Hihihi hope you are having a good day! I dont wanna be a bother but i just wanted to ask you if the terror has canon gays? I saw some posts insinuating things and im curious about it but i dont want to be queerbaited :(
the short answer: yes, there is more than one canon gay couple in the terror.
the long answer: in my opinion, it’s kind of reductive to delineate the various relationships between men in the terror to “canon gay” and “not canon gay.”
in the context of the historical era, the high-peril situations of the plot, and of course the highly class- and rank-based structure of the royal navy, there are so many opportunities to showcase diverse forms of homosocial intimacy, from platonic to romantic to the undefinable, visceral bonds formed through trauma and violence. and the writers took full advantage of those opportunities.
on the whole, the show’s treatment of gender and sexuality is incredibly nuanced and layered. one of the showrunners/creators is a gay man (david kajganich) and the other a woman of color (soo hugh) and they put SO much work into the characters’ various overlapping identities, & how those identities & the characters’ sentiment towards them thus informed their motivations and actions.
so what you’re getting when you watch the terror is not necessarily “representation” per se— although there are characters that a modern viewer might recognize as gay— it’s confident portrayals of three-dimensional characters, forced by the exigencies of the narrative into various situations of vulnerability and self-revelation. a few of those situations are explicitly romantic/sexual, many are not— but they all regardless contain huge amounts of purposeful & masterful subtext, which becomes clearer and clearer upon repeat viewings.
in the wise words of jared harris himself:
“Yes, it’s a society of men, it’s a society of rules, it’s a society that’s trying to replicate and export empire. But one of the operating themes is the idea that these people are being stripped down from whatever conceits they had to an essential kernel of truth about themselves as individuals.
Did I think it would be some sort of modern political treatise on masculinity? I didn’t think about that. But I definitely understood that as a representation of male bonding, there was more to it than just “friendship.” In a way, these people loved each other. Not “in a way” — they definitely loved each other.”
WOW THIS GOT LONG anyway.... watch the terror s1 on hulu or prime!!!!!!!!!!!!
(and make sure you read about the franklin expedition first so you’re not expecting a happy ending ....... LMAO)
