What is your opinion on supergirl season 3, supercorp, guardiancorp and episode 3x17 of Supergirl? Do you know Bubbline which became canon on the last episode of adventure time? What tv series do you watch? Brooklyn Nine-Nine is awesome. I also like iZombie and The Magicians.
Oh man, I haven’t watched the last season of Supergirl at all actually. I was meaning to get to that because I was excited about Reign and her whole character but couldn’t find the time and eventually just sort of lost interest. So I can’t actually make a comment about supercorp or gaurdiancorp in relations to s3. I heard about Bubbline, and while I don’t personally watch Adventure Time, it was really awesome to hear that they decided to go ahead and make it canon! I still watch Brooklyn-99 (made a post about it a while back), have been meaning to watch iZombie, and have heard about The Magicians but don’t really know what it’s about.
These days, with now having to deal with college, I haven’t really been watching as much TV as I used to. This blog actually used to a school assignment for my senior journalism class, so ever since I graduated it’s been kind of dead. That being said, currently I love The Good Place, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, was briefly obsessed with both the 2003 and Brotherhood Fullmetal Alchemist animes, am trying to watch the newest season of Wynonna Earp, and always constantly trying to stop myself from rewatching Parks and Rec.
I don't know if someone has told you this already but while I too am frustrated with one ending of Life is Strange coming across as the "correct" one, the developers have stated multiple times that they ran out of time and money to flesh out both endings as much as they wanted to, unfortunately. A comic series is coming in November that will expand more on the less developed ending so hopefully that will provide us with some closure.
That’s good to hear! I’d heard about budget cuts and the rushing of the last episode of LiS a bit after I made the post about it. Mostly, I just wanted to address the issues I had with the game independent of behind the scenes production problems, but if I were writing it now I would probably include at least an acknowledgement of what was going with the developers.
Butterfly Soup is a delightful four hour visual novel that I recommend to everyone. It was created by Brianna Lei, a 23 year old woman whose teen years are still fresh from memory. And it definitely shows in the writing and authenticity of the characters.
Butterfly Soup tells the story of four girls: Diya, Noelle, Min, and Akarsha. They’re all Asian-American and queer living in California and trying to deal with expectations and identity. Most of them have less than ideal relationships with their parents and try to cope with that through forming a found family made of teens.
The story mostly centers around Min and Diya--two girls who were childhood friends and were forced apart for a few years until reuniting in high school. Diya realizes she’s gay and likes Min, and they dance around each other until coming together in the end.
I adore this short gem. It clocks in at about 4 hours but every single moment in those 4 hours was ripe with interesting dialogue and plot. It feels real: the odd banter, the discovery of identity, the frustration with school, the development of friendships. It can be a little awkward at points but it’s supposed to be. They’re young. And even if you’re not Asian-American you can really understand and relate to their struggles and family situation.
It took me a bit to get into the ending. At first, I was admittedly confused and disappointed. That’s it? I remember thinking. It was partly out of want for more content but also a feeling of lack of resolution. Sure, Diya and Min got together, but was Diya going to come out to her parents or stay in the closet? How will Noelle deal with her mother’s expectations? Would Min be able to adjust to this new school? How about Akarsha’s depression? Is Min nonbinary? Will the baseball team grow? I wanted to know more and I wanted everything to be wrapped up nicely, every point brought up to be solved.
I quickly realized that wasn’t the point. They’re kids, they’re growing and learning and every tribulation they face and flaw their parents instilled in them won’t be solved within the course of a week. They still have so much to grow and learn and the small conflict of Min and Diya getting together was a perfect conclusion. Brianna Lei has stated her full intention to return to the game and make a sequel so we’ll be able to explore Diya and Min as a couple. I’m greatly looking forward to it.
I played this game within the span of two days, two days that I was dealing with a depressive episode. It was the brightest, most cheerful and hopeful thing I could’ve done. It’s free online and I push everyone that can check it out to check it out.
A few months ago, I made a post about Brooklyn-99 and the representation that it provides. In that time, the show has changed a surprising amount, especially in terms of one specific character: Rosa Diaz. Our favorite badass Latina cop came out as bi in an emotional series of episodes that touched many fans, including me. It was not only incredibly well-written and authentic, but it shocked me in terms of how writers usually treat their queer fans versus how the b99 writers treated us.
There is hardly any Latinx rep in the media and even fewer queer Latinx rep. However, Rosa Diaz is a particularly special case as she is played by Stephanie Beatriz, a bisexual Latina woman as well. In the two episodes that dealt with Rosa’s sexuality this is extremely easy to tell in just the way that she plays out these scenes. The body language she has when she comes out to Boyle, the expression on her face when she confronts her parent’s biphobia, just the scene alone with her and her father on the roof. In the writing as well it’s very easy to tell her influence. It’s incredibly authentic.
It slips easily into the context of the show. Rosa is an inherently private person so it makes sense that she wouldn’t have brought this up or discussed it in the past. As well as that, it’s relatable—many people stay in the closet at their jobs or work. It’s simply easier that way.
They don’t beat around it, either. They say the word “bi” and “bisexual” right off the bat. There’s no vague explanations of the concept of bisexuality without using the word, there’s no “I don’t like labels” that is so prevalent in characters that like more than one gender. There’s no confusion around it—she’s bisexual, she’s known since she was young, she’s dating a woman. It’s such a simple thing yet it’s such an important one. The word “bisexual” is said more in these two episodes than I’ve heard in many other shows.
The story that Stephanie Beatriz and writers crafted was a beautiful one and a thoughtful one. However, that is only half of why Rosa coming out as bisexual was so important to me.
