#the hold queerbait has over me is insane

[moldybonessmell]

"Deadpool and Wolverine": queercoding analysis of Poolverine in the movie

// SPOILERS

//Disclaimer: This is NOT a hate post to Vanessa/Wade shipp, but if you ship them, this post is probably not for you.

I've seen a few queerbaiting allegations and, frankly, don't agree with them. Now I'll explain why.

Starting with the fact that movie begins as a typical reasoning for a character to get a new love interest: we find out Wade and Vanessa broke up after roughly 7-8 years together.

Either we don't know (or I just don't remember lol) for how long they've been separate, but it was enough time for Vanessa to get in a new relationship.

And we know that the reason for this breakup is the core differences between the two. In the previous movie they wanted to get a child and Wade's entire motivation was based around Vanessa. In this movie tho, it seems like even if Wade is still not completely over breakup, he seems to be compliant with the fact they are not together anymore. You would expect Wade to go and do something silly to Nessa's new guy, but he doesn't. He respects her decidion.

Wade has more of an existentioal crisis than just hurting from the breakup. So I would assume he's not over because he feels like he messed up and keeps giving sad puppy eyes holding on this romantic relationship with Vanessa. Tho they are still soulmates and friends no matter what.

I don't know about you, but for me this exposition doesn't look like a foreshadowing of Vanessa and Wade getting back together. Vanessa is happy and self-actualised on her own, even if Wade is not.

I don't see Wade trying to change as an act of trying to get back with Vanessa. He reacts like this because his family member pointed out his flaws.

Secondly, the only other "hints" for a relationship between Wade and Vanessa is him remembering how they kissed and in the end Vanessa holding Wade's hand. Which, let me point out, is not a typical trope to show characters are back together. You know what's typical? A KISS! Which never happened btw.

Not to be this person, but we all know Disney/Marvel haven't got the balls to show a canon queer relationship. So the only "hints" for Vanessa/Wade seem to either read as platonic, or purely as an attempt of Disney to be like !look! female love interest!.

Now, other important part. If you really think about it, referencing the first part of the post, the movie follows an enemies-to lovers romantic movie formula:

(optional) breakup with previous partner;

annoyance first (previous deadpool movies);

admiration upon actual meeting (even if Wade acts cocky, when you listen to him telling the story about how his universe's Logan saved Laura, you can clearly see he adores the hero, who, as we know, is relatively similar throughout multiverse. Wade knows this Logan has the same morals as other ones, hearing how he regrets not being able to help his x-men);

"having to" go on an adventure/quest together even tho they are annoyed at each other;

enemies bickering and fighting because they have differences (which are actually similarities between the two which drive them insane when they see this mirroring);

the breaking point and confrontation (the Logan monologue in the car scene);

*the close proximity tention* hate fucking as a spicy way to get over the argument (in the car scene they are shown to fight just for the sake of letting out steam);

the cold period when characters ignore each other because they are still pissed (when Laura got the two to her base);

getting over it and working together, trusting that the other got their back;

saving the world with the power of love brotherhood with romantic soundtrack on;

both staying alive and having a heart-to-heart conversation;

one wants to leave, but the other stops them (usually it would be followed up with a kiss but oh well);

officially meeting a parental figure of one of the characters and moving in together as in an established relationship.

I don't think I'm delusional if I say I haven't seen brotherhood media (ones without queerbaiting or actual siblings) that would follow this formula. But I did see romantic storylines.

All in all, Wade and Logan go through a development and establishment of a relationship. And I'm not even talking about the obvious "one being there when other lost everything and giving them a new family and home".

In the movie there are so many romantic tropes of these CANONICALLY QUEER CHARACTERS, which make it safe to assume that queercoding is in fact happening. I would argue about it if both of them were straight in the source material, but this is the best and most important part, they are not :)

And this is why "Deadpool & Wolverine" is actually a romcom. Thank you for reading!

[lizzie-queenofmeigas]

It’s actually insane to me how Rhaenicents genuinely don’t realise they’re being played.

Ryan will throw around “hope for Rhaenicent” in interviews, Emma and Olivia will do photoshoots together, Daemyra will be largely ignored in marketing etc. Only for S2 to come out with Rhaenyra/Daemon as a power couple and Alicent bumping uglies with Criston.

Unlike the crazy Daemyra accusations they throw around to explain Rhaenyra choosing Daemon over Alicent they can’t call Alicole grooming. So how are they going to explain why Alicent’s sleeping with a guy when she’s supposed to be crying over Rhaenyra? 😂

The queerbaiting is so obvious I'm surprised they don't realise it. They want to hold on to their crackship so bad, pretend is more than queerbaiting.

They will find a way to make it about Rhaenyra if Alicole has a sex scene. Say way they try to make everything about Daemyra terrible to prop up Rhaenyra's canon abuser.

[currentlyonstandbi]

[hopefullystillatheatrestudent]

i'm so excited about you taking asks again ahhhh okay so. if you'd absolutely had to choose. what would be your top 5 cockles moments, and why? thank you ily <3

here’s the thing: there are so many routes i could go down with this, because cockles moments come in all shapes and sizes and formats. these include moments from their panels, their bloopers, the footage we get when they don’t even know they’re being recorded, stories being passed down from photo ops & autographs(one of my personal favorite ways to get cockles, tbh, because they’re all insane), and social media(tweets to each other, instagram posts & comments, etc.). 

SO! since many a list like this has already been made, and i want to stand out from the crowd, what i’m gonna do is definitively give the number one spot to each of these five categories.(i might even throw in honourable mentions because they’re so despicably in love that they warrant that. i really put my whole pussy into this, guys, i hope you’re happy.) 

disclaimer: these are my own personal opinions. but that also means i’m right. so. enjoy. 

number one: top cockles panel moment

so we’re starting off with a bang, because how do you even BEGIN to rank what atrocities jensen and misha commit at jibcon. every single one they’ve had is damning in it’s own right, for different reasons.

however, considering just how much unabashed fuckery they’ve given us to sift through, it’s a good thing i do have a personal favorite despite it all. it’s heartwarming, the sweetest thing i’ve ever seen, AND it’s jarringly cinematic - mainly because it has a whole ass arc to it that was years in the making. it might even be surprising to some people, but my favorite cockles panel moment, and what i consider the one that encompasses their entire gut-wrenching journey from 2008-2013 in the most sweepingly romantic gesture possible, is this one.

i want this burned into my retinas. i am not even joking. when i'm through with my explanation, let me convince you why this is thee most romantic cockles moment of all time.

first, some history: people call this the resume off, but many seem to forget the botched attempt at a resume off a year prior. and yes, you guessed it: it's during their break up. it's a juicy time period for a reason, guys. it came across as exceedingly one-sided and VERY awkward. let me refresh your memory as to just how bad it was, and just how hard jensen was trying and ultimately failing at winning misha over: the funniest part of the whole resume off in 2013??? every joke/bit had literally already been made/done. they were just going through the motions again, but the difference THIS time...is that misha reciprocated jensen's energy. it. is. fascinating. i want to get into it more detail in another post, and i'll link it here when i'm done, but the main takeaway, i think, and the main difference that showcases how much they've grown in a year, is that in jib 3, misha flat out refused to do an accent, and this time around, he indulges jensen for literal minutes. when i tell you they're crazy, they're crazy. i can't wait to actually dive into it later.

ANYWAY, the resume off culminates in this moment here. and, like, a million things happen in this gifset. actually, more like a million and one. the music starts playingneediremindyouthatthesongissingingintherain(h e l p), misha starts dancing, jensen 'perpetually fake grumpy' ackles lets misha think he's not going to join, misha sits down defeated, but no!!! that was jensen's plan all along(look at his stupid fucking smirk) and he offers his arm to his dance partner who immediately grins like a fool, jensen then leads misha into their kick step, they perfectly synchronise and let loose, and are then very clearly having the time of their lives, hanging off of each other with joy and ease. from their expressions alone i can tell that this moment is so. so. so. so! much more than what initially meets the eye. i mean-misha is fighting back the biggest smile i've ever seen. to me, it reads like jensen is offering something to misha, something that misha kind of gave up on expecting, and him offering his arm like that is like, a surprise to him in the best possible way(and it's so not platonic, let me just say that.) as soon as jensen did that, it ushered in a new era of cockles. this panel is jensen and misha's favourite for a reason, and i think this moment is the biggest clue as to why.

whew!!! ok. that took a lot out of me and that was only point one. moving on,

number two: top cockles blooper moment

cockles bloopers hold an extremely special place in my heart, because it shows just how fucking disastrous jensen and misha are. they are so goddamn infatuated with each other that they HOLD UP PRODUCTION ALL THE TIME TO FLIRT WITH EACH OTHER(???). let me repeat. let it sink in. jensen ackles; arguably one of the most professional actors on that show who puts everything he has into each scene, with mountains and mountains of notes to prove it: would rather hold up production to flirt with misha collins. this sounds fake. it's not. he does it. all. the. time. and here's the thing guys!!! i'm gonna let you in on a secret!!! misha loves it. he loveesssss it. on top of that-misha collins: overlooked because he's pranked and people assume he's unprofessional as well, but his only pranks are in retaliation/off-set, and he rarely if EVER causes problems if he can help it....lets himself get carried away when it comes to jensen making kissy faces at him!!! are you actually kidding me!!! i mean. misha. it's just a face. you've seen it a million times. i don't buy that it triggers something in you that strongly....you like it, and you like jensen's reaction. you can't fool me!!! lisa berry's face in that one gifset shows just how fed up the crew is with their gross, coupley boyfriend antics.

i could pull up so many examples. sooooooo many. but my favourite was sealed since the moment i saw it.

i actually already wrote an analysis on it but i can't find it :(((( which SUCKS because i really unpacked the whole thing. i'll try to summarise.

basically, a backstory is part of this too!!! jensen and misha both had a really really hard time with this scene(because it's explicitly romantic there i said it), they sat down for hours and poured over their scripts together, they were super super nervous going into filming, both of them, jensen especially, were super hard on themselves for their performances not being true to their characters but they both complimented the other's work(boyfriend moments fr). so, yeah. they weren't confident going into shooting. and how do they get themselves to feel better???? by cuddling each other, apparently.

a lot. a LOT. happens in this specific blooper. to the point that i saw it years before i knew about cockles and it raised all sorts of flags for me.

