Fuck JK Rowling but it makes me so angry to think we could have had a complete Fantastic Beasts series with an autistic lead who isn’t a total stereotype, who is loveable, who has a love interest instead of just being infantilised…and instead we’re getting a seven season Harry Potter reboot/remake that no one asked for or wanted on HBO Max.
When I was going through the process of my autism diagnosis, feeling anxious and worried about what being diagnosed would mean, knowing that Newt Scamander - a character who is adored by so many in a major franchise - was being played as autistic helped me tremendously. I saw much of myself in Newt, and it made me feel seen that an autistic person like myself could be the hero, that Newt wasn’t a joke or stereotype. It was so important to me coming to terms with my diagnosis that a character I loved was like me and not limited by being autistic.
I’ve mentioned this before but on the opening day of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore in the UK, there was a boy on the row in front of me. When Newt came onscreen, he started bouncing and flapping his hands excitedly - like me, he was autistic and saw himself represented on the big screen.
“But Luna Lovegood” - you know what, controversial but fuck your “but Luna Lovegood”. Her actress sided with the TERF, and Luna is NOT confirmed to be autistic, it’s just a popular fan headcanon. Meanwhile Newt Scamander has been confirmed by Eddie Redmayne (not JKR, fuck her) to be on the spectrum. I’m not saying she definitely isn’t because I can definitely see it, and it’s wonderful autistic people can relate, but I’m talking about a character who is intentionally written and portrayed as autistic instead of just fan headcanons.
What does having a love interest have to do with this? Believe it or not, this isn’t me just being a shipper: too often are autistic people infantilised, as if we can’t love other people or that people are incapable of loving us. But - as anyone following me most likely knows - Newt Scamander has a love interest, Porpentina “Tina” Goldstein, who he’s canonically married to in the future. They even have a grandson who is called Rolf and marries the aforementioned Luna.
In the three films, we only got a few scenes (and then JK Rowling cut Tina out because Katherine Waterston called her out on multiple occasions for being a transphobe) of Newtina but what we got showed that not only is Newt capable of forming a romantic attachment but also Tina clearly loves Newt as he is, quirks and all. She understood his odd compliment of “salamander eyes” because she knows his special interest is magical creatures and it’s his way of saying he adores her eyes. She read his book and genuinely made an effort to learn because she knew magical creatures were important to him, and we saw her grow from thinking he was writing an “extermination guide” to giving him the name for his book, “Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them”. My girl Tina LOVES Newt for who he is and always has, and that’s beautiful.
Seeing an autistic person not only fall in love - he spends the whole of the 2nd and 3rd films lamenting on how beautiful she is, talking about her and with her picture in his pocket/suitcase - but also being loved for who they are is something so rarely seen and is so important.
I’ll be the first to hold my hands up and say that the second and third Fantastic Beasts movies weren’t the greatest, by the way. I will agree to that. The first one seems like a damn masterpiece in comparison, even with its problems, but I’m still angry.
The fact that JK Rowling’s bigotry has contributed to losing this rare example of autistic representation in a major mainstream franchise is something no one talks about when discussing her actions, and it hurts that no one seems to care about canon autistic representation.
well…. i think that’s it. 😕 yates says it’s on “pause” but i dont have much hope of its revival tbh… they seem to hint or imply it won’t get picked up anytime soon and if time keeps passing, the actors might not wanna get back to it. who knows at this point…
thank you all for sticking by and sharing your love for newtina with me. i won’t get rid of this account i may post once in a while and will happily share anything you wish i shared onto the page. submissions will remain open for this reason. thank you all and my heart hurts with all of you..
This is for @scamanderishredmayniac! As requested!
If you would like to see something drawn in the fantastic beast realm please let me know, I also do commissions for fan fictions art really low prices. PM me for more info/inquires
So I'm getting more and more into the Fantastic Beasts fandom, and I would love to have more of this (whether it's FB, Newtina or just Eddie Redmayne) on my dash.
Follow me, and I'll follow you. :) Also could we maybe reblog this so it gets around?
I have a little bit of HP and Dramione stuff, but I've fallen hard for Newt Scamander so you'll see lots of him here.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀— Я… у меня тут… ну, то есть это твоя фотография из одной газеты. Знаешь, у тебя тут глаза такие необычные. И в жизни они такие же, Тина, как будто… как будто огонек в воде, в темной воде. Такие глаза я видел только… Такие глаза я видел только у са…
It's been seven months since I first began writing the first draft of this fic, originally for purely my enjoyment and with no intention of publishing it...and here we are, ten chapters in, the fic is finished and I'm posting the last part of it here for anyone interested to read. It has been months of love, devotion, sweat, tears, panic and goodness knows what else but I'm proud to say that I have finished this absolutely TITANIC fic. There are things I want to go back and write better, but perhaps that's for the future - for now, I'm simply proud of the work I've done given that it took a long time and I genuinely tried my best.
I won't talk too much here as I don't want to give away spoilers for this chapter, but what I will say is that it involves a character death that may cause you to need tissues, and something that could potentially piss a LOT of people off. I hope people enjoy it anyway.
Obviously I need to credit James Cameron for his film - Titanic is my favourite film of all time, hands down - and Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet for being incredible actors in the film, so incredible that their chemistry inspired this fic and doubtless many other Titanic AU fics in other fandoms. I'm also giving credit to Eddie Redmayne and Katherine Waterston whose chemistry in Fantastic Beasts was NOT used enough (*sobs*), and who are both not only amazing actors but also incredible people. Part of me still hopes we get more Beasts movies, but if we don't then I need Eddie and Katherine in a movie together as love interests IMMEDIATELY.
A huge thank you to everyone who has read even just one chapter of this fic, left kudos', comments, reviews etc. I am grateful for any readers I get, I truly am, especially since I know this is a strange one and for a fandom that is no longer as active or beloved as it once was. But I am so grateful, all the same, to have been able to combine two loves of mine into one and to be able to share the result with you all. So from the bottom of my autistic geeky Titanic-obsessed little heart, thank you all so much <3