Queer fans are passionate people who find representation where they can and often interpret many characters as queer when they lack that representation. This comes with mixed results, yet mostly negative ones. The Supergirl cast at a recent con mocked their queer fan’s most popular ship—Kara Danvers and Lena Luthor—laughing and saying it was never going to happen. This was met with a wave of anger. We are aware that yes, it is never going to happen because queer woman don’t get to have stories like that. It was incredibly cruel to shove that in the face of a group that already has so little screen time. Thor Ragnarok had a canonically bisexual character. Despite Taika Waititi and Tessa Thompson’s insistence on keeping it, the scene where Valkyrie made this clear was cut out at the very last minute. They clearly valued their conservative fans more than their queer ones.
This is a reoccurring issue. Queer fans are either mocked for their theories, are dismissed of it, or they are only confirmed outside the bounds of the actual media while removing any proof from the actual story. They are not as important as the viewers they might lose and are pushed aside extremely often.
Rosa Diaz being bisexual isn’t something the writers just thought up of. It was an extremely common headcanon within the fans of Brooklyn-99. It’s been ongoing since season 1 when she called Tonya Harding “thick.” While a lot of us loved the idea of her being bisexual, we didn’t expect it to actually happen. At the very least, I didn’t expect it to actually happen.
Stephanie Beatriz and the writers both pitched the idea. They collaborated on it, worked together to make it meaningful, and validated their queer fans in the process. They listened and responded in kind and made a gorgeous coming out story that touched so many people, myself included. In a scene, they even included a nod to a popular ship: Gina and Rosa. They don’t mock the fans for having this ship, they simply acknowledge it and say that while it could’ve been, the writers are heading in another direction. It was such a sweet gesture, especially when they could’ve very easily not have done it.
Shows usually shy away from making their characters queer unless it’s at the very start of the show. Once a show passes its first or second season, most chances are gone. However, even though Brooklyn-99 is in its fifth season that didn’t stop them from introducing this. Why? Because they genuinely care about their fans and their passion for the show. Because they want their fans to feel represented in the shows they watch. Because they listen.
Brooklyn-99 is a fantastic show that I recommend for everyone. It’s light hearted, it’s happy, and it features Stephanie Beatriz—a bisexual Latina woman—as Rosa Diaz, a bisexual Latina woman.
I recently finished Mystery Incorporated, which is one of the best Scooby Doo shows--it is also the only one I’ve ever watched. But for more veteran fans, the opinion is quite common. The series takes this formula of monster of the week and turns it into a long, very good overarching plot. Season 2 is especially where it kicks off and a lot of loose threads are wrapped together. I have a lot of problems with the show—mainly involving the ending and the way the gang’s relationship to each other blossoms—but that’s not the main topic of today’s discussion.
Velma is one of the most interesting characters of the show. I could even go so far as to say that if I had to choose a main protagonist from the gang I’d chose her without even so much as a second thought. They turned her character from that of a timid, nerdy girl, to someone who was snarky and had a bit of superiority complex. I adored her.
Spoilers for the entirety of the show below.
I was really shocked around the beginning of season 2 when they made Velma gay. Well, maybe that’s too strong a word. They didn’t say she was gay, nor did they “make” her anything. Velma, in any iteration of Scooby Doo, has been adopted by the lesbians. Out of all the characters in the gang, she’s the one most headcanoned as not straight. What I didn’t expect from Mystery Incorporated was the amount of subtext they put into her relationship with Marcie.
Marcie is Velma’s rival and monster of the week in season 1. She’s not a major character, nor would one expect her to be. Around season 2 is when that all changes. The entire gang falls apart and they all, caught up in their own problems, leave Velma completely alone. Daphne, the only other one in town, does so as well, blaming Velma for the events of the season finale.
So, Velma forms a tight bond with Marcie and spends the entire break from season 1 to 2 with her as they briefly work for Mr. E. The way they interact is very sweet. Velma is usually snarky and distant with most of the other members but one can see how she so genuinely cares for Marcie. They’re very affectionate with each other. Velma holds a deep excitement and joy for Marcie that she never seemed to show for anyone else in the show.
The subtext very much reminded me of Xena and Gabrielle’s relationship, though somewhat less explicit and in your face. Marcie is only in a few episodes of season 2 because once Daphne rejoins the group, Marcie gets kicked out. The entire scene after they let her know that with Velma and her plays like a dramatic breakup. When she returns in later episodes Velma is always so delighted to see her.
They share a dramatic moment at episode 8: Night on Haunted Mountain when Marcie gives up an important plot piece to Velma even though it could put her in danger. In the two-part series finale, Marcie is captured by Pericles as leverage and it very much works. Velma freaks out and is forced to leave Marcie behind to die. When she comes back in the alternate timeline ending, Velma and her are definitely still “close friends” (totally dating).
However, the reason this subtext is so present also highlights one of the biggest flaws in the show: Velma’s relationship with the gang and the gang’s relationship with each other. The show puts a lot of focus on romantic relationships. Fred and Daphne have an on and off thing and the flaws in the way they deal with each other is only resolved at the very end. In season 1, Velma and Shaggy briefly date and it ends terribly and the rest of the season focuses on the effects of that. Yet, even so Daphne and Fred and Shaggy and Scooby are always paired up on mysteries, always interacting with each other. So the show only explores those relationships (or in the case of Scooby and Shaggy, close bonds).
So, what ends up happening, is that the ending solution of power of friendship feels cheap. We don’t explore, say, Shaggy and Daphne’s friendship or Scooby and Fred or Velma and Daphne. It’s always just the same two people. The gang feels like a couple of close pairs loosely stringed together but we don’t explore what brings them together as a group.
There’s this one scene in season 2 episode “Dark Night of the Hunters” after they’d all learned that fate brought them together and not so much personal choice. They all question why they’re friends. So on the plane, Fred and Daphne are sitting together and talking over that. It pans back to Scooby and Shaggy sitting behind them, doing the same thing. Then to Velma sitting with her mother focused on the mystery and not having that deep intergroup question.