1) stop pulling my face towards your crotch(as a thinly veiled request that misha would, in fact, move jensen's face towards his crotch, considering it was jensen moving himself there in the first place. also, why so comfy down there guys???) 2) you're my baby daddy i know(in the most intimate voice i've ever heard please) 3) i know, i know, i love you too i didn't say i love you i know but you wanted to say it etc. misha's right, of course. that's what jensen meant.

it just reeks of comfort, familiarity and intimacy between the two, and it's a moment that is extremely sweet and silly at the same time. they're so <3

number three: top cockles found footage moment

WONDERFUL category. truly the culmination of the cockles experience. many people have said that shipping cockles doesn't work because 'they're just onstage you dummies!! they're playing it up for the audience!!!' here's the thing, love. i could not disagree with you more. once you climb your way up the cockles ladder, you soon learn that they are, in fact, playing their dynamic DOWN, not up. they really are just Like That™, and they could not care less about the paying audience, if we're being honest, considering how much time they take to giggle with each other and refuse to let the audience in on the joke. and i love them for it <3

anyway, my point is that this category is for all you naysayers out there, all you 'jensen and misha's relationship is just for show and is real life queerbaiting'(?????lordhelp???) oh yeah? ok, explain this.

he. he. he calls jensen sweetheart. literally enough said. there's nothing to really add here, except, misha and jared then immediately engage in damage control. jared's method is distraction and misha's is retconning('get out of the car, dude') this was what got me to buy into the cockles dumpster for GOOD good. you don't call your buddy sweetheart accidentally and sound so completely earnest while doing it! especially not when that buddy is jensen ackles!!! you think he would let any of his friends call him that? do you?

one more thing; if it was a slip of the tongue, little mouth thing or whatever, you think jared wouldn't have jumped on it immediately??? i can hear it now. 'did you just call him SWEETHEART???' yeah. that's what i thought. you know why he didn't? because it was too revealing.

number four: top cockles autograph moment

i mean, i think we all know what it's gonna be, and if you don't, well, do i have the piece de cockles resistance that is gonna send you over the edge.

if you haven't heard of this story by now, as a cockles, truther, i'm gonna go ahead and get you to read it, because there is no possible heterosexual explanation for any of it, and you're fooling yourself if you think otherwise.

spoiler alert: it's the story where phones weren't allowed in an auto session, jensen nuzzles himself in misha's hair, leans his full body weight onto him, holds his hand, etc. etc. i'm imploding just repeating this back, actually. also, just, the sheer amount of stories from photo ops where they tackle hug each other or slap each other's asses or sing romantic songs to each other or almost kiss is, frankly, a lot. if i could wish for anything, it would be to witness them in person.

and finally,

number five: top cockles social media moment

this one is super difficult, because there's obviously a lot to choose from. but you know what? full send, i'm going with this one:

i just. what to say about this. how often do misha and jensen watch sunsets together for it to qualify as ‘always’ ??? why are sunsets synonymous with their relationship??? that’s like??? a very romantic thing????? ‘this guy’??? the fact that it’s a CANDID??? i don’t know guys.

that could have been better but i am TIRED so. there you go rose ily

[quillquiver]

On SPN, Burying Your Gays, and Being Heard

I am shaking, I feel sick, I feel like I’m insane. And did I run a little wild with the theories? You bet. But you know what didn’t help? The botched clusterfuck that was this entire goddamn finale debacle. How was I supposed to believe anything they said in panels when M&G dialogue would leak saying the exact opposite? How was I supposed to grieve and move on when there was nothing from the cast and crew? Nobody said anything! And any info leaked just destabilized what we already knew or directly contradicted what we’d been told. In light of that, how was I supposed to trust anything anyone said? One rogue translator reciprocated the love confession and I was practically sold, because there were so many questions surrounding the English text that this was something good, something that logically fit, and something I wanted to hold onto. 

Because they hurt me. This is about so much more than one episode or a ship; for years queer fans have seen ourselves in these characters and been told that we were crazy. That we were reading too much into it. I’m not sure how people get upset and offended when a storyline that doesn’t exist... doesn’t exist! said Guy Bee (2013). And then, after all of that, they turned around and said magnanimously, you have your version, I have mine... and that’s okay. But it’s not okay. It’s not okay, because that doesn’t erase what came before - that doesn’t erase the baiting and the gaslighting, and that invalidates everything we felt in the time leading up to that episode. It gave them an open window for all the subtext that came after. It allowed them to brush us off.

And then we got Cas’s love confession. I watched that scene about 500 times. Added to the rest of the season - to the fandom avatar being presented as successful and intelligent, to arc being the death of the author - I felt seen. Really seen, by a show that made it its mission to erase me. I had been okay with Cas dying at first because I had been sure the romance arc would carry through. I had been convinced that after everything, there was no way they would give that to us and then take it away.

But they did, because this is Supernatural. To anyone saying this is not bury your gays, I implore you to read up on the Hays Code. This link is to an amazing queer history podcast and the episode that covers it. In short, the Hays Code was a legal document that came about in 20th Century Hollywood during the puritanical war on the American entertainment industry,  and it stipulated what was not allowed on screen. Not all of it was queer - there’s a whole section about kissing - but what the Code is most remembered for is that queerness was not allowed on screen. But queer people are resilient, and so they started testing the waters... and it turned out that you could in fact code queerness into a narrative, as long as it was subtextual, or as long as the queer character died/was punished, or both. The point is that the character is not allowed to live their truth openly. They are buried, either in the ground or punished in the narrative. The former is normally what we refer to these days, because the latter just doesn’t really happen anymore.

Until Supernatural. 

Castiel is immediately punished for speaking his truth - and please don’t tell me he leveraged that punishment and so he had agency. Literally the only thing that could make him happy was confessing his feelings, and so the Empty deal was directly related to this idea of queerness-as-punishment. That being said, Bobo wrote a beautiful scene. Cas’s confession was a love letter to queerness and coming out... but everything that came after buried him. Castiel may have ended the series alive but he was effectively written out of the last two episodes, and that means that he actually never really got to live his truth. He was silenced by the narrative - that is punishment. 

Dean is a whole other can of worms. Does one rogue translator confirm canon bi!Dean? Or do we have to read our own version of the text? The fact that we even have to ask these questions firmly places us in the realm of queerbaiting. Were the writers trying to get bi!Dean approved but were unable to? I have no idea, but queerbaiting requires proof that the writers encouraged a reading they had no intent of following through on, and we certainly don’t lack in evidence of that. Not from this writers room, but from those of previous eras. Did these writers try? They might have, but the funny thing about queerbaiting discourse is that there has never been a show to bait this long, and I’m making the call that even if you tried at the end, you baited me with half the ship and all the years that came before. 

Of course, the narrative leaves open the possibility of bi!Dean so if you do read the show that way, that means Dean also falls into the bury your gays category; if you read the show this way - which many of us do - the mere suggestion that Dean Winchester was bisexual was enough to punish him. And he was punished. We’ve all written extensively on this, but he was given a random death, on a case his father never finished. All that growth, all that time spent having him accept himself, love himself, that was all taken away. He died the way he always thought he would: as a tool, in service of his father, protecting his brother. He had always believed he’d been a body to throw on the sword and in the end that’s all he was. And when he gets to Heaven? He’s also silenced. He barely speaks in the episode except to monologue during his death, and that is 100% Sam-centric. He is scared. 

It was horrific to watch. I sobbed so hard my roommate was seriously concerned. 

I had been fully prepared for Supernatural to end disappointingly. I had figured everything would end with a huge heaven reunion because white, straight, cis-male S&F writers love the idea of death as a reward, but instead of being disappointed I felt like I had witnessed a slaughter. Every single one of the queer themes intrinsic to the show: found family, resilience, speaking your truth... were gone. And I know we’ve talked about this too, but it bears repeating, because in doing this, in writing the queerness out of its narrative, Supernatural effectively looked every one of us queer folx in the eye and said: you are not important. You don’t matter. All of that stuff that came before is all good and well, but what really matters at the end of all things is blood family. It’s two brothers in a car. Life sucks but at least we get to die and go to paradise - real paradise, that your angel buddy died for and then made for you and who we never hear from again.

I felt insane. I felt cheated. I felt humiliated. I felt devastated. I still feel all those things, but listen to me. You have been heard. Not by Misha Collins, who is a great guy, but doesn’t get it. Not by Jensen Ackles, who is a similarly great guy, but also just doesn’t understand. And not by anyone else who worked on this show. 

You know who heard you? Me. The people who follow me. The people who follow you. We saw each other, and heard each other, and we gave each other a leg up. We made memes. We wrote fic. We drew fanart. We made gifs. All for ourselves and all for each other. We broke Tumblr multiple times. We donated over $60,000 USD to multiple different causes. We got multiple hashtags trending at multiple different points, and today kept it up because we demanded answers and then we got them. There were at least 5 articles written about the show today. We made that happen. We made people listen. 

Supernatural didn’t deserve me, and it didn’t deserve you. It didn’t deserve Dean. It didn’t deserve Cas. It didn’t deserve Misha and Jensen. But this show ended with a bleak, awful message and we turned around and showed them that love is loud. So what about all of this is real?

We are.

[yutito]

NO BUT i cannot get over how ppl say that bgs who have never done anything remotely groundbreaking in that regard are “doing it for the gays” or whatever when all theyve done is hold a gay flag maybe once? or something? on a tour but when ppl like onlyoneof and key do things that are either inherently gay or show the flamboyance associated with gayness & lean into gnc styling deliberately theyre “queerbaiting” or “doing too much”, not to mention how holland, who is an out gay man, gets called homophobic slurs on the regular by kpoppies n how they ALSO say HE’S “doing too much” when all he is doing is existing as a gay man in public and living his best life. like it is just INSANE to me!! & the way kpoppies think it’s fine to call men exhibiting somewhat feminine behavior all kinds of slurs because “it’s just a joke, im gay” like.. you do not know this man. You Do Not Know This Man, & ur identity does not give you the permission to throw slurs at other people. and these people are ALREADY in the public eye n Key for example Has been dealing with getting homophobic insults/remarks about his flamboyance thrown at him for his entire career. like... are you fucking stupid? it’s not like homophobia doesnt exist anymore just because YOU’RE in a space where u dont have to deal with it regularly. holland LITERALLY got hatecrimed just a few months ago. like do you think THEY think it’s funny when youre calling them slurs as well ??

[alison-anonymous]

I Want to Write a Mikayuu Series

Okay.

So um.

If you're reading this, HELLO. All of you long time ONS fans probably don't know me, but I'm Alison and I'm a hardcore Mikayuu, Mitsunoa, Gureshin, etc shipper. I've been in the ONS fandom for almost a year and dear god. The amount of people telling me that Mikayuu is queerbait is just making me really sad 😅 I'm a writer, and I'm the type of person who honestly feels like the author of a series should have the ability to choose how a story ends without influence of their readers. I mean, if it's their story, then it should be their ending, right? However, I also do have some qualms when it comes to how this "love triangle" between Yu, Mika, and Shinoa is being portrayed. This is entirely my personal opinion, but I feel like Shinoa seems to be forcing herself to love Yu. I honestly don't think she cares for him in a romantic way, but more of a very deep-rooted admiration or even envy that she's trying to convince herself to be romantic love. And Yu has said multiple times that he values Mika's life above his own, that he doesn't know what he would do without him if he were to die again (I mean the fact that he suffered seeing his best friend and potential lover die a first time was definitely scarring enough, PLEASE STOP TORTURING OUR POOR BABIES). And it's basically confirmed by now that when Mika said I love you in the manga, it was in the romantic sense. Even though I wish, I hope, I dream, and I pray that Mikayuu will become canon, I honestly can't say for certain what I think will happen. I think it could sway any way, with Mikayuu becoming canon, Yu and Shinoa becoming canon, or it being one of those ambiguous endings where it's heavily implied but nothing actually happens. And in order to make myself feel better when stuff like this happens, I tend to rewrite the entire story with the ending that I would have liked to see ;)

You're probably wondering where the hell this stranger is going with this. Well, I want to write a book. A series, actually.

One that's inspired by Seraph of the End.

Now, if you're interested in hearing me out, then feel free to keep reading. But if not, continue on with your scrolling, no hard feelings. But if you do, and I really hope that you do, give me a chance to explain.

I want to write a series inspired by Seraph of the End called Bloodsucker (working title, obviously). And this series is going to be a reimagination of ONS with an ending that I would have loved to see in the anime and manga. I plan to have three main characters (please keep in mind that I'm going to have name changes): Yuichiro, Mikaela, and a brand new character, Epic.

Now, I would begin this series a bit before the anime and I'm assuming the manga begins. I'd start with introducing our main three characters as they meet in the orphanage (yes, Epic would be a part of this orphanage as well) and how Epic and Yu try to make moves to run away only to be stopped by Mika and Akane.

I plan to include a scene between Epic and Akane where Epic tries to run out in the middle of the night only to be stopped by Akane, and this is what caused Epic to develop a crush on her (Epic is a girl btw). Then I would begin the whole shit with the vampires and how they set the world on fire and shit, but instead of the apocolypse, I'd make it so that most of the adults died in the fire while the kids were taken alive (because young blood is better and whatnot). This includes our little Hyakuya family. The directors would have tried to trade the kids lives for their own, and due to their selfishness, the vamps killed them and took the kids anyway.

This would begin my first story arc: the prewar.

