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niuniente · 7 months

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YES THAT'S THE THING! The only negative thing I have heard about Buffy since it started airing in the late 90's is that Buffy always goes back to Angel, no matter what, and it can get boring.

After all, this is an extremely popular series. A cult classic. It has won lots of prizes and gotten nominations. Has gotten books, comics, a movie. Angel even got his own series!

And here I am, not believing what I'm seeing because the writing just sucks SO BAD AND MAKES NO SENSE and no, you can't say it's because the series is old.

This all is happening in S5. There have been inklings over the course that this series is indeed made by a man, because only a man would write romance or women like that. Nothing super big, just slightly annoying like "oh my god, no woman would actually think or do that".

The problem in S5 is that the series/creator clearly can't either understand what a healthy devotion is OR/AND can't commit to write Spike in one way only. He constantly contradicts himself without any given reason, which in this case would only be a severe mental health issue.

Spike is pictured as this lovesick puppy who would do anything for Buffy, a bit shy and really taking his time to gather his courage to confess his feelings, and who is also making sure that his actions won't hurt Buffy or her family, even if it would hurt or kill him. Like, this soft, gentle, sensitive man who will do anything to keep his lover safe and would never harm them in anyway. Every mother's dream son-in-law.

But Spike is also, at the very same time, pictured from this male perspective of a lovesick man; oh, isn't it romantic how he steals Buffy's clothes to smell them, has built an altar for her, has a Buffy mannequin at his crypt he treats violently when he gets angry, stalks her around her home because he can't help his feelings, how Spike asks her current girlfriend to roleplay Buffy in bedroom because otherwise he doesn't want to have sex with her, how he commissions this personal Buffy sex toy for his own pleasure and orgasms only, and how he kidnaps Buffy and tells Buffy he kills her if he can't have her? Oh, what romantic devotion, this man is SO in LOVE!

AND HE KEEPS GOING BACK AND FORTH! THIS EPISODE, HE WANTS TO KILL BUFFY. NEXT EPISODE HE ALMOST GETS KILLED HIMSELF BECAUSE HE WOULD NEVER ALLOW ANYTHING BAD TO HAPPEN TO BUFFY. WELL NOW HE STALKS BUFFY AND WANTS HER FOR HIMSELF ONLY, BUT NO, WAIT, HE'S ACTUALLY PROTECTING BUFFY'S FAMILY BECAUSE HE DOESN'T WANT TO BRING ANY SADNESS TO BUFFY.

Like, who the hell is he? Do you want him to be the every woman's dream man or every woman's nightmare? He can't be both at the same time, not without an explanation and no, him being a vampire and sensitive isn't a valid explanation for such drastic differences.

And BUFFY? Sweet lord, Buffy! She's all just "eew, no" about this whole ordeal of having an obsessive man who has killed two Slayers (and is apparently the only vampire who has ever won against a Slayer) after her. No worry in the world. No concern that this man could kill or rape her, or hurt her family in his temper tantrum? Just scolds him by saying "gross" and "leave me alone".

And here I thought the biggest issue for the upcoming Buffy and Spike romance would be Angel's existence.

Of course, the series is probably going to brush all this freaky stuff off like "Nah, never happened and look, he was just so desperately in love and Buffy is so very strong she is not afraid of anyone and has no sense of self-protection as a woman".

I just don't understand how this level of character writing is considered even remotely plausible, not to mention something to be celebrated as an excellent cult classic?

Maybe it's just the Season 5. Maybe I'm just too old. And too sad. I just want better for Buffy and Spike, separately and together.

EDIT: OK TURNS OUT THE CREATOR OF THE SERIES HATED SPIKE AND HIS ACTOR FOR MAKING SPIKE A FAN FAVORITE AND RUINING HIS ARTISTIC PLANS, AND THAT THE CREATOR IS BASICALLY JUST A MAN SIZE WALKING DICK. A clear attempt to make fans hate Spike in S5 writing.

#S6 might have some hope for me #niu watches buffy #you know it's BAD when I get ranting because 99% of the cases I don't care enough about the bad parts in anything

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sunnydalestudies · 2 months

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) Whedon's Version

Part 1/3: Changes to the Script and Story

When discussing BtVS, many people often focus solely on the show without considering what the additional media has to offer. There are comics, accompanying novels, and even a prequel film that many people forget about. Indeed, the world’s first introduction to Buffy happened in 1992 with the movie starring Kristen Swanson, and that is where I want to start.

Joss Whedon claims that the character of Buffy Summers had been with him for a long time, but when he sold his script to Sandollar in 1991, he was not pleased with the results. Whether it was Fran Rubel Kuzui as director, the 20th Century Fox executives, the actors changing their lines, or whatever else that made the changes, the original script and the film we can watch now are not quite the same. Here, I will highlight some critical changes that change how we interpret the film.

First, the film made various changes to the script’s dialogue, which impacted jokes, foreshadowing, and misogynistic conversations. Thankfully, in the audience’s first introduction to Buffy, the film preserves Whedon’s dialogue. Buffy’s Valley Girl persona is alive and well, and we see her as the popular, air-headed, hilarious, and beautiful character all fans love. The dialogue in this scene is beautifully Whedon: full of quick-witted and fast-paced jokes and slang. Although I can’t say that I support Whedon in any way, I have to say that dialogue is one of his greatest strengths. That is why it is so disappointing when, shortly after, Buffy makes an unimpressive joke about doing her homework. In the script, Buffy says to Cassandra, “there’s a lot cooler things that you could be doing than your homework,” to which Cassandra asks, “like what,” and Buffy replies, “like my homework.” In the movie, as they are making plans, Buffy instead says, “I don’t know, guys. I really wanna get a head start on my homework,” which her friends laugh at. Despite this being a minute change to the script, it is disappointing to see alterations that waste Whedon’s writing and replace it with a subpar joke.

