I feel like somewhat elaborating more on what I posted on the 25th of July regarding a dynamic between two characters in season two of The Sandman that has just beenā¦plaguing my mind. I donāt even know if what Iām about to express further below will even make much sense, considering how my feelings are all over the place, but Iāll try my best š (spoilers for Season 2 down below):
I have not been this goddamn confused, fragmented and bugged out of my head about an on-screen relationship in any fictional media as I have been until seeing The Corinthian and Johanna Constantine now being in a romance of sorts. It has gotten to a point in which if I continue to ruminate on it, my mind will eventually split off like that one scene with the multiple Destinies in Destinyās garden and go crazy (Iām literally writing this whilst listening to some brown noise on near full-volume in hopes that my mind will stay sane enough to get through to this post).
Now do not get me wrong (apart from the eventual romance), I liked seeing both The Corinthian (2nd version) and Johanna Constantine on screen for the most part. I think much of their scenes held my interest and engagement long enough for me to enjoy seeing how they interacted with each other; plus, in another (more simpler) reason, I love Johanna, and I love The Corinthian. It was a welcome treat.
ā¦But then when the show began to start brewing some kind of romance between the two, thatās when my mind started drifting off into a very contorted position - and it didnāt help when it eventually led to the two kissing.
I donāt even know if what Iām going to write from this point forward will even fully cover my all-over-the-place feelings, or if it will completely cover all the other things people have expressed, or if Iāll even properly describe things in a way that are accurate - again, itās something my mind isnāt having a very easy time with. But I want to start off with the issues that others have already noted down.
Though this is something that has already been mentioned before, I think there is something rather peculiar (in a not so good way) with how the idea that The Second Corinthian (who is meant to be better than the First Corinthian) is into women now comes across in this situation - it leaves a weird, thorny (and at worst, problematic) implication (whether intentional or unintentional) that The First Corinthian being attracted to men was also a āflawā, alongside his disobedience and malevolence. And with Johanna, it also leaves a rather strange implication as well - considering that it was mentioned in the 11th episode that her past relationships with women are suggested to have been disastrous (though not dismissing how she also stated the same thing for her past relationships with men just beforehand), it feels even more off that both The Corinthian and Johanna being in a m/w relationship appears to be something that ābettersā the two together - that their past experiences of being in same-sex relationships were messy, disordered and hectic.
Again, my description on those parts may have been horrendously worded, so please do forgive me if that is the case (and donāt hesitate to correct me on details I missed out or misunderstood).
As for my general personal feelingsā¦I canāt really fully describe what I was mentally going through when I saw that a romance was brewing between them both, other than the fact that I was feeling confused.
I can somewhat see what they are trying to angle at with pairing the two together in the romance, and I will call myself out and be candid when I say that there are some parts of me that admittedly do go āā¦hear me out-ā when it comes to the Corinstantine (is that the ship name?) romance. However, as I already described with the thorny and problematic aspects in the paragraph above, it also puts me in a very confusing and contorted position. Because although I donāt completely agree with the notion that it makes both characters āstraightā, I still do feel that the way the show goes about it does diminish their queerness. And thus, my mind ends up fragmenting all over the place.
Itās interesting (neutral) for sure, and certainly aā¦choice? But I just absolutely do not know how to feel about it, and as of right now itās not something I find easy to dwell on without my brain shooting off into multiple different directions without clear destinations.
Again, I hold no judgement against how people feel about their romance - if you love it and ship them, I wonāt judge. If you absolutely hate the showās decision to ship them, I wonāt judge either (and I also get it). If youāre also confused (like myself), I wonāt judge.
Perhaps maybe when I have a more clearer line of thought on how I feel, Iāll maybe do a follow up post.