Epic, Akane, Mika, and Yu would all be living under the vampires at this point along with the rest of the kids in their orphanage. I plan to include lots of moments of bonding that heavily imply Epic loves Akane even though she doesn't know it yet and Mika loves Yu, but Yu is fucking oblivious. The four begin to plot their escape, but while Mika and Akane (yes Akane too) are making deals with the vampires to help out with their family, Epic is constantly finding herself getting dragged along to visit Queen Krul. The pink haired vamp has a soft spot for her for some reason and often tells her that Epic and her family are "special" or sum shit. And she's super confused and semi grossed out. But none of the vamps ever dare to hurt her so she thinks it's fine. Then one day they all plot their escape and it's much more planned out and lengthy and less rushed than it is in the anime. Things almost seem to work out until the vampires stop them

And Mika and Akane DIE.

I know. I'm horrid.

Epic is standing here in shock as she watches the love of her life die before her and Mika BEGS for Yu to take Epic and run while they can. So while in the series only Yu survives, he obeys Mika and both him and Epic survive this. They're found by Guren (a new character I haven't come up with yet lol) and Yu is super protective over Epic, not wanting anyone to take the only piece of his family he has left (he's a fucking mess without Mika let's just be honest) and Guren ends up taking them under his wing.

Now we hit the second arc. Still with me?

The War.

Hold onto your hats everyone because this is where shit is about to get complicated. So I do plan to have a bit of a time skip into the current spot where Yu and Epic are attending school with Guren as their father figure and they've become very close. So close that Yu refuses to work with anyone else but her. They end up getting onto Shinoa Squad (obviously going to be completely different in my version) and they get put onto the battlefield. But here's the catch. Well, two catches.

Yu and Epic do have demon weapons. I do plan to try to incorporate that into this. BUT the backstory is different. I plan to make it so that the vampires obviously see the humans as fies. Insignificant things that are more playthings than threats. And they didn't want to have to deal with killing all of them, so they sent demons in their place to handle it. But the humans were able to form deals or "contracts" with the demons and therefore turned the vampires' own secret weapon against them.

Now, catch no. 2

So, Epic, Mika, and Yu aren't seraphs in this. But they are something else. I'm going to try to explain this as simply as I can, but each of them (besides Mika since he doesn't have a demon) have 3 souls inside their body:

Soul 1 is their current soul, the one that identifies as Mika or Epic or Yu.

Soul 2 is their demon soul, like what Asuramaru is to Yu.

And soul 3 is their archangel soul (I might change that name later on).

So I'm just going to come right out and say it. In this series, Epic is the villain.

Yes.

You read that right.

Epic is the villain. But she doesn't know that she is. These Soul 3s were reincarnated into the current bodies of Mika, Epic, and Ari (and I know that's not exactly how it works but screw logic this is just a fucking concept) from their lives centuries ago.

These souls existed way before vampires existed and Epic (or Essie) was very close friends with Yu (or Aytigin). Aytigin was in love with Haru (Mika) but for one reason or another, they couldn't be together. Essie wanted to do something, willing to do anything to make the two of them happy. So she made a deal that brought the vampires into creation so that Haru and Aytigin could be happy. She was willing to sacrifice everything that they stood for so that the two of them could be in love together.

She had good intentions, but of course Haru and Aytigin were furious because now the vampires were turning against the humans and they all basically died. Until they were reborn respectively, but unknowingly.

Now picking back up in the present, Yu and Epic are fighting in one of the main battles and the two are very confused when the vampires make a very deliberate attempt not to hurt Epic. They're unsure as to why, but Guren tells them not to worry about it.

Suspicious bastard.

Anyway, it's revealed finally that MIKA IS ALIVE

BUT HE'S ALSO DEAD

Yes he is a vampire. And Yu falls in love all over again upon seeing him, and after a bunch of struggling, Epic gets kidnapped. At first she gets strangled by Lacus and then she gets kidnapped by Ferid who doesn't kill her surprisingly.

Oh and uh... Ferid is nice in this. He's still a fucking creep, but he's a lot nicer than he is in the series. I plan to make Queen Krul or whoever I turn her into be the villain.

Anyway, they take Epic back to the vampire palace or whatever and Queen Krul and Epic are reunited! And Krul is the one who reveals to Epic exactly who she, Mika, and Yu are and this is what sparks Epic's fall to insanity.

I mean, she's the killer. She's the one who brought them into this world. She's responsible for every death the vampires cause.

I would go crazy too.

So, she manages to escape (partially thanks to Mika) and the two join Yu and the others again and it's revealed a second time exactly what is going on. And while no one actually blames Epic on the Shinoa Squad, that doesn't stop people like Kureto and even herself from blaming.

And this causes her demon to go haywire.

She begins losing her marbles, almost killing her teammates and trying to kill herself, all while the three begin to experience dreams or visions of their Soul 3s.

While all this shit is going on, there's heavy romance between Mika and Yu because these two lovers just got reunited and FUCK did they have glow ups but yes -

Oh. And there is another spark for Epic, even though she doesn't think she's worthy of love.

Okay. I'm just gonna say it.

Lacus falls in love with Epic. Yes. You read that correctly too.

I plan to make the two of them get trapped together at some point and they have to work together to escape. It's during this time that Epic realizes he's not all that bad and has some form of self control and he realizes that she's the most interesting thing he's ever met in this disgusting and boring life and damn do her eyes look pretty-

But yes. She forms a permanent alliance with him that he jokes about as marriage and they meet on other occassions too, but lol yes.

Anyway, blah blah blah, more fall to insanity, the Soul 3s take over their bodies on multiple occasions and there's a lot of bonding and fighting and Epic and Mika somehow manage to get some of the vampires on the human side.

And in the end, Epic and Yu basically sacifice themselves to save the human race and kill Queen Krul. It's a very rough ending I haven't quite perfected yet, but Yu has a moment like he did with the King of Salt. But though he inflicted a lot of damage, it's not enough. So while the team is worried about him, Epic takes this opportunity to fix her and Essie's mistakes.

She allows both Essie and her demon to take control of her body and dies on the battlefield. Queen Krul is eliminated. Most of the vampires are gone. The humans won.

Horray.

Epic is dead.

Kinda. Yu and Mika take her back home and this is the preview to the last arc where everyone's in the hospital and Epic's in a coma. Mika and Yu barely ever leave her side and it's only when Lacus of all people comes to visit that she fucking wakes up.

Okay. Are you still with me? Now come with me to the final arc.

The Post-War.

No my friend. It doesn't end there. Because Mika and Lacus are still vamps and life still sucks and I drank too much coffee this morning.

No it's not over yet.

So flash forward a couple years and Kureto and Crew are working as the heads of this city. Stuff is being rebuilt, people are settling down in homes, Lacus and some of the other "good" vampires find jobs, and Mika, Yu, and Epic get a house together (in case I didn't mention before, Epic is pansexual. She loved Akane dearly and I plan to include scenes where she sees her in her mind and dreams like Mikayuu so she's never truly gone, but she falls for Lacus too when he's not being a sadistic asshole). Things are going strangely when

BAM. Epic and Yu come up with a cure for vampirism.

How, you may ask? I don't fucking know, I haven't read about it in the manga yet but before we come up with an idea for it, imma say they came up with it through a spell. They share their findings with Guren and soon all vampires are being cured, most notably Mika, Lacus, and even Rene.

BUT and there's always a but, Kureto passes a new law claiming all vampires to be property. That any vampire or previous vampire or even vampire supporter/owner that tries to disobey these new laws is to be killed immediately. Now Epic and Yu are in jeopardy because their ex-vampires are in danger (Epic and Lacus have been hanging out a lot more and he's proven himself to be a decent guy. Contrary to popular belief, I headcanon him as not really knowing what to do when he actually cares about someone since he's been a heartless vamp for so long. So when he turns to Mika and begrudgingly asks him for LOVE ADVICE of all fucking things, Mika is ready to die). So basically, Mika and Lacus end up getting locked up along with the other ex-vamps (including Ferid which was a pain in the ass) and did I forget to mention that there's a proposal?

Oh yeah, Yu proposes to Mika and the blond still has yet to give him an actual answer because poor baby is still having a hard time accepting that Yu can love a "monster" like him.

But anyways, now Epic and Yu are furious and SHINOA SQUAD IS BACK IN BUSINESS. With the help of Guren and Shinya and everyone, they form a sort of rebellion and blah blah blah they manage to get Mika and Lacus and everyone out and blah blah blah they all get separated and Lacus begins to get INSANELY protective of Epic and ends up confessing his feelings to her before he nearly dies and blah blah blah did I forget to mention that I'm making Mitsunnoa and Kimizuki x Yoichi canon and blah blah blah.

Epic kisses Lacus as an instinct. Lacus kisses her again. Mika accepts Yu's proposal then almost dies AGAIN. I kill off some characters for emotional tugs and after a ton of more fighting and revenge and psychological breakings later, Kureto is killed. And Guren (or someone else haven't decided yet) is the new head of their city.

Epic, Mika, and Yu finally let Akane and the kids go. There's a lot of Shinoa Squad bonding but this is a summary so I haven't included much besides the main three. Epic and Lacus becomes canon. Mika and Yu get married. Guren and Shinya get married. Shinoa gets pregnant.

And everyone gets the FUCKING HAPPY ENDING THAT THEY ALL FUCKING DESERVE BECAUSE FUCK

I do plan to be slightly ruthless like the creator and include a lot of heartbreaking scenes, but it's going to be much different than ONS but I still want it to hold on to some core relationships.

I just want them to be happy. And I just want to make other people happy because fuck I JUST WANT TO BE HAPPY

So. Yeah.

That's Bloodsucker...

So my question to you is... if I wrote this shit.

If I sat down and typed about 30 books roughly inspired by Seraph of the End and Mikayuu and Mitsunnoa and shit...

Would anyone read it?

♡ a.a.

[avwee]

s2 the hollow spoilerz below the cut

th.ey actually killed skeet thats INSANE

i can see why they did..... kinda...... i cant say it didnt make sense eventually

but i was SOBBING over it so thanks 4 that

fly high angel.... hope ur poppin kick flips n hittin juuls in heaven bro.....

mira said that

anyways. adam

he was excellent this season!! he already has so much more personality than in season 1

he canonically had an emo phase which is great i support him

also!!!!!!!!!!!! he!!! is!!!!!!! gay!!!!!!! it made me so happy when he said it

so no kaidam. smashes phone, breaks skateboard

i honestly cant say im surprised abt that lol. they clearly just put them holding hands in the trailer for uhh. views. queerbait is kinda the norm so i guess this was to be expected

we saw a side of him that we hadnt seen before nearly at all- he’s very competitive and sometimes even aggressive toward reeve? didnt seem out of character just kinda. out of nowhere? 

anyways about REEVE

love him!!

he was great this season. im kinda getting uhhhh. ex vibes between him and adam? idk but if u think reeve is heterosexual you’re out of your mind

i thought they were gonna set him up with adam?? i was just feeling like they were for the whole season then they just. didnt. obviously it wouldnt have been natural 4 them to get together just immediately after not hating eachother anymore

it just seemed like they were gonna imply it

anyways MIRAA

i love her i love her i love her i love her.

she has enough brain cells 4 the whole group 

and it makes up 4 everyone else having zero at all times

she must be exhausted from carrying the whole season 

she has 2 dads! thats so cool! i love that we have multiple lgbt+ characters thats so epic it makes me so happyy

but mira just. got so much development. she is so good. favorite character hands down

ok kai. he just seemed so neglected this season?? his teammates (aka friends?) were so. ambivalent. toward him.

when reeve and adam were arguing and kai was VISIBLY distressed. showing major verbal and visual signs of panic, rocking back and forth, the boy looks traumatized?? and adams just like :|

this happens a bunch of times as a result of reeve and adams fighting and nobody seems to care! whats up with that?

plus when he was like ‘sorry im so annoying but then why am i on ur guys’ team?’ and adam just. “There Was An Opening.” bro thats so meann :(((

his story just seems very. unfinished. like they almost gave him healthy friendships but then decided not to

anyways vanessaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!

i love her so much she was so gooooodddd

not much else to say abt her other than that ig

oh also. she better not end up with kai that wouldnt be a healthy relationship. let them be friends

thats it. rip skeet. 8/10

[incarnateirony]

Representation, Authorial Diversity, and more.

