of them are mean, although if one is characterized as more angry or stand offish in a fic, it is often Janai, who is a darker skinned Black woman, because... fandom falls back on stereotypes, I suppose? But related to the projection, is that because Janai and Amaya have a lot of character background that isn't related to each other, they're more complex characters to write. Catra basically doesn't have a motivation outside of Adora and neither does Amity; they kinda exist, within text, to be love interests, even if their characters also have more than that going on personally.

But Janai does not Exist, narratively, just to be Amaya's love interest. Most of her motivations exist outside of Amaya (i.e. Amaya is an obstacle to protecting her people, whereas Catra fights Adora to spite Adora) and Amaya never overtakes them (which can't be said for Amity or Catra; although they're setting aside negative motivations like shame or expectations, those motivations aren't replaced by anything other than their love interests). She has her own interiority, and that makes her less appealing.

Janai and Amaya are going to change each other's lives, yes, but in smaller ways outside of changing things between elves and humans. The fics I've seen that try to give that "Janai doesn't have much of a life outside of Amaya" read (ie. that Janai didn't have many friends growing up) is baffling for a few reasons. The first is that, unlike Rayla or Ezran in canon, there's nothing in canon to support it, and it's a lazier less interesting route for a grown woman who would have camaraderie with her troops (and her two canonical siblings) if nothing else.

There's a lot of interesting think pieces on what gets popular for m/f ships and why that you can read here, but one of those overlaps is the emphasis on dynastic power and - usually the male - 'liberating' the female character from a life she's trapped in. Again: sound familiar at all? And again, is also extremely common for enemies/rivals to lovers ships.

Which is to say: TDP's ship that would've fit the format would've been Rayla/Claudia. Not only are they both white, which definitely helps shipping popularity, but Rayla is the more masculine leaning between the two, and Claudia can't be evil, because she's a quirky feminine white girl! She just needs someone to save her from her father - or, in one oneshot I stumbled upon, a very aggressive Corvus who's attacking Rayla, because making out a Black man as aggressive and violent when he's not that in canon whatsoever so your white lesbians can get together is Progressive, right? Who cares if Rayla is someone she dehumanizes in canon? They can be a power couple together.

But TDP canon didn't give a single damn thing to Rayla/Claudia, and so the ship died out.

Janaya has the dynastic power, but it is privileged to a Black woman, and so is her emotional arc. Amaya will be her queen, not the other way around. Nor are they liberating each other from anything. They are two people who already have most of their shit figured out, figuring out the rest together. It is refreshingly mature, and honestly common with a lot of TDP’s couples, even Rayllum (who has the reciprocal transformative side of things done perfectly). 

So I guess the TLDR version is;

A combination of age demographic of tumblr's animation community; the tropes that Janaya don't fall into that leads to less interrelated projection; and race.

Because let's be honest, a lot of queer rep in fandom is predicated entirely on shipping, which is why bi characters in m/f relationships or interracial representation is given a backseat to Gold Star Gays.

The second thing is that TDP has a Lot going on besides shipping. Any of the main five are pretty equally popular among general fans, everyone gets multiple arcs a season. There's intensive worldbuilding, lore, and history. There's a lot of over arcing plot and platonic foundations / relationships are prioritized (i.e. friends, siblings, etc).

TOH tries to balance between a school show (both familiar) and has actual worldbuilding here and there, which I'm very grateful for. Sh*ra does worldbuilding whenever it feels like it, which is very rare, and dismantles it's emphasis on friendship by having almost literally everyone get into romantic relationships within the last two episodes. The main draws of each of the shows are shipping; TOH privileges Amity's relationship with Luz in terms of emphasized screentime over Gus and Willow, which is strange because Luz never had Friends before, and because it's only started to feel recently (i.e. s2) like she and Amity have a strong friendship outside of crush feelings. Which yeah, as an aro-spec person, is Important to me to get Invested, lmao. Shera has completely stagnant characters, sometimes for entire 6-13 episode long seasons, and the war only matters when the show wants it to, resulting in multiple, very odd and jarring tonal shifts. Both shows struggle with highlighting their men of colour and giving them individual arcs, although again, TOH does significantly better.

But fandom - especially young, queer fandom - doesn't know how to exist in fandom without shipping, and without an extreme emphasis on same sex presenting couples, and are unlearning a lot of their own western imposed whiteness and... Yeah. (That's not to say I'm not unlearning my own, but I'm probably further along than a 16 year old, and I Know I was further along at 16 than a lot of teens on twitter these days, unfortunately.)

TDP just says, "Here are our characters and the world they inhabit, and you just get to observe them." It's complete and utter normalization, for any of the intersections of representation involved. TDP makes their representation Clear and Obvious without making it Important, as an interview, marketing, or in story factor. These characters just get to Be. They get to live and die and love like anyone else. There's no attention drawn to it in the first place, it just is.

But you know, as frustrating as it can be sometimes that TDP doesn't get the credit it deserves, as it is undeniably the show that has made me and a lot of other people along different intersections than me feel the Most Seen, I'd take just getting to Be - even if it's just in a fictional universe for now - over Distinction, any day.