Motherland: Fort Salem. My thoughts.
I thought the first thing I’d talk about would be Scylla, but that’s now the second thing. More important is that Motherland: Fort Salem’s central character is a queer girl. It’s not ambiguous, it’s not queer baiting, Raelle Collar is a queer girl. She likes girls, she likes kissing girls, she likes having sex with girls. She did all these things in the first episode!
We live in 2020, this should be normal, but it isn’t. A queer main character is still an anomaly, so unless Motherland: Fort Salem really screws up, I’m gonna support them just for that.
Maybe it’s because I saw a lot of pre-release press, but I knew Scylla was part of the Spree. However, I did not expect them to reveal this in the first episode. I also didn’t expect she’d be the one to set off the suicide balloon.
Look, there’s no defending that, that was pretty much evil. I will say that we don’t yet know Scylla’s story, and media is full of evil monsters that redeem themself.
Can we please not immediately condemn the Raylla relationship. Can we not call it abusive or toxic. Let’s give the writers a few weeks and see where it goes. So far Raelle seems to be really into Scylla, and even if Scylla is currently using Raelle, I’m 99.9% sure that Scylla will genuinely fall in love with Raelle.
Straight media and romances are full of these types of tropes. I, for one, am happy a queer relationship is getting the same sort of treatment. Also, something I’ve said before, but need to repeat now, Raelle and Scylla is the romance on the show. Every romantic moment was given to them. Abigail had a moment with a boy, but I’d hardly call that romantic. So out of three characters, two (presumably) straight and one queer. The queer character gets all the romance. That’s amazing.
I am so intrigued by the world they’ve set up. I really want to know more about the history and how it’s different from our world. I also think it’s an interesting approach that their “magic” comes from their voices. It’s an approach I haven’t seen before and is very relevant these days, a woman’s voice is her power.
It’s only been the first episode, so we don’t know much about the characters. So far we’ve had the broad strokes, Raelle is the rebel who doesn’t want to be there, Abigail is the hardass who can’t afford to fail and Tally is the sweet cinnamon roll. Being the central character, we’ve seen more emotional range from Raelle, I expect we’ll get more development for Abigail and Tally soon. All of the women do a good job and I think the casting was very good. Despite the terrible thing Scylla did, I find it hard to hate her. The reason for this is Amalia Holm. She plays Scylla with a, I guess playfulness is the best word. I find it hard to believe she’s 100% irredeemably evil.
Chemistry, to me, is this indefinable thing. In the past I’ve seen people say x and y have so much chemistry, I’ve just never seen it, until now. Taylor Hickson and Amalia Holm work really, really well together. I just feel this spark when they share the screen. I also have to thank them for that kiss. I have seen so many wlw kisses on TV be a peck, two actresses pressing their lips together. No heat, no passion. Taylor and Amalia went for it. That did feel passionate, there was even a spit string!
The fact that every member of the main cast is female is amazing. The show isn’t anti men, it’s just a story about three women who attend a military academy exclusively for women. They could have shoehorned in a male character, but what purpose would that have served? We know that men will appear on the show, and there are male witches, but the show just didn’t need a male main character, the focus should absolutely be on Raelle, Tally and Abigail.
The first episode did it’s job. I am hooked. I love the world and the characters. I want to see what happens next. I really want to see what happens with Raelle and Scylla. I’m annoyed that I have to wait a week before the next episode.
If you’re into a female driven show, witches, the military and or, LGBT characters, check out Motherland: Fort Salem.