“I’ll take some beef jerky and a pack of menthols.”

Been a while since most of you thought about that line, hasn’t it? And for some of you it somehow sends some primitive lizard brain gaydar into overdrive and you can’t really pinpoint why, can you? It makes no sense, that line alone, and how it stands -- but between all of the talk of both Bobo Berens and LGBT media history, including The Celluloid Closet/Vito Russo or the Vito Russo Test, this moment actually puts a pin in a shift within our show, its handling of content formerly completely overlooked by creatives, and the importance of diversifying our writing crews that we all press for.

It was the moment our show leaned, and frankly-- should have been the moment the straights panicked. In fact, some of them did, just before it aired, and then everyone has played at oblivious since.

Before seasons air, we get news on new authors being added to teams, or other workers. Pre-S9 was no different, with fandom finding a tweet from Bobo Berens, our first open-closet LGBT author. I mean, Out And Proud. A true king.

The association if this is the mention of the Bechdel Test, a step aside of Vito Russo.

Now let us begin.

Well first of all I’m just gonna let everyone get a giggle at how Bobo handled the straight male knee coil:

But anyway the response to his initial tweet was a merry go round of concern trolling in the area of “OH DEAR I FEEL SO SORRY FOR YOU PLEASE ALLOW US THE NORMAL ASSBAGS OF THE FANDOM TO TELL YOU AN AUTHOR HOW STRAIGHT THE CHARACTERS ON THE SHOW YOU’RE WRITING FOR ARE” and I dunno, it’s comedy.

Whether or not Bobo was addressing SPN as a new project in particular -- and it, from a dark age of SPN I’ve covered the upheaval during -- this is important. Really, really important.

Let’s say that timeline does overlap Bobo’s, and he did implicitly believe it; he might have had to write them as Straight Guys; but his own deep-seated place in the LGBT community developed resonant text, he made change. Change enough that when his first script was put into motion, the showrunner took one look at it and, for the first time in recorded history, we had note of some sort of intent --

Misha went on to say “so that’s what we played there.”

Regardless of anyone’s misunderstanding about how the fandom riled themselves up prematurely and shot themselves in the foot by lighting a CW exec on fire in the middle of network level board/CEO rotation commotion, or whether or not it’s visible enough for anyone--

this, this moment, this content, created by this LGBT individual led to this first known forward motion of intentful creative subtext. People can hilariously try to argue semantics about it that summarily boil down to “I mean it could be metaphorical jilted lovers it could be this it could be jilted lover bros, it’s just a turn of phrase!” in a loop as they’ve done with this data for six years until it dies every time, but this was it. This was the moment.

There is a nuance in this sort of writing -- how easy would it be for Dean to come up and say, “I’ll take some beef jerky.” Dean’s the meat man, Dean loves meat! We’ve seen it in other, new, straight authors the first time they try to tick off the Dean checklist, but like many lessons, that extra line leading into that smile holds volumes of LGBT history unspoken.

I think several of us Old Gays(TM) have banged on about the necessity of reading the Celluloid Closet, because for as much as people think they’re chasing queer subtext around here, it’s like they have completely missed that there actually is like, a printed, accepted code of conduct on this shit, basically. That’s not exactly what it was released for, but if you’re LGBT and engaged in lit and over 40 like you’ve read and understand and know this.

I’m not going to sit here and over-needle that line; most of you felt it the second your eyes drifted over it; but the sum of it is -- why that, what charming secret comes with that smile, a dean we’ve never seen smoke either, how is this part of how Dean throws himself back before his ex buddy leaves more unseen, *why* is that the hook? These are ironically things that no lit crit study *beyond* excessive citation of Celluloid Closet will really capture. This is a form of queer coding -- not the villainous disaster type that queer coding actually *is*, but the subversive form as it’s begun to be casually addressed in the population with positive, resonant content by authors choked out by IP holders while trying to service an audience. Or sometimes, even starting to accidentally.

So you know, you can unironically double down on the simplicity of Dean implicitly probably being a smoker (a possible read of subtext!), and I think this is kinda where the bizarre split happened tbh, because dude bros double down subconsciously into each reading of this kind of coding-- Dean just smokes, or this or that, though it grows thinner by year. Not about why that line is tossed, and how, and does just set off some sort of TV pheremone we all swamp like a bee hive. None of these moments truly mean anything independently. But it is the perspective and voice the text begins to take. The difference between that and “Hey pal [chews on jerky before buying] marlboros and got any pie?” in one moment that knocked everybody around on their ass in the fray of it. And then it all just went gayer from there, as if framed by one sharp moment that set the rest of the tone.

Hopefully you’ve all read my giant post about the history of this all to remember what I mean by accidentally, but even Bobo posted on it before,

That’s all an aside to the general point but worth placing into the edge of the conversation here.

The simple fact is, an activist gay man joined the show, and possibly with ‘keep it straight’ notes wrote some stuff so resonant, due to his point of view in life and the world, that even the showrunner decided to further guide it in that direction. It blossomed a direction.

The direction was small and slow and meek at first, (well, in final product -- don’t get me started at how S10 looks if all the cut scenes were included) with subtext running as dull echoes in Colette (oh look he wrote that too), and maybe more obvious with classic heart songs -- but even this was more structured than “Misha inherited abandoned storyline they scrubbed the romance out of as best they could”, or “Sera Gamble is a dumbass” that just happened to feature great chemistry and some resonant elements, like Bobo mentioned, we all connected with. But to actually constructively choose to incorporate these, no matter how quietly, was... *new.*

And some called it queerbait and I’ve already given history lessons from other angles on why no, but also now why here, definitely, no.

By season 12 we gained Yockey, another LGBT man, another activist in his own way like Bobo, but his less in writing political stuff and more in writing LGBT specialist plays. And everybody loved him, and saw it, and Yockey gets a boat load of praise -- deserves a lot of it -- but sometiems I feel like Bobo gets trampled over without recognition of how he shifted the playing field, the calculated effort he started putting into mastering those accidental resonances into something new, and ultimately to guiding the new author crew, Yockey included, or Jeremy on this newest episode who thanked him.

The same man that picked up Wayward and connected Dreamhunter... back to his own work and moments. The insanity of yelling “HOW DARE YOU LESSEN DREAMHUNTER BY COMPARING IT TO DESTIEL!” when, dead ass, you’re looking at this author who has carefully incorporated work and, with an already resonant story, made another relationship familiar to us by making it similar. Because that’s how writing stories works! But either way, Bobo has been in here doggedly growing the breadth of the legitimacy of queer narrative in supernatural -- to the point that it HAS narrowly, quietly breached into text even if not “loud” or “visible” enough for some people -- and the point where the subtext is so wall to wall and flooding every piece of cinematography in shooting and not just set or lights but complete mise en scene -- a point where everybody OUTSIDE of fandom is just addressing this shit as what it clearly is --

...That’s something that came with bringing the scope of an LGBT male author into the show. Whether you like the volume he’s been allowed to take his work to or not is your own thing, but before yelling queerbait at any creatives, perhaps it’s time to play “sit down children, and learn to appreciate the activists who came before you and how they’re fighting for you right now”. You wanna yell at something, get organized, pelt the CW in a non-aggressive, non-light-on-fire way, do activism like the books Emily put together that are resultingly still on the current showrunner’s desk now 6 years later, but most of all, don’t take a shit all over content you would otherwise enjoy, at the expense of a man in the demographic you’re trying to represent, who has battled, LITERALLY, for both the women and the gays in this show. Wayward was his baby. This slow swing in S9 that turned into a loud din in S12? 

It wasn’t magic. It was a gay author. A gay author that has now climbed to be an Exec alongside dabb and the others and SURPRISE now suddenly everything’s so gay the whole goddamn world is seeing it. Literally SEEING IT, not just guys looking at each other with stories, but intentful, meritful choice in extremely bold cinematography choices that don’t require chasing a post-it on the wall, but instead are shot with care and devotion. Be that 12.19 Mixtape (OH DAT HIS) or 13.5′s Never Too Late (OH DAT YOCKEY. check what antis said to Dabb in his mentions after, even they saw it). Be that 14.18′s het drama PR promo (OH OOP DAT WAS HIS), be that 15.1-3′s entire tension and the openly addressed and so-called by media sources break up (OH DAT HIS), be that 15.7′s low key textuality (to which the new author thanked the elder for guidance, huh), or 8′s heavily shot domestic separation moment loudly filmed in the choicefully hollowed out and dimmed kitchen bereft of family -- this change? This had a moment. And you can find it.

I’ll have some beef jerky and a pack of menthols.

So this has been eating at me ever since this whole topic came into play. 

Anyway full circle them trying to ride Bobo to Keep It Straight probably wasn’t their smartest idea ever. We gays are contrarian by nature so tell me to do it again, motherfucker. And now here we are in Destiel Divorce Season 15 as heavily managed by Bobo.

Everyone got so fuckin dramatic when Yockey said he was leaving like, tolling the burial bells of Destiel and-- like??? hello? BOBO? JUST? GOT? PROMOTED? Like Yockey didn’t make that entire platform all by himself, and hell, he didn’t leave without laying out unironic empty space of it. Yo guys, Berens done been here a WHILE to the point he’s now *callbacking his own season 9-10 material wtih him and dabb*. Like. Lmao. Guys. Guys listen. Listen. Think.

Whatever your weird goalpost is I’m not promising anybody’s anything is about to get hit. Whatever clown nose expectations you all have enjoy those and honk those loud and proud but remember most of those are yours. But respect the fact that Berens has essentially cornerstoned an entire queer canon within Supernatural discussion, of which others are included in as they joined.

And yes, queer canon. Not the way fandom throws it around for weird kissing spots, but articles of discussion of queer narratives, of which we can literally draw a wealth of episodes from LGBT authors or their understudies and literally point and go “all of that right there, officer.” Whether it’s visible or textual or undodgeable or marketed enough or glittery enough or whatever for everyone’s very unstable definition of “canon” -- Berens has literally cornerstoned an entire architecture of queer canon within this legacy show.

[playablekairi]

What do people mischaracterize Riku as? I'm not that into fanon and am curious

ah... this is gonna get long, sorry. plenty of other ppl i follow on twitter have said it before me, so i don’t take credit for this, but the soriku fandom in particular has a long history of hating kairi, and their flimsy justification for it is that she only exists to be sora’s love interest and how it’s pathetic that her existence revolves around nothing but him. they then turn around and do the exact same thing to riku’s character, and make everything about him revolve around his relationship with sora. so he winds up getting mischaracterized as someone who doesn’t have connections to any of the other characters and is even straight up uncomfortable around girls, because haha gay guys hate women amiright!!

this fails to take into account that uh... riku actually has deeper and richer connections to most of the cast’s girls than sora himself does, even though fandom has no problem characterizing sora as bi. to clarify, i do not mean this in a romantic ship sense. riku’s bond with kairi is VERY important to the plots of kh1 and kh2, equally important whether you interpret it romantically or platonically, because this series is at its core about friendship, and seeing fans say “oh that’s just comp het, he actually can’t stand her and did everything for sora” leaves me flabbergasted, especially as a lesbian who has experienced vicious comp het. also like... did they not play the game or...??? but i admittedly have a rikai bias, so moving along. his relationship with naminé is important, and has been continually revisited throughout the series. i don’t think it’s being set up in a shippy sense (or, at least, i sure hope it isn’t), but i think it’s important to note that they are two people who worked together behind the scenes quite often and there is a shared history there, even if it hasn’t been spoonfed to us. the same goes with xion, riku has spent WAY more time interacting with her than sora himself has (granted, for obvious reasons, but i digress) and their relationship is a messy thing i would really like to see explored in future instalments. even looking at minor characters, fans will use his brief interactions with shiki in ddd to ‘prove’ that he’s gay and not just, you know, an awkward disaster because he’s a sixteen year old boy. even his connection to aqua gets sidelined, which i think is a goddamn shame because i would love to see him be her apprentice after all this is said and done, because noooo riku can’t interact with anyone but sora. this isn’t to say that you have to ship him romantically with any female character, that’s not what i’m suggesting at all, but to outright and explicitly say “he has no connection to these characters at all ew how could you say that this OBVIOUSLY gay-coded male character has female friends you fucking homophobe” is. downright insane.

twitter is a bad place, anon, you gotta block the right ppl or you’ll lose your mind because i know that sounds like an exaggeration but i have honest-to-god receipts. in my opinion, it’s downright biphobic, usually misogynistic, and frequently verges on this weird fetishization of mlm relationships. i think it’s often a projection of their own insecurities, which is really sad, but it’s not my responsibility to hold their hands and walk them through their internalized prejudices. i’m here to have fun.

i like riku a lot, and he’s one of my favourite characters of all time. i find him very relatable. i myself am gay. i... do not need him to be gay? i see a lot of fans act like it’s a personal attack for riku to not be 100% gay. i can’t wrap my head around it.

okay this is getting long lemme tl;dr: mischaracterizing riku as tragic gay caricature who exists to do nothing but pine after sora and has actually always hated kairi is such a bad fucking take that it makes my blood boil. kh is about bonds, particular bonds of friendship, and to insist that riku only has a bond with sora and that it HAS to be romantic or else we’ve been queerbaited for years... goes against everything the series has always been about. it’s also hypocritical as fuck that they cherry-pick evidence that kairi’s role in the game is ‘only’ to be sora’s prize to be won at the end, and then turn around and treat soriku the exact same way. i’m over it.

