Sherlock and supernatural really ruined it for the rest of us that want to write subtle gay relationships I’m gonna be real. We’re all too traumatized that we feel the need to have the characters look at the camera and say “I love you and you are my partner” in a way that has exhausted me. And the underlying assumption now is that if things aren’t spelled out, then you come across as queer baiting (which is just categorically false if you’re a queer person writing from your own lived experience). But shows like that have left such a sore spot that it feels like subtly just has fallen out because of it.
I don’t know… I really want more stories where it’s clear they’ve been together for so long that they don’t feel the need to validate it constantly, since long term relationships are like that. I want a story where the characters happen to be together and not much attention is placed on that fact, not have the relationship be the story and things happen around it. I love character dynamics like that when I’m shown them and I can draw my own conclusions as to the intricacies of their relationships, not teased that maybe one day they’ll happen and then the ball being inevitably fumbled because they didn’t actually think about what their relationship dynamic would actually be like. I’m sick of it!!!!