Why? Because Velma never belonged in the group.
Velma became the outlier the second she broke up with Shaggy. Her character is so linked to the plot because she has little interconnection with the group. They always favor each other over her, in the season 1 finale and in most of the mysteries. So when Velma does develop a close bond with another character and it is shown how viciously she cares for her, it’s really gay. Because that’s how the show has been prioritizing relationships.
While it makes sense why Velma would choose the group over Marcie in the first episodes of season 2—they have a long ass mystery to solve, after all—past that it doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t feel right how Velma leaves Marcie to die when she seems to be closer to her and cared for by her more than anyone in the gang. Especially since the gang would never leave, say, Daphne behind. Yet when it’s Velma’s closest friend, she’s collateral damage.
It feels wrong to have this triumphant finale where they say the heart of the jaguar is their bond with each other. Every other mystery group fell apart because the people fell apart but they didn’t…says the show. Yet, in my eyes, they had. We had nearly 50 episodes to explore how they fit together as a whole but all I saw was how they fit together as parts. Velma was always sidelined in the group so it didn’t make sense to me how she was so determined this would work when she was, relationship-wise, the weakest link in the chain and everyone treated her as such.
It certainly frustrated me in the ending when Velma left Marcie and her mother and the entire town of Crystal Cove to continue mystery solving with the gang. I’m mixed on the ending and the ideas it presents but I do get why they did that. The gang are the only ones who remember the old timeline. It’d make sense that they’d all go off into the distance together and leave behind a town they don’t really know anymore and family and friends that are practically strangers.
Yet, it really is so sad in the case of Velma. Because she’s still the outlier of the group. Marcie is still the person she shows the most love to throughout the show. Yet, due to the circumstances around everything, she still leaves. And while it makes narrative sense in the reality of how the entire group was portrayed, it comes off frustrating. They never did end up appreciating her. Though that could be said for the entire gang. They never ended up bonding as a whole.
The subtext with Marcie is so effective because the show has taken the time to show how fiercely Velma adores her while neglecting to show how Velma loves her friends or how they love her. They tell us this but they don’t show it, while they do instead show all the complexities in her and Marcie. So every time she chooses the gang over Marcie it doesn’t feel right.
Mystery Incorporated is a fantastic show and I do love the way it plays with the whole monster-of-the-week Scooby Doo thing. Marcie and Velma are fantastic and the way their relationship progresses throughout season 2 is one of the favorites. Yet, where it falters is the way the resolution of the plot conflicts with the way the gang has been portrayed over the course of the show. The subtext is very much born of it. That being said, I do enjoy the subtext and I do enjoy being able to appreciate lesbian Velma within the canon of the show.
I never understand when people use Xena as an example of queerbaiting. Did they even watch the same show? How did they come to that conclusion? Xena is many things, and it can definitely be problematic—Gabrielle’s India arc, I’m looking at you—but it never really fit under the queerbaiting label. Maybe if the show had ended around season three or four. Yet, even then it lived so deeply in the realm of subtext and then actual text in season six.
Spoilers for the entire show below.
In season two they kissed for the first time. There had been cheek kisses in the past, or ones that nearly hit the lips, but this was the first time they really kissed. The first time it could be interpreted as the two having a relationship. It was a huge thing at the time with gay representation being so little and there being no other way to interpret it. Their lips didn’t fully touch—it had cut away before it got to that point. But they got damn well near. The reactions at the time were incredibly varied and the show continued on. Gabrielle and Xena could be very well interpreted as a couple and the show seemed to encourage it. The 19th episode in that season, titled Ulysses, was the last time either one of them had a “boyfriend of the week” for nearly the rest of the show.
Season three seemed to continue this. It was stressed multiple times that Gabrielle was the most important thing in Xena’s life and vice versa. This also features The Rift arc, in which the two of them had to deal with their clashing ideologies and also one of their kids murdering the other. It got…dark. It was an entire arc focusing on the two of them, how much they loved each other, how much that could hurt, and how they reunited under uneasy terms at first and how that progressed. It was a serialized arc during a time where there wasn’t much of that. By the season finale, Gabrielle sacrificed herself to save Xena. It was a deeply dramatic moment and a deeply romantic one as well.
Season four was the best season in the show. It had an overarching plot and was very tight and well put together. It also featured Gabrielle trying to find her way as well as Xena realizing Gabrielle was her way. When they reunited it was deeply emotional and very much not platonic. This season was also the first time they introduced the concept of the two women being soulmates. From then on, it would be constantly repeated. The season finale was one of the best episodes in the entire show and my personal favorite.
Season five was the worst season in the show. Sure, it was still gay and fun but it was really not up to par with the previous seasons, especially following up season four. It held the worst episodes in the show and ripped tears in the canon of the show. It was also the season that Gabrielle became a dad.
Strap in, because this is going to be a wild ride.
So, Callisto used to be Xena’s nemesis but Xena killed her “for good” in season 3 when Gabrielle “died.” At the beginning of season 5 they introduced the concept of heaven and hell into the show and Callisto became an angel because of Xena. So then there was Eli, who was basically the Xenaverse version of Jesus who wanted to spread word of The Way. While this was going on Xena finds out that surprise, she’s pregnant! Everyone is deeply confused seeing as Xena is very much married to Gabrielle by this point. Gabrielle has a brief panic, thinking Xena had cheated on her, that is quickly assuaged. Ares stabs Eli through the chest and later in the ep Eli’s ghost/angel speaks to Xena as well as angel Callisto. Callisto reveals that she impregnated Xena as a gift for giving her salvation. Xena eventually gives birth, Gabrielle becomes Dadrielle in the eyes of the viewers, and then their child ends up becoming a Roman warlord through some time skips.
So that’s one way to deal with an actor’s pregnancy. It’s deeply convoluted but also deeply gay. This is a child born of two women, raised by two women.