[orionsangel86]

1) Hey Saz, this is the person from Tink's long-ass 5-parter ask. This is going to be even longer. I'm on anon because of shyness above all things but I am willing to message you off anon if you want me to do so! I saw what you wrote about that ask and I agree.... to the most point. All the 'characteristics' of Destiel that differenciate it from other ships that you listed were actually applicable to some the ships I was talking about, especially Johnlock. -->

--> 2)The other ships, yes, you may be right, but for Johnlock I felt even more wronged intellectually when it crashed to the ground than I think I'll feel if the same thing happens to Destiel. I'm going to sound like a Johnlock shipping troll, but I'm not, I ran away from the mess of a fandom it became post-season 4. So bear with me. I really can't explain what my experience was at the time if you aren't familiar with tjlc and what the pre-season 4 sherlock fandom was like. -->

-->3)But let me assure you that it was extremely alike the spn/destiel fandom right now. I want to point out the similarities of the fandom and the ship but that would basically mean me explaining why Johnlock should have been canon, and I don't think you are here for that. So let me just point out a few things. By the end of the honest-to-god fanfic-y 3rd season, the GA were taking notice of it as well, to the point where, yes, the show is being called the worst queerbait ever even to this day.

--> 4)It frankly deserves it. And it was 2017.... we thought it was due fucking time. Guess it wasn't. When looking ay bibro blogs I can't help but be reminded of Johnlock antis. At least when that was a thing, you know, because you can't be an anti of something when it turns out you were right. We made fun of them, because how the fuck can you see jealousy at weddings, literally killing for the other the day they meet, -->

--> 5) having something secret to say that they can't bring themselves to say even after the other's death, being broken over the other's death TWO YEARS LATER AND ON THE DAY YOU FUCKING PROPOSE TO YOUR GF, prefering the other over your string of girlfriends, counting the texts a woman sent the other, COMING BACK TO LIFE AFTER LITERALLY FLATLINING BECAUSE THE OTHER IS IN DANGER, and, you know, constantly making both of them have shitty relationships and be unsatisfied romantically.... -->

.... and read it all as platonic? The show literally falls apart if you take away Johnlock... sounds familiar. You know, one of the writers for Sherlock is gay. So I believed in him, after all gay writers won't queerbait, how could they? (turns out they could.)......But I digress. I won't blame you if you just glossed over what I ranted above. Actually some of the reasons I'm still holding out hope for Destiel is 1) How atrocious the last season of Sherlock was, worst than Supernatral at its worst. 2) The sense that everything is coming full circle in this season(which we didn't get, btw, in even the last season of Sherlock). 3) Misha fucking Collins. And you know, although i heatedly ranted above in response to your response, I did it only because I wanted to justify what I spent near three years on. I didn't want to leave you thinking that a ship like this didn't exist before, because in my opinion, it did. So sorry. I was being spiteful.About the 'Greatest Love Stoty Ever Told', which was in fact the big fandom tagline for Johnlock as well....... I think I'll wait and see. If it is endgame, then I agree that it really is the greatest love story ever told. And I also agree that the show seems to be going that way

Hi Nonny, 

So this is all in relation to this post and I think that the easiest way to answer this is to say to anyone still doubting, including nonny, to just read the various replies and reblogs on that post, because the answers are perfect. 

Also nonny I know we have spoken in private already and you said that you were feeling better after reading the responses on that post as well so I won’t go into too much depth here, but I still wanted to post your asks in case there are still people out there feeling the way you do.

This is going to be my opinion on the matter, which, of course, is just that. There are many many people out there who were greatly upset by Sherlock and I feel for you all. Its not fair what happened and what that show put you through. Your feelings and your views on the matter are 100% valid and real and nothing that I say here is trying to contradict that. You saw a love story between those characters. That interpretation, like any interpretation of a text, is real and never let anyone say you were wrong. Johnlock still exists within the text of that show, just because it didn’t end with a kiss or a love confession doesn’t mean that it isn’t a valid reading. 

I started watching Sherlock before I ever got into Supernatural. When it came out in 2010 I LOVED it. My film student lizard brain picked up on the Johnlock subtext pretty much straight away and aside from some very brief thoughts of “ooh that would be a different spin on it” I didn’t pay much more attention. I continued to watch Sherlock second season in 2012 and again I noticed the subtext, but at this point recognised that it was all done for humorous purposes. I never thought they would go there. I didn’t “ship” it because I didn’t even know what “shipping” was at the time let alone thought John and Sherlock were more than friends who happen to get mistaken for a couple. That was the gag. It was what made my very typically straight male young brother giggle like an idiot because apparently being mistaken for gay was funny. (It’s not. I hate those jokes. They don’t work outside a Carry On film and I don’t even like Carry On films).

When season 3 came out in Jan 2014 I side eyed the series because I had had enough of the gay jokes. I thought it was getting weird and could see that there was a beautiful bond between the characters that imo was being twisted for cheap laughs. I pondered on whether this Sherlock was in fact in the closet, Were they trying to tell us that he was secretly gay? I didn’t get it because it was never clear enough to me that this was the case and yet they continued to play around with the concept whilst the character of John is off with his fiance. My brother continued to find the whole thing hilarious. It was never taken seriously. My musings on Sherlocks sexuality were pushed aside because it seemed clear to me that the writers were not taking it seriously.

Then over the summer of 2014 I binge watched 9 seasons of SPN. I struggled with seasons 1 and 2, made it through 3, watched 4 and fell in love with an Angel of the Lord. It took me 10 episodes to figure out Cas was gay. It took me a further 2 seasons of umming and ahhing in my own head to conclude that yes,  Dean was definitely Bisexual. It took until 6x20 to realise that this was legit something in the text and not my imagination. It took until season 8 for me to believe 100% that they were going there. (I wavered a bit on that belief in seasons 9 and 10 but season 11 pulled me back and I haven’t looked back since.)

In the early seasons, 4, 5 and 6, I recognised the patterns used between Dean and Cas were the same used in Sherlock. I re-watched Sherlock at some point in 2015 and remember thinking damn yeah they really were shoving the subtext in our faces a bit. But I still didn’t ship it, even though I was 100% shipping destiel at that point. I again pondered Sherlock’s sexuality, had a brief thought of “I’d like to see that take on the story” but again discarded any thought that it would actually be textual in a show that imo seemed adamant in keeping it all about the humour. If they weren’t going to take this characters sexuality seriously, then the story was never going to seriously be explored. 

See if Destiel had always remained the way it was in seasons 4, 5 and 6, then I wouldn’t have any belief that it was going canon. I would probably still ship it (the sexual tension in season 4 was insane) but the idea that it would go canon would have always been a pipe dream. So many shows use the queer subtext as a source of humour. So many shows tease their characters as queer and use homoeroticism for titillation. It delights my idiot brother to no end. I hate it. I think it desperately needs to stop. I have never ever watched an episode of Sherlock and thought that it was doing anything other than just that. (I didn’t particularly like the 4th season though because nothing made any bloody sense and I think they kind of butchered the characterisations - I did say this would all be my opinion though so please don’t take offence).

You say that the show falls apart if you take away the romantic love story and make it platonic. I guess if I was to watch it again I could try to consider that reading, but my own experience watching seasons 1-3 is certainly not from a romantic view point and it all made sense to me. Season 4 didn’t make sense at all, and by the time that was on I was deep in destiel fandom and frequently writing meta, so I DID see the romantic reading in the text and yet still didn’t understand the story. (Again, I stress this is my opinion and is in no way trying to invalidate your own). However, with Destiel, the last three and a bit seasons narratively don’t work without it. I have tried to watch them and ignore every romantic moment, or hint at a romantic love between them, and in doing so, it confuses the fucking plot. I need to sit down and catalogue all the ways seasons 10 to 13 don’t work without destiel to evidence this but it would be a pretty epic job because there are ALOT. 

I understand that you feel that Johnlock and Destiel are similar ships, but my opinion is that they drastically diverted course from each other when SPN went into its eighth season. Since then, there has been nothing quite like destiel in terms of build up and story structure - unless you start comparing it to the straight ships.

Where we are right now, destiel is deeply ingrained into the narrative of the show, and it is never used as a gag. It is never poked fun of in a way that reduces Dean and Cas’s relationship. Something that I believe Sherlock did right up until its last episode. I also 100% believe that the SPN creators and cast have a much greater respect and love for their fans than the Sherlock writers and cast ever did. (I’m not much of a fan of Bendydick Cucumberpatch and I have never been comfortable with Steve Moffat... dunno why the guy just gives me the creeps (then again so does Bob Singer)). They have been so positive towards Destiel recently that I am constantly stunned whenever new media or PR comes out. I am also of the belief that someone as wonderful as Misha Collins who is a champion for the LGBT community and cares deeply about making the world a better place would never ever involve himself in something that if it didn’t happen, would be considered the biggest queerbait in TV history. Breaking the hearts and severely angering millions of fans all over the world. Misha is a very smart man. He knows exactly how much this means to us and what it will do to us if it doesn’t happen. He doesn’t exactly look worried though. He doesn’t ever look like he is guilty over encouraging this ship? He looks like a fucker who knows whats up and can’t wait til we finally get to be in on the joke so he can tweet about it 24/7.

If destiel doesn’t happen, then Misha, of all people.... well... I’d have to rethink my entire opinion of him... the idea is so unfathomable for me, so impossible, it hurts my head to even consider. Did you ever feel this way about BC or Martin Freeman? 

I just can’t believe that the people behind SPN would do that to us, but the people behind Sherlock? Well it didn’t exactly surprise me when it didn’t go canon. The BBC isn’t exactly known for being progressive. It’s known for playing it safe. If Sherlock was on Channel 4 I reckon they would have gone there. The Channel 4 execs probably would have encouraged it from the start. They would have considered it ‘edgy’. 

I know that the CW isn’t exactly the most progressive network either, but its a young network, with a younger demo compared to the grumpy old pensioners who sit and watch BBC every night and complain that their tax payer money shouldn’t be going towards anything other than gardening shows and Eastenders. Soooo I think that has something to do with it too. The CW has a greater chance of pulling something like this off. 

I’m so so sorry that Sherlock burned you. But don’t give up hope on destiel just yet, the factors are all currently in our favour. No two ships are alike, and in my opinion, Destiel is the motherfucking Symphony of the Seas compared to all others. It’s bigger, better, and hopefully, due for launch in Spring 2018.

