Save Teenage Bounty Hunters!

This is one of my favorite shows in the history of ever. It needs to be picked up by a new platform. I write all my thoughts about the show here. Feel free to Ask or message me whenever! #aprilneedshersomeday #aprilhelpssickkidsthroughchrist #teenagebountyparty #steprilwillgetheirsomeday Main is @screwyourdefaults, all my other ships are on my pinned post.

[repbeyondthedefaults]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 6/? Fandom: Teenage Bounty Hunters (TV) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: April Stevens/Sterling Wesley Characters: April Stevens, Sterling Wesley, Blair Wesley, Ezekiel, Hannah B (Teenage Bounty Hunters), John Stevens (Teenage Bounty Hunters), Luke Creswell, Ellen Johnson, Debbie Wesley, Anderson Wesley Additional Tags: Canon Compliant, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, April’s POV, Canon Lesbian Character, Character Study, Christian Character, Closeted Character, Slow Burn, Episode Related Series: Part 1 of A Spectacle of Everyone But Me Summary:

April knows she is a lesbian, she’s even okay with it despite her bigoted community. But that doesn’t mean she can come out.

An in-depth in-canon character analysis of April Stevens, the Christian gay girl so many of us remember being. She crushes hard on girls and only girls. But nobody can know her secret. That is, until Sterling Wesley comes breezing back into her life with a kiss and so many dreams of a life together open and out.

[doyourpatellasquiver]

New chapter of my April POV series! Posted Feb 12th! The memorial episode!

[gay-art-vibes]

I wrote a Teenage Bounty Hunters fic (finally!) It’s a continuation to fix the cliffhanger Netflix left us with that ripped my heart out.

Rated T and will be 7.6K of words total. First chapter is up and I’ve divided it into three chapters. They’re all drafted so I’ll get the rest up over the coming two weeks.

[emp13]

I may have zero followers but that’s not gonna stop me from talking about teenage bounty hunters. It is one of my favorite shows of all time and everyone who hasn’t seen it should. April Stevens is an amazing character and she’s so tragic, she knows she’s a lesbian but can’t act on it because of her dad. Then her dad gets sent to prison and the girl she’s had a crush on for years kisses her. She’s able to go on secret dates with her awesome girlfriend, they were even going to sleep next to each other at the lock in, she is finally in a good place and her homophobic piece of shit father named John Stevens who I will murder with a club comes knocking on her door. For some reason unknown to April he asks about her girlfriend, she’s scared and makes a cruel decision because it’s all she can think to do to save herself.

On the other hand there’s Sterling who figured out she was gay a week before she kissed April. While we never see a lens into what her parents think about gay people Anderson and Debbie are likely to at least tolerate it. They’re both shown to be flawed parents but they truly unconditionally love their two children. She also was the person who put away John Stevens. She is the sweetest person ever and is too good for this world while also being a somewhat repressed Christian girl who’s incredibly horny. She’s such an interesting character because that’s messy and something that isn’t really shown much.

Both April and Sterling are messy queers who just want to date each other but can’t because of stupid John Stevens and their homophobic community. The messiness of these characters is what makes them so interesting, neither April nor Sterling lose their faith because they’re gay despite being taught that queerness was antithetical to their beliefs. The chemistry between them is also perfect, they feel like soulmates. I just love this show so much, it’s so campy and fun and fuck Netflix.

[girlpash]

You didn’t even see the signs.

[kengha]

All this time We always walked a very thin line

“exile” is their song, period

[crazyintheeast]

Trying to hang with the bad kids

[doyourpatellasquiver]

The First Arm Touch

In episode one of Teenage Bounty Hunters, when their rivalry is being established, Sterling gets an idea that leads her and Blair to April Stevens. At first, Sterling is so confident and just laying on the charm. But April has lived here all her life and known Sterling for most of it and she can tell when she is being disingenuous.

Even though April does call the twins out for their lie in front of Ezekiel and Hannah B, she doesn't eviscerate them as she could, and she doesn't threatened Sterling until the condom is visible to only her, Sterling and Blair, with her body blocking the view from everyone else.

I take away two things from this exchange, April does not want to out Sterling and she does not want to create a scene, even though creating scenes seems to be April's specially. Moreover, April seems to gently but firmly grab Sterling's hand or arm when she decides to talk to them away from her posse. And Sterling, as we know, is a sucker for an arm grab, she follows April easily. Whether that's because Sterling likes the feeling of April taking initiative and physically moving her somewhere, or because it's reminiscent for them both of the days when they were kids and held hands all the time, I think it's an important moment in their story. April chooses to touch Sterling and Sterling complies more than willingly to her touch. Upon rewatch it feels like foreshadowing for how Sterling will come to feel about April's arm grabs in the future. Plus, as expected, Blair is just the picture of confusion watching her sister so easily distracted as they try to get information out of April.

[doyourpatellasquiver]

April has Sterling's schedule memorized.

When Sterling and Blair come out to the quad just walking and talking, April is sitting on the grass with Hannah B and Ezekiel and her back is turned away from the twins who are just coming out of the building. Hannah B is facing the girls but she is singing and playing guitar. Ezekiel is distracted by his phone. When April gets up and walks away, both of them look confused. She turns and saunters directly over to Sterling who is the only one she greets. I just get very fixated on this moment. Because here April is trying to be the best for Team Stevens and show up Sterling with all her extra-curriculars. But Sterling is the reason she walked over. Sterling herself is what was on April's mind in this moment.