Season six was definitely an improvement. It was also so deeply gay. Xena and Gabrielle have a whole sleeping beauty type two-parter, the title of soulmate becomes even more prominent, there are more kisses, and there’s an entire episode dedicated to their relationship in the style of a mock documentary. It’s one of my favorite for being genuinely hilarious and also superbly gay. The interviewer asks them for the “nature of their relationship” as to whether the two are a couple. Xena responds with a sly grin and Gabrielle giggles into the palm of her hand. As Xena begins to explain, the video begins fizzing out with static as the interviewer panics at losing such a good story.
Xena is a gay show and Lucy Lawless pushed for a lot of the gay moments that made it to the final cut. Sure, the words “lesbian” and “gay” are never explicitly said—in one episode they came rather close with the word “thespian” being a fill-in—yet they didn’t need to be. It was clear and obvious to anyone watching the show that they were a thing. It is not queerbaiting and by the end of the show it is not even subtext. It’s just there. Xena and Gabrielle were gay before any other show was willing to do it, even Buffy. Xena did it first.
I think you should take all the spoilers out of that Adventure Zone post, like the memory erasing bit and the fact it ends on Killian and Carey's wedding specifically (mentioning that there's a wedding between two prominent women characters should suffice as far as recommendation goes). It's inconsiderate to spoil a series in a synopsis specifically designed to engage interest for new listeners.
I am so sorry I should’ve taken that into consideration. I’ll edit it immediately. I don’t know why how that slipped past me. It was really really dumb on my part and I apologize for anyone I might’ve spoiled.
I love The Adventure Zone. It’s one of the best podcasts I’ve listened to and while it has an exterior lined with crude humor and silliness, at its core it’s a podcast about family and choosing hope.
The Adventure Zone is a D&D podcast run by the same brothers who do advice podcast My Brother My Brother and Me and who run the gaming site Polygon—the McElroys. It started out as a one-time episode as a, “Ha, let’s show my dad how to play D&D! That’ll be hilarious!” for My Brother My Brother and Me and then elongated into a 69 episode series. At first it is very reminiscent of the humor of their advice podcast but as it goes on it grows surprisingly somber and sincere. It explores themes of family, sacrifice, nihilism, combating hopelessness, and it weaves them in naturally with 420 jokes and their bizarre sense of humor.
The main characters are Taako, Magnus, and Merle, three adventurers recruited by an organization called the Bureau of Balance who are tasked with retrieving dangerous artifacts. Specifically, seven of them.
The McElroys also do something many others don’t—they listen. The arc Petals to the Metal was centered around a lesbian couple, one of which had fallen to the temptation of an artifact. At the end of the arc, they are both near death and turn into an oak tree. So, in the vein of bury your gays. Griffin McElroy, who DMs the podcast, wasn’t aware of this trope and when he found out how it hurt people he genuinely apologized. Later on, they do make a come back, therefore unburying the gays. This is more effort put in than 90% of other content creators.
About three-fourths of the prominent couples on the podcasts are queer. We have Taako and Kravitz, an idiot wizard and the reaper. Killian and Carey are a fan favorite lesbian couple. There is also a trans woman and, at the beginning of the episode where they introduce her, they talk in length about how they’re trying to portray her properly.
While they often stress how the race of the characters is up for interpretation, the leader of the Bureau of Balance—the organization our protagonists work for—is canonically a dark skinned black woman and arguably one of the most interesting characters of the podcast. Her actions set up the entire plot and her relationship with the three main protagonists grows more and more complicated as the show goes on.
But the main reason everyone should listen to The Adventure Zone? It’s light-hearted and happy, it stresses found family and love, it declares that in the face of being devoured by hopelessness (rather literally) it will not lose that joy and belief that things can be better. It says there is always a third, better option. In the face of a world that seems more and more depressing by the day it is refreshing to see media being defiant of that rather than wallowing in it.
Supergirl has been under a lot of fire lately from its wlw following for the decision to break up Alex Danvers and Maggie Sawyer. Many are frustrated because of the lack of screentime the couple got last season that is ultimately concluding in an arbitrary breakup. Some blame that for the reason Floriana Lima decided to leave. Others are conflicted, frustrated at how the show decided to write the couple yet also semi-relieved because of the problematic aspect of the ship. Let’s take a look at that.
When the relationship was first announced there was a lot of excitement about the way Maggie Sawyer was going to be represented. Kriegsberg said, “She says in her introductory episode that growing up gay and Latina in Nebraska made her ideally sympathetic to people who are different and people who don’t quite fit in,” in relation to her sympathy for alien rights. A Latina Maggie Sawyer? A lesbian Latina Maggie Sawyer? It’s a kind of representation that’s so so rare, especially as the queer representation is over-proportionately white.
So, what’s the issue? Lesbian Latina representation is fantastic!
source: tunneys
Except, she’s not Latina. Her character is advertised as being Latina, Kriegsberg claimed she was Latina, and it seems written that way at several moments. Except, Floriana Lima is a white Italian who simply passes as Latina and seems to have a history of stealing Latina roles.
So, this is an issue. That being said, on the episode where she discusses her childhood in Nebraska the line had been changed to “…growing up gay and non-white in Nebraska…” yet that’s not entirely accurate as well. Many have claimed she is essentially in “brownface” and that she tanned her skin to look darker for the role. These accusations are hard to prove or disprove. Regardless of the question as to whether her heritage makes her count as a POC or not, there is a nasty issue of Italians and gringos taking Latinx roles. It’s not so much the casting director’s fault as they cannot explicitly ask the race of the person they’re auditioning. How were they supposed to know she wasn’t what she claimed to be?