[onisionhurtspeople]

hey!! just found this blog and saw you sayin some negative stuff about Lainey; I wanted to know if she was a bad person like Onion boy?? If you could link me to posts or something talking about whatever it is that she did i would appreciate it!!

Well, hmm. There’s a lot of controversy that surrounds Lainey, but it’s a little bit less straightforward than the controversy that surrounds Onision. In his case, he is being judged by his actions, the things he says and does in his videos, on Twitter, to other people (his fans and other content creators), and especially the things that he does in his personal life to his friends and romantic partners; but in her case, most of the drama that revolves around Lainey stems not from her actions, but from her lack of actions, and how conspicuously silent she is in the face of her husband’s negativity, bullying, harassment, belittling, insulting, and manipulation of others, especially of the teenage girls and minorities that she claims to stand up in defense of and care so much about. The general consensus is that although she is undeniably a victim too, she is also fundamentally complicit due to the fact that she never says or does anything to indicate that she does not support his actions, and many people get the impression from her behavior that as long as it’s not happening to her, then she doesn’t really care much - and I tend to agree with them. Just for one example: Lainey goes absolutely bonkers and gets super aggressive when people purposely or accidentally don’t refer to her as “they/them”, yet she says absolutely nothing when Greg puts out his 7th video “coming out” as transgender/biromantic/gynesexual/whatever gender or sexual orientation he’s pretending to be for views that week. They both claim to be advocates on behalf of feminism and the LGBTQ+ community, yet Onision continually mocks and even openly insults women and trans people, and Lainey says nothing. Unless it’s somebody else saying those things to her, at which point it becomes a problem and suddenly she’s going on self-righteous Twitter rants about transphobia and misogyny, and Greg is insulting them and telling them that they’re being a transphobic, misogynistic bigot for saying something that hurt Lainey’s feelings. (The lack of self-awareness is astounding to me, these people should be a case study for cognitive dissonance.) Lainey’s empathy seems to be very selective and is mostly reserved for herself or people that she can personally relate to. To my understanding, she also indulges in thinspo blogging, even while her husband continually harasses Eugenia Cooney and accuses her of influencing her fans to become anorexic - all the while, his own wife is reblogging photosets of anorexic women and adding pictures of herself to the thinspo tag on Tumblr.

Despite Lainey’s ~smol sensitive agender emo space prince~ persona, and aside from her positive traits (of which I genuinely believe there are many, which I have outlined in posts before), I tend to find that Lainey as an individual is an overly sensitive, self-absorbed, passive-aggressive, highly immature baby who lives in a bubble of perpetual self-victimhood. And in no way is this meant to minimize or undermine the deleterious effect that I’m sure Onision has had on her self-esteem, her confidence, her personal growth, and her very identity, but I also think that Lainey sees herself as a helpless victim who is at the mercy of a cruel, sadistic, and unkind world, largely because there is a not insignificant part of her that actually enjoys victimizing herself. There is a part of her that genuinely gets something out of being a suffering victim - I think it’s actually a part of her identity at this point, and she wouldn’t know what kind of person she was or how to see herself if she wasn’t constantly in pain for one reason or another. (My boyfriend is one of these people too, and it’s maddening. He goes through extended cycles of sabotaging himself and driving everybody he loves away from him, only to then hit the panic button and stew in the resultant depression, loneliness, and self-loathing that comes along with his actions. Because then not only does he get to suffer as a result, but he’s also then just given himself a legitimate reason to hate himself for hurting the people that he loves. It drives me insane. I see much of his behavior reflected in Lainey’s actions, and Greg has openly admitted that he actually likes that she’s so weak and incapable of defending herself, because it forces her to rely on him for “strength”, which makes him feel powerful and gives him total control over her. Ironically, this entire process actually makes people like Lainey more anxious and more depressed, as they slowly lose more and more control over their lives and their ability to cope with their own existence. I also think this toxic cycle is part of the reason why she’s so thin nowadays - she’s lost so much control over her life that she’s exercising her control in the only way that she’s allowed to: over her own body. But this is a different topic that I think deserves a post of its own, so I’ll discuss it another time.)

The other thing is that not only is Lainey passively complicit in Onision’s actions by refusing to speak out against him, but in many aspects, she is also actively complicit in his abuse too. One of most valid complaints that people have about Lainey is that she allows Greg to leverage her position as a bisexual woman in the LGBTQ+ community in order to queerbait other girls into a relationship with them under the guise of a polyamorous “trinity” in which all three of them are equal partners in the relationship. These girls are usually younger than Lainey and always younger than Greg (typically anywhere from 17 to 21), tend to be the kind of girls that are naive, sensitive, impressionable, and open-minded (just like Lainey is), are usually fans of Onision (and are often harvested directly from his fan base), and are almost always completely inexperienced when it comes to relationships, especially when it comes to the kind of constant and very specific care and attention that is required in order to maintain a healthy polyamorous relationship in which everybody feels happy, respected, taken care of, and an equal participant in the trinity. And so for this reason, many people view Lainey as just as much a predator as Greg himself is, and rightfully so. Greg literally uses Lainey as bait in order to draw in younger, pretty girls who are open to experimentation, in a way that seems less objectively creepy on the outside, because hey, that 17-year-old girl is actually dating Lainey, not him! That’s not creepy at all, there’s only a five-year age gap there. There’s not that much of a difference between 17 and 22, you know! Back in the day, it was totally normal to get married and have children by the age of 15, and besides, 17 is perfectly legal in her state and it’s not illegal and you’re just close-minded and oops now all three of us are dating (totally by accident, of course) and if you judge us then you’re just being an ignorant judgmental bigot. Lainey is only there to lend legitimacy to Greg’s predatory search for younger girls, because he knows that it would be perceived as creepy and inappropriate if he were to be actively recruiting 17-year-olds from his fanbase on his own. (And then he convinces Lainey that he’s doing it for her, so that she can experiment with her bisexuality - but she knows better at this point because she’s seen with her own eyes that he can’t be trusted around “her” girlfriends; she actually admitted last January that she knew Greg was only pushing her to date other girls because he would get something out of it too, and not because he actually wanted her to experiment. So she knows this, and still she goes along with it - because, like Greg, she gets something out of it too.) 

This post got waaay too long. Sorry, I’m high af. Anyway, there are a few other reasons why people criticize Lainey too, but I can’t remember them all and I’ve already written way too much on this topic, so instead allow me to direct you towards a few other resources that may have what you’re looking for. Here’s the Laineybot tag on the omeansion blog, and here is my Laineybot tag. I can’t promise you’ll find what you’re looking for on there, but you might get a better idea of the reasons why people hold Lainey culpable just as much as they do Greg. 

[summerscribbler]

Regarding that Musical Recap

So, much like many of you, after Recap-Gate I had a lot of feelings.

Pain then anger then retweet, retweet, retweet, dear god I need to go out into the real world and get off twitter!

I’m not even a hardcore SuperCorp shipper. I ship it but I don’t go crazy over it. I like a lot of ships on the show and I actually did think that, of nearly all of my ships, that Supercorp had the best chance of becoming canon rather than fanon.

Then Jeremy started singing.

Let’s get this first part out of the way. That song was a dick move. The passion he used when crushing the fandom was a dick move. Melissa’s glee while yelling along was a dick move. Saying he debunked the ship was a dick move. Calling that statement brave was yet another dick move.

I’ve seen a lot of these dick moves in television over the years, with social media making it so much easier for social missteps to occur. About a week ago I watched the show runner for Wynonna Earp be completely rude to a fan who was simply trying to compliment her. She blocked said fan and then other fans who tried to help her out. Wynonna Earp lives and breathes on the tenacious dedication of its fan base. These people worked HARD to get a third season out of that show and they succeeded. It seems to me that it would be important to be kind to the people that made that happen but I do believe that people working in the industry have started to let the bad apples color their perception of the bunch. Leaving them with this contentious fan dynamic that often leads to really terrible treatment at times.

And let’s not even get into the atrocity that is Once Upon a Time; the quintessential example of queerbaiting and then fan demeaning.

Today’s climate seems to be a cyclical downpour of pandering and pounding from the people who make lots of money off the people that keep them making lots of money. Fans become rabid about their ship and annoy show runners, writers and actors. Show runners, writers and actors have a bigger voice and use it to toss barbs at fans. Hate, hate, hate. Apology, apology, apology. New show comes around and we all line up for the merry-go-round again.

I feel like a few things need to happen here:

1.Know the power of your presence and how to use it: Melissa said something extremely interesting while she also said something extremely offensive. She called Jeremy brave for destroying SuperCorp. Now, she could mean because she knew the repercussions on social media would be severe but I think it probably goes deeper than that. SuperCorp is a huge chunk of the Supergirl fan base. If they no longer have any reason to hold onto that ship then they are only going to stay if a) They ship Sanvers or b) They actually like the direction the show is headed. Most self-respecting women do not like watching a once powerful symbol of hope turn into a another white dude’s girlfriend. Don’t get me wrong. I think Mon-El is great for comic relief but to be Kara’s ‘whole world’? I weep for the Supergirl who used to inspire me. The point is, Jeremy’s statement was a bold, not brave, move because if he sends the Supercorp camp packing, ratings will take a downward turn when they’re already not looking so hot. If you’re a Supercorp shipper, you now have a great deal of power. Show them who they just hurt. Not only with your tweets but with your viewership. Download the show. Don’t watch live. Don’t support trends. Let them feel the pain of your loss so that, perhaps, demeaning your ship goes from ‘brave’ to ‘economically insane’.

2. Actually do step 1. Seriously, guys, Once Upon a Time survived and continuously spit in the face of one of its largest audiences because everyone continued to watch live or on a measurable media source. Respect yourself enough to take your own power back. STOP GIVING THEM YOUR RATINGS!

3. Read steps 1 and 2 again for good measure because I know you and you’re still probably on the fence.

4.Do not escalate to personal attacks. You will not be taken seriously if you stoop to that level. I saw quite a few attacks on Melissa that went above and beyond over the line yesterday. No, Supergirl would not punch Melissa. Supergirl would go hug her gay sister and the bridal carry Lena from a falling building. And, no matter how bad Melissa made you feel, she did not attack your personal history nor did she threaten you with violence. Make your voices powerful and meaningful, not loud and vitriolic.

5. Support shows that do things right. Every show has something problematic about it but there are some that do far better than others. Shonda Rhimes knocks diversity out of the park constantly. Orphan Black has shown massive support toward the LGBTQ community for years.

6. Be the change you want to see in the world and yada, yada, yada. I know it’s corny but if you turned the passion you have for fandom into something you have the ability to create then YOU set the tone for the future. Write, act, produce, direct, and draw those beautiful queer characters you always wanted to see and share them with people who will appreciate them. Yes, we need to fight for diverse representation but we also need to spend some of that energy on creating it for ourselves because we obviously cannot trust the powers that be to do so and do so right.

 Fight for who you are and what you want with dignity and, hopefully one day, some cis, white dude will think twice before trying to rain on your big, beautiful gay parade.

[quillquiver]

Alex’s Big Nerdy Destiel Canon Rant

I love talking about canon: what it is, what gets to be part of canon, etc. so I want to add my two cents to all the discourse! To my mind, yeah, literary theory uses the word ‘canon’ to describe the complete text (including subtext), but like... that definition isn’t necessarily useful in a fannish context, and it’s certainly not useful in the Destiel fandom.

Just hear me out: even deciding what is part of SPN canon text-wise is a mine-field. Are we counting what Jensen and Misha have said at cons? Are we counting tweets? What about the series of SPN tie-in books that exist? If all these things are paratext, and we’re really only looking at what has been said on the show that’s cool, but I suspect that many people have differing opinions on what SPN canon even consists of! And this makes a lot of sense: the show has been around for 15 years, and the fandom is composed of a whole bunch of people whose ideas about canon, even coming into the fandom, are probably pretty different. Plus, we’re an online fandom, so things are de-centralized and it’s wayyyy harder to even agree on or establish a definition of what the actual, canonical source text even consists of. 

