so i’ve 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.
listen, most of us who have been following the comic for a while (gosh at least…four 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)
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 you’d asked me a year ago ‘what do you think the final chapters will be like?’ i’d 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. there’s something beautiful about me knowing essentially how it’s going to play out but still coming back anyway because it’s not about the shock value it’s 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 ‘pain porn’, exploitative drama that does exactly that, exploits the viewer’s 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 couldn’t have ended any other way. because this is ngozi’s vision and its her world, and there’s a popular post floating around that says it well, i think: ‘queer happiness is more subversive than queer tragedy’
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 that’s 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 ‘i trust you’. 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 i’ve come to adore so much. you’ve earned a fan for life.
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