A quick glance over Lima’s IMDB page shows this isn’t her first time. We have Bridey Cruz on The Family, a Latinx last name; Michelle Prado on Alliegance, a Latinx last name; Kerri Torres from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, a Latinx last name; and Nurse Rosa ‘Ro’ Quintero from The Mob Doctor, a Latinx last name. It doesn’t bode well.
Often times Italians will be cast in Latinx roles because of Eurocentric ideals. Italians are what gringos wish Latinxs looked like. Gringos would rather see other gringos on screen instead of Latinxs. Gina Torres—an Afro-Cuban actress—in NBC Universo’s documentary, Black and Latino, said: “When I became an actress, I quickly realized that ‘the world’ liked their Latinas to look Italian and not like me.” By casting Latinx-passing gringos there is a huge disservice done because Latinx doesn’t come in one color or shade. There are so many ways to represent us on screen because it is so varied and there are so many Latinx actresses and actors trying to find a spot for themselves on TV and that won’t happen if roles keep being stolen.
Italians and Latinxs are not interchangeable. The cultures are different, the way society treats each group is extremely different, and it is insulting when gringos try to take those few roles away from Latinx actors.
It is deeply disappointing that Floriana Lima ended up playing Maggie Sawyer. It is deeply disappointing that a Latina wasn’t able to play that role. Especially in a show with such a small amount of POC. Even the POC already in the show are usually put on the backburner and either ignored or treated unfairly. Alex and Maggie’s breakup still seeps with bad writing and an uncaring attitude towards it’s wlw fans, yet I can see why some people could be a little relieved Alex could be getting a new girlfriend. Hopefully, Season 3 will change all this but personally, I’m not holding my breath.
Let’s talk about a short new series from Freeform–The Bold Type. Let’s talk about how fantastic it is.
The premise: three friends, Sutton, Jane, and Kat work at a women’s magazine called Scarlet all pursuing their different goals and getting into their respective messes. Sutton is dating a man named Richard who is working at Scarlet’s legal section who she can’t be found out with; Jane is trying to find her voice as a writer within the magazine; and Kat is the social media director who is questioning her sexuality because of a Muslim photographer named Adena.
This show tackles feminist issues, queer issues, and Islamophobia on multiple occasions while still managing to be lighthearted and fun. We’re going to be discussing the revolutionary relationship between Kat, a biracial black woman, and Adena, a Muslim woman.
Kat starts off declaring herself to be “totally hetero” until she meets photographer Adena and realizes she has feelings for this woman. They have to jump over about fifteen hurdles to actually be together by the end of the show but every interaction between them is so sweet that it’s a joy to watch.
Queer representation has a huge issue in being mostly white. White, able-bodied, and cis. The Bold Type takes huge strides in instead deciding to feature an interracial relationship instead, especially with both of them being WOC. While Adena’s experiences as a Muslim woman in America are talked about often, especially in relation to her being gay, we never really see Kat talking about her own struggles as a black woman in America. There’s this one scene where Kat punches a man who is harassing Adena and Adena flees in fear of losing her shot at staying in the country. However, we never really discuss the fact that Kat was also in extreme danger with the police who do not have a good history of dealing with black people. It would’ve been fascinating to explore that aspect of her as well and would’ve added more layers to that scene.
Of course, we do have a cheating plotline. It’s particularly common in wlw stories, often with one of the characters already being with a man and then cheating on him with a woman. There is also the idea that wlw cheat amongst each other and are unreliable. In The Bold Type Adena already has a girlfriend when she meets Kat and while it serves to keep them apart which could’ve been accomplished differently. It’s irritating more than anything but it doesn’t detract from their relationship at the end of the day.
One thing that is particularly frustrating is that Kat never refers to herself as bisexual. It’s incredibly common for shows to skirt around the term, instead having the characters declare they “Don’t like labels,” not mentioning it, or having them suddenly declare they’re lesbians despite having close relationships with men. Willow from Buffy comes to mind for the last one. Kat likes men and never wavers on that and while she lets the label of “hetero” fall away she never actually acknowledges what liking a woman entails. She, at one point, claims that if she can’t have Adena specifically she doesn’t want to be in a relationship with another woman. Bisexuality isn’t as commonly known as it should be and this was a perfect and missed opportunity to bring visibility.
Kat and Adena’s relationship is based on one of mutual adoration and love. Adena never forces Kat to make a decision she isn’t comfortable with and is patient through Kat’s indecisive nature. When Kat declares she’s boarding the plane with Adena and begins to doubt herself at the gate Adena reassures her she doesn’t have to do anything she doesn’t want to. Even as they find themselves separated they return to each other.
The Bold Type was well deservedly renewed for two more seasons. The first season stands pretty well on its own as it is but now they have so many more episodes to explore these lost avenues. I can’t wait to see where Kadena end up next.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a show that has been praised by both critics and fans as one that is not only hilarious, but progressive as well. It starts out with a squad of detectives who have to adjust to a new Captain named Raymond Holt, who just so happens to be a gay black man. Jake Peralta—the Jewish protagonist whose only unsolvable mystery is how to grow up—butts heads with him almost immediately. The show goes through its classical sitcom scenarios as well as crime shenanigans and often surprising season finales as they find themselves in dangerous situations.
What’s so remarkable and surprising about this is show is how they deal with humor with such a diverse cast. When any of the characters joke about their ethnicity or their sexuality, it isn't aimed at the white and straight viewers and that makes a huge difference. For example, in one episode Holt talks about how he made a bad impression on his husband's parents by mistaking two different compositions for each other. When asked by Jake if that's really all it took for them not to have approved of the two of them, Holt clarifies that "they're huge homophobes that think I made Kevin gay with my magic genitalia."
