HI hey hello I have never seen a full episode of Andi Mack but I followed the Tyrus storyline religiously in 2018-2019 and it's been plaguing my brain lately and one thing I NEED to get into words is how they had to work around the blatant censorship/homophobia disney executives or whatever forced on to the show because they did it kinda brilliantly??? Like Disney said "lol only one gay character for you" and they said bet and wrote TJ undeniably queer anyway. Because his storyline in season 3 ONLY makes sense if you read it through the lens of him having feelings for Cyrus and struggling with internalised homophobia/the pressure to appear straight. Not to mention his character has pretty much NO REASON to stay on the show after his arc with Buffy is resolved (the reason he was brought on in the first place) but there he is! Always and almost exclusively interacting with Cyrus! Smiling so softly and giving heart eyes and saying stuff like "you're the only person I can talk to like this" and "of course I came". And yes obviously the bench scene is iconic and as clear as they were able to make it without outright saying it but everything leading up to it was done very nicely and subtly enough to get to that final moment without Disney hitting the breaks. You can tell that the team behind this show cared about the story and the characters and ALSO about the gay kids in the audience. And as a queer person who's seen the "oh stop making everything gay" argument thrown around in fandoms one too many times and crew up in the peak era of queer baiting it was so refreshing and heartwarming to see these writers and actors go "no actually you are RIGHT to read into every little detail and subtext, every look and touch and smile was INTENTIONAL we WANTED you to see it and make it gay. You are right." And yeah this show came out when I was way past the age of the target audience but god damnit I am happy for the queer kids who got to experience it.
Anyway thanks for coming to my tedtalk