A more meaningful dialogue change appears when Buffy and her friends first run into Pike and Benny in the movie theatre. After Benny shushes the chatting group of girls, Buffy predicts the plot so he doesn’t have to follow as closely: “everyone gets horribly killed except the blonde girl in the nightie, who finally kills the monster with a machete but it’s not really dead.” It’s a simple plot summary of several popular horror films, but what is telling here is what it says about Buffy and the Buffyverse. Firstly, this explanation loosely foreshadows the rest of the movie by portraying what will happen at the dance: many students are horribly killed except the blonde girl in a white dress, who finally kills Lothos and Amilyn, but Lothos lamely covering his face and Amilyn’s overly dramatic flailing around the basement after Buffy stakes them indicate they might not be dead—although this may be due to the fans of the series expecting them to dust, and he does dust in the script, so it was probably due to the film’s low budget since the dusting effect was surprisingly pricey. Secondly, this knowing explanation displays Buffy’s intelligence. She may not be classically book-smart, but Buffy’s intelligence concerning pop culture and social situations gives her the upper hand throughout the film, show, and comics. This intelligence leads to my third point: Buffy exemplifies many contradictory horror tropes. Whedon founded the character of Buffy on the subversion of the trope of the blonde girl walking into the alley and getting attacked. In his version, the girl is who wins. Alongside this trope, this film also plays with those of the ‘final girl’ and ‘promiscuous blonde girl who gets killed off first.’ Whedon also plays with these tropes in his horror satire film Cabin in the Woods(2012), which is a trope lover’s delight, but he only uses the tropes there rather than subverting them. Only in the Buffyverse do we see the intersection of these two tropes: the promiscuous (and yes, film Buffy is promiscuous) blonde girl evolving into the final girl, becoming the one to outsmart the bad guys, not despite her initial airheadedness, but because of it, using her social skills and catty attitude to save the day. At first glance, this is a simple line, but it holds layers of meaning, and it is too bad that the film omits it.

Before moving on from dialogue, I want to touch on a few instances of misogynistic language and actions in the script and film. In the scene where Buffy kisses her boyfriend in his car by laying across his friend’s lap with her butt in his face, the friend calls the boyfriend a ‘pushover’ for spending time with her and asks to ‘borrow’ Buffy. In the script, the friend calls him ‘pussy-whipped,’ and Buffy remains silent after this comment, but the film changes this term, and Buffy displays more agency as she voices her discontent at this comment. The scene remains uncomfortable and gross, but the changes make it slightly easier to digest. An exchange from the script that the film thankfully omitted appears a little later when Buffy runs into her absentee mother in the kitchen, who asks her, “have you gained a few pounds? maybe it’s that outfit,” before asking what her boyfriend will think about it. This type of exchange is not atypical for the 90s, but I am still glad they decided to take it out. Finally, near the end of the film, a piece of dialogue I believe they should have removed is when Buffy steals a man’s motorcycle after he hits on her, to which he responds by calling her a ‘dyke.’ This homophobia is prevalent in 90s movies—take a look at Bring It On (1999) to see a horrific example—but it is still disappointing to see that Whedon wrote this line, especially considering the empowering lesbian characters he would later write.

As much as these changes to the dialogue can impact our understanding of the film, the plot is also significantly changed, and even the script’s first scene is completely absent from the film. Perhaps the first rule of any form of storytelling is that a successful story shows rather than tells. Yet, the film decides to tell us. Whedon’s script opens with a historical twist on the ‘blonde girl walks into a dark alleyway, gets attacked, wins’ horror genre subversion as a ‘dark ages’ barmaid saves a knight from a vampire before a group of vampires, including Lothos, kills her, and a watcher explains the slayer line to the next chosen one. The film, instead, skips this first scene and delivers the exposition by voiceover, which is not an inherently negative way to contextualize, but the hook—and the entire idea of slayers—is lost in these opening moments. Fans watching the film today are likely familiar with the concept of slayers and how it all works, but this context is bland and forgettable for those who may not be familiar with Whedon's world-building.

The most notable alteration to Whedon’s script appears in Buffy’s first meeting with Lothos and Merrick’s death. If you are a fan of the series, you would know that Merrick’s death greatly impacted Buffy and is a primary reason she claims to be ‘retired’ in the first episode: because she lost him and blames herself for it. Interestingly, Whedon’s version of this scene in the script is more fast-paced and nearly emotionless. In fact, in Whedon’s version, Merrick brings a gun to confront Lothos while Buffy hides in the shadows, and just as Lothos is about to attack Merrick, Merrick shoots himself in the head and dies instantly. The script skims over this formative experience for Buffy while the film depicts a tender moment and explains why Buffy blames herself. In the film, Merrick is the one hiding in the shadows as Lothos hypnotizes Buffy, and as Lothos is about to bite her, Merrick rushes out with a knife, which Lothos quickly turns on Merrick and stabs him in the chest. Buffy then cradles Merrick as he dies, and he tells her, “remember about the music. Listen. When the music stops, the rest is…” before trailing off and passing away. I will feature the use of guns in the Buffyverse and Donald Sutherland’s changes to his dialogue in future posts, but this line is vital to the plot yet absent from the script. In the film, Merrick’s last words allow Buffy to tune out Lothos’ voice and focus on the silence to resist being hypnotized, ultimately allowing her to beat him, but it is entirely absent from the script. I cannot say why the film added this line of dialogue, but I believe the touching final moment that Merrick and Buffy share is an incredible addition that humanizes the characters and solidifies Merrick as an essential influence in Buffy’s life.

There are a lot of differences between the script and the final film, ranging from alterations to dialogue to changes in setting, all the way to reconstructing plot points. The script was Whedon’s making, but ultimately, he lost control over the final project once he sold it; thus, is it his? Is the film canonical? How does it fit with the series? I am glad they made some of these changes while disappointed with others, but in the end, however you feel about this film as part of the Buffyverse, it is an incredibly entertaining piece of 90s media that I would recommend to Buffy fans and non-fans alike.

That’s that for this Sunnydale study session!

