Thanks for tagging your poi posts about the 1OO. I'm a fan of both shows, and I was hugely upset about lexa's death (I have mental illness issues). I've been very lonely and down lately, and I was super excited for poi to come back so I could be excited about a show again and be able to see some legitimately good lgbt representation. But lately the shoot fandom has been such a toxic place for clexa shippers that I don't know if I can watch a show I love anymore. 1/6
I know it really sucks that clexa (and non clexa) fans are coming into your tags and talking about how root and shaw might die. Having that kind of constant negativity about it is awful. But at the same time, it does make sense for people to be prepared for the worst. I know I have to prepare myself so Iâm not devastated again if one of them dies. After Lexaâs death, I went to a very dark place for several days and I canât let myself go there again. 2/6
I want to trust the writers. The show is so good and theyâve been so good to us up until now (both in terms of groundbreaking quality and represenation). But I fully believed in the 1OO writers as well to deliver on the later (the showâs always been shit). So even though I want to trust them, I canât let myself be hurt again. When people say stuff like âthe poi writers would never do us like thatâ it hurts my heart. Because people said the same thing about the 1OO, and look how wrong we were. 3/
I donât want people to be hurt like that again. I saw so many people literally suicidal after Lexaâs death (mostly very young teens). I hope people arenât hurt in the same way. I think it will help that a lot of poi fans are older/maturer and I think the poi writers wonât be as homophobic in the means of death they use in the event they choose to kill root or shaw off. 4/6
But even if the death makes narrative sense, I know Iâm still going to be hurt by it. Iâm 17 yearâs old, and Iâm just super lonely. Thereâs no excuse for sending hate to the cast or crew, ever. But if fans of the show respectfully criticize the writers in the event of a homophobic death, I donât understand why thatâs a bad thing. 5/6
Please try not to get mad at me for sending you this. I donât mean to be attacking the show at all by saying this. Iâm so excited for the new season, and if we get root/shaw riding off into the sunset on motorcycles in the end that would be the cherry on top. All Iâm trying to do is attempt to explain why some people are so afraid of root or shaw dying. And why I think the fandom needs to find a balance between positivity and preparing for the worst. 6/6
6/6 person- I think I might have sent that first ask off anon. If I did, please donât publish that one. I canât deal with people sending me hate. Iâm not in that place right now. (Not saying you/people who see the post have to agree with me in any way.) Please leave me as anon, I resent that part on anon.
firstly no you didnât publish it off anon. dont worry.Â
And okay. Iâm gonna try and address your points as best as I can, okay? Iâm not mad at you, thank you for being respectful. But this is going to get long, bear with me.
Yes, we are annoyed with people attacking the show, and claiming that we canât trust it because you guys trusted t100 writers and look what happened. The reason for that is because we have all the reason to trust the poi writers. They have been so respectful to the fans, and they treat the wlw representation so well. In comparison, t100 was very racist and problematic from the very beginning. Yes, poi is not perfect when it comes to race, but it is pretty good.Â
Many poc complained about how racist t100 is, and were shut down by the fandom for the sole purpose of there being a f/f ship. The fact that one of the women in the ship had brownface and wore a bindi was ignored. We were even being attacked for bringing it up. People were so caught up in the thrill of having lgbt representation that they didnt care that the only people who were being represented were white wlw, while the racism was actively oppressing poc.
So we kinda went, whatever. And ignored t100 to enjoy this amazing show with an actual brown, bisexual, neurodivergent woman whoâs so well written. And then lexa died. And there was a huge backlash. Which is understandable. You guys were upset that she was killed off in such a horrible way. And trust me, a lot of us were sympathetic towards that. We were angry for you guys because we knew that you were hurting. And we saw how terribly you guys were being treated by the writers of your show. We acknowledged your hurt, and your pain.Â
But then, people started adding Shaw to the list of wlw who have been killed on screen. And that undermines the amazing representation that poi has been giving us. That made us annoyed and rightfully angry. Because we were ignored when we talked about how racist t100 was being, but now we are being used as tokens to prop up the movement. A movement that largely benefitted only white wlw.Â
And then, it got worse. t100 fans moved fandoms, and there was an influx of people questioning if root and shaw would still be alive. It is a valid question to ask of a show like poi. But apart from the fact that people were reducing the entire show to just be about root and shaw, it was completely undermining all the good things that weâve been given by the show regarding root and shaw. It was reducing shaw, a beautiful bisexual neurodivergent woc, into just another love interest.Â
That wasnât all. Supanova happened, and people were asking Amy to spoil the ending. And when she rightfully wouldnt, attacking her and Chris on twitter. Amy and Chris have been some of the people who have been so respectful and kind to fans, especially shoot fans. It was all getting way out of hand.Â
You said that it would be valid to question the cast and crew if there was a homophobic death. But there has never been a basis to suspect that there would be. The problem is that clexa fans are projecting onto poi. And when you do this, youâre basically ignoring everything good that poi has given us.Â
The shoot and poi tags are being flooded with posts about clexa, about wlw dying, about whoâs gonna die first- root or shaw. The fandom has been waiting over a year for our show. Weâve been fucked over by cbs- had to wait forever for an air date, not knowing if it was going to be cancelled and then they cancelled it, not gotten any news about the show, and suddenly gotten like 3 promos over 2 days. Do you think itâs fair that we have to deal with people spreading such hate in our tag as well? We would have never engaged with clexa fans if there wasnât all this comparison being made. We are trying to keep our distance but clexa fans keep dragging us back in.Â
We more than welcome wlw, especially young wlw like yourself, into the shoot fandom. You guys were hurt, you deserve a place where the wlw are treated respectfully. But itâs not cool when our fandom becomes rife with toxicity and negativity. When our show, and our cast and crew are being punished for mistakes they havenât even committed.Â
We are prepared for the worst, we know our show well enough to know that people could die. Itâs something thatâs been talked about since way before any of this happened. The thing is, we know that whatever happens it will be treated respectfully. We trust our writers.Â
We donât want all this fighting and negativity either. We just want to be excited over our show and yell about the trailers and the new episodes. Weâre all here to have fun, and for this to be a safe space.Â
I hope youâre okay, and I hope I addressed your concerns. Come back to me if you wanna talk more about it. And I hope that you do remain excited about the new episodes and enjoy them when they come out. Take care, friend.Â
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