so iâve been thinking for a few days about how exactly to put this into words, but i think a lot of professional writers could learn a lot from what ngozi has done.Â
listen, most of us who have been following the comic for a while (gosh at leastâŚfour years for me I think? i went back and tried to find my first post on it and tumblr.com crashed 93 times so i gave up BUT I DIGRESS)Â
the thing is that most of us who have been here a while knew pretty much exactly how it was going to end. for the most part if youâd asked me a year ago âwhat do you think the final chapters will be like?â iâd have about a 90% accuracy rate on most plot points.
surprising an audience is great. this comic has surprised me plenty! but what ngozi does so masterfully is to never abuse emotional shock value. thereâs something beautiful about me knowing essentially how itâs going to play out but still coming back anyway because itâs not about the shock value itâs about the execution. if your characters feel real, feel lived in, if your story is compelling and honest and true to an emotional throughline people. will. keep. coming. back.
the drama in this comic never felt forced, it never felt fake, and it was never frivolous, it never turned into what i call âpain pornâ, exploitative drama that does exactly that, exploits the viewerâs emotions with cheap, unearned moments of emotional shock and awe. every bit of drama in this comic came from places of deep pain and fear. and, likewise, came from an equally powerful place of love and hope and acceptance and pride.
of course it has a happy ending, of course it does. it couldnât have ended any other way. because this is ngoziâs vision and its her world, and thereâs a popular post floating around that says it well, i think:Â âqueer happiness is more subversive than queer tragedyâ
so yes, i might have known how the comic would end but i came back again and again and again because i cared about the characters and i cared about the execution and by the end i trusted ngozi as a creator.
and thatâs really the best compliment i could give. as a viewer who has been burned more than once by different forms of media i put my emotional vulnerability in the hands of a content creator and said âi trust youâ. i trust you not to abuse that vulnerability and trust you to be true to your vision and tell your story without trying to exploit those who consume it. and she did not disappoint.
so to ngozi, who will never see this post, thank you for years and years of wonderful content and for characters iâve come to adore so much. youâve earned a fan for life.
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