Setting that aside, language has also always evolved to suit the needs of the community using it. Queer culture, for example, re-appropriates, reclaims and creates new terms all the time (that then may get picked up in mainstream media, where the meaning may change yet again!). Because fandoms can sometimes drastically differ in terms of language usage, I can’t speak to other fandoms besides the ones I’m in. But! By my reckoning, Destiel fandom took the word canon, (which in a perfect world refers to a single, total, indisputable source text, subtext included), and changed its meaning. In the linguistics world, this is called a semantic change! We’ve largely removed ‘subtext’ from one of the things we consider canon, because that doesn’t suit our purposes - due to the really fraught history between SPN creators and DeanCas fans, canon for us has come to mean something different. But more on that later.

At this point, I know a lot of people are gonna argue with me. BUT THAT MAKES IT SOUND LIKE THERE’S AN AGENDA! LANGUAGE IS OBJECTIVE! IT’S A TOOL! To which I say: language has never ever been objective, because people aren’t objective. If you think that language does not exist to serve a purpose, consider the assimilation of Indigenous peoples through the use of English. Or the fact that the Ancient Greeks used to describe colour differently than we do, because that served them better. Language always exists so we can better communicate and understand each other, and policing it has always been a form of subjugation, whether that be through the policing of what language or dialect you are/are not allowed to speak, or how to speak it. One of my profs loved to remind us that grammar is classist - as long as we can understand each other, how something is spelled really shouldn’t matter. 

But back to SPN. We as a general fandom have a really unique relationship to our content producers. We always have. It’s the reason we’re the go-to case study when fan studies scholars want to look at the fan/producer relationship in western media fandom. Destiel fandom? An even more fraught relationship, because for a very long time, the producers did not consider Destiel as part of the canon of their own show. If they had, we wouldn’t be having this conversation! But the first time SPNs narrative even deigned entertain the idea of Destiel as existing seriously and explicitly in the narrative, it was during their 200th episode, and it was a “you have your interpretation, we have ours”, which super invalidates the mocking hell they put us through beforehand. The fact that DeanCas fans have been condescended to and queerbaited for so long means that, largely, we’ve decided that DeanCas canon cannot and does not include subtext... even though, yes, the existence of Destiel romantic subtext technically means the ship is, was and has always been canon (i.e. part of the complete episodic source text). After being told you’re delusional, you’re wrong, you’re crazy for so many years, the idea of a canon DeanCas became entwined with the idea of explicit, incontrovertible romantic text in the show, because it’s not only about Dean and Cas... it’s about the recognition that our reading is also correct. That we were right all along.

People will argue with me here, but don’t misunderstand me: I’m not saying that fandom needs approval or validation from the creators - we really, really don’t. Whatever we see in any show is canon just by virtue of it being there, and so is a valid reading, and that is definitely enough. But SPN is nothing if not the exception to almost every rule, because context: 12 years of being told you’re insane by the people in the diver’s seat, and 15 years of having this on-and-off fraught relationship with creators in a way that had previously never happened. SPN fans are close to the writers and producers and actors in a way that very few other shows are, and we have been for a long-ass time. The writer’s room is an authority, for sure, but they’re also like a group of fans we're constantly at odds with, and that means we treat them like we would other fans. We discuss, we ask questions, we argue. And yeah, the mentality of fighting over ownership of the narrative is one that is very early 2000s, but considering that’s when the show started, it’s not a surprise that it never really left us. In other words: because of our closeness to TPTB and our history with them, there’s a desire for recognition and validation (vindication?) that is unique, but nonetheless there and important.

Back to canon. In the literary world, canon is used to describe a complete text (which again, people have a hard time agreeing on what that even consists of), but it’s also used to describe a complete body of literature. For example, you often hear literary scholars talking about “British literary canon”. Here, canon is used as a way of organizing the most important, worthwhile works of a community, and so is also used as a tool of exclusion and subjugation. Canon excludes people, like BIPOC and women writers, to serve the most powerful culture’s interests - it has a very specific purpose. In this same way, I’ve seen people using their own definitions of canon to invalidate the feelings, experiences and definitions of other fans. For example, there have been a couple posts floating around saying that we absolutely and in no uncertain terms need to use the canonical definition of literary theory (one single, subtext-included source text to rule them all) and I have an issue with that because first of all, not everyone knows literary theory, and second of all... why? Canon is and always has been a polysemic term - it has multiple meanings. The OG example of this is religious canon: it eventually stabilized, but like, I’m Greek Orthodox, and my bible does not look the same as that of a Catholic Christian. But to hear both sides talk, they each have the real canon. So canon can mean something different depending on who you’re talking to, even when you’re talking about the same thing. The important thing is that whatever a community decides is canon, that’s it. That’s what canon becomes. 

But what if your community doesn’t have one single definition, because canon means something slightly different to everyone? Well, that’s also fine! Because again, language is only there to allow us to understand each other. If we’ve all been talking about canon and largely understanding one another for the past 12 years, that means we actually never had to have these kinds of conversations, because we largely agreed that subtext was not canon, and destiel never really left the subtext. But we just had Castiel confess his love to Dean (still reeling from that), and so the minutiae of what constitutes canon (a kiss, a hand-hold, a love confession) is suddenly pertinent and important - because we’re all on the same side, but we all have slightly different ideas regarding the details, and who the heck knows what we’re gonna get in the finale, if we even get anything. So we’re all talking and yelling at each other, all trying to say my very specific definition is the right one because xyz when in reality... all of us are right. 

Believe it or not, this discourse about what the minutiae of canon is, is actually how we come to a more specific definition. That takes years, and will be infinitely more difficult in a community that is so de-centralized and whose members are always changing, but it’ll eventually happen. Maybe. For now, though: your definition? That’s the right one for you. 

Do not let anyone shame you for thinking Destiel was already canon, or not thinking it is by the end, or insisting their definition is the best, right and only one. Canon is a polysemic term, and that means your reading is in there. But that also means everyone else’s is, too. 

[therandomwatcher]

Sherlock Season 4 Review

There will be spoilers. You have been warned. There are some really in-depth reviews out there. This one won’t quite be that, but I will touch on some things that stood out to me. First off I would like to address Johnlock. I know there is a very dedicated section of the fandom that ships it like FedEx. That’s cool. I respect all ships even though I’m not a shipper of anything myself. That being said, it’s really not fair to the writers to accuse them of queerbaiting if John literally yells out “I’m not gay!” in more than one episode, and later turns out not to be gay. One of the redeeming features of this season I think is how many scenes are available as Johnlock fodder now. That’s some serious fan service and didn’t have to be there. If you are a Johnlocker, break out the fanfic and deviant art and go nuts! But don’t blame the writers for not doing what they said they wouldn’t do, that’s not really fair. Now that several readers have probably left in irritation, let’s get on to the episodes. If there was a theme to sum up season 4, I think it would be “No matter how smart you are, you always should study the night before the test.” Steven and Mark are very talented writers who have given us some absolutely outstanding episodes. But they were not at their best in season 4. The Six Thatchers

This episode I would say was the strongest of the 3. It was a straightforward case, with a few attached to the side for interest and wrapped up some interesting points about Mary’s past. But there were a few glaring issues. -John text-cheating with the Woman from the Bus There was zero development for it. You can’t write a character who fails spectacularly with the ladies for all of Season 1 *and* 2, and then try to turn him into 3 Continents Watson. It just doesn’t work. 

-The Aquarium Scene Boy, where to start with this one. Vivian has shown up and clearly has a gun in her purse. She has already had several people killed on her orders so it’s not a leap to believe she brought it here because she thought she would need to use it and is capable of doing so. The episode tries to pin the blame on Sherlock for “winding her up”. Except it comes across more like Sherlock is trying to distract her into shooting him instead of Mary since she’s got the gun on both of them. Perhaps Mary will be able to use her assassin skills to take Vivian out while she is busy shooting Sherlock. It’s not a great plan, true. But it’s about the only way left for him to keep his vow of trying to keep her safe in this situation. The London police are apparently worthless. Their idea of dealing with someone threatening two people with a semi-auto handgun that holds an entire magazine worth of bullets, is to stand and wait until they actually shoot the victims and then move in to arrest them...even though there are still several bullets left in the gun and they aren’t any safer for having waited (to say nothing of the victim). What the actual fark was that? 

The big one of course, is Mary being literally faster than a speeding bullet. I quite honestly laughed here. It was so ridiculously fake. We’re talking 1950′s serial tv show fake. Even if i were to believe that it is reasonable to expect someone to move faster than a bullet traveling at over 1,200mph, the fact that Mary, being closer, was able to jump in front, but Sherlock wouldn’t be able to jump out of the way, is not playing honestly with your own movie physics. There are quite a few completely understandable conspiracy theories out there now thanks to this scene.

The fabulous acting during the actual death scene was the only redeeming point of this entire scene. Shout out to Amanda especially!

Beyond that, we have the death of a character who they spent nearly all of season 3 developing, and then they just shuffle her off with the excuse that it needs to be about “the boys”. Except John has a baby now, and as anyone with a baby will tell you, you have zero free time to be running around with your best friend solving crimes. Mary could have easily filled the “I’m finally enjoying a normal life you need to go out and get some excitement” hole here, with perhaps the occasional professional opinion thrown in for fun. But no, they managed to make John’s situation actually *worse* in terms of being able to spend time with Sherlock.

The Lying Detective

-Sherlock being high the entire episode did it no favors. It got annoying after a while trying to figure out what was “real” and what was not. Nobody is watching Sherlock because they want to question reality. They watch for brilliant deductions of small minutia. This is literally the opposite of that.

-John in explicably blames Sherlock for Mary’s death. Sherlock inexplicably agrees. Regardless of whether you think Sherlock “wound up” Vivian, Mary leaping in front of the bullet pretty much absolves Sherlock of his vow to keep her safe. Neither of them are apparently capable of respecting her individual choice.

-Smith is a creepy farker. Props to the actor for that. It was a relief to see the listening device in the cane, some glimmer of “Sherlock” is actually showing here.

The Final Problem

I’m sorry, but this entire episode was teh suck.

We had an episode that was 2 X-Files episodes and a healthy dose of Firefly. I love both shows, don’t get me wrong! But when I order steak, I’m not happy to get pizza...regardless of how much I like pizza. I’m here for Sherlock...not X-Files or Firefly. The age gap is also a problem. The entire series runs without a “viewer discretion is advised” except for this episode. So anyone who might not be into darker shows has to decide if they will watch and find out what happens after years of waiting...or risk seeing an episode that will have a potentially very negative effect on them. That is profoundly not cool and I was very disappointed in the production staff about this. Evil River Tam is apparently Sherlock’s secret sister. Who is insanely smart, and was shipped off to a government facility after she killed his best friend when they were little. But she’s too useful figuring out terrorist attacks and such so they give her “treats” in exchange for her cooperation. Sherlock, utterly traumatized, has since blocked her out, and concocted a family dog in place of his friend. It got “put down” in the mind palace of His Last Vow, and now has drowned. This makes no sense without playing the ‘nothing is what it seems card’ to the point where you literally are telling the audience that nothing they saw up to this point is really part of the plot. “Things aren’t what they seem” as a plot device is a solid option, but don’t go full “Lost”. It is a serious disservice to the viewers who spend their time watching the show, to tell them that they have wasted a large chunk of it on something utterly meaningless.

While it wasn’t quite as bad as Mary leaping in front of a speeding bullet, we have John and Sherlock leaping out of glass windows and falling 2 stories onto pavement without any injury during an explosion. Such a far far cry from Molly coldly explaining how a bullet doesn’t hit with a spurt of blood and drama. (Oh wait, it did for Mary didn’t it?), it was disappointing to see them dive so far into movie physics after making the effort to *not* do that in other episodes.