Liz

#buffythevampireslayer #buffy #buffy the vampire slayer #buffy summers #buffyverse #btvs #buffy movie #buffystudies

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catholic-character-tournament · 11 months

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Round 3 - Catholic Character Tournament

Propaganda below ⬇️

Angel

I don’t remember if he was Catholic as a human (he was Irish like a few hundred years ago so probably) but his guilt complex as a vampire is so fucking massive it has to be Catholic lbr

well he's from 1700s ireland so. theres that. he's (for most of the series) the only vampire with a soul and he uses that soul to feel really guilty for everything all the time. he moves to LA and starts saving people from demons to try and atone for everything he did while he was a soulless vampire

he makes exactly one facial expression and its |:<

Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler Propaganda:

good lord where do i start. in the animated series he converts logan to catholisism and then fucks off basically thats the main thing he did there. i think one time they tried to make him a demon to explain how he looked but everyone hated that. he sold his soul one time to help his friends out after he died. he and logan have a weird little gay thing. he was a priest one time but he was made a priest by a fake bishop from a religion that hates mutants iirc so he just wasnt a priest. like 3 people have written him in a way i like and one of those is my friend just talking about how they view him.

wow marvel loves making catholic characters dress/look like demons

Kurt is a mutant who was born to mystique who looks a LOT like a devil (technically is half one but that cannon truth isn’t real go back to bed), his mother dropped him off a cliff when he was born and he was picked up by a Romani group/circus (fuck old comics man) however he then narrowly escaped being sold to a freak show and found himself in a small German town. There he met a kind priest, who showed him God, and he quickly grew attached to the idea- However, it wasn’t long before people began labeling him a demon and soon the whole town was against him with pitchforks and fire. Cornered and injured, Kurt thought this might be the end for him- maybe he would see heaven so long after finding it- but he was then saved by Charles Xavier who invited him to the X-Men. AND ITS BEEN SO MANY YEARS AND HE HAS BEEN THROUGH SO MUCH THERE. SO MUCH. SO GOD DAMN MUCH. BUT THE MOST AAAA THING TO ME CONCERNING HIS FAITH HE WHEN HE LITERALLY DIED AND WENT TO HEAVEN BUT THEN BECAUSE OF DRAMA WITH HIS FATHER HAD TO BRING HIS FRIENDS IN WITH HIM FROM THE BEYOND. THEN WITH ALOT OF TROUBLE THEY FOUGHT HIS FATHER AND THE ONLY WAY KURT SAW TO STOP HIM WAS IN A MOVE THAT STRIPPED THEM BOTH OF THEIR SOULS AND PUT THEM BACK ON EARTH. SO KURT CANONICALLY HAS NOW LOST HIS ABILITY FOR ETERNAL PEACE, LOST HIS VERY SOUL, TO SAVE PEOPLE- AND ALSO TOLD NO ONE NOT EVEN HIS GAY LOVER WOLVERINE.

Nightcrawler is a mutant vigilante who looks like a classical demon. He can’t even go to church without people panicking and trying to exorcize him. Despite it all, he’s so full of faith and hope and compassion, and he wants to believe the best of everyone. Also, he’s bffs with an extremely angry Jewish sword lesbian. That has nothing to do with anything, but it’s important to me that you all know that.

What if you were a devout christian and literally looked like the devil? He nearly became the pope, which was a plot by some supervillains that also involved faking a rapture? There is nothing like comics I swear to god.

A catholic who is half demon I don’t think I can better explain a struggle than that. But his character is so relatable to people who feel unwelcome with their congregation because of something that is a part of them but still feeling a connection to the faith. Kurt actively engaged in his faith and shares how his faith helps him through all the things he has faced in life and how he found a home with those of the church who leave the judging to God.

so they made kurt a priest briefly before deciding to retcon it, resulting in nightcrawler actually being part of a plan by villains to promote him to pope then reveal to the world that the pope is a demon. wild.

I have a side blog and a tattoo about him and i really really want him to win

Wisecracking devil-appearing devout Catholic with the Best superpower (teleportation)? HECK YES

German Catholic circus acrobat who looks like a demon & can teleport through a hellish alternate dimension with a puff of sulfur. Character of all time.

hes catholic and his dad is the devil. what could be funnier than that. also hes my silly little guy.

Nightcrawler is the world’s most fun catholic priest. I first was introduced to this kindhearted teleporting acrobat while he saved a boat full of stowaway refugees from inter dimensional pirates with swashbuckling gusto!

#cct polls #tumblr tournament #tumblr bracket #tumblr polls #angel buffy #buffy the vampire slayer #angel the series #r3 #polls #kurt wagner #x men #nightcrawler #marvel #xmen #x men comics #marvel x men

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joe-spookyy · 24 days

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matty | HE/any (transmasc) (nervous young man)

i post and i reblog and i answer asks and dms and i love to yap about anything and everything always. and i’m down to be mutuals!

i post: 80s horror (reanimator american werewolf in london the lost boys the thing my beloved) and practical effects and star wars (luke skywalker just like me) and star trek and comic hawkeye and the x men and rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead and buffy the vampire the slayer (oz just like me) and indiana jones and lego batman and early universal monster movies. and music especially car seat headrest (but also check out my band one strange dog we’re on spotify). i’m a film and classics major. and i like joy and happiness and glee and good things and wonder.