This, like many lines, are meant to pander to those in the same demographic as the character who spoke it. Often times on TV and in movies, queer and POC characters are played off as jokes that the privileged are supposed to laugh at. "See, they're not like us, isn't that so bizarre and funny?" However, Brooklyn Nine-Nine understands that queer and non-white characters also watch television like everyone else. They make a major effort to be inclusive and inoffensive with their humor while still being hilarious. Even those who don't watch the show probably know the gag with Jake playing a guitar loudly and screaming in an attempt to annoy someone into confessing, or the scene where Jake accidentally calls Holt "dad" and then tells him he sees him as a "bother figure 'cause you're always bothering me" rather than a father figure.
Not only that, the show also turns many tropes on its head and does its best to make characters as fleshed out as possible. None of them even come close to being stereotypes. Jake seems like the typical male protagonist who thinks he's better than he actually is and belittles his coworkers, then turns out to be a genuinely caring goofball who learns to work as a team and punches a homophobe in the face. Amy Santiago seems uptight and too dedicated to her work to have any fun, yet even while she's driven she also participates and leads in most of the team hijinks.
It has garnered critical as well as public acclaim and hopefully its success can set an example for future shows and they way they deal with diverse casts.
It's not perfect--sometimes the fat jokes can be rather excessive and uncomfortable to sit through. There was a particular scene where Gina calls Amy an “asexual nerd who can only be friends with service animals” that I found rather tasteless. It takes a while at first to find its rhythm, yet upon rewatching the first season I found it picks it up quicker than I remembered. Nothing can be absolutely flawless, yet the cast show they genuinely care about those who watch it and that says a lot.
Even besides all that, it's a genuinely fun show and one of my favorite sitcoms. Its happy, light-hearted tone is a blessing and it's often like visual comfort food. As the premiere of fifth season is about to begin, now is as good as any time to binge it. I fully recommend Brooklyn Nine-Nine regardless of who you are.
Supergirl, in its first season, received plenty praise for being a feminist show that tackled multiple women’s issues as well as providing a very hope-filled tone. It starred Kara Danvers aka Supergirl, her sister Alex Danvers, her love interest James Olson whose character was played by a black man, and Cat Grant, her boss, as well as other supporting characters. Its fantastic debut was met with a cancellation by the network. They were swiftly picked up by the CW and well, this is when things get messy.
Season 2 was an absolute disaster. There’s very little other way to put it. They replaced James Olson as Kara’s love interest with a literal white slave owner, redirected the focus of Kara’s development on this new love interest, introduced new, more interesting characters than this new love interest that were ignored, and at the end of the day, his behavior was abusive and disgusting.
This literal white slave owner’s name is Mon-El and his reception was rather terrible. Fans as well as critics relentlessly tore apart his behavior as abusive and the antithesis of a healthy relationship. How much truth is there to this? A fair bit.
Most of their relationship is based upon bickering. They hate each other and they make that much evident. Their first interaction is a violent and vicious battle as she attempts to subdue him. But after all, characters get introduced along those lines all the time. It’s not necessarily a terrible sign. After that it is more tame–almost a little brother relationship as she helps him navigate the city. As soon as they start setting up a relationship it gets rather…not good.
Most of the time, he doesn’t respect or trust her. He may claim he does, but his actions are rarely of that ilk. In episode 9, “Supergirl Lives”, she instructs him to stay by the portal she is jumping through to try and get help. He ignores her, feeling as if he has to “protect” her, and then they are both stranded there with no one knowing that they are now on a different planet. And when they are captured and Kara is being attacked by the guards as she tries to protect the civilians there without her powers, he does nothing even while bystanders rush to her side. In episode 10 “We Can Be Heroes” he ignores her instructions to protect the officers and rushes into a fight that she was handling, leaving the unpowered people in danger. In episode 13, “Mr. & Mrs. Mxyzptlk” we see the worst of their relationship as he antagonizes her, ridicules her, and goes off to fight against the antagonist without telling her, putting them all in danger, as well as not trusting her with the solution as to how to defeat him. This is all as he says that he’ll do better and he’ll start respecting her…eventually.
Does he? Not really.
This is a character that we are supposed to receive with open arms and accept without qualms. This is a character who was royalty in his old planet and owned slaves and generally was a terrible person. This is a character who we should not have had all of the characters accept without argument. This is a character that needed to be questioned, to be shunned, to be set up for a redemptive arc. However, the show tells us that he’s a better person now but it doesn’t show us, making it ring rather hollow.
This is all compared to the old love interest James Olson, who was a kind and supporting character who had a very healthy relationship with Kara last season. They took care of each other, they talked through their problems, and when she first kissed him while he was mind-controlled the next day she apologized because he didn’t technically consent. This is compared to Mon-El’s first kiss, in which he manipulated her into because he was dying. To replace a kind, caring black man with an abusive slave owning white man is absolutely abhorrent.
This is compared to M’gann M’orzz as well–played by a black women–who is a White Martian who was present during the genocide of the Green Martians from Mars. Despite her being a much better person than Mon-El, after this discovery she is shunned and imprisoned. We later find out she is in danger for her own people because she betrayed them to save a few Green Martians. She is still riddled with self-loathing and a feeling as if she should’ve done more. She doesn’t try to justify herself or excuse her actions. At the end of her arc, she decides to go back to continue fighting her people. This is a much better done “redemptive” arc, despite the fact that she is generally a better person than Mon-El who never once put the amount of effort she did.
Two black characters who are far more interesting and kind and often have to make up for their mistakes with far more effort than this new white character none of them really know.
So what about Kara Danvers? What does this do to her?
The show is called Supergirl. It’s about Kara Danver’s arc and development, yet season 2 preferred to refocus the attention of the show on a man. This completely contradicts and backpedals on so many of the feminist messages set up in season 1. Even if Mon-El had been a kind, supportive man who treated her with respect the show isn’t supposed to be about him.