We then get a tour de force of the “Pusher” X-Files episode where talking to someone makes you do what they say. And “Beyond the Sea”, with an unrepentant psychopath murderer that our hero wants to talk to for some unknown reason. Pity we didn’t have an equally awesome scene with Sherlock threatening that if John dies, to throw the switch and gas her out of this life.

Instead we get a hug, and that miraculously cures her of wanting to kill John. Who then uses a rope to climb out after gnawing off his own foot to free it of the chains....or something. The chains are gone somehow, we’re not told how even though there isn’t really enough time with the water level for John to unlock them easily. (Sorry, I really had to bite my tongue during much of the episode or MST3K/Rifftrax would’ve come out. My internal monologue had me chuckling a time or two though.) I won’t even touch on Mr and Mrs Holmes being absolutely unrealistically written characters now after learning that so much family trauma happened. It’s a minor detail that most people (except those who have been unfortunate enough to be somewhat familiar with) would not understand and so pales compared to the other errors in the episode. It’s still annoying though. Again, quality acting from two great actors though.

There are good points to the episode, Mycroft’s guilty pleasure watching old film noir detective movies is funny and potentially telling. The sword/gun umbrella is pure fan service and absolutely awesome. There is plenty of Johnlock, Adlock, Mystrade, and Sherlolly sprinkled about for the various ships. Now I know a lot of people are upset by how those turned out, but given the production schedule Sherlock isn’t likely to make any of them cannon. So the best option shippers have is a bit of everything to provide the fandom with countless gifs, drawings, and fanfic stills. There are also some great quotes in here, and solid dialog exchanges. The end of the episode wrap up was nice, but emotional whiplash after the darkness of the show. It did show us what BBC Sherlock *can* be, and we can only hope they will return to form if we get a season 5. Realistically, the absolutely superb acting held up what was a convoluted mess of a plot, that unfortunately crossed the line from complicated interwoven aspects, to throwing stuff together and changing our minds halfway through about what is actually going on. Steven and Mark are capable of taking this plot and doing it well enough not to need a “viewer discretion” or making it into the convoluted mess it ended up being. It would be tough and some of the other seasons still would’ve had some pretty big plot holes, but they are talented enough to do it justice at least. Unfortunately they weren’t at their best this time around and it’s a bit of a tough one for the fandom after all these years of waiting. You guys are still brilliant, but please study before the final next time, okay?  

[roseangelx]

Semi-Coherent Thoughts on The Lying Detective

I will start by saying that the most recent episode of Sherlock is one of my favourites - definitely in my Top 5, possibly even in my Top 3. I’ll also point out that I realised it had become one of my favourites about an hour into it, before everything that happened in the end happened. I liked The Six Thatchers, I think I mentioned, but this one was a huge step up and I was gripped from the start. 

Like last week, this is less of a review and more of a list of thoughts on the episode that are not particularly well-structured or coherent. It’s also stupidly long, but I have dot point summaries, so don’t worry!

Grief

I read a quote from an interview last week where one of the writers mentioned that they wanted to do grief properly in this episode, and I definitely think they succeeded. We didn’t really see John grieving after Sherlock’s death - more of it was focussed on the anger and hurt that came with Sherlock’s return. I was so glad that his emotional response to Mary’s death was not glossed over. The way he behaved and the way he spoke was entirely believable - which, yes, includes him beating Sherlock up, though it most certainly doesn’t justify it. That scene was heart-shattering as well because of Sherlock’s own grief, and his guilt. He blamed himself for Mary’s death, and so did John. He let John hurt him because he thought he deserved it. 

I loved that John was also talking to the Mary inside his head (hereafter referred to as Mental Mary). From a storytelling standpoint, I thought it was an exceptionally clever idea. John doesn’t like talking about his feelings, we know this. As he said in The Empty Hearse, that sort of conversation is something he finds difficult. That he could talk to Mental Mary was a brilliant way of getting around it, letting us see the kind of things that he was keeping bottled up, and also letting us see the moment at the end when he was able to start letting her go. He’s still grieving, he’s still got a lot way to go, but at the end, he was able to forgive Sherlock, to recognise that Sherlock was not to blame for Mary’s death, and in doing so, he’s finally opened the door, ready to slowly, slowly start moving on. 

I have an especial love for Mental Mary in her final scene, telling John to stay and talk to Sherlock - and in doing so, letting us know that he truthfully wanted to stay, but was struggling with it, because there was so much pent up emotion there and he knew that it would all come out if he stayed. And it did. He told Sherlock about the “affair” and fell apart, and then there was the hug, which was everything I wanted in the episode. It’s the one scene that has been screenshotted and gifed more than anything else at this point, and for good reason. They both needed that. 

I’m in constant awe of Martin Freeman’s acting, and this episode was no exception. Combine this with his reaction to Mary’s death in the last episode, and I definitely think he deserves an award. 

tl;dr:

I loved the portrayal of John’s grief

I adored Mental Mary as it allowed us to get inside John’s head and see the things he’d never say out loud

The hug. That is all. 

Martin Freeman deserves all the awards

Drug Use

I have quite a lot of thoughts regarding Sherlock’s drug use, and a lot of them aren’t quite fully-formed, so I apologise in advance if this particular section is incoherent.

I spent most of this week rewatching some of the Sherlock commentaries from the first couple of seasons, as a way of tiding myself over before today’s episode. During the A Study in Pink commentary, Moffat and Gatiss actually discuss Sherlock’s drug use, very briefly. In the ACD canon, Sherlock Holmes doesn’t use when on cases, or when emotionally distraught, but when he is bored. It’s a stimulant to stop his brain from rotting - he needs cases, and if he doesn’t have a case, he needs something else. Moffat and Gatiss mentioned that they disliked adaptations where Holmes goes and uses while on a case, because it was completely inconsistent with the canon. 

With this in mind, I was a little unsure about how they were going to approach this episode. I knew this episode would involve drug use, and given the commentary, that didn’t make sense. Having seen the episode now, I think it does make sense, because there was an explanation on top of the emotional distress caused by Mary’s death and the guilt. Sherlock using was part of a plan, a plan to save John Watson by making John Watson save him, and that makes his use a little more believable.

I’m not dismissing the emotional aspect of it - Sherlock was very, very distraught, and it seems likely to me that, while his original decision to use might have been motivated, in part, by Mary’s message, the fact that he spiralled so deeply out of control definitely wasn’t part of the plan. But, that’s the thing about drugs, isn’t it. You can’t plan. And Sherlock certainly has a road to recovery ahead of him that is not going to be easy by any means.

Moving past motives to the actual portrayal of a high Sherlock Holmes - I loved it. I loved that even high, Sherlock is still making deductions, but can’t quite catch up to his own head, knowing that something is important but not knowing why. I loved the entire sequence with Sherlock losing time, going from the middle of the road to Baker Street, walking on walls and taking “high as a kite” to an almost literal definition. I’m impressed by the portrayal of it. 

tl;dr

I liked that there was an explanation for the drug use beyond just the emotional distress (i.e. it was, in the beginning, all part of a plan), because otherwise it would seem inconsistent with the ACD canon

The emotional distress still played a part and my heart goes out to Sherlock 

The actual portrayal of Sherlock on drugs was very clever and very well done 

Relationships

First, let’s discuss the unexpected relationship that was Mycroft and Lady Smallwood. I recognise that a lot of people are dissatisfied, because Mycroft is most commonly shipped with Lestrade. I’m not personally a Mystrade shipper (I confess to shipping Molly and Lestrade, actually), but I have had Mycroft headcanoned as aromantic for the previous few series. Well, that’s a lie. I was torn between headcanoning him as aromantic or believing that he has had experiences that have given him reason to believe that “caring is not an advantage” - though typically my aromantic headcanon wins out. Still, I found Mycroft’s confusion in the scene incredibly endearing. I’m accepting of the pairing. 

The other relationship, or at least, idea of a relationship, that stands out to me in this episode is Sherlock and Irene. This is a pairing that I’m not quite so accepting on. I mean no offence to anyone who does ship them together, but - Irene is canonically gay, and I cannot accept the idea that Sherlock is straight, not with quotes such as “Girlfriend? No, not really my area” and “The fairer sex is your department, Watson”. I know it’s likely that this is all queerbaiting, but I’d rather hold onto the idea that the things Sherlock says are actually reflective of his character. 

I’m entirely accepting of the idea that Irene would infrequently text Sherlock. I’m not surprised by this at all. I’m also not surprised that John would think that means something more than it does. But, I’m going to hold onto the idea that these texts are flirting that Irene does not expect or want to lead to any sort of actual romantic entanglement. 

I will say that I loved John’s speech on the matter, though, which sounded to me like he was telling Sherlock that he deserved to be loved and to be with someone and that he shouldn’t wait until it’s too late. 

Just while we’re on the subject of relationships, I’m very pleased to know that John’s “affair” was no more than texting. The John Watson we know would not let it go any further than that. The idea that John Watson would even accept the number of another woman is still a bit out of character, but I suppose we all do silly things - especially if your best friend and your wife live insane lives and you want some sort of normality. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that the pretty girl on the bus wasn’t normal, either. 

tl;dr

Mycroft not knowing how to respond to Lady Smallwood is adorable 

Sherlock and Irene definitely text (or, at least, Irene texts, Sherlock receives) but neither of them are romantically or sexually attracted to each other, because they don’t swing that way

I can forgive John for texting another woman more than I’d have been able to had he done more with her 

Eurus

Here was something I did not expect. I know we all expected the lady on the bus to be more than who she said she was, and I know many people worked out that she and the “Lady in Red” (who we now know to be Fake Faith) were the same person just from the trailers and promo pics, but I did not expect this turn of events. I’m actually very excited about the matter - I assume Eurus will be the villain of the final episode, and it’s about time we had a female villain, especially one as fascinating as her. 

It’s already clear that Eurus is incredibly clever. She’s a master of disguise, for one thing, but it’s more than that. Sherlock was able to predict, two weeks in advance, which therapist John would go to and which appointment he would take. Eurus was able to make the same deduction even earlier, and take the therapist’s place. She was able to fool Sherlock (and yes, she had the advantage of him being as high as a kite, but all the same), and maybe even Mycroft, if he doesn’t know what she’s been up to. 

People are making predictions, based on the line “people always stop after three”, that Eurus isn’t the only secret sibling, and maybe she’s not Sherrinford. I’m undecided as to what I think of this theory. It’s an interesting idea, and it makes sense, as far as the fact that we know Mycroft is supposedly keeping tabs on Sherrinford and said earlier “Sherrinford is secure”. However, it’s also making the explanation a lot more convoluted - Occam’s Razor says Eurus is Sherrinford. Or, alternatively, that Sherrinford isn’t a person at all - a friend of mine just suggested the possibility that Sherrinford might actually be a facility where Eurus was meant to be residing, hence it needing to be ‘secure’. Either explanation, I’m very, very excited to see what she’s like in this next episode. And by excited I mean terrified. 

tl;dr

Eurus might be the cleverest Holmes sibling we’ve met yet

It remains unclear whether Eurus is Sherrinford or if there are two missing siblings or if Sherrinford is not a person’s name but a place name - but either way, it’s exciting 

Other Thoughts

Mrs Hudson is easily my favourite part of the episode. I think we’re all in agreement of that. 

I loved that Sherlock made sure to take twisted, turning paths when he was walking with Fake Faith/Eurus with the sole purpose of writing a message to his brother, who he knew would be tracking him. He does love to be dramatic. 

The hug. Let’s just talk about the hug again. Thank you for that.

Who was taking care of Rosie? Given we know that at one point John was in therapy, Sherlock was in the boot of Mrs Hudson’s car, and Molly was en route in an ambulance, I’m going to say it was Lestrade

I really liked the way suicide was spoken about in the episode

Culverton Smith was a terrifying villain, though not in the same way as Magnussen, for which I’m very relieved, because I still cannot watch the scene in HLV where Magnussen flicks John’s face and I don’t know if I could have dealt with another Magnussen 

I loved this episode, full stop.