When I was a young gay girl in highschool, I had this obnoxious way of easily absorbing my crushes' schedules. One girl, I even committed her outfits immediately to memory every single day. I was heavily closeted and much more in denial than April. This was always a definite reminder that I looked at girls the way I was expected to look at boys.

But, the thing is, April might not realize it, but she has a crush. Honestly I think she's had a crush since 5th grade before Sterling gave her away when they were besties. And that she has, to her everlasting annoyance, memorized Sterling's schedule on campus and known her general whereabouts at all times since she met her and fell for her when they were little kids.

[doyourpatellasquiver]

Added a gif since I just realized how to make them 😌 that power walk after she turns is iconic, as is the smirk she gives once she gets to Sterling.

[futw]

Teenage Bounty Hunters (2020)

[huhwhyeven]

I love these sences

[booasaur]

Teenage Bounty Hunters - Stepril + Devon Hales’ quotes from interviews

[crazyintheeast]

Trying to hang with the bad kids

[doyourpatellasquiver]

Coming out to herself as bi was a big step for Sterling. But I think her deep and desperate concern and love for April shines through esp in the debate episode when April blows up at her about walking away and leaving her on the swingset. She would change it all if she could. Take back all five years of how things played out, if she could just have April back and not so mad at her. Even if it meant no Luke, even if it meant Blair would hate her, nobody gets Sterling like April does. Nobody gets April like Sterling does. It seems to be a throw away line in episode 3 but it's also the episode title. "This must be how dumb kids feel." Sterling and April are both overachievers surrounded by underachievers. They both take pride in good spelling and correct pronunciation. They thrive on points and well-done projects. And once everything else falls away, they are honest with each other. Like intensely earnestly deeply honest. April about her dad, Sterling about her feelings. They are the person each of them needs to feel most completely themselves in a world that refuses to understand them.

[dragonsareawesome123]

Ultimate Ships Challenge: [1/10] Kisses >> Sterling and April’s first kiss(es)

“You know my dad used to call my family a team. And I worked so hard to be the very best version of myself because Team Stevens wins no matter what. Team Stevens is perfect, except that it’s not because the team captain beats women, and breaks the law, and makes my mom mortgage the lake house for stupid fucking legal fees.”

[geek-ramblings]

Ah my favorite genre of show. Overachiever awkwardly pining

[jimalim]

I think someone, not me, but someone should write a Teenage Bounty Hunters/First Kill crossover fic. Imagine Blair and Sterling meeting Juliette and Caliope?! Imagine Bowser dealing with either of the FK families. Imagine April being highly suspicious of everything, but then being the one to figure out how to save the freaking day! I need it!

[booasaur]

Teenage Bounty Hunters - 1x07 - “I think you should just start slow. Throw out the bait, see if she bites, and go from there.”

[booasaur]

What did you think of the scene of "I aim to please" "noted" and Sterling's reaction afterwards?

Hee, well, okay, what do YOU think of it, anon? I honestly just giggle when I see it, it’s just so surprising and fun with all these layers. Like, on the one hand, they’re these super inexperienced Christian kids, right, doing their little Christian project, closeted, nothing can be put out in the open, but you also have Sterling explicitly so horny for April and it is PALPABLE. 

And like, the aim to please, she’s saying it half-joking but it’s literally what she is, this good kid people-pleaser of the highest order but it’s also this proud little acknowledgement of her efforts to win over April since the debate tournament, wear her down with sheer friendliness, and like, yay, progress! Progress because she wants to DATE her.

But god.

I don’t think any of us, Sterling included, expected that drawn out “Noooted”, it’s just April being her bossy, overbearing self, but it’s so unintentionally aligned with the way Sterling has been approaching this convo. I think she’s caught off guard by how much it played into her little fantasies, lol, because MAKE NO MISTAKE. This kid has been fantasizing about April and is not at all opposed to her bossy, overbearing side and it was just this odd little intersection of the two and she sharply looks over and swallows as she realizes that no, April didn’t really mean anything by it beyond their usual dynamic.

In a season filled with a lot of favorite moments for just this ship, this remains in my top few just for its sheer rewatchability value. The first time we’re here, it’s all nerves and anticipation and even worry for Sterling, rooting for her but afraid of how quickly she’s running into this. And there was some relief that there’s obviously some thawing on April’s part and even a BIT of optimism, but god, on rewatching, and knowing Aprli’s this super intense lesbian and that underneath this tentative little interaction they’re both canonically starting to see the other in a new light and developing raging crushes on each other, it’s just SO much fun

[booasaur]

Omg that second to last gif of the Doritos scene gifset!! Did Sterling making that kiss mouth when she keeps looking at April’s lips!???? Hahaha I love how her eyes keeps going up and down looking at the eyes and the lips hahaha Bless whoever invented gif!! We see more small details that we missed while watching Thank you thank you for gifting!!

Can I just say, I love that everyone’s calling it the Doritos scene, that’s literally what I named this clip.

Uh, huh. It looks like it! But I think it was just a little quirk, either she was thinking about saying something to interrupt this tirade (and get April’s attention all back on herrrrr) or she was doing this kind of unconscious mimicking thing with April she seems to do, like touching her hair:

Although, to your point, she’s touching her hair because she’s imagining touching April’s, soooo I guess we’re back to your theory. :D