#me if u even care #matty yaps #reanimator #an american werewolf in london #the lost boys #the thing #star wars #buffy the vampire slayer #matt fraction hawkeye #star trek #x men #lego batman #rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead #car seat headrest

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lais-a-ramos · 2 years

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on the first kill cancellation and what it tells us about representation in media

the most heartbreaking part about the first kill cancellation is that it’s an evidence of this trend in audiovisual media big corporations to profit over claims about representation, all while delivering the most sanitized and harmless to the consumption by the cis het , white, able-bodied etc people form of representation they could possibly offer.

because, that’s the thing, back in 2016, when lexa from the 100 and plenty other lesbian and queer characters in general were killed off of shows and it sparked a whole conversation over the "bury your gays" trope, our biggest hope was that having more people from marginalized groups making the decisions in the writers’ room and as showrunners would result in better representation for us.

and, the thing is that, while lots of people were concearned about shaming the show for having CGI problems – problems that are perfectly explained by the very low-budget the show got from netflix --, the truth is that first kill actually achieved a lot in the “representation on behind-the-scenes” front.

the author of the short story it’s based on, victoria “v.e.” schwab, is queer, identifying as gay and using she/they pronouns, and also signed as showrunner, inspite having an adviser role. Not only that, but victoria declared in interviews and even penned an article talking about how they wrote the short story and the pilot for the show in an attempt of giving to the new generations the representation she needed as a teen and longed for when she watched sci-fi/fantasy shows like buffy the vampire slayer.

the “the facto” shworunner, felicia d. henderson, is not queer, she is a cis het woman, but, she is still a dark-skinned black woman with a long and successful resumé in the show biz, with classic shows hailed by the african american community like fresh prince of bel-air and moesha under her belt, and who also worked for DC in their comics’ division (yeah, THE DC Comics) and worked on marvel’s the punisher, in other words, one of the best people you could possibly ask for to work on a sci-fi/fantasy show in which a huge part of the main cast is comprised by black people – actually, to work on sci-fi/fantasy shows in general.

both felicia and victoria have mentioned plenty of times on social media, interviews and so on about how diverse the writer’s room was.

not only that, but they also talked about how there was representation on the production crew as well . people on the camera crew, make-up crew, wardrobe crew, the cinematography crew etc, were all comprised by black people and queer people , an information that was also shared with pride and enthusiams by the leading actresses sarah catherine hook and imani lewis on their interviews.

so, the representation on FK wasn’t just on the characters on screen, it was on the entire production chain.

and, yet, it wasn’t enough for preventing us from losing the representation, because the show got cancelled.

this is not to say that we should give up on trying to get more people from marginalized groups working on behind-the-scenes or anything like that, especially because, I things are hard enough when we try to occupy these spaces, if we stop fighting for space, then that’s when things will not getter better AT. ALL.

but we should definetely stop to think about what do we mean when we say we want more representation and what kind of content we praise or not.

back in 2018, under the release of love simon on movie theatres, buzzfeed news published an article written by contributor john sherman titled “Popular Gay Media Is Still Focusing On Straight Acceptance, Rather Than Celebrating Queer Difference”, inspired mostly by the new york times article by queer and non-binary activist, writer, producer, television host and actor jacob tobia, “Does Gay Hollywood Have Room for Queer Kids?”, and both articles pointed out how the movie’s entire narrative was structured around the Idea that simon was just like another guy, except that he was gay and reinforces the discourse that it’s ok to be gay, as long as you’re “not TOO gay”, especially considering the way the narrative uses feminine, gender non-conforming, flamboyant and campy gay ethan as a prop for masculine, straight-passing gay simon’s story, using the bullying ethan goes thru the entirety of the movie as an excuse for simon to not come out all while never really having simon acknowledging how he was embarassed by ethan because he was struggling with his own internalized homophobia.

four years later, and these articles are actually more relevant than ever.

because here is the thing: the discourse revolving around the need for more “wholesome” queer representation, while completely valid when it comes to defend the production of more LGBT+ content aimed at children and pre-teens, oftenly gets mixed up on the internet with very conservative opinions about LGBT+ sexuality, gender expression and lifestyle choices.

that is what is problematic about the heartstopper vs first kill debate, that started really as soon as the first teaser trailers for FK were released and people begin to make assumptions about how FK was gonna sexualize women and cater to the male gaze, and now took another turn after the cancellation news when FK fans, lesbians in general, BIPOC in general and so on started to point out Netflix’s and the entertaiment industry’s double standards when it comes to the representation of the LGBT+ community, favoring cis White queer, able-bodied, slim, masculine men over all the other groups in the community .

It’s not that heartstopper is bad or awful or that it should have been cancelled like first kill was, that’s definetely not the point.

heartstopper as a franchise is actually far bolder than love simon ever could, with the comics talking about topics like bullying and mental illness, shining a light in some topics not so talked about in media like anorexia and body dysmorphia in young boys, storylines that the fans hope to see in the new seasons of the show .

on top of that, it did a great job at portraying Nick’s realisation about his bisexuality and ditching the “bisexuals are traitors and manipulative” trope by contrasting nick’s honesty about his sexual confusion and his loyalty to charlie to the toxic and abusive way Ben treated charlie during their secret relationship.

still, it is a show that is centered around two cis White boys and that has lesbians, trans people and people of color as side characters at most, being in the background of the cis white boys’s love story, like a book footnote.

and the thing is, most people don't care about the book footnotes.

tao and elle, the straight couple formed by a cis chinese british boy and a trans black girl of egyptian descent, is still on the background, not the fore front.

and while tao defying gender norms about cis het boys is a very welcome change, nick and charlie, the main characters, are still pretty much very masculine, straight-passing boys. also, the fact that, from all the boys, it is the asian guy who is the less traditionally masculine when we consider the way western culture desexualizes and mock asian men

yes, charlie is bullied by the school’s rugby athletes for not being masculine enough, but, in spite of being gay, he is not much different from the same old cis het nerdy white guy in coming of age movies and indie movies, who is sensitive and listens to indie bands and is some sort of “cool loser”.

and nick nelson is still the very stereotype of the masculine jock, except that he is the “gentle brute" type.

it’s important to note that not only non-binary bisexuals do exist, but also that gender non-conforming cis bisexuals exist as well. there are bi guys with a gender expression that is affeminated, and also there are bi girls with a gender expression that is masculine.

when it comes to the lesbian interracial couple, formed by masculine white girl darcy and more feminine, dark-skinned black girl tara, they are side characters in nick and charlie’s story like tao and elle, having a smaller role than taoelle.

i actually remember reading somewhere that one of the changes the show made from the comics was to actually give a bigger role to tara and darcy, with the storyline about how their school reacted when tara came out actually being exclusive to the show, which means that their roles were even smaller.