Nevertheless, they kept him on for the 3rd season which, hopefully, won’t go as terribly. However, it does not look promising so far. They’ve decided to replace the often cheerful, hopeful tone with a more gritty and dark one akin to a lot of other CW shows. Kara, who was loving and kind even though she had lost her entire family and planet, is now saying that “Kara Danvers was a mistake” all over a boy? They seem insistent on bringing him up and bringing him back, which is deeply disappointing.
Supergirl is a show that one can dissect from multiple angles as to what is means to represent a group of people. We’ll most likely revisit in the future.
Life is Strange, Bury Your Gays, and Bullshit Endings
In the face of the coming super-storm, I spent the spare moments between making preparations to finish up Life is Strange—coincidentally, a game about a storm. Seeing as Before the Storm just began coming out, now is probably as good as any time to analyze this game.
It is, at its heart, is a story about two girls falling in love. Let’s get that cleared up right off the bat. We have Max, who just moved back from Seattle to Arcadia Bay and is pursuing photography at Blackwell Academy. We have Chloe, a punk rebel whose father died and who was left behind by Max without so much as a call or text in 5 years. Max gets a vision of a monster tornado in class, heads to the bathroom, takes a picture of a butterfly, and gets time manipulation powers that she uses to save Chloe’s life.
From there, the story becomes a quest to find out what happened with Rachel, a “friend” of Chloe’s that went missing. There’s a mystery with why Nathan is drugging other girls and with Frank the drug dealer and his relationship to Rachel. Chloe and Max work together as partners in time as Max saves Chloe’s life over and over again. It’s all fine and fun—until Episode 4 and 5.
We find out Nathan killed Rachel, that the photography professor Jefferson has been posing the drugged girls in some sick photo session and that he’s been using Nathan, and in Episode 5 things get really intense as we find out the major plot twist of the game: the powers Max has been using has been causing the storm and to save the town of Arcadia Bay, you have to let Chloe die in the bathroom.
You have two choices: sacrifice Arcadia Bay or sacrifice Chloe.
So the ending is a mess. It received backlash from both critics and fans. Even just attempting to look up the ending I didn’t play ended up in dozens of results that were venting their displeasure. Why? The idea of the storm being caused by Max’s own power and messing with the time stream is an interesting idea enough. Maybe this could work in a different story. However, this is not that story.
From the set-up, we are given a few questions besides those of the main plot: Where did these powers come from? Why did Max receive them? What are they for? What is Rachel’s goal as she shows up in repeated symbolism? What is causing the storm?
The problem with the ending is not only that it’s an unnecessary and rather frustrating example of the “bury your gays” trope but also that it leads to more questions than it answers.
What is causing the storm? Max’s powers.
Where did these powers come from? Rachel? A butterfly? If so, then that leads to
What are they for? If they are connected to Rachel, and they were given to Max at a time where Chloe’s life is in danger, then it’s to protect Chloe.
But if those two are correct, then why does the ending insist that that is the wrong path to take? Why is it so adamant that Max should’ve never used her powers? Because if she should’ve never saved Chloe, why did she get those powers in the first place?
I would like to return to a previous point: the fact that this story is one of two girls falling in love.
Chloe and Max grow closer and closer throughout the course of the game. By Episode 5, Max is utterly obsessed with saving Chloe so much so that she throws away an ideal reality just to get another shot at saving her. Throughout the entire game, her one priority is Chloe’s happiness and survival. And even though the player has the option to romance Warren, why would they? They barely get any time together in the game and the two women are a much more interesting story and dynamic.
So could this story be one of the hubris of not being able to accept fate, not being able to accept death? Completely. There’s just one big problem—the beginning of the game starts out with Max seeing a vision of the tornado and then receiving her powers. So the audience is convinced the powers are supposed to be used to prevent this and it being linked to Rachel reinforces this. So the plot twist that the powers caused the tornado is shocking, but less in that “Oh man, the foreshadowing makes so much sense! How did I not see that coming?” but more in a “…Wait, what?” way.
You see, if the powers were the cause of the storm, then why did she have the vision before she got them? What was the purpose of receiving of them? To save Chloe? Then why does the game seem to be disappointed in you if you do? What about Rachel?
What was the point of this game? With the reveal of this plot twist, it seems the point was that you shouldn’t have played the game at all.
Endings should wrap things up in a satisfying enough way. There’s something to be said about leaving some plot threads loose and up to the audience’s imagination. Instead Life is Strange gives its players a half-woven sweater and says “Here, you fill in the holes we didn’t.”
It’s, plot wise, the inferior ending. Yet, the ending where you save Chloe isn’t nearly as long. They show about 20 seconds of them driving through town where everyone seems dead, which is insane, because surely they’ve faced storms before. They’re clearly upset. They don’t show any snapshot of a hopeful future like the other ending does, which is better done and at least tries to give a sense of closure. It’s infuriating. The game seems to want one to take the ending where Chloe dies and Arcadia Bay survives yet it’s essentially the ending that goes against everything the game has been setting up.
It also seems to imply that Chloe has to die for the storm to not come. Yet, Chloe dies in Episode 4 briefly and the storm is still coming. In the Save Arcadia Bay ending Max still uses her knowledge of the future to prevent Jefferson from hurting any more girls. So why can’t she just save Chloe? It doesn’t make sense. It’s a contrived mess just so that the player has to choose between an entire town and Chloe. It’s “bury your gays” at its worse.
This was supposed to be the hardest choice of the game. As a player, I agonized over every decision, no matter how small. I would sit there, mapping out consequences and reactions. Yet, with the big conclusion that was supposed to elicit that reaction I found that it was, in fact, the easiest choice of the game. Max wouldn’t let Chloe die and neither would I. The writers failed in that.
Alright, with a few changes and rearranging we can make this a game where the protagonist gets powers and abuses them to save their loved one yet has to eventually accept that they must die. However, should we make this that game?
This is a game, at its core, about two women falling in love. Yet, one of the endings results in Chloe dying on the bathroom floor, alone, never knowing that she would come to find such a friend and lover in Max. It is a miserable, depressing ending that makes no sense in the context of what the game has established.
