Okay, y’all are sleeping on The Magicians
No, the show is not queerbaiting, but please note that it shouldn’t be advertised as a queer show, but a SHOW with main canon queer characters who just are
Yes, the show could do better with representation, but the show is doing a hell of a lot better than most mainstream shows
YES THIS SHOW HAS FLAWS ! But what show doesn’t? The show is trying its best and seems to listen to fans and make sure to do their research
Some of these points are show specific and others are book specific
CHARACTER WISE ? We got queer characters and actors, disabled actors, actors/actresses of color as main cast !
MAIN / A bisexual man with depression that isn’t cured by love or discovering magic
MAIN / A Native American woman who is suffering ptsd because of sexual assault and is never belittled for this
as played by stella maeve
MAIN / A woman who is allowed to be intelligent and sexy at the same time, as well as being selfish when she needs to
as played by olivia dudley
MAIN / A gay man who suffers from alcoholism and drug addiction that isn’t treated like a joke
as played by queer actor ; hale appleman
MAIN / An Indian-American man who calls out racism, homophobia and sexism, and supports the women in his life
MAIN / A Mexican-Indian-American woman who starts off as a party girl and becomes a great ruler who is allowed to be a bitch
who is also canonly bisexual
as played by summer bishil
MAIN / A Native American-Israeli woman who is both mean and compassionate and these traits are able to coexist
REOCCURRING / A black man who is blinded but still retains his position of power and badassery
REOCCURRING / A woman who seemed like she was being brought in as a plot device but became a fleshed-out character with a storyline outside of her husband
as played by brittany curran
RECURRING / A deaf character played by a deaf actress who is powerful and her deafness isn‘t just a plot device
she signs with other characters !
two other characters sign to her !
scenes with sign language as dialogue are captioned and there is no audio at all !
while she does “die” there is a plot line to bring her back and she is now back
as played by deaf actress ; marlee matlin
RECURRING / A trans actress portraying a character who started as a villain and became an incredibly complex anti-hero
as played by trans actress ; candis cayne
the character is a queen by the way, who sacrifices herself for her people ! she sees her people ( the fairies ) being mistreated and chooses to save them with her life
she ends up helping our main cast in the end
while she does die it has nothing to do with being trans
MAIN / The character Josh Hoberman is jewish
the books confirm he is jewish and fat
as played by trevor einhorn
RECURRING / A woman who was originally killed off is revived as a character and given a girlfriend who is now just going to live her best life with her future wife !
Villains who are pervs and rapists and paedophiles and never shown as redeemable !
so that is 5 canonly queer characters in the show
while the terms, gay / lesbian / bisexual / trans ae never used in dialogue in the show, it is not necessarily a bad thing since this isn’t a show about being queer or coming out, it’s about a fucked up world with magic and the characters who exist in it happen to be queer
we have a lot of sexual fluidity
all relationships in the show have value and get fleshed out ! romantic relationships do not overpower the show, the show ultimately shows that platonic relationships and family and friendships are just as important !
we got straight up platonic soulmates who kiss but aren’t necessarily a couple
did i mention we have polyarmory? and it’s usually mentioned and treated as something realistic
the ruler of a magical kingdom can have a husband and a wife
there’s an episode with a literal poly family, like one character falls in love with a woman AND a man and the three of them raise a child together
instead of bury your gay ! we have revive a gay ! give her a girlfriend she’s gonna marry !
queer subtext from the book is made into actual text and canon in the show
confirmed by the cast and writers !
women can be kings ! men can be queens !
the show has writers / guest writers who come onto the show and write an episode ! one of the guest writers is a queer woman in a w|w relationship / alex ritter
the cast is all geniunely invested in their characters and their realtionships are very open to exploring character dynamics and new relationships and most seem to view their characters as not straight / are open to a queer relationship for their character / acknowledge queer ships !
WE HAVE MUSICIAL EPISODES each season that make sense ! liek the musical numbers actually happen in canon ! they straight up actually break out into song and know they are doing it and there is an explanation for why ! we got a number to one day more from les mis and under pressure so far
every single character is interesting ! and you actually see how characters grow and change based on circumstances !
the most realistic portrayal of nerds
characters are canonly mentally ill ! confirmed by dialogue in the show ! these characters don’t forget and will mention this character’s depression and it’s diagnosed depression
the show does not shy away from trauma and trigger themes, but they do their best to portray it in an accurate light and make sure not to treat it as a joke or belittle their characters for it ; we have touch on suicide, depression, rape, sexual assault, child sexual assault, alcoholism, drug addiction, other mental illnesses, bullying, trauma, ptsd, self hate !
the cast and writers love each other ! they are all beautiful and they love each other !
the disabled character is played a disabled actress !
sera gamble coming for us all
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