and while it’s true that these side characters are still more rounded than your typical side characters, they’re still, guess what? Side characters.

people like tara and darcy, tao and elle deserve to be the main characters in their own fictional stories too, much like they are the main characters in their stories in real life.

people like calliope and juliette deserve to be the main characters in their own fictional stories too.

especially in a genre like the sci-fi/fantasy one, that is beloved by queer people and people of color for its fantastical elements and adventures and themes that flirt with the weird, unusual and that these and marginalized groups in general find comfort in because the social outcasts relate to the weirdness of it all.

so, it’s very important that we have shows like first kill and main characters like juliette fairmont and calliope burns, out and proud lesbians who are comfortable in their sexuality and whose biggest conflict with their families is not about their queerness, but because one is a monster hunter and the other is a vampire; who never get to face homophobia; and get to be the main characters and kick butts on screen and be the heroes just like cis het white abled-bodied people, mostly cis het white abled-bodied guys, get to do.

all this talk is because we have to question what has been sold to us as diversity and inclusion.

because diversity and inclusion don’t involve people from marginalized groups forcing themselves to fit into the standards of the dominant groups just to be accepted and be treated with basic human decency.

Queer people shouldn’t have to repress their sexuality and gender expression to be accepted, much like autistic and neurodivergent people shouldn’t have to supress their quirks like stimming or the way they react to sensory overload to be accepted, or like fat people shouldn’t have to lose weight, or indigenous people shouldn’t have to abandon their cultures to fit in, or like people with disabilities shouldn’t have to display some form of productivity to be accepted and so on.

We shouldn’t have to water ourselves down, it’s society that should create a safe space so we can live on it according to our experiences.

and that’s why the discourses revolving around normalcy are so tricky and can get problematic very easily, because while it was useful in the past, as the buzzfeed article points out, it also reinforces the Idea that there’s something naturally wrong with being different from what society says it’s the norm.

and we can see the wa ythis mindset is spreading around the internet, even amongst teens and twenty-somethings, as we can see by the whole discourse against the use of the word “queer”, even if it was historically reclaimed by the LGBT+ community.

or the way we can see people on tumblr spreading the "the kinky community shouldn't be at pride" discourse.

“queer” is precisely about celebrating the differences as they are what makes the experience of being yourself so unique, and it’s also precisely a reaction about the way the narrative about LGBT+ activism was historically centered around the experiences of cis het gay men and cis achilleans in general.

so, when we see society being more receptive towards the boys from heartstopper and not towards the girls from first kill, it doesn’t happen by accident, it's a part of an entire social structure.

the same goes for the topic about femininity and sexuality. traditional social conventions about sexuality basically censor and shame woman and transfeminine people for having any interest in sex and , something that, combined with the conventions about queer desire and attraction being wrong or predatory, creates a scenario of intense sexual repression in ways that it doesn’t happen with cis white men -- except for, maybe, the disabled ones.

the way people reacted so negatively against the calliette make out scenes wasn’t an accident, it was part of this structure that shames female pleasure, interracial sex, lesbian sex and acts like girls and women are uncapable of enjoying sex, having sexual desire and having any interest in the matter.

that’s the kind of nuance that usually escapes from conversations about fetishization of women: it’s not that we are uncapable of sexual desire, it’s just that most of the narratives put us in a position of objetcs instead of agents. that’s what the male gaze is about, taking our agency and input on the matter from us to cater to cis het men’s fantasies of power.

and male gaze is not what happened in first kill, a show in which felicia, the showrunner, made sure to ask for the lesbians and sapphics on set for their advice and input over the calliette scenes to make sure the final product were true to the lesbian and sapphic experience rather than the assumptions of a cis het woman about the lesbian and sapphic experience. not only that, the show hired an intimacy coordinator, named dr. tiff, that, if I’m not wrong, is a queer woman as well, to help the actresses feel comfortable even with the smallest of touches, like a hand on a shoulder or a hug, and it was discussed amongst said intimacy coordinator, the directors, the showrunner and the actresses how to portray the scenes between calliope and juliette without sexualizing the teenagers too much, how to find a balance between showing the interest of non-asexual 16 year-old girls on sex and not oversexualising them . one can’t be further from the male gaze and fetishization as that.

still on the topic of sex, it’s not a coincidence that the general audiences were so receptive of heartstopper, because the show is almost devoid of sexual scenes.

of course, this isn’t a problem on itself, especially because it seems like the show is aiming not only at teenagers, but at children as well.

but it gets problematic when people begin to defend that all types of LGBT+ media representation should adhere to these standards even if they’re not aiming at children and pre-teens as their target audiences.

especially because it’s not just lesbians and sapphics, or just trans people in general, who are shamed and have their sexuality treated as inherently wrong and predatory, it happens with cis gays and achilleans as well.

again, and I can’t emphasize this enough, there is nothing wrong with heartstopper.

there’s nothing wrong with LGBT+ media that is fluffy, family-friendly and PG-rated.

the problem is that LGBT+ fiction, and fiction about marginalized groups in general, shouldn’t have to be forced to adhere to the fluffy, family-friendly, PG standards to have a space in media and not get cancelled by networks and streaming services; and that media companies are imposing these conditions for LGBT+ content because they know these standards are seen as harmless by the cis het white audiences, and, therefore, these media companies are profiting over a serious cause like that of diversity and representation all while continuing to treat the cis het, white, abled-bodied, skinny etc audience as the only valuable one.

this is not about fandom wars, and some people are right when they say that there is space for all types of queer shows, for shows like heartstopper and for shows like first kill alike.

the important question here is why is it that we from marginalized groups are forced to adhere to all these respectability politics to be accepted when cis het, white, abled-bodied, skinny etc people aren’t.

don’t know whether first kill can be saved by another network like it happened with one day at a time, or what the future holds, but, that is the important question that we all should take from this mess.

and, most of all, we got to remember that we can and deserve to have so much better than what companies are delivering to us, and we don’t have to settle for less, in pop culture and in any other area of society.