Putting aside the narrative mess, it’s cruel and disturbing that the game insists that these two were drawn together by fate yet cannot be together. Rachel is discovered to be dead, who was in a previous relationship with Chloe, and then Chloe is dead as well? How many gays will they bury?
It’s unfair that the heterosexual relationship that was only added for what? Options? is allowed to have a happy ending. Max repeatedly establishes she isn’t interested in him throughout the course of the game. Yet, this beautiful set-up with the two leading ladies must end in tragedy.
It becomes even more infuriating that only in the ending where Chloe dies do they actually kiss and confess their feelings. In the other ending it is left more ambiguous as to what that relationship is which is horribly unfair seeing as the straight couple got their kiss regardless of whatever decision one makes. So after all that build-up, one either gets a tragic kiss as Max leads Chloe to her death or a silent and ambiguous ending as they drive out of what used to be Arcadia Bay.
Their queer audience deserves better and Max and Chloe deserve better.
It would be bad even if it made sense within the narrative. However, it sticking out like a sore thumb in terms of not making sense is a lot worse. She didn’t die because she had to but because the writers attempted oh so desperately to shove it in. They wanted a dark, edgy twist on the ending which could’ve been accomplished without this. Episode 5, while being the most interesting on a game-play level, was the worse on a narrative level.
It could’ve been a game focused around the fact that no one is expendable. No one should be sacrificed. It should’ve had those two endings, each with Chloe surviving.
This is a blog about representation. Life is Strange is so difficult and heart-wrenching because of the fact that it had the potential to be so much more. I can only recommend it with a huge asterisk regarding the ending and how Episode 5 played out. There’s something to be said about giving the audience a choice but it’s really hard to overlook the narrative crumbling around each choice. Before the Storm is a prequel to this that seems to be focused around Rachel and Chloe’s relationship, which we already know ends terribly. Let’s hope they’re somewhat smarter about that.
Perhaps the storm truly is Rachel’s revenge on Arcadia Bay. At least, after playing through it, I know I’d burn the town into a big black disk as well.
Atomic Blonde was one of the major box office hits during the 2017 summer that included not only a woman, but a bisexual woman, as a lead. It is remarkable for the way they filmed the action sequences, for how she is allowed to get genuinely injured and bloody, and for including an intriguing and tense spy plot. Many have compared it to the female James Bond, which is not entirely accurate since Bond never really dedicated itself to all the spy shenanigans.
However, the reason for its discussion today is not entirely about that. It’s about her romance with Delphine, a naive French agent played by Algerian-French actress Sofia Boutella. WOC in the media are rare enough, but a queer one? In a movie as big as this, falling in love with the main female character, and not being the butt of a joke?
It’s exciting, to say the least. The only problem?
She dies.
Now, this is where the discussion gets a little more complicated. Here we have a interracial romance between two women that ends in tragedy. This is sadly, rather common, so much so it is its own trope. For those of you unaware, this falls into a pattern that has been dubbed the “Bury Your Gays” trope that reinforces the notion that queer romance will never be happy, will never end in anything but tragedy. It has a rather interesting history and reason that we may perhaps explore some other day. It also falls into another trope, one that is probably the primary cause of her death: love interests of the protagonists in spy movies usually die.
So now we have this interesting and exciting new story fall into familiar, hurtful patterns. It becomes even more complicated once we acknowledge that Delphine is a WOC, seeing as usually they’re the first to go as well. Some claimed that it was necessary for the progression of the plot, which is not necessarily true. The film is from the perspective of an unreliable narrator which would make it easy for Delphine to have secretly survived.
For those who don’t know, Atomic Blonde is based on a comic called The Coldest City. In it, Delphine’s character is a man instead. He also dies. And so, in the adaptation, they decided to change him to a woman to reflect the diversity in real life. While that is commendable, it does spark up discussion as to whether this was the right idea.
To give the movie some credit, they did try and treat the situation with care. For one, in the trailer, they make hints that Delphine will most likely die. In a movie full of grotesque and intense fight scenes Delphine’s death was relatively tame. She gets garroted by Percival and fights back to her best ability, even stabbing him between the shoulder blades. That knife in his back is ten times more nausea inducing than her actual demise. This is a good decision on the part of the directors; if it had been even slightly more ghastly it would’ve been more controversial. This way, it is controlled. Lorraine, the lead, is given time to grieve as well. One can see she deeply cares about Delphine and she wasn’t just throwaway sex encounters to her. They treat the issue with delicacy and respect instead of simply barging into it.
However, this doesn’t change the fact that they included a queer WOC and killed her off. It’s still a problem, and a harmful trend that could’ve been avoided with a little manipulation of the plot. They put care into warning the queer viewers subtly and treating the death scene with respect when they could’ve taken that care into not killing her off. White wlw (women loving women) leapt to the defense of this movie, wanting some kind of representation, without realizing that one can accept it without having to defend its every decision.
So what does this mean for Atomic Blonde? Is it good representation of queer women? Put simply, yes and no. The parts of the movie in which the two women interact are sweet and handled with care. One can enjoy those moments and the way they show women in love without any sort of judgemental tone. It is still a movie with a bisexual lead which is very rare, especially for one as big as this. Yet, no, it is not, especially for those tired of the kind of tropes that harm marginalized people. It is repetitive and unoriginal and could’ve been avoided. It depends on what one is looking from this movie.
People want to be represented on their television in a way that is not horribly offensive. And when that demand is met, people want to be represented well. But what does that mean? And how do you do that?
Those questions will be discussed here as we look at shows, books, occasionally video games every week and analyze the way they decide to portray many diverse groups of people. We’ll try to figure out what it means to be represented in a good way and find that that question is more nuanced than it seems.