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maxevansweekend · 8 months

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#max evans #roswell new mexico #rnm #roswell nm #maxweekend23 #maxevansweekend23 #rnm events #tumblr polls #polls #max evans manuscript

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terastalungrad · 1 year

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Once again, I'm annoyed by people pretending Dr Who has a canon.

This week, I blocked someone on Twitter for claiming Big Finish stories are "Elseworld" stories, unless confirmed by the TV series. It's just the perfect tweet to annoy me.

Elseworlds

Elseworlds was an imprint of DC comics that presented alternate realities, set outside of DC's "canonical" stories.

Actually, I've started in the wrong place.

Canons

Canons are usually a big list of works, defined as significant by some authority.

"Significant" can mean different things:

The Biblical canon are books considered authentic - i.e. the Gospel According to Luke is considered a genuine book of the Bible, as opposed to some made-up nonsense.

The Sherlock Holmes canon are the books and stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle, as opposed to works by any other writers.

The western canon is a list of works of art and philosophy considered to have achieved classic status.

For various nerd properties like DC comics, Marvel comics, Star Wars, Star Trek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the "canons" are the works considered to be valid parts of the big picture. The Last Jedi, for example, is considered to have happened from the perspective of any stories set after it. Knights of the Old Republic, on the other hand, is non-canonical, and stories set later are free to ignore it.

Dr Who canon

Dr Who doesn't have a canon.

This sometimes surprises Dr Who fans, especially when they're also fans of comics or Star Things. But unlike those other things, nobody with the authority to declare a Dr Who canon has ever done so.

In fact, the first two showrunners of Dr Who in the 21st century actively stated that there IS no Dr Who canon, and the third said nothing on the subject at all.

The owners of Star Trek, Star Wars, Buffy, Marvel and DC had incentives to determine official canons - mostly financial. "These comics are canonical Buffy!" might sell more comics. "Old Star Wars novels don't count!" makes it easier to market NEW books as the ones that are really worth buying.

With so many nerd properties making declarations about what's in/out of the canon, a lot of people have absorbed the idea that a canon is an intrinsic feature of long-form storytelling.

But it isn't.

Continuity

"Continuity" IS an intrinsic feature of long-form storytelling, and maybe that's what people are thinking of. People often use the word "canonised" when the word they really mean is "references".

For instance, in the 2017 Dr Who episode "The Doctor Falls", the Doctor references the events of the 1987 Dr Who comic, "The World Shapers". People claimed that this canonised the comic - that the comic was now a valid part of Dr Who.

The implication being that, until the Doctor referenced it on TV, it was NOT a valid part of Dr Who.

But that's just not how this show works. The show happily references - and ignores - whatever it likes. The show's been regularly referencing spin-off material since 1964, when the show was a year old, referencing a Dalek comic. The same story contradicted a TV story from earlier that year.

Elseworlds

"Elseworlds" was useful branding for DC comics. The fact that these stories were set outside of normal continuity was a selling point. You knew you were in for fun you wouldn't get in canonical comics. Marvel's equivalent was called "What If". Doctor Who's closest equivalent is the audio series "Doctor Who Unbound" from Big Finish.

The selling point of Big Finish audios is that they're explicitly set within normal Dr Who continuity. They're not required reading or anything - you're free to ignore them, and the show will still make sense - but they're consciously part of the same story. That's how they're written, that's how they're produced, and that's the understanding on which the BBC licenses Dr Who to the company.

So when someone tweets "Big Finish are Elseworld stories", they're exactly, precisely wrong.

But that's because they're not trying to be correct. They're trying to convey a feeling, not a fact.

Authenticity

To this person, Big Finish audios don't feel authentic. The Girl Who Lived feels to them like a real Dr Who story that's part of the tapestry, and The Sword of Orion doesn't.

And the irony here is that if they'd expressed themselves this way, I'd have enjoyed the observation. But "this bit doesn't feel like MY Dr Who" isn't how fans like to express themselves. They prefer to say "that bit doesn't count".

So often, people will say "Dr Who books aren't canon", and what they mean is, they don't want to read Dr Who books, but they also don't want to be considered anything less than full dedicated Dr Who fans. They feel threatened - insulted - by the idea that being a true fan should require them to read novels, so rather than say "they're not for me", they say "they don't even count".

I hate this attitude. Dismissiveness woven into unearned authority. Who are you to say what parts of Dr Who are valid? Even the BBC don't do that. Even the writers and producers don't do that.

And it's especially annoying with Dr Who, because.

It's Not Even True

More than any other nerd media I can think of, Dr Who cheerfully builds on stories from its own spinoff media all the time.

You have to accept that Dr Who's spinoff media established elements of Dr Who on TV ...

(jumping here from the future to say - you can just ignore this massive paragraph, and the one coming up too)

... if the Daleks are made of Dalekanium, if the Tardis was built by an advanced civilisation, if the Doctor met Nelson/Churchill/Picasso, if the Dalek invasion of Earth was thwarted by the Earth's magnetic core, unless the Doctor lies to Davros, if the Daleks are accelerated evolution, if the Doctor can levitate, if the time vortex is blue when travelling backwards in time, if it's red wen travelling forwards, if Rose Tyler visited Justicia, if the Doctor met Arthur Dent, if Sarah Jane's K9 is broken, if the Void exists beyond the Doctor's universe, if the Daleks count in rels, if the Doctor has a brother, if the Face of Boe's final words are true, if the Citadel of the Time Lords exists in an enormous dome, if the Tardis is designed for six pilots, if the Doctor's a complicated space-time event, if Autons are vulnerable to heat and radio waves, if the Tardis archives old console rooms, if the Doctor was taught to swordfight by Richard the Lionheart, if he fought with Errol Flynn, if Kate Stewart has children, if the Master survived the events of Death in Heaven, if the Doctor wears pants with question marks on them, if the Doctor visited frost fairs before his trip with Bill, if Venusian Aikido requires five arms, if the Doctor loves the musical Hamilton, if Graham is from Essex, if there are talking cats on Gallifrey, if the Time Lords intentionally restricted regenerations to 12 per Time Lord, if the Doctor and Yaz witnessed the gunpowder plot, if the Doctor's previous incarnations exist in her mind, and if the Doctor can regenerate back into previous incarnations.

Other stuff introduced in spinoff media before featuring on TV:

The planet Vulcan, the Dalek Emperor, the President of Earth, the Dalek Supreme, the planet Karn, the Dalek lie detector, the glass Dalek, the Time War, UNIT officer Muriel Frost, Kronkburgers, the planet Lucifer, the nickname "the Oncoming Storm", the Kaled God of War, Millingdale ice cream, sabre-tooth gorillas, the Butler Institute, Davros's mechanical hand, UNIT's NYC base, the Space Agency, Henrietta Goodheart of the Silver Cloak, the planet Arcadia, Chelonians, Haemogoths, Professore Arthur Candy, Luna University, Kate Stewart, Paternoster Row, the Paul McGann Doctor's companions, the War Council of Gallifrey, class 1C at Coal Hill School (taught by both Barbara and Clara), Abslom Daak, Hyperspace Body Swap, vampire monkeys, the Velosians, the sonic trowel, the Ninth Dimension, the planet in Smile, Rassilon looking like Don Warrington, the Siege of Atropos, the type 75 Tardis.

The very idea that the absolutely wild selection of stories that led to these things are valid part of Dr Who but no other spinoff media sotires count - it's just such obvious nonsense, even by the standards of Dr Who fans' theories on canonicity.

So why say it at all?

To Ruin People's Fun

I'm not much of a Big Finish guy to be honest. Love the books, ADORE the comics, but I'm a lot pickier when I engage with the audios.

But they have a really passionate fanbase in their own right, and that's just lovely. Big Finish audios outnumber TV stories. It's a bigger piece of the pie.

And what I will say is, Big Finish fans are rarely obnoxious enough to sneer at other Dr Who fans. It's only the TV fans doing that.

Fiction

Fiction is a creative work featuring the imaginary.

People can be so invested in their fandoms that they throw their wright around to insist that some stories are more imaginary than others.

But these are all just stories. Even Star Wars. Even DC. You can just ignore the creators, you know. Enjoy the stories you want - and ignore the ones you dislike.

I've never seen Star Wars 9. I don't see it as a valid part of Star Wars. But it IS canonical. But woo, here I am, deciding on my OWN personal list of significant stuff (a ploss, if you will).

And there's all sorts of Dr Who stuff I consider true even though it's not in ANY media. Like the idea that she's been Jo Martin twice (once before Hartnell, once between Troughton and Pertwee). That's more real to me than the idea that Graham created a support group for old companions.

This week, someone on Twitter claimed Big Finish stories are "Elseworld" stories, unless confirmed by the TV series. So I blocked them, condemning their future tweets to a reality outside my own.

#doctor who #canon

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oveliagirlhaditright · 6 months

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Angel and Spike being in prophetic dreams of Buffy's, telling her "she has to know what to see," which of course has to do with important things she's dealing with at the time.

With Angel, it was how Jenny (moreso her family) was tied to him becoming Angelus again.

And in this season 5 classic comic, Dawn brings up this missing Slayer who, for whatever reason, was erased from history (Spike told her about this Slayer). The Scoobies at first just assumed said Slayer did something really bad to earn that fate, IIRC. Meanwhile, Buffy and the gang end up facing the above vampire. But of course through Buffy's dream with Spike, she starts to put together that the missing Slayer is this vampire, and that's why the Watcher's Council wanted the Slayer erased from history: because the knowledge that one of their Slayers had gotten turned into a vampire would be too shameful for them to bear (even though it, of course, wasn't her fault. Freaking Watcher's Council).

(In other news, "False Memories" is a really amazing comic and probably one of my favorites of the classic comics that I've read thus far. It also deals with some of Dawn's false memories that the monks gave her. And it was... just really epic, and felt like a missing episode of the show to me. And meeting another Slayer turned vampire, aside from Simone from the Buffy S8-S12 comics, and one from the Buffy tie-in books, was cool.)

#buffy the vampire slayer #parallels #bangel #spuffy #buffy classic comics #buffy the vampire slayer classic comics #false memories #buffy summers #angel #spike #btvs #buffy

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anotherlesbiandad · 6 months

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okay fuck it it's about time i make a pinned post

what you'll find on this blog:

- a Lot of reblogs for various fandoms. these fandoms include (but are not limited to) community, supernatural, dc comics, percy jackson/hoo, buffy the vampire slayer, firefly, seinfeld, project hail mary, the hunger games, sherlock holmes (mostly acd canon but the occasional bbc post), doctor who, marauders, zigverse!marauders (of which i am the founder), teenage mutant ninja turtles, and okay jesus the list is gonna keep going if i let it

- discussion of classic literature and mythology (mostly greco-roman) when i feel like it. please send me asks about this if you want to become my best friend

- poor formatting

- the occasional fic or fic rec

- reblog bait and ask games cause i'm lonely and want to feel connected to something

- a lot of random ass thoughts, mostly to do with something above or my mental issues

those of you who have been following me for a while probably know about zigverse, and when i make a zigverse master post (eventually) i'll link it here.

if you're here from one of my poetry sideblogs please i am begging you to be sworn to secrecy about what i write over there. i'm working off of the honor system here

i used to draw over on this account, but have since deleted like all of my fanart. from here. it still exists on my art sideblog, but i'm not comfortable linking it here, so you'll just have to trust me that you might see it at some point

DNI LIST: honestly just like. don't be a dick? if you're following me and you're a dick to me then i'm gonna block you, but other than that have at it.

except for you wincesties.

okay that's pretty much it idk bye

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mister3127 · 1 year

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hey you wanna know who I am

-he/him or they/them

-trans :)

-mlm 🤭

-MINOR

- this should be implied but nsfw blogs dni

-please don’t use feminine honorifics for me, but things like girlie and stuff jokingly are okay

-my dms and asks are always open ily

-adhd and anxiety omg (diagnosed)

More about me under the break !!

-Gerard Way fanboy

-I LOVE the Scott Pilgrim movie and comics and I have the video game plus comics plus dvd plus i was scott pilgrim for halloween(I’ve consumed so much media that it’s consuming me)

-fnaf fixation that came out of nowhere

-I play both electric and acoustic guitar but I can also play piano, bass, ukulele, and classical guitar if I need to :)

-I like most kinds of music but mostly rock in general (MCR, CSH, Sorry Mom, SOAD, Biniki Kill, Radiohead, Green Day, Slipknot, Deftones, and NOAHFINNCE)

-I like so many shows but my favorites are I Am Not Okay With This, Good Omens, Our Flag Means Death, Gravity Falls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (❤️❤️), TEOTFW, and Lockwood and Co,

-As for movies, I like Fantastic Mr. Fox, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Little Miss Sunshine, Perks of Being a Wallflower, and most of the Batman movies! (and all the other Wes Anderson ones) (I really fucking love Wes Anderson) :D

THANKS ILY🫶🫶

https://letterboxd.com/mister3127/

#lgbtq #wes anderson #electric guitar #inside job #gravity falls #lockwood and co #car seat headrest #mcr #noahfinnce #gay #transmasc #will toledo #our flag means death #good omens #yayyy omg #emo

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black-diamond1329 · 7 months

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⭐ Name: Sandra, but you can tell me Sandy 😉.

⭐Age: I feel like I'm 15 years old, I stopped counting at 19 and my friends say that I act like I'm 5 years old XD hahaha ... Nah! I just turned 23 years old this August n_n.

💔 Occupation: Being a universitary girl XD ... Yes! It's so fun! (sarcasm).

🩷 Some things that I love it: Read (I read all kinds of books and about my favorite ships on Ao3! 🤭), cook desserts, listen to music while I do other activities like my homework or when I read, Greek mythology (The love between us will never die! 💗).

⭐Saint Seiya (or Knights of the Zodiac). I found this beautiful serie when I was 7 years old. My favorite is the original serie, although I also like the Lost Canvas a lot and Episode G (because Aioria is the protagonist). Soul of Gold gives me mixed feelings. From Omega and Next Dimension, better don't ask me; my mind lives in denial. My favorite characters are the Golden Saints, especially Aioros and Aioria, being Aioria my super favorite.

Thanks to Saint Seiya I developed a great love for the stars 💫 and I have many scientific books on the subject, as well as books of myths and legends about the constellations ✨.

💥 I'm a Marvel Girl. I love those tormented superheroes and antiheroes. I basically grew up watching Marvel since Iron Man came out in 2008 and I immersed myself fully in the world of the comics, I have a lot of comics and books on my bookshelf 🤭. My favorites are: Iron Man ♥️, Captain America, Spider-Man, Loki, the X-Men, Black Widow and Scarlet Witch, in all their presentations and with all their charms and defects!.

🍿Series: Friends, Full House, The big bang theory, How I met your mother and How I met your father, Modern Family, Mom, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel... I love it K-Dramas like Goblin: The lonely and great God, Crash landing on you, Tale of the Nine Tailed 😋, I have also watched many animes like Sailor Moon, Ouran High School Host Club, Toradora, Code Geass, Inuyasha, Kaleido Star, Shaman King, Attack on Titan... it's a long list and I don't remember everything at this moment 🤔. Miraculous Ladybug (I know it's for kids, but ... there is Chat Noir 🖤).

🐉In my House of the Dragon era 🖤: Like many people, I was also terribly disappointed with the horrible ending of Game of Thrones, but I really loved Fire and Blood when I read it in 2020... so I decided to give the serie a chance when I saw the first trailer... and I don't regret it! 🥳. I liked Daemon and Rhaenyra so much in the book and absolutely loved them in the TV Show! (Matt and Emma are incredible! ❣️). Another character that I loved in the book and the one I always wanted to know more about was Jacaerys Velaryon and I must say that I am very pleased with the choice of Harry Collett 😍 (oh yeah baby! 🔥).

I really hope that the directors and writers do justice to this wonderful crown prince! 🥰, because for me he is already one of my favorite characters of all time! ❣️.

🎥 Favorite Movies: Troy 2004 (did I mention I'm a Greek mythology lover?), the Star Wars saga 💫 (1-6 only), The Great Gatsby, A Walk to Remember, Harry Potter 🪄 (books and movies), The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit trilogy, The Hunger Games saga ❣️(books and movies), The Twilight saga 😊 (books and movies).

I love Studio Ghibli movies with all my heart 💗 since my dad bought me the movie of Kiki Delivery Service when I was a 6-year-old little girl.

I love everything Disney and Pixar does 💗😘. (think of the happiest things, It's the same as having wings! 🎶)

🎧 Music: I have a very varied taste in music, some would say strange 😅, but if I like the rhythm and lyrics of the song I will surely add it to my playlist (mainly I like rock), AC / DC, Queen, Guns N' Roses, Bon Jovi, Linkin Park, Evanescence, Within Temptation, Imagine Dragons, Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Lana del Rey, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry. I enjoy classical music too 🩷.

⭐ Something more about me: I am an inveterate dreamer and extremely perfectionist. I express myself better by writing than talking 😚.

I haven't drawn anything in almost 5 years and when I did I used to draw with traditional media (watercolor, charcoal, colored pencils, gouche and acrylic paints 🖌️).

But since October (from last year), when I saw Harry Collett as Prince Jacaerys, I felt a desire to draw that I hadn't felt in a long time ❣️.

This is my first time trying to draw in digital media, I hope you like what you see! 😘 (YouTube tutorials don't fail me now! 😭). I spent the whole summer practicing🥺.

P.S: Sorry if exist some error, the english is not my firts lenguage.

#HouseoftheDragon #Saint Seiya #Marvel #My first time using Tumblr #I do not know what I'm doing #Jacaerys Velaryon #Tony Stark my beloved #Brainrot made me do this #Rhaenyra Targaryen #Daemon